Category: Rock

Whitesnake – ‘The Purple Tour (Live)’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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We are now to the final Live album I will be reviewing for the band.  Since their reunion back in 2003, Whitesnake has overloaded the general public with Live albums.  Seven to be exact!!  Now, those seven do cover several eras of the band, but still Seven!!  The Purple Tour Live album is the latest and it covers an era of the band I have yet reviewed for a live album…the Joel Hoekstra era.  Yes, I define my eras by the lead guitarists.  I know Reb is still one of those guitarists, but this is Joel’s first.

And interesting note, do you know who the longest running member of Whitesnake is aside from David, of course?  That is right, it is Reb Beach.  He has been with the band for 18 years.  Then Tommy Aldridge would be a close second although his years were not consistent years like Reb, he was in and out 3 times.  The current line-up is as follows:

  • David Coverdale – vocals
  • Reb Beach – guitar
  • Joel Hoestra – guitar
  • Tommy Aldridge – drums
  • Michelle Luppi – keyboards
  • Michael Devin – bass

And it is a pretty solid line-up.

IMG_2060 Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘The Purple Tour (Live)’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)” →

My Sunday Song – “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City” by Whitesnake

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For My Sunday Song #201, we are kicking off the next set of 10 songs with this batch from Whitesnake to celebrate as I am coming to the end of my David Coverdale Review Series which started back last August.  To kick it off we are going all the way back to the first release of the band on the album ‘Snakebite’ with the song “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City”.

One of the first songs Whitesnake did was actually a cover song.  It was a cover of Bobby Bland’s “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City” written by Michael Price and Dan Wise.  The song is now a signature Whitesnake classic as they are still known to pull this one out and play it live all thanks to the live version from ‘Live…in the Heart of the City’, but this is about the studio version recorded a few years earlier.  Before Whitesnake became this hair metal giant, they were more a rock & soul band that loved the blues.  This was a shining example of that passion.

This love song is down and dirty, a blues infused rock song slowed down into a beautiful ballad full of soul.  Between Micky Moody’s hook that is filled with sorrow and along with a little funk filled groove from Bernie Marsden’s guitar and Neil Murray’s bass you are treated to what made early Whitesnake so magical.   Oh, and the solo…wow!  It fit the song so well and pulled out even more emotion if that was even possible.  Now, let’s not forget David Coverdale’s vocals as the tone he is able to pull out as he sings is so well suited for some soulful blues. There is just enough character and maturity to grasp the emotional feel of the song and give you everything the song needs.

R-2034464-1275467801.jpeg Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City” by Whitesnake” →

Friday New Releases – June 19th, 2020

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Welcome back, you made it through another week and you should be proud as who knows what the world threw at us this week as each week it seems to be something worse than the last.  But at least the world is giving us some new music and that makes it all better.  There are a handful of new music I am looking forward to getting and those are marked in Blue. Let me know what you are interested in, if anything, and tell me what I missed.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

  • 81Lc7IrBXqL._SX522_  Whitesnake – The ROCK Album (2020 Remix) – (Saltburn / Rhino):  In the first of 3 albums in a new series by Whitesnake, the Rock album is a bunch of remixes of old songs with one new one I believe.  The other two will be out later in the year and in to next year are The Love Album and The Blues Album.  I am glad the Rock starts it all off.  This will finish up my David Coverdale Review series nicely until the other albums come out that is.

  • download-12  Switchfoot – Covers E.P. – (Fantasy Records / Concord):  Ah, I love me some Switchfoot and although not an album of new material, we get a small collection of cover songs.  At least these aren’t your standard fare. You get a cover from Frank Ocean, The Chainsmokers, Vampire Weekend and more.  Should be interesting.

Continue reading “Friday New Releases – June 19th, 2020” →

Kiss – ‘Hotter Than Hell’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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After the poor sales of the debut Kiss album and the fact that Casablanca was bleeding money on the tour, Neil Bogart wanted the band to get back in to the studio to record their next album.  While on Los Angeles for a show in August of 1974, Kiss started recording their follow-up.  The band’s line-up was unchanged and the producers were unchanged as Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise were behind the boards again.  And yes, they are to blame for the awful sonics on this record, especially the dull drum sound.

Let me tell you, the band was not thrilled with doing this album in L.A.  These guys are New York guys and this whole new environment was foreign to them and not home.  Put that along side the fact they have had zero time to write new songs, they weren’t being setup to succeed.  They plowed through and by October 22, 1974, the album was released and actually performed worse than the debut album which is no easy feat as that one did poorly.

