WTF Search Terms XXVII: Joey Tempest Strikes Back edition
Been a long time since I rock and rolled? Hardly! I just rock and rolled last night actually. But it has been a long time since we’ve seen some WTF Search Terms! (The last was in March.) These are the most bizarre of the bizarre search terms that somehow led people to mikeladano.com. Today’s instalment includes a couple for the Dark Lord of the Sith himself: Joey Tempest (you devil, you!) and a fair share of farts.
I think the next person was looking for Joey aka Joakim Larsson as well!
presinor in paradies song
Here ya go, fella! This would actually be the first album with Fake Joey.
Here are some fart and bowel related search terms:
thunder fart piss
how to rip on coworker who is constipated
white lion till death do us fart
faith no more farts
The video where Mike Patton farts into his microphone is called You Fat Bastards: Live at the Brixton Academy. Here ya go, fella!* 20 seconds in. You’re welcome. You’re all welcome!
Here’s an old classic for you. Were you aware that the Boobsy Animation Whore Wearing Glasses Acquired Screwed series was up to Part 7 already?
boobsy animation whores wearing glasses acquire screwed hardcore part 7
The question below is one I have often wondered. Not really a WTF, but a good question. Should they have called the album something else?
why did cinderella release “long cold winter” album in may
In England, it was released in July. Imagine that!
Then, the below search term is a belief I do hold. It’s OK if you don’t but why are you searching for this? Is there one definitive authority who “knows” this? (If so, let it be me?)
Finally, I’d like to close this batch of search terms with a guy who, well, he hasn’t been featured in WTF search terms for a long time. His last appearance was WTF Search Terms XVI, back in February 2014. Please welcome back the founder and bare buttocks of W.A.S.P., Mr. Steven Edward Duren aka Blackie Lawless!
biggest ass in leather
black lawless is an arse hole
Thank you, goodnight!
* Yes I made the assumption that the searcher was male. Because farts.
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale #358: The Personal Impact of Led Zeppelin
Christmas 1990 was another major turning point in my musical life. I know others who can say the same thing for the same reason. Led Zeppelin had released their first box set, a 4 CD collection of 54 essential tracks, remastered by Jimmy Page himself. This was the impetus I needed to finally take the Zeppelin plunge.
Prior to this, I had stayed away from Zeppelin. I only knew a couple live videos from MuchMusic, which didn’t appeal to me at all. A rock band wearing sandals? The fuck was this? I couldn’t wrap my head around the violin bow solo, nor the band. I remember watching the old live “Dazed and Confused” video with my friend Bob. “You can tell that guy’s on drugs,” he said of Jimmy Page.
That was in the 1980’s. By the turn of the decade, I was starting to tire of plastic sounding pop rock bands. I was craving authenticity, and I know I wasn’t the only one. Bands like Warrant were wracked by controversy, when it was revealed that they employed two guitar teachers to write their guitar solos and teach the members how to play them. Too much fakery for me — at that point I decided to stop listening to them. I sold my Warrant tapes. Warrant in turn accused Poison, the band they were opening for, of using backing tapes live. All kinds of bands were accused of using backing tapes. Sebastian Bach was quoted as saying, “The only band out there that doesn’t use backing tapes live today is Metallica, and that’s a fact.” (I am fairly certain Iron Maiden are above such tom foolery as well.)
The old “Dazed and Confused” video that Much used to play
I didn’t want backing tapes, I wanted authentic pure rock music. There was a bustle in my hedgerow. I wasn’t satisfied with the new releases coming out either. A lot of groups that I really liked released disappointing albums in 1990. From Dio to Iron Maiden to Winger, there were too many bands that failed to impress that year. A band like Zeppelin seemed to have not only authenticity, but solid consistently. They were hailed as the greatest rock band of all time by just about every rock group I heard of!
I received the box set from my parents on Christmas day 1990. The following day, Boxing day, I had set aside to listen to the entire box set from start to finish – about five and a half hours of listening. I took a brief lunch break between discs 2 and 3. I emerged from my room that afternoon, dazed, but not confused at all. There were some songs that I didn’t care too much for – “Poor Tom”, “Wearing and Tearing”, “Ozone Baby” – mostly songs from Coda. They were vastly outnumbered by the songs that absolutely blew me away, even though I had never heard of them before: “Your Time Is Gonna Come”, “Immigrant Song”, “Ramble On”, “The Ocean”, “All My Love”…I could not believe the sheer quality of the music.
