Category Archives: Classic Songs to Be Discovered

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Coheed and Cambria – Metro Theater, Sydney 20 April 2013 – A Set List Of Classic Songs To Be Discovered

Parking in the Sydney CBD.  It’s a nightmare, especially if you don’t frequently drive there.   Miss just one turn and you are screwed, caught in an endless maze of one way’s as you try to work your way back to where you should have been.

I had a VIP pass for the show.  I also purchased the VIP sticky pass for my cousin.  Initially, the VIP pass was to allow you inside the venue 30 minutes before normal doors opened for an acoustic show by at least one member of Coheed and Cambria (COCA).  I then saw on Facebook a few days before the show, that all VIP pass holders for the Australian and New Zealand shows will be a meet and greet session instead of the acoustic show.

Due to my issue with the parking, i didn’t know if the meet and greet went on as planned.  When i got into the venue (which was 10 minutes before the doors opened), I was treated to Travis Stever performing an acoustic song from his side project.  I didn’t realize he was such a good vocalist but it wasn’t what I wanted to see.  By the way, the meet and greet didn’t happen in Sydney, however it happened in Brisbane.  Apparently, too many people had VIP passes for the Sydney show, hence the acoustic set.

Coheed and Cambria is Claudio Sanchez.  So when i saw the rule that at least one member of Coheed and Cambria will perform an acoustic song, i always assumed it would be Claudio, since he is the vocalist and the guitarist and the main songwriter for Coheed.

So yeah, Travis played a song from his side project.  This was unfair to the Sydney fans, it was unfair to me.  Australian fans do not get a chance to see Coheed and Cambria all the time, so an acoustic song with Claudio should have been the norm here.  Next time guys, keep us in the loop.  COCA fans are devoted to COCA, but remember it’s a two-way street.  Don’t fall into the one way street train of thought that a lot of bands seem to have.

Then Circa Survive came on.  I haven’t heard a song from them, so i was interested into hearing what they are like.  What a disappointment?  All I can say is that they are the most luckiest band in the world, as Coheed as taken them around the world on The Afterman tour.  I like a song to have a good riff.  Coheed have a lot of songs that fall into this category.  Circa Survive don’t have that.  The last song Get Out and the second last song, The Difference Between Poison and Medicine Is The Dose weren’t bad songs, however that was it.  Actually one of the guitarist’s stormed off the stage pretty quickly.  He was tuning up his guitar the whole night, which was confusing, however there was an incident early on in the set where the singer hit the neck of the guitar, so maybe something got messed up there.

COCA opened up with No World for Tomorrow.  The title track from their 2007 album, Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow.  This is where Claudio (the character) comes to grips with the fact that he is The Crowing and sets out for the ultimate battle with Wilhelm Ryan and Mayo Deftinwolf.  

This is the battle cry.  COCA is the ring master and the fans are the IRObots.  It was the perfect opener.

Bye, bye world, or will our hope still hold on?
Boy, you’re never going see,
The things that will come of these (days.)
Raise your hands high!
Young brothers and sisters,
There’s a world’s worth of work and a need for you.
Oh, a change is coming, feel these doors now closing in.
Is there no world for tomorrow, if we wait for today?

In the whole story arc of The Armory Wars, the characters are tools of fate.  Raise your hands high, young brothers and sisters.  We are at the show, and Coheed and Cambria has come of age.  They opened up with No World For Tomorrow and then took us to the pop/punk – emo tones of A Favor House Atlantic.

A Favor House Atlantic is from In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.

During the War of the Mages started by Wilhem Ryan, Althaddeus Favor was a Mage that disappeared, and it remains unknown what happened to him. Ryan then moved in on his home, the House Atlantic.  This part of the story came to light during The Year Of The Black Rainbow release.

A Favor House Atlantic is about the death of Al The Killer.  At the start, Al betrays Claudio (the character), as he takes the group to the House Atlantic, which is Wilhelm Ryan’s headquarters.  Al redeems himself at the last-minute, and helps the group to escape, which in turn will cost Al his life.  The Bye Bye Beautiful part is said to Ambellina who Al started to like and it was for that reason he made his last heroic stand.

Bye bye beautiful
Don’t bother to write
Disturbed by your words and they’re calling all cars
Face step, let down.
Face step, step down

It is well-known that Coheed and Cambria songs have dual meanings, referencing real life events that then are woven into the story arc.  There are good arguments put forward on a lot of Coheed blogs, that mention this song is about the Columbine shootings.

Goodnight, Fair Lady was up next continuing with the pop rock feel started with A Favor House Atlantic.  We have gone back in time for the story.  Back to the time of Sirius Armory.  This is another song with a dual meaning.  In the context of the story, this is where Meri, the wife of Sirius is saved from having her drink spiked by a police officer called Grave Colten.  Sirius is presumed dead at this point in time, as his ship had exploded.      In real life, it is about a creepy looking guy at a bar.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album.

I’m the snake waiting for you, dear
And eventually you’ll come to me
I know you will

The Crowing kept the pop rock feel going.  This is where Claudio (the character) is woken up by Ambellina, a member of the Prise (a form of guardian angels) who has been sent out to protect Claudio and ensure that he becomes The Crowing, the one foretold in the prophecy, that will be responsible for the end of the Keywork.  It is from the album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.

