A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Twitter Thoughts

As soon as Dee Snider and his Twisted Sister band mates threw the teacher for a three-pointer in the “I Wanna Rock” video, I was hooked. Yeah, he looked all wrong but his attitude and message stuck with me. So it’s no surprise I follow Dee on Twitter and recently a few tweets got some discussions happening.

“Here’s a challenge for you (and no using the internet for the answer): Can you name all 7 (unsuccessful) albums I’ve done solo or been a part of with a band since I left Twisted Sister in 1987? You can use initials. Bonus points for naming the 1 live album. Good freakin; luck.”

You struggle your whole life to “make it”. And once you “make it”, you need to struggle to “keep it”.

And then “keeping the fame” ends up “breaking up” the band that “made it”. So you go solo but it’s many years later from your “making it” moment. And there are people who still crave your product but not as many as before.

For a very long time, the record labels convinced everyone that the only way to define success is sales. But people might have purchased an album, heard it once and never heard it again. The record label never considered that statistic because the sale has given them a monetary value, something they can count.

But as Dee said further on;

“While I’m proud of all the work I’ve done, YES success is defined by sales. I’m long past “making music for my own head”. Once you’ve had public acceptance of your art, you yearn for it. You want the world to see and hear “your children””.

The truth is, there is no secret formula for keeping the hits coming.

Artists always had a short life span at the top. Most of the 70’s acts would have been dead and forgotten if there was no MTV television in the 80s.

But the biggest obstacle is obscurity.

Someone tweeted back, “Didn’t know you did one, lol” in response to Dee’s post about the seven unsuccessful albums to which Dee re-tweeted with the following comments;

“This is the #1 response to my name the seven albums I’ve done since leaving Twisted in 1987. Which brings us to the age old question: “If someone puts out an album and nobody hears it…did it make a sound?””

Which someone else replied that Dee’s last album, “We Are The Ones” was excellent with the following questions;

“Do you consider it unsuccessful? Is success only defined by album sales or rather by the quality of the product?”

Another person commented that just because it isn’t popular it doesn’t mean it’s not valid and that music touches people in different ways.

And here we are again wondering what success is.

Is it sales?

Is it streams?

Is it video views?

Is it concert ticket sales?

Is it just people interacting with you on social media?

For Dee, he hit the mainstream with Twisted Sister and for a three year period he was on top. Success is defined as that same public acceptance for his other music.

So let’s talk about “Blood and Bullets” from Widowmaker.

Post Twisted Sister, it was deafening silence. From being everywhere, Dee was nowhere. My cousin Mega, who has the TS logo tattooed on his shoulder told me about his Desperado project. It was mentioned in a shorts column of a U.S magazine. That’s it. One of the biggest voices between 1983 and 85 was reduced to a paragraph.

Then there was silence again. We got nothing Dee Snider related in Australia.

I then read a “Blood And Bullets” review in a magazine, three months after the Widowmaker album was out. It was in a Guitar magazine, because of Al Pitrelli’s involvement. Nothing from the mainstream metal rags.

So I went looking for it in the mainstream record stores and I couldn’t find it. I asked at the counter if they could get it and they could get it as an import and charge me $50.

I went to Utopia in Sydney, the home of heavy metal, who only had a few copies of the album and already sold them. They said they would order it in for me and it would cost me $30. It took another 3 months for it to “arrive” in Australia and into my hands. Imagine that. 3 months to arrive.

So six months after the album was released I had it. And I played it non-stop and I still play it and I told everyone I could about it. It’s angry, it’s hopeful, it’s sombre and it’s tongue’n’cheek.

For me, it’s highly influential. It’s got the kind of music I like making, all over the album.

“Reason To Kill”, “Blue For You”, “Calling On You”, “Snot Nosed Kid” and “Emaheevul” straight away stood out for me. “Blood And Bullets” and “Widowmaker” grew on me with every listen. The cover of “Evil” surprised me with its energy and increased tempo while another pop rock cover called “The Lonely Ones” was a sleeper hit waiting to smack me in the face. “Gone Bad”, “You’re A Heartbreaker” and “We Are The Dead” while sounding clichéd on earlier listens grew into unique contributions to the album.

Dee delivered a stellar vocal performance and Al Pitrelli also produced the goods in the guitar department, while Joey Franco and Marc Russell underpinned it all. Of course, Desperado guitarist Bernie Torme co-wrote 7 of the 12 songs on the album, so he deserves a huge 10 out of 10 for his stellar riffage and songwriting.

If you’ve read Dee’s book, “Shut Up and Give Me The Mic” Dee had to buy back the Desperado songs from Elektra who claimed ownership of them due to the label financing the demo song writing sessions and the failed Desperado album release.

But the problem with the album not setting the sales department on fire was not Grunge. It was obscurity. People didn’t know about it because there wasn’t a source of truth anymore.

Even in 1992 going onto 1993, we had a lot of different sources for information. The magazines were struggling to sell like they did in the 80’s, hence the reason why so many of them finished up.

So in order to stay relevant, the magazines only reported what was popular so they could sell. And no one bought all the magazines but in the 80s if you purchased Faces, Hit Parader or Circus or Metal Edge, you more or less had your rock/metal “source of truth” covered.

And MTV was moving into reality TV and out of music, especially music made by the metal community.

And speaking of the metal community, we had fractured into different styles. Once upon a time we liked metal. We listened to metal bands.

Suddenly metal (courtesy of magazines and record label A&R reps) had different genres like Glam, Pop, Thrash, Heavy, Hard, Death, Black, Industrial, Hardcore, Grindcore, Rap and whatever other term someone could think of like Sludge, Weed, Fart, etc.

So those metal bands in the early 80s got relabeled to something else.

And it shits me because the Widowmaker debut album is not on Spotify (well I don’t know about the rest of the world, but it’s not on Spotify Australia) and people who are fans of the band and who pay for Spotify cannot listen to it.

But it’s on YouTube and I don’t do YouTube. But I have a CD mp3 rip of the album on my devices and I listen to it that way.

The thing is, a lot of the albums which are really influential to people are rarely commercially successful.

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

1984 – Ep 1

I bought a few CD’s recently. They are still in the plastic wrapping. I don’t even think I will be opening them as I am listening to the music via Spotify.

I used to buy CD’s weekly once upon a time. It wasn’t really news, but hey we are in 2018 and just buying a CD is news. Even though I stream, the itch to buy is still there. Old habits die hard. And the majority of music fans are collectors, so we collect CD’s and vinyls the same way people collect stamps, coins, sports cards, instruments and what not.

The recording industry did an incredible job in brain washing us to believe we needed to purchase these products. They did have a few false starts in the 40’s and 50’s, however the post WW2 rebuilding phase started to put people into jobs, which meant money to spend in society. And once they got a foothold, their Government granted monopoly just kept on growing.

Anyway, buying CD’s got me thinking about vinyl records and how I was pretty peeved that vinyl records got stopped. And just like that, I was in an 80’s mood.

So here is the playlist.

Dokken – Tooth And Nail
Elektra wanted to drop em. Lynch and Dokken wanted to drop each other. Croucier dropped them for Ratt. Werman dropped the producing gig because of everything that came before. Lynch dropped in and out of the band a lot of times. Eventually Pilson dropped into the band to replace Croucier on the recommendation of Shrapnel Records boss Mike Varney. Michael Wagner dropped in to record the vocals, while Roy Thomas Baker dropped in to do the rest.

For a band threatened to be dropped, the production team was top notch. Werman would have got his cut, Roy Thomas Baker and Michael Wagner, would also get their cut. And then you have the record deal that Don Dokken got by using the songs Lynch and Brown had written. Imagine being in a band where Don Dokken would get the money and then he would need to pay Lynch, Brown and Pilson.

But they had Q Prime Management in their corner. In Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, Dokken had an influential team who could build them up into global superstars, organise the tours, the record deals, the funding, the video clips and what not.

Side one kicks off with the instrumental “Without Warning”. For a song that’s 1:35 long, it’s showing Don Dokken, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson as songwriters. Seriously. Three dudes for a minute and thirty five seconds. I don’t think so. Moving on, the title track “Tooth and Nail” kicks in, delivering a 1-2 knockout punch. It’s basically a speed metal song written by Brown, Lynch and Pilson.

Desperate living- driving me mad
Writings on the wall
Crushed all our hopes and the dreams we once had
Just to watch them fall

Such powerful words from people about to call it quits.

“”Just Got Lucky” written by Lynch and Pilson came next but it didn’t get lucky in the charts. “Heartless Heart” written by Brown, Lynch and Pilson deals with a heartless baby who lied. And finally, lead singer Don Dokken gets a song writing credit for the side 1 closer “Don’t Close Your Eyes” co-written with Lynch and Pilson. Lyrically it could have been used for the first “Nightmare On Elm Street” movie.

Ashes to ashes, sorrow and shame
Look at the future again
Angels in heaven walking the streets
Searching for someone to blame

Side two fires up with “When Heaven Comes Down” written by Brown, Lynch and Pilson and it’s followed by “Into the Fire” written by Dokken, Lynch and Pilson about a relationship which is wrong and somehow it goes sour and now he is falling into the fire. I had a theory once, it’s about Lucifer.

“Bullets to Spare” is written by the band and seriously it’s terrible lyrically, linking bullets to spare to a certain substance that comes out of a male. The big power ballad “Alone Again” is written by Dokken and Pilson and it’s underpinned by a great lead from Lynch. The album closes with another speed metal song in “Turn On the Action” written by Brown, Lynch and Pilson, the same team that wrote “Tooth and Nail”.

I’m looking over my shoulder
I’m running reckless through the night
Forever young not getting older
Satisfaction guaranteed tonight

Who didn’t do something naughty or slightly illegal in their youth and when we made our great escape, we laughed but constantly looked over our shoulder in case someone was chasing us.

And while Lynch got a lot of press and front covers in the guitar mags, and Don Dokken got a lot of press and covers in Hit Parader, Metal Edge, Faces and what not, the real hero of this album is Jeff Pilson. While others let egos get in the way of creating, Pilson went on with the task of creating and he co-wrote every single song on the album and paved the way for Dokken (the band) to have a career.

Van Halen – 1984
I will try my best to keep this review as short as possible as this album is highly influential to me, especially the songs “Panama” and “Hot For Teacher”. Actually, this album and “5150” are the ones I always go back to. And there is no denying that EVH was at the peak of his powers between 1983 and 1987. It’s like everything he touched turned to gold.

It’s also the last VH album to feature David Lee Roth until 2012’s “A Different Kind of Truth” and it’s also their biggest album to date in relation to sales and now streams. However as Sammy Hagar likes to point out to DLR, the Van Hagar albums went to Number 1 on the charts, while the Van Roth albums didn’t. But Van Roth albums outsell Van Hager albums. And the VH fan base streams more of the Roth era songs than the Hagar era songs.

Like many bands which start out, each album shows songs written by all members, however it’s rarely the case that all members contributed to the song writing. Van Halen kept this going for every album, even with Hagar. However, when Van Halen, which is now a company run in conjunction with management, renegotiated their royalty deal with Warner Bros in 2004, Michael Anthony was left off the song writing credits. People argued that Alex Van Halen also should have been left off as a songwriter, as all the music came from EVH and all the lyrics from Roth except for “I’ll Wait”.

Jump
I wrote “Jump” on a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 in my bedroom while the studio was being built. Every time I got the sound that I wanted on the right-hand split section of the keyboard, it would start smoking and pop a fuse. I got another one and the same thing happened. A guy I knew said I should try an Oberheim OB-Xa, so I bought one of those and got the sound I wanted.
EVH

A band I was in from the 90’s wanted to cover it. The problem was, we had no keyboard player, so I had to learn the synth riff and lead on the guitar. The riff was cool to play and the lead was 70% of the recording with the other 30% improv.

For those who want to know, the synth hook was inspired by the Hall & Oates track “Kiss on My List”. Producer Templeman hated it. Roth hated it. Funny how Roth’s biggest hit as a solo artist “Just Like Paradise” also revolves around a keyboard riff.

