Month: March 2024

Playlist: In Honor Of April Fool’s Day, Our Favorite Songs About…. Fools

~ kcorsini ~ 8 Comments

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“No sooner had I hit the streets when I met the fools that a young fool meets” – Jackson Browne, “Daddy’s Tune”

I realize April Fool’s Day, despite being “celebrated” almost everywhere, is not a real holiday. Much like Valentine’s Day, which I’ve always described as a “Hallmark Holiday,” invented by greeting card companies to boost sales, April Fool’s is an odd, made-up holiday. That made-up nature won’t stop people from perpetrating hoaxes and pranks on people around the world and then yelling, “April Fools” or “April 1st” or whatever your culture yells when they catch someone falling for the annual ruse. I don’t know who invented April Fool’s or when it started, but I read somewhere (probably Wikipedia) that it dates back to Geoffrey Chaucer’s time and the Cantebury Tales. That’s probably apocryphal.

Regardless, when I was in high school and maybe even college, I used to call my dad at work and tell him some outrageous lie every April Fool’s Day. I’d tell him I was suspended from school or worse, expelled. Or I might tell him I was arrested for some nefarious offense against the community. I also remember that I stopped doing that – because it infuriated him, he was a busy guy – and he was just too quick to believe I had fucked up and done something stupid. He’d overreact and I’d meekly say, “Uh, dad, April Fools…” I think it left us both feeling kind of awkward. Pretty soon he caught on and just said, “Yeah, right,” and promptly hung up on me which was actually comforting after those first few years.

I guess I’d rather be a fool than an idiot. An idiot, according to Webster, is “a person of low intelligence.” A fool, on the other hand, again according to Webster, is “a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person.” As a verb it means “to trick or deceive a person.” It sounds like being an idiot is a permanent malady while merely being a fool is a temporary condition typically based on being deceived or tricked, ala April Fool’s Day. I’d rather be silly than stupid. In Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot, the title character (i.e. the Idiot) is merely a man with a clean heart and a kindly nature who is driven back into an asylum by the perfidious and evil nature of his fellow man.

While April Fool’s is a bit of a silly holiday, for some reason the idea of a playlist got stuck in my head. It was last year actually, but it wasn’t until the holiday passed that the idea of songs about “fools” popped into my head. The playlist has been hanging around the outer limits of my consciousness for about a year so I figured it was about time to just publish this thing and cleanse my mind. There are so many songs about fools…

As I’ve learned from listening to these songs, there is a lot in the universe we can be fooled by. Perhaps its politics (“American Idiot” or “Won’t Get Fooled Again”), maybe you’re a fool for urban living (“Fool For The City”), or maybe you’re a fool when it comes to directions (“Fool In The Rain”). By far most of the songs about being a fool are related to yes, love. When else are we such fools as people than when we’re in love… especially in the beginning. Our vulnerability leaves us open to deception. I once went to SantaCaliGon Days, an arts and crafts fair, because a woman asked me too… and as you can probably tell, we’re not artsy-craftsy here at B&V (it was an awful day). I once attended a woman’s family reunion and I don’t attend my own family’s reunions. I was single for a long time so my situation is probably more of a “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” kind of thing. Of course it’s probably no coincidence that April Fools is so close to Valentine’s Day…Spring has sprung and people’s fancy turns to a new love…but I digress.  But luckily for me, being fooled is a temporary condition. A few shots of bourbon and the feeling goes away. In my opinion, the worst thing you can do is fool yourself… self-deception is almost always dangerous.

Without further adieu, here is our playlist for April Fool’s Day, Songs about Fools. As usual you can find us on the dreaded Spotify. You can play it straight through or on shuffle, it’s dealer’s choice. If there’s a song you don’t like, skip it. If there’s a “fools” song we missed, let us know in the comments and we may add it to the list. While as usual we’re all over the place stylistically, our goal is to just introduce you to a song you may not have heard or at the very least put a song you haven’t heard in a while back in your ear. Pour a tumbler of the good stuff and turn it up loud…

