Month: November 2020

Rush – Counterparts Tour 1994 – Tour Program

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If you read this blog regularly, you would notice that I started collecting Kiss Tour Books and this is a very recent thing. As a result, I have suddenly had numerous Tour Books fall in to my lap almost literally. First were a couple of Bon Jovi Tour Books and now I stumbled across not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 Rush Tour Books. It is like the Tour Book Gods are speaking to me. I grabbed all 4 as the prices were really great and made it worth owning. This here is the first of the 4 Rush Tour Book posts that coming. The place I found these was Hardy Boy Records in Mint Hill, NC. I always seem to find some cool stuff from him as I have found numerous Kiss Bootlegs at his shop. His shop is quickly becoming my favorite place to go.

We’ve already covered the tour programs for ‘Power Windows’ and now ‘Roll the Bones’. This time we are going through the tour book for the Counterparts Tour which ran from January to May of 1994 and covered only 55 dates all across the U.S. And although a short tour, the setlist was pretty impressive…

SETLIST

“Dreamline”
“The Spirit of Radio”
“The Analog Kid”
“Cold Fire”
“Time Stand Still”
“Nobody’s Hero”
“Roll the Bones”
“Animate”
“Stick It Out”
“Double Agent”
“Limelight”
“Bravado” (added 4/20/94)
“Mystic Rhythms”
“Closer to the Heart”
“Show Don’t Tell”
“Leave That Thing Alone!”
“The Rhythm Method”
“The Trees”
“Xanadu” (abbreviated)
“Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres” (Prelude)
“Tom Sawyer”
“Force Ten”
“YYZ”
“Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage” (teaser)

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Wendy O. Williams – ‘WOW’ (1984) – Album Review (Bonus Edition – The Kiss Review Series)

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No, you are not reading things wrong. This is part of the Kiss Review Series. You may ask yourself why because Wendy O. Williams was a part of the Plasmatics, she wasn’t in Kiss? How can this possibly be a part of this series? There are so many reasons why and I will go on record and say that this might be the best Kiss album that is not a Kiss album. WTF??? Am I smoking some weed, have I been drinking? The answer to both of this is None of your business. I guess I need to explain myself a little.

This is part of the Kiss series because nearly every member of Kiss at the time was on this album, most songs were written by members of Kiss and Gene Simmons was the producer of this album. Basically, it is a Kiss album. The bass player on this album was named Reginald Van Helsing who was actually Gene. And a funny point about the bass playing…Gene played Bass on more of these songs than he has on any Kiss album around this time period. What other Kiss members were on this album? Here is the list…

  • Paul Stanley
  • Ace Frehley
  • Eric Carr
  • Vinnie Vincent

So, yes…this is part of the Kiss Review Series!

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Queen + Adam Lambert – ‘Live Around the World’ – Album Review

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When I heard Queen + Adam Lambert were releasing alive album, I was quite excited. I had seen them live together and thought it was a wonderful show. They were here in Charlotte back on August 23, 2019 and you can read about it HERE. Sadly, this show wasn’t part of this release. But there were many others as the band chose from over 200 shows to come up with the 22 song set. The release came in both the CD and a Blu-Ray with the actual clips from the shows they used including the Fire Fight Australia appearance where they performed the full Queen set from 1985’s Live Aid and yes, that included the famous “Ay-Oh” actually done by Freddie.

The CD is missing two tracks that you only get on the Blu-Ray and those are the “Drum Battle” and the Brian May Guitar Solo / “Last Horizon”. The “Drum Battle” was really awesome because Roger was dueling with his son, Rufus Tiger Taylor. And Tiger is a pretty great drummer in his own right. What a proud moment that must be for Roger. The Brian May guitar solo was similar to what I saw at my show, but the difference was instead of riding an asteroid into the rafters, Brian was being lifted in the palm of the hand of the robot from ‘News of the World’.

