The tour for Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ album started on February 9th, 1983 in London, England and would go on for 11 months, travel the world on and on December 18th, 1983 in Dortmund, West Germany. The tour was massive and a huge success. They even recorded the show at the L.A. Forum on the September 11th which was released as Live at the L.A. Forum which we reviewed last week. But being a such a fan of the band, I like to collect as many shows as I can get and I found one from a month earlier that was recorded in Seattle, Washington on August 3, 1983. Yes, it is a bootleg, but it is a radio broadcast so they sound is going to be pretty good…and it isn’t bad.
The show as recorded at the Seattle Center Colesium and it is the EXACT same setlist as the LA Forum show the band released. But the show is slightly different and the sound doesn’t sound the same as the other show so it does sound like a different show despite no variations in the setlist. First off, Joe Elliott’s voice is super high in this mix and the guitars are pushed a little to the back. Some songs I notice the bass is even higher then the guitars. The crowd noise isn’t as prominent so sometimes you forget they are there except when Joe interacts with them. The set I have was released in 2022 and on a 2 CD set split identical as my vinyl splits the LA Forum show.
The show kicks off with the air raid sirens, bombs bursting in the background and machine guns firing and it sounds way better and clearer then the Forum show. There is a gap in the track and and it makes it feel like the intro was not even a part of the show. Then the band goes in to “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)”, Joe’s vocals are a little rough and super loud along with the background vocals while the guitars don’t have the crunch or power you’d hope. But the energy is high and the tempo is really quick. “Rock Brigade” is up next and it sounds a little muddy and again, Joe’s a little rough around the edges and is sounds a little shot. The solo is ripping and they stick to the original song with not much extra added.
On November 6, 2000, Bon Jovi released their third single from ‘Crush’, well, their second single in the U.S. The song did really well for the band reaching the Top 40 in a ton of countries like the UK, Germany and Australia, but not in the U.S. where it only went to #57. Proving more that Bon Jovi were actually bigger overseas then in their home country which had the way it was for at least a decade. Back in 2000, when Bon Jovi released a single, there would be a ton of different variants of that single in many different parts of the world, each with their own unique B-Sides and this one was no different.
The version I have is actually a Canadian release (and I think I got this from my good pal Mike Ladano from Grab a Stack of Rock and MikeLadano.com. Go check him out as you won’t be disappointed. The version I have according to Wikipedia is says it is actually the Japanese Edition and that is possible I guess, but this is definitely a Canadian pressing as it states it below.
The song title, “Thnk You For Loving Me” seems to be inspired by Brad Pitt’s character in the film ‘Meet Joe Black’ where he tells Claire Forlani’s character “thank you for loving me”…or it could be a giant coincidence. It was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and was inspired by Jon’s own personal experiences and observations on how love can change you and it was a giant thank you to those special people in his life.
The song is a ballad and chock full of ballad cliches with a full on string section, soft & gentle piano and some nice sweet guitar licks from Sambora giving us the power in power ballad. The song is a little over-the-top at times and cheesy, but Jon still delivers it as only he can with all the emotion needed to draw in the listener and pull at their heartstrings. Not their best ballad they’ve ever done, but honestly, its pretty damn good nonetheless.
The B-Side tracks (I now it is a CD so technically no B-Sides, but that is what I’m calling them) are all live and recorded to a two track player at The China Club in New York City on September 20, 2000. And all three tracks are not from the ‘Crush’ album. First up is the ‘New Jersey’ track “Born to Be My Baby”. This track was penned with the help of Desmond Child and you can feel his touch all over it with its melodies and hooks and that catchy chorus. Playing it live, they haven’t really altered it or strayed from the live version. It lacks a little of the studio version’s punch, but still a great track.
Next Up is “I’ll Be There For You” is also from ‘New Jersey’ and is a ballad. That opening guitar lick from Sambora is instantly recognizable on this track. Jon’s vocals are high in the mix and in 2000, he still sounded pretty great live. Richie’s backgrounds are key on this one too as I love how his vocals compliment Jon’s so much. If you listen close, you can hear the crowd singing along. They really nail this one and they don’t stray from the studio version much and that is okay.
The final track is “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” from ‘Keep the Faith’ and Bon Jovi shows they are still a bar band at heart, even though I don’t know how much they played in bars. Tico pounds away at the skins and Richie rips some riffs. David’s piano plays like an old honky tonk and the boys cut loose and have a good time with this one. Jon doesn’t sound the best as he sounds a little tired, but this is live and he shouldn’t sound perfect.
