Please, people: Before you pick up your phone, and call and swear at someone, please make sure you’re calling the RIGHT DAMN PLACE!
In December 2005, an angry guy called. He had a CD order that he was waiting for. Three discs. He had been waiting a week. I checked inventory, and there was nothing in stock. This pissed him off a lot. These were gifts. I began trying to solve this by retracing the order steps.
I double checked the titles — nothing. I checked orders in our system — nothing for this guy, and nothing for the titles he was asking for. I checked everything under his name to see if we had anything he’d requested, at all! Nothing. Nothing with this guy’s name on it, nothing with the titles he had ordered. What happened? Had we cocked it up?
“How is that fucking possible? I was standing right there in front of you geniuses! You told me it was available, and it would be there in a week! Are you saying you morons screwed up?”
I just love that kind of language!
“No, I’m not saying we screwed up, I’m just trying to figure this out. There’s something missing here. You say you were standing here? As in, you didn’t phone in this order?”
“I was standing right there in front of you idiots. I asked for those discs and you said a week!”
“OK, again, I’m just trying to clarify here: You were standing right here where I am, at our store on Cocknuckles Street?” (Address changed for blog.)
“No! I was at the one at Dicklock Street! Jesus Christ!” (Address also changed for blog…I hope you figured that on your own though.)
“Well, that’s the problem right there. You just called Cocknuckles Street. We wouldn’t have any record of another store’s order.”
“Well FUCK!”
And then he hung up. No, “I’m sorry for being rude,” or “Sorry for the mistake,” or “Sorry for yelling.” Just “FUCK!” and then a hang up.
I called the other store on Dicklock Street a little later. I asked if this guy called for his order. He did, and he was polite as can be.
Brian Vollmer and I, back in in 2007 at Planet Helix!
September 7, 2012: Once again, things are getting exciting on Planet Helix. If the new single / video “All I Want For Christmas is the Leafs to Win the Cup” wasn’t enough, there’s also the new anthology, Best Of 1983-2012.
Lead vocalist and founding member of Helix, Brian Vollmer talked to us about these releases, some special upcoming dates, and a lot more.
The new single seems to be off to a good start, according to the song’s co-writer, Sean Kelly. Brian filled us in.
“Sean’s from North Bay [Ontario], and he told me we’re getting airplay up in North Bay on that song.” The video is also doing well: “We’re up over 5000 hits now, and we’re hoping that the video goes viral. It’s early in the season…there might not even be an NHL season this year!”
Oh Brian, don’t get me started on Gary Bettman!
The collector in me was excited about the vinyl release of the single. It’s also going to be on the anthology CD, but the vinyl is designed for collectors in mind.
“I had initially wanted to do vinyl on the Christmas album [A Heavy Mental Christmas], but when we wrote this song, I thought that we’d do vinyl because it’s a collector’s item. It’s kind of a novelty type of thing, and I think that it’ll appeal to not only Helix fans but also Toronto Maple Leafs fans. They might like the vinyl just to have in the rec room up in the bar. We sell it for $19.99 so it makes a great stocking stuffer for people.
“We did it on green vinyl too, to fit in with the season somewhat, and when we go through that pressing we’ll probably change colours.” Just FYI Brian: my wife, Mrs. LeBrain, is really hoping for blue!
“We’ve been trying to write a Leafs song for a couple years,” adds Brian. “We had the working title of ‘I’m Bleeding Blue & White Tonight’. And we never quite got the song together. And then we did a radio session, where we were finishing off [new song] ‘Axe to Grind’, which is also on the anthology album.” Brian was then supposed to meet up with Travis Wood, of the band Whosarmy (from the TV show Cover Me Canada, which Brian also guested on incidentally).
“I didn’t want to go too early, and just sit around at the restaraunt. So we started fooling around and all of a sudden, within a couple of minutes we wrote ‘All I Want For Christmas is the Leafs to Win the Cup’. The song was recorded within two weeks.” The hilarious video was done right after that. I forgot to ask Brian if any Habs fans are offended!
