1288. Vixen / Rev It Up. 1990. 4/5

The late 1980’s was a period in music that was just made for a band like Vixen. Hair metal, glam metal, hard rock, whatever you want to call it, this was a style of music that lent itself to being interpreted by an all girl band who looked the part but could also play music. And that is what Vixen was during that period. Indeed, it is hard to believe that lead guitarist and band founder Jan Kuehnemund was 35 years old when the debut album was released, and that she had been in bands for almost 20 years by the time it was released. The band Vixen was first formed in 1980, and went through a rotational doorway of band member changes through the years. By 1987, the band had settled on the four piece that would take their music forward – Kuehnemund on lead guitar, Janet Gardner on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Share Pederson on bass and Roxy Petrucci on drums. All three of the other girls were almost a decade younger than the vastly more experienced band leader. Thus in 1988, with glam metal at the height of its popularity, Vixen was signed by EMI and recorded their debut album. Coming on board to champion their career, among others, was Richard Marx, who had already had success as a songwriter and whose own singing career was about to take off. Not only did he co-produce the album, but he co-wrote the lead off track and first single from the album “Edge of a Broken Heart”.
Vixen spent the next year touring the world, supporting acts such as Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, and Bon Jovi, as well as headlining their own shows. The videos of the singles were on constant rotation on MTV and other music video programs. Their exposure to their primetime audience was significant. All that was required now was to write and record a follow up album that could take full advantage of the place they had arrived at. Whereas the first album had had several producers and guest writers to craft the perfect album to showcase the band, meticulously planned to take advantage of every asset the band had, this time around there was one producer, Randy Nicklaus, and the girls themselves had a much more hands on approach with the writing of the songs. The result was their sophomore album “Rev It Up”, one that could be seen to be the make or break album of the band’s career.

“Rev It Up” operates in the main on two separate writing partnerships – not solely, but in the main the two partnerships orbit the spectrum and are the ones that create the tides that flow through the album. The two songs that buck this trend are the two power ballads, both of which have different writers from the core group. “It Wouldn’t Be Love” is written by Dianne Warren, best known for those other dreadful power ballad tracks “If I Could Turn Back Time” by Cher and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith. This song is either one of her throwaway songs that was offered to the band on the back of her reputation, or the band fails to find the kind of energy needed to make this a memorable addition to the album. Coming in as the penultimate track it is the most disappointing offering on this album. It would be far better without it. The other is “Love is a Killer” which was released as the second single from the album. This is written by drummer Roxy Petrucci and Harry Paress. This is a truer power ballad and offers a great insight into Roxy’s writing capabilities. Unlike “It Wouldn’t Be Love”, you can hear the passion exuding from this song, mostly from Janet Gardner’s amazing vocal performance which gives it the gravitas to lift it from an ordinary power ballad into something that at least offers something to hold onto. Jan Kuehnemund’s atypical power solo fits the bill nicely.
One of the two main songwriting partnerships is between Janet Gardner and bass guitarist Share Pedersen, and they contribute five tracks to the album. The opening title track is the first of those, on which Ron Keel also contributes to the writing along with Steve Diamond. It has a solid opening guitar riff, an inbuilt crowd participation bridge and chorus, and nice solo spot from Kuehnemund through the middle section. “Not as Minute Too Soon” is a stock standard hard rock track from the point of view of the girl who is trying to stop making bad decisions in love but of course the hero of the story is making himself appear, and not a minute too soon. Nothing extraordinary here, but one of the solid core of songs an album needs to be a good album. “Hard 16” follows the excellent “Streets in Paradise” and continues with the great energy that track emits. Sure, the lyrics are a familiar story, of the teenage girl leaving home to escape her parents and find a new life, but the song does it justice. The vocals, especially the rise through the last minute of the song from Gardner and Pedersen gives it a deserved great finish. More of the same lyrically follows in “Only a Heartbeat Away”. There aren’t any barriers being broken with the lyrics or musically for that matter, but it is being done n a fun way. Their final contribution is the closing track “Wrecking Ball”, which picks up the pieces of the ballad “It Wouldn’t Be Love” and gives the album the finish that it deserves, a party song that leaves the boy and girl storylines behind and just concentrates on having a great time.
The other writing partnership comes from band leader and lead guitarist Jan Kuehnemund, who has her fingers in the other four songs of the album. The first two are co-written with Jack Conrad and Steve Plunkett, better known for the band Autograph. Both of these songs are the best this album has to offer. The first is the first single from the album, “How Much Love”, a cracking hard rock song made for the times, showcasing all four band members in their best light, with great drumming from Petrucci, perfect rhythm in Gardner’s guitar and Pedersen’s bass and the lead from Kuehnemund herself, not to mention terrific vocals from Janet again with support from her bandmates. The second is “Streets in Paradise”, a rollicking track that picks up the pace of the album and makes all the necessary correction to launch the album once again. You can hear the contributions of Plunkett in both of these songs, but it is the four girls who make these tracks as good as they are. “How Much Love” is a karaoke bar track, “Streets in Paradise” is an arm out the window while driving the car song. "Bad Reputation” is co-written with Janet Gardner and is typical of the tracks they did together on the debut album, bouncy and punchy and with the right amount of attitude to keep the song fun. And finally, “Fallen Hero” is co-written with Petrucci and is driven by her drum beat and Janet’s vocals in a party anthem style that helps flavour this album as the fun time it is to listen to.

I’m sure I must have seen the music videos that proliferated the airwaves from Vixen’s debut album, but I don’t recall them out of hand. At the same time as Lita Ford’s breakthrough self-titled album was creating waves for its style of candy flavoured hard rock and hair metal, Vixen had done the same with their Richard Marx composed “Edge of a Broken Heart”. For me though, I didn’t really discover the band until my fateful first journey to Bali in mid-1991, where I purchased a hundred cassettes for practically nothing of bands I had never thought to check out because the price was too high back home. Here though, I loaded up and brought home a plethora of albums to listen to. And two of those albums were “Vixen” and “Rev It Up”. And when I got around to picking up this album, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I couldn’t even tell you what it was that I enjoyed about it. In the long run, it was just the whole package of the catchy songs and great vocals that were a counterpoint to the much heavier stuff I was listening to at that time that perhaps made the difference. I mean, the music world was changing, and my own listening had narrowed significantly to those heavy metal and thrash metal bands that I loved more than anything else. So finding this album – and quite a few others, which I will get to down the line of this podcast – was actually a circuit breaker, something that gave me music that I could go to on occasions when I didn’t need to listen to those other albums for the thousandth time.
And I won’t lie to you, Vixen have been a guilty pleasure band of mine for those 30-odd years that have passed since that Bali trip. And probably this album in particular. OK, you can toss out “It Wouldn’t Be Love”, it is below the standards of this band and should have been left off the album entirely. But the absolute high calibre of “How Much Love” and “Streets in Paradise”, along with “Rev It Up”, “Love is a Killer”, “Hard 16”, “Bad Reputation” and “Wrecking Ball”, still make this a great listen for me every time I choose to take it out of the CD racks.
When I again brought this out for this episode, I wasn’t sure just how I was going to feel about it, or review it. C’mon, there would be very few people out there who are going to openly admit that they are a huge fan of Vixen’s music. But I am one of those people. And every time I have listened to this album over the past few days, I have been singing along (sometimes far too loud) and air drumming on my work desk. For me, it still hits the right places. If I’m down, it absolutely brings me back into equilibrium. And I know that sometimes I only want half of the tracks here, so I will use the skip button. But when I put it on just because I want an album to listen to, there is no need. Not even for “It Wouldn’t Be Love” ... though that would still be preferable.
Vixen spent the year following the release of this album touring, including headlining their own shows and supporting acts such as KISS and Deep Purple. Unfortunately for them, the music world was in upheaval, and their style of music was facing an eradication on a global scale. While both albums had charted in the US and the UK, the success was not great enough for their record label who was starting to chase the ambulances heading directly for Seattle and the grunge movement, and Vixen were soon dropped and forced to disband. It was not to be the end of their story, but their short rise with their original grouping had come to an end. One might just ask... how much love is it gonna take...

