Tag Archives: history

A to Z of Making It, Alternate Reality, Copyright, Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – January 31 to February 6

4 Years Ago (2018)

CATHARSIS

I have no issues with lyrics of any kind. I also have no issue with artists taking a stance and commenting on what they see is the state of the world. Opinions are important whether I agree or disagree with them.

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.

Check out my review of the album.

APPETITE FOR COPYRIGHT

Seriously you can’t make up the madness that Copyright comes up.

The labels get richer as they keep making licensing deals with techies. Facebook was another techie who made a deal back then.

None of the licensing fee goes back to the musicians, even though it’s the musicians works the labels used in the negotiations. So far Universal and Sony have made the deal and Warner Music Group is in conversation.

And music creators believe a government bill increasing the royalty rate services that play music need to pay, will increase the payments get back. Umm, it won’t. The record labels and publishers will have more money in their bank account and the creators will still get the payments they always get based on their publishing and label contract.

You see, this is what happens when you create a law that creates a monopoly, which in turn gives rise to corporations who become powerful entities. They are all about their own pockets. People who have created no value and no art are living high, from the hard work of artists.

8 Years Ago (2014)

ROADWAY

I was listening to their self-titled EP from 2011.

They had a song on it called “This Is Why” which is a derivative version of “Soldier of Fortune” from the David Coverdale era of Deep Purple.

“This Is Why” is a great song and no one has even heard it. By the way, it features Doogie White and it actually made me call up “Soldier Of Fortune” on Spotify. Yep, “This Is Why” made me want to revisit the Coverdale era of Purple. I even set up a playlist with both of the songs. It is also their most played song on Spotify, however at 60,000 streams it’s virtually unknown.

Roadway does Seventies hard rock vibe. They have it down and it is so refreshing to hear a current band be influenced by that era, especially when the main songwriter Ross McEwen was born in 1988.

And in 2013, they released another EP called “Set In Stone”.

Check em out on Spotify. You will not be disappointed.

THE METAL MANIFESTO

So without further delay, here is The Metal Manifesto;

  • Metal music is a way to belong. We wear the patches/colours of our favourite bands on t-shirts.
  • Metal heads question everything, as we strive to find our own place in society and our own road to walk on.
  • Metal music is a lifestyle. We live it and we breathe it.
  • Metal music is empowerment. It is freedom. It is release.
  • Metal music has its own heavy metal salute, a call to arms, in which the pinkie and forefinger are raised over a clenched fist. Credit Ronnie James Dio for the salute.
  • Metal music is confrontational. Deal with it.
  • Metal music is diversity. It doesn’t matter what colour, religion or country you are from. We are all one.
  • Metal will never fade into obscurity. It is always there, a survivor of the times.

ALTERNATE HISTORY

What kind of musical history would we have if Randy Rhoads didn’t get on that plane?

The “Bark At The Moon” album would still have been written as Ozzy Osbourne had the song titles already and lyricist Bob Daisley was on board to write lyrics again. The big difference would be the music. Instead of hearing the Jake E Lee riff we would be hearing a Randy Rhoads riff instead.

It is pretty clear from all interviews that Randy Rhoads was growing tired with the touring and the Osbourne camp. And that he would leave Ozzy.

So if Randy Rhoads walks away from Ozzy after the “Bark At The Moon” album, Jake E Lee could still be a candidate for the Ozzy job, as Rough Cutt was nowhere near the level of a platinum selling act.

But Dio might have picked him up after Vivian Campbell left. So how different would the “Dream Evil” album be if Jake E Lee brought the riffs that made up the Ozzy BATM album.

But would the Badlands project have existed if Jake E Lee didn’t get a guitarist gig with a high profile act?

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – January 24 to January 30

4 Years Ago (2018)

ZAKK WYLDE

I overdosed on “A Love Unreal” from 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. The guitar solo on it is “guitar hero” level. With “A Love Unreal” Zakk has orchestrated another candidate. The guitar solo on this song is a 10 out of 10 for me.

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.

8 Years Ago (2014)

METALLICA

The Grammy’s is not about the awards, it is about the performances. The Grammy organisation exists solely to sell a TV show and advertising.

The music websites back then wrote about the performances, and how Metallica mashed up “One” with classical pianist Lang Lang. And they got a 125% boost in Spotify streams for the song “One”. Overall, across their whole catalogue, their Grammy performance gave them a 63% increase.

No one wrote about the actual winners in the Best Metal category.

Who was it again?

That’s right, it was “God Is Dead?” from Black Sabbath, And it didn’t get any traction after the awards.

METAL HEADS

We overpay for music in Australia.

The ACCC, our competition watchdog launched an inquiry into the pricing. The techies went in front of the commission and stated that they didn’t set the price for music in Australia and that the price was set by the Record Labels.

It was found by the Commission that there should be no reason why Australians should pay more for software and music.

However, nothing has changed in relation to the prices. If anything, with the labels pushing vinyl, the prices have quadrupled, with a brand new double vinyl set going for $80.

And music sites would talk about the return of vinyl, but its miniscule compared to what digital brings in. Music is about data. It’s not about how many albums or songs are sold.

Are people listening, sharing and talking about your music?

And if they are, where are these people located, so you can organise ways to tour there and monetise.

DEPRESSING SONGS

I don’t see myself as depressive, but I do have a lot of songs in playlists that are classed as depressive or sad. So I wrote about some of the songs. The link is more in depth however I will summarise.

“Give Me A Sign” is from the album “Dear Agony” by Breaking Benjamin released in 2009. “Break Away” is from the album “The Illusion Of Progress” by Staind released in 2008.

“What A Shame” is from the album “The Sound Of Madness” by Shinedown released in 2008. “Broken Bones” is from the album “Light Me Up” by “The Rev Theory” released in 2008.

“Let Me Be Myself” is from the self-tilted Three Doors Down album released in 2008. “Alias” is from the album, “A Sense Of Purpose”, released in 2009.

“Wake Up” is from Story Of The Year, who are a very underrated band in the metal community. From the outset they got labelled as Emo. However, to me I always saw them as a metal band. This song is from the “The Black Swan”, released in 2008.

“That Was Just Your Life” has so many familiar bits, like the “Enter Sandman” riff backwards, the harmony guitars at about the 5.50 minute mark ripping Thin Lizzy rip offs and a section in which they plagiarise “Jump In The Fire”. Call it a great song, to open up the “Death Magnetic”.

“The Forgotten” is from the last album of the Howard Jones/Killswitch Engage era released in 2009 and what an album it is.

“The Unforgiven III” is another Metallica classic.

Set sail to sea, but pulled off course

LIFE MESSAGES FROM MOVIES

American Hustle and The Wolf Of Wall Street

These two movies are for all the people who believe that if you work hard, get a good education and put in the 12 hour days, that somehow, success will work itself out and befall on them.

But it doesn’t really happen that way at all. Everybody is putting a scam in motion.

What these movies have shown is that it doesn’t matter what level of education a person has. It doesn’t mean that they will win. Quitters never win and it is the winners that write history. The winners write history because they bend the laws and they twist social morals to suit them. People may not like it, but it’s the truth.

Oblivion

I love it’s eeriness.

This movie is for the people who only believe what they are told and even when they come across something that questions that belief, they re-frame it and twist it, so that it conforms with what they believe in, because that is all the know. Whatever Mission Control said was the truth and the whole truth.

We life in an information society right now with everything at our fingertips.

Don’t be a fool. Do your own research and question everything. Don’t just follow. Whereas “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and “American Hustle” reflect the hustling mentality of life, “Oblivion” reflects our servitude to institutions.

Now You See Me

This movie is a sleeper hit. For a movie that cost $75 million to make and promote, it has returned over $350 million.

World War Z

I wrote back then how we have had a pretty clean run in relation to pandemics compared to previous centuries. I guess it was a bit premature.

In “World War Z” the virus needs a viable host to spread and therefore it is found that people inflicted with various diseases are immune from the zombie swarms as they cannot spread the disease.

Respect our world is the message that I get from WWZ. The more we disrespect it and pollute it, the more we and our future generations will suffer.

And the rich pharmaceutical companies care about treatments. There is no money in cures for them.

RICHIE SAMBORA

I found an Hot Metal article from November 1991 on Richie Sambora, so I did the painstaking task of typing it all up and adding my own comments. The interviewer is Stefan Chirazi and it was part of Sambora’s press campaign for his first solo album “Stranger In This Town”.

1991 was three years after “New Jersey” came out and five years after “Slippery When Wet.” The band Bon Jovi was on hiatus meanwhile Jon Bon Jovi had another hit with “Blaze Of Glory.” This was a crucial time for the artist known as Richie Sambora.

Here are some quotes from the article;

“I don’t consider myself a rock or pop star, I consider myself a musician and I would like people to consider me as an artist.”

“At the time Blaze Of Glory hit, Jon said he didn’t really know if he wanted to go on with the band again. That kind of left me in a difficult position because I didn’t have a record contract and I didn’t have a contract with Bon Jovi.”

