Every once in a while, we do a show that was so much fun, that I literally can’t sleep afterwards. That was tonight.
Some context. On October 28 2022, Harrison and I went live to grab some stacks of rock.
Tonight, Harrison and I celebrated the anniversary live with some friends. Since it was our one year anniversary, the theme was Top Five Songs About the Number One.
Peter Kerr from Rock Daydream Nation once again broke new ground with some artists who have never been featured on the show, one in particular. Quite a few stonkers! There may or may not have been a “Little” drama, regarding whether or not I bribed Judge Reed when we did our Vinnie Vincent episode. The jury is out.
All the way from Birmingham Alabama, 1st timer John Clauser from My Music Corner gave us a sneak peak at that new 7 Savage W.A.S.P. set with one of his picks. Johnny definitely brought the metal! Thank you so much for coming on, John — we will do it again.
Robert Daniels from Visions In Sound brought a couple soundtracks, of course, but he was not the only one tonight. He also picked a “royal” one that I liked a lot. Thanks Rob for celebrating tonight.
Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions had 8 tracks, 7″ vinyl, and Canadian content – the trifecta! He also gets bonus points for poking Jex Russell in the side with his #1 pick.
Harrison the Mad Metal Man represented Australia with the majority of his picks. He also audibly laughed when I announced my #1 pick, and the proof is on video and I might just have to make a loop of it and play it on repeat.
Tee Bone Erickson, our music guru, submitted an “Ask Mike” question at the top of the show, and probably his best video for us yet: in the guise of “Sammy Hagar”! Tee Bone also submitted his own unique Top Five list: Top Five Van Halen songs with “One” in the title, in chronological order! He also asked Mike to list his Top Three Van Hagar songs, which I did.
Fun fact: Two of the albums picked tonight had some of us thanked in them: one thanking me, one thanking Johnny Metal!
Rest in Peace to W.A.S.P. and L.A. Guns drummer Steve Riley. That was not fun news to break to Johnny Metal today. We spoke a moment about Steve at the top of the show.
We’re taking a couple weeks off to work on some secretive side projects. However, we will be back November 17 with a brand new guest. It will be Jex and PLA here on Grab A Stack of Rock, and there will be dancing!
Thank you for watching, and let’s make this second year as fun as the first…or even top it. Rock n’ roll!
As I cast my mind back to 1988, the omnipresence of Metallica’s …And Justice For All cannot be ignored. For one thing, the band’s new studio album was a double album, which was all but unheard of at that time. The cover art was striking. The band were now on TV, after stubbornly avoiding music videos for years. “One” was the name of the song, and it was even more stark and impactful than the album art. If the band wanted their first-ever music video to be influential and monumental, they succeeded. However despite all the praise, the cries of “sell outs!” echoed on the “letters to the editor” section of various rock magazines. How dare Metallica make a music video. One letter in Hit Parader magazine compared Justice to Bon Jovi. It’s hard to imagine a reaction like that from the perspective of today, but as much as Justice was Metallica’s most successful album to date, there were thousands of fans who resented them for it.
The other elephant in the room is the production and mix of the album, which is brittle and lacks bass. There were various stories, such as hazing the “new kid” Jason Newsted by removing the bass, but today Lars and James largely blame themselves, saying their hearing was burned out and they just kept turning everything up until you couldn’t hear the bass. There are other stories and other parties who received blame at various points of the timeline, but the thing is this: Justice has sonic issues. We all are aware of this by now.
Let’s dig into this hour-plus album and hear what the fuss was all about.
A backwards guitar harmony fades in from the start, a striking and cool effect. Then immediately the riff and drums kick in, and the snare is loud. It dominates the mix, with the riff itself chugging away behind. James Hetfield awakens the dead, and this could have been his vocal peak, in terms of grit combined with sheet lung power. “Blackened” is a blast, like Metallica of old, and though the pace is breakneck to start, it soon switches up to a deliberate march. Lars is absolutely bangin’ away, and there are so many wicked riffs and licks that you’ll want to go back and take notes. This is a textbook course in writing metal, with a dose of complexity and catchy challenges. Kirk Hammett really plays some cool stuff in the solos as well, demonstrating his experimental side just a tad. “Blackened” is the only song on the album with a Newsted co-writing credit.
