There is only one album this week that even matters. I am not sure why I have the rest on the list. This album is something the world needs in what has been such a crappy year. And we will get to the one in a minute. There are a bunch of other releases this week as the last few weeks have seen an abundance as well so the trend continues. My choice is highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear and what I may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend. Let’s get to the one that matters!!!
ALBUM OF THE WEEK!!!!
AC/DC – Power Up – (Columbia Records Group): YES!! AC/DC IS BACK!!! The first single, “Shot in the Dark”, is what we needed and is typical AC/DC. And typical AC/DC is what we need right now. I have the Light Box Special Edition CD on order and it should be here shortly. I can’t wait to plug it in and light up the room and I can’t wait to play the CD cranked up to 11 on the Stereo. I don’t think anything else needs to be said!! Get It and Crank It NOW!!!
And here a few I might listen to when I have time…
Chris Stapleton – Starting Over – (Mercury Nashville)
With the success of ‘Lick It Up’, Kiss was back on top…well as close to on top as they were going to get for awhile. They were somewhat relevant again, but things weren’t easy. Vinnie Vincent was officially out of the band by around April 1984 and they needed a guitarist quick as it was time to record a new album. They settled on a guitarists by the name of Mark St. John. He was a proper shredder which was typical of the time thanks in large part to the late, great Eddie Van Halen. Now fully staffed again, they went in to the studio in May and worked through July on the album.
I said “they”, but that was a loose term. This project was really more Paul’s than Gene’s. Gene was out doing movies, trying to produce new rock bands and pretty much anything else that wasn’t Kiss. Paul Stanley ran the shop and actually ended up producing the album. Gene Simmons showed up on occasion to give us a handful of a mediocre songs. But he didn’t play on all the songs.
If you read this blog regularly, you would notice that I started collecting Kiss Tour Books and this is a very recent thing. As a result, I have suddenly had numerous Tour Books fall in to my lap almost literally. First were a couple of Bon Jovi Tour Books and now I stumbled across not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 Rush Tour Books. It is like the Tour Book Gods are speaking to me. I grabbed all 4 as the prices were really great and made it worth owning. This here is the first of the 4 Rush Tour Book posts that coming. The place I found these was Hardy Boy Records in Mint Hill, NC. I always seem to find some cool stuff from him as I have found numerous Kiss Bootlegs at his shop. His shop is quickly becoming my favorite place to go.
Last week we covered the tour book for the album ‘Power Windows’. This time we are going through the tour book for the Roll The Bones Tour which ran from October 1991 to June 1992 and covered over 100 dates all across the Globe. And the setlist was pretty impressive…
SETLIST
“Force Ten” “Limelight” “Freewill” (abbreviated) “Distant Early Warning” “Time Stand Still” “Dreamline” “Bravado” “Roll The Bones” “Show Don’t Tell” “The Big Money” “Ghost Of A Chance” (added early in the tour) “Subdivisions” (dropped on May 27th, 1991 and replaced by “Vital Signs” around May 29th, 1992.) “The Pass” (dropped on May 27th, 1991 and replaced by “The Analog Kid” around May 29th, 1992.) “The Tree”s (added on May 27th, 1992) “Where’s My Thing?” “The Rhythm Method” (Drum Solo) “Closer To The Heart” “Xanadu” (abbreviated) “Superconductor” “Tom Sawyer”
ENCORE
“The Spirit Of Radio” Medley: “2112” (Overture)/”Finding My Way”/”La Villa Strangiato”/”Anthem”/”Red Barchetta”/”The Spirit Of Radio” (reprise) “Cygnus X-1: Book I: The Voyage” (teaser introduction, added around April 29th, 1992.)
I was digging for records while on vacation down in St. Augustine, Florida and at one of the stores, I came across a vinyl that brought back so many memories. I had this on cassette and I remember loving it and listening to it constantly. I had to get it and at only $5, it was a no brainer.
The album is not something I normally buy and that is because it is a compilation album mixed with numerous artists. The album was K-Tel’s “Master of Metal”! Now, don’t let the name confuse you because it isn’t really that heavy or metal, but it was full of songs that I loved from bands that sometimes do much heavier stuff. The album is from 1984 and had hit songs from some of the biggest bands at that time.
There were so many bands on here that had connections with each other. Such as Black Sabbath is on it with Ian Gillan on vocals, Dio is on here and Ronnie James Dio used to sing with Black Sabbath, Rainbow is on here with Joe Lynn Turner and Dio sang with them as well. Kiss is on here and so is Rush who opened for Kiss. All pretty cool, but back in 1984, I had no idea about these connections.
