Trevor’s in the habit of texting me whenever he sees something that I may want. Which is more often than I can afford, as it happens, so I have to pick and choose! I just received another box of goodies from T-Rev last week. Inside I found the contents below:
Gotta love picture discs eh? I’ll never play that Ozzy EP (all songs are also on his Prince of Darkness box set) but it sure looks cool. (Look at Jake E. Lee! Oh, Jake.) Didn’t even know it existed. That Grim Reaper one, I’d never seen the album cover before. Never even knew what it looked like! Sure love that title track though. And I’m well on record for loving the Rage For Order LP by Queensryche!
Also in the box was a rare 12″ single by Kim Mitchell. You know, the guy who teased your brains with Max Webster, and then your taste buds with “Go For Soda”.
Trev and I are both Kim and Max fans, but undoubtedly he’s the bigger fan than I am. So it was with utmost gratitude that I accept this record: “Go For Soda (Syphon Remix)” / “Love Ties”. This was from his own personal collection. As far as I know, neither of us have seen another copy. I spoke to my buddy, that guy Craig Fee who works at that radio station Dave FM, and he’d never heard of it, let alone encountered it in his vast travels.
Anyway, Trev found this one, back in the record store days! I don’t know when or where but maybe he’ll pop in with his remembrances! But this is the kind of thing we lived for. Finding something rare, cool, and previously unknown.
There’s no credit for who did the remix, essentially an extended version. The song has a different intro and is beefed up from 3:26 to 4:59. It’s a UK import, from Bronze records. Mitchell’s stuff is released by Anthem over here in North America. Bronze released Motorhead and Girlschool records in the 1970’s, I wonder if they commissioned this remix themselves.
So thanks Trev for another treasure. This is the kind of thing that Trev was prone to finding. I recall he had an etched Megadeth picture disc, and he also somehow scored me a double Bon Jovi 12″ single with 3 rare live tracks.
Must be the keen eye of a skilled Record Store Guy! I salute you sir.
IRON MAIDEN – Somewhere In Time (1986, 1996 bonus CD)
After the yearlong World Slavery Tour, to hear it told by Steve Harris, lead singer Bruce Dickinson had “lost the plot”. Bruce on the other hand felt that the next album should be a game changer: their Physical Graffiti. But burned out from the road, all he brought to the table were some acoustic tunes which were all rejected. According Steve Harris, it wasn’t so much that the songs were acoustic. It was because they weren’t very good. This was the first time Bruce didn’t get a writing credit since The Number of the Beast! And instead of Physical Graffiti, Bruce said that they “just made another Iron Maiden album.”
Bruce and Janick Gers acoustic, 1990
In spite of the lack of Bruce songs, Steve, Adrian Smith and even Dave Murray came in with enough songs for an album. They also came in with synthesizers for the first time. All three were credited with guitar or bass synth on Somewhere In Time, a sound that threw some of us for a loop. Also for the first time, Adrian would take sole writing credits on several Maiden songs (lyrics, music and all) which lent his more melodic bent to the resulting album.
The production, again by Martin Birch, was paradoxically both cold, and warm. It’s a chilly sounding album, but the synths actually bring some warmth back to it. Unfortunately there isn’t as much guitar grit as before, everything sounding smoothed out.
“Caught Somewhere In Time”, the excellent opener, starts right off the bat with synth; Maiden were laying their cards on the table. The gallop is still there and Steve still drives the Beast forward withi his bass. The synth doesn’t really detract from it. It is plenty riffy, and Bruce’s voice soars with the excellent chorus. This is a Maiden rocker to sing along to.
Adrian contributed the first of the two singles: “Wasted Years”. This classic song was my introduction to the new Maiden sound, since it came out a bit before the album was available. Not only was the video great (black and white footage of the band rehearsing with collages of Eddies and tour photos) but the song was also great. This is definitely hard rock Maiden, the kind of thing that made good Maiden singles, like “Flight of Icarus”. The lyrics, also by Adrian, are clearly about the road life and I’m sure Bruce could pour his heart into the words.
