A Boston based band lead by Mark Cutler but the rhythm section came from The Red Rockers, The Raindogs took their name from a Tom Waits album. Secret weapon was fiddler Johnny Cunningham who bought a Galactic feel to Cutler's Tom Petty/Rolling Stones/Del Fregos type of music. They may have been ahead of their time for their type of alt rock preceded The Counting Crows by about three years.
Their albums for Atco went straight to the bargain bins soon after their release but they always had the best producers available: Peter Henderson (Supertramp, Rush) produced their first Lost Souls and Don Gehman (Mellencamp, later Hootie And The Blowfish) for Border Drive In Theater which became one of my favorite albums of 1991 due to the title alone. Some Fun actually got played on the FM station for a time and Iggy Pop gave the bizarre introduction of Dance Of The Freaks. But as fate would have it, Atco Records folded up shop and never did give the proper promotion for both of The Raindogs albums. They would break up, and Mark Cutler would go on to a solo career. Cunningham died in 2003.
Albums:
Lost Souls (Atco 1989) B+
Border Drive In Theater (Atco 1991) B+
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Friday, December 28, 2012
Raised On Led Zeppelin
As a schooler growing up in Marion, the epitome of being cool is if you knew somebody that had Led Zeppelin in their music collection, or in my case one of my friend's older brother that had the first two (but oddly not the third). In my generation we missed out on the Beatles but when Zeppelin was around they were our ultimate band. And for 11 years the band that everybody liked.
The Zep started out from The Yardbirds to which members of that band would eventually bailed out, leaving Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja, Dreja would soon leave (although he is credited for the band photo on the first album). Page was a established session player who joined the Yardbirds around 1967 before Jeff Beck would leave for his own solo career. Little Games (EMI) was produced by Micky Most and it was actually the most pop sounding of all Yardbirds album with the exception of a fiery Think About It which kinda gave a direction of sound that Page would succeed with Led Zeppelin. A live album Yardbirds With Jimmy Page (Epic 1971) came out with fake crowd sounds but a version of I'm Confused stands out. Keith Relf and Jim McCartney would leave. John Paul Jones, was also a highly sought after session player as he played on many tracks featuring the likes of Herman Hermits became a replacement. The other two main players, Robert Plant and John Bonham came from the lesser known Band Of Joy, Plant has a hard to find 45 on Columbia You Better Run/Everybody Gonna Say under the band name Listen (Columbia 4-43967) which is a Rascals cover. Bonham would play mad drums on Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man in 1968.
Fulfilling contracts as The New Yardbirds, they renamed themselves after a Keith Moon quirk but their first album wasn't anything you heard on the radio. More heavy blues rock then heavy metal (the term wasn't coined yet) Led Zeppelin raided the Willie Dixon songbook and took Dazed And Confused away from Jake Holmes. The urgency of Good Times Bad Times (a failed single hard to figure) and Communication Breakdown showed that Led Zeppelin could keep things at two and half minutes but everything is there that would make them the rock gods that they would become. You want a organ solo, there's the beginning of Your Time Is Gonna Come, you want a messy drum solo, it's on How Many More Times (basically a rewrite of How Many More Years, a Howlin Wolf comp), if you want a cool guitar piece Black Mountain Side is there too. Glyn Johns adds a very heavy mix to the songs, but Jimmy Page's guitar antics and bow effects on Dazed And Confused makes this a still great album.
Led Zeppelin 2 was more of the same, more rock, more blues including the 5 and half minute Whole Lotta Love and stealing more Chess blues goodies, (hey if you're going to lift songs from the past go with the real sources and they did, Wolf's Killing Floor becomes The Lemon Song and Rice Miller's Bring It On Home, Miller being Sonny Boy Williamson Number 2). And even mellow numbers like Ramble On and Thank You had a bit hard rock thrown in for good measure but for me the sloppy guitar solo on the metallic Heartbreaker remains worth the price of admission.
I never could understood why my best friend's older brother never did buy Led Zeppelin 3 but perhaps he was put off by the almost acoustic second side of the album to which when I was younger didn't quite get but as I got older, I come to find that's one of my favorite sides. Oh it rocks, Immigrant Song, Celebration Day and the forgotten Out On The Tides are standouts but side 2, cover of Leadbelly's Gallows Pole, plus Tangerine and That's The Way a song that sounded more Fairport Convention than hard rock and the then odd weirdness that is Hats Off To Roy Harper makes 3 my all time favorite LZ album.
But then there's Led Zeppelin 4 or the ZOSO album. For all it's overplayedness on the radio, when I put it on the turntable here at home it sounds as fresh and original as the first time I heard this. Black Dog, the straight ahead Rock and Roll, Sandy Denny put to great use on Battle Of Evermore and of course it all winds down to the epic Stairway To Heaven. Side 2 kinda lets a bit, Four Sticks remains the weakest of the bunch, Going To California gets better with age but the hard blues of Memphis Minnie's When The Levee Breaks is classic Zep.
A Led Zeppelin album was the big event no matter what day or year it was. Houses Of The Holy was beginning to show the excess and bombast and the start of the albums that while great to some, didn't catch much on me. The Song Remains The Same when I first heard it on the radio blew my mind and the first time of hearing D'yer Maker about the same although that song sounds a bit dated now. Over The Hills And Far Away was a top thirty hit here but I never been much of a fan of the Rain Song. The albums does end on a high note with the brooding and mysterious No Quarter and rock stopping The Ocean.
Psychical Graffiti is probably my 2nd favorite Zeppelin album with Custard Pie, The Rover and a 11 minute in your face of In My Time Of Dying to which the guys tackle an obscure Josh White number to which Ron Nevison put together a definite mix to which Bonham's drums stand way out in front. Kashmir shows the Western flavor that would pop up on later Zep and Robert Plant's efforts, but for me the rocking Trampled Underfoot, Sick Again were better. Even throwaways like Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman kick major butt and of course the ballads like Ten Years Gone were excellent. For a record that's all over the map, it still remains definitive.
Presence on the other hand was whipped out in 18 days and might be the least album in their catalog, Tea For One and For Your Life are hard to get through but I love Candy Store Rock and Hots On From Nowhere. Not bad.
The Song Remains The Same in its original context is Led Zeppelin in it's warts and all glory, bombastic pompous and self indulgent, that's the 27 minute Dazed And Confused and the bloated Moby Dick. In 2007, 6 new tracks makes this a lot more easier to take which The Ocean, Since I Been Loving You, Over The Hills And Far Away, Heartbreaker and Misty Mountain Hop makes this worth getting, even though How The West Is Won and The BBC Sessions are much better but then that was a much younger Led Zeppelin more hungry and ambitious, the Madison Square Garden show that was Song Remains The Same shows a more content Zeppelin that follows it's own bloated way. Basically you had to be there.
