REVIEW: Queen – Flash Gordon (with 1991 and 2011 bonus tracks)

Flash Gordon – Original Soundtrack Music by QUEEN (Originally 1980, 1991 and 2011 Hollywood CDs)

When mom and dad rented the movie Flash Gordon, we sat and watched it as a family.  “It’s terrible,” a family friend told us.  There were only so many movies available to rent at the local store (Steve’s TV), just one small wall of VHS and Betamax.  Flash Gordon came home with us one weekend, and because we tried to make the most of our movie rentals (including the VCR, also a rental) we watched it twice.

I have not seen Flash Gordon since that childhood weekend.  It really was awful.  Maybe we hoped for more because Max Von Sydow was in it.  Neither Sydow, nor Brian Blessed, nor a young Timothy Dalton could save Flash Gordon.

Flash Gordon, New York Jets

Queen also could not save the movie, though their soundtrack is certainly one of the best things to come of it.  (Another is the movie Ted, basically a love letter to the original Flash Gordon).   All four Queen members wrote music for the film, and recorded it as a band.  Brian May wrote the lion’s share of material, though Freddie Mercury was responsible for “Vultan’s Theme”, later ripped off for an Atari video game called Vanguard.  I wonder if Freddie ever saw a dime from that?  I knew Freddie’s song from the video game by heart, long before I ever heard the album by Queen!

The soundtrack gave us one Queen hit single, “Flash’s Theme” written by May.  The 2011 double CD has a single version, and a live cut from Montreal in ’81 (also on Queen Rock Montreal), as bonuses to the album track.  “Flash’s Theme” is sparse but catchy, featuring movie dialogue that makes it seem like the film should be much better.  Queen’s bombast was ideal for this.  When Roger Taylor sings the highest notes in the chorus, it’s sheer musical delight.

The album plays like a soundtrack, with lots of atmospheric keyboard instrumentals and movie dialogue.  Because of its ambient nature, you might not at first recognise some tracks as Queen.  Some is similar to the ambient work that closed their last album, Made in Heaven.  The music is far more grand than its onscreen imagery.

One of the most memorable instrumentals is “Football Fight”, a Mercury synth workout.  Perhaps sometimes we forget what a great keyboardist Mercury was, simply because he was such an amazing vocalist.  “Football Fight” is super fun, and you can also get it in a piano-based demo version on the 2011 CD.  Check out a Queen-tastic version of Wagner’s famous “Wedding March” performed by May on guitar.  Finally there is the rock track “The Hero”, a riffy song with full vocals by Freddie.  It reprises some prior themes from the soundtrack, such as “Vultan’s”.  Queen is augmented by an orchestra on “The Hero”, which is as grand as you would expect.  Like “Flash”, you can also get “The Hero” on disc two in live form, in Montreal 1981.

A long forgotten bonus track for this album was released on the 1991 Hollywood Records CD.  A remix by somebody called “Mista Lawnge” starts off well enough, with a grinding beat synched to May’s guitar.  It goes downhill when somebody starts rapping, “Flash, one time!  Flash, two times!”  Note to all remixers:  Never, ever add random rappers to rock songs.  Don’t.

Rest assured, no matter which version of Flash Gordon you pick up, there are some definite musts on the album.  Much of it will only appeal to fans of soundtracks.  If that sounds like you, take a ride with Flash to planet Mongo and get down with some Queen.  Skip the movie!

4/5 stars

Sunday Chuckle: Downtown Train

It’s the first Sunday Chuckle of 2018!

Jen and I were picking up her mom at the downtown train station. I spotted this guy with a box strapped to his backpack. Pretty smart, I thought! An original and unique solution to travel.

#629 / REVIEW: Oasis – The Red and The Blue

GETTING MORE TALE #629:  The Red and The Blue

It was the second of April, 1973. EMI released two Beatles compilations simultaneously, the “greatest hits” to end all greatest hits. They were double albums, split up by era. Hence the titles 1962-1966, and 1967-1970.  Nobody refers to them as such.  Due to their packaging, fans simply call them the Red and the Blue albums.

