RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale
#343: Tyler and LeBrain episode 3 – The French Invasion
Please welcome Sebastien to Getting More Tale. Seb is a Sausagefester who also happens to play drums, produce, and own a recording studio. Today we discuss the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, Taylor Swift, Avril Lavigne, and modern music.
GUNS N’ ROSES – Live in Paradise City (2011 Access All Areas DVD, from a television broadcast source)
Rock In Rio 4, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 2, 2011. Guns N’ Roses headlining the final night.
Paddington Rose
Rio loves Guns N’ Roses! Always did, still do. It’s pouring rain, but the fans are present and accounted for. Good thing they are able to see the huge stage through three massive video screens, otherwise I don’t know how they’d tell one member from another. Well, Axl’s blinding yellow Paddington Bear coat makes him easy enough to see.
“Chinese Democracy” opens the set, with bassist Tommy Stinson handling the backup vocals on the chorus. Ron Thal’s playing a double neck (the top one is fretless) and is rocking the samurai hair. The solo is played by DJ Ashba, with Thal handling the outro shredding. “Good evening! Good morning!” says Axl after the first song, before asking, “Do you know where the fuck you are?” Of course that means “Jungle” is next. Axl’s voice just sounds shredded, as he struggles high and thin through the hard notes, no grit left intact. Once in a while the old Axl wails, but he was really off in Rio.
THAL-1138
One thing about Guns N’ Roses new vs. old: The old band looked unified in image. All of them looked like Hollywood dirtbags. In this band, you have the glam looking DJ Ashba, Frank Ferrer who looks like a trucker, Axl with his pimpstache, and a guy in a Stormtrooper helmet. Admittedly though, Tommy Stinson looks the part as the punk rock bass player, and he also fills Duff’s role as backup singer.
“It’s So Easy” is up third, top loading the setlist with some serious Appetite heavy hitters. Ashba doesn’t quite nail the solo, but the band are as tight as the originals. Keyboardist Dizzy Reed looks weird as hell just hitting a tamborine to this sledgehammer tune. As for rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus (a dead ringer for Izzy Stradlin), he seems to literally attack his instrument with every strum; looks more like he’s punching them! Another Appetite classic, “Mr. Brownstone” follows. It is here that I miss Slash for the first time. His playing on “Brownstone” was always so greasy; so perfect. Ashba’s playing is a bit too sophisticated.
Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal
A bloated looking Axl is accompanied by Ron Thal for the opening to “Sorry”, a slow grinder from Chinese Democracy. This changes the pace of the set. The song fails to connect. It’s more expressive live, but not interesting enough. Time to pee. Axl then introduces Richard Fortus on guitar who plays some blazing fast licks. It makes me wonder why the hell this guy doesn’t play more leads. He’s insanely fast. This turns into a bit of a band jam, including the James Bond theme. That strategically merges into “Live and Let Die”, the McCartney original of which was of course the theme of the same titled Bond movie. The stage has flame throwers blasting, and the crowd goes wild. Axl’s changed out of the raincoat, now sporting black leather and doing his trademark spinny-spinny dance.
Frank Ferrer
After a brief pause, Frank Ferrer begins the familiar drum beat that opens “Rocket Queen”. The fans know it and scream in anticipation. Unfortunately Axl’s thin voice fails to impress. Fortus does impress, handling the slide guitar solo himself. “This I Love” is the next song, and the first ballad of the evening. Axl struggles a bit with the vocal before he finds his stride part way in. The dual keyboard concept can be best heard here. Dizzy plays the piano, while second keyboardist Chris Pitman plays the orchestral arrangement. But let’s face it: “This I Love” will never replace “November Rain” or “Estranged” as a concert favourite. It fills that same epic ballad role, but it just ain’t classic.
DJ Ashba
DJ Ashba takes the opening lead guitar on the next Guns N’ Roses jam. I don’t recognize the tune, but it sounds like another soundtrack piece. I’ve heard some journalists complain that Guns play too many solos from band members that nobody cares about. They couldn’t be more wrong. These players are good; very very good. These instrumental sections, apart from giving Axl a chance to rest his voice, are a showcase for the guys in the band that, like it or not, happen to be Guns N’ Roses. The fans in Rio treat the members as if they were the originals.
So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine.
Ashba breaks into the “Sweet Child O’ Mine” intro, and the fans lose their collective minds. Rose dons a tan fedora, now looking a bit like René Belloq. Thal nails that unforgettable wah-wah solo, no mean feat. But then it’s time for “Estranged”, and Axl just can’t find the key. He pulls it together on the first verse, but this isn’t an easy song. It does eventually fall into place with the help of some epic soloing.