  1. Aretha Franklin, “Chain Of Fools” – I had to start with the Queen of Soul. I wonder how many women from my past count me amongst the “ch-ch-chain, chain of fools” they’ve dated… sigh.
  2. Foghat, “Fool For The City” – A friend of mine is moving to some small town in Wyoming or Idaho, I forget which. He told me I should do the same… I said, “Uh, man, I love the smell of smog in the morning… it smells like victory.” I can remember standing on the curb in “downtown” Ft. Smith, Arkansas early one morning watching all the traffic pour in from Sallisaw and eastern Oklahoma while my co workers laughed about me missing the city.
  3. Black Crowes, “Only A Fool” – “Only a fool would let you go, only a fool and I should know.” Oh, how I could relate to those lyrics in the old days. I love the new LP, Happiness Bastards.
  4. Green Day, “American Idiot” – Still hard to believe how relevant this song is today. Green Day’s latest, Saviors, is a real return to form, by the way.
  5. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It)” – Well, who would like to be fooled… again. But then again, like I said earlier, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”
  6. Led Zeppelin, “Fool In The Rain” – From an LP maybe only I like, In Through The Out Door. A song in which our hero fears his love has forsaken him, in the rain no less, only to find he’s waiting for her on the wrong block. One of the few songs in the Zeppelin catalog that shows a sense of humor.
  7. Steve Perry, “Foolish Heart” – From the erstwhile lead singer of Journey’s first solo LP. Laugh at this song’s inclusion, but everyone I knew liked this album.
  8. The Beatles, “The Fool On The Hill” – From their psychedelic period. “They can see that he’s just a fool…”
  9. Def Leppard, “Foolin'” – Def Leppard is a band I always dug and they should be on more of my playlists. Always dug this one.
  10. The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” – Fascism rose in the 1930’s out of the crippling world wide Great Depression. Let’s hope Western Civilization doesn’t get fooled again in November.
  11. John Mellencamp, “American Fool” – “Some people say I’m obnoxious and lazy…” Perhaps…
  12. ZZ Top, “A Fool For Your Stockings” – Well, if you’ve gotta be a fool…
  13. Muddy Waters, “Still A Fool” – Muddy bringing it home. I hope I’m not still a fool but I’d wager the Rock Chick would side against me on that.
  14. Bob Dylan, “Idiot Wind” – Dylan’s most gripping, painful song. The disintegration of a relationship or a marriage is a brutal thing in this cold world. “We’re idiots babe, it’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves.”
  15. Grateful Dead, “Foolish Heart” – Great deep track from the Dead.
  16. Ray Charles, “A Fool For You” – The music of Ray Charles should be required learning in every high school in the world.
  17. Robert Plant, “Ship Of Fools” – The first of a number of songs about sailing ships full of fools. A fleet of fools perhaps? Always loved this track from Plant.
  18. The Rolling Stones, “Fool To Cry” – An all time favorite Stones’ tune of mine. Years ago, before the Rock Chick, I dated a woman, “and she live in the poor part of town…” And come to think of it, she did say, “Tell me all your troubles…”
  19. Dave Matthews Band, “Fool To Think” – From the DMB’s glory days.
  20. Doobie Brothers, “What A Fool Believes” – Co-written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. You couldn’t escape this track when I was in junior high. It may be yacht rock, but it’s good yacht rock.
  21. Southside Johnny And the Asbury Jukes, “I Played The Fool” – How many times, when we’re being a fool, do we consciously know we are being a fool? That sentence reads like Marcus Aurelius, with my apologies.
  22. Bob Seger, “Ship Of Fools” – This boat Seger is on may be the worst one in the fleet. Great tune though.
  23. Whitesnake, “Fool For Your Lovin'” – Whitesnake making a rare appearance on B&V! There comes a time when you can’t be a fool anymore. It’s a liberating realization. Bring on Tawny Kitaen.
  24. Frank Zappa, “Dancin’ Fool” – Also included on our Playlist Songs About Dancing For Wallflowers, I’ve known some fools for the dance… When it comes to dancing for me though, “the beat goes on and I’m totally wrong.”
  25. Rod Stewart, “Foolish Behavior” – Having watched the ID Channel with the Rock Chick enough, lyrics like “Why I wanna kill my wife? I have this urge to take her life,” this really is foolish behavior. Might I suggest counseling.
  26. Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “You Little Fool” – Great tune from one of the world’s greatest songwriters. Just who is the fool in this song?
  27. Joe Jackson, “Fools In Love” – I should have included this in my original Playlist: Rockers Doing Reggae. “Fools in love, are there any other kind of lovers?” So true, Joe, so true.
  28. Randy Newman, “You Can’t Fool The Fat Man” – I know two things listening to this song. Life is hard and you really can’t fool the Fat Man.
  29. The Rolling Stones, “Just Your Fool” – Fabulous tune from the Stones’ blues covers record Blue And Lonesome.
  30. Foreigner, “Fool For You Anyway” – This just sounds like an awful situation. I should know, I went through it once upon a time. “Oh to be young and feel loves keen sting.”
  31. Rival Sons, “Play The Fool” – Better to play the fool than to actually be the fool.
  32. Steely Dan, “Only A Fool Would Say That” – Steely Dan sounding almost calypso under the usual cryptic lyrics.
  33. Elvis Presley, “(Now And Then There’s) A Fool Such As I” – Even a King can be a Fool. Love is tough, baby.
  34. Jack Johnson, “Fortunate Fool” – Isn’t this an oxymoron?
  35. Ronnie Wood, “If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody” – From Wood’s first solo album… with Rod Stewart on harmony vocal this sounds more like a Faces outtake than a Ronnie solo song. Oh, what could have been if the Faces could have held it together. Bonnie Raitt covered this song very ably on an early LP, but I went with the original.
  36. Alice Cooper, “Hey Stoopid” – Ok, its not nice to call somebody stupid… but this song has Slash on guitar and Ozzy on backing vocals. How could I resist?
  37. Rod Stewart, “Fool For You” – From Rod’s Tom Dowd-produced, more soulful period. It’s a lovely ballad. If I was dating Britt Ekland back then I’d probably a little googly eyed too but then I was in junior high.
  38. Eagles, “Certain Kind Of Fool” – The late Randy Meisner wrote this song (with Henley and Frey) and takes the lead vocal.
  39. Steely Dan, “Dirty Work” – Another track from their superb debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill. “I’m a fool to do your dirty work…” Indeed you are.
  40. Prince, “There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool” – Sure, it’s fun for a while… A superb outtake from Sign O The Times.
  41. Gene Clark, “Life’s Greatest Fool” – From the forgotten gem, No Other. Former Byrd Gene Clark couldn’t get a break commercially but man, did he write some great tunes. He was able to effortlessly accomplish the rock/country hybrid that Gram Parsons tried so desperately to create.
  42. Styx, “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)” – The worst person to lie to is yourself. I used to tell an ex of mine, “You can lie to yourself babe, but don’t lie to me.” Styx were from Chicago, but I would have sworn they were from London when I was in high school.
  43. Van Halen, “Fools” – Heavy riff here. “Fools, who makes the rules?” For a guy in his 20s singer David Lee Roth sure could write from the perspective of a high school kid. I love the bluesy intro… god we miss Eddie Van Halen.
  44. Cinderella, “Nobody’s Fool” – These guys are one of my favorite hair metal bands. The Rock Chick turned me back onto them when we met, but I’d always liked them. They had just a touch of blues in their sound, which obviously, I’m a sucker for.
  45. Social Distortion, “King Of Fools” – I told an old boss one time that I was surrounded by morons on my new team. He said, “Yes you are. Just don’t become their king.” Wisdom or snark?
  46. Triumph, “Fool For Your Love” – From the fabulous album, Allied Forces. I needed some more riffs on this list.
  47. Bonnie Raitt, “Fool’s Game” – For some reason this track has always sounded like New Orleans to me. It might be the piano.
  48. Little Feat, “Fool Yourself” – Little Feat had such a distinctive sound back in the day. I just love the vibe they put out.
  49. Eddie Money, “Maybe I’m A Fool” – From Money’s sophomore album – the difficult sophomore album – Life For The Taking. Money was exhausted from constant touring, so it’s hard to blame him for this foray into disco. Many rock bands had disco tracks…
  50. Pretenders, “You Can’t Hurt A Fool” – Um, I’m proof you can… From the great Hate For Sale.
  51. Jackson Browne, “The Pretender” – “I’m gonna be a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender.” Perhaps slightly out of the purview of this list, but I felt it fit…
  52. Grateful Dead, “Ship Of Fools” – At least if you were stuck on this boat, you’d have the Dead to hang out and party with. From the album From The Mars Hotel.
  53. The Doors, “Ship Of Fools” – Coincidentally, like the last tune this one’s from an album named after a hotel, in this case, Morrison Hotel. Probably on the same street.
  54. Doobie Brothers, “How Do Those Fools Survive” – Another song about fools from Minute By Minute.
  55. Rockpile, “Fool Too Long” – Any amount of time spent as a fool is too long.
  56. Elvis Presley, “Can’t Help Falling In Love” – I love to sing this song in the shower… “Wise men say, only fools rush in, Oh but I, I can’t help falling in love with you.” Damn, the King was on fire on this song.
  57. Aretha Franklin, “Running Out Of Fools” – A younger Aretha finds herself on the opposite end of the fool equation on this one… What a voice!
  58. James Taylor, “I Was A Fool To Care” – I love J.T.’s early stuff. While you may be a fool for caring, it is a sign you’re human.
  59. Pete Townshend, Ronnie Lane, “April Fool” – Sometimes I put songs on these lists only for me. Ex-Faces member Ronnie Lane with the Who’s Pete Townshend on a beautiful song that for me commemorates April Fool’s Day.

That’s our list. Did I miss any good ones? Let me know in the comments section. Whatever you’re doing or wherever you are, I hope nobody’s foolin’ you? And if you are under some delusion, hopefully now that spring has sprung, your mind will clear and you’ll come out of it. As Cher’s character in the movie Moonstruck exclaimed, “Snap out of it…” If you’re the victim of an April Fool’s joke, take it in good stride. Some day we’ll look back on this and laugh…

Cheers to all my fellow fools out there…

Concert Review: Adam Ant (With Special Guest The English Beat), Kansas City’s Uptown Theater 3/22/2024

~ kcorsini ~ 24 Comments

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*Photo of Adam Ant taken by the Rock Chick

You know that feeling when you wake up after a great concert. You might have a slight hangover, you’ve been up way past your bed time but you feel great. It’s like you’ve just had this wonderful communal, quasi religious experience. Music is running through your head and you’re smiling a lot. That’s how I feel today. And I have to admit, my first thought of the day was, “Well, I certainly didn’t expect that…”

It was the Rock Chick who discovered that Adam Ant was going to be in KC at the venerable Uptown Theater (where I saw the Cult in ’22) last night. She’s always been a fan and wanted to go. When I saw the English Beat was opening, I thought, “Hell, yes, I’m in.” Buy the ticket, see the show – that’s my motto. And since I just discovered Billy Idol’s new song, “Love Don’t Live Here” from the Rebel Yell sessions, I’m in an 80s mood these days.