All I Want For Christmas is the Leafs to Win the Cup
You can buy the single on the green vinyl in a bundle with a T-shirt and the new CD, Best Of 1983-2012. “The Best Of album I just put out has a lot of tracks that you wouldn’t normally hear [on other best of albums] by Helix. Stuff like ‘Animal Inside’ off the Vagabond Bones album. ‘Get Up’ and ‘Fill Your Head With Rock’ from The Power of Rock and Roll album.”
Coinciding with these releases is the forthcoming Heavy Mental Christmas tour.
“Yes, we just added another date in Cornwall. We have seven dates, mostly through Masonic temples, legions, moose halls, through southern Ontario. It’s a multi-media show. We’re taking out screens, so there’s some video segues between songs, other times there’s still pictures with Christmas themes…some of the cameras that are places strategically around stage are broadcasting whatever member might be doing a solo during the song.”
You may want to consider getting your tickets now, as these shows are special indeed, and feature a new lineup. Not only will you meet the new Helix guitarist, John Claus, but “also Sarah Smith. Sarah Smith is a great London [Ontario] artist, she’s got two CDs out now under her belt, she’s a great addition to the show. Just a smiling, very talented person. She’s on with us instead of Kaleb [“Duckman” Duck, guitars]. Kaleb really didn’t want to do Christmas songs! Initially, we were going to go with one guitar player, and then I thought of Sarah.”
This turned out to be a good decision, according to Brian:
“I always walk out of our Christmas practices with a big smile on my face. I love playing the material, and it’s really fun with this group of people, to do these songs. I wouldn’t want somebody to do any of my projects that wasn’t totally into it.
“It’s a labour of love. We’ve been working on this show over a year now.”
Really?
“Setting up the website, and the tickets, and the halls, and putting together the show, learning the show, and getting the multi-media involved.” But it is truly a labour of love, and you can tell by the amount of work that Brian and the band has put in so far.
I mentioned new guitar player John Claus. As previously reported, longtime axeman Brent Doerner will be leaving Helix at the end of September 2012. Brian helps shed some light on this lineup change, and what bringing in a new member does for the band.
“We have two more dates with Brent at the end of this month. One’s at the Rockpile in Toronto, the other’s at the Masonic Temple in Stratford. That’s a multi-media show as well. Tickets are going fast for that one, I think a lot of people want to come and see Brent before he goes.
“Brent’s been in the band since about 1975. No hard feelings with him leaving at all. He just wants to pursue video production, and in fact, Brent will still be involved on a creative level with the band, helping us do our videos.
“I tell everyone that Brent, when he initially came back to the fold, he was only going to be here for six months, and he ended up staying three and a half years! He definitely was better than his word, and stayed for a long time. So I’m really grateful to him for that.”
On John Claus, who will replace Brent:
“He plays piano and guitar. He sings, so he’s a great addition to the band. Nice guy, great personlity. Whenever we hire new people in the band, we don’t want any ego trips. So, to get someone who has a nice personality and just a good human being is a nice thing to have.” John will join the band completed by longtime members Daryl Gray and Greg “Fritz” Hinz, on bass and drums respectively.
The piano aspect will come into play for future shows. Brian reveals that he and John will probably perform “Dream On”, the Nazareth cover, from Helix’s Wild in the Streets album, as a duo during upcoming Helix concerts. “And the Christmas shows, we’re doing ‘Hallelujah'” says Brian of another piano-based cover to look forward to!
It’s great to see Helix continue forward through the years. Brian has worked hard, starting in the 1970’s as an indi artist, and now today continuing down that path. Once again the band is behind their own music releases, selling it themselves. Brian has nothing but praise for the team he’s surrounded himself with in recent years.
“I write with Sean [Kelly] nowadays, he’s a great writer, nice person to work with. Aaron Murray is my producer, he studied from Danny Broadback, who won a Juno for Engineering. And Danny studied with Jack Richardson, who as you know produced Alice Cooper and the Guess Who, and all sorts of people.” Brian adds, “Moe Berg [The Pursuit of Happiness] sometimes comes in to write with us, Sean and I.”