I would say that the song “Better” from Chinese Democracy is well overdue in the set. While undoubtedly modern sounding, I think it’s one of the best tunes. It gives the band a chance to play around with a different kind of heavy. Bumblefoot Thal plays the fast shreddy guitar part and does backing vocals.
Axl then introduces the band, aside from Bumblefoot and Ashba:
This leads into a Dizzy piano segue on The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly”, as an intro to “Street of Dreams”. I had made no secret of my love for this song. I first heard it back in 2001, when Guns played Rio that year. It was known as “The Blues” at the time. It’s a concise version of the “epic Guns ballad” and it stands up on its own. Then it’s time for “You Could Be Mine”. Ferrer impressively nails the drum intro, and Thal plays the opening guitar moans on his fretless neck. This great version is followed by Axl sitting at the piano himself, for…you got it…”November Rain”. There are some sour moments, not least of which is Axl forgetting some of the words!
Bumblefoot
Finally it’s time for one of my favourite moments of the set: Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal’s rendition of the “Pink Panther” theme (Henry Mancini) on double neck guitar. It’s familiar melodies like this that keep the solo spots interesting to fans who don’t know the players all that well. It’s easier for them to swallow. It’s not like Axl is leaving the stage for some guy to go wheedle-wheedle-wheedle for four and a half minutes. Guns give you quality for your time.
“Pink Panther” turns into a space age blues jam and back again, merging into “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”. Axl sings this annoyingly nasal. I will take this moment to point out the irritating habit of the camera to focus on a guitar player who is not the current soloist. It’s Ashba playing these solos, but half the time the camera is on Fortus, as if they are not sure who is playing, so they guess. Fortus does get to blaze a solo at the end, thankfully with the camera on him. Axl playfully quotes Elmer Fudd: “Be vewy vewy quiet! I’m hunting wabbits!” Why, I don’t know. Maybe he was watching cartoons on the plane. It’s as good an answer as any.
The main set closes with “Nightrain”, bringing it all back full circle to Appetite again. In a cool moment, Ashba walks (with security personnel by his side) through a barricaded and secured pathway within the crowd. “Nightrain” is a strong finish for a band that plays as long and hard as Guns N’ Roses play. And soon they’re back on stage, acoustic guitars in hand, to play “Patience”. The quiet tune is all but drowned out by thousands of screaming Brazilians, but even they cannot drown out “Paradise City”. It’s a natural epic closer, and it’s perfectly awesome, right up until Axl leaves the stage…then the video and audio abruptly fade and that’s the end! Was the broadcast cut off? I don’t know, but the end jam is cut out, as is the final bow. That’s it that’s all.
Shoddy. You can tell it’s not an official release.
3/5 stars
Here’s a Kim Mitchell two-fer for ya! Once again it’s Epic Review Time!
KIM MITCHELL – “Sudbury Saturday Night” (from Summer Dock Party, 1998 EMI)
‘Twas Thomas who alerted me to the existence of Kim Mitchell’s cover of “Sudbury Satuday Night”. He had heard about it from one of his customers, when Tom owned his own record store. Somebody came in and said to him, “I heard a new Kim Mitchell song on the radio. I don’t know what it’s called or where it’s from, all I remember are the opening words. ‘The girls are out to Bingo, and the boys are gettin’ stinko,'” he recited.
Tom immediately recognized that as the opening line to Stompin’ Tom Connors‘ classic song, “Sudbury Saturday Night”. He called me at my store to ask what Kim album it was on. I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know he had recorded anything since 1994’s Itch.
He had. This cover appeared on the Canadian compilation CD Summer Dock Party. And what of it? How does one cover Stompin’ Tom? Well, for Kim Mitchell, it’s a harder rockin’ version of 
the song, complete with accordion and an electric guitar solo. I’ve grown to like it more over the years. It’s hard to overlook the sheer joy in Kim’s vocal. No matter how you feel about the sanctity of covering Stompin’ Tom, I think Kim’s version has plenty of merit.
Great cover…not-so-great CD cover though! What would Irish Jim O’Connel and Scotty Jack Macdonald say about that front cover? That sure doesn’t depict gettin’ stinko, or represent “Cause everything is wonderful, tonight we had a good fight,” to me!
3.5/5 stars
*I was surprised to find a completely different studio recording of this same song on Youtube. Further investigation is required.