In Through The Out Door is the album to which John Paul Jones gets his own spotlight since this album is the least metallic of all Zeppelin albums with In The Evening anything close to hard rock. More keyboard driven such as songs like Fool In The Rain or All My Love shows but there's a wicked sense of humor on the country fried Hot Dog as well. It all ends on the seductive I'm Gonna Crawl. But then John Bonham died and the band ceased to exist. Coda wraps things up with three rockers that didn't make In Through The Out Door and some odds and ends and a John Bonham drum piece with some Page electronics thrown in for good measure but nobody bothered to add Hey Hey What Can I Do. That would have to wait for the 4 cd box set that came out in 1991.
To usher in the new CD era Jimmy Page cherry picked his favorites for Led Zeppelin Box Set 1 (The second would appear a year later) and added some unreleased stuff in the process. Then Early Days and Later Days came out and then Mothership, if you have the studio you really don't need these. Jimmy Page would play on a couple Robert Plant songs for Now and Zen and Plant returned the favor for one song on Page's 1988 Outrider album. Then they got back together again for the listenable No Quarter and the not so much Walking Into Clarksdale, Steve Albini's mix didn't do them any favors. John Paul Jones joined them for the ill fated 1985 Live Aid show and a Atlantic Records showcase a few years later but Led Zeppelin's finest and perhaps final moment of the Post John Bonham era was getting son Jason to sit in and do the 2007 O2 tribute to Arment Ertugan which became Celebration Day. With Plant singing in a lower voice and Page and Jones tuning down, Celebration Day might be the most metal album that Zeppelin ever did. Plant's vocal more subdued than the MSG show, it shows the surviving members enjoying and shining in the moment one last time. You have to admire Robert Plant not succumbing to big bucks to rehash the favorites all over again although one should never say never if everybody is still alive. But if it's their last moment together, they went out in style.
Long live Led Zeppelin!
PS It's basically pointless to give out grades to these albums, they're all essential, including the updated Song Remains The Same S/T with the bonus tracks adding continuity and filling in the gaps that the original album omitted. I'm sure most of you out there have these albums in your collection in one form or another. From the opening notes of Good Times Bad Times, to the end of Rock And Roll on Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin was truly THE BAND THAT ROCKED from the word GO!
Grades:
Led Zeppelin (Atlantic 1968) A
Led Zeppelin 2 (Atlantic 1969) A
Led Zeppelin 3 (Atlantic 1970) A
Led Zeppelin 4 (Atlantic 1971) A
Houses Of The Holy (Atlantic 1973) A-
Physical Graffiti (Swan Song 1975) A
Presence (Swan Song 1976) B+
The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song 1977) B-
In Through The Out Door (Swan Song 1979) B+
Coda (Swan Song 1982) A-
BBC Sessions (Atlantic 1990) B+
How The West Was Won (Atlantic 2002) A-
Celebration Day (Rhino/Swan Song 2007) A-
The Zep started out from The Yardbirds to which members of that band would eventually bailed out, leaving Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja, Dreja would soon leave (although he is credited for the band photo on the first album). Page was a established session player who joined the Yardbirds around 1967 before Jeff Beck would leave for his own solo career. Little Games (EMI) was produced by Micky Most and it was actually the most pop sounding of all Yardbirds album with the exception of a fiery Think About It which kinda gave a direction of sound that Page would succeed with Led Zeppelin. A live album Yardbirds With Jimmy Page (Epic 1971) came out with fake crowd sounds but a version of I'm Confused stands out. Keith Relf and Jim McCartney would leave. John Paul Jones, was also a highly sought after session player as he played on many tracks featuring the likes of Herman Hermits became a replacement. The other two main players, Robert Plant and John Bonham came from the lesser known Band Of Joy, Plant has a hard to find 45 on Columbia You Better Run/Everybody Gonna Say under the band name Listen (Columbia 4-43967) which is a Rascals cover. Bonham would play mad drums on Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man in 1968.
Fulfilling contracts as The New Yardbirds, they renamed themselves after a Keith Moon quirk but their first album wasn't anything you heard on the radio. More heavy blues rock then heavy metal (the term wasn't coined yet) Led Zeppelin raided the Willie Dixon songbook and took Dazed And Confused away from Jake Holmes. The urgency of Good Times Bad Times (a failed single hard to figure) and Communication Breakdown showed that Led Zeppelin could keep things at two and half minutes but everything is there that would make them the rock gods that they would become. You want a organ solo, there's the beginning of Your Time Is Gonna Come, you want a messy drum solo, it's on How Many More Times (basically a rewrite of How Many More Years, a Howlin Wolf comp), if you want a cool guitar piece Black Mountain Side is there too. Glyn Johns adds a very heavy mix to the songs, but Jimmy Page's guitar antics and bow effects on Dazed And Confused makes this a still great album.
Led Zeppelin 2 was more of the same, more rock, more blues including the 5 and half minute Whole Lotta Love and stealing more Chess blues goodies, (hey if you're going to lift songs from the past go with the real sources and they did, Wolf's Killing Floor becomes The Lemon Song and Rice Miller's Bring It On Home, Miller being Sonny Boy Williamson Number 2). And even mellow numbers like Ramble On and Thank You had a bit hard rock thrown in for good measure but for me the sloppy guitar solo on the metallic Heartbreaker remains worth the price of admission.
I never could understood why my best friend's older brother never did buy Led Zeppelin 3 but perhaps he was put off by the almost acoustic second side of the album to which when I was younger didn't quite get but as I got older, I come to find that's one of my favorite sides. Oh it rocks, Immigrant Song, Celebration Day and the forgotten Out On The Tides are standouts but side 2, cover of Leadbelly's Gallows Pole, plus Tangerine and That's The Way a song that sounded more Fairport Convention than hard rock and the then odd weirdness that is Hats Off To Roy Harper makes 3 my all time favorite LZ album.
But then there's Led Zeppelin 4 or the ZOSO album. For all it's overplayedness on the radio, when I put it on the turntable here at home it sounds as fresh and original as the first time I heard this. Black Dog, the straight ahead Rock and Roll, Sandy Denny put to great use on Battle Of Evermore and of course it all winds down to the epic Stairway To Heaven. Side 2 kinda lets a bit, Four Sticks remains the weakest of the bunch, Going To California gets better with age but the hard blues of Memphis Minnie's When The Levee Breaks is classic Zep.
