Tag: Anytime

My Sunday Song – “Anytime” by McAuley Schenker Group

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic7 Comments

For My Sunday Song #467, we are going to talk about the song “Anytime” by the McAuley Schenker Group. I ordered a new box set from them and it got me thinking about this song and how much I love it. The song is off their 1989 album ‘Save Yourself’. The song was released as a single in April 1990 and I remember seeing it on MTV and get swept up in it. Ballads were huge and every band needed one and this delivered on all fronts.

The song was written by singer Robin McAuley and guitarist Steve Mann. The song is about longing for that lost love. It appears that the singer had not truly appreciated what he had until she was gone from his life. He realized he treated her poorly relegating her to “the corner of my empty room”…which I am assuming is a cold dark place in his heart. When she was gone, he realized he loved her and wanted her back. The song is plea for her that anytime she wants him back, he will be there. If she’s lonely and needs to someone to simply call because it sounds like he will come a runnin’.

Robin McAuley’s vocals are what make this song work so well. You can hear the longing in his vocals. He pulls out so much emotion you start to feel bad for him and hope she will call so they can get back together. As good as his vocals are, the music has to match to make it all work. The atmospheric keyboards at the beginning then accompanied by an acoustic guitar are so soft and gentle. If you thought the vocals were longing, the music will break your heart as well. There is a co-solo in the song with both Schenker and Mann that works so perfectly for the song. It accentuates the feelings and adds even more texture to the overall song. When all is said done, it is a brilliant masterpiece. It shows that when a ballad is done well, it can’t be beat. One of my all time favorite ballads from this era.

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Cheap Trick – ‘Cheap Trick’ (1997) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic33 Comments

Let’s see if I get this right. Two albums earlier with ‘Busted’, Cheap Trick leaves their label Epic Records. They then get signed with Warner Brothers and release “Woke Up With A Monster” and then the label drops them. The band finds an indie label called Red Ant Records to release their new album on April 29, 1997, the self titled, ‘Cheap Trick’, only to be label-less again after Red Ant goes bankrupt a mere 3 weeks after the release causing it to only go to #99 with the lack of promotion. The poor guys are having some major issues.

Now, that doesn’t mean the new album is not any good. It just didn’t get the full promotion it deserved from a financially strapped label. The album, ‘Cheap Trick’, was a fresh start. A starting over. A time to re-introduce the band to a brand new generation of kids, thus having the album self-titled like they did with their debut album. This was a band getting back to their roots and remembering who Cheap Trick were. This was the beginning all over again.

What I love about the cover is a play on what the band had done with most of their covers over the years. Their older albums always had Robin Zander and Tom Petersson on the front and Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos would be relegated to the back cover. This time around, Rick & Bun are on the front and Robin and Tom are on the back. However, to switch up, it is the instruments. Well done boys, well done.

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