For My Sunday Song #217, we will talk about the song “Last Days of Summer in San Francisco” by Matt Nathanson. The song is off his 2013 album “Last of the Great Pretenders” which went to #16 on the Billboard charts. The song was never released as a single, but most of Matt’s songs aren’t and it is those deep cuts that draw me to his music. Okay that and the incredible song writing.
“Last Days of Summer in San Francisco” is like a lot of songs on this album that seem to be a love letter to San Francisco with shout-outs to locations and landmarks. This particular song seems to be about a powerful Summer love that helped define the person who he became. The person showed them who they were and gave them the strength to do things they didn’t think they could even if some of them were stupid stuff. It sounds like a Summer romance that blew hot and then burned out. But it is that first verse that sums up the song to me perfectly…
We spent July in a Berkeley basement, Half read books, and bold declarations. There was so much I didn’t believe in And then, there was you. You made me brave, You made me stupid Gave me this skin, that I could move in.
It is that kind of writing that makes Matt so special. His word phrasing, his pacing, it is all just brilliance to me. His music connects to the most human of experiences and emotions. He sings of life, love and heartache in ways most people dream they could do.
October started out with a bang last week and no signs of slowing down this week either. This seems to be the week of some massive Deluxe Box Sets with Linking Park, Tears for Fears and John Lennon each issuing one. There is a also a wide variety of artists from metal, to rock, to pop, to classical crossover, to country, to gospel and on and on. I hope there is something for you. My choices are highlighted in Blue as usual. Let me know what you want to hear and what I may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!
Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory 20th Anniversary Edition – (Warner Records): 20 years, that seems crazy. One of my favorite Linkin Park albums so I am anxious to hear all the rarities and anything else they have never released. This looks massive and awesome.
Smith & Myers – Volume 1 – (Atlantic Recordings): Brent Smith from Shinedown and musician Zach Myers have their first full length acoustic album. It has 5 new songs and 5 covers. As their previous work has been exceptional, I expect no difference here.
His name is George Peter John Criscuola, but you know him as Peter Criss thanks to a little band he was in called Kiss. On May 18, 1980, it was official that Peter Criss was fired from the band. According to Peter he quit, but Gene, Ace and Bill Aucoin all say he was fired. He did have one last duty before he left the band and that was film the music video for the song ‘Shandi’ off the ‘Unmasked’ album. When that video shoot was done, so was Peter. A sad day in Kisstory as the first of the original four had left the band. Kiss as we knew it had changed forever (or at least until 1996 when a Reunion Tour was announced)
Peter didn’t waste any time and put together a solo album so he could keep his name out there and try to make it as a solo artist now. So in just a few short months, on September 8, 1980, Peter released his second solo album called “Out of Control”. The Kiss Peter Criss solo album was the first. The album tanked and did not do well at all. I believe there are two reasons for that failure. First, Peter was on the same label as Kiss, Casablanca. Kiss had been with Casablanca since the beginning and you can bet your ass they were not going to let Peter’s album do well so I am sure they pulled some strings with their label to not push this album as hard as they push a Kiss album. I’m not saying this is true, but I’m saying it is a major possibility. Just ask John Sykes about his Blue Murder album which was on Geffen, the same label as his former band Whitesnake.
The second reason this album didn’t do well probably stems from his first solo album under the Kiss brand. That music was not rock, it was not Kiss, it was Lounge Rock as a fellow blogger described it. Think Rod Stewart without the songs or the talent and you have an idea. That scared off a lot of people and when the first single came out, it was pretty much more of the same.
The album cover was done by artist Todd Schorr, who took an idea from Peter and turned into this, let us say interesting, cover. The blonde chick on the lower left is based on Peter’s wife at the time, Debra Jensen. The picture is a jukebox exploding and records flying all over the place. The picture screams 70’s to me and feels dated so not a timeless cover.