Sure, Led Zeppelin’s songs weren’t produced as slick as I was used to. They were a far cry from Whitesnake. Jimmy Page wasn’t a shredder like Steve Vai, but I felt a personal shift. I thought bands like Whitesnake and Cinderella had been exhibiting the epitome of integrity, with the ace players and incredible musicianship. Like athletes, musicians only seemed to achieve loftier heights over the decades with their playing. This was exemplified by a guy like Steve Vai who pushed guitar into entirely new frontiers. Cinderella, on the other hand, had even worked with Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, who provided strings to their bluesy Heartbreak Station LP. I thought Cinderella were the blues! But now, my eyes were really opening. It was like Obi-Wan Kenobi had prophesized: “You’ve just taken your first step, in a larger world.”
Led Zeppelin (and also ZZ Top) were talking about blues artists I never heard of. Muddy Waters? Lightning Hopkins? Robert Johnson? Who were these people that were so influential that Zeppelin were known to lift entire songs from them?
I had a thought: “From this moment on, I will never be able to listen to rock bands the same way again. I used to think Cinderella were authentic blues. How can I ever go back to listening to Cinderella with the same feeling of passion? How can I play bands like Slaughter and Judas Priest, and think for a second that these guys are any better than the old guys like Zep?”
Fortunately I found that eventually Cinderella, Whitesnake and Led Zeppelin could co-exist in my collection. Liking one does not mean you can’t like the others. Even though Led Zeppelin raised the bar to extraordinary heights, I found it wasn’t too hard to “lower my standards” sometimes and enjoy a little “Slow An’ Easy” with David Coverdale. Zeppelin simply opened my eyes: that there was an entire history of blues that I hadn’t really been aware of before. My musical life journey was about to expand exponentially.
Part 7.5 in my series on Ace Frehley, sorta! Plenty of Ace related coolness here. For the last part of the Ace series,12 Picks, click here.
A World With Heroes – A KISS Tribute for Cancer Care – A 40th Anniversary Celebration
Cancer sucks. Kiss rules. Agreed? Buy this CD.
Mitch Lafon executive produced this sucker, and I suspect that means a hell of a lot of work. I have never in my travels discovered a cooler Kiss tribute album. Do you really need to buy another Kiss tribute album? Do you? Yes, you do. Why? For the following reasons:
Profits benefit the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Palliative Care Residence in Hudson, Quebec.
Obscure track selections.
Rare Kiss related gems, such as two Peter Criss Band demos with Phil Naro.
Superstar performers including Mark Tornillo of Accept, Russ Dwarf, Don Dokken, Bonfire, Sean Kelly, Vinny Appice, L.A. Guns, Doro, and many more.
Members of the Kiss family including Eric Carr, Peter Criss, Frehley’s Comet (minus Frehley), Bob Kulick and Phil Naro.
I can’t say enough good things about this compilation. Upon first sight, it had enough rarities from artists I liked, as well as Kiss obscurities, to make it a must-have. Hearing it, I’m blown away repeatedly. It is a heady brew of hits and deep, deep cuts. Since there are 51 tracks in total, I can’t go into too much detail. I’ll point out some personal favourite moments.
I’m a huge fan of the Revenge album, and I’m a huge fan of Accept. Hearing Mark Tornillo do his thing through “Spit” was awesome. I think the man’s vocal cords must be made of steel or something for him to sing like that. I also loved “Sure Know Something”, although I don’t know Chris Buck & Anthony Cardenas Montana. It’s a slinky version, very true to the original but with a Rod Stewart vibe. Jeff Paris does a pretty authentic “Shout Mercy” and I give him full points for doing a Monster tune, the newest Kiss song on A World With Heroes.
I’ve loved Brighton Rock since I was a kid, but I never expected them to unplug “Creatures of the Night”. This twist takes a moment to get used to, but their haunting arrangement is very original and cool! “Larger Than Life” from Alive II is revisited by Brian Tichy and friends, and they do it pretty straight to the original, almost lick for lick. It’s great. I love that Ron Young from Little Caesar sings “Little Caesar”, a nice wink and a smile there. A band called Shredmill contribute their original song “Outerspace”…which was later covered by Ace Frehley on his Anomaly album (giving himself a writing credit). Shredmill’s version is more Danzig, where Ace’s was more Ace.
