In alphabetical order, here’s Part 3: 88 albums that meant the world to me in the 1990′s but never got the respect I felt they deserved.
King’s X – Faith Hope Love (most KX discs didn’t get the attention they deserved!)
King’s X – Dogman
King’s X – Ear Candy
King’s X – Tape Head
Kiss – Carnival of Souls (while you can’t argue it wasn’t a sellout, it sure wasn’t wimpy!)
Leadfoot – Bring It On (Karl Agell and Phil Swisher ex-COC)
Marillion – Brave (what a brave, brave album)
Marillion – Radiation (a lot of people don’t like this one, but I consider it a highlight for them)
Duff McKagan – Believe In Me (diverse, fun and pissed off)
Kim Mitchell – Aural Fixations (a little soft, but Kim in the 1990’s was scarce indeed)
Kim Mitchell – Kimosabe
Motley Crue – Motley Crue (they were better without Vince, honestly)
Vince Neil – Exposed (…and Vince wasn’t doing too badly himself)
Ozzy Osbourne – Ozzmosis (it sold by the buckets, but I think today it’s ignored which is a shame)
Poison – Native Tongue (Ritchie Kotzen took them to a new level of maturity and virtuosity)
Pride & Glory – Pride & Glory (Zakk Wykde’s first album without Ozzy, and one of the best)
Queen – Innuendo (in North America, most of what Queen did went ignored before Freddie passed)
Queensryche – Promised Land (spacey and mature)
Queensryche – Q2k (riffy)
Quiet Riot – Terrified (the only thing they’ve done since the 80’s worth playing)
David Lee Roth – Your Filthy Little Mouth (I didn’t need to hear Dave do reggae but it ain’t bad)
David Lee Roth – DLR Band (John 5 on lead guitar…crank it up)
It is hard to believe that this monumental album, a piece of rock history, was only issued on CD in Japan! Finding a domestic LP or cassette isn’t hard (I’ve owned it on all three formats including CD) so hunt your record shops. I know Wendy Dio has a CD/DVD reissue lined up, hopefully including the full album, single edit, and the video and interviews. If you’re reading this Wendy…
At the time, all funds went to starving people in Africa, hence the name Hear N’ Aid. The inspiration was something fairly obvious: No heavy metal people outside of Geddy Lee was involved in the numerous famine relief projects of the time! (Geddy sang a lead on the excellent “Tears Are Not Enough” (1985) by Northern Lights, but nobody metal could be seen in “Do They Know It’s Christmas” or “We Are the World”.)
“Oh, you knoooow that we’ll be there!”
Showing the world that heavy metal bands and fans aren’t a bunch of assholes, Jimmy Bain and Vivian Campbell of Dio came up with the concept for Hear N’ Aid.
The main track, “Stars”, by Hear N’ Aid is a tour-de-force. Written by Bain, Campbell and Dio, this is essentially an epic extended track with a soft intro and heavy verses, and tons of guests. They assembled virtually every major metal singer who was willing and available to take part. That means you will hear Quiet Riot singers Kevin DuBrow and Paul Shortino (still with Ruff Cutt at the time) singing together for the first and only time in history! Rob Halford, Don Dokken, Eric Bloom, Geoff Tate, Dave Meniketti, and Dio himself all take lead vocal slots too.
When the guitar solo kicks in, prepared to be blown away. With Iron Maiden guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith playing backing harmonies, you will hear the monstrous talents of George Lynch, Yngwie Malmsteen, Vivian Campbell, Craig Goldy, Neal Schon, Buck Dharma, Carloz Cavazo, Brad Gillis and Eddie Ojeda all taking a few bars. No charity track had ever attempted to assemble not just singers, but guitar players, on one track before.
All this is backed by drummers, bassists and keyboard players from Dio and Quiet Riot. There are more backing singers than I can name, but most notably, Derek Smalls and David St. Hubbins from Spinal Tap. Of course.
The rest of the album is filled out by songs donated by bands who couldn’t take part in the song, but still wanted to help the starvation situation in Africa. Therefore you will get a live “Heaven’s On Fire” from Kiss, from their Animalize Live Uncensored home video. This is the only place that the audio track was released on. There is an unreleased live “Distant Early Warning” by Rush, and rare ones by Scorpions and Accept as well.
