Stats/Stats/Stats

 

Rockin Roberts/BMellis and Deke’s rocking out to Tom Keifer!

Hey Friends ….

Once again thanks to YOU the readers of this Blog who continually show up/read/comment around these parts and enjoy my Scribbles of Rawk!

Some Rando Info …Up to this point I have reviewed 452 albums/books/live shows…

I had a couple of guests as well to add to the total which were Tbone with a Hip and Van Halen review and my sister who reviewed Def Leppard recently! Tbone and Kristin did a fantastic job!

A total of 455 Posts and over 27,000 views in three years along with 8,525 comments!  Holy Crap! Thanks everyone!

I thought it would be cool to show u the Most Viewed Blogs from June 24th  2016 to June 24th 2017 (that’s when this Post was typed)…

dEke’s Top 10 Most Viewed Rambling’s are….

1-Sebastian Bach/18 & LIfe On Skid Row- Yup Ladies and Gents in the past year a Book takes the top spot. Mikey Ladano posted my review on his Twitter page in which Baz seen and retweeted it to his Twitter and posted it to his Facebook Page. Thanks Mikey….and just goes to show you  that people are watching what you post even coming from a  rock schmuck sitting at his computer in Tbay!

2-Toque-Is the all star Canuck only group featuring Todd Kerns/Cory Churko and Brent Fitz who released a fun Canuck only cover album featuring a bunch of cool cover tunes with an updated sound! Thanks to Cory who posted my review on the Toque Facebook homepage!

3-Stephen Pearcy/Smash-  Stevie-o totally stepped up on this album and kicked out the jams in superb 80’s sleazeball rock that totally blew me away. Blown away that Stephen plastered my review on his Twitter and Facebook page and sent me a thanks via messenger!

4-Rock The Fort Day 2/The Cult/Cinderfella…- This was the ass kicking festival that showed up in Tbay and was a two day affair with Day2 headlined by Wolfchild and Duffy who basically ruled the weekend with there performance(check out current release Hidden City folk’s) Must also mention that Tommy Keifer showed up and played a wicked set of Cinderella tunes and solo stuff. Ol Tommy almost stole the weekend….Trews/Helix and Doucette also played this day as well! Great day of Live Rock!

5-Helix/Wild In The Streets-This review was written a few years back and Helix bassist Daryl Gray  graciously posted my review at the time. Daryl a few months ago reposted it via his memories on Facebook and this review picked up a bunch of steam again. Why not! Its a great album and ‘Whacha Bringing To The Party?”

6-Age of Electric/Live at Crocks,April 7th 2017- AOE showed up played Tbay and blew myself and Tbone out of the water with an airtight show filled with a ton of cool tunes. Met the dudes afterwards and they signed my discs and were all cool to chat with.

7th (Tie)- Metal Heart/Aiming High With Accept- Author Martin Popoff wrote a wicked good read on Accept that is well worth the dough. I am by no means a huge Accept fan but Martin delved in a band that really wasn’t written about much even back in the day so it’s these kind of Rock Books that peak my interest level. Martin interviews all these Accept dudes so it’s not some bullshit read. Check out  Popoff’s site.

7th(Tie)-Age of Electric/The Pretty Ep-AOE comes in with there second Top 10 entry and for Todd Kerns it’s 2 Top Tens here with AOE along with Toque. Dude is everywhere. AOE after a ton of years had passed put out this little ass kicker of an EP that is worth your time friends. Do check out!

8-The Tragically Hip-Roxy & Elsewhere- A bunch of fellow writers decided to do a 200 word only review and I choose to do this great soundboard bootleg of The Hip that was recorded back in 1991! They are on fire on this release. Highway Girl and Killer Whale Tank are so good as singer Gord Downie is looped and in another time zone but is so good at telling stories with the Hips riding shotgun and blasting off a ton of riffs underneath! Pure Brilliance and Geoff Stephen would and will be proud to see this entry of his hometown homey’s!

9-KISS Rocks Vegas- Is the audio portion from KISS’s Vegas performance that Mikey Ladano sent me! (Thanks Mikey) How could KISS not crack the Top 10.  These old Geezers are a part of my Musical DNA so to speak and say what you will. Whether you like em or hate em Kiss are a great discussion …..

