TBONE 2020- How about Hollering some Bad English for an Autograph while Lovin Every Minute of it!

Hey, Folk’s today the one and only Tbone turns 53 years young and as you all know he’s been there since Day 1 in all of my musical journeys!

 Once Van Halen hit with 1984 it was all bet’s off as Tbone went bonkers and kept pace with me pretty much in buying Hard Rock albums back then. I preferred vinyl. Tbone preferred cassette tapes. I bought Rock Mags. Tbone did not. 

He didn’t need to buy rock mags as Tbone knew I devoured all the rock info inside each mag and when we would hang I would fill him in with everything! Ok, I babbled on like a lunatic.

Tbone was a smart man. He saved money this way. 

A few years ago when I hit 50 I got right back into vinyl in a huge way. I told Tbone’s super-duper cool wife Christine to buy him a turntable for Xmas. She listened, and just like that he got a turntable. Tbone has been acquiring vinyl here and there and if I see some things that he will dig I grab em along the way.

BUT.

As I mentioned earlier Tbone’s preferred listening method was cassette tapes back in the roaring ’80s. 

So in one of my journeys along the way, I came across a batch of tapes. I never look at used tapes as I have nothing to play them on but one time when I was out and about on a vinyl hunt I decided to look and saw in one pile 3 tapes that Tbone had back in the day. Ok well back 3 decades ago. lol

Bad English/Loverboy and Autograph. All 3 of these Tbone left the good rock ship S.S dEke’s and ventured off into unfamiliar uncharted waters and purchased all 3 of these releases on his own! 

Looking back I should have tossed him a musical life preserver.

I heard all 3 of these tapes courtesy of Tbone. The Loverboy tape intrigued me the most believe it or not as I will explain below.

So without further ado here is a quick little hit and run observations on each tape.

 

1-Autograph-That’s The Stuff: Tbone bought That’s The Stuff as soon as it hit the record shops in 85.  I would have as well but since Tbone took the plunge first we listened to it together. We really had nothing to say about it. It sounded like it was rushed out to capitalize on the better than decent debut of Sign In Please(1984). So I understand Tbone’s motive to grab this one quick. I would have as well. On a side note thank you “T” for saving me $10 on this purchase back in 85!

2- Loverboy-Lovin Every Minute of It: Another 1985 release and I was curious as to why Tbone had decided to drive down Loverboy Lane. This tape I dubbed from Tbone as once I saw Loverboy had Judas Priest producer Tom Allom handle the production duties  I thought the guitars will probably be jacked somewhat. Course having Mutt Lange write the title track helped the cause as well. Not bad from what I remember but not enough to make me go and purchase my own copy.

 Now onto the one some of you have been waiting for.

3-Bad English- Bad English(1989): As The 80s head into the 90s and beyond Bad English is the gift that keeps on giving as we and when I mean we which include Tbone’s two brothers Darr and Rugg have verbally tormented Tbone over the purchase of this poor man’s Journey at various times over 30 years! Bad English was a supergroup formulated to make money. They did on this album and if you like this album( Take a bow Pete from Australia) I commend you. Maybe it isn’t as bad as I made it out to be but I tell ya folks it sure has been fun as fuck to give Tbone the gears on this release even if it was good which I would never admit too! lol

I’m sure a few of you are wondering what about Y&T’s Down For The Count which was another album I roasted Tbone on? Well, trust me when I tell you I started looking for it and never came across it on tape. Dang,  but If I ever do come across Down For The Count and if it’s dirt cheap you know who will end up with it.

I know that Tbone does not have a cassette deck to play these on but that doesn’t matter as I’m sure he will probably display these three fine Gems proudly in his ManCave!

Well, He Better!

Happy Birthday, Bro!

 

Kim Mitchell: Kim Mitchell(1982)

Are you going to find a better 5 song studio solo E.P than Kim Mitchell’s 1982 self-titled release?

