Monthly Archives: January 2021

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Evergrey – Eternal Nocturnal

Those lead breaks from Henrik Danhage.

Wow.

So many Guitar Hero moments here, full of melody, emotion and when required, putting the foot to the floor and shredding.

And those tapping licks and legato taps over multiple strings. I’m smashing my guitar right now.

The “Eternal Nocturnal” is that help/support or voice or friend that you need in certain times.

As the lyrics in the Chorus state, it will be the hope when you fall, the shelter when you need a home and in the end it will be there when the time has come.

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Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – Jan 1 to Jan 9

4 Years Ago (2017)

I was writing about the labels and the publishers meeting with newly elected President Trump on Copyright issues under the pretense of helping artists.

We all know that when these organizations meet with government officials it’s for their benefit only and maybe some small change to the artists to keep em quiet.

And based on how all of these investment houses are buying the rights to songs from artists, expect to see a new player in the meetings with government over copyright and its terms.

8 Years ago (2013)

The site was still young and new and I had a few posts in the month of January but none during this period.

But… I’ll cover a bit of history.

Jason Newsted flirted as a band called Newsted and released the underrated “Metal” EP. Interest was high, they played smaller venues and they sold out on the physical CDs for “Metal”.

The plan was for three EPs.

But that got canned and the same year they also released the album “Heavy Metal Music”.

The band was costing Newsted money. He was the investor for the tours and what not. And it was on a tour of Australia that Newsted ended the band for personal reasons.

And Black Veil Brides released the excellent album “Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones” which gave rise to their biggest song. “In The End” currently stands at 99.299 million streams on Spotify.

Check em out.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – Cold Chisel

Here is the usual prologue.

My blogger pal Deke over at Thunder Bay had a cool Northern Hemisphere Summertime Series between July and August.

Each week, he wrote about albums he spun during the summer.

Well, the real Earth summer is between December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.

So the good act that Thunder Bay is, boarded a Qantas plane, landed in Sydney, survived 14 days quarantine in a Sydney hotel and is finally here to present the “Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Series”.

“East” is the third studio album by Australian rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980 and produced by Mark Opitz.

The album was a massive success in the Australian market and it was the only Cold Chisel album to chart in America via its release on the Elektra label.

They did a 5 week tour in the North American market during this album run and never went back. A certain A&R guy called Tom Zutuat was given an ultimatum from the label, if he wanted to sign Motley Crue he had to let Cold Chisel go.

The band at this stage weren’t a successful recording band although their shows would sell out so the album was a deliberate attempt to write hits but in the way that they write.

The beauty of Cold Chisel is the variation.

Vocalist Jimmy Barnes is the soul, blues rock guy. Pianist and main songwriter, Don Walker is the Springsteen/Dylan storyteller. Ian Moss is the heavy rock guy ala Blackmore from Purple. Drummer Steve Prestwich is the prog rock dude and bassist Phil Small brings the pop rock.

Put it all together and the sounds which come out is Cold Chisel.

“Standing On The Outside”, written by Don Walker kicks of the album in rocking fashion.

“No amount of work’s gonna buy my way to Freedom”

We have been sold the dream that if we work hard enough, we will be somebody. But that’s not the case for everybody. For every person who makes it there are millions who don’t.

The themes of the “working class man struggling financially” would appear on a lot of songs from Chisel and even on songs when the members went solo. Because even though Australia is seen as the “lucky country”, it sure costs a lot to live in it.

“Never Before” is written by Ian Moss and its progressive, a fusion of so many different styles, almost Police like.

“Choirgirl” is a Don Walker cut and he writes about abortion and the rights of a woman to choose, which at the time was part of the national debate.

“Rising Sun” from Jimmy Barnes romps it’s way through the 12 bar blues as he references his brief relationship with his future wife which ended at the time when she went back to Japan, hence the lyric of the rising sun stealing his baby away.

“My Baby” from bassist Phil Small is my favourite. That vocal melody lead played on the guitar by Ian Moss during the intro deserves to be listened to.

The killer cuts continue with “Tomorrow”, which is another Don Walker track about a person who comes out of jail, can’t catch a break trying to make it legit and ends up on the wrong side of the law again.

“Cheap Wine” is a classic in Australia.

