For My Sunday Song #221, we are starting the next set of 10 songs with the band Queen and first up is “Innuendo”. The song is the title track to their 1991 album ‘Innuendo’ which was their 14th studio album and for me their last proper studio album as Freddy died a short time later after its release. The song was the first single off the album and went to #1 in the UK and #17 in the US. I bought this album the day it came out and loved this song instantly.
The song was written by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor and actually developed from a jam session that was going on by Brian May, John Deacon and Roger. It was very “Bohemian Rhapsody” with all the style changes and is actually longer than that song. It was pieced together from many different pieces, but when joined together it is a kind of magic. The lyrics are part tribute to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ (Roger’s part) and part shout out to the stories on Freddie’s health (Freddie’s part).
But it is the music that blows me away with it’s drum roll opening and eerie tones building until we get to Freddie’s voice. It is dark and haunting and then goes “Bolero style” with its flamenco guitars with help from Steve Howe of Yes and Brian May. Steve actually handles the solo part. There is full on orchestration which harkens back to ‘Bohemian” and then it rocks out. The orchestration was done all on keyboards by Freddie and David Richards the producer. It is progressive rock, 1991. It is one of those songs that has so much going on that you find little nuggets that you missed in the prior listens. It is a song that keeps on giving. Queen does excess well and this song screams excess and over-the-top and it works on so many levels. What an opening track to an album.
I can’t believe we are now in November and thankfully, the new releases keep on coming. This past week we had our Presidential Election and since I don’t do politics on this site, we will skip over that mess to say I am so happy no more political adds for quite awhile. Man, I was so sick of those things. It is so hard to chose a candidate because basically you are choosing the lesser of TWO EVILS!! One thing that is easy to choose is which releases I want to hear and those are marked in Blue. Let me know which ones you want to hear and what I may have missed so everyone can know about it. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Jeff Scott Soto – Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) – (Frontiers Records): The man is a machine. He puts out so much music whether it is solo, his band SOTO, his band W.E.T. (new one coming in January) or his other band Sons of Apollo. And the cool things is everything is pure quality and his voice doesn’t falter. I have been collecting everything of his on CD and it is tough to keep up as there are probably 50-60 to try and buy. I’m probably only half way through. But this one will arrive today to add to that list.
Whitesnake – Love Songs (2020 Remix) – (Rhino Records): A new Whitesnake…not really as it is a compilation. However, everything is remixed and at least 1 or 2 haven’t been released so it is a good kind of compilation. This is the 2nd release in the Red, White & Blue Series. We got White several months back, The Rock Album, and this is the Red one (Love Songs). Blue (The Blues) will be out around February/March (not yet announced though).
Right after the Creatures of the Night Tour, the band went back in to the studio to complete the follow-up album. Michael James Jackson would stay on board as the producer as the sound he got on “Creatures” was amazing and the band wanted to continue that harder sound. Vinnie Vincent was now an official member of the band as he was on the cover. However, he actually wasn’t an “official member of the band” as he never signed his contract which became an extreme soar spot with Vinnie and the band which we will discuss a little later on in our story.
The ‘Lick it Up’ album, which came out on September 23, 1983, garnered way more attention than ‘Creatures’ for one main reason. The band finally took off the make-up which is something they had been talking about doing since at least the ‘Music from the Elder’ era. They finally did it and the big reveal was on MTV during primetime. I remember this vividly as this was event TV for me as I was a lifelong Kiss fan at the time (and still am today). I remember seeing each member in make-up and then without and I remember thinking, “PUT IT BACK ON!!! OOOOH THE HORROR!!!” No, it really wasn’t that bad. It was actually pretty cool. And just like that Kiss was back in the public eye and they had some songs that could back it up.
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.
This Tour Book for Rush is covering the tour for the album ‘Power Windows’. The tour ran from March 10, 1985 to May 26, 1986 and covered 75 dates all across the U.S. and there home country of Canada. And the setlist was pretty impressive…
SETLIST
Intro (“Three Stooges Theme”) The Spirit Of Radio Limelight The Big Money New World Man Subdivisions Manhattan Project Middletown Dreams Witch Hunt Red Sector A Closer To The Heart Marathon The Trees Mystic Rhythms Distant Early Warning Territories YYZ Drum Solo Red Lenses Encore: Tom Sawyer 2112 Overture The Temples Of Syrinx Grand Designs In The Mood
On one of my recent trips to record shop, I scored a couple picture discs by one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard. The one we are going to talk about next is the 12″ Single Picture Disc for the song called “Let’s Get Rocked” off the band’s 1992 album ‘Adrenalize’. The first one we talked about last week was “Make Love Like A Man”. The store I bought this at is called Noble Records and is one of my favorite local record shops in Charlotte. Noble Records has a YouTube channel and he constantly posts videos of collections he has bought and what he will be putting out on the floor. When he has big collections purchased, they usually go out on a Saturday at 10am. I was watching the video and he quickly flipped past the two Def Leppard picture discs as I could tell he isn’t a fan…but I am. I knew immediately I had to have them.