Panama
The riff.

I remember pausing and rewinding the cassette tape to learn it. Only I didn’t do a very good job as I couldn’t make out all the nuances of the different triad chords moving under the pedal tones.

When the guys once asked me to write something with an AC/DC beat, that ended up being “Panama.” It really doesn’t sound that much like AC/DC, but that was my interpretation of it.
EVH

Oh, but it does sound like AC/DC. Listen to the riff just before the verse kicks in. It’s AC/DC on steroids.

Top Jimmy
It’s a swinging/out there Van Halen track.

For “Top Jimmy” I had a melody in my head and I tuned the guitar to that melody. Steve Ripley had sent me one of his stereo guitars that had 90 million knobs and switches on it. That was too much for me to comprehend, so I asked him for a simpler version. He sent me one with a humbucker in the bridge and two single-coils at the middle and neck positions. It was just a prototype.
EVH

Drop Dead Legs
That was inspired by AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” I was grooving on that beat, although I think that “Drop Dead Legs” is slower. Whatever I listen to somehow is filtered through me and comes out differently. “Drop Dead Legs” is almost a jazz version of “Back in Black.” The descending progression is similar, but I put a lot more notes in there.
EVH

Remember progress is derivative.

Take what came before, tweak it, slow it down, alter it, swing it, mash it and what you have as the end result is something that is yours. It’s the way art evolves and it’s the way music has evolved. Don’t let no one tell you any different and all of those artists and heirs of artists who believe they are so original, they aren’t. They are full of crap. We are all a sum of our influences.

Hot for Teacher
The film clip came first for me. It’s brilliant and who can forget the teacher.

If you want to hear this song’s embryo, then check out the 70s demo from Van Halen called “Voodoo Queen”. Actually you will hear riffs in that song that appeared in other Van Halen album songs as well.

I’m a shuffle guy. I love fast shuffles. I think that stems from my dad’s big-band days. Every Van Halen record has a song like that—“I’m the One,” “Sinner’s Swing.” It was an extension of that—more of me! I distinctly remember sitting in front of Al on a wooden stool and playing that part during my solo where it climbs. Well, I can’t count, so Al needs to follow me. I’d sit right in front of him, and then he’d look at me like, “Now!”
EVH

It’s a full on jam song. If you don’t believe me, check out the solo section. There is no backing guitar. It’s just bass and drums holding down the rhythm, while EVH wails.

I’ll Wait
Co-written with Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan veteran Michael McDonald. Roth and Templeman both voted it out, however Eddie and engineer Donn Landee prevailed. As a guitarist, the keyboard riff is pretty cool to play on guitar.

Ted hated that song. When I played it for him, he kept humming “Hold Your Head Up” by Argent just to piss me off. It doesn’t sound anything like that.
EVH

And that keyboard riff before the solo belongs in a Rocky movie, especially in the training montages.

Girl Gone Bad
This song is basically Rush merged with “Achilles Last Stand” from Led Zep.

I always carried a microcassette recorder with me. I recorded my idea for “Girl Gone Bad” by humming and whistling into it in the closet of a hotel room while Valerie was sleeping.
EVH

The beauty of Van Halen was their unhinged jams and this song sounds exactly like that.

House of Pain
“House of Pain” originally dates back to the demos Van Halen recorded for Warner Bros.

The only thing that’s the same is the main riff. The intro and verses are different, I guess because nobody really liked it the way that it originally was.
EVH

Always taking what came before and tweaking it for something better. It’s the way we create art. EVH is a master at it.

Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry
The film clips hooked me in and I became a fan. While those film clips sold the album, my first TS purchase was “Come Out And Play” on LP and man, I played that album to death. This album was purchased on cassette tape at the start of 1986.

I remember as a kid it struck me as unusual that all songs are written by Dee Snider, because he’s only listed as vocals. I was like, how come Jay Jay and Eddie don’t have no credits as the music is dominated by guitars. We’ll it’s been explained in great detail in Dee’s bio how the song writing process worked for him.

Stay Hungry
A nod to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

If your fire has faded and you can’t feel it no more
If your tired and overrated, let me show you to the door
Expect no sympathy, There’s none to be had

In other words, you never quit.

We’re Not Gonna Take It
The film clip was into every TV screen around the world at that point in time. And we all resonated with the “right to choose our own paths and fight the powers that be” message of the song. Hell, my little guy learned how to talk by saying “Twishhted Shishter, Vere Not Gonna Hake It” into the YouTube microphone.

Eventually he started to pronounce the words perfectly.

Burn in Hell
This is the Twisted Sister I became a fan off. Cuts like this, “S.M.F”, “Run For Your Life”, “Under The Blade”, “The Fire Still Burns”, “Come Out And Play”, “Wake Up (The Sleeping Giant)” and “You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll”.

The doomy start is a perfect welcoming for all the listeners coming into the abandoned hand. And from 1.17, the song really shifts gear.

Take a good look in your heart, tell me what do you see
It’s black and its dark, now is that how you want it be
It’s up to you what you do will decide your own fate
Make your choice now for tomorrow will be way too late

Great lyrics. Our fates are tied to the choices we make. If we hate, we walk the path to hate. If we love and help others, we walk a different path.

Horror-Teria (The Beginning):
a) Captain Howdy
b) Street Justice
I didn’t appreciate these songs back in the 80’s. After “Burn In Hell” I would press the fast forward button on the cassette deck and wait until the reel went to the end. I would open the tape deck and change the side of the cassette from side 1 to side 2. Oh, how my kids have no idea what the hell I’m talking about.

But these songs are a concept story within a song. Progressive rock bands do this a lot. Hell even Greenday did it.

I Wanna Rock
And I was greeted with this. The opener on Side 2. Another song with a film clip to match and with a message of don’t tell us to turn it down and cut our hair. We are the youth of rock and we wanna rock.

The Price
The intro lead break hooked me in. I loved it. It wasn’t highly technical, it wasn’t a thousand notes, but it was emotive.

And the lyrics showcase the emotions involved for a person to have a career in music.

Don’t Let Me Down
A relationship song on an album which is littered with songs about standing up for your rights was confusing. Nevertheless, it’s still a cool song and it rocks along at a cool speed as well.

The Beast
It’s “Destroyer” part 2. I never associated this song with some natural force moving in like a predator to take someone’s life. I always associated “The Beast” as the “Hard Rock and Heavy Metal” movement happening at the time and how it was so natural.

So when Dee sings “You are his only target, you’re his only goal”, it’s like an analogy for how Rock and Roll has set its sights on a person and it will not leave that person alone until it converts them into a fan.

S.M.F.
The massive closer for all of the SMF’s and one of my favourites. The real TS anthem, the hit that never was about the black sheep of the family being a metal machine and when they went to the rock and roll show, they saw thousands of others just like them.

The album was released as “Still Hungry” in the 2000’s with all of the above songs re-recorded along with a couple of new ones.

“Never Say Never” is more or less a speed metal punk song. “Blasting Fast and Loud” is a groovy 12 bar blues punk song however if both songs were actually written for “Stay Hungry” they didn’t cut it.

“Come Back” is a good listen but not worthy of album inclusion while “Plastic Money” is a miss. “You Know I Cry” I always enjoyed from the Club Daze live performances. Actually you can hear the embryo of “Stay Hungry” on this track in the riffing and drumming.

“Rock N Roll Saviors” starts of like “Children Of The Grave” from Sabbath. Even in the verses, it’s got that feel.

“Heroes Are Hard To Find” is a classic Twisted Sister song. It made its appearance on the “Strangeland” soundtrack in the late 90’s, however I don’t know if it was written during the “Stay Hungry” period.

The album was then re-issued as a deluxe edition with the demos of the album appearing on the second side.

“Death from Above” has a decent riff and “Prime Motivator” has a decent bass groove. Both songs have good melodies but the lyrics don’t do em justice. “Death Run” was re-written and it became “Kill Or Be Killed”. “This One’s for You” has a sleazy riff but you can hear why it never made the album. “We’re Coming On” is an interesting one. I reckon it could have worked on the album. It has all the ingredients of a classic Twisted Sister song. And when you have a chorus that screams “We’re Coming On like a mf”, you can’t go wrong.

“Call My Name” and “Our Voice Will Be Heard” got a remake for Dee’s solo album, “Never Let The Bastards Wear You Down” and to be honest, both songs are favourites of mine. “Pay the Price” is a song from their “Club Daze” which is probably why it never made a Twisted album. It just wasn’t good enough as Dee became a better songwriter as he got older. “What’s Love Without You” is also a miss.

“You Got to Fight” has all of the classic elements of the “youth of the world” fighting for their futures and their voices against the institutions and our leaders and maybe they should have taken it to the studio to finish off.

“30” is a cool AC/DC style track released with this edition, however it wasn’t written for the “Stay Hungry”. It was written as a 30 year anniversary track and it was released as a stand-alone single. It’s a cool song to have in the Twisted Sister catalogue.

There is always the argument between quality and quantity. I believe if you write 30 songs for an album, you will be able to get 10 quality tracks. And once upon a time, this kind of thing happened. I know some bands wrote 10 songs for the album and all 10 appeared on the album. So it’s no surprise that Twisted Sister’s most successful album had a lot of different songs considered for it before the final nine got selected.

RATT – Out of the Cellar
I had “Out Of The Cellar” dubbed on a cassette. Before I got the album dubbed, Ratt was purely a video band for me. The video clip for “Round and Round” was played on every TV station. I always had blank VHS cassettes and my finger on the record button.

And revisiting this album, it’s no surprise that Ratt’s biggest album has a lot of song writing contributions from Robbin Crosby, the real Ratt’N’Roller.

Wanted Man
Side 1 opens up with this track. The credits show Robbin Crosby and Stephen Pearcy as songwriters, however bassist Joey Cristofanilli, who had briefly substituted for Juan Croucier is also a co-writer, however it’s never been properly clarified.

What a shredalicious lead break?

Round and Round
The other good song on Side 1. This one is written by Robbin Crosby, Stephen Pearcy and Warren DeMartini.

What a riff to kick it off?

It’s big, hooky and melodic. It’s also good enough to please the metal audience and the rock audience. And when Stephen Pearcy starts singing about meeting out on the streets, our simple brains resonated. Those lyrics today would be something like, “Out on these cyber streets, its where we meet”.

And when that harmony lead break comes in, it’s just a perfect end to the solo section.

Lack of Communication
Side two opens up with this track written by Pearcy and Juan Croucier. The riff is that good, Pearcy and co mimicked the vocal chorus line off it.

And for a Ratt song, it’s got some good lyrics.

Too many problems, the world can’t solve
Too many people, no one wants to be involved

People want to be involved but no one listens to them. School children are demonstrating for gun-reform and the adults in power are failing to listen. People are demonstrating against the FCC changing net neutrality laws to benefit corporations and no one in power is listening. In Cape Town, South Africa, they are going to run out of water and no one in power is doing anything. In Nigeria, 100 plus schoolgirls get kidnapped from a school and no one does anything. 5 years ago, the same number also got kidnapped and they still haven’t returned.

Put up our boundaries, we build our walls
It’s alright, no-ones gonna change us at all

In the past, kings and queens had their castles fortified behind walls and walls, to keep undesirable people and invaders out.

How did that work out as a long term policy?

Back for More
It’s a Crosby and Pearcy cut, under pinned by a fantastic melodic riff. From memory, I think the song was in the key of A minor.

The Morning After
One of my favourite cuts because of the riff and it’s also written by the same song writing committee that produced “Round and Round”.

The lead break is also structured like “Round and Round”, where it starts off with some shredding and then it goes into a harmony break, which by the way is all killer.

I’m Insane
It’s a cut Robbin Crosby wrote in his pre-Ratt band. It’s basically a speed metal song straight from the NWOBHM scene.

While side 1 had the hits, side 2 was stronger.

And every good song on this album was underpinned by a memorable riff.