1287. Faith No More / King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime. 1995. 3.5/5

Faith No More had been on a roller coaster ride since the unexpected and overwhelming success of their album “The Real Thing” when it was released in 1989. The acquisition of Mike Patton as lead singer had been a major part of that climb out of obscurity, with his amazing vocals and stage antics creating a focal point for the band and offering a real dynamic between all band members. Backing this up was always going to be a tricky proposition, and the “Angel Dust” album managed to split the fan base when it was released in 1992, as the music followed a less commercial direction than much of the new fanbase that they had gathered from that previous album would have expected. Instead it went out in a crazed alternative landscape that made its own extension from grunge music that had taken the world by storm at that point in time, and in its own way contributed to the offshoots that came over the next three years with the diversifying of the music conglomerate of the mid-1990's.
Faith No More faced a number of problems as they headed towards where they wanted to drive when it came to their next album. Number one of those was the fate of guitarist Jim Martin, who had major problems with the direction the music was heading with the band. Martin stated on his website that he felt that “The Real Thing” was the band’s ideal album, both in the creative process and the subsequent touring, and that the change in musical style, and in focus from guitars to vocals with the arrival of Mike Patton, did not sit well with him. There had even been questions raised as to whether Martin had played on “Angel Dust”, to which bass guitarist Billy Gould said in an interview on PopMatters in October 2016, “He played, but the writing process was extremely difficult because he wasn't really much of a fan of the music. He wasn't really behind it. He wasn't really into it. So it was a tough process. I mean, I think, really, we realized that he wasn't going to continue while we were making that record because he was just on a different musical page."
Martin was eventually fired by fax from keyboardist Roddy Bottom in November 1993. In his place the band brought in Patton’s Mr. Bungle bandmate Trey Spruance to record guitars on the new album. This also turned into a story after the album was completed when Spruance left the band and was replaced for the subsequent tour by Bottom’s keyboard roadie, Dean Menta. Both sides tell a different story. The band claim Spruance was unwilling to commit to a long touring schedule, and Gould himself labelled him a “spoilt rich kid who did not want to tour”. On the other hand, Spruance recalled not even having enough money to buy the magazine where Gould said this about him. He remembered, "this is like one of those stunning juxtapositions in life when you're standing in fucking Tower Records and this thing goes out to the whole world that you're this spoilt, privileged rich kid, and you can't even buy the fucking magazine it's written in. That was really almost like a cosmic moment."
Adding to this, Roddy Bottum himself was mostly absent through all of the writing and recording process, due to the passing of his father and also that of Kurt Cobain. Bottum was a close friend of Courtney Love and Cobain’s death had hit him hard. He also had developed a heroin addiction, which eventually led to a band intervention over the matter. As a result, the album was composed with almost no keyboards in the mix.
So as you can see, there was a little bit going on.
Writing the album took up to nine months, which included the search for a replacement for Martin, while the recording took another three months on top of that. In a 1995 Australian radio interview, drummer Mike Bordin felt more focused than “Angel Dust”, and that the departure of previous guitarist Jim Martin made the writing process easier. Gould was also quoted at the time, "we've never written stuff with Jim, as a band. Usually we'd give him a tape and he'd put stuff to it because he didn't like practicing with us much." Gould added in another interview, "it's heavier, it's more direct and it's the first record where we had the guitar the way we wanted it. Now it feels we're a dog who's been let of the leash."
It was a long and delayed time period, but eventually Faith No More had their new album completed, released to the world in March of 1995 under the ironic title of “King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime”.