Peter does write 9 of the 10 songs, one is a cover and 8 of those songs are co-written with his former Chelsea and Lips bandmate, Stan Penridge who also played guitar on the album. It surprised me that the two didn’t form their own band, but I understand them wanting to capitalize on Peter’s name since he was with Kiss. Alright, that is enough behind the music stuff, let us actually get to the music.
SIDE 1:
The first song, and first single, is “By Myself”. It is a ballad and a strange song to kick off the album. I guess he figured since his big Kiss hits were ballad let’s kick it off with one. The song is about him being solo…by myself…get it. It is cheesy, sappy and probably the worst song to open an album. However, it is Peter and it is the type of music he prefers it is just a bad opening track as it doesn’t suck you in, it puts you to sleep.
The next song, “In Trouble Again” is much better and kicks things up a notch. It is a more rocking tracking with a solid groove and Peter’s vocals fit nicely with this one as that gravely vocal works well. Plus there is a little cowbell, never have enough of that. The highlight is a nice guitar solo by Stan which makes the song rock out pretty good. The keyboards on it are a little much, but don’t detract a whole lot as it is still an enjoyable song.
“Where Will They Run” changes things up again as this one is more R&B and soul with a nice bass groove. Think Hall & Oates, but not quite as good. It is a little slower tempo and with nothing of note to mention, the song is kind of a sleeper track at least until George Young whips out the saxophone and the song then has one nice little moment.
Then with “I Found Love” we jump into the 80’s with a synthesizer keyboard overload. The song is about his finding love with his Playmate wife, Debra Jensen. It is a pure pop song and it is a little catchy and I kind of like it…a little…okay I like this one for some strange reason. I am sucker for 80’s synth pop I guess.
Side 1 ends with “There’s Nothing Better”, which was written for Dynasty but not used obviously. It is another rocking track with some nice piano work. Very upbeat, but with horns and this pop feel to it, it would’ve need to be re-worked to be on a Kiss album. It is too chipper for Dynasty, the horns would have to go. Otherwise, not a bad song, not a great one, but not bad either. I mean it does have a guitar solo. One thing of note, with Peter being the drummer, you think the drums would’ve been more front and center, but they aren’t. He focused on the songs and the singing.
SIDE 2:
This side kicks off with the title track, “Out of Control”. This has Peter’s raspy vocals showing that he really is a decent rock singer, his material is usually the problem but not here. More piano and synths, as they are prevalent on most or all the songs. Peter does a good job on this one, I like his grit and probably one of the better songs on the album.
Then we get to “Words” and well, I should probably just leave it with that. It is a slowed down song that seems pretty lifeless and I don’t think bad is a strong enough term.
“You Better Run” is up next and we get a Pat Benatar cover song…wait…Pat’s is a cover song…ok. Well here we have a Young Rascals cover song. Peter keeps it rocking, for a song that seems to be about revenge, I don’t really hear the anger or urgency in wanting to get that revenge. It is lackluster at best and truly unbelievable. Plus, I can’t get Pat out of my head so I don’t think this is anywhere near as good as her version which to me is the most exceptional version of this song.
“My Life” is up next and plods along going nowhere. It falls flat and has way too much piano which is too loud in the mix and almost drowns out Peter’s vocals.
The album finally comes to an end with “Feel Like Letting Go” which is exactly how I feel after listening to Side 2. The song opens with a piano and I swear I was about to hear Elton John start singing, but sadly that was not the case. This is one of those songs that he is trying to make it sound bigger than it really is and for me misses the mark wildly. Now at the very end of this track is a hidden track called “As Time Goes By (intro)” and Peter sings the first two lines which are “You must remember this… a kiss is still a kiss…” which I am guessing is a little shout out to his former band.
