Scorpions – ‘Virgin Killer’ (1976) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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Another year, another Scorpions album. The band recorded their fourth album during 1976 and it was released on October 9, 1976. The album saw the band continue down the hard rock road and refining their sound more and more closer to what they became most famous for, but this album didn’t see them push much further in sales. The album did better outside of Germany seeing some success in Japan, but the U.S. still hadn’t jumped on board yet. In Japan, the album landed at #32 and sold over 100,000 copies but success elsewhere was coming, but not with this album.

With the last album, ‘In Trance’, the album cover saw a little controversy. ‘Virgin Killer’ looked at ‘In Trance’ and said “Hold my Beer”. The original album cover for this album was of a nude prepubescent girl with a broken glass effect over her private parts. This did not sit well with a lot of the buying public as some considered it child pornography. The album cover was not designed by the band as they generally had no say in the album artwork, that was handled by the label and this picture was handled by Steffan Böhle who was product manager for RCA Records. Some countries wouldn’t sell the album unless it was sealed in black plastic so the cover wasn’t visible. As a result, an alternate cover that featured the band members was issued and is the cover I have. I had the opportunity about 6 months ago to buy the original cover album at a record show, but they wanted $150 for it and I didn’t want to spend that much…maybe someday.

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My Sunday Song – “Light Up the Fire” by Cheap Trick

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For My Sunday Song #313, we are talking about the first single off their latest album called “Light Up the Fire”. The album, ‘In Another World’ was released in 2021 and it picks up with “We’re All Alright’ left off. The album only went to #142 which is a shame because it is a solid album. The single was a blistering power pop track. It was written by Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson and Julian Raymond (the producer).

The song is about…heck if I know for sure but from the lyrics it could be about a woman who wants to be good and find that right relationship, but at the same time she is tempted by dark side, if you will. The lyrics ask if she is “looking for heaven or one hell of a time”. She doesn’t know yet what she really wants. He wants to be with her in every sense of the word, but he doesn’t want her to burn out and destroy their love. He wants her to light up the fire, but be careful how hard and heavy it burns because it could be bad.

The song opens with some heavy, low down, deep and nasty bass line and a massive guitar distortion-filled riff, Cheap Trick brings back the heavy and Robin attacks the lyrics with some cocky bravado while Rick’s guitar playing on this one is stellar as he lets loose. Robin’s voice never ages and is still killer after almost 40 years of the band. The Daxx Nielsen & Tom Peterson combo are key to the vibe as their rhythm section is driving hard and fast. Tom’s bass line on this one is stellar. The song is filled with a classic cheap trick chorus, a great hook and totally infectious. A beast of a track.

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You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in September?

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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 a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – Hollywood Undead – ‘Hotel Kalifornia’

  Never Heard Before – The Smiths – ‘The Queen is Dead’

  Not My Normal Genre – Pistol Annies – ‘Interstate Gospel’

  From My Collection – Ghost – ‘Meliora’

  From My Collection – The Doors – ‘Morrison Hotel’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in September, 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 – August 19, 2022

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Welcome to the Friday New Release Post! We have another 30+ releases for you again this week and some scorchers on here. As hot as the Summer heat and it has been hot!! There are a couple I’ll listen to, but nothing I am running out and buying. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what albums we have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

  • A1UFiTEfr2L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Panic at the Disco – Viva Las Vengeance – (Fueled by Ramen / WEA): Brendon Urie is back with his 7th album and I am sure I will be hearing a lot of this as all my girls love this guy. Yes, even my wife. I don’t mind them so I won’t be bothered by hearing at as he has some great tracks. Hoping for a few more here. My oldest daughter actually has all his albums on vinyl and I am sure she will be getting this one to…I’m sure I’ll be paying for it somehow.
  • 91OlJzVq3wL._SX522_  Five Finger Death Punch – Afterlife – (Better Noise Music): These metal men are back with more aggressive angry metal. I’m not a huge fan, but there are always a handful of songs I end up liking and I have a pretty good playlist going. Here’s hoping for a few more to add on.
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The Boogie Knights – ‘Welcome to the Jungle Boogie’ (1997) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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What is The Boogie Knights? If you’ve been following along on the series, their name has popped up many times. Usually as a reason why Jeff Scott Soto can’t tour or even continue with a band he has been working with. Let’s go back and give a little history on The Boogie Knights. The band actually started in the mid-80’s and they were known as Roxanne. They were a hair band if you will excuse the term. They were signed to Scotti Bros Records and released an album in 1988, but due to very poor sales they were dropped by the label. The band continued on and by around 1992, they switched things up. What started as a Halloween gag in October 1992, turned in to a quite successful act. They decided to do disco hits…really…1992 and you do disco! Hell yeah! And they did it very well.

