Category Archives: Derivative Works

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Review in 40 Words

February 2020 – Part 2

The Final Frontier
Die Young
Naked City
Ride Like The Wind
Lonely Nights
New York Minute
Needles and Pins
Love
Mystery
Running Up That Hill
Jorn

Jorn Lande is one of the best singers to have come out in the last 30 years. His style is rooted within the classic signers of Coverdale, Dio, Dickinson and Gillan. And to his detriment, the previous labels he was on, marketed him heavily as a clone of those singers which either will get a curious audience to check him out or people would just ignore him, because hey, why would they need a clone.

He started off with a band called Vagabond, which had TNT members in it, released an album on a label, got dropped from the label and released another album independently. Then when TNT reformed, Vagabond was done, and Jorn joined a band called The Snakes with Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody, which sounded like another band that has Snake in the title. He was fired from that band, did a few projects here and there, until he formed the band Jorn and started a long partnership with Frontiers Records.

“Heavy Rock Radio” is a project which has Jorn Lande covering some classic songs which inspired him. Of course, it’s another project funded by Frontiers who is trying its hardest to get so many recordings under its control.

One of my favourite Kiss songs is “Naked City” and it gets an updated rendition here. Which I certify as 100% excellent.

“Ride Like The Wind” from Saxon and “Lonely Nights” from Bryan Adams got taken out of the early 80’s and brought into the 2020’s as modern rock songs.

And there is no cover album from Jorn without a tribute to Ronnie James Dio material, in this case, “Die Young” and “Mystery”.

“The Final Frontier” actually sounds better than Maiden’s version and Jorn delivers on the vocal front.

“New York Minute” is a Don Henley cover and the intro highlights were “18 And Life” might have come from.

“Needles and Pins” is from the 60’s by The Searchers and the band Smokie made it a rock like ballad in the 70’s which sounds like the version that Jorn took and modernized even more into a melodic rock anthem.

“Love” is from Santana’s 1979 album, “Marathon” and this version is so good.  

Suffering’ night and day
People all around me crying
Enough–what’s the use
We don’t even feel like trying

Lyrics like the above, is a big reason why music is special to me. It’s easy to give up than continue especially when you don’t feel up to it, to face the day. And when you feel alone, you hear that others are feeling the same.

Hatred, doubt, and fear
It’s not the way toward the solution
There must be a way
To be free from all illusion

The people try to find a way, but money and fear clouds everything. Doomsday scenarios of financial Armageddon and what not always abound.

And humans are bad at making decisions. We have a strong view point against illicit drugs, while we hold a cigarette in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other. We are scared to travel because of a virus but the virus is in our country as well.

Love
Oh, love
All we need is love

We have it in abundance. We share it carefully.

History loudly claims
That we never learnt our lesson
We kill one another
We put the blame on greed and passion

Has anything changed?

We move from one conflict to the next, from one virus to the next, from one recession to the next and the cycle keeps repeating, because greed rules everything. As long as corporations exist on foreign soils, exploiting the native lands and its workers, we will kill one another.

Wise men calmly say
Every man shall reach perfection
If we help each other
We will reach our destination

And that’s the problem.

Have we forgotten how to help each other?

I’ve include “Running Up That Hill”, a cover from Kate Bush, which appeared on Heavy Rock Radio Volume 1 from a few years before because Jorn has taken a unique pop song and turned it into a beautiful rock track.

Feeling Whitney
Royal Bliss

Royal Bliss are a great band. This is a cover of an acoustic song from Post Malone, released in 2016.

The chord progression reminds me of “Dust In The Wind”. And for those hard rock and metal elitists who mocked the Ozzman for collaborating with Post Malone, should check out this song (along with tracks like “Hollywood Bleeding”) and understand that just because someone has 53 million Spotify listeners a month, and has dance beats in their songs, it doesn’t mean they don’t have any rock credibility.

The intro of the voices humming out the melody is enough to get me interested and then the opening line sealed the deal.

I been looking for someone to put up with my bullshit

Isn’t that teamwork. Find someone to love, to put up with your BS and in return you put up with their BS and you live happily ever after.

Show no emotion, against your coding, just act as hard as you can
You don’t need a friend, Boy, you’re the man

Masculinity is toxic. Having more testosterone doesn’t make a man invincible. Emotions and feelings are still the same as everyone else’s. And we need to be allowed to show these emotions without judgement. Because it is part of our coding.