I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t have a long history with Adam Ant. I’m like most people, I remember seeing him dressed like a pirate (or whatever that costume was?) in the “Goody Two Shoes” video. I always liked that song and the chorus, “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, what do you do?” Who doesn’t love a good innuendo? And let’s face it, we all have a vice or two, hidden or not. Adam had his face painted in the video and it wasn’t screaming loud rock guitars or blues in the least so I just kind of noted it and moved back to my latest Van Halen record.

Over the years as my musical tastes have expanded I became more aware of some of Adam Ant’s music. “Stand And Deliver,” which is running through my head today, popped out at me. No Doubt actually covered that song when I saw them a few years back. “Strip” was good. One of his latter day tunes, “Wonderful” is one the Rock Chick turned me onto and I love that song. I assumed we were in for an evening of new wave, post-punk pop. Nothing could have prepared me for the guitar/drums assault I just witnessed last night…What a show!

I would be remiss if I didn’t pause, and give a shout out to all those folks who showed up last night dressed as pirates. Not a lot of you did, but for those who did, take this as a tip of my tri-corner hat. There was one guy I walked into the venue behind who was dressed in shiny patent leather from head to toe. I’m not sure what his expectations for the evening were, but they were certainly different than mine. I can’t imagine what that guy spends on talcum powder… Cheers, leather-clad stranger! I’d never seen so much velvet. The couple sitting next to us – the dude had on a blue velvet jacket and the lady had a blue fuzzy fur coat on – left right after the English Beat played…I couldn’t help but think, what fun! And what a devoted fan base! How have I been missing out on this.

The English Beat came out right after 8pm and opened the show. Again, the only tracks I knew were “Tenderness” and “Save It For Later.” I must confess I always dug Pete Townshend’s live cover of that latter track from Deep End as much as the original. I dug the almost-an-hour long set they played, heavy on reggae beats. They tended to stretch out the tunes quite a bit which became vexing. And they had an MC, Ranking Jr, who kept trying to hype up Dave Wakeling. I get it, he’s an “O.G.” Sigh.

As they set up the gear for Adam Ant’s band, I realized they had not one but two full drum sets. I haven’t seen a band with two full on drummers since the Allman Brothers rumbled through town back in the days before the Rock Chick. And I saw the Dead once, who always had two drummers…but I digress. They also had free-standing, big drums set up on both sides of the drummers. Beyond the two drum sets, there were just four microphones set up at the front of the stage… there was nary a keyboard in sight. I was thinking, well, two guitars and a bass and then Adam’s microphone? This thing might rock a little harder than I realized.

A little after 9:30pm the band rolled out on stage: the two drummers who came out first, Jola (who was a dead ringer for Amy Winehouse with her beehive wig) and alas, I didn’t catch the second drummer’s name; the guitarists came out next, A.P. Leach and lead guitarist Will Crewdson; and finally bassist Joe Holweger. They were all followed by Adam himself, clad in a black double button shirt and leather pants with knee high boots, spare bandana flowing from his back pocket like a tail. He wore a big cowboy hat over a bandana. The dude is 69 years old and looks trim and fit. I must say, he danced around the stage like a man half his age.

They opened up with “Antmusic” with the guitar players beating along to the drummers on the big spare drums. It was so… tribal. I can’t say enough good stuff about the drummers – they propelled me into next month. Crewdson, on the lead guitar started shredding! That guy was awesome. After “Antmusic” they played another song I’m familiar with “Vive Le Rock” and man, we were off and running. Crewdson was stage right, bent over and attacking the guitar. Adam was dancing to the music like he was connected to the drums through some magic wiring. Adam wasn’t terribly talkative but he did thank the crowd after almost every tune. And believe me, this was an almost sold out, 1700-seat arena where the crowd was what I’d describe as adoring. That always makes for a good show, when the crowd is into it.

There’s no other way to describe last night’s show other than a full-on guitar and drums onslaught. I could feel the music in my clothes. It RAWKED! I was surprised. This was more full on punk than post punk. During “Friend Or Foe” Ant appeared to be beating along to the drums on his body. “Prince Charming,” which elicited a huge reaction from the crowd saw Ant getting the crowd to join in a big sing-along. It was a cool moment between singer and audience. “Cartrouble” melted my face off as did “Killer In The Home.” He lost me a little during “Kings Of The Wild Frontier,” probably because I wasn’t terribly familiar with that one.

The latter half of the set was all the hits the casual fan like me would know. “Puss In Boots,” “Desperate But Not Serious,” and “Strip” were all great. That led up to perhaps my favorite performance of the night, “Wonderful.” Such a great song. The main set ended on a spirited, drum-filled version of “Stand And Deliver” and it was another great moment.

The encore was short and sweet and a bit confusing. The first song was the big hit, “Goody Two Shoes,” and it had the crowd into it. They’d been spirited all night in their pirate costumes but “Goody Two Shoes” set them off. But then Adam strapped on his electric guitar – which he’d done intermittently during the evening – and they went into “Physical (You’re So)” which can only be described as a heavy-metal dirge. It kinda took the life out of the crowd. Were I Adam Ant, I might flip the running order of those two encore songs. End on a high note. The crowd just kinda stood there, mouth agape during the guitar onslaught.

And with that Adam and his band left the stage. I was drained but in a good way. These guys put on a good ol’ fashion, ass kickin’, rock n roll show. This band takes no prisoners…much like pirates. If I had any complaint on the night, I would have liked Ant’s vocals to be boosted just slightly in the mix, nothing drastic, but I’m splitting hairs. Say what you want about some of these older bands, these guys can play. If you’re out there in a city where Ant is playing, I can’t recommend this show strongly enough. I tend to focus on those big tours – the Stones, Pearl Jam – but it’s these smaller shows where rock n roll is surviving… Me, I’m gonna spend the day “pretending that you’re Al Green, Al Green.”

Cheers!

p.s. Buy the ticket, see the show.

Billy Idol – Previously Unreleased “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” From Upcoming ‘Rebel Yell – Extended Edition’

~ kcorsini ~ 4 Comments

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I was looking at social media yesterday and I saw Billy Idol reference that he was releasing Rebel Yell – Extended Edition. I love that iconic 1983 album which I believe I may have mentioned when I reviewed the Idol concert I saw in Vegas last October. I was about to continue scrolling through when I saw that he’d released an outtake – a track recorded during the sessions for Rebel Yell, but not released at the time – called “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” It’s apparently a cover song, written and done originally by Rose Royce the group that was best known for their hit “Car Wash.”

None of that should have been a big surprise, but I realized almost immediately, the song came out on March 8th. How’d I miss this? In my defense, I’ve spent my month of March immersed in great vault releases from The Who (Live At Shea Stadium 1982), The Rolling Stones (Live At The Wiltern) and Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies – 50th Anniversary) not to mention great, brand new releases from Liam Gallagher & John Squire and the Black Crowes. With all that great music cascading around me, I guess I can be forgiven for not catching this Idol track… I do so try to stay on top of new music from the artists I like.

