March 18 – Turntable Talk 24 : Canada’s Metal Queen Reigned In ’80s

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! This is our 24^th round now. If you’re curious, we have an index to past topics covered. By now all our regular readers know how this goes, but for any new readers, first off, welcome! And second, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. As March contains International Women’s Day, what better time to honor the ladies? Our topic this month is This Woman’s Work. We asked our guests to pick a great female from the music business and tell us a bit about her. There are certainly no shortage of truly great choices to pick from.

Today we are still up in Canada to see who Deke , from Deke’s Vinyl Reviews & More. We know Deke loves his rock’n’roll, so we’re guessing he doesn’t choose Debbie Boone… but who does he tip that cap to?

Thanks to Dave for inviting me along on this month’s topic – “This Woman’s Work”. My pick is Lee Aaron hailing from you got it…. Canada!

Lee came onto my radar back in 1984 when she put out her album, Metal Queen which put her on the map not only in her home country but England as well (she was featured in Kerrang and Sounds magazine there). She also holds the distinction of being the first female artist I had ever purchased. (Even before Pat Benetar!).

Since ’84 and into the early ’90’s whenever Aaron dropped new music, I was a buyer . But for some reason she, like many others, signed a crappy deal and her record company in her homeland made it impossible for her to get into the U.S market. Even saying that she had no problem getting a producer like Bob Ezrin to produce her Call of the Wild album which featured Dick Wagner, Holly Knight, Bob Halligan Jr contributing co-writes… but still a no-go into the States.

’89’s BodyRock exploded on the charts in Canada and went platinum, when Lee and her co-writer guitarist John Albani, managing on a low budget (they couldn’t afford a drummer so a drum machine was used) recorded her biggest seller to date. Body Rock featured the singles ‘Whatcha Do To My Body’ and ‘Hands Off’ ,plus a decent cover of Montrose’s ‘Rock Candy’.

But with the early ’90’s and this kind of rock changing, Lee and John ditched the metal vibe and formed a more alternative rock album called IIPrecious which didn’t do much. Lee then married, started a family then decided to get back in the ring, so to speak and since 2000 has released numerous rock, blues and even a Christmas album.

Let’s face facts – Lee was and is still an attractive woman, but she has always backed that up with her music since 1981. Lee has released 18 albums and currently has a 19th album ready for release which is a covers album titled Tattoo Me which has Lee tackling some heavy hitters musically ( like Fleetwood Mac, Zep, Elton John and Heart to name a few), the first video being released just two days ago..

Aaron’s music is on the streams if anyone is interested to check it out.

Fun fact – Lee sang backing vocals on “Rhythm of Love” which is off The Scorpions 1988 release Savage Amusement. 

February 29 – A Candy Bar For Your Ears?

One band’s fortunes took a leap forward on Leap Day, 1992. It was a big day for Eric Martin’s band, Mister, because they took over the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with their biggest – and most atypical – hit. The band is Mr. Big, and the song was one described by allmusic as a “campfire singalong” – “To Be With You”.

Mr. Big were an L.A. foursome led by singer Martin and bassist Billy Sheehan and despite the easy-going sound of their biggie, they were a real rock band and one generally described as “hair metal.” They had modest success with their debut album at the end of the ’80s, and their second album, Lean Into It, wasn’t doing much differently through its first eight or nine months. It had fans and some rock radio play with singles like “Green Tinted Sixties Mind” and “Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy” which was famous for its guitar sounds made by Sheehan and Paul Gilbert running power drills over guitar strings. It was not however, hogging front shelves at record stores nor seeming likely to really go above minor hit status. Until one DJ in Nebraska intervened.

Sheehan recalled “we had another single “ picked for a third one from the album, “but some guy in Lincoln, Nebraska just started playing (“To Be With You”) and the record started selling like crazy. It spread to Omaha, and then went country-wide.” Atlantic Records wisely saw which way the wind was blowing and issued it as a single.

