1303. Black Sabbath / Live at Last. 1980. 5/5

Black Sabbath the band had been stuck in murky waters for a couple of years by the time that this album came to light. Everyone knows the story of the eventual dismissal of Ozzy Osbourne from the band, the health problems being faced by Bill Ward, and the difficulty in the band really knowing what they were going to do from that point. Then there was the entrance of Ronnie James Dio, whose wonderful vocals and writing appeared to revitalise the band with the release of their ninth album “Heaven and Hell” in April of 1980. Prior to this though, the band had parted ways with their previous management led by Patrick Meehan, and had been embroiled in a long running dispute. The culmination of this saw Meehan through a different record label re-release all of the Black Sabbath back catalogue without the band’s consent. As well as this, he also owned the rights to live recordings that had been made of the band in 1973 on the tour to support the album “Volume 4”. These recordings were made with the view to releasing a live album following the tour, but this idea was abandoned when the band felt they were unhappy with the way they had come out. Six years later however, a disgruntled Meehan decided that as he had the rights to the recordings, and on the back of not only the split in the band’s fanbase in regards to Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio being the lead singer of the band, and the fact that the new album “Heaven and Hell” had already sold very well, that he would release an album consisting of those live recordings. And so, once again, without the permission of the band, Black Sabbath had its first live album publicly released under the name of “Live at Last”.

If you are looking for a stunningly incisive review of this album, one that is full of interesting insights and dramatic revelations, then I’m afraid you are in the wrong place. That’s the difficulty with live albums, because the majority of them are very good. And this is no exception. Because the songs selected to be played on this tour that appear on this album are all very good. And the musician's performance of the band on these recorded songs is very very good. So there isn’t anything particularly enlightening that I can offer.
The songs here off “Volume 4” sound as fresh as they were on this tour. “Tomorrow’s Dream” opens up the album in a great way, even though I would love to have heard “Wheels of Confusion” as that opening. “Sweet Leaf” follows, and is particularly crushing through the middle of the song and into Tony Iommi’s guitar solo, backed by that ridiculous bass line underneath and Bill Ward’s hammering drums. Fabulous stuff, oh yeah baby! “Killing Yourself to Live” is one of the great classic Black Sabbath songs that still seems so underrated despite its obvious brilliance. It again is highlighted by Tony’s guitar with Geezer’s booming bassline running underneath, and Ozzy’s wonderful vocal lines over the top. What a great song this is, and this is a great version of it.
The “Volume 4” double up comes next though in reverse order from how they appear on that album, with the barnstorming “Cornucopia” charging through the middle of the album, and flowing into the utter brilliance of “Snowblind”, that opening solo show into the main riff – just magnificence. And Ozzy proclaiming ‘my eyes are blind but I can see’... Geezer’s lyrics are just so amazing in this song and Ozzy sings them so well. Then we have the heavy hitters from the big early albums, “Children of the Grave” and “War Pigs” either side of the album turnover. Both sound as huge, heavy and magnificent as they always have.
The medley of various pieces thrown together as a part of the wild and winding version of “Wicked World” here is surprisingly good. “Wicked World” sounds so much better here in the live environment than it does on the debut album, and the middle of the track has lots of great surprises thrown in such as “Into the Void” and “Supernaut”, and a drum solo from Bill Ward in the mix. At almost 19 minutes this alone is worth listening to the album for. Perhaps the only slightly disappointing ting about the album is that “Paranoid” is the closing track. It sounds so... simple and ineffective... compared to the wonderful and brilliant things the band has played before this. Yes, I get that they have to play it, even back then in 1973, but surely something else would have been a better set closer.

You’ve heard me say it before, and no doubt you will hear me say it again. Live albums should almost always be automatic 5/5 albums, because they contain the bands best songs in their best environment. Now, whether this is the case here given the complexities of how this release occurred is open to question. And I will once again raise another point about live albums, where I would prefer to hear the setlist as it was performed, and not chopped and changed. And that is not the case here. This album is a slightly rearranged selection of the songs performed over those two nights in 1973. Whatever the reason is for that, it doesn’t actually harm the flow of the album. Though, I guess this is mostly because I didn’t KNOW the order had been changed until four years ago, when the band released the Super Deluxe version of “Volume 4”, which contain the entire concert remastered for release. And it sounds fantastic.
None of that actually takes away from this release. As a snapshot of the band in this era it is fantastic. The band sounds terrific. Ozzy’s vocals are surprisingly good throughout, the fabulous basslines of Geezer Butler hold everything together, Tony Iommi's guitar breezes through the speakers and Bill Ward’s drumming is brutally proficient. The song selection is top shelf, and with just songs from the first four albums to choose from it just works.
I’ve had a couple of copies of this over the years, but in the last 12 months I managed to find a second-hand vinyl copy at my local record store Music Farmers in Wollongong, and that has been the version I have revisited over the last couple of days. And it is still as good as the first time I heard it. Prior to the Super Deluxe editions of albums coming out with the bonus live material, this was all we had of the original foursome recorded live, so it was always a special release. And, to be fair, it still is. If you want to hear Sabbath with Ozzy, this is still your best bet. “Reunion” is okay. The live albums from the last tour are okay. This has the lifeblood still running through it.

1301. Original Soundtrack / The Blues Brothers. 1980. 4/5.

Living in Australia and not being exposed to the show Saturday Night Live like those on the American continent were, most of us had little idea of the Blues Brothers before the movie hit our shores. And for those of us who were reasonably young when that happened, we didn’t see it until it came on television or on video. But as to the history of how the band came into being, and became something beyond the two-dimensional cell of the TV and movie screens, I knew none of that at the time.
The inspiration for the band came from an early sketch on Saturday Night Live, and the love of blues music of two castmates, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Aykroyd had grown up in Ottowa, Canada, and had been exposed to many of the greats of the blues genre during his youth. One night he even got up and played drums for Muddy Waters when his regular drummer decided to take a break. He also performed on occasions with the Toronto-based Downchild Blues Band, co-founded in 1969 by two brothers, Donnie and Richard "Hock" Walsh, who served as an inspiration for the two Blues Brothers characters. Aykroyd modelled Elwood Blues in part on Donnie Walsh, a harmonica player and guitarist, while Belushi's Jake Blues character was modelled after Hock Walsh, Downchild's lead singer.
During the Saturday Night Live years, Aykroyd rented a blues bar where the cast would go after recordings. Aykroyd filled a jukebox with songs, and Belushi bought an amplifier and they kept some musical instruments there for anyone who wanted to jam. It was at the bar that Aykroyd and Ron Gwynne wrote and developed the story which Aykroyd turned into the draft screenplay for the Blues Brothers movie. It was also at the bar that Aykroyd introduced Belushi to the blues, which became a fascination, and it was not long before the two began singing with local blues bands. Jokingly, SNL band leader Howard Shore suggested that they call themselves "The Blues Brothers".
Eventually both Aykroyd and Belushi started to get serious about the band idea, and with the help of Paul Shaffer who was the leader of the SNL band, they began to look for the right people SNL band members saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in Blood, Sweat & Tears, were the first. Shaffer's suggested guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, who had played with Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and who both agreed to come on board. To fulfill Belushi’s desire for a trumpet player and guitarist, they found Alan Rubin and Matt "Guitar" Murphy, who had performed with many blues legends. With the band together, the final touch came for the two leads themselves, who donned hats and sunglasses in the tradition of John Lee Hooker to complete their look. And this was born the Blues Brothers Band – and not too long after, the movie that carried their name, “The Blues Brothers”.

The soundtracks album has a couple of things that are left off that are a very slight disappointment, but not earth shatteringly so. It doesn’t have the version of “Stand by Your Man” that the band does at Bob’s Country Bunker, that brings the crowd there to tears. It is one of the many great moments in the film, and although it is not included on the soundtrack it is perhaps best viewed in the film anyway. There are also some great songs that appear in the background in several scenes, a couple by Sam & Dave when the boys are driving around in the Bluesmobile, and another couple by John Lee Hooker, one of which he appears in the film performing, in the Maxwell Street scene outside the cafe owned by Aretha Franklin’s character. These songs would have rounded out the soundtrack album but in the end, they don’t make it any less of an album.
The other thing is that these versions of the songs were all recorded in the studio, and that means that the ones that were performed live for the movie have less of a feel and energy as those versions in the movie has. For example, the two songs played at the Palace Hotel Ballroom, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “Sweet Home Chicago”, sound less energetic and less in the moment than the versions in the film. The same goes for “Gimme Some Lovin’”, the song halted at Bob’s Country Bunker when they realise that it isn’t either of the two types of music, ‘country OR western’, or even the “Theme from Rawhide”. These versions are fine, believe me, and if you are listening to this soundtrack you probably won’t care in the slightest about what I’m explaining here, it's just that as a hard core fan of this film, I notice the slight changes here from the versions I know so well from the movie.
Beyond that, there are the other musical moments that made this such a terrific film. “She Caught the Katy”, the song played when Jake is being released from prison and being picked up by Elwood is great, and the Peter Gunn Theme that follows them around from most of the film fits perfectly as well. Ray Charles’s version with the band of “Shake a Tail Feather” was played over Australian radio for some time after the release of the soundtrack and I got to know it well before I’d even seen the film itself. “The Old Landmark” as performed in the church scene with James Brown has its charm, as does Aretha Franklin and her own great hit “Think”, but again it is not as energetic and fabulous as it is in the film itself. On the other hand, Cab Calloway singing his own terrific song “Minnie the Moocher” comes across fabulously here, and the final ensemble of “Jailhouse Rock” finishes off the soundtrack in the same way as the film itself, in a flurry of energy and dance.