A Led Zeppelin album was the big event no matter what day or year it was. Houses Of The Holy was beginning to show the excess and bombast and the start of the albums that while great to some, didn't catch much on me. The Song Remains The Same when I first heard it on the radio blew my mind and the first time of hearing D'yer Maker about the same although that song sounds a bit dated now. Over The Hills And Far Away was a top thirty hit here but I never been much of a fan of the Rain Song. The albums does end on a high note with the brooding and mysterious No Quarter and rock stopping The Ocean.
Psychical Graffiti is probably my 2nd favorite Zeppelin album with Custard Pie, The Rover and a 11 minute in your face of In My Time Of Dying to which the guys tackle an obscure Josh White number to which Ron Nevison put together a definite mix to which Bonham's drums stand way out in front. Kashmir shows the Western flavor that would pop up on later Zep and Robert Plant's efforts, but for me the rocking Trampled Underfoot, Sick Again were better. Even throwaways like Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman kick major butt and of course the ballads like Ten Years Gone were excellent. For a record that's all over the map, it still remains definitive.
Presence on the other hand was whipped out in 18 days and might be the least album in their catalog, Tea For One and For Your Life are hard to get through but I love Candy Store Rock and Hots On From Nowhere. Not bad.
The Song Remains The Same in its original context is Led Zeppelin in it's warts and all glory, bombastic pompous and self indulgent, that's the 27 minute Dazed And Confused and the bloated Moby Dick. In 2007, 6 new tracks makes this a lot more easier to take which The Ocean, Since I Been Loving You, Over The Hills And Far Away, Heartbreaker and Misty Mountain Hop makes this worth getting, even though How The West Is Won and The BBC Sessions are much better but then that was a much younger Led Zeppelin more hungry and ambitious, the Madison Square Garden show that was Song Remains The Same shows a more content Zeppelin that follows it's own bloated way. Basically you had to be there.
In Through The Out Door is the album to which John Paul Jones gets his own spotlight since this album is the least metallic of all Zeppelin albums with In The Evening anything close to hard rock. More keyboard driven such as songs like Fool In The Rain or All My Love shows but there's a wicked sense of humor on the country fried Hot Dog as well. It all ends on the seductive I'm Gonna Crawl. But then John Bonham died and the band ceased to exist. Coda wraps things up with three rockers that didn't make In Through The Out Door and some odds and ends and a John Bonham drum piece with some Page electronics thrown in for good measure but nobody bothered to add Hey Hey What Can I Do. That would have to wait for the 4 cd box set that came out in 1991.
To usher in the new CD era Jimmy Page cherry picked his favorites for Led Zeppelin Box Set 1 (The second would appear a year later) and added some unreleased stuff in the process. Then Early Days and Later Days came out and then Mothership, if you have the studio you really don't need these. Jimmy Page would play on a couple Robert Plant songs for Now and Zen and Plant returned the favor for one song on Page's 1988 Outrider album. Then they got back together again for the listenable No Quarter and the not so much Walking Into Clarksdale, Steve Albini's mix didn't do them any favors. John Paul Jones joined them for the ill fated 1985 Live Aid show and a Atlantic Records showcase a few years later but Led Zeppelin's finest and perhaps final moment of the Post John Bonham era was getting son Jason to sit in and do the 2007 O2 tribute to Arment Ertugan which became Celebration Day. With Plant singing in a lower voice and Page and Jones tuning down, Celebration Day might be the most metal album that Zeppelin ever did. Plant's vocal more subdued than the MSG show, it shows the surviving members enjoying and shining in the moment one last time. You have to admire Robert Plant not succumbing to big bucks to rehash the favorites all over again although one should never say never if everybody is still alive. But if it's their last moment together, they went out in style.
Long live Led Zeppelin!
PS It's basically pointless to give out grades to these albums, they're all essential, including the updated Song Remains The Same S/T with the bonus tracks adding continuity and filling in the gaps that the original album omitted. I'm sure most of you out there have these albums in your collection in one form or another. From the opening notes of Good Times Bad Times, to the end of Rock And Roll on Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin was truly THE BAND THAT ROCKED from the word GO!
Grades:
Led Zeppelin (Atlantic 1968) A
Led Zeppelin 2 (Atlantic 1969) A
Led Zeppelin 3 (Atlantic 1970) A
Led Zeppelin 4 (Atlantic 1971) A
Houses Of The Holy (Atlantic 1973) A-
Physical Graffiti (Swan Song 1975) A
Presence (Swan Song 1976) B+
The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song 1977) B-
In Through The Out Door (Swan Song 1979) B+
Coda (Swan Song 1982) A-
BBC Sessions (Atlantic 1990) B+
How The West Was Won (Atlantic 2002) A-
Celebration Day (Rhino/Swan Song 2007) A-
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The Cherry Sisters
Before alternative music or plays, there was Marion's very own Cherry Sisters who terrorized the opera houses of the local state in the late 1890s. A couple interesting artifacts are found here.
http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/Early/cherry.html
The Cherry Sisters may have also figured in free speech to which they sued and lost to newspapers that didn't like their performances. case in point: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iaohms/cherry_articles.html
They were ahead of their time, long before Yoko Ono was even born and Nicki No Talent Minaj not even a twinkle in the eye of her grandparents.
A one of a kind that was the Cherry Sisters.
further reading:
http://travsd.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/stars-of-vaudeville-85-the-cherry-sisters/
http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/Early/cherry.html
The Cherry Sisters may have also figured in free speech to which they sued and lost to newspapers that didn't like their performances. case in point: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iaohms/cherry_articles.html
They were ahead of their time, long before Yoko Ono was even born and Nicki No Talent Minaj not even a twinkle in the eye of her grandparents.