It nearly didn’t make the record, presumably because it sounded so different for them. The song dated back a number of years to when Martin was a teen, and one infatuated by a girl. Apparently she was Patricia Reynolds and he says of her “we were really, really good friends. I was totally enamored with this woman. She was beautiful, smart…(she) had a lot of boyfriends who treated her like s***. I wanted to be the knight in shining armor. She wasn’t having it.” One wonders if Patricia figured she might have made a mistake when a song about her topped the charts. The band sort of kept the song on the back burner until Atlantic had a staff writer, David Grahame work with them on a few songs. Grahame moonlighted as a “Paul” in a Beatles cover band, and when he came across this one, he was put in mind of John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” He had them make the song even sparser in instrumentation and feature clapping for percussion. Interestingly, the song is simple but a tough one for Sheehan to play on bass. “A song like that is challenging because it’s sparse – you’re under the microscope.”

“To Be With You” made it big, mister, for Mr. Big. It spent three weeks at #1 and also topped the charts in Canada (where it was the second-biggest song of the year), Germany, the Netherlands and several other European countries and Japan. Oddly, echoing Cheap Trick in the mid-70s, Mr Big were “big in Japan” and remained that after their American fame had seemingly evaporated. They scored five more top 10 hits there in the decade and pay the fans back by playing there and in South Korea regularly.

1992 was the last time in the 20^th Century that the Billboard chart came out on a Feb. 29. Before that the previous time was back in 1964, when another band had their first-ever American hit on it . But that one would go on to do somewhat better than Mr. Big in their later career. The hit was “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles.

January 9 – Van Halen Had The Keyboards Wailin’

We don’t know if Big Brother was watching, but MTV viewers sure were. And, we’d expect office types at Warner Bros. who probably weren’t too sure what to make of the slight shift in sound for rockers Van Halen back in 1984... which happened to be the name of their sixth album which came out this day 40 years ago. Or, to be exact about it, the fun-loving metalheads called the album MCMLXXXIV, which of course is the number “1984” in Roman numerals.

Van Halen had a reputation for working fast, so it seemed a fairly long wait for the record after Diver Down which had come out almost two years earlier. Part of that stemmed from them just wanting to take a bit of a rest break, part was from Eddie Van Halen building his own recording studio but part was from what no-doubt were some rather heated discussions over the direction of the band. Eddie seemed to be liking the idea of heading towards more mainstream, proto-’80s sounds and had bought a couple of synthesizers. Meanwhile, singer David Lee Roth was seemingly wanting more of a return to the heavy guitars of their early days and did not like some of his band leader’s ideas.

The result was like Diver Down in that it was short and concise. 1984 rolled out just nine songs over 33 minutes, and one of the songs, the title track, was just a one minute instrumental. Unlike the predecessor however, this one was all the band’s work with all the songs written by the four members (except “I’ll Wait” which Michael McDonald, a friend of their longtime producer Ted Templeman, had added to and was given a credit on) and no cover songs.

The songs still rocked, but the guitar excesses were toned down a bit and synthesizers were front and center on some of the tracks, most noticeably the lead single, “Jump.”

This irked Roth, from what we’re told, and some longtime fans, but appealed to many critics and new fans. At the time, Rolling Stone rated it 4-stars and even new-wavish Spin would get ahold of it a bit later and also grade it 4-stars; years later allmusic gave it 5. Spin said of it “guitar hero extraordinaire Eddie Van Halen and cheeseball extraordinaire David Lee Roth made metal that burnouts’ girlfriends could like.” Rolling Stone noted “beneath all the strutting and heavy metal antics lies a band with more pop savvy than a dozen Journeys” and figured finally it was “an album that brings all of Van Halen’s talent into focus.” Billboard figured (correctly) it would be a hit, since they were “funnier and more versatile than most of their metal brethren.” Allmusic loved it because “previous albums placed an emphasis on the band’s attack” whereas “this places the emphasis on the songs.”