Track Listing:
By Myself – Delete
In Trouble Again – Keeper
Where Will They Run? – Delete
I Found Love – Keeper
There’s Nothing Better – Keeper(1/2 point)
Out of Control – Keeper
Words – Delete
You Better Run – Delete
My Life – Delete
Feel Like Letting Go – Delete
The Track Score is only 3 1/2 out of 10 for a Score of 35%. I would say it got better with every listen, which it did up until a point that it didn’t. I liked Side 1 better than Side 2, but the biggest problems were the songs. They weren’t that good. I think they tried to do too much and tried to make the songs bigger than they were or they could handle. It did have its moments, but I am not a big fan of this style especially in 1980 this would not have been on my radar. I will say I liked his Kiss solo album better. My overall score on this one is a 1.5 out of 5.0 Stars.
Next Up: Kiss – The Elder (1981)
Check out the rest of the series if you have time!!
Welcome to the next Tour Book in the Bon Jovi Tour Book collection…and I only own two so a small collection at the moment. I didn’t start out collecting Tour Books for Bon Jovi, nope. I was only going to collect the Kiss Tour Books. However, life has a funny way of changing things. While out walking around an antique mall, I found my first Tour Book from the New Jersey Tour. It was cheap, so I bought it. This next one, I was out for Record Store Day on August 29, 2020 and after picking out my RSD vinyl and while I was waiting to check out, I saw another Tour Book for Bon Jovi. The price was right and so there you have it. I now have two and now seem to have started a Bon Jovi collection as well.
This Bon Jovi Tour Book is from the Bon Jovi Live Tour in 2011 in support of their sixth greatest hits compilation which is probably 4 too many as how many do you really need. The tour went from February 9, 2011 until July 31, 2011 and was around 59 shows between North America and Europe. It was huge success as most of their tours are and it was interesting one in that Richie Sambora would miss part of it due to having to go to rehab for “exhaustion” and alcoholism. His replacement for part of the tour was Phil X who would end up replacing him in the long run a couple years later.
The band at the time was still the main four guys (Hugh McDonald was still not a full-time member).
I know…you are probably sick of Kiss related posts at the same time I am doing the Kiss Review Series and I am sorry. I am in a Kiss Zone right now and everything is KISS, KISS, KISS!!! And on my continuous Kiss hunt, I found another book that was all about Kiss that I want to discuss.
This is a book right up my alley and education level. It is a picture book with very few words…YEAH ME!!! It is Kiss: 1977-1980 by Lynn Goldsmith. Lynn is a celebrity portrait photographer and was one of the very first female Rock Photographers. Lynn has been asked numerous times to photograph Kiss and this book encompasses all of those meetings and pictures from all of the sessions she had with the band. Those sessions were only from 1977-1980 which was a very interesting and transforming time for the band. It was coming out of Alive II, the solo albums, in to Dynasty and Unmasked where the music changed and Peter left. It goes up to where Eric Carr joins the band and has his first photo shoot with the band.
As you know if you visit my site, one of my favorite bands is Needtobreathe. I have everything they have put out on vinyl and now I am going after everything they have released on CD (that they don’t have on vinyl). And the CDs I want the most are the exclusive fan club CDs they release each year.
If you join the Needtobreathe Insiders fan club (for $70 a year), you get a Live CD of tracks collected from the band’s live performances. (among other things such as a Needtobreathe Mug, a key chain and a free live track download ever month – that is 12 more songs or maybe the same tracks that will be on the CD, not sure yet on that). Needtobreathe actually records every show they put on so they have a ton of tunes to choose from. They have released 6 volumes and number 7 will be coming in December which I will get as I have now joined the club. I had never joined prior so getting my hands on these has not been easy as it is not cheap. I am looking for the right price and most of the time it is too high. I finally grabbed my first one at a price less than the membership fee which was Insiders LP Vol. 2 and now I got one even cheaper which is this release Vol. 5. Sorry we aren’t going in order, but we are going in order of when I receive them.