Iron Maiden – Powerslave
I had this on cassette. I actually had “Live After Death” on cassette first and after “Somewhere In Time” came out, I purchased this album on cassette.

Seriously, how good is the cover. Remember when you used to purchase an album based on the cover alone.

And the 13 month world tour had Maiden visiting 28 countries and in the process, they kick started South and Central America’s devotion to the band.

Aces High
Side one opens up with this. But I enjoy the Live version with Churchill’s Speech before it.

Written by Steve Harris, this song is relentless. It’s got key changes and what not. The intro starts in the key of A minor, the verse riff is in E minor with a key change to G minor. The Chorus also has a Em to Gm key change.

Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Run, live to fly, fly to live, Aces high

When Maiden reformed, this chorus become a sing along arena rock chorus. Who would have thought? Credit the fanatical South American fan base and the “Rock In Rio” DVD.

Minutes to Midnight
It’s basically a killer one/two knockout punch and like the “Live After Death” release, these two songs go hand in hand.

Adrian Smith’s addition to Maiden made them a lot better. This song is written by Smith and Bruce Dickinson and the One Riff to Rule Em All is also the main riff for this song.

Go to war again, blood is freedom’s stain
Don’t you pray for our soul anymore

The borders that we know exist because of the blood our ancestors spilt for freedom.

2 minutes to midnight,
The hands that threaten doom.

Nuclear war was once a reality. Maybe it is again between the US and North Korea.

The body bags and little rags of children torn in two
And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you
As the madmen play on words and make us all dance to their song
To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun.

More like starving billions.

Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra)
It’s listed as written by Harris, so if you believe his haters, it means he copied it from someone or stole their intellectual property. I seriously can’t believe our world has come to this. The section from 2.34 to about 3.20 is why this song is on this list. If it doesn’t lift you up and inspire you, then I have no words.

Flash of the Blade
Written by Dickinson about a young boy chasing dragons. Did he write the cool open string intro riff?

Who knows, but it’s a pretty cool riff.

The Duellists
Another Harris track about a swordfight to the death.

Back in the Village
Side 2 opens up with this cool track, written by Smith and Dickinson.

Turn the spotlights on the people
Switch the dial and eat the worm
Take your chances, kill the engine
Drop your bombs and let it burn

Is it about Vietnam and the Napalm bombing of villages?

Powerslave
It’s up there as one of Maiden’s best songs and it’s written by Dickinson.

Tell me why I had to be a Powerslave
I don’t wanna die, I’m a God,
Why can’t I live on?
When the Life Giver dies,
All around is laid waste,
And in my last hour,
I’m a Slave to the Power of Death

For all the wealth and power people have, they cannot buy or negotiate their way out of death. It’s the only certainty in life, for every human who is born, will eventually die.

When I was living this lie – Fear was my Game
People would worship and fall –
Drop to their knees.
So bring me the blood and
Red wine for the one to succeed me,
For he is a man and a God –
And He will die too.

And the circle of life keeps on repeating. A person dies, a successor is made and in time they will die as well.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Another Harris track to close the album and what about the music. It’s got everything, great riffs for both bass and guitar, a cool drum groove and vocal melodies to match.

That section from about 8.30 that starts building up from the bass interlude into the lead feels like it’s desk breaking time.

And that harmony lead break from about the 10 minute mark. It’s perfect.

To teach God’s word by his own example
That we must love all things that God made.

So many evils are unleashed due to the killing of the albatross. Don’t disrespect the old wives tales. There is truth there.

Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA
I got this on LP as a gift and spun it to death.

It’s rock and roll music for the bars and the pubs and in my opinion it’s a pretty good reason why the album is so successful. Everyone in those venues played the album on the jukebox and every band that played covers in those venues played songs from the album.

It was my first Springsteen album and I was blown away at how solid and catchy each song is. Seven Top 10 singles and 15 million plus sold in the U.S alone. Not bad for a rock and roll album and not bad for a guy from Jersey. Hell, even John Cougar Mellencamp’s career got a boost from Springsteen. With every genre defining album, the labels are quick to jump on genres. American Heartland music was the term and suddenly “Scarecrow” has a budget to be recorded and a year later it’s everywhere. Same deal with Tom Petty and “Southern Accents”.

Born in the U.S.A
The album opens up with the snare and keyboard riff and the iconic lines of “Born down in a dead man’s town, the first kick I took was when I hit the ground, end up like a dog that’s been beat too much, till you spend half your life just covering up now”.

So many of us are born in these towns which boomed while the factories boomed after the wars. But all towns have their rogue element and kids get into trouble and adults get into trouble. And those factories experience hard times and suddenly, the great town is losing its soul.

And that chorus. Man, even people not born in the U.S.A were screaming it in their bedrooms and at the gig. And there’s no lead break, just a band jamming on a riff and Springsteen coming up with once in a lifetime generational lyrics.

Cover Me
The times are tough now, just getting tougher
This old world is rough, it’s just getting rougher

Springsteen sums up it all up with these two opening lines. And as much as we smile and put our happiest faces on social media, the reality is different. Times are tough. Try living without using your credit card and just your wages. Try buying a house with your savings and no loan from the bank. It’s tough, I know.

This whole world is out there just trying to score
I’ve seen enough, I don’t want to see any more

The other epidemic in civilization is narcotics.

I get up in the morning and do a cleaning job close to home from 5am to 7am. I come home, have a shower, put on my office suit and then do my normal job from 8am to 4pm. After work, I coach kids in soccer. U7’s from 4.30pm to 5.30pm and U14s from 5.30pm and 7pm. I come home and the cycle repeats the next day. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Meanwhile, the drug dealers poison other people’s children, while they get to be around their children, provided they haven’t been arrested.

Darlington County
It’s a cool tune about two dudes called Bruce and Wayne from NY City, whose Dad’s own each of the World Trade Towers (remember them – actually who can forget them and how they came down), driving down to Darlington County on the fourth of July for a little fun and it ends up with Wayne handcuffed to the bumper of a State Trooper’s Ford.

Working on the Highway
Springsteen is showing his 60’s influences on this one.

Friday night’s pay night, guys fresh out of work
Talking ’bout the weekend, scrubbing off the dirt
Some heading home to their families, some are looking to get hurt
Some going down to Stovell wearing trouble on their shirts

There was a working factory class once upon a time. Now the kids of that class are bankers or techies, while the factories moved to Bangladesh, Taiwan and China.

I work for the county out on 95
All day I hold a red flag and watch the traffic pass me by

Working on the highway, laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway, all day long I don’t stop
Working on the highway, blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway

And the working factory class is replaced by a new class called infrastructure building. Our governments are constantly zoning land for new developments, which means more roads, bigger roads and more motorway’s connecting these areas. If they can’t build the motorways on land, they will tunnel it.

Downbound Train
This song is my favourite. I think it’s because I always caught the train into the city, so it was a memory of walking to the train station, the 90 minute ride, the laugh with friends and just the pure innocence of it all.

For the song, the guitar groove and the lyrics just connect from the outset.

I had a job, I had a girl
I had something going, mister, in this world
I got laid off down at the lumber yard
Our love went bad, times got hard

And people wonder why Springsteen was called “The Boss”. So much truth in the lyrics. He’s reflecting society back at us.

Now I work down at the car wash
Where all it ever does is rain
Don’t you feel like you’re a rider
On a downbound train?

When it goes bad, it really goes bad. And sometimes, the only way out of a bad situation is to have the guts and move to a different city because if you stay in your hometown, there is a good chance you will be screaming, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”.

I’m on Fire
Again, everyone was singing, “Hey little girl is your daddy home” from the top of their lungs. And not bad for a song that was demoed and good enough to keep as is.

No Surrender
And side two kicks off with another favourite.

Well, we busted out of class
Had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three minute record, baby
Than we ever learned in school

It’s how I learned about life. Drop the needle on an album, kick back and digest the lyrics. Any word I didn’t know the meaning, I would look it up. Any reference to something as an analogy, I would find it in the library. But in the end, the records told me that love is great when it’s good and pretty sad when it goes bad. The records told me that everyone who is born, will have an end. The records told me about social problems, history and fantasy.

Bobby Jean
Now, you hung with me when all the others
Turned away, turned up their nose
We liked the same music, we liked the same bands
We liked the same clothes

Friendships or relationships with mutual tastes are killers when they end.

I’m Goin’ Down
I wonder what kind of “going down” Springsteen was singing about.

Glory Days
Another cool story about catching up with two friends and talking about glory days. One was a big baseball player in high school and the other was a girl who turned the boys heads back.

Dancing in the Dark
Springsteen at his catchiest and cheekiest, basically saying, he’s home after a night out, he has a loaded gun and he needs a little help to make it fire. So in other words, Dancing In The Dark is a clean way to say “let’s have sex”.

My Hometown
Everyone could relate to this.

In ’65, tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white, there was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night, in the backseat there was a gun
Words were passed, in a shotgun blast troubled times had come

In my hometown
My hometown

I never grew up with these kind of tensions, but on some days in the 80’s, I swear it could have exploded. Because there are still people aggrieved with what happens. There are black people who feel the push to equality is not enough or too late. There are white people who still believe they should enslave black people. And year after year, the eggshells which people walk on, start to break. Until it explodes.

Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more
They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says, these jobs are going, boys, and they ain’t coming back

To your hometown

I grew up in a steel city. The factories employed over 30,000 people. European migrants came to Australia to work in these factories. But then, it started to change. By the mid 90’s my hometown was vacant stores. We had three banks on the Main Street and suddenly we had none. All the fruit and veg shops and convenience shops shut up shop, as a large shopping centre was built 5 minutes away. But we still had three Pubs, a RSL club and a Leagues Club. All with pokie machines and a lot of alcohol.

Last night me and Kate, we laid in bed, talking about getting out, Packing up our bags, maybe heading south

I actually did get out and go south, about 30 minutes’ drive from my hometown, while my parents still live in the same house they purchased when they arrived from Europe. And suddenly a house which sold for $80K in 1998 across the road from my parents now sold for $600K. You see, my hometown is right on the beach. It has views of the Pacific Ocean. My parent’s house is on top of the hill. And when I moved out, I knew it was only a matter a time before my hometown became great again. The shutting of the steel factories and cooper smelters did hurt it. But in time, new businesses have come about. And Main Street has been getting a revitalisation over the last 10 years, with café’s, restaurants, hairdressers and a lot of other businesses popping up. And we still have two Pubs out of three left and a Leagues club.

Stryper – The Yellow and Black Attack
I got this album from a Saturday market on the same day I purchased the “To Hell With The Devil” album.

Loud ‘N’ Clear
I dig the guitar riff written by Michael Sweet. And yeah, I know in the verses he sings about wearing his hair long and looking like a freak, but he will always praise His name. Well, I always took His name to be Rock and Roll.

Loud, clear, let the people hear
Scream, shout, show what it’s all about

Like so many other songs from the 80’s. It was all about a statement, about accepting people for who they are.

C’mon Rock
Another Michael Sweet composition.

We’re here to rock for you an rock is what we’ll do
Until your body feels the sound
So don’t be afraid to shout cause that’s what it’s all about
We’ve got to spread it all around

C’mon rock, rock, rock
C’mon never stop

Like Keel, there is a lot of rock in this song. But it was a sign of the times. As the 60’s had Presley, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Woodstock, we had a whole metal and rock movement sweeping across the globe courtesy of MTV.

Manowar – Sign Of The Hammer
I wasn’t sure if I should laugh at this band or take them seriously when my cousin Mega played me their albums. Their manly Viking look and their battle charged lyrics just didn’t really connect, however a few songs did. “Fighting The World” is my favourite, and “All Me Play On Ten” is not far behind.

All Men Play on Ten
The album opener and the best track on the album. Written by bassist Joey DeMaio, but it’s Ross The Boss on guitar and Eric Adams on vocals that steal the thunder, while Scott Columbus lays down a great groove.

