The people who normally read and comment on this blog would know that Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum were in Vinnie Vincent’s Invasion, which was signed to Chrysalis, when a person called John Sykes ran the label (not the John Sykes that we all know from Whitesnake, Blue Murder, Thin Lizzy and Tygers Of Pang Tang fame), but what a bloody coincidence.
Anyway, Vincent’s diva like demands didn’t sit well with the label and they offered the rest of his deal to Slaughter and Strum and the rest is history.
For two albums, Slaughter ruled because the band could rock, could croon like Michael Bolton and they could also bring out the metal, with Mark Slaughter belting out a triple octave voice.
And they even had a 25 year old Michael Bay direct the music video clip for this song. In 5 years’ time, he would become well known with the first “Bad Boys” movie.
Up all night Sleep all day
This is an anthem.
It still has the same power 30 plus years later as it did back in the day. We tried to live to this. Artists lived this life, they didn’t care about their brand, their endorsements, their promo on Morning Breakfast shows. They kept it mysterious. All to themselves. With a lot of groupies.
Which doesn’t even exist anymore in music, because the techies and the financers are now breaking the rules and living the rock star lifestyle. When Steve Jobs hit the stage at an Apple launch event, he was greeted with an applause that was normally reserved for rock stars. When Oprah or Ellen or Lettermen walked onto their sets, they had a bigger applause than rock stars.
And musicians just kept signing their rights away for another chance to record and to be in a state of never recouping with the labels, while the labels laughed their way to billions in profits. Those same label execs who contributed nothing to culture, fly private, while the artists who made them billions don’t. There is no way a techie would have given away their rights the same way the music artists did.
When evening comes I am alive
I feel I am most productive at night. Sometimes its past midnight and I don’t want to sleep because I am in the zone.
Slaughter was one of those bands you either liked or didn’t like.
Bassist Dana Strum was a go to man when people needed band members. He recommended Randy Rhoads to Ozzy’s camp along with Jake E Lee.
Afterwards, he teamed up with Kiss outcast, Vinnie Vincent for his Invasion. After Mark Slaughter joined the band (replacing the original singer, Rob Fleischmann), the Invasion went full tilt on album number two, before Chrysalis pulled the plug on Vincent’s diva like demands and offered his record deal to Slaughter and Strum.
And for a 4 year period, Slaughter was slaying the scene, becoming a reliable platinum act in the process.
Nothing lasts forever and for Slaughter, the fall was quicker than the rise in a commercial sense. Guitarist, Tim Kelly had some law enforcement problems over trafficking narcotics and then tragically, he lost his life in a motor vehicle accident. These days, Strum is more than happy playing Motley covers with Vince Neil, while Mark Slaughter is still writing and dropping new music.
“Fly To The Angels” is not my favourite track from the debut album, but it captures the great song writing that Slaughter and Strum are capable of. There is an electric and acoustic version of the song and both are good.
It’s a sad song and Slaughters vocal commands attention with its power.
I don’t think they wanted to be glammed up, with teased hair and matador clothing with long jackets, but they did it anyway.
Signed to Polygram, the debut album, “Night Songs”, produced by Andy Johns, had everything from AC/DC style riffing and grooves, to Aerosmith style highs and Keifer’s unique raspy snarl.
But Keifer and co didn’t just sound like all of the other bands out there, because their influences weren’t just your standard Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC acts. They also went back and found out who influenced their influences, and allowed those artists to also influence them, hence the reason why Cinderella was more bluesier than the rest.
The cymbals ring, while the clean tone Am arpeggio chord progression starts the song.
I count the falling tears, they fall before my eyes
It seems like a thousand years since we broke the ties
It seems like the hate and pain will never end, when relationships go bad, but it’s only been a day or two. Time heals all wounds and hearts. You just need to be patient.
I’m no fool
We can believe what we want, but when it comes to love, David Coverdale had it down pat, when he said he’s a fool for loving, because god damn it, that man lives and breathes love. So yes, when it comes to love we are fools. And we keep going back to it.
