Welcome to a new series I have on YouTube called Retro Rock Reviews. Each week, we are going to pick an album and do a quick review. They won’t be long shows, something quick and fun to get you through your day. For Episode 3, we are talking about one of the first Alice Cooper albums I ever heard and that is ‘Billion Dollar Babies’. Released on February 25, 1973 , it was an album that took Alice Cooper to the next level. With Bob Ezrin at the helm and a slew of great guitarists, this album went to #1 in the U.S. and the U.K. selling well over 1,000,000 copies. I hope you enjoy my review.
So go check it out as it is live now on August 22, 2024 at Noon. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
Up to this point, Def Leppard really only had 1 greatest hits album and that was 1995’s ‘Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995’. Since that last compilation, they have released a couple more albums so it was time to update the Greatest Hits package and this time it is called ‘Best of Def Leppard’, easy enough. There is a single disc version which is basically the same tracks as the ‘Vault’. Well, close enough. They did remove two tracks and add two more recent ones then they added two more tracks on that one to give us 17 tracks instead of 15. And I am okay with the choices they made.
There is also a 2 CD set which is what I have. It came with a slip case (my copy doesn’t have that piece) and a second disc with more of a diverse selection. While the first mostly ignores the first albums (exception being “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”), this adds a few more tracks plus gives us more of the newer albums. And even better a new song…well new to Def Leppard as it is a cover of The Kink’s song “Waterloo Sunset”. This was a preview of what was to come with the band’s next studio album ‘Yeah!’ which is a covers album. I like that second disc since it is the usual Leppard standards.
The CD came out on October 25, 2004 and it did sell 300,000 copies in the UK and went to #6 on the albums chart. It charted in other countries as well, but it didn’t chart in the U.S. as it was not officially released here in the States. That would come the next year with a new compilation called ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’ which we will review next week. Now, since this set is 34 songs over 2 CDs, this review could take awhile. I’ll get started.
DISC 1:
The album opens with the biggest song of their career, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. It was the third single off ‘Hysteria’ in the UK, but the fourth in the States. And it was do or die time for the band. They need to sell way more and this song did it for them. Yes, the song is about sex, but it is it the energy of the song that make this one so good. This is the ‘Historia’ Video Edit version which opens with “Love is a like a Bomb” and is actually longer then the album version.
This week on The Collection, we are talking the Motley Crue Box Set called ‘The End’. This was supposed to be THE END of Motley Crue, the did a Final Tour, signed a contract and everything, yet as we now know, it wasn’t the end. We are going to put that aside (okay not really) and talk about the Box Set. We will look at the albums included and all the little goodies in the set. I even say the name wrong of the Saints of Los Angeles album EVERY SINGLE TIME!! UGH!! See what city I actually call it. Come join the fun and see what is the Good and the BAD of this box set.
So go check it out as it is live now on August 19, 2024 at 8 p.m! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
Come join me as Tim and I as we discuss the new (sort of) Ratt album called ‘Rarities’. It is up on YouTube now. See below…
A new Ratt compilation? Well, new in this physical format. On this episode, John T. Snow and I discuss this recently released collection “from the ’80s metal vault”, featuring one of the most consistent hard rock bands of the mid-’80s.
Bon Jovi released a box set that contained every vinyl up to that point. It was called The Album Box Set and it was released on February 10, 2017. Now it was released on both vinyl and CD which I chose the Vinyl collection as I love to have their albums on vinyl. The set carries all studio albums from the debut Bon Jovi album all the way up to ‘This House is Not For Sale’. But that isn’t all, it has both Jon Bon Jovi solo albums as well as an “Extra” LP with a bunch of their international B-Sides which is a nice treat. But that is it. There no extra posters, stickers, booklets or anything. Each album though is remastered on 180g LP and the 16 albums are spread over 24 LPs. At the time this was released, 7 of the albums had never been released on vinyl and then you have the “Extra” LP which is the first time this had ever been released. So, for the vinyl collector in me this was the easiest way to get everything.
We are here to talk the ‘Extras’ LP which was rare tracks and international B-Sides and a couple songs from the ‘Cross Road’ compilation as that compilation is not in here (but I do have that on vinyl as well). We get 10 tracks and we will go through all 10 just for you!
“Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night” is from ‘Cross Roads’ and was released as a single in various countries on February 13, 1995, but not the U.S. It went to #7 in the U.K. and of course never charted in the U.S. The song, according to Wikipedia is about optimism in the face of adversity. The song’s first verse introduces the characters Jim who struggles to find employment and is forced to sleep in his car, and Billie-Jean who was abused by her foster father and has turned to prostitution at the age of sixteen (remarking that the street-life ain’t much better but at least I’m getting paid), mourning the loss of her childhood. It has a country flair to it with its acoustic feel and an accompanying organ. It is catchy for sure and a great tune as who doesn’t struggle through the week hoping for Saturday Night.
Ratt aren’t making any new albums it seems, so how does a label make money off their catalog? One way is it to keep reissuing the albums. Another is to release greatest hits compilations and a third is to release a collection or rarities and unreleased versions of the band’s catalogs. And that is what we have here. Heck, the label has been doing other two constantly so this a nice change of pace. But, they definitely went cheap. No liner notes and a cheap cardboard digipack. Plus there are only 9 tracks.
Here is the promotional line they sent out that various sites have posted. Not too much in it either…
From the ’80s metal vault comes this collection of vintage demos and live recordings of one of the scenes biggest hitmakers, Ratt. Features the earliest known recording of the band’s signature hit, “Round & Round”, complete with alternate lyrics and melody, as well as vintage performances of classics like “Body Talk”, “Wanted Man” and more.
The thing is I think this was already released back in 2007 with a different album cover, but same track listing and same label. I can’t find it on Discogs which leads me to believe it was a digital only release. Interesting though.
A big week of releases this week. Not that there are ton, but some highly anticipated. We get the new Post Malone and I think it is a country album if I’m not mistaken. Is there anything he can’t sing. You also get the new Falling In Reverse for you metal fans and for you pop fans there is Foster the People and The Script. Hopefully there is something for you. Let me know what you want to hear and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Post Malone – F-1Trillion – (Mercury Records / Republic Records / UMG)
Falling in Reverse – Popular Monster – (Epitaph)
Foster the People – Paradise State of Mind – (Atlantic Records)
Welcome to a new series I have on YouTube called Retro Rock Reviews. Each week, we are going to pick an album and do a quick review. They won’t be long shows, something quick and fun to get you through your day. For Episode 2, we are tackling the ever interesting Frank Zappa and his album ‘Hot Rats’. Released on October 10, 1969, it was an album and artist I was always afraid to tackle because he is…let’s say…different. It is outside my comfort zone. But I tackled it and here is my review. Enjoy!
So go check it out as it is live now on August 15, 2024 at Noon.…because why not!! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
There was a TV show that talked about all the Classic Albums and Def Leppard were given one of those treatments. It was released on UK TV on May 27, 2002 and didn’t hit the States until August 27th, 2002. It had interviews from pretty much everyone involved. New interviews for the current band members and older ones for Mutt and Steve Clark. The band’s managers were interviewed as well as Ross Halfin, Jeff Rich and Rolling Stone’s David Fricke.
It kicks off with the band talking about moving to Dublin and the first song they started working on which was ‘Animal’. It took them 3 years to complete and get it right. It became the first single in the U.K. and finally gave the band their first hit in their home country.
They were in Dublin with Mutt Lange writing songs, but Mutt couldn’t commit to it as he was busy with another project. So, on to another producer. Jim Steinman was the first producer and Joe said Jim was a songwriter not necessarily a producer. The band did not agree with him ever. Jim wanted to capture the moment while the band was so used to Mutt and they wanted it to be perfect. They ended up paying Jim off for him to leave and they paid him a lot of money.
They then went to Nigel Green who was the engineer for Mutt, but he wasn’t Mutt. But around that time, Rick Allen had his tragic car crash where he lost his arm. They didn’t go in to detail of that until later in the show. This about the time Mutt finally came back in the fold and decided to produce the album. The work could seriously begin.
This week we explore one of my favorite bands of the 2000’s and that is Shinedown. We will go through all their albums on vinyl and at the end, I will rank from least favorite all the way up to my favorite one. We even have one Shinedown adjacent album to talk about. So get ready to see what Brent Smith and boys have given us so far. I hope you enjoy!!
So go check it out as it is live now on August 5, 2024 at 8 p.m! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
Post Malone – F-1Trillion – (Mercury Records / Republic Records / UMG)
Falling in Reverse – Popular Monster – (Epitaph)
Foster the People – Paradise State of Mind – (Atlantic Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 