Random Record Revisited: 

Hotter Than Hell – Kiss [1974]

    In 1979, my friend Mark Lederman introduced me to Kiss with the Alive! and Alive II albums. How “live” these albums are remains a point of debate but whatever. In short order, the debut, Dressed To Kill, Destroyer and Love Gun joined my own copy of Alive II. I’m not sure why Rock And Roll Over never found it’s way into the collection but I remember putting Hotter Than Hell back in the rack for either the Rolling Stones Some Girls or the Blues Brothers Briefcase Full Of Blues. And neither entered my collection until I acquired the to Oiginals collections from Tracey’s hard drive.

   The problem in trying to review this record is that the versions on Alive! are permanently burned into my brain. I consider them definitive. But I think I can be fair here.

   For example, the lead track Got To Choose is just as tasty as it is on Alive!, just a little slower. Paul Stanely’s vocals are clearer. The bass is audible and more defined. The solo? Ace plays it almost note for note on the live record – that was by design, his solos were supposed to hummable and memorable. Ace Frehley’s first track Parasite [sung by Gene Simmons] is just as fast paced as the live record, just a nice Yardbirds inspired little riff to ride on for three minutes. Gene’s Goin’ Blind is different for Kiss. Some call it a ‘ballad’ but it’s not really. A 93 year old man addressing a 16 year old girl? I don’t know what it’s about. Nice solo by Ace. If I had this when I was 12 and just listened to the album I probably just would have accepted it as one of those album filler tracks [like Love Theme From Kiss] though I doubt it would have been a favorite. It does appear to be on a lot of Kiss fan polls of best tracks so maybe I’m crazy.] The title track follows. I don’t like Paul’s voice - it’s like he’s TRYING to sing instead of just letting it fly like he normally does. Still a good song but I prefer the live album’s take. The Stanley – Simmons collaboration Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll ends side 1 with 2:15 of purely joyous rock & roll along the lines of Nothin’ To Lose from the debut.

   Simmons has the first two tracks on the second side. All the Way starts a string of Simmons songs down on women. Great solo by Ace can’t rescue this filler track. Watchin’ You might be about a stripper or a street walker but it’s an awesome riff [Simmons is said to have been inspired by Mountain’s Mississippi Queen.I can see that]. Paul Stanley’s Mainline [sung by drummer Peter Criss with his very Rod Stewart like voice] follows. A nice little basic rock and roll track, once that might become one of those deep cut favorites. A rare Stanley – Frehley collaboration follows with Comin’ Home. Paul sings this standard road song – ‘it’s been forever, I’m comin’ home to you.’  Better than my description sounds and better than All the Way. Ace’s Strange Ways [sung by Criss] end the album with a bit of heaviness and twisty oddity. Frehely’s treated solo is one of the best on the album. But I can certainly see why a lot of Kiss fans like it.

   The Kiss Army may put a price on my head but I’d say it’s an average hard rock album for the time. There was a reason none of those first three albums lit the world on fire [besides poor distribution and poor promotion]. They have their high points but they’re not front to back classics.

 

Random Record Revisted: 

Fool For the City – Foghat [1975]

   In the 70s there were various levels of bands. There were unquestioned stadium filling superstar bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. [Notice a LOT of those bands paid their dues in the 60s.] Then there were bands that worked hard and rose to the top of their class: Kiss [I refuse to type it as KISS although it is that way in Ace Frehley’s book], Aerosmith, Queen, the fuckin’ Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and depending on my mood I might even include the Doobie Brothers and / or ZZ Top. Then there was a third tier of bands who sold a lot of tickets and got played on the radio but just never quite got to the top of the heap or maybe they did for a second and then slid back down. Like Peter Frampton, the J. Geils Band, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Robin Trower and … Foghat.

   Despite a track record of 6 gold and 2 platinum selling albums [1974’s Energized is anothere one I like a lot], Foghat is mainly remembered for a handful of songs, two of which we’ll talk about in a second. Their best selling record was the single LP Foghat Live from 1977 [listed as double platinum or 2,000,000 copies sold]. For my money, it ranks as one of the great live albums from the 70s – right alongside Frampton’s, Kiss Alive!, Cheap Trick At Budokan and the J. Geils  Band’s Full House. That single album format means high energy, no bullshit, all killer, no filler. [Kiss Alive! is great despite the presence of 100,000 Years… drum solos, YECH!]