I didn’t know what to expect from an outtake from Rebel Yell. Outtakes can be a mixed bag. In this case, it would be hard for me to overstate how blown away I was when I heard “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” I can’t believe it’s taken 40 years for Idol to release this in some format. I keep asking myself, why would he leave this off Rebel Yell? Maybe because it was cover song and musicians are always more prone to put their own songs on the record vs a cover song… there’s the publishing money to consider. Not to mention, Rebel Yell is stacked with great songs. Also, this is, on it’s face, a ballad or at least “ballad-esque,” and Idol already had a semi-ballad on the album with the iconic “Eyes Without A Face.” Either way, this is a remarkable song. I was reminded of Petty who left “You Saw Me Coming” off of Wildflowers…such a phenomenal song left in the can for decades…

As I mentioned, this is a ballad but there’s nothing mellow about it. It starts with muted synth then that Idol sound kicks in, light percussion, slightly menacing. The song just moves… Then Idol comes in… “You abandoned me, love don’t live here any more, oh no, just a vacancy, love don’t live here anymore.” Idol sings the song with such anguish. It grips my heart when I listen to this. In ’83, this song would have simply devastated me. The drums beat like a metallic heart… There’s something about the vocal, the gravelly nature of it, that makes me think Idol might have recorded the vocal more recently, but I’m just speculating. At one point in the song, Idol begins to repeat the word “anymore” and it’s so pained it sounds like he’s saying “animal,” which for some reason makes the feeling more palpable to me. Steve Stevens, as usual, lays down not one but two great guitar solos. The first is just a tease. His guitar solo at the end ranks with some of the best he’s played. The guitar just brings out the emotion in the song that much more for me. Here’s the track:

This track, for me, ranks up with his recent song, “Bitter Taste” as one of the best Idol has done. It’s that f’ing good. The Rock Chick was leaving the house and I came staggering out of my office after hearing the song for the first time and said, “Uh, you’re going to need to listen to this Billy Idol immediately in your car…” I wasn’t sure what she’d think… she is the Rock Chick after all… but when she returned she said, “That’s an amazing song.” We ran an errand last night to buy lotto tickets – hey, I’m human – and I can tell she digs it because she pulled it up in the car to listen with me. It’s that amazing of a song.

Rebel Yell – Extended Edition comes out in April and you can bet, B&V will have it’s ear to the stereo on this one… It looks like the bonus material is mostly demos but there is another outtake, “Best Way Out Of Here,” written by Idol & Stevens… I can’t wait to hear that one. Until then, crank this one up LOUD.

I hadn’t intended to post anything more this week until the weekend. I’m seeing Adam Ant (with special guests the English Beat, no less) on Friday and I figured I’d wait and post about that, but this song was just too good to wait.

Cheers!

LP Review: The Black Crowes’ Solid, Rocking Comeback – ‘Happiness Bastards’

~ kcorsini ~ 2 Comments

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I can’t tell you how much we’ve been waiting for this new Black Crowes album down here at B&V. The phrase, “highly anticipated” doesn’t do it justice. Both the Rock Chick and I have been fans of the Crowes since their early days. The Black Crowes, formed by brothers Chris Robinson (vocals) and Rich Robinson (guitars) have had an up and down career. That can happen when brothers form bands. When the Crowes first started out, we thought they were the Stones of the 90s. They had a similar sound to the Stones or perhaps more accurately a sound similar to Stones’ acolytes Humble Pie and the Faces. We hoped they’d have the Stones’ longevity… Somewhere along the line the Crowes turned into a bit of jam band, or at least that was the impression many of us got. They broke up after 2001’s Lions and I’m not sure any of us were terribly surprised. If my brother and I had formed a band I’m sure he would have fired me a long time ago…

However, by the time they broke up again in 2015, I’m not sure I even noticed. After reuniting in 2005 they’d put out two very solid albums – 2008’s Warpaint (which is sadly overlooked) and 2009’s Before The Frost…Until The Freeze. They’d recorded that latter double LP of new material, live in Levon Helm’s barn in front of an intimate crowd. I still don’t think that album was a jam band album. It was more rootsy than jammy? I think that whole jam band reputation comes more from Chris Robinson’s solo projects like the Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Not that there’s anything wrong with jam bands but I digress. The animosity between the brothers Robinson was so bad in 2015 I never thought they’d get back together.

But, and good for them as humans, they reconnected as brothers before they reconnected as band mates. I’m sure that made Thanksgiving less awkward and made their mother happy. Everybody wins. Eventually they decided, like you do, to get the band together. They were criticized for not involving any former members, especially erstwhile drummer Steve Gorman. But Gorman had written a tell-all book about the Black Crowes that wasn’t a terribly flattering portrait of the Robinson Brothers. They said when they first got back together that they were trying to keep influences who were “negative to their relationship” out of the band. Read that how you want. Sometimes you’ve got weigh the pro’s and cons of a relationship, especially in light of the chemistry within a band. Chemistry is so important and yet so fragile in a working rock n roll outfit.

I think it’s safe to say at first the reunion was a tentative one. They intended to tour for the 30th anniversary of Shake Your Money Maker, their sensational debut album but then… Covid. I loved the deluxe edition of that album. In particular one of the outtakes from those sessions, “Charming Mess” is sensational. In light of their tour being cancelled they recorded a great, fun little EP of cover songs all from 1972, creatively titled 1972. I dug that little exercise. They did everything from Bowie to the Stones to Little Feat. It was fun but it could also be read as an experiment to see if their formerly combustible chemistry could take being in  the studio together. With the release of their first album of all new material in 15 years, it seems the answer was yes, it could.

The Brothers Robinson did eventually get a former member of the Black Crowes back into the fold, bass player Sven Pippien. They augmented the line up with Erik Deutsch on keyboards, Cully Symington on drums and Nico Bereciartua on guitar. Sure, I’d like to see Weird Eddie Harsch back on keyboards, but alas I think he passed in 2016. The new album is called Happiness Bastards and was produced by Jay Joyce. Oddly, I have never heard of this producer. I hear he’s been tied to rootsy albums. I know he’s worked with Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, and Cage The Elephant… although admittedly most his credits read country. Have no fear though, this is not a country album.

I guess the Crowes had a choice to come back rocking or come back jamming and they chose to rock. I will admit, my first listen of Happiness Bastards didn’t grab me like I thought it would. Expectations can be tricky, and mine were pretty high. Sometimes though, you just have to commune with a new album – put it on the headphones… listen in the car… really spend some time with it. And I’ll tell you, the more I listened to this album the more I like it. I mean, if you’re looking for Southern Harmony And Musical Companion 2.0 – and considering the cover art is that album’s cover photo painted over like graffiti, so you could be forgiven for hoping for that – you’re likely going to be disappointed. Not many bands are gonna pull off a second Southern Harmony in a career. As mentioned the Crowes have definitely decided to come out swinging. It’s all guitars/drums/vocals with a few harmonica and keyboard accents. And in 2024 we need good ol’ solid rock n roll like this in our lives.

I think one of the reasons I didn’t immediately connect with this album on first listen – it’s more of a “grower” – is because of the first two tracks, “Bedside Manners” and “Rats And Clowns.” They’ve grown on me, believe me, but on first listen it sounded like they were trying too hard. They’re both balls-to-the-wall rockers but like on Van Halen’s first album with Sammy, the songs “Good Enough” and “Get Up” sounded like they were trying too hard to establish chemistry with the new singer. So too, these first two Crowes tunes sounded a little like they were trying too hard to re-establish their chemistry. But, the more I listen to these songs the better they sound. “Rats And Clowns” may be aimed at former band members?

There are two, great rootsy, acoustic songs. I really dug “Kindred Friend,” the track that ends the record. It’s not “She Talks To Angels,” but it’s a nice upbeat strummer. I love the lyrics, “Sit at my table, let me fill your glass with something strong and fine, Stay forever or leave tonight, Thankful for the time…” Nothing better than sharing a glass of something dark and murky with an old pal. The other track is “Wilted Rose” and features country singer Lainey Wilson. I’ll be honest, I had to google her. Her contribution here is more of a harmony vocal, it’s not a duet. But again, I love my Crowes old style acoustic songs.

