After a very tumultuous time in the boy band Take That, Robbie left the group, recorded an album and went in to rehab. Robbie’s drug problem and ego problem was too much for Take That. He was tired of his creative input being ignored and was ready to branch out on his own. And branch out he did. His first album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ was released on September 29, 1997 and though it started off slow, it would go on to great heights hitting #1 on the UK charts and selling over 3 million copies in Europe.
Now, we peasants here in the States, knew nothing about Robbie and sadly that would continue throughout most of his career. He had some moderate success with a few songs, but for the most part, the U.S. missed on on a hugely talented guy. I’m glad to say, I didn’t miss out. I discovered him a few years later with the songs “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” and I was hooked. But we aren’t here to talk about the albums those songs were on. Nope. We are here to talk about the 25th Anniversary Edition of his debut album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ and what a box set he put together.
While Bon Jovi was on an extended hiatus, Jon Bon Jovi wasn’t the only to put a solo album. The band’s lead guitarist, Richie Sambora, decided to spread his wings and release a solo album as well. Richie would step out of the shadows and take on the lead vocals as well as most of the guitar duties as well. And like Jon on his solo album, Richie brought along a few friends for the ride including fellow Bon Jovi bandmates, Tico Torres and David Bryan. On bass, he had Tony Levin, but he also had Randy Jackson on one song who also worked on Jon’s solo album too. The biggest guest on the album would be one of his idols, Eric Clapton for Mr. Bluesman.
Speaking of Blues, Richie didn’t stick with the same Bon Jovi sound. He shook things up and focused the album on more of a blues sound and I would say he captured it beautifully. The album would be released on September 3, 1991 and would #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the UK Charts. He would release 3 singles officially as well as one promo single. None went Top 40, but they still had moderate airplay and one single did hit #13 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. Richie might not have sold as many albums as Jon, but for me had the more interesting album of the two.
My version is a Japanese reissue from 2020 and came with the ever cherished OBI strip as well as a bonus track which is the cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary”. You can’t have a Japanese edition without a bonus track, then it is just an overpriced copy of the CD. I have to say that I think Bon Jovi isn’t the same without Richie for the reason of his backing vocals (and songwriting abilities). His solo work gives us the chance to hear how well Sambora can sing and a chance for his vocals to be front and center. Too band Bon Jovi, the band, didn’t utilize the two singer approach as it wouldn’ve been awesome. But it is and willl albums be Jon’s band so I get it. I am off on a tangent now, so let’s get back to the album.
The album opens with “Rest in Peace”, an atmospheric, bluesy piece that sees Richie sparsely place the licks as David Bryan gives the orchestrated sounds that give it an ethereal tone. Richie’s vocals are sparse as well, sounding angelic and little sad. The song is more of an opening for “Church of Desire” than a song on its own, but the tone is set and we know this is NOT going to be a Bon Jovi style album. When “Church of Desire” comes bleeding in, the tempo picks up, the bluesy riffs keep coming and Richie’s vocals come in strong. The song is polished, all glossy and perfect production which doesn’t make it pure blues, just dashed with its essence. The solo is exciting as it plays for the song while showcasing the talent he is and then the 2nd solo is pure joy as he takes it to another level. The thing we learn from this song is that Richie’s vocals are better than we ever heard as backing vocals with Bon Jovi.
I do love bootlegs. They are a chance to hear a band’s live shows that were never released, a radio broadcast, old forgotten demos or whatever it may be. Bands hate them because they don’t get paid, however, diehard fans want them as they want to consume everything from their favorite bands. I own quite a few bootlegs for Def Leppard on CD, vinyl and DVD so we will go through a bunch, but first we will start with this one. It was released in 2013 and what is cool about this one it is a collection of various demos and rare albums from Def Leppard.