KIM MITCHELL – Kimosabe (1999 Chinook)
I think Kimosabe is about separation. I read that Kim was going through a divorce around this time, and perhaps the lyrics reflect that. Additionally, there was another separation, as once again Kim parted with his long time writing partner Pye Dubois. The two had a falling out after 1989’s Rockland, due to Kim’s decision to record in Los Angeles, without Pye present, as he had been for all of Kim’s previous albums. The two reconciled for 1994’s Itch, but appear to have separated once again, because Kimosabe was written with Andy Curran (Coney Hatch) handling the lyrics rather than Pye. I don’t know what happened.
Nothing against Andy Curran, but without Pye Dubois, lyrics lose some of their poetry. That’s Pye, that’s what he brings to the table. Having said that, I think by now, most Kim Mitchell fans are looking for a catchy song to sing along to. Curran does fine. Kim himself wrote two of the lyrics himself (“Cold Reality” and “Over Me”, two of the best songs).
The opening duo, “Monkey Shine” and “Stickin’ My Heart” are both rockers. “Monkey Shine” is très bien; they’re not trying to re-invent the wheel on any of these songs. They’re just doing what they do well, and that’s providing some good Canadian party rock. These are “stock” kind of songs. Reliable, not particularly possessing personality, but getting the job done. TCB, baby.
“Cellophane” is a funky blues. At this point I’ll point out the groove of drummer Randy Cooke, one of my Canadian favourites. You may have heard him with Rik Emmett or the Four Horsemen among others. Kim’s very slick and lyrical guitar playing is in the spotlight of this outstanding track.
Things start to cloudy with “Two Steps Home”. Not that it’s a bad song, quite the contrary. But this is where the party stops. There’s a lot of feeling in this quiet ballad. As far as sheer songwriting goes, Kim should be proud of this one. Still, I feel the playing really shines brightly, guitar and drums both.
After a tune like that, I need a rocker, and Kim delivers with the title track, “Kimosabe”, a pun on the phrase “ke-mo sah-bee”, popularized in the 1930’s by The Lone Ranger. Strangely enough the lyrics also contain the German phrase “auf Wiedersehen”, proving Andy Curran doesn’t mind putting three languages together in one song.
My favourite song is “Blow Me A Kiss”. This outstanding track begins as a melancholy piano ballad, but transforms by the chorus into a bright, light rocker. I would rank this track among Kim Mitchell’s best solo songs, without a doubt. Randy Cooke really kicks this one in the ass.
“Cold Reality” also has a melancholy character to it. This one starts a ballad and stays a ballad, and speaks of getting over the end of a relationship. “Halleluiah baby, I am healing. This pain and rage I felt for years is finally leaving.” This is one that Kim wrote the lyrics for himself, and as I said earlier, it’s not poetry, but when he sings it, I can feel something, you know?
Back to something a little more upbeat, “Over Me” has a modern funky vibe to it, of the light-rock variety. Divorce seems to be the theme again, so we’re not hanging out in party rock land, but it’s musically upbeat and catchy. By the chorus, Kim’s singing, “One thing’s for sure, I’m going to get over you, just like you got over me,” and who can’t relate to that?
My least favourite song is the slinky blues, “Get Back What’s Gone”, featuring the great Canadian singer Lisa DalBello. In think this is a case of, “It’s not you, it’s me.” There’s nothing wrong with this well-executed blues, it’s just not clicking with me. It may with you, especially if you want to hear DalBello just sing some blues.
Album close “Skinny Buddah” is one of those lyrics where I just shrug and say, “OK, guys, whatever!” I have no idea what it’s about, but it’s a good solid rock song on which to close an album that I would consider to be a bit of a comeback.
Except it wasn’t. Kimosabe didn’t sell, and it would be eight whole years before Kim would release another album (2007’s Ain’t Life Amazing). That’s too bad. Given the chance, I think that this album could have introduced a new, “more mature” Kim, still fun, but now with a more serious side. The album could have delivered a couple of hits. Too bad that isn’t the way it turned out. Bummer.
4/5 stars
RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale
#342: All in a Day’s Drive
Friday November 21, 2014 was a pretty nice day weather wise. There was no precipitation and the skies were clear. If you’re going to pick a day to make a drive down the 401, you couldn’t have picked a better one. Jen needed to see a doctor at the hospital in Mississauga, so off we went. [Note: don’t worry, she’s fine. This is regarding her epilepsy.] I brought music and reading materials, and kept a log of the rock:
9 am: Depart Kitchener for Brampton. Playing in the car: Deep Purple – Smoke on my Mega-Mix, a bootleg compilation CD of remixes and live tracks.