Tracklist:
1.Hear ‘n Aid – “Stars”
2.Accept – “Up to the Limit” (live)
3.Motörhead – “On the Road” (live)
4.Rush – “Distant Early Warning” (live)
5.Kiss – “Heaven’s on Fire” (live)
6.Jimi Hendrix – “Can You See Me”
7.Dio – “Hungry for Heaven” (live)
8.Y&T – “Go for the Throat”
9.Scorpions – “The Zoo” (live)
The “real”Queenryche: Eddie Jackson (bass), Scott Rockenfield (drums), Michael Wilton and Parker Lundgren (guitars), Todd La Torre (new singer)
Geoff Tate’s new “second” Queensryche: Rudy Sarzo (bass, ex-Dio, ex-Quiet Riot, ex-Ozzy, ex-Whitesnake), Bobby Blotzer (drums, Ratt), Glen Drover (guitars, ex-Megadeth), Kelly Gray (guitars, ex-Queensryche) and Randy Gane (keyboards, ex-Myth).
Getting (Canadian!) Glen Drover is a huge coup. Sarzo’s history speaks for itself. Gray is no surprise, at least to me. But “Da Blotz” Bobby Blotzer on drums? Seriously, Geoff? That’s…uhhh…an interesting choice for a new Queensryche. What, was Frankie Banali unavailable so next on the list was Da Blotz?
My initial impressions are as follows: Drover’s brilliant but this new patchwork Queensryche smells like the new Guns N’ Roses. Blotzer is a choice that just boggles my mind. I guess we’ll see how it goes, but my money’s on the old Queensryche. Still can’t believe the fans have to deal with two Queensryches, now. Hopefully the courts will put this to an end in 2013 and rule that the guys who booted Geoff out by majority vote have the rights to the name….
This is just getting stupid. Geoff, stop being a douche!
In any business you have to get yourself noticed. You have to make yourself known to the people. You see some places like restaurants and music stores with small speakers outside, playing music, letting people know, “Hey, we’re open!”
We attempted the same thing, but less successfully…I hated that damned speaker.
Somewhere we dug up the biggest oldest speaker from the 1970’s. It was ancient, massive, and weighed a ton. It also sounded like garbage, but was hooked up to a 5 disc changer playing the top 40. That part was OK, because it was always better for me to have top 40 playing outside, not inside!
We all hated the speaker. It was heavy as hell so some people had trouble putting it in and out each day. But that was only one issue. We also had the other problems:
“That speaker is too damn loud! Turn it down or turn it off!” We’d get this complaint from other tenants in the plaza.
We had also our fine neighbors, restaraunts and pawn shops and so on, complain about the lack of variety. Could we please hear something other than Big Shiny Tunes this week? Stuff like that.
Just like our sidewalk sign, it took up half the sidewalk, meaning people would occasionally walk headlong right into it.
“Hey, what’s that song you were just playing outside?” Not a bad reaction, getting people to buy a CD that we were playing. Problem: I couldn’t hear the outside music. So I’d have to take a look at what discs were in the player and take a guess. And when it’s all top 40 crap that sounds the same, well, that could take a while!
I hated polluting the quiet mornings with Much Dance, I just wished one day somebody would have stolen that damned speaker. Hah, fat chance. Not only was it huge but who the hell would have wanted it?
1983: Quiet Riot unleash Metal Health, one of the most critical albums to my personal musical makeup. I played that album over and over again. Side one was my favourite, but side two has grown on me tremendously since then. It was basically my only album for like a year.
2007: Lead vocalist Kevin DuBrow, original member, and writer of all their original songs, dies of a cocaine overdose. Drummer Frankie Banali, who joined the band in 1983 for Metal Health, wrote this:
“I have been approached to see if I would be interested in contacting Rudy Sarzo and Carlos Cavazo and to audition singers for Quiet Riot. I have also been approached to see if I would be interested in contacting and reforming the version of Quiet Riot that included Paul Shortino, Carlos Cavazo and Sean McNabb. Let me make this very simple and perfectly clear. While I am still actively involved in the business interests of Quiet Riot and will continue in that capacity, I reject any and all suggestions to have Quiet Riot continue as a live performing entity. My friendship, love and respect for Kevin DuBrow as well as my personal love and affection for Kevin’s mother and his family makes it inconceivable for me to ever entertain any ovation to reform or to continue Quiet Riot. Kevin was too important to go on without him. It would also be a disrespect to the fans who have supported Quiet Riot for nearly 25 years. I thank everyone for the wonderful and sometimes unpredictable adventure that I was able to share as a member of Quiet Riot. The only regret that I have is the loss of Kevin. May he rest in peace. I now begin life after Quiet Riot.”
