Every good Canadian that was alive and rocking in the mid-80’s remembers the music video: The dudes are breaking rocks in the quarry, in chains. Then the singer stands up and yells, “Gimme an R! O! C! K! Whatcha got? Rock! And whatcha gonna do? Rock you!” And then, freedom! It’s just one of those great 80’s rock music videos, and it’s only one of many on this DVD. Here, you get ’em all from the Capitol years.
The videos are not in chronological order, which would be my preferred arrangement. The DVD commences with the award winning “Running Wild in the 21st Century” featuring Snake the Tattooed Man from London Ontario. The older classics range from edgy to campy, but are always cool in their own way. My preference is towards the live on stage type of video, like the exciting “Wild in the Streets”. On the other hand, “The Kids are all Shakin'” is undeniably fun, with Brian Vollmer playing multiple characters from an old man to a radio DJ. You can’t help but chuckle in your beer.
There are also a handful of rarities here, including the “topless” version of “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'” that you definitely won’t see on MuchMusic. “Don’t Get Mad Get Even” was only played on Much, like, twice. So it’s pretty rare too. What’s missing is the alternate version of “Wild In The Street” that I have somewhere on a VHS tape, and any sort of special extras like interviews. Also, I have to say that I wish the video for “That Day Is Gonna Come” was on here. It is my all time favourite Helix video but it wasn’t on Capitol. It was on Aquarius.
[I have a buddy, Rob, who used to work for Rogers TV. He told me that he had seen and knew where the tape was for the original “Heavy Metal Love” video. They did an early version of it in T-shirts and jeans, before they changed their image to black leather. Rob offered to copy it for me but I didn’t believe him so I said no!]
Great little DVD. Extra interviews would have been awesome. However a lot of that stuff is available on other Helix DVDs. (Check ’em out.) S.E.X. Rated has one last bonus going for it — it is encoded for NTSC on one side, and PAL on the other. No matter where you are, you can buy it and enjoy the classic videos of 80’s Helix.
4/5 stars
How fucking cool does Brent Doerner look in every single video?
Those who were displeased with 1986’s 5150 album were optimistic about the next Van Halen. “I heard it’s supposed to be heavier like old Van Halen,” were the whispers in the highschool halls. “More like the stuff with David Lee Roth.” Even though Van Hagar plotted their own course with tremendous success, there were and always will be factions that prefer Diamond Dave. It is all but impossible to review a Van Hagar CD without asking, “is it as good as the classic records?”
I like OU812, a lot. It’s probably my favourite Van Hagar album and I’ve liked it since it came out. It is a little harder than 5150, and it does sport old school Van Halen shuffles like some from the days of old. I would often argue that where Sammy Hagar fumbled in Van Halen is in the lyrical department. But few of his lyrics on OU812 outright suck, and some are pretty cool. Eddie’s guitar tone was beefier than it was on 5150. Most importantly, the band were all fired up and still writing great rock songs and ballads.
Keyboards remained on the new album, as heard on opener “Mine All Mine”. The context now was a harder rock song, and they work effectively. Hagar turns in a surprisingly penetrative lyric regarding religion and self reliance. “You got Allah in the East, Jesus in the West — Christ, what’s a man to do?” sings Sammy, never one to mince his words. The breakneck track serves as an excellent starter for the new Van Halen.
“When It’s Love” kills the momentum momentarily. It was a huge hit and also happened to be Van Halen’s first actual “music video” since David Lee Roth quit the band years before. As far as ballads go, it’s edgier than “Love Walks In” or “Dreams”, although I don’t think it’s as good as either of those. Thankfully the boys chase this with the weird-titled “A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)”. This blazingly fast Van Halen shuffle isn’t too dissimilar from the style of song the band used to do with Dave. Eddie, of course, knocks everybody down with his impossible licks. Meanwhile, drummer Alex Van Halen gleefully enjoys the odd beats and searing tempo.
One of the best Van Hagar songs of all time closed side one, and it’s the song that loaned its name to an award-winning tequila: “Cabo Wabo”. A laid back summer classic, I challenge even the most cynical fan to not tap their toes during “Cabo Wabo”. Hell, feel free to air-drum along. Eddie lays down some juicy chords in that trademark brown sound.
