Monthly Archives: February 2021

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

Killers At 40

I saw a Twitter post about “Killers” turning 40, so I did what every Iron Maiden would have done or should have done. Call it up on a streaming service and press play, or find the CD/Vinyl/Cassette, put it in the tray/turntable/deck and press play.

While the album is 40 years old, I didn’t really hear it until the early 90’s. And I didn’t listen to it a lot, so if you asked me to name the order of tracks from start to finish, I would stuff it up.

“Killers” sits in that purgatory state for me, between the end of the DiAnno era and the start of the Dickinson era. Thinking about it, I became a fan of Maiden during the Dickinson era, so I heard Dickinson sing “Wrathchild” before I heard the original DiAnno version.

So how good is that bass riff to kick off “Wrathchild”?

While “Killers” doesn’t have my favourite Maiden songs, each song has a riff or a musical section that just hooks me in.

Steve Harris wrote the whole album except for the song “Killers” and he got a chance to try out his progressive way of song construction. Instead of sticking to the verse and chorus formula, he would have a verse and then music for the chorus. Or verse, verse, interlude solo section.

He experimented on this album and we got to hear better versions of those experiments with each subsequent release.

“Murders In The Rue Morgue” is a Thin Lizzy cut through and through, just a little bit faster. If you don’t believe me, listen to those verses.

“Genghis Khan” has this harmony section from about the 2 minute mark and while that harmony pattern is being played, another harmony lead starts over it, with just a few notes and bends.

“Innocent Exile” has two sections that hook me. The musical Chorus between the verses and that whole interlude/solo section. “Killers” has the intro with the David Lee Roth like wails and then it morphs into the verse riffs.

“Prodigal Son” always stands out for me, because it reminds me of “You Can’t Kill Rock N Roll” from Ozzy Osbourne in the arpeggio intro. They both came out the same year.

The strumming part also reminds me of another song, but I just can’t remember it. And the solo, its brilliant, with its Clapton like bluesy lines.

The intro/verse riff in “Purgatory” is speed/thrash metal heaven. And how good is that harmony section when DiAnno sings “Take me away”?

Clive Burr never got his dues when it came to his drumming skills. The dude could play so many styles and merge them all into one song. He definitely set a standard for the Iron Maiden drum position which Nicko McBrain elevated.

Happy 40th Killers. \::/

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Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – 31 January to 6 February

4 Years Ago (2017)

Nothing was posted on the site during this period. I was chilling in the sun and detoxing from technology.

8 Years Ago (2013)

I was overdosing on “Be Somebody” from Thousand Foot Krutch.

And “Teaser” from Tommy Bolin.

10 Years Ago (2011)

We lost Gary Moore at 58 to a heart attack.

11 Years Ago (2010)

A judge found that Men at Work ripped off a 1932 children’s song called “Kookaburra” for the flute riff of “Down Under”.

This decision still shocks people in Australia, especially how a corporation which owns the copyright to the song reaps the benefits.

As the artist who created “Kookaburra” has been gone for a long time.

Mmmm.

23 Years Ago (1998)

We lost Tim Kelly from Slaughter who died in a car accident at age 35.

62 Years Ago (1959)

Don McLean said it was “the day the music died” in his 1971 hit “American Pie”.

The event he was talking about were the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson in a plane crash in 1959.

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

Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – The Superjesus

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”.

The Superjesus are an Australian rock band formed in Adelaide in late 1994.

Their debut album, “Sumo” released in 1998, peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart. They received high rotation on national youth alternative music radio station, Triple J and the album got a Platinum certification in Australia.

It was recorded at Triclops Sound Studios, Atlanta, with Matt Serletic (Collective Soul) producing and Jeff Tomei (Smashing Pumpkins, Hole) as audio engineer.

Guitarist Chris Tennent and vocalist Sarah McLeod wrote the songs and what you get is a rock album with some nu Metal influences and melodic vocals. It’s a shame this songwriting partnership ended when their personal relationship ended and Tennent also left the band.

