If rock and roll is only about three things — girls, cars, and booze & drugs — then I took care of 1/3rd of my Rock N’ Roll Duty last night.
The new vehicle is as yet unnamed, but my new Chevy Equinox has arrived just in time for an oversized Sausagefest 2019. No sleeping in this car, Uncle Meat!
The only thing that really matters to you, of course, is what’s up with the stereo? A lot has changed in the 10 years since I bought ol’ blue, aka “Dougie Carmore”. USB ports in the dash were brand new back then. That car was a huge factor in my use of flash drives for all my music needs. Now every car has one. Funny thing though — the salesman who sold me the car had no idea you could just plug in a flash drive to listen to tunes. He was trying to convince me to stream music from my phone. Not necessary, my friend! I came prepared with a 32 gig flash drive. I plugged it in, and the stereo sounded great.
“I didn’t actually know you could do that,” he said. Well now you know! Am I the only guy who listens this way?
The first album played (in part) in the new car was Buddy Holly’s Millenium Collection. The dash doesn’t display album cover art like others do, but that’s not a big deal. The main thing is, I can play and access my music the way I am used to and equipped for. Needing to give the stereo more of a workout, I chose Van Halen’s Diver Down to play next. Both albums sounded terrific. My new car is quieter, so now I can hear the music better at lower volume.
Big thanks to Craig and Samantha at Bennett GM in Cambridge for making this my easiest car purchase yet. No pressure from them; nothing but courtesy and great service. In and Craig’s case, a mutual love of rock.
Anybody who has spent 10 seconds glancing at this site knows one thing: I love Japanese imports!
Every music collector has his or her own priorities. Today, many fans prioritise vinyl, be it original pressings, reissues or both. Some like elaborate packaging; the bigger and bolder the better! My needs are pretty simple. I want all the songs, and I’ll buy however many physical editions it takes to get them all. That means that, over the years, I have purchased hundreds of Japanese CDs. They almost always have bonus tracks, and some of those bonus tracks never see the light of day again on any other releases. Those are the best kind!
There are two great sources for Japanese imports.
CD Japan, my main store for new releases. I have Whitesnake incoming!
Discogs.
It is Discogs that is responsible for today’s content. If you’re a music collector unfamiliar with Discogs, you need to change that right away.
A few weeks ago, one of my favourite lesser known metal bands called Leatherwolf was celebrating the 30th anniversary of their third album, 1989’s Street Ready. (Probably their best album, but that’s unimportant.) Someone on social media was showing off their most prized Leatherwolf collectible: A Japanese import CD of Street Ready, with a bonus track unreleased anywhere else! Out of print for almost 30 years, that’s a rarity if I ever saw one. Plus it has that feature that is like catnip to me: an unreleased bonus track. In this case, it was a track called “Alone in the Night”, and I wanted it. It’s rare that I go 30 years without even knowing about a song.
After a few weeks of researching, I decided to pull the trigger. A Discogs seller had a copy in excellent condition for about $50, which I realized was about the cheapest it gets in the condition I want. Its only flaw was a missing obi strip (the little piece of paper along the spine) which you sometimes have to accept you’ll never get. The main thing was that bonus track. I was happy with the seller’s 100% rating so I put it in my cart.
That’s when Discogs showed its evil side.
A message popped up, telling me that just in case I wanted to combine shipping, this seller had 81 other items from my wishlist.
81 items. All Japanese CDs.
Click.
I spent the next few minutes frantically adding items to my cart, deleting them, adding them again, and then finally deciding on dollar amount I was willing to splurge. I even gave it another few days to clear my head before I clicked “buy”. This is what I ended up with.
LEATHERWOLF – Street Ready. Bonus track: “Alone in the Night”.
Now some lucky soul can be gifted my original US compact disc, because this is my new treasure. I loved this album as a teenager, and I still like it today. There is some well written metal here, and now I have 11 tracks instead of 10. I still can’t believe I didn’t know about “Alone in the Night” all this time. If I knew that back in 1989, this CD would have been on my holy grail list long ago.
I screwed up. I already had a UK single for “Hip Today”; one of those “part one of a two disc set sold separately” deals. However, for whatever reason, I never ripped it to my computer. I never even played it! When I did a quick search, I couldn’t find “Kid Ego” in my files so I assumed I needed it. I do not, but that’s OK. This CD was only $11 because the seller listed it with no obi strip. Turns out the obi strip is tucked inside, so that’s a win.