What is there to say about this film that hasn’t already been said somewhere else? As with everything in life, there will be those of you out there that either do not like this film at all, or find it is only average. And no doubt will feel the same way about the music that makes this movie so entertaining. As those of you who follow this podcast will know, the blues is not one of the genres of music that I follow. But from the first time I saw this movie, the music that is such a major part of the movie also grabbed me. But what I enjoy most about the soundtrack is the mix of artists. The terrific music that the actual Blues Brothers band produces here for a start. I mean, the bringing together of these wonderful artists to become that band itself. There is only one song on this soundtrack that they are not the backing band to, and that is the James Brown gospel song in the church scene. Every other song has the Blues Brothers Band as the mainstay, and they sound terrific. It is remarkable that such a talented bunch of musicians were brought together to be the backing to two comedians who thought it would be a fun idea to start their own band to play the music they loved. That it would never have happened without their shared love of blues music is a somewhat amazing thing.
So this soundtrack showcases their abilities, along with the very special guests they talked into not only contributing to the soundtrack but also appearing in the movie. Dan Aykroyd apparently demanded that they be able to appear in the film to support the songs that were built around them. The studio wanted more current artists who had had hits around that time in order to help the profile of the movie, but Aykroyd and director John Landis would not budge, and the movie is all the better for it.
And of course, the amazing talents of Aykroyd himself alongside John Belushi. Comedically they were proven performers, but musically could they actually hold this film together? The answer of course is yes, and this soundtrack proves it.
I’ve had the soundtrack going around now for a week, and whenever I do listen to it, all it makes me think about is watching the film all over again. The performances here are terrific, and it covers the very best pieces of the movie. But you can’t see any car chases and pile up listening to a soundtrack.
If I could only choose ten movies to watch for the rest of my life, The Blues Brothers would be one of them. The music is a huge part of that. It is well worth your time checking it out.

1296. Whitesnake / Ready an' Willing. 1980. 3.5/5

As the music world of the late periods of the 1970’s decade began to move through periods of high intensity change, including but not restricted to R&B, AOR, disco, heavy metal and punk, there were still bands who were moving to the beat of their own drum, sticking to the strengths of their members and refining and producing their own sound on their own terms. One of those bands was Whitesnake. Following the demise of Deep Purple, David Coverdale’s next project had released two albums in “Trouble” and “Lovehunter”, both of which had been based around a far more bluesier aspect than the bigger named band had been best known for. Both albums came to the attention of music listeners in the UK but struggled to gain any traction elsewhere in the world. Guitarist Bernie Marsden was quoted in an interview some years later as saying that the band had argued in a positive way during the writing and recording of the “Lovehunter” album, a process he believes made the band a better unit, and was instrumental in helped the band get better as they went along.
One part of that puzzle came to pass with the recruitment of Ian Paice as drummer for the new album. Jon Lord had been on board from just prior to the first album being recorded, and now Paice’s arrival not only brought in a very accomplished drummer, but a third member from the final iteration of Deep Purple. Coverdale had been trying to recruit his former band mate for some time, and his sound was to be a defining piece of the puzzle for the new album.
Given the musical environment that this album was being written and released in, it is an interesting one to go back and listen to in retrospect. Disco, punk, metal... there is none of that here. Whitesnake through their major collaborators in Coverdale, Marsden and fellow guitarist Micky Moody, weren’t looking to make any drastic changes to their own sound. They went into this album to deliver songs that may not have changed in sonics but were, they hoped, better and more pronounced versions of those songs. While the band had their solid core audience at the time, it was a difficult market to produce a hard blues album, which is essentially what the band delivers here with “Ready an’ Willing”, and while looking back from this point on the timeline gives you a sense of what has come since, at the time it must have been an interesting album to pick up on its day of release, and put on the turntable.

This original version of “Fool for Your Lovin’” is dominated by the beautiful bassline from Neil Murray, something you don’t hear on the updated version almost a decade later. Along with the understated keys from Lord and Paice’s beautifully tracking drumming, it makes an instant impact. The solos from Moody and Marsden are also perfect for the package, and Coverdale’s vocals sit in the perfect range and power for the song. It is interesting that this is probably still the standout song from the album all these years later, and yet it is because everyone here has a part in making the song excellent. The following two tracks have a structure that is very Deep Purple but certainly with the adjustments that have been made to them by the Whitesnake sound itself. “Street Talker” has a great upbeat vibe about it, highlighted through the middle by Jon Lord’s excellent keyboards and Coverdale’s enticing vocals throughout. The title track is immediately put into a perfect place by the terrific groove from Paice and Murray on drums and bass, it hits you immediately and creates a warm and comforting feel to the track. Ian Paice’s recruitment for this album is a massive fillip and his touch is over every song, while Neil Murray’s bass lines are nicely woven into the music. The Deep Purple tones are all over this track.
From here it is a different journey, no less enjoyable but of a very varied style. “Carry Your Load” is almost a blues gospel song, slower in tempo and with more emphasised vocals from Coverdale. If the keys were more prominent in the mix it would definitely be classed as gospel. “Blindman” actually comes from Coverdale’s first solo album that was released on the splitting of Deep Purple, “White Snake” (two words not one) the name that he of course took for his new band’s name the following year. It has been updated slightly here, given a bit of power in both music and background vocals. It’s a real creeper, starting off slowly and then building through the middle vocally, with the solos from Moody and Marsden excellent as always. It closes out side one of the album in a positive fashion.
The second half of the album is more defined in its quality. “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More” is a fairly standard blues rock number, not a bad song but also not extending itself to be anything apart from what it is. “Love Man” is the most blues driven track on the album, pure old time blues in every respect. In slow tempo, style, vocally and lyrically, and musically, this is your blues standard. It drags on too long, though also feels longer because of the pace that it is played at and the often-repeated lyrics within the track. “Black and Blue” is a more contemporary version of the blues, along with honky tonk piano from Lord which pick up the mood immediately. Dare I say there is a touch of the early Eagles in this song? The band has subtlety given us a wide range of material on this album; all tied to the blues rock genre but none of them sounding the same. The final song “She’s a Woman” is where we are actually met full force in the face with Jon Lord’s amazing organ skills for almost the only time on the album, and it makes an incredible difference to the song and the finish of the album. It actually makes the album contemporary for the first time with the sound he brings to the track, mirroring what was being utilised in other areas of music at that time.
There has always been a bit of a separation with the Whitesnake fan base over the albums the band has released, and when you listen to “Ready an’ Willing” compared to any album after 1984, you could fully understand why that is the case. For those fans that grew up with albums like this, and then were confronted with “1987” and “Slip of the Tongue”, you can fully appreciate the gulf that they had to come to appreciate. The same is true of younger fans going back to this from the more recent albums, but I think the real conversion of the band during the 1980’s would have been a massive event for the band’s earliest fans, and not surprisingly one that many couldn’t get over.

My own journey with Whitesnake began with the aforementioned “1987” album, one that contained all of the glitz and glitter of the enveloping heavy genre that it was aimed at on its release, and which was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. When it came to all of the Whitesnake albums prior to this, that was more of a journey. It was just a matter of getting down the road to doing it. I went through the Deep Purple discography, and in doing so discovered each of “Burn, “Stormbringer” and “Come Taste the Band” that are in some ways a forgotten branch of music and yet are so wonderful in their own right, and of course are the forerunner to this band, so that when I came to the early Whitesnake albums I wasn’t as unprepared as I could have been when it came to their sound. Well... that’s partly true.
“Ready an’ Willing” for me is and was a big step for Whitesnake. Those first two albums are okay in my opinion, but without a lot that really draws me back into listening to them. But here, when I first listened to the album, there is a hook, a catch. The opening track “Fool for Your Lovin’” is an obvious one, but what really dragged me in from the outset was the musicianship, and the way it was recorded and mixed for our ears. The rhythm of Paice and Murray on this album is just sublime, you can hear everything that Murray is playing which improves and is an important part of each song. And Paice’s drumming just shines with whoever he is playing with. Lord’s keys may not be integral to every song here, such that when they are not, they have been subdued in the background of the track. But when they are, they take front and centre as they did in Deep Purple, and in both instances, it works perfectly. And along with the guitars and Coverdale’s vocals, all of this is what made me notice the album. Take a look at who the producer is? Ah. Martin Birch. Well, that really does explain everything. And for me, his work here brings out the best in the band.
I’m not a huge lover of blues music. I understand its importance in the roots of heavy metal music and appreciate it when it comes to being incorporated at different levels of the genre. But pure blues is not something I am massively in to. And for all intents and purposes this is a blues rock album. So while there are songs here that I really enjoy, there are others that I am happy to listen to when I put this album on, but would probably rarely if ever choose to listen to individually. I’ve now had this album on my work playlist for three weeks – a little longer than I usually do, but this was also a slightly more difficult review to compose. It was important to me to truly root out exactly how I feel about this album for this podcast episode, and not just write something wishy washy or praise for no other reason than because it is Whitesnake. That extra time has allowed me to be sure that I believe this is a very good album, and the place where Whitesnake as a band began to find its feet. For me, I believe each album got better over the next decade, but I also love what they did beyond the tenure of this line up. The true believers have other ideas on that argument.

