I'm not actually finished with my favorite albums yet, but I felt I needed to take a break after writing about 12 in less than 24 hours. I got some money today and used some of it to buy some MP3s I had enjoyed hearing in August and thought this would be a good time to mention one I'm looking forward to that will be released tonight at 9:00 pm/tomorrow.
-The Highwomen-Highwomen: The title track for the new album of a four-woman country supergroup featuring Northwest Washington's own Brandi Carlile. This details many hardships throughout history women have had to endure and some that seem gender-neutral as well, such as the preacher and the difficult winter or choosing sides in the Civil War. This is a group to definitely watch out for, especially when their debut album releases next week.
-Slide Away-Miley Cyrus: Her latest single and part of a 2019 project that began with the She Is Coming EP, Miley's latest track is a soft pop piece about letting go of drugs and finding sobriety. It reminds me of the early works by Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, when they weren't afraid to be vulnerable, and is above all else, refreshingly honest. I enjoy it as a Miley fan and think it's a great pop piece.
-July-Noah Cyrus: Miley's little sister releases a single about a relationship gone wrong with a simplistic acoustic backing. The sadness is more felt with the sparse accompaniment and makes one feel the hurt of the relationship that ended. It's also her first solo release since I saw her in concert last October and it's nice to see where she's headed musically.
-Shadow Life (Live)-Slash: One of my favorite guitarists, Slash with backing band Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators are releasing their boldest live album yet with only one Guns N Roses track. If the two singles they've released are any indication, they have little to worry from fans as their musicianship is as great as always, with powerhouse solos and amazing vocals. I especially look forward to hearing Todd Kerns' two guest songs on the final product.
-Take the Crown-Alter Bridge: Myles Kennedy's other music project looks to produce more powerhouse heavy metal, as the guitars blare through the three singles available so far from their upcoming album. Kennedy's vocals are top notch, as to be expected by now, and I strongly recommend checking out his work with Slash and Alter Bridge if you want to hear some new hard rock.
Release I'm looking forward to this week:
-Beware of Darkness off Sheryl Crow's album Threads. This is, in fact, a cover of George Harrison's song from All Things Must Pass. But to add to it, Sheryl Crow brought in Eric Clapton, Sting and Brandi Carlile to enhance her version. This exciting group of four, each of which has been responsible for music I've enjoyed, makes me exceptionally curious how this song will sound. I intend to keep enough money from my payment today so I can listen to it without delay from amazon.com rather than wait for Spotify's shuffle.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Favorite album reviews, part 3
Led Zeppelin-IV (1971): If there was a Classic Rock album I would require people to listen to at least one track from that was neither of my favorite Beatles albums, this would be it. Almost every track from this has become a classic rock radio staple, the rambunctious "Black Dog," the energetic "Rock and Roll," the softer acoustic songs "Battle of Evermore" and "Going to California," the keyboard-driven "Misty Mountain Hop," the drum and harmonica-heavy "When the Levee Breaks" or the complex guitar opus "Stairway to Heaven." Even the often-overlooked "Four Sticks" has a driving riff and powerful drumming delivering by the titular four sticks. This was truly Led Zeppelin's finest album and established them as a hard rock mainstay.
Deep Purple-Come Taste the Band (1975): The last of the David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes albums for Deep Purple. This was also the only album with American guitarist Tommy Bolin, most famous for two albums with James Gang. Bolin delivers a solid performance backing Coverdale on "Comin' Home" and "Dealer" and has great synergy with Hughes on "Gettin' Tighter." The final track, the duet "You Keep On Moving," is one of my favorite classic Deep Purple tracks, the instrumentation is top-notch for all the players and Coverdale and Hughes both deliver stellar performances. Like Abbey Road, though, it can be a bit bittersweet, especially since Tommy Bolin died of multiple overdoses in late 1976.
Sammy Hagar and The Circle-At Your Service (2015): Sammy Hagar and The Circle is another Sammy Hagar supergroup, this time featuring former Van Halen bandmate bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson and Jason Bonham, son of John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin, as the drummer. In 2014, they underwent their first tour and I saw the show at the Tulalip Amphitheatre at the Tulalip Casino. This recording is from the previous show a week or two before in Atlantic City. There are many Van Hagar songs (songs from the days Sammy Hagar lead sang Van Halen), some performances of Sammy Hagar solo songs and a few Led Zeppelin songs. As could be expected from the four professionals, the show is top-notch and highly recommended for fans of the aforementioned bands. It's a fun album that I enjoy listening to in order to relive a great concert experience.
