Category Archives: Influenced

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

Machine Head – Is Anybody Out There?

It blows me away the amount of negativity towards Machine Head.

Just reading a comments thread to anything Machine Head related and you get the usual comments like;

“Wow. Not only is Rob still trying to push a beef with Phil, he is trying to make money off it, with some Burning Red rap-rock sounding garbage. Waiting for him and Machine head to get out the Wanna-be Korn garb again.”
METAL INJECTION

“Wow. Quite the statement Robb. I’m really beginning to lose respect for Flynn with his incessant social justice rants. Gimme a break. Crap song too.”
METAL INJECTION

“I really hate the new Machine Head track, “Is There Anybody Out There?” – Any normal metal head alive, ever.”
METAL INJECTION

“Cuck Metal! A new genre for SJW Faggots.”
METAL INJECTION

“They grab Deep Purple’s iconic album title as their name, then the name of a classic Pink Floyd track from The Wall for their single…what’s next, an album called “Appetite for Destruction (Use Your Illusion)”?”
BLABBERMOUTH

“rob flynn, short fake tough guy…another boring metal song.
where’s the creativity??? come the fuck on flynn, i hope someone steals his guitar.”
BLABBERMOUTH

“Yes, Robb, somebody is out there. She returned your Dime guitar. Stop acting all lonely and kick some ass Blackening style.”
BLABBERMOUTH

“is this a greenday song”
BLABBERMOUTH

“Monster magnet called they want their lyrical phrasing back from the dopes to infinity song. When did machine head get a keyboard player? Weak as fuck song”
BLABBERMOUTH

“Ah yes….the guy who spewed racial slurs in the past himself, hoping on the high horse. Sorry Robb, but you showed your true colors, dropping a few racial slurs yourself and laughing when Gary Holt and Jeff Hanneman were photographed doing the Nazi salute”
BLABBERMOUTH

So, I’m listening to the new song “Is There Anybody Out There?”

And as you have seen above, a lot of comments on Machine Head taking an album title as a band name and then taking a song title of another band as their own song title. There is a lot of entitlement happening here.

Words are words, and the phrase “Is Anybody Out There?” has really been around for a very long time, and long before Pink Floyd used it for a song title.

Anyway, back to the song.

It’s different. Dare I say it’s a punk rock song. The whole verse structure is reminiscent of a punk rock song merged with a Rammstein vibe. The chorus is arena rock/metal and overall, it’s a pretty good and enjoyable listen.

As a guitarist I would have loved a lead break, but the lack of one doesn’t detract from the song in any way. It’s a fucking good song and a lot better than some of the stuff that has come out of late.

On the press release, Robb Flynn said that “the song is about love, loneliness, racism, and not getting what is going on in the world, or America. It’s very much about current events, but it applies to a bigger picture.”

I was born as a bastard, no father, no master,
A shadow in silence left searching for answers
Put up for adoption and left with no option
Another kid fostered to fester forgotten

It’s deep and personal. A lot of unresolved issues are still festering.

Is there anybody out there?
Anybody listening to me?
Is anybody else scared?
The paranoia, drops me to my knees
Does anybody feel lonely?
Disconnected from the things I see
Is there anybody out there?
Anybody out there just like me?
I’m choking on these words and I can’t breathe

Based on the chorus the song could have had many titles. Once upon a time, before the world-wide web, we all asked the same question. Is there anybody out there that feels and thinks just like me? We thought that once we got more connected, those feelings would pass. Instead we feel disconnected even more.

Now I stand as a father, to men with no honor
Ashamed of the racists I used to call brothers
Cause no flag can mean bravery,
when bloodied by slavery,
The rebel, a devil, disguised as a savior
And the sickening feeling in the air
Is the fear to speak that no one dares

The verse that has coped a lot of criticism. I have no idea why. It’s easy to make a connection to Anselmo, but man, the whole world has blood on their hands when it comes to racism. Racial discrimination is ripe in every walk of life and circle of life. Maybe its people just hating on Robb for wearing an orange jumpsuit once upon a time.

The question I hear a lot is what should Machine Head sound like. They have covered a lot of musical ground when it comes to their sound. Some popular and some not so popular.  There is no denying that the trajectory they have taken since 2003 has been fantastic as they pursued thrash metal and technical thrash metal. And then on the last album and this new song, they scale back a little bit.

Is that a bad thing?

Not at all. As long as Robb Flynn keeps making music, I’m fucking buying. Rock On. \::/

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Haken – Affinity

It’s a new game.

Every artist should be aiming at getting their music on a playlist like Spotify’s Discover Weekly Playlist. It’s a playlist that artists and their record label can’t buy in too. YET. Maybe in the future, a spot in the playlist could be cemented for a fee. But not right now.

For those that don’t know, the Discover Weekly Playlist recommends songs and artists to me based on what others have listened to that I’ve listened to as well. This is where discovery happens and to be discovered, an artist needs to be everywhere, especially on a streaming service.

“The Endless Knot” from Haken came into my Spotify Discovery playlist a few weeks ago and it got me interested in Haken.

A week later I am listening to their new album “Affinity” and enjoying every minute of it.

It’s all about moods for me and Haken have caught me in my prog mood.

Throughout the history of prog, bands fell into a few categories, pre-determined by King Crimson, Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd and ELP.

Dream Theater successfully and commercially merged hard rock and metal with Rush, U2, Pink Floyd and Yes influences. And from that union, you had bands that followed the DT route.

Fates Warning started off as a metal band that got technical and progressive as they matured. Their style would morph even more in the Nineties and two thousands. And you had bands that followed that route.

Meanwhile, Tool would take the King Crimson and Pink Floyd route. And you had many bands that followed that route.

Then you had math rock and math metal bands and the many bands that followed that route.

And it was rare for bands to intertwine the different styles.

Eventually Porcupine Tree came out in the Nineties and had a sound that merged a lot of the above different styles. Then they went into a more pop direction via “Trains” and “Lazarus”. Great songs by the way.

However it was Fates Warning very underrated “Disconnect” album released in 2000 that combined all the various styles into one cohesive package and “Affinity” is another album that combines so many different elements of the prog genre into a cohesive and enjoyable package.

I was actually shocked when I found out “Affinity” is the fourth studio album.

See how hard it is to be heard above the noise and if it wasn’t for the Discover Playlist, I still wouldn’t know about the band.

So what I know about them is from Wikipedia. Formed in 2007 by To-Mera guitarist/keyboardist Richard Henshall and the name “Haken” was derived under the influence of alcohol or weed while in high school. I do remember listening to some music from To-Mera due to an ad in the PROG magazine from Classic Rock but I can’t remember any tracks.

In digging for information I was blown away by the work effort of Richard Henshall. Check it out below.

2008: Haken – Enter the 5th Dimension (demo)
2009: To-Mera – Earthbound (EP)
2010: Haken – Aquarius
2011: Haken – Visions
2011: Opinaut – Oxygen (EP)
2012: To-Mera – Exile
2013: Haken – The Mountain
2014: Haken – Restoration (EP)
2016: Haken – Affinity

Compared to the global superstars of the MTV era, he is a still an unknown entity, but even though he might not have the dollar riches, he does have the musical riches. And he is still making music. Looks like he missed the memo from Gene Simmons to pack up his guitars and become a technologist or go work in the financial sector.

“Initiate” 

It sounds like Karnivool. Nothing new, but a great listen.

