My Sunday Song – “Second Chance” by Shinedown

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For My Sunday Song #330, we end the Shinedown 10 song set with their biggest hit “Second Chance”. The song was off their 2008 smash album, ‘The Sound of Madness’ and was the second single off the album. It went to #1 on the Adult Top 40 and was the last #1 song played by Casey Kasem before he retired from his American Top 40 show. The song also went to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song alone has sold well over 3,000,000 copies. Not bad at all!!

The song was written by Brent Smith and Dave Bassett and is about the time in your life when you wake up and decide you are going to chase after your dream…do what you want to do. It is when you go outside of your little bubble and find out who you are and what you are here to do. Everyone deserves that chance to reach for their goals. The song for Brent was very personal as it was about the time he left his parents and went out on his own to learn to be a man. He said he still is learning that today. It sounds like his parents might not have agreed on his decision to pursue the rock career, but he had to do it.

The song is a power ballad in that it has a slower tempo, Brent’s vocals are soft and emotive at times. When the chorus hits it ramps up the power and the emotion. It is a very radio-friendly track as it pushes all the sappy buttons so no wonder it did well. But it is popular because it is a very good song. The lyrics can be cheesy at times, but the point behind the song is still beautiful and relevant. That climatic build-up, scream and drum fill at the end of the song, make it standout above the rest of the radio fodder. It is a well-crafted, brilliant song. It is one of those songs for me that I never tire of despite it being completely overplayed on the radio at the time.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Second Chance” by Shinedown” →

You Pick It! – What Album to Review in January?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are no longer rules for my selections, maybe themes.  I’m just picking albums in my collection and this time they are all from my favorite era of music…The 80’s. We’ve done one with the 80’s rock scene now let’s go to the 80’s Pop scene and what was riding the charts. What are the 5 albums you ask?  I have them right here…

   U2 – ‘The Joshua Tree’

   Prince – ‘Purple Rain’

   Genesis – ‘Invisible Touch’

   The Cars – ‘Heartbeat City’

   Bryan Adams – ‘Reckless’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in January, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – December 16, 2022

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Welcome to the last Friday New Releases post of 2022. The next two weeks there aren’t enough releases to bother posting so this is it. We will return on or about January 6, 2023 assuming there is enough releases that week. I am getting the Halestorm Deluxe Edition album for Back From the Dead, but that is it for me. What are you interested in this week? Let us know what that may be and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

  • 814pgB+ZCWL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Halestorm – Back From the Dead (Deluxe Edition) – (Atlantic Records)
  • Cheap Trick – Live at the Whiskey 1977 (45th Anniversary 4CD Set) – (Real Gone Music)
  • 71vXZMaPclL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Frank Zappa – Waka/Wazoo – (Universal Music)
  • 61IiPaWGE5L._AC_UY218_  Seether – Disclaimer (Deluxe Edition) – (Craft Recordings / Concord)81u+BDbDNeL._AC_UY327_FMwebp_QL65_  Kansas – Another Fork in the Road: 50 Years of Kansas – (Inside Out Music)
  • 61VULrgOH9L._AC_UY218_  Bloodclot! – Souls – (Upstate Records / Blood Blast Distribution)
  • 81EZA01Q4LL._AC_UY218_  Jacquees – Sincerely For You – (Cash Money Records)
  • download-11  Marcotic – Mobile Home Rich – (Mobile Home Records)
  • 71Zqm2wM+rL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Percussor – Ravenous Despondency – (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions)
  • 81aKRtdmk7L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Circa Survive – Two Dreams – (Rise Records)
  • 61o2ZZ76wqL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Mimi Barks – Deadgirl – (Silent Cult)
  • 714jkOsMNTL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Mori Calliope – Sinderella – (Universal Music)

Tom Keifer / Cinderella – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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We have Gene Simmons of Kiss and Jon Bon Jovi to thank for Tom Keifer and Cinderella. Gene tried to get them signed first, wasn’t successful though. Then Jon came in the picture and boom, a contract. Cinderella’s debut album came out in 1986 and wow was it over the top with the packaging of the band’s look and their sound. They fit right in to the Hair Metal style. Their next album in 1988 came out, ‘Long Cold Winter’, and they got as far away from that sound and look as they could. With their third album, that took it the extreme the other way. That lineup of Tom Keifer, Eric Brittingham, Jeff LaBar and Fred Coury were a house hold names for me.

After their third album, Tom suffered major throat problems with paralysis of his left vocal cord. This delayed their fourth and final album, ‘Still Climbing’ in 1994, With little to no fanfare, the band basically called it quits…well with at least album as we never received another one. It was until 2013 did we even get Tom Keifer’s first solo album. What a comeback it was. But then nothing for six years until the most current release in 2019 with ‘Rise’. It has been a long ride, and sadly only 6 albums so far. I hope we get more, if not from Cinderella, at least from the voice of the band, Tom Keifer.

Let us go ahead and rank the 6 albums we do have and I can’t wait to see what order you would place them. I hope you enjoy.

