TESLA – “Call It What You Want” (1991 Geffen UK single)
Yesterday, I reviewed Tesla’s damn fine third album, Psychotic Supper. As part of that, I wanted to talk about this single, the album’s second. It’s an excellent companion to the album proper.
“Call It What You Want” isn’t a bad song. It has a great chorus even if I find the verses sub-par. Where Tesla have always excelled is in their rootsy but eloquent musicianship. Not only are there Lizzy-esque dual guitar harmonies, but there are other things that border on country style.
I also dig the lyric, dated although they may be:
“Heavy metal, hard-core, punk, pop, or thrash, You can call it anything, it don’t matter to me, Call it what you want, It’s all music to me.”
I think Tesla more than most hard rock bands around in 1991 were about breaking down boundaries between genres, and I’m sure this lyric was sincere to them. I know guitarist Tommy Skeoch had a thrash side project going at the time called Thrash Tandoori.
I hate when bands use a regular album track as a B-side! Nonetheless, “Freedom Slaves” is one of the best (if not the best) song from Psychotic Supper. This is the hard rock/heavy metal side of Tesla shining through. A Leppardy riff accompanies a song that boasts an anthemic chorus and dark verses.
The next two tracks are both previously unreleased, and both are covers. “Children’s Heritage” is what I’d call an obscure cover! I’ve never heard this, nor the band that wrote it, Bloodrock a 70’s band from Texas. It’s a good song, straight ahead riff based hard rock. It’s also self produced by Tesla, and is a lot looser than the album material.
More familiar is the old blues classic “Cotton Fields”, rocked up and slowed down from its CCR incarnation. It bares almost no resemblance to the classic Leadbelly version, but it does rock. Dirty slide guitars and wah-wah solos render this version almost as if Zeppelin were covering it. That’s the overall vibe anyway, and few hard rock artists were sounding this raw and authentic in 1991!
In a rare (I assure you) lapse of memory, I’ve forgotten where I got this CD. I think Trevor got it in used, at his store, and sent it to me. This would make sense, since one of his customers, Gord Taylor, used to sell him metal CD singles that he bought in Europe. So that piece fits the puzzle. Either way, whoever originally bought it paid £4.50 at HMV.
Tesla singles are rare in these parts, but thankfully both of these B-sides are now available on the compilation Tesla Gold.
“We’re just children of the 60’s, watched the 70’s go by. Now we made it through the 80’s, my my how time does fly!” – Jeff Keith
Full unfolded cover art
Cover as it appears in case
TESLA – Psychotic Supper (Geffen, 1991)
Psychotic Supper, the 3rd studio album by Tesla, is thus far their most adventurous and experimental. Is is neither as immediate as Mechanical Resonance nor as focused as The Great Radio Controversy, instead focusing on longer song structures and diverse influences. It is difficult to penetrate, and even once you do finally dig in, there are some songs that simply refuse to stick to the memory. However one must applaud Tesla for sheer musical ability and refusal to do the commercial thing and sell out for the long awaited third album.
Taking their love of Nikola Tesla to the nth degree, they present a history lesson in the smokin’ “Man Out Of Time Edison’s Medicine”. What an incredible song. I still remember seeing the music video and being blown away by the solos. Not only are there guitar solos, but Tommy Skeoch torments the theremin, before Frank Hannon slipps on a bass and plays a bass solo too!
Great rock tunes include: “Change In The Weather”, the groovin’ “Freedom Slaves”, the jokey but smokin’ “Toke About It”, the aforementioned “Edison’s Medicine”, and the thrash-like “Don’t De-Rock Me”. Y’see children, back in the 80’s when Al Gore’s wife Tipper was a founder of a pro-censorship group called the PMRC, there really were places called de-rock centers. You could send your kids to detox them off rock music and turn them onto safe alternatives. No lie. (Is it any wonder that bands like Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana came along during this period?)
There are also a series of long, exploratory songs such as the mournful “Song And Emotion”, dedicated to Steve “Steamin'” Clarke of Def Leppard who passed away in January of that year. Skeoch paid tribute to Clarke’s “Gods of War” parts with his E-bow solo, listen for it. Tommy Skeoch was a devoted Def Leppard fan, and Tesla had also opened for the Leppard because they shared management.