If I form mistakes, would I take them back
If erasing them could, if erasing them would
But would they be the words that I would say

Next up is Vic the Butcher and the show has moved away from the pop rock feel into a more heavy rock feel.  Key Entity Extraction III: Vic the Butcher, is about Claudio’s and Chondra’s real life relationship.  In relation to the story Vic is a tyrannical general who massacred innocent people for the good of the cause.  The Achilles heel for Vic The Butcher is Sentry The Defiant, the Sargeant that defied Vic and paid the price with his life.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album.  

Baby I’m bad company,
And you don’t have a mark
You’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen
Come with me, I want to make you dirty

This will cut you down to pieces
One-eighty-four, let’s burn it down
And if I can’t keep from living with this regret
I’ll need to change the way I think

The show now went into the mellow part of the night.  The hair from Claudio was all tied up.

Key Entity Extraction IV: Evagria the Faithful is the opposite of Vic The Butcher.  It’s about loss, when a person that we love is gone, how would we feel.  Evagria pulled Sirius from Vic’s possession and acts as his savior from the souls who want him.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album. 

I am not who I seem, who you thought I could be,
The support you could lean up against when you need,
I’m the dark when you want, the lights out at all costs,
This is mine, that is yours, I’m the bricks in your wall.

The Afterman started with the beautiful delay lead written by Travis, that goes throughout the whole song.  The song was written when Claudio’s (singer) wife Chondra, found out that a very close friend passed away via Facebook.  In relation, to the story, this is where Meri, Sirius’s wife hears the news that Sirius Armory is feared dead, after his ship explodes.  

She gave her heart to a falling star
When news filtered through of his tragedy all the walls went up
Around a world she declines
As the tears from her eyes fall
No one understands, and no one will
All she has lost

Here We Are Juggernaut is heavy.  It’s a perfect pick me up after The Afterman.  In real life, it is Claudio referring to his wife Chondra as his secret weapon and together they are unstoppable.  In the Amory Wars story, it refers to the characters Coheed and Cambria, the growing attraction they are felling for each other, the discovery of Wilhelm Ryan’s plan to siphon the universe’s energy for his own use and the plight of Dr. Leonard Hohenberger, the creator of Coheed and Cambria.  Here We Are Juggernaut is the battle cry.  It is from The Year of The Black Rainbow album.  

 

We were stupid, we got caught
But nothing matters anymore
So what? Here we are, juggernaut,
So let’s hang us a hangman, we’ll bury our burdens in blood

Dark Side of Me is about allowing people into your world, the good and the bad.  As mentioned by Claudio in the deluxe edition book, “True intimacy lies in the dark side, in making peace with the fact that it lives somewhere, so that you share it with the person and they can be there to help you overcome it.”  

In relation to the story, this is after Meri had died in a crash caused by Sirius after she told him she couldn’t be with him and that she was carrying the baby of Officer Colten.  The song is on The Afterman; Descension album.

“You had a million chances to play the hero for her, but you made your choice and hers too.  You left that woman in the dark and came back like you could just turn the light on?  If you loved her, you would’ve stayed up there Sirius, you would have let her go.” Colten said to Sirius.

I gave my everything
For all the wrong things
In this cold reality I made
This selfish war machine

Oh, this has become hell
How can I share this life
With someone else?
I promise you
There is no weight that can bury us
Beneath the ghosts of all my guilt

Here in the dark side of me

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 is the closer of the first set.  Its epic and the crowd sang it all the way through.  Man Your Battle Stations is the war cry as the Rebel army prepares for war.

In the seventh turning hour
Will the victims shadow fall?
Should the irony grow hungry?
With the victory and all they sought for
We were one among the fence
One among the fence

The encore begins.  Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute was written before the final Michael Todd (ex bassist in Coheed) episode.  In relation to the story line, Domino is a form of energy in the Keywork, angry and bitter, forever stuck in the afterlife.   

The story of Domino, a boxer with talent that gave in to all of the temptations of fame, like drugs and fell in with the local mafia boss.  After losing a fight against the current champion, Domino is offered a chance to redeem himself to the mafia boss by committing a robbery.  He convinces his brother, to help him.  It all goes wrong, his brother gets killed and Domino unable to live with himself, commits suicide.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album.

Welcome Home is closer, with its Led Zeppelin Kashmir groove.  It’s as epic as Kashmir.  A song dealing with loss that turns to anger.  The Writer is the character in this, he is the reaper, about to kill a woman that he loves as she pleads for her life.  The song is on the Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness album.  

One last kiss for you
One more wish to you
Please make up your mind girl…
Before I hope you die

Overall, Coheed put on a show.  They easily could have played another 5 to 6 numbers, and in my view they should have, as they don’t tour Australia often.  I remember Dream Theater put on a three-hour extravaganza the first time they toured here.  

Also a big thumbs up to Josh Eppard on drums (Welcome Home) and Zach Cooper on bass.  You guys killed it.  