Two lacklustre songs follow: “Sea Of Madness” and “Heaven Can Wait”. Neither song have ever really blown me away, but at the same time “Heaven Can Wait” turned into a tour classic for many years so what do I know? It was the traditional concert spot for the crowd to sing along. Smith contributed “Sea of Madness”, while Steve wrote “Heaven Can Wait”. I do like the slow part in the middle of “Sea of Madness”, with its nice solo.
That ended side one. Side two started with “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”, one of Steve’s longer songs. It was based on a short story of the same name, and I have to admit that lyrically it’s not one of those Maiden songs that really has me waiting to sing the next line. The choruses are pretty straightforward: “Run, on and on. Ru-uu-un, on and on. The loneliness of the long distance runner.” The synth in this song is effective although the song is arguably filler.
(Of note: The intro portion of this song would really serve as a blueprint for many many Maiden songs to come. You know the kind: Steve’s rinky-dinky-rink bass, backing a mellow guitar melody, with mild synth in the background. “Fear of the Dark”, starting 30 seconds in, is similar. “Mother Russia”, 30 seconds in. Most of The X Factor. And so on.)
The excellent “Stranger In A Strange Land” follows, the third of Adrian’s writing contributions. This was the second single, and a good choice it was. A catchy mid-tempo song, it took advantage of the textures of the new synths effectively. I’ve read in the past that it’s based on Stranger In A Strange Land by Heinlein, but I fail to see the connection. I always felt it may as well be about the 1984 film, Iceman. The lyrics fit.
“Stranger” was also host to another excellent Adrian guitar solo. It was around this time that I bought a white guitar simply because Adrian played one in the video! And yes, the video was an excellent summation of their stage show, with giant inflatable Eddie coming out of the stage!
Steve and Davey’s “Deja-Vu” is up next, and I have always loved this one. It’s the only song under five minutes, and it has a furiously fast pace. The synths take a bit of the edge off, but this one is irresistible
But alas, we are now at the end: The 8th and final song is yet another Steve Harris epic album closer. This time the topic he chose was “Alexander the Great”. Another historical topic for me to devour! I later majored in history. I wonder how much of that was due to my two greatest influences? My dad, and Iron Maiden?
“Alexander the Great” has been criticized by some as being a lesser epic. I really don’t know. At this point you’re into splitting hairs. Who cares? It’s still awesome. Maybe you don’t like it as much as “Ancient Mariner”; maybe you prefer “Fear Of the Dark”. It doesn’t matter: It’s a Steve epic and that means fast parts, slow parts, different tempos and riffs. And through it all Bruce manages to spit out the tricky lyrics:
A Phrygian king had bound a chariot yoke
And Alexander cut the ‘Gordian Knot’
And the legend said that who untied the knot
He would become the master of Asia
The choruses are awesome, and I consider this to be one of Maiden’s lesser-known triumphs.
And what about that album cover? Absolutely my favourite Maiden cover of all time, look for all kinds of hidden messages. What time is it again? Oh yeah…
I imagined that after Eddie’s resurrection on Live After Death, he had emerged some time in the future (around the time period of Blade Runner, it appears) and gotten himself some cybernetic enhancements. The cover is, in essence, an updated take on Killers. Emerging from his Spinner, Eddie’s traded in his hatchet for a laser. On the back, you can see the members of Maiden themselves witnessing Eddie’s deed. Notice Nicko’s goggles? He’d just got his pilot’s license!
The artwork for the singles were equally awesome: On “Wasted Years”, we see Eddie travelling back in time to 1986…chasing the T.A.R.D.I.S.? Its B-sides were excellent! As far as B-side material goes, these were two of the best. “Reach Out” was a rare thing: A song written by an outside writer, Adrian’s buddy Dave “Bucket” Colwell who would later end up in Bad Company. Perhaps even more astonishing was the lead vocalist: Adrian Smith! Martin Birch compared it to Bryan Adams-type rock, but fear not! Bruce shows up by chorus-time to blow you away with his wail, as he answers Adrian’s lines. Pure awesome in a nice sweet hard rock package.