There are ballads too. I don’t think any are particularly standouts in the way “Love Song” was, but “What You Give” was a respectable hit. I don’t check out Tesla so much for the ballads (even though they are excellent at them) but for the rockers. Jeff Keith’s raspy but powerful voice can excel at either. The man is one of the most underrated singers in rock.
If grunge didn’t hit, I could have imagined this album spawning multiple hit singles and videos for at least a year.
4/5 stars
I only own one single from this album, which is “Call It What You Want”. It has some interesting B-sides, so tomorrow, we’ll take a look at that one! Hope to see you then.
With Ace experiencing a second Golden Age back in Kiss, 1997 was the perfect time for various parties to cash in with compilations and re-releases. It made sense for Megaforce to put out a collection of Ace’s better solo work along with unreleased live tracks. With Frehley’s Comet bassist John Regan in the executive producer’s seat, at least 12 Picks has input from somebody on the inside.
This is a pretty logical collection. Since it has “Into the Night”, “Rock Soldiers”, “Words Are Not Enough”, and even “Hide Your Heart”, you could easily make an argument that casual fans can start and stop here. Sure, they’d miss great favourites like “Calling To You” and “Do Ya”…but leaving tracks off opens doors to sequels, no?
If you imagine an album still having two sides, then the studio tracks make up side one. Side two consists of live versions of Kiss favourites and others. These are all from the Second Sighting tour with Jamie Oldaker on drums, unfortunately not Anton Fig for these versions. They are however previously unreleased on any audio format. These are some (but not all) of the songs from the Live + 4 VHS video cassette. This video was never released in Canada, and I’ve never owned it. Unfortunately, “Something Moved” from the VHS tape is not included. To date it is still frustratingly unavailable. From the same gig (Hammersmith Odeon) but unreleased until now is “Deuce”. Other tracks from the concert would later trickle out elsewhere.
“Rip It Out” remains a stunning opener, although this version is hampered by the lack of Anton on drums. Jamie Oldaker has a different feel, laying back behind the beat and I don’t think that’s the way these songs are best presented. His fills are simpler than Anton’s, and things like the drums solos in “Rip It Out” and “Breakout” suffer for it. The rest of the set is Kiss-heavy: “Cold Gin”, “Shock Me”, “Rocket Ride” and the Simmons-penned “Deuce”. Frehley performs “Cold Gin” with the right groove, which Kiss had trouble nailing without him. I like the little touches, like the fact that the bassline doesn’t stray from the original much. It lends these Ace versions a Kiss-like authenticity. Tod Howarth backs up Ace’s lead vocals in a manner that recall’s Kiss’s multiple lead vocalists.
Although the setlist itself is pretty smokin’, the muddy drum sound and lack of Anton prevent the live portion from igniting. Thankfully Ace has plenty of fuel when he solos, but this live side is noticeably inferior to the excellent Live + 1. That’s too bad.
12 Picks came with a guitar pick in one of several (12?) colours. I got black!
It’s true. You may have a nickname at your favourite store that you don’t even know about! Maybe you’re known for your surly manner. Maybe you’re known for returning everything you buy, or a unique form of transportation. Whatever the case may be, here’s a selection of my favourite nicknames from the record store days!
BRIAN MAY & FRIENDS – Star Fleet Project (1983 Capitol Records)
This near-legendary mini-album is probably infamous for the wrong reasons. Ask a friend if they’ve heard this record. If they haven’t, they may respond, “But that’s the one with Eddie Van Halen, right? And they did that song for Clapton, and he hated it, right?” That’s how the story goes anyway.
The fact is that Star Fleet Project is actually really good, and so is “Blues Breaker (Dedicated to E.C.)”. And yes, this is one of Eddie Van Halen’s rare cameos outside his eponymous band. I am a fan of both Queen and Van Halen, but my love of Van Halen trumps my love of Queen. As a Van Halen fan, it is really exciting to hear Eddie playing outside his band’s box. On a technical level, I don’t know exactly how Eddie is torturing his guitar strings, but I sure love the sounds that come out of it. I’m hearing Eddie at what many people consider to be his creative peak. This is the era of 1984, “Jump”, and “Beat It”, considered by many to be the greatest guitar solo of the decade. It’s sheer nirvana to hear Eddie tapping over Brian May’s trademark guitar sound. It’s two things you never pictured together. Once you hear them together, it’s like Reece’s peanut butter cups!