For My Sunday Song #216, we are going to explore the song “Room at the End of the World” by Matt Nathanson. The song is off his stellar 2011 album, ‘Modern Love’ and it was the 2nd single off the album. Although I don’t think the song charted, the album did debut at #17 on the Billboard charts. The fact that it didn’t chart is no surprise as Matt has never been a darling of public radio. His songs are way too good for radio as they are well crafted masterpieces and lyrical poems about life and he is pure talent unlike the bozos on radio. No, I am not biased…okay…yes I am. You got me!
I think the song is talking about being with the one you love and nothing to take away that fact. Even if the world was ending, you two would get a room and make the best of what was to come. I love how the song talks about how he was lost and had given up on love until he found “The One”. The One that makes him whole, The One that he will be with until the end of time, The One true love. There is line that says “one heart is never enough alone” and I don’t think it is saying you have to be someone to be whole, I think it is saying that he never felt complete until he found her (or him). His lyrical phrasing is always so eloquent and so beautiful. He doesn’t sing a love song in the same cliched way other songs do.
Musically, the song is an upbeat, feel-good song that dances along with its ups and downs the same way we go through life. The drum beats towards the end are your heart beating as the love builds and the song keeps promising to deliver more and does just that as the final choruses are sung with all his heart and the music is full of life and love.
Welcome to October and this month starts off with a BANG!! There are so many releases this week and a ton I am interested in at the very least, hearing. October has a lot coming so this is only the beginning. Everyone that has been holding off due to Covid is finally being released. This week, I am sure there is something you will find that you like. I am going to highlight my choices in Blue. I want you to let me know what you want to hear and what I may have missed that is coming out. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Queen & Adam Lambert – Live Around the World – (Hollywood Records): This one is on order and I hope it will arrive sometime today as I am dying to hear this one. I took my daughter to see them on their most recent tour and since Adam sounded amazing, it will be nice to have an album with him on vocals.
Bon Jovi – 2020 – (Captain Kidd / Island Records): Am I excited about this one or what?? Actually, it is or what! I am not excited at all and do not have this on order. I am only interested in hearing it to confirm to myself that Bon Jovi is still not worth a damn anymore. Now, if I find the vinyl in the used section of my local store and less than $10…I might pick it up as the completist in me feels the need to do. I haven’t liked what I’ve heard so far so my hopes aren’t very high.
By the end of they Dynasty Tour, the Kiss Empire was eroding quickly. Between Ace’s and Peter’s drinking problems (among other things), the band was at an all time low. During an interview on October 31, 1979 on the Tom Snyder Show, Ace was totally hammered and you could see the faces of Gene and Paul and they did not look altogether happy. Pissed is a probably a good word for it. And let us not forget Peter during the Tour. By the end, he would make so many screw-ups and some times would simply stop playing. Gene and Paul had had enough and so had Peter.
When 1980 rolls around, the band have to make a new album and this would become the first album without all four members of the band. Peter did not play on the album at all and there are no Peter sung songs, but he was credited to play and he was on the cover as Kiss wanted to keep the illusion going the band was fine for as long as they could. Who handled the drumming, well that would’ve been Anton Fig.
Now Ace, well, he was on the album, however, he only shows up on probably 5 of the 11 songs with the rest of the guitar parts being handled by Paul, Gene or Bob Kulick. It was becoming more and more obvious that the end was near for Ace as well although it wouldn’t be for another year or two. He somehow managed to hang in there for a little while longer.
Welcome to my monthly wrap-up of all my purchases for the month. Now I am cheating as there are a number of items that came in at the end of August after I had already done my August post and I wasn’t about to go update that and have to change a few pictures so they will start out our September update.
First up is an brand new album from one of my favorite bands, Needtobreathe. Their new album came out on Friday, August 28th and luckily I got release day delivery and it came with a CD. I have already done a review (Click Here) and an update to their Album Rankings will be coming shortly.
