Can’t believe we are in September already…do the days just keep going faster or is it just me? Well, regardless, we have more releases for you this week. I’m curious about the new Rob Thomas and definitely the new Glenn Hughes! What floats your boat this week? Let me know what you want to hear or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!
Rob Thomas – All Night Days – (Universal Records)
Primal Fear – Domination – (Reigning Phoenix Music)
For My Sunday Song #444, we are talking one of Robbie Williams new songs called “Rocket” off his yet to be officially announced new album ‘BritPop’. The first single from the album is a collaboration between Robbie and Black Sabbath’s own Tony Iommi. The song was also written with Karl Brazil and Tony Longworth. The song debuted on the UK chart at #36 and is a new, refreshed sound for Robbie as it has been some time since a new album and I could not be happier.
The song appears to be about his career and his life. It was a tough road for him with the ups and downs throughout. He says when it works it is great and when it doesn’t it hurts. People came after him when he was on top and kicked him when he was down. Right now he is so glad to be alive and ready to push things to another limit. He is full of confidence and ready to break through with a new sound. If you don’t push yourself you basically are wasting your time and your life. He wants to rocket through and try new things and this is his statement on that fact.
The song is a high energy brit pop sound that rocks out a little bit harder than what we are used to with Robbie. That is in big parts to the killer rock riffs from the one and only Tony Iommi. The song is less than 3 minutes long and flies through like a rocket, thus the title. The drums are frenzied like the riffs while the chorus is big and pretty damn catchy. You will start singing along immediately. There backing vocals from the great Glenn Hughes, but honestly, if you didn’t tell me I might not have noticed that. The song is an adrenaline filled, four to the floor, speed filled junkie, bombastic ride. Hold on to the steering wheel and don’t let go.
Rumors were flying that Jeff Scott Soto was going to leave The Boogie Knights and start concentrating on his solo career. Those rumors turned out true. Jeff started working with his Talisman bandmates on a side project called ‘Humanimal’ which was singed to Z-Records. Jeff was negotiating with Z-Records for a solo album and when things looked good and ready to go, Jeff and Z-Records split. Luckily, it wasn’t on bad terms as he continued with Humanimal until they had issues with Z-Records and that band was done.
Meanwhile, back on January 25, 2002, Frontiers Records had a press release that talked about them signing Jeff for his new solo album and if that was enough, they gained the rights to his debut solo album, ‘Love Parade’ and re-issued it as well. The new solo album was to be called ‘The Calm B4 The Storm’ and as Jeff has said, his earlier career was the Calm and what was coming after is The Storm. If Calm is being apart of 30+ albums over almost 20 years, I can’t wait to see what The Storm brings. However, that name was changed to Prism in parts due to where it was recorded, Prism Studios, and Jeff stating that is about a person that reflects many different lights. The album was released in December 4, 2002, I believe as I found the date on Discogs.
The new album was going to be done in the style of say Journey and Survivor which means it is power ballad heavy and not in a bad way. The songs were mostly done over the past few years for various projects that they didn’t quite fit so were never used and some new and all but one written by Soto. Jeff played most of the instruments and sang, but he was worried the label might not like that fact so he credited numerous fake people on the album. First is someone by the name of Michael Scott which is just Jeff’s middle name and his son’s middle name put together. He also credited two names that appeared in Jerky Boy’s episodes, Sam Isanogud and Mikos Scarbacci. There was also Jay Michael another reference to his son as well as Anthony Papa who is real, but didn’t actually play. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other musicians on the album because we do get Gary Schutt, Glenn Hughes and numerous Soto friends.
I was down in St. Augustine, Florida in early August and went by a second-hand book store where this book was waiting for me it to rescue it. A couple weeks later on a flight to New York, I opened it up and started reading. On the flights there and back, I got through 2/3’s of the book as I couldn’t put it down. I finished it up in another sitting or two and really enjoyed it. I knew some stories on Mr. Hughes, but I didn’t know this story. The book, ‘Glenn Hughes The Autobiography: From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion’ was written by Glenn and Joel McIver. It actually starts off earlier than Deep Purple as it cover some of his childhood and does go to Black Country Communion which means it goes from 1951 to 2010.
