I’m not a guitar player so my review of this box set will be limited to non-player knowledge. Steve Vai designed this set for guitar players to improvise over. He removed the lead guitar from selected tracks from the following albums:
Passion & Warfare
Sex & Religion
Alien Love Secrets
Fire Garden
Alive in an Ultra World
The Ultra Zone
Real Illusions: Reflections
He encourages the players to improvise rather than learn the original solos, and make loops of songs in order to play away as long as they want.
As I said I’m not a real guitar player, just a wanna-be, but I love Steve’s music and I enjoyed hearing his songs deconstructed. You can hear a lot of keyboards and backing guitars that you can’t hear with the lead guitar mixed in up front. Some songs, as a listener, don’t work at all like this such as “The Audience Is Listening” as there’s not much backing music. Again though, this wasn’t really designed for listeners like me.
I had fun playing a few simple melodies over some of Steve’s slower songs. Some of these stripped-down tracks will also make good beds for voiceover recordings.
At this price, guitar players are getting a lot of music for their dollar. They might never play or use some of these tracks but you can’t argue with the value (about $20 Canadian).
For players, you’re going to get a lot of use from these CDs especially when you download the sheet music from Vai’s site. Vai writes arrangements that will give you a lot of challenges and fun options to play over. For the average listener such as myself, you will only play this occassionally. It will definitey give you insight to the songwriting and recording talents of Steve Vai, and maybe you can use the tunes to just chill out as background music at home. At this price maybe that is enough reason for non-players to buy it. Only a guitar player will truly get maximum use for this box set, and I think they will use it a lot.
3.5/5 stars
Note: Steve has available on iTunes two more discs from this series:
A MIGHTY WIND – The Album (2003 Sony Music Soundtrax)
It’s way too easy to dismiss this album as a novelty. After all, movie stars singing songs in a comedy movie rarely amounts to anything substantial. However, the Oscar nomination for “A Kiss At The End of The Rainbow” lends this album credibility. Not to mention, most of these people have been singing for years. Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara frequently had musical numbers on SCTV. Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest perform here as The Folksmen, but they are probably best knows as their alter egos, Spinal Tap.
I can’t say that every song is a winner. I’m not a huge fan of the stylings of The New Main Street Singers (Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, et. al. in a “neuftet”). It”s just not to my taste. As Harry Shearer says in the movie itself, “Would you rather hear a toothpaste commercial, or some music?” The New Main Street Singers are the toothpaste commercial. It works in the context of the movie. On the album, well, I could live without!
The estranged couple Mitch & Mickey (Levy and O’Hara) sing a beautiful song called “When You’re Next To Me” on track 3. It’s pretty stock until the second verse, when O’Hara comes in with her harmonies, and at that point I can believe that this is a real, serious folk duo. After all, they’ve been working together in various incarnations almost as long as their movie counterparts. Great song, and a great performance.
Finally, The Folksmen pull out their greatest hit(!), “Old Joe’s Place”, a fun novelty track that’s instantly catchy and memorable. You won’t be able to stop singing, if you can keep up with the rapid fire lyrics. Even better is “Never Did No Wanderin'”, on which the three singers meld perfectly. Not to mention these guys can really play their instruments, don’t underestimate them.
Lyrically, the jokes (when present) are sometimes a little subtle. For example, “Blood On The Coals”. Since there were so many folk songs about train accidents, and just as many folk songs about coal mine disasters, why not combine the two? So it’s a song about a train that crashes into a coal mine. Elsewhere, the jokes are more obvious. The Folksmen end their cover of “Start Me Up” faithfully to the Stones’ original, which sounds absurd. I like the absurd.
Although I cannot pick a favourite song, I think “A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow” is as beautiful and perfect as music gets.
Lastly, the CD is enhanced with a bonus video: “When You’re Next to Me” by Mitch & Mickey live, which was deleted from the movie. This feature is only advertised inside the CD booklet. In the days of Youtube, this really isn’t much of a feature anymore, but I remember being quite excited to discover it back in 2003.
Don’t let the “comedy” tag scare you off. These are just great songs. It should hardly be a surprise — The Folksmen used to open for their alter egos Spinal Tap decades ago! These guys are all pros.
Welcome to the semi-regular feature where I reveal stunningly weird search terms that led people to mikeladano.com For the last installment, Questions & Comments edition, click here. Alright, let’s dive in!