On the second CD, surprises and highlights continue. Ron Keel and friends from Tesla and Cinderella knock it out of the park on “Rock N’ Roll Hell”, with a nod at the start to Keel’s own “The Right To Rock”. Rick Hughes of Quebec metal masters Sword helps blow the doors off “The Oath”, a favourite from The Elder. The L.A. Guns guys (Phil Lewis included) tackle the difficult “Master & Slave” from Carnival of Souls, and it smokes. They do it authentic to the grungy original but with Phil’s snarky vocals.
As a Killer Dwarfs fan, I’m always pleased to hear Russ Dwarf’s nasally twang, and he turns in a decent “Hard Luck Woman”. (Meanwhile, another bunch of L.A. Guns guys did their own version on disc one.) Bonfire contribute a live version of Paul Stanley’s unreleased song “Sword & Stone”, from their Live at Wacken CD. I don’t really know who American Dog are, but I love that they covered the Paul Stanley version of “God of Thunder”, not the Gene Simmons take from Destroyer. They do it the speedy rocked-up way that Paul originally demoed. Jim Crean does justice to “Magic Touch”. He’s almost Joe Lynn Turner style on this one.
The second CD ends with two takes of “Beth” (Chris VanDahl sounding like the hoarse Peter Criss on Alive II, and Phil Naro). This is in addition to Michael Lardie’s (Great White) version on disc one. Naro’s is easily the best of the three.
But wait, that’s not all, folks. iTunes are selling a 51 track version of A World With Heroes, including 11 exclusives. Thankfully, you can buy these exclusives separately if you already bought the CD (like I did). Once again, highlights are many. Doro contributes a 2013 re-recording of “Only You”, which she had a previous hit with back in 1990. Russ Dwarf returns with an outstanding “God Gave Rock and Roll To You II”. There are two previously unreleased demos by the Peter Criss Band with Phil Naro. These feature Peter on drums, but believe me, you can hear that it is the Cat Man and no one else. In addition, there’s a third song from this period, but recorded by Phil in 2013. There is also a second version of “Larger Than Life”, this time by somebody called Robot Lords Of Tokyo. I don’t know who Robot Lords Of Tokyo are, but I love “Larger Than Life” and I have no problem with another version of it. This one’s done quite differently, and heavier too.
But wait! There’s still more! Pledgers who pre-ordered the CD got four bonus tracks. I missed the boat on these, and you can’t get them anymore. I’m bummed about that, but for the sake of completion, the four bonus tracks are:
‘Calling Dr. Love’ – Performed by: Crash Kelly
‘Comin’ Home’ – Performed by: Sudden Flames
‘Heaven’s On Fire’ – Performed by: The Feckers (ft. Irene Slade)
‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ Performed by: Alain Pernot
I’d love to have these, especially Crash Kelly, but alas. The project is still awesome and worth your coins. Especially if you’re a self respecting Kiss fan. Get it.
5/5 stars
EDIT: I now have the tracks. Crash Kelly’s is awesome! Fun and awesome.
