Jen and I were B-Side Ourselves to find that James Kalyn had sent me some surprise vinyl when I was feeling down and low. It so happened James was available on Friday night for an unboxing. So that’s what we did! What did he send? Here are some clues:
Any guesses? Watch the video!
I’ve been out of action since Sunday, for reasons that will be shared soon. (The WordPress “community” didn’t even notice that I haven’t posted in four days for the first time since 2018, thanks guys, “community” is dead!) Disasters and existential crises aside, the morning of Friday June 21 was perfect for flying a drone. The drone was almost taken out by a seagull (1:20 of the video), all to the space-exploring soundtrack of “Billy Oxygen” by Helix.
While I try to get things back to “normal” here, enjoy the video. I’ll be working on video editing all weekend. The cottage video from last weekend will explain what happened.
This is a show I was made for! Spoiler alert: Regular readers already know my favourite Steve Morse era Deep Purple album. I was already trying to kickstart a Purple collection when he joined the band in 1995. His addition made me a completist – had to get every album. And, within a few years of his joining, I achieved and maintained that. Morse’s additional made me a superfan. I just love when a band has a significant lineup change that actually works. Deep Purple was transformed into something a little different, but just as good. Just new flavours in the soup. A new freedom to experiment and stretch out. It wouldn’t have worked if the band couldn’t write new songs with the new axeman, but their chemistry flourished over seven studio original studio albums.
Now that Steve is gone from the band, and they are carrying on with another new ingredient in Simon McBride, it is a perfect time to look back upon the Morse era. Joining myself and Peter Kerr on Rock Daydream Nation is “Music Swami” Pete Jones. Together, we passionately discuss three favourite albums, and the key tracks that you need to check out for yourself. We don’t just shower praise, but we break down and analyze.
Here’s what Mr. Kerr has to say:
Rock Daydream Nation is joined by Peter Jones (The Contrarians) and Mike Ladano (Grab a Stack of Rock) to choose their desert island Deep Purple album featuring Steve Morse….Are any of these albums better than Deep Purple Ritchie Blackmore?
Check out the show!
Mama, just killed a man! Learn all about musicians who killed, artists with mob connections, murders and money laundering, oh my! Angie Moon has written the book: Crime of the Century – Classic Rock and True Crime. In this one-hour interview, Angie informed Jex Russell and I on so many topics!
You can get your copy now on your local Amazon, or directly from the author.
Show notes:
Your dad was once a police officer, and later on in life you realized there were no books about true crime and classic rock. Does that about sum up what started you on this journey?
I like the way the book is formatted. You have a chapter about a band/crime, and you introduce both the band and the criminal in a way that you don’t need any background knowledge at all.
Jack Ruby and the Hawks (the Band) – sounds like Jack had a reputation and an aura to him? No surprise the shows they played at his club were poorly attended?
What is it about the Kinks that you love so much? Can you sum it up? What do you imagine that party at John Wayne Gacy’s place was like?
I enjoyed your overview of the White Album. I realize this might be the most difficult question of the interview, but where do you rank that Beatles album in their catalogue?
I didn’t know about Charles Manson’s childhood, and that his alcoholic mother was destitute and spent time in prison. That had to have an impact on the person he became. I also had no idea he was studying Scientology.
Reading about how Manson and his girls duped Dennis into staying at his rented mansion, fleecing him for $100,000 worth of generosity, just made me feel sad for Dennis. He was not a man without his demons.
Are there any classic rock crimes or bands that you just decided to steer clear of for this book?
I did not know that Paul McCartney bought the rights to Buddy Holly’s back catalogue!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 63: Crime of the Century with Angie Moon
Please welcome Angie Moon to the show! Angie has long been a member of the WordPress community, and is now out with her first book: Crime of the Century! It’s all about the connections between classic rock and true crime, and could be the first book of its kind.
