Month: January 2024

Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break The Oath

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week12 Comments

This week it’s back to 1984 and it’s time to look at an album that can only be called one of the most influential records to the entirety of heavy metal.

Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break The Oath

Released September 7, 1984 via Roadrunner Records

My Favorite Tracks – Gypsy, The Oath, Desecration Of Souls

Mercyful Fate formed in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1981 and by 1984 were on to their second full-length record. The band were quickly making waves on the back of the Melissa album, but were also running into issues while on tour – an opening spot for Ozzy Osbourne was canceled due to illness, and a UK tour with Manowar was scrapped after a single gig when the members of Manowar acted like assholes to Mercyful Fate. But the group of Danes were poised to become one of metal’s most noteworthy acts regardless.

The band’s line-up was the same as the debut recording – the guitar tandem of Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, Timi Hansen on bass, Kim Ruzz on drums and one Kim Bendix Petersen at the mic. Mr. Petersen is obviously far more recognizable by his stage name of King Diamond.

While Mercyful Fate would go on to influence metal bands all across the spectrum, their own sound was fairly traditional metal, along with a few prog elements. The themes were greatly influenced by evil and the occult, and whether or not many like this band or not comes down to King Diamond and his falsetto delivery. That tends to be the sticking point for some.

Don’t Break The Oath comprises 9 songs at around 43 minutes, an album of pretty fair length. Some reissue versions include the demo Death Kiss, which is an earlier form of opening track A Dangerous Meeting. It has been reissued several times again over the years but is almost always the original tracklist when done.

A Dangerous Meeting

Killer riffs open this dark story of a group who looks to lead a séance. “They should have known not play with the powers of Hell” says one line in the song, and the group meets a gruesome yet rather undefined end as their summoning attempt goes awry. This one stays fairly simple for the first few minutes, with a great Denner guitar solo, then shifts tempo a few times to close out this cautionary tale of playing games with dark forces. Some bells ring us out to close this excellent opener.

Nightmare

Up next is another grim story, this of a nightmare someone has of a witch coming to life through a book and convening her coven to sing and drive the subject mad. This nightmare is recurring every night for the tormented narrator. The madness is highlighted at the end with King Diamond’s tauning wail “you are insane!” And, like all of these songs, there are some fantastic solos from both Denner and Shermann.

Desecration Of Souls

This song is a dank as a dungeon, it descends to the bowels of Hell itself. It is the soundtrack to some various hijinx going on at a local cemetery – necromancy, cult lust and even weeping widows don’t pass muster on this unholy ground. This song has a very nice, primitive feel to it.

Night Of The Unborn

The guitars here have a very nice “classic rock on steriods (and a bit of evil)” feel to them. King Diamond goes full-on with the falsetto here, he is unrelenting in his delivery on this song. The restless spirits of the unborn are coming out tonight to haunt the priest, their attack represented in a guitar frenzy at the end of the song.

The Oath

Now on to what many consider to be the masterpiece of Mercyful Fate. This song gets going with an eerie introduction passage, building a creepy atmosphere for what’s to come. What is that? A fantastic rolling riff and a slam through King Diamond pledging an oath, and it’s not an oath of office. Ol’ Satan himself gains another devotee through this dark passage. This song is a magnificent triumph for Mercyful Fate.

Gypsy

A nice fat riff runs constant through this trek as a man discovers secrets from a gypsy woman in a caravan. In shocking news, we discover that both the song’s subject and the gypsy woman are children of the devil, I’m sure that was a twist ending no one saw coming. This is a quite simple yet very effective song that remains my favorite from the album.

Welcome Princess Of Hell

Another cavernous, classic rock meets evil song here. The title might suggest a date between King Diamond and a princess of Hell, but the title is actually a typo – it was supposed to be “Princes Of Hell” and King is having a crystal ball Zoom meeting with them. The actual lyrics do reference the proper “princes” as opposed to a singular “princess.” Either way, it is yet more thunderous evil mischief to dig into.

To One Far Away

A brief instrumental provides a short respite before the final bellow of evil. Very nicely done guitars here and a song that’s in and out quickly, doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Come To The Sabbath

The album closes with one of Mercyful Fate’s most beloved songs. Unlike the opening track where a group of novices meet their demise at the hand of dark magic, here a group that know what they’re doing are out to petition the Dark Lord for favor.

The favor is a specific one, with ties to the band’s prior album – here, Satan is being asked to place a curse upon the priest who executed Melissa, the namesake of the first album and a witch who was the object of affection for the narrator. It would mark the first hints of King Diamond’s long running interest in storytelling across multiple songs, as well as the witches who would be the subject of many of those stories to come.

Don’t Break The Oath was another shot across the metal world by Mercyful Fate. The band would continue to be one of the most widely-cited influences when anyone from any shade of heavy metal talked about what led them to play. In fact, this album wasn’t the only metal masterpiece conceived in their own rehearsal room – in early 1984, Metallica used the room and MF’s gear to practice for the recording sessions for Ride The Lightning, which was recorded in Copenhagen.

