What a rotten week. I had just started my last year of school. Fresh with the sting of rejection from that summer’s crush, with shoulders hunched, I cut a lonely figure in the hallways. All my old school friends were gone. I had taken a bunch of classes that I didn’t like. I had nobody to talk to at school, but thankfully I now had the record store. The store gave me something to look forward to when I didn’t have much else.
I still have lyrics that I wrote from that period, and they’re…well, they reflect my age and some of my emotions at the time:
Evil man, With demon smell, Down on your knees, Back into hell.
I came home from class one morning to discover that a lighting storm had fried my stereo, among many other home appliances. It was a Panasonic deck with CD and cassette. It was just toasted. My sister’s Sony stereo had also burned out in the storm. I was essentially without a good way to listen to music. I still had my lousy Walkman with its crummy earphones, but I didn’t have any way of playing a CD.
While insurance companies sorted out the damages, I waited to replace the stereo. In the meantime, Bon Jovi had just released their new single, “Always”, from their forthcoming greatest hits set called Cross Road. I loved Jon’s heartbroken lyrics, but the really good track was a B-side called “Edge of a Broken Heart”. It was a catchy commercial Pop Jovi song, an outtake from Slippery When Wet, and one of their better tunes. Certainly one of their best B-sides. But I had no equipment to play it on.
Luckily I was going to work on the Sunday, and I was working alone for the whole day. I could therefore listen to whatever I wanted, and I brought a couple discs to work to play. One of them was “Always”, and I looked forward to listening to it. I really enjoyed the slow Sunday shift, as it was only four hours long, and I always worked alone on Sundays.
I walked to work as I always did. I already had a key. I unlocked and unpacked the pack of CDs that I brought with me. Bon Jovi was my first selection. I inserted the disc into the player, and turned up the volume so I could hear the music as I vacuumed.
I was startled by two figures at the door. My boss, the store owner, was one, and the other was Trevor who was our new hire. What the hell were they doing there? Meanwhile, they had that exact same question for me!
“I’m opening the store…what are you doing here?” I responded.
“I’m here to train Trevor,” my boss answered. “and Trevor’s scheduled to work today.”
“No…I’m scheduled. Aren’t I?”
A quick look at the calendar had revealed that Trevor was scheduled in, and I had the day off!
“Shit…to be honest I was really looking forward to working, my stereo is blown at home and I have these new CDs!” We had a laugh at my expense, and I left feeling a little like an idiot. I was mostly disappointed that I didn’t get to play my new Bon Jovi.
It was another week before I finally got my new stereo. Having the ability to play CDs again was a salve, to soothe my aching soul. I could not believe how much I missed it. That brief period without the ability to play my discs was a dark start to the school year. Gratefully, it got better after that!
How many bands is Mike Portnoy in anyway? I have no idea, but I’ve bought many of them over the years. Flying Colors is another, a supergroup featuring Steve Morse, the unrelated Neal Morse of Spock’s Beard, Dave LaRue from Steve Morse Band, and Casey McPherson of Alpha Rev. McPherson is the only one I’m not familiar with from elsewhere, and he handles lead vocals as well as keyboards and guitar. Peter Collins (Rush) produces, a man who knows plenty about progressive rock that gets played on the radio.
Together they created an accessible album of jaw-dropping chops but also something melodically engrossing. While these guys are all primarily renowned as musician’s musicians, together it seems they know how to write a song or two. The 7-minute opener “Blue Ocean” is a great example. It’s very hard to describe because it’s not any one thing. It has a hypnotically cool lead vocal, but backed by a neat shuffle and Morse’s trademark hybrid style.
“Shoulda Coulda Woulda” is a heavy one, again with a hypnotic vocal. It’s unforgettable and one of the most powerful tunes. Steve Morse lays yet another awesome guitar solo on top of it. It’s not how many notes he plays or how fast he plays them. It’s what he wrenches out of them. Then like a 180, “Kayla” opens with some gorgeous classical guitar, as if we switched to a Blackmore’s Night album! But this is temporary; “Kayla” is a sparse mid-tempo rock song, with an anthemic chorus. “Kayla” is one of the most instantly catchy moments on Flying Colors. The vocal harmonies in the middle section are killer.