Then there was “The Sheriff of Huddersfield”, a not-very-complimentary roast of Maiden manager Rod Smallwood! “‘Rufus the Red’ has a crane by his bed, to wrench himself up in morn’, but if you dare to tread at the foot of his bed, you’ll wish you’d never been born!” Not a great song, it’s still pretty damn funny. Rodney, it seems, had fallen for the L.A. lifestyle and the band were not beyond giving him a hard time about it!
The “Stranger In A Strange Land” single had even cooler artwork: Eddie entering a space bar full of space-scum and villainy! Looking like a cross between Harrison Ford’s Deckard, and Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name”, Eddie ignores their stares. This might be my favourite Maiden single art of all time. (Of ALL time, Kanye!)
Its B-sides were two covers: “That Girl” (FM) and “Juanita” (Marshall Fury). “That Girl” is a pretty good hard rock song, very much in line with a song like “Reach Out”. I never liked “Juanita” much though.
Don’t worry – Maiden’s arrangement is nothing like this! Makes you wonder why they covered it though.
I have a real soft spot in my metal heart for Somewhere In Time. Although it sags a bit in the middle, and it’s toned-down Maiden, this is still one of my personal favourites. It came out when I first started high school, and you can’t compete with nostalgia. Although today many consider inferior to the albums that came before and the album that came after, I have to rate it pretty high.
DAVID LEE ROTH – Your Filthy Little Mouth (1994 Warner Japanese edition)
I’ll admit it, I like this album a lot, and I have since it came out in ’94. It was, however, a total flop. I will never forget the summer of 1994. Working in a record store for the first time, there was a lonely stack of Your Filthy Little Mouth discs sitting right next to an equally tall stack of Motley Crue self-titled CDs. I don’t think I sold one that entire summer, though not for lack of storeplay. It was the times, and if this album had been released in 1989, I’m sure it would have been a smash hit across multiple radio formats.
By this time, David no longer had a “real” band. Long gone were the days of Vai and Sheehan, and even poor Jason Becker was now gone, struck with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Dave started writing and playing with guitarist Terry Kilgore, and utilized a lot of studio cats on these sessions. Kilgore’s playing — bluesy, stratty and tubey — was lightyears away from the futuristic sounds coming from Planet Vai.
The album skirts multiple genres, which earned Dave equal amounts of praise and derision. We all knew Dave had lots of different T-shirts in his drawer. “She’s My Machine” is a groove rocker, mid-paced and sexy with Dave doing his best Van Halen impression. Other songs, such as “Big Train” explored the fast and speedy side of Dave’s boogie rock. Deeper in, “Cheatin’ Heart Cafe” (an excellent duet with Travis Tritt) and “Hey You Never Know” hang on the outskirts of Nashville quite successfully.
Meanwhile on side two, you get the eclectic reggae and urban sounds of “No Big ‘Ting” and “You’re Breathin’ It”, neither of which work and weaken an otherwise strong collection of songs. “Your Filthy Little Mouth”, the title track, quickens the pace back to where we started. It is a strong rocker with some of Dave’s patented fun and cool lyricism. The album ends on a slower note — Willie Nelson’s “Night Life” (previously covered by Thin Lizzy) and a track called “Sunburn” which recalls “Coconut Grove” from the first EP.
A stupid and terribly unnecessary remix of “You’re Breathin’ It” is a bonus track, and the final song — unless you own the Japanese version (I found mine at a record show in Guelph Ontario), which tacked on a cool blues called “Mississippi Power”. “Mississippi Power” was also available on the “She’s My Machine” 7″ single (which I also bought at a record show in London Ontario many years before that). The Japanese version also had a sticker. Wheee!
Lyrically, Dave was at the top of his game, spinning fun and witty lyrics like never before or since in his entire career. Only Dave could sing, “I got a steel-wheeled radial prophylactic for you, and I ain’t afraid to use it now.” All over the album, you will find double and triple entendre as well as Dave’s personal philophy of life. Are you a passenger, or an engineer? “Whatever gets you to the end of the line”. “Take the traveller and the tourist — the essential difference is, the traveller don’t know where he’s going, and the tourist don’t know where he is!”