I observe a world jarring in turmoil
A million people waging war at the hands of a god

It’s human history since the dawn of time. How many wars in the name of a god?

I’ll do things you can’t conceive
There’ll be no strings on me

Free will is an illusion. We believe we have it, but there are so many strings and chains attached to it, we actually have nothing.

“1985”

It comes in at 9 minutes long. Guitarist, Charlie Griffiths sent the band the initial version. He was inspired by listening to the music of Toto, Vince DiCola (Rocky music director) and Van Halen. It’s got heaps of 80’s electronica sounds, heaps of Vince DiCola montages and heaps of Dream Theater bits. Some seem ripped off. It’s totally unoriginal and yet it sounds original. Overall, it’s a pretty good song and it’s the one that sticks out the most and my favourite of the lot.

I stand map in hand
Direction misaligned
I play my role
With the cast of a die

The person in the song has a map but they cannot make sense of where to go. It’s because their steps are controlled by unseen puppet masters, faceless people who corrupt and infiltrate every facet of government and our lives.

My first step
Was undertaken aimlessly
Yet I arrive
As if I’m meant to be

How many of us walk away from a job that pays well to follow a dream from our youths?

The answer is not many. And our lives are determined by wages coming in just to pay loans, credit cards and other bills. Like the lyric states, we arrive to the place of servitude like it was meant to be.

Did I decide
Or did the road choose me?

As mentioned above, free will is an illusion. We believe we have it, but it ceases to exist when we start to follow the rules set by institutions.

“The Architect”

Almost 16 minutes long.

Message on a screen before me
Caught a glimpse of the ending to our story
‘I’m sorry I haven’t called you recently’

Are the lyrics talking about a break up via a text message?

Me thinks so. That’s communication in the modern world.

You turned your back on affinity
Now it’s turned to toxicity

The promise of being together forever has turned toxic.

Delete all obsolete memories
Shores of tranquillity
My monastery

All of those memories that a person needs to forget when a relationship goes sour. The longer the relationship the harder it is.

Omnipresent endless knot
The architect of every thought
Through the prison walls made by your design
A chameleon hides behind Orwellian eyes

Omnipresent means to be present everywhere, like a god, the universe or some other divine being that watches and controls all. The endless knot is an ancient symbol that shows lines interweaving with each other, and although all existence is bound by time and change, it all still rests within the Divine and Eternal lines of the symbol.

So the lyrics are stating that “The Architect” of our thoughts is an omnipresent chameleon that watches and dictates our ideas and lives.

“The Endless Knot”

The shepherd led, we blindly followed
Into the world of no tomorrow

We grow up believing that people have good intentions. However, life and society is more complicated. And the shepherds we follow have all been corrupted by money and greed.

Break me down to pieces
And strip me of my freedom

It’s like when you get a mortgage. Your freedom is stripped. Until you pay that mortgage off, you have none of it. And with each pay cheque, the system just breaks us down a little bit at a time.

We need a story to believe in
We need a hero to prevail

That’s why TV shows are ruling the entertainment industry. The story develops over 10 to 15, 1 hour episodes instead of a 2 hour movie.

Give “Affinity” a listen. I still am. It still keeps me interested. Eventually I will dig in to the earlier stuff. But not right now. “Affinity” has my attention.

I feel like it’s the 80’s, where you buy the album and listen to it over and over again. Then you save up some cash and purchase an earlier album. But that could take months or years in some cases.

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Plagiarism

“There was really just one song ever written and that was by Adam and Eve. We just do variations”

Keith Richards as he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in 1993.

That my friends is music in a nutshell. All forms of art is inspired by the past. And then corporations came looking to profit from art and they lobbied the governments of the time to start writing laws. These laws would get enhanced until it got to a stage where the laws only benefit the corporation that controls/holds the copyright of the artist.

The word plagiarism in music is a dirty word.

If you look at a dictionary like the MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE DICTIONARY, plagiarise means;

  • to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own – Isn’t this what Sharon Osbourne did in Ozzy’s name for “Bark At The Moon”. Bob Daisley and Jake E. Lee wrote the album and Sharon had Ozzy listed as the sole songwriter.
  • to use (another’s production) without crediting the source – Isn’t this what Metallica did with “Enter Sandman” and “Welcome Home”. Kingdom Come did it. Every British Rock Invasion did it with the Blues of the 30’s and 40’s.
  • to commit literary theft – Isn’t this is what Robert Plant did with some of his Led Zeppelin lyrics.
  • to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source – Isn’t this is the whole history of music. There is a pretty good chance that latest album of your favourite artist was influenced in sound and feel by songs of the past.

In music, if you play the notes A, B, C right after each other, you are technically playing the first three notes of a musical scale. And there is a 100% chance that those same three notes will appear in someone else’s song or have already appeared in a song written in the past.

So should we credit the person that came up with the Aeolian scale thousands of years ago for those three notes?

But if I was writing an essay I am required to credit anything that is the same as something that came before.

But what about the millions of songs that have A, B, C in a lead break or in a vocal melody or in a riff?

See how silly it gets when you start to use a scholarly term like plagiarism in music. Based on it’s dictionary meaning, then plagiarism has been around in music since the dawn of time.

But plagiarism is relevant these days because our culture believes it owns everything. We believe our ideas and words and stories are so original, we worry that others will “steal” them from us in some way and make millions of dollars from them, while we make nothing.

The fact that other people in the world are thinking the same ideas or writing similar words or living a life similar to ours, doesn’t even come into the equation.

And while plagiarism does exist in academic/literature circles, it really doesn’t exist in music. Because music is a sum of what came before it. If certain songs sound too similar, then that is copyright infringement and it exists in music.

That is what Vanilla Ice did when he lifted the bass line from “Under Pressure” and called it “Ice, Ice Baby”.

But when I hear Five Finger Death Punch lift the vocal melody from “The Ultimate Sin” and re-use it for two lines in an eight line verse in “Lift Me Up”, I call that “influenced by music that came before to create something new.” In other words, it is a derivative work.

But with so much money in music, especially around hit songs, the lines of inspiration have been reclassified as theft/plagiarism. Copyright infringement is now all about censorship and piracy.

And what you have is a jury of non-music experts setting precedents that blur the lines even more. And you have heirs of artists suing to protect their pension incomes, when the songs their deceased parent or grandparent wrote, should be in the PUBLIC DOMAIN as Copyright intended them to be.

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Sixx AM – Prayers For The Damned Vol. 1

“When we were making this album, the idea came from touring “Modern Vintage.” We just wished we had more of the meat and potatoes in our set list, so we started writing an album for touring. Not paying attention to the lyrics and the melody and all that stuff. But in general, it’s like ‘What’s it gonna feel like to play live?’ These are guitar driven songs with strong messages.”
Nikki Sixx

It’s a modern sounding heavy melodic rock album. If the title track was a pop song, expect a lawsuit against it because it has the sound and feel of “The Bleeding” from Five Finger Death Punch. Regardless of the sound and feel, “Prayers For The Damned” is a pretty good fucking song and overall a solid album.

The X-Factor is James Michael.

His voice has so many styles and it adds a modern touch to the band when needed, a pop touch when needed, a classic rock vibe when needed, a funky vibe when needed or his unique falsetto when needed.

I have been a fan of the studio project/now band, since its inception.