   So today I found myself with Fool For the City on the brain so I popped in Foghat’s platinum selling 1975 classic. The opening and title track still sounds as fresh as it ever did, a song to sit on the radio right beside Aerosmith, Grand Funk and Sweet. The next cut a rockin’ take of the Righteous Brothers [NOT! the Little Walter blues classic] My Babe. Rod “the Bottle” Price absolutely smokes on the slide on this cut! Next up is the other of those songs Foghat will be remembered for, immortalized in the stoner classic Dazed And Confused: Slow Ride. It’s such a good song that Classic Rock Radio will play both the original album version AND the live version! But a word to the wise when finding this on compilation records – a lot of them use the 3:56 single mix instead of the full 8:14 version. Sadly this includes The Best Of Foghat!  Rhino is usually a lot smarter or more careful than that!

   Side 2 kicks off with a cover of Robert Johnson’s Terraplane Blues. Of course this version has a lot more in common with something Johnny Winter might lay down or the Rolling Stones cover of Johnson’s Stop Breaking Down. Save Your Loving [For Me] is a nice shuffle, slowing the pace just a little bit. It really isn’t far off of Aerosmith’s Same Old Song And Dance minus the horns but adding a few well placed harmony vocals from Price and bassist Nick Jameson. It’s back to the boogie with another masterful Dave Peverett road song [ala Road Fever and Home In My Hand] with Drive Me Home. The final song is a keyboard based or song called Take It Or Leave It. It – especially that Fender Rhodes electric piano - reminds me of something that is right there on the tip of my brain but I just can’t come up with. It’s not a bad song but it seems totally out of step with the rest of the album being totally guitar driven. But having been assaulted and sated by six really nice rocking numbers it’s totally okay. It might actually have worked better between Terraplane Blues and Save Your Loving [For Me].

   Fool For the City is good record to fill a niche for some good time blues based rockin’ party tunes when you’re tired of the usual suspects. Knock it back!

 

Random Record Revisited:

Don’t Say No - Billy Squier [1981]

   The corpse of Led Zeppelin was barely in the ground when this slab of Zeppelinesque rock hit the radio.

   I say Zeppelinesque because of the style of Squier’s rocking but sound wise a better comparison would be Queen’s The Game. Queen guitarist Brian May suggested producer Reinhold Mack to Squier when May was unable to produce Squier’s record. Since I recently respun The Game [it’s still a really good record!], I can immediately hear the similarity in the sound. Anyway, The Stroke is listed as the first single but it seems I may have heard Lonely Is the Night first. Or maybe it just made a deeper impression. Probably because Mack made [the late] Bobby Chouinard drums sound like John Bonham’s cannon fire. Especially that thundering kick drum.

   Of course, The Stroke is Squier’s big hit, the song most likely to be heard on the ever-shrinking 80s cannon of Classic Rock radio. It seems be about how [Frank Zappa’s words] “record company pricks” operate ala Heart’s Barracuda but of course the “stroke’ has that nudge-wink double entendre of Fleetwood Mac’s Rattlesnake Shake. [The Peter Green led first edition of Fleetwood Mac] The album opening In the Dark was the second single and had a lot of airplay and a video made for it. Third track My Kinda Lover was also the third single but stalled just outside the Top 40. But the rest of the album holds up just as well as those singles. You Know What I Like rides Chouinard’s galloping thunder along with a nice mix of just enough keyboards to make it 80’s but enough guitars to harken back to The Mothership.Too Daze Gone is a favorite of mine, a tale of the morning after or “forgetting the night before.” It’s just a simple little shuffle but damn it sounds good. Whadda You Want From Me also rides Chouinard’s drums but with a throbbing insistent keyboard and bass part also pushing along. The layers of slide guitar [unclear whether they are Squier or lead guitarist Cary Sharaf but hats off to whoever it is] again keep it in the realm of Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Queen. The there’s the acoustic ballad Nobody Knows. I mean it’s not awful. It harkens back to Queen’s Love Of My Life or Sail Away Sweet Sister but it just doesn’t quite get there. I Need You is one of those album filling songs that will never get played live but it’s not bad. It sounds like something off the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack. The title track closes the album.

   Don’t Say No fits the period very well. It’s got enough keyboard to be modern ala the Cars but just enough of the old school to please the ears of those brough up on Zeppelin, Aerosmith, et al. It’s almost exactly the type of  contemporary / 8o’s record that Robert Plant would make with Pictures At Eleven. It’s a great picture of the shift in rock at this time before everything splintered into sub genres and before hair metal became the temporary “in” style.

 

I needed a recharge today. So I spent some time at a familiar spot by the water. Water gently lapping shores and watching sunsets over water are so calming to me.