August 29th was the first 3 of RSD days for 2020. As you know, due to Covid the April Record Store Day was delayed until June and then split in to 3 days in hopes of decreasing the # of people showing up on the day of release. The first one of these 3 days was August 29th and there will be one in September and October and if I am not mistaken, November will still see the normal Black Friday RSD. I tried to keep this one simple and I only bought 4 albums, one of which was for my daughter. I bought an Ace Frehley album, Collective Soul and a Def Leppard one. The album for my daughter was a live album by Billie Eilish (I will probably listen to it as well as she is quite interesting.
And I guess it wasn’t the only thing I bought as it was raining and he let everyone come in early, but he couldn’t actually ring us up until 8 and it was around 7:30. So after we got to pick out or RSD items, I had time to walk around the store and see if there was anything else. I wasn’t going to actually buy anything else as I spent enough on the above. If you follow the site you know I have started collecting Kiss Tour Books. I picked up a Bon Jovi one when I was out and I wasn’t looking to do anyone else other than Kiss. Well, Repo Records had a Bon Jovi Tour Book from 2011. And you guessed it. I bought it. I will do a full review of this soon.
Normally on Record Store Day, Repo Records gives us a goody bag. This year he didn’t have a goody bag (Sad face)…No, he had a goody album cover…WTF? He had old useless album covers and inside he had a Record Mat for your turntable, a sticker, an RSD guitar pick and a button of someone but I have no idea. And that was it…wasn’t much.
And that was it for RSD, but on the same day I had delivered another item from Needtobreathe. I was on eBay only about 3 days earlier and checking to see if any of their rare Fan Club Insider CDs were for sale. You can only purchase these if you sign up for their fan club and pay the annual premium of like $60. I hadn’t done that up until this year so the new one will come in December, but I have been trying to find these on eBay or Discogs at reasonable prices (something less than $60…and I did). I got my second one, Volume 5, for $25…yeah me!! And within a week, I found another one for $27 after eBay was kind enough to give me a $25 Off coupon for being a member since the beginning of eBay. That is two for less than a year membership for one. Not bad!!!
Next up was an album I ordered back in June or so and when it was released in August, Amazon apparently ran out so I had to wait and wait to finally get it. My local record store had it but sold out so I kept waiting, plus Amazon’s price was only $16 so I was willing to wait. It is the self-titled album from Collective Soul that was finally issued on vinyl to celebrate its 25th Anniversary.
I forget what day, but the kids wanted to get out of the house and so we took a ride over to 2nd & Charles, the whole family, and we all searched for books or music or movies or whatever floated our boat. I found one item that I needed for my collection and at $8, it was a steal. Peter Criss’ book ‘Makeup to Breakup’ another book in my long list of Kiss books I have to get through.
Next up is an autographed copy of the Storm Force album ‘Age of Fear’. My fellow bloggers Deke and LeBrain have raved about this album and then during LeBrain’s live stream on Facebook, the boys from the band joined him and Deke and talked for an hour on a fun-filled Friday night. I thought that was really cool of the guys so I supported them by buying this. You should do the same.
And then something else popped up. I was on Amazon and I saw Art Alexakis’ solo album for only $8 and free shipping so since I am fan of Everclear, I jumped on it. It came quick and is below…
And finally we get to the 2nd Record Store Day and this was just this past Saturday on Sept. 25th. I picked up three things including The Alarm’s Celtic Folklore Live, a Mott the Hoople compilation called The Golden Age of Rock and Roll and then a live album from Hootie & the Blowfish. That one wasn’t on my list, but when I saw it and that it was from 1995, their heyday.
And like last time at Repo, they let us in before they could check us out and it gave us time to look around and shop. Let me tell you that is never a good thing. The first thing I found was a 7″ Kiss single for Beth and Detroit Rock City and then it was a bootleg from Van Halen for the Women And Children First Sessions full of the demos. I’m a sucker for that stuff….
And Repo gave out his typical swag….at least the mat was a different color this time…
And that is everything…yes, that was plenty. Here it all is in one big picture…
Thanks for stopping by. I already have a few things coming for October and there is another Record Store Day so shaping up to be another big month.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 