We are excited to announce that this week’s episode has a very special guest and friend to 2 Loud 2 Old Music as we interview author Tim Durling. You know Tim from his YouTube channel, Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, and you will love it as we discuss his first book called ‘Unspooled: An Adventure in 8-Tracks’. The book walks through the 80’s where 8-Tracks were a dying breed but you could still buy them in those Record Club’s like Columbia House or RCA.
Tim has some great insight in to the 8-Tracks that were only available in these clubs and you will be surprised at some of those that you would’ve never thought were on that format, but they were. We show off some 8-Tracks in our collection and Tim has some rare ones. It is really cool to see. And find out the answer to the riveting questions…Who gave Tim the idea to do a book on 8-Tracks? Do either of us an 8-Track Player??? and many more…
Come join Tim Durling and I in this fantastic discussion on ‘Unspooled: An Adventure in 8-Tracks’ tonight at 8pm on April 22nd, 2024 on YouTube. Click the link below. Don’t forget to hit Subscribe and Like and please leave a comment. Thanks and have great day!!
We are excited to announce that this week’s episode has a very special guest and friend to 2 Loud 2 Old Music as we interview author Tim Durling. You know Tim from his YouTube channel, Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, and you will love it as we discuss his new book called ‘Down for the Count: The Y&T Album Review’. The book walks through all the details of the band’s studio albums and we discuss that as well as where Tim got the idea and how the amazing artist Hugh Syme came about doing the cover of the book.
Tim has some great stories and we even talk about why we think Y&T didn’t make it to the A list of rock bands in the 80’s. A lot of missteps along the way and not the band’s fault…in my opinion at least. They had the songs, they had the guitars, they had it all…what happened??? We also talk about Sean Kelly who does the foreward and mention a lot of the guest that are in the book…including yours truly!! Me!!
Come join Tim Durling and I in this fantastic discussion on ‘Down for the Count: The Y&T Album Review’ tonight at 8pm on April 8th, 2024 on YouTube. Click the link below. Don’t forget to hit Subscribe and Like and please leave a comment. Thanks and have great day!!
I remember August 3, 1987 really well. I ran to the store and bought the Vinyl, CD and cassette of Hysteria and on the way home, I opened the cassette and put it in the car stereo and cranked it. And the rest is history. Def Leppard was my favorite band in 1987 and after waiting four years since ‘Pyromania’, I couldn’t wait for the new album. When I got home, I opened the rest and inside the Vinyl, I remember an order form for the Def Leppard book called ‘Animal Instinct’ written by David Fricke who was Rolling Stone magazine’s senior editor and the photos were by Ross Halfin. I remember filling that in and sending a check and several weeks later the book arrived.
Now, years later, I would sell the book on eBay and make a hefty profit. Then years later, I regretted it and bought it again. After re-reading it, I remembered a lot of what I read the first time. The book is fantastic. David did a great job writing the biography of Def Leppard. He covers the whole gamut of the band which at this time wasn’t very old. The book opens with the car crash that took Rick’s arm and the effect that had on everyone, but it quickly moves to the origin story of Def Leppard and how the members came to be members of the band. There are some great pictures including the first photo of the band. That is what is great about this book. Not just the stories but the photos that go along with it.
If you are a Y&T fan or you know a Y&T fan, this book is for you. My buddy, Tim Durling, has released his 2nd book which talks about all the Y&T albums. I received my copy and I can’t wait to dive and read it. If you need a great Christmas gift idea, this is it. Got to Amazon.com and buy a copy now. You won’t be disappointed. I mean, look at that cover…it is awesome. It was designed by the great Hugh Syme who is one of Canada’s premier graphic artist. You also have a forward by Sean Kelly who you know as the guitarist for Lee Aaron, Nelly Furtado, Helix and Crash Kelly to name a few.
And as a bonus, you get me, John T. Snow as one of the contributors to the book. What more could you want. Ok, you do get Martin Popoff, Pete Pardo, Mike Ladano and a ton of other great people which is probably a better reason, but you know, I’m not bad either!!!
I’m a huge Ratt fan as the first series the site ever did was a Ratt one where we reviewed every Ratt album in their discography (and my collection). A big part of that is because I like Stephen Pearcy. So when I was in Los Angeles and saw a book by Stephen Pearcy called ‘Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock’, I had to grab it. Now, Stephen didn’t write it by himself, he had the help of Sam Benjamin. But the two together crafted a book that was an easy, entertaining read and I like easy. And you will notice down below, the copy I picked up had been signed by Stephen back in 2018 which I didn’t notice until I got back home. Pretty cool!!
