Category Archives: Derivative Works

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

1985 – Part 12

I was always on the lookout for bands that were not part of the mainstream magazine press when it came to metal and rock music.

Waysted – The Good The Bad The Waysted

It’s Pete Way from UFO but Paul Chapman on guitars steals the show. His riffs and leads are excellent. Fin Muir on vocals has a bit of UDO in his style and the grit he brings, works.

“Hang Em High” brings the heavy blues rock to the 80’s with a bit of a George Lynch style inspired verses. The vocals bludgeon their way and it’s the perfect anti-hero to the MTV stars of the day.

“Hi Ho My Baby” delivers the classic rock sound of the 70’s, more Free like, but people would say it’s more like AC/DC.

“Heaven Tonight” takes a bit of Journey from the piano department to deliver the songs foundation, but the song rocks away for a ballad, with a Rod Stewart like vocal and Chapman on guitar delivers the riffs and the melodic leads.

Check out the arpeggio intro to “Manuel” and when it kicks into overdrive, its melodic rock heaven and the last 90 seconds is a section which reminds me of the piano riff in “Love To Love” and the guitar solo. It’s perfect, allowing UFO to influence the new.

“Rolling Out The Dice” sounds like a song The Cult would write in a few years’ time.

“Land That’s Lost The Love” could be one of the best UFO songs that didn’t appear on an UFO album. Chapman delivers a verse riff straight from the gutters of the Sunset Strip, but the Chorus, is classic UFO, a vocal melody which is catchy over a guitar melody. Make sure you check out the lead break from Chapman.

Overkill – Feel The Fire

I liked the logo as it was a tweak on the Iron Maiden font. But I never got any of their stuff in the 80’s because my budget was limited, they virtually got no promotional push in Australia, which meant their albums wouldn’t be in stores and they had a lot of competition.

“Raise The Dead” is pure speed metal. The band is labelled as one of the earlier thrash pioneers, but thrash is a generic term.

Check out the main verse riff and see if you can name the song that inspired it?

“Rotten To The Core” blasts out of the gate like “The Four Horsemen”. A classic and still part of their live show today.

Check out the lead break to “There’s No Tomorrow”. Its guitar hero worthy from Bobby Gustafson.

“Hammerhead” has a riff in it, that Metallica would use on “Disposable Heroes”. And the lead break again from Gustafson is shred’a’licious. The title track “Feel The Fire” is another favourite. It’s got riffs and leads and it will get you playing air guitar. There is a section which is almost “Over The Mountain” like.

Nasty Savage – Nasty Savage

It’s funny how metal musicians got labelled as drunks, drug takers, anti-social and what not. But everyone seems to forget that most of the musicians of bands who had deals but never made it big were serious players.

Nasty Savage live in some weird world of speed metal, hard rock and technicality.

1985 was probably the last year when genres didn’t matter and artists incorporated so many different musical elements into their music. Afterwards, labels would hear bands like Nasty Savage and tell them to change their style to suit a genre which they created and could market.

On Metal Blade, signed by Brian Slagel after their 1984 demo “Wage Of Mayhem”, started doing the rounds on the underground circuit.

“No Sympathy” has this dramatic ominous symphonic music for 50 seconds, before the intro riff kicks in. It’s more technical than the speed metal of early thrash metal. Mercyful Fate comes to mind immediately.

“Gladiator” is more of a hard rock tempo, with a head banging riff. Vocally, Nasty Ronnie is more theatre like, mixing, King Diamond falsetto’s with baritone chainsaw barks. If you like polished hard rock style vocals, then this isn’t for you.
I read a live review in which Nasty Ronnie even smashed a TV set on his head.

At 2 minute the song changes feel before it moves into the solo.

Other tracks are “Fear Beyond the Vision” (listen to the ball busting falsetto’s in the Chorus) and the garage sounds of “Metal Knights”. Check out the lead break in this one. Guitarists Ben Meyer and David Austin have shown, four songs in that they are ambitious and progressive in their song writing.

“Dungeon Of Pleasure” has a great intro riff. “Psycopath” has an intro which is just bass and drums before the harmony melody of the guitars comes in. And then it goes into this demented and chromatic riff.

Lizzy Borden – Love You To Pieces

I judged Lizzy Borden on their logo that they would be like Venom. I know it’s a terrible comparison. So when I pressed play and I heard the hard rock and heavy metal riffs with a vocal style which was more hard rock than anything, I was like goddamn, I’m never judging things by their cover again.

Lizzy Borden is maybe the pre-cursor for Ghost.

Check out tracks like “Council For The Cauldron” for the Iron Maiden like riffs and the melodic lead breaks.

“Psycopath” has this “Friday On My Mind” style feel, just a bit more metal like and some extra additions to make it different. “Love You To Pieces” is a heartfelt ballad about you know, ripping up your loved one into pieces.

And the piece d’resistance is “American Metal”. It more or less sums up the different types of guitar riffs from the metal bands. There are riffs influenced by EVH, Rhoads/Lee, Crosby/DeMartini and Tipton/Downing.

220 Volt – Mind Over Muscle

I heard these guys well into the first 2000’s decade. I really like their merge of early Scorpions, NWOBHM and acts like UFO, Deep Purple and Rainbow. Think of how Europe sounded on their first two albums before “The Final Countdown” merged with Malmsteen’s metal opus “Marching Out”. It’s melodic, its metal, its rock and it works.