Till next time.  

One last thing, parking cost $29.  Nice hit on the wallet.  Thanks Sydney CBD for ripping people off again.  At least the Beef Yeeros at Brighton Le Sands made up for it.     

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Stargazer – Kingdom Come – Classic Song waiting to be discovered

It’s the keyboard synth intro.  It grabs you from the outset and by the time the whole band kicks in with the guitar line playing the same keyboard intro, you are hooked.

Lenny Wolf was the Eighties Robert Plant.  He did Robert Plant better than Robert Plant.  Regardless of how critics and fans saw Kingdom Come, one thing is undeniable, they wrote songs that are catchy as hell.

Stargazer is not a charting song.  It was never designed to be.  It is a classic rock song.  It is written by singer Lenny Wolf, guitarists Danny Stag / Rick Steier and bassist Johnny B Frank.   The song was produced by Keith Olsen fresh from Whitesnake’s smash 1987 album and Ozzy’s No Rest For The Wicked.  It has an epic feel to it, however it is only 5 minutes long.

Sitting in the dark
Staring at the sky
Within all of heavens eyes
Wondering where and why
Who made all of this come alive
Who knows what will come in time

The ultimate question, the why are we are, and what is our purpose in life.

Ooh, just to know what’s the reason for making us
Is what I would like to know
Ooh, just to know where we go when the earth is cold
We may never know

If only we had a crystal ball that could tell us the answers.  If only we had a crystal ball to look into the future.

All the mystery dreams and fantasy
We touched on our way to see
Living day by day trying to getaway
Dream on to another space

We always wanted to be somewhere else.  We are like the small town boy or girl from Don’t Stop Believing.  Trying to catch the last train out of our current lives and into a better life.  Of course life is nothing like that.

Ooh, just to know that you are not the only one
Who is searching on
Ooh, just to know that beyond there is something more
For the rich and poor

Live, work, die.  Three words that sound familiar to everybody.  When said together like that, it is the easiest summation of every single persons’ life.  We just want to know if there is some afterlife, something after death that makes this life worth it.

Check it out.. YouTube

Within three months of the In Your Face album coming out, the band had called it a day.  What an implosion?  At least they left us with two classic albums, with the classic line up.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music, My Stories

Motley Crue – 1994 – Poison Apples, Hammered, Till Death Do Us Part – John Corabi Era – Part 2

Continuing on from Gerri Miller’s Metal Edge interview with Nikki Sixx.  The below excerpts in italics are taken from Metal Edge circa 1994.  The lyrics and comments are added by me.

“POISON APPLES”
A rocker with a punky vibe, this song was originally called “Hangin’ by a Thread.” Nikki wrote it last year in “Hawaii on vacation, when Bob [Rock’s band Rockhead] was out with Bon Jovi. I recorded the riff on a ghetto blaster and played it for the band, and they said this is really cool.  It got thrown into the Motley stew and turned into a bastardized version of the original. But nothing about it kicked ass.” Meanwhile Nikki was working on a possibility for his solo song with the title of ‘Poison Apples.  

Subject wise “The first part is my story what that time of my life was about. The second part is more about the band, and takes aim at the “tabloid sleaze” press preoccupation with Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear’s now-defunct marriage.  Lines like “Sex smack rock roll mainline overdose/Man we lived it night and day” refer to past excesses, and homage is paid to one of Nikki’s favorite bands, Mott the Hoople.  “Ian Hunter’s one of my favorite lyricists and Overend Watts is the reason I play,” he says. “Tommy Lee played honky-tonk piano on it.”

Don’t you love that knowledge.  How the song starts of as one thing and it ends up going through a metamorphosis into something else.    

Tabloid sleaze just maggots on their knees
Diggin’ in the dirt for slag
Moonshine, strychnine, speedball, shootin’ lines
Anything to push their rags

Nothing has changed these days.  If you want to be misquoted or if you want to have words taken out of context, do an interview for the mainstream.  If you want your fans to know what you mean, connect with them.  Let them be the interviewers.

Pretty little poison apples, see the scars tattooed on our face.
It’s your disgrace.
Pretty pretty poison apples, mama said,
“Now don’t you walk this way, just find some faith.”

The lyrics on Motley Crue are world-class.  I like how Nikki refers to the band as pretty little poison apples.  He is merging the Garden of Eden with LA and the dreams of a young kid trying to make it.

“HAMMERED”
Cool, heavy, with grooves galore, this song is “about a sleazy piece of shit person in anyone’s life.”  Some might infer that it’s about Vince Neil but when asked about it, Nikki insists that it isn’t.  I don’t know where I was coming from when I wrote it.  It’s a song about a dirt bag.  We all know plenty of them.  Written very quickly at rehearsal, its characterized by Nikki as having a Deep Purple vibe.

To be honest, when i first heard this song, I took it as a dig to Vince Neil.  According to Nikki, Vince quit because he wasn’t into music anymore and he wanted to devote his time to car racing.  According to Vince, he got fired, because he didn’t like the direction the new music was heading/  Apparently it was all keyboard driven.