Metallica have been very loud about their love for Mercyful Fate, constantly citing them as influences, doing cover versions of MF songs and having the band appear at Metallica’s 30th anniversary concert. But Metallica is far from the only one – Mercyful Fate’s influence covers the scope of thrash, death, black and other forms of metal through the 1980’s and beyond. It is rare to encounter a band or artist who wasn’t led down the dark path by MF and especially this second album.

For Mercyful Fate themselves, they wouldn’t last a whole lot longer after the album. Hank Shermann wished to write more commercial music, something which King Diamond was totally opposed to. King would leave Mercyful Fate and start his acclaimed solo career, while the rest of the members pursued other projects. The band reformed in 1992 and had a solid run of albums through the end of the decade, they have been largely on hiatus since but have made occasional live appearances and are said to be working on a new album.

But for fans of heavy metal, the shadow cast by Mercyful Fate and Don’t Break The Oath is long, and of course full of darkness and evil.

Closing Time? The Plight of the modern music venue

On By bigbadburchIn live music4 Comments

A disturbing trend has been moving through music in the past several years. It was already happening before 2020, but the COVID pandemic really thrust it into high gear – small music venues have been closing, and at an alarming rate.

That rate is very telling, and it’s not isolated to the United States – this September 2023 article from mixmag estimates that 10% of UK grassroots music venues would close by the end of 2023. Though I don’t have word on if that came to be, I’d say the estimate was fair since a good bit of the year had already passed. And even without this stat, if you pay attention to music news at all, you’ve surely noticed several doom and gloom articles about the state of smaller music venues.

Closing venues may not seem like a huge deal to some – these are very small businesses that cater to somewhat limited audiences, and there are the stereotypical cracks about small music places – the bathroom of death being just one.

But the loss of music venues is a massive deal to music – it eliminates the place that musicians have to play. Sure, the Internet is here and makes it easier than ever to “get your stuff out there.” But – getting anyone to actually pay attention to it is another matter. Do anything on social media – post a song, an article, hell – a blog, and you’ll find it takes thousands upon thousands of impressions to generate tens of actual plays or views. Nothing about using the Internet to gain exposure is as easy as just posting it – not music, not blogging, not OnlyFans, not anything.

The music venue is the one place where people will be interested in underground or independent music. It is where people go to specifically seek that out. There is no more receptive audience for music anywhere than at a music venue.

And this plays out at all levels – I listen to a lot of underground and extreme metal. These are bands that are internationally known but let’s face facts – the audience for extreme metal isn’t usually massive. These bands will often play 300 or 500 capacity venues, the same kind of venues that host other forms of independent and local music. Losing these spots is the loss of an opportunity to see bonafide national touring acts, there are only a handful of extreme bands who draw the numbers to fill larger venues.

And the biggest impact of venue closure is to the local scene. Sure, things have changed from the old days – bands don’t have to “pay their dues” for years on the live club circuit before “making it.” But bands still have to have their first handful of gigs somewhere, even if they do catch fire early and make a name for themselves. These local venues are the lifeblood of emerging bands of all stripes – those who might go on to be signed acts, those who stake out a claim as a noted regional act, and even those who are local “weekend warrior” type bands.

The local venue gives all these bands and the fans a place to meet, mingle and network. They aren’t just important places, they are the place to meet up and get to business. It’s where you say “hey” to the like-minded people in your network and get to hear what’s going on in the scene. And for many in scenes that aren’t mainstream, this is the only social network around besides online. It’s what people look forward to and gear up for, going to these small shows, to see the bands and to touch base with friends and acquaintances.

I am totally a product of this culture. I have spent the better part of the 2000’s being at local shows. Many times that meant seeing bands that maybe I knew one of. Other times it meant I was there for a band or two comprised of good friends, and a few other bands of the same style and mind that I was into. And other times I wandered in to a local club, not even knowing that a national touring act was playing that night, and was blown away by a spectacular performance by a band that I don’t even listen to.

And I did thrive on the social scene just as much as the music itself. I’m not the most social person on the planet, and I also don’t have “approachable” written on my face as a 6’3”, mean looking dude. But at a local show I could spend plenty of time greeting show-goers and people in bands, all people I came to know and would call friends on some level or another. Those nights were as meaningful as any in my life, actually being welcomed and appreciated just for being in a space and time to check out a form of music.

As I’ve gotten older I don’t go out as much, though there has been life in our local scene these past few years. But all those years I did spend going out do mean a lot to me, and to think that this way of life is threatened by business issues and real estate prices is hard to swallow. I had a very hard time in my life in 2006, I truly had to reset everything I ever knew, and being able to go to local shows with friends was the lifeblood that honestly kept me going through that time. To see the scene possibly falling apart is tough to deal with, even if I’m nearly 20 years removed from that time.