Disc 1:
‘Psycho Circus’ – Performed by: DDRIVE (Phil Naro, Don Mancuso, Dave Sessions, Jt Taylor & Bobby Bond)
‘Spit’ – Performed by: Ken Dubman, Jimmy Callahan, Scott Metaxas, & Mark Tornillo
‘Deuce’ – Performed by: Bill Leverty, Kevin Valentine, John Regan, & Russ Dwarf
‘Sure Know Something’ – Performed by: Chris Buck & Anthony Cardenas Montana
‘Detroit Rock City’ – Performed by: Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Rex Brown & Brian Tichy
‘Eyes Of Love’ – Performed by: Eric Carr, Benny Doro & John Humphrey
‘Shout Mercy’ – Performed by: Jeff Paris, Troy Lucketta, Eric Brittingham Jeff Labar
‘Creatures Of The Night’ – Performed by: BRIGHTON ROCK
‘Larger Than Life’ – Performed by: Rex Brown, Brian Tichy & Mark Zavon
‘Cold Gin’ – Performed by: Don Dokken & Tommy Denander
‘Love Gun’ – Performed by: Tony Harnell, Mark Kendall, Scott Snyder, Sean Michael Clegg, Kevin Valentine & Tommy Denander
‘Little Caesar’ – Performed by: Ron Young, John Regan & Tommy Denander
‘Hard Luck Woman’ – Performed by: Chris VanDahl, Stacey Blades & Adam Hamilton
‘Outerspace’ – Original demo later covered by Ace Frehley on his Anomaly album – Performed by: SHREDMILL (David Askew, Jesus Mendez Jr, Jaime Moreno)
‘Goodbye’ – Performed by: IMPERIA & BOB KULICK (J.K.Impera, Matti Alfonzetti, Tommy Denander & Mats Vassfjord) – Additional Guitars by Lars Chriss
‘See You Tonight’ – Performed by: TODD FARHOOD & MYSTERY (Todd Farhood, Michel St-Pere, Sylvain Moineau, Jean-Sébastien Goyette, Francois Fournier & Benoit Dupuis)
‘Beth’ – The Grand Piano Version – Performed by: Michael Lardie
‘Tomorrow’ – Performed by: DRESSED TO CHILL (Matt Bradshaw, Rav Thomas & Rhys Lett)
‘Anything For My Baby’ – Performed by: SLAVES ON DOPE (Kevin Jardine, Jason Rockman, Seb Ducap & Peter Tzaferis)
‘Unholy’ – Performed by: Fred Duvall, Glenn Belcher, Mark Slaughter (Guitar Solo), Rob Zakojc & Russ Dwarf
Disc 2:
‘Breakout’ – Performed by: Tod Howarth, John Regan & Kevin Valentine
‘Rock N Roll Hell’ – Performed by: Ron Keel, Troy Lucketta, Eric Brittingham & Jeff Labar
‘Nowhere To Run’ – Performed by: DRUCKFARBEN (Phil Naro, Ed Bernard, William Hare, Troy Feener & Peter Murray)
‘The Oath’ – Performed by: Rick Hughes, Chris Buck & Bob Richards
‘Master & Slave’ – Performed by: Adam Hamilton, Scott Griffin, Stacey Blades & Phil Lewis
‘Calling Dr.Love’ – Performed by: BURNING RAIN (Keith St John, Doug Aldrich, Sean McNabb & Matt Starr)
‘I Stole Your Love’ – Performed by: S.U.N. (Brian Thomas Tichy, Sass Jordan & Tommy Stewart) With Derek Sharp (Of The Guess Who)
‘Reason To Live’ – Performed by: Johnnie Dee & Derry Grehan of HONEYMOON SUITE with Michael Foster & Bill Leverty of FIREHOUSE
‘Hard Luck Woman’ – Performed by: Fred Duvall, Glenn Belcher, Rob Zakojc & Russ Dwarf
‘Forever’ – Performed by: Terry Ilous, Sean Kelly With Jeff Paris.
‘Sword And Stone’ – Taken From Bonfire Live In Wacken – Performed by: BONFIRE (Claus Lessmann, Hans Ziller, Chris Limburg, Uwe KöHler, Harry Reischmann)
‘God Of Thunder’ – Performed by: AMERICAN DOG (Michael Hannon, Steve Theado & Keith Pickens)
‘She’ – Performed by: RAZER (Chris Powers, Chris Catero, Jordan Ziff, Paul Sullivan, Eric Bongiorno & Chuck Alkazian)
‘New York Groove’ – Performed by: SLAVES ON DOPE (Kevin Jardine, Jason Rockman, , Elizabeth Lopez & Peter Tzaferis With Marty O’Brien)
‘Magic Touch’ – Performed by: Jim Crean, Phil Naro, Vinny Appice, Steve Major & Stan Miczek
‘Tears Are Falling’ – Performed by: Willie Basse, Bruce Bouillet, Scott Warren & Mike Hansen.
‘Rock N Roll All Nite’ – Performed by: Harley Fine, John Regan & Atom Fellows
‘Shandi’ – Performed by: Dani Luv, Scott Griffin & Matt Starr
‘Beth – Bonus Track’ – Performed by: Chris Vandahl & Scott Griffin.
