‘Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History’ by Ross Halfin – Book Review

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I stumbled across this book at a store called 2nd & Charles. They sell used books, games, cds, vinyl, you name it. I was browsing the book section, in the music section of course, and stumbled across this beauty. As you know, Def Leppard is one of my favorite bands and I will grab anything I can find by them or about them. And this was write up my alley because it is a picture books and few words because me no like words, reading bad!! Picture books are more my speed.

This particular book is called ‘Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History’ and all the photographs were taken by the legendary rock photographer, Ross Halfin. Ross has photographed Def Leppard literally since the band started way back in the late 70’s. He is the only photographer to be there basically for every step of the way. This book is a beautiful chronological story of Def Leppard told in photos. And if a photo can speak 1,000 words than this books has millions of words.

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My Sunday Song – “Listen Like Thieves” by INXS

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For My Sunday Song #249 and the site’s 1,500th post, we are talking about the song “Listen Like Thieves” by INXS. The song is the title track to the album ‘Listen Like Thieves which was released on October 14, 1985. The album went to #11 in the U.S. and sold over 2 million thanks to songs like this one. This song was the final single off the album and went to #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 just missing the Top 40 in large part due to a lack of a video which I am not sure why one wasn’t done as these guys were quite a hit with the ladies and a video would’ve helped immensely.

The song was written by the whole band…or at least they whole band got credit for this one. The lyrics were written by Michael Hutchence as he was learning quickly how the press were shaping his and the band’s image. He new what the media was good for, but he also didn’t trust them. It doesn’t look like he mistrusted them for the band’s image, but it was more along the lines of how the media interpreted the world events. He saw that they shaped a certain narrative and this was back in 1985. Imagine what he would think about the media today. The song is basically a warning that we need to “really” listen to the media don’t trust everything you hear. Question everything. If you listen like thieves then you are stealing what the media is telling you and making that what you actually believe without doing your own research and coming to the conclusion for yourself. It is basically a call to people to stop being sheep. Stop following other people, stealing their thoughts as your own. Be your own self. Your future is yours and that it is all in your hands. No one is going to do it for you. You are all you need to make things happen. Get off your ass and do it for yourself.

Musically, the song is pop/new wave perfection. Opening with a quick guitar riff from Tim Farriss and then Jon Farris does a barrage of drum hits and then song immediately kicks in to gear. It is happy, uplifting tempo and sound that gets you moving with a driving beat throughout. The keyboards from Andrew Farriss are used sparingly for added effect and impact. Michael Hutchence on vocals, sings with a charm and swagger that will make the ladies swoon and the guys jealous. The song is an example of a band that was up and coming and finding their voice both literally and figuratively.

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You Pick It! – What Album to Review in June?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple!

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – Weezer – ‘Van Weezer’

  Never Heard Before – John Lennon – ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’

  Not My Normal Genre – Fugees – ‘The Score’

  From My Collection – The Beatles – ‘Rubber Soul’

  From My Collection – The Traveling Wilburys – The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in June, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review. I somehow ended up with some major Beatles connections with 3 of these albums and not sure why I did that, but I did.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – May 21, 2021

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Happy Friday everyone! We have another great list of new album releases for you. The floodgates are open and albums are coming hot and heavy each week and this week there should be something for you. I have a few I want to hear, but aren’t going crazy to hear them. I have marked those in Blue as usual. What albums do you want to hear this week. Also, let me know what my list does not include because I am just one man and can’t find everything coming out. Thanks so much for stopping by this week and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

  • 71IkSyGDGhL._SS500_  Olivia Rodrigo – Sour – (Geffen Records): This is not one I want to hear which is why it isn’t in Blue. However, this is one my kids are going nuts over. With the smash hit “Drivers License” this young lady is blowing up the radio. I am sure I will hear this one, but it will be under duress.
  • A1CZEo7ECuS._SX522_  P!nk – All I Know So Far (Live) – (RCA): P!nk has a live album and that is cool. She’s a major talent and I have to say I enjoy her pop sensibilities. Fun and lots of attitude. Since we still aren’t going to shows, this is the next best thing. The song below is the one studio track from the album.
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Paul Stanley – ‘Live to Win’ (2006) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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We are now in to 2006 and Kiss hasn’t put out a studio album in 8 years. 8 YEARS!!! That is insane. I figure Paul was getting a little restless and decided it was time for the follow-up to the 1978 first solo album. Heck, Gene finally did a solo album back a few years, so why not Paul. ‘Live to Win’ was finished and released on October 24, 2006 and yes, I was a release day buyer for this one. Come on, its Paul, why would I not be.

