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.
Originally I was going to discuss 2023 a bit more. I decided against that after I got to typing – this year has been a bit of a shit to me personally and I’d rather see it just go the hell away. Instead, I’ll go with what is supposed to be my normal Wednesday routine and talk about a song instead.
Whatever, indeed.
Our song today hails from Oasis, and was their first ever non-album single. We are now 29 years and 1 day removed from its single release, it was a UK Christmas single in 1994. This would do very well for what was about to become a behemoth of British rock, the song went to number 3 on the UK charts and sold over 540,00 copies.
This was recorded as part of the sessions for the debut album Definitely Maybe, and in fact I believe it was released on a few international versions of the album. I can’t immediately corroborate this, so if anyone has more concrete information about this, please share and I’ll be happy to correct this.
The thing that kept Whatever off the debut album was the use of orchestra strings, which were recorded by the London Session Orchestra. Among the players was violinist Wilfred Gibson, who had previously been part of Electric Light Orchestra, as well as contributing to early King Crimson work, among others. Imagine being this guy who had been on decades of mountain-moving work.
But Oasis and the powers that be, likely Alan McGee and Creation Records, decided that Whatever didn’t fit the debut album. I’d honestly say it’s a fair call, this song does stand out as different from the vibe on the record. It might have worked, but Definitely Maybe does work just great as it is, so it’s probably for the best that this is a bonus track.
Our song today isn’t that difficult to go through, most Oasis songs aren’t. It’s an ode to being free and embracing whoever you are, like a lot of Oasis it’s a celebration of the everyday person. It’s an embrace of the free spirit of the brief Britpop time of the mid-90’s where things weren’t as grim and everyone could take on the new form of rock music while still having a good time. It’s a celebration of self, it isn’t overly intellectual and it works pretty well.
The signature part of this song might be at the end, as the last minute or so sees the strings lead the song out. It leads to memes like the one just below, and it sums up the spirit of the song. We aren’t supposed to take it all that seriously, yet in that time for us of the right age in the mid-90’s, this was pretty serious. For a brief moment in time, relatively speaking, Oasis were the voice of a generation.
Now, this song did give primary songwriter Noel Gallagher a bit of a fit – there was a lawsuit from celebrated English act Neil Innes, who contended that this song lifted parts from Innes’ 1973 song How Sweet To Be An Idiot. Oasis management chose to settle, and Innes is listed as a co-writer of Whatever.
This got played out live a fair bit, including during Oasis’ high time of 1996, and the Knebworth set that I go on and on about on here. All in all this is listed as being played 99 times during the band’s career, and was one they were playing on their final tour when shit came to shit and the band imploded. Both Noel and Liam have played this in solo sets post-split.
So at the end of the day we have a Christmas song, although it’s not about Christmas, as if Oasis would ever do that. But we do have a very nice song that didn’t quite fit the album they were putting out and we got this as a bonus single instead. A fine piece of work, if I do say.
It’s time this week for one of rock and metal’s most immortal albums. Deep Purple were looking to build on momentum from a prior album and also do a better job of capturing their live sound on a studio album when they made a series of recording choices that would both cement them as rock titans and also contribute one of rock and roll’s most infamous song origin stories.
Deep Purple – Machine Head
Released March 25, 1972 via Purple Records
My Favorite Tracks – Space Truckin’, Smoke On The Water, Highway Star
The story of Machine Head and its recording has long been etched into rock music lore. Deep Purple were out to better capture their live sound on a record. The band had established some success on the basis of their album two records ago, Deep Purple In Rock, and were convinced that bringing their live sound to a studio record would help them along. The band booked the famous Rolling Stones Mobile Studio and lined up to record at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland. The original plan was to record a live set as well as the studio album and release a double record. Of course, those plans went up in flames, as we’ll get to.
Tracking Deep Purple line-ups could drive the world’s foremost scholars mad, there is a whole lore and science behind it. This album featured the band’s Mark II roster, which would be the band’s most successful configuration. It featured Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Ian Gillan on vocals, Roger Glover with the bass, the immortal Jon Lord on keyboards and the band’s lone constant member Ian Paice on drums.
Deep Purple would be credited as album producers. They were joined by engineer Martin Birch, who had worked with Purple on previous albums as well as Fleetwood Mac in their early career. Birch would go on to produce for Blackmore again in Rainbow, handle the early Whitesnake albums as well as the first two Dio-fronted Black Sabbath records before settling in as the long-time producer of another British band I might happen to talk about all the time on this site.
Today’s album has a fairly lean 7 songs running at 37:46. Several deluxe editions of the album are also available.
Highway Star
The album opens with a quick hard rocker that was literally written in front of journalists on a bus after one reporter asked how the band wrote songs. Blackmore started jamming on a guitar while Gillan composed lyrics on the fly about simply “being a rock and roll band.” This was also released as a single.
This ode to cars and women accomplished its mission of depicting rock and roll, and the music laid a blueprint for many bands to follow – keep things simple and just rock out.