Maybe but probably not. For myself, I missed the boat at the time on Kim’s time fronting his former band Max Webster at the tail end of the ’70s.

It was a Canadian magazine Music Express that put out the word that here was Kim. Now solo and trying to make a go of it with his name on the marquee.  I bought this way back in 82 on cassette tape and lo and behold saw it sitting in the used bins on vinyl a few weeks back.

A no brainer pay in cash and dash out the door!

Kim goes balls out in power trio mode with Paul DeLong on drums and Robert Sinclair Wilson on Bass. Kim has always played some killer guitar on all his albums but this EP has Kim going to a whole other level on the fretboard.

Kids In Action sets the table as Mitchell gets right down to business and with Jack Richardson dialing in the sounds with Kim these songs sound live with few overdubs in the studio.

Put it this way all these cats can play and of course along for the ride is Pye Dubois who handled all the lyrics while Kim took care of the music.

Kim has that cool summer breezy cool guy vocal vibe which comes across huge on these songs. 5 songs/no ballads just Kim lifting off on what would become a pretty good career in Canada.

If your a guitarist check out this EP for a crash course on exceptional soloing as you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve been slowly collecting Kim’s output on vinyl in the 80s as I come across it.  Now with the inclusion of this EP on vinyl along with Akimbo Alogo(1984), Shakin Like A Human Being(1986) and Rocklandwonderland(1989) my KM collection is coming along nicely!

Rah Rah Ole!

 

Dokken: Beast from the East(1988)

You know when you really get down to it Dokken that being the 80s version featuring Don Dokken/George Lynch/Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson put out some decent albums that have stood the test of time.

Dokken’s output from the 80s I can listen to now in 2020 whereas some bands from that era I can’t handle anymore so I guess that’s saying something.

Dokken’s four studio albums those being Breaking The Chains(83)/ Tooth And Nail(84)/Under Lock And Key(85) and Back For The Attack(87) are classics and should be in your collection.

When you have a guy whose last name is Lynch on the guitar that right there tells you these guys songs don’t suck.  What does suck and I have written about this countless time is these guys could not get along and they imploded during the last half of 1988 just as Dokken was gearing up for the release of Beast From The East which is a shame but that’s what happens when you combine party treats and pissy pants.

These guys had the holy grail meaning a massive breakthrough into headliner status of arenas and they tossed that away and never recovered.

Shame but even though they fucked up personally with each other the music didn’t suffer through which is evident on this massive double live album recorded in April 1988 in Japan.

16 Live Tracks and the standard tacked on the end of the album studio track (Walk Away) to entice the buyer.

In the fall of 1988 when this album was released I didn’t need to be enticed to buy it for the lone studio track. No siree it was for all the killer stuff before it.

For instance, look at Side 1. What a killer 5 pack of tracks to launch this album. Unchain The Night the mid-tempo rocker sets the plate for Lynch to go into hyper overdrive on Tooth And Nail! George rips what I would think is one of the best solos to come from the genre called Hair Metal.

Ending Side 1 is a 3 pack of tracks(Standing In The Shadows/Sleepless Nights/Dream Warriors) from the current at the time Back For The Attack album. (which is perhaps my fave of the Dokken catalog).

Side 2 lifts off again with Lynch and Kiss of Death which is a galloping rocking tune which has all the trimmings of a classic track which it still is today. When Heaven Comes Down and Into The Fire both from the Tooth And Nail release are up next followed by the Lynch guitar extravaganza in the form of Mr. Scary in which Don gets a 10-minute coffee break(cough cough) while George/Jeff and Mick flex their musical muscle and show that they were above and beyond way more talented than some of there peers during the roaring 80s!

Side 3 shows Dokken’s melodic rock side where they can take the foot off of the hard rock pedal (Alone Again)  yet still deliver some ass-kicker tracks in the form of Heaven Sent and It’s Not Love. Another one of my favs from the Dokken repertoire is Just Got Lucky which has Brown leading the charge on the drums while Lynch solos all over the place.

