SONIC WAVES….Led Zeppelin/Coda

1982’s Coda by Led Zeppelin is my first  Zep purchase! I was 13 when Zep packed it in December 1980 when John Bonham died and give them credit (Robert Plant/Jimmy Page/John Paul Jones)they walked away from a huge pay day …..

I missed the whole Zep deal but it was my buddy John Young(where are you?)  that I had first heard Zep! Hell he first gotten into Kiss, than Pink Floyd,Zeppelin he even dabbled a bit with Y&T (Black Tiger and Meanstreak) and aborted ship when Y&T commercialized there sound so John would always be moving onto some other musical act whereas I would study up on each group buying everything in site whether good or bad on each act and well JY wherever you are in this world! Thanks again man……

CODA is a bunch of left over songs from various recording sessions that were sitting in the vaults …..man for leftovers these are friggin classics!

WERE GONNA GROOVE- Yep we are! Listen to the beginning of this track,man Bonham lays it on thick right out of the gate and John Paul Jones drives a real cool snappy bass line and young boy Robert Plant nails done the vocals while Jimmy Page is flinging  quick bolts of riffs! This is my intro to Zep! Thank Ya much!

POOR TOM-Bonzo plays a real slick smooth drum fill! The jive of his drums carries this tune and heres Jimmy and John Paul Jones joining in and Plant delivers a real cool rock vocal! Love the harmonica I  this tune especially between breathes on the harp Plant quips “Keep Talkin!” Man this is a awesome tune!

I CANT QUIT YOU BABY- is the live track on here recorded at a sound check and man the drums sound big like cannons going off! (This is recorded from 1969!) Page riffs like a man making a deal with Satan! Plant tops it off with his vocals he sings rock style than shifts gears in the second verse while the band esp Page play lightning quick bolts of brillance! Man oh man! Zep is a powerful machine live. Bonzo Wowzers he is Zep!

WALTERS WALK-Page starts,Bonzo and John Pauly join ship and its a great track! Another all out Zep rocker and man what can you say about Plants vocals? There awesome! He knows his deal when to do the hey hey mamas and not when to do them! Fantastic singer man always has been always will be!

OZONE BABY-Love this tune! It gets right out of the gates quick with drums,bass guitar all in sync and boom were off! Plant throws down some real good vocals and like many a Zep tune Bonham smashes the crap out of his Ludwig drums and man this is powerful stuff! Crank the   Video and enter the Ozone known as Led Zeppelin!

DARLENE BABY-this could have been a huge hit but Zep rolled (no pun intended) a ton of rock hits but it’s crazy that they kept these tracks like Darlene sitting around collecting dust until Page decided to clean them off and release it. Darlene has a nice slower paced groove but let’s not kid ourselves here Bonzo drives the bus with his drums on this tune and its full steam ahead jaut not at 100 mph! Love how Zep have a ton of tempo changes but never come unglued!

BONZOs MONTREAUX-this is basically the full meal drum deal from John Bonham! It’s amazing that all of this material is from the late 60s to 1980 and the sound of the drums are huge! The sonics of Zep still sound current in the year 2015! Zep had a timeless quality and that is why Jimmy Page can keep remaster  remastered remastering the same studio albums over and over and people still purchase! That my friends is a quality no make that superior product!

WEARING AND TEARING-Zep rips out of the gate at breakneck speed and this song just drives ….fast! Page ramps up his playing while Jones and Bonzo are popping pistons  down in the engine room! Zep ends the album at a walloping pace! Man this is awesome material and it was leftovers? Like are you fucking kidding me?

(Bonus Track) HEY HEY,WHAT CAN I DO-Yup I’m breaking protocol here as I purchased  the deluxe 2015 reissue Coda and always whenever I do these reviews of these albums I don’t review the deluxe editions blah blah blah etc I just stick with what I had bought back in the day which was the original track listing!

