News

Rest in Peace, Michael Lee Aday – “Meat Loaf”

Though he hasn’t been in the best of health in recent years, I didn’t see this coming.

Because of his size, Michael (Marvin) Aday named his first band Meat Loaf Soul.  The name stuck.  He was offered recording contracts, but felt that he wasn’t being taken seriously.  He worked in musicals, such as Hair and the The Rocky Horror Show, which gave him his big break.  As Eddie, he was cast in the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  He was unforgettable even in that jam-packed film.  Next came Jim Steinman, and Bat Out of Hell.

Bat and Bat II will go down as some of Meat Loaf’s most remembered albums, among Dead Ringer, Midnight at the Lost and Found, and Bad Attitude.  His movie career continued to bloom with memorable roles in films like Fight Club and Spice World.  He even sang and appeared as Jack Black’s dad in Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny.

Meat Loaf had intended to record seven songs for a new live/studio album this month.  Sadly this will never come to be.

Rest in peace, Meat Loaf.

Rest in Peace Burke Shelley (1950-2022)

We all “knew” who Budgie was thanks to Metallica.  Their cover of “Breadfan” was better than many of Metallica’s originals.  Then, I came across Martin Popoff’s debut tome Riff Kills Man.  The praise thrown at the Welsh trio got all our attention.

I always thought Budgie had elements of all the classic metal bands.  Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Priest, Maiden, with a vocal vibe reminiscent of Geddy Lee.

Burke Shelley was the voice, the vision, and the rumble.  He made basslines into hooks and had a knack for a long, twisted song title.  “I’m Compressing the Comb on a Cockerel’s Head”.  “Nude Disintegrating Parachute Woman”.  “In the Grip of a Tyrefitter’s Hand”.  Unforgettable!  Metallica covered “Crash Course in Brain Surgery”.  Maiden covered “I Can’t See My Feelings”.  But not all the song titles were labyrinthine.  “Guts” from the debut LP packed just as much punch in just four letters!

Budgie’s first album soared in 1971.  They broke up in the 80s, but flew once more with 2006’s You’re All Living in Cuckooland and a new lineup.  Now Burke has left us in Cuckooland, but at least we have a rich back catalogue of albums and singles to enjoy.

Fly high, Burke.

TRIUMPH AND DEFINITIVE AUTHENTIC ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE OPENING OF THE TRIUMPH VAULT – A CELEBRATION OF CANADA’S OWN ROCK & ROLL MACHINE!

Fans of classic Canadian rockers Triumph are in for a special treat – the launch of the ‘Triumph Vault’ website on Tuesday, December 14th, 2021.

By accessing triumphvault.com, fans will be able to discover artifacts from the band’s career beginning with a celebration of Triumph’s classic 1981 album, ‘Allied Forces.’

This inaugural collection will feature a selection of newly discovered artifacts personally curated by Mike, Gil and Rik in collaboration with Definitive Authentic. Several pieces are partnered with new audio commentary directly from the band.

New collections will be added to the Vault regularly for fans which will unlock over 45 years of Triumph’s illustrious rock & roll history through rare photos, audiograms, video, behind the scenes content, and exclusive collectables.

Commemorating the launch, the Triumph Vault will offer signed and numbered limited-edition memorabilia that have never been made available until now. And as part of the celebration and in keeping with the iconic ‘Allied Forces’ cover, fans who sign up for updates via the site are automatically entered to win a Dean Flying V guitar with a personal note from the band!

“We’re super excited to have our loyal fans experience the launch of the Triumph vault. Finally, after years of touring and recording, we’re able to unearth and display rare elements and artifacts from Triumph’s history. We can now share with our fans what we’ve been stowing away for years at Metalworks Studios.” –Gil Moore

The Triumph line-up – Rik Emmett, Gil Moore, and Mike Levine – rocked the world, and in the process, gave us countless classic hard rock anthems (“Fight the Good Fight,” “Hold On,” “Magic Power,” “I Live for the Weekend,” “Lay It On the Line,” and of course, “Rock & Roll Machine,” and albums (Just a Game, Progressions of Power, Allied Forces, Never Surrender, Thunder Seven, etc.).