Paul brought in a lot of people to help with this album and the usual suspects are there including his long time collaborator, Desmond Child. We also see Marti Frederiksen, Holly Knight and even John 5 plus a few other writers. I believe there is only one song Paul wrote by himself. As far as musicians on the album, you do get John 5 on a couple and you get Kiss alum Bruce Kulick on bass…wait…what??? Bruce on bass? I’m sorry, Bruce is a bad ass guitar player, why is he mitigated to only the bass. Seems like a waste. And lastly, I noticed Tommy Denander who has played on it seems hundreds of albums. The rest of the musicians I am going to guess are studio guys and all very talented because all studio musicians are amazing.

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Judas Priest – ‘British Steel’ (1980) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

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Judas Priest had massive success with the live album ‘Unleashed in the East’ and now it was time to hit the studio again. However, this time they would lose their drummer yet again. Les Binks was not paid for his work on ‘Unleashed in the East’ and was slightly pissed and so he left the band forcing Priest to find their 7th drummer all thanks to manager Mike Dolan not paying Binks.

The band found a new drummer by the name of Dave Holland formerly of the band Trapeze. Dave would stay with the band all the way up to 1989 which will be the longest running drummer at that point in time. The band started recording in December 1979 at Startling Studios in London, but they weren’t feeling it. They ended up at Ringo Starr’s house where they finished the album by February 1980. The band was in awe recording at Ringo’s house because prior to Ringo owning the house, it was John Lennon’s house and they couldn’t believe they were in the same house as two former Beatles where a lot of history had been made.

The album saw its release on April 14, 1980 and they would see the album go to #34 in the US and #4 in the UK and the album would reach platinum status selling well over 1 Million copies. The album would go on to have 3 Singles and we would see the band keep to a more accessible sound they started doing with ‘Killing Machine’. Judas Priest was hitting it big and a Metal was becoming more mainstream thanks to albums like this. This was sort of the start of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBH).

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Alice Cooper – ‘Guilty/King of the Silver Screen Tour’ (1977) – Tour Program

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In my crate digging, I keep running in to Tour Books and of course, I keep buying them because I think they are cool time capsules of a band. This time around, I found 2 Alice Cooper Tour Books. And these are vintage as they were both from the 70’s and they look it. The first one we have here is from Alice’s biggest and best album, ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’, from 1975. The next one up is the Tour Book for the Guilty Tour also known as King of the Silver Screen Tour which began on June 19, 1977 at Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, California and ended on August 30, 1977 at McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado

The Band had a cast of characters and included the following host of people:

  • Alice Cooper
  • Steve Hunter – Guitar
  • Dick Wagner – Guitar
  • Prakash John – Bass
  • Fred Mandel – Keyboards
  • Whitey Glan – Drums

The tour was in support of the Lace and Whisky album and featured a stage set designed as a giant TV. The TV had slits in the screen where Cooper and his dancers jumped in and out along to filmed choreographed sequences during the songs. They even went so far as to have hilarious mock commercials screened in between some songs. When you go see Alice Cooper you definitely get a show!

The average set list on the tour was as follows:

  1. Under My Wheels
  2. Billion Dollar Babies
  3. I’m Eighteen
  4. Sick Things
  5. Is It My Body
  6. Devil’s Food
  7. The Black Widow
  8. You and Me
  9. Only Women Bleed
  10. Unfinished Sweet
  11. Escape
  12. I Love the Dead
  13. Go to Hell
  14. Wish You Were Here
  15. I Never Cry
  16. It’s Hot Tonight
  17. Lace and Whiskey
  18. King of the Silver Screen
  19. School’s Out (Encore)

Are you ready to see the pictures? Well of course you are…And remember this is Alice Cooper and that is what you get in these pictures…a lot of Alice…

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You Picked It! – Radiohead – ‘OK Computer’ – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one wasn’t really that close although The Fratellis gave Radiohead a run for their money for awhile, but in the end fell short. The winner was Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’ which I had never heard before. The votes were as follows:

  1. Radiohead – Ok Computer – 7 votes
  2. The Fratellis – ‘Half Drunk Under a Full Moon – 4 votes
  3. The Doors – ‘Morrison Hotel – 2 votes
  4. The Rolling Stones – ‘Sticky Fingers – 2 votes
  5. Parliament – ‘Mothership Connection’ – 1 Vote

Thanks to all for participating. The June choices will be up on Saturday!