This post was originally inspired by the closure of a very meaningful local space. I intended to eulogize it here, but after typing I’ve decided to give that eulogy in a separate post. I think this post today will be better served to address the larger issue, then I can offer a more meaningful post for the venue I’m talking about later.

I know that the world is going very cold and corporate. Things that don’t generate millions or billions don’t really mean anything. We don’t ascribe value to art, it is treated as a joke in the quest to become a shareholder. But art is the essence of life, and for many of us around my age we have ties to these venues that are now shuttering due to real estate hedge funds and equity holder interests. With these small music venues closing at an alarming rate, I do worry about the future. I don’t know what to do about it, this is not a post addressing a problem with a solution at the ready. I can only address the problem and hope forces align in a better direction.

I’ll leave off with this old Saxon song, a classic from their vital period. I can only hope that the bands will have a place to play on in the future. It means everything to them, and it also means everything to those of us who were watching and listening.

Charley Crockett – $10 Cowboy

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week5 Comments

My song pick this week is hot off the presses and the advance single for a new album from an act in country music who has been building a ton of momentum in the 2020’s and has arrived on the grander stage.

Yesterday on January 22, Charley Crockett made the announcement of his new album $10 Cowboy. The album will release on April 26. Along with the album information, Charley also released the album’s first single which is the title track. He also performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live on the 22nd.

The name $10 Cowboy takes its inspiration from when Charley was busking on street corners years before transitioning to a “proper” recording artist. Each bill hitting the tip jar was a hard-won victory for the street kid, and today he shows that he maintains his perspective even after becoming the talk of country music.

And this song has a bit of a punch behind it. Charley has always shown capable of writing a smooth tune, but this one comes with the kind of grit you’d associate with the subject matter. Of course, a guy who’s recorded 13 studio albums in 9 years would surely venture into other territory, but this one is a very welcome entry in the catalog.

This song also isn’t entirely “new,” it has appeared at times during Crockett’s tours in 2023. And it’s also not even the first new music for Charley this year – right as the year turned, he released a duet with his hero and friend, the venerable Willie Nelson. It’s going to be yet another busy year for Charley.

In a few months we’ll see what the album $10 Cowboy holds, it automatically becomes one of country’s most anticipated albums of 2024. If the title track is anything to go by, Charley is adding even more depth to his arsenal and may be poised to conquer even beyond the heights he reached with 2022’s The Man From Waco. While a number of detractors pop up to fling accusations of “hipster” when Charley is mentioned, he’s also grown his fanbase by leaps and bounds in the past few years, and 2024 may be yet another “Year of Charley.”

Armored Saint – March Of The Saint

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week7 Comments

This week it’s back to 1984 and the debut album from California’s Armored Saint. They were a band without a scene to really “fit in” with, but they would go on to claim their own territory in the overflowing landscape of 1980’s heavy metal.

Armored Saint – March Of The Saint

Released September 26, 2984 via Chrysalis Records

My Favorite Tracks – March Of The Saint, Glory Bound, Can U Deliver

Armored Saint formed in 1982 in the US music epicenter of Los Angeles. They released a self-titled EP in 1983 and then quickly turned around to record their debut full-length. The band was nearly struck with member poaching just as they were getting off the ground, as singer John Bush was offered the vocalist position in Metallica. Bush turned that role down to focus on Armored Saint, creating one of heavy metal’s biggest “what if” moments.

The band on the debut comprised of Bush, Dave Prichard and Phil Sandoval on guitars, Joey Vera on bass and Gonzo Sandovol on drums. They had played together in various forms through their school years and this band naturally formed out of those prior relationships.

The album was produced by Michael James Jackson, who was fresh off a turn at the helm of the Kiss albums Creatures Of The Night and Lick ‘Em Up. It was not to be a match made in heaven, as Jackson was indifferent about heavy metal and the record label was micromanaging the band’s sound to create a polished offering that they thought would appeal to the masses. Joey Vera relays in this 2006 interview with Full In Bloom that the recording process of the debut left Saint disillusioned about the album’s mix and heavily in debt due to excess time spent in the studio. Vera said in the interview that the band was still in debt from that record all those years later.

While the recording process and the business end of music left Armored Saint worse for the wear, there still is an album of music to discuss here. In practical terms, this band were the heaviest thing coming out of Los Angeles, as thrash was mainly a Bay Area construct. Armored Saint didn’t really fit any of the burgeoning subgenres – they were far too heavy for hair metal and not fast enough for thrash. This could be described as US power metal, as that sound could fit a number of bands. Overall, Armored Saint were just plain old heavy metal, though.

Today’s album comprises 10 tracks at 38 minutes of runtime. The album was given a 2006 reissue by Rock Candy with a few demo bonus tracks added on but today I’ll focus on the original offering.