The fabulous Breaking The Chains charges out of the gate on Side 4 followed by In My Dreams and wrapping up with Turn On The Action!

Walk Away was tacked on the album and its a studio track which is actually quite good ( the video version has Don looking bizarro with his hair)  which is a shame as Dokken did indeed Walk Away when this album was released.

Take away the look of Dokken in the 80s and listen with your ears and these guys put out some killer albums. Actually, their 80s stuff is very solid. Too bad at times there look gets them lumped in with the Hair Metal comments which are kinda unfair but make no mistake these guys had the goods as this double album shows.

Too bad they hated each other…

 

Def Leppard / The Early Years 79-81

Def Leppard just this past Friday (March 20th) has released a box set titled The Early Years 79-81 featuring a ton and I mean a ton of music. 

64 Songs spread out over 4.5 hours of music. That’s a lot of Leppard Rock Folks.

Now I know John Snow in the next few days is going to do a very detailed review of The Early Years so I’m just going to focus on one section of this massive box and that is the Live Show included from 1980.

When The Walls Came Tumbling Down – Live In Oxford 26/04/1980
‘When the Walls Came Tumbling Down’
‘It Could Be You’
‘Rock Brigade’
‘Satellite’
‘Medicine Man’
‘Answer to the Master’
‘When the Rain Falls’
‘Sorrow Is a Woman’
‘Good Morning Freedom’
‘Don’t Matter to Me’
‘Overture’
‘Lady Strange’
‘GetchaRocks Off’
‘Hello America’
‘Wasted’
‘Ride into The Sun’

I can tell you all right here right now that this show from Oxford is just mindblowing good. The audio and mix of this show is excellent. I can’t believe Leppard sat on this album for 40 years!

Leppard 1980 was one lean mean rocking machine. For one thing, check out that setlist. The whole debut album On Through The Night is played as they were plugging the just-released debut.

When The Walls Came Tumbling Down sets the pace of the show. I love how Leppard uses the actual studio recording and then hit the stage on auto blast when Joe Elliot is about to hit the first verse of the song.

Leppard does not fuck around here even at there young age at the time. These songs are taken to a whole other level which is a mindblower. 

Drummer Rick Allen leads the charge and keeps the band in check to let Steve Clark and Pete Willis do their thing on the guitars. Speaking of Clark if you recall in my other Leppard reviews I always say when Clark passed away in January 1991 Steve took the riffs with him to heaven. 

Actually, you can also make the case for Pete Willis who had a huge hand in crafting these songs for the first two Leppard albums (On Through The Night and High N Dry) as well as co-writing a slew of tracks on Pyromania before Pete got the boot.

it’s a shame the guitar duo of Clark/Willis never really get there due when the talk of guitar duos come up. Perhaps this release will begin some chat about that. Steve and Pete mix youth and exuberance at times as well as sounding seasoned. 

Rock Brigade and Satellite and many of the tunes are at a quicker tempo and Elliot keeps the chat between the tunes down to a bare minimum as well as Joe’s voice sounds excellent live.

At times you can hear the influences trickle thorough like on Overture when you can hear Rush (at the beginning of the tune) and Thin Lizzy (in the dual leads) as well Rick Savage plays some tasty Bass Lines (did I just type that?) and he’s also right up there in the mix as well. 

What else is a real score is the addition of two tunes I had never heard before, kinda.

By that I mean Medicine Man is the title of the tune but the music is Rock Rock Til You Drop which later appeared on 83’s Pyromania.

When The Rain Falls is another song played live but come a year later in 1981 the lyrics were all changed around but the music pretty stayed the same and was retitled Let It Go from the High N Dry album.

Speaking of High N Dry even Lady Strange was belted out that night in Oxford. Leppard was on a creative binge back than folks.

Leppard as we all know as the 80s went along became mega and of course, the sound changed,  While some later albums were kinda so so (Adrenalize) and some were really good (Slang) you can’t forget this early incarnation of a band that was going for the throat.

