After Jeff Scott Soto had finished his vocals on the ‘Eternal Prisoner’ album for Axel Rudi Pell, he went back to the states to continue to work with his band Slam. Then it was on to work on the next Talisman album ‘Genesis’. But his obligations weren’t done with Axel. Axel wanted to do an album full of nothing but ballads so Jeff was brought back in April 1993 to finish up some work on several songs to be included on the album. Jeff was only on 4 of the 10 songs, two were instrumentals, two from Rob Rock with one from Karl Holthaus both previous singers of Axel’s.
The album was released on September 7, 1993 and I guess it was successful as Axel did a total of five of these Ballad compilations. ‘The Ballads’ release had a mixture of previously released tracks, some previously unreleased tracks and even a couple covers. It is a lot of ballads to have on an album. It caused a mixture of reactions. Some metal fans were turned off because the album was nothing but ballads, however, you had a section of non-metal people that were now introduced to Axel’s music because it was all ballads. Heck it was the ballads that probably brought a lot of women in to the Glam music scene anyway…that and the fact they wanted to know the secrets on how the guys got their hair so big and poofy. But lets talk about the music instead of the hair.
“You Want Love” opens the album and was one of the new tracks recorded by Jeff Scott Soto for this release. Opens with acoustic guitars and then Soto comes in singing in a soft falsetto. The chorus brings harmonies and the bass and drum. From here on out, the tempo stays relatively consistent. Jeff does sound great, I’ll give him that, but the song is a little dull as it is too same-same sounding throughout. Even the solo is a little lifeless and boring.
We all know Kiss was started by Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. But did you know about the band prior to Kiss? It all started with Gene (Chaim Witz) and Paul (Stanley Eisen) in a band called Rainbow with Gene’s friend Stephen Coronel. Paul was the third member and then they brought in a drummer named Joe Davidson. This band didn’t last long at all and hell, the drummer even a shorter time as he was quickly replaced with Tony Zarella. They only played one show before they had to drop the name Rainbow because that name was already being used by some other band (and no, not the Richie Blackmore band).
And that is how Wicked Lester was born. After only a couple shows as Wicked Lester, they were approached by a label and were given the chance to record some demos. After listening to those demos, the label decided that Stephen was not good enough and had to be fired. And since Gene and Paul the upstanding citizens they are, they fired Stephen. I guess you do whatever it takes to make it in this business. Ron Leejack was then brought in for guitar duties and it was time to record the album.
Now the album would take about a year to complete and upon receiving the album and hearing it, the label were not quite thrilled with it…okay, they hated it. Hated it so much, they shelved it and it was never released. Well, never in a full, pure album form. It has been leaked out as a bootleg and that is what we have here.
For the band’s 14th studio album they wanted to go back to their roots. They wanted to kick it old style. To do that, they decided to do a covers album of all Blues tracks! And to really make it old school, they brought back Jack Douglas as producer and they only recorded it live in the studio with all members of the band like they did it in the old days. The album takes us back to their sound of the 70’s and away from all the more recent over-produced crap that they had been releasing of late.
The album was recorded over most of 2003 as they really only recorded when they could all get together and they were all in a good mood. And you can imagine how little that probably was with this history of this band. Most of the work was done at Joe Perry’s Studio at his ranch near Boston. When they finally finished, the album got its release on March 30, 2004 and quickly sold over 100,000 copies in its first week putting it at #5 on the Billboard Charts. Today, that would easily be #1. But it did go to #1 on the Blues Chart and eventually went Gold with over 500,000 copies sold. The album wasn’t as successful as their past hits, but a Blues album to go Gold is pretty darn good. Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer will still together and doing what they loved, so for them that is a success on its own.
The album had 11 covers and 1 original blues song by the band. There are traditional blues songs from way, way back to even a Fleetwood Mac song. And the title ‘Honkin’ On Bobo’ is from a phrase Steven Tyler had heard but they don’t really know what it means. They thought it sounded cool and bluesy I guess. I thought Bobo might be the harmonica and honkin’ on it was playing the harmonica, but who knows. Let’s get to the music.
