We are now 10 years past the last studio album, ‘Psycho Circus’, and Kiss has still yet to do another studio album. Instead, we basically get yet another greatest hits package. This one is different of course because it was actually a re-recording of Kiss Klassics, but this time the players are not just Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, but we now have those old hits recorded by Eric Singer on drums and Tommy Thayer on guitar. My first question is…WHY?? Do we really need to have studio versions of these great, amazing Kiss songs done by the new members. (rhetorical question)
I guess the people of Japan did because that is the only place this album was released. The title of the album is Jigoku-Retsuden which means something like “Legends from Hell” or “Hell’s Legends” in Japanese. Okay, that is pretty cool, but that is the only thing cool about this release. Okay, maybe the OBI strip is pretty cool as well. But that is it, I promise…alright, the cover is a little cool too…no more…stop!!
Another 12″ Single I picked up from Noble Records on that big Metal Collection he was selling was from Aldo Nova. You remember Aldo from his early 80’s song “Fantasy”. This was a Promotional 12″ Single for his fourth album ‘Blood on the Bricks’ that came out in 1991. It was for the first single, the title track “Blood on the Bricks”.
This particular single was the “Metal Radio Exclusive” red vinyl 12″ (in gatefold clear PVC sleeve with color insert) with three songs from the “Blood On The Bricks” album. It was promotional only and not for sale at the time..but now it is fair game because Noble had it for sale almost 30 years later. This was the album and Tour that I saw and got to meet Mr. Aldo Nova and his band and get autographs. They were all super nice.
The cool thing about this album for Aldo Nova is that it was produced and all of the songs were co-written with some guy named Jon Bon Jovi. You see, Jon and Aldo go way back as Aldo worked with Jon on his debut album that became the debut Bon Jovi album before Richie and the gang were a full band. Jon was returning the favor in what they hoped would be Aldo’s big comeback album…which didn’t really work out. Jon had signed Aldo to his Jambco record label.
The A-Side of this LP was “Blood on the Bricks” which was a straight-up rocker. It was uptempo with a hard driving, very catchy chorus. Even though Jon put his stamp on these songs, the guitar still sounds like Aldo’s tone and feel so he didn’t completely strip away that thank goodness. The song was all street tough and had that Jon Bon Jovi storytelling vibe. Like most of the album, it is a little overproduced, but hey, it still isn’t half bad.
The B-Side of this disc had 2 songs. First up was “Young Love” which was written by Aldo and Jon but also had the help of Bryan Adams writing partner Jim Vallance. This song was a little cheesy that was leaning between power ballad and pop song and seemed to be a leftover track that wasn’t good enough for a Bon Jovi album.
The last track is called “Modern World” which was soley written by Aldo and Jon. This is a tough, street fighting type song. It has a lot of edge and balls and has a really cool riff and groove to it with a whole tribal flair. You even get a shout out to Donald Trump, but this was way before his time as president. This was around the time he cheated on his then wife with Marla Maples. There are a lot of cultural references from the time which actually dates the song a little…okay a lot. But Aldo’s playing is sensational and he lays down a great solo in only the way Aldo can.
And there you have it. The 12″ Promotional Single for “Blood on the Bricks” by Aldo Nova. It is a nice piece to add to my ever growing Aldo Nova collection. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by.
After the tour supporting the band’s last album, ‘British Steel’, the band went right back in the studio to do the follow-up, ‘Point of Entry’, which would be the band’s eighth studio album. The last album did so well, the band didn’t want to change things up so we basically got the same album as before, except maybe not quite as heavy or as good. The hauled all their equipment to Ibiza Studios in Spain to record this one and not a bad place to be I can imagine, but did it bring any fresh inspiration? I think not. I think a big problem was the band had a real substance abuse problem, especially Rob as he
The band, believe it or not, stayed in tack with the same drummer as last time, David Holland. That alone is a massive achievement for the band. The remaining cast of characters were still Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing and Ian Hill. The main core of the band. They recorded the album from October-November of 1980 and released the album on February 26, 1981. I won’t say the reception was lukewarm, as the album did go gold and produce a few singles. It only went to #39 in the US and #14 in the UK which isn’t a whole lot worse then the prior album, but the prior one did go platinum.