10 am: Pick up Jen’s mom in Brampton [she spent the weekend with us]. Depart for Mississauga. Playing on car stereo: Van Halen – 5150. As a “bonus track”, I tacked on the live version of “Why Can’t This Be Love” (from the music video) to the end of the playlist. Jen’s comment: “The singing on this is… (pause)…really not as good as the regular version.” She’s right.
11 am: Arrive at hospital. Playing on mp3 player: Kiss – Love Gun (deluxe). Reading material: Martin Popoff – Live Magnetic Air: The Unlikely Saga of the Superlative Max Webster
4 pm: Depart hospital with mission accomplished.
6:30 pm: Finally arrive home after 2 1/2 hour crawl along Highway 401! The whole way was brake light city. Just a tedious, slow drive. There was no reason for it. From what I could tell, it was all caused by commuters that didn’t know how to properly merge. When somebody leaves you 5 or 6 car lengths space to merge in, take it. Don’t race further ahead to see if you can get in front of that transport truck and that guy in the Hyundai. Car music: Van Halen – Fair Warning, Diver Down, and A Different Kind of Truth. Yes, that means Jen and her mom heard a LOT of Van Halen today. And that’s fucking cool.
For more information on epilepsy, please visit epilepsyontario.org.
The sixth review from Mike and Aaron Go to Toronto…Again! This CD was given to me by A himself.
This is also a SIMULTANEOUS REVIEW! The far more Stones-knowledgeable Aaron has reviewed the same album today: take a look!
STONE COUNTRY – Country artists perform the songs of the Rolling Stones (1997 Beyond Music)
Country artists covering the Stones? Sure, why not? You might be surprised by the common ground exhibited here on Stone Country.
You can’t mistake “Honky Tonky Woman” right from that opening cowbell. Travis Tritt sounds natural performing this one, because it’s already so country. I dig it. Travis Tritt’s always been one of those country guys who I respected. He didn’t seem like a sell-out to me. And he’s never cut his hair either, so fuck yeah! This is a very rocking country version, and it sounds very alive in the studio. It has some serious thump too.
Tracy Lawrence on the other hand, I wrote off years ago, because if you hit a woman, you lose my respect. However I gotta be honest — I dig his version of “Paint It, Black”. I told Aaron a while ago, “I never need to hear another cover of that song,” but I was wrong. I can add this one to my library without shame. It’s cool how the exotic and country sides meet without conflict in this version, and there are cool solos (organ and guitar) to boot!
“Ruby Tuesday” by Deana Carter, on the other hand, doesn’t “rock” per se, but it’s “Ruby Tuesday” and it doesn’t suck! It’s softer and has some twang in the vocal and fiddle, but the strings are still there pumping up the chorus. Up next, “The Last Time” is transformed into a bar room country chug by The Tractors. There’s plenty of cool guitar playing to keep you satisfied, but this isn’t one of my favourite Stones tunes to begin with.
Rodney Crowell then takes a challenge upon himself with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. What an iconic song, and inherently youthful and edgy. He changes the guitar riff to a fiddle one, and holy shit! It works! This track smokes! There’s even a sax solo. How rock n’ roll! High five, Rodney.
Sammy Kershaw has sold a lot of records over the years, but I truthfully don’t know if I’ve ever listened to him before. He chose to cover the ballad “Angie”, a bold choice, since it relies so heavily on the voice. The gamble paid off. “Angie” does not stray far from the original, and it’s amazing how well Mick’s idiosyncratic vocal delivery works with a little twang in it. Well done Mr. Kershaw, you have a great voice. Respect!
Blackhawk transform “Wild Horses” into a fast bluegrass ramble. I’m reminded of Blue Rodeo in a big way, who have plenty of songs that sound this way naturally. I’m not too keen on the vocals, but there is some serious pickin’ going on here! I don’t think I had ever heard Blackhawk before this. I can say the same for Collin Raye: heard of him, never heard him. Raye takes on “Brown Sugar” which has a great guitar sound. This sounds like a good bar band’s take on the song, which is all you really need. It’s punchy, and would work great just before a bar fight in a seedy strip club in some Bruce Willis cop movie.
I’m on record with “Beast of Burden” being one of my fave Stones tunes of all time. It’s untouchable to me. So Little Texas (out of Nashville!) have a lot to prove to me. But shit, they managed to do it! The song still has that swanky sway, punchy bass, and it does not suck, until the “pretty pretty girl” breakdown in the middle. Other than that, it’s pretty good. Then country veteran Nanci Griffith does “No Expectations”, which was originally a B-side, so kudos to her. It was originally a slide guitar country song anyway, but Griffith takes it up in tempo and mood. Just one comment: what a voice!