Tegan and Sara-Love You To Death (2016): I was first introduced to twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin as the opening act for Katy Perry in 2013. At the time, the duo had just released the album Heartthrob and the song "Everything is Awesome" for The Lego Movie. The album that followed, Love You To Death, was a joyous Pop album and a profound learning experience. Tegan and Sara are both lesbians and two of the songs on the album, "BWU" and "Boyfriend" make reference to wanting a girlfriend. Other songs like "U-Turn" are apologetic love songs, as well as anger at a lover leaving, like "Dying to Know." The fun pop production and willingness to approach lyrics from their own perspective make this album memorable and an enjoyable experience to listen to. My only problem is sometimes I have to worry about who's around if I'm listening to it out loud, even though I live in a blue area of a blue state.
Deep Purple-Come Taste the Band (1975): The last of the David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes albums for Deep Purple. This was also the only album with American guitarist Tommy Bolin, most famous for two albums with James Gang. Bolin delivers a solid performance backing Coverdale on "Comin' Home" and "Dealer" and has great synergy with Hughes on "Gettin' Tighter." The final track, the duet "You Keep On Moving," is one of my favorite classic Deep Purple tracks, the instrumentation is top-notch for all the players and Coverdale and Hughes both deliver stellar performances. Like Abbey Road, though, it can be a bit bittersweet, especially since Tommy Bolin died of multiple overdoses in late 1976.
Sammy Hagar and The Circle-At Your Service (2015): Sammy Hagar and The Circle is another Sammy Hagar supergroup, this time featuring former Van Halen bandmate bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Vic Johnson and Jason Bonham, son of John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin, as the drummer. In 2014, they underwent their first tour and I saw the show at the Tulalip Amphitheatre at the Tulalip Casino. This recording is from the previous show a week or two before in Atlantic City. There are many Van Hagar songs (songs from the days Sammy Hagar lead sang Van Halen), some performances of Sammy Hagar solo songs and a few Led Zeppelin songs. As could be expected from the four professionals, the show is top-notch and highly recommended for fans of the aforementioned bands. It's a fun album that I enjoy listening to in order to relive a great concert experience.
Tegan and Sara-Love You To Death (2016): I was first introduced to twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin as the opening act for Katy Perry in 2013. At the time, the duo had just released the album Heartthrob and the song "Everything is Awesome" for The Lego Movie. The album that followed, Love You To Death, was a joyous Pop album and a profound learning experience. Tegan and Sara are both lesbians and two of the songs on the album, "BWU" and "Boyfriend" make reference to wanting a girlfriend. Other songs like "U-Turn" are apologetic love songs, as well as anger at a lover leaving, like "Dying to Know." The fun pop production and willingness to approach lyrics from their own perspective make this album memorable and an enjoyable experience to listen to. My only problem is sometimes I have to worry about who's around if I'm listening to it out loud, even though I live in a blue area of a blue state.
Favorite album reviews, part 2
The Beatles-Abbey Road (1969): The swan song of The Beatles. This was the last album they recorded together and they went out in style. Every member of the band contributed a song, John Lennon writing "Come Together," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Because," Paul McCartney writing "Oh! Darling" and parts of the medley, George Harrison writing "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun" and Ringo Starr contributing "Octopus's Garden." John and George deliver an amazing crescendo of guitar of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and the dueling solos of Paul, George and John of "The End" are fantastic. It is a bittersweet affair, knowing that this was their end, but they knew how to sign off with style.
Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve-Through the Fire (1984): This is the lone album by a supergroup Sammy Hagar formed with Neal Schon of Journey fame. The combination of Hagar's party-hard vocals and Schon's hard rock guitar and virtuoso ability makes every track an enjoyable listen. It's clear the musicians are having fun performing the tracks and deliver solid 80s rock and roll with this album. I've only found this album through Spotify, but I would strongly recommend it for fans of Hagar's solo career, Van Halen and Journey.
