Category Archives: Influenced

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

Dystopia

Dave Mustaine is a legendary songwriter. His fame is not as big as Metallica’s but artistically, he has pushed so many boundaries with each release. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes his words get him in trouble. But one thing is clear when it comes to Mustaine. He is real and he speaks his mind. Which is against what everyone tries to be today. Everyone wants to be liked, so they hold their tongue.

Which brings me to “Dystopia”.

In thrash metal circles, it’s up there. Each song is chaotic and expertly crafted, which means after 4 to 5 minutes, when the song ends, your ears are bleeding and you are left trying to remember how the song began.

Welcome back Mr Mustaine and one of the best decisions you’ve ever made is getting Chris Adler to beat the skins and Kiko Loureiro to decorate the songs with his tasteful leads and a few co-writes. Adler by far is the best drummer to appear on a Megadeth album and from hearing the work that Loureiro did on the album, he is up there as well as one of the best guitarist. He is more complete and well-rounded than all who came before him.

It would have been easy and maybe profitable to get the “Rust In Peace” line up back together. Hell, all of the press about it, sealed the fate for Broderick and Drover.

But Mustaine had the balls to bring in new talents who grew up on Megadeth and respect the band’s history and place in metal history.

It’s a triple knockout, right off the bat. “The Threat Is Real” is classic old school thrash metal, while “Dystopia” is classic melodic metal and “Fatal Illusion” is classic technical thrash metal.

THE THREAT IS REAL
As soon as the riff kicks in after the middle-eastern style voices, you know you’re in for a classic Megadeth song. Chris Adler drives the song forward, with his galloping beats.

Justified obliteration
No one cares anymore
The messiah or mass murderer
No controlling who comes through the door

It’s typical Mustaine. Angry and snarly.

The clock runs out, the weakest link
A deadly strike, the threat is real

Brilliant lyrics over a chaotic bed of war like riffing.

DYSTOPIA
That intro riff and the controlled double kick under it, is enough to get the blood pumping. Add to that the lead breaks, and what you have is the foundations for another classic Megadeth song. Words cannot describe the power of that intro and the way it fills my head space.

The combination of the vocal melody over the “Hanger 18” inspired verse over the double kick gallops from Adler is fist pumping stuff. Do you reckon Mustaine would sue himself for copying himself?

“What you don’t know” the legend goes “can’t hurt you”
If you only want to live and die in fear
They tell us to believe just half of what we see
And absolutely nothing that we hear

This resonates.

Dystopia
And then a lead break.

Dystopia
And then another lead break. It’s an inventive way to do a chorus. Each time it appears, the lead breaks from Kiko are different, which makes each Chorus new.

And then that outro. As with the intro, words cannot describe how that outro makes me feel. The riffs are spectacular, but the moment belongs to Chris Adler. It’s the way he aggressively builds it to a climax with his drum patterns. It’s a note to all drummers to sit up and take notice. As soon as the song is over, I press repeat.

FATAL ILLUSION
This is classic progressive/technical Megadeth. The proggy intro, the double bass drumming, shredding between the verses (which is what Chris Poland did on the first two albums) and the lack of a song structure. It feels like each section is verse after verse. A drug trip

Guilty of the crime of nonconformity

Then when the Motorhead sounding flat line bit kicks in, the groove makes me want to snap the table in half.

DEATH FROM WITHIN
It’s got that “Kingmaker” vibe, which is the same vibe and feel as Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave”, which I dig. Actually the whole album has that triplet 12/8 feel. Maybe it’s due to Adler bringing a certain galloping swing to it all.

Its judgment time… when death comes from within

That lead break in the song is wicked. Kiko brings out a lot of Petrucci inspired lead breaks. No Megadeth guitarist has done that before. Chris Poland brought a jazz fusion element, Friedman brought a neo classical edge at the beginning, while Pitrelli brought his classic rock influences, Drover and Broderick brought a technical scholarly element to Megadeth and now Kiko brings all of his influences to the fore, and one of them being Petrucci.

BULLET TO THE BRAIN
It’s got this Draiman Disturbed like feel in the Chorus. I love it.

The start of the lead break again feels like it’s written by Petrucci.

POST AMERICAN WORLD
It’s got this “Symphony Of Destruction” feel in the first verse. It’s the first song on the album to feature a co-write with Loureiro.

We see each other through different eyes
Segregating ourselves by class and size
It’s me against you in everything that they do
This planet’s become one big spinning disaster

If you don’t like where we’re going
Then you won’t like what’s coming next
What will we look like?
In a post American world

And that Chromatic riff after the Chorus is typical Mustaine. It started with “Phantom Lord” from his Metallica days, continued with “This Was My Life” from Countdown and now that riff is all over this album. Each time it sounds different because of what Adler does under it with the drums. His patterns and phrasing are unique and it makes a normal derivative riff sound original and awesome.

POISONOUS SHADOWS
That classical like intro and the lead break that comes after is brilliant. It’s a Mustaine and Loureiro composition.

Is it my face you see, do I haunt you in your sleep
On your hands and knees, when you crawl through your nightmares
When there’s no more grace, does your heartbeat start to race?
Clawing everywhere in the dark, poisonous shadows

It’s a great mid tempo song, more in the vein of the “The World Needs A Hero”.

CONQUER OR DIE
It’s an instrumental written by Mustaine and Loureiro. For under 3 minutes its a cool little intermission in the album sequencing.

LYING IN STATE
This is the song that is my favourite on the album purely for a certain section in the song.

Another day, another manufactured crisis keeping the people distracted

The “new normal” or just more of the same?

The section from 2.21 to 2.54 is infectious. What a groove. It makes me want to break stuff. And then when Kiko chimes in with a Maiden like lead break from “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” at 2.32 to 2.54, I’m ready to elevate.

Get ready to have your mind blown.

THE EMPEROR
Because you make me sick, you prick
Don’t you know… don’t you know who I am?
You know I like your face, to kick
If your lips are moving, I know you must be lying

Fucking brilliant lyrics by Mustaine.

The album is near perfect and monstrous. And yes, it’s a comeback album from Megadeth and Dave Mustaine. He’s recaptured the magic of metal and thrash in general. It’s an artistic triumph.

Will enough people care?

Time will tell.

I sure do.

It has been on constant rotation on Spotify for me, plus I purchased the CD from Amazon. And when will people just stop complaining about Spotify payments. We went from vinyl to CD’s to Napster to iTunes to and to streaming. And the enemy is copyright infringement, otherwise reframed as piracy or theft. Get more people to pay for Spotify and listen on it and watch the payments grow. Then you’ll need to negotiate a better rate with your label.

“Dystopia” is a love letter to a metal past that everybody over forty remembers and now everyone under 40 will also remember that same past.

History will show Metallica as legends of rock/metal and Megadeth/Dave Mustaine as a mere footnote.

However, history is judged and re-written by what is popular and there is no album more popular in the Soundscan era than Metallica’s self-titled “Black” album, which is an excellent album. Meanwhile, Megadeth never had sales as high as Metallica.

But. Megadeth and Mustaine were always first.

First to make a video clip. First to do a thrash titans tour.

Does anyone remember the “Clash Of The Titans” tour?

I can tell you, not a lot of people do, however everyone remembers “The Big 4” tour. Funny how an innovative tour featuring thrash bands and headlined by Megadeth and Slayer in the Nineties is largerly forgotten, but a similar tour, almost 20 years later, organised and headlined by Metallica is legendary, innovative and original.

Welcome back Megadeth.

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Copyright, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

There Is A Reason Why Copyright Terms Are Very Long

There is a reason why Copyright terms are very long.

Yep, older recordings are outselling newer recordings. So instead of those older recordings being in the public domain as they should have been, they are locked up for terms that seem like they will never end.