March Of The Saint

The opener offers a tie-in to the band’s name and is a decently paced roller that offers some nice melodic guitar accents to keep things interesting. The band’s true strength is revealed early as John Bush offers a full-throated, powerful delivery that stands apart from the all-out scream that many metal singers were going for at the time. The lyrics serve up a “war and metal” analogy that was par for the course in heavy metal at the time but it’s executed nicely here.

Can U Deliver

The next song did get a single release and also got a fair bit of traction on MTV. A quick look at its Spotify played count indicates over 8 million streams, dwarfing the six figure counts of all other songs on the album. This song did catch on, that’s for sure.

This song does sound like it straddles a line between metal and sleaze rock. The music itself is crisp and solid, though the production is a bit thin. The song is about being out on the prowl for a one night stand, though the lyrics are fairly vague and don’t descend into self parody.

Mad House

This one is a good banger of a track that’s maybe again a bit hampered by production but the song still comes through. It’s all about going to that place everyone knows is crazy and having a good time. It should not be confused with the 1985 song Madhouse by Anthrax, of course, though John Bush would later have the opportunity to sing that one too.

Take A Turn

Here’s a ballad or perhaps ballad-like offering. The song does add enough drive and pace to keep it out of total ballad territory. It’s a hook-up song, all about “taking a turn with me.” It’s again kind of vague and the lyrics aren’t immature or silly. The song’s execution keeps it from being something that could derail the album’s momentum.

Seducer

It’s another “sex” song as the title clearly indicates. Again the song works in the context of the album with Armored Saint’s able playing and John Bush’s visceral delivery. It seems like a song written to fit into the 1980’s scene but Armored Saint retain their identity on it rather than going all the way with the attempt to “fit in.”

Mutiny On The World

We exit the realm of hooking up for a bit and dive into one of metal’s tried and true archetypes, that of rebellion. The verses lay a bit quiet and let John Bush snarl through them. It’s a remarkable track that again would have benefited from a beefed-up production.

Glory Hunter

The next track really shines and feels like a truly realized and fleshed-out concept. It’s a dark tale of battle against native tribes set to music that certainly slots in well in that US power metal slot with some shades of the old familiar NWOBHM. It’s a bit of a shame the band weren’t allowed to operate more on this theme.

Stricken By Fate

The song is a tale of lovers broken apart and the wish for vindication or even revenge. The music is totally on point and keeps the album feeling cohesive. Some really cool guitar work on this one too.

Envy

Another kind of scorned lover track, this one sees the narrator looking at his partner moving on with someone else and the envy associated with that. It’s done pretty well musically and it’s a bit more of a mature and complex look at feelings that are often expressed simplistically in music.

False Alarm

The album closes on a pretty heavy jam that kicks the pace up a few notches. There isn’t much going on with the lyrics, it feels like a group of words thrown together to be able to use “false alarm” as a chorus. But the song hits the right spot even without a plot.

March Of The Saint is quite a triumph in that Armored Saint were able to forge a sound and identity even with being pushed by producer and record label to record songs that fit with the music of the time. The album remains cohesive and and gets through with all of the tracks feeling like they fit, nothing comes off as filler here.

The album was not a huge success commercially, though it did sell 125,000 copies in its first year of release and gain some buzz with Can U Deliver getting MTV play. Armored Saint would often find themselves with some hard luck in terms of trying to make it, but on the other hand they did get their name out there and are one of the more respected institutions in US heavy metal.

It would be a long and winding road for the band, who would suffer the loss of guitarist Dave Prichard to cancer in 1989, then go inactive in 1992 when John Bush took the open Anthrax singer job. Saint would regroup through the 2000’s and press on with albums and touring and also retaining their core line-up sans Prichard.

But in the framework of 1984, Armored Saint were a new force on the scene. They might have suffered a bit from not having a “scene” to be a part of when things were going either hair or thrash, but they were able to establish their own identity and set themselves on the path to becoming one of America’s classic metal acts.

Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week6 Comments

I am still behind on getting posts caught back up, I’ll just skip things here and there until I can truly get caught up and then ahead. No real big deal, I don’t guess.

Anyway – today I want to have a look at Joe Walsh’s breakout song from his solo career. While Walsh’s marquee performance will always be tied to the Eagles and usually Hotel California, there’s little doubt that Rocky Mountain Way is one of a small handful of Walsh’s landmark solo cuts.

The song comes from what turns out to technically be Walsh’s debut solo album The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get in 1973. The album was billed as Joe Walsh, though the players actually went by the name Barnstorm, the group Walsh formed after quitting The James Gang in 1971. Barnstorm released a self-titled record in 1972, which was well-received critically but not a hot seller.

This album would do better business, hitting number 6 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and receiving a US gold certification. Rocky Mountain Way hit number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, Walsh’s first true chart success.