The forward is by Metallica’s own Lars Ulrich. He discusses the first time he saw Glenn Hughes play and what a big fan he is. I have to admit, it was a little light as forewards go as I expected a little more insight in to what he knew about Glenn, but wasn’t much meat to it. Sorry Lars. But that was the only thing I didn’t like about this book. One of the really cool features in the book is the fact they have interviewed a ton of people close to Glenn through the years, parents, girlfriends/wives and bandmates. Snippets of those interviews are sprinkled throughout each chapter adding color commentary and texture to what Glenn is talking about. It also lets you despite all the drugs, people tended to agree with what he talks about with some minor different interpretations at times.
I know Glenn was an avid drug user, but I guess I didn’t realize to the extreme it became. Imagine my surprise when he is talking about his massive drug use in the mid-to late 80’s he was living in Atlanta. In fact, he ended up buying a house not terribly far from where I grew up and was living at the time. Who knows I could’ve passed Glenn back in the day and never knew it. Doubtful, as he was help up in house a lot doing drugs.
I really loved learning about Trapeze, his band before Deep Purple. I need to explore them more. For me, the activities surrounding his joining Deep Purple were pretty cool and to learn that he David Coverdale were actually friends and got a long really well despite them competing a little for lead vocals. Glenn’s drug problem didn’t really start until around the third album with Purple, ‘Come Taste the Band’ when Tommy Bolin joined. Glenn and Tommy became drug buddies. Glenn’s tenure ended withe Purple without him really knowing it as that is how bad it was getting.
The 80’s were a drug filled mess. His projects with Gary Moore and Pat Thrall all suffered greatly as well as relationships with his many lady friends and his wife. His times with Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath was brief and interesting as well. He was not pleasant person to be around when he was drugged out…which was often. He is lucky to have made it out alive. The drugs were so bad, he only wanted to be around those people that were heavy in to drugs. This lasted until the 90’s when he started to get cleaned up. He revitalized his solo career and eventually gets clean and gets back to his singing as the focus as he is the Voice of Rock. I’m not going in to detail as that is what the book is for so get it.
The book ends with his joining Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian as they form Black Country Communion. Glenn really loves this band and believes it might be one of the best things he’s done. They’ve since done four albums total and they are pretty amazing. Too bad the book ends back in 2010 as we know Glenn is still going strong as he now fronts The Dead Daisies and his voice is still amazing!
The Glenn Hughes autobiography is one of the most enjoyable ones I have read in a long time. Glenn is so likable in the book despite some of the crappy things he does. It is amazing he can remember what he does, but he is open and honest about how bad the drugs were and takes full responsibility. He is lucky to be around and we are lucky to have all this great music and have that Voice in our lives. My Overall Score is a 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars as I truly couldn’t put this down and don’t think I’ve read a book that fast in a very long time.
August is over and so is Summer. School is back in session and it was a very busy month. Between vacation, getting one of my daughters off to college and traveling for work, I didn’t have much record store time. As a result, my selection is rather small compared to some of my months. But doesn’t mean there isn’t enough to show off so lets get in to it.
We will start off with my record shopping while on vacation as I did pick up a few things. First up was a Joe Satriani for the album, ‘Not of this Earth’, which I already have. But I didn’t have this cover. I had never seen this before, so my rule…if you haven’t seen it before, you buy it. And I did…
And that holds true for one my next finds at the same record store. I picked up Kiss’ ‘Psycho Circus’ on CD as it was at the lowest price I’d seen in awhile. Then I saw a maxi-single for “I Was Made For Loving You (Live)” for the Alive III album. I had never seen this before, so I bought it…
We are moving through the year quite fast I believe as it is already the end of July. And it was a hot one, both temperature and purchases. Now, I do have a handful of vinyl, but as prices skyrocket, I am focusing on the albums that mean something to me or from bands that mean something to me so the purchases have slowed. CDs are cheaper and a lot easier to obtain so I seem to be buying way more of those these days. With minor exceptions, I have been laser focused on what I’m buying. Let’s go through the vinyl first. First up is the new album from Shinedown called ‘Planet Zero’. I have all their albums on vinyl as I am a big fan so why not get the new one…
Then it I picked up a couple holy grail type albums. First was one from Kiss that had only been issued for their very limited exclusive Kissteria box set. I didn’t think I’d every own one. Thanksfully, they re-issued it on vinyl and I snagged a copy. Not their best compilation, but one that was lacking in my vinyl collection so couldn’t be happier…My list of missing vinyl is now smaller.