This album continues the great work set up on their self-titled debut in 83 and its follow up, “Power Games” in 84 and the song “Power Games” appears on this album and its one of my favourite tracks on this album.

Stand out tracks apart from “Power Games” are “Electric Messengers”, “Secret Dance (Xymania)”, “Blessed By The Night”, “Halloween” and “Mind Over Muscle”.

Crank it and check out the guitar playing.

Faith No More – We Care A Lot

How good is that bass and drum groove from Billy Gould and Mike Bordin to kick off “We Care A Lot”?

Then the keys from Roddy Bottum come in and Mr Jim Martin brings in riffs, here and there to decorate. Vocalist Chuck Mosley does his street rap and street singing style which works for me, over the progressive song structures created by the rest of the band.

Then Mr Martin wrote a nice acoustic classical/flamenco piece called “Jim”.

“Why Do You Bother” also has those drum and bass grooves with the keys over it, which makes the unique Faith No More sound.

“Pills For Breakfast” has a metal like riff and groove which gets me to pick up the guitar and learn it. They didn’t have time to write lyrics. So the music takes it away. And tracks like “As The Worm Turns” and “New Beginnings” have some great musical moments.

And this brings to end the 1985 series after 12 posts. I am off to the year 2000, for the thirteenth and last post of that series.

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

Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – The Angels

Here is the usual prologue.

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

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

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

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

I’m sure you’ve all heard their song “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Fave Again”. If you haven’t the live version of the song has the following words;

Am I Ever Gonna See Your Fave Again
No way, get fucked, fuck off

It came out in 1977, but it really became it’s own beast in the 80s and when it appeared on their live album “Live Line” released in 1987, it’s legendary status within Australia was certified and it re-entered the charts.

Their earlier albums had production from Young and Vanda. The same dudes who worked with AC/DC and the same dudes from The Easybeats and of course George Young is the older brother of Angus and Malcolm.

After the success of “Live Line”, the Australian market was primed for a new album.

“Beyond Salvation” was released in Australia in early June 1990 and reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

The first single “Let the Night Roll On” came out six months prior to the album’s eventual release.

The second single “Dogs Are Talking” had tracks from young bands who would be touring in the support slots as the B Sides. What a brilliant idea to promote other acts. That’s how I came across Baby Animals.

The U.S. version of the album, released under the name “The Angels From Angel City” (seriously I never understood why US label reps would do that to Aussie bands), featured a vastly different track listing.

It’s made up of 4 songs from this album, “Dogs Are Talking”, “Rhythm Rude Girl”, “Let the Night Roll On” (the only 3 songs to also appear on the Australian edition), and “Junk City” (Australian single B-side to “Let the Night Roll On”).

And re-recordings of 5 classic Angels songs, “City Out of Control” (Night Attack, 1981), “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” (The Angels, 1977), “I Ain’t the One” (Face to Face, 1978), “Who Rings The Bell” (The Angels’ Greatest, 1980), and “Can’t Shake It” (No Exit, 1979).

But the album that survives today is the Aussie edition.

But the album divided the fan base.

Lyrically they switched to writing about loose women and the rock and roll spirit, which was a far cry from their more political/social consciousness and punk style lyrics from earlier albums.

For me, they filled the void in between AC/DC albums.

And if you want to hear rock in the vein of AC/DC then check out “Let The Night Roll On”, “Back Street Pick Up” and “Dogs Are Talking”.

“Rhythm Rude Girl” still has that pub rock spirit but it’s a bit more mature musically within the blues. There is this bass and drum groove in the song with some slide guitar licks. Its excellent.

The band still does the rounds these days with Dave Gleeson from The Screaming Jets on vocals after Doc Neeson passed away in 2014.

Check em out.

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Rare “Glam Metal” Bands

I was looking for a quick and short podcast episode today and I came across an episode titled “Rare Glam and Hair Metal Bands” that was less than 10 minutes on the 80’s Glam Metalcast. Now the podcast itself is not a big production, it’s unpolished and garage like, but that’s why I like it.

So I’m thinking. A cool short and sweet episode on rare glam metal bands. Wham bam, Amsterdam.

And then I started to write down all the bands mentioned and suddenly a short podcast ended up as a long blog post.

Cold Sweat

From Ex-Keel guitarist, Marc Ferrari.

They only released one album, “Break Out” in 1990 on MCA Records, otherwise known as “No Idea Records” when it came to promoting rock and metal bands.

Produced by Kevin Beamish.

Oni Logan was the original singer and he left the band to join Lynch Mob, just as they were about to record the album.

Singer Rory Cathey was found from a lot of demo tapes to replace Logan. The band was rounded out by Erik Gamans on guitars, Chris McLernon on bass and Anthony White on drums.

The album didn’t get any traction and if you couldn’t find it in stores it’s because the label had already dropped the band.

Check out the 12/8 Blues groove of “Cryin’ Shame” and the great guitar playing or the power ballad, “Waiting In Vain” or the melodic rockers “Take This Heart of Mine” and “Let’s Make Love Tonight”.

“Killing Floor” is the usual “run of the mill” hard rock tunes. Then there is “Riviera/Long Way Down” which is an acoustic instrumental merging into a massive rock groove for “Long Way Down”.

Sweet F.A

They had Howard Benson producing them. For those who don’t know Benson, towards the late 90’s and onwards, Benson became like the new Tom Werman for me. I would gravitate to the records he produced.

Sweet F.A is another band signed to “No Idea Records” otherwise known as MCA Records.