Regardless of what story you believe, one thing is clear, Vince Neil delivered a superior hard rock album with Exposed, which came out 1993, a whole year before Motley Crue.  In my mind, this made Nikki’s words mean shit.

Act like Jesus crucified again
These four walls are closing in
Who and what do you think you are
A rich mother fucker in a fancy car?
Concrete jackal suckin’ on the past
Goldcard junkie kissing money’s ass

You can tell that Nikki is directing the words to a person who is suing him.  Vince Neil sued Motley Crue in 1992 after his firing, for 25% of the Crue’s future profits and $5 million in damages for being fired.  In addition, Exposed was selling close to the million mark.  As we know once, Motley Crue came out with their 1994 album, they only moved 500,000 units.

Hey, Mr. big time Hollywood,
Tell your story walkin’ if you think you could
Your money’s runnin’ low from your cocaine whores
Nothin’ but a rat scratchin’ at my door
Hey, now I’ve said all I’m gonna say
Time will judge, see who fades away

There was an incident where Vince and port star Savannah went to Hawaii.  After 4 days of partying on pills and cocaine, Savannah overdosed.  As much as Nikki denies it, this song is having a dig at Vince.  Time did judge, and it was Nikki that needed to get Vince back into the fold.

TILL DEATH DO US PART
This soulful heavy rocker is “about pride and standing up for what you believe in, standing up for yourself till you die.  It reminds me of ‘Danger’ off the second album,” says Nikki.  “It’s mid tempo but not really a ballad. It’s very emotional.”

Autobiographical lines include “I’ve walked my walk, talked my talk, lived and died in my songs. Temptation cuts so deep/Its fires still burn so strong/You know I’ve lived a few mistakes and I stand by them … Sometimes my words may cut too deep and I step on a toe or two/Half dead and barely half alive but I live by the truth.”

Nikki notes, “A lot of people tend to look at us from the outside in,” drawing wrong conclusions because of what they read.  But “I don’t really care, to be honest with you. The only thing that’s important is family and friends.”

Till Death Do Us Part is the best song written by Motley Crue.  They should have re-recorded this as a B side or a bonus track with Vince.  Of course Vince wouldn’t sing it, he has made that clear in previous interviews.  The album was meant to be called Till Death Do Us Part.  The guys even tattoed the name on their bodies.

Poison Apples – YouTube

Hammered – YouTube

Till Death Do Us Part – YouTube

 

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music, My Stories

Next 100 Years, I Could Make A Living Out of Lovin’ You and Ain’t No Cure For Love – Classic Songs Waiting To Be Discovered

Crush.  Does anyone know that It’s My Life came from this album.  You can say this was Bon Jovi’s renaissance.  After delivering a terrible album in These Days and a worse solo album in Destination Anywhere, Jon Bon Jovi needed to go back to Rock N Roll.  Luke Ebbin was on board to produce the album.  It was to be his first major production credit and what a good job he did with it.  It’s My Life was a monster.  So whatever came after it, wasn’t going to matter.  Call it the curse of the Number 1 effect.  Crush was a great album.  However, it was the B-sides that came with the CD-singles that were the standouts.

Next 100 Years was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.  It has that Beatles Hey Jude ending and then from about 4.25 it just goes into overdrive.  It’s got that Seventies vibe, that abandonment.  Hell the song even goes up to 6.19 which strays very far from the pop formula that Bon Jovi is renowned for.  Sambora wails on the guitar.  This is the year 2000, Nu Metal is ruling the scene and guitar solos are non-existent.  Trying telling that to Richie.  He must have missed the memo.  If there is one thing I can say about Richie, he stayed true to himself as an artist.  He didn’t follow the grunge trend or the industrial electronic trend Jon followed on Destination Anywhere.   He just remained the same.  His second solo album, Undiscovered Soul was a real standout in 1998.  I even watched him perform, 5 minutes from my house, at the Shellharbour Workers Club.  Now that was an unexpected surprise.

I’ll believe 
When you don’t believe in anything

That is life.  When I don’t believe someone else i know believes in something better and vice versa.  The Yin and the Yang.

I Could Make A Living Out Of Lovin’ You was written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Billy Falcon.   If you like AC/DC, if you like rock n roll, this is the song for you.    It’s the a quality AC/DC song not written by the Young Brothers.  This song was on the Australian deluxe version as a bonus track.  To me, it is one of the best rock songs Bon Jovi has written.  It’s got that Bon Scott tongue in cheek attitude in the lyrics.  It is the guys having fun.  Yes FUN.  That is what it is supposed to be about.  Having FUN.  

If there’s something that needs fixing 
I’m the man to see 
Look me up, I’m listed 
Just check under “B” 
If you’re ever on the spot 
Well, I’m good with my hands 
24-7 I’m your handyman 

Until the work is finished 
Well, I don’t get paid 
I don’t mind getting dirty 
That’s my middle name 
I’m in the service business 
So I understand 
Call me 24-7, I’m your handyman

Aint No Cure For Love is the best ZZ Top song not written by ZZ Top.  How this song has not ended up as a Bon Jovi classic is a tragedy.  It’s the guys having fun again.  It’s written by Richie Supa, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.  Supa is known for his contributions to Aerosmith, plus Sambora used him for a lot of the Undiscovered Soul songs.   This is Classic Rock revisited in the YEAR 2000.  It deserves more attention.  It show a different side of Bon Jovi.

