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

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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.

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Friday New Releases – February 27, 2026

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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)
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Kiss – ‘Houston: The Summit Sept. 2, 1977’ (1992) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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While on the Love Gun Tour, Kiss had a two night stop at the venue The Summit in Houston Texas. Those shows were on September 1st and 2nd of 1977. Here for this next Bootleg in the series, we are capturing the 2nd night of the show and this is a really cool show as Kiss were in their prime and they simply slayed on the stage that night. It is a high-energy, explosive performance for a band that was untouched at the time for their live performances. The people in Houston definitely got their money’s worth on that night. This bootleg was released in Germany on Deep Records back in 1992.

This show has never been released from the band, but they definitely have this in their archives as the videos for this show have showed up a couple times in the Kiss camp. First, in 1987, Kiss released a video called Kiss Exposed…a man was it cheesy. On that video that had a few live shots of the band from the heyday and three of those videos were taken from the Sept. 2 show in Houston. The songs used were “Beth”, “I Stole Your Love” and “Ladies Room”. But it gets better. On the Kissology Volume One 1974-1977 DVD released back in 2006, the full show of the Sept. 2 night was released so you got the full video performance. Sweet. Okay, starting with “Rock & Roll All Nite”, the video actually switches to the previous night and the last 4 songs are that night. So, almost the full show.

This is 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.

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Europe – ‘Secret Society’ (2006) – Album Review

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Europe is a band that has been tied down by it’s massive hit “The Final Countdown”in my opinion. That time is also considered the classic line-up of the band. Shortly after the success of that album, lead guitarist John Norum up and left the band. It was a shock to many. He spent time working on solo material and with Don Dokken. The band would go on to make a couple more albums and then disappeared for the rest of the 90’s. In 2003, the so-called classic line-up got back together and John Norum was along for the ride. Joey Tempest, John Norum, Jon Leven, Mic Michaeli and Ian Haugland were back and in a big way.

Why do focus on John Norum so much, well, it his guitar playing that is so amazing. Yes, Joey Tempest is the voice and the principal song writer, but the two albums after ‘The Final Countdown’, though great, were missing something. Norum has a way with the guitar. It can be extremely heavy, but there is always a great melody to it and a style all his own. For me, it was the missing piece in this band being the best they can be.

In 2004, the band released their comeback album, ‘Start from the Dark’ and it was a reinvention of the band. It was a more modern, more raw sound than anyone was used to hearing from them. And it was great. But great wasn’t good enough for Europe. They had to outdo that album and they did that and then some. In 2006, the band released ‘Secret Society’ and probably delivered their best album…EVER! I finally picked up the CD and I haven’t put it down. It has been on constant rotation for about a month now and it gets better and better with every listen. There are no skippable tracks, no weak spots and the guitar playing? Well, John Norum will make you stop and take notice. In fact, the whole band is on fire with this one.

The opening track, “Secret Society” comes out of the gate swinging. The heavy bass lines, the down-tuned guitars and a pounding drum beat all exploding at you with full force. Joey still sounds amazing, such a distinct voice and so melodic. The riffs by Norum flow magically from his fingers. And the keyboards, so well done by Michaeli. Understated, yet so effective.

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My Sunday Song – “Hip To Be Square” by Huey Lewis & The News

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For My Sunday Song #472, we are going to talk the pop culture powerhouse song, “Hip To Be Square”, by the band Huey Lewis & The News. The song is from their 1986 album ‘Fore!’. This was the second single from the album it was released on October 6, 1986 and it went all the way to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs. It also went to #1 on the Album Rock Tracks chart and helped drive the album to multi-platinum status. Huey and the boys were on a roll. Little did they know at the time, that years down the road, it would become a big part of pop culture.

Yes, in the book, ‘American Psycho’ by Bret Easton Ellis, the song is brought up by the main character Patrick Bateman. Patrick goes on in detail discussing the success of Huey Lewis & The News. That whole piece made it into the movie starring Christian Bale. The character in the movie gives a shorter version of that discussion to his co-worker who was played by Jared Leto. Then I think there was a murder. It is a very memorable and quite funny scene. The song was licensed for the movie, but someone forgot to license it for the soundtrack. When the soundtrack was released, the song was on there, but Huey immediately had them pull the album as it should not have been since the licensing wasn’t done. So, if you have a copy with that on their, good for you!!