The band is made up of Steven David DeLong (really, how long) on vocals, Jon “Lightning” Huffman and James Thunder (really, Lightning and Thunder) on guitar, Jim Quick (really, please stop with these names) on bass and Tricky Lane (they saved the best for last) on drums and percussion.

So what do ya get when The Long, Lightning, Thunder, Quick And Lane get together?

The debut album “Stick To Your Guns” came out in 1989.

And it did nothing commercially and of course, they got dropped by their label and then released another album “Temptation” on another label a few years later and that also did nothing commercially and the band was done.

The title track is very Led Zepplenish with a bit of Bad Company and “Shooting Star”. And I like it. The hair metal tag doesn’t really suit a cut like this, but then again, these terms weren’t meant to be complimentary.

“Whiskey River” is worthy and “Breaking The Law” is sort of like a Badlands tune. Maybe with a bit of “Hot For Teacher” chucked in for good measure.

But the rest is the usual “this track bleeds into this track and this track bleeds into this track”.

Silent Rage

I’m surprised this one didn’t do greater based on its cover. You know the one, a buffed bod, six pack showing, wearing tight leathers with the album title “Don’t Touch Me There” just over the crotch.

I guess Silent Rage and their label RCA forgot that males made up the majority of the record purchases in 1989 when it came to rock and metal releases.

And I was thinking why would a band who formed in 1976 and who finally got a chance to release an album 13 years later go with that cover. Because the stupid cover hindered the chances of the album doing anything.

Because I didn’t but it because of the cover.

But I should judge an album by its cover.

As soon as I pressed play I was a fan of the music.

“Runnin On Love”, “I Wanna Feel It”, “Tonight You’re Mine” and “Rebel With A Cause” is a four punch knockout combo.

I guess whatever Gene Simmons touched, turned to black. There’s a story there as well. Paul Sabu started producing the album and then Gene took over. I guess when you’re a band on Simmons Records, the boss takes precedence.

Most of the songs are written by E.J. Curse on bass, Mark Hawkins on guitar and Jesse Damon on vocals.

Producer Paul Sabu assisted on “Tonight You’re Mine”, Joe Lynn Turner assisted on “I Wanna Feel It” and Bruce Kulick assisted with “All Night Long”. There is a cover song from ELO called, “Can’t Get Her Out Of My Head”. Then there is “Don’t Touch Me There” written by Bob Kulick with Adam Mitchell. Album closer “I’m On Fire” is one of those fast paced hard rock songs that rhymes fire and desire.

It’s an arena rock album. But they never got to em.

Kik Tracee

It’s 1991, the third wave of L.A Metal (now known as Glam Metal or Hair Metal) is in full force and “No Rules” comes out, produced by Dana Strum from Slaughter on BMG Records.

Kik Tracee’s metal and hard rock sound is mixed with some alternative. Even the Hugh Syme cover is different.

An old steam train has arrived in a cityscape environment, and there is the same person walking out of it multiple times, dressed in old clothing and a hat, with a badge on his chest that states “No Rules”. It’s like the train is a time machine, entering our current lives to bring about a little chaos and anarchy.

Rolling Stone even had this album at 46 of the 50 Best Hair Metal Albums, which was a surprise. Even the great Martin Popoff who is normally tough on bands known as hair metal gave it some nice words on his “Collectors Guide” book.

“Big Western Sky” was called “the centrepiece” in the same Rolling Stone review. It’s one of those tunes that moves between acoustic and distortion.

It’s hard to escape the comparison to Guns N Roses. Tracks like “Soul Shaker” even starts off with that “Mr Brownstone” feel. “Tangerine Man” has an intro that could have come from Zakk Wylde’s fingertips. “Lost” feels like a Neil Young cut with a bit of The Beatles chucked in. “Velvet Crush” reminds me of Van Halen with an Axl Rose style vocal.

And by the end of the album, I didn’t feel like I listened to a “glam metal” album. Just a solid rock album. One review described it as Gunners meets The Cure meets The Beatles meets Paul Simon meets Neil Young meets Van Halen. I think that sums it up.

But being part of the third wave of acts, they were part of the first wave of acts to be dropped by the labels.

Singer Stephen Shareaux auditioned for the lead singer job in Motley Crue, losing out to John Corabi and in the late 90’s he also auditioned for Velvet Revolver, losing out to Scott Weiland.

Sleeze Beez

I didn’t like the band name at all.

“Screwed Blued And Tattooed” came out in 1990 on Atlantic Records. They are from the Netherlands formed in 1987.

“Stranger Than Paradise” was a hit on U.S MTV because of its melodic rock chrorus and a riff influenced by “Kashmir” but it’s the hard rocking tracks that get me interested.

Opener “Rock In The Western World” is a mixture of ZZ Top (Eliminator/Afterburner era), Van Halen and AC/DC. It’s perfect and one of the most underrated tracks from 1990. “House Is On Fire” is basically a rewrite of an AC/DC song called “This House Is On Fire”.

The title track “Screwed Blued N Tattooed” is a Van Halen like cut, similar to the hard rocking tracks from “5150”. Lyrically by know I had heard all of the “kids in a candy store” and “dog without a bone” references.

“When The Brains Go Down To The Balls” is pretty self-explanatory and it’s the most AC/DC sounding track on the album.

Guitarists Chriz Van Jaarsveld and Don Van Spall are excellent and they are virtually unknown. And the band is rounded out by Andrew Elt on vocals, Ed Jongsma on bass guitar and Jan Koster on drums.