TENACIOUS D – The Pick of Destiny. Bonus tracks “Kong”, “Training Medley”.
Two extra songs to be found here. This album had more bonus tracks elsewhere, on non-physical (download only) versions. Now I have all the physical tracks, at least. “Training Medley” was already in the collection on a CD single for “P.O.D.”, but “Kong” was completely unknown until now. Even our resident Tenacious D expert, Uncle Meat, has never heard it before. (For the record, the other two bonus tracks are “Rock Your Socks” from the iTunes pre-order, and “It’s Late” which you can download if you buy the vinyl. Vinyl wishlisted.) Tenacious D collectables are usually very expensive. Their single “Jazz” (which I am missing) goes for roughly $100. I paid $26 for The Pick of Destiny.
QUIET RIOT – Alive and Well. Bonus track: “The Wait”.
20 years ago, the classic Metal Health lineup of Quiet Riot reunited for a new album. Alive and Well was a mix of new songs and re-recordings, but they could have just released a 10 song CD instead, had they included “The Wait”. It’s puzzling how songs are chosen to be obscure bonus tracks on rare editions. “The Wait” is a ballad, very much like old Quiet Riot, and a frickin’ great one too. Had it been included, Alive and Well could have been a well balanced 10 song album, and “The Wait” might have been the best one. At one point Amazon were asking $100 for this CD. I was delighted to score it for just $22. Perhaps it was cheap because it was listed as missing the obi strip. It’s there and looks great! Now my Quiet Riot collection is one song closer to being complete.
THE SWORD – Apocryphon. Bonus tracks: the same five from the deluxe edition, plus “Hammer of Heaven”.
This album has been frustrating for me. There are two versions, one with 10 tracks and one with 15. Because there’s no track listing on the back cover, I’ve never taken a chance on it. I didn’t want to bring it home only to find it’s the 10 track version. I’ve wanted this album ever since “Cloak of Feathers” made it to number 15 on the 2017 Sausagefest countdown. The only thing better than a confirmed 15 track edition? A CD with 16 tracks! Japan received “Hammer of Heaven”, which was a standalone single in 2012. It’s a boogie as heavy as plutonium! This would be its only CD release! Obi is intact, for just $25. (I’m still going to want the single for “Hammer of Heaven” since it had a live B-side of “Ebethron” not included here.)
Not a bad little spending spree. Most of these Japanese imports were pretty affordable. It seems like I spent a lot of money for just a handful of songs, but such is the quest.
I was never surprised but often disappointed with how customers treated their music. Scratched up CDs were par for the course. Also broken discs, scuffed or chipped, with beads of dried beer. But what about empty CD cases? Anybody ever try to sell those? Of course!
We saw lots of people coming in with bags of CDs to trade, only for me to go through them and find empty cases in the bag. Multiple empty cases. The seller didn’t even know they were empty. They were always surprised. I couldn’t fathom how this happened!
I mean, I get it – people leave a CD in a player or changer, forget about it, and lose track of it. I had a Spiderman: Homecoming DVD in my laptop for over six months. I understand that’s one way these things get misplaced. I just couldn’t understand the why, so frequently. CDs were expensive. Some still are. People freak out over a lost pair of cheap sunglasses but not their music?
Now, loaning a CD out to a friend and never getting it back is a whole other thing. That happens. The only solution is finding new friends. But why loan it without the case in the first place? I still don’t get it.
I very briefly dated a girl who had a habit of losing her music. She had all the discs in the wrong cases. If you wanted to listen to Sloan, she had to remember which case she put it in last time. Again, I don’t get how this habit forms. She didn’t seem to know either. All I can tell you is that her copy of Sloan’s 4 Nights at the Palais Royale had one correct disc, and one completely different disc.
People would bring that kind of crap into the store to sell, and then wonder why I passed on a CD set that only had one correct CD. “Come on man, somebody will buy it,” was a common customer response. Maybe, but not in this store!
