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

The Science Of Things

There is a saying that by the time an artist reaches album number 3 or 4, they are at the peak of their powers. It’s not because of some mystical power or magical power or magical powder; it’s basically a combination of having enough life experiences to create better art.

And if you look at the history of music, there is a consistent trend about the 3rd or 4th album being the album which makes it happen.  Some artists deliver again a few albums after and some artists deliver again as solo artists or via a new band they formed.

If you study history, you will know that beyond every fall of an empire, there is a rise and beyond every rise, there is a fall. And the cycle just keeps repeating. An artist’s career is no different.

But the third Bush album “The Science Of Things”, released in 1999, doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The glory or the rise, went to “Sixteen Stone” and “Razorblade Suitcase”. But the third album is also worthy, however it falls into the side of “the fall”. It doesn’t have hits, it has songs. And albums were designed to be a statement of songs, not cherry picked songs, released as singles.

The whole recording industry blamed Steve Jobs for allowing people to cherry pick songs and just buy them. Well, the label bosses had been doing it for decades in order to make people believe they needed an album. Which is why for me, it was always special to buy an album, when I had no idea what was on the album. But I wouldn’t invest that time today.

“Warm Machine” and “The Chemicals Between Us” satisfies the fans of the debut album. “Spacetravel” is a bit more progressive, an artist writing to fulfil their creative urge, rather than writing for a song to be a hit. Even “40 Miles From The Sun”, it’s the a song The Doors didn’t write.

“Prizefighter” is a favourite, with the jangling guitar strumming over a fuzzed out guitar, and nicely decorated with another shimmering guitar playing natural harmonics. “Disease Of The Dancing Cats” is a terrible title, but that’s what also makes it unique, plus its “Zero” like riff from Smashing Pumpkins. “Letting The Cable Sleeps” also has this melancholy like vibe, it starts off with two major chords and ends with a minor chord, giving the song a yin and yang of happy and sad.

Gavin Rossdale sings in his normal baritone voice. There is no need to copy or mimic another singer whereas on the first two albums, people compared his voice on some songs to Kurt Cobain. And you definitely won’t hear Rob Halford wails on a Bush record, then again Halford went more industrial and guttural during this period with “Fight”.

And an album doesn’t need to be number one on the charts to be a good album, nor does it need to have diamond like sales. But it always happens, when everything is judged against the commercial appeal of an album.

For U2, everything is judged against “Achtung Baby”, for Pearl Jam its “Ten”, for Metallica it’s the self-titled Black album, for AC/DC its “Back In Black”, for Bon Jovi its “Slippery When Wet”, for Europe its “The Final Countdown” however, I believe Europe has surpassed “The Final Countdown” on many occasions musically, but not commercially. For Van Halen, its 1984, but their Sammy Hagar albums sold less, but gave them an even larger audience because of the mainstream sound of the songs.

For Aerosmith, well they had a few mega sellers, like “Pump” and “Get A Grip” in the 80’s as sales of recorded music in the 70’s is really hard to see as accurate, as it’s based on shipping rates and other creative payola ideas.

But there are bands who more or less remain consistent in relation to their output and sales but still play to packed houses, like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Ozzy solo era, Deep Purple, Motley Crue, Rush and Judas Priest. Well Judas Priest did have a big album with “Screaming For Vengeance” and everything else that came before and after supported their legacy.

The problem is when an artist has commercial acceptance of their music, they chase it a little bit more and want it again and again. But it rarely works that way, and some artists, bite the bullet and sell their creative juices to outside writers.

Bush, up until this point, kept everything in house and you can hear that they didn’t really chase the Billboard Hot 100 chart parade with this album. Maybe to their detriment financially, but respect is earned when you play the game your own way.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Success And Sameness

Success leads to sameness and conformity. Success leads to less risk taking. Success leads to complacency and lack of innovation. Success also leads to wanting more success which also involves less risk taking again.

I’ve read countless stories of companies who have died a painful death because they refused to innovate.

Kodak told their digital camera creator to put his new toy away as they didn’t want a digital camera to affect their camera film sales, which in the end it killed the company completely.

Bands also follow a similar route but not all. Once they have public acceptance of their music they seek it again and again. Sometimes to their detriment and sometimes until their break up or an important band member leaving.