Originally formed in 1975 and hailing from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, the trio was always proud of their Great White North roots. And seemingly ever since their inception, Triumph was on the cutting edge of technology when it came to their live show – particularly lighting, sound, and effects. Sophisticated lasers, pyrotechnics and moving lighting rigs, all computer-controlled – Triumph was one of the first arena rock bands to incorporate all of these elements into their shows.

Triumph’s headlining tours were legendary, and the band was featured on many memorable stadium/outdoor shows – including the US Festival, the World Series of Rock, the American Rock Festival and Texxas Jam, Day on the Green, to name but a few. And earlier this year, the band was the focus of a documentary, ‘Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine,’ directed by Banger Films’ Sam Dunn and Marc Ricciardelli.

And now, Triumph fans will be able to celebrate the history of the band – with the launch of triumphvault.com.

Rest in Peace Norm Macdonald (1959-2021)

Norm Macdonald had been fighting cancer for nine years, and none of us knew about it.  That takes guts, to just keep on keeping on.  What a man Norm Macdonald must have been.

Side-splittingly funny.  Like most of us, I first saw Norm on Saturday Night Live.  Then came my favourite, Dirty Work, and of course all the understated brilliance that’s waiting on YouTube for you to discover.

His style was like his fingerprint.  Laid back.  Meandering.  Riveting.

There are others who can say it better than I can, so go on Twitter and read what they wrote.  Seth Rogen cites Norm as a prime influence.  Tom Green counts him as a friend.  Hearts are broken today.  So have a laugh courtesy of Norm Macdonald.  Rest in peace

 

Rest in Peace Charlie Watts (1941-2021)

Charlie Watts, the legendary Rolling Stones drummer, has passed at age 80.

While not the original drummer, Watts joined the fledgling Stones in 1963 and played on every album they ever recorded.  He was as steady as the morning star, and the Stones often said if Charlie wasn’t there, then the Stones weren’t either.  However in recent weeks doctors advised Watts that he should not tour with the band and they enlisted Steve Jordan as a fill-in.  Watts never recovered and passed away in hospital.

The Stones have sold 200,000,000 albums over the last 57 years.  Watts’ steady beat was behind them all.

His style was simple yet essential.  Charlie was one of the steadiest drummers in rock history.  Perhaps his greatest performance was on “Gimme Shelter”, his unmistakable rhythm propelling the song.

Of all the rock star deaths in 2021, this could be the most devastating.  Rest in peace, Charlie Watts.  You helped make rock and roll what it became.

 

Rest in Peace Dusty Hill (1949-2021)

The band that has had the same three members for 50 years has lost a brother. ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill is gone, in the middle of an absolutely brutal week for music. Joey Jordinson, Mike Howe, Don Simmons, and now Dusty Hill.

The bassist with the groove. The mover and the shaker. The guy who sang “I think it’s time to spank my monkey” on a mainstream rock album. He’s gone.

Dusty missed a show earlier and it was most likely the first time ZZ Top ever played without the bearded bassist. After 50 years in the same band together, you can bet that Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard are going to miss their brother.

Rest in Peace, Dusty Hill, May 19 1949 – July 28 2021.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KwXkKDiNI4U

Rest in Peace original Helix keyboardist Don Simmons

Late yesterday we were informed that Don Simmons, the original founding keyboard player from Helix, had passed away. He was 64.

Simmons played in the original Helix band, with singer Brian Vollmer, drummer Bruce Arnold, guitarist Ron Watson, and bassist Keith “Burt” Zurbrigg. Simmons gigged with Helix from 1974-1976, and was still in the group for a short time when Brent “The Doctor” Doerner joined, beginning the transformation into the modern band.