They released one more album in 1992 on Atlantic called “Powertool” and that was the last I heard of em.

Salty Dog

This band deserved better as their blues rock still sounds fresh today as it did back then.

“Every Dog Has Its Day” came out in 1990, on Geffen Records.

Tom Werman mentioned in his interview on Lefsetz, that he produced the band and he liked their blues, funk, rock vibe, which was different and removed from the glam hair metal they got marketed with. So sonically, the album is great.

Formed in L.A in 1986 by guitarist Scott Lane, bassist Michael Hannon, and drummer Kurt Maier. Later, they were joined by lead singer Jimmi Bleacher. Founding guitarist Scott Lane was replaced by Pete Reeven in 1987 and with this version of the band they got their Geffen deal.

The cover for a generic “Every Dog Has It’s Day” title, is pretty cool with the great Biblical flood consuming great empires and cities, as they are the “dogs” having their “day”. It’s a pretty cool piece of early Photoshop art.

According to Wikipedia, the record was recorded in Wales, and the band was reportedly not told by the label they had to pay back the recording costs. Artists are naïve when they get their first deal and find out the hard way when the label starts to claim it back from money they’ve earned in sales or on the road.

Check out tracks like the bluesy AC/DC “Cat’s Got Nine”, the swinging blues of “Ring My Bell”, the alternative bluesy sounds of “Where The Sun Don’t Shine”.

“Spoonful” has this blues riff that sounds like something James Hetflied used on “Load” and “Reload” or Zakk Wylde on his Black Label Society band.

“Just Like A Woman” is like a southern rock ballad. “Keep Me Down” has this Led Zeppelin and Peter Frampton style groove. “Heave Hard” is an excellent Cinderella cut.

And the album doesn’t really have a bad tune if you are into blues rock.

Other bands mentioned are Beau Nasty, London (the same London that had Nikki Sixx and Blackie Lawless in it), Shotgun Messiah and my favourite, Hericane Alice which I have already posted about in the past.

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Killers At 40

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy 40th Killers. \::/

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Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – The Screaming Jets

Here is the usual prologue.

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

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

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

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

The debut album “All for One” came out in April 1991. It went to Number 2 on the Australian charts and it was certified Gold in the Australian market.

But The Screaming Jets had some serious momentum coming into the album release.

They formed in January 1989, in Newcastle with singer Dave Gleeson, drummer Brad Heaney, guitarists Richard Lara and Grant Walmsley and bass guitarist Paul Woseen.

By November, they won the first ever National Band Competition run by radio broadcaster Triple J.

They released an EP in 1990 called “The Scorching Adventures of the Screaming Jets” and they toured with The Angels around Australia.

Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, said that “All for One” included the flash of early Van Halen mixed with the traditional sounds of AC/DC and The Angels.

I reckon there is definitely a Kiss influence, some of the British blues rock influences and an overall punk like feel. Maybe that’s more from the production than anything.

The album kicks off with “C’Mon”.

A foot stomping AC/DC style groove with a ringing pedal point over the chords. This one is written by Lara and Gleeson.

I watch my TV screen, life flashing before me

Australians were pretty good at wasting their time in front of the silver screen during this period that advertisements were made to show the unhealthy aspect of our infatuation which they then made into TV commercials so we could notice em.

I hear the radio and the songs they play, makin’ my stomach turn

Once upon a time we had rock stations run by music fans and DJs who played deep cuts.

By the end of the 80s, the radio stations became corporations with investors and stock prices and suddenly it wasn’t about the music but profits and payola and playing the same songs over and over and over again.

I see the plastic people, leading plastic lives, Substitute child, disposable wife

Nothing much has changed. Fake people still lead fake lives. They just to glorify it with social media.

“Better” written by Walmsley is a stand out. The bands I was in the late 90s used to cover it.

They said you’d never get anywhere,
Well they don’t care and it’s just not fair
That you know, and I know better.

“Better” became like a national anthem in Australia. The whole groove of the song is infectious. It was the album’s lead single and it peaked at number 4 on the Australian Singles Chart.

“Needle” is written by the bassist Paul Woseen. It has a Dokken style riff with a punk vibe. It’s strange to write it as a description but it works.

The guitarists Lara and Walmsley took influences from everywhere but played the riffs in a loose swingy way.

“Shine On” is also written by Woseen and its a bluesy dirge like “The Jack” but lyrically it’s very different.

“Stop the World” is written by Woseen and Gleeson. The lead break from Richard Lara is worthy.

“Blue Sashes” has a feel from The Angels but the riff ideas feel like they came from the Sunset Strip.

“F.R.C.” (aka “Fat Rich Cunts”) is written by Woosen. It’s one of my favourites on the album.

You drive your fast car,
All over the town,
You got your offices up, 50 floors from the ground.
You hire your slaves to bid for you,
You’ve got a couple of wives and a mistress or two.
And I can’t wait to see you tumble and fall.

I worked as an insurance broker once upon a time. Most of the people around me had second or third marriages, partners on the side and a cocaine habit to match.

The ones further up the corporate ladder had us as slaves running errands for em. And I thought of this song.

You fat, fat, fat rich cunts.

The war cry. Because back in those times most of the people in power fitted those words. They were men who had weight issues.

It changed when the techies became the rockstars.

Following the album’s release, the group relocated to the UK where they based themselves for over two years.