Maybe I’m A Leo
Up next is a blues jam soaked in Blackmore’s guitar tone and spiced up with Lord’s organ work. It’s a really nice song and a good bridge from rock’s recent past to what it was becoming. There are sparse lyrics here, but Gillan laments the loss of a woman, who maybe was taken away against her will, it’s hard to tell. But she is gone and Gillan is a Leo, but not a lion. (Hey, me too. And it turns out Ian Gillan and I have the same birthday, didn’t know that.)
Pictures Of Home
We have a very amped up jam session here, as each instrument player gets a spot to go off on his chosen weapon of rock. It’s far from just an individual showcase though, it’s also a cohesive song that works when everyone’s playing together as well as when one person takes the spotlight. It also features a harrowing lyrical tale of a mountain climber stuck on a mountain, which would be a pretty awful position to be in. And there’s probably not a British rock royalty jam session going on up on the mountain to pass the time with.
Never Before
It’s another blues-based tune here also with a bit of funk creeping in on occasion. While Lord and Blackmore are up to their usual mastery here, it’s Ian Gillan that really gets a chance to shine vocally here. His tale is one of sorrow, as he’s been done wrong by a woman, but the song is pretty hard hitting and ready to soar.
Smoke On The Water
And here we are. The truth is that this song’s full details deserve their own post so I will Cliffnotes things today. DP were set to record at the Montreaux Casino after it shut down for the winter, the last gig the venue booked was Frank Zappa. A “stupid with a flare gun” decided to burn the place down instead. DP had to find another place to record and also found lyrical inspiration for a song in the fire. In fact, the song’s lyrics give most of the details of the events.
Smoke On The Water was not immediately recognized as a hit. In fact, the band had a live album and another studio record out before this was officially released as a single. The song went on to hit number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was also certified gold in the US.
But the song’s true success goes far beyond charts and sales. The Blackmore riff is perhaps rock and roll’s most recognizable guitar sound. It is simple yet highly effective, and it led to generations of future guitar players annoying music shop employees with repeated plays of a riff so simple that most anyone could play it in a few minutes. This is quite possibly the greatest contribution to rock music ever, it is that massive and influential.
Lazy
This one is nearly an instrumental and is a fantastic jam between Blackmore and Lord. The song is 7:22 in length and these two take up most of the track. It is a jam in the truest sense, with them simply going off and doing what they want to do. The small verse section is about, well, being lazy. It is split in two with Ian Gillan on the harmonica between.
Space Truckin’
The album closes with a brilliant rock and, honestly, heavy metal track. It’s a fantastic, trippy march through the idea of being just what the title says – a space trucker. It’s like Han Solo a few years before he came around. The song is carried by Jon Lord’s just plain gross keyboard riffing. This song got turned into a massive jam in live settings, including an infamous one in 1974 when Blackmore was pissed off and destroyed thousands of dollars in gear.
Machine Head was to be the magnum opus of Deep Purple’s long and storied career. The album hit number 7 on the Billboard 200, and number 1 in 8 countries, including their home UK. It was certified gold in 4 countries and 2 times platinum in the US. Bear in mind that most record labels stop certification counts due to expense and it’s likely that the record has gone on to sell vastly more.
The immortality and legend of Machine Head is undisputed. When there is a list of the greatest rock and metal albums, this album is on there. When there is a list of the greatest songs, Smoke On The Water is on there. When there is a list of rocks’ greatest guitarists, Ritchie Blackmore is there. Deep Purple would, along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, form the “holy trinity” of rock music in the 1970’s. It is the influence of these three bands that shaped the face of music to come and the foundation upon what a lot of the stuff I listen to was built on. It was Deep Purple that influenced a lot of what I and we listen to, and specifically Machine Head that spun on the turntables of the next generation of musicians over and over again. There truly is nothing without this piece of rock history.
Time to go all the way back into ancient history for the debut of one of rock’s most titanic bands. There’s plenty of blues, a bit of heavy metal and a whole lot of rock.
Led Zeppelin – self-titled
Released January 12, 1969 via Atlantic Records
My Favorite Tracks – Communication Breakdown, Good Times Bad Times, Dazed And Confused
I’ll sum this up as quickly as Page and company recorded the record – Jimmy Page had an obligation to tour with the Yardbirds but needed a band. He brought in Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham to do it. After the tour the band self-financed a record and recorded this debut album in 36 hours of studio time. Page was the producer as well as guitarist. The band changed their name from The New Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin and got a major label deal with Atlantic Records that included creative freedom without even being heard.
Today’s album is 9 tracks with a 44 minute runtime. The album is a mix of originals and covers, and Jimmy Page’s long history with music copyright battles would begin on this very debut record.
Good Times Bad Times
The opener is a great introduction to Led Zeppelin – a noisy rocker that showcases bits of each band member at their strengths. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones both leave some great embellishments through the song, pretty slick bass work from Jones especially. This is a general summation of the good and bad of relationships and it’s a pretty accurate look at things.
