My UFO experiences started in the 90’s. The band UFO, just in case anyone was wondering.
“Lights Out” (released in 1977) is the gold standard along with the live album “Strangers In The Night” (released in 1979).
But.
“No Heavy Petting” deserves more love.
The band for the album is Phil Mogg on vocals, Michael Schenker on guitar, Danny Peyronel on keyboards, Pete Way on bass and Andy Parker on drums.
Any idea about the monkey on the cover.
“Natural Thing”
The intro riff is great to play and one of the best committed to tape.
And I was pointed towards “Rock N Roll Queen” from Mott The Hoople as an influence. The guitar player on that is Mick Ralphs before Bad Company.
“I’m A Loser”
Written by Schenker and Mogg. The acoustic intro riff has influenced a lot of the 80’s bands.
How good is the piano melody in the section when “hard times, out on the streets” is sung?
And the lead break from Michael Schenker is guitar hero worthy and I’m pretty sure forgotten by all.
“Can You Roll Her”
The song is written by Peyronet, Mogg and Parker.
A stupid title which doesn’t do the fast paced and frantic music any justice. The guitar riffs in the intro/verses and little guitar melodies in the Chorus are excellent.
Schenker goes to town when it comes to the lead spotlight, combining his brilliant pentatonic playing with fast picked Aeolian Minor runs. The way it is constructed would influence countless of other guitarist to “work out” their leads.
“Belladonna”
Written by Schenker and Mogg.
When I hear this song, I think of “Soldier Of Fortune”. It more or less follows the same pattern. But I also think of “Try Me” which would come on the album after. And Scorpions would write songs like this in a few years’ time.
The Schenker solo is memorable, but on “Try Me” it’s outta this world.
Make sure you check out the classical like guitar melody that Schenker starts playing after the solo.
“Reasons Love”
What a great funky, sleazy and bluesy guitar riff to kick off the song.
“Highway Lady”
It’s your standard blues rock fare with Schenker wailing away in the solo.
“On With The Action”
Written by Schenker and Mogg.
The riff to kick this song off is like doom metal, if downtuned. Its heavy.
The groove in the song makes it a favorite of mine but the song is forgotten by the masses when it comes to discussions about UFO.
And if you are a fan of excellent guitar playing, make sure you check out the solo here as well. All of the 80’s guitar heroes copied it.
“A Fool In Love”
It’s written by Frankie Miller and Andy Fraser and it’s a “Honky Tonk Woman” meets “All Right Now” blues romp.
“Martian Landscape”
Written by Peyronel, Mogg and Parker. It’s one of those songs that the 70’s bands put on albums that was a bit progressive and experimental. And sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. This song worked for UFO and it’s the precursor to “Love To Love”. And a riff in “Love To Love” gave birth to “Desert Song”
In other words, “No Heavy Petting” is an underrated hard rock record, a link between the derivative 12 bar blues and hard rock as I know it.
The song has over 7 million streams on Spotify. The guitar riff is influenced by the intro guitar riff in Billy Squier – “Powerhouse” from 1986.
The bass lines are very similar to the bass line from 45 seconds onwards in Great White – “Mista Bone” from 1989. Then again, that running bass line is pretty common in most songs. You hear it in “Disturb The Priest” from Black Gillian’s album “Born Again”.
And “Unskinny Bop” still sounds original.
8 Years Ago (2013)
I was discussing the prices of tickets for Bon Jovi’s Australian tour.
If a Bon Jovi fan wanted to sit in Row 1 and purchase a Diamond VIP package, the price of one ticket is $1975 + $10 booking fee.
If a Bon Jovi fan wanted to sit in Rows 2 to 5 and purchase an Emerald VIP package, the price of one ticket is $1475 + $10 booking fee.
If a Bon Jovi fan wanted to sit in Rows 6 to 13 and purchase a Sapphire VIP package, the price of one ticket is $975 + $10 booking fee.
And for the Sydney show, these VIP tickets had been sold out. And after the JBJ website sale, the next stage of the sales was the Telstra pre-sales, the Showbiz pre-sales, then the Ticketek VISA pre-sales and the general pre-sales and finally the public release.
What a collusive, exploitive and unregulated process.
And the Telstra presales were a disaster. The website went down and people couldn’t get tickets but eBay had tickets on sale for triple the price.
In other words the band was scalping its own tickets.
And the “What About Now” album continued its free fall, sitting at 133.