It as a longtime ago but also just the blink of an eye in some ways. It was another gorgeous spring day, maybe a little warmer, a little less breezy than today that I picked up Robin Scott and wound up here – or at least pretty close to where I am [was] sitting today.

Technically I think it has always been Bowman Springs Park btu the local kids called it Feather Beach. I have no idea why. There’s not a whole lot of beach left since they rebuilt the boat ramp and added this landfill to build the park out. We lived a mile or so down the road for a couple of years when we were on that side of Arlington. Now the Zottolas, back from adventures in Andrews, were now living just a couple of blocks off then entrance to the park.

I don’t recall why we were off that day but I put most of my week’s lunch money [sorry Mom, statute of limitations is long in the past] and drove up to Arlington in the Chevrolet Land Whale [the ’79 Caprice Classic that became my ride after the tranny locked up the third time on the Duster] and picked Robin up. My senior prom was coming up and Robin was going to be my date. She had a strapless dress so she needed to even out her tan on her shoulders, so she grabbed her swimsuit and we trucked on over to Feather Beach to catch some rays. I swear she slathered Crisco cooking oil on herself. [Maybe Sherri can back me up, maybe not. I am sure we stopped in since we were there, ya know.]  For an hour or so we sat soaking up rays and bullshitting about the stuff teenagers bullshit about. Just two typical teens hanging out on day. I was hot for her, she was not interested in me that way, yadda yadda. We were kids with a whole life in front of us. Not the kind of day you think would be memorable yet there it sits in my brain all these decades later.

Robin has been gone somewhere around 15 years now. But every time I am here I can’t help but to remember her.

 The Top 10 Worst #1 Songs of the 70's - YouTube - the inspiring You Tube video

Worst #1s of the 1970s

If you are not into a lot of shows and have time on your hands and you like music, you can spend a lot of time on You Tube. If you spend a lot of time on You Tube, the algorithm for "you might also like” spits out a lot of stuff, which is why I regularly clear out my watched history. But yesterday it spit out this gem. Intrigued by the Mr. Yuck sticker, I had to look at it. Yes, what was supposed to tell me to “stay away” ironically drew me in.

In reviewing the list of #1 for the 1970s in total, I went down the list and was torn. There are some dumb songs that made #1: the Osmond’s One Bad Apple [as noted a straight rip off of the Jackson 5], Melanie’s Brand New Key, Carl Douglas’ King Fu Fighting, Blue Swede’s Hooked On A Feeling [you know the one “ooga chaka ooga ooga, ooga chaka ooga ooga “I can’t stop this feeling…”], C.W. McCall’s Convoy and Alan O’Day’s Undercover Angel [and it is a laugher but harmless – just like Meri Wilson’s Telephone Man] and Cher’s Gypsys [sic], Tramps And Thieves. 

Some questionable covers: Elton John doing Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, Ringo Starr doing You’re Sixteen, Shaun Cassidy’s Da Do Ron Ron [sorry Dana Murray], Grand Funk’s The Loco-Motion. 

Some things I just kind of shake my head at but let go because they’re not hurting anyone: Chuck Berry’s My Ding A Ling, Tony Orlando & Dawn’s Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree, Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman, Styx’s Babe, Robert John’s Sad Eyes, John Denver, the Carpenters.

I was surprised to see that a record I thought was pretty big didn’t make #1: The Captain and Tennile’s Muskrat Love. it only made it to # 4 – I guess the fact that it was worse than nails on a blackboard to me just made each time it came on feel like a small eternity. Did you know it is a cover of a cover? Originally titled by songwriter Muskrat Candlelight by Willis Alan Ramsey in 1972, the group America changed the title for their 1973 version which only hit # 63 and this version in 1976. So I was forced to pick out 10 other stinkers. 

Some of mine match Gunclemark’s but I feel he missed out some really terrible ones. 1977 appears to have been a really, really band year for music. 1974 wasn’t much better.

I present in no particular order:

 

1.      Don’t Give Up On Us -David Soul [77]

It is said that “All actors want to be singer and all singers want to be actors.” David Soul of Starsky & Hutch proves inadequate as either and that the Grand Torino was the real star of that show.

2.      Afternoon Delight – Starland Vocal Band [76]

If you’ve ever heard this, you’ve got to wonder “what kind of drugs were they doing that year?” so you can avoid it. I blame in on PCP / Angel Dust. Or bicentennial hangover.

3.      Seasons In the Sun – Terry Jacks [74]

Pop songs about death should at least involve a car crash like Dead Man’s Curve, Tell Laura I Love her, Last Kiss or Detroit Rock City.  