The title track is second, almost 10 minutes in length and loaded with riffs and tempos. Hetfield growls like a beast of the social ills of the world. Lars’ drum parts are almost out of the jungles. It’s a cool track, undoubtedly powerful and a peak for a certain kind of Metallica track. They had come a long way from their New Wave of British Heavy Metal / punk rock hybrid sound of old. But, much like Iron Maiden at the same time, Metallica were becoming more interested in progressing musically. You can actually hear some bass on this track ,and Jason’s really playing some wild stuff.
At this point of the album, we’re getting acclimated to the frigid cold mix and brittle guitars. Kirk’s wild solos are an anaesthetic to the constant cutting of James’ rhythm guitar.
On vinyl, this is where side one would have flipped to side two, opening with “Eye of the Beholder”. Cool, underrated opening riff to this song, and again Lars sounds like a jungle beast. James is singing lower, but with the same ferocity. Lyrically, James tapped into the angst and frustration that their fanbase felt in their lives. He was able to articulate for them, the things that they were seeing in their world. And they were pissed off. Kirk’s solo comes from a more exotic locale, but fits in regardless.
“Beholder” ends somewhat abruptly, and then the opening machine gun fire of “One” announces the arrival of the coming hit single. The clean guitars that open the track actually sound pretty good, though the snare drum is a sharp contrast to them. Though not Metallica’s first foray into softer tones of metal, “One” was top-notch. There’s no need to go into details on the lyrics as that could be a post unto itself. Like many classic metal bands before them, Metallica took inspiration from literature, though via a film interpretation. The anti-war word resonated with the audiences of 1988. The video, using dialogue and visuals from the film Johnny Got His Gun, was all but universally lauded. As a song, “One” doesn’t need the video to stand up. It builds until it eventually turns into a musical battlefield, with machine guns made of bass drum hits, and explosions from snares. Then Kirk’s solo tells a story of its own, a manic tale of fight-or-flight tension. “One” is every bit as good as they say it is.
This is where vinyl, or even cassette, has their advantages. This is a good place to give your ears a break, at the end of side two. Ear fatigue will set in if you don’t take a moment here! So, on your CD player or streaming service, take a pause. For vinyl, just keep flippin’.
Side three opened with “The Shortest Straw”, another hammering riff, and then Metallica take it for a twist. Hetfield is barking mad on this one! It is not the most memorable of the Justice nine, but it doesn’t play it simple or safe either. The chorus is one you can shout to, and Kirk’s solo is certainly unorthodox.
“Harvester of Sorrow” became a concert standard, and it is a bit of a needed slower moment after the brutality was that “Shortest Straw”. The riff is simpler, more deliberate and to the point, and melody is present in the vocal growls! It’s one of their more accessible moments, but for some irate Hit Parader reader to call stuff like this “Bon Jovi” is utterly ridiculous. It’s slow but stomping. James’ vocals would still raise the dead.
Side three’s closing track is the lesser known “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” and I still hate that “oh-wee-oh” bit (“March of the Winkies”) from The Wizard of Oz that opens it. Totally out of place, and I could swear New Kids on the Block or somebody like that used the bit in one of their songs too. Anyway. The band never played it live until 2014, making it the last song from Justice to make it into the live set. That’s not to say it’s a bad song – there’s a really cool middle section that just builds and builds, and then unleashes an absolute monster of a riff, like Iron Maiden on speed.
The final side features Cliff Burton’s last writing credit, “To Live Is To Die”. Almost 10 minutes in length, this largely instrumental track features the appearance of the Metallica acoustic guitars, which soon give way to robotic hammering and a monumental set of riffs. Solo work by both James and Kirk is extraordinary. There are left turns, and it all serves to set up the closing blast of “Dyer’s Eve”.