I’ve already written about Choirboys previously, especially their 80’s album in the self-titled debut released in 1983 and “Big Bad Noise” which had the monster hit, “Run To Paradise” released in 1987.
So how do you follow up a monster album released in 1987. Well after all the touring, opening up for large U.S acts and going back into the studio to write and record, the gap was 4 years.
That’s right, 4 years.
It’s a long time.
Instead of recording in Australia, they went to Cherokee Studios in L.A with producer Marc Tanner who used to be an Elektra recording artist.
“Midnight Sun” hit the streets in 1991. And compared to “Big Bad Noise” which was certified double platinum in Australia, “Midnight Sun” has no certification.
For a great album, it gets no love or attention. Even on Spotify, there are no songs from this album in the Top 5 of most listened songs from The Choirboys.
“Midnight Sun”
It’s got this AC/DC style groove (think of “Live Wire” with a bit of a Springsteen/Mellencamp vibe.
Lyrically they are the devils boy, is walking the streets of society as the keeper of the midnight sun.
“Our Empire Falls”
This song should have been a hit.
Standing with her back to the ocean Is this the final curtain call? Still trying to make a deal with the sunshine It′s over, it’s over
Once bathed in glory But now your image is fading
And check out the lyrics, which deal with faded glories and contemplating suicide. This from an act who was expected to write party anthems.
Tonight is the night our empire falls
“Rise Up”
Their blend of different rock styles is perfect. This song is a great example of how a song can still sound hard rock but be catchy and commercial. It’s a mixture of an AC/DC (that “Live Wire vibe again), Bryan Adams and “Jessie’s Girl” from Rick Springfield with a bit of Def Leppard.
The intro alone has the drums and bass playing a simple hard rock groove.
It’s no surprise that Mellencamp’s music is heard in Australian artists, as the “Scarecrow” album was massive.
‘Cos I see the best of things Lies somewhere in the kiss of knowledge Bullshit ends when faith begins If you’re down at the bottom, at the end
Rise up
“Place With No Love”
A great ballad with a weird music video featuring a character in a leather fetish mask.
“Rendezvous”
It’s got this “Radar Love” style drum groove and a film clip with people hitting the road to meet up somewhere.
Now we’re on the road to our Rendezvous With nothing, there’s nothing to lose
These lyrics connect straight away.
Australia is a massive place with vast distances between towns. The only way we used to be connected was via the motorways and suburban roads and railways. So hitting the road to meet up is part of the Australian psyche.
How can you fly with your feet on the ground Take all of your dreams, let’s get out of this town
We all wanted to escape our hometowns to try and achieve our dreams. These days the kids are okay to live at home we’ll into their 30’s.
“Only In America”
This song melts. When I hear it, I think of The Cult, AC/DC crashing with Springsteen.
Only in America you read my rights to me Only in America I watch my trial on TV Only in America only in America I won’t ever be alone Then why do I feel so lonely
“Battle Boulevard”
Check out the intro.
It’s just bass and drums and then the guitars come crashing in with power chords and a nice little lead.
I hear the guitars playing My Generation That used to be our song And I can feel the beat down on the boulevard
“Going Home”
This feels like a hard rock “Need You Tonight” from INXS.
But I’ve lived a dreamer and I’ve lived in hope But I don’t want to stay here on my own
I’m going home
“Romance Street”
A rocking ballad if that ever could be a thing. To me, it’s an awesome cut in the vein of “Born To Run” Springsteen.
“We Believed”
When “The Killers” came out, I thought of this song. Because it felt like “The Killers” sounded like this.
In the end, The Choirboys was just another Australian band trying to break into the larger U.S market, which didn’t pan out as expected. And while the first two albums sounded “Australian” (whatever that means, but the label reps kept saying shit like this), the “American” sound was here on this album, and the song writing is mature and the lyrics get you thinking.
Useless fact, fast forward a few years from this, I was in a band opening up for Choirboys in a small pub with about 200 hundred people in attendance.
And vocalist/guitarist Mark Gable along with bassist Ian Hulme were the only original members, but they still brought it live.
The band is still going today with the line up that did this album. Jamming with Gable and Hulme, is guitarist Brett Williams and drummer Lindsay Tebbutt.
I started this series with the Part 1 posts of 2001, then 1996 and most recently 1986. Now we go back in time another 10 years to 1976. And after this we go back to 2001 for Part 2 and the process repeats.