“Source of Infection”, side two’s opening song, is barely a song at all. I have always been convinced that Sammy ran out of time and didn’t have any lyrics written for this song so he just went in and sang stuff. We know that Van Halen were indeed rushed in the studio. I think “Source of Infection” is evidence of that, as there are barely any words to it.
Hey! Alright! Woo! How ’bout ‘cha now, come on! Oh yeah! Dig it! That’s right Is everybody ready? Let’s go!
(Movin’ up and down) Up ‘n down (Round and round) Oh, round and round (Movin’ up and down) In ‘n out (Round and round) Yeow!
Crank it! Blow out! Uh! Ouch! Help me Now flip on over Oh baby, you know that I like it (Woop! Woop! Woop!)
I think I’ve made my point.
It’s actually a smoking track, one of the heaviest Van Hagar blazers ever recorded, but to call it a “song” would be too generous and misleading.
I’ve been on record here for trashing Van Hagar ballads in the past, but I really like “Feels So Good”! It’s the bright upbeat one. Eddie’s keyboard sound on it is unique. You have to give Eddie credit as a keyboardist, because that is so overshadowed by his guitar playing. Eddie has always manufactured cool keyboard hooks, and accompanied them with an identifiably unique keyboard tone. “Feels So Good” continues that tradition. Top that with an Eddie solo complete with two-handed tapping and tricks, and you have a flawless Van Hagar pop rock track.
The country-flavoured “Finish What Ya Started” is one of the best top 40 hits about blue balls that I can think of. I suffered from a high level of burnout from this track in ’88-’89, due to its saturation on radio and MuchMusic, but you can certainly hear why radio went for it. The blue balls theme probably went right over their heads, and it’s accessible with plenty of incredible guitar hooks. You just don’t hear Eddie playing like this often. I also have to praise Alex’s snare drum sound here, so full and authentic.
“Black and Blue” was actually the first single, although no video was made for it. It’s a slower Van Halen blues groove, but I don’t think it holds up particularly well after repeated listens. (I caught hell for playing this album at work once, because Sammy sings “Bitch sure got the rhythm,” on this song.) And unfortunately I don’t think “Sucker in a 3 Piece” is particularly awesome either. It’s probably the weakest track on the album, although I remember one kid at school thought it was the best one, so there you go! “Only Eddie Van Halen could come up with ‘Sucker in a 3 Piece’,” he praised. I don’t see what his fuss was all about.
There was a CD bonus track on this, a rare novelty back in 1988. I already had “A Apolitical Blues” on the flipside of the “Black and Blue” single. For the first time since Diver Down, a cover (Little Feat) on a Van Halen album! Granted, only on the CD version, but still. On MuchMusic, Eddie explained how this song was recorded about as low-tech as you can get: four guys, two microphones, one room. It sounded great on that scratchy old 45, but it’s not as memorable as a Van Halen cover can be.
Interesting and sometimes annoying factoids about the albums:
1. No producer is listed anywhere in the credits. There is only “Recorded by Donn Landee”.
2. The tracks are irritatingly and purposely listed in the wrong order on the back cover, and in the lyric book. They are alphabetical. Who does that anymore?
4/5 stars
Final note: A rare 3″ CD single with a remix of “Finish What Ya Started” and the album version of “Sucker in a 3 Piece” found its way into our store. It came in with no packaging, so I bought it and stuck it in with my CD of OU812 as “disc 2” in a 2 CD case. The remix version is notable for not being audibly different from the album version in any detectable way!
I’ve reviewed almost every single Quiet Riot album now. Only Guilty Pleasures awaits of the studio albums I have left to cover. Why did I leave 1984’s Condition Critical for so long? As the follow-up to Metal Health, you’d think I would have tackled it already. But I didn’t even have the album ripped to my computer.
