Month: March 2026

My Sunday Song – “Tall Cool One” by Robert Plant

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic7 Comments

For My Sunday Song #474, we are talking Robert Plant’s “Tall Cool One”. The song is from his 1988 album ‘Now And Zen’ and was a change in Robert’s perception of his past…more on that in a minute. The song was released some time in April 1988 and saw Robert get a Top 40 hit as it went to #25 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. What helps makes this song so special is that it brings back Robert’s longtime Led Zeppelin partner, Jimmy Page, on guitar for this song. This might’ve been their fourth collaboration since the band’s breakup. And maybe their most special…up to this point in time.

The song was written by Robert Plant and his keyboardist Phil Johnstone who is in large part key to why this song came about. Robert had been very lackluster about anything to do with his former band Led Zeppelin. He wanted to distance himself from it and be his own person. Phil told him to lighten up about it and embrace that legacy. Maybe working again with Jimmy helped or maybe it was Phil’s encouragement, but Robert did finally lighten up about and as a result we get this really cool rocker “Tall Cool One”. It sounds like he is talking about a woman in the song, but that woman is simply Led Zeppelin. Even the lyrics give a shout out to the past with lines from the songs “When the Levee Breaks” and even “Black Dog”.

If that wasn’t enough, the song is also about Roberts displeasure with sampling at the time. I believe it was The Beastie Boys who sampled a Led Zeppelin song on their album ‘Licensed to Ill”. Robert was none too pleased. At first, Robert thought about sampling some Beastie Boys songs for this one, but instead he sampled his own Led Zeppelin songs such as  “Black Dog”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Whole Lotta Love”,  “The Ocean” and “Custard Pie” which is a much better choice.

The song itself is an upbeat, blast of a rocker. One of the most fun songs he’s ever done as a solo artist, at least to me. There is that classic Plant vocal, that full on 80’s pop/rock sound and all together makes for a blast of a song. I love the spoken word break that adds some more layers to the song and then you get some some Page guitar work, although, he isn’t in the video. There is a tongue in cheek through-out the song which I think takes it to another level and helps make it stick in your brain. At the end he throws all those Led Zeppelin samples and Zeppelin lyrics in to it letting the song go out with a bang!

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Tall Cool One” by Robert Plant” →

Friday New Releases – March 6, 2026

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic4 Comments

March kicks off with a bang with a highly anticipated album for a lot of people. That would be Harry Styles new one. I’m sure I’ll give it a listen. I’ll also probably stream Rainbow and Black Stone Cherry. Others might like Leaves’ Eyes or Charlotte Sands or Morrissey and there are a couple of older bands like Squeeze and Talking Heads with new albums. Tell me what you want to hear this week or if we missed anything. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!!

  • Harry Styles – Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally – (Erksine Records / Columbia Records)
  • Rainbow – Temple of the King: Rainbow 1975-1976 – (Edsel Records)
  • Black Stone Cherry – Celebrate – (Mascot Records)
  • Squeeze – Trixies – (Love Records / BMG Rights Mgmt)
  • Morrissey – Make-Up Is A Lie – (Sire Records)
  • Gnarls Barkley – Atlanta – (TenThousand Projects Holdings LLC)
  • Talking Heads – Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live – (Rhino Entertainment Co / Warner Music)
  • Mountain – Don’t Look Around: The Recordings 1969-1974 – (Esoteric)
  • Godsmack – Awake (25th Anniversary) – (Republic Records / UMG Recordings)
  • The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – X’s For Eyes (Deluxe) – (Better Noise Records)
  • Leaves’ Eyes – Song of Darkness E.P. – (Reigning Phoenix Music)
  • Hunter Hayes – Evergreen – (LP Entertainment / DashGo)
  • Aaron Watson – Horse Named Texas – (Adub Records)
  • Charlotte Sands – Satellite – (CS Records)
  • American Adrenalin – Burn the Ships – (Together Records)
  • Erra – Silence Outlives the Earth – (UNFD)
  • Prong – Live And Uncleansed – (Steamhammer)
  • Vreid – The Skies Turn Black – (Indie Recordings)
  • Desert Storm – Buried Under the Weight of Reason – (Heavy Psych Sounds)
  • Nefastis – Shadows at the Light of Dawn – (Rockshots Records)
  • Surfbort – Reality Star – (TODO)
  • The S.E.T. – Self Evident Truth – (Flatspot Records)
  • Alex Melton – The Process – (Pure Noise Records)
  • The Theander Expression – Wonderful Anticipation (10th Anniversary) – (Malachite Night Records)
  • Status/Non-Status – Big Changes – (You’ve Changed Records)
  • War Child – Help (2) – (War Child Records)
  • Bory – Never Turns To Night – (Bleak Enterprise)
  • William Clark Green – Watterson Hall – (Bill Grease Records / Stem)
  • Austin Michael – Lonestar – (Austin Michael)
  • Willa Ford – Amanda – (Willa Ford Music LLC)
  • Travis Bolt – Burning Bridges – (Gravel Road / Stem)
  • The Brook And The Bluff – Werewolf – (Dualtone Music Group)
  • Matt Corby – Tragic Magic – (Island Records / Rainbow Valley Records)
  • Our Oceans – Right Here, Right Now – (Long Branch Records)
  • Denzel Curry – Strictly 4 The Scythe – (PH Recordings / Loma Vista Recordings / Concord)
  • Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers – Hell To Breakfast – (EmmaJava Recordings / Soundly Music)
  • Shabaka – Of The Earth – (Shabaka Records)
  • Rick Braun – Rick Braun Plays Chuck Mangione – (A-Train/Braunto)