WTF SEARCH TERMS XXI: The Never-ending Search Terms
10. guess who am i (Give me a clue? Are you Leonard Nimoy?)
9. port elgin sucks (Harsh, dude. Harsh.)
8. timmy loved judas priest (That’s great!)
7. kunci gitar white lion till death do your fart (Fart to the death!)
T-Rev has always been talented at building things. He built for me my first two CD towers, not to mention my cassette storage shelves built into my closet doors. No design was too elaborate. I liked a simple CD tower myself, just some shelves and some stain. T-Rev was always pushing himself to build something cooler. One of the best towers he ever built had side doors for VHS compartments, and a big black light to illuminate the whole thing. Inside the doors were stickers from some of his favourite bands. The whole thing was painted gray, it was a masterpiece.
By coincidence, T-Rev also owned a semi-rare copy of Robert Plant’s 1990 solo album, Manic Nirvana. Both of us liked to collect “rare” versions of albums. T-Rev had a red digipack copy, with symbols embossed on the cover. It’s pretty hard to find, although we did see a couple copies float by in the Record Store. There’s weren’t any bonus tracks, but the rare packaging made it something desirable.
So what’s the connection between the CD tower and Manic Nirvana?
T-Rev was checking out the Plant CD one day, and happened to take a look at it under his black light. Lo and behold, suddenly symbols appeared on the cover, previously hidden! The front cover showed what appeared to be a big “H”. The back and inside covers had their own symbols that showed under black light.
It was a mystery! The symbols didn’t seem to have any meaning that we could discern. Maybe they were intentional, maybe not? Maybe they were just a byproduct of the manufacturing process. Other similar digipacks did not show anything special under a black light.
My questions regarding this CD are as follows: 1) Have you ever owned the red digipack version of Manic Nirvana?* 2) Have you ever looked at it under a black light? 3) WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
*Aaron discovered via the Discogs listing that this seems to be a promo release.
BILLY CONNOLLY – Journey to the Edge of the World – A voyage through Canada’s Northwest Passage (2009 ITV Blu-ray)
I’ve always found Billy Connolly to have an incredibly warm sense of humour, and that is on full display in this wonderful TV series. Because of recent decreases in Arctic sea ice, the Northwest Passage is now clear for several weeks during the summer. One can now travel along the northern coast of Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Connolly begins his journey in Halifax and travels north, and west. Along the way he sees sights that many of us will never have the chance to experience. It is all captured here on Blu-ray, in gorgeous 1080p. Towering icebergs are crisp blue and as detailed as you can imagine.
The isolation of these places is quite breathtaking. The real selling feature of this series is the hi-def glory of Earth’s nature in full 1080p. If you’ve ever romanticized about cold seas, towering icebergs, or glaciers without another human being in sight, then this disc will put you right there. It’s just awesome to behold. However there is a dark undertone here, as global warming is always just beneath the surface of the beauty. (For example, hearing the ice cracking with sounds like cannons.) By the time Billy finishes his journey in Vancouver, powerful images will be etched into your mind. This is not a disc to watch just once.
One of the charms of this series is that Billy genuinely seems to love people. Whether it’s the humble Newfoundland fisherman, or the smiling faces of Inuit throat singers, Billy loves them all. Billy has no problem getting wet, or trying dishes that are foreign to his palette. He’ll treat you to some folk music along the way, his banjo never far from his side. It is a joy to watch this film and learn about parts of my geography and culture that many of us are ignorant. A lot of activity is crammed into each episode, meaning you’ll likely take it off the shelf for another spin periodically, whenever you get romantic for the snow and ice of the north. With summer here, why not?
It’s funny to surf the reviews on Amazon for this CD. “Super and Awesome” says one. “Best Journey album since Escape” says another. (Really? Better than Frontiers?)
OK, cutting through the glowing fanboy reviews, let’s be dispassionate here. Journey hasn’t truly sounded like Journey since Steve Smith and Steve Perry left for good in the late 90’s. In my unassuming personal view, Trial By Fire from 1997 was the best Journey album since the glory days. They tried to replace Steve Perry with a clone singer named Steve Augeri on three releases (Arrival, Red 1, Generations) and the result was a generic band that sounded like (guess what) a Journey tribute band. The fact that the smooth-as-butter Steve Smith was gone didn’t help.