“Rise”

It kicks the album off and it has been doing the rounds close to two months now. If charts matter to people, then “Rise” is up there. On Spotify it is approaching a million streams (it has 947,017 streams currently). On YouTube, the lyric video has 296,954 views and the audio only video has 306,617 views. So compared to Spotify, YouTube views pale.

Rise! Get yourselves together
Rise! Stand up and live your life

It’s clichéd and it has been done so many times, however it is always refreshing to hear. The vibe reminds me of 1983 onwards, where so many artists started singing about standing up against the status quo. The riff on the other hand could have appeared on a Shinedown album as it has the feel of “The Sound Of Madness”.

Stand up to the devil slowly rising
Clear your throat now
You can cough for their demise
Speak out, don’t let the status quo define you
This is your world, just put the fear back in their eyes

The band stood up against YouTube and the small payment amounts to artists, asking Google to do the right thing. Meanwhile, artists forget that the reason why YouTube became big and powerful was the labels reluctance to adopt Spotify and other streaming services earlier, especially in the U.S. And is YouTube really the problem when it comes to music. The “Rise” videos do not have any significant views up compared to Spotify. I believe that we, the fans are either official paid streamers or purchasers of mp3’s or CD’s. There is research data out there that supports this position as well.

For a bit of nostalgia, they could have called the song “Shout At The Devil”.

Hey now, don’t be afraid to fight for something
This is your chance, and you can stand for so much more

Dee Snider angst from 1984 is back. It’s an election cycle in the U.S and the anger over the candidates is all over the news. In Australia, the election cycle is also in full swing. We have a Prime Minister who is wealthy and has links to the Panama Papers and a candidate that has shady Union secrets. And we are meant to believe that these people are there to represent us.

“You Have Come to the Right Place”

The song is written around the killer heavy guitar riff from DJ Ashba.

If you’re the last on Earth
Feel like you’re damned or cursed
You have come to the right place

Again it’s the 80’s all over calling all of the hard rock and metal misfits to join together and that there are others in the world just like us.

“I’m Sick”

There was a track by track breakdown over at Billboard.com and Nikki mentioned that he was reading an article in a magazine, when he saw the headline, “I’m Sick, Gimme Some More” and he used the story to finish off a song that musically had been around for a few years.

I say yeah, we are the ill and the deranged
Yeah, I know that I’m sick, give me some more

Actually it’s a brilliant demented lyric and it works really well.

“Prayers for the Damned”

The best track on the album by far and how good are those banshee female vocals.  It’s a perfect dance between beauty and darkness where the main character in the song is pushed to the point of desperation and they don’t know where to reach.

What have I got to lose
When I’ve already lost it all

When you’re at the bottom, the only way is up.

I’m just a creature of a broken past
We’re all looking for a second chance

We have more wrongs than rights in our lives. Thank god for those second chances a thousand times over.

“Better Man”

Is a continuation of “Prayers For The Damned” and covers the demons of self-doubt.

Give me a second chance, I’m gonna make it last

“Can’t Stop”

It has this Pink Floyd “Money” groove in the music merged with “We Will Rock You” from Queen and all built around a chant and a stomping feel. Basically it is brilliant the way it’s all put together as it takes influences from the past and makes the song sound original, modern and unique.

You got blisters on your tongue from all the septic energy

A brilliant way to say, you talk too much shit.

You can’t stop, you cannot stop me

A call to arms.

“When We Were Gods”

It’s a nostalgic song that reflects back to an innocent time of a relationship.

When we were gods, when we were demons
We had it all, we had our reasons

“Belly of the Beast”

This song has a groove that reminds me of “When The Levee Breaks” and DJ Ashba does a wicked job decorating the song. In its simplicity it has a gospel/bluesy feel but man it sounds heavy as hell. But the piece d’resistance again is the banshee female backing vocals in the pre-chorus. t’s brilliant and for a song that took the guys 4 hours to write and record it, it is up there.

Sometimes your only choice is no choice at all
Sometimes the only voice you hear is when the devil calls

Excellent lyrics creating the ‘illusion of free choice’. Remember the line in “The Godfather”, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”. The offer was basically do this or you will die. So really the person had no choice at all.

“Everything Went to Hell”

It’s got a Rammstein “Du Hast” vibe in the verses and chorus and in the solo section it goes to Muse level proportions. Lyrically it deals with an event that happened to James Michael when he walked in on his girlfriend in bed with someone else.

I could’ve loved you to death, but now I dance on your grave

Ahh, the feelings of vengeance of the broken-hearted.

“The Last Time (My Heart Will Hit the Ground)”

It continues the story of “Everything Went To Hell”.

I was a worthless king
My life just didn’t matter
You were a morbid queen
Dancing with this cold cadaver

“Rise of the Melancholy Empire”

 It’s written in response to the terror attacks in Paris and the lyrics were written in a hotel room in Germany after Bataclan.

We will grow strong from this
We will not be defeated
However hard they try
Over and over and over a thousand times

It’s a perfect bookend for an album that started with “Rise! Get yourselves together, Rise! Stand up and live your life”. Looking forward to Volume 2.

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Thrash Musics Three M’s. Metal, Metallica, Mustaine!!

According to “The Guardian”, Metallica is seen as a band that revolutionized the metal genre. According to “The Rolling Stone”, Metallica are kings at everything they do.

Metallica for me was an extreme act when I got into them by the mid Eighties. Extreme in the sense that their style was so departed from the “metal” music I knew, which at that time consisted off bands like Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot. When i first heard the opening riff of “Fight Fire with Fire” I felt like me head got chopped off with a chainsaw. It was brutal. By the time “Ride The Lightning” started with its harmony guitars I was ready to snap my desk in half.

So based on the bands I was listening too, Metallica was pretty extreme. Megadeth even more so. Slayer even more and more so. After that, my tastes became elective and depending on my moods, certain styles would win over the other. In the end, as long as it had distorted guitars, I was into it.

Anyway, there was a story doing the rounds a few weeks ago about how Scott Ian believes that Dave Mustaine is the godfather of thrash music or something along those lines.

And to be honest, I don’t agree with anything Mr Ian says about the internet and piracy, but for this, he is not far off the mark.

All you need to do is hear the songs written on the debut “Kill Em All” album and you will hear that the Dave Mustaine led compositions (“Mechanix/The Four Horseman”, “Jump In The Fire”, “Phantom Lord” and “Metal Militia”) had a certain technical and progressive edge to them.  Especially “Metal Militia” which for a young band full of energy, booze and in Mustaine’s case “drugs” it was a surprise to hear a young act attempt a song with time and tempo changes.

And “Metal Militia” is the style that Metallica went with, up until the Justice album. Technical, progressive thrash metal.

Actually going back even further, you need to look at the songs Hetfield and Ulrich had written prior to Mustaine joining Metallica. “Hit The Lights” was not really thrash metal and more a take on the NWOBHM and a chugging riff that was ripped off from “Detroit Rock City”.

But what about Jeff Hanneman (RIP). To me, the songs he wrote for Slayer are songs that pushed the boundaries of the genre. Thrash metal also had socially relevant lyrics over a bed of chainsaw of guitars and fast drumming. The disenfranchised youth of the blue-collar workers understood this message and suburbia was awash with rebellion and revolutionary ideals.

So even though Metallica (the band) are seen as the leaders of the movement, I think it’s a safe bet to say that Mustaine played a pivotal role in shaping the Metallica style. In turn, they took a lot of the noise happening around them and turned it into a career.