I think a big problem was the band had a real substance abuse problem, especially Rob as he tried to cope with his every growing loneliness being a gay metal rocker. But I think another problem was this resort like atmosphere of the Spanish island, gave the band way too many distractions. They would some time working and some time riding motorcross and partying. Hard to get proper work done when you are focusing on other things. I think these distractions led to a slightly disjointed album.
The album though does kick off with a great, classic Priest tune “Heading Out to the Highway”. It opened with a great dual guitar riff from Downing & Tipton and then great rhythm section from Hill & Holland and then Halford bad ass guy vocals sounding all tough and mean. It is a great driving song as its speedy tempo makes you want to crank it up and push the foot on the pedal a little harder. I remember seeing the song and MTV and cranking the TV as loud as it would go which wasn’t that loud as it was such a crappy TV.
“Don’t Go” comes up next and thumps along and slow yet heavy beat and is quite seductive and sexy. The song then explodes at the chorus which is very catchy. The guitar solo is the highlight as it really screams to be heard. It is almost the climax of this seductive dance.
“Hot Rockin'” brings it back to a more uptempo metal pace. It is a straight up rocker and one of my favorites on the album. It is full of energy and Halford attacks it with gusto and another guitar solo that is just as brutal as Rob’s vocals. By the time the song ends you are exhausted yet dying for more.
Next we get “Turning Circles” that opens with a non-sounding Priest guitar riff. It isn’t as gritty and powerful. The song feels like it is going in circles and unable to find any place to go. The music is repetitive sounding and leaves you wanting more. Rob sounds great vocally, but I found it dull overall.
But don’t fret, as the next song, “Desert Plains”, gets right back on track. It opens with a loud, heavy drum peat from Holland and if full of duel guitar work from Tipton and Downing and thumping bass line from Hill. Halford comes on and gives a serious tone which almost feels a little ominous in presentation. It is another song that feels like you are driving fast down the road weaving in and out of cars and that there is a dangerous element you can’t escape from and is following you about to catch you. Overall, this is a killer track and might be my favorite track on the album. A great way to close out the first half of the album.
The second half of the album kicks off with “Solar Angels” and a some great dual guitar work. Plus you get a Tipton solo and then a dual solo at the end. I think the highlight of the song is the musicianship as it seems to be more music and less vocals. There are some wild space sounding effects thrown in to go with the song title and add some flair. It is a decent track and might be the better song on the back half. The album starts to lose me from here.
“You Say Yes” is a song with a pretty awful chorus. The rest isn’t much better, but this song screams filler even if there is some cool bass by Ian Hill, though not cool enough to save the song. It is quite dreary and I am ready to move on to the next track.
Next up is “All The Way” and I’m not sure this is a metal song. It seems so contrived and the band seems to be reaching for a radio hit or commercial friendly sound. It seems like they are trying to write a party song as it is too chipper and is that supposed to be a handclap sound…oh goodness, spare me.
“Troubleshooter” is a little better as it is a little darker and has a great groove to it. The guitar work is sensational with Tipton starting the solo and Downing finishing it up. I do love when they share the solo, that is always worth a listen. I think it helps save the song…a little.
The final track, “On the Run”, actually has a strong opening and Halford’s vocals are soaring. He sounds smooth and the high notes are sensational and what I love from him. Give me this Priest any day of the week. Another hard, driving beat and some great drumming by Holland as well. They saved Side 2 from being a dismal failure with this track. This is more like what I want to hear from the band.
The Bonus Tracks on this one consist of “Thunder Road” which was recorded during the “Ram It Down” sessions from 1988 which makes no sense for it to be the bonus track on an album from 1981. It is a solid, heavy ass rocking song though. Production wise, it doesn’t sound clean and fully finished, but song wise, it is great and better than a lot of songs on this album. I like Hill’s bass as it is the Thunder on this Road (see what I did there!!).
The next bonus song is “Desert Plains” which was recorded live at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri; 23 May 1986. The song feels like it is sped up a little from the studio track. There is a lot of double bass from Holland how was still with the band in 1986 believe it or not. The studio version is still better, but this shows how the band can tweak a song live and turn it in to something a little different. Now it is faster and heavier and still pretty good.