Saving the biggest name for last, George Jones sings “Time Is on My Side”, not a Stones original but a song they did make famous. This slow dance is perfectly suited to Jones’ balladeering. I can picture in my mind the ladies in the audience swaying to the sound of Jones’ spoken word section.
Aaron reckons that he found this CD for no more than $2. In that case I say money well spent!
3.5/5 stars
I will be live on the Craig Fee Show on 107.5 Dave FM this afternoon 12/01/14, around 5:20 pm Ontario time, to discuss one of the tracks included on this album. Listen live by clicking right here to stream!
EDIT – Show went great! Thanks for listening!
This review is a companion piece to my previous “Van Halen (Not Van Hagar!)” series of reviews:
Part 1: The Early Years (Zero – 1977) 
Part 2: On Fire (Van Halen – 1978)
Part 3: Somebody Get Me A Doctor (Van Halen II – 1979)
Part 4: Everybody Wants Some!! (Women and Children First – 1980)
Part 5: Push Comes to Shove (Fair Warning – 1981)
Part 6: Intruder (Diver Down – 1982)
Part 7: House of Pain (1984 – 1984)
Coda: Can’t Get This Stuff No More & Me Wise Magic (1996 singles)
VAN HALEN – Best Of Volume I (1996 Warner)
Van Halen’s first “greatest hits” compilation was historic in its fallout. The band had talked for years about putting out a “best of” set, with one disc of Dave and one disc of Sammy. That never happened but the concept continued to be discussed in the Van Halen camp, with Sammy Hagar adamantly against it. When Hagar’s friend and Van Halen’s manager Ed Lefler passed away, he was replaced by Canadian Ray Danniels, who was also handling Rush, Extreme, and King’s X. Hagar and Danniels never quite saw eye to eye and when push came to shove, Hagar refused to participate in the recording of new music for the compilation. The Van Halen camp considered this to be highly hypocritical of Sammy, since he had done just that for his own solo “greatest hits” CD, Unboxed (1994). All of this led to a tense telephone standoff with Eddie Van Halen himself, the revelation that Ed had already started working on new songs with former singer David Lee Roth, and Hagar quitting the band. (On top of all that, and unbeknownst to Hagar or Roth, was that was Van Halen were also eyeballing Gary Cherone, who Ray Danniels brought in from one of his other bands, Extreme. They had even recorded some test tracks with Mitch Malloy who ultimately turned the gig down.)
When Best Of Volume I was finally released in fall of 1996, there was so much confusion in the air that many fans really had no idea who was in Van Halen or what the hell was going on. At the Record Store, I had one guy come in and return this on the day of release, October 22, 1996.
“Yeah, I want to return this CD,” he said. “I already have these songs.”
What?! You couldn’t tell that from the title Best Of Volume I?
That’s indicative of the confusion in fandom. This guy had assumed, like many people, that Van Halen had a brand new album of songs out with David Lee Roth singing.
Another common urban myth was that there was such a thing as Best Of Volume II. People would constantly ask if we had it, when it was coming out, and sometimes even insist they had seen it before in stores. When asked when Best Of Volume II was coming out again and again, I started answering “18 years”, because that’s how long it took for them to come out with Volume I.
T-Rev wrote up a quickie review for our store newsletter. He praised the remastering job, but bemoaned that only one song was included from Van Halen II, and that there wasn’t enough Dave in general. I would agree. At the very least, a song like “Can’t Stop Loving You” should have been ditched for something else like “Everybody Wants Some!!” However, to put this into context, in 1996 that was one of Van Halen’s most recent hit singles, just over a year old. The rest of the album takes tracks from each studio record (sans Diver Down which Eddie doesn’t speak too highly of). The most notable omissions were “Hot For Teacher” (only available on the Japanese release of Best Of) and “Love Walks In” (which I can do without). Presumably there would have been more tracks on a Volume II, which never materialized. (18 years my arse!)
To me, the hits part of this disc is just preamble. The reason fans went out and bought this CD was the return of David Lee Roth on the two new singles. Nobody cared about the hits they already had. Indeed, as implied by T-Rev’s review, most of us didn’t really agree with most of the hits selected.
