I saw Senser at the Underworld when they supported the mixer chap from Slipknot. That was the first gig I ever took my niece to. I think she enjoyed it. I’m not sure where this CD comes from, it might be an extra as part of a DVD I bought. I’ve not really listened to it. I like the studio stuff very much.
Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival – The Who
While this album exists in my collection and I probably paid money for the CDs I don’t think I’ve ever listened it.
Live at Drury Lane – Monty Python
This is an album of a live comedy show. By Monty Python. At Drury Lane Theatre.
It’s fucking genius. I loved this after I bought it in my late teens and I listened to it a lot. I hadn’t really ever seen Monty Python on television and so this record of sketches really made me laugh and imagine the action on stage. The songs are still brilliant and I listen to it still.
I once tried to decode the Bruces’ Song and I played it over and over trying to work out the lyrics. I think I drove my mum mad with the repeating Aussie music. The best part of this was that I didn’t even really know a lot about philosophy and I certainly didn’t know what all the main players were called.
There is something special about the craziness of the action and the sheer stupidity of this album.
“Albatross”.
Live After Death – Iron Maiden
In this ongoing slow series of album reviews we have reached all those that begin with “Live”. So we now get an eclectic mix of albums recorded live although I don’t think we will cover the best live album, which is probably No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith by Motorhead. I’m not sure how long this project is going to take. This series of communications started on 29 April 2013 and it’s nearly six years later and my music tastes have moved on. This list doesn’t include any albums I’ve purchased since 2013 and there’s a whole new genre to explore and explain. Anyway, onto Live After Death.
This album ROCKS. The gatefold sleeve was amazing and the images convinced me that Iron Maiden could put on a show. Even though all these songs are live and so will be individually reviewed elsewhere in this site this probably deserves some of its own mentions. This double album was recorded in Long Beach Arena and Hammersmith Odeon. Just the idea of having a job where you play an arena in California seemed amazing to me as a teenager. Of course, I also bought the video and watched it over and over.
I’m reasonably sure that W.A.S.P.s Live In The Raw was recorded on the same tour and that album is pretty amazing too. They supported Iron Maiden.
One of the appeals of this music is that it scares your parents. It’s a way of rebelling. It’s new and for you only. While at the same time being what all your mates listen to as well. You don’t want your parents to like this stuff and you want to make that break of the parental bond and music is one way of doing that. Before I was ten I grew up on a diet of ABBA and Jean Michel Jarre. While this is not bad music, I’d even say it’s bloody good, it wasn’t what I was after. I’ve talked about my descent into metal elsewhere and so will save you that story.
Iron Maiden had a monster on their album covers and the detail in the artwork was incredible. We all liked trying to find some new part of the image that no-one else had seen just to stand out, just to impress and show how much we concentrated on the art. Then there’s the stories of devil worship and Satan. The idea that this music was evil itself. I mean that’s bullshit but the puritanical press loved ranting about how this music was ruining the mind of children. The dying age of stiff-upper-lip and backward-repression of feelings and conformism was breaking as a new generation found their feet and wanted to make their mark. This happens all the time. I look at it now and think that I am just not that fussed by the new music. I have my niche and am happy to stick in it.
I think the bigger problem might be that trying to convince me your are weird or different is going to take some doing. I’ve been there and see it all. I’m still part of this counter-culture. I still go to club nights which would be considered “seedy” and rebellious. I mix with people whose day jobs are professional but who live in the boundary of conformism as we struggle to fit in to everyday society. What I do know about this culture is that I’ve never met an idiot or arsehole. Everyone seems to appreciate everyone else and people don’t make judgments. The society is more tolerant by definition and it survives and thrives because of that. It’s a microcosm of a better world where people are treated with respect and trust.
Back to this album. It kinda works on a sense of patriotism and harking back to the good times when Spitfires ruled the air and Britain worked to defeat evil [not my choice of words really and I struggle with the idea that the state can ask me to die for the state]. We start with Churchill’s fight them on the beaches speech with the sound of Rolls Royce engines in the background and BLAM – Aces High blasts out from the speakers.
After that we get one of my favourite Iron Maiden songs, Two Minutes To Midnight and its anti-war message. The lyrics in this astound me.
The body bags and little rags of children torn in two
And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you
These aren’t nice lyrics, they aren’t meant to be. They also don’t glorify war in the way that the popular press might have you believe about metal and heavy rock. It’s a song against war.
The Trooper is a classic. Along with Revelations I heard this album before I had Piece Of Mind. The live version of Revelations is better than the studio version by a long way. Again, lyrically it’s amazing.
The Flight Of Icarus is boring.
Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is a good song and deliberately long. It build the atmosphere for the whole song and comes crashing down at the end.
Powerslave I love. A brilliant song and a masterpiece in how to end a piece of music. I’ve always felt that fading a song out is a lazy way of ending a song but I don’t think you can get better than the last two minutes of this song as a way of exploring how to finish a masterpiece.
All the other songs are from the first three albums and by default are the best that Maiden have to offer.
Number Of The Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name [at about 150 bpm], Iron Maiden, Run To The Hills [a song explaining the mas slaughter of native Americans by white men], and then finally Running Free with its extra long audience participation which Dickinson manages with sheer aplomb.
The only problem with this album is that Sanctuary isn’t on it. But you can get it elsewhere. This is a stunner of a show.
Licensed To Ill – Beastie Boys
I bought this album on a day trip to France with my secondary school. I remember that I was worried the album would be in French, I was somewhat naive. Can you imagine a band attempting to re-write every song for an album in the native language of every country where they wish to make a release?