10-Swords And Tequila/Riots Classic First Decade-Martin Popoff scores a second book here in the Top 10 and Riot is a band I love that stuck out great albums but for some reason never lifted off. Martin did his homework here, Tons of interviews/pics/the real story of which took me right back to over 3 decades ago.  Riot had even less written about them than Accept! Martin fixed that problem and wrote what I feel is one of his best written works!

Well,there you have it. Kinda wild that 3 books cracked the Top 10! Some Cancon is included withThe Hip, AOE,Helix & Toque.  Kinda of a neat mix really….

Thanks for reading….

 

Reissue & Issue….

 

What do Tom Cochrane,Judas Priest,The Tragically Hip and Bryan Adams have in common?

They all have in recent years have reissued Classic Albums from there back catalogue and they show us all  how a reissue is supposed to be done!

Reissue of what? You say! Well back in the 80s when I was snapping up everything Rock/Hard Rock and Metal (on Vinyl and later CD). Bands would put out certain albums that would  become what we  call now  Classic’s!

In this day and age and  in my case you really have to go that extra mile to get me to buy a reissue of an album I already had owned! Here are some Albums you should all check out!

 

The Hip reissued a deluxe edition of there 1992 Classic album Fully Completely. The Hip added a couple of unreleased studio tracks but the real score was the live show recorded in Toronto the day Fully Completely was released. Gord Downie and posse play the album from the stage. All the song’s from it are played! Too be quite honest this is the best live Hip Recording I own. A close second would be the live Roxy album from 1991(Roxy is a Bootleg).

Judas Priest have released Three Great Reissue’s! The first being 1980’s British Steel in which Priest back in 2010 added to the rerelease a couple of studio tracks plus a show added recorded that year of the full album being played front  to back with a few Old School Priest tracks tossed in.

In 2012 came Priest with Screaming For Vengeance. Once again Rob and company pull out the stops with this one. They included a couple of bonus tracks and Live tracks from 1982’s Vengeance Tour. The bonus disc is a DVD from 1983’s  U.S Festival. Priest is on fire here at this show as they are playing in broad daylight in front of something like 250,000 People. Once again Priest step up with a great reissue.

2014 came the 30th Anniversary of Defenders Of The Faith. This is another super-duper add! The original studio album is added of course but the real score is the second disc which is a Live show from 1984. All of Defenders is pretty much played live. A real great live show. Priest show everyone that if you put some thought into it you can make it really interesting.

Not to be outdone Bryan Adams in 2014 reissued his 1984 Classic Reckless which is one of the all time greats! Adams added on a bunch of extra studio tracks that he had intended to use but other artists like Krokus( who cover Boy’s Night Out) and 38 Special (who cover Teacher Teacher) are done by Adams and Crew and you can hear these versions  for the first time ever. I still can’t believe Blue Oyster Cult turned down Run To You. Sucked for B.O.C but we all know what Run To You did for Adams! Bryan also with the Reckless reissue added a full show from England on his 1984-85 Tour. Another super-duper reissue …..

Tom Cochrane. This is the most interesting reissue of the bunch. I  had no intentions of buying this guys stuff. Sure when I heard or seen his vids back in the day I would watch and listen but I just never got into Cochrane’s music. Even 1991’s Mad Mad World I never purchased as we all know Life Is An Highway as the song and album sold by the Shitloads here in Canada. But here we are 25 years later and I was reading an online  interview with Tom and he had mentioned about how he reissued  Mad Mad World. Cool.  I thought as Tom talked he spoke of how he added a live show from Chicago that was recorded on that tour. The live show part intrigued me! Was this the time I take my first ever plunge into buying some Tommy? Yup I did folks. 25 years later! Better late than never. The live show covers even some Red Rider( One of my buddy Muc’s fav bands from back in the day) all the way up to 1991! Tom made it interesting  by adding the live portion. Atta Boy Tommy!

 

 

 

 

Recently Tesla (with Mechanical Resonance) and Extreme(Pornograffatti) went and put out live product of these two albums this year  with all the tracks being played.  Extreme’s with  the Porno album played it front  to back. These are just single disc releases and are awesome as well.