Journey did what I thought was a really smart move afterwards. They brought in the brilliant veteran Jeff Scott Soto to sing, and there are some pretty awesome bootlegs out there of Journey with Soto singing. Soto was no Steve Perry, but a unique singer in his own right, loved by his own legion of fans for his powerful voice. But he was no replicant; no duplicate. The band actually fired him to bring in someone more Perry-like.
That person is Arnel Pineda, who has an incredible set of pipes. I mean this guy can sing! Unfortunately, Pineda’s been singing Journey pretty much his whole life. He’s a Perry clone. He’s Perry-lite. He’s an imitator. And you can tell. He lacks the character, the grit, the personality, the soul, and the experience of Steve Perry.
Also, let’s not forget that Steve Perry was one of the major Journey songwriters, and without him Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain are left to their own devices. The soul is still gone, the heart of Journey is still ripped out. Revelation is no comeback album. It’s another Journey-lite album, it sounds like the best Journey tribute band in the world, but still…just a tribute band.
Having said that, it’s not bad. It’s not a comeback, it’s more of the same. There are good songs here – “Never Walk Away” being the strongest. “Like A Sunshower” is a nice, generic ballad. “The Journey (Revelation)” is the most adventurous tune here, an instrumental where Schon gets to show his stuff, shredding and classing up the place several notches. The rest of the tunes are just nice. Pleasant Journey-esque ditties where you can tell Cain and Schon were saying, “Let’s write a Journey rocker,” or “Let’s write a Journey ballad”.
The album is roughly half new songs, half old. The second disc is entirely re-records with Arnel singing classic Journey tunes. It’s nice but certainly no replacement for Greatest Hits. It’s great that they tackled “Stone In Love” and “Be Good To Yourself” on here. The rest are the hits, and you know ’em and love ’em already so I won’t talk about them too much. Except to say, this is where you notice first and foremost that Steve Perry is missing. The nuances are not here, rendering this disc nothing more than a novelty.
There are two other re-records, both (oddly enough) from the Augeri era. One is the Japan-only “The Place in Your Heart” which I don’t have so I can’t comment on it. The other, which is on all versions of the CD, is “Faith In The Heartland”, one of the better songs from Generations. I’m guessing they did these two re-records because nobody heard Generations. “Faith In The Heartland” is probably better on Generations, sung by the guy who actually wrote it, Steve Augeri.
There is also a great bonus track on the Mexican edition: great song, loaded with atmosphere, called “Let It Take You Back”. It’s about nostalgia, ironically, but I can relate and it’s a great tune backed by a strong riff. One of the best tunes on the album. Track it down, you won’t be sorry.
The Walmart exclusive edition has a really good DVD: live (in Vegas) performances with Arnel singing. “Mother, Father” shows that Arnel can sing. Man, can he sing! I think Journey at this point are a stronger band live than in the studio. Live, Arnel has more character and you’re just in awe of the man’s pipes. This is a good DVD. And for free, it’s worth the price of admission.
So there you have it. Ignore the fanboys and let’s be unbiased here. This isn’t the Journey comeback we hoped for. It’s just another medium-rare Journey album. Until Perry comes back (and let’s face it, he has to one day) and records an album as great and progressive as Trial By Fire, this is a tired band spinnin’ tires.
QUIET RIOT 1978
Randy Rhoads – lead guitar (founder)
Kevin DuBrow – lead vocals
Kelli Garni – bass
Drew Forsythe – drums
QUIET RIOT 1988
Carlos Cavazo – lead guitar
Paul Shortino – lead vocals
Sean McNabb – bass
Frankie Banali – drums
Quiet Riot are a rare bird in rock history; they actually released this album with no original members intact. Quiet Riot suffered numerous lineup changes until finally singer Kevin DuBrow was fired in ’87 after the disastrous QRIII. Bassist Chuck Wright also left the sinking ship (he joined House of Lords).
Banali and Cavazo made the questionable decision to carry on with a new singer, and that singer was Paul Shortino of Ruff Cutt. My only exposure to Shortino at that time was his excellent contribution to the song “Stars” by Hear N’ Aid. I loved his raspy voice and I was intrigued. Replacing Chuck Wright was bassist Sean McNabb…who, a few years later, again replaced Chuck Wright, this time in House of Lords. Since then he’s also been in Great White.