In 1982, Deep Purple didn’t exist, no new music was coming for a few more years, but the world needed a brand new Live album by the band. Or at least that is what the record company thought. This live album was really not new, it was only newly released. It was recorded back in 1974 with the Mark III line-up of the following:
Richie Blackmore – guitar
David Coverdale – lead vocals
Glenn Hughes – Bass and vocals
Jon Lord – keyboards
Ian Paice – drums
The album was recorded on May 22, 1974 at the Gaumont State Theatre in London, England and was used a BBC Radio Broadcast but never actually saw the light of day on a physical release until 8 years later. The tour was for the album “Burn” which is where a majority of the songs will come from.
Like with most Deep Purple Live albums, there are only a handful of songs as some of the songs last an eternity. You get 6 whole songs on the original release and when they do the re-issues years later you are blessed with getting a whole other song that adds over 30 minutes to the time…yep…one song at 30 minutes. Wow!!
This one completely caught me off guard. Soren Andersen, famous for being the guitarist for the great Glenn Hughes as well as Electric Guitars and Mike Tramp, released a new solo album without me even knowing. How does that happen. It doesn’t matter as I found it and I am a better person for it. After the brilliance of his 2011 release ‘Constant Replay’, this time around he goes full on instrumental.
From the opening track, “City of Angels”, you know you are in for something special. At times there is a whole Satriani vibe to the songs because they are songs. They are full of melodies and typical song structure you can almost sing along with the guitars which is what I want in an instrumental. There is no showboating for the sake of showboating. He isn’t going, “hey, look what I can do!!”. He is giving you his heart and emotions in his songs.
At times he goes all metal with songs such as “The Kid” that come at you like a fist to the face. He is a rocker at heart with songs like “Agent Wells” that even throw in some funky bass lines. There are even a couple songs I would consider ballads with the song “Satori” and “Bird Feeder” which are both a little reminiscent of Satriani from his early 90’s work. “Skybar” opens with a little electronica elements and some wicked ass bass guitar. The album is full of interesting elements and Soren isn’t a one-trick pony. He gives you a little of everything. The album ends with one of the most interesting tracks, “Bipolar”, which gives you two elements of his style and sound and blends them together.
‘Last Concert in Japan’ only saw a release due to the death of guitarist Tommy Bolin who died in December of 1976. The album was released shortly after in March of 1977 in Japan. The record company was in a rush to capitalize on his death is all I can think why this was released. The band was done, all parties had moved on and the record company thought it would be an easy cash grab. Now I have no proof, this is pure speculation but it is what record companies do.
This album captures the Mark IV line-ups last show in Japan as the title says at the Budokan Hall which I believe they set a record for attendance at that time. The release is not a full show and it was streamlined down to fit on only one LP.
There are a lot of problems with this album. First off, the mix. It is pretty crappy as the release was done in such a hurry that the master tracking really suffered and let me tell you it shows. And if that wasn’t enough, let me just say the guitar playing is less then stellar and I believe Jon Lord was used a lot more in places that there should have been more guitar. The reason being is Tommy Bolin had been doing drugs quite heavily the night before and according to Glenn Hughes, he feel asleep on his arm for 8 hours and couldn’t play. And based on what I hear, I believe he might be telling the truth.
Now that Deep Purple was defunct, the record company needed to release something I am sure so why not a live album. In October 1975, ‘Made in Europe’ was released. The recording from April 3rd – April 7th on some of the final dates that Ritchie Blackmore would play as he left the band shortly after. So, with that being said, the line is the Mark III lineup of the band consisting of Ritchie, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
The show was recorded from 3 different shows that took place on April 3rd, 1975 in Graz, Austria, April 5th in Saarbrücken, Germany and finally on April 7th at the Palais des Sports in Paris, France. According to the album jacket, the album was recorded using the “Rolling Stones” mobile truck. And it has also been discussed that there were some heavy overdubbing and cleaning up of the set including the audience with the crowd noise and applause…but this is the 70’s what live album wasn’t retouched (ahem…Kiss).
The album is only a single LP and only includes 5 songs with a total run time of 45:47 which means the average song length over 9 minutes so the band plays the heck out of these songs which is really what a Deep Purple live album is all about. The band had huge success with the prior live album ‘Made in Japan’ and although this is a good release, it isn’t as good as the Japan release.
Rob Thomas – All Night Days – (Universal Records)
Primal Fear – Domination – (Reigning Phoenix Music)
Glenn Hughes – Chosen – (Frontiers Records)
FM – Brotherhood – (Frontiers Records)
Big Thief – Double Infinity – (4AD Ltd)
Twenty One Pilots – Breach – (Fueled By Ramen)
David Byrne – Who Is The Sky – (Matador Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 