I hope by now I’m well into recovery! The fifth song for Teeth Week is Dokken’s “Tooth and Nail”, from the album of the same name, released in 1984. This excellent record is notable for also including the landmark ballad “Alone Again”. Written by “Wild” Mick Brown, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson, “Tooth and Nail” is an uptempo metal smoker about typical metal subject matter. Tearing it up in the daytime. Being reckless and free. Being strong and fighting tooth and nail. Hopefully that’s what I’m doing this week as I recover from my surgery.
“Tooth and Nail” is notable for being on every Dokken live album, with the exception of the 1983 recording From Conception which predates the track. It’s even on the unplugged One Live Night album. It’s certainly a mainstay in Dokken sets. Please root for me to fight tooth and nail as I recover from my surgery.
Desperate living- driving me mad Writings on the wall Crushed all our hopes and the dreams we once had Just to watch them fall
Tearing it up in the daytime Burning it down at night How long does it take To break the spell Straight to the top Tooth and nail
Last generation- reckless and free Up against the odds Thoughts of revenge are going trough me Fate lies in the cards
Tearing it up in the daytime Burning it down at night How long does it take To break the spell Straight to the top Tooth and nail
Desperate living- trying to see Breaking all the rules Only the strong are gonna be free From a world of fools
Tooth and nail Tooth and nail Straight to the top Tooth and nail
The last song on side one of Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies album in 1973 was a lyrical departure. Instead of the horrors of monsters, or necrophilia, this time Alice is comically singing about the horrors of dental surgery! Too much candy, and now it’s time for a trip to the dentist. The sound of drills echo in your head as the song plays. Live on stage, Cindy Smith (Neal Smith, drummer’s sister, and future wife of Dennis Dunaway) dressed as a giant tooth and danced around while Alice brushed her with a giant toothbrush.*
Standing among bigger hit firepower like “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Elected” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, this ode to dental surgery is often forgotten. If the sound of dental drills give you the heebie-jeebies, then I can understand why. With lyrics about the Marquis de Sade hanging out in Alice’s mouth, I’m glad I didn’t put this song on BEFORE my dental surgery.
Alice Cooper is a lyrical master and there should be no surprise that he has one of the most hilariously horrifying songs about teeth in rock and roll!
Candy everywhere, got chocolate in my hair, Aching to get me. Sticky sweet suckers in the Halloween air, Aching to get me. Saint Vitus dance on my molars tonight, Aching to get me. Aching to get me, get me oh … Take it to the doc, I guess he ought to know, La, da, da, da, da. Which ones can stay, which ones gotta go. La, da, da, da, da. He looks in my mouth and then he starts to gloat. He says my teeth are O.K., But my gums got to go.Oh oh … I come off the gas but I’m still seeing spies, Aching to get me. I can see them all through a glassy pair of eyes, Aching to get me. De Sade’s gonna live in my mouth tonight, La, da, da, da, da, And the rotten tooth fairy is satisfied, La, da, da, da, da, Aching to get me, get me oh …
It certainly seems appropriate that my first album post-surgery is Lick It Up!
Tom Petty would have worked as well, since “The Waiting Is the Hardest Part”. That was certainly true. I woke up at 3 AM this morning and I was raring to go. I got a couple more hours’ sleep after that, but was up again well before 6 AM just wanting to get on with the day. Get it over with!
Extraction was scheduled for 8 AM. Dr. McCann’s office in Kitchener Waterloo — nothing but praise. Fantastic people. Wonderful nurses, terrific doctor. I said “I’m probably in the top ten chickens you’ve ever had.” No problem.
I sat down in the chair. They attached all the monitors and accoutrements. I asked if I looked cool.
The IV going in was the hardest part. They said there were a few stages to the drugs, and first they would take the edge off the anxiety. I asked the nurse to just keep talking to me. We talked about my work, she kept asking me interested questions. And that’s the last thing I remember.