So what does this tell us about people and music consumption?

We don’t mind purchasing music, especially music recorded a long time ago which has shown itself as enduring and forever. Hell in twenty years’ time, don’t be surprised if “Hail To The King” and “The Blackening” are outselling all before them. But in 20 years’ time, who would benefit from those catalogue sales.

Would Robb Flynn from Machine Head (or the rest of the guys that played and performed on the album) benefit from those catalogue sales?

Same deal for Avenged Sevenfold.

“Hamlet” by Shakespeare is the biggest seller when it comes to books. The book was written in the 16th century, in the public domain for centuries after that and people still could make money from it. So is the public domain such a bad thing.

Would Hamlet be as popular today if it was locked away under copyright protectionist practices.

Think of all of the people who have made money from longer Copyright terms.

  • Lawyers (from all of the lawsuits)
  • Record Labels (from signing artists to one-sided contracts)
  • Publishing/Licensing Agencies (set up by the record labels, so they could double dip)
  • Collection Agencies (set up the record labels, so they could triple dip)

Each song I write has two separate copyrights. One for the sound recording and the other for the musical work.

If I sign a record deal, the label will licence the rights to exploit the ‘sound recording’ copyright from me (and then own it for a long time) and the publisher (an agency set up the label) will take care of my ‘musical work’ copyrights. Who benefits from this arrangement in the long run?

If I write a song with other people, I would need to put a contract in place that agrees on the percentage splits.

If I write a song and I have a session musician or just a friend who comes in to play an instrument, I would need to have an agreement in place (via writing, which means lawyers) about what payment they will get for playing on the song and how does that transfer over to royalty payments down the line on the sound recording.

Because Copyright Laws are written to suit the interests of the Corporations who licence (in other words, own) copyrights, we live in a world where copyright is a mess.

A court decided that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams are guilty of copyright infringement for their hit song “Blurred Lines,” because of a “feel”. The court ordered the duo to pay $7.4 million to the estate of Marvin Gaye.

Yes, that’s right, the children of Marvin Gaye, who have contributed nothing to the musical industry have a secure pension fund set up because copyright terms changed to include another 70 years after death. The Corporations give them a bone, while they take in the gold.

The bigger the song, expect the lawsuit to come.

Even when people do get clearances to use the music of another artist, they still get sued. The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft negotiated a cost to use a sample from the Rolling Stones ““The Last Time” for “Bitter Sweet Symphony”. The Stones sued after, when the song became a hit, because the sample that was cleared was the song.

In the end, Copyright is important for a creator, however the current mess that is known as Copyright, benefits the Corporation, otherwise known as the Record Labels, the Movie Studios, the Publishing and Collection Agencies and of course, the Lawyers more than the creator.

John Fogerty said something similar like “Get yourself a lawyer to look over the contract and then get yourself another lawyer to look over the contract and what the other lawyer said” after he was duped out of his Creedence songs;

For those that don’t know, I will let Wikipedia tell his story about being sued for copyright infringement because he copied himself;

John Fogerty was the lead singer of the popular rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival. In 1970, while part of the group, he wrote the song “Run Through the Jungle.” Fantasy Records, the record label to which Creedence Clearwater Revival was signed, eventually acquired the exclusive publishing rights to the song.

Creedence Clearwater Revival disbanded in 1972, and Fogerty began a solo career with another music label. In 1985, Fogerty published the song “The Old Man Down the Road”, which he released on Warner Bros. Records.

Fantasy sued Fogerty for copyright infringement, claiming that “The Old Man Down the Road” was essentially the music to “Run Through the Jungle” with new words.

So I end this post, the same way I started it; there is a reason why Copyright terms are very long.

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Vito Bratta – Lady Of The Valley

By mid-eighties, hard rock was king. White Lion, who were on Atlantic, was huge, and then they disappeared.

You see after “Pride” broke through, Bratta and Tramp tried to duplicate it’s success. And it didn’t happen.

Somewhere the formula and mindsets that wrote “Pride” was lost. As a fan, I have a lot of respect for “Big Game” and “Mane Attraction”. In my mind they are better albums than “Pride”, however “Pride” had the songs that crossed over in “Wait” and “When The Children Cry”. It’s a debate that can be had over and over again. Which album is better?

In ’87 and ’88 you could not escape the band’s music. It started with “Wait”, which dominated rock radio and MTV for a while and then came “When The Children Cry”. It all seemed so DERIVATIVE! But I was interested in the band because of what Bratta did musically with those two songs.

And I was surprised at how much head banging music was on “Pride” after I purchased it. Like “Lady In The Valley”. At 6 minutes and 36 seconds. The B-side to the hit single, “When The Children Cry”.

Vito Bratta is more famous for “Wait,” but this song is as great. It’s a great live song. Musically, it is one of my favourite cuts from Vito Bratta. It is a metal tour de force. Once again, it’s about the feel, completely different from the work of the Eighties glam acts and if you don’t know this song, stay the full 5 minutes and enjoy.

Intro:
0.00 to 0.13
The pedal point D note over a D5 power chord and embellished with a legato hammer on and pull off lick, is brilliant. As a guitarist, there is always so much to learn from studying the way Vito applied his abilities to the song. Each riff of his was unique due to decorating each passage with palm muted arpeggios, legato pull offs and hammer on or just plain old alternate picking/tapping.

0.13 to 0.46
The intro transitions into a power chord groove with a simple and sing along lead break.

He basically took the live playing from Randy Rhoads on the “Tribute” album and blended it in with all of his other influences to come up with something unique. I never saw Vito as a Van Halen clone. I saw Vito as Vito, taking the best of his influences and making something unique out of it. Sort of like how Steve Jobs did with his Apple products.

Verse/Pre Chorus:
0.46 to 2.08
Dm, C, F, Gm
The acoustic guitar is so simple, anybody could write it and play it. The way Bratta plays it and phrases the arpeggio, it’s so HYPNOTIC!. That’s the difference between good and great.

Lyrically, only Tramp knows of the mystical message he is trying to convey. Is he talking about “Lady Mary” or the lady of the lake from the King Arthur stories, or just a lady of the valley that he knew.

There is a distorted like Pre-Chorus that comes in and then it’s back to the verse again.

Chorus:
2.09 to 2.33
Dm – C – B flat – F – C

And then comes the change back to the Intro that nobody does anymore. Then it goes into a lead break.

At 3.44 the song transitions into the ballad feel of the verses. But this time, when Vito kicks in with the lead break at the 4.40 mark, you need more. And more comes in. It gets louder, there’s another guitar and the song builds up.

Then it drops again at 5.12. Vito plays the Chorus riff, this time with an acoustic guitar.

At 5.26, there is silence for a second and the whole band comes in, distortion kicks in and the chorus is played with a new intensity.

“In the night I cry to the lady of the valley”

The repetition of the vocal line with the backing vocals, you cannot help but sing along.

The way “Lady In The Valley” moves from section to section, makes you sit up and give it your complete attention. It’s not something that plays in the background and can be ignored.

After hearing this song, i was asking the question, how can I get my hands on a song transcription to learn his leads. This was an era where we had to buy to learn, where knowledge was locked behind payment mechanisms.

“Lady In The Valley” sounds so different from what people play today.

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1982 – Part 2 – The Day Of The Rock-Rock-Rock-Rocker

Twisted Sister – Under The Blade
In April 1982, Twisted Sister landed a contract with UK punk-rock label Secret Records.

In June 1982, the group released its first EP, “Ruff Cuts”, with Toni Petri on drums. A.J Pero joined soon after. This was followed in September with “Under the Blade”, produced by Pete Way of UFO and featuring a guest appearance of “Fast” Eddie Clarke on the very sounding Motorhead song “Tear It Loose”.

I will go out on a limb here and say that “Under The Blade” was an inspiring metal album for a legion of death and black metallers.