When the album flopped, Dave disappeared for a few years and went to Vegas. By 1998 he had snapped up John5 (from Rob Halford’s 2wo), and put together the awesome DLR Band which could rival Van Halen in chops and aggression. Your Filthy Little Mouth stands as an interesting detour on Dave’s road of life.
4/5 stars. Only a couple stinkers (and one useless remix).
I was so excited when I got my own store to manage. It was bigger, loads of room for stock, with 6 CD players for customers to preview discs before they bought. In addition, for the first time I had a small back room to put stuff in.
Yet, the design of the store left something to be desired. One complaint I got was that our shelves were hard to get at. They went right from the floor straight up to eye level. If you walk into a Sunrise or HMV today, you’d see all their shelves are pretty much at waist level, easy to see and easy to pick through.
So, you would get customers having to go right down to the floor to look at the lowest CDs. Sometimes they would sit on the floor. (I never would have wanted to sit on those carpets!) Sometimes they would just bend over, giving me the worst show of plumber butt you can imagine. I’m talking half-moons, crack and all. I’ve seen a lot of bums in my decade-plus as a Record Store Guy.
On the flipside, some people had a hard time reaching the highest items, and we would have to get them down. Weirdly though, once established, this design pretty much carried on to future stores. They replaced the wood shelving with modular plastic shelving, which wasn’t nearly as good nor sturdy, but it was much cheaper.
The other thing that was extremely poorly designed was our counter. I wish I could estimate how long it was in total, but it was way too long. And the cash register was dead center. So, if somebody asked you to help them, you basically had to walk from the register to the end of the store to get out from behind the counter. It really discouraged interaction with customers. A little exercise never hurt anyone, but it was just plain annoying. My first thought upon working there was, “Couldn’t they have put a gap in the counter maybe 5 feet to my left?” I actually had it more than once, when a customer would ask me for help, and I would start to make my way around. He would say, “Where are you going?” I’m going way the hell over here just so I could get out!
Sometimes when in an empty store alone, I would just jump it! I hated that counter.
The last thing I hated about our store design was that we had a little glass vestibule at the entrance. I guess in theory, it was probably there for energy efficiency. So you’re not letting out all the hot air in the winter, and cool air conditioning in the summer. But all it did was get dirty, very very dirty.
One thing I learned: People touch glass. They don’t need a reason to touch it, they just do. That vestibule was dirty day after day after day and you could not keep it clean. If I cleaned it in the morning, it was filthy in the afternoon. People would smear greasy hands all over all glass surfaces, and kids would stick their faces to it.
In the winter, it was worse. Mud would be splattered all over the glass, as people stomped the snow off their boots. The mat in the vestibule would get soaked in just one day, and never dry out because the vestibule was so cold in the winter.
And then, you’d get these surprise store inspections. You would see comments on them like, “Glass in front vestibule was disgusting.”
Well, no kidding! It’s always filthy! Even Mr. Clean couldn’t fix that vestibule! If we hired a kid part time to clean it every 30 minutes, I would never have had a poor score on any store inspections!
It’s a holiday weekend in Canada! Happy Thanksgiving. Because it’s a holiday weekend I thought I’d be lazy and just review two songs instead of an album!
W.A.S.P. – “Mean Man” (1989 7″ single)
I bought this at a record show in 1995. For $8 it seemed like a great deal: Non album track “Locomotive Breath”, purple vinyl, and a “means test”. A what?
“Locomotive Breath” is one of my favourite Tull tunes anyway, so I was fine with Blackie and the gang pummeling their way through this cover. The riff is perfect for a metal band like W.A.S.P. to utilize anyway. They do it straightforward and it works.
The A side was from The Headless Children LP. In my opinion, that’s the best W.A.S.P. album anyway, and has my favourite lineup: Blackie, Chris Holmes, Johnny Rod, with Frankie Banali. Not the best song from that album, though. It’s catchy and has a solid riff with a tough-guy singalong chorus. The lyrics are a pretty funny send-up on guitarist Chris Holmes, that’s why he’s on the cover! I’m sure the song did nothing to ease the public’s image of Chris, after being seen drunk in a pool in The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.
