I guess I’m back in the “New York Groove” today.
So what’s an original riff these days?
One Direction – “Midnight Memories” borrows from Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.
And it borrows from Joan Jett – “I Love Rock N Roll” and it borrows from Ace Frehly – “New York Groove”.
Take a little bit from here and a little bit from there to create something a little bit different.
All good songs and part of my Sunday listening.
Although Pat Benatar was promoted as a solo artist, Benatar had a consistent set of band members, for her career. Guitarist Neil Giraldo (who would become her husband) and drummer Myron Grombacher did time with Rick Derringer’s touring band. Other band members put in decent stints as well throughout the years in original bassist Roger Capps and original rhythm guitarist Scott St Clair Sheets who were involved in writing some of the big songs.
And they all did their time in previous outfits before Benatar, honing their chops and song writing abilities.
In The Heat Of The Night
The debut album released in 1979 and you see, on this album, what A&R reps used to do once upon a time.
Which is to find songs for an artist to record. If that meant taking songs recorded previously and re-doing em, so be it. The only original songs on this album are “My Clone Sleeps Alone”, “So Sincere” and “We Live For Love”.
“Heartbreaker” has a wicked riff and a lead break. Plus one of the best voices in rock music. And it’s a cover. The song appeared originally on the 1978 album “Queen Of Fools” by Jenny Darren, who appeared in the 12th season of Britain’s Got Talent, at the age of 68, singing “Highway To Hell”. Her record label was also a publishing company and they knew they had a song to shop around, and shop it they did.
While John Cougar Mellencamp delivered a 5 minute song, Pat Benatar delivered a concise pop rock song with “I Need A Lover”, which made Mellencamp a lot of money.
Fun fact is that “I Need A Lover” was a hit in Australia first, when it came out in 1978 on John Cougar’s debut album. It was then re-included on his 1979 album with the U.S market in mind. This time the U.S fans took to it and Pat Benatar helped it along with her version.
“In The Heat Of The Night” has this bass and drum groove with palm muted pentatonic lines which got me interested. And Benatar is oozing with sexuality in the vocal delivery. This is a Smokie cover, and they also covered “If You Think You Know How To Love Me” which was a hit for Smokie in the UK, but it did nothing in the U.S, so the label assumed that if it was done by a female vocalist, it would probably cross over in the U.S. But even Benatar’s version of “If You Think You Know How To Love Me”, which was the first single of this album, proved to be unsuccessful in the U.S.
And while the album is produced by Peter Coleman, the Mike Chapman tracks are produced by Mike himself, as he didn’t want anyone else messing with his tracks and the sound of this tracks, hence the title of Dictator Mike.
And both of these Smokie songs are written by Mick Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who had a run of hit singles between the years of 1970 and 1978. And another song that these two dudes wrote for Sweet also appears on the album called “No You Don’t”.
“We Live For Love” has this Blondie New Wave vibe which Neil Giraldo wrote.
“Don’t Let It Show” reminds me of The Beatles and Benatar delivers a soulful lead, while Neil Giraldo delivers a simple and emotive lead break. The song is written by The Alan Parsons Project songwriters in Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
Finally Rated X was a song on a Nick Glider solo album released on Chrysalis. Glider was a glam rocker in a Canadian band called Sweeney Todd. And another fun fact, when Nick Glider left Sweeney Todd to pursue a solo career, he was replaced by an unknown 16 year old called Bryan Adams. And yes, it’s that Bryan Adams.
And with all of this work going on to find songs and what not, it proved successful. The album sold well.
Crimes Of Passion
Released a year later in 1980 and produced by the great Keith Olsen. It also makes the appearance of Myron Grombacher on drums, who would become a mainstay and song writing partner in the Pat Benatar band. Bassist Roger Capps and rhythm guitarist Scott St. Clair Sheets are also there.
“Treat Me Right” is written by a Doug Lubahn (who played bass in The Doors, worked with Billy Squier and Ted Nugent). This song appeared on a “Riff Raff” album, which Lubahn was the bassist and vocalist and it kicks off Benatar’s album, with an arena rock Chorus.
“You Better Run” is a cover of “The Young Rascals”, a song they released in 1966. Benatar and Giraldo gave it a new life in 1980. “Never Wanna Leave You” is a Giraldo and Benatar cut with a reggae feel and a new wave type of vocal. But its sandwiched between four great tracks.
“Hit Me With Your Best Shot” is written by Eddie Schwartz, a Canadian solo artist and song writer who had some hits with Benatar, Paul Carrick and The Doobie Brothers in the 80’s plus he wrote tracks that ended up on Honeymoon Suite, Helix, Meat Loaf and Joe Cocker albums. The riff reminds me of “Since You’ve Been Gone”.
“Hell Is For Children” is a great title to get people thinking. Giraldo, Benatar and bassist Roger Capps went with the heavy theme of child abuse on this song. And it feels weird to write that it is a great song because of the theme. But it is. It’s been covered by a lot of metal and rock acts.
Billy Steinberg is on hand to write “I’m Gonna Follow You”. Steinberg is a few years away from teaming up with Tom Kelly and writing “Like A Virgin”, “True Colors”, “Alone” and “I’ll Stand By You”.
Then there is a Kate Bush cover of “Wuthering Heights”. I didn’t like the original so this one didn’t do anything for me.
