More Than Words

#820: The Last Note of Freedom (1991 – Part One)

This is Part One of a series based around the year 1991. In music, culture and my personal life, 1991 was a landmark year. There was life pre-1991, and there was life post-1991. I’ve spent a couple months piecing together details of that critical period. Stick around and enjoy the memories.

GETTING MORE TALE #820: The Last Note of Freedom
(1991 Was the End and 1991 Was the Beginning – Part One)

After all the hard work, studying and good times, there was only one thing left to do: attend the big highschool graduation ceremony. I’d be seeing some of my friends for the very last time. Shirt and tie on, I was clean shaven and ready to go. Family arrived at the house and gifts were given. I remember a new watch. I even received the novelization of the hot new Schwarzenegger flick, Terminator 2: Judgement Day from my sister Kathryn.

Only this time I wouldn’t be back. This was it. The last hoorah.

Blue graduation cap upon my head, I looked like a girl with my long hair. I barely recognise myself in the old photos, receiving my diploma on that big stage.

Like many graduation ceremonies, there was a slideshow to remind us of all the good times. The song they chose for the slideshow was an interesting selection: “The Last Note of Freedom” by David Coverdale, his first solo track in a decade and a half. Who selected it and why, I will never know. It was the kind of song I would have chosen myself, but I had nothing to do with it. I just found the title very apropos: “The Last Note of Freedom”, and when that last note rings out, we would be cast into the larger ocean of “real life”. It was a poignant choice even if the lyrics really didn’t apply. The words had nothing to do with a milestone like graduation, but it sure sounded cool when Coverdale started screaming in the middle of the ceremony.

We need love,
We gotta want it so bad.
We need it now,
So run for it fast.
I know it,
And the world will be cheated.
I can’t go on, in a world where love’s defeated.
I know it.
I can’t go on.

“The Last Note of Freedom” was from the Days of Thunder soundtrack, and I made sure to order a copy from Columbia House forthwith. It was probably the most commercial track that Coverdale had recorded to date, with a vaguely 80s tropi-synth feel.

I would never see many of my friends again, and I knew it as I walked out of the building with my grad cap in my hands. I shook hands with Anand “Boboe” Etwaru who I never crossed paths with ever again. I was pleased to find out, many years later from a mutual friend, that he still had the nickname “Boboe” which I gave him. (It’s just the ASCII characters for “Anand” with each letter bumped up by one, an accidental discovery I made.)

My parents owned a rental cottage and I wanted to rent it for one weekend, just a final chance to hang out with my friends. The parents said “no way” and the last weekend never happened. Instead, a bunch of us just made a run downtown to Sam the Record Man one afternoon. We walked – none of us had a car. It was fun and bittersweet. The new Van Halen sat there on the shelves but the packaging was rather bland. It would have to wait for my birthday. Instead I bought some singles: “You Could Be Mine” (CD), by Guns N’ Roses, and “More Than Words” (cassette) by Extreme.

I can still recall one thing that happened that day. As our small group walked down Frederick Street towards King, we passed by a little old lady. As we passed her, she smiled and chuckled an evil laugh!

“Heh heh heh heh!”

Creepy stuff, man!

“We’re hexed now!” someone commented.

I’m glad that a small group of my friends got back together for one record shopping trip in the summer of ’91. We knew things would be different from here on in. Many of them were going into serious engineering programs. Intense, time consuming stuff. On some of my lonely days that fall, I thought of picking up the phone and calling some of them. But I didn’t. “They all have their own lives now,” I reasoned.

An era had ended, and the last note of freedom had rung. Onto bigger things!

REVIEW: Extreme – Pornograffitti Live 25 (2016 Japanese 2 CD set)

EXTREME – Pornograffitti Live 25 (2016 Victor Japan 2 CD set)

When you hear that an album like Pornograffitti (which defined one of our teenage summers) turned 25 last year, don’t it make you feel old? Maybe you haven’t played it in a while. (If you haven’t, here is a refresher course.) It was one of those discs that had appealing songs from start to finish, each different from the last. All 13 songs (14 if you include the solo “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee”) are reproduced in sequence on this new live CD release, fresh from a hot show in Vegas in 2015. You can buy a blu-ray or DVD of the concert too, but CD collectors will want to spring for this Japanese double set. On a second disc you get “Play With Me” (given more exposure in the movie Air Guitar Nation) and “Cupid’s Dead”, normally exclusive to the video version. The total package is close to an hour and a half of some of Extreme’s best songs. The Japanese printing also has its own cover art, though no other exclusives.