This album came out and the band caused a fuss because people over the country started stealing VW symbols from the front of cars to wear on necklaces. Yes, that was a real thing in the mid-to-late 1980s. I never stole a car badge and I’m not quite sad enough to dress up as band members however, I did dress in a way to fit in with the metal crew, I dressed to fit. Teenagers, struggling to be different by rebelling along with all the others.
“Fight For Your Right” blazed through the sound waves and I remember being excited at this odd combination of heavy guitars and rapping over the top. It was good and worked really well. For similar amazement see the review of the album Judgement Night. Then, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” happened and it’s simple beat with crushing guitars and stupid solo was another breath of fresh air. The album had to be bought.
“Rhymin and Stealin” was my first and terrible introduction to Led Zeppelin. It had a drum beat sampled from Led Zep IV and I didn’t know that at the time. I wasn’t aware that bands would steal music or samples from other bands and recycle them. When I first listened to Led Zep IV I was rather shocked that the drum beat had me thinking of a rap band a further twenty years into the future.
There’s some classic 80s sexism in this album and I’m pretty sure, while it was a product of its time, it shouldn’t be erased from existence, all of these things need to be understood in the context of the zeitgeist.
If you like your singers white and shouty along with simple heavy guitars, stupid lyrics, and fun samples then this album is for you.
Liberation Transmission – Lostprophets
This is really hard to write and I’m not even sure what I’m going to say. I really like the music of this band and I even went to see them at the Brixton Academy over ten years ago on a really fucking hot summer’s day. It was intensely hot inside the theatre and was a complete test of stamina. It was a really good show and I had a great time. There are four albums by these guys. But I’m still not sure what to write. I’m not sure I even reviewed The Fake Sound Of Progress. There’s a possibility the reviewing system is a little broken as all the albums starting with “The” may have been reviewed already or they may be coming when I get to the Ts. I might have skipped “Fake Sound” deliberately.
There’s some explanation needed here although I’m still struggling with all of it really. Firstly, this is a really good album. I really like it and I thought the Lostprophets brought something new to the table in terms of sound and popular metal / rock.
BUT
The singer is a convicted paedophile. If it’s ok to list the types of bad there is then he is pretty much down at the bottom as a complete sick-fuck. I haven’t listened to a single song by this band since that happened. I don’t even know if it’s OK to listen to their music. I don’t know if it’s OK to admit really liking the songs. I don’t know if it’s OK because the singer is a sick-fuck. It distresses me, just writing this is hard, because I know it’s easy to be taken out of context. It’s easy for something to think the wrong thing about my intentions. But, at the time I thought this was a good band. I guess they still were. It’s just the singer is a sick-fuck.
Let There Be Rockgrass – Hayseed Dixie
Ever wanted your heavy metal and rock to be a little more . . . redneck? This is the album for you. I’m not sure I could go and see them live, this is definitely an album of piss take which just happens to have allowed the band to make a decent living I guess. It’s like the album I have of Metallica songs played as lullabies. Here’s the track listing:
- Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
- Fat Bottom Girls
- Whole Lotta Rosie
- You Shook Me All Night Long
- I Believe In A Thing Called Love
- Ace Of Spades
- Detroit Rock City
- Corn Liquor
- Feel Like Making Love
- Walk This Way
- Centrefold
- I’m Keeping Your Poop
- Highway To Hell
- Will The Circle Be Unbroken
A couple of things to note. I spelt Centrefold correctly for UK usage. I’ve not listened to “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” but I suspect that it’s about a jerk-circle.
Let There Be Rock – AC/DC
Nearly anything by AC/DC has to be on the good side of good. This album . . . . . . . I don’t know why but this album has a much dirtier, grungier sound than all the others especially those from the Bon Scott era. I think they turned the grit up and balanced the bass a little deeper. It’s got a gorgeous sound, which, the first time I heard it jarred me a little because it didn’t sound like AC/DC.
Whatever you think about the production you can’t argue with the writing. There is not a bad song on this album. In fact they still play fifty percent of these songs on stage now, Y years later where Y = current year – 1977.
“Go Down”, I explained to a class recently that while they think most rock and metal is about death and destruction most is about love and sex. This song encapsulates that.
“Dog Eat Dog”, feeling blue? Listen to this.
Then the masterpiece “Let There Be Rock” a biblical version of the history of rock. Such high energy and an amazing song. Everything about this should be taught in every school.
“Bad Boy Boogie”, what other song are you going to get an old man to prance around the stage and eventually reveal his arse to the crowd?
“Problem Child”, amazing song, aren’t we all?
“Overdose”, it’s sad.
“Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be”, reminds us all that we should be having fun and that heaven and hell are bullshit (that’s my own take on it).
“Whole Lotta Rosie”, holy fuck this is an anthem of a song.
Get this album, get anything by AC/DC before 1982. It such lovely summer sounding music and mostly about sex. FIVE stars.
Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin
Of all the Led Zeppelin albums this one is the biggy in my mind. It is the first I listened to and I was blown away by how complex it is and just how much this band influenced later music. I can’t remember the last time I listened to it. My tastes have moved on and I am in another world altogether. The current plan is to review all the albums from before my current aggrotech phase and then go back and review all those I have bought since then. It’s a project.
Led zep 4 – not a bad song on it. Ground breaking and stunning.
Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin
Of the Led Zeppelin albums I own, and hopefully they’ll be done soon, this one I’ve listened to least. Looking at the track listing I can only remember what one song sounds like and that one is “Whole Lotta Love” which is iconic enough to be known without this album along with being a theme from the television show about music.