The Jexter Bunny brought an early Easter surprise this year. Unbeknownst to me, Jex Russell and Uncle Meat had conspired to surprise me with Meat’s first live appearance on Grab A Stack of Rock since 2022! The topic: Top Five Albums from our birth years! The presence of Uncle Meat enabled us to do albums from three consecutive decades.
Uncle Meat drew 1969
I had lucky 1972
Jex had a rocking 1985
Additionally, Metal Roger sent in a thrashing guest list covering 1988, while Harrison Kopp submitted a Blaze-heavy list spanning 1998-2000. Because he’s our unicorn.
We looked at a variety of vinyl releases, CDs, and box sets. I brought multiple copies of mine. The genres ran from doomy to thrashy, Beatles to Black Sabbath, soul, progressive rock, and beyond. We had a great discussion on a classic album cover, and went in-depth on a Deep Purple album that was just reissued this week for its 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, I had a nice 40th anniversary edition of that album to show off.
One of my picks from 1972 enabled me to rewind to an old clip from my earliest YouTube days, featuring Uncle Meat. The irony is I picked this clips days ago and certainly not before I knew he was showing up live on the show! Jex really slammed it out of the ball park with this surprise. And Jex knows I don’t really like surprises! Thank you Jex Russell for setting up this epic and surprising reunion. Long overdue. The man who essentially inspired this show to exist in the first place is beloved here, and I will always love him. Thanks for doing this Meat Man.
Finally, Jex…Jex Jex Jex! When I took my headphones off for 30 seconds to change my shirt, you happened to take to a shot at my former chesty co-host from last year’s Good Friday show. Well played, sir. Well played.
Next week is a re-run of the last two Mike and Aaron Go to Toronto trips, with brand new content with Mike and Aaron in the present day. Hope you enjoy this week and next week’s shows!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 56: Top 5 Albums from Our Birth Years with Jex and Mike – Special Time!
An Easter tradition! Jex Russell and I will be going live this Good Friday afternoon, in the Second Annual Good Friday Afternoon Show! Jex came up with this subject for us to tackle and I don’t mind telling you it’s not an easy one.
What are our Top Five albums from our birth years?
We will be looking at 1972 and 1985 for great records. There are plenty to choose from. Many landmark albums will have to be eliminated. So what will be on our list?
This is our first afternoon show of the year, a favourite timeslot of mine on a Friday. They were plenty fun last year.
Don’t be a Machine Head! You don’t have to be an Exile in a Theater of Pain! Check out this episode this Good Friday afternoon and join us for some musical shenanigans! We always enjoy interacting live with the comments section!
Friday March 29 at 3:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
I recently enjoyed a trip to Burlington Ontario, a place I have not been since the early 2000s working at the Record Store.
Driving down Highway 6, I wondered, is that place with the funky dinosaurs on the front lawn still in business? I remember they had a T-Rex with a missing head. And yes! That business, Flamborough Patio Furniture, is still there and still has the T-Rex. They even fixed the decapitation damage. I was impressed.
A lot of other businesses didn’t make it. There was Grasshopper Imports, a weed accessory shop with a tie-dye pattern on its walls. It almost survived the last 20 years, but is now closed and for sale.
I wonder what else changed since my last trip to Burlington, in the world of the Record Store?
Do they still force their employees to drive down Highway 6 to manage two stores in the winter time, with cars that are barely snow-worthy, like they did to me? I remember asking them, “When you do plan on hiring a full time manager for that store? I’m concerned about the drive in the winter.” Without sympathy, I was told “other people have to do that drive too.” Yeah, maybe, but I had my own store to manage in Kitchener. Driving to Oakville every day at Christmas time wasn’t what I was hired to do.
Do they pay mileage, or make employees wait months, like I did?
Do people still come in daily with hundreds of CDs to sell? Or has vinyl taken over once again?
Do they still have a TV in that Burlington store to show movies? Does that guy who was roommates with Scott Anderson from Finger 11 still work there? I’m guessing no, to both.
I’m just glad the dinosaurs still live. It’s comforting to know that T-Rex has his head back.
RECORD STORE TALES #1117: I Admit It: I Miss My Cassettes
Hey, it’s me, the guy who has talked about how much he hates cassettes, again and again ad nauseum. I don’t know why, but I’m feeling a lot of nostalgia for tapes these days. While CD remains my go-to format, with vinyl in second, I am now on the lookout for old 80s metal cassettes that still play well. What the hell happened to me?
