By now people knew what to expect with an Airbourne album. Fast blues rock, sleazy blues rock and hard rock, inspired by AC/DC, Rolling Stones and ZZ Top.
And no power ballads.
Bob Marlette is producing.
Breakin’ Outta Hell
It’s fast and maniacal like they are really breaking out of somewhere. It’s tempo reminds me of songs like “Let There Be Rock” and “Whole Lotta Rosie”.
Rivalry
If you enjoyed the debut Audioslave album, you will like this, as it has a riff similar to “Cochise” in the Intro.
Otherwise the Verses and Chorus are straight from the playbook of AC/DC and Slade.
In the PR for the song, Joel O’Keefe said:
“As with other songs we’ve done, there’s an aspect here of rock‘n’roll taking a stand against those corporate forces that seek to restrict our freedoms, that try to shut down the little live venues, leaving bands with nowhere to really hone their craft.”
Challenge accepted.
Get Back Up
This can be interchanged with any AC/DC song of the Brian Johnson era and not be out of place. In some stages, the throaty vocals remind me of Tom Keifer.
It’s Never Too Loud For Me
With its “RNR Ain’t Noise Pollution” influences merged with “Sin City”, you know exactly what you get with this.
Thin The Blood
It’s super fast.
An image of Tommy Lee in the Crue movie comes to mind as they recount his daily routine on the “Dr Feelgood” tour, like waking up chained to a bed, trying to work out what happened the night before, callin his wife, taking a lot of drugs and alcohol and the cycle repeats.
I’m Going To Hell For This
“Hail Ceaser” comes to mind and I like it.
Down On You
That whole Chuck Berry influence which AC/DC used to great success on “Long Way To The Top” and “High Voltage” is back here.
And the guys really broke out the big guns in the lyric department, about a boy playing with his toy and kissing a woman between her knees.
Never Been Rocked Like This
It’s not groundbreaking but the passion for loud blues based rock and roll is evident here.
When I Drink I Go Crazy
It’s fast and the title sums it up.
It also has one of the funniest lyrics ever, “I’m standing in the middle of the road, directing traffic like a ninja”.
Only Joel O’Keefe can get away with using Ninja in a rock song. Maybe the Steel Panther guys could as well and lyrically this is who the album is competing with. Steel Panther.
Do Me Like You Do Yourself
The Intro gets the foot tapping.
And the lyrics just keep getting Shakespearean.
Like “you’re hands are moving with a mind of their own, having the best sex and you’re all alone.”
Pure poetry.
It’s All For Rock ‘N’ Roll
A perfect closer with a tribute to Lemmy.
Listen to it, raise a glass and enjoy.
Appreciate Airbourne for what they are, a hard working rock and roll band who write music that needs to be listened to loud while beer is being consumed.
With “Slang” and “Euphoria”, Def Leppard re-invented themselves and the Two Thousands was there for the taking. The answer to their world domination is “X”, released in 2002.
And yes, it’s studio album number 8, but when you add “Retro Active” and “Vault” it is number 10 or X.
So “X”.
It stands for many things, like the Roman number for Ten or an MPAA rating for extreme explicitness, but it also stands for a maniacal mid-life crisis Def Leppard album.
Now
Written by Def Leppard with the help of songsmith, Marti Frederiksen.
The music of Def Leppard has evolved, incorporating the “Slang” influences with the traditional Def Leppard sound. This song captures some of it along with the whole Alanis Morrisette/Matchbox 20 pop rock vibe.
Unbelievable
It feels like a Backstreet Boys track. And I wasn’t surprised when I saw the writers. Per Aldeheim, Andreas Carlsson and Max Martin, who together had written a lot of hits for artists like Backstreet Boys, Nsync and Britney Spears.
But it was a skip for me.
And very disappointing as well, especially when Carlsson can rock hard. When he worked with Europe many years later, we got “Last Look At Eden”. When he worked with Paul Stanley, we got “Live To Win”. When he worked with Bon Jovi we got “Everyday”, “Misunderstood” and “Hook Me Up”. And Max Martin was a rocker to being with. When Martin worked with Jovi, we got “It’s My Life”. And guitarist Per Aldeheim can also rock hard, however none of the writers rocked hard at all on this.
“Unbelievable”, I say.
You’re So Beautiful
Another song written by Def Leppard with Marti Frederiksen.
The pop rock is back with this, which has the feel of “Animal” with new melodic elements.
Everyday
A cut written by Def Leppard with Marti Frederiksen, its lightweight “Photograph” even down to the syllables for the Chorus.
Long, Long Way to Go
Written by Wayne Hector and Steve Robson who I had to Google to see what their history is.
Wayne Hector is renowned for working with artists like Westlife, Nicki Minaj, The Wanted and The Pussycat Dolls. Steve Robson back in 2002 had worked with Westlife, Atomic Kitten, Honeyz and Faith Hill. All pop song writers.
And Def Leppard took a pop ballad and gave it the Def Leppard treatment, however it still sounds like a Backstreet Boys song. But it’s the most catchiest song on the album.
Four Letter Word
Written by Def Leppard, this is best track on the album. The bluesy AC/DC or ZZ Top style riff definitely gets me interested. It could have easily fit on the Adrenalize album.
At times you would be able to hear some “Back In Black” and “Armageddon It”.
Torn to Shreds
Written by Def Leppard and Joe Elliot in the lower registers singing a ballad is pretty cool to listen to. The way it starts off, it reminds me of the “Slang” album.
