Category Archives: Classic Songs to Be Discovered

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

Sacred Groove

“Sacred Groove” from George Lynch came out in 1993. It is a solid album, combining instrumentals, with hard rock songs and different singers.

The best instrumental track by far on the album is “Tierra Del Fuego”. A six minute tour de force in Flamenco Hard Rock music.

Then you the D-tuned instrumental, “Love Power from the Mama Head”, which has all the trademarks riffs and licks that George Lynch is known for.

And, a nice little Western sounding number in “I Will Remember”.

The best vocal track is “We Don’t Own The World”, that has vocals by Matthew and Gunnar Nelson. Prior to hearing this track, I really had no idea who the Nelson brothers where, however after hearing the track, I sought them out and I came across their excellent “After The Rain” album.

“Flesh And Blood” has Ray Gillen on vocals. This is a rare gem as Ray was to pass away that same year.

Glenn Hughes involvement with George Lynch goes back to the Lynch Mob days, when he recorded scratch vocals on the second album, so that new singer Robert Mason could follow. On Lynch’s first proper solo outing, he sings on two songs, “Not Necessary Evil” and “Cry Of The Brave”.

“The Beast” Part 1 and Part 2 has Mandy Lion on vocals. Can’t say I am a fan. Would have been better to not include these two songs and the opening track.

This was his final album commitment to Elektra Records and a return to Dokken was in the works.

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

1977 – Part 8

Legs Diamond – Legs Diamond

The cover is a great piece of art, with an electric guitar resting on the back of a bullet riddled car boot. A perfect drawing for a band named after a gangster.

This is their debut album, released on Mercury Records with Derek Lawrence producing. I’m pretty sure it’s the same Lawrence who did Angel and Kiss albums on Casablanca. And Mercury records didn’t know how to promote the album, nor did they give the album any budget for promotion.

“It’s Not The Music” kicks it off and it rocks hard. “Stage Fright” starts off with a riff that sounds like something that Rush would use for “Limelight” and a vocal line that Robert Plant would be proud of. But the style of the song is more Deep Purple.

“Satin Peacock” has a riff which is instantly memorable. Rumour has it that Gene Simmons liked the song so much, he wanted to record it for Kiss.

“Rock And Roll Man” is an interesting song, with riffs, a flute (yes, a flute) and a solo that starts off with fast open string pull off licks before it goes into the usual pentatonic stuff.

“Deadly Dancer” has a bass riff which can sink ships. “Rat Race” is a blues groove rumble in the verses and a metal like cut in the Chorus with a nod to some Deep Purple.

“Can’t Find Love” has a two minute synth like intro before the distortion blasts out of the speakers.

And the album is full of cuts that move between rock, blues rock and progressive rock.

They only made three albums during this period, before breaking up in 1980 and then reforming in 1984 after their first three albums started to become cult favourites. But that re-formation failed to capitalise on any of the MTV success that other bands started to receive.

Nazareth – Expect No Mercy

The Frank Frazetta drawings just kept on making appearances on metal and rock albums. And Frazetta also inspired other artists to make their own derivative versions of his works.

This is Nazareth’s ninth album in seven years.

Nazareth at this stage had more in common with the soon to be NWOBHM than what they were known for. And this album is a weird amalgamation of blues, rock, country, funk and metal. In other words it’s a typical 70’s album, when bands had diversity and weren’t scared to try things out.

Guitarist Manny Charlton by this stage was also in the producer’s chair.

The original cut of this album was rejected by the label on two occasions because of its heaviness. And man, those label heads would have been thinking, “what did we do here, allowing these guys to self-produce”. The songs that got left off appeared on another album as bonus tracks. I can’t remember which one.

And what a frantic song the title track is?

As soon it starts, it’s in your face. Its part blues, part speed rock and it sounds like nothing else at that point in time.

Then “Gone Dead Train” kicks in and it’s like a 12 bar blues song with some Rolling Stones chucked in. Then again, it’s written by outside writers in Jack Nitzsche and Russ Titelman and appeared on The Crazy Horse albums with Neil Young. In other word, a country rock song which has been Nazareth’d.

“Revenge Is Sweet” brings back the energy of “Expect No Mercy”.

Neil Young – American Stars ‘N Bars

The song, “Like A Hurricane”.

It’s deep in the album. I’m glad I stuck the course because the first few cuts didn’t get me interested.

As soon as the fuzzed out lead break started, I was hooked. And then Neil Young started to sing that lead break as the vocal melody. It’s in a minor key and so sad, while the Chorus is in a major key, providing some contrast.

Then the lead break starts and Young is bleeding the emotion out of the guitar, bending notes, missing notes, skipping strings, raking strings, making mistakes and then repeating small little three note licks. He’s in the zone and I don’t want the lead break to stop.

But.

It comes back again, as an outro solo. And at 8 minutes long, I never got bored.

Jackson Browne – Running On Empty

Maybe it was The Eagles or a comparison to Bob Seger that got me to check out Jackson Browne.

This is a live album, not sure how much of it is live or re-recorded in a studio or how much crowd noise got added in the mix. Regardless, it’s a cool listen and if Jackson Brown and his band sounded like this live, then it was worth the price of admission. Then again, tickets went pretty cheap back in those days.

As soon as the first chords started to “Running On Empty”, I could hear what Springsteen would become in a few years’ time. Take a simple groove, jam it, embellish it with different vocal melodies and you have a song that you can’t get out of your head.

As soon as the fingerpicked notes started for “The Road” I was interested. There is just a lot of good guitar playing in this song.

Then there is a cover song. “Stay”. It brings back memories of watching those movies set in the 60’s and early 70’s.

Eddie Money – Eddie Money

Eddie Money came on my radar via interviews with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora in the late 80’s. His name was dropped a fair bit.

The opening track “Two Tickets To Paradise” just rolls along uneventful and then the Chorus comes crashing in and I’m hooked. 70’s melodic rock is so different to what came after as it’s rooted more in blues and country rock. This track could have been on a Bob Seger album and it would have worked. It could have been on an Eagles album and it would have worked.

Then the chords start to “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” and the groove gets me interested. “Shandi” from Kiss comes to mind.