For My Sunday Song #296, we are going to discuss the song “Desert Plains” by Judas Priest. The song is from their 1981 album ‘Point of Entry’. The song wasn’t a single, but for me was one of the very few standout tracks on the album. The album went gold in the U.S. selling over 500,000 copies and went to #39 on the Billboard Charts. Not their best showing but that was all about to change with their next album.
“Desert Plains” can have a lot of meanings. I read it was inspired by the beautiful Arizona desert landscape as that is where Rob Halford was living. The song is possibly about riding your motorcycle down the lonely desert road aching to be with your lover and finally arriving at the end as there is a line “The engine roars between my thighs” that makes me think motorcycle, but I guess it could mean some other thing that is between his thighs getting all hot and bothered.
I also saw someone mention that the song is about life and death. The life part is the person on this side of death missing their lover terribly who has died. The other person, who is dead, is on the other side waiting for them so they can one day be together again. If that is the case then the person on this side of death must die because they are together again. That is a little morbid for me, so I personally lean towards the first one because the song does end with them falling in each others arms, but I don’t feel like they died.
The song opens with a loud, heavy drum beat from Dave Holland and is full of dual guitar work from Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing and a thumping bass line from Ian Hill. Rob Halford comes in and gives a serious tone to the vocals which almost feels a little ominous in its presentation. An album that already has “Heading Out to the Highway”, it is another song that feels like you are driving fast down the road and that there is a dangerous element you can’t escape from and is following you about to catch you. Overall, this is a killer track and might be my favorite track on the album.
I’ve found a few Kiss singles lately and this is the last in the bunch…for now. This time around I found the single to the song “Calling Dr. Love” off the band’s 1976 album ‘Rock And Roll Over’. The song was the band’s fourth Top 20 hit going all the way to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the second single on the album which following the success of the album, ‘Destroyer’, went on to sell over a million copies and hit platinum status. Kiss was on a roll at this time and their popularity was growing by leaps and bounds.
A fun fact on the song is that it was written by Gene while he was at a Holiday Inn where I am sure he was “living in sin” (let’s see who gets that reference). The song title was inspired by a Three Stooges film called ‘Men in Black’ which contained a hospital intercom announcement, “Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard.” And thanks to wiki for that reference.
My version is again, the standard U.S. version with the boring Casablanca / Filmworks standard sleeve. No picture sleeve. The B-Side is the Paul Stanley sung song “Take Me”. No special remixes, no unreleased tracks, just the same old stuff, but I still had to have it. I’m a little nuts that way.
Happy Friday!! Welcome to another Friday of New Releases and we have around 50 choices for you this week. That should mean there is something for everyone and if not, stop being so picky!! Kidding! There are only a couple of releases I am looking in and they are marked in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear this week and let us know what we may have missed as I am sure there is something. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
Aldo Nova – Reloaded – (MRI): Just 3 weeks after his release of The Life & Times of Eddie Gage E.P. (which was pretty darn good), Aldo is back with another Reloaded. He released one a few years ago where he reworks his classic hits. I have to say, I am not real thrilled with this concept as you can’t improve on perfection. Could this be his ‘This Left Feels Right’? I am afraid so as it doesn’t feel right…but maybe I’ll be wrong.
Dorothy – Gifts from the Holy Ghost – (Roc Nation Records): Dorothy is back with another rock release. I really dig her vocals and the band ain’t half bad either. I am hoping for some more rock greatness from this stellar band.
Cheap Trick had a lot of touring comments after their last studio album ‘Special One’ in 2003. So while they were touring throughout 2004 and 2005, the squeezed in time to record some new songs. They recorded all over the country in L.A., Nashville, Florida, Boston, New York, Chicago and even in their hometown of Rockford, IL. As a result, there were also a lot of co-producers to help out including Jim “Pinky Beeman, Julian Raymond, Jack Douglas, Steve Albini, Chris Shaw and even Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes). You would think this would make the album disjointed and all over the place, but I think it gels perfectly together. Somehow Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos pulled it all together to make co-hesive, enjoyable album.