Blackie stated on MuchMusic in 1989 that Chris was not drunk, and that it was an act for the cameras. It certainly does seem staged. Either way I think this song and single was clearly an attempt to capitalize on that image!
The purple vinyl is cool, gotta love the cover image, and as for that “means tester”, it works like a mood ring. Push your thumb on it and it changes colour due to your body heat. The best I seem to do is somewhere between “hard” and “firm”!
THE DARKNESS – Hot Cakes (Deluxe edition with 4 bonus tracks, 2012 Canary Dwarf Ltd.)
The Darkness are probably the band that came out in the last decade that I truly love most. Something about this band just makes me feel GOOD. They always have. I love this band, much to the consternation of some of the people I used to work for at the record store! I love this band, so I worked their music into our wedding reception, and played a shitload of air guitar to it! I just love this band.
I loved the Stone Gods too. But this is the original Darkness: Dan, Justin, Ed and Frankie.
At first I was kind of “blah” to the idea of an original lineup reunion. I liked Richie Edwards just fine too. But Frankie co-writes a number of these tracks, and he has a great stage presence. As for Ed, his trademark drum fills might not be Neil Peart material but he has his own identifiable sound, and his fills are always dead-on perfect for what the songs need. Play air drums to The Darkness some time, you’ll see what I mean!
To get to the point, though: Hot Cakes? It’s magically delicious!
If you didn’t like their second album, the arguably over-elaborate One Way Ticket, then you’ll be happy with Hot Cakes. They’ve brought things back to the basics of guitars, bass, and drums with only the odd embellishment along the way.
But the lyrics are certainly not toned down!
Every man, woman and chile wants to…
SUCK MY COCK!!!!!
Justin’s lost nothing. He’s still bonkshit!* Except maybe just a hint (just a hint!) of his high voice. Or maybe it’s just the production that make it seem that way. It might even be my imagination. So who cares? And to sing and play lead guitar and run around like Steven Tyler? That can’t be easy either!
The majority of songs here are great, and would make my road tape. Much like the first and second albums, there are songs that I keep coming back to over and over again. You become attached to certain hooks in them and then suddenly, BAM! The song is stuck in your head! Examples of this:
“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us” – Great fast catchy Darkness single, with one of their classic sounding choruses.
“With A Woman” – Simple, basic AC/DC rocker but with Justin’s flare and yet another catchy chorus.
“Everybody Have A Good Time” – “Come on people, tell me how you feel. You want a good time? Well you got yourself a deal!” Along the blueprints of the feel-good tunes from the first album.
“She Just A Girl, Eddie” – Tied for best song on the album. This is the one I can play 10 times in a row and still hit repeat (usually in the car). As for the lyrics? “There are four billion other girls, who want to make love to you.” Eddie can’t argue with that math. And speaking of Eddie, Ed’s drum fills are what I was talking about earlier — simple, powerful, perfect.
“Concrete” – Solid, riff-based song with great high Justin vocal. Catchy as hell.
“Street Spirit (Fade Out)” – Holy. Shit.
On the negatives: The album somewhat follows the blueprint of the first one. For example a ballad, “Living Each Day Blind” falls on track #5, the same place that the similar sounding “Love Is Only A Feeling” was on Permission To Land. At times it gets predictable, but thankfully the song quality back it up.
I paid a fair chunk of money to have the deluxe edition shipped here from Amazon.co.uk. I’m glad to say it: These four extra songs are worth it!
There are two acoustic demos: The campfire-like “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Love”, a song as good as any on the album proper. Then there’s a demo version of the album song “Love Is Not the Answer”, which is better than the album version. The album version seemed very much the answer to “Holding My Own” from album #1. The acoustic version loses that soundalike aspect, and exposes bare Justin’s vocal prowess.
Then there’s “Pat Pong Ladies”. No idea what this one is about since it’s not included in the lyric sheet. This one has a more layered and operatic vibe, more akin to album #2. Having said that, it’s a great tune, better than some of the album tracks. It gets positively Queen at times.
