Author: bigbadburch

The Number One Songs of 1984 – Part One

On By bigbadburchIn 198411 Comments

It’s time to have a look at the songs that hit number one on the Billboard charts during 1984. It’s a pretty memorable selection overall so this will be fun to go through. There is a fair bit of trivia and whatnot to go through and it cuts through a fair cross section of music, while of course being mainly oriented toward pop.

There were twenty total number one songs so that makes it easy for me to divide this into two parts. Part two will arrive tomorrow.

Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson – Say Say Say

Up first is one of three holdovers from 1983. This song comes from Macca’s 1983 album Pipes Of Peace. The album itself wasn’t fawned over but this song was a massive hit, hanging out on the top of the chart for six weeks, two of those being in 1984. It of course doesn’t hurt that it had Michael Jackson on it, who had cemented himself as the King of Pop after the world-conquering run Thriller had been on.

Say Say Say is a pretty simple pop track, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot to it. I don’t find it all that interesting, though Jackson does add some spice to the song and is the worthwhile part of it. It honestly sounds more like a Jackson song that McCartney showed up on rather than the other way around. Nothing really wrong with it, but it was number one because of Michael and everyone knows it.

Yes – Owner Of A Lonely Heart

This next song from 1983 became the one and only chart topper for the progressive rock act. There’s a whole story behind this song but it’s too long and windy for here. Basically the band got back together with a few new members, one being Trevor Rabin, who brought this song with him. The band fussed over recording it for several months before finally nailing it down.

This is a really cool song that I remember fondly from back then. It has the fit of a nice synth rock track from the era, though it does incorporate some noisy zaniness as well. I’m not familiar with Yes’s initial era so I didn’t feel “burned” by their pop turn, hell I wasn’t even alive for most of their 70’s stuff. So I can enjoy this one with no reservations about the band’s changes. This one held down the top spot for two weeks.

Culture Club – Karma Chameleon

This is the final song from 1983 on the list and also the only number one US hit for the British pop merchants. This song was massive and sold millions of copies, both of single and album. Culture Club were a relatively brief phenomenon and Boy George’s tabloid presence long outlived the music itself, but this band sold records like hotcakes back in the day. I’m sure one thing helped the other there, of course.

This one is a fun, upbeat new wave number with just a small twinge of country in it. The music video is also fun, filled with vibrant colors that catch attention. It’s probably fun to watch the video while on certain drugs but I wouldn’t know. The song spent three weeks at number one though it was a cultural moment that hung around for quite awhile after its run at the top. I also can’t imagine what people a lot younger than me think of it, especially the video, but hey it was the 1980’s and this is what we did.

Van Halen – Jump

And now we’re on to one I’m very, very familiar with. Van Halen turned gears a bit for their 1984 album and Eddie used synth lines to full effect, including as a foundation for this song. The recipe was a successful one and Van Halen rode this to their one and only number one single.

Jump hung out on the top of the chart for five weeks. Only one other song did five weeks at number one in 1984 and one other did six weeks bleeding into 1985, both obviously will be covered tomorrow.

I personally love this song. Van Halen and specifically this album got me really into rock music at a young age so this is kind of where things really kicked off for me. It’s easily my favorite of the number one list, though there are plenty of other worthy songs to go over.

Kenny Loggins – Footloose

This is the first of two songs from the film soundtrack that hit number one. It hung out on top for three weeks as soundtracks took over the top spot for awhile in this period of the year.

I don’t have a ton to say about this one. I honestly was never into the movie and I have no affinity for it. I do like Kenny Loggins’ music though and this song is fine, I get why it caught on like it did.

Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)

Up next is a song from a different soundtrack, as Phil Collins cut a song for a film of the same name. The song was Phil’s first US number one hit, he would go on to have several more. This one did what seems to be a standard run of three weeks at the chart’s peak.

I only very, very vaguely recall the movie and I can only recall that I think it sucked. The song isn’t nearly that bad although it’s also maybe a bit meh. I’m not down on Phil Collins like a lot of people can be, I’m pretty sure he’s taken so much shit that it makes Nickelback hate look like child’s play. I even like some of Phil’s stuff, both with Genesis and his solo songs. But this one doesn’t quite move me the same way as other songs of his. It’s ok but not one I’d playlist or anything.

Lionel Richie – Hello

We get a brief respite from soundtrack songs as Lionel Richie jumped into the number one fray for two weeks with this slow jam. Richie was becoming quite the megastar during this time, by 1985 he’d be pretty well on top of the world and solidified himself as one of the best-selling artists of the 1980’s. He was all over the place back in the day and this was a time when there were only like three real TV channels, not the wall-to-wall coverage like we have today.

Hello is a quiet, soft ballad in the style Richie had taken up for his solo run. It was one of his biggest hits so obviously he got it right. He put together quite the concept piece for a video too, with full on acting and an actual story as opposed to just flashy images and clothing.

Deniece Williams – Let’s Hear It For The Boy

Back to the Footloose soundtrack here for the other number one hit from that record. This was Williams’ second of two number one hits and this one did two weeks on the top. Also of note are backing singers George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the writing and performing duo Boy Meets Girl. They would craft a pair of Whitney Houston’s number one hits a few years down the road.

