This week, I was honoured to be on John Clauser’s My Music Corner one more time, to discuss Temporary Replacement Singers in the 1990s. We tackled four singers and four bands. My choice: “Corabi Crue”, aka “Motley ’94”, perhaps the most underrated of them all. We talked the genesis, highlights, lowlights, and how it all ended. I’ll let John tell the story from here:
Anthrax Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, and Judas Priest all went through a period from the 90s into the 2000s where either the original singer (or more known singer) left the band, and they were temporarily replaced. What became of the music made during the era for each band?
On this, I moderate a discussion between Mike Ladano, Peter Jones, Jake Not From State Farm, and my co-captain John The Music Nut as we look into each band.
Special Edition Episode: Tim Durling’s Guide to Kansas Compilations
Folks, we have a great live episode of Grab A Stack of Rock coming up this Friday. Yes, today’s mini-episode is essentially a teaser to another episode, but it’s is also a great standalone in its own right. Thank you Tim Durling for sharing some of your collection with us today.
For this instalment, Tim Durling, author of the new book Let It Be Your Guide – The Kansas Album Review (buy in the link), guides us through the essential Kansas compilations if you are new to the band. Starting with the original 1984 best-of and its variants, we go through the decades to the present day. Compilations vary in size and scope. From single discs, to doubles and even a triple, Tim has a Kansas recommendation for every appetite. Perhaps you’re just looking for the classic era up to 1984. Or, maybe you need representation for the Steve Morse years of the late 1980s for your Kansas listening. If you’re really going for it, you may as well pick one that covers the whole career.
Check out what Tim has on offer to get your Kansas collection started. And, of course, check out Friday’s show when we go into the book in detail!
Jen and I were B-Side Ourselves to find that James Kalyn had sent me some surprise vinyl when I was feeling down and low. It so happened James was available on Friday night for an unboxing. So that’s what we did! What did he send? Here are some clues:
This is a show I was made for! Spoiler alert: Regular readers already know my favourite Steve Morse era Deep Purple album. I was already trying to kickstart a Purple collection when he joined the band in 1995. His addition made me a completist – had to get every album. And, within a few years of his joining, I achieved and maintained that. Morse’s additional made me a superfan. I just love when a band has a significant lineup change that actually works. Deep Purple was transformed into something a little different, but just as good. Just new flavours in the soup. A new freedom to experiment and stretch out. It wouldn’t have worked if the band couldn’t write new songs with the new axeman, but their chemistry flourished over seven studio original studio albums.
Now that Steve is gone from the band, and they are carrying on with another new ingredient in Simon McBride, it is a perfect time to look back upon the Morse era. Joining myself and Peter Kerr on Rock Daydream Nation is “Music Swami” Pete Jones. Together, we passionately discuss three favourite albums, and the key tracks that you need to check out for yourself. We don’t just shower praise, but we break down and analyze.
Here’s what Mr. Kerr has to say:
Rock Daydream Nation is joined by Peter Jones (The Contrarians) and Mike Ladano (Grab a Stack of Rock) to choose their desert island Deep Purple album featuring Steve Morse….Are any of these albums better than Deep Purple Ritchie Blackmore? Check out the show!
Mama, just killed a man! Learn all about musicians who killed, artists with mob connections, murders and money laundering, oh my! Angie Moon has written the book: Crime of the Century – Classic Rock and True Crime. In this one-hour interview, Angie informed Jex Russell and I on so many topics!
Jack Ruby & the Band
DEVO’s connection with true crime
Dennis Wilson & Charles Manson
The excellent cover art of her book
Publishing a book from scratch
Social media and promotion
The diversity of classic rock
The Kinks
The White Album
And so much more!
Thank you Angie and thank you Jex for the education on Grab A Stack of Rock!
Your dad was once a police officer, and later on in life you realized there were no books about true crime and classic rock. Does that about sum up what started you on this journey?
I like the way the book is formatted. You have a chapter about a band/crime, and you introduce both the band and the criminal in a way that you don’t need any background knowledge at all.
Jack Ruby and the Hawks (the Band) – sounds like Jack had a reputation and an aura to him? No surprise the shows they played at his club were poorly attended?
What is it about the Kinks that you love so much? Can you sum it up? What do you imagine that party at John Wayne Gacy’s place was like?
I enjoyed your overview of the White Album. I realize this might be the most difficult question of the interview, but where do you rank that Beatles album in their catalogue?
I didn’t know about Charles Manson’s childhood, and that his alcoholic mother was destitute and spent time in prison. That had to have an impact on the person he became. I also had no idea he was studying Scientology.
Reading about how Manson and his girls duped Dennis into staying at his rented mansion, fleecing him for $100,000 worth of generosity, just made me feel sad for Dennis. He was not a man without his demons.
Are there any classic rock crimes or bands that you just decided to steer clear of for this book?
