1180. Sex Pistols / Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. 1977. 5/5

For the layman in music, the Sex Pistols are a band that these days is shrouded in the mists of time. And given what is more or less seen as outrageous or accepted in music in the current day, the antics of the punk movement in the UK can sometimes be seen to be quite tame in comparison. Even the fact that there is some... gasp... swearing!... in a couple of the songs, barely even rates a mention given what occurs in POP SONGS in the modern age. So a lot of the shock and horror that the Sex Pistols created in their short span in the music scene would barely raise a ripple with the current trends.
Indeed they were a forerunner to so many music trends. Not only were they one of the leading lights in the fast burn of that punk scene, they were also born of an era where on occasions technical musicianship was less important than stage presence, something that fitted the Sex Pistols well given the way the band members started out and how they were drawn together to become the group they were.
To try and make this a history lesson into the birth of the Sex Pistols, and their place in the history of punk music in the UK, would stretch this episode beyond what it has set out to be. The drawing together of the initial quartet of guitarist Steve Jones (who famously is quoted that he taught himself guitar while on methamphetamine to keep his concentration over several days without sleep), drummer Paul Cook, bass guitarist Glen Matlock and lead vocalist John Lydon (better known under his stage pseudonym of Johnny Rotten) through the influence of manager Malcolm McLaren is an interesting story, along with Matlock’s eventual leaving of the band prior to the recording of their debut album even though he had contributed to the writing of most of it, and the recruitment of John Ritchie as his replacement, who is better known as Sid Vicious. Several documentaries exist of course, and a recent dramatization of their career in the six-part series titled “Pistol” is a fun way to follow those early exploits.

The band had already signed and been sacked by two record companies before Richard Branson came along and signed them up to his Virgin label, and the Sex Pistols had matured from a band that played cover versions of songs to writing and playing their own material. The band had recorded the single “Anarchy in the UK” for EMI in late 1976, but due to several controversies they were dropped by the label in early 1977 and not long after Matlock left the band. This left “Anarchy in the UK” as the only song on which Matlock played on the album, though its inclusion on “Never Mind the Bollocks” was not in line with what the band wanted. They had wanted all new songs on the album, and the songs they had released as singles - “Anarchy in the UK”, along with “God save the Queen” and “Pretty Vacant” - to be left off. Virgin and McLaren were having none of that, which, in retrospect was the smart move, as they are arguably the best songs on the album, and certainly the best known.
At the time, the Sex Pistols were reviewed and marketed as being ‘out there’ on stage, with crazy antics and sometimes incomprehensible musicianship, certainly in the case of when Sid Vicious joined the band as he was reported as being almost completely useless on the bass guitar. And that leads to the two things that make this album so interesting even in the modern day. Because, when the band was recording this album, Malcolm McLaren was given the task of making up excuses to keep Vicious unaware that the recording was occurring, and also then keeping him away from the studio, as the three other members of the band recorded the album on their own. There are two songs where Vicious has played the bass, on the songs “Bodies” and “God save the Queen”. However, those pieces were also tracked by Steve Jones on bass, and eventually Vicious’s bass was turned down so far in the mix that it is basically not heard at all. For the remainder of the tracks, Jones recorded the bass guitar, to make the songs sound listenable.
And that’s one of the main points about this album that doesn’t usually get mentioned. The music is not all over the place, out of time or unlistenable. The lyrics are not shouted of screamed or unintelligible. In fact, Jones and Cook are actually pretty awesome together, with drums and bass forming a great rhythm section, and Jones’s guitar chugging along perfectly, setting a terrific platform for each song. It is exactly what the Sex Pistols brought to the table in regards to their legacy to music. It is stripped back, basic power chords, tight 3-4 minute songs with catchy choruses and lyrics that create topical songs in an era where the times needed a push back. Chris Thomas and Bill Price as producers have done a sterling job on this album and in getting a great sound out of the band that, 45 years later, still stands up again everything that has come since this was recorded.

This album has always been one that the industry has held up as the main source of the UK punk scene, but is rarely referenced in recent years. Given the way modern punk affiliated bands have gone about their work, many of the songs here are felt to be tame in comparison. The songs that created such controversy at the time, such as “Anarchy in the UK” and “God save the Queen” are referenced as being simplified musically, and with lyrics that aren’t fiery enough to create the mayhem needed in the modern day. And there is little doubt, and I can’t say this from first hand experience, that this recorded version of their songs are quite different from the way they played them live in the clubs of those days, in front of rabid fans who had taken them to their hearts. They haven’t been stonewashed of their impact, but the producers have made sure that everything comes at you at the same level. Is this a good thing in regards to putting the band’s imprint on vinyl to share with the world? Obviously, to get the full impact, a live recording of the band performing their material would have been the ideal way to follow up this album. Of course, that didn’t happen.
Like most people of my generation through the 1980’s, I knew the main songs from this album. I even played a couple of them in my first band, no doubt to please one or two members who thought we were being the rebellious types at the time. “Anarchy in the UK” has been covered so many times over the years by all manner of bands that it has probably lost its sheen and meaning of the day. But other songs still come across as they must have in the day, such as “Liar” and “Submission” and “Pretty Vacant”, and there is still lots of fun in listening to “Holidays in the Sun” and “Bodies” and “God save the Queen”. Like I said, I think the album itself still holds itself up amazingly well in the modern age. And perhaps that is because it was the one and only that the band produced, with first John Lydon moving on during their tour of the US, and Sid Vicious overdosing a year later. In many ways it is probably this album’s saving grace, as there is nothing to compare it with after this. The band always seemed to be on borrowed time before they imploded, and while a second album may well have been bigger than this in sales and content, the fact that it is a standalone volume still makes it a unique experience to listen to. I’ve had it on constant rotation over the last six weeks, as well as having watched the mini-series on their lives, and it still has the power of its convictions.

1165. Rainbow / On Stage. 1977. 5/5

By the time this album was being thought of and considered, Rainbow had already built themselves up to being a hugely massive band. Led by virtuoso guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, and featuring the amazing vocals and writing talents of Ronnie James Dio, the band was rounded out by other amazing musicians of the era – Jimmy Bain on bass guitar, Cozy Powell on drums, and Tony Carey on keyboards. Touring on the back of the ground-breaking and simply incredible “Rising” album, with the band now in the groove, it was decided to record some of the shows with the idea of releasing them as a live album, to showcase the band at its best in its element. As a result, several dates in Germany and Japan were recorded in late 1976.

 
Some of the things that, in my opinion, make it difficult to release a truly representative live album of the band at this time must surely have been the same things that producer Martin Birch came up against in his battle to have this done and released properly. The first issue was the length of the songs as they were played in the live environment. Now, Rainbow was already renown for longish tracks when it came to their albums, but in the live environment it was even more prevalent. As was often the case in the 1960’s and 1970’s, bands played extended length version of their songs live, which allowed the musicians to showcase their wares. The guitars and keyboards would often please themselves for what they were playing, with the drums and bass holding the rhythm of the background until such time as they broke back into the song again. Now this was all fine (although, if you ask me for my personal preference, I would rather hear another 6 songs being played than have several songs extended into freeform experimentations that may be okay for awhile but in the long run just a little bit boring), but when it came to trying to put them on vinyl, it made it difficult for Birch to fit them on one side of an album without cutting the songs in half! Birch eventually solved this by having the songs on the double album out of sequence that they were played, and had them such that they could fit snugly on their section of the vinyl. This we had the songs, but not in the order they were played. Probably not a big deal, but one that could cause annoyance for some fans. The length of the songs also prevented Birch from being able to have all of the songs played on the two LPs, which meant that “Stargazer” and “Do You Close Your Eyes” were both left off the album, as it was felt that having this set as a three LP collection would have been too costly and overpriced for the fans. It also meant that one of the band’s most amazing tracks “Stargazer”, was ditched for two cover songs, Deep Purple’s “Mistreated” (which of course Ritchie had co-written) and The Yardbirds’ “Still I’m Sad”. This seems like an injustice, though to be fair I love both of those songs and the versions that appear here.
Apart from this, check out the majesty of the songs here. The amazing “Kill the King”, opening each gig on the end of this tour even though it had yet to be laid down in the studio – it didn’t appear until the next studio album, “Long Live Rock and Roll”. The awesomeness of “Man of the Silver Mountain” in its best habitat, the live version. “Catch the Rainbow” and “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves” just terrific. The best ever version of “Mistreated”, with Ronnie on vocals and Ritchie brilliant on guitar. And then the best ever version of “Still I’m Sad” with Ronnie on vocals and Ritchie on guitar. I still cannot believe that the version they did of this on the debut album was done just as an instrumental without Ronnie providing the vocals. What the bloody hell was Ritchie thinking of?!