This afternoon, co-host Jex Russell and I will talk with Angie about the book, and these fascinating cases of crime intertwined with figures from classic rock history. The Kinks, the Beach Boys, Debbie Harry, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa and DEVO are all covered in the book, with an additional section on “musicians who killed”! It’s a fascinating read. You’re bound to learn something you didn’t know before on today’s show.
You can get your copy now on your local Amazon, or directly from the author.
Please join us this afternoon for the Crime of the Century!
Friday June 21 at 3:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!
RECORD STORE TALES #1134-B: Vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and cassettes! Mike and Aaron (and Aaron’s Dad) Return to Toronto 2024!
To read about our Toronto trip, click here.
Here is the full photo gallery of every picture I took, hunting for records in Toronto. For all our scores, you will have to watch the video at bottom. Here are the still shots. Enjoy!
(There’s one awesome photo of Aaron as the 9th Bosstone that he will not let me post!)
Thank you Aaron & Wayne for this awesome trip.
I probably won’t be posting every drone video I make here on WordPress, but this is the official announcement: I have a new hobby!
Since this is primarily a music website, please enjoy the song “The Optimyst” by an awesome band, the Forrest Williams Democracy. My #1 song of 2023. The F.W.D. is one of my favourite new bands, featuring Matt DeMatteo and Scott Maybee on vocals. Their music is perfect for a video like this! You might remember Forrest as the original drummer of Big Wreck.
Forrest Williams in Big Wreck, far left
As you listen to the song, you’ll witness a test flight of my new Potensic Atom SE drone. I took it 118.8 feet in the air on this test run, with a great view of Highway 8, from Hofstetter Park. I even landed it on home plate of the baseball diamond! This drone will get me some awesome cottage footage this summer.
Please enjoy! “Like” and subscribe to my YouTube to see more, and to support the site.
RECORD STORE TALES #1134: Vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and cassettes! Mike and Aaron (and Aaron’s Dad) Return to Toronto 2024!
For the first time since 2018, we returned to Toronto.
Aaron and his dad picked me up in Kitchener around 10:00 AM. Of course, I made them pose for a drone photo before we left! BMV in Toronto opened at noon, so we had plenty of time, and conversation was good. The weather was cool, breezy and sunny. It was the perfect day. In fact it may have been the most perfect weather we ever had for a Toronto excursion.
I gifted Aaron a copy of Tim Durling’s Y&T book, Down For the Count, and Aaron gifted me two T-shirts, two CDs, and one Hot Wheels. You will see these in the video that I spent the day filming.
“I’ve never seen somebody so excited for video editing!” remarked Aaron. Of course! When you had a day like we had, you can’t help but be eager to show it to the world! I spent 2.5 editing it on Monday night. The video tells the whole story. We strolled the streets of Kensington Market, and we sifted through the aisles and aisles of CDs. We only planned on hitting two stores: our regulars, BMV and Sonic Boom. We had a bonus stop at Paradisc Bound (first visit since 2012). We scored at every single store!
“We’re going to do best at BMV,” predicted Aaron, who was correct, but we didn’t do poorly anywhere. BMV won for prices and used CD selection. Sonic Boom, unfortunately, has started pricing certain discs according to Discogs highs. An old copy of Iron Maiden’s No Prayer for the Dying was jacked up because the cover art changed on the remastered editions. An out of print Helix Get Up! EP was going for a ridiculous $40 on CD, even though all the songs are duplicated on the Power of Rock and Roll album. Used cassettes, the kind that people used to dump in Thunder Bay landfills, were sometimes $10 each — same as they sold for when they were brand new. A Razor album was $200 on used CD. These are things they never jacked up back in 2018 when I was last there. Something has changed, and it wasn’t cool. Ultimately I did pay a lot of money for two used CDs at Sonic Boom. Ultimately I decided I wanted them, even though I was paying way too much.
