Category: Rock

Friday New Releases – November 26, 2021

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Welcome to Black Friday and like almost every Friday, there is a ton of new music. Well, regular releases there are only a handful as it is a Holiday. However, this is also Black Friday RSD 2021! That means there are ton of vinyl releases available at your locally independent record store and that list is at the bottom. The normal Friday releases are below. There is really only one this week I am interested in hearing and that one is in Bold below. Let me know what you are interested in and what we may have missed. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope all my U.S. readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did.

  • 91z8JzzkTBL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Smith/Kotzen – Better Days E.P. – (BMG Rights): Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden and Richie Kotzen of well, Richie Kotzen are back together again. Sadly, this time we only get an E.P. instead of a full album, but these two powerhouses are worth any little bit. I can’t wait to hear what they have in store for us.

And that is it for me this week. A couple of these I might try when I find the time. I hope you find a few you want to hear…

  • A1f-3oyIBHL._AC_UL640_FMwebp_QL65_  Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc. – (Panworkz / Entertainment One)
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Cheap Trick – ‘One on One’ (1982) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

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The band waited two years to record their follow-up to the George Martin produced album, ‘All Shook Up’. During that time, their record label, CBS, sued the band for a whopping $10 million alleging the band was holding out recording a new album to get a better deal. By 1982, the lawsuit was settled and the band started working on their sixth studio album, ‘One on One’.

The band had a new bass player after original member, Tom Petersson left back in 1980. His name was Pete Comita. Well, Pete didn’t last long and was replaced rather quickly during the early recordings of the album. In fact, he doesn’t appear on any of the album. They replaced him with bass player, Jon Brant. Jon came in so late, he is only on three of the songs. Guitarist, Rick Nielsen picked up the slack and played bass on all the other tracks. And the other two members, Robin Zander and Bun E. Carlos were still able to their jobs and quite well.

One thing I found interesting about the album is the cover. You have a new member and yet if you look at the cover, his face is obscured unlike anyone else’s faces. I think this was done on purpose because hadn’t been in the band very long and didn’t contribute much to the album.

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‘Scotch On The Rocks’ talks Ratt!!!

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Tonight!! I join the amazing Derek “Dekes” Williamson and we are going to spend an action packed hour discussing those fun loving rodents RATT who had a real great run in record sales and tours in the 80s.

Nowadays they love suing each other and doing Geico commercials but we will talk what it was about RATT that separated them from the 1000 other bands that came from L.A almost 40 years ago!

See the pic above for all the info about tonights show!

Thanks to Teebone for the killer artwork!

The Original vs. The Cover – “I’ve Done Everything For You”

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For this installment of The Original vs. The Cover we are going to discuss the Sammy Hagar track “I’ve Done Everything For You” which was later covered, more successfully I might add, by Rick Springfield. The original release of the song was a live version from Sammy back in 1978 on his live album ‘All Night Long’ which did not chart. Rick’s version came out as a single in 1981 and was the follow-up to his massive hit “Jessie’s Girl” and as a result went all the way to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song had been a constant in Sammy’s live shows which is why a live version was released. The studio version was done in 1979 and released as a B-Side to the song “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” an Otis Redding Cover. It finally saw a release in 1982 on his greatest hits compilation called “Rematch” which was only done because of the popularity of the Springfield version.

The song seems to be about a relationship/an affair that was really one-sided. He gave everything to her, but she didn’t return that favor. I’ve also heard that it could possibly be about a manager or label where Sammy worked his ass off for them and got nothing in return. I am not sure which is true, but I am leaning to the relationship as it is spelled out specifically in the song, but Sammy could be using that as a pretty damn good metaphor. Either way, I like it.

SAMMY HAGAR

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Bon Jovi – “Bad Medicine” – 45 Single

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On my Summer vacation back in June, I found over 20 singles with the picture sleeve. I’ve been through a bunch of them so far and now we are tackling the Bon Jovi singles that I found. There were 5 Singles found and we kicked it off with one of Bon Jovi’s most popular and famous songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive” off the band’s 1986 album ‘Slippery When Wet’. That was the only one of ‘Slippery When Wet’ as the rest are off their stellar album, ‘New Jersey’. Next up is the first single off the album which was ‘Bad Medicine’. The song was released on September 3, 1988 and went all the way to #1 and was the band’s third #1 single and I don’t think it was their last.

The version I have on 45 is the standard U.S. release with the B-Side as “99 in the Shade”. The only really good thing about it is that the song “Bad Medicine” is actually the single edit which cuts off more than a minute off the album version which sits around 5:16 vs 3:52 for the single.

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Aerosmith – ‘Night in the Ruts’ (1979) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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Drugs…wives…tension. Those three things were all starting to boil over with Aerosmith during the recording of the band’s sixth studio album, ‘Night in the Ruts’. What is a night in the ruts anyway? Actually, it is a play on words for “Right in the Nuts”. Pretty funny actually. But wasn’t funny was the drug use was immense at this point. The band could barely function. Steven wasn’t writing lyrics, Joe owed the band money for his room service bills and he hadn’t been in the studio for months, longtime producer Jack Douglas was fired and Gary Lyons was brought in to produce, and the album was taking forever to finish. The band’s relationship with their label was strained as well. At this point, the band was completely and utterly out of control.