Lastly, “Cannonball (Long Version)”. As my fellow rock enthusiast, Heavy Metal Overload asked, “Where’s the short version?” Maybe Ian Anderson knows. He plays that flute part. Of course! But this isn’t a ballad, or even a Tull-like rocker. No, this is The Darkness sounding like themselves (circa album #2 with some boogie piano underneath and layered screams)!
I’m so glad this band is back. I hope to catch them live. I hope Lady Gaga’s audience is into them…now there’s an odd pairing!
Not really part of my series of Iron Maiden reviews.
There are a few Iron Maiden musical items that I’ll probably never own. I know I won’t own all the singles, but that’s OK — The First Ten Years set, and the first 10 albums with bonus discs takes care of those songs. There are rarer things to be discussed. As I pause between Live After Death and Somewhere In Time in my review series, this is a good time to talk about a couple items.
IRON MAIDEN – Live!! +one (EP, 1980 Japan, 1984 Greece reissue)
This four song EP was released in Japan shortly after the “Women In Uniform” single came out. It contains two songs from that single: the title track, and the live version of “Phantom of the Opera” from the Marquee.
It also contains two live songs not available anywhere else: “Sanctuary” and “Drifter” from the same Marquee show. They’re awesome of course, if you’ve heard the early live Di’Anno stuff that I talked about in my Maiden reviews, then you can imagine these are just as good. Di’Anno does his “yo, yo yo yo” thing on “Drifter”.
I have seen them go for around $100 on eBay. This is definitely on my current “Holy Grail” list.
4/5 stars
IRON MAIDEN – Best of the Beast (1996 four-LP box set)
For this, I’m going to take a moment and slide into a Record Store Tale because this is one of those moments that I wish I could change!
RECORD STORE TALES PART 123: Missing Maidens!
Trevor and I frequented record shows several times a year. On one such excursion, we were in a Dr. Disc store. It was in Hamilton, Ontario. That same visit, the same Dr. Disc store even had Chikara, a rare Japanese Kiss compilation, on CD. But I passed on that, and I passed on the vinyl edition of Best of the Beast, too….
You know those high shelves where they put the expensive items? And you have to ask someone to get it down for you? And they’d go to the back room and get a step ladder? That’s where Best of the Beast was.
Back then, information about such sets wasn’t readily available. I didn’t know it existed until I saw it. If I did, I would have known that the vinyl version had an exclusive live cut of “Revelations”… not the live version from Live After Death! This wasn’t immediately obvious from the back cover. It is only today that I know this!
The vinyl version had plenty more music as well, including album cuts such as “Where Eagles Dare” and “The Prisoner”. It also had the only official re-release of The Soundhouse Tapes ever, since the original 5000. I had that bootleg copy of The Soundhouse Tapes and More so I deemed this to be a less essential purchase. Especially for the $200 that Dr. Disc was asking. But it was sealed, mint, brand new.
I recently saw one in questionable shape on eBay for $240. Some joker on Amazon is asking $900 for sealed copies right now.
So, right now, odds do not seem to be in my favour of lightning striking twice. I don’t know if I will ever have another chance to own this at a decent price in good condition. Alas. I wish I could turn back time!
Almost a decade after the movie, the “black album” (Smell The Glove), and the near-breakup, Spinal Tap returned! Even Marty DiBergi’s documentary could not keep Tap down, and setting aside their differences, they created this reunion album. Mostly new material with some oldies sprinkled in, Break Like The Wind was yet another masterpiece by the Tap.
The lineup was: David St. Hubbins (guitar, vocals), Nigel Tufnel (guitar, vocals) and Derek Smalls (bass, vocals) with new additions Ric (brother of Mick) Shrimpton (drums) and Caucasian Jeffrey Vanston (keys).
It turns out that previous keyboardist Viv Savage was a drummer prior to joining Spinal Tap. He failed to tell them this, and well, he befell the same fate as countless Tap drummers.
From the beginning, like so many Tap albums past, Break Like The Wind was misunderstood. The first single “Bitch School” was about a dog, but many chose a sexist interpretation. This simple rocker is an upbeat catchy single and indicative of the new Tap sound.