BMV was just awesome. I scored eleven CDs and four records there, for a total of $107. Some were things I was trying for the first time, others were albums I needed to help complete some collections of certain bands. (One record was a gift that shall not be appearing here, for obvious reasons.) We lost track of time easily. I have no idea how long we were in BMV, but long enough to find what we wanted and then some. Of note: Their old 3-for$10 bin has changed. It is now simple $2.99 each. Perfect!
Aaron’s dad was exploring Toronto on his own, but was waiting for us when we met up for lunch at Pauper’s Pub. There are so many great places to eat in our little area of Toronto, but we hit the Pauper’s Pub every single year. That’s an endorsement. Service was great and so was the food. I had some blackened salmon, and unlike many places, it wasn’t dry and tasteless. It was tender and loaded with flavourful roasted veggies.
We made our way through the sights and smells of Kensington on our way to Sonic Boom. There, a giant Arkells display took up the front window. The band played there two weeks prior, selling copies of their new 7″ single “Big Feelings”, which was sold out in one day and not in stock. In fact they only had one Arkells left in stock, period.
We did well enough at Sonic Boom, though the store is becoming more…corporate? “Like a bigger Sunrise Records,” said Aaron. Lots of Reaction figures, Funko Pops, socks, and other assorted accessories. We were not there for those things. Reaction figures are $30 a pop now and prohibitively expensive, even though they had Phil Lynott, Cliff Burton, Lemmy, the Beastie Boys and more. When we come to Toronto, we focus on the real deal: the music. I bought two “holy grail” items albeit overpriced, that I was hoping to find in Toronto but didn’t expect to.
I grabbed a Mango Pepsi to wet the whistle as we walked back to the car, meeting up with Aaron’s dad along the way. He was a little bit behind so we had to kill 15 minutes. Paradisc Bound was right there, and they had a record that I had been wanting since I first started in music retail back in 1994. It was right there in front of me. It was meant to be! For $15, I added one final score to my tally. The funny thing was, I had just been talking about this record with Jex Russell last week…and there it was. Elvis truly is everywhere. (That’s a clue, though you will see the record in the video.)
The drive home was a little stoppy-starty, as Toronto traffic is. It took us one hour to get back up to Highway 401, and another hour back to Kitchener. Aaron and his dad drove two more hours back to Owen Sound…and they wouldn’t let me pay for lunch! Nice guys, those two. Aaron had to work Monday morning, too!
If you want to see every single thing we scored, check out the video. Can’t wait to return!
BRIAN MAY – “Too Much Love Will Kill You” (1992 EMI/Parlophone CD single)
The first time that most of us heard “Too Much Love Will Kill You” was in 1992, at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. Surely one of the biggest and most spectacular such events ever hosted, Queen played a scorching set with guests that night. One of the highlights was a song that Brian May humbly said was the best he had to offer. That song was the ballad “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, which Queen recorded but did not release on The Miracle (until 2022). For that album, the band chose to only include songs written solely by the four core members. “Too Much Love Will Kill You” was co-written by Brian with Elizabeth Lamers and Frank Musker. A few months after the concert, May would release his solo version of the song on his album, Back to the Light, and also as a single. (There is now a deluxe edition of Back to the Light, containing all the songs from this single.)
“I’m just the pieces of the man I used to be,” croons May after a a delicate intro. A song about being torn between two lovers, you somehow actually feel sorry for the guy who’s trying to choose between two women. “Too much love will kill you, just as sure as none at all.” May’s version is different from Queen’s, with lush orchestration taking up much of the space. It’s absolutely gorgeous! Queen’s version was as well, and it may be difficult to choose between versions. Brian takes a lovely acoustic guitar solo, which is so rarely heard from the master of electric layers of bliss. His vocals are impassioned, perhaps even more than Freddie’s were. Though loaded to the gills with strings and accoutrements, it’s a spellbinding version.