The story opens with birth of his daughter and him going to rehab, then quickly jumps back to his childhood. He was a typical kid, parents divorced when he was young so he didn’t now his Dad very well and raised by a single mom. He had to move from L.A. to San Diego when he was young and didn’t fit in with the scene. He found some hippie type friends and got in to drugs and drinking at a young age. He was hit by a car and both legs broken and was in rehab in the hospital for months on end and took a long time to recover.
When he finally discovered music, that became his motivation, his drive, his obsession. He knew he was going to make it and did everything in his power to make it happen. He met David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen early on when that band was getting ready to break and there are some fun stories with that. And with a book called Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll, you get all of that and then some. Most of the book is about his sex addiction and his drug addiction and after awhile that does get old because how many times can you talk about getting trim and not just sound like it is on repeat. He gets a lot and constantly. Stephen is a giant man-child who can’t commit to anything or anyone except the addictions, but his drive to be a rock star was insane.
Being a fan of AC/DC, this purchase was a no brainer. An autobiography of Brian Johnson, yes please! And the book didn’t disappoint, but it also wasn’t what I expected. The book takes place from basically birth up until his getting hired in to AC/DC and the ‘Back in Black’ album, but that is all the AC/DC you get. It stops there. It then does jump up to the time where he had to step away from the band for his hearing issues, but nothing in between as he is saving that for another book. I’ll buy that one too.
Usually, I find the childhood stuff a little tough to get through for most autobiographies, but I can’t say that here. I really enjoyed it. As Brian was born on October 5, 1947 in Dunston, England, you get a fantastic glimpse in to life in Post World War II in England. I know what life was like here in the States, but not so much in England. Is was interesting hearing about how hard things were during that time and it was really fascinating learning about day-to-day life. The book takes you through his school years and all the events that shaped who Brian Johnson, the man, is.
Brian’s humor also shows out nicely in his take on life and the stories are detailed and colorful as only Brian can describe. I loved learning about the housing, the cars and every day life. The Johnson’s were not a rich family, nope, they were quite poor. His mom was from Italy as that is where his dad met her during the war. The family lived with his grandparents for awhile and then finally got a house of their own. It is as miserable as it sounds, but for Brian it was normal and he seems fond of those times.
When I was a kid, I loved the comic strips and when my dad would finish the paper, I would grab it to head over to the comics. Especially on Sunday when there was a huge section of strips to read. You had Peanuts, Beatle Bailey, Family Circle and tons more. But as I got older, my humor got a little darker and I would race over to read Calvin & Hobbes and most especially The Far Side by Gary Larson. They were only one panel strips with humor that was so absurd at times that it made you think and then laugh. I don’t know if my parents got the humor, but I sure did.
Gary retired from the strip way back in 1994 going out in his prime. I guess he felt he might as well quit while he was ahead and boy was he. I think he was way ahead of his time as the humor to me was really subtle and advance and not like anything out there at all. So, when he called it quits, it made me a little sad as a childhood memory was being taken away and lost forever.
The Far Side ran for over 15 years and by the end was running in over 1,900 newspapers….do kids today know what a newspaper is…doubtful. And the series was so popular, he sold a series of books including a set of the comics. Those books have sold 45 million copies. Gary Larson was a rock star!! I will admit, I didn’t buy all these books because when I started feeling nostalgic for the series, there were too many to buy. Then my prayers were answered and a complete series was released. In August 2003, my wish came true and ‘The Complete Far Side: 1980-1994’ was finally released and I could get them all in one set.
Back in December 2021 when I announced I was doing a Jeff Scott Soto Series, I got a lot of response on the picture of my collection. One such person contacted me on Facebook and offered to send me a hard back edition of a biography on Jeff Scott Soto, so I quickly thanked him and agreed. He quickly mailed out this glorious copy of the book. His name was Sundeep Pooni and that book has been a massive reference guide for my review series up to this point. So, a big thank you to Sundeep and his very generous gift!! From here on out in the review series, we are past the date of the book so none of the albums I’ll be reviewing from ere on out are in the book, so I am on my own.
Before we get to the next review, let’s go through this book. It was originally written by Ronny Hahn and it was written in German and only an electronic book. For the 30th Anniversary of Jeff’s career, it was released thanks to Frank Tunney who took the original book and added more chapters and re-organized the structure. It is now a hard back book and chock full of the details of his career that all hardcore fans love to know. The book is called “Authorized” so it has the blessing of the man himself and that is good enough for me.
The book starts off with the original foreward written by Ronny Zahn and then there is a great dedication to the late Marcel Jacobs who played with Jeff in several bands and was a very close personal friend. It was a terrible loss, but thankfully he left behind a great legacy of music. Afterwards you get a brief biography of Jeff’s very early life, but the rest of the book is all Jeff’s music career.