But the term thrash proved to be a barrier to commercial success and by the mid 90’s, the Eighties fans of the thrash bands screamed sell outs as they believed their heroes had abandoned the movement. But as Dylan sings in his songs, you need to keep on rolling, keep on changing and keep on exploring.

We all know what the “Black” album did, however Testament followed suit with “The Ritual”, Megadeth with “Countdown To Extinction”, Anthrax were already experimenting with their sound, moving to a more traditional sound with “Persistence Of Time” and a more modern groove sound with “Sound Of White Noise”. Meanwhile, Slayer delivered a typical Slayer album with “Divine Intervention”. Thrash had re-invented itself as a commercial force.

To say that one band revolutionized a genre is like saying one man invented all of Apple’s products, which we all know is not true. All cultural movements are products of many events coming together but in metal and thrash metal circles, it’s one band that is getting all of the accolades because of their commercial success. And history is written by the winners.

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1982 – Episode VIII – The Final Post

When I started to write about music from 1982, I didn’t expect it to be such a large body of work. Finally after seven parts before this, here is the final part. As with the other posts, this post deals with full albums or just individual songs that couldn’t be escaped, because TV and Radio played them non-stop.

Circus Animals – Cold Chisel

The mighty Chisel’s are rock royalty in Australia.

“East” was their breaking through album and “Circus Animals” proved it wasn’t a fluke. Main songwriter, Walker didn’t want to do a commercial album again, however he didn’t count on the excellent song writing from drummer Steve Prestwich, who contributed “Forever Now” and the spine-tingling “When The War Is Over”.

The working title for the album was “Tunnel Cunts”.

The first single “You Got Nothing I Want” was written by singer Jimmy Barnes. He’s angry at Elektra Records for the lack of support given to Cold Chisel in favour of an unknown LA band called Motley Crue. This grudge would hurt the solo career of Jimmy Barnes in the U.S many years later. But that didn’t stop Barnsey from working with some of the best writers in the U.S. His biggest solo career song, “Working Class Man” was written by Jonathan Cain from Journey.

You got nothing I want
You got nothing I need

The live favourite “Bow River” is up next. Guitarist Ian Moss wrote it and sings it. It’s about a sheep station in the Northern Territory. It was a B-side to one of the singles, however it’s as iconic as the singles.

I don’t wanna see this town no more
Wastin’ my days on a factory floor
First thing you know I’ll be back in Bow River again

The monotonous life of a working person. You don’t want to be at work, but you need to be, as you need money to live, money to pay off debts and keep the wheels turning in your home life.

I been working hard, twelve hours a day
And the money I saved won’t buy my youth again

That’s what the young don’t understand when they are young. Hell, I didn’t. Our youth is only short, so it’s best to enjoy it as much as possible.

Piss all my money up against the damn wall
First thing you know I’ll be back in Bow River again

Damn right, pay-day comes and by the weekend, all of the pay is gone on booze. Today, all the pay is gone on mortgage, credit cards and utilities.

Steve Prestwich (RIP) proved his song writing chops on this album. “Forever Now” is a pop classic with a big sing along chorus.

“When The War Is Over” is brilliant.

When the war is over
Got to get away
Pack my bag to no place
In no time no day

How can I go home and not get
Blown away

There was a time when we paid for our albums and we didn’t own many because of it. So what we purchased we played until the songs became a part of us. Cold Chisel was such a band that people made room for in their wallets and their songs and their words are a part of us.

The J. Geils Band – Centerfold

The single came in September, 1981 but it didn’t really get traction until February 1982, so based on that fact, it is in my 1982 list. The J. Geils band never had another hit after it. Written by Seth Justman, we all know what the story of the song is. And even back in 1982, it was all about the big single.

In Australia this song was played regularly until the early nineties and then it stopped when the sounds of Seattle became popular. And 35 years later it is still relevant, because it renews it’s listeners with each generation due to the tongue in cheek lyrics.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n Roll

The song is written Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker of Arrows, who released their version in 1975. And it did nothing, until 1982.

Enter Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and MTV and what we have is another big single selling a so-so album..

The video clip was a constant and as a by-product, sales of the single continued to climb. And to this day, I still haven’t heard the album the song was on.

The beat was goin’ strong, Playin’ my favorite song

This is another song that will keep on keeping forever and a day. Guitar Hero brought it back into the public conversation and Britney Spears cover of it, for better or worse brought it even further back into the conversation.

Don Henley – I Cant Stand Still

I heard this song for the first time, thirty plus years after it’s release. What a groove. I had no idea what this song is about. But thanks to Google you can research it and Don Henley was going through his separation when he wrote this song with Danny Kortchmar. And once you know the source, you understand where he is coming from in the lyrics.

And baby, I can’t stand still (while he’s holding you)
I can’t stand (while he’s kissing you)

Don Henley – Long Way Home

It’s got this Jersey Springsteen vibe happening that I dig. Like “I Can’t Stand Still”, I heard this song just recently.

There’s three sides to every story, baby
There’s yours and there’s mine and the cold, hard truth

Amen. Ain’t that the truth.

We all have our own versions of truth, and if each event was captured on film to be viewed later, all of our versions would be different to what the footage shows.

Joey Scarbury – Believe It or Not

It’s from the album “America’s Greatest Hero”. It was released in 1981, but it was still heard well into 1985. The TV show kept it in the conversation. It’s clichéd “inspirational lyrics” are just to clichéd but I guarantee you that everyone who heard the song remembers it.

The actual performer didn’t even write it. The song is written by Mike Post (music) and Stephen Geyer (lyrics).

Believe it or not I’m walking on air
I never thought I could feel so free
Flying away on a wing and a prayer, who could it be?
Believe it or not it’s just me

Queen – Hot Space

This is the album where Brian May just went missing. There is hardly any guitar on the album. It pops up in some songs here and there, but instead of it being used as a centrepiece for the songs, May holds back and decorates each song, like tinsel on a Christmas Tree.

Production wise, my ears just can’t escape the midi triggered drums in the early Eighties “mainstream” acts. It really dates the music back to a certain era.

“Under Pressure” is the one that most people would know. A co-write with David Bowie who also performs on it. The bass riff is iconic and it proved to be a hit twice, once in 1982 and again in 1990 when Vanilla Ice pinched the whole bass riff for “Ice, Ice Baby” and then claimed in court that he came up with it.

It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming “let me out”

I don’t know the exact meaning of the song from the bands point of view is, but the above words are truth. We know what this world is about and for a lot of us it gets too much.

Why can’t we give love that one more chance?

It’s because we get burned from it too many times. From a relationship point of view, it’s easier to be alone then to go through new relationships, making new friendships, while you are upset at the same time that some of the old friendships are lost. From a society point of view, “love” never existed. There is always hate, jealousy and envy.

Chicago – Hard To Say I’m Sorry

I had no idea who sang this song when it came out, but it was everywhere. If it sounds like a Toto song, it’s because Steve Lukather plays guitar on the song and David Paich and Steve Porcaro play synths.

Producer David Foster, who also co-wrote the song with vocalist Peter Cetera played piano on the song, while Cetera performed vocals and played bass guitar and acoustic guitar.

Everybody needs a little time away
I had to say, from each other

Damn right.

Cheap Trick – If You Want My Love

I dig this song. It’s the pre-chorus that hooks me in.