Rainbow – Rising
Album number two for Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Actually that was the title of the debut album, so the buying public would have some idea of who was leading the group. For this album, it’s just called Rainbow.
Coming into to this album, only Blackmore and vocalist Ronnie James Dio remain from the debut. Basically, Blackmore booted out, the Elf members. Cozy Powell is on drums, replacing Gary Driscoll. Jimmy Bain is on bass, replacing Craig Gruber and Tony Carey is on keys, replacing Micky Lee Soule.
“Tarot Woman”
It starts off with an Hammond or Moog organ.
But it’s that fast alternate picked riff of four note lengths and a small pause which gets the foot tapping. And once the drums and walking bass groove kick in, its blues rock heaven. But metal as well. The way I know metal.
Blackmore’s lead break moves between pentatonic licks and harmonic minor licks.
And I remember trying to learn the organ lead break in the outro on the guitar. Its worthy, check it out.
“Run With The Wolf”
This is basically a blues song however Dio’s choice of lyrics take it into a fantasy place about a hole in the sky and something evil passing bye.
How good is that foot stomping verse riff?
And it feels like Blackmore is playing slide guitar in the lead break.
Dio is a master at ad-libbing the outro’s with his vocals.
“Starstruck”
A great blues rock song.
It’s got everything a song should have. A harmony guitar intro. A memorable Chorus riff and a foot stomping 12 bar blues verse on steroids.
And while my first exposure to Dio was “Rainbow In The Dark”, I really dig his blues strut vocal style.
“Do You Close Your Eyes”
The Pre-Chorus is excellent, musically and melodically. But the lyrics are blah around asking the question “if your partner closes their eyes while they make love to you”.
“Stargazer”
After the drum solo like intro, the guitar riff kicks in. It’s got groove and it’s fun to play.
How good are the exotic sounding keys and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in the Pre Chorus and Chorus?
Dio is in his element here, singing about whips and chains, towers of stone, flesh and bone and rhyming fly, with die and why.
Blackmore’s lead is excellent. His use of vibrato and effects to kick off the solo, sounds like a sitar, and when he goes into the fast alternate picked lines around the harmonic minor scale, it sounds like a guitar solo spotlight at a concert. But the whole could have sounded flat, if it wasn’t for the powerful drumming of Powell.
“A Light In The Black”
A brilliant song, featuring another classic riff from Blackmore in the verses and Dio’s powerful vocals.
How good are the vocals when Dio sings “coming home”?
I like the nod to the past with its “Burn” like lead break with the organ and guitar in harmony. And the drumming from Powell is relentless. Ian Paige worthy.
For the next album, “Long Live Rock’N’Roll”, Bain was out, replaced by Blackmore on most tracks with Bob Daisley doing a few. Tony Carey also did keys on a few tracks with David Stone doing the other half.
And if you want to know what happened between Dio and Blackmore, well here is Blackmore’s point of view over at Louder Sound.
“I was always very close to Ronnie until, to be quite honest, he met up with Wendy [Dio’s future wife and manager], then it got very strained. She was a nice enough woman, but we didn’t really click. I remember trying to sort out a song.”
“I was playing an effect, trying to get the song down, and both of them walked by and one of them said: “We want to talk to you.”
Ronnie said. “I’ve just heard from Wendy that you’re on the front page of Circus and we’re not.”
“Really? I had no idea.”
The three of us had done the photo session, but the photographer did a couple of me on my own, and one of these got on the cover.
And Cozy [Powell, drummer] or Ronnie said: “If we’re gonna be your sidekicks then we’ll act accordingly.”
That really pissed me off, cos that was nothing to do with me. After that it went downhill, cos I had no respect for either of them after that. I didn’t like that.
“We’re not on the front cover with you!” Is that my fault?”
I wrote a post on this album back in 2013, called “What Made Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet Explode”. You can read it here.
You can call this an extra appreciation post.
Like all great movies, the actors and production team had to be in place.
The producer Bruce Fairbairn and the engineer/mixer Bob Rock are there. The band is there. The song writing team of Jovi, Sambora and Desmond Child is there. The three years of playing and touring together is there. Doc McGhee as manager is there. A label looking to break em big is there.
And the band decided that quantity will breed quality.
Along with the album tracks, the band had written over 30 songs for the album. YouTube has a lot of videos up. Start with “The Basement Demos” and then move to the “Pre Production Demos”. A Whitesnake evolutions style mix is required here.