As a half-arsed Metal Health clone, I’ve never felt like Condition Critical deserved a lot of time spent on it. I received it in 1985, and it has never been an album I have particularly cared for. I still think today that most of the songs are not very good. At that, almost every song is an inferior clone of a prior one on Metal Health:
“Sign of the Times” = “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)”
“Mama Weer all Crazee Now” (Slade cover) = “Cum On Feel the Noize” (Slade cover)
“Winners Take All” = “Thunderbird”
And so on and so forth. Spencer Proffer returned to produce, so even sonically Conditional Critical is all but a clone of the previous record. I’m sure the guys thought they were repeating the magic to take them back to the top of the charts. How wrong they were! Most of the new songs were written solely by Kevin DuBrow, and it feels rushed.
Condition Critical still retains some of the fun of Metal Health. Although not as good, the dumb-titled “Stomp Your Hands, Clap Your Feet” is plenty fun just like Quiet Riot classics. “Party all Night” is also a hoot, and you have to admit that the guys did make a pretty hilarious music video for it. Quiet Riot broke with the help of MTV, and they at least retained their knack for making an amusing music video.
On side two of the album there was hidden a serious heavy tune, the title track “Condition Critical”. This slow grinder is one of those great lost tracks that you can only get on the album. Banali breaks the levee with some solid drums. Songs like this make tracking down the record worthwhile for those willing to give it a shot.
On the other hand, I had a friend who said “Winners Take All” is probably the worst Quiet Riot song of all time.
VAN HALEN – Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2015 Warner)
I’d like to begin this review by diving head-on into the thick of it. Everybody’s been talking about Dave’s voice. It’s all anybody seems to talk about regarding the new Van Halen Tokyo Dome Live in Concert CD. Even Sammy Hagar, always eager to open his mouth and opine on all things Halen, had this to say:
“I’m trying to tread lightly on the whole thing. Every time they do something, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, can these guys do anything worse to their reputation and to the level of the music of the band?’”
Sammy couldn’t be more wrong (or bitter sounding).
Newsflash: the new Van Halen is good!
Sonically, this CD is monstrous. The bottom end sounds so good, and what a bottom end it is! Lil’ Wolfgang Van Halen has become quite a bassist, which surely comes as no surprise. His vocals with pa Eddie keep the melody grounded while David Lee Roth freestyles it. No, he doesn’t sound like Michael Anthony, but surely you knew that by now. I have always loved Mike’s backing vocals. But Mike’s not coming back to Van Halen, and if you miss Mike that much, Chickenfoot have two excellent albums for you to pick up.
The setlist: in a word, phenomenal. All seven DLR-VH albums are mined for hits and deep cuts. This means that you get to hear tracks like “Romeo Delight”, which I bet you never thought you’d hear live again. “I’ll Wait”, “Ice Cream Man”, “Beautiful Girls”…almost all of my favourites are here! But what really blew my mind was “Hear About It Later”, one of my desert island tracks, from Fair Warning. I understand that the setlists were often decided between Dave and Wolfie, and you sure can’t find much fault in their choices. The only one I didn’t particularly care for in the live setting was the recent single “Tattoo”, with its taped backing vocals. It’s kind of an oddball Van Halen track as it is.
Now, Dave’s vocals: They are what they are. There are moments he’s out of breath, wheezing, and missing notes. They are fewer than you’d expect. I think one thing that didn’t help this album’s early reputation was that they released some questionable preview tracks. Dave’s vocals on “Panama” are not as hot as they are on something like “Ice Cream Man”. Definitely, he does better on some songs than others, but he succeeds in injecting every line with that Dave “charasma”. He cheats his way around certain melodies, and speaks where he used to sing, but other singers his age do the same thing. Rob Halford changes the vocal melody live quite often. So, given that age and time do things to the human voice, and given that Dave is a smoker, you cannot compare Roth in 2013 to Roth in 1983. (Let’s just hope that some day, we get a CD/DVD set of that US Festival, eh?) And keep in mind: Roth’s so-so vocals are only proof that this album is live, no tampering in the mix (unlike the live album they did with Sammy which was heavily re-recorded).
Last, but certainly not least: Edward Van Halen himself. It seems kind of pointless to say “he’s playing awesome”, but I do think it’s important to get it out there. He’s had health scares, and he definitely hit a low point back in 2003. His singing and playing here is awesome. There is nobody in the world who sounds like Eddie Van Halen, though there are many who have tried. In a blind taste test, 100% of Van Halen fans chose Eddie.