I did not know that Paul McCartney bought the rights to Buddy Holly’s back catalogue!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 63: Crime of the Century with Angie Moon
Please welcome Angie Moon to the show! Angie has long been a member of the WordPress community, and is now out with her first book: Crime of the Century! It’s all about the connections between classic rock and true crime, and could be the first book of its kind.
This afternoon, co-host Jex Russell and I will talk with Angie about the book, and these fascinating cases of crime intertwined with figures from classic rock history. The Kinks, the Beach Boys, Debbie Harry, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa and DEVO are all covered in the book, with an additional section on “musicians who killed”! It’s a fascinating read. You’re bound to learn something you didn’t know before on today’s show.
Grant Arthur, Jamie Laszlo, Peter Kerr, Tim Durling and myself all gathered together to discuss this fun topic last night: Albums with common “nickname” titles! For example: The Beatles (the White Album), Metallica (the Black Album), and Weezer (lotsa coloured albums)! There are plenty on our lists, and I’m especially proud of one of my coloured picks.
This was my first ever panel discussion with the Contrarians, and about three years overdue. Thank you Grant for inviting me!
There will be no episode of Grab A Stack of Rock this weekend, but we’ll be back next week!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 62: The Battle of ’84: Iron Maiden – Powerslave vs. Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith
It is finally time: the Battle of ’84 has arrived! 40 years ago, two metal monsters released crucial albums:
Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith – 13 January 1984 – peaked at #18 in the US and went platinum.
Iron Maiden – Powerslave – 3 Sept 1984 – peaked at #21 in the US and went platinum.
But which album, track for track, is better?
Tonight, Peter Jones and I will attempt to answer that question. After appearing once with Pete on a favourite episode of Rock Daydream Nation, he finally joins Grab A Stack of Rock. Peter is a musician, who understands the vocabulary of drums and will explain it all tonight. (Check out his latest Contrarians episode with Martin Popoff!) Will the drumming colour his impressions of these two landmark albums of the 80s? We shall see tonight.
We shall dissect each and every track, including the bonus tracks & B-sides. Who shall reign? Find out tonight…live!
Friday June 7 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
This is likely the last evening show of the summer of 2024. Afternoon shows occur at 3:00 PM on Fridays, when I have an available co-host. Thanks for watching, and stay tuned…
The next show is an interview with author Angie Moon, regarding her debut music/true time book, Crime of the Century, June 21 on Grab A Stack of Rock!
I need to remember for fortunate I am. Some time in 2023, I was approached by an Australian man named Peter Kerr to do a show on the Vinnie Vincent Invasion for his channel, Rock Daydream Nation. He had seen me around on social media, and we hit it off immediately. Meeting Peter has led to some of the best shows I’ve done, including a couple on Grab A Stack of Rock. This week on Rock Daydream Nation, Peter and I went back to one of our core deep love bands: the Purples. Deep Purple Mk III in fact, and the sometimes maligned Stormbringer LP.
As per the deep dive format, we begin with first impressions. Mine begin with a cheap cassette copy bought at Encore Records in Kitchener Ontario. We then go track by track through the whole album, side A and side B. By the time we offer our final thoughts, it is plenty obvious that we love Stormbringer. Blackmore may have disliked the funk, but we like when he plays funky. We touch on Rainbow, Whitesnake and much more.
We drive into some Deep Purple history here, so grab a coffee and enjoy this deep dive!
A big thank you to Metal Roger for the topic, and thanks to John Clauser for an awesome show! The topic tonight was Roger’s: Top five albums after a long gap between. There was no crossover on any of our lists. I went mostly mainstream with my bands. Clauser surprised us with a lot of bands I didn’t know, but were popular in the comments. A nice Steve Augeri band too! Metal Roger did industrial, metal, and beardliness.
My list is below, and included two Japanese imports and a couple of special editions with DVDs.
At the end of the day, the mighty Harrison Kopp the Mad Metal Man himself turned up with a list of his own, which surprisingly lacked any Blaze Bayley. A huge thanks to Harrison for coming on last night.
Tune in next week for the Battle of ’84 with Pete Jones: Defenders of the Faith vs. Powerslave!
I cheated.
TIE
KISS – Sonic Boom (2009) – 11 year gap from 1998’s Psycho-Circus
Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth (2012) – 14 year gap from 1998’s Van Halen III (8 year gap from 2004’s Best of Both Worlds)
Faith No More – Sol Invictus (2015) – 18 year gap from 1997’s Album of the Year
Deep Purple – Perfect Strangers (1984) – 9 year gap from 1975’s Come Taste the Band
Styx – The Mission (2018) – 15 year gap from 2003’s Cyclorama (13 year gap from 2005’s Big Bang Theory)
Extreme – Six (2023) – 15 year gap from 2008’s Saudades de Rock
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