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
This was originally written by Anne Bredon, Page and Plant were inspired to do the song based on a recording by Joan Baez. Zeppelin would not ply their trade in folk however, they doubled the length of the song and kicked up the ferocity several thousand times over. It shows that Zeppelin had more atmosphere to them and weren’t going to be a hard rock one-trick pony.
This one has an odd bit of trivia to it in regards to Anne Bredon’s proper royalties – Page was unaware of who originally wrote the song and Bredon was unaware of Zeppelin’s version for many years. Eventually she was properly credited and paid. This was more an honest mistake and a lot less messy than other “Who wrote this Zeppelin song?” fiascos.
You Shook Me
This is an early ’60’s blues tune written by Willie Dixon and originally performed by Muddy Waters. Again, Zeppelin take the original song and double its length and also run it through their own Zeppelin filter to distinguish it quite a bit from the original. It’s a pretty fun jam and Robert Plant really gets up to some vocal gymnastics here.
Dazed And Confused
This trippy jam was something Page did with the Yardbirds and wanted to bring to Zeppelin. Call it psychedelic, maybe, or perhaps acid rock, this song is a total journey. It keeps a fairly standard and slow pace for a bit, then starts jumping off the rails with crazy riffs and drum fills, and also Robert Plant sounding like he’s having an orgasm. This was a sterling showcase from Zeppelin and a song they would extend to a massive jam live, it also marks the band’s most-played live song.
This one has a contentious writing history – it was originally written by folk artist Jake Holmes, who opened for the Yardbirds in New York. Holmes would eventually have to sue Page in 2010 to get proper attribution. The case was settled out of court, so no specifics on how it played out.
Your Time Is Gonna Come
This is a bit of folk hard rock here with a jamming organ and acoustic guitar. The song has an uplifting and almost spiritual chorus, but is also admonishing a two-timing woman. It’s a study in contrasts to a degree. This song never got busted out much by the group but it’s a track I like quite a bit.
Black Mountain Side
This is a short instrumental piece that has the prior song bleeding into it. It’s a pretty standard acoustic thing up until a bit of Jimmy Page magic in a brief spot. It’s worth a listen.
Communication Breakdown
Here we get a very early example of an outright heavy metal song. Zeppelin’s blues-based rock would be a foundation on which heavy metal was built, but here they actually recorded the next step in the process. This brief song could also be considered a precursor to punk with its fast, static riffing along with all the damn noise Bonham is making. This song was an inspiration for future metal and punk bands, Iron Maiden and The Ramones among many others.
I Can’t Quit You Baby
This is another blues tune and another written by Willie Dixon. It was first performed by Otis Rush and Zeppelin’s interpretation is pretty faithful to the original. It does add a few minutes of space for Jimmy Page to get up to a few things on guitar but it’s otherwise a standard blues rendition.
How Many More Times
The album closes with a blues-based rocker that is an original band composition. This song is pretty jam packed with action for its 8 minutes. It gets a pretty long interlude before picking up the jam back into a whole other space and then revisiting the song’s beginning structure to close out on. The guitar tone here and song structure are a pretty good showcase of what Led Zeppelin would get up to on future albums.
Led Zeppelin was a pretty hot ticket right out of the gate. The album would hit number 10 on the US Billboard 200 and get number 6 on the UK Albums chart. It did pick up number 1 in Australia and Spain. Zeppelin would have a very successful US tour that kicked off just as the album launched and their interest in America and abroad grew quickly. All told the debut would be certified platinum 8 times in the US, 2 times in the UK and get a diamond certification in Canada. Nothing from Zeppelin has really stopped selling since they hit the scene, though of course exact sales figures from this era in music are difficult to track.
This one has always been one of my favorite Zeppelin albums. There’s something a bit different about this one before they really nailed down their winning formula. They’re credited with recording the perfect rock album, but there’s a charm to this one with its meandering through styles and clash of sounds.
I don’t see much point in getting into the legacy of Led Zeppelin – they’re one of rock’s most important bands. This was the start of their decade of domination and circumstances came together to make quite a debut.
The song pick this week is one of the more iconic audio and video clips from the early ’90’s. The song is fantastic and the video is totally unforgettable.
Sabotage was the first singe from the Beasties’ fourth album Ill Communication. The single was released in January of 1994, while the album was a few months behind in May. The single had a rather light performance conventionally, landing at 18 on the US Alternative Airplay chart and 19 on the UK Singles chart. The album was a smash success, claiming a Billboard number 1 and hitting 3 times platinum in the US.
The Beastie Boys were always a genre-bending outfit, combining elements of hip-hop, rock, metal, punk and whatever else around the house wasn’t bolted down. In the music environment of 1994, Sabotage simply qualified as a rap-rock song, nothing unusual to find on the radio or MTV at the time. Of course, the Beastie Boys were also one of the primary influences on the fusion of rap and rock, so no great surprise that another single of theirs would be right at home among a host of music they helped influence.