4.      Disco Duck – Rick Dees [76]

As previously noted elsewhere, I was one of the fools who bought this and I have to forever list it as the first record I ever bought with my own money. In my defense, I was 9 and it wasn’t the record I was looking for. I wanted The Rubberband Man by the Spinners – maybe  not much of a better choice but there it is.

5.      [You’re] Having My Baby – Paul Anka & Odia Coates [74]

Mercifully it’s only 2:35 long.

6.      Torn Between Two Lovers – Mary MacGregor [77]

What is it with folkies and menage a trois? David Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds for Triad and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary penned this. Free love I guess.

7.      You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone [77]

This was inescapable for the last couple of months in 1977. Little did I realize that another soundtrack was going to come on the scene and America was about to be buried in disco for the next two years. At least now I can appreciate the Bee Gees.

8.      Escape [The Pina Colada Song] – Rupert Homes [79]

As noted a song about someone placing an want ad to find someone to replace his “boring old lady” and finding out that maybe the problem was communication all along. Still a crappy song.

9.      The Night Chicago Died – Paper Lace [74]

10.  Billy, Don’t Be A Hero – Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods [74]

The irony here is that Paper Lace released Billy, Don’t Be A Hero FIRST and was a #1 hit in the U.K. but Bo Donaldson’s was the version that was a hit in the U.S. But they’re both terrible songs.

 Pete Pardo’s Ultimate Introduction to Classic Rock Mix Tape Challenge

So once again trolling the Sea Of Tranquility back catalog of shows and stumbled across this one. You get one 60-minute tape to give to someone to introduce them to classic rock radio. That’s a hard 30 minutes per side. Me and my friends used to do 90-minute tapes [45-minute sides] “back in the day.” For comparison, a CD is just a shade under 80 minutes.

So I took up the challenge. Try it – it’s a lot harder than you think!

Side one:

1.      Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones [3:50]

A lot of folks were using Gimme Shelter – a fine song mind you and definitely classic- but I want to immediately grab the listener’s ear and this was immediately the first song I thought of.

2.      We’re An American Band – Grand Funk [3:26]

The trick of a good mix tape is to start off hot and keep the party rolling for a couple of songs. Grand Funk’s classic ode to life on the road is a good way to keep ANY party rolling - or kick it into a higher gear!

3.      Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie [3:12]

After a couple quick ones, you can slow the roll a little. Bowie has to represent both glam and art in rock and roll and the title track to The Rise and Fall… is a good place to meet Bowie and his wonderful guitarist, Mick Ronson.

4.      More Than A Feeling – Boston [4:45]

Since I am not overexposed to classic rock radio anymore, I find that I can once again enjoy such things as Boston’s debut album and an occasion run into Stairway To Heaven or Free Bird. Has this also lightened my loathing of Styx? Not one bit.

5.      What’s Your Name? – Lynyrd Skynyrd [3:33]

The kings of Southern Rock have to be represented and this humorous tale of life on the road is a great [and better yet short] introduction to the genre.

6.      Rock And Roll – Led Zeppelin [3:40]

Of course Led Zeppelin also has to be represented and this rocker off the untitled 4^th album is a great place to start.

7.      Walk This Way – Aerosmith [3:43]

America’s Favorite American Band of the 1970s, the bad boys from Boston also add a touch of funk on this one.

8.      Jet Airliner [single mix] – The Steve Miller Band [3:33]

Steve Miller’s run of singles in the 70s spawned the amazing Greatest Hits ’74 – 78 album, most of which still anchor classic rock and many childhood memories of roller skating.

Total Time: 29:42

 

Side two

1.      Barracuda – Heart [4:21]

The Wilson sisters venomous attack on [in the words of Frank Zappa] "record company pricks" is a slab of great 70s rock.

2.      Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac [3:43]

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is a staple of any classic rock station. I mean it is one of the top selling albums of all time, so one can hardly make an “Introduction To Classic Rock” without something by the Mac.

3.      Fat Bottomed Girls [single mix] – Queen [3:22]

With layers of harmonies and bouncing from anything from camp vaudeville to hard rock, Queen sit on the edge of rock and prog [progressive] rock.

4.      Let’s Go – The Cars [3:33]

The Cars bridged the gap between rock and new wave and the 70s into the 80s and also remain a staple of classic rock.

5.      Long, Long Way From Home – Foreigner [2:55]

Representing all of the not stratospherical superstars [i.e. Zeppelin / Stones / Pink Floyd] level but able to fill arenas like Bad Company, Bachman Turner Overdrive, etc.

6.      Dust In the Wind – Kansas [3:25]

Representing the slower side of the classic rock coin.