Written by guitarist Rick Nielsen, it’s got melodies all over it.

Lonely is only a place
You don’t know what it’s like

How cool is the line?

Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra

Boy, did Steve Miller become fab again after his Hall of Fame speech. But that was two weeks ago and today, its like it never existed.

Steve Miller wrote an infectious song and it was good enough to knock Chicago off the number 1 spot.

Abra-abracadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya

I got no idea what it means, but it sticks.

Keep me burnin’ for your love
With the touch of a velvet glove

Again, I got no idea why the touch had to be from a velvet glove, but it rhymes and it sticks.

A Flock of Seagulls – I Ran (So Far Away)

Even as a metal/rock head, I still dig this song. It was number 1 in Australia for a few weeks. That Chorus is just arena rock, but the feel of the song is new wave.

It was produced by Mike Howlett, who was becoming the in-demand producer for the new-wave bands. Sort of like how Tom Werman and Keith Olsen became the in-demand producers in the 80’s for hard rock bands.

A cloud appears above your head
A beam of light comes shining down on you
Shining down on you
The cloud is moving nearer still
Aurora Borealis comes in view

Using the “Northern Lights” as the lights of the departed. Well, that’s how I view the song’s lyrics.

Reached out a hand to try again
I’m floating in a beam of light with you
A beam of light with you

And I ran, I ran so far away
I just ran, I ran all night and day

John Cougar Mellencamp – American Fool

It was a huge album created under duress and record label pressures.

The record company wanted a certain Neil Diamond sounding record. After spending three months in the studio, Mellencamp had 20 songs recorded. The label A&R rep came in, heard it and hated it. Album cuts, “Jack & Diane”, “Hand To Hold On To” and “Weakest Moments” were part of these 20 songs. The label halted the project. They considered getting in a new producer. They considered dropping Mellencamp from the roster. In the end, they gave the green light for Mellencamp to write some more songs however they wanted to hear the demos before they gave the OK to record them in a studio.

The end product is Mellencamp’s commercial breakthrough. “Hurts So Good” and “Jack & Diane” are cultural songs.

“Hurts So Good” is written with childhood friend George Green.

Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good

Said in a way that wasn’t R-rated.

Up next is “Jack & Diane” that little ditty about two American kids growing up in the heartland.

Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin’ is gone, they walk on

And that’s right. A lot of people don’t seem to realise those High School highs and good times have never come around again. But life goes on and your sense of duty to yourself and family takes over.

Daryl Hall and John Oates – H2O

They didn’t look metal at all, but they could write songs.

“Maneater” is from their eleventh studio album and the song is written by Hall, Oates and Sara Allen.

She’s deadly, man
And she could really rip your world apart

It’s like Phil Lynott wrote the lyrics.

“At Tension” has this bass synth riff that if played on distorted guitar its heavy as. It’s written by John Oates. It’s over 6 minutes long, far removed from the pop format. You needed the album to hear this album cut.

I’d like to join the army
Don’t want to join the war
I’d take my place in line hell (hell)

We keep on marching forward
Never will retreat

Words apart from the single “Maneater”.

Duran Duran – Hungry Like the Wolf

I never gave this band a chance in the 80’s purely on their look. It was when “Come Undone” came out that I decided I needed to check em out a little bit more. So “Rio” is their second album and “Hungry Like The Wolf” is the song that launched it. There is no denying that the riff is hard rock to a tee. It was all over the TV stations in Australia.

I’m on the hunt, I’m after you

Stalker???

Me thinks so.

Earth, Wind & Fire – Let’s Groove

I am pretty sure the album “Raise” came out in 1981, however I haven’t heard the album. This song was all also all over the TV music stations in Australia. The single did come in 1982. I dig it, its funky and as the title states, groovy.

Let’s groove tonight
Share the spice of life
Baby, slice it right
We’re gonna groove tonight

Cocaine????

Me thinks so.

Goanna – Spirit Of Place

“Solid Rock” is the song.

We couldn’t escape it in Australia. It kicks off with a didgeridoo intro and a brilliant guitar riff that reminds me of the “Sultans of Swing” from Dire Straits for some reason. It reached #2 in Australia and charted in the US. According to Wikipedia, the inspiration came to vocalist Shane Howard on a ten-day camping trip at Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) during 1980 where he had a “spiritual awakening” which brought “the fire in the belly” to the surface over injustices to Australia’s indigenous peoples.

They were standin’ on the shore one day, Saw the white sails in the sun
Wasn’t long before they felt the sting, white man, white law, white gun
Don’t tell me that it’s justified, ’cause somewhere, someone lied
Yeah well someone lied, someone lied, genocide

Yep, Australia’s settlement history is pretty much summed up above. And to this day, 200 plus years later, there is still a lot of debate about it.

INXS – Shabooh Shoobah

Mark Opitz produced “Circus Animals” for Cold Chisel and then moved on to “Shabooh Shoobah” from Inxs. This is the version of INXS before they topped the Billboard charts six years later. It is this album that gave INXS their major label deal in the U.S.

The closer “Don’t Change” was the song that made me a fan. It was a “hit” song without being a hit. Richie Sambora played it live, when he appeared at the Enmore Theatre.

Don’t change for you
Don’t change a thing for me

Damn right, let’s love each other for who we are.

Loverboy – Working For The Weekend

Yeah I know the album was released in 1981, but the single “Working For The Weekend” was released in January 1982 in Australia, so for me it’s a 1982 album.

Everybody’s working for the weekend
Everybody wants a new romance
Everybody’s going off the deep end
Everybody needs a second chance, oh

And like the song “Bow River” from Cold Chisel, once the weekend is over, we’ll be back at Bow River again for the Monday shift.

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Copyright, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

What If Led Zeppelin Decided To Start Taking Bands To Court for Copying Them?

The “Stairway To Heaven” case is the tip of the iceberg for cases like this.

Mark my words, Metallica (or the corporations who will own the Metallica copyrights in the years ahead) will be sued for plagiarism by the corporations and heirs of artists from the NWOBHM movement that Metallica used on their first three albums, and the California skate-punk band they ripped off for “Enter Sandman”.

Remember Copyright was designed to encourage creativity, but in the hands of corporations and heirs of the actual creators (who never should have held the Copyright of a deceased artist), copyright is now building up to have the opposite effect, “discouraging, rather than stimulating, music creativity.”

As the Conversation article states;

“I don’t think that it is appropriate to consider the act of devising a tune that simply has the same “feel” and “groove” as another as copyright infringement. This is how music creativity often works. Musicians frequently build upon earlier arrangements and styles, and so the increasing occurrence of cases such as these should give us pause.”

“Borrowing from earlier pieces is a structural element of music creation in many genres (a tune cannot always be created from scratch by just improvising). Classical music composers such as Handel, Beethoven, Shubert, Mozart, Bach and Puccini all significantly borrowed from earlier colleagues. The same holds true for jazz (which has built upon popular music and opera), rockabilly (influenced by country), rhythm and blues (which derives from boogie-woogie and gospel) and the Jamaican music scene (where traditionally covering and arranging each other’s tunes was widespread and largely accepted).”

Now, the term “original” means “not the same as anything or anyone else and therefore special and interesting”. It would be difficult to find a musician who has never listened to music written by someone else.

