Category: Rock

My Sunday Song Special Edition: “Yellin’ at the Xmas Tree” by Billy Idol

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Merry Christmas!! And today is a Special Edition of My Sunday Song as it will be a Christmas song and one I enjoy a lot. The song today is “Yellin’ at the Xmas Tree” by Billy Idol. Nothing says Christmas like a drunk father yellin’ at the Christmas tree and then end up falling asleep in the same tree. The song was written by Billy Idol and Brian Tichy and was released on the US and EU promo copies of Billy’s 2005 album ‘Devil’s Playground.

Now, my Christmas’ were nothing like the one pictured in the song. My dad was only yelling at the Christmas tree if we were doing something to it. Plus, he was never drunk. But I am sure a lot of people out there that this has happened to them. Gather around the tree to decorate it, but Dad’s out at the pub getting drunk. Carolers are outside singing and all is well while Santa comes down the chimney and is making it with your Mom while Dad stands there and yells at the Christmas Tree. It sounds like such a Happy Christmas!! And it sounds like a dirty Santa as you can tell from this line…”Santa’s balls are jingling / Mommy’s hips a-wiggling” You go Santa!!

We would all need some therapy after that sight I am sure. The song opens with sleigh bells and then turns straight up rocker. That Steve Stevens guitar sound races through the riffs and Brian Tichy is banging on those drums. Billy’s lip curls as he spits out the lyrics. We get some great Idol screams, some church bells. It is a kick ass song that will put you in the Christmas spirit the minute you hear it!!

Give the song a listen and tell me it doesn’t just brighten your day that your families Christmas was better than this. It makes you appreciate what you have for sure!! Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Day!!

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Scorpions – “Send Me An Angel” – Promo CD (1991) – Single Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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The final of the four Promotional Items I had for ‘Crazy World’ is the amazing ballad “Send Me An Angel”. It was released as a single on September 17th, 1991 and it did really great going to Top 10 in 7 countries, Top 30 in 3 more and #44 on the US charts. The song was written by Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine one of the few songs on the album to be written by two people as most of the others were more a team effort.

My copy is the U.S. promotional copy and it was really, really basic. It was a CD case with no cover and no backing, only the CD. Can’t get more cheap than that. And since there was no artwork, here is what the cover to the 7″ Single looked like.

Scorpions end ‘Crazy World with a ballad and we end our promo run with the same ballad. And I think it is one of their best ballads ever. “Send Me An Angel” sees Klaus give his best vocal performance as he conveys both a melancholy vibe yet there is still a shimmering light of hope. There is such a pure and honest feel to his vocals which is why I think it connects with me so much. The keyboards add to the sadness and they are handled by Jim Vallance who actually co-wrote 7 of the tracks on the album as well, but not this one.

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Gene Simmons: MoneyBag Sodas

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Every year around this time, I like to splurge on something for myself that is not something I would normally buy. One time it was Gene Simmons The Vault, but this time it is a lot more reasonable and yet it still relates to Gene. It is the Gene Simmons MoneyBag Sodas. I’ve been wanting to try these for quite a while and I finally pulled the trigger. You have to order these online unless you live near one of the few stores that actually carry these sodas. I went online and bought the Sample set where you get to pick 4 of the 5 flavors and get a case of 16 drinks. I picked Cola, Root Beer, Creme and Ginger Ale. The only one I didn’t do was Diet…yuck!! Who wants to do diet when it comes to these craft style sodas…not me!! The bottles are glass which is a must for sodas and then one nice feature about the sodas is that they are all made with Cane Sugar…this is supposed to be a good thing, but who really knows if it is any better. I do like the taste with the cane sugar.