I was down in St. Augustine, Florida in early August and went by a second-hand book store where this book was waiting for me it to rescue it. A couple weeks later on a flight to New York, I opened it up and started reading. On the flights there and back, I got through 2/3’s of the book as I couldn’t put it down. I finished it up in another sitting or two and really enjoyed it. I knew some stories on Mr. Hughes, but I didn’t know this story. The book, ‘Glenn Hughes The Autobiography: From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion’ was written by Glenn and Joel McIver. It actually starts off earlier than Deep Purple as it cover some of his childhood and does go to Black Country Communion which means it goes from 1951 to 2010.
The forward is by Metallica’s own Lars Ulrich. He discusses the first time he saw Glenn Hughes play and what a big fan he is. I have to admit, it was a little light as forewards go as I expected a little more insight in to what he knew about Glenn, but wasn’t much meat to it. Sorry Lars. But that was the only thing I didn’t like about this book. One of the really cool features in the book is the fact they have interviewed a ton of people close to Glenn through the years, parents, girlfriends/wives and bandmates. Snippets of those interviews are sprinkled throughout each chapter adding color commentary and texture to what Glenn is talking about. It also lets you despite all the drugs, people tended to agree with what he talks about with some minor different interpretations at times.
I know Glenn was an avid drug user, but I guess I didn’t realize to the extreme it became. Imagine my surprise when he is talking about his massive drug use in the mid-to late 80’s he was living in Atlanta. In fact, he ended up buying a house not terribly far from where I grew up and was living at the time. Who knows I could’ve passed Glenn back in the day and never knew it. Doubtful, as he was help up in house a lot doing drugs.
I really loved learning about Trapeze, his band before Deep Purple. I need to explore them more. For me, the activities surrounding his joining Deep Purple were pretty cool and to learn that he David Coverdale were actually friends and got a long really well despite them competing a little for lead vocals. Glenn’s drug problem didn’t really start until around the third album with Purple, ‘Come Taste the Band’ when Tommy Bolin joined. Glenn and Tommy became drug buddies. Glenn’s tenure ended withe Purple without him really knowing it as that is how bad it was getting.
The 80’s were a drug filled mess. His projects with Gary Moore and Pat Thrall all suffered greatly as well as relationships with his many lady friends and his wife. His times with Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath was brief and interesting as well. He was not pleasant person to be around when he was drugged out…which was often. He is lucky to have made it out alive. The drugs were so bad, he only wanted to be around those people that were heavy in to drugs. This lasted until the 90’s when he started to get cleaned up. He revitalized his solo career and eventually gets clean and gets back to his singing as the focus as he is the Voice of Rock. I’m not going in to detail as that is what the book is for so get it.
The book ends with his joining Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian as they form Black Country Communion. Glenn really loves this band and believes it might be one of the best things he’s done. They’ve since done four albums total and they are pretty amazing. Too bad the book ends back in 2010 as we know Glenn is still going strong as he now fronts The Dead Daisies and his voice is still amazing!
The Glenn Hughes autobiography is one of the most enjoyable ones I have read in a long time. Glenn is so likable in the book despite some of the crappy things he does. It is amazing he can remember what he does, but he is open and honest about how bad the drugs were and takes full responsibility. He is lucky to be around and we are lucky to have all this great music and have that Voice in our lives. My Overall Score is a 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars as I truly couldn’t put this down and don’t think I’ve read a book that fast in a very long time.
It took me a long time to finally get to this book as I’ve had it a long while, but life kept getting in the way. When I was on vacation a few weeks back, I was bound and determined to finish this book and man was it a great read. The 80’s Hard Rock Explosion is the music scene I grew up with and is what I am most passionate about so this book was a no-brainer for me. This book was written by journalists Tom Beaujour who was co-founder of Revolver magazine and Richard Bienstock who was a senior editor for Guitar World magazine plus he has been published in Rolling Stone and New York Times. Both very accomplished writers.
These guys go back to the beginning even before the Sunset Strip music scene and we find out what was really happening and how things got started. The craziness, the sex, the drugs, the rock & roll all here in full uncensored glory. There are so many fascinating stories and I loved learning about the musical chairs between band members in the early days with Jake E. Lee jumping from one band to another, Warren DeMartini possibly playing with a band other than Ratt and just who was in Guns N Roses first and who wasn’t….it was so much to keep up with and a blast to read about. There are a cast of characters chapter showing all the people that were interviewed and quoted and it was 7 pages long. If they were part of the scene, they are in here from Steven Adler to Zakk Wylde and everything in between.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 