Thanks to Brian Vollmer for updating us on all the new happenings on Planet Helix! Try to get out to see the Heavy Mental Christmas tour, and get tickets while you can!
The same things happened more than once, but my old writings from back in the day still survive, and are remarkably detailed. It is for that reason that I can relay to you this delightful day that I had with a guy that I shall dub Grubby.
One afternoon, this grubby looking guy walked into the store with a cardboard box of discs. He was wearing track paints and a stained T-shirt.
“I wanna sell these,” he said.
Glancing at the box, estimating how many were in there, and how long it might take to go through them, I said, “OK, no problem. Give me 20-30 minutes to go through them all.”
“20 or 30 minutes? Why so long? Can’t you just tell me what they’re worth?”
“Not without going through them,” I said. “I have to check them all for quality and then check to see what we have in stock, and what we pay for it.”
“They all sound fine. I listened to them on the way here,” he assured me. Needless to say, I could not accept that at face value, especially when I started looking at them. Many looked like a well-used hockey rink, before the zamboni comes out to resurface the ice!
“What do you think?” he asked me after a few moments.
I was starting to lose my patience. I hadn’t gotten through more than a dozen yet. I said “I don’t know yet. I haven’t even started thinking about pricing yet, I’m still checking out the condition. If you want to look around, I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”
“No, I’m not interested in buying anything. I said they all play.”
“I’m sure that they do. But we have to be sure of that, and we also have visual standards that all our discs have to hold,” I said. I hated the kind of customer that would stand there and watch every move I make! It’s distracting. It really pushed my buttons.
“You can play them if you want,” he answered.
“Well, I don’t have time for that. It would take days to play them all.”
“Well you don’t play them all the way through! You just skip through them!”
Obviously, you can samples bits and pieces of a CD without hearing a single skip, because a skip can be anywhere on the album.
The guy huffed and then finally started looking around. This allowed me to actually check the discs for quality with a careful visual once-over. Then, I arranged them into piles based on that criteria. Some were mint, some not, and some were just hacked. The guy looked around for 5 or 6 minutes and came back. By this time, I was at the computer, pricing the discs. Before I knew it though, Grubby was into my price piles, and re-arranging the discs! He was putting similar things together, but he was mixing up the system I had.
When I saw this, I said, “Oh, can you please leave them in those piles? I had them all organized.”
“What’s this pile?” he asked.
“Those are discs I am passing on. They are all just a little too scratched for us to take, and some are pretty common titles.”
“I already told you they all play fine!” He was raising his voice now.
“I know,” I said, trying to stay patient. “The thing is, all the discs we sell, we try to keep them a certain quality standard. They all have to look as new as possible. These ones are just not good enough for the standards. Sorry…I don’t make up these rules. I know they probably play fine, but you can always try selling them at a pawn shop. They don’t care how a discs looks.”
“Fuck,” he said. “I don’t want to have to go someplace else. I want to get rid of them all right now.”
“At best,” I said, “I think I’ll be able to take a little more then half of these.”
“What?” the guy yelled. “That’s fucked! They’re all fine! They all play fine! This is so fucking stupid.”
“I’m sorry about that, but I’m not done going through them. I might be able to do better. Just give me a little more time. I’m almost ready.”
“Forget it. I want to sell them all, or nothing.” He began packing his discs back into the box.
I hated when this happened, because 7 times out of 10, they’d be back. And because he put the discs away, messing up my system of price piles, if he came back I’d have to look at them all again. Which is what happened. He came back later that evening. Maybe he was hoping somebody else (less picky) would be working, but at least the second time he came in, I didn’t have to explain everything twice. I did however have to explain that I couldn’t remember how I had the discs organized, so I’d have to look at them again.
All told, I probably spent an hour with Grubby that day, buying a bunch of crappy discs that would sit for months.
TONY MARTIN – Scream (2005 Marquee Inc., Japanese edition with bonus track)
Some of you might not know the name Tony Martin. Yet you should — he spent more time fronting Black Sabbath than anyone except Ozzy Osbourne. He sang on five studio albums and one live. His powerful voice, which was constantly compared to Dio’s, was behind such singles as “Headless Cross” and “The Shining”.