Get this!

OLD DUDE SCHOOL OF ROCK-1984-PART 3

 

Well, Folk’s this is it for the year that was 1984. The final 9 albums and when all is said and done I had purchased 29 records that year and maybe a few more that I’m forgetting or maybe not. But it was a fab year for Hard Rock. Wonder what 1985 will be like?

As always. Let’s Do This!

1984 brought some new rock and in this post, there are three pretty good debuts.

1- Kick Axe coming from the heavy metal hotbed of Saskatchewan Canada released the stellar Vices. Kick Axe was signed by Spencer Proffer the man who signed Quiet Riot so Vices has the drum sound of Metal Health but that’s where the comparisons end.  Lead Throat George Criston wails at like the 5-second mark of opening tune Heavy Metal Shuffle and were off. This debut is one ass-kicker of a great album. Stay On Top/Cause For Alarm and Road To Rock are classics. Ignore the dumb cover inside this record are solid tracks. Hell, even King Kobra and Black Sabbath were nicking the Kick Axe leftovers from the studio sessions while Kick Axe was recording this album!

2- Coming from California Autograph got on our radar by the fact that they were, for the most part, the openers on the Van Halen 1984 Tour. Course the biggie single Turn Up The Radio was huge certainly helped the cause as Steve Plunkett could write hook-filled tunes like the brilliant Send Her To Me and My Girlfriends Boyfriend Isn’t Me. Plus Autograph had the brilliant Steve Lynch on guitar and this guy could play. Sign In Please! We did already.

3-From some sleazy part of Los Angeles came  RATT who infested the world with a super-duper wicked debut that sold tons and a record that called itself Out of the Cellar. RATT had it all with the songs/production/music and a very distinctive sounding Lead Singer in Stephen Pearcy and a Guitar Hero Named Warren DeMartini. Tbone was on board right away with this and as soon as I heard this tape driving around with him in his parent’s lean mean green GMC Van back in 1984 I needed this. RATT hit Gold and many times Platinum with this record and as well they were getting onto the front covers of Circus and Hit Parader.

RATT N ROLL

Deep Purple obviously I knew of by Smoke On The Water. But a reunion amongst the Purple men in 1984 intrigued me and I was on board once Perfect Strangers hit the streets. Perfect Strangers was my first ever Purple owned  album and to me there best. I love this record. Every song is killer as DP even though being mega old in 1984(ha) could deliver in spades some Hammond- Drum- Strat driven rock with Ian Gillian wailing his lungs out all over it. Awesome.

Look at the cover of Crusader by Saxon. Is that killer or what? Just that alone made me buy it. Crusader really has Saxon wanting to break the American Market and well they didn’t but I’m sure it was no lack of effort. The title track is I think the best song on this album and since I’m North American I think Biff and his posse of fella’s wrote Sailing To America for all of us! 

Ze Scorpions! A ton of hype for the new Scorps album Love At First Sting thanks to how awesome of an album 82’s Blackout was. Klaus/Rudy/Matthais/Francais and Herman Ze German Rocked Us Like Hurricanes with a pretty decent follow-up.  How about that opening riff on Bad Boys Running Wild? Big City Nights/ Coming Home are all killer tracks. The Scorps did the honorable thing of leaving the big ballad track Still Loving You til the end of the album. I will add that even though Jabs is one friggin monster on the fretboard come solo time Rudy plays a doozie of a solo at the end of Still Loving You. Sorry, Micheal!

I WANNA ROCK! I like many hoped aboard the Twisted Sister express and joined in with millions as We Weren’t Gonna Take It Anymore! Dee Snider knows the fine art of rock anthems and he delivered two that are still played to this day. But dig deeper into the Stay Hungry album and there’s some nasty in those tracks like Burn In Hell and Horror Teria (the beginning) proving that Snider had that little bit of Evil in him. Snider could go the other way and write the pretty decent moody like The Price. Sure take off the two big tracks and you still have a real solid hard rock album.