Lyrically, Sabotage is a venomous rant against the music industry and specifically a producer that had screwed the band over – except that nothing of the sort really happened. Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz relayed in the 2020 Beastie Boys Story documentary that they were simply spewing a fictional rant at Mario Caldato, the song and album’s producer. Caldato was not truly doing anything untoward, it was just a way that the Beasties came up with lyric ideas.
Sabotage is inseparable from its music video, which was what truly launched the song into immortality. The clip was helmed by director Spike Jonze and was styled as the opening credits to a 1970’s-era cop show. Each member of the band played a member of the police force, with Adam “MCA” Yauch getting two roles in the video.
The video is simply amazing. It does truly look like a cop show from the time period it represents and could easily be mistaken for a trailer to a real show. Just ask Beavis, who is probably still wondering where the real Sabotage show is. All of the Beasties look the part and the high-flying action is captured perfectly. MTV did originally censor portions of the video, including the parts with bodies flying out of a car and off of a bridge, though it was abundantly clear that dummies were used in the “stunts.” The YouTube clip above features the full uncensored video.
The video was in constant rotation on MTV and was the catalyst to the song being played over and over again for anyone tuning in throughout 1994. The video was nominated for five awards at the 1994 VMA’s but was infamously shut out, mostly losing to Aerosmith’s Cryin’ video. That should be considered a crime, honesty. In 2009 MTV created a new award centering around videos that should have previously won awards and Sabotage was the winner.
Sabotage and Ill Communication would help turn the Beastie Boys into total household names, something they had been well on their way toward anyway, but the ever-present MTV video and success of the album would be the point of no return. No doubt that Sabotage is one of the defining songs and videos of the time period.
This week I’m on to one I’ve meant to talk about for a while – what today remains the most recent studio album from Mötley Crüe. This album occupies a weird spot in the catalog – it was a long-awaited comeback after 8 years of no albums and also released in the same year as 3 other long-awaited comeback albums from legacy rock acts. This one is equal parts gushed over and glossed over and divides fan opinion sharply at times.
Mötley Crüe – Saints Of Los Angeles
Released June 24, 2008 via Mötley Records
My Favorite Tracks – Saints Of Los Angeles, White Trash Circus, Goin’ Out Swingin’
Crüe had not released a full album since 2000’s New Tattoo, a record that did not feature drummer Tommy Lee. SOLA was the first full band action since 1997’s Generation Swine. The band had been on ice for a bit in the early 00’s but then were able to pull off a highly-publicized “reunion” despite only being gone for a few years. The tours with the original four were big hits and the band eventually got together to record this new album.
When I say “the band” got together, what I mean to say is that Nikki Sixx got together with Sixx AM guitarist DJ Ashba, Sixx AM singer James Michael and longtime Aerosmith collaborator Marti Frederiksen to make the new Mötley Crüe album. This grouping is credited with writing every song on the album, while Mick Mars has credits on 7 of the tracks. Neither Vince Neil or Tommy Lee appear in any songwriting capacity. I do presume that a few of the names in the songwriting list might also appear in audio form on the album to a degree, but again I don’t know.
As for who actually played on the record, well, there’s no telling. Recent news and gossip involving the ugly Mick Mars split indicates that a lot of people who aren’t on the Crüe roster have played on the albums. I don’t know who, when or where and I’m not going to bother guessing since the whole affair is pretty gross and hard to track the accuracy of.
The album has a lot of songs, with 13 tracks coming in at 44 minutes. The album has been reissued a handful of times since 2008 but there are no bonus tracks or deluxe versions to concern one’s self with, at least to my knowledge.
L.A.M.F.
This is an intro piece that sets the stage for the music to come. This is a pretty cool little deal, it highlights the issue of Los Angeles with scores of people flocking there to hit it big in acting or whatever, but 4 out of 100,000 actually making it. This sets a gritty tone early, Mötley Crüe will not simply be writing love letters to their beloved City of Angels.
Face Down In The Dirt
The first song proper is a simple yet very hard-hitting banger that covers the theme of not wanting to be a worker drone in society. It might seem a bit odd for a band who’d been successful for 27 years or so to write a song like this but the song works 100%, so there’s nothing really to argue with here.
What’s It Gonna Take
This one goes back to the band’s early days before they were successful, talking about living with girls and being rejected by record labels. It’s a pretty cool song and it’s nice to look back for a minute on those early days before Crüe broke out and helped set the table for 1980’s music.
Down At The Whiskey
This one is also an early nostalgia trip, obviously being about days at the famed Whiskey club in L.A. At this point the album is solid, though these sorts of “glory days” tracks are setting the table for an ok but unspectacular album. It could use a real kick in the ass to get it to the next level.
Saints Of Los Angeles
It didn’t take long, welcome to the next level.
The title track is a gritty, sleazy look at Los Angeles and the scene. This doesn’t “tell a story” so much as set the table for an experience in the seedier side of L.A. This song nails the feel of that and is just a massive, ass-kicking track. Gang vocals on the chorus are provided by a number of guests, including Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach, Josh Todd from Buckcherry, the aforementioned James Michael, and Chris Brown from Trapt. (Yes, the dude from Trapt is the same guy who turned Trapt’s social media account into his personal litter box a few years back)
Mutherfucker Of The Year
It’s a great song and also a new award at work. This one is all attitude, Mötley Crüe have been one of the bands with an actual reputation big and, at times vile enough to live up to the moniker. It is almost like a true theme song for them.
