GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 79: Red On Black: A Chat with Tim Durling on Sammy Hagar
Viewers are by now very familiar with Tim Durling and his body of work. He needs no introduction. But, he has a new book out, and every time that happens, we have to get Tim back on the show to talk about it. The subject this time is Sammy Hagar. We’ll run through Montrose, his solo career, HSAS, Van Halen, Chickenfoot and all the rest.
Co-hosting tonight is Jex Russell. Just because we’re all pals, don’t expect a softball interview. We’ll be testing Tim tonight. There’s Only One Way To Rock, but tonight we’ll be showing you some new ways of doing an interview.
This will be live, so don’t hesitate to join the chat and ask a question! You’ve got to give to live, so give us your questions!
Friday November 22 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
RECORD STORE TALES #1165: Zero the Hero The True Story of My Favourite Album of All Time
1984.
It wasn’t I that owned Born Again by Black Sabbath. That would have been Bob Schipper, who had all manners of metal in his cassette collection. I knew very little about Black Sabbath when I first discovered music at the end of 1984. Though Ian Gillan was not the lead singer by the time I became interested in bands like Black Sabbath, he was for all intents and purposes the lead singer to me. Magazine coverage of Black Sabbath goings-on were beyond my reach, and this would be the last Sabbath album for a few years anyway. To me, Black Sabbath were: the two guys with the moustaches, the guy with the long black hair, and the drummer…who looked completely different in the music video for “Zero The Hero” than he did on the Born Again cassette cover. How was I to know that original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward had been replaced by a guy named Bev Bevan? I was just starting out on my rock journey. I had the puzzle pieces in my hands, but no picture to guide the assembly.
It all started when Bob came over one day raving about this song called “Zero the Hero”. “You gotta hear it! It goes, ‘Whatcha gonna be, whatcha gonna be, Zero the Hero!'” Bob was right that the chorus was pretty cool and memorable. The effects on Gillan’s voice on the chorus lent it a metallic sheen. He let me borrow the tape a bit to listen. I enjoyed it. Master of Reality was another one we listened to together. He liked a song called “Children of the Grave”, especially the spooky outro. Born Again had some spooky stuff on it too. This would come in handy a little later on.
As I discovered bands, I tended to hear the stuff that most popular in my own neighborhood. W.A.S.P., Iron Maiden, Kiss, Judas Priest, Van Halen, ZZ Top. I heard some of The Police as well, but my closest friends were rockers. Metal heads. There was a serious division in music back then: Heavy Metal vs. New Wave. You couldn’t like both. To us, everything that wasn’t metal was “New Wave”. If you liked Corey Hart, you were a “Waver”. If you liked Tears For Fears, you were a “Waver”. In our neighborhood, you didn’t want to be a Waver. Basically a Waver would be a slur along the lines of “gay” or whatever the kids were saying back then. I remember “hurtin’ eunuch” was a phrase that kids like Jeff Brooks would throw around at kids like me.
Anyway, I threw myself into metal full-time and counted Black Sabbath as one of the bands I liked. I didn’t own any Black Sabbath, but I could name two songs that I liked. I think Ozzy Osbourne had something to do with the band, and that singer with the black hair was also in Deep Purple. I was learning. I didn’t know his name, and I didn’t realize that Ronnie James Dio was also in Black Sabbath (mind blown there) but I was piecing that puzzle together. I had a few of the edges together, and now I would work on the body: collecting the music.
In the mid-80s, Bob and I were too old for going trick or treating at Halloween time. Instead we gave out candy at Bob’s house. We wanted to go all out and really make a cool “haunted house”, and for that you needed sound effects. Instead of spending valuable allowance money on one of those corny Halloween tapes, we made our own. We did this by looping the scary bits of Black Sabbath songs. Bob especially liked that haunting whisper at the end of “Children of the Grave”. We made loops, maybe 10 of them, adding in our own bits via an external microphone. Then we would loop “The Dark” a few times, until the side was full. Bob would go home and eat lunch, and come back later that afternoon to work on more Halloween stuff. We were very resourceful and creative. To this day I have never used pre-made Halloween sounds. I always made my own by looping bits of songs. It worked. Kids would either go straight to our house for candy like a bee to honey…or they would run past terrified!
[Bob and I learned from this experience when a young girl cried at our house. If we saw anyone really really little approaching, we would kill the sounds and turn on the lights. It wasn’t our goal to make kids cry.]