If you’ve been here before, then you’ve heard me say this before. Live albums should be good, because they show a band in their natural environment, and they should also contain the best songs of the band. So in essence live albums should always be awesome, and if they aren’t the band has stuffed up big time.
I first had a copy of this album after high school, and always enjoyed it but was more interested in listening to the studio albums than this live album, for the reasons already mentioned – not enough songs, and the songs here are too long and have too much improvising to stretch them out. Eventually though, this grew on me to the point of amazing obsession. And the main reason for this is the quality of Ronnie James Dio’s amazing vocals. Seriously, check them out, listen to how he carries himself and the songs, and you’ll know what I mean. And that’s not to put down the other musicians here because all of them are also brilliant. Ritchie’s guitaring is at the top of his game, Jimmy Bain is bossing the bass, and Cozy Powell’s booming drums again showcase his great talent.
I think it’s amazing that a band used to play a song live that it hadn’t yet actually recorded in the studio. Imagine turning up to a gig now and having a band open their gig every night with a song you didn’t know. But I love this version. And listening to Dio singing “Mistreated” is just brilliant. But not as good as him singing “Still I’m Sad”. This is such a scintillating version of this song. Listen to the original Yardbirds version, and then what Rainbow has done on this album. Chalk and cheese. It is such a shame they never did a studio version of it (with Dio singing at least), but this version on this album will always be one of my favourite things that Rainbow and Dio did.
This live album is top shelf. It’s one of the best out there, capturing that moment in time for this band when all members were at their very best, and although it would have been great to have the whole show from start to finish (which, if you are interested, you can now get on the “Live in Germany 1976” that was released in the 1990’s), it is still one of the greats. Only one of the band remains alive, and I miss all of them every time I put this album on.

1156. The Clash / The Clash. 1977. 4/5

Whenever you mention the name The Clash, the eyes of people may open up, and straight away come out and say ‘Rock the casbah!’ or ‘London calling!’ but overall, certainly in this day and age, there may not be a lot of recognition of the name of the band. And yet they became one of the most influential leaders of the punk movement in the UK in the mid-to-late 1970’s. Indeed, it is amazing just how quickly everything seemed to come together for the band, and band that didn’t play its first live gig until July 1976, as support to the rising force that was the Sex Pistols. The band had multiple revolving doors of musicians coming in and out of the group, but once Joe Strummer came on board to perform lead vocals the group seemed to settle. In fact, they even eschewed live gigs for some time in order to practice themselves to the point of exhaustion, to make sure that they were as tight as they could be before returning to the stage.

Over the course of that six months, the band played a total of under 30 gigs, but each one seemed to be drawing wide fame. Indeed, by January 1977 they had been signed by CBS Records for 100,000 pounds - a remarkable amount of money, considering that to that point in time, they had never headlined their own show, they had always been the support act. It was later revealed that the deal still meant they had to pay for their own gigs, their own recordings, their own gear, so the money invested was not as extravagant to the band as people may believe. It did however allow them to get together and write and record what would be their debut album, one that somewhat amazingly predated the Sex Pistols album, a band that had been on the scene much longer than The Clash had been.

The subject matter of the songs on the album would be pretty much as you would expect from a band in those days of 1977. From a famous brothel owner in “Janie Jones”, to raging against bureaucrats and the police in “Remote Control”, and the political and economic situation ravaging the UK, The Clash delved into their own lives and situation to come up with songs that spoke from their hearts. And while they were classified as a punk band at the beginning of that era, they were of a wider genre and influence than that. Not always for the better, but it was still the case.
“Janie Jones” opens the album well, while “Remote Control” was released by the record company as the second single without consulting the band, something they were furious about. Joe Strummer indeed thought it was one of the weakest songs on the album. I love how “I’m So Bored with the USA” was developed, given it was originally a song by Mick Jones called “I’m so Bored with You” about his then girlfriend, but Joe misheard the title and felt it was the USA, at which point the song was changed to reference what they felt was the Americanisation of the UK. The best song on the album is still the first single, “White Riot”, the perfect exemplification of a punk rock song. Short, sharp, fast, angry. Awesome.
The slower songs on the album (which I can only assume were played much faster at their live gigs) still come across great, with lyrics that spit and sting but without the real fast pace that for me makes the best punk songs. “Hate & War” certainly fits this description. Then there is “London’s Burning”, sung in full cockney mode chanting away, preaching in fact to the listener, and followed by “Career Opportunities” in a similar vein. Great stuff.
Still, the faster songs are the ones that I love the best. “What’s My name?”, “Deny”, “Cheat”, “Protex Blue”, “48 Hours” and “Garageland”. “Garageland” came from when a journalist wrote a review of a gig that The Clash played, and suggested, and I quote “The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running". And from that the song comes. Excellent.
However.... and here is the one bone of contention I have... I have never understood the fascination that many punk or punk-inspired bands from the UK had with reggae, and not only covering reggae songs in their live sets and on their albums, but then writing songs that were infused with reggae overtones as well. To me it has always been a difficult thing to come to terms with – probably because I generally like early punk music but have almost zero love for reggae music! Case in point is here on their debut album. The band realised that their album was quite short in length and they needed to find a way to increase that. So instead of coming up with a whole new slew of songs, they decided to cover “Police & Thieves”. Originally written by Junior Murvin, the song became an anthem in the UK in 1976 as the Notting Hill Carnival erupted into a riot. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon were involved in the rioting, which inspired them to cover the song on the album, in a style that they called 'punk reggae', not 'white reggae'. I just call it ’crap reggae’. It goes for six minutes which is twice as long as the next longest song on the album. And given the amount of time I have spent on this, I guess you know where I stand.

My first experience with The Clash was when the radio single “Rock the Casbah” made the airwaves in Australia and was played incessantly for a six month period. From here a few of my friends became obsessed with the band, got all of their material, and began to share it around. And for me, I enjoyed parts of their music, and then not so much with other parts. Towards the end of 1985 I was passed on a copy of a punk mixed tape, collated by the older brother of one of my mates, that became a rite of passage for our group, introducing us to so many brilliant bands and songs. Far out I wish I still had it, or could at least remember all of the songs on it. I know for a fact “White Riot” was one of them, and that Stiff Little Fingers “Go For It” immediately followed it. Even now, I still expect “Go For It” to come on every time I hear “White Riot” play.
In regards to this album though, I honestly only listened to it the whole way through for the first time during the covid lockdowns that started two years ago. Now that may seem like madness, but for years and years the only Clash I had was a best of CD, and I listened to that a fair bit, and never really felt the urge to go out and check out the albums themselves. And then came lockdown, and with time to burn, I went back and checked them out. And this is the one that I have actually played the most of all of them. We even had a ‘vinyl listening day’ with my mates at the end of that first lockdown at my house, and one of my best mates brought his vinyl copy of this album to put on – and it made it just all the better hearing it on vinyl, and holding that cover in my hands. It felt right then.