They stuck “Can’t Get This Stuff No More” and “Me Wise Magic”, the first new songs by the original Van Halen in over a decade, at the tail end of the CD. As fans, we were elated to hear new music that clearly hearkened back to the pre-synth, pre-1984 sound of Van Halen. Dave’s voice was lower and less powerful, but no less expressive. His delivery is pure gleeful Dave, even on these darker songs. His lyrics (which according to Roth, Eddie didn’t like) are as Diamond Dave as ever. As far as guitar goes, Eddie’s letting it, basing both songs purely on riffage. This was a pretty cool about-face from the too-commercial sounds of Balance.
Neither song was really single-worthy, but they would have made solid album cuts, had this incarnation of Van Halen continued to make an album. Of course, that didn’t happen. Best Of Volume I is, thus far, the only place you can buy them. And that means if you love original Van Halen, you need to buy this album.
For Van Hagar fans, there was the excellent newbie “Humans Being”, with its angry modern verses and bright shiny chorus. I’ve always liked the song, because of the chorus and Eddie’s guitar. The verses, not so much, but as a song it holds together as something different for Van Halen. In some ways it pointed the way forward to Van Halen 3. This is the only ‘Halen album where you can get “Humans Being”, saving you from having to buy the terrible Twister soundtrack.
(Missing is a track called “Respect The Wind” billed by Eddie & Alex Van Halen from the same soundtrack. It’s not really that good, and it’s not billed as Van Halen the band, so seek as per your own needs. Presumably, “Respect the Wind” was from the batch of music that they were working on while Sammy refused to record. See KeepsMeAlive for a review of the Twister soundtrack CD.)
Roth mentioned in his autobiography Crazy From the Heat that he hated the cover art and booklet for this. It looked devoid and sucked dry of all life. I would agree. A music video was planned but nixed. The concept was the trio of Michael Anthony and Eddie & Alex Van Halen playing on a stage, with a big screen behind them of Dave singing. Insulted, Roth refused to do it.
Of interest, if you’re lucky enough to own a first pressing of this CD, you might have a mini-rarity. There was a version with an error on it. You may own a very rare alternate mix of “Runnin’ With the Devil”, released by mistake, where the verses, chorus and solos were arranged in a different order than that of the originally released album version. Take a listen and see if you’re one of the few. That version was quickly discontinued and corrected.*
3.5/5 stars. Despite the brevity, this album doesn’t overstay the party.
You just solved a huge mystery for me. Something that has been bugging me for YEARS.
When I first moved here, I was listening to Dave FM one day. I heard this fucked up version of “Runnin’ With The Devil” with the “whoooooo whooooooo” part at the end edited out. I mentioned it, but Darryl didn’t do anything about it. 5 years later, we are still playing this version. It sounded like a bad edit made by an overzealous producer who was trying to do something to the song.
Until this post, I had no idea why somebody would butcher the song like that. Now I know why. The majority of the big ‘hits’ were dubbed from that CD.
I have the version I bought the day it was released. I listened to it twice. I have no idea if it’s the edited version.
Craig advised me to load both versions (Best Of and Van Halen I) into Audacity and sync them. I did and I could see right away visually that they did not match up. I hit “play” and everything was synced until around 1:15. Then, as Craig puts it, “all hell breaks loose” and the two versions completely deviate. So apparently I do have both.
The only modification I made to the tracks was to reduce the version from Van Halen in volume by 7%, so they were roughly the same.
More VH:
VAN HALEN – 3 (Collectors’ tin 1998)
VAN HALEN – 5150 (1986 Warner Bros.)
VAN HALEN – A Different Kind of Truth (2012)
VAN HALEN – Balance (1995 Warner – Japanese version included)
VAN HALEN – “Best of Both Worlds” (1986 Warner 7″ single)
VAN HALEN – The Best of Both Worlds (2005 Warner)
VAN HALEN – “Can’t Stop Loving You” (Parts 1 & 2, inc. collector’s tin)
VAN HALEN – “Right Now”(1992 cassette single, Warner)
BRIAN MAY & FRIENDS – Star Fleet Project (w/ Edward Van Halen)
RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale
#341: Led Zeppelin vs. New Kids on the Block
Fall, 1990.
Led Zeppelin had just released their first monster box set to great excitement and fanfare. Long time Zeppelin fans eagerly investigated the new remastered tracks (a novelty at the time), and the four unreleased treasures. It seems amusing from today’s perspective that only four unreleased tracks (well, actually three – “Hey Hey What Can I Do” was a B-side) sent fandom into a frenzy. Today we have entire bonus CDs for each album. Back then, all we got was four songs. How times have changed! In Zeppelin’s case, more is always better, but in 1990 just four unheard songs seemed to shake the Earth.