RADIOHEAD – ‘OK COMPUTER’:

I will go ahead and put it out there that I am not a fan of Radiohead, but not listening to all their albums, it isn’t fair to say that I don’t like everything as I hadn’t heard everything. So I chose this as one of the “Never Heard Before Releases” and you guys picked it so it is time to see what all the fuss is about. ‘Ok Computer’ is the band’s third album and was released on May 21, 1997 and went all the to way #21 on the Billboard Charts and sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. alone.

The album was quite different from their previous records as it was very experimental for the band. The lyrics were not as personal and the sound saw them move away from their rock sound and go a little more eclectic or should I say electric as the band experimented with so many sounds and instruments and really pushed themselves stylistically and musically. Thom Yorke has described the inspiration of this album as Miles Davis’ album “Bitches Brew” which itself is so avant garde. This might not be the best album to start with if you are getting in to the band for the first time.

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My Sunday Song – “Suicide Blonde” by INXS

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For My Sunday Song #248, we are tackling the song “Suicide Blonde” off the band’s 1990 album ‘X’. The follow-up album to the very successful ‘Kick’ saw the band willing to stretch themselves even more and push the limits. The first single off the album went to #9 in the U.S. and #11 in the U.K., but it did go to #1 in Canada…way to go Canucks!!. The song was written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence as usual as they were the primary writers for the band.

The song title was inspired by Kylie Minogue who was dating Michael at the time. She told him she was going to dye her hair “suicide blonde” for a movie and all that means was that was she was going to color her hair herself. Michael loved the saying and turned it in to this wonderful pop tune. The song is not about suicide so you can get that out of your mind quickly. The only I can figure is the song is about their relationship and let me tell you that was an odd pair has Michael was a little wild and Kylie’s image was pretty squeaky clean.

Musically, the song sees the band push a little more to the electronic sounds. There is a great blues harmonica that was played by Charlie Musselwhite, but he didn’t play it live for the song. He played it and then they sampled it through Andrew’s synthesizer. Jon Farriss’ drums took on a more electronic dance beat almost acid house style. I love the fearlessness they had in willing to try new things. Michael is amazing as usual and makes the song as exciting as the beat tells you it should be. I always want to get up and start dancing when I hear this one. And let me tell you, I can’t dance.

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Friday New Releases – May 14, 2021

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The releases keep on coming and another solid week of new albums for you. Not as many as the prior weeks but still over 20 to choose from. My choices are highlighted in Blue as usual. What are you interested in listening to this week? Let me know in the comments and please add anything that I may have missed so everyone can know what else is out there. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a fabulous weekend listening to music!!

  • 81M7TYdfCML._SS500_  Myles Kennedy – The Ides of March – (Napalm Records): Myles is probably the busiest man in the music business and somehow he still found time for a solo album. This is his second solo album and his first ‘Year of the Tiger” was absolutely brilliant. Of course, that makes this one have super high expectations. I have this ordered on a really cool green/white vinyl that was exclusive to his site so I can’t wait to see how it turned out. Plus it is autographed so that will make two albums of his I have autographed!!
  • 91ZiqomKJ5L._SX522_  Sunbomb – Evil and Divine – (Frontiers Records): I was just talking about Myles being the busiest man in the music industry…well, Michael Sweet might be tied in that category as he is constantly putting out new material. This time around Michael Sweet and Tracii Guns team up for their first album. The band is Sunbomb and is another in a long line of a pairings that Frontiers brings together. I am not a huge fan of this unless it turns in to a real band. We will see if this does, but I am sure this will be a one time thing, which is usually disappointing. I will hold judgement until I listen to it though.
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