My Sunday Song – “Been Your Fool” (1991) by Tattoo Rodeo

After a nice long break (6-7 months), My Sunday Song is back!! No themes, no 10 song sets. Only songs I want to write about and for #421, we are going with a power ballad from 1991 by the band Tattoo Rodeo. The song is called “Been Your Fool” and is off their album ‘Rode Hard, Put Away Wet’. The album came out in 1991 and their timing could not have been worse. They get a song that starts to gain some traction and then Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” comes along and ruins everything for any band remotely connected to Hair Metal. But I still remember this one.

The song is credited to the whole band (as I don’t see anything in the liner notes that tells me otherwidse) and they are Dennis Churchill Dries on vocals & bass, Rick Chadock on guitar, Michael Lord on keyboards and Rich Wright on drums. The song is about a guy who thought he was finally over the breakup and had her out of his mind, but not so fast. He goes into a bar, hear’s a song on the jukebox and he can’t stop thinking about her now. He wants to get back with her, but it can’t be the same as he’s been her fool too many times. He fights and says if she reaches out her hand he won’t be her fool again…but we all know he would in a heartbeat. I love how the lyrics show how the power of music can bring back so many memories (good or bad).

The song is a power ballad, but this one is a swampy, bluesy bar song. With a slowed down tempo, a slide guitar and Dennis’ heartbroken vocals, you get dragged in to his misery. His vocals have a grit to them and when he hits those high notes, they are as smooth as silk. Such a great tone. The rhythm section keeps things moving, the drums are the pounding heart with every snare hit. We’ve been a fool to someone so this is all so relatable.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Been Your Fool” (1991) by Tattoo Rodeo”

Friday New Releases – February 21, 2025

Welcome back to Friday New Releases. This week, I have a couple on pre-order with Jason Bieler and David Lee Roth and I can’t wait to get them. There is also some more rock available with Killswitch Engage and Dirty Honey and for those pop people there is Mat Kearney and Tate McRae plus a whole lot more. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

  • Jason Bieler and The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra – The Escapologists
  • David Lee Roth – The Warner Recordings 1985-1994 – (Rhino Entertainment / Warner Music)
  • Killswitch Engage – This Consequence – (Metal Blade Records)
  • Dirty Honey – Mayhem And Revelry Live – (Dirt Records)
  • Mat Kearney – Mat Kearney (Still Drowning in Nostalgia) – (Middle Kid Records)
  • Tate McRae – So Close To What – (RCA Records / Sony Music)
  • Silverstein – Antibloom – (UNFD)
  • Sam Fender – People Watching – (Polydor Records / Universal Music)
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Generation X – ‘Anthology’ (2003) – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

Record companies like to release compilations long after a band has broken up as it keeps the band relevant and another opportunity to grab some cash. Unlike most greatest hits compilation, this one has some meat on the bone. EMI records released ‘Anthology’ on February 25, 2003 and it isn’t a one disc type of compilation. No! You get 3 CDs of goodness. The booklet gives us a nice biography of the band plus credits for all the songs on the 3 discs. And it also gives 51 tracks from the Generation X catalog.

But before we get in to the music. Who is Generation X? Well, if you didn’t follow my Billy Idol series, then I will let you know who they are (but go back and read all the reviews in the Series after you are done with this one). Generation X were a punk band out of England that ran from 1976 until 1981 and consisted of Tony James, Bob “Derwood” Andrews, Mark Laff and of course, Billy Idol. That is how discovered them is digging through Billy Idol’s musical history and I am so glad I did. They had 3 albums and went from Generation X to Gen X when there was a line-up change. But I liked most of what I heard so this was easy decision to grab this one…okay…now on to the music included in this set.

DISC ONE:

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The Collection: Ep. 45 – Kiss CD Compilations (feat. Mike Ladano from Grab A Stack of Rock)

Starting Right Now!!! Come join myself and Grab A Stack of Rock’s Mike Ladano as we go through our CD Collection of Kiss Compilations and let me tell you, there are a lot to get through. We have comps from Japan, Canada, the UK, Spain and so many more. From Double Platinum to Kissworld: The Best of Kiss and everything in between.

So come check out the show as it will be live, February 17, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Def Leppard – ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill (RSD – 2024) – Album Review

At one time in their career, Def Leppard made a statement that a band only releases a live album when they have run out of ideas. I’m not sure the actual count, but we are on maybe the fifth or sixth live album they’ve released now. And based on ‘Drastic Symphonies, I would say they are out of new ideas. With that aside, I’m still a massive fan and buy everything. In fact, back in April 2024 for Record Store Day, I got in line to get the very limited vinyl release of ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill’ which was a Record Store Day First (not exlcusive) release and limited to only 6,000 copies. And I was able to grab one.

That is what we are reviewing today. It came in a beautiful gatefold with a great live shot of the band at the club and is on 2LP’s of a cool silver cover that coincides with the album cover. The LPs are housed in a thick cardboard like sleeve with some great pictures of the band members taken at the show. They later released it on October 11, 2024 in CD format that either had a DVD or a Blu-Ray included. And, I have the CD/Blu Ray combo as well as I like to have at every format (I know I didn’t get the DVD but the Blu Ray is better visually so that is all I need).

Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill (RSD – 2024) – Album Review”

The Collection: Ep. 45 – Kiss CD Compilations (feat. Mike Ladano from Grab A Stack of Rock)

Monday Night at 8 pm, come join myself and Grab A Stack of Rock’s Mike Ladano as we go through our CD Collection of Kiss Compilations and let me tell you, there are a lot to get through. We have comps from Japan, Canada, the UK, Spain and so many more. From Double Platinum to Kissworld: The Best of Kiss and everything in between.

So come check out the show as it will be live, February 17, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Kiss – ‘Momoiro Clover Z vs Kiss – 夢の浮世に咲いてみな’ – CD Single (2015) – (The Kiss Review Series)

On January 28, 2015, the Japanese Idol Band, Momoiro Clover Z, released their new single called Yume no Ukiyo ni Saite Mi Na” which translates to “Try to Bloom in a Dream about the Floating World“. Why would I be writing about a Japanese Ido band? Easily, they were able to get Kiss to take part in the song. The single is from Momoiro Clover Z’s album ‘Hakkin no Yoake’. The band even does a cover of the classic Kiss song “Rock And Roll All Nite”.

What is really cool about the single, is the artwork as it is simply stunning. “Floating World” which is part of the song’s title, is also a really cool style of Japanese Art. As you can see in the pictures, there are a lot of clouds and people floating in the air. It is very comic book style which suits Kiss perfectly. Being a Japanese release, you even get an insert in all Japanese writing and most of the writing on the cover is in Japanese. No Obi strip though. Still, cool packaging all around.

The CD single actually contains 4 tracks. The first track is the Momoiro Clover Z’s “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saite Mi Na”. The band is all women and the vocals are very high pitched and squeaky. The singing feels very cartoonish. Kiss does some of the backing vocals and they play all the instruments so that part is really cool. Musically, it is really cool, tribal drum sounds, a lot of electronic sounding elements and all around pretty great.

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Friday New Releases – February 14, 2025

Happy Valentines Day! For those that don’t celebrate this date, you now can by buying some new music. A bunch of good ones coming your way including a brand new Greatest Hits from Rick Springfield and this one covers everything in the 2000’s so stuff you might not realize he has done. It has a great track listing. There is some Lacuna Coil and even a box set fro Gillan!! Plus you metal bangers might like Dynazty and Crazy Lixx as well. Let me know what you want to hear or what we may have missed! Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

  • Rick Springfield – Big Hits: Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 – (Sing)
  • Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire – (Century Media Records / 119 Productions)
  • The Lumineers – Automatic – (Dualtone Music Group / MNRK Records)
  • Gillan – 1978-1982 Deluxe – (Edsel Records)
  • Dynazty – Game of Faces – (Nuclear Blast)
  • Crazy Lixx – Thrill of a Bite – (Frontiers Records)
  • Ginger Evil – The Way It Burns – (Frontiers Records)
  • Mantric Momentum – Alienized – (Frontiers Records)
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Back Jack – ‘Back Jack’ (2024) – Album Review

Is it technically a re-issue if the album never saw the light of day. That is what we have here with the album ‘Back Jack’ by the band Back Jack. As a band, they only ever released a 45 single back in the early 70’s. Back Jack was around from about 1970-1975 on various different names. These recording compiled by RidingEasy Records are the bulk of their output and recorded around 1974-1975. The vinyl only has 8 tracks while streaming has 13. The vinyl only includes the best recordings as the others weren’t the best quality sounding tracks, however, still great.

For some of these tracks, Back Jack consisted of Kim McKinney on bass, Hans Myers on drums and Mike Collier on guitar and lead vocals. The rest included a slightly different line-up though still Mike and Kim, you also get Jeff Ballew on guitar and Mike Lusher now on drums and that is the line-up pictured on the front cover. The name Back Jack came from Kim McKinney whose dad was running for mayor and the bumber stick said “Back Jack” for Mayor…and thus the name change from the original name of Trellis.

They were out of Missouri and are a heavy rock band with some psych elements. Over on Rate Your Music, A Rider in the Storm described there as music as follows…“The music is like if Blue Oyester Cult and Lynyrd Skynyrd had a child, and said child was raised by Grand Funk and Led Zeppelin with Uncle Poobah and named Back Jack!”. I think that about sums them up. You can get the full story of the band on the album insert pictured above. The flip side had the lyrics to the songs. The version I have is from Noble Records which was limited to only 300 copies and on Orange translucent vinyl that matches the orange in the cover. Great color coordination!!

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The Collection: Ep. 44 – The $1 CD Sale (Springsteen, Mellencamp, U2, Hendrix, Collins & So Much More)

This past weekend, Hardy Boy Records had a CD Sale and all CD’s were only $1. Well, I love a good deal as the next person so I got their early and piled up close to 50 CDs all for $1 each!! Not too bad. It helped jump start my Bruce Sprinsteen collection and my John Mellencamp collection as well as a whole bunch of other artists such as U2, Phil Collins, Collective Soul and a whole lot more. Spend some time with me as I go through what I found.

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, February 10, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.