Bon Jovi basically tried to rewrite “Slippery When Wet” with “New Jersey”. You could interchange “Bad Medicine” with “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Born To Be My Baby” with “Living On A Prayer”. While “Let It Rock” started off with a keyboard solo intro, “Lay Your Hands On Me” started off with a drum intro.

It didn’t surpass “Slippery When Wet” but it made Jovi think he needed to get out and relax for a bit, so he put the band on hold and rode his motorcycle across America and started writing. The main song to come out is a rewrite of “Wanted Dead Or Alive” called “Blaze Of Glory”. Some of the other songs like “Dry County” and “Bed Of Roses” appeared on the “Keep The Faith” album which was a little bit different, but this time Jovi was content with reduced sales until he struck it big again with “Its My Life”.

Metallica wrote the self titled “Black” album the same way they wrote all of their other albums up to that point, with James and Lars listening to all the tapes of riffs and compiling the songs.

But in the recording they conceded some of their viewpoints to Bob Rock which meant getting into a room and playing the song and even slowing down tempos. And when the album blew up, the trust in their producer was even stronger. Mainstream success was theirs. And success leads to wanting more success and less risk taking.

Suddenly, for the next album, the band is writing songs together in a single room along with the usual Hetfield/Ulrich combination. And the music was more stripped back and rooted in blues rock than Metal. But also the look they had, conformed to the Lollapollaza look of Janes Addiction and RHCP. Even a Megadeth started wearing flannelette shirts.

Create for creativity and not because of the riches which might come or for the look that’s successful at a certain point in time.

Success is a choice. Choose wisely.

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

The Record Vault – Blessed By A Broken Heart

I came across a film clip for the song “Forever”. It got me interested enough, so I found the album online, downloaded it via a cyber-locker, enjoyed it enough, that I purchased it from Amazon’s US store.

I wonder if the Amazon US store purchase counts for a sale in the US or because its posted to Australia, it counts for a sale in the Australian market.

Formed in the early 2000’s, Blessed By A Broken Heart (BBaBH) battled hard, became MySpace superstars, lost all of their original members who gave them the MySpace status and with new members in tow, got a deal with Century Media Records in 2007 with a cross between 80’s hard rock/screamo metal and released “Pedal To The Metal”.

This then led to a bigger deal on Tooth and Nail records and the “Feel The Power” album eventually came out (after many delays) in January, 2012 with a sound further evolved to the 80’s hard rock movement.

Vocalist Tony Gambino departed not long after in July 2012 and by September, 2013 the band was finished with repeated record company legal struggles and lack of support from booking agencies given as reasons.

And for some stupid reason, “Feel The Power” is not available on Spotify Australia, so put that down to a lack of record label support as well and for some other stupid reason, the “Blessed By A Broken Heart” YouTube account has a lot of the videos unavailable in Australia. Dumb and dumber.

So the album.

Its melodic rock all the way. The musicianship is top notch, however their Mad Max look was already taken by the Black Veil Brides.

“Forever” has some Dragonforce like “I’m getting finger cramps” sweeps in the lead break, a melodic rock Chorus that soars like a Journey song and music that reminds me of the “Soldiers Under Command” era of Stryper.

“Rockin All Night” could have come from the “Midnight Madness” album from Night Ranger.

“Shut Up And Rock” has this Whitesnake “Slip Of The Tongue” vibe in the intro but overall it has this NWOBHM feel and lead breaks that make Jeff Watson’s eight finger tapping look amateurish. That one screaming verse, never should have been there. If they kept it melodic, the song is a 10 out 10 for me because that Chorus soars, the music soars and the mastery and performance of each note is perfect.

“I’ve Got You” is a ballad with some great lead guitar work which reminds of Vito Bratta’s work with White Lion and an outro solo which burns like a John Petrucci solo.  

“Deathwish” has this Jake E Lee Ozzy style “Bark At The Moon” era like riff which gets me interested and the Chorus, seals the deal with the lyric, “Mama sold her soul to the devil, traded a kiss for a birthday deathwish, mama sold her soul to the devil, traded her pain for the love of cocaine.” And another lead break which is worthy of guitar hero status.

If you like the above songs, then you will like “Scream Like You Mean It” which reminds me of Journey and “Holdin’ Back For Nothin’” with its Dragonforce like power metal.