This is followed by my favourite tune, the radio-ready “The Storm”. The chorus here is the best one on the album, powerful and layered. The verses are soft and melodic; commercial rock goodness. Portnoy perfectly compliments the song without overplaying. Only a classic Steve Morse solo could further elevate “The Storm” to the heavens, and that’s exactly what happens.
LaRue funks it up a bit on “Forever in a Daze” which thumps along nicely. “Love is What I’m Waiting For” has a Beatles vibe, which is interesting enough. It’s probably worthy of radio play in a perfect world. “Everything Changes” is another 7 minute long-bomber, and I don’t want to call it a ballad, so I’ll call it “quiet”. It’s an epic. It has acoustic guitars and strings and all kinds of cool stuff, including plenty of electric Morse. Once again, I hear Beatles.
The introspective “Better Than Walking Away” is another really good song, soft and pretty but lyrically intense. Then like a cold slap in the face comes “All Falls Down”. This the most “metal” moment on the album, a blazing blitzkrieg of guitars and drums. It’s over in 3 minutes and 20 seconds, but it’ll leave you knocked out. I really love the vocals on this song too.
Approaching the end, “Fool in My Heart” is a slow dance. Its melodies are warm and classic sounding. This serves to cleanse the palette before the final 12 minute feast of “Infinite Fire”. It’s one of my favourites, and it’s over more quickly than it seems it should be. It doesn’t wear out its welcome; it has a bit of everything in it including melody and spellbinding playing.
How the hell have Portnoy and Morse managed to put out multiple great albums in 2013 is beyond me. Why are guys like these not the biggest rock stars on the planet? Thankfully, a live album and second studio record are on their way.
Disclaimer: I am so happy with this album, Deep Purple’s latest, that I put off and put off writing a review for it. As a fan of both Deep Purple Mk VIII and Bob Ezrin, this album would either colossally astound or disappoint me. I’m happy to say that NOW What?! is my favourite album since Purpendicular back in ’96.
At first I thought NOW What?! was going to be an uncomfortably mellow album. How wrong I was. Sure, “A Simple Song” starts powerfully soft (think Purpendicular‘s “Loosen My Strings”). It then takes off into a modern Purple tangent, with groove, a chorus that kills and absolutely outstanding organ work by Don Airey. If there was ever a man to pay tribute to the legacy of Jon Lord, it is Don Airey. He does so with class, homage, and love.
I love “Weirdistan” both for the title and the song itself. It is however “Out of Hand” that is the first mind-blower for me. The strings and arrangements of Ezrin are on this song like a stamp, yet it is also blatantly no other band than Deep Purple. Even though Purple have been backed by strings many times before, Ezrin’s approach sounds like classic Ezrin. It’s hard to verbalize, but Ezrin uses the strings in a support role, yet often up front and in your face.
If none of the previous songs sounded enough like old Deep Purple to you, “Hell to Pay” is sure to satisfy. The edited version from the CD single has nothing on this. The soloing is better than the song, quite frankly, and too much of it was edited out of the single version. Musically “Hell to Pay” has that hard, slightly funky vibe that a lot of later Deep Purple possesses. As far as the solo sections, you’re hearing things that go all the way back to 1968 and “Mandrake Root”. It’s trippy. The spirit of Jon lives on.
“Body Line” is pretty good, again it’s kind of funky in that Purple-y way. Ian Paice, the only remaining member from the original 1968 Mk I version, is responsible for many of the funk vibes, aided and abetted by Morse and Airey. Actually, it’s really hard to single out any one member as MVP on most of these songs. Deep Purple Mk VIII have gelled so well as a band over the last decade, that everything is in sync. Everybody bounces off the other players in a way that is reminiscent of the classic Deep Purple years.
“Above and Beyond” (to be released as a 7″ and CD single October 25) is one of two songs dedicated to Jon Lord. This is probably the most progressive sounding of the new songs. It’s certainly one of the most epic. I think Jon would have loved it. It’s worth noting at this point that Bob Ezrin, as per his modus operandi, has a writing credit on every song. In the same way you can hear him tightening up the songwriting of artists like Kiss and Alice Cooper, you can hear his shine on “Above and Beyond”.
