Jam Bands II

I took another trip up to New Jersey, and the soundtrack to the second half of the journey was Dick’s Pick #4, the Grateful Dead live at the Fillmore East in February 1970.  The Allman Brothers were the opening act at that show, but their famous live album was recorded at a headlining show the year after.  Much of this set was actually from Anthem of the Sun, including a 30 minute “That’s It For the Other One”, and a 14 minute “Caution: Do Not Stop On Tracks” – plus a 30 minute version of “Dark Star”.  The GF and her son were not impressed with the remainder of the set, which I played for them later.  Panda was also relieved, rather than upset, when I told her that I had purchased one ticket, not two, to see Widespread Panic at Coney Island in September.  “Music for men”, is how a friend’s wife described this type of music – although the audience typically has a good proportion of women.  Just not from China or Russia, it seems.

I’d last addressed this issue on 11/14/2008.  Since that time I’d heard more – while still listening to the others.  Here are revised comments.

Chris Robinson Brotherhood (CRB).  Robinson is better known as the singer for the Black Crowes.  Apparently he doesn't get along with his brother Rich.  He formed this jam band which sounds - hardly surprisingly enough - remarkably like the Grateful Dead.  They have three albums, Big Moon Ritual, The Magic Door, and Phosphorescent Harvest, with a fourth that just came out, Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel. I saw them in concert recently.  If you like jam bands, you'll probably like this one.  If you don't, you won't.

Skid Row.  The Gary Moore incarnation from the late 60s and early 70s, not the Sebastian Bach version from the 80s.  In Live and On Song, they play two extended jams (including an endless drum solo), “Christian Blues Brother” and “Felicity”.

Quicksilver Messenger Service.  Has John Cippolina, who I’d heard with Man.  I listened to Happy Trails and enjoyed it.

Allman Brothers Band.  I mentioned them earlier, but hadn’t heard more than Fillmore East.  Like the Dead, they have two drummers, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanson.   I chronicled them in more detail very recently.

Widespread Panic.   Based in Jawja like the Allman Brothers; they’ve been around since 1986.  John Bell is their singer-guitarist, i.e. their Jerry Garcia.  They sound very similar to the Dead and ABB. 

Phish.  Bernie Sanders fans, they’re from Vermont.  Their “Jerry” is Trey Anastasio, who played with the Dead on their most recent “farewell” tours.  These guys only have one guitarist and one drummer.  I’ve seen them twice in concert, in 2011 and 2013, both at Merriweather Post Pavilion. 

Frank Zappa.   We think of Zappa as a humorous artist, but his earlier material had some serious jamming going on.  Hot Rats is the go-to album for his jamming.  Sadly, I never got to see Zappa play while he was still alive – he played in Paris in 1984, shortly before we saw our first concert, AC/DC – but I’ve been making up for it by seeing Dweezil carry on with Zappa Plays Zappa. 

Santana.   Before he settled down to shorter, more radio-friendly songs, he was into long, spaced out jams, which he briefly revisits on his latest album, IV, with a tribute, “Fillmore East” – which clocks in at 7:44, the longest song on the album.  Neil Schon and Greg Rolie – probably more famous with Journey – return for that album.   As his later output has been substandard – aside from “Smooth” – I was pleasantly surprised at how good this album was.  Live at the Fillmore 1968 – before Woodstock, even – has a 14 minute “Soul Sacrifice” and a 30 minute “Freeway”. 

Fleetwood Mac.  Another band that jammed before they found fame.  The first three albums have Peter Green on guitar, and it was several albums later – long after Green’s departure - that Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came around.  Green was a big fan of the Dead and loved to jam.   I got the Boston Tea Party live album, which includes both “Black Magic Woman” and “Green Manalishi”.  Fans of Santana and Judas Priest take note, neither of those songs came on the first three FM albums, so this live album was a good way to get the original versions – albeit in a live, jam band context – of those songs.  

The Original Iron Maiden and Skid Row

Few may realize this, but Rise Above Records does:  before Steve Harris formed Iron Maiden in 1975, there was another band by the same name, right outside London.  This band, however, didn’t even manage to release an album before disbanding into almost complete oblivion in 1970.  The demigods at RAR managed to cobble together an album’s worth of unreleased material into Maiden Voyage. 

What does it sound like?  Well, nothing like the Iron Maiden we know and love, not even in 1980 format, as a New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) band.  This incarnation – Steve Drewett (vocals), Trevor Thorns (guitar), Barry Skeels (bass) and Paul Reynolds (drums) – sounds more like what I’d call third tier 70s jam rock – Bloodrock, Dust, Atomic Rooster, Bang, and Sir Lord Baltimore.  There’s a fair amount of extended solos.  It’s classic obscure 70s rock at its…optimal.  Earlier versions of the band opened for Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era), King Crimson, and the Edgar Broughton Band. 