It’s true that I have a lot of bad memories about cassettes, to go with the good. I have my own system and language when it comes to my collection, but I abandoned cassette back in 1995 because the sound quality wasn’t there and got noticeably worse the more you played the tape. I considered cassette to be a “soft copy”, with the longer-lasting CD and vinyl being “hard copies”. You simply have more control in keeping those two formats in good shape. Cassettes are another story. It’s just magnetic particles stuck to a ribbon, and every time you play it, those particles wear off bit by bit. In effect, you wreck your favourite tapes fastest because you simply love listening to them! There were other complications. Different decks played at different speeds, with my “ghetto blaster” playing the slowest and most warbly. I had two Sanyos and then a Sony, and the Sanyos were by far the worst. Only my Sony Walkman was able to play almost every tape in my collection at something close to the right speed. Once I learned to drive, I found that the car deck could play pretty much anything, but it did eat a few tapes too. It was like every time you wanted to listen to music, you had to pick the right equipment and cross your fingers. I remember wrecking a copy of Black Sabbath Tyr by accidentally pushing two buttons at once on my Sanyo. This created a loud squeal right during the start of “Anno Mundi” that was impossible to ignore. Playing tapes was like walking a minefield sometimes! I always prayed that nothing would go wrong.
CD solved most of the problems I had with cassettes. Heck, even the artwork was back to being a square! Cassette cover art was either cropped or “pan-and-scanned” (to coin a phrase) to make a square fit into a rectangle. Everything about CD was better. Bonus tracks, better sound, longer life, larger (and square!) artwork…even the ability to skip through songs in an instant. What wasn’t there to prefer? And why the hell do I miss cassettes right now?
It’s all nostalgia. There was something about buying a new album on cassette, and being basically forced to listen to the whole thing. There was a certain appreciation for the album, with an actual side break, that connected us to the vinyl age in a way that CD did not. Or, maybe it was just the glory time of our youths that made it feel that way. The act of closing the door, pressing “play” on a new tape, and laying on your bed to listen with intent. How often is music just background noise in our modern lives now? How frequently do we sit and spend time just listening to the music while staring at the packaging today? Are we listening, or are we multitasking? I’m multitasking right now, listening to Trilogy by Yngwie J. Malmsteen on my speakers.
I picked that recording for a reason. I got on cassette from my grandma in 1987. It was on Capitol Records and it played for shit out of the box. Many Capitol tapes did around 1986-87. my W.A.S.P. and Iron Maiden all had similar problems, which them priorities to upgrade on CD when the time came. I know not everybody likes Yngwie. Some find him grating. He does take some adjustment, but imagine listening to your first Yngwie on a slow, warbly cassette.
I do miss some things though.
I miss opening up a new tape and seeing what colour or design the shell was. Usually they were black, but as the 90s progressed they were frequently clear. Some were white, and my Helix was glow-in-the dark! With CD there was the occasional thrill when we got a picture disc, but soon that became the standard. The clunky cassette, with its little wheels and windows, was physically just cooler than a CD and you didn’t have to be as careful.
The lyric sheets were easier to read. All you had to do was unfold the J-card and lay it out. CDs often had pages stapled into a little booklet that you had to hold open. Cassettes may have had smaller print, but the paradox was that the format made it physically easier to read!
Cassettes were perfect for the pocket. You could easily slide a couple (maybe even three) into a jacket pocket. CDs never fit right and if you got one in your pocket, it was a tight fit. And jewel cases were easy to crack and break.
That’s another thing! Cassette cases had their weaknesses too. They could crack like a CD case, and the little arms could snap off. However this is far more common on the CD case, which also have those annoyingly fragile teeth that hold the disc in place. Cassette cases were just slightly more sturdy than their CD counterparts.
Finally, cassette spines were wider and easier to read. Period!
I do miss cassettes. I have better equipment today, and though not an audiophile setup, I get by. There are some releases I’d like to have on cassette again, or for the first time. I guess I’m a changed man. I’m not the format snob I used to be. However, if they start jacking up the prices of cassettes the way vinyl is today, we’ll have to talk again.