Again not a whole lot to say here. It’s a fun, upbeat track and I remember this being on radio and TV all the time. A very easy, inoffensive song to play for most any occasion.

Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time

Up next is this pop ballad from Lauper, who found her first number one with this and kept the spot for two weeks. She would hit the top again but not for several years, though she had a lot of other hits that were not far off of the top. And she’s an artist that many people might not realize is as successful as she truly is, she’s had quite the career.

This is a song I do really like and one again I remember fondly from 40 years ago. It’s a nice ballad with some tempo and atmosphere to it and it’s a very sweet and affirming message. Always nice to hear this song.

Duran Duran – The Reflex

We’ll close out part one of the list with one of two songs to go number one for the iconic British new wave group. The song spent the customary two weeks on the chart before giving way to what became the single of the year. This was also part of a two-song “block” that prevented Bruce Springsteen from having a number one single, a feat the Boss hasn’t accomplished with work he has performed to this day.

The Reflex is a crazy ass song, in fact this is a dance remix that is different from what is on the studio album. This isn’t my favorite Duran Duran song but I don’t have anything bad to say about it, just not my cup of tea really.

That wraps up part one. Tomorrow I’ll kick things off straight away with the top song of 1984, a few other titanic cuts including Tina Turner’s massive comeback and Stevie Wonder’s best-charting song, and also what actually counts as the most successful charting song of 1984. Oh, and after nearly three years of writing this blog, I’ll finally get to talk about Wham! Looking forward to it.

For questions, comments or concerns, use the comment form below or head to my contact page.

Lamb Of God – Laid To Rest

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The WeekLeave a comment

This week’s song pick goes back to 2004 and was the opening track from Lamb Of God’s fourth studio album Ashes Of The Wake. The song was the opening track and was also the “feature” song from the album, though it doesn’t seem to have been “officially” recognized as a single. There is a promo CD single around so it did get a standalone release but not terribly widespread.

This was a huge step for Lamb Of God. The band were a part of what was termed the “New Wave of American Heavy Metal” movement alongside bands like Shadows Fall, God Forbid and Killswitch Engage. While those other bands would continue to ply their trades on the metal-centric record labels like Nuclear Blast and Century Media, Lamb Of God had struck a major label deal with Epic Records. It was a huge leap for a group that was working day jobs even through the release of their acclaimed prior album As The Palaces Burn.

As a quick note – the term New Wave of American Heavy Metal is not nearly as developed in a scholarly fashion as the much more familiar New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Thoughts and writings about the American scene are all over the place and can encompass bands from as far back as the 1990’s. But it was commonly used in the early 2000’s for this group of bands.

While Lamb Of God were wrapped up with a newer scene term, the basis of their sound was groove metal. It was a noise struck up by thrash acts like Overkill and Exhorder and made popular by Pantera. Lamb Of God released this album awhile after the bitter dissolution of Pantera and just months before the murder of Dimebag Darrell Abbot. It’s not specifically important to know when discussing today’s song, but it does provide background on Lamb Of God’s ascent during this time.

Laid To Rest is an impossibly brutal song in both music and theme. The core of the song is built around guitarist Mark Morton’s absolutely monstrous riffing. According to this 2020 interview with Louder Sound, Morton worked to incorporate more melodic guitar passages to work in contrast with singer Randy Blythe’s harsh vocals. It’s quite the run that Morton makes through this song on six strings and this new focus on working with guitars as Morton did would lead to a new golden age for Lamb Of God.

The theme of Laid To Rest is a bit buried in vague terms, which was a deliberate act by Morton, who also wrote the lyrics. In the same interview cited above, Morton discussed that the song was about personal issues he was enduring at the time. He covered the specifics of his own issues to dress the song up a bit in a guise that would fit the rest of the album’s general theme, which was taking aim at the Iraq War.

Laid To Rest honesty sounds like a breakup song. It’s not just any kind of breakup, but the harsh, dreadful kind that eats away at your core. Screaming out “destroy yourself – see who gives a fuck” might not be the most healthy way to get over a deep emotional trauma, but hey it works so why not. And while I obviously can’t speculate what Mark Morton’s issues were at the time, I would have to guess that they were along the lines of relationships, but again I don’t know. While very brutal, it can be a cathartic release from any sort of angst or trouble.

But Laid To Rest can also be taken to fit in the context of war – this song could be about someone who was killed and their remaining spirit looking to see their killer handled. There was certainly a lot of aggression and atrocity in the Iraq War and this could be a tragic tale from someone unjustly killed there.

The music video does not offer any more clarity as to meaning – instead, it features the band playing in an empty warehouse of some sort, which was a mandatory shooting location for metal videos in the early 2000’s. Interspersed is footage of a guy running from another guy wearing a red hoodie. At the end of the video, the chaser catches the chasee but then the guy being pursued winds up with the hoodie. The off-screen confrontation could have been a violent one, or perhaps the guy in the red hoodie was simply chasing the other guy to try and sell the hoodie to him. We’ll never know.

For Lamb Of God, Laid To Rest opened the band to a new, wider audience and has become the band’s signature anthem. Ashes Of The Wake would be certified gold in the US and Laid To Rest is the band’s most-played song live. There is stiff competition for that spot as the band’s anthem, as songs like Redneck and Walk With Me In Hell are also up there in popularity, but at the end of the day it appears that Laid To Rest wins that overall battle.

