Born In The USA Vs Reckless! Hows that for a throw down? Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams had two of the biggest selling records back in 1984 that went well into 1985.
Who came out on top you ask? Click the link above and give it a watch as deKe and Jex try to figure it all out in this jam packed 30 minute episode.
Thanks Folks!
Once again my pal Darr contributed his own review which is fan-friggin-tastic!
“Been thinking bout this Reckless vs born in the USA album thing. Damn both albums are great. Dancing in the Dark is probably my fav Springsteen song, but also love I’m on Fire and I’m Going Down….not a weak track on this album. As for Adams, Reckless is only my 2nd favourite album of his. Into The Fire will always be my fav. Kids Wanna Rock and Run To You even though I’ve heard them sooo many times, just can’t get sick of them. Heaven was never my fav, but as far as ballads go, not bad. After a lot of thought…. On a scale of 1 to 10″ Born in the USA – 9.0 Reckless – 8.5
I can admit that it wasn’t until the Summer of 69, oops I mean the Summer of ’85 that I really got on board with the “Reckless” opus that was selling like hotcakes but had already been out in the shops since November ’84.
Bryan Adams was everywhere that summer as it was only a matter of time before I took the plunge and originally bought it on cassette tape.
Why the wait you ask? Simple. I had to stretch my funds until my summer job of washing dishes at the hospital. If Maiden, Priest, AC/DC, RUSH were to release music they took priority over everyone else musically that is.
Oh yeah add Rock Mags to that list!
So once young dEke’s had a little money in his pocket going Jing a little Jing I liked what I heard from the continuous rotation of Adams videos on MuchMusic!
“Run To You*,” One Night Love Affair”, “Heaven”, “It’s Only Love”, “Summer of ’69”, “Somebody”, basically more half the album was already out as singles so I liked what I heard especially the guitar chops of Keith Scott** who its say to safe is in my all time TOP 10 of 6 stringers!
But I have to say its those other four songs that seal the deal and they are not fillers by any stretch of the imagination.
“Kids Wanna Rock” (listen to those guitar licks courtesy of Mr. Scott), “Long Gone”, album closer “Ain’t Gonna Cry” (what an end of the album scorcher) and one of the best songs on “Reckless” that being “She’s Only Happy When She’s Dancing” which has a Stonesy like guitar riff during the chorus and features the great Lou Gramm on backing vocals!
An absolute beginning of the record GEM! (see what I did there Mr. Geoff Stephen?)
After “Reckless” I was onboard with what ever Adams was putting out up until after his “Unplugged” release as for some reason Adams found the light fluffy avenue of rock and decided to stay on that street.
Fair enough…
But..
“Reckless” and the one that followed “Into The Fire”(1987) are such great pieces of rock that always deserve a spin at Arena Rock HQ’s!
I have an VHS insert in case Ladano wants to order a copy..
*- Adams offered Blue Oyster Cult “Run To You” in which B.O.C turned Adams down so Bryan recorded it and kept it for himself.
Adams= Genius
Blue Oyster Cult= Dumb Ass Move
**- When Eddie Van Halen lists you as one his fav’s, I think it’s safe to say your doing something right on that 6 string!
This is a live Bryan Adams (1996) from London England and back in 96 I was kinda starting to get leery what Adams was doing. His album at the time 18 Til I Diewas ok to say the least. The title track is real good though. Check it out below thanks to Mr Vevo!
After 18 Til I Die I basically bought one more Adams album and that was it. I will go on record right here saying that guitarist Keith Scott is brilliant. If you don’t believe me ask Ed Van Halen.
So here we are in 2017 and 21 years later comes this Live At Wembley show which thanks to John at his site 2loud2oldmusic had mentioned on his Friday New Release Post about this album.
Off to iTunes and Bam, another purchase. Thanks John!
Adams opens this 24 song set with The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You followed by Do To You which features some nifty like Keith Scott riffs with the aid of the harmonica. For a couple of newbie tracks these cut across pretty good live.
Of course with this album Adams biggie record Reckless is featured predominately and why wouldn’t it! It sold millions and millions . Out of the 24 songs 7 are featured. You know the usual one’s (Heaven/Kids Wanna Rock/Somebody/Summer of 69/Run To You/It’s Only Love which features Melissa Etheridge) are represented from Reckless but the one I was glad to see here was She’s Only Happy When She’s Dancing. I dig the Stones like riffage of Adams/Scott with the guitars during the chorus. Such a Great Track!
There are a few goofy spots in the track I Wanna Be Your Underwear and that Robin Hood Track two songs in which I never really dug….
