Skid Row did a pretty good job of replacing the irreplaceable Sebastian Bach on their fourth LP, Thick Skin. It earned a more than healthy 4.25/5 stars, in part due to the charismatic vocals of Johnny Solinger. For their second album with Johnny, they re-teamed with producer Michael Wagener, but had mixed results in repeating the magic.
Revolutions Per Minute is heavy enough; there was no issue of the band going soft. There was a dip in quality from the songwriting department, strongly dominated by bassist/leader Rachel Bolan. Strangely, they chose to pad out the album with a cover (The Alarm’s “Strength”) and a remix. It’s worrisome when the best song is a cover. There’s a distinct pop-punk vibe on many songs, which one has to trace back to Bolan. Dave “Snake” Sabo has two co-writes, and Scotti Hill a mere one.
“Disease” is very Skid Row, nothing outstanding, but a strong enough way to open the album. The punk-like “Another Dick in the System” is better. With Solinger scraping the ceiling with his screamy high notes, it’s reminiscent of old Skid Row circa Slave to the Grind. “Pulling My Heart Out from Under Me” follows with an 80’s Elvis Costello vibe to the guitars. This one is quite a departure from Bach-era Skid Row, and a decade later I’m still not sure if I like it. You can’t fault a band for experimenting, but if the results aren’t good enough, that’s a tough call. I’m not sure if “Pulling My Heart Out from Under Me” is good enough. The worst of the punk influenced songs is “White Trash”, which is so indescribably bad that I won’t even try. It’s not funny and not good. Back to something that sounds like Skid Row, “Nothing” is one of those tunes that you could imagine was written in 1988 for the debut album.
Influences collide on “When God Can’t Wait”. Johnny Solinger is a country guy, and Rachel Bolan is a punk guy. It seems 1+1 does indeed =2, and the sum total of punk and country is rockabilly. I have to admit to liking this one, even though I’m still not sure if it’s any good. I definitely prefer it to the next tune, “Shut Up Baby, I Love You” which doesn’t have much going for it aside from the full-metal tempo.
Strangely, the best original song is “You Lie” which begins as nothing but pure country. Only after the twangy guitar solo does it accelerate into rock territory, but it’s the country part that rules. The final track is a “Corn Fed” remix, which adds slides, harmonica and accoutrements. At least that ends the album on a good notes. The CD does start to drag a bit with two lacklustre songs, “Love is Dead” and “Let it Ride”, so the remix of “You Lie” is a smart way to end it.
You get the feeling that Skid Row had potential for a great album, but only came up with enough good songs for an EP.
Tea Party fans are often split on Transmission. There is little doubt that the previous Edges of Twilight album was a high water mark. With over an hour of exotic and varied folks-blues-rock hybrids, it’s a favourite for many. The band took a stark turn on Transmission, embracing electronics. Jeff Martin produced the album himself, and you could not expect a more opposite album to Twilight. Thanks to the opening single “Temptation”, the album was another hit. Most fans seemed OK with the changes.
At first, it doesn’t seem like anything is unusual in Tea Party land. “Temptation” (the album version anyway) opens with a fair bit of exotic strumming on some sort of stringed instrument, as the Tea Party often do. Then the samples and looped drums kick in, and they are huge! Middle Eastern exotics, radio noise, keyboards and a killer riff all combine with loops to create a new kind of Tea Party. So far so good — the experiment paid off.
Martin had a penchant for odd song titles on this album, like “Army Ants”. Vocals furiously distorted, this makes for a heavier Tea Party. Jeff Burrows is providing some excellent drum backbeats, but at times they are buried under other sounds. The title track “Transmission” is way better though, burning like electronic incense. Static, loops and acoustics return for “Psychopomp”, one of the five singles they released. While it takes a while to get there, “Psychopomp” boasts a powerfully melodramatic chorus, Martin roaring as he does. “Gyroscope” has a spinning sound, one of the more hypnotic tracks (and also a single). One of the more impressive singles was the ballad “Release”. This was eventually given an EP of its own which we’ll look at another time. A basic keyboard/drum ballad, it is simple and bleak but hard to forget. It almost reminds of early 80’s Robert Plant.
There isn’t a lot of variety and distinction between the songs. “Alarum” repeats the formula: Electronic effects, exotic sounds, roared-out chorus. This was the disappointing factor with Transmission. The band had established themselves with a diverse sound, but that sound is narrowed on Transmission. All the same ingredients are there, but they are focused by the electronic lens, which sharpens them but also bleaches them to all one colour. “Babylon” is one of the exceptions, with drum & bass elements, and off-kilter song structure. It was appropriately given a very bizarre music video. An interesting experiment, but not as affective a song as something simpler like “Release”.