I was curious as to how they would ship and they did a great job. I love the fact that the box has the Gene Simmons MoneyBag logo on the shipping box…

And when you open it up, there are a set of 4 card board boxes inside…

When you opened the box, the drink carriers were sitting on top and the all look premium and fantastic…

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The Original vs. The Cover – “You Better Run”

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For this version of The Originals vs. The Cover, we are tackling the Young Rascals 1966 song “You Better Run” off their album ‘Groovin'”. The song was written by Eddie Brigati and Felix Cavalliere both members of the band. The song was considered a disappointment for them as it only went to #20 on the Billboard Charts. The disappointment was due to their previous song going #1, “Good Lovin'”. The Cover version is by Pat Benatar and hers didn’t do as well only going to #42 just missing the Top 40. But hers is famous because it is the 2nd Video ever played on MTV, yep, right after ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. And since MTV didn’t have a lot of videos back then, it got played a lot.

The song is a kiss off to a bad relationship. Some girl did one of the guys wrong and it was telling her to get lost, run and hide and get away from him. As well as it worked for them, Pat Benatar took and gender reversed it and now she’s telling the guy to the same and it was a great twist to the song. Let’s get to the battle and see who needs to run after this one. Before we do that, I want to thank Barry Gropman for his email and recommendations for ideas for this series.

THE YOUNG RASCALS:

The first thing you notice with their song is that bass guitar. It is the driving force as that repeated chord patter takes you up and down and back again. It is great. The song is really simple for them, with that bass line, the guitar riff and the great drumming by Dino Danelli. Felix’s vocals are filled with pain and that delivery of the vocals is so superbly deliberate and well paced. He makes it sound serious and full of anger. The harmonies on the chorus are great as well. Really killer track.

PAT BENATAR:

Pat Benatar’s version turns up the guitar with Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher’s drums are slamming. The bass is there, but now it is a full on guitar rocker and the guitar takes over that part. Pat’s vocals are…well…amazing. There is so much anger in her vocals and she is a total badass ready to kick this guys ass if he shows up again. It would make me run. She totally modernized the song to be a pure hard rock anthem and she totally made it her own as I didn’t realize it was a cover until years later.

THE VERDICT:

You could go either way with this one. The Young Rascals original is a classic track. I love the bass work and Felix really delivers a great vocal as I really love his approach on the lyrics. Pat turns it in to a total hard rock, almost metal, song. Her vocals are unmatched by anyone and Neil’s guitar is really the driving force. But for me, it is always Pat Benatar. It was her version I heard first, her version I always think of when I think of this song and I never tire of hearing her. So Pat Benatar for the win here for me, but I know you all might have different views, so lay them on me.

I am really interested in hearing what everyone else thinks of these two songs.  Let me know which version you like the best and why.  Feel free to leave a comment and talk about the song and tell me how right or wrong I am on this one.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

LYRICS:

“You Better Run”

What you tryin’ to do to my heart?
What you tryin’ to do to my heart?
You go around tellin’ lies
You’re runnin’ ’round with the other guys
What you tryin’ to do to my heart?

You better run, you better hide
You better leave from my side
What you tryin’ to do to my soul?
What you tryin’ to do to my soul?
Everything I had was yours
And now I’m closin’ all the doors
What you tryin’ to do to my soul?

I love you girl, I love you so
Can’t you see and don’t you know?
I can’t stand your alibis, your tellin’ lies, you drop me wise
Myself, I can’t stand anymore
Oh, what you tryin’ to do to my head?
What you tryin’ to do to my head?
Now I gotta draw that line
You’re not gonna take my mind
What you tryin’ to do to my head?

You better run, you better hide
You better leave from my side
What you tryin’ to do to my soul?
What you tryin’ to do to my soul?
Everything I had was yours
And now I’m closin’ all the doors
What you tryin’ to do to my soul?

I can’t stand anymore, leave me alone, woman!
Go way, too much, have mercy!
I need you, I need you!

Scotch on the Rocks: Creatures of the Night Super Deluxe Edition Discussion

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I had the absolute pleasure of joining Superdekes on his show “Scotch on the Rocks” as we discussed the box set from Kiss for Creatures of the Night…see what Deke has to say about it below, then go watch.

From Scotch on the Rocks:

It’s always a great chat when the Snowman hops on “Scotch On The Rocks” and this time was no different!