From about 1.42, the song kicks into overdrive.

Fireline
Shakra

Shakra really knows how to deliver some heavy melodic rockers. Crank this song and if it doesn’t get your foot tapping and your head banging, you are too uptight to let go.

Death Of Me
Another Lost Year

The guitar lick after the singing at the start gets me playing air guitar and the vocal melody lingers for a long period.  

I remember everything that you said

We have a tendency to remember more bad things than good.

Part 1 is here.

Part 3 is up next.

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

Miss Mystery

Black N Blue started off like every band, with some high school friends getting together to write and play. In this case, it was vocalist Jamie St, James and guitarist Tommy Thayer.

Brian Slagel then came across their song “Chains Around Heaven” and added it to his Metal Massacre Vol 1 album in 1982, the same album that had songs from Metallica, Ratt and Malice on it. That same year they also moved from Portland to LA and started doing the Sunset Strip scene, which led to a recording contract with Geffen in 1983 and their debut came out in 1984.

“Miss Mystery” is a forgotten track from their second album, “Without Love”, released in 1985, and man this album had some secret herbs and spices in the production.

The song is written by Jamie St. James, Tommy Thayer and Jim Vallance. The same Jim Vallance who had a great song writing partnership with Bryan Adams and the same Jim Vallance who co-wrote the Gene Simmons signature song for the 80’s, “War Machine”.

Producing the album is Bruce Fairbairn, engineering is by Bob Rock, with support from Mike Fraser, before they all became household names with “Slippery When Wet”.

Speak to any listener of music under the ages of 30 and they would not even know who Bruce Fairbairn is, let alone Mutt Lange. They are almost completely forgotten. It’s a crime.

And “Miss Mystery” is a pop rock gem, building on the sounds that Def Leppard brought to the masses a few years before. As fans of this music, we can move on, hear different songs and artists, but we still return to this sound.

If you call it up on YouTube, watch the video clip and see why bands could never recoup. That clip would have been charged back to the band in the hundreds of thousands and its nothing special.

They toured with Kiss on this album and this got Gene Simmons interested in the band, who would go on to produce their next two albums and co-write with the band, as well as take some of the riffs from their songs and write a song called “Domino” which is then solely credited to Simmons. And then Thayer also joined Kiss in 2002. Actually Tommy Thayer has been a member of Kiss longer than Ace Frehley but Ace has appeared on more albums (well depending on which books you read, maybe not).

Somehow, Black N Blue, still didn’t break through like the other acts even though they had a major label deal with Geffen and a production team from Canada on their second album.

Maybe the involvement of Gene Simmons as a co-writer for albums three and four, wasn’t the best decision for the band, as Simmons didn’t really set the charts alight with his songs around this period and as Paul Stanley said in his book, Gene went missing from Kiss around 1984 to 1987. They should have kept him just as producer.

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

February 2020 – Part 1

February 2020 proved to be an interesting month. Some big releases for my listening habits and a reconnection to some forgetting gems released a while back.

World To Burn
Rev Theory

This is an old one, from their “Truth Is Currency” album released in 2005. Its appearing here because the album is on Spotify Australia.

The riff, the vocal melody and the chorus just flow so nicely into each other and it reminds me of an aggressive Three Days Grace merged with Chevelle merged with the melodic Linkin Park.

Guitarist and one of the main songwriters, Julien Jorgensen, got hooked by Angus Young and ACDC growing up. And you can hear in his style, shades of The Edge from U2, Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Jones from Tool, Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Zakk Wylde from his Ozzy work (especially the “No More Tears” album) and Bruce Springsteen.

I still remember the fall out that can’t be erased (and bite my tongue now)

Man, arguments are good for the relationship as it shows people care, but they very rarely end pretty and even all the sorrys in the world can’t change the feeling afterwards. If the relationship stays intact, someone will be biting their tongues and walking on eggshells. And if both sides are doing it, the fall out will be much bigger later on.

This is the world that you burn
This is the life that you waste

One side has ended their commitment and thrown the years of history you had together in the bin. Like it didn’t matter. But to you it matters. That record you both listened to and liked is now unlistenable because of the ties it has to your past.

How does it feel? I still remember the fall out?

F8
Inside Out
Living The Dream
Darkness Settles In
To Be Alone
Scar Tissue
Brighter Shade Of Grey
Five Finger Death Punch

The first two songs, “F8”, a minute and a half instrumental, which slowly percolates until it explodes into “Inside Out” is what music is about. The whole intro is what I call “Euro Metal” full of symphonic elements and drum fills that makes me want to break my desk in half, with my head.