The album itself was a bit of a letdown at first, and only through many determined listens did it finally grow on me. The problem was that Quiet Riot are (or were) primarily a party band. I mean, this is the band who had songs called “Party All Night” and “Stomp Your Hands, Clap Your Feet”. Now, they had changed to a moodier blues-based glam rock band. The first single “Stay With Me Tonight” was darker, slower, bluesy and anchored by a howling Hammond B3 organ. Nothing like anything Quiet Riot had ever done before. Obviously, Banali and Cavazo had decided to trade party hooks in for integrity and possible critical acclaim. Unfortunately that never happened, but the result is that QR remains a hidden hard rock semi-gem. The lack of success led to Quiet Riot disbanding in 1989 after a short tour. Sounding very little like Quiet Riot, and playing unrecognizable renditions of the hits, the band clearly should have changed their name to something else. Clamorous Calm, perhaps?
The album did finally grow on me. Perhaps similarly to a band like House of Lords (who debuted at the same time), the tracks here were a bit darker. The ballads a bit more sad. The rockers a tad more threatening. The fact that this sounds absolutely nothing like Quiet Riot (except for the musicianship of Banali and Cavazo) doesn’t make it a bad album.
My favourite songs:
“Stay With Me Tonight”, the afformentioned first single.
“Run To You”, a guitar-based ballad with a touch of keyboards and great melodies from Shortino.
“I’m Fallin'”, one of the few party rock songs included.
“Don’t Wanna Be Your Fool”, another great darker ballad.
“Callin’ The Shots” which has a pretty solid, bluesy riff.
The sound, by long-time QR producer Spencer Proffer was not up to par. I didn’t expect Quiet Riot to go so bluesy either. These were sounds I was somewhat unfamiliar with at the time. Carlos did have a chance to shine on guitar more than ever before, and Frankie’s drums are loud and powerful as always. As a testament to the man’s talents, he ended up in W.A.S.P. after this on the brilliant Headless Children CD.
In 1993 DuBrow called Cavazo up, made amends, and formed a band called Heat. With the addition of Banali and bassist Kenny Hilary (R.I.P.), Heat morphed back into Quiet Riot. They released the pretty good Terrified CD which was a welcome return to vintage form.
This CD may not be a very good “Quiet Riot album”, but it is actually a pretty good album. If you give it time, you may find something to enjoy herein.
Date: 2004/08/10
On this Marillion live disc, Fish just dedicated the entire Misplaced Childhood record to Phil Lynott…he must have just passed away when it was recorded. That’s heavy, man. My two lyrical heroes, Fish and Lynott…
Date: 2004/08/24
Crazy to think that I’ve been in this business for 10 years, and only now am I starting to listen to Buddy Holly. Sad to think what I’ve been missing all these years! I can’t believe how great Buddy’s music was. It’s really clicking with me, I just love Buddy Holly!
Date 2005/01/30
Some dude was just in here throwing a pencil at us because he didn’t have a receipt. I AM TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT. I need to get THE FUCK out of here.
DEEP PURPLE – Made In Japan (2014 limited edition Super Deluxe box set)
“Smoke on the Water” Japanese 7″ promo. This is a reproduction of a rare Japanese promo single from 1972, sleeve and all. It is pressed on heavy 70 gram vinyl, a treat indeed. It features the promotional single edit of the studio version, and an edit of the Made In Japan version on the other side. The studio edit is available on plenty of releases, such as Singles A’s and B’s. The live edit is one that I don’t think I owned prior to this. I actually enjoy something like this; it’s interesting to see where and how they did the edits, from a technical point of view.
Including a 7″ single in a box set of this size is something I wholeheartedly support. Not only do I love the vinyl format, but when you spend this much money ($115 Canadian) in one place, you deserve something extra. A lot of the stuff included in box sets these days, even in this box set, amounts to nothing more than paper. Music trumps packaging, so I’ll always take something like a bonus vinyl, especially when it has an exclusive track on it.
Interestingly, on this printing, the times for the two tracks are reversed. The live version is the longer, not the shorter as the label suggests.
DVD: Made In Japan: The Rise of Deep Purple MKII and more.
This hour-long documentary consists of new and archival footage and interviews, assembled into a narrative. Old footage of Deep Purple MKI begins our story. The shortcomings of this lineup led the core members of Ian Paice, Jon Lord, and Ritchie Blackmore to seek new bandmates. They had gone as far as they could musically with Nick Simper (bass) and Rod Evans (vocals). In stepped Roger Glover and rock’s greatest screamer, Ian Gillan. Then, the big albums: In Rock, Fireball, and Machine Head.