Cupid was a blind man
He must have missed his mark
Shot an arrow in the air and hit me in the heart

I went to see Saint Valentine
Said whats come over me?
Daddy must have missed the chapter about the birds and bees

You can be the King of diamonds
You can cash in all your gold
You could hire Johnnie Cochran
It’s too late to save your soul

NEXT 100 YEARS – YouTube

I COULD MAKE A LIVING OUT OF LOVIN’ YOU – YouTube

AIN’T NO CURE FOR LOVE – YouTube

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Motley Crue – 1994 – Power To The Music, Hooligan’s Holiday, Misunderstood – John Corabi Era – Part 1

They should have changed the name.  Called the band Hammered or S M C L or Wild Side or something like that.  It’s another Bob Rock production.  He does an awesome job (lets just forget St Anger) at getting / capturing the bands at their best.  He even demanded that Lars take drum lessons before recording his drums for the Black album and for James to take singing lessons before doing the vocals for the ballads.

Gerri Miller was Metal Edge to me.  She was on every story or on every interview that mattered.  The below excerpts are taken from Metal Edge circa 1994.

“POWER TO THE MUSIC”
Groove-laden and funk-edged, this album opener started out as a repetitive detuned riff  dreamed up by Nikki,  and “pushed John [Corabi] to the limit vocally. We were going, ‘Push your throat till it blows out.’ He never sang like that before.” 

Hey, listen people, we’re victimized, circumcised, crossed the line of no return.
The critics say we devastate, socialites just masturbate.
Won’t the losers ever learn?
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.
Let me hear it.

This came out at a time where the airwaves were ruled by Grunge.  You can tell the band is angry.  The song is heavy.  It’s got groove.  You can feel the anger.

Who said the MUSIC’s dead in the streets?  Rock music was alive and well.  Just because the labels abandoned it, it didn’t mean that the audience abandoned it.  For the labels to kill rock and metal, they had to put a bullet in the head of every fan.

Mothers tell their sons of cyanide and suicide,
Blame it on the devil’s tongue,
Suck me like a parasite, military 3rd Reich.
Blood burning bastards wasting blood.
Who said the music’s dead in the streets?
Don’t know what they talk about.
I want my music waking up the dead.
Don’t tell me to turn it down
Turn it down.

I love the lyrics in this verse.  This is a grown up Motley Crue.  A pissed off one.  Telling the  3rd Reich label heads to suck em off.  If you are a fan of The Scream, you can hear John Corabi’s influence all over this song.  He wasn’t just a fill in, he was a contributor. He got the raw end of the deal, blamed for the fall of Motley Crue.  He made them relevant.

“HOOLIGAN’S HOLIDAY”

The kick ass kickoff single went through a major metamorphosis from what it was originally. Initially a demo sort of like ‘Highway Star ” recorded by Nikki and John at Nikki’s house.  It was brought to the table, “but everyone was not too high on it.” Their attention turned to other tunes, “but we felt strong about it. We had agreed we’d try anything anyone wants to try. We totally rewrote it—only the chorus and title are the same.” It took just two hours to record, and the results “f.ckin’ floored” Nikki. “It’s amazing what you can get out when everyone’s putting in 100%,” he notes. ‘The song no one wanted to try became the first track. Shows you gotta try everything.” As for the title, the phrase came from a broadcast during the L.A. riots: “It’s a hooligan’s holiday out there.” Nikki then made a correlation to an Aerosmith title. “If they’re on a permanent vacation, we’re on a hooligan’s holiday,” he says. “It’s not a very serious song.” Three other versions exist. One is shortened, for radio, “which we hated doing so we called it 4Brown Nose’ version. It’s us laughing at ourselves.” There’s an 11 minute extended version and a seven minute  “Derelict Vision” club mix by Skinny Puppy, with a companion video version too graphic
for TV.  

The “Hooligan’s Holiday” video, based on tho movie A Clockwork Orange, features performance sequences and scenes showing Nikki and Tommy dressed as Teddy Boys, a type of hooligan in London in the late 1950s. 

Drop dead beauties stompin’ up a storm, lines of hell on our face.
Bruised bad apples crawling through the night, busted loose, runaway, oo, runaway.

Everybody wants a piece of the action.
Everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Cross-eyed derelicts comin’, iron horse between our legs.
Tattoos, black manes flowin’. Everyday’s a holidays.

It’s a riot.  It’s a free for all.  The wronged (the bruised  bad apples) are rising up.  Its angry.  The injustice.  I feel like i am at rock concert, where the crowd loses control.  I like the reference to Piece of Your Action and Slice of Your Pie.