I’m not a dog (I’m not a dog), I’m not a slave (I’m not a slave)
It doesn’t matter how much money I get paid
From “Inside Out”

Getting paid for doing what you love is good. Getting paid for doing a job to get by is probably not so good. Regardless, if we don’t have money, we cannot survive in this world. So we need to do something to get money, and that means we more or less became a slave to the system, until death.

They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions
Why did they never mention what’s real and in between?
From “Living The Dream”

There is a saying that every bad person started off with good intentions. Somehow, along the way, they made decisions which made them stray from the path of good and onto the path of bad. In life, things happen, jobs get lost, you get sick and suddenly you are about to be homeless, because of piling debts.

How does it feel to be alone?
From “To Be Alone”

It feels like shit.

What You Give – Live at Abbey Road
Tesla

I like Tesla.

I hold them up very high, way above the “hair band” term they got labelled with.

And Tesla can play, it’s how they built their reputation. By gigging.

But in order to achieve anything, you need to be able to write and god damn, Tesla can write.

It’s not whatcha got, it’s what you give
It ain’t the life you choose, it’s the life you live

I think this simple message is forgotten in the world today. Possessions for a lot of people are associated with status. My banker friend keeps telling me how much money I’ve spent on vinyl, LP’s, cassettes, DVD’s, BluRays, Books, VHS, concert tix/merch, guitars, amps, strings, cables and so on. Then he keeps telling me how much money I could have had if I invested it. And I tell him, I would rather have my metal and rock and the experiences that come with it.

Aeromantic (the whole album)
The Night Flight Orchestra

The whole album is excellent.

Each song has enough of an influence from a previous song to connect with me and TNFO are excellent players, so the musicianship and song writing is excellent.

If you like your classic Deep Purple, then opening track “Servants Of The Air” will serve you well, kicking off the street opera about shattered dreams, broken illusions and glimmers of hope.

“Divinyls” is full of hooks, nice synths and pulsing bass riffs.

“If Tonight Is Our Only Chance” brings the disco rock melodies, handled masterly by the TNFO guys, with a dose of rock thrown in. And the lyric line of taking that last chance is inspiring and hopeful.

“This Boy’s Last Summer” has a pop punk feel merged with a melodic hard rock. “Curves” is a funk masterpiece in the vein of Steely Dan.

ABBA is all over “Transmissions” in the Chorus and the synth is just driving the song along, which makes me think of driving. The violin solo at the end is brilliant.

“Aeromantic” has a riff which came from their first album (the song “California Morning” comes to mind) which is basically a riff inspired by their love of Kiss, Free and Sweet.

The ballad ‘Golden Swansdown’ has two brilliant guitar solos. “Taurus” sounds like “Gemini” from their previous albums as it rolls along with its addictive chorus and melody. “Carmencita Seven”, “Sister Mercurial” and “Dead Of Winter” close the album, a triple punch combo knock out.  

Set In Stone
Those Damn Crows

Those damn Welsh rockers are back in my life with a heavy rocker from their album.

Circle The Drain
Machine Head

I have already written about this song here.

But god damn, that intro with the chorus vocal melody, gets me pumped every single time, especially when that riff kicks in after Robb Flynn sings, “bring that hammer down”. Its bone crunching mosh pit time.

In the verses, Flynn is freestyling his way through so much melody, and I wish he sings more with his melodic voice, but his snarl is what makes him unique because that voice is his lifestyle, so he does a bit of both.

Change The World
Harem Scarem

They have been in the musical game since 1987, released their debut in 1991 and are still releasing quality material. I don’t know what happened with their label or marketing in the early days, but their first album was still released when rock ruled the charts and it should have done better.

I didn’t know about this band until the early 2000’s when people started sharing their music online.

How good is that guitar lick from Pete Lesperance in the intro?

“You and I, are gonna change the world”, is the war cry, but the world is changing us and we don’t even see it.

In a few years’ time, no one will remember COVID-19, except the ones who lost loved ones to it and the ones who were exposed to it. We move on so fast, we fail to learn the lessons of the past.

We all want to find
Peace and harmony

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Aeromantic

I really like The Night Flight Orchestra, otherwise known as TNFO for short. This little side project from melodic death metallers which paid homage to their classic rock and pop influences from the past has grown into its own beast.  