And Tennent more or less disappeared from the music business after his departure but he left a legacy of some great riffs.

The other members in the band on the album are Paul Berryman on drums and Stuart Rudd on bass. Berryman also had success with the band Faker in the 2000’s.

It starts off with “Down Again” and a head banging bass and drum groove. The guitar plays some arpeggios to decorate before exploding into the main riff.

Then the verse riffs. Heavy and brilliant while McLeod sings about wasting a lot of opportunities.

I was alone ’til i thought it was better that way

You spend too much time alone, then there is nothing else but being alone.

“Saturation” is a interesting mixture riff wise, combining a lot of blues ideas with a Beatles/Oasis like progression.

“Now And Then” is an acoustic like romp merging bits that could have come from a Collective Soul or Jewel album.

“Ashes” has great riffs throughout. One of my favorites.

“I’m Stained” has an instrumental intro that goes for about 90 seconds and feels like those driving kind of songs, hitting the open road with the window down and a main riff that reminds me of “Shine” from Collective Soul.

“Milk” closes the album with a clean tone riff inspired by Seattle bands like Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam.

After the success of “Sumo” and the departure of guitarist Chris Tennent, the band went in a more radio rock friendly sound, victims of their own success to deliver a success-conscious follow-up, with “Jet Age” in 2001 and “Rock Music” in 2003.

But it was “Sumo” that gave them the victory lap.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Working Class Man

It’s about Jimmy Barnes and his life from leaving Adelaide in the early 70s with Cold Chisel and his solo career.

“Working Class Boy” is the book the covers his childhood in Scotland, the trip to Australia and growing up in a broken and violent home. This one was a tough and uneasy read because of the stories he told.

Chisel like all bands of that era started off as a cover band. They introduced originals for one gig and the audience was disappointed. Back to covers they went.

Jimmy Barnes left the band early on to fill the Fraternity vocal spot left vacant by Bon Scott joining AC/DC.

But it didn’t last long and he was back with Cold Chisel albeit a more focused singer courtesy of the tutelage given to him by Fraternity bassist Bruce Howe who was the taskmaster in that band and he wanted the singer to sound a certain way. Barnsey reckons that Howe also assisted in Bon’s singing prowess.

Like all bands of the era they gig and get crowds and they get managers who promise things and deliver nothing and they kept changing them with the hope that one of em would push the band with the labels.

And a post party gathering at a posh apartment involving sex and drugs which Don Walker attended, ending up being the event that sealed the deal for them in relation to management.

Rod Willis was at the party and he was bemoaning the lack of great managers in the Australian business. Walker was listening and after watching the band play live, Willis became their manager for 32 years.

And in Willis, main songwriter Walker had an ally when it came to implementing new music into their sets. So they started rehearsing.

And all of this is up to 1976.

They got their deal in September 1977. And got a crash course in copyright. There are two copyrights for each song.

The first belongs to the artist who recorded the song, which the record label controls as they paid the money for the recording and they are meant to keep it for a limited time before returning it back to the artists.

The second belongs to the writer/s. And this is controlled by the music publisher.

Barnes sums up his first recording experience in the best way.

“Recording was making something in a dark room with no one to bounce things off, and then waiting three months until it was finished, and then another three months until it came out – only to listen six months later and say to yourself, “Oh, I wish I’d done this or that”.

He wanted to put the producers head in his hands for the second record “Breakfast at Sweetheats”.

Live music television was unmasked as miming to a recording version of the song and Chisel did that for their first appearance but the higher they got the more power they had and when it came to the Countdown awards Chisel was allowed to play live so they upped the ante by walking on with half a bottle of Vodka, and then proceeding to play a song which they changed halfway to slag off the Awards and then smashed their instruments and everything else. .

The more popular Chisel got, the more wilder Jimmy Barnes got. And you need to read his recollection of their North American tour starting with the first show in San Diego, opening up for Loverboy, and ending with their last show in LA in which their Elektra label rep didn’t even turn up for, because it was his Djs friends dog birthday.