1295. Kiss / Unmasked. 1980. 2.5/5

The dawn of a new decade was an interesting period for Kiss and where the band stood in the world of music. Having climbed to a period of immense and sustained popularity with their stage shows and make up personas, and on the back of their two live albums boxed around hit studio albums such as “Destroyer” and “Love Gun”, Kiss had marketed themselves to the point of overkill with their merchandising arm arguably drawing in more money and popularity than the band and its music itself.
The year off for the four members of the band to produce their own solo albums, followed by the next Kiss album “Dynasty” had also seen some changes. With the music world swirling between punk rock and disco, along with the rising of new wave and a new movement in hard rock and heavy metal, Kiss had chosen to infuse the disco craze into their album, which saw a divide in old fans and new fans as to what they were feeling about where the band was headed. The tour to promote the album, dubbed “The Return of Kiss” proved a disappointment in their home country with a marked decline in attendance, and yet their popularity in Europe and Australasia in particular grew with that album’s sound. The glam and disco styled outfits donned on this tour also proved to be polarising amongst the fan base.
Tensions within the band were also reaching a crescendo. Peter Criss had been unable to perform on the “Dynasty” album due to injuries received in a car accident, and on the tour that followed his drumming had noticeably eroded, to the point that he intentionally slowed down or stopped playing altogether during concerts. It was something that would need to be addressed. Ace Frehley was also offside with the band. His drinking was causing Paul and Gene frustration during interviews and in band situations, while Ace himself was beginning to question the direction the band’s music was taking.
The band spent three months at The Record Plant in New York at the start of 1980 coming up with the follow up album “Unmasked”, a title that just a couple of years later would become a prophecy fulfilled, but below the surface was perhaps as telling of this album than was known at the time. Because this was the beginning of a variety of changes that took place with Kiss over the next few years, as little by little the behind the scenes stories began to emerge and finally be unmasked themselves.

In many ways, "Unmasked” continued the trend where Kiss truly stopped being a band and became a revolving slate of solo members from a musical, with a number of outside influences involved in writing and performing, It wasn’t the first album that this had occurred on, but it did become a lot more prevalent on “Unmasked”, and the results on the album tend to be a little uneven.
As was the case on the previous album “Dynasty”, Peter Criss was not the drummer on the album. At least on “Dynasty” he had contributed to one song. Here on “Unmasked”, he is nowhere to be found. Anton Fig, who had played on the Ace Frehley solo album in 1978 and had then been recruited for the same role on the “Dynasty” album to cover Criss’s parts, was once again brought in to play drums on the album. And, it is fair to say that he sounds great, as he always does on whatever project he is on. Criss officially left the band with the release of this album and was replaced by Eric Carr as the permanent drummer of the band, a move that began to draw some of the strings back together.
When it comes to the writing and recording of the songs on the album, the same sort of tensions that had come since the solo albums period continued on. Ace wrote three songs for the album, one of those “Torpedo Girl” co-written with Vini Poncia. On these three songs, Ace again played all of the guitars and bass guitar as well as singing lead vocals on the tracks. Given Anton is playing drums here, these could easily just be an Ace Frehley solo album contribution. That’s fine, nothing wrong with that, but it’s hardly a band if members are not only writing songs on their own but also playing them on their own! In the same scenario, Paul contributes four songs to the album, all co-written with Poncia, two of which, “Tomorrow” and “Easy as It Seems”, he does an Ace by playing all of the guitars and bass guitar himself, while on “Shandi” he plays all guitars with the bass being played by Tom Harper. That means that Gene only plays bass on less than half of the songs on the album, something that is not an unusual occurrence through the history of the band, especially from this point going forward. He co-writes three songs on the album, all of which he sings. All of this gives the impression of three artists all writing their own solo albums, and combining them under the banner of Kiss, rather than the band Kiss writing and performing an album.
Then there is the one song on the album that is written by no one in the band, Gerard McMahon. Apparently, the producer had heard the demo of this song made by McMahon and enjoyed it so much that he brought it to Paul, who decided that he wanted to record it. Further to this is the influence of said producer Vini Poncia, who has co-writing contributions on no less than 8 of the 11 tracks. This would seem to suggest that he was influential in pushing the album’s direction towards a certain style, and as with the preceding album “Dynasty” it is reflected in the overall sound musically.
That opening track of the album, “Is That You?” sets a tone, one that does differ from what came on the previous album, and slightly differentiates what is to come. It’s a solid song that is not the kind of album starter that the band usually comes up with. Take a look at the Side 1 Track 1 songs from previous albums, and you’ll agree this doesn’t stack up against them – but perhaps more significantly, doesn’t give this album the starter it needs. Next comes “Shandi”, which if you live in Australia you know better than any other song on the album. It reached #5 on the singles chart in our fair land, which led to it being played live every single time the band came to Australia. Even on the last tour Paul still played it,.. and was surrounded by many adoring women... all as old as Paul himself. Anyway... it’s a perfectly fine ballad track that for me fits like a glove at the OJ Simpson trial. Ace’s “Talk to Me” follows, moving along the same lines lyrically as the opening tracks, but at least has an Ace solo within its boundaries to create some sort of excitement.
Gene’s “Naked City” has three co-writers, including Poncia and Peppy Castro, but also BOB Kulick, who also contributes extra guitar to the song. This is stylised very much in the pop genre of the era, much like songs written for movie soundtracks at the time. And yet, once again, Gene has found a way to make this an eminently enjoyable song, with Ace’s solo providing a lift as well, even though it is characteristically not what you expect from this band. Again, a solo track rather than a Kiss band track. Side one concludes with “What Makes the World Go ‘Round”, a song where parts remind me of ELO’s, “It’s a Living Thing”, and which for me encapsulates just where this album sits in regard to its genre and the style it has, because it is styled as pop rock, and that is definitely where “Unmasked” sits”.
“Tomorrow”, which opens side two, is pure pop rock, straight from 1980’s FM radio. It is noticeable too that Paul plays all of the guitars and bass on this track, because the one thing that would have lifted this song to a Kiss standard would have been an Ace guitar solo, but he doesn’t appear on this song and itis the lesser for it. It is pure treacle being poured over this whole track, and it definitely misses the harder guitar sound that would have given it a far better finish.
“Two Sides of the Coin” mirrors “Talk to Me” but with a harder rock friendly attitude, closer to what most Kiss fans would have been looking for on this album. Ace is always a favourite and while his vocals are sometimes only serviceable, he always induces more excitement in his songs through his guitar alone. Gene then comes at us with one of his typically themed songs “She’s So European”, one that is bouncy enough if you can ignore the almost AI written lyrics involved. “Easy as It Seems” is my favourite Paul track on the album, this one sounds much more like the best Stanley tracks that we know. He plays all guitars here again but has a nice little solo spot through the middle that enhances the song as well. It’s the tempo really, and his own backing vocals, that make this track one of the best here.
Unlike his other two tracks which he wrote by himself, there is a funk disco feel about Ace’s “Torpedo Girl” that feels as though it has been overtly influenced by the co-writer of the track. It seems so far out of place on this album, on what has come before it, even for an album that is posturing for the marketplace of the era. The album closes out with Gene’s “You’re All That I Want”, one which lyrically once again you can guess the way it is heading by the title. It’s another track that in the modern age of AI you can imagine that computers would have little difficulty in transcribing a Gene Simmons song on the basis of lyrical content.

Kiss. Would you like my backstory again? If you are coming in late to this podcast, here’s the short version. My eldest cousin was a huge fan of Kiss at about the period this album was released, and whenever we visited my grandmother with whom he was living at the time I would see and hear Kiss all the time. I knew “I Was Made for Loving You” through wining a dance competition at school to that song. And my first true discovery of the band on my own terms was through the album “Crazy Nights”. It is a tale that has been fleshed out more thoroughly in past episodes here and on my previous podcast. No doubt it will come again very soon as the next album reaches its anniversary.
As to this album, it wasn’t one I heard until I began to go back and find all of the albums in the Kiss discography. “Unmasked” for me came up about the time of the great reunion in the mid-1990's, when there came a chance that I might actually get to see them live in concert. What were my thoughts? Yeah, it was fine. I didn’t jump out of my skin about it, it didn’t have much that I was looking for at that time. I listened to it, and then when it came to my Kiss fix it was back to those albums that I truly loved. And on the few occasions over the years that I have listened to it my thoughts have never really changed. It was okay, when I put it on I could listen to it, but there was nothing that blew my mind about it.
So we come to the past two weeks, when my CD has again come off of the shelves and returned to my CD player. What did I expect to find when I pressed the play button this time? To be fair I was looking forward to listening to the album again. Through the course of my podcasting on my album collection, “Unmasked” is one of the last albums that I have come to over the almost four year period I have been doing this, which means that I have listened to almost all of the Kiss discography at some point over that time period, and this is one of the final pieces of that puzzle.
What did I find? I found an album that has noticeable flaws, that has the cracks opening that would eventually very soon see changes within the group and the band and its music. It is an album composed of its time, by individuals who perhaps were only held together by the vision of a producer who through his own intervention and/or contribution gave the album a contemporary sound that may not have agreed with the old fans but maybe was able to attract the younger fans. Whether any of that is true or not I cannot confirm or deny, it is more or less what I have gathered from listening to the album and reading books and articles from the time period.
For my own tastes, “Unmasked” is an average album. I don’t think it is a bad album, but it also isn’t a great album. It doesn’t have anything that jumps out and grabs you by the throat, and makes you want to play the album over and over. There are some good tunes, there are some nice riffs, there are some reasonable passages of songs that get you in the Kiss mood. It’s just that it doesn’t have the material or performances that push it to the being what I’d consider better than average.
There are 20 studio Kiss albums. For me, this one ranks at #15. It’s okay. I don’t mind listening to it. But I’ve now listened to it 12 times over the last couple of weeks. It is really time for me to try something else, something that makes me excited about listening to music again.