“Prisoner Of Love” is written by bassist Scott St. Clair Sheets. It’s got this John Cougar Mellencamp Americana theme .
“Out-A-Touch” is a Giraldo, Benatar and Myron Grombacher cut. The first of many to come.
And like the debut, all the hard work to find songs to cover has paid off, as this album sold better than the debut. 4 million plus U.S sales and one of Benatar’s most streamed songs. Keith Olsen has the Midas touch.
Precious Time
For all of these out of touch and clueless musicians who whinge about releasing music too frequently, here is Pat Benatar releasing an album each year. This one came out in 1981, produced by Keith Olsen and Neil Giraldo.
“Promises in the Dark” is written by Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar. It kicks off the album and when it starts to rock, how good is Giraldo on the guitar. That dude has gotten a lot of riff based songs onto the mainstream charts.
“Fire and Ice” is written by Tom Kelly (yes, the Tom Kelly that would go on and write with Bill Steinberg who also wrote a song for Benatar on the previous album and on this album called “Precious Time”), Scott St. Clair Sheets and Benatar. It’s like all of these song writers connected over a Pat Benatar album.
The drums kick it off, then the guitars and bass come in. And then then sultry vocal line from Benatar kicks in. And you’re thinking the song can’t get any better, but it does in the Chorus.
“Just Like Me” is a cover of a 60’s song by Paul Revere And The Raiders. Wikipedia tells me that the tune was written by Rick Dey and Rich Brown of the Longview-based band, The Wilde Knights. The Raiders manager Roger Hart then paid them $5,000 for the use of the song and this fee would give Roger Hart a song writing credit. But he didn’t write anything.
“Precious Time” is a Billy Steinberg composition.
The reggae influenced “It’s a Tuff Life” is written by Giraldo. And in the Chorus it moves into a New Wave Rock Chorus.
“Take It Anyway You Want It” is another cut written by Giraldo with the help of a Martin Briley who also wrote songs for Night Ranger, Michael Monroe, Michael Bolton and Jeff Healey, just to name a few. “Evil Genius” is a Giraldo, Benatar cut.
“Hard to Believe” is written by Giraldo and Myron Grombacher. And those major key chord voicings hook me in as it reminds me of songs like “I Need A Lover”.
“Helter Skelter” is written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I’m a fan of the song, so I enjoy the various cover versions. Motley Crue did a killer version and so did U2. And those blues boogie riffs from Lennon and Harrison, Giraldo and Sheets cover em brilliantly.
Get Nervous
Released in 1982. This one is produced by Neil Giraldo and the producer from their first album, Peter Coleman.
Rhythm guitarist Scott St. Clair Sheets left and was replaced by keyboardist Charlie Giordano who ended up playing in “The E Street Band” after the death of original organist Danny Federici in 2008. St Clair left to focus on his own musical projects. One of the projects, a glam metal band called John Scott, finally got a deal in the early 90’s and then lost it when Grunge took over.
Sheets also formed a band in 1990’s called St Clair, and their self-titled debut album had Rudy Sarzo on bass and Jimmy Crespo on guitar with Ron Corbett on vocals.
“Shadows Of The Night” sounds like it influenced a young Jon Bon Jovi or Desmond Child, because god damn, it sounds like “Edge Of A Broken Heart” was born from it. The track is written by a person called D.L. Byron who also brought a case of Copyright Infringement against Rascal Flatts and their song “No Reins” for sounding very similar to “Shadows Of The Night”
Now we start the Giraldo and Billy Steinberg cuts to close of side one.
“Anxiety (Get Nervous)” has this staccato palm muted riff from Giraldo that Jake E Lee would use in songs like “Waiting For Darkness”. “Fight It Out” moves between piano ballad and power rock with Benatar’s voice carrying it. “The Victim” is a rock tour-de-force.
“Little Too Late” is written by Alex Call, who performed it in a band called Clover between the years of 1970 and 1979, which also had members like Huey Lewis and Jeff Porcaro in the band and they did work with a certain Mutt Lange in the 70’s.
Everyone is paying their dues.
“I’ll Do It” is a Giraldo and Benatar cut with a hooky and jangly guitar riff and melody. “I Want Out” has this “Flash” Queen vibe and it’s another cut written by Giraldo and Steinberg.
And I love the little connections and stories to different artists that Benatar and Co, introduced via the songs they selected to include on the album.
I don’t have the “Live From Earth” album (which was released in 1983) but it needs to be mentioned here, because it includes a studio track called “Love Is A Battlefield” which has 62 million plus streams on Spotify.
Tropico
Released in 1984.
Another change in the band department, with original bassist Roger Capps leaving and Donnie Nossov (who played with Jon Waite) replacing him. And it’s the album which sees Neil Giraldo take the reins of song writing, co-writing 8 out of the 10 tracks.
It wasn’t as loud as the previous efforts, more Madonna”ish and Cyndi Lauper ”ish. It was full of midi samples. And probably the album I don’t go back to even though it had “We Belong”.
Seven The Hard Way
A 1985 release and in seven years, Pat Benatar released an album each year. All in the aim to get her name and music out there. Artists seem to forget this cycle nowadays.
Once upon a time, artists had an album released, year after year. The labels cannibalised their sales of older product with new product. As a by-product, the artists built up careers.
