Month: February 2019

Bear’s Favorite Songs

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My dog, Bear, lays next to me every time I sit down to write posts for the site.  He is my faithful companion and it would feel weird writing anything if he wasn’t there.  Well, the other day Bear told me he wanted to contribute to the site.  At least that is what I thought he said because some times he stutters when he barks and I get things messed up.

Bears has compiled a list of his favorite songs.  I hope you enjoy them.

  • “Hair of the Dog” by Nazareth (1975): My mom was a bitch!!

  • “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin (1971):  Okay, I am brown dog (red merle actually), but still a bad ass song.

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  • “Diamond Dogs” by David Bowie (1974): Diamonds are a dog’s best friend too, especially around the collar.

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Billy Idol – ‘Billy Idol’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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Billy Idol was loving his time in New York and it showed in his writing as the album seemed to be inspired by what he was doing in the city.  After the mild success of his 1981 E.P., Don’t Stop, he and the band went to work on the debut album simply titled ‘Billy Idol’.  It is his album and he is the main focal point so why not call it ‘Billy Idol’.

Released in 1982, Billy was discovering who he was as an artist and what it was like to now be the main focal point.  His meeting of Steve Stevens seemed to be a match made in Heaven…well rock & roll heaven anyway.  Steven even contributed a couple writing credits on this release.  The two together would become one of the great teams in music.  You have McCartney & Lennon, Elton John & Bernie Taupin and now you have Idol & Stevens…okay, that is stretching it too far, but you know what I mean.

When the album was originally released in 1982, the album cover looked like this…

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I don’t have this cover, yet, but I will find it one day and get a hold of it.  I don’t like this one as much as the alternate cover I have.  It is a little too feminine compared to the toughness of the one I have with the black leather jacket (not that there is anything wrong with that).  The new cover fits the attitude and the snarl so much better.

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Def Leppard – ‘Live at the Top’ (Bootleg) – Album Review

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I have been looking for Def Leppard bootlegs since I got back in to collecting. I have found Kiss, Whitesnake, GNR, but hadn’t found a Leppard one until now.  The first thing that caught my attention was that cover.  Love it.  So bright, so detailed, just beautiful.  A lot of work went into that cover and I find that odd for a bootleg since most I find just slap a picture of the band on the cover that isn’t even from that era of the recording.

Well, they did that hear as well as the back cover is a picture of Joe Elliott from around 1987…which is when this was released.  The problem is that the recordings are not from that year.

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When was it recorded?  I am so glad you asked.

A1 to B1 recorded at the BBC’s Paris Theatre, London, England, 22nd August 1979.
B2 to B6 recorded at the Reading Festival, Reading, England, 24th August 1980.

“On Through the Night’ came out in March 1980, so the first side of this was recorded prior to that album coming out which all these songs are on.  Their first EP had come out in January 1979 which “Overture” and “Rocks Off” were from that one only at the time as they would be released on the debut as well.

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My Sunday Song – “A Million to One” by Kiss

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For My Sunday Song #132, we continue the Kiss theme going with the song “A Million to One” from the 1983 album ‘Lick it Up’.  ‘Lick it Up’ is the first non-makeup era Kiss album and saw the band see a resurgence in popularity.  Taking the make-up off made them slightly relevant again.  “A Million to One” was never released as a single and is arguably the best song on the album…IMO!!

The song was written by Paul Stanley and Vinnie Vincent (who did not save Kiss) which tells the story of our hero of the song telling his ex-lover that there is basically no hope in hell she will find a love as great as his.  Paul’s cocky attitude in the lyrics and the vocals propel this into one of his greatest performances on a song.

Musically, the song hits on all cylinders as well.  The powerful sound coming from Eric’s drum gave this song an extra punch that you felt with each swing of the sticks.  Between ‘Creatures of the Night’ and ‘Lick it Up’, I don’t know if the drum sound from Kiss ever sounded better.  Not to be outshined, Vinnie’s guitar playing is masterful with great riffs and a great solo all along with the underrated rhythm guitar of Paul.

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Friday New Releases – February 22nd

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The last week of February, the last week of new releases for the month and the Last in Line is all I am interested in hearing.  There are a handful of releases this week so hopefully there is something for you.  Mine is highlighted in blue as usual.  Let me know what you want to get or anything I might have missed.  Thanks and have a great weekend.

  • 41zadeDZtqL._AC_US436_QL65_  Last in Line – II – (Frontiers Records):  The former Dio band consisting of Vinny Appice, Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard), Andrew Freeman and now Phil Soussan.  They aren’t playing Dio songs, but their own material.  I like Viv and Vinny so I will give it a try and see what they have to offer this time around.

  • 71fk405wvil._sx522_  Gary Clark Jr. – This Land – (Warner Brothers):  What an utter talent.  His blend of rock and blues has been hailed by Prince and even President Obama…so that should be enough to sway you to check him out.  Seriously, check him out.  You will not be disappointed.  And for this album…he has a lot to say!!!  Damn!! He needs to be heard!!

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Airbourne – Diamond Cuts Box Set – Album Review

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This Australian heavy metal band is a full on rock band that is loud, obnoxious and freaking awesome.  If you like AC/DC, well here is the second coming of the band.  Where Greta Van Fleet get blasted for sounding like Zeppelin, no one seems to care that these guys sound like AC/DC.  Hell, they are doing AC/DC better than AC/DC right now.