This story is not about those albums.

Of course, some cheeky bootlegger used a similar gimmick when compiling up all of Oasis’ B-sides and non-album tracks back in the late 1990s.  The earliest rarities were lumped together on The Red Album 93-94.  Everything beyond was on The Blue Album 94-96.  The CDs had matching artwork and back covers that boasted “A complete and global anthology of non-album tracks”.  And for the period, that seems to be generally true!

When I first got into Oasis, they already had plenty of singles and B-sides out there.  Collecting them all was an intimidating prospect.  Oasis singles were always chock loaded with quality unreleased songs.  Unlike most artists, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher insisted that their B-sides were as good as album tracks.  And they were — often better.   My Record Store cohort T-Rev had a complete collection of singles, but was still missing a few other rare songs.  While at a record show, we found the Oasis Red and Blue CDs.  At $30 a pop they were still cheaper than trying to collect all the Oasis singles, with the added bonus of the songs T-Rev was missing!  They were recorded for him immediately of course.

T-Rev preferred the Creation Records singles, which were the UK printings.  My bootlegs were interesting to him, but not something he would spend money on.  When I moved into his apartment for a few months in ’98, he could listen to my bootlegs whenever he wanted to anyway.  He knew I was fussy about the handling of my music, and he was as well, so we could easily trust each other with our collections.  It was a very easy situation because we both had total respect for each other’s music.

The two songs he didn’t have (yet) were only available in two official capacities.  “Sad Song” was exclusive to the vinyl and Japanese versions of Definitely Maybe.  Similarly, “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” was exclusive to the same formats of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory.  Neither of us had heard these songs before.  What a joy to find that they were as extraordinary as the rest of Oasis’ B-sides.

Several other rarities couldn’t  have been found just by collecting the regular Oasis CD singles.  A demo of “Cigarettes and Alcohol” came from somewhere else, likely a compilation.  The second version of “Fade Away” on the Blue Album with Noel singing was from a Warchild charity CD.  A demo of “Some Might Say”, and the Beatles cover “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” (lead vocals by Noel) were only on Japanese CD singles.  These songs have since been reissued on official Oasis releases, but at the time, the value they added to these bootlegs was immense.

Still, a bootleg is never as good as an original.  Sound is a problem on a couple tracks.  “Up in the Sky”, “Sad Song” and “Whatever” have volume issues.  There are also cute track-listing errors.  “Round Are Way” is amusingly “corrected” to “Round Our Way”.

Oasis have done a commendable job of deluxe edition album reissues.  Their first three albums have all been given triple disc deluxe CD upgrades.  That renders the Red and the Blue bootlegs largely obsolete.  There is only one song on the Blue Album that can’t be found on one of the deluxe Oasis reissues, and that is “Fade Away”, the Warchild version.  It can, however, be found on the B-side to Oasis’ 1998 single “Don’t Go Away”.

There is some truly remarkable music on these CDs that make their occasional listening a recurring pleasure.  Even some of the primitive early material like “Alive” and “I Will Believe” have true spark.  By the time you get to the more polished side of Oasis, like “Whatever”, you’ve already been treated to a number of early Oasis classics.  Live and alternate versions of “Columbia”, “Bring it On Down”, “Up in the Sky”, and “Supersonic” represent the best of Oasis’ early material.  There is also the love-it-or-hate-it extended live workout of “I Am the Walrus”, all 8:20 of it.

The Blue Album is a consistently brilliant listen.  So many incredible single-quality originals:  “Acquiesce”, “Round Are Way”, “Step Out”, and “The Masterplan”.  Any of these could have stormed the charts as an A-side.  “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” is decent too, though it sounds a bit of drunken fun.  There are also the terrific covers of “Cum on Feel the Noize” and “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”.

