Month: May 2020

The Original vs The Cover vs The Cover – “Tainted Love”

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The Original Vs The Cover choice for this month is one that will tackle three separate artists on the song “Tainted Love”.  The original was performed by Gloria Jones way back in May of 1965 and was written in 1964 by Ed Cobb and arranged by Lincoln Mayorga.  The song was originally a B-Side for Gloria’s failed single “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home” so it never charted unlike the covers.

The song was about a girl that Ed was seeing and the whole relationship was plain toxic.  He wanted to take the song from the girls point of view which is why the song was offered to a lady to sing.  According to Ed, once he came up with the words “tainted love” the song basically wrote itself from that point forward.

The covers were both done by male vocalist thus changing up the point of view. The first cover is by New Wave 80’s band Soft Cell who went all the way to #1 in several countries and #8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.  Their version was released in 1981.  2o years we would see another successful version of the song this time done by Shock Rocker Marilyn Manson.  His version didn’t do as well, but charted through-out the world reaching # 1 in Portugal!!.  All three versions have something to offer so let’s see who has the best one.

GLORIA JONES

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The original version by Gloria Jones is an uptempo fun, Motown styled song.  The song is full of horns, guitars and drums as well as female backing vocals.  This was 1964 and the song sounds like it.  The Motown influence is front and center and Gloria’s vocals fit the song perfectly. There is a great upbeat tempo and the addition of the horns actually make it a fun sounding song which is why the song didn’t do well originally as it didn’t fit the lyrics. Continue reading “The Original vs The Cover vs The Cover – “Tainted Love”” →

My Sunday Song – “Bed of Roses” by Bon Jovi

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For My Sunday Song # 196, “Bed of Roses” off the 1992 album ‘Keep the Faith’ by Bon Jovi is our song of discussion.  The song was released as a single in January 1993 and quickly became another hit for Jon and the gang as it reached #5 on the Billboard Top 40 chart.  In a time where grunge was taking over the world, Bon Jovi still managed to throw out hits while others fell by the wayside.

There is one thing Bon Jovi does well and that is a ballad.  Jon Bon Jovi wrote this one and man does he have a way with words in this one.  What a story he weaves.  While sitting in a hotel room, he made the hotel bring up a piano to his room and he sat, still hungover and wrote this beauty.  He even talks about the struggles in writing it in the first couple lines…

Sitting here wasted and wounded at this old piano,
Trying hard to capture the moment this morning I don’t know
‘Cause a bottle of vodka’s still lodged in my head,
And some blonde gave me nightmares.
I think that she’s still in my bed.

The song is a sad love song to his wife.  Jon lived the rock & roll lifestyle and he was not that faithful to his wife, but by this time in his career,  he knew that she was the one he loved.  This song was a letter to her that he is sorry for what he has done and that she is really the one for him.  He wishes he could be with her lying in a bed of roses while he sits lonely in that hotel room on a bed of nails. It is quite lovely.  And some of the lines he wrote in this were beautiful painted pictures…

With an ironclad fist I wake up and French-kiss the morning

and I loved the line…

While my mistress—she calls me
To stand in her spotlight again.

That mistress is the record company and the music business that keeps wanting him to pop out hit after hit and he is longing to be home with her.  It is such great story telling.

71FhuQ3B5dL._AC_SX425_ Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Bed of Roses” by Bon Jovi” →

Friday New Releases – May 15th

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Another week has passed and another week impacted by Covid-19 as many releases scheduled for today originally are now later in the year.  A few brave souls have stuck to their guns and are releasing their albums still to our enjoyment.  As the U.S. is slowly opening back up and some stores are open again, we will see how things go. I won’t be venturing out as much at first, but I need to hit a record store soon as the shakes are starting to get bad. Withdrawal sucks!!  Until then, my choice for this week is highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you like or anything I may have missed.  Thanks and have a great week.

  • 71Rq-UG9g+L._SX522_  Colton Dixon – Colton Dixon E.P. – (Atlantic Recording):  Christian pop artist Colton Dixon is finally back after the stellar album from 2017, Identity.  That is a high mark to beat so I will be happy if he is anywhere near the greatness of that one.  Sadly, this is only an E.P….give us a full album soon Mr. Dixon!!! Please!!!

And that is it for me.  The rest has some promising stuff and maybe the Jason Isbell will get listened to, we will wait and see…

  • 91MF7wKgmML._SX522_  Asking Alexandria – Like a House On Fire – (Sumerian Records) – Digital Only – physical copy June 26th

Continue reading “Friday New Releases – May 15th” →

Kiss – Asylum World Tour – Tour Book

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I started 1985 with a Kiss concert (Animalize Tour) so I had to end it with a Kiss concert. This one was on December 31, 1985 and where else, but at the Omni.  This show was for the Asylum Tour this time. The opening act for this show was Black n Blue.  Gene had produced their album so no wonder they opened. Same line-up as the earlier show so nothing really new except the costumes were quite colorful and loud and looking back are quite hideous.