1289. Saxon / Wheels of Steel. 1980. 4/5

Saxon’s so-called ‘overnight success story’ had actually been a process of almost a decade by the time they came to record their sophomore album. The band had originally formed in late 1975, lining up with another band that would become a contemporary of theirs, Iron Maiden. Originally called Son of a Bitch, they had come together through the dissolution of two other bands, S.O.B and Coast. To form a new band, S.O.B’s three remaining members Graham Oliver on guitar, Steve "Dobby" Dawson on bass, and John Walker on drums, joined up with Coast’s members singer and bass player Peter "Biff" Byford, and guitarist Paul Quinn. Byford relinquished the bass guitar and took on the vocalist role solely. Son of a Bitch began moving to a heavier sound and spent the next three years gigging extensively. John Walker eventually moved on and was replaced by Pete Gill. In the process of trying to organise a record deal, the band changed their name to Saxon in order to be less abrasive for record sales and radio airplay, and on the back of supporting established bands such as Motorhead and the Ian Gillan Band, Saxon released their self-titled debut album in May 1979.
The album gave the band music to promote on the road, but there was a nagging doubt about the quality and direction the band was heading. Reviews at the time said that the album was mixed, with differing styles in the songs that gave the impression that the band wasn’t sure of its own musical direction, and that the production of the album was also of a lesser quality than would have been desired. It was released at a time that the music landscape of the UK was changing, with the punk revolution and disco themes quietening after making a major splash for a short period of time. In their wake came new wave and also the slow surge of heavy metal, with bands in leather and denim beginning to find their way into the public spectrum. And for a band like Saxon, who had changed their name to avoid missing out on airplay but had also seen an opportunity to come out hard on their debut album slip away, the remainder of 1979 touring and gigging would have been eye opening for what was growing around them. They would have seen the young bands who were rising in popularity, who were p[cking out the clubs throughout the UK, and the music they were producing. And with this all around them, as the band that had the experience of the past ten years that they had spent getting themselves to this position, and with their contract safe in their hands, they entered the studios in February of 1980 with a mission statement in hand. And that was to produce an album that would not only compete with the material that was coming from these new brash young bands, but to be a leader amongst them. The end result was “Wheels of Steel”.

Whatever demographic the band was aiming for with this album, it pretty much nailed all of them with the opening song to the album “Motorcycle Man”. Remnants of the punk movement? Check. Denim clad rising of heavy metal headbangers? Check. Leather clad motorcyclists? Damn check! It is the perfect opening track for the era, the twin guitar vocal screaming hard core rhythm screams out of the speakers, the solid rhythm buffed up by Biff Byford’s opening vocals. This is bright and breezy, a song that incorporates the best of everything that was being showcased by the rise of the NWOBHM bands of the age. It has the metal guitar and drums that brings out the hand bang, and the added speed that brings the fist pump out as well. A terrific opening to the band’s sophomore album. “Stand Up and Be Counted” tracks in the same vein, and great opening riff to the song carries the momentum from the opening song forward. The twin guitars of Oliver and Quinn are excellent here, playing off the solid rhythmic core of Dawson and Gill while Byford sings anthemically over the top. Another solid track to kick off the album. Then comes the more melodic features of “747 (Strangers on the Night)”, a song that is still regarded by hardcore fans as one of the band’s best achievements. The morphing of the guitars into a melodic rhythm are accentuated by Byford’s excellent vocals throughout. This song shows how much the band had grown in the 12 months since their debut album. Though this differs in style from the opening two tracks, they are still paired together by the tougher riff leading out of the bridge into the melody, and then into the guitar solo section, which leaves no doubt as to the style of music the band is creating here. While the song has its change of mood it doesn’t make a left turn when it comes to style and genre. This is followed by the title track “Wheels of Steel” which mixes double entendres with a simple love of cars song, one designed for listening to while cruising in the car on the highway, fist pumping out of the window. Again, here Saxon has found their marketplace and are driving for it with all pistons pumping... slight pun intended. It closes out what is a superb first half of the album.
Let’s keep heading out down the highway (Judas Priest stylings on standby) with the opening song from side two of the album, “Freeway Mad”. And – if I haven’t mentioned it before – these lyrics are not going to win any awards at any songwriting festival that may have existed in the past or present. This isn’t Shakespeare and it isn’t Stephen King. However, they are fun enough, and the music more than makes up for them. Saxon pour fuel on the fire here again, especially in the solos that highlight and light up the track to its utmost. And who doesn’t like sirens added to a track to make it sound like you are being chased by the law... I mean, it only happens on just about every album released in 1980 on one song... don't believe me? Go back and check out Maiden and Priest and their releases from this year. “Freeway Mad” is a good song, and “See the Light Shining” continues on in the same manner, utilising the same template as has come before it and cannonballing through the second half of the album. I mean, the lyrics are... not nonsensical, but they really aren’t trying too hard to come up with a real story either. The lines “show me the way” and “I can see a light shining, shining down on me” take up three quarters of the song. Repeated almost to ad nauseum. Biff isn’t changing gear of pitch too often either. OK, well while we are at it, let’s just rinse and repeat for “Street Fighting Gang”. Saxon have found their niche and their groove, so there doesn’t seem to be any reason to change it, certainly not in the year and environment they find themselves in musically. The song is as on the same ground as the other tracks here but on a lesser scale, perhaps just through sheer tiredness of bashing that template for another song choice. “Suzie Hold On” acts as the ballad of the album, though really only lyrically not musically. Perhaps hard rock ballad is the best way to describe it, with Biff crooning about wishing her was rich to take away the pain of the protagonist woman he is singing about. Yet musically it holds its form with solid riffing. The album concludes with “Machine Gun”, which fires up the speed again. It also brings forth the war theme, giving the album a well rounded review topically. Jump on that rhythm riff to start the song and drive it all the way to the end, broken up only by the guitar solo stretch in the middle of the track. Hey! It’s not the worst closing track of all time. Indeed, it does the job as has been prescribed by the songs that come before it. It offers that same style and structure that the band nails down from start to finish, and if you are a band beginning to push your way into plain sight, if you have something that works, you hold onto it for dear life.

Saxon is a band that I didn’t really listen to until I reached the early 2000’s, when I reached a point at which I decided to go back and try and find music from all of the NWOBHM bands that I had missed on my way through my discovery of the heavy metal genre. As per usual this was not a deliberate thing, and I of course KNEW of the band themselves, but as none of my friends had any Saxon in their collection either, it just wasn’t something I gravitated towards. Eventually I found an opportunity and a desire to go back and find these bands and their albums, and that was when I first began to listen to Saxon the band. And while I got the first four albums and live album all in one hit, I still worked my way through each of them in a methodical way. So, I wasn’t overly enamoured by the first album, this one was different from the start.
Why? Because it SOUNDED like an album from 1980, and that was pretty much what I was looking for. I wanted to seek out other albums of that time in music history from the UK in particular, that found their mark in the rising force of what was going on. I went in with an open mind, and though I didn’t find that on the self-titled album, this one hit the mark. That opening side of the album is electrifying from an historical point of view. It channels everything that was best about the era of the music and puts it down on vinyl. It is a leap forward from their first album, with songs and music that makes you sit up and take notice. Those four tracks - “Motorcycle Man” (which I had first heard on Lars Ulrich's ‘79 Revisited best of collection of the NWOBHM era), “Stand Up and Be Counted”, “747 (Strangers in the Night)” and “Wheels of Steel” is a terrific opening half of an album, a standard that the second side doesn’t quite match but still has very good moments on it. Even today, it still holds up pretty well.
And that is what I have gotten from the album over the past couple of days, having put it back on a listen for the first time in a few years. It immediately brings energy to the fore, a tempo that catches the ear and makes you think “oh yeah, that’s right. Saxon!” My first listen was at work, and from the first ten seconds I had already been dragged in. Even though I didn’t hear this album until the new century, it immediately takes me back to what that scene must have been like in the UK in 1980 where so many bands were either about to make their mark or were in the process of reaching that point of their career. And for Saxon, this is their first true mark. It’s hard to argue against that. This album went to #5 in the UK album charts, a remarkable achievement given what was happening around them at that time.
Last year as I record this, Saxon released their excellent and underrated latest album “Hell, Fire and Damnation”. It was one I listened to at the time and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Listening to this album again over the last couple of days, I have had the same kind of reaction. It’s a little surprising because I know the album and know I have enjoyed it in the past, but it was not one that I thought I would enjoy as much as I have on this reflection. Music is a funny and wonderful thing at times. In the case of “Wheels of Steel”, it is a pleasant one as well.

1285. Van Halen / Women and Children First. 1980. 3.5/5

Van Halen’s rise to prominence from the release of their debut album in 1978 was built on two amazing albums filled with songs that appealed to audiences of differing ages, and a non stop touring regime that saw them build that audience with their live sound and the excitement and charisma of their lead singer as well as the genius of their guitarist. They toured as a support act for bands such as Journey and Ronnie Montrose and famously opened for Black Sabbath towards the end of their first formation and were reported to be blowing them off the stage. One of the reasons Van Halen managed to make an impression was that what you heard on stage was what you heard on the album. There was few if any overdubbing or multi-tracking on their albums, they created a live feel about them so that when the fans came to see them, they knew what they were getting. And their hard work on the road allowed them to build that live reputation into a living machine, one that continued to grow through each show.
On the band’s first two albums the recording time had been around two weeks, slotted in between the live gigs the band continued to play. For this third album, a similar occurrence took place, with the festive period of December and into the new year of January 1980 chosen to record their follow up to “Van Halen II”. Though the band continued to utilise a ‘live’ environment in their recording session for this album, there was more studio overdubs on this album, as well as less emphasis on utilising backing vocals and more of David Lee Roth being the sole focus of the vocals. There was also no cover songs played on this album, most likely the result of the band having been able to compose enough songs of their own as they were out on the road, as well as bringing in some songs they had recorded as demos in the years before the band got their recording contract.
All of this came together quickly, with the album being released within a month of the recording and mixing being completely and led to the release of the band’s third album, one that was described by one critic as "[the] record where the group started to get heavier, both sonically and, to a lesser extent, thematically” titled “Women and Children First”.