Eddie throws every trick he has into the bag. Tapping, squeals and eruptions, it’s all here. As for Brian, he does double duty on lead vocals as well, on two tracks: “Star Fleet” and “Let Me Out”. “Star Fleet” (8 minutes in its album incarnation) is a theme song that Brian covered, from a Japanese show that his son was a fan of. It’s the most commercial of the songs, but I have to say I love it. The chorus isn’t the best, but the guitar playing blows my mind every single time.
Queen fans may enjoy the piano blues “Let Me Out” best, as it sounds like it would have fit right in on News of the World. I can imagine Freddie putting his spin on it quite easily. Brian takes the first solo, but next time he says “Help me, Edward!” and it’s Van Halen playing the blues. You don’t get this on Van Halen albums. Brian and Ed alternate, and then Eddie blazes the fretboard shredder style. To hear these two guys going back and forth over a blues progression is such a monumental moment.
The final track (and all of side 2) is the infamous “Blues Breaker”. I’m not sure what E.C. didn’t like about it (I’ll just assume he was too humble to accept such flattery). You don’t get to hear Eddie Van Halen nor Brian May jamming very often. This is the second such jam, and this one well over the 12 minute mark! You’ll wonder where the time went. As an admirer of both guitarists, I’m constantly in a state of anticipation for what they will play next. The backing band are not slouches either: Alan Gratzer – drums, Phil Chen – bass guitar, Fred Mandel – keyboards. They captured this stuff mostly live off the floor, and that’s the way the record sounds.
Finally, a word about the current status of this mini-album. Used vinyl is probably your best course of action. While this is easy to find on counterfeit bootlegs, official CD releases were scarce and confined to rare CD singles and Japanese imports, vinyl is much cheaper than any of those. I first encountered this record in the collection of a creepy dude, as recounted in Record Store Tales Part 229: Silent Knight. That was 1994, and I still have never seen any of the CD releases of Star Fleet Project in person. Besides, that big robot on the cover just looks better on an LP sleeve doesn’t it?
1990: Everybody was buzzing about the sophomore album by Boston’s Extreme, and their stellar lead guitarist Nuno Bettencourt. Extreme II: Pornograffitti (“A Funked Up Fairytale”) is one of the last great hair metal albums of the era. It is chock full of diverse songs, great playing, great writing, and adventurous arrangements. Big kudos must of course go to Nuno whose guitar playing is at once tasteful and (pardon the pun) extreme. Not to be outshone is lead vocalist Gary Cherone who was at his peak here.
A loose (very loose) concept album, Extreme II commences with atmospheric rainfall, which introduces us to “Francis”: our protagonist and the kid on the front cover. The crashing licks of “Decadence Dance”, the first single, interrupts this moment. Gary’s lyrics are witty and Nuno’s fingers nimble. The song kills.
There is a wide swath of styles covered on Extreme II. Obviously funk is a big one (“Get the Funk Out” with a blazing horn section, “When I’m President”, the title track.) Of course there are the landmark acoustic ballads “More Than Words”, “Song For Love” and “Hole Hearted”. The cool thing about this trio of singles is that all three ballads are different. None of them share the same style as well. “Hole Hearted” is more a campfire rock song than a ballad anyway. While “More Than Words” is now considered the prototypical acoustic ballad, it must be remembered that when it came out, it was unlike most. It contains no drums and only one acoustic guitar. Gary Cherone’s vocals merge harmoniously with Nuno’s creating this lullaby effect.
Other interesting songs include the lounge tune, “When I First Kissed You”. I once read Nuno saying that his inspirations were Queen and Prince, artists who were fearless to include different styles on their albums. Meanwhile, “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee” contains some of the greatest and fastest guitar soloing of any era. It doesn’t get much more diverse than this withoug losing coherance, but Extreme II holds together as a concept and an album.
The album is filled out with killer hard rockers: Songs like “Suzy Wants Her All-Day Sucker” and “He-Man Woman Hater” are some of the catchiest rock songs this side of Aerosmith, but are tricky enough to keep your interest peaked. By the time the album ends, you’ll be exhausted from rocking out so much, but you’ll still want to start over again from the beginning. The album appears to be designed that way, since it closes with the same rain and thunder.