Rocky Mountain Way is a blues-rock jam with one big, fat riff guiding it along. The song meanders along at an easy pace, it is not in a hurry to go anywhere and we are all the better for it lingering around. Walsh also employs the talk box in the song, while its use is panned in general it is a great fit in this particular song.

Lyrically, the song is about how Joe’s move from The James Gang to going solo was a good move for him. It was his way of pushing back the regret of leaving a band with success to risk it on his own. Joe relays in a 2021 interview with Howard Stern (embedded below) that he was mowing his lawn in Colorado when he was “knocked back” by the majesty of the Rocky Mountains in the background. He went into the house, suddenly having words for the music he’d already recorded, and also amusingly left his lawnmower running while crafting the lyrics. Walsh also calls this song the greatest solo song he ever wrote in the interview.

Over the years the song has remained as a staple of rock radio and is ever present in entertainment. Baseball’s Colorado Rockies play the song after every home win (insert jokes here), and the Denver Broncos use a Godsmack cover version during their games. The song has appeared in several movies and is also a part of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, having appeared on the rock radio station in GTA 4.

Rocky Mountain Way is Joe Walsh’s most-played live song, according to setlist.fm. Not only that, but it ranks number 8 in terms of the most-played songs on The Eagles list as well. The song even ranks in another artist’s list with no relation to Walsh – Canadian rockers Triumph covered the song and played it a lot on tour and it secures the number 6 spot on Triumph’s live list.

There’s little doubt that Joe Walsh will be most remembered for his contributions with The Eagles, not the least of which is his part in the solo that closes out Hotel California. But his solo material also deserves consideration, and Rocky Mountain Way is perhaps the top of the heap in terms of magnificence. That fat riff places you right in a smoky dive bar of days past and is one of music’s great moments.

Tom Petty – Love Is A Long Road

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week6 Comments

Time now to look back on a song that’s 35 years old now and was never a single in the first place, but just last month got about the biggest bump in visibility a song could possibly get.

Tom Petty released his first actual solo album, as in not entirely written and recorded with his band the Heartbreakers, in 1989. Full Moon Fever was a smash hit, heading to five times platinum sales in the US and generating three Top 40 hits that are some of Petty’s most recognizable songs. Petty would work with his Traveling Wilburys buddy and ELO mastermind Jeff Lynne on much of the album, though today’s song was co-written with fellow Heartbreaker Mike Campbell.

Love Is A Long Road cuts a familiar vibe for late ’80’s music. There is a bit of synth but the song is otherwise standard rock and easily at home on a Tom Petty record. It’s a tale of getting into somebody but finding that the actual act of being in love and carrying on in that manner is a lot tougher than simply falling for someone. It’s another take on the mentality of “the chase is better than the catch” and it’s certainly a part of life. Mike Campbell stated that he was inspired by a motorcycle when writing the song.

This song didn’t get released as a single but it was the B-side to Petty’s massive hit Free Fallin’. Radio stations wound up putting on the other side of the 45 record and this one got a pretty decent amount of airplay, so much so that the song wound up charting at number 7 on the Modern Rock chart. That’s quite the feat for something that didn’t get the promotion machine of a single behind it.

If that was the end of this song’s story it would be fine enough – charting like that as a B-side is impressive. But 34 years after the song’s release it would gain one hell of a second life, becoming attached to the hottest entertainment property in existence.

In early December of 2023, Rockstar Games released the first trailer to Grand Theft Auto VI. To say this is a hotly anticipated game would be a vast understatement – it is easily the most anticipated video game of all time and probably the most widely anticipated entertainment release of any form, ever. The prior game raked in over a billion dollars in its first 24 hours on sale and it will likely be a 12 year gap between it and this new installment.

Rockstar have a history of using the right music to market their games as well as programming in-game radio stations with solid hits. In this case, Petty’s song was chosen to feature in this first trailer, which garnered over 120 million views in its first few days online.

This spotlight sent Love Is A Long Road into hyperspace. The song saw a nearly 37,000% increase in Spotify streams after the trailer released, and digital sales propelled the song to number 7 on the US Rock Digital Song Sales Billboard chart.

Merely being attached to the GTA 6 hype is pretty monumental for a song of this age, no matter the impressive stature of the artist in question. But there’s more to this pairing of Tom Petty and Rockstar Games. GTA 6 will be set in a fictionalized version of Florida, also Petty’s home state. The vibes of Love Is A Long Road perfectly fit the Florida-ized game and also call back some to GTA’s prior installment set in Florida, the total ’80’s atmosphere of GTA Vice City. It’s a multi-tiered stroke of genius to use this song to plug the game.

Love Is A Long Road is a nice song from a fantastic album, and here we are all these decades later with the song front in center in a way no one would have dreamed of way back when. A shame that Tom isn’t around to see his handiwork, but it will be fun to cruise the streets of Vice City in 2025 with this song playing on the system of whatever stolen car I’m in.