What happened?  They did record enough for an album, which was going to be called Maiden Voyage, but the record company, Gemini, went out of business before it could be finished and released.  With that, the band “disbanded, intermarried, and moved into condominiums.”  No, they just got day jobs and forgot all about it.

Somewhat less obscure – because they actually did manage to put out two albums, Skid and 34 Hours – are Gary Moore’s Skid Row, from the late 60s and early 70s Ireland.  Gary Moore we know as a solo artist and as a guitarist for Thin Lizzy, though he’s only on one studio album, Black Rose; singer/bassist Brendan “Brush” Shiels and drummer Noel Bridgeman complete the power trio.  A third album was recorded but never released, and then re-recorded with another guitarist, Paul Chapman – who later joined UFO.  Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy also joined briefly, between Moore and Chapman.  After Moore’s departure in 1971, Shiels reformed the band several times, but never quite kept it going. 

Moore and Sheils appear to disagree about what happened with the 80’s hair metal band.  Sebastian Bach claims they paid Moore $35,000 to acquire the name, but Shiels insists he never saw that money – possibly Moore simply pocketed the money without telling Shiels about it.  By that point Moore was an established solo artist, whereas Shiels was still trying to keep it going without much success.  Certainly, even the Gary Moore incarnation, despite two albums and support tours, never came close to the New Jersey band’s success. 

This Skid Row, of course, sounds nothing like the Sebastian Bach-led hair metal band of the late 80’s.   Like (the original) Iron Maiden, it’s lots of extended soloing from Gary Moore and howling vocals from Shiels.  In fact, Phil Lynott was in the band at early stages, before they started officially recording; some 1968 Skid Row demo tapes have Lynott’s vocals, which would be his earliest recordings.  Like (the original) Iron Maiden, this Skid Row opened for Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac in 1970 – so there’s even common ground.  And go figure, Moore passed away but Peter Green is still alive.   

Hair Metal

 Woody Metal.  Back at college – the University of Maryland, College Park – in 1988, we had a friend, who we’ll call Woody (yes, his name actually was Woody).  Woody was actually the first friend I had at UMCP; I met him at freshman orientation during the summer of 1986.  Eventually I wound up in his same suite on campus.

            Woody’s preference for music was what is often referred to as “hair metal”, but we called it “Woody metal”.  Bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Twisted Sister, Guns N’Roses.   ‘Sister in fact was his favorite band before Appetite For Destruction came out, at which point Woody then preached the Gospel of Axl to anyone who would listen.

            He also listened to Fates Warning, Queensryche, AC/DC, and other bands which didn’t fit that mold, and he was certainly intelligent enough to articulate his preferences and explain exactly WHY Appetite was the best album ever.  He wasn’t Beavis or Butt-head.

            So I may as well review this type of music.

The way I see it, there were two parallel “metal” movements in the 1980s:  “heavy metal” and “hair metal”.  What I’d call “heavy metal” was Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Rush, AC/DC, Metallica, Megadeth, who took themselves seriously and wrote about nuclear war, social issues, war, etc. and not merely partying.  Their sounds were heavier, darker, and more disturbing.  I definitely prefer this kind of music.  I also like “stoner rock”, which is essentially 80’s heavy metal with a heavy dose of weirdness and psychedelia, even jamming, but this type of music didn’t emerge until the 1990s at the earliest, with Sleep and Kyuss being the original two stoner rock bands – leaving aside its obvious basis, Black Sabbath.

Music style: Jackson & Charvel guitars in most cases, played through Marshalls, with high speed guitars and shrieking vocals.  The lyrics were deliberately unsophisticated and unpretentious: girls, alcohol, drugs, fast living, partying 24/7, etc.  Though by that standard, AC/DC qualify as a hair metal band.  Anyhow.

Motley Crue.  Arguably the premiere band, though GNR make a good case for competition.  The top albums: Shout At the Devil, Girls, Girls, Girls, and Dr Feelgood.  We saw them on the Theater of Pain tour.  By now drummer Tommy Lee has far eclipsed Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars and Vince Neil as the most famous band member, due to his …famous member.  ‘Crue can be described as mindless party rock, competently executed.

Poison.  Clearly Bret Michaels and his crew were emulating ‘Crue, though with more makeup and hairspray.  Look What The Cat Dragged In is their Dark Side.  It was the first album my brother got for his newly purchased CD player.

Ratt.  This is MY favorite among them.  “Round and Round” is the top hit, from their Dark Side, Out of the Cellar.  We saw them at Donington in 1985.

Def Leppard.  Emerging from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the only band of that genre to successfully sell out; Diamond Head crashed and burned trying to do the same, whereas Iron Maiden and Saxon remained true to their NWOBHM roots.  My favorite album (naturally, pre-sellout) is High N’Dry, but Pyromania and Hysteria probably rank higher as objectively landmark ‘Leppard discs.  We saw them on the Hysteria tour back in 1987.

