Category Archives: Classic Songs to Be Discovered

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

Coverdale/Page, Cinderella and Winger

The Spotify AI is recommending artists based on Whitesnake.

Yesterday, the first recommendation was “Mechanical Resonance” from Tesla, then “Live At Sweden Rock – 30th Anniversary Show” from Europe, then “Meanstreak” from Y&T, then “Slave To The Grind” from Skid Row and then Coverdale/Page.

After Coverdale/Page it was “Euphoria” from Def Leppard, “Bent Out Of Shape” from Rainbow, “Standing Hampton” from Sammy Hagar, “Eat Em And Smile” from David Lee Roth and finally “Erase The Slate” from Dokken.

What, no Deep Purple?

Surely the AI is programmed to look at previous bands of artists?

I guess not.

Today, the AI recommended “Erase The Slate” from Dokken again, “Winger” self-titled debut as second, “Night Songs” by Cinderella as third. Then “Hysteria” by Def Leppard, “Absolute Hits” by Great White, “Slave To The Grind” by Skid Row, “Coverdale/Page” again (even after I streamed it a few times the day before), “Outlier” by Kingdom Come, “Simplicity” by Tesla and “Prisoners In Paradise” from Europe (which is not even available to stream in Australia).

And what the AI seems to be doing is just replacing the albums of artists. Like “Euphoria” and “Hysteria”.

Anyway, over to Coverdale/Page.

The album came out in 1993 and for me it was a stellar album. I loved the guitar work on it, like the opening string pull off lick for “Shake My Tree”. Simply, yet effective and Coverdale follows the riff with the vocal lead. Then when it gets heavy, it’s a cross between “Still Of The Night” and “Communication Breakdown”.

The lead break on “Waiting On You” is simple and effective and the riffs groove behind it. Plus I dig the lyric line, “till the rivers run dry”, a metaphor for change.

And although the song has nothing to do with climate change, it got me thinking how bizarre the situation is, our oceans are rising, getting ready to swallow coastal lands while the water on our lands via rivers and rainfall is drying.

“Take Me For A Little While” is one of Coverdale’s best songs. Jimmy Page breaks out one of his best lead breaks and that little lead lick in the Chorus, makes me press repeat on this song.

“Pride and Joy” could have come from Led Zep III, as Jimmy Page brings his open string tunings to David Coverdale. And while it rocks acoustically, it’s the heavy open string verse riff which connects, and when it goes back into the open tuning acoustic bit, it’s just perfect.

Four tracks in and I’m on the floor. When “Over Now” kicks in, I am digging the psychedelic nature of the vocals and the exoticism of the music. And artists tried to recreate their 70’s influences in the late 80s and 90s like Jake E Lee in Badlands, however, it still sounded like stuff they would have done within a modern rock context.

Because the 70’s artists, used their 60’s influences to create their 70’s sounds, hence why the songs from these artists like Page don’t follow the typical verse, chorus, verse, chorus. “Over Now” has  no real structure as it moves between verses and something which resembles a chorus and an outro which feels like a cool jam.

You talked to me of virtue
And sang a song so sweet
But all I know is I could smell
The perfume of deceit
And it’s over now

Coverdale is referencing his break up with the Jaguar dancer Tawny Kitaen. And there are quite a few songs on the album which reference the relationship.

“Feeling Hot” is the sped up child of “Johnny Be Goode” crossed with “Hit The Road Jack”.

And the comparison to Led Zep is always going to happen, because Jimmy Page is Led Zep’s main musical writer and it doesn’t matter with who he works with, his riffs will always sound like Page and Page’s career is held within his work with Led Zep.

Like “Easy Does It”. It is one of the best Led Zeppelin tracks that Led Zeppelin didn’t write. And when it morphs into a rocking track from about 2.40 mark, it’s so cool to hear Coverdale steer away from the typical verse and chorus format.

Of course, songs which follow that format will give you success if they cross over into the mainstream, but for me, it’s these kinds of songs that get me to commit. Like for Whitesnake, it was “Still Of The Night” which got me to commit, and it didn’t follow the conventional verse and chorus format.

“Absolution Blues” has David Coverdale delivering a near perfect Led Zep vocal line in the verses.

Come the dawn of judgement day
I’ll get down on my knees and pray
The Good Lord don’t send me away
I’ll never ever go

No one wants to leave the land of the living. They realize then how much living they really need to do.

“Whisper A Prayer For The Dying” is one of my favourite songs on the album. That dropped D intro riff is excellent. Even System Of A Down used a very similar style riff for their awesome song “Aerials” from the mega selling “Toxicity” album.

Also the idea of the song happened back in 1982-83 as their is an acoustic demo of the song on the “Slide It In” Deluxe reissue. And when you combine various wars for lyrical inspiration and Jimmy Page”s dropped D riff, you get a classic.

The suffocating heat of jungles, burning desert sands
Where everything reminds you, you’re a stranger in a strange land
The soothing words of politicians, those bodyguards of lies
While guardian angels waste their time and every mother cries

There is a whole generation of people who wouldn’t even know about the Vietnam War or the Gulf War. And when leaders from around the world decide to send in their troops to a place, well those troops already have a target on their back, as strangers in a strange land.

Machine gun, battle cry
You pray to God when the bullets fly
The bombs fall like black rain
And all your dreams take you home again
Nothing but bad dreams

At the end of the first Gulf War, the Iraqi forces set an oilfield alight, which burned black toxic smoke for months. And when it rained all those black toxins came back down as black rain.

And the ones who survived, are struck with PTSD.

You can’t read, you can’t write
You’re so scared, you can’t sleep at night
You try to carry the heavy load
Walking down Armageddon road, oh, Armageddon road

In reality what did all of the Wars achieve?

Iraq invaded Saudi Arabia and all the democratic countries rushed to the Saudi aids so their young Prince could grow up and order the dismemberment of a journalist who spoke out against him. And Iraq along with Afghanistan is still a hotspot of violence and extremism.

Would you have gone there for a holiday when these countries were controlled by dictators?

Would you fly there now, that these countries have been liberated by the good democratic countries?

I’m pretty sure the answer would be NO to both questions.

How good is Cinderella?

They are a lot more than just a hair band, a stupid genre they got lumped in. Maybe it’s their fault for allowing their image to look like a hair band but then again when you are trying to make it, you will listen and do what the A&R department tells you to do.

