It is the after Thanksgiving in the States and it is known as Black Friday. Because of that, there are not many new releases unless you are being released on Record Store Day – Black Friday…that list is at the bottom of the regular album releases. And for the regular releases there is nothing for me, but for Black Friday Record Store Day I would like the Collective Soul and my daughter wants the Olivia Rodrigo one. I also wouldn’t mind getting the Limp Bizkit one on CD but don’t tell anyone. Let me know what you want to pick up this week or what we may have missed. Thanks and have a great weekend.
After being approached by actor, Emilio Estevez, to use the Bon Jovi song “Wanted Dead or Alive” for the soundtrack to his new movie, the western ‘Young Guns II’, Jon declined the offer. Instead of flat out declining though, Jon offered to write a new song for the movie and that one song turned in to a whole album of songs from and inspired by the movie.
The title track, “Blaze of Glory” was written on a napkin while Jon was sitting with the cast while they were eating hamburgers. Keifer Sutherland said that Jon wrote it in like 6 minutes and it made him feel stupid as he wrote a number one song while they ate. Jon played the song to Emilio Estevez and producer John Fusco. Fusco took the song to his co-producers in the trailer and the decision was made right then and there to make it the theme song for the movie.
The single was released on July 21, 1990 and was Jon’s one and only #1 song on the Billboard Charts outside of his day job band Bon Jovi. The song had a hell of a line-up on it including Elton John, Aldo Nova, Randy Jackson, Kenny Aronoff and on guitar was Jeff Beck. Not too shabby. As you can see here my version of the single is a Cassette Single or “Cassingle”. The B-Side is the Jon and Little Richard duet, “Your Really Got Me Now” and no , not the Kinks’ song.
After the extensive worldwide tour for Bon Jovi’s ‘New Jersey’ album, the band was spent. They were exhausted and I am sure they were sick of each other. Over 200 shows together would make anyone need a break. And Bon Jovi needed a break or it was going to be over. The band members stayed busy as we will see these next few reviews. Jon Bon Bovi kept busy by doing his first solo album and it wasn’t your typical solo album. After being approached by actor, Emilio Estevez, to use the Bon Jovi song “Wanted Dead or Alive” for the soundtrack to his new movie, the western ‘Young Guns II’, Jon declined the offer.
Instead of flat out declining though, Jon offered to write a new song for the movie and that one song turned in to a whole album of songs from and inspired by the movie. In fact, only 2 songs were actually in the movie, the song Jon promised to write “Blaze of Glory’ and then the song “Billy Get Your Guns” which both appeared during the end credits. The rest were only inspired by the movie. Jon was so in to the movie, he was actually in the movie where he appeared in the movie during the scene where Doc and Chavez were prisoners in the pit…Jon was one of the other prisoners.
As we know, Jon doesn’t do anything half-ass and the musician friends he brought in were top notch. There is Jeff Beck, Elton John and Little Richard to name the A-Team. But the B-Team are no slouch either with Kenny Aronoff on drums, Robbin Crosy from Ratt, American Idol’s Randy Jackson and one of my favorite artists Aldo Nova. Jon would turn around and help Aldo for his next album ‘Blood on the Bricks’ where Jon and Aldo co-wrote all the songs together. The songs were not about rock & roll and girls anymore. Jon really pushed his boundaries and wrote about more mature subject matters, this would aid his future writing as we would see on future Bon Jovi albums.
The album came out on August 7, 1990 (that date will come up again in Jon’s world). The album would spawn four singles and reach #3 on the Billboard charts. The album sold over 2 million copies reaching Double Platinum in the States. The album wasn’t that much of a departure from Bon Jovi. It has the same cowboy rock style like their songs “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “Stick To Your Guns” and “Wild is the Wind”. So no surprise it did well. Also, Jon was the first with a solo album during this little break, but is it the best? We will see won’t we. Let’s get to the music.
Alright…You Picked It! And this one I thought was going to be a blowout as Ozzy jumped out front right out of the gate, but others gained ground. In the end, Ozzy held on and never lost its #1 ranking. Therefore the winner was Ozzy Osbourne’s – ‘Patient Number 9’ which is a new release and not one I’ve actually bought yet…will this make me run out and buy it? We will see. Here are the results.
Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Patient Number 9’ – 10 votes
Joy Division – ‘Unknown Pleasures’ – 5 votes
The Darkness – ‘Permission to Land’ – 5 votes
Loretta Lynn – ‘Van Lear Rose’ – 3 votes
Peter Gabriel – ‘So’ – 2 votes
Thanks to all for participating. The November choices will be up on Saturday! And the choices are changing as they are all now from my collection and will have a loose theme.
OZZY OSBOURNE – ‘PATIENT NUMBER 9’ (2022):
Ozzy started work on this album about 2 years ago, just days after the release of the stellar “Ordinary Man” release in 2020. I really liked that album so this one had some big shoes to fill. You keep seeing pictures of Ozzy in the media and you think to yourself, how is this man still alive. He looks like death is standing next to him, tapping him on the shoulder. However, when you hear the last album and this one, you realize, there is still plenty of life in the Prince of Darkness.
This album sees Ozzy bring back in a ton of old friends as we have guest appearances from Jeff Beck, Mike McCreedy, Eric Clapton and his old Sabbath bandmate, Tony Iommi. And if that wasn’t enough, former Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde is back on guitar for four of the 13 tracks. So, 10 of the 13 tracks all have a special guest, those last 3 do not. But the listed special guests are only the tip of the iceberg as there are some big names playing on this album. And speaking of 13 tracks, this album feels long…very long as it runs over an hour long…that is a lot of Ozzy.
For My Sunday Song #129, we are tackling the Jeff Beck classic, “Beck’s Bolero”. The song was recorded back in 1966 and released by Beck in 1967. This was the first release after Beck left the Yardbirds in hopes of quieting everyone that were upset about him leaving the band. The song would wind up on his 1968 debut album ‘Truth’.
Now, before we get in to the song, I think we need to discuss the musicians that were on this track. The songwriter is said to be a guitarist by the name of Jimmy Page with contributions to it by Beck himself. The line-up was Jeff Beck (of course), Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins. Damn!! That is a line-up. It was later confirmed that was the early incarnations of a little band you might have heard of called Led Zeppelin!! Pretty dang cool.
Okay, back to the song…the song is inspired in part by Ravel’s “Bolero” obviously. The song is made up of three parts. The first is Page giving us that Bolero sound and then Beck bringing in the melody and almost spiritual, spacey sound going. Part two kicks in with a scream and Keith Moon beating the crap out of the drums. The tempo picks up with some distorted guitar sounds and the song rocks out with some slamming keyboard as well. And part three brings us back to the earthy sounds of the beginning with some added fills and more melody. It is a sensational journey.
I have been waiting for this Friday since I found out Needtobreathe was releasing a new album. That pretty much means I don’t give a rat’s ass about anything else coming out today. There are some I will check out after several days of listening to ‘Hard Love’. Those will be highlighted in Blue.
Needtobreathe – Hard Love – (Atlantic): Nothing else matters. This is the release to check out. They have been one of my favorite, if not my favorite, band over the last decade. “Happiness” is classic Needtobreathe so I have high expectations this release.
Take That – This Life – (EMI / Universal Music)
Busta Rhymes – BlockBusta – (Conglomerate Ent. / Epic Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 