Lead guitarist Shred Sean Maier effortlessly shreds as his name states and underpinning it all is the orchestrated backing vocals that remind of Mutt Lange and his work with Def Leppard.

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Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Artworks

In the era of the classical composers, you had to go to a theatre or a public place to hear music. It wasn’t something which was portable or sellable or something transmitted into the homes of people.

With our advancements in technology, we got radio. But apart from playing music inside the studio and having it beemed live, there still wasn’t a way to capture/record music properly. The invention of electricity, the magnetic tape and vinyl phonographs between 1900 and 1950’s made it all possible, and all of this came to fruition in the 60’s and a whole new recording business was formed.

And we got Rock and Roll, which was basically an extension of the Blues and this lead to what would become Heavy Metal.

Heavy Metal, came at a time when society was still disciplined to believe in their religious leaders and their government elected officials. And Metal questioned these beliefs and highlighted the divides between the haves and have nots.

The biggest Christian band ever “Black Sabbath” was labelled as satanic because they sang about mental illness, the sweet leaf, the white stuff that leaves you snow-blind, the nuclear arms race that condemns all of the children to the grave and they used the realms of infinite space as a form of escapism. But their biggest crime was to question authority and when authority is questioned, authorities need to make someone as the bad guy and themselves as the good guy.

And this opposition to heavy metal has continued throughout its history. And on occasions, heavy metal even opposed itself and did itself no favours, like the black metal movement in Norway, the Church burnings, the stabbings amongst certain groups. But despite all of this, metal has kept its fan base, all of those misfits and outcasts, who actually came from blue collared middle class suburban families who gave their kids enough freedom to explore and find themselves.

And metal music brought forth a certain musicianship that other artists and genres didn’t have. But the biggest impact that heavy metal music made on music is the album cover art.

If you don’t believe me, check out the covers of artists before heavy metal and hard rock captured the zeitgeist.

No one can forget the iconic Iron Maiden album covers.

But if you even go back to the 70’s and the first Black Sabbath album, with its scary matte cover of a pale lady standing in a field in front of a house that looks scary and compare that to covers that other artists produced that year, you’ll understand what I mean.

Artists (painters and graphic designers) suddenly had a new way to get paid as rock and metal artists called upon their services. Then other genres started to call up these artists.

As a metalhead, I feel it’s pulse and I live its lifestyle every single day of my life. When I need to talk to someone I do, when I need to say no, I do, when I need to kick back, I do. And when I want to appreciate art I will pull out a cover and enjoy it.

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

The Pirate Vault #4

The Pirate Vault keeps on rolling.

Iron Maiden – Killers and The Jimi Hendrix Story

From memory, the “Jimi Hendrix Story” was a double CD of Hendrix cuts that my mate MoeFartin (nickname of course) had, so I picked my favourites at that point in time.

“Killers” is basically a dub from the album, so I can have it transportable on my Walkman as I felt I hadn’t given it enough attention compared to the other albums.

And I had “Live From Death”, “Somewhere In Time” and “No Prayer For The Dying” on cassette. Plus “Live After Death” touched all of their albums up to that point except “Killers”.

Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

I’m a bit torn on this album. I always thought it should be one album, like “Siamese Dream” which I have on CD. The main songs I listened to are the ones I had to learn for the band I was in, like “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “1979” and “Zero”.

And how iconic is the lyric, “the world is a vampire”.

Eric Johnson – Ah Via Musicom and Metallica Mix

“Cliffs Of Dover”.

Just listen to it, and that arpeggio lead riff in the key of D major. Learning the song, the licks, proved to be a beautiful experience and Eric Johnson, opened my eyes to a different side of guitar playing which sounded accessible.

And for the Metallica Mix, well, at that point in time, I really enjoyed listening to these songs and I’ll always state that “Ride The Lightning” trumps “Master Of Puppets”. So it’s no surprise that on this mix I have four songs from the “Justice” album and two songs from the “Ride” album.

Rock Junkies

It’s a weird mix for sure.

 Done in the 90’s.

I remember I was at Mega’s place and he is a collector of all things musical and I had a tape which had music on it, but I said screw it, I am going to overdub it for some off this stuff (hence the made up cover and not the original cover sleeve that comes with a blank cassette).

So he had some Police records and I copied the two big songs from those. He also had a Dokken 12 inch single, which had “Back For The Attack” and “Paris Is Burning” as the B-sides, so I copied that.