You’re a Sick Mother Fucker. Dee said it first. 

Now you didn’t think you were going to get through this post and not have any Can-Con Right? Well, think again as Reckless an album that came out in the latter half of 84 really sold like hot cakes well into 1985 and beyond.  Bryan Adams delivers one of the best radio driven rock albums of all time. Each song on the 10 song album is Killer! Bryan and co-writer Jim Vallance struck gold in these tracks and along with the great Keith Scott laying down some brilliant guitar solo after guitar solo, it even made Heavy Metal Guys like me take notice! 38 minutes of Awesomeness!*

1984 was my first real introduction to The Boss as Bruce Springsteen sold zillions of records with Born In The USA! This album was everywhere. Mega Singles, Mega Videos. A damn fine rock album and too be honest the title track has been played to death but I tell ya where Bruce got me hook line and sinker was tune’s like No Surrender/I’m Goin Down and the brilliant dEke 100 % approved Downbound Train! with lyrics like..**

She just said “Joe I gotta go
We had it once we ain’t got it anymore”
She packed her bags left me behind
She bought a ticket on the Central Line
Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining
I feel her kiss in the misty rain
And I feel like I’m a rider on a downbound train

Man, that is one brilliant verse. What a writer!

Vivian Campbell and Ronnie Dio return with the pretty classic Last In Line album that has Campbell burning up the fretboard on the title track, ok well basically Viv sizzles throughout with his playing. Maybe this album is a notch below Holy Diver material-wise but still some really good stuff on here along with some fantastic artwork.  Evil Eyes is a cool track and how about that poppy key-driven Mystery which has a killer chorus!

We Rock!

Well, folk’s this is the last album of the 1984 reviews!

Cozy Powell smashes his drums throughout and David Coverdale tells us all to Slide It In! Slide It In is one of the best rock albums of the 80s and yeah there are many but there’s something endearing about an old buzzard named Coverdale who knew the fine art of Arena Cock Rock and he pounced all over it. Course Slide It In had two versions of this album (British and American)  a bit of tinkering with the lineup Hello John Sykes Adios old man Micky Moody. This record is stellar from top to bottom! 10 tracks and I mean how many times does David say “Love” on this album? Slide It In broke W.S in North America and laid the groundwork for the 1987 album.

Thanks for reading. I hope you dug this as much as I have liked babbling on about one huge year in Hard Rock that was 1984.

Up next…1985

*- I have to thank Arena Rock reader and fellow blogger pal Geoff who commented on my first batch of 84 albums mentioned Reckless by Adams. Great call as to when I checked, Reckless was released in November 1984 whereas my memory was telling me it was a 1985 release.  Thank You, Sir!

**-Bumped into my good buddy DaHeff at work the other day and he told me he enjoyed the 1984 reads. As soon as I saw him it was like Springsteen! You see DaHeff Loves the Boss and Bam my old noggin triggered the name, Bruce. I had to add Born In The USA! 

Thanks to  DaHeff and Geoff! (Sounds like a title for a TV sitcom! lol)

 

 

 

 

OLD DUDE SCHOOL OF ROCK-1984- PART 2

Hey, Folk’s thanks for checking back in. Here is another 9 pack of albums that I had purchased back in 1984. Are you ready for Part 2?

Let’s Do This!

One of the first albums that actually came out pretty early was the self-titled debut Bon Jovi album. I had seen the adds for the debut in Circus Magazine but it was a fellow student at my High School that said I should check Bon Jovi out. I did and bought it upon his recommendation. It was a decent debut. Nothing to earth-shattering mind you as that would come 2 years later when Slippery When Wet went bonkers worldwide but a decent debut none the less. Roulette and a few others are decent enough tracks.