At the time, circa 1997, it was easy to justify paying a combined $60 for these two albums.  T-Rev’s friend Paul “Geeza” thought they were pretty neat.  Geeza was from England, and he visited Canada in the summers.  T-Rev befriended him via the store.  When he was back in Canada, he came over to the apartment and looked over our awesome CD collections.  He was all over my Red and Blue albums.  I made sure Geeza knew how I liked to take care of my stuff.  He was respectful but teasing.

I had to go out.  When I got back, Geeza and T-Rev were gone, but a note was left behind.

It was from Geeza.  He teased that he took my Oasis CDs!

We lived in such a small place, they weren’t hard to find.  I think the Red Album was under my pillow.  The other CD took longer.  It was just in good fun.  I was probably pissed off for a minute or five, but who cares now?  I get the joke now.  Living with me must have been a little like living with Sheldon Cooper.

If a guy like Geeza, who was an absolutely madman for Oasis, was interested in the Red and Blue albums, maybe you should keep an eye open for them too.  Don’t pay $30 each, but consider adding these eye-catchers to your collection.

OASIS – The Red Album 93-94
OASIS – The Blue Album 94-96

They’d have been 5/5 stars in 1997.  In 2017…

3/5 stars

#628: Cancer Chronicles 2

 

GETTING MORE TALE #622: Cancer Chronicles 2

Welcome back to Cancer Chronicles – the completely non-musical and self-indulgent series of updates on my wife’s cancer battle.

In our last chapter, I had to battle with hospitals to correct an appointment date for an MRI. They screwed up the date and booked it for February. I won that battle, and because I did, Jen was able to get a biopsy performed on schedule in December.

The surgeon promised he’d update us as soon as possible and he was true to his word.

We will be meeting with him on Tuesday January 9. This is in preparation for a surgery on January 15. I can’t believe how fast this is happening! Imagine if we didn’t get that MRI date fixed? We’d still be in limbo.

Jen will be in hospital for at least several days after surgery. I will most likely be out of contact that week. We are very much looking forward to putting this behind us and getting on with life! She’s scared, naturally. It’s happening fast but that also means it’ll be over before we know it.

I’m not scared, just nervous. When I feel stress, it manifests itself in a few ways but the worst is in my stomach. I’m a stress-puker. Sometimes I can’t eat for days. My own challenge is going to be providing support while trying to take care of myself. So wish us both luck. We’re going to kick cancer’s ass — together.

#627: Pete and Repeat

GETTING MORE TALE #627: Pete and Repeat

 

When I get sick, I go all-in.  No half-measures.  Whatever the illness may be, I go deep.  The Great Flu 2017/2018 is no exception.  I may be back at work but I’m still a mess.

Ever since I was a kid, I used to get annoying songs repeating in my head when I was sick.  It still happens today, and I cannot do anything to get the annoying songs out of my head.  It prevents me from sleeping.  It drives out any other songs I may try to use to change the soundtrack in my brain.  I’ve tried everything.  Nothing haunts me worse than a bad song in the head when I’m sick.  Laying there in bed for sleepless hours, with one verse and one chorus on repeat, as my head pounds in agony.

This time, there was a slight twist on the “sick repeating song” experience.  I didn’t realize it in the fever of non-sleep, but my one repeating song was actually two songs this time.  Two annoying songs by the same band:  The Wild!

The Wild! are another one of those AC/DC-like party rock bands.  They have funny names like “Dylan Villain”, “Boozus”, “The Kid” and “Reese Lightning”.  Their song “Livin’ Free” has been on regular radio rotation and even several days after unplugging, it was still stuck in my head.  On repeat.  But there’s more.

Turns out there, my brain actually had two songs stuck in it, joined together into one.  My sleepy sick self couldn’t tell.  Only after hitting Youtube, trying to banish this melody from my brain, did I realize there were two songs in there.  The other song, also by The Wild!, was the soundalike track “Ready to Roll”.  So similar are they that they both got jammed together into one endless loop.