2010: Frankie Banalie re-forms Quiet Riot, with new vocalist Mark Huff. They contain no original members: Both DuBrow and founder Randy Rhoads are dead. Original drummer Drew Forsythe no longer playes music. Co-founder (and best friend of Rhoads) Kelly Garni plays bass in a band with Doug “Kelle” Rhoads, Randy’s brother. Rounding out the new band are bassist Chuck Wright (who played on a few past QR albums), and guitarist Alex Grossi, from the final incarnation of the band with DuBrow.
2012: Mark Huff requires brain surgery. Banali fires Huff days before scheduled surgery. He is replaced by Keith St. John, of Montrose, for touring purposes.
2012: Ronnie Montrose passes away, putting an end to St. John’s gig with them.
2012: Banali replaces St. John with an unknown named Scott Vokoun. His first gig will be late March.
Now, I’ll take you back to 1983. Quiet Riot were the only band I listened to for like a year. I slept with that album. When that happens, you stay with a band through all the ups and downs. Some of the downs downs sucked: the firing of DuBrow and subsequent replacement with Paul Shortino, the break up of the band in 1988, the death of a talented bassist named Kenny Hillery, the crappy Down To The Bone CD, the crappy Alive & Well CD, the break up of the band again in 2004, the crappy Rehab CD, and of course the death of DuBrow.
There weren’t as many ups, at least to this fan. I still bought every album, even if I don’t listen to them. I just want “the complete collection”. I was excited when they reformed in 1993 and released the excellent and heavy Terrified CD. I was excited when the “classic” lineup reunited in 1997. Carlos Cavazo and Rudy Sarzo, two of my favourite musicians in any band, helped restore the long-missed Metal Health lineup.
I’m a true fan, in other words.
I’m not a fan boy, though. A fanboy worships every move a band makes, even when it’s as ill-advised as reuniting the band after stating it would never, ever happen. A true fan, one who loves the band, can be critical. True love can take the form of tough love.
Frankie, I’m really disappointed. I know you say that you got DuBrow’s mother’s blessings for this. That’s good, I’m glad about that. That doesn’t mean I have to give you my blessings, nor does any other fan. It’s not right. No original members, Frankie! Remember when you tried that in 1988? How did that work out for ya?
You promised us that we’d never have to put up with a hack Quiet Riot again — a tribute band called Quiet Riot, playing all the old songs that Kevin and Carlos wrote. You promised us that you would respect Kevin DuBrow’s memory. I know you always dedicate the shows to Kevin and talk about Kevin, and I think that’s really nice, and I’m not being sarcastic. I just don’t think it does respect to Kevin, having a hack band playing barely recognizable versions of his hits.
Frankie, listen. As a fan, we’d much rather be getting archive stuff. You know, live albums, re-releases, rarities. Anything but crappy live shows, essentially. It’s great that somebody’s releasing the US Festival on CD and DVD, but it’s not you doing it, is it? I don’t think it is anyway. You’ve got tapes, somebody has to have DuBrow’s tapes. Where’s “The Mighty Quinn”? Where’s the live video of “Laughing Gas”? Give us decent re-releases of the later albums with the bonus tracks so we don’t have to pay $100 on eBay. That kind of thing.
I hope the movie you’re releasing will be good, but I think sadly it’s too late for a film. Anvil caught lightning in a bottle. And I’m not too sure about who you hired as a director.