Love Don’t Lie
Written by Def Leppard. It sounds like “The Real Thing” from Russell Morris.
Gravity
Written by Def Leppard and Pete Woodroffe, this is by far the worst track on the album. While I give the band 5/5 for having the balls to experiment, the dance beat programmed bass and drums don’t do it for me and the vocal delivery did nothing to captivate the NWOBHM child within and I don’t think the teenybopper crowd took to it either.
Maybe if One Direction covered this many years later it would have been a hit.
Cry
Written by Def Leppard.
Stone Temple Pilots comes to mind here.
And I like it when hard rock artists take something which is contemporary and add their own hard rock touch.
Girl Like You
Written by Def Leppard.
It’s a skip from me when you middle aged men singing lyrics like “I’m on fire, and you’re the flame”.
Let Me Be the One
Written by Def Leppard. Next.
Scar
Written by Def Leppard and Pete Woodroffe
The best track on the album. It has this “Paper Sun” vibe in the Intro, a “Desert Song” vibe in the Chorus and an “Animal” style Chorus.
While it’s not an excellent Def Leppard record it’s also not that bad, and it kept the band on the road which was the key back then.
But for me, I haven’t purchased any Def Leppard product post this album.
Back in November, 2021, a Crue fan posted their excitement to Nikki Sixx, when a book on Motley Crue called “Kick Start My Heart” by Martin Popoff arrived at their home.
Well, Nikki Sixx responded in a way that took a lot of people by surprise, when he said that Popoff was just “another person making money” off Motley Crue’s legacy, And if you have read books from Martin Popoff, most of us were like ‘WTF’.
It’s pretty obvious that emotional stability is something that the Crue guys struggle with.
And when other people mentioned the good work that Popoff has done for the hard rock and heavy metal industry with his books and reviews, Nikki Sixx replied by calling him a scumbag, a criminal, a leach.
I suppose every artist wants to control their own narrative (and then they hand over the narrative when they seek out interviews with publications to someone else).
But they cannot stop people from publishing works on them.
Is Nikki serious?
People are writing books on dead rock stars and making money in the process. People are writing unauthorized biographies on current rockstars and making money from it. I have seven books on Led Zeppelin from different writers. All of them unauthorized but written brilliantly.
If you want to be in the public eye, these kind of books are part of the territory. And writers like Popoff fill a void because the artists fail to satisfy it. There is demand and no supply.
From my understanding of this book, Popoff even makes mentions of the references he uses to produce this work. It’s just his take on various authorized books.
And while I don’t agree with Nikki Sixx on this, it doesn’t mean I’ll stop listening to his music, but he should step down from his ivory tower once in a while and actually see the body of work that Martin Popoff has produced.
The name “Grand Funk” and “Grand Funk Railroad” started to appear in interviews with guitarists via the Guitar mags circa 1988 to 1992, as bands started to incorporate more blues rock into their music. Then I purchased an encyclopaedia called “The Rolling Stones Encyclopaedia of Rock and Roll” and they are listed.
But I had never heard their music and it was only a few years ago that I started to listen via Spotify.
“Born to Die” is the 10th studio album, released in January 1976.
Released on Capitol Records and produced by Jimmy Ienner.
Ienner was briefly considered for the role of producer on the “Destroyer” album because he was the producer of one of Paul Stanley’s favourite bands, the Raspberries who had broken big on the backs of an Ienner produced album. While Ienner lost out to Bob Ezrin for the “Destroyer” gig, he did a job with Kiss, as Executive Producer on “Double Platinum”.
The band for the album was Mark Farner on Guitar/Vocals, Craig Frost on Keyboards, Mel Schacher on Bass, Don Brewer on Drums/Vocals, Jimmy Hall on Saxophone/Harmonica and Donna Hall on Background Vocals.
Born To Die
What a track with the feel of the song “Bad Company”, written by Mark Farner in memory of his cousin who died in a motorcycle accident.
The Hammond Organ has this tremolo style effect which makes it sound menacing. The bass playing grooves and the vocals are multi-layered in the Chorus.
Lived his life of freedom, exactly the way that he wanted to. But there’s always that one thing, we never do count on. You was born for it to happen to you …
Dues
Written by Don Brewer and Mark Farner. As soon as the syncopated bass and bass drum start off the song, I was interested.
I tried religion and some holy roller steals my tenth
Press play to hear the music played under the melody of “can we ever stop paying dues?”
And then the lead break kicks in and I’m playing air guitar to it. And they keep soloing until it fades out.
Sally
It’s the sugar gum commercial pop song for the album written by Mark Farner for his then love interest, the actress/singer Sally Kellerman.
But it’s a skip for me.
I Fell For Your Love
Written by Don Brewer and Craig Frost and there is too much soul and not enough rock.
Talk To The People
Written by Mark Farner and Craig Frost.
I’m not a fan of the music or the melodies.
But there is a great solo to end.
Take Me
Written by Don Brewer and Craig Frost.
Take me and make me feel your music..
And there is some great soloing .
Genevieve
I expected this to be a ballad, but I got an instrumental of fusion of jazz, funk and rock. And I like it.
Love Is Dyin’
Written by Don Brewer.
It’s got this “All Along The Watchtower” vibe, the Hendrix version vibe, not Dylan.
Politician
Written by Mark Farner.
Mr. Politician please don’t deceive us. Mr. Politician you’re there to relieve us. Just how can we tell, mister, When to believe in you.
I guess some things never change.
Press Play to hear the solo break and the bass playing under it.