They toured there, the rest of Europe and the US as they supported varied hard rock and heavy metal bands.

The band would release a lot more albums through the 90s and 2000’s. But that story is for a record vault post. Sometime in the future.

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Bodyswerve

I’m reading the book “Working Class Man” from Jimmy Barnes. A review will be coming soon.

And I just finished the chapter that covered his first solo album “Bodyswerve” released in 1984.

I always saw Barnesy as indestructible, taking the world head on, with no fucks given.

But there was fear. He was like all of us. Unsure of choices and decisions.

He had the uncertainty and fear of going it alone after Cold Chisel broke up and the fear he had of coming up with songs for his first solo album.

He kept comparing his writing to Don Walker’s from Cold Chisel, but they are very different writers.

He persevered and kept on writing and he delivered.

Once the songs were written, he had to assemble a band.

He got people he felt “safe with”.

Drummer Ray Arnott recorded with Barnes on Cold Chisel’s final album, “Twentieth Century”. Bruce Howe was the bass player and founder of Fraternity, a band that Barnes had sung with for a short time in 1975 after Bon Scott left.

Bruce Howe was a hard taskmaster back in the day and he should be credited for pushing Bon Scott and Barnesy vocally, and by doing so they both developed their high octane singing style.

Mal Eastick had played with “Stars” and second guitarist Chris Stockley, was selected because he played, “old-style rock, like Little Richard and Gene Vincent”.

And then they went on the road, playing small pubs. They fine tuned the songs and when they went into the studio to record, the energy of the band and their tightness, transferred onto the tape.

And the rest is history.

The album dropped, people were expecting it and went straight to Number 1 in Australia. Jimmy Barnes was reborn as a solo artist.

Listen to the riff and groove of “Vision”.

Then there’s this soul style groove for “Daylight” which reminds me of “Mustang Sally” but it’s more hard rock as the guitar riff wouldn’t be out of place on an AC/DC album.

And what a beautiful combination it is, merging soul with hard rock.

“Promise Me You’ll Call” is a slower tempo song, ballad like, with a soul rock vocal melody.

“No Second Prize” has that “Stand By Me” feel, all rocked up, 80s style. And it became an Aussie pub rock classic.

“Boys Cry Out For War” has a riff which reminds me of “T Rex”. And I like it, as it romps it’s way through my brain.

“Paradise” is a rewrite of his “Rising Sun” song from his Cold Chisel days. A 12 bar rock and roll blues romp.

“A Change Is Gonna Come” is another blues like ballad.

“Fire” and “World On Fire” close the album.

Two great rockers which are virtually ignored.

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1985 – Part 10

Supertramp – Brother Where You Bound

Album number 8. It’s also the first album without original member Roger Hodgson, which left Rick Davies as the main songwriter and singer.

According to A&M Records, the album went Gold, but the RIAA hasn’t certified it as yet.

The glory days of the band were behind them.

And then I heard “Brother Where You Bound”, the title track. At 16 minutes and 30 seconds long, it’s a tour de force, with Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham on rhythm guitar and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on the guitar solos.

During the intro, there is an ominous keyboard synth droning while politician speeches are intermixed with readings from George Orwell’s “1984”.

Its self-indulgent in some sections, it reminds me of ELP, The Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd and other jazz rock fusion artists. But a ballsy move, regardless.

King Kobra – Ready To Strike

I always saw the ads for King Kobra but my finances limited my purchases. So in the 2000’s I finally listened to the full albums from em.

King Kobra are Mark Free (now known as Marcie Free) on vocals, David Michael-Philips and Mick Sweda on guitar, Johnny Rod on bass and Carmine Appice on drums.

“Ready To Strike” opens the album with mournful arpeggios and a classical inspired guitar solo before it kicks in to a head banging riff.

“Hunger” is a Kick Axe song.

How good is the intro?

Free starts his chant while the toms and guitars are in synchronicity. It reminds me of the “Rock Star” movie with Mark Wahlberg.

“Shake Up” has a similar intro to “Hunger” but that’s about it. This one is a melodic rock cut, virtually unknown. Carmine Appice’s drumming is thunderous in the intro and his rolls between bars are perfect.

“Breakin’ Out” reminds me of Y&T. Its high energy and the drumming of Appice in the verses has this “Radar Love” shuffle, which Tommy Lee also used in “Kick Start My Heart” a few years later.

One thing about King Kobra that would have worked against em is their choice of song titles.

“Tough Guys” is a perfect example.

Musically and melodically the song is excellent, but the title is terrible and the lyrics about “the world’s greatest lie being that tough guys don’t cry” are a miss.

“Second Thoughts” is typical of the melodic rock being played during this period. Think of “Tears Are Falling” from Kiss.

Raven – Stay Hard

They stormed the U.S a few years earlier and then watched all the bands who opened for them get bigger, while they stayed within their cult audience.

So album number 4 is also their first for Atlantic.

“On And On” is excellent musically and “Restless Child” sounds like an UFO cut. These two cuts stand out because they have this mainstream feel to them which I like.

Instrumental closer “The Bottom Line” has the riffs and little melodic leads, but the horn section was a bad idea.

The writing was on the wall.

Rough Cutt – Rough Cutt

This band was more famous for the members who departed it and the management team of Ronnie James Dio and Wendy Dio than their music.

In version 1, they had Jake E Lee on guitars and Claude Schnell on keyboards. Well, Lee would join Ozzy and Schnell would join Dio.