JOE SATRIANI – Surfing With the Alien (1987, 1999 Sony remaster, 2017 RSD Epic 2 LP reissue)
On October 15 1987, the face of rock music was shaken when a little instrumental album called Surfing With the Alien started making waves. The record eventually went platinum, and its songs found itself used on radio and TV for decades to come. Why? Possibly because of Joe’s impeccable attention to songwriting. Though his guitar playing put him on the map, it was his knack for writing catchy rock songs that made this album so special. Satriani’s songs are written as if the lead guitar is the lead singer. There are verses and choruses, and attention to structure and melody. That must be why Surfing With the Alien was nominated for two Grammys in 1988.
Opening with the title track, a striking little chugging riff starts the show. But then Joe’s melodic lead guitar kicks in, and you realize it’s exactly like if a singer was leading the show! You can literally sing along to Joe’s guitar and a little wah-wah effect doesn’t hurt. And then the shred begins, and you feel like, “OK, I get it now. This guy is an actual genius.”
Yet it’s all accessible. He may throw in licks as fast as greased lightning, but you can still follow. Your brain still picks out notes and melodies that satisfy those musical needs.
The cool “Ice 9” is a funky groove (Joe on bass) with a slick melody on top. Joe can work with mid-tempo grooves just as well as high-speed blazes. Solos with different sounds and guitar tones add diversity. A fun tune, but the third song “Crushing Day” has more tension and urgency as the tempo is turned up once again. The variety of solos, melodies and riffs in one short song is quite remarkable. Joe’s guitar tone is bright and shimmery, like the Silver Surfer himself.
Incidentally, regarding the striking album cover featuring the titular Marvel character from Silver Surfer #1 (1982), Joe lost the licensing for him at some point in the 2000’s. This is why the 2017 RSD reissue has different artwork, without him. (Look carefully at the new art, and you will see that they replaced the yellow streaks with yellow guitar picks!) Hopefully Joe doesn’t feel too badly about losing the Surfer art. Marvel comics repaid him for the popularisation of the character outside the comic world by naming a planet after him.
The beautiful ballad “Always With Me, Always With You” might be considered the most famous song. It received three Grammy nominations in three separate years (live versions, you see) and was prominently featured in an American Dad episode. It is hard to describe exactly what makes it so special, without you listening for yourself. The guitar is lyrical and memorable, and it worked so much better than it would have with a lead vocal. This is an instrumental ballad, made magical.
“Satch Boogie” is arguably just as popular. Deep Purple played it during the brief period when Joe Satriani was in the band post-Blackmore and pre-Morse. It has been used on TV, radio and video games. It is indeed a boogie! It taps into the Van Halen vibe a-la “Hot For Teacher”, but burns straight through without stopping to talk. Mid-song, there’s a jaw-dropping solo that is pure tapping nirvana.
An ominous and brief interlude (“Hill of the Skull”) paints an apocalyptic picture. The programmed drums don’t detract, as it is all about the tale that the guitar is telling, with layered wails. This serves to set up “Circles”, one of the most interesting tracks. Echo is employed to great effect on this mellow but dark ballad. Without pause, the striking chimes of “Lords of Karma” enter the picture, a pounding guitar rocker with drums by Jeff Campitelli. (Drums on this album are a mix of live and programmed.) Much like “Crushing Day”, “Lords of Karma” is a bit faster and more intense.
A lovely classical sounding interlude called “Midnight” sets up the final track. “Midnight” features techniques that an expert will have to identify, except to say it sounds remarkable and innovative. The spotlight is never really on Joe’s fingers though – just on the notes and sounds he magically produces with them (and an array of effects). Then the thud of bass opens “Echo”, the last song on this important album. It’s unlike the previous ones, with the bass so prominent. The song sounds as if it’s always just bubbling under. Perhaps it would come as a surprise that the final song on this album of guitar showcases is so much about feel and restraint.
That’s one thing about Surfing that does make it special. Like any good album, it is sequenced as a full listen, not as a collection of shreds. Even without the shreds, it’s still not bad.
That’s what the 2017 Record Store Day deluxe vinyl edition is all about. A bonus LP is included, with all the lead guitar stripped off. This allows you, the ambitious home player, to try to solo over the bed tracks. For the rest of us, it just allows us to listen a little bit differently to an album that is very familiar.
The drums seem more prominent on the title track, allowing us to better hear Jeff Campitelli’s fills. Mostly though, you can still bang your head, and maybe sing along to an imaginary vocal melody. “Ice 9” is particularly fun in this guise, sounding a bit like an “80s dance remix” even though it’s not. “Always With Me, Always With You” is still delicate and beautiful. You get the picture. These tracks, though needing the lead guitar to be whole, are perfectly listenable without. Only “Circles” and “Midnight” seem completely barren. You don’t have to be a guitar player to enjoy this bonus record. You just have to be interested in music, and how it is constructed in the mix. You can hear melodies and accents, even on “Always With Me”, that you might have missed on the album version all these years!