The feel is different to the opening track because it’s a Motown cover (originally released in 1962 by Smokey Robinson) and done in Money’s bluesy soul vibe. The Beatles even covered this song on their second album, “With The Beatles”.

“Save A Little Room In Your Heart” continues the blues soul ballad vibe.

“So Good To Be In Love Again” has a vocal melody that is memorable, a piano riff that brings a Spanish like feel and guitar licks and leads to decorate the song nicely.

The riff to kick off “Baby Hold On”, if you just add distortion, some metal phrasing, you get a monster. If you add the feel to “Lose Yourself” from Eminem, you get that Eminem song.

How good is the intro riff and groove to “Don’t Worry”?

If it doesn’t get your foot tapping, check for a pulse.

“Got To Get Another Girl” sounds like the cuts that Richie Kotzen and Joe Bonamassa would end up writing many years later. A bluesy guitar riff with a blues soul rock vocal.

Jimmy Lyon on guitar is a star on this song and on the album overall. And it’s funny how Lyon and Money came to work together. Both were discovered by a Columbia exec and paired together by the same exec.

“Gamblin Man” closes the album, a typical blues rock song in the vein of Free and Bad Company. And for a debut, there isn’t much wrong with it.

Peter Gabriel – 1: Car

It’s not actually called “Car” but given that nickname because of the Strom Thorgerson cover that features a car.

Produced by Bob Ezrin and he knew how to get the best out of the musicians.

One song sent this album out into the world.

“Solsbury Hill”. It’s perfect.

The acoustic riff is instantly recognisable, the synth lines the same and that vocal melody from Gabriel, wow.

And it’s no surprise that Ezrin called in Steve Hunter who he used for Alice Cooper on the Welcome To My Nightmare album for the acoustic guitar playing. Robert Fripp from King Crimson also plays guitar on the album, while future Crimson band member Tony Levin is on bass.

“Modern Love” also rocks out of the gate.

“Slowburn” feels like a Sweet song. The solo hooks me and it’s no surprise that its done by Steve Hunter.

“Down The Dolce Vita” has a horn movie like section for the first 40 seconds, but then a rock funk cut explodes out of the speakers before it morphs back into the cinematic orchestral hits and back to the rock funk. There’s no way you can’t like it. Its progressive in the sense that it incorporates different sonics and genres.

“Here Comes The Flood” percolates until it explodes into a solo section from about 3.30.

And then that outro chorus section. Massive and powerful. These are techniques here that Ezrin would use for “Comfortably Numb” in a few years’ time.

Davie Bowie – Heroes and David Bowie – Low

Two albums in a year.

Of course, “Heroes” is a stand out here, and on Spotify it has reached close to 232 million streams. But I prefer the cover from “The Wallflowers” in the 90’s which isn’t on Spotify.

And nothing huge came from “Low”.

“Always Crashing In The Same Car” has this quirkiness which I like.

“Be My Wife” is excellent musically, so don’t let the terrible title mislead you. “A New Career In A New Town” feels like a country rock song, with a bit of 60’s pop chucked in. There is no singing, just music and the mood it creates.

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Bowie, but man, when he wrote songs that crossed over, didn’t they capture the zeitgeist. If not by him, by the people who covered them. And his quirkiness and experimentation led to other artists taking inspiration from that to create their own special.

Well we go back to 2000 for part 9.

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

1985 – Part 8

UFO – Misdemeanor

I was always on the fence when it came to UFO in the 80’s without Schenker, however I always tried to get access to their music.

It’s studio album number 12 and no one really expected the band to return after they called it quits during the disastrous tour supporting “Making Contact”.

But music is a lifers game and Phil Mogg is a lifer. He spent some time in LA and through his association with Shrapnel boss Mike Varney, he came across guitarist Atomik Tommy M. His real name is Tommy McClendon and after UFO he spent time with Brian Wheat and his band Soulmotor plus a few other LA bands.

So Mogg decided to form a NEW band, with Atomik Tommy M and bassist Paul Gray, who played on the “Making Contact” tour. Another UFO bandmate in Paul Raymond joined on keys and drummer Robbie France completed the line-up.

They started writing and Chrysalis Records was interested to sign them. But the catch was, they wanted to sign them as UFO and not as a new group.

Experienced producer Nick Tauber was tapped to produce. Thin Lizzy and Marillion are two bands that come to mind when Tauber’s name is mentioned. And of course problems came about during the recording process over contracts and payments. Drummer Robbie France left before the recording started and was replaced by former Magnum drummer Jim Simpson. And Paul Raymond quit the band during their US tour in support of this album.

One thing that really stands out is the synths in the songs, which makes this sound like a modern album, more in the vein of a couple of Canadian acts like Loverboy and Honeymoon Suite. And that’s not a bad thing. Also each lead break from Atomik Tommy M reminds me of Bruce Kulick and how he got a lead spotlight on the synth heavy Kiss songs in the mid to late 80’s and totally nailed each spotlight.

I remember the website Ultimate Classic Rock rating this as the second worst UFO album. This is what they said;

“By 1985’s ‘Misdemeanor,’ UFO, like many of their classic-rock peers, had been tragically infected by ‘80s studio disease: a grotesque but common affliction that covered its victim in sonic warts like synthesizers, triggered snare drums and squeaky guitars. At the time, UFO’s prognosis was bleak (unless you were a Starship fan!) but the band recovered from these ailments in due time.”

A Mogg and Gray cut called “This Time” starts the album with a memorable synth riff and a solo section which reminds me of Boston at the start and then some shred kicks in.

“One Heart” and “Night Run” are written by Gray, Mogg and Tommy McClendon. They are your typical AOR style of songs. So far removed from UFO’s 70’s sound and output, but artists do grow and change and sometimes they change because they are trying to fit in and remain relevant and sometimes they change because the members change.

“Mean Streets” is a song in which the guitar takes centre stage and its totally worth the wait. That riff is nasty, there’s a sense of danger to it. And it’s a co-write with Tommy McClendon.

“Name Of Love” is another co-write with McClendon, so it’s no surprise that it kicks off with a hard rock guitar riff, before it morphs into a Honeymoon Suite style of song. And how good is the lead break?