I managed to record the music video from the Pepsi Power Hour one afternoon. I called Bob over to watch it with me. It was (and remains) one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen in my life. A Frankenstein looking guy and a Franken-Hitler guy appear to be resurrecting a dead body as…a nerd? They force fed him eggs with ketchup, while he grinned the whole way through. Then, a horse walked backwards down a flight of stairs in a mansion. Meanwhile, scenes of the band playing live were cut in, and you could hardly see Gillan’s face. It was weird…and heavy. We hated it. But I loved it.
Finally one day in highschool I said to myself, “Why the heck haven’t I taped Born Again off Bob Schipper yet?” I wanted that song “Zero the Hero”. I popped over one afternoon and borrowed it. I put it in deck “A” of my Sanyo dual deck ghetto blaster, with a Maxell blank 60 in “B”. I hit “dub” and began recording. For whatever reason (and I tried a couple times), I could not get a good copy of that tape. It wasn’t the best blaster in the world that I was using, but there was so much warble in the copies I made, I got fed up. I called Bob and asked if I could just buy the tape from him. I knew it wasn’t in regular rotation at his house. He said “OK” and I gave him $2 or $3 for it.
I was finally able to listen to Born Again properly. I liked a few songs such as “Trashed”, “Disturbing the Priest”, “Born Again” and “Keep It Warm”. It played better on my Walkman, so that’s where most of my listening happened. That meant it was often on the way to the cottage, or at the cottage, where I used my Walkman most.
I don’t know when Born Again became my favourite album of all time. I really don’t. The tape grew on me through the years, but the poor quality of that old WEA cassette made listening hard. It probably elevated to “among my favourites” when T-Rev found me a vinyl copy in 1995, a full decade since I first became acquainted with it. A decent CD reissue followed a few years later, and then it hit serious heavy rotation.
Keep it warm, rat: I love this album for all its flaws and overreaching. It brings me back to that bedroom, dubbing scary music with Bob. It brings me back to listening on my Walkman at the cottage at night. It brings me back to that place where I escaped all the bullies and teachers, and was alone with my own imagination.
Yes, Born Again is my favourite album of all time. I play it more often than I should, sometimes twice in a row. No remix or reissue could make me love this album more. I am Born Again!
Doing the live Contrarian chats on Wednesday nights has been great fun. I will keep going with these as long as I’m welcome and as long as I don’t burn out. For those keeping track, this is my sixth week in a row on the Contrarians. The subjects thus far have been:
For this week, Hell and the Underworld, I am going straight metal. No deviations. We’ll see what the other guys bring. Check out the show tonight, live at 7:00 PM.
THE CONTRARIANS – Album covers featuring Hell and the Underworld – Wed. Novermber 20 – 7:00 PM EST
RECORD STORE TALES #1164: It’s Not Personal: An Uncle Paul Story
Jen and I have withstood a lot of funerals over the years. Some were really great tributes to the people we lost. Others, less so.
When Jen’s mom died, she wanted a Catholic funeral, so of course we obliged. Jen and I are both what you might call “lapsed Catholics”. We were both baptised, but stopped practising the faith decades ago. While preparing for Jen’s mom’s funeral, we were asked if we were Catholics. Not sure how to respond while still getting Jen’s mom the funeral she wanted, we both answered yes. Father Imperial (yes, that was his name) knew we were lying. We had separated the ashes into two urns – a big no no. Catholics believe you can only get into heaven if your ashes are in one urn. (Yay dogma!) His disappointment was visible when nobody in the church knew the responses to the Catholic service. We did our best, but that was not a good funeral for us.
We had Uncle Paul’s funeral in 2023, but the pressure wasn’t on us this time. I was asked to be a casket bearer, but I used my gammy right arm as an excuse not to do it. (I’m glad I didn’t; I watched the casket being carried down stairs and over headstones, and I could not have done it.) We just sat in the church and paid our respects. The funeral wasn’t very personal. In most of the other funerals we’d done, the pastor asked for stories and personality traits that he could read during the service. Those were good funerals. People laughed, people cried, people shared memories. Uncle Paul’s wasn’t like that. It was very impersonal. It could have been for anybody.
11 months later, there was a memorial service for people lost in the last two months of 2023. It was the same priest presiding, and Uncle Paul was to have a candle lit in his name. We all decided to attend the memorial mass.
We weren’t familiar with the area and had to park six blocks away. The church was packed and we were not able to sit together. We sat and did the things you do at a Catholic mass. You stand, you kneel, you stand, you kneel. Our kneeling bench wasn’t working, so that was awkward.
Finally they started reading the names of the people lost, so a candle could be lit in their name. It wasn’t alphabetical, so we just listened and waited to hear Uncle Paul’s name.
“Paul Laderno,” said the priest. The same priest who presided over his funeral.