“Then, at the end of our last tour, we had some disagreements about different things. I owned the record company which is now Jamco and used to be The Underground – Jon and I and Doc McGhee owned it all together. And I didn’t wanna be part of that anymore because I was so tired and beat up from being out there so long.”

“Bon Jovi’s sold 30 million records and I can’t even evaluate that or relate it to real terms. All I know is that I work as hard as I can, and at this stage of my career I’m still working this hard.”

1992 – The Year That Hard Rock Forgot

1992 was the year of transition.

Once the year was over; hard rock, melodic rock, glam rock and so forth would never be the same. In relation to hard rock releases, what a year it was. So many great albums got released, however according to the record labels barometer of success, those albums failed miserably.

One of the best releases from 1992 was “Blood and Bullets” by Widowmaker. Not only is it a great album, it was also the first “official” album to feature Dee Snider from Twisted Sister after Twisted Sister.

Along with the self-titled Lynch Mob album, “The Crimson Idol” from W.A.S.P., “Dog Eat Dog” from Warrant, “III Sides to Every Story” from Extreme, “Sin-Decade” from Pretty Maids and “Revenge” from Kiss, it formed my decadent seven wonders of heavy rock.

My metal tastes got serviced by “Countdown to Extinction” from Megadeth, “Fear of the Dark” from Iron Maiden, “The Ritual” from Testament, “Dehumanizer” from Black Sabbath, “A Vulgar Display of Power” from Pantera and a new band from Seattle called Alice In Chains” and their excellent “Dirt”.

Dream Theater blew me away with “Images and Words” while Yngwie Malmsteen delivered the excellent “Fire and Ice” and no one outside of his hardcore fan base heard it. Another neo-classical shredder Tony MacAlpine released “Freedom To Fly” and boy didn’t he fly with it.

“Hold Your Fire” from Firehouse, “Five Wicked Ways” from Candy Harlots, “Don’t Tread” from Damn Yankees, “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion” from The Black Crowes, “The Wild Life” from Slaughter, “Nothing Sacred” by Babylon A.D., “Hear” from Trixter, “Tangled In Reins” from Steelheart, “Double Eclipse” from Hardline and “Adrenalize” from Def Leppard satisfied by hard rock cravings.

And the record labels just abandoned this music.

PEARL JAM – BLACK

Smith and Myers cover this song.

I didn’t like “Even Flow” or “Alive” when they hit the air waves back in 1991. They just didn’t connect with me at that point in time. In addition, I was really anti-grunge because all of the rock bands that I was into started to disappear.

So I was staying loyal to my team. The hard rock team.

Then in 1993, I saw a live performance of the band on MTV doing “Jeremy” and then they went into “Rockin In The Free World” with Neil Young and suddenly, I was interested. Loyalty to hard/glam rock was still strong, however in the end I am a fan of music and if there is great music to hear from other genre’s I will dig deep and hear it. So I asked a previous hard rock friend of mine who switched to the grunge side to copy the album onto a cassette for me.

Oh, the shame of admitting defeat.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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Influenced, Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – January 16 to January 23

I’ve been all over the place with posts this month.

It all started when I got Covid around the 7 January (from my brother in law who had it and decided to keep it secret and infect us all) and although I’m triple vaxed, there are still some minor symptoms like a constant cough, a small temperature increase and just tiredness or laziness.

So these posts are normally released on Sunday’s but I’ve been late.

4 Years Ago (2018)

FORGOTTEN 80’S

“Better Days”, “Taking On The World” and “The Feeling Within”. From Gun, a very underrated and under-appreciated band.

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 the music. They would basically compare it to something else which is popular and hopefully they would get 10% of that audience to buy blind. 30 years later, it’s still the only way record labels know how to promote music.

“Now Forever After” and “Stargazer”. From 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 artist got one, they had another shot. If the artist 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.

Check em out.

“I Believe In You”, “Knock You Out” and “Hands Of Time”. From Y&T.

For many, “Earthshaker” is a landmark album. If you took all of the different rock stylings happening at the time, and put them into the Y&T blender, “Earthshaker” is 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”.

“Abandon” and “Heartbreaker”. From Dare.

Both songs are from the “Out Of The Silence” album released in 1988 on A&M records. 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.

“Lovers”. From Fate.

One of those acts who are classed as B or C level. This is 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” and “Rodeo”. From Pretty Maids.

They should have had more mainstream success. Not sure if the band name helped their chances or hindered them. Check out the “Future World” album.

“Under The Gun” and “Turn It On”. From Danger Danger.

For a band formed in 1987, they had Al Pitrelli on guitar for a brief time, and 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 he returned to Saraya and Andy Timmons replaced him and played on the rest of their debut album, which was released in the same year.

“Long Way From Home” and “Angel In My Heart”. From 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. And while they sounded like other bands, I’m still a sucker for derivative rock.

“Misery Loves Company”, “Nobody Knows”, “Hard Luck” and “Letters In The Rain”. From 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. But check em out.

“The Right To Rock”, “United Nations”, “King Of The Rock” and “Don’t Say You Love Me”. From Keel.

The rock is strong with Keel.

And Ron Keel was always a full throttle with his voice.

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 gets deposited into your account.

I’ll make my stand
If you’re with me, raise your hands

We had splintered by 1987.

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 for Cyrus.

8 Years Ago (2014)

ADAM DUCE

When original founding members are removed from the band they founded, the only winners are the lawyers.

Adam Duce claimed that Machine Head kicked him out of the band just before they signed a new record deal however the Machine Head camp said, Duce left on his own because he was “sick of it”.

So Duce sued the band, its three current members and manager in Federal Court, alleging trademark infringement, breach of partnership agreement and defamation, among other things.

When a member leaves or is fired from a band (depending on what story you believe), this rubbish normally happens.

It will all come down to the band agreement in place. Being in bands previously, the band agreement is a document that is meant to be fair amongst the band members. So if the other members feel like they are putting in more effort, then why should they split things evenly.

Robb Flynn is a lifer when it comes to music. He lives and breathes Machine Head. He is the main songwriter, the one that goes home and thinks about Machine Head. The one that dreams about Machine Head. The one that stays to the late hours recording the albums, mixing them and all of that.

There are no winners in court cases like these except the lawyers/attorneys.

And a few months later, the case was settled with the terms of the deal remaining confidential as both sides were able to reach a satisfactory agreement.

Fast forward to 2019, Adam Duce, Phil Demmel and Dave McClain had a jam session at the opening night of Demmel’s Pub. Which is bizarre as McClain was going to quit Machine Head if Duce remained.

I guess hell had frozen over.

CHAOS

It’s a chaotic and disruptive time in the music business and with chaos comes opportunity.

On one side you have COPYRIGHT. And that can be broken down into a lot of other little chaotic categories like infringement, the length of copyright terms, copyright monopolies, the lack of works entering the public domain and so on.
The public domain is culture. Keith Richards once said, ‘you can’t copyright the blues.’

Culture is built and expanded by sharing stories and building on the works of others. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all of the sixties greats like Hendrix, Clapton and Beck used this concept. They built off the blues.

However copyright law and its real purpose got hijacked by corporations and everything changed. Instead of culture being built up in the works that the public creates and shares, the public is now faced with copyright corporations locking away works that should be in the public domain by now.

It is important to respect the public domain.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SCENES

Video games are one of those peculiar cultural items where the games are well-known, however the actual designers are not really known.

Does anyone know the names of Tomohiro Nishikado (“Space Invaders”) or Toru Iwatani (“Pac-Man”) or Yu Suzuki (“Outrun”)?

I didn’t, however I knew the games and I even spoke about the games to my kids.

And it got me thinking about some names behind some of the great music that I love.

Tom Werman is one person that comes to mind immediately. Regardless of the different versions of history out there from some of the artists that he worked with, one thing is clear; Tom Werman was a pop producer who got selected by the A&R people of the labels as the man to get hard rock acts on the radio. And he did that job with a lot of Gold and Platinum certifications along the way

Michael Wagener is another that comes to mind. He was a producer, an engineer and a mixer.

What about Randy Staub?

He engineered “Dr Feelgood” from Motley Crue, the black album from Metallica, “Keep The Faith” from Bon Jovi, Motley Crue’s self titled album, “Subhuman Race” from Skid Row, “Load” and “Reload” from Metallica, “Satellite” from POD and many others like Five Finger Death Punch’s “War Is The Answer.” He never was the Producer but was an in demand engineer. Those sounds are from Staub.

Mike Fraser is another whose name is in the majority of albums that I like as mixer.

Of course there are others like Max Norman, Roy Thomas Baker, Jack Douglas, Bruce Fairbairn, Bob Rock, Duane Baron/John Purdell, Dave Prater and many more that shaped the albums that we have come to known to love. The music has achieved worldwide acclaim, the bands and the song writers have achieved worldwide acclaim however a lot of the people behind the scenes that captured the sounds, mixed them, edited them, spoke out about arrangements and so forth, have not.

ZEBRA

Randy Jackson from the band Zebra does Robert Plant better than Robert Plant!