The biggest win for the Jovi team was the release month of August.
For that month it was up against Motorhead – “Orgasmatron”, Vinnie Vincent – “Invasion”, Warlock – “True As Steel” and Great White – “Shot In The Dark”.
If it was released in July, it would have been up against DLR’s – “Eat Em and Smile” for listeners’ attention.
If it was released in June, it would have had to compete against Queen – “A Kind of Magic”, Genesis – “Invisible Touch”, Rod Stewart – “Every Beat of My Heart”, Madonna – “True Blue” and Cinderella – “Night Songs”.
If it was released in May as originally intended, it would have been up against AC/DC – “Who Made Who”, Journey – “Raised on Radio” and Europe – “The Final Countdown”.
In other words, August was perfect.
“Let It Rock” kicks it off Side 1.
Like Loverboy’s “Working for The Weekend”, the song is about letting your hair down on the weekend.
And Fairbairn had a thing that the bands he worked with should have an intro that could kick off the concert.
“Shot through the heart and you’re to blame, darling you give love a bad name.”
Its overplayed now but iconic and unforgettable back then.
Then the band kicks in and Richie does the vocal melody on the guitar until they start the strip bar sleazy verse riff.
“You Give Love A Bad Name” was the one that opened the door and as soon as the band unleashed “Livin On A Prayer”, the album started selling 700,000 records a month.
I saw “Social Disease” as pure filler back then as I failed to appreciate the blues soul swing of the track. And it needed to be written so that “Bad Medicine” could be written.
So you telephone your doctor Just to see what pill to take You know there’s no prescription Gonna wipe this one away
“Wanted Dead or Alive” was already a hit before it came out as a single. But the song didn’t reach number one because when the song was released as a single, the multi-million fan base had already digested it and made it their own.
“And the people I meet always go their separate ways”
“Raise Your Hands” kicks off side 2. The motto of this song is simply. Come to the show, raise your hands and get wild.
Raise your hands When you want to let it go Raise your hands And you want to let a feeling show
“Without Love” is lost on the album behind all the great tracks.
“I’d Die for You” has a guitar riff that reminds me of “Breaking The Law” from Judas Priest.
“Never Say Goodbye” was too slow for me back then. It was many years later that I started to appreciate the song and that guitar melody from Richie is pretty cool to play.
Finally “Wild in the Street” closes the album with its 60s rock vibe.
“In here we got this code of honor Nobody’s going down”
If you want to experience 1986, then crank “Slippery When Wet”.
The first copy I gave to the drummer from a band I was in, along with “The Dirt” hardcover book and the “Rush In Rio” DVD. But when we had an argument, he wouldn’t return the items. So I repurchased “The Dirt” but this time in paperback, and this DVD. The Rush DVD price was extravagant when I was looking for it and I haven’t relooked since.
Now, live albums have been known to have a lot of studio overdubs or in some cases, total re-recording of some of the tracks in the studio. From what I can hear, nothing feels fixed or redone in a studio on this. So what you get, is a band that can deliver live, the chaos they create in the studio. If anything, I believe the guitars are tuned down ½ a step as Claudio’s voice was strained during this period. But man, he still delivers.
Coming into this release, Coheed and Cambria had released three studio albums, in “The Second Stage Turbine Blade”, “In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth” and “Good Apollo”. For the hardcore Coheed fans, yes, I’ve abbreviated the names of the album titles.
It’s the only live release with the original line up of Claudio Sanchez on vocals/guitars, Travis Stever on guitar and backing vocals, Michael Todd on bass and backing vocals and Josh Eppard on drums and backing vocals. Michael Petrak does additional percussion and Dave “Wavis” Parker is performing keyboards, backing vocals, some extra guitar and samples.
In a perfect world, the audio of this concert would be available on Spotify, but it isn’t. YouTube has the live concert footage and some of the YouTube users have created just the audio.
“In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3”
A perfect opener. It’s just a bit faster than the studio recording, but hey, that’s why I love the live show. And the crowd gets involved with the who-oh-oh chant towards the end.
“Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)”
This version is electrifying. Again, a bit sped up than the studio, but I feel the energy smack me in the face.
“Blood Red Summer”
It follows the poppy rock vibes of “Ten Speed” perfectly.