Ronnie James Dio always comes to mind. From the first Rainbow album, to Black Sabbath and to the Dio “Sacred Heart” album, Dio had released album after album, each year. And people wonder why he was playing in arenas. You need to strike while you are hot, because it disappears quickly. More so today than ever before.
According to Benatar, “Seven the Hard Way” cost the most to make and sold the least. It’s also the last Pat Benatar album to feature bassist Donnie Nossov, who along with drummer Myron Grombacher went on to play with Lita Ford on her breakthrough album, Lita (1988) and on the supporting tour. However, Grombacher would return to Benatar’s band for the follow-up album.
And it’s not an album I go back to.
Wide Away In Dreamland
Three years between albums, this one was released in 1988.
One song.
“All Fired Up”.
It was huge in Australia.
Massive.
The music sounded like it came from the Aussie Pubs and it resonated quickly with Australian audiences. And I was curious as to how this Aussie Pub sound made its way to Pat Benatar. Looking at the credits, the song is written by Kerryn Tolhurst. Back then, that meant nothing to me, because I didn’t have an easy way to research things. But fast forward many years, later, and I find out that Kerryn Tolhurst is Australian, who was in an Australian country rock band called “The Dingoes”. When that band broke up, he formed a few others, and “Rattling Sabres” is the band that recorded and released “All Fired Up” in 1987.
And it did nothing in Australia.
Zero.
A year later, with Benatar and Giraldo taking the reins on it, the song got a new lease of life.
Choice Cuts DVD
A DVD which more or less covers the huge music video career of Benatar.
It’s possible that your job is to make music. Or your job is something you do to get by in life and your real passion is music.
If that’s what you do, what would it mean to you to write more music and release it frequently?
Where would that put you in a year?
Is that more of a hassle or less of a hassle?
Is the drama worth it or not worth it?
Every person in the workforce asks themselves, how can we do our work better.
If you write music for a living, what would happen if you had the same mindset. How can you write better songs?
And the definition of better is yours to define.
Not the record labels, the manager or the public. It’s your definition. Define it and get cranking.
Winning streaks don’t last forever. It doesn’t happen in sport and it doesn’t happen in music either. Artists might have a commercial come back in between.
Aerosmith did it.
They had success in the 70’s, then barely survived their addictions by the end of that decade. In the early 80’s no one cared about em and when MTV started to rule culture, Aerosmith was absent until the Run DMC collaboration and then “Permanent Vacation” gave them another winning title. And this kept rolling with “Pump”, “Get A Grip” and “Nine Lives”. Another decade on top between 1987 and 1997 and then it started to dissipate again.
The draw they had in the live arena didn’t translate to high sales of their newer material. And like evert artist who had public acceptance of their music in the record label gatekeeper model, they didn’t know where they fitted in, post Napster. So they withheld their new music for a long time, until they released it (the “Music From Another Dimension” album in 2012) and no one cared about it, to talk or write about it.
But they did enough in their revivals to have a 50 year career in the music business.
Twisted Sister battled hard to get a record deal and make it. They finally got to the top with “Stay Hungry” and their cultural MTV anthems, only to disappear three years later in 1987, to resurface again almost 15 years later in 2002.
So the line from one spot to a better spot is rarely straight. It has its ups and downs and arcs. Even the hard work and the slog doesn’t last forever. Because every day you will be faced with opportunities, which are more or less problems that need to be solved. And you will have a choice, do nothing or to work through the problem.
Imagine if bands like Ratt, Dokken, White Lion and Skid Row worked through their problems instead of breaking up.
What would they be like today?
Because moving on and working towards something better is a habit and if you don’t have that habit, you might miss the chance that appears.
Dee Snider once said “nothing lasts forever”. You are on top today and forgotten the next. The news cycle is so fast that no one even remembers what happened last week.
And I’m constantly in a state of learning. I like to read and learn new things. I like to acquire new skills. More so now than ever before.
I’ve always told everyone that Maiden made me want to learn, because of their songs. And I always got blank stares when I said that.
So I started to explain.
I read the Bible because of “Revelations” and “Number Of the Beast”.
I researched “Alexander The Great” because of the song. I read the poem of the Ancient Mariner because of them and the story of the “Phantom Of The Opera” and the mythology of the “Flight Of Icarus”.
I got an A when we studied Ancient Egypt because “Powerslave” made me interested in that era. I read up on the Battle Of Britain because of “Aces High”. I got to understand the Doomsday Clock and what it actually meant to forecast “Two Minutes To Midnight”.
“Mother Russia” got me reading up on the Tsars. “The Trooper” got me reading up on the “Crimean War” and “Where Eagles Dare” got me interested in World War II again, hence the reason why I kept getting A’s in history. Plus let’s not forget Churchill’s speech which is used to great effect in “Live After Death”. As I type this I’m hearing “we will never surrender” as the band launches into “Aces High”.
“Genghis Khan” was an unknown name back then so I had to check it out and I had to look up the meaning for “Purgatory”.
And the covers. I stared at em for long periods of time and tried to draw em myself. Another source of learning a new skill. Same deal with the logo.
That band was huge in getting me curious.
And I see that same sense of learning happening with my children today. From the TV shows and movies they’ve watched, they have built their own LEGO creations, wrote their own stories and filmed their own stop motion movies.
Be influenced and never stop learning.
