Month: November 2021

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! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

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 – The Darkness – “Motorheart”

  Never Heard Before – The Band – ‘The Band’

  Not My Normal Genre – Dusty Springfield – ‘Dusty in Memphis’

  From My Collection – Stryper – ‘Against the Law’

  From My Collection – David Bowie – ‘Let’s Dance’

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 19, 2021

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You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best! The Hottest New Release Day of the Year!! TODAY!!! Man, there are so many great releases today and I can’t wait. I have 3 I will be listening to and one is a Massive Box Set. This also seems to be a day for older established artists releasing new albums or anniversary albums and maybe for you younger listeners you might find some of these older artists totally awesome. Now, go check them out and let me know what you want to hear this week. Also, let us know what we may have missed. My choices are up first and in BOLD! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

  • 91C7w0t0NLL._SX522_  Kiss – Destroyer (45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) – (Universal Music / UMG): KISS!!! Man, I can’t wait for this to arrive. I hope it makes it today. Kiss is releasing a 45th Anniversary of one of their biggest albums. It is remastered and there are a ton of demos and unreleased tracks and it is about time the band did a Box Set like this. Now, they need to go back and do them all with this special treatment. They’d get my money!!
  • 719ZBpfe0eL._SX522_  The Darkness – Motorheart – (Cooking Vinyl): The Darkness is upon us and that makes for a much brighter day for me! I love these guys. Their love of that old glam rock sound makes for a wonderful listen. They bring that style to today’s market and for that we are lucky. I loved their last album ‘Easter is Cancelled’ and if this is half as good as that one, this will be awesome then!!
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Cheap Trick – ‘All Shook Up’ (1980) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

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Cheap Trick was in high gear and on a tremendous pace of album/tour, album/tour and it was getting relentless. After the massive success of Budokan and Dream Police, they went to work on the next album, but this time around they were wanting to try something different. The first thing they did was part ways with long time producer, Tom Werman, who had produced everything except the debut.

The band had always been considered an American version of the Beatles and since they were huge fans of them, why not work with the one of the most famous producers, the fifth Beatle, George Martin. So off to London they went and recorded the album at Air Studios in London. Of course this was a big change for the band and their sound. Gone were the radio-friendly singles and in was a more experimental sound. They took chances and tried new things and whether for the better or not, we will shortly find out.

The band was still in tact with Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos. They finished up the album, but by the time it was done, Tom Petersson was exhausted. He was done as well. The non-stop touring and add to the fact he was not thrilled with the direction of the band and he didn’t even bother showing up in London when it was time to mix the album. And by August 26, 1980, Tom left the band to go record his own album with his wife. Who I think the band feels was part of his problem. Maybe she was their Yoko. The band pressed on and the album saw its release on October 24, 1980.

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The Fixx – ‘Reach the Beach’ (1983) – Album Review

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It is time for a throwback album review. I was flipping through the stacks and saw this and grabbed it. I hadn’t heard it in a long while, but suddenly I wanted to hear it. So, I played it then the next day, played it again. I then said, heck, let’s play it again and then decided I want to write about it so here we are.

The Fixx were a big New Wave band out London, Engalnd from the early 80’s and consisted of Singer Cy Curnin, Guitarist Jamie West-Oram, Drummer Adam Woods and Keyboardist Rupert Greenall. There was no bass player for this album, per se, as they went through a couple. Their regular bass player Alfie Agius quit before the album was complete and then they brought in Dan Brown but he wasn’t made a full fledge member until after the Tour I believe. Oh yeah, that Dan Brown is not the writer Dan Brown of ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

The Fixx were huge on MTV and their videos were in constant rotation. I really enjoyed the songs and after the album came out on May 15, 1983, I eventually bought it. I didn’t catch them on tour with this album, but on November 20, 1984 I caught them on tour with their next album ‘Phantom’, but the only reason I was going was from this album, ‘Reach the Beach’.

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Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive” – 45 Single

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On my Summer vacation back in June, I found over 20 singles with the picture sleeve. I’ve been through a bunch of them so far and now we are tackling the Bon Jovi singles that I found. There were 5 Singles found and we are going to kick it off with one of Bon Jovi’s most popular and famous songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive” off the band’s 1986 album ‘Slippery When Wet’.  The song was the third single from this album and the third to crack the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #7.  The band was on a roll and growing to become one of the world’s biggest rock bands thanks in large part to this song.

My copy is the basic U.S. Version and is an Indianapolis Pressing. Nothing fancy about it. The B-Side is the album version of “I’d Die For You”. The A-Side is also the basic version of “Wanted Dead or Alive”, no single edit or anything like that just the same long version as the album. The short version cuts off about a minute of the song.

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You Picked It!! – Television – ‘Marquee Moon’ – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one was really, really close. This was the most tightly contested one we have had so far and maybe even the most votes. Quickly, Duran Duran jumped out in first thanks to the Twitterverse, but the others caught up shortly thereafter. I had a 4 way tie for first up until the last few votes which pushed the winner ahead. There were only 3 points between first and last. The winner is Television and their album ‘Marquee Moon’ which was listed as a genre I rarely listen to which is because I thought they were Punk, but they didn’t sound like I thought they would so I was way wrong on that listing. They were more rock and garage rock to me and I should’ve been listening to them a long time ago. Here are the results.

  1. Television – ‘Marquee Moon’ – 7 votes
  2. Duran Duran – ‘Future Past’ – 6 votes
  3. Big Star – ‘#1 Record’ – 5 votes
  4. Dokken – ‘Tooth And Nail’ – 5 votes
  5. Stevie Ray Vaughan – ‘Soul to Soul’ – 4 Votes

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

TELEVISION – ‘MARQUEE MOON’

As I had said above, I thought these guys were punk and a lot of people say they are. However, punk to me is really short songs with guys (or gals) that can’t really play all that great and just make a lot of noise quickly and haphazardly. This isn’t it at all. The songs on here are well constructed, thought out tracks that can go as long as 10 minutes. This doesn’t have the urgency of punk. This to me is more garage rock and straight up rock with lots of great guitars. This was not what I expected.

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My Sunday Song – “I Get Excited” by Rick Springfield

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For My Sunday Song #273, we are going to go back a little a look at “I Get Excited” by Rick Springfield. The song is off his 1982 album ‘Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet’. The song did chart as a single going all the way to #32 in the US and #42 in Canada which I am sure helped the the album go all the way to #2. Reality is that this album was riding high in large part to the success of his prior album ‘Working Class Dog’ which had “Jessie’s Gril”.

The song is about an experience he had with a girl. That excitement and thrill of being with a woman and reality doesn’t always live up to the expectation. The thrill of thinking of everything that is going to happen and blowing it up in your head to a level that the actual act will never live up to it is pretty common and happens in almost any situation. It also seems to point to the fact that he is really in to it, but she doesn’t seem to be as she keeps her eyes open when the kiss and gets cold feet and starts to leave. Poor guy.

The song is an uptempo rocker and very radio friendly. It has a great guitar riff throughout that is very memorable. I like how the chorus explodes at you with some heavy drums. There is a lot of keyboard in the song which fits well for the time period as we are talking 1982. The song has a guitar solo which isn’t too flashy and compliments the song nicely. The song is a little dated in its sound, but still a great track regardless.

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Friday New Releases – November 12, 2021

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Happy Friday!! Another week gone by and only 6 more Fridays until Christmas!! Can you believe it? There are a bunch here for you to decide if you want to add some things to your Christmas List. You have a wide variety so hopefully there is something for everyone. I only have a couple I am really interested and they are in Bold. Let me know what you want to hear or maybe what we may have missed so everyone knows about it that stops by and checks out the list. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful and exciting weekend.

  • 81Q5sUh0asL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak) – An Evening with Silk Sonic – (Aftermath Entertainment / Atlantic): First up for me is Silk Sonic. You get the both Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak in one band and let me tell you it doesn’t get any smoother than that!! I really loved the first single “Leave the Door Open” and it has made me so excited for this release!! This will get my weekend going.
  • 71HVud5EPQL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s Version) – (Republic Records): Say what you will about her, but she did shake up radio and music in general. Hell, she is one of the only people out there that actually sells massive amounts of physical product. My kids and I decided we would collect these “Taylor Versions” of her re-recordings as there is an abundance of music from the Vault to come with each release. This is her 2nd re-recording and actually a favorite album of the family so we will be grabbing this one.
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Aerosmith – ‘Live! Bootleg’ (1978) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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The band had been recording / touring and recording / touring non-stop for years now and it was taking its toll. The drug use was rampant as Tyler and Perry became known as the “Toxic Twins” if that gives you any indication of the toxicity of their drug use and relationship. The record company and management felt the band needed a break so they decided to put out a live album. I believe the record company wanted a clean, studio overdubbed album like every other band was doing at the time, but the band wanted it to sound real and raw.

Luckily for us, the band won out and we got a rough and raw record that was more representative of how the band really sounds live. They even took it a step further and made the album cover look cheap and dirty like a real bootleg album would look. You have coffee rings on the back cover and everything looks stamped and very unprofessional. One great thing about bootlegs are they are usually riddle with mistakes so the band purposely left the song “Draw the Line” off the setlist although it is really after the song “Mother Popcorn”. They were meticulous to make it look like a real bootleg. And to go even further with the bootleg theme, they recorded a couple songs on to a cassette and used that version so you get a slight hiss like a cassette usually has. I love the authenticity they were shooting for on this record.

The band pieced together songs from numerous shows over 1977 and 1978. They also threw in 2 songs from a radio broadcast from 1973 and those songs are obvious as they don’t sound anything like the other tracks and it does disrupt the live feel they established over the rest of the album, but we will get to that later. The album includes the same ol’ crew of Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer but that would soon come to an end…more on that with the next review.

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‘Stories to Tell: A Memoir” by Richard Marx – Book Review

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I have read a lot of books about bands and rock stars and I am a little tired of the sex, drugs and Rock & Roll aspect of the whole thing. It is the same old, same old. I like to read the fun stories that are interesting, smart and I enjoy the stories behind the songs or even the artists writing style and what motivates them. If you are the same way, then this book is what you need to read. Richard Marx brings us a book about his life and believe it or not, he had a great childhood, loving parents, he doesn’t do drugs and never had the wild sex-filled tours and you know what, that is okay because what he gives us are intelligent stories, tons of humor and a lot of behind the scenes looks at the numerous stars he has worked with and songs he has written.

Before I get to that, let us look at the book itself. The copy I purchased was a bundle. It came with an autographed copy of the book as you can see below. I also paired it with a greatest hits CD which is 1 CD full of his hits and another full of demos, rare tracks and a collection of songs he wrote for other people, but this time with him singing and not the artist he wrote it for…really cool. Oh yeah, and the CD came with a signed booklet as well. Really cool stuff…okay, back to the review.

Richard took the down time with Covid to bring us a detailed telling of his life in music…not his personal life. We do get some of it, but mostly it is about the music. Richard is real private about his family but does give us glimpses, however, this is about the rock star. And let me tell you he has worked with some mega stars and is friends with some as well. We learn how he got started in the business by being a background singer for numerous people but got his break with Lionel Richie. He also works with Kenny Rogers and writes a song for him that gave him his first #1 song in country music. But that is the only tip of the iceberg.

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