Among the songs were four singles – “Jump”, “I’ll Wait”, “Panama” and “Hot For Teacher” – plus a few others bearing the band’s typical sex-driven, but good times waiting attitude like “Drop Dead Legs” and “Girl Gone Bad.” The image carried over to the album art even; they had a statue of a naked cherub with a cigarette in its hand and a pack of smokes in front of it. This displeased Britain enough to have it covered over on all the issues over there initially!

“Jump” really pushed them into the music stratosphere, winning over a new audience courtesy MTV and top 40 radio. It went to #1 in the U.S. (their only #1 single, and also their only gold-selling one) and Canada, and hit #7 in the UK, their first entry to the top 40 there. Both “I’ll Wait” and “Panama” made it to #13 at home – in case you’re wondering, despite all the synths on the record, the car sounds on the latter were real, being recorded outside of Van Halen’s Lamborghini as he revved it – while “Hot for Teacher” missed the top 50… but did become one of MTV’s most popular videos of the mid-’80s. Lots of fans couldn’t get enough… school, presumably!

The album rose to #2 in the U.S, stopped from getting to #1 by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Nonetheless, it was their best-showing to that point, and Ted Templeman says that didn’t surprise him. When asked why it outsold their previous few efforts he said “it’s real obvious to me – Eddie Van Halen discovered the synthesizer.” the album did manage to go to the top in Canada though, and hit #4 in far-flung places like Sweden and Japan. It quickly sold in the millions, going platinum within weeks in the States and 5X that in Canada. As sales kept on through the years, it was certified diamond in the U.S. by 1999, matching their debut as their biggest-ever.

However, all wasn’t ideal in Van Halen land. Roth called their output “morose” and ended up quitting the band in 1985 (taking much of the band’s large staff including their security man, with him) to go solo. Although he did rejoin eventually and made one more record with them in 2012, 1984 was the last work with the original Van Halen lineup on it. And with the sad passing away of Eddie Van Halen in 2020 and Roth announcing his retirement from music around the same time, I’ll suggest not waiting for anything new from them now.

October 22 – Zeppelin Floated Some Heavy Metal Into The Airwaves

Heavy metal turns 54 today. In the minds of many at least, including allmusic. That site, along with many others theorize that the album released on this day in 1969 “provided the blueprint for all the other heavy metal bands that followed.” That album was Led Zeppelin II. Of course, as the title suggests, it was in fact Zep’s second album, but fittingly it came out nine months after the debut. While the debut had its moments, and in time, its loyal fans, it was a little random, but it mixed the DNA of its two halves – British hard rock and American blues – to birth what would become what we all know as heavy metal.

It was a very busy time for the band. They’d been touring relentlessly since the debut came out, meaning no extended periods of time in the studio to put this one together. Which arguably meant a more spontaneous, less forced sound, as they put down tracks one song at a time, quickly and in whatever studio was nearby, be it L.A., Memphis or London.

The band was still very-influenced by the Blues, and played a lot of songs by the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon in their concerts. Three of those worked their way into the album’s nine tracks (albeit in altered arrangements, described as simpler and louder and allowing for guitar and drum solos never played by the old Mississippi delta bluesmen.) “The Lemon Song” was a rework of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor” while “Bring it on Home” and “Whole Lotta Love” borrowed heavily from Dixon. So much so that he took them to court for plagiarism, at which point they reached an agreement with the old-timer and gave him a writing credit. Besides “Whole Lotta Love”, the record included several which would become Zeppelin standards and favorites: “Ramble On”, “Moby Dick”, “Heartbreaker.”

Initially, critics weren’t enamored by the band or their output; Rolling Stone thought it sounded like “one especially heavy song extended over … two whole sides.” Somehow, that publication changed its way of thinking and would list it among the 100 greatest albums ever later on.