Alright…You Picked It! And here it is. The one you picked was The Police – ‘Synchronicity’. The votes were as follows:
The Police – ‘Synchronicity’ – 11 votes
Patti Smith – ‘Horses’ – 7 votes
The Struts – ‘Strange Days’ – 3 votes
Lauryn Hill – ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ – 1 vote
Prince – ‘Purple Rain’ – 0 votes (this surprised me)
And thanks to being on The LeBrain Train live stream a couple weeks back, we had 2 write-in votes for Tommy Lee’s ‘Andro’ based on my absolute disdain for this new album. The write-in votes are a first for this series and if there was enough votes, it technically could’ve won!!
Thanks to all for participating. The November choices will be up on Saturday!
THE POLICE – ‘SYNCHRONICITY’:
It turns out, I wrote about this album some 3-4 years ago. I think I need to keep better notes. But, you guys voted for it anyway and therefore I will update my review where my thoughts might have changed or where I have better information.
My first album for The Police was ironically their last. MTV had played their previous songs quite often and I loved “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”, but it wasn’t until “Synchronicity II” that I finally decided to actually buy one of their records.
I picked up the cassette for ‘Synchronicity’ back in 1983 and later I did pick up their entire collection on CD by buying their box set which had all their albums. I have since sold all the previous copies and when I was out vinyl shopping several years back, I found ‘Synchronicity’ and snatched it up. It cost $8 which was about the same price I probably paid for the cassette back in the ’80’s.
For My Sunday Song #221, we are starting the next set of 10 songs with the band Queen and first up is “Innuendo”. The song is the title track to their 1991 album ‘Innuendo’ which was their 14th studio album and for me their last proper studio album as Freddy died a short time later after its release. The song was the first single off the album and went to #1 in the UK and #17 in the US. I bought this album the day it came out and loved this song instantly.
The song was written by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor and actually developed from a jam session that was going on by Brian May, John Deacon and Roger. It was very “Bohemian Rhapsody” with all the style changes and is actually longer than that song. It was pieced together from many different pieces, but when joined together it is a kind of magic. The lyrics are part tribute to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ (Roger’s part) and part shout out to the stories on Freddie’s health (Freddie’s part).
But it is the music that blows me away with it’s drum roll opening and eerie tones building until we get to Freddie’s voice. It is dark and haunting and then goes “Bolero style” with its flamenco guitars with help from Steve Howe of Yes and Brian May. Steve actually handles the solo part. There is full on orchestration which harkens back to ‘Bohemian” and then it rocks out. The orchestration was done all on keyboards by Freddie and David Richards the producer. It is progressive rock, 1991. It is one of those songs that has so much going on that you find little nuggets that you missed in the prior listens. It is a song that keeps on giving. Queen does excess well and this song screams excess and over-the-top and it works on so many levels. What an opening track to an album.
I can’t believe we are now in November and thankfully, the new releases keep on coming. This past week we had our Presidential Election and since I don’t do politics on this site, we will skip over that mess to say I am so happy no more political adds for quite awhile. Man, I was so sick of those things. It is so hard to chose a candidate because basically you are choosing the lesser of TWO EVILS!! One thing that is easy to choose is which releases I want to hear and those are marked in Blue. Let me know which ones you want to hear and what I may have missed so everyone can know about it. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Jeff Scott Soto – Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) – (Frontiers Records): The man is a machine. He puts out so much music whether it is solo, his band SOTO, his band W.E.T. (new one coming in January) or his other band Sons of Apollo. And the cool things is everything is pure quality and his voice doesn’t falter. I have been collecting everything of his on CD and it is tough to keep up as there are probably 50-60 to try and buy. I’m probably only half way through. But this one will arrive today to add to that list.
Whitesnake – Love Songs (2020 Remix) – (Rhino Records): A new Whitesnake…not really as it is a compilation. However, everything is remixed and at least 1 or 2 haven’t been released so it is a good kind of compilation. This is the 2nd release in the Red, White & Blue Series. We got White several months back, The Rock Album, and this is the Red one (Love Songs). Blue (The Blues) will be out around February/March (not yet announced though).
Right after the Creatures of the Night Tour, the band went back in to the studio to complete the follow-up album. Michael James Jackson would stay on board as the producer as the sound he got on “Creatures” was amazing and the band wanted to continue that harder sound. Vinnie Vincent was now an official member of the band as he was on the cover. However, he actually wasn’t an “official member of the band” as he never signed his contract which became an extreme soar spot with Vinnie and the band which we will discuss a little later on in our story.
The ‘Lick it Up’ album, which came out on September 23, 1983, garnered way more attention than ‘Creatures’ for one main reason. The band finally took off the make-up which is something they had been talking about doing since at least the ‘Music from the Elder’ era. They finally did it and the big reveal was on MTV during primetime. I remember this vividly as this was event TV for me as I was a lifelong Kiss fan at the time (and still am today). I remember seeing each member in make-up and then without and I remember thinking, “PUT IT BACK ON!!! OOOOH THE HORROR!!!” No, it really wasn’t that bad. It was actually pretty cool. And just like that Kiss was back in the public eye and they had some songs that could back it up.