The Animal In Me
This one kicks the pace down a notch, it’s not a true ballad but it dances on that line a little bit. It’s a song about rough sex, kinky stuff, whatever. This one is pretty run of the mill, not my favorite by any stretch.
Welcome To The Machine
Here the pace ramps back up for a tune presumably about being a part of the record industry. It’s a bit ironic from Mötley Crüe, since they were one of a very few bands who were able to take control of their old album masters and gain rights almost no other artist has. But this song isn’t that deep, it’s just venting about the disposable nature of artists once they’re done, all just to make some shareholders rich.
Just Another Psycho
This one is a mid-paced affair that is simply about being nuts. This feels like a bit of a filler track but it’s listenable.
Chicks = Trouble
The fun factor ramps up big time here with this crazy song about a gold-digging woman spending the guy’s money. I’ve never had to deal with this problem because I’ve never really had money, but this song is really fun to play.
This Ain’t A Love Song
Another one that’s a whole lot of sleazy fun, it’s all about hooking up with a good time gal. This is the kind of song Crüe probably would have liked to write back in the ’80’s but it might not have gone over that well. 20 years later the climate was far more indifferent to this stuff so here it is, warts and all.
White Trash Circus
Heading toward the end and the hits keep coming. This is another sleazy song simply about how messed up the band has been over the years, and these guys have quite the stack of tales to tell about their misgivings and transgressions. One line mentions how they’ll never go away and that has held true, even when they themselves said they were going away.
Goin’ Out Swingin’
The closer is a total banger of a song. This hits hard and fast and doesn’t let up and is a great finale for the album. This one sets the band’s attitude of keeping at it until the bitter end, whenever that end might actually be.
Saints Of Los Angeles was an initial success for Mötley Crüe. The album hit the US Billboard charts at number 4 and sold 100,000 copies in its first week. It also charted in several other countries, pulling down a gold certification in Canada. Sales did not continue long after that first week, leading several in the band to become disillusioned by what they considered flat sales. Someone maybe should have briefed them on how album sales were going in general in 2008, I don’t know.
The album had a good reception from fans, though there is certainly divided opinion on it. Many did crow about the involvement of the Sixx AM members, feeling that this Mötley Crüe record is just a Sixx AM album. My take on it is this – if this is what the Crüe sounds like with DJ Ashba and James Michael involved, then write more Crüe albums with Ashba and Michael.
In the end this one holds its own pretty well in the Mötley Crüe catalog. I ranked it number 4 back when I did the Crüe album ranking. I feel like SOLA is the band truly realized with the darker and uncensored themes which they probably couldn’t have gotten away with in the ’80’s.
2008 was a year when rock heavyweights Guns N’ Roses, Metallica and AC/DC all released long-awaited “comeback” albums and it’s possible Mötley Crüe got a bit lost in the shuffle, but it’s also possible that this one did a better job. (Except for AC/DC, that album was excellent) We don’t know if there will actually be another Crüe album, they apparently don’t have a full album’s worth of material yet with new guitarist John 5. If this is the last actual full-length, well I feel like they got it right in the finale. If there is more material to come, I think there is a hard road to traverse to equal or better this one.
This will be a quick and easy AOTW, this live set just hit shelves last Friday and it doesn’t require rocket surgery to have a listen and look at. An old warrior relives his glory days at the site of one of his biggest historic triumphs, getting the rare chance to live in the moment one more time.
Liam Gallagher – Knebworth ’22
Released August 11, 2023 via Warner Records
Oasis played two historic shows at Knebworth House in 1996. Those gigs were the apex of Oasis’ hype and popularity and are often seen as the zenith of the Britpop movement. In 2021 the Gallagher brothers released a live album and documentary about their Knebworth experience, and in 2022 Liam was booked as a solo act to rekindle the old magic again. Over 250,000 people attended the 1996 Oasis gigs, in 2022 Liam would play two nights to a total crowd of 170,000.
Liam played his two shows in early June of ’22, just shy of 26 years after the Oasis sets. He would bring an assortment of material, both from his three-album deep solo catalog and several Oasis standards. While he played 21 songs each night, the album offers a slimmer version with 16 songs, with 9 Oasis songs and 7 Liam solo tunes. Most of the omissions aren’t really a big deal except for one which I’ll get to during the huge encore section. One song did get played on night one but not on night two – the solo single Shockwave, which is on this live package.
There was also an unfortunate omission from Liam’s band – he had often been joined the past few years by former Oasis mate Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs. Bonehead spent a good part of 2022 in treatment for cancer, which he was cleared of last September. He was unable to join Liam’s tour and Liam dedicated More Power to Bonehead at the shows.