This was all a huge deal for Lamb Of God as they rose out of the independent metal scene and became players on the upper end of the metal market. They became the new kings of groove metal just as the prior occupant of the throne went away. It’s been a monstrous run and it all kicked off with some guitar work and the use of the word fuck.

Questions, comments or concerns? Use the comment form below or head to my contact page.

Grave Digger – Heavy Metal Breakdown

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week3 Comments

When you have 22 albums in the course of a music career, you have to start somewhere with number 1. For German metal titans Grave Digger, that first album came in the hallowed metal year of 1984.

Grave Digger – Heavy Metal Breakdown

Released April 7, 1984 via Noise Records (European release)

Grave Digger formed in 1980 and spent a few years on the live circuit before stepping into recorded music. The band was comprised of Chris Boltendahl on vocals, Peter Masson on guitar, Willi Lackman on bass and Albert Eckardt on drums. Boltendahl remains as the lone original member of the band and even by 1984 the group had replaced a few members.

All music on Heavy Metal Breakdown is credited to Grave Digger as a collective, while all lyrics were credited to Boltendahl. (with two exceptions noted below) This was due to legal reasons, as the band only had the money to register one person with Germany’s publishing rights group. The album was produced by Grave Digger and Karl-Ulrich Walterbach, the head of Noise Records. Harris Johns engineered the album, he would also produce many of the essential Noise Records releases.

This album exists in several versions with different tracklists and sequencing. I will be covering the original European release as that’s the LP I have in my collection. The US version was released a bit later in the year and has an extra song and also omits a cover song. Several reissues of this album also exists with plenty of bonus tracks, but again I’m sticking with the original today.

Headbanging Man

The opener is a barn-burning speed metal outburst. Boltendahl establishes his trademark snarl on vocals right off the bat while the song bashes through in heavy as hell fashion. No deeper meaning to dig into here – this song is an ode to the now-established metalhead, the headbanging man. The song is quite simple but it’s also very nice and gets the ball rolling well. Grade: A-

Heavy Metal Breakdown

The title track does not veer too far off of the tone set in the opener. It’s another burst of fury paying homage to the headbanger. It’s easy to laugh at a lyric like “we come to shake your hands and legs as fast as we can do,” but the song rises above any simplicity and offers up a heavy metal triumph. Even in a career spanning 22 albums, this one stands out as the band’s signature song. Grade: A+

Back From The War

This one starts off with a very cool, ominous intro and first verse passage before kicking into a more thrashy passage that remains through the rest of the song. The song recounts the horrors of war, a tried and true subject within metal. It also has a very long fade-out at the end, which has next to nothing to do with anything, I just wanted to bring it up. Grade: B+

Yesterday

Grave Digger decided to switch things up here and offer up something that could be considered a ballad. The song writing here is credited to Beate Marquardt, who I am totally unfamiliar with. It’s not an outright, sap on sap 80’s ballad but it’s a bit of a curveball for the record. It has a few quiet passages in the beginning and middle, but does thrash it up a little bit for the song’s very few lyrics. This one is fine to listen to but also doesn’t really move me all that much. Grade: C

We Wanna Rock You

We are back to the main point of the album, which is headbanging. This is another meat and potatoes metal song about heavy metal. Sure it’s basic, but this is the kind of stuff kids lived for in the 1980’s. Another finely done slab of headbanging. Grade: A

Legion Of The Lost

There’s an acoustic intro here that transitions into a mournful first verse passage, then the speed metal comes back a few minutes in and takes us to the end. This song really goes for the throat and slams the heavy metal home. Grade: A

Tyrant

In shocking news, it’s another crisp headbanging track. Boltendahl gets some screams going here and this one is heavy and also showcasing dynamics. Groovy guitar solo in this one, too. Grade: A-

2000 Light Years From Home

On the original version of the album we get this cover of the 1967 Rolling Stones song. This cover does not resemble the original song in any way, shape or form – rather than implementing the psychedelia of the Stones song, Grave Digger pound their way through this one in the same fashion they’ve done the rest of this album.

The production here is pretty rough, this sounds like it was taken from a different session than the other songs. It is a decently done cover song and it’s interesting how Grave Digger twisted the song up to fit their sound, but this is really more of a trivia piece than anything. Grade: C+

Heart Attack

The closer gets going right away and goes all out, it’s an extra bit of speed on top and this is honestly an outright thrash song. It’s just the right kick in the ass to end the album with, even if the lyrics themselves have absolutely nothing to do with a heart attack. Grade: B+

Heavy Metal Breakdown was a loud and noisy debut for Grave Digger. Like most Noise Records albums, this one did not chart on release. Like many of the Noise releases, this one would spread around the tape traders and heavy metal parking lots of the day as Grave Digger slowly built their name. Separately, Grave Digger didn’t seem to chart at all until 2010, though I can’t totally verify that information.

And it would be quite awhile for Grave Digger to get their notoriety – the band scratched through the rest of the 80’s without any real breakthrough. They even shortened their name to Digger and tried to emulate the sounds of the day for a bit. The band then went on hiatus for several years, returning in the early 90’s with a sound somewhere between speed and power metal that Grave Digger would then run with for the ensuing decades.