Scream is only Tony’s second solo album, but it’s bloody fantastic. This fits the bill for people who miss where Black Sabbath were going before Martin departed for the first time in 1991, to make room for Dio’s return. The riffs are there, and on a couple you’d swear Iommi wrote them. This is intentional — Martin collaborated with ex-Sabbath keyboardist Geoff Nicholls (1980-1995) and included music and performances by late Sabbath drummer Cozy Powell.
There are many standout tracks on Scream. The opener, “Raising Hell”, is a speedy Sabbath-esque number similar to “Eye Witness” from Cross Purposes. Not coincidentally, this is the track with Nicholls and Powell, a demo for the album that would have followed Tyr. It’s a standout if you like that period of Sabbath. Which I do.
Fuck yeah! I LOVE that period of Sabbath!
There are blazing guitar solos, organ solos and hell, even a bloody violin solo, and it sounds downright wicked. Martin himself played it, as he did most instruments on this album. The rest were handled by his son, Joe Harford! I’m guessing it was Harford who plays the tasty slide guitar solos too. I loves me some slide guitar in my metal! You don’t hear it enough in metal.
Best song: “I’m Gonna Live Forever”, an anthem that I would say makes the album worth buying on its own.
Another standout: “Wherever You Go”, somewhat Zeppelin-esque circa III, but also reminiscient of a Sabbath track like “Odin’s Court”. Indeed, you will definitely hear Zeppelin creeping in during “Field of Lies”…
Worst songs: Sadly, I can’t say as I much liked the rap metal song, the Japanese-exlusive “Unbearable”. It’s basically about how getting no respect is making his life unbearable. It’s heavy and angry, has some good guitars, and sounds pretty genuine. I guess it can’t be easy being the 8th (I think) lead vocalist in Black Sabbath. I also dislike “The Kids Of Today (Don’t Understand the Blues)”. Basically about what the title says. It has a synth riff in the verses that is kind of at odds with the title, but maybe that’s the point.
Aside from the two songs that didn’t click with me, Scream comes off as an honest, classy traditional metal album. It strikes me as a bold attempt to carry the Sabbath flag, during a period when Black Sabbath were not recording. (Sabbath later got back together with Dio under the name Heaven & Hell, and made one final crushing studio album.) The songs stand up on their own, with powerful, memorable riffs. The vocal melodies and indeed the vocal performances are Martin at his best. This is just a straight great metal album, for those who like it the way they used to make it.
Thought I was done with Kiss reviews? Hah! It never ends! They keep putting this stuff out, and I keep buying it! Ain’t it the way?
KISS – Destroyer (Resurrected) (2012, originally released 1976)
Here it is, the much ballyhooed Bob Ezrin remix of Destroyer. Ezrin went back to the original master tapes and remixed the album himself, toughening it up while not tampering with the arrangements.
It is necessary? Nah. I don’t think so. I had high hopes for this remix, that it would shed some serious new light on these classic tunes. But, it really doesn’t. “Flaming Youth” sounds more or less the same. You can hear some more acoustic guitar on “Beth”. Other songs might have some echo where there wasn’t before. Perhaps in some cases, the layers of guitars are more individually audible. The drums are definitely heavier, which is and isn’t a good thing. I’m always a fan of big, big drums, but somehow they’re drawing too much attention to themselves in this version, especially on “Do You Love Me”. On the other hand, Peter Criss fans will be in nirvana to hear him bashing his kit like never before in “Sweet Pain”.
Bob Ezrin contributes liner notes to this package. He explains choices he made back then, and choices he made today on the album. He says that many of the effects such as echo and reverb were on the master tapes and could not be changed. The goal in this remix, he says, was making the album more “immediate and modern”. I agree that it is more modern sounding. I like that Ezrin included some alternate takes and forgotten moments here and there. I just find the whole thing to be a bit of a novelty, and a bit stingy.
Besides the entire album remixed, you also get another version of “Sweet Pain”: One with the original guitar solo, and one with a very different take. Seeing as Destroyer wasn’t a long album to begin with, I’m disappointed that the empty disc space isn’t taken up by something like demos. Ahh well.