Justin Townes Earle – Yuma

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

This week I’m having a look at the debut offering from a second-generation artist who would embrace the independent spirit of music and leave a mark matched by few in his career. His career and life were tragically cut short, but his music still resonates today, just days after what would have been his 42nd birthday.

Justin Townes Earle – Yuma

Released February 8, 2007

My favorite tracks – Yuma, I Don’t Care

Justin Townes Earle was born in the country mecca of Nashville, Tennessee in 1982. He was the son of Steve Earle, who was just getting his alt-country career rolling when Justin was born. Justin’s middle name Townes was Steve’s tribute to good friend and mentor Townes Van Zandt. Justin would get his start in music early on, performing with a few Nashville bands as well as his father’s group the Dukes.

By 2007 Justin was ready to venture out on his own and he decided to cut an EP to have for sale while on tour. Yuma was the result. This was recorded entirely by Justin, simply him with his guitar. The release was initially self-funded and distributed, though Justin would soon sign a deal with Chicago-based Bloodshot Records and Yuma would be repressed by the label. Bloodshot would become a major player in the alternative and independent country scene and Justin would be one of its most prolific artists.

This will be a brief rundown today, as we are dealing with a pretty simple premise – 6 songs in 19 minutes. Justin recorded it over a weekend and it won’t take long to go through the particulars, though there are some noteworthy moments here.

The Ghost Of Virginia

The opener kicks off with a tall tale about a ghost train. In this case the train was Virginia, which apparently hauled Confederate troops during the US Civil War between North Carolina and Virginia. Ghost train sightings were something of a phenomenon in early railroad America and other countries. It’s an older thing of course but it’s a pretty interesting twist on the ghost thing. Train songs are literally a dime a dozen in country music, but Justin does a nice job here specifically describing the haunting visage of the ghost train.

You Can’t Leave

The second tune sees Justin strum fairly upbeat on the guitar, but the song is pleading with his woman not to leave him. Can’t have a country album without some heartbreak between couples, it’s pretty well mandatory. Hopefully it worked out for all involved in this likely hypothetical situation.

Yuma

The title track is the EP’s centerpiece and is a very sad and heartbreaking tale. In it a young man had tragically lost his girlfriend and the pain of the loss, as well as the man’s own vices, lead him to jumping from a ledge and claiming his life. Yuma recounts the man’s last hours as he has some drinks, phones home one last time, mails a postcard to home which is confirmed to be Yuma, and then succumbs to his pain and leaps off of a building.

Yuma is a very tragic song, spelling out in detail the man’s struggles against a backdrop of mundane happenings. At one point Justin remarks that “it wasn’t so much the girl, as the booze and the dope.” While Justin’s 2020 death would be due to an accidental overdose, it does feel sadly prophetic in a way hearing the song after Justin’s death.

I Don’t Care

Here Justin takes up the role of a drifter, someone with nowhere to go and looking to be anywhere but where he is. It’s a solid tale of being stuck where you’re at with no way to get where you want to be, which is anywhere else. The drifter’s lament is another highlight of this studded EP.

Let The Waters Rise

Now we get to a bit of a funny tune, at least funny in how it’s worded. Here the guy’s gal is apparently two-timing, so he wishes for the waters to rise and flood the place out. It’d be a bit overkill if applied literally but it’s quite nicely done in figurative speech here.

A Desolate Angel’s Blues

The EP wraps up with a solemn story of a person “going home.” While the imagery comes off like someone being baptized, this guys seems like he is preparing to actually drown to death. It’s a haunting yet fitting way to cap off the album.

Yuma was exactly what Justin Townes Earle wanted – a record to sell at his shows and it was a vehicle for a quickly rising star. He would soon have a record deal and also very soon be swept up in the issues of country music at the time – that is, a disdain for mainstream Nashville offerings and a desire for a savior from the independent ranks. While the anti-Nashville crowd had a figurehead in Hank Williams III, it was JTE who was often pegged as the messiah of the new country movement.

Justin did not seem pleased by or suited for such a christening. He would record 8 full-length albums, most well-regarded and praised, but it would not be JTE who would deliver a new, purer form of country that would gain mainstream attention. Not that any of us knew this in 2008, but the savior’s name was Sturgill Simpson and he was still a few years away.

For Justin, his career would be noted for his blending of country, folk, blues and soul influences at various points through his albums. He wasn’t the savior a lot of independent country fans wanted, but he was more than good enough to be regarded as a songwriter and storyteller often without peer. Yuma was the start of 12 years’ worth of releases that would carve a legacy that lives on even after Justin’s tragic demise.

Nine Inch Nails – Burn

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week1 Comment

All the holiday stuff has me messed up and I could have sworn yesterday was Tuesday when it was Wednesday. On well, I’ll be a day late and at least a dollar short.