The first 3 songs, which were recorded a Fairview Studios in Hull, England back in November 1978, were actually released by the band. The songs “Ride Into the Sun”, “Getcha Rocks Off” and “The Overture” are taken from the band’s debut E.P. called ‘The Def Leppard E.P.’. We discussed that album in full detail on the first post in this series so we won’t repeat that story here. Back in 2013 when this bootleg was released, those three songs were extremely hard to find. There were only 1,000 copies or so of the first E.P. The band has since released them as a Record Store Day Release on a 12″ Single rather than the 7″ E.P. originally (The Def Leppard E.P. (1979/2017)). They have also re-released in the Box Set called The Early Years ’79-’81 (2020). Check those out as well.
The next batch of demos, songs 4-10, were recorded back at Fairview Studios during the Summer of 1979. These songs were never released, then in 1984, the bootleg called ‘First Strike’ was released without the permission of the band or management. Def Leppard sued to get the production stopped and they won. They even were paid royalties on what was sold. You can still find these on Discogs or ebay, but be prepared to pay through the roof on them as they are very rare. Someday I’ll get one.
What was great about these songs is that “Heat Street” and “See the Light” I don’t think I have seen the light of day yet, while “Glad I’m Alive” was on The Early Years Box Set. The other 4 songs were re-recorded for the debut album ‘On Through the Night’ which we will get to later. These demos were recorded live and are raw and fantastic.
Some bands make it, some fade in to oblivion. Diving for Pearls had all the talent and the songs to make it, but for some reason faded in to oblivion. For me, their journey began when I was working at Sam Goody while in college. The promo for their debut album came in, I dropped it in to the CD player and was hooked from the first note of “Gimme Your Good Lovin'”. I made sure when the store was done with that promo that it went home with me. And it did!
But let’s go back in time a little. The band was started by Danny Malone (on vocals) and Jack Moran (Keyboards) back in Boston. They were in a band before that called The Trademarks. But where did they get a name like ‘Diving for Pearls’? Strange name. They actually pulled it from a line in Elvis Costello’s song ‘Shipbuilding’…
With all the will in the world Diving for dear life When we could be diving for pearls
The band played around Boston for years and decided to take the show to New York. While working at Hard Rock Cafe, I believe, they somehow met Yul Vasquez (Guitar) and Peter Clemente (Drums). Yul had been in the band Urgent prior while Peter had been working with Michael Monroe in the band Secret Chiefs. Now, all they needed was a bass player and they found that in the form of David Weeks. The band was complete.
They signed a development deal with Epic Records. Now, a development deal isn’t really a record deal so much as it is just here’s some money, go make an album, if it sells maybe we will do more, if it doesn’t, good riddance. Not the most enticing deal, but a deal nonetheless. So, the boys packed their bags and went to Nashville, Tennessee to record their first album with producer David Prater.
After the extensive worldwide tour for Bon Jovi’s ‘New Jersey’ album, the band was spent. They were exhausted and I am sure they were sick of each other. Over 200 shows together would make anyone need a break. And Bon Jovi needed a break or it was going to be over. The band members stayed busy as we will see these next few reviews. Jon Bon Bovi kept busy by doing his first solo album and it wasn’t your typical solo album. After being approached by actor, Emilio Estevez, to use the Bon Jovi song “Wanted Dead or Alive” for the soundtrack to his new movie, the western ‘Young Guns II’, Jon declined the offer.
Instead of flat out declining though, Jon offered to write a new song for the movie and that one song turned in to a whole album of songs from and inspired by the movie. In fact, only 2 songs were actually in the movie, the song Jon promised to write “Blaze of Glory’ and then the song “Billy Get Your Guns” which both appeared during the end credits. The rest were only inspired by the movie. Jon was so in to the movie, he was actually in the movie where he appeared in the movie during the scene where Doc and Chavez were prisoners in the pit…Jon was one of the other prisoners.