But out of 24 ( which also includes a few cover songs as well) tracks that isn’t to shabby and just like Reckless,1991’s release Waking Up TheNeighbours(great studio album wishin House Arrest was on here)has a bunch of tracks as well especially Touch The Hand and There Will Be Never Be Another Tonight which are great songs featuring the driving drums of Mickey Curry. Everyone goes on about the songs on Waking Up as being like Def Leppard. Course they are as don’t kid yourselves folk’s as producer Mutt Lange has more of a hand in the sound of Leppard than ya think.
In other words Mutt Lange writes how he writes and that’s his deal. Artists like Lep/Adams and Twain made zillions of dollars ..
Back to the task at hand….
Live At Wembley being a 1996 recording is a welcome release in 2017.
If you need a fixin of Adams N Roll. Wembley will do the trick!
Darr I have known for about as long as I have known Tbone and there’s a simple explanation for that and the answer would be that Darr is TBones younger brother( not by much though!)
Darr growing up got the knowledge of all good things Rock from myself and Tbone! Basically it worked like this. I would buy the product. Than pass it on to Tbone and from the inner sanctum of Tbones Basement Bedroom Darr would hear and be and be captivated by the Sonics Of Rock ….
Like what I did to Tbone I loaded up a syringe of Roth Era Van Halen and shot Darr up ! From there he gathered up all things Rock(1987-88 or so) and found his own path. Digging around buying stuff and I would occasionally check in to see his growing Cassette Collection growing by leaps and bounds. After a short while I knew my work with Darr was done!
So here we are almost 30 years later and when I posted my Top 20 Albums on Facebook Darr delivered and real Super Duper List like along with his old brother as like all good friends do to another I called them out publicly!
After Darr posted to my FaceCrack page his Top 20 and we bantered a bit I knew I had to yammer about his selections.
Time To Dissect…..See Darr’s Top 20 Below….
The Cult Electric and Guns N Destruction just like Tbones and my list made the cut! 1987 Babee……
Aerosmiths Pump(1989) makes an appearance and why wouldn’t it? Its SoberAero but it still reeks some sleaze ball like slickness that is a classic for sure and just like the Aero albums of Toys In The Attic and Rocks. Steve-o and Joe put the ballad right at the end of the album and I’m real fuckin good with this move! Not a dud on this album and as we had all seen this tour in Winnipeg(March 1990) that may have swayed Darr somewhat but make no bones about Pump! It’s a bonfide classic!
Like his older brother,Darr selected ZZ Tops Eliminator and this little Texas Nugget rocks bad ass! ZZ Nation is alive and well with the brothers in Tbay!
Heres something that Darr pulled out of the Rule box and was a pure genius move! He selected Two Van Halen Albums! Now the rules were you couldn’t pick two albums by the same band so Darr picked the Van Halen debut(1978) with Dave Roth singing and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)with Sammy Hagar singing. True its the same band in name but two different animals in the studio! Van Halens debut is the juggernaut of Guitar Brilliance and the Vocal Shenanigans of Roth while F.U.C.K is Sam fueled with his own spin on tunes like the immortal Poundcake,Right Now and how could we forget Spank! HA! Not to be outdone Darr even selected Dave’s Eat Em And Smile as a Top 20 ….Well Played Darr….
Whitesnake before that Crazy Cougar slid all over hoods of cars made Darr’s list with Slide It In!(1984) Great add Darr as the late great Cozy Powell slams those drums and you have John Sykes( playing chill before he’s let loose a few years later on the 1987 album) along with others like Jon Lord and David Coverdale singing about everything Sex,Sex and more Sex! Hey Sex sells so Slide It In!
AC/DC take Darr on the Highway To Hell(1979) and He’s not coming back folks! Night Prowler,Get It Hot are some Gems there that never get discussed and they should! I need to review that bad boy someday!
Bryan Adams with Into The Fire resonated with Darr and this is another great surprise! This album at the time when released in 1987 kinda stalled publicly as it wasn’t Reckless Part Deux! Adams served up a change ball to us and for Darr he took the pitch! Atta Boy! Hearts On Fire from this album is one of the best tunes I think Adams ever wrote!
Bono and U2 make the grade and you can read my thoughts on TBones post about Achtung Baby(1991).
But a real deadly pick was The Black Crowes with Shake Your Money Maker(1990) Holeee Fudge Darr! This is easily a piece of Rock Gold! Those two wacky Robinson Brothers nailed this one out of the park and into the next decade,make that two and half decades and the album still cooks! Thick N Thin I just love ..no we love it all!