Before we go in to the music, can we talk about that cover?  Of course we can, it’s my blog.  I remember seeing this cover as kid of maybe 7 or 8 and thinking how cool this was with all the Japanese writing (now not sure I really knew it was Japanese, but it was still cool).  The album concept was done to mimic the look of Japanese comics and if you notice that little character at the bottom…

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That character stands for the word “Chikara” and if you know that then you know that is the name of a greatest hits package by the band that was only released in Japan in 1988.  It is on my grail list to get a copy.  If you are interested, “Chikara” means power. And there were other Japanese lettering on the album cover. The lettering in the top right corner of the album actually means “the shout of hell” which isn’t the same as “hotter than hell”, but not sure if that was the intent or not. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Hotter Than Hell’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →

Whitesnake – ‘The Purple Album’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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After too many live albums released, the band finally decided to do another album.  Before that could happen, they needed a replacement guitarist as Doug Aldrich left the band on May 9th of 2014 after more than 10 years with the band.  One of the longest stretches of any guitarist.  I believe he left to go play with The Dead Daisies and do his own thing.

A replacement now needed to be found and it was about 3-4 months later that Joel Hoekstra was tagged as the replacement guitarist.  Joel had been playing with Night Ranger previously and he figured this was a higher profit (I mean higher profile) band and he is not wrong about that.  Joel is fantastic and he has his own solo stuff as well as playing with Cher and TSO for their Christmas Tours.  The rest of the line-up is as follows:

  • David Coverdale – vocals
  • Reb Beach – guitar
  • Tommy Aldridge – drums
  • Michael Devin – bass
  • Joel Hoekstra – guitar

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Now that the band was fully staffed again, a new album was in the works.  This time around, thankfully not a live album, but it was only a covers album.  Not just any covers album, no that had been done a million times, this one focused on only one band.  Deep Purple!  David decided he wanted to record a Deep Purple collection of the best songs from his era of that famous band.  The funny thing about this is that David tried so hard to not mention or play anything from Purple while being Whitesnake from the eaerly 90’s and back.  You never heard a song by Purple in the setlist.  That changed in the late 90’s when a song or two would show up.  Now, David wanted to pay tribute and an homage to that wonderful time in his life.  Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘The Purple Album’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)” →

My Sunday Song – “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Bon Jovi

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For My  Sunday Song #200 and the final in the Bon Jovi set of 10 songs, we are discussing the classic song, “Livin’ On A Prayer”.  The song is off the band’s mulit-platinum selling album ‘Slippery When Wet’.  The song was the second single off the album and the second to go all the way to #1. The song and the album put Bon Jovi in to super star status and nothing would be the same afterwards.

The song was written by Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi with a lot of help from songwriter Desmond Child who was brought in by the record label to help the boys finish the album and work on some songs.  The song is loosely based on Desmond and his girl-friend as she worked in a Diner, but he was a taxi driver and not working at the docks.  It was that Blue Collar feel to the song that made it resonate with so many people.  It was a time when Bon Jovi actually wrote songs that told a story that connected with people and not try to write just to make a hit.

However, after recording it, Jon didn’t really like the song and wanted to leave it off the album.  Richie thought it was great and convinced Jon to re-work the song.  It was much improved by changing the bass line and recording with Hugh McDonald and not Alec John Such.  Funny thing, Hugh would become a band member less than 10 years later (unofficially of course).  Richie also added a talk box to the guitar to give it that extra boost in the same way Peter Frampton used it and made it famous.  The song was turned in to a complete masterpiece.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Bon Jovi” →

Friday New Releases – June 12th, 2020

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Welcome to Friday…you made it!  Another week in the books and for your reward, here are a bunch of new releases for your listening pleasure. It is Frontier Records monthly release so there are at least 5 from that label alone.  You get a lot of rock this week and even a little Norah and who doesn’t want that.  My choices are highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you are looking forward to hearing and what I may have missed.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!

  • 91HPCtbfckL._SX522_  House of Lords – New World…New Eyes – (Frontiers Records):  I have been following House of Lords since their debut in 1988 thanks to Gene Simmons.  Gene produced their first album and now here we are 32 years and 12 albums later and they are still going strong.  Can’t wait to see what they have to offer…

  • 91KRsjJRpAL._SS500_  BPMD – American Made – (Napalm Records):  A heavy metal supergroup featuring from Overkill vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth, Vio-lence and former Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, and two members of Metal Allegiance–bassist Mark Menghi and drummer Mike Portnoy.  Dang, not bad.  Portnoy has to be the busiest man in music history.  The number of albums and bands he is in is absolutely insane. The man can’t sit still.