“The Crowing”
This version is a metal beast and this live version is my go to track for it. As mentioned previously, its downtuned a little bit more from the studio cut and it sounds menacing.
After the two pop rock songs in “Ten Speed” and “Blood Red Summer” the placement of this is perfect to get the live concert back into progressive and metal like territory.
“Wake Up”
One of the best ballads from Coheed and Cambria, and live, you just hear the clean tone electric guitar, Claudio’s voice and the crowd singling along with him. It’s chilling, emotive and perfect.
“Delirium Trigger”
From the debut album, the intensity of the song grabs my attention quickly. Hearing it played alongside songs from two of my favourite albums, works perfectly. The middle subdued section offers a calm before the song picks up again. With so much musical movements, nothing is lost and missed.
“A Favor House Atlantic”
It’s faster. When I watched the band live, this song is sing-a-long. You can’t make out the audiences here and you sort of lose the power of when Claudio drops out and the crowd sings. But the energy is still there. “Bye, bye, beautiful” alright.
“The Suffering”
The pop punk energy comes through. I wanted a bigger impact for the “wishing well, will you marry me” part but not all songs can be winners.
“Everything Evil”
I don’t think this song worked well live.
“Welcome Home”
The best cut and I like the sped up vibe of the song. And even though its quicker, the intensity of the vocals is still there. I would have loved to be able to hear the crowd cheering the who-oh-oh at the end.
“The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut”
At 14 minutes long, its eight minutes longer than the CD version and the jam aspect vibe they bring to this track is brilliant.
When there jamming the middle section lead break, they play this lead break that I swear comes from “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” lead break.
And when they come out of the jam back into the normal song, its powerful and beautiful. The crash cymbals are smashing, the guitars are screaming and all hell is breaking loose as they finish off the concert.
In the end, “The Last Supper” leaves you wanting more of the Coheed and Cambria supper.
I did a recent post on this album in February 2021.
This album gets no love. The people who run the Ozzy Osbourne machine are trying their best to kill “The Ultimate Sin” because of the complicated relationships they have with the people involved in creating it and the various disputes over royalty payments.
Jake E. Lee circa, 1989 when he was promoting Badlands, blasted the sound of the album and the fixed mindset of producer Ron Nevison to not allow him to try any different sounds. Bob Daisley in his book blasted the album as the worst Ozzy Osbourne album he’s been involved in. And recently Ozzy, in a Rolling Stone interview, said the songs were just put down weird and that everything felt and sounded the same. Ozzy further mentioned that “The Ultimate Sin” is his least favourite solo release.
By 1986, Ozzy was in rehab and the people that held it all together were Bob Daisley and Jake E Lee. Lee got burned on the song writing credits for the “Bark At The Moon” album, so he demanded a contract up front before he even started writing. By the time Ozzy came out of rehab, Jake had already compiled 12 songs and the contract issues from the past made for a tense recording session.
Apart from “Shot In The Dark” (which is credited to Phil Soussan and Ozzy Osbourne) all of the lyrics on “The Ultimate Sin” are written by Bob Daisley to vocal melodies and titles put to him by Ozzy. But as usual, Daisley had a falling out with the Osbourne’s and was fired again and in spite, the first 500,000 copies of the album don’t have Daisley credited. This was corrected after the Osbourne’s were served with court papers.
But for all of the backroom band and business politics, this is one of my favourite albums from Ozzy.
“The Ultimate Sin”
The drum intro from Castillo sounds like it’s recorded on paper skins, but as soon as the riff kicks in from Lee, it’s head banging time. The song is credited to Daisley, Osbourne and Lee.
Overkill, enough is enough There’s nothing left of me to devour You’ve had your fill, I’m all I have left What can stop your hunger for power?
Intoxicated Ozzy gave the media and the religious zealots a lot of material to work with. Daisley had been around Ozzy long enough to see how the headlines played out.
Check out the solo and the outro section with the double kick drumming.
“Secret Loser”
I’ve written about this track before, but who remembers the Charlie Sheen movie “The Wraith”?
In the movie, Charlie Sheen plays a person who comes back to life to avenge his death at the hands of a gang (who got away with the murder). He kills his murderers one by one, by car racing each gang member and then setting them up to crash and die. “Secret Loser” appears during one such car race and it connected right away with me.
How good is the intro riff?