In 2004, Helix staged a massive reunion that included many of their former surviving members. The original band, including Simmons on keyboards, got up on stage for the first time in 30 years and played “Buff’s Bar Blues”, a mainstay of their early sets. The show was released as the 30th Anniversary Concert.

Don never stopped loving music and continued to play keyboard and guitar. Rest in peace, Don Simmons.

Rest in Peace Gerri Miller – Metal Edge

You only had a few choices of rock magazines at the convenience stores near us.  Most prominent were Hit Parader, Rip, and Metal Edge.  Over the years, I bought plenty of Metal Edge.  Black and white pages thick with interviews and lists, punctuated by locker-ready full colour photos.  Metal Edge were cool because they gave the time of day to all varieties of bands.  They focused primarily on whatever-you-wanna-call-it:  “hard rock”, or “glam” or “hair metal”.  If you needed a fix of Sebastian Bach, Metal Edge delivered.  But they covered just about everybody, into the grunge and alterna-metal years.  At the center of it all was editor Gerri Miller.

Everybody who bought heavy metal magazines knew a few key names.  Gerri Miller was the only female among them.  We knew her face and jet black hair from the photos.

What little I knew about Gerri Miller came from her magazine.  The product that she made, that we consumed every page of.  She put out a good magazine.  I enjoyed the Metal Edge “specials”.  They’d collect all their best Bon Jovi, Kiss or Poison content and put out a dedicated magazine, usually to celebrate a new album.  It was not much better than going to the cottage for a week-long vacation with a fresh Metal Edge magazine under my arm.

According to the (unrelated) Metal Sludge website, Miller had been battling Lupus for several years, and was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Rest in peace Gerri…and fuck cancer.

 

Rest in Peace David Prowse (1935-2020)

I met David Prowse, the original Darth Vader, in 1978.

That’s not entirely true.  My dad met him and got his autograph for me while five-year-old me was terrified of the Dark Lord of the Sith.  Prowse signed it “Darth Vader”.  In fact nobody knew it was actually David Prowse, the real Vader, until the next day when it was in the newspapers.

Sears announced, to coincide with the latest wave of Kenner action figures, that “Darth Vader” was coming to the store to meet the kids and sign autographs.  (I got the brand new R5-D4 figure that night.)  It was typical for people in Star Wars costumes to show up at stores and wave to kids.  It was usually low budget.  This was anything but, as Prowse wore the real costume and even spoke.  If you’ve ever seen making-of footage, you know that Prowse spoke his lines on set before being overdubbed by James Earl Jones at the end of the process.  Jones, in fact, was not even credited in 1977.

Prowse is the forgotten Vader.  As a trained bodybuilder he was the right size to fill that towering suit.  All he lacked was the voice, but Vader was so much more than the voice.  He was also the body language and the sword fighting.  The sudden, deliberate movements.  The hacking and slashing that terrified Luke, and us as kids!

Prowse joins his friends Carrie Fischer, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Sir Alec Guiness and Peter Cushing as he becomes one with the Force.  The rest of the world watches A New Hope one more time.  I think I’ll watch the original untampered cut as released on DVD.  I really hope my parents kept that autograph.

May the Force be with David Prowse.

Rest in Peace to the greatest guitar player of all time: Edward Van Halen (1955-2020)

In 1962, Jan Van Halen and his family moved from the Netherlands to the United States.  Young Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was only seven years old when he switched continents.  By his side, as always, was his older brother Alex.  The Van Halens were a musical family.  Jan played clarinet.  Soon Eddie started playing the drums, while Alex picked up the guitar.  It was not meant to be.  The Rock Gods intervened and the two switched instruments.  History had to be made.

In 1972, the Van Halen brothers formed their first band.  People were starting to pay attention to this young guitar prodigy who was doing things most players hadn’t thought of yet.  Though he wasn’t the first, he popularized tapping, whammy bar dives, and all sorts of harmonics.  Unlike the average shredder, Eddie made it musical.  Insanely musical.  While his techniques were space age, his riffs and melodies were grounded in rock and roll.