Van Halen was always a band that wanted to have an opening track that grabbed by the... shirt... and took a hold of you from the opening beat, and the opening here of “And the Cradle Will Rock...” does that again. The opening begins with what sounds like a guitar, but according to Eddie is actually a phase shifter-effected Wurlitzer electric piano played through his amplifier. Yeah, I don’t understand it either, but it sounds great, and once Roth hits in with his vocals and scream of “Wow”, and Eddie’s riffing and soloing over Michael Anthony’s solid bass guitar riff, everything fits together like it should. Put the album on and crank that start and you’ll be immediately drawn in to the album. Following this comes another great song intro, this being the jungle drums from Alex Van Halen, along with Roth doing his best Tarzan impression and the opener slowly building before breaking into the opening riff proper at the 75 second mark, and we’re away! There is another breakdown in the middle of the track with a similar slow build back into the harder tones of the song. There’s lots of Roth squeals throughout and Eddie breaks in and out a couple of times during the track. The song is “Everybody Wants Some!!” and it has also become one of the band’s most loved tracks, with appearances in several movies over time which are all enhanced by having it a part of them.
“Fools” had been written some years earlier and had been played live as early as 1975. It bases itself hard on a blues riff from Eddie and conversational vocals from Dave that he used to love to engage in, along with the requisite squeals that punctuate this album in particular. This is the one track on the album where there is a noticeable heavy influence of blues in the song, albeit in a very Van Halen way. “Romeo Delight” kicks things into a higher gear, powered along initially by Roth’s great vocal delivery, fast and biting and breezing along, followed by Eddie’s guitar chiming in to push into a higher gear. The breakdown in the middle slows it all down before the build to the finish to off the first side of the album in style.
“Tora! Tora!”, the instrumental that opens up side two of the album, endlessly reminds me of the beginning of the Spinal Tap song “Rock and Roll Creation”. Have a listen to them both together one time, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t agree. Spinal Tap ripping off another artist? Insane! This segues straight into “Loss of Control”, a song that had been played live on different occasions all the way back to 1977, which opens with a ripping guitar solo piece from Eddie and then Dave pulling off typical Dave vocals including falsetto backing. This is one of Van Halen’s fastest ever songs, with barely a break between all members of the band before its conclusion. Oh, if only the rest of the album had stayed at this tempo, it would have made for a more fascinating spectacle. Great song.
“Take Your Whiskey Home” is a song that originally came from a demo the band had recorded at Cherokee Studios in 1974, before Michael Anthony had joined the band. The version for this album did have some revisions made to it both lyrically and musically. This settles back into a solid rhythm, with Roth’s vocals mostly set in a normal register tone apart from the squeals that he intermittently lets loose. "Could This Be Magic?" contains the only female backing vocal ever recorded for a Van Halen song, with Nicolette Larson, who is best known for her work with Neil Young, singing during some of the choruses. The rain sound in the background also is not an effect, it came from the rain that was falling during the recording of this song outside. This is followed by “In a Simple Rhyme”, which also originally came from the same demo as “Take Your Whiskey Home”. It has that same sound of that era of the band without the real breakout guitar riffing you may have expected. Michael Anthony’s bass guitar is prominent throughout, and Eddie’s solo DOES mirror the excitement that he provided with such pieces in those years before the band had been discovered. The end of the track has a hidden song titled “Growth” which lasts for about 20 seconds. Apparently at the time the band was recording this album, they were also considering starting what would become their next album, Fair Warning, with a continuation of "Growth," but did not eventually go through with that idea.

It’s always an interesting conversation when you come across a Van Halen fan when you talk about favourite eras of the band and more importantly the progression of the albums in the catalogue. There is a definite skewing of which are the fans favourite depending on what age and what time they found the band, and also just what they are looking for from their music.
“Women and Children First” does seem to be a change in course from the first two albums, and one that continued onto the following release “Fair Warning”. There is a more concerted heavy riff through most of the songs, often at a faster pace than the first two albums, and a reliance more on Eddie Van Halen’s song riffs than the individual spurts of brilliance in his chosen solo slot. There is STILL that of course, he doesn’t skimp on that here, but the songs riffs seem more important here to complete the tracks to a better finish. He and Michael Anthony’s bass lines combine well here to build a harder edge and better filled tracks, a depth in sound that carries through the room out of the stereo or into your ears through headphones. David Lee Roth moves further out front and more in your face on this album as well, taking control of the front of house, something that also continued into the next album.
As I have mentioned before, I came into Van Halen through ‘1984’ like a lot of my generation. It was the album of that time in music, that saw Eddie’s growing love of the synth dominate. From that point in time, mostly over the next decade, I found all of the five albums that preceded that hit, and found a sound that actually moves around and climbs far more than I thought it would when I first listened to those albums. And one of the biggest movements I found was between “Van Halen II” and this album. I was well enmeshed in the heavy metal genre by the time I heard this album, and when I first heard it I more or less guessed that it would mostly of the style that the band had on the debut and sophomore album. So I was truly surprised by songs such as “Romeo Delight”, “Loss of Control” and “In a Simple Rhyme”, which have large moments at least, if not entire tracts, that verge on metal music, in heaviness and speed. And the opening two songs, probably the best known from the album, in “And the Cradle Will Rock” and “Everybody Wants Some”, are only a tiny adjustment and decision away from being full blown metal anthems. That of course would have been an interesting thought for the fan base at the time this album was released. Were they looking for that ramping up in a more aggressive style, or were they just looking for more of the same? I’m not sure, but by the time I’d discovered the album it suited my tastes at that period.
It’s probably easy to see that I really like this album. It had been some time since I had last pulled this album for a listen before the past week, and I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to react to it. And the result has been interesting, because I had listened to it ten times prior to this day on which I am doing this review, and another eight times just today. And I feel like each time I’ve had it on has been more enjoyable. Perhaps its just that I’ve had a pretty ordinary day at work, and this really helped get me through it. But an album that has the capacity to do that is a good album to have.
Out of the 12 Van Halen studio albums, I rank this a very good #5. In some ways it is underrated, but also because of its style perhaps fans of an earlier or later era of the band would feel less positive about it than I do. Individual taste is always the key. For me, this album into the next album is a bloody good era of Van Halen.

1284. Stiff Little Fingers / Nobody's Heroes. 1980. 4/5

In February 1979 Stiff Little Fingers had released their debut album “Inflammable Material”, an album that had been heavily influenced by the band’s experiences growing up in Belfast during The Troubles. And yet, with only half of the songs that directly referenced that political situation, it showed that the band was not just a punk band that talked about political turmoil, that they could sing about other topics as well, something that immediately allowed them to stand out from the crowd.
On the back of the success they were experiencing, the band decided to move to London, which saw the departure of drummer Brian Faloon and the recruitment in his place of Jim Reilly. They recorded a new single called “Gotta Getaway” and went out and headlined their first ever tour, playing 21 dates around the UK and Ireland. Jim Reilly was quoted in Roland Link’s book “Kicking up a Racket – The Story of Stiff Little Finger 1977-1983" as saying:
"Of all the shows, one of the best, without doubt, was the first time we headlined Belfast's Ulster Hall, on the ‘Gotta Gettaway’ tour. At the height of the Troubles we packed the place and then some, and staring out at that seething mass of young people just enjoying themselves and having a great time to the music, was something that has remained a treasured memory for me all these years. That night I realised we were doing something that none of the politicians were able to do. In that hall, in the midst of a city gripped by sectarian violence, killing and hatred, we brought together the people of our hometown, regardless of religion"
The band entered Olympic Sound Studios in London on January 21, 1980, for ten days of recording time. The album was recorded by what many people consider the classic SLF line-up of Jake Burns (guitar and vocals), Henry Cluney (guitar), Ali McMordie (bass) and new drummer Jim Reilly. It is never easy to follow up a debut album, especially one that has met with a fair amount of success and which the fan base had loved. The album cover was a peculiar barcode-type design, which was supposed to say Stiff Little Fingers if you held it away from you at a certain angle. To this day there are few people who can say that they have actually seen this in evidence. The album was released just five weeks after the recording process had been completed, and was released under the name of “Nobody’s Heroes”.