The Wild! might be right up your alley.  They’re AC/DC and ZZ Top and they call themselves the “God Damn Wild Boys”.  I have no real objections to the band, except that they’re trodding a path that has already been well explored over the last 45 years.  Maybe that’s your kind of thing.  Unfortunately I can’t be objective on The Wild! because I associate them with several days in bed suffering from the plague.

Surely I cannot be the only one who experiences annoying song repeats when sick in bed.  Am I?

 

REVIEW: Max Webster – A Million Vacations (1979)

MAX WEBSTER – A Million Vacations (originally 1979, 2017 Anthem remaster)

Why are Max Webster still held in such high esteem by their devoted fanbase?  Possibly because they concocted an ideal mixture of humour and incredible playing and composition.  Much like Frank Zappa, Max Webster felt that humour does indeed belong in music.  It’s “smart kid rock” but never taking itself too seriously.  From playful musical sections to the words of lyricist Pye Dubois, Max could also be counted on to poke you in the ribs.

A Million Vacations is certainly one of their best albums, if not their absolute magnum opus, but that’s all a matter of opinion.  At this stage of the game, Max was really cooking.  The 10 songs within represent some peak level songwriting, and several are still on the radio today.  Through the airwaves, “Paradise Skies”, “Let Go the Line”, “A Million Vacations” and “Night Flights” might be speeding over Canada somewhere as you read this.

“Paradise Skies” indeed!  One of Max’s most immediate tracks is the party opener.  Total mainstream Max: catchy hooks, insane playing, and a chorus that’s ready to blast off.  Terry Watkinson’s “Charmonium” is more complex but no less catchy.  The keyboardist wrote the song and does the lead vocals as well.  Dig into those flurries of notes making up some tasty solo sections.  Losing no momentum, “Night Flights” keeps a jaunty pace.  Pye Dubois’ poem about the love of touring reminds us how important Pye was to the band.  How many bands have a touring lyricist?

Breaking the fun-loving character for just a moment, a day-dreamy “Sun Voices” has connections to the next songs, “Moon Voices” and “A Million Vacations”.  “In my chair, chaise lounge…” and how many songs can you think of with a chaise lounge in the words??  “Sun Voices” is a meditative poolside view.  Perhaps then the side-closing instrumental “Moon Voices” is the loud party, after the sun goes down?

“A Million Vacations” (written by drummer Gary McCracken and Pye Dubois) on side two is a party-ready Canadian summer anthem.  Part of being Canadian is hibernating for our cold, dark winters.  Once we have endured the freeze, and life returns with the spring thaw, it is like a celebration.  “A Million Vacations” has that feeling.  “Throwin’ out all kinds of fishing line, Friday Friday is a good time to shine.”  Yes indeed, hitting the outdoors is a Canadian weekend tradition in the summer time.

“Look Out” is an often forgotten buried gem.  The chorus is written around a catchy keyboard riff, which suddenly gives way to a conga jam.  It’s Max as only Max can do, daring but never fearing.  But side two’s centerpiece is undoubtedly the magnificent ballad “Let Go the Line”, with Watkinson back on lead vocals.  Kim Mitchell orchestrates a guitar chorus for the main instrument hook and it’s instant love.  For sheer smart pop songwriting, “Let Go the Line” is Max’s finest.  The new 2017 remaster from the recommended box set The Party really reveals a lot of nuance in the back that were hard or impossible to hear on previous CD editions.

Kim gets a little goofy with “Rascal Houdi”, an undeniable party rocker.  “I’m switching out, I’m out to lunch,” and it’s a teenage blast.  But the party finale, “Research (At Beach Resorts)” takes it to the max (pun intended).  “Line up crowds at the pavilion, Max is playing ‘Vacations'”.  It’s a beach party, and Max is “in Newport for research, to get abreast of things…”  What about Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay?  Already taken care of, friends.  “We’ve just researched Wasaga Beach, bonfire pits at midnight.”  But what the heck are they “researching”?

“What is it that we stare at?
Is it the passports and campsite stars?
Or the monogrammed bikinis and cars?
Or maybe we just need some perspiration ’cause we’re frostbitten Canadian boys!”