Oasis is a band that I dig. There Like Rush in that your either in or your out in liking them. I found there string of 90’s albums quite good particularly 1997’s Be Here Now. They have now reissued this album with the album Remastered/Out Takes/Demo’s/Live Tracks.

For some reason I’m still undecided whether I’m gonna purchase Be Here Now. Again.  Noel Gallagher doing the press rounds for this reissue was basically saying  it was a Big Bloated Album that should have never came out when it did as they should have taken a break instead.(kinda funny as he trashes yet  promotes it at the same time) Also the fact that a bunch of Blow was consumed maybe had something to do with it also. Still though the fact that on the demos it’s Noel doing the singing which is kinda cool but I wish they would have added a full live show from the 1997 Tour. Just a few live tracks which is a disappointment. Still man to this day Do You Know What I Mean and My Big Mouth are Gems!

There are many more Reissues that I may tackle again at some point but for now…

Thanks For Reading!

 

Tragically Hip/Roxy & Elsewhere (1993)

For my money you can’t really beat the early Hip Stuff! ( I was lucky  catching them live in 1988 and 1990 as that certainly helps the cause ) Case in point this Bootlegged album called Roxy & Elsewhere which states on the back of the cd was recorded in Los Angeles (May 1991) and Elsewhere.

The Hip Dudes as in Bobby Baker/Paul Langlois/Gord Sinclair/Gord Downie and Johnny Fay have there own style and it’s a tilt in the direction of Bar Room Boogie Rock!

Touring in support of what is my fav album of their’s Road Apples The Hip assault the L.A  crowd and knock em on their asses!

The music is top-notch and Gord well what can you say Folk’s? There’s two Gord classic stories on here one of which is during Highway Girl where Gord talks about the Double Suicide story which is an all time great! Listen to it below…

The second Classic story coming from Gordie is his Killer Whale Tank rant during New Orleans Is Sinking. Video is posted as well below…

The Band and Gord( His improv Dialogue is just classic) take it up a whole notch on Killer Whale Tank! The Band is on Fire!

Dang I miss 1991!

Tragically Hip/Road Apples(1991)

This review  was originally posted back in Oct/14. It was decided by the WordPress Community(a week ago) to toss down a Hip Friday! Take the time to check out everyone’s Blogs that I have set up by clicking the links below…

https://keepsmealive.wordpress.com

https://mikeladano.com

https://nauticazinger.wordpress.com

https://1001albumsin10years.wordpress.com

https://caughtmegaming.wordpress.com

I tried doing a Top Whatever list of Hip Music but the first four albums are so good it was tuff to narrow it down so I  decided to revamp and in some cases add to this review! In other words clean up the writing slop….

I should also add that a few weeks back ROAD APPLES landed in my all time Top 20 via the challenge that I swung out to some of you’s via FaceCrack!…

Without further ado…..

Man early 91 it’s winter time in Tbay and what a better way to deal with the winter blahs than to have a new Hip release bestowed upon us. I still remember like it was yesterday going to the record shop and well everyone knew about the Hip as Up To Here went crazy platinum many times over so the street vibe was huge for Road Apples. Once I had it my hands I flipped it over to check out the song titles and WHUT???  Where’s “Crack My Spine Like A Whip??” The 4/4 stomper of a rocker that they opened with about a year earlier at their University show here in Tbay that myself and TBone had checked out! But you know what? After  that glaring omission once I played the cd for the first time back at home I figured why it was left off they were so many good tracks that I guess sumthin had to be left off. I must mention that the late Don Smith who produced Road Apples and the debut Up To Here nailed the sound perfectly! He mixes  this album like it was recorded live in the studio! People should notice the Sonic’s on these early Hip album’s especially how the guitars are mixed!

So let’s check out what going on down at Hip HQ’s circa January of 1991!

LITTLE BONES- Like on Up To Here Bobby Baker and his fender 6 string start off the action and man the sonics are bang on about 30 seconds Into Little Bones.  Don Smith is once again rolling tape and letting the boys groove it on down! And yep Gordo you’re hitting the nail in the head in saying $2.50 for an eyeball and a buck a half a decade.  Happy hour,Happy Hour is here!