We talked of course about KISS and the Creatures album but with more of a personal angle than showing an unboxing video of the super deluxe as there are a hundreds of those kind of videos on Youtube currently.

We basically went back into the time machine to talk about how it was being a KISS fan when KISS wasn’t cool in the early 80’s. We talked about the music included in the various formats like the demo’s and live tracks with Vinnie Vincent in pretty good detail.

Some highlights were….

One of us got sprayed with perfume back in high school wearing a KISS shirt.

One of us also thought that “I Love It Loud” (live) wasn’t on the deluxe set.

One of us has Gene Simmons Money Bag Soda and could be seen swigging from the bottle of the Demon at the end of the show.

How’s that for hype!

Click the link below and give it a watch!

Cheers and Merry KISSMAS to you all out there!

Talisman – ‘7’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Talisman didn’t waste any time between their last studio album, ‘Cats & Dogs’, and this one, ‘7’. It is amazing they had time to even do an album as Jeff Scott Soto’s schedule was quite busy with his solo album & touring, his work with Soul SirkUS and then his stint as lead singer of Journey. It was a hectic and crazy schedule. Somehow they did it. The band was back together with Jeff, Marcel Jacob, Frederik Akesson and Jamie Borger and heck, even Pontus Norgren was there to help mix the album. The family was back for one last hurrah as it would turn out as this is the very last studio album by Talisman. A few years later, there were talks of doing another album, but before they could get to it, Marcel Jacob passed away in 2009. This was the end of Talisman and I still get sad thinking of it as I really do enjoy this band.

The original title of the album was called ‘BAR’ which was an inside joke with the band as it stood for ‘Bitter-Angry-Resentful’ which apparently was their outlook on certain life events…who knows if that is true, but I like it. They settled on ‘7’ which is actually the 7th Studio album of the band and they chose the theme of Lucky 7 with all the gambling pictures and Vegas pictures in the album artwork. The album was released on October 20, 2006 by Frontiers Records and they intended to do a tour with the release, but Jeff’s Journey commitment kept getting in the way. The tour was postponed until later in 2007 and by that time, Jeff was let go from Journey as we discussed in the last post. No need to rehash that story. We might as well talk music.

The album kicks off with the most upbeat, happiest guitars with a killer riff at a tempo that will have you flying down the road at 100mph if you are in your car. “Falling” is a modern sounding song while still holding on to the great melodic rock sound. There are keyboards in there (not credited) that really add a great punch to the song. I don’t know how Jamie Borger keeps up the pace he is going pounding those drums. It might be the fastest song they’ve done. Jeff sounds great and the melodies in the song are wonderful. What an astounding opening track.

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Scorpions – “Don’t Believe Her” – Promo CD (1990) – Single Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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We are now on the third promotional item I have for the Scorpions album ‘Crazy World’. This time around we have the Promotional CD Single for the song “Don’t Believe Her”. It was released as a single in December 1990 and was written by Herman Rarebell, Klaus Meine, Jim Vallance and Rudolf Schenker. The song went to #13 in the U.S. on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and it did go to #77 on the UK Singles Chart. A little better than the first single on the album as that only charted in the U.S.

My copy is the US Promotional Copy of the Single on CD. There was no cover for it, it only showed the CD, but it did have a back cover. It also has the now infamous words “For Promotional Use Only…Not For Sale” on the back cover and at the bottom of the CD. I do like that the CD is a picture disc considering we had no cover for it.

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Kiss – Rock the Nation 2004 World Tour: Instant Live (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, NC 7/28/04 (2004) – Album (The Kiss Review Series)

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Back on the Rock the Nation Tour in 2004, Kiss offered the Instant Live CDs. Basically, after the show was over, they burned the show to 2 CDs and sold them so you could instantly walk home with the show in your pocket. The band worked with Live Nation who handled all the recording and distribution of the CDs. Now, not every show on this tour was recorded and that was due to two reasons. 1) The arena was not owned / promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment and 2) there were technical difficulties at the show. Which that would suck if you were expecting a copy.