“Dyer’s Eve” is a thrash blast of metal; so fast that it’s the only “short” song on the album at 5:12. It comes in suddenly and after a brief cascade of metal madness, and goes full thrash, pedal to the metal, all burners on full. It’s so much, packed into such a short space. It’s one of the most effective songs on the album for that reason, and a bit of a cult classic. “Dyer’s Eve” is one of the deep cuts that just scream for more exposure.
Justice is a trip, a journey, a series of chapters in a larger story. It deserves the scrutiny given to its mix but conversely, it also deserves as much attention as your ears are able to pay to it. Despite the lack of bass, there are things here your mind can dissect down to some brilliant performances if you give them the focus. Justice is not an easy listen, but they don’t all have to be. The cool thing with it is, as you grow with it over the years, different songs become your favourites. Maybe 30 years ago, it was “One” or “Blackened”. Then after a while, maybe “Beholder”, then “Dyer’s Eve” and “Shortest Straw”! The album will never cease to have favourite moments if you love Metallica.
It would be easy to give it a 5/5 stars, but the issues with the bass cannot be ignored.
Original Loudness vocalist Minoru Niihara was let go in 1988 so they could have a stab at a success with an American singer. While they went their way (and did not cross over onto the charts as they hoped), Niihara recorded his first solo album appropriately titled One. He worked at Cherokee studios in Hollywood, where there must have been a lot of rock stars hanging out. The credits on One include: Mark Slaughter, Reb Beach, Doug Aldrich, the rhythm section from Journey (Steve Smith and Ross Valory), Kal Swan, David Glen Eisley, and the Tower of Power horns!
That being said, you might expect a straightforward hard rock album right out of 1989 like so many you remember from that year. You’d be partly right. However the lyrics are mostly in Japanese, and while the intent might have been to make a straight-ahead commercial rock record, it goes a bit sideways on some tracks.
It sounds like some of the same opening sounds as on Alice Cooper’s Trash album (also 1989) are used on first instrumental “Overture”. Then it goes soft rock, with guitar strings tinkling like a fragile piece of glass, backed by heavenly keyboards. In a jarring shift, the first proper song “Let’s Get Together” doesn’t meld well with this intro. It also sounds a bit out of time, a relic from a couple years prior. But Minoru is on top of it. “Let’s get together! Have fun tonight!” goes the boppin’ English chorus, with plenty of the expected thick backing vocals from the Hollywood cast and crew. Although it already sounded dated for 1989, “Let’s Get Together” is a fun track clearly aiming for a party concert vibe. Not bad — production is clunky, and there are a couple key changes that sound off, but it’s otherwise a fun song that does what it’s there to do.
American rock vibes dominate “Stand Up to the Danger”, sounding a bit like “Loud and Clear” by Autograph. That could be Reb Beach just rippin’ it up on the solo, but the track is very standard for the genre. A neat ballad follows, the Journey-like…ahem…it’s a case of a language barrier, I’m sure, but the song is called “Come Over Me”. Very much like a Journey ballad, and it’s probably Valory and Smith on bass and drums respectively. Maxine and Julia Waters on backing vocals.
A cool 80s bass groove sets the tone on “I Can’t Wait”. This mid-tempo car-cruiser is an album highlight, and a track worth getting in your ears. Great solo too (Doug?). Coincidentally, Minoru’s replacement in Loudness was a fellow named Mike Vescera, and he later recorded a different song called “I Can’t Wait” with Yngwie J. Malmsteen. One of Minbru’s weaknesses (and it probably comes down to English as a second language) is a reliance on cliche song titles. “I Can’t Wait”, “Stayin’ Alive”, “Dynamite”, and “Fool For You” are all song titles you’ve heard before.
Speaking of “Dynamite”, the next track on the disc — it’s a little more unique. With a bluesy opening, it soon lets loose with a blast of saxophone. The chorus is full-on pop. A little clunky in construction and production, but different and still cool.