I don’t even really remember waking up. I remember being light on my feet with a face stuffed full of gauze. I remember feeling confident to stand, and then to slowly walk. By the time I was in the car, I was talking slowly but back to my old self.
I’ve been sitting here chillaxing at my parents’ house today, tired but not sleepy. My dad made me a nice lunch of orzos. Tonight my mom is making home made mac n’ cheese. We watched Spiderman: No Way Home together. My dad thought the idea of three Spidermen was kind of goofy; he only likes Tobey. My mom seemed to understand most of it. I had fun.
It has been about six hours since I left the dentist and I’m still really frozen.
I have this awesome Optimus Prime set to build. I’ll save it for when I’m back in my own home. I’m a little swollen. I was hoping for more actually!
Today’s the day. I’ve never been put under in my life, so mark this date on your calendar, readers! If all goes well, I’ll update you on how it went! In the meantime we’re on the third and most important song for Teeth Week. It had to be “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth” by Metallica today. No other song would do it.
This track is an instrumental composed and performed by the late Cliff Burton for Metallica’s debut LP Kill ‘Em All. Surely it has to be one of the most famous bass instrumentals in the history of rock. The fuzzy bass sound is absolutely perfect, as Cliff plays a rhythm melody with tasty bass licks. His technique is insane, with fingers flying and tapping over the fretboard. Lars Ulrich and the rest of Metallica don’t even come in until the halfway point, leaving Cliff to lay down the most awesome of bass songs.
Check out the 1983 studio original, and a live version recorded in Chicago the same year. If I could play bass a fraction as well as Cliff Burton, I’d be happy!
Bring on the anesthesia — here I go. Wish me luck!
I really don’t give a shit what people say. “Oh it’s no big deal, I had a tooth out last week.” Well to me it’s a big deal. I’ve had teeth out before too, but never so seriously that they are advising five days of complete rest afterwards. Five days seems serious, right?
I was advised to treat myself to something nice to look forward to after the surgery, so after a lacklustre trip to Toys R Us (which apparently Rob Daniels didn’t know could be shortened to TRU!) I placed an Amazon order. And I ordered this sexy beast of a set.
It’s the first ever fully transformable Lego set, and it’s Optimus Prime himself. This toy has been getting (mostly) rave reviews so I decided this should be my get-well present to keep myself occupied. It has been about 15 years since I last purchased a Lego set. It will be fun to see how much the system has changed since I was into it.
So that was Sunday. Monday was a bit of a shit-show. Jen had three seizures, two of them in bed. I barely slept last night, but I made it through work today and now I’m off until next week. Poor girl really suffered yesterday. I worry about taking care of her during recovery. My parents will be pitching in to help since I won’t be able to do it all by myself.
I’ve been lucky to have plenty of support from friends. They know who they are!
Tomorrow’s the day. I’m scheduled for 8 AM. If I can, I will update you as soon as possible. I would like to record funny videos of swollen cheeks and muffled speech but I guess we shall see what I’m in for.
Today on Teeth Week, we have “Baby, Take Your Teeth Out” by Frank Zappa, from 1984’s Them Or Us. That album featured not just Frank on guitar, but also Steve Vai and Dweezil Zappa. Zappa’s tune isn’t about having your teeth taken out, but rather taking out your falsies, presumably for sexual purposes!
This hilarious song has elements of doo-wop and progressive space rock. Though the music is expectedly complex, the lyrics are quite simple. The speaker is asking his partner to take her teeth out, just to try one time. Leave ’em on the kitchen table, and he’ll recline. That’s about it!
Frank Zappa was a musical genius who juxtaposed that with humour. This song is a great example. Enjoy.
Baby take your teeth out Try it one time Baby take your teeth out Try it one time Leave ’em on the kitchen table
Baby take your teeth out It’ll be fine Baby take your teeth out It’ll be fine There ain’t nothin’ left to smile about
Baby take your teeth out You look divine Baby take your teeth out You look divine Go ahead and eat the label
Baby take your teeth out I will recline Baby take your teeth out I will recline There ain’t nothin’ left to talk about
Welcome to Teeth Week! Here we are – the week of my dental surgery. They’re putting me under on Wednesday the 28th, which is a first for me, and I don’t mind telling you I’m a little nervous! So let’s have some fun with it. This week we will be featuring songs involving teeth! The Def Leppard review series will continue next week. This week, let’s have a look at some teeth!