Version 2 had Craig Goldy on guitars and Chris Hager joined from Ratt. Well, Goldy would take the spot left vacant by Vivian Campbell in Dio.

And finally they had enough stability, a record deal and their debut album.

Produced by Tom Allom. If you own a Judas Priest album, you will know who he is.

“Take Her” had a committee of songwriters in Chris Hager, bassist Matt Thorr, vocalist Paul Shortino, drummer Dave Alford, previous guitarist Craig Goldy and Ronnie James Dio.

There is a misplaced cover of “Piece of My Heart”.

There is another cover called “Never Gonna Die” from Australian band, The Choirboys, who had a hit with it in Australia. Shortino misses the energy that Gable brings to it.

“Dreamin’ Again” sounds a lot like a Dio cut from “The Last In Line” album. This one is written by Alford, Hager, Thorr, Shortino and Wendy Dio. It moves between a slower tempo acoustic verse into a distorted Chorus with harmony vocals. The lead break is also guitar hero worthy. It has melody, shred, harmonies and pentatonic lines.

“Black Widow” opens up Side 2. Its written by Amir Derakh, Alford, Thorr, Shortino and W. Dio. I can’t stress how much this sounds like a Dio cut. The feel and tempo is slow driving, the way Dio likes it. The song title is overused and it doesn’t do the music justice.

Actually overused rock titles became a big problem for rock and metal bands.

Like “Kids Will Rock”. The title has been used before, and they even borrowed from “The Kids Are Back”.

Then you have song titles like “You Keep Breaking My Heart” “Dressed to Kill” and “She’s Too Hott”.

It’s probably a good reason why albums like “Slippery When Wet”, “Appetite For Destruction”, “Hysteria”, “Dr Feelgood” and the Black album, broke out in a big way, with the main singles having titles unique enough to separate them from the generic.

Amir Derakh on guitars has a few song writing credits and he is the one who had a pretty interesting career. While most of his guitar contemporaries had retired in the 90’s, Amir was the guitar synthesizer player in the rock band Orgy.

Coney Hatch – Friction

It’s not on Spotify, which is a pain as the album is solid and a great piece of melodic hard rock.

They were on Mercury/Polygram.

Bon Jovi hadn’t broken big yet, but when they did break big in under a year, the label would put the rest of their roster on the backburner.

How good is that pulsing bass riff on “This Aint Love”?

It lays the foundation for whatever riff the guitarists wanted to do and to be honest it wouldn’t be out of place on an AC/DC album.

“She’s Gone” is pure AOR Melodic rock and I like it, especially that small lead break after the Chorus. Even the main lead break is pretty cool.

“Wrong Side Of Town” reminds me of an Y&T cut and god damn, the bass is prominent and pulsing on this song as well.

How catchy is the guitar riff to “Girl From Last Night’s Dream”?

And give the solo section a listen as well.

“Coming To Get You” has a 10 second intro that reminds me of “Dog Eat Dog” from AC/DC before it moves into a more generic Zeppelin like riff.

Then there is “Fantasy”, another melodic rock riff which is memorable.

“He’s A Champion” brings back the hard rock edge of the opening song “This Ain’t Love”. This time the riff reminds me of “In The City” from Joe Walsh.

“State Line” and “Burning Love” close off the album. One is a fast rocker and the closer is a hard rocker with a melodic rock chorus.

Such a good album and virtually unknown in Australia.

Since 1977 is done and dusted, back to 2000 for Part 11.

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

Dystopia

“Dystopia” is one of my favourite Megadeth records in the 2000’s. It’s five years old right now but it feels like yesterday.

Hell, I’m writing about 2000, 1985 and 1977 releases at the moment and even those albums feel like they got released yesterday.

Time does go bye. Way too quickly.

The last few days, I was listening to my Spotify 2016 playlist. Man, so many good songs released during the year and not enough time to listen to everything.

If you are an artist releasing music right now, it’s never been easier, but if you want to get heard above the noise, it’s never been harder.

There is so much new music being released and it’s all competing with each other and it’s also competing with the history of music.

“Dystopia” is a rejuvenated Megadeth. While most of the songs are still written by Dave Mustaine, the performances of new guys, Chris Adler and Kiko Loureiro are energetic.

Lyrically, Mustaine is at his spittiest best.

The drumming from Chris Adler, who at the time was still a member of Lamb Of God, is powerful, technical and when needed an enhancer to the riffs. Kiko Loureiro on guitar, shreds with the best of em, his style a unique combination of so many guitar heroes and his Brazilian roots.

“The Threat Is Real” kicks off the album at full throttle speed. “Dystopia” has musical similarities to “Hanger 18”. I guess you can’t keep a good riff down.

“Fatal Illusion” completes the three punch knockout to kick off the album. It’s got chromatics and a sinister groove to kick it off and then the bass riff kicks in at high octane speeds and once the whole band is in, the driving double kick from Adler stands out and its circle pit time.

There is a section which I call the “Flatline” section. It starts off with the sound of a heart monitor and a beating heart, with a Motorhead influenced riff playing underneath, and once the flat line sound begins, the riff becomes dominant.

“Bullet To The Brain” starts off with an acoustic arpeggio riff which sounds ominous and then the heavy groove kicks in. It’s Megadeth at their best, working with tempo changes and grooves. It’s all 4/4 but it sounds progressive because of the tempo changes.

“Post American World” has a lot of musical similarities to “Symphony Of Destruction” and I like it. Check out the lead break from Kiko on this one.