Anyway, “Night Songs” opens the album which carries its name and it’s a hooky slow dirge.

Workin’ this job ain’t payin’ the bills
Sick and tired rat race takin’ my thrills
Kickin’ down the road not a dime in my pocket
Nightime falls and I’m ready to rock it

It’s a game of collusion. Governments and corporations ensure that the wages paid are just enough to live a frugal lifestyle, however as the cost of living goes up, the wages don’t seem to follow the same trajectory. My land rates go up 4% each year for the last 3 years. My wage has gone up 1% each year.

Which then means we need to find a second job, or a higher paying job or we need to borrow money from the banks.

And before payday, I used to have just a dime in my pocket but regardless of what state I was in financially, I always had my music and was always ready to rock it.

Forget the day ’cause we’re gonna scream

And that is exactly what we did.

Night songs
Makes the day right

Even in the comfort of your own home, when you drop the needle and the sound surrounds you and bounces off the walls, it normally happens at night and when you are alone with your thoughts.

When “Shake Me” rolls into town, you know the party is just getting started.

And Tom Keifer’s raspy voice is the difference. He didn’t sound like any other singer out on the market. Maybe a bit like Brian Johnson. Hell, the band Hinder had a career in the music business many years later because their singer had the same raspy voice like Keifer.

Then, those clean tone Am arpeggios start and “Nobody’s Fool” fills the room. For a debut record, Keifer has knocked me out with a triple left hook.

And how good is the vocal melody and riff in “Nothin’ For Nothin’”?

You got nothin’
Nothin’ for nothin’
You’re hurtin’ overtime
Nothin’ for nothin’
And we don’t need your kind
Nothin’ for nothin’
Pushin’, shovin’, got no time
Nothin’ for nothin’

Kids these days have a lot more rights in life and in the workplace than what their parents and grand parents had. But the mindsets are different. They always get something.

“Once Around The Ride” is a classic heavy metal track, with an air guitar pedal tone riff, a wicked lead break from Jeff LeBar and a vocal melody from Keifer which sticks around long after the song has finished.

“Hell On Wheels” could have come from any NWOBHM act, but with better melodies and vocals from Kiefer.

We’ve had enough of the raw deals
Hit the road and tell ya how it feels

Like hell on wheels

“Somebody Save Me” is my favourite. The “Knock Em Dead Kid” riff merged with “Looks That Kill” works a treat and Keifer delivers vocally.

Somebody save me
I lost my job, they kicked me out of my dream

The Australian dream is to own your home. And once upon a time people did just that and then passed it down to their next of kin. And Governments didn’t like that because they didn’t get any tax on it, so they passed laws that to change the name on the deed you still had to pay a stamp duty tax.

But these days people are buying, paying the minimum repayments and then selling it when they need to move because they lost their job and the next job is in a different state or in a city hours away. And if they don’t sell it in time, the bank will sell it for them and kick them out of their dream.

And the house prices are so high it’s hard to even enter the market.

Well, everybody’s got opinions
But nobody’s got the answers
And the shit you ate for breakfast
Well, it’ll only give you cancer

So true. A while back, I was in a meeting at work and I had my opinionated vent in it. Then I was asked how I would do the job that needs to be done and I had no fucking answer. So I made a note to myself that if I’m going to question others I need to also have answers and solutions.

And what about all the research coming out about processed meats giving you cancer, how too much red meat will give you cancer and all those cereals that the corporations said were healthy in the 80s (backed by Government research financed by the cereal makers) proved to be full of sugar and bad for you.

Somebody get the doctor
I think I’m gonna crash
Never paid the bill
Because I ain’t got the cash

You can’t pay a bill when you don’t have the funds. And you don’t have the funds because you either don’t have a job or you have a job but are over committed to a lot of debt. Either way, it’s a pivotal moment in your life when you are in this place. And you understand that life is not fair and the game is rigged.

“In From The Outside” has an excellent outro and it’s the reason why I go through the whole song, just to hear the outro and how they fit in this metal like section to a 12 bar blues. Brilliant.

And “Back Home Again” is a great way to bookend the album. An open string riff kicks it off and the vocal melody from Keifer is brilliant.

I hit the road wide open at seventeen
Mama cried herself to sleep
Lost a dad I’d never seen
Took all my childhood friends
Guitar, and a dream

It doesn’t happen like that anymore or does it. These days it’s let’s hit the internet and build an online social presence and you play live if their is demand. Once upon a time you played to get better and you took what gig you could get in order to build your fan base.

And for the sake of it, I streamed Winger (released in 1988), because of Reb Beach. He is a phenomenal guitarist and he always interviewed well, with a great grasp of techniques when it came to the guitar. And the Winger debut is full of Reb Beach.

“Madalaine” kicks off the album and the first time I heard it, I was really surprised at how good the vocals sounded.

“Hungry” is one of my favourites on the album and I always compared it to “Hungry” from White Lion’s which is a bit more superior because that riff from Bratta rocks hard and is brilliant to play.

But the way, “Hungry” starts off with the violin like orchestra, then it morphs into a syncopated groove for the pre –chorus and in the chorus, listen to how Reb Beach takes a stock chord progression and decorates it.

Now the piece d resistance in this song, is the prog rock bit after the solo, which goes into an acoustic bit of the 1st verse, then Reb Beach and the drums take over, playing just the chorus riff and then the whole band comes in as they move into the ending of the song. For such a commercial sounding track with a big arena rock chorus, it has a lot of movements which people either didn’t notice because the band made it sound so seamless.

“Seventeen” is the best Van Halen track that EVH didn’t write. Just check out the opening riff. But that lead break from Reb Beach. Wow.

“Time To Surrender” has a wicked guitar riff and a 12/8 groove feel in the dreams. The vocal melody from Kip is also on the money, but man, the lyrics, about it being time to surrender because his love don’t live there anymore just didn’t do the music any justice.

“Hangin On”. Listen to it, to hear Reb Beach decorate again.

“Headed For A Heartbreak” is a song that is not forgotten easy. I think it’s that keyboard lick in the Chorus (after they sing “Headed For A Heartbreak”) which remains. Maybe even the solo section. Or that outro guitar solo from Reb Beach or the offbeat drumming. Whatever it is, something always remains with me after hearing this song.

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

The Record Vault – The Almighty

The Hot Metal magazine in Australia did a stellar review of the album which got me interested and the cover art was enough to get me to pick it up and stare it for a while, while the track titles sealed the deal.