I keep saying it, I’m a fan. I can tell you that the version of Quiet Riot with Mark Huff on vocals sounded good. It did make a believer out of me. I held out hope for a new album with Huff on vocals (even though I couldn’t fathom who would write the songs). But then Frankie, you fired him. And then Frankie, your girlfriend/ fiance/ whatever-the-fuck, Regina, says that you didn’t knowhe was going to have the brain surgery. That may be, but she didn’t need to kick the man in the balls when he’s down, by alleging that he was fired for drug use. Did you guys even make a statement wishing him a speedy recovery? Where’s your class, Frankie?
As a final insult to the founder of Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads himself, Regina tried to erase that part of the band’s past. She clumsily edited the band’s history to read that the Quiet Riot of Metal Health is a completely different band, not to be confused with the Quiet Riot of 1979. Sure, they had the same singer, same bass player, same name, used the same logo on occassion and played the same songs, but they were a different band, because they briefly broke up in betweem incarnations!
That’s kind of like saying that Deep Purple is not Deep Purple. (They have an original member by the way — the drummer.)
Regardless, DuBrow himself said in 2005, “Happily, I am back with my life-long musical love, and the band I helped Randy Rhoads form Quiet Riot.” Here, DuBrow states clearly that he makes no distinction between the Quiet Riot of 2005, and the original band with Rhoads.
Why are the Banali camp doing this? Well, by erasing the version of Quiet Riot that included Dubrow, Rhoads, Garni, and Forsythe, they can call the Metal Health lineup that formed in 1983 the “original” version of the band. Thus, the version touring today would have one original member: Frankie Banali himself. This serves to justify the existence of a hack Quiet Riot that in reality, has no original members nor any of its major songwriters.
But, they got the drummer thay played on Metal Health. The drummer. Why, Frankie? Is Carlos making substantially more money playing in Ratt?
Like I said earlier though, the version of Quiet Riot with Huff sounded good. The guy’s a great singer, truthfully. I’ve watched numerous youtube videos, and when he was in Quiet Riot, they kind of kicked ass! He was a screamer, this guy, and similar enough in grit and range to DuBrow. This Keith St. John clown, though? Shit singer, shit stage presence, shit hair, shit shirt. He’s on stage telling stories about the “Slick Black Cadillac”. Man, the two guys who wrote that song are dead. You don’t have any stories to tell about a “Slick Black Cadillac”.
Besides, by Regina’s logic, that song is a cover, isn’t it? It first appeared on Quiet Riot II, the second of the two Rhoads albums. By her line of thinking, Quiet Riot are merely covering that song.
I’ve yet to hear this new singer of theirs, but I no longer care. You’ve shit all over your fans enough, Frankie. You’ve shit all over Randy, Kevin, and the fans. I’ve had it. Break up the band, call it a day, and go back to W.A.S.P. or form a new band or something. Besides, it’s not like Quiet Riot is a band of the stature of, say, Thin Lizzy.
Thin Lizzy are at least touring with their original drummer.
RECORD STORE TALES Part 14: Record Shows, Parties, and Quiet Riot
Guys from record stores do know how to party. The only true allnighters I ever pulled happened during the years at the record store. Everything else I called an allnighter, I actually slept for a couple hours.
But trust me folks…guys from record stores play the best music when they party. One night in London (Ontario) we stayed up for what seemed like forever, playing the dumbest fucking drinking games. My drink was Captain Morgan’s (spiced) and Coke. However we were playing this stupid fucking card game. I think it was called Kings in the Corner or something? Each card was a rule? 2 of anything meant you take two drinks, 3, meant you take 3 drinks, etc. And then on some cards, like 6, you’d GIVE 6 drinks to someone else. And a joker meant you took a shot of Wild Turkey. Here’s the photo of my first shot of Wild Turkey from that very night.
r-l: Me, Tom, Meat
Like I said, we knew how to party. From that night forward, when I got loaded, my nickname became “Jim”. And as I took a shot, they’d say, “Here comes Jim!!” Anyway, who gives a crap about that? There’s loads of people who partied harder. We party better.
The best stimulant imaginable is music, and I heard some of the best music ever at those parties. The first time I ever heard Kyuss was at the party at Tom’s place in London. He didn’t start with Kyuss, though. He started with some bootleg Black Sabbath video from 1970. It was taped in some…well, it probably was a highschool cafeteria. That’s what it looked like. It was awesome. It was easily in the top five times I ever truly had my mind blown.
