Tag: Till The End of Time

Soto – ‘Revision’ (2020) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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During the Covid pandemic, there was no touring, records kept getting delayed and the music industry felt like it was basically shut down. During this time though, some artists stayed creative and Jeff Scott Soto was one of them. He took 10 of his songs and redid them. If you are thinking this is a Bon Jovi ‘This Left Feels Right’ disaster, you would be wrong. It is less a re-imagining of the songs and more of stripping them down to their bare essence. He did everything himself, except for the mixing which he had some friends handle that part such as David Clarkson, John Ellis, and Alessandro Del Vecchio. And I was curious as to what songs he would choose to re-visit and he chose songs that he was the solo writer on and that makes sense as he wouldn’t need approval from anyone else since they were his songs.

The project was originally going to be released as a Jeff Scott Soto solo album, however, there were some legal issues with that maybe because he had just released a solo album a month or two earlier or who knows why. So, Jeff took it his other band, SOTO, and released it under their name. And the release is only available as a digital only release. There is no physical product as of now. Hopefully that will change down the road. I get why he put it under the SOTO moniker so it could get released, but don’t think this is a Metal album at all. This is stripped down, mostly acoustic and slowed down versions of his songs. Nothing metal about them.

The opening track is “Eyes of Love” off his second solo album, ‘Prism’. The original version is a hard rock, melodic ass kicker and here the song his just Jeff and a piano and turned in to a beautiful ballad. Stripping the songs down gives the songs a new chance to shine while really showcasing the power of Jeff’s voice and this is a great way to kick it all off.

The next rack is “My Love, My Friend” which was an a cappella track from Soul Sirkus’ album ‘World Play’ which he did with Neal Schon. He added a drum beat and a piano to it including extra lyrics and more arrangements. It is now a fully flushed out song rather than a short all vocal track. Is it better? It is different and not a bad track. The electronic drum sound hurts it for me. A respectable version for sure, but not a full on knock-out.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘LA Rocks Demo / Vinnie Vincent Demo 1988’ Bootleg (2008) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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I was scouring eBay for a few of the remaining Soto albums I don’t have, and sadly, none were for sale at the time. However, I cam across something I had never seen before. It was a bootleg of Jeff Scott Soto demos. And to top it off, it was actually signed by Jeff Scott Soto. The person I bought it from lives in Germany and his name was Stefan. It turns out, Stefan is the lead singer of the band Speed Limit (check them out, they are pretty cool) and he had opened for Soto on a tour and actually met Jeff and got him to sign the CD. I thought all that was pretty cool and I love having a story behind my purchase.

LA ROCKS DEMOS:

So, what is this CD? It is a bootleg, mostly of demos from Jeff’s early years with LA Rocks and with Vinnie Vincent. We never got any albums out of those two projects, but at least we have some demos. The first set of songs say they are from his band LA Rocks. Back in 1986, Aldy Damian approached Jeff about joining the band. Jeff was busy with his own band called L’amour at the time and so he wasn’t really interested in joining LA Rocks. However, he did agree to do a couple demos for them and they paid him, so how could he say no. After Jeff, turned it down, they went after James Christian and he agreed. James became known for his other band House of Lords later.

The project didn’t end up going anywhere and the band later on became known as something you are more familiar with as we have discussed them in this series and that is the band Eyes of which Jeff sang on a couple of their albums. It all comes around full circle in the end. These set of songs here under the LA Rock Demos section, are a mixture of LA Rocks and Eyes demos and some aren’t even either band. The tracks “Hands of Time” and “Heart of the Fire” were demos for songs used on the movie ‘Rich Girl’. The songs “For You”, “Till the End of Time” and “Nobody Said it was Easy” are all demos for the band Eyes. And the song “Hold On”, not really sure where that is from but maybe it is from LA Rocks.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Essential Ballads’ (2006) – Album Review

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Jeff has only had 3 solo albums up to this point, a couple E.P.’s and that is about it. Yet, we get an entire album of ballads from those releases. Yes, only from his solo albums which leaves out a bunch of great ones from other bands he has been in, but that is okay. This is more than enough. Now, I have no idea whose idea this was…maybe Frontiers Records and maybe Jeff’s which would not be a surprise since when he sang with Axel Rudi Pell, Axel put out entire ballad collections as well. Whatever reason, this is a lot of ballads to take in all at once.

The one good thing about this release is they did add 3 bonus tracks, 2 of which have never been released, so that is always a good thing. That is 16 songs…all ballads…did I mention that it is a lot of a ballads to take in all at once. However, there isn’t a ton of information on the background of this release, so that is all I have for you. As a result, we might as well go through all the songs.

First up from his latest solo release ‘Lost in the Translation’, we get “If This is The End”. It starts off with some slow tempo guitar picking and then Jeff’s vocals softly, yet smoothly float over the verses. Around the 2nd verse, the drums kick in and some electric guitar riffs tossed in. It does pick up a little on the tempo and when it hits that second chorus Jeff’s vocals soar to new heights. Not one of his best ballads, but I like it as it does have a decent solo and is more proof that Jeff can do it all.

Next up is “As I Do 2 U” from his E.P. ‘Believe In Me’. This track is a demo (one of two on here) from a project that never got off the ground called Three Kings. It had Jamie Borger (drummer for Talisman) and Goran Elmquist. It is an acoustic ballad and being a demo, it feels unfinished but it isn’t half bad. A little cheesy, but there are elements there that could’ve turned in to something nice.

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