Ricky Warwick is now the front man of Black Star Riders, but once upon a time he was the front man for a very underrated band called “The Almighty” who are from Scotland. “Soul Destruction” is the second studio album released by Polydor Records. 

“Crucify” kicks the album off with a double kick drum intro which brings back memories of “Overkill” from Motorhead.  Ricky Warwick vocally brings his Brian Johnson style instead of his Phil Lynott voice.

“Free ‘N’ Easy” is one of their best tracks. It should have been the catch cry of the Napster generation with the lyric line, “Everything is so free and easy, everything is so free and wild”.

“Joy Bang One Time” has a riff that reminds of “Psycho Love” from Skid Row, merged with “Welcome To The Jungle” and “My Michelle” from “Appetite For Destruction” and the song is telling you to lose your mind for that joy bang one time. 

“Love Religion” has this swampy delta blues riff to kick it off, which i dig.

“Friends won’t answer your phone call” kicks off the “Bandaged Knees” chorus and at 6 minutes long, it’s not a radio friendly tune, but it got more heart and soul and rock and roll attitude than anything that was doing the charts.

“Little Lost Sometimes” is like “Hey Jude” merged with “Let It Be” merged with “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. And at track 8, this seven minute song is buried deep in the album. Press play and allow yourself to get a little lost sometimes.

“Devil’s Toy” is a classic Warwick cut, with “Love, only love, love is the devils toy” being the catch cry.

The song “Soul Destruction” never made it to the album, but there is a demo on YouTube which is raw, full of attitude and the rock and roll spirit. Crank it.

 

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

The Record Vault – Anew Revolution

“Rise”came out in 2008.

I downloaded it via a cyber locker like Rapidshare or MegaUpload.

The way cyber lockers worked was;

  • a normal blog site would put up links to the music.
  • The links would refer you to the cyber locker website.
  • You would wait 90 seconds or less for the ads to play and the download link would be made available to you.
  • Eventually the U.S government via the sponsorships of the RIAA and MPAA went after these cloud storage cyber locker sites.

Remember Kim Dotcom from MegaUpload. His house was raided like he was a terrorist in the morning and all because he provided a service to people to store files in the cloud.

A lot of people used these sites to store their photos or work documents and they lost it all when the US Government went after these sites and took possession of their servers.

Anyway, going back to “Rise”. I liked it, so I purchased it. And the below is from a review a did a while back.

Done

You wanna try me you might be the one who goes down
I’ve had it up to here with your rule
You’re such a two face it’s too late to take back those words

We have all dealt with people like this. One thing life has taught me is nothing is forever, and that means relationships.

Nme

I can’t believe I finally see the enemy in you

Yes, that best friend, might scheme and lie. Yes, that great love, might scheme and lie.

Eventually all the lies come down like a house of cards and those people you trusted suddenly become untrustworthy. And it’s hard to take when it first happens. There is anger, a feeling of being wronged and disbelief that it’s happened for so long.

But, humans are resilient and we rise again, better and stronger than before.

Generation

We are the voice of our lives,
But no one’s listening.

Eventually people will listen. It just takes time, effort and commitment. We give up too easily.

And how long, how long,
Can I fake this?

How long can we really fake our lives?

We have so many tools at our disposal to connect with people and we remain even more isolated.

Rise

Hey you
Stand the fuck up and rise
I’m not afraid

It’s pretty simple. Stand up, don’t be afraid. Easier said than done, because of what could come after. Life is always a struggle. People in power versus the ones who work for them. Some abuse the power they have and others are more utopian.

I can’t fake the way I feel inside
Every one of those eyes judging me
It’s funny how things change
I redefine how messed up this life can really be

There was a time when every action and every word that came from me was so thought out because I didn’t want to be judged or questioned for my actions/words. As I got older, I ceased to care about those kind of social arrangements. Life is too short for me to care and there are too many other things I care more about now.

Let Go

There’s history there and no one wants to let go, even though it’s over. The thought of starting over again is too frightening. So you hold on to each other, playing games, blaming each other even more and eventually you both stop trying to save what can’t be saved anymore. So you let go.

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

Damn Yankees and Tangier

Oh, you young Spotify AI, recommending albums I have heard a hundred times before you were even born, but since, I haven’t listened to em on your service you need to recommend them.

So based on my Sammy Hagar listening a few weeks ago, the AI is telling me I need to check out “Contagious” from Y&T.

However I cannot stream the album in Australia, which is bizarre and why would the AI recommend an album which is unavailable to be played here. And really, would you say that Y&T is similar to Sammy Hagar?

I wouldn’t, but hey, the AI is slowly learning from me, until the time comes when its fully formed killer robotic version takes over the world in “Judgement Day”.

Since there was no “Contagious” to listen to, next up on the AI list of artists similar to Sammy is Damn Yankees. Um, again not similar, however it’s pretty easy to tell that the coders of the AI probably watched “School Of Rock” and that was enough for them to know the family tree of rock music.

When is Spotify going to realise that they need people who know the genre and blog about it, to tell them how it is done and how to make connections?

Anyway, Damn Yankees released one hell of good rock album in 1990. The brainchild of John Kalodner, it worked musically for two rocking albums. You take a piece of Styx, a piece of Night Ranger and a whole lot of Ted Nugent and you get the big bang, because no one really knew how it would end up. Well two plus million in sales is how it ended up.

“Coming Of Age” rocks straight out of the gate, and the Nuge delivers a stellar pentatonic lead break. The lyrics of a little sister, hitting the stage and coming of age didn’t do it for me, but hey rock and roll was never about making sense.

“Bad Reputation” in the first 30 seconds starts off with a power chord groove which gets me hooked, then the single note riff gets the foot tapping, before it goes into a clean tone bass groove for the verse, which reminds of Def Leppard. It’s a keeper.

“High Enough” has a cool minor key verse and a vocal melody which is memorable.

The song “Damn Yankees” could have appeared on a Guns N Roses album.

“Come Again” is one of those songs that stands out, moving between power ballad and rocker, with great vocals and a melody which sticks around long after the song has finished. And that lead break from the Nuge, is one of his best, by far. It’s a pretty big reason why I press repeat on the song. Plus you get a bonus outro lead break as well.

“Rock City” is “Turbo Lover” re-incarnated and I dig it. It’s also a blast to play on the guitar. And those G string tearing bends and whammy dives from the Nuge are huge. After the solo break, he plays a staccato lick that reminds me of John Sykes (Children Of The Night) and Jake E Lee (Waiting For Darkness).