There are few bands better than Max Webster, folks, and Max’s A Million Vacation is an easy album to love, so flip it over and play it again like I’m about to.

5/5 stars

 

#626.6: The Big Lists of 2017 Part Six: The Return of the Stats of Doom

TOP TEN 2017 REVIEWS (by hits)

Trailer Park Boys – Season 11 (5692 hits)

Deep Purple – Limitless (591 hits)

The Kinks – The Essential (509 hits)

Sword – Live Hammersmith (430 hits)

Max Webster – The Party (356 hits)

KISS – Dynasty re-review (297 hits)

Deep Purple – Time for Bedlam (297 hits)

KISS – Music From the Elder re-review (282 hits)

Greta Van Fleet – Black Smoke Rising (281 hits)

KISS – Love Gun re-review (278 hits)

Old reviews from years past such as Van Halen – Zero also made strong showings (1343 hits).  2016’s Trailer Park Boys – Out of the Park – Europe recieved 4753 hits!

 

TOP FIVE “GETTING MORE TALES” of 2017 (by hits)

#551:  “You’re Wrong on Unmasked“ (932 hits)

#625:  The Last Fanboys (428 hits)

#546:  Worst. McDonalds. Ever. (310 hits)

#575:  The Chris Cornell Obsession (194 hits)

#619:  State of the Rock – FYC! (132 hits)

Strong showing on The Last Fanboys, a Star Wars rant that was only posted on December 27 with only a few days left in the year to rank!  Thanks, fanboys!

TOP FIVE READER’S COUNTRIES by hits

United States – 73,014 hits

Canada – 31,064 hits

United Kingdom – 15,692 hits

Australia – 10,969 hits

Spain – 5744 hits

…and 1 hit from Greenland!

 

 

 

…And On A Personal Note

I don’t mind admitting that 2017 kicked my ass.  In terms of growth, in both quality and in traffic, it was our best year yet.  I’m 45 years old and I feel our best is still ahead.  With music as inspiring as it was in 2017, it’s inevitable that I will have some amazing things to write about in 2018.

But 2017 flat-out kicked my ass.  Finding out your wife has cancer, yeah, that’s what did me in.  By the end of December my immune system was ripe for the pickings.

The non-stop support at home has been essential to getting back on my feet, but don’t underestimate your own role in this.  Though I have not been able to respond to individual comments, they’ve all been appreciated.  Every single one.

As we all head back to the grind tomorrow, remember none of it means anything if you don’t take care of yourselves.  That’s what I’m going to pledge to do better in 2018.

 

M

 

#626.5: The Big Lists of 2017 Part Five: The Mighty Meat

Uncle Meat’s Top Ten Movies of 2017

  1. I, Tonya
  2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
  3. Jim and Andy : The Great Beyond – Featuring a very special, contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton
  4. Baby Driver
  5. It
  6. Justice League
  7. Gilbert
  8. Logan
  9. Get Me Roger Stone
  10. ESPN 30 for 30 – Ric Flair: The Nature Boy

 

 

Uncle Meat’s Top Ten Albums of 2017

 

I must admit that it was hard doing this list, for the simple reason that Uncle Meat rarely likes anything new.  Call me a Fuddy-Duddy…call me stuck in the glorious past…But you cants call me Johnson.  Considering I am using a very old reference to the David Steinberg show, maybe I should just get on to 2017 instead.

 

10)  Queens of the Stone Age – Villains  – The first track on this album called “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” came out and literally kicked me in the face…pun intended.  But the rest of the album drags and is kinda forgettable.  However the aforementioned track might be my song of the year so it makes up the bottom end of this list.

 

9)   Pallbearer – Heartless   – Not as blatant as my number 10 entry, but again this is based mostly off one track. The song pointed out by Dr. Dave,  “I Saw the The End”, seems to have so many intentional or unintentional “nods” within it they are hard to count.  I have heard it reminds people of Queensryche, Iron Maiden, King’s X…etc.  But the rest of the album doesn’t seem to live up to that glorious track.