The Tea Party had some fun in other ways too. They like hidden bonus tracks, but this time they didn’t stick one at the end. They stuck an instrumental (dubbed “Embryo”) at the end of track 8 (“Babylon”). It’s actually a cool little piece of music.
Since the Tea Party are an ever-evolving band, it was safe to assume they would not stay in the electronics lab forever. Their next album, Triptych, was different again. Transmission remains their most loop-heavy album to date. At least they did it at the right time — The Prodigy’s massive mainstream album The Fat of the Land was released mere months before. The public were ready and hungry for computer-precise beats and samples, and the Tea Party delivered a unique hybrid with their own brand of rock. For the most part, it worked.
HELIX – “(Gene Simmons Says) Rock is Dead” (2016 music video from the forthcoming album Rock It Science)
“I don’t need no god of thunder to tell me what is great.” — Brian Vollmer
Helix are back once more, with a new greatest hits album called Rock It Science.* You gotta have a new song on a new greatest hits (teased previously as “Mystery Track”), and this new song is timely and sharp. Gene Simmons does indeed say that rock is dead. In fact he’s been saying that for over 25 years. I have a M.E.A.T Magazine interview with Gene from 1990 where he professes that rock is indeed dead. And he’s still saying it now. But Brian Vollmer retorts, “Don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says rock is dead!”
Sure, lots has changed, but Helix keeps going. It’s not the 80’s anymore. Very few can sell 2,000,000 copies of an album today. It’s hard to make a living just by selling records. You have to diversify. Everything has changed — but like many things, the more they change the more they stay the same. Rock is not dead. In many respects, rock is more popular than ever. Helix are still producing great quality music, and “Gene Simmons Says) Rock is Dead” is one more gem for their rock crown. Daryl Gray and “Fritz” Hinz are still there on the rhythm section. Chris Julke and Kaleb Duck handle the axes just fine. This could have been on an album like Back for Another Taste.
As far as the video goes, Brent Doerner directed this one. The Gene impersonator is bang-on — I hope Helix don’t get sued for this! The video celebrates the old school. It’s performed at Speed City Records in London, Ontario. (Look for cool posters of bands such as Gob and VoiVod, who Gene slammed in the 1990 M.E.A.T interview.) I really dig Daryl Gray’s Helix logo bass guitar. That looks like a bitch to play. Brent captured the fun side of the band in the video. It’s not glossy, but I think it does the trick.
There’s no release date yet, but Rock It Science should be available to purchase soon. Check out the CD cover, also designed by Brent Doerner.
Rock is dead? Hardly. Gene’s been wrong before, and he’s wrong again.
4/5 stars
*The title It’s ROCK Science, Not Rocket Science was a working title for 2009’sVagabond Bones.
Now here is an album I haven’t played in a long time!
When the supergroup known as Damn Yankees first emerged in 1990, they quickly became my favourite new band. Ted Nugent, Tommy Shaw (Styx), Jack Blades (Night Ranger) and drummer Michael Cartellone emerged with one of the hottest new albums of the summer: Pure radio-ready hard rock, but with the integrity added by the Nuge himself. All aboard!
(I like that Ted is in the credits also as “security”. You can picture it.)
So what is Damn Yankees? Light rock, Great Gonzos, or a mixture? The answer is: all of the above.
The predominant direction is radio-ready hard rock circa the time. Even though all these guys had been around for a while (especially Ted), if you didn’t know who they were it was easy to mistake them for the new hot band. Their lyrics are geared to the young.
Dressed to kill and lookin’ dynamite, With her high-laced stockings and her sweater so tight, I asked her name, She said her name was ‘Maybe’…
Oh come on guys! Jack Blades was 36 years old when he sang that. We already have one Gene Simmons. Thankfully, the lead single “Coming of Age” was musically impeccable for hard pop rock. Lyrically, there is nothing of any value here, just meaningless male drivel. The Van-Hagar like licks of “Coming of Age” are enhanced by the aggressive lead guitar work of Terrible Ted, who probably thought the lyrics were pure poetry.
The bluesy riff of “Bad Reputation” screams Nugent, but the vocals of Blades and Shaw blend as if they have always been a vocal team. Of course as we all know, Damn Yankees led to a long and very productive partnership for the two, with Shaw-Blades being a personal favourite album. The most remarkable thing about Damn Yankees is indeed the blend of vocals. Just listen to that bridge in the middle of “Bad Reputation”. Two rock singers rarely complement each other as well as Shaw and Blades. But just when you thought it was going too folksy, Ted returns with a fluttering blitzkreig of strings and (probably) freshly killed meat.
“Runaway” features some of Shaw’s great slide guitar work, on a mid-tempo rocker with an unforgettable anthemic chorus. Damn Yankees is often forgotten for its guitar work. Think about it though: Tommy Shaw and Ted Nugent are two of America’s best from the old school. While the songs are simple pop rock, the solos are simply awesome.
