If you missed the original story about the Cottage in the Woods, please check out Record Store Tales Part 308.
Another long weekend in Canada has come and gone. This time we came with a side mission: visiting Condor Fine Books in Kincardine, Ontario. We’ve been going there for years, and the owner is a really nice guy. He has a crazy selection of old and interesting books, with a healthy section on UFOs and the paranormal. That’s alright by me.
I hope you enjoy my latest video, with book finds and lots of scenery.
RECORD STORE TALES PART 308: The Cottage in the Woods
As bad as the stress used to get, there was always one place I could return and truly recharge my batteries: the cottage.
I’d pack a dozen or so CDs (tapes in the early days) and go on long walks with my Discman. Eat some steaks. Check out the water, rivers and funky bridges. The phone never rang. Heck in the early days there were no phones here. No cable TV, no wi-fi.
Today, I created, edited and posted the video you’re about to see in one day, entirely at the cottage. How unimaginable to me back then.
I tried to re-create the experience of being here visually — probably the most peaceful place in the world. I hope this gives you a taste. Enjoy
JUDAS PRIEST – Priest…Live! (1987, 2001 Sony 2 CD remastered edition)
I have a long history with Priest…Live! My cassette was originally bought at Stedman’s in Kincardine Ontario, July 1987. An LP copy was sold to me by a co-worker named Chris from his own collection about a decade later. Finally I bought a 2 CD remaster which is the last version I hope I’ll need.
Priest…Live!was my first Priest live album. I got the albums out of order: Defenders, Screaming, Turbo, Priest Live. Then, after discovering the pre-Screaming songs for the first time, I slowly began expanding backwards: Point of Entry, British Steel, Unleashed, Rocka Rolla, Sad Wings…
Because of this album’s crucial role of introducing me to “old Priest”, I have a really hard time being critical about it. I will say this: This version of “Metal Gods” with the really melodic chorus is awesome. It’s my favourite version of this song, by a fair bit. I don’t know if that was live or overdubs or backing tapes or whatever. It sounds really cool.
Regardless of how I feel about “Metal Gods”, I can tell you that Priest Live covers pretty most all of the critical post-Unleashed numbers from 1980 (British Steel) to 1986 (Turbo). You get all the tracks you’d expect from the 1980’s: “Freewheel Burning”, “Turbo Lover”, “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'”, “Living After Midnight”, “Heading Out To The Highway”. Clearly the concept here is to have no songs that overlap with the band’s previous live album, Unleashed in the East, a tactic used by other bands such as Kiss, on records like Kiss Alive II. While being fair to the fans economically speaking, as a live concert experience that means you’re missing out on “Green Manalishi”.
Luckily this remaster is now expanded to two CDs, and decked out with three bonus tracks including the crucial “Hell Bent For Leather”, but this remains the only holdover from the pre-1980 period. While the home video/DVD version of Priest Live contains “Green Manalishi”, that video was taken from just one show (Dallas, Texas) while the CD has songs from an Atlanta concert as well. Essentially the CD and DVD versions are two different things. In addition to “Green Manalishi”, the DVD also has “Locked In” and “Desert Plains”. Live versions of these songs do exist on Priest remasters, but they are different versions, not the Dallas recordings.
Live in Dallas, but not the version on the album.
I enjoy the running order. To begin the concert with the mellow and dramatic “Out In the Cold” was a really cool, daring move. It sets the stage for a dramatic concert. From there it’s pedal to the metal: “Heading Out to the Highway”, “Metal Gods”, “Breaking the Law”…
I know from an old Guitar World interview that KK and Glenn felt the album could have been mixed better, that too much time was spent “fixing it” in the mix. Sure enough the crowd noise sounds artificially enhanced and there are backing vocals that I am certain are not live. Otherwise, the record sounds pretty good! But that could just be the nostalgia talking. The guitars could have had more teeth; it was the 80’s though. Dave Holland’s snare sound is in the annoyingly high range, but these are not major concerns. Halford’s interaction with the crowd is more friendly than usual, which is nice especially after viewing something like the Rising in the East DVD. He does do a couple annoying sing-alongs, with the crowd…I’m sure it was fun to be there, they’re not fun to listen to on headphones.
One more nostalgic point: I remember buying this back in that summer of the 1987 and thinking, “Why did Priest change their logo?” I loved the old logo. I never really thought this was a good album cover. Very plain, which seemed to be the fashion in the late 80’s, a decade that Priest Live embraces without shame.
Welcome back to WTF Search Terms. Below you will find 10 phrases that people typed into a search engine like Google, which somehow took them to mikeladano.com. The 10 terms below have one thing in common: I have no idea what the answers would be. If you can help out these people, post your knowledge in the comment section, or these may forever remain unsolved mysteries! Enjoy.
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Even though ear piercings on men at the record store were against our backwards “body piercing policy”, I thought for years about getting my ears pierced. Thought about it, never really did anything about it. This inaction went way back, even in highschool I just never got my ears pieced. I came close on summer holidays after graduation. Today, My Favourite Aunt still blames me for the day my cousin came home with his ear pierced. It happened like this…
Bob, myself, cousin – 1991
Summer holidays ’91, my cousin was visiting from Calgary, Alberta. By coincidence, my friend Bob had decided to spend a few days at our cottage with the whole family, which was cool by me. Bob was like family. My cousin liked to be active. He was never the type to sit quietly. Or do anything quietly.