Whitesnake-The Purple Album (2015): Dedicated to the late Jon Lord, this album is David Coverdale's homage to his roots in Deep Purple mark III and mark IV. Joel Hoekstra and Reb Beach deliver amazing guitar homages to Ritchie Blackmore, "Stormbringer," "Lady Double Dealer," and "The Gypsy" being among the highlights. The rendition of "Soldier of Fortune" tugs at my heartstrings and they capture the mood of "You Keep On Moving." "Burn" and "Mistreated" are also highlights and the band flows together as though they wrote the music themselves.
Miley Cyrus-Younger Now (2017): The first album Miley released since coming out as pansexual and gender fluid, Younger Now was a step back from her typical "nail you to the wall" pop (not that that isn't fun from time to time, mind you) and more resembles an early rock album or John Lennon's material from Double Fantasy. When I first heard "Malibu," I was stunned, since her last release was the drug-fueled Dead Petz album where all talent seemed to be muted in a fog of acid and weed. Malibu was a step away and brought guitar back into her instrumentation. "Love Someone" reminds me of the sound of "With The Beatles," and "Week Without You" reminds me of "(Just Like) Starting Over." Dolly Parton arrives for the uplifting "Rainbowland" and Miley reveals a dilemma pansexual people face with "She's Not Him," falling in love with someone while being more dedicated to someone else, further complicated by the fact that these two people are opposite genders. A solid pop album with good messages.
Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve-Through the Fire (1984): This is the lone album by a supergroup Sammy Hagar formed with Neal Schon of Journey fame. The combination of Hagar's party-hard vocals and Schon's hard rock guitar and virtuoso ability makes every track an enjoyable listen. It's clear the musicians are having fun performing the tracks and deliver solid 80s rock and roll with this album. I've only found this album through Spotify, but I would strongly recommend it for fans of Hagar's solo career, Van Halen and Journey.
Whitesnake-The Purple Album (2015): Dedicated to the late Jon Lord, this album is David Coverdale's homage to his roots in Deep Purple mark III and mark IV. Joel Hoekstra and Reb Beach deliver amazing guitar homages to Ritchie Blackmore, "Stormbringer," "Lady Double Dealer," and "The Gypsy" being among the highlights. The rendition of "Soldier of Fortune" tugs at my heartstrings and they capture the mood of "You Keep On Moving." "Burn" and "Mistreated" are also highlights and the band flows together as though they wrote the music themselves.
Miley Cyrus-Younger Now (2017): The first album Miley released since coming out as pansexual and gender fluid, Younger Now was a step back from her typical "nail you to the wall" pop (not that that isn't fun from time to time, mind you) and more resembles an early rock album or John Lennon's material from Double Fantasy. When I first heard "Malibu," I was stunned, since her last release was the drug-fueled Dead Petz album where all talent seemed to be muted in a fog of acid and weed. Malibu was a step away and brought guitar back into her instrumentation. "Love Someone" reminds me of the sound of "With The Beatles," and "Week Without You" reminds me of "(Just Like) Starting Over." Dolly Parton arrives for the uplifting "Rainbowland" and Miley reveals a dilemma pansexual people face with "She's Not Him," falling in love with someone while being more dedicated to someone else, further complicated by the fact that these two people are opposite genders. A solid pop album with good messages.
Favorite Album reviews, Part 1
The Beatles-1 (2000): My family picked this up when it first came out and it quickly became a staple of road trips. It's always impressive to hear the evolution of The Beatles over 27 different songs, hearing them start off with simple pop-rock, get a little louder and experimental, go into orchestrations and deeper lyrical messages, then attempt to return to simple rock, but the diverse personalities and tastes of John, Paul and George kept them from solidifying and they ultimately ended the band. Hearing songs like "A Hard Day's Night," "Day Tripper," "Yellow Submarine," "Hey Jude," "Get Back," "Something" and "Come Together" make this one of my favorite, if not my favorite albums ever, and I enjoy thinking back to when I was young and the world seemed far less complicated or urgent.