If you don’t know about the band, know that Lemmy (Motorhead) was a huge fan of the band and even showed up in one of their music videos from their debut album.  That was enough for me to give this band a try and and I am so glad I did.  After Lemmy’s passing, the band paid tribute to Lemmy in their song “It’s All For Rock & Roll” and even had the airplane lighting rig Motorhead used on tour in the video.  It was pretty cool to see.

After the band’s fourth album, ‘Breakin’ Outta Hell’, they decided to put together a collection of B-Sides together for an album and released it as a Box Set that included their first 3 albums.  I received the Vinyl Edition as a Christmas gift from my girls and to top if off, the bought “Breakin’ Outta Hell’ on vinyl as well.  My Airbourne Vinyl collection was complete.

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The Original Vs. The Cover – “Nothing Compares 2 U”

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Welcome to another edition of The Original Vs. The Cover.  This time we are going to compare the song “Nothing Compares 2 U” to the original and the best cover of the song.  The Original was performed by the band The Family and the Cover was famously performed by Sinead O’Connor.  The song was written by Prince and he did perform this song in 1984 or so and it was finally released in 2018 so I can’t count that as the original since it wasn’t released before The Family’s version.  Prince did release a version with Rosie Gaines in 1993 which was again after both versions

The Family? What?  You never heard of them?  Not surprising.  The band was a creation of Prince as another outlet for HIS music to be released.  He was very controlling and involved in every aspect other than singing and performing.  As a result, after they released 1 album, 2 singles (which this song was not one) and after only 1 show, the lead singer, Paul Peterson aka. St. Paul, quit.  He felt Prince was too controlling and he felt restricted.

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The Family’s version was never released as a single and you probably never heard this version before.  I hadn’t until I decided to do this song for the post.  I had trouble finding it and only found it on that Tube of You.

The is very stripped down.  It is mostly an organ playing with horns and keyboards.  No percussion whatsoever.  Paul Peterson’s vocals are really great and the backing vocals of Susannah Melvoin played nicely with Paul’s vocals. Paul had a haunting, painful feel to them which the song seems to have a lot of pain.

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Switchfoot – ‘Native Tongue’ – Album Review

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I have followed Switchfoot since around 2003 with their fourth album ‘The Beautiful Letdown’ and now some 16 years later they bring us their eleventh studio album, ‘Native Tongue’ and yes, I am still a fan.  The new album brings us more of the same and yet travels down a new road as well.

The album has a familiar Switchfoot sound that is at times pure rock, at times pure spiritual and at times au natural almost Earthy feel to it.  They try so many different musical styles, including a little EDM, but they were able to keep it cohesive.  That is in part to what seems to be a theme throughout and that is “Love”.  Whether it is God’s love, human love and love on some different level, I don’t know, but the songs all seem to be connected.

The opening track, “Let it Happen” has this spiritual feel with a little bit of rock thrown in and the message to it about letting love just happen as well as letting life just happen.  The rock comes in full force with “Native Tongue”.  The heavy tribal drums and bass sound kick this up a notch and was a great choice as the first single.  And then you get the church feel of “All You Need” and with that chorus I can picture a worship team singing it out loud during service.

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My Sunday Song – “Black Diamond” by Kiss

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For My Sunday Song #131 and for the next 10 songs, we are celebrating the songs of Kiss!!  Now that Kiss has started their Farewell Tour, I thought I would honor some of my favorite Kiss songs.  There will be No “Beth”, No “Detroit Rock City” & NO “ROCK & ROLL ALL NITE”!!!  Sorry, not my favorites..,well Detroit is one but too obvious a choice.  We will start it off with “Black Diamond” from the debut album ‘Kiss’.

Black Diamond was written by Paul Stanley and it was about New York as were a lot of their songs. This one was on the seedy side of it at least.  It is about street hookers and the queen of them all, the Black Diamond.  Stanley has been quoted as saying this was partially inspired by the Rolling Stones classic “Brown Sugar”.

Lyrically there is not much there, but musically…Damn!!  What a way to close out your debut album.  The song kicks off with Paul Stanley on vocals for the first verse while playing an acoustic guitar.  He screams “HIT IT!!” and all hell breaks loose.  Peter Criss takes over vocals and the song kicks in to full gear with his pounding drums, Gene Simmons’ thumping bass and Ace Frehley’s frenzied guitar.

The guitar solo is top notch and I love how it ends with the heavy ass bass sound with the ominous sounding drums as it gets slower and slower and then fades out.  It is amazing how so few lyrics can turn into a song over 5 minutes long and when the play it live it is even longer…live is a whole other story.  Don’t get me started on how great this song is live.  They used to close their live shows with this one a lot.

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Friday New Releases – February 15th

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Welcome to the day after Valentine’s Day. I hope everyone was with the one you love or at least loving the one you were with.  And if you didn’t have anyone, that is okay too.  Maybe there is something on here you could love.  There is a little for everyone.  My choices are highlighted in Blue.  Let me know what you are interested in and what I might have missed.  Have a great weekend.

  • 71c2NqTqsmL._SX522_  Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water – (BMG):  Avril Lavigne, what can I say.  I actually dig her stuff.  I am not afraid to admit it.  Even if she married the guy from Nickelback.  I won’t hold that against her.  I haven’t heard anything off this one yet, but that won’t deter me from giving it a listen as she has earned that respect. Oh yeah, the cover of the album is quite nice!

  • 51FqalwhnlL._AC_US436_QL65_  Jon Fratelli – Bright Night Flowers – (Cooking Vinyl Ltd):  I love the Fratelli’s so can’t wait to hear Jon do another solo album.  His last one I enjoyed so why would this one be any different.  Give him a try, you will like it.

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