And “Piledriver” could have ended up on a Van Halen album with Sammy singing. Maybe that is the connection. I doubt it.

Next up, the AI is telling me artists similar to Hurricane. And the two that caught my attention are Tangier and their album “Four Winds” and “Up From The Ashes” from Dokken.

Now Tangier was more Lynyrd Skynyrd merged with Bad Company than hair rock or hair metal, but hey, the record label and magazines decided, the band was a hair band and it got promoted as such. Hence the connection to “Hurricane”. And when I got this album on LP, I spun it regularly.

“On The Line” is Tangier’s best song. There is a familiarity to it, the melody is strong and the music rocks and wails when it needs to. The lyrics paint a picture of meeting your end walking the streets at night, and it was never going to break the charts, but, hey, music was never meant to chart.

“Four Winds” is worthy of a title track and the opening lyric of feeling a cold wind blowing and how it tells a tale of a thousand years still connects. If only nature could talk, what stories it would have to spin.

“Fever For Gold” could have come from a Bad Company album and “Southbound Train” continues that Lynyrd Skynyrd merged with Bad Company vibe and I was always wondering the destination of the southbound train. Since South is down, I guess the promised land for Tangier is hell. Nice touch, I must say.

And “Sweet Surrender” feels like it came from a 1972 album, or maybe it’s the similarity to “Tie Your Mother Down” in the riff which gets me, or the harmony leads after the Chorus that sound like they came from a Sweet record.

“Bad Girl” has this repeating lick which grabs you by the throat and drowns you in the swamp it was created in.

Finally, the highly anticipated, expensive and delayed solo album from Don Dokken comes up on my home page as an album I need to play, however it is not available to be played in Australia. The algorithm again doesn’t even know that. Anyway a big missed opportunity by Geffen and Don Dokken to earn some extra cents. Then again since the masters of this recording got burned, who knows what copy of the album is available.

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

Twisted Sister and Slaughter

“Love Is For Suckers” was released in 1987. It was meant to be Dee Snider’s first solo album. Instead it was the final Twisted Sister album.

Twisted Sister had released three career defining albums in “Under The Blade”, “You Can’t Stop Rock N Roll” and “Stay Hungry”. Then came “Come Out And Play” and it didn’t do as well as “Stay Hungry” however that didn’t mean it was a shit album.

But hey, when something doesn’t meet the sales expectations, someone needs to be blamed. The tour also had a lot of cancellations and half empty arenas.

One of my favourite songs is “Wake Up (The Sleeping Giant)”. A simple riff in the key of Am kicks off the song before it morphs into an A5 Power Chord groove like Acca Dacca.

Who the hell are they to say
What we can do and how we can play

Anyone who has the money or the power or the authority, will always be looking to control others. It happens at home, in school, in the workplace and in society. Even in your friends circle you will have someone who is like a pseudo leader.

We got the numbers, yeah,
We got the might
We got the strength and
We got the right
We got the reason, yeah,
We got the night
So wake up the sleeping giant

I always saw the WE in the song, as the metal heads.

But by 1987, we had woken up and we needed something else lyrically. We had been hearing this same message for the last 6 years. Metallica nailed it a year later when they released an album about the corruption in the justice system. Black Sabbath Ozzy era came back into the public conversation because we liked to “smoke the sky” and there’s no better song for it then “Sweat Leaf”. Motley Corabi Crue wrote a killer track as well in 1994 called “Smoke The Sky”.

It’s our rights they’re abusing,
It’s our right to fight back
So rally the troops and
Let’s start the attack

It’s the war cry against the censorship that was taking place against heavy metal music. But the troops weren’t sure if they wanted to commit. A troop who was a rebel in 1983 and wasn’t gonna take it, had now graduated and is in college and are on their way to becoming part of the degree factory and another stat in the workforce.

“Tonight”, “Me And The Boys” with its “Summer Of 69” style riff and “Love Is For Suckers” are all strong songs.

“Hot Love” and “Yeah Right” are also cool and they round out the quality of the album for me.

The album had “Slippery When Wet” from Bon Jovi, “Girls Girls Girls” from Motley Crue, and “Whitesnake 1987” to compete against. All of those albums were in the Billboard Top 10. “Look What the Cat Dragged In” from Poison was just outside at number 13. “5150” was doing great business and “The Final Countdown” was also setting charts alight. To top it off, two 87 releases were slowly percolating lower down the charts getting ready to break through. Those albums being “Appetite For Destruction” and “Hysteria”.

Basically, a lot of competition for people’s ears and minds.

Going into 1995, Slaughter went from platinum darlings in 1992, to a band without a label. Their label Chrysalis Records was taken over by EMI and EMI didn’t have room for Slaughter.

How things change in three years?

The band also had issues within. Guitarist Tim Kelly was arrested on drug trafficking charges and had a legal mess up until 1997. A year later he would tragically die in a traffic accident. Main co-songwriter and bassist Dana Strum also injured his hand in a motorcycle accident so that delayed the writing and recording.

Lucky for the band a new label called CMC International was formed in 1991 and all they wanted to sign was hard rock and heavy metal artists.

So in 1995, Slaughter finally released “Fear No Evil” and no one even knew or cared. This is what its like when the record label doesn’t know how to compete in the current market place. Just because Grunge and Industrial Metal became mainstream it didn’t mean that hard rock and classic heavy metal had no audience. But the labels had no idea who and where the audience was. Most record shops would promote what was popular and only the ones who specialize in genres would have the rock and metal and even those stores would promote what was popular.

“Live Like There’s No Tomorrow” kicks off with an “Immigrant Song” vibe and wail, and you need to check out the solo section. And if you’re looking for a ballad like Slaughter, the opening track delivers a blistering speed metal song which I class as one of Slaughter’s best.

“Keep lookin’ forward don’t ever look back”, is one of the lines which stood out. And I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Mark Slaughter was thinking of Tim Kelly when he wrote the lines, “you’re livin’ everyday of your life like there’s no tomorrow”.

“Hard Times” is another song which is ignored but it shouldn’t be. Just press play to hear the intro riff which reminds me of “The Headless Cross” from Black Sabbath.

It also has cool lyrics like “so now you learn from the concrete and pavement, it’s hard to see through city lies” and those lines connected. Because failing leads to growth and the city lies shows how people are always scheming to get ahead to the detriment of others.