I’ve been following a site called “Stream N Destroy” for a while now and I dig these emails, full of numbers about stream counts, YouTube views and sales for artists in the metal and rock genre. I subscribe to the free tier and of course there is a paid tier which goes even more in depth.
So in the current email, which can be found here, there is a mention of VOLBEAT and how their 2013 album “Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies“ is certified Gold.
And that’s important to note, because he music from artists used to take a while to break through. Black Sabbath didn’t set the world on fire with sales of their 70’s albums.
“Ride The Lightning” from Metallica took two years to get a Gold certification while “Kill Em All” took six years to get a Gold certification.
For Volbeat, this is a 7 year case.
And it doesn’t look like they will disappear anytime soon. Their 2012 album, “Beyond Hell, Above Heaven” was certified Gold in 2016, 4 years since its release. Their streaming numbers are high, although Queen takes the trophy this week, with 15.9 million streams of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Not bad for a track released in 1975.
Their current album, is still selling, it’s up to 45,500 sales in the U.S. It’s anaemic compared to the past, but then again, how many of the past artists that had big sales in the 80’s are still around and selling these kind of numbers today. Hell, the 80s artists couldn’t even get these numbers in the 90’s.
Their song “Leviathan” is also in the Billboard charts.
People are still interested in the band.
It’s a longer road than before, but it’s a road still worth taking. You just need to be patient and you will need to have another line of income to pay the bills. For a lot of artists, this was the road, but that will change.
The labels don’t like it because they got used to making a quick buck, especially when MTV turned culture into a monoculture, the labels wanted every release to be an instant pay day.
And when it wasn’t, heads rolled.
Artists would get dropped and A&R department heads would also disappear. Because the labels didn’t want to waste time on artist development. And today, that is even more prevalent.
In relation to the weekly streams, while Queen is on top of the world, “Thunderstruck” from AC/DC is sitting at 11.8 million streams for the week.
And what I took out of it all, is that the big streaming songs (apart from some Five Finger Death Punch, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed) are all pre 2006, with “Stairway To Heaven” the oldest track at 1971.
Music lives on for a long time, hence the reason why the labels wanted Copyright terms to last 70 years after the creators death. And that same rule that they wanted is also getting em undone in court cases from the heirs of the artists.
Keep creating because you’ll never know when it’s time for your creation to take over the world.
Robb Flynn from Machine Head was interviewing Matt Heafy from Trivium, on his podcast “No F Regrets”.
Heafy comes across super on a podcast; well-spoken and very articulate. He spoke about his love of black metal, his military father who was the bands manager at the start, and the crap that Trivium copped from the metal press and the metal bands they supported because of the way Heafy sang, especially after “The Crusade” album, when Heafy sounded better than Hetfield ever did.
Bullying was used a lot by Heafy and a mention was made, how at one of the Ozzfests they were the outcasts (and eventually Maiden would be as well, because they played better than the headline act), hated by all the bands on the bills.
And it didn’t help Trivium when people involved with their show, said negative crap to the other artists, which more or less stained the band without them knowing why.
It was the same Ozzfest when Maiden played before Ozzy and the fans gravitated towards the Maiden show a lot more than the Ozzy show, so it was no surprise that Maiden suddenly had sound problems during their sets, then they had the sound completely cut, until it got a stage that Maiden had to leave the Ozzfest tour because of this.
And they would take Trivium out on tour with them after this.
The bullying in metal circles really goes against the metal ethos of the early 80’s, when the metalheads stood together against this kind of behaviour.
Some artists might crumble, argue and give up. But not Trivium. They showed resilience.
Resilience comes from experience. Mental toughness comes from experience.
You can read all the books you want and have a toolbox of routines in place, but to become resilient and to become mentally tough, you need to live it, breathe it and experience it.
Only then, you can apply any of the mental tough routines from your toolbox like box to box breathing and flipping the negatives to understand the why.
Covering 1977, 1985 and 2000 releases at the same time, I’ve understood what the term lifer means. There is no safety net, no plan B. It’s music and music only.
In the 1977 reviews there was Michael Schenker and UFO. And here he is again in the 2000’s. In between he’s had it all, lost it all, started to regain it and then got ripped off by ex-partners and managers and family members.
But he’s still here.
UFO – Covenant
Michael Schenker returned, Schenker left, Schenker returned, Schenker left and Schenker returned again. This is UFO without the Chorus hooks from the past, but then again, I never saw UFO as a band who sat around to write big choruses. They just wrote songs for an album. On occasions, fans would make some of those songs big.
This album has a stellar band, in Phil Mogg on vocals, Pete Way on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and Michael Schenker on guitar.
“Love Is Forever” kicks it off, written by Schenker and Phil Mogg. And immediately I am hooked, because the guitar playing of Schenker is in good form.
The second track, “Unraveled” is written by Pete Way and Mogg, but it’s how Schenker plays that riff, which captures me.
All of the other cuts are written by Schenker and Mogg. “Miss the Lights” has a finger plucked octave melodic riff and that section after the solo, it’s only for 20 seconds but its Schenker at his best, playing melodic palm muted arpeggios.
“Midnight Train” has a stomping E minor riff from Schenker and Mogg puts on his Bob Seger hat to deliver a vocal line which stands as one of my favourites.