“Blue” and that outro with the finger tapped solo. It’s the shining light for me on a Mogg and Gray cut.

“Heaven’s Gate” has a crazy intro (which is brought back into the song in the outro) and a guitar solo which is guitar hero worthy. It has melody and it has speed and Bruce Kulick comes to mind. It’s also written by McClendon and Mogg.

This album is often ignored or despised or it’s a cult favourite. I enjoyed the mainstream AOR rock approach and even though it was meant to be a NEW band, there are still some classic sounding riffs in here.

The Alan Parsons Project – Stereotomy

Named after a word from an Edgar Allan Poe book, which means “the cutting of existing solid shapes into different forms”, and on this track its used as a metaphor for fame and how artists are shaped and cut to meet the demands of fame.

I like TAPP because AP uses different singers and his albums have a playlist/mixtape feel.

And how good is the title track?

It’s a cross between The Police, Journey and Loverboy. Lead vocals are handled by John Miles, who already had a successful progressive rock career up to this point.

“Beaujolais” is basically The Police with vocals by Chris Rainbow nailing that Sting vibe.

“In The Real World” has John Miles on vocals again and musically it could have come from an Autograph album.

“Where’s The Walrus?” is an instrumental that could have come from a Beverly Hills Cop movie.

“Light Of The World” reminds me of Marillion, like those synth led ballads. It has Graham Dye on vocals, from the English progressive rock band Scarlet Party.

And the album closes with “Stereotomy Two” with John Miles on vocals again.

Molly Hatchett – The Deed Is Done

This album is way to underrated.

Like the UFO or Phil Mogg solo album, this is a band bringing in contemporary and modern sounds of the time into their music. It would have upset the hard core fans but that doesn’t mean it didn’t rock. And one band comes to mind listening to this album, ZZ Top and their albums, “Afterburner” and “Eliminator”.

“Satisfied Man” sounds like it came from those ZZ Top albums and a certain song called “Sharp Dressed Man”. Regardless, I like it.

“Backstabber” could have been written by Gene Simmons for a Kiss album.

“She Does She Does” has the riffs, the brass sections and it’s party time, about a baby who has the looks and the moves.

I feel like “Stone In Your Heart” might have influenced Desmond Child or Desmond Child might have influenced Molly Hatchett, as I hear his song writing style with Bon Jovi.

“Good Smoke And Whiskey” is another track that could have come from the “Eliminator” album. It’s perfect.

“Heartbreak Radio” is back to their traditional Southern Rock and Blues sound but it’s a Frankie Miller cover who is one of the best soul rock blues singers ever.

“Straight Shooter” is dripping in blues rock attitude and a favourite. And album closer “Song For The Children” is probably one of the best Led Zep III instrumental cuts that Jimmy Page didn’t write, with its acoustic arpeggios, strumming and delicate medieval like lead.

Tear For Fears – Songs From The Big Chair

I hated the album cover. It’s a picture of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. My metal and rock brain couldn’t compute how I could like the tunes made by these dudes. Talk about a bias, hey. I didn’t even want to hold it in my hand at the record store because it was gonna lose me some street cred with my mates.

But the songs.

Man, they could write songs. And that’s what is important to me.

“Shout” kicks it all off and then it’s followed by “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. The lyrics touch on everything that is real and topics that are still relevant today.

Nikki Sixx even took inspiration from “Shout” for “Primal Scream”.

There is some fluff on here, but “Head Over Heels” redeems the album, which makes up the holy trinity of songs to push this album into the stratosphere.

All up, 8 songs and most of em don’t follow your average pop formulas, with extended intros or interludes or outros.

Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms

There was no escape from this album.

Mark Knofler delivered on this one, staying true to his bluesy rock and roll pop influences to satisfy his core and bringing in some contemporary and modern sounds and riffs to pull in a whole new generation of fans.

“So Far Away” doesn’t really forecast the monster that would invade the airwaves and MTV. That track is called “Money For Nothing”.

Did he write it as a sledge to Motley Crue and he even called em, Yo-Yo’s?

That riff, the only way to play it is with your fingers. Don’t even attempt to use a pick, because it doesn’t even come close to capturing the feel, sort of like “Smoke On The Water”. Blackmore plays that intro with his fingers.

And if “Money For Nothing” didn’t grab ya, the sweet sounds of the 60’s boardwalks would with “Walk Of Life”. But that’s not all, the sweet notes of the saxophone kick off “Your Latest Trick” and I couldn’t turn it off. If the album ended here, I would have been happy.

Then “Ride Across The River” begins and the groove just hooks me in. Hearing this song again today, reminds of the songs that Gotye created. It has these kind of grooves. Just listen to all of the midi key riffs.

The closer and title track, “Brothers In Arms”, how good is it?

The feel, the guitar licks, the folky feel and the way it percolates. This is writing to please oneself and not to please a chart. And when this kind of writing happens, it crosses over and translates to many.

Aerosmith – Done With Mirrors

According to legend, this album did huge numbers in Thunder Bay. In Australia we didn’t even know it existed as Aerosmith’s comeback was tied with “Permanent Vacation”.

“Let The Music Do The Talking” kicks off and it’s loud, it has groove, it has slide guitar and Steve Tyler is bringing out his rock and roll blues. Plus it’s a re-recording from Joe Perry’s solo album released a few years before.

“My Fist Your Face” has an intro that sounds like it belongs on a 70’s Sabbath album, but from the verses it’s your typical Aerosmith song.

“She’s On Fire” is my favourite. That slide acoustic guitar riff is excellent, and while Kramer and Perry and everyone else claim the record is uninspired and terrible, there is no denying the quality of the riffs here. Then again, when you a have history of guitar store riffs in your discography, these ones might seem like off cuts.

And since Led Zeppelin wasn’t making any new music, then its Zep sounding cuts on albums from other artists that would satisfy the Led Zep fans. Like this one.

Well that’s a wrap for another 85 post and over to 77 we go for Part 8.

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

2000 – Part 8

Fuel – Something Like Human

Like Matchbox 20, Fuel became my fix for hard rock music. I don’t know why they still aren’t around. Listening to this album I just assumed they would be doing the rounds 20 years later.