With all things musical, Secret Records then goes into bankruptcy. However it gave the TS machine enough momentum to appear on “The Tube” (they paid $22K for the appearance) which in turn led to Atlantic Records Europe approaching the band and signing them. Plus who can forget the support of the mighty Lemmy (RIP), who introduced the band at certain gigs in the UK.

I purchased the remixed re-release by Atlantic Records many years later, after I purchased “Come Out And Play”. “Under The Blade” is a classic album from a well- seasoned live unit. All of the songs are designed and meant for the stage.

The opening track “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)” is a perfect example of a song designed for the live arena. Make sure you listen to the 5.32 version from the original. It’s better and it’s raw and gritty, just like Rock and Roll should be.

It’s that screechy, whiny, thin guitar intro that sets the tone and the way Dee Snider sings “Good Evening” with all the bravado of a circus MC, sounds like something dangerous is about to happen.

Good evening! Ha ha ha, welcome to our show

The welcoming line into the Twisted Sister world. I was intrigued.

Hit it! We’re no overnight sensation, no Cinderella fantasy
Please no plaudits or ovations, I’ve heard it all before you see

Bon Scott sang “It’s A Long Way To The Top, If You Want To Rock And Roll” and Twisted Sister is living proof of that journey. Indie bands are a common term for cool these days and there is no one more cooler than the TS Machine. For an indie band, they were way ahead of their time. Bands these days, with the world at their fingertips are unable to connect with people like the TS machine of old.

In the longer cut, the solo is extended at the 3.34 mark. It’s more melodic and it definitely grabs me.

How do you like it so far, say ain’t we quite a show?
There’s no one else quite like us, the others all get up and go

An intermission in a song is a brilliant piece of song writing.

“Bad Boys Of Rock N Roll” is the glam rock of Slade and Sweet cranked to eleven.

So we look kind of weird to you, well, how do you look to me?

You can just imagine how the TS look went over as the musical climate shifted from glam rock in the early Seventies to Punk and Disco in the late Seventies to New Wave in the Early Eighties.

Bad boys of rock ‘n’ roll
How bad can a bad boy be if he sets you free?

It’s about people who judge and condemn you while also enjoying what you have to offer.

So you say we’re offending you, what’s wrong, is it something we said?

Dee Snider doesn’t get enough respect. He was a spokesperson for a generation. Twisted Sister’s music was sold by the message in the songs. How different from today where everybody just oversells.

How heavy and doomy is “Run For Your Life”?

My favourite cut from the album! It’s all about the groove. The verse riff has the feel and power of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock”.

Through abused intentions
You misused my trust
Now’s the time for redemption
You’d better run for your life

It’s the embryo of “Burn In Hell” that came after.

“Sin After Sin” is a metal classic in the same vein as Judas Priest.

I had to hear this to remember it.

Funny how something so dated sounds so modern, especially around the lyrical message.

The lie you’ve been leading
Has you up to here in sin
You never like to think about it
Now you just can’t win

In today’s “Facebook” culture, everyone is putting their lives out there, for the whole world to stalk. But just how perfect and true are those photographs and those stories that people put up. Hell, when the GFC happened, all the banks lies got exposed, Ponzi schemes from Madoff got exposed and every single financial lie that was told was exposed.

You’re committing
Sin after sin

When you start with one lie, you are bound to tell another lie and then another, until you are so far removed from the truth, you don’t even know what the truth is anymore.

“Shoot Em Down” is classic AC/DC style of rock. Dee Snider showed respect to his influences, taking the attitude and intensity of glam rock and heavy metal and making it his own. Soon all of us would have the same attitude.

How heavy is “Destroyer”?

This one is the style of Judas Priest.

Anthrax with Jon Bush on vocals covered it for the Twisted Forever disc in the mid-nineties and down tuned it even more. It sounded Pantera like. Brutal.

He spent his life
A silent sentinel
For all to fear
He walks, he talks, he thinks, he feels,
But no one dare go near

Destroyer, Destroyer, Destroyer
He’s in town

When I was young, I thought it was impossible to get old. And now that i am older, my viewpoints mean nothing to the young ones, with their youth and know it all attitude. Exactly the same way I was when I was their age.

Although Dee is singing about some being like the maker/undertaker who is coming to collect, the lyrics to me have a meaning about getting old and how when you get old, no one gives a crap about you and about what you have to say.

“Under The Blade” has this haunting/metallised “Friday on Your Mind” vibe in the intro. That’s the power of music, it sets a mood instantly, and then it goes into overdrive.

You can’t escape from the bed you’ve made

Many years later, Dee Snider said the song is about him going “Under the Blade” for a surgery, however the lyrics definitely paint a picture of a person cornered in the alley way and then stabbed in their side. It’s pretty graphic and the scene setting lyrics are brilliant. But that lyric, “You Can’t Escape From The Bed You Made” is it. You drive drunk, there is no escape from the bed that you made. You scheme and steal, there is no escape from the bed you made.

“Tear It Loose” is a more commercial sounding “Overkill’ from Motorhead merged with a rockabilly drumming feel in the verses. The funny thing is, I never dug “Tear It Loose” back then but it resonates with me now more than the other songs. It’s all about the message in the lyrics, the double bass drumming, the riffs and I’m banging my head to it.

There ain’t no way I’m gonna wait for Saturday Night
I worked all day, I slaved away, I gotta set it right

That is what music gave me. A release; a place away from the normal grind. While Loverboy was singing “Working For The Weekend”, the TS beast was working for the night. Every minute is precious, so enjoy it.

Gonna tear it, gonna tear it loose
Gonna shout it from the roof
Blast my way into the night
I’m gonna live my dream, shout and scream!

Tear it loose doesn’t mean to destroy things as some people believe. It means to break away from someone or something. It could be anything, a job, a relationship, an ideal in your mind, a bad situation, and so forth. Or in some cases, it just means to break shit.

I’ve been brutalized, computerized, punched in and punched out
Here comes the night and it just ain’t right to be shut in or shut out
So I’m breaking down the barricades, gonna slow the hands of time
Cause to waste away the rest of the day is such a f***ing crime!

Kids from the Nineties don’t understand the clock cards. It’s a different world and in my view a better one. Time is short, don’t waste it. You are a short time alive and a long time dead. As Bon Jovi said, he’ll sleep when he is dead.

“Day Of The Rocker” is a foot stomper. The main riff is a cross between AC/DC and “The Strippers Anthem” while the verses have a bass feel from “Heaven And Hell”. But the vocal delivery is a tribute to Bon Scott from AC/DC.

Our numbers growin’
Soon we’ll be showin’
We’ve got the right to rule
We won’t be denied
So raise your hands in the air
And I want you to tell the world all about

A call to arms for all rockers to unite. A rock and roll and heavy metal invasion, stomping their way to wipe the slate completely clean.

The day of the rock-rock-rock-rocker

Simple and effective chorus lyric.

It’s like Twisted Sister is figuring out where they stand as they go along. They were following Judas Priest, Motorhead, Slade, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Free and writing their own songs. And because of these foundations, everyone at home was forming bands, the same way everyone at home today follows technology.

Night Ranger – Dawn Patrol
It was a super group. Jack Blades, Brad Gillis and Kelly Keagy all did time with Rubicon, who had chart success and were a constant on the touring circuit. Brad Gillis also had the high-profile replacement job for Randy Rhoads after his tragic death. Alan Fitzgerald did time with Montrose and Sammy Hagar. Jeff Watson had local radio air play and record label interest.

“Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”
It’s classic Jack Blades. The lead break was a wow moment for me, especially when the eight finger tapping comes in from Jeff Watson.

It’s taken miles and lines to learn the right from the wrong

From living and experiences we learn. It takes years. Relationships and love is one of those beasts that takes a lot of time to get right, and even then it is not perfect.