The first album, “Internal Affairs” came out in 2012 and I thought it was a one off. Then in 2015 they dropped “Skyline Whispers”, then “Amber Galactic” in 2017, “Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough” in 2018, then a couple of stand-alone tracks in 2019 called “Satellite” and “Cabin Pressure Drops” and in 2020, the new one.

In between the album release years, the guys in the band did albums and tours with their “original” bands of Soilwork and Arch Enemy and released albums with those bands and toured with those bands.

So for all those artists from the past complaining about everything not being like how it used to be, change your mindset and your work ethic and anything is possible.

And man there are so many good songs on this.

The opening track, “Servants Of The Air” has a similar riff to “This Time” from their previous album, “Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough”. The similarity is enough to make me a fan.

“Divinyls” is one of the pre-release tracks, with its infectious keyboard lick still remaining in my brain long after the song is finished. Actually the keyboard lick is the chorus vocal melody, hence the reason why it remains.

Glancing at the stars, mending my own heart
Is it time to break the chains?
Now I will embark, making my own mark
Waiting for the world to quake

We all had dreams to get out of the town we lived in and make it in the big city. Then we grew up and became comfortable and we don’t want our kids to even think about things like this. But we still yearn and dream of making our own mark.

“If Tonight Is Our Only Chance” sounds like it came from an ABBA album, but with metal overtones.

If tonight is our only chance, we’ll take it,
If tonight is our only chance, we’ll try it

So much truth in these lines. Our situations and lifestyles determine what chances we take. And when those chances come up, the aim is to be free to take it.

“Transmissions” is another pre-release track. It’s classic TNFO, full of hooks and homage to past influences, even a killer violin solo to close it off.

Talk to me
Won’t you talk to me?
You’re the remedy
For my starless visions

Ace Frehley once said talk to me, all he needs is a little conversation. I guess he wasn’t wrong. It’s why we always look for connections.

“Aeromantic” has my favourite drum beat in the intro. “Curves” has this funky groove. “Taurus” sounds like it could come from a Styx/Toto/Steely Dan album (the earlier ones).

“Carmencita Seven” has this musical passage after the chorus that I keep scrolling back to listen to. “Sister Mercurial” has a super catchy synth riff over my favourite drum beat. I call it the tark, tark, tark, beat, as its metronomic in nature.

“Dead Of Winter” is the closer and it’s such a good closing song, that the only thing I can do is press repeat and re-listen to the album again.

In other words, I love this album.

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Love Song

Tesla followed up their debut album “Mechanical Resonance” with “The Great Radio Controversy”. And there isn’t a song on the album that I wouldn’t listen to today. It’s consistent with some big songs thrown in the mix. “Hang Tough” brings the metal, “Heavens Trail” brings the acoustic slide guitar, “The Way It Is” brings the Southern Rock, “Paradise” brings the progressive 70s style of song writing to the fore and then there is “Love Song”.

The album was on Spotify Australia, and when 2020 started, it was off. I don’t understand why artists or their labels would remove or even withhold their music from streaming services. And “Psychotic Supper” has never been on Spotify Australia. At this point in time, this is the Tesla catalogue on Spotify Australia;

  • 1986 – Mechanical Resonance
  • 1990 – Five Man Acoustical Jam
  • 2001 – RePlugged Live
  • 2007 – Real To Reel Vol.1
  • 2007 – Real to Reel Vol.2
  • 2008 – Forever More
  • 2008 – Gold
  • 2010 – Alive In Europe!
  • 2011 – Twisted Wires
  • 2014 – Simplicity
  • 2016 – Mechanical Resonance Live
  • 2019 – Shock

Yes, there is a lot of music there, but my favourite albums are the first four, which I have on vinyl and CD, but when you are out and about, those two mediums don’t cut it. YouTube has them, but not Spotify Australia. It’s insane.

Anyway, my 13 year old has been playing “Love Song” on the acoustic guitar for a while (he’s been listening to it on Spotify because the song is on the “Gold” compilation) and I’ve overdosed on it again, in the same way I did when the song came out. I spent time learning the song and its Randy Rhoads inspired acoustic intro.

Its written by Jeff Keith and Frank Hannon.