This week’s highlight song comes 1994 and the soundtrack to the film Natural Born Killers. Trent Reznor was the producer of that soundtrack so it’s not shocking that Nine Inch Nails wound up on the album. In fact, three NIN songs are found there, though Burn is the only one that was new. Burn was also released as a single from the soundtrack but either did not chart or chart info is not available.

Burn is also available on certain reissues of The Downward Spiral.

As for Burn’s place in the film, that is information that is a bit tough to track down. It does appear at the movie’s end in certain “director’s cut” and unrated versions of the film, but is not present in the theatrical release and many modern versions on streaming.

Burn is a song very indebted to the electronic soundscape, something Reznor had pursued a lot on his 1994 album The Downward Spiral, often hailed as his magnum opus. Burn does cut a fair bit heavier than a lot of TDS material, something of a callback to the 1992 EP Broken. There is distortion on pretty much everything in the song save vocals. Things do build somewhat quietly to an angry climax, but it is still very noisy even in that build.

Lyrically, Burn is a song of hatred and misanthropy. It is lashing out at being a reject of society and using the hurt and anger to seek revenge and burn the world down. It is extremely harsh stuff, perhaps dismissed by some as angsty nonsense, but qutie disturbing in an objective evaluation. It was the perfect song for a movie about a killer like Mickey Knox, a person who was pretty well cursed from birth and would embody the song’s lyrics in his actions through the film.

Burn got a music video, culled from scenes of Natural Born Killers that are all apparently cut from the original movie release. (no verification on that) I will post the video below but it is from an unofficial source and might not escape the wrath of YouTube AI copyright hunter bots.

Burn has been in pretty regular rotation in Nine Inch Nails live setlists – it is the band’s 14th most played song with 404 total airings, according to setlist.fm. Sadly they didn’t play it when I saw them live in 2000, but you can’t win ’em all. Its appearance on the 2007 live video release Beside You In Time is hailed as a standout of a fantastic live set.

This song did get some sideways glances in 1999 after the Columbine High School massacre. The killers were fond of Nine Inch Nails and often incorporated The Downward Spiral lyrics and references into their journals. The band took a fair bit of heat as a scapegoat for the murders and Burn was referenced a fair bit as a conduit to world decay, but in the end everyone moved on and NIN pressed on along with Burn.

In the end, Burn is a fantastic cut from the impressive Nine Inch Nails catalog. It fit the movie it was written for like a glove, and the song has gone on to be a feature in live sets even without the benefit of appearing on an album. It is “angsty crap,” but there’s something more visceral and real about this sort of angst. It is more than hollow-heading ranting at something just for fun, this is a true connection to the type of rage and anguish of being a “failed” member of society can bring.

Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week10 Comments

Welcome to 2024, how exciting to now be close to halfway through this psychotic decade. This also does mark the 40th anniversary of 1984 and many of the world’s most brilliant albums being offered up, so I will be paying extra attention to that year as I go along through this one. I won’t be covering it every week but many of 1984’s great releases will come up this year. And what better way to kick things off than with the magnum opus of one of rock and metal’s more unique acts?

Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry

Released May 10, 1984 via Atlantic Records

My Favorite Tracks – I Wanna Rock, We’re Not Gonna Take It, The Price

By 1984, Twisted Sister had finally been releasing albums after a decade of busting their asses on the club circuit on the US East coast. Their first two albums had come and gone without a ton of fanfare, and the group were truly hungry to get a break. Between this collection of outstanding songs and some publicity assistance from politicans’ wives, Twisted Sister were about to have their break.

Twisted Sister would feature Dee Snider on vocals, the guitar tandem of Eddie Ojeda and Jay Jay French, Mark Mendoza on bass and A.J. Perro behind the drums. This was the band’s line-up through the first four studio albums, this one being the third. This would also be the band’s reunion line-up through the 2000’s until the death of Perro in 2015.

The album was produced by 1980’s rock maestro Tom Werman, who had a hand in many of the decade’s defining records. Dee Snider has been on record criticizing Werman’s tactics during the recording of Stay Hungry. Werman denies Snider’s accusations and states he only suggested the band consider a Saxon song as a cover for the record, not that there was any attempt to remove the two songs that became the band’s hit singles – I Wanna Rock and We’re Not Gonna Take It. This Blabbermouth article from last month gets into a lot of detail regarding what both Werner and Snider have said.

With all that, we’re left with an album of 9 prime rock cuts in a pretty lean 36 minutes. A huge deluxe reissue of this album features a whopping amount of bonus material and is certainly worth the purchase, though today I’ll confine discussion to the original album. There is also a re-recorded version the band did in 2004 called Still Hungry. Not a bad effort but in my eyes an unnecessary venture, as I generally agree with Werman that the album is fine as is.