He kept telling us that wanted to get his ear pierced. We decided, “Hey, why don’t we all drive into town, and the three of us get our ears pierced?” We found a hair salon on Queen Street in Kincardine, Ontario called The Clan that did ears (gun-style). Somehow, on the way there, Bob chickened out. He said, “You know, I’m starting my new job next week. I don’t think I want to go in there with an earring on my first day.”
“Are you…what are you saying?” I asked.
“I’m not getting it done. You can get yours, but I can’t go to a new job like that.” Bob was standing firm.
Feeling my backbone melt away, I said, “I’m not doing it either.”
“WHAT?!” Bob and my cousin both said in unison. “You’re chickening out?”
“I’m not chickening out!” I protested. “We all agreed to do it. If Bob’s not doing it I don’t have to either.”
My resilient cousin said, “I’m still doing it.” True to his word, he did. The crap hit the fan when we got back to the cottage. Why was he the only one with his ear pierced? The questions came fast and furious. I was accused of “tricking him” and “suckering him in”. But I didn’t trick anyone.
I simply chickened out.
I still thought about getting an ear piercing, on and off, but the point was moot since the record store did not allow piercings on men. Obviously this policy couldn’t stand forever or they’d never be able to hire anybody. Finally after much petitioning and complaining by many, the day came when they changed their policies regarding earrings on men.
I knew the only person who would still give me a hard time about an earring would be my dad. Sometimes people would ask me, “Why don’t you get an ear piercing?” and I’d usually respond, “Because my dad’s retired and I don’t want to give him a heart attack.”
My friend Shannon promised to help me to soften the blow. She accompanied me to Tora Tattoo in Waterloo, where the young lady there (Shelley) pierced both lobes with 10 gauge rings. I was pretty happy with the results. My dad was not. Upon entering the house, his only words to me were:
In the continuing saga of all the pets in the greater LeBrain clan, you may recall that Lil’ Shit was the most recent addition to the family. Bass clarinetist extraordinaire Kathryn Ladano recently acquired Daisi aka Lil’ Shit, below. I finally got to meet Daisi this past Canada Day weekend!
It was a great weekend full of bonfires and awesome Canadian scenery too.
Stompin’ Tom Connors – “It’s Canada Day, Up Canada Way”
We were in Kincardine, Ontario, on Queen street, or “the main drag” as my dad calls it. We were in this crappy clothing store called Sandy’s that’s not there anymore. But this time, they had a Kiss T-shirt for sale! I never saw any cool band shirts in Kincardine before. We spent much of each summer there, and when I was younger the place seemed kind of dull. Finding a Kiss shirt there, well obviously I had to get it. It was 1992, a Revenge shirt.
My dad asked, “Did you find a shirt, son?”
“Yep,” I answered. “This one is cool, because it has the new Kiss member on it.” [Eric Singer]
“Yeah,” my dad said with a disapproving smirk. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that bearded guy before…”
RECORD STORE TALES Part 140: For I Have Dined On Honeydew
Back in 19xx, I decided to do a road trip to get some proverbial “good lobster”. I took T-Rev with me, not because he likes seafood (“nothing that swims” was his slogan) but because you need a road trip companion for a 2 hour drive to get lunch!
We both had Sundays off. We ditched the record store, and hit the road one Sunday morning for Kincardine, Ontario, home of Pelican’s Roost. It was the best lobster place in the province. It’s not there anymore, but it sure was awesome. T-Rev brought some road tapes. He was always the master of making road tapes. I remember he did one that was basically the best of Use Your Illusion I and II. Another one collected the best tunes by Four Horsemen.
Problem: The Roost was closed! It didn’t open again until 5. I sheepishly apologized to Trevor and asked if it was cool if we stayed until they opened. He agreed, in the meantime we had lunch at Hawg’s Breath.
Then, we killed time looking for discs.
Kincardine didn’t have a record store then (it did in the late 80’s/early 90’s), but it did have a discount shop with a few thousand used discs to go through. The great thing about out of the way places like this was finding weird stuff that was valuable, that nobody realized was valuable.
What T-Rev bought that day was not valuable. It was, however, just too weird not to buy. So he did. What the hell were with those track titles? “Muffle That Fart” was sure to be a top smash hit.
That certainly worked up an appetite for some lobster!
The Pelican’s Roost opened, and I put that unsightly album cover behind me! I ordered the lobster tail with butter while T-Rev had the chicken. We returned home with full bellies, and a disc that was just too weird to leave behind!
There was never a guarantee that you were going to get a long weekend off. But when you did, and the temperature was above 12 degrees, you went to the cottage!
Going to the cottage, in the era when I only had a cassette deck in the car, meant picking out the best “road tapes” for the mood. Depending on the time of day (some music works best on evening drives), my favourites for the cottage were these:
SLOAN: 4 Nights at the Palais Royale
From driveway to driveway, this album is exactly the length of the drive! Plus it’s one of my top five live albums of all time. Day or night, this was my #1 pick.
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: Songs for the Deaf
It’s pretty much designed for a road trip, but it also just captures that vibe of the long highways at night, and serves to keep you awake! This was a night drive album.
BLUE RODEO: Tremelo
Also a night album. Very mellow, for those laid back cottage weekends.
THE BEATLES: The Beatles (the White Album)
I don’t always listen to the Beatles. But when I do, I prefer the White Album.
JOHNNY CASH: At San Quentin
My favourite Cash album of all time. Of all time! This was great for the weekends that I drove my grandma up. I have it in box set form now, so it’s a real nice extended treat today.
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