There always felt like there would be a difference in the sounds produced on this album without Jim Martin there to offer his distinctive guitar riffs. The recruitment of another Mr. Bungle member did tip the balance in the possibility that the music on this album could slide more in that direction now that Martin had gone. Overall that isn’t the case, and although the band made it clear that Martin had not contributed much to the writing cause in recent times, it is noticeable here the directional change that the band has made now that he was out of the equation all together. And there is a whole component here that marks the changes afoot for Faith No More the band. Indeed, the songs here are equally split between what they had traditionally produced, and a different more progressive charting for the future.
The opening salvo of “Get Out” is from the old school, written by Mike Patton and featuring his genuine typical vocal performance and the hard riff and drum beat that mark the best songs from the band. This bleeds into “Ricochet” which develops the same vibes but with a slightly deviated energy from what the band and Patton has provided prior to this album. Indeed, it can be seen to be a more mature offering of the Faith No More core sound led by Patton’s vocals that are the main reference pint of the song.
Then comes “Evidence”, and this is where the ‘evidence’ of a change in the Faith No More template can first be found. This is a song heavily in depth of soul and R&B influences, with the heavily funked tones of both guitar bass being the overriding dominating factors of the track. This is the first of several songs on the album in which you can see the band playing in a small smoky jazz club dressed in suits and playing underneath the sounds of constant chatter from the assorted crowd at tables drinking champagne. It is a huge change, one that takes time to get used to.
Out of this quiet and introspective style than comes to return of the harder more belligerent more typical Faith No More attack in “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies”. It still oscillates throughout the song from the quiet lyrics over Bottom’s bass before bursting into the hard-core vocals style driven by Spruance’s guitars and Bordin’s drums. This is the kind of song that drew in the long-time fans and is still a fan favourite to this day because of the energy and passion that explodes out of the song. There is then a reversion with “Star AD” which continues in the theme of a lounge club song, the soul inspired track that also implements a brass section to enhance the feel of the track, and Patton using his deeper lower key vocals to bring that feel and emotion to the track. “Cuckoo for Caca” is a sister track to “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies” in the way Patton’s almost deranged vocals take over and dominate the track, with the music and mix of the almost unwritable riffs from bass, keys and guitar meshing together still being brought together as the band often did in their earliest form. “Caralho Voader” throws in a Brazilian theme into the mix, again moving to the jazz club scenario for the music inspiration for the track, whereas “Ugly in the Morning” returns to the themes of “Cuckoo for Caca” with Patton’s completely over the top screaming dominating over the meshing of styles musically once again. It seems likely that the changes in style of songs from track to track was a deliberate decision from the band and producer, but personal preference would be something that would determine if this was a wise move.
The first single released from the album comes next with “Digging the Grave”, which combines the marketability of Faith No More’s previous guise of short sharp song dominated musically by Bordin’s drums in the foreground, the keys lower in the mix and the bass on top of that, and Patton’s vocal destruction also making the guitar superfluous. He hits the energy button on this song and is the driving force and man out front. From here we have the typical change of style again with “Take This Bottle”, which slows everything down like a slow motion replay, or more accurately like playing a 45rpm record at 33rpm. That’s how it feels and sounds. It plays like a slug crawling across the turntable and Patton’s vocals sound as if they have been drawn out into eternity as the whole song winds down rather than winding up at any point in time. It almost has a country twang to it as well, though the piano keyboard and synth background don’t quite make that mix well either. Then the title track “King for a Day” has mirrored similarities in sections to the opening strains of the album, with Bottom’s atmospheric keys through the song giving it an uplifting, almost building crescendo through from the middle of the track to its conclusion. The song does build that way, with Patton’s vocals in the middle in the quieter lower key that then follow the lead of the music to become harder and more definitive. This acts as the epic track of the album, with the rises and falls of platitudes of the music, and the strength throughout making it one of the highlights along with its progressive feel. “What a Day” cries out with intensity and energy, driven by Billy Gould’s thumping funky bass guitar, and Patton goes hard lyrically and vocally again. Due to Gould’s bass this really brings back parallels to the early Faith No More albums.
“The Last to Know” continues the bands push towards a progressive nature in some of the material hear, with a softer rhythm tone dominated by the synth, before an understated guitar solo from Spruance takes the song out to its conclusion. There is no outward variation in vocals, simply a slow build that remains contained within the framework of the song. It is a new direction for the band, highlighting the different tones being employed here on this album. This continues into the album closer, “Just a Man”, an extension of what we have just heard, apart from the passionate reselling of the chorus by Patton along with choir backing vocals. These two songs in particular show what could be said to be the growing maturity of the band musically. This is another song that feels as though it is being performed in a club by the band dressed in suits rather than by the hard rock funk band they had come to prominence as. Even though they had moments of that old style on this album, these closing tracks seem to be painting a different future for the band, one where they change their clothes and personalities completely.

This album was released in what for me was the great big black hole of 1995, a year that should I ever get the chance to go back and erase I would do in an instant. And there were not a lot of albums that I went out and purchased during this year, but this was one of them. I can assure you I didn’t really know what to expect given the stylistic differences between the previous four albums the band had released, and on first listens I remember that it didn’t really grab me. I could identify the songs that did catch my attention straight away and also the ones that didn’t. What did give this album a boost was the fact that two weeks after its release, Faith No More was one of the headline acts at the first (and unfortunately only) Alternative Nation music festival at Eastern Creek west of Sydney. During this show they played several songs off this album, being “Get Out”, “Digging the Grave”, “Evidence”, “What a Day”, “King for a Day” and “Ricochet”. And I remember the crowd being most subdued during them, because the album itself had been out for only two weeks. Still, for me who had at least heard them, it inspired me to give the album more of a go than I perhaps would have without that festival.
What it is fair to say is that at the time it was released, I was putting it on as background music to what was occurring in my life at the time. There were dead spots on this album that I noticed but probably didn’t process overly much at the time. I know when listening to the CD on my stereo the skip button on the remote would get used at times, and the fast forward button on the tape player in my car as well. But this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the album obviously, because when discussing the album over the years I remember I have talked it up as being ‘not as good as “Angel Dust’ and ‘The Real Thing’, but still pretty good!”
So we come to the present day, and over the last week I have listened to this album again a dozen times, sometimes in the background at work but then also with a discerning ear for the review for this episode. And it has probably confirmed my suspicions that I think have hovered in the back of my mind since I first bought this album. And those thoughts are that basically, this is an album of two parts and almost two different eras of the band, put together in an order to make you think that it isn’t. On a recent episode for Billy Joel’s album “Glass Houses”, I mentioned how all of the known and popular songs are on the first side of the album, and the lesser known tracks are left to fight for themselves on the B side. In the instance of this album, the band and producer have obviously decided to mix the two different styled tracks in with each other, in the hope that fans who prefer only one of those styles – either the hard heavy and funky style of their previous releases, or the more introspective jazz club style or progressive style of the other tracks here – would not notice, and come to love the album as a whole. Now I’m sure that for many fans, this DID come to pass, and they fell in love with the album as a whole, with the full package of differing song styles that abound here. Certainly in Australia the album went to #2 on the charts and #5 in the UK which would suggest it succeeded. But in the US it could manage only #31 which suggests it missed the mark there.
The end result for me then is that it is an album that I seem to have enjoyed more in the past than I do now. This probably came into clearer view once the bands next album, “Album of the Year” was released. There are still some great songs here. I adore “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies” and “Digging the Grave” and enjoy most other songs, but there is the occasional hiccup here where momentum hits a brick wall that makes parts of the album difficult to focus on. Despite this, of Faith No More’s seven studio albums I rank this as #3, though it is a close run thing. If only they could have reconciled with Jim Martin...

1286. Gary Moore / Still Got the Blues. 1990. 3.5/5

Gary Moore’s had a long and illustrious career leading up to the start of the 1990’s. His style of guitar oriented hard rock had built its audience on hard work, great live shows and solid performing albums. He occasionally made it into the mainstream as well, most noticeably with his cover of The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” from his “Wild Frontier” album. However, despite his popularity in the UK, Japan and even Australia, he was unable to break into the US charts. His 1989 release “After the War” had even utilised Ozzy Osbourne as a guest vocalist on the song “Led Clones”, but even this failed to raise his profile in North America.
While on tour promoting the “After the War” album, bass guitarist Bob Daisley implanted an idea with Moore that would eventually see him rearrange and reinterpret the direction of his music career. As Daisley write in his excellent autobiography “For Facts Sake”, “Before shows, Gary and I would jam together in the tune-up room, playing various bits ‘n’ pieces which included some old Blues standards. One night after we’d messed around with some songs from the “John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton” album, I said, “Ya know, we should do a Blues album, even if it’s a one off”. My idea appealed to Gary, and he began to give it some serious thought”.
With the tour over, Moore had allowed the initial thought to mull over in his mind and had come to the conclusion that he was going to give the blues album a run. It was to be a combination of blues covers and original tracks written by Moore himself. Suggestions came from band members. Daisley offered the selection of his favourite blues song “Oh Pretty Woman” by A.C. Williams, which was taken on board. There were nine songs that made the original release of the album and three more that made the CD version of the album. Of those 12 songs, Moore composed five of the nine that made the vinyl version of the album.
Recording a blues album required more personnel than a rock band. It required players who could add the brass of trumpet and saxophones, and Moore obviously decided that he needed musicians away from his band who were more specialised in the blues, which left some of his bandmates in a quandary. Daisley write in his autobiography, “Bassist Andy Pye had been a good friend of Gary’s for quite some time and was probably considered more of a Blues player than I was. I wasn’t surprised when Andy not only got to play on more of the new album than I did, he was asked to do the promotional tours as well. Neil Carter and I stood on the sidelines for a good while, wondering how long Gary’s blues phase would last”.
The album that resulted from this was titled “Still Got the Blues”. The answer to the question posed by Daisley and Carter as to how long Gary’s blues phase would last was... to the end of his days.