“They didn’t even say his name right!” I whispered to my mom next to me. I didn’t care if anyone heard me. I was very upset.
How hard is it to say our name? I now had a new variation to add to our long list of mispronunciations. It felt so impersonal. It felt like nobody cared, except us. A real disservice to a great man, who was indeed a man of faith. He deserved better. “Laderno”. Normally I’m the one to see the humour in things, but I didn’t this time.
We had a nice visit with my Aunt Maria after the service. That made up for the disappointing mass.
Uncle Paul’s resting place is now capped with a stone, a marker so cool it deserves to be shared here. This is the kind of memorial he deserves. On the back, a crisp picture of his beloved vintage ‘Cuda. A Blue Jay logo sits in a corner, waiting for my Aunt one day. This is closer to how I’ll remember him. Always there for his cars and my aunt.
We don’t often talk about cemeteries and headstones being cool…but my uncle’s is cool.
RATT – Out of the Cellar (1984 Atlantic, 2024 40th Anniversary edition)
Shame, shame, shame on Ratt.
In 2020 they released a beautiful Atlantic Years box set, featuring bonus tracks including one for Out of the Cellar. In 2024, they coughed up Ratt Rarities, with a bunch of unreleased Ratt tracks. And now, mere months later, we are given another reissue of Out of the Cellar, this one featuring lenticular cover art and one more unreleased Ratt song. This song could have been released on a 7″ single on its own, but if you want that, you have to buy the vinyl album all over again. If you want the unreleased song on CD, you have to buy Out of the Cellar one more time. I believe this is my fourth or fifth copy of Out of the Cellar now. This is just exploitative of the fans. Pearcy must need another swimming pool.
Is the one song worth re-buying the album again? Fortunately the answer is yes. “Reach For the Sky” is a 1983 Cellar demo written by Stephen Pearcy, Robbin Crosby, and Marq Torien of Bulletboys. It sounds remarkably finished. The guitar harmonies feel very latter-day Thin Lizzy, upon which the guys build a pretty cool song. Though not as slick as Cellar, it sounds fully produced and ready to release. Amazing that songs like this can remain buried for 40 years, and was never resurrected for an album even though the title was used in 1988 for the album Reach For the Sky. While this one song didn’t warrant an entire album re-release, at least we got it.
The album itself remains solid four decades after the fact. Opening with cowboy themed “Wanted Man”, the five Ratt Rodents were off to a compelling start. The disorienting sound of backwards drums heralds in “Wanted Man” is an inventive way to make their introduction. A simple, slow, chomping riff is menacing enough, while Stephen Pearcy growls though various Western metaphors. “By the road, you will hang, it’s your neck from this Ratt gang.” The capable harmonies of the band and especially Juan Crocier help nail the melodies that Pearcy alone can’t. Nice solo work. A great track worthy of a multiplatinum album.
“You’re In Trouble” is a little different. Juan’s clunky bass still sounds a bit out of place, though the choruses rule. But “Round and Round”? Still a total sleaze rock triumph. A keen sense of melody, rhythm and vibe mixed together with a sweaty Stephen Pearcy. Brilliant solo work from Warren DeMartini, and perfectly layered harmonies under the production of Beau Hill. Every element punches, from the simple but memorable riff and those echoey choruses. Dated to the period, but tasty for all ages.
A nice choppy guitar bodes well on “In Your Direction”, a slinky number that serves Stephen’s style well. Decent song, but with only one trick. “She Wants Money” is more fun, a fast upbeat blast on a familiar theme, with Robbin “King” Crosby on lead guitar. It’s hard not to headbang along with the melodic fun of “She Wants Money”. That ended side one on the original record.
The second side opens “Lack of Communication”, a biting track just missing one key ingredient: a real chorus. The saw-like riff smokes, the verses are great, but it never resolves into a definitive hook. It’s basically just the riff with some words over it. “Lack of communication, back off!”
“Back For More” is a little disjointed but salvages it with a killer chorus. Screamin’ Pearcy and the rodent choir give it the final polish. Brilliant solo work here by Warren. Then, one of the best non-singles is the blazing fast “The Morning After”. It has a bit of a Quiet Riot vibe. Juan’s bass is furious while Pearcy sings it for melody. “I’m Insane” is mindless fun; just bad boy rock with the popular “I’m crazy” theme that their pal Ozzy was milking for millions. Finally the album closes on “Scene of the Crime” which has a neat guitar hook that unfortunately is all but unrelated to the rest of the song. Some cool melodies with the patented Ratt harmonies here. Still, solid enough song that if they had been looking for another single, it could have been “Scene of the Crime”.
