Category: Rock

‘START WITH A DREAM: A Drummer’s Journey from Rock & Roll to T.V. to Broadway’ by Joey Cassata – Book Review

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As a gift this past Christmas, I was really excited to read “Start With a Dream: A Drummer’s Journey from Rock & Roll to T.V. to Broadway” by Joey Cassata.  I had heard Joey on 3 Sides of the Coin talking about it and I was a huge fan of his show ‘Z Rock’ and his band Z02 so this was a no brainer.

I started this book back in late December and early January.  I painstakingly got through about 100 pages and put it down.  I didn’t pick it up again until my vacation at the end of July.  I was bound and determined to finish the book while on vacation and I did.

So why was the first 100 pages so hard to get through?  Basically it was Joey talking about his childhood, I mean young childhood and his love for Kiss and Wrestling and Drumming.  He talked about it and talked about it and talked about it.  I felt he spent way too much time in this area.  I know he was building up to show what his motivations were, but I was able to pick up on that pretty quickly.

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Heart – “What About Love” – The 45 Single

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I haven’t done one of these in awhile where I highlight a 45 Single in my collection so I went through and pulled out “What About Love” from the band Heart.  The song is from what is considered their comeback album ‘Heart’ that was released in 1985 and the single was the first off the album and released on June 1, 1985.

The song is a cover song actually and was originally performed by the band Toronto.  It was written by Brian Allen. Sheron Alton and Jim Vallance.  You know Jim as he is the writing partner for some guy named Bryan Adams.  Brian & Sheron were in Toronto, however, Jim wasn’t although he did play drums on the song.  Enough about them, let’s get to Heart.

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Europe – ‘Wings of Tomorrow’ – Album Review

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Europe came to fame with the album, and the song, ‘The Final Countdown’.  I mean , come on, who doesn’t know that song as it has been played to death.  Europe became lumped in to the “Hair Metal” title as they did all have big hair and they were MTV darlings for a few years.  However, before the major record deal and all the screaming women, Europe was this hard rock, close to metal band that know one really knew about (at least here in the states).  Their second album, and last released independently, was a gem called ‘Wings of Tomorrow’ which was released on February 24, 1984.

I was out doing some crate digging a couple years ago and I came across this album and thought what a beautiful cover and then I noticed that it said Europe.  I never went back and explore their early catalog before ‘Countdown’, so I thought now was a good time and at $8 for the vinyl, why not.  And I am glad I did as it is now one of my all time favorite Europe albums.

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My Sunday Song – “Still of the Night” by Whitesnake

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For My Sunday Song #210, we come to the last song in the 10 song set of Whitesnake songs with “Still Of the Night”.  The song was the first single off their groundbreaking, career breaking album known as ‘Whitesnake’ or ‘1987’ to some.  This took the band to new heights and MTV played the hell out of it.  The song was written by David Coverdale and John Sykes.

Lyrically, it comes as no surprise this song has a lot to do with Sex.  The “cock rock” Kings are at it again.  The song has an almost vampire element and stalker element.  He is obsessed with this woman and wants to be with her all night.  The daylight seems to hurt him as to keep his head down and hide his face from the sun.  I know it isn’t about vampires, but I like the analogy so give me that.

Musically, this was a new Snake, a hungrier Snake, a more badass Snake.  It has some blues elements of the old Whitesnake, but John Sykes took it, distorted it and turned it on its ass.  David’s swagger on belting out the opening verse is full of confidence and aggression and exactly what every teenage boy wanted to hear (and girl wanted to see). There is a musical interlude in the middle that gives an awesome guitar solo a whole different style with an almost cello/violin/string instrument orchestration to the whole thing.  Pretty freaking cool.

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Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot Drummer) – RIP

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It is no surprise on this news, but it is still never news you want to hear. Frankie Banali was 68 years young and has been fighting pancreatic cancer for more than a year. Today, he lost that fight and the rock world lost another good one.

Frankie was not an original member of Quiet Riot, but he was there during the classic years so he might as well have been.  He joined the band in 1982 and has been there the whole time (except for those points of band hiatus).  He was the one, driving force to keeping the Quiet Riot name in the public eye (for good or for bad). He co-wrote songs like “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)”, “Condition Critical” and most every song on QRIII.  He was a massive part of that sound and he pounded on those drums like a mad-man.

Frankie was on more Quiet Riot albums than any other member and has been in the band the longest.  He was their biggest champion.  He did everything he could to keep the brand going through numerous singers and band member changes He was the one constant.  Now that he is gone, I assume the band will now be gone as well but the music will live on.

I think I will throw these on to celebrate his legacy…

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When he gets to Heaven, I hope he can hook up with Kevin Dubrow and Randy Rhodes again, maybe they can “bang” some heads up there in Heaven.  Who knows, the next Thunder you hear could be them jamming. Rest in Peace sir!!

Friday New Releases – August 21, 2020

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Another Friday is upon us and I am glad you made it through another week.  I am sure my kids are glad it is Friday as well since they started school this past week.  It is a different type of school for them now thanks to COVID.  But one thing that hasn’t changed is Friday is new release day.  There is a lot here this week, but there isn’t at the same time.  There is one I am looking forward to and one I will give a spin as it looks interesting and they are both marked in Blue. Let me know what you are excited about and what I may have missed.  Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend!!

