My Sunday Song – “Echoes From The Past” by The Poodles

For My Sunday Song #429, we are rocking out to “Echoes From The Past” by the Swedish band The Poodles. It is the opening track to their 2006 debut album ‘Metal Will Stand Tall’. And it does that throughout the album. This is one of the standout tracks on the album (which might be why it is first) and was written by Jakob Samuel, Pontus Norgren, and Chris Goldsmith. And fun fact, both Jakob and Pontus were members of the band Talisman which was fronted by Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacobs. Jakob was actually the drummer and here he is the singer.

The song talks about failing whether it is from a success or a relationship. Apparently the failure is frequent with the person in this song as God is laughing at him wondering if he’ll ever learn. It seems to be about how fame is so fleeting and can disappear as quickly and easily as it was obtained. The echoes of that fame keep coming back to haunt him. But it could be a doomed relationship. It failed and they both ran. He calls out to her and if she were to call out to him, he would be there. Either interpretation works as once the song is out there, the interpretation is in the ears of the listener and what it means to them.

When you hear The Poodles, you are immediately transferred back to a time when the Glam and Melodic rock scene was at its peak around the world with acts like Bon Jovi and that ilk…well in Sweden that genre never has seemed to die out as they are putting out some great bands with The Poodles leading the charge. The opening track of the album, “Echoes From The Past” comes roaring out of the gate with its pounding drums and gritty guitar riffs. Jakob’s vocals have a grit to them and yet sound so silky smooth and his vocals can soar to the heaven’s. It is full of hooks and harmonies and everything you want in a great rock song. The first time I heard this song, I was hooked and a massive fan.

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The Original vs. The Cover – “Crazy Horses”

We haven’t done an Original vs The Cover in quite a long time, so I thought I’d do one. And why not pick something a little out of the ordinary and pick a song from The Osmonds…yes, that’s right, The Osmonds. The song is off their 1972 album called ‘Crazy Horses’ and was written by Alan, Wayne and Merrill Osmond. The album saw the band go from a boy band into this grown up guys band. They finally get to write and pick the songs where the label had done that prior to this album. It is probably the heaviest song they have ever done.

The single was really big going to #2 in the UK and #14 in the U.S. It brought a new audience to the band that had been mostly women and now the guys were taking notice. The song was actually banned in several countries as they thought the song was about drugs as Horses is sometimes used for heroin. And there was a line about smoke in the air and that was mistaken for drugs as well. But this is The Osmonds, the song was actually about the big gas guzzling cars of the 70’s and how they were not good for the environment. The brothers were actually a little ahead of their time with an environmental song.

It has been covered by so many bands over the years, but I wanted to pick the version that made me love the song and that was a cover by the Swedish band, The Poodles. Their version was the opening track to their 2018 covers album called ‘Prisma’. I don’t like covers album, generally, but this one kicked some major ass. Let’s get to the music.

THE OSMONDS:

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January 2024 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Welcome to the first Purchases wrap ip of 2024. And January was a big month for CDs, thanks in part to 2nd & Charles and their great sale of Buy 5, Get 5 Free! I always take full advantage of that sale and this time was no different. And instead of only buying 5 and getting 5, I found enough to Buy 10 and get 10 Free. Here are the 10 I bought…

And here are the 10 I got for Free (or could be the other way around, doesn’t matter)…

And then shortly after that, something I bought with my Christmas Gift Cards I received showed up. I have been wanting this vinyl for quite some time and I finally bought it. If that wasn’t enough, later in the month I was at an antique shop called ‘Sleepy Poets’ and I found the cassette for the same album. Had to buy it. Now, I have it on CD, vinyl and Cassette…

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July 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs & More

July was the month of local record stores. I spent a lot of time at a couple this month, Noble Records and Hardy Boys, both excellent local shops. First, we made a trip to Noble Records and I actually had a good trip for vinyl. Meaning I bought a handful not just one here and one there. I grabbed some I’ve been meaning to add to the collection and Tim Durling is to blame for 3 of them as he’s been talking about them a lot.

And if that wasn’t enough, I was scanning the cassettes and I found a ton of Kiss cassettes, those are hard to come by so I grabbed them even though they weren’t in the best shape. I didn’t care too much about that as I just wanted them in the collection. They needed a new home anyway, so why not…I adopted a bunch…

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April 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs & DVDs

Okay, grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax as we are going to be here awhile as April turned in to a stellar month. And let’s just jump right in to this shall we. Before March even closed and after I wrote the March post on the purchases, this arrived in the mail…Needtobreathe’s Fan Club Exclusive vinyl autographed by the band. It is the 1st Edition from 2022 and took awhile to get here. And two weeks or so later. the 2nd Edition for 2023 arrived, autographed by the band. These are two of my favorite pieces now in my collection. As they are one of my favorite bands (after Kiss & Def Leppard of course).

And if that wasn’t enough with autographs, Jason Bieler released his latest album and I was able to grab on CD with his signature. I could’ve done vinyl, but I don’t have of his albums on vinyl so why start now. And this another great one. His stuff is so interesting and eclectic, Love it!!

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You Picked It! – The Poodles – ‘Metal Will Stand Tall’ – Album Review

Alright…You Picked It! This one was never really close. A couple made some last minute moves to catch the leader, but there was no catching this dog as it ended up not even close. The winner this month was The Poodles’ ‘Metal Will Stand Tall’.