And the solo, so emotive, building up to the ending and that final chorus.
Circle The Drain – Machine Head I like the melodic metal side of Robb Flynn. And he crushes on this song, as it moves between melodicism, nu metal and groove metal.
Feeling Whitney – Royal Bliss The original Post Malone version is pretty good as well, a cross between “Dust In The Wind” style fingerpicking and modern rock.
Royal Bliss turn it into a modern pop rock song. And that also works.
Naked City – Jorn Running Up That Hill – Jorn Lonely Nights – Jorn What does Kiss, Kate Bush and Bryan Adams have in common?
Bubbles – Framing Hanley “I hear the nervousness in every word that is said” and in these pandemic times, I hear it and I see it loud and clear as our leaders make panic policies and suspend the sitting of parliament. I guess the bubble has burst and what comes next no one knows.
We are in uncharted waters here.
Come Clean – H.E.A.T Dangerous Ground – H.E.A.T Melodic Rock at its best. The Chorus in “Come Clean” is super catchy, with a R nought of 2.
Under The Graveyard – Ozzy Osbourne At this point in time, it’s on the playlist.
Will it be in 10 years’ time?
Maybe. And on the COVID-19 news front, writer, guitarist and producer of this album, Andrew Watt has been diagnosed as having it.
Let’s hope for a speedy recovery as other musicians have already died, from an ex-Riot member, Fountains Of Wayne bassist and a country songwriter/guitarist.
Catastrophist – Trivium I have been a Trivium fan for 13 years now.
It’s funny how fast time goes and it’s funny how many haters this band gets as well, because the old school metal fans don’t like the screaming, the old school death metal fans think it’s too fake and they just can’t win. But they can play their instruments, and they can play it well.
Singer Matt Heafy even put in time with former Emperor guitarist and vocalist, Ihsahn, learning the art of Black Metal and progressive songwriting. Not a lot of artists can lay claim to that.
F8/Inside Out – Five Finger Death Punch These two songs work brilliantly together.
“I stand alone, I guess I knew it all along” and it feels more like that these days than ever before. We look at our leaders and our heroes from music and entertainment to give us some insights, but in the end, the decisions made are ours to make alone. And our heroes are as clueless as us.
Because Of You – Storm Force This song just refuses to go away from my life. The music, the verse lyrics and that chorus. All so familiar and i like it.
“The world is yours today always something going down”. For me 2020 has seen; devastating bush fires which brought forth air quality issues, then came the rains and the floods. And now, we are at the start of the biggest threat in my lifetime, COVID-19. So we look to our families, our partners, our children and our friends for inspiration and reflection.
Dear Agony – Breaking Benjamin The mood of this song gets me. This song gives me hope, even though it’s a depressing song itself.
“Dear Agony, just let go of me, suffer slowly, is this the way it’s gotta be”.
No it didn’t have to be this way. Fighting for life is more important than anything else in the world.
Aeromantic (Album) – The Night Flight Orchestra Let’s just say that this album would most probably appear in all of my monthly reviews, because it is so damn good.
Songs like “Aeromantic” and “Taurus” pick up the energy. My favourites are the closer “Dead of Winter” and “Transmissions” with that violin solo.
Change The World (Album) – Harem Scarem Have I mentioned that Pete Lesperance is one hell of a guitar player?
This song was great on “The Great Radio Controversy” and it was even greater on “Five Man Acoustical Jam”, the surprise hit album which was the inspiration for MTV “Unplugged”. But then again, so many other artists claim that “Unplugged” title as well.
It was the “Five Man Acoustical Jam” and their cover of “Signs” which got Tesla some mainstream press here in Australia and made us early fans say, “I told you so” to all of the detractors who called them Aerosmith copycats.
For me, “The Great Radio Controversy” is a special album. I learned every riff and every lick on it and one of my favorites to play was “The Way It Is”.