The only time I can remember losing a CD of my own, it was the whole thing, case and all. And it was because it slid under a car seat. Unlike most of the masses, I refused to house my CDs in one of those portable CD wallets. If the CD was coming with me, so was the case (or at least a case of some kind, if the original was fragile or collectable). When I realized I was missing something from my collection, I remembered I last saw it in the car. There it was, under the seat, safe and unscratched in its case.
People like me are a small minority. At least in this town, most people didn’t value or take care of their music. When I’d see a bunch of empty cases come in from a customer’s collection all I could do was shake my head. I couldn’t feel sorry for someone like that.
We haven’t been to the lake since last July. Then Jen’s mom got sick and we spent the rest of the summer driving to and from Toronto, and in hospitals. Then before we knew it, she was gone.
As part of the healing process, Jen and I have been aching to get back to the cottage. Her mom loved it here, and she never made it again, though she really wanted to. We’d drive up with her mom in the back seat reading a book. Every once in a while, I’d look in the mirror and see her, eyes closed, snoozing in the back. Or so it appeared.
“Jen, look. Your mom’s sleeping.”
Then suddenly before Jen could see, Mum’s eyes would open. “I can hear you Michael and I’m not sleeping. I’m resting my eyes.”
We’d laugh.
Finally we were going back. We packed our bags for the lake, and I spent an hour or so loading music onto a flash drive for the ride. Specially curated of course, and including the newest hits like Flesh & Blood by Whitesnake. I have so many flash drives, however, that I made the mistake of loading the one with the little Autobot symbol. I should have thrown out that flash drive a long time ago. It works on a computer but not in the car, not since it fell in a puddle a while ago. We were forced to listen to another random flash drive that I had in the car, which turned out to be serendipitous.
The only album on this specific flash drive was Alice Cooper’s A Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris. Our first concert together happened to be Alice Cooper, so at least it was something we’d enjoy. “Hurricane” Nita Strauss is phenomenal on it, so I was really tuned into the guitar playing. Jen was just rocking out and singing along.
But things sure do change in a mere 10 months, the last time I was driving those particular roads. There is a new Tim Hortons, a few improved roadways, and some traffic lights where there were none before.
By the time Alice Cooper informed us that school was indeed out for summer, we were past Lucknow and well into the windfarms. That meant the lake was close. Again we laughed. Jen’s mom hated those windfarms. “A Liberal financial disaster,” she called them. We tried to count the windmills on the way up and it’s all but impossible.
Finally we arrived at the cottage and smelled that country air. A mix of pine, rain and earth. I was napping within hours of arrival! I knocked out good.
We always arrive at the lake prepared to entertain ourselves. With a killer wi-fi connection (welcome to cottage life 2019) I was showing my dad scenes from Infinity War within minutes. I also copied that faulty Autobot flash drive over to a fresh one and tossed out the original. Won’t be making that mistake again, but recovered the Whitesnake album in the process!
I didn’t have much in terms of goals, except to relax and not let anything stress me out. One thing I was looking forward to was cooking, so I did up a couple steaks, hot dogs, and fish for the family. I wanted to try a couple new things this time. First, I wanted to do one of the steaks on a wood fire instead of the barbecue. We have not done them like that in over 25 years, but the smokiness of a real fire can add its own character to a good steak and make it perfect. That’s what happened this time. The steak cooked over the fire was the superior steak for flavour. I did it to a rare, which was something else I love. I did the fish over the wood fire too (using maple and cedar). I chose a nice fatty piece of salmon, and a cheaper but larger fillet of Lake Huron trout; both darker fish. I tried something different for them. I laid down a bed of lemon slices onto the grill, and then cooked the fish on top of the lemons. For seasoning I only used salt, pepper and a roasted garlic olive oil. The result was a juicy, perfect fish that took longer to cook than normal but acquired all that lemony goodness right into the skin. I added more salt as I went, then I finished them directly over the flames to get the crispy skin. Surprisingly, the lake trout was the superior tasting fish. I’m usually a salmon guy but I haven’t eaten a trout since I was a little kid.
We had a birthday party and cake for my dad, now young at 81. You know what my dad enjoyed more than any of that stuff? Going to a car dealership on a Sunday and help me pick out my next vehicle. I won’t reveal what I’ve chosen until I buy the car — stay tuned. We took my dad’s new car there, and he showed me all the latest gadgets that I’ll be getting too. I was impressed to see that he had three USB ports! I plugged my flash drive into one of them and treated him to some music. Max the Axe – “Next Plane to Vegas”.