I’m sure it’s a coincidence since almost all the members are different, but “Blood From A Stone” begins similarly to “You Keep On Moving” from Come Taste the Band. Then it gets slinky, before Morse rips some heavy riffs on the chorus. Don Airey shines as well, classing up the place several notches more. This transitions seamlessly into the second Lord tribute, the beautiful “Uncommon Man”. Morse’s guitars are uplifting and unmistakable. I just love listening to him play because there is truly nobody else in the world who sounds like Steve Morse. (Just as there is nobody, Yngwie included, who sounds like Richie Blackmore.) Back to “Uncommon Man”, it features a similar fanfare to “Above and Beyond”, linking them thematically. It also has my favourite keyboard solo on the whole album.
“Après Vous” sounds like a Rapture of the Deep outtake, but a good outtake. Glover has a great groove going on, and there is once again a long instrumental section. When it’s a band like Deep Purple, these aren’t the sections you want to skip through. These are the highlights of a song!
I reviewed “All the Time in the World” when the single was released. Quoting myself, “I’m really fond of “All the Time in the World”. It reminds me of the laid back Purple from Bananas. The classy keys from Don Airey seal the deal for me, but how about that Steve Morse solo? Fantastic!…It might not sound like the Deep Purple of 1970, but that was a long time ago now. It does sound like a rock band staying classy well into their silver years. I don’t hear any compromise nor contrivances here.”
Uncle Meat’s favourite song on the album was “Vincent Price”, and while the whole album is excellent, “Vincent Price” is also instant. It’s really fun, and Ezrin brings his trademark sound effects back to the table. Morse’s spooky guitar line seals the deal. Gillan’s lyrics about vampires and zombies are amusing enough. (This is the kind of lyric that never would have made it past the tyrannical Blackmore.)
There are a couple bonus tracks to be had. “It’ll Be Me” is an unlikely cover, by country singer Jack Clement. Deep Purple pull it off, thanks to Gillan’s lively vocal. “First Sign of Madness” was a free download track, also later released on the “Vincent Price” CD single. It’s a lively song, but different from the album tracks. It reminds me of “Via Miama” from the Gillan/Glover album Accidentally on Purpose. It took a while to grow on me, but I quite like it now just because it doesn’t sound too much like the rest of the album. But these songs will all be on the forthcoming “tour edition”.
Deep Purple pulled off the damn near impossible and put out one of their best albums 45 years after initially forming. Most bands would dream of being able to do this. Hell, most bands don’t put out albums as good as NOW What?! during their primes. If this is a career capper (and I pray Purple have another album in them) then I couldn’t imagine a better album to finish on. The same goes for Ezrin, the guy who produced such classics as The Wall, Destroyer, and Billion Dollar Babies. If Bob retired tomorrow, he could do so having done a freaking great Deep Purple record.
I got this Japanese import CD from one of our franchisees. Even though we technically were not “allowed” to buy CDs from one of our franchises, we all did it, even the head office people who enforced the rules. In this case the franchisee himself was glad to have a guaranteed sale, rather than sit on an expensive Dokken flop for several months in inventory. It even came with the original obi strip, stickers, and everything else was mint. The scarcity of the complete package was reason alone to buy it.
The infamous Shadowlife will probably go down in history as the worst Dokken album. It’s certainly the most dysfunctional (even though that was the title of the previous, much better album). The dysfunction largely came down guitarist George Lynch, who according to sources at the time, purposely sabotaged the album. He did this to put an end to Dokken, go the claims. Don himself was very unhappy with it, as quotes from the era will reveal (look them up). He also referred to a lead vocal shot (“Here I Stand”) by bassist Jeff Pilson as too “bar band-y”, meaning the lead singer of a pro band is the lead singer, and the bassist is the bassist. Clearly, ego was an issue as well.
Kelly Gray
Not to escape without blame is producer Kelly Gray, who had just ruined the career of Sven Gali a couple years prior. Gray produces, engineers, mixes, and even co-wrote a couple tracks. According to Don, Mr. Gray would not let the band sing their trademark harmonies, opting for grittier more modern sounds. Gray’s trademark distortion on the lead vocals is omnipresent.