We all know Gene. More is coming. You’ll buy it. Wait and see!
3/5 stars
NOTE: The mighty Heavy Metal Overload notified me of a flaw in “Flaming Youth”: about half a beat is missing near the beginning, about 4-5 seconds in. Once you hear it, you can’t un-hear it.
After getting Dumped in Barrie, I came back home and began the process of “getting over it”. I was now sick with a cold, too. My immune system had gone to shit, working those crazy hours.
I ran into Dandy at one of the stores, while doing a stock transfer.
“Hey,” he said. “I think I saw that chick JJJulie at the mall with some fat guy.”
“Really?” I said. “Are you sure? She’s not from here. She lives in Etobicoke.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “She had pink in her hair right? But, like, faded?”
“Yeah,” I growled. She just dumped me the weekend before, and I knew who the fat guy was, too. “This fat guy. Did he have a shaved head?”
“Yeah dude,” nodded Dandy.
So we just broke up, and she was already seeing this other dude! I confronted her about it, and she eventually admitted to coming to town to “see” him. This is five days after dumping me. Five days! Well, she wasn’t just “seeing him”. I later found out that they “did the deed” that day, before his shift at the local McDonalds.
When he found out that I knew about this, he came into my store to make amends, because he genuinely wanted to make up and be friends. He delivered me a tray of two McDonalds triple thick McShakes as a peace offering.
DAVID LEE ROTH – Sonrisa Salvaje (“Wild Smile“, 1986 Spanish recording, remastered 2007 – Warner)
You have to give David Lee Roth credit, he is nothing if not ambitious. Sonrisa Salvaje, near the very beginning of his solo career, represents a lot about DLR that people forget: Contrary to the wild image and outrageous personality, he’s actually quite intelligent and cultured.
I guess that’s one reason why he decided to record three sets of vocals for his Eat ‘Em And Smile album back in ’86! (The other reason was that DLR was told there was a huge market for rock music in Mexico.) His Portuguese version has never been released, and the Spanish version was never released on CD, until this Rhino reissue/remaster came out. You should already know these songs (and if you don’t, then I need to go back and review Eat ‘Em And Smile, and you need to buy the English version first).
You should already know it’s his all-time best solo album. His ace band — Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan, and Gregg Bissonette — rivaled the mighty VH itself. Together they put together this album which contains some of Dave’s best and most memorable tunage. It was playful, fun, smokin’ and diverse. It had everything from space age rock (“Shy Boy”) to a a Sinatra cover (“That’s Life”). The bed tracks here, the instrumental backings, are all identical on this version (except for a minor edit to “Big Trouble”).
The Spanish translations, as expected, are a little awkward. That was bound to happen. “Shy Boy” becomes “Timido” and kind of stumbles off the tongue a bit. “Ladies Night In Buffalo?” becomes “Noche De Ronda En La Ciudad”. You see what I mean? The one song that I actually enjoyed more on this release was “Going Crazy!”, now known as “¡Loco Del Calor!”. That song always had a pseudo-tropical sound to it, so the new lyrics fit right in. The rest are awkward, as the words never seem natural.
Interesting tid-bit: As of this writing (September 2012), Eat ‘Em and Smile has not been remastered and reissued in its English version! So, technically, if you wanted to hear remastered versions of these songs, this is the only place to get them. And that, to me, is a weirder thought than a Dave album in Spanish!
Once again, I found myself on the road. CDs were not completely dead and we were still expanding. We opened a new location in Barrie, Ontario. It seemed like a good location, and the store had a good layout, with plenty of space and a huge back room for storage. The shelves were well stocked and the place looked great. They didn’t have a lot of great, unique stock yet: It usually took time for a store to grow that way.
As usual I was chosen to do a large share of staff training. I was sent there for 7 days in total, split over two weekends, training 3 or 4 people. The higher-ups who sent me there chose not to be there on the weekends themselves. That’s why they sent me. I understand that this arrangement was considered “funny” by those who didn’t have to spend their weekends there, or so I was told.