“This is my friend Uncle Meat singing,” I told him.
He listened for a bit and said, “Your friend Uncle Meat can sing.” High praise from him!
The weather wasn’t the greatest, but we slept with the windows open and the lake air coming in — the best way to get a great rest. And rest we did. We ate some good cooking and came home with bellies full. Best of all, I have some ideas for the next cookout.
The May long weekend is the official ushering in of summertime. Welcome, summer 2019 – we’ve been expecting you!
The Ladano clan is very proud of Dr. Kathryn, PhD. She has the musical gift: she can write it, play it and understand its structure down to the very skeleton. That’s why she’s the doctor of music and not me. I don’t have those gifts. I can appreciate music, but I’ll never really be able to play it (or Grok it) on the level she can. Not even close!
I’ve accepted this. I continue to write about music, using the limited vocabulary I have, and although I wish I could dig deeper into the nuances, I do the best I can. When Dr. Kathryn tries to explain music theory to me, my eyes glaze and the words sail over my uncomprehending head. I wish I could get her to write something for me, but a doctor of music maintains quite a busy schedule! (Much of it is Game of Thrones nights.)
My dad played saxophone his younger days. Whatever the genes are for musical talent, they skipped by me completely. My sister got them all in spades. People expect me to be able to play. I get that question all the time. Twice in the last couple weeks, people asked me what I played, and were shocked when I said “nothing”. It must be unusual in music when one sibling excels (how many doctors of music do you personally know?) and one gets zilch.
I imagine my dad sitting in his bedroom playing that saxophone, in grade five or six. He would be practising something, probably by John Philip Sousa. He never could have imagined, living in that house at 18 Division Street in Guelph, that he’d have a kid who is a doctor of music one day. His father didn’t play music. His mother liked musical movies but that was about it. He didn’t come from a musical family at all. Where did all that talent come from? My mom has some music on her side, but that’s for another story.
18 Division Street looks completely different today; I couldn’t point it out if you asked me to. But I remember it, and that’s where our love of music probably originated. My dad and his saxophone.
A least I can imagine what it was like. When Grampa Ladano died in the early 80s, my dad found an old 8mm film. It took a couple years to convert it to VHS. What he discovered was a video of my Grampa, Grandmother, and himself as a child, at the old house on Division Street back in 1946. Full colour, too, which was very expensive in the 40s and for several decades more after. That should indicate just how special this roll of film is. My grandmother, who I never met (she died when my dad was a little boy) was known for her beautiful flower gardens. The Horticultural Society decided to come over and film them, and the family together. My dad is the young child dancing around! He wasn’t supposed to, but he was trying to get on camera, and they didn’t have a way of editing things out! He was sent to go and play elsewhere! My grandfather is the shirtless man. Just like the old days when shirtless men would hang around the neighbourhood talking and socializing! The other man is the mayor of Guelph.
I’ve digitized that old tape and now I can watch it whenever I want to.
This video, folks, is the beginning of the Ladano story in many ways. My dad and his saxophone were really the start of it. The people in this video are responsible for the site you are reading today!
We are about to head off for our first Mother’s Day without Jen’s mom. It’s been a tough weekend but remembering the good times helps. Soon I’ll be cooking chicken and steaks for my mom and grandma. I love cooking for them. I have a few friends who are missing their mothers today. If you are one of them, we’re all in this together.
Check out some of these previous posts for Mother’s Day content:
I didn’t have any childhood friends who were into Aerosmith. I had to get into them on my own.
Well, that might not be entirely true. Next door neighbour George may have been into them, but the rest of us ignored Aerosmith because they were “the band with the singer with the weird lips”. They weren’t “metal” enough to be in my wheelhouse at that young age. There wasn’t much Aerosmith being played on MuchMusic in the early 80s. Maybe “Lightning Strikes”, but that was about it. The music video with the greasers didn’t appeal to us metal kids. The Joe Perry Project didn’t do it for us either. The video with the pink saxophone? (“Black Velvet Pants”.) Not metal enough! We were strict metal heads as kids, and pink saxophones were not metal.