  • 71EA1ClpcdL._SX522_  The Lemon Twigs – Songs for the General Public – (4AD Ltd):  I know nothing about this band, but the album cover with them dressed very glam like has made me interested in spinning this one.  I need something new, so hopefully this will satisfy that craving.

  • 91-dFqF+lTL._SX522_  The Killers – Imploding the Mirage – (Island Records):  This album got bounced around so much due to Covid, I lost track of the release date and missed having it as a featured cover on the header.  However, this is the main one I would want to hear this week.  Sorry this was added late, but it has been added.

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Kiss – ‘Double Platinum’ (1978) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Kiss was flying high.  Alive II was doing well and heck, all their albums were selling and some even reaching Platinum status.  Kiss had been in and out of the studio and on the road touring for over 4 years straight. They had 6 studio albums and 2 live albums under the belt now and they were tired.  Band friction was starting to form.  They were about to implode.  Ace wanted to do a solo album and to help keep the peace, management and the band came up with the idea of doing 4 solo albums all under the Kiss moniker.  To keep the ball rolling and capitalize on their current success, a greatest hits album was put together for a quick cash-grab and to give them more time to finish the solo projects and save the train wreck about to happen.

The album was released on April 2, 1978 and not just a simple single LP.  No, this was a 2 LP, 20 song greatest hits compilation.  It covers everything.  To entice people to buy it, they remixed a number of songs on here so the fan would have something a little different than what they already had.  And the packaging was beautiful.  The album cover was a gatefold which made sense for a double LP.  It was also embossed in a silver, foil-like sheen.  And let me tell you that trying to take a picture of this and not have me and the camera visible was very difficult.  The front and back cover for my version, are exactly the same.  I know some later ones, the back is different. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Double Platinum’ (1978) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →

Kiss – World Domination 2003-2004 Tour – Tour Book

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In yet another Kiss post, we are back on the topic of Tour Books. I had 3 Tour Books from Kiss and I have done posts on 2 of those and I really enjoyed going back through the book and looking at all the pictures.  The third one is from the End of the Road Tour and I will get to that one eventually.  In the meantime, I said to myself, “you know John, we should start collecting Tour Books”.  And I answered myself back with “John, that is a brilliant idea.  Not only are you handsome, but you are pretty damn smart too!”  I couldn’t agree with myself more.

That got weird fast!!

Back on topic.  I actually went on to eBay and noticed there are tons of them for sale, but dang! they are expensive.  Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.  Then I saw one that was only $5 and the pictures looked pretty great actually.  I added it to the Watch list and about 4 hours before it was to end, I figured let me place a bid.  So I did and I was not wanting to go over $10 so that was what I put in as the max bid. I went to bed and forgot about, but morning came and dang it, I got it.  My Tour Book collecting had officially begun.

The one I bought was from the World Domination Tour in 2003.  This was Kiss with Aerosmith and I actually missed this tour as I believe they came to town shortly after the birth of my first daughter so there was no way I was getting out to see a show.  So I was excited to see what this book looked like and now it is time to share it with all of you. Continue reading “Kiss – World Domination 2003-2004 Tour – Tour Book” →

The Original vs. The Cover vs. The Cover – “Me and Bobby McGee”

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It is time for another the Original vs. the Cover and this time it is another trio of versions.  This time we are discussing the song “Me and Bobby McGee” which was written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, but let’s be honest, Fred only gave the song the title.  The versions we are covering are the original release by Roger Miller (1969), Kris Kristofferson’s own version (1970) and then the version by Janis Joplin (1971).  There were actually two other versions released in 1970 by Gordon Lightfoot and the Statler Brothers and then in 1971, Jerry Lee Lewis released a version.  That is 6 versions in 3 years.  Insane.  I’m going to stick with my three.

The song was started by Fred Foster, the head of the label Kris was signed, when he went to Kris with a song title called “Me and Bobbie McKee” which Kris thought it he heard McGee.  Kris didn’t think he could write the song, so he avoided Foster for months until he finally got it written.

The song is about a couple that is traveling across the southern part of the country.  They are hitchhiking, singing the blues and discovering the land and each other.  They end up breaking up and going their own ways and the singer is filled with sadness and regret about them parting as I believe he loved that Bobby McGee.  I could go in to more depth about the song and the lyrics, but then this would turn in to a My Sunday Song episode where we deep dive in to the songs.  This is about which version is the best so we will get to that part of the show.

ROGER MILLER

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My Sunday Song – “Slow An’ Easy” by Whitesnake

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For My Sunday Song #209, we are going back to the first album that really broke in the states for Whitesnake and one of the songs that helped start it all, “Slow An’ Easy”.  The song was the fourth single off the album and was written by David Coverdale and Micky Moody who were the last two remaining original members of the band at the time, Micky wouldn’t last much longer as he was replaced by John Sykes before the album’s release and is guitar parts were replaced by Sykes, but that is whole other discussion.

Whitesnake was notorious at the time with critics for their “cock rock” lyrics and “Slow an’ Easy” is pretty much that to a T.  The song is about Sex!  No sugar coating it here, it is Sex!  I wish I could give you a deeper meaning to the song, but I can’t and I wouldn’t want to as the song is what it is and it is awesome!  In the 25th Anniversary edition of the album (and thanks to wikipedia), David had this to say…

“Slow & Easy was recorded at 4 in the morning in Munich after a serious night’s partying…Most of the vocals is just a live ‘jam’ lyric I made up to inspire the band as we recorded…I played around with the lyric later to try and make some sense of it…”

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