Category: Rock

My Sunday Song – “I Believe” by Joe Satriani

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For My Sunday Song #77, I am going with one of my favorite songs by Joe Satriani called “I Believe”.  The song is off one of his best albums called ‘Flying in a Blue Dream’ from 1989.  Joe is known for his guitar playing and making it sing.  Well for this song, Joe is actually singing.  One of the very few songs he has ever done that on which was the first reason I was drawn to this song. It was nice to hear him sing.

The song is a ballad and a much slower pace than you are used to getting from him.  I was enthralled by the dark tone to the song and even the dark lyrics.  The lyrics discussed how hard life is, but it is inspiring to as it was still filled with so much hope.  I will let Joe tell it better from an interview he did with Songfacts.com…

“It was a difficult period in my life, where my father was in the process of passing away, and I was struggling with finishing up the Flying in a Blue Dream record. I was actually writing other songs that were instrumental pieces for the album. I’d be taking breaks during those periods, and I’d pick up the acoustic guitar and would start playing music.

There was a big painting in our apartment that a friend of my wife’s had done. She had worked my wife’s face into this figure, and I used to look at that quite a bit when I would take breaks from working on the album. So I wrote a song really about how difficult life is, but how ultimately, you have hope and you can change things for the better. It was really about writing that song and looking at that picture.”

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Friday New Releases – February 2nd

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Welcome to February’s First Friday of new releases.  There is a little Metal, Rock, Pop, Country and even Frank Zappa (he is his own category).  Hopefully something will float your boat.  There is only one I am really interested in and I might check out some others, but too early to say.  My choice is highlighted in Blue as always.

  • 61AHx4Gb31L._AC_US436_QL65_  Justin Timberlake – Man of the Woods – (RCA Records):  Is it no surprise that Justin is back with a new album as he is performing as the headline act for the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Sunday.  The first single is a little different and took some getting used to, but I think I am digging it a little now.  I am interested to see what he has to offer.  I will admit I am a fan of his music so this one is a no brainer for me.

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1979 – The Greatest Year In Music?

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We are now on the fourth year in this series.  I have already covered the following years:

1983 – The Greatest Year in Music?

1987 – The Greatest Year in Music?

1991 – The Greatest Year in Music?

My theory is simple…Every 4 years you have one of the greatest years in music.  I agree with the three I have already done.  Will I agree with it for the next year 1979?  We will have to first examine the evidence.  What were the top albums of the year?, What were the debut albums from some of the great rock bands? and What was going on in the world of music that year?

The Sony Walkman:

walkmanOn July 1, 1979, The Sony Walkman goes on Sale in Japan and the way you listen to music is changed forever!! (at least until the CD and then the MP3).  Who didn’t have one of these if you were a kid in 1979 or the 80’s.  I definitely did.  It helped spur my love for music as it now was more portable  It was better than just the radio, I could listen to what I wanted to wherever and whenever I wanted.  I used mine while I mowed the lawn (and every now and again I would snag to cord and pull my headphones off). I had a boombox, but that wasn’t the same as the Walkman.  Nothing better (until my iPod).

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Lady Gaga – Gaga: Five Foot Two – Documentary Review

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Amazingly, I have a had time to watch a few documentaries I have been wanting to see.  First it was ‘Hired Gun’ Review and now it is the Lady Gaga documentary, ‘Gaga: Five Foot Two’ which I have been wanting to watch since its release in September 2017 on Netflix.  The documentary covers the time in Stefani Germanotta’s life (aka Lady Gaga) between the making of her outstanding album ‘Joanne’ and her Super Bowl appearance in 2017.

The style of the video takes a minute to wrap your head around and understand why it is being filmed that way.  The style is called Cinéma Vérité which is an observational style of filiming.  Click on the name to learn more.  Once I got passed the style, I really started enjoying the film.  It is an in depth, behind the scenes, look into her life.  It doesn’t look like she was too worried about how she came across.  You see her happy and smiling, crying, with or without make-up or even clothes at times.

Lady Gaga bares it all and doesn’t hold back anything which really draws you into her world and makes her feel authentic.  You start to feel what she is going through and she becomes relatable.  The thing I got out of it, being a rock star is not glamorous at all.  It is grueling work, it is brutal, it is exhausting, it is painful and it is not a life for the faint of heart.

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My Sunday Song – “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss

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For My Sunday Song #76, I bring you the Kiss classic, “Detroit Rock City”.  The song was the opening track to the album ‘Destoyer’ and it was also the third single in support of the album.  However, the song never charted due to the little B-Side on the back called “Beth” (which is a story for another time).