What was it that finally caught my Aero-attention? Joe Perry’s plexiglas guitar.
This all seems silly from an adult perspective, but we were just kids. We loved metal, not just for the music but also that all-important image. Videos were so important to us. A band not only had to sound cool, but they had to look it. Aerosmith didn’t look cool to us, with the tights and the lips. That changed in early ’86.
Ironically enough the video was called “Let the Music Do the Talking”. It was and is a killer song. I didn’t know, or care about its history as a song by the Joe Perry Project. What caught my eye was that guitar. A transparent guitar? I’d never seen anything like that before. My best friend Bob and I were obsessed with unusual guitars.
“I have to tape this and show it to Bob,” I said.
The video itself was pretty cool. A group of bootleggers snuck a camera into a concert to make their own video. It was a glimpse at an adult activity we’d yet to experience: the live concert. “Let the Music Do the Talking” made concerts look just as cool as we imagined they would be. There was even a twist ending. And like that, Aerosmith began to chip away the walls around me. Once they got me to pay attention, I was loving the song! Sure it wasn’t “metal”, but it was fast and rocked hard. The singer may have looked kind of weird, but the guitar player was cool as hell! I’d never seen anyone use a slide before. Watching Joe Perry hammering away at that clear guitar gave me a million new air guitar moves.
What came next was “Walk This Way” with Run DMC, Permanent Vacation and mainstream recognition. Before long everybody was into Aerosmith (again). “Angel” came out when I was really into ballads, and it was a fantastic ballad. On a kid’s allowance, I wasn’t able to get the album for many years, but Aerosmith were still on my radar.
Only a year after Permanent Vacation came the song that I grew to love the most. What came out a year after Permanent Vacation, you may be asking?
Many people didn’t catch the 1988 release of Gems. It was on their former record label Columbia and didn’t get a lot of notice. What Gems had wasn’t a new song, just an obscure one dusted off: “Chip Away the Stone”.
Written by Richie Supa, “Chip Away the Stone” is one of a few hit songs the guitarist gave to Aerosmith. Others like “Amazing” might be more well-know, but “Chip Away” is special. When the music video hit in late ’88, Supa was featured in it via archival footage (look for the guy with the moustache). If anyone knew “Chip Away” in ’88 prior to Gems, it would have been through their album Live! Bootleg. The studio version was only available on a rare single! If you were a kid living in Kitchener in the late 80s, good luck finding it, or even knowing it existed. For us, and the majority of fans, “Chip Away the Stone” was a brand new song.
I was getting into piano in rock songs around this time too. “Chip Away the Stone” had just a hint of boogie-woogie and it hit the right chords for me. Even though I was expanding my musical horizons slowly but surely, the music video still had a huge impact. Considering it was made up of old live footage, it was surprisingly well edited, fresh and cutting-edge. The shots of the piano were spliced to look like somebody was playing on one super-long piano keyboard. I assumed it was Richie Supa playing piano: the credits are unclear. Either way, that video got me deeper into Aerosmith. Way deeper.
Today my two favourite songs are “Chip Away the Stone” and “Let the Music Do the Talking”. I have plenty of others — “Seasons of Whither”, “F.I.N.E.”, “Draw the Line” — but those first two just stick with me. Part of that is nostalgia, but the other is that they are just great fucking songs.
I owe the Jehovah’s Witnesses a debt of gratitude. I developed my cat-like stealthy ninja skills thanks to them. I was able to take this talent into the Record Store a decade later. How? Read on.
If you’re not familiar, Jehovah’s Witnesses travel the streets of everyday neighborhoods, going door to door to preach the word. They have a little magazine called the Watchtower that they distribute. Every kid in my day was taught “don’t answer the door if a Jehovah’s Witness comes knocking.” You could see them walking down the street, in formal wear, usually in pairs. I would hide behind furniture and watch them through the window. You could see them ring a doorbell, get no answer, and move onto the next house. That’s how you’d know. Sometimes we’d even phone neighbor friends. “Jehovahs are coming down the street! Don’t answer the door!”