And yes, there are artists that did do something that “sounded not like anything else”, however if you take away the sonics, the root notes of every song are tied back to a composition that came before it and so forth. Even the evil sounding tri-tone made famous in the song “Black Sabbath” has its roots to classical music. The whole British Rock invasion of the Sixties was tied to the American blues of the Thirties.

It’s pretty safe to say that the majority of music out there is unoriginal.

Just think of how many metal and hard rocks songs have a riff over an A pedal point or an E pedal point that sounds similar in feel and groove?

But for some reason, our litigious society wants music to follow the same citing mechanisms as a University essay, with citations, footnotes and a discography of music used as an influence for the song.

At the root of it all is the descending bass line, played in the same key and an attorney called Francis Malofiy, who is well-known at bringing copyright infringement suits against any song that sounds similar to another because the acts/estates he represents are so original and their music could not have been influenced by other .

It’s easy to sue Led Zeppelin, because others have done it and its well-known that Jimmy Page likes to build on past works. But man, Led Zeppelin, actually Page and Plant in particular can sue a whole generation of artists for copying their feel and groove.

Let’s start with the most obvious (of the top of my head);

  • Robert Plant to sue David Coverdale from Whitesnake for copying Plant’s vocal feel in every Whitesnake song between 1978 and 1982.
  • Robert Pant to sue Lenny Wolf from Kingdom Come for copying Plant’s vocal feel and phrasing in every Kingdom Song between 1988 and 2016.
  • Jimmy Page to sue Lenny Wolf from Kingdom Come for copying “Kashmir” and calling the song “Get It On”.
  • Robert Plant to sue Randy Jackson from Zebra for copying Plant’s vocal feel
  • Jimmy Page and the Bonham estate to sue Coheed and Cambria for the song “Welcome Home” because it sounds a lot like “Kashmir” and for the drums having the same feel and groove as “Kashmir”.
  • Jimmy Page suing Tool because songs on “Aenima” sound a lot like “No Quarter”.
  • Jimmy Page and Robert Plant suing Billy Squier for the verse in “You Should Be High Lover” because it sounds a lot like “Black Dog”.
  • Jimmy Page and Robert Plant suing Wolfmother for the song “Woman”.
  • Jimmy Page suing Jet, for the song “Cold Hard Bitch” and how it sounds a lot like “Communication Breakdown”.
  • Jimmy Page suing Soundgarden for “Pretty Noose” because it sounds like the love child of “Kashmir” and “Whole Lotta Love”.
  • Jimmy Page suing Steve Vai for a three note sequence in his song “The Attitude Song” that is derived from “The Ocean”.

See the absurdity of it all.

I am sure there are a million bands out there that have ripped off Led Zeppelin and there are a million acts that Led Zeppelin has ripped off. But Led Zeppelin made what came before, BETTER and made a lot of MONEY from it.

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Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Motorhead – 1916

Hot Metal February 1991….

The below review of “1916” from Motorhead is by Darryl Mason who gave it Five Skulls out of Five Skulls.  It appeared in the Hot Metal February 1991 issue. The italics are the actual review from Hot Metal and the rest is my addition.

KILLER! Is the headline in a big bold white font for album number 9. This is Lemmy before his work with the Osbourne camp for “No More Tears”. And for some reason, I feel like his lyrical contributions to “No More Tears” validated Lemmy (warts and all) to the mainstream.

Lemmy doing a ballad?

With f_____kin keyboards?

But that’s not the only big news to come out of Motorhead’s latest album “1916”.

The band that practically invented thrash six years before the term was coined have slowed down the juggernaut ride of drums and guitars to create a classic heavy metal album.

If you’ve been a fan of Motorhead since they first got into the picture as “the world’s best worst band” and followed them through the last decade and a half of mega albums like “Overkill”, “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith” and “Orgasmatron”, then “1916” will be a surprise.

Yet after all, Lemmy and Motorhead have always been into shock tactics.

Before the album was even released there was controversy.

It was Motörhead’s first studio album in nearly four years, and their first release on WTG after their legal battle with GWR Records was resolved. It seemed to be a trend in the MTV Eighties were significant bands from the Seventies struggled with record label deals because they were not “good looking” and “marketable” for MTV. Black Sabbath, Bad Company and Deep Purple come to mind straight away.

Then they had the producer problem. According to the band, initial producer with Ed Stasium was fired for putting in instrumentation without the bands knowledge, while Stasium said he quit because Lemmy’s drug and alcohol was too much for Stasium to work with. Pete Solley was then hired to produce.

The Motorhead version featured Lemmy  on bass and vocals, Phil “Wizzö” Campbell on guitar, Würzel also on guitar and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor on drums.

Yeah, the album has some full-on heavy, fracture-your-skull tracks in the ball-tearing “Going To Brazil” and “The One To Sing The Blues”, but Lemmy throws in a healthy slice of humour to the metal when everyone seems to be taking it all a little too seriously these days. Check out “I’m So Bad”.

Motorhead pays tribute to the Ramones in the song of the same name. Short, thrashy, trashy and mashy. It’s a killer.

“Nightmare/The Dream Time” is a dark, nightmarish song covered in possessed background sounds and waves of chilling guitars.

But here’s the big one. The song “1916” closes the album and it begins with a chorus of churchish organs before Lemmy comes in with a chilling tale of children going to war.

“1916” is going to finally pull Motorhead out of the ridiculous ‘cult band’ limbo world they are continually thrust into, and good on ‘em. After 16 years they deserve it.

Get this and load your brain with some power sounds.

And the album is full of Lemmy’s brilliant lyric writing.

“The One to Sing the Blues”

I can’t always say
Just what I want to say
I’m out-of-place again,
You’re on my case again
Bringing up the past
And sling it in my face again

Yes, even the great Lemmy might have felt they he was censoring himself in a relationship.

And that god damn past is the bringer of all evil on the world. No one is bringing up the future and slinging it at our faces. It’s that god damn past. The best part is when your other says, “you NEVER”. For me, that means, they want an argument.

“I’m So Bad (Baby I Don’t Care)”

Come round and pop your cork,
Wham, bam, thank you ma’am,

This is the tongue in cheek Lemmy I know, full of humour. The “No More Tears” album really brought Lemmy to the forefront as a great lyric writer. “I Don’t Want To Change The World” and “Mama I’m Coming Home” have lines in the songs that are cemented in metal and rock culture.

“No Voices In The Sky”

This is one of the Ed Stasium produced songs to make it to the final master tape.

Rich men think that happiness
Is a million dollar bills,
So how come most of them O.D.
On sleeping pills,

There is so much truth in the song. You think that having a lot of money will lead to happiness. How many CEO’s are onto their second or third relationship/marriage? How many ended up spending time with their children? How many ended up volunteering to coach their kids in a sport? A few might, but the majority are just focused on ensuring that what they have accumulated isn’t lost.

“Nightmare / The Dreamtime”

Evil lives within ourselves, We need nobody else

“1916”

16 years old when I went to the war,
To fight for a land fit for heroes,
God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
Chasing my days down to zero,

“Nightmare/The Dreamtime” and “1916” are both about the Battle of the Somme in World War I…As Lemmy has stated and Wikipedia has the quote;

“Nineteen thousand Englishmen were killed before noon, a whole generation destroyed, in three hours – think about that! It was terrible – there were three or four towns in northern Lancashire and south Yorkshire where that whole generation of men were completely wiped out.”