Continue reading “Friday New Releases – June 12th, 2020” →

Kiss – ‘Kiss’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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On February 18, 1974, the world received their first Kiss album, simply called ‘Kiss’.  But not many people took notice. It only sold around 70,000 copies at the time and quickly faded into existence.  But hold on, before we get in to the album, let’s go back to the first Kiss show one year earlier on January 30th, 1973.  For that show, the band didn’t really wear any make-up.  They had their name, but were just setting out and didn’t know who they were yet. They had the drag/glam look going for them, but the make-up progressed rather quickly.  Each member was discovering their personalities….The Demon (Gene), The Starchild (Paul), The Spaceman (Ace) and the Catman (Peter).  Over the next year, they would settle on who they were and so much more.  And who were they?  They were the following:

  • Paul Stanley – The Starchild
  • Gene Simmons – The Demon
  • Ace Frehley – The Spaceman
  • Peter Criss – The Catman

In early March, the band would finally decide on the make-up, then about a week later, they entered The Daisy in Amityville, NY with famed Led Zeppelin producer and recorded a five song demo.  The same 5 songs we talked about briefly on the Wicked Lester demo album from last week.

Then shortly after that, they were doing a showcase in the Summer and they meet a lad named Bill Aucoin who would become their manager and change their life forever.  But before they signed with Bill, they said he had 2 weeks to get them a record deal.  Not much time for anyone, but for Bill, he made it work.  The band would be the first band to sign with Neil Bogart’s Casablanca Record label on November 1st, 1973.  Quite a busy year.  And yes, I skipped so much, but this isn’t a history lesson, this is an album review.  So why don’t we get to that part now.

R-1632785-1233462407.jpeg Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Kiss’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →

Passion – Passion – Album Review

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Passion’s debut album brings another great melodic rock album from the label Frontiers Records. The self-titled album came out back on January 24th, 2020 so I am a little late to the party.  Better late than never I always say…okay, not really.  I am sure you have some questions, so let’s get to those.

Question #1: Who are they?

Answer #1: The band is a four piece with the following members…

Lion Ravarez – Vocals
Chance Vanderlain – Guitar
Weston James – Bass
Bobby Laker – Drums

Lion Ravarez is actually Daniel Rossall, former singer of the band Night by Night.  His love for the 80’s music inspired the band and created something special.

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Question #2:  Why is this one worth listening to over all the label’s other releases or any other releases period?

Answer #2:  Simple…it takes you back to the 80’s hard rock you grew up loving (well, grew up with if you are my age).

Question #3: What do they sound like?

Answer #3:  Think Dokken, Slaughter and Danger Danger all rolled in to one.  A voice that can mirror Ted Poley (“Trespass on Love”), Don Dokken (“Lost in the Dark”) and even go all Mark Slaughter on you (“She Bites Hard”).  It is the best of everything you love about the 80’s from rockers to ballads what more could you want.

 

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Question #4:  What are the best songs on the album?

Answer #4: It would be too easy to say everyone of them, so I will give you some that really standout.  I have mentioned a few above in Question #3…

  • “Too Bad for Baby” sounds like Damn Yankees (and I think I read somewhere Rossall contributed to Revolution Saints with Jack Blades…if so…coincident…I think not)
  • “Back” has this confidence and strut to it and a vibe that fits almost any 80’s band
  • “We Do What We Want” – the Danger Danger vibe is strong with this one as did I mention that Lion sounds a lot like Ted…oh yeah,  I did, so it must be true!!

I hope that answered all your questions.  The album is a blast from the past and brings back the fun in rock that is surely missing nowadays.  I needed that lift right now with something that reminded me of old times, but still grounded enough that it sounded fresh to me.  Passion is a total blast.  They are a little of a parody of the genre and that is okay because I know they are for real.  I will give it a 4.5 out of 5.0 Stars.

Oh, sorry, you have one more question…

Question #5:  Should I Buy this album?

Answer #5:  Hell YES!!!!

Def Leppard – ‘London to Vegas’ – Album Review

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There will not be a Def Leppard release that I won’t buy and I won’t review and now Def Leppard have released not one, but TWO Live releases at one time.  You can buy them individually and get either the ‘Hysteria at The O2’ album or the ‘Hits Vegas’ Release or you can do as I did and buy the Deluxe set called “London to Vegas” which has them both in 2 CD format for each album and a Blu-Ray Disc for each show (you can also get DVD).

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And before we get in to the shows, I have to discuss the packaging so you will get lots of pictures so you can see what you are going to get if you haven’t already bought it.  The set comes in a nice thick box that is the size of about a 10″ album.  It is really durable and graphics are great.  The front is the header image at the top and the back is the picture above.  It tells you everything you are going to get and you get a lot. Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘London to Vegas’ – Album Review” →