Filler: Alex’s drum solo “Me & You”, a tropical jazz inflected moment that simply does not fit the show. But the guys are getting up there and a mid-show drum solo gives Dave and Eddie a chance to rest for a few minutes. In every other way, Alex Van Halen is awesome on this album.
I recommend any serious Van Halen fan to ignore the hype (and Sammy) and pick up Tokyo Dome Live. It’s cheap (about $13-15), it sounds excellent (it’s self-produced) and it has all the songs you want. After all, we didn’t spend all these years moaning that we wanted Dave back in the band, only to bitch and complain about the live album, did we?
ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA – Rock Star Supernova (2006 Epic)
It’s no wonder this band came and went, with Lukas Rossi now toiling in obscurity once again. Even Jason Newsted didn’t want to tour with this band. (Why would he, when he had better stuff going on like VoiVod? He was replaced by Black Crowes bassist Johnny Colt.) Tommy Lee and Gilby Clarke have stated that they really wanted to have two singers, Rossi and Dilana, but the TV execs wouldn’t allow it. That shows you how much integrity is contained herein. Even the name of this band sucks.
Butch Walker (ex-Southgang) created a faceless, generic, dull sounding record with all the modern bells and whistles that scream “ProTools”. He deserved plenty of the blame since he co-wrote all the songs but one. The drums barely sound like Tommy Lee; the band has no identity. There is not one bonafide great song on this CD. There are a couple decent moments on some of the rockers such as “It’s On!”, but this is 40 minutes you won’t get back.
One of the main issues with the album is Lukas Rossi himself, a generic singer with no real identity. He sounds like any number of glam rock vocalists with nothing unique or special. The other musicians are rendered faceless by a batch of songs that are too lame for most Motley Crue albums. But come on — if you have a TV series about finding your new singer, find somebody memorable, you know?
If you bought this, you simply supported the same-old-same-old, plastic, processed, fake, and commercial music that has been rammed down the throats of the world since the advent of reality TV. Really, this just gives rock a band name, because people see this and think it’s actually rock music. It’s not. This is prefab music designed to generate hype and sales. It’s also suspect when I read multiple drummers’ names in the credits. Thankfully people saw through it and the sales tanked (except in Canada where Rossi is from).
Don’t spend a penny on this music. If you like these musicians and you want to hear them do something cool and different that you probably haven’t already heard on the radio, pick up the following:
If you support Rock Star Supernova, you just twisted the knife a little bit deeper into the back of rock and roll.
1/5 stars, and one big stinky piece of cheese.
1. “It’s On”
2. “Leave the Lights On”
3. “Be Yourself (and 5 Other Cliches)”
4. “It’s All Love”
5. “Can’t Bring Myself to Light This Fuse”
6. “Underdog”
7. “Make No Mistake… This Is the Take”
8. “Headspin”
9. “Valentine”
10. “Social Disgrace”
11. “The Dead Parade”
VAN HALEN – Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2015 Warner)
It came especially late, but alas we finally have a live Van Halen album featuring David Lee Roth. Tokyo Dome Live in Concert was recorded on March 22 2013 during VH’s last tour. It’s not the band’s first live album as there has been a live Van Hagar release, but it’s the first with Diamond Dave which fans had been asking for, for decades now. This lineup features the Van Halen brothers (of course) Alex and Eddie with David Lee Roth, and Wolfgang Van Halen au lieu of original bassist Michael Anthony. One has to ask “why a live album at this point late in their career?” but it’s better late than never l suppose. Van Halen’s classic lineup and first six albums with DLR from 1978-84 have touched and inspired generations. It’s all-time classic rock, and there are plenty of masterpieces and classics to be found. The band knows this too, as they perform the songs that everyone wants to hear from those six albums along with a few from the current lineup’s 2012 output A Different Kind of Truth.
The setlist is incredible! I mean seriously look at it (they open with “Unchained”) and tell me that it’s not damn well near perfect. All the hits are there along with favourites and that’s one of the album’s strengths and main appeal. I don’t think l would’ve taken anything out. I wouldn’t have added much more either. Anyone who complains is just nitpicking. I would’ve wanted to see “You And Your Blues” from ADKOT instead of “Chinatown”* but that’s about as picky as l can be. Everything l could’ve asked for is here. Two discs and 25 songs (one is a drum solo) at this price is excellent. Those things l can’t complain about.