The regal “Majesty of Rock” is second. This track was chosen as second single. St. Hubbins dares to ask the deep questions within the framework of a 4 minute pop rock single. “When we die, do we haunt the sky? Do we lurk in the murk of the seas? What then? Are we born again? Just to sit asking questions like these?” An excellent question David.
I do not know why Nigel seemed prone to wearing wetsuits during this period.
Tap turn it up a notch on “Diva Fever”, a fast one to give Metallica a run for their money! A man named Dweezil plays the blistering guitar solo. What an odd moniker.
Just when you thought you could get none more regal, the queen herself, Cher, turns up to duet with David on the gorgeous ballad “Just Begin Again”. With strings and horns beside them, Tap deliver another classic.The lyrics are again deep: never give up, never surrender! Just begin again! As David says in the words, “Life is just a meal, And you never say when!” And if people stand in your way and say enough is enough? “Make the bastards eat their words!” says David!
Derek Smalls takes his first lead vocal on “Cash On Delivery”, a fun rocker advising the listener how Smalls prefers to do business. It rocks along nice.
This is followed by a remake on an old classic, “The Sun Never Sweats” the title track of course from the album The Sun Never Sweats. Nigel’s solo is among the highlights of this classic.
And then, a long lost rarity, “Rainy Day Sun”. It was the B-side to their hit “(Listen to the) Flower People”. Here it is released on CD for the first time, gloriously swirly, psychedelic, and digitally remastered. This ends side one of the original album. If you are listening to a CD, please do not attempt to remove and play the other side.
Side two began with Tap’s first epic since the mighty “Stonehenge”: “Break Like The Wind” itself. Melding middle eastern melody with modern instrumental flare, this one is surprisingly beautiful. Smalls’ bass weaves in and out, as David and Nigel play simple guitar melodies. But all comes crashing down by the time of the powerful guitar solos, and Tap rock once more!
As a surprise to their friend Nigel, the band erased most of his guitar solos and replaced it with other people playing! Four of the greatest guitarists of the 90’s stepped in for Nigel: Slash, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, and Jeff Beck. None more epic.
From there, Tap can only disappoint. “Stinkin’ Up The Great Outdoors”, a protest song, is worth protesting.
Nigel finally sings his first lead vocal on “Springtime”, a welcome change of pace. Nigel follows it with “Clam Caravan”, from his solo project. The title was supposed to be spelled “Calm Caravan”, but Nigel liked the misspelled version. “Clam Caravan” is another middle-eastern sounding song, and it lulls you off gently…
Only to be awakened by “Christmas With the Devil”! This is a re-recording of their classic Christmas single from the mid 1980’s. This sonically superior version is even more evil than the original. Happy holidays, to all the children!
The hidden track “Now Leaving” follows, questioning what life is worth if you’re on life support? All three members bring their thoughts to the table, but I think David asks the most eloquent question. “Shall he lie there forever with a tube up his nose, And his peepee and poopoo slipping out through a hose?”
I do not know David, I do not know.
Thankfully, these mortal thoughts are ended by the beginning of “All the Way Home”. You may remember from the film that this was the first song that David and Nigel ever wrote. Finally, their original 1961 demo was found and restored, and mastered for its CD release. This closes the album.
I do not know if the general public felt differently about this album than I do, for Tap did not release another album for 17 years!
Because our internet access was blocked from the most useful sites, while at work you often had no idea what was happening in the outside world. Sometimes your only clue was what customers were requesting.
For example, here’s a typical day of phone calls, when something really big has happened.
PHONE CALL #1:
“Do you have any George Harrison?”
PHONE CALL #2:
“Do you guys have any Beatles or George Harrison solo?”
PHONE CALL #3:
“Hi, I was wondering, do you have anything in stock by George Harrison?”
Us being primarily a used CD store, we would usually be cleaned out of that artist by the fourth call or so.
PHONE CALL #4:
“Hey, do you have George Harrison?”
At this point my curiousity would be peaked.
“Actually I just sold out about 10 minutes ago. I’ve had so many requests for George and the Beatles today. Has something happened?” I queried.