Track Listing:
Heading Out to the Highway – Keeper
Don’t Go – Keeper
Hot Rockin’ – Keeper
Turning Circles – Delete
Desert Plains – Keeper
Solar Angels – Keeper
You Say Yes – Delete
All The Way – Delete
Troubleshooter – Keeper(1/2 Point)
On The Run – Keeper
Bonus Tracks:
Thunder Road
Desert Plains (Live)
The Track Score is 6.5 out of 10 or 65%. This is the first album so far I have actually been a little disappointed in. Don’t get me wrong, it has its moments, but overall it was the first album I didn’t see growth of some kind. It was ‘British Steel’ light or 2.0…but not as good. They tried to copy the success of ‘British Steel’ to no avail. They had too many distractions and the band was in a bad place with this one and you can tell from the sound of these songs. Overall, I will only give it a 3.0 out of 5.0 Stars as I still liked more than half the tracks, the rest was just weak.
Welcome to the another month of purchases here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music. This month was going to start out very promising as I was going to a record show the first weekend of the month. I had high hopes. I put together a list of records I was going to hunt specifically for as I was going to get a grail item. Well, that didn’t happen. Nope…it was kind of a let down. Almost a bust. Now, that doesn’t mean I didn’t find some stuff, just nothing I was hoping to find.
What did I find? Well, as you know, I am a Billy Idol fan and I found a 12″ Picture Disc as well as two 7″ Singles. There were more, but condition was not great on the rest so I left them there. Here are the Idol Items I found…
For My Sunday Song #250, we are going to discuss the song “Never Tear Us Apart” by the band INXS. The song was released on August 8, 1988 and was off the bands 1987 album ‘Kick’. It was the fourth single off an album that has now sold over 20,000,000 albums worldwide. Their biggest selling album and one of the greatest songs they have ever written. It was written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence.
The song is about two people that find an instant connection. A very passionate and lifelong connection. I guess you could say it is about love at first site. I always believed that when you saw the person you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with you would know it. I know I did with my wife so I guess that is why this song always had connected with me. No matter what is thrown at you, that bond won’t be broken. I wonder for Michael, if this was something he was looking for or if it was something he never found. He never did marry, but he did love deeply.
What I found interesting about the song is that Andrew wrote the music which was originally more a blues number. I believe when he got the lyrics, he turned it in to this very seductive ballad. It’s tempo is very much like a waltz and it glides like a dance as it flows through you ears, your heart and your consciousness. The synthesizers layered in helps with the glamorous textures of the song. One of the highlights in Kirk Pengilly and the beautiful, sexy, saxophone that he plays near the end of the song. Michael, well, he sings the song in such a sultry voice and you can feel the love and the passion in his delivery. It is stellar all around.
Welcome to the last Friday New Release post for May and let me tell you that May was a little of a letdown. There were a bunch of releases, but not a ton I was really that interested in hearing. Let me tell you, June makes up for it in spades. It gets way better in June. That doesn’t mean we have a bunch of nothing this week, there are a lot of great releases. Only a couple I want to hear and I will highlight those in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear this week and what I may have missed so every one knows what is available. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!
Blackberry Smoke – You Hear Georgia – (3 Legged Records / Thirty Tigers): The Atlanta boys are always bringing some great Southern Rock, Americana, Country Rock…whatever you need to label it. Just sit back and enjoy their blend of music and smoke ’em if you got ’em!!
Del Amitri – Fatal Mistakes – (Cooking Vinyl): It has been 19 years since the band’s last album. That is crazy. They got back together a few years back and have been touring, but finally getting around to an album. I am curious more than anything to see what they bring to the table after so long. Here’s to hoping for a great album.
We are now to one of the greatest things Kiss has ever released. In 2006 and through to 2007, Kiss released the Kissology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection over a 3 Volume set. This set was amazing as it brought Kiss in living color to your screen. Each set covers a different era of Kiss and each is filled with interviews, promotional videos and tons and tons of live shows. It is more Kiss than you could ever absorb in a day. And we aren’t going to babble on any more as this is too good to wait, let’s jump right in to it!!!