Like on a few lists Def Leppard shows up and for Darr Its pyro rock n roll with Pyromania (1983). What can I say about a album launching sonics into another stratosphere ….Man Oh MAN……
Darr does not leave the Canadian Rock behind and picks Rushs debut from 1974 with John Rutsey on the drums and Darr must have taken a shine to the throwback sound of the debut. Why Not? This little debut cooks quicker than Tbone frying Finnish Pancakes in the morning after a hard nights Drinkin!
Tragically Hip show up 20 years later after Rushs debut with Day For A Night(1994) and compared to my fav of the Hip Road Apples Day For Night is darker more moodier than Apples kinda like as if the Hip were to take a sledgehammer to a bag of Apples! Day For Night would come to fruition! Mopey Hip but it works! Grace Too is a beauty of a opener!
‘Here I Am I’m On The Scene’ so says Gordie Johnson and Big Sugar are here with 1998s Heated a mash-up of ZZ Top and Bob Marley with a huge dose of fuzzed up reggae like tones! Even Randy Bachman plays on Let it Ride and old BTO nugget that Bachman wrote…Sweet add as well….
Rest In Peace! Cupids Dead! Yup that would be Three Sides To Every Story(Yours, Mine And The Truth) by Extreme and can you once again say Shock A Roo! Darr dug deep into his Sonic LunchBook and Wowzers Nuno and Gary would be pleased to see this! Pretty impressive that back in Grunge 92 these boys could toss out a solid rock record and still have it sell….somewhat!
Dazed And Confused a soundtrack that features amongst others a whose who of Classic Rock! Sabbath,Kiss,Foghat,Cooper,Sweet! There all here…..crank it,drink it,snort it whatever it may be! Added bonus points to Mr Darr for this being the first Soundtrack on any list I seen! A round of Kudos please!
Darrs last couple of picks that I’m gonna talk about are real cool one of which I’m familiar with and one I’m not with…
Jack Whites Lazaretto just was released two years ago(2014) Too be honest my old buzzard mind has no idea about anything about this release but if Darr included It Lazaretto must be a Solid Ball Of Rock! Great pick and perhaps one I should seek out myself and Darr can load up the Sonic Syringe and shoot me up with a dose of Jack Rock!
Beastie Boys Paul Boutique came out in 1989 and I even bought this on cassette and it was a huge departure as for myself I was weened on Fight For Your Right To Party from 1986 but man The Beasties change-up the sonic atmosphere and well how about a round of applause for “Shake Yo Rump” Ha…love that tune Mega Pumping Bass! Darr not only stepped out of the box on these two albums but he kicked the snot out of the box! Well done Son!
Actually out of Darr’s Top 20 list I have only reviewed 4 of these 20 picks. So I hope you’s all dug it!
This past Saturday(April 14/16) Stick It In Your Ear reader Jon (who runs his own fantastic website which you should check out here by clicking the link and reading about everything Rock!)
posted on his FaceBook Page his Top 20 which Jon also said you could have easily done a Top 40 Fav Album List! True That!
Jon had some real cool albums such as Whitesnake(Slide It In) Y&T (Meanstreak) Motley Crue(Shout At The Devil) and KISS Alive amongst others!
It got me thinking about my Top 20 (a few months ago we did a Top 15 list with fellow WordPress Bloggers which was a ton of fun to see people’s tastes in music and books etc). So via Jon’s page I clicked the link and voila right to the page to enter my Top 20!
It was easy to do and entered in my Top 20. So I linked it right to Facebook went my list and first order of business was issuing a bit of a fun challenge to others as what your favourite 20 albums would be! Only could be studio releases(no live albums) and one album per artist as I would have loaded up on VH, old Aero,old Kiss,Maiden,AC /DC and that would have been it….hahaha…No Cheatin!
Tbone(whom I have known for 4 Decades!) right away came through in the clutch as he posted right away his list ( T’s list is at the top of the page) and it was great to compare! A buddy of mind Tony also posted his Top 20 but he broke the rules with as Tbone typed “19 Anvil compilations and High N Dry don’t count!” Hahaha….Seriously though thanks for participating Tony and how about a shout out to Blackie Lawless!
My Top 20 you can see posted just below……
It’s cool to see and compare lists with Tbone….I thought a post about Tbones Top 20 along with my usual smart ass comments would be a fun thing to talk about ….Shall we…?!
We are on the same page with The Cults Electric and Guns N Destruction albums and it’s kinda cool to see that back in the year that both of these albums were released (1987) myself and Tbone turned 20 years young and that Guns had opened up for The Cult on the Electric Tour! Yup groundbreaking info here! Hahaha…..