The US tour put the writing on the wall. Chisel then imploded and he went solo. His first release “Bodyswerve” went to number 1 in Australia.

And while he’s doing songs in the U.S with Jonathan Cain and other writers for what was hoped what be his break through album in the North American market with Geffen Records, Eddie Van Halen and Ted Templeman paid him a visit, asking him to audition for the vacant singers spot in Van Halen.

According to Barnesy, EVH mentioned it’s gonna be a new band and their gonna do ballads.

He said “no”.

“For The Working Class Man” came out in 1985 and Barnesy became a legend in Australia. It was everywhere and it debuted at Number 1. But it bombed in the U.S.Apparently it sounded too Australian.

Whatever that means.

Eventually the Geffen deal went bad when Barnes took the masters for the “Freight Train Heart” album back to Australia because he wasn’t happy how Jonathan Cain was producing it.

In Australia, he could do no wrong and his manager organized another US deal with Atlantic this time. In the space of 12 years, Barnes had deals with Elektra with Cold Chisel and Geffen and Atlantic as a solo artist.

Like Ozzy and Black Sabbath, the more records Barnesy sold as a solo artist and singing a few Chisel songs live, generated to a lot of sales of their former bands catalogue.

Black Sabbath and Cold Chisel grew during the 80s and 90s because of the deeds of their singers.

But for all his successes, by 1994 he was almost bankrupt. And he was still out of control.

A lot of rebuilding commenced.

Read the book to find out.

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

The Record Vault – Crawlspace

They appeared on a show called “Hey Hey, It’s Saturday”, performing the song “Afraid”.

There is a YouTube clip of it. They are from Western Australia.

This EP/single release is the only release I’m aware of.

“Afraid” is a cool little rock song with a pop influence. I enjoyed it back then and showed my support by purchasing.

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

1985 – Part 11

Exciter – Long Love The Loud

The fantasy style album covers always get me interested.

So Exciter is basically the NWOBHM, played faster, with a lot of double time drumming, alternate picked guitar riffs and banshee wails.

And as I’m nearing the last three songs, all of the previous songs have bled into each other, apart from the first song, the instrumental “Fall Out”.

But then when I was about to give up, “Born To Die” started, a slower groove and more like a hard rock cut with a chorus hook that reminds me of “Balls To The Wall”.

“Wake Up Screaming” moves around my headspace, like a doom metal cut. The bass groove in the first verse is excellent. Vocally, the banshee wails have gotten just too much and they detract a lot from the music.

“Feel The Knife” sounds like “Neon Nights” but I reckon Adrian Smith was influenced by its simplicity for “The Wicker Man” many years later.

Check it out.

Vicious Rumours – Soldiers In The Night

The guitar playing on this is excellent.

The instrumental song “Premonition” is less than a minute and it’s perfect. And of course, it had to be Vinnie Moore.

For those who don’t know, “Mind’s Eye”, Vinnie Moore’s first solo release in 1986, is one of those essential guitar instrumental albums that people of the genre should own.

And in his time so far he worked with other artists the main ones being Alice Cooper and for the last 15 or so years, he’s been the guitarist in U.F.O.

The band is on Shrapnel, so you get an idea that there’s going to be a lot of guitar.

“Ride (Into The Sun)” could have come from the “Kill Em All” album, while “Medusa” could have come from “Shout At The Devil”. Over the riffs, Moore burns his way through the Dorian and Aeolian scales.

“Soldiers Of The Night” could have been a Judas Priest cut and “Murder” could have come from the “Diary Of A Madman” album. “March Or Die” feels like a “Ride The Lightning” cut and “Blitz The World” is like a Motorhead cut, think “Overkill”.

And then there is “Invader”, which is Vinnie Moore’s “Eruption” full of classical lines, arpeggios, volume swells which sound like a violin and all the other guitar techniques like tapping, legato lines, fast picked alternate lines, string skipping and anything else he could find.

Finally, “Blistering Winds” sounds like a song from the “Bark At The Moon” album.