Could it be that I’m obsessed with feeding my disease / I couldn’t make it known the hidden things no one sees
Daisley was pretty good at writing autobiographical stories of Ozzy. I think this one is no different, especially the line about how Ozzy is obsessed with feeding the disease and in this case, the disease is the persona of Ozzy being constantly intoxicated, drugged out and doing something publicly embarrassing.
Check out the guitar solo from Lee.
“Never Know Why”
If we’re offensive and pose a threat You fear what we represent is a mess You’ve missed the message that says it all And you’ll never know why
I guess too many people judged heavy metal and hard rock music without really getting to know it and the people involved with it. I guess they will never know why we rock.
Make sure you check out the outro solo.
“Thank God For The Bomb”
The intro riff from Lee, is sleazy and sinister at the same time.
The title is almost Alice Cooper like, and musically, it feels like a Van Halen track from back in the David Lee Roth days.
“Never”
An underrated track.
The “I Don’t Know” meets “Suicide Solution” verse riff is the link to the past which gets me interested.
“It is the chain that you’re dragging that was once your relief”
That house you wanted, is now the thing that gives you worry. The family you wanted, is now the thing that gives you happiness but also stress and fear.
How good is the Chorus!
Did I mention the solo is killer.
“Lightning Strikes”
It’s so creative what Lee did here.
Take the riff from “Crazy Train” and play the higher notes in a different order over the F#m pedal point. It’s the essence of creativity. Take something that came before and tweak it.
I’m not apologizing I am what I am There is no compromising I don’t give a damn
Ozzy was rocking all night, alright and he didn’t give a damn.
“Killer Of Giants”
The acoustic/clean tone electric intro grabs my attention straight away.
But how good is the fingerpicked verse when Ozzy sings “if none of us believe in war, then what are the weapons for?”
The vocal melody and guitar riff for the Chorus gets me out of chair, singing, “mountain of protests for not stopping the war”.
And that guitar solo. So emotive and really bluesy.
“Fool Like You”
Another underrated deep album cut.
How good is that intro?
If it doesn’t get you up and banging that head, then you have no heartbeat.
You’re hearing what you want to hear Misunderstanding all you see An attitude in all of us Is it really you and me
As much as we tell ourselves we don’t have a bias, we do. All of us.
Did I mention that the lead break is a killer?
It is.
Lee goes all exotic and harmonic minor.
And how good is the section, when they come out of the solo, with Lee allowing the power chords to ring out, while Castillo goes to town with drum fills.
And there is an outro solo, which is too brief as someone made the dumb decision to fade it out.
“Shot In The Dark”
The big hit.
The way Lee decorates the song with the riffs, melodic fills and leads is excellent and of course Soussan keeps the bass line driving along.
The album is 35 years old and no re-release has happened.
But the fans don’t forget.
And for me, it was my entry point to Ozzy.
Play it loud.
\::/
Part 1.1 on Iron Maiden – Somewhere In Time is here.
Part 1.2 on David Lee Roth – Eat Em And Smile is here.
Part 1.3 on Metallica – Master Of Puppets is here.
The media loved to play off Bon Jovi and Europe against each other, but they operated in different spheres. Europe always had the Euro/classical vibe to their music. Even at their commercial zenith, this Euro/classical vibe was still prevalent.
In Australia, the album was double platinum. In other parts of the world, it was the same, if not more.
Apart from the mainstays in vocalist Joey Tempest and bassist Jon Leven, “The Final Countdown” is the first album to feature keyboardist Mic Michaeli and drummer Ian Haugland, and the last to feature original guitarist John Norum until Europe’s 2000’s reboot.
“The Final Countdown”
At 294.7 million streams on Spotify, it’s a monster track. It’s on every Spotify playlists when it comes to hard rock and the 80’s and number ones and what not.
That intro. Iconic and memorable.
Wikipedia tells me it was a riff composed by Joey Tempest in 1981/82. It sat on the backburner until 1985, when bassist Jon Leven, asked Tempest to bring it back in the mix and write a song around it.
An interview that Tempest did with the BBC he mentions the following;
“I was in college and keyboards had started to make their way into rock music. I thought that could be a good idea and so I borrowed this keyboard from the only guy in school that had a keyboard. I went home and tried a few sounds on it and I came up with that riff. I thought it was very special and I kept it in the drawer until we did the third album many years later.
By then, there were some other bands experimenting with keyboards, like Van Halen with “Jump”. So on the third album, I gave this demo to the guys and said maybe we can do something nice with the demo and then we had an opening for the show.