“MISUNDERSTOOD”

A 40 piece orchestra flavors this killer combination of beautiful melodic acoustic music and blistering rock, the oldest song on the album, ‘it’s my way of looking at life,” says Nikki. ‘People often say life’s misunderstood them. I always thought. That’s bullshit.’ It’s up to you to live life to its fullest. You have to go for it as much as you can.” Song lyrics like Doin’ time in a broken home” and “I’m an angry man, always had to fight to survive my past” are taken from Nikki’s own experience. “I think it’s relatable to fans—we’ve all gone through that with parents. It’s a deep song,” he says. It has a lot of abusive notes in it. It’s not a happy song.” The orchestra’s involvement was planned from the outset.
They hired a conductor, who worked on arrangements.

Little old man contemplates suicide twice a day
Life’s passed him by
Little old woman scared and blind, left alone in desperate times
Life’s passed her by

Little boy with vacant eyes, daddy won’t be home tonight
And he don’t know why
His mother, she sits alone tangled in the web she’s sewn
Lives lie to lie

This is Motley Crue reincarnating itself as Led Zeppelin.  It’s an epic song and its a grand statement.  They could have went with the pop format but they went with their instincts, their gut feeling and this is the product.  The acoustic verses and then the drums kick in references Stairway To heaven.  The behind the beat drumming references Kashmir.  Good music is good music.  It doesn’t fit in any genre, and this is what the Motley Crue album did.  It started a new modern rock/metal genre.  It was way ahead of it’s time.

Power to The Music

Hooligan’s Holiday

Misunderstood

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Black Hearted Woman – Blue Murder

John Sykes could have followed the Whitesnake formula he established on the 1987 album with Blue Murder.  John Kalodner even pressured him to come up with Whitesnake style songs.  In the end Black Hearted Woman and Out of Love were delivered to appease Geffen Records.  Blue Murder was guitarist/vocalists John Sykes, bassist Tony Franklin (from the Firm) and drummer Carmine Appice (King Kobra, Jeff Beck).   

The album was produced by Bob Rock who would go on to greater glory with Motley Crue’s Dr Feelgood and Metallica’s Black album.  It was mixed by another Canadian in the super experienced Mike Fraser.  The album even has the following comments: WARNING!! THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN “FRAZZED”.

When I first heard the album, i was blown away.  This was an artist being creative and pushing his own boundaries.  There where no commercial pop singles to push on this album.

Black Hearted Woman has that Children of The Night/Aint Gonna Break My Heart Again vibe from the Whitesnake album.   The riffs are very similar.  It was written by the band.  It is perfect and sleazy.  The small lead break before the bridge is reminiscent to what Sykes did in the Cold Sweat solo break by Thin Lizzy.  He is referencing his past.  His influences.

Even the lyrics are classic Coverdale style lyrics.

When she walked in the room
I was drawn like a fool almost hypnotised
You made my heart beat, baby, like never before
Underneath her disguise I saw trouble and lies
But I walked right in
She said tonight I’m gonna make you push it
And that’s the score

The sad thing about all of this is that David Coverdale threatened to delay the follow-up to Whitesnake’s 1987 album if Geffen Records put cash behind Blue Murder.  It didn’t matter if John Kalodner was a big fan of John Sykes and that he organised his signing to Geffen Records.  Whitesnake was where the money was at the time, so David Geffen complied with Coverdale’s request.  The label failed to promote it and the album more or less disappeared.  

To be honest, David Coverdale hasn’t really released anything as good as the 1987 album and John Sykes hasn’t either.  The Blue Murder albums combined could rival the 1987 album.  Basically the two of them together, that was the magic.  Add Aynsley Dunbar on drums and Neil Murray on bass.  Rock Metal History.     

Hear Black Hearted Woman on vimeo.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music, My Stories

Thin Lizzy – Cold Sweat – Classic Song to be discovered

I am a big fan of John Sykes.  It was the Whitesnake 1987 album that had me converted.   It was very guitar heavy and I loved it.  I was dismayed when I found out he got fired from the band before the album was released.  I couldn’t even stand to watch Adrian Vandenberg and Vivian Campbell pose around like they where the creators of the music.

So I started to ask people about John Sykes and no one could answer me.  This is in 1988.  There was no Google.  There was no internet.  You had to find out this information by yourself.  I then picked up a magazine of Metal Edge and I saw the information I needed.  Metal Edge was sold in Australia for $10, so it was an expensive purchase.

The article spoke about John Sykes and his new band, Blue Murder.  It also mentioned his beginnings.  Tygers of Pan Tang and Thin Lizzy.

The record shop was next door to the newsagent.  I went in and of course in the hard rock / heavy metal section there was no Thin Lizzy album that had John Sykes playing on it.  Nor did it have any Tygers of Pan Tang.  Regardless I was on a mission to find out more.  That is how super fans are made.  We needed to know more about the artists we liked, so we went searching, we asked people, we spread their name.  I asked the lady at the counter if she can tell me what albums John Sykes played on with Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang.  She gave me this look.  Was I speaking a different language apart from English.  I mentioned the album, Whitesnake.  I pulled it from the hard rock section to show her the guitarist.  She answered back, “who cares, he is only the guitarist.  He doesn’t even matter.”  Doesn’t matter.  I go to her, “what instrument makes music”.  She answers back “the guitar”.  Enough said.  I knew I was going to get anywhere with her.