THE WORST: Tom Keifer: ‘The Way Life Goes’ (2013):

Ok, let’s get this out there in the open right away. There is no “Worst” Tom Keifer album. There is only Favorite to Least Favorite as he hasn’t really made a bad album. Out of all the albums he’s done, this is only the one I don’t play as often as the others, so it is my least favorite of the bunch. They are all favorites. What a welcome sight it was to finally get some new material for Tom after 20 years of nothing. It felt like a personal album and his writing and playing have matured and improved and aged perfectly like cheese, but no cheese here. All well crafted songs. They didn’t capture me as tightly as the other album which is the only reason this one is a the bottom, but it is far from being a bad album.

Continue reading “Tom Keifer / Cinderella – The Albums Ranked Worst to First” →

Journey – ‘Turn the Page: Live in Atlanta, GA’ (Bootleg)’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Journey were on a massive Stadium Tour with Def Leppard in 2006. Journey’s lead singer, Steve Augeri had struggled with throat issues and was really having a hard time vocally. The decision was made by Neal Schon to replace Steve and he needed someone he knew could handle the Journey catalog. Luckily for Neal, he had been working with Jeff Scott Soto in their supergroup Soul SirkUs and knew he was the man for the job. Neal called Jeff and there was no way Jeff could say no, it was a dream of his to sing with Journey. He had already been working with Neal, but now he could do it and sing those classic Journey songs, No way he was turning it down.

Jeff got the call and was on a plane the next day and arrived in D.C. on July 5th 2006 and luckily the band had a couple days off, but Jeff had to be ready to sing as the first show with him was on July 7th in Bristow, Virginia. And Jeff was thrown in to the deep end as he didn’t really get to talk with anyone until the day of the show and didn’t even have a setlist for the show until that day and to top that off, he didn’t even get a soundcheck or any real rehearsal with the band…damn that is insane. The only time he had with the band was on the tour bus prior to the show to discuss the set and show. Jeff, of course, survived and continued on with the band.

Jeff’s stint was supposed to be short term, but he was doing so well and the tour was extended until December. Then on December 19, 2006, Jeff was announced as the official new lead singer with the band. His reviews from the tour were glowing and all was going well. There were plans for a new album and work had begun, but by June 2007, it all fell apart rather quickly and as far as Jeff was concerned, unexpectedly. It was announced on June 12, 2007 that Jeff was no longer in the band and the band was going to take the rest of the year off. I don’t think anyone is really sure what happened, but the band eventually wound up with Arnel Pineda who is still with the band today.

Continue reading “Journey – ‘Turn the Page: Live in Atlanta, GA’ (Bootleg)’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)” →

Scorpions – “Tease Me Please Me” – Promo CD (1990) – Single Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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We are now to the 2nd of the 4 Promo pieces I have in my Scorpions Collection from the album ‘Crazy World’. The song this time is the opening album track, “Tease Me Please Me”. It was released in November 1990 and was written by Klaus Meine, Mathias Jabs, Herman Rarebell and Jim Vallance. It did go to #8 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Track Chart, but didn’t chart anywhere else.

My version is the U.S. edition and it is a cheap little cardboard box with a sliding CD sleeve out the side of the packaging. At the bottom of the CD, it does say those famous words…”For Promotional Use Only…Not For Sale”. Oh, I love those words.

Continue reading “Scorpions – “Tease Me Please Me” – Promo CD (1990) – Single Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)” →

You Picked It! – Alice Cooper – ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ (1973) – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! This one started out close, but one ended up blowing away the rest. Another one had a late batch of votes, but wasn’t enough to get close to the winner. The winner for this month’s picks ended up being Alice Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and I am real excited about this one. Here are the results.

  1. Alice Cooper – ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ – 10 votes
  2. Rolling Stones – ‘Sticky Fingers – 6 votes
  3. Elton John – ‘Captain Fantastic’ – 2 votes
  4. David Bowie – ‘Diamond Dogs’ – 2 votes
  5. Led Zeppelin – ‘II’ – 2 Votes

Thanks to all for participating. The January choices will be up on Saturday! And the choices are all now from my collection and the next one will be some of the biggest albums of the 80’s. Hopefully you can help me decide which one I should review.

ALICE COOPER – ‘BILLION DOLLAR BABIES’ (1973):

I’ve been wanting to tackle an Alice Cooper album so I am glad this one won the vote. It is Alice’s 6th studio album and Bob Ezrin was still at the helm. Being a Kiss fan, having Bob as producer is a pretty big deal and I could hear a lot of Bob’s influence in the music as there is a lot on here that Kiss tried with Destroyer such as orchestration, sound effects and other magical Bob Ezrin inputs. I’m not Bob is the reason this album is so good, but it did go to #1 in both the UK and the US and sold over 1,000,000 copies giving it platinum status. Who am I kidding, it isn’t Bob that made this album #1 it is strictly Alice Cooper and this amazing band which includes Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith.

The album was recorded in both Connecticut and in London. Band member, Glen Buxton, was sick throughout the sessions as he was suffering from pancreatitis brought on by abusive alcohol consumption. Guitarists Mick Mashbir, Dick Wagner (Kiss ghost guitarist) and the great Steve “the Deacon” Hunter who handled the guitar solos on 5 songs and pedal steel guitar on the opening track. The album was finished and released on February 25, 1973 and helped take Alice Cooper to a whole different level of success. The song is so good, that 4 of the songs are still played regularly in his live sets even today.