‘Beth – Bonus Track’ – Performed by: Phil Naro, William Hare & Ed Bernard
iTunes exclusives:
‘No, I’m Not Afraid’ (Previously Unreleased Peter Criss Band Demo from 1991) – Performed by Peter Criss and Phil Naro
‘Wait For A Minute To Rock N’ Roll’ (Previously Unreleased Peter Criss Band Demo from 1991) – Performed by Peter Criss and Phil Naro
‘Back On The Streets’ (2013 Mix originally from Return of the Comet) – Performed by Richie Scarlet, John Regan, Tod Howarth, Arthur Stead & Steve Werner (The Comet Band)
‘Only You’ (2013 Recording) – Performed by DORO
‘God Gave Rock N Roll To You II’ – Performed by Russ Dwarf
‘I’m An Animal’ (2013 Mix originally from Return of the Comet) – Performed by the Comet Band
‘Let Me Go Rock N’ Roll’ – Performed by The Oddfathers
‘Surrender In The Name Of Love’ (Written by Peter Criss & Phil Naro) – Performed by 24K featuring Phil Naro and Mladen Alexander
‘Love Gun’ (Tommy Denander Guitar Solo Mix) – Performed by Tony Harnell, Kevin Valentine and Tommy Denander
‘Larger Than Life’ (2013 Remaster – Robot Lords Of Tokyo version) – Performed by Robot Lords Of Tokyo
‘Cold Gin’ (2013 Remaster from L.A. GUNS’ 1998 Wasted EP) – Performed by L.A. Guns
I’m going to be covering more of my rarities in 2013. This is part 2 of today’s Cinderella feature. For part 1, a more comprehensive review of the Heartbreak Station CD, click Tommy Morais’ review here!
This Cinderella compilation is a rare promo. Don’t know what a promo CD is? Watch the educational video below starring yours truly!
Record Store Tales Part 117: Promos
CINDERELLA – Once Around the Ride…Then & Now (Promotional only, 1990 Polygram)
This is a really, really cool package. Two discs: Then… and Now…, showcasing the absolute best of Cinderella up to 1990, including two rare live bonus tracks.
Somewhat predictably, Then… is a greatest hits set from the first two records. Five tunes from Night Songs, six from Long Cold Winter, which I rated 4.5/5 in a recent review. Then, the aforementioned two bonus tracks: “Shake Me” and “Night Songs”, performed live. “Night Songs” was one that I owned previously on a rare Polygram compilation from ’92 called Welcome To The Jungle. From what I can tell, these two tracks are originally from a 1987 European release called The Live EP, and it appears they’ve been recycled as bonus tracks on several items since, including a promo Kiss single for “Any Way You Slice It”!
Interestingly, the back cover states that the two bonus tracks are from a forthcoming EP also called Night Songs, an EP I’ve never seen or heard of before or since.
The tracks chosen are pretty much the tunes that anybody would have chosen given a compilation like this: All the singles, and a selection of kickass album tracks such as “Night Songs”, “Fallin’ Apart At The Seams”, and “Push, Push”. As a Cinderella collection of the early stuff, this is about as perfect a compilation as it gets. As far as I’m concerned the only track it’s really missing is the awesome “Take Me Back” from Long Cold Winter, a great tune that would have made a perfect single.
The second disc, Now… is the entire Heartbreak Station album (review here) from start to finish. It even comes with the full booklet for Heartbreak Station, so this is how I chose to buy the album. Heartbreak Station is another fantastic, underrated Cinderalla album. It was clear from Long Cold Winter that the band was interested in exploring their underappreciated blues roots. On Heartbreak Station, they ditched the glam and went full bore into those roots.
The opening track “The More Things Change” is aptly titled, but is actually the track most like their past work. “Love’s Got Me Doin’ Time” is nothing but pure funky goodness, a completely unexpected twist. The horn-laden “Shelter Me” was the first single (remember Little Richard in the video?), a really cool soul rock song. The lyrics were totally on-trend in the wake of the fresh Judas Priest trial, a rant on Tipper Gore and the PMRC!
Tipper led the war against the record industry, She said she saw the devil on her MTV
Sharp minded readers will remember that Tipper was prompted to start the PMRC when her kid was terrified by Tom Petty’s video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More” on MTV!
I love Little Richard.