It was Dream Theater’s cover of their song “Take Your Fingers From My Hair” in 2009 that re-awakened my interest in Zebra.

Isn’t it funny how a cover song brings back the original song and the band into the psyche.

Jackson founded Zebra in 1975.

They had a very large following before their first record ever came out in 1983 on Atlantic Records.

Like most bands in the later part of the Seventies and the early part of their Eighties, most of their fan base had been developed from their live shows.

In addition, the majority of the bands had been slugging it out for a decent time in the clubs before getting their recording contract.

The follow-up album “No Tellin Lies” in 1984 stalled in the U.S and by 1986, their 3.V album wasn’t even noticed and Atlantic dropped them.

Then it was over.

Randy Jackson formed China Rain and they lived in development hell and never got a fair shake.

Randy Jackson finished the China Rain record in 1990 and Atlantic Records decided not to release it. Sound familiar. Gatekeepers controlling the fate of musicians. Dee Snider suffered the same fate with his “Desperado” project.

From 1992 to 1996, Randy was involved in the development of an interactive musical instrument called “The Key”.

“Zebra IV” started recording in 1996. The drums were done in a week in 1996 and the rest of the album was done sporadically after that. The album didn’t see the light of day until 2003.

Throughout the Nineties, Randy also built up his acoustic shows. Nobody wanted to book him in the beginning, even his trusted agents in New Orleans who had booked Zebra for 20 years rejected him. Now he is playing places like Japan and criss crossing the US and he hasn’t even put out a record of the acoustic project. Yep, while labels and artist still believe it is about the album, here is Randy Jackson delivering a show that is spreading via word of mouth.

In between Randy did “The Sign”, a melodic rock supergroup. He also handles the vocals for the wildly successful Symphonic Music shows of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Eagles performing to packed houses across the country (from 1996).

He is a lifer in the music business. Prepared to do what he needs to do to get. He didn’t get the fame that other bands did, however it didn’t mean he didn’t have success.

LIFERS

If you want to have a career in the music business, “Lifer” is a term that you need to get used to. I’m other words, you need to be in it for life.

CREDITS

Sebastian Bach believes he’s been ripped on the songwriting credits of the songs that Bolan and Sabo wrote. Doc McGhee said that Bach doesn’t understand how Copyright works and that their is a difference between writing a song and performing a song.

Some musicians believe that their performance on the song should give them a songwriter credit, which is a false belief.

There is always a main songwriter in each band. That is why in Motley Crue you see a lot of songs written by Nikki Sixx. Iron Maiden have Steve Harris. Skid Row has Rachel Bolan. Zebra has Randy Jackson. The Police had Sting.

In the majority of the cases, the original song writer will be listed as the song writer. There could be a band agreement in place here that distributes monies earned from the songwriter to the other band members in relation to licensing royalties.

Dee Snider had one with Jay Jay French.

Van Halen had one but in the 90s they started to give the songwriting credits to the people involved in the songwriting and that didn’t include Michael Anthony.

WICKED SENSATION

Dokken didn’t get much traction in Australia so you rarely saw them on the music television shows in Australia.

And just when Dokken had the world in their hands, unresolved internal conflicts made the members part ways. The internal conflicts stem back from the beginning of Dokken.

This is how drummer Mick Brown summed up the conflicts;

“A few years after running into Don Dokken, he took some material that George and I had wrote and took it to Germany and pretty much put his name on it, you know what I am saying (laughing) and he got a recording contract.

So he called me up to play.

I looked over at George and I said George, this guy’s got our music and he’s got a record deal and we were pretty upset about that because he’s got our songs.

But then we also thought, it’s kind of an open door so we went along with it. I think probably when people talk about the turmoil in Dokken, that was pretty much the moment where it all started.

I remember Don asking us to, if he could take some of our songs over there to try and get something going in Europe and we said “No” (laughing) but he did anyway.”

And if there was any doubt to Lynch’s guitar god status, “Wicked Sensation” cemented it.

In 1990, I was in a rut in relation to my guitar playing. “Wicked Sensation” re-awakened my desire and showed me new ways to play chords, create rhythms and structures.

Much in the same way that the “Randy Rhoads Tribute” album and Tesla’s “The Great Radio Controversy” became my bibles, “Wicked Sensation” was next in my list.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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Influenced, Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – January 9 to January 15

Damn, I just realized I didn’t post this on my usual Sunday.

4 Years Ago (2018)

PUBLIC DOMAIN 2018

A simple post about the works not entering the public domain but should have been.

COPYRIGHT SUITS

Lana Del Rey and Radiohead went to war, with Radiohead suing her for copyright infringement in her song “Get Free” which has a verse that sounds similar to “Creep” released in 1992.

Boy George had the best quote on his Twitter account. “Radiohead were sued by The Hollies and now Radiohead are suing Lana Del Rey. Utter Madness!”

RANDOM LISTENING – THUNDER BAY VERSION

These artists albums came from Deke’s EOY list for 2017.

Greta Van Fleet – From The Fires

I thought it was Wolfmother.

“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.

And I heard the album that came after and it was boring but I’m still interested as to see what comes next.

Headstones – Little Army

Check out the lyrics.

  • “We’ll I’m a red meat eater, liar and cheater”… from “Devils On Fire”.
    Take that all you politically correct wannabes.
  • “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.
  • “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

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 avoided Cheap Trick.

“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.

And youngsters won’t care about this album and the extra few million 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

Europe nailed it.

They started off with the whole “War Of Kings” album and then played the whole “The Final Countdown” album.

When Joey Tempest screams, “Are you ready London?” the answer is a unanimous cheer.

Stephen Pearcy – Smash

Does anyone care if Stephen Pearcy is running solo?

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. I wanted another album after this but it never came.

Collective Soul – Live

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.

MEMPHIS THREE

If you want to know what society and politics is like, just look at the documentary “West Of Memphis”.

In it you will see incompetence and political corruption.

Three metal head kids (the Memphis Three) are arrested for the murders of three 8-year olds. They are convicted of murder and did more than 18 years in prison.

But they are out now as the whole case against them in a Bible Belt town was all bullshit.

And what the hell is an Alford Plea?

I looked it up on Wikipedia.

The Prosecutors knew they had to release them, but the only way they would do it is by an Alford Plea, so the Memphis Three claim their innocence but plead guilty. The tragedy is the killer still walks free and law enforcement can’t go after any other suspect because a piece of paper says they have the killers.

And the current prosecutor at the end of the doco is a joke. He’s saying those kids are guilty.  If they are guilty why didn’t he go to a re-trial then?

He knew he was going to lose the re-trial because the weight of new evidence found was in favour of the Memphis Three and he would lose votes and lose his position as City Prosecutor.

GRIT

Never quit. Good things come from frustration. If you are upset about failing, it just means that you haven’t failed enough.

Dream Theater almost called it a day, during the period between 1988 and 1991, when months rolled by and no suitable singer appeared.

Perseverance is a skill. It keeps you estranged from the conventions of society.

Ronnie James Dio spent 18 years paying his dues before finding success with Rainbow in 1976.

How many musicians starting out today will put in 18 years of service to music?

Breakthrough work is usually rejected at first. Success is slow.

There is plenty of money to be made in the long run if you don’t make money your number one priority. Start small and remember you don’t have to start perfect.

Just start.

8 Years Ago (2014)

THE CHALLENGE

The record labels arose as a way to get music out of its city venue limitations and into the greater world.

However in time these record labels formed into mega corporations with the emphasis on lower costs and high profit margins.

Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, the labels employed people that figured out how to engineer processes and machines to drive productivity and profit.

The labels ruled the kingdom unchallenged until another player called social disruption reared its head.

It started with a technology called Napster and society showed the powerful record labels what they really think of their high prices.

In the last 20 years, the record labels have constantly stated that the “biggest threat” they face is continued copyright infringement.

They point to research that shows how it is destroying businesses, employments and other sectors. They get people in the press and they get elected politicians on their side to believe those claims. Because, hey, big copyright monopoly companies said that copyright infringement is a threat so it must be a threat.

Did you know that Vivendi (owner of Universal Music) commissioned 23 reports and only 5 of those reports mentioned copyright infringement as a potential risk?

Guess which reports get released to the public.

Did you know that Sony (Sony Music and Sony Pictures) commissioned 15 reports and only 2 of those reports mentioned copyright infringement as a potential risk?

But in their recent annual report, the company listed copyright infringement as a major risk to their business, however 13 reports out of 15 disagree.

The record labels seem to forget that their business is reliant on humans forming a connection with an artist. Yep, with the artist. Not with the label.

THE KASHMIR EFFECT

Great songs don’t happen overnight or by a committee. They happen by jamming and by creating derivative accidents.

If there was any doubt about the power of “Kashmir”, then look no further than the metal and rock movements during the Eighties.

Kingdom Come’s derivative version “Get it On” helped the self-titled Kingdom Come album released in 1988 move over a million units in the U.S.

Whitesnake employed the same technique in “Judgement Day” from the “Slip Of The Tongue” album, which even though it didn’t reach the sale heights of the self-titled 1987 album, it still moved over a million copies in 1989.