Imagine my surprise when my cousin Mega called me to tell me he picked up Tygers Of Pan Tang – Spellbound and Thin Lizzy – Thunder and Lightning for me for $5 each from a second-hand record shop and that John Sykes plays on those albums.  I was on the train to Sydney (a 90 minute journey) in a heartbeat.

Cold Sweat.  It’s written by John Sykes and Phil Lynott.  It’s the only one on the album that has a John Sykes co-write.  The riff is heavy and sleazy.   Phil Lynott’s vocals reek of desperation.  It was like he really owed some money to a mafia style bookie.  The lead section from John Sykes, confirmed my suspicions.  He wasn’t plucked from out of nowhere by David Coverdale, he was paying his dues.    He nails so many different styles, and also makes it sound human.

Stone cold sober and stone cold sweat running down the back of my neck.  

The Thin Lizzy influence on John Sykes would re-surface in later years, especially the Phil Lynott style of lyric writing and vocal line delivery.  We All Fall Down from Blue Murder’s – Nothing But Trouble comes to mind immediately.

Here it now.  Revisit a classic song.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Polution – Forever And A Day – Classic Song Waiting To Be Discovered

Polution. I came across this band by pure accident. I knew nothing about them. Even Googling the name Polution brings up everything to do with pollution but nothing to do with them. Still I delved deeper into Google. I finally came across some information. You can say their web presence is terrible.

Founded in 1997 and they come from Switzerland. In 2009 they released their debut album called Overheated. Twelve years from when they began. The album I heard was their second album called Beyond Control and it was released in May 2012. I heard it today. Almost a year since it came out. I am not sure why bands these days keep taking a lot of time to record an album. Release frequently and release your best. Four songs at a time, even three. Quality is what matters. No one listens to a whole Foo Fighters album. We just listen to their best songs. Even David Grohl said the same, in the movie they released for their last album.

Live Until You Die. It’s got that sleazy, head banging AC/DC meets ZZ Top La Grange riff. You can even call the riff a rip off. It doesn’t matter, as all musicians are influenced. Music is never created in a vacuum, even though someone like Prince tells you so. The riff is heavy and it makes you pay attention. The drums keep the toe tap feel of the intro riff going. Why couldn’t Bon Jovi release a song like this on the new album? Imagine that, Bon Jovi going back to his Classic Rock roots, taking influence from ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Toto and Styx. Instead Bon Jovi is trying to compete with Justin When Is My Voice Going To Break Beiber and One Direction.

Forever and A Day is by far the best song on the album. It came out of nowhere. After Live Until You Die, I wasn’t expecting a melodic song. Pure class. This is nothing like the previous song. It has got that melodic arena rock style of 80’s. Europe and Scorpions are two bands that come to mind. I even hear a Michael Schenker / UFO vibe merged with Classic Aerosmith. I even hear current Nickelback merged with Hinder. I even hear Adam’s Song from Blink 182. There are so many elements that wash over me sonically. That is what music should be. If you are a music fan, you need to check out this song. It deserves to be heard. It can stand on its own. It doesn’t need a Gangnam style video clip to keep it going. It makes you want to hear the next song. Did anyone care that PSY released a follow up single? Of course not. It was all about the clip and the dance. The song couldn’t stand on its own without the video.

Check it out here on You Tube.

Polution got me interested and I want to tell others about it. They are not banging my head over with the marketing sledgehammer or spamming me to do so. They just released an album, that I came across today, and had a great song on it that I wanted to talk about. It’s not perfect, it’s not original, but it’s human. Their life experiences shine through on the tracks, their influences shine through.

If listeners can listen to any of the above songs, then I have succeeded in getting this band heard above all the other amateur noise that clogs up the Internet. It’s great how the playing field has levelled, because if it wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t have come across Polution. They would have been lost in the regional restrictions of the old ways and available as an expensive import in Australia.

All they need to do is increase their web presence. They still have a MySpace account. Enough said.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Periphery – Ragnarok – Classic Song Waiting to Be Discovered

Djent.  Who comes up with these terms for music?  Do people really need music to be labelled and categorised to like it.  Why can’t music just be music? It’s not like we are walking through super market isles with a list of what to get.

Seriously I grew up on 80’s hard rock / metal bands.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t like glam rock, thrash metal, pop rock, pop, death metal, technical metal, progressive metal (yawn as more labels come to mind)etc…   See how ridiculous it is.  The problem is when a niche explodes, it becomes mainstream and like it or not its part of the mainstream music machine.  Does anyone refer to Pearl Jam or Alice In Chains as grunge bands or Limp Bizkit as NuMetal anymore?  No they are just bands releasing music and playing shows.   

Coming back to Djent and Periphery.  I saw these guys live at the Annandale Hotel in Feb 2013, as a sideshow they did from the Soundwave tour.  They were good.  Very good.  Technical and melodic.  Technical and aggressive.  Technical and progressive.  Technical and rocking.  Technical and serene.  Technical and mechanical.  It was a pleasure to be there.  To me it is music.  I don’t see it as a Djent movement.  I don’t see it as a niche where only an elite group of fans can participate because they all like Djent style bands and everything else out there is crap.  Its music, that encompasses all the terms I mentioned. 