By the time fall 1990 rolled around, it was time to drop a ballad for a single: “High Enough”. In the year 1990 there were a number of acoustic ballads that were all very similar sounding: “Silent Lucidity”, “More Than Words”, and “High Enough”. There is no better way to describe “High Enough” than “sounds like summer 1990”. Unfortunately it does not stand out or have any qualities that make it more memorable than the other ballads out that year. The saccharine strings just do me in. I get ballad-fatigue. And let’s not even talk about that awful music video.
The band’s namesake track “Damn Yankees” sounds like a Nugent song. It has a chunky, ballsy riff, though nothing to write home to mother about. Unfortunately the lyrics are terribly dated, the kind of pro-American intervention sentiment that went out fashion many years ago. With references to Manuel Noriega and the Middle East, this is all much less glorious with the benefit of hindsight. There’s a lesson to be learned there: avoid overly politicizing your lyrics, young rockers.
For a better ballad than “High Enough”, check out side two’s opening track “Come Again”. This one is old-school, sounding something like Styx’s “Boat on a River” colliding with the Nuge on “Stranglehold”. It builds into a frenetic solo section that is just to die for, Nuge seemingly doing his best Eddie VH impression. Then on “Mystified”, Ted brings the blues while Tommy gets down on the pedal steel. This is a great little blues rock jam of the kind ZZ Top are comfortable with. I’m certain Rev. Billy would approve of the Nuge’s blues licks, authentic as they come.
“Rock City” ain’t bad at all, accelerated for your pleasure and name-dropping Jimmy Page in the lyrics. It’s not the heaviest song on the album — they save that for the end — but it’s definitely second. There is little doubt, based on interviews with the band, that the heaviness came from Ted. Let’s all take a moment now to thank Ted Nugent for rocking so damn hard. Thank you, Mr. Nugent. Penultimate track “Tell Me How You Want It” is a pretty good mid-tempo song, with classy vocals from Tommy and Jack. Had they released more singles from the album, this one would have been up for the job.
And then finally…
A blues lick, and Ted speaking: “Nice lick! I have a feeling this is gonna be a rhythm and blues song…nice, real nice. Tasty. WAITAMINUTE!”
“Piledriver” is just a dumb sex song, but it’s also pure Gonzo Ted, the Ted you knew was hiding somewhere on this album. You wanna hear Ted go friggin’ top gear for four and a half minutes? “Piledriver”, baby! Tommy and Jack on the backing vocals even drop an F-bomb! Can you believe it? They’re the nice guys of the band! But let’s not forget Michael Cartellone on the drums, hammering relentlessly, not only keeping up with Great Gonzo but setting the freakin’ pace! Even without headbanging along (strongly recommended), you’re exhausted by the end of the tune.
I say again, thank you Mr. Nugent.
As it turns out, Damn Yankees is still an entertaining listen 26 years later. I didn’t properly appreciate the smoking guitars on it at the time. Back then, I was interested in ballads and singles and catchy tunes. Even so I still liked “Piledriver” back then…because it’s awesome. The album’s real flaw is on the lyric sheet. I know these guys can do better than some of these tracks.
MOTLEY CRUE – 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection (2003 Universal)
As a change of pace, this review focuses not on what is on the album, but what was left off. This 20th Century Masters is more than a little shoddy, as this series can often be. So let’s talk about what it is not.
Too Fast For Love
“Piece of Your Action” is a great little ditty from the debut record Too Fast For Love. What you’re missing though: the speedy single “Live Wire”! It makes little sense to have this one without “Live Wire”.
“Shout at the Devil” and “Too Young to Fall in Love”: Great choices. Both are classic 80’s metal. What you’re missing is hit single “Looks that Kill”. But as Meat Loaf says, two out of three ain’t bad.
“Home Sweet Home” is Motley’s biggest hit ballad ever, but where is the Brownsville Station cover “Smokin’ in the Boys Room”? Can you believe it’s not on here? And it’s not because it’s a cover, because, well, we’ll get there.
Girls, Girls, Girls
The title track makes good sense to include, but why is “All in the Name Of…” on here instead of “Wild Side”? Also missing, but understandably so, is the ballad “You’re All I Need” which never made much impact. “Wild Side” though remained a concert staple to the end, so that’s one you’ll need to find elsewhere.
Dr. Feelgood
There were five singles on this album, and of course you can’t include them all on a 20th Century Masters CD. What you do need are the title track and lead single “Dr. Feelgood”, and obviously “Kickstart My Heart”. “Kickstart” was an explosive statement by the band, proving they were as mighty as ever without the drugs. Those two songs embodied the album, but there’s no “Feelgood” here. Inexplicable! Certainly one of the biggest oversights on this disc.