In the Nineties, the main riff was used by Puff Daddy in the song “Come with Me”.

The defining part of the song is the ascending chromatic riff over a pedal point which is made even greater by the drumming from John Bonham, playing slightly behind the beat.

Dave Mustaine is a great employer of this technique.

“In My Darkest Hour” and “The Call Of Ktulu/Hanger 18” both employ this technique,

“Mary Jane” from the “So Far, So Good, So What” album released in 1988 has a riff which comes in at 0.46 and continues throughout the song. If it sounds familiar, it should, it is a very close derivative version of “In My Darkest Hour”.

“This Was My Life” from the “Countdown To Extinction” album released in 1992 has the main verse riff.

“Public Enema Number 1” from the “Th1rte3n” album released in 2011 has the main verse riff.

“The Kingmaker” from the “Super Collider” album released in 2013 has the Chorus riff.

Check em out if you don’t believe me.

THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE

“The Thing That Should Not Be” from Metallica is inspired by H.P Lovecraft. It is the story of Cthulu the Apocalyptic Elder God lying in a dream state within his sunken kingdom of R’lyeh.

Today, “The Thing That Should Not Be” is the story of Copyright.

In 1998, the US Congress agreed to grant another 20 years of copyright protection to every film, book and song in the land. And because of this, works that should be in the public domain are not there.

The world needs a sensible copyright policy which makes the public domain bigger and better so people can build upon.

SAMPLES

Everyone knows the song, “Every Breath You Take”. It is from the mega selling “Synchronicity” album from The Police and it is credited as a Sting composition.

Sting did bring in the demo with his bass line, synth chords and vocal melody.

But, it is in the performances and the Andy Summers guitar riff which makes the song memorable.

But Sting is credited as the songwriter, so he gets all of the publishing royalties.

And when Puff Daddy did his version, it was the guitar track which was sampled, not the drums or bass, but Summers guitar track.

THE ULTIMATE SIN

“The Ultimate Sin” is a misunderstood album.

It is loved by many as much as it is hated.

By 1986, the legend of Ozzy Osbourne was growing. After writing the “Bark At The Moon” album with one finger on the piano m, the heavy metal community waited with anticipation as to what Osbourne would do next.

Jake E. 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. It’s not an ideal way to commence the album development cycle however this litigious house is the house that Sharon built.

Of course, the Osbourne’s didn’t credit Daisley for his song writing contributions on the initial 1986 pressing of the album, though this was corrected on subsequent pressings. So there are 500,000 albums out there that doesn’t credit Bob Daisley.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – December 26 to January 8

Well it’s been two weeks since the last DoHh post.

Here we go.

4 Years Ago (2017 going into 2018)

2018 STARTED WITH SOME RANDOM LISTENING

Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Trilogy” album is full of great riffs and leads.

When the U.S record labels went anti shred in the 90’s, the Japanese and South American markets kept his career going.

There is no denying his 80’s output and it’s a shame that a rumoured collaboration with Ronnie James Dio never happened.

Then I moved to “Trash” from Alice Cooper. It’s commercial sounding, but it’s still Alice Cooper singing.

How can it not be good?

The real gems are “Spark In The Dark”, “This Maniac Is In Love With You”, “I’m Your Gun”, “Why Trust You” and “Trash”.

Afterwards, “Operation Mindcrime” from Queensryche got a listen.

It’s loaded with excellent guitar playing and the album gave me a tonne of great riff ideas to use as influences in my own song writing.

“Flesh and Blood” from Poison was next.

“Valley Of Lost Souls” is one hell of a good song and the best on the album.

“Let It Play” could have been on a John Cougar Mellencamp or Bryan Adams album while “Life Goes On” is a good power ballad and CC plays a tasty intro lead. “Come Hell or High Water” is another underrated tune in the vein of the Classic Rock of the 70’s that doesn’t get its dues.

“Ride The Wind” is another sleeper, while “Something To Believe In” copies the “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” country bluesy vibe, however this time, the piano is the main driver instead of the acoustic guitar.

“Blow My Fuse” from Kix was up next. Now this album is a perfect example of the “progress is derivative model”.

It starts off with “Red Lite, Green Lite, TNT” which sounds very familiar like something from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. “Get It While It’s Hot” is heavily influenced by “You Shook Me All Night Long” from AC/DC. Actually it’s very heavily, heavily influenced by that song.

“No Ring Around Rosie” is a beefed up “La Grange” from ZZ Top in the verses. “Don’t Close Your Eyes” is taking its cues from “Home Sweet Home” and “Dream On”. “She Dropped Me The Bomb” is again heavily influenced by AC/DC with a touch of The Who.  “Cold Blood” is a very similar to “Long Way To The Top” from AC/DC in the verses.

“Piece Of The Pie” is very heavily influenced by Aerosmith. “Boomerang” is influenced by Led Zeppelin. “Blow My Fuse” is such a good track where the influences are not as obvious as the other tracks. “Dirty Boys” is influenced by “Let There Be Rock” by AC/DC.

Finally, Winger is up.

The groovy “Can’t Get Enough” kicks off the album.

When “Miles Away” came on, I wasn’t sure if it was Bad English or Def Leppard. It’s one of those slow tempo melodic rock songs. “Easy Come Easy Go” has a cool groove and I dig the horn section in the verses.

The next two songs are two of my favourite songs. “Rainbow In The Rose” and “In The Day We’ll Never See”.

RANDY RHOADS AND THE BLIZZARDS

The project could have been called that.

It all started when Ozzy auditioned Randy in LA. Afterwards they jammed for a few days with Dana Strum and Frankie Banali.

Then Ozzy went back to England and he met with Bob Daisley. Ozzy and Daisley jammed with another guitarist and drummer however Daisley mentioned that they needed better players.

Ozzy mentioned Randy Rhoads, however the label wanted a well-known British guitarist, but no one was interested to join because of Ozzy’s reputation. Gary Moore was Ozzy’s first choice and he rejected the offer to audition. Eventually the label relented and Randy was flown over to London. Rhoads and Daisley started writing music and it worked well. Lee Kerslake came towards the end of the writing process.

Here are some summaries of what I wrote about the songs.

Crazy Train

You can call this song Ozzy’s biggest hit but it never registered on the charts back in the day. But on Spotify and YouTube it’s huge. The new paradigm shows us what is being listened too.

Bob Daisley provided the title while Randy Rhoads had the riff and the chord structure. For the lyrics, Bob Daisley used Ozzy’s vocal melodies and referenced what was happening in 1979/80. The Berlin Wall was still up and the Cold War between the USSR and USA was still going on.

Goodbye To Romance

It was Ozzy’s title and it came from an Everly Brothers song called “Bye Bye Love.”

The lyrics were written by Bob Daisley and the subject matter was Ozzy’s “divorce” from Black Sabbath.

On the “Don’t Blame Me” video, Ozzy mentions he was humming the vocal melody, and Randy heard it and developed the chords around the melody. Ozzy’s revisionist take makes it sound that Bob Daisley was not involved at all in the song writing process, which is obviously not true at all.

CRITICAL MASS

There are always different kinds of audiences.

You have the early adopters, the first to hear about an artist. These early adopters are looking and wanting a different experience than the people who identify as the critical mass market.

Early adopters want something fresh, exciting, new and interesting.

The critical mass market don’t. They want something that is familiar.

Metallica when they started had an audience that adopted them early. Some of those fans stood by them all the way, even when they broke through to the critical mass market in the 90’s and some of those early day fans just moved on to something new and different.

And who should the artist please, the early adopters of their music or the mass market?

Profits are fine as they allow the artist to invest back into their art. But if profit becomes the main aim, well, nothing and no one benefits if profits are the only thing the artist seeks.

And yes, there are routes to popularity which are random or accidental or luck or being in the right place at the right time.

BOB ROCK AND METALLICA

Bob Rock knew exactly what every song needed.

The demo of “Sad But True” (I had a drummer in a band who thought it was called “Sad Patrol”) was heaps quicker. Bob heard a “Kashmir” feel and asked James to slow it down and make it crunchy.

Rock kept telling James to re-write lyrics to songs. He told him to use fewer words in the choruses and to use stronger words. He questioned James on what the song was about. He asked him how the verse lyrics referenced the song message. James didn’t like this line of questioning. If James couldn’t explain it back to Rock, it meant he hadn’t nailed the lyric.

Rock told Lars to take drum lessons and he told James to take singing lessons. He told Kirk to rewrite solos.

And as a side note, in “Get Him To The Greek”, Lars gets told by Russel Brand to “Go sue Napster and your fans”, and unfortunately that is the stigma that will forever stick with Metallica. They got so out of touch with reality that they sued their own fans for sharing their music.

Nicko McBrain sums up piracy in “Flight 666”when he said “We sold out in Costa Rica but haven’t sold an album in this country…”

8 Years Ago (2013 going into 2014)

GRAMMY’S

From when Jethro Tull won the first metal award at the Grammy’s, the whole awards has been a joke for metal and hard rock music.