“Fool’s Gold” shows Schenker’s classical and blues approach in a ballad sense. His chord voicings are classical in nature, but his solo is blues based.
“The Smell of Money” has more of Schenker’s unique playing style. “Cowboy Joe” is such a wrong title for an intro riff that sounds as heavy as “Unholy”. But the song moves between major and minor.
Michael Schenker was also busy as a solo artist. “Michael Schenker – Adventures Of The Imagination” is an instrumental album by Schenker and “Michael Schenker – The Odd Trio” is Michael Schenker playing all the instruments. He created pseudonyms for the bass and drums, known as Harry Cobham and Kathy Brown respectively.
I remember hearing em and moving on.
Poison – Crack A Smile And More
Poison – Power To The People
Poison is an interesting case.
On the backs of MTV and their blend of punk, pop, country and hard rock, they had platinum success for the first three albums.
Then CC left or was fired.
Richie Kotzen came in and the serious “Native Tongue” came out in a climate dominated by grunge artists. But this album wasn’t a glam rock album like the ones before. It was a blues rock album, a shining light in a cacophony of noise on the charts. It was different and the label wanted sales, like before, and the MKII version didn’t last long because Kotzen couldn’t keep his hands off a band members partner. Then again, true love is true love and they are still together.
Then I read that Blues Saraceno was hired for the guitar slot. And I was interested to hear what kind of Poison we will get with Saraceno, because he was doing guitar instructional articles in the various Guitar Mags and this guy knew his stuff, and his instructional articles covered so many different styles. But time went on and on and that album with Saraceno just kept getting delayed. We got a couple tracks on a Greatest Hits album, then CC came back in and they dropped two albums.
“Crack a Smile” began in 1994.
In between there was a motor vehicle accident involving Bret Michaels and a long recovery. Then Capitol Records had lost interest in a new album and wanted to cash in on a “Greatest Hits” album, which was released in 1996.
But the fans wanted it and bootleggers were selling it for a lot, so Capital Records, being astute to see dollars as a label does, released it with additional live tracks and “Face The Hangman” a demo from “Open Up And Say Ahh”.
“Be the One” at track 5 got me interested. It’s one of those bluesy power ballads that Poison do so well. “Sexual Thing” at track 7 is classic Poison, with some killer pedal point riffing from Saraceno. “Lay Your Body Down” is a carbon copy of “Something To Believe In”.
Track 10, “That’s the Way I Like It” sums up my feelings towards the song and Bret Michaels is in full form here, telling the world, that he likes it when a girl goes down on him. “Set It Free” is a bonus track and it’s better than the other tracks, while “Face The Hangman” the outtake from “Open And Say Ahh” is a classic rock track, a bluesy romp.
But I could hear why the label went cold to a new album.
But.
“Power to the People” sees the return of MK1, with five new studio cuts and 12 live tracks from their successful “Greatest Hits” reunion tour.
The title track might have sounds of the Nu Metal movement and some fast spoken verses but its typical Poison, led by a killer riff and a cool balls to the wall vocal line. Plus “the People” in this case is the Poison fan base.
“Can’t Bring Me Down” sounds like “Sweet Home Alabama” with a new sound. And after two songs, CC demonstrates why he works so well with Poison. His riffing is different, accessible and his leads with those little interlude leads between Choruses and Verses are melodic or bluesy in a simple way that it works.
“The Last Song” is probably one of their best songs and no one knows it. The intro lead break from CC is enough to get me interested. Meanwhile “Strange” has this octave melodic riff that CC plays which catches me.
“I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine (with C.C. DeVille on lead vocals) closes off the new studio tracks with probably one of the best “longest titles” that didn’t come from a Meatloaf album. And CC has this punk style voice that reminds me of Hanoi Rocks and their singer Michael Monroe.
And into the time machine for a stop in 1985.
I’ve been doing these yearly revision posts on and off for the last four years. Basically when I’ve felt like it.
I started with 1980, as that was a pivotal year when it all began for me. And then I went forward and back at the same time. I did a post for 1981, and then a post for 1979. Then a post for 1982 and a post for 1978.
Currently I am up to 1985 and 1977 for those eras. They are in a various states of drafts and on hold for a little bit because I get excited about other posts and it felt like I was just writing about the same bands (like AC/DC, who had releases on both sides of the 80’s and 70’s).
So I wanted to start up another year and work my way forward on that one.
Plus other bloggers who I follow have also been summarizing various years from their own personal experiences.
So a few days ago, I had a vision and in my madness I decided to also kick off a 2000 series.
So there will be a 2000, 1985 and 1977 series running in parallel.
Then there will be a 2001, 1986 and 1976.
But when I started to write the 2000 post, the world has a funny way to show me, that I’m still writing about the same bands I was writing about in the 80’s with a few additions here and there.
So h is Part 1 of 2000.
Bon Jovi – Crush
“It’s My Life” was everywhere. The single got a lot of traction in Australia. It was on radio, on the music TV stations and the various CD single editions were selling out quickly.
The resurrection of Bon Jovi was complete after a pretty relaxed period between 1996 and 1999. Then again, Sambora and Jovi did release solo albums in between and toured, so maybe it wasn’t so relaxed.
Songsmith Max Martin got a co-write, however it’s hard to know what he actually did because Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora didn’t use him again. Also just ask Steven Tyler, how much song writing some of the outside writers did. Holly Knight got a writing credit for “Rag Doll”, and all she did was come up with the song title. Thanks Deke for that one.