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My Sunday Song – “Tenement Funster” by Queen

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For My Sunday Song #222, we are focusing on the song “Tenement Funster” off the Queen 1974 album, ‘Sheer Heart Attacks’. The song was written by Roger Taylor and sung by Roger Taylor. It was not a single and was actually part of a 3 song medley on the album with “Flick of the Wrist” and “Lily of the Valley”. Since the songs are only tied together somewhat musically, they are all 3 different songs lyrically and don’t really go together in any kind of story. For that reason, I want to focus only on the first track, “Tenement Funster”. What a song name. I love saying it…”Tenement Funster”, “Tenement Funster”, “Tenement Funster”…you try it now…see lots of fun and hard to say it 3 times fast.

As I said, the song was written by Roger and seems to be about youth and rebellion which is a typical rock & roll theme. Lyrically, it seems a little out there as I know idea what is so special about his “new purple shoes”, but his “rock-and-roll 45s, been enraging the folks on the lower floor” makes total sense as I can imagine if I was living in an apartment complex my music would enrage many a neighbors. I am still not sure what a “Tenement Funster” is except maybe it is as simple as a guy who lives in a tenement (apartment) and loves to have fun and not worry about what everyone else thinks. Good enough for me.

Musically, it is a solid rock track and Roger sounds really great on it. There are elements of the Beatles and yet there is still the Brian May guitar sound, the theatrical feel to it and the Queen backing vocals and if you listen close someone goes really, really high singing “Young and we’re crazy”, it is actually quite funny. You have John Deacon doing the bass and opening the track on the acoustic guitar while Brian still handles the lead. Freddie Mercury doesn’t do any vocals, but he does contribute on the piano. Roger’s drumming is great and it is an all around fantastic Roger sung song and one of my favorites of his.

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You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in December?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple!

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – AC/DC – ‘Power Up’ – a lot of my fellow bloggers will be reviewing this one, so it is up to you if you want to hear my take on it as well.

Never Heard Before – The White Stripes – ‘Elephant

 Not My Normal Genre – Janet Jackson – ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’

  From My Collection – The Stooges – ‘The Stooges’

  From My Collection – Oasis – ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in December, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – November 13, 2020

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There is only one album this week that even matters. I am not sure why I have the rest on the list. This album is something the world needs in what has been such a crappy year. And we will get to the one in a minute. There are a bunch of other releases this week as the last few weeks have seen an abundance as well so the trend continues. My choice is highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear and what I may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend. Let’s get to the one that matters!!!

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!!!!

  • 71ZtvcarSPL._SX522_  AC/DC – Power Up – (Columbia Records Group): YES!! AC/DC IS BACK!!! The first single, “Shot in the Dark”, is what we needed and is typical AC/DC. And typical AC/DC is what we need right now. I have the Light Box Special Edition CD on order and it should be here shortly. I can’t wait to plug it in and light up the room and I can’t wait to play the CD cranked up to 11 on the Stereo. I don’t think anything else needs to be said!! Get It and Crank It NOW!!!

And here a few I might listen to when I have time…

  • 71p4UXBxpML._SX522_  Chris Stapleton – Starting Over – (Mercury Nashville)
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Kiss – ‘Animalize’ (1984) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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With the success of ‘Lick It Up’, Kiss was back on top…well as close to on top as they were going to get for awhile. They were somewhat relevant again, but things weren’t easy. Vinnie Vincent was officially out of the band by around April 1984 and they needed a guitarist quick as it was time to record a new album. They settled on a guitarists by the name of Mark St. John. He was a proper shredder which was typical of the time thanks in large part to the late, great Eddie Van Halen. Now fully staffed again, they went in to the studio in May and worked through July on the album.

I said “they”, but that was a loose term. This project was really more Paul’s than Gene’s. Gene was out doing movies, trying to produce new rock bands and pretty much anything else that wasn’t Kiss. Paul Stanley ran the shop and actually ended up producing the album. Gene Simmons showed up on occasion to give us a handful of a mediocre songs. But he didn’t play on all the songs.

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Rush – Roll The Bones Tour 1991-1992 – Tour Program

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If you read this blog regularly, you would notice that I started collecting Kiss Tour Books and this is a very recent thing. As a result, I have suddenly had numerous Tour Books fall in to my lap almost literally. First were a couple of Bon Jovi Tour Books and now I stumbled across not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 Rush Tour Books. It is like the Tour Book Gods are speaking to me. I grabbed all 4 as the prices were really great and made it worth owning. This here is the first of the 4 Rush Tour Book posts that coming. The place I found these was Hardy Boy Records in Mint Hill, NC. I always seem to find some cool stuff from him as I have found numerous Kiss Bootlegs at his shop. His shop is quickly becoming my favorite place to go.

