Day 34: Player – Player

Album cover courtesy of A&M Records

I’m pretty sure I think about Ronn Moss more than the average person of my generation. I grew up in a country where daytime television was just American shows, frequently with about a 15-year delay. In the early 2000s, I was 10 years old watching American ‘80s shows like Golden Girls and Knight Rider. I also watched a lot of American daytime soaps, often with my mom.

One of these soaps, of course, was the classic, the OG, the favourite show of me at 10 and all the ladies of 40+: The Bold and the Beautiful. It follows a very influential and very dramatic Beverly Hills fashion empire centring around the Forrester family. The biggest member of that family (at least when I was watching) was Ridge Forrester, played by the big man himself, Ronn Moss.

I was talking about Ronn Moss today, including to someone who’s ignorant of Mr Moss, so I decided to play a song by the band that Ronn Moss was in, Player. Player had one hit, the iconic “Baby Come Back”, but I realised that’s their only song I’ve ever heard from them, so I decided to listen to their self-titled album from 1977 today.

Obviously I didn’t think they’d be bad, I’ve heard “Baby Come Back”, but I didn’t expect to like them as much as I did. It’s fun, groovy 70s rock that’s good to the point where it’s not just good as a curiosity listen for fans of a soap star, it’s actually just good. The album consists of sunny feel-good California yacht rock tunes with some disco influences. Occasionally, it remids me a little bit of a funkier Steely Dan.

Ronn Moss, the king, can apparently do anything. Big fan of Player. Crazily enough, I will pop some of these songs into playlists and listen to them again. This album is a very strong 8/10. Also, check out the look of the third guy on the cover, what a look. Absolute shagger. The '70s really was a peak time for men.