And although I like the derivative sounding “It’s My Life”, my favourites (like most of the Bon Jovi albums) are more of the deeper cuts, like “Just Older”, “Two Story Town”, “Mystery Train”, the six plus minutes of “Next 100 Years”, the laidback feel of “She’s A Mystery” and probably the best live song they have written in “Old Wild Night”, which gets no love these days but it should.
Disturbed – The Sickness
There was a sticker on the CD, which had a quote from “Ozzy” calling Disturbed “the future of Heavy Metal”. I don’t know if Ozzy actually said that, but it was a cool bit of marketing, because I bit and handed over $20.
The thing that got me from the start, is the staccato vocals from David Draiman, which was so different from the 80’s type of singers I was used to plus it helped that the music was pretty cool as well. And I kept listening, became a fan, seen em live on two occasions and today, I hold David Draiman in some unique company of metal voices and Disturbed as one of my favourite acts.
And this album really put em on the map. In the U.S alone (and if you like to use the RIAA sales metric as a gauge for success) then 9 million is the number so far.
For me, the cross between groove metal and heavy metal and that thing people called Nu-Metal is excellent and it got me out of a rut.
“Voices” talks about some freaky shit, and that vocal delivery from Draiman was so unique it captured me. Then “The Game” starts off with the NIN style of electronics, and when the guitar riff comes in, its heavy metal all the way.
“Stupify” has this guitar riff that takes the style of Korn and guitarist Dan Donegan has this ability to make it sound like a metal riff.
And his ability to take influences from what was current like NIN, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Tool and put it into his metal influenced blender, that’s the magic brew of Disturbed. By the way check out the section from about 2.52 for a breakdown.
“Numb” is taking the moodiness of Tool and making it accessible in a 4 minute song. “Shout 2000” gives an old 80’s song a new lease of life and the title track “Down With The Sickness” is that song in the concert when the musician looks at the sea of faces jumping up and down and head banging, like an ocean swell about to hit the stage.
Fates Warning – Disconnected
I was always on the fence with Fates Warning. My cousin Mega loved em and he had all of their albums. But for me, I just taped the songs I liked from those albums and never really got into a whole album.
But this album changed all of that. As soon as the first ringing guitar notes started which to my ears mimicked a warning siren, I was hooked.
For me, it feels like a perfect blend of what was current, like Tool and Porcupine Tree and a nod to what Dream Theater was creating (they even have Kevin Moore guesting on keyboards) and it’s all surrounded by a hard rock progressive feel.
Also while the earlier albums showed guitarist Jim Matheos evolving with each release from raw NWOBHM, to Power Metal, to technical thrash metal, to Queensryche style rock to atmospheric progressive rock and on this one, he is digging deep into his well and bringing out everything he knows into well-structured songs and a cohesive album.
And the album is ignored by the masses.
But not by me.
“Disconnected, Pt 1” kicks it off with its ominous warning siren guitar bends. And the synth keys make it sound even more dystopian. Then again, if you look at the cover of the album, its people in gas masks under an orange sky. For me, it’s like our Australian summer, which had orange and red skies, and our air quality was crap, for a very long time.
“One” blasts out of the gates with its Porcupine Tree/Tool influenced riff.
“So” is groove heavy, with a hint of a Tool influence, but Jim Matheos makes it sound metal. When it quietens down in the verses, it just reminds me of the song “Black Sabbath”. The bridge section from about 4.30 also quietens down and then that Tool like groove from 5.50 hits you like a sledgehammer. “Pieces Of Me” is a derivative version of “One”, with small changes here and there to make it stand on its own.
And the two big bookends.
“Something For Nothing” and “Still Remains”. They are quality, as a melancholic and atmospheric groove leads the way. It’s progressive and it doesn’t have or need a thousand notes per second nor complex time signatures pieced together and added like fractions. On both songs, it’s a feel and a groove which lays the foundation and the songs keep building from there.
The album closes with “Disconnected, Pt 2”, with the guitar warning siren bends and some nice keys.
Iron Maiden – Brave New World
There was “The Ed Hunter Tour” of 1999, which announced the latest and upgraded hardware version of Iron Maiden from 5.0 to 6.0. And it’s been the same line up since.
And no one really knew how this 6.0 upgrade would go with new music. But they delivered.
Each song has a section which makes it connect.
From the opening Em chord of “The Wicker Man”, the song is full of the things that make Maiden great, like the repeating chorus line of “your time will come” and the singalong “woh-oh-oh” in the outro which is then followed by harmony guitars.
And I like the “Fear Of The Dark” section between 5.00 and 5.42 in “Ghost Of The Navigator” and the harmony solos in “Brave New World”.
“Blood Brothers” is a classic Maiden song, driven by an awesome bass riff, synth strings, harmony guitars (especially that harmony section from 3.29 to 3.57 and again from 4.22 to 6.20) and a vocal performance from Bruce Dickinson to rival his 80’s output. It feels like only a few singers could pull off repeating the same chorus line over and over again and make it sound unique. Dio comes to mind, Dee Snider as well and Bruce Dickinson.
