“Here We Go Again” with more WTF Search Terms! Everything seen below is an actual search term, that a real person clicked to somehow get here to mikeladano.com. As David Coverdale might say, “Here’s some rock and roll for ya!”
jon mikl thor arnold the beatles greatness (One of these things is not like the other)
I put in just shy of 12 years at the record store. That’s a lot of time to work retail. If you’ve worked retail, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, it has its ups and downs. The ups include discounts. The downs entail being abused by the general public on a daily basis.
I have a nice plaque around here somewhere, commemorating 7 years at the store. It was a pretty cool gift. It was a total surprise, how it happened. My boss phoned me out of the blue one day.
“Mike,” he said. “I need a list of the top 5 albums of all time. It’s for an article we’re doing.”
“Cool!” I responded eagerly. “But what are the parameters? Is it like rock, or all genres? Because that’s just a wide-open question.”
“Just what you think are the top albums of all time, that’s all I really need.”
Cool! I started work on it. I wanted to be objective, fair. If I were making a personalized list of a top 5, it would be easy, I know there would be some Kiss and Sabbath in there. I wanted to discount my own personal biases and try to be as open as possible for this particular list.
First of all, I chose The Wall. I admit that I chose this over Dark Side due to personal preference, also I think a double album like The Wall deserves many accolades. I obviously had to give respect to two of the greatest bands of all time, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles. I chose Zeppelin IV and Abbey Road. I really couldn’t choose a Zeppelin, so I went with IV as kind of a default answer. Abbey Road is arguably the most genius the Beatles ever were, so I could easily choose that over Sgt. Pepper’s.
OK, three down! Even though all three artists I chose were different from each other, they were all rock, so I needed to go outside that box. To represent country, I decided on Folson Prison by Johnny Cash. Were this a more personalized list, I would choose San Quentin, but I went with Folsom as it seems to be the best known.
I didn’t know what to pick last, so I went with a cop-out answer. Back In Black. What a weak, spineless choice! What am I a college student? Anyway, again I decided to be open and think about how many copies it sold, not about the many superior AC/DC albums.
I submitted my list. A month or two later, I was presented with this plaque! And these five albums were on the plaque! My boss had collected lists from a few of us who had been there a while, and given us custom made plaques, with the CDs and everything. It was really cool and I treasured mine for years.
I only wish he had worded his question differently! If I had known in advance what he was really asking (thus spoiling the surprise) I would have chosen these five:
5. Iron Maiden – Piece of Mind
4. Kiss – Alive
3. Kiss – Hotter Than Hell
2. Deep Purple – Fireball
1. Black Sabbath – Born Again
The original plaque is packed up in a box, as Mrs. LeBrain and I are planning a move to a bigger place. Here’s the five albums that made it onto the plaque though, at least all albums I proudly own. And because I don’t do anything small, I own them all in some kind of crazy deluxe box set. Enjoy.
It’s time for THE TENTH installment of WTF! Like the others, this is a collection of strange/humorous/whatever search terms that somehow led people to mikeladano.com. If you missed the last one, “Top ten edition”, click here!
who was the hunchback on the vban halen pretty woman video (It was David Lee Roth himself)
joe elliott kissing phil collen (No.)
iron meiden son so seven son yu tube
mike patton quiet riot(I have no idea what these two things have in common.)
Making these videos is a lot of work (a lot more than it looks like, thank you Winblows*) but it’s a labor of love.
Aaron and I did very well on Toronto Record Store Excursion 2013. We used modern technology, such as smartphones and GPS, to maximize our time. The weather was gorgeous (absolutely perfect) the whole day, and boy, did we buy a lot of music.
This one goes out toFanFigureZeroand his jaw-dropping site.
In downtown Kitchener last night, I dropped in at the great store Lookin’ For Heroes, to pick up the lastest issue (#94) of Transformers Re-Generation One. Unfortunately I was a week early, but they did have Eddie! Several different Eddies. I decided to start yet another Iron Maiden collection!
I already had the old McFarlane figures from a long time ago, but this new series has seven figures in it. And I plan on getting them all!
WHOCARES: Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi & Friends – “Holy Water” / “Out of My Mind” (2011 Edel charity single)
Remember Rock Aid Armenia? Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi, and many other friends gathered together to raise money for earthquake victims in Armenia. 21 years later, Gillan and Iommi returned to help again, by recording two more awesome songs. Joining them are Nicko McBrain, Jon Lord, Jason Newsted, and Linde Lindstrom from H.I.M.
First of all, I will just say how wonderful it is to hear Ian Gillan’s voice in front of Tony’s guitar again, first time since the Gillan’s Inn album. Even better is hearing Jon Lord’s organ with Ian. It’s just jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring. It makes you miss Jon Lord even more. It’s great that they managed to collaborate once more.
“Out Of My Mind” is a heavy-groove-sludge-monster, with some exotic sounding notes in the powerful riff. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Nicko McBrain play a groove like this before, proof that the man is one of metal’s greatest drummers; he’s versatile. The song vaguely reminded me of a more ominous “Soon Forgotten”, from Purpendicular. There’s also some face-melting guitar solos if all that wasn’t enough for you.