Prior to the album being released, the band had already brought out two singles, “Gotta Gettaway” and “At the Edge”, both of which were re-recorded for the album. The new version of “Gotta Gettaway” opens up the album, complete with opening guitar and drum beat, before leaving Ali to play the bass riff into the true start of the song, with the other instruments joining in to push the upbeat conglomerate of the song. Track two is “Wait and See”, a song which basically tells the story of the band, and how original drummer Brian Faloon left just at the point where things were taking off for them. Lyrics such as “you’re not good enough to be a dance band, they told us, but we’re not giving up, we’re not giving up, we’re not giving up, we’ll show them!”. Some bands make a career out of dissing former members, but this one is a solid statement about a decision from their former bandmate that didn’t sit well with the other members. Next is the anthemic “Fly the Flag”, which is sung in reference to the era of Thatcherism in the UK, and is more about the masses flying the flag of freedom and justice than political parties flying their flag, with lyrics such as “Gimme a nation where people are free, Free to do and free to be, Free to screw you before you screw me, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme”. That era in the UK offered plenty of ammunition for punk bands and their songwriting, and this is another example of that.
The second single “At the Edge” is next, and now the band turns their frustrations and anger not against authority as such but from a young man’s perspective against their parents. It’s a real anthem for the youth of the day, with lyrics like “Think of something that you want to do with your life, Nothing that you like that's not allowed, I've no time to talk about it, All your stupid hopes and dreams, Get your feet back on the ground son, It's exams that count not football teams”. There’s plenty of revolution in the opening track of the album, but this one hits pretty hard. In an interview at the time the album was released, Jake Burns was asked what his parents thought about the song, to which he replied “I don’t know, I don’t think they’ve heard it yet. I’m sure we’ll have a conversation about it at some stage”.
The first side of the album concludes with the title track “Nobody’s Hero”, where Jake and frequent lyric composer George Ogilvie try to exhort the masses to “Get up, get out, be what you are”, to be yourself and live by your own ideals, and not live vicariously through your heroes. It’s a nicely written song, simple in output but against with the anthemic quality to steers this punk band away from the usual suspects.
OK, so the first side of the album is almost flawless, and the band has put together an amazing run of songs that are powerful lyrically and barnstorming in the best traditions of punk musically. And then you hit side two of the album, and you wonder what the bloody hell has happened.
“Bloody Dub” opens the proceedings, and is basically what the title suggests, a dub reggae instrumental. And it is so unnecessary given the amazing things they have done on the first half of the album. I’ve never really understood the fascination that punk has with reggae, and to me it just completely blows up an album when it becomes incorporated in it. After the fist pumping and chest beating of the first side, this halts and destroys all of that momentum that has been built up. Worse yet, the song that they choose to follow it up with is “Doesn’t Make It All Right”, a song which Jake merrily confesses “we stole from The Specials”. The ska revival band were on the same label and had included the song on their debut album “Specials” a few months earlier. Jake, who at the time had had nothing positive to say about The Specials, was quoted about why SLF decided to cover one of their songs. “Hmmm, yes, well it’s not exactly a cover version. It’s more than a bit different to theirs. It was exactly the opposite to admiration. We thought, ‘Jesus that’s a good song, they’ve fucken wasted that’. So we went out and decided to show everyone how it should be done, but because The Specials are everyone’s pet band we suffered for it. But again, I think given time that track will stand up easily enough on its own.” But the problem was, it doesn’t. It is awful and it further allows the second side of the album to sink in the mire. It’s such a shame.
“I Don’t Like You” brings the album back into equilibrium, rising back into the music this band does best, and back to biting lyrics that express exactly what the band wants to say to a certain breeding of people, but all without a swear word in sight. Instead we have “If a thought came into your head, It would die of loneliness, You rate absolute zero, No more and not even less. Look at you Oh, what a state? Next to you Short planks are underweight. You oughta scratch from the human race, You are a waste of a name, A waste of time and a waste of space, You've only one claim to fame, I don't like you”
“No Change” sees guitarist Henry Cluney take on lead vocals, and addresses people’s changing attitudes to the band when they went back to Ireland, which they had left for London as they sought to make it in the music industry. And the album comes to its conclusion on a high note with the excellent “Tin Soldiers”, released as a double A-side single with “Nobody’s Hero”, and remains a popular live set closer to this day. The lyrics talk about a fan who signed up to the army “He joined up for just three years, it seemed a small amount, but they didn’t tell him that the first two didn’t count. At the age of 17 how was he to know, that at the age of 21 he'd still have one to go?”. This is a great song, with Jim Reilly’s drumming, incorporating a marching beat that further emphasises the lyrics, being a highlight.

My introduction to the Stiff Little Fingers was from a mixed tape that was put together for a mate in high school by his older brother who was very much into the punk scene at the time. This tape, full of bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Birthday Party, The Clash, Dead Kennedys and others, was one I first heard at an end of year school camp in 1985, and the song I first heard was the instrumental “Go for It” that came from the album of the same name that followed this one. It was also the song that a group of my friends mimed and ‘air-band’ to at the end of camp Talent Night, to much applause and cheers. From here, the only actual album I got of the band around that time was the live album “Hanx!” that was released after this album. Eventually when I reached university and went on one of my Wednesday arvo saunters to Illawarra Books and Records, I bought the double LP best of called “All the Best”, which suited me for that period of time. Eventually, there came a time when I collected the first four Stiff Little Fingers albums and was able to not only enjoy the songs that I knew but the ones I wasn’t familiar with.
I’ve always been most endeared with the band’s debut album “Inflammable Material”. I’m not really sure of the reason. It probably comes from it being the first of their albums I owned, and that it does have two of their greatest songs that bookend the album. And yet, this album really does have more. Well, let me be clear – the first side of this album is basically superior to anything else that Stiff Little Fingers produced. It has the angst and anger, the anthemic lines and music, the call to arms and the fuck you attitude that the best punk rock has and that the time was breeding. The band has taken on everything they had learned from recording their first album, then moved to London to get wider exposure and then come into this sophomore effort with all metaphoric guns blazing.
There is a far better use of Ali McMordie here on bass guitar, the sound he gets from his instrument and where it lays in the mix on “Nobody’s Heroes” is far better and the band is all the better for it. Jim Reilly’s drumming is excellent, clean and crisp and adds to the flavour of songs like “Tin Soldiers” and “At the Edge” with its succinct rhythm. And the dual guitars of Henry Cluney and Jake Burns are forthright and chugging. And Jakes vocals with their raspy quality here leave you in no doubt of the emotion of the track as he sings it.
The second half of the album is, for the most part, a disappointment though. The first five songs are electrifying, and then the second five, apart from the excellent “Tin Soldiers’ just can’t carry a candle to them. To me, it was a mistake to include a dub reggae track and a cover of what is a ska track. It doesn’t work and really cools off the album after a terrific opening half.
I have thoroughly enjoyed having this album back in the rotation this week. It has brought back lots of great memories, not only of old school days with old friends, the majority of whom I still see often to this day, but of seeing the band live. I feared I would never see them live in concert and finally did for the first time at Soundwave in 2012. Better yet, I’ve seen them on all of their three tours since, and they never fail to deliver.
Ranking the ten Stiff Little Fingers albums is not an easy task, but the top two is not difficult. It is however hard to choose a number one from those two, and on any given day there is every chance it could change. But the lacklustre second half of this album always eventually has me ranking it at #2 behind “Inflammable Material”. And nothing much has changed this week to make me change my mind.
True punk had a small window where it was the king of the world. This album was still in that window, and it thrived as a result. With just a couple of small changes, this album in my mind could have been absolutely legendary. It instead sits in the top echelon of punk albums, a spot reserved for very few.

1278. UFO / No Place to Run. 1980. 3/5

Through the 1970’s the band UFO had been on a steady rise in popularity and sales, mainly on the back of their harder edged music predominantly on the back of the lead guitar and writing skills of Michael Schenker. Five albums stretching from 1973 to 1978 had proven to be popular through the UK and Europe and into the United States, and the live album recorded on the tour to promote the “Obsession” album, released under the title “Strangers in the Night”, is an amazing retrospective on those years, showcasing the absolute best that the band had to offer in their best setting.
Tensions had arisen over the previous 18 months however, through the antics of Schenker in particular. It had become a habit of his to leave shows prior to them commencing, or sometimes even in the middle of performances. Lead vocalist Phil Mogg in particular felt the relationship between the two strained, while the rest of the band also felt that it as reaching a point of no return. After a show in Berkeley California on October 29, 1978, Schenker officially quit the band. In a retrospective interview in the Classic Rock magazine, bass guitarist Pete Way recalled, "Obviously we were disappointed. It's not easy to promote an album without a guitarist. We were starting to draw a lot of people and the album was selling. But he'd also disappeared on the Lights Out tour, so nothing surprised us."
In his stead, the band hired Paul Chapman to take Schenker’s place for the remainder of the tour and to be a part of the follow up album. Chapman had briefly been a part of the band, touring as the second guitarist alongside Schenker on the ‘Phenomenon’ tour, before leaving to start his own band Lone Star, who released two albums before breaking up with Chapman’s return to UFO. This would be Chapman’s first time recording with the band.
One of the pieces of the puzzle here that seemed to be a great move for the band was the hiring of George Martin to produce the album. Martin of course is legendary as the producer of The Beatles among dozens of other artists, so this must have been seen as coup for the band as they looked to move forward into a new era. The album was written and recorded in Montserrat and London in late 1979 and was released onto the shelves in January of 1980.

Though I did not hear this album until many years after it had been released, I don’t doubt that I went into it in exactly the same way as fans of the band at the time first listened to it – and that is, they were waiting to hear what this band could produce now that the talisman of the group had left. Because although the singer, drummer, bass guitarist, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist remained the same as the band's recent albums, it was Schenker’s fingers in the writing pool along with his magic on the guitar that fans were wondering whether it could be replaced.
The album opens with Chapman’s instrumental “Alpha Centauri” that segues into “Lettin’ Go”, a song that could certainly be seen to be discussing the departure of their previous lead guitarist. Paul Chapman’s credentials by this time cannot be questioned, and all through the album he shows that he is a very good addition to the band. One of the interesting decisions on this album was to do a cover of a 1953 blues song “Mystery Train”, originally written and performed nu the American blues artist Junior Parker. This version by UFO however is of the more rockabilly cover version that was done of the song by Elvis Presley in 1955, and UFO here do try to mix a bit of their own style into it. I’m not sure who brought this song to the band and said ‘hey, we should put this on the album!’ - I mean, it was most likely Chapman – but for a band of the style and genre they were, it seems a strange choice. The version here is fine but not memorable.
“This Fire Burns Tonight” is classic UFO, especially the vocals from Mogg that fall straight into that groove and honey their way through the track. “Gone in the Night” by contrast almost mimics an Elton John song with vocals that sit in that range that he sings at, the prominent keyboards from Paul Raymond and then the blistering guitar solo that leads out the track from Chapman. The solo is the hardest rocking part of the song, with the rest sitting in that pop AOR style that Elton almost made his own during the 1970’s.
Side two opens with “Young Blood” which really just plods along without much in the way of inspiration. It’s a song that you listen to but find it pretty much goes in one ear and then out the other without gaining a reaction. The title track “No Place to Run” follows and packs a bit more punch with a more engaged vocal performance from Mogg and enjoyable solo break again. “Take it or Leave it” though... well, the song name speaks for itself. You can take it or leave it, and I choose to leave it. It's in a softer style much like “Gone in the Night”, almost a country ballad and one that just chills me to the bone. It’s a stinker. “Money Money” ups the tempo and energy to mid-quantities, while the album concludes with “Anyday”, much more representative track of what UFO generally produces, which reproduces the habit of the album of Chapman soloing until the song fades out rather than having an actual conclusion. I’d have thought once or twice, ok, but every song? That’s a bit of overkill if you ask me.