TWIST MY ARM- Cool picking by Baker and the boys join In a mid tempo tune which I think is some of Downies best lyrics ever. Basically after  Jacques Cousteau dumps your ass overboard Gordie picks up the paddle and carries on going through life while people are constantly twisting his arm!

CORDELIA- The Hip all take a chill pill and slow it right down at the beginning of the track and ramp it up by the chorus. Actually this  song reeks super cool but for the Hip the reeking ain’t super cool but some chic that goes by the name of Mary Jane!

THE LUXURY- Quick book your night at the Golden Rim Inn and you as in yourself can hear Gordie preach to the faithful few who have joined with his brothers Hip and this tune is a jam and man so far were into album number two and these guys just play it like it is and  it gets no better than this style Hip rock! The Luxury is that but I think Gordie is going for the opposite of the luxury and people who are conned out of it. Am I making sense…??

BORN IN THE WATER-Yep some more cool slide guitar from Mr Baker and life is smart as the trees in Sault Ste Marie. The song is a good rocker and shows us as a listener that the Hip can punch the gas at a minutes notice!

LONG TIME RUNNING- Hip slows down the tour bus and shifts right into a slow melodic rocker that shows the sensitive side of Gordie ! I mean he can’t always dump the mic down the front of his pants in every song! ( I say that cuz I recall him doing it when they played Fight live, when he was shadow boxing with himself. I wish they had cell phones back in 1990! )  Real cool use of what sounds to me like slide guitar in this one and the Hip are good at not selling out on sumthin slow mo!

BRING IT ALL BACK-Paul Langlois starts off this track with his guitar and Bobby Baker shows up and well lookie here is Gordie and now there joined by Johnny and Gord and they Bring it all back to Gordie! Like so many of these songs like this one and pretty much the debut Up To Here as well these songs sound live in the studio. Man, what a lost art nowadays! Anyways the song advances into the solo with some super cool wah pedal.  Baker was on fire on these first couple of Hip albums!

THREE PISTOLS-The guitars drive this song and  I love this tune and I remember them road testing this tune when we caught The Hip live a year earlier in March of 90! I was glad this song was on it just flat-out rocks! It’s the Hip! Marshall’s cranked to 11 and rocking it to the top on this one! Baker man is locked n loaded with a whole lotta riff a roo at the end.

FIGHT- They also played  this at the same show as Three Pistols. Gordies asking why u wanna fight ? Actually I have seen Gordie fight a few times basically with himself  and the mic stand. Gordie is like a UFC cage fighter taking on himself with a mic! This is a definite jam tune!

ON THE VERGE- This a rambling gamblin’  four on the floor stomper(road tested at the  University Hip show as well that’s three tracks played a year before the release of Road Apples)  and the Hip is once again laying down serious law. Of note Langlois is not only a solid rhythm player who like Baker does not get his due cuz everyone is watching Gordie all the time but Langlois’s backing vocals kick these songs in the ass on the first couple of records! I still remember seeing the Hip with Langlois strumming his electric with it wrapped in duct  tape to keep his strap on his guitar, ploughing out super cool rhythms,chirping out backing vocals all the meanwhile with a smoke in his trap and an ash as long as my arm! Dude that’s rock n f’n roll!

FIDDLERS GREEN- The Hip after literally blowing smoke on the last four tracks decide to slow it right down with this well written tune complete with acoustics. It’s basically a front porch jam. Well done fellas ….well done!

LAST OF THE UNPLUCKED GEMS- That’s the other thing. Hip has cool song titles as well and this is one of them and to end off Road Apples is a nice little 2 minute ditty as the boys refuse to leave the porch and just keep the jam vibe going with a little more electric. Just enough to keep the rockin chair rockin!

IN CONCLUSION- I don’t think the Hip felt any pressure in doing this as a followup to Up To Here. They just kept the vibe going and it was evident in performance as well as when they came back to Tbay in 91 Tbone and myself were left in the cold as tickets went fast! Too bad would have loved to heard this record rocked live but then again it still sounds live every time I listen to it and for me Road Apples is one of their best. Kinda wish they would stayed with this sound a little longer but they were moving leaps and bounds but thanks guys for this rock solid masterpiece!