Cinderella.  By far the most blues-based and musically legitimate band, but I could never get past Tom Keifer’s makeup and the band’s lame name.

Skid Row.  Bitter rivals to ‘Crue thanks to Sebastian Bach, but I do like Bach’s healthy self-deprecation.  I’m less impressed with their hits than their covers album; of their originals, “Monkey Business”, from Slave to the Grind, is my favorite.

Twisted Sister.  How could I forget them?  Nasty transvestites, I suppose:  Dee Snider and Mark Mendoza looked like cross-dressers who’d just as soon kick your ass as kiss it.  “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, and Stay Hungry, remain their top hit and album.  We saw them on the Come Out and Play tour in Paris, and the Love is For Suckers tour in DC.

Guns N’Roses.  By now Slash has eclipsed Axl as a musical force in 2013, because he manages to make albums and tour with some degree of reliability, and doesn’t play the petulant, jaded, immature, spoiled rock star like Axl.  The cursing/stumbling drunk Slash of 1988 has been replaced by a guy who looks exactly the same but actually behaves normally by rock star standards.  Axl took 14 years to give us Chinese Democracy, a mediocre album which doesn’t make up for the time spent making it.  Appetite remains their peak.  The twin Use Your Illusion albums would have been a masterpiece if they simply combined the best of both onto one album, instead of a bloated, uneven, and inconsistent double studio album – but “Estranged” is arguably their best song.  We saw GNR in July 1992 at RFK on their joint tour with Metallica.

Pantera.  I haven’t heard the earlier era Pantera (pre-Phil Anselmo) which was a glam rock version.  Dimebag Darrell was cleanshaven and had his hair all pouffed up.  Firehouse, Warrant, and Bullet Boys were also glam bands.  By the time we saw them at the Ozzfest one year, they were well into their thrash era.
 

Bon Jovi.  Clearly from New Jersey and not L.A.  This band had the sound down cold, but the lyrics were closer to Tesla’s more naïve and innocent type, at least later as they matured: “Bad Medicine” and Slippery When Wet were still “bad boy” type of material.  “Wanted Dead or Alive” was more “cowboys of peace” B.S. but still their best song.  We saw them at Donington in 1985, but I can't remember anything about their set - I was resting on the grass with a headache.

Dokken.  Definitely “hair metal”.  We had a friend, Stam, from Greece, who was convinced that George Lynch was the best guitarist ever.  My brother considered singer Don Dokken to be not quite svelte enough for this type of music.  “Alone Again” is probably their best song, from Tooth & Nail, but we also had Under Lock & Key on vinyl.  We saw them open for Accept in 1986 in Paris.

White Lion.  Mike Tramp on vocals, Vito Bratta on guitar, not particularly original or different than the rest, but no worse either.  Tramp seems to be the only consistent member; according to him, Bratta appears to be the Ritchie Blackmore of the band, a petulant, uncooperative prima donna.   Tramp insists that a White Lion reunion is not going to happen.  We saw them open for AC/DC at Madison Square Garden in 1988.

Whitesnake.  I suppose the ’87 model + Slip of the Tongue qualify as “hair metal” after they ditched the Zeppelin-clone era of Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody – back when they still played Deep Purple Mark III songs in concert.  “Still of the Night” is excellent, and they resurrected some earlier material (“Here I Go Again” and “Crying in the Rain” from Saints & Sinners).   Having Tawny Kitaen in the vids should cement them into this category regardless of the blues orientation of the prior material.  We saw them on the Slip tour in early 1988.

Tesla.  For some reason, probably sheer coincidence of time, this band gets lumped in, but I would argue they are NOT a hair metal band, although they appear resigned to accepting that label.  First off, the lyrics are far too naïve, good-natured, and introspective, and not about partying.  Second, Jeff Keith really doesn’t play the “Steven Tyler” role, and the rest of the band dress more like AC/DC than ‘Crue.  Finally, lead guitarist Frank Hannon owes more to Angus Young than Mick Mars. I've seen them a few times recently, but also back in 1987 opening for Def Leppard.

Grunge.  Recently Dave Grohl, the drummer for Nirvana, was doing a documentary (“Sound City”) on Sound City, a famous L.A. recording studio, Sound City.  Ratt recorded Out of the Cellar there, so he tried to contact the band.  He laughed, because the band were unsure why he, of all persons, would be talking to them.  The general consensus is that hair metal was “killed” by grunge, with Nirvana being the major culprit for hair metal’s demise.

Rock of Ages.  Although I never saw the Broadway musical, I did catch the film version with Tom Cruise as Staycee Jaxx.  It’s truly a celebration of hair metal at its best/worst.  I can’t comment as to whether it “captures the scene”, as I only got to L.A. and the Strip in 2010, long after the scene was dead.  It certainly catches the music and the spirit.  For anyone even vaguely interested in that type of music – or even vaguely nostalgic – by all means, watch it.