It was quite the long road for Grave Digger to get where they were going, but it started in grand fashion with the release of this killer debut album. The production was a tad rough around the edges but the album is still perfectly listenable, and there is no doubt this a heavy metal loving band.

Album Grade: A-

We have plenty of esteemed and celebrated heavy metal albums from 1984, and while Grave Digger never earned the profile of the likes of Maiden or Priest, this band still offered up a fine slab of metal to headbang along with. Germany is one of heavy metal’s most prolific nations and Grave Digger are without a doubt a highlight of that country’s pantheon.

To see the details of my grading system, head here.

For questions, comments or concerns, use the comment form below or head to my contact page.

Oasis – Live Forever

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week3 Comments

Today I keep rolling with my mini-concept of visiting a song from the years ending in 4. Today I head back to 1994 and I’m finally going to address a song I’ve been dying to write about for awhile now. This was the song from the debut album that really got the ball rolling for England’s revered (and reviled) Oasis.

Live Forever was the third single from the 1994 debut Definitely Maybe. The album is cited for selling over 8 million copies, though no telling how much of that was the white-hot success of the follow-up record. The single did great business, earning Oasis their first UK top 10 hit and also placing at number 2 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, as well as 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the US. The single is double platinum in the UK for sales of 1.2 million.

This song is a bright, positive one with a simple beat and riff that keeps things moving along. The lyrics visit the concept of wanting to shed a mundane life and finding happiness with a close friend or family member. It doesn’t wallow in the angst of being downtrodden, rather the song embraces reality and hopes for something better, coupled with the bond of friendship. While a lot of Oasis songs have lyrics that mean absolutely nothing, the words to Live Forever have a simple yet very powerful meaning to them.

This was one of the first songs Noel Gallagher started putting together, and it was the one that made him and the other members of Oasis realize they had something special. It was also the song that helped push Oasis over the edge when being offered a record deal by Creation Records. When it was released as a single just in advance of the album, music critics found something a bit more special than the average band in this song.

There a few bits of trivia here. One is that the vocal melody in the beginning was inspired by the Rolling Stones song Shine A Light. It’s not a rip off or anything like that, but there’s a link there for sure between the chorus of the Stones’ song and the opening line of this one.

Also, Noel Gallagher was inspired in part by Nirvana to write this song. Not due to any similarity in sound, it was Nirvana and grunge’s bleak outlook that caused Noel ire. Noel heard the Nirvana track I Hate Myself And Want To Die and wound up completing Live Forever. Gallagher was not offering a direct response to the down and out grunge tune – rather he fashioned an antidote.

Live Forever was played 570 times during Oasis’ run, making it their third most played song. It has also been aired out 72 times by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds since Oasis ended. That is nearly doubled by brother Liam, who has played it out 139 times as a solo artist.

I do hold Live Forever in high regard – awhile back when I ranked my 20 favorite Oasis tracks, this clocked in at third place. It’s a beautiful song that’s honestly perfect for just about any occasion. Feeling bad? Put it on and feel better. Feeling good? Put it on and keep feeling good. It can fit weddings, funerals, celebrations and tragedies of about any kind. Maybe the biggest shame of Live Forever is that Oasis kind of outdid themselves with another song on the next album that fills a similar purpose, though there’s nothing wrong with having both this song and Don’t Look Back In Anger around.

That about covers it for today. I will be giving Definitely Maybe another look on its 30th anniversary date near the end of August. I covered it in one of my first posts on this site and only three people ever read it so I guess repeating myself is ok in this case. Tomorrow I’ll be back with a song from 2004 and on that is much, much less positive and upbeat than this one. Look forward to it!

Iron Maiden – 2 Minutes To Midnight

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week6 Comments

Let’s kick off a short run through songs from “The 4’s” and start with the feature year of my site this year, 1984. In shocking news, it’s a song from my favorite band and also just happens to be my favorite song from them.

1984 would be Iron Maiden’s banner year – with the release of Powerslave and the subsequent world tour that went on forever, Maiden were at the forefront of heavy metal during its boom period. The album would go on to pop platinum and gold awards around the world, and todays’ song hit number 11 on the UK charts as the lead single from the album.

And yes, before I go on, I have discussed this song a bit previously as part of the singles series I did. Oh well, gonna do it again.

2 Minutes To Midnight is a fast, hard hitting song that keeps it basic. It’s meat and potatoes metal, which Maiden execute well despite being known for their more epic fare. We do get a soaring chorus and a nice guitar solo section, but this tune written by Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson does generally plunge straight ahead.

The theme here is how the powers that be perpetuate a state of war to keep raking in the money from selling instruments of war. It was a common and corrupt practice through the 1980’s and hasn’t really gone away today. The rank and file people suffer while corporations and politicians feed at the trough, it’s a well-worn theme that hasn’t gotten any better over the past 40 years.

The song’s title is a reference to the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic device issued by a group of scientists to gauge how close civilization is to a global catastrophe. This classicly meant nuclear war but can also refer to other wild disasters and non-nuclear war threats. 2 minutes was the closest the clock had ever been to midnight, this was set in 1953 during the build-up of the Cold War. Iron Maiden used it as a symbol of world destruction to set with their song about warmongering, a fair pairing if there ever was one.