Billy Ray Cyrus-Home At Last (2007): Though I was a major fan of the Hannah Montana soundtracks and the 10-track "Meet Miley Cyrus" disc that contained tracks I would later hear live in the Tacoma Dome, this was the album that awoke me to how important music would be in my life. Billy Ray Cyrus played, in my opinion, the best father figure in family sitcoms since the days of Full House or Home Improvement, but this album showed a side of him that wasn't expressed on the show much or even at all. There were several tender songs about loving a wife and children, such as "The Beginning," "Can't Live Without Your Love" and "My Everything," as well as several covers of older songs from my past, like "Brown-Eyed Girl," "You've Got A Friend," "Put A Little Love in Your Heart" and "Over the Rainbow." The cover of "Over the Rainbow" was quite sad, and I wasn't sure why until I read it was dedicated to an American Idol contestant who had passed away. Billy Ray's daughter Miley gave a duet, and even Emily Osment, their co-star from Hannah Montana, sang on "You've Got A Friend," making it feel like a family affair, Dad and his kids, biological or not, getting together to make music together. It was a feeling I will always treasure.
Ozzy Osbourne-Tribute (1987): This was actually recorded in 1981, but wasn't released until 1987 due to the death of guitarist Randy Rhoads. Ozzy has made it clear Rhoads was his favorite guitarist due to how intense he played, and footage from a 1981 TV show in Rochester shows the two having a good time playing songs they composed. Rhoads' guitar tone really shines here and is one of the two individual tones I feel is most responsible for the sound of 80s hard rock and heavy metal, the other being Eddie Van Halen. I personally prefer Rhoads due to the larger number of memorable riffs he composed and his soloing technique, which was inspired by Jimmy Page, Michael Schenker and Ritchie Blackmore. The versions of "Crazy Train," "Suicide Solution," "Iron Man/Children of the Grave," "Believer" and "Paranoid" make this a must-have for anyone who enjoys hair metal and/or Ozzy's music.
Bear McCreary-Godzilla; King of the Monsters (2019): I've been a fan of soundtracks ever since my Dad got a Greatest Hits of John Williams CD around the time of the 1997 Star Wars re-releases. Any good franchise like Star Wars, the DCEU and Godzilla has its share of favorite themes and leitmotifs that are fan favorites. Warner Brothers wasn't able to get Godzilla's Japanese themes for the first installment in the Monsterverse, but director Michael Dougherty made sure Godzilla's Theme and Mothra's Song would be used in his installment for the characters. Bear McCreary (who also attended the same High School I did when my Mom went there) uses these themes well and also creates a unique score that fits the rest of the movie. Truly an amazing soundtrack.
Billy Ray Cyrus-Home At Last (2007): Though I was a major fan of the Hannah Montana soundtracks and the 10-track "Meet Miley Cyrus" disc that contained tracks I would later hear live in the Tacoma Dome, this was the album that awoke me to how important music would be in my life. Billy Ray Cyrus played, in my opinion, the best father figure in family sitcoms since the days of Full House or Home Improvement, but this album showed a side of him that wasn't expressed on the show much or even at all. There were several tender songs about loving a wife and children, such as "The Beginning," "Can't Live Without Your Love" and "My Everything," as well as several covers of older songs from my past, like "Brown-Eyed Girl," "You've Got A Friend," "Put A Little Love in Your Heart" and "Over the Rainbow." The cover of "Over the Rainbow" was quite sad, and I wasn't sure why until I read it was dedicated to an American Idol contestant who had passed away. Billy Ray's daughter Miley gave a duet, and even Emily Osment, their co-star from Hannah Montana, sang on "You've Got A Friend," making it feel like a family affair, Dad and his kids, biological or not, getting together to make music together. It was a feeling I will always treasure.
Ozzy Osbourne-Tribute (1987): This was actually recorded in 1981, but wasn't released until 1987 due to the death of guitarist Randy Rhoads. Ozzy has made it clear Rhoads was his favorite guitarist due to how intense he played, and footage from a 1981 TV show in Rochester shows the two having a good time playing songs they composed. Rhoads' guitar tone really shines here and is one of the two individual tones I feel is most responsible for the sound of 80s hard rock and heavy metal, the other being Eddie Van Halen. I personally prefer Rhoads due to the larger number of memorable riffs he composed and his soloing technique, which was inspired by Jimmy Page, Michael Schenker and Ritchie Blackmore. The versions of "Crazy Train," "Suicide Solution," "Iron Man/Children of the Grave," "Believer" and "Paranoid" make this a must-have for anyone who enjoys hair metal and/or Ozzy's music.