Actually Frank Hannon is one of the most underrated guitar heroes ever. Hannon’s grasp of 60’s Rock like The Beatles and Rolling Stones, 70’s rock like Aerosmith and Styx and Kiss, Southern Rock like The Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd, 80’s rock and metal, rhythm and blues, plus technical shredding is impressive and makes him a complete player. An MVP to have in your team.  Of course there was also Tommy Skeoch who could also play.

Once that acoustic intro is over, there is a D pedal point ringing throughout, while Hannon plays diads on the high B and E strings.

So you think that it’s over
That your love has finally reached the end
Any time you call, night or day
I’ll be right there for you when you need a friend, yeah

You see, love is not just what you do in bed. It’s a person to laugh with, a person to challenge you and offer different viewpoints, a person to share experiences with, a person to be there for you, a person to listen and a person to help you be a better version of who you are.

Love is all around you, yeah
Love is knocking’ outside your door
Waiting’ for you is this love made just for two
Keep an open heart and you’ll find love again, I know

Damn right, but people don’t know it or refuse to see it, because they have seen love involving roses, fancy trips and so many other dollar crunching events. But the truth is, love is free. It doesn’t really cost anything. And if you are alone in your house, feeling lonely, well guess what, there is another like you, looking for a connection.

So ignore all the social media friends who boast about how great their life is, because the cold hard truth is this, every single one of us in insecure.

Then the first guitar solo begins. A lot of people talk up the “November Rain” solos from Slash, but goddamn, Frank Hannon delivers here a solo full of emotion, vocal melodies and perfect phrasing.

And the ending begins about love finding a way back to you. It always does. Then another solo begins under the vocal melody. It doesn’t take away from it, it supplements it.

And this song keeps finding a way back to me.

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Mean Town Red House At The Crossroads

There is a Guitar World interview from July 1989 with Jake E Lee and it goes into a little section called “JAKE’S TOP FIVE GUITAR SOLOS”. It just lists the songs and that’s it.

With the interview being conducted during the Badlands promotion campaign, I wasn’t surprised at the top 5 at all and the focus on blues.

Red House – Hendrix In The West [Reprise] 1971 – Jimi Hendrix

Artists once upon a time very rarely played the studio cut live. The live show was a chance to jam, be free and have fun. Jimi Hendrix was a huge innovator in that department.

Crossroads – Wheels Of Fire [Polydor] 1968 – Eric Clapton

This is a live version of “Crossroads” in which Clapton sings and goes all pentatonic.

Since I’ve Been Loving You – Led Zeppelin III [Atlantic] – Jimmy Page

I don’t know any guitarist who hasn’t been affected by Jimmy Page. Even the new up and comers will be exposed to a Jimmy Page riff or lick or song. And Page is another innovator when it comes to the live show and jamming.

Mean Town Blues – Johnny Winter and Live [Columbia] 1971 – Johnny Winter

The blues is repetitive, especially these days when everything is available instantly, but it provided a canvas of opportunity once upon a time. Bands built careers on 12 bar blues romps.

Stratus – Spectrum album by Billy Cobham [Atlantic] 1973 – Tommy Bolin

Tommy Bolin was a huge talent that was lost to the music world very early. His understanding of jazz and rock and roll was impressive.

Also check out the bass line on this song.

I still think his best work came with his solo albums and his work with Deep Purple.

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Attention

Everything happens at once.

You get a message on WhatsApp, on Messenger, a normal SMS, a blog post notification, a voice mail, an email, a Slack mention, a phone call, while you are listening to music with the earpiece in one ear and you are carrying out a conversation with a work colleague or a family member or a friend.

This is a crisis, and its real.

We have to choose on what to focus on, as our attention is a scarce resource. We need to find ways to use it wisely because every single human being gets the same amount of attention to spend each day, but some use it better than others and have an ability to focus on getting stuff done.

While others just waste their time on their smartphones or gaming or watching streaming TV. Imagine if all that time wasted on your smartphone scrolling the social media feed was money.

Would you waste your money like that?  

On absolutely nothing.

I suppose the question to be asked is, how do we want to live each day?

Do we want to live to just get through the day, and tomorrow will be another day to get through?  

And then what happens?

We’ve gone through all the days and lived the same as all the previous days. Is this a life fulfilled?

But what would happen if we saw each day as an opportunity to do something different, just for 10 minutes, instead of a task in a process.

How would that feel 12 months from now?

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The Record Vault – Bon Jovi From 2000 to 2009

After a very limited release schedule of new music in the 90s, Bon Jovi became a different beast at the start of the 2000’s releasing more frequently. Almost yearly.