“Something Like Human” is the second album, released on Epic Records. It did great business in sales, double platinum in the U.S and Gold in Canada. In case you don’t know who Fuel are, its Carl Bell on guitar. Brett Scallions on vocals, Jeff Abercrombie on bass and Kevin Millar on drums.

On this album, 9 of the songs are just written by Carl Bell and two of em are Bell and Scallions co-writes.

The “Last Time” kicks it off with a memorable Chorus melody and guitar riff. “Haemorrhage (In My Hands)” is an 80’s rock song all dolled up for the 2000’s. Just listen to the verse arpeggios and you’ll know what I mean.

“Empty Spaces” is a metal like cut with a grunge like Chorus. And its cuts like this that bridged the gap between the 80’s hard rock scene and the 90’s grunge scene. Then “Scar” kicks in and the “Scar” intro riff has got groove and sleaze. Listen to it, it wouldn’t be out of place on a GnR record.

“Bad Day” is a favourite. It’s a ballad, with that C-Am-F-G chord progression (in a different key for this song). Its memorable and hooky.

“Slammed the door and said, sorry, I’ve had a bad day again”

And after 5 Carl Bell penned tracks, I’m on the floor. He is one hell of a songwriter.

The song “Prove” feels like it came from a Gunners album and it gave the album its title with its lyrics and “Easy” is probably the best song that Stone Temple Pilots didn’t write. It’s got that “Plush” vibe.

“Innocent” is my favourite cut. That sombre clean tone electric strumming gets me interested and the lyrics.

Satan, you know where I lie
Gently I go into that good night

All of us sinners are reporting for duty Mr Satan, because our innocent smiles from young are replaced with lies and hidden truths and some backstabbing along the way, because that kind of shit happened to us before, so we need to pay those people back.

All our lives get complicated / search for pleasures overrated

Status became a thing. Reagan and other leaders in the 80’s told our parents they need two cars in the driveway and investment properties and suddenly, people started to outdo each other with possessions.

Never armed our souls for what the future would hold / when we were innocent

Truth in these words. Youth doesn’t bring wisdom and we rarely practiced what we wanted our future selves to be like. And as we got older, we got smacked down by life, society and the rat race and the grind of making a living to keep the lights on.

Never were we told we’d be bought and sold, when we were innocent

More so today. Hell, we didn’t even get bought out to hand over our online activities to Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and all the rest. We are giving it all away for free, while these companies make billions selling it to advertisers.

On the special edition, there are two cover tracks in “Going To California” from Led Zep, which Fuel nails and “Daniel” from Elton John and I can hear how the acoustic riffs for “Patience” came about.

Spineshank – The Height Of Callousness

A bass player from the band I was in, recommended Spineshank to me. And they got me out of rut.

A lot of the songs have that hard core style of vocals that Slipknot and Mudvayne brought to the table, with some of the electronics that Disturbed brought and some good ole head banging.

Tracks 1 and 2 lost me, and then the intro to track 3, “Synthetic” exploded out of the speakers. And I was hooked with the intro riff which reappears in the Chorus. The song is delivered with a clean tone like vocal which is probably why it stuck with me.

And that clean tone vocal trend continues with “New Disease” and its these two songs that got me interested in the band.

The rest of the album while great for others was lost on me melodically, but each song had little riffs here and there that proved interesting.

Pearl Jam – Binaural

After the first couple of albums and their project with Neil Young, Pearl Jam had enough goodwill in my book to warrant listens of all subsequent albums after.

“Nothing As It Seems” is the song here that gets me interested, with its strummed acoustic guitar riff, some distorted guitar embellishments and Vedder delivering a hypnotic vocal.

Halford – Resurrection

“Reeeeeeeee-surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-rectionnnnnnnnnnnnnnn” screams Rob Halford and then it’s all guns blazing again once the music kicks in. And just like that, heavy metal was back in my life, exactly the way I knew it.

This is the best way to re-announce your return to the fold which by this time the metal I grew up with was known as traditional heavy metal as heavy metal in 2000 proved unrecognisable to me.

Then “Made In Hell” kicks off with its harmony guitars, and lyrics about 1968 and how metal came to be from foundries and coalmines.

The head banging continues with “Locked and Loaded” and “Night Fall”. Even though it’s a Halford album, it’s the best Judas Priest song that JP never released.

“Silent Screams” starts off with acoustic guitar arpeggios and a vocal line about “tempting fate, losing friends along the way, but still standing tall with no regrets” and then that Chorus kicks in for Halford to deliver a classic heavy metal track. The song morphs into a metal cut around the 3 minute mark before returning to its melancholy.

“The One You Love To Hate” continues the head banging with a riff that reminds me of “Lightning Strikes Again” from Dokken. It can be interchanged with the next track “Cyberworld” with Halford referencing his “Electric Eye” lyrics as inspiration.

How good is that harmony solo?

And to make it better, Halford sings a vocal melody which acts like an extra guitar lead over the harmony lead. I skip “Slow Down” and then we are into “Hell’s Last Survivor” which is another cut you can interchange with “The One You Love To Hate” and “Cyberworld”.

“Temptation” is one of those more mainstream cuts that Judas Priest has been known to do. “God Bringer Of Death” has this “Gates Of Babylon” feel from Rainbow.

The Wallflowers – Breach

Their 96 album, “Bringing Down The Horse” was everywhere in Australia and their cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” kept em in the news.

Then they dropped “Breach” and I was on the fence with it. “Sleepwalker” has some Springsteen like influences which I liked. “I’ve Been Delivered” has a synth lick which is memorable. “Mourning Train” has a drum pattern with handclaps and foot stomps with an acoustic guitar and a vocal line which I like, but that’s it.

The Offspring – Conspiracy Of One

They had momentum coming into this album with the “Smash”, “Ixnay On The Hombre” and “Americana” albums. I was in various bands that covered “Pretty Fly”, “Gone Away” and “Come Out And Play”.

So coming into this album, it was no surprise that some of the songs sounded like part 2 of previous successful songs.

For example, “Original Prankster” sounds like part 2 of “Pretty Fly”. But opening track “Come Out Swinging” is fast as punk can be with metal like riffs and picking.