The public didn’t care much though; they gobbled up the then-fresh sound. The album went gold in the States within three weeks and knocked Abbey Road off the top of the British charts. Whereas their debut didn’t quite make it into the top 5 in any major market, this one went to #1 in the UK, U.S., Canada, Australia, France and some other European lands. The single, a slightly-edited down version of “Whole Lotta Love” topped the Aussie charts and got to #4 in Canada and the U.S., where that would tie for their best showing ever. It wasn’t released in Britain as a 7”, due to manager Peter Grant’s wishes. (The big man who was Page’s friend ran the band rather like a doting yet stern parent. Although he died in 1995, a new bio of him and his time with the band, Bring it on Home was published recently) The album is 12X platinum in the U.S. now, 4X in the UK and 9X in Canada, making it about twice as successful as the predecessor but still paling compared to 1971’s IV.

Critics have come around to the Zeppelin sound in the years since, and generally consider it to be one of the band’s best. Entertainment Weekly would later give it an “A+” rating saying it was “chockful of keepers… (and) on ‘Moby Dick’ a drum solo that doesn’t suck!” . Classic Rock rank it as the eighth greatest British album ever, while the aforementioned Rolling Stone consider it only their fourth best album… but still the 75th best ever by anybody. Now they like how it “opens with one of the most exhilirating guitar riffs in rock and roll – Jimmy Page’s searing stutter on ‘Whole Lotta Love.’” Even Spin, a publication devoted mainly to alternative rock and a lot of bands that formed to create music that set out to avoid the Led Zeppelin trademarks of long solos and macho or oblique lyrics, ranked it as the fifth greatest album of all-time in 1989. Seems that Zeppelin was heavy … but somehow could float above the competition!

October 11 – Turntable Talk 19 – Iron Maiden’s Advice Not Beastly At All

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, today begins our 19^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I have previous topics indexed here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is A Design For Life. I’ve asked our writers to highlight a song that sums up a great personal mantra, or philosophy of life. A song that tells how to live better, basically. I hope you’re as curious to see what they come up with as I am!

First up today, Deke from chilly northern Ontario and host of Deke’s Vinyl Reviews and More: .

Thanks again to Dave for picking this month’s topic, which is writing about a song that explains how to live life better and to perhaps navigate through these deep waters that the world finds itself in. I think it’s safe to say that no one will be surprised that I picked a metal song, hahaha. But wait – there is substance to the lyrics and a message of hope.

Iron Maiden released “Wasted Years” as the first single from their 1986 album Somewhere In Time.

Now when the masses think of Iron Maiden, the think 666, “The Number of the Beast”. But people can be judgey now and even back in ’86 for that matter. Guitarist Adrian Smith stepped up huge on this record and wrote two tracks that basically drove the album to Double Platinum business in Canada. Both of Adrian’s tracks “Stranger In A Strangeland” and “Wasted Years” gave Maiden a bit more of a melodic metal sound back when this album first dropped in ’86. I was 19 and totally cool with the direction that Maiden was headed in (they even incorporated some synth in the background of some other tracks)

“Wasted Years” was a tune that almost didn’t make the record as when Smith showed up to the studio to let main songwriter and Maiden bassist/leader Steve Harris hear what he’d been working on, he accidently played him the opening riff of “Wasted Years”. Adrian had put it on tape and quickly turned it off. Harris told Smith to put that tape back on as he liked it, which surprised Smith as he thought it sounded too commercial to appear on a Maiden album.

By Maiden standards it is a commercial hard rock track which of course got them video airplay in both the U.S and Canada.

“Wasted Years” lyrically tells you not to live in the past, accept the present and look forward to the future. Smith nails this one, hitting it out of the park lyrically and lays down a brilliant solo as well. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson as he always does delivers it with his own style which adds to the song.

Speaking of Dickinson he showed up with a batch of songs for the “Somewhere In Time” album and everything he submitted was rejected by Harris as to him it sounded too folksy or something similar to that.  Amazing really as being a diehard fanboy at the time I had no idea that this went down and to Bruce’s credit he didn’t pack up and quit on the spot after that. Mind you, on the following Maiden album, ’88’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Bruce was back onboard having cowrites and even a couple that were done with Harris!