The familiar taped intro of rain and piano inaugurates the “funked-up fairy tail” that is Pornograffitti. “Trying so hard to keep up with the Joneses!” begins Gary and and the Vegas crowd knows all the words. With Nuno Bettencourt and Pat Badger helping out, the Extreme vocals are nice and thick live. The sound is beefy goodness, wound up in electric guitar strings. Kicking it on drums, Kevin Figueiredo keeps things pretty close to the way original drummer Paul Geary did it. “Decadence Dance” is sincerely good nostalgia.

Following the vague storyline of the original album, “Lil’ Jack Horny” shows up amidst shimmery guitar harmonics and a funky lil’ riff. The horn parts (tapes?) jack up the funky little guitar number, which carries over to “When I’m President”. Nuno squeaks and squonks while Gary waxes poetic. “So go ask Alice, ah you know what he said? What did he say — remember, I wanna be elected?” Maybe one day Gary, because it is indeed true: just about anyone can be president! Cherone promises that things’ll be different. You can even be in his cabinet!

The funk peaks (obviously) on “Get the Funk Out” which remains as silly and fun as it was 15 years ago. (Listen for a little bit of a lyrical modernization from Nuno!) It’s pure live smoke only slowed down by the obligatory audience participation section. This appropriately segues into “More Than Words”, which is slightly more than a singalong. Stripped naked of the loud guitars, Nuno and Gary can still harmonize as clean and perfect as they always have.

“Money” resumes the rock, as Gary bemoans the modern worship of the almighty dollar. Nimbly killing it on both guitar and harmonies, Nuno Bettencourt is a super hero. He does it again on “It (‘s a Monster)”, a stock album track that goes from point A to point B at top speed. Some real gems start showing up a in steady string from there. “Pornograffitti” possesses some serious funk metal riffage and guitar tricks, performed at an unbelievable level of rock supremacy. Then it is time for the slow jazz lounge croon “When I First Kissed You”. Piano flourishes and Figueiredo on brushes lend it a really pretty dusky sound.

“And now back to our regularly scheduled program!” shouts Gary as Extreme once again puts on their rock and roll shoes. It’s time for “Suzi (Wants Her All Day What?)”, another funky rock combo. Nuno plays some of the fastest licks ever attempted, but that is mere warm-up, for next is “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee”, the legendary guitar instrumental that re-defined the guitar instrumental for a short while. There is no time to recover because it’s straight into “He-Man Woman Hater”. This Van Halen-like blast contains some of Nuno’s finest fret abuse.

Pornograffitti was also a little different, and one aspect of that is that it ended with two ballads. Historically that has been demonstrated as a risky way to end an album, but Extreme pulled it off by using two that were different from any of the others on the CD. “Song For Love” was a big pompous Queen-like anthem, and you can all but see the lighters and cell phones waving in the air. “Hole Hearted” was the memorable acoustic closing number, great for campfires and rock concerts alike. Live is just as solid as the studio original.

Onto to the Japanese bonus CD with its two bonus tracks. “Play With Me” has always been a bit of a novelty, but notable for its sheer velocity and Mozart-a-go-go guitar dexterity. Few players have chops like these. “Cupid’s Dead” is a set highlight – heavy, funky and progressive at times. Extreme III deserves as much praise as Extreme II: Pornograffitti so it is quite pleasing to have this adventurous track close.

Bravo to Extreme for making this trip back in time a real treat.

4.5/5 stars

#490: Sh*t LeBrain’s Mom Says

Thanks for joining me this week, for the week of Getting MORE Getting More Tale. I hope you enjoyed all five musical stories!

Monday – #486: Dream Music
Tuesday – #487: All Apolologies
Wednesday – #488: Almost Cut My Hair
Thursday – #489: I Forgot To Remember To Forget
Friday – #490: Shit LeBrain’s Mom Says

I love my mom. I have the best mom in the world! That’s why I want to share these memorable mom quotes. Let’s hear it for my mom!

1. One day we were at the cottage playing cards. Someone cut a stinky fart. My sister demanded to know who the cuplrit was. “Who cut the cheese??” she asked.

“What cheese?” answered my mom.

2. Remember “More Than Words”? Extreme really broke into the mainstream with the standard-setting acoustic ballad. This is the one, more than any other acoustic ballad, that conjures the most images. My mom liked the song. She asked my sister and I who sang it.

“Extreme!” we answered simultaneously.

“Who’s Nick Streen?” she asked back.

3. My mom and dad just got back from a cruise. They excitedly told me about the different activities I would enjoy. Rock climbing, bumper cars, and lobster every night if I wanted it. “And they have special shows,” added my mom. “Like Rock of Ages.”

Doing my best to exaggerate the degree to which I was offended by this suggestion, I slowly turned my head to stare, and removed my glasses raising the eyebrows just so.

My mom caught my drift, but not why.