Hey,Hey,What Can I Do man I just love this tune it fuses some real good lyrics with Plant putting aside his Arena Rock God vocals and throwing down a real chill vibe vocal whereas Page fills up the song with some cool electric/acoustic and mandolin playing while Jones and Bonham well they just stay in the zone man and they deliver one of my fav Zep tracks ever! SALUTE! Crank the video and see how Zep can rock the boat!(Ozone Baby) and also pull back the reigns with s slower paced tune that still rocks in a Zep kinda way(Hey,Hey,What Can I Do?)

IN CONCLUSION- I love this album and maybe by it being my first actual Zep Purchase maybe that has something to do with it! But all of these songs on Coda stand up on there own merit! Of course after I was hooked on Coda it was a delve back into there catalogue and what a catalogue it was! Some day I’m gonna have to review those albums as  there all classics!

Sonic Waves…The Who/Live At Shea Stadium

Let’s give this one a shout out to Rich at KamerTunes https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com

Man I love Kenney Jones period in The Who! Many don’t and fair enough. For me though I have no qualms with the guy. He showed up played his gig and recorded some albums that I like more now (2015) than I did  back than. Face Dances (1981)and Its Hard (1982)

Course Kenney was following in Keith Moons(RIP) drum steps and that’s no easy task as Moon like his nickname implied was a Loon!

If you recall back in January of this year i reviewed the mega bootlegged Live In Toronto from the Whos last show (supposed )  ever! Ha! Right?! Refresh your memories I linked it here…https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/sonic-waves-the-wholive-in-toronto/

Since 1982 The Who have toured countless times so there’s been actually no Farwell Tour just more Insert your $$$$$ here!

2015 brings the new official release of The Who Live At Shea Stadium and Rich the young lad at the time attended one of these recorded  two shows at Shea!

The Who  back than were filling football stadiums so let’s say 50,000 plus everynight with the Clash opening! Man that’s a show for the ages!

Live At Shea Is a great document of the Roger Daltry/Grumpy Pete Townshend/John Entwistle and Kenney  Jones era of the band!

The audio portion of this is mixed real good with the audience not overpowering the band and the songs come thru real crisp not cleaned up but just a real solid live sound! Its a known fact around these parts that I love live albums and Shea is no exception.

Behind Blue Eyes is the clip I posted from the Shea Dvd. Behind Blue Eyes is what I love about The Who when they start the song chill with just Townshend ( and his hip 1982ish wardrobe) and Daltry and than ooomph the song ramps up with Jonesy and the Ox joining in and for your viewing pleasure complimentary windmills from Pete. Take cover Rich from Daltrys mic spins!

The Who also bash out some tunes that weren’t on the Live From Toronto release such as Man As A Man and a ripping version  of the Beatles I Saw Her Standing There! I should also mention that this is the best live version 5:15 I have ever heard! Love the ending where they just jam it out! Off the rails of the 5:15!

This is the version of The Who I dig most…..call me silly ….

Check It Out!

 

SONIC WAVES…George Thorogood & The Destroyers/Maverick

You know back in my highschool years 1981-86 we all dug George Thorogood and his low down n dirty sleazy breezy slippin n sliding Guitar and why wouldn’t we?

A few years earlier George and The Destroyers put out the classic Bad To The Bone album with the mega hit title track and other cool tunes like Wanted Man,Nobody But Me,Boogie Chillin and for George he covered other artists tunes but I never heard the original versions so who gives a flying frisbee as young Deke is ok with George’s deal! In other words he took these cover songs( he had originals as well) and boogie woogied EM up to his own style and for young knuckleheads like myself and Tbone! Sign ussssss Up!

George and the Destroyers in 1985 release what I could say is my ultimate favourite George album and that is Maverick!

Kudos must be given to the Destroyers(Hank Carter on Sax,Bill Blough on Bass and Jeff Simon on drums) these guys cranked but in a different way! Blues, sped up shot back with a bottle of Jack laced with coke(your preference of which) and a swift hard kick of blues up the Arse!

Like Tbone sez “If you don’t start Drinkin,I’m gonna leave” naa,he never said that ….but it sounds  cool…..

GEAR JAMMER-4 times 4 straight out of the gate George rocker! The Destroyers are in the minivan slipping n sliding all over the place and man what a start! George hunkers down with his big white ass Gibson Byrdland Geetar and complimentary slides are included! Hank The Tank storms the gates with some cool Ol Sax …and what can Ya say! George is back and he told Ya so! Ha!