Now let’s address the elephant in the room. Yeah THAT one! Roth’s singing. Sometimes he completely leaves out lines, his timing is off or at the very last second, and occasionally he’ll almost talk instead of singing. To his credit he’s getting up there in age and moves a lot during live performances, it’s not getting any easier for him and l know criticism of his voice will be harsh towards this release. I’m trying not to be too harsh, while remaining objective. Granted he doesn’t sound great and there some not so good moments, but Diamond Dave was never truly an amazing singer to begin with. Less so live. He was always known to be the charismatic and energetic frontman and no one could touch him.
One of my favourite moments has Dave being Dave, during the beginning of “Pretty Woman” where he goes: “I know that song! (pause) I know that song! (pause) I fucking love that song!” On some songs he sounds good, some tolerable and some…awful.
People have mixed feelings to say the least about Wolfgang replacing Michael Anthony. I think it hurts them not to have Anthony around because his backing vocals were truly the band’s secret weapon and they improved Dave’s overall sound, something Wolfgang simply cannot do (he does sound a little better now), but he does get the job done on the bass guitar. The backing vocals are not awful, and they try their best (“You Really Got Me” is a good effort) but they could have used Anthony’s presence. Alex Van Halen has lost nothing with the years and plays incredible. The “Me & You” piece is amazing. Eddie does what he does best, and surprises us at times adding things here and there being the player we know he is. I can’t say that they really live up to their past glory, but very few bands can and at the end of the day it’s a fun performance.
The sound is very raw and bare-bones, it doesn’t sound like it was overdubbed at all which is one of Tokyo Dome‘s best qualities. I think they were going for a bit of a bootleg sound, not too much as clearly this exceeds a bootleg, but Van Halen wanted a real raw, gritty and heavy feel. Now the audience is essentially nowhere to be found. I own lots of live albums and this has got to be one of the quietest crowds l’ve heard for Van Halen (and a rock concert for that matter). I can only assume they turned them down during the mixing.
On a side note, I think it was a missed opportunity to film the show and have it released as a CD/DVD package**. I think it would have helped gather even more interest in the band and Tokyo Dome. I’m just glad we finally have some new Van Halen out, and a live one with Dave.
Is it perfect? No. Does it have it’s flaws? Yes. Could it have been more? Well l think if you don’t expect too much out out of Van Halen you will find much to enjoy. The guys are a little older, Dave’s voice has aged and it’s 3/4 of the classic lineup but they can still deliver a good performance and entertain you. Some will completely rip on Dave’s voice and l get it (STOP CHEWING GUM WHILE YOU SING!), it’s the main reason l’m giving Tokyo Dome 3 stars. It does make you long for a proper live release from the early 80’s. The musicianship though, is very good and the setlist incredible.
3/5 stars
*LeBrain disagrees. I like both songs, but “Chinatown” trumps “You and Your Blues”!
**LeBrain agrees. I don’t know why that wasn’t done.
I thought it would prudent to post a mini-review today, lest some of you thoughtI had lost my mind earlier. What’s the date again?
BON JOVI – “Born To Be My Baby” (1988 Polygram 7″ single)
This single is a beauty. I bought this 45 at the Zellers store at Stanley Park Mall in Kitchener when I was a young fella. It doesn’t have any exclusive tracks — not even single edits which were very common on Bon Jovi 7″ singles. Instead it came in a collector’s package with cardboard picture sleeve, and three postcards.
The postcards are interesting to me for a reason. Look at the group photos of the band. Jon’s face is always obscured. These pictures from the New Jersey period represent a brief time when Jon was trying to give the band more face time. Check many photos from that era — his back is often to the camera while the others look straight ahead. I read a quote in a magazine where Jon was pissed that people only knew Richie Sambora as “the guy in the cowboy hat”. He was trying to give them attention and I think that’s cool.