I can trace bands like UFO in it, sort of a galloping theme like Iron Maiden had on “The Number of the Beast” album on quite a few songs.”
I like how Tempest mentions the influences of the song. It’s how we create. Take something that came before and make it better. And it also shows how ballsy the move was from EVH to create a song based around a synth riff. It inspired other bands to do the same.
How good is that lead break from John Norum?
He left the band as the album was being released. The original album cover has him on it, however subsequent versions afterwards had Kee Marcello, his replacement.
“Rock The Night”
50.46 million streams on Spotify.
A great “Rock You Like A Hurricane” inspired intro kicks off this song.
It was already a fan favourite, as it was played live on the “Wings Of Tomorrow” tour, and in Sweden, it was on the soundtrack of a Swedish film called “On The Loose”, along with the songs “On The Loose” and “Broken Dreams”.
Just don’t watch the video clip.
“Carrie”
123.96 million streams on Spotify. It’s also on a lot of playlists from Spotify, with the main one being the “Power Ballads” playlist.
Listen to the lead break from Norum. It’s the style of lead breaks that Vito Bratta would become known for.
“Danger On The Track”
The lyrics are silly but the vocal melodies are infectious.
But the interlude. It’s got everything. Norum plays a bluesy riff while the keyboard solos, and when he gets his chance, he delivers.
“Ninja”
The intro melodic lead hooks me in straight away. Or maybe it was the “Lights Out” groove from UFO.
This song, along with “Rock The Night” were the first songs written for the album and played live during the “Wings Of Tomorrow” tour.
Make sure you check out the lead break. Norum brings his Michael Schenker and Uli John Roth influences to the table on this one.
It’s a perfect closer for Side A.
“Cherokee”
Artists that weren’t American, were writing about American issues and the treatment of the Native Indian tribes. The idea for this song came from a book that the wife of producer Kevin Elson had and it was the last song written for the album.
The intro riff, which is also the Chorus riff is excellent.
And how good are the small leads in the Outro chorus. Tempest sings “Cher-o-kee” and Norum plays three notes after it, to mimic it.
“Time Has Come”
It’s like a soundtrack song. “Drive” from The Cars comes to mind.
But the bomb in this song is the whole solo movement. It is orchestrated brilliantly. It starts off with a Def Leppard like inspired riff before it goes into the lead.
“Heart Of Stone”
This track is one of those “deep album cuts” which is a fan favourite. The riffs are heavy metal like and that Chorus vocal melody is infectious.
And the solo.
Man, check it out as Norum pours his creativity in it.
“On The Loose”
It’s the “Blackout” feel from Scorpions that gets me to pay attention.
“Love Chaser”
It’s a combination of “The Final Countdown” riff and “Danger On The Track”.
And what a shred-a-licious lead break to close the album with.
Europe would go on and release the excellent “Out Of This World” in 1988 which had more of a classic rock and metal vibe to it, and after a lot of delays and demanded re-writes by the label, “Prisoners In Paradise” in 1991, before calling it quits for the rest of the 90’s. But when they returned in the 2000’s, they returned with power, fully in control of their masters and their careers.
Part 1.1 on Iron Maiden – Somewhere In Time is here.
Part 1.2 on David Lee Roth – Eat Em And Smile is here.
There is a lot of hate for the Public Domain from the corporations that hold the Copyrights to a lot of culture and the hate will get even bigger now that other corporations like hedge funds and investment funds are buying up the rights to valuable works.
A lot of artists hate streaming, but streaming has really shown how valuable music can be, which has brought in a new player to the Copyright table.
The Night Flight Orchestra got some love as being hot as well as the Sweden’s music scene. Adrenaline Mob was also back after the death of AJ Pero and the previous departure of Mike Portnoy. But a much larger tragedy was on the horizon.
“It’s a cheap tag (on being called Heavy metal) and its been stamped on us mainly from a media point of view. It’s an insult to be slapped in with hundreds of other bands. We look at it this way, we’re a rock and roll band. Calling AC/DC heavy metal is like saying The Police is a reggae band, even though they may have a bit of that style.”
AC/DC is still found in the Metal section of the record stores.
“You should give someone a chance to develop their own technique. If someone tells you how to play something it could easily mess up your talent and corrupt you for life. Everything you play should be done how you feel like doing it—very naturally. Playing guitar is like doing anything else—you’ve got to be able to think for yourself.”