A fan favorite and still played at shows today, “Detroit Rock City has become one of the band’s most recognizable songs behind “Rock & Roll All Nite”.  The song was so popular, there was even a movie made called “Detroit Rock City” that Kiss actually appeared in.

The song does mention Detroit, but is really about a young fan that is killed why he was on his way to a Kiss concert.  The story is based of an actual event that occurred outside a Kiss concert in Charlotte where a fan was hit by a car and killed outside the arena.  Knowing it is based a real life event adds a little extra to the impact of the song.

The song opens with a radio broadcast (the broadcaster is played by Gene Simmons) of the death of a driver killed in a car crash then seques in to the young man getting into his car and heading to the concert playing Kiss’s “Rock & Roll All Nite” on the radio.  During the song, you go back and forth between the song and hearing the car drive down the road getting closer to the show.  The song ends with the car crashing and immediately goes into the next song on the album “King of the Night Time World”.

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Friday New Releases – January 26th

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We are already to the end of the first month of the year and some good ones so far.  And we are ending the month with some even better.  My choices are highlighted in Blue.  There should be a little something for everyone this week.  Let me know which ones you want or if I missed something. I have a lot to get through this weekend. Have a great weekend!!

  • 51drvzx1HXL._AC_US436_QL65_  Rick Springfield – The Snake King – (Frontiers Records):  I love me some Rick Springfield.  I am not afraid to admit it.  I was a fan as a kid and he was my first concert my sister and I went to go see.  Back in 2004 with his album Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance, I garnered a new found respect for him and have been following him with more gusto.  The new album is more blues rock and a nice change of pace.  He keeps trying new things and keeps getting better.  I enjoyed the single “Little Demon” and expect great things to come.

  • 51v+QhAMSAL._AC_US436_QL65_  The Poodles – Prisma – (GAIN/Sony):  The Poodles have returned after a little break and some little side projects.  My only disappointment with this album is it is not new material.  It is a cover’s album which I am not always a huge fan of.  I will listen, but worried.  I don’t want it to be karaoke and from what I hear with “It’s No Good” tells me it won’t be.

  • 71D3-gx6QWL._AC_US320_QL65_  Phil Campbell & the Bastard Sons – The Age of Absurdity – (Nuclear Blast):  Motorhead guitarists has his own band and they come at you with dirty, gritty rock and exactly what you need.  I am looking forward to devouring this release and blowing out the speakers!

  • 81ecqHGgigL._AC_UL320_SR320,320_  Delta Deep – East Coast Live – (Frontiers Records):  Delta Deep delivers their first live album which is great considering I was unable to attend a show they did last year.  Def Leppard’s own Phil Collen is on guitar and Stone Temple Pilots’ own Robert Deleo on Bass, Forrest Robinson on drums and the great vocals of Debbi Blackwell.  I got in to them thanks to my Bro-in-law as he did the sound for all their live shows.  This should be good…no great!!

  • 51G7Rl0IUQL._SS500  John 5 & The Creatures – It’s Alive – (60 Cycle Hum Records):  As much as I loved his last solo release with the Creatures, a live version is a no brainer.  Can’t wait to dive into this and to see what I missed when they came to town last year.

  • 51Yxg96OwEL._AC_US436_QL65_  Ammunition – Ammunition – (Frontiers Records):  Former members of Wig Wam together again…enough said.  This will get some spins for sure.

  • 610iD9H20BL._AC_US436_QL65_  Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa – Black Coffee – (J&R Adventures)

  • 610nS59X3WL._AC_US436_QL65_  Loudness – Rise To Glory – (Frontiers Records)

  • 81fzC5lehlL._SX522_  Steve Hackett – Wuthering Nights: Live in Birmingham – (Inside Out Records)

  • 61rO-rGDKCL._AC_US436_QL65_  Armik – Pacifica – (Bolero Records)

  • 513h3-GeRCL._SS500  Machine Head – Catharsis – (Nuclear Blast Entertainment)

  • 51wWqRI4uCL._AC_US218_  Craig David – The Time is Now – (Insanity Records)

Turntables & Vinyl #12 – The CD Edition Update

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If you remember back a few months for Turntables & Vinyl #8 – The CD Edition, I talked about all these CDs I received from someone in the neighborhood that was giving them away.  They were in really bad shape and there were 100’s I had to throw out due to broken or badly scratched CDs.