 

8)  Deep Purple – InFinite  – Yet another solid output from Morse-era Deep Purple.  Steve Morse has been in the band so long now it seems weird to keep referring to the “Morse era” anymore.  Ian Gillan is writing vocal lines that seem to better suit his limited vocal range right now.  I really like the keyboards on this album.  Even Frank put one of the tracks as his song of the year.  Listen to Frank.

 

7)  Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound  –  Someone has to mention something other than “Heavy Metal Bullshit” on this site.  2017 may have been a bit of a Metal resurgence year for me, but Jason Isbell’s 2017 offering needs to be on this list.  His lyrics are reminiscent of the great John Prine on this album.  He also rocks out a little bit more here, which is good because I found some previous album to be way too mamby-pamby and not enough guts.  Plenty of guts and beauty on this record.

 

6)  Mogwai – Every Country’s Sun  – This band was introduced to me by Doctor Doom a few years ago.  Always appreciated what they do but found it hard to get into.  A few listens of Every Country’s Sun, and it’s diverse song styles have made me more than appreciate them. It is really quite simple.  I need to hear more Mogwai.

 

5)  Steve Earle and the Dukes –  So You Wanna Be an Outlaw  – I have only had a couple listens of this in full, which just is not enough to really dig into a Steve Earle album.  But what I have heard I have loved, as per usual.  You just cant go wrong with Mr. Earle.

 

4)  Power Trip – Nightmare Logic – Was introduced to this album by a review on Banger TV (highly recommended You Tube channel run by Sam Dunn).  It was compared to Slayer’s Reign in Blood both in overall style and the album’s short running time.  Once again the past draws me in as it definitely is “old school Thrash Metal”.  Not an album I could listen to a lot, but hard not to elicit a reaction anytime it comes on.

 

3)  The Necromancers – Servants of the Salem Girl – Iron Tom Sharpe or whatever he calls himself here on this blog introduced me to this French band that totally rocks.  Sounds like an oxymoron I know, but it indeed rocks.  I really find they remind me of Orange Goblin at times, which is a high compliment in my world.  I have found myself in the rock guitar pose frequently with this album playing.  Frank would like it.

 

2) Elder – Reflections of a Floating World  – Elder came out of absolutely nowhere for me about a month ago. Kicked my fucking ass…and soul.  Reflections of a Floating World is absolutely the greatest collection of music I heard in 2017.  I couldn’t put it number one which will be explained shortly, however it is so fucking good I would say this might be my favourite “Metal” album in many many years.  Years ago I wanted so bad to find a truly Progressive Metal band, and the closest thing I could find was Dream Theater.  But they continually had this gloss and sparkly side to them which turned me off a lot of the time.  If Pink Floyd and Kyuss had a baby, and it grew up listening to nothing but Gabriel Genesis albums, you would get Reflections of a Floating World.  The singer kinda reminds me of Perry Farrell, which seems like an odd fit but works perfectly.  No barking on this record.  The second track, “The Falling Veil”, is a song I have went to many times within the last month.  If you like good music, and have the patience to appreciate it, soak yourself in this record.  Do it, Frank.

 

1) Five Alarm Funk – Sweat  – Do I think this is the best album of 2017?  As mentioned earlier, that goes to my number 2.  However this was by far my favourite album of this year as well as my favourite band of this year.  Five Alarm Funk is Canada’s best keep secret, but subsequent albums never really captured what it was like to see this band live.  They did release a great live album in 2016, but what FAF have created with Sweat seems to be taking the energy of their live shows and writing appropriate music to suit their show.  The song “Iceberg” is as many parts Zappa and “Heavy Metal Bullshit” as it is a funk song.  Many other tracks have this groovy girth to them.  If you hear about Five Alarm Funk playing a show near you…you owe it to yourself to see Canada’s hardest working band.  The band will kick your ass and back again while you are dancing to it.  But this album will do in a pinch. Love these fucking guys.