During “Black Sabbath” itself, Ozzy got this crazed look in his eye! You could see it! Then he just started going mad on stage, thrashing about, that leather jacket of his flailing about him. Ozzy’s said before he has another person inside him when he gets crazy, someone they call “Him”. Maybe what they captured on tape that night was an appearance by “Him”? Who knows?
The cool thing though is another of my top five mind-blows of all time happened that night too. Kyuss. I made a nice bed on the floor out of pillows and blankets and stuff, and I passed out in front of the stereo. I woke up a short time later, as some of the guys were heading out (walking) to catch last call at the local pop shop. I just kind of laid there listening to the music…I was falling in and out of consciousness to this heavy, drony music. It was awesome. I didn’t know who it was.
I was told the following morning that it was Kyuss. Tom told me he left the Kyuss / Queens of the Stone Age split EP in the player. From that I pieced together that the song I must have heard was “Fatso Forgotso”. I still remember how it rolled over me like a wave that night.
We had to be up fairly early the next morning, as we were hitting a record show in London. If you don’t know what a record show is, I’ll take a moment to explain. If you do, skip the next paragraph
A record show is usually held in a large room like a conference room in a hotel, for example. Dozens of vendors gathered their best, their overpriced, their rare, and their shelf warmers for you to pick through and haggle over. They are a record store dude’s dream, and his VISA card’s nightmare.
Just to give you a taste, here’s some of my best finds.
At the show in question, I actually found the first two Japanese Quiet Riot albums with Randy Rhoads.
Elsewhere, I found a great book about Alice Cooper called Billion Dollar Baby that we’ll talk about another time. I later found out it was worth many times what I paid.
LP of Faith No More’s incredible Angel Dust album which came with an exclusive remix of “MidLife Crisis”.
Oh, this isn’t a find, but we did see Greg Goddovitz (Goddo) at one. He was wearing socks and sandals.
We had a greasy breakfast (sausage, eggs, toast, OJ) and headed out. I remember it was freezing. Then you get to the hotel, pay your admission (usually somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 or so) and go in. And then you’d be sweating your parka off in this crowded room full of long-hairs, skullets, and mohawks. Guy to girl ratio: About 4-1.
Anyway, as I mentioned, I found these two Quiet Riot albums with Randy Rhoads. I want to post a more detailed blog about this later on, because I truthfully don’t know if I bought a bootleg or a promo. As far as I know there has never been a CD release of these two albums. Yet, that doesn’t exclude that Sony might have pressed some sample copies as a prototype before deciding not to proceed. Or perhaps they were threatened to be sued, who knows? Metal Health was released on Pasha/Columbia which later was absorbed by Sony. My CDs are marked as Sony promos. Everything about the CDs screams “official” except that I am certain they didn’t officially release a CD anywhere at any time.
Regardless, they sound great and I paid what was then a fair price for a bootleg, which would have been $30 for a new, mint bootleg. I would have been willing to pay up to $35 for a good sounding bootleg and they would always let you sample it anyway. So I consider this one of my best scores. I’ve never run across any other copies, bootleg or otherwise, since then. It was meant to be.
We drove back to Kitchener tired as hell but it was worth it. I’m sure there are people out there who don’t understand how you could pay $30 for a bootleg CD when you can just download it for free. And I’m sure someone else could explain it to you better than I can, because I don’t really have a good reason why it’s worth it.
Except I fucking love music, and when you fucking love music, especially when it’s one of the first bands you ever liked, that’s what you do.
A song that is found on the B-side of a vinyl or cassette single, but not on the album; or a song on a CD or digital single other than the main track, not found on the album.
A well known example: “Hey Hey What Can I Do” by Led Zeppelin. Up until the release of the Led Zeppelin box set in 1990, this great song was only available on the 7″ single for “The Immigrant Song”.
I’d known about B-sides for a while thanks to George, the neighbor next door with the Kiss albums. He had a couple Iron Maiden 12″ singles such as “Aces High” with unreleased studio tracks on the B-side, usually two per 12″. I’d also been aware of Maiden tunes like “Women In Uniform” (technically an A-side) that weren’t on any albums that we’d ever seen.