This reissue doesn’t have any additional packaging or liner notes besides the new lenticular cover. The lenticular art is nice, but it’s not solidly anchored to the packaging. It feels like a symbol for the half-arsed nature of this reissue.
RECORD STORE TALES #1163: Not A Review of the Movie ‘Elf’
December 2004 was a low point. My mental and probably physical health too were…not good. I was managing two record stores against my wishes. I was in charge of the Beat Goes On on Highland Road, and Oakville. Oakville was supposed to be somebody else’s store, a franchise. Well, things went from bad to worse and I found myself driving to Oakville every day for many weeks in November and December, in a car that was not long for the grave. I was going to work, coming home, drinking red wine and going to bed. It was a cycle of endless days and weekends too.
My boss took me aside; had a meeting with me behind closed doors.
“Mike, I noticed you’re not doing well with the whole Oakville thing.”
There was no such thing as mental health time off in my world. I wouldn’t have known you could do that. Could you, in 2003?
My boss suggested that I use the commute time to listen to “old cassettes that you haven’t played in a while. That could be fun for you.”
That’s when I learned that listening to Winger when you’re stuck in 401 traffic isn’t actually all that fun.
I took a break one afternoon in Oakville and walked over to some crappy store that sold everything from soda pop to small appliances. I saw Elf on the racks, the Christmas movie starring Will Ferrell as…an elf. I was skeptical. I heard mixed things. But I was in a shitty headspace and I needed a pick-me-up. Retail therapy. Elf and a soda pop went into my shopping bag. I may have even bought a bag of chips.
I had Sunday off, and I watched Elf in my pajamas that morning. And I laughed. I was immediately enthused because the beginning reminded me very much of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, what with the animation and the snowman. I was also following Jon Favreau’s directorial career with great interest. Peter Billingsley was in the movie. I truthfully loved it from day one. I still love it.
My dad on the other hand calls Will Ferrell “that annoying guy” because of this movie.
I remember wrapping Christmas presents with my mother in law Debbie while watching Elf. I don’t really know if she liked it or not, but she liked watching it with me. I think she liked a lot of it. James Caan. Mary Steenbergen. Bob Newhart. These are fantastic actors, and James Caan provided that “realistic” perspective that an absurd movie like this needs. To sum: Buddy the Elf (Ferrell) realizes he’s too tall to be an elf, and then Papa Elf (Newhart) finally tells him the truth: his parents were human, and James Caan is his dad, and he lives in New York City. And so off Buddy the Elf walks from the North Pole all the way to New York in order to meet his real dad. Chaos ensues of the culture shock variety. James Caan, as the biological father thrust into this situation, is the point of view the audience needs to make it work. The scenes with he and Buddy are often some of the best. Having said that, there is a badass snowball fight in Central Park, and some great singing from Zoey Deschanel, who doesn’t seem to question the weirdness of this elf guy who’s falling for her. (Look for a cameo by Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass.)
Wonderful movie in my opinion, with clever use of perspective to make Buddy tower over his elf kin. Hilarious performances by Peter Dinklage, Faizon Love, and Leon Redbone as the snowman. Family friendly fun.
So, I thought, “I’ll buy this for Grandma for Christmas. She enjoys light movies that make her smile.” I was basing this on a years-before viewing of Ernest Saves Christmas that she enjoyed with us. And I don’t know if she ever watched Elf. I asked her a few days later.
“I don’t think I got it Michael,” she said. “I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was still the same scene playing.”
She was watching the animated DVD menu.
I didn’t buy Grandma movies for Christmas after that!
Thank you Glen “Archie” Gamble for an awesome Friday night Rock N’ Roll Extravaganza!
History made here Friday night on Grab A Stack of Rock! Glen “Archie” Gamble of Helix fame joined us for almost 2.5 hours of stories and education. And we’re still not done! We will have Archie back to pick up where we left off. Co-hosts Tim Durling and Doctor Kathryn were both blown away by Archie’s answers.
It’s hard to summarize a show like this, because several Wikipedia articles will need to be corrected, updated, and expanded after this show.
Highlights:
The story of how Archie introduced Brian Vollmer to the Trailer Park Boys, which of course led to Brian’s cameo on the DVD.
Why Archie wasn’t in that scene.
When Archie connected Brian Vollmer with Sean Kelly, who offered to join Helix on guitar or bass. He eventually joined on bass.
How Archie got the Helix gig by playing at Brian’s wedding, and how that came about. (Thanks to alcohol.)
What happened at the “blazing” tryout for the band.
The circumstances of replacing Randy Cooke for one gig with the Four Horsemen.
The lineup changes in Helix and the necessity behind some of them.
Archie’s opinion on certain bands who are out there playing with no original members.