A one of a kind that was the Cherry Sisters.
further reading:
http://travsd.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/stars-of-vaudeville-85-the-cherry-sisters/
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Scott Halpin-Subsitute Who Drummer
Who are you? The guy who played with the Who, that's who By Mike Leonard, Hoosier Times columnist Sunday, February 19, 2006 6:52 AM CST BLOOMINGTON - Google the name Scott Halpin, and you can understand some of the reasons why the Bloomington resident remains cautious and a bit indifferent about recounting his extraordinary little contribution to rock 'n' roll history. "They always get something wrong," he said of the many accounts of the night when, at age 19, he replaced drummer Keith Moon in legendary band, The Who. "I've read where I played anywhere from five minutes to an hour. I came out of the front row to join the band on stage. That kind of thing," Halpin said last week. "One story said I was a graduate of Monterey High School, and I'd sort of slipped away into obscurity, and the last anyone knew, I was a businessman." Actually, Halpin has lived in Bloomington for roughly a decade, makes his living as an artist and illustrator, and occasionally gets out to play bass, now his preferred instrument, and sometimes, drums. He was just a kid from Muscatine, Iowa, who'd moved to California when he hooked up with a friend to see The Who at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on Nov. 20, 1973. He was a major Who fan at the time. "I was living in Monterey, and I figure from the time it took to drive into San Francisco and the time I spent standing in line, I spent 13 hours. I really did want to get down front," he recalled. The show Halpin had never heard of the opening band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and doesn't remember much about their set other than a vague recollection of the endless riffing on "Free Bird." "It was back in the days of general admission, and you really had to suck it up and just hold your spot (in the audience)," Halpin recalled. "Once The Who came on, the crush of people was so intense, I could only handle about three songs. After that, we kind of escaped over to the side of the stage, where there were these big ramps, and we had a good view of the band." The Who's notoriously wild drummer, Moon, passed out more than midway through the performance, was taken off-stage and after a brief intermission, returned to his drum kit. Accounts of the source of Moon's infirmity vary, but Halpin guesses that the speculation centering on the quasi-psychedelic drug, PCP, probably is accurate. "You could sense it was going to happen again," Halpin said. Sure enough, Moon collapsed again, and Halpin's friend, Mike Danese, dragged him to the side of the stage and pleaded with security guards to tell the band's management that Halpin could step in. "The security guard was probably thinking he's a complete nut, but all of a sudden, (promoter) Bill Graham pops up, and he sees it as a security thing. He's sort of nose-to-nose with Mike, and Mike says, 'He can do this. He's a drummer. He knows the material.' And Bill Graham looks at me and says, 'Can you do it?' and I said yeah." On stage At that point, The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, almost rhetorically asks the Cow Palace crowd if there's a drummer in the house. Unbeknownst to him, Halpin is already in place, sitting on Moon's stool and getting instructions on how the drum kit is set up by a technician. "Then, (singer) Roger Daltry announces my name and we go into it. Pete told me he'd give me cues, and they had me start with (the blues standard) 'Smokestack Lightning,' which I don't ever remember being part of their thing," Halpin said. He admitted he really doesn't even remember what else he played because he was so focused on keeping time and picking up signals from Townshend. A Web site on Who history indicates that Halpin would have played on the songs, "Smokestack Lightning," "Spoonful" and "Naked Eye." An account in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1996 says a bootleg tape shows that Halpin played on the first two previously listed songs and the grand finale, "My Generation." Who members Townshend, Daltry and John Entwistle thanked the skinny kid from the audience for stepping to the plate but didn't hang around long after the show. "They were very angry with Keith and sort of fighting among themselves," Halpin said. "It was the opening date on their 'Quadrophenia' tour, and they were saying, 'Why couldn't he wait until after the show (if he wanted to get high)?" Daltry, who'd begun drinking Jack Daniels from the bottle at that point, told the substitute they'd pay him $1,000 for his efforts, and a roadie gave him a tour jacket on the spot. "Then everyone split," Halpin said. "My friend and I both had long drives ahead of us, so we loaded up on all the free food that was put out for the band, and we both headed for home." In the meantime, someone stole the tour jacket that Halpin had just received as a gift. Halpin received favorable mention in the next day's Chronicle review. He received a nice letter from the band but no money - not that it mattered. The legacy The Who returned to San Francisco a couple of years later, and Halpin did get to go backstage and meet Moon, who was gracious but in his typical whirlwind mode. "He was doing this hilarious monologue and taking off his stage clothes and putting on his street clothes in front of everyone," Halpin said with a laugh. "He said 'Nice to meet you' to me, and then he was off." The story of Halpin's brief stint playing with The Who often comes up when people collect stories of rock 'n' roll lore or Who retrospectives. Rolling Stone magazine would later name Halpin the "Pick-up Player of the Year." A few years ago, the cable network VH-1 flew him to New York City for an interview that is included in a program called "The Forty Freakiest Concert Moments in Rock History." Last week, Halpin sat down in the WFIU-FM studios in Bloomington to tape a segment for NPR's "Morning Edition." "It's just one of those stories that won't go away, but you know, it's not a story that even a lot of people I know have heard," he said. "I mean, how do you tell this story? Are you bragging if you do? It's kind of weird, how it all went down. And to be honest, it all gets kind of foggy because it all happened so fast. I didn't have time to take it all in. All I was thinking about was not screwing up."
Scott Halpin Died in 2008 at age 54.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
ASIA
Funny thing about supergroups, they tend to be over-hyped and in some ways Asia reminds me of Bad Company, supergroup from other bands that made a few albums together, then members fall out and a different lineup would ensured or sometimes the original members return.
Asia came from various prog rock bands, John Wetton played in King Crimson, UK and Uriah Heep, Steve Howe from Yes, Geoff Downs from The Buggles and Yes and Carl Palmer from ELP and I guess you would call their first album Prog Pop although that deep sound came from the late Mike Stone adding plenty of overdubs here and there to create something more than just four guys. Their first album remains their best although Heat Of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell have been ran into the ground on the classic rock radio. How dare me to rate this an A album but it's a album I can listen start to finish with wonderful tracks like Wildest Dreams, Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling again. This record got plenty of play on my stereo. You may be excused from here on out to read the rest of the story.
Alpha was a let down. Don't Cry and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes were overplayed on radio as well but crowd pleasers like Open Your Eyes and The Heat Goes On plus the ultra beautiful Never In A Million Years make the record not so much a bust, but side 2 really really drags. And then confusion came calling, Wetton left, Greg Lake replaced him, but on Astra Wetton returns and Steve Howe leaves replaced by Mandy Meyer whoever he was. The record tanked, but to me it was a better effort than Alpha although there's much more darker songs on this outing but standouts include Go, Voice Of America, Love Now Till Eternity and the angry Too Late. Some songs didn't make much sense Countdown To Zero (with a corny ending) and After The War showcase a war paranoia. But nothing was heard much from Asia after that and Geffen pieced together a collection of greatest hits and outtakes for Then And Now to which they had a minor hit with Days Like These and even had David Cassidy cowrite a song.