“The Mercenary” has a head banging intro to rival the “Two Minutes To Midnight” intro. And that Chorus, when Bruce starts to sing “Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run”. Brilliant. “Dream Of Mirrors” and that “Phantom Of The Opera” intro. But when it quietens down and it’s just the bass rumbling along, with the closed high hats and a clean tone guitar melodic lick. That’s when the hairs on the back of my neck rise up. And by the end of it, I’m also dreaming in black and white because Bruce repeats it so many times, you get hypnotized. Also listen to when Bruce sings woh – oh from the 7.20 minute mark.
“The Fallen Angel” with its “Wrathchild” style intro. Then that open string pull of lick in the Chorus. The intro in “The Nomad” which is also the Chorus riff and then that epic sounding exotic/barbarian/viking like lead from about the 4 minute mark. The intro to “Out Of The Silent Planet”.
Version 6.0 was off to the good start and the “Rock In Rio” DVD put any doubt to rest.
Everclear – Songs From An American Movie, Vol 1: Learning How To Smile
This is another album that got my attention.
The song “Wonderful” was all over the charts in Australia, and I suppose that “Star Wars” poster on the bedroom door lyric got me to bite. And the album is excellent. Again, it came at a perfect time to get me out of a rut, musically. It was different and removed from the 80’s and 70’s music I was so into. Then again, I was still overdosing on Maiden, but that’s another story.
“Here We Go Again” has these jazzy 7th style chords played in a pattern like “I Love Rock N Roll” in the verses, and it got me interested straight away. And there is a horn section which reminded me of “Tangled In The Web” from Lynch Mob. And that bridge section about sitting on a mattress in the corner and eating Chinese food. Its conversationlist and I like it.
“AM Radio” has a lot of great lyrics about the 70’s and listening to that AM Radio or just laying in bed with the radio on and listening to it all night long.
The VCR and the DVD
There wasn’t none of that crap back in 1970
We didn’t know about a World Wide Web
It was a whole different game being played back when I was a kid
Even if you weren’t born then, you already get a picture in your head of some of the technology that wasn’t around.
Flashback, ’72
Another summer in the neighbourhood
Hangin’ out with nothing to do
Even in the 80’s, we had days like these with nothing to do. It changed in the 90’s when parents had an agenda of things their kids had to do or achieve or attend.
Cruisin’ with the windows rolled down
We’d listen to the radio station
Damn right.
I remember 1977
I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin
I got a guitar on Christmas day
I dreamed that Jimmy Page would come from Santa Monica
and teach me to play
There is always a defining “aha” moment, which sets of the correct adrenaline kick.
I like pop, I like soul, I like rock, but I never liked disco
Not many who liked pop, soul and rock liked disco. Remember Bob Seger and his old time rock and roll to soothe the soul.
“Learning How To Smile” is my favorite track on the album.
Five miles outside of Vegas when we broke down
Threw my keys inside the window and we never looked back
Got all drunk and sloppy on a Greyhound bus
We passed out, all them losers they were laughing at us
Youthful enthusiasm, leave the past behind (the car) and move forward to something new. The oldsters would have organised a tow truck to retrieve the car and then spend money to fix it, because every possession was precious. Tell that to the throwaway generation, who upgrade their Tech yearly or bi-yearly.
We got lost in Phoenix, seemed like such a long time
Seven months of livin’ swimming on those thin white lines
Did some time for sellin’ acid to the wrong guy
Life just keeps on gettin’ smaller and we never ask why
Taking and selling drugs and doing what they could to get by, with no safety net.
Why there is no perfect place, yes I know this is true
I’m just learning how to smile
That’s not easy to do
Life is not all sunshine and a bed of roses. And the more older we get, the harder it is to smile sometimes, even though you want to smile.
We was broke outside of Philly when the storms came
I was working in New Jersey, hitchin’ rides in the rain
You was happy talkin’ dirty at that phone sex place
Life just keeps on gettin’ weirder for us every day
Tommy and Gina have nothing on Art and his girl.
We can leave it all behind like we do every time
Yes we both live for the day
When we can leave and just go runnin’ away
Escapism. I remember when I first got my car license. I felt a freedom, I’d never felt before.
Five miles outside of Vegas, five years down the line
We got married in the desert and the sunshine
Through all the ups and downs, I guess they learned how to smile.
And to close off the album, “Thrift Store Chair” has this acoustic 70’s feel, which reminds me of Bad Company and “Wonderful” kicks off with a simple drum groove, and then the piano which outlines the chords. And the song just keeps on building.
Well 2000 is officially kicked off. Now I’m going back in time to 1985. And then 1977. And then back to 2000, in ludicrous speed.
I probably own all the hard rock albums Bob Rock has been involved in from a production stand point, mixer and engineer from Loverboy and onwards. And this podcast is brilliant. Bob Rock gives so much information and there are so many takeaways from it.
Currently
He’s sitting on two albums already done, one with Richie Sambora and Offspring. And it looks like the albums will not come out until next year.
To me, the reason why the albums are being held is because the focus is still on sales.
But the time is now.
It’s all about people listening. Not sales.
I read that “The Last Dance” was scheduled for a different release window, but Netflix saw the opportunity to release it during the no sports period of COVID-19 and it hit our screens exaclty then, giving the people their fix of sports and re-creating Jordan as a modern day superstar. It’s like he just finished playing and it’s being over 22 years.