Looking back though, Adrian Smith picked up some of the slack and wrote a couple of classic tracks for an album that still holds up well today. At times it even ranks as my favourite studio recorded by them but that changes on a daily basis as there are 17 Maiden studio albums to pick from!

Thanks for reading and give the video a watch.

August 27 – Everyone Knows…Who Their Drummer Was Then

Having a more famous musical friend join you is a pretty good way to boost your own musical reputation. Josh Homme found that out and put it to good use on this day in 2002, when his Queens of the Stone Age put out their third, and most-successful, album Songs for the Deaf. It was probably better than their previous work but it certainly was better noticed due to their new drummer – the one and only Dave Grohl.

The band had been formed by Homme in Seattle in 1996, after he left Screaming Trees. He’s the only constant member in the group to this day, but at this time in history, guitarist/singer Josh’s main sidekick was bassist and occasional singer Nick Oliveiri. Drummer Gene Trautmann had left to work on other projects, leaving the door open for the Foos leader to sit in.

Grohl had apparently been getting a bit weary of being the lead guitarist and singer in his own band and kind of craved just drumming again. So when Josh called him, he didn’t hesitate. He said he knew Homme since the early-’90s, when he “was playing guitar in one of my all-time favorite bands, Kyuss.” So Grohl joined them briefly, playing a number of shows early in the year, and recording this album… all the while also getting the next Foo Fighters album, One By One, ready to go. No wonder he was worn out and ended up in hospital from caffeine over-use that caused heart problems for him!

Grohl might have had his fill of drumming though by the time the 15 song, 61-minute album was done for the QSA. They had him drum in a tiny room to get a “punchy and kind of claustrophobic” feel to the percussion, and had him record the cymbals separately! Homme himself probably had some sympathy for Dave on that; he worked as a drummer for a different band – Eagles of Death Metal – on the side!

The album itself was a loose concept Homme had, of driving through the California desert for hours, tuning in to a range of different radio stations along the way. To heighten the effect, he got some real California DJs to do little spoken bits between some of the tracks.

While he came out of the grunge scene, Homme and his band were clearly influenced by early heavy metal a fair bit as well, and some suggest by heavy German “Krautrock.” The result is something of a throwback metal album, with downbeat song titles like “Six Shooter” and “Hanging Tree.”

It met with a ready audience on alt rock radio of the time, surprisingly even more in Europe than at home. They got a bonus too, their disc included a bonus track, a cover of the Kinks “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy.” Likewise, reviews tended to be better there as well. The NME gave it 9 out of 10 and would years later rank it as the 15^th best album of the decade. The Guardian newspaper rated it 4-stars, saying they had already made themselves “Nirvana-like California stoners (they’d by then relocated south to L.A.) it’s impossible not to like” and this album was “weirdly compulsive” , one that “reeks of the early-’70s, particularly early Black Sabbath and the haunted terrain of Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World.” Over here, Entertainment Weekly did give it an “A”, calling it “the year’s best hard rock album” but Rolling Stone yawned a little, giving it 3-stars. They lamented it showed how much “the pop scene missed Nirvana” and thought it “old metal” that had its moments here and there, like “’Millionaire’ is a mild-mannered headbanger as are the boogieish ‘No One Knows’ and ‘God (Is in the Radio)’”. The Grammy Awards noticed it and nominated it for Best Hard Rock performance two years running, first for “No One Knows” and then for “Go With the Flow”. Ironically they lost out for ’02 to… the Foo Fighters.

The album garnered more attention than their first pair did, perhaps because of the famous drummer who was a part of it. It was their first to go gold at home, and it reached #17 in the U.S. It did better than that in the UK, hitting #4, and double-platinum status; in Australia it went to #7. Eventually it was platinum in both the U.S. and Canada. That was largely on the strength of three singles – “No One Knows”, “Go With The Flow” and “First it Giveth”. All three were top 40s in Britain (“No One Knows” made #15 and went platinum itself) ; in the U.S. oddly they didn’t show much on the charts though “No One Knows” was a #1 song on airplay on rock stations… how that didn’t translate into a chart position on either Mainstream Rock or Alternative Rock lists is a mystery for Billboard to answer.