I made a Rock’N’Roll sin when I tried givin’ in to
Make money had to turn down low
They said, “Why be proud, don’t play so loud
Be like us and get a sound that’s real thin
Wear a polyester suit, act happy look cute
Get a haircut and buy small gear”
That’s when I turned to them and said
“Hold it, right there!”

You could just imagine a confrontation between the Club owner and Manowar over “turning it down”. I played a gig once were I got told to turn it down, so I just walked over to my amp, touched the nob and pretended to turn it down.

Nobody tells a man how to play
It just ain’t that way hey, hey, hey
Can you hear me say…
All men play on ten
Never gonna turn down again

LOL. Nobody tells a man how to play. But Spinal Tap went to eleven.

Kick Axe – Vices
I picked it up from a second hand shop on vinyl. Spencer Proffer from Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health” album is on board to produce so it convinced me to buy.

I didn’t like side 1 and after a few tracks on side 2, I was about to give up and then “Cause For Alarm” started. Yep, it wasn’t until track 8, that I heard what I liked.

Cause for Alarm
It’s got that “Neon Knights” Sabbath vibe in the verses merged with a little bit of Priest, a catchy chorus and a good finger tapped lead break.

What more does a song need?

All the Right Moves
It’s a cross between “Ten Seconds To Love” and AC/DC which suits the lyrics about a woman with all the right moves.

Just Passing Through
And this one has got this ZZ Top vibe that hooks me in. Three songs and three different musical styles. Hence the reason why I hated genre labels like metal and rock. To me, it’s all rock.

The personnel in the band never had the stardom that other artists had, but they could play. Larry Gillstrom and Raymond Harvey formed a wicked twin guitar team while vocalist George Criston can be a rock god or metal god, depending on the song. And under pinning it all is bassist Victor Langen and drummer Brian Gillstrom.

Well that’s the first part of 1984 Done.

A to Z of Making It, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Ritchie Blackmore

“Being original doesn’t require being the first to do something. It just means being different and better.”
Adam Grant, Originals

History is always written by the winners. If you read any story about Metallica today, it more or less states how “Kill Em All” came out in 1983 and took over the world. But, we all know it wasn’t the case. Hell, it wasn’t the case with their first four albums. But, their first four albums are seen as different and a better alternative to the MTV friendly form of metal.

Black Sabbath as a band gets a lot of attention for being original and influential and so does Deep Purple. But in every band like Metallica, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, there is always a person who is more influential than the others.

Ritchie Blackmore has been instrumental in influencing guitarists and vocalists all at the same time while carrying influential bands.

It’s common knowledge the iron fist Blackmore wielded to get Ian Gillian to record the “Child In Time” ohhhs and ahhhs. Eventually the production team needed to resort to studio trickery to make it sound like Gillian was more able than he was. And guess what happened after the record came out and people heard “Child In Time”. Suddenly every young wannabe singer started practicing. In the same way Roger Bannister achieved the first four minute mile in 1954, and inspired a whole new generation of runners that they could achieve the impossible, in music, “Child In Time” in 1970, inspired singers to practice and achieve a new standard.

A 12 year old kid called Bruce Dickinson became attracted to hard rock, after hearing Deep Purple’s “Child in Time” being played in another student’s room at his private school. As a result, the first album Bruce ever bought was Deep Purple’s “In Rock”. A 19 year old unknown called Rob Halford heard “Child In Time” and started to change his vocal style.

And when Ian Gillian couldn’t deliver the vocal performances Blackmore wanted, he fired him and hired a young singer/songwriter called David Coverdale to do what Blackmore wanted. From this vocalist change, a whole new range of singers saw this as a new standard and started practicing. And just in case David Coverdale couldn’t deliver the vocals Blackmore wanted, he had another singer in bassist Glenn Hughes as back up.

But in the end, Blackmore felt frustrated with the musical constraints of Purple, so he left “Purple” to start up Rainbow with a singer called Ronnie James Dio. This change, further evolved how a front man should sound.

In the space of 10 years and three different vocalists, Ritchie Blackmore, blew the paradigm open of what a metal vocalist should sound like.

There was a Twitter post from Stevie Van Zandt that said the following;
“Let’s just say it was an awkward period for singers. For the first and last time in history, guitar players were king. Hard to believe, but both Rod Stewart and Robert Plant were thought of as sideman. Both started on salaries. Both considered disposable. Some resentment may remain.”

The guitar player ruled up until the start of the 80’s. After that, you had a bassist writing songs for Motley Crue, WASP and Iron Maiden, a singer/songwriter writing songs for Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi and Europe. In Dokken, you had the influential guitar player who couldn’t handle the name of the band however the drummer and bassist provided most of the vocal melodies. Even someone like Ted Nugent needed to be pushed by John Kalodner into a supergroup called Damn Yankees.

Yngwie Malmsteen formed Rainbow Part 2 and called it Rising Force with Jeff Scott Soto and then found commercial fame with Joe Lynn Turner (another Ritchie Blackmore find), only to let his ego get in the way of a good partnership. David Coverdale had a powerful guitarist in John Sykes with which he carried out an excellent musical conversation with, only to let him go before the release of Whitesnake’s biggest album. Because as Coverdale showed, the guitarist was no longer in power. The front man was. When Lynch went solo, he didn’t get the platinum awards he had with Dokken and Malmsteen’s only platinum award is with Joe Lynn Turner. Hell, Vince Neil was more well-known than Nikki Sixx.

From a guitarist perspective, it’s hard not to be influenced by Blackmore. He enjoyed playing the Blues, but he took it a few steps further, by making it progressive. Most of his progressive interludes are founded in the Pentatonic scale. Again, he was not the first to do it, however he did it good enough to make it commercially successful. Blackmore’s fusion of blues, rock and roll, classical and medieval Influences was so commercially successful, he more or less spawned a new style of guitar playing called Euro Rock/Metal. Blackmore’s stage persona and guitar/amp set up became a standard amongst the young 70’s hard rockers who would become superstars in the 80’s. Malmsteen modelled himself after him even up to the same stage stand.

And from a band perspective, every single guitarist at that point in time was inspired by Blackmore to find a vocalist who had similar/better talents to the vocalists Blackmore used. lf the band was started by a drummer and a bassist, they would be looking for a guitarist like Blackmore and a vocalist like Gillian, Coverdale or Dio.

A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

All Ideas Come From Somewhere Before

When I started writing music back in the day, I would take the music and lyrics from songs I liked and altered them. That would be version 1 of my new song. Of course, it sounded a lot like the original song. However after a few re-writes, you could hear that my song had influences but it was starting to take shape in its own unique way. The lyrics would end up changing completely however I might have kept the phrasing or the rhymes similar to the original. Once finished it was clear that my ideas/my intellectual property had an influence from something that came before.

It’s probably why people shouldn’t get all emotional over intellectual property. When you hear artists saying they put their blood, sweat and tears into their works, you might want to take it with a grain a salt. Yes, they did put their blood, sweat and tears in being influenced and taking what came before, shaping it, tweaking it and re-writing it, to create something which in the end, sounds unique enough to call their own.

And artists who do create something so new and off the wall, are more or less artists who are servicing a niche core audience, or are forgotten or unknown.

But no one expects artists to do something so off the wall original. People like familiarity. Derek Thompson in his book “Hit Makers” mentioned how people are drawn to music that might be new, yet familiar enough to be recognizable. In other words, that new song we like has enough variation in it to make it not a carbon copy of its source influence.

It’s the reason why we listen to a song on repeat. We love repetition. I bet you that on any given day, the majority of music you listen to is music you have heard before. Let’s say 9 songs out of 10, are songs you’ve heard before. And our love for repetition also means we go looking for songs that sound familiar.

So all of our ideas have already been stolen.

Now that we all know that, maybe we can focus on developing connections and creating works influenced by our past. And you create by using your influences.

Because there is no such thing as the genius loner. It’s a myth. We are all social people and our creativity is fuelled by our social environments.

Every single day, we take in our surroundings, we set meaningful and important goals and we are always thinking of solutions to problems.

A neuroscientist and a psychologist broke down creativity into three main buckets;

Bending means you take a previous work and re-model it in some way. Think of my post about “Sanitarium” from Metallica.
Blending means merging previous works together so you have multiple melodies and re-cutting it to suit what you want to write. Jimmy Page was great at doing this with Led Zeppelin’s music.
Breaking is taking a short and important musical idea otherwise known as a musical fragment and building on it. Think of my post on “One Riff To Rule Them All”, which covers the A pedal point riff used in songs like “Two Minutes To Midnight”.

All three of these elements are connected and every creator uses these elements when they are writing, without even knowing it.

The differences between humans and computers is how we store information and how we retrieve information. For the computer, the riff stored on the hard drive will sound exactly the same three years later, however that same riff stored in our head would be different.

Why.

Our brain breaks it down, blends it and bends it with other information. This massive mash up of ideas in our brains is our creativity. And when we play that riff three years later, it has a different feel, different phrasing or something else. Some of them stink and sometimes we create something that breaks through into society.

To me, “Comfortably Numb” matters because of that brilliant outro guitar solo from Dave Gilmour. “We’re Not Gonna Take It” worked because of its timeless message and video clip. “The Final Countdown” and “Jump” had the perfect keyboard riff. The characters in “Living On A Prayer” are unforgettable.

Of course, each one has other attributes however one thing normally sticks with us. There was a certain authenticity behind each.

Which is funny because I’ve been reading a lot of press releases about the latest release of “insert any band name here” being “authentic”.

What is authentic?

How do we define authenticity?

I asked some friends and they reckon, authenticity is saying whatever is on your mind and doing what a person feels like doing.

I disagreed.

Authenticity to me is someone who is the keeps their promises and is same person regardless of whether someone is looking at them or not. In all walks of life I have come across people who try to appeal to whatever is in right now. Whatever is in right now is momentary. It’s always evolving and changing. However a person who remains the same regardless of the status quo, could be the status quo for a brief time, by being authentic.

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

The Crimson Idol

It’s a favourite of mine.

Back in 1992, “The Crimson Idol” was a release day purchase on CD for me. It ended up being a perfect album in a time when the record labels started to put all of their marketing monies into Seattle. The style of song writing and the lyrical themes would serve as inspiration for my song writing forever.

I played it to death, I learned riff after riff and lick after lick and it didn’t matter how much time passed between listens, I still knew every lick, every drum roll and every word in the songs.

Fast forward some years later and “The Crimson Idol” was released as a Double special edition CD, with two new tracks.

“Phantoms In The Mirror” (which I would place after “The Invisible Boy” in the story arc) and “The Eulogy” (which I would place at the end).

Fast forward another decade or so from that release and “The Crimson Idol” has been “Re-Idolized” with additional songs added to the storyline however, “Phantoms In The Mirror” and “The Eulogy” have been left off.

The Titanic Overture
The ominous acoustic opening.

I look at my face in the mirror and I don’t understand

The drumming is epic and orchestral. It sets the stage and tone for what is to come.

Overall, the song is made up of the best riffs and licks from all of the other songs.

The Invisible Boy
Who am I – cause I’m the boy only the mirror sees

The riff is good. Play it down-tuned and you’ll be surprised how heavy and doomy it sounds, which is perfect for the tone of the song and the theme of not fitting in, being beaten and ostracised from the family.

Arena Of Pleasure
The riff that kicks the song off sets the scene in my head of a kid running away from home and when Blackie starts singing, “I ran away from home last night”, it was perfect.

And I’ve heard the words of what I should be
Live, Work, Die

The above lines have remained with me from the time and day I first heard them. It brought home all of the truths of my upbringing and my many conversations with my father.

He always said, if you don’t have control of your life and someone else does, like the bank, your employer or the courts, all you would do is just live, work and die. If you have control of your life, you can live, make choices, decide when to work and when not to work and you can do that as many times as you want too, free from burden and stress.

Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue)

If anyone wants to know what it was like to deal with the record label bosses when they controlled everything, here it is. And yes, these kind of people still exist today.

Chainsaw Charlie is the “the president of showbiz” who is just looking for the next raw talent that he can exploit. Back in 1992, you never really got to hear stories about the labels and how they treated artists. The bottom line was if an artist wanted to be heard, they needed a label behind them.