Good Things
It’s a slow Blues Rocker that starts off like a Bad Company cut, but once the intro lead melody kicks in, it feels like a Jeff Beck cut.
Written by Mark Farner there is plenty of guitar soloing happening.
The album just broke the Top 50 on the Billboard charts and was seen as a disappointment.
It’s not held in high regard by the hard core fans.
It was the last Capitol Records album they did so maybe the title was prophetic in a way.
In August 1990, Blues Rock Guitar Hero, Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash. His Double Trouble rhythm section of Tommy Shannon (bass) and Chris Layton (drums) were devastated and with SRV’s death, out of a gig.
They dealt with the pain by jamming. They called in guitar prodigy Charlie Sexton and another guitarist in Doyle Bramhall ll. Bramhall’s father, Doyle Bramhall, Sr. is also steeped in the blues, playing drums for Lightnin’ Hopkins and Freddie King. And Bramhall, Sr. also collaborated on songs with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan, who he knew since childhood.
The jam sessions took place at the Austin Rehearsal Complex. This is how the “Arc” in the band name is derived.
I heard “Living In A Dream” on Letterman and I thought it was Badlands via the sound, but the look definitely wasn’t Jake E Lee and Ray Gillen (RIP). But I couldn’t get their album, even though it was on Geffen Records. I suppose the year of 1992 didn’t help either.
“Arc Angels” is the self-titled debut album released in 1992.
Production is handled by Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul.
Living In A Dream
What an opening cut, with a feel of “When The Levee Breaks” and just think of “Stormbringer” played in a blues based way.
It’s written by Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton. They both share vocal duties and they put their guitar skills on display, riff wise and lead wise.
‘Cause there’s nothing wrong here I’m just living, living in a dream
And sometimes we don’t want to escape that dream.
Paradise Café
Written by Charlie Sexton and Tonio K, this song reminds me of the Roadhouse movie. You can imagine the band playing the song behind a Perspex cage to protect them from glass bottles.
Well now everything is rosy And the money’s so well spent This kind of education Is worth every cent When your momma pays the tuition And your daddy pays the rent You could learn a lot in college Although you never went
Sometimes the silver spoon is not enough to satisfy.
Sent by Angels
Written by Doyle Bramhall II.
I like the Bad Company vibe on this. Black Crowes also comes to mind.
Sweet Nadine
Written by Charlie Sexton and Tonio K.
The acoustic guitar riff reminds me of “Little Suzi” from Tesla. Even the titles are similar. The drum beat is more surf rock and Iggy Pop like than Blues Rock.
Sweet Nadine That ain’t her real name But you know what I mean
I suppose every artist has a “Sweet Nadine” somewhere.
Good Time
Written Doyle Bramhall II and Sammy Piazza, it’s got this Stevie Wonder “Superstition” funk rock happening, with a bit of “Play That Funky Music White Boy”.
I was hangin’ out with some friends of mine Down in Hollywood just a-wastin’ time I knew right then nobody could get me down ‘Cause I’m takin’ myself out on the town We’re gonna have a good time
See What Tomorrow Brings
Written by Doyle Bramhall II and as soon as the opening arpeggio chords started I was interested.
At 6 minutes long, it’s hard to explain the song, a mixture of “Little Wing”, “Free Bird” and “With A Little Help From My Friends”, the Joe Cocker version. And when slow blues ballads are done right, they leave their presence with you. This song does just that.
Wait just long enough See what tomorrow brings
What a great line. Patience is hard to attain, because its original meaning is “to suffer”. So to ask someone to “wait” is to ask them to be “patient”.
Always Believed in You
Written by Charlie Sexton and Tonio K. the cut could be interchanged with songs on a John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams or Don Henley album.
I was born back in the sixties I was born and raised to win We had beaten, beaten back the darkness But somehow the darkness slipped back in
Truth right there. People thought that we had broken through the injustice and prejudice however people just doubled down into their echo chambers, percolating until they exploded again.
The Famous Jane
Written by Charlie Sexton and Tonio K.
It’s a mid-tempo rocker about heroin.
She was probably born in Hollywood in the era of the King She hitchhiked Highway 61 and got elected Queen She ended up on Bleeker Street down in the underground And then somebody there called her sweet, and the story got around
The lyrics more or less sum up its possible introduction into Hollywood.
Spanish Moon
Written by Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton and Chris Layton. This is a great song with a similar riff and groove to “Living In A Dream”.
Everybody’s looking for a little bit of love Not a lot of love being given
No one wants to be alone, but people associate companionship with love. But if love doesn’t happen, having a circle of friends to talk with, laugh with and go out with, is every bit good enough.
Carry Me On
Written by Doyle Bramhall II who brings out the Southern Classic Rock.
Shape I’m In
They bring out the Chuck Berry “Johnny Be Goode” feel on this cut, written by Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton and Marc Benno.
I tried so hard to get back in the race I’d just be satisfied if I could place There’s so much competition but the best don’t always win I’m doing pretty good for the shape I’m in
Be you and don’t let the rat race dictate to you who you should be.
Too Many Ways to Fall
Written by Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Charlie Sexton and Tonio K.
This is another of those percolating blues rock tunes.
‘Cause there’s just one way that we can stand Too many ways to fall
Truth right there.
The outro reminds me of what Pearl Jam would do.
The band didn’t last long. Geffen jumped into bed with Seattle, Bramhall’s heroin addiction was out of control and by 1993, the band broke up.
