Back in December 2021 when I announced I was doing a Jeff Scott Soto Series, I got a lot of response on the picture of my collection. One such person contacted me on Facebook and offered to send me a hard back edition of a biography on Jeff Scott Soto, so I quickly thanked him and agreed. He quickly mailed out this glorious copy of the book. His name was Sundeep Pooni and that book has been a massive reference guide for my review series up to this point. So, a big thank you to Sundeep and his very generous gift!! From here on out in the review series, we are past the date of the book so none of the albums I’ll be reviewing from ere on out are in the book, so I am on my own.
Before we get to the next review, let’s go through this book. It was originally written by Ronny Hahn and it was written in German and only an electronic book. For the 30th Anniversary of Jeff’s career, it was released thanks to Frank Tunney who took the original book and added more chapters and re-organized the structure. It is now a hard back book and chock full of the details of his career that all hardcore fans love to know. The book is called “Authorized” so it has the blessing of the man himself and that is good enough for me.
The book starts off with the original foreward written by Ronny Zahn and then there is a great dedication to the late Marcel Jacobs who played with Jeff in several bands and was a very close personal friend. It was a terrible loss, but thankfully he left behind a great legacy of music. Afterwards you get a brief biography of Jeff’s very early life, but the rest of the book is all Jeff’s music career.
Takara had 2 albums in the can with Jeff never really being an official member. He was always doing the vocals to help promote the band and hopefully giving them a chance to find a new singer. The third album was written and the music was laid down back in December 1996. The tapes were sent to Jeff and it took almost a year for Jeff to finish the vocals as he was so busy with The Boogie Knights. You might ask yourself, why did the band wait for Jeff. Well according to Neil Grusky, there was no one as good as Jeff. And that might be true, but was it worth it? Probably not as the band never really took off and never found success with or without Jeff. Without a full commitment from Jeff and the band not finding another singer, they were really destined for nothing.
Three years after the release of their second album, ‘Taste of Heaven’, the new album ‘Blind in Paradise’ was finally released. The band consisted of Jeff Scott Soto on vocals, Neal Grusky on guitar, Carl Demarco on bass, Eric Rango on keyboards and Robert Duda on drums. The band continued their AOR sound and being 1998, it is a very dated sound for even that time as this album reeks of the 80’s. I’m not saying that is a bad thing…it just isn’t really a good thing.
My copy is a cool one I think as I have the Japanese version. It comes with the prized OBI strip and even a postcard to join their MVP Supporting Club. The booklet is half in English and half in Japanese which better than getting two separate books. It also has two bonus tracks and that is really why we want the Japanese Edition is those bonus tracks. If you look at the song titles, you see a lot of numbers or letters replacing words. Soto is huge fan of Prince and Prince did that a lot so Soto thought if it was good enough for Prince, it is good enough for him. Now, enough about this version, let us get to the music.
When we reviewed Takara’s ‘Eternal Faith’ album a few weeks back, we mentioned that Jeff Scott Soto said he wasn’t a member of Takara and did it as a favor. Well, a couple years later we are back with the second Takara album and who is singing? It is a Mr. Jeff Scott Soto, of course. After the band had such success in Japan with ‘Eternal Faith’, the Japanese record company wanted another album and would only do it with Jeff on vocals. Jeff didn’t want to let his good friend, Neal Grusky, down and be the reason his buddy lost his record contract, so Jeff being the man he is agreed to do vocal duties again as well as Produced, Engineered and Mixed the album. When Jeff says he’s going to help out, there is no half-assing it for him.
The band had more money to produce this record then the measly $2,500 for the last so we do get better production quality…plus Jeff was getting better at it. The biggest difference is that Jeff’s friend Greg Schutt was no longer on bass. Duties were handled by Carl DeMarco. There were two songs that the bass was done by Bob Daisley from Ozzy and Rainbow fame which is pretty cool, but Carl was the now official band member. On drums, we still had Robert Duda and Neal Grusky on guitar as expected. There are also some keyboard elements done by none other than Jeff’s then girlfriend Julie Greaux, of course!
The album was released on May 24, 1995 in Japan and went to #96 on their national charts, so not bad at all. The version I have is the Canadian Release from 1995 but the CD has 1993. That isn’t the only mistake the CD has as it also called the last song “Lonely Sade of Blue” omitting the “h” in Shade. Oops! Good quality control goes a long way. Let’s get to the music, shall we!