I DRINK ALONE-Yup the title Sez it all! This was the single from Maverick and it did quite well and it has that slow smokey Blues out brawl vibe that there’s gonna be trouble a brewin! The pace of the song sez it all and cranks up a little at the chorus! I guess George had a knack for doing Drinkin tunes. I can vision it now some record company suit telling George ” can you write some of those Drinkin tunes for radio?”

WILLIE AND THE HAND JIVE- George sings during the song  were “doing that crazy Hand Jive on MTV “now if there was ever a namedrop for self promotion that would be it! Ha! But let’s all hail Thorogood a mulligan and can Ya blame him? 1985 and not to many guys are out there like The Destroyers slugging it out with multi million acts while these guys were doing all right on there own! This tune has a cool off beat rhythm to it and it’s a good track! Sing it ” hand jive,hand jive ,hand jive ,doing that crazy hand drive!” Okie dokie George!

WHAT A PRICE-Georgie slows down the pace and that’s allright! You can’t keep the pace of Gear Jammin at full throttle! This is a good song and man the sonics are great on this album as they had Terry Manning he of ZZ Top fame producing these guys! Cool solo and just a great big Ol piece of bluesy cool!

LONG GONE-One of these days it won’t be long …you look for me, a me you won’t see! Ha! This song got tons of mileage out of Tbones tape deck In the summer of 85! This has to be my fav original Thorogood tune! It’s a joyride with George & The Destroyers. Quick guitar pickin,Hank blowing his brains out on the sax while Bill and Jeff hold down the fort with bass and drums! Crank the video I posted and you too can transport yourself back to 85 and pretend your in Tbones bad ass tank he was driving at the time and when all is said and done you too can realize just how big of Knuckleheads(word of the day here at ArenaRock)we were! Ha! Long Gone is just plain down n dirty awesome! I call it a Gem!

DIXIE FRIED-The cops are gone and I’ll be Dixie Fried! This is a Guitar players slide delight! George takes songs that aren’t his own and makes em sound like there his own! That to me is a great artist. This song keeps the album moving fast forward….great stuff!

CRAWLIN KING SNAKE-Cool Hand George plays some real cool slide with the kick drum providing the back beat! Kinda like along the similar lines of George’s One Bourbon,Scotch and Beer tune not that it sounds like that song but the best is kinda similar. See George…insert slide guitar here!

MEMPHIS-we have all heard this tune and George ramps the amps to 11 and blitzes thru this tune and you feel like your in Memphis man! Great cover version.

WOMAN WITH THE BLUES-slippery slider George plays this song with a slip n slope of slow it down boozey Blues  in this kinda Ummm would we call it a ballad,yeah we would CUZ George’s Woman Has The Blues! Hey Honey! If that’s the case go and crank Long Gone and wipe those blues away!

GO GO GO-this tune sounds like a Chuck Berry song and well it is! A quick little little ditty of a rocker tune thrown in with a added dose of slide guitars and Hanks Sax! Good end of the album song,well close to the end of the album!

BALLAD OF MAVERICK-Ballad Of Maverick is the close of this album. It’s George and his drummer dude Jeff clicking the sticks to keep George in line. It’s story time to wrap up Maverick! Thorogood man  I can see it now he just likes to slam it out loud with some serious loud slippery slide guitar,sax,bass and a side order of drums thrown in!

IN CONCLUSION-Thorogood man,loved this album upon release in 85 dig it still 30 years later…you kidding me?! My first purchase of this was along with Tbone as well on cassette tape. There was no liner notes,no credits nothing! It was years later when I rebought Maverick on cd that I realized when I seen the credits that out of the 11 tracks on Maverick,George wrote 4 tracks!

Thats the kind of talent George had I thought outside of the tune Memphis of course was the only cover song. Ha! Boy  was I fooled! That’s like what I said earlier George can take any cover and make it his own. Maverick proves this point to a T!