The band has kept on going since, putting out five more albums, but Grohl went back to his “day job” with the Foos and was replaced by Joey Castillo on the tour for Songs for the Deaf.

July 20 – Times Were Getting Wild 55 Years Back

Heavy metal thundered its way onto the charts this day in 1968. In a way of speaking. Steppenwolf‘s iconic hit “Born to Be Wild” hit the American top 40, 55 years ago. It’s extra noteworthy because it’s commonly credited with using the term “heavy metal” for the first time, although they in turn had come across the phrase in a William Burroughs novel which had a character named “Heavy Metal Kid.” And the “heavy metal” they were singing about was really the roar of motorbikes rather than loud music. But the term was born, their career was riding high and the song would soon be considered one of the first examples of… heavy metal.

It was actually the band’s third single off their Dunhill Records debut, which hit #6 in the U.S., where it went gold, and  was a #1 hit in Canada. Not surprising that as they were essentially The Sparrows, a rock band from the lovely Toronto suburb of Oshawa (a certain music writer was born there too, nudge nudge, wink wink) led by growly-voiced John Kay. They’d relocated to California in 1967, got their record deal and went to work on their self-titled debut…after taking the name Steppenwolf on the recommendation of producer Gabriel Mekler, who’d just read the novel of that name.

The album had the FM staple “The Pusher”, penned by Hoyt Axton, but lives on because of “Born to Be Wild.” It was written by a guy who goes by the name Mars Bonfire. Bonfire is actually the brother of Steppenwolf’s drummer, Jerry Edmonton and a former member of The Sparrows himself. He says he got the inspiration for the hit soon after arriving in L.A. He said “I saw a poser in a window saying ‘Born to Ride’.” It was a motorbike ad. “I had just purchased by first car, a little second-hand Ford Fiesta. So this all came together lyrically. The idea of a motorcycle coming along with the freedom and joy I felt in having my own car and being able to drive myself around whenever I wanted.”

The public felt joy when hearing the Steppenwolf record. Allmusic note it was “a surprisingly strong debut from a tight hard rock outfit.” “Born to be Wild” rode onto the charts alongside the likes of the Beatles and Motown acts and got to #2 in the U.S., #30 across the sea in the UK and was their first of two #1 hits in Canada, “Magic Carpet Ride” being the other. The song was elevated to cultural icon status a year later when it was used to great effect in the biker movie Easy Rider. Since then it’s shown up in any number of TV shows and movies including Miami Vice, the Simpsons, Punky Brewster and Dr. Doolittle. Perhaps the ultimate example of how ingrained into the culture it is was in 1994, when Ozzy Osbourne did a duet of it with Miss Piggy on a Muppets record!

As for “heavy metal”, Kay doesn’t actually see Steppenwolf as falling into that category. “We always considered ourselves to be a hard rock, blues-based band. For me, ‘heavy metal’ had its beginnings in Led Zeppelin.

July 11 – Turntable Talk 16 : A Different Type Of Badlands

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 16^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I have most previous topics indexed here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Coulda Been A Contender. We asked our guests to write about a song which wasn’t a “hit”…but should have been. Now, it’s upto them to really define what is, or is not, a “hit” – some songs hit #1 in say, Canada but get ignored elsewhere, or else they get to #41 worldwide, etc … hit ? Not hit? – but there’s no doubt, there’ve been a lot of very good songs that missed the mark somehow.

Today’s we have Deke, from the Great White North, and Deke’s Vinyl Reviews & More :

Thanks Dave for letting me once again be a part of this group. I guess Mad Max picked this topic of “Coulda Been A Contender”. My pick is a band from the late ’80’s that shoulda and coulda been bigger with a solid single titled “Dreams In The Dark”. Let me explain!