Great song! Not on this CD!
Decade of Decadence
For reasons that are unexplained and perhaps best left that way, instead of including any of the above better known songs, 20th Century Masters has the far less famed “Rock ‘N’ Roll Junkie”, and Sex Pistols cover “Anarchy in the UK”. “Junkie” is a Feelgood outtake, original released on The Adventures of Ford Fairlane soundtrack in 1990. “Anarchy” was recorded for Motley’s first greatest hits, Decade of Decadence. Neither song is essential, and both are on Decade. Why are they here? “Primal Scream”, which was a powerful single, is a must have. But it’s not here. Yet another song you’d still have to get elsewhere, because it’s awesome and important.
No complaints here. “Hooligan’s Holiday” is included from 1994’s self-titled album with John Corabi on vocals. Nice to see this single represented instead of ignored.
At this point, for a compilation like 20th Century Masters, I don’t think you need to explore the 90’s. But, from 1997’s dreadful Generation Swine comes the title track. Not the minor hit single “Afraid” mind you, but the title track which did nothing and went nowhere. Baffling!
Ending the album with “Hell on High Heels” brought the compilation up to date for its 2003 release date. Unfortunately, there was nothing on New Tattoo worth bringing to the table. Tommy Lee had left and there was a serious dip in quality, even after Generation Swine. Although it was the only Motley album featuring late drummer Randy Castillo, New Tattoo is simply a turd with no songs that are up to snuff. Crappy way to close a pretty crap compilation, though. Motley Crue’s instalment of 20th Century Masters sounds as if it’s a single disc from a double CD compilation, and the other CD’s been lost. Sorry Motley, this CD gets the dreaded Flaming Turd.
ALICE COOPER – A Fistful of Alice (1999 Guardian records, Japanese edition with bonus tracks)
A Fistful of Alice was released at a time when the sometimes maligned The Alice Cooper Showwas the only official live Cooper album. As only the second live Alice record, Fistful didn’t receive the attention it deserved. That’s especially too bad, considering it had cool guests including Slash, Rob Zombie, and Sammy Hagar. There are lots of Alice Cooper live recordings to get today, but in ’99 that wasn’t quite the case. Fistful, recorded at Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina, came a full five years after Cooper’s last studio album,The Last Temptation, ending the long drought. The single new song, “Is Anyone Home?” was a pleasant acoustic rock keeper, but the main feature was the live stuff.
There are lots of versions of this album, but only the Japanese has the full 17 song track list. It took me 15 years to finally track one down at a decent price. The Japanese edition is worth the effort just for “Clones (We’re All)”, a song that was rarely played for a lot of Cooper’s career. It’s from near the start of Alice’s 80’s art-punk persona, but its robotic synth-pop was catchy enough for the Smashing Pumpkins to cover it. The other two bonus tracks are “Bed of Nails” from Trash, and the classic “No More Mr. Nice Guy”. One that wasn’t on the domestic edition, but was on the UK version is “Under My Wheels”. Cooper’s band at this time featured Reb Beach (Winger/Whitesnake) on guitar, and damn does he shred on “Under My Wheels”! The rest of the lineup consisted of Jimmy DeGrasso (Megadeth/Black Star Riders) on drums, guitarist Ryan Roxie (Slash), bassist Todd Jensen (David Lee Roth) and Beach’s old Winger bandmate Paul Taylor on keyboards. This was Taylor’s second stint with Cooper. His first stint in the mid-80’s eventually launched the band Winger, since Kip Winger was in the Cooper band at the time.
Besides “Clones”, other pleasant surprises in the set include “Desperado” (“a song I wrote for Jim Morrison a long time ago”), “Teenage Lament ’74” (dedicated to the glitter and glam rockers) and “I Never Cry”. “Welcome to My Nightmare” is preceded by an excerpt from the chilling classic “Steven”. Familiar concert perennials include “Feed My Frankenstein” with Rob Zombie, “Only Women Bleed” with Slash, and “Elected” featuring both. Slash also plays on the newer tune “Lost in America”, fitting right in there naturally. It’s quite a decent track list, and Cooper’s band is as professional as any other lineup. The sonics are great, and Fistful is a nice full recording without a lot of crowd noise. The Cabo Wabo is probably a great stage for capturing a live recording.
Finally, Alice self-produced the new song “Is Anyone Home?”, featuring a different set of musicians. Unexpectedly pop sounding and even featuring a Beatles-like string section, “Is Anyone Home?” was very unlike most of Alice’s stuff. Take acoustic rock a-la popular 90’s acts like Fastball or the Goo Goo Dolls, crank it up a notch, and add Alice Cooper’s unmistakable voice. It’s a good track to throw on as a bonus for a live album. It did not indicate at all where Cooper was going musically, which would prove to be the industro-metal of Brutal Planet. “Is Anyone Home?” then is an interesting sideline from the main trajectory, but worth having.