The setlist for the live album is as follows:
Hello
Rock N’ Roll Star
Wall Of Glass
Shockwave
Everything’s Electric
Roll It Over
Slide Away
More Power
C’Mon You Know
The River
Once
Cigarettes And Alcohol
Some Might Say
Supersonic
Wonderwall
Champagne Supernova
The live set holds pretty constant through the performances – the songs are executed faithfully by the band, a few of them get an uptick in tempo due to the energy of the huge live performance. Liam holds serve pretty well through this long set. He does get a bit shouty in a few places but I think that’s a consequence of the music going hard as opposed to any issues he was having. Overall Liam sounds really good for someone who has a thyroid disease and had to re-find his voice in order to launch his solo career. He doesn’t get to some of the crazy performances he did in 1996 but his presentation here is well done.
The set jumps between solo songs and Oasis tracks for awhile, one interesting Oasis inclusion is Roll It Over from 2000. It’s not one I’d expect to be on a setlist for a huge show like this but the song works pretty well and is an under the radar pick for the set. Liam performs most of his solo singles here, when he gets to More Power he does a 4-song suite of his songs, concluding with his most renowned solo effort Once. He announces that Once is the last song, though there is one monster of an encore coming.
The encore is an all Oasis affair and kicks off with Cigarettes And Alcohol. That one is performed almost as a heavy metal or punk track, it goes heavy and hard. Some Might Say gets a bit similar treatment, while Supersonic is actually toned down a notch and has a psychedelic vibe to it that stands out even from old Oasis performances. Wonderwall is handled in great fashion, with Liam letting the crowd sing the chorus. The audience knew the words, not only to Wonderwall but most of the other songs, even Liam’s solo singles.
Champagne Supernova closes the night. Liam dedicates the song to his mom Peggy, who is in attendance. It doesn’t seem to be announced from the stage anywhere, at least on the album, but former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire makes a guest spot on the song, just as he did with Oasis at Knebworth in 1996. The album goes out with Liam thanking the crowd and then the guitar ringing out for about a minute after the band is done, apparently they have Nigel Tufnel’s old Fender with that famous sustain.
A few songs were left off, both Oasis cuts like Stand By Me and Liam’s solo songs like Why Me Why Not and Diamond In The Dark. None of those exclusions really bother me, this thing is a 76 minute long album as it is and I can understand making a few tough choices to keep packaging reasonable. But there is one notable exclusion from the Oasis encore section – Live Forever was performed both nights but didn’t wind up on the record. I would have loved to have that song on this album, but for whatever reason it wasn’t included.
The album is pretty well done, there are a few rather abrupt edits that I find odd for a label like Warner to leave on, they clearly cut something out between Liam honoring his mom and the actual start of Champagne Supernova and there are a few other spots that weren’t blended in that well. They aren’t major issues but they do stand out.
Overall Knebworth ’22 does a good job of capturing this historic performance. The atmosphere of an 85,000 strong crowd carries over through the audio, everything feels grand and heavy, like there’s literally electricity in the air. All the instruments sound good, the drums sound almost a little too good but that could just be how they set up to capture things, it’s not all that hard to get a great live sound recorded in the 2020’s. This one is more for the invested Oasis and Liam fan, though people who were in during the 1990’s might find the set a nice bit of nostalgia. It’s about as close to an actual Oasis reunion as we’re likely to get and this set does bring back a bit of that old Knebworth magic from way back when.
The song pick this week is a track from Sammy Hagar’s fourth solo album Street Machine. This album hit in 1979 and was kind of a lull in Hagar’s career – he wouldn’t see true solo success until 1982 and Standing Hampton. But there were still plenty of worthy songs early on in Sammy’s first solo outing and today’s track is one of those.
This Planet’s On Fire (Burn In Hell) did get a singles release in the UK though it didn’t set the UK charts on fire. It would feature over 40 times in live setlists through the early 1980’s before Sammy joined Van Halen and ran off to mega-stardom. He does not appear to have played it since, though such setlist aggregation sites aren’t always accurate so I don’t know.
Today’s song is one of Sammy’s heavy metal-leaning tracks that he was very fond of doing. He had tried to keep Montrose in a metal direction in the early 1970’s, which led to his exit from that group. While Sammy often plied his trade in rock, he could be found exploring the emerging world of metal from time to time.
The standout part of this song is, of course, that riff. It is a roller coaster ride up and down the fretboard on this one. It will get a person to take notice, that’s for sure. There is also plenty of soloing in the wordless moments to keep the guitar lesson going. Hagar would revisit this style of running riff a few years down the line with the song I Don’t Need Love from Three Lock Box.
Lyrically the song is pretty easy to figure out – everything is messed up and everyone has punched their ticket to H-E-double hockey sticks. It doesn’t sound like a bad thing in this case – as with a lot of Sammy at his best, it’s a party all the way to the bottom. It’s not the same kind of Hell as in a preacher’s sermon or as depicted by about 666,666 black metal bands. Maybe it’s really more like Heck, I don’t know.