Great Album…..Still ……

SONIC WAVES…Jeff Healey Band/Hell To Pay

Who better than the Late Great Johnny Carson to introduce Jeff Healeys 1988 appearance on the Tonight Show with a little bit of background history on Jeff! Well done Mr Carson(1988) Watch this video from the debut album  and See The Light!

Who didn’t dig Healey(RIP)and posse around the late 80s and early 90s!? The dude played a mean strat,sang and wrote a good song,made cover tunes sound his own and put out a pretty good run of material of studio records especially the first three albums (See The Light,Feel This ) and this one Jeffs second album Hell To Pay!

1990,Jeff and his music just cook on this release…..

Also of note they brought in some heavy hitters including Mark Knopfler,George Harrison,Tbays own Paul Shaffer and my pal Space Aces favourite rock dude Jeff Lynne!

Can’t pull the wool over Jeff….he’s a Confidence Man!

FULL CIRCLE- Healey nails a scorcher of a opening riff on his Fender Strat and we’re off and due to Ed Stasium’s stellar production he has given the Healey band a real kick of sonics! Full Circle upon first listen man grabbed me and booted my hair metal ass into next week! This is the real deal! Jeff nails down a superb solo while Joe Rockman (bass) and Tom Stephen (drums) keep the beat driving! Love this tune but I think you kinda gathered that right?! Awesome stuff and a great start! Crank the video folks ……love that Hammond organ courtesy of Bobby Whitlock.

I THINK I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH-Mark Knopfler wrote and plays on this single from the Healey boys! Like any good rock track Theres a ton of riffs all over the place but it’s kept in check by both Jeff and Mark! This is a mid tempo track. This song did well for them!

I CANT GET MY HANDS ON YOU-Boom! Jeff and crew ramp it back up and this song rocks! Healey rocks this song with guitar hero solo tricks thrown in and Stephen smashes the song out on his drum kit at the end. Super duper cool verses,love the playing of Healey on this as he goes from super clean sounding Strat to the solo where he ramps up into some real cool heavy tone!

HOW LONG CAN A MAN BE STRONG-I was always ok with Jeff’s slower tunes I mean on the debut See The Light of course he had Angel Eyes so Jeff threw down the gauntlet on telling me as a young music buying whipper snapper that there was gonna be slower tunes on my albums! So for that I was ok with it! How Long is a good song and this is one of many on this record where the sound is filled out huge by keys!

LET IT ALL GO-love it love it! This song written by John Hiatt Is a great song. The tempo along with the verses and chorus are gold in my book! Super laid back chill vibe in this tune. Cowbell peeps! Like Jeff says “You gotta Let It All Go so it doesn’t burn a hole in your heart!” Should have been a huge single in my book! Than again what do I know….

HELL TO PAY-the title track and lookie at the cover with the Healey band decked out in leather! There ready to rumble in a nice Canadian kind of way! BUT when push comes to shove Jeff will crack you over the noggin with his guitar! Great tune and backing vocals on this album as well from Sass Jordan.

WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS-allrighty so Jeff pulls in the heavyweights and that would be the writer of this classic song and that’s George Harrison(RIP) who wrote this tune! Here,George sings and plays acoustic while Jeff electrifies it and plays some real cool licks. Think about for a sec…this is a Beatles classic so not only do you have to do it justice by covering this song but you bring in the actual dude who penned it! Man,that’s impressive !

SOMETHING TO HOLD ONTO-this song is a song with a quick tempo with Jeff doubling up on acoustic on electric and the Hammond B3 organ plays a huge part in the sonics on this song! The solo in this tune is one of my favs and Jeff lets loose and jsut takes it to the top!  Great song ….better solo! Actually all of Jeffs solos are classics! Who the fuck am i kidding!

HOW MUCH-the singles could have kept rolling with this one as well! How much has a real snap happy chorus,the money shot in my book along with the Sass J’s backing vocals and the use of the piano to enhance the chorus as well! This tune like many is why I love Jeffs studio stuff. By that I mean he plays his guitar during  the verses nice and cleaney but come solo time he can shift it into some nasty heavy toneage! In other words he doesn’t puss out his sound! How much is another winner here at Arena Rock!