As we know, Jon doesn’t do anything half-ass and the musician friends he brought in were top notch. There is Jeff Beck, Elton John and Little Richard to name the A-Team. But the B-Team are no slouch either with Kenny Aronoff on drums, Robbin Crosy from Ratt, American Idol’s Randy Jackson and one of my favorite artists Aldo Nova. Jon would turn around and help Aldo for his next album ‘Blood on the Bricks’ where Jon and Aldo co-wrote all the songs together. The songs were not about rock & roll and girls anymore. Jon really pushed his boundaries and wrote about more mature subject matters, this would aid his future writing as we would see on future Bon Jovi albums.
The album came out on August 7, 1990 (that date will come up again in Jon’s world). The album would spawn four singles and reach #3 on the Billboard charts. The album sold over 2 million copies reaching Double Platinum in the States. The album wasn’t that much of a departure from Bon Jovi. It has the same cowboy rock style like their songs “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “Stick To Your Guns” and “Wild is the Wind”. So no surprise it did well. Also, Jon was the first with a solo album during this little break, but is it the best? We will see won’t we. Let’s get to the music.
I will start out by saying, always know the owner of your local record store. It is a great connection to have so treat them well, support their store and good things can come of it. I say that because my local record store, Noble Records, has started getting records that are exclusive to his store. They are usually a limited run and something really obscure, like this one. I had never heard of Organ-Utan prior to his mentioning of this album so I streamed it and when I did, I was blown away. I went to the website of the store to go ahead and order the vinyl, but sadly, it was sold out. There were very few copies printed (1000 per Discogs).
Fast forward to a few weeks later and I am in the store and I mention to the owner, Dillon, that I listened to the album and loved it, but missed out on the vinyl. He asked if I really wanted a copy and of course I said, yes I did. He got up, walked to the back and brought me a copy. I was over the moon appreciative for that and so I bought it right then and there. So, that is why you always want to get to know the owner of your local record store. He apparently had a few copies stashed for his most loyal customers and I am glad to say, I might be one since he was so kind to do that for me. So, enough about that, let’s get to this beauty.
If you’ve never heard of Orang-Utan, you are not alone. This was their only album and the UK band never knew it was released. Yep, can you believe it. There is a long story behind that so I am going to butcher it and shorten it as to not bore you too much. The band was called Hunter and their manager, Leo Rappaccioli, singed a publishing contract with Adrian Millar who put up the money for the recording of the album. Leo signed the deal in an alley on a trash can, so not sure he actually sat and read through it. The band recorded the album in two days and then went about their business.
Apparently compilations are always a big hit with the music buying public. No one wants full albums anymore of new material…nope. They just want the hits. Universal Music & Capitol Records are capitalizing on that and have a series called ‘Icon’. You might have seen one from Kiss, Megadeth, Limp Bizkit, even Billy Ray Cyrus. In 2013, Billy Idol was treated with his own ‘Icon’ greatest hits compilation.
Here is my thing with these releases. They are LAZY! No new edits, no unreleased tracks and only room for a handful of the hits. Not even all the good ones. This Billy Idol release is no different. It only draws from his biggest albums, the first three and one Generation X song. It is missing the good stuff from Charmed Life, Cyberpunk or even Devil’s Playground. However, what is here is good, great in fact. These songs are classics for a reason so I can’t complain about that, but it is still a safe collection. The songs are in chronological order which is also pretty damn lazy.
The albums first is the now classic, “Dancing With Myself”. I say now a classic because this song failed to chart upon its release and didn’t really do much. It wasn’t until Billy released it as one of his solo songs, but that is for another discussion. The song was inspired by what the band saw while on tour in Tokyo. They noticed at that dance clubs, the people were dancing more with their own reflections in the mirrored walls than they were with other people. The song is pure New Wave dance music with a slight punk edge…classic Billy Idol solo. It is so melodic and catchy. The guitars are a little louder on this version and not as much bass, but other than that it is the song you know. A great way to start out the collection. This track is off the Generation X album ‘Kiss Me Deadly’.