In other words, the band merges all these different hard rock, metal, NWOBHM, speed metal and LA Metal styles into a cohesive album. The great Martin Popoff mentioned em in “The Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties”.

And in the same way that “Steeler” and “Alcatrazz” were used to launch Yngwie Malmsteen, Vicious Rumours was used to launch Vinnie Moore.

Black N Blue – Without Love

Geffen tried really hard to break the band to the masses. Apart from teaming the band to work with outside writers, they also got Bruce Fairbairn to produce. Bob Rock is there as well as an engineer/mixer and so is Mike Fraser as an additional engineer.

“Rockin’ On Heaven’s Door” written by Jamie St. James and Tommy Thayer kicks off the album, a light metal cut, influenced by “Lick It Up” in the intro, before it gets rocking into an AC/DC style groove. And the Chorus, man I swear Bon Jovi used it for “Edge Of A Broken Heart”. Maybe Bruce Fairbairn recommended it to Jovi.

“Without Love” is a co-write between Jaime St. James and Jim Vallance. It’s written for the charts and the hearts of the teens.

“Stop The Lightning” brings back the St. James and Thayer partnership, so you get more guitars and more rock.

“Miss Mystery” is basically a pop song. A co-write between St. James, Thayer and Vallance. It could have come from a Bryan Adams album.

“Bombastic Plastic” has this “Stormbringer” like riff which is cool, but the song is so/so. “We Got The Fire” has Mike Reno on backing vocals and it sounds like a Loverboy cut on steroids.

Magnum – On A Story Tellers Night

I got into the band in the late 80’s and worked backwards. This is their fifth studio album, the first one on Polydor after parting with the notorious non-royalty paying Jet Records.

From the opening guitar riff of “How Far Jerusalem” I was hooked. And then the vocals from Bob Catley came in, a cross between Steve Walsh from Kansas, Paul Rodgers from Bad Company and his own style.

“Just Like An Arrow” is a pop song dressed up with metal guitar licks and power chords. Listen to how guitarist Tony Clarkin makes it all work. “On A Storytellers Night” starts off with some chords on the keyboards, a calm before the melodic rock takes over.

“Before First Light” has a Van Halen riff. Can you guess it?

“Les Morts Dansant” has a major key riff that reminds me of a Don Henley song, but when it kicks in to distortion, it reminds me of those 70’s acts like Sweet, Slade, Styx and Angel.

Other songs to check out are “Two Hearts”, “Steal Your Heart”

Running Wild – Branded and Exiled

These guys always had riffs which I liked. Nice head banging riffs.

To know what I mean, check out the main riff to opening track “Branded And Exiled”. Or “Realm Of Shades”.

The guitar lead break on “Realm Of Shades” is also worthy, starting off with a memorable harmony before it moves into separate solos.

“Fight The Oppression” is a Metallica cut from the “Kill Em All” album. “Marching To Die” is Scorpions, just a bit harder and faster.

Vocally it’s raw and the drumming is very metronomic, but hey, no one said that Running Wild is a pop act.

And the series is nearing completion. I have one more post for 2000 (the twelfth post) and one more for 1985.

1977 is already finished up within 10 posts.

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

2000 – Part 11

Pain Of Salvation – The Perfect Element Part 1

I saw a flyer in a magazine that mentioned “progressive” and I was interested. So I downloaded it, as it wasn’t available in Australia at that point in time.

I burned it to a CD, put it on the stereo, pressed play and became a fan. Its progressive because it has so many different styles/genres throughout the songs.

“In The Flesh” has this Queensryche/Bad Company feel merged with Marillion merged with Porcupine Tree before it goes to a Dream Theater like feel from “Images And Words”. And it moves between these things effortlessly.

Make sure you hang around until the 7.20 minute mark, just so you could hear that piano riff before the song segues into “Ashes”.

“Ashes” at four minutes and 20 seconds is brilliant. The melancholic mood created from the lightly distorted arpeggios is hypnotic. There is a fuzzed out lead and a spoken/lightly sung vocal melody.