HIGHWAY OF DREAMS-is another tune where Jeff and the boys play the song a pretty decent clip and the thing about this tune is how at the end it kinda goes a little wonky,trippy ha! But this is Jeff,Joe and Tom starting to chill out towarss the end of the record! Dig Jeffs playing in this one…..

LIFE BEYOND THE SKY-this mid tempo rock track brings Hell To Pay to a close. It’s funny revisiting this album (gulp) 25 years later that this track and Highway Of Dreams are the two that I aways never visited and well that’s my bad! These are two great songs that should not be overlooked and fair enough time to show EM some love! I like the use of Jeffs clean guitar sound on this one! I mean your don’t have to be blazing on the fretboard at 125 mph all the friggin time. This song proves this theory!

IN CONCLUSION- Hell To Pay Indeed! This is a important record folks! Give these guys there due man as in 1990 they weren’t following the hairspray musical trends of that era instead they were blazing there own path of tunes! Writing and gigging and doin it there own way! Full props man! Healey is missed no doubt about it and do yourself a favor and check Hell To Pay out………

SONIC WAVES….ZZ Top/Recycler

This Blog is for Geoff who writes a real excellent blog that you can find at 1001albumsin10years.wordpress.com   Take the time friends and check it out!

October 1990 and the Tops release Recycler and it’s the followup to Afterburner which came out 5 years earlier in 1985! So I guess the two long beards (Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill )and Stache(Frank Beard) figured it was about time right?

Recycler I have always liked and that’s maybe due to the fact that myself and Tbone caught this tour in early October 1990 a good few weeks before the actual release of the album. So perhaps that’s why maybe I like it  as much since that was the tour I saw who knows but they also threw down some real cool musical mustard on these tracks for the most part! Here’s the review of the show….https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/recycled-in-the-peg/

Tbone is still looking for La Grange!

CONCRETE AND STEEL- ZZ blast off from the start and this is a great opener! No one and I mean no one has the guitar tone of Billy Gibbons! You hear him and you know it’s him! Plus not only does he play the wicked guitar his voice is so tailor made for this band. It’s a win win. Beard on the drums and Hill on the bass push the song along and it’s the start of the decade and it’s good to have the Tops back boogie Rockin!

LOVETHING-Beard slams down some Thunder and the guitars go in slo mo and than pick up and this is a great track. Tons of percussion jives up the backing tracks and it rocks in a ZZ kinda way! Lots of good Ol sexual innuendo here in this song at Top HQ’s! 2 songs in ….2 sure fire winners!

PENTHOUSE EYES-ZZ takes off with there bluesy cool riffs mixed with Beards drums and we’re off an running to the Penthouse! Isn’t it great when ZZ gets into story telling like this two …..”can’t blame a boy for asking!” Chirps Billster and Wowzers he’s chilling in the Penthouse. Tons of slipping and sliding Blues Riff a Rolla on this track!

TELL IT-this tune is one of my favs from Recycler! TELL IT,tell it like is …Sez Billy and I’m onboard. This song is a cool little creepy crawl of boogie woogie Blues rock! Just a real good laid back tempo! What better way to introduce Gibbons guitar solo with someone chirping BANG! …that’s also the one thing about ZZ tunes not only do you get the great solos in the song but also the great outro solos that take the song out!

MY HEADS IN MISSISSIPPI-hangover is what this reminds me of! Not myself with a hangover but the two Beards and Stache with em! Gibbons voice fits this tune to a T! Cool gruff voice and real catchy guitaring add the salt to the pepper for this tune! I just love it. Crank the video folks!

DECISION OR COLLISION-bam bam this song is pure solid driving ZZ Top! A pretty good tune goes forward Into Billyvilles zone which is guitar blues rock! Good stuff…and a pretty snappy happy ZZ tune!

GIVE IT UP-love the opening riff from Gibbons. Than all the bells and whistles of ZZs driving late 80s sound is unleashed BUT this song still cooks man I love it. Now that summer is upon us when your barbecuing some juicy steaks and knocking it down your hatch with some cold suds crank this track! And invite uncle DeKEs over! Hint hint Probie! Ha!