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This setlist was different in the sense that Rock and Roll All Nite was not the encore.  This encore was a big jam session with a lot of covers and I remember it being pretty cool.

  1. Detroit Rock City
  2. Fits Like a Glove
  3. Guitar Solo (Paul)
  4. Uh! All Night
  5. Cold Gin
  6. Under the Gun
  7. Guitar Solo (Bruce)
  8. I Still Love You
  9. Bass Solo
  10. I Love it Loud
  11. Tears Are Falling
  12. Drum Solo
  13. War Machine
  14. Love Gun
  15. Rock and Roll All Nite
  16. La Bamba (Encore)
  17. Whole Lotta Love (Encore)
  18. Heaven’s On Fire (Encore)
  19. Oh! Susanna (Encore)
  20. Won’t Get Fooled Again (Encore)
  21. Lick It Up (Encore)

And like the last show, I bought a Tour Book which I still have today and we are going to go through it right now.  Bruce finally gets his spotlight in the Tour Book as he wasn’t in the last one even though he performed.  It was still Mark St. John as the band didn’t have time to change it out or want to spend the money to do so.  I have him now and that is all that matters.

The first page, as always, is a list of all the albums they have released.  This page isn’t much different than the last tour book since it has only been one album.  Well, there is one big difference.  The ‘Creatures of the Night’ cover is different. It now has the band unmasked and Bruce was on the cover…wait…I don’t think he was on that album…but then again, neither was Ace and he was on the original cover.  I guess it is okay…not really!!

IMG_1962 Continue reading “Kiss – Asylum World Tour – Tour Book” →

Whitesnake – ‘Good To Be Bad’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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It had been 11 years since the last full Whitesnake studio album (okay, it was really a Coverdale solo album, but it had Whitesnake in the name) and 2 years since any new music with the four new tracks on ‘Live…In The Shadow of the Blues’.  Whitesnake was finally ready to bring us a full album’s worth of new material.  David Coverdale and his new guitar flavor of the day, Doug Aldrich, worked diligently to bring us an album of new Whitesnake material that would hopefully remind us of old and take us in to the future.

The line-up of the band is now…

  • David Coverdale – Vocals
  • Doug Aldrich – Lead Guitar
  • Reb Beach – Guitar
  • Timothy Drury – Keyboards
  • Uriah Duffy – Bass
  • Chris Frazier – Drums

The biggest difference between this album and the last live album is Tommy Aldridge is no longer in the band.  I love his drumming and I have to admit when I found out, I was a little disappointed, but Chris does well on his own and doesn’t disappoint.

IMG_1986 Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘Good To Be Bad’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)” →

Jeff Scott Soto – Artist Profile

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Below is one of the first post I ever did for this site and I haven’t updated since.  That was 4 years ago.  Jeff Scott Soto has released a ton of albums since then so I figured I needed to do an update on this post from 4/17/2016.  If I was to complete do this from scratch today, it wouldn’t look this pedestrian, but I will leave it is an just update some albums and song information. I have been on a big JSS kick lately so I want to spread the love….I hope you enjoy.

UPDATED POST:

The artist spotlight is on one of my favorite rock vocalists, Jeff Scott Soto. I came across his music thanks to a great website by Andrew McNiece – Melodicrock.com (go check it out). If you haven’t heard of Jeff, let me tell you a little about him.

Jeff has only been in a few bands – Yngwie Malemsteen’s Rising Force, Talisman, W.E.T., Sons of Apollo, SOTO, Soul Sirkus, Redlist, Eyes, Journey (yes, that Journey), Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Takara, Eyes, Axel Rudi Pell and I believe there are several others so yeah…only a few.

He also has made appearances on so many other albums (too numerous to list). Most recently he was on Joel Hoekstra’s 13 album “Dying to Live” which I thought was a great album. He was even in the fictional band Steel Dragon from the movie “Rock Star” with Mark Wahlberg. And lastly, he has had a great solo career.

I mentioned he was in Journey above. In 2006, Journey let their lead singer go, Steve Augeri, and picked up Jeff to finish the tour.  Jeff had worked withNeal Schon in the group Soul Sirkus which I will talk more about later. I was so excited with that announcement as after hearing his version of “Send Her My Love”, I knew he had the chops for it. Sadly, it didn’t last. After the tour they let him go and went with a different singer.

Continue reading “Jeff Scott Soto – Artist Profile” →

My Sunday Song – “Something to Believe In” by Bon Jovi

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For My Sunday Song #195, we are diving in to the fantastic song “Something to Believe” off the band’s 1995 underrated album ‘These Days’.  This song was never a single and probably one of the best deep cuts they have on any record.  It really spoke to me and to this day, it means a lot.