The only issue is that the Doomsday Clock has now moved closer than 2 minutes – in 2023 it was set to 90 seconds to midnight, and remains there as of mid-2024. We are setting records, baby!

2 Minutes To Midnight has been one of Maiden’s more recognizable tracks over the years. It’s not quite at the same level as stuff like The Trooper or Hallowed Be Thy Name but the song does qualify as a “greatest hit.” It has been played nearly 1,400 times live, good for 6th-most in the Maiden live pantheon.

The song’s main riff has been the subject of some funny speculation. The riff is a very generic one that’s easy to play and also can be found all throughout rock history. There’s no telling where it actually first came from – my rough guess is Ritchie Blackmore but I’m honestly not sure about that, it could go back even farther. But some astute listeners picked up on a 1980 song by British group White Spirit, fittingly called Midnight Chaser, with a guitar run that sounds suspiciously familiar to this song. I’ll post the song below so everyone can do their own comparisons if they wish.

In and of itself this isn’t a huge deal – one, this riff is very stock and I would hesitate to think it could even be copyrighted or whatever. Two, Iron Maiden have “borrowed” from more obscure British acts from time to time, usually with proper settlements in place (depending on who you ask).

But there is a hilarious coincidence here, and that revolves around White Spirit’s guitar player. He was none other than Janick Gers. Six years after the release of the Iron Maiden song, Janick would find himself in Iron Maiden, replacing Adrian Smith and remaining with the band even when Smith returned in 1999. So maybe, not really but it’s funny to say anyway, maybe Iron Maiden ripped off their future guitar player’s super generic riff. I don’t know.

As I said above, this is my favorite Iron Maiden song. Yes, I do mean of all their catalog. People do sometimes look at me weird when I tell them that – this one is usually held in high regard but not on the same degree as other songs. And some fans do feel it’s too basic. But it all struck the right chords with me, and I’ve always been a fan of “brink of nuclear disaster” kind of stuff so this checked that box. It was also featured in my favorite video game of all time, the often-mentioned Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, with how much I’ve played it I’ve easily heard this Maiden song more times than any other.

That’s about all I have to go over today. As part of my 1984 celebration and my perpetual Iron Maiden celebration, I will be giving Powerslave a second look and a proper grading on its 40th anniversary date of September 3rd. The day before will be the normal Album of the Week slot and I’ll have a Maiden double feature then – another Maiden album released on September 3rd will get a reassessment and grading on the 2nd. But we have two months to worry about all of that.

A Short Update and a Smooth Song

On By bigbadburchIn Uncategorized8 Comments

I wanted to drop in real quick and provide an update. This wasn’t planned but I haven’t posted in about two weeks now.

Nothing terribly drastic has happened. The short of it is that we were looking to buy a house and it took up a ton of our time. Also we were running into various issues that were slowly sapping time and money away from us, so we made the call to pause our house search until the beginning of next year when we’ll have a bit more money to play with. Things are totally psycho in house-buying land right now.

Suspending our house hunting leads me to some unfortunate news for you, the reader – I will be back to posting next week. I am going to switch up the format a bit for one week. I’ll have four posts and each will be on a song. The songs will hail from 1984, 1994, 2004 and … well, I’ll let you guess the fourth one. After that I’ll resume my normal posting and also get more into the year-long celebration of 1984.

And on that note, let’s go ahead and use the rest of this post to talk about a song from 1984, that being the hit single Smooth Operator from Sade.

Smooth Operator hails from Sade’s debut album Diamond Life. This was the third single from that album. The song was originally written by Sade Adu and Ray St. John in their prior outfit Pride. St. John did not follow Adu into her new namesake band, but the song did.

This single would be a hit, scoring spots on a great deal of international charts but showing especially well in the US, where it landed at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and took the top spot on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

As a quick note before I go on, the name Sade clearly references singer Sade Adu, but she very much intended for this group to be considered as a band unit, something she was adamant about through the years.

I’m not going to get too much into it, let’s just kick back and enjoy this great song. It’s a smooth, jazz-based track that gathered about as much crossover appeal as an artist could manage. The song’s about a con artist who gets by with their double crossing ways, though in some extended versions of stuff featuring another song from the album, the perpetrator does get busted. The song would help launch Sade’s career internationally, and the band would go on to have massive sales in the decade after. Cheers to a fantastic cut from 1984.

Corey Hart – Sunglasses At Night

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week10 Comments

Let’s head back to 1984 and hop up to the Great White North for the song of the week. We’ll revisit the first hit of someone who became a prolific hitmaker in both the US and his native Canada.

Corey Hart had just launched his music career in earnest with his debut album First Offense, which hit shelves in November 1983. Oddly enough, Sunglasses At Night was the lead single but was not released in advance of the album or even with the full-length – it was served up as a single in January 1984.

The single did reasonably well for a debut artist – it was a top 10 hit in the US, landing at 7 on the Billboard 200. It charted at 24 in Canada and landed in fair spots in Australia and Europe as well. As a note to those unaware, Corey Hart was far from a one-hit wonder – this was only his first successful single. He would have subsequent hits that landed higher in the US and he has 30 Canadian Top 40 hits, on top of selling over 16 million albums. This is likely the song most people remember, but Corey was on top of it at several different points in his career and has done amazingly well through the years.