“Call My Name”
Another Jack Blades composition.

Your silhouette always appears in my window
I close my eyes and hear
The applause of at least a thousand different strangers
And everyone seems sincere

The adulation of being in a band, having people worship you. How do you come down from that high?

For Nikki Sixx, he started to take drugs.

“Eddie’s Coming Out Tonight”
Another Jack Blades composition. Stupid title but a fantastic song. It has enough guitars to make it heavy and the keyboards just add to the melody. Plus Eddie likes to rock and roll all night long and in the Eighties that is what we all wanted to do.

How cool is that outro solo section, a four bar climbing click repeating over a climbing ascending riff.

He lives beyond his means
He wear Italian shoes

Ain’t that the truth! Eddie is well-known to all of us. I know I live beyond my means. Each pay check goes out to the banks for the home loans and credit cards.

“Can’t Find Me A Thrill”
It’s a sleeper hit. The lead breaks alone are worth the investment. Steely Dan and Toto influences are all over this one.

Chasing the spotlight
It’s all part of the game
I’ve been to so many places
And they all look the same
I rock for my money
Some say it’s a suicide game

The lyrics are brilliant. You see, even back in the Eighties when the record labels had power and money and bigger budgets to sign acts and develop acts, it was still a lifer game. You had to check out of society and reality to become a rocker. The only way bands made money is from the stage.

I love the music and the vocal melodies to “Young Girl In Love”, “Play Rough”, “Penny” and “Night Ranger” but really, really, really hate the lyrics. All four songs could have been crossover hits if the lyrical message was better, not derivative and maybe a bit more socially aware.

UFO – Mechanix
I am a Michael Schenker fan, so the UFO records I purchased in the Nineties via the second-hand record shop and various music fairs were the albums that Schenker played on.

However, for $1, I purchased “Mechanix”.

Released in 1982, it was studio album number 10. Pete Way would leave UFO and form Fastway with “Fast” Eddie Clarke who also left Motorhead.

I love the classic UFO releases with Schenker, so of course I was disappointed with this album. Back when I purchased it, I never gave it a chance. Paul Chapman never had a chance following in the footsteps of Schenker. Even Vinnie Moore these days, is ridiculed for being in UFO, however Steve Morse is all cool for taking Blackmore’s place in Deep Purple. Go figure.

But Paul Chapman is a star on “We Belong To The Night”. It is the stand out track by far and it deserves a place in UFO history as a guitar foot stomper. It’s like Night Ranger took this song, sound and feel and built a career on it with the “Midnight Madness” album that came in 1983.

But the lyrics make me cringe. And many years later I realised that was the problem with UFO after Schenker left. It wasn’t Paul Chapman, he was excellent. Musically the band was excellent. It was the lyrics of Phil Mogg. They just didn’t grow up with him. He didn’t become a voice for a new generation.

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1982 – Part 1: Saints And Sinners, Priests And Thieves and The Creatures Of The Night

Ahh, 1982, Slash was only 17 years old, Blackie Lawless (still an unknown outside of LA), started to experiment with hurling raw meat at the audience, Nikki Sixx decided to chase a heckler called Lars Ulrich down Santa Monica Blvd and the main house bands at Gazzarri’s were RATT and ROXX REGIME. Roxx Regime would of course go on to become Stryper. 1982 was also the year that metal and rock music started to become a force to be reckoned with. MTV’s launch on August 1, 1981, would change the industry in a big way.

KISS – Creatures Of The Night
It’s a who’s who of outside songwriters.

Paul Stanley hooked up with Adam Mitchell to write “Creatures Of The Night” and “Danger”. The winner of that hook up is by far “Creatures Of The Night”. The metal heaviness, the pedal point riff and that major key riff change before the lead break is just brilliant.

Victims of the moment
Future deep in doubt
Living in a whisper
Till we start to shout
We’re creatures of the night

The rock n roll children, the heavy metal followers, could all relate to being creatures of the night. We would be up to the small hours of the night, listening to our favourite cuts. Rock and Roll Children listening to the “devils” music”.

Vinnie Vincent is all over this album.

“I Love It Loud” is a Gene Simmons, Vincent composition. The drum groove, the chants.

Perfect.

In 1982, it was exactly what the youth wanted to hear. “Killers” is another Simmons, Vincent composition, however the stupid lyrics on the song take away from the power of the music. Regardless, we still have “I Love It Loud”.

Guilty, till I’m proven innocent
Whiplash, heavy metal accident
Rock on, I wanna be president
‘Cause I love it

It’s a brilliant play on words and a mission statement for all rockers.

People born in the Nineties would not understand how the religious groups and certain politicians reacted to hard rock and heavy metal in the Eighties. As far as these organisations were concerned, heavy metal music promoted anti-social behaviour, drug taking and basically nothing good was expected from the youth that listened to it. So as the lyrics state, we are all guilty until we are proven innocent.

Loud, I wanna hear it loud
Right between the eyes

Anthems about cranking it up started to become the norm in the Eighties. Slade wrote “Cum On Feel The Noize” in the Seventies, however a lot of people will associate the song with Quiet Riot and their 1983 take on it. Twisted Sister took it up a notch with “I Wanna Rock”. Motley Crue wanted it “Louder Than Hell”. Bon Jovi wanted to “Let It Rock”. Metallica formed a “Metal Militia” and so on.

Turn it up, hungry for the medicine
Two fisted till the very end
No more treated like aliens
We’re not gonna take it

That’s right. The war cry from the youth of the Eighties.

We’re not gonna take it.

With our devil horns and our black t-shirts patched in with our favourite bands, we were not aliens anymore. We belonged. And the unifying force was our love of heavy metal and hard rock.

“I Still Love You” is a Paul Stanley and Vinnie Vincent composition and to this day it is one of my favourite power ballads. The Emadd9 to Cadd9 chord progression is mournful and perfect for the song.

People tell me
I should win at any cost
But now I see as the smoke clears away
The battle has been lost

Great lyrics. Even though the song is a love song, the four lines above can be used for any situation. If you are a rocker and the audience deserts you, what do you have left? Sort of like the song “When The Crowds Are Gone” from Savatage. If you haven’t heard, call it up on Spotify or YouTube and let it fill your head space.

There was another interesting song writing committee on hand. Gene Simmons, worked with Bryan Adams and his songwriting partner Jim Vallance. The result is the excellent “War Machine” and the not so excellent “Rock N Roll Hell”.

How heavy is “War Machine”?

Better watch out
‘Cause I’m a war machine

Another common theme from the Eighties was that rock heads and metal heads were meant to be mean muthas, typified by songs that promoted macho like behaviour. Sort of like how the rappers preached “don’t mess with us, we got guns and we use them”, the metal heads preached the same message with their fists and bravado.

“Watch out, we are here to seek and destroy.”

Next to “Unholy” and “God Of Thunder”, “War Machine” rounds off a trilogy of groove metal anthems from The Demon.

And to put it into context, the legend of The Demon owes a lot to Vinnie Vincent who was on hand to write the super-charged demonic riff for “Unholy”, Bryan Adams/Jim Vallance wrote “War Machine” and “God Of Thunder” was penned by Stanley and given to Gene to sing, who would then go on to become the “God Of Thunder”.

With Vinnie Vincent in the band, Kiss was ready for the Eighties. “Lick It Up” that followed the following year would give the band enough life and momentum to move forward until “Revenge” gave them another victory lap.

Whitesnake – Saints And Sinners
This album is gold. As with everything Whitesnake, the recording process began in 1981, just after the end of the “Come an’ Get It” tour. Since Whitesnake was formed, it had been album and tour, so it was expected that tensions would start to appear, especially when the debt was piling up. The band couldn’t understand why, as they played to sold out places and had album certifications on the walls.

