My Sunday Song – “Let The Children Play” by Europe

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic3 Comments

For My Sunday Song #475, we are talking about “Let The Children Play” by the band Europe. Don’t think this is an 80’s Europe song…you’d be wrong. This is a more mature and even better sounding band. The song is from their 2006 album, “Secret Society” which might be one of their best albums EVER!! The song was not a single, but it was one of the best songs on the album, if not the best song on the album. It is the fifth song on the album and when you get to it, you realize just how good this whole thing really is.

The song was written by Joey Tempest and Mic Michaeli even though I’ve seen it basically credited to the whole band too. Regardless, the message is something we all need to hear. We get advice from everyone in our life, our mom, our dad, our siblings and even God. The lyric below says it all…

It’s not where we’re coming from
It’s how we turn from here
We know where we want to go
We just need a line, to get us there.

The best advice is simply let the children play and be kids. Maintain that innocence as long as you can. You can only guide them, give them that line to follow. It is up to them to find their own way. They will make bad decisions along the way. It is how they move from that decision that will make them who they are…good or bad.

The song is a rocker, with some gritty riffs, a killer solo and a driving rhythm section with the bass and drum. John Norum’s guitar are definitely a highlight giving us the melodic feel and great guitar sound. Joey Tempest vocals have never sounded better. He gets stronger as he ages. It is such a powerful, catchy chorus that it sucks you right in. The coolest moment is towards the end when the children’s choir comes in with the chorus. It really ties it all together and leaves you wanting more.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Let The Children Play” by Europe” →

Friday New Releases – March 13, 2026

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic6 Comments

It is Friday the 13th, but it isn’t all bad luck. We have a bunch of New Releases for you to celebrate. Nothing I’m going to run out and buy, but some I’ll listen to such as The Black Crowes, Asia and Rush. What do you find lucky to hear this week? Let us know and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Friday the 13th is a lucky day!!

  • The Black Crowes – A Pound of Feathers – (Silver Arrow Records)
  • Asia – Live in England (Live) – (Frontiers Records)
  • Rush – Grace Under Pressure (Super Deluxe) – (Mercury Records / Anthem Records / UMG)
  • The Fray – A Light That Waits – (The Fray LLC)
  • Foy Vance – The Wake – (An Eala Flain Ltd / Concord)
  • Lamb of God – Into Oblivion (Behind The Scenes Edition) – (Epic Records / Sony Music)
  • Dream Theater – Lost Not Forgotten Archives: Live in Tokyo 2010 – (Ytse Jams / InsideOutMusic)
  • Angus McSix – Angus McSix And The All-Seeing Astral Eye – (Napalm Records)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – March 13, 2026” →

Kiss – ‘Days of Sorrow And Madness’ (2012) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic6 Comments

We are to yet another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

This particular bootleg comes to us from The Godfatherecords and was released on October 1, 2014. What you get here are two complete live shows from Kiss on one disc. Surprising, I know, however these shows are from 1974 when Kiss was basically an opening act. The first show is from Independence Hall in Baton Rouge, LA on July 16,1974 and the second show is from The Bayou in Washington D.C. on March 25, 1974. When you look at the names of the places they played, you think the names have to be mixed up because The Bayou sounds like a place in Louisiana and Independence Hall sounds like it should be in our Nation’s Capitol. But, trust me. Those are the correct cities for each arena.

The first show at Independence Hall saw Kiss as the opening act of a three band line-up. The other bands were the New York Dolls and Blue Oyster Cult. Kiss was relegated to only 6 songs which makes it last around 30 minutes. The other show at The Bayou saw Kiss do not one, but two shows that night and both sold out. The first at 8pm and the second at 10:30pm. The Bayou was basically a hole-in-wall club that was said to look like an unfinished basement when I looked it up on Kissconcerthistory.com. The recording is the 2nd show and both shows on this disc I think are audience recordings, but done ver well.

INDEPENDENCE HALL (July 16, 1974):

Up first is Independence Hall and they kick off the show with “Deuce” but not before the announcer says “put your two lips together and get ready for Kiss!”. The band comes exploding out of the gate. Gene sounds a little bit younger here and so does Paul. They are still very early in their touring career but they sound tight and mean. There is a long pause between this one the next one which is “Strutter”. Not as abusive as “Deuce”. Strangely, Gene seems to sing the first couple lines before Paul comes in to finish it off. Being an audience recording, the instruments are little muddied, but you can still hear them pretty well.