Bear McCreary-Godzilla; King of the Monsters (2019): I've been a fan of soundtracks ever since my Dad got a Greatest Hits of John Williams CD around the time of the 1997 Star Wars re-releases. Any good franchise like Star Wars, the DCEU and Godzilla has its share of favorite themes and leitmotifs that are fan favorites. Warner Brothers wasn't able to get Godzilla's Japanese themes for the first installment in the Monsterverse, but director Michael Dougherty made sure Godzilla's Theme and Mothra's Song would be used in his installment for the characters. Bear McCreary (who also attended the same High School I did when my Mom went there) uses these themes well and also creates a unique score that fits the rest of the movie. Truly an amazing soundtrack.
Musical losses of 2017
I'm going to be trying this again to describe my musical opinions and review some music as a hobby. Hopefully, this will stick and not be something I lose interest in quickly.
While there's no question the massive losses in 2016 of David Bowie, Prince and Carrie Fisher (and that's just scratching the tip of the iceberg) were tragic, there were four musical losses that felt like gut-punches in 2017. The first was probably the hardest as it still hurts now. In 2011, I picked up an Alice Cooper 3-pack of albums, he was a man with ties to many Classic Rock and Hard Rock superstars like Joan Jett, Joe Perry, Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Nikki Sixx, and I was curious. One of the albums was the concept album "The Last Temptation," in which a man or boy is tempted by the devil while seeking fun, a sort of "carnival gone wrong" event. One track that stood out to me on the album was "Unholy War," a song where the man is no longer willing to deal with Satan's lies and tells him to go away and get out of his life, preparing to do whatever it takes to do this. It was written by Chris Cornell, who I would later find out didn't have a religion due to the violence he saw people who did carry out, which was surprising in the fact that the song seemed like it was written by a Christian who had battled the devil and came out victorious. Because of how well the song was written, I never forgot the name, but since grunge wasn't a big genre, I didn't learn any more until early 2017. Then, woman-led metal band Halestorm released their third covers EP, containing "Still of the Night" by Whitesnake, "I Hate Myself For Loving You" by Joan Jett and "Ride the Lightning" by Metallica. Another song was "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden, a band I heard of but didn't know anything about, and was credited to Chris Cornell. Its down yet intense mood set it apart from the barnburners on the rest of the album (save "Heathens" originally by twenty one pilots and also on the EP, but since I saw Suicide Squad and owned the original, the biggest surprise was hearing it performed by a hard rock band with a woman singing it) and I decided to get the original. I planned to try out Soundgarden more when I wasn't busy keeping up with the latest releases, then came May. I was on Twitter two days after my birthday, May 18th, 2017, and saw the hashtag, #RIPChrisCornell . I couldn't believe it. He didn't seem old like David Bowie, and while I didn't know what killed Prince, he was different enough from him to avoid whatever it was. But I checked Lzzy Hale's Twitter and she was in mourning, telling Toni Cornell to carry on the torch of her father. I don't remember how many other artists I checked to see if they commented (I know Alice Cooper also mourned, but that was after I visited), but to my surprise, I went to Billy Ray Cyrus' page and he had a tribute. Before now, he'd only said anything about Nirvana when it came to grunge (since he had met Kurt Cobain a couple of times), but he had a picture of Chris Cornell playing acoustic guitar and called him "the voice of a generation." A few years later, Miley would sing "Say Hello 2 Heaven" at a tribute event called "I Am the Highway" with members of Temple of the Dog backing her up, two of them being Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament according to setlist.fm. Toni would release a single in 2018, covering "Nothing Compares 2 U."
Before the month was out, Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band also died. Like Chris Cornell, Billy Ray posted a picture of him playing acoustic guitar on Twitter and said something, I forget what. Mostly, I just remember the previous year going to a show called "Generation Axe" at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, a gathering of five amazing guitar players. I think the idea was the brainchild of Steve Vai, and also involved were Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme fame (by that, I mean he was in a band called Extreme), Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders, Yngwie Malmsteen (who can blend metal and classical music well) and Zakk Wylde, a massive Viking-like man inspired by Skynyrd, Hendrix and Black Sabbath. He's actually Roman Catholic, though. That night, Wylde played a rendition of Gregg Allman's "Whipping Post," a song about a man who has been cheated on, feels terribly abused and outright yells, "Sometimes I feel tied to the whipping post, tied to the whipping post, tied to the whipping post, tied to the whipping post, Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'." Its guitar work by Duane Allman made it a crowd favorite and before people shouted "Free Bird!" at concerts, they would shout "Whipping Post!" There is actually a live album of Frank Zappa somewhere where this happens and he decides to change a song of his to a Southern Rock song on the fly. So it was hard to take in that another talented songwriter had died and with him, the Allman Brothers Band was no more.