We all know that this album gave birth to “Here I Go Again” and “Crying In The Rain” and to be honest, I really enjoy the Adrian Vanbenberg and John Sykes guitar playing on those songs many years later as well as the original versions.

But going back to the some of the other songs, there is no way you can’t tell me when you listen to “Young Blood”, you don’t get the urge to tap your foot and nod your head at the groove. It’s infectious.

Then you have the major key Led Zep inspired “Victim Of Love” plus the funky groove from “Saints and Sinners” and the great lead break.

I mentioned previously that in 1980, “Ready An’ Willing” was the album that started the rise of Whitesnake. Think about the quality of songs released on the trilogy of albums. You can sequence songs from “Ready An’ Willing”, “Come And Get It” and “Saints An’ Sinners” into a perfect album.

1. Young Blood
2. Don’t Break My Heart Again
3. Fool For Your Loving
4. Blindman
5. Crying In The Rain
6. Here I Go Again
7. Aint Gonna Cry No More
8. Victim Of Love
9. Lonely Days, Lonely Nights
10. Ready And Willing
11. Saints And Sinners

I didn’t get the full album until the late Nineties. As with all things commercial, once Whitesnake’s 1987 album started selling by the truckloads, Geffen Records re-issued the earlier stuff in 1988. So David Coverdale in a roundabout way should thank John Sykes for assisting him in getting richer from back catalogue sales.

Like a lamb to the slaughter,
Another sacrifice,
For giving love to woman
With a heart stone cold as ice….. from “Victim Of Love”

Brilliant lyrics from David Coverdale. Instead of the rocker being the one with a heart of stone and a “love em and leave em attitude”, the woman he is sleeping with is the one doing the loving and the leaving.

A woman goes crazy with the thoughts of retribution
Then a man starts weeping when he’s sick and tired of life ….. from “Crying In The Rain”

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. In a break up, thoughts of retribution are high on the cards.

Like a drifter I was born to walk alone ….. from “Here I Go Again”

A lot of people forget that Bernie Marsden is a co-writer on this track.

It’s a brilliant line.

In the end, all of us musical fans are loners. We listen to music in our own time, with our headphones on, in our bedrooms or on the train to work. And we drift from job to job, house to house, relationship to relationship and year to year.

This lyric connected “Here I Go Again” to every man, woman and child. It is a universal line. And the result is Whitesnake’s biggest single. It took 5 years later for it to happen, which goes to show how way ahead “Here I Go Again” was for it’s time.

Saints an’ sinners, priests an’ thieves ….. from “Saints An’ Sinners”

A brilliant play on words.

I stand guilty of a thousand crimes,
An’ I suffer temptation still,
Show me a man who won’t give it to his woman
An’ I’ll show you somebody who will ….. from “Saints An’ Sinners”

Trust David Coverdale to deliver a brilliant tongue and cheek line. To all of those guys in relationships that cant stop looking at other woman. Well, guess what, there are thousands of men looking at your woman. Brilliant.

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Soul Stealer – John Sykes

It’s the opening track, released in 1995 on the “Out of my Tree” Sykes album. No one even knows it. On YouTube, a couple of fan accounts have it and combined, the number of views are less than 10,000. It is on Spotify, however no one is listening to it.

Intro A
0.00 to 0.09
It’s the simple E note staccato guitar riff that sets up the bluesy groove. I’m talking about “Cowboys From Hell” style staccato where you take bluesy grooves and metal them up. It just grabs you from the outset.

Intro B
0.10 to 0.16
It quickly transitions into a Motorhead “Ace Of Spades” style riff, however while Ace Of Spades is all speed, this one has more swing and groove.

In “Ace Of Spades”, Fast Eddie Clarke holds an E5 power chord (E,B notes) then a Eflat5 power chord (E, B flat notes) and then A/E chord (E, A notes) over an E pedal point. In “Soul Stealer”, John Sykes plays B flat, B octaves and then B, to B flat to G octaves over an E pedal point.

Those 16 seconds are a lesson in song writing through experiences, influences and time spent in the business. All the excess fat is trimmed away, and in 16 seconds you have a kick-ass lean riff that makes you sit up and take notice.

Verse
0.17 to 0.39
It starts off with the Intro B riff and then moves into an Em blues chromatic descending riff (which would become the Chorus riff later) and picked back up by some C to G chords on the first run through on the second run through, Sykes plays ascending power chords, B5, C5, C#5 and D5.

Cold hearted woman
Boy she gonna mess with your mind
Cold hearted woman
Take you to the highest high
Love you till the morning
Shake it through the night
Share your darkest secrets
Make you feel all right

The clichéd lyrics take away from the music. In my book, the lyrical message could make or break a song.

For example, as good as the music was from Randy Rhoads, if Bob Daisley wrote lyrics about getting laid and had “please” rhyming with “knees” and “Crazy Train” was called “Wicked Whore” or something silly, then all of that great music that Rhoads created would be lost in the lyrical message. But the lyric line “Goin off the rails like a crazy train” is universal and it will never sound dated. The lyric line, “Go ahead and Jump” is universal and it will never get dated.

Dokken is one band that had lyrics on certain occasions that didn’t do justice to the music of the song. “Unchain The Night” is a perfect example. Musically, it is brilliant. The vocal melodies are strong. The lyrics, blah. Does anyone know how you can chain up the night, so that you can then write a song about unchaining it?

Regardless of what is said about rock music and grunge, by 1995, rock music was still VERY POPULAR to write and still a big seller, however the lyrical content and the look was very different to the Seventies and Eighties and it needed to be more in the alternative/grunge vein.

Pearl Jam is a bloody good rock band, regardless of which city they came from. Alice In Chains are a good rock band. Both of those bands sold well. Megadeth sold well during this period. Dream Theater sold well during this period. However their lyrics, weren’t derivative of the Seventies classic rock and the Eighties Glam/Hair Metal movement.

Check out the lyrics to the song “Black” from Pearl Jam as an example of writing about a woman/relationship that isn’t clichéd and derivative of the Eighties/Seventies movement.

In saying that, while David Coverdale was probably the most broken-hearted singer out there, John Sykes is the singer that dealt with cold-hearted and black-hearted women. It became a recurring theme that appeared on each release.

Chorus
0.40 to 0.47
The Chorus riff was introduced in the verses briefly, so when it comes up in the Chorus it is not unknown to the listener. This is a brilliant piece of song writing musically.

Cause she’s a soul stealer
Dream weaver
Gonna steal your heart away

Breakdown (which is the Intro A riff again)
1.19 to 1.26
That intro E staccato riff is back again.

Solo
1.27 to 1.57
John Sykes first and foremost is a lead guitarist. But in 1995, the lead guitarist was not the focal point of the band. The guitar poses and facial expressions didn’t cut it anymore. However, you can’t take away a person’s ability to shred. It’s like a fast car. You can crank it from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds. John Sykes wasn’t about whammy bar theatrics and sweep picking. He was all about the pentatonic scales. First and foremost, the lead had to be melodic and not just a finger exercise.

It’s a simply rock song but musically, a very busy and well-orchestrated song. It wasn’t made for radio airplay. It was made for the fan to enjoy the craftsmanship of an exceptional guitar player and song writer.

“Out of My Tree” was available as an import in Australia for more than $80 dollars. I didn’t hear this album until Napster hit in 1999 when I downloaded it illegally. Sykes did not fit into the system, which now wanted industrial and alternative rock. With any album release back in 1995, an artist needed to have the right people behind it, to push and promote it. The mere fact that the album was geo-blocked from worldwide release and only available as an import in a lot of countries is evidence that the wrong record label was behind it.