When we get into the meat of this record, there is so much kick ass rock n roll to like. “Wanting And Waiting,” the first single, is just a great song. It’s a classic Black Crowes tune. “Cross Your Fingers,” the second single is a wild ride of a song. It starts acoustic and then turns into rocking funk, like they had too many ideas… but in a good way. “Dirty Cold Sun” is maybe my favorite… rocking guitars over an organ and a snarling vocal. Oh, yes the Crowes are back! “Bleed It Dry” is a fantastic blues song, complete with harmonica. It might end up on my Rockers Playing the Blues/Blues Rock playlist. I love that the Black Crowes still play the blues. “Flesh Wound” is another galloping rocker that should be played up loud.

The Crowes are back with a solid, if not completely sensational album of rock n roll. That, to me, is grounds for celebration. Two warring brothers, putting aside their feud and instead picking up instruments and making a glorious racket. Let’s all cross our fingers that this time the reunion holds and these guys continue to build that all important rock n roll chemistry. I know I’ll be keeping my eyes on the tour for this album… I haven’t seen them since the By Your Side Tour…

Cheers!

Review: Alice Cooper, ‘Billion Dollar Babies (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)’ – Revisiting Their Peak

~ kcorsini ~ 5 Comments

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I saw that Alice Cooper have released Billion Dollar Babies – 50th Anniversary Edition and while I think there has already been a deluxe version of that seminal 1973 album released, I couldn’t help but comment about this 50th Anniversary Edition. I can’t believe it, but this will be Alice Cooper’s first appearance on B&V and that seems like a criminal case of overlooking an important artist. In my defense, I was going to comment on Alice’s 2023 album Road, but time got away from me. Time gets away from everybody I guess…

Alas, I think I was too young for Alice Cooper. If I’d had an older brother with a cool record collection he might have gotten me into Cooper, God knows everybody slightly older than me was into him. I actually picked up Cooper’s 1974 Greatest Hits, a single album of their biggest songs, so I did get on the bandwagon at some point. I did have a younger brother with a cool record collection but in the late 70s he was fixated on the 60s. I was more likely to hear “Here Comes The Sun” than “School’s Out” emanating from behind his closed door. By the time I got into music in ’78 – ’79, Cooper was past his initial heyday of ’71 to ’74. I remember hearing songs like “Aspirin Damage” at my buddy Brewster’s house and that wasn’t exactly a gateway into Cooper’s back catalog.

Actually, in the early ’70s Alice Cooper was the band’s name. They were Glen Buxton (lead guitar), Michael Bruce (rhythm guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass), Neal Smith (drums) and a guy named Vincent Furnier on lead vocals. I think they all went to the same high school in Phoenix. How cool would that be – forming a band with your high school buds and you make it big. I had so many friends named Steve in high school we probably would  have called ourselves, the High Stevens…but I digress. They named the band Alice Cooper because they were looking for something that sounded like famous axe-wielding murderer Lizzy Borden’s name. Eventually lead singer Vincent Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and the rest, as they say, is history. The original band only lasted seven albums (’69-’74) and then Cooper carried on as a solo artist under his new assumed name.

Alice Cooper (the band) put out their first album in 1969. However, it wasn’t until their third album, 1971’s Love It To Death, that things gelled. Somehow I missed Alice Cooper when I posted about bands whose third record was the breakthrough album (Third Time’s The Charm). That album saw them enlist Bob Ezrin as producer. He was a guy who’d worked with Kiss, Aerosmith and Pink Floyd and he led Alice Cooper into a harder rock direction that just worked. That was the beginning of a hot streak… I was only in first grade so I missed a lot of this, sigh. Killer, also released in 1971 continued the band’s rise in popularity. That led to 1972’s School’s Out. While I love the song, “School’s Out,” it featured prominently in my Playlist: Songs About… School, I’ve never been crazy about that quasi concept album. There’s a West Side Story thing, “Gutter Cat vs The Jets” that’s a bridge too far for me… Ezrin knew that this band’s two guitars, a rhythm section and a singer could rock and boy, do they. Alice (the singer), gets short shrift as a vocalist but I think he’s a natural born crooner. He does a lot of dramatic stuff with his voice. While Ozzy Osbourne (who we love around here) has made a career out of singing songs about how crazy he is, when Alice Cooper sings, you start to worry he actually is deranged. He’s part camp, part menace. With songs about necrophilia and rape, they were out to upset ’70s parents, clearly.

After those three successful albums, the band and Ezrin recorded Billion Dollar Babies. And while I love both Love It To Death and Killer (which I didn’t discover until well after college), Billion Dollar Babies is the ultimate Cooper album to my ears. I did know a guy when I was in fifth/sixth grade who loved Cooper’s debut solo album, Welcome To My Nightmare, which certainly should have been on my list of Favorite Solo Debuts. It’s a great album, but I’m still a Billion Dollar Babies guy. I’ve always wondered how my buddy got into Alice Cooper in the fifth grade, but that’s a subject for a psychology blog about aberrant parenting. Babies has been remastered here and it sounds great. Cooper has been referring to it as Trillion Dollar Babies, which seems more fitting for these days when billionaires have doubled their wealth since 2020 and are playing astronaut… This album has some of their biggest tunes: “Elected” (which featured on our Election Fatigue playlist from 2016), the title track, “Hello Hooray” (the perfect opening song?), and of course “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Who doesn’t love that last track!

Beyond the hits, there are so many great deep tracks. “Generation Landslide” is probably the greatest Cooper tune nobody seems to know. “Raped And Freezin'” – with a controversial title, clearly aimed at stirring up trouble – and “I Love The Dead” about necrophilia, are actually damn good songs, especially the first one. “Unfinished Sweet” is another great song that could have been a single… it rides a great bass line and even has a James Bond section. There’s a lot to love on this album. I’ll admit that “Mary Ann,” a quiet, piano driven ballad is a huge left turn but it does prove that Alice really can sing…

The value of these deluxe editions always rests, for me, on the bonus material. Here we have a 1973 concert from Dallas, Texas and some outtakes/single edits. Single edits are where the record company took a song off an album and edited it down to fit the AM radio requirement of a 3-minute song. They didn’t like long tracks on AM radio. Those are interesting but really are only for the “completists” out there. Of more interest are the outtakes – “Slick Black Limousine” and “Coal Black Model T” (I’m guessing Alice’s car is black) – are both good enough they could have ended up on my Playlist Songs About… Cars.

The big pay off in terms of bonus stuff on this set is, as usual for me, the live concert. Man could these guys rock. Alice Cooper was always a very theatrical band. I think this is the first tour they took a guillotine along and did a fake beheading of Alice. The onstage antics were legendary. Alice was covered in fake blood carrying a snake around. Clearly Starcrawler‘s Arrow de Wilde was paying close attention. But the sheer force these guys play with on the live stuff is awe inspiring. They open with three Billion Dollar Babies tracks – “Hello Hooray,” the title track, and “Elected.” Very “in your face” if you ask me. The guitar solo’ing on “I’m Eighteen” will melt your face off. This is the great live album that Alice Cooper never released. I do know that Glen Buxton, during the recording of the album, had to be replaced by a different lead guitarist – who also went to their same high school, by the way – due to issues with booze and drinking. If you’re in a band with Alice Cooper, who was a raging alcoholic at the time, and you’re the one who has to be replaced, you really do have a problem. Anyway, I don’t know if it’s Glen or the replacement guy, Mick Mashbir, who’s on the live tracks but whoever it is, they play their ass off. This was as good a hard rock band as you were going to find in America in the early ’70s and this live document should help prove that.