Cheap wine and a three-day growth

When you’re on the booze, tidiness and keeping appearances go out the window.

I’m sitting on the beach drinkin’ rocket fuels

Australia is surrounded by beaches and there’s nothing more Australian than going down the beach and having a few.

“Star Hotel” is written about the riot that took place there on the night it was closing up for good.

And the most underrated star of the album is Mark Opitz.

Finally the band had a producer who allowed them to do what they best, which is to play and he wanted to capture that live sound and energy on record. Bob Rock had the same ideals for the “Black” album from Metallica.

The album sounded fantastic on any system or format.

Check it out.

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Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Bob Lefsetz – Tom Werman Interview

Here is the Spotify link.

His first production credit was a co-production on a Ted Nugent album, because he remixed the album with the engineer to make it sound great in radio.

Werman was an A&R guy for six years at Epic. Epic wasn’t big on rock music and the label during the time passed on a few bands that Werman brought to them like Kiss, Rush and Lynyrd Skynyrd but he was allowed to sign Reo Speedwagon.

So Werman was really looking for an artist to deliver a platinum album so he could justify his A&R existence. The Ashboy Dukes just broke up and Nugent was available. He was the artist that Werman wanted and he convinced the label to sign him.

The debut self-titled Ted Nugent album went platinum and suddenly Werman was known as a producer.

Then the Cheap Trick project came along. Werman signed em based on a recommendation by producer Jack Douglas to see em perform live in a packed strip club.

Douglas produced the first Cheap Trick album and Werman did the second one “In Color” as Douglas was busy with Aerosmith.

Werman was focused on getting a pop sound that would translate well on to the radio. That was his thing. Because if the band got radio play, they would sell a lot of records.

He spoke about the Cheap Trick “In Color” album and how the band had a lot of material which is typical of a band in the early stages of a record deal as they’ve had their whole lifetime to amass a catalogue of songs.

He missed out on being involved on the “Budokan” album because he was working with Ted Nugent at the time. And the last album he produced “Dream Police” was put on hold for 8 months because of the good business the “Budokan” album was doing. And then the relationship ended and the band went with George Martin, to release an album that didn’t do great business compared to the Werman albums.

Werman at the time was at CBS and when he asked for a pay raise, he was turned down and he left to work with Elektra.

Krasnow (the Elektra head) wanted to drop Motley Crue, as he saw them as an embarrassment, but then “Shout At The Devil”blew up and that was that.

Werman enjoyed working with Mick Mars, a highly underrated guitar player. He went out for sushi with Nikki Sixx the day after he was pronounced dead. He also said that Nikki produced some nice fiction with “The Heroin Diaries”.

“Tooth And Nail” from Dokken was the other album he did at the time.

Two platinum albums to start off his Elektra career.

He got a call from Doug Morris (the president of Atlantic) to work with Twisted Sister. They had success in Europe with the “You Can’t Stop Rock’N’Roll” album and Atlantic wanted a new album to be unleashed on the US market.

That album of course is “Stay Hungry”.

But after the album was done and approved, Werman and Snider fell out. And still to this day, they are at odds.

He saw the writing on the wall at the start of the 90s. His production values were not liked by the new breed of bands and getting production gigs with these bands didn’t lead to any success and traction because he was known as the producer of Motley Crue and Poison.

He still gets paid from all the albums he produced. He said the payments were healthy up until 1999 and then the payments went down and kept on going down up to 2009 and since 2010 the royalty payments started to increase and they have been increasing ever since.

Streaming has increased the amount of royalties and he gets paid enough to not care if the labels even skim a bit on the royalty.

He hasn’t done any production since he checked out of the music business but if there was an artist that would have gotten him in the chair, it would have been Dave Grohl and The Foo Fighters.

Werman produced records are all over my collection and his production values played a big part in the soundtrack of my youth.

Thank you.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

John Sykes – Dawning Of A Brand New Day

If the album ever gets released remains to be seen, but what we have here is a 5 minute song of heaviness and melody.

Tony Franklin shared it on Twitter and I clicked on it. Franklin also mentioned that he didn’t play on the recording but has jammed the song with Sykes.

And the riff to kick it off.

Brilliant.

The Chorus riff and melody.