And what I have discovered is just how good this album is. Perhaps if I HAD discovered it earlier, I may not have thought that. Right album for the right time – the world falling into chaos, political strife everywhere, corruption in politics, rioters and protestors in the street... maybe this album is the perfect soundtrack for the Covid pandemic after all.

1150. The Saints / (I'm) Stranded. 1977. 4/5

The Saints was founded in Brisbane in 1973 as Kid Galahad and the Eternals, consisting of lead singer Chris Bailey, guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay. In their early days, like a lot of Australian pub rock that was beginning to break through they found their own style and with it a burgeoning audience. What they began employing was a sound that had fast tempo, raucous vocals and a guitar with lots of distortion which set them apart from other bands at the time. Indeed, by 1974 when they had renamed themselves The Saints their reputation was beginning to precede them. While the band themselves had been inspired by such acts as Little Richards and Elvis Presley, they had other inklings from bands like The Stooges and MC5. It was the style though, the faster more raucous style of their songs that was what started their influential days. Kuepper explained that when the band played live, they tended to get faster and faster through their nerves in front of audiences. Indeed, Ian McFarlane the Australian rock historian wrote that the band had developed their own distinctive sound, defined by Kuepper’s frenetic whirlwind guitar style and Bailey’s arrogant snarl.In June 1976, the Saints recorded two tracks, "(I'm) Stranded" and "No Time". Unable to find any interested label, they formed Fatal Records and independently released their debut single in September. They sent the single to radio stations and magazines in Australia with almost no interest, and United Kingdom where a small label issued the single. Sounds magazine's reviewer, John Ingham, declared it, "Single of this and every week". Following this, EMI head office in London contacted the Sydney branch and directed that they be signed to a three-album contract.
Over two days in December 1976, the group recorded their first LP, (I'm) Stranded, with Rod Coe producing. They supported AC/DC in late December 1976 and, early in 1977, relocated to Sydney, in the hope of eternal fame.

The Saints have been referred to as one of the first punk bands. They are contemporaries of The Ramones who began around the same time, and when (I'm) Stranded was released in the UK, it became one of the forerunners of the genre, pre-dating the albums of the UK punk scene by bands such as The Clash, the Damned and the Sex Pistols, and it was the lead single and opening track of the album, the eponymous “I’m Stranded” that pushed that, containing all of the elements that make the best punk rock songs. It’s not an easy thing for any band when the first song from their first album, which doubled as the band’s first single, is still the most renown and recognisable song that the band has produced. But while that is true in this situation, it doesn’t mean that it is the only great song on the album. And, that the classifying of it as a pure punk rock album would be premature.
Sure, there are those songs, of which "I’m Stranded" is one of the standouts. “One Way Street” backs it up superbly, rattling along in a way that even now you can visualise just how the moshpits at the front of the stage would have been a sea of bodies throwing themselves around while listening to it. The cover version of the Missing Links song “Wild About You” is terrific, a thrashy hard core version that exudes such violent energy it is contagious.

On the other side of the coin, there is a song like “Messin’ With the Kid”, one that for me doesn’t fit the profile, and yet is not the last time I heard such tones in a punk album or song. If you listen to this song, and then listen to some of the slower, changeup songs from bands such as The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers, you will find the roots of those songs in this song. It even brings me memories of songs by REM and Joy Division and the like. At almost six minutes it is also the longest song on the album, and feels longer because it is the same riff throughout, the antithesis of a real form punk song. In my opinion. And one I could skip every time it comes on. It really halts the momentum of the album, something made even more obvious once you crash back into “Erotic Neurotic”, with the pace picking up again, and the fact the one riff runs through the song not so important because of the energy and short lived song time. All of this continues on with great tracks like “No Time”, “Kissin’ Cousins”, “Demolition Girl” and the closer “Nights in Venice”. “Story of Love” breaks up these songs by once again dropping the tempo and trying to be something else. And in the long run perhaps it and “Messin’ With he Kids” were songs that allowed the band and the fans to catch their breath at gigs, but they both feel out of place on an album that sets itself up as something completely separate from what they offer.

It seems as though I have been aware of this album for most of my life, and certainly heard pieces of it in high school, but didn’t really listen to it all the way through myself until 20 odd years ago, and it wasn’t until then that I could hear just what it was that has been deemed as so influential to the genre. It’s interesting that The Saints ended up relocating to the UK after the luke warm response to their efforts to record. Once in the UK though, EMI had wanted to promote them as a typical punk band, with the old spiked hairstyle and ripped jeans and the link. But the band was not interested in that, and wanted to retain the style they had, the Australia pub band style of jeans and shirts.
Beyond that, the band didn’t stick to the style that had got them their break. Their next album was more of an R&B style, including a song using a brass section, trying to escape what they felt was the pigeon-holing effect of the punk style.
I first heard the album as a part of a mixed-tape that circulated amongst our school group in the mid-1980’s, which was one of my first exposures to a wider punk community. And even then, although the album has a sound that is punk-derived, is it really that? The fact that The Saints are Australian and were developing those songs and style away from the sound that The Ramones had already developed in the US, and what was just about to explode in the UK, the fact that its foundation are the Australian pub rock scene do tend to give it an extra bite that perhaps otherwise it would not have had. It wasn’t pushed by the kind of look that the UK punk scene thrived on in the years following its release, the band themselves retained the ‘look’ that they had grown up watching and then built up as a result.

I put on this album now, and, apart from those two songs which I’ve mentioned, the kind of songs that always turn my stomach no matter who the artist is or what genre they come from, this is still a great listen. It stands as a moment in time, one that is still so highly thought of that it was one of only 8 albums that had a retrospective made on it on the TV series Great Australian Albums.
How many of you have actually heard this album? Sat down and listened to it? If you have any enjoyment of this genre of music it is one worth searching out and experiencing.

1082. Judas Priest / Sin After Sin. 1977. 4/5

For those coming in late to the Judas Priest story, Sin After Sin can perhaps be best described as a conduit. It is the bridge between how the band started out and how they were to transform. The beginnings of this could be found on the Sad Wings of Destiny album with some of the songs there. This definitely increases and improves here though there is enough of the past sound here to allow it to be labelled as the bridge between the two eras of the band. Like the previous album there are three or four stand out songs here that can still be compared to the best that Judas Priest has written and performed, however it is the overall change in the music that is produced that makes this an interesting album to listen to.