I was interested to hear what Def Leppard would do next after “Slang”.
And the answer was “Euphoria”. Released in 1999, the title alone was an indication to me that they were back to the “Pyromania” and “Hysteria” vibe.
The album is produced by Pete Woodroofe.
Demolition Man
Written by Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell and Joe Elliot, it’s an energetic rocker to kick off the album, reminding me of their supercharged cover of “Action” from Sweet in the early 90’s.
Promises
Written by Phil Collen and Mutt Lange, this is a great track in the vein of songs like “Photograph” and “Animal”.
And press play to hear the guitar solo.
Back In Your Face
Written by Joe Elliot and Phil Collen, it has a 70’s style vibe, processed drums, a bass guitar riff that has the vibe of “Under Pressure” from Queen and a rap like vocal line reminiscent to “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.
With the title, it definitely announces the bands intention.
The band was back in my face like jumping jack flash and the Union Jack.
Goodbye
Written by Rick Savage, the song is interchangeable with “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?” and “When Love And Hate Collide”.
All Night
A funky Prince like tune done the Def Leppard way and written by Phil Collen and Mutt Lange.
It wouldn’t take up a place in a set list, but it’s cool to hear the band experiment and have fun with tunes like this.
Paper Sun
Written by Phil Collen, Rick Savage, Joe Elliot, Vivian Campbell and Pete Woodroffe.
My favourite song on the album and one of the best songs to appear on a Def Lep album in the 90’s.
The intro riff, with it’s Middle Eastern feel already hooks me in, bringing back memories of songs like “Desert Song” and “Fractured Love”. The song could have easily appeared on the first two albums as well.
This is the Def Leppard I like.
It’s Only Love
Yeah, it’s a slow rocker written by Joe Elliot, Mutt Lange, Rick Savage and Vivian Campbell, which didn’t captivate me.
So it’s a skip.
21st Century Sha La La La Girl
Written by Phil Collen, Joe Elliot and Rick Savage.
This is Def Leppard with a vocal line which borders on rap-rock.
What can go wrong?
Nothing when it comes to Def Leppard.
They do these things cool but sometimes they overuse this method.
To Be Alive
This is a great ballad written by Vivian Campbell and a P.J Smith.
The song was first recorded by Vivian Campbell’s side band “Clock”, which was active between 1996 and 1998 and released one album in 1998.
Disintegrate
An instrumental written by Phil Collen, which feels like it’s part 2 of “Switch 462”. And I like it.
Guilty
Written by Phil Collen, Rick Savage, Joe Elliot, Vivian Campbell and Pete Woodroffe.
It starts off like “Hysteria” and that familiarity immediately gets me interested.
Day After Day
Written by Phil Collen, Joe Elliot and Vivian Campbell. It’s “Deliver Me” from “Slang”, updated to rock hard.
A favourite just behind “Paper Sun”.
Kings Of Oblivion
Written by Phil Collen, Joe Elliot and Rick Savage. They bring their love of 70’s Rock and Metal into this. It could easily appear on the first three albums.
We laugh at the wardrobe choices of the 80s but goddamn the 90s didn’t really endear itself to people either.
The CD that I have is known as the “Australia Bonus Tracks Edition”. So I have two bonus tracks in “Worlds Collide” and another fun energetic cover in “Under My Wheels” from Alice Cooper.
Worlds Collide
It made an appearance on the “Slang” reissue from 2014 so it was written for that album.
It’s heavy and I like it. Press play to hear the main riff. It’s head banging Metal the way I like it.
Sales of the album didn’t match the earlier stuff, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dud. Check it out.
P.S
While it was refreshing to hear “Slang” and it grew on me to be a good album, I was more than happy to have Def Leppard return to their sound.
All ideas or If you use the words “intellectual property” for the Copyright maximalists, have an influence from something that came before. We learn to write music by learning the music from others. We learn to write stories by reading the stories of others.
It’s probably why people shouldn’t get all emotional over ideas/intellectual property.
People like familiarity.
Derek Thompson in his book “Hit Makers” mentioned how people are drawn to music that might be new, yet familiar enough to be recognizable.
In other words, that new song we all like has enough variation in it to make it not a carbon copy of its source influence.
And people still like to claim that their song is so original and free from influence and when people have that fixed mindset, well, the courts are busy and the lawyers are making money.
Check out my recent Google alerts on the word Copyright.
A lot of delusional people who believe that their works are so original and free from influence.
Guess what.
All of our ideas have already been stolen. Because there is no such thing as the genius loner. It’s a myth. We are all social people and our creativity is fuelled by our social environments. Every single day, we take in our surroundings, we set meaningful and important goals and we are always thinking of solutions to problems.
A neuroscientist and a psychologist broke down creativity into three main buckets;
Bending means you take a previous work and re-model it in some way. “The Walking Dead” and “Night Of The Living Dead”.
Blending means merging previous works together so you have multiple melodies and re-cutting it to suit what you want to write. Jimmy Page was great at doing this with Led Zeppelin’s music. Metallica did that with “Sanitarium”.
Breaking is taking a short and important musical idea otherwise known as a musical fragment and building on it. Think of my post on “One Riff To Rule Them All”, which covers the A pedal point riff used in songs like “Two Minutes To Midnight”.
The differences between humans and computers is how we store information and how we retrieve information. For the computer, the riff stored on the hard drive will sound exactly the same three years later, however that same riff stored in our head would be different.
Why.
