Twisted & Biblical

 

For Christmas I received several books – which were on my Amazon wishlist.   Two of these I’ve finished:  Twisted Business and Biblical.

Twisted Business:  Lessons From My Live In Rock’n’Roll, by Jay Jay French and Steve Farber.  JJF was the rhythm guitarist for heavy metal band Twisted Sister.   He actually formed it in the early 1970s (March 20, 1973 was their first show), but due to a tragically comic array of circumstances, the band didn’t get its first record,  Under The Blade, out until September 1, 1982.  Then its heyday of albums, tours, and notoriety lasted until its fifth album, Love Is For Suckers, released August 13, 1987.and their last show before breaking up, October 10, 1987, at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Stay Hungry is by far their most popular album, the one which catapulted them to fame, and contains their best known hits, “I Want A Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.   We managed to see them in Paris (4/28/86 at the Casino, the only show we saw at that fairly modest venue), and in Washington, DC at the Warner Theater (9/30/87).  A series of massive miscalculations (more clearly articulated in the book) explain how the band crashed and burned at that time.   JJF had to declare bankruptcy and find some other work to do – which eventually resulted in him producing and managing Sevendust. 

Dee Snider.  From Long Island, New York.  As not only the singer, but also extremely outspoken, Snider served as the de facto “mouth” of the band for much of their peak period, though he was not the original singer; he joined sometime in 1976.  According to JJF, the band members didn’t get along with each other very well, but years after the breakup, somehow managed to patch things up between them.  French himself made certain at an early point in the band’s career to secure the sole rights to the band name.

Drugs.  JJF is quite open about his initial history as not merely a drug user, but dealer.  This contrasts with Twisted Sister, an in-your-face heavy metal band not known for drugs or psychedelia, specifically because JJF abruptly went cold turkey AND insisted on a no drugs or alcohol policy in the band, as his own experiences with drugs, and the impact they had on bands, told him to avoid that.  And of course the band’s demise had nothing to do with drugs.

That being the case, he does have a remarkable array of war stories to tell about his experiences, especially with LSD.  These were interesting in and of themselves.  He found the Grateful Dead to be intolerable as a live band once he quit doing drugs, which is not hard to imagine.  Albums like American Beauty, with short and simple songs, are easy enough to enjoy sober, but a 3+ hour Dead show with extended jams pushes into territory where some form of herbal or chemical enhancement may be necessary to endure, much less enjoy and appreciate. 

Business.  At some point JJF realized that for the band to succeed, someone needed to exercise some form of control and common sense about money.  Although bands have managers for this reason, if all the band members (cough cough, Black Sabbath) are clueless about money, it’s too easy for the manager to either ruin everything or steal their money.  So teaching himself business and taking an active role in managing the band fell into his lap by default and necessity, and he discovered a natural aptitude for it.  In fact, he recognized it as a skill set which applies outside the rock business, and which he reduced to several principles conveniently in the form of T W I S T E D.

Tenacity.   Don’t give up simply because things get tough.

Wisdom.    Don’t be stupid.

Inspiration.  Use your imagination.

Stability.   Keep your act together.

Trust.  You have to be able to trust your business associates (band members).  And above all, you have to earn and keep their trust – it’s a two-way street, which many people don’t seem to realize.

Excellence.   You have to know what you’re doing.  Hone the basic skills which are the substance of your business.  For musicians, this usually means practicing your instrument constantly.

Discipline.  This means keeping yourself and your comrades behaving properly and keeping your eyes on the prize. 

As you can see, these are more philosophical principles than business ideals.  However, they’re pertinent and sensible, a good set for anyone to follow in their daily lives. 

Overall very intriguing, but the gist of it is 25% war stories and behind the scenes backstory on what was going on with Twisted Sister (and why they crashed and burned), and 75% articulation of these principles which he learned the hard way and considers valuable and applicable to people in their daily lives.  Since I only had a vague knowledge about the band outside its peak era, the history part was illuminating in its own right and very much a fun read (especially the acid stories).  Actually I found the music element to be far more