Brilliant.

The lead break is memorable.

That outro riff.

Brilliant.

And the track was recorded four years ago, for the solo album, “Sy-Ops”, which is way overdue but scheduled for release later this year.

The thing with Sykes is his variation.

There are metal songs with big riffs like this track, hard rock songs with big riffs, blues rock songs, sleazy rock songs and of course big guitar ballads.

And in case you are not aware, “Out Alive” and “Gates Of Hell” also got a YouTube release over the last three years.

“Out Alive” captures his Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest influences while “Gates Of Hell” continues his epic songwriting style from “Valley Of The Kings”.

2021 is already better.

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Derivative Works, Music, My Stories

The Record Vault – Cher

I don’t have any Cher albums, but I have heard em as a neighbor was a fan. So I purchased the single to “If I Can Turn Back Time” as the B side “Some Guys” hadn’t been released.

Now when it comes to Cher there is a bias towards her because of the outfits or the surgery. But she could rock with the best of em, and it’s that period of her career which I’m a fan off.

The people involved in making the “Heart Of Stone” album is a roll call of talent. Songs are written by Diane Warren, Desmond Child, Bob Halligan Jr, Michael Bolton, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Jonathan Cain.

Guitars on the album are played by Blues Saraceno, Steve Lukather, Michael Landau and John McCurry. Hugh McDonald appears on bass.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories

The Record Vault – Michael Bolton

I only own one 7 inch single from Michael Bolton. And that single is “How Am I Supposed TonLive Without You”. His biggest hit.

But Bolton had this song written (with Doug James) a few years before. Air Supply wanted to record it, but they wanted to change some of the lyrics. Bolton refused and Laura Branigan recorded it in 1983, released it on her “2” album and it was a hit in the U.S.

Six years later it became a worldwide number 1 hit.

But, I didn’t buy the single for the A side.

On the B Side, there is a song called “Forever Eyes”. It’s co-written with Bob Halligan Jr and it was cut from the “Soul Provider”. If you own some albums from Kix, Judas Priest, Kiss or Icon, then the Bob Halligan Jr name is well known.

The “Soul Provider”, Wikipedia page also has Bob Dylan listed as a songwriter for this song but he’s not mentioned on the single.

And I was curious how this track sounded.

It’s basically AOR Melodic Rock. The guitar solo reminds me of Steve Lukather, but it’s hard to tell if it’s him as the album also had Dan Huff, Michael Landau, John McCurry and Chris Camozzi on guitars, across different songs.

Bolton’s earlier albums rocked and Bolton did shred once upon a time. But the labels always saw him as a songwriter for other artists. Up until “Soul Provider”.

This album changed everything.

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Music, My Stories

The Record Vault – Callisto and Coma Lies

I don’t really remember much about these. I took a chance from a 3 for $10 bin many years ago.

“True Nature Unfolds” from Callisto was released in 2004. “A Churchwell Killing” from Coma Lies was released in 2007.

Both had screaming vocals and Callisto was very doom sludge metal. Looking at the CD inserts Callisto is from Finland and Coma Lies from Australia.

Basically I played em once, skipped a lot of tracks and never played em again.

Cant win em all.

If anyone knows more about these bands, please let us know.

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Influenced, Music, My Stories

The Record Vault – The Classic Experience

I purchased it for “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff.

That song became a part of my life from two distinct events.

The movie “Excalibur” which came out in the early 80’s, when Arthur and his Knights start their final ride into battle is one event. It plays then and the memory of it still remains with me, 35 plus years later.

And from the opening to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Randy Rhoads Tribute” album. The song plays, the band comes out, Ozzy tells the crowd “they look beautiful” and then “I Don’t Know” cranks in.

This is also one of those CD’s I purchased between 2002 and 2006 that had the Copy Control software on it. The system was intended to prevent “ripping” from the protected discs, and limit the file sharing of ripped music.

But Copy Control discs cannot properly be referred to as CDs because the system introduces incompatible data, making the discs non-compliant with the universal standard for audio CDs.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Record Vault And Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – Candy Harlots

Here is the usual prologue.

My blogger pal Deke over at Thunder Bay had a cool Northern Hemisphere Summertime Series between July and August.