Leading off the album is the quite brilliant “Sinner” which screams off the vinyl and marks itself as one of the great opening tracks of a Judas Priest album. The tone is set from the outset, with Halford’s vocals screaming for the ceilings and the guitars taking lead throughout. Even when it slows it is a menacing slowness, atmospherically driven by the guitars and the terrific drum work combining hi-hats and cymbals in perfect synchronisation. It is still a sensational song. This is followed by the famously speeded up and heavy version of “Diamonds and Rust”, originally written and performed by Joan Baez. It is amazing that such a cover song, given a more rock oriented grunt, was the song that first gave Judas Priest time on radio airwaves. Apart from that it is a great version of the song and alongside another cover version that came along a couple of years later has become a staple for all fans of the band
If “Sinner” is the complex part of Priest, and “Diamonds and Rust” is the creative part of Priest, then “Starbreaker” is the heart of Priest. It is the kind of song that they eventually made the centre of their albums, the straight forward heavy song with that amazing rhythm base of the drums and Ian Hill’s brilliantly effective bass lines, holding the centre as the guitars of Glen Tipton and K. K. Downing firstly wind together and then explode separately into their solo sections before their duet in harmony, and allowing the unique vocal chords of Rob Halford to do their thing. “Starbreaker” is not the star attraction, but it is the song that holds its own with the superstar attractions and continues the great vibe of the album, and it is songs like this that gives Judas Priest its star billing.
“Last Rose of Summer” is the best example of a song reaching back to their past. While Halford’s vocals easily climb around the melody of the tracks and give it that honeyed simplicity that makes it likeable, there is no power at all in the music itself. The drums blithely keep time while the guitars are kept in check all the way through, almost acoustically driven rather than the full power twin lead/rhythm that made the band who they became. Certainly this is not a bad song, it is indeed a terrific track filled with great musicianship – but it is a ballad driven song that changes the mood of the album from the time it begins until the time it ends. Sin After Sin was pretty much the final album that contained songs such as this. The same can be said of the album’s other more reflective track, “Here Come the Tears”. It too heralds back to the band’s earlier material, though on a much more mature and composed writing and performing scale. It builds from the start into a crescendo of guitar solo and Halford’s vocals crying over the top, which will either please the fan or set them in their place.
The short intro of “Let Us Prey” cuts straight into “Call for the Priest” – showcases the best of the Tipton/Downing partnership in the middle section, trading solo pieces and then combining for the harmony guitars in the middle as well. It is this that was developed over the following albums that made Judas Priest what they became, and while “Call for the Priest” may only be classed as a ‘better than average’ interpretation of that here on this album, all the bones are visible and accounted for. “Raw Deal” does much the same thing, another good song that, for anyone who has heard future albums, contains similar sounds and musical turns from some more famous songs that were to come down the line.
Perhaps the track that best sums up where the band is heading is the album closer, “Dissident Aggressor”, which starts with a layered Halford scream and is followed by the hard and heavy guitars soaring through the heaviest section of the album while the great rhythm of the drums and the bass drive this along in its hardest elements. It’s heavy and short, so short that you can’t believe it is over when it finishes. It is still enough forty years later to give you shivers and make you want to listen to more, both hear and on other albums. It is still a great track and embodies just what Judas Priest had in front of them.

As a bridge between the past and the future, this album does its job. Each element of the band does their job well, and the songs have increased in power and aggression. Those songs that still remain with a tinge of the early days sound terrific musically but for me just drag it back from being an elite album. It doesn’t stop it from being a very good album, and is a necessary stop for those who want to know what Judas Priest were about before they became one of the flag bearers of the heavy metal movement.

Rating: “We both know what memories can bring”. 4/5

1063. Motörhead / Motörhead. 1977. 3.5/5

I wonder how many people there are out there whose first ever experience with the band Motörhead is their actual debut album, also entitled Motörhead? I know it wasn’t mine. That was the privilege of the Ace of Spades album like I’m sure it was for many. Indeed it wasn’t for many years that I finally got around to getting a copy of the album and actually listening to it and discovering just what kind of a start the band had made back in the day. And while many people seem to have differing opinion in regards to its quality, I’m not sure I agree.

There’s little left to the imagination by the lyrics of most of the songs. Lemmy’s concordance with drugs is right there for everyone to see in songs such as the title track “Motörhead” and “White Line Fever” and “Keep Us on the Road”. So too in the classic “Iron Horse/Born to Lose”. It is a cavalcade of lyrical exposition, and no doubt would have given a lot of parents at the time some concerns (I guess in the long run it probably would now too). The Larry Wallis penned “Vibrator” is also straight forward in what is being sung about. They mightn’t be writing poetry here but then the Beatles did the same thing, just about girls. Didn’t they?
Motörhead has a uniqueness about it, which is played out perfectly on this first album. The three piece, consisting of Lemmy on bass and vocals, Fast Eddie on guitar and Philthy Taylor on drums, are the epitome of a three piece band. They are loud, raucous and constantly in action. No time to simply strum while your partner solos away in a three piece band, each one of the members has to be contributing at all times to keep the songs moving, and they do that perfectly here. And the uniqueness of each individuals sound is so prevalent here that it sets up the following albums to exploit that. Clarke’s ringing guitar sound, Lemmy’s ‘nang-a-nang’ bass lines and Taylor’s perpetual drumming are classically highlighted here. Sure, the mix and sound mightn’t be A1 in quality, but isn’t the rawness of the material what helps make this album – and indeed the band – what it is? To be fair I think the opinions of those that pass this off because of production issues are overrated. This is part of what makes Motörhead the band they are, a grungy gravelly musical exposition. “Keep Us on the Road” is the perfect example of how I see the band in those days. Whenever I hear the song I can almost see them in that pub environment, crowd squeezed in and loving the band as it sounds.

Given that the album was recorded mostly over a 24 hour period, before a few days were added to help expand the material, this still sounds great today, despite what some experts may tell you. I love the fact that it sounds like a band firing on all cylinders in an effort to get as many songs recorded in as short a time as possible. Certainly the band must have sounded different in a live environment than they do on this album, but that’s what makes this so enjoyable, because it’s laid down in a couple of takes and that’s what you get. Better was to come there’s no doubt about that, but as an opening performance this still has plenty to enjoy.

Rating: “We began at the beginning, moving high and moving fast”. 3.5/5

1060. UFO / Lights Out. 1977. 3.5/5

Looking back on the UFO discography it is sometimes remarkable how the albums themselves aren’t similar, but the category or line-up of songs on them can be so similar. Most appear to be dominated by two or three songs while the rest can perhaps be seen to be making up the numbers. There would have been no way of knowing that would be the case in the writing process, but once again here it feels as though the quality and signature songs are the ones that brighten the album the best, and that they are the ones that Michael Schenker’s guitar dominates.

How this album could ever be regarded as ‘heavy metal’ is beyond me, because there is very little here that could be related to that genre. Indeed, the more you listen to it, the more you come to understand that it spends most of its life in a completely different setting. For this album the band brought in the addition of Paul Raymond who not only handled rhythm guitar but with the added bonus of mixing in some keyboards into the songs. UFO had used keys on their albums before but Raymond’s addition to the band made it a real focus. And it is the keyboards which almost typically tie this album and most of its tracks to this period, with that AOR sound coming to the fore. This is especially true of “Just Another Suicide” which always feels as though it was meant to be a heavier song, but because of the piano that dominates through the bridge and chorus it is transformed into a perfectly reasonable AOR song, but not a heavy track by any stretch of the imagination. “Try Me” is an even further regression as such, as every time I hear it I can’t help but think it is far too similar to an Eagles song with Joe Walsh on vocals, except this is even more of a ballad track. It seems such a waste, because UFO didn’t need these kind of standard ballad tracks to succeed, did they?
“Getting’ Ready” is more or less a straight up and down rock track, one of those songs that an album has to have to keep it ticking over in the middle. “Alone Again Or” is a cover of the song originally written by the band Love, and it too sounds from that era of the early 1970’s. To me in fact it sounds a hell of a lot like a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song. Like “Try Me”, I really don’t think this fits in at all. “Electric Phase” which follows has a better sound to it, though even here it feels as though the band should have been really stretching out and giving this song the opportunity to really get going, to let the handbrake off and let the harder edge and speed come into play.
When it comes down to it, there are only three songs on this album that are truly worth finding it for. “Too Hot to Handle” is a jaunty opening, a song with a good riff and singalong vocals that opens the album on the right foot and in the right mood. This is then framed by the closing song on Side A of the album, the title track “Lights Out”. This has been, and remains, my favourite UFO song. The opening bars to the guttural riff underneath the bridge and chorus, to Schenker’s brilliant solo and wonderful undertones from both Pete Way and Andy Parker, this is the top of the tree for me. Then the album closing track “Love to Love” does all the great things that an epic track should. It’s not a ballad, but it is the way all ballads should be, because it has heart and emotion and fantastic vocals from Phil Mogg. To top it all off, Schenker’s guitar solo to complete the song and album is superb and perfectly performed. And having criticised slightly the use of the keyboards in other songs, here on both “Lights Out” and “Love to Love” the keyboards work perfectly, and enhance rather than reign in the songs.