“Yeah, he died. They just announced it on TV today.”
“Oh no!” I responded. “The cancer got him?”
“Yeah,” came the answer.
That was a grim, depressing day. The world had not lost a Beatle in over 20 years. But November 29, 2001, we lost my favourite Beatle, George. Unfortunately that’s how I found out about most music deaths, by an abnormal amount of requests for that artist. Those were rarely fun days. We dutifully hung some George posters in our back room, and mourned the death of an icon.
IRON MAIDEN – Live After Death (1985, 1996 bonus CD, 1998 remastered edition)
…We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!
With that dramatic, adrenaline pumping speech from Winston Churchill, Iron Maiden hit the stage, careening across the boards ripping to shreds the opening riff to “Aces High”, guitars cranked and perfectly captured by producer Martin “Live Animal” Birch! Live After Death may be the perfect live metal album. Running over a mammoth 100 minutes (on LP anyway), it required specially skilled engineers to cut the vinyl, so long were the records!
I have played this album so many times I could review it in my sleep. I own three copies of it, each one for its own reasons (more on that later). Iron Maiden could very well have released this album and retired, and their place in metal history would have been secured. Great value for the price of a double live album, this was at the time one of the longest double live albums ever released, with not one second of precious vinyl wasted. The package was loaded with photos and text.
Inside the gatefold
Recorded in Long Beach, California (you can tell by Bruce’s incessant shouting, “Scream for me, Long Beach!”) and the Hammersmith Odeon, the crowds are absolutely nuts for Maiden. This is one of the best recorded live metal albums of all time, thanks to Birch. The crowd is loud, the band is clear, and the harmony vocals of Adrian and Steve are perfectly audible. I’m certain there’s overdubs on those backing vocals, they’re too perfect. Whatever. Do I like the album? Hell yeah.
There are some tunes here that you don’t hear live very often, such as “Die With Your Boots On” and the 14 minute epic “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (made even better with Bruce’s intro: “This is about what not to do if a bird shits on you!”). “Powerslave” is as powerful and dramatic as the original album version, glorious solo intact. There are a handful of key Di’Anno-era tracks, such as the single “Running Free”, the growling “Wrathchild”, and the band’s early opus, “Phantom of the Opera”. Indeed, this album is worth buying for “Phantom” alone, so rarely is this played. As for “Running Free”, this may now be the definitive version of that song.
(Note: the cassette version of the album edited out the long Bruce/crowd interplay.)
Here’s the three versions I own, and why:
1. Vinyl. This was what I bought back in 1985 (my first Maiden LP), and I still have it. The original vinyl was a gatefold sleeve enabling you to read all the hidden messages on the tombstones. “Letit R.I.P.” was my favourite. Inside, the album unfolds with two fully coloured photo record sleeves and a generous booklet with liner notes from Birch and a complete list of every date on the tour. Also amusing was a list of everything they went through on tour, from guitar strings to cans of beer.
2. The 1998 remastered CD edition. The original CD releases everywhere were only one single disc, and comprised only the first three sides of vinyl, ending after “Running Free”. This CD version restores side 4 on a second CD, which included “Phantom” and “22 Acacia Avenue” among others — you can’t do without these songs! It also includes a completely different set of photos from the album release, so that’s cool if you already have the vinyl. No overlap.
3. The 1995 UK CD reissue of this album, which included all three B-sides. The “Running Free” single had two exclusive songs, which were “Sanctuary” and “Murdered In The Rue Morgue”, both with Bruce singing of course. The “Run To The Hills” single included the very rare instrumental “Losfer Words” which, as far as I know, was only played a handful of times and never again.
Briefly on the cover art: You recall last time we saw Eddie was being buried. Well, he seems to have recovered. You can see the pyramid in the background. How much time has passed? Maybe we’ll find out next album….
If you don’t own Live After Death yet, then it’s time to fix that!
5/5 stars.
I’m going to pause here for a few days, as this seems a natural place to do so. Not only does Live After Death summarize the previous 6 years appropriately, but the Iron Maiden that emerged after it would be a newly modernized Beast, “Caught somewhere in time…”
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