The song has been considered anti-religious with lines like “I lost all faith in my God, in his religion too”, but the song is really about fighting back and finding that one thing to hold on to and reach for and to believe in.  I know for me, I have struggled a lot in this world.  There were times I had lost my faith and I still struggle with my belief in religion.  Not with God or Jesus, but organized religion. I see the damage it has caused through the centuries, the charlatans out there wanting your money and our the first ones to sin.  The holier-than-thou Church goers that think cast the first stone and our cheating on their spouses.  The churches that hide the child molesting priest.  I could go on and on and talk about the hypocrisy of it all.   But I won’t.  You get where I am coming from.

So how do you find that one thing to believe in?  I don’t know, but dig deep and it just happens.  I believe in my wife and kids.  My brothers and sisters and those that have always been there. I believe in Jesus and God…BUT…in my own way.  As Jon states, “in a world that gives you nothing, we need something to believe in”.  And with what has going on in the world these last couple months, I think this song holds even more meaning.  Hang in there!  We will get through it and come out the other side even better as we always do.

51Y4VipiNIL Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Something to Believe In” by Bon Jovi” →

Friday New Releases – May 8th

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The second Friday in to May and more bands have moved their releases to later in the year.  Covid-19 is taking its toll on music for sure.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t any brave artists still willing to dare release an able in these times. I salute you and since there is been so little out the last few weeks, I am will to try a few this week.  I will highlight those in Blue as usual.  Let me know what interests you and what I missed this week.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

  • 71Gy27WGi+L._SX522_  Butch Walker – American Love Story – (Ruby Red Records): Singer/Songwriter/Rocker/Producer – jack of all trades, Butch is back with another solo album.  His resume is pretty impressive and I think he had been working with Matt Nathanson lately, who I love, so Butch will get a listen.

  • 81mSkM7vGLL._SX522_  Fake Names – Fake Names – (Epitath): Punk rock supergroup Fake Names – which includes Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace, One Last Wish), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, International Noise Conspiracy, INVSN), and Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside)…yeah, this line-up is worth a spin.

Continue reading “Friday New Releases – May 8th” →

Billy Idol – ‘Rebel Calling’ (Live Bootleg) – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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As I mentioned in the post last week on the Billy Idol bootleg “Rebel Waltz”, A few weeks back, Lunchbox records posted on Facebook that they got in a bunch of bootlegs from Duran Duran and Billy Idol.  I will be honest, I don’t care about the Duran Duran bootlegs, but the Billy Idol peaked my interest.  It was around 6:30pm on a Saturday night and I mentioned to my kids we should go to Lunchbox, but we didn’t go.  We did go the next day on Sunday.  We left a little after 12pm and arrived just before 1pm and they were closed (Duh Duh Duh – dramatic music insert).

We forgot to check if they would be open and with the virus going around, I wasn’t sure now if they would open at all.  Lo and behold, they were going to open and that was going to be at 1pm which was in a couple minutes.  We were the first ones in and those Billy Idol bootlegs were still there.  Apparently, there are not of ton of crazies out there buying Billy Idol bootlegs…Who knew!!!

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Unlike the last bootleg, this one was a little more advanced in its packaging.  This time we actually get a picture on the album jacket on both the front and the back as opposed to a print out on a sheet of paper stuffed inside.  I couldn’t find much information on the show as to which show it was at the Roxy in L.A.  I know based on the track list it was in 1982 after the release of his self-titled debut album.  There were 3 shows in L.A. at the Roxy.  The first two were in August on the 11th and the 12th.  The next was on November 13th.  I couldn’t find a setlist at all so now way to match.  But I am guessing one of these shows for sure. Continue reading “Billy Idol – ‘Rebel Calling’ (Live Bootleg) – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)” →

Whitesnake – ‘Live…In the Shadow of the Blues’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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In just 9 months after the release the live DVD…’Live…In The Still of The Night’, the band releases another live album.  Released on November 24th, 2006 is ‘Live…In The Shadow of the Blues’.  Surprisingly, this album never got an official release here in the U.S. and I am hurt by that, but I got over it.  This is the band’s third live album with the whole ‘Live…’ set up as the first was ‘Live…In the Heart of the City’ back in 1980.  However, it is the technically the fourth live album thanks to ‘Starkers in Tokyo’.

Now, I am a little baffled as to why release another live album so quickly after the DVD release.  It doesn’t really make any sense.  Especially since the band’s line-up is relatively unchanged with the exception of bass.  On bass for this set is Uriah Duffy and the last one was Marco Mendoza.  Otherwise, the players are the same…

  • David Coverdale – vocals
  • Doug Aldrich – guitar
  • Reb Beach – guitar
  • Tommy Aldridge – drums
  • Timothy Drury – keyboards

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Let’s talk about the positives with this set.  You do get 20 songs from various shows.  And most importantly, you do get 4 brand new songs written by David Coverdale with his new partner in crime, Doug Aldrich.  We will review those songs in detail, but before we get to those songs, let’s go through the live set a little. Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘Live…In the Shadow of the Blues’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)” →