They became a regular on the Vegas scene and were booked for private events and heck, they have even been in movies, TV Shows and on soundtracks. They were kind of a big deal. Sometime around the mid-90’s, Jeff Scott Soto joined the band as the lead singer. He had downtime as Talisman was doing very limited touring and the other bands he was involved weren’t doing much. It was also a great way for him to earn a steady paycheck…which was actually a very good paycheck and kept him comfortable during this time. The job was perfect for Jeff as funk, R&B and disco were big in his influences and man, he can really sing that style of music really well. He definitely has the voice.

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Scorpions – ‘In Trance’ (1975) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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Ten months after the release of 1974’s ‘Fly to the Rainbow’, Scorpions recorded then released their third studio album on September 17, 1975 in Europe, but wouldn’t see a U.S. release until March 1976. This time around they had a new drummer as Jurgen Rosenthal left the band because he was drafted in to the Army. He was replaced by Rudy Lenners. The rest of the band was the same with Klaus Meine on lead vocals, Rudolf Schenker on rhythm guitar, Uli Jon Roth on lead guitar (& vocals) and Francis Buchholz on bass.

As far as a sound for the record, Scorpions continued on their hard rock road and left behind those epic 10 minutes songs for an album of 10 tracks within the standard 3 to 5 minute range. They were tighter, more melodic and we even get more Uli Jon Roth on vocals as he gets two songs this go round. This was also the first album that featured producer Dieter Dierks who would go on to produce all their album up to 1988’s Savage Amusement. I guess you could say he was the 6th member of the Scorpions.

This album was also the first album to include the now famous Scorpion log. If that wasn’t enough, it was the start of a set of album covers that would become rather controversial. This one, and the copy I happen to have, shows a beautiful lady standing over Uli’s guitar and one of her breasts is exposed. They would later change the cover to blackout that part hiding her breast. Honestly, this one is really hard to see and you have to be really looking for it to see it, but it is there. This wouldn’t be the last cover of the band to get censored. Censored cover or not, the album helped propel their sound and their popularity, but they were still not near their highest of highs yet. That wouldn’t come for several years.

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Loverboy, REO Speedwagon & Styx – Concert Review (August 6, 2022 – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC)

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Back before Christmas of 2021, it was announced that Loverboy, REO Speedwagon and Styx were coming to Charlotte. Loverboy was one of my wife’s favorites bands back in the day and she wanted to go see the show, so tickets were bought and months were spent waiting until the day finally came on August 6, 2022 at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC. It was a rainy afternoon and evening and this was an outdoor show. I wasn’t worried about the show itself because we had seats undercover, but the walk there was a little wet…but we didn’t care as it kept it cool and was a little fun to get wet.

The show kicked off on time and first up was Loverboy promptly at 7pm. The first thing I noticed was that they were old…I had forgotten that time had passed. I looked around and I noticed the crowd…well, I won’t say they were old too, but Depends did have a booth giving away free samples and Jonathan from Colonial Penn Life Insurance was there selling their $9.95 Plan (let’s see who gets that one). After remembering that people age, I got my mind back in to the show.

Since they were the opening act, they only played 8 songs, but they were a great 8 songs. I will admit my wife was a little underwhelmed at first and so was I as the vocals didn’t sound that great and the playing was a little sloppy at times, but it got better, much better. Mike Reno didn’t move around a ton and neither did Paul Dean. However, Matt Frenette, the drummer, looked exactly the same in that red ball cap and he was still killing it on the drums. He hadn’t aged a bit. When they played “Kid Is Hot Tonite” and “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”, it took me right back to high school and it sounded incredible. I got chills. And when the final two songs came on “Turn Me Loose” and “Working for the Weekend”, the crowd was totally in to it and on their feet. It was a helluva a way to end the show with every one truly loving every minute of it…pun intended. If the whole show would’ve had the energy of those last two songs…they would have blown everyone off the stage that came after.

