October draws to a close, so it is time for the monthly wrap-up so lets see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection this month. This is the October 2025 Wrap-Up and we have a little vinyl, a whole lot of CDs and even a book. Plus, I visited a record store…twice, ordered from Discogs, ordered from another record store online and went thrifting. So much to go through including a couple new Rock Candy CDs in the collection, Kiss and a Box Set rolled into one. Lots of great new and old stuff to go through and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!
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For My Sunday Song #398, we are to the next Japanese Bonus selection in Mike’s Choices. This time around we have the song “Straight Down the Line” by the band Shaw Blades. This short lived band of two great friends consisted of Night Ranger’s Jack Blades and Styx’s own Tommy Shaw. The boys were also part of the supergroup Damn Yankees. This song was written by both and was the Japanese Bonus track on the stellar debut album simply titled Shaw Blades. Later, Tommy did include it on his album 7 Deadly Zens but with Kevin Cronan on backing vocals instead of Jack (and that is the one I have the video for…sorry).
The song seems to be about a woman Tommy loves but she doesn’t love him back. She is out trying to find herself and that one thing to complete her and they are all dead end roads like a trip to Mexico, voodoo, a new age guru, being a Hollywood Star. When she looks in the mirror, I don’t know if anyone is looking back. She seems empty. He still loves her and hopes she’s thinking of him and will come back to him. He believes she’s the one for him. I hope she finds herself. She reminds me of Jenny and Forrest Gump.
What does Mike have to say about the song…”Straight Down the Line” is the gem. It’s the fastest song of the whole bunch, upbeat but light, and a blast in the car. Tommy’s intricate little lightning fast guitar hook is a tasty delight. Tracks like this are why collectors really seek out Japanese imports. They are their own rewards.” And he isn’t wrong on his view of the song. There is a light, upbeat feeling despite the sadness in the lyrics of this lost go trying to find herself. The guitar work is great and it is such a catchy, airy song. I will have to go crank it in the car and see if he’s right about it being a blast. I have a feeling he is!
For My Sunday Song #382, we are looking at a rare track from Night Ranger called “Girls All Like It”. Tim’s pick this week, like all his picks, are rare tracks not found on any album. This one is a B-Side to the song “Color Of Your Smile” off the band’s 1987 album ‘Big Life’. The song was written by Jack Blades and Brad Gillis, but the song didn’t make the cut for the album. Luckily, it did see the light of day being a B-Side.
As I said above, the song never made it on to a Night Ranger album, however, part of this song ended up on a studio album for Jack’s band Damn Yankees. Some of the opening verse ended up as lyrics for their 1990 song “Rock City”. The song mention some guy in L.A. wearing his guitar low like Jimmy Page and the line in Rock City is below…you see the Jimmy Page line.
The sidewalk’s moving The palm trees sway The switchblade girls line ’em up in L.A. Everybody came here from somewhere to play They wear their guitars low just like Jimmy Page
A good line is a good line so why not re-use it. The song seems to be about a cocky rock star who rises to fame and comes crashing down. He is boisterous about how the girls all like it with him. He’s not boastful at all.
The song itself comes out swinging with some crunchy guitar riff that has all the attitude of the rock star the song is about. The keyboards are used sparingly for effect and not overpowering. Jack is on vocals and really is giving it his all almost giving too much. The guitar solo is worth a listen as Brad really hammers it home on this one. The song is rough around the edges, but I can see why it was left off the album as it doesn’t really fit the overall sound of that album. Too aggressive probably. A little more work and they could’ve transformed it in to a song fo that album as it needed a little more punch.
Back on Sunday, my neighbor had lawn seats to the Bret Michaels Party Gras concert that he couldn’t use. He asked and I said I would love to use them and why not as the show had Jefferson Starship, Night Ranger and Bret Michaels with friends Mark McGrath and Steve Augeri. Night Ranger was the only one I really wanted to see so it was a no brainer to take those tickets.
I was getting ready to leave when the rains came. I braved it and went anyway as the rain was supposed to stop soon. I had my lawn chair, some water and snacks ready to not only Rock America, but Rock Charlotte. I get to the show and stand in line holding my chair when I was told the lawn was closed tonight…WTF?? But good news, they were giving us seats. Apparently, tickets didn’t sell so they wanted to move everyone closer so the place looked full and it did. First though, I had to take my chair back to the car and then walk back and get in line…again.
Once in, I had to go to a table and pick up an actual seat ticket. I told the guy that if he only had front row left, I would make the sacrifice and take it. Sadly, he did not. I did get decent seats though as they were in Section 3, row S so it was fairly close off to the left of the stage. Once seated, I was ready to get started.
One of my favorite debut albums from a band is ‘Dawn Patrol’ from the band Night Ranger. Most people got in to Night Ranger thanks to either “Sister Christian” or “(You Can Still) Rock in America”, but for me, it was actually their debut album which came out November 1, 1982 and I’m sure I saw the video on MTV as I am not sure how else I would’ve heard of them at that time.