[Charlie to Jonathon]
O.K. boy now here’s your deal
Will you gamble your life?
Sign right here on the dotted line
It’s the one you’ve waited for all of your life

Artists worked hard to get a record deal. They paid their dues. Their best friends who formed the original version of their band had probably left to pursue “jobs” which paid “real money”. And then when you finally believe you get a break through, you are confronted with a deal, which would make the record label millions if your album sold and the artist would be owing the labels millions.

[Charlie to Jonathon]
We’ll sell your flesh by the pound you’ll go
A whore of wrath just like me
We’ll sell ya wholesale, we’ll sell your soul
Strap on your six string and feed our machine

It’s basically the hidden fine print in the deal. The labels own the artist. They own their image. They own the music. They would do whatever it takes to make as much money from the artist as they could. And as our access to information has become greater with the rise of the internet, we are now seeing more and more people talk about the creative accounting of the labels.

Def Leppard did forgeries of their own songs, in order to circumvent a blockade put up by their label due to a breakdown in the negotiations to the digital rights of the back catalogue. Finally, in Jan 2018, Def Leppard’s full catalogue is available digitally. Almost 8 years from when Spotify started operating in the US and over 15 years from when the iTunes store opened.

Eminem took his label to court due to underpayments and won. His label was paying him a physical sale royalty % for iTunes sales and Eminen argued that it should be the licensing %.

[Charlie to Jonathon]
Welcome to the morgue boy
Where the music comes to die
Welcome to the morgue son
I’ll cut your throat just to stay alive

How many bands from the 70’s got added to the morgue in the 80’s. And every year, the morgue kept on growing. When Seattle happened, the record label A&R people would not even take the calls from the hard rock and heavy metal bands.

[Charlie to Jonathon]
I’m the president of showbiz, my name is Charlie
I’m a cocksucking asshole, that’s what they call me
Here from my Hollywood tower I rule
I’m lying motherfucker, the chainsaw’s my tool
The new morgue’s our factory, to grease our lies
Our machine is hungry, it needs your life
Don’t mind the maggots, and the ruthless scum
Before we’re done, son we’ll make you one

Power corrupts people. Money corrupts them a little bit more. When you have a person in charge that has both, prepare to be seen as a business cost instead of an asset in which to invest in. And this to me is the biggest problem. The power, wealth and boardroom negotiation leverage these people have is due to the artist, their asset, which was never treated as an asset.

The Gypsy Meets The Boy
All stories have the main character in a confused state, looking for direction.

She said, do you see what I see?, be careful to choose
Be careful what you wish for, cause it may come true
When I lay the card down will it turn up the fool?
Will it turn up sorrow? If it does then you lose

So many of us are looking for answers. It’s why the self-help books, behavioural science books, mindset books, grit books, resilience books and 10,000 hours books are all so popular. We purchase them in the millions, looking for guidance or advice on how to change. Then you have people who devote their life to the tarot or some other form of card reading, palm reading, crystal reading and what not.

Miss You
This is an additional song added to the album story in “Re-Idolized”. The interesting thing is the song appeared on another WASP album a few years before.

Lost inside our room
A priest at the door with news
Said you were gone and I knew
Oooh and my world was broken in two

Someone has the job of sharing the news of someone’s passing.

Oh God I miss you
Tell me can you hear me

You still believe that their spirit is somewhere. It’s hard to believe that the lifeless body is finished, with all of their memories gone.

I’ve found this thing that I make sing
Can you hear me now

The Crimson Idol has found his voice via his guitar.

Why did you go and leave me alone
Now I’m running away from my home
No they’ll never know I’m gone

The ones who remain are affected differently with loss. In the case of Jonathon, he lost a person who he saw as his friend and protector.

Doctor Rockter
It’s a great name for a dealer.

He’s the king of sting, Mr. Morphine my friend
Uncle Slam, the medicine man
And I’m a junkie with a big King Kong sized monkey
Crawling up and down my back

Great story telling. In four lines, Blackie has described his dealer, his relationship to him and Jonathon’s addictions.

Doctor please, my M.D., fix me in my time of need

Yes, but this Doctor doesn’t fix anything.

It’s the mirror from the wall, that’s on the table
Feeding me little white lies
And I’m wasted in a waste land, I’m a junk man
I got tombstones in my eyes

More of Blackie’s brilliance. He’s brought back the mirror, but this time, it’s not talking to him, instead it’s serving up some white lines.

I Am One

This is the song, where Jonathon realises he is just one. It’s just him. He lost his brother, ran away from home and he thought he would find love within his audience. But he didn’t.

Is there no love to shelter me
only love, love set me free

As David Coverdale sings, we are all looking for a love to surround us.

The Idol
It starts off with a phone dialling a number, a phone ringing, a woman answering, silence on the other line and then the caller hangs up.

Will I be alone this morning
Will I need my friends
Something just to ease away the pain

At this stage, who are your real friends. Read any biography of a “rock star” and you will be confronted by how lonely they are and how people they view as friends are really just leaches trying to get a free ride.

If I could only stand and stare in the mirror could I see
One fallen hero with a face like me?
And if I scream, could anybody hear me?
If I smash the silence, you’ll see what fame has done to me

Everyone is looking for an outlet, a person who can listen to them. Be careful what you wish for, cause it might come true. I watched my six year old’s assembly item last year and one of the questions the kids needed to answer was “What do you want to be when you grow up”? All of them gave a description of what they wanted to be and the majority of them ended with “to be rich and famous”.

For example, I want to be a singer and be rich and famous. I want to be rugby star and be rich and famous. I want to be a video game creator and be rich and famous.

Where’s the love to shelter me
Give me love, come set me free

In the song previously, he’s asking is there no love. In this song, he’s asking where is the love.

Hold On To My Heart
It could be taken as a love ballad, but even without reading the narrative, I associated it with the singer asking his audience to hold him. I even view “Forevermore” from Whitesnake in the same vein.

Oh no, don’t let me go
’cause all I am you hold in your hands,
Hold me and I’ll make it through the night
I’ll be alright,
Hold on, hold on to my heart

It’s the only place he feels safe and loved. But is it enough.

The Peace
I am a sucker for those power ballads that Blackie does. “Sleeping In The Fire”, “Forever Free”, “Heavens Hung In Black” and all the ones that appear on this album, like “The Idol”, “Hold On To My Heart” and now this one “The Peace”.

As soon as I heard the lyrics, I thought of the song “One Tribe” which appeared on “Still Not Black Enough”, released in 1995, after “The Crimson Idol”. Hell it sounded exactly like “The Crimson Idol”.

“Give me peace, give me hope, give me love” is how the lyrics go in “One Tribe”.

“Give me peace in my life, give me hope in my heart, give me love” is how the lyrics go in “The Peace” chorus.

Look to your own past, your own experiences to write something in the present.

The Great Misconceptions Of Me
Welcome to the show the great finale’s finally here
I thank you for coming into my theatre of fear
Welcome to the show, you’re all witnesses you see
A privileged invitation to the last rights of me

Jonathon to his audience.

How many people went to a rock and roll show and by the next day, they would read that their hero is gone?

Remember me? You can’t save me
Mama you never needed me
No crimson king, look in my eye, you’ll see
Mama I’m lonely, it’s only me, only me

With every hero, there is a past which hurts them, which drives them, which in the end could kill them. Nikki Sixx had the rejection of the father. Robb Flynn was put up for adoption. Dave Mustaine’s dad abandoned them and his mum changed her religion, which in turn changed her.

I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna be
The crimson idol of a million

At the start of the story, Jonathon wanted to be the idol and now at the end, he doesn’t want it.

Living in the limelight little did I know
I was dying in the shadows and the mirror was my soul
It was all I ever wanted, everything I dreamed
But the dream became my nightmare and no-one could hear me scream
With these six-strings, I make a noose
To take my life, it’s time to choose
The headlines read of my suicide, of my suicide

Alice Cooper goes to the guillotine every night in his show. In this case, there is a noose made from six strings and there is no coming back. A drastic and extreme measure.

I’m the imposter, the world has seen
My father was the idol, it was never me

To Jonathon, all he wanted was the love and acceptance of his father, but it never came.

[Jonathon to all]
No love, to shelter me, only love
Love set me free

And the circle is complete. In “I Am One”, he’s asking is there no love. In “The Idol”, he’s asking where is the love. And in the final song, he understands there is no love.

Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Speaking Up

It’s hard to speak up today. The status quo is not kind and because we are connected 24/7, people like to work overtime for free in order to be part of the status quo. So when artists write lyrics that reflect society and our politics back at us, people get upset. When I think about the past, people who made real change persisted even when others tried their best to silence them.

Artists once formed the chorus of dissent to social ills and corruption. Once upon a time artists didn’t have millions, so they kept logging the hours, paying their dues to make enough money to live. It’s probably a reason why we got so many songs that still stand the test of time today.

Artists told the record label heads what to do, not the other way around. Of course, in the 80’s MTV made a lot of people global superstars and suddenly artists who had recording contracts and songs which connected, had funds in their bank accounts, however the record label bosses became more powerful that they now told the artists what to do.

Machine Head’s new album is causing division amongst their American fan base. Europe, Asia and Australia really don’t really care about their Anti-Trump stance, however America is divided over it. There is no doubt that fans of MH in the U.S come from different sides of the political debate. It’s expected. No one can agree on everything. If people did, everyone would wear the same outfit, the same colour and so forth. The world would be pretty bland if people all agreed. Wouldn’t it.

It never would occur to me to stop listening to an artist because of a stance they have on an issue. To me, music transcends all of those boundaries. Yeah, some artists have lyrics I don’t agree with, but man, it doesn’t take away my respect for them for having a stance on those issues.

And you know what, if an artist is anti – Wall Street or big finance in general (like the 1%), it’s okay. But these organisations are symptoms of Government granted monopolies, or Government oversight on certain law breaches or Government lack of action due to politicians being in the pocket of these corporations. So the issue always starts and end with the Government. If you don’t believe me, just look at the laws the US tried to pass recently.

Anyone remember SOPA, PIPA or TPA (yes I know it’s back on the table). All of these laws were written by politicians who had massive donations from corporations and corporation lobbyists. They all sat in the same room and wrote laws to benefit their organisations. The public were not allowed to inspect draft texts. This was more prevalent for the TPA piece of legislation. What we knew about the laws came from leaked drafts. Even other politicians who got elected into office, and who stood opposed to corporations couldn’t even see draft texts of these laws.

Imagine that. A legally elected politician who has no affiliation with a corporation was not privy to see a bill that his Government wanted to pass. And this happens all the time regardless of who is in power. It’s been happening since the mid 40’s. And it needs to stop.

Artists are not the enemy. They are mirrors, reflecting the world back to us. What we choose to do with the reflection is a different story.

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

Catharsis

I have no issues with lyrics of any kind whether they are political, about social classes, racism, war or just having a good time. I also have no issue with artists I like taking a stance and commenting on what they see is the state of the world. Opinions are important whether you agree or disagree with them.

Robb Flynn is an artist. First and foremost, as an artist, he has a duty of care to himself first. The art he creates needs to satisfy him first. If it doesn’t, what is the point. What is the point of creating art if you write factory art. On occasions, the art an artist writes for themselves ends up going global and on other occasions it doesn’t.

So it’s no surprise that on “Catharsis”, Robb Flynn is giving his take on the world. It’s not pretty, but no one said the six o’clock news is pretty. And there is no denying the power of the message in the songs, regardless of what political party you support.

Volatile
“It’s an angry, brutal song. We’ve had long intros on the last five or six albums, so it was time to start with something direct and violent.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Musically, this is a classic MH song.

Sick of the white folks privileged and vain
Protesting the culture that isn’t the same

Sometime in the past, our leaders started to serve the corporations. Those lobby dollars became too great to refuse. Many years later, those corporations leaders are now leaders of nations. They bought their way in. It’s real and it’s happening. We need a reset, an anti-corruption watchdog for politicians, who can assess if these politicians serve the people or the corporations. Then again, give this body enough power and it will become corrupted like the rest. It’s a vicious power vacuum.