I love the movement of the major chords, the D major chord with the F# note then moves to the F major chord, so it has this cleansing chromatic effect and then it moves to the G major chord before it comes back to D major chord. It’s very Credence Clearwater Revival and Southern Rock”ish”.
The simple solo to kick it all off in the intro which is repeated again in the main solo.
The way it is The way that it goes Happening day after day The way it is The way that it goes Working in the strangest ways
Right know we can’t leave home unless it’s for something essential. That’s the way it is.
Taking it day by day in a strange new world.
And the song is full of little lead breaks and the outro has the guitars wailing while Jeff Keith keeps singing, do you believe.
“Physical Graffiti” was released forty five years ago last month.
I really had no idea of the Led Zeppelin album until Nikki Sixx started talking about Motley Crue writing their “Physical Graffiti” in response to a question he was asked after “Decade of Decadence” came out and what would be next for the band. As soon as Sixx mentioned that, the album was on my radar.
Of course, we all know that Vince Neil got booted or left (depending on whose story you believe) and Motley Crue went to work, writing over 20 songs for what would become their “Physical Graffiti”, the self-titled “Motley Crue” album, otherwise known as Motley Corabi. My views of this album are all over this blog as one of the best Motley albums to date.
And I didn’t get “Physical Graffiti” until I picked it up at a record fair, for a very cheap price in the mid 90’s. I even heard Motley’s album before Led Zep’s. I know it’s sacrilege, but to have music at home, meant I needed to use my money for it and money was limited. And no one I knew had the album for me to dub.
The production team on this album is a who’s who of people that we all got to know from various hard rock albums.
Jimmy Page as usual is the producer, and you have Andy Johns engineering, Eddie Kramer engineering and Ron Nevison also engineering. These guys are all paying their dues, learning their craft from a master, which in this case is Page. It also has so many engineers because some of the songs which made the album are leftovers from previous albums.
But the stand out song on the album is KASHMIR.
I remember a time, when the riff was everything and there is no better definition of the riff being everything than this song.
I have already written about “The Kashmir Effect” before and again here. And man, i know it’s not right to say that I heard “Get It On” from Kingdom Come first. I even heard “Judgement Day” from Whitesnake before I even heard “Kashmir”. But that’s how it happened.
I didn’t own not one 70’s record until the 90’s.
And the older people I spoke to, said how “Kashmir” was one of the most popular songs in Australia, behind “Evie” (all three parts), “Stairway To Heaven”, “American Pie”, “Bat Out Of Hell” and “Hotel California”.
Not one of those songs is under 7 minutes.
An era in which artists did what they wanted and wrote what they wanted and FM radio had no choice but to play the whole damn thing.
The youth went wild for Skid Row, in the same way they went wild six years ago for Judas Priest, Van Halen, Scorpions, Quiet Riot, Ratt and Motley Crue. And Sebastian Bach went even wilder, trying to give a piece of himself to everyone who pissed him off.
And then they dropped “I Remember You”. A hit, with almost 72 million streams on Spotify, which would evolve to in-fighting and to things falling apart.
Skid Row opened for GNR on the “Use Your Illusion” tour. When they played in Australia, there were so many rules about drinking and glass bottles at concerts.
So Sebastian Bach brings out a case of beer and starts singing, 24 bottles of beer in the box, pass one down, pass it around, 23 bottles of beer in the box.
And im thinking, what the..
This is the dude who jumped into the audience, knocked an innocent girl senseless, started swinging with another audience member, all because a glass bottle was thrown towards the stage and it hit him in the head at a US gig. And now he is handing out glass bottles to the crowd.
It was all in good taste and a bit of fun on a very hot Sydney day. But I also saw a very worried tour manager getting a few of the roadies into the crowd to retrieve these glass bottles. And of course GNR took forever to come on next.
I digress.
It’s a relationship song. Lyrically it didn’t connect, but musically it did.
The simple G to C chord progression is a staple progression of country, pop and rock songs. “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” has the same chord progression.
And it has a great title. For me, it didn’t have to be about a relationship, it could have been about a friendship, about a band, about a street, about a place, about a summer event. It could even be a love song from an artist to their audience.