Motley Crue’s “Punched in the Teeth By Love” was written for 1991’s Decade of Decadence, but not properly recorded and released until 2000’s New Tattoo album. Or perhaps just the title was recycled on New Tattoo, since the final released version of “Punched in the Teeth By Love” is credited to Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and new Crue drummer Randy Castillo. Regarding, it’s one of the better songs on the album with a biting, if underwhelming, riff. The title of the song used to be somewhat of an anthem for me, as I had joked many times that I was going to steal it and write my own song based on my own experiences of being punched in the teeth by love.
As a kid, I had heard of Coney Hatch but never particularly paid attention. MuchMusic rarely included their tunes on the Pepsi Power Hour for unknown reasons. I probably heard “Hey Operator” but nothing else by the band. Timing was not in their favour with me. I wasn’t even into heavy rock yet when their first two albums came out. No wonder they passed me by. By the time I dove head-first into rock music on December 26 1984, I had already missed most of their career. Ironically though, Coney Hatch did have a song on the metal album that I heard that day, which was Masters of Metal II and “Hey Operator”.
Fast forward to summer 1990, and a hot “new” singer was making waves on MuchMusic. I didn’t really know who this Andy Curran guy was, but my best friend Bob loved his song “No Tattoos”. Bob was pretty anti-tattoo and felt that the coolest way was to have clean skin. He really identified with Andy’s lyrics. “No tattoos, gotta stay cool, my mama never raised no fool.”
Personally speaking I loved Motley Crue and their tattoo sleeves. I didn’t identify with “No Tattoos” the way Bob did. “I didn’t listen…I was scarred for life. And I couldn’t just stop at one!” That whole “scarred for life” line was one Bob really liked. It was a good song and I liked it, but it didn’t resonate with me like it did with Bob. So again, this Andy Curran guy slipped out of my mind when the single was over.
Suddenly, the Hatch had a new live album up for pre-order. Their first release in ages and ages. I decided it was time to finally take the plunge with Coney Hatch, and I’m glad I did. Live at the El Mocambo is one of my favourite live albums now! And I got in on the ground floor with it, limited signed copy: 19 of 300.
And then we landed an interview with Andy Curran! At this point I had to cram so I bought all the Rock Candy reissues of the Coney Hatch albums, and the self-titled Andy Curran. The “No Tattoos” record, as he calls it. Interview prep is serious business, and I did the best I could in the given amount of time. But I didn’t want to fake it. When I found myself vis-a-vis with Andy Curran, I fessed up. I was new. I was a Coney Hatch rookie who had done his best crash course in a band that I was growing to love.
And Andy was so cool about it. In fact he came back two more times to complete our chat and answer every question we had.
Better late than never — check out Andy and some Coney hatch today.
Last month we gave Journey’s new album Freedom a glowing review. We also did an excellent episode of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions to discuss the new album. Though many were sceptical, Tim and I agreed more or less on the entire album. We were both pleasantly surprised at its quality. What was missing was the Japanese bonus 16th track. Neither of us got a hold of it…until now.
The bonus track, exclusive to Japan, is a Jon Cain penned track called “Hard To Let It Go”. If you are predicting the song is a ballad…you would be correct.
Spoiler: Tim’s comment upon hearing “Hard To Let It Go” was “I can see why the Journey track didn’t make the album…so-so.”
Below you can read the full Journey Freedom review, now including bonus track.