The album title was called ‘Rockford’ which is you didn’t know was the band’s hometown of Rockford, Illinois. It was released on June 6, 2006 and only went to #101 on the Billboard Charts. Cheap Trick was not actually going to get any radio play as most bands from the 70’s didn’t. It is really hard to get these vintage acts on the radio. That in now way is a reflection of the songs or the album overall. They found different ways to get in to the public eye. One thing they did was be a part of McDonald’s ad campaign during that year. And in 2007 on April 1st of all days, Cheap Trick was given their own Day in Illinois. April 1st would now be known as Cheap Trick Day in their home state.
The cover art of the album is fantastic. I love the bright yellow as it makes it a happy feeling record. The art work was done by John Johnson with the art direction by Richie “Britley” Hughes. There is actually no picture of the band in on the front, back or even in the CD booklet. All pictures of them are done in the style of figures on the cover. I am not sure if they were purposely doing that as they didn’t want people to realize how much older they were so younger audiences wouldn’t be afraid to buy the album or what…but I like it nonetheless. But enough about that, let us get to the music shall we.
Talisman’s debut did quite well in Sweden, but for Jeff Scott Soto, it was only viewed it at the time as a side project as he was busy with his band Eyes. The band Eyes was frustrating for him so he left to work on a new band Slam. Marcel Jacob still kept Talisman alive. However, the label went belly up and Jason signed with Warner Sweden. With Jeff gone, Jason Bieler left to focus on Saigon Kick and everyone else left, Marcel needed a band. After much searching, he found 19 year old guitarist extraordinaire, Fredrik Akesson. Then shortly thereafter, he ran in to an old grade school pal, Matti Alfonzetti, who would join as the singer. They wrote and put some demos together for the label.
However, there was some management change at the label and they didn’t care about the success of the debut album as it wasn’t their baby so Marcel packed shop and left. They shopped the album around and after six months of nothing, Matti decided to leave and pursue other things. Marcel was not deterred and kept shopping the demo around without a singer. Finally Dino Records was interested in the band with one big catch. They wanted Jeff back on vocals. They knew about the success of their debut with Jeff and they loved that sound. That wasn’t a terrible thing for Marcel. Marcel decided to reach out to Jeff and catch up. And within 3 weeks of that call, the two were together again in the studio to record the next Talisman album. Why did Jeff join so quickly, well…the Eyes were done in his eyes and his band Slam was going nowhere as every door had been slammed in their face so what choice did he have. None really and we are all the better for it.
Talisman at this point was Marcel Jacob, Jeff Scott Soto and Fredrik Akesson (now in Opeth) and so they had enough players with just the three of them and they got to work. They didn’t have a drummer anymore as Jakob Samuel left to focus on finding a band where he could be singer so Marcel handled all the drumming through a machine as well as the bass work. They recorded the album in December 1992 and on July 7, 1993, the album was released. It actually got some international interest and not just in Sweden. A Japanese edition was done with a bonus track. My version is not either the original or the Japanese Edition. I have the 2003 Re-Issue that was a double CD. The original album with the Japanese Bonus Track, plus a Bonus CD full of demos and alternate mixes. You even get the songs that were sung by Matti Alfonzetti which for a collector is a pretty cool score.
“Time After Time” kicks off the album and it was a song developed during a sound check while on tour for the debut album. Marcel was playing around with it and took it back to the hotel and turned it in to a song with Jeff adding lyrics and vocals later. The song kicks off with some finger picking and then a funky bass groove and then BAM!! It explodes in to a heavy rock track that blows your head off as your mind tries to wrap around the greatness. Jacob’s bass is front and center laying down a nasty funked up groove and the riffs by this 19 year old virtuoso player a recipe for a masterpiece. Soto’s vocals are powerful and yet so melodic and the chorus is catchy and slick and pure bliss. What a way to kick off the album.