Right from an early age I’d always been a collector. I had a massive collection of Lego. Then later on I had a collection of Star Wars figures that put all others in the neighborhood to shame. Then it was GI Joe and Transformers. I didn’t do anything small. When music came along, it inevitably became the next thing in this obsession. Quiet Riot was the first band I pledged to complete (still incomplete 27 years later). As I expanded out to more bands, I pledged to complete a lot of collections….
When Def Leppard came out with Hysteria I went wild for that album. Definitely still to this day my #1 album of 1987; and that was a year that included new records by Kiss, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and a band I hadn’t quite discovered yet at the time called Guns N’ Roses. Yes folks, I rank Hysteria higher than Appetite. But listen, I’m not going to get into that debate right this second. I’ll save it for another day. I’m just giving you the setting.
I was really passionate about the Hysteria album and early in 1988 I acquired the Animal EP on cassette. That 4-song EP contained three tracks not on the album: “I Wanna Be Your Hero”, “Tear It Down”, and an extended mix of the title song. I really got into “I Wanna Be Your Hero”, hard. It’s still a great track. That really set off a fire for me to collect these rare songs. This was the first really awesome B-side track that I’d found so far. If it was this good, there must be more coming…
I was in highschool, and on a weekly basis, I trekked into my local Zellers store to peruse the 7″ singles. Some you could get as cheap as 99 cents. Any time Def Leppard came out with a new video, I knew there was a new 7″ single to be had. Up next came “Hysteria” itself, and I rapidly found a copy at Zellers. On the flip side was a song called “Ride Into The Sun” (a re-recording of an early Def Leppard track) and it blew me away. It was fast and heavy, there was nothing else like it on Hysteria.
In the summer came “Pour Some Sugar On Me” which appeared at my Zellers soon after the video started running. The B-side was “Ring of Fire”, not a standout track, so I figured by now, Def Leppard were running out of good unreleased songs.
Me at the time, awesome hair
That fall, “Love Bites” started airing on Much, so I knew there would be another single to be had. This one proved to be more elusive. I finally tracked it down, not at my local Zellers, but at a Radio Shack store in Port Elgin, Ontario. They rarely had any, but they did have this. This time, the B-side was a live track. “Billy’s Got A Gun” was definitely my least favourite B-side so far. It wasn’t my favourite song on Pyromania, and it wasn’t a good live rendition either.
Hysteria continued to spawn singles. “Armageddon It” was yet another game-changer for me. Walking into Zellers I could barely believe my eyes: A picture disc 7″ single! I’d seen 12″ picture discs before, but I didn’t even know they made them in 7″. And best of all it was only $1 more than a regular single. I ran home with my prize, but puzzled over the B-side. It didn’t appear to be even by Def Leppard. The song was called “Release Me” and it was performed by Stumpus Maximus and the Good Ol’ Boys.
The notes on the flip side of the disc indicated that never in their travels had Def Leppard come across a talent as great as Stumpus Maximus. And there was a picture of him. A bald bearded man balancing a hat on his nose, with a backing band sillouetted behind him.
I cautiously played the single. The strains of the Engleburt Humperdinck cover poured out of my tinny, shitty equipment. It wasn’t even good! This sucked! Then it got weird. Stumpus started screaming the lyrics in the most gutteral scream I’ve ever heard. I’m telling you people he made Mike Patton sound sane. Stopping, burping, and picking it up again, Stumpus screamed all the way to the end.
I got the joke. But who was Stumpus? I noticed right away that the sillouette of Stumpus’ backing band matched a photo of Def Leppard on the previous single. A reading of the very long and small liner notes on the Hysteria album revealed that Stumpus Maximus was their roadie – real name Malvin Mortimer.
Hysteria was not dead yet. There was one more single to be had, and once again I picked it up in a 4 song cassette format. This single was “Rocket” which was presented in both remixed and extended remixed forms. The other two songs were live versions of “Women” (taken from the Def Leppard home video) and “Rock of Ages”. These versions were better than “Billy’s Got A Gun”, but I had a pretty clear idea that Def Leppard were not a great live band.