I first discovered UFO in the first year of my ill-fated university career in 1988, when I was crate digging at my then favourite second hand record store in Wollongong, Illawarra Books and Records. It was there I found a 2LP album titled “The Michael Schenker Anthology”, which had a selection of songs from his days in UFO and his own Michael Schenker Group. It was there I first heard songs such as “Doctor Doctor”, “Natural Thing”, “Only You Can Rock Me” and “Lights Out”, and from there I had to dive deeper. Not long after at the same store I purchased “Strangers in the Night” and I was completely hooked. I eventually got copies of the classic five albums that the band released in the 1970’s, but as for the following albums, well, that took longer to obtain. When I did listen to “No Place to Run”, I had thatear on, where I needed to hear something that was going to convince me that UFO could be the same band with the departure of their previous guitarist. And the guitar solos on this album are admirable. Paul Chapman is an accomplished guitarist, but he is no Michael Schenker. And on this album, that is a problem. Beyond this album it isn’t such a concern, because by then Chapman was the incumbent and Schenker was off doing his own thing that didn’t include UFO. Here he is judged on what came before, and although his soloing is strong and forceful, the lack of any real identifiable riffs in the songs themselves does help to make this a generally uninspired selection of songs. He’s not the only culprit. The lyrics and vocals overall don’t offer the same energy that they have on earlier albums, and the songwriting does feel a little lacklustre.
And that becomes a problem when you look around at what was surrounding it at the time. This album had so much up against it when it was released. It was the start of a new decade, and the music coming with that new decade had an impressive start. How do you come up with an album that can match the offerings released in that same year? The revitalised Black Sabbath with “Heaven and Hell”, their former vocalist Ozzy Osbourne with “Blizzard of Ozz”, Judas Priest and “British Steel”, Motorhead with “Ace of Spades”, and the arrival of Iron Maiden with their self-titled debut album and Def Leppard with theirs titled “On Through the Night”. That’s just a small cross section of the British bands that UFO was up against. And let’s not forget Michael Schenker’s own release, his self-titled “Michael Schenker Group” album. It was a pretty intimidating time for hard rock and heavy metal music.
Suffice to say, “No Place to Run” figuratively had no place to run, and suffers as a result. I have spent two days listening to the album on repeat once again, and have found very little inspirational about it. The band is solid, but the songwriting and songs themselves just don’t cut it. Of the band’s eventual 23 albums, this for me would not rank inside their ten best. Fear not! Better was to come, but as their first effort in the new decade and without their talisman, UFO were found to be well short of the mark here.

964. Accept / I'm a Rebel. 1980. 2.5/5

Accept had released their debut album in 1979, at a time where in retrospect they were unprepared for what the process required, and for what was necessary when it came to the writing process for a new album. In later years, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann recalled that their self-titled debut album was just a collection of songs that the band had been playing from their early years, all written without a focus on the job at hand. He was quoted as such: "We were just playing songs that we had always played. It was material that had gathered up over the first few months and years of our existence and it was a mixture of all kinds of stuff." Lead vocalist Udo Dirkschneider also expressed his dissatisfaction with the group's first effort when looking back on it some years later. The release of the album however gave them the opportunity to expand their horizons, and initially it gave them exposure outside of their native Germany into countries such as Belgium, France and The Netherlands for the first time.
Coming into the follow up album, the same line up that had toured the first album came back into the studio for their second attempt. Overall the band was looking to make a significant change from the first album. With a year of touring under their belt, they not only had the solidity of their playing to express, but also new songs written with the purpose of the new album in mind. Dirk Steffens was brought in as producer of the album, the first of three consecutive Accept albums he would be at the helm of. With this in mind, the band was looking for a more commercial sound in order to gain a stronger foothold both in Germany and then throughout Europe. This leads to a varied collection of tracks that does set it apart from their debut album but due to the differentiation between the styles of the songs, perhaps doesn’t quite establish exactly what sound Accept wanted to be known for.
The album was recorded in the back half of 1979, but wasn’t released until almost six months after the recording sessions had been completed. None of this set the band up on a solid platform, and with 1980 already becoming a stand out year for album releases in the hard to heavy genre, “I’m a Rebel” had some work to do if it wanted to compete on that level internationally.

Early on in their career, Accept had a sound that at its best mixed in tangible similarities of a cross between Judas Priest and AC/DC, which wasn’t such a bad thing when you trying to find your feet in a crowded music marketplace, and establish the identity that they eventually found so well.
Anyone who comes into this for the first time in the modern age, some 45 years after the album was released, is going to find it somewhat difficult to assuage how this is the same band that they may now be aware of. The answer of course is that they aren’t. However, listening to this album like other albums of the age, such as by Praying Mantis and Angel Witch and the like will give you the best tools with which to enjoy it. The main point of difference is that those two bands were comfortable within their music at that time, whereas with Accept, here was a band still trying to discover itself musically.
The opening track on the album plays into this whole perception about Accept’s early sound. “I’m a Rebel” is written by Alex Young, elder brother AC/DC’s Young brothers, and was actually recorded by AC/DC in 1976 with a possibility of it being released on their next album. This didn’t eventuate, and when producer Steffens decreed that the album needed a radio hit, he turned to Alex who produced this song. This is as good an explanation as any for when you hear the opening track, because it sounds like and AC/DC song, which at least does get the album away on a good footing.
Beyond the opening, this album has a better idea of where it wants to head, and is better than the debut as a result. The hard rock tracks all provide a solid base for the album. Along with the title track, the second song “Save Us”, along with “Thunder and Lightning” and “China Lady” provide the best that the band can deliver. Udo Dirkschneider’s vocals hit those heights that make his unique voice one that is as distinctive today as it was back in the day. He is having a great time on these tracks, and you can tell that this is the style that he was interested in following. The guitars of Wolf Hoffmann and Jorg Fischer are just as prominent, and their solo spots along with their harmony pieces are excellent and pick the songs up. Stefan Kaufmann’s drumming is also hard hitting here and great in the mix. “Thunder and Lightning” has a steady beat throughout that fits the theme, while “China Lady” has a grittier theme to it and is more than just a foot-tapping tune.
“I Wanna Be No Hero” mirrors the opening track by trying to be a more commercially appealing song, which doesn’t make it a bad song, but the difference in how hard it sounds like the band is playing is noticeable. Here there sounds like there is a desire to sit comfortably in the rock riff as written, where the other songs mentioned sound like they are being PLAYED rather than strummed. The closing track “Do It” fits this narrative as well though not to the same degree. Again, it is fine as a hard rock song but it lacks the ambition to be more than is.
That leaves the two rock ballad tracks, both of which contain lead vocals not from Udo but from bass guitarist Peter Baltes. And again this is where the album loses focus. These two tracks are mixed in with the attempted commercial hard rock tracks and the harder rock focused tracks that seem, to me at least, to be the best of the album. But the rock ballads are as you would expect. “No Time to Lose” actually sounds like a Rainbow song in places, and Baltes vocals are very much in the Graham Bonnet style. This is an almost paint-by-numbers tradition of this style of song, one where Baltes’ bass guitar also seems much higher in the mix than on other songs. What is even more strange, this song is solely written by producer Dirk Steffens, so there is no doubt at all what he was trying to do with this song on this album. It isn’t terrible but it also isn’t very good. The other rock ballad track is “The King”, this one credited to all of the band along with Steffens. It heads in all the same directions as “No Time to Lose”, and it feels like both tracks would fit more comfortably on a Foreigner album than an Accept album. It’s a strange path to follow, but as has already been noted, the band was still trying to find its own sound at this point of its career, rather than following the path that had been laid by others.

Though I listened to bits and pieces of Accept through the years, mainly from their more well known albums from the 1980’s, it was not until the turn of the century that I began to collate the albums of the Accept discography and truly discover what they had to offer. And it is an interesting study, especially when you go through them in chronological order, and decipher the changes and growing maturity of their sound from album to album. The first album is okay but really nothing special, a fact that the band itself has acknowledged in the past. But this album, well now that’s a different story.
But let’s say this from the start. “I’m a Rebel” is not a brilliant album. It is not even one of the best ten albums that Accept has released over the years. But it has a quaintness about it that I have always liked. It is a solid album with solid hard rock songs, if you ignore the two exceptions. And that is where the crux of it lies for me. Take those two songs out, and it is a far better album. Of course, it would then only be six songs and 25 minutes long, which is more of an EP. But Accept beyond this was built around the solid rhythm and hard to heavy sound of the guitars, and Udo’s vocals. Not utilising them does harm this album. And it is obviously a lesson that the band learned after this album, because they continued to make steady progress through the next decade in refining what became their sound.
I’ve had this out for the past couple of days again, and given its relatively short length have given it seven spins in total, and yes it still has its charms. Like I said it isn’t a world beater, but not every album is. In fact, very few are. This, on the other hand is an enjoyable hard rock album that is easy to listen to, and then put back on the shelves until next time. It is worth a listen to anyone who enjoys the history of heavy music, firstly to hear just where the band was at this point of their career, and then take in how they progressed from that point. It will not blow your mind, but it isn’t all bad either.