Wetton leaves again and Geoff Downes finds an able replacement that is willing to stay onboard in John Payne which begins Asia Part 2, the Downes/Payne years and Aqua is bizarre and boring most of the time. Although Steve Howe and Carl Palmer are listed, outside of Who Will Stop The Rain, there's not much I can recommend on this although there's a couple songs that Greg Lake did write. The Payne era I haven't paid much attention to although Aria had a few more moments but still sounded like a hair metal band. Basically after that it was the Payne/Downes show up till Wetton, Howe and Palmer reunited with Downes, and left Payne in the dust (although Payne was allowed to use Asia featuring John Payne). Phoenix the first new Asia original since Astra was more stripped down, by then Mike Stone was dead so they produced it themselves. It might be their most progressive rock album ever although I really haven't played it much. Omega came out in 2009 produced by Mike Paxman (Status Quo) and it returned them more to the earlier hit sound of the 80s although no new hits were taken off it, radio ignored it since they're considered a dinosaur act. In 2012 they recorded XXX which is a return to sound of the first album and reviews of this were pretty good but again radio wanted nothing to do with it. Really a shame, since Omega and XXX are good in their own way.
Asia also benefits from having more greatest hits and anthologies than actual albums and basically this is where buyer beware comes to play. Anthologia The 20th Anniversary collection has ALL of the Geffen albums into a nifty two CD set, which means you get the first three albums plus B sides Ride Easy and Daylight which would have made their respective albums that much better. Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia I would have recommended but Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling Again are edited version and a bad butcher job at that but has Ride Easy and Daylight and is preferable over Then And Now or the 20th Century Masters Collection. And then there's the 2 cd Gold collection and the Definitive Edition to boot. Inside Out US, issued Anthology which deals with Payne era. There are countless Live Asia albums that only the hardcore fan will pay attention but I'll give two of them that I do have, Asia Live In Moscow and Live In Nottingham, which features Pat Thrall playing guitar, The Moscow side is interesting of John Wetton doing a couple of King Crimson numbers, and Downes playing Video Killed the Radio Star. The Nottingham Live show has Prayin 4 A Miracle which is rarely played.
They're not a critic's favorite, prog rock fans think less of them but they have managed to carve out a career on the strength of Heat Of The Moment or Only Time Will Tell. But I grew up listening to them and managed to seek their albums from time to time. And their first album is one of the 80s albums that defined that era like it or not. John Payne may be a dedicated musician to the cause but the original Asia had better players and Wetton is a better singer. And he had the hits too.
Asia (Geffen 1982) A-
Alpha (Geffen 1983) C+
Astra (Geffen 1985) B+
Then And Now (Geffen 1989) B
Live In Moscow (Rhino 1990) C+
Live In Nottingham (Renaissance 1990) B-
Aqua (Great Pyramid/Rhino 1992) C-
Aura (Mayhem 1994) C
Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia (Geffen 2000) B+
Anthologia (Geffen 2002) A- (Later repackaged as Gold)
Phoenix (Frontiers 2007) C+
Omega (Frontiers 2009) B
XXX (Frontiers 2012) B+
Asia came from various prog rock bands, John Wetton played in King Crimson, UK and Uriah Heep, Steve Howe from Yes, Geoff Downs from The Buggles and Yes and Carl Palmer from ELP and I guess you would call their first album Prog Pop although that deep sound came from the late Mike Stone adding plenty of overdubs here and there to create something more than just four guys. Their first album remains their best although Heat Of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell have been ran into the ground on the classic rock radio. How dare me to rate this an A album but it's a album I can listen start to finish with wonderful tracks like Wildest Dreams, Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling again. This record got plenty of play on my stereo. You may be excused from here on out to read the rest of the story.
Alpha was a let down. Don't Cry and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes were overplayed on radio as well but crowd pleasers like Open Your Eyes and The Heat Goes On plus the ultra beautiful Never In A Million Years make the record not so much a bust, but side 2 really really drags. And then confusion came calling, Wetton left, Greg Lake replaced him, but on Astra Wetton returns and Steve Howe leaves replaced by Mandy Meyer whoever he was. The record tanked, but to me it was a better effort than Alpha although there's much more darker songs on this outing but standouts include Go, Voice Of America, Love Now Till Eternity and the angry Too Late. Some songs didn't make much sense Countdown To Zero (with a corny ending) and After The War showcase a war paranoia. But nothing was heard much from Asia after that and Geffen pieced together a collection of greatest hits and outtakes for Then And Now to which they had a minor hit with Days Like These and even had David Cassidy cowrite a song.
Wetton leaves again and Geoff Downes finds an able replacement that is willing to stay onboard in John Payne which begins Asia Part 2, the Downes/Payne years and Aqua is bizarre and boring most of the time. Although Steve Howe and Carl Palmer are listed, outside of Who Will Stop The Rain, there's not much I can recommend on this although there's a couple songs that Greg Lake did write. The Payne era I haven't paid much attention to although Aria had a few more moments but still sounded like a hair metal band. Basically after that it was the Payne/Downes show up till Wetton, Howe and Palmer reunited with Downes, and left Payne in the dust (although Payne was allowed to use Asia featuring John Payne). Phoenix the first new Asia original since Astra was more stripped down, by then Mike Stone was dead so they produced it themselves. It might be their most progressive rock album ever although I really haven't played it much. Omega came out in 2009 produced by Mike Paxman (Status Quo) and it returned them more to the earlier hit sound of the 80s although no new hits were taken off it, radio ignored it since they're considered a dinosaur act. In 2012 they recorded XXX which is a return to sound of the first album and reviews of this were pretty good but again radio wanted nothing to do with it. Really a shame, since Omega and XXX are good in their own way.
Asia also benefits from having more greatest hits and anthologies than actual albums and basically this is where buyer beware comes to play. Anthologia The 20th Anniversary collection has ALL of the Geffen albums into a nifty two CD set, which means you get the first three albums plus B sides Ride Easy and Daylight which would have made their respective albums that much better. Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia I would have recommended but Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling Again are edited version and a bad butcher job at that but has Ride Easy and Daylight and is preferable over Then And Now or the 20th Century Masters Collection. And then there's the 2 cd Gold collection and the Definitive Edition to boot. Inside Out US, issued Anthology which deals with Payne era. There are countless Live Asia albums that only the hardcore fan will pay attention but I'll give two of them that I do have, Asia Live In Moscow and Live In Nottingham, which features Pat Thrall playing guitar, The Moscow side is interesting of John Wetton doing a couple of King Crimson numbers, and Downes playing Video Killed the Radio Star. The Nottingham Live show has Prayin 4 A Miracle which is rarely played.