This is a must-own classic for any hard rock fan who likes it smart.
5/5 stars
Once you absorb this album, you have to pick up the following companion pieces:
1. The “More Than Words” and “Hole Hearted” singles, which contained different remixes of “More Than Words”, one being A Capella with congas.
2. The “Song For Love” single, the B-side of which was Extreme’s amazing cover of Queen’s “Love of my Life”. Incredible cover, which was designed to segue into “More Than Words”. They did it this way when played live, as they did at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.
3.The Guitars The Rule the World (the first one, not Vol 2). This has a Nuno Bettencourt electric blues instrumental called “Bumble Bee (Crash Landing)”. This is the second part to “Flight of the Wounded Bumble Bee”, which on the album was trimmed down to exclude the “Crash Landing” portion. When I recently ripped this album to my computer, I used Audacity to recreate the original complete “Bumble Bee” track. I dropped the file into the correct place on the album to create an “unedited” Pornograffitti experience. It was kind of cool how it worked, segueing into “He-Man Woman Hater”.
I thought I would do something a little less hilarious this time, and more just…I dunno…interesting enough to read over a coffee? Sure, let’s go with that. Today I thought I would share with you my top ten search terms since I started in March 2012. All of these people ended up at my site. Counting up (what the hell eh?) from 1 to 10, here’s the most popular search terms at mikeladano.com. Note that some of them are essentially duplicates, too.
paul stanley voice problems
marillion radiation 2013
paul stanley voice
queensryche redemption
69porn
paul stanley’s voice
kisstory book
black sabbath paranoid deluxe edition
queensryche split
mike ladano
I MADE THE TOP TEN! High five!
Missed the last, much funnier installment of WTF?Click here!
Part 2 of a 2 part series. Today we look at the final album by the original Triumph. For the first installment,The Sport of Kings, click here!
TRIUMPH – Surveillance (1987 MCA, 2003 TML)
Triumph bassist Mike Levine once called this album your proverbial “contractual obligation” record. What he meant by that, was that Rik and the boys were barely on good terms anymore, the end was near, but the band needed to crank out one more album (plus a “greatest hits” record entitled Classics) before they could call it a day.
And who can forget that awkward interview on MuchMusic’s Power Hour, when Erica Ehm unwittingly asked Rik, “Have you ever thought of going solo? Wait a second, I have the chance to break up Triumph with this question!” Rik mumbled something about how the guys in the band always gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted, and there was no need to go solo. Then a couple months later, WHAM! The headline was all over the Toronto Sun — RIK QUITS TRIUMPH.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, this sounds like the last album by a once powerful band. It sounds like a band out of ideas, a tired band, a band who doesn’t care anymore. It has an atmosphere of “let’s see if this one will stick to the wall.”
Yes, Rik Emmett was and remains a genius guitar player. Mike and Gil, God bless ’em, were the average backing band, given a tremendous boost in our native land due to the fact that they are Canucks. There’s a certain Canadian mediocrity to Triumph — not quite as good as Rush, but similar. A loyal fanbase, but with not nearly the treasure-rich back catalogue that Max Webster has. A talented guitar playing frontman, but as a vocalist a bit shrill even by Geddy standards. A T-shirt-and-jeans type image, maple leaf proudly emblazoned on their hockey jerseys, but an image just too bland for anybody but us hosers by the late 1980’s.
Surveillance struck me from the start as Rik taking control of the machine for one last spin. It treads the progressive tendencies, with two instrumental intro tracks, a guest shot by Steve Morse, and some lyrically interesting pieces (“All The King’s Horses”). This is tempered by Rik’s increasing interest in pop — “Let The Light (Shine On Me)”, and “On and On”. On Gil Moore’s side, we have nothing but terrible filler tracks, the worst of which is “Rock You Down”. This is perhaps the worst song Gil’s ever foisted upon us. At some points trying to be R&B, at others hopelessly lost in a morass of bad lyrics and muddy mix, it is a bit of a train wreck. The whole album suffers from this muddy mix and too many odd crashing keyboard samples.
Dark Helmet.