Each week, he wrote about albums he spun during the summer.

Well, the real Earth summer is between December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.

So the good act that Thunder Bay is, boarded a Qantas plane, landed in Sydney, survived 14 days quarantine in a Sydney hotel and is finally here to present the “Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Series” with the great act “The Record Vault” opening up.

“Five Wicked Ways” the debut album from Candy Harlots finally came out in May 1992 after a long 5 years of trying to get a record deal.

Candy Harlots started in 1987 in Sydney by guitarist Ron Barrett, drummer Tony Cardinal, vocalist Mark Easton and bass guitarist Nick Szentkuti. Guitarist Marc De Hugar joined soon after.

Szentkuti was replaced by Scott Millard and then Leeno Dee. The addition of Dee on bass also gave them another songwriter on top of Easton and Barrett.

The band eventually got a record deal from Virgin Records after three shows but their manager turned it down.

And the guys couldn’t sign the contract themselves because their management deal didn’t allow them to do it without their manager approving it.

In between bad management decisions they still wrote and toured. They opened up for The Cult, Cheap Trick, DAD, Kings Of The Sun and The Angels.

But they still couldn’t get a major deal apart from the Virgin deal. So they released their debut 7″ single Red Hot Rocket in April 1989 on a small indie label.

A follow-up single entitled Danger (backed with Wrap 2 Arms) was released in May 1990.

They jammed and partied with members of Skid Row and Motley Crue.

Then tragedy struck.

In October 1990, founding guitarist Ron Barrett died after an asthma attack, at the age of 26.

Peter Masi was recruited. But the changes didn’t end here.

In February, 1991, guitarist Marc De Hugar was replaced by Phil Bowley.

And a month later, vocalist Mark Easton left after a final performance with Candy Harlots. The only founding member left at this point is drummer Tony Cardinal.

New vocalist Tony ‘Aiz’ Lynch joined the band soon afterwards. By now their management deal had also expired. And Virgin Records came knocking again and signed the band.

The Lynch-led line-up received greater media attention than the Easton-fronted group, and they remained popular with the Australian hard rock and heavy metal fraternity, gaining many new fans through Virgin-backed promotional activities.

In 1991, the “Danger” single got re-recorded and released with the new version of the band. I purchased the cassette single and CD single.

“The Tease Tapes” also came out in 1991 as a promotional release with “Hot Metal” magazine, to promote the upcoming album which was scheduled to be released in October.

But October came and went and still no album.

Then at the start of 1992, the “Foreplay” EP came out, which would have three songs from the album plus a cover from The Kinks.

And finally in May 1992, “Five Wicked Ways” came out.

The Candy Harlots had the LA sleaze of Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Ratt and Poison. They could be like Skid Row, AC/DC and Kiss when they wanted to be.

“Backstreet Boys” kicks off the album with its AC/DC riffs. “Sister’s Crazy” is more grown up, a modern sounding pop song about the whole “Fallen Angel” and “Runaway” story.

“Danger” is back and its a melodic rock anthem. “Cheat On Me” is typical hard rock with a bit of punk sleaze.

My favorite is “Where No One Dares”. It’s a slow rock song with excellent guitar playing.

“My Flame” starts off with a pulsing bass riff and a bluesy riff that would make Georgie Satellites proud.

“The Lady Shakes” has Cardinal beating those drums to kick off the song before a bass riff kicks in that reminds me of Rachel Bolan.

“Wrap 2 Arms” is a Ron Barrett cut and its resurrected here, which is a good tribute to their founding guitarist. It’s sleazy and dripping with melted rock along with “The Wildest Way”.

Then the big Aiz Lynch penned “What Are We Fighting For” comes in at track 10 and so far it’s all killer and no filler.

“Mercenary Baby” is funky and rock like. “The Other Side Of Love” feels like a Dokken cut and the album is rounded with an acoustic “Devils Blues”.

And they released a few singles from the album in “Sister’s Crazy” and “What Are We Fighting For” with extra unreleased tracks and cover songs.

Like an AC/DC cover in “Can I Sit Next To You Girl”.

And then Aiz Lynch was fired.

The band got new singers, changed their name and then it ended.

But that small output is as good as any of the big bands.

Check em out.

And all the best in the New Year.

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