A Fistful of Alice was an important album in some ways. At the time, many fans wondered if Alice had quietly retired. He hadn’t. He was playing a lot of golf, but he was also touring regularly. I saw him play a similar set in Kitchener Ontario in 1997, with the lineup including Reb Beach. Like on Fistful, he played a few songs from his most recent album even though he technically wasn’t supporting it, and I liked that. Pick up A Fistful of Alice for a good single-disc summary of the Alice Cooper live experience, and a pretty decent new tune too.
THE TEA PARTY – The Edges of Twilight (20th anniversary Universal deluxe edition, originally 1995)
The Tea Party have long been slagged as derivative. “They sound too much like the Doors!” screams one corner. “Zeppelin copy-cats!” cries another. The first complaint isn’t true; singer Jeff Martin has a Morrison-like vibe but the Tea Party sound nothing at all like the Doors. The second carries some weight to it, especially when it’s 1995’s The Edges of Twilight we’re talking about.
Due to an early connection with folk singer Roy Harper, a cover of “Train Kept a-Rolling”, and exotic world music influences, the Tea Party have long been compared to the mighty Led Zeppelin. This was cranked up a notch on The Edges of Twilight. From dirty electric blues, folksy English-sounding ditties, and and wealth of stringed instruments from all around the world, the Tea Party just went for it. Though many praise the band’s prior album Splendor Solis (their major label debut) as a high water mark, Twilight exceeds it in almost every way. I seem to remember reading that the album had something like 50 different instruments on it. The sheer ambition and skill involved in pulling off an album this complex has to be admired.
That all sounds very heady and sophisticated, but the first single and opening track “Fire in the Head” rocks plenty hard. A perfect 50/50 mix of the exotic and heavy sides of the Tea Party, “Fire in the Head” is savoury. The Zeppelin comparisons are unavoidable, but because Jeff Martin is not that kind of singer, it has a darker more ominous ambience. “The Bazaar” then takes it up a notch and into North Africa. Still heavy, but with the world music more prominent, “The Bazaar” too was a single and a hit. Let’s face it, the last major band to combine Gibson Les Pauls and world music in this way was in fact Led Zeppelin. Is that a reason to criticize the Tea Party? The answer is no, because they did not choose to do something easy. They took the hard road with The Edges of Twilight.
There are many excellent songs on the album, including another single “Sister Awake”, one of the most complex tracks. There are heavy electric blues tracks like “Turn the Lamp Down Low” and “Drawing Down the Moon”, and fully acoustic songs like “Shadows on the Mountainside”. The best tracks are the most pompous. Similar to the singles from the CD, tracks such as “Walk With Me” and “Coming Home” are big and bold with loud choruses. Though not a single, “Walk With Me” is a fan favourite and considered one of their must-haves.
But that’s not all! After several minutes of silence (oh, the 1990’s!) there is a hidden unlisted bonus track! “The Edges of Twilight” is a poem written and spoken by Roy Harper backed with music by Jeff Martin. Having a guy like Harper in the band’s extended family lent them credibility that other bands could not hope for. And then there’s even another hidden snip of music. After another silence is a few seconds of a rehearsal of the song “Correspondences”.
Harper also appears on the bonus CD, on a song called “Time” which originally appeared on the 1996 Alhambra EP. This is a full-on 70 minute Tea Party track with Roy Harper singing instead of Jeff Martin. Ballady and somber, and then explosively electric, “Time” is a triumph that deserves a second look. (Other tracks lifted from that EP are acoustic versions of “Inanna” and “Silence”.) The bonus disc is otherwise loaded with demos, acoustic versions and alternate versions, and live takes. With the exception of “Time”, this is all purely supplemental stuff and mostly interesting to fans of the band. The demo versions are remarkable for how near-complete they are. The band did not need to tinker much with arrangements in the studio.
There are ample liner notes and photos. Co-producer Ed Stasium praises the CD and says it is one of the top five he has ever been involved in. Serious praise, but the album deserves it. The Tea Party took a detour after this into the world of electronica, with 1997’s Transmission. 20 years later, The Edges of Twilight remains the most impressive Tea Party album and the most heady mix of world music and rock and roll.
FACT #1: Covers albums rarely have enough fuel in the tank to get an engine running.
FACT #2: Ace Frehley has never done a covers album before.
The main thing is that Ace Frehley is still alive and making music. He’s never been the most prolific writer in Kiss, hence this diverse assortment of covers. In the pot are songs from bands that influenced Ace, a few Kiss covers (including one that Ace never played on originally), and a guest shot by Paul Stanley (among others). Sometimes it’s hard to feign interest in a covers album, but these factors make Ace’s enticing. Not to mention, it’s a clean and sober Ace playing these songs.