This song has kind of hung out in the lower rung of Sammy Hagar’s catalog. His time in Van Halen will always be the topic of discussion, and his solo stuff includes his big hit I Can’t Drive 55 and his more modern incarnation as a hard rock Jimmy Buffet. His brief stint with Montrose might garner more attention than a lot of his early solo career before ’82, even.
But Hagar’s early stuff has gained some notice. I know I was one of many to gravitate to this song the first time I heard it way back when. And I wasn’t the only one – in 2022, Dave Mustaine and Megadeth cut a cover version of it for certain versions of their album The Sick, They Dying … And The Dead! The cover featured vocals from Hagar as well.
This Planet’s On Fire may not have set the world on fire, but this is still top-notch stuff from the Red Rocker. It doesn’t get much better than this trip straight to Hell.
Now on to part two of my list of favorite Oasis songs. If you missed the first part, head here to play catch up. No real further elaboration needed here so it’s right into my ten favorite tunes from the Gallagher brothers and their cohorts.
#10 – Rock N Roll Star
The opening track from the debut is a killer slice of rock music. This song spells out the dreams of Noel Gallagher in his early days of playing music and his ambitions for Oasis, dreams he would realize many times over. But before stardom hit he and Oasis were just a bunch of council estate lads from Manchester, dreaming as many of us do for a different kind of life. Even outside the song’s deeper meaning, this is just a great rock and roll tune, it’s exactly why I listen to this stuff.
#9 – D’ You Know What I Mean?
And now, the first single from Be Here Now, the 1997 album that came in with more hype than ever but fell a bit short of what were impossible expectations. This one is over 7 minutes long but every second of it works, even the oddball helicopter noises and Morse code stuff at the beginning. Musically this is really solid and slots in well with other Oasis anthems, lyrically it is all style and no substance but there’s some hidden lyrical gems in here. Some are borrowed from the Beatles, others are original quips. This one sums up the Oasis attitude really well.
#8 – The Masterplan
We now arrive to another B-side from Noel’s golden era of songwriting in 1995. This was originally the B-side to a single Oasis released called “Wonder Wall,” maybe you’ve heard of it. Noel cranked this song out because he needed another B-side for the single and when he was told that this was good enough to be on an album he didn’t listen. He should have, because this song is wonderful. Noel handles the vocals on this one about “coming of age” or even just accepting where you are at whatever point in life and doing what you please. It’s also worth watching the Knebworth ’96 documentary to see the part where this song features, it’s a very touching piece of the film.
#7 – Slide Away
It’s back to the debut album again, it’s almost like there are a lot of really good songs on that one or something. This is an actual love song, something Noel wrote for an old girlfriend. It’s a wonderful song musically, and also Liam totally kills it singing this one. And for the last mention of Knebworth on this list – the second night’s performance of Slide Away is the highlight of the concerts and an absolutely splendid rendition. But you’ll have to seek it out on your own, I’m posting the studio track here because it’s easier to find and I’m lazy.
#6 – Cigarettes & Alcohol
Again from the debut record and one of its singles. The pace is kept down here but the track just oozes rock and roll sleaze. The song gets at the heart of stuff like cigarettes and alcohol – they are small distractions from a dull and dismal life of work and being on the low end of the earning scale. I suppose the true meaning could be missed, though it’s kind of right there out in the open. Even if the topic is a bummer, the song itself is a great jam that gets the spirits moving.
#5 – Columbia
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the album yet in this series, but this song comes from the debut Oasis record Definitely Maybe. Columbia was originally intended as an instrumental cut to use as intro music but the band later decided to add words to it. As with many good Oasis songs, the words here aren’t saying much and especially on Columbia there really isn’t shit here lyrically. But the song is absolutely great, it is a total vibe setter and is just cool and awesome. It’s kind of like pro wrestling entrance music for a hipster.
#4 – Morning Glory
This did NOT come from the debut album, I’ll let you guess which album it’s off of. Oasis had their share of banging song and this one is the mother of all bangers. This one rocks asses off, something a lot of people probably didn’t realize Oasis were capable of. The song is about drugs and specifically cocaine, something the members of Oasis have masters degrees in.
#3 – Live Forever
Yes it’s also from the debut album. Noel wrote this one earlier on and it’s when he and others realized that he was on to something more than the average chap looking to make it in music. This was meant as a response to the depressing nature of grunge, the music of the day back then. This one is just a beautiful song, it says about all there needs to be said. It’s pretty easy to see why this song has resonated with so many people.
#2 – Don’t Look Back In Anger
Back to the second record for one of the many singles from it. It’s another majestic song, wonderfully composed and performed. Noel took the vocals on this one, a choice that gets questioned to this day but it still worked out just fine. There is a nice message to the song about letting go and moving forward, and yet also the song is full of mind-twisting riddles through the lyrics. It all just works so well and it’s a masterpiece of a tune.
At the top of my mountain of Oasis songs is this long, trippy cut from the second album. This song is such a trip and a journey, can’t say where exactly you wind up but it is worth the ride. I really got into Oasis when I first heard this one, I’m pretty sure my actual reaction was “WTF was that?” This isn’t a song with some message or even a meaning, it means whatever the listener needs or wants it to mean. What it means to me is over seven minutes of pure enjoyment.