On July 1, 2014, Bon Jovi released the Super Deluxe Edition box set for ‘New Jersey’ which was just a hair past the band’s 25th anniversary of the album which came out on September 19, 1988. It contained the original album with some bonus tracks as well as an additional disc of demos from during the recordings. If that wasn’t enough, there as third disc, a DVD, of the 88-minute behind the scenes documentary of the bands massive tour for ‘New Jersey’ which spanned over 200 shows and 26 countries. It was nuts. Also, included on the DVD were all the music videos for the album including both versions of “Bad Medicine”. These were previously only available on VHS. And lastly there was a booklet with pictures of the band, some commentary and lyrics to all the songs including the demos. It was a great set, only missing a live show from that era to make it complete.
For Part 2 of the New Jersey Review, we are going to go through all the bonus tracks from Disc 1 as well as all the songs from Disc 2 with comments on the DVD and booklet as well. The Original Album was reviewed in quite a lot of detail on Part 1 so we won’t repeat that here. So, sit back and enjoy the walk through of all the additional material of the Super Deluxe Edition of Bon Jovi’s ‘New Jersey’.
After a sixteen month tour for ‘Slippery When Wet’, Bon Jovi immediately went back in to the studio so they could prove that their third album wasn’t a fluke. They packed their bags again and headed back to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with Bruce Fairbairn back as producer and Bob Rock as the engineer. The band was ready to record and they record they did. This time around, they wanted to experiment a little with their songs and their sound, but at the same time they brought back a team that understood them and what they wanted.
The were so inspired on tour, that they had a ton of material to record. So much so, that they wanted the album to be a double album and it was going to be called “Sons of Beaches”. They had Desmond Child back to help with some songs and this time around they even had a couple other very famous songwriters, Holly Knight and Diane Warren. They really wanted to make sure they could repeat their previous success. When all was said and done, they had around 26 songs. However, the record company was really nervous about releasing a double album. They were worried that it would price them out of the market. So, they made the band release a single album.
That album would end up being called “New Jersey” and it was released on September 19, 1988 and was it as successful as ‘Slippery When Wet’? Uhhh..basically, yes! It went to #1 and had 5 hit singles and sold over 7 million copies (I think Slippery has had over 12 million). I would say that was another massively successful album. The sound of the album was really middle-America with a rock, country flair that felt like a Rock & Roll Western at times, but still that Arena rock overall filled with even more great ballads. It is a quintessential 80’s Rock album. Let’s get to the music.
Bon Jovi had two moderately successful albums under their belt. However, they weren’t happy with the fact they weren’t superstars yet. So, changes had to be made. Not in the band line-up as it was still Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Alec John Such. Nope. They needed to change their approach. One of the first things they chose to do was bring someone in to help with the songs. That person was Desmond Child. Desmond didn’t try to change who the band was with the songs, but he helped refine them, make them better. Jon and Richie wrote well together, but with Desmond’s help, the songs became stories that connected with people, but first they had to record them.
To do that, they changed even more stuff. Jon was listening to Black & Blue’s album ‘Without Love’ and he loved the production of it. So, he reached out to Bruce Fairbairn and he was hired as producer..with some other cat named Bob Rock as the engineer. The band moved to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada and the record was started. The album was finished and released on August 18, 1986 and would become a 12,000,000 selling album making it Diamond. It would spark 4 Top 40 singles of which 2 went to #1 and would see the band tour massively. They would start out the tour as an opening act, but by the end they were the headliners. The band got what they wanted and they were now Superstars!
But before we get to the music, let’s talk about the album name and cover. It was inspired by a trip to The No. 5 Orange strip club in Vancouver. The boys saw this stripper who stripped all the way down to nothing, stepped in to a shower and lathered herself all up. That was motivation for the boys to finish the album and inspired the Slippery When Wet name. One of the original names was ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ and had the boys dressed as cowboys, but that was scrapped. They did use that cover for the single though.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 