Dead, dead and bloated
These times are volatile
There’s no room left for you

The bed of music under the chorus is brilliant. And there is truth in these lines. Our times are so volatile there is no room for nothing else. We seem to move from conflict to conflict. Terrorist attack to terrorist attack. Mass shooting to another one. And it just keeps on going.

Sick of the racists, sick of this shit
Sick of them telling me its immigrants

I am sure that people know that Apple, Google and Amazon are all founded by immigrants. Spotify is an immigrant product from Sweden. Marc Randolph, one of the Netflix co-founders is a son of an immigrant. Immigrants don’t come to a country to bomb the hell out of it. They come for a better life. And with all races there are people who do things which puts a stain on the name of the race. Based on our leaders reasoning, when a person from their own race commits sickening child offences, do we assume that all people from that race are the same sickos.

Sick of the phonies on my phone screen
Sick of the NRA trying to scare me

The amount of mass shootings that happen in the U.S is a worry. When nothing is done about it, its a bigger worry. However, if the mass shootings happened to be linked to a terror organisation, there will be changes to legislation straight away, which will give Governments more spying power and further reduce its peoples’ privacy and liberties.

Break it, smash it, burn it to the ground

It’s been our evolution. Humans will be known for building, smashing and burning. And those lines work in the slower groove. When I first heard the song, I thought Robb was singing, break it, smash it, bullet through the crowd.

And man, when they get to the lead break, it’s pretty full on.

Catharsis
“This is a special song. The lyrics say it all: ‘The only thing keeping me sane, the music in my veins / If these words are my fists, this is my catharsis.’ That crystallised everything we were trying to say.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

The transition from “Volatile” into “Catharsis” works. It isn’t your usual crushing Machine Head song. It has atmospheric keyboard samples in the forms of strings and piano to kick it off and when the guitars come in with the open string riff, you know you’re in MH territory. And the structure of the song is experimental and I dig that.

I could never be another brick in the wall
You’ll remember me
As you break all our spirits down and push us to the ground
Call me a fool with a gasoline can
Burn it f down, start it over and over again

The powerful all want us to have jobs, so we can take out loans. Once we take out loans, we are in a cycle of repayments. Basically we are just bricks in the wall. When we crumble or die, another person replaces us. It’s a vicious cycle. But, people can make change if they are not so easily swayed over money. Hell most bands lose members over money arguments.

The only thing keeping me sane
The music in my veins
And if these words are my fists
Can you feel my catharsis?

It’s a primal scream. To me, music is king. We went to the shows to commune with the band and to make our lives complete. Today, going to the show is seen as “a look where I am, look what I am doing” promotion job on social media. Hell, I was at a Metallica show with people who turned up so they could say they went to a Metallica show, but they don’t own any of their music and really don’t listen to em.

Music once upon a time was as important as water and electricity. My Dad told me, the first thing he did when he got his house was to set up the stereo. And I’ve kept the same motto.

And how can you not start to get ready to lose your mind when the military style snare pattern at 3.39 starts. It’s a perfect example of how you do bridges and interludes.

The lead work after two songs is stellar. And really after hearing the first 2 songs how can anyone be unhappy with the album…

Beyond the Pale
“It’s a straight-ahead Machine Head song, about embracing being outsiders and misfits. ‘I found my heroes / The freaks and zeros!’ That sums it up.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

I am skin and bones, broken stones,
See the scars that I show.
I live outside the bounds, in the unknown.

It’s a cool opening lyric line.

And yeah, the main riff sounds similar to Strapping Young Lad’s “Love” which Devin Townsend has said he’s flattered and the Chorus of “Love” was influenced by “City Of Love” from Yes and the cycle continues. Take what came before, tweak it and release it. And you know my views around riffs, progress is derivative.

And if people like SYL “Love” then there is no reason why they shouldn’t like “Beyond the Pale”. The mosh pit will go off when the chorus kicks in.

Beyond the pale,
I found salvation, emancipation.
Beyond the pale,
I found my heroes: the freaks and zeroes.

Metal music is about embracing the ones spurned by the mainstream and the popular. Then metal became popular and everything changed. Suddenly, popular metal bands were not cool, because of their popularity and metal started its fragmentation into different record label genres.

I’ll break down every wall, fight and claw.
Take their punches, stand tall,
My middle finger raised, so fuck em all

It’s a revolution. Musicians have been saying the same message since the 70’s. Why is it any different today?

And the two duelling leads works. And really after hearing the first 3 songs how can anyone be unhappy with the album…

California Bleeding
“This is a dumb song full of ignorant s, ha ha! It’s about my love/hate relationship with California. It’s a balls-out, rockin’ song, I think.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

The intro hooks me, the Chorus is cool and when the intro comes up again at 2.25, I was hooked.

And the lyrics are a blast.

I’m not the billionaire class, from San Lorenzo with the trailer trash

Take that all you social media users who portray a perfect life.

Sail me down the river, temper like a trigger
Take a shot of vodka, blow out my liver
California’s bleeding me

Angels and Demons live in California. Our quest to have a good time also carries it’s risks.

Highway 5 down to 99, I’m getting head near the Fresno sign

Brilliant.

Triple Beam
“I’m just gonna say, ‘This is a nu metal song’ ha ha! It came together super-quick. You’re basically hearing the first time that we ever played that song and the first time I ever sung it.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Yeah, this song could have been a left over from “Supercharger” and should have been left off this album. But If I’m being honest, if this song was released back in 99, I probably would be cranking it based on the main riff, because in 1999, these kinds of riffs sounded heavy and original but now the whole thing seems recycled.

Kaleidoscope
“Again, it’s about the power of music. I’m not a religious guy, but music is as close as I get. The line, ‘Songs fill what religion won’t’ says it all.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

This hole in my soul
Songs fill what religion won’t
No hope, I can’t cope
Music plays in kaleidoscope
And if I’m lost
I don’t want to be found
Haunted by sound

The Chorus is a stand out and when the second verse starts off with the lyrics, “Open up the floor and start a pit, this shit is building up inside of me”, you know there will be circle pits.

Catatonic ignorance, the cronies run the show
Preying on our differences, divide and conquer the low

And it’s been that way for centuries. Will it ever change?

Bastards
“Bastards is a straight-up folk song. I would relate it to Springsteen and Tom Petty, but it’s still Machine Head. It’s probably the most important song on here.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

I liked it when Robb Flynn released his acoustic YouTube take months before the album and I like it now. It’s different for MH but it works and those tapped arpeggio lines under the simple D, A, Bm, G chords ties it all together.

The vocal melody in the chorus, when Robb is singing, “Stand your ground, Don’t let the bastards grind you down, Be bold, Be strange, Don’t let their fears make you afraid”, how can you not like it?

It’s an anthem and no different to the messages from the 80’s. The difference between then and now is that we smoked in the boys room, felt the noise and sang together, we’re not going to take it. Now we are older and in a different fight for our lives and futures. Those baby boomers born after WW2 infiltrated our government in the 80’s and became its leaders in the mid 90’s. And this generation does not care about the past or the future. All they care about is now. And we cannot let these bastards drag us down. Because they will crash and burn. Everyone does. It just takes time and it starts with us.

Screaming At The Sun
“This is one of the first songs we wrote for the album. It’s pretty straight-ahead, but we went into some very weird places after writing this one.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

I really dig the riff on this one, the middle eastern feel, even the Arabic sounding vocal melody.

And that section at 2.38 works.

They see you blinded us, reminded us of all that’s ugly

Life is not perfect. We get blindsided by events or people. Sometimes the improbable becomes the probable. How we respond is what defines us.

Behind A Mask
“It’s all clean vocals. It’s all acoustic. It’s essentially unplugged. We’ve explored a lot of melody and harmonies on this record.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Now this song is not what I expect from MH, but I like how they did it. It’s like Staind merged with Days Of The New and to me, it’s a pretty cool combination.

The Chorus is mad on this one, how the vocals are orchestrated. How can you not like it?

The old man sits alone staring at the screen
And contemplates these failures, done to his family
Cause depression’s bottles come along and filled his whiskey glass
With every sip put to his lips, erases all the past
So he tells another little lie and tells another tale
In hopes to spare the family and hide his private hell
But the more the words come out of him, like little cuts and scabs
Tearing at the tender hearts who gaze upon a mask

The verse is powerful. How we deal with our past skeletons later on in life is crucial. For some people, everything is perfect and they did nothing wrong. For others, they realise their mistakes, their ways and they try to make amends.

Heavy Lies The Crown
“It’s an epic and it’s about Louis XI, the Spider King of France. I’m a history buff and it’s just a great story. He’d weave these elaborate webs of deceit!”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

It’s like a movie soundtrack. And when that riff kicks in, it’s yeaahhhhhhhhhhh time.

I slink along the boulevards and listen to the streets
The avenues and gutters give me truth to speak

And it’s in the streets revolutions start. It’s in the streets wars are won and lost.

Psychotic
“This one’s gnarly. It’s ugly and pissed off. I guess we could try to write more hits for the radio, but that’s just not how I write, you know?”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Yeah, the song is ugly alright. The intro is cool and so is the music in the chorus and that 12/8 section which is like a bridge is also cool. I would love to hear these sections fleshed out in future songs.

Grind You Down
“The phrase ‘stand your ground’ from Bastards appears in a few songs, including this one. Another classic MH rager.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Man why did MH have to put that melodic chorus in this song. And why did that have to put that speed metal section from about 2 minutes in this song.

Razorblade Smile
“This one turned into a tribute to Lemmy. I just started writing lyrics and all this crazy, debauched st just came out. It’s totally Motörhead.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Something about this songs feels so familiar, I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s a more rocking version of “Clenching The Fists Of Dissent” or maybe it’s the “Painkiller” start. When that double kick comes in after the intro riff, how awesome is it.

And that riff from about 1.45, I could be screaming “Die”, like in Creeping Death. Love it…

I got a razor blade smile and a cocaine tongue
I got a boner for miles, I’m slinging loads for fun
Carry a whiskey brown suitcase loaded with hash
I’m eatin’ pussy by a dumpster, beard stinking like snatch

The funniest lines I’ve seen in lyrics for a while. Brilliant.

Eulogy
“It’s a pretty dark end to the record, but the lyrics to Bastards pop up again. Late on, I realised that the songs have the same chords. That was kinda weird.”
Robb Flynn in Metal Hammer

Should have been dropped from the album.

So if I put my John Kalodner hat on and I had to bring the album down to 10 songs…..

Side One

Volatile
Catharsis
Beyond The Pale
California Bleeding
Kaleidoscope

Side Two

Hope Begets Hope
Bastards
Razorblade Smile
Behind The Sun
Heavy Lies The Crown

Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

A Love Unreal

I first heard “A Love Unreal” from Black Label Society on Friday, 19 January 2017. I overdosed on it. I started writing a post on Saturday, but I got side tracked because Def Leppard’s entire catalogue was finally available on digital platforms. So I spent the last seven days overdosing on the mighty Def Lep, which will be another blog post soon.

So back to Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society.

Since 2014, I have been playing “Angel Of Mercy” non-stop. It’s made my 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 end of year lists. It’s always in my Top 100 Spotify songs I play each year.

With “A Love Unreal” Zakk has orchestrated another candidate.

The guitar solo on this song is a 10 out of 10 for me.

After hearing it, I felt like I can do anything. It’s inspiring in its movements, phrasing and the way it’s all worked out and put together is classy.

It’s a song within a song. God damn, the whole solo section is 1 minute and 20 seconds long. There are pop songs on the charts which are 2 minutes long.

I shared my thoughts about the song with my kids. My eldest heard the song, loved it, added it to his playlist and keeps on telling me how he listens to it and gets lost thinking about achieving goals.

The intro is on a classical acoustic and it sounds out the vocal melody from the chorus. It’s ominous, doomy and sad, but hopeful as well.