He also had U2 – Achtung Baby and I copied my three favourite songs from that.

Moving onto Side 2, I had the film clip of Great White’s “Rock Me” and “Stars” from Hear N Aid, so I copied those songs. Then Body Count and “Cop Killer” song came next, some Billy Idol and his “Rebel Yell” and I finish it off with Dee Snider’s “Calling On You” from Widowmaker which actually took the spot of another Body Count song called “The Winner Loses”.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

What Does A Number 1 Album Really Buy You?

Artists who really want a number 1 album play the bundle game, where the artists have to pay money from their concert ticket sales to get to number one.

This process just ends up putting more money in the label’s bank accounts, and these album bundle sales only count if the fan clicks for the digital album, and less than 50% do it because they either already have it or they don’t want it in a digital download, because they are still physical purchasers or have moved to streaming.

If your goal is to impress people in the media who matter less, then a number 1 album works because i see it every day, how the normal music news sites write about it and other websites repeat it.

And how many times an album debuts at number one and then drops off the chart within a month to two months. Goes to show how important those charts really are these days.

And then you have the streaming kerfuffle of artists asking kids to play certain tracks a million plus times so old records from artists who are one hit wonders start to re-enter the chart. Vanilla Ice did this recently.

This system has built careers in the past but a new act can’t even play that game and if you have aspirations to be in Spotify’s Top 50, don’t. It’s irrelevant and a manipulated niche with a young audience listening, who moves on as quickly as you can say the word “what the”.

But if you top the streaming chart, you can make real money.

But (x2), if you get there with the devil (major label) backing you, well that deal at the crossroads means you need to pay.

But (x3), if you go your own way the same way Fleetwood Mac told ya and own everything, well you can make all that money every musician is complaining they haven’t got.

But (x4), the barrier to enter the music market is low and anybody can make a record. There are over 20 million plus songs on Spotify that still haven’t even been heard.

And people will pay attention when they want to. You just need to be in the game to capitalize on it.

P.S. Remember that Black Sabbath never had their 70s albums or Dio led albums go to number 1.

P.S.S. And a lot of other bands fall into that category as well.

P.S.S.S. Like Whitesnake, who never had an album go to Number 1 in the large US market or Twisted Sister or RATT or KISS or RUSH or Iron Maiden.

P.S.S.S.S. But they all had massive careers.

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

The Record Vault – The Black Crowes

Prior to “Three Snakes And One Charm”, my only other Black Crowes purchase that I had in my possession was the “Remedy” single. And I still don’t know what happened to the debut album LP I had. 

Three Snakes And One Charm

Released in 1996, but I picked this one up recently at a music record fair. In saying that, I do have the pre 2000’s Black Crowes albums on mp3, obtained via TPB.

And sometimes depending on moods and feel and how your life is, certain tracks appeal more than others. On this album, it’s the more mellow tracks that connected with me.

“Girl From A Pawnshop” stood out, about a long lost love affair and it’s got some great musical movements and lead breaks which makes me want to pick up the guitar and learn.

“I never lost your number I never lost your address and if we remain friends at best sometime later no, no not yet, we’ll smile and remember it like this”

Let it be and remember it for what it was.

“How Much For Your Wings?” has a Led Zep acoustic feel from their “III” album.

And they put on one of the best jam driven rock and roll shows I have ever seen when they toured Australia in 2008. Rich Robinson was the sheriff in town that night, as he directed the band into extended jams of certain songs with a nod of his head and he directed them out of these jams with another nod of his head and a dropped shoulder. So cool to watch and experience.

And that’s my Black Crowes collection. A single, an album, a concert ticket and an awesome memory of them jamming and commanding the stage.

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Music, Stupidity

The Irishman

This is why organisations fade away.

At first, organisations ignore the new threat, then they try to kill the new threat and eventually they accept the new threat or join it or get overtaken by it.

Martin Scorsese’s new flick, “The Irishman” is a passion project. Rejected by all the big movie studios, Netflix came to the rescue with funding and allowed Scorsese to do the movie however he wanted. And Scorsese wanted a film 3.5 hours long. This is how a filmmaker wants to operate.

But in order to show the movie in the large cinema chains, which could lead to Academy Awards and what not, the corporate bodies who represent the major cinema chains want a 90 day window, while Netflix really didn’t want any window but would have agreed with 45 days.