Having Metallica then win the “Best Metal Performance” in 1990 for “One” and then in 1991 for “Stone Cold Crazy” just added to the Grammy metal jokes.

“One’s” fate was tied with the “…And Justice For All” album and that was meant for the 1989 Grammy ceremony.

And seriously, for the 1991 awards, a cover song was the best that was on offer in the metal world for releases released from October 1989 to September 1990. I don’t think so.

Even in 1999, Metallica won again for “Better Than You”.

For which song, I hear you say.

“Better Than You.”

Does anyone know from which album it was on or how the riff goes or the vocal melody?

I bet that most people will answer NO.

HEADED FOR A HEARTBREAK

Billy Squire made one ridiculous video with a pink top. And just like that an amazing voice, with a catalog of songs was gone.

Winger had Kip Winger. A Playgirl pictorial was too outlandish and as glam music was committing suicide by cloning itself over and over again, Beavis and Butthead came along and trashed the band.

Metallica even threw darts at Kip Winger while they recorded the “Black” album.

But.

“Headed For A Heartbreak” is a hell of a good song.

Winger’s debut didn’t come from out of nowhere. Kip Winger did his time as a songwriter and studio session musician working very closely with Beau Hill who would of course go on to produce the first two Winger albums that went platinum.

Guitarist Reb Beach is a graduate from the esteemed Berklee College of Music. He also did his time in backing bands and studio work, until he met up with Kip Winger and started writing demos.

Drummer Rod Morgenstein was the most experienced. Active since joining jazz fusion legends “The Dixie Dregs” in 1974, he was a very accomplished drummer to bring into the fold.

Keyboard player and back up guitarist Paul Taylor was the x factor. He was the touring keyboardist for Aldo Nova during his “Fantasy” success. He did his time with Alice Cooper’s backing band at the same time with Kip Winger and played on the “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell” albums.

Go on Spotify and check them out. Go on YouTube and check them out. Focus on the music and not on the pretty boy images put out there in the video clips.

DONT KNOW WHAT YOU GOT UNTIL ITS GONE

Andy Johns (RIP) was on deck again to deliver another big sounding album.

Drummer, Fred Coury didn’t even play on the album as Johns just kept on finding timing issues.

The end result is an album which is seen as a blues rock classic that can rival all the best output from seventies bands like Bad Company.

Hearing them again today, it sure brought back a lot of memories. Guess you don’t know what you got until it’s gone.

SEMI – OBSCURE BON JOVI SONGS PART 1

Everyone knows the singles and even some of those songs have now slipped into obscurity but if you dig deep enough you’ll hear some cult classics.

Tracks like;

THE HARDEST PART IS THE NIGHT

From the “7800 Degrees Fahrenheit” album released in 1985.

“Stay alive, the hardest part is the night”

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART

From the debut album released in 1984. “Runaway” took most of the glory as it became a radio staple however “Shot Through The Heart” was the reason I got into Bon Jovi.

It was good to see the song get some concert time during “The Circle” tour.

HOMEBOUND TRAIN

It’s written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and it’s got this heavy blues rock swagger that just connects.

The magic is at the three minute mark when it goes into this Elvis Presley meets James Brown meets Rolling Stones vibe.

The guitar drops out and it is the bass and drums that keep the groove going and Jon does a few voice impersonations, while Sambora keeps it funky and they build up the song again while Jon keeps singing “Here I Come”. The interlude is filled with church organ and harmonica lead breaks.

On “The Circle” tour, “Homebound Train” came back into the mix with Richie Sambora on vocals.

STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN

It’s got this “Rock N Roll Aint Noise Pollution” style intro written by the Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child song writing team.

THE RADIO SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT

Another tune written for the “Keep The Faith” album that never made it.

To buy all the music that I liked was expensive, so I always purchased blank cassettes and kept my finger ready on the record button to record the latest song from the radio.

SEMI – OBSCURE BON JOVI SONGS PART 2

RIVER OF LOVE

It never made the “New Jersey” album and it is a tragedy that it didn’t get fleshed out and recorded properly. It’s got a basic foot tapping riff that sticks with you from the outset. For those keen fans, you will hear the riff groove re-used in “Save A Prayer”.

“Pretend we’re in some movie instead of faded jeans”

Listen to the “Raise Your Hands” reference in the interlude. You could write a whole song based on that riff. Wait, they already did.

Progress is derivative.

JUDGEMENT DAY and GROWING UP THE HARD WAY

Both songs begin with that whole “Na Na NaNaNa” in the same vein as “Born To Be My Baby”, “Rosie” and “Hide Your Heart” from Kiss. Both songs also share the same riff. Both songs are written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.

As with “River Of Love” these songs were recorded for the “New Jersey” album and they failed to make the cut. When a band is at their peak, they are able to churn out some great songs. The motivation is there to keep the machine rolling to see if the first round of success can be repeated.

In relation to the three demos mentioned above, I really thought that they would have seen the light of day “officially” when Bon Jovi released “100,000,000 Fans Cant Be Wrong” Box Set.

IF I WAS YOUR MOTHER

Man, this song is heavy and it has got some serious groove.

What a great vocal melody.

I saw them play it live on the “Keep The Faith Tour” and it rocked hard. The subject matter is weak and it hampers the song from being a powerhouse.

LETS MAKE IT BABY

It didn’t make the “New Jersey” album, however the bass line was used again in “Diamond Ring” (which was also originally written for the “New Jersey” album however it was officially released on the “These Days” album.

WEDDING DAY

“Wedding Day” was written for the “These Days” album, however it didn’t make the final cut.

The song is like a sleeper demo hit on YouTube.

Some of the lyrics made it into another Jon Bon Jovi song called “Janie Don’t Take Your Love To Town”.

SEMI – OBSCURE BON JOVI SONGS PART 3

DAMNED

It has a soul like funky blues groove very similar to what Lenny Kravitz was putting out.

“These Days” from 1995 is a very misunderstood album, released in a very confusing time.

Hard/Glam rock as we knew it was dead, Grunge was fading and alternative rock was rising, along with a form of industrial rock/metal.

LOVE IS WAR

Of course it sounds like “You Give Love A Bad Name” because Jon tried really hard to recreate the same vibe and the same kind of hit.

Is that a bad thing?

I’D DIE FOR YOU

“Slippery When Wet” was a monster of an album. And it was easy for other songs to get missed.

It’s got that Judas Priest “Breaking The Law” guitar line.

Did anyone pick up on that?

On YouTube, “I’d Die For You” is a cult hit. The fan’s have taken the song and made their own film clips, lyric videos and so on.

MY GUITAR LIES BLEEDING IN MY ARMS

The title is a take on the George Harrison classic, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.

ONLY LONELY

The bottom line is this; it is a fan favourite.

THE PRICE OF LOVE

“We live, we learn, we lieFor the price of love”

Aint that the truth.

WITHOUT LOVE

Written by the Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child song writing team for the Slippery When Wet album.

BURNING FOR LOVE

Sambora goes to town during the lead breaks, showcasing his abilities as a melodic shredder. He never went too over the top, always focusing on enhancing the song, instead of enhancing his ego.

RIVER RUNS DRY

It is a Jon Bon Jovi and Desmond Child composition that begins as a derivative version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”.

Remember, progress is derivative.

SAVE A PRAYER

No one knows this song even exist, but they should.

THE BALLAD OF BOB DAISLEY

The music business is tough.

However, what happens when an artist in a position of power and mainstream success, does their best to undermine the work of previous people in their career.

This is what the Osbourne’s are doing to Bob Daisley.

They are trying to re-write history to show that Ozzy Osbourne himself was the main reason why his solo career progressed.

They are omitting important facts that when Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley signed on, it was always spoken of as a band. They are omitting important facts that the band was actually called Blizzard Of Ozz. They are omitting important facts of Ozzy punching Randy, because Randy didn’t want to do a live covers album of Black Sabbath songs.

Most importantly, they are omitting the main fact, that Bob Daisley served as the lyricist for for six albums.

The sad thing is that if anyone reads the credits to the “Bark At The Moon” album, you will see it listed as “All music and lyrics by Ozzy Osbourne.”

Like, yeah right, Ozzy really churned out all of those riffs.

It is sad at to what level the Osbourne’s stooped at that stage. One more thing, read the book from Ozzy and tell me how many times he mentions Jake E. Lee in the book.

But that is a story for another day.

VITO BRATTA

I did a Top 10 of Bratta killer riffs or moments.

All The Fallen Men

Wait

Love Dont Come Easy

Fight To Survive

Hungry

When The Children Cry

Cry For Freedom

Lady Of The Valley

Little Fighter

Warsong

In the end I had a hard time picking 10 songs for this post as each song that Vito has played on all have unbelievable sections.

BATM SONGWRITING CONTROVERSY

Coming into the “Bark At The Moon” sessions, the Blizzard of Ozz band was finished.

Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake were fired before “Diary of A Madman” came out and the other driving force, Randy Rhoads died tragically when the plane he was on crashed into a mansion and burst into flames on March 19th, 1982.