I packed a cooler bag full of lunches and drinks so I wouldn’t have to keep buying food and charging it to the company. It was easier than running out for food, and it was better for the company. I was the only one who did this. All I charged to the company at the end of it all was one meal at Burger King, while others charged wine and expensive meals, so it was alleged to me. I didn’t even charge my use of Highway 407 to the company, since it was my personal, last-minute choice to use the highway to get home faster. Nobody cleared me to use it, therefore I chose to foot the bill myself.
I was also at the tail end of another relationship. I was going out with this chick who called herself “JJJewels”. She was generous and fun, but not ready to be in a relationship with a guy who hated his job and every waking moment he was at work. I don’t hold the breakup against her, just the way she went about it.
After a grueling 12 hour day of training and work, I checked into my hotel room. I wandered around for 20 minutes lugging my cooler bag full of food before I found the actual room. I went to bed immediately, exhausted, when my cell phone rang. It was JJJulie. She was dumping me over the phone while I was in a hotel room in Barrie. I couldn’t believe it!
I sat there in bed, just shocked that anybody could dump another person while sitting miserably alone in a hotel room in Barrie. On the other hand, it was inevitable, so there was also a sense of relief.
I called my good friend Shannon the next day and told her what had happened. It was now Saturday, and I was really lonely stuck in a Barrie hotel room with nobody around to talk to. The room had two beds, so I asked Shannon if she wanted to come up Saturday night. Kindly, she grabbed some board games and drove up. That little gesture meant a lot and it was the only ray of light in the whole time I was in Barrie. The others who came to Barrie during the week were already with their friends and significant others, because they worked with them. I took Shannon out to dinner at Red Lobster (paying for it myself, not asking the company to pay for my dinner) and we played Monopoly. It really helped a lot.
That night, we were awakened by the sound of a hockey team partying in the hallways. I woke up, and stuck my face out the door and scowled. There were half a dozen hockey players.
“Hey man! Want a beer?”
I shook my head and closed the door. They got the hint and moved it into their room.
The following weekend was much like the first; a cooler bag full of lunches, driving up Highway 400 with Gordon Lightfoot, and Guns N’ Roses on the deck. The second weekend was marginally better than the first; at least I didn’t get dumped this time. I didn’t want to spend another Saturday night in a hotel room though. Saturday night we closed at 6, and we didn’t open again until Sunday at noon. I wanted to drive home Saturday night and spend it at home, not alone in exile in Barrie. However the hotel room was already reserved for Friday and Saturday nights.
I told my boss that I preferred driving home on Saturday night, and back on Sunday. I’m guessing the hotel room must have been cheaper than the mileage, because he said no. I should have just done it anyway, but I followed orders and spent a miserably lonely Saturday night by myself in Barrie. It just indicated to me that the powers that be had lost the plot and had no understanding of morale. It would have done me a world of good to spend Saturday night with friends, like everyone else does.
When it was all said and done, after two weeks of no time off, and two weekends of exile in Barrie, they rewarded me with a Monday off. I spent that bitter Monday in my pajamas watching movies and stuffing my face full of junk food. The day was over before I knew it, my one day of rest was done. Back to the grind.
If memory serves, this was the very last time we opened a new store. The decline of brick-and-mortar music sales meant that I wouldn’t be doing anymore of those weekend training missions. Thank God!
Part 50: Here we are at the end! We started with the first album, but I thought I’d end it with something a little special. I got this about a month ago. So: on the final KISS review before Monster, here we are with Best Of Solo Albums!
KISS – Best Of Solo Albums (German import, 1979)
The compilation was never released in North America, so here it’s quite a rarity. I have read that there never has been an official CD release either. Any CD would be a bootleg.
It’s a very even-handed and enjoyable listen. The album is divided into four sections, one for each member, and each member gets three tracks. Ace’s solo album was the most popular, so logically they started it with him, and his biggest hit.