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Days of Sorrow And Madness’ (2012) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)” →

The Protest Song is Back!!

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic20 Comments

Every generation has their fair share of protest songs. When there is government turmoil, civil unrest, a war or whatever event occurs that rubs people the wrong way, we get a protest song. I asked AI what is their definition of a protest song and was given this excellent definition:

A protest song is a musical composition that conveys dissent, social critique, or a call for action against injustices and prevailing political, social, or environmental conditions. These songs serve as, or are adopted by, social movements to raise awareness, mobilize communities, and articulate grievances.

The 60/70’s had a bunch of protest songs from “We Shall Overcome” by Pete Seeger and Joan Baez in 1963 about the civil rights movement and Sam Cooke in 1964 with A Change is Gonna Come” on racial equality. War is always a popular subject with “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye in 1971 as he plead for peace during the Vietnam War and don’t forget “Fortunate Son” by Creedance Clearwater Revival talking about the inequalities with the military draft.

The 80’s saw “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy rapping about systematic racism and oppression. Bruce Springsteen with “Born in the USA” in 1984 voicing the harsh treatment of the Vietnam veterans. “Biko” from Peter Gabriel speaking on South African apartheid. The early 2000’s saw a bunch as well with “American Idiot” in 2004 by Green Day criticizing the media and politics during the Iraq War and in 2018 “This is America” by Childish Gambino as he talked about gun violence and racism. The list could go on and on with all the great protest songs.

Here we are in 2026 and the protest song is seeing a revitalization thanks to the turmoil we are a seeing in America under the Trump Administration. And let me tell you, in the 14 months Trump has been back in office for a second term, it has been utter chaos. From his push to make Canada the 51st state, his desire for Greenland, overthrowing the Venezuela government, to the ICE raids, the Epstein Files and so many more. And the head of the Board of Peace starts a war with Iran…It is way past the point of ridiculousness. Well, the ridiculous happened when he changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America…now we are way into the realm of ludicrous.

I have total respect for the “Office” of the President, but I have ZERO respect for this President. I am a registered Republican that did not vote for this man and knew what kind of chaos we would be in for four years under his term. And he has not proven me wrong once. And holy crap, it has only been 14 months and I’m already exhausted from the chaos. I don’t want to be quiet anymore. He is the most despicable human being I’ve ever seen, the biggest man child to ever be and a complete and utter disgrace to the Office that he holds.

Continue reading “The Protest Song is Back!!” →

My Sunday Song – “Tall Cool One” by Robert Plant

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic7 Comments

For My Sunday Song #474, we are talking Robert Plant’s “Tall Cool One”. The song is from his 1988 album ‘Now And Zen’ and was a change in Robert’s perception of his past…more on that in a minute. The song was released some time in April 1988 and saw Robert get a Top 40 hit as it went to #25 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. What helps makes this song so special is that it brings back Robert’s longtime Led Zeppelin partner, Jimmy Page, on guitar for this song. This might’ve been their fourth collaboration since the band’s breakup. And maybe their most special…up to this point in time.

The song was written by Robert Plant and his keyboardist Phil Johnstone who is in large part key to why this song came about. Robert had been very lackluster about anything to do with his former band Led Zeppelin. He wanted to distance himself from it and be his own person. Phil told him to lighten up about it and embrace that legacy. Maybe working again with Jimmy helped or maybe it was Phil’s encouragement, but Robert did finally lighten up about and as a result we get this really cool rocker “Tall Cool One”. It sounds like he is talking about a woman in the song, but that woman is simply Led Zeppelin. Even the lyrics give a shout out to the past with lines from the songs “When the Levee Breaks” and even “Black Dog”.

If that wasn’t enough, the song is also about Roberts displeasure with sampling at the time. I believe it was The Beastie Boys who sampled a Led Zeppelin song on their album ‘Licensed to Ill”. Robert was none too pleased. At first, Robert thought about sampling some Beastie Boys songs for this one, but instead he sampled his own Led Zeppelin songs such as  “Black Dog”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Whole Lotta Love”,  “The Ocean” and “Custard Pie” which is a much better choice.