Strangely, it was a tax loophole that led to Machine Head. It was expected that the fortunes of the band would only rise, but British tax laws would keep them all paupers. If they became tax exiles, and wrote and recorded in mainland Europe, they would not be taxed. This led them to Montreux, Switzerland. According to Claude Nobs, they were planning on recording an album called Made In Switzerland. Nobs invited them to record at the local casino, and the circumstances of this have been well documented. A Frank Zappa concert that night was attended by Deep Purple and Nobs. Someone fired a flare gun into the bamboo ceiling, and the place went up in smoke. This DVD has the audio of Zappa asking the audience to leave!
The place did indeed burn to the ground. Luckily Deep Purple had not yet moved in their gear, or it too would be gone. Next they tried recording in a small theater, but noise complaints caused them to move again. It took almost a week to find the Grand Hotel, which was closed for the winter. Perfect. The results speak for themselves. Machine Head is the classic Deep Purple album. But according to Blackmore, it was Made In Japan that made them a phenomenon. It was a live album that they didn’t want to do, but could not have regretted doing.
Bruce Dickinson, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and more show up to discuss the impact of Made In Japan on themselves. Dickinson points out that the remarkable thing is that Made In Japan is 100% live. There are no overdubs. Martin Birch managed to capture it raw. There’s a lot of great footage here; live footage, showing the interplay of the band.
Next, the band headed to Rome to record the difficult Who Do We Think We Are.Made In Japan had not even been released in America yet, only Japan, until mass importing of the record forced the label to release it. Unfortunately at the height of their powers, Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore had a massive falling out. Ian resigned. Blackmore and Paice almost formed a trio with Phil Lynott. Glover was fired, which was a condition Blackmore set to stay in Deep Purple. A final Japanese tour was the last commitment of the band. Glover describes a cold atmosphere, and the tension in the air.
Glenn Hughes appears next, remembering a Trapeze gig attended by members of Deep Purple. He sussed out the reason for their attendance. Still, he did not expect to be asked to join. It was an emotional time for Glover. He saw his Deep Purple albums on top of the charts, yet with magazines printing pictures of their new lineup featuring David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. Hughes reveals he was mistakenly sent awards for albums like Who Do We Think We Are. Glover felt deeply hurt but strove to be a professional.
As a Deep Purple fan who owns a lot of Deep Purple on video, I enjoyed this documentary. Although it has some footage that I had before, it also had a lot that I didn’t, such as interviews that were new to me. Footage from Japan is a highlight. “Smoke on the Water” is presented almost in full (from the 17th), though it is very lo-fi.
Extras include a music video for “Smoke on the Water”, made up of footage from the documentary. “The Revolution” is a short film about rock music and counter-culture, focusing on Deep Purple while at Montreux in 1971. Much of this footage is in the main documentary. A bearded Gillan rips his way through “Speed King”, and the band are interviewed. There’s also a short German documentary from 1972, subtitled of course. I enjoyed the description of their stage attire: “intentionally scruffy hippie uniforms”. Finally, there is a 1973 performance of “Smoke”, but now I’ve really heard the song too many times. It’s the best footage though: full colour, pro-shot. Roger is wearing bright red platform shoes.
This DVD was adequate. The main documentary feature was re-watchable. “The Revolution” and the German doc, not so much. It’s too bad that the video content is only tangendentally related to Made In Japan. The DVD is really not much more than a supplement to the main feature.
Final words: The box set is rounded out by an excellent booklet, a reproduction of the Japanese tour program, a family tree, and a reproduction press release. Ultimately these things are just pieces of paper. Nobody would go out of their way to buy a reproduction of a press release.
As a boxed set of music, Made In Japan is a home run. This is the way they should have released it back in ’93, instead of the incomplete Live In Japan. I’ll hang onto my old 2 CD anniversary edition of Made In Japan, because I believe in keeping the original mix of something. It’s an historic piece, not to be discarded. When I want a briefer Deep Purple live experience, I’ll play that version of Made In Japan. When I want the full Monty, I’m listening to this box set. Not only is it the best release sonically, but it is the only complete release of all three Japanese shows.
As a celebratory boxed edition of a classic, I’m less satisfied. The DVD and the papers inside are things I will get less enjoyment from. If the DVD had included a feature on the making and remixing of this edition, I would have been more interested.
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