I was born out of the wars in peaceful and laid back Australia. My father and mother were born in 1944 with the European war raging around them. My grandfather was just born after World War 1 ended, which meant that my great-grandfather survived WW1. I am here and my three boys exist because the generations before me survived. But a lot didn’t survive.

“Love Me Forever”

This is another song produced by Ed Stasium and to be honest, this song is a surprise with its clean tone arpeggio riff.

We are the system, we are the law, We are corruption, worm in the core,

 There is no trust in our institutions. Our leaders serve the corporate lobbyists who fill up their coffers via campaign contributions or a nice job with them once they push laws through that benefits said corporation. It was bad when Lemmy wrote about it, but it’s exponentially worse today.

“Angel City”

I wanna backstage pass,
Drink Bon Jovi’s booze for free,
I wanna be a star
And buy a hundred guitars,

Lay by the pool
And let the record company pay,

So where does a guy who’s just speaking his truth fit into the world of pretty boy MTV stars. If you want to know about Los Angeles, then get the lowdown from Lemmy.

Because the above lyrics are more or less the culture that MTV created.

How many interviews did you see on MTV where the artists are standing in a room with a collection of a thousand guitars.

I remember watching the “Decade of Decadence” video from Motley Crue and Nikki Sixx is being interviewed outdoors with the pool behind him, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars are in their home-built studio’s and Vince Neil is being interviewed in his man cave, playing pool/billiards by himself and the platinum and gold records are hanging behind him.

And I guarantee you that every struggling musician wanted all of that and more. But there was a reason why Motley Crue had the riches and the rest of us didn’t. Work ethic, luck, right place at the right time all play a part, but for Motley it was the lifestyle. They lived and breathed their lyrics.

For Motorhead and Lemmy his music was a lifestyle. He lived and breathed his lyrics.

I can’t say I was a huge fan of the album when it came out but I always have been a huge fan of how Lemmy can summarise a 20 page chapter into a four to eight line verse.

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

A Little Bit More Of A Little Ain’t Enough

A Little Ain’t Enough is the third studio album by David Lee Roth, released in January 1991 through Warner Music Group.

It was certified gold on April 11, 1991 and by 1996, it was out of print. Funny that.

You see, back then, this meant that the only way to get the album was via the second-hand record/Cd store or by finding a brick and mortar store that had a new copy not sold yet from the original print run.

“Out of print” in record label speak means that the album wasn’t selling enough for the record label to keep a master press waiting to produce more copies. When the music industry was controlled by the record labels these kinds of scenarios were real and often. However, in the era of streaming, the music is never out of print. It is available 24/7, at your fingertips.

And if we never had copyright infringement, we never would have had streaming.

Anyway, in the February 1991 issue of Hot Metal (Australia’s Premier Metal Mag) there was a review of the “A Little Aint Enough” album. It was reviewed by Robyn Doreian who at the time was also the Editor of the magazine. She gave it four skulls out of five.

Here it is in italics. The non-italics are my extra comments to the review.

Diamond Dave is one of the TRUE stars left in the music business today.

He’s in a category of his own in that he has re-defined the parameters of music to suit his individual flamboyant tastes and not without a hint of tongue in cheek humour. I mean, who else can resurrect a bargain bin tune like “That’s Life”, and transform it into a glitzy Hollywood-style bump and grind production…

David Lee Roth invented the word “show business!”.

Since departing the near-legendary Van Halen, he’s collaborated with the likes of Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan and Greg Bissonette to produce several fine solo albums, reaching the pinnacle with 1986’s “Eat Em And Smile”.

Gone are the old crew, with only Bissonette remaining, while the rest of the musicians are hired hands. I must admit, at times I find myself pining for the supremo guitarmanship of Steve Vai, as those two egocentric characters truly shone together musically, and Jason Becker must have found it difficult to fill the shows of his predecessor.

The guitar magazines I was purchasing all spoke about Jason Becker and how this album would cement his status as a bonafide guitar hero. By 1990, Becker had already released two Cacophony albums with co-guitarist Marty Friedman, as well as his debut solo album, “Perpetual Burn”. Marty Friedman was already cementing his stature in Megadeth and the guitar community waited for Becker to do the same with a known entity or band.

Little did we know that Becker would be struck down with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Initially, Becker’s life expectancy from the doctors was set to three to five years. He outlived that terminal diagnosis. By 1996, Becker lost the ability to speak. His father along with Jason developed a way to communicate via eye movements.

This time around with his fourth effort, “A Little Aint Enough”, we see Diamond Dave coming up with a more diverse sound incorporating his favourite source of inspiration – the blues – plus his trademark stomping in our face rock and roll.

The first track, “Lil’ Ain’t Enough” is Roth through and through with its rifferama on full overdrive and overabundant vocals filing every conceivable crevice. Along the way we are treated to loads of bluesy-type tunes such as “Hammerhead Shark”, “Sensible Shoes” and “Dogtown Shuffle”. More than apparent on the punchy “Last Call”, one cannot help but notice the obvious similarity in riffs to Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”. A tad blatant perhaps…

All of the trademarks of David Lee Roth are here in full swing. Be warned he’s back – but then again he’s never really been away!

To me it wasn’t an album about favourite tracks. It was an album about moods and a certain section in each song. To me “moods” is the essence of rock music. Typical of the MTV era, the record had three to four quality songs.

So let’s digest the album.

The Good

The opening title track “A Lil’ Ain’t Enough” is written by Robbie Nevil and David Lee Roth and the obvious leadoff single. Actually, what a strange fucking combination in songwriters. Robbie Nevil is the dude that wrote and had a hit with “Cest La Vie”, a song I really disliked.

Was vaccinated with a phonograph needle one summer break

What a line. How many people can relate to the above lyric?

Summer and music go hand in hand.

“Lady Luck” is written by ex Dio guitarist Craig Goldy and Roth. This song deserved to be the second single. I dig the “Dream Evil” sounding riff. It’s even got Dio-esque lyrics. The below is from “Lady Luck”.

I’m off an’ runnin’
Clear off the beaten path
I don’t know where I’m headed
But I know that I ain’t comin’ back

Meanwhile, the Dio song “I Could Have Been A Dreamer has “Running with the wolf pack / Feel like I’m never coming back”.

“Sensible Shoes” is written by another songwriting committee. This time it is Dennis Morgan, David Lee Roth and Preston Sturges. Back in ’91’ I was like, who are these guys?  Regardless, what was the label or Roth thinking about releasing it as a single. I would have released “The Dogtown Shuffle”, a tune written by the band at the time, Steven Hunter, Roth and Brett Tuggle. It’s got a groove that swings and it’s far superior.

“The Dogtown Shuffle”

Ain’t too much distance ‘tween a pat on the back
And a kick in the pants

Brilliant lyrics and so much truth.

Buried deep at the tail end of the album are the Jason Becker and David Lee Roth penned tunes, “It’s Showtime!” and “Drop in the Bucket”. “It’s Showtime” should have a single.

“It’s Showtime!”

We’ll need 10 percent and that’s off the top
Gross, not net to me
Here today, gone late today
And it’s club dates in the sticks

That’s showtime for you.

Just leave your name and number
In the dumpster when you’re through
Oh yeah
Don’t call us, we’ll call you

The Underrated

“Shoot It” is very Rolling Stones sounding, merged with Free “All Right Now”.

“Baby’s on Fire” has this “Immigrant Song” drum groove that I love.