“Prelude / Outta My Head” is a great combination of an acoustical piece leading into a rocking track. These two songs wouldn’t light up the charts but they would become fan favorites. The riff is good and the lead break is excellent but the lyrics didn’t match the excellence.

“Unknown Destination” has a lead section which I dig and the lyrics about travellers from the East who don’t know where they’ll be tomorrow captures the gypsy life and maybe we all should be doing a bit of that. Instead we get up and get to our first destination, the office and then get to our next destination, home. In between, there will be other destinations like school drop off or pick up and getting some groceries from food outlets.

Anyway the messages I get from the two albums is don’t let people in power abuse your rights and don’t be afraid to fail, because if you want to live your life like no tomorrow you need to feel the concrete and pavement.

And both artists felt the concrete and pavement a few times in their careers.

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

XYZ and Danger Danger

I’ve got both XYZ albums on LP. Well, I got the debut because Don Dokken was producing and I liked it, so I got the next one a few years after it came out, which by then, I think the band was already broken up, because hey, hair bands didn’t warrant call backs from the label suits anymore. And the majority of the magazines didn’t report on the progress of bands who weren’t popular anymore.

“Hungry” was released in 1991 and recently it has been coming up on my Spotify home page as an album I should play, based on my past listening, because up until today, I haven’t played it on Spotify at all. Well, Mr Algorithm, I guess it’s your luck day as I’m pressing play.

One thing that stood out for me for about XYZ is the music. I liked it, I could relate to it and I even wrote riffs similar to it. And the lead breaks rocked and shredded and wailed when they needed to.

But music is a business and record labels want to make money at an exponential rate. So the labels got producers to work with bands and that work involved making the band sound like other bands, especially the singers.

At one point in time, I couldn’t tell the difference between Tangier, Babylon A.D, XYZ, Danger Danger, Hericane Alice, XYZ and Roxy Blue. To even prove my point, I did a mix tape of songs from all their albums that had a similar vocal style, and even though side one had seven different artists, it all sounded like an album from just ONE artist. Maybe a future blogpost right here.

Anyway, I digress. Let’s get back to XYZ.

The best song on the album is “Off To The Sun”. The feel of this song is epic, reminding me of the 70’s artists, it’s also very Dio like in the vocals, the music is excellent and the lead break from Marc Diglio is the stuff of guitar heroes. Another great guitar player who is virtually unknown.

“Face Down In The Gutter”, “Don’t Say No” and “When The Night Comes Down” contain great riffage and music overall plus the lead breaks from Marc Diglio is the stuff of guitar heroes.

“I’ve got JD eyes so I don’t need to see, to know I have landed where I wanted to be” is from “Face Down In The Gutter”. If the lyric didn’t connect with people, then they obviously don’t drink and there was a time in my life I didn’t trust anyone who didn’t drink. Anyway, who hasn’t tried to drown their sorrows in a bottle of whiskey.

The next best song is “The Sun Also Rises In Hell”. Great title and it’s basically a speed metal song that Helloween would be proud of, hell even Dokken wrote similar songs like “Till The Living End” and “Lightning Strikes Again”. Actually, this song does have elements of the Dokken songs and like all of the other songs, it has another unbelievable guitar solo from Marc Siglio.

The self-titled debut from Danger Danger was up next, again another recommendation from Mr Algorithm.

I have it on LP and I must say, I like this album and the guitar playing from Tony “Bruno” Rey (Saraya guitarist) on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 and Andy Timmons on tracks 3 and 7.

Along with Marc Soligo mentioned above and Bill Leverty from Firehouse, these guys could take a stock chord progression and make it sound exciting. And when it came time to shine, they sure knew how to make that moment great. In relation to Tony Rey, you really need to hear the work he did with Saraya. Great song writing, great playing and killer leads.

Also, all of these guys merged so many different styles like EVH tapping, Malmsteen sweeps, Bratta melodicism, Rhoads modal style of writing, Sykes Pentatonic lines and whatever blues artist influenced them into a cohesive, melodic, rocky, metally style.

“Naughty Naughty” and  “Under The Gun” is a tickling melodic one two combination punch. It’s not a hard punch like “Blackened” and “Justice For All” from Metallica but a playful punch.

My more metal mates couldn’t understand how I could sit down to learn “And Justice For All” and “Under The Gun” in the same sitting. To them, it was sacrilegious to like Danger Danger and Metallica. Hell, even James Hetfield fostered this attitude, as he had a guitar that said “Kill Bon Jovi” on it. To me, I was one of those fans of the early 80’s who liked metal and rock before the crowd splintered into the different genres made up by the record label marketing teams. So as long as it got my head moving, my foot tapping, I was in.

Going back to Hetfield, he was a rebel and we connected with him. He had his acne problems (we all had similar problems) which is why he started to grow his beard and goatee and he wasn’t a pretty boy, even though Lars probably wanted the band to become cultural stylists, which he finally did with the “Load” albums.

And Hetfield put his views out. He laid into Lars for his drumming, he spoke his mind in interviews and even “the Kill Bon Jovi” writing on his guitar was a viewpoint at the commercialism of music. But money trumps everything, and it changes everything. Even James Hetfield.

Anyway, I digress again. Back to Danger Danger.

“Saturday Nite” takes “Blackout” from Scorpions and makes it even more mainstream. It sounds like a million other songs about getting out and partying on a Saturday night, but if you haven’t heard any of those, well then this one sounds original.

“Don’t Walk Away” is one of my favourite tracks. Maybe because it sounds like “Hysteria”. Maybe because of the way Rey decorates the stock chord progression with little guitar licks and motifs here and there. Maybe because of the guitar solo, and when it all comes together, it sounds great.

“Bang Bang” is a dumb song lyrically. The only saving grace is the lead break from Rey and the vocal melody. All they need is better words. “Rock America” could have been on a Bruce Springsteen album, or even a Night Ranger album. Even though the song is a good listen, and it has a “be who you want to be, this is your life” message, by 1989, America had been rocked for nearly 8 years, and it was looking for a different rock. Then again, it didn’t stop me from listening to this song over and over again. And the lead break from Timmons is excellent.  

“Boys Will Be Boys” was a single, but it didn’t connect with me as the lyrics were crap. By 1989, most boys were “smoking the sky” as Corabi sang in the self-tilted Motley Crue album a few years later, and doing the rattlesnake shake at home and hoping that the girls wanted to have fun with them, because the boys didn’t have the balls to make the move.