This was UFO’s highest charting album and is generally regarded as their best. To be honest I don’t think there is much that separates this from two or three other of their albums of this era. All of them have some great songs and some average songs. Here again there are, in my opinion, three great songs, two good songs and three that I don’t get a lot out of. It mightn’t be one that I’d put on a list of ‘must listen-to albums’, and it is still one that I like rather than love.

Rating: “From the back streets there’s a rumbling, smell of anarchy”. 3.5/5

1024. AC/DC / Let There Be Rock. 1977. 4/5

Back in 1977, if you are to believe the reports and interviews of people in and around the band, AC/DC had some problems. Because they had been based in the UK for 18 months on tour, their Australian fans had begun to abandon them. There was some tension within the band between some of the members. And their record company was on the verge of dropping them entirely. So, if you are any other band, you probably fight on for a little while and then break up. If you are AC/DC? Well, you say ‘damn the man!’ And you come out and produce an album that, 45 years ago today, was released upon the world for the first time. An album that, in many people’s eyes and ears, could be considered arguably their finest moment and one of the greatest albums in Australian music history.

Looking back now, all of those long years ago, it is hard to believe that AC/DC had a period where they were not revered in all places of the world, and that in Australia they had begun to wane in popularity. For those of us who waited so long to see them live in concert, because they had refused to return to Australia because of the lack of attention they felt they were receiving at the time, the hurt and pain is still real.
The story of the period leading up to the recording in January 1977 still makes for interesting reading. Mick Wall wrote a terrific article on the Classic Rock website in 2016 titled “Let The Be Rock: The album that saved AC/DC’s career”, where he laid out the landscape that the band found themselves in at the time. They had gone to London for most of 1976 on the back of the international version release of “High Voltage”. However, on returning home just prior to Christmas expecting a triumphant reception, they found that the audience they had recruited through appearances on ABC’s ‘Countdown’ had moved on, to bands such as Skyhooks and Sherbet. They played a gig at Sydney’s Hordern Pavillion that was barely half-full, something that had the band seething. And while their album “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” had reached top five in Australia, overseas in the UK it hadn’t made the charts at all, and in the US… well… Atlantic Records there decided they hated the album, and wouldn’t release it, and were going to drop the band completely. With the soft rock sounds of artists such as The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Elton John dominating the American radio stations, Atlantic saw no way that an Australian hard rock band could penetrate that market. Add to this that the band’s antics on and off the stage were causing friction, and that bass guitarist Mark Evans was not on the best terms with the Young brothers, and it can be seen that things did not look great for the still fledgling group.
So how did the band react to all of this? Probably as you’d expect. They were cranky – pissed off actually. And while the head of the UK section of Atlantic Records was able to convince the US parent company to retain the band, AC/DC retreated into the Alberts Sydney recording studio, where they spent two weeks writing, rehearsing and recording a new album with which to set things right. And that album became “Let There Be Rock”.

Certainly in those days, the band never went into the studio with anything written. They never did demo’s of songs. Everything was written and recorded in the studio, and rarely in any more time than two weeks. That’s how long it took this album to appear from start to finish. All of the rhythm and drum tracks were completed in the first week, while the vocals and lead guitar were completed in the second week. Malcolm and Angus came in during that first week and decided to just throw riff after riff after riff into the mix, looking to make “Let There Be Rock” a huge sounding guitar album. As the songs took shape, cassette versions were given to Bon, who then delved through his book of shorthand notes to compose the lyrics for the songs.
The description of how those songs were composed and recorded is absolutely insane. They were angry and fuelled by alcohol and drugs, and that’s how the album sounds from start to finish. As a way to stick it up those who they felt were against them, it was effective. Certainly, if their American record company thought they were going to soften their image in order to make themselves amenable to the US market, they were sorely mistaken.
There is definitely a heavier blues based rock in the rolling rhythm throughout most of the songs, highlighted immediately by the opening track “Go Down”, where the blues beat holds together the basis of the song, and allows Bon Scott initially to hold the reins on vocals, before Angus Young comes in to perpetuate his solo piece in the middle of the track. Bon and Angus trading vocals and guitar tweets through the second half of the song draws in the blues roots as well. It is a terrific opening track, which is followed by a better one in “Dog Eat Dog”. It settles into that hard rocking rhythm that Malcolm, Phil Rudd and Mark Evans play so well on these early albums, and again let Bon and Angus do their thing. And as great as Bon’s vocal is here, for me it is Phil’s drumming that hold this song together and makes it so great. The rhythm he keeps throughout is just magnificent, and by utilising a beat that focuses on the toms and bass drum with little hi hat or cymbal action at all it enhances everything. Just terrific.
And then there is the title track. We all know what a great song it is, how Bon’s lyrics are brilliant, how Malcolm and Mark’s rhythm riffs just dominate the track, and how brilliant Angus onlead is. But for me again Phil Rudd’s contribution gets overlooked. As Mick Wall wrote in the article I mentioned earlier… and I quote:
“Mark Evans said of “Let There Be Rock”, “Phil on that is just absolutely out of this world. We did two takes of it, and at the end of the first one I remember thinking: ‘That’s the end of Phil for a couple of hours’ But Phil said: ‘Let’s go again now.’ I thought the guy was gonna fucking explode. From my memory, I’m pretty sure they used the second take.” End quote. No click tracks, no drum machines. Just Phil Rudd playing the song back-to-back twice, and they get the take. Incredible.
“Bad Boy Boogie” inserts the lengthy and stretched out solo sections for the guitars to make their mark, much like the band would do in a live setting but here in the studio, an example of the ‘riffs and riffs’ idea of this album, and it ends the first side in style.
Depending on what version of the album you have, on the second side of the album you will either be enjoying a shortened version of “Problem Child” on the International version, which initially was released on ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’, or the song “Crabsody in Blue” which came on the initial and Australian release of the album. I personally like “Problem Child” better, despite its original place on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. “Crabsody in Blue” seems to stifle the momentum of the album at its entry point, and is also drowning in the blues which may also be a bone of contention with me. The exchange of these two songs does make the international version of the album a better listen, but it is ironic given the US refused to release the “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” album, but had this song replace “Crabsody in Blue” because they felt the subject matter was not befitting their label. Please….
“Overdose” and “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be” also run along similar lines and patterns. “Overdose” has a similar pattern to “Live Wire” early on, but builds with its own momentum to reach its crescendo. “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be” has always been one of those underrated AC/DC songs, one that those that only listen to the singles never get to know. It again builds from a slowish start to find its own pace and strength, and it does all the right things for the fans. It’s another great track here.
So too is “Whole Lotta Rosie” which is still a live favourite today. Focusing on Bon’s meeting with a female ‘acquaintance’ back in the day, this is a rollicking track that is ecstatically explained by Bon, before Angus takes over and gives an extended solo piece to hold the middle of the song together. It is still one of the great AC/DC songs and it closes the album on a high note.