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My Sunday Song – “I Dare You” by Shinedown

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For My Sunday Song #329, we will talk about the song “I Dare You” by Shinedown. The song is off their 2005 album ‘Us and Them’. It was the 2nd single from the album and released in February 2006. The song was a minor hit reaching #2 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and was my introduction to the band. But not from the single release. I actually had heard of the band, but didn’t really know anything about them until I was watching American Idol and Chris Daughtry sang this song. That was October 3, 2008 over two years after its release. He did such a good job, it made me check out the band and I have been a fan ever since.

The song was written by Brent Smith, Brad Stewart and Tony Battaglia. I’ve seen a lot of interpretations about the song on what it means, but my view point is that is about the good & evil inside us all. That voice in your head that tells you do one thing while another tells you to another. The opening verse below is pretty clear in my book…

“Hello, let me introduce you to
The characters in the show
One says yes, one says no
Decide, which voice in your head you can keep alive“

The protagonist is daring the evil side to tell him to walk through fire, but he won’t do it. He struggles every day with that voice telling him to something he knows is wrong and it is tempting to give in. It feels like addict trying to deal with the demons of being an addict and struggling every day wanting that next hit, but fighting off those voices to choose the right way. Of course, you can say it is about whatever you think it is, but this is what I pull out of it.

The song is a slower track, but not a ballad. It has moments of softness and heaviness as the singer battles against those thoughts in heads. The guitar riffing by Jasin Todd is fantastic. A great guitar tone. The drumming though is an even brighter side of the song. Barry Kerch just pummels away on those skins. His fills are perfect. Brent’s vocals capture all the emotion from the lyrics as he is soft at times and aggressive and angry at others. You are taken on a wonderful ride through this song.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “I Dare You” by Shinedown” →

Scorpions – Crazy World: 4 Tracks from ‘Crazy World’ – Promotional Vinyl (1990) – (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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In my digging at a record show, I found a bunch of cool European releases from Scorpions. Most were German releases, but there was this one UK Only Release. It was an Advance DJ Copy of the album ‘Crazy World’. It was on vinyl and only had 4 tracks, but it was released prior to the album’s release. It is a pretty simple with only a flimsy cardboard sleeve that was the album jacket and album sleeve. The cover was black with a giant Scorpion on it and had the famous words at the bottom “For Promotional Use Only…Not For Resale”. Well, somebody sold it because I paid money for it.

It is short and sweet with 4 tracks, 2 on one side and 2 on the other. All four tracks are straight off the album, not any remixes nor single edits so nothing special, but I liked it enough to buy it as I like promos as you will see because the next four posts, including this one, are all on promos I have from the album ‘Crazy World’. Sorry about that, but this is the Scorpions Collection Series I believe and they are in my collection.

SIDE 1:

Just like thee album, the promo opens with, “Tease Me Please Me”, which is a sleazy little track that seems part Motley Crue, part everything else at the time and that is okay. The song is a rocker that doesn’t take a lot of thought, but it still kicks ass. A fun opening track with a cool riff, some nasty guitar work, Klaus’ gritty vocals and overall catchy as hell. It is straight up down and dirty rock & roll. Yes, please…sign me up. The song was written by Klaus Meine, Mathias Jabs, Herman Rarebell and Jim Vallance. It did go to #8 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Track Chart.

Continue reading “Scorpions – Crazy World: 4 Tracks from ‘Crazy World’ – Promotional Vinyl (1990) – (The Scorpions Collection Series)” →

Friday New Releases – December 9, 2022

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Happy Friday! Fridays are always great since we get new releases and it is the start of the weekend. But this one might be the very last Friday New Releases as I’m done…well…I’m done for 2022! As there aren’t enough releases the next few Fridays to do a post. But it will be back in 2023!!! 2023?? Wow, is almost that time already…time flies. It is typical this time of year for releases to slow down as artists hold off on releasing if they can’t get it out early enough before Christmas. Now, between now and next week, if I find enough to do the 16th’s releases, I will do one. Cross your fingers, but if we do, that is for sure the last one for the year. For me, there is really nothing I need. Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Have a great weekend.

  • 81y0NQ+oPIL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Journey – Live in Concert at Lollapalooza – (Frontiers Records)
  • 71tqnuY209L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  David Crosby – Live at Capitol Theatre – (Three Blind Mice / BMG Rights Mgt)
  • 8193-lYhq4L._AC_UL640_FMwebp_QL65_  Sabu – Banshee – (Frontiers Records)
  • 91GoZLs1cdL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Rob Moratti – Epical – (Frontiers Records)
  • 61FtpkrCQNL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Landfall – Elevate – (Frontiers Records)
  • 811JBZ8ayJL._AC_UL640_FMwebp_QL65_  Nevena – Nevena – (Frontiers Records)
  • 813286Gw+lL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Tony DeCarlo – Dancing in the Moonlight – (Frontiers Records)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – December 9, 2022” →