They're not a critic's favorite, prog rock fans think less of them but they have managed to carve out a career on the strength of Heat Of The Moment or Only Time Will Tell. But I grew up listening to them and managed to seek their albums from time to time. And their first album is one of the 80s albums that defined that era like it or not. John Payne may be a dedicated musician to the cause but the original Asia had better players and Wetton is a better singer. And he had the hits too.
Asia (Geffen 1982) A-
Alpha (Geffen 1983) C+
Astra (Geffen 1985) B+
Then And Now (Geffen 1989) B
Live In Moscow (Rhino 1990) C+
Live In Nottingham (Renaissance 1990) B-
Aqua (Great Pyramid/Rhino 1992) C-
Aura (Mayhem 1994) C
Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia (Geffen 2000) B+
Anthologia (Geffen 2002) A- (Later repackaged as Gold)
Phoenix (Frontiers 2007) C+
Omega (Frontiers 2009) B
XXX (Frontiers 2012) B+
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
New Music Review:Shemekia Copeland 33 1/3
This year I have reviewed a lot of new blues albums since I have been getting them on the cheap. Which means since nobody buys them, Half Priced Books throws them in the Clarence bins.on certain days.
Sad about today's blues, is that you don't hear it on the radio, it's a dying art that only the hardcore still care about and there's plenty of them out there. Dani Wilde, Omar And The Howlers, Samantha Fish have been part of the rotation here in Crabb land, Royal Southern Brotherhood as well, Ole Brown too. I have never reviewed as many Ruf artists has I have this year and most have that SRV sound just enough to pass as blues folk. As well as the old fart rock and rollers of today, Little Caesar, Aerosmith, Van Morrison, basically going on the hope that the old faithful fans will continue to buy their albums although it's getting mighty late and shelves are getting full to capacity here. As much as I would like to continue to seek out new music and forgotten dollar specials, time is getting too short to continue this madness. A banishment from Best Buy and Half Priced Books in order? Hard habits are hard to break.
I find myself getting more agreeable with women in music since I have listen to more of female performers this year more than I have the last decade or two. The latest Heart is fantastic to the point that I had to seek out Red Velvet Car for reference. Sam Fish I continue to rave about although she rarely leaves Kansas City to play elsewhere. Today's latest discovery find was Shemekia Copeland's 33 1/3 (Telarc Blues/Concord). Copeland is no stranger here, she has played blues festivals around the area and did play Brucemore in their Bluesmore Summertime Series. Daughter to late great Johnnie Copeland, Shemekia is cut from the same cloth that gave us Etta James or closer to her style Koko Taylor although on the new album she's gotten more Bonnie Raitt than usual. Again with Oliver Wood producing like he did on her earlier 2009 effort, he guides her through 11 nitty gritty blues and soul numbers and bringing out the ultra sassy in her with stuff like I Sing The Blues or Mississippi Mud. The title of the album makes it clear she is a fan of vinyl records as well being it her actual age, she was born in 1979 which makes her 33 and when I found the cd a third of a way through her 33rd year. Irony eh?
Legendary bluesman Buddy Guy adds mad lead guitar to Ain't Gonna Be Your Tattoo and covers a wide variety of songwriters, J J Cale on A Woman, Sam Cooke on Ain't That Good News and a interesting cover of Bob Dylan's I'll Be Your Baby Tonight to which Shemekia adds a bit of a romantic sweetie. But then will turn around and kick your ass on One More Time too, a blueswoman with a heart but do her wrong watch out. It makes good blues music but once upon a time they used to call that Rhythm & Blues.
33 1/3 is an album that cries out for the old AOR stations of yesterday, KFMH or the old KKRQ or for that matter the old old KRNA when they did play blues but that was before your time anyway. You won't hear it on the radio unless either NPR or KCCK when they plays blues on the weekend. But maybe this might have been a promo copy for KCCK that I found, who knows? For later day blues Copeland excels as both a blues or soul singer and the record does rock hard even for the blues. I'm sure Koko Taylor is nodding with approval just like her dad Johnny is from the great beyond. Good soul blues, the way that I used to remember it years ago too.
Grade B+
Sad about today's blues, is that you don't hear it on the radio, it's a dying art that only the hardcore still care about and there's plenty of them out there. Dani Wilde, Omar And The Howlers, Samantha Fish have been part of the rotation here in Crabb land, Royal Southern Brotherhood as well, Ole Brown too. I have never reviewed as many Ruf artists has I have this year and most have that SRV sound just enough to pass as blues folk. As well as the old fart rock and rollers of today, Little Caesar, Aerosmith, Van Morrison, basically going on the hope that the old faithful fans will continue to buy their albums although it's getting mighty late and shelves are getting full to capacity here. As much as I would like to continue to seek out new music and forgotten dollar specials, time is getting too short to continue this madness. A banishment from Best Buy and Half Priced Books in order? Hard habits are hard to break.
I find myself getting more agreeable with women in music since I have listen to more of female performers this year more than I have the last decade or two. The latest Heart is fantastic to the point that I had to seek out Red Velvet Car for reference. Sam Fish I continue to rave about although she rarely leaves Kansas City to play elsewhere. Today's latest discovery find was Shemekia Copeland's 33 1/3 (Telarc Blues/Concord). Copeland is no stranger here, she has played blues festivals around the area and did play Brucemore in their Bluesmore Summertime Series. Daughter to late great Johnnie Copeland, Shemekia is cut from the same cloth that gave us Etta James or closer to her style Koko Taylor although on the new album she's gotten more Bonnie Raitt than usual. Again with Oliver Wood producing like he did on her earlier 2009 effort, he guides her through 11 nitty gritty blues and soul numbers and bringing out the ultra sassy in her with stuff like I Sing The Blues or Mississippi Mud. The title of the album makes it clear she is a fan of vinyl records as well being it her actual age, she was born in 1979 which makes her 33 and when I found the cd a third of a way through her 33rd year. Irony eh?
Legendary bluesman Buddy Guy adds mad lead guitar to Ain't Gonna Be Your Tattoo and covers a wide variety of songwriters, J J Cale on A Woman, Sam Cooke on Ain't That Good News and a interesting cover of Bob Dylan's I'll Be Your Baby Tonight to which Shemekia adds a bit of a romantic sweetie. But then will turn around and kick your ass on One More Time too, a blueswoman with a heart but do her wrong watch out. It makes good blues music but once upon a time they used to call that Rhythm & Blues.