“Poisonous Shadows” starts off with a Spanish/Flamenco like guitar intro as it builds into a metal behemoth with a Chorus that is memorable. And it ends with a solemn piano playing the chords and vocal melody of the Chorus.

“Conquer Or Die” also starts off with a Spanish/Flamenco like guitar intro before it morphs into a classical like guitar section ala “Randy Rhoads – Dee”. This goes on for about 80 seconds and then the distortion kicks in and the leads kick in. Under 4 minutes, it’s a cool instrumental.

The piece d’resistance is “Lying In State”. The speed of the song is what metal is about.

And the whole section from about the 2.30 minute mark to the end. Just listen to the riffs and how Chris Adler enhances em.

The album should have ended here, but we get another three more tracks called “The Emperor”, “Foreign Policy” and “Melt The Ice Away”.

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

2000 – Part 10

Kings X – Please Come Home Mr Bulbous

Creativity is all about experimenting and I like it when artists experiment. It alienates some and it might not even bring in anyone new, but as a fan of music, I enjoy it when artists try to grow out of the box that the record labels tried to fit them in.

I didn’t hear this album until 2012.

After feedback and noise, the opening track “Fish Bowl Man” finally kicks in with its groove orientated riff. It’s a product of its time, more alternative than the hard progressive groove rock the band is known for.

On the other hand, “Julia” could have come from a Bush album.

“She’s Gone Away” moves between clean tone arpeggios and syncopated palm muted riffs, with a Beatles vocal melody. That riff before the Chorus should have been repeated a lot more.

“When You’re Scared” has another Beatles like riff, from “She’s So Heavy” with another vocal melody inspired by the Liverpool legends. And it’s no surprise that a lot of artists during this time had Beatles like vocal melodies. I called it the “Oasis Phenomenon”.

Check out the lead break from Ty Tabor on this track. Emotive, bluesy and when he had to shred, he did.

“Charlie Sheen” has some great guitar moments in the opening arpeggio riff and the staccato clean tone verse riff.

Here is a review from Mike Ladano that I agree with (and if you are a Kings X fan, he has reviewed most of their stuff).

Babylon A.D – American Blitzkrieg

The first two Babylon A.D albums are great listens, especially the debut. Then the labels started dropping hard rock bands while they started chasing Alternative sounding bands and Babylon A.D was lost to me.

I saw that this album came out via the Metal Edge magazine, but I never really looked for it in Australian shops, nor did I have any interest at that point in time. It was about 2008 when I came across it via a torrent. I downloaded it and pressed play on my winamp player.

Musically, it sounded different, but it was still hard rock to me.

The title track kicks it off with a rap like vocal line which reminds me of the Beastie Boys and a certain song called “Fight For Your Right”.

Then it goes into the song “War”.

You know the one.

“War, what is it good for, absolutely nothing, say it again.”

That one.

“Magic Mary” has a voodoo power and a Charlie Manson smile. It’s hard rock but its sounding dirtier and grungier. It doesn’t matter what sound effects producers put on the guitars, a rock riff is a rock riff.

“I Wanna Live” has a Tool “Sober” like riff as inspiration for the Verses with a Cheap Trick inspired Chorus. A brilliant combination and one of my favourites on the album. “One Million Miles” from their newer album has a similar intro and verse which is like the Chorus.

“Sinking In The Sand” is one of their best tracks. Its heavy and melodic and the way the verses roll along with just the bass and the vocal line, it reminds me of “Lost Behind The Wall” from Dokken.

“The Sky Is Falling” is a slower tempo song and I like it. Other songs start to become interchangeable with previous songs and the album closers with “Superstar” a perfect hard rocker about seeking your fifteen minutes of fame. Its riffs remind me of songs like “Creepshow” and “Mudkicker” from Skid Row.

Cold – 13 Ways To Bleed on Stage

Released on Geffen Records.

“13 Ways To Bleed On Stage” is the album in which their spider logo made its first appearance.

It was a bargain bin purchase in Australia even though it was a Gold selling album in the U.S, as I always saw this album in discount bins. I picked it up in a 3 for $10 bin, so I paid $3.33 for it.

And I became a fan.

I really liked the Staind/Bush vibe of the album.

Scooter Ward on vocals sounded a lot like em but I didn’t care.

“No One”, “End Of The World” and “Confession” stood out right away. Modern rock songs.

“It’s All Good” has a vocal melody in the verses which is catchy.

“Bleed” has an acoustic arpeggio riff that reminds me of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.

As the album closer it is my favourite.

On a side note, guitarist Terry Balsamo would depart after the 2003 follow up “Year Of The Spider” to fill the vacant guitarist spot left by Ben Moody in Evanescence.

Mudvayne – L.D. 50

The singer from a band I was in, who introduced me to Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit (mentioned in the 2000 – Part 9 post previously) also introduced me to Mudvayne.

I mentioned in the Kings X post that creativity is all about experimenting. Well, meet Mudvayne.

The press labelled em as “Slipknot Part 2” because they had painted faces. The press labelled em as Nu Metal as they released an album during the Nu Metal movement. But to compare Mudvayne to anything, you needed to listen to em.

They had progressive elements in their music and odd time signatures and because of these, another term came out of this debut which was “math rock”.

They had speed metal songs, jazz fusion breaks, and death metal vocals on some of the songs.