Back in 1988, guitarist Jake E. Lee got fired from Ozzy Osbourne’s band after recording two platinum-selling albums with the Oz ( Bark At The Moon & The Ultimate Sin). Around the same time, vocalist Ray Gillian was himself getting shown the door by Black Sabbath. Someone suggested to the both of them “perhaps you two should hook up” in a creative context and they did and they put out the stellar Badlands self titled debut in the summer of ’89.

Badlands had more to do with ’70s hard rock than the late ’80s hair metal that was dominating the charts and perhaps their “let the music do the talking” approach may have hurt them more than anything, as these cats could play!

“Dreams In The Dark” was the first and only single that was released from the self-titled album which came out on May 11^th, 1989. A great track which rocks right out of the gate and Jake and Ray made a great one two punch on this album along with Bassist Greg Chaisson and Drummer Eric Singer. Love the chorus and Jake’s solo!.

The best thing I can say about this song is it has a ton of musical muscle attached to it yet it’s not glammy or silly powder-puff rock. It has a throwback sound as I already had mentioned.

Unfortunately the masses did not at the time buy into the song as much as I did. “Dreams In The Dark” made it to #38 on the Mainstream Rock Charts while the album got as high as #57 on the Billboard Top 100 Album Charts. Supposedly it sold close to 400,000 copies which by today’s standards would be huge but back in ’89 that was peanuts.

A shame really as many more should have heard about it. But like many bands before, they fired their manager when they realized there was no money left. By the time the next record came out in the summer of ’91 titled Voodoo Highway the wheels came off the band completely as Singer left and the album sold worse than the debut.

If you are wondering “why I have not seen these albums out in the wild on CD or vinyl or how come they are not on the streaming sites?” there may be an answer.

It’s out there that the two albums are out of print because of Ray Gillian infecting women with AIDS so the record company pulled them out of print. I have also read that one of the girls was the daughter of one of the honchos at the label. I’m not 100% sure as it could be hearsay but Gllian did pass away from AIDS back in ’93.

I will add that I picked up a copy of the debut, used but in mint condition for $50 Canuck bucks about six months ago as I would never pay that for any record except for one – which is Badlands. An album which is full of good ol fashioned hard rock and each track is killer, plus there is no way of getting this one at all.

Jake E. Lee still puts out the odd rock album with his band Red Dragon Cartel occasionally while Eric SInger has been in KISS basically since 1992. 

Here’s the video to “Dreams In The Dark”…Crank it Up!

April 12 – Turntable Talk 13 : Deke’s Out On The Highway

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 13^th instalment…hopefully lucky 13! For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is This Song’s Going Places! We’ve asked our guests to pick a song, or even album that is all about going somewhere…there’ve been tons of great songs about traveling, either geographically or mentally , not to mention ones about specific destinations. A big category, and I look forward to seeing what piqued the others imaginations.

Today we have Deke, from Deke’s Vinyl Reviews and More. There he does a bang-up job on keeping up with the best of new releases and old classics in the hard rock or metal end of the spectrum. Which maybe suggests what his traveling pick will be: 

Thanks to Dave for once again coming up with an interesting topic. My pick for this series is a bonafide winner in the hard rock category of “Planes Trains and Automobiles” – Judas Priest‘s “Heading Out To The Highway!“

Released back in 1981 from the Point of Entry album, ” Heading Out To The Highway” was the lead off track on the record. For me personally, next to 1982’s Screaming For Vengeance, Point of Entry is my favourite album of theirs as it’s not your typical, full-out heavy metal record but one that balances the fine line between Rock and Hard Rock… if that makes sense.

“Heading Out To The Highway” begins with the twin guitars of Glenn Tipton and KK Downing followed by Ian Hill’s bass and Dave Holland’s drums. Lead singer Rob Halford cracks the opening line of “Hit ’em boys” and we’re off and running as Rob sings about the freedom of jumping in your car and heading out to any highway without a worry in the world. No back seat driving is allowed, according to Halford!