There are very few standout tracks here, although many have good parts and interesting bits. It is difficult to remember any songs distinctly even after a few listens. The grungy “Puppet On A String” is OK, due to a blazing George Lynch guitar solo (although buried in the mix). It has a heavy groove, but the distorted lead vocal wrecks it for me. “Cracks in the Ground” is better, containing a shadow of the Dokken harmonies, but mired in boring melodies and production. “I Feel” sounds like Dokken, at least. Not really great Dokken, but Dokken nevertheless.
The Japanese, always so lucky, got two bonus tracks: “How Many Lives” and “Deep Waters”. Neither stand out any more than the album tracks. Not really a bonus this time, sorry Japan. If anything, these songs detract from the album, by making it a longer, more agonizing experience.
In general the album is too slow, too tunelessly dull, too dreary. It’s disjointed and it’s uninspired. Too rainy, like a dark Seattle mist. Mick Brown does rock, at least. There are a few heavy songs, such as “Hello”, but I think my favourite song would be the moody acoustic ballad “Convenience Store Messiah”. It’s the only song that sounds like a fully composed, complete arrangement.
Avoid.
1/5 stars
Afterword:I played around the idea of just writing a two word review a-la Spinal Tap (“Shit Sandwich”). I was going to call it “Shadow Turd”. In the end, my OCD level attention to detail refused to allow it, and the wordy essay on the art of turd-making you just read was posted instead. I’m sorry. (Blame Kelly Gray for that, too.)
DAVID LEE ROTH / DLR BAND: DLR Band (1998 wawazat!!)
In 1998, David Lee Roth was angry. He’d been conned by Van Halen into appearing on the MTV awards with them to promote their new greatest hits, and implying that Dave was back. Dave was not back. Van Halen released the derided Van Halen III with Gary Cherone earlier in ’98, while Dave sat back waiting to unleash the DLR Band.
The DLR Band consisted of Dave himself on vocals, John 5 (yes, the John 5) and Terry Kilgore on guitar, and Ray Luzier on drums. Of course, today John 5 is well known for his work with Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, and Ray Luzier is in Korn. Terry Kilgore had been working with Dave since 1994’s Your Filthy Little Mouth. Cover art was simple, a picture of Bettie Page over an American flag and no real indication that this was David Lee Roth. A lot of stores didn’t know either, and filed it under “DLR Band” instead of Roth, guaranteeing lack of sales.
So this was one smokin’ band, and with John 5 on board, a hot guitarist to rival the flaming fingers of St. Eddie. John 5 sounds to me like a cross between Van Halen, Steve Stevens and Tom Morello. For the bluesier sounds on the album, Terry Kilgore’s strat aptly filled the gaps. And that basically sums up the album. It goes from bluesier grooves such as “Lose The Dress (Keep The Shoes)” to space-age fast-paced VH shuffles like “Slam Dunk!” Additional guitar and writing is supplied by Mike Hartman.
Dave’s not as poetic on the lyrics this time, with “Counter-Blast” being particularly bad. I can’t think of one good song about the internet, and this is no exception. “I’m gonna fax you into the atom age”? “Your page or mine”? Sorry Dave. Stick with what you know. Hot cars, girls, a drink and some philosophy of life.
Highlights for me are many. On the faster, space-age side are “Slam Dunk!”, “Relentless”, and the aforementioned “Counter-Blast” which is great musically. On the groovier, sleezier side are “Wa Wa Zat!!”, “Weekend With The Babysitter”, and “Lose The Dress (Keep The Shoes)”. The album ends with “Black Sand”, an atmospheric sunset-stained journey. But really, there are no lowlights on this album of strong rock songs. No ballads.
The sound of the album is crisp and tight, recorded in just 10 days like the Van Halen albums of old. No gloss, no flourishes, no flashy production except in John 5’s guitars. Where this album differs most from Van Halen classics is Dave’s voice. On the old albums, Dave could hide his voice’s weaknesses behind Mike and Ed’s backing vocals. Here, Dave’s voice is naked, sometimes flat, sometimes sharp, sometimes wheezing.
Having said that, I still recommend DLR band to fans of Roth who love that attitude and hot guitar. However, if you’re expecting the man to sing like he’s 25 again, best to stick to the old albums.
One Saturday in 2002 after a long (8 hour +) shift at the record store, I went over to my friend Shannon’s house. Her next door neighbors were having a karaoke party that night and we were invited. I like karaoke, although Shannon warned me in advance that her friends didn’t have many songs I’d like. If any.