Great White began their career in the early 80’s with “Out Of The Night”. Then EMI signed em, released an album and didn’t really know what to do with the band, so they dropped em and then Capitol records got em on the books.
In 1987, “Once Bitten” their third album, got the platinum treatment and they went on tour in the U.S with Whitesnake. Then “Twice Shy” followed in 1989 and this led to more platinum sales and their own successful headline tour.
By 1991, most of the world was heading into recessions, and the hard rock public was getting a bit jaded with the same lyrical themes and sound-a-like chord progressions of hard rock. So “Hooked” didn’t really set the charts alight.
“Psycho City” came out in 1993, and by then band members had left, band members had marriages and divorces and illnesses. And hard rock was not a commercial force anymore, but bands who had success before, wanted the same success. And so did the record labels, but when this didn’t eventuate, it was goodbye to the record deal and hello to arguments within band members.
“Rock Me” came out at the same time as “Appetite For Destruction”, maybe it got lost in the noise, but it still got a lot of airplay in Australia, and I’m thinking its blues tinged hard rock definitely hit a note with the programmers and Australian audiences.
The bass boogie kicks it off.
The drums are simple, high hats for some time, slowly percolating until the right moment to explode in the chorus. And the guitars are just decorating, until it comes time for them to explode as well.
Rock me Rock me Roll me through the night
How good is the Chorus?
And when you think the song is about to finish, they pick it up and blast in to an outro solo for the last minute. At 7 minutes long, the blues boogie doesn’t gets boring.
Today, it has 7 million listens on Spotify and the 5 minute music video has 12 million views on YouTube. The song is forgotten compared to the numbers other songs have, but if you were alive during this period, it was a song from our youth.
Nirvana broke through in the early nineties and so did Mariah Carey.
But there is no one on the TV singing shows who wanted to be like Cobain. Hell no one even wanted to be like Halford, Jovi, Tyler or Coverdale and if they did, they didn’t last long except for James Durbin.
Everybody wanted to be Carey, Sheeran and for the ones who had the guts, to be their own self. And hard rock music never translated well to the TV screen. Everything sounds distant and small. And you don’t feel the energy, the thumping of the bass drum in your heart.
MTV cashed up the labels and the labels finally had the power. They could make or break a career in the same way Harvey Weinstein could. It used to pissed the labels off, how the artists would withhold music or not go in the studio when the label head requested it.
Artists signed deals, got the advance money, blew it on things, and then realised that they had to use that advance money for the recording. So the label gave them a little bit more, controlled the process, told them to keep on writing, racked up the bills and suddenly the artist is a million in debt before the first album is released and when a song became a hit, they also realised how they signed away their rights, when the signed on the dotted line.
All in the name of putting out a TEN INCH RECORD.
And I am thinking of Aerosmith right now.
If you got into the band in the 80’s because of the songs written with outside writers, then you would hate this little 12 bar bluesy and jazzy cut from “Toys In The Attic”. This is a track that diehard fans would know.
And the band kicked off their Grammy MusicCares performance with this song and the industry people thought Tyler was singing “suck on my big 10 inch”. That’s why I love rock and roll. The middle finger attitude.
Off to Spotify and I’m calling up “Toys In The Attic”.
The war was on, as rock bands, especially hard rock bands who got classed as hair bands started to fight for survival against the flannelette armies of Seattle and the changing A&R personnel at the labels who wanted to cash in on the Seattle tide.
To understand how quickly the support for hard rock music was abandoned, White Lion was given a million bucks to record “Mane Attraction” and after it was released, some more money was spent on a few music videos and the album didn’t set the charts alight and when the band decided to call it quits, there was nothing from the label. Not even a phone call. Except for Vito, who got an offer for a new project, but after demoing some material, the offer also disappeared.
But there was rock music. It wasn’t as polished as some of mid 80’s albums, but the roots of this rock music was with the classic 70’s.