I got up on Saturday, mask in hand and headed to the store. The store was packed and actually made me a little nervous. However, everyone was wearing masks and being polite. Although I am not 100% sure we were following perfect Covid social distancing protocol, I was willing to take the risk. I went in and told Dillion what I was looking to get and he told me where they were (if they were still there and someone didn’t already have them in hand. I went through that stack and lo and behold, they were still there. I grabbed them, paid for them and got out in maybe 5 minutes and immediately hand sanitized my hands. I was so excited to grow my Def Leppard collection a little more.
The single “Let’s Get Rocked” was the first single off the ‘Adrenalize’ album and did pretty good going to #15 on the Billboard charts. The song is a mindless fun track about a teenager disobeying their parents and yet it was filled with sexual innuendo after sexual innuendo. It isn’t my favorite track on the album, but it is still a good time track and they still play it in their live shows regularly. The most important thing about this song is the question is asks you at the very beginning…”Do You Want To Get Rocked?”. And the answer is always…YES!
This was one of the last songs written for the album as the band had finished riding the song “White Lightning” which is about the loss of bandmate Steve Clark. After coming off such a dark song, the band needed to cut loose and have some fun and as a result, we got this bundle of joy. Despite my tiring of the song, it is pretty great even if it is overly corny. The video is a CGI filled rocking good time and is the only video the band has ever done as a four piece. Steve had passed and Vivian hadn’t yet come completely in to the picture.
The B-Side on this are two tracks. First is “Only After Dark” which is a cover of a song written by Mick Ronson and Scott Richardson. The vinyl, however, only has Mick Ronson credited which is interesting. It is a glam rock song with a little new wave edge to it. It would later be released on the band’s album ‘Retro Active’.
The second B-Side is a live version of “Too Late For Love” which was recorded at McNichols Arena, Denver, Colorado on 12 & 13 February 1988. Now, I am guessing by listing both dates that this song was pieced together from two performances of the song which seems very odd to me. However, the two dates are the dates they recorded the shows for their In Your Face, In the Round concert video so that makes more sense. If you know that video, you know this song. It is fantastic.
And there you have it, the second of the two Picture Discs I picked up at Noble Records. Really great finds and so happy to have them in my collection. Thanks for stopping by and hanging for a little while.
I was out for Record Store Day in September and while waiting in line to buy my RSD purchases, this was sitting at the top of the shelf staring at me. I swear I heard it calling my name…”John, buy me!”. I stopped, looked around, no one else in the store heard it, but it said it, I know it did!! Now who was I to argue. I grabbed it, give it a quick once over and when I saw that it was a bootleg of demos from the Van Halen album “Women and Children First”, SOLD!! I mean look at the cover. They took the original album cover and made it way cooler. And to match the cover, the vinyl is even red to go with the stripes. Sweet!
I took it home and couldn’t wait to hear it. Now, I just bought several record store day items and I was way more excited about this album then the RSD purchases. And after listening to it, I am still more excited. Being a bootleg, I was worried about the sound quality of the demos and let me tell you, it was fantastic. These demos have been floating around for awhile and they are normally very muddied down and a little rough. These have been cleaned up nicely. The sound is crisp and clear and though they do sound like demos, they are also pretty damn cool.
For My Sunday Song #220 and the last one in the Matt Nathanson 10 song set is “Come on Get Higher” off his 2007 album ‘Some Mad Hope’. This is the one song that people most definitely know as it was his biggest hit. It didn’t break the Top 40, but it did sell over 2 million copies of the song alone which is why it is his biggest hit.
The song is about a lost love and missing them terribly. He longs for her touch and even misses the bad parts with her violent words and sweet words she would yell at him. It sounds like a very dysfunctional relationship, but when it was good, it sounds sensual, sexy and amazing and when it was bad, it was truly bad. Despite all that he wants to show her that it can work out and they would be amazing. Matt has way of writing that is so sexual without being obscene or even vulgar. It is more sensual and sexy. Lyrics like…
So come on, get higher, loosen my lips Faith and desire and the swing of your hips Just pull me down hard And drown me in love
It is those little touches in his lyrics that make his song magical and the songs so memorable. It is another shining example of why I think he is such an underrated songwriter.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 