A soft keyboard ballad called “You Can Do It” sits right in the middle of the album. Even though vinyl, and especially cassettes were big in 1989, One only saw release on CD. No “side one” or “side two” with this album. Once more the ballad would sound appropriate on a Steve Perry album, and the guitar solo is really smooth. Good song; Minoru’s style of singing is a bit overblown for a soulful ballad, but you can certainly tell he loves singing this way.
“Bluest Sky” is cool, acoustic and stripped back but “Stayin’ Alive” really scorches. It’s the closest thing to classic Loudness. It is the only clearly heavy metal track on the album. Probably Reb Beach ripping up his fretboard and whammy bar on the solo. Definitely Mark Slaughter on the chorus. The horn section returns on “Fool For You”, but Minoru’s over-the-top singing does not suit the funky metal stylings. He does well on “Too Long Away to Reach”, a little more restrained. But it is the third ballad that really does sound like Journey. So much that you’d assume it was Neal Schon on guitar.
Finally Minoru closes his solo debut on one more ballad, “I’ll Never Hide My Love Again”. This time it’s a big power ballad with a massive chorus, and because it’s dramatically different from the earlier ballads, it works. Definite vibes of King Kobra’s “Dancing With Desire” (1985).
See what I mean when I say that One sounds dated already even for 1989? That doesn’t make it bad, but not all pieces fit. There are some obtrusive keyboard overdubs, some of the ingredients just don’t mix. While Minoru is a fine vocalist, and he gives 110% here, some of the songs sound like they would work better if he laid back a bit. Then again, that could be the language barrier; the words he is singing might be totally appropriate to his vocal output. Everything in music is subjective anyway. Regardless of interpretation, Minoru Niihara’s effort is no less than his whole heart, and you have to give credit for that.
It’s the end of theWeek of Singles 3! Since it’s Friday I have to leave you with something a little more special. If you missed any of this week’s singles or EPs, click below!
METALLICA – “One” (1989 Sony Japan 5 track single)
While there is no doubt that this single is indeed rare, when T-Rev and I shared an apartment together in the late 90’s, we both owned a copy. We figured we must have had the only living room in the country with two Japanese copies of the “One” single by Metallica. I believe both of us acquired our copies via the record store. (Unfortunately, neither of us had the obi strip.)
Along with the full 7 1/2 minute version of “One”, this single presents Metallica’s excellent cover of Budgie’s “Breadfan”. Metallica’s take, which emphasizes the heavy parts, is awesome. It was “Breadfan” that inspired me to check out Budgie, and then discover yet another one of my favourite bands. “Breadfan” was always a monster; Metallica simply turned it up. It is a song that they were born to cover anyway. The unusual thing is that “Breadfan” is one of Budgie’s most notably bass-heavy tracks (from a bass-heavy band anyway), but Metallica’s cover comes from Metallica’s least bass-y period. I’m sure Newsted must be digging in deep to play those Burke Shelley bass rolls, but you can’t hear him clearly enough.
Next are two live bonus tracks: “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” from Dallas, Texas, February 5 1989. (The 7″ and 12″ singles contained different live tracks: “Seek & Destroy” and “Creeping Death” respectively.) I think this period of live Metallica is among their best. Hetfield’s voice had filled out to max out on the menacing scale. Newsted was an able replacement for the late Cliff Burton, and I enjoyed his backing growls on “Sanitarium”.
Last and rarest is the original demo version of “One”. It was recorded to four-track tape: drums, James’ guitar, vocals, Kirk’s guitar. That’s right – because it’s only four tracks, there’s no bass! (Insert jokes about the …And Justice For All album right here: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .) This demo was recorded in November 1987, and unlike many Metallica demos, this one has lyrics. “One” was a fully-formed song in the demo stage, with only a couple parts unfinished. It’s remarkable and I’m sure Metallica had no idea in 1987 that what they were writing was going to become a rock classic. As confident as they probably were, I’m sure nobody in Metallica said, “In 25 years we’ll be playing this at the Grammy awards.” Yet it’s all there; 95% of the very song that would be played at the 2014 Grammys, with Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
This is a great little treasure and I’m sure “one” day (stinky pun) I’ll add the 7″ and 12″ singles to my collection to get the other two live tracks.