There are many ways to acquire copies of this impactful album, that opened the charts to Steve Vai and others a few years later. There is a 1999 Sony remaster with liner notes and nice packaging. There is a deluxe edition with a live DVD from the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival. The version with the most actual audio tracks, however, is the limited 2017 Record Store Day reissue. You don’t get the lovely Silver Surfer artwork, but you do get the bonus record of stripped tracks, and red & yellow coloured vinyl.
No matter what choice you make, Surfing With the Alien in any form is an essential addition to a serious rock fan’s collection. Some may argue it’s the best rock instrumental guitar album ever made.
I was so pleased to be able to collaborate with YouTuber D’Arcy Briggs. He has a great channel all about physical media and music, and my favourite new feature of his is called “What’s Good”. It’s just him and a guest literally talking about whatever’s fresh and good that they want to share. This is only the second episode of “What’s Good”, following the debut with Jex Russell!
For me, I had three unboxings and a Gene Simmons set to show. The unboxings are brand new and exclusive to this show! This is the first reveal of these treasures to come into my collection.
D’Arcy had some cool stuff included new music by Jack Antonoff, jazz rock fusion, the complete English Beat, some vinyl, and a parcel from Ontario! We took four turns each but you’ll have to watch the show to see what we brought.
One of the items I was proud to show was my autographed copy of Angie Moon’s first book, Crime of the Century. You can find out more and buy your copy by clicking this link. crazyonclassicrock.com/buy-crime-of-the-century
Crime of the Century is an original book idea about the connections between classic rock and roll and true crimes! Some are less known than others. The Band and Jack Ruby? The Kink and John Wayne Gacy? DEVO and John Hinkley Jr.? I didn’t know any of this before. I can’t wait to dig in and talk to Angie on Grab A Stack of Rock. She came from right here in the WordPress community and it’s awesome to see her out with her first book!
Check out the episode below, and subscribe to D’Arcy’s channel if you already haven’t!
Oh, the boss is coming! You better look busy, They’re not paying you for nothing!
— ARKELLS
If there’s time to lean, There’s time to clean.
— THE BOSS AT THE RECORD STORE “The Beat Goes On”
They used to call it “fucking the dog”. I don’t know what vernacular the youth of today use, but that’s what we used to call slacking off on the job: dog fucking.
I have known some expert dog fuckers in my day. I know one guy who had taken it to a fine art. I won’t tell you any details about this fine young man, except to say he was a maestro of dog fucking. He was the Bach, the Beethoven, of slacking off on the job. Let’s call him Smart Guy. He truly was a smart guy, which is one reason he was able to get so much paid free time at work. He was no dummy. But man, he had a system!
Smart Guy had a different boss from me. Everyone liked him. He was pretty grounded for a guy who was destined for big things. He worked in a small room, with a friend of mine. Because of this, I heard things and that’s why I can tell this story.
I learned from Smart Guy that Honda Civics were very popular with his age group because they were easy to customize. I had no interest in this, but I took interest for the sake of conversation. I’d stroll into their room, and Smart Guy would be on eBay looking for Civic parts. Maybe a fender, maybe hubcabs, maybe a spoiler, I don’t know. He was always shopping for car parts.
He was also very tech-savvy. For example he figured out how to send coded messages to my printer, in an effort to freak me out. He was also very playful. He printed out numerous pictures of clowns and hid them all over his room. Sort of a calling card for after he left. I had to find all those clowns when he eventually did move on to bigger things!
So how did he get away with it? By being a fast, efficient worker, and always having one project complete at all times — just not handed in.
So, if his boss walked in and he was fucking the dog, he’d just hand him a completed piece of work. “I’m all done this project, here you go!”
“Oh, thanks Smart Guy! Great. OK, I’ll leave you to your work.”
My time in music retail was relatively long, considering how taxing on the soul it can be buying used music from the public on the wrong side of town. I started in July of 1994, in a small store in a small mall in Kitchener, Ontario, called The Beat Goes On. We sold some used, some new. In 1996, I began managing a new store that was a slightly different format: 95% used, with a small Top 40 chart of new CDs. I stayed there until early 2006. 12 years total, with 10 in management. Over those 12 years, I witnessed so many changes to the way we did business. Join me for a journey through time.