Life
As soon as budgets for recording sessions went super low, labels and artists stopped using mega studios. Hence he has a dormant mega studio at home. And he uses Bryan Adams studio, in Vancouver to record with artists.
He got into music for the love of making records. And even though budgets are smaller he still wants to make records, so he chooses who he wants to work with and he’s okay with a smaller budget.
He’s 66 now and he’s been together with his wife for 35 years, which is huge when it comes to the music business.
But the best advice he gave is;
Mixing is a perspective. The way the Mixer mixes is their perspective on how music sounds.
That’s brilliant, because so many people chase sounds developed by others and Bob Rock is creating sounds on how he thinks it should sound.He’s A Musician First
Even though he is known as a producer he was a musician first. So he still writes tracks with drums, keys, bass and a scratch guitar. He co-wrote 8 songs on the new Richie Sambora album.
He’s a collector of vintage gear. He collected all the amps and pedals that Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Dave Gilmour used. And he was trying to re-create the Led Zep 1 guitar sound and he found out on the internet he was missing one small effect, which he had, and once he plugged it in, he got the sound.
And he felt like a kid.
He has a warehouse full of amps, keyboards and guitars/bass.
He had a lot of singles because albums were expensive. So he was exposed to different artists, different productions, different styles.
Put Yourself Out There
With one of his first proper bands, they worked jobs, saved money and then they all went to England to make it. That lasted six months before they came home with nothing to show.
His parents were not even happy about their sons choice of careers. And after he came home, he got a normal job again. And it was at one of those jobs, he heard an ad on the radio, to learn basic engineering.
So he went to Vancouver with funds supplied from his parents and the guy who was teaching the course offered Rock a job at Little Mountain Recording Studios.
He got the job because he wasn’t scared to make a mistake. And this opportunity started his entire career.
So the lesson here is to persevere, PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE and don’t be sacred to fail.
Punk Music Opened Doors
Punk made it easy for bands to play clubs and make records, because before punk, the musicians had to be of a certain standard, (just think of Steely Dan, The Eagles, Little Feat, Styx and even Toto). Then punk comes around and three chord songs are getting studio time and club time.
Punk music opened up these doors.
And Bob Rock said, punk music allowed him to make records. The first song he wrote, he got an album deal. The Payola$ and REM got signed on the same week.
The Payola$ name was a poke at the payola scandal where the labels and the radio stations tried to fix the charts.
Find The Home Of The Song
He worked with guitarist Mick Ronson from David Bowie. Ronson produced two Payola$ albums.
Ronson taught Rock the lesson, that you don’t need to re-record everything. Sometimes the demo could have enough in it and a few overdubs could finish it off.
Another lesson Ronson taught Rock is about finding a home of the song and doing it right. In “Sad But True” Rock told Metallica, you have a song here and he was hearing “When The Levee Breaks” but the tempo was too fast on the demo. He told Metallica to slow it down and they found the songs home and the world got a groove metal behemoth. Lyrically I’m not a fan of “Sad But True”, but musically its bone crunching to play.
Bruce Fairbairn
Bruce Fairbairn liked to have demos or do pre-production before he got the artist into the studio. And he kept a tight schedule, pushing artists hard to get a lot of out em within the schedule.
Metallica
So coming into the “Black” album, Metallica never played in the studio together but he got em to do it for the “Black” album which Rock calls the “pocket” album.
Pre-Production for the “Black” album took 2 weeks and it took 15 months to record the album. But originally, he was hired to mix the album, because the guys liked the sound/sonics of the Motley Crue “Dr Feelgood” album.
And it took that long because they spent weeks getting the perfect guitar sound, and weeks for the perfect drum sound and weeks for the perfect bass sound. He sent Lars to get drum lessons and James to get vocal lessons. And they had no idea how big the album would become. All up he spent 15 years working with Metallica, and he realised he just had to move on eventually.
Bon Jovi and Bruce Allen
The manager of The Payola$, Bruce Allen, ended up managing Bob Rock and Allen told him, “you gotta stop doing these gigs because you are a producer and I will manage you as a producer and you will make some money”. And Allen said to him, “you are going to get a point on the next record” and that was “Slippery When Wet” but he didn’t get the point.
So on “Slippery When Wet”, Rock only made $10K Canadian and for “Permanent Vacation”, Bruce Fairbairn offered him $8K Canadian. And the production crew just wanted “Slippery When Wet” to go Gold so they could get another production gig. And in three months it sold 3 million in the U.S alone.
But Jon Bon Jovi wanted Bob Rock to do the next album “New Jersey” and Bruce Allen said that Bob isnt doing it. But Jon wanted Bob Rock and Rock got his point (1%) for mixing the album.
He Keeps On Learning
In every production gig he always learned something new, from either the artists because of what they wanted to do/achieve or the other people he was working with in the production team and he’s still learning right now.
That’s why he’s still in the business, he has continued to self develop, learn and grow as a producer. He never rested on his laurels. And he keeps an eye on what rises to the surface, so he could see what is happening sonically and from a song point of view.
Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone
And everything Rock has done is because of the sounds on the Motley Crue and Metallica albums he produced.
And Rock goes its because the guys in Motley Crue and Metallica pushed him to step out of his comfort zone and try different things.
Do Your Time
Rock came from jingles, a 1 minute record every day. You need to start somewhere. And be patient.
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