I managed to keep the CD covers in hopes of doing something artsy with them.  It turns out, I am not very artsy, so I decided to put them on a canvas and make them into a picture for my office wall.  Now, I decided, but I didn’t actually do the work.  My wife is the one that put this together as she is the creative one.

Below is a picture of the canvas with some of my favorite album covers from the lot I had to throw away.  I am very pleased with how it turned out and I have to thank my beautiful and talented wife for putting this together.  I couldn’t have done it without her.  The only thing I did was cut out the covers and decide the order to place them in even though she helped with that arrangement a little as well.  Okay, so she really did all of it.  She’s the best!

img_0614.jpg

Now, I didn’t have any Kiss or Def Leppard albums to include which bothered me, so I printed out their logos and had them incorporated into the picture by only showing partial album covers for AC/DC Back in Black and the Beach Boys Greatest Hits album.  See which ones you recognize.  I think most of them are very classic albums and I was even able to use the Emerson, Lake and Palmer cover to Brain Salad Surgery which is one of my favorite album covers.

There you have it!

Until next time…have a great day.

The Original Vs. The Cover – “Live and Let Die”

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Welcome to the first installment of “The Original Vs. The Cover” for 2018.  We are going to start it off this year with the battle between Paul McCartney & Wings and Guns ‘N Roses with the song “Live and Let Die”.  The song was written by Paul & Linda McCartney for the James Bond movie “Live and Let Die”. The two versions aren’t really that different in my opinion.  Some of the orchestration is replaced with guitars, but other than that they are very similar.  But before we choose a version we like more, let’s talk about each version first.

Paul McCartney and Wings

Paul was given the Ian Fleming novel to read and then he sat down at his piano and wrote the song.  I am not sure Paul had ever had to write a song around a title before as he said it was not an easy thing to do.  Well, he wrote the song in an afternoon, so it must not have been that hard.  The song is one of Wing’s most popular songs and it received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song in 1973.  However, it did lose to Barbara Streisand’s song “The Way We Were”.  The song was also nominated for a Grammy in the same year.

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Ratt – Ratt E.P. – Album Review

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Back in 1976, there lived a band fronted by Stephen Pearcy called Mickey Ratt.  With limited success and numerous line-up changes over the years, including the great Jake E. Lee on guitar, the band eventually found the line-up that would work.  By 1982, that line-up be complete.

In 1981, one of the most crucial pieces was another songwriter to work with Stephen.  That role was filled by the late Robin Crosby on guitar. Also in 1981, a young guitar great, by the name of Warren DeMartini, joined the band courtesy of Jake E. Lee’s recommendation.  He would leave as he was in college and was afraid to quit school for a band with only moderate success.  He returned in 1982.  Finally, the band would add Bobby Blotzer on drums (ex Vic Vergeat) and Juan Crucier (formerly with Dokken) on bass and the band was complete.

Everything was in place and the band finally got a record deal in July 1983 with an independent label called Time Coast Music.  The band released their first E.P. as Ratt and it was simply called Ratt.  The E.P. included 6 tracks; however, the European release would give you 7 tracks which was an early version of “You’re In Trouble” that was later released on ‘Out of the Cellar’.  My version on vinyl is the U.S. release.  My version is also a re-release that was done in 1984 after the success of ‘Out of the Cellar’ which included a picture of the band with their more current look and was released by Atlantic Records.

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My Sunday Song – “Photograph” by Def Leppard

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For My Sunday Song #75, I am bringing you the song that started it all for me…”Photograph” by Def Leppard.  It was the first single off the massive hit album ‘Pyromania’ and it was the song that started my obsession with Def Leppard.  From that point on, music took a whole new direction in my life.  It was my passion.  I tried to play guitar (rather unsuccessfully) and I couldn’t sing, but I could listen to music.

The song was perfect in my book.  The video was mesmerizing.  The two together captured my attention like nothing ever had.  The song has such a melodic melody and the guitar solo and background vocals were all spot on thanks to Mutt Lange behind the boards.  The guitar riff on the song that is played throughout is instantly recognizable.

I had heard of Def Leppard as my brother had one of their albums, but it was this song and this album that made me a fan…no a fanatic with this band.  I had to have the albums, the singles, the shirts, the posters, the pins…you name it, I had to have it.  And it still goes on today.  They release a video and I own it; a live album and I gotta have it; a deluxe version of an album I already have, yep, I get that as well.  It doesn’t matter.

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