The album was taking so long, the band was forced to go out on the road and that was not a good place for them to be. More drugs meant horrible shows. Horrible shows meant more tension. More tension bled over in to the wives starting to fight and things got really ugly in Cleveland, OH on July 28, 1979 when Joe Perry’s wife through milk at Tom Hamilton’s wife. The band I believe already hated Joe’s wife so after the show, Steven and Joe got in to a nasty altercation and by the end, Joe Perry was no longer in the band. He was done and he was out!

Well, that didn’t bode well as the album wasn’t even finished. The band brought in Richie Supa to help on the guitars as well as Jimmy Crespo to finish others. Jimmy was the one that stayed and toured with the band until 1984. The album finally was finished and released on November 16th, 1979. It didn’t do well at all. It did got to #14 on the Billboard Charts but barely went gold. They had one single, “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” which didn’t even break the Top 40 landing at #67.

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My Sunday Song – “Blues for the Disillusioned” by Rick Springfield

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For My Sunday Song #274, we are going to talk about a song that is not what you’d expect from Rick Springfield. It is a blues song called “Blues for the Disillusioned” off his 2018 album ‘The Snake King’ which is as close to blues album as you will get from Rick. The album didn’t chart, the song was not a single and it might be one you’ve never heard about, but you would be missing out.

The album was recorded during a very dark time in Rick’s life. He had contemplated suicide at one point during his darkest days. I’m not sure if this album was his therapy, but he laid out a lot on this album and this song in particular for me was a standout. There are a lot of religious aspects to the song and not all of them good. He blasts God and the Bible in particular John 16:24 where it says “Ask and You Shall Receive”, but I don’t think Rick feels God answered anything. In fact, I think he is now very disillusioned with God and faith. In reading the lyrics, Rick has had enough of so called “God” and it seems he feels that God has abandoned us all and it really makes this a very sad song.

Some of the other examples are that God manipulated Adam and Eve as well as they say God doesn’t give you what you ask for, He gives you what you need…well tell that to the 13 million starving kids in the Middle East. These parts of the song show some one who is not on the side of God anymore. I wonder where he sits now, I’d love to ask him about it.

The song is more of a ballad type song in tempo and it has a melancholy feel to it which makes sense as the lyrics are pretty dark. There is a not much blues per se, more of a country twang, but the slide guitar gives a little hint at blues. Regardless, there is a nice groove and Rick does sound great, but for me the song is about the lyrics and the meaning behind them all. That is what I found most fascinating about it. For that, I am a huge fan.

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You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in December?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – The Darkness – “Motorheart”

  Never Heard Before – The Band – ‘The Band’

  Not My Normal Genre – Dusty Springfield – ‘Dusty in Memphis’

  From My Collection – Stryper – ‘Against the Law’

  From My Collection – David Bowie – ‘Let’s Dance’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in December, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – November 19, 2021

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You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best! The Hottest New Release Day of the Year!! TODAY!!! Man, there are so many great releases today and I can’t wait. I have 3 I will be listening to and one is a Massive Box Set. This also seems to be a day for older established artists releasing new albums or anniversary albums and maybe for you younger listeners you might find some of these older artists totally awesome. Now, go check them out and let me know what you want to hear this week. Also, let us know what we may have missed. My choices are up first and in BOLD! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

  • 91C7w0t0NLL._SX522_  Kiss – Destroyer (45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) – (Universal Music / UMG): KISS!!! Man, I can’t wait for this to arrive. I hope it makes it today. Kiss is releasing a 45th Anniversary of one of their biggest albums. It is remastered and there are a ton of demos and unreleased tracks and it is about time the band did a Box Set like this. Now, they need to go back and do them all with this special treatment. They’d get my money!!
  • 719ZBpfe0eL._SX522_  The Darkness – Motorheart – (Cooking Vinyl): The Darkness is upon us and that makes for a much brighter day for me! I love these guys. Their love of that old glam rock sound makes for a wonderful listen. They bring that style to today’s market and for that we are lucky. I loved their last album ‘Easter is Cancelled’ and if this is half as good as that one, this will be awesome then!!
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Cheap Trick – ‘All Shook Up’ (1980) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

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Cheap Trick was in high gear and on a tremendous pace of album/tour, album/tour and it was getting relentless. After the massive success of Budokan and Dream Police, they went to work on the next album, but this time around they were wanting to try something different. The first thing they did was part ways with long time producer, Tom Werman, who had produced everything except the debut.

The band had always been considered an American version of the Beatles and since they were huge fans of them, why not work with the one of the most famous producers, the fifth Beatle, George Martin. So off to London they went and recorded the album at Air Studios in London. Of course this was a big change for the band and their sound. Gone were the radio-friendly singles and in was a more experimental sound. They took chances and tried new things and whether for the better or not, we will shortly find out.

The band was still in tact with Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos. They finished up the album, but by the time it was done, Tom Petersson was exhausted. He was done as well. The non-stop touring and add to the fact he was not thrilled with the direction of the band and he didn’t even bother showing up in London when it was time to mix the album. And by August 26, 1980, Tom left the band to go record his own album with his wife. Who I think the band feels was part of his problem. Maybe she was their Yoko. The band pressed on and the album saw its release on October 24, 1980.

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