This is a big week for me. Two of my favorite artists are releasing 40th Anniversary Editions of their biggest albums. First, Def Leppard and ‘Pyromania’ and Billy Idol with ‘Rebel Yell’. Yes, I ordered both and they are on their way. Can’t wait to dive in to this and here the previously unreleased material. If those don’t shake your tree, there are ton more new releases this week that are actually new releases. Let us know what you want to hear or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Def Leppard were trying to keep product moving to keep the fans happy between albums. They didn’t want the gaps between albums, that tended to be rather long, to not have anything come out. So, on October 5, 1993, they released another VHS video and this one was called ‘Visualize’. My copy is on DVD which came in 2001, but the original was a VHS only edition. It contained promo videos, interviews and concert footage and it won a 1993 Metal Edge Readers’ Choice Award for “Best Home Video.” It ended up selling only around 50,000 copies in the States. I know I had it in VHS, got rid of that when the DVD came out and bought it again. On DVD, it is coupled with another VHS only release called ‘Video Archive’ which we will talk about later.
When you start the DVD, it makes you pick which language you want and it was so tempting to pick something other than English, but I went with the English version since I am uneducated American who only knows one language. When you click “Visualize” it starts out with some live footage and an interview short with the band, first Joe Elliott then Vivian Campbell, Phil Collen, Rick Allen and then Rick Savage. Good to see all the guys getting face time.
Video wise, the first one is off “Hysteria” and was the final single called “Rocket”. The reason it is here is the video ‘Historia’ was released prior to “Rocket” coming out as a video single. The “Rocket” video is a great one with the band in a warehouse with TVs all around showing clips of rockets and the band’s favorite artist that inspired them like Bowie and Elton John for just a few. The next video was for “Switch 625” and this was done only as a tribute to the passing of the band’s great guitarist, Steve Clark. He has been missed. The video is prefaced by a Japanese interview where Steve talks and jokes around. The band then talks about what he means to them. Very touching tribute.
We are excited to announce that this week’s episode has a very special guest and friend to 2 Loud 2 Old Music as we interview author Tim Durling. You know Tim from his YouTube channel, Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, and you will love it as we discuss his first book called ‘Unspooled: An Adventure in 8-Tracks’. The book walks through the 80’s where 8-Tracks were a dying breed but you could still buy them in those Record Club’s like Columbia House or RCA.
Tim has some great insight in to the 8-Tracks that were only available in these clubs and you will be surprised at some of those that you would’ve never thought were on that format, but they were. We show off some 8-Tracks in our collection and Tim has some rare ones. It is really cool to see. And find out the answer to the riveting questions…Who gave Tim the idea to do a book on 8-Tracks? Do either of us an 8-Track Player??? and many more…
Come join Tim Durling and I in this fantastic discussion on ‘Unspooled: An Adventure in 8-Tracks’ tonight at 8pm on April 22nd, 2024 on YouTube. Click the link below. Don’t forget to hit Subscribe and Like and please leave a comment. Thanks and have great day!!
Before the release of ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’, Bon Jovi had already finished recording their next album, ‘Have a Nice Day’. The record company wanted to put it out in early 2005, but Jon and the band had other ideas. They actually went back in to the studio and recorded more songs and tweaked some of the existing. As a result, the album didn’t see the light of day until September 20, 2005. The album 13 tracks and 3 bonus tracks scattered over Europe, Australia and Japan. The album would hit #2 in the U.S. and would hit platinum status as well as see #1 in numerous countries around the world so they were still a big worldwide band.
The album saw a new face in the producer chair. A gentleman by the name of John Shanks. John had worked with Ashlee Simpson, Hillary Duff, Kelly Clarkson and so many more. Us rock fans, were not real excited about that pedigree. Would this be a watered down, poppy Bon Jovi. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case as the album picked up where ‘Bounce’ left off giving us some heavy Bon Jovi and actually it saw a more thought-provoking Bon Jovi as Jon Bon Jovi really dug deep for the lyrics.
But, this would also be the first of many Shanks produced albums that many fans is the reason the band has lost its way and isn’t the same as it used to be. Yes, a band should grow and play with new sounds, and they did that, but the diehard fans have not been happy with the results, this fan included. This was the last Bon Jovi album that was good in my book. We will see if that thought still holds true as I re-explore the later albums. For now, I’m just going to enjoy this one like I always have.
The album would kick off with the first single and the title track, “Have a Nice Day”. The song is a carbon copy of “It’s My Life” as it is anthemic as well as delivering a positive message that says live your life the way you want to do it and when people try to bring you down, just tell them to “Have a Nice Day” and move on with your life. It is an exciting opening track, with an ear worm candy of a chorus that will keep you singing for days after you hear it.
For My Sunday Song #409, we tackled Harrison’s next pick of “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga which was an unexpected, but welcome pick. The song is from Lady Gaga’s E.P. ‘The Fame Monster’ and was written by Lady Gaga and RedOne. The song did pretty well going #1 on the Top 40 Charts and #1 on the Dance charts as well, but held to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. To say it was popular is an understatement as it sold over 12 million copies worldwide. Crazy for a single. And the video, well it has over 1.7 Billion views. That is Billion with a B.
The song was inspired by the paranoia Lady Gaga felt while on tour for her debut album. It also draws from her quite unhealthy relationships she has had and is drawn to like a moth to a flame. Too many bad romances I guess. There is a big shout out Alfred Hitchcock movies with the lines…”I want your psycho, your vertigo schtick (Schtick, hey!) / Want you in my rear window, baby, you’re sick” which also points to unhealthy attachments that meet these adjectives.
