Aerosmith have called it a day, at least insofar as playing live is concerned. While we know a series of reissues is coming, it is likely that Aerosmith are done as an active band. I never got to see them live, but at least I did get to participate in this great Top Five album ranking with Tim, Jex and Will! (The same team that did a “least favourite Kiss list last year.)
The task was simple: Pick our top five Aerosmith albums, and two runners-up. This time, Jex didn’t go wild and pick, like, Just Push Play as his #1. In fact we think these lists were pretty rock solid! Some lesser-appreciated albums were given love, and the “big ones” were well represented. Studio only, no live or compilations.
Please enjoy this show as much as we enjoyed making it.
RECORD STORE TALES #1151: An Egg of a Day: End of August Scores
I have a coworker whose parents recently passed. This is always sad, but the time came for my coworker to purge her mom’s music collection. Periodically when this happens, people come to me to ask my opinion. Essentially, she wanted to know: “is there anything here that I shouldn’t take to the local Beat Goes On because it might be worth more?” She didn’t think much of her chances, but wanted to be sure.
“Sure, I’ll pop over and have a look,” I said. “I can’t promise you anything but I can at least have a look.”
That was good enough for her.
“I bet I find a bunch of Lawrence Welk!” I joked to Tim Durling and Jex Russell. You know the kind of record collection I mean.
Indeed, I did find Lawrence Welk in the very first box of vinyl. I had a laugh and kept digging. To everyone’s surprise, I found things that might indeed have been valuable, and they had no idea how it got into that collection.
First of all, she had a really nice stack of 78s. Big Crosby was the first one I saw. I have no idea on value of 78s, but this were stored well and all seemed in good condition. It might have been my first time handling a stack of 78’s like that. They are thicker than an LP, and much heavier. They require a special stylus as well as a turntable that can go up to 78. I used to have that equipment. She even had a cylinder, whether Edison or a competing brand, that was out for professional appraisal. So, this collection I was looking at had these formats:
LPs
45s
78s
Cassettes
8-tracks
CDs
and one cylinder
Pretty wild scope. The genres were all over the place, from easy listening and country (the usual suspects) to disco, jazz, oldies, and even progressive rock and heavy metal, as you’ll see. This, I did not expect.
Then I spied an album called Egg. Something about it jumped out at me. I flipped it around and there were black and white photos of long haired guys jamming. That struck me as out of place in this collection, so I set it aside. Somebody looked it up, and it can sell for easily over $100. Everyone seemed really impressed by my ability to sniff this out. I am no expert, folks. Not at all. But it looked out of place, which is why I took a second glance. It turns out Egg were an English progressive rock band, and the album was released in 1970. Very surprising, but they felt that this one find justified me coming over and looking at their records, so I was happy.
Original price: $6.99
I found some things I wanted for myself and made an offer. I left with the following titles:
Guns N’ Roses – “You Could Be Mine” 1991 Geffen cassette single. I own it on CD, but never on cassette. Why not? In this day and age of owning everything on every format, why not?
The Best Of ZZ Top 1977 Wea Music cassette. A staple, but one that I somehow have never owned before on any format. Stone cold classic compilation.
John Williams and the Boston Pops – Pops In Space 1980, Philips, made in Holland. This contains music from some of Williams science fiction classics: Superman, The Empire Strikes Back (which was brand new in 1980), Star Wars, and Close Encounters. I haven’t seen this one before.
Oscar Peterson – The Trio – Live from Chicago 1961 Verve/1986 Polygram CD. My second Oscar Peterson score this summer. You rarely find Oscar in the wild, and never this one.
Johnny Cash – His Greatest Hits, Volume II1971 Columbia 8-track. This was the Cash album I grew up with in the car with my dad, albeit on cassette. This cartridge is in great shape, and resides in a bright red shell. This is my first red shell 8-track tape.
When I called my dad to tell him of my musical scores, he was surprised at the 8-track. While he clearly remembers that Cash album, he asked me “Do you have anything that plays an 8-track?” This is a common question that we collectors get. No I do not. I don’t have a way to play a Minidisc, a DAT, or a DCC either but I would love to have some in my collection. My collecting desires are no longer strictly just to have music to play. Now I collect music I can’t even play too! Just to have a piece of history.