And when the Chorus kicks in, with that “Zombie” feel, and the line, “As we walk through the ashes, I whisper your name”. Brilliant.

And this song segues into “Morning On Earth” with that musical box/xylophone riff. You need to listen to it, to understand what I mean.

“Idioglossia” continues the genre appropriation and they even bring back that chorus vocal melody from “Ashes”.

Check out “Her Voices” especially the last three minutes when the choir/voices come in. It made me feel like I was in the “Conan The Barbarian” movie.

The riffs in “King Of Loss” are some of my favourites.

And this song segues into “Reconciliation” which brings back that musical box/xylophone riff from “Morning On Earth” but this time on electric guitar and the full band.

“Song For The Innocent” feels like the last two minutes of “Comfortably Numb”.

“Falling” is like “Sorrow” from Pink Floyd and it segues into the 10 minute closer “The Perfect Element”.

An excellent end to an excellent album.

Apocalyptica – Cult

I have a guilty pleasure listening to rock and metal songs adapted to violin, cellos or to a string quartet or orchestra.

It highlights how great and musical the songs are from musicians who have been labelled as evil, devil worshippers, addicts, bad influences, alcoholics and many more.

Apocalyptica is one such band that takes metal songs and adapts them to cellos. In clean tone and with distortion.

And they made a career by adapting Metallica tracks to the cellos, but on this one, they branch out with original tunes and a couple of tasty cover adaptions chucked in.

So “Cult” is their third full-length LP.

The names of Eicca Toppinen (who apart from playing the cello also carries out the arrangements, double bass and percussion), Max Lilja, Paavo Lötjönen and Perttu Kivilaakso are easy to forget, but their devotion to their instrument and heavy metal music is .

The haunting melody to “Romance” is unforgettable and cinematic.

Other songs, like “In Memoriam” and “Hyperventilation” have some great sections.

“Hope” has a melody that reminds of Iron Maiden songs.

And then the covers, which I always enjoy.

“Hall of the Mountain King”, a haunting adaption of “Until It Sleeps” from Metallica and “Fight Fire with Fire” which has the cellos smoking as they generate speed to play that fast intro after the acoustic section.

Marilyn Manson – Holy Wood

Back then I wanted to listen to it because it had John 5 on guitars and the majority of the songs have John 5 as the musical writer or co-writer with bassist Twiggy Ramirez.

“Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)” is album number 4. Wikipedia tells me it’s a rock opera concept album, connecting “Antichrist Superstar” from 1996 and “Mechanical Animals” from 1998.

“The Fight Song” sounds like it could have come from the band Blur. At 34 million streams on Spotify, it’s tiny compared to the 192 million streams “Sweet Dreams” has. The other big song on Spotify is “The Beautiful People” at 177 million streams, so it’s no surprise they recreated that song for “Disposable Teens”.

“Target Audience” begins with an arpeggio riff that reminds me of “Only Women Bleed” from Alice Cooper before it gets into that industrial staccato style riffs.

My favourite is “In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death” and how a simple acoustic song percolates until it explodes.

“The Nobodies” has a normal drum beat, but its effects are from dance music while John 5 plays a guitar riff in the intro that sounds like a distorted piano.

And I realised that it’s those slower songs which percolate and then explode which become favourites, like “Coma Black”.

And Marilyn Manson is in the news today more than ever before, with his label dropping him after numerous women and his most recent partner accusing him of grooming and sexual/physical abuse.

Nevermore – Dead Heart in a Dead World

Readers of the blog know that I am a fan of Sanctuary, the previous band to vocalist Warrel Dane (RIP) and bassist Jim Sheppard.

Jeff Loomis is on guitars. He once auditioned for the coveted Megadeth guitar spot but lost out to Marty Friedman. Van Williams is on drums.

So all the lyrics are written by Dane and the music by Loomis, except the covers, which on this album, they have “The Sound Of Silence” from Simon & Garfunkel.

“Dead Heart in a Dead World” is the fourth studio album and the sound of the 7 string dominates.