Next up is “Comin’ Home” which was actually the first song written for the album and is about finding that perfect place that is a part of you as much as you are a part of it. The combo of Jacob and Akesson are the new dynamic duo of bass and guitar. Together they lay waste to all that hears them. It is a smorgasbord to the senses. This stadium sized anthem is loud and features metal riffs while maintaining that melodic sound with Sotos smooth vocals. Check out the solo as Akesson shows what he is made of with this one. You do get Jakob Samuels on the backing vocals so he wasn’t totally gone yet.
The first single off the album and a classic Talisman song is “Mysterious (This Time It’s Serious)” and it keeps the party going. If this song would’ve come out 3 years earlier you would have an instant and massive radio (and MTV) hit. This Chic inspired song has some fun and funk that pays homage to them while still being a pure hard rock song. Jeff’s vocals soar and he has never sounded better. Talisman is the biggest showcase of the stellarness that is Jeff’s vocals. I think I’m making up words.
“If You Could Only Be My Friend” brings some more hot, sizzling, funky goodness. I guess when the main songwriter is the bass player, bass will be heavy in the songs and Talisman is certainly that. Marcel’s playing is so recognizable the minute I hear it, I know who it is. How many bass players can do that? This song is his showcase. The song is rick, textured and full of layers of goodness. Soto tackles the vocals with the veracity of those bass line. That chorus seeps into your ears and sets up shop to be sung long after the song is over. The guitar solo, with the heavy bass thumping along, slays and the album.
The bass keeps going straight into “All or Nothing” that explodes with a force that will shake the walls and rattle the floors. The lightning tempo will get you moving for sure. It is 100 mph rock frenzy as all the songs have been so far. The solo is a back and forth for the Bass and the Guitar before the Guitar solo knocks it out of the park. This 19 year old is a pure powerhouse and a major shredder. There is no time to catch your breath as it is pounding one song after the other. And Amen to that brother!!!
Then things finally slow down with the first ballad “All I Want”. The song is piano based which starts off with just the piano and Soto on vocals. The piano is actually played by Jeff’s girlfriend at the time Julie Greaux (Billy Idol & Axel Rudi Pell). The band comes kicking in and adds the power to the ballad. The song is quite nice with the emotive vocals that immerse you into the song. You have the obligatory solo and everything you want in a power ballad. It is a nice time to slow it down so you could catch your breath.
The next one opens with a bass solo accompanied by a heavy pounding bass drum. “U Done Me Wrong” kicks off the back half of the album as the first had started with power and energy. When these boys rock, the kick some major ass. The song follows the same formula as the rest and as a result works just fine. Jakob is back on backing vocals for this one too.
“I’ll Set Your House On Fire” is another rocker and this time the guitar riffs are nasty and a little gritty. There is a stylistic change, a more deliberate pacing, a darker tone and a heavier groove. The sound is crisp and clean and the guitar solo is short and sweet. Jeff’s vocals aren’t as sweeping and smooth as he adds some grit and gives a more serious delivery brings us one a really cool song.
Another rocker with “Give Me A Sign” was originally a Matti song that they tweaked the lyrics so Jeff could make it his own and he did. Not as heavy as prior songs, still a rocker though. Bumped up against the first half of the album shows the song is still good, but not as strong as the first half songs. Jeff’s vocals are melodic and strong, but the song itself is a little dull compared to the others. The saving grace is the guitar work by this kid at the end. It is stellar. But I still wouldn’t skip it.
More funky goodness comes with “Lovechild”. Marcel lays down some magic with those bass lines. Jeff turns the vocals into another melodic party. This one is a slower rocker with as not as much power, but more power than a ballad. It sounds like three guys playing and having fun making sound it so effortlessly and easy. When Frederik lays down that solo and has Marcel chugging along, it is fantastic. A great deep cut.