Alas, this original line-up only put out one more album after Billion Dollar Babies, 1974’s Muscle of Love (on which was “Teenage Lament ’74” which featured on our Playlist, Songs From 1974). Glen Buxton’s drinking and Alice’s spending on the stage production and effects created too much conflict within the band. While the Billion Dollar Babies tour was a sold out affair (the album reached number 1 in the UK and the U.S.), they didn’t make as much money as they thought they would due to cost overruns. By 1975 Alice was a solo artist and Bruce/Dunaway/Smith had formed their own band, the Billion Dollar Babies. Hey, if you’ve got a hit, milk it… that’s show biz, baby.

Thank heaven somebody had a tape recorder turned on in Dallas in 1973. The album itself is enough to make it worth picking up this Anniversary Edition, if you’ve never owned it. But this live stuff is absolute justification for putting this in your record collection. Turn this one up loud and pretend it’s 1973… maybe paint on some dark eye make-up and scare the neighbors…”Hello, hooray, let the show begin,” indeed.

Cheers!

Review: The Rolling Stones, ‘Live At The Wiltern’ From the ‘Forty Licks’ Tour (2002) – A Glorious Theater Show!

~ kcorsini ~ 7 Comments

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When I think about artists who have a great “official bootleg” business going – i.e., bands who are actively releasing stuff from their vaults – I tend to think about Neil Young (whose Archive Series is remarkable), or Bob Dylan (whose “official bootleg” series started it all). Or I think about Springsteen who mostly (other than the box set Tracks, or deluxe versions of past LPs) has focused mostly on releasing concerts from years gone by (seriously, do yourself a favor and pick up anything from 1978 or 1980). Meanwhile, while I’ve been focused on those artists, my favorite band on the planet, the Rolling Stones have been quietly releasing – much like Springsteen – a series of concerts from past tours. Believe me, I’ve been front row for the Stones’ “Deluxe LP” versions of Tattoo You or Goats Head Soup with all those box set’s extra goodies (“Criss Cross” is still in high rotation around here). However, I guess I own so much live Stones that I’ve kind of turned a blind eye toward the live stuff they’ve been putting out. Shame on me…

I saw recently (last Friday), the Stones were releasing a concert from the Licks Tour which ran from 2002 to 2003. Recently I’ve seen the Stones release Steel Wheels Live or Voodoo Lounge Uncut or Grrr! Live from the 50 & Counting Tour. I saw the Stones on all of those tours and they were always great. Typically the Stones release a live album from every tour – and I’ve purchased many of those – so I figured I was covered. However, now that Stones are releasing complete shows from those tours, I have to admit, those play so much better than the live albums culled from those tours. Much like I said for the Who’s recently released Live At Shea Stadium 1982, when four or five certain musicians inhabit that magical space we call “the stage,” the chemistry can create magic. I’ve always felt that way about the Stones. It’s a kinda magic.

Originally, when I saw that the Stones were releasing this new live LP, Live At The Wiltern, I consigned it to the long list of live Stones’ stuff I probably wouldn’t jump in on. I mean, this wasn’t a legendary show like Live At The El Mocambo, or was it? Eventually curiosity got to me. I checked, and the Wiltern is a 1,850 seat theater in Los Angeles. That piqued my interest. The Stones can play the biggest stages/stadiums in the universe, but when you get them in a theater something special happens. Jagger always seems so much more relaxed in a theater when he’s freed from the onus of performing in front of 70,000 people. The show was from the Licks Live tour, in support of the greatest hits package Forty Licks, which was the first Stones show I went to where the Rock Chick was with me. I did see that this show was from November 4th, 2002 and the Rock Chick and I saw this tour in Chicago, less than 2 months prior on September 10th, 2002 at the United Center and that was a great, great show. The Pretenders opened up and Chrissie Hynde dedicated a reggae track to Mick & Keith who she said “helped bring reggae to the world.” Indeed, they did.

I couldn’t help myself, I had to check out Live At The Wiltern. Charlie Watts was still on drums, and that’s worth the price of admission. Charlie is joined, as always, by Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), and Ronnie Wood (guitar). The band that night was filled out with Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and killer back up singers: Lisa Fischer, Bernard Fowler, and Blondie Chaplin. They even brought along a horn section (4 folks) which included legendary, late sax man Bobby Keys who had played on such classics as “Brown Sugar” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” When the Stones play theaters, they tend to mix up the setlist and they end up playing a bunch of deep tracks, which frankly I want to hear more than the usual stuff. And, once I saw the setlist on this concert album I knew it was going to kick ass. I put on some headphones and what a listen!! The guitars – one in each ear – accomplish what Keith always describes as “the ancient art of weaving.” This really is a special show. I am only commenting on the 2 CD version of this, I haven’t seen the Blu-Ray. As I mentioned  recently on a post about my journey as a collector, I’ve switched back to CDs, but I have to sneak those into the house in elaborate ways to get them past the Rock Chick…I do have a birthday coming… but I digress.

For a long time Stones fan, this set list is a treat. They open with “Jumping Jack Flash,” which I consider a Stones’ “standard.” When the Rock Chick and I saw them they opened with “Street Fighting Man,” so I knew they were shaking things up here. But I never expected a rocking version of deep track “Live With Me” as the next track. A rocking “Hand Of Fate” from Black And Blue, one of those albums only I like, was a wonderful surprise. Again, I love that the guitars are right up front and Jagger sounds delighted to be singing something other than “Satisfaction.” Country-blues track “No Expectations” is an absolute highlight with Ronnie on pedal steel. They even do “Stray Cat Blues” (which they did when I saw them) and while it’s not politically correct anymore, it’s a great blues tune. The whole first half of the set is a Rolling Stones’ Deep Tracks fan’s wish list.

They even dig deep for one of their disco songs from the 70s, “Dance, Part 1.” Like, I’ve said before about disco, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. It’s sloppy as hell, but as usually happens the Stones lock into the groove and pull it out in the end. After that, the Stones go into the “soul review” part of the show where they play three tracks from the acts that inspired them. It was a cool mini-set and utilized the horn section well. They do Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” which they’d recorded years and years ago. Since Solomon was the opener that night, it makes sense he’d come out and join them to sing the song. From there, they cover the wonderful Otis Redding song “That’s How Strong My Love Is.” They wrap the soul thing up with “Going To A Go-Go” which is a track they started playing on the first tour I saw them on, in support of Tattoo You. Bobby Keys kills on the sax solo.

After Mick introduces the band, it’s Keith’s turn at the mic. Keef’s singing sends a lot of people to the beer line, but I’ve always loved the Keith songs. He starts with “Thru And Thru” which I think is much better live than on record. He then digs deep for a reggae tune “You Don’t Have To Mean It.” Keith used to just do “Happy” and I just love that he’ll sing any song he’s ever sung at any point in the Stones’ career. It’s always a highlight when he walks up to the microphone. Mick comes out and they just kill “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” a song I would have sworn they played at the United Center… I’d never seen them play that song… it turns out, I didn’t hear it until the Bigger Bang tour. Memory is a tricky thing… After the old blues tune “Rock Me Baby,” which perhaps foretold that Blue And Lonesome might happen and the great track “Bitch,” the Stones start to hit the “standards” list again. To get to the finish line they run through “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Start Me Up,” “Brown Sugar” and finally “Tumbling Dice.” And I’m not complaining, they rock those songs. Yes, I’d have loved if they’d kept on the deep tracks thing and played say, “Ventilator Blues,” but then I’d have been the only one jumping up and down on that one. Ronnie Wood is solo’ing all down the line on these tracks and he’s fabulous.