Our brain breaks it down, blends it and bends it with other information. This massive mash up of ideas in our brains is our creativity. And when we play that riff three years later, it has a different feel, different phrasing or something else. Some of them stink and sometimes we create something that breaks through into society.
A funny thing started to happen when streaming became the main source of income for the labels.
Live albums started to come out.
You see, streaming services like new content. And since bands like to take their time or need to make time to record new original music, they filled the void for new content by releasing live albums.
Suddenly getting new product out yearly instead of every two to three years became the norm. But it still didn’t solve the problem of people not buying albums.
Whitesnake is a band which keeps firing out live recordings year after year. “Made In Japan”, “Made In England”, “Bad To The Bone 84”, “Castle Donnington 90”, “Live In The Heart Of The City” and “The Purple Tour” have been released as stand-alone albums over the last 10 years.
And David Coverdale knows the value of his super fans.
I attended the Five Finger Death Punch and Avenged Sevenfold gig on Tuesday, 25 February 2014 at the Big Top in Luna Park. It was my first time seeing them both live so I didn’t know what to expect.
Each week, the sites that enable copyrights to be infringed innovate at a rapid rate to stay ahead of the curve. They are competing against each other for people to use them to illegally access entertainment.
Read the post to see how these sites innovate. Instead of shutting em down, the labels and movie studios should be employing these people.
I played Nostradamus and looked into my crystal glass full of whiskey in the jar-o to make some predictions.
ON A DOWN SLOPE
DAUGHTRY
The band leader, Chris Daughtry messed up big time chasing the crowds of “Train” and “Imagine Dragons”.
He is a hard rocker from day dot and rock gave him his legion of fans. For the ill-fated and recent “Baptized” album, he committed career suicide, throwing his lot with the hit songwriters.
The songs are good, however they are not Daughtry songs. It would have been better for him as an artist to have given those songs to other artists that are more electronic pop rock minded. That way he would have been the songwriter, the way Bryan Adams gave songs away to other artists that wouldn’t suit the Adams sound back in the 80’s.
HYPE
We can see through the hype and we hate it.
So much hype was around Dream Theater’s self titled release and it disappeared from the conversation within six weeks.
Megadeth’s brand new album “Super Collider” was being outsold by the Black album.
THE ALBUM FORMAT
Making money is hard. Just because a band releases an album, it doesn’t mean that people would pay for it or would want it.
And when we are inundated with product we tune out, however, it turns out we have time for Metallica’s “Black” album. At this point in time it was still moving two to three thousand units a week and it was expected to pass 16 million by May 2014.
GOING GOING – ALMOST GONE
CLASSIC ROCK
Classic Rock bands have another 10 years left.
ON THE UP – STORYTELLING
That is why TV shows are the most downloaded torrents of all time. Tell a good story and the world will be at your door step.
Read the financial reports on Universal Music Group.
Spotify has propped up their bottom line and that bottom line will get better each year for Universal. And they keep spreading the bull shit that they are out there fighting for the artists. The good guys.
Frontiers has become a major player in the classic rock, melodic rock and hard rock scene. They kept the flag of melodic rock flying high since 1996, when all of the other major labels abandoned the style and put their monies into grunge first and then industrial rock/metal and then nu-metal.
And their business model is all about locking up copyrights for a long time.
They have realised it’s not about sales anymore, and while steaming numbers and revenue are still tiny, in the long term the labels will be able to reap the benefits.
Why?
Because streaming is a regular recurring revenue business. And these Copyrights are valuable?
Let’s put it this way, if Metallica is on Spotify, then the rates paid back to the COPYRIGHT HOLDERS (which in this case is Metallica as they do own their Copyright) must be good, because Lars Ulrich and their manager Cliff Burnstein would not allow Metallica to enter a business arrangement that is not in their favour.
And back in 2014, Tool or AC/DC or Def Leppard were not on Spotify. They all are now.
The real truth is that there is much more music out there than there has ever been, so the issues that are present to artist and labels is how do they get people’s attention directed towards that new music.
Personally, I don’t even know anybody who pirates music anymore. There is no reason to pirate and legitimate customers/fans would always turn to legal alternatives.
Add “Recording Sales Revenue” plus “Streaming Revenue” plus “YouTube Ad Revenue” plus “Ticket Revenue” plus “Merchandise Revenue” plus “Corporate Deals Revenue” plus “Sponsorship Revenue” plus “Publishing Revenue” plus “Licensing Revenue” and then decide if you are winning or not.
Again, if you are not seeing a lot of revenue, then you need to be speaking to your label, because if you have numbers in all of the above Revenue streams then something is a-miss contractually.
You know the drill. A new technology comes out and eventually it will start to get some traction. Then the word will spread about and more people would flock to it. It’s new, it’s cool, it’s hip and its innovative. Then when it is at its peak, the people who testified for the new tech, will abandon it, looking for something new and better.
MySpace, Facebook, Twitter are three such platforms that came, peaked and right now are suffering an identity crisis.
MySpace is finished.
Facebook got traction because it connected people in a way that MySpace couldn’t. Now, all of these connected people need to deal with the marketing of products, advertisers, like requests, fake friend requests and spam.
Twitter is well, Twitter. With so many people tweeting or having their tweets connected to their Facebook Posts or their blog posts, everything is getting lost in the mix. When a big news item hits, Twitter is the platform to go to, because people who are directly involved in these big events are the ones that are tweeting.
Spotify has been around for a while now and in the last 3 years it set up base in a number of large music markets like Australia, Canada and of course the US.