Whether you are a fan of the blues or not, the opening of the album is still energetic enough to grab your attention and to enjoy. Moore’s own “Moving On” has enough similarities to his own rock music that makes it a good opening track for his new venture. With only the bass, piano, drums and guitar alongside his vocal it is the closest you can get to his earlier rock formation, with that real lean into the bass rhythm and style certainly audible. The second track on the album ramps things up blues style with the aforementioned favourite blues song of Bob Daisley, “Oh Pretty Woman”, which Moore somewhat coldly asked Andy Pyle to play bass on rather than Daisley himself. From the outside it seems like a strange decision. Despite this, it is a terrific version of this song, complete with a guest appearance from blues legend Albert King on guitar, and it sounds like the band is excited to have him there while they are playing it, the joy comes across out of the speakers. “Walking By Myself” is a cover of the original written by Jimmy Rogers and has the prominent use of harmonica throughout the song, played here by Frank Mead. The strut of the guitar and rhythm is the highlight of the song alongside Gary’s great guitar work again. The second of Moore’s compositions follows this, with the title track “Still Got the Blues (For You)”, where Gary has made deliberate change in energy and pace, giving it an opportunity to make its mark on the charts when it was released as a single, which it duly was as the second from the album following “Oh Pretty Woman”. The single release had two minutes cut out of it from the album version, which was basically the long solo that takes us from the middle of the track through to the end. The single is fine at a little over four minutes, while the album version clocks in a just over 6 minutes in length. Moore does a great job on his emotional work on this song, something he has always been terrific at. “Texas Strut” is also a Moore composed track, with the tempo dialled back up again and a more rock-oriented feel, probably coming from the fact that Daisley appears on bass as does Moore’s former bandmate in Thin Lizzy Brian Downey on drums. There’s a bit of John Lee Hooker about the song, including the ‘how how how how’ spoken in the back half of the song. It ends the first side of the LP with five songs that have lost little in comparison to Moore’s earlier rock albums.
The second half of the album opens up with “Too Tired”, a true blues standard along with trumpet and saxophones all combining with Moore soling his guitar over the top, and also another blues legend Albert Collins joining in for fun. “King of the Blues” is a Gary Moore composed song that mirrors the blues feel of the previous track. The second side of the album has moved to a different style of the blues, one that is set in a mid-tempo and pushes harder on the vocal and horns in the middle before Gary and his guitar take over for their long patch. “As the Years Go Passing By” is a cover of a song written by Deadric Malone, and this a is a true molasses stretching slow tempo blues song, Time almost stands still on occasions through the song, in a true byplay on the title of the song. 7 minutes and 46 seconds is a long time at the best of times, but it really plays out longer while sitting through this track. And if you thought that track was a song stuck in quicksand, much the same can be said about the final one on the album “Midnight Blues”, this one composed by Moore himself. He follows a cover tune of a song that slinks along in slow motion with a song he wrote.... that follows the same template and benchmark. This is only 5 minutes long rather than almost 8, and while it is heartfelt lyrically and vocally it is a quiet and slow and sleep-inducing track to finish what was released on the vinyl album.
The CD does contain three extra tracks, all cover songs. The first is “That Kind of Woman” written by George Harrison, who also guests on the song on guitars and backing vocals. This partnership worked so well that Harrison asked Moore to play a guitar solo on the first single from the Travelling Wilbury’s second album that was released not long after this album. Withe mix of guitars and piano and brass it holds its own on the album without having made the original cut. “All Your Love” is an Otis Rush cover, a song that harks back to Moore’s rock roots with the main base just guitar, bass, drums and organ, and takes this song and really gives it a modern kick. You can hear a lot of what made the blues popular at the time it was written in the song, and it is given a proper tribute here. The CD then concludes with “Stop Messin’ Around”, a Fleetwood Mac cover from their earliest formation, and with songwriter Peter Green being one of Moore’s major influences as he moved further into the blues machine, the song is an indicator of that going forward.

I have been a fan of Gary Moore’s almost from the moment I first heard him on Rage back in the mid-1980's. The first album I owned was passed on by my heavy metal music dealer, it being the “Rocking Every Night – Live in Japan” album. And on the back of that it wasn’t long until I had every one of his solo albums, and I loved every single one of them.
The release of Gary’s blues album had been widely publicised up until its release date. It was an interesting time. Hot Metal magazine had been pumping it up prior to it reaching the shelves, and I couldn’t work out why. I mean, what was wrong with his hard rock albums?! The albums where he sang and played awesome riffs on guitar? I couldn’t understand why he had decided to do this album, and much like Bob Daisley and Neil Carter, I was already trying to work out whether this was going to be a one off project or whether it was going to bloom into something permanent.
I bought the album in the first week of release, sound unheard as was the way in those days, and brought the vinyl home to place on my turntable. And what I heard on that first side of the album was a surprise to me. I remember enjoying those first three tracks immediately, the guitar the rhythm the energy. All of that was excellent. Even the title track, which delved into a different atmosphere, was still enjoyable. Then I turned that album over, and it lost me completely. That second side of the album went deeper into a style of the blues that didn’t grab me at all. “King of the Blues”, “As the Years Go Passing By” and “Midnight Blues” are slow and rambling, something I’m sure blues fans enjoy but I did not. After a couple of listens, it made my job easy while this still found its way to my turntable. Play the first side of the album, and then either play it again or change it for the next album in rotation. It went into the crates when I finally moved out of home, and then it was destroyed in the flood of 2001. And to be fair, I was probably less upset about that vinyl than I was of all the others.
Some years later I did finally replace it with a CD version of the album, in the name of having my Gary Moore collection complete (though it isn’t because I don’t own any albums after the one released after this one “After Hours”). And I have very occasionally had it out to listen to since then. But rarely if ever the whole album. Until... this week. Yes, it was time to dust it off, pull it off the shelves and see how it would sound to the ears some 35 years after its release. And that in itself was a shock – 35 years! It brought back that it was recently the 14th anniversary of Gary’s passing, and just how long 35 years is when you think back about certain albums. And on revisiting this album over the past few days, it again has not been unpleasant. The same feelings I had about the album are still there. The first half is still fun and uplifting, it sounds like everyone is having a great time playing these songs, and that makes it enjoyable to listen to. The second half to me is still dull and frankly boring. Sure, I can appreciate the music as played and the musicians for their talents, but it doesn’t do anything for me. And that is simply a genre taste for me.
In ranking all of Gary Moore’s 17 studio albums – a ridiculous ten of which are blues albums from 1990 through to his passing – I rank this as #8. And if you are keeping tally, it shouldn’t be too difficult to work out which albums rank above this and which rank below.
As you will have surmised, Bob and Neil – and me – all waited for Gary’s blues exploration to come to its natural conclusion so he could return to his hard rock roots, all in vain. That’s a shame, but it does keep those hard rock albums as very special because of his abandonment of the genre. As for his blues albums? Well, let’s just say that the continuing story and reviews of THOSE albums going forward should make for entertaining listening, more so than the albums themselves...