“Want You Bad” sounds like those major key 80’s hard rock songs, which work so well with the power punk rock of The Offspring. “Million Miles Away” is another singalong anthem.

How good is that intro riff to “Dammit, I Changed Again”?

John Petrucci used it for “Happy Song” on his recent “Terminal Velocity” album.

And if the album could had ended after this track and I would have been okay with it as the next few tracks proved skipable.

Then “Denial, Revisited” started and it had my attention again. “Vultures” then kicks off with a riff that reminds of BoC, “Don’t Fear The Reaper”. And the title track, “Conspiracy Of One” closes the album with its “Blitzkrieg” style riff.

Zebrahead – Playmate Of The Year

It’s not on Spotify Australia, which irks me, but hey, we still have YouTube, even though the labels are fighting hard to kill off the free ad supported version of it.

That clean tone digital riff to kick off “I Am” is excellent. Then there is a bit of hip hop in the verses as that same clean tone riff plays.

“Playmate Of The Year” is now a go to song for all things to do with “Playmate” even replacing “Centrefold”.

“Go” is a hard rock cut. “Now Or Never” has an intro riff which is heavy, a hip hop verse and an anthemic melodic chorus. “Wasted” has that riff which John Petrucci brought back into our lives via “Happy Song”. A similar riff appeared on The Offspring album.

“What’s Goin On?” is one of those cuts that sums up the pop punk movement between 1998 and 2004. “All I Need” is a sneaky derivative version of “Run To The Hills” in the intro. Check it out. Then it morphs into a Nu-Metal cut.

And now we move to 1985 for part 8.

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

The Record Vault – Corrosion Of Conformity

They came onto my radar from various interviews other artists did and they mentioned how CoC is one of the current bands they are listening to. The guys from Pantera, Bach and Hetfield come to mind.

Deliverance

It came out in 1994, but I didn’t get into it until I came across a guitar tab for “Albatross” from the Guitar mags I purchase. As soon as I sat down and attempted to play it, I was all in. It’s heavy, it has groove and it’s probably the best Sabbath riff that Tony Iommi didn’t write in the 90’s.

“Heavens Not Overflowing” is a great title and a great way to open an album with.

What a concept.

Let’s merge our love of Southern Rock, Delta Blues and Black Sabbath into a track.

And the lyrics.

“I’ve seen your rising son fall in your mama’s eye / and now the cops got a medal but he calls it a prize”.

Doesn’t it sum up the state of the world, when the police who are meant to protect the citizens take em out like a hunt.

“Clean My Wounds” is more like Thin Lizzy in the verses and I like it.

“Help me Jesus, help me clean my wounds / He said he cannot heal that kind”

Even the mighty Lord has biases. The final juror to pass judgement.

“Without Wings” is a nice short acoustic piece with synth strings, similar to the little acoustic songs that Black Sabbath would incorporate on their albums.

Now “Broken Man” is the song in my opinion that crossed over between the sounds of Pantera and the heavy sounds of Seattle from Soundgarden and Alice In Chains and CoC’s normal groove sludge rock. Because if you liked Pantera, there was no way you could ignore CoC. If you liked Alice In Chains or Soundgarden, there was no way you would ignore CoC.

And how good is the exotic sounding lead break?

“Now I’m a broken man in a broken land… / And don’t they wish they were blessed like you”

If you think that person is winning or popular, behind the surface they are probably troubled or lonely. Read any rockstar bio and you see why they turn to drugs and alcohol.

Time away on the road leads to loneliness and then they get those highs on stage which they try to keep going after the show and drugs end up being found in abundance because everyone is preying on them, to make a dollar and to leech from their success.

“Senor Limpio” is basically ZZ Top all metalled up. Just listen to the riffs.

It moves into “Mano De Mono”, another short instrumental that is sad and heartfelt with a bit of blues and Mexicana chucked in.

“Seven Days” plods along like a person carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. Then there is another short instrumental, “#2121313” before “My Grain” kicks in.

And how good is that interlude/solo section in “My Grain” inspired by “The Real Me” from The Who. As soon as the chords kick in and the bass solo starts, you know straight away which band inspired it.

Then the title track kicks off with a nod to “Back In Black” before the sleazy riff kicks off.

And how good is “Shelter” a sombre acoustic ballad with some country licks thrown in. The closer “Pears Before Swine” reminds me of the band, Sanctuary. It’s perfect.

Overall “Deliverance” is a perfect hard rock and metal album. And here is a post from Mike Ladano that I totally agree with.

Wiseblood

It came out in 1996 and it kicks off with the excellent titled “King Of The Rotten” and the vocals on this one are very James Hetfield influenced. Track 2, “Long Whip / Big America” reminds of ZZ Top “La Grange” era. Its got that spirit.

“Wiseblood” and “Goodbye Windows” sound like the influences to Black Label Society. And how good is that harmony solo section in “Goodbye Windows” with the vocals over it.

And the bluesy Sabbath like tunes continue, along with the excellent song titles, like “Born Again For The Last Time”, “Drowning In A Daydream” and “The Snake Has No Head”.

Then there is “The Door” and “Man Or Ash”, cuts that would not be out of place on a Metallica “Load” or “Reload” album. And if the vocalist sounds familiar on “Man Or Ash”, it should, it’s none other than James Hetfield.

Then there is the excellent titled “Redepmtion City”.

“Fuel” is a thrash-a-thon and I had to keep telling my friends at the time that it’s not a cover of the other “Fuel” that appeared on “Reload” even though this one came out before.

And post “Wiseblood”, the band got dropped from Columbia Records because “Wiseblood” was seen as a commercial failure and Sanctuary Records picked em up.

In 2000, “America’s Volume Dealer” came out and disappointed the new label in sales. They went on hiatus and reformed, releasing another three more albums, a couple of EP’s, a live album, worked on side projects like “Down” and an compilation album, the most recent album being “No Cross No Crown” in 2018.

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

The Record Vault – Cheap Trick

Live At The Budokan

I had a few more records of em, “Lap of Luxury” and “Busted”, but in one of my house moves, I lost a whole box of records and those two were in the box. As crazy as it might seem, it was “The Flame” that got me into Cheap Trick and when I found out they had a back catalogue, well it was like my Whitesnake experience.