Number 1 Remedy The Black Crowes are still at Number 1. The chorus lyrical message of looking for a remedy to fix our worries resonated with everyone on the planet old enough to remember this song, even though the verse lyrics are pretty silly about a dead bird from the window sill and why can’t his girl sit still.
And their Grateful Dead jam ethic had them record this album over a weekend, and you can hear the fun and the love in the notes and the space and the performances.
Number 2 Under The Bridge The Jimi Hendrix influenced guitar intro got a lot of people, like me, interested and the lyrical message of addiction and homelessness under an catchy vocal melody, took this song to the top. Actually, it took me a while to get used to the voice of Anthony Kiedis and I’m glad I did.
By the way, John Frusciante is also another underrated guitar hero. You don’t need to play solos with your head looking at the heavens to be a good guitarist. You need to be able to write riffs, memorable ones at that, and this dude could do that with the Peppers.
Both of the songs have gospel like backing vocals, which enhance em nicely.
Number 3 Road To Nowhere Ozzy and Zak are still riding high on the back of the “No More Tears” album, with their Southern Rock anthem sitting pretty. I like this song more than “Mama I’m Coming Home”. The opening arpeggios and Zack’s pentatonic Skynyrd solo is brilliant.
And those opening lines;
When I was looking back on my life And all things I done to me
If we just did the same abuse to someone else’s body that we gave to our own bodies, we would be locked up as it would be borderline criminal.
The wreckage of my past keeps haunting me It just won’t leave me alone
Sometimes our past deeds supersede our current deeds. There is no redemption from them, even though people say there is.
Because it’s impossible to be liked by all.
And for the haters and the ones who believe they were wronged, the past is never forgotten.
Number 4 Make Love Like A Man It’s not the best Def Leppard track, but they had enough goodwill because of their first four albums that we still gave them a lot of love for “Adrenalize”.
I think they tried to re-write “Pour Some Sugar On Me” with this one.
Musically the song works, but I can’t say I am a fan of the lyrics. But then again Def Leppard was allowed to get away with this kind of cheesiness because of the first four albums.
Number 5 Sting Me To show how powerful a jam album became in the charts, The Black Crows have another song in the Top 5.
The album showcases a band in love with the blues, grooving and jamming their way to the top of the charts and our minds and our hearts.
And it also shows an audience who was sick of the over polished sounds of hard rock and the generic sound-a-likes.
If you feel like a riot, then don’t you deny it Put your good foot forward No need for heroics I just want you to show it Now’s the time to shine
I have no idea what the overall song is about, but the opening four lines connected immediately especially the call and response vocal line, where Chris Robinson sings the first and third lines and the backing singers sing the second and the fourth lines.
And that verse riff which moves between the G chord, to the F, to the C and back to the G chord is excellent, as it doesn’t follow the usual power chord route, and instead it moves along with single notes and arpeggios.
Number 6 Living In A Dream Arc Angels They made no dent in Australia.
Nothing.
Which was strange for a Geffen act, as Geffen was renowned for its scorched earth marketing policy.
Especially for a group that was sort of like a super group. It had two individual guitarists/singers fronting who had decent solo careers and the rhythm section of SRV’s “Double Trouble”.
This song has that “When The Levee Breaks” feel in the music and of course, the singing is a cross between Robert Plant and Chris Robinson.
Number 7 Come As You Are Another Geffen act, Nirvana already smashed the charts with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and they starting coming for a little bit more.
For me, it’s that dropped D, chromatic riff, over a ringing A pedal point which sets the ominous feel.
Number 8 57 Channels And Nothing On Bruce Springsteen
I’m not a fan of the song, but I do like the message, that we pay to surround ourselves with crap.
The song starts off with two people buying a large place in the Hollywood Hills and connecting a Pay TV service to the house.
I know when I had my Pay TV subscription, I would scroll through the “scheduled” programming and I couldn’t watch anything.
Imagine if I had the choice to select what I could watch, instead of waiting for the allocated timeslot. But innovation was too hard for the Pay TV corporations and then they cried foul, when Netflix came and blew away their business model.