Like most people of my generation, I was aware of AC/DC before I became a fan. The occasional AC/DC song was played on the radio when I was growing up, but nothing like it is now, where you can get one every couple of hours. As a teenage boy growing up in Australia in the early 1980’s, AC/DC was one of those bands that you were expected to listen to and adhere to. But for those early 80’s years the only albums I knew were “TNT” and “Back in Black”.
Once out of high school, and having seen the band live at the start of 1988 on their first Australian tour in seven years, the ability to accumulate more albums came about, and I was able to eventually find my own copies of all of their back catalogue. And, like all of them, it’s terrific.
In the years since 1980, there has been that old story that AC/DC just keep producing the same album year after year, with the same rhythm beat and riff and keep churning out the tracks and albums. Perhaps there is an element of the ‘same’ about them, but that certainly wasn’t the case with “Let There Be Rock”. That rhythm is amazing, but Phil Rudd’s drumming is a star attraction, changing with the tempo of the track as set by the Young brothers, and utilising every piece of his kit in different tracks. And Angus’s solo pieces are electrifying. There is no doubt that the attitude and underlying frustration they all went into the studio with fuelled the way this album was written and played, and it is all the better because of that.


I truly love this album, still pull it out of its cover and throw it on the turntable almost every month of every year and enjoy all forty minutes. It is still as fresh today as it was on the day of its release… or so I assume. And I can assure you I have had it going around a lot over the last few days leading up to this podcast episode… right now as I record this in fact, in the background there. “Go Down”, “Dog Eat Dog”, “Overdose”, “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be”, “Let There Be Rock”, “Whole Lotta Rosie”… I mean really, what is there NOT to love about this album? It is a masterpiece, a slab of the greatest hard rocking genius that has ever been recorded – and I say that even considering that, two years ago when we were sent int our first covid lockdown, I went through the entire AC/DC catalogue, and ranked their albums from 16 to 1 (before their latest album Power Up came to be released), and even though I have fawned over this album… there is still one AC/DC album I ranked ahead of it… now I’m not going to name that, you can all have a bit of a guess between yourselves… because on day’s like today, I really believe that THIS is their best ever…

990. Queen / News of the World. 1977. 4/5

There will always be a debate over what is the best ever Queen album, and generational change will always be a part of that. Whether it was the albums of the 1970’s that you think are the real deal, or the releases in the 1980’s that hold together best can often be dependent on which era you grew up with. By the time News of the World came around Queen was well established in the music scene, and even in comparison to those albums that had come before it this is an impressive and enjoyable release.

The album leads off with what are still two of the biggest arena anthems ever written. Any major sporting spectacular that you go to, you are a big chance to hear either one or both of these songs sometime within the framework of the event taking place. “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” surely need to have nothing said by me in regards to their greatness as songs and to their transcendence through all musical genres. They stand alone on their own as pillars, but when played back-to-back create the perfect atmosphere for anyone who needs a pick-me-up before a performance before an audience. Forty years on and surely no better anthems have been written.
The track “Sheer Heart Attack” was apparently only half written when the album of the same name came out, and so it appears here some time afterwards. Roger Taylor wrote the song and sings in the chorus, and plays on most of the instruments as well. It rattles along pleasingly after the opening salvo. “All Dead, All Dead” follows the opening blast triumvirate, and reels the mood back in fiercely, with this soft and slow piano based song written and sung by Brian with Freddie providing backing. It’s a tough ask to place this song after those first three tracks, and also to have it followed by yet another blockbuster in “Spread Your Wings”. As a result it feels a little lost, and perhaps out of place. “Spread Your Wings” is yet another of John Deacon’s amazing contributions to the band, and is highlighted by Freddie’s amazing vocal performance and the short sharp lead burst from Brian, which punctuates the middle of the song.
Following on from this, “Fight From the Inside” is an almost complete Roger Taylor composition - written by him, sung by him, featuring him not only on the drums by he played bass and rhythm guitar as well. Thus it isn’t surprising that “Fight From the Inside” does sound familiar to many songs that appear on Roger’s first solo album “Fun in Space” where he did practically everything. This is followed by Freddie’s “Get Down, Make Love” where he makes a loud statement in uncompromising terms.
“Sleeping on the Sidewalk” is a harmless song that lacks the kind of things that made Queen songs great. There is no great majesty of about the song, and Brian’s vocals are muted most of the way through, such that it is a quite soft and shallow song. “Who Needs You” is another Deacon song with Spanish guitar and maracas, and though it also is a good song with its own character, the softer side of these two songs also seem to change the course that the album was heading.
“It’s Late” almost bounds off the vinyl at you in comparison to the songs that preceded it, loud and proud, not only with Freddie taking centre stage but with the choir vocals filling the mix, and the drums, bass and especially lead guitar pounding out of the speakers. It’s a real theatrical hard rock song, with each member playing their part with boundless enthusiasm. “My Melancholy Blues” closes out the album with some trademark Freddie piano-based softly spoken vocals which sounds like it is being performed in a piano lounge, with just John’s bass and Roger’s drums in accompaniment.

This album flows evenly between the two sides of Queen’s imagery, with the hard rock anthems balanced by the thoughtful and less raucous piano and acoustic settings. It’s what Queen has always been about, combining the individuals styles into an album based on their strengths without compromising on quality. While there is a mix within the content that may be difficult for some to accept, overall this album provides you with the best of each individual without necessarily showing their combined talents together. For some that will make it feel unhinged rather than a group effort.

Rating:  “Kicking your can all over the place”  4/5

903. Billy Joel / The Stranger. 1977. 4.5/5

Though I wasn't old enough to know how all of these albums performed on their release during the 1970's, by listening to the first four albums in order of their recording, you could see a pattern emerging. A pattern where the talent of Billy Joel and his band in each recording was obvious, but that there was something that was just holding back each album from becoming a breakout, an album that everyone wanted and knew. Rather than an album where one or two songs stood out from the others around them, producing an album that had no weak points, only great songs one after the other. With The Stranger, Billy Joel hit the jackpot.

This is an album where everything comes together, a perfect storm of song writing and performing, of getting the right mix of moods and tempos so that they work together rather than standing alone in a stark environment, so that although each song is memorable, it doesn't feel as though it has drawn all of the spotlight of the album, leaving the rest to make up the numbers.
From the beginning the album feels right and encourages you to sing along and enjoy the ride. "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" starts out in a jaunty story that combines Billy's wonderful story telling style in an easy going song that is immediately enjoyable. This segues nicely into the whistling tune that is "The Stranger", complemented by the piano and horns. Despite the somewhat sinister subtext of the lyrics, this is a terrific song, once again very easy to sing along with as the music and vocals roll along.
"Just the Way You Are" is another of Billy's easygoing, ballad love songs that he does so well. It was his first top ten single in the US, and by his own admission was a song that neither he nor the band liked very much. Must be tough writing a song you didn't like but became your biggest selling song to that point in time. This is followed by "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", another lengthy story in song form, which has a wonderful mood about it, as well as three separate 'chapters' that have changes in the music through the song.
"Vienna" starts off the second side of the album with its basis of piano and drums with Billy crooning over the top. "Only the Good Die Young" changes tack again, back into upbeat sassy movement pushed along by the band at its best. "She's Always a Woman" should be a song that never appeals to me. It is in that genre that I steer clear of, that I don't want to be a part of. The love song, the crooning ballad, is the type of song that usually has been running screaming to the hills in every other style of music I listen to. Well, the story of the matter here is that this is sung and played so beautifully by Billy that you can't help but love it. The performance is spectacular and subtle, quiet and reflective and yet soaring when it needs to. It is a terrific song, and surprisingly enough one that I have never had a problem with admitting that I like, even with scorn and ridicule from others around me. Go figure.
"Get It Right the First Time" is a lightweight, upbeat song that utilises the flute to give it an airy feeling throughout. The album closes with "Everybody Has a Dream", which was written back around the time that Cold Spring Harbor was recorded. It has the easy feeling that many of the songs off that album have. This is followed by a reprise of "The Stranger", with the piano and whistle fading out to complete the album on a high note.