And there you have it. A cool gift from a friend and a nice addition to the Bon Jovi collection. I hope you enjoyed it and we still have one final ‘Crush’ related piece in the collection to review and that is coming next week. Until then, have a great day.
NEXT UP: BON JOVI – ‘THE CRUSH TOUR’ (2000) – DVD REVIEW
Yes, I was there for the end. The final Kiss show. I have been a fan for around 46 years or since ever since I discovered these albums in my brothers collection. I was around 7-8 years old. The make-up, the larger than life characters, the pictures on those albums and most of all, the songs all captured this little kid’s mind and never let go. Through the good years and the bad (and there have been some), Kiss has always been a part of my life.
My very first Kiss show was December 26, 1983 for the Lick It Up Tour. My brother, Gary, gave me a ticket for the show on my birthday, which was the day before the show. Imagine my surprise. Here we are 40 years later and this time I bought the tickets. My brother took me to My First Kiss Show and I am taking him to the Last!! We arrived in New York City early morning on Friday, December 1st, 2023. Gary from Atlanta and I from Charlotte. Once we arrived, we did a couple touristy things, but one of the cool things was going to where Kiss were photographed in the suits for the Dressed to Kill album cover. That was at the southeast corner of W23rd Street and 8th Avenue looking North. I didn’t recreate it, just took a picture there.
Cheesy, yeah…but it was fun standing there where the guys made that iconic Kiss picture. The other Kiss place we went was down to Electric Lady Studios. The place where Kiss recorded their demos with Eddie Kramer, prior to the debut album. You know this studio because it was Jimi Hendrix’s Studio. If you open the door, you will see the original door and brick that was there when Kiss was. The funny thing about these two locations is that we knew we found the right locations as there were already other Kiss fans doing the same thing we planned on doing. And speaking of fans, everyone we met was so friendly and so excited about the weekend. Kiss fans, when not being overly critical, are actually great people.
For My Sunday Song #389, we are almost to the end of Tim’s Choices and this time around is a cover song for Tesla called “Run Run Run”. It was originally done by Jo Jo Gunne in 1972 and written by Matt Andes and Joe Ferguson. It was only released as a B-Side on the CD Maxi Single for “Love Song” in 1990 so never on any of the band’s albums.
The song, lyrically, is very simple and seems to be about a guy who might be on the run from the law and needs to get to the border or the state line to get away from them. Nothing more than that. Pretty simple, right!
The band has fun with it. They keep to the spirit of the song but bring in to the 90’s with the sound as the original is very 70’s sounding. Jeff Keith’s vocals have such a cool grit that it really makes the song jump. The guitar work by both Tommy Skeoch and Frank Hannon scream and make the song feel like the song is really racing. The rhythm section of Brian Wheat on bass along with Troy Lucketta on drums also drives the song forward. You can feel the pressure and intensity of the guy running from the law. And then the song ends with a massive build up and bam, it’s done. A great, fun track by an incredible underrated band!
We are now in December. Christmas is fast approaching and the year is almost over. Man time flies. Speaking of flying, if I’m not responding to comments it is because I am heading to New York City for a very special show tomorrow night. You can read all about it on Monday (I hope I can get it done by then). For now, we have a batch of new releases for you. There is nothing for me although I do want to hear the new Peter Gabriel and I will try out Mike Shinoda’s new one. Otherwise too busy. Let me know what you want to hear this week or if we missed anything so everyone can see it. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend. I plan doing just that!!!!
Peter Gabriel – I/O – (Peter Gabriel Ltd)
Mike Shinoda – The Crimson Chapter – (Fort Minor Inc / Warner Records)
Dove Cameron – Alchemical: Vol. 1 – (Disruptor Records / Columbia Records)
Welcome to monthly wrap-up of what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection and it was another good month. I will be honest, I don’t know if December is shaping up to be as good as this one and that is okay. I need a break. I will be in New York City and hope to hit a couple stores so there is still hope, but as far as what has already been ordered, not much. I know there is Christmas, but that list I gave my family was pretty light as I’d like a new laptop and that will drown out most everything else. For now, sit back and enjoy what we have this month.
The month started out with a sale at 2nd & Charles with a Buy 2 Get 2 Free sale on CDs. Well, you don’t have to tell me twice. My daughter and I hit up a different one then our normal haunt as I have picked that one clean and boy did that pay off. I picked up 20 CDs and 1 DVD as well. So technically, the first photo I bought, then the 2nd one was free.