The dramatic, orchestrated keyboard opening of “Long Way To Go” is over-the-top goodness. The song then kicks in as the true rocker it is. Jeff’s vocals are on point and he delivers another great performance and just slays that short chorus with a scream of the song title. Another great solo and there are a lot of those. To think he was only around 19….crazy. Julie is also on this one but as backing vocals. What I like about this song is how different it sounds then a lot of the songs on here. I don’t know if it was a last minute add, but I am glad they did. It is great way to go out. Except not the end of the re-issue as we get a bonus track.
The Japanese Edition of the album had a Bad Company cover thanks in large part to Marcel who was getting in to Paul Rodgers at the time and loved this song. Jeff handles is beautifully as he can morph his vocals to fit almost any style and he takes this one and delivers an authentic Bad Company performance of the song with “Run With the Pack”. Okay his verses are pure Jeff, but I like the way he tackles the chorus with that deeper tone. It is great.
Track Listing:
Time After Time – Keeper
Comin’ Home – Keeper
Mysterious (This Time It’s Serious) – Keeper
If U Would Only Be My Friend – Keeper
All or Nothing – Keeper
All I Want – Keeper
U Done Me Wrong – Keeper
I’ll Set Your House on Fire – Keeper
Give Me A Sign – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Lovechild – Keeper
Long Way To Go – Keeper
Run With the Pack (Bad Company Cover) – Keeper
The Track Listing is 11.5 out of 12 or 96% which is almost flawless. But let’s be honest, this album is flawless. It is the perfect vehicle to highlight Jeff Scott’s vocals as this is his wheelhouse in style I like him the best. Fredrik Akesson is only 19 and he nails every note and solo perfectly. For a band that does this style of music, you need a gunslinger and they found it. Marcel’s bass playing might be one of my favorite things of Talisman. I love how prominent he is in the sound and he is the main songwriter along with Jeff. This is as close to perfect as you can get. My Overall Score is easily 5.0 out of 5.0 Starsand might be the best thing they ever did…I said might be.
Bonus Disc:
The 2003 Reissue had a bonus disc of demos and rare cuts from the band and it is pretty great. It kicks off an early cut of “Time After Time” which is a rough mix and and a little more raw which is kind of nice. It is definitely not finished production wise and I like the feel of it. Then we get “Comin’ Home” which again, not finished so a little rougher around the edges but you can hear the magic of this one. “U Done Me Wrong” still has the bass solo opener, but the bass drum is weak and awful, probably a cheap drum machine place holder. Once the song kicks in it is back to what you know. “Give Me A Sign” is next and wasn’t my favorite song on the album, and still not here either. It still not a bad song, but weaker in comparison.
Then we get the Matti Alfonzetti sung songs. First up is “Fighting For Your Life” which is the original title of “All or Nothing”. Matti has a great voice and I do like this early version of the song. They completely redid the lyrics and Matti’s song writing credit with the studio album. Musically it is basically the same. This is a very rough demo and not produced very well (thus a demo I guess). It does have the energy of the final version though. Cool track though I see why the label wanted Jeff. Then we get his version of “Time After Time”. and I think it sounds great. Basically same song with re-worked lyrics as again, no Matti writing credit on the final version like their is with this one. I’m guessing he didn’t write the chorus cause that is no different. Strange. “Give Me A Sign” is back again with Matti and again, same song, reworked lyrics. The next Matti sung song is “Angel” which Talisman never actually recorded for a studio album because it was written by only Matti. It was released on a Bam Bam Boys album and a Matti solo album I believe. It is a cool song. “Lovechild” which is like the others, rough different lyrics.