Last week we covered the tour book for the album ‘Power Windows’. This time we are going through the tour book for the Roll The Bones Tour which ran from October 1991 to June 1992 and covered over 100 dates all across the Globe. And the setlist was pretty impressive…

SETLIST

“Force Ten”
“Limelight”
“Freewill” (abbreviated)
“Distant Early Warning”
“Time Stand Still”
“Dreamline”
“Bravado”
“Roll The Bones”
“Show Don’t Tell”
“The Big Money”
“Ghost Of A Chance” (added early in the tour)
“Subdivisions” (dropped on May 27th, 1991 and replaced by “Vital Signs” around May 29th, 1992.)
“The Pass” (dropped on May 27th, 1991 and replaced by “The Analog Kid” around May 29th, 1992.)
“The Tree”s (added on May 27th, 1992)
“Where’s My Thing?”
“The Rhythm Method” (Drum Solo)
“Closer To The Heart”
“Xanadu” (abbreviated)
“Superconductor”
“Tom Sawyer”

ENCORE

“The Spirit Of Radio”
Medley: “2112” (Overture)/”Finding My Way”/”La Villa Strangiato”/”Anthem”/”Red Barchetta”/”The Spirit Of Radio” (reprise)
“Cygnus X-1: Book I: The Voyage” (teaser introduction, added around April 29th, 1992.)

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‘Masters of Metal’ – Various Artists – Album Review

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I was digging for records while on vacation down in St. Augustine, Florida and at one of the stores, I came across a vinyl that brought back so many memories.  I had this on cassette and I remember loving it and listening to it constantly.  I had to get it and at only $5, it was a no brainer.

The album is not something I normally buy and that is because it is a compilation album mixed with numerous artists.  The album was K-Tel’s “Master of Metal”!  Now, don’t let the name confuse you because it isn’t really that heavy or metal, but it was full of songs that I loved from bands that sometimes do much heavier stuff.  The album is from 1984 and had hit songs from some of the biggest bands at that time.

There were so many bands on here that had connections with each other.  Such as Black Sabbath is on it with Ian Gillan on vocals, Dio is on here and Ronnie James Dio used to sing with Black Sabbath, Rainbow is on here with Joe Lynn Turner and Dio sang with them as well.  Kiss is on here and so is Rush who opened for Kiss.  All pretty cool, but back in 1984, I had no idea about these connections.

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You Picked It! – The Police – ‘Synchronicity’ (1983) – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And here it is. The one you picked was The Police – ‘Synchronicity’.  The votes were as follows:

  1. The Police – ‘Synchronicity’ – 11 votes
  2. Patti Smith – ‘Horses’ – 7 votes
  3. The Struts – ‘Strange Days’ – 3 votes
  4. Lauryn Hill – ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ – 1 vote
  5. Prince – ‘Purple Rain’ – 0 votes (this surprised me)

And thanks to being on The LeBrain Train live stream a couple weeks back, we had 2 write-in votes for Tommy Lee’s ‘Andro’ based on my absolute disdain for this new album. The write-in votes are a first for this series and if there was enough votes, it technically could’ve won!!

Thanks to all for participating.  The November choices will be up on Saturday!

THE POLICE – ‘SYNCHRONICITY’:

It turns out, I wrote about this album some 3-4 years ago. I think I need to keep better notes. But, you guys voted for it anyway and therefore I will update my review where my thoughts might have changed or where I have better information.

My first album for The Police was ironically their last.  MTV had played their previous songs quite often and I loved “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”, but it wasn’t until “Synchronicity II” that I finally decided to actually buy one of their records.

I picked up the cassette for ‘Synchronicity’ back in 1983 and later I did pick up their entire collection on CD by buying their box set which had all their albums.  I have since sold all the previous copies and when I was out vinyl shopping several years back, I found ‘Synchronicity’ and snatched it up.  It cost $8 which was about the same price I probably paid for the cassette back in the ’80’s.

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