But I didn’t purchase much. I taped a few mix tapes from friends and since their music was on radio a fair bit, I used to have blank cassette tapes taping the whole radio show and then afterwards I would go through those cassette tapes and retape the good songs onto another tape.

I know, its hard work, but that’s what I did to have music in possession.

Before “Budokan”, Cheap Trick released three albums which didn’t really set the charts alight, nor did they deliver commercially to the label.

“Cheap Trick”, “In Color” and “Heaven Tonight”. “In Color” is now listed in the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” from Rolling Stone but when it was released it was seen as a dud by the same magazine. Then again that mag said similar things about Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and many more acts, whose albums are now in the list.

Cheap Trick took their British influences, Americanised em and off they went to the land of the rising sun, because while their albums didn’t do great business in the U.S, the Japanese market was a different beast.

And “At Budokan’” became bigger than Cheap Trick’s first three albums.

Big Eyes
I reckon the drum intro inspired “Run To The Hills” from Maiden and how good is that interlude riff which becomes the backing riff for the solo section.

I Want You To Want Me
With its “Baby, Please Don’t Go” vibe/influence and that “Radar Love” style drum pattern, and an undeniable melodic line, which merges the best of The Beatles into a hard rock ditty.

Surrender
“This next one is the first song on our new album. It just came out this week and the song is called “Surrender””

This is the song that hooked me in and that addictive chorus.

And Cheap Trick is still relevant today and still rocking.

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1977 – Part 7

Blue Oyster Cult – Spectres

Their commercial breakthrough was the album before, “Agents of Fortune”, so it’s no surprise that BoC stuck with the same formula, like Jovi did with “New Jersey” after “Slippery When Wet” or Metallica with “Master Of Puppets” and “Justice For All” after “Ride The Lightning”.

I think for most, Blue Oyster Cult are known for three songs, which their Spotify account confirms. “Don’t Fear The Reaper” at 272 million streams, “Burnin For You” at 77 million streams and “Godzilla” at 37 million streams. And of course, Metallica brought “Astronomy” into the public conversation.

And “Spectres” opens up with “Godzilla”, a monster riff that shuffles and rumbles along like the monster it’s named after.

“Golden Age of Leather” has a crap intro but it’s a pretty good song overall with tempo changes that seem like they don’t even happen. And along with album closer “Nosferatu”, these two songs are like the progressive tracks.

“Death Valley Nights” stands out and is a favourite and “Fireworks” sounds like a re-write of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” and I’m all in, with some nice harmonies.

“R. U. Ready to Rock?” is “American Woman” and “Mississippi Queen” all rolled into one to kick off side 2. “Going Through the Motions” is co-written by Eric Bloom and ex Mott the Hoople member Ian Hunter. It’s got hand claps and it’s like Sweet.

“I Love the Night” has an hypnotic clean tone arpeggio riff. It’s my favourite from the album, a love song to a female vampire when vampires actually scared us and “Nosferatu” continues the vampire theme, with its Mellotron riffs and it reminds me of trippy 70’s art rock.

Riot – Rock City

The first Riot album, with the band unleashing a metal sound that would be seen as the “traditional” sound many years later.

Think of Sweet’s heavier songs, along with Led Zeppelin’s heavier songs and with a little ZZ Top and UFO chucked in for good measure. Judas Priest had this traditional sound on “Killing Machine”.

It’s a shame their covers never matched the awesome covers from other bands of the era, like Maiden, Priest, ZZ Top and so on.

It’s a two punch knockout with “Desperation” and “Warrior”.

As soon as the intro riff starts for “Desperation” I’m thinking of Metallica and their early riffs around “Kill Em All”. But once the verses kick in, its standard hard rock.

Then the riff starts for “Warrior” and I’m not sure who influenced who, Judas Priest or Riot.

And the chorus is so catchy. A future power metal movement is built on this.

When “Rock City” kicks off, the riff is another blues romp.

And there isn’t a bad song on the album.

When people talk about great debut albums, Riot is very rarely in the conversation, but they should be.

Traditional Metal.

That’s Riot on the debut.

Quartz – Quartz

The album is not on Spotify, but YouTube has it.

Quartz are a British heavy metal band.

They came onto my radar when I was doing some research on the past of Geoff Nicholls. For those who don’t know, Nicholls was involved with Black Sabbath and is unofficially credited as the person who came up with the bass groove on “Heaven And Hell”.

They got a deal with Jet Records in the mid 70’s as Bandy Legs and supported Sabbath and AC/DC. In 1977, they changed their name to Quartz and released their self-titled debut album.

This album is produced by Tony Iommi. It wasn’t mentioned on the record because of contractual obligations but it was the worst kept secret. Iommi even mentions them in his “Iron Man” bio. A young Chris Tsangarides is the Engineer. Ozzy even sang on the song “Circles” but Iommi removed Ozzy’s contributions from the final mix and then the song was cut from the album. Brian May even offered to do a Queen type re-mix of the song which didn’t pan out to good.

The band is Mick Taylor on vocals, Geoff Nicholls on guitar and keyboards, Dek Arnold on bass, Mike Hopkins on guitar and Mal Cope on drums.

Writers for various magazines have credited this album as one of the earliest NWOBHM releases even though the phrase NWOBHM came in 1979, via journalist Geoff Barton and Sounds magazine.

“Mainline Riders” kicks it off and it sounds like this track is the inspiration for the songs “Heaven and Hell” and “Holy Diver”.

If you need proof that even our heroes are influenced, then look no further than this song. Tony Iommi was clearly influenced by this.

After reading how Jet Records operated, I would be surprised if Nicholls got any song writing credits or payments for his contributions.

Because Jet Records were in a bad state financially and Quartz suddenly found themselves without a deal.

By 1979, Geoff Nicholls left to join Black Sabbath. He contributed keyboards and song writing to that band from 1980s “Heaven and Hell” to 2004.

“Sugar Rain” is different, more ELO orientated. This one and the next track “Street Fighting Lady” are progressive rock and metal masterpieces. The flute even makes the appearance like Jethro Tull. And I’ve read that Iommi is the flute master.