In “Live It Up”, Bruno Ravel and Steve West tell us if we work hard from 9 to 5, the tax man will leave us with just enough to survive, but we shouldn’t worry about that, we got to live it up.

So what’s the message today from these two bands. Live it up, be who you want to be and if that’s not enough, that JD bottle is waiting to be consumed.

Enjoy.

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

Kingdom Come and White Lion

“In Your Face” is a better album than the debut, but it didn’t do nowhere near the same business in sales. It gets me thinking how a lot of the bands who got platinum sales couldn’t back it up a few years later.

Maybe that whole payola deal the labels got done for, played a part in getting acts “fake” sales. Maybe it was too much Kingdom Come saturation (as this album came out a year after the debut) or the stupid interviews they did, denying they even knew who Led Zep was.

Those years of 1986 to 1989 are also those magical years of when hard rock and metal took over the mainstream, which all began in 1983.

The opening track “Do You Like It” is asking me if I like the fire of rock and roll burning out of control and I couldn’t get enough of it. So I went into the next track and “Who Do You Love” comes up next, a combination between Euro Pop and British Rock.

“The Wind” is a classic track, combining AC/DC (intro and chorus) with Led Zep (verses) and Lenny Wolf’s unique Euro pop sensibilities crossed with Robert Plant. And the wind was going to blow regardless if you wanted it too. And that place in time, the paradise you had is gone as quickly as it began, like the careers of many bands classed as “hair bands”.

“Gotta Go (Cant Wage A War)” talks about a red sky and the sound of guns bringing pain and bloody rain in a war a person is fighting in but they don’t know why.

“Highway 6” starts off as this country bluegrass twangy song, before it morphs into a fast rocker and for some reason I feel like I am listening to the Joe Lynn Turner version of Rainbow.

The lyric line “I lost a friend of mine who took the road, he felt the world had turned and left him cold” remains with me.

More so today than ever in the history of human existence, do people feel left out in the cold. They go to social media to see people enjoying what they don’t have and then they try to mimic that enjoyment themselves, all in a fools game to be like someone else.

“Perfect O” is pretty self-explanatory and “Just Like A Wild Rose” is all bluesy Led Zep in the verse, but when the Chorus kicks in, its brilliant.

And the lyric line of how the storm comes and goes slow, she will love him and go, just like a wild rose works.

“Overrated” sounds like it came from the pubs of Australia. “Mean Dirty Joe” has excellent music, an excellent vocal melody but terrible lyrics and a terrible title.

Finally the piece d resistance is “Stargazer” (I even did a whole blog post just on the song) and Lenny questioning, is there something more when it comes time to meet our maker.

“Big Game” from White Lion came out the same year, and it didn’t sell as much as “Pride” so the band went on the defensive and said that the label made them rush an album to capitalise on the success of “Pride”. To me, sales define if the album reached critical mass, however it doesn’t define the quality of the work.

While Kingdom Come sang about “Mean Dirty Joe” and a “Perfect O” in some songs, White Lion (and many say to their detriment) sang about Greenpeace, apartheid and domestic violence.

So “Big Game” is a big record with a big statement and it’s still relevant today than anything that appeared on “Pride” except for “When The Children Cry” and “Lady In The Valley”.

From the opening major key intro of “Goin Home Tonight” I felt part of the vinyl grooves. And “Dirty Woman” has music which is excellent, but the lyrics and the title let it down.

The piece d resistance in this case is “Little Fighter” and like the message in the song, every single soul who has been wronged, broken, abused or knocked down, has to rise again and show the world who they really are. If Mike Tramp never told anyone it was about the sinking of the “Rainbow Warrior” Greenpeace boat, it would have been the hit that made the album. And the message is still relevant today, but since we are surrounded by echo chambers, the rising up part is happening on all sides of left and right and centre whether you like it or not.

“Broken Home” doesn’t need explaining, except how good is the music from Bratta.

But like all 80’s hard rock acts, they kept on moving between subject matter about loneliness, broken homes, saving the planet to relationships and dirty women. And I struggled taking bands seriously when they moved between so many different topics lyrically. “Baby Be Mine” is a perfect example of great music, great guitar playing and terrible lyrics and a terrible title.

But when they go to “Living On The Edge” they nail it again. The lyrics resonate straight away. I had a pair of 501 blue jeans that had seen better days, and who didn’t want to pack their bags and ride into the sunset once upon a time. Then again, these days, kids want to live with their parents, and stay comfortable. And how many people graduated with degrees, but couldn’t get jobs for what they studied for.

“Hot For Teacher” got a re-write in “Let’s Get Crazy”. And I can live with this song and the lyrics, because it’s got a cool party vibe, a lot better than “Dirty Woman” and “Baby Be Mine”.

I can also live with “Don’t Say It’s Over” as a cool relationship gone sour song, and a guitar solo which needs to be heard. “If My Mind Is Evil” has one of my favourite riffs and vocal melodies to match, along with a guitar solo which is a song in its own right. But those lyrics are just dumb, dumb, dumb.

“Radar Love” as a White Lion song works perfectly and “Cry For Freedom” is brilliant and effective in its simplicity.

After the sales didn’t meet expectations, the band told the label to give them time and let them make the album they want. They did that with “Mane Attraction” and it didn’t even make a commercial dent, and the band splintered and when they walked away from each other, no one from the label called to see what happened.  

So the message for the day, from Kingdom Come and White Lion is “Life is short, so keep getting back up when relationships go bad or the family dynamic breaks down and don’t let people get the better of you and take away the freedom you have. Always test yourself with new horizons because when it’s time to meet your maker, you are out of time”.

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

Y and T and Hurricane

It was rainy outside and I needed some tunes, so I went to my trusty Spotify app.

And when I went to the home page Y&T’s “In Rock We Trust” album was staring at me to press play.

And when the opening F#m chords started, I felt the same way I did back in the day when I first heard “Rock And Roll’s Gonna Save The World”.

I believe it will happen. While most artists now say yes to everything and that involves playing private shows for corporations or oil sheiks, music will one day be the saviour. Wait, its already happened in “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Adventure”, and how “God Gave Rock and Roll” to everyone.