7.      Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who [8:32]

If one has to choose an extended track of classic rock, the closer of Who’s Next feels much better than the other, more obvious choices. It doesn’t build up like the others do but if one is talking about Classic Rock, then the Who represent as well as anything else.  

Total Time: 29:59

 Random Record Review:

Rock In A Hard Place - Aerosmith [1982]

In 1977 and 1978 Aerosmith was America's Favorite American Band. But on the inside the cancer of drugs was killing the individual members and the band itself. Suffering from burnout and tired of the constant fighting lead guitarist Joe Perry left Aerosmith late in 1979 shortly before the release of Night In the Ruts. As he walked out the door, he told the band that they were not ready for the 80s. In the Aerosmith bio Walk This Way, bassist Tom Hamilton admits that it was hard to hear because it was very [very, very, me emphasis] true.

Perry was replaced  by Jimmy Crespo but the touring Crespo was supposed to do in 1980 was cancelled by Steven Tyler's motorcycle accident which left him in a cast for much of the year. Sessions for what would become Rock In A Hard Place started sometime in 1981 with producer Tony Bongiovi. A few tracks were laid down but after a break in the fall of 1981 second guitarist Brad Whitford snapped and stayed up in Boston leaving Crespo on his own with the bare bones of the band [Hamilton, Tyler and drummer Joey Kramer] who decided to soldier on. But things ground to a halt as Tyler's drug use kept him from adding lyrics and vocals. Hamilton notes that for about a year the album was always “two months form being ready.” It took the return of Jack Douglas [producer of the classic Aerosmith records Get Your Wings, Toys In the Attic, Rocks and (unfortunately for him) Draw the Line] and getting the band to Miami's Criterion Studios [i.e. away from well-established connections] to finish the album.

Not to say that the finished product is a masterpiece. But I will hold this up as more authentic than anything I heard after 1989’s Pump. [And Pump hangs in as the last good to great Aerosmith by default because repeated listenings of Permanent Vacation reveal how weak the second side is.] Admittedly this is only owning [for a time] but not really digging the overly polished Get A Grip, a tasting of  the disappointing as Draw the Line album that was Nine Lives and the singles off of Just Push Play – of which Jaded was a fucking great song! Anyway, Jack Douglas manages to pull together the bits and pieces and make a good record out of the train wreck of what one was Aerosmith in 1982.

Let me state at the top and for the record – while Jimmy Crespo is not Joe Perry or Brad Whitford, Jimmy Crespo lays down a TON of amazing guitar work here. It’s ABSOLUTELY 110 % NOT HIS FAULT that the singer and lyricist Tyler was unable to match what he laid down. Two listens to Jailbait [maybe the best track here] and the layers of Joanie’s Butterfly and Jimmy Crespo should be off the hook and spoken of in the admiring tones of Vinnie Vincent bringing Kiss back from the near dead on Lick It Up. And credit where credit is due, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer rise to the challenge here and put in some really, really good work of their own.

The first three songs of side A [Jailbait, Lightning Strikes and Bitch’s Brew] are a pretty good salvo of American Hard Rock circa 1979. Unfortunately, it’s 1982 and rock has a new energy and a new guitar hero two or even three steps removed from Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry. Aerosmith has been usurped as "America's Favorite American Band" by the band from California that opened for them at the 1978 Texxas Jam called Van Halen. Bolivian Ragamuffin is dragged down by Tyler’s lyrics, which don’t allow this to rise above being a really good riff but ultimately mediocre track. The side closing cover of Cry Me A River [Tyler admits in Walk that it is there only because he could not come up with anymore lyrics for whatever remains in the can] is a good cover with only Tyler’s vocal holding it from being damn good.

The second side opens with Tyler on a Vocoder with some nonsense Prelude To Joanie leading into Joanie’s Butterfly. What is he talking about? I don’t know but hell it’s a kick ass track. The title track Rock In A Hard Place [Cheshire Cat] finds the band rocking the fuck out of a funky riff that is not far off anything from Rocks or the few highlights of Draw the Line or Night In the Ruts. Jig Is Up seems to be a twisted version of the Bolivian Ragamuffin theme: great riff, mediocre lyrics. Again, the side ends with a downer. Push Comes to Shove seems be an unsatisfying leftover from the Draw the Line album. It's not as heavy a downer as Mia from Night In the Ruts but damn that song [and album] ends with fucking funeral bells tolling!

Is this a classic Aerosmith album? No. But it is a very listenable album for the most part and it’s one I reach for more than Draw the Line or Night In the Ruts which do feature Perry and Whitford and one I wish more people would take for a ride.