There are about 32 different shows recorded and this is the first one I’ve ever seen out in the wild, so I bought it. And lucky for me, it was the Charlotte show from Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, NC which is the town where I live (or just outside of it anyway). The show was from July 28, 2004. Now, only 31 left to get…joking. I don’t think I will go for all of them although that would be fun. However, if I run across any in the wild, I’ll buy them.

The packaging is simple and the same for every city. No setlist is included as each city might be slightly different. If you want the setlist, they give you website to go and download. However, that site doesn’t seem to exist anymore. The way to tell them apart was by a clear sticker with the city, venue and date of the show as seen on the cover at the top of the post. The band was Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons as you’d expect and then Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer who had taken over for Peter Criss on this tour and is still with the band as is Tommy.

The setlist isn’t printed in it so I found it and have listed it below…

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My Sunday Song – “Second Chance” by Shinedown

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For My Sunday Song #330, we end the Shinedown 10 song set with their biggest hit “Second Chance”. The song was off their 2008 smash album, ‘The Sound of Madness’ and was the second single off the album. It went to #1 on the Adult Top 40 and was the last #1 song played by Casey Kasem before he retired from his American Top 40 show. The song also went to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song alone has sold well over 3,000,000 copies. Not bad at all!!

The song was written by Brent Smith and Dave Bassett and is about the time in your life when you wake up and decide you are going to chase after your dream…do what you want to do. It is when you go outside of your little bubble and find out who you are and what you are here to do. Everyone deserves that chance to reach for their goals. The song for Brent was very personal as it was about the time he left his parents and went out on his own to learn to be a man. He said he still is learning that today. It sounds like his parents might not have agreed on his decision to pursue the rock career, but he had to do it.

The song is a power ballad in that it has a slower tempo, Brent’s vocals are soft and emotive at times. When the chorus hits it ramps up the power and the emotion. It is a very radio-friendly track as it pushes all the sappy buttons so no wonder it did well. But it is popular because it is a very good song. The lyrics can be cheesy at times, but the point behind the song is still beautiful and relevant. That climatic build-up, scream and drum fill at the end of the song, make it standout above the rest of the radio fodder. It is a well-crafted, brilliant song. It is one of those songs for me that I never tire of despite it being completely overplayed on the radio at the time.

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Friday New Releases – December 16, 2022

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Welcome to the last Friday New Releases post of 2022. The next two weeks there aren’t enough releases to bother posting so this is it. We will return on or about January 6, 2023 assuming there is enough releases that week. I am getting the Halestorm Deluxe Edition album for Back From the Dead, but that is it for me. What are you interested in this week? Let us know what that may be and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

  • 814pgB+ZCWL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Halestorm – Back From the Dead (Deluxe Edition) – (Atlantic Records)
  • Cheap Trick – Live at the Whiskey 1977 (45th Anniversary 4CD Set) – (Real Gone Music)
  • 71vXZMaPclL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Frank Zappa – Waka/Wazoo – (Universal Music)
  • 61IiPaWGE5L._AC_UY218_  Seether – Disclaimer (Deluxe Edition) – (Craft Recordings / Concord)81u+BDbDNeL._AC_UY327_FMwebp_QL65_  Kansas – Another Fork in the Road: 50 Years of Kansas – (Inside Out Music)
  • 61VULrgOH9L._AC_UY218_  Bloodclot! – Souls – (Upstate Records / Blood Blast Distribution)
  • 81EZA01Q4LL._AC_UY218_  Jacquees – Sincerely For You – (Cash Money Records)
  • download-11  Marcotic – Mobile Home Rich – (Mobile Home Records)
  • 71Zqm2wM+rL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Percussor – Ravenous Despondency – (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions)
  • 81aKRtdmk7L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Circa Survive – Two Dreams – (Rise Records)
  • 61o2ZZ76wqL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Mimi Barks – Deadgirl – (Silent Cult)
  • 714jkOsMNTL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Mori Calliope – Sinderella – (Universal Music)