It’s not that Jehovah’s Witnesses are bad people. Prince was a Jehovah’s Witness. It’s just that nobody really likes an uninvited religious sermon in their homes. As kids it wasn’t a good idea to open the door to strangers anyway. And I had some good hiding places to watch for them. Our big front bay window didn’t offer much cover, but I could spy from other strategic places. I’d sneak downstairs silently, and get a closer look at their faces through the blinds. Once, I think I was spotted. If they rang the doorbell more than once, I assumed I’d been noticed and took deeper cover.
This worked like a charm, until one day I let my guard down. It was my OAC “Grade 13” year. I was working on a major project and I needed an audio recording. I called up my buddy Bob to come over for an hour and help. He said, “Sure no problem. I’ll be there in an hour or two.”
An hour later the doorbell rang, and I ran down the stairs excitedly. I was able to leap an entire staircase in one jump. I loudly hit the main floor and ran to the door. Opening it, I saw a kindly little old man in a blue suit and hat. It was not Bob and I instantly regretted my haste. It was my first Jehovah’s Witness.
I smiled and let the man speak, but after a few minutes I had to stop him. “I’m sorry but I’m in the middle of a school project. I really have to go.”
The man was fine with this. “Education is very important,” he said, “I’ll come back another time.”
“Sure, sure,” I said, “Have a nice day.”
I got back to my project, but the next week, the old guy came back. This time my dad answered the door.
“Is the young man available?” asked the Jehovah’s Witness. I don’t know exactly what my dad said to him, but he never came back again. I actually felt bad. He was a nice man, and I’m sure my dad let him have it with a few F-bombs!
Clearly, my method of ninja-like avoidance and surveillance was superior. I never rushed to answer the door in haste again.
Now, how does this all relate to the Record Store? Well, I’ll tell ya.
Yours Truly
As discussed in Record Store Tales Part 190: The Early Bird Drops the Discs, I hated when people would bang on the door before we were open. It wasn’t like our hours were a mystery. There’s one store in town, Orange Monkey Music, that doesn’t really have posted hours. It was a day to day mystery. Whenever they showed up, they’d open. Some days they wouldn’t open at all. Not us! It was the same schedule every week, posted on our front door for easy reference. It was also on our website.
I’m not sure why some people felt entitled to get in the store before we were open. I’ve never presumed that a store should let me in just because I was there 10 minutes early. If I’m there 10 minutes early, that’s my 10 minutes to kill. It’s not some store employee’s responsibility to let me in because I showed up before the posted hours.
Every Record Store employee had to show up 15 minutes before opening. This allowed us to vacuum and set up for the day. If I showed up earlier than 15 minutes, it was because I was the manager and had other things I wanted to get done before opening. I didn’t get paid for being there early so there was no way I was opening early.
Sometimes I’d be in the back room looking at inventory, when I’d hear banging on the door. Maybe it would be a boss who forgot their keys, or maybe it would be a customer. Using my Jehovah-honed ninja skills, I’d skulk behind counters and displays so I could get a clear look. If it was indeed a customer, they’d usually be carrying a bag of crappy CDs to sell. Early morning booze money! I’d stay hidden until they fucked off, then I’d get back to work. Ninja skills: maxed out!
The owner of course would let people in early, even though it was me who had to serve them and not him. I remember one time, local weather man Dave MacDonald showed up early. The boss let him in well before opening; they seemed to know each other. But because he was in, that meant everybody else was welcome too. And I wasn’t even supposed to be on duty yet. Fuck me, right? I hated when he let people in early. Another effect of this was, if you do someone a favour once, they expect it next time. “The owner lets me in early…”
I’d like to thank every Jehovah’s Witness who ever took a stroll down my street. You taught me skills you didn’t even know!
Kiss frontman Paul Stanley seems emboldened by the monumental success of their End of the Road tour. Why “emboldened”? Because they’re pulling it off with only half the original band. Ace Frehley has not shown up to sing “Shock Me” and Peter Criss seems happily retired. Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer remain in the greasepaint and the spotlight. It’s proof that the majority of the masses don’t know or don’t care who is in a band anymore. The “fans” who refer to Thayer and Singer as “scabs” have had no impact on ticket sales with their boycotts.
Many bands have toured successfully in recent years without key members. AC/DC made headlines by replacing Brian Johnson with Axl Rose. Deep Purple are going strong with only one original member. Queen sell out with Adam Lambert taking Freddie Mercury’s place on stage, and bring home terrific reviews to prove it. Kiss too are doing just fine.