The song was written by Bill Gibson, Sean Hopper and Huey Lewis. It talks about how the hippies from the 60’s turned into these square individuals who ended up cutting their hair and working for the man. The turned into Yuppies. The term for them was bourgeois bohemians. It became cool to fit in to a little box and be boring and playing things real straight. Huey was poking fun at that whole lifestyle. The lyrics say they started out as “renegade”, now they are “playing it real straight”. They like their bands in “business suits” which I love that line. All the new wave bands of the 80’s wore suits so that fits and even Huey & the News did it too. It is a comical, yet a thoroughly enjoyable pop song.

Musically, it falls in line with their big hit “Power of Love”. It has that same beat and sound. There is a nice groove, or bounce to it that I find myself rocking back and forth to it. Huey’s vocals, as always, are stellar. He his delivery is always spot on. The saxophone adds some great texture to it and who doesn’t love a sax solo, I mean…really…who doesn’t because you are wrong if you don’t. Huey Lewis & The News could do no wrong at this point in their career.

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Friday New Releases – February 20, 2026

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Another Friday is upon us. Another Friday New Releases. Yes!! We don’t have a ton for you, but I’m excited because I have a couple I’m looking forward to hearing. First for me is Michael Monroe’s Outersteller and the other is the new Veer Union album Reinvention. Those will be cranked on my stereo today. What do you want to hear this week? Or what are we missing that is out today? Let us know. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!

  • Michael Monroe – Outerstellar – (Silver Lining Music)
  • The Veer Union – Reinvention – (Arising Empire)
  • Mumford & Sons – Prizefighter – (GOTR / Glassnote Entertainment Group)
  • Megan Moroney – Cloud 9 – (Sony Music)
  • Tori Amos – Strange Little Girls – (Rhino Entertainment / Warner Music / Atlantic Records)
  • Hilary Duff – Luck…Or Something – (Atlantic Records)
  • New Found Glory – Listen Up! – (Pure Noise Records)
  • Elvis Presley – Epic: Elvis Presley In Concert – (RCA Records / Sony Music)
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‘Shakespeare’s MacBeth: A Rock Opera (Featuring Jeff Scott Soto)’ – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Many years ago, Greg Cherone and John Bettencourt got together with an idea to turn William Shakespeare’s most tragic of tragedies into a Rock Opera. The tragedy in question is MacBeth, one of his most well-known works. Greg and John got through a number of songs in the first Act done, but the project was shelved for years collecting dust and going no where. That was until a new collaborator was brought in who had a background in musical theater, Greg’s cousin, Robert Clapp Jr. Greg asked Robert to work on one song called “A Dangerous Thing” and after that was done, Robert agreed to work on another, then another until he was in hook, line and sinker. After a year or so of work, we get a finished project with two full acts, 27 songs telling the story of MacBeth.

Robert played all the instruments and even sang all the parts to kick things off so they had a base tracking of the album. They added vocals to each song by using friends, family members and even hiring singers using the app Fiverr which was very successful for them. But they still needed a name, a person that would help draw some interest into the project. Their main goal was to get a backer to help stage the show in the theater and bring these songs to life. Greg mentioned to me that he styled the Rock Opera in the same way as Jesus Christ Superstar of which all three of them are a huge fan. I believe Robert Clapp was actually in Jesus Christ Superstar at one time.

As luck would have it, during the Monsters of Rock cruise back in March of 2025, an evening dinner would start the interest in someone to sing MacBeth. On the cruise was the band Extreme and as it so happens, Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt of the band are the brothers of Greg Cherone and John Bettencourt the creators of the MacBeth Rock Opera. Gary was having dinner with Jeff Scott Soto and talked to him about the MacBeth project. Later, Gary told Greg about Jeff so Greg reached out and asked Jeff to sing on one song. Jeff did it and they loved his work so they thought, why not ask Jeff to do all the MacBeth. The worst he could do is say No. Well, Jeff doesn’t like to say No and he happily agreed to handle all the vocals as he had barely enough time before his next project, a Brazilian tour.