I have loved this tune from the time I purchased it on cassette tape back in the summer of 1981 for my good ol’ Sony Walkman and over the various years I have rebought it on CD and now of course, vinyl.

I love how the song builds and builds with such a catchy chorus, and Priest as they always do in their tunes have KK and Glenn dialing in the dual leads together which is what they are known for (and with Rob’s vocals of course). Plus the rhythm machine of Hill and Holland just plays it straight ahead.

“Heading Out To The Highway” still gets my heart pumping whether I’m walking or riding around on my mountain bike as it gives me that extra shot of energy. Basically the only difference between 1981 and 2023 is of course my age, and the IPhone has replaced the Walkman but other than that the song still remains the same for me!

Cheers folks! Thanks for reading!

Check out this video to get a feel for the tune…

“Heading Out to The Highway’

Hit ’em boys

Well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
You get nothing for nothing, expect it when
You’re backseat driving and your hands ain’t on the wheel
It’s easy to go along with the crowd
And find later on that your say ain’t allowed
Oh that’s the way to find what you’ve been missing

So I’m heading out to the highway
I got nothing to lose at all
I’m gonna do it my way
Take a chance before I fall
A chance before I fall

You can hang in a left or hang in a right
The choice, it is yours to do as you might
The road is open wide to place your bidding

Now, wherever you turn, wherever you go
If you get it wrong, at least you can know
There’s miles and miles to put it back together

And I’m heading out to the highway
I got nothing to lose at all
I’m gonna do it my way
Take a chance before I fall
A chance before I fall

On the highway
On the highway

Making a curve or taking the strain
On the decline, or out on the wane
Oh everybody breaks down sooner or later
We’ll put it to rights, we’ll square up and mend
Back on your feet to take the next bend
You’ll weather every storm that’s coming at ya

And I’m heading out to the highway
I got nothin’ to lose at all
I’m gonna do it my way
Take a chance before I fall
Yes, I’m heading out to the highway
I got nothing to lose at all
I got nothing to lose at all

March 2 – Rock’s Pasta King

If Bob Marley could perhaps be termed music’s “Rasta king”, today we look at it’s “Pasta King”. A birthday for a man we admire – Jon Bon Jovi. Happy 61st to him!

Bon Jovi has of course been the main man – singer, main writer and often rhythm guitarist – in the band named after him for 40 years years. And Bon Jovi was far from his first band – he’d been playing guitar and piano in bands since he was 13, and by 20 he was working as an assistant at the famous Power Station recording studio. But of course he found his niche with Richie Sambora and the Bon Jovi band. They’ve put out 15 studio albums and from that notched six #1s in the U.S., five in the UK and had 11 platinum albums at home, including Slippery When Wet, 1987’s biggest-seller which is now diamond status in the U.S. and Canada. That one sported a pair of #1 songs, “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Living on a Prayer” and established him as a mainstay on rock radio ever since. If critics at times have found his music a little formulaic and overly glossy, millions of fans care little. Since the mid-’80s, the band’s sold over 130 million albums, putting him in the same league as that other New Jersian, Bruce Springsteen (who grew up about 30 miles south of Jon). And then there’s his two solo albums on top of that, the first of which, Blaze of Glory went to #1 in Canada and Sweden and earned him yet another platinum record at home. Curiously, his only Grammy came in 2007 for a country music record, a collaboration with Jennifer Nettles.

We salute Jon though, not only because of his musical popularity, supplemented by an occasional acting career, but for his philanthropy. On the band’s most recent tour, last year, he had an unsigned act from each city open his concerts for example.  He was named to a Presidential council on “community solutions” by Barack Obama, not too surprising since he’s one of the most generous and positive people in rock. He works extensively for charities ranging from the Red Cross to environmental ones to the Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity. Plus, he has his own foundation designed to promote “safe and affordable housing options ” to people in need. It also runs a pay-what-you-can restaurant …which no doubt serves a lot of pasta, with his family’s Bongiovi sauce! Proceeds of that condiment go towards the charity. Bon apetit Jon!