Was it the Napster effect?

100% it was.

When fans of music could get their music fix for free or by cherry picking from the iTunes Store, it meant the old business model of living off the royalties of your past successes and releasing music every two to five years was challenged and a new way was needed. Suddenly not a lot of people wanted the album, just the “hits”.

And because of the internet, people moved on to different artists and sounds quicker than ever before. So in order to stay relevant and in the public conversation, artists had to release more frequently. Which Bon Jovi did.

There was no escaping “Crush” released in 2000. “It’s My Life” was everywhere and Bon Jovi had another Super Bowl title win with this song. It’s no surprise that the hitmeister of the day, Max Martin co-wrote the song, in the same way Desmond Child co-wrote a lot of the Jovi hits back in the 80s and early 90s. I even got “Collectors Edition 05686”, whatever that means.

And I got all the singles from this album because they had so many unreleased tracks on them. Check em out.

“One Wild Night Live 1985–2001” came out in 2001 and I purchased it, to hear Jovi, still firing on all cylinders.

“Bounce” released in 2002 is one of my favorite Jovi albums. There is a lot of Dropped D riffing, it’s heavy and it’s angry. It’s written post September 11 and everyone who saw those images of the planes hitting the towers could forget em.

And I purchased the singles because they had a lot of B sides to them. Something that Jovi was doing really well.

“This Left Feels Right” came out in 2003. Sambora went to town here, re-interpreting all the classics in an acoustic folky way.

“100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” is one hell of a box set, released in 2004. This is the jewel in the Jovi crown. There is so much history on this.

“Have a Nice Day” came out in 2005 and it had some cool tunes on it as well. I’ve got the Aus Edition with bonus tracks and a DVD I haven’t played.

“Lost Highway” released in 2007 was interesting, because I liked it. I liked the ballsy change to country rock.

“The Circle” was released in 2009 and after the GFC so it had songs on it about the working man doing it tough. It was interesting how people took offense to Jovi even attempting to write an album like this while he was so far removed from the working man.

Regardless, it still had some cool tunes on it and I was still on board.

Coming up is my Jovi collection from 2010 to 2020.

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Revelation (Mother Earth)

So Ozzy gets fired from Sabbath because he’s apparently more wasted than the rest of the other guys in the band, and while he is wasted in L.A, all the people around him, manage to put a band together which involves Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake.

And this separation between Ozzy and Sabbath wasn’t just tied to this band.

All of the bands that had success in the 70’s went through this. Aerosmith was experiencing their own dramas amongst wasted members, along with Kiss, UFO, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Eagles and Styx. Deep Purple was already done, while Rainbow already experienced a turnover of musicians.

The record labels were always looking for their next cash cows and so many bands had artists in there, that could be successful on their own, so the sway of the dollar was causing a huge turnover of personnel. Ronnie James Dio is a perfect case, from Elf to Rainbow to Black Sabbath to Dio.

And from all of these movements of personnel, the Blizzard Of Ozz band came to be and man, they created some memorable masterpieces.

“Revelation (Mother Earth)” appeared on the “Blizzard of Ozz” album from 1980. But the definitive version is from the “Tribute” live album released in 1987 as the tempo is increased a little bit, plus you get the fake crowd noises added which weren’t really there and you get recut vocals from Ozzy.

Bob Daisley wrote the lyrics about how we are destroying our own planet. I guess not much has changed since 1979. Forty years later, the planet is definitely on a highway to hell and we keep finding ways to fuck it up. Some of the lyrics reference the book of Revelations in the bible and the word “Mother” in the title came from a John Lennon song called “Mother”.

The intro/verse riff from 0.00 to 1.24 is just pure Randy Rhoads. A classical piece, it can be a little song within a song. It’s timeless and it doesn’t sound dated at all.  

Mother please forgive them
For they know not what they do
Looking back in history’s books
It seems it’s nothing new
Oh let my mother live

How much more can Mother Earth forgive and forget?

In Australia we have just come out of fires and endless days of smoke haze and poor air quality only to enter into severe rain and flooding.

Heaven is for heroes
And hell is full of fools
Stupidity, no will to live
They’re breaking god’s own rules
Please let my mother live

Everything is a balance. Screw up the balance and things change.