The people tried it. Some have stuck to it. Some have abandoned it. The ones that speak out against it have never used it.
Spotify however needs a game changer. Sort of like how the move to APPS changed the iTunes store. And it’s all about the FREE. Fans of music showed the world that they want FREE music to listen to. And don’t say that FREE doesn’t work. How the hell did Free To Air TV exist and grow over the last 60 years.
I am all over the shop when it comes to music. I still purchase product from the bands I like and I stream as well.
And the funny thing is that I don’t use iTunes anymore.
Who would have thought that day would have come?
And that is what Spotify needs to think about it. Once the newness has rubbed off, what’s next. Consolidation. How can you consolidate when the modern paradigm is DISRUPTION?
P.S.
I wrote this in 2014 and since then Spotify has innovated a lot to keep people interested. Putting their lot in with PODCASTS and it looks like they will be moving to Audio Books as well based on a recent survey I undertook with them.
It’s all about stopping copyright infringement. It’s all about shaking down internet users. It’s all about a ridiculous and “out of touch with reality” penalty system. For example, if a user downloads one song, the RIAA have argued that the copyright holders are out of pocket between $20 to $10,000. Seriously.
When discussions are had on Copyright, it’s all about the enforcement. It’s all about creating a monopoly. The ones that sit on the innovation fence are shouted down to from the ones that control/hold the Copyrights.
The thing is, people have been “copyright infringers” since day dot. Anyone that remembers cassette tapes, will tell you how they used to copy songs from recordings onto a cassette tape. James Hetfield used to copy Lars Ulrich’s record collection onto cassettes.
We used to copy songs from the radio onto cassettes. We used to copy movies from TV onto VHS cassettes. Then we got even more creative and hooked up two videos at once to make copies of the latest releases. With the advent of the CD and blank discs, we started making mixed CD’s. When Napster exploded, people flocked to it. Because we had been copyright infringing forever.
It is easy to lay the blame on others. However it is the record labels that need to take responsibility. They still don’t get it. People want FREE music. Spotify provides a service that is free, however it is still seen as restrictive and people still go to other torrent sites to download content. YouTube also provides a service that is free.
And then the recording industry claims that these sites make so much money from running ads on their site. If that is the case, then why isn’t the recording industry offering the same service and making that same money.
They don’t want to, because that would mean they would have spent dollars in Information Technology. And they don’t want to do that.
And most artists have never made a living from royalties. The record labels always have.
Well I hope you enjoyed another wrap up of Destroyerofharmony history?
Released in 1976. This is the cover we know for the album and not the Hipgnosis one which came out on the International release.
This version of AC/DC rocked hard. Bon Scott is on Vocals, The Young Brothers are on all things guitar related, Mark Evans is on bass and Phil Rudd is on the Drums.
Production is handled by The Easybeats main songwriters in George Young (big brother of Angus and Malcolm) and Harry Vanda.
“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” is the third studio album by AC/DC. While it hit the streets in Australia in 1976, it didn’t get a U.S release until 1981.
And that decisions by Atlantic A&R man Doug Morris to release the album proved to be unpopular with the band.
AC/DC had successfully reinvented itself with a new singer, Brian Johnson. The band was working on a new album, which would become “For Those About to Rock We Salute You”, released later that same year.
But Morris saw a financial opportunity to capitalize on the success of “Back in Black” which had already sold over five million copies. And due to those numbers, Morris estimated that “Dirty Deeds” would move at least 2 million.
But it also took away an opportunity for the new album.
“For Those About to Rock” would have sold a lot more if Morris had waited.
So the US release of “Dirty Deeds” was widely seen as damaging the momentum for that album, which it outsold. The band was also forced to add songs from the “Dirty Deeds” album to its set list on its subsequent tour, further taking the focus away from their new album.
But going back to 1976, Atlantic was unhappy with the vocals and the production. This infuriated Malcolm Young because the label was putting shit on his older brother.
Bassist Mark Evans assumed Bon Scott would be fired as a result. The band was on the verge of being dropped.
But “High Voltage” which was also released in the United States in 1976 was still selling and the sales of that album versus what the label paid for it, gave AC/DC a lifeline.
The Young brothers along with Bon Scott were very creative during this period. As was the norm, each year had a new AC/DC album. And they always overwrote for each album.
As a side note a song called “I’m a Rebel” was recorded for this album, with music and lyrics written by Alex Young, another brother of the Young’s. While the song was never released by AC/DC, Accept somehow got their hands on it and released it as a single, and also named their second album after it.
Dirty Deeds
The riff’s simplicity is its magic.
The drum groove was used by Lars Ulrich for the “Enter Sandman” intro.
The lead break is the embryo of the “Thunderstruck”.
And Bon Scott is menacing as he gave us a new phone number to call.
36-24-36.
Love At First Feel
It’s got that Chuck Berry 12 bar blues rock feel, which AC/DC used a lot of. The most notable song being, “Long Way To The Top”.
Press play to hear a very good and underrated Angus Young lead.
And I like how it quietens down after the solo, with the vocal melody of “Love At First Feel” repeated as they build the song back up.
Big Balls
There was a band in Australia called Skyhooks who had this kind of cabaret/stage show delivery in their songs.
Rocker
Well the songs a rocker alright.
It brings back memories of Val Kilmer performing a rockabilly song in the movie “Top Secret”.
Problem Child
A favourite because of the riffs and the vocal delivery. If there is a track to press play on, then this is definitely one of em.
And Angus delivers another underrated lead break.