Sunglasses At Night is a pleasing synth-driven offering. It is at times bright but also with a subtle dark and twisted bent to it. The lyrics are vague and not out for easy meaning, but there’s a tale of a guy being cheated on here, he wears his sunglasses to hide his eyes from the truth of his unfaithful lover. It’s both a bit cheesy and also sensibly crafted for the time period, a nice pop rock hit for the era.

The actual origins of the song are very practical. Corey states in this 2019 interview with the CBC that he had bought a pair of shades while he was recording in England, but never got the chance to wear them. He joked that he’d have to wear them at night, then the idea stirred for a new song right as the record label asked for one more track. There is also an unverified story about an air vent being right over the mixing console in the studio and people wore sunglasses to shield their eyes from the forced air, but again I can’t corroborate that one. Either way, the genesis of the song was pretty simple.

The music video was put together with thought and care, and was also a vehicle to the song’s success. In it Corey is living in an Orwellian world, he winds up arrested for not wearing his sunglasses at night. He is eventually let out by the jail guard, played by Canadian TV personality Laurie Brown. The video went on to win the first ever award for Video of the Year at the 1984 Juno Awards. Corey relates in the same CBC interview I linked above that he had to borrow a suit from Rick Springfield for the awards event.

All told, Sunglasses At Night is a song that outlived its 1980’s lifespan and still gets brought up all these years later. It would lead Corey Hart to a run of success that spanned decades and the concept of sunglasses at night is something that gets brought up a fair bit, thus keeping the song in public discourse. A pretty nice outcome for something based originally on how England’s weather is cloudy.

Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

It’s time now to turn attention to this year and one of the more anticipated releases from a few months back. It had been a very long time since Bruce Dickinson had dropped a solo album and buzz was high for it. Did it deliver?

Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project

Released March 1, 2024 via BMG Records

This marked Bruce’s first solo album since 2005’s excellent Tyranny Of Souls. The planning for this record dates back to at least 2015, when Bruce and Roy Z recorded an early version of a song that wound up on an Iron Maiden album and then repurposed for inclusion here.

Bruce was joined by Roy Z, who produced and also played guitar and bass. Dave Moreno was the drummer and Maestro Mistheria provided keyboards. A few guests dropped by for cameos, including Gus G on a solo for Eternity Has Failed.

The Mandrake Project is a concept record, though the full story is not really available in the songs. A series of graphic novels are being released that detail the story. There isn’t a ton to go on other than someone has learned the secret to raising the dead. There has been speculation that not all songs on the album tie into the story and I personally can’t make much sense of it so I won’t drag the point out further.

Today we have 10 songs with a 58:44 runtime. There are several editions of the album around but the differences revolve around covers and booklets, the music is the same across formats and versions.

Afterglow Of Ragnarok

The album opens with the lead single and thus the song we’re most familiar with. It’s a pretty big track with a fat main riff and the song shifts up its focus a few times throughout. Some contrasting light and dark stuff going on.

It is really nice to hear Bruce sing over a Roy Z riff again, it does stand out in contrast to Bruce’s main gig. This song is good but it is also very all over the place. The lyrical fare is dense and hard to get into without knowing the full story and the song jumps around a bit too much for my liking. It’s one I don’t mind hearing but it’s a bit jumpy for me. Grade: C+

Many Doors To Hell

Up next is a pretty bright and powerful tune. It’s a more standard offering than the prior track and is a signature Roy Z rocker. Here Bruce opines about a vampire who actually wishes to feel what’s it like to be human again. It’s a pretty cool song. Grade: B+

Rain On The Graves

This one kicks off with a pretty sly and playful riff, which accents the premise that someone is meeting the devil in a graveyard. The chorus is more straight-up and powerful so it creates a nice contrast. An awesome song and the standout track of the record. Grade: A

Resurrection Men

It’s now on to a song with a spaghetti western motif to it. The intro riff establishes the unconventional theme, then the song moves into a more typical presentation. It’s a very interesting presentation through the first part of the song, then there is a weird breakdown kind of section that is very jarring on first listen. I was able to get more into it on later listens but it really threw me off at first. Grade: B+

Finger In The Wounds

This one starts up ballad-like but gains a lot of power into the first chorus. Bruce said in an interview with Apple Music that this one is about the stigmata of Christ. There is also a Roy Z “off in la-la land” interlude here which, honestly, fits the song very well. Grade: B

Eternity Has Failed

Now we’re on to a song that was in process a decade ago, then Steve Harris heard it and the song got included on Iron Maiden’s The Book Of Souls album. That song was called If Eternity Should Fail, so Bruce and Roy Z reworked some lyrics to freshen things up for the song’s intended purpose here.

For me I can’t separate the two entities. It’s tough to listen to this one in the shadow of the Maiden track. I feel like the Maiden song is better sounding and better executed. I don’t think this is awful, but it really does pale knowing what else is out there, this doesn’t have the same feel. Grade: C-

Mistress Of Mercy

This is a pretty standard, fast-paced rocker. Bruce said this one is about music and how it is a mistress, in the sense of a dominatrix. I don’t get it but the song is still pretty fun to hear. Grade: B-

Face In The Mirror

Now we get a ballad and it’s a very somber one about both addicts and the people who judge addicts. I’d say it’s pretty well done, it is very much on rails and the same all the way through and might get a bit dull toward the end, but I can appreciate the song’s concept and overall presentation. Grade: B-

Shadow Of The Gods

This one goes way back to Bruce’s prior solo album Tyranny Of Souls. It was written with intent to use for the Three Tremors project, which originally was to include Rob Halford and Ronnie James Dio alongside Bruce. There were attempts to insert Geoff Tate in place of Dio and the whole story behind it is a mess that is another story for another time. In the end this never got off the ground, so Bruce included the song here.