I mean, it was Zeppelin!
Promotion went into overdrive with two brand new Zeppelin music videos. The first one was for the slippery, slide-guitar infested “Travelling Riverside Blues” recorded in 1969. What an incredible song. Hearing it, I knew right away that I needed to get some Zeppelin my collection, and that box set would be the perfect place to start. Especially since I really wanted “Travelling Riverside Blues”. Such an amazing electric blues performance.
On Canada’s MuchMusic, New Kids on the Block still dominated the video charts. In addition to their weekly countdown, Much introduced a new show called Combat Des Clips. On Combat Des Clips, one music video would be put up against another, and battle for viewers’ votes. The champion would return the following week to take on a new challenger. New Kids’ clip for “Tonight” (which, I’m embarrassed to say, my mom thought was a cover of a Beatles song) had dominated against all comers, for nine weeks straight. Now, it was Zeppelin’s turn to take them down.
One Direction
I hadn’t really paid much attention to the show before, but now it was a must. The opportunity for Zeppelin to take on New Kids was an epic battle that hit home. My own sister had fallen for the evil New Kids, while I was finding myself enamored with older authentic rock like Zeppelin. This was more than a battle between two bands. For me, this was personal!
Much played the clips from both challenger and champion, and I phoned in my vote. One vote for Zeppelin. As the hour dragged on (you had to sit through plenty more videos as the show went on) the votes for both artists climbed. It was close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. For the first time ever, someone had knocked New Kids off the pedestal, and it was Led Zeppelin. Yes, that’s correct: the first band ever to dethrone New Kids off Combat Des Clips was Led Zeppelin. It was a joyous victory, as I taunted my sister over it. She didn’t even want to know. They played “Riverside” one more time at the end of the show; this time as champion.
MuchMusic took a few calls and faxes (no email back then!) from disgruntled New Kids fans. “I can’t believe the awesome New Kids were beaten by a bunch of old men!” read one.
Zeppelin did not have long to rest on their laurels. A week later, a new challenger rose to take on the sitting champions. This new challenger wasn’t even a real person. It was a yellow-skinned cartoon character named Bart Simpson, who had just scored his first hit with the video for “Do the Bartman”. I am sad to report that Bart Simpson succeeded in knocking Zeppelin off the pedestal. It wasn’t even really close.
Even though their reign only lasted a week, Led Zeppelin should be proud to know that their “Travelling Riverside Blues” – not even a proper album track, but only a forgotten BBC recording – knocked down the evil New Kids.
Their work was done.
DEF LEPPARD – Adrenalize (1992, 2009 Universal deluxe edition)
Ahh, Adrenalize. I remember first buying it on that cold spring day in 1992, and noticing right away, “Where are the riffs?” After Steve Clark died, Def Leppard lost the guy who wrote some of their best riffs, and I miss him. His absence is most palpable on the album that the band had just started working on when he died.
I was always willing to cut Def Leppard some slack on Adrenalize. I remember sitting by the radio with my sister waiting for the premiere of “Let’s Get Rocked”. “It sounds the same as Hysteria,” she said. I responded, “Well, it had that part with the violins,” but my sister accurately observed that they were only in a section to parody classical music. If you’re going to enjoy Adrenalize, you have to remember that it was recorded by 4/5 of a band, gutted of their riff writer and performer. 4/5 of a band following the biggest hard rock album of all time isn’t going to reproduce their best work, and we knew that.
Indeed, “Let’s Get Rocked” is pretty limp. The main thing was just getting Def Leppard back. Getting them back on the radio was a bonus. “Heaven Is” was a better song, but it could have been a Bryan Adams outtake. Sure it has a catchy melody and lush Leppard vocal part, but it doesn’t really rock. The lyrics won’t be winning any awards: “Heaven is a girl that I got to have, she makes me feel better when I’m feeling bad.”
Worse is “Make Love Like A Man”, which is a chorus that I do not want to sing and shout along to. I give Phil Collen points for the experimentation of putting in a “cockney rhyming rap”, but it’s not enough to save the song. This sounds like a hard rock version of a Shania Twain hit or something. The first bonafide Def Leppard classic on Adrenalize is a friggin’ ballad, called “Tonight”. This one finally captures the magic. It’s perfect top to bottom, a classy tune that could have fit on Hysteria.
“White Lightning”, a “Gods of War” remake essentially, is a tribute to the fallen Clark. “White lightning” refers to one of the substances that took him down, but it can also refer to Clark’s appearance on stage, with that big white Gibson guitar throwing shapes. It’s an apt tribute, and a kick in the ass that this album desperately needed.