On all counts, this is Billy Joel's finest album. It was the moment that he found the magical component he was looking for that elevated him to that next level, and produced songs that could appeal to people of all ages. Despite the half a dozen songs that came on the first four albums that should be considered as essential Billy Joel classics, for the beginner, this would be the perfect place to start.

Rating:   "Sinners are much more fun, cos only the good die young".  4.5/5

737. KISS / Love Gun. 1977. 3.5/5

In my experience with the band – and don’t get me wrong, I love the band in all of its era’s and enjoy pretty much everything they have ever released – I still find that KISS tend to have an unnerving ability to write albums that are so uneven that it makes it hard to listen to, review or rate without bias. Apart from what I consider to be three or four outstanding exceptions, this could well be true of every KISS album. And, for me at least, It most certainly is the case with “Love Gun”, an album with two or three brilliant songs, mixed with some songs that almost defy explanation. Then it becomes a question as to whether the love of the band outweighs the possible unevenness of the tracks on the album, because if you desperately desire to, you can always find a way to make an album feel as though it is better than it perhaps in reality is.
“Love Gun” came on the back of some pretty heady years for the band. Their double live album “Alive!” had risen them from a good band with reasonable popularity to supergroup status, and this was followed up by the amazing “Destroyer” album that kicked them into the stratosphere. “Rock and Roll Over” came next and had great sales as well, and the band was flying. Their coverage seemed to be everywhere, on radio and TV, and the stage get up and personas only increased their interest. Something they didn’t have at this stage was a number one album in the US, and going into the studio that was something that was on all four band members minds.

When it comes to the songs here on “Love Gun”, I really believe that the good is brilliant. The opening track "I Stole Your Love" kicks everything off in the right direction, a jaunty rocking number of the type that Paul Stanley does so well. Just a great opening track. This is immediately followed by the much more sappy and less energetic "Christine Sixteen", which apart from the song's lyrics can just end up annoying you with the repeated ‘Christine Sixteen’ words from Gene, which are then repeated again by the other three members. This, along with Gene’s quite provocative spoken word in the middle of the song makes it a pretty creepy kind of song listening to in the 2020’s. It’s a tough one to completely love, but it is one of those songs that I mentioned earlier that you tolerate because of the band and not for the song’s greatness. And I do. I don’t know what it is about it… well, yes I do. It is quintessentially Kiss. And if you love Kiss you will like the song. Another Gene song "Love For Sale" is next, and it holds itself up better until the last minute of the song, where we just hear "I've got Love For Sale" over and over. That's great Gene, sell away, just come up with a less pop song ending to your song. Again, I enjoy this but through somewhat gritted teeth.
Ace Frehley's first lead vocal track, his own number "Shock Me" is a good song that is probably made a little average by the fact that he is singing it. Written about his own electrocution on stage on the previous tour, apparently he wrote it for Gene to sing, who then suggested he do it himself. Personally I think Paul singing it with enthusiasm would have made it a much better track. "Tomorrow and Tonight" closes out side one (for those that remember vinyl) on an upward note. Once again Paul's ability to write a track that gets you rocking is highlighted here. Apparently it was supposed to be this album’s “Rock and Roll All Nite”, but it certainly doesn’t reach those heights.
More is to come with Paul's title track. "Love Gun" is the best song on the album, and is still one of my favourite KISS songs. This is the moneyshot when it comes to this album. Gene’s bass line through the song is probably the highlight for me, it plays off Paul’s vocals superbly. Still one of the greatest ever Kiss songs. Peter Criss's solo vocals of "Hooligan" is another to add to the good songs category, but there is more unevenness in "Almost Human" and "Plaster Caster". They're not top shelf, but not complete losses either.
The pièce de résistance is the final song on the album, a cover version of The Crystals' 1963 pop song "Then He Kissed Me", reverse gendered to be "Then She Kissed Me". Now, I do not like the original song, so I may be biased from the start. But this version lacks any great enthusiasm, it hasn't been improved, and it feels as though it is forced. The question is, why is it on this album in the first place? Did they need one more song, had no ideas, and then just threw this on there? I don't know what the answer is, but I really, REALLY dislike what they have done here. It ends the album on a sour note that is hard to take. I’d almost settle for a power ballad...

How do you rate an album that probably has as much average material on it than absolute gems? I guess it depends on how often you play it, and how you are able to ignore the ordinary to get through to the brilliant. It may not be their best overall, but there are those timeless great songs on here that just keep you coming back for more. This album in particular gained a lot of late support with the release of the 1999 movie “Detroit Rock City”, which focused on a bunch of mates trying to get to a Kiss concert. “Love Gun was the album focused on it the opening scenes, and the opening credits rolled with the title track blazing over the top.
“Love Gun” was one of the first Kiss albums that I heard regularly. My older cousin was a huge Kiss fan in the days this was released, and the room he lived in at our grandmother’s in those days was covered in Kiss posters, and he would play this and “Destroyer” very loud from his bedroom. At the time I didn’t really get it, but when hard rock and metal music began to take hold of my senses a few years later it was Kiss and this album that again came into focus.
As you can probably imagine with many Kiss songs and albums, as they get older they tend to date a bit, perhaps more in subject matter than the music. But as I’ve said, I’ve known this album for a very long time, and it was easy to love it for what it is at the age I grew up with it. On occasions now when I listen to it I may offer the odd cringe moment – especially that closing track, I mean, really, what the hell were they thinking of with that? But for me “Love Gun” remains one of the band’s highlights, and is one of those albums that I didn’t listen to a lot in the process of recording this podcast episode, because I still put it on more often than not all these years later, because it is one of the classics.

104. Meat Loaf / Bat Out Of Hell. 1977. 5/5.

Given its enduring legacy, it seems amazing that this album took so long to come together, and that it was knocked back by several record companies prior to being accepted. Jim Steinman is the man behind the album, as the writer of all of the songs, and this album made him as a writer, after which he went on to write for many other prominent artists. Todd Rundgren was the producer of the album, who was not only an artist in his own right but transferred that to production as well, and while he was well known prior to this album, and was in fact hired for his reputation, that reputation garnered greater weight after the release of “Bat out of Hell”. While it was Steinman who came up with all of the arrangements for the songs on the album, it was Rundgren who actually put them together when it came time to record. This came about, so it is said, because Steinman would hum what he wanted, which Rundgren would then take and orchestrate.
This left the artist himself in Meat Loaf, whose actual name was Michael Lee Aday, and as an offshoot, whose daughter is married to Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, making Scott Ian the most rock person in music with Meat Loaf as his father-in-law. Meat Loaf had met up with Steinman in a touring group, at a time when Steinman was putting together some songs that he wanted to create an album around, based on a musical he had written based on Peter Pan called Neverland. The songs “Bat out of Hell”, “Heaven Can Wait” and a form of “All Revved Up with No Place to Go” all appeared in that musical. Over a period of about two and a half years, they wrote and recorded material to get this up and running, all the while trying to get some interest from a record company to sign them for its release. Amazingly, they lost count of the number of rejections they received, even when they performed the material live to those companies. They eventually signed up to Cleveland International Records, and independent record label, to get the album to come to its fruition.
Upon its completion, there was still little response from the American market. However, videos recorded of the main songs being played by the whole ensemble took off in both Australia and the UK, and the album raced to the top of the charts as a result. And it was the initial singles, such as “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” that helped this enormously.