Ah, 1994. I had just start dating a new girlfriend. Motley Crue had come out with their John Corabi album, which was easily my favourite disc of the year. I wore cowboy boots to my job interview with the boss man at the Record Store. I was hired and nervously stepped behind the counter and did my first transactions.
We had a huge cash register, and still took cheques. Credit cards were processed with one of those imprint machines that made the satisfying CHK-CHK sound when you imprinted the card. Then began a long process of writing in dollar amounts and getting a signature. Today, one tap and you’re done! When we got a debit machine, it used the same phone line as the actual store phone. When someone called the store, it would interrupt your debit transaction if you had one going. You usually ended up with two impatient customers that way: one on the phone and one in front of you!
Our stock was part CD and part cassette, but tapes were on their way out and we only bought and sold used CDs. The reasoning was it was easier to check a CD for quality visually, looking for scratches. We carried only those two formats, until one day in November 1994. Pearl Jam came out with Vitalogy in 1994 on vinyl, two weeks before its cassette and CD releases. The first vinyl I ever sold. We only stocked five copies because nobody was buying vinyl back then. We probably should have stocked 15 or 20, because we were surprised with demand. People who didn’t even own a turntable wanted it for its collector’s value and larger artwork.
Boyz II Men were big. TLC were bigger. Soundgarden and Nirvana were dominating the rock charts. My kind of music wasn’t popular and wasn’t encouraged to be played in store.
Tastes changed rather quickly for some of these bands. Boyz II Men made their way into the bargain. Thence came Puff Daddy, Mase, and of course the posthumous albums by 2pac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. On the rock side, upstarts like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Creed and eventually Nickleback replaced Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains on our charts. And then came Crazy Town, and by then, it felt like there was no coming back. Rock was a cartoon. A “fuck”-laden filthy cartoon.
The job behind the counter became easier. By 1996, our inventory was computerized. Cassettes were gone; it was 100% CD. You could look everything up with a simple search. Before, I had to physically search the shelves to see if we had inventory. Of course, we soon learned that just because something pops up on the computer as in-stock, that actually means nothing. Human error was a huge problem and I was as guilty as everyone else, if not more so! Putting the wrong disc in a CD case upon sale was so easy to do. Not every customer realized they bought something with the wrong CD inside, and we didn’t always get them returned. We ended up with many missing or mis-matched CDs, and also missing cases due to mis-filing or theft.
Soon customers wanted to look things up on computer terminals by themselves. They also wanted to see what our other stores had in stock, as the we franchised out and grew. These complicated problems were eventually solved with a little thing called the World Wide Web.
Having internet access at the store in the year 1999 was unimaginable to me of 1994, who had never even been on the internet yet.
Of course, the advent of the internet brought with it an unforeseen danger. Soon our very existence would be threatened. No, I’m not talking about computer viruses or Y2k. Those had little impact at all. Something else did: Napster.
Napster changed everything. Soon we were carrying so much more than just music, to make up for the decline in sales. Bobble heads, action figures, books, video games, headphones, and so so so so many CD wallets. Sometimes the toys and action figures wouldn’t have anything to do with music, like the Muppets or the Simpsons. (Those were carried because a certain regional manager personally liked those shows.) Osbournes merch was popular. Kiss had many different toy options available. Metallica had a cool stage playset. Macfarlane figures either sold out, or sat around forever. We stopped carrying blank tapes, but had a variety of CD-Rs available instead.
I recall the boss resisted carrying CD-Rs for a while, because he thought it was counterproductive to our business of selling music on CD. However eventually it became a case of a dam giving way to a flood. It was “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” and blank CDs were now being sold by brick or spindle. Remember bricks and spindles full of blank CDs?
We also sold CD cleaning kits and tended to stay away from snake-oil CD fixing “solutions”. Instead, we had a couple of guys who fixed CDs with a grinder and wax in their garage. Eventually we began fixing the discs ourselves using the same method, but actually improving upon the solution by using soap instead of wax. I’m not sure how the original guys took that, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t pretty at all.