The song opens as a ballad but kicks into a heavy mother later on. It’s fairly evident where the part Halford was supposed to sing is at. But the song is very good and offers up plenty of worth even without the intended collaborators. Grade: A-

Sonata (Immortal Beloved)

The closing track is a ten minute ballad that I guess they forgot to put on Senjutsu. In seriousness, the song is the oldest track on the album and was something Roy Z put together based on the 1994 film Immortal Beloved, which covers an aspect of Ludwig van Beethoven’s life.

This one is more ballad-like with a fair bit of atmosphere and layering behind it. While the song has been around forever, Bruce winged the lyrics off the cuff. The song is interesting and after I’ve played it several times I find more to like about it then not. Maybe it could use a bit in the way of variety in the arrangement, but it’s still a nice song to hear. Grade: B

The Mandrake Project was a hotly anticipated release after 19 years without a Bruce Dickinson solo album. It charted number one in three countries and top ten in many others. It had a soft US performance, landing at 176 on the Billboard 200 but claiming spots on the Independent Album and Hard Rock Album charts. It did land at number three in the UK, where the album had stiff competition from Rod Stewart as well as Liam Gallagher. It’s too early for any sales or certification info.

This album was a challenge for me in the beginning. It isn’t easy and accessible right off the bat, there are some layers and more dense portions. I mean, I have no real clue what The Chemical Wedding is about and I hail it as a masterpiece, but this one didn’t hit with that kind of immediacy. The album’s reception was also impacted a week later by the Judas Priest album Invincible Shield, which is widely hailed as an instant classic and drew a lot of attention away from this one.

But over time I gave this one more spins and a fair few of my concerns were lifted. I could appreciate more of what was going on and some stuff that put me off at first, like Resurrection Men, I came around on. This album isn’t a masterpiece or a career record but it still offers up plenty to enjoy.

Album Grade: B

In the end I can appreciate what is on offer here. I sort of assume Bruce will work on another solo record someday, though I also believe his main gig will be taking up his time in the foreseeable future. But The Mandrake Project is a serviceable album to end a very long solo layoff.

The Show Doesn’t Always Go On

On By bigbadburchIn live music6 Comments

I was talking with a buddy awhile back about canceled shows. It’s the hidden scourge of attending concerts – you show up to the venue ready to have a good time and someone’s back is out or they have the flu or a new divorce to navigate, and they aren’t playing that night. Usually these things come around in time enough to absorb, but there are times people have found out in front of the venue or even in their seats.

I’ve never personally had the worse scenario happen – I haven’t even traveled some distance only to find last-minute that the show is off. A few friends of mine have been in that predicament before, I recall many years ago texting a good friend to let him know that the band he was driving up to Kansas City to see was buried under snow in Denver. And my friend was just outside of KC, a three hour drive from here, when he found out.

But I have had a few cancellations in various circumstances. I figured I’d run through them today just for something different to do.

Megadeth

The first one is also the most recent one. Megadeth planned a huge tour with Lamb Of God, In Flames and Trivium and included little ol’ Springfield on the original routing. Well, this was early 2020 when the shows were announced, and we all know that COVID hit not long after. The tour was pushed to 2021 and Springfield was dropped entirely.

I wasn’t surprised, the show was being held in our 10,000 seat college arena and I was very skeptical that Megadeth was going to even come close to filling that. And they didn’t – tickets weren’t moving much at all, so they quietly threw our show into the bin when re-routing the tour.

And one person really made out like a bandit over it – me. I excitedly hopped on to buy tickets as soon as I could dig up a pre-sale code and I used the seat map to buy two awesome seats right on the aisle. Only problem was the seat map was oriented weird and I bought seats in the upper most row of the section instead of closest to the stage. I bought the two tickets I intended to buy so I was on the hook for four tickets at $125 a pop. When the show canceled and I got all my money back I felt a lot less stupid, I wasn’t gonna have to try and sell expensive tickets to a show people weren’t lining up to attend.

Oh, and that wasn’t all – I had bought the two closer seats under some kind of package deal involving Lamb Of God. A few months later when they released a new album, that record showed up to my doorstep, signed by the band. I can only assume that was part of the deal I bought as I didn’t order a signed record on my own. Or maybe it was a quiet kind of make-good thing after the tour got postponed and later canned. Either way, thanks.

Deicide

This goes back to 2004 and doesn’t involve a whole show cancellation but rather just one band. The tour package was Superjoint Ritual, the post-Pantera outfit of Phil Anselmo. Deicide were opening the show along with someone else. I wasn’t ever into Superjoint but I was happy for the chance to see Deicide, I do love my old school death metal.

Well, Deicide did what they often did in those years and didn’t show. I got to the front of the venue and there was a sign saying that they canceled. I hadn’t bought a ticket so I turned around and left. Deicide would jettison their troublesome members not long after and go on a run of more stability. This one didn’t really bother me too much, Deicide canceling shows was not out of the blue back then and they were the only reason I was going so it was a free evening for me.