“Bat out of Hell” is written in the style of a rock opera, much like other powerful album of the age including The Who’s “Tommy”, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, Queen’s “A Night at the Opera” and productions such as “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. As a result there is a varying style of song on the album, reflecting just what part of the show that it represents. The very love angst pieces such as “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “Heaven Can Wait” play off the more passionately sung songs of “For Crying Out Loud” and “You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth”. And then there is the faster and heavier songs where the scenes play out before you. “All Revved Up with No Place to Go” mixes motorcycle metaphors and teenage angst again. “Bat out of Hell” itself, in Steinman’s own words from the ‘Classic Albums” episode on this album, came as a result of Steinman's desire to write the "most extreme crash song of all time”. I think he succeeded. And the beautiful mix of musical sing off between characters in classic “Grease” style on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” is the perfect example of why this works, even without the visual of a stage show.
All this results in an album that works in almost every setting. It isn’t stuck to a genre or anchored to its time as a result. The mix of hard riffing guitars and heavy beat drums with the rifling keyboards, and then back to the piano driven ballad with an orchestral feel about it, makes it a perfect music stage experience, but still also an album in its own right. With just seven tracks throughout, it still manages to have highlights throughout. Meat Loaf is brilliant throughout in both raising the tempo and drive of a song and also delivering the meaningful emotional songs with the same authority. It isn’t easy in delivering a song like “Heaven Can Wait” as well as being able to belt out the lyrics over several stanzas in the multi part epic that is the title track “Bat out of Hell”. And given his experience on the stage and screen by this stage, not least in the aforementioned “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, his performance in “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” is just terrific.

There has been little of my life without this album being a part of it, or so it seems looking back. My father got this album back around the time that it was release, or again so it seems, and mixed amongst the Johnny Cash and Tom T Hall and Kris Kristoffersen that floated through the house when he was in a mood also came this album. Certainly I recall it on longer car trips especially. And in the days where the radio was the main form of music both at home and in the car, it was unusual to have forty odd minutes of the same singer all coming out together. Eventually in my teenage years, when I wanted my own copy of the album, I went to my next door neighbour, and borrowed his vinyl copy of the album to record to cassette tape, and that really sounded so much better! And it was in those teenage years, when I started to listen to bands and buy their albums rather than just stick with the singles on the radio, that I truly began to appreciate this album overall. Because then I began to listen to it all over and over, and take in each song on its merits and how it fitted into the whole. And as I discovered rock musicals and the such and began to enjoy them, that just made this album even better.
There are times when Bat out of Hell almost became a premonition, driving around in my mates car and probably going way too fast, with this booming out of the tape player. And in the long run it is probably a strange album to love, given that it isn’t heavy metal, it isn’t hard rock, it isn’t soft rock... it is a combination of them all over the course of the seven tracks, and that to love one is to love all seven, and not just enjoy one or two of them separately. And I loved it as a kid, I loved it as a pop single pre-teen, I loved it as a hard rock mid-teen, and as a heavy metal mid-teen to the present. No matter what time of my music listening history I was in, this was an album that has always been on the play list. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it has lasted the test of time. Like a bat out of hell.

53. KISS / Alive II. 1977. 3.5/5

The album “Alive” had been the point where Kiss became a worldwide phenomenon. The success of that album in showcasing their songs in a live setting, without seeing the gimmick of make up and stage dressing that had been their call sign to that point, was where the songs became the selling point. The popularity garnered from that release then seeped into their next studio album, the one that many still believe is their greatest, “Destroyer”. On the back of the mega sales of that album, Kiss then toured and recorded on repeat, bringing out “Rock and Roll Over” and “Love Gun” to wide acclaim.
The sanctioning of a second live album to follow up the success of that first album was also seen as a way of buying the band some time when it came to recording their next album. They had tried this with recording in Japan in April 1977, but the resulting recordings were seen as unusable and therefore not publishable. Eventually the majority of the album came from recordings made in August on the “Love Gun” tour.
The band’s decision, which was to only include songs that had been written since “Alive” was released, in essence only from “Destroyer”, “Rock and Roll Over” and “Love Gun”, left people’s opinion divided. Many felt that it restricted the enjoyment and marketability of the album, and that releasing one live show of the band at that time would have been a better option. Others feel that because of the way it was put together, it acts as a compendium piece with “Alive”, in that so many songs now had published live versions of them over the course of those two albums, and that it made it more collectable. Either way, it also contained four new studio tracks, just to up the ante when it came to the fan deciding whether or not it was worth their cash to buy it. Millions felt that it was.

The original 2LP of this album could almost have been released as one side for each album that the songs were drawn from, and one side for the new tracks. Still, it is amazing when you listen to this album just how many great Kiss songs came from these three albums that they were drawn from. And just like the three album span that “Alive” was drawn from, it shows that the no-repeat policy of songs chosen here is actually a wise one.
It leads off with the great duo of “Detroit Rock City” and “King of the Night Time World”, a brilliant way to lead off the “Destroyer” album and it does the same job here. Other songs drawn from that album here are the always brilliant Gene Simmons hard rocker “God of Thunder”, the crowd pleaser “Shout it out Loud”, and the still-incomprehensible live staple of “Beth” sung by Peter Criss. I’ve never understood the necessity of always having this in the set list, apart from allowing whichever drummer is currently in the band the chance to sing a song.
The songs drawn from “Rock and Roll Over”, for me, aren’t in the same class, but are certainly the best songs from the album, with “Ladies Room”, “Making Love”, the always fun “Calling Dr Love” (another Gene song... go figure...) “Hard Luck Woman” with Peter Criss again on vocals, and “I Want You”. And the songs that come from “Love Gun”, which for me is still a slightly underrated album, are just as fun, with the great opening track “I Stole Your Love”, title track “Love Gun”, “Christine Sixteen”, Ace Frehley’s “Shock Me” and “Tomorrow and Tonight”.
Side four contains the five new studio tracks to round out the album, and none of them are particularly outstanding, or hold much value for the discerning listener. I wonder if most owners of this album do the same as I do whenever I pull it out to listen to it, and just put it back in its cover once we have reached the end of the live part of the album with “Shout it out Loud”. Don’t reckon I would have listened to those songs before this last couple of weeks for 30 years.

While I always seemed to have Kiss around me growing up, whether it was my older cousin or friends around the school yard or eventually at parties that I rarely got invited to but would show up at anyway, I didn’t own this album for many years after its release. I certainly heard the album on different occasions as mentioned before, but I just never got around to owning a copy of the album until many years later. In fact, it was when my first daughter was born back in 2003, and when I had been kicked out of the birthing unit for the downtime for mothers and new born child, I had walked into town and gone to one of my favourite places, Illawarra Books and Records, and let my fingers do the walking. And there in front of me, in great condition and a bargain price, were both “Alive!” and “Alive II”. How convenient. And exciting for me, as I then went home that evening after visiting hours had again sent me out into the world, and went home and listened to both of those albums back to back, probably for the first time ever in full. I still remember that to this day... I just don’t mention it to the wife... as she would say “Is THAT what you remember from that time?!?!” Well yes, it is.
In many ways I love this more than “Alive” which I know most Kiss fans will say is sacrilege. That first album and the records it draws from is brilliant, but I think the second version is better. At least, up when the new songs come in. Those I can happily ignore altogether.
Many years later of course we got Alive III and even Alive IV with backing orchestra, but it will always be these two albums that are the stars, and Alive II does have one of the greatest Kiss songs ever on it.