33 1/3 is an album that cries out for the old AOR stations of yesterday, KFMH or the old KKRQ or for that matter the old old KRNA when they did play blues but that was before your time anyway. You won't hear it on the radio unless either NPR or KCCK when they plays blues on the weekend. But maybe this might have been a promo copy for KCCK that I found, who knows? For later day blues Copeland excels as both a blues or soul singer and the record does rock hard even for the blues. I'm sure Koko Taylor is nodding with approval just like her dad Johnny is from the great beyond. Good soul blues, the way that I used to remember it years ago too.
Grade B+
Friday, October 26, 2012
Green Day
The grunge movement that ended with Kurt Cobain blowing his brains out, leaving rock radio trying to find some other band to carry on the so call anti establishment movement (if there was anything to rebel against) in 1994 started a punk revival of sorts. Not that punk went away, it was always around in some capacity that during that year two bands of note came out of the California wasteland, one was The Offspring whose left field smash called Smash became a modern rock staple to this day you can't escape the pop hits of Come Out And Play (Keep Them Separated) or Self Esteem and eventually would become more fun pop than real punk.
The other band that broke it big was Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day, coming off Lookout Records, which was home to Operation Ivy to which Tim Armstrong (no relation) would form the Clash/ska influenced Rancid. Green Day was more rock influenced than actual punk, in fact their roots can be traced to The Who when The Who were actually punks then became grand rock and rollers with their concept albums Tommy and Quadaphenoia to which Green Day would make their own grand statements with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Nevertheless, their first album 1039/Smoothed Out Sloppy Hours was them trying to learn at they go. I don't play it very much myself.
They came into their own with Kerplunk! to which the Tre Cool became the drummer and GD found the spark that would ignite their albums from here on out. The sound is very thin but the performance is dead on rock and roll and songs such as Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? Android and 2,000 Light Years Away would become the starting point for later chart toppers like Welcome To Paradise or Longview, Words I Might Have Ate, acoustic Ramones. Had Cobain lived on Dookie wouldn't be the landslide seller it became but perhaps the world was tired of grunge and wanted a more lighter and punker sound.
And so the love affair with Green Day started with Dookie which combines three chord punk and roll but with a more smoother production. Critics weren't amused, punk fans accused them of being sellouts when they went major label and BJ's fake Brit accent annoyed the purist but to me it was the music that mattered and Tre Cool being the Keith Moon of punk generation smashing cymbals left and right on Burnout and the moody Having A Blast. Armstrong singing the angst of teens living in mom and dad's basement on Basket Case echoed many a frustrated teen or not enjoying playing with themselves on Longview, their own Pictures Of Lily I gather. Dookie the album was a blast but it was a short enjoyable blast barely a half hour at the very least. And it got the be the album of 1994 in my book.
Even better to these ears was Insomniac which bombed but Green Day kept it short and sweet, turning the guitars and angst up to ten. Sure they ripped off the Who here and rewrote She's Got Everything by the Kinks into Walking Contradiction but the music pulled it through big time with Geek Stink Breath, the unsafe at any speed Bab's Uvula Who and the slow burn of Brain Stew which deteriorates into the thrash Jaded or the chaos of Panic Song, Insomniac is their perfect statement. Three chords and basically rock and roll to which they would not revisit till their latest Uno!
The problem with punk rock is that is one dimensional and after a while playing the same chords and singing the same song over gets even tiring for punks and they were getting to be in their mid twenties at that time so they added some horns and a violin on Nimrod, which to me is their weakest album in this era. First of all too many songs (18 of them) and Billie Joe beginning to sound very crusty and grouchy even for being 25. In fact he wrote a song about being a Grouch. Hitchin A Ride featuring the violin work of Petra Haden, King For A Day had the horn section honking away and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) a acoustic rant that ended up being the theme song from the prom crowd or perhaps the graduation song for the class of 1997. With that Green Day took a sabbath and came back in 2000 with the more adult thinking Warning but that ended up being their poorest selling album even though it was a marked improvement over Nimrod. Fearing the end of a great punk rock band Reprise rushed out International Superhits which basically is the perfect snapshot of rock radio of the 1990s and perhaps the best overall view of the best or what some may call the worst of that era. Shenanigans soon followed and has the b sides to respective songs. Worth a listen if you're a fan, pass if your not.
Then Green Day decided that they were going to write concept albums and they did, striking gold and a big comeback with American Idiot which may or may not had to do with Bush Jr. They tried not one but two version of A Quick One (meaning adding short songs to one another to form a suite of sorts) and it works great on Jesus Of Suburbia, but not so much on Homecoming but Green Day got two major big hits on Wake Me Up When September Ends and Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. American Idiot was so great that they had to have a Broadway version of this album to which I politely declined to get. 21st Century Breakdown was yet another concept album but by this time the pompousness finally got Billie Joe and company and that turned out to be their least interesting album to me, even though 21 Guns was another big hit. I think at that point that I gave up on them and not even picking up their live albums that came out, although I'm sure Awesome As Fuck had some great moments they don't differ all that much from the studio albums except with more F bombs.
To which at this point Green Day finally decided tor return to their punk roots with Uno!, a three album trilogy that two more would follow (Dos in November, Tre! in Jan 2013) and despite Cumulus KRNA sticking Oh Love down our throats three days per day, the rest of the album is a welcome return to the three chords glory of Kerplunk/Dookie/Insomniac but then again having three albums back to back to back might be risking permanent damage to their reputation, especially after Billie Joe's meltdown in Las Vegas over seeing a wide screen telling the band they had one more minute to play on the infamous I Heart Radio show and Armstrong's F bomb tirade and one finger salute which is rock and roll rebellion but not into sales. But at as he approaches 40 years, the new punks really don't take heed to the old fart punks, just as Pete Townsend found that out in 1977 and Johnny Rotten did 20 years later. Rock and roll and punk is a young man's game as Billie Joe is finding out the hard way, but he's still going to go down fighting regardless.
Looking back at the 90s and all that mattered to me, Green Day ended up being my choice of the band of the decade, simply of the fact I thought they rocked harder than the grunge bands and whatever passed for album rock and then the second decade came back from the dead by throwing The Who's attitude into the mix. So far Uno! sales have not done very well and perhaps may have cast a rethink on the forthcoming Dos! and Tre! albums from consumers but unlike them I'll be waiting in line.
Because I think they still matter to me.