The centerpiece of the album is the title track, with strings by John Paul Jones. The band were dissatisfied that they had to use synth on the previous album’s hit, “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”. John Paul Jones lent the band some serious credibility. The song is a lush, sullen ballad with an incredible slide solo. I remember some video channels played it under the wrong name back in ’91. They were calling the song “The Last Train”.
Other winners: The totally country-fied “One For Rock & Roll”, with loads of steel guitar, dobro, and 12 string. The electrified “Love Gone Bad”, which also hearkens back to the Long Cold Winter sound in a powerful way. “Dead Man’s Road”, which is a haunting, slow dark rocker with loads of acoustics. Really, there are only a couple filler songs on the whole album.
This isn’t a cheap compilation to find today, but if you do happen upon it, pick it up. It’s a collectible now, but not just that, it’s one you’ll actually play!
I have a special Cinderella rarity review of my own coming later today, which relates to this album. We need to take a good luck at Heartbreak Station to properly appreciate this rarity, so I asked the rock scholar Tommy Morais back for another guest shot! Enjoy, and check out my part later today…
CINDERELLA – Heartbreak Station (1990 Polygram)
I’ve loved the first two Cinderella albums and for the longest time I didn’t get around listening to their next two albums, Heartbreak Station and Still Climbing. I recently acquired Heartbreak Station and I have to say I missed out on some great music. They changed their roots from the Glam sound that made them popular to a more Blues-oriented direction and although I was very fond of their debut album Night Songs and its follow up Long Cold Winter it’s a change that I like. Cinderella on this album seem to be wanting to break away from the Glam mold, which was already evident from their second album, which already integrated blues elements into the music but pushed even further in that direction with their third album. It introduced more acoustic and came dangerously to country many times, but Cinderella style of course, Heartbreak Station is anything but generic. As a Rock/Metal fan primarily the country direction wasn’t something I thought would have much appeal to me but I’m surprised at how much at I like it and how well the approach they took on this album works. Just have an open mind and you’ll see that they’ve matured as persons and musicians and Heartbreak is a culmination of that and the stunning result.
“The More Things Change” as an opening song is a statement of how they’ve changed their sound, evolved through the years as musicians and persons, it’s quick to show the new direction and is one of the catchiest and most memorable tracks off Heartbreak Station. “Love’s Got Me Doing Time” has a cool near psychedelic groove and even some Jimi Hendrix style of playing and while it’s very different and might seem a little out of place, it fits and adds diversity, it’s a cool track. “Shelter Me” is one of the best tracks from this album, it’s catchy and the chorus is instantly etched in your mind, it’s a quite effective track. Like Long Cold Winter, the title track of this album is both the longest cut, and the ballad. Cinderella have done amazing ballads (“Nobody’s Fool”, “Don’t Know What You Got“, “Long Cold Winter” all come to mind) and “Heartbreak Station” ranks up there, it’s touching, has a neat chorus, feels sincere and is just as good as any of the ballads they’ve done, albeit with a slightly different sound. The lyrics to me are heartbreaking and very personal and anyone’s who’s ever experienced a heartbreak will be touched by this one, a true tearjerker the highlight and centerpiece of the album. “Sick For The Cure” picks up the pace and gets things rocking a little more, it has great lyrics and Tom’s delivery is absolutely fantastic. “One For Rock And Roll” could be described as a happy go lucky, “I don’t care because I’m happy with simple things” bouncy delight. A simple effective and infectious song. “Dead Man’s Road” is a bluesy as Cinderella gets and Tom’s voice shines through altering between his normal and raspy voice. It’s one of the highlights of Heartbreak Station and it stands out, it takes you places. Reflecting lyrics on this one, “When I was young, my old man told me I could be what I wanted”, one of my favorite Cinderella songs. “Electric Love” stands out for being much different from the rest, the simplest way to explain it is that it’s a trip for the listener with its groove (reminiscent of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”) and although it has a fixated chorus, it still goes places. “Love Gone Bad” and “Wind of Change” end the album tremendously well and on a high note, there is not a bad moment here.