She was right. Among the Shania Twain, Meat Loaf and Grease songs were a few rockers, but her neighbors didn’t like rock. So I sat quietly and listened to some of the worst singing I’ve heard this side of Britney Spears. A little bit later on, another rocker guy showed up. For the life of me I cannot remember his name. (George? Gord? Gomer?) It doesn’t matter, because from that day forward he was known to us as Steve. Steve Perry.*
As soon as he walked in, long hair and pack of cigs in hand, I whispered to Shannon, “Does that guy not look like Steve Perry from Journey?”
Shannon turned and looked. Turned back. “Oh my God. He kind of does!”
Once Steve Perry showed up, we managed to get a little rock into the night. I dueted with him on “Jump” by Van Halen, but I was most excited to share the microphone with Steve on “Don’t Stop Believin'”. A picture was taken of this life changing moment. Incidentally, singing Journey songs in general is really, really hard! I don’t recommend it to the weak willed.
Microphone in one hand, pack of cigs in the other.
I sent the picture to My Favourite Aunt. “Doesn’t this guy look like Steve Perry?” I asked in the email.
She responded, “No. Steve Perry from Aerosmith is sexy. That guy doesn’t look anything like Steve Perry.”
I was a little ashamed that I had to explain the difference between Joe Perry and Steve Perry to my Aunt. She told me she didn’t know who Steve Perry was so she couldn’t offer her opinion on his doppelganger. However I remain convinced that my co-lead vocalist that night bore a passing resemblance to the rock great. Visually, not vocally. Vocally, “Steve” would have given Rebecca Black a run for her money.
Note: Shannon tells me that for some reason, she still remembers Steve Perry’s real name: Ed!
Take a trip back to September, 1993. Led Zeppelin had no greatest hits albums available and just three years previous, the monstrous Led Zeppelin box set was a smash hit. I believe it was the most successful box set ever at the time!
It was, however, just a sampling of Zeppelin’s catalogue. A generous sampling, but a sampling nevertheless. 31 album tracks were missing, as it was just a four disc set. The missing tracks are not throwaways though. How could you say that about “Good Times, Bad Times”, “Living Loving Maid”, “Out On The Tiles”, “The Rover”?
So, predictably, three years later came Box Set 2 with all those tracks plus the recently discovered “Baby Come On Home”. The result is a complementary set; you really can’t have one without the other. Having both sets is how I originally heard the Zeppelin catalogue, and I do have a certain nostalgia for these sets.
Much like the first box, this set was lovingly sequenced and remastered by Jimmy Page himself. As such, the track order takes you on a journey of sorts. Unfortunately it’s just not as epic a journey as the first box. How can there be? With no “Kashmir” or “Stairway” available, it could never be as monumental. Still, it’s a pretty cool trip. Starting you off on disc one with “Good Times, Bad Times” and closing disc 2 with the melancholy “Tea For One”, this tracklist does what it was meant to do. Sandwiched between there are some of the best Zeppelin album cuts of all time.
I don’t think I need to go over highlights. I do? Alright. “Down By the Seaside” is simply gorgeous, one of my personal favourite Zeppelin songs. It’s in my top five for sure. Although it’s a bit silly, I dig the country hoe-down of “Hot Dog”. It’s certainly the heaviest country music I ever heard. With John Bonham on drums, how could it not be? “That’s the Way” is another beauty, acoustic and pretty. It’s “Carouselambra” that throws me the most, a complex swirl of synthesizers and howling Plant vocals.
The sound quality was great for its time, but technology, tastes and standards change. The songs have been remastered since, and will be again. Personally I have no qualms with the sound and I still enjoy this box to this day, even though I own the massive 10-disc Complete Studio Recordings as well. Really, my only issue was the inclusion of just one previously unreleased song. “Baby Come On Home” is a wonderful slice of soul, a young Plant belting about a cheating woman while Pagey plays some elegant notes behind him. Yet, as we saw later with the release of the BBC Sessions, there was more in the vaults. Why couldn’t “The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair” or “Something Else” be included here much like “Traveling Riverside Blues” was included on the first box set? We know Jimmy has dug up more rarities since.