And the riff to kick off “Street Fighting Lady” is brilliant, bringing back memories of “Woman From Tokyo”. “Hustler” has this hard rock Bee Gees vibe in the verse, which I dig, with layered emotive harmony guitar lines and an angry metal like Chorus.

Four songs in and the guitar work from Hopkins and Nicholls is stellar.

“Devil’s Brew” has an “American Woman” influenced riff, but once the synths come in, it’s a different beast, more like hard rock and a bit progressive. Then the verse kicks in and it feels like a Sweet song with a hard driving Chorus that feels like it came Meatloaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell” album.

“Smokie” is a medieval classical acoustic song. “Around and Around” kicks off with a palm muted riff and some nice harmony guitars.

“Pleasure Seekers” and “Little Old Lady” close off the album and I wonder if this album was the missing link to my ears between “Never Say Die” and “Heaven And Hell” from Black Sabbath.

Uriah Heep

Two albums came out in the same year, “Firefly” and “Innocent Victim” with new vocalist, John Lawton.

The excellent “The Hanging Tree” kicks off the “Firefly” album. “Do You Know” is a loud rocker with a riff that is so fun to play. “Rollin On” is an excellent cut that reminds me of Bad Company and “Sympathy” clearly influenced Europe and their “Wings Of Tomorrow” album. Think of the song “Stormwind”.

“Innocent Victim” did good business in Germany, Australia (especially the single “Free Me”) and New Zealand, however in the U.S market, it disappointed. Actually both albums did terrible in the North American market.

The feel good bass groove of “Keep On Ridin’” kicks off the “Innocent Victim” album. It’s more like a Bad Company song than a Uriah Heep song, but I’ve always been a fan of artists incorporating sounds and feels of what is popular. “Flyin’ High” kicks off with a harmony guitar intro that would rival any Thin Lizzy intro.

I’m all in when “Free ‘N’ Easy” kicks off, it’s basically a speed metal song. I could imagine a young Mustaine or Hetfield listening to those verse riffs, thinking, imagine if I took that and played it even faster. While the next track “Illusion” is hypnotic and more subdued.

Then “Free Me” starts and it’s got that C-Am-F-G style chord progression. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song with that progression that wasn’t catchy. And of course, it charted really well in Australia and New Zealand.

Then “The Dance” starts and that lead to kick it off is brilliant, while the guitar plays a jazzy staccato style riff in the verse.

And then “Choices” starts and what is it with this band and their god damn excellent intros that keep hooking me in. Lee Kerslake owns this song on the drums and Mick Box solos tastefully, while Ken Hensley lays down a wall of synths.

Eric Clapton – Slowhand

How good is this album?

Triple Platinum in the U.S and nothing in the Australian market, but Clapton was always in the Guitar Mags I used to buy, so it was only a matter of time before he became an influence.

“Cocaine” kicks it off before it moves to one of Clapton’s most emotive leads in “Wonderful Tonight”. This is Clapton’s second song to Pattie Boyd. The first one is the famous “Layla” when she was married to George Harrison, and when she divorced Harrison, she became Clapton’s muse.

“Lay Down Sally” is one of those blues songs that has a snare shuffle as it rolls along, something that Dire Straits did a fair bit off. “Next Time You See Her” is like a Bad Company song, merging folk and rock.

Then “The Core” starts and that funky bluesy riff has me picking up the guitar.

Colosseum II – Wardance

I’ve already done a post for this album in my Record Vault posts.

In case you are not aware, Gary Moore is on guitars and vocals, Don Airey is on all things piano related, John Mole is on drums and John Hiseman on drums. It’s basically all instrumental except for one forgettable vocal track.

My favourites are “Wardance” which is one of those gladiatorial tunes, ready to inspire you to gear up and go to war.

“Inquisition” is like an Al DiMeola track and I love it. Gary Moore really shreds on this on both electric and acoustic. And at 6 minutes long, I wasn’t bored.

And the closer.

“Last Exit”. The guitar solo from Gary Moore is one of my favourites of his.

Colosseum II – Electric Savage

Album number 2, which came out earlier in the year. Not sure how acceptable the album cover would be today, a semi nude dark skinned lady with fluro lights shining on her body, especially on her breasts and the words “Electric Savage”.

Check out “The Scorch” which has a pulsing bass from John Mole and Don Airey shredding away for the first 2 minutes and then its Moore’s time. The drumming from John Hiseman is busy, more jazz improv but it all works. At the end of the 6 minutes I’m still blown away that this is Gary Moore.

“Lament” has this doom feel with bells, a slow bass and a drum beat so simple. But when Gary Moore starts playing it sounds like an Irish folk ballad. Its moving and heartfelt.

“Am I” is my favourite. The way it starts, with that bass groove and those quite drums, with Moore and Airey playing these little two note melodic arpeggios over it. It’s perfect, its haunting and its memorable. Then Moore lets lose. Bringing in some Mixolydian Blues into the mix.

The closer “Intergalactic Strut” is one of those hard rock jazz fusion gems. Just listen to it and you will know what I mean. And remember, its Gary Moore playing like this, a mixture of art rock, progressive rock and whatever else he had in his arsenal.

Well that’s a wrap for Part 7. We move back to 2000 for Part 8.

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The Record Vault – Concrete Blonde

“Joey” went to Number 1 in Australia and suddenly Concrete Blonde was talked about as an overnight sensation by the press.

But “Bloodletting” is the third studio album, released in 1990. In Australia it charted pretty good and was certified gold. And Johnette Napolitano got the chance to show the world what a brilliant songwriter she is.

Produced by hard rock and NWOBHM producer Chris Tsangarides. Interesting choice.

“Bloodletting (the Vampire song)” opens the album. At 6 minutes long, you get the feeling that Concrete Blonde didn’t have any ambitions to write big hits, just songs to make up an album. Anne Rice and her Vampire Chronicles of Lestat did big business in the books box office, so it’s no surprise to see songs about em.

And “Bloodletting” has that chromatic “you are been followed” feel in the riff. “Caroline” is almost six minutes as well, as it jams out the ending with a new wave rock style vocal.