And the DVD was for Robbie Williams’ TV concert show called “The Robbie Williams Show” and a review if forthcoming…
Def Leppard had made it big time with their third album ‘Pyromania’. The tour was huge. It traveled the world and saw millions of fans flock to their shows. They were on fire and the flame was growing hotter and hotter. There had been no shows released until the Deluxe Edition of Pyromania saw the light of day in 2009. That was the first time we had a taste of Live Leppard from 1983. Of course, this was only on CD. It wasn’t until the release of the giant box set ‘The Collection, Vol. 1’ in 2018 that we were able to get this on vinyl which is what we are reviewing here today.
The show was night two at the L.A. Forum on September 11, 1983 and thanks to MTV and Def Leppard’s high profile videos, the crowd was massive and the energy was high and electric. The band was in fine form and ready to rock. This show had been bootlegged heavily back in the day so now we get a freshly mixed and wonderfully sounding show. This would be the first live show Leppard had ever released that wasn’t a video. As a fan, we were thrilled to finally get an early show with Steve Clark on guitar. Now, since then we have a handful of live shows from that era and Leppard had released several newer shows, but this was the first one to see a CD release that we could pop in our car or home stereo and turn it up to 11.
Bon Jovi’s 7th Studio album was ‘Crush’ and it was released on June 13, 2000. The Japanese Edition, which I have in my collection, wasn’t released until September 27, 2000. It contained 2 Bonus Tracks, which we discussed when we went through the album on the last post, as well as an entirely new disc which is an E.P. of a live show from Osaka, Japan. The E.P. is called ‘Live from Osaka’ and that is what we are discussing today.
Before we get to that, let’s talk a little about the Japanese Edition. My copy has the OBIT strip as you can see below. That is the prize you want when you get a Japanese Edition CD. Also included, but not pictured, is a booklet that gives the lyrics to the songs in both English and Japanese as well as some commentary that is all in Japanese so I have no idea what it says. All together, it is the copy to get if you want this album…which you do! Bet you didn’t know that.
The Crush Tour started in Japan during July 2000 and this recording is taken from the July 20th show at the Osaka Dome in Osaka, Japan. There are only 6 tracks taken from the show, but it is a great snapshot of the show. We would get a full DVD from one of the stops on that tour which we will review later. It wasn’t the Osaka show, but that’s okay.
The CD opens with the classic Bon Jovi song “Runaway”, but it is done in a way that has never been before. It opens with David on piano and Jon talking a little about the song how he wrote the song 18 years earlier. The song is slowed down, done only with Jon and the piano and it changes the whole dynamic of the song. It is as if This Left Feels Right actually worked because this new interpretation really works. The song feels so dramatic and important. It is the best versioin of this song I’ve ever heard live. Yes, it is that good.
For My Sunday Song #388, we have Tim’s next pick which is “Heart of Darkness” by the band Heart. The song is the B-Side to “What About Love” off the 1985 album ‘Heart’. The songwriting credits on this one goes to the entire band which did not happen very often and in looking at the album credits, there is only one song on the album that is credited to all of them.
The song talks about two people lying next to each other making love all night and they don’t want the night to end. But the Heart of Darkness line leads me to believe their love is in secret and they have to hide it. My guess is they are having an affair and don’t want anyone finding out about it. When you listen to it, let me know if you get the same thing from it.
It sounds very 80’s with all the keyboards and the overly polished sound. It is definitely a new Heart. It was like Dreamboat Annie album merged with Journey and produced this fine piece of work. Ann Wilson’s vocals are so powerful and damn she can hit some notes. She is one of my favorite vocalists and this shows why. it is a hard driving song, quick tempo, fast drumming and an overall rocking track. It is so strange it didn’t make the cut as it as good as anything on that album (if not better than some). And interesting enough, it was never released ever, not on any deluxe album or compilation that I can find which is really cool.
It is the after Thanksgiving in the States and it is known as Black Friday. Because of that, there are not many new releases unless you are being released on Record Store Day – Black Friday…that list is at the bottom of the regular album releases. And for the regular releases there is nothing for me, but for Black Friday Record Store Day I would like the Collective Soul and my daughter wants the Olivia Rodrigo one. I also wouldn’t mind getting the Limp Bizkit one on CD but don’t tell anyone. Let me know what you want to pick up this week or what we may have missed. Thanks and have a great weekend.
Peter Gabriel – I/O – (Peter Gabriel Ltd)
Mike Shinoda – The Crimson Chapter – (Fort Minor Inc / Warner Records)
Dove Cameron – Alchemical: Vol. 1 – (Disruptor Records / Columbia Records)
Take That – This Life – (EMI / Universal Music)
Busta Rhymes – BlockBusta – (Conglomerate Ent. / Epic Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 