The song is pure dance pop inspired by electro pop and it is full of synthesizers and drum machines. The song has one of the most catchiest openings with the “Oh-oh-oh’s” and then the “Ra-ra-ah-ah-ah / Roma Roma-ma / Gaga, “ooh la-la”. The minute you hear that you know the song and I think if you have a car full of people, they will all sing along. There is a rap piece in the middle and she even goes French for some lyrics. All making the song a massive earworm. One of the best pop songs she has ever done.
Welcome back to The Collection. Today, April 20, 2024 was yet another Record Store Day and another morning of getting up too early and waiting in line…but it is always fun. See what we got this time around.
lease do leave a comment and I promise I’ll address them as soon as I can! Don’t forget to click “Like” and “Subscribe”. Thanks for watching.
Welcome to will be a massive New Release day for one artist as Taylor Swift has a brand new album this week. No, not a “Taylor Version” of an old album, but a brand new one. The woman is a machine with as much product as she puts out. And for the rest of us, there is the new Pearl Jam record and that first song and title track, Dark Matter, is pretty awesome. There a ton of other releases today as well so check them out and let us know what you want to hear or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!!
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department – (Republic Records)
Pearl Jam – Dark Matter – (Monkeywrench / Republic Records)
Bruce Springsteen – Best of Bruce Springsteen – (Columbia Records / Sony Music)
The band was now five albums in but it had been 12 years total. Not a great track record. They wanted to not have 4 years or more between albums again so it was decided to release a compilation album to hold fans over until the next release. But this wasn’t any ordinary greatest hits compilation, nope…that would’ve been too easy. The band decided to pull together a bunch of rare tracks and B-sides and put them together on one release…but still…not so simple as they re-recorded parts, remixed others and gave us a solid collection of songs from their career over the span of 1984 up to 1993. It also gives us some of the last recordings of the late, great Steve Clark.
The album would be called ‘Retro Active’ and released on October 5, 1993. It would spawn three singles including “Two Steps Behind”, “Miss You In A Heartbeat” and The Sweet cover for “Action”. Both “Two Steps Behind” and “Miss You In A Heartbeat” would go Top 40 and the album would go on to sell over 1,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Heck, even the opening track, “Desert Storm” would hit the U.S. Mainstream Rock Chart at #12 without even being released technically as a single.
One really cool aspect of the album is the cover which was designed by Hugh Syme and Nels Israelson. The image is a photographed of a woman sitting in front of a vanity mirror. However, she is positioned just so, along with other items, so that when you moved the album further away from you it turned in to a skull. A really cool concept
The album opens up with an outtake from the ‘Hysteria’ album called “Desert Song”. It was originally recorded as an instrumental and is the last song released by the band to feature Steve Clark on guitar. In fact, it is noted as the only song in the catalog to feature both Steve and his replacement Vivian Campbell who did some background vocals on the song. I know I said it was originally an instrumental and it was, but lyrics were written when the pulled the song back out after forgetting about it for years. The song is about Mick Ronson who was dying of cancer around this time. It is a killer opening track, hard hitting and a really cool Clark tone to it which is so missed. The bass work is great on this as well as the guitars. To me, the song sounds more like it would’ve fit on ‘Slang’ then on ‘Hysteria’. A truly fantastic track.
The video is up now for Episode 6 of The Collection. When you have older siblings, their music taste can influence what you like and my brother, Gary, was a huge Kiss fan and that spawned me being one as well. From about 7-8 years old all the way til now at 55, I am still a Kiss fan.
For Part 4, we are tackling my Kiss Bootlegs that I have on vinyl. We put it in chronological order for the year the album or songs were recorded, not when they were released. We start with Wicked Lester and go up to a 2010 show from L.A. We have over 20, so sit back and enjoy.
I hope you enjoy this episode which goes “live” right now…Monday night, April 15th at 8pm. Please do leave a comment and I promise I’ll address them as soon as I can! Don’t forget to click “Like” and “Subscribe”. Thanks for watching.
We are in the year 2004 and Bon Jovi has now been around for 20 Years at this point. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, they released a really cool box set of mostly unreleased tunes and a lot of little extras titled ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’. The Box Set is a collection of 50 songs spread over 4 CDs, 38 of which had never been released. The others were songs from soundtracks, remixes and/or B-Sides. This was a band dumping everything sitting by the wayside in to one set and I applaud them for that. Us diehard fans love this kind of stuff. And if that wasn’t enough, if you have the Japanese Edition, which i do, you get another CD of B-Sides and Japanese Bonus Tracks. That is another 10 songs.
This is a lot of music to absorb and we won’t be absorbing it all here. Nope. I’m going to go through each and every CD, track by track over 6 posts. We are now on the fifth disc which is the DVD and then the sixth disc which is the Japanese Bonus Disc, 10 tracks, but they are all previously released. So let’s get started and dive into the music as that is why we are really here any way.
Def Leppard – Pyromania 40th Anniversary Box Set – (Mercury Records)
Billy Idol – Rebel Yell (40th Anniversary Expanded Edition) – (Universal Music)
Pet Shop Boys – Nonetheless – (Parlophone Records / x2 Recordings Ltd)
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department – (Republic Records) 
Pearl Jam – Dark Matter – (Monkeywrench / Republic Records)
Bruce Springsteen – Best of Bruce Springsteen – (Columbia Records / Sony Music)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 