But “Joey” is the star here. It’s so memorable and it has that “Stand By Me” C-Am-F-G progression (in a different key) which brings to the listeners, a sense of familiarity.

And we like the familiar. It’s the reason why AC/DC has had a career for almost 50 years.

Napolitano on vocals and bass guitar cemented her status as a producer and songwriter, while James Mankey on guitars showed a different style of guitar decorating and Paul Thompson holds down the drums.

“Bloodletting” started a five year period, that includes “Walking in London” released in 1992 and “Mexican Moon” released in 1993 and its these albums that gave the band a chance for a few victory laps later on.

I didn’t get “Walking In London” and then I heard the intro to “Heal It Up” on radio and I purchased “Mexican Moon”.

The groove is fantastic, the vocal line of Napolitano is infectious and the music so memorable. And how simple is the guitar lead, but so effective.

And the album is more hard rock than the previous ones.

It irks me how it’s not on Spotify as it’s my favourite album.

I pressed play on the cassette and I was greeted by the haunting arpeggios of “Jenny I Read” and this drum and bass groove which allows Napolitano to deliver an awesome vocal melody while guitarist James Mankey decorates it so nicely with volume swell riffs and melodic motifs and backward guitar effects.

“Mexican Moon” has Napolitano singing about a failed romance and fleeing into Mexico. The strummed acoustic guitar, the guitar melodic decorations, the bass and drum groove and the vocal melody all come together into a catchy song.

The intro/verse riff for “Rain” is hypnotic. The the vocal melody from Napolitano is excellent and the lead break is simple but so effective.

Then you have the hard driving and funky “Jesus Forgive Me (For The Things I’m About To Say)” which is similar to what In This Moment sounds like on the last few albums.

And “Mexican Moon” still did good business in Australia, but not as good as the previous two. Feeling the pressures to repeat past successes from the label, Napolitano broke the band up.

I never heard from them again, although Wikipedia tells me that the band got back together, did a few more albums, broke up again and got back together again.

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The Record Vault – Gilby Clarke

Rubber was released in 1998.

I don’t know what I was expecting with this. I just assumed that since he was in Guns N Roses, he could write songs as well. And I didn’t get this album expecting to hear Guns N Roses like tunes, as I knew that Clarke was in a Black Crowes style band before Gunners.

And when I saw that this album clocked in at 36 minutes, especially in the CD age I was like “okay, what’s this”. Nice and fast, wham bam.

I couldn’t remember any of the songs at all.

When I saw “Kilroy Was Here” as a title I remembered Styx, but nothing from the Gilby Clarke version. It always comes back to the argument that one sale equals a fan. It doesn’t. I purchased this album, heard it a few times and never listened to it again until 22 years later.

So I pressed play to reacquaint myself with the album.

The sound reminds me of old time rock and roll mixed with all the sounds that became popular in the 90’s. Like a little bit of Seattle, and a little bit of Manchester. Second track “The Haunting” is a great example of this. It has this great solo section with a lot of fuzzed out guitar over an acoustic guitar riff that reminds me of Bad Company.

“Kilroy Was Here” kicks off the album. It has a dissonant verse but a melodic chorus.

“I’m selling you, what you sold me”

In other words, give me crap and crap will be returned. More so when I was younger. As I got older, it became easy to just delete the persons number and move on. I’m not interested in a spade for a spade anymore. It never solved anything in the first place, because it didn’t matter how many facts or truth i would have on my side, the argument could never be won.

“The Hell’s Angels” sounds sleazy and is classic Gunners, and the most heaviest track on the album. “Saturday Disaster” continues the heavy and sleazy grooves.

And how good is the riff to kick off “Technicolour Stars”?

Vocally, Clarke is okay. More pop punkish in his style and delivery.

Overall, it’s a nice listen but once it goes back onto the shelve, that would be it for the album, plus it’s not on Spotify Australia, so I can’t even add the songs I like to a playlist to have em circulating.

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Rise To It

31 years old.

Man time goes by.

“Hot In The Shade” now has a full time job, a drinking problem and is paying taxes to keep the economy going. Plus it’s got a woody problem.

Read on.

I purchased it from a store called Brashs. It specialised in sound systems and then it started to bring in musical product.

It had a decent metal and rock section but I felt that everything was way overpriced and hardly any discounts.

Then again, the price was pre-determined by the labels but who knew that kind of stuff back then. But it was the only store that had “Hot In The Shade”. So I purchased it for $20.

$20 back in 1989 is worth about $42 today with inflation added on. Which is about the price of Vinyl these days on average.

Anyway, I’ve been on a Bob Halligan Jr kick lately and he co-wrote two tracks here. “Rise To It” and “Read My Body”.

And this era of Kiss has its critics but it’s Bruce Kulick’s finest moments. His guitar work on “Crazy Nights” and “Hot In The Shade” is very underrated.

And Kulick really rose to it here and delivered a great solo.

“Rise To It” opens up with some slide guitar and a Mississippi Delta blues feel. But once the distorted guitars kick in, it’s melodic rock all the way.

But.

Listen to the riff in the Chorus.

It’s ZZ Top like. Think “Sharp Dressed Man”.

Lyrically, it’s typical Kiss, talking about hard ons or wood. Like when Paul sings “When you’re lying next to me, baby, I can guarantee, I’m gonna rise to it” he’s not talking about waking up in the morning.

And that got me thinking about ZZ Top and there song, “Woke Up With Wood”.

The lyrics, “when I woke up this morning, I was feeling mighty good, my baby understood had to do what she should, laying near a pile of wood”.

“God damn good times” is what I say. I’ve been in those morning wood situations a lot of times.

Suddenly I’m listening to “Sport’n A Woody” from Dangerous Toys. “Sport’n a woody, when you’re titties fly” and how they wish the lady was sedated so they penetrate her.

Then Ace Frehley comes to mind and how his baby is on her knees and she’s begging please for a ride on his rocket.

Ahhh, rock and roll music.

It never took it self seriously and it allowed us all to have a laugh and a good time.

I’m gonna raise my glass to Rock And Roll.

Oh wait, that’s another Kiss song. For a different time.

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