Of course Rush would be there as Tbone tossed in Moving Pictures which was basically our introduction to Rush that year of 1981 when we started at Lakeview High School and quickly learned that Rush had played at our very own School back in 1973!
I was very surprised and glad to see Maidens Number Of The Beast (1982)on there! Ha….Tbones parents at the time probably thought he was gonna burn down a church after they could hear the Air Raid Sirens wails of “6-6-6 The One For You And Me!” resonating from his bedroom. I’m sure his parents were relieved when they heard Bryan Adams Reckless(1984) which itself is a solid pick T! It is indeed an all time slab of great CanRock that even to this day does not sound dated! Another great call is Tom Pettys solo album Full Moon Fever and its 40 minutes of an Ass Kicker Album!
Speaking of Maiden a few sentences back I went with Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son! Moonchild is one of the best opening tracks on any Maiden album….EVER!
I take full Blame and responsibility on Tbone hoping aboard the HALEN Tour Bus Sonically that is and it didn’t surprise me in the least to see Fair Warning (1981) on his list! I mean any of those first 6 Dave Roth Albums could easily be in The Top 20 no problem! Speaking of Roth. Bam! Here comes Eat Em And Smile (1986 ) and with that kick ass musical combo Dave had behind him(Vai,Sheehan,Bisonette and Tuggle) we spent many an hour chatting up songs like Bump And Grind,Big Trouble and Elephant Gun and wishing we were Dave(1980s Dave that is)….Another great pick T!
U2 with Achtung Baby we both could have had on our list easily and perhaps I should have as well but man Bono annoys me …..Achtung though what a brilliant album and along with the production angle of Lanois/Eno is so groundbreaking and to this day to my ears is still one of the best sounding studio albums! Not as good as Rick Rubin’s produced Cult Electric Album mind you but Achtung holds it own..
Great call on ZZ Tops Eliminator Tbone! Man how could I miss that one? I could have easily bumped out Cheap Tricks Dream Police for that It goes without saying that Tbone dug deep into this list and pulled out some Gems! After which Tbone drank deep into his Scotch! Haha…
Safe to say Standing Hampton(1981) by Sammy Hagar is the Ultimate Shock A Roo! What a fantastic add! I just about spilled or was it spit out my coffee at that pick… Like I said earlier T did his homework and stepped up! Course this album features Heavy Metal and One Way To Rock but how about I’ll Fall In Love Again and Baby’s On Fire….easy peasy pickins! It’s a great album as it has a good sound as Sam I Am hadn’t fallen Into those 80s trappings of whiney synths!
Nice to see Tbone select Stone Temple Pilots (1994) as well here with the Purple album and this was when we saw STP open for The Stones in Toronto on the Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour! Not to be outdone I selected Superunknown(1994) by Soundgarden! Man I love Cornell’s voice! Limo Wreck is a classic ! The Stones both made our lists with Tbone selecting Sticky Fingers and me going with Some Girls! Another band match was Zep with Tbone tossing down Zep 4 and Ol DeKEs dialing up Physical Graffiti!
Tbone rolling with Aerosmiths Toys In The Attic and myself choosing Rocks are actually no brainers as it proves without a doubt that me and Tbone like our Aero slopped up when Steve n Joe were loaded up on party treats (special mention must be given to Done With Mirrors) and wrote real cool songs before they became that AeroSap Band doing soundtracks and wanting to become something they weren’t ….
Another Shock A Roo pick from T would be Mr Books favourite band Sloan with Navy Blues! How can you go wrong with She Says What She Means,Izzy and Angus and the classic DC stolen riff of Money City Maniacs! Exactly you can’t! Did not see this one coming as well but a real good pick!
I went with another Canadian Band and that’s The Tragically Hip with Road Apples (1991) actually any of their first four albums I could have picked! I love Road Apples as it reeks Canadiana,smells of Weed and Cold Canadian Beer! ” You Just Hit Me Where It Hurts,I Guess It Felt Quite Primitive!” Bellows lead singer Gord Downie during Twist My Arm! Great track!
Bon Jovi with New Jersey(1988) made Tbones cut and fair enough as it was a strong album (the tour for it was a real good show)and still holds up well by today’s standard! Too bad Jon has currently disintegrated a once great act into a big pile of Music Poop!
Tbone sneaks In Collective Soul’s (1985) self titled second album which is a great rock record. Ross Childress plays some real supped up leads while Ed Roland is a talented singer songwriter! My only knock are the drums sound programmed but still great songs especially the opener “Simple!”