Coming from a big fan of the band’s first two albums, Heartbreak Station is an incredible album that pursues different musical territories. It’s undeniably Cinderella but with a twist. This is one of my favourite albums of the 1990’s and while some of the bands tried (and failed) to adapt to the changing landscape of the decade, Cinderella is one of the few that I felt succeeded at doing so. They reinvented themselves successfully and even though I’m sure some of the early followers didn’t love the change, they reached out to people they couldn’t have otherwise. I’ve always maintained that Tom Keiffer is a superb songwriter who wrote amazing songs and on this album the maturity and beauty he reaches in the lyrics is something.
After Heartbreak Station Cinderella went on to release one more studio album Still Climbing (1994) but singer, leader and songwriter Tom Keifer struggled with his voice in the 1990’s and unfortunately they haven’t released anything since other than live albums. Musically and from an objective point of view Heartbreak Station is possibly Cinderella’s strongest album (especially if you dislike the Glam sound of the 80’s), however, I always had a soft spot for the first two albums the band released in the 1980’s and those songs will always be with me, but this is something else and I mean that in a VERY good way. HS is a GREAT album, it was great to see one of the bands branch out and do something unexpected and different. It’s a great little gem and even thought it was clear that they weren’t just another Glam band with big hair, this album validates it even more as they branched out and didn’t go for a commercial sound; they did what they wanted. If you liked the other Cinderella albums and have an open mind, or if you didn’t like the band’s early sound I think you’ll find a lot to like on Heartbreak Station. It’s deserving of the acclaim it receives from fans, I know it has a very special place in my collection.
CINDERELLA – Long Cold Winter (1988 Polygram Records)
I remember how excited I was upon hearing the first single, “Gypsy Road”, in the summer of ’88. Cinderella had managed a bluesier, more “authentic” hard rock sound for their critical second LP. Night Songs was OK, but Long Cold Winter was better in every way. The cheese factor had been replaced by pedal steel guitars, pianos, and Hammond B3 organs.
Drummer Fred Coury was touring with Guns N’ Roses (Steven Adler had broken his hand punching a wall) during much of the making of Long Cold Winter. It’s not clear how much of Long Cold Winter he played on, as the band pulled in two incredible session drummers for the project: Denny Carmassi (of Heart and later Coverdale – Page), and the late great Cozy Powell!
From the bluesy opening of “Bad Seamstress Blues”, it was clear that the AC/DC clone Cinderella that featured Bon Jovi cameos in its videos had evolved. Two incredible, throat wrenching rockers follow this: “Fallin’ Apart at the Seams” and “Gypsy Road”. Both songs easily stand up today as forgotten classics of the “hair metal” era. But truthfully, Cinderella only made one “hair metal” album. Long Cold Winter doesn’t really fit in with that scene, and their next album Heartbreak Station would leave it behind completely.
“Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”, the epic power ballad, is more Aerosmith than Poison, and still features a great guitar solo straight out of the Iommi blues notebook. I’m not too keen on “The Last Mile”, a straightforward rocker, but it was still chosen as a single from this album. Much better is the side-closing “Second Wind”, amped up and stuttering.
Side two opened with Cinderella’s “serious” blues, the title track. It’s a bit too contrived for me, it has a vibe of, “Hey, let’s write our ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’!”. Lots of repeated “baby baby baby” Plant-isms. At the time it was released, this song was seen as a serious departure for the band, but in hindsight it’s really just a first step into a larger world. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the rare occasions that Black Sabbath has attempted a slow blues (I’m thinking “Feels Good To Me”, also featuring Cozy Powell) mixed with Zeppelin.
“If You Don’t Like It” is another standard rocker, nothing special, but this is followed by no less than three great songs in a row. First is the single “Coming Home”, not really a ballad, but a hybrid. This was one of the most immediate songs that I fell for when I picked up the album. You can tell that Cinderella wrote a lot of this album on the road, by the lyrics. “Coming Home” is one such road song.
“Fire and Ice” is heavy, sort of a revisited “Second Wind”, another standout! Then the album closes with the slide-laden “Take Me Back”, which strikes me as another road song. Just as good as “Coming Home”, but heavier, it was a great album closer. Personally if this album had spawned a fifth single, “Take Me Back” would have been my pick, hands down. And I think this album could have justified five singles.
The band evolved further with album #3 (which featured strings by John Paul Jones!), but I think Long Cold Winter strikes the perfect balance between screeching rock and bitter blues. From the classy album cover on down to the perfect production, I don’t think they’ve ever made a better album.
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