Ozzy Osbourne as usual was at his drunken best but he still delivered the “Speak/Talk Of The Devil” album, and by doing so he was free from his Jet Records contract, ready to sign a major label deal with CBS.

Jake E Lee joined during the “Speak of the Devil” tour. Once that tour ended, the song writing process began for the next album.

Most of the writing was done by Lee and Bob Daisley.

“Bark At the Moon” was a title that Ozzy came up with. Jake E. Lee came up with the riffs and Bob Daisley wrote the lyrics.

While Bob Daisley got a buy out for “Bark At The Moon”, it looks like Jake E.Lee got screwed over. There are no royalty checks for the songwriting and no publishing monies either.

COPYRIGHT INC

I just finished watching the Rush documentary, “Beyond The Lighted Stage” and in the documentary, Neal Peart is talking about their “Vapor Trail” tour of South America and how they didn’t know what to expect because they never had big sales there and in the end they played to their biggest ever concert attendance at Sao Paulo.

The Brazil tour took place in November 2002. File sharing started in June 1999. Maybe copyright breaches by fans is not a bad thing.

And that’s another wrap for these last two weeks.

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Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – December 19 to December 25

4 Years Ago (2017)

2017

The 2017 list was in.

And it had a lot of songs.

And here are a few selections.

Life Ain’t Easy (For A Boy With Long Hair) – The New Roses

Who would have thought that a German act would sound better than the American acts that influenced them?

So what can I say
Things got that bad
I stood before the mirror
To shave my head
But then I looked into my eyes
And I knew right then
You’ll let your hair grow
And start a band

Freedom – Revolution Saints

It’s the best song on the album.

Musically it sounds like a Deep Purple song from the Coverdale era and there’s nothing wrong with that influence whatsoever.

Freedom
Sweet freedom
Coming my way

Gemini – The Night Flight Orchestra

On each album, TNFO have a disco pop metal rock track. “West Ruth Ave” took the spot on the first album, “Living For The Night-time” took the spot on the second album and “Gemini” takes the spot on the third album.

Blind Leading The Blind – Adrenaline Mob

Man the “Mob” has suffered on the road.

AJ Pero didn’t survive the previous tour he was involved in and bassist David Z lost his life when a truck slammed into their van parked on the side of the road.

Goodbye Forever – Volbeat

We are the birth
We are the end
We are the souls
We have a name
We are the rising and fallen ones
We are the spirit forever more

It’s my favourite part of the song. I dig how the military style drumming works with the syncopated guitar lines and the gospel backing vocals.

Just brilliant.

Black Rain – Eclipse

This song is here because of the lead break. The riff under it reminds me of “Hangar 18” by Megadeth, while the actual lead break itself is reminiscent of the “Mr Crowley” outro lead and the “Tornado of Souls” lead by Marty Friedman.

No Surrender – Art Of Anarchy
Changed Man – Art Of Anarchy
The Madness – Art Of Anarchy

I was really surprised by this release. Actually I was blown away by it.

Carry Me My Bones – Corroded
A Note To Me – Corroded

It’s the acoustic versions from “The Nevo Sessions” and they sound swampy, bluesy and groovy and raw and better.

Carry me my tired bones

Light Me Up – Doom Unit

It’s got this swampy bluesy feel which I really dig. Plus the vocal melodies are addictive. And they are from Finland.

Human (Jim Eno Sessions) – Ran’n’Bone Man

If you haven’t heard “Human” then you should. It’s a hit.

I’m only human
I make mistakes

The Road – Quiet Riot

As soon as I heard the voice, it was familiar. I’d like to tell you that I knew it was Durbin on vocals just from hearing him, but I had to Google it to find out.

American Rock ‘n Roll – Kid Rock
Greatest Show On Earth – Kid Rock
Stand The Pain – Kid Rock

I can’t say I’m a huge Kid Rock fan, but I do check out his stuff from time to time. I also caught him live on the Bon Jovi “Because We Can” tour.

He’s a showman and a very good one at that. These three songs are hard southern rock all the way and man, they are a joy to listen too. It’s like one big party jam committed to tape.

Angel Of Mercy – Black Label Society

I don’t know what it is, but man this song gets the hairs rising on the back of my neck.

For those that don’t know, the song appears on the album “Catacombs Of the Black Vatican” from Black Label Society. It’s not a 2017 release but it’s been in my playlist since it came out in 2014.

The lead break is pure magic. It just explodes out of the speakers and builds and builds to the point where you cannot help but be in awe at the feel, the melodic phrasing and the disciplined technique on display. The song will never be a hit on the Billboard Charts and due to its mellow nature it might never get a live appearance, but god damn it, the song is a classic.

Rags to Riches – Babylon A.D

“Rags To Riches” is one of the singles released in the lead up and it hooked me in with its “Atomic Playboys” style riff.

Wanderlust – Black Country Communion

I dig this “super” group. First, I am a fan of Joe Bonamassa on guitar. Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals is a no brainer. Then when you add the rest of the personal, you can see it’s got some serious cred.

I don’t know what the song is about lyrically. I don’t really care, because the sounds, the groove and the feel hook me in.

God of the Sun – Sons of Apollo
Alive – Sons Of Apollo
Labyrinth – Sons Of Apollo

When I read that Portnoy/Sherinian started a project together I wasn’t interested. However as a fan of Ron Bumblefoot Thal, I was suddenly very interested. And when I read that Portnoy/Sherinian tapped Jeff Scott Soto to do vocals, I was very intrigued.

Any fan of progressive rock/metal will love this album. It has everything that all the great albums have. Even the musical interludes are memorable and hummable, which has become a forgotten art form over the last 15 years as bands play more technical and physically exhausting intricate passages in their songs.

The Sin And The Sentence – Trivium
Other Worlds – Trivium
Beyond Oblivion – Trivium
The Revanchist – Trivium
Endless Night – Trivium

Trivium is still at it and still kicking some butt.

Check out the T1000 Cybernetic drummer in The Sin And The Sentence.

The speed and precision. Human capabilities never cease to amaze me.

Find Your Way Home – King King
Broken – King King

There is a lot of good music out there and artists like “King King” are virtually unknown in the major music markets. They are a band that has this 70s Brit Hard Blues Rock sound and I like it.

This Is War – Audrey Horne

My favourite supergroup of extreme metallers (along with “The Night Flight Orchestra”) was back with a new album that brings back memories of the Seventies and Eighties. Once the harmony guitars that sound like “Fear Of The Dark” from Maiden kick in, I’m ready to throw my computer screen at the window.

It’s brilliant.

We will never be silence or divided
This is war

My 2017 call to arms.

And that my friends brings 2017 to close.

LIVIN ON THE CHAIN GANG

You get a power chord and then a vocal melody.

Did Skid Row try and recreate “Still Of The Night”?

It follows the same structure and in truth Coverdale and Sykes tried to recreate “Jailhouse Rock” with “Still of the Night”.

Turn on the TV, Cause I got nowhere to go
Seems that there’s a little trouble down in Mexico
A 13-year-old boy robs a store so he can eat
And they got him doing time while killers walk the streets

Once Bach sings “streets” he holds the note forever while the single note riff kicks in. Like “Still Of The Night”.

A hungry politician is the wolf that’s at the door
Hell-bent on submission and feeding’ on the poor
We could stare into the sun if we would open up our eyes
But we paint ourselves into a corner coloured in white lies

So true. Politicians want applause, want to be liked and want to please their donors. So while they seek submission from the poor, they then submit themselves to their donor and the corporations who are paying them millions to introduce laws to benefit their business model.

8 Years Ago (2013)

CRYING IN THE RAIN and JOHN SYKES FIRING

Two official studio versions exist. A very bluesy and sorrowful version from the 1982 album, “Saints and Sinners” and a very polished guitar heavy gem from the 1987 self-titled “Whitesnake” album.

And then there is the version that appears on the “Bad Boy Live!” album by John Sykes, released in 2005. It is an exact replica of the 1987 version that brought “Crying In The Rain” to the masses.

John Kalodner in an interview on the Melodic Rock website, said that he always tells David Coverdale that he should work with John Sykes again.

JOHN SYKES

How do you follow-up “Still Of The Night”, “Bad Boys”, “Give Me All Your Love” and “Is This Love”?

You don’t.

You change tact and form a super group with musicians that have some real rock credentials.

Forming a new band or going solo (depending on how people see the Blue Murder project), John Sykes believed the world was his oyster.

Surrounded by the expertise of John Kalodner and a big money offer from Geffen Records, he believed he would have instant success now that he could play by his own rules.

However that was not to be.

The Blue Murder self-titled debut got stiffed from the outset, due to the Geffen label bosses doing everything to please David Coverdale.

And it’s follow up “Nothin But Trouble” got stiffed by the record label playing grunge politics. While “Nothing But Trouble” didn’t have the same impact has its predecessors, it is still a very satisfying album and it’s a John Sykes album I still listen to today.

So it is 1994 and John Sykes is without a record deal.

What does he do next?

He goes solo.