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Needtobreathe – Best of The Insiders: 5th Edition – 2026 Insiders Club

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For the 2022 Insiders Club, Needtobreathe changed things up. They were no longer going to release a physical product and only do the Digital Songs only. I stopped being a member right then and there as I want a physical product. Well, I think the backlash was swift and loud as a few months in to the year, that all changed. They decided that there will be a new tier level in the Insiders Club, more expensive of course, but a physical product would be given. This time around instead of only a CD, you will get an autographed vinyl copy as well. They still have the digital songs, which are different then the ones on the vinyl. The new CD and Vinyl are now a Best of The Insiders giving us the 9-10 songs from the 8 years of The Insiders CD series they had started 8 years earlier. The 1st Edition came in March 2023 almost a year after the announcement, but the band was smart as they went ahead and worked on the 2023 Edition at the same time they were working on the 2022 Edition. We received this vinyl in April 2023. Then in February 2024, we got the 3rd Edition and a year later in February 2025, we get the 4th Edition. And if you have figured out the trend now, February 2026 we get the 5th Edition. And I have them all…

This time around, we get 9 songs but you have to remember they are trying to fit them on easily on a vinyl with only a set amount of time, so I’m okay with only 9 songs. We did get the CD again which is unsigned but that gives me all five of those as well…

You also got a handful of other items including including a 2026 calendar…

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My Sunday Song – “Who’s The One” by Winger

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For My Sunday Song #471, we are going to discuss “Who’s The One” by Winger from their 1993 album ‘Pull’. An often overlooked album. By 1993, the music landscaped had completely changed for the 80’s glam metal scene. Gone were the bands I’d had grown up loving and replaced by Grunge, but that didn’t stop bands from putting out albums. In fact, for one band, Winger, it might have produced its best album to date. The band was down to three members with Kip Winger, Rob Morgenstein and Reb Beach. Released on May 18, 1993, ‘Pull” showcased a very mature Winger and a band that wasn’t going to be stopped creating and putting out their best material (even though this was their last album for years to follow).

I have a lot of favorites on here and the final track from pull might be #1. This one was written by Kip Winger and Reb Beach. It seems to have some socio-political leanings towards it as well as a crisis of faith. It feels as the song is about a complete lost of faith in religion and the government. There are is an utter darkness to the lyrics with lines like “When all the colors begin to fade” and “What will be your savior now / Dragon or machine”. The Dragon usually means drugs and the machine is quite possibly the government. Both depressing saviors.

There are so many religious lines and so many lines about guns and armies. This is 1993 and the U.S. was involved in Somalia which was a horrific event. This could all stem from his thoughts on that political matter. I don’t really know, but I do know the lyrics carry a lot weight. The video for the song, gives you a good idea of all the crap we were dealing with at the time.

The song is an acoustic ballad that is my all time favorite ballad by the band. Kip’s vocals with the acoustic guitars are a perfectly blend of melodies and harmonies between a voice and an instrument. He also is feeling the song as he sings as he pulls a lot of emotion in to it. It is one of the most beautiful songs the band has ever done. The chorus is a huge payoff as the percussion done by Rob also adds some beautiful flavors to the song. But it is the emotion coming off those acoustic guitars where you feel that weight of the lyrics. If a song can be perfect, this would be as close as you could get. What a way to go out, leave me wanting more.

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Friday New Releases – February 13, 2026

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It’s Friday the 13th!! And that is lucky day because we have a batch of releases for you this week. Around 40 which means that there is probably something for everyone…but me. Nothing I have to have this week, but let me know what you want to hear or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope the rest of your day be just as great!!

  • Black Swan – Paralyzed – (Frontiers Records)
  • Temple Balls – Temple Balls – (Frontiers Records)
  • Austen Starr – I Am The Enemy – (Frontiers Records)
  • Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights – (Atlantic Recording Co.)
  • Colony House – 77 (Pt. 2) – (LastDaze Records)
  • Jill Scott – To Whom This May Concern – (Blues Babe Records)
  • Story of the Year – A.R.S.O.N. – (Sharptone)
  • Eric Church – Evangeline vs. The Machine: Comes Alive – (Mercury Nashville / BigEC Records / UMG)
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