Father, of all creation
I think we’re all going wrong
The course they’re taking
Seems to be breaking
And it won’t take too long

As a society, people are trying to move to more sustainable models, but nothing is easy when big business is involved. And people’s livelihoods are at stake here as well, who work in these industries. Then you have other countries who just don’t care, who will just burn their rubbish. If you travel, you would have seen it.

Children of the future
Watching empires fall
Madness the cup they drink from
Self-destruction the toll

Every great empire has fallen. Alexander’s Empire disintegrated, the Roman Empire fell, the British Empire is no more and currently, some of the large democratic countries are showing similarities to the Empires of the past, just before they crumbled.

I had a vision, I saw the world burn
And the seas had turned red (seas had turned red)
The sun had fallen, the final curtain
In the land of the dead

Those pictures from Australia got traction all around the world. There was no need for Photoshop to enhance the destruction as mother nature’s fury was enough.

Mother, please show the children
Before it’s too late (before it’s too late)
To fight each other, there’s no one winning
We must fight all the hate (must fight all the hate)

It’s too late. All the different races and colours still hate each other. All the ones who seek profit over nature, will lie and scheme to get their way.

Then 03.03 to 3.21 just before the acoustic interlude.

Then from the 5 minute mark to the end is just brilliant. It is a merge of heavy riffing and classical / baroque influenced lead break that twists and turns into each other.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Progress Is Derivative – What The!! – It’s Not Okay To Show Your Influences

Led Zeppelin became the biggest rock act in the world. They wrote songs based on their influences and some songs even sounded like the songs they were influenced by. From traveling the world, they were also exposed to exotic sounds and as technology got better, to new sounds.

Suddenly, thousands of wannabe guitarists and singers and drummers and bass players started to copy the licks and melodies and beats of the mighty Zep, forming an influential bond with the music, much in the same way, the members of Zep allowed other artists and songs to influence their music and melodies.

And Zeppelin wasn’t just an act with a geographical location. Their music was everywhere and there was no way that any teenager in the 70’s could escape the sounds of the Zep. Fast forward into the mid 80’s and suddenly a lot of bands on record deals had a lot of musical passages in their songs which paid homage to Zeppelin and in some cases too much homage. But Zeppelin never sued. These derivative versions of songs based on Zep cuts actually increased the value of the Zep cuts.

I’ve been listening to some songs recently, and the resemblance to other songs is a beautiful thing to hear. I know that these kinds of similarities are bringing forth a lot of court cases in pop music where a jury is asked to decide what is plagiarism and what isn’t.

In the Cult’s song “Peace Dog”, the middle part section has a similarity which comes from the “Stairway to Heaven” section before the solo section kicks in.

And on the topic of Led Zep, no one can forget Kingdom Come. “Get It On” basically lifted the whole “Kashmir” chord progression, and “What Love Can Be” is similar to “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and “The Rain Song”. Regardless, Kingdom Come made me want to listen to Led Zeppelin.

Whitesnake broke through in the 80’s on the backs of MTV and a sound that rivalled the Sunset Strip, but when they started off on the blues rock journey, David Coverdale was channelling Led Zeppelin in “Trouble”. Coverdale even looked like Plant and sounded a lot like him on this cut and along with Sykes they brought the Led Zep sound, filling the void for a lot of fans of that music.

And this was okay, to show your influences and pay homage to styles.

But Copyright kept changing and evolving, because the corporations kept pushing for perpetual laws, as they knew that if they lost the copyrights to valuable recordings and songs, they would be losing money.

And by pushing for laws that lasted 70 years after the death of the creator, it also meant that the heirs of the creator would also benefit as a by-product. And the heirs are now taking from the hand that gave them the right, because if copyright terms stayed the same (28 year term (14 years with the option to renew for another 14) or if the artist died before the 28 years, on death), the majority of these court cases would not even exist, because the songs would be in the public domain.

But it was still okay to show your influences and pay homage, because the record labels and publishers still paid the heirs and the artists for their rights, as the labels made 300% more profit due to CD sales. But when the record labels stopped paying, as mp3 ripping and then digital downloads and then streaming took over, suddenly, there was a problem for the artists or the heirs/organisations who owned the copyrights. The payments ceased or became dramatically less.

So with a combination of Copyright law changes and a change to the distribution model, a new situation was created with lawsuit after lawsuit, because every artist or heirs of the artist feels that their work is so original and free from influence, that they must be compensated.

And suddenly it wasn’t okay to show your influences or pay homage. But all progress made in music was to build on what came before.

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