In concert, Scott would often introduce “Problem Child” as being about Angus.
There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’
The 12 bar blues is back. Bands like Status Quo would build a career on tracks like this.
The rhythm is also very similar to that of “The Seventh Son” by Willie Dixon.
Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round To Be A Millionaire)
It follows more of the same “Long Way To The Top” feel. But press play to hear the Chorus riff, as there’s a chord ringing out and then some arpeggios and single notes.
Ride On
It can be supercharged with other slow blues songs they have done, like “The Jack” and “Night Prowler”
Squealer
How good is the intro on this?
The bass plays a groove that is not typical of AC/DC. It’s almost funky like.
And when Bon Scott moves from his lower register to his higher register, the guitars become more aggressive and the drums get louder.
Angus again wails away on the guitar, delivering a very mature lead. It’s one of my favourite AC/DC cuts and it has been largely forgotten.
This is another track you shouldn’t ignore on this album.
In relation to sales it was a hit in Australia when it came out.
In the US, it was a different story.
Following the American success of “Highway to Hell” in late 1979, copies of the album began to appear as imports in the US.
Some of these were the original Australian edition on Albert Productions; however, Atlantic also pressed the international version in Australia, and many of these were also exported to the US.
Strong demand for both versions (in the wake of the even greater success of Back in Black) led the US division of Atlantic to finally authorize an official US release in March 1981. It went straight to No. 3 on the Billboard album charts.
In relation to sales, 6× Platinum in Australia and the US.
Def Leppard couldn’t continue in the same vein of “Pyromania”, “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize” without a reset. It became a heavy burden to carry on the style of those albums. They either had to change or die.
Truth
I was surprised when the opening musical notes of “Truth” started off, and the distorted “why don’t you tell me” vocal line. It was more in the vein of Brit Alternative Rock/Pop than Blues Heavy Rock.
Check out the exotic sounding lead break. And the demo version of the song sounds more natural and it’s my go to version as the mix is in the heavy rock category that I like.
Turn To Dust
I like the exotic middle eastern sounds on “Turn To Dust” before a groovy Rick Savage bass riff kicks in and the Chorus is classic Def Lep, with the layered vocals.
Slang
“Slang” always felt like an INXS song to me as it’s got that fun pop vibe.
All I Want Is Everything
How good is the repeating lick intro to “All I Want Is Everything”?
Then when the drums and bass come in, it’s got a perfect groove and Joe Elliot’s haunting vocal melody takes it to another level.
This track could have come from a Tom Petty album.
Work It Out
“Work It Out” is Vivian Campbell’s first songwriting contribution and it’s a high point on the album. The song reminds me of the sounds of British bands like Gun who had a brief moment in the spotlight between 1989 and 1995.
The chugging guitar sound was made by running Campbell’s guitar through a drum machine gate.
In the June, 1996, Guitar issue, Campbell said that when “he was in Dio, he wrote some of the music, but writing a song for Dio was basically writing a guitar riff and 32 bars of a guitar solo. That was his world, as Dio would then arrange the pieces as he saw fit.”
Then again legions of fans liked him for that Dio part.
Campbell also mentioned that Def Leppard is not about the long guitar solos. It’s about getting the song right for the record.
Campbell further said that;
“In the 80’s there was more than just doing what was appropriate for the song. There was the plus, you know, that I had to do a solo for a record but also had to advance my career as a guitarist in the eyes of all guitarists.”
Make sure you stick around for the interlude section. It starts off funky, there’s a repeating palm muted guitar lick with ambient noise and then a bone crunching riff.
That’s right people, no guitar solo, but still plenty of guitar melodic licks and riffs played throughout.
Breathe A Sigh
That small fingerpicked intro for “Breathe A Sigh” is excellent. This is Def Leppard going more rhythm and blues with their unmistakable layered harmony vocals in the Chorus.
In a June 1996, Guitar issue, interviewer Rich Maloof mentioned how the hip hop groove is reminiscent of TLC’s “Diggin’ On You”.
Deliver Me
How good is the arpeggio picked guitar riff and the vocal melody from the start in “Deliver Me”?
Gift Of Flesh
And that Chorus is heavy rock with the melodic layered vocals that I expect from Def Lep.
“Gift Of Flesh” has a slamming wah solo by Phil Collen done in one take.
Blood Runs Cold
“Blood Runs Cold” is another classic Def Lep track. The actual version and the “Rough Mix” version are both excellent.
Pearl Of Euphoria
How cool is the New Wave style of guitar on “Pearl Of Euphoria”?
And yes there had to be a song title with a word that ends in “ia”.
The June 1996 Guitar piece from Rich Maloof ends with these words;
As guitarists in a band that found success in a doomed era of rock, Collen and Campbell have adopted the Darwinian notion that survival is dependent on change. The new era is just as doomed, of course, but it speaks well for this pair that they knew to change and had the reserve of talent needed to grow.
As Collen concludes, “We’ve picked up a lot of experience on the way and we found a way to get it out of our system with an album we think is right. To us, that is the biggest thing. We weren’t even slightly worried, and we think anyone who likes us will like it. And hopefully we’ll get some new fans as well.”
Crank “Slang” and enjoy an excellent Def Leppard record.
If you had the albums you didn’t really need this unless you are a serious collector, which the majority of Def Leppard fans are. And if you had no albums from the band, then this is one to purchase as its focus is definitely on the big albums of “Pyromania”, “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize”.
“Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980–1995)” was released on 23 October 1995.