In July 2017, Two months later, after seeing Transformers; the Last Knight and enjoying it, I was online again for news. Another severe blow hit, this one a little closer. "Last Knight" seemed as catered as possible to appease both the masses and the old-school fans and the old-school fans were STILL calling it shit. But we wouldn't have even made it to movie 5 without movies 1-3, and a common link in one through three was a specific band started off the end credits, they even became close enough to composer Steve Jablonsky to get their songs mixed into the Soundtrack, such as the track "Nest" from Revenge of the Fallen. They were alternative rock band Linkin Park, and while most online parodied them for how "emo" their songs could get, all I heard was "What I've Done," "New Divide" and "Iridescent," even downloading the first two into Rock Band 3. The enduring spirit presented in these songs, the willingness to continue in a war-torn landscape, fit the movies perfectly and I had even hoped I would save up to see them in the KeyArena in 2017 to hear "New Divide" live. But Chester Bennington was a close friend of Chris Cornell's, to the point he had been chosen to be his kids' godfather. Personally, I think the flak the live-action Transformers series was getting at the time didn't help, either, since he helped make it. Chester Bennington, one of the few younger musicians considered cool enough to hang with Glenn Hughes, Duff McKagan and Steve Stevens in the Kings of Chaos and one of the main reasons three action movies work, hung himself in July 2017. And I'm not going to lie, this contributed to the rage and wedge between me and the rest of the Transformers fandom that ultimately led to me leaving it to find fanbases with less negativity and demands that the franchise abandon all attempts at reinvention and cater exclusively to the old-school fans.
The last, sad, painful stop was October 2nd, 2017. As a madman killed people in another shooting the government would simply shrug at, an old soul went home miles away from the tragedy. I'll admit, I didn't have much of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before the death of Tom Petty and I haven't had the resources or drive to pick up much since then, but the man left a pretty sizeable dent in my thoughts on music nonetheless. I don't remember if it was 2009 or 2010, but I wanted to buy some Beatles solo albums. Ringo Starr had always been my favorite, he was a storyteller with the Beatles, he was Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station and he was the one of the four who liked the others post-breakup the most. I heard from Wikipedia he recorded an album called "Vertical Man," the album was the closest you'd get to a 1990s Beatles album; with a cover of "Love Me Do" with Harmonica played by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Paul McCartney lending his talent on "What in the...World?" (that's how it is on the back, the chorus doesn't have unnecessary pauses) George Harrison showing up for the last times on "King of Broken Hearts" and "I'll Be Fine Anywhere" and fun rockers like "One" and "Puppet" plus a heartfelt ballad to wife Barbara with "I'm Yours." There was also a trio, "Drift Away," a cover song I heard performed by The Nylons on a CD my Mom had over 20 years ago. This one was slower and more deliberate and had Tom Petty and Alanis Morrisette (it was released in 1998) singing lead on some verses. It created an image of Ringo walking down the street and Tom Petty and Alanis walk up to him and encourage him to keep going, "getting by with a little help from his friends." I would later hear Tom Petty duet with Carl Perkins on a posthumous Carl Perkins album that featured many friends of his across Classic Rock, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Fogerty, Johnny Cash and even archived performances of "Blue Suede Shoes" by Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. I also remember watching a George Harrison documentary with a good friend and her family and seeing the Traveling Wilburys, seeing Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Harrison himself having a happy time playing music. Hearing of Tom Petty's death felt surreal. It wasn't a "you had to take one more, death?" It wasn't rage-inducing, it was just heartache. His recording career had just turned 40, the same era of bands like Cheap Trick, Heart and Foreigner, and they didn't seem worried about how little time they might have left. Cheap Trick released three albums recently, one a Christmas album, Foreigner releasing live albums like crazy and Heart is preparing to tour this year with legs with Sheryl Crow and Joan Jett opening for them. It seemed too young to be gone.