Welcome back to the WEEK OF SINGLES 2! Each day this week we’re look at rare singles. Today, we’re looking at lots and lots of them! WARNING: Image heavy!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 269: CD Singles (of every variety)
Featuring T-Rev
I’m going to take the blame for this. It was I who got T-Rev into collecting singles in 1994-1995. Oasis kicked his addiction into gear big time, but it was I that sparked his interest in singles. According to Trevor today, “I suppose it was Oasis that started that ball rolling…then Blur taught me the tricks…Metallica helped mix the sauce…and then I was almost a pro, like you!”
T-Rev was already familiar with the dominance of singles in Europe. “They’re so much cheaper in England!” he told me then. “They have entire walls of them, like we do here with albums, but with them it’s singles.”
He had seen me go crazy for some of the singles that came into the store in the early days. He saw me plunk down my hard earned pay for CD singles by Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and many more. He didn’t get why I was spending so much money on so few songs. CD singles are much rarer here and commanded (new) prices similar to full albums.
“Why do you buy singles?” he asked me one day. “I don’t get it. The song is on the album, they come in those little cases, and they’re expensive.”
“I buy them for the unreleased tracks,” I explained. “I don’t buy a single if it has nothing unreleased on it, but I want all the different songs.”
“But the unreleased songs aren’t usually any good, are they?” he continued.
“Sometimes,” I answered. “But check out this Bon Jovi single here.” I handed him a CD single that I had bought recently at an HMV store. “This one has ‘Edge of a Broken Heart’. It’s a song that was recorded for Slippery When Wet, but it didn’t make the album. Sometimes you find these amazing songs that are totally worth having. Sometimes you only get live songs or remixes, but I still collect those because I try to get everything.”
When Oasis came out with (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, there were ample new singles out there to collect with bonus tracks galore. T-Rev got me into the band very quickly. Oasis were known not just for their mouths, but also for their B-sides. Noel Gallagher was passionate about giving fans good songs as B-sides; he wanted them to be as good as the album. Oasis had a lot of singles from the prior album Definitely Maybe as well, and one non-album single called “Whatever” that was absolutely marvelous.
Once T-Rev got onto the singles train, he had his own rules about what he wanted to collect and what he didn’t. Packaging was important to him. He hated CD singles that came inside little cardboard sleeves. He couldn’t see them once filed on his CD tower, because there was no thickness to it; no spine to read from the side. It didn’t matter what was on those CD singles; if the packaging sucked T-Rev was not usually interested. This applied when we both started collecting old Metallica singles. I found an Australian copy of “Sad But True” with the rare B-side “So What” at Encore Records for $20. This came in a cardboard sleeve; T-Rev didn’t want it. (He also already had a live version via the Live Shit: Bing & Purge box set.) Oasis started releasing their old singles in complete box sets, but T-Rev was only really interested in collecting the UK pressings. There were a lot of variables to consider. If you can’t or don’t want to buy everything, you have to set rules and pick and choose.
Once we understood each others’ needs, we were able to keep an eye open for each other. T-Rev knew if it said Bon Jovi, Faith No More, or Def Leppard on it, that I’d be interested. If it was a Brit-pop band like Blur or Supergrass, he’d want it (as long as it didn’t come in a paper sleeve). Foo Fighters too, or virtually anything with Dave Grohl. Our collections grew prodigiously with rare tracks, EPs we never heard of before, and loads of Metallica. I believe at one point, T-Rev and I had nearly identical Metallica collections, duplicated between us. More than half was singles and rarities. We used to joke that there were probably only two copies of some of these things in town, and we had both of them in one apartment.