“New York Groove” isn’t my favourite song in the world, but to start this album with anything but the big hit wouldn’t have been logical. A better song, “Rip It Out”, follows. I think this just might be the Ace’s best song. An upbeat rocker with a killer Ace riff, it easily stands up against any Kiss hit. This also offsets any lack of momentum that the mid-paced opening lacked.
“Speedin’ Back To My Baby”, another one of Ace’s best tunes, finishes his set. I like this cool rocker, although my pick from Ace’s album would have been “What’s On Your Mind”. Regardless, the album was wisely sequenced so it starts strong and finishes strong. Ace’s side assured a good start. What followed was Peter’s.
I don’t think there will ever be a consensus on the best songs from Peter Criss. It’s a pretty bland affair, and one song is hard to distinguish from another sometimes. “You Matter To Me” is, well, whatever it is. Bad 70’s synth, midtempo AM radio crap is basically what it is. “Tossin’ And Turnin'” and “Hooked On Rock And Roll” are both better, being rock and roll songs at least. Peter loans them his souful rasp and he turns in decent versions of both songs. I suppose I would have thrown in “I Can’t Stop The Rain” or “Easy Thing” instead. I guess Casablanca were avoiding the ballads. Makes sense in a way — they were probably trying to collect the songs they thought would most appeal to Kiss fans, out of Peter’s lukewarm songs.
Ace and Peter take up side 1. Gene starts side 2, another controversial album. “Radioactive” is his signiture disco-rocker, and Kiss were playing it on tour that year (as they also were with “New York Groove”). It is followed by one of Gene’s all-time best songs, “Mr. Make Believe”. This acoustic Beatles-y ballad has always been a favourite of mine. Gene’s remake of “See You In Your Dreams” finishes his suite. I prefer Kiss’ version. But again, it’s a rocker, unlike a lot of Gene’s album.
Much like Ace’s record, Paul Stanley was well received by Kiss fans, if critisized for being so Kiss-like. “Tonight You Belong To Me” is a dramatic opener and one of Paul’s greatest songs. Kiss were playing “Move On” on the Dynasty tour at this time, so it too appears. It’s not my favourite song. (That would be “Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me”. ) Paul’s set, and the album, closes with “Hold Me Touch Me”, which was also a single that had some success. I think it’s a great song if a little saccharine. Paul plays the guitar solo.
As a straight listen, the album works. I mentioned how I would have swapped one song for another. Well, yeah, on paper that’s what I would have done. As an album, it works as it is. Whatever the rationale was for picking the songs, it’s a consistent listen and one I enjoyed. Now that I’ve ripped the LP to CD, and I can put that record away, for special occasions.
4/5 stars.
Side 1
ACE FREHLEY – “Rip It Out”, “New York Groove”, “Speedin’ Back to my Baby”
PETER CRISS – “You Matter To Me”, “Tossin’ and Turnin'”, “Hooked on Rock and Roll”
Side 2
GENE SIMMONS – “Radioactive”, “Mr. Make Believe”, “See You In Your Dreams”,
PAUL STANLEY – “Tonight You Belong To Me”, “Move On”, “Hold Me Touch Me”
There was never a guarantee that you were going to get a long weekend off. But when you did, and the temperature was above 12 degrees, you went to the cottage!
Going to the cottage, in the era when I only had a cassette deck in the car, meant picking out the best “road tapes” for the mood. Depending on the time of day (some music works best on evening drives), my favourites for the cottage were these:
SLOAN: 4 Nights at the Palais Royale
From driveway to driveway, this album is exactly the length of the drive! Plus it’s one of my top five live albums of all time. Day or night, this was my #1 pick.
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: Songs for the Deaf
It’s pretty much designed for a road trip, but it also just captures that vibe of the long highways at night, and serves to keep you awake! This was a night drive album.
BLUE RODEO: Tremelo
Also a night album. Very mellow, for those laid back cottage weekends.
THE BEATLES: The Beatles (the White Album)
I don’t always listen to the Beatles. But when I do, I prefer the White Album.
JOHNNY CASH: At San Quentin
My favourite Cash album of all time. Of all time! This was great for the weekends that I drove my grandma up. I have it in box set form now, so it’s a real nice extended treat today.
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