2000 BLUES-great slow mover groover of a track! Gibbons like he always does lays down a great guitar! 200o Blues is just that Blues down low down sleazy breezy ZZ style! Sign me up!

BURGERMAN- Ok ok so ZZ even though know its 1990 old habits die hard and hey let’s toss Deke and Tbone a musical patty and call it  BURGERMAN! It’s all here a ton of toppings layered with guitars,bass and a loaded up drum sound and a loaded up ZZ! BURGERMAN though is a pretty funny tune from the two beards and stache!

DOUBLEBACK-I tell Ya I love this tune! Sure it’s from Mikey J Foxes Back To The Future Film but this song is Gold! I love the pre chorus and chorus it’s the best of what ZZ does and that’s play a catchey hook! Gibbons nails down some sleazy meaty biggie bouncy riffs of Texas Rock! ….”Running high and low don’t know which way to go I gotta DOUBLEBACK my friends”..sings Gibbons! Wowzers 25 years old this song is and I still love it as much as I did back in 90!

IN CONCLUSION-Afterburner i loved side one of that record and it kinda tailed off for me after Planet Of Women led off side 2 ..read it here….https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/sonic-waves-zz-top-afterburner/

ZZ slam back with a real solid effort and perhaps I dig this one more like i said for the fact that I caught them on the Recycler World Tour?! Who knows for sure but I will say it was a step in the right direction and i still spin this one quite frequently! ZZ was headed into the 90s and they were rolling with the changes but still doing there own deal! Good on them and good for me!

 

 

Cool Lil Numbers….Keith Richards/Take It So Hard

Special thank to ‘J’ at Resurrection Songs for reviewing Richards Talk Is Cheap album and triggering my OL noggin on this great track…..let me explain to Ya!

1988 and Keef Don’t like Mick,Mick don’t like Keef case in point Keef in Rolling Stone magazine calls Jagger’s touring solo musicians  ‘Jerk Off Band”while Mick goes and sells out the Tokyo Dome in Japan and plays Stones and Jagger’s own solo stuff(yawn)

Keef decides to finally cut a solo record and boom Take It So Hard is the lead single and man if there was a definition in the dictionary for the term Cool  Ass Kicker,Take It So Hard is a Cool Ass Kicker of a track!

When I first seen the vid for Take It So Hard on Muchmusic I was hooked man ….totally hooked! Watch the video it’s a good video and hard to believe it’s 27 years old it’s kinda futuristic look and Keef and the Winos playing in a post apocalyptic setting and this makes sense as Keef would out live everyone anyways! Dig the leg kicks,head bobs and skull ring….Keef is the deal…..

Take It So Hard has it all in the track …that opening riff is just sick! Now Keef has assembled a backing band including Steve Jordan/ Waddy Wachtel,Ivan Neville and Charlie Drayton a band Keef calls the X Pensive Winos(great name)

Well done Mr Richards on the strength of this single I bought the album and it’s good but man Take It So Hard! Does not get any better than this……and Mick hahaha….sucked it up got back with the Stones and they financially cleaned out  everyone’s wallets with the Steel Wheels album and tour…..

 

 

SONIC WAVES….ZZ Top / Afterburner

2 years after the mega selling Eliminator comes Afterburner in Oct of 1985 and to me it’s sides 3 and 4 to Eliminator. ZZ boys decide if it ain’t broke we ain’t fixing! But along with the no fixin claus someone in the Top Organization decides to jack up the synth,throw down some drum machines and  embrace the musical sounds of the mid 80s hard rock style. Plus the cover was cool as they took the ZZ car and torqued up into a rocket ship looking car! Kudos to ZZ there going into frontiers unknown!

ZZ  stays the course and me for one I’m ok with it kinda as Eliminator was solid top to bottom Afterburner lags a little behind but it’s not  close to 3/4’s Filler material here at Arena Rock!

Billy/Frank and Dusty fire up the Afterburners(Ha) and take off and hey where did that dang drum machine go…….