T-Bones Top 20 Albums Of All Time(2016 Edition)

TBones Sacred Top 20….

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!)

https://etainmentnewsreviews.wordpress.com/

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….

As you were!

 

 

 

 

Sonic Waves….Deluxe Editions!

 

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!

The Hip track speaks for itself…..Crank em!

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Tragically Hipped Out At Crocks….

Tragically Hip/Crocks/Thunder Bay/Feb 1988

So I had a friend who went to college and she told me there was this band from Kingston that was playing a local bar (Crocks) coming up on the weekend (Friday & Saturday) and that they were worth checking out. Of course with it being Feb in Thunder Bay that means cold and snow and I remember distinctively that we did not go to the Friday show but me and Tbone said we would go to the Saturday show and well not only did we go but a snowstorm came with us as well. The city got covered that day but Tbone said as Downie would say ‘Fuck This …Fuck That” and well we got to Crocks.

Crocks back than was a small bar comfortable to hang out in but it could get crowded and well with the snowstorm blasting outside I think there were maybe 25-30 people there that night so umm we had a ton of elbow space. While we were killing time there was one pool table in the joint and some guy was itching to steal someone’s money so he asked me if I wanted to play a round of snooker. I passed as I was the shit’s at it and I’m not making a $20 donation to some clown but Tbone accepted and threw down his $20 and proceeded  to demolish the  poor sap and I still recall the fella telling Tbone that no one in a long time had beaten him so bad. Tbone just shrugged his shoulders grabbed the $40 and told the guy he could have his pool table back! Classic!

So from Kingston here’s mine and T’s intro to the Hip and boom there they are all long-haired fellas jammed on the tiny stage playing it all and giving it all as well! Too be honest I don’t remember many songs as I mean  they were just plugging there 5 song cassette EP that night.( I’m sure as well the other songs would have been ones that would have been on Up To Here which came out in August of 1989)I do know that when they played I’m A Werewolf,Gord Downie was jumping all over rhythm guitar player Paul Langlois’ back! A site to see and kinda funny that’s how that’s one thing  me and Tbone still recall from that show! The other thing was they were hocking there cassette tape from the stage for $5 in which I purchased and still wish I had today!  I would sell it to Probie (huge Hip fan)for $500! Hahaha……

For me and Tbone living in Tbay it’s not too often you see a band that within a year that  is gonna go huge in Canada and boy did they ever. I did a review of when a little of a year later me and T caught the Hip playing our University plugging there Up To Here release and the place was jammed! So you knew they were making leaps and bounds in the size of buildings they were playing. But it’s sometimes cool to go back and pull off a Marty Mcfly and step into that time machine and trip out!

Also what must be noted that as crazy as it sounds that this show was 25 yrs closer to 26 yrs ago is that the Hips lineup of Downie/ Fay/Sinclair/ Baker/ Langlois is still intact today….and in the music biz that’s impressive…

Enjoy the tune posted for Highway Girl..crank it and Gord as always tells a great story……..

Sonic Waves….Tragically Hip/Up To Here

This Up To Here review is for DaBrun! Hope ya enjoy it buddy!

Considering 1989 was the year Glam Metal was ruling everything in sales,ticket grosses,print media and video. Out  of Kingston came The Hip with their major label debut and man this album went against the grain of what I just mentioned but the Hip struck a chord or three chords for that matter with a ton of Canucks and this album just flew off the shelves! My first purchase was on cassette for this followed by cd.

The album was produced by Don Smith(rip) and he just lets the Hip go at it which to me just sounds like they just toked up/plugged In and pushed play!

Let’s see what Gordie/Bobby/Johnny/Paul and Gord are rolling……

BLOW AT HIGH DOUGH-So let’s Canadiana 101 begin! Here comes Gordie blasting out of the gate with the boys because well you knew they can get behind anything! Cool guitar,bass and drums actually I still love the sonic of this album to this day! Still I think if you were to ask people to say what one song would define the Hip I betcha it may be this one or perhaps Orleans? I dunno close call…..