Before I let you all get back to reality(thanks for reading) how could we not talk about AC/DC pre Axl Rose era! T says Highway To Hell(1979). DeKEs says Flick Of The Switch(1983)Can’t go wrong with either! Tons of salty lyrics (Rising Power and Beating Around The Bush) Lotsa Angus! What more do you need?
Def Leppard with its mega zillion selling album Hysteria (1987) made TBones Grade while I prefer the hard rock stylings of High N Dry(1981). Both are classics and like I have said in every Lep review I have done that once Steve Clark died lots of creativity in the riff department went to heaven with him…..
Holeeeee Shatz! This kinda went on but it was fun to go down memory lane sonically with my pal of 40+ years! (WHUT?) Thanks for reading and well….
Back in early February I was lucky enough to visit the great city of Vancouver British Columbia and hangout with my good friends Metal Todd and his wife Nicole. On one rainy Friday afternoon Nicole asked me if I wanted to check out Stanley Park. “Hell’s Yes!” said I and after having lunch along with Metal Todd’s brother Jordan(Metal Todd unfortunately was working) Myself and Nic started the drive towards Stanley Park. Traffic though was backed up quite a bit(downtown) so in between our conversations in the background Nic had her radio dial set on Jack Fm 96.6.
Jack Fm is not a metal Station. They do play rock so I thought it would be fun and different to write about some of the songs that to be honest a lot of these tunes I don’t own but due to their success years ago between radio and video airplay there etched in my brain somewhere.
These songs are ones I do remember and are not in any particular order.
One Week-Barenaked Ladies,and when we were having lunch we talked about Quirkiness and of course I spun the angle of music Quirkiness and for myself that would be Cheap Trick(old school quirky) The Cars (new wave quirky ) and Weezer (alternative quirky). When we were stuck in traffic on came One Week and Nic stated “Speaking Of Quirkiness!” BNL are just that this song is goofball-itis with its goofy half rap,bit of talk ,bit of rock. But I tell Ya the part when BNL goes into the pre chorus is the hook! Frigg man a catchy hook is a catchy hook.
Jesse’s Girl-Rick Springfield man I remember when this song hit huge pay dirt when I was in Highschool. It was a staple on Casey Kasem’s Top 10 weekly countdown Saturday afternoons at 12 pm on TV. I think it crossed over into my buddy Mucs house as he had a copy of Working Class Dog! Rick being the troublemaker wants his buddy’s chick. Ahh shit this ain’t gonna end very well Rick! Walk away dude ….walk away!
This Time-More Canadian Rock via Mr Adams. This Time is a great catchy tune. The verses are the money shot here with that eery creepy keyboard lurking in the background (with blasts of huge percussion like gun shots)and this is (pre sappy Robin Hood ballad )Adams before he made a huge dent in the music scene but after this and many other singles from Cuts Like A Knife everyone knew Adams deal! When you think of Canadian AOR Rock. This track has to be in the mix.
Holiday-Green Day kick some ass on this track! The drums courtesy of Tre Cool drive the Day Train to the Station while Billy Joe Armstromg lays down a good vocal and the pre chorus and chorus are real good! Great song!
The Joker-Who doesn’t have Steve Millers Greatest Hits hold your hands up. Yup I got this and it’s the only Steve Miller Band album I own. Props to this guy as he can tour every year just playing the Hits! The Joker is a laid back no make that a real laid back tune. Space Cowboy indeed! Now I know what your gonna say. Deke likes a Greatest Hits set? Yup this one is a all time great! Think I may have to review it at some point!
Mrs Robinson- Out of all the tracks here this one caught my ear right away as I hadn’t heard it about 20 years! The Lemonheads were their name and cashing out a one hit wonder cover was the game. They do it justice and the bass on this is fantastic as it pushes the tune along and of course for good measure toss in some catchy ‘ do do do’s ” etc and it’s a sure-fire winner! Whatever happened to that Evan Dando guy anyways! This song was a great flashback…
Now. Metal Todd drove me out to the airport a day later and it was God Flesh that was playing in his car and what better way to start your day with some Real Metal at 6:30 am! Aaaaaaaarghhhhh M-E-T-A-L!!
Great story Metal Todd told me as these guys especially the singer/guitarist( Justin Broadwick) crashed and burned literally personally and professionally and a few years later bounced back with the bass player(G.C Green) and with a drum machine metalled their way back to the public even into a Vancouver a show at which Metal Todd tossed the horns live at them in salute!
FYI- Vancouver Shakedown by Nazareth(video posted) was not played on the radio that day! I needed a cool title for this little tale of visiting the Big City! Cool old school Naz tune! Enjoy!