SLEEPING BAG- cue Frank Beard and the drum machine and some robotic musical patterns and whoosh thank God here comes Billy with his guitar and uhhey this has too be the coolest song ever written about a Sleeping Bag. This is total 80s sound in production trickery. All the bells and whistles are here folks including ,Jesus ? Is Frank Beard even playing drums ? Beats me but man 80s ZZ Top is a different beast than 1970s ZZ Top as Tbone had bought Fandango and man it’s one side live one side studio and them dudes on Fandango don’t sound anything like the slick polished Afterburner dudes !

STAGES- ahh this sounds familiar. This song rocks straight ahead with Gibbon’s guitar driving the tune cool catchy song and was one of the singles that did well for them.

WOKE UP WITH WOOD- what a great title! This is top heavy with the synthy rhythms and beats and shit but man it’s once again like Quirkey Top. I love this tune and still do! The  solo, the outro solo is real good as well! Hey ladies be careful lying next to a piece of wood and no I’m not warning you!! Billy Gibbons/ Frank Beard and Dusty Hill are warning Ya!

ROUGH BOY- ah yes track 4 and it time to slow the brakes down. Just like Eliminator with that track number 4 ( I Need You Tonight) ZZ plays some power spacey blues that I guess it’s as close to a ZZ ballad as any. Well played and Billy, well played guitar as always! Love his sound!

CAN’T STOP ROCKING- Dusty takes over and this is 4/4 ZZ saying hey we can chillax with the Rough Boy but we ain’t staying quiet for too long….

PLANET OF WOMEN- oh yeah…one of my all time fav ZZ tunes! This song rips right out of the gate and Billy tells us he’s a nervous wreck that the girls are everywhere so check it out! Hahahaha….love it man. Super catchy chorus and wickedly good Gibbon’s solo!

I GOT THE MESSAGE- drums drums and more electronic drums Done ZZ Style….this song is pretty much saved by Billy Gibbon’s guitaring which punches in and punches out on this track! It’s pretty amazing listening back to this album after a lot of years that ZZ was firmly entrenched into 1985 musically. I mean man other bands at the time like Duran Duran were using the electronics and basically they made me wanna puke where as When ZZ dialed up 1-800-ZZ-Drums they made it at least sound cool!

VELCRO FLY-ha….big time lets makie bakie a single and shove it through some electronic gadgets and see what it pukes out! Velcro Fly is upon us! This is one that I did not play much…..I think they have a tuity fruity video of this as well…..c’mon Billy dump some cool ripping guitar will Ya….speaking of the vid …Jesus was that Dusty playing the keyboard in the vid? Single single singles……chasing the hits but can Ya blame em? They had tons o hits on Eliminator so how does that not play in your noggin when your,lazing around eating tacos,drinking tons of Corona and trying to cut 10 tracks for Afterburner?

DIPPING LOW (IN THE LAP OF LUXURY)- pretty catchy harmony vocals in this tune and its a better track than Velcro Fly! Haha…Billy slaps,down some cool guitar and ZZ sees the finish line!

DELIRIOUS- Dusty rocks up with his second lead vocal….this song is pretty good for a ending tracks but ZZ falls thru the trap door with the robotic sounding vocal of Delirious! the vocal of the chorus reminds me of Styxs Mr Roboto…Hahahaha….but at least ZZ goes to the ends with a rocker of a track !

IN CONCLUSION- ZZ doesn’t want the payday to end and neither do we,so millions buy Afterburner including of course myself and Tbone. Afterburner for me is a good record but over time after the 6th song (Planet Of Women )the album kinda lags a little and its one of those albums that I did not find one of those end of album Gems(as I call em) like I did on the previous Top album with If I Could Only Flag Her Down. So for me ZZ still pass I mean, here I am at the time In  1985,17 years old and these Ol Fuzzy Beards write a tune called Woke Up With Wood……hahaha…..classic ….the one big gripe over time is the drums on this album. Too many studioery gadgets and bells and whistles ringing off but man you still got Gibbon’s and his guitar. Plus the dude sings a cool chill vocal…..Dusty and Frank, my question is are you two hombres even on this record?