Number 9 Life Is A Highway Tom Cochrane won big with this song. He is still doing victory laps from it, as it’s licensed everywhere from commercials to movies to TV shows.
When I googled “life is a highway lyrics”, it came up with the Rascal Flatts version.
What happened to Tom Cochrane?
Life’s like a road that you travel on When there’s one day here and the next day gone
No road trip is ever the same and no day you live is ever the same. What is certain, is that the day comes and then it goes. You can’t get it back.
Life is a highway I want to ride it all night long
It was the message of freedom. That is what getting a drivers licence meant. A ticket to travel wherever you wanted to.
Number 10 Even Flow I didn’t like “Alive” and “Even Flow” in the beginning. For me, “Jeremy” and “Black” sealed the deal. Afterwards I went back to listen to the other songs.
But that was many years later.
Number 11 Girlfriend Matthew Sweet I’m not a fan.
Number 12 Now More Than Ever John Mellencamp
The song is nothing like the classic Mellencamp songs, but the message in the lyrics resonate. And people were looking for these kind of messages.
If you believe Won’t you please raise your hands Let’s hear your voices Let us know where you stand
Remember when artists used to take stands on issues, like Dee Snider standing against the PMRC and censorship. In the process, he got ostracised by the metal community for being a glory seeker.
And MTV cashed up the labels, and the labels used that cash to sway the artists and in the process, the artists became further slaves to the machine. The days of Roger Waters or Jim Morrison, telling the label to go and shove it, became a page in history.
Now more than ever The world needs love
This was relevant back in 1992 and 28 years later, it’s still relevant today. I am working from home because of COVID-19.
I’m not panic buying and I’m trying to do my best to help. But I put on the news and I’m not seeing the same.
Now more than ever I can’t stand alone
We live in tribes. No one wants to be ostracised. So that scaffold support network is super important. And we need to remember that others feel the same way, so you are not alone.
Number 13 Tangled In The Web Lynch Mob
This song is one of George Lynch’s best songs.
His guitar tone, which isn’t as heavily distorted like his Dokken days, is quality, the Gm riff is bone crunching and swingy at the same time and those brass instruments just add to the quality.
And Keith Olsen (RIP) did a stellar job in the production, even bringing in the brass instruments.
Number 14 Make You A Believer Sass Jordan It made no dent on the Australian charts and the first time I heard this song was today, when I put it on the Spotify playlist.
Number 15 Love Is Alive Joe Cocker His abrasive yet melodic vocals are really good and this bluesy rocker works.
You can see quite a few songs on this list have lyrical messages of love, loving each other, finding love and what we need is a little bit of love to share around and make the world a better place.
Number 16 One U2 This is a big song and the way “The Edge” just keeps decorating the song is brilliant.
Plus Bono with his vocal melody and the message of one life, one love and how we need to care for it, share it and make the world a better place.
Number 17 What You Give It aint whatcha give, it’s how you live is the catchcry here. And Tesla was on their way to another successful album and tour, against the grain of the market forces.
Number 18 Every Time I Roll The Dice Delbert McClinton
Never heard of Delbert, but his derivative version of “Old Time Rock’N’Roll” which is also a derivative version of standard blues is cool to listen to.
Number 19 Mama Im Coming Come Ozzy Osbourne I really like the music written by Zak Wylde here. That whole Southern Rock crossover with Heavy Metal works and Lemmy really nailed the lyrics on this one.
Plus did I mention that the guitar solo is pretty awesome.
Number 20 You’re Invited But Your Friend Can’t Come Vince Neil What does Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades and Vince Neil have in common?
It’s a killer song title, as good as “You Give Love A Bad Name”, “I Love Rock And Roll” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me”. And the song is probably the best Motley Crue song that wasn’t written and released by Motley Crue that featured Vince Neil on vocals in the 90’s. Then again, I am a fan of “Primal Scream” and “Angela”.
destroyerofharmony 