“Rock of Ages” however contained a little surprise. This extended live take included a medley of rock and roll classics right in the middle of the song! Def Leppard performed the most memorable moments of “Not Fade Away”, “Radar Love”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “My Generation”, and “Come Together”, changing the melodies and riffs slightly to meld seamlessly into “Rock of Ages”. I gotta tell you people, it’s a fucking brilliant version. Hunt it down. Do what you have to do. You’re listening to the tune thinking, “I know this part, what the fuck is it?” And then you realize it’s “Come Together”. It’s really cool.
That was the last of the singles off Hysteria. It would be years before my Def Leppard collection would pick up again. Sadly Steve Clarke died in January of 1991 — the first of my heroes to go.
So I’ll dedicate the blog to Steve, whose band Def Leppard is really responsible for why I have more CDs in my house than dollars in my bank account.
RECORD STORE TALES PART 1: The Beginning – “Run To The Hills”
I still remember the first time I heard Iron Maiden.
Maybe it’s this way for some when they remember the first time they heard the Beatles, or the Stones. Or for those younger, maybe it’s like the first time they heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Fake Plastic Trees”. The first time I heard “Run To The Hills” was monumental to me, but I didn’t realize yet what the massive impact would be.
It was Christmas of 1984. I was a mere 12 year old looking for musical direction. I hadn’t been much interested in music prior to that. I had albums by Quiet Riot and Styx, but my majority of my collection was John Williams’ movie soundtracks.
I really wasn’t interested in music yet. I had yet to dedicate myself to any particular style. At the same time that I would listen to Quiet Riot, I somehow also thought Billy Ocean was cool.
Well, the video for “Loverboy” was nifty….
I had always been kinda afraid of heavy metal bands. Guys that wore spikes, like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden. Kiss literally scared me when I was buying my first comics (there were always ads for Kiss posters inside comic books), and I know I wasn’t the only one. The neighbor kid was scared to death of Gene Simmons spitting up blood. Bands like Maiden and Priest looked like a bunch of hooligans, definitely up to no good, definitely out to hurt people, including kids.
Boxing Day, Bob came over. It was tradition, every Boxing Day, Bob and I would get together and compare our Christmas scores. Bob scored a cassette tape called Masters Of Metal Volume 2 and I was given an Atari game called Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron.
In my basement, we sat down to play the video game. Our goal was to take the game as far as humanly possible, to see what happened when you shot down so many planes that the Atari didn’t have enough characters to display it anymore. (Incidentally, disappointingly, like most Atari games, it just starts counting up from zero again.) We sat there playing that game so long that Bob had to go home and eat lunch, then come back. But what he left behind while eating was Masters Of Metal.
“Run To The Hills” came on. Some people speak of moments of clarity: That was my moment. The music was fast, powerful, dramatic and melodic. The lyrics were cool and you could mostly sing along. Most importantly, the music and lyrics seemed to combine with the game experience. When Dickinson was singing “Run to the hills, run for your lives!” it meshed perfectly! Too bad Aces High wasn’t out yet!
A moment like that could quickly pass into history and be forgotten for most people. As the day wore on, I realized that I had found something. This music kicked ass! I was brought up on movie soundtracks. This stuff had the same drama, but with guitars! This was even better than Quiet Riot and AC/DC, so I said at the time.
It didn’t end there of course. We played through Masters Of Metal, finding a few more diamonds. “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” By Judas Priest was definitely a close second to “Run To The Hills”. We were fixated on Accept’s “Balls To The Wall”. We’d play it over and over again laughing hysterically at the lyrics. But the song still rocked! I can still remember when MuchMusic started the Power Hour, and they played that video. There’s little Udo Dirkscheider, in his camo pants, and crew cut, rocking with these skinny German guys with long hair. It was fucking hilarious!
We skipped (what we then thought was) the crap…Lee Aaron, Anvil, Triumph. I grew into them later, particularly Triumph. Something to do with double guitars, maybe. I digress. We always came back to Iron Maiden. Always.
Bob would bring other tapes over as the months and years went by. W.A.S.P., Motley Crue, Black Sabbath. Now Bob’s a father of four who doesn’t listen to rock music anymore, which makes me sad in a way. I’m not sad for him, because he’s got a great family and always has. I’m more sad because I don’t think he can ever appreciate what impact our shared experiece of rocking out had on me. Listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and the rest. The was it, the beginning.
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