The story of Jeff Scott Soto and Takara starts way back in 1985 when Jeff met Neal Grusky who is a founding member of Takara. They quickly became friends through their mutual love of music. Neal started Takara in 1987, but it wasn’t until November 1988 that Jeff really got involved. He agreed to help produce a set of demos for the band. When current lead sing, Mark Del Papa, couldn’t do the vocals due to drug issues, Jeff jumped in and sang on the demos as well. The demos were strictly to help the band find a lead singer. Now, where have we heard that before??? Oh yeah, Panther.
Jeff’s job was to produce and do the scratch vocals. They would bring in other singers to sing as well and Jeff would help produce and mix those. This went on for a number of years and they had done demos from 1987 to 1991. There was no intention to release these, it was strictly to get the band moving forward. Also, Jeff had never produced or mixed before so it was a trial by fire process.
Somehow, the tapes wound up with EMI/Toshiba in Japan and the label really liked them and showed interest in the band. But there was a catch…isn’t there always. They didn’t want to release an album with the other singers, they only liked Jeff’s versions and would only release it with Soto as the singer. Neal went back to his friend and Jeff being the good friend he was, agreed to let that happen as he didn’t want his friend to lose the label deal.
Starting January 3rd, 2022, we will kick off the EPIC series covering one of my favorite singers, Jeff Scott Soto!! We will go through his entire career from where it all began in 1984 with Panther all the way to his latest solo album that came out this past October called ‘Duets’. Wait, I know it started with a band called Threshold in 1983 (not to be confused with the prog metal band years later), but I can’t find anything on that band or album so it is starting with Panther for this series as I have that album.
No stone will be left unturned! Okay, that isn’t true as we are not going in to any compilations or tribute albums where he wasn’t the featured singer as this will only be albums that Jeff is the Lead Singer and not just appearing on one song as we would be here forever if that was the case. We will also have some great little bonus pieces with Singles and E.P.’s I happen to have in my collection and interesting one-off projects he has done. Heck, I even have a digital bootleg of when Jeff Scott Soto toured as the lead singer with Journey. And as you can see below, it is quite a collection…if I do say so myself…
There will be over 65 Posts in the Series, you read that right, 65!! And that is at least 65 because I am sure he will release 1 to 2 to maybe even 4 albums by the time I’m done. I expect this to take over a year to complete because this isn’t all I’m going to do. No, not at all. We will still finish up the series of Cheap Trick and Aerosmith that we are currently doing in 2022 and when those end I am sure new series will be added in as well. Quite possibly Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Poison or even Def Leppard. It won’t be all, just a couple of them, but I can’t decide which ones yet. But heck, I do already have an idea of which epic artist I want to tackle after Jeff, but that will be 2023 and it could be huge. We will announce it next year.
Can’t believe it is time for another monthly wrap-up. This year has flown by in almost a blink. October wasn’t as fruitful as other months although it was still pretty good. I only actually hit a record store once during the month. The rest were all bought online whether Amazon, Discogs or directly from the artist.
The first batch is from a trip my daughter and I made to the local antique mall. This mall is really great as it has several booths strictly related to vinyl and that is always where I ended up spending all my time. My daughter wants to look at vintage clothing. It is sad when clothes from when I grew up is now vintage, but that is another story. First up are two Aerosmith releases. One I had on CD, but I had really been looking for a decent vinyl version and finally got one. The other release is a 12″ Maxi Single for “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)”.
The other two items were 12″ Singles for ZZ Top and Bon Jovi. The Bon Jovi is an E.P. and one I had only seen on Mike Ladano’ssite when he wrote about a couple years ago. When I saw it, it was an easy decision.
There was only one more vinyl purchase for the month and this one is the coolest. It is the brand new E.P. from Billy Idol called ‘The Roadside’. I’ve ready written a review for it so you can check it out HERE!!!!!. This one is special because it is autographed by the man, the myth, the legend, Billy Idol. You know when you get some autographs they send a picture insert that the artist signs? Well, they do. Except for Billy. Billy sends an actual album jacket with no album and signs the jacket. Then they send a separate sealed album. Strange, but okay.
And that was the last of the vinyl for the month. The rest are all CDs. I have a wishlist on Discogs and this month, I decided each week I was going to buy something from that list. Easy enough right? Except when you decide which seller to use and find out they actually have several items from that artist that are on your list or other artist and that is where the trouble ensues. I figured, well, I have to buy them all because I will save a ton on shipping…and I’m right. There were three shipments and most were Jeff Scott Soto releases because I am wrapping up my purchases before we start the Jeff Scott Soto series in January 2022! It will be a great way to kick off the new year. Here is what I got…
And then there were a few more…and these last 3 came from France. I didn’t read the listing very well and didn’t realize he shipped these without their cases. I guess that is why the shipping was so cheap from France. Luckily I had some empty cases laying around.
