Ratt aren’t making any new albums it seems, so how does a label make money off their catalog? One way is it to keep reissuing the albums. Another is to release greatest hits compilations and a third is to release a collection or rarities and unreleased versions of the band’s catalogs. And that is what we have here. Heck, the label has been doing other two constantly so this a nice change of pace. But, they definitely went cheap. No liner notes and a cheap cardboard digipack. Plus there are only 9 tracks.
Here is the promotional line they sent out that various sites have posted. Not too much in it either…
From the ’80s metal vault comes this collection of vintage demos and live recordings of one of the scenes biggest hitmakers, Ratt. Features the earliest known recording of the band’s signature hit, “Round & Round”, complete with alternate lyrics and melody, as well as vintage performances of classics like “Body Talk”, “Wanted Man” and more.
The thing is I think this was already released back in 2007 with a different album cover, but same track listing and same label. I can’t find it on Discogs which leads me to believe it was a digital only release. Interesting though.
Welcome to a new series I have on YouTube called Retro Rock Reviews. Each week, we are going to pick an album and do a quick review. They won’t be long shows, something quick and fun to get you through your day. For Episode 2, we are tackling the ever interesting Frank Zappa and his album ‘Hot Rats’. Released on October 10, 1969, it was an album and artist I was always afraid to tackle because he is…let’s say…different. It is outside my comfort zone. But I tackled it and here is my review. Enjoy!
So go check it out as it is live now on August 15, 2024 at Noon.…because why not!! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
We are now on the band’s third live album. They had a great idea with this one. At a very exclusive listening party for their current album, ‘This House is Not For Sale’, the band played every song from the new album, basically, in the same order as the album. They played 15 tracks which is the number of tracks on the Deluxe Edition, however, there are 21 tracks available if you count Japanese and International releases as well as the Target and WalMart ones too. A lot of songs if you have to have them all, I don’t have them all…someday maybe.
The show was at the London Palladium and was recorded on October 10, 2016 and released on December 16, 2016. The full band was there including Jon Bon Jovi, Tico Torres, David Bryan, Phil X, Hugh McDonald and even John Shanks and Everett Bradley who are both official members now and even pictured on the album jacket for the new album, ‘Forever’. The band was in fine form, Jon’s vocals were perfection and the show went off without a hitch…I think.
Jon comes out and welcomes everyone and says his name is Bruce Forsyth. If you don’t know, he is an English entertainer and television presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Now his joke makes sense. Oh, and it is Sir Bruce Forsyth. When David (I think it was David), tells him it isn’t Sunday Night and he isn’t Bruce Forsyth, Jon says who he really is, the crowd screams and the band goes in to “This House is Not For Sale”. I am always wanting live versions of songs and the fact you get all of them live is really cool.
On November 21, 2006, Kiss and their label released the first collection of all the Alive! albums in the band’s catalog. It was called Kiss Alive! 1975-2000. I really great idea to get them all in one set. And what makes this special is that it is the first release of what was supposed to be Kiss Alive IV, Alive! The Millennium Concert from 2000. Their label got swallowed up and it was shelved. As you now know, ‘Symphony’ was released as Alive IV.
The Box Set had four CDs, one for each show, ‘Alive!’, ‘Alive II’, ‘Alive III’ and Alive! The Milllennium Concert’. There are also a couple of bonus tracks included in the set. The set came in a multi-layered cardboard fold out box and there was a cool feature. Each CD was housed in a the normal plastic shell, but behind each disc, was a live shot from each of the respective shows. The set also included a 72-page booklet.
DISC 1:
‘ALIVE!’ (1975)
‘Alive!’ was recorded over four stops on the Dressed to Kill Tour. You had May 16 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, naturally; June 21 at Cleveland Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio; July 20 at RKO Orpheum Theater in Davenport, Iowa; and July 23 at Wildwoods Convention Center in Wildwood, New Jersey. With four shows recorded, they could piece together a perfect live album…well…maybe not!
Welcome to a new series I have on YouTube called Retro Rock Reviews. Each week, we are going to pick an album and do a quick review. They won’t be long shows, something quick and fun to get you through your day. For the first episode, I am going to do a review of George Harrison’s debut solo album ‘All Things Must Pass’. I reviewed it years ago for the site and thought it would be fun to do that one as my first episode for the new series. I hope you enjoy it…oh yeah…since the original series on YouTube is called ‘The Collection’…these reviews will only be albums in my collection…makes sense!
So go check it out as it is live now on August 8, 2024 at Noon.…because why not!! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
It is 2002 and the sound on the radio is now very different. Pop bands rule the world. Heck, even Bon Jovi had turned more to a Pop band with an album called ‘Crush’. Def Leppard chased the trend with this album and have moved completely away from their known rock sound to a more melodic pop record. They even brought some of the Swedish pop writers to help like Andrew Carlsson and Max Martin. Also included in on the writing was famed writer Marti Frederiksen who had worked with Aerosmith on the song “Jaded”. Phil remembers hearing this song and wanting Leppard to have a song like that. All these changes are huge and we probably thought this is not an album we were expecting from the band, but as it turns out, it was one we needed.
The album ‘X’, (or Ten), is the band’s 8th studio album, but its 10th album release if you count ‘Retro Active’ and ‘Vault’. The album was released on July 30, 2002, but only reached #11 on the Billboard charts. The album had 3 singles and never did well on the charts, I don’t remember hearing them on the radio. Heck, ‘X’ didn’t even get certified anything by RIAA…might be the first album of theirs to not get at least Gold. This album was a big change in more ways than one.