And when the distortion kicks in, it’s heavy and groovy. Breaking desks time.

Hand me your doubts, worries and fears
Within this embrace they shall all disappear
A love beyond, a love unreal
This sadness you felt you will no longer feel

We are born into a culture, a tribe which has taken generations to create. Our ancestors who came before us built their own society, invented a way to communicate and solved a lot of problems so we could work on other problems that lurk around the corner.

But no matter how much we advance society, we cannot eradicate doubts, worries and fears. They still exist. The more connected we get, the more alienated we feel. The more we engage socially on-line, the less we do in person. But when we find that right person to engage with and love, when we have our own children, well, that’s a love beyond. No computer or technological gadget can capture that feeling.

This world and all that there is
I give it to you, all to you
Hand me your love and all that you are
Could you promise as I promised you

In many ways, our sacrifices or commitments to each other and our tribes/culture is a small payment to our ancestors who sacrificed and stood up for their rights, to give to us a love unreal. Some of these ancestors we have met in grandparents and some we will never meet.

And that solo. That damn solo. Always has to be a solo.

Do you know it goes for 1 minute and 20 seconds?

Paraphrasing Charlton Heston, “God damn, he blew it all up.”

It’s heartfelt and melodic. If Zakk needs to shred, he shreds at the right time to move from one section to another. It usually doesn’t go more than half a bar. In the end, the solo is melodic like David Gilmour’s melodic lead in the “Comfortably Numb” outro. And every time I hear it, I get goose bumps.

And then it kicks into a section inspired by Black Sabbath.

Hear my words
I speak no lies
The dawn of the new
With open eyes

Our work is to ensure that our great grandchildren have a society to live in, which gives them a voice and they are free to see and decide what is right and what is wrong. It’s only fair. My grandfather went to war for these rights only for us to vote in leaders who want to turn a democratic society into the very same dictatorship our ancestors overthrew. Our leaders want to control the internet and the media. Corporations want our leaders to pass laws to protect their profits. But, it’s changing. Being online and connected has also given us a voice.

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

Forgotten 80s Part 4

I read an article about how a computer system was only shown how the pieces move in a chess game. Then the system was told to learn how to play the game. 24 hours later, the system had all the chess moves worked out and it was beating strong chess programs convincingly.

Then I watched the “Metalhead” episode from Black Mirror and then I read a story about how Nissan wants to create a car that reads your mind and it got me thinking of the original Terminator movie and suddenly I was in the mood for 80’s music.

So here is another list of forgotten songs from the era. Just click on the number for the previous Forgotten lists, one, two and three.

Better Days
Taking On The World
The Feeling Within
Gun

Way underrated and way under-appreciated, it’s almost criminal. With their debut album, GUN got lumped in with the hard rock/glam rock style of bands because that’s the only way the record labels knew how to promote music. Compare it to something else which is popular and hopefully you get 10% of that audience to buy blind. 30 years later, it’s still the only way record labels know how to promote music.

Better Days

The groove captures me instantly and the vocal melody is so far removed from the LA Sunset strip, it’s perfect.

Living in the same scene way too long
Everybody hopes that one of these days
Everything you want is gonna come your way
Everybody knows what they have to do
Everybody dreams like me and you

Dreaming and hoping is easy. Deciding how to make those dreams and hopes come true is hard because making decisions is exhausting. It means you need to investigate, analyse and most importantly take responsibility for making a decision. We all know what we need to do, but so few do it.

Things could be heaven but this feels like hell
So hold your head high cause you know I’d die
For better days

And sometimes, decisions made with good intent could end up going bad. It doesn’t mean it’s the end. It just means a re-calibration is necessary and further analysis is needed, because our dreams and hopes for better days, make us push through the worry and fear.

Taking On The World

The acoustic strumming sets the sombre tone, but it’s the vocal melody which is captivating. It’s unique and catchy.

When you feel that life is dragging you down day by day
You’ve gotta break away
You’re taking on the world

Life is a process. You try things and you fail. You get into a relationship and you separate. In ten years’ time you would be using a technology that hasn’t been developed yet. The world evolves and you need to evolve with it, if you want to take it on.

And the lead break is full of thought out phrases that outline the chord progression under it.

The Feeling Within

The vocal tone of this song sounds like a cross between Jim Kerr (Simple Minds singer) and Michael Hutchence (INXS singer RIP).

You don’t know what silence means (you can pray for me)
You don’t know about shattered dream
You don’t know that I can’t run (you can set me free)
Set me free from the feeling within

Those lyrics in the brackets are sung by vocalist Mark Rankin’s cousin Sharleen Spiteri, of the band Texas.

Now Forever After
Stargazer
Kingdom Come

The most well-known version of the band only lasted two albums and one touring cycle. By the late 80’s the record labels didn’t care about artist development. It was all about platinum certifications. If the band got one, they had another shot. If they didn’t get one, they got dropped. Kingdom Come went platinum with their debut and their follow up didn’t set any sales record alight, even though it was better musically than the debut.

Musically, Kingdom Come had three sides. One side was the 70’s inspired classic rock of Led Zeppelin. The other side was the blues rock of AC/DC, while the third side was the Euro melodic rock inspired by Deep Purple, Scorpions and Rainbow combined with a little bit of Toto and Styx.

Now Forever After

“Now Forever After” is from the debut album released in 1988 and it falls into that melodic rock side of the band.

It’s now, forever after
Now, sharing our laughter
For better or worse
Until we die
Now, forever after
Now, sharing our laughter
Until the end of time

If only it’s true. Actually for some it is, for others it takes a few goes to get it right.

Stargazer

“Stargazer” is from “In Your Face” released in 1989. That keyboard intro which blends into the guitar lead just works brilliantly. This is another that falls into the Euro melodic rock side of the band.

Ooh, just to know what’s the reason for making us
Is what I would like to know

How did we come to be? So many theories out there, rooted in science and religion.

Stargazer
Live it out
Meet the Maker

Our ancestors looked to the stars for answers. Then they changed to religion. As humans got wiser they turned to nature and science for answers. Everything ends, including you and me. We thought we would live forever, but this proved to be untrue. And you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

I Believe In You
Knock You Out
Hands Of Time
Y&T

For many, “Earthshaker” was a landmark album. In my opinion, it also became a major influence to any hard rock musician around the world who heard it. It you took all of the different rock stylings happening at the time, and put them into the Y&T blender, “Earthshaker” would be the result.

For Y&T, they were just happy to have a deal with A&M, after two albums on a different label who had had no clue what to do with the band. Coming into the album, Y&T had already played the songs live quite a bit, hence the reason why everyone who heard the album said, “wow, these songs would really work live”.

By 1981 bands didn’t really do ballads or power ballads. They did songs with slower tempos that just kept on building up to a huge ending.

I Believe In You

“It’s a song I wrote a long time ago. Well along time before it got put on a record, which is kind of a drag in a way, because our original managers ripped us off for our publishing on the first two Yesterday and Today records. We haven’t received a penny publishing to this day from those two records. I wrote” I Believe in You” about the time they were managing us, so when I put it on the “Earthshaker” record; well after they were gone they still took my publishing and never gave me a cent for “I Believe In You”. Anyway it was written a long time ago about a break up that I had with a long-time relationship so the song inspired itself more or less.”

Dave Meniketti

The music business is full of rip offs. There are so many stories of former managers claiming the rights on songs from artists written while they managed the artist, but released many years later, while the band had new management. So many people who contribute nothing to the Arts make money from the Arts.

Even record labels do it. They sign an artist and they will spend some money for the artist to record a demo. They might give the go ahead for the songs to be recorded for a release or they might not release them at all. If they are not released, the artist is in limbo. Ask Tom Keifer, Dee Snider and Joe Lynn Turner, just to name a few. And if they leave the label they need to buy back their songs at an extortionist fee the label sets themselves.

Your phony friends, they all counsel you
The things they say
Oh, you know aren’t true

Ahh, yes, who doesn’t have friends like these in our lives?

Breaking up with your partner is a lot more than just breaking up with one person. When a relationship ends, people take sides. Suddenly the friends you believed you had are not there anymore.

Knock You Out

How good is the riff that kicks off this song?

Up against the ropes
I’ve been there before
I’ve been hit by the best, but never hit the floor

Proving you’re at the best when you do it your way. Never forget that. You can make your own decision. Awards are irrelevant. It’s the art that remains. Y&T remain more relevant than some of their 80’s peers who achieved platinum sales. Y&T never did.

Hands Of Time

This appears on “Down For The Count” released in 1985. I swear that intro riff was used by Winger in “Headed For A Heartbreak” to platinum glory. Progress is derivative right.

Don’t be a prisoner of your memories
They steal from your future
And fill you with lies

Negative thinking stops us from taking action. And our tendency to attach an emotion to a past event is our biggest downfall.

‘Cause you can’t turn back the Hands Of Time

What is done, is done, so move forward because time keeps marching forward.

Abandon
Heartbreaker
Dare

Both songs are from the “Out Of The Silence” album released in 1988 on A&M records. Wikipedia tells me Dare was formed in 1985 by former Thin Lizzy keyboard player Darren Wharton after Phil Lynott had dissolved the band. They had some success and when their second album “Blood From Stone” released in 1991 tanked in the sales department, the band was dropped.

Abandon

I can’t forget the things that you said to me

We rarely forget. We move on but we don’t forget. Actually, we can’t forget, because if we do forget, then how did we learn from those events.

I wish I could say that the rest of the song had some earth shattering lyrical message but it didn’t. A lot of the problems with the 80’s rock bands are the lyrics. Even Dare, coming from some experienced musicians couldn’t get decent lyrics written. Some people are good with words and others not so much. But the music is still good.

Heartbreaker

It’s got a riff that reminds me of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” merged with “Fantasy”.

She got no money and she got no pride
Don’t let her tell you she got nothing to hide
So full of passion with a wounded heart
I still remember when our love fell apart yeah
And when everything’s right, how could I be so wrong? so wrong?

While it was right for you, it was all wrong for the other half. They just haven’t had the courage to tell ya yet.

Lovers
Fate

It’s from the “Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’ album released in 1988. A friend of mine had this album and he dubbed it on a blank cassette for me around 1992. I knew nothing of the band back then and I still don’t know anything about the band today, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for a derivative and clichéd melodic rock song and as soon as the Aldo Nova “Fantasy” influence kicked the song off, I was hooked.

Future World
We Came To Rock
Yellow Rain
Loud’N’Proud
Rodeo
Pretty Maids

They should have had more mainstream success. Not sure if the band name helped their chances or hindered them.

Future World

It’s the title song of their 1987 album.

Oh future world
There’s nothing left to save
They blew it all away

We will in troubled times and even more so today where “stable geniuses” are in power.

In troubled times
We saw the writing on the wall
We heard the fools
Who brought the human race to fall?

The human race always suffers because of a few individuals. Released in 87, this would have been referencing the Cold War between the US and USSR. Today, it’s the US vs North Korea. Leaders out of touch with reality and the people they claim to support and serve.

We Came to Rock

It’s from the “Future World” album and it’s one of those clichéd songs about going to the rock and roll show and joining the cavalcade.

If you’re feeling out of nowhere
If you got no place to go
If you’re feeling lost and lonely
When you’re down the open road

The heavy metal community is the most loyal and there is always a place for you and everyone else.

We are the faces
We are the guardians of the night
We’ll rock the ages
It’s all right
We’ve seen the fire
We are defenders of your rights
We’ll take you higher
Gonna take you to the sky

It’s easy to say in words that you are a defender of our rights, but only Dee Snider went to the US Senate hearings and defended the rights of US metal head citizens. It cost him dearly at the time, but today, he’s seen as the defender he set out to be in “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.

Yellow Rain

Also from “Future World” and this one references Vietnam. Musically it starts off acoustically, like Gary Moore’s “Victims Of The Future” before it becomes a speed metal song.