Looking back two years later, as more classic rock artists retire, it makes me want to treasure as many legacies as I can by seeing the artists live. I don't make much money, though, so it feels impossible at times. I wanted to create a Tribute Band through Facebook, but it was hijacked by a Southeast Asian boy band of the same name, so I had to delete it when it was clear too many confused people were liking the page. Unlike Gene Simmons, I don't think Rock is Dead, not with bands like Black Stone Cherry, Halestorm and BabyMetal around, but I more worry that we will lose part of its history as more and more acts either die or retire.
While there's no question the massive losses in 2016 of David Bowie, Prince and Carrie Fisher (and that's just scratching the tip of the iceberg) were tragic, there were four musical losses that felt like gut-punches in 2017. The first was probably the hardest as it still hurts now. In 2011, I picked up an Alice Cooper 3-pack of albums, he was a man with ties to many Classic Rock and Hard Rock superstars like Joan Jett, Joe Perry, Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Nikki Sixx, and I was curious. One of the albums was the concept album "The Last Temptation," in which a man or boy is tempted by the devil while seeking fun, a sort of "carnival gone wrong" event. One track that stood out to me on the album was "Unholy War," a song where the man is no longer willing to deal with Satan's lies and tells him to go away and get out of his life, preparing to do whatever it takes to do this. It was written by Chris Cornell, who I would later find out didn't have a religion due to the violence he saw people who did carry out, which was surprising in the fact that the song seemed like it was written by a Christian who had battled the devil and came out victorious. Because of how well the song was written, I never forgot the name, but since grunge wasn't a big genre, I didn't learn any more until early 2017. Then, woman-led metal band Halestorm released their third covers EP, containing "Still of the Night" by Whitesnake, "I Hate Myself For Loving You" by Joan Jett and "Ride the Lightning" by Metallica. Another song was "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden, a band I heard of but didn't know anything about, and was credited to Chris Cornell. Its down yet intense mood set it apart from the barnburners on the rest of the album (save "Heathens" originally by twenty one pilots and also on the EP, but since I saw Suicide Squad and owned the original, the biggest surprise was hearing it performed by a hard rock band with a woman singing it) and I decided to get the original. I planned to try out Soundgarden more when I wasn't busy keeping up with the latest releases, then came May. I was on Twitter two days after my birthday, May 18th, 2017, and saw the hashtag, #RIPChrisCornell . I couldn't believe it. He didn't seem old like David Bowie, and while I didn't know what killed Prince, he was different enough from him to avoid whatever it was. But I checked Lzzy Hale's Twitter and she was in mourning, telling Toni Cornell to carry on the torch of her father. I don't remember how many other artists I checked to see if they commented (I know Alice Cooper also mourned, but that was after I visited), but to my surprise, I went to Billy Ray Cyrus' page and he had a tribute. Before now, he'd only said anything about Nirvana when it came to grunge (since he had met Kurt Cobain a couple of times), but he had a picture of Chris Cornell playing acoustic guitar and called him "the voice of a generation." A few years later, Miley would sing "Say Hello 2 Heaven" at a tribute event called "I Am the Highway" with members of Temple of the Dog backing her up, two of them being Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament according to setlist.fm. Toni would release a single in 2018, covering "Nothing Compares 2 U."
Before the month was out, Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band also died. Like Chris Cornell, Billy Ray posted a picture of him playing acoustic guitar on Twitter and said something, I forget what. Mostly, I just remember the previous year going to a show called "Generation Axe" at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, a gathering of five amazing guitar players. I think the idea was the brainchild of Steve Vai, and also involved were Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme fame (by that, I mean he was in a band called Extreme), Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders, Yngwie Malmsteen (who can blend metal and classical music well) and Zakk Wylde, a massive Viking-like man inspired by Skynyrd, Hendrix and Black Sabbath. He's actually Roman Catholic, though. That night, Wylde played a rendition of Gregg Allman's "Whipping Post," a song about a man who has been cheated on, feels terribly abused and outright yells, "Sometimes I feel tied to the whipping post, tied to the whipping post, tied to the whipping post, tied to the whipping post, Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'." Its guitar work by Duane Allman made it a crowd favorite and before people shouted "Free Bird!" at concerts, they would shout "Whipping Post!" There is actually a live album of Frank Zappa somewhere where this happens and he decides to change a song of his to a Southern Rock song on the fly. So it was hard to take in that another talented songwriter had died and with him, the Allman Brothers Band was no more.