The best tune was the lead single, “Never Say Never” (co-written by Rik’s new protege Sil Simone). Unfortunately this is a video that Rik soon found embarrassing to watch. The bouffant hairdo (or as Rik referred to it, “good hair production”), the fancy wardrobe…what was wrong with jeans and jerseys? It was 1987. That’s what was wrong with it.
I wanted to give this album one star, as I believe it truly has some of the worst songs of Triumph’s career. Upon reflection I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t because lyrically, I like some of this album, and musically there are a couple good moments here and there that save the album from being a total torpedo. The guitar playing, like on “Carry on the Flame”, is absolutely fiery. You know a guitar player like Rik Emmett isn’t going to lay a turd. There are a couple interesting riffs. And, as a Power Hour nerd, I loved the voice cameo by J.D. Roberts (now known as CNN’s John Roberts).
Much to my surprise (and delight, because I didn’t like it when bands broke up), Triumph carried on with one more album (Edge of Excess) and a new guitar player. Phil X (ex-Frozen Ghost and currently on tour with Bon Jovi) joined the band, while Toronto’s Mladen Zarron wrote on played on the majority of the album. Sound wise, they rocked it up several notches before calling it a day.
This album serves as a reminder of what a terminally ill band sounds like. You can hear the tension and lack of cohesion. Despite that, there are still a couple interesting tracks and melodies here for the Triumph fan, some of which have not yet resurfaced on a compilation CD. Check it out if you’re a fan, avoid like the plague if you are not.
2/5 stars
Also worth noting: The guy on the cover of Surveillance is the same dude from the Never Surrender album!
In a previous chapter, I talked about my early online musical presence in 1994. Before creating the Record Store’s original online ads, I also got an early start to writing reviews. The early reviews weren’t very good, but I definitely tried. Unfortunately back then, there wasn’t much of an online audience for reading reviews of rare Motley Crue EPs!
I did make contact with a few other music fans and collectors in the area. One guy went by the online handle of “Silent Knight”, named after the classic 1980 Saga album. He seemed like a nice enough guy, although I soon learned that first impressions can be deceiving. He had a party at his house that I went to, and it was cool. I overlooked the fact that he was in his 30’s living in his parents’ house. I also overlooked his absolutely massive collection of porno videos. If I recall correct (and I think I do because the subject came up), the VHS tapes adorned one whole wall of their living room. Turns out Silent Knight was not just into watching, but also into making.
You can trust me when I say I was more interested in his record collection. He had a great batch of rarities, including some that I wanted. He invited me over for a recording session, where he taped me the classic Brian May & Friends EP, Star Fleet Project. He had this crazy blank tape with a metal shell. I don’t know what the tape was that I used anymore, but the tape that I chose was shite and the recording was almost unlistenable. However, I also recorded from him some Glass Tiger B-sides for my sister, Black Sabbath’s Seventh Star, and the immortal “Rodeo Song” by Showdown.
Silent Knight and I had a falling out after that. He made some antisemetic comments. I don’t know if he was serious or just trying to get a reaction. I decided to cut him loose, as I didn’t need that kind of negative personality in my circle of friends. Good thing I did. Turns out the guy was a total creep. I know, the guy with the wall of porn VHS tapes was a creep? Who could have predicted that?
Months and months later, some time in ’95, I started getting emails from somebody else new to the online world, but having learned my lesson I kept my distance. Later he asked me an odd question. “Hey, I heard you totally called the cops on somebody else that posts on these boards! That’s cool man! Who was it?”
I told him that he must have me confused with somebody else. Then he revealed himself to be none other than Silent Knight under another handle! Apparently, someone had called the cops on him regarding his Wall O’ Porn. I don’t know any details about what he had in the Wall O’ Porn (I really was not interested in checking out somebody’s porn collection) so I have no idea for what reason the cops would have been called, or by whom. He said I was his only “enemy” who had seen his collection, therefore I was his number one suspect for ratting him out to the cops. He was trying to get me to confess with his fake account. The funny thing is, even after he failed (since he had the wrong guy) he still thought it was me.
After I got over his baffling behaviour, my fury set in. I told him to leave me alone or someone would definitely be calling the cops. I blocked him on every email I had and never heard from him again.
And just a few weeks ago, I finally got a proper listenable copy of Star Fleet Project on vinyl. Suck on it, Silent Knight!
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