Canadian Rock was alive and well in my world and thanks to the Canuck Mag Music Express. I read about artists like Lee Aaron who swung a sword and sang a song called Metal Queen. Metal Queen was a decent enough album the only real track being real heavy was the title track, The rest of the album was more of a Pat Benetar type rock n roll. GIve Lee props though as there weren’t many real good female hard rock singers out there but Lee had the voice and well she swung a mean sword!

GIMME A R…..WHATCHA GOT! Helix (from Ladano’s backyard Kitchener, Ontario) basically got the ball rolling and by that selling records with Walkin The Razors Edge. Rock You was the biggie song that pushed this album to Platinum in Canada and also made a serious dent in the U.S charts as well. Touring with Quiet Riot and Whitesnake helped the cause. Helix also was a great live act.

Speaking of Quiet Riot here comes Condition Critical and that title pretty much sums up QR 1984. Dubrow was in a war of words with Vince Neil and even Roth nightly on VH’s 1984 Tour was chirping Dubrow about drinking Ice Tea from a Jack Daniel’s bottle. The press built it up and QR never recovered. Condition Critical at best was maybe half good? Sign of the Times was a great opener but releasing yet another Slade song as a single (Mama Were All Crazee Now ) was a dumb ass move. I was 17 at the time and even I knew that!

PARTY ALL NIGHT LOOOOOOOOONG!

Lee/Lifeson/Peart released the very underrated Grace Under Pressure which is a great album. When talking about RUSH and their studio output you know you are not going to get any two Rush albums sounding alike. Distant Early Warning/AfterImage/ Between The Wheels/Kid Gloves are stellar tracks actually the whole damn thing is stellar. It’s RUSH!

Levine/Emmett/Moore cranked out the brilliant Thunder 7 album. Triumph put out some real quality material and this album shows that in spades. Spellbound and Follow Your Heart are classics but its those other tracks like the Zep tinged Rock Out Roll-On. The prog like Time Goes By are classics as well. Plus Rik Emmett is a beast on the guitar. 

In 1984 Sammy Hagar couldn’t drive 55 but he knew the curve of delivering a stellar solo live show that I caught in October of that year with Krokus opening. V.O.A was my first ever Sam purchase and was a decent hard rock album. Hagar had a stellar support cast and it shows on the album. Hell, how could you go wrong with tunes like Dick In The Dirt? Exactly! Course we all know what happened a short time after 1984 rolled into 1985 right?

Iron Maiden released the epic POWERSLAVE in September 1984 and Powerslave ran my life for that month as my homework went on the back burner. I still recall being giddy with excitement when I saw the front and back cover artwork along with something like 51 minutes of music stuffed with Maiden tunes all in one package. Holy Shit! As fans, we hit the Jackpot Folks. Maiden was and still are in 2020 The Best! 

Rollin-Rollin-Turnin-Turnin- Do it again!

One album that came onto my radar as a new band(but had been around ) and what would become over the years a game-changer in my world was Hanoi Rocks  Two Steps From The Move. Hanoi hailing from Finland went to Toronto to record Two Steps with Bob Ezrin who dialed it all in. Sure Mike Monroe is a dude who looks like a lady on the cover but  Micheal had some gruff in that voice of his. Stellar album from the opening tune which is a CCR cover of  Up Around The Bend. HighSchool/I Can’t Get it/Cutting Corners and thanks to Hanoi and boys we all learned what Boiler actually meant! The crazy thing is I bought Two Steps in October 84 and by December 84 these guys were finished. I’m not going down that road as it has been written a million times over but man what a phenomenal crafted rock album.

Thanks for reading Folk’s Part 3 will be up in a few days.