So I wasn’t surprised when by 1990 so many guitarists sounded the same and had very similar techniques.
Vito Bratta’s guitar playing was still coming through the speakers. He spent so many years to make it, only to walk away, a few years after making it.
Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains was pissed because “something you’ve worked on and poured your soul into, and invested your money in, somehow it’s no longer deemed valuable. That’s fucked up, to me.”
But I disagreed. His art is valuable to the people who find it valuable. Just because someone spent two to three years creating art, it doesn’t mean that people will find it valuable to pay you for it. The ones that want to pay, will pay.
I was overdosing on “West Ruth Avenue” from The Night Flight Orcheatra. It’s the Kiss – “I Was Made For Lovin You” guitar like riff that grabbed my attention. It’s from their 2012 album “Internal Affairs” released via Coroner Records.
The NFO captures the magic of classic rock and they make it sound so authentic.
Nikki Sixx was pissed at fans rushing the stage and Black Sabbath debuted new songs live prior to the release of “13”. Meanwhile Stone Sour was covering Sabbath with “Children Of The Grave”.
“Children of The Grave” is my best Sabbath song. I still prefer the blistering Randy Rhoads version on “Tribute”. It’s got more of a metal feel to it and the lead break that Randy unleashes is another one of his songs within a song lead break.
Thirty Seconds To Mars dropped “Conquistador” and I was/still am a fan of its massive blues rock riff.
I was on the Queensryche is nothing without Chris DeGarmo and posted about it. And i was still following the trajectory of “What About Now’ from Bon Jovi. This week it slipped from 76 to 96.
Dragon is a New Zealand rock band which was formed in January 1972 and relocated later to Sydney, in May 1975.
“Body and the Beat” is album number seven. The album was released in June 1984, peaking at number 5 on the Australian charts and gained a platinum certification.
But it’s their first album since 1979.
At the time, Dragon was on the verge of breaking through worldwide but vocalist Marc Hunter was out of control with his heroin addiction and on stage antics, offending everyone, including audiences, other acts and label heads.
They had a US tour opening up for Johnny Winter that went pear shaped when Hunter called Winter’s blues rock audience rednecks and faggots. Then again it was another stupid decision to place Dragon on this bill, it’s like Imagine Dragons opening up for Iron Maiden.
Actually when I watched Maiden on the “Somewhere Back In Time”, the opening act “Behind Crimson Eyes” was the support. Now they are an Australian metalcore band with screaming vocals and they got booed after each song, until they played a cover of “Ace Of Spades” and the crowd cheered. Again, another misplaced opening act.
Anyway, back to Dragon, the band which included his brother Todd, fired him. This brought to an end the first period of Dragon which also involved the heroin overdose of drummer Neil Storey in 1976.
Hunter went solo and had some success and then the band got together again.
“Rain” was the output in 1983. Written by Johanna Pigott, Marc Hunter and Todd Hunter, it’s 3 minutes and 40 seconds of hard rock glory. Make sure you stick around for the “if you go out in the rain” melody.
Due to its success, the band went into the studio to record an album worth of songs.
It’s worth noting that the songwriting team of Johanna Pigott and her partner, Todd Hunter (Dragon bass player) also wrote the smash hit title track “Age Of Reason” for John Farnham.
The album kicks off with “Rain”. “Promises” and “Wilderworld” are melodic rock songs perfect for a summers day.
If it wasn’t for “Rain”, then “Cry” would be a favorite.
“Body And The Beat” has a bass groove and a feel that bands like INXS were making popular.
“Magic” feels like a driving song, with the window down and the warm winds blowing through.
But.
Apart from “Rain”, this album is forgotten.
Everyone told the band the album would break the band overseas. But it didn’t. Within a year they were back in the studio recording another album..
A year after this album came out, keyboardist Paul Hewson and the writer of their classic songs “April Sun In Cuba” and “Are You Old Enough” was found dead in a friends car, hours after he told the band he wanted to leave.
Dragon continued and released the super successful (in the Australia market), “Dreams Of Ordinary Men” in 1986 and my favourite “Bondi Road” in 1989. A few greatest hits and acoustic re-recordings hit the shelves. And then tragedy struck again.
Marc Hunter was diagnosed with throat cancer in November 1997 and he died on 17 July 1998. Dragon have continued on with Todd Hunter still the driving force.
destroyerofharmony 