I’LL BELIEVE IN YOU-Man this song is a firecracker it just zips along the 411 at break neck speed Gordie is slipping and sliding around traffic and he pushes along the tracks and the backing vocals are well suited to the Hip like I said…toke up/plug-in and push play!. Cool Bobby Baker riffing ….

NEW ORLEANS IS SINKING- This is one catchy riff of guitar courtesy once again from Mr Baker and Gordie is in full storyteller mode. This song is just a classic and still is and like I said it’s probably along with Blow At High Dough the two most recognizable Hipster tunes Ever!

38 YEARS OLD- Hip throw down the electrics,grab some acoustic and pedal steel and Gordie talks about being locked up in the Clink! Cool song and a shift in gears after the first three tunes drop the  sonic hammer on your senses!

SHE DIDNT KNOW- actually my fav from Up To Here. I mean classic ” she didn’t know the barrel was loaded” uh huh yeah right! Great stories/lyrics put to music. Man this shit does not get any better! Love this song..just love it. Actually this is like if REM took a few hits off the Hip Bong!

BOOTS OR HEARTS-Side two begins with some acoustic guitar kicked in the rump by the drums. That’s the thing with these  songs on here, They were road tested thru perhaps tons of bar gigs and the Hip just kept the tape machine going once they hit the studio.

EVERYTIME YOU GO- actually my second fav off of this album. Love the guitar sound and love the line ‘Like everyone I once knew a Dave. Drove a Plymouth shallow grave. Said my girl don’t walk she just unfurls” Wowzers! Sooooo cool…..geez I wish I could have said cool lines like that back in Highschool!

WHEN THE WEIGHT COMES DOWN- Cool strummer of a tune, super catchy chorus. Folks were headed for the finish line and the Hip just keep chugging along.

ANOTHER MIDNIGHT- If you dig a little deeper you will come across different flavours on the this debut. This is one of em just different textures add to a cool written song. Love the fact they can crank bar rock and ease off the gas a bit and just chill with a song like Another Midnight!

OPIATED- ends Up To Here with the medicine man paying a visit. Sounds like a fitting end to album or is it just the plain end? That’s the thing with Gordies lyrics. How I hear em you may hear em differently and perhaps we could get together and discuss and figure out what he’s going on about sometimes! But only if you bring the Doritos at the end of the night!

IN CONCLUSION – Stellar comes to my mind about Up To Here. For me the Hip came along with a good bar rock sound that was missing from the late 80s and just stomped on Poisons lipstick and gave us all a different outlook on rock and how it should sound. Simple yet effective. If your one of the few who have never listened to Up To Here, it’s never too late!

Crack My Spine Listening To The Hip….

Tragically Hip/Lakehead University /Feb 1990

So the Hip makes a gas stop in Tbay at our University and man the place was packed. Of course, a zillion copies of Up To Here were moving out of record shops (remember those?) at that time as well so me and TBone scooped a couple of tickets and here we are and Hey look there’s Gordie Downie with his full  I haven’t shaved in weeks Canadian beard….and the rest of the guys muster up on stage and open with one of the best Hip songs I have ever heard except they never released it ..the song is titled  Crack My Spine Like A Whip(see vid posted above) man this track just steamrolls  I still love it! C’mon guys 24 yrs later record the friggin thing will ya?

There’s Gordie working the mic stand or is it a crutch to hold him up? The rest of the guys Bobby, Gord, Johnny, and Paul are tight musically I mean they paid their dues playing the bars and man for me personally I love the first four Hip records especially the first two. But we’re getting ahead here so yep the band plows thru Highway Girl and a few others from their  Ep and of course, they played pretty much all of Up To Here. They were also road-testing Three Pistols and Fight which ended up on Road Apples the followup to Up To Here.

The great thing about Gordie back than was when he sang the line “She Didn’t Know The Barrel Was Loaded” you believed him man, or in Every time You Go when he says “Like everyone I Once New A Dave” yeah Gordie your right we knew a few Dave’s it was like reading the newspaper like Gordie is just spitting out everyday living at you! Man, I miss that kinda stuff nowadays.

I have another review for another time when I and TBone caught the Hip back In February of 1988 in Tbay …..stay tuned folks!