“40 Below” is another rocker that reminds me of “All In The Name Of Rock” from Motley Crue.

The Filler

The single “Tell the Truth” sounds too much like “Black Velvet” for me to like.

“Hammerhead Shark” just didn’t belong on the album. It’s pedestrian at best.

“Last Call” should have been called “Walk This Way”.

 

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

1982 – Volume 7: Everything Dies, That’s A Fact

The Alan Parsons Project – Eye In The Sky
Alan Parsons is one of those unsung heroes that a lot of people don’t really know about.

In 1968, a then 18-year-old Alan Parsons had his first engineering credit on “Abbey Road” from The Beatles. Proper sound engineers are responsible for the sound capture and there was no better at it, than Alan Parsons.

From there, he went on to work with Paul McCartney, The Hollies and his piece d’resitance was Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”. He was the engineer on “The Dark Side Of The Moon”. So the sounds you hear on that album, the sounds that went into 30 million houses around their world, owe a lot to Alan Parsons.

After the success of “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, Parson’s was offered the chance to work on “Wish You Were Here”, however he declined it because he wanted to get his own project going.

How many people today would decline an offer like that to follow a path that financially could be worse off, but creatively satisfying.

So The Alan Parsons Project was born with producer Eric Woolfson (RIP). Both of the guys met at Abbey Roads studio.

The studio sounds Parsons captured with the bands he engineered would end up on his project.

Which brings me to “Eye In The Sky”, his 1982 release. For a studio band, “Eye In The Sky” is their sixth album, which goes to show that there was a demand for their music. All up 10 Alan Parsons Project albums were released and achieved combined sales of more than 40m copies.

Eric Woolfson was also a successful rock musician, but no one knew of him. He wasn’t in the magazines or on MTV, but he had a very successful career compared to the MTV heroes of the 80’s. And for him, it all started off by doing session piano work in the 60’s which led to a song writing publishing contract which led to a production gig at Abbey Road Studios and so forth.

How cool is the Eye of Horus cover, which instantly brings back memories of “Powerslave” from Iron Maiden.

“Sirius” (Instrumental) leads into “Eye In The Sky”
If “Sirius” sounds familiar to sporting fans, well it should. It was used by the Chicago Bulls to introduce their team during the Michael Jordan era. Wikipedia also tells me that “Sirius” was used by the New Orleans Saints as their entrance music for Super Bowl XLIV. The Kansas City Chiefs also used it during kick-offs.

It then leads into “Eye In The Sky” which is the most well-known song from the album. Maybe you could call it a “hit” song without it being a hit on the charts, but a hit with listeners of the band. Eric Woolfson is doing lead vocals on it.

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind

“You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned”
It has funk/soul/R&B singer Lenny Zakatek doing lead vocals. Zakatek was the lead singer with Gonzalez who had the worldwide disco hit, “I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet”. From 1974, he started to work with The Alan Parsons Project, a collaboration that would span 8 albums and 24 songs.

If I’m wrong and you are right
Then I will light your darkness with confusion

“Psychobabble”
It has Elmer Gantry on vocals or otherwise known as Dave Terry. I remember reading a story about a group of musicians who got hired by Fleetwood Mac’s manager to impersonate Fleetwood Mac for a U.S. tour in the Seventies. Well, Dave Terry was one of the members. When the ruse failed, front man Dave Terry and guitarist Graham “Kirby” Gregory formed Stretch and had a hit song with the Kirby penned, “Why Did You Do That Thing?”

But I don’t care, it’s all psychobabble rap to me

“Mammagamma (Instrumental)”
Is typical of the Pink Floyd like instrumentals Parsons and Woolfson create. I love it.

“Old and Wise”
It has Colin Bunstone on vocals. Remember the song “She’s Not There” from the Sixties by the rock band The Zombies. If you do, that’s Colin Bunstone on vocals. One of many singles and projects he was involved in.

And, oh, when I’m old and wise
Bitter words mean little to me

Damn right. As you get older, you realise that you are not immortal and suddenly “the end” means more than all of those other wrongs you have suffered. You get a different perspective.

Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
It’s a pretty bleak folk record. Springsteen recorded it at his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey. There was no E-Street Band. It was him and a four-track PortaStudio tape recorder.

“Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact,”
That lyric from “Atlantic City,” defines the tone of the album. The character in the song went from having a job and trying to save, to withdrawing everything he had, hitting the road to Atlantic City and then when he was low on cash he agreed to do a little favour for a friend.

Well, I got a job and tried to put my money away
But I got debts that no honest man can pay
So I drew what I had from the Central Trust
And I bought us two tickets on that Coast City bus

Now I been looking for a job but it’s hard to find
Down here, it’s just winners and losers and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line
Well, I’m tired of coming out on this losing end
So, honey, last night I met this guy and I’m gonna do a little favour for him

And the whole album is littered with characters that did what they needed to do to survive and take care of their families. Like “Johnny 99” and the “Highway Patrolman”.

“Johnny 99”
Now judge, judge, I got debts no honest man could pay
The bank was holding’ my mortgage and taking’ my house away
Now I ain’t saying’ that make me an innocent man
But it was more’n all this that put that gun in my hand

There it is again, “I got debts no honest mane could pay line”. It was Johnny 99’s answer back to the judge as to why he did what he did.

“Highway Patrolman”
“I always done an honest job as honest as I could
But when it’s your brother, sometimes you look the other way”

“Mansion On The Hill” is the same as “Nebraska”.
There’s a place out on the edge of town, sir
Rising above the factories and the fields
Now, ever since I was a child I can remember
That mansion on the hill

There are winners and losers in life and then there are people just content with life. But the ones not content with life, want to be like those people living in the mansion on the hill.

“Used Cars”
Now, the neighbours come from near and far
As we pull up in our brand new used car

It’s a brilliant lyric of the times and how that used car was cherished like it was brand new. You had to have lived that time to understand it.

“Reason To Believe”.

Still at the end of every hard-earned day people find some reason to believe

There it is, the glimmer of hope on a bleak album. Because regardless of the situation, we still find some reason to believe in the next day and in the future.

The next two entries in my 1982 list are songs.

Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes – “Up Where We Belong”
It’s 1982 and Joe Cocker re-enters the public conversation. No one could escape “Up Where We Belong” a duet with Jennifer Warnes and the theme song to the Richard Gere/Debra Winger movie “An Officer And A Gentleman.”

As with all things Joe, it was a song written by a who’s who of writers, Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings. An original this time around, instead of a cover.

Some hang on to “used to be”
Live their lives looking behind
All we have is here and now
All our life, out there to find

Brilliant lyrics in the second verse. Even rock heads and metal heads couldn’t escape the song. I am also pretty sure that some power metal band covered it in the Nineties. It was one of those songs.

Moving Pictures – What About Me
The “Days of Innocence” was released in 1981 in Australia and 1982 in the U.S. I still haven’t heard the album it was on but I know the song well. It was released as a single in January 1982 in Australia and September 1982 in the U.S. Talk about windowing releases.

It was the second biggest single in Australia behind Survivors “Eye Of The Tiger”. It’s written by guitarist Garry Frost and Frances Swan Frost and like all hit songs from the past, it wasn’t even planned for the album.

I guess I’m lucky, I smile a lot
But sometimes I wish for more, than I’ve got…

There it is again, the wish for more. Stay tuned for Part 8. I never envisaged that my homage to 1982 would take so many iterations.

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