Competition was always fierce. We had an HMV store at the mall across the street from the store I managed. We had a Cash Converters pawn shop buying and selling CDs and video games in the same plaza as us. A few years later, a Best Buy opened next door, and their prices were often lower. DVDs began to take up a huge share of our sales, and we now had to make room. Additional shelving was installed. Then we ran out of space again. New formats like SACD and DVD-A started to infiltrate our inventory. Things became really, really complicated compared to the store I managed in 1996.
There are a million stories. I remember one guy buying an SACD, and coming back wanting to know why the “Super Audio” light wasn’t lighting up on his player. How the fuck should I know? I’d never even seen an SACD player at that point. The guy actually wanted me to write a letter to Sony and ask them on his behalf. Yeah, I’ll get right on that sir, after I serve you some fresh Grey Poupon on a charcuterie board.
Technology, transactions and inventory may have changed shape, but one thing never did: the customers.
When we first opened, we had a single disc CD player and tape deck to play music in store. There was a TV for MuchMusic, but it was usually on silent while we played CDs in store. If a customer wanted to hear a CD, we had to open it for them and play it on the store speakers. They’d signal me when to change tracks. In 1996, we have six five-disc changers, each with a dedicated set of headphones, for customers to list. We had another five-disc changer for store play, and eventually one for an outdoor speaker we had. The six customer listening stations took a dedicated person to serve on weekends. We had to retrieve the CDs from behind the counters and load them into the players. We often had to assist the customer in the operation of the machines. And they broke down, frequently. Some days towards the end we only had two working stations at a time.
Our first store was in a mall with a licensed restaurant. We had a few drunks. The other stores I worked at were in strip plazas. We had a few stoners, potheads, crackheads and gang-bangers.
Ahh, the good old days when it was just drunks!
One thing we never delved into in my time was selling CD players. We didn’t want to dip our toes into that kind of thing. Today, they sell turntables at my old store. We also, strangely, never sold batteries which people frequently asked for. I guess margins were so low it wasn’t worth it. I never lasted long enough to see the vinyl revival happen. We only sold a few things on vinyl in time. The aforementioned Pearl Jam was one. Soundgarden (Down on the Upside) was another.
The change that impacted me most had nothing to do with formats, or technology. It didn’t matter that I now had two shelves full of Sega and Nintendo games. The biggest change was in heirarchy behind the scenes. I started as a part timer with one boss. I was promoted to manager, with one boss, and several peers at other stores. Then, suddenly, I had two bosses. Then there were three, and the worst thing about the third is that we were all told “they’re not your boss, they’re here to help.” That was false. Three bosses, and there was now an in-house accountant and other periphery people that seemed to get yelled at less than I did. I’m sure it’s clear from this story that the winds of change did not bring me happiness. Instead they chipped away at the job I started with, and diluted the “music store” I managed into a music/movie/game/knick-knack store. I was attending manager meetings in big hotel board rooms. There were marketing people and franchisees, and nobody ever seemed truly happy on the inside. 110% was demanded of us, but we had no reason to be invested in what boiled down to a bad retail job that caused a lot of stress.
Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change, and there was one change I was happy to witness: In the late 90s, Black Sabbath reunited. It was a happy return, though they had their trailer hitched to a nu-metal Ozzfest which wasn’t my cup of tea. Music began to shift until one day in 1999, something truly remarkable happened. We didn’t know how long it would last, or what the new music would sound like, but Iron Maiden reunited with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith. Judas Priest were a few years behind them, getting Rob Halford back in the band. Suddenly, classic metal was back in a big way. Bigger than ever. It was not waned since. I was happy that I got to see this process begin at the end of my days at the Store.
My boss used to say that I resisted change. I don’t agree. No sir. I embraced the good stuff. The computers, the internet, the website, fixing CDs, the abandonment of certain formats (cassettes and VHS) when they were fading away. The things I struggled with included the diluting of the store with all these other products like video games. I started there because I loved music. Fortunately I also loved movies, so when DVDs began to take over a large section of the store, I was cool with that too. When Grand Theft Auto was upon us, I had no passion. Then came the addition of more upper management, and increased demands on our personal time and investment in the Record Store life. Monthly manager meetings dragged on for hours. We’d leave scratching our heads why this wasn’t just covered in emails. We had zero autonomy and little say in what we did. I remembered a time when I loved my job. There was no love there anymore.
The happy ending is this. When I quit that job, I rediscovered my passion for music. Music was fun for me again, not just something playing in the background as I worked.