Kiss – ‘What Goes On Behind Closed Doors’ (2012) – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic14 Comments

We are to yet another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

This particular bootleg comes to us from The Godfatherecords and was released on August 1, 2012. What you get here are a bunch of Kiss demos and these aren’t your typical rough sounding bootlegs. No, these are all pretty high quality sounding demos. The first disc is all demos spanning from 1973 to 1998, giving us 25 years of demos and you get a lot of tracks. There are 21 tracks alone on Disc 1.

And Disc 2 is something even more special. Taken directly from the source tapes that were actually used for the Kiss Box Set, we get the original Wicked Lester album. And all I can say is that is the ABSOLUTE BEST sounding recording I have ever heard of this album. I have the Wicked Lester songs on several different bootlegs and not one of them are of this quality. Damn!! It is like having an official release of the album. Yes, it is that good. Based on this, why have Kiss never officially released that album. Will we get it for the box set of the debut album? I certainly hope so.

The cover of this 2 CD set is an outtake of the photo shoot from The Elder. It has non-make-up wearing Paul Stanley touching the door knocker from the original album and his hand partially covering his face. The back cover has the the track listing, but the interesting thing are the pictures inside. You get a ton of snippets of pictures for the band on this tri-fold digipack release. There is one set of pictures that I refused to take and show on this review and no, it is not because there is nudity. It is because it is Paul, Ace and Peter wearing Nazi attire. And even one where they give the Nazi salute. By today’s standards, it is pretty offensive and controversial and I don’t want any of that non-sense here. So let’s just talk about the music.

CD One:

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘What Goes On Behind Closed Doors’ (2012) – Album Review” →

The Collection: Ep. 91 – February 2026 Wrap-Up

Published on by 2loud2oldmusicLeave a comment

We are now 2 months into 2026 and already, I’ve had some great finds. It is time for our February 2026 Wrap Up so lets see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection this month. Despite the cold weather, we also picked up a bunch of a heat in CDs and even a few vinyl. Plus, one HOLY GRAIL item! This month I hit up Noble Records and 2nd & Charles, as well as ordered a couple things from Discogs, Facebook and Amazon. So much to go through including a handful of new Rock Candy CDs in the collection, a Box Sets plus a selection of items from the Needtobreathe Insiders Fan Club. Lots of great new and old stuff to go through and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it is live right now on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

And here is everything for those that don’t want to watch the video…

My Sunday Song – “Joker & The Thief” by Wolfmother

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

For My Sunday Song #473, we are going to discuss the song “Joker & The Thief” by the band Wolfmother. The song is from their debut album, ‘Wolfmother’, which was released on October 31, 2005. The sixth single was “Joker & The Thief” and it was released on October 28, 2006, almost a year after the release of the album and was one of the highest charting singles from the album. The singles was certified Gold in both Australia and the UK selling over 400,000 copies. Not too bad.

The song was written by Wolfmother, but a majority I am sure was by lead singer and guitarist, Andrew Stockdale. He state he was shopping in a store and heard AC/DC’s song “Thunderstruck” and got the idea to do a rock anthem. From there, he has admittedly stole the characters The Joker and The Thief from Bob Dylan’s song “All Along the Watchtower”. The Joker and The Thief are a representation of rebellion as well as duality. The song references the dark & the light, there is good & evil, sweet & sour…always one contradicting the other. The Joker is always looking for the good, the light, searching for life’s desires while the Thief is a sign for corruption and loss of innocence.

There was one article where someone said the that the Joker was a man searching for love while the Thief was the woman that would steal his heart. He was going through life searching for the sweet in all the sour. He wasn’t going to go home with any woman, but the one that had his heart. He would search all day, flying around and sees her in a field of clover. He wonders what would happen if he took her away. You can make any song mean whatever you want it to mean, I liked this interpretation simply because it was sweet in all the sour interpretations I had read.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Joker & The Thief” by Wolfmother” →