“Do you not know what Rock of Ages is?”

I answered matter-of-factly, “Yes I do, that’s not my point!”

“But it’s about rock!” clarified my mom.

My mother-in-law, who was also visiting at the time, knew what I was getting at.

“Your son is a music snob,” she said. She turned towards me and quickly amended, “Or a music aficionado if you prefer.” I smiled at her and laughed. That was it exactly.

Thanks for being such a good sport mom! Glad you enjoyed the trip.

#356: Cassingles

Aaron at the KMA and I have coordinated posts today about cassette singles! If you can’t get enough, click here for his! Geoff at the 1001 has also thrown his hat into the ring, and you can see his cassettes here!

RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale #356: Cassingles

Cassingle (noun): “cassette single”, a musical single release, usually consisting of two songs, on the cassette format.

A couple years ago, my parents found in their basement something I had lost and presumed would never see again: an old shoebox full of my old cassette singles! This was especially valuable to me, because a couple of those cassettes have exclusive tracks on them that have never been released on any other format. Helix’s “Good to the Last Drop” is one such single. Van Halen’s “Right Now” is another.

The shoebox also contained my prized cassette copy of the Sonic Temple Collection by The Cult. Buy cassette one (“Fire Woman”) and you can send away for the box. Buy cassette two (“Edie”) and you get three Cult cards. Buy cassette three (“Sweet Soul Sister”), and you can send away for a Sonic Temple pin. (Which I still have, just not handy for a picture.)

There are some tapes that I know I’m missing. They include three by Warrant: “Cherry Pie”, “I Saw Red”, and the horrid “We Will Rock You”, which I probably sold at garage sales when I temporarily disowned Warrant in the 1990’s! I could also swear that I owned Extreme’s “More Than Words”, but I don’t know what happened to that one. I’m not worried about it since the B-side remix track is being reissued on the deluxe edition of the Pornograffitti album. Maybe I gave it to Crazy Thunder Bay Girl!

Check out what remains of my cassingle collection below.

REVIEW: Extreme II – Pornograffitti (1990)

EXTREME II – Pornograffitti (1990 A&M)

1990: Everybody was buzzing about the sophomore album by Boston’s Extreme, and their stellar lead guitarist Nuno Bettencourt. Extreme II: Pornograffitti (“A Funked Up Fairytale”) is one of the last great hair metal albums of the era. It is chock full of diverse songs, great playing, great writing, and adventurous arrangements. Big kudos must of course go to Nuno whose guitar playing is at once tasteful and (pardon the pun) extreme. Not to be outshone is lead vocalist Gary Cherone who was at his peak here.

A loose (very loose) concept album, Extreme II commences with atmospheric rainfall, which introduces us to “Francis”: our protagonist and the kid on the front cover. The crashing licks of “Decadence Dance”, the first single, interrupts this moment. Gary’s lyrics are witty and Nuno’s fingers nimble. The song kills.

There is a wide swath of styles covered on Extreme II. Obviously funk is a big one (“Get the Funk Out” with a blazing horn section, “When I’m President”, the title track.) Of course there are the landmark acoustic ballads “More Than Words”, “Song For Love” and “Hole Hearted”. The cool thing about this trio of singles is that all three ballads are different. None of them share the same style as well. “Hole Hearted” is more a campfire rock song than a ballad anyway. While “More Than Words” is now considered the prototypical acoustic ballad, it must be remembered that when it came out, it was unlike most. It contains no drums and only one acoustic guitar. Gary Cherone’s vocals merge harmoniously with Nuno’s creating this lullaby effect.

Other interesting songs include the lounge tune, “When I First Kissed You”. I once read Nuno saying that his inspirations were Queen and Prince, artists who were fearless to include different styles on their albums. Meanwhile, “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee” contains some of the greatest and fastest guitar soloing of any era. It doesn’t get much more diverse than this withoug losing coherance, but Extreme II holds together as a concept and an album.

The album is filled out with killer hard rockers: Songs like “Suzy Wants Her All-Day Sucker” and “He-Man Woman Hater” are some of the catchiest rock songs this side of Aerosmith, but are tricky enough to keep your interest peaked. By the time the album ends, you’ll be exhausted from rocking out so much, but you’ll still want to start over again from the beginning. The album appears to be designed that way, since it closes with the same rain and thunder.

This is a must-own classic for any hard rock fan who likes it smart.

5/5 stars

Once you absorb this album, you have to pick up the following companion pieces:

1. The “More Than Words” and “Hole Hearted” singles, which contained different remixes of “More Than Words”, one being A Capella with congas.