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.

1283. AC/DC / Stiff Upper Lip. 2000. 2/5

AC/DC. Kings of the world. Certainly, they had built their brand up wonderfully over the 25 years they had been recording and releasing albums, being able to move on from tragedy and behind the scenes troubles to create a market that not only wanted but NEEDED the band and its material.
Even in the 1990’s, the decade where music had morphed into so many different varieties of metal and grunge and hard rock and alternative, AC/DC managed to stay relevant. 1995’s “Ballbreaker” had still performed exceptionally well despite the time period it was released in, and the demand for concert tickets never ebbed during this decade. And as the turn of the century approached it felt as though that may never change.
Indeed, the preparation for the follow up to “Ballbreaker” occurred much earlier than may have been expected. Malcolm and Angus Young actually began writing new material for a new album as far back as mid-1997 when they were based in London and the Netherlands, mostly with Malcolm on guitar and Angus bashing away on the drums. Some may have thought this superfluous, that a drum machine could have done the same job, but there you go. After eight months the brothers had a dozen songs completed. When it came to recording the album, the Youngs’ had decided to fall back on producer Bruce Fairbairn to helm the controls. Fairbairn had been the produced on the extremely successful 1990 album “The Razor’s Edge” as well as the follow up live album titled simply “AC/DC Live”. However, his schedule meant that there was some waiting time required to secure his services, and then tragically he passed away in May of 1999 before the two had ever entered the studio. Instead, the band fell back upon a familiar face and known quantity in George Young, elder brother of both Malcolm and Angus. George of course had been co-producer of the band's earliest albums alongside his former band mate Harry Vanda. On this occasion however, George was producing on his own, no doubt with his brothers looking over his shoulder. Brian Johnson was one who commented that he felt that the recording of the album was far more streamlined with just George at the console.
The album was recorded and mixed at Bryan Adams' Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, Canada between September and November 1999. The band recorded 18 songs in total, from which they eventually chose 12 to go on the album. From all reports the recording went smoothly, with Cliff Williams saying in an interview on VH1's Behind the Music in 2000, "It's a killer album. It was a very easy-to-record album in as much as Malcolm and Angus had everything ready to go, so we basically just had to come along and perform as best we could."

20 years on from their massive breakthrough album with “Back in Black”, Brian Johnson’s first outing with the band, there was the hope that AC/DC could produce something that came close to matching its impact. Perhaps that was pressure that was misplaced. Including that album, this would be the band’s eighth album with Johnson on lead vocals recorded over that 20-year period. In contrast, Bon Scott had helmed six albums in a five-year period. As a comparison, it had been five years between the release of “Ballbreaker” and “The Razor’s Edge”, and five years again between “Ballbreaker” and “Stiff Upper Lip”. Angus would turn 45 a month after this album’s release. Malcolm had just turned 47. Brian was 52, Cliff 50 and Phil 46. Looking back now, it is somewhat hard to believe they were this young when this album was released. They were theoretically still in their prime, though obviously at a point of their careers where they were able to feel comfortable with whatever material they wanted to write and record.
It’s a new century, and it is the same old AC/DC. Or is it? The songs on this album from the very start are what naysayers of the band’s music claim has been happening since time immemorial. That rhythm, that solid timing structure that is a hallmark of AC/DC’s music, is there from the start. The difference that actually punctuates the music here from their most recent albums “Ballbreaker” and “The Razors Edge” is that it for the most part noticeably slower in tempo throughout. And while this plays a part in making you believe there is also less energy in the tracks because this tempo has dropped, it is noticeable that those energy levels are missing from quite a bit of this album. Where do you actually hear it? Well, pretty much in the songs that were released as singles. Those three songs are the title track and opening number “Stiff Upper Lip” and “Safe in New York City”. This doesn’t necessarily make them the best songs, because a lot of this album suffers from very real ageing problems.
“Stiff Upper Lip” offers you what you would expect from an opening track on an AC/DC album that is also the lead single from the album. Well, with the possible exception of an AC/DC hook that gets you in and grabs your attention. It’s a rumbling track but without any real fireworks. “Meltdown” follows but doesn’t really live up to the title of the track at all. It is a slightly harder tempo than the opening track, where the final thirty seconds of the track is the hardest part about it. “House of Jazz” harks back to the sound and tempo of a couple of songs from that afore-mentioned “Back in Black” album, specifically “Let Me Put My Love into You”. The tempo, the way the lyrics are sung, almost the music itself, could almost have been drawn from that song and the sound of a couple of other tracks like that. Am I the only one who has picked up on that? I’m not sure, but the similarities are there. “Hold Me Back” on the other hand reminds me of “The Razor’s Edge” in places, with a change in style for the drum beat by Phil Rudd all through the track, and Malcolm’s rhythm guitar mirroring that era. It’s a mix up of styles through this part of the album that doesn’t stop here.
“Safe in New York City’ is just... a strange song, though it fits the calibrations that are set by the band on this album. The rhythm sets its mark, Angus does his pieces over the top when it is appropriate, and Brian sings his vocals, the populist piece being an oft-repeated tome of the title of the track as the so-called chorus of the song. Phil Rudd’s faster 4/4 drumming actually sets the song up nicely to give them a platform to really explode out of the blocks with song, but it never really reaches that point and is mor restrained that it probably should have been. “Can’t Stand Still” reactivates the more blues rock direction this album takes. Even Brian’s vocals draw from the blues even more than you would expect, and with a rare Malcolm Young solo interjection which sounds just like a blues guitarist riffing off the rhythm and vocals in an old blues basement night club. The morbid like tempo continues into the interestingly titled “Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll”, because this isn’t the kind of slow death show that rock ‘n’ roll was known for. Rock and roll is supposed to be uptempo and vibrant, not settled into a death march from which this song barely struggles out of at any point. Look, the feel of the song sounds great, Brian’s vocals are terrific, and the others play their parts well. And there is no denying the band has played tracks like this all through their existence. So perhaps I’m the one out of order here. It wouldn’t be the first time. “Satellite Blues” tries to get the bounce of the album back out of the quicksand. This was the third and final single released from the album, which suggests why the tempo here is an improvement of some of the songs that have come before it. It is toe tapping, but is it any more than that?
“Damned” has that standard AC/DC beat that the fans are after, with the rhythm of bass and guitar grafted on, as Brian and Angus do their thing in their designated areas. Then “Come and Get It” feels as though it should be a breakout track, one that hits roof tempo wise again and brings the album back to life. Instead, it is the same dreary tempo, deep diving into the blues riff and just clomping along like someone wearing concrete shoes. While there are several moments on this album that feel as though they would benefit from a more active and engaging song, they all end up like this.
“All Screwed Up” is the longest song on the album at a little over four and a half minutes, and surprisingly feels like it. It drags on too long, and that could well be because the standard rhythm that backs the song, along with a standard Angus guitar fill and Brian lyrical vocal delivery, just gets too much if it goes on longer than three and a half minutes. Or is it because by the time you get to this point of the album you thin maybe it is time for something different. That could also have occurred far earlier than this. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, with the arrival of the closing track “Give it Up”, which finally delivers more of what a casual or even middling fan of the band would be looking for. Energy! Tempo! Energy from the whole band! Yes, it did take some time, but finally the final track on the album delivers something that everyone can enjoy and at least gives the album an ending that is worth waiting for.