It is what it is. Maybe it was a bit shameful to bait die-hard fans with one new song, but the remastering of the set was also considered a major selling feature. The set, being only a 2 disc set, is physically much smaller than the original, and contains one new essay, by David Fricke. The packaging is quite beautiful, and everything from the cover art to the layout echoes the first box. Clearly, you are meant to have both.
So then an other odds n’ sods disc from John Regan of Frehley’s Comet arrived. Like 12 Picks, this one also came with an Ace guitar pick. The most appealing songs in this collection are the unreleased tracks “One Plus One” and “Give It To Me Anyway”. Both are complete Frehley’s Comet songs, produced by Eddie Kramer. My respected reviewer friend Jon holds these songs above many that made it onto the actual albums.
“One Plus One” is an excellent commercial rocker with that Ace “quirk” to it. This one might have been cut from 1987’s Frehley’s Comet album because it was considered too pop. That’s a shame because it’s great. Tod Howarth’s high backing vocal complements Ace’s lead for maximum hooks. I love it. This song is addictive.
“Give It To Me Anyway” is one of the oldest Comet songs, dating back to 1985, recorded for 1989’s Trouble Walkin’, and left unreleased. This is a tough, funky rocker, musically ambitious. Anton Fig’s avalanches of drum fills are always soothing, but Richie Scarlet’s raspy vocals are the real hook. Not that the chorus is bad either!
After these two valuable now-classics, Regan throws on three Frehley also-rans that didn’t make it onto the prior 12 Picks compilation. They are Ace’s excellent cover of The Move/ELO’s “Do Ya”, Tod Howarth’s ballad “It’s Over Now”, and “Shot Full Of Rock” from Trouble Walkin’. I like all three songs, but I question the wisdom of including “It’s Over Now” on this compilation. Ace didn’t write it, didn’t sing on it, didn’t play the guitar solo…
A smattering of live tracks makes up the next section of the CD. Some of these are from the Live + 4 VHS release, others are from the same gig that the Live + 1 EP was recorded at. “Stranger In A Strange Land” (from Frehley’s Comet) is from this show, and has Anton Fig on drums. Not the greatest song but you can actually hear where it would fit into Live + 1 (right before “Something Moved”). Up next is “Separate” which Ace introduced as “Separate the Men from the Boys”. I’ve admitted to liking the song, but this is especially cool as this is the very first performance of it. I dig the vocal and Ace’s chugging guitar and I think it actually works live, surprisingly.
Tod Howarth…I’m sorry dude…you suck at introducing songs. I wish you said nothing in front of “New York Groove”. You’re no Paul Stanley, believe me. I ain’t gonna “clap those hands”. Thankfully the performance of the song is great, even if Jamie Oldaker butchers the drum part. “Rock Soldiers” is once again back to the Anton Fig lineup, and this time Ace does the intro himself. You can immediately tell it’s a different drummer, it’s like night and day. “Remember Me” is the last of the live tracks, and though it’s presented live, it’s the same version that is on Trouble Walkin’.
The final two songs are parts 2 and 3 of the “Fractured” tetralogy (though in 1998 still a trilogy). Part one, of course, was on Ace’s 1978 solo album, which is considered part of the Kiss catalog. Therefore, John Regan wouldn’t have been able to use it on Loaded Deck. It’s fine…a bit of a cop out way to end a compilation album I think. To me, it feels like, “We’re all out of good songs so here’s two instrumentals.” For the casual fan, it’s a “blah” ending. For the die-hards, well, we already have these songs…part one included…and could make our own tapes with all of them, should we desire to experience them like that. I’ve never had that compulsion. They were all individual album closers, that felt right ending the albums in that context. Together, it doesn’t work for me.
Sometimes a compilation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If it’s a disjointed listening experience, I’m less likely to return to that compilation. Loaded Deck gets fewer plays in my collection than 12 Picks does. Even though they are meant to complement each other, like two discs of a double anthology, I think 12 Picks is a better album experience.
What Regan should have done is make an album of just the unreleased studio and live songs, without the stuff we already had on the studio albums. Megaforce figured that out, and in 2006 issued Greatest Hits Live, a compilation of these two compilations. After we already bought said compilations. Awesome.
2/5 stars for the album, just go ahead and get Greatest Hits Live instead.