Then again when Dave Meniketti started singing about kings and queens and presidents and Arab sheiks trying to take the world in hand, and fighting over chunks of sand, I wasn’t sure if it was 1984 or 2019. Not much has changed except that you don’t need to fight when you’re rocking right.

But the lines that resonated with me, are how we have the power to lift our voices up and scream.

So why aren’t we doing it?

Our ABC Newsroom got raided today by the Federal Police all because they didn’t like a story the station ran a few years ago on Afghanistan and our military abuses. And no one has raised an eyebrow. By tomorrow, its forgotten news. We cycle through things so fast that nothing lasts.

Then the drum intro starts for “Life, Life, Life” and bands like Slaughter built their career of writing songs like this. But Y&T were first. They were first at everything except mainstream success. And you can tell they wanted it, because they started chasing the mainstream between 1987 and 1991.

The lyrics of a bloody scene as a missile rushes in and the sound of the world coming to an end could have come from a thrash metal release. But this is Y&T.

That pre- chorus lyric of “it’s too late” captures the melody and the urgency of the era perfectly because even though the politicians are voted in by the people, they don’t work for the people. They work for whoever pays them.

Meniketti also told us to “Pull our head out of the sand” and “Break the chain of command”. 35 years later, we still haven’t listened. The chain of command has gotten even more out of reach, while we took the lies hook, line and sinker and spiralled into debt and became enslaved into the system. And so many of us will just say, well I guess that’s life, life, life.

“Masters and Slaves” continues the trend.

That harmony lead in “I’ll Keep On Believin” gets me coming back to the song, just to hear it. And Great White took the music from “Break Out Tonight”, changed the lyrics and  called it “Rock Me” to platinum success.

And while side one was political in nature to a certain degree, side two kicks off with bondage and relationships at the forefront in “Lipstick and Leather”. Personally, the music is rocking and heavy and more serious lyrics would have suited it a lot better.

But when the riff from “Don’t Stop Runnin’” kicks in, I was re-hooked. Although I don’t relate to the lyrics that bassist Phil Kennemore wrote, the chorus got me hooked and I transposed my own message to the song, to just keep on going, chasing my dreams and living my life on my terms and not anyone else’s. Of course the song, is not about that, but hey, we all form our own unique connection.  

And side two continues the theme about relationships, with “(Your Love Is) Drivin Me Crazy” (has a great intro/verse riff), “She’s A Liar” (forgettable) and “This Time” (a great ballad which was a big hit in the City Of Thunder Bay) .

For the record, “This Time” has got some pretty cool guitar playing, from the intro arpeggios to the lead breaks and how can you not like the big major key chorus.

And then I was “Over The Edge” with Hurricane, the band which featured the younger brothers of Rudy Sarzo and Carlos Cavazo from Quiet Riot in a role reversal. Robert Sarzo played guitar and Tony Cavazo played bass. I really liked this album. It’s got a perfect blend of rock, metal overtones and pop like sensibilities to connect.

“I hope tomorrow I will be stronger than today” is the lyric line which connected. Bravado is a big thing in male culture. We can’t show weakness, we can’t act like a sissy, we need to be strong and life has a funny way of making sure we are in situations we’re we show weakness.

And that harmony lead from Robert Sarzo nails it and then he goes into shred like mode.

The first version of “I’m Eighteen” I ever heard was here, on this album. “I get confused every day” is the lyric which I like, because, as you get older, you need to start making real choices, and I didn’t have enough information to make those choices, but I still made them, and man I was confused. But as the song goes, I’m eighteen and I like it.

“I’m On To You” has a simple groove and riff which gets me. The lyrics, don’t really do anything for me, but hey, this was the thing with 80’s bands that irked me; they would move between songs of rebellion, to songs about relationships and it wouldn’t flow. But the lead break was enough to get me listening and pressing repeat and the vocal melodies in the Chorus, you got to admit deserved a higher spot on the charts.

“Messin’ With A Hurricane” rocks melodically and I like the lyric line about scratching for what I got and how no one is going to take it away, cause if they mess with me, they are messing with a hurricane.

“Insane” showed how insane the band was to include it, but “We Are Strong” made up for it with its Boston like influences.

“Life is tough sometimes and it tries to get you down” and it always will, because from our first breath, we are fighting to stay alive. And that guitar solo from Sarzo, mimics Sambora’s “You Give Love A Bad Name” guitar solo and even the chord progressions are all pretty similar to songs which had a co-write by Desmond Child.

That palm-muted, fast picked opening line was enough to get me interested in “Spark In My Heart”. ‘I’ve got to be myself, learn to be a man”, along with “pack up my fears and leave them all behind” are the lyric lines which connected.

It’s a coming of age of when you need to separate from the family, the comforts of home and walk your own path. Hell, my Dad, didn’t talk to me for months when I moved out, yet, it was okay for him to cross an ocean and come to another country in order to “walk his own path”.

“Shout” should have been the closer. “You got to shout out to the world” and “don’t let anyone stand in your way” is the message. It was brilliant, and deserved to be heard.

Kelly Hansen on vocals is excellent and his talents have taken him all the way to Foreigner, a gig he has held since 2005. Robert Sarzo nailed it on guitar on this album, but was replaced by Doug Aldrich for the next album (which I purchased, but was pissed off because Sarzo was not on it) and is part of the band in its current incarnation. Tony Cavazo is underrated and in the shadows of his more famous brother, and Jay Schellen at that time was one of the finest hard rock drummers around and very underrated.

And the message for the day folks is don’t get comfortable and keep on running to find your own path, your own voice and to use that voice when you need to.

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

The Record Vault – Alice In Chains

I remember reading a story in the Hot Metal mag I used to buy about the “Clash Of The Titans” tour. It talked about how an unknown opening band called “Alice In Chains” got booed and garbage thrown at them. The review went on to say how they kept on delivering an energetic set and it’s a band to watch for the future.

But I still didn’t commit.

I taped the video clips “Man In The Box”, “Would” and “Down In A Hole” on a VHS tape. Watched em, like how I did the 80’s clips.

But I still didn’t commit.

And then “Jar Of Flies” came out and I purchased.

So why did I buy this album?

It was a guitar transcription of “Rotten Apple” in Guitar School that sealed the deal.

Rotten Apple

The guitar riff in the intro hooked me in. It’s in the vein of Em to D (or Dm to C depending on the key) chord progressions which I dig.

Nutshell

And yet I fight
This battle all alone
No one to cry to
No place to call home

Even when we are surrounded by family and friends, we feel alone. There is always something which triggers these feelings.