Have you ever gotten the feeling that a band has just put out an album for the hell of it? That they just felt it was time that they did some new material and threw it out there? There’s no doubt that in the case of “Stiff Upper Lip”, that is NOT the case. The writing, planning and recording of the album came together over a 2+ year period, so the planning could not have been more thorough. But as mentioned earlier, there was a five year period between their previous album and this one – and it was to be another 8 years until their next album “Black Ice” surfaced. It has become more the norm over the years to have such gaps in releasing albums, as file sharing became more prevalent and the way to make money was no longer from album sales but concert ticket sales and merchandise.
However, even for AC/DC, this is as formula driven song writing as you can come up with. It's very laid back, there's no speed in the music to speak of, and while it sounds great coming through the speakers of headphones with big thumping drums and guitar riffs, it just doesn't have the drive that the best AC/DC albums have. It is missing key ingredients, ones that were either being sifted out over time, or that the band decided, with the changing landscape of the music world and their place in it, that they just didn’t need. I think it was a mistake. No doubt all of the songs would sound better live, but here on the album they mostly seem to drag out well beyond necessary with the available lyrics in each song. And it is probably fair to say that as with all of AC/DC through the years, they don't actually have a bad album. Some are far better than others.
I didn’t have this album when it was released. The purse strings were tight in 2000 when my lovely wife and I were back living with my parents as we tried to save for our first home, and this was not a priority. I knew the singles and was not overawed by them, and the album was on repeat in the car of a good mate of mine whenever he drove me to and from cricket which we played together. So I knew it. I just didn’t feel I needed to own it. Eventually down the track I found a second-hand CD of the album which is the copy I still own today.
That CD has been out again for the last few days, along with having it playing at work. And as always, it is not unpleasant. It is AC/DC after all, and their style is pretty much etched in stone. It’s just that there are a lot more dead spots on this album than there are on others in their discography. The biggest fans of the band won’t hear them, they will probably just hear what they like and like it all. I’m slightly more discerning than that, which comes from being a fan of the band for so long, and having a love affair with albums much earlier in the catalogue. And though of the 17 albums in the band’s discography I rank this at #17 it should not allow you to think this is a worthless album. It is however an average album. I saw AC/DC for the fourth and final time on this tour in 2001. I had seen them three times previous to this, all from the front row of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and had decided that for me that would be good enough. Then my friend I mentioned earlier who had this album in his car said he had a spare ticket, and would I like to come. I thought, well, I wonder what they sound like from the middle section of the complex, and agreed. It wasn’t until we were on our way to the gig that I asked where we were sitting. “Front row!” my friend informed me enthusiastically, which is why I have seen this awesome bands four times from the front row. And they were still great on this tour. It was the last time they played in smaller venues before reverting to stadiums, and they still knew how to deliver. Why wouldn’t they? They are AC/DC after all.

1282. Led Zeppelin / Physical Graffiti. 1975. 2.5/5

In 1973, Led Zeppelin released their fifth studio album, “Houses of the Holy”, an album that deviated from what had come before in their catalogue to include further improvisation and experimentation with the use of synthesisers and mellotron orchestration. The result of this was... worldwide acclaim... as if they hadn’t already become used to this kind of reception. The album topped charts worldwide, and the subsequent tour of North America in 1973 broke attendance records, including the one show record of over 56,000 people in Tampa Bay which outstripped the previous best held by The Beatles. Three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed for a motion picture, which was released as “The Song Remains the Same” in 1976. On the back of all of this, the band decided to take a break from touring in 1974 and instead launched their own record label called Swan Song.
It wasn’t until the end of 1974 that the band reunited and began to look at writing songs for the follow up album. They returned to the site of the writing and recording of their fourth studio album, Headley Grange in Hampshire. It was during these sessions that Jimmy Page and John Bonham recorded an instrumental track that would eventually become the basis of the song “Kashmir”, one of the band best known songs. However, these sessions ground to a halt far quicker than expected, and the band left the premises. At the time the press reported that the abrupt end had come because of an illness to John Paul Jones. Eventually the truth came out, which was that Jones had become disillusioned with the group as a whole and touring in particular and was reevaluating whether he wanted to remain in the band. He told their manager that he was considering quitting, who then asked him to reconsider his decision and instead take another two months off in order to rest and come back with a clear head. There was no guarantee that this was going to happen, but come the start of the new year, Jones returned.
The four members of Led Zeppelin were back at Headley Grange in January and February 1974, where they recorded eight tracks. Lead singer Robert Plant in later interviews referred to these eight tracks as "the belters,". The reason that the band had returned to Headley Grange was because of the informal atmosphere that the property held for them, which allowed the group to improvise and develop material while they were recording. It was very much a group writing experience, with songs played and rehearsed together before sitting down and discussing the elements that could be improved or left out altogether. Drummer John Bonham became a driving force at the sessions, regularly suggesting ideas or the best ways in which a complicated arrangement could be played successfully. It led to a feeling during this time of the album being the concept of the whole group rather than a patchwork of individuals and their individual songs.
The eight songs composed and recorded here extended beyond the length of a conventional album, almost spanning three sides of an LP, which led to the band deciding that they would create a double album, rather than trying to edit out songs they had already written. To do this, they delved back to material that they had recorded during other albums that had not been used or released at that time. These were re-recorded for the new album, which stretched the release time out further. On top of this, despite hoping to release the album at the end of 1974, further delays meant that it finally saw the light of day in February of 1975, some 16 months after the iitial sessions had begun.What the music listening world wanted to know however, was whether the wait was going to be worth it?...