Ace and drummer Scot Coogan play everything on Cream’s “White Room”, with Coogan singing the bridges. This guitar-heavy version takes what Clapton did, and “Aces” it up. It’s guitar solo nirvana, though the Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” takes a few minutes to get to that same point. Ace has always done well with Stones covers, and it seems he can identify with songs like “Street Fighting Man” due to his rough past. It’s a fun excursion but the solos are the draw. Imagine the Stones but with the bright fun Gibson stylings of Ace Frehley. Hendrix’s “Spanish Castle Magic” is a natural choice since Ace’s speak-sing style always seemed influenced by Jimi. Purists may scoff, but Ace’s take on “Spanish Castle Magic” is pretty enjoyable and guitar-heavy (John 5 on guest guitars).
The online hype focused on Paul Stanley’s return to Ace’s orbit. While Ace plays all the guitars, Paul ably takes all the vocals on Free’s “Fire and Water”. As Kiss fans are well aware, Paul has suffered from some serious vocal issues in the last few years. Live, Paul can be a bit of a mess. In the studio, he makes it work. Paul lacks the power he had back in the Kiss days, but his singing here is great considering. It’s over far too quickly. Paul singing Rodgers is quite a moment.
Ace is well suited to Thin Lizzy, a band you don’t think of as influential to Kiss since they were contemporaries more or less. “Emerald” has gone down in history of one of Lizzy’s heaviest favourites. Predictably, the highlight of “Emerald” is the solo section. Lizzy were a two-guitar band, so Ace got Slash to come in and solo back and forth, answering each other like Gorham and Robertson. The two go toe-to-toe in a blur of Gibson Les Pauls.
Led Zeppelin had a serious impact on young Kiss, and Ace’s covering of “Bring it on Home” is inspired and transformational. Lord knows what guitar effects Ace has up his sleeve, but he nails this Zep classic without any missteps. Ace sings the bluesy intro, but drummer Scot Coogan ably handles the higher main vocal.
One of the most notorious and difficult songs to cover without sounding like an asshole is “Wild Thing”, 51 years old and still inspiring cover versions. Lita Ford makes a surprise appearance on both lead guitar and vocals, and she sounds amazing on both counts. There is just no good reason to cover “Wild Thing”, because the Troggs did that definitively in 1966 and that’s that. More significant is Frehley’s update to his own “Parasite”, a song originally from 1974’s Hotter Than Hell. Gene Simmons sang it originally, though Ace wrote it. Speaking of “definitive”, it’s very tempting to think of this as Ace’s conclusive statement on “Parasite”. After all, Hotter Than Hell was sonically pretty disappointing. Plus Ace had 40+ years to grow as a guitarist since then, and believe it — Ace blows the doors off “Parasite”. This is a song worth buying the CD for.
Unfortunately “Parasite” is book-ended by two songs that didn’t need remakes, the first being “Wild Thing” and the second “Magic Carpet Ride”. Ace does inject it with his trademark fun style, but it’s all very unnecessary. Brilliant playing though.
A second Kiss update is “Cold Gin”, featuring Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. Like “Parasite”, Gene Simmons sang the original, but “Cold Gin” was one of the first stone cold classic Ace-written Kiss tunes. Ace has every right to try and reclaim it as his, a difficult task since the Kiss Alive! version is the only one you will ever truly need. Now with Ace doing the vocals and more soloing added, this version can perhaps be considered the second most important take — the one with Ace singing.
A pretty standard Kinks cover (“Til the End of the Day”) works fine. You can trust Ace to know how to treat the Kinks. The final and possibly biggest surprise is the final Kiss cover. The odd thing about it is that Ace never played on the original version of “Rock and Roll Hell”. This tune came from the batch that Kiss wrote with Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance in the early 80’s. It was recorded for 1982’s Creatures of the Night, the album that Ace didn’t participate in, before leaving the band. He appeared on the cover, he appeared in the videos, and fans didn’t know any differently, but Ace didn’t play or write anything on Creatures. In fact Ace never heard “Rock and Roll Hell” until recently. When coming up for ideas of songs to cover for Origins Vol. 1, Ace’s label rep Ken Gulick burned Ace a CD of tracks to listen to for consideration. (The CD contained two Who songs, two Cheap Trick songs, and mind-blowingly, two by Rush.)* Because Gulick felt that Ace had some unfinished business with Creatures of the Night, he also included two songs from Creatures on the CD. The ballad “I Still Love You” was the other track. Frehley apparently went bonkers for the Simmons-sung “Rock and Roll Hell”, and now we finally get to hear what might have been if Ace hadn’t left Kiss when he did. Perhaps if Ace was in good enough shape, Simmons could have given him “Rock and Roll Hell” to sing, and it would have sounded something like this. Matt Starr’s drums are given a similar echoey treatment to replicate Eric Carr’s sound from the original LP.