The song itself is an upbeat, blast of a rocker. One of the most fun songs he’s ever done as a solo artist, at least to me. There is that classic Plant vocal, that full on 80’s pop/rock sound and all together makes for a blast of a song. I love the spoken word break that adds some more layers to the song and then you get some some Page guitar work, although, he isn’t in the video. There is a tongue in cheek through-out the song which I think takes it to another level and helps make it stick in your brain. At the end he throws all those Led Zeppelin samples and Zeppelin lyrics in to it letting the song go out with a bang!

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Tall Cool One” by Robert Plant” →

Friday New Releases – March 6, 2026

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic4 Comments

March kicks off with a bang with a highly anticipated album for a lot of people. That would be Harry Styles new one. I’m sure I’ll give it a listen. I’ll also probably stream Rainbow and Black Stone Cherry. Others might like Leaves’ Eyes or Charlotte Sands or Morrissey and there are a couple of older bands like Squeeze and Talking Heads with new albums. Tell me what you want to hear this week or if we missed anything. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!!

  • Harry Styles – Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally – (Erksine Records / Columbia Records)
  • Rainbow – Temple of the King: Rainbow 1975-1976 – (Edsel Records)
  • Black Stone Cherry – Celebrate – (Mascot Records)
  • Squeeze – Trixies – (Love Records / BMG Rights Mgmt)
  • Morrissey – Make-Up Is A Lie – (Sire Records)
  • Gnarls Barkley – Atlanta – (TenThousand Projects Holdings LLC)
  • Talking Heads – Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live – (Rhino Entertainment Co / Warner Music)
  • Mountain – Don’t Look Around: The Recordings 1969-1974 – (Esoteric)
  • Godsmack – Awake (25th Anniversary) – (Republic Records / UMG Recordings)
  • The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – X’s For Eyes (Deluxe) – (Better Noise Records)
  • Leaves’ Eyes – Song of Darkness E.P. – (Reigning Phoenix Music)
  • Hunter Hayes – Evergreen – (LP Entertainment / DashGo)
  • Aaron Watson – Horse Named Texas – (Adub Records)
  • Charlotte Sands – Satellite – (CS Records)
  • American Adrenalin – Burn the Ships – (Together Records)
  • Erra – Silence Outlives the Earth – (UNFD)
  • Prong – Live And Uncleansed – (Steamhammer)
  • Vreid – The Skies Turn Black – (Indie Recordings)
  • Desert Storm – Buried Under the Weight of Reason – (Heavy Psych Sounds)
  • Nefastis – Shadows at the Light of Dawn – (Rockshots Records)
  • Surfbort – Reality Star – (TODO)
  • The S.E.T. – Self Evident Truth – (Flatspot Records)
  • Alex Melton – The Process – (Pure Noise Records)
  • The Theander Expression – Wonderful Anticipation (10th Anniversary) – (Malachite Night Records)
  • Status/Non-Status – Big Changes – (You’ve Changed Records)
  • War Child – Help (2) – (War Child Records)
  • Bory – Never Turns To Night – (Bleak Enterprise)
  • William Clark Green – Watterson Hall – (Bill Grease Records / Stem)
  • Austin Michael – Lonestar – (Austin Michael)
  • Willa Ford – Amanda – (Willa Ford Music LLC)
  • Travis Bolt – Burning Bridges – (Gravel Road / Stem)
  • The Brook And The Bluff – Werewolf – (Dualtone Music Group)
  • Matt Corby – Tragic Magic – (Island Records / Rainbow Valley Records)
  • Our Oceans – Right Here, Right Now – (Long Branch Records)
  • Denzel Curry – Strictly 4 The Scythe – (PH Recordings / Loma Vista Recordings / Concord)
  • Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers – Hell To Breakfast – (EmmaJava Recordings / Soundly Music)
  • Shabaka – Of The Earth – (Shabaka Records)
  • Rick Braun – Rick Braun Plays Chuck Mangione – (A-Train/Braunto)

Kiss – ‘What Goes On Behind Closed Doors’ (2012) – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic14 Comments

We are to yet another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

This particular bootleg comes to us from The Godfatherecords and was released on August 1, 2012. What you get here are a bunch of Kiss demos and these aren’t your typical rough sounding bootlegs. No, these are all pretty high quality sounding demos. The first disc is all demos spanning from 1973 to 1998, giving us 25 years of demos and you get a lot of tracks. There are 21 tracks alone on Disc 1.