Second on the single is a rocker named “I’m Scared”. If it were a Queen song, it would be one of the harder-edged. It’s a speedy ride through an amusement part of guitar and drums (by Cozy Powell, with bass by his Black Sabbath and Whitesnake compatriot Neil Murray). Brian talk-sings for most of it, which works well, especially when he mockingly has trouble getting his words out towards the end. It’s a performance, and the chorus ain’t bad regardless of the vocal storytelling. It’s too weird for radio, but could be one of those cool deep cuts.
Track three is the “guitar version” of “Too Much Love With Kill You” which, believe it or not, is an instrumental. Brian’s electric guitar takes the place of the singer. It’s a cool and unexpected version. It’s an incredible, lyrical version. Brian takes liberties and doesn’t play the vocal melody note for note, but you can make it out just the same. This could be one of May’s greatest guitar performances, simply because he uses his instrument to speak in a way that very few guitarists can do for four minutes straight. He changes voices, he adds luscious trills, and it’s an absolute knockout.
The last track is a re-do of lead single “Driven By You”, with Cozy and Neil. Brian played bass on the album version. This version is hard and punchy. The song is a melodic rock classic. If it had come out a couple years earlier, it could have been a summer hit. Cozy and Neil were in Brian’s live band, so having them re-do the track for a B-side probably made sense. It’s really strong, and the bass and drums are both in your face. Diehard fans will absolutely be able to recognize the legendary rhythm section. Cozy in particular has a signature sound, and Neil does as well to a lesser degree.
What a great single, combining rarities with hits and a deep cut. A total score.
5/5 stars
RECORD STORE TALES #1133: Mike and Aaron Return to Toronto – Today!
It has been a long, strange last few years, hasn’t it?
Aaron and I went record hunting in Toronto almost annually, for years, ever since 2012. The goal was to buy music. Lots, and lots of music. Records, CDs, whatever. We always did very well, and I began documenting everything for YouTube. The video series has proven to be very popular. But Aaron and I haven’t been to Toronto since 2018. Why?
2018 was our annus horibilis. Jen was sick. Cancer. She survived. Her mother did not. The only reason I went to Toronto with Aaron that summer was because “Mum” insisted. “Go with your friend,” she told me. Within six months of Jen beating cancer, we lost “Mum”. I loved her mom. I don’t say that lightly. We were very close. Because Jen is the kind of person who can sleep in until noon given the chance, her mom and I would patiently sit together, drinking coffee and watching old movies. Our favourite topic to discuss was, of course, Jen! Jen didn’t like this too much. She hated when we talked about her! God, I miss her mom.
2019 was the summer we spoiled ourselves, and I elected not to go to Toronto that year. Jen and I celebrated our 11th anniversary, since we missed our 10th in a hospital waiting room. In 2019 I got fat, grew my hair long, and spent as much time at the cottage as I could. Since 2018 was the year without a summer, I vowed to take advantage of every minute from that moment on.
We all know was happened in 2020, which dragged on into 2021…
I became something of a hermit during this time. Most of my friends would tell you they don’t see me often. The one I’ve seen the most is Rob Daniels. (Watch this space for a video!) I haven’t seen Meat in over two years…Scott Peddle I saw last year…same with Max the Axe. What friends have I seen? Not many. I’m an introvert by nature, and if the pandemic did any damage to me, it was to give me an excuse to burrow into my little hole and not come out. And so I haven’t gone to Toronto with Aaron since then. I did have lunch with him in Port Elgin last summer, but our record shopping excursions remained on hold.
It takes a lot of mental energy for me to force myself out the door and to be social, but Aaron really makes this easy. He does all the driving. He’s pleasant company. So is his dad, Wayne, who also comes with us to Toronto.
So, today, Aaron and I return to Toronto with Wayne. We’ll be hitting up BMV first in the morning. Then Pauper’s Pub in the afternoon, followed by the finale at Sonic Boom. I am not bringing a list. I’m winging it. I am waiting to be surprised and ready to be spontaneous.
Wish us luck. Mike and Aaron are returning to Toronto!
mikeladano.com 