What a…well, Journey…it has been! First drummer Deen Castronovo was fired for…reasons we won’t get into. Steve Smith was brought back to replace him, until both Smith and bassist Ross Valory were fired for attempted takeover of the band? One way or another they ended up with Randy Jackson and Narada Michael Walden forming a lethal new rhythm section. Also added was second keyboardist Jason Derlatka. Now Deen is back and the album they created together, Freedom, is a special one compared to all the other post-Perry records. Musically, Freedom is the strongest lineup since the classic era. With Narada on songwriting, there is a clear uptick in memorable material. 16 songs, and a more satisfying listen than the last three or four Journey studio albums. Freedom actually feels like a three sided album, with five songs per side (plus the bonus track). Listen with that in mind and see if you agree.
1. “Together We Run” – Classic 80s sound with a catchy Jon Cain piano opening. Awesome chorus. The “Woah Woah Woah” part is excellent. Top it with a classic Schon solo. Arnel Pineda sounds more soulful than before. 5/5
2. “Don’t Give Up On Us” – This is the “Separate Ways” ripoff. Tell me you can’t hear it. It’s slowed down a tad, but similar. Good tune though! 4/5
3. “Still Believe in Love” – The first ballad. Narada’s really nailing that soul vibe on drums. Really soft/romantic but good. 4/5
4. “You Got the Best of Me” – Second single. Solid Journey style hard rocker. Narada nails this vibe too in a style reminiscent of Steve Smith. Chorus is stellar. 5/5
5. “Live to Love Again” – Jonathan Cain solo writing credit. A bit corny but not more so than other Journey ballads or Bon Jovi for that matter. 3/5
6. “The Way We Used To Be” – First single, so long ago! Darker, more ominous Journey, but absolutely killer. Takes a while to sink it. Works better on the album than as a single. Powerful, with great chorus. 5/5
7. “Come Away With Me” – Uncharacteristic hard rock groover. Randy Jackson for the win. Do I hear an homage to the first album on this one? Relentless song! 5/5
8. “After Glow” – Ballad #3. At least each ballad is different from one another, which is necessary on an album like this. Deen Castronovo on lead vocals. Very Steve Perry circa Trial By Fire. 3.5/5
9. “Let It Rain” – Woah! Completely different. Funk courtesy of Mr. Randy Jackson on bass. Solid unexpected funky groove going on here. Schon is mental! 4/5
10. “Holdin’ On” – Randy’s first co-write. Very much an homage to the first three progressive Journey albums. Time signature is nuts. 4/5
11. “All Day, All Night” – Randy Jackson is MVP for his bass pulse on this soulful, funky groove. Wicked song, An album highlight. Schon just punctuates the air with some chords while the bass carries the verses. Arnel in top voice on the screamin’ outro. 5/5
12. “Don’t Go” – Arnel’s first co-write. Like early 80’s Bon Jovi with an uplifting power chorus. 5/5
13. “United We Stand” – No quite a ballad, but a midtempo tune. Lyrics could be interpreted as about the division in the US. Not a highlight, just kinda sits there. 3/5
14. “Life Rolls On” – A song about aging and rolling with the changes. Begins as a ballad and transforms into a rocker. Nice organ on here by Jon Cain. 4/5
15. “Beautiful As You Are” – Album closing ballad/rocker. Lovely acoustic closer. Understated and perfect until it goes rocker at the end. Arnel in top voice hitting the high notes. Homage to classic Journey at the end – “Anytime”? Walden kicking absolutely ass on the outro. 5/5
16. “Hard To Let It Go” – Ballads can work very well as bonus tracks; an added “coda” to a track listing. “Hard To Let It Go” takes a few listens to like. If it were in the main tracklist, it would fade into the background in the wake of better songs. Slow, deliberate, with an excellent speedy bluesy solo by Neal. (Steve Perry did call Neal Schon one of the best blues players in the world on the Captured live album.) Really though, the song is B-side quality compared to the rest of Freedom. It stands out a little more thanks to its positioning as the last song. 3/5
Freedom is the first Journey since Trial By Fire that really intrigues you enough to go in for multiple listens. This lineup has it all and though health issues have gotten in they way of Randy and Narada touring, the album is a moment frozen in time when Journey had these two awesome veterans in the engine room.
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