Stay Hungry

The opener is also the title track and comes in hard and heavy. It is a simple and very effective message of keeping motivated and fighting on, pretty much the story of Twisted Sister at this time as they fought long and hard for the success that this very album would bring. This is a straight ahead roller of a song with some nice guitar work to keep it moving along.

We’re Not Gonna Take It

This was the album’s lead single and the vehicle that Twisted Sister drove to mainstream attention. The song insanely simple with a rhythm clearly borrowed from the Christmas hymn O Come, All Ye Faithful. This is, of course, a far more rocked-out version as it heads into the chorus and the song’s obvious point of being a rebellion anthem.

Aiding greatly in the song’s rise was the music video, which featured the band in a dark, clownish parody of glam, especially Dee Snider standing out as a nearly indescribable presence. The video starred actor Mark Metcalf, famous for his role as Niedermeyer in Animal House, as a cranky, overbearing father who gets his ass handed to him through the video.

This song would chart at 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, a career high for the band. It would also come under fire from the PMRC, the Tipper Gore-led group looking to use music as a scapegoat for society’s ills. This wound up on the list of the “Filthy Fifteen” due to “violence,” none of which can be found in the song and only a slapstick version with a trained actor seen in the video. Dee Snider would famously testify at the Congressional hearings and own the day, leaving the overly concerned senators with egg on their faces and Twisted Sister with their signature song and biggest hit that continues to resonate today.

Burn In Hell

This one comes in dark and hot with an intro that sounds like Alice Cooper is reading it, but alas he is not present. This one is about getting your shit together lest you burn in Hell, like Dee as the song’s soul-scarred narrator. It’s a very nice headbanger that keeps things going and differentiates TS from the more polished glam era that was arriving.

This song also got airtime in a movie, as the band performed it as part of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

Horror-Teria (The Beginning)

Up next is a two-part story piece introducing the sadistic child killer Captain Howdy. The PMRC picked a fun song about nothing violent to complain about when there was a literal song about a serial killer just two songs down on the list, but what do I know …

The first part of the song is Captain Howdy, a killer who preys on children. It’s a nice and heavy piece, warning the listener to “stay away from Captain Howdy.” The second movement of the song is Street Justice, which is the response from people outraged over the Captain Howdy murders. Howdy was let off of his court case through a technicality, and the only real way to bring him to justice now is to form a posse and hunt him down. A story song seems ambitious on the surface for a band generally dealing in simpler concepts, but this works really well and isn’t a dull spot on the album.

Captain Howdy would make it to the silver screen years later as the antagonist in Dee Snider’s 1998 film Strangeland, played by Snider himself.

I Wanna Rock

The album’s second single would also become a defining song for the band. It is another defiant anthem, this time simply stating the desire to rock. Sometimes the best songs just spell out what they’re doing and it makes a hit.

This video would also feature Mark Metcalf’s acting, this time portraying a jerk of a teacher. Twisted Sister would often stretch this song out for an extended jam live, which sounds odd on the surface for a simple, short rock song but I’ve always enjoyed their live jams of it.

The Price

We are now to the ballad, though this one is not the cut-and-paste style of love ballad at all. This is an earnest, sad song about how tough it can be to “make it” in life and the doubt over whether it’s worth it or not at times. Snider reportedly wrote this after the band were abroad recording their prior album and he’d had very little contact with his own family. It is a very moving song that has a message that carries through to this day and, while this single did not generate a hit, is still an integral part of the Twisted Sister catalog.

Don’t Let Me Down

This one is a simple and effective rocker that sees Dee questioning why nothing he does or gives is enough. While not a standout track it’s still very nice listening on an album that doesn’t really have any “filler.”

The Beast

This is fairly standard type of “predator and prey” song that a lot of bands do. Here’s it’s executed in a slower paced yet very heavy metal presentation. Some very nice, soulful guitars on this one.

SMF

The album closes on what could be considered Twisted Sister’s theme song. SMF stands for “sick motherfucker,” of course, and this name would be given to Twisted Sister fans and even the fan club. It’s another TS classic and it’s also one that Snider had to explain in front of the congress hearings for the PMRC.

Stay Hungry would be the hit record Twisted Sister had been in hot pursuit of through the 1980’s. The album hit number 15 on the Billboard 200 and was certified triple platinum in the US, and has platinum certs in several other countries. The band was thrust into the spotlight with their singles and videos, and then propped up again with the press from the PMRC hearings. The success also lifted their prior album You Can’t Stop Rock n’ Roll to gold status, and caused a hunting frenzy for the out of print, independently released version of their debut Under The Blade.

Lasting success through the rest of the ’80’s proved elusive as the band’s next two albums were not well-received. But the band’s return during the resurgence of traditional metal in the 2000’s would see them tour far and wide, establishing their legacy without the need for new material.

Twisted Sister’s wild ride led to paydirt with Stay Hungry, and it remains a solid classic and a great representation of the music of 1984.