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Motley Crue Tunes That Didn’t Get The Live Treatment

In an interview with Forbes, Nikki Sixx was asked to name which songs he is most proud off and he answered with “Kick Start My Heart” and “Life Is Beautiful”. If you note, both of the songs are outcomes of the lifestyle he lived.

So I’ve decided to go through all of the Crue releases and pick a song or two from each album that I click repeat on and that normally doesn’t get the live treatment or the press. I’ve already covered some of Nikki Sixx’s best lyrical lines. You can check it out here.

TOO FAST FOR LOVE – 1981 
“Merry Go Round”
It’s one of my favourite tracks on the album. The overall feel, the muted distorted arpeggios clashing against the acoustic arpeggios and the aggression in the drumming is enough.

“Count the times he lay at night thinking, am I going down now”

Written about a person that lived in Sixx’s apartment block who mentally checked out of life.

“It’s not easy putting on a smile”

Tell that to all of the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat users, who seem to put up a smile every single day, while their whole world could be falling underneath them.

“Starry Eyes”
The drum groove that kicks the song off is simple and then the sad sounding pedal point minor riff kicks in. Musically it’s very mature. The whole section before the chaotic solo from Mick Mars is the style of music Muse would write decades later.

How good is that Chorus, with the stop start riff over a simple vocal line?

“Starry Eyes, wo oh..”

SHOUT AT THE DEVIL – 1983
“Knock Em Dead, Kid”
That intro riff from Mick Mars and the build-up from Tommy Lee is a foot stomper. It’s a call to arms.

“In the heat of the night
You went and blackened my eyes
Well now I’m back, I’m back, I’m back
And I’m coming your way”

Lyrics about a fist fight. Nikki took a few hits and now he’s back for retribution. Brilliant

“Danger”
This one is one of those gems that is forgotten, telling a story about the bands early days.

“Danger, you’re in danger when the boys are around”

The Motley Crue lifestyle. It was danger. Hotel rooms got destroyed, cars got destroyed, Razzle died, Nikki Sixx died.

THEATER OF PAIN – 1985
“Tonight”
The reason why I really like the song is the music. The riffs are foot stomping brilliant and Tommy Lee again sets up the groove. Lyrically, it’s about the show and the party with groupies afterwards.

“This deadly sin is all we know”

The drugs, the alcohol, the groupies. That is all they knew back then.

“Raise Your Hands To Rock”
It’s a brilliant appropriation of the Seventies Rock movement. Cinderella did something similar with “Coming Home” three years later. At just under 3 minutes, it feels like it wasn’t finished properly.

“I remember standing tall telling you
I’m gonna be a rock n roll star
When someone said Sit down, boy
“You already are”

Even when you make it, you still need that validation that you are a star.

“Fight For Your Rights”

“Martin Luther, brought the truth
The colour of our blood’s the same
So break the chains and solve the pains
And we all become one race”

The lyric message was too serious for the era. By 1985, we all wanted to “Smoke In The Boys Room” and get laid. No one wanted to hear serious lyrics about racism and equality.

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS – 1987
“Dancing On Glass”
Man, that riff from Mick Mars, is sleazy and dangerous. “Am I in Persia or am I just insane” is a lyric from “Dancing On Glass” and in 2005, the SIXX AM song, “The Girl With Golden Eyes” has the lyric “She speaks to me in Persian, tells me that she loves me”.

There are plenty of other brilliant lyrical lines about Sixx’s drug life.

“Valentines in London, found me in the trash”.
“One extra push, last trip to the top”.
“Silver Spoon and needle, witchy tombstone smile
I’m no puppet, I engrave my veins in style”

“Rodeo”
They already had the ultimate road song in “Home Sweet Home” so maybe it was a wise decision to keep another song with the same theme off the follow-up record. Regardless, “Rodeo” is one hell of a song and you can hear that Mick Mars is all over this one. This one is more Bob Seger’ish.

“Laughing like gypsies, from show to show, living my life like a rolling stone
Travelling man, never at home, can’t find love so I sleep alone, this whisky river has a long way to flow”

RAW TRACKS – 1988
“Teaser”
It’s a Tommy Bolin cover, but man, it sounds like a Motley Crue original. It ‘s a perfect selection. It was originally done for a compilation album, appeared on the Raw Tracks Japanese EP of 1988 and then the song re-appeared on the “Decade Of Decadence” album three years later.

“She’ll talk to you in riddles
That have no sense, or rhyme
And if you ask her what she means
She says, she don’t got no time”

It’s like Nikki Sixx wrote the above lyrics.

DR FEELGOOD – 1989
“She Goes Down”
Any song that begins with a zipper going down and a woman’s laugh is a song to be heard.

“Flat on my back she goes down
For backstage pass, she goes down”

The Crue lifestyle again.

“Time For Change”
Cliched, but a great listen. The whole “Dr Feelgood” album to me is Mick Mars’s album. He became a force to be reckoned with. Every song except “Kick Start My Heart” featured him as the main musical writer. It’s no coincidence that the album became Motley Crue’s only number 1 album.

“Now it’s time for change, nothing stays the same”

Like “Fight For Your Rights” the message was a bit too serious for the rock fan at that point in time.

DECADE OF DECADENCE – 1991
“Rock N Roll Junkie”
The song was a leftover from the “Dr Feelgood” sessions. I would have included it, instead of “Sticky Sweet”.

The sleazy bass intro and Tommy’s in the pocket shuffle makes this song groove. Anyone seen the “Ford Fairlane” movie with Andrew Dice Clay. This is the song played at the start when Vince Neil (playing the rock star) chokes on stage. It’s a throwback to the Seventies Classic Rock. Lyrically it’s all about groupies.

“She’s a rock ‘n’ roll junkie
That’s how she gets her kicks”

“Angela”
The music is fantastic and this is that time when I dig a song purely because of the music.

MOTLEY CRUE – 1994
The self-titled album is the forgotten album in the Motley Crue revisionist history. It’s like 1993 to 1996 never happened.

“Power To The Music”
“Who said the music’s dead in the streets?
Don’t know what they talk about.
They gotta put a bullet in my head if they want to keep me down”

When I first heard this song, the message was load and clear. The record labels might have put their support behind new musical movements, but rock music was far from dead.

“Hammered”
The groove on this song is addictive. It’s bluesy, swampy and dangerous, especially the whole outro section.

“You’re the monkey on my back and it’s time for you to go”

Was it really about Vince Neil?

Guess we’ll never know.

“Til Death Do Us Part”
This song is a classic. The music alone is worth the price of the album.

“I’ve walked my walk, talked my talk and I’ve lived and died in my songs”

It’s the best piece of advice I have ever received. Own whatever I do. Make no excuses.

“You know I’ve lived a few mistakes and I stand by them”

How else are we going to learn and get better in life if we don’t make mistakes.

“Droppin Like Flies”
Another serious song about our environment that somehow doesn’t work for the Crue fans. Great song by the way.

We’re barely hanging’ by the skin of our teeth.
We’ve all raped it, the future’s wasted.
We can’t save it now

QUATERNARY – 1994
“Bitter Suite”
A classic instrumental. Mick Mars wrote it and its got Gary Moore’s “Parisienne Walkways” and “Still Got The Blues” all over it. Bob Rock encouraged the guys in the Motley Corabi version to write a song each, so he could see what each guy brought to the band.

GENERATION SWINE – 1997
“Let Us Prey”
Ahh, a good old tune about the entity we blame when we do something wrong. The good old fallen one.

“Preachers do my bidding yet blame me for their sins”

How funny is that line?

GREATEST HITS – 1998
It was interesting to hear what step Motley Crue would take after “Generation Swine”. I must stay hearing “Bitter Pill” and “Enslaved” was promising. Not the best songs, but a step back in the right direction.