Does this close the book for Ace making amends with his Kiss past? I sure hope note. Vol. 1 implies a Vol. 2. If Ace were to continue covering Kiss tunes he never had the chance to sing in the studio, that leaves “Strange Ways”, “Comin’ Home” and possibly more that he could consider updating with his stamp. Although Origins has some “blah” moments as most covers albums do, among the highlights are undoubtedly the Kiss tracks. They push the album out from being a mere curiosity, to a must-have for any Kiss fan.**
** Made a double must-have by the low low price. I paid $12.88 at Wally World (plus I scored a“holy shit, jackpot”load of rare Star Wars figures). HMV were charging $15.99, and had him filed under “Ace Freshley“. HMV – the music store – has Ace’s name spelled wrong. Yet one more strike against the once-mighty HMV chain! See below for the evidence.
“ACE FRESHLEY” at HMV
Jackpot at Wally World
For Jon Wilmenius’ excellent review of this album, click here.
SCORPIONS – Animal Magnetism (2015 BMG deluxe edition, originally 1980)
Post-Lovedrive, the Scorpions were on a roll. American chart success had finally come their way, and the pressure was on to follow it up. Rather than break under the strain, the Scorpions thrived in that atmosphere and put together another solid Euro-metal album with commercial tendencies. Newest member Matthias Jabs was now integrated with the band, and they were ready to roll.
The modern Scorpions thrived on simple, heavy metal riffage and melodic vocals. “Make It Real”, the opening track on Animal Magnetism, exemplifies these qualities. Chunky chugs and soaring guitar melodies are only topped by Klaus Meine’s voice of power. “Make It Real” remains one of the classic, unforgettable Scorpions rockers today and it’s easy to hear why. It’s a perfect concoction of what melodic heavy metal can be.
I don’t like to be too hard on the Scorpions for their lyrics, because their English is a hell of a lot better than my German! With that in mind, “Don’t Make No Promises (Your Body Can’t Keep)” is one of those Scorpions titles that makes me cringe. Thankfully it’s a blitzkrieg of a track, full steam ahead and dripping sleaze. Scorpions had easily mastered the fast metal stylings that put them in similar territory as Judas Priest, but they also had a knack for slow and relentless riffs. “Hold Me Tight” is one of these, like a slow Dio-era Sabbath prowler.
The album is strong throughout. “Twenthiest Century Man” continues a chopping onslaught of rock, but the Scorpions also have a knack for a ballad. “Lady Starlight”, acoustic with a full-on string section with woodwinds, is one of their finer early examples. It’s bizarre to hear a song this tender on the same album as “Don’t Make No Promises (Your Body Can’t Keep)”.
In case you were worried the Scorps had lost it, “Falling in Love” continues the bruising on side two with another simple and effective riff. “Only a Man” is about the only stumble, an off-kilter track that rests in the shadows of the songs before and after. The chorus is great, but next to amazing metal classics like “The Zoo”, there is no contest. And speaking of “The Zoo”, has there ever been such a slow yet so menacing track? Written about their time spent in America, the lyrics are pretty silly. “We eat the night, we drink the time, make our dreams come true. And hungry eyes are passing by, on streets we call the Zoo.” You don’t want to be hard on the guys for their skills with the language, but at the same time…this is also bizarrely catchy!
The title track “Animal Magnetism” is saved for last, an exotic slow crawl preceded by thunderclaps of noisy guitars. Zeppelin meets Black Sabbath on this one, and it’s over and out. Unless you own this deluxe edition….
“Hey You” is tacked on as the first bonus track, a strangely catchy pop rocker with Rudolph Schenker singing lead on the verses. It has a remarkable uniqueness. It was first released as a single, but most of us didn’t hear it until 1989’s Best of Rockers and Ballads. That’s the easiest place to find this fun little tune. A slew of rare demos end the deluxe CD: “Animal Magnetism” (not at all like the album version), “American Girls”, “Get Your Love”, Restless Man”, and “All Night Long”. Some of these songs are exactly what they are — outtakes! Some are better than that. “Get Your Love” was reworked on 1995’s Live Bites CD as “Heroes Don’t Cry”. “Heroes Don’t Cry” has better lyrics and more meat on the bones, but “Get Your Love” has a raw basic quality. “Restless Man” is an early version of “Twentieth Century Man”, all but complete including prototype guitar solos.
There will always be those fans who think albums like Lovedrive and Animal Magnetism were the beginnings of a long slide in quality. When Uli Jon Roth left the band in 1978, he took with him their adventurous side. Their post-Uli music was streamlined and more calculated. Animal Magnetism remains one of their finest albums since.