Left home as heroes
Fools when they returned
Blamed for all the damage
And the villages they burned
Betrayed by their leaders
Murderers they were called
Denounced as crazy maniacs
And locked behind the walls

It was the first war that was all over TV and the prime time news. Everyone saw the burning children, the napalm bombs and Agent Orange. And the poor soldiers didn’t come home to a ticker tape parade. They came home in pieces, mentally and physically.

Loud’N’Proud

It’s also from “Future World” and it wouldn’t be out of place on the “Screaming For Vengeance” album.

Gonna hit this town tonight
Let your troubles out of sight
Scream out, spread the word around
Get all up and stand your ground

Again, it’s all about going to the rock and roll show, being part of community and don’t let institutions get in your way of living out your dreams.

Rodeo

Also from “Future World”

I was born and raised on the street
I grew up in a jungle of stone

Like all of us. All social circles have become concrete jungles.

I walked my own directions
For fortune and fame

The ones, who made it, walk their own path and the ones who follow might make it, but they don’t last.

Life is a rodeo
Somebody makes it
Somebody don’t
And even though
You feel like losing
Don’t ever let it go

It’s the unwritten rule of life. Never give up, keep on going. From when we are born, we fight for every breath, for every step, every single day.

And sometimes when I came to a crossroad

Should I stick to the left or the right?

We always try to make the best decision with the information we have at the point in time. It might be right, it might be wrong, but we still make it. Because we need to.

Under The Gun
Turn It On
Danger Danger

For a band formed in 1987, they had Al Pitrelli on guitar for a brief time, then after they got a recording contract, Pitrelli left and was replaced by Saraya guitarist Tony “Bruno” Rey (who actually played on the debut album) before returning to Saraya and Andy Timmons replaced him and played on the rest of their debut album, which was released in the same year.

Under The Gun

From the debut album released in 1989 and its the same lyrical theme as “Runaway” and “Fallen Angel”. But musically and melodically it’s addictive.

Turn It On

Also from the debut and the guitar playing from Andy Timmons is what hooks me. The way he colours each bar with arpeggios, power chords, palm-muted pedal tones and double stop inversions is brilliant.

Long Way From Home
Angel In My Heart
Britny Fox

Carbon copy of Cinderella, Britny Fox formed in 1986 in Philadelphia. In fact, the band had former members of Cinderella in its roster and their connections to Cinderella allowed the band to secure a major recording contract.

Long Way From Home

The debut album is not on Spotify, however the follow-up “Boys in Heat” released in 1989 is.

My love’s with you always, oh yeah.
Long way from home.

On the road is a killer. You are away from friends and family and the band mates are suddenly not as likeable as you thought they were when you saw em only a few hours a day for practice.

Angel In My Heart

Also from “Boys in Heat”, it’s a simple hooky song.

Misery Loves Company
Nobody Knows
Hard Luck
Letters In The Rain
Lillian Axe

Formed in 1987, they caught the attention of Ratt’s management which led to a record deal with MCA and Ratt’s Robbin Crosby producing the band’s first album, Lillian Axe.

As Wikipedia tells me, neither the debut nor the 1989 follow-up, “Love + War”, met commercial expectations and the group was quickly dropped.

Misery Loves Company

The song is from the self-titled debut released in 1988.

The intro riff is a derivative version of “Breaking The Chains” from Dokken.

The poor get nothing while the rich get fat
Start living good, the I.R.S. takes that
I kinda wonder if there’s really any good at all, at all

While the rich pay nothing and hide their billions in offshore tax havens.

Nobody Knows

The song is from the self-titled debut released in 1988.

Nobody knows when there’s clouds in the skies
When there are tears in your eyes
Nobody knows when you’re hurting so bad
So what if they had?

Exactly. So what if people knew how bad your hurting or how low your feeling. What can they do to change it? How people deal with pain and disappointment is very subjective. Each person has their own unique way of overcoming obstacles.

Hard Luck

The song is from the self-titled debut released in 1988. The lyrics are forgettable, but the music and melodies work.

Letters in the Rain

From the follow up, “Love + War”, released in 1989, the lyrics deal with a person reading letters his ex-partner left in the rain, and after being heartbroken for so long, he finally moves on, only to have the ex-partner return asking for a second chance. But the music and melodies are cool.

The Right To Rock
United Nations
King Of The Rock
Don’t Say You Love Me
Keel

The rock is strong with Keel.

The Right To Rock

Released in 1985, it’s the title track.

All my life I’ve been fighting
For the right to make my stand

So what happened? How did we go from fighting and making a stand, to not caring?

Don’t internet users in the U.S care about net neutrality?

Don’t people in Australia care about the power corporations have with the courts and our leaders?

Don’t let anyone tell you
How to live your life

But they do tell us how to live our lives. If you have a credit card, you are being told how to live your life with each monthly repayment. If you have a mortgage, you are being told how to live your life with each monthly repayment. God forbid if you are late. If you have are employed, you are told how to live your live every single day, just so you get that fortnight or monthly pay into your account.

‘Cause it’s our way of life
I’m fighting for freedom
For the golden rule
The right to say what I feel

But we are too scared to say what we feel in case we get ravaged by the social media righteous police.

United Nations

From the self-titled album released in 1987.

We are the new generation
We got the inspiration
We’re feelin’ strong so spread the news
The youth of every nation
Will make this declaration
This is the way of life we choose
Together we will rock
Forever we will roll

We thought hard rock would last forever but it didn’t. All great empires fall, and rock was no different.

And someday we will rise
To take control

1986 was the year metal and rock took control.

We are united nations
Under the flag of rock and roll
We are united nations
United we will stand

If only we remained united, but we didn’t.

King Of The Rock

From the self-titled album released in 1987.

In the arena is the kingdom I call home
This coliseum is my dome, whoa!
I make my own rules, I call the shots
I’m not afraid of you and I’ll fight for what I’ve got

By 1987, we had moved on. The call to arms about the rock and roll show got old.

This concrete battleground is where I’ll make my stand
If you’re with me, raise your hands

We had splintered by now. Metallica went on tour with James Hetfield having a sticker on his guitar that said something like “Kill Bon Jovi”. Mustaine called Queensryche “Yuppie metal”. Any artist that introduced keyboards or had keyboard players got labelled as sell-outs. Any artist that brought in outside writers also got labelled sell-outs. The label marketing machine was in overdrive creating new genres. We had Glam Rock, Pop Metal, and Glam Metal.

We had hard rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and pop rock. We had thrash metal and speed metal. We had heavy metal and technical metal and progressive metal. Death metal was becoming a thing. Europe was having their own thing happening with power metal, progressive classical metal, folk metal and the embers of a black metal scene were beginning.

In the states, hard core was a thing and when it became heavy, grindcore became a genre. Punk was just punk, once upon a time. Then it became post punk, punk rock, punk metal and punk pop.

It’s like that scene in “The Warriors” with Cyrus trying to unite the gangs. It didn’t end well.

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

Random Listening 2.0

A few of the people I follow on WordPress had their 2017 lists up and it got me interested to check out the music which made their lists.

So these random listens are from the WordPress site ….THUNDER BAY.

Greta Van Fleet – From The Fires

For the last four months, people have been telling me to check this band out. And when I did, I thought it was Wolfmother, an Aussie band who had a similar 70’s classic rock/metal feel to their music. All I know of them is that they are young. That’s all. How different to before, when we read the interviews in the magazines, saw the advertisements and basically knew how the album was made before we even purchased it or listened to it or dubbed it from a mate.

“Edge Of Darkness” is the song that hooked me. It’s feel and groove, which is a cross between Southern Rock and Led Zep’s style of rock is infectious. “A Change Is Gonna Come” is heavy in Led Zep influences vocally, but musically, I am not sure if people have heard the song “Jealousy” by Frankie Miller. Well it sounds like that crossed with a little bit of Bob Seger.

“Highway Tune” is another one of those songs that sounds familiar, but it’s done in such a way, it sounds unique. “Talk On The Street” could have appeared on a Blue Oyster Cult album. “Black Smoke Rising” is a more dirtier and up-tempo “Dyermaker” from Led Zep.

Anyway, even though the album was released in 2017, the songs above have been added to my 2018 playlist. Let’s see which ones remain until the end of the year.

Headstones – Little Army

The lyrics. Wow. Check out some beauties.

“We’ll I’m a red meat eater, liar and cheater”… from “Devils On Fire”.

Take that all you politically correct wannabes.

“We’re fundamentally broken, we no longer question ourselves and nobody noticed the quiet is a call for help”… from “Broken”.

Truth in these words, but we deny it, posting the happiest pics onto our social media account, so everyone can see how great our life looks.

“You won’t lift your finger to get your s!!t out of this” … from “Little Army”.

Blaming others when something goes wrong and doing nothing to fix the problem.

“Driving now with no headlights until the sunlight kills the stars” …. “Sunlight Kills The Stars”.

Sometimes in life you just don’t want to be seen or noticed.

“It’s so hard to find the positive again and again, it’s so hard to really listen to your friends when your mind just spins”… from “For Your Consideration”.

Picking yourself up from a hole you are in.

“You’re singing the same old song, it’s called “sucking the life outta me”… from “Dead To Me”.

You gotta love relationships.

Cheap Trick – We’re All Alright

“Brand New Name On An Old Tattoo” is an excellent song title and the song is pretty cool as well. “Floating Down” rocks hard for a mid-tempo song, and the vocal line is infectious and “If You Still Want My Love” is a bonus track on the deluxe version that probably no one would hear.

I was never a Cheap Trick fan.

Bands I liked always mentioned them as influences, but when you have limited funds to purchase music, I usually avoided Cheap Trick until the 90’s and I picked up their LP’s up to “Lap Of Luxury” for $2 each.

And youngsters won’t care about this album and the millions who purchased “Lap Of Luxury” because of “The Flame” won’t care either. But there are people who will care!

Europe – Walk The Earth and The Final Countdown 30th Anniversary live

I really enjoyed “The Final Countdown” 30th Anniversary show. Europe nailed it. They started off with the whole “War Of Kings” album and then played the while “The Final Countdown” album. When Joey Tempest screams, “Are you ready London?” the answer is a unanimous cheer.

And for “Walk The Earth”, my thoughts on the album are already on this blog. Europe’s creativity is at an all-time high and I’m loving it.

Stephen Pearcy – Smash

Does anyone care if Stephen Pearcy is running solo, the same way Vince Neil is running solo? Okay bad comparison, because Vince is just playing Motley songs live, while Pearcy is still being creative.

The “Unchained” sounding “Ten Miles Wide” is cool while “Rain” is interesting musically and it has some decent lyrics. “Want Too Much” works but the piece d’resistance is “Passion Infinity”. Everything just fits and works brilliantly together. Finally “Summers End” is another song that surprised me with its epic “Kashmir” feel. Not bad from the Rattster.

Collective Soul – Live

It took me a while to get into this band. It was actually a guitar transcription in Guitar World or Guitar School magazine for the song “Disciplined Breakdown” that got me interested.

After playing it through without hearing it, I enjoyed it so much, I went through a few earlier editions of the mag and found another transcription for the song ”Precious Declaration”.

So I sat down and started playing the riff the way it was transcribed and I’m thinking, man, this sounds like “Walk This Way”. Anyway, the song moves into different sections for the pre chorus and chorus and I was like blown away at the groove. So I went out and purchased. Afterwards, I was hooked.

Moving forward, I sort of forget about the band after “Dosage” was released in 1999. And I never thought of them as a live band however the Thunder Bay blog had the live album in a 2017 list, so I was interested to hear it.

They don’t disappoint and they have the catalogue of songs to keep the live show ticking over. I also dig the change to have “Shine” starting off with the piano and how they jam it out “Lynyrd Skynyrd” style at the end, turning one of their biggest songs into a 7 minute jam epic is worth the price of admission alone.

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Category Archives: Unsung Heroes

Twitter Thoughts

1984 – Ep 1

Ritchie Blackmore

All Ideas Come From Somewhere Before

The Crimson Idol

Speaking Up

Catharsis

A Love Unreal

Forgotten 80s Part 4

Random Listening 2.0