What he contributed in the studio to albums such as Rockin’ In My Outer Space and Rockin’ You For 30 Years.
How Rockin’ In My Outer Space began its life as a Brian Vollmer solo album.
Thoughts on Van Halen (Hagar), Y&T, The Warning, Quiet Riot, The Guess Who, and many more.
Heartfelt appreciation for Greg “Fritz” Hinz.
Why he started YouTubing with the excellent Gamble Ramble channel.
What are rototoms and how do they work?
And even some education on primates.
This is a 2.5 hour education in rock and roll history. Check it out, and give Archie a subscription on YouTube. He WILL be back!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 78: Ramblin’ with Glen “Archie” Gamble
Glen “Archie” Gamble is a professional drummer and now YouTuber, with the excellent channel the Gamble Ramble! He has been a member of the Buffalo Brothers, Helix, and the Joys. Tonight, we talk to Archie about his musical career and his years as a core member of the 90s-2000s era of Helix. He appeared two Helix DVDs and several CDs, including the outstanding 30th Aniversary Concert.
Tonight, please join Tim Durling, Dr. Kathryn, Archie and myself for this special episode of Grab A Stack of Rock! We will quiz Archie on his Helix memories, his thoughts on Van Halen, and much more. This will be a live episode so if you tune in, maybe your question will be answered too!
All this and more on Grab A Stack of Rock, tonight!
Friday November 15 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
“Wait. I got a Wookiee in my office.” – Dan Narvali, forty-eight.
forty-eight (how not to make a film in 2 days) (2004 independant film)
By Matt Head and Adam Skinner
It’s hard to believe that the early 2000s were so long ago! Get ready to feel old: they were! The short film called forty-eight by local Kitchener filmmakers Matt Head and Adam Skinner sure proves that time has elapsed. Witness: the goth-emo-punk clothes, the ear tunnels, and a sense of humour that was on point for 2004, but terribly dated by 2024.
Skinner and Head originated in a local “Jackass” style comedy group called Me6. In the wild wild days before YouTube, these guys were buying used Blockbuster uniforms and filming themselves whilst pretending to work at the hallowed video rental establishment. Me6 would hit each other in the head with frying pans. What they did wasn’t subtle or original, but it was local. Given that Jackass was one of the biggest franchises in the world, fans were seeking more of that style of stunt comedy online. Me6 were on the pulse during an age when the internet was not yet saturated. All they really needed was some originality.
Forty-eight is very original. It is an 18 minute film, and the project that showed what Skinner and Head were capable of doing themselves.
Matt and Adam play fictional versions of themselves. At breakfast one morning, Adam spies an ad for a film festival in two days. Matt is skeptical that they can come up with a movie in just 48 hours, but suddenly has an idea: a summetime fun movie! The only problem is it’s February. The project is abandoned in favour of a supposedly better one. Seeking funding from a local lawyer named Dan Narvali, the pair secure $71.50 to do another film idea: Dan Narvali’s Killer in the Basement. Actors and a crew are hired, and things immediately deteriorate. Blame falls directly upon the disorganized shoulders of Skinner and Head. Everyone quits. Dan Narvali’s Killer in the Basement is changed to Baseball Dog, which fails to launch, and changes to a fantasy film. The high fantasy changes to Sexparty, then a war movie, and finally to Ghosts With Guns. Strife within the crew, and everyone constantly trying to get the only female cast member to take her top off, causes everything to crash to a halt. Will the duo ever get a movie made in time for the festival?
The humour is largely crude, relying on gay slurs and sexual harassment jokes. One always must remember the time in which a movie was created. Compared to any other vulgar comedy in 2004, this is on par. There are also things that are objectively funny, such as trying to make a fantasy film called Quest for the Crown starring a girl wearing a snake suit while wielding a rifle. There’s also a genuine moment of laughter when one actor falls down a snowy hill yelling, “We’re gonna take the crown! Cover me Serpentina!” The performances are spot-on, spontaneous and big time. These are funny actors.
The DVD comes with deleted scenes, gag reel, stills, and an informative audio commentary track by Skinner and Head.
As a product of its time, forty-eight is a serious accomplishment for independent filmmakers. The movie really was made in just two days. However, the cringe factor today ranges from uncomfortable to gross.
This time I’m not going too far off the beaten track. Nothing Canadian, nothing too far outside the rock genre, and all artists who have been featured on the Contrarians before. Sometimes you have to play it straight. Check out the show tonight, live at 7:00 PM.
THE CONTRARIANS – Album Covers with Robots, Aliens and Spaceships – Wed. Novermber 13 – 7:00 PM EST
mikeladano.com 