“Enslaved”
“So be sure that you are making the best, making the best of life
And that you have the truth is all within yourself
And don’t be a slave to someone else “

SUPERSONIC AND DEMONIC RELICS – 1999
“Say Yeah”
It’s about Matthew Trippe, the person who reckoned he was Nikki Sixx while the real Nikki Sixx was too drugged up during 1983 to 1985.

NEW TATTOO – 2000
“Fake”
It’s a big F.U to the label machine and at the problems the band got from Elektra in the Nineties.

“So you loved to hate us in your private jets
Funny how you bitched and moaned
‘Cause you got fat and rich”

“Sold my soul while you sold records
I have been your slave forever”

“What are you fat cats doing anyway?
Take our money and flush it down the drain”

“Porno Star”
I got a lot of time for this power pop punk rock song purely for the lyrically line “Dot.Com, Dot.Cum”

“Got a date with my modem line
Backdoor valentine
Internet jet set
My Credit cards in debt”

Classic Nikki Sixx bubblegum lyrics.

SAINTS OF LOS ANGELES – 2008
“The Animal In Me”
I am into this song more for the musical feel and groove than the lyrical message.

SEX – 2012
So the Crue decide it’s better to release one song (instead of an album) and then organise a tour behind it.

“What gets me off is a little neglect”

ALL BAD THINGS MUST END – 2015
So since the one song initiative worked before, lets repeat it for the song that would represent the final tour.

“So here we are, beat up and bloody
We fought each other from the gutter to the top
Not sentimental in the least way
Let’s pull the plug on this before it starts to rot”

Apart from fighting the establishment, the guys in the Crue loved to fight each other, namely Vince Neil vs Nikki Sixx or Vince Neil vs Tommy Lee.

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Cinderella – It’s Been A Long Cold Winter Without Your Music

In my weekly Spotify Discover list, it had “Gypsy Road” from Cinderella. I own all the two 80’s albums on LP and “Heartbreak Station” on CD, however I can’t say I have really listened to them over the last 20 years. So let’s call the Spotify Discovery selection a Re-Discovery.

I went straight to the “Long Cold Winter” album. The bluesy feel and the rawness was excellent for 1988, plus it was a good chance to hear Cozy Powell play drums again. For the ones that don’t know, Fred Coury was still very young and green, plus he was a new addition to the band. For “Night Songs”, Cinderella had a session drummer and Coury came in for the tour. Coury’s time would come on the next record “Heartbreak Station”. In addition, producer Andy Johns was notorious for being tough on drummers.

“Bad Seamstress Blue/Falling Apart” sets the blues groove from the outset.

“Look at the winner who hit the ground,
It comes around and then it goes back down”

How good is that lyric!! It’s like the saying goes, what goes up must come down. But hey, life is all about highs and lows.

“Gypsy Road” is up next and it’s probably the closest the band get to the sounds of their debut “Night Songs”.

“My gypsy road can’t take me home
I drive all night just to see the light”

Life of a rock n roll touring band. The whole “Long Cold Winter” album was written on the road in, while touring on “Night Songs”.

“Don’t Know What You Got Till Its Gone” is a great power ballad and Keifers voice was so unique and gravelly, it made a cliched song sound original. It’s funny, I thought when Hinder came out, the vocalist was Tom Keifer. And of course his vocal style would lead to surgery.

“Heartaches come and go and all that’s
left are the words I can’t let go”

Another brilliant lyric from Keifer.

“The Last Mile” is upmarket AC/DC. Keifer sounds like a polished up Brian Johnson.

“Don’t know where I’m going
But I know where I’ve been
Look around me everybody’s trying to win”

The catchphrase used by David Coverdale in “Here I Go Again”.

“Long Cold Winter” is ahead of its time. A few years later Gary Moore went to number 1 with “Still Got The Blues” which wasn’t a far departure from the feel of  “Long Cold Winter”. Jeff LeBar goes to town on the solo section. Underrated guitar hero in my mind.

Gonna be a long cold winter
Long cold winter without your love

The ultimate love song.

“Coming Home” is classic seventies.

“I took a walk down a road
It’s the road I was meant to stay
I see the fire in your eyes
But a man’s got to make his way”

A perfect song for an album written on the road. When you so far away from home, all you wanna do is get back home.

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Chris Adler

I got a lot of time for Chris Adler. I am not the biggest fan of Lamb of God, however with each album, there are songs on it with a killer groove or a killer section that just blows me away. Then from out of nowhere, Adler appeared on Protest The Hero’s fan funded “Volition” album and that was another “wow” moment for me. So I am heaps keen to hear how he goes with Megadeth on the “Dystopia” album.

There is an interview with Chris over at Music Radar where he talks about the albums that influenced his drumming style. Link is here.

At number one, he has the Wrathchild America, “3D” album. The drummer on that is Shannon Larkin, who is now the drummer with Godsmack. After recording 2 albums for Atlantic Records, the band was dropped because of a lacklustre of sales, however they were around enough to give Chris Adler an influential drummer.

Funny thing about Wrathchild America, is their music faded away instantly after they got dropped. Their sense of technical thrash grooves just didn’t suit the ones in charge. But it’s on Spotify and Chris Adler has brought them back into the conversation. All because of his love for the band and how Shannon Larkin inspired him to sell all his bass and guitar gear for a drum kit.

So I am streaming the “3D” album as i type this.

At number 2 and number 3, he has Aerosmith’s 1973 self-titled debut (Joey Kramer is the drummer) and “Reggatta de Blanc” from The Police (Steward Copeland is the drummer), released in 1979.

For Joey Kramer;
“Obviously not a very complex record, although the guy has a lot of feel and everything, but that was how I learned the basics – when to go to the ride cymbal, just learning the coordination of hands and feet.”

For Stewart Copeland;
“Even at this point in my career after playing now for 21 years, it’s still probably one of the most difficult songs out there, other than maybe Rosanna, from Toto, which I was listening to today.”

At number 4 and 5, he has Strapping Young Lad’s 1997 “City” album (Gene Hoglan is the drummer) and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s 1971 album, Inner Mounting Flame album (Bill Cobham is the drummer).

For Gene Hoglan;
“Gene was bringing funk and gospel beats into metal and speeding everything up and he sounded like no other metal drummer out there. I think that really helped the band stand out, so modelling myself after that, I love metal more than anything, but I wanted to be able to offer my metal band a unique take on what a metal drummer could or should be able to do.”

For Bill Cobham;
“I’ve watched a couple of clinics online and even a show I saw at one point where he came in and sat down at the kit and just decided that night he was going to take one of the toms off, so he’ll just mix things up and go from there.”

The attention to detail and trying to bring something new and unique to metal drumming is what separates the great from the good. When all you listen too is metal bands, then your style is a carbon copy of those bands. But when you listen far and wide, your style starts to incorporate feels, patterns and phrases from those different genres.

At number 6, he has the mighty “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying” album from Megadeth, released in 1986. The drummer on that album is Gar Samuelson.

“Megadeth has always been about the guitars and that’s why I love the band but Gar did have that jazzy feel, especially on the first record, Killing Is My Business, where everything felt like it was just a hair away from running off the tracks. It was just chaos and he had that jazzy style and sped those things way, way up.”

The beauty of the first two Megadeth albums is that Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson both came from jazz fusion backgrounds. Combine their chaotic free jamming experimentations with Dave Mustaine’s angry chip on the shoulder chainsaw riffage/lyrical writing and you have a potent combination of styles that prove a solid foundation to build upon.

“Peace Sells changed the whole game as far as hard rock and metal music goes. To this day I would still consider it to be Bible of all heavy metal. Gar was the guy that really made me think a little bit outside of the box because he was not a typical metal player at the time. There was obviously Lars [Ulrich] and Louie [Clemente] from Testament, great double bass chops, Dave Lombardo, really fast double bass stuff, but Gar was the guy shifting it up a little bit. I just really liked the idea that even though he was taking a backseat to the guitar players, you couldn’t replace him. He had a very unique sound within the band and so that’s what I’ve always tried to go for myself.”