I Stay Away

This song was also transcribed in the guitar magazines, and so it should, as the riff is pretty cool.

Dirt

It was a no brainer to buy this album after “Jar Of Flies”. I committed to the band and now I needed to complete my collection.

Them Bones

I used to cover this song in a band I was in. I love that opening riff, and how it morphs into the half time feel in the Verse’s. Also the lead break, rocks. And the main thing which stands out is the phrasing of the vocal melodies.

Dam That River

It’s a heavy rock song and a bloody damn good one at that. Again the riffs hook me in, the vocal phrasing stands out and the lead break, also rocks.

Rain When I Die

The groove is addictive and the slower tempo makes every note of the riffs stand out.

Down In A Hole

In the key of A minor (one of my favourite keys, just think of all the white keys on the piano, they are the notes in the A minor scale).

The melodies hook me in and the lyrical message is deep. You could take it in a good way or in a bad way. I always saw music as an escape, a release from the burdens of life. So listening to music, regardless of the lyrical message, gave me hope and strength to face any obstacle.

Dirt

It’s got this exotic sounding riff which gets me.

Angry Chair

How good is that clean tone riff?

If there is a song which sounds like the Seattle sound, then this is the one.

Would

Another song I used to cover in bands.

The bass groove is excellent (of course I knew Mike Inez from his time with Ozzy and that “No More Tears” bass riff) which allows Jerry Cantrell to decorate the song with little embellishments here and there.

And I didn’t go any deeper after this album for some reason.

I doubled down into the sounds of the 70s during the 90s and snapped up any new release from the 80s artists in the 90s.

It happens.

We fall in and out of love with artists.

Regardless, these two albums still stand the test of time and it’s cool to see AIC still making new music.

I did end up hearing the debut and self-titled album and apart from the singles, I couldn’t recall anything else that hooked me in.

And for the rebooted version of the band, I have streamed the albums and again I can’t recall anything that hooked me in.

But I’m still interested as I go back to hear them so I’ll see what comes next.

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

The Record Vault – A Perfect Circle

It was a 5 skulls out of 5 skulls review in the Hot Metal mag I used to buy, which at this time became known as “HM” as the term “Metal” was uncool to use. And since I’ve always agreed with that reviewer in the past, I forked out the $24 for the debut CD.

Also before I purchased, I knew that Tool vocalist, Maynard Keenen was doing vocals and how guitar technician to the alt-rock bands, Billy Howerdel had all the music written.

“The Hollow” starts the album and the first thing that hooks me is the vocal melodies of Maynard over the soundtrack like music from Howerdel and a song structure which doesn’t really follow convention, like the verses have different music in each verse, while the melody remains the same.

“Judith” has a groove riff which gets the head banging, and when the riff is repeated in the lower registers for the verses, I was ready to break desks. Then when the pre-chorus and chorus kick in, I was trying to break desks, but somehow my kung-fu skills deserted me. And that pre – chorus;

Fuck your God
Your Lord and your Christ
He did this
Took all you had and
Left you this way
Still you pray, you never stray
Never taste of the fruit
You never thought to question why

“Orestes” is my favourite track on the album. The vocal melody from Maynard is like a lead guitar and the drumming in the song, especially in the outro by Josh Freese is a testament in its own right. And when the lead from Billy Howerdel comes in, its like a vocal melody as well.

Gotta cut away, clear away
Snip away and sever this
Umbilical residue that’s
Keeping me from killing you

“3 Libras” has this outro vocal line where Maynard sings “you don’t, you don’t see me” and the octave guitars from Howerdel support it, while drummer Freese continues his improvisation in outros.

“Thomas” is okay, but when that outro comes in from about the 2.49 mark, it elevates the song. “Renholder” has a “Diary Of A Madman” like intro which hooks me. Actually, the band used to merge “Diary Of A Madman” with “Love Song” from The Cure.

“Brena” which when sang is “Brenya” is another one of those atmospheric songs in the verses with a crashing chorus and a vocal line that sounds like a lead instrument. And again, those outros make you want to press repeat.

And the debut album was huge.

Then in 2003, came “Thirteenth Step”. And it was different, even more experimental and progressive. While the debut had the songs nice and concise and around the 4 minute mark, this one had longer songs.

Even the writing was different. The debut album had all the music done, and Maynard just added vocals. On this album, Howerdel was sending music ideas to Maynard while he was on tour with Tool for the excellent “Lateralus” album and they collaborated in that fashion.

“The Package” at 7 minutes in length kicks the album off and it’s a subdued opener, building on drum patterns each minute at a time. It was like a Tool song.

And I’m thinking, where is this all going?

And it’s not until the 4 minute mark that the distortion guitars come crashing in.

When artists follow their own path, and write what they want to write and not what a label A&R rep tells em, well, it’s what I love about music.

After been taken on a different journey with the opener, the “Weak And Powerless” track brings back some familiarity, as it’s a throwback to the debut album.

“The Noose” brings it back to feel of the opening track. But the chorus vocal melody from Maynard gives me goose bumps and sets it apart from the opening track.

“The Outsider” is my favourite track. I used to cover it, in a band I was in, between 2004 and 2005. Musically it was fun to play and the heaviness in the second verse, is head banging stuff.

I also like “Pet” purely for its heaviness in the intro and chorus and the quiet of the verses. And that lyric, “slave to the rhythm of a new world order”.

Then came eMOTIVe, a covers album, but done in a way which is unique to A Perfect Circle.

Like the opening track “Annihilation”, which is a cover from a hardcore band called “Crucifix” however it’s played very quietly via a piano and the vocals are whispered. Then they cover “Imagine” from John Lennon and it stands on its own as A Perfect Circle song.

Elvis Costello’s “Peace Love and Understanding” is unrecognisable by the “APC reinterpretation morphing” machine. Even “Whats Going On” from Marvin Gaye, gets the APC morph.

But the best song on the album is “Passive” which is an original and a co-write with Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails.

And since then, it was a long gap between albums.

Billy Howerdel released a solo album under the band name, “Ashes Divide” which was excellent. Maynard was part of another Tool release in 2006 and then the long wait for a new Tool album started as well (which is scheduled for this year). In between, Maynard had another side project called “Puscifier”.

And the next APC album “Eat The Elephant” came out in 2018 and a few songs stuck out like “The Doomed”. But I havent committed too much time to it.

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