You know artists nowadays are reliving those (ahem) Glory Days by releasing previous works from say 20 – 30 years ago and well some saturate the market with compilations (take a bow KISS,Aerosmith and The Who!) whereas some come out of left field and surprise me the listener like holy shit these guys were sitting on this material for all these years.
Case in Point are two recent releases that I purchased via ITunes and those two would be The Tragically Hips Fully Completely and Bryan Adams Reckless both deluxe editions and both done how deluxe editions should be done!
High Tide And Green Grass….here’s the Hip!
Tragically Hip/Fully Completely-so when this release came out in 1992 over 1 million Canadians bought this disc and man that’s impressive in Canada and there was the Hip 3 years earlier playing Crocks N Rolls ( bar) in Tbay (1989)and than 3 years later moving a million copies! (1992)WTF comes to mind!
So once I seen on iTunes preorders back in early October of this year about a Fully Completely deluxe edition I thought yeah,yeah another studio remaster or so they say of the studio album but when I clicked open the Album on iTunes to see it was like 28 songs including 2 songs never released (An early version of So Hard Done By & Radio Show) and a full show from the Horsehoe Tavern in Toronto the day that Fully Completely was released back in 1992! I can’t believe the Hip held onto this show for so long and I tell Ya man I think it’s there best ever live show I have heard! Gordie Downie is off his rocker but he pulls off the songs perfectly vocally. And of course Gordie is Gordie like at the beginning of 50 Mission Cap he’s hollering HMV,HMV,HMV and at the end of 50 Mission Cap he tells the crowd he has his new cross trainers on! Plus a few of his stories to intro the songs I can’t even repeat here because I’m sure WordPress would punt me off the blog! Bobby Baker and Paul Langlois guitars have never sounded better man this band is on fire! All of Fully Completely is played live and two of my favs being Looking For A Place To Happen and The Wherewithal are exceptional along with Twist Your Arm thrown in for good measure from Road Apples!
This my friends is how a deluxe edition should be! Some unreleased studio tracks and a super duper live unedited show and Bingo we got ourselves a deal here folks!Who was ever in charge at Hip Central for this should be totally commended for a job well done!
Also of note this just cost $9.99 as well! Another smart selling point but for this kind of edition I would have payed double for it. It’s that good! Plus it’s good to see the Hip aren’t gouging the fans at the til on this one!(take note $immon$ & $tanley)
Next here comes the milk and cookies guy but man Adams knows how to write a snappy hook….
Bryan Adams/Reckless- wowzers 30 years since Reckless?? Shit Tbone your old! Ha seriously this is another well thought out release. So what Ya get is the full Reckless release with 7 unreleased tunes from the Reckless sessions including the title track of the album that was never used! The other tracks are Let Me Down Easy,Draw The Line,Play To Win,Too Hot To Handle and two of real interest to me and they would be Teacher Teacher the song that Adams/Vallance handed over to 38 Special and Boys Nite Out a song that they also handed over to KROKUS for there Blitz album! As a added bonus a 15 song show from Londons Hammersmith Odeon from 1985 is added as well and no Adams does not say “Scream For Me Hammersmith’! Hahaha….
Well done and played show from the height of his career and man I never heard any of this before so to me it’s Gold! As per protocol Adams band including the great Keith Scott lay it down perfect as usual!
Basically the Adams Reckless set is 32 songs and goes for $15.99 on iTunes as well. A great deal.
IN CONCLUSION- these Deluxe editions stand out for me as great additions to anyone’s music library. The Hip and BAdams know how to do it properly and man they came thru in spades! With Xmas fast approaching throw em down on your wish list! Trust me you will be glad you did!
The vids are pretty neat as well. The Adams clip is the title track from Reckless that was unreleased til 2014! Pretty cool,Adams releases the Reckless album in 1984 and leaves the title track off! That’s when you know you have a solid album full of tunes!
30 years ago huh?? Ok let’s see 1984 the top releases for me would have been of course Van Halens 1984(actually released on the last day of 1983 to fulfil record company contractual obligations for a new VH release in 1983!) Iron Maidens Poweslave,Sammy Hagars V.O.A,Ratts Out Of The Cellar,Judas Priests Defenders Of The Faith,Whitesnakes Slide It In,Rushs Grace Under Pressure and I’m sure there are others but let’s move on shall we?
So Bryan Adams I knew of course but did not own any of his material as the local radio played the shit out of Straight From The Heart to the point where the song was played to death and ugh! BUT I did cut him some real cool rock slack as he and his co writer Jim Vallance did cowrite those two ass kickin Kiss tunes on there Creatures Of the Night release(War Machine and Rock N Roll Hell) so I had a little street cred for him but than he stepped up and came out with Reckless!