And we love you, fuckin’ Meat!

 

#626.4: The Big Lists of 2017 Part Four: LeBrain brings the reign

LeBrain’s Top Lists for 2017

2017 was, from almost every angle, a shit year.  Another onslaught of losses in music, entertainment and sports (another list on its own).  2017 was as devastating as 2016, but perhaps all that loss was turned into musical dividends.  Before the year was even half over, I had already found my #1 album of 2017 from a surprising corner.  I knew as soon as I heard it that it was something remarkable.  I pencilled it into the #1, wondering who would topple it.  Over the months, no-one did.  Though my annual Top Five Albums list was not finalised until last week, the #1 album never changed.

Before we get to albums, however, let’s check out some winners in other categories!

BEST BOX SET

MAX WEBSTER – The Party

I put my reputation on the line when I recommended The Party to everyone I knew.  I only got good reviews in return.  For the record, it was our own Uncle Meat, back in July, who broke the news of this box set.  He knows someone involved with the remastering and was aware of the project well before the public was.  Though the packaging was bare bones, the reissue otherwise hits all the bases.

BEST REISSUE

DEF LEPPARD – Hysteria 30th anniversary edition

What was probably my #1 album for Christmas 1987 is my favourite reissue in 2017.  In a year featuring fantastic reissues by Marillion (Misplaced Childhood) and Whitesnake (1987), none brought me back in time like Leppard’s Hysteria did.

 

TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF 2017

 

Normally I exclude live albums from my lists, but this has been a special year.

 

5 1/2.  IRON MAIDEN – The Book of Souls: Live Chapter

5. STEPHEN PEARCY – Smash

4. ALICE COOPER – Paranormal

3. THE DARKNESS – Pinewood Smile

2. GRETA VAN FLEET – From the Fires

1. STYX – The Mission

I haven’t cared so much about Styx since I was 10 years old!  What an incredible album The Mission is.  And I’m counting it as CanCon, because of singer/pianist Lawrence Gowan (but you can call him Larry).

 

Other fun categories!

BEST NEW ARTIST – Greta Van Fleet

BEST SOUNDTRACK – John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

BEST SOCIAL MEDIA – Michael Sweet (Stryper)

BEST ARTWORK – Deep Purple, for InFinite

MOST IMPROVED BEHAVIOUR – W. Axl Rose (Guns N’ Roses)

BEST COMEBACK – Quiet Riot, for Road Rage

BEST GUITARIST – Tom Morello (Prophets of Rage)

BIGGEST DOUCHEBAG – Gene Simmons (KISS)

SECOND BIGGEST DOUCHEBAG – Kid Rock

BIGGEST MISTAKE – Black Sabbath and Bill Ward not playing together at all before The End, a wasted opportunity to set things right.

 

#626.3: The Big Lists of 2017 Part Three: Iron Tom Sharpe

No commentary from Tom, just rock.  Pay attention, as many of these titles are recurring on these lists!

 

Tom’s Top 20 for 2017

20 Vulfpeck – Mr. Finish Line

19 The Wizards Of Delight – The Wizards Of Delight (EP)

18 Neil Young – Hitchhiker

17 Thundercat – Drunk

16 Mothership – High Strangeness

15 Steve Hackett – Night Siren

14 Deep Purple – InFinite

13 Mastodon – Emperor of Sand

12 Gov’t Mule – Revolution Come Revolution Go

11 John Garcia – The Coyote Who Spoke In Tongues

10 Pallbearer – Heartless

9 Steve Earle – So You Wannabe an Outlaw

8 Elder – Reflections of a Floating World

7 Magpie Salute – Magpie Salute

6 Jason Isbell – The Nashville Sound

5 Fireball Ministry – Remember the Story

4 The Obsessed – Sacred

3 The Atomic Bitchwax – Force Field

2 Five Alarm Funk – Sweat

1 The Necromancers – Servants of the Salem Girl