Down to the nitty gritty! This is the second last review in this series. Mike andAaron have been doing simultaneous daily reviews of albums that they have sent to each other. This one was gifted to Aaron when Mike upgraded to the Japanese edition. Enjoy!
DEF LEPPARD – Mirrorball: Live & More (2011 Marquee Japan)
Def Leppard hyped this baby as their “first official live album”. First official live album? Maybe, but the astute collector had already been aware of a 1984 live album included with the deluxe 2 CD edition of Pyromania. For vintage 80’s Leppard thrills featuring Steve Clark, that’s the ultimate go-to live CD. More obscurely, after the Euphoria album, Def Leppard issued an entire live album’s worth (11 songs) of MP3 files for free, which are no longer around. You can read our review of that untitled release right here.
Regardless, this is the first stand-alone Leppard live album (double live, in fact) that you can walk into a store and buy. The domestic version comes with a bonus DVD, with behind-the-scenes stuff and music videos (“Nine Lives” and “C’mon C’mon” from the Sparkle Lounge album).
Upon inserting Mirrorball into the car drive and hitting “play”, the first thing I was impressed with was Joe Elliot’s voice. The singer is often the member who suffers most from the ageing process. Singers like Joe who basically screamed for the first few albums don’t always have the ability to do it convincingly anymore. The “old voice” is usually gone. However here it is, right in the opening of “Rock! Rock! (‘Til You Drop)”. It recurs many times over the course of the album.
All the hits are here, even the ones you’d rather forget like “Let’s Get Rocked” and “Make Love Like a Man”. The set leans heavily of course on Pyromania and Hysteria, with most of the singles being rolled out: “Rock Of Ages”, “Foolin'”, “Photograph”, “Animal”, “Hysteria”, “Love Bites”, “Sugar”, and “Armageddon”. Album classic “Too Late For Love” is also present, as is the perennial medley of “Bringing On The Heartbreak/Switch 625”. “Heartbreak” has a nice acoustic intro, different from the one that Leppard used to do back in the 80’s (see: Live in the Round in Your Face).
Then, you get a few boring tracks. Some of these, such as cover tunes, I have no idea why they still play them live. Do they not have enough old originals that fans are clamouring for? Did we really need covers on Leppard’s first official live album? No. But there’s “Rock On” anyway. I hate that song. And The Sweet’s “Action” is here, again, which I guess has almost become a Def Leppard song itself. For other dull content, the B-side-later-A-side “Two Steps Behind” also appears, a song which was never more than a throw-away to me.
As far as more recent material goes: Two songs from Adrenalize, none from Slang, none from Euphoria, none from X.
At least they included three songs from the latest album, Songs From the Sparkle Lounge: The awful, derivative heard-it-all-before “C’mon C’mon”, as well as a smokin’ version of “Bad Actress” and the single “Nine Lives” (without Tim McGraw!). Regardless of what’s included and what’s not (you can make your own wishlist of tunes!), Mirrorball does represent the Def Leppard live experience well. They are bang-on, every track. These five guys have really grown together as a band. It doesn’t sound like much fixing was done; indeed it doesn’t sound like much needed to be done. Four of them can sing well enough, so the trademark Leppard layers are well represented live.
Onto the new studio songs: None are very special, but at least two rock: “Undefeated” is the catchiest, even though it has derivative “Sugar”-like moments that don’t help. It has a thick Zepp-y chorus riff though, and that gives it some heft. “It’s All About Believin'” also rocks, but Sav’s “Kings Of The World” is too soft. Leppard need to stay away from the ballady-stuff. They’ve got more than enough now.
As is the norm, those lucky Japanese fans got a bonus track. It is the descriptively titled “different version” of “Kings of the World”. What’s different? It doesn’t appear to be a demo, but it is a shorter version, piano-based with most of the instrumentation stripped off and an acoustic guitar solo. My preference is to the more bombastic and Queen-like album mix.
For a first official one, Mirrorball is a pretty good live album. It could have been a lot better. It should have been better, considering. However they did do better, when they released the next live package, Viva Hysteria! That one scratches virtually every musical itch you have. And don’t forget, you can pick up that aforementioned deluxe edition of Pyromania for a youthful, smokin’ set.
SKID ROW – Revolutions Per Minute (2006)
Influences collide on “When God Can’t Wait”. Johnny Solinger is a country guy, and Rachel Bolan is a punk guy. It seems 1+1 does indeed =2, and the sum total of punk and country is rockabilly. I have to admit to liking this one, even though I’m still not sure if it’s any good. I definitely prefer it to the next tune, “Shut Up Baby, I Love You” which doesn’t have much going for it aside from the full-metal tempo.
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