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You Picked It! Metallica – ‘Kill ‘Em All’ – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one was a blowout from the word go. It was really down to three choices but 2 weren’t even close. The winner was Metallica’s debut album ‘Kill ‘Em All’ which is one I have actually never heard from beginning to end as I was never in to Metallica until later. Most people couldn’t fathom that fact, but it is true. Here are the results.

  1. Metallica – ‘Kill ‘Em All’ – 15 votes
  2. Journey – ‘Freedom’ – 4 votes
  3. Robin Trower – ‘Twice Removed from Yesterday’ – 3 votes
  4. Hollywood Undead – ‘Swan Song’ – 1 vote
  5. Kris Kristofferson – ‘Kristofferson’ – Sadly, 0 votes

Thanks to all for participating. The September choices will be up on Saturday!

METALLICA – ‘KILL ‘EM ALL’:

Growing up, I was an 80’s pop/rock kid and in 1983, it was Def Leppard, Kiss, Quiet Riot, Genesis, Billy Idol and bands of that style. Metallica was way too heavy for me and wasn’t melodic enough for my liking. They were never on my radar until the Black album and “Enter Sandman”. However, I never went back and explored their music. I had an opinion of Thrash and it wasn’t for me. So, here we are almost 40 years later and thanks to your vote, I am now trying the debut ‘Kill ‘Em All’ and the first thing I notice is that by today’s standards, it isn’t as heavy as I would’ve thought.

There is so much written on this album so I am not here to give you a lesson on the album on when it was written and stories on each song, nope. You can read all that stuff on the interweb thingy that is out there. This is going to be my impressions of the songs as someone who doesn’t know these songs and hearing them for the first time (several listens now as I’ve spent a couple weeks with the album).

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My Sunday Song – “You Let A Lotta People Down” by Cheap Trick

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For My Sunday Song #312, we are going with “You Let A Lotta People Down” off their 1997 self-titled album, ‘Cheap Trick’. The song wasn’t a single but a B-Side to the albums third single, “Carnival Games”. The album went fairly overlooked as this 1997 and nothing from bands from the 70’s and 80’s was getting much love. That doesn’t detract from its greatness though…not in my book at least.

I will be honest, I don’t know who the song is about. All that is obvious that someone has let a lot of people down. That has hurt this person severely to the point of anger and dare I say rage. To the point that he might be willing to get a gun and do something about it…or someone that this person has hurt will one day end things. The person was teetering on a fence between the right decision and the wrong decision and they feel towards the wrong, deceitful side.

The band is on fire with this as they completely rock out with this one borderline metal with its really dark and anger-filled tone. Robin’s vocals aren’t silky smooth, they have an edge like the song itself. There is anger in those lyrics and the music personifies it. The chorus is classic 70’s Cheap Trick and catchy as hell, but the sound is more modern and fits the darker 90’s style of music. There is a point with some really heavy bass, pounding drums and a simple slamming guitar riff while Robin is angry and screaming and it is freaking awesome!!! It is a side of Cheap Trick we don’t get to see very often and that is a shame.

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Joan Jett and The Blackhearts – “I Hate Myself for Loving You” – 7″ Single

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Out at one of my local haunts, Mad Jacks, I found a handful of 7″ singles and the first one up is from Joan Jett & the Blackhearts for their song “I Hate Myself For Loving You”. The song was released in June 1988 and is off her album “Up Your Alley”. The song was written by Joan Jett along with the great Desmond Child who also produced it as well. The song was a Top 10 hit for Joan Jett going all the way to #8 on the charts and help propel the album platinum status.

My version is the standard U.S. Edition with the B-Side being a live version of “Love is Pain”. The original song is off her album “I Love Rock & Roll”. Joan Jett wrote and produced this song. My copy isn’t special or rare, but I am trying to collect any decent 80’s rock picture sleeves so I had to have it.

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