Pushing the boundaries of what is known as metal, that’s Mudvayne. To compare them to Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Creed, who became the faces of Nu Metal was wrong.

Bassist Ryan Martinie is unbelievable. His bass lines don’t just compliment, they add and enhance the song, as he mixes slap funk bass lines with metal, jazz, rock, chromatics and whatever other musical style he could find.

Guitarist Greg Tribbett is from the era of being influenced by Randy Rhoads.

Drummer Matt McDonough makes sense of all the chaos by keeping time, with tom rolls and a lot of double bass, and some excellent cymbal work.

Vocalist Chad Gray, who formed Hellyeah with Vinnie Paul and Tribbett, after is unique as well, moving between screaming, growling, gravel chainsaw like and melodic and leaving his $40K factory job to chase his dream of being a rock singer.

The album’s title is short for “Lethal Dosage 50”. It basically means the level of toxicity needed in a drug to kill half of the population.

“Dig” blasts out of the speakers with a funky bass riff, drums, power chords and gravel-throated vocals. Its telling the music business suits that they don’t care about their two cents input into their art. And it sets the trend of the album.

My favourite is “Death Blooms”. Musically its perfect and vocally the song moves between clean tone vocals and Gray’s talking vocal lines with a melodic Chorus which wouldn’t be out of place on a Tool or A Perfect Circle album.

Mob Rules – Temple of Two Suns

How could you not give a band a listen who carries a name from a pretty cool Black Sabbath album?

I pressed play, only to be confronted with sounds of Rainbow and Deep Purple on the opening track “Pilot Of Life”.

And I liked it.

It’s basically 80’s Hard Rock with some nice acoustic classical moments and in one song, some violin folk. It all sounds metal and for their second album, it’s a band still finding their feet.

There was enough here to get me interested to hear what would come next.

Tad Morose – Reflections

From Sweden, who play a sort of dark melodic progressive metal. Evergrey is a well-known band who plays this kind of dark prog.

“Reflections” is a compilation album from their first three albums, “Leaving The Past Behind” released in 1993, “Sender Of Thoughts” released in 1995 and “A Mended Rhyme” released in 1997.

The “Sender Of Thoughts” album is a favourite and I’ve been a fan since. So if you want to get a feel for the band, then this compilation is it.

See ya in 1985 for part 10.

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

1977 – Part 9

This is the last post for 1977, even though the 2000 and 1985 series will have a few more.

Steve Miller Band – Book Of Dreams

How good is the riff in “Jet Airliner”?

It’s a cover, an old blues song written by Paul Pena. And its a favorite.

“Book of Dreams” is the tenth studio album from Steve Miller using leftover material recorded for the “Fly Like an Eagle” album, but not released on the album.

“Winter Time” written by Miller is also a favourite along with “Wish Upon a Star”. These ones are more ballad like, slower tempo’s with moods and grooves.

“Jungle Love” is written by Lonnie Turner and Greg Douglass and those blues rock riffs bleed out of the speakers. Its more Boston and Bad Company than anything else.

“Sacrifice” is written by Curley Cooke and Les Dudek. It comes across as a progressive jazz fusion like song.

“The Stake” is written by David Denny. The main riff is the same as “Rocky Mountain Way” from Joe Walsh. Walsh released that song in 1973. But if you go back to 1969, there is a song from Sly & The Family Stone called “Sex Machine” which also has that same groove.

Black Oak Arkansas – Race With The Devil

As soon as I saw a live picture of these guys, I thought of DLR because I kept on reading stories about how DLR modelled his moves from Jim Dandy.

“Race With The Devil” blasts out of the gate with its harmony guitars and speed. “Freedom” has an intro riff that the Rolling Stones would use for “Start Me Up” a few years later. “Rainbow” is progressive like, but still rooted in that Americana vibe. “Not Fade Away” is a Buddy Holly cover and at 7 minutes it closes the album out.

Leo Sayer – Thunder In My Heart

The title track.

A perfect slab of melodic rock with a bit of funk and disco added.

“It’s Over” is a blues funk tune as it stomps and grooves its way from start to finish.

When you look at albums from the 70’s, especially from solo artists, it’s a who’s who of musicians as the backing band.

Larry Carlton. Tick.

David Paich from Toto. Tick.

Bobby Kimball from Toto. Tick.

There are other known musicians and songwriters from different genres who also do backing vocals or play bass or keys or some other instrument.

And the one footing the bill is the artist.

Throughout his career, Sayer had management rip him off a few times along with the labels. He settled out of court on a few and lost money on others.

Little River Band – Diamantina Cocktail

“Diamantina Cocktail” is the third studio album by the Australian rock group Little River Band.

The album was the band’s breakthrough in the United States.

A “Diamantina cocktail” is a drink invented in the area of the Diamantina River in Queensland, Australia. It consists of Bundaberg Rum, condensed milk and an emu egg.

Have ya tried it yet?

“Help Is On The Way” is a great way to kick off the album and it’s the only song that I like.

Peter Frampton – I’m In You

“I’m in You” is Peter Frampton’s fifth studio album. It did big business on the back of the live album “Comes Alive” that came out a year before.

In order to promote Frampton as a teen idol, his label, A&M Records, featured him on the cover wearing silk pyjamas.

Not sure how that went down with the serious hardcore fans, because I always saw Frampton as a serious guitar player, and when I saw the cover many years later, I thought of Billy Squier and a certain video clip.

And with that, 1977 is a wrap. Back to the year 2000, for part 10.

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