In a gatekeeper controlled market, interest in John Sykes was still high in Japan and Europe.

In 1995, “Out Of My Tree” drops. I didn’t hear this album until Napster hit in 1999. I couldn’t justify paying the $80 for it in Australia, just because it was a Japanese import.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – December 12 to December 18

4 Years Ago (2017)

I was busy writing my EOY lists during this week.

8 Years Ago (2013)

CITY LIMITS

From “I Am Giant”, released in 2010.

It has this bass intro that reminds me of the song “Comedown” from Bush and the drum beat makes me think of “When The Levee Breaks” from Led Zeppelin. If you want an introduction into the band, then this is the song to start with.

“Are we living?
Or merely killing time?

BOOM.

Then the distorted guitars crash, mimicking the bass riff.

Check it out

BON JOVI – LIVE IN AUSTRALIA

The Buick stage design was a great concept.

It was fitting that they opened up with “That’s What the Water Made Me”, the best song from the “What About Now” album.

And they then went back to 1986 with two classics “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Raise Your Hands” from the “Slippery When Wet” album.

And the 50,000 plus crowd enjoyed every note as the band went through their catalogue of songs.

JOVI’S GREATEST HITS PACKAGE

The story of the Bon Jovi “Greatest Hits” album goes back to 2007. At that time, Jon was very interested in developing the country rock sound that he experimented with on the unexpected hit single, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” which was featured on the 2005 album, “Have A Nice Day”.

The label, Universal Music wasn’t interested in allowing Jon to follow his muse, and instead wanted a “Greatest Hits” package from the band.

In the end, Universal couldn’t stop Jon from going ahead with the album; however the label believed that they would lose a lot of money on it.

So the label made Jon promise that once the country rock album bombs, Jon will deliver a “Greatest Hits” album.

But the“Lost Highway” album and world tour was successful.

After the “Lost Highway” tour, Jon and Richie got together and started writing five songs for the promised “Greatest Hits” package that was to come next.

Then the global financial crisis happened, and according to Richie Sambora, he and Jon just continued writing more than the required amount of songs needed for the “Greatest Hits” package.

Another argument was put forward to the label to release a new album, which in turn would postpone the “Greatest Hits” release again.

From the songs written, most of them would end up on “The Circle” album, with five songs left over for the “Greatest Hits” package.

The “Greatest Hits” was finally released in October 2010, while the band was still touring on “The Circle” album and it gave the band further momentum to hit the road again in 2011.

And I wrote 7000 plus words about the “Greatest Hits” package and the story behind it.

BLOWSIGHT

If you want to read about a Swedish band called Blowsight, then read on.

STILL OF THE NIGHT

It is a well-known fact that Led Zeppelin has borrowed (or stolen depending on how people view this) bits and pieces from other artists however Zeppelin’s influence and reach is vast and if there was no Led Zeppelin, a lot of bands that we love and like today would have not have existed in the form that we know them.

One such band is Whitesnake.

For a lot of people, their first hearing of Whitesnake was in 1987 and a song called “Still of the Night”.

The song is written by lead singer David Coverdale and guitarist John Sykes.

The Led Zeppelin influence is unmistakable.
The vocal delivery over the F#5 power chord in the intro reminds me of Robert Plant from “Black Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” from Elvis Presley.

When the riff kicks in straight after, the ears are treated to a combination riff based on “Black Dog” and “Immigrant Song”.

Even though it is derivative, it is hard to burn out on the song because it doesn’t sound like anything else.

AVATAR

It’s hard to believe that “Black Waltz” was Avatar’s fourth release. Another band from Sweden and the famous Gothenburg melodic death metal scene.

I was interested to check this band out after the guys from Five Finger Death Punch mentioned in an interview that Avatar’s new album is doing the rounds while they are on tour and that it is influencing them in the riff department.

Avatar has just so many elements in their music.

Industrial rhythms (like Rammstein) – check
Old Time Rock N Roll boogie – check
Swedish melodic death metal scene (like In Flames) – check
Hyperactive metal (like System of A Down) – check
Modern Metal elements (like Disturbed) – check
Technical Metal elements (like Meshuggah, Sikth) – check
Melodic, arena sized choruses – check
And that is what I got from listening to Black Waltz. A bizarre, melodic, psychotic freakshow.

Check em out.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – December 5 to December 11

4 Years Ago (2017)

1983

The final blog post of my devotion to the year known as 1983 involved an eclectic bunch of artists.

Like “Modern Love” from David Bowie,
“One Of The Few” from Pink Floyd, “Sirens” from Savatage and “Cuts Like a Knife” from Bryan Adams.

“Alpha” from Asia which sold a lot but it was still seen as a failure by the record label because it didn’t match the sales of the debut album a year before.

“Head First” from Uriah Heep, another 70’s act that had to re-establish itself in the 80’s MTV world. So it was no surprise the band delivered a very pop sounding 15th album.

“Nemesis” from Axe was also on the list. Remember “Rock ‘N’ Roll Party In The Streets”. It’s from Axe’s 1982 album “Offering”. The name “Axe” didn’t really market the band to its full potential.

Axe was touring with Mötley Crüe in 1984 when their guitarist was killed in a vehicle accident. Another member was badly injured and the band broke up after the accident.

Michael Bolton was a rocker first and a balladeer later. He was in a hard rock band called Blackjack with Bruce Kulick between 79/80, so it was no surprise to see Bruce Kulick on lead guitar when Bolton went solo on his self-titled debut. Even Bruce’s bro, Bob Kulick makes an appearance. Another favourite guitarist of mine, Al Pitrelli replaced Kulick for the tour which was cancelled after four shows.

U2 and the “War” album was on the list along with Divinyls and the “Desperate” album. The song “Boys In Town” was all over the TV and the radio in Australia.

Eurythmics had me hooked with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, “Here Comes The Rain Again” and “Who’s That Girl”.

Being the long haired lout I was, I hated the way Spandau Ballet looked, but man they could write a good pop tune that worked well in a rock context. “Pleasure”, “Gold” and “True” are such songs. Great to re-interpret on guitar for a rock setting and it was interesting learning sax solos for lead guitar.

Elton John along with Bernie Taupin wrote pop songs that worked well as rock songs. “Kiss The Bride” and “I’m Still Standing” are two such songs I covered in various bands I was in.

Jim Steinman moved from Meatloaf to Bonnie Tyler. Big production, big songs and a lot of piano lines ripped off from classical music. But the best song on the album is “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” a cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song.

“90125” from Yes was album number 11 and the band was a very different beast from its Seventies incarnation.

SAYING ONE THING AT A TIME

If an artist is creating songs and making those songs difficult to get, the audience would surely move on to something else.

If a person talks for 70 minutes we will hear nothing. If an artist releases 70 minutes of music, we will remember some of it and forget the rest.

Most of my favorite albums lasted between 30 to 40 minutes in total.

All new music is competing with the history of music, plus TV shows with movie budgets, plus blockbuster movies, plus technologies and social media, plus AI created news stories and the history of print.

Maybe music is better when it is released frequently and when an artist tries to say one thing at a time, instead of 10 different things at once.

8 Years Ago (2013)

SALES

Spotify came into the market with the idea that they need to compete with free. And compete they did. The service even started to break artists to the masses, something that the record labels couldn’t do or were clueless to do.

But the mass media still focuses on the sales in the first week and the chart position. This is so old school and not a great measuring tool of reach or success, especially for new acts starting out.

But we get headlines like this.

Loudwire: Dream Theater’s new DVD ‘Live At Luna Park’ recently entered at No 1 on the Soundscan music DVD chart.

Loudwire: Volume 2 of Five Finger Death Punch’s ‘Wrong Side Of Heaven; lands at No. 2 on Billboard 200.

Blabbermouth: “Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones” sold 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 7 on The Billboard 200 chart.

DOES A BAND HAVE CUSTOMERS OR FANS?

“Our audience are fans first and customers second. We really try not to annoy them.”
The above quote is from Stefan Mennerich, Bayern Munich Director of New Media, Media Rights & IT.

So how can a band turn fans into satisfied customers that keep on coming back, again and again?

DREAM THEATER

My favorite tracks from the DT album are still…
“The Bigger Picture” and “Illumination Theory”.

MEGADETH

Megadeth was in the news sections of the metal and rock websites a fair bit back then.

Regardless of what people think about Dave Mustaine or Megadeth, they can never take away the historical fact that Megadeth were early web pioneers.

Does anyone remember their old “Megadeth, Arizona” site that was launched in 1994 and then re-designed and re-launched for the “Cryptic Writings” release two years later?

Apart from the normal pieces of information, it was also a place for fans to check in, hang out and interact with the band along with other fans. Something that social media has built on and improved.

2013

Well the year was almost over and it was time to look back at the albums that connected and hit the mark for 2013 for me.