So Adams delivers the first single Run To You and basically all of us were running to the record store! Holy crap guitar rock with a slick commercial big time sounding record and viola! Me,Tbone and millions of others lapped up Reckless!
Ok,so here it goes …here’s what Bryan and Jimbo (Vallance) dropped on our laps!
ONE NIGHT LOVE AFFAIR- Adams comes rocking out with upon first listen a slick commercial sounding hard rock this piece of the Reckless pie is gonna be. Pretty damn good says I and its ok for young Deker to come out of his Iron Maiden bunker to listen to some good ol Canadiana Rock! What’s also apparent is the top notch band that Adams has with him especially Keith Scott to this day who still slings the six string in his band!
SHES ONLY HAPPY WHEN SHES DANCING- you know my deal with album sleeper tracks. Songs that are just as good if not better than the hit singles that propelled albums to mass sales and this ladies and gents is one! I love the driving guitar on this track especially at the chorus where it sounds to me like Ronnie and Keef from the Stones man how can ya not go wrong?! Also of note is Adams voice is tailor made for these kind of tunes unlike that Robin Hood soundtrack drivel that was to come!
RUN TO YOU- Ok kids here’s a little ol wee rock trivia for ya all! Run To You was originally submitted to Blue Oyster Cult and they turned it down!! So Adams cooked it up on his own and mega fame happened whereas BOC picked up the Reaper and went back to playing the bars! Bad career move and you know what at the beginning of Run To You I can hear Don’t Fear The Reaper in Scott’s guitar! So I guess Vallance/ Adams wrote it with that in mind. Big time catchy hook and man throw down some percussion and Adams raspy singing and that equals hits and there was more to come !
HEAVEN- I knew getting into this Reckless deal that yep we gonna be going down Adams Avenue and hang a left onto PowerBallad drive! Boom Heaven sold tons put Reckless over the top in sales and people well girls especially went ape shit for this song! Now these tunes were never really my deal but for some reason this one did and I think it was the eeerie creepy keyboard during the chorus which give it some street cred like Adams is saying hey honey were in heaven but were also three short steps to hell! Darr,Tbone and Rugg! You knew I had to go there !
SOMEBODY-wow how many singles already? And here’s another one Adams just drives the bus on this one and we all hoped on board! Big backing vocals carry the tune with once again Scotts guitar and he lays down cool lick after cool lick. I love this guys playing as Keith knows what his deal is in the Adams band. Play cool riffs,keep it simple and make cash and to this day he still doing it! Atta boy Mr Scott!
SUMMER OF 69- do I really have to talk about this one? I will leave this one blank and you can all debate whether it’s actually about the summer of 69 or sumthin else???
KIDS WANNA ROCK- Scott and Adams lay down some mean riffing in the commercial rock spectrum and it works. This is Adams driving his delivery truck down a one way street and telling everyone in sight that everywhere he goes the Kids Wanna Rock. It’s a cool song and it gets ya pumped in a pumpy kind of way! More like I said great guitar action!
ITS ONLY LOVE- cue guitar riff to start off this tune and the ol cougar Tina Turner is on the prowl for young Bryan and it’s all good from where i stand as well Keith Scott just nails down another memorable solo I mean how many times have you mummed this riff? Fuck man this guy is underrated on guitar! Solo gem after solo gem!
LONG GONE-is a cool rocker a different kinda pace and tune and it’s good to see that Adams is ok with not writing every song to get on the radio I mean he relased 6 singles off of Reckless like Holy shit that’s crazy nowadays your lucky to crack 3 singles. If your lucky as no one buys records after the second week of release as all the diehards snap it all up on week 1!
AINT GONNA CRY OVER YOU- Keith Scott says Allrighty lets rip this one out of the gate and kick it into next week and this is another one of my faves and it’s good to see Adams ending Reckless on a hard rocking note! Bryan Ain’t Gonna Cry Over You?! Why would he! Reckless sold millions and shot him to the top! Cool use of the keys in this tune! Thanks to everyone who made this album for not sapping out the sound and burying the guitars under the keys!
IN CONCLUSION- Reckless was and is a great rock record! Straight ahead. No frills and just a super cool well structured little pop ditties that still hold and sound great today! Adams is releasing a 30 year deluxe package this month (November) and sometimes when bands do this they drop the ball but Adams has stepped up! His version includes of course all of Reckless plus about 6 or 7 studio tracks and some like Teacher Teacher who he wrote for 38 Special and Boys Nite Out which Krokus covered so ya can hear his originals of those songs and man that’s cool plus throw down a 15 track live show from the Reckless tour and guess what ?? 30 years later I’m rebuying this due to the fact that’s how you do a deluxe edition and plus it’s a good frigging record!