After we completely examined the collection and left some advice, I departed with my treasures. Since we were in the neighbourhood, I decided to visit the old Toys R Us/HMV store. There, I finally decided to pick up Iron Maiden’s Powerslave on vinyl, edging me closer to completing the 1980s collection. Now, all I should need are the first two Di’Anno albums (I think). Powerslave was $36 and hard to pull the trigger on, since I can distinctly remember a time when Sam the Record Man was swinning in new copies for $6.99 each, and that sticks with you. I finally have it now.
A successful Saturday. Time to listen to some music!
It’s always a special night when I see something on the show from a guest’s collection, that I never saw before and want very badly. That happens periodically…but on this show, it happened on every round! This was a classic “random and chaotic” Grab A Stack of Rock episode and one of the most exciting to date.
First of all: thank you to John T. Snow of 2Loud2OldMusic for powering through illness to be here on this night. “I didn’t want to miss this,” he said, referring to the mighty Def Leppard collection of megafan Chris Preston.
Second: thank you to Chris from @rockthesetweets for sharing your awesome collection with us! The “oohs!” and “aahs!” from John and I were audible multiple times in this show. Chris had CDs of many varieties: 3″, Japanese 3″, promo, French, German, US, video…so many kinds. Not shockingly, he also had one track that seems to be exclusive to a promo CD for “Action”, that I do not have. I anticipated that would happen. Adding it the “wantlist”.
John had some cool bootlegs, singles, European releases, and plenty more stuff that made Chris and I jealous. There were some live shows he had from the mid and late 1990s that are highly desirable. He also had recordings from earlier times, such as the Pyromania tour and the Pete Willis/Frank Noon years.
As for me, you know I have Japanese imports, including two that the other guys didn’t have. I also had some singles from the Hysteria era to show, a 24k gold Mastersound CD in mint condition with original jewel case, and my original CDr that provided the live tracks heard on Def Leppard Rarities Volume Four, with the original cover I made on my parents’ printer back in the day. This is the original CD that Def Leppard used for music on that collection.
I can’t thank these two diamond gents more for doing this show with me tonight. Definitely some of the best stacks of rock ever seen on this show!
Next week: Deep Purple Album Ranking with Ryan Gavalier, Sunday Sept 1 at 8:00 PM EST!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 68: Def Leppard CD Rarities with @RockTheseTweets and @2Loud2OldMusic
This has been a meeting long in the making. For years, I have admired the music collection of Chris from MyRockAndRollHeaven on Twitter. In particular, Chris is a Def Leppard collector, and I believe his collection is one of the best in the world.
Finally the stars have aligned, and we have Chris tonight on Grab A Stack of Rock. Since his collection is so massive, we decided to narrow it down to rare Def Leppard on CD. Singles, Japanese imports, EPs and more will be shown tonight. Joining us as co-host will be fellow fan and collector John Snow from 2Loud2OldMusic! He is currently in the midst of a Def Leppard review series, so this lines up perfect.
What will we see tonight? The rarest of the rare Leppard on CD. Don’t miss it.
Friday August 23 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy onYouTube or on Facebook!
A young Steve Anthony, just starting on his MuchMusic career, but not yet known as the on-screen madman he’d become, chatted with Aerosmith right when they were hot again, in 1987 on the Permanent Vacation tour. He opens by mentioning how sick they must be talking about the “drug thing”, and then asks about the “Toxic Twins”, a strategy that worked in getting some good comments out of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.
Joe Perry discusses the 1984 reunion tour, and the risk of going out without a new album to promote. Common today, rare then.
An interesting flash from the past as we remember Aerosmith!
The Mad Metal Man has spread his wings! I am proud to present below, Harrison’s first appearance on a show that isn’t our own!
Harrison wanted to do an Australia-centric topic with Peter Kerr for some time. Peter has been wanting to put together an all-Australia panel. This week on Rock Daydream Nation, that’s exactly what we got! With Peter Wicks, and Bicyclelegs himself.