1987’s Wild in the Streets was one of the harder Helix albums to acquire on CD. Cassette and LP were no problem at all, but relatively few CDs were produced in comparison. In 1992 I found a used cassette, (at a filthy music store in Port Elgin, Ontario) which came in a neat glow-in-the-dark cassette shell. It was the only glow-in-the-dark cassette I’ve ever seen or owned. Cassettes being what they are, I later desired a more permanent copy, CD being my preferred medium. This proved frustratingly difficult to find, even after being hired at the record store in July 1994.
This was important to me, because Helix were my first rock concert, on the Wild in the Streets tour. Johnny Cash was my first concert, but I saw Helix in October of 1987 in the Center in the Square, with Haywire opening, and they were awesome. The album wasn’t one of their best, but it did have classics such as “Dream On”, “Kiss It Goodbye”, “She’s Too Tough” and the title track. That old cassette wasn’t going to last very many plays.
Once starting at the record store, I discovered that Capitol/EMI had long since deleted the album. Brian Vollmer was still years away from reprinting and selling the albums himself, so my only option was to find a used copy. Since we sold used CDs, I hoped that one would eventually float my way. In the meantime I checked the “H” section of every record store I could find. No luck. Years, I looked. Like a woe begotten sailor searching for Cthulhu and the lost city of R’lyeh, I sailed the seas of music, searching.
Our first store didn’t have a computer, just pens and paper. We worked without a computer for years. All of our CD orders and reservations were done manually, in binders and note books. We had several pages of used CD reservations: many people looking for copies of the Beatles’ Red and Blue albums, T-Rev looking for Saga and Steve Earle rarities, and my hunt for the elusive Helix CD. This system wasn’t very efficient, as you basically had to remember what albums people were looking for, and go and check the book for the person’s information. If you saw, for example, a Traveling Wilburys CD in stock, you’d check the book because you knew someone was waiting for it. It wasn’t an exact science but we did the best we could.
In 1996, when I was given my own store to manage, we finally got a computer! The software had a computerized reservation list. When you were entering new arrivals, you’d manually type in a title. So, “MOTLEY CRUE” – “DR. FEELGOOD”. A little note would pop up saying “reservation found”. You would then go to a different screen, find the person looking for the CD, write down their contact info, and delete the reservation. This system was extremely vulnerable to human error. They later refined it, making it smoother and more automated.
I entered my name in for Helix – Wild In the Streets right from the very beginning. With this new computerized system, I figured my chances of finding the CD had improved. Not so.
The months went by, the seasons changed, still no Helix. My friend Len, who was a customer I met via the store, put himself in reserve for the Helix CD as well. I would have had first dibs on it if it came in, but as time went on two or three more people added their names to the waiting list. The likelihood of everybody getting a copy was nil, considering the years that I had been working there and never seeing one. (In good enough condition, anyway.) There was always a hope that one day, a copy or two would float our way. Len eventually found a copy at another store and removed his name from our reservation list. I congratulated him on his excellent discovery. He refused to sell it to me, however, even though I offered him $15 which was more than he paid.
A few months later, Len stopped in for one of his regular shopping visits. A pawn shop named Cash Converters had opened up in our plaza, causing us a little bit of unwanted competition. They too bought and sold used CDs. Usually they took whatever crap we didn’t, but occasionally people brought their good stuff to Cash Converters first.
This time, Len had an exciting piece of news for me. “Do you still need Wild in the Streets?” he asked with a smile. “Because they have one at Cash Converters right now. 12 bucks.”
My eyes popped! Excitedly, I handed Len some cash and asked him to pick it up for me. He returned a couple minutes later, with my own personal copy of Wild in the Streets. Mission accomplished! Finally! It was in like-new condition. All it needed was a fresh jewel case, which I provided as soon as possible. That night I finally had the chance to hear the album, in CD quality sound.
That original CD was in my collection for a long time. In fact only recently did I find the Rock Candy remastered edition with expanded artwork and liner notes, used at Encore Records. I then handed my original to (former customer now friend) Aaron, which he received at Record Store Excursion 2013!
The lessons from this are two-fold:
1) When Record Store Guys befriend their customers, they get CDs out of the deal!
2)When customers befriend their Record Store Guys, they get CDs out of the deal!
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