"My big goal with Strange Animal was to have a gold record", confesses Larry Gowan. "That would have been the ultimate. I really wasn't all that surprised that it was successful because I knew when I finished it that people were probably going to like it. But I certainly hadn't counted on the great success that it did have. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least". But then a lot of people were surprised by the success of Strange Animal. Gowan's incredibly popular solo release from 1985 - radio programmers, record company personnel, media critics, Larry Gowan's immediate friends and family, and about 300,000 record buyers, turned the album into one of the most incredible success stories of the decade in Gowan's native Canada. But, what was really so astonishing about Strange Animal's success was not necessarily that it sold so well - even the briefest exposure could have led to that prediction - but that such a polished and professional piece of work could have emanated from what to that point, had been a verturally unknown force in the Canadian music scene.
This is really no overnight success story. It is one based in the unbeatable combination of talent and hard work. Once Gowan pursued a solo career with his debut album simply called Gowan in 1982, which quite frankly failed to catch the world on fire, it's creation provided valuable learning experiences, and if Gowan didn't make its creator a household name, it's successor Strange Animal certainly did. The album nearly reached triple platinum and earned Gowan a handful of Juno Award nominations. It was, in short, the left field hit of the year.
...author unknown