It was enjoyable for me to hear about familiar Australian bands, and those I’d never heard of before. Harrison stirred the pot with some questions and comments, like a good lad! (Do the Bee Gees count as an Australian band?) Really proud of the “resident contrarian” Mad Metal Man. Check out the show!
“It all adds up to one…” Would that have made a better title? Deep Purple don’t always come out with the greatest album titles or covers, but they have produced consistently good music during the Morse era, and now beyond. In their first lineup change since Don Airey joined the band in 2003, Steve Morse has stepped down for important personal reasons, and new kid Simon McBride has picked up the plectrum.
When Mr. McBride was born in Belfast in 1979, Deep Purple weren’t even a band anymore. They were in the middle of an eight-year hiatus. The last Deep Purple compilation released was 1979’s Mk II Purple Singles when he was an infant. Deepest Purple wasn’t even out yet. Rainbow was about to release Down to Earth with Graham Bonnet. Gillan were working on the second album as a band, Mr. Universe. Into that world sprang Simon McBride. He would grow to become a solo artist who would work with Purple members Don Airey and Ian Gillan, before being asked to join temporarily and then permanently.
Retaining Bob Ezrin the producer’s chair, Deep Purple wound up with something familiar, yet slightly different. There is less double tracking on Ian’s voice, which gives it a fresher sound. The songs are slightly harder edged, and there are more of them. =1 is the first first Deep Purple without bonus tracks since InFinite, and like Whoosh, feels conceptual on some tracks. According to the band, the world is “growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one.” I don’t know about that, but that’s what =1 means to them.
At 13 songs, the album could be trimmed down to a tidy ten. Let’s break them down.
Simon gets to show off some new sounds at the start of “Show me”, a relentless groove, unlike anything from the Morse era. Ian’s speak-sing storytelling vocal is familiar and fun, a perfect way to adapt to singing in your 70s. The groove is different from past works. Wonderful solo work from Don and Simon here, with Don on synth. The back and forth is very tasteful. It’s more playing for the song, and less trying to outplay each other like Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore in the 1970s.
Track two continues that hard grooves. “A Bit on the Side” boasts a great chugging guitar part, very different for Deep Purple of any era. The chugging is almost Slash-like, circa “Locomotive”. The chug-riff is the main feature, but once again Simon’s solo is stratospheric with loads of technique. Don’s is equally cool, with a spacey vibe.
“Sharp Shooter” is one song on which Ian doesn’t sing the name in the chorus. Instead there is a memorable refrain of “Shot in the dark”. The vocals are pushing the upper limit a bit, and the song has a vibe very much like the Morse era of Deep Purple. Nice soulful female backing vocals here, which is rare in Deep Purple. Once again, Don is focusing on the synth for solos. Not a highlight, but a decent tune with a modern Purple groove.
The first video/single was “Portable Door”. Ian Gillan weaves his traditional “English as a second language” lyrical whimsy. Some favourite lines:
When it came to me one day in Jerksville Man, I was right on the edge And that jacket’s too small for a man of your size And those socks are too big for your head
I love that. Socks are too big for your head? Why not. The lyrics seem to be about tedious conversations that go in one ear and out the other.
I was trapped in a dire situation Between reason and someone-in-law
“Between reason and someone-in-law” is just brilliance. Only Ian Gillan could write that. Meanwhile, Simon hits you with a cool chord that swooshes through. “Portable Door” has a stamp like the last few albums, but the one Simon chord really sets it apart. One chord: huge impact.
“Old-Fangled Thing” has a nice lyrical reference back to “Living Wreck” from In Rock, but is not the most memorable of songs. Is “old-fangled” another Gillan-ism? This song is a little tricky, like much of the Morse era was. In the end, it’s possible that this song could have been axed, but its speed is impressive.
There are two “ballads” (or slow blues) on this album. The dramatic one is “If I Were You”. There is a memorable chorus and a mournful guitar melody that might recall things like “When A Blind Man Cries”. Either way, Purple have done some impressive ballads and slow songs during the Morse era, and now the Simon era too. His solo is a little Bonamassa at times. Also take note: there’s an orchestra on this track!