T-Rev sold a lot of his singles but not all. He still has some treasures. Highlights include a Steve Earle tin can “Copperhead Road” promo (that he got from local legend Al “the King”). There’s also Megadeth’s uber-rare “Sweating Bullets” featuring the in-demand “Gristle Mix” by Trent Reznor Then there was a Blur thing, some kind of “special collectors edition” signed by Damon Albarn, in a Japanese pressing. Trevor’s seen one sell for upwards of $100. Then there was another band called “A”. As Trevor said, “Remember these guys? It was like ‘Britpop punk’. I liked it anyway.”
Also still residing in his collection: a Japanese print of Oasis’ “Some Might Say” that has two bonus tracks over the domestic version, and two versions of Foo Fighters’ “Big Me”. One is from Canada, the other from the UK. Both have different tracks. I’d forgotten about these until I saw the pictures.
Those were the glory days of collecting. I miss collecting CD singles. I preferred hunting the stores downtown to get all the extra tracks to the way it is now. Now, often you need to buy an iTunes download and several “deluxe editions” to get all the songs. CD singles were just better, period. Even just for the cover art of those Oasis singles, singles were much more fun to collect. I miss those days!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 176: Trevor the Security Guard
Without a doubt, the laziest man I ever met in my Record Store Travels was Trevor, the security guard.
Our very first store was in a mall. Malls have numerous indigenous life forms: Mall rats, Crazy dudes that talk to themselves, hot girls that work at the clothing stores, and security guards. Security guards liked to patrol two places in particular: The clothing stores where the hot girls worked, and record stores.
I went to highschool with Trevor. He was one year behind me. He was an ancillary member of our group, the nerd kids that ate lunch in the chess club room. As such, Trevor found his way into our highschool comic book, “Brett-Lore”. These are the only surviving pictures of Trevor’s comic book alter ego, the book itself left in my care after graduation.
Trevor was most certainly a lazy man. He would be known to kill an hour at a time in our store. Not buying anything, just talking, and being a security guard. While I am sure he purchased more than one CD in his years as a security guard, I can only recall one. Ironically, it was “One”, by Metallica, the live version digipack. It was a rarity and a good purchase on his part. I believe he paid $8.99 for it.
Trevor spent so much time in our store wasting our time, that I caught shit for it. Sort of.
My boss came to me and said, “Mike, I have to ask you a question. Do you have a friend with dreads?”
I searched my memory, but I couldn’t think of anyone with dreads. (I had a friend, Aaron L, who had four braids on his head, but that was a few years later.)
“No. Why?” I answered.
“Well, a strange thing happened. A customer of ours was in here on Friday, and said you were so busy talking to someone with dreads, that she got fed up and bought her CD at Zellers instead. You don’t know anyone with dreads?”
Immediately, I realized there was a miscommunication. I didn’t have any friends with dreads at that time. I did, however, have a friend with red hair — red, not dreads — and it was Trevor the security guard!
“Nope, I don’t know anyone with dreads. Sorry,” I covered for myself.
“OK. It must have been a misunderstanding. Well, just remember how important it is to pay attention to every customer.”
Whew! Got away with it! Only now, 18 years later, can the truth be told! Yes, it was Trevor the security guard who was chatting me up that day. Trevor the security guard, the laziest man in my esteemed group of highschool friends.
T-Rev sold a lot of his singles but not all. He still has some treasures. Highlights include a Steve Earle tin can “Copperhead Road” promo (that he got from local legend Al “the King”). There’s also Megadeth’s uber-rare “Sweating Bullets” featuring the in-demand “Gristle Mix” by Trent Reznor Then there was a Blur thing, some kind of “special collectors edition” signed by Damon Albarn, in a Japanese pressing. Trevor’s seen one sell for upwards of $100. Then there was another band called “A”. As Trevor said, “Remember these guys? It was like ‘Britpop punk’. I liked it anyway.”
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