“We Disintegrate” blasts out with some serious riffage. The drumming in the intro reminds me of “Hanger 18”.

“Inside Four Walls” lyrically feels like a cut from the “Empire” album from Queensryche as it questions the American way of life. Musically, its technical and it reminds me more of the metal that Megadeth plays and the Swedish melodic death metal bands.

“The River Dragon Has Come” has a nice acoustic intro with a melodic lead before it moves into a metal like cut, more groove orientated than the previous songs.

“The Heart Collector” has a slower distorted intro with a melodic lead that gets my attention. Then the verses are acoustic, classical, like Rainbow and Uli Jon Roth era Scorpions.

“Engines of Hate” is probably what people wanted from Metallica during this time. It’s fast, its angry and technical.

“The Sound of Silence” is a cover just by using the lyrics. The music is all new by Loomis, thrash like and the vocal melodies are different.

“Insignificant” is a slower groove but powerful. “Believe in Nothing” is the single. It was also covered by All That Remains in 2008 and also released as a single, I think. It’s more of a hard rock track and an excellent one at that.

If you like your metal to have some technicality to it, then give Nevermore a listen.

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A to Z of Making It, Influenced, Music, Unsung Heroes

Brian Wheat on Lefsetz

Here is the link to the Spotify podcast.

We are all flawed. As fans of music, we used to see our favourite artists as indestructible and confident, free of any issues and ailments and worries.

And then the books started coming and we started to read that was never the case.

They all suffer from confidence issues, fearful of their next step and they cope with various health and growing up issues by medicating themselves via illegal drugs, alcohols or prescriptions.

Brian Wheat has health issues and he’s had them for a long time. And you wouldn’t even know he had any issues. On stage, he always smiled and rocked out.

A lot of ground is covered.

Wheat talks about how Tesla make more money now than what they did on Geffen Records. “Mechanical Resonance” sold a lot and they didn’t make no money, because they were naïve.

They thought that when David Geffen and his team did something for them, it was out of the goodness of their hearts. But the labels don’t do anything without charging for it and the band was in debt.

He talks about Cliff Burnstein, Peter Mensch and Tom Zutuat and how Tesla wouldn’t be where they are today without them, but Burnstein didn’t want to work with them after they reformed, calling them a nostalgic act, in the early 2000’s.

Burnstein, Mensch and Zutuat didn’t want to put “Love Song” on the album. According to them, it was three songs in one song and it didn’t belong. The band stood their ground and they threatened to drop “Lazy Days, Crazy Nights” which was Burnstein’s favourite song.

But “Love Song” blew up (there was also a story there, about how the band and Burnstein had to go to Zutuat to get label budget approval to release another single as the first two singles bombed and the label was preparing to stop pushing the album).

And the band made sure they reminded management and the label about “Love Song” whenever they disagreed on things.

Wheat said that Tesla was difficult for Q Prime to manage because they were sort of a B Level band, as Tesla never got to the level of success of Def Leppard, Metallica and Guns N Roses.

The Tesla break-up is discussed which was strange to listen to as they just made a new deal with Geffen, released “Bust A Nut”, they toured hard and it went Gold, but it wasn’t platinum and they heard along the grapevine that Geffen was going to drop em. Burnstein even said to em, “that they are done. Their career is over.”

And I’m like “wow”. Even though there’s a cult like fan base for the band, the label and management decided that it’s over. Tesla is a working band. They make their money, on the road.

But the band already had some issues with each other and as soon as they lost label and management support they went on hiatus for 5 years.

And during that time Wheat had no money.

He got some publishing money but in order to survive he had to mortgage his house and hustle with others to produce bands and do demos. Jeff Keith even got a job as a DJ in a strip club, Frank Hannon was landscaping and Troy Lucketta was roofing.

Because Tesla’s bread and butter is the live arena.

Wheat talks about his relationships, his friendship with Ross Halfin, his small label to help young bands, his recording studio and actually being the son of the milkman.

Give it a listen.

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