The last song is a song called “Rainbow’s End” which is a rare Talisman holy grail type song. It was recorded with Thomas Vikstrom on vocals. Thomas was lead singer of a band called Horny Strings. He recorded some demos with Marcel, but little interest was ever gained on them. The song is a great hard rock song with a great solo by someone. Marcel’s bass work is prominent as you’d expect. This is a cool treasure. The last track is a video that can be played on your PC. It is for the song “Mysterious (This Time It’s Serious)” and a great piece to have as well all on one spot (and you can see the video earlier on in the post).
I’m not going to rate the Bonus disc because it is demos and not quite fair. But as a collector this is 100% cool!! And worth every penny to grab this if you see it. I hope you enjoyed this long run through the album. Thanks for hanging around this long.
Aerosmith’s last album was four years earlier in 1997 with Nine Lives. Between then and 2001, they kept in the public eye. In 1998, they released a live album called ‘A Little South of Sanity’ and the massive single “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing” from the Armageddon Soundtrack. Then in 1999, they got their own roller coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studio’s called Rock n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. Then in January 2001, they were co-headliners for the XXXV Super Bowl with ‘Nsync. The timing was impeccable as their new album would be released several weeks later on March 5, 2001 titled ‘Just Push Play’.
The band was still in tact with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer. However, when recording, the band was not together. They recorded their parts separately with producers Mark Hudson and Marti Frederiksen along with Steven and Joe. As a result, this album is Joe Perry’s least favorite…he has been quoted as saying this album taught him “how not to record an Aerosmith album”. Pretty harsh!! And not far from the truth. This is not an album that sounds like classic Aerosmith. It is not rough around the edges. It is polished, over-produced and sounds like a pop album. It is all rainbow and unicorns and not what you want from Aerosmith. Yes, it went Platinum, but this was the beginning of the end of commercial success for the band. Diehard fans were not happy and the younger new fans were too stupid to and brainwashed by bad radio to know this isn’t Aerosmith.
We are now in the 2000’s so the cover art is trying to be all futuristic with the girl robot which was designed by Hajime Sorayama who designed the robot to resemble Marilyn Monroe. My copy was even more interesting. I bought this used and when I got home and opened it up, it also had an extra CD included. No, it isn’t listed on the cover that there is one. It was there by mistake. It was a copy of ‘Nine Lives’ which I already have on CD. Now I have a spare.
If you follow this site at all, you know I am a massive Jeff Scott Soto fan and I am in the early stages of a Jeff Scott Soto Series where I am reviewing all of his albums in my collection. We are looking at over 70 reviews when all is said and done. I would love the opportunity to interview him, but that hasn’t happened yet. However, I did get to meet him. Jeff Scott Soto was in town with Jason Bieler (you know him, he is from Saigon Kick and wrote their massive hit “Love is On the Way”) and I bought tickets, of course. I also splurged and the the VIP package which got me in to the sound check and a Q&A.
Soto/Bieler played at a venue in NODA called The Evening Muse. A really small place and it holds about 300 people and it was packed which was great to see. I got there a little early as the VIP event started at 6pm. While I was walking from my car to the venue, I was crossing the street and who was coming the other way, Jeff and Jason. I realized it while they were passing me and Jason saw me do a double take and he said hello! It was cool. Then, while waiting in line, they came back from walking around NODA and while Jeff went in to get ready, Jason Bieler hung out and shook every one’s hand in line and talked for a few minutes.
Aldo Nova – Reloaded – (MRI): Just 3 weeks after his release of The Life & Times of Eddie Gage E.P. (which was pretty darn good), Aldo is back with another Reloaded. He released one a few years ago where he reworks his classic hits. I have to say, I am not real thrilled with this concept as you can’t improve on perfection. Could this be his ‘This Left Feels Right’? I am afraid so as it doesn’t feel right…but maybe I’ll be wrong.
Dorothy – Gifts from the Holy Ghost – (Roc Nation Records): Dorothy is back with another rock release. I really dig her vocals and the band ain’t half bad either. I am hoping for some more rock greatness from this stellar band.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 