Max Webster

1980, last studio album, Canadian Rock/Prog/Glam, and amazing!

2025 Max Webster update: https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/the-band-max-webster-almost-canada-s-next-big-thing-in-the-1970s-and-80s/article_33097f8f-0cfc-52bf-abb5-48d5dc8fd992.html

Picture book: https://highclassmax.com/

Paradise Skies (no, not Todd Rundgrin) : https://youtu.be/WUhc8-vUp8o?si=SdBs-X0oVttztQdS

Lay It On The Line: https://youtu.be/uHDSk16jDSE?si=WLL7GIo1WJn_00aD

I like to Rock: https://youtu.be/YlcY_enzwmI?si=fRtd5lf4vkUhEz4c

1983 Kim Mitchell Mini Interview: https://youtu.be/zUnCYyugx9g?si=V09ixoLIdGO67qcy

Universal Juveniles: https://youtu.be/ObUaaNAEMUI?si=qnIFemIo0xVZXR6T

YouTube Video Link:

Max Webster

Yellow, one-sleeved jumpsuit, with cream-soled, white boots aside, I love Max Webster.[pic] But let’s be clear.  THIS is not Max Webster. This is Kim Mitchell; singer and lead guitarist of Max Webster. And this is their third and last studio album, “Universal Juveniles.” 

But unless you lived somewhere along the Canadian border, or had a visiting cousin bringing you a steady stream of 70’s Canadian glam, you did not hear of Max Webster until this record, and then probably only one song.  Oh, but you’ve probably seen this picture, [pic] which made it’s rounds on a stupid Facebook record list put together by someone living in their parent’s basement. Ignore them, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Max Webster rocks, and it is stupid Capital Records and close minded American radio decision-makers that kept them from you. They were an active band for a decade, known and loved in Canada. They have been written about and documented by many Canadian journalists [pic]…not this one but many others, so I’m going to stay in my lane and unpack one shiny, glittery, proggy musical gift; “Universal Juveniles.”

The record came out in 1980. The year before, Max Webster had a minor overseas hit called “Paradise Skies”  off of their record,” A MIllion Vacations,”[pic] and toured the UK to support it, usually opening for their good friends and fellow Canadians, Rush[pic], though they did headline a couple smaller, sold out shows on their own. They were growing a non-Canadian following and hoping to build on it with “Universal Juveniles” when the record company said they didn’t want to finance another tour. Exhausted from doing 200+ shows a year, and continuously playing bridesmaid to Rush’s bride, a tired and frustrated Max Webster pulled the plug shortly after this record came out. But, man, what could have been.

The late 70’s saw a boon of Canadian artists finally getting their US due. Rush followed up “2112” with “Hemispheres,”[pic] and high school boys around the county checked out “Anthem”  from their local libraries.  Triumph put out “Just a Game”[pic] and even though “Hold On” was the hit,  “Lay It on the Line” was the jam. 

April Wine’s 1979 release, “Harder…Faster”[pic] had a cover of King Crimson’s  “21st Century Schizoid Man” but more importantly, it had  “I Like to Rock,” the video of which had late singer, Myles Francis Goodwyn wearing a t-shirt that is close to my heart.  Max Webster’s “Universal Juveniles” should be just as important, and not only for that song.

Kim Mitchell played guitar and sang, Gary McCracken[pic] was on drums, and Dave Myles[pic] played bass. Terry Watkinson[pic] played keyboards. 

He died in February of 2026.

The unofficial 5th member of Max Webster was Pye DuBois {pic}. He was a good friend of Kim’s and wrote the lyrics to most of the band’s songs. He also helped write Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” and a handful of songs for their 1993 record, “Counterparts.” Pye and Kim had a falling out in the mid-90s and haven’t written together since. But they were both admitted in the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2021.

If you’re looking for a record with conventional songs, this isn’t it. Pye DuBois was a poet.  Not a poet like Jim Morrison[pic] was a poet, but more like how e.e. Cummings [pic] was a poet. His words don’t always tell you stories. They will tell you what he thinks or feels, but then you have to decipher THAT..

In a world of giants

Candy stores

You got the morning look

And the sleep is screaming

And you can’t tell

Where do you come from

This isn’t moaned out against a pounding bass line and dark eerie keyboards[pic], but sung out  after a fast guitar riff intro. It is almost southern rock-ish, like a combo of .38 Special and Molly Hatchett, but way, way, way better.  “April in Toledo” somehow manages to be both a heartbreak song,[pic] and a love letter to Canada, which is kinda cool, and somehow even sadder.

The record ends with two of my favorite songs, “What Do You Do With the Urge” which always hit me as a little Roxy Music-ish,{pic] but like fun Roxy Music, Brian Eno-Roxy Music. And then “Cry Out Your Life,” which is a little Todd Rudgren, but not. I’m trying to draw comparisons so you can hear what I mean, but I fall short. Max Webster sounds like nothing you’ve heard, but everything you know.’[pic]  I don’t know how else to put it. 

The jewel in the crown is “Battle Scar.”[pic] I was 13 when I heard this on the radio for the very first time. I stopped and just stood there. Was it Rush? That’s Geddy Lee, but not the other guy, and this doesn’t sound like a Rush song. 

The sound filled my room, like, filled it! There are guitars and a throbbing bass, and gets louder, then the drums come in, and Kim sings the first verse, and then Geddy Lee[pic] comes out of nowhere and joins in the chorus. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger. 

When they recorded it, both bands set up and played at the same time. So Geddy Lee and David Myles are both on bass, and Gary McCracken and Neil Pert [pic]

Are BOTH playing drums, and Kim Mitchell  and the other guy[pic] are both on guitar. It is amazing! This is a desert island song. If I was stuck on a desert island, this one is coming with me.

US Radio said it wasn’t Rush, but gave them most of the credit.[pic] If Capital knew how to walk and chew gum they could have jumped on this and Max Webster would have been something in the US. 

But for those 5 minutes, radio got it right, and then it faded away and Max Webster was no more. The t-shirt that April Wine’s singer was wearing in “I Like to Rock?” was from The Loop[pic] the radio station where I first heard Max Webster.  And for that, I am eternally grateful.

You should be able to find this record, but depending on your location it may not be in the cheaps.  Discogs has it. I have a link to the whole record on bandsofthelost.com along with other weirdness. If you’d like to hear about records you may or may not have owned back in the day, you can subscribe the Bands of the Lost’s YouTube channel or check us out at BandsoftheLost.com.

Happy Digging