There is no need to go over all the players he influenced (thousands? millions?) or the riffs he wrote.  There is no other guitar player with the influence of Eddie Van Halen.  Was he the greatest of all time?

Yes.

And his most well known guitar solo wasn’t even on his own song!

Even his keyboard playing was genius!

There will never be another Van Halen.  No player before or since will have the ingenuity and influence he did.  From modifying his own guitars and amps to achieve the perfect “brown sound”, to brutalizing the strings with a drill, he was an innovator.  He was the most important of all the guitar innovators. And he sheepishly grinned through the whole thing as if to say, “Who, me? I did that?”

His infectious grin made all the kids love Eddie Van Halen

Cancer doesn’t care about influence or music, or even the love of millions of adoring fans.  Eddie fought for years.  His battle was a quiet one and we did not know the extent of his illness, though the rumour mills always swirled.  Certainly though his output dwindled (only one studio album in over 20 years), interest in him never waned.  An Eddie sighting at a recent Tool concert was big news.

Van Halen captained his eponymous band through two successful eras and one less so.  Through cancer, hip replacements, and divorce, Eddie plowed on.  A massive reunion with lead singer David Lee Roth made people forget the missteps and focused the spotlight on his incendiary playing once more.

Though there are only 12 studio albums in 42 years, Van Halen’s discography stands like a monolith.  A massive red, black and white striped monolith with EVH in bold letters at the top.  Gone at age 65, Eddie Van Halen will never be forgotten.  His name will stand with Paganini, Beethoven and Bach.  With Hendrix, Rhodes, and Robert Johnson.  Legendary.  Immortal.  Beyond their own time.

As the celebrity memorials inevitably (and sadly) roll in, we will be reminded of one thing:  There will only ever be one Eddie Van Halen.

Rest in peace.

 

 

COMPLETE VAN HALEN REVIEW SERIES:

VAN HALEN – Zero (1977 Gene Simmons demo bootleg)
VAN HALEN – Van Halen (1978 Warner)
VAN HALEN – Van Halen II (1979 Warner)
VAN HALEN – Women and Children First (1980 Warner)
VAN HALEN – Fair Warning (1981 Warner)
VAN HALEN – Diver Down (1982 Warner)
VAN HALEN – 1984 (1984 Warner)
VAN HALEN – 5150 (1986 Warner Bros.)
VAN HALEN – OU812 (1988 Warner)
VAN HALEN – For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
VAN HALEN – LIVE: Right here, right now. (1993 Warner Bros, plus “Jump” live single)
VAN HALEN – Balance (1995 Warner – Japanese version included)
VAN HALEN – Balance (1995) Review by Derek Kortepeter
VAN HALEN – Best Of Volume I (1996 Warner)
VAN HALEN – 3 (Collectors’ tin 1998)
VAN HALEN – The Best of Both Worlds (2005 Warner)
VAN HALEN – A Different Kind of Truth (2012)
VAN HALEN – Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2015)
VAN HALEN – Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2015) Review by Tommy Morais

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VAN HALEN – “Best of Both Worlds” (1986 Warner 7″ single)
VAN HALEN – Selections from LIVE: Right here, right now. (1993 Warner promo EP)
VAN HALEN – “Can’t Get This Stuff No More” / “Me Wise Magic” (1996 Warner promo singles)
VAN HALEN – “Can’t Stop Loving You” (Parts 1 & 2, inc. collector’s tin)
VAN HALEN – “Right Now” (1992 cassette single, Warner)
VAN HALEN – Video Hits Volume I (1998 DVD)
VAN HALEN vs. JOHN LENNON – “Imagine A Jump” mashup by “Mighty Mike”
RECORD STORE TALES Part 186:  The Van Halen Tin
GETTING MORE TALE #657: Operation: Van Halen (Derek’s Story)