Periphery was formed in 2005 by guitarist Misha Mansoor.  It wasn’t until 2010 they released their debut album.  Are people prepared to put in 5 years of service these days without making a dime from music and working a full time job to support the dream of being a musician?  

Misha got traction by connecting.  He had a Soundclick account that he regularly updated with riffs and songs.  He went on to forums that mattered.  He didn’t spam everyone.  He went after the people that had a similar interest in the style of music he was into.  In this case, it was the Meshuggah, Dream Theater, John Petrucci and Seven String forums.  He met other musicians like this?  Those other musicians would end up as members in Periphery.  So from just Misha and his computer originally, now it is a band of six musicians.  Vocals are provided by the gifted Spencer Sotelo.  Where did he come from?  In the first two minutes you think he’s singing from the depths of hell and then the angelic melodic voice carries the outro of the song. 

Ragnarok.  The end of the world in Norse mythology by submersion of the world in water.  Afterward, the world will resurface anew and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors.  Does this sound familiar to all the Christian’s out there?  I will be clear from the outset, I am not a fan of screaming guttural vocals.  I appreciate what they bring to a song and what they try to add to the message/context of a song however I don’t really like them.  However, I like how the music is technically aggressive from the outset but to me this song explodes from the 2.20 minute mark to about 4.30.  I remember playing this song to people that like more of a commercial sound.  They were looking at the ceiling and then from the 2.20 minute mark they are paying attention.  Is this the same band they ask me.  I answer yes it is. 

Somewhere in time…
Off in the distance we can see, shining, clear, our demise to be.
We’re not listening to ourselves.

The end of the world.  We can see it, but we failed to stop it.  Allowing Corporations to influence legislation so that it protects their bottom lines and takes away from our liberties.  We need to stop it.  Allowing politicians to serve the lobby groups instead of the people that voted them in.  We need to stop it.  Allowing our privacy to be stored and traded on hearsay evidence.  We need to stop it.  Experience the end of the world with Periphery.  Be amazed.  For the ones that don’t like the death metal vocals, hang in there until the two minute mark.  

You Tube

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Undivided – Another classic Bon Jovi song waiting to be discovered

This is what music is about, writing about experiences. September 11, 2001 changed everyone. That event changed everything. For those that saw it, we felt fragile and we felt afraid. This lead to anger. We wanted revenge.

Undivided was written by Bon Jovi, Sambora and Billy Falcon. Falcon actually pops up on a lot of Bon Jovi songs that have been missed. Falcon was an artist who really hadn’t released anything worthwhile, until Jon signed him to a deal with Jambco Records. Does anyone remember that label? Jambco was a record label started by Jon Bon Jovi, under Mercury Records in the late 80’s. I remember it released Aldo Nova’s – Blood on The Bricks and Billy Falcon’s – Pretty Blue World. Both albums did nothing. Aldo Nova couldn’t capture the magic from the Fantasy album, even though JBJ co wrote all the songs on the album, and even produced the album. In the case of Falcon, all the songs were written by Falcon, with JBJ co producing. In the end even JBJ’s name couldn’t get it to sell.

Undivided is probably the heaviest song Bon Jovi has recorded. The producer was Luke Ebbin (who was introduced to JBJ by A&R legend John Kalodner) and the song was originally called One. For those that don’t know, John Kalodner was the guy that broke Whitesnake in the US and relaunched Aerosmith in the 80’s (both via Geffen Records). He also signed Foreigner and AC/DC to Atlantic Records in the seventies.

They should have kept the One song title. Maybe they thought One belonged to U2. The stomping groove grabs you from the outset. Its mean and its angry and you can feel it coming out of the speakers that way.

That was my brother lost in the rubble
That was my sister lost in the crush
That was our mothers, those were our children
That was our fathers, that was each one of us
A million prayers to God above
A million tears make an ocean of

It could relate to anything, a terrorist attack, a war front, a natural disaster. The message here is to stick together. We can rise back up, but we can’t do it alone. We need each other. We need to do it together. Even though we are connected to each other 24/7, we are alone. We don’t stick together anymore.

I found spirit; they couldn’t ruin it
I found courage in the smoke and dust
I found faith in the songs you silenced
Deep down it’s ringing out in each of us

I know that this song is about the twin towers. When I listened to the song back in 2002 that was not how I related to it. Being from Australia, the Bali Bombings happened on the 12 October 2002, and the Bounce album was released on the 6 October 2002. This song to me is about Bali. I even wrote a song called Mourning Sun, about the two terrorist acts.

When people are hurting they turn to music. All the fund-raising is aided by musical benefit concerts and compilation albums. When I couldn’t make sense of what was happening in the world I turned to music.

Hearing this song again in this day and age, one day we will stand as one against the copyright maximalist, against the greedy politicians and the lobby groups that influence them, against crime and violence in the family. One day Bon Jovi will release another song as powerful as Undivided, instead of the C Grade elevator music they released with What About Now.

For those that don’t know, here it is

For those that know it, revisit it, put it in your mp3 player and spread the word on it.

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