For those that don’t know, Night Ranger is made up of a bunch of extremely talented musicians. The guitar duo of Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson is an unbeatable duo and it almost wasn’t meant to be as Brad was playing with Ozzy Osbourne in 1982 after the tragic death of Randy Rhodes, but he didn’t end up fitting in with the band so he came back to Night Ranger. Kelly Keagy (drums) and Jack Blades (bass) were from a band called Rubicon which also happened to have Brad Gillis in it as well. They then brought in Alan Fitzgerald on keyboards and he came from the band Montrose. The band was complete and what I liked even more was that they had two singers with Kelly and Jack. Kiss had two singers as well and I loved Kiss so I was high on these guys as well for that two singer approach as it gives so much variety to the music.
And the music was great. It was hard rock with a hint of AOR as well. The guitars were immense, the drumming was sensational and the vocals were the best. The keyboards accentuated the music and not over powering it. The debut album was probably the most raw, most intense and the heaviest of that 80’s run which makes it my favorite.
An interesting fact about the band is that they were originally called Ranger and the debut album was printed with that name. Before it was shipped, it was discovered there was a country band called Ranger in California (where Night Ranger is from) and they were worried about getting sued. So, they destroyed all the albums and reprinted them with the new name Night Ranger which was taken from a song on the album. I wonder if any of those Ranger covers ever slipped through and somehow survived as that would be a pretty impressive collectible if so.
For Record Store Day, April 23, 2022, Night Ranger and Frontiers Records released an RSD “First Release” of two previously unreleased songs recorded during the recording sessions for their latest album ATBPO (And the Band Played On). That is right, two never before released tracks. Now that my friends, is a single worth picking up.
According to the back cover and the stickers on the vinyl, the A-Side is “Wasted Time” and the B-Side is called “Free”. However, that is not what you get. The A-Side of “Wasted Time” is actually the song “Free”. Which naturally means, the B-Side of “Free” is actually “Wasted Time”. Talk about a screw up. The Stickers are on the wrong sides. Oops. I find that pretty cool though, as I love little mistakes like that. The one thing that is not a mistake is the pretty Green Vinyl!! I like colored vinyl!
For Night Ranger, how do you follow-up your biggest hit, “Sister Christian”. Well, you release another ballad and they did it this time with “When You Close Your Eyes” the third single off their 1983 album ‘Midnight Madness’. It was released on July 14, 1984 as a single and it didn’t do as well as “Sister Christian” as it only went to #14 on the Billboard Charts. Only..right! Most bands would kill for that. It did help continue to catapult the album to well over 1 million copes giving them their first and maybe only Platinum album.
The song was written by Jack Blades with the help of Alan Fitzgerald and Brad Gillis. The song came about from Jack noodling around on the piano and he sang the chorus and thought it was great. He had Alan and Brad help but he couldn’t finish it with all the distractions while recording the album. He flew home and sat around the pool and then was inspired by his ex-girlfriend and wondering if she ever still thought about him. That inspiration turned in to a big hit for the band.
My copy is a U.S. Pressing with the B-Side as “Why Does Love Have to Change” which is also off ‘Midnight Madness’. My copy is the Gloversville pressing as it has this little flower symbol in the runout. Plus it only has the Midnight Madness album cover on the back where later pressing have that plus Dawn Patrol. It is pretty good shape and plays great.
After the massive success of their previous album, ‘Pump’, the band took a little break in 1992. They started recording the next album in January & February, but stopped for some rest and didn’t return until September of that year to finish up the album. The music environment had significantly changed since 1989’s ‘Pump’ so I believe everyone was curious as to what they would do. And it turns out, they would keep doing what they do best and didn’t change a thing. When most bands faded away around this time, Aerosmith ended up flourishing even more. How did they do it?
First thing was they brought back Bruce Fairbairn as their producer as he has been creating gold with everything they had done…or should I say Platinum since the last album went 7 x’s Platinum. Second, they brought in some friends to help out such as Don Henley and Lenny Kravitz. Third, the record company wanted them to continue using outside writers to help so back was Desmond Child, Jim Vallance, Jack Blades, Tommy Shaw, Richard Supa, Mark Hudson and Taylor Rhodes. Damn, that is a lot of help!!
The line-up was still unchanged with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer. The Boston Boys we ready to take on the world again. The album was released on April 23, 1993 and became the band’s first album to debut at #1 on the Charts. They released 7 singles on the album and selling over 7 million copies again in the U.S. It was the band’s third straight album of over 5 million in sales. If that wasn’t enough, the album won two Grammy’s for Best Rock Vocal Performance for a Duo or Group in both 1993 and 1994. The band was on fire still and the fans were eating it up.
I haven’t done one of these in awhile so I figured it was time to do another. I have been listening to a lot of Night Ranger lately so why not do one on them. Night Ranger have released 12 studio albums and numerous Live and Collection albums and they have been together off and on since 1979. They have had quite a long career.
The have released three albums since 2011 and their latest release is why I have gone back and listened to everything as I hadn’t done that in a very long time. In doing so, I remembered what albums I really loved, which ones were so-so and which ones I do not like. I might as well tackle the daunting task of ranking the albums from Worst to First. Without any further delay, lets get to it.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 