The second track, “Holy Water” is even more exotic. It has flute sounds and other non-rock sounding instruments. Once the song gets going though, it’s a little more upbeat than “Out Of My Mind”. The organ here is by someone named Jesse O’Brien, but once again the Hammond provides muscle.
To make this CD a little bit more worth the purchase price, they included the video for “Out Of My Mind” (made up of studio footage, much like the old Rock Aid Armenia video) and a 27 minute documentary.
I would have loved a vinyl copy. Only 1000 were made. I had it on pre-order from Amazon, but they never got it.
“Part 6 in a miniseries of reviews on Rob Halford’s solo career! If you missed the last part, click here!” That was a rhyme, that ain’t no crime…Breaking the Law! Breaking the Law!
HALFORD – Live Insurrection (2002 Japanese Import)
Having a wealth of solo and Priest material to draw from, this seems like a good place for a double live album to drop. And so it was; Live Insurrection, Rob’s first full-fledged live solo outing. For me personally, this is the peak. This Rob’s home run of solo projects.
Admittedly, there is a certain sense of Rob trying to bury parts of his recent past. There are no songs from Two, and the set is Priest-heavier than prior tours. I found the Halford band to be kind of faceless, a little devoid of personality. They’re absolute pros and there is no question of them cutting it. That’s not the issue, it’s just one of…I can’t hear the different personalities of the players, compared to Fight.
On the other hand, the setlist is so much richer than Fight used to do. The songs are culled from the Halford album Resurrection, the Judas Priest back catologue, and the first Fight album, with a lot of added surprises.
These surprises include three studio tracks, two of which are tracks written by Judas Priest, but never released at the time! You also get Rob’s duet with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, “live” (recorded during rehearsal I believe), and the two bonus tracks from the Japanese version of the Halford album, once again performed live. Rob even sings his first-ever solo track, “Light Comes Out Of Black” which was originally on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer soundtrack back in 1992. The Priest material is a great mix: old obscure stuff from Sad Wings and Stained Class, as well as more obvious stuff from Hell Bent and Screaming. Rob’s voice is in fine form, doing justice to the Priest and Fight material.
Rob’s so hardcore, he stapled his fuckin’ forehead!
The Japanese bonus track is “Blackout”. Yes, the old Scorpions tune, and recorded here with a Scorpion: Rudolph Schenker! Halford easily handles Klaus Meine’s vocal part. It’s a great bonus track, easily worth the extra cash that I spent on this import version. I got this from Amazon.com in 2002.
They give you lots of great packaging with this live album. Decent liner notes, lots of pictures, plenty to look at while you spend a couple hours listening to this platter of metal perfection. Enjoy the feast.
5/5 stars
I’ll be taking a summer break from this series. I’m a bit burned out on Halford albums now, and there are so many new arrivals to listen to! But fear not. I’ll be following this review with Crucible, another Japanese release, a box set, and more.
There were some pretty awesome picks this year. I have to give Scottie props for “Coming Home” by Iron Maiden, from the excellent Final Frontier album. I found some things a bit surprising, such as the overplayed-on-radio “Black Betty” by Ram Jam, placing so high.
“Thick As A Brick” was the live version, so just over 10 minutes. Other long bombers included all of “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis, which resulted in a tirade by Phil for just as long, about how much he thinks it sucks! (And he’s an old-school Marillion fan…surprising.) And of course there were several Maiden tunes that clock in well over 5 minutes.
For your edification, here is the official Sausagefest XII Countdown: 75 tracks, plus 35 tributes. One tribute for each person that submitted a list! 110 songs over one weekend! Awesome.
Most of the stuff I picked this year was too obscure. Stuff like “The Cut Runs Deep” by Deep Purple. “The Hockey Theme” by Neil Peart. “Wall of Sound” by Kiss.
I did however vote for the Countdown’s #1 song, “Toronto Tontos” by Max Webster. It was 33rd on my list, but six people also picked it, putting it at the #1 spot on Saturday night.
Four picks from my top 20 made the countdown: “Die Young”, “Zero the Hero”, “Caught Somewhere in Time”, and “Breadfan”!
So, here were my top 20 picks. Tomorrow, I will post the entire Countdown! Stay tuned…
Sausagefest is an annual all-dude, all-meat, countdown of rock. Five of us from the old Record Store attended! This year, there were 110 songs (75 countdowns plus 35 “tributes”). #1 was Max Webster — “Toronto Tontos”. Other artists who made the countdown included Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Queens of the Stone Age, Tool, Rush, and Tenacious D among others. For the history of this event, check out Record Store Tales Part 30.
Thanks to Jeff Woods and Craig Fee for your contributions — above and beyond the call of duty!
And of course, thanks to Tom our host, and Uncle Meat, Seb and Dr. Dave for the music.
Uncle Meat will be providing me with the full track list. Stay tuned for that post, too!
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