I have always argued with others that Dave Mustaine’s influence on thrash metal and Metallica in general is unrecognised. He brought a technicality to Metallica that wasn’t there before. He explored that technicality to great success with Megadeth, which culminated in the “Rust In Peace” masterpiece. Metallica on the other hand, pushed those technical boundaries to the extremes on the Justice album. And since Metallica are the “winners” at this point in time, history will show a version of truth written by the winners.

At number 7, Adler has Metallica’s 1988 “And Justice For All” album. His views about the drum production are spot on.

“This changed a lot of things for a lot of people. The drum production was unlike anything that had been heard up until that point and the clarity was unrivalled. There were people certainly playing faster and more intricately but most of the time you couldn’t actually hear what the heck they were doing; this was the first time where everything was crystal clear. I wanted to mimic that, I would tune my drum heads down as low as they would go, I started taping quarters and fifty cent coins onto bass drums and using plastic beaters to try to get that sound. His playing on that album was fantastic.”

I really liked the Justice album. As a guitarist, it was progressive and technical. The album was definitely pushing the limits of the Metallica guys abilities in relation to technicality, much like how “2112” was pushing the abilities of the Rush guys. Production wise, yeah, the bass guitar is low and the guitars sound like they have scooped the mids and treble, however the drumming is made to sound awesome. The snap of the snare, the clarity of the double kick and the rumble of the toms made Lars Ulrich sound like the best drummer in town. Plus there was the definitive “One” on it.

At number 8, Adler has “South Of Heaven” from Slayer, released in 1988.

“We spoke about Gar earlier with Megadeth, but Dave was much faster than Gar was. Gar was more purposeful, Dave was more of an animal, incredibly fast double bass.”

I watched Slayer with Lombardo on drums. Live the songs were sped up. After the gig finished, I said to my mate Jimbo that I kneel at the altar of Lombardo. He was brilliant and precise.

At number 9, is “Too Fast For Love” from Motley Crue, released in 1981.

“Too Fast For Love, their first record, was this sleazy, early punk/metal record that obviously set them apart from a lot of the hair metal stuff that was going on in LA. They had the make-up and all that stuff but they were also flirting with these occult references, everything that you want to put out there as far as an image goes to sell to teenage boys. With Lamb Of God and Megadeth, you realise that’s who is coming to see us”

I grew up with the Crue and Tommy Lee is one of the best rock drummers out there.

Finally at Number 10, there is “Far Beyond Driven” by Pantera released in 1994. The drummer of course is Vinnie Paul Abbott.

“Cowboys From Hell was their weird experiment between this redneck metal and hair metal but it was still really heavy. Vulgar Display was just absolutely devastating, you could tell they were pushing to just be the heaviest thing they could, and then Far Beyond Driven was somewhere in the middle. They took a step back, took a deep breath and said, ‘Out of the first two records, let’s pick out the things we did best and let’s do ten of those on this record.”

The trilogy was complete.

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

The Public Domain Issue

January 1 of each new year is meant to be when certain works come out of copyright and into the Public Domain. However, each year, the Corporations in charge seem to lobby hard to get the terms extended. As such, the public domain is becoming less and less.

An artist is bringing a class action suit against Spotify for Copyright Infringement. It’s a perfect example of how far removed copyright is at this point in time, especially when Spotify obtained the music they have on their service from the record labels. The users didn’t upload it. Is YouTube such a perfect citizen when it comes to paying for mechanical licenses?

The case to free “Happy Birthday To You” a song penned in 1893 and still under the copyright control of a corporation is another example of the great Copyright Hijack.

The whole “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” copyright suit is another example of what a farce copyright is. A corporation had the rights to the song and they made a lot of money from licensing it out. Now a judge has ruled that the rights will go back to the children of the creators. It’s worth noting that the creators of the song died between 1975 and 1985. As far as I am concerned this song from the 1930’s is MEANT to be in the Public Domain and out of copyright. Read the article to see the absurdity of it all.

Here is another example of copyright stupidity.

Canada had shorter copyright terms, which meant early Beatles recordings entered the public domain. The record labels didn’t like this, so they lobbied/bribed hard in secret and copyright was extended on sound recordings for 20 years that are still under copyright without any debate or public discussion. Anyway a company called Stargrove Entertainment saw an opportunity to make money by releasing a CD of public domain Beatles music. By default it became a top seller in Canada and that’s when the Empire known as the Record Labels decided to strike back, because hey, the 60 year monopoly they had on the sound recordings was not enough.

Some of the Record Labels tricks included;

  • While the sound recordings are in the public domain, the compositions remain under copyright. So Stargrove paid the standard licensing fee and the record labels via the publishing companies they owned, decided to not approve the mechanical license and refunded Stargrove’s royalty payment.
  • Universal then interfered with the distributor so they could resolve “the public domain issue.”
  • Universal started posting negative reviews online of the Beatles CD.

Let’s remember the purpose of copyright. It gives the creator the right to stop people from copying their works for a certain period of time. Basically it is a monopoly given to the creator, so they have an incentive to create more works. Once upon a time that monopoly lasted 14 years and as soon as corporate entities started to make money from this monopoly, the length of time increased to life of the author plus seventy years.

In order for creators to be granted a monopoly on their works for a period of time, the trade-off was that once the copyright term expired, the works would fall into the public domain, which would mean they could be shared, adapted, improved, remixed and basically new stories be created.

I am still dumbfounded as to how people believe that a copyright term of 70 years after the death of the creator is a normal copyright term.

What incentive does a creator have to create more works when they have departed the land of the living?

It’s all about money and its driven by the blockbuster albums that continue to make money for decades. However, the majority of other creative works might have enjoyed a brief window of success and sales during a period of time and their value is very low compared to the block buster releases. Labels try to sign the artist for five albums on a 360 deal, with the promise to negotiate the original deal depending on how hot the artist becomes. It never happens without any incidence or litigation.

For example, Dokken and RATT had platinum certifications in the Eighties. If you look at their output it was five albums. The label made money and the bands saw money and success. In 2015, the value of their musical output is not the same in the eyes of the corporations compared to the value of Bon Jovi’s, Metallica, Motley Crue or Bruce Springsteen output. Metallica wasn’t as big as Ratt and Dokken in the Eighties, but we all know how that turned out after the behemoth “Black” album in the Nineties.

So from a copyright term perspective, the self-titled Metallica album is of a higher value compared to Dokken’s or RATT’s discography. And it is because of these blockbuster albums that Copyright terms get extended. Metallica and their heirs or the corporate entity that will own their rights will get richer while Dokken and Ratt fade into obscurity, locked up in 100 year copyright terms.

This article states that Copyright should be about 30 years.

Copyright should last a more-than-generous 30 years, and no longer. The Lord of the Rings would have been in the public domain in 1986, 13 years after Tolkien’s death. He would have been fine and his great trilogy would still have been written. Mickey Mouse would have been in the public domain in 1959. A tiny minority of wealthy creators would be somewhat poorer under such a scheme. But our culture would be vastly richer.

That would mean “Smoke On The Water” would be in the public domain and not locked up for a century plus. It would mean the Black Album would be in the public domain by 2021 for others to build on and enhance. It would mean that “Were Not Gonna Take It” would have entered the public domain in 2014.

I am sure Deep Purple, Metallica and Twisted Sister would be able to cope with that?

It would mean that Dokken and Ratt songs from the Eighties would be in the Public Domain for people to build upon and re-create, which means the songs live on and our culture is richer. Cast your mind back to the whole Sixties British movement, including the Beatles success is due to building upon blues works from the 1930’s.

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