There wass one constant with Def Leppard and that was the line-up. It was still Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. 10 years with this line-up and we are now 12 years after this and they are still the same line-up. Kudos to them. Maybe the band was in a good place at this time because this does seem like a happier album at times. I have even heard this album called the ‘Love Album’ as it has a lot of ballads and a lot of pop songs. I don’t have a problem with them doing a pop album…even Kiss did with ‘Unmasked’ and I like that album. So why not Def Leppard. Is this as bad as everyone says it is…maybe I’m the contrarian here, but I think it is awesome. I am a huge pop music fan, so this satisfies that side of my taste quite nicely. Let’s get in to it.
The first track and single off the album is the song called “Now”. The song was written by the band with the help of Marti Frederiksen who we mentioned earlier. If Phil wanted a song like “Jaded” with the classy, perfect production, well, he got it. “Now” is as slick of production as it comes. The opening acoustic guitars, the beautifully lush keyboards, a crazy cool bassline and a great snare beat, “Now” opens as great as any song they’ve done and when that chorus hits, the song is huge, with delicious harmonies and a great energy that drives the song. There is a rock element to the song, but let’s be honest, it is pop in all its glory. It is modern, but still has the Leppard tone to it that shows the band is still in there somewhere.
If you noticed the header at the top it says “re-review”. I had reviewed this album when it was originally released back in 2016. My views on this album have changed quite a bit since that review so I thought I would do another one. My first take on the album was a 2.1 out of 5.0 Stars, so it was pretty bad. Is that still the case…we will see. Let’s get started.
Bon Jovi was now on their 14th studio album. This time around they were now on their new label Island Records after having a bitter divorce with their former label of 32 years, Mercury label. Funny thing is that both labels are owned by Universal Music Group, so technically still the same label…in my opinion at least. Their new album, ‘This House is Not For Sale’, was released on November 4, 2016 and sold 129,000 copies in the first week making it #1 for that week.
This was the first album with their two new official band members. Phil X is the new guitarist replacing Richie Sambora officially. And long standing bass player since 1994, Hugh McDonald, was finally promoted to official member. The band was back to being a 5 piece with Tico Torres, David Bryan and of course Jon Bon Jovi being the remaining members. John Shanks is still producer and does a lot of the rhythm guitar on the album. He brings nothing new to the table so not sure why they still use him. (He becomes an official member many years later).
The cover of the album was a photo by Jerry Uelsmann and is of a house that is deeply rooted in to the ground. Jon Bon Jovi saw this black & white photo a few years earlier and was really inspired by it. So much so that it became the artwork for the album and the inspiration for the title song.
Kiss is notorious for releasing Greatest Hits compilations and it is both the band and the label responsible for that travesty. Don’t get me wrong, they have a ton of great songs so a few greatest hits compilations are probably necessary. However, this is not one of them even though this one is a little different. On either October 10, 2006 or November 21, 2006, depending on who you believe (Wikipedia shows both dates), the label allowed a third volume in the 20th Century Masters’ Millennium Collection. They released ‘The Best of Kiss: Volume 3 – The Millennium Collection’ and what makes it a little different is that it is only compilation from Kiss that focuses only on their material from the 1990’s. It gets a point for that.
But like Volumes 1 & 2, it is only 12 songs and all are previously released so nothing new here. No remixes, single edits, just album cuts which is easier and cheaper. The look is exactly like the other comps in this set so at least they are consistent. However, the 90’s weren’t the best time for Kiss, they had 3 studio albums and a couple live albums. Not much to work with I’m afraid.
The compilation kicks off with “God Gave Rock And Roll To You II” which is a cover of the Argent song written by Russ Ballard with heavy lyric changes by Paul, Gene and Bob. The song is the first good rock anthem Kiss has done in years and the first in 10 years to have a co-lead vocals with both Gene and Paul. This was from the Bill & Ted Bogus Journey movie and soundtrack as well as from ‘Revenge’. You can get in a multitude of places.
Welcome to a surprise episode of The Collection. Being today is August 3rd, I thought what a great time to talk the Def Leppard album ‘Hysteria’. Why? Because ‘Hysteria’ was released on August 3rd way back in 1987. The band’s biggest album to date and one of the biggest albums of all time. If you are fan of the album, stick around and check out all that I have related to Hsyteria!
So go check it out as it is live now on August 3, 2024 at Noon…because why not!! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
Welcome back. Last week, we talked about the Cybernauts ‘Live’ album that was released in 2000 in Japan only. In 2001, they released a Deluxe Version of the album in the UK and the 2nd CD was studio recordings the band had done. If you remember, the Cybernauts are Joe Elliott and Phil Collen from Def Leppard; Trevor Bolder & Woody Woodmansey from David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars and then on keyboard is Dick Decent. They came together as a Mick Ronson & David Bowie tribute band for the Mick Ronson Memorial show back in 1997.
This week, we are talking about the 2nd CD in the Deluxe Edition called ‘The Further Adventures of the Cybernauts’. The Japanese only release was in June 2001 and consists of all studio recordings the band did of these David Bowie songs. We get 7 tracks and one hidden track which is an alternate version of one of the other seven.
The first four tracks were recorded on August 8, 1997 at Bow Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland the day after they recorded the live show we saw on last week’s post. They didn’t waste any time getting these recorded…why not, they were on fire the night before so capture some of that magic. The first track is “Manic Depression” and it is not a David Bowie track as you already guessed. Nope, this is a Jimi Hendrix one and the band gives it a little psychedelic vibe and Phil does a bang up job doing his best Hendrix. Joe’s vocals are put through something to give it that spacey feel to it. A really cool opening track. “All the Young Dudes” is up next and the Mott the Hoople track is done as it should. Some great keyboards, great vocals and those gang vocals on the chorus see a band that loves and appreciates this music.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 