The second single “Pictures of You” is immensely memorable. A fantastic song, with a focus on vocal melody. Purple play it simpler here and the dividends pay off. There’s a bit of multi-tracked vocals on the chorus, which is essentially what this song is about: the chorus! Until we get to the outro that is, which is more Marillion than Purple.
On the single for “Pictures of You”, the song went right into “Portable Door” without a break. The effect was an exciting transition. It’s less exciting on album, leading into “I’m Saying Nothin'”. This has that herky-jerky feel of the Morse era, but is otherwise not particularly memorable. Another one that could have been cut.
What’s the story with “Lazy Sod”? Ian Gillan was asked how many songs he’d written in his life. He estimated about 500. He was then informed that Dolly Parton wrote over 5000…”you lazy sod”. Can’t argue with that, so Ian turned it into a lyric. “That’s alright because I’m a lazy sod, and I’m hot.” It’s the third single and the most “rock” of them. Very old-school Deep Purple. Could have been on Who Do We Think We Are!
“Now You’re Talkin'” is the second song with an abbreviated “in'” title instead of “ing”. (David Coverdale, were you in the room?) Very similar to “Bananas” from 21 years ago. Almost a re-write of that prior song, but with a really fun screamed part in one of the verses. Really great riff, and always a pleasure to hear Ian do a scream, whether he sounds like a 70+ year old or not! Wait til you get to the solos!
Back in the Rapture of the Deep era, Ian told us that “Money Talks” to him. Now, he has “No Money to Burn”! There is an organ-based riff, which is a nice change of pace for this album, but the song is otherwise unremarkable. The third of three songs we could cut to get down to ten.
Deep Purple are not overkilling it on ballads. “I’ll Catch You” (maybe a slow blues) is a lovely ballad, soft and bluesy like a smokey club. It is placed perfectly near the end as an ear-cleanse, before we get into one of the best Deep Purple closers in years with the very English title, “Bleeding Obvious”.
If “Bleeding Obvious” isn’t the best closer since “Bludsucker” on Abandon, then let’s hear your picks! It could also be the most progressive tune? Could that opening figure work for Dream Theater or Marillion? Or even Rush? This is an absolutely brilliant tune, mostly down to that tricky riff and melody.
And so that’s it with =1; no bonus tracks this time. There is a deluxe box set with the first official release of a concert with Simon McBride, which we’ll get into on a separate review. Aside from the length, the only real complaint here is the minimalist artwork. The inner sleeve art is far more engaging.
Deep Purple albums take time to absorb, especially in the current “Ezrin era”. The records are not lazy with simple songs (puns intended)! Tim and I attempted to break down the new album =1, track by track. We tended to agree on a lot of the songs.
What’s with the artwork? Is Simon a new Blackmore? What the heck is Ian Gillan singing about? Find out in this excellent episode of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, out today.
My written review of the album will follow tomorrow morning, with the deluxe edition live discs getting the written review treatment in the coming weeks.
And now, Harrison has sent me a third parcel, with heavy metal, soundtracks, Lego and more.
Harrison has acquired some “upgrades” to some albums it seems, and has passed his original copies on to me. These are bands I have never checked out before, so let’s see if Harrison can win me over. There were also some cool soundtrack-y CDs for Robert Daniels (Visions In Sound) and, of course, some Lego. The saga of the Marvel Lego blindboxes continues!
Peter Kerr was back with a vengeance, and some great songs! Representing Rock Daydream Nation, Peter listed off a whole lot of great songs from the year 1984, ranging from rock to metal to pop rock. He also listed the greatest movies he saw from that year, with a handful of video games and TV shows. I couldn’t resist mentioning a toyline/cartoon/comic book that transformed our young lives that year.
We had awesome guest lists from the Mad Metal Man (who is sick and could not attend) and Uncle Meat. In the comments, Pete Jones, Henry Wright, Johnny Metal, Ash Geisler, and others listed off some great tunes. Ash had about 30! I tried to put all the comments on the screen.
There were some albums and artists to kept coming up over and over again. Whitesnake, Metallica, Mercyful Fate, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and many more were well represented on this show.
This was a wonderful hour-plus and I hope you enjoy watching it on Youtube if you missed it live!
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