The second bonafide classic here is side two’s opener, “Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)”. If you don’t count this slow pop rock song as a ballad, then it’s definitely close, but that chorus kills! So do the delicate guitar layers, all done by Phil Collen. It’s too bad this song had such a weird video, and that it was released as a single so late. It could have been massive. It’s worth pointing out that both “Stand Up” and “Tonight” were co-written with Steve Clark before he died, which is perhaps why both have memorable guitar parts.
“Personal Property” is one of the harder rock song, but unfortunately it blows. Another ballad with the agonizing title of “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” was a hit, but it’s inferior to the other two. “I Wanna Touch U” is catchy and cute, but not hard enough.
That leaves us at the final song, “Tear It Down”, which is a re-recorded version of a B-side from “Animal” (1987). The B-side version is better. Predictably, the Adrenalize re-recorded track doesn’t rock nearly as hard. In one of those “shoulda woulda coulda” moments, maybe Def Leppard should have just polished up the B-side and put it on the album.
Adrenalize went to #1, and millions of copies were sold, so if you’re a Def Leppard fan, you probably knew all that. So what about this deluxe edition?
This reissue, part of a series of Universal deluxe editions including Hysteria and Pyromania, is a very welcome addition to anybody’s Leppard collection due to the quality of the bonus material. The sound has also been improved significantly enough to warrant an upgrade. As expected with a deluxe such as this, the packaging and liner notes are perfect, including many tales that even the most diehard of Leppard fans have never heard before.
Bonus tracks abound. They include the four live tracks from Leppard’s very rare club tour EP (Live: In the Clubs, in Your Face, 1992), as well as two of the three acoustic sessions with Hothouse Flowers (covers of “Little Wing” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, replete with piano and tin whistle). (The third Hothouse Flowers track, an original called “From the Inside”, was released in remixed form on the next Def Leppard album Retro-Active.) These are some of the first tracks recorded to feature Clark’s replacement, Vivian Campbell.
There are two takes of “Tonight”, one being a stunning 1993 acoustic take, and the other being a 1988 demo with (yes!) Steve Clark. The original version of “Two Steps Behind” (before Michael Kamen added the strings) and a live track with Brian May (“Now I’m Here”) from the Freddy Mercury tribute concert are two more rare highlights. The set is rounded out with two live B-Sides also released on the In The Round – In Your Face home video, from Denver in 1988. These Denver tracks are here because they were originally released in audio format as Adrenalize B-sides.
But so much material is missing! The 34 empty minutes available on CD one of this set could have housed many more missing treasures. The Hysteria and Pyromania reissues really packed on the bonus material, Hysteria in particular, which included virtually every rare bonus track and B-side. Adrenalize is missing quite a few: “Only After Dark”, “Miss You In A Heartbeat”, “Action”, “From The Inside” and “She’s Too Tough”. All of these were originally available on long out of print singles, and are excluded here. Why? I can only guess because they are available in remixed form on the Retro-Active CD. However, the Hysteria reissue that came out earlier did not exclude similar tracks. This leaves the original mixes of these Adrenalize B-sides frustratingly unavailable to collectors.
This deluxe edition of Adrenalize is such a mixed bag. On one hand they have given us some truly rare material such as that 1988 demo of “Tonight”, but on the other they have shorted us original mixes of many key Def Leppard B-sides from this era. I am certain most if not all would have fit. I find this dissapointing and frustrating.
3/5 stars
There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side…and the light.
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale
#340: A Tribute to Jeff Woods
When you meet someone who has some sort of “celebrity” status, you almost expect them to be stand-off ish with you. A few years ago Tom and I won the chance as per a radio contest to see an intimate-type interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, which was conducted by Legends of Classic Rock/Q107 radio personality Jeff Woods. We met Geddy and Alex very briefly and had a quick picture taken. However the true joy of this experience was our meeting afterwards with Jeff Woods.
Alex, Tom, Meat, Geddy
He was extremely accommodating to our request of a sound byte for our Sausagefest recordings. He has continued to participate for a few years now and I thought I would post this to show just for appreciation to the man.
After a first try, he himself offers to “take it from the top”. He had known us for all of 30 seconds. He excused himself to leave to get a pen, and come back and record so he could get it right.
Important side note…became Facebook friends with Mr. Woods a week after this was done. Looking over his timeline, I noticed a post he put up days before we met him. It read, “Integrity is how you treat people that can do nothing for you”. Good to know someone out there practices what he preaches.
mikeladano.com