914. The Police / Zenyatta Mondatta. 1980. 3/5

I didn't listen to Zenyattà Mondatta until a number of years after its original release, and well after I had discovered the two albums that followed this, Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity. I do remember when I first sat down and listened to the entire album, and that I was... well... disappointed. It wasn't what I imagined it would be, stuck right in the middle between what the band once was, and then what the band became.

I have spent the majority of my The Police listening time in the last week or so taking in this album again. Not because it is my favourite, but because of their five studio releases it was always the one I was unsure of, and I wanted to be sure how I felt about it when it came to reviewing it. At the end of that time, as I sit here and compose this review, has anything really changed?
The songs that still don't sit well with me aren't as inflamed as they once were. I can accept that songs such as "Driven to Tears" and "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" are portents as to what was coming in new wave and what had been in long formless experimental instrumental pieces with lyrics almost being dropped in on a whim. The elements of reggae still exist, but perhaps in lessening degrees. In many ways you need to be in a certain mood to take way this album is recorded. Take "Voices Inside My Head", which really just uses one riff from Andy and the same solid drumbeat from Stewart and then meanders along for the better part of four minutes with very little change.
The better parts of the album still have a more marketable vibe which are highlighted by Sting getting higher in his vocal range while Andy and Stewart both throw in more of their better off-the-cuff licks and rolls which add glamour to each track. The single "Don't Stand So Close To Me", "Bombs Away", "Canary in a Coalmine" and "Man In A Suitcase" are the best examples of this on Zenyattà Mondatta.
I've more or less always been less than enamoured with "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". It's okay, and I will pretty much always sing along with it when I hear it, but as a great song I'd much prefer those songs already mentioned above. "Behind My Camel" reminds me a lot of music passages from Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, while the album also concludes with "Shadows in the Rain" and another instrumental "The Other Way of Stopping", neither of which endear me with any great enthusiasm.

I struggle in Zenyattà Mondatta even now. Sure, I can listen to it and I enjoy about half of it as I would any other of The Police's albums, but the other half still bugs me. Meh. You can't be completely brilliant all the time, and the style of the band was evolving no doubt, and it turns out that I just don't connect as well to this part of it.

Rating:  "Must I be a man in a suitcase".  3/5

905. Billy Joel / Glass Houses. 1980. 3.5/5

Over a career that had already spanned over a decade by the time it came around to 1980, Billy Joel had parlayed a talent in music into a burgeoning career that saw his popularity on an ever-increasing curve. His early albums had seen songs make themselves popular on the radio, which in turn saw greater attendances at live gigs in the US and more so around the world.
His 1977 release “The Stranger” has exploded this ever further, yielding four top 25 hits on the US Billboard charts in “Just the Way You Are”, “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song), “Only the Good Die Young” and “She’s Always a Woman”, along with another fan favourite n “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”. “The Stranger” also reached #2 on the album charts in the US and was top ten around the world. This was followed by his next album “52nd Street” in the following year which went to #1, and with other big selling singles in “My Life”, “Big Shot” and “Honesty” Joel had reached a peak point in his career.
Flowing on from the revitalisation of his music, which was now successfully finding its way all around the globe, the promise of his next album “Glass Houses” found itself fighting its way in a new world of music genres. With the time span of his two previous albums, the music world had seen the rise in popularity of the disco scene, and on the back of this had seen the rise of the punk scene. Joel’s two albums had sliced through those genres and topped the charts with his piano based romantic ballad styled hits, along with some mid tempo almost-rock pop tunes to help out along the way. One of the things Billy had been able to do over the years was to not only ride out the popularist music of the time that he was writing new material but also be able incorporate change in his own music writing that suited where he was at that point time both personally and in music. In this regard, it has been suggested that “Glass Houses” is his answer to this time in music, that he incorporates closer to a full rock album on this release while also fusing in some new wave elements that were beginning to make their mark on the 1980 music scene. Whether or not that was the intention he had here or even that there was this kind of thought behind it, there are more songs on this album that fit into the upbeat variety than the reflective piano dominating songs that were a feature of his early albums. And listening back to this album now, and reflecting just what was happening to music at the turn of the 1980’s decade, there is just that possibility that Billy Joel had timed his run with this style of album to a nicety.

The first side of this album is excellent and probably the one where casual listeners to Billy Joel’s music will enjoy the most. It is where the most concentrated of his best songs appear. "You May Be Right" opens the album with the sound of glass smashing, no doubt from the rock Billy holds on the cover of the album, about to throw through the window of his own home at the time. This is the upbeat, guitar driven rock number that signifies that change in the way the album is heading. Billy sings his lyrics in forthright fashion with an attitude that befits them, and the guitar solo is accompanied by the saxophone that was to proliferate the new wave era ahead as well. This was the first single released from the album and starts “Glass Houses” off in style. “Sometimes a Fantasy” has a strong guitar riff throughout but also brings in a synth riff through the chorus and into the middle solo section of the song to again signify that this album has the rock and new wave parts combining to give it a place in both genres at a time when both were influencing the music trends. This is very much tied to the era and its influence on the album is significant. This is then completely reversed by “Don’t Ask Me Why” which follows. "Don't Ask Me Why" has very Beatles-esque qualities about it, or at the very least a George Harrison slash Paul McCartney style, which lightens up the album a touch from the opening two songs. Billy’s vocals on this track definitely channels both of those amazing voices that proliferated that band’s songs, and even now when I hear this song, I can almost see the Beatles playing it. This is followed by "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me", one of my favourite Billy Joel songs. His conversational tone throughout, singing back and forth to himself in conversation, and with another great sax spot in the middle of the song, works exceptionally well in making it not only an easy song to sing along to, but also makes a song that fits easily into any music playlist. This was the third song released as a single form the album, and became Billy Joel’s first US #1 single. The concluding track of side one of the album is the light and upbeat “All for Leyna”. This is a real piano rock song, with Billy’s tinkling of the ivories taking centre stage, and then switching to synth and guitar in the middle of the track.
All five songs on side one of the album were released as singles in some territories, while none of the five on side two were released in that fashion. Was this a deliberate ploy? To stack side one with the main songs, and then leave side two to fend for itself? They certainly aren’t bad songs, but they have nothing that jumps out at you or grabs your attention to make them stand out from the pack, or for the most part even get you tapping your foot or singing along with the lyrics.
“I Don’t Want to Be Alone” is built around the piano and Billy’s vocals again, both leading the song through the majority of its tenure on the album. "Sleeping with the Television On" has its moments, while “Cetait Toi (You Were the One)” falls back to his piano based ballad style, with lilting vocals over his softer toned piano. The final two songs hover around the same structure as the interspersed rock style. “Close to the Borderline” has Billy venting about the pressures being put on by the environment around him and how close it is pushing him to a breaking point, with lyrics like “Blackout, heatwave, .44 caliber homicide, The bums drop dead and the dogs go mad, In packs on the west side, Young girl standing on a ledge looks like another suicide, She wants to hit those bricks, 'Cause the news at six gotta stick to a deadline” while the closing track “Through the Long Night” again tends to channel a Beatles tune, the vocals again particularly imitating that range of harmonies that they were so wonderful at.
The selection of tracks for each side of the album makes for an interesting conversation. If the better songs were spread more evenly through the album, would that make the album a better listen? Or by putting what is commonly believed to be the better songs all on the first side of the album, and allowing the second side of the album to become a bit too similar and familiar without anything standing out that makes you not only want to listen to it but make you remember anything about the songs there at all, does that make it easier to market by bringing in everyone on that first half of the album?

My introduction to Billy Joel came via the singles released on the radio, and over the first half of the 1980’s they began to endear themselves to me. In particular this occurred with the release on “An Innocent Man” album and the single “Uptown Girl”. My first album though was the “Greatest Hits Vol 1 & 2” double album which I received for Christmas in 1985, with all of those great songs from his career to that point. And I played that a lot and have done so in the 40 years since I got it. But it wasn’t until much later in life that I began to go back and collect the individual albums to find out what his other material was like. “Glass Houses” was one that I had heard around different places, not the least my in-laws, where my mother-in-law Christine was a big fan of his and in particular this album.
As I have already alluded to, the first side of the album is where all of the singles came from, and it is fair to say the best songs on the album. I was always a fan of “You May Be Right” and “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” before I got this album, and “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “All for Leyna” were also familiar but became favourites as I listened to the album. “Close to the Borderline” has always been an interesting song, and I think it is the lyrics that intrigue me the most and were what led me to enjoying that song along with the harder sound of guitar and drums on that track. And the very Beatles-like sounds and harmonies of both “Sometimes a Fantasy” and “Through the Long Night” are wonderfully well performed, and whether or not those similarities are deliberate or not I enjoy them both for Billy’s talent and those familiar tones.
I’ve had my CD copy of this album on this week, likely for the first time since I picked it up. When it comes to Billy Joel, I will generally default back to my “Greatest Hits 1 & 2” for its known qualities, but when I do go to an album it is always enjoyable. And this one is no exception.
I haven’t actually done a ranking of Billy Joel’s album to this point in time – yes, yes, I know, very slack – but of his 13 studio albums I would suggest it is in the top five, not in the top two. That’s the best you are going to get at this point in time.
Billy’s career continued to rise through the 1980’s decade, with more albums and singles and sellout out concerts. This point of his career was arguably in the middle of a 6-7 year period where he sat on the crest of that wave and rode it into shore. And some of his most iconic material was still yet to come.