  1. Protest The Hero – Volition
  2. Avenged Sevenfold – Hail To The King
  3. Five Finger Death Punch – The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell Vol 1
  4. Killswitch Engage – Disarm The Descent
  5. TesserAcT – Altered State
  6. Trivium – Vengeance Falls
  7. Coheed and Cambria – The Afterman – Descension
  8. Five Finger Death Punch – The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell Vol 2
  9. Volbeat – Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies
  10. Alter Bridge – Fortress

Notable Mentions

Audrey Horne – Youngblood
Mutiny Within – Synchronicity
Hearts And Hands – My Own Machine
Love and Death – Between Here and The Lost
Sound Of Contact – Dimensionaut
Faith Circus – Turn Up The Band

Final Notable Mentions

Due to my kids overdosing on the music I placed on their iPods certain classic rock albums have come back into my life.

Twisted Sister – You Cant Stop Rock N Roll
Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry
Kiss – Lick It Up
Kiss – Asylum
Kiss – Destroyer
Deep Purple – Machine Head
Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet
Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger
Europe – The Final Countdown

CRY FOR FREEDOM

White Lion had the balls to tackle the subject of apartheid.

The Eighties mainstream Metal and rock had degenerated into a state of generic and clichéd derivative lyrical themes and subjects involving sex, partying and drugs.

When bands branched away from that, it was very hit and miss.

White Lion fell into that crowd of misses as the label “Atlantic” would still push them as pop metal or pop rock.

The tours and marketing had White Lion sandwiched amongst bands like Motley Crue, Skid Row, Kiss, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Blue Murder and Badlands.

RANDY RHOADS

Randy Rhoads is a huge influence.

My first introduction to Randy Rhoads was the “Tribute” album and the tablature book that came with it formed my bible for a long time.

He was just unique.

Rhoads formed Quiet Riot when he was 16 years old however as good as Randy Rhoads was, the band couldn’t get a record deal in the U.S and they ended up releasing two albums (QR I and QR II) in Japan. Of course this incarnation of Quiet Riot was a totally different line up that sang “Cum On Feel The Noize” which in turn brought metal to the mainstream.

Most people know his musical legacy from the two landmark albums he made with Ozzy Osbourne.

The post covers my Top 10 songs from Randy Rhoads.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Influenced, Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – November 28 to December 4

4 Years Ago (2017)

OUR BEST WORK

When you create your most important work, it could be ignored by the audience because it’s ahead of its time. It requires people to change their thoughts and beliefs. But all important work ends up rising above the noise.

Black Sabbath’s debut album didn’t reach platinum in the U.S until October 13, 1986. Yep 16 years later, the most influential heavy metal album had moved a million units in the U.S.

But their tours sold out, which goes to show that people didn’t always buy recorded music.

You could be an artist creating work which is popular, and it resonates with the audience who already like what you do. “Dr Feelgood” was always going to be Motley’s best seller. They spent 7 plus years building an audience with each release and tour.

In addition, it spawned a new production sound that would become known as the “Black” sound after Metallica’s self-titled album destroyed our senses and the charts.

Our best work is the heart of what we do and sometimes getting it out there is a long difficult journey full of scams and rip offs, highs and lows, good and bad people, rejection and acceptance.

But you will not get there if you quit. It’s what you do in the dark, which will make you shine in the light.

8 Years Ago (2013)

CONCERT ATTENDANCES

The highs of success and fame are brief. The air at the top of the mountain is thin, so you’re not expected to hang around for a long time.

Vince Neil

On July 6, 2013, Vince Neil played a solo show in Mexico City.

The venue was Jose Cuervo Salon.

The capacity of the venue is 1,500. The attendance was 64 people.

That’s right, less than 5% of the total venue size.

Total Gross sales for the night was $2,286.

Does anyone really care about Vince Neil outside of Motley Crue?

Based on the ticket sales, Mexico sure don’t.

What a hard truth that is.

His debut album “Exposed” celebrated 20 years in 2013, but Vince went out and played Motley songs.

Power Metal Rules In Europe

On April 18, 2013, Helloween, Gamma Ray and Shadowside played a Power Metal feast in Hamburg, Germany. The venue was the Docks.

The capacity of the venue is 1,500. The attendance was 1,171.

Total Gross sales for the night was $51,299.

The thing with power metal bands is that they know the size of their audience. It is a niche and it has a hard core and devoted fan base.

The Black Crowes still do good business

On July 19, 2013, The Black Crowes, Tedeschi Trucks Band and The London Souls played a show in Nashville, Tennesse.

The venue was the Woods Amphitheater at Fontanel.

The capacity of the venue is 4,056. The attendance was 3,273.

Total Gross sales for the night was $215,641.

In the end there is plenty of money available in music and the more people that have access to recorded music means more fans that could turn into customers.

COPYRIGHT TERMS

In Australia (and a lot of other countries) a copyright for a sound recording lasts for the life of the creator + 70 years after death.

If the creator lives to 80, then the Total Copyright is a 150 year term.

And since the large Corporations control a lot of the copyrights, a 150 year term benefits them.

Keith Richards famously said that you can’t copyright the blues.

The acts from the Sixties and Seventies, brazenly borrowed and built upon songs that already existed.

And didn’t we got a lot of glorious music.

RED DRAGON CARTEL

As a fan of Jake E. Lee and the work he did with Ozzy and Badlands, it was cool to hear that he made the decision to record music again.

Frontiers Records signed the project.

Are there any Classic Eighties metal/rock bands or stars that Frontiers haven’t signed?

And “Feeder” was doing the rounds and i didn’t like it because there was no classic riff that stuck around forever to haunt my eardrums.

The expectation that most artists have is that since they have talent, can write a song and love what they do, they should be able to charge people to listen.

The reality is that there are thousands of artists trying to reach the same fans that are very careful with the money they spend on music.

Music is never a sure thing.

LOYALTY PROGRAM

We live in a world of loyalty schemes. If you shop at any major retailer there is a pretty good chance that you have signed up to their loyalty scheme and after you spend a certain amount of dollars with them, you get a discount or some other reward for your next purchase.

So why isn’t this happening in the music business.

THE BATTLE FOR QUEENSRYCHE

Back in 2013, two Queensryche bands did the rounds.

The Geoff Tate version is on Cleopatra Records and the Todd LaTorre version is on Century Media Records.

And there wasn’t a demand for two versions of Queensryche?

Then again demand for Queensryche was diminishing since Chris DeGarmo left.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – November 21 to November 27

4 Years Ago (2017)

For some strange reason I didn’t post anything during this period.

8 Years Ago (2013)

ZOLTAN BATHORY

If you look at the Wikipedia page for Zoltan Bathory, the earliest musical output you get is from 2004, where he played bass in the band “U.P.O”. However his story begins a long time before that, in communist Hungary.

He was basically trying to succeed in a genre that didn’t have a voice in communist Hungary.

So he comes to America.

And the first FFDP album was recorded by the band. They produced it and paid for it.

REFORMS

REFORMS and CHANGES present challenges for every business. So why should it be any different for the Music and Entertainment Business?

TV content providers and streaming services take a lot of gambles with shows, just to remain relevant.

Are the labels doing that?

The Entertainment business instead asks for laws to be re-written in order to protect their business labels.

Music is always a risk game.

No one is entitled to make it in the music business.

There is no safety net.

VOLITION

I was still listening to Protest The Hero and writing about it.

PROGRESS IS DERIVATIVE

Society today is all about multi-tasking.

My drive home from work at that time consisted of the following songs;

“Shepherd Of Fire” – Avenged Sevenfold
“Lift Me Up” – Five Finger Death Punch
“Mist” – Protest The Hero
“Live In Love” – Times of Grace
“Fallen” – Volbeat
“Bulletproof” – Evans Blue
“Be Still and Know” – Machine Head

And all of the above songs can be traced back to other songs.

Here are some examples;

“Shepherd Of Fire” – the influence of Megadeth’s “Trust” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” are unmistakable.

Of course “Enter Sandman” had its main riff come from a band called Excel and a 1989 song called “Tapping Into The Emotional Void.” Megadeth’s “Trust” intro was also inspired by the Pittsburgh Penguins’ entrance theme “The Boys of Winter.”

“Lift Me Up” – the vocal melody influence is from “The Ultimate Sin” is very similar.

And then the post morphed into a Bad Company review.

SALES

Dream Theater had a 5 week sale run and by week 6 the album was done.

Avenged Sevenfold was still going strong after 12 weeks.

Five Finger Death Punch was also going strong after 16 weeks.

Black Sabbath had an 18 week run before it disappeared to come back again.

Trivium had a 4 week run of sales. It was a quick spiral out of the public consciousness and a lot of people didn’t like the Draiman influence on it.

And Stryper had a two week sale run.

There is no safety net.

DOING DOUBLE

A lot of artists are doing multiple projects. It’s not all about the one band.

Jared Leto does acting and Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Corey Taylor does Slipknot, Stone Sour and book writing.

Rob Zombie does his solo project and Directing.

Nikki Sixx at the time was doing Motley Crue, Sixx: A.M. + Radio DJ, Book Author and Photographer.

Claudio Sanchez was doing Coheed and Cambra, his Prized Fighter Inferno side project and Comic / Book Author.

It’s the way to survive in the business.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

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