It’s hard to believe: Over the last few decades, I had completely forgotten about the Canadian band SAGA. And I really mean completely. Until they announced that they were stopping over in the German town Bad Vilbel. After several amazing listening sessions and a great concert, all my memories are back. And that’s a good thing.

Are you familiar with the action movie hero Jason Bourne? After being seriously injured and losing his memory, he’s rescued from the Mediterranean Sea and has to rediscover his identity. Among other things, he discovers that he was part of a secret CIA project. What does this have to do with “tedaboutsongs”? Well, when it comes to music, I actually felt a little bit like Jason Bourne recently. For a long time, I had forgotten something and needed to rediscover it: I used to be a fan of the band SAGA.

It all started a while ago when Wind Him Up, SAGA’s big hit from 1981, was being played on the radio again. I’d heard it before and enjoyed it. My wife said she liked SAGA, so when we heard that the Canadian band was touring Germany, we looked into ticket prices. They were around 50 euros each – quite a bargain considering the going rate for concert tickets. So we decided to go to the concert in Bad Vilbel near Frankfurt.

I couldn’t find a single SAGA album on my record shelf, nor a single SAGA song in my iTunes library … and apart from Wind Him Up, this putative one-hit wonder, not a single trace of the band in my memory. Worse still, at times I was confusing SAGA with another band from Toronto, namely Rush – who, for all their virtuosity, I had always found a bit tiring. So I was feeling a little curious before the SAGA concert and was open to being pleasantly surprised again. And then, one balmy evening, we had the brilliant idea of checking the band out on YouTube before their concert in Bad Vilbel. The first song didn’t ring any bells. But then the puzzle pieces came together faster and faster. Like Jason Bourne, my memory returned in increments. Suddenly I was able to reenact complicated breaks on the tabletop, “play along” with dizzying solos and double solos via my air guitar and imaginary keyboard, and sing along to one or two choruses. It was amazing: I knew quite a lot of SAGA. And I liked it.

It took me a few more days before I was able to figure out when and in which personal circumstances I was first introduced to SAGA. I don’t remember who in our clique back then had owned all the albums. I’m betting that we had endlessly listened to the stuff, and I probably even had audio cassettes with songs or albums by SAGA. So why my little bout of amnesia? No idea. Maybe it’s because of my personal life, world events and the exciting music that has come along since then. At some point in time, our brain starts deleting details from the past.

SAGA’s heyday was the late 1970s to early 1990s. It was a time when pop music was constantly spawning new genres, styles and sub-styles, from punk, wave and indie rock, gothic rock and metal, to synthpop and ambient/electronica, techno, trance and house, drum and bass, nu soul and rap. SAGA embodied the spirit of great 70s rock and art rock bands such as Blue Öyster Cult, Wishbone Ash, Genesis, Gentle Giant or Emerson, Lake & Palmer. However, they came across as cleaner and lighter and had a more modern sound thanks to the Moog bass and synth drums. Several of the band members, including frontman Michael Sadler, were experienced keyboardists. Soon, top producers like Rupert Hine were making them shine. And Michael Sadler in particular had a smart New Romantic poster boy appeal – just check out the live performances from the 80s circulating on the web. So SAGA was the perfect choice for anyone who loved lavishly produced power acts like Foreigner, Toto, Duran Duran or the elegant wave rockers The Fixx and was occasionally looking for something more intricate and symphonic. As much as I was into all the guitar-oriented and fully electronic movements of that time, I always had – and still have – a soft spot for that meticulously produced, highly aesthetic art bombast that amazes and moves you at the same time.

And now I’ve also finally discovered SAGA’s lyrics. Back then I had been distracted by the spectacularly playful music and fantasy-inspired artwork of the album covers. But recently, during a relaxed re-evaluation session, I noticed that even and especially the biggest SAGA hits don’t deal with elves, swords or science fiction motifs, but with extremely serious topics like addiction and mental crises. The protagonist stumbling through the aforementioned hit Wind Him Up, for example, has succumbed to gambling and alcohol addiction: “Once he starts it’s hard to stop…” Behind Humble Stance, with its deceptively folksy, buddy-buddy passages, one might suspect a call for humility. It’s actually about the fact that people who put themselves down and project too much humility and fear, won’t get far in life: “That humble stance and timid glance makes your world turn so slow / You know, you gotta know / There’s no one going to help you.” Where the anthemic On the Loose initially suggests unbridled celebration and boundless self-confidence, in truth it’s about people losing their balance. Quote: “I see the problem start / I watch the tension grow / I see you keeping it to yourself / And then instead of reaching conclusions / I see you reaching for something else.” Followed by the sobering refrain: “No one could stop you now / Tonight you’re on the loose.” The somewhat calmer track Time’s Up, in turn, warns against missing opportunities while daydreaming, and Tired World conjures up a gloomy apocalyptic mood – just because mankind was incapable of saving the world. For many years, singer Michael Sadler suffered from alcohol addiction, and the band experienced a lot of ups and downs. Who knows how much of this found its way into the lyrics. In this respect, SAGA, who are often ridiculed as “aesthetes” by hard-core indie and underground fans, are more rock ‘n’ roll than some of their seemingly “tough” peers.

In addition to Sadler, the band’s early members include keyboardist Jim Gilmour and guitarist Ian Crichton. The latter broke his leg before the current tour. So without missing a beat, bassist Dusty Chesterfield – who joined the band in 2018 and is a real prodigy on strings – took over the guitar parts. And a new member was brought in to handle the four strings, although his name is nowhere to be found online. Due to a cancer diagnosis, Sadler himself had recently undergone an operation. So it’s a miracle that SAGA were even able to pull off this tour – and an example of willpower, discipline and stamina, as well as professionalism and flexibility. Sadler, now a gaunt, balding man with a beard, turned 70 on July 5^th. Between songs, he joked about ageing with the much younger Dusty Chesterfield during the Bad Vilbel gig.”You have to smile and bear it,” he said – the right attitude. The band had their first breakthroughs in the Netherlands and in Germany, which was actually where their success story started. So it was awesome that Sadler thanked the German audience for this and even managed a few remarks in German.

So there were lots of reasons to celebrate the band during its performance in Bad Vilbel. Even though Sadler’s vocal delivery wasn’t quite as powerful as it was back in the day, and even though the sound occasionally felt a bit unbalanced, over the course of two hours the quintet really got into their groove. They played all the hits and classic tracks their fans had hoped for. The younger fans were probably surprised by Mike Thorne’s drum solo which lasted for several minutes – something that used to be a normal part of every rock show during the last century. The older fans on the other hand – who were clearly in the majority – had no problem with one or two lengthy instrumental intermezzos and Sadler’s subtle little breaks: They allowed the frontman to pace himself and repeatedly recharge his batteries. At the end of the regular set, as well as after the first encore Wind Him Up, there were standing ovations – which the valiant performers had truly earned. The tour’s motto, “It Never Ends,” seems fitting for a reason.