Would they be able to do it with even fewer original members? Like, say, none? Paul Stanley thinks so. He’s said so before and recently he raised the idea again:
“I think that Kiss has served a huge purpose and brings incredible joy to people on the End Of The Road tour. The shows are packed, and not only with the early followers of the band, but people who have heard the legend of what this band does live. And it’s something that’s more than music. It really is a preaching of self-empowerment and the idea that anything that you’re willing to work hard for, you can probably attain. And the idea of celebrating life. Things that may seem simplistic or overtly simplistic, but actually have a timeless depth to them. So when bands continue, ultimately the people in ’em need to change or have to, because of circumstances.
“So that’s a long explanation for me feeling that I would have an enormous amount of pride in knowing that we can continue the band once I’m not there anymore. That would be the ultimate test of its credibility and the role, I think, that it serves.
“I didn’t invent the wheel. I am the product of all the people who I looked up to, all the musicians who I respected, and it was kind of like a stew, and then I added my own ingredients to it. But there are other people who are out there who wouldn’t necessarily imitate me any more than I imitated my heroes. But there are people out there, I’m sure, who are well equipped to pick up the flag and run with it.”
Paul is correct to say that bands must sometimes change out of necessity. He is actually the best proof of this. Paul cannot sing anymore and has been miming a huge percentage of his lead vocals on this tour. We won’t go down that rabbit hole this time. Suffice to say, if this wasn’t the End of the Road, Paul couldn’t really continue singing lead in Kiss.
But replacing him? That’s a whole other bowl of Cheerios.
The idea of Kiss going on without Paul and Gene – let’s call the hypothetical band “Kiss II” – would certainly cross a line with me. Bands with one or two original members is one thing. Many bands have replacement members far more important than the originals. Phil Collen is a key member of Def Leppard, vastly more so than his predecessor Pete Willis. Same with Roger Glover and Ian Gillan in Deep Purple. Adrian Smith in Iron Maiden. The list goes on and on.
Could a Kiss II be a viable prospect with Eric Singer the longest serving member? With Tommy Thayer as band leader?
No. Paul and Gene control Kiss. The other guys have just been hired guns ever since the originals left. Kiss may have started as four guys, but for the last few decades it’s the vision of just two. (In the 80s, just one, as Gene went Hollywood.) You could imagine Paul and Gene controlling a Kiss II band from behind the scenes, but that is a hollow prospect. Imagine Stanley and Simmons discussing new costumes and approving setlists for a Kiss II tour without them. Would you pay to see that?
I wouldn’t.
Kiss have already gone down in history, many times, for their accomplishments. Making the band immortal with all parts replaceable might also be historic, but not in a good way. There are guys out there who can sing better than Paul, and play better than Gene. Tribute bands have all the moves down pat. But you can go see a tribute band for $10. Kiss II would be, in essence, an “official” tribute band and with Paul and Gene behind the scenes they’d be charging a hell of a lot more than $10 per ticket.
I think Paul has lost perspective. Kiss has been successful, against the odds, in replacing Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. But there was precedent for that. Kiss made fantastic albums without either. That doesn’t mean you can remove Paul or Gene from the picture and still call it Kiss. Paul and Gene have always been the ones with the drive and the vision. They are not so easy to replace. Can you picture some replacement guy imitating Paul’s stage raps? There might have been a brief window in the late 80s when Kiss could have gone on without Gene, only Paul, since he had become the captain of the ship for a while. However that ship sailed long ago and it’s all but impossible to imagine the band without them both.
No, Kiss II is a lousy idea. It’s just a way to milk naïve fans in this era of hologram and nostalgia tours. Would they sell tickets? Sure, they’d sell some. These hologram tours are proof that people will pay to see anything. Would it be good? Hell, no!
GETTING MORE TALE #749: Do You Wanna Get Rocked? Def Leppard Box Set Volume Two announcement
In October of 2017 I was contacted by a gentleman who is involved with box set releases. A long time reader, he said! Flattery will get you everywhere with me. He was working on an interesting box set project, and he asked for a favour.