Johnny Metal and John the Music Nut over at My Music Corner have been relentlessly going through the Judas Priest catalogue, from Rocka Rolla to Invincible Shield. This week they tackle the 11th Priest album Turbo. A very divisive album: Priest go synth! Yet also a crucial album as it garnered them some newer, younger fans. Where do we fall on this album? We go through the album track by track, before the Music Nut dives deep into the Fuel For Life tour. We talk background and fallout.
Thank you to John and Johnny for having me on. This was a blast to record. Good memories, good music, and good guys.
On this episode of The Year of the Priest, we look at 1986’s Turbo. This was a bit of a divisive album for Priest fans! How do we look at it?
Tony MacAlpine seemed to be in every guitar magazine when I was a kid, but I never got to hear his music. He looked cool, and he was highly praised as a shredder, but his music (on Shrapnel records) was impossible to find unless you ordered it from a specialty shop. Like most of Shrapnel’s output, it was produced by Mike Varney.
His 1985 solo album Edge of Insanity features an impressive band: Journey’s Steve Smith on drums, and of course it’s common knowledge that Billy Sheehan played bass. The album is instrumental.
Opener “Wheel of Fortune” has a neoclassical vibe, with the rapid fire bassline enabling MacAlpine to focus on the melody rather than shred his way throughout. There is certainly a commonality in terms of musical direction with Yngwie, but Tony’s approach is more easily digested. Tony’s music has an actual bottom end thanks to Billy, and of course Steve Smith’s technique speaks for itself. He’s more than capable of heavy metal hammering as he does on “Wheel”, but listen carefully and you will hear his signature cymbal work, so unique to me.
“The Stranger” discards some of the neoclassical robes, and rocks a more straight-ahead blitz. Tony has a wicked keyboard solo mid-song, showing the breadth of his abilities. The pulse of the song is all Sheehan, and Smith’s fills sound a lot like a certain band that started with a “J”.
A live solo called “Quarter to Midnight” is unaccompanied. It reminds me of a Randy Rhoads solo. There’s some nice whammy work near the end, which was so popular in the era.
A ballady song called “Angrionia” (mis-printed on the back cover, but correctly in the booklet) follows; quite a nice little tune with the occasional bursts of neoclassical guitar speed. Billy has a couple nice rips as well. MacAlpine multitracks his guitars for effect.
“Empire in the Sky” has a very cool keyboard intro, that leads into a gallopy metal number. This has a mid-tempo vibe like Maiden circa Seventh Son when keyboards were happening. You could imagine this coming from that era, though of course Tony was three years ahead. His doubletracked leads set it apart from that, and there are some chunky riff chords happening beneath, though this is not a riff album. There’s also some outro guitar twangin’ that is absolutely freakin’ rib-shattering.
An Yngwie vibe pervades “The Witch and the Priest”. You hate to make comparisons, and it seems lazy, but when you hear a vibe there might be something to it. Of course, Billy Sheehan and Steve Smith help make it sound less Yngwie. Tony’s tone is warmer than the Swedish shredder’s as well.
“The Taker” is the only song with Tony playing bass and it’s less prominent for that reason. This tune is a full-speed blaze, with Tony deftly weaving melody through all his playing, and then suddenly taking a left turn with harpsichord-like keys and then some organ for good measure! “The Taker” keeps you on your toes.
Tony treats us to actual classical music next: his spin on Chopin. “Prelude 16, Opus 28” is performed on piano, and you’d never guess it wasn’t from a professional classical pianist. This prelude leads into Tony’s “Edge of Insanity”, a deep cut title track and one that allows the chug-chug-chug of the metal to come through. There’s still a soaring melody and flying bassline to absorb. Smith’s drum parts are smashing – literally. A great tune and a little easier to digest than the speedier stuff.
“The Raven” has classical keys opening a speedy metal rollercoaster ride. Once again, Smith is classing up the place several notches with his signature fills. Tony rarely lets up, constantly treating the listener to impressive shred. He switches tones (and probably guitars) at some points, giving the lead work different voices.
The closing track, “No Place in Time” has some slinky Billy bass, and really allows him to have some of the spotlight. His playing here is all about the groove he’s laying down, and how he complements Tony’s lead. MacAlpine uses doubletracked guitars and plays a slow melody. It’s not the most memorable track, and not the most effective closer.
Edge of Insanity is more accessible than a lot of instrumental guitar albums of the era. If some of those other artists seem daunting but you’d still like a taste of neoclassic rock, then go for some Tony MacAlpine.
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