Albums:
1039 Smoothed Out Sloppy Seconds (Lookout/Reprise 1990) B-
Kerplunk! (Lookout/Reprise 1991) A-
Dookie (Reprise 1994) A
Insomniac (Reprise 1995) A+
Nimrod (Reprise 1997) B-
Warning (Reprise 2000) A-
International Superhits (Reprise 2001) A
Shenanigans (Reprise 2002) B+
American Idiot (Reprise 2004) B+
21st Century Breakdown (Reprise 2009) C+
!Uno! (Reprise 2012) A-
!Dos! (Reprise 2012) B+
!Tre! (Reprise 2012) B+
Revolution Radio (Reprise 2016) B
The other band that broke it big was Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day, coming off Lookout Records, which was home to Operation Ivy to which Tim Armstrong (no relation) would form the Clash/ska influenced Rancid. Green Day was more rock influenced than actual punk, in fact their roots can be traced to The Who when The Who were actually punks then became grand rock and rollers with their concept albums Tommy and Quadaphenoia to which Green Day would make their own grand statements with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Nevertheless, their first album 1039/Smoothed Out Sloppy Hours was them trying to learn at they go. I don't play it very much myself.
They came into their own with Kerplunk! to which the Tre Cool became the drummer and GD found the spark that would ignite their albums from here on out. The sound is very thin but the performance is dead on rock and roll and songs such as Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? Android and 2,000 Light Years Away would become the starting point for later chart toppers like Welcome To Paradise or Longview, Words I Might Have Ate, acoustic Ramones. Had Cobain lived on Dookie wouldn't be the landslide seller it became but perhaps the world was tired of grunge and wanted a more lighter and punker sound.
And so the love affair with Green Day started with Dookie which combines three chord punk and roll but with a more smoother production. Critics weren't amused, punk fans accused them of being sellouts when they went major label and BJ's fake Brit accent annoyed the purist but to me it was the music that mattered and Tre Cool being the Keith Moon of punk generation smashing cymbals left and right on Burnout and the moody Having A Blast. Armstrong singing the angst of teens living in mom and dad's basement on Basket Case echoed many a frustrated teen or not enjoying playing with themselves on Longview, their own Pictures Of Lily I gather. Dookie the album was a blast but it was a short enjoyable blast barely a half hour at the very least. And it got the be the album of 1994 in my book.
Even better to these ears was Insomniac which bombed but Green Day kept it short and sweet, turning the guitars and angst up to ten. Sure they ripped off the Who here and rewrote She's Got Everything by the Kinks into Walking Contradiction but the music pulled it through big time with Geek Stink Breath, the unsafe at any speed Bab's Uvula Who and the slow burn of Brain Stew which deteriorates into the thrash Jaded or the chaos of Panic Song, Insomniac is their perfect statement. Three chords and basically rock and roll to which they would not revisit till their latest Uno!
The problem with punk rock is that is one dimensional and after a while playing the same chords and singing the same song over gets even tiring for punks and they were getting to be in their mid twenties at that time so they added some horns and a violin on Nimrod, which to me is their weakest album in this era. First of all too many songs (18 of them) and Billie Joe beginning to sound very crusty and grouchy even for being 25. In fact he wrote a song about being a Grouch. Hitchin A Ride featuring the violin work of Petra Haden, King For A Day had the horn section honking away and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) a acoustic rant that ended up being the theme song from the prom crowd or perhaps the graduation song for the class of 1997. With that Green Day took a sabbath and came back in 2000 with the more adult thinking Warning but that ended up being their poorest selling album even though it was a marked improvement over Nimrod. Fearing the end of a great punk rock band Reprise rushed out International Superhits which basically is the perfect snapshot of rock radio of the 1990s and perhaps the best overall view of the best or what some may call the worst of that era. Shenanigans soon followed and has the b sides to respective songs. Worth a listen if you're a fan, pass if your not.
Then Green Day decided that they were going to write concept albums and they did, striking gold and a big comeback with American Idiot which may or may not had to do with Bush Jr. They tried not one but two version of A Quick One (meaning adding short songs to one another to form a suite of sorts) and it works great on Jesus Of Suburbia, but not so much on Homecoming but Green Day got two major big hits on Wake Me Up When September Ends and Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. American Idiot was so great that they had to have a Broadway version of this album to which I politely declined to get. 21st Century Breakdown was yet another concept album but by this time the pompousness finally got Billie Joe and company and that turned out to be their least interesting album to me, even though 21 Guns was another big hit. I think at that point that I gave up on them and not even picking up their live albums that came out, although I'm sure Awesome As Fuck had some great moments they don't differ all that much from the studio albums except with more F bombs.
To which at this point Green Day finally decided tor return to their punk roots with Uno!, a three album trilogy that two more would follow (Dos in November, Tre! in Jan 2013) and despite Cumulus KRNA sticking Oh Love down our throats three days per day, the rest of the album is a welcome return to the three chords glory of Kerplunk/Dookie/Insomniac but then again having three albums back to back to back might be risking permanent damage to their reputation, especially after Billie Joe's meltdown in Las Vegas over seeing a wide screen telling the band they had one more minute to play on the infamous I Heart Radio show and Armstrong's F bomb tirade and one finger salute which is rock and roll rebellion but not into sales. But at as he approaches 40 years, the new punks really don't take heed to the old fart punks, just as Pete Townsend found that out in 1977 and Johnny Rotten did 20 years later. Rock and roll and punk is a young man's game as Billie Joe is finding out the hard way, but he's still going to go down fighting regardless.
Looking back at the 90s and all that mattered to me, Green Day ended up being my choice of the band of the decade, simply of the fact I thought they rocked harder than the grunge bands and whatever passed for album rock and then the second decade came back from the dead by throwing The Who's attitude into the mix. So far Uno! sales have not done very well and perhaps may have cast a rethink on the forthcoming Dos! and Tre! albums from consumers but unlike them I'll be waiting in line.
Because I think they still matter to me.
Albums:
1039 Smoothed Out Sloppy Seconds (Lookout/Reprise 1990) B-
Kerplunk! (Lookout/Reprise 1991) A-
Dookie (Reprise 1994) A
Insomniac (Reprise 1995) A+
Nimrod (Reprise 1997) B-
Warning (Reprise 2000) A-
International Superhits (Reprise 2001) A
Shenanigans (Reprise 2002) B+
American Idiot (Reprise 2004) B+
21st Century Breakdown (Reprise 2009) C+
!Uno! (Reprise 2012) A-
!Dos! (Reprise 2012) B+
!Tre! (Reprise 2012) B+
Revolution Radio (Reprise 2016) B
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