Live At The Wiltern captures the Stones on a very, very good night in L.A. When the Stones are sloppy and off, they’re still pretty good – just like pizza. But when they’re good – like they are at this show – they are simply sublime. The Stones get dinged for being sloppy but to me it’s more about a willful recklessness that to me represents freedom… freedom from restraint or worry – than mere sloppiness. They come out and leave it all on the stage. When the Stones gel, it’s magic, baby.

Turn this live treat up loud and dance around the room doing your best Jagger impersonation, I know I’ll doing that. It’s one of their better live performances. Sure, it’s not Get Your Ya Ya’s Out, but not many live albums are. The guy we got the United Center Tickets from actually had a spare ticket to a show they did a few nights later in a Chicago theater, the Aragon. Bono jumped on stage and sang with the band on “It’s Only Rock N Roll.” The dude, didn’t go… he wasn’t a Stones fan. I’d have flown back up for it… Oh well. I now realize, listening to this album, what a magical night I’d missed when the Stones played that theater. Bygones… At least I now have this wonderful document to sooth my wound…

Cheers!

Review: The Who – ‘Live At Shea Stadium 1982’ – A Surprisingly Good Listen

~ kcorsini ~ 13 Comments

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The Who, last Friday, released a live album culled from a performance at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1982 from the tour in support of It’s Hard. It seems like it was only last year I was writing about the Who’s live album, The Who Live With Orchestra. Oh, wait a minute that was last year. This new live album from a much older performance entitled, Live At Shea Stadium 1982, is the audio portion of a DVD/Blu-Ray released a number of years ago. I don’t tend to focus on DVD/Blu-Ray releases but now that the Who have released this historical document as an album, I was interested.

The early 80s were a tough period for the Who and for Pete Townshend in particular. The venerable band had lost drummer Keith Moon on September 7th, 1978, just three weeks after they’d released Who Are You. The cover photo of the band had Moon sitting backwards on a folding chair with the words “Not To Be Taken Away” on it. Sadly the rock Gods weren’t paying attention to that and the Who lost a generational talent on drums – much like Zeppelin did a few years later with John Bonham.

After that, Townshend began to struggle with addictions to booze and heroin. Struggling to figure out the Who’s relevance in the world, he reignited his solo career in 1980 with Empty Glass which had hits like “Rough Boys” and “Let My Love Open The Door (To Your Heart).” Empty Glass was a full on rock album aimed at solo stardom which was a far cry from his more personal, acoustic debut, Who Came First. The band was a bit miffed that some of the tracks he used on the solo album weren’t done within the band which caused a lot of tension in an already tense band. To replace Moon, the band recruited former Faces drummer Kenny Jones. While I love the Faces, and like Jones, he was a much more conservative drummer than Moon… but then again who isn’t?

With Townshend spiraling downward in addiction and seemingly more focused on his solo career, the band’s future was in question. The Who put out Face Dances in 1981 and it was a little less bombastic than their previous work. Personally, I love Face Dances (it’s one of my “Dirty Dozen” LPs that only I like), but it came out when I was in junior high school, and we always love whatever was “then-current.” But that album divided fans quite a bit. Critics hated it. Kenny Jones, the new guy, began to publicly accuse Townshend of hording his best material for his solo career, an accusation Jones had previously leveled at Rod Stewart when he was in the Faces. Different band, same complaint. To make matters worse, Daltrey didn’t like Jones and when he told Townshend it was “Jones or me,” Townshend told him he’d keep Jones instead of Daltrey. Wow? The only guy who seemed to hold his shit together during all of this inter-band strife was bassist John Entwistle. He continued to hold down the bass line and was contributing great songs like “You” and “The Quiet One.”

In 1982 Townshend kicked heroin and in June of that year released his next solo album, All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. Then, merely a few months later, the Who released what was to be – for a while – their final studio album, It’s Hard. Again, critics weren’t thrilled but I liked it. I loved the first single “Athena” and the title track. This album came out just as I was going to college. I remember working in the kitchen where I lived and “Eminence Front” came on the radio. It was the first time I’d heard the song… I looked at my coworkers in that hot, humid kitchen and everybody’s head was bobbing and people were dancing around like we were the cast of The Full Monty. That’s when I finally bought the album, early fall of ’82, and once again Entwistle had contributed great tracks in “Dangerous” and “It’s Your Turn.”

Sadly, I was away in college for my freshman year that fall and didn’t get to see the Who on that tour. I had missed them on the Face Dances tour due to some nefarious circumstances. I wasn’t to see the Who live until 1989 when they went on a tour with a band so large it looked like an orchestra. The press was pretty savage to the Who on that 1982 tour. The word was the Who was spent force creatively. Townshend had moved on, they were going through the motions, etc. It didn’t help that the live album culled from the tour, Who’s Last, tended to validate what was being said. Although admittedly, it’s been a really long time since I’ve heard that one. I remember seeing some live video of the Who from the tour and it was the first time I’d heard “Naked Eye” which is a fabulous tune from Odds & Sods, and it drove me to go buy that album so it couldn’t have been all bad… but I digress.

Knowing all of this made me feel more than a little trepidation when I approached Live At Shea Stadium 1982. Although, admittedly, the Who’s opening band on that tour, the Clash, put out a live album from their set at Shea and it was, to my ears, fabulous. The Clash were hated by the Who fans, it was a very difficult tour for them and yet they rose above it and just rocked. Would the Who do the same? Indeed they would.

I will admit, up front, that I was a surprised this live album is as enjoyable as it is. It’s no Live At Leeds, but few bands have a live album that great… (our list of favorite live LPs, here). I’ve always said great bands can “bring it” live. There’s just something that happens, that may be magic or may be chemistry, when four or five guys get up on that small stretch of ground we call, the stage, and play together. Even at their most troubled the Who turn in quite a show here. First and foremost, they switched up the playlist every night and played a bunch of different songs throughout the tour so they sound fresh. Townshend plays some kick ass lead guitar on this album. It’s a great reminder that the man is a guitar hero. Daltrey is in good voice. Jones drumming is solid, not flashy, but it does the job. And of course, John Entwistle is just nails on bass. Tim Gorman plays the keyboards. This band, these great musicians, still managed to jell despite the strife.

The set opens with “Substitute” and “I Can’t Explain.” How are you not going to love those songs? They’re both muscular performances you’d expect from the Who. I like that they play music from their then-current LP, It’s Hard. “Dangerous” penned by Entwistle is an early highlight. “Sister Disco” is always a highlight. I love that Entwistle sings on “The Quiet One” from Face Dances. I can only listen to a band’s greatest hits played live so many times so I appreciate the deeper tracks on this live album. “It’s Hard,” and “Eminence Front” are great here – especially the latter track. They just kill on that track, especially the guitar…”The sun shines, and people forget…”

There’s a short Quadrophenia set with “I’m One,” “The Punk And The Godfather” and finally “Drowned.” “Drowned” in particular turns into a great jam. I love that they dig deep and play a few of tracks also done on Live At Leeds, “Young Man’s Blues,” “Summertime Blues” and “Tattoo.” There are so many great tracks here from “Baba O’Riley” to “Who Are You.” The only track that seems to miss the mark for me was “Long Live Rock” which was a surprise. They play “Naked Eye” toward the end and it’s a great version of that song. Worth the price of admission, as the saying goes. Two of the last three tracks are Beatles’ covers, “Twist and Shout,” and “I Saw Her Standing There” which sound like good fun. Townshend in particular seems to be having a lot of fun on those tracks.