All of this is old world stuff.

The new world is different.

I would happily avoid a cinema experience, to watch a movie in the comforts of my own home. But the Cinema chains and the movie studios have a cabal set up, which exploits a family for multiple tickets instead of the one month streaming premium.  

And if anyone is facing a challenge to their business model it is the cinema chains.

Once upon a time, when the control of the distribution was in the hands of the movie studios, a film’s commercial potential was judged by its cinema box office receipts. It’s a viewpoint which is still carried to this day and it only pleases the people in the media and the websites that re-report box office takings.

There’s no reason why the cinema experience cannot be an event, but it’s got a long way to go to become a concert like experience.

And “The Irishman” is trending on Twitter highlighting the stupid move from the cinema chains to not screen it. Here are some screenshots from Twitter highlighting the idiocy of the cinema chains and how independent cinemas are winning.

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

The Record Vault – Bush

I was a bit late to the Bush party. It took the single “Comedown” to get me to pay attention and then “Glycerine” came out and I was “yep I like it and I will purchase the album on my next outing”, but that didn’t transpire as I kept pushing the album out of my purchase list in lieu of hard rock and metal bands. Then “Machinehead” came out as a single and I committed financially.

Sixteen Stone

The album came out towards the end of 1994, but it was in 1995 that it started to get people’s attention and for me, it was around May/June 1996 that I committed financially.

The picture you see is not the original. I gave the CD to a friend circa 2001, who then claimed that he lost it, and then gave me back a copy, with the cover printed on an inkjet printer and the CD burned onto a blank disc. I gave him the benefit of the doubt until many years later, other friends told me, he did the same to them, so the prick was scamming us.

As soon as the “Rockin In A Free World” vibe of “Everything Zen” kicked in, I was very interested. And then a bit lost with “Swim” and “Bomb” and “Little Things” brought it back into focus with its “Smell Like Teens Spirit” vibe merged with a Tom Petty “Free Fallin” vibe.

But the piece d resistance is “Comedown” with its bass riff which reminds me of the “You Give Love A Bad Name” verse riff. And Grunge purists are probably gagging at the thought of this, but yes, the riffs are very similar.

And there is no escaping the power of “Machinehead”. The intro riff octaves, along with the power chords crashing all over the place is perfect.

“Breathe in, breathe out” and the way its sung, with a loudspeaker/telephone vibe, captures the frenetic pace of life, and how we don’t have enough time to take a breath.

And I realised that the accessible singles of the album, got me interested, sort of like how the accessible singles of hard rock bands got people interested who would otherwise enjoy other musical styles.

And with this debut, Gavin Rossdale showed he is a force to be reckoned with as a songwriter.

Razorblade Suitcase

The cassette was in a 3 for $10 bin, so it was a no brainer. I didn’t get it when it came out in 1996, but circa 1998.

“Swallowed” is the lead single, and it followed a “Live (band) vibe”. “Greedy Fly” is basically an artist writing a song, without a thought of it being a hit. And somehow it gets released as a single and it’s seen as a hit.

“Cold Contagious” has a cool drum groove, with the guitars decorating the song in a nice way, as Rossdale is singing, “you will get yours” with the volume and intensity increasing. And at six minutes long, it’s the anti-single, but it still got released as a single.

And like “Sixteen Stone”, it was the accessible singles of the album that got me interested again. Then the band lost me with an electronic remix album and I’ve never really checked out anything afterwards, however friends have told me that “The Science Of Things” is worthy.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Personality Era

Its the era of the personality, those who’ve been in the game for decades seem to have the perfect forum to broadcast.

To spread their viewpoints or criticisms.

So many play it safe and try hard to be liked by all. Others have handlers or social media teams to run their accounts.

But the ones who have control of their accounts, the ones who are true to themselves and their beliefs, and stand by what they say, will be the ones we talk about.

Because these personalities can enact change. Only if they are willing to be uncomfortable and put themselves out there.

“We are all just actors trying to control and manage our public image, we act based on how others might see us.”

Erving Goffman, a Canadian sociologist came up with the above quote from one of his studies, and he’s been dead since 1982. So the social conditioning of being liked in the pre-Internet era existed and got amplified with social media.

It’s not about likes, it’s about having a voice.

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