2. The “Song For Love” single, the B-side of which was Extreme’s amazing cover of Queen’s “Love of my Life”. Incredible cover, which was designed to segue into “More Than Words”. They did it this way when played live, as they did at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

3. The Guitars The Rule the World (the first one, not Vol 2). This has a Nuno Bettencourt electric blues instrumental called “Bumble Bee (Crash Landing)”. This is the second part to “Flight of the Wounded Bumble Bee”, which on the album was trimmed down to exclude the “Crash Landing” portion. When I recently ripped this album to my computer, I used Audacity to recreate the original complete “Bumble Bee” track. I dropped the file into the correct place on the album to create an “unedited” Pornograffitti experience. It was kind of cool how it worked, segueing into “He-Man Woman Hater”.

REVIEW: Queensryche – Empire (20th Anniversary Edition)

QUEENSRŸCHE – Empire (2010 EMI 20th Anniversay Edition)

20 years? Wow, they sure flew by for me! When Empire first came out I bought it on cassette, and even back then I thought it was a bit too commercial. That’s not to say Empire is a bad album, but coming off Mindcrime and the killer first single “Empire”, I expected something heavier.

Now with the benefit of hindsight, you can really hear a band coming into their own identity. Empire is kind of the end of the old “heavy metal” Queensryche and the beginning of the newer more diverse Queensryche. The next album, Promised Land was a another stride further away from sheer metal, but more successfully achieved.

This box set, very nice looking and all, would have been better released as an individual live album, because disc one is identical to the previous Queensryche remaster version. The bonus tracks are the same. (“Last Time In Paris” from the Ford Fairlaine soundtrack, “Scarborough Fair” from the “Anybody Listening” single, and “Dirty L’il Secret” from the much later “I Am I” single. Yes, “Scarborough Fair” is a Simon and Garfunkel cover. Much more gothic though!)

The live album is from the same tour (but not the same show) as the Operation: Livecrime album. Think of this as representative of Queensryche’s non-Mindcrime live set, so if you have both albums you kind of have one complete show. It’s a good live album, although without the Mindcrime material to balance it, it is way too Empire-heavy. 7 of the 10 tracks are from Empire. That’s not me complaining really, just an observation of the feel of the set, as an album. For non-Empire material, you get the awesome “Walk In The Shadows,” “Roads to Madness”, and “Take Hold Of The Flame”, representing the first couple Queensryche full-lengths.

(As an added note, the Operation: Livecrime reissue also had one additional song not on this, which was “The Lady Wore Black” originally from the first EP.)

The live stuff sounds great, very clear with a good performance by the band. Tate is in peak voice at this point — he nails all the notes in “Take Hold”! The whole band sounds really good, especially in the backing vocals department. It also sounds pretty live and not messed with, which is my preference. I’m sure there are backing tapes, Queensryche do use them, but the overall feel was one of spontaneity. The liner notes claim there are no overdubs whatsoever.

If you’re not familiar with the Empire album and you’re buying it for the first time, you are definitely going to be familiar with most of the album’s six singles:

“Empire”, the dark forboding tale of drug trafficking, with killer spoken word-style vocals from Geoff Tate.
“Best I Can”, the power pop rock song, with uplifting (but cheesey) lyrics.
“Silent Lucidity” one of the three songs that defined the term “power ballad” in the summer of 1991. (The other two were “More Than Words” by Extreme and “To Be With You” by Mr. Big.) A great song with brilliantly sparse-yet-lush arrangement. Still stands up today!
“Jet City Woman”, my personal favourite simply for that unstoppable bass groove.
“Anybody Listening?”, the epic album closer, and one of the all time best songs Queensryche have ever written.
“Another Rainy Night”, not one of the better songs, in my opinion. Kind of repeats the pop rock stylings of “Best I Can” but with lyrics about missing some girl.

There are also buried treasures within the album tracks. “Resistance” feels like a polished-up Mindcrime outtake for sheer tempo and mood. “Della Brown” is unlike anything the band ever attempted before, an atmospheric tale of a homeless woman that foreshadows the direction of Promised Land.

The band were really gelling at this point, and an album like this makes me really wish Chris DeGarmo was still in the band. He wrote or co-wrote almost every song, and his backing vocals really enrich the record. Everybody was playing great, though, and big props to Eddie Jackson for his killer bass sound.

The package includes an Empire poster, booklet, and five postcards featuring stills from the “Empire” music video.

To sum up, there is absolutely nothing wrong musically with this album, or the bonus live album. This is a 5 star album for music, for packaging, for sound, and all that stuff. I have to deduct one star simply because the first disc is just the same Empire I already owned and I think the live disc on its own could have been released alone for the 20th anniversary of Empire.

4/5 stars (5 for music -1 for rebuying the album, again!)

More Queensryche:

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part I

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part II

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part III

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part IV