The two tracks on the single are two of my New Jersey favourites! “Born To Be My Baby” was always a cool groove. I enjoy listening to Tico Torres’ drums on this track. Understated but perfect. But “Love For Sale”? Shit, I think that’s the best tune on New Jersey! Proof of the talent of this band, drunk or sober. Hard to imagine it was just something that happened and got recorded. It actually makes me a little sad today — sad that Jon and Richie have now broken up this amazing chemistry.
Fun single though! Glad to have kept it all these years.
HOLLYWOOD ROSE – The Roots of Guns N’ Roses (2004 Deadline)
Hollywood Rose were one of several bands that eventually morphed into the original Guns N’ Roses. Already on board were singer William Bailey (Axl Rose) and guitarist Jeff Isbell (Izzy Stradlin). Guitarist Tracii Guns (L.A. Guns) was in and out of the band. Drummer Johnny Kreis and guitarist Chris Weber were later replaced by Steven Adler and Slash respectively, who came in together via their old band. It’s a complicated tangle of ins and outs and interchanging members but what’s important is that Hollywood Rose did record a crucial five-song demo in January of 1984. This demo was finally released on CD in 2004 with 10 (!) remixes, and now we get to hear what Guns N’ Roses sounded like as a fetus in the womb!
Unfortunately this CD releases has been padded out by having each song in triplicate. Each track is presented as a) the original demo, b) a remix by Gilby Clarke, and c) a remix by Fred Coury. Cinderella’s Coury, you may recall, sat in with Guns N’ Roses briefly when Steven Adler broke his hand in ’88.
No mercy is to be had on “Killing Time”, an aggressive and ragged assault that foreshadows Guns greats such as “Reckless Life”. It’s similar in construction to “Comin’ Atcha Live”, a later song by Tesla. Axl is in vintage voice, not quite yet in control, but with all the power at his command. The Guns sound is already present on “Anything Goes”, later modified and released on Appetite for Destruction. The riff, later perfected by Slash, is already present and accounted for, although the verses are very different. The chorus is a little out of control, yet to be tamed into a singalong melody. What’s incredible is that the Guns sound was already there, waiting to be properly harnessed and unleashed upon the world. Izzy and Axl created that sound; it came originally from those two guys. Slash and the rest of the guys just had to add the finishing touches.
Track 3 is a Rose/Weber original called “Rocker”. A sloppy punk metal riff and a killer Axl lead vocal make for a passable tune. (I would love it if a reunited Guns would one day pull a “Van Halen” and remake these old unreleased songs…one can dream.) “Rocker” is more metal than you expect from Guns, but it has that sloppy, dangly cigarette vibe that the band embodied.
“Shadow of Your Love” was later re-recorded by Guns N’ Roses as a demo and released on the B-side to “Live and Let Die”. This is the original “Hollywood Rose” demo however, a more basic bare-bones version of the speed rock classic. The last demo is “Reckless Life”, better known as the opening track on GN’R Lies. It obviously evolved quite a bit as a Guns N’ Roses song, because this seems more like a skeleton of the song. It’s still breakneck fast, but the verse riff isn’t there yet.
These five songs indicated there was a cutting edge band here that needed to be heard. They could not have had the same success in this incarnation. They clearly needed Steven and Duff in the engine roof, and Slash laying sticky guitar toffee on top. The bones were already there, and it’s absolutely historic to hear these early demos of such important hard rock songs. The impact that they would have, as a foundation for something bigger, cannot be understated.
That said, as songs they still had a little ways to go, and I don’t think we really needed each song three times in one sitting. I’m not sure why Gilby was involved (except that he was in Guns N’ Roses too, from 1992-1994). I’ll be damned if I can pick out specific changes he made with his remixes, but most of the songs are different lengths so he obviously did stuff! Gilby did have Tracii Guns come back to Hollywood Rose and overdub new guitar solos for “Shadow of Your Love” and “Reckless Life”. These guitar overdubs do succeed in making the demos more exciting than they were. The Coury remixes are probably most notable for a distinctly different drum sound.
The Roots of Guns N’ Roses by Hollywood Rose is an essential collector’s item for any serious Guns fan. You don’t want to be without this. I just don’t think that two complete sets of remixes were necessary.