  1. The Poodles – ‘Metal Will Stand Tall – 7 votes
  2. Gotthard – ‘Lipservice’ – 3 votes
  3. Jorn – ‘Worldchanger’ – 2 votes
  4. Passion – ‘Passion’ – 2 votes
  5. Reach – ‘The Promise of Life – 1 vote

Thanks to all for participating. The April choices will be up on Saturday! And the choices are all from my collection and the next one will all be focused all on Rock Candy Re-issues. Hopefully you can help me decide which one I should review. And to note, it will be the very last You Pick It! we do hear as there isn’t enough participation to make this worth doing anymore, I’m just going to start pulling from my collection and reviewing on my own going forward. Thanks all for playing along.

THE POODLES – ‘METAL WILL STAND TALL’ (2006):

The Poodles are a Swedish glam/metal band and how I came across them is thanks to two things. First was Melodicrock.com as Andrew McNeice talked about them a lot. The second was the fact that The Poodles had a strong connection to Jeff Scott Soto. Both the lead singer, Jakob Samuel and guitarists Pontus Norgren were in Jeff Scott Soto’s band Talisman. The funny thing is that Jakob was a drummer back then, now he is front and center as a lead singer. Now, what I find interesting is how the Poodles came to being. Jakob was asked to sing the song “Night of Passion” for the Swedish music contest Melodifestivalen in 2006. The winner of this contest goes on to compete in the major contest called Eurovision. Well, Jakob compiled a band together including Pontus Nogren as well as Pontus Egberg on bass and Christian Lundqvist on drums. The band didn’t win, but they did come in fourth which is pretty darn respectable. From there, they went and did an album and here we are.

When you hear The Poodles, you are immediately transferred back to a time when the Glam and Melodic rock scene was at its peak around the world with acts like Bon Jovi and that ilk…well in Sweden that genre never has seemed to die out as they are putting out some great bands with The Poodles leading the charge. The opening track, “Echoes From The Past” comes roaring out of the gate with its pounding drums and gritty guitar riffs. Jakob’s vocals have a grit to them and yet sound so silky smooth and his vocals can soar to the heaven’s. It is full of hooks and harmonies and everything you want in a great rock song.

Continue reading “You Picked It! – The Poodles – ‘Metal Will Stand Tall’ – Album Review”

February 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

We had another good month here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music and the collection keeps growing, both the vinyl and the CD collection as well as now even the cassette collection. I found some more stuff to add to the ever growing Kiss collection, the Needtobreathe collection, the Matt Nathanson collection and even the Ratt and Whitesnake collections.

First thing that came in was something that was bought months ago, but the vinyl had been delayed. It finally arrived and it is the new Matt Nathanson album ‘Boston Accent’ which now completes my vinyl collection for Matt…well until he releases something else of course…

Then I bought a bunch of things this month from the internet including some new releases as well as filling out my The Poodles collection, Eclipse, Wig Wam and H.E.A.T. The Wig Wam can be counted as new too along with The Winery Dogs…

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You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in March?

You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are no longer rules for my selections, maybe themes.  I’m just picking albums in my collection and this time they are all from European Bands that never really made it in the States. What are the 5 albums you ask?  I have them right here…

   Gotthard – ‘Lipservice‘ (2005)

   The Poodles – ‘Metal Will Stand Tall’ (2006)

   Jorn – ‘Worldchanger ‘(2001)

   Reach – ‘The Promise of Life’ (2021)

   Passion – ‘Passion’ (2020)

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in March, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

January 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Last year flew by and now here we are in 2023 and already at our first month purchases wrap-up. It was a good start to the year if I do say so myself. I started a new collection, found some stuff for other collections I have, treated myself to an album I’ve been wanting for years and even found a Jeff Scott Soto CD that I didn’t even know existed. I would say that all makes for a solid month.

The month kicked off in full glory when 2nd & Charles kicked off the year with a buy 5 get 5 free sale on their CDs and so I pounced on it. Sadly, my memory sucks and one is one I already had, see if you can guess which one because it was in my November purchases as well.

If that wasn’t enough, later in the month I went by Repo Records here in Charlotte and found a handful of picture sleeve 45’s. I love the picture sleeves and so I bought about 9 this time around. Some great stuff to add to the collection…

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The Top Rock Songs of 2018

Welcome to the Top 20 Rock Songs of 2018.  These songs are my favorite songs of the year and were not necessarily played on the radio or even shot up the charts.  They just moved me in some way good or bad!

If you missed the Top Rock Albums of 2018 or the Top Albums of 2018 (that were not Rock), just click on the link and go check them out.

It is time to start the list so here we go…

#20 – “Loading Zones” –  Kurt Vile off the album ‘Bottle it In’:  Kurt’s can be about the mundane and anything that troubles him in life. This is about the horrors of trying to park in the city.  It has such a great little beat to it and some great guitar and such a simple subject that yet turns into something amazing.  The video is great as well.

#19 – “Roll Me Under” – Stone Temple Pilots off the album ‘Stone Temple Pilots (2018)’:  I know I did give the album the best review, but I liked this song.  It had the old STP sound, but it was also Jeff Gutt at his best on the album.  Such a heavy bass and guitar sound,  it was just great.

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