In July 2017, Two months later, after seeing Transformers; the Last Knight and enjoying it, I was online again for news. Another severe blow hit, this one a little closer. "Last Knight" seemed as catered as possible to appease both the masses and the old-school fans and the old-school fans were STILL calling it shit. But we wouldn't have even made it to movie 5 without movies 1-3, and a common link in one through three was a specific band started off the end credits, they even became close enough to composer Steve Jablonsky to get their songs mixed into the Soundtrack, such as the track "Nest" from Revenge of the Fallen. They were alternative rock band Linkin Park, and while most online parodied them for how "emo" their songs could get, all I heard was "What I've Done," "New Divide" and "Iridescent," even downloading the first two into Rock Band 3. The enduring spirit presented in these songs, the willingness to continue in a war-torn landscape, fit the movies perfectly and I had even hoped I would save up to see them in the KeyArena in 2017 to hear "New Divide" live. But Chester Bennington was a close friend of Chris Cornell's, to the point he had been chosen to be his kids' godfather. Personally, I think the flak the live-action Transformers series was getting at the time didn't help, either, since he helped make it. Chester Bennington, one of the few younger musicians considered cool enough to hang with Glenn Hughes, Duff McKagan and Steve Stevens in the Kings of Chaos and one of the main reasons three action movies work, hung himself in July 2017. And I'm not going to lie, this contributed to the rage and wedge between me and the rest of the Transformers fandom that ultimately led to me leaving it to find fanbases with less negativity and demands that the franchise abandon all attempts at reinvention and cater exclusively to the old-school fans.
The last, sad, painful stop was October 2nd, 2017. As a madman killed people in another shooting the government would simply shrug at, an old soul went home miles away from the tragedy. I'll admit, I didn't have much of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before the death of Tom Petty and I haven't had the resources or drive to pick up much since then, but the man left a pretty sizeable dent in my thoughts on music nonetheless. I don't remember if it was 2009 or 2010, but I wanted to buy some Beatles solo albums. Ringo Starr had always been my favorite, he was a storyteller with the Beatles, he was Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station and he was the one of the four who liked the others post-breakup the most. I heard from Wikipedia he recorded an album called "Vertical Man," the album was the closest you'd get to a 1990s Beatles album; with a cover of "Love Me Do" with Harmonica played by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Paul McCartney lending his talent on "What in the...World?" (that's how it is on the back, the chorus doesn't have unnecessary pauses) George Harrison showing up for the last times on "King of Broken Hearts" and "I'll Be Fine Anywhere" and fun rockers like "One" and "Puppet" plus a heartfelt ballad to wife Barbara with "I'm Yours." There was also a trio, "Drift Away," a cover song I heard performed by The Nylons on a CD my Mom had over 20 years ago. This one was slower and more deliberate and had Tom Petty and Alanis Morrisette (it was released in 1998) singing lead on some verses. It created an image of Ringo walking down the street and Tom Petty and Alanis walk up to him and encourage him to keep going, "getting by with a little help from his friends." I would later hear Tom Petty duet with Carl Perkins on a posthumous Carl Perkins album that featured many friends of his across Classic Rock, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Fogerty, Johnny Cash and even archived performances of "Blue Suede Shoes" by Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. I also remember watching a George Harrison documentary with a good friend and her family and seeing the Traveling Wilburys, seeing Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Harrison himself having a happy time playing music. Hearing of Tom Petty's death felt surreal. It wasn't a "you had to take one more, death?" It wasn't rage-inducing, it was just heartache. His recording career had just turned 40, the same era of bands like Cheap Trick, Heart and Foreigner, and they didn't seem worried about how little time they might have left. Cheap Trick released three albums recently, one a Christmas album, Foreigner releasing live albums like crazy and Heart is preparing to tour this year with legs with Sheryl Crow and Joan Jett opening for them. It seemed too young to be gone.
Looking back two years later, as more classic rock artists retire, it makes me want to treasure as many legacies as I can by seeing the artists live. I don't make much money, though, so it feels impossible at times. I wanted to create a Tribute Band through Facebook, but it was hijacked by a Southeast Asian boy band of the same name, so I had to delete it when it was clear too many confused people were liking the page. Unlike Gene Simmons, I don't think Rock is Dead, not with bands like Black Stone Cherry, Halestorm and BabyMetal around, but I more worry that we will lose part of its history as more and more acts either die or retire.
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