Normally I say “no” to any request to share music from my personal collection. This, however, was different. For historical interest, he asked me if he could have the 11 official live songs that Def Leppard released in 2000 and 2001. These were offered for free from the official Def Leppard website at that time. Rare stuff like “Demolition Man” and “Paper Sun”. They disappeared online shortly after. None of these versions have been released anywhere else…until now.
Coming June 21 2019 is the Def Leppard box set called Volume Two. Included in the set are seven of these tracks, from my own personal collection! The band themselves didn’t have them anymore, but fortunately I did. They selected the ones they wanted on the upcoming box set.
I’m told I’ll be thanked in the credits. This is an absolute thrill for me — the biggest release I’ve ever been thanked in. (See Brent Doerner for the other “thank you”.)
Since then I’ve chatted on and off with the gentleman about all sorts of upcoming releases, and wishful thinking. I’m pleased to report that there are some people out there involved with these box sets who still have the passion for the music. He too has the fire! For that reason I had to send him the songs. Now almost two years later they’ll be released officially again, this time permanently. I’m proud to be a part of that. Like he said, it’s historical. Hystoria!
The songs of mine that are included are:
“Bringing On the Heartbreak”, “Switch 625” & “Miss You In a Heartbeat” from Montreal
“Demolition Man” from Denver
“When Love & Hate Collide”, “Paper Sun” and “Goodbye” from Tokyo
See below for the full track list from this incredible box set. Pre-order yours today.
CD ONE – ADRENALIZE
Let’s Get Rocked
Heaven Is
Make Love Like A Man
Tonight
White Lightning
Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)
Personal Property
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?
I Wanna Touch U
Tear It Down
CD TWO – RETRO ACTIVE
Desert Song
Fractured Love
Action
Two Steps Behind (Acoustic Version)
She’s Too Tough
Miss You in A Heartbeat
Only After Dark
Ride into The Sun
From the Inside
Ring of Fire
I Wanna Be Your Hero
Miss You in A Heartbeat (Electric Version)
Two Steps Behind (Electric Version)
CD THREE – SLANG
Truth?
Turn to Dust
Slang
All I Want Is Everything
Work It Out
Breathe A Sigh
Deliver Me
Gift of Flesh
Blood Runs Cold
Where Does Love Go When It Dies
Pearl of Euphoria
CD FOUR – EUPHORIA
Demolition Man
Promises
Back in Your Face
Goodbye
All Night
Paper Sun
It’s Only Love
21st Century Sha La La La Girl
To Be Alive
Disintegrate
Guilty
Day After Day
Kings of Oblivion
CD FIVE – RARITIES VOL 2
Tonight (Demo Version 2)
When Love and Hate Collide (Original Demo)
From the Inside – B-Side
Two Steps Behind (Acoustic) – B-Side
She’s Too Tough (Joe’s Demo) – B-Side
Miss You in A Heartbeat (Phil’s Demo) -B-Side
Tonight (Acoustic – Sun Studios Version) – B-Side
S.M.C. – B-Side
Hysteria (In the Club in Your Face – Bonn)
Photograph (In the Club in Your Face – Bonn)
Pour Some Sugar on Me (In the Club in Your Face – Bonn)
Let’s Get Rocked (In the Club in Your Face – Bonn)
CD SIX – RARITIES VOL 3
Armageddon It (Live in Singapore)
Two Steps Behind (Live in Singapore)
From the Inside (Live in Singapore)
Animal (Live in Singapore)
When Love and Hate Collide (Live in Singapore)
Pour Some Sugar on Me (Live in Singapore)
When Love and Hate Collide – B-Side
Can’t Keep Away from The Flame – B-Side
Truth – Original Version
Move with Me Slowly – B-Side
Work It Out (Original Demo Version) – B-Side
CD SEVEN – RARITIES VOL 4
Bringin’ On the Heartbreak (Live in Montreal)
Switch 625 (Live in Montreal)
Miss You in A Heartbeat (Live in Montreal)
Work It Out (Live in Montreal)
Deliver Me (Live in Montreal)
When Saturday Comes – B-Side
Jimmy’s Theme – B-Side
Burnout – B-Side
Immortal – B-Side
World Collide – B-Side
I Am Your Child – bonus track
Demolition Man – Denver
When Love and Hate Collide – Tokyo
Paper Sun – Tokyo
Goodbye – Tokyo
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