All in all this is a great, lively performance from a band who had been declared dead at the time. My only complaint is that they cut “Athena” from this set – the song was played at the show. I’ve seen the video footage of that on YouTube, and I liked it. It’s a bit of a disappointment it’s not here, although Daltrey never liked the song. Also, it’s worth mentioning, I streamed this album and there is a gap between every song (like a studio album) and it is annoying as hell. I like the crowd noise between songs on a live album… if I have enough bourbon I start to feel like I’m there. I’ve heard the CD/album versions do not suffer from this issue.

In the end, my complaints are “nits.” This is a great band rocking out in front of 70,000 of their closest friends. Turn this one up loud and enjoy! The Who were always a great band. Thankfully, this wasn’t the end for them. I really enjoyed WHO, which probably is their last LP. I’m delighted we’ve got this archival release from 1982 to rock along to.

Enjoy, Cheers!

Review: ‘Liam Gallagher & John Squire’ – Manchester Rock Stars United For Superb Rock N Roll – Come For The Vocals, Stay For The Guitar

~ kcorsini ~ 6 Comments

Liam_Gallagher_and_John_Squire_-_Liam_Gallagher_&_John_Squire

An album I didn’t even know was coming at the beginning of the year – Liam Gallagher John Squire – came out last Friday and I am delighted. I won’t lie, after the sensational first single came out, “Just Another Rainbow,” I had to go back and do a little research on guitarist extraordinaire John Squire but since I’ve done that, this pairing makes complete sense to me. Manchester Rock Stars United…indeed.

Liam Gallagher, the erstwhile lead singer of Oasis and Beady Eye, likely needs no introduction to rock n roll fans. And frankly, he’s no stranger to B&V. Since Oasis split up and then Beady Eye imploded Liam launched a solo career that started as B&V was getting off the ground. After the disappointment that was Beady Eye’s second album we just loved Liam’s first two LPs, As You Were (2017) and Why Me? Why Not? (2019). Heck, we even dug his Unplugged album. But after a very promising first single, the Dave Grohl cowritten “Everything’s Electric,” Liam disappointed us a bit with C’mon You Know (2022). At first I was surprised Liam teamed up with John Squire but knowing what a huge influence the Stone Roses were on Manchester’s music scene – both Liam and Noel have said their first concert was the Stone Roses – this tracks for me. Liam got to make a rock n roll album with a hero! Good for him.

John Squire, who’s blistering guitar is all over this album, may not be as well known to rock n roll fans on this side of the pond, as they say. The Stone Roses released their influential debut, self-titled album in 1989 establishing them as the front runner in the “Madchester” music scene. In many ways the Brit-pop sound of Oasis can be directly drawn from the Stone Roses’ sound. The Stone Roses took years to put out a second album due to legal issues and inter-band squabbles and faded away. Apparently Squire, after playing a festival where Liam was playing, sent Liam a few demos. Liam liked them, laid down some vocal tracks and the rest, as they say is history. It makes sense that Liam – who used to be in a band where the guitar player wrote most the songs – would team with a guitar player who had written 10 songs and needed a singer. It’s a yen and yang thing.

I went back, as “research” for this post, and listened to that Stone Roses debut LP. While Squire’s guitar was impressive, it evoked more psychedelia and perhaps the Byrds than it did Hendrix. There were a couple of songs on that album that hinted at a Hendrix-y bent from Squire, “Waterfall” and “Made Of Stone” but nothing that prepared me for the guitar extravaganza that is this album. This record has all of that trippy psychedelic vibe but with much stronger guitar solo’ing from Squire. And in these days, we always welcome more lead guitar here at B&V. This may be the best thing Liam Gallagher has done in his solo career since As You Were. It’s that good.

The album starts with a stomping rocker, “Raise Your Hand.” It’s a call to arms kind of track. “If you’re running out of time, if you’re not sure which way to go, if the pieces don’t seem to fit, if nothing ever goes the way you plan, raise your hand!” It’s uplifting and a great invitation to rock. Squire gives us a great guitar workout on the fade out. Liam may not have written any of these songs but they sound like he did. The band just locks in – Squire on guitar, Liam singing with session drummer Joey Waronker and producer Greg Kurstin on bass and keyboards. “Mars To Liverpool” was the second single released from the album and rides a great Squire riff. “Jesus Christ, about last night, I can only apologize.” Oh my, how many times have I said something like that? Squire has a way of torturing his guitar just to the point of distortion and then pulls back. I just love what he does with the guitar on this album.

“One Day At A Time” incorporates some acoustic guitar that’s a nice change of pace. The blend of acoustic and electric guitar is such a classic sound, just ask Zeppelin (not that anything about this is Zeppelin-esque). I do love the line, “You should have fucked me when you had the chance,” naturally… I am who I am. The guitar solo is exceptional. “I’m A Wheel” is the biggest surprise here. It’s a flat out electric blues tune. Blues? In 2024? This track is a direct nod to Hendrix. It feels like you just wandered into the Kingston Mines in 1968…exquisite guitar. I mean, I’m on record as loving blues rock/blues, but this is a great track. I’ve already posted on “Just Another Rainbow,” but I will add that along with “Everything’s Electric” it ranks among Liam’s finest moments.

“Love You Forever” continues that Hendrix’y vibe. It almost evokes a more laid back “Foxey Lady.” This song rocks yet retains that trippy vibe that pervades the album. Squire is taking no prisoners. I have seen some complaints that the guitar tone is “monochromatic.” The way this guy shreds, none of that bothers me. “Make It Up As You Go Along” is another acoustic strummer, change of pace. “Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and fuck you too” is a line that I can’t believe wasn’t written by Liam Gallagher. It sums up how I feel about a lot of things… Using the acoustic strumming as a base Squire continues his electric guitar onslaught with a great little noodling undercurrent that burst through like sunshine through a cloud.

“You’re Not The Only One” has a great rollicking piano that for some reason evokes Chuck Berry’s pianist, boogie woogie pianist extraordinaire, Johnnie Johnson. Good ol’ time rock n roll… rolling piano, crunchy guitar. “I’m So Bored” continues the guitar crunch… I love it’s just guitar/vocals/bass/guitar. This track could be the next single, although it may rock too hard for a single? It certainly captures my current mood…It may be the hardest rocker here. “Mother Nature’s Song” is as close as we come to a ballad on the album. It’s another track that utilizes a lovely acoustic guitar. It’s very Beatle-y. I love Liam’s vocal on this track. “Listen to Mother Nature’s song, the melodies are beautiful,” indeed.

If you’re like me and were only vaguely aware of John Squire, prepare yourself for an education. This guy is a phenomenal talent on guitar and god knows, we need guitar talent around here these days. I might go so far as saying this is a tremendous comeback for Liam after C’mon You Know. It’s got to feel good to the guy to just lay down vocal tracks and not have to write an album’s worth of material. Heaven knows, Noel is probably green with envy…

I have to say, along with Green Day’s latest album Saviors, this is one of 2024’s best LPs. I’m not a natural optimist but I’m beginning to think this is going to be a great year for rock n roll and it’s only early March. This one is a must listen, especially for those of you Oasis/Liam Gallagher/Madchester fans out there.

Cheers!