If you read this blog regularly, you would notice that I started collecting Kiss Tour Books and this is a very recent thing. As a result, I have suddenly had numerous Tour Books fall in to my lap almost literally. First were a couple of Bon Jovi Tour Books and now I stumbled across not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 Rush Tour Books. It is like the Tour Book Gods are speaking to me. I grabbed all 4 as the prices were really great and made it worth owning. This here is the first of the 4 Rush Tour Book posts that coming. The place I found these was Hardy Boy Records in Mint Hill, NC. I always seem to find some cool stuff from him as I have found numerous Kiss Bootlegs at his shop. His shop is quickly becoming my favorite place to go.
This Tour Book for Rush is covering the tour for the album ‘Power Windows’. The tour ran from March 10, 1985 to May 26, 1986 and covered 75 dates all across the U.S. and there home country of Canada. And the setlist was pretty impressive…
SETLIST
Intro (“Three Stooges Theme”) The Spirit Of Radio Limelight The Big Money New World Man Subdivisions Manhattan Project Middletown Dreams Witch Hunt Red Sector A Closer To The Heart Marathon The Trees Mystic Rhythms Distant Early Warning Territories YYZ Drum Solo Red Lenses Encore: Tom Sawyer 2112 Overture The Temples Of Syrinx Grand Designs In The Mood
On one of my recent trips to record shop, I scored a couple picture discs by one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard. The one we are going to talk about next is the 12″ Single Picture Disc for the song called “Let’s Get Rocked” off the band’s 1992 album ‘Adrenalize’. The first one we talked about last week was “Make Love Like A Man”. The store I bought this at is called Noble Records and is one of my favorite local record shops in Charlotte. Noble Records has a YouTube channel and he constantly posts videos of collections he has bought and what he will be putting out on the floor. When he has big collections purchased, they usually go out on a Saturday at 10am. I was watching the video and he quickly flipped past the two Def Leppard picture discs as I could tell he isn’t a fan…but I am. I knew immediately I had to have them.
I got up on Saturday, mask in hand and headed to the store. The store was packed and actually made me a little nervous. However, everyone was wearing masks and being polite. Although I am not 100% sure we were following perfect Covid social distancing protocol, I was willing to take the risk. I went in and told Dillion what I was looking to get and he told me where they were (if they were still there and someone didn’t already have them in hand. I went through that stack and lo and behold, they were still there. I grabbed them, paid for them and got out in maybe 5 minutes and immediately hand sanitized my hands. I was so excited to grow my Def Leppard collection a little more.
The single “Let’s Get Rocked” was the first single off the ‘Adrenalize’ album and did pretty good going to #15 on the Billboard charts. The song is a mindless fun track about a teenager disobeying their parents and yet it was filled with sexual innuendo after sexual innuendo. It isn’t my favorite track on the album, but it is still a good time track and they still play it in their live shows regularly. The most important thing about this song is the question is asks you at the very beginning…”Do You Want To Get Rocked?”. And the answer is always…YES!
This was one of the last songs written for the album as the band had finished riding the song “White Lightning” which is about the loss of bandmate Steve Clark. After coming off such a dark song, the band needed to cut loose and have some fun and as a result, we got this bundle of joy. Despite my tiring of the song, it is pretty great even if it is overly corny. The video is a CGI filled rocking good time and is the only video the band has ever done as a four piece. Steve had passed and Vivian hadn’t yet come completely in to the picture.
The B-Side on this are two tracks. First is “Only After Dark” which is a cover of a song written by Mick Ronson and Scott Richardson. The vinyl, however, only has Mick Ronson credited which is interesting. It is a glam rock song with a little new wave edge to it. It would later be released on the band’s album ‘Retro Active’.
The second B-Side is a live version of “Too Late For Love” which was recorded at McNichols Arena, Denver, Colorado on 12 & 13 February 1988. Now, I am guessing by listing both dates that this song was pieced together from two performances of the song which seems very odd to me. However, the two dates are the dates they recorded the shows for their In Your Face, In the Round concert video so that makes more sense. If you know that video, you know this song. It is fantastic.
And there you have it, the second of the two Picture Discs I picked up at Noble Records. Really great finds and so happy to have them in my collection. Thanks for stopping by and hanging for a little while.
AC/DC – Power Up – (Columbia Records Group): YES!! AC/DC IS BACK!!! The first single, “Shot in the Dark”, is what we needed and is typical AC/DC. And typical AC/DC is what we need right now. I have the Light Box Special Edition CD on order and it should be here shortly. I can’t wait to plug it in and light up the room and I can’t wait to play the CD cranked up to 11 on the Stereo. I don’t think anything else needs to be said!! Get It and Crank It NOW!!!
Chris Stapleton – Starting Over – (Mercury Nashville)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 