Now a few of the first picture I bought and wound up buying stuff from another artist because I saved on shipping. It was two of Joe Elliott’s Down ‘N Outz side project that I had on CD at one and no longer do…but I do again…long story, sad, don’t won’t get in to it!!
And another purchase I ended up buying a Bonus E.P. from Needtobreathe’s album ‘Hard Love’ which I forgot I didn’t actually have on CD. What was I thinking. It is sealed and I’m trying to decide if I will keep it that way…
Then using MyPoints gift cards, I picked up a couple free things on Amazon. They are both from a band called Tait. The lead singer is Michael Tait formerly of the band DC Talk. His voice is like butter. He sounds like Nat King Cole, but rocks out. Really cool stuff. One of the CDs arrived sealed and autographed by the band. I must not have read the description too well because I don’t remember reading it was autographed. Cool enough. And thanks to Lori for getting rid of it.
And the very last thing I got were a couple of CDs from my pal who I mentioned earlier, Mike Ladano or LeBrain from the The LeBrain Train. He was kind enough to send me the new Max the Axe E.P. and threw in the debut Cars CD which for some reason I didn’t have on CD. I do on vinyl, but nice to have a remastered version as well. Thanks Mike. Now, the Max the Axe CD you just read about on Monday so you know all about that one now.
Not a bad haul I guess. It is just weird that most of these I bought online and not from an actual record shop. I hope I get to hit one or two in October. I know there is record show on October 9th, so I will at least hit that. Until next time, happy purchasing!! Here is everything one more time…
Wow, how time has flown. Summer is winding down, school is back in session and we had a big month here at the 2 Loud 2 Old Music home life. Our oldest daughter turned 18 and moved off to college the very next day. A very happy and sad time in our life. And my youngest became a freshman herself in High School. Man, they grow up so fast. And usually when I have these big moments that make me happy and yet sad, I drown that sad part in purchases and I have to say, there were a few this month and so we might as well get to it…
To start it off, the first album on the list this month is one that came out on July 30th, but I didn’t get the album in time for the July post so it kicks off this month’s post. The brand new album by Needtobreathe called “Into the Mystery” and my copy is CD. I also have the Vinyl on order but due to delays we won’t see that until November which is why I have the CD now.
Then my daughter and I were out and I picked up a few random items. First was bought at Manifest Disc in the used CD section and was something I have already, but didn’t. It was a limited deluxe edition CD with a 64 page mini-magazine of Kiss’ Monster. I have this one on vinyl, but this was too cheap and cool to pass up.
Below is one of the first post I ever did for this site and I haven’t updated since. That was 4 years ago. Jeff Scott Soto has released a ton of albums since then so I figured I needed to do an update on this post from 4/17/2016. If I was to complete do this from scratch today, it wouldn’t look this pedestrian, but I will leave it is an just update some albums and song information. I have been on a big JSS kick lately so I want to spread the love….I hope you enjoy.
UPDATED POST:
The artist spotlight is on one of my favorite rock vocalists, Jeff Scott Soto. I came across his music thanks to a great website by Andrew McNiece – Melodicrock.com (go check it out). If you haven’t heard of Jeff, let me tell you a little about him.
Jeff has only been in a few bands – Yngwie Malemsteen’s Rising Force, Talisman, W.E.T., Sons of Apollo, SOTO, Soul Sirkus, Redlist, Eyes, Journey (yes, that Journey), Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Takara, Eyes, Axel Rudi Pell and I believe there are several others so yeah…only a few.
He also has made appearances on so many other albums (too numerous to list). Most recently he was on Joel Hoekstra’s 13 album “Dying to Live” which I thought was a great album. He was even in the fictional band Steel Dragon from the movie “Rock Star” with Mark Wahlberg. And lastly, he has had a great solo career.
I mentioned he was in Journey above. In 2006, Journey let their lead singer go, Steve Augeri, and picked up Jeff to finish the tour. Jeff had worked withNeal Schon in the group Soul Sirkus which I will talk more about later. I was so excited with that announcement as after hearing his version of “Send Her My Love”, I knew he had the chops for it. Sadly, it didn’t last. After the tour they let him go and went with a different singer.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 