This pic apperaed the next day in the Winnipeg Free Press. We were about 10 feet from the stage and oh yeah that’s me dead center in the hood wearing the horn rimmed Harry Potter type glasses circa 1992. (Also that’s my hand waving)Pretty cool knowing there was 27,000 rockers behind me! Where the hell are ya TBone ??
So Bryan Adams is cruising Canada with Nuno,Steve,Sass and some Deadbeat guys! Playing out-door shows along the way so when word reached Tbay we were in for the drive to Winnipeg to catch this show outside of Winnipeg at a huge outdoor field you know the deal one road in the same road out so you know there was massive amounts of cars,trucks,Busses and of course it rained out all day and it did affect the show(more on that later)
So we (myself,Al and Cementhead)arrived at the Birds Hill Park which was I think about an hours drive out of the Peg or so and it was around noon time and the show wasn’t starting til 3 so we made our way to the stage and not too many people were around and so we wandered right up,to the stage pretty much right in front of the barricade. Man it was pissing rain and pissing rain. One of the roadies on stage we chirped him as Mr Squigey as that was his job to get the water off of the stage. He was cool about though but by the end of it he would Squigey the water right into the crowd! I think he eventually snapped!
First up,to bat was local Peg boys Deadbeat Honeymooners and from what I remember they were good and I think they may have formed out of the ashes of another Winnipeg band called the Pumps. Good band and I may have bought their disc as well but who knows where the hell it went just like their career!
Sass Jordan came out and started plugging away and well she’s got a good voice and such but man I think she was boozed up or sumthin was going down. I mean she had an ok show but she just did not seem into it and quite frankly neither was I!
One band I did look forward too was Extreme and shit man did they deliver live. They came out and just got it going with It’s A Monster and from there it was their hard funkin rock that really got the crowd going. All the vocals were air tight,Nuno was blazing leads off the guitar,Pat Badger on Bass was holding down the fort with Paul Geary on drums and Gary Cherone was entertaining as well. The man put on a show and I remember some girl next to me said how many times is this guy gonna grab his crotch?? Who the hell cares man if you don’t like what you see Get The Funk Out. Of course they played The Song(More Than Words) you know that one that made them huge but also some what destroyed them as well which ever way you look at it! They also played Rest In Peace single which had just come out but not the Three Sides To Every Story album yet. Extreme 1992 just out rocked. After a Sass babbling around for an hour Extreme brought me back man….they were oh so good that day!
Steve Miller mildly cruised out to the stage and opened with Swingtown and basically it was the Greatest Hits show or well it was for me but man he did not play Jet Airliner so I could not yell out the line ‘funky shit going down in the city”… But all the others off the Greatest Hits album were played. It was real cool seeing Miller live. Ol Buzzard is chill but he knows how to play and deliver songs man he was that day indeed CLASSIC ROCK! Amazing he’s still out there doing it too
So by this time the weather is picking up big time,rain and now wind and now Bryan Adams! Sure man I got no prob saying I like Adams. Let’s see I had Reckless,Into The Fire and Waking Up The Neighbours but my personal fav is the Live Live Live from 1988 that I paid some goofy import price for but man that’s a raw sounding Adams live show(geez I may have to review it) but Adams came out and opened with House Arrest and played the hits you know them. Heard them countless times the ones that stood out to me was stuff like Cant Stop This Thing which Keith Scott ripped out lick after lick and the song just jammed out. Scott is a fantastic guitar player man. People focus on Adams but the dude has a solid backing band. The show rolled on and so did the winds as you could see the lighting truss starting to sway back and forth and next thing you know shortly after an hour or so into his set the road manager appeared at the side of the stage waving the band off so they all went off except Adams he stayed out and played for a few minutes and then the road manager had enough and cut the power…Bam out went everything and it had too it was brutal out. Since I stood in muck for 11 hours the mud almost pulled my sneakers off! It was a disaster getting out of there but we did find our bus and out of Bird Hills Park. Also of note since Adams cut his set short that Robin Hood tune wasn’t played and I was real OK with that!
It was worth it to stand out in the muck/rain/wind man!
Good Times!
Also of note TBone was on the fence about attending this show and at the last-minute with me ,Al and Cementhead already gone,TBone hoped in his Mustang and punched the gas to Birds Hill Park solo to and from the show and I had no idea he had even left Tbay! Now in this day and age with cell service that wouldn’t have been a issue..but give T credit man he slogged and stuck it out solo no matter what Mother Nature tossed at everyone that day!
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