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale #381: There’s Only One Way to Rock
Back in 1981, the philosopher Samuel Roy Hagar announced that there is “only one way to rock”. He made his case on the song “There’s Only One Way to Rock” from Standing Hampton, a song that he later performed in Van Halen. An except of Sammy’s argument is below:
I’ve heard it called by different names All over the world, but it’s all the same Now there’s so many ways to make love A million ways I been thinking of, oh yeah
But there’s only one way There’s only one way to rock, yeah
While Hagar is normally quite convincing, I have to disagree with him on this matter. In fact I was able to think of at least five ways to rock while on my lunch break. I am sure you can think of many more. How many ways to rock are there? Here are five of my personal favourites!
This series is “twice as hard”! Aaron at the KMA and myself are both taking a look at an old CD-R of Black Crowes B-sides, that he made for me umpteen years ago. Enjoy!
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale #379: Aaron’s Black Crowes B-sides
Aaron has been a generous doner of Black Crowes music to Chez LeBrain for a long time now. Witness, Record Store Tales Parts 260 and 262, in which he provided copies of the Crowes’ Sho’ Nuff box set, and the CD single for “Kicking My Heart Around”. One of the most thoughtful items he ever gave me was a custom Crowes B-side CD, culled from his own library of tunes. The Crowes have a lot of singles and rare tracks, and my collection is still to this day woefully incomplete. The disc he made me covers a ton of songs that aren’t on albums.
There were quite a few tracks on this CD that I didn’t know the origin of. I found out that the first three tracks are from the “By Your Side” CD single, which I still don’t own physically. The opener, an acoustic version of “Horsehead” with a distorted lead vocal, is killer. It sounds live in the studio, which to me is proof that you don’t have to spend weeks and months and years in the studio to make music. “Horsehead” don’t need no frills. “Grows A Rose” and “Peace Anyway” are from the same CD single, but sound more like the By Your Side album. These are streamlined blues/rock tracks, but man “Grows A Rose” sure does smoke! “Peace Anyway” is a soulful Crowes also-ran that could have been on the album as well.
“It Must Be Over” is from the “Kicking My Heart Around” single that Aaron gave me. It’s a midtempo track much in the vein of the By Your Side album but not quite as catchy. It’s a fine B-side though. “You Don’t Have to Go” is really strong, but it could use more of that organ from Eddie Harsch.
Back to the olden days, “Don’t Wake Me” is an ass-kicker with plenty of that juicy slide guitar. This track was later reissued on the remastered Shake Your Money Maker album; I don’t know where it was originally from. For fans of that old Crowes sound before they really started to experiment, this is for you. The acoustic version of “She Talks to Angels” is available on the same remaster. It sounds like an old Stones ballad and it’s flawless in this incarnation.
“99 lbs” and the slow version of “Sting Me” are also available today on the Crowes remasters. I can’t believe how much “99 lbs.” kick ass for a B-side. I know it’s a blues cover, but that’s about all I know about this amazing steady rocking tune. Steady until the end that is, where it speeds up to a breakneck pace. “Sting Me” is one of those tracks that caused a huge battle between the brothers. One of them liked the slow version as heard on my Aaron Mix, and one preferred the fast album version. This resulted in one of those physical confrontations that involved a mike stand being used as a projectile. (I prefer the fast.)
As a B-side from Three Snakes and One Charm, “Just Say You’re Sorry” is surprisingly catchy and straitghforward. I love Rich’s watery sounding guitar tone. “Mellow Down Easy” is from the same period, this being a Willie Dixon classic. I don’t think the Crowes really did anything for it. Either way, it’s on the remastered Three Snakes, although “Just Say You’re Sorry” is not.
“Rainy Day Woman #12 & #35” is a bit of a gimmicky joke cover as far as I’m concerned. It comes from a pot compilation of some kind. “Pimper’s Paradise”, a Bob Marley cover, is a more successful experiment.
Aaron closed his CD with four live tracks in a row: all four are from Air studios in London, circa 1994. The four tracks sample the first three Crowes albums quite splendidly. “Remedy” in particular strikes me as awesome. The vocal is completely different from the album version which was only two years old. You can’t say the Crowes are content to leave things be.
Man, you just gotta give Aaron a 5/5 for making this CD. What a guy!
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