The album kicks off with the heavy thunder of 'Custard Pie', a statement opener that is packed with Jimmy Page riffing on guitar and those hard thumping Joh Bonham drums. Lyrically there’s plenty here that reminds you of a latter day Whitesnake attribution from David Coverdale with innuendo and double entendre gathering momentum. Page’s guitar solo is a beauty, while the requisite harmonica from Plant doesn’t disappoint. A great opening to the album. Further goodness comes in the form of “The Rover” which is the first of the older tracks, originally written as an acoustic track as early as 1970 and messed around with several times since then before landing here on “Physical Graffiti”. It has a great rhythm and guitar riff throughout, nicely driven by the bass underneath from John Paul Jones and Bonham’s driving drumming. Some overdubbing of guitars was done here, but it isn’t noticeable that it came from different album sessions than this one.
“In My Time of Dying” is a long blues extension, another of those traditional old blues songs that Led Zeppelin would borrow from and then from that make their own song out of it. Now while it was mostly done live in the studio, and is considered one of the defining tracks on the album, there are those people out there who would have a drawing problem with the length of the track. At just over 11 minutes in length it does test the patience of the casual listener. There are some good pieces within the framework of the song but it does draw out towards infinity in places.
“Houses of the Holy” kicks starts side two of the double album and was initially written and recorded for the previous album which carried the same name. Apparently, the reason it wasn’t used for that album was because of its similarity to other songs already crafted. It is a benefit to this album that it was available, as it is one of the better songs here. That same similar style is also prevalent on “Trampled Underfoot”, a song which John Paul Jones openly admits was inspired by Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition'. The clavinet gives the song a bouncy funky feel, with Bonham instrumental in rearranging the originally composed track to give a more upbeat style rather than the soul sound it first inhabited.
One of the most recognisable riffs in music history is follows with the epic and truly wonderful 'Kashmir'. Full of that eastern music direction that brings in the mellotron alongside the strings and brass sections and the basic attention grabbing rhythm of the band itself, this is a song that barely fails to deliver, a song that touches nerves and sends tingles down the spine listening to even, even today so many years on. It is arguably the band’s finest moment, combining everything they had brought to the table up to this point of their careers, and doubling down to create a song with such atmosphere and depth of feeling that it is hard to dismiss.
The second LP of this release probably does not live up to the excellence of the first LP. “In the Light” is very much the accomplishment of John Paul Jones. He takes the lead on the song, wrote most of it and plays some tremendous keyboards and synthesizer throughout. His influence was so great on the song that although Robert Plant wanted to play it live, Jones refused, saying he couldn't recreate the synth effects outside a studio environment. Interestingly, Jimmy Page has also stated that it is his favourite song from the album. It is another 8 minutes plus song on the album, and one that does split the fan base because of its tendency to overstay its welcome. The short instrumental 'Bron-Y-Aur' follows and is a standard acoustic workout for Page. “Down by the Seaside” was originally an acoustic track and was recorded for the fourth album but left off. It may have been considered too similar to 'Going To California' and would likely have received more recognition had it been included on that album. “Ten Years Gone” features a great vocal from Plant and multiple guitar tracks from Page. While the song barely gets out of second gear at any point of the track, it still has a creation of all four main instruments. Then comes “Night Flight” which was another track initially recorded at the sessions for the fourth album and also has the feel of that album. Once again, there is a noted similarity to songs that were performed on that album, which perhaps explains why it was left over until this album. The harder and more likely tempo returns with “The Wanton Song”, a song that has more similar tones that Led Zeppelin of the past have harped on, and with more in common with bands such as Deep Purple and Rainbow of that period.
Then... what the hell is “Boogie with Stu” doing on this album? For the life of me, if you wanted to add tracks and are using unused recording sessions from previous albums, surely there would be something better than this? Not only this, but it was also a jam session with former Rolling Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart, and based around the tune of a Richie Valens song “Ooh my Head” (which the band then failed to credit on the album, which once again saw the band in court).
"Black Country Woman” was recorded outside in Mick Jagger's garden, hence the talk of aeroplanes at the beginning and was initially recorded for inclusion on the “Houses of the Holy” album, but eventually found its way onto this album. And the album closes with 'Sick Again' which runs along a similar vein to the album opener, with slide guitar and changes in tempo that combines with the sometimes rampant drums and guitar that collide on their way out of the speakers. It comes across as an intermittent closure to the album, and one that is a topic of discussion amongst the bigger fan base.

My enjoyment of Led Zeppelin’s catalogue is still a work in progress. They were not a band I picked up on early, either pre-metal or post-metal eras of my music listening life. My parents didn’t listen to them, nor any of my parents friends that I can think of. By the latter days of high school, I certainly knew the band and their most well-known dozen songs, but the albums were very much a mystery to me. I bought the “Remasters” collection when it was released in 1990 and loved it – still do – but even then, I didn’t track back to find and buy or listen to their albums. “Remasters” was all I needed.
Eventually of course I could put it off no longer. If I was to continue to a music education that I hoped would give me the most well-rounded music life I could lead, I knew I had to master the Led Zeppelin discography. So, I slowly began to collect the albums on CD and listen to them and decide for myself whether they were for me or not. And overall, I have enjoyed their music and albums. Sure, for me, most of the albums have half great songs and half... less than that... but they still continue to grow on me the older I get.
My main memories of when I first listened to “Physical Graffiti” is that it was too long, and that some of the songs dragged on for far longer than was necessary. In the main, I’m sure this was why when I had listened to it at that time and then put it back on my shelves, that it didn’t seem to get chosen to come back out again very often. If at all. Indeed, it is quite possible that I have not played my copy of the album since that time, though I have heard it at other locations since. And having pulled it back off my shelves again a month ago in preparation for this album review episode, I would say it would be accurate that I have listened to it more in that past few weeks than I have for the rest of my life prior to that.
My opinion on the album now is pretty much the same as I thought when I first got the album. Why did it have to be a double album? To my ears at least, this could comfortably have been pared down to just enough songs to satisfy a single album release. Seriously, if you are going to trawl through songs you have already rejected for previous albums, you just don’t have enough new material worthwhile. There are songs here that aren’t up to the standard you would expect, and others that are fabulous. I know the band felt they had eight great tracks from their sessions in early 1974, and didn’t want to leave off any of them. And perhaps in including the older tracks we got some good songs we may never have done so without this eventual album. I’m no musician or songwriter, but as a music enthusiast there are songs here that could have done with some pruning and other that could have been lopped off altogether.
"Physical Graffiti" has been referred to as Led Zeppelin's best album in some quarters. For me, it doesn’t rate better than the five albums that came before this one. Maybe some of that is a close call. There are some obviously brilliant songs on this album, but another couple or so that don’t rate anywhere near the quality you’d expect. I’m sure long time Led Zeppelin fans are already throwing things at their listening devices. You just can’t please everyone all the time.