Merle Haggard

This next one goes back to early 2016 and, if you know Merle’s life story at all, you already know the tragic reason for this one.

Merle had booked a tour with Willie Nelson, with Jamey Johnson opening. You talk about a chance to see two legends under one roof, this was it on a silver platter. And Jamey was no slouch either, he was running high around this time.

Well, sadly Merle wouldn’t make it. He came down with pneumonia and wasn’t able to shake it. He canceled his participation on the tour fairly early, and then died on April 6. This was only two days before the show was set to hit my town.

Willie and Jamey went on with their sets, both paying homage to Merle. It was a fantastic show but it’s sad that Merle passed away and couldn’t be a part of it as well. But it’s one cancellation I’d have a hard time complaining about. Totally understandable.

Slayer

These last two are inter-related. At some point in 2004, Slayer announced a tour for later in the year that was to include our humble little village. I had never seen Slayer live so I was very much looking forward to it.

Well, fast forward 20 years, and I’ve never seen Slayer live.

This one was pretty simple – just as the tour started, Tom Araya was having some kind of issues, I think with his throat but I’m not sure. The band postponed the first few shows, of which ours was one. A bit later they announced the rescheduled dates, and our show was not among the new dates. No official word was given but the rumor mill indicated that soft ticket sales were the reason.

I was disappointed by this one but not much I can really do about it. The saddest part of all is that it might have played a role in a gig we never got.

Cradle Of Filth

This final one is not an officially canceled gig. Nothing was ever booked and no tickets were sold. And all of the info I’m about to give is all second-hand information that I can’t confirm, and also it was 20 years ago so my own memory might not be the best on it all.

But the premise was this – Cradle Of Filth were looking to book US shows and somehow got in touch with a booker here. The band’s fee was huge, which is understandable as they were the most successful extreme metal band going back then. But I guess our booker was willing to play ball and everyone exchanged dates. The kink in the hose that killed the show was this – the only available date was the same night as the Slayer gig.

So we didn’t get a Cradle Of Filth show because Slayer were running town the same night. That much is understandable, as the crossover in audiences is pretty big. But, as we’ve just seen above, that Slayer gig wound up canceled. So that’s a possible double bummer, if this story is true.

I really don’t know if CoF were actually close to playing here. It’s possible that there was a low-level inquiry that didn’t pan out and then someone in the scene added a bunch of layers to the story that weren’t really there. Or it’s possible that it is all true – it’s one of life’s dumb series of coincidences that is just strange and stupid enough to happen. I kind of don’t buy it because CoF’s tour routing for the fall of ’04 doesn’t line up with Slayer’s that much but something still could have been brewing.

That about does it for the canceled shows, at least the ones I can recall. I consider myself fortunate – I never had to drive a great distance to find a show canceled at the last minute. But I’m sure many of you who read here have your own canceled gig stories, feel free to share them below. And may any future gigs go on without a hitch.

For questions, comments or concerns, either use the comment form below or head to my contact page.

Uriah Heep – Stealin’

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The WeekLeave a comment

I’m using the gig I saw just a few weeks back for a bit of further inspiration today as I look at one of the standout songs Uriah Heep played that night. Stealin’ comes from Heep’s sixth album Sweet Freedom, which hit way back in 1973. Today’s song was the lead single from the album. The song had a few low chart positions through Europe. The album did score US gold and UK silver certifications and a handful of desirable chart placements.

This was a period of transition for Uriah Heep. While they remained on independent label Bronze for their native UK affairs, the band were now distributed in the US by major Warner Bros. It also saw the band move away from prog elements and implement more conventional hard rock passages, though the guitar and organ nucleus of the band’s sound was still in tact, as it always has been.

The band’s line-up was unchanged from their prior effort. David Byron handled singing duties, Ken Hensley did keyboards and guitar, Gary Thain was the bassist and Lee Kerslake was on drums. Mick Box played lead guitar and is the only surviving member of this line-up, as well as a present-day member of Heep.

Stealin’ opens with a quiet organ while David Byron spins a tale of a guy who started more crap that what he bargained for. He hooked up with the rancher’s daughter and got chased across the land by the vengeful father. He has to run and only has his life left to save. The lyrics reach their point quite nicely with the line “I was stealing when I should have been buying,” which can be taken literally and also figuratively in the case of the girl he could have courted properly instead of seducing.

The story remains open-ended, we never find out if the guy got away from his predicament or if the pursuers caught up to him. But the song does go into a hefty jam to round everything out. It’s definitely more of an FM radio hard rock thing than the prog-minded fare UH offered up earlier in their career but it’s still a nice, groovy jam.

Stealin’ has been a staple of Uriah Heep setlists since its introduction 51 years ago. It has been played 789 times live, according to setlist.fm, and the band have a summer tour coming up with no signs of slowing down. It was a treat when they broke this one out early in the set when I saw them recently on their just-concluded tour with Saxon. I’ve included a clip from another show on the same tour below.

That’s all for today, hopefully everyone is having a fruitful life of buyin’ rather than stealin’. But it did make for one hell of a song.

For questions, comments or concerns either use the comment form below or head to my contact page.