That does it for my favorite Oasis tracks. Feel free to offer your own personal favorites below. I will tackle an Oasis album ranking at some point but I have a few others lined up first so it’ll be a little while. Until then, head to the nearest dive bar, ask for a Champagne Supernova as a drink, and see what you get.
And now, nearly two years into this website blogging thing I’ve been doing, it’s time to finally spit out a favorite songs list. I intended to start this way back when but just never got around to it. It’s not really hard to do so I don’t know what the hang up was. But there’s no time like the present so here we go.
I’ve chosen to tackle Oasis first. I wrote about them a bunch when I started this but haven’t got a ton into them lately. When I was debating on exactly how many songs I was going to post I wound up with being able to fill 20 spots, so I’ll go with that. I’m going to split this into two parts. There isn’t a ton of writing on these but the YouTube clips take up a bit of space and I want to keep things kind of clean.
So the first 10 will be up today then the top 10 will be tomorrow. Pretty simple concept so off we go.
20 – Gas Panic!
This track hails from the band’s fourth album, 2000’s Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. The album as a whole had a psychedelic vibe and this song benefited greatly from it. It’s actually about Noel Gallagher having panic attacks which were attributed to his drug use and the music fits a drug trip sort of thing perfectly. I’d kind of passed on Oasis after their mid-90’s glory days but this one is a gem from their life after the peak.
19 – The Shock Of The Lightning
This one comes from the final Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul which hit in 2008. Oasis actually had a bit of a late-life comeback just before their 2009 implosion and this single was fair part of that. It rocks pretty hard, gives off vibes of the classic Oasis while still hanging out in that trippy territory they’d done quite a bit in through the 2000’s. This one made it easy to get a bit excited about them again, though fate had other plans.
18 – My Big Mouth
First appearing live at the legendary Knebworth 1996 gigs, this song got its studio version on 1997’s Be Here Now. This one is a total banger and it addresses the Gallagher brothers’ reputation for having big mouths. This did nothing to shut them up, it was just a song they sang, but this was a good cut. This is one where I do prefer the Knebworth live presentation a bit to the studio track but the studio cut is still really good.
17 – The Hindu Times
It’s on now to Heathen Chemistry from 2002 and the lead single from that record. While the album was all over the place, this song was a good lead off and probably the strongest song from the record, though not the most well-known. This is a light, cheery and a bit of a trippy song. Noel named the track based on a t-shirt he saw in a shop but the lyrics were written later and have no connection to the title. But it’s no matter, this is a really good one.
16 – Lyla
Up next is the lead single from Don’t Believe The Truth released in 2005. This is a simple, fun song about a gal who is really great or something. It’s not a love song per se, more of just this person is generally awesome kind of thing. This one really has the vibe of Oasis getting it right and is one of the best singles of their 2000’s era.
15 – Wonderwall
And here we are. I know that music is relative and subjective, and that a lot of people don’t have exposure to a lot of things that seem common to others. But if you haven’t heard this song you’ve literally been living under a rock since 1995. The most secluded of hermits have heard Wonderwall.
This was the mega hit that still rings loud and clear 28 years later. It might be overplayed but that doesn’t really affect my opinion of it much. This was a very well-done song and there’s a reason it got so popular. I’m honestly never upset to hear it, no matter how many times I already have.
14 – Acquiesce
This one originally appeared as a B-side to Some Might Say in 1995, then this got its own single release ahead of The Masterplan compilation in 1998. It features both Liam and Noel singing, with Liam handling the verses and Noel on the chorus. This is one where the studio version is very good and this easily could have been an album track, but the Knebworth live performance of this really puts it over the top. That raw, energetic version is massive and a must-listen.
13 – Supersonic
The first of probably more than one from the red hot debut Definitely Maybe, this is a total hard rock ass kicker. The lyrics are straight up nonsense and great fun and the song is just a magical trip to where the hell ever. While many think of Oasis as a one hit wonder, they clearly had more up their sleeves, even from the word go.
12 – Cast No Shadow
The second pick here from the band’s magnum opus (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Oasis were not a band prone to a lot of sad songs, and even when they did go that route they were often sweet and sentimental about it. But here they did pursue the more forlorn path of outright despair, offering a dirge about a hard luck guy. The song was inspired by and dedicated to Richard Ashcroft of The Verve, someone who had his fair share of knocks through the 90’s music scene. This was a bit of a thematic departure for Oasis but this is more my kind of sad song, generally speaking.
11 – Some Might Say
The first part of the list wraps up with another of the many singles from WTSMG. This is a pretty nice alt-rock track at mid-pace that also has some fun with strings of words that don’t really say a hell of a lot, though there’s also some bits of common wisdom in there too. This song often gets overlooked by the heavyweights it’s paired with on the album but people really shouldn’t sleep on this one.
That nails down the first part of the list. The top ten will be known tomorrow. Part II is now live.
The Crooked Wanderer 