And Disc 2 is something even more special. Taken directly from the source tapes that were actually used for the Kiss Box Set, we get the original Wicked Lester album. And all I can say is that is the ABSOLUTE BEST sounding recording I have ever heard of this album. I have the Wicked Lester songs on several different bootlegs and not one of them are of this quality. Damn!! It is like having an official release of the album. Yes, it is that good. Based on this, why have Kiss never officially released that album. Will we get it for the box set of the debut album? I certainly hope so.

The cover of this 2 CD set is an outtake of the photo shoot from The Elder. It has non-make-up wearing Paul Stanley touching the door knocker from the original album and his hand partially covering his face. The back cover has the the track listing, but the interesting thing are the pictures inside. You get a ton of snippets of pictures for the band on this tri-fold digipack release. There is one set of pictures that I refused to take and show on this review and no, it is not because there is nudity. It is because it is Paul, Ace and Peter wearing Nazi attire. And even one where they give the Nazi salute. By today’s standards, it is pretty offensive and controversial and I don’t want any of that non-sense here. So let’s just talk about the music.

CD One:

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘What Goes On Behind Closed Doors’ (2012) – Album Review” →

The Collection: Ep. 91 – February 2026 Wrap-Up

Published on by 2loud2oldmusicLeave a comment

We are now 2 months into 2026 and already, I’ve had some great finds. It is time for our February 2026 Wrap Up so lets see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection this month. Despite the cold weather, we also picked up a bunch of a heat in CDs and even a few vinyl. Plus, one HOLY GRAIL item! This month I hit up Noble Records and 2nd & Charles, as well as ordered a couple things from Discogs, Facebook and Amazon. So much to go through including a handful of new Rock Candy CDs in the collection, a Box Sets plus a selection of items from the Needtobreathe Insiders Fan Club. Lots of great new and old stuff to go through and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it is live right now on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

And here is everything for those that don’t want to watch the video…

My Sunday Song – “Joker & The Thief” by Wolfmother

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

For My Sunday Song #473, we are going to discuss the song “Joker & The Thief” by the band Wolfmother. The song is from their debut album, ‘Wolfmother’, which was released on October 31, 2005. The sixth single was “Joker & The Thief” and it was released on October 28, 2006, almost a year after the release of the album and was one of the highest charting singles from the album. The singles was certified Gold in both Australia and the UK selling over 400,000 copies. Not too bad.

The song was written by Wolfmother, but a majority I am sure was by lead singer and guitarist, Andrew Stockdale. He state he was shopping in a store and heard AC/DC’s song “Thunderstruck” and got the idea to do a rock anthem. From there, he has admittedly stole the characters The Joker and The Thief from Bob Dylan’s song “All Along the Watchtower”. The Joker and The Thief are a representation of rebellion as well as duality. The song references the dark & the light, there is good & evil, sweet & sour…always one contradicting the other. The Joker is always looking for the good, the light, searching for life’s desires while the Thief is a sign for corruption and loss of innocence.

There was one article where someone said the that the Joker was a man searching for love while the Thief was the woman that would steal his heart. He was going through life searching for the sweet in all the sour. He wasn’t going to go home with any woman, but the one that had his heart. He would search all day, flying around and sees her in a field of clover. He wonders what would happen if he took her away. You can make any song mean whatever you want it to mean, I liked this interpretation simply because it was sweet in all the sour interpretations I had read.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Joker & The Thief” by Wolfmother” →

Friday New Releases – February 27, 2026

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

February comes to end, but not before it drops almost 50 new releases for you this week. The new Bruno Mars might be the get for some, but for me I can’t wait to hear the new Rob Zombie and Joel Hoekstra’s 13. Both should be fantastic. What do you want to hear this week or what did we miss? Let me know and as always, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

  • Rob Zombie – The Great Satan – (Nuclear Blast)
  • Joel Hoekstra’s 13 – From the Fade – (Frontiers Records)
  • It’salie – Wild Games – (Frontiers Records)
  • Bruno Mars – The Romantic – (Atlantic Records)
  • Paul Gilbert – Wroc – (Artone Label Group / Music Theories Recordings)
  • Pat Metheny – Side-Eye III+ – (Uniquity Music, LLC / Green Hill Productions)
  • Iron & Wine – Hen’s Teeth – (Sub Pop Records)
  • The Neal Morse Band – L.I.F.T. – (InsideOutMusic / Big Hatter Music)
  • Powerwolf – Wildlive Live at Olympiahalle – (Napalm Records)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – February 27, 2026” →