1281. Deep Purple / In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra. 2000. 4/5

Back in 1969, at the time that the Mark I lineup of Deep Purple had given way to the Mark II era of the band, keyboardist and founding member of the band Jon Lord had completed his pet project “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”, the music composed by Lord with lyrics written by new lead singer Ian Gillan. It was recorded and released in December 1969, and while it did not have much success in the US, it gave the band’s reputation a huge boost in their native UK, just as they were about to release the legendary first album of the Mark II lineup, “Deep Purple in Rock”. However, the original score for the concerto was lost in 1970, and it was feared that it would never be performed again, as the band began ascending the hard rock and metal path that took them to stardom.
Fast forward to 1999, and Jon Lord was piqued into action by a meeting with a Dutch fan of the band named Marco de Goeij, who was also a musicologist and composer. In the mid-1990s, while writing an article about the original “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”, De Goeij learned that the musical score for the concerto had been missing since it was last performed in 1970. He then actually set about the painstaking task of reconstructing the score by listening to CD recordings and watching videos of live performances. When Deep Purple were performing in the Netherlands in 1998, de Goeij presented his work to Jon Lord. From here the two of them continued to refine and finish the score until it was completed.
From here, Lord decided that the band had to once again perform this live, and he elected to have the band perform it once more at the Royal Albert Hall, but this time with the London Symphony Orchestra rather than the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and with Paul Mann as conductor rather than Malcolm Arnold. He and the band then also decided to make it a true performance, with featured songs from each member's solo careers played during the performance, as well as a short Deep Purple set, and including special guests to help out with the solo pieces, with guest musicians such as Ronnie James Dio, the Steve Morse Band, and Sam Brown. The performance took place and was recorded on 25–26 September 1999 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the London Symphony Orchestra and released on 8 February 2000 on DVD and CD.

The first two songs of the album are Jon Lord compositions from his 1998 solo album “Pictured Within”. The first song, also titled “Pictured Within” is beautifully performed and sung by Miller Anderson. Lord’s piano work on this track is amazing, and it is just a beautiful song, so distant from what Deep Purple do, and yet so synonymous with his work on the keyboards. It is just magnificent. Then comes “Wait a While” featuring Sam Brown on vocals, which is just as poignant and beautifully performed. Even as I listened to this album over the last week, I found myself wondering why I haven’t sought out this album – Lord’s album – to listen to. I will be rectifying that in the coming days. Both of these tracks, and their vocalists, are truly wonderful. Beautiful.
The next two songs I have been well familiar with. For Roger Glover’s section, he decided to perform two songs from his own project from 1974, “The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast”, something he hoped to turn into a musical and full blown event that never quite came to pass. However, here, he invited Ronnie James Dio to come and perform the two songs he sang on for the album in the role of Froggy – “Sitting in a Dream” and the wonderful “Love is All”. And they are both just sensational here with the symphony backing the band as well. Dio, as always, delivers in style, and both songs are as joyous as they are on the original album.
Then comes two tracks from Ian Gillan and his solo expeditions. The first track is “Via Miami” off the “Accidently on Purpose” album that he and Roger Glover released in 1988. Glover actually played all instruments on the original album while Gillan sang vocals and played his favourite harmonica. The version here is a more upbeat bluesy version with the horns from the symphony dominating in the foreground. His other song is “That’s Why God is Singing the Blues” from his third solo album “Dreamcatcher” in 1997. It was written by Dave Corbett, and as the title suggests is based in the real blues of the 40’s and 50’s.
Three more songs finish off the first CD of this two disc album. The first of those is Steve Morse’s contribution, a song from his days with his previous band the Dixie Dregs called “Take it Off the Top” from their second album “What If” from 1978. It is an instrumental that utilises the talents of then-current members Dave LaRue on bass and Rod Morganstein on drums. The last two songs are classic Deep Purple tracks that get a great backing from the symphony. First is the wonderful instrumental “Wring That Neck” from 1968’s “The Book of Taliesyn” which gets a great round of applause from the crowd in attendance, and then a stirring version of the “Machine Head” classic “Pictures of Home” another awesome version, and the first CD closes out in style.
The ”Concerto for Group and Orchestra” itself opens up CD 2. I think it is fabulous. Combining the Orchestra and the band in different points of view, at different moments throughout the three movements of the performance, is fantastic. There are moments where it is just the orchestra, moments where the band takes the lead, and then the moments where it all combines into a wonderful cacophony of instruments. Trying to describe it would be futile. Suffice to say that it is something worth sitting down and listening to. And it does need to be done in the home, through the stereo, and taking in the magnificence of it all. And while it may be sacrilegious to suggest this, I really believe Steve Morse’s performance on guitar outstrips that of Ritchie Blackmore on the original recording of 1969. Of course, the technology is better now but I really believe Morse’s guitar here is a standout. I haven’t added any of those three movements to this episode, because they are all lengthy. But I do recommend you get out there and listen to it, because it is well worth your time doing so.
Once this is completed, the band and their partners then bring forth three songs from their most recent albums – the terrific “Ted the Mechanic” from the “Purpendicular” album, the haunting “Watching the Sky” from the “Abandon” album, and the brilliant “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” from the “Purpendicular” album as well. All three are fabulous, sound wonderful and are a joy to hear in this environment.
The final song, as ever, is “Smoke on the Water”, one where they invite Ronnie James Dio on stage to help sing. The CD version has no problems, but it is interesting on the DVD version where Dio obviously forgets the lyrics to Deep Purple’s most famous song, and one he must have experienced many times when he was in Elf when they supported Deep Purple on many tours. Embarrassing? Not really, but a little funny all the same. And when Gillan lets the crowd sing the chorus on their own, it makes it all worthwhile.

I’ve never owned a copy of the original 1969 “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”. I’ve heard it plenty of times and generally have concentrated on the other songs that are done as a part of it. The concerto for me was never something I was particularly interested in having. I mean, in this day and age, if I find it on vinyl for a reasonable price, I will certainly buy it, but I don’t have the urge to go out there and find it.
When this album was released, I was back home in Kiama after five years living in Sydney, living with my parents and not earning a whole lot of money, so I didn’t get this when it was released. It wasn’t until closer to the end of the year that I decided to pick it up when I was far more financially viable, and it wasn’t so much for the concerto itself, it was for the additional pieces that came as a part of the album. And yes, those major parts included Ronnie James Dio. I enjoy the two songs from the Butterfly Ball and laugh during his attempt to sing “Smoke on the Water”. But Gillan’s solo songs are also great, and then you have those Deep Purple classics, firstly “Wring That Neck” and the wonderful “Pictures of Home”, and then the newer songs “Watching the Sky”, “Ted the Mechanic” and the marvellous “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”. All are terrific and are well performed with the symphony orchestra filling the gaps behind them. And the concerto itself? Yeah, it’s fine. If you put it on the stereo and have it going in the background while you are doing something else, you will find it is a well performed piece. It’s just that if you want to listen to Deep Purple you are going to go for the real stuff.
The concerto was performed a few more times over the next 12-18 months, and not long after this in February 2002, Jon Lord left the band he helped to create, in order to prioritise other musical avenues that he wanted to pursue. He said subsequently, "Leaving Deep Purple was just as traumatic as I had always suspected it would be and more so – if you see what I mean". That direction was the classical and orchestral direction, one that he followed with renew passion until his passing in 2012. And this album provides a lasting memory and tribute to not only the combined work of the members of Deep Purple, but of Jon Lord’s genius in being able to compose such a concerto, and yet be intimately involved in the writing and playing of some of the most memorable hard rock and heavy tracks of the 1970’s, both sides of which are still influenced by this today.