 

Old Dude School of Rock-1984- PART 1

HEY FOLK’S! When I was compiling this list of 1984 releases it became pretty clear that I could not jam all the albums that caught my listening ear in 1984 into one post. In other words, this is going to a 3 part series!  Yup, that’s how much of an impact 1984 had on me musically! So enjoy Part 1…

As 1983 rolled into 1984 the first band out of the gate in the new year was Van Halen with Jump being the first single off of well you guessed it 1984! The album itself dropped in January and we were all first-day buyers as who wouldn’t be? Roth cooked up a bunch of cool lyrics about being Hot For Teacher while Ed dialed in a bunch of cool solos. Let’s don’t forget Alex’s drums leading the charge and Bassist Mikey Anthony‘s backing vocals. One of the all-time great records!

Tbone heard my copy of 1984 and then went out and purchased the other 5 Halen studio albums at that exact moment! Talk about an Impact Album.

Top Jimmy cooks, Top Jimmy swings.

Nuff Said!

Gene/Paul and Eric Carr along with here today gone tomorrow guitarist Mark St John released the very decent KISS album Animalize. Some decent tracks and Paul and Desmond Child hit paydirt with Heaven’s On Fire. Gene wrote Burn Bitch Burn with that classic line of…

When love rears its head, I wanna get on your case
Ooh baby, wanna put my log in your fireplace

Once again Nuff Said.

Queensryche released The Warning which had a different sound and a different vibe considering their EP from 83 was balls-out metal. This album was a real slow grower on me but one track that just floored me and still does tho this day is NM-156. What a corker of a track. I finally picked The Warning up on vinyl a few years ago and I finally could really appreciate it more now than back than. I guess that’s saying something right?

Filling a void that KISS wasn’t doing anymore in 84 came in the form of W.A.S.P who released there self-titled debut that featured all four guys wearing makeup and leather and a prop that was called The Rack. Like KISS though W.A.S.P wrote anthems like I Wanna Be Somebody which got a fair bit of video play and how about the classic L.O.V.E Machine! Give Blackie Lawless credit he had me on board with this debut and the followup The Last Command and then I resigned from WASP until 89’s Headless Children and then resigned yet again. Forever.

Another band that like WASP that came from California was Armoured Saint who I bought hook line and sinker with that whole medieval look they had going along with a cool track titled Can U Deliver. John Bush has a great voice and that’s what drew me to these guys at first. Bush, as you may recall, was offered the lead vocal spot for Metallica back around this time but turned it down?!

It’s it’s a Ballroom Blitz. Swiss cheese heads Krokus put out the streamlined sounding The Blitz that had some pretty good tracks on it like the opener Midnite Maniac and Out of Control. The Blitz had the production team of Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock so you know they weren’t fooling around so to speak. Headhunter from 83 I like more but when I’m in the mood for some ‘Let’s break into the American Market Rock‘ The Blitz covers the bases.

Judas Priest came at us with the mighty Defenders of the Faith. What a classic followup to 82’s Screaming For Vengeance. Rob Halford and company basically knocked my bedroom door off its hinges with opening track Freewheel Burning and from there it was a full out metal assault. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll/Love Bites/ Rock Hard Ride Free and The Sentinel just crush. Even today this album still crushes. Priest had an awesome run from 1979 to 1986 with what I could their classic period. To me that is!

TNT was a band that came from my Grandmother’s birth country that is Norway. I bought this back then but for some reason could not wrap my head around it. Maybe it was the falsetto singing or maybe the songs just weren’t there but I bought this so I guess you could say for the cover. Remember Folk’s there was no iTunes/Spotify/YouTube no siree it was always a gamble on taking chances on bands that you never had heard. No try before you buy back then.

Akimbo Alogo from fellow Canuck is one of Kim Mitchell‘s best full-length albums ever! Tons of ripping guitar solos (Rumour Has It) and just some real tasty nugget tracks as in That’s a Man and Diary For RockN Roll Men. Go For Soda was the biggie single on Akimbo but for me, it’s Lager And Ale which just cranks and Wowzers check out that fab solo as well!

Hey, I’ll pay your bar tab and even the cab, baby
Off to the hotel, we’ll wallow.

Check back Thursday for another 9 pack of records from 1984!