KISSOLOGY: THE ULTIMATE KISS COLLECTION VOL. 1 – 1974-1977:
First up is Volume One which covers the years 1974-1977 the classic years of Kiss. This is Kiss in their prime and there is so much goodness in this set as there are around 380 minutes of Kiss. This set only had 2 Discs (only, because the other 2 sets have more). The first disc has so memorable and historic Kiss moments and kicks off with the earliest recorded video from February 17, 1974 of the band playing the song ‘Acrobat’ which was never released prior to this set. It also includes some TV appearances on ABC’s In Convert and their appearance on the Mike Douglas Show which has the most hilarious interview with Gene. The disc also has two full live shows with one from the Hotter Than Hell Tour from 1975 and a set for the Alive! Tour from Cobo Hall in 1976.
We are slap dab in the middle of the Queen Studio Album Series. We are on album #8. We’ve done 7 and have 7 more to go after this one. I can’t believe it is going by so fast. We are also in to a new decade…the 80’s. This was also the time where my musical taste started to develop on my own without input from my siblings. I remember a couple of these songs on the radio so this album is a little special for me, but yet still years away before I bought one on my own. In 1980, I was just starting middle school so had no job and no money.
The band started recording in June/July of 1979 and a few songs were done, but things were brought to a halt because Queen went back out on the road in late 1979 on the Crazy Tour. When that ended, they went back in the studio on February and finished up the album by March 1980. The album came out on June 30, 1980 and was a massive success. The album went to #1 in the US and sold well over 4 million copies in the US alone. There were 5 singles so we have a lot to discuss. The line-up is unchanged as we still have Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. Not many bands make it this far without a line-up change and Queen wouldn’t for years and years to come.
The album kicks off with “Play the Game” which was the third single off the album. It didn’t do as well as a couple other singles on the album as it only went to #42 just missing the Top 40. The song is also famous because it is the first song to feature a synthesizer. Queen had notoriously put on their previous albums that they didn’t use synthesizers. People thought that it was a knock against synthesizers, but reality is they wanted to let the world know that all those cools sounds that they made were actually done by guitar. It really wasn’t a knock on that instrument. Anyway, the song was written by Freddie Mercury and it is Queen being Queen. They don’t do anything simple and it has to be huge and grand and that is what this song is. Freddie’s vocal range on this song is insane. It has Freddie on piano and synthesizer for this one with Brian laying down a great solo that was played for the song and not all showboaty. It is a killer opening track.
For this month’s post on The Original Vs. The Cover, we are going to cover the song “I Want Candy” originally done by The Strangeloves and later covered by Bow Wow Wow. The song was written by Bert Berns, Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer in 1965 and three of the writers decided to release the song themselves and became known as The Strangeloves.
The Strangeloves were really Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer. However, as The Strangeloves, they said they were sheep farmers from Australia named Giles, Miles and Niles Strange who became filthy rich by cross-breeding sheep. They even wore wigs and unusual clothing when being these three outrageous personalities. At least they never took themselves too seriously…I mean how could you.
The song is believed to be about a dancer named Candy Johnson who the guys saw dancing at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City, but I don’t know if that has ever been confirmed. The band was originally going to record the song “Bo Didley” but wanted to make the song their own so they re-worked the lyrics and changed things up enough, but you can still hear the main beat to that song in the final product. Lyrically, the song is supposedly based of the 1958 book Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg which is about naive young girl who has a many encounters with much older men.
I stumbled across this book at a store called 2nd & Charles. They sell used books, games, cds, vinyl, you name it. I was browsing the book section, in the music section of course, and stumbled across this beauty. As you know, Def Leppard is one of my favorite bands and I will grab anything I can find by them or about them. And this was write up my alley because it is a picture books and few words because me no like words, reading bad!! Picture books are more my speed.
This particular book is called ‘Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History’ and all the photographs were taken by the legendary rock photographer, Ross Halfin. Ross has photographed Def Leppard literally since the band started way back in the late 70’s. He is the only photographer to be there basically for every step of the way. This book is a beautiful chronological story of Def Leppard told in photos. And if a photo can speak 1,000 words than this books has millions of words.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 