Pour Some Sugar on Me (Historia Video Edit)
From the “Hysteria” album, written by Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage.
The song was treading water in and out of the Top 10 singles charts and 49 weeks after it was released it hit the Number 1 spot. The path to number 1 happened during the European tour. The Strip Clubs of Florida started playing it, then people started requesting it on radio and the song just blew up.
They were done with the album and working on the last song for the album, “Armageddon It”. During a break in the recording, Elliot picked up the acoustic guitar and played the three chords. Lange heard it and liked it. It’s “We Will Rock You” vibe is evident and the Chorus was done first. So they had the big hook and worked backwards from there.
The verses started to have this “Come Together” vocal feel. But they weren’t done, as both Lange and Elliot took small tape recorders and scatted phonetically into. 10 days later the song was completed. The fastest thing they had done for the album.
“Love is like a bomb” okay.
Photograph
From the “Pyromania” album and written by Clark, Elliott, Lange, Savage and Willis.
Collen played the lead break on his Ibanez Destroyer. It was a hybrid hard rock version of AC/DC meets Boston. It had that aggressiveness and the melody.
Love Bites
From the “Hysteria” album, written by Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage. The bulk of the song was courtesy of Mutt Lange. When he played it to the band on acoustic guitar in sounded like a Don Henley cut, as Lange’s voice is very similar.
But as the band kept working on it with Lange, it just kept getting bigger and bigger. The Chorus is huge and press play to hear the melodic guitars there.
Also when the song broke through, the band had to learn it while on tour to add it to its set list. And it was daunting due to the multi-layered harmonies.
Let’s Get Rocked
One of the earliest songs written for the “Adrenalize” album by Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage. Like “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, the Chorus hook was written first and the rest followed after.
Its juvenile and fun and so departed from the “shoe starers” as the Grunge movement was known back then.
Two Steps Behind (Acoustic Version)
Written by Elliott and the song appeared as a B side on one of the “Adrenalize” singles, on the “Retro Active” album and on the “Last Action Hero” soundtrack which was a box office bomb for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The idea for an acoustic song came together after Joe Elliot started jamming with Hothouse Flowers.
Michael Kamen got involved because he wanted to do strings on a Def Leppard cut. So the band sent him all the tracks that they were using on “Retro Active” and nothing really stood out to Kamen.
However one of his assistants heard the song and kept humming the vocal melody. When Kamen asked her what she was humming, she mentioned it’s one of the Def Leppard songs they sent through and Kamen had his “a-ha” moment and his involvement was sealed.
Animal
From the “Hysteria” album written by Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage.
And it was put together so unusually. Joe Elliot sang his vocals to a different backing track and once the vocals were done, Lange took away the music and left the drums and vocals and told Phil and Steve to come up with a new musical track.
Heaven Is
From the “Adrenalize” album and written by Clark, Collen, Elliot, Lange and Savage.
It can be interchanged with a Bryan Adams cut.
Rocket (Visualize video edit)
From the “Hysteria” album written by Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage.
It was actually Joe Elliot that came up the African drum loop.
When Love & Hate Collide
Written by Elliot and Savage. It was originally written for “Adrenalize” circa 1989, however it’s seen as the new song for this album. Elliot was going with a “Love Bites” part 2 vibe and they stopped recording the “Slang” album to get this song finished for the “Vault” album at the request of their label.
And the guys had to get re-acquainted with their past recording methods as their mindsets were on the future and the sounds/production of “Slang”.
The vocal melody also reminds of Peter Cetera and “Glory Of Love”.
Action
The love the band has for Sweet is evident on how well they covered this track for a B side, which also appeared on the “Retro Active” album.
It’s full of energy and you can hear the fun dripping from the speakers.
Make Love Like a Man
From “Adrenalize” and written by Clark, Collen, Elliott and Lange. It’s basically “Pour Some Sugar On Me” part 2.
Armageddon It
From “Hysteria” and written by Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage.
The guitar part was just power chords when the song was first demoed in 84, and then a few years later, Steve Clark started playing a T-Rex inspired riff over the power chord progressions, which inspired Joe Elliot vocally.
And that whole, “gimme all your loving” section was inspired by ZZ Top and the band were always going to change the words, so it didn’t have “gimme all your loving” but it sounded so good that Mutt Lange told em to leave it.
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?
From “Adrenalize” and written by Collen, Elliott and Lange. They had this and “When Love And Hate Collide” and decided to go with this for the album. The majority of the song was written by Collen and Lange with Elliot contributing lyrics.
Rock of Ages
From “Pyromania” and written by Clark, Elliott and Lange.
It was a Steve Clark riff and the original demo had a slower tempo.
Mutt Lange had the song musical structure mapped out. The verses came first but they still didn’t have a Chorus.
A hymn book in the Control Room left behind by a Choir group gave the song its title.
Hysteria
The title track and written by Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange and Savage.
But the main guitar part was from the fingers of Rick Savage. And Joe Elliot didn’t like it, because he thought it sounded too much like “Every Breath You Take” from The Police.
Bringin’ On the Heartbreak
From the “High ‘N’ Dry” album and written by Clark, Elliott and Willis. Still a live staple and one of their signature song. Check it out for the harmony guitars.
Initially it was a demo called “A Certain Heartache”. And when they started working with Mutt Lange, Lange had a tendency to rip songs apart and ask the guys to add new bits. But for this, it didn’t really happen as Lange approved.
5× Platinum in the U.S. Not bad for a Best off compilation. Ka-Ching.
destroyerofharmony 