Alright…You Picked It! This one started out close, but one ended up blowing away the rest. Another one had a late batch of votes, but wasn’t enough to get close to the winner. The winner for this month’s picks ended up being Alice Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and I am real excited about this one. Here are the results.
Alice Cooper – ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ – 10 votes
Rolling Stones – ‘Sticky Fingers – 6 votes
Elton John – ‘Captain Fantastic’ – 2 votes
David Bowie – ‘Diamond Dogs’ – 2 votes
Led Zeppelin – ‘II’ – 2 Votes
Thanks to all for participating. The January choices will be up on Saturday! And the choices are all now from my collection and the next one will be some of the biggest albums of the 80’s. Hopefully you can help me decide which one I should review.
ALICE COOPER – ‘BILLION DOLLAR BABIES’ (1973):
I’ve been wanting to tackle an Alice Cooper album so I am glad this one won the vote. It is Alice’s 6th studio album and Bob Ezrin was still at the helm. Being a Kiss fan, having Bob as producer is a pretty big deal and I could hear a lot of Bob’s influence in the music as there is a lot on here that Kiss tried with Destroyer such as orchestration, sound effects and other magical Bob Ezrin inputs. I’m not Bob is the reason this album is so good, but it did go to #1 in both the UK and the US and sold over 1,000,000 copies giving it platinum status. Who am I kidding, it isn’t Bob that made this album #1 it is strictly Alice Cooper and this amazing band which includes Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith.
The album was recorded in both Connecticut and in London. Band member, Glen Buxton, was sick throughout the sessions as he was suffering from pancreatitis brought on by abusive alcohol consumption. Guitarists Mick Mashbir, Dick Wagner (Kiss ghost guitarist) and the great Steve “the Deacon” Hunter who handled the guitar solos on 5 songs and pedal steel guitar on the opening track. The album was finished and released on February 25, 1973 and helped take Alice Cooper to a whole different level of success. The song is so good, that 4 of the songs are still played regularly in his live sets even today.
For My Sunday Song #329, we will talk about the song “I Dare You” by Shinedown. The song is off their 2005 album ‘Us and Them’. It was the 2nd single from the album and released in February 2006. The song was a minor hit reaching #2 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and was my introduction to the band. But not from the single release. I actually had heard of the band, but didn’t really know anything about them until I was watching American Idol and Chris Daughtry sang this song. That was October 3, 2008 over two years after its release. He did such a good job, it made me check out the band and I have been a fan ever since.
The song was written by Brent Smith, Brad Stewart and Tony Battaglia. I’ve seen a lot of interpretations about the song on what it means, but my view point is that is about the good & evil inside us all. That voice in your head that tells you do one thing while another tells you to another. The opening verse below is pretty clear in my book…
“Hello, let me introduce you to The characters in the show One says yes, one says no Decide, which voice in your head you can keep alive“
The protagonist is daring the evil side to tell him to walk through fire, but he won’t do it. He struggles every day with that voice telling him to something he knows is wrong and it is tempting to give in. It feels like addict trying to deal with the demons of being an addict and struggling every day wanting that next hit, but fighting off those voices to choose the right way. Of course, you can say it is about whatever you think it is, but this is what I pull out of it.
The song is a slower track, but not a ballad. It has moments of softness and heaviness as the singer battles against those thoughts in heads. The guitar riffing by Jasin Todd is fantastic. A great guitar tone. The drumming though is an even brighter side of the song. Barry Kerch just pummels away on those skins. His fills are perfect. Brent’s vocals capture all the emotion from the lyrics as he is soft at times and aggressive and angry at others. You are taken on a wonderful ride through this song.
In my digging at a record show, I found a bunch of cool European releases from Scorpions. Most were German releases, but there was this one UK Only Release. It was an Advance DJ Copy of the album ‘Crazy World’. It was on vinyl and only had 4 tracks, but it was released prior to the album’s release. It is a pretty simple with only a flimsy cardboard sleeve that was the album jacket and album sleeve. The cover was black with a giant Scorpion on it and had the famous words at the bottom “For Promotional Use Only…Not For Resale”. Well, somebody sold it because I paid money for it.
It is short and sweet with 4 tracks, 2 on one side and 2 on the other. All four tracks are straight off the album, not any remixes nor single edits so nothing special, but I liked it enough to buy it as I like promos as you will see because the next four posts, including this one, are all on promos I have from the album ‘Crazy World’. Sorry about that, but this is the Scorpions Collection Series I believe and they are in my collection.
SIDE 1:
Just like thee album, the promo opens with, “Tease Me Please Me”, which is a sleazy little track that seems part Motley Crue, part everything else at the time and that is okay. The song is a rocker that doesn’t take a lot of thought, but it still kicks ass. A fun opening track with a cool riff, some nasty guitar work, Klaus’ gritty vocals and overall catchy as hell. It is straight up down and dirty rock & roll. Yes, please…sign me up. The song was written by Klaus Meine, Mathias Jabs, Herman Rarebell and Jim Vallance. It did go to #8 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Track Chart.
Happy Friday! Fridays are always great since we get new releases and it is the start of the weekend. But this one might be the very last Friday New Releases as I’m done…well…I’m done for 2022! As there aren’t enough releases the next few Fridays to do a post. But it will be back in 2023!!! 2023?? Wow, is almost that time already…time flies. It is typical this time of year for releases to slow down as artists hold off on releasing if they can’t get it out early enough before Christmas. Now, between now and next week, if I find enough to do the 16th’s releases, I will do one. Cross your fingers, but if we do, that is for sure the last one for the year. For me, there is really nothing I need. Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Have a great weekend.
Journey – Live in Concert at Lollapalooza – (Frontiers Records)
David Crosby – Live at Capitol Theatre – (Three Blind Mice / BMG Rights Mgt)
Sabu – Banshee – (Frontiers Records)
Rob Moratti – Epical – (Frontiers Records)
Landfall – Elevate – (Frontiers Records)
Nevena – Nevena – (Frontiers Records)
Tony DeCarlo – Dancing in the Moonlight – (Frontiers Records)
Jeff has only had 3 solo albums up to this point, a couple E.P.’s and that is about it. Yet, we get an entire album of ballads from those releases. Yes, only from his solo albums which leaves out a bunch of great ones from other bands he has been in, but that is okay. This is more than enough. Now, I have no idea whose idea this was…maybe Frontiers Records and maybe Jeff’s which would not be a surprise since when he sang with Axel Rudi Pell, Axel put out entire ballad collections as well. Whatever reason, this is a lot of ballads to take in all at once.
The one good thing about this release is they did add 3 bonus tracks, 2 of which have never been released, so that is always a good thing. That is 16 songs…all ballads…did I mention that it is a lot of a ballads to take in all at once. However, there isn’t a ton of information on the background of this release, so that is all I have for you. As a result, we might as well go through all the songs.
First up from his latest solo release ‘Lost in the Translation’, we get “If This is The End”. It starts off with some slow tempo guitar picking and then Jeff’s vocals softly, yet smoothly float over the verses. Around the 2nd verse, the drums kick in and some electric guitar riffs tossed in. It does pick up a little on the tempo and when it hits that second chorus Jeff’s vocals soar to new heights. Not one of his best ballads, but I like it as it does have a decent solo and is more proof that Jeff can do it all.
Next up is “As I Do 2 U” from his E.P. ‘Believe In Me’. This track is a demo (one of two on here) from a project that never got off the ground called Three Kings. It had Jamie Borger (drummer for Talisman) and Goran Elmquist. It is an acoustic ballad and being a demo, it feels unfinished but it isn’t half bad. A little cheesy, but there are elements there that could’ve turned in to something nice.
The band’s eleventh studio was recorded in 1990 and was the first album in year (maybe decades) to not include Dieter Dierks as producer. Instead, they went with Keith Olsen and went back to a less polished sound which helped see the album go to #21 in the U.S. upon its release on November 6, 1990. It is also the last album to be certified 2X Platinum in the States. It is also known as the band’s first #1 album in their home country of Germany which I find insane it took that long.
The band is still in tact with Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Mathias Jabs, Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell. Little did we know though that this would be the last album to feature longtime bassist, Francis Buchholz. But before he leaves, he actually gets his first songwriting credit with the song “Kicks After Six” which we will talk about soon enough. This album saw the band have a more mature tone in some of their songwriting, but don’t worry there is still the whole sleazy piece of rock as well. The best of both worlds.
SIDE 1:
The album opens with, “Tease Me Please Me”, which is a sleazy little track that seems part Motley Crue, part everything else at the time and that is okay. The song is a rocker that doesn’t take a lot of thought, but it still kicks ass. A fun opening track with a cool riff, some nasty guitar work, Klaus’ gritty vocals and overall catchy as hell. It is straight up down and dirty rock & roll. Yes, please…sign me up.
“Don’t Believe Her” is up next and it is proof that the Scorpions were now an American rock band as the sound is like every other band rocking out in the U.S. at the time. I really like the opening guitar work and then it goes very Ratt-like with the tone. The only thing missing was Pearcy’s rough vocals. Instead we get much better with Klaus. The song isn’t something to write home about, but it is still a fun, upbeat song although chorus is pretty weak.
Then it is more radio-fodder with “To Be With You In Heaven”. I thought it was going to be a ballad, but it is too upbeat and too much a rocker to be one, but it doesn’t miss by much. Rarebell has a slamming drumming beat as the base to the song. The song does have those romantic lyrics you’d expect in a ballad and Klaus delivers them flawlessly, but still not a ballad with that dual guitar work from Jabs and Schenker.
The next track was the first ballad and it is the band’s mega-hit “Wind of Change”. The song was written by Klaus Meine and was inspired by the band’s trip to the Moscow Peace Festival in 1989. The song is about the change that was brewing in the Soviet Union and in Berlin. When the Wall fell and the Soviet Union was no more, the song was a unifying song for everyone. The whistling in the song was by Klaus, Mathias was playing the rhythm guitar and Schenker handled the solo. A slow ballad that seem to strike a chord with everyone as it went to #1 in 9 countries and #4 in the U.S. It was certified Silver, Gold or Platinum in 9 countries as well. To say this was a worldwide phenomenon would be understatement. And the YouTube video is closing in on almost 1 Billion views…impressive.
The band ends Side 1 with “Restless Nights” which is very bluesy and almost a doom like vibe to the whole thing. The chorus picks up and is more melodic while the everything is a little dark and foreboding. Even Klaus sings it with a little doom & gloom until his more sunny-vibed chorus. Jabs does lay down a great solo amongst the Meine screams. Still not a huge favorite of mine though.
SIDE 2:
Side 2 kicks off like Side 1 did with pure sleazy, sexualized rock and roll. “Lust of Love” is pretty mindless fun with a great, driving beat and a chorus that lingers long after its gone and you find yourself singing it around the house and your wife looks at you with a suspiciously strange evil eye. It is a rousing metal anthem…well pretty close. I do like it though.
And the next rack is the song with Francis’ first co-writing credit. “Kicks After Six” is more of the same, enticingly good time rock & roll. I have to admit, I like the raucous, sleazy, dirty little rockers. The are fun, joyful and put a little bounce in my step. This one opens with a really cool riff that I think makes the song. Rarebell pounds away the driving beat and the song kicks some major ass for me. Oh, and the solo…don’t forget the solo. Crank it baby!!
“Hit Between the Eyes” keeps the party going with some almost speed metal riffs and what I believe is a killer dual guitar solo between Mathias and Rudolf…love it! Klaus is brutal as he attacks the verses with a feistiness we haven’t seen yet on this album. Probably the heaviest track here and what a 1-2-3 punch we get on this side. A total rocking good time.
Then we get to a different tone on the album and first up is “Money And Fame”. It harkens back to an older Scorps sound, but I’m not really feeling this one. You’d think I like the gloomy feel to it. The talkbox, by Jabs, has been played to death by most bands at this time. The song drags on for me and doesn’t feel like it gets where it is trying to go.
The title track, “Crazy World”, is up next and it does pick up the pace and has a little more rocking feel to it. The “ooohs” by Klaus are a nice touch especially accompanied by some cool riffing. This is a different track from the rest of the album. A little more sophisticated from the sleazy tracks and I kinda dig it. A nice change of pace and a pretty deep cut that maybe should’ve been placed earlier in the set. Who knows.
And finally we get to end and as usual, Scorpions end with a ballad and I think it is one of their best ballads ever. “Send Me An Angel” sees Klaus give his best vocal performance as he conveys both a melancholy vibe yet there is still a shimmering light of hope. The keyboards add to the sadness and they are handled by Jim Vallance who actually co-wrote 7 of the tracks on here as well. You know Jim from his work with Bryan Adams. There is a desperation to the lyrics as he feels so lost but the hope that an angel will come and make everything better. A really beautiful track and one I never tire of hearing. They outdid themselves with this one in my book.
Track Listing:
Tease Me Please Me – Keeper
Don’t Believe Her – Keeper(1/2 Point)
To Be With You In Heaven – Keeper
Wind of Change – Keeper
Restless Nights – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Lust or Love – Keeper
Kicks After Six – Keeper
Hit Between the Eyes – Keeper
Money And Fame – Delete
Crazy World – Keeper
Send Me An Angel – Keeper
The Track Score is 9 out of 11 Tracks or 82%. I like this one and the fact they didn’t over produce this one like ‘Savage Amusement’. The sleazy songs were so much fun and sometimes you just need down & dirty. The more sophisticated tracks like “Winds of Change”, “Crazy World” and “Send Me An Angel” also were a nice dichotomy to the album. You got some slick and some sick…that is what you need sometimes. It was good to bring Keith Olsen in to produce as the guys needed to shake things up a bit. My Overall Score is a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars as this is their last great album for some time to come…at least in my book.
NEXT UP: CRAZY WORLD – 4 TRACKS FROM CRAZY WORLD – PROMO VINYL (1990)
For his Modern Love Tour, Matt Nathanson had a number of in store performances and like he did for his Some Mad Hope Tour, he recorded them. The first we reviewed awhile back was Left & Right, Vol. 1, but this one was a little different. Left & Right, Vol. 2 was actually a Record Store Day release from 2012 and yes, it was on CD only and not vinyl. There were only 3,000 released and I think is the easier of the two to find (and cheaper one), but that doesn’t make it any less.
The E.P. consists of songs taken from his performance at Newbury Comics in Boston, Mass on October 8, 2011 and from his show at Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon on October 23, 2011. Like the last, it is filled with acoustic songs from his current album and a ton of great banter with the crowd. This time around, Matt brought his good buddy Aaron Tap along to assist on the acoustic guitar and the banter and the two together are quite a comic duo.
After the introduction, we get Matt’s hilarious commentary as he talks about having to pee and then a woman wanting his autograph after he peed, but he denied her as he was late to the in store. And his horse joke didn’t go over very well. He is all over the place. The opening track is the title track of his new album he is touring on. The song “Modern Love” is already a great pop song in full electric version, but acoustically it seems more intimate and like Matt is bearing his soul. The harmonies of him and Aaron really take it to another level. It might be more beautiful here than the actual studio version, yes, it is that good.
Back in 2003, Talisman hit the Festival Circuit in Europe and a lot of those shows were recorded. Two shows in particular were captured and were finally released by Frontiers Records in 2005. We got a Live CD, which we reviewed last week, and then a DVD set. Today, we review the DVD set. The DVD set was called ‘World’s Best Kept Secret’ and was a 2DVD set. The first DVD giving us the two shows released on the CD and the 2nd DVD giving us a retrospective of Talisman and including all the videos from throughout the years plus pieces of several other live shows. It is magnificent set and a great time capsule of a band that was not know across the globe and is one of my favorite bands which is why I think the title to this set is more than appropriate. They were like a little secret that I had and I wish more people knew about them when they were around as I think they are awesome. I have tried to tell the world about them now with this Jeff Scott Soto Series so hopefully I make a few new fans from this series.
The two shows captured were at Club Mondo in Stockholm, Sweden in August 2003 and the second show was from the Sweden Rock Festival from June 2003. This would be the 2nd Sweden Rock Festival live show we’ve been given from the band. The line-up was interesting as the band was usually a 4-piece band. This time we have the return of the great axeman, Fredrik Akesson as Pontus Norgren had left. The other interesting was they added a fifth member with Howie Simon on guitar. Howie at the time was Soto’s solo band’s guitarist and friend.
If I had to pick to listening to the CD or watching the DVD for these two shows, I would pick the DVD any day of the week. The CD is fantastic and I rated it as such, but the DVD lets you see the action going on with this cast of characters on stage. Jeff Scott Soto is a mad man and his energy level is 110% the whole show. He starts off fully clothed but by the end he only has pants on as he sweated up enough to fill a kiddie pool. You get to see the great drumming by Jamie Borger, Howie Simon’s great playing and that fast finger work by Fredrik Akesson. And of course, you can watch Marcel Jacob pound on that bass like so few people can do. It is totally brilliant. You feel the energy feeding off the band and the crowd.
For My Sunday Song #328, we will dive in to the song “How Did You Love?” by Shinedown. The song is off their 2015 album ‘Threat to Survival’. It was released as a single on October 4, 2016 and went to #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. It was written by Brent Smith and Scott Stevens who you know from the band The Exies. He’s also co-written a ton of songs and a lot with Halestorm on their album ‘Into the Wild Life’.
The song is about making sure you understand that you are going to die and being okay with that. Once you are, make sure you live each day to the fullest. When you think back, are you at peace with how you loved during your lifetime. Are you comfortable with that? If not, do something about it. Go out inspire people…and love people.
The song starts off with a slow melody that keeps building with the vocals. It is accented with a beautiful piano and some great rhythm guitar by Zach Myers. The song explodes at the chorus and it turns in to an 80’s power ballad in style. Barry Kerch’s drums are powerful, almost tribal. Brent’s vocals are melodic and heartfelt as they sweep through the verses and soar in the chorus. I love a good power ballad and this fits that mold nicely. The band also released an acoustic version of the song that is quite haunting and beautiful. Check it out as well.
Give the song a listen and let me know what you think. Are you happy with how you’ve loved? I also included the acoustic version as well for your listening pleasure. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful and Happy Sunday.
“How Did You Love?”
You can have the sound of a thousand voices calling your name You can have the light of the world blind you, bathe you in grace But I don’t see so easily what you hold in your hands Cause castles crumble, kingdoms fall and turn into sand
You can be an angel of mercy or give into hate You can try to buy it just like it every other careless mistake How do you justify I’m mystified by the ways of your heart With a million lies the truth will rise to tear you apart Woah!
No one gets out alive, every day is do or die The one thing you leave behind Is how did you love, how did you love? It’s not what you believe; those prayers will make you bleed But while you’re on your knees How did you love, how did you love, how did you love?
Nothing ever feels quite the same when you are what you dreamed And you will never look at anything the same when you see what I see How we forget ourselves, lose our way from the cradle to the grave You can’t replicate or duplicate, gotta find your own way Yeah!
No one gets out alive, every day is do or die The one thing you leave behind Is how did you love, how did you love? It’s not what you believe; those prayers will make you bleed But while you’re on your knees How did you love, how did you love, how did you love?
This ain’t no cross to carry We are the judge and jury; we are the judge and jury
No one gets out alive, every day is do or die The one thing you leave behind Is how did you love, how did you love? It’s not what you believe; those prayers will make you bleed But while you’re on your knees
How did you love, how did you love, how did you love?
This ain’t no cross to carry We are the judge and jury, we are the judge and jury
How did you love, how did you love? How did you love, how did you love?
In my journey through the 7″ Singles in my collection, we are to one I don’t know when or where I ever bought this one. The single is for Hall & Oates song “Out of Touch”. I do like Hall & Oates and this song so I’m sure I bought it, but for the life of me can’t remember anything. I do know this was the first single off the band’s 1984 album ‘Big Bam Boom’. It was the band’s last #1 song and it was their 14th Consecutive Top 40 hit since 1980. That was a pretty impressive run.
The song was written by Daryl Hall and John Oates. The chorus had come to John when he was playing around on his synthesizer and thought it would be great for the band The Stylistics since had this whole Philly swing to it. The producer of their album, Bob Clearmountain, thought differently the next in the studio and said they have a hit. Well, he was right, they did.
My copy is the standard U.S. version and the B-Side is another album tracks called “Cold, Dark And Yesterday”. What I find interesting about my copy is the wear & tear on the piece of vinyl. Is that circular fading a result of being played a million times in a Jukebox or regular turntable. I would think a Jukebox as whatever was grabbing it wore off the label. But it still plays beautifully with no pops or any other noises.
Journey – Live in Concert at Lollapalooza – (Frontiers Records)
David Crosby – Live at Capitol Theatre – (Three Blind Mice / BMG Rights Mgt)
Sabu – Banshee – (Frontiers Records)
Rob Moratti – Epical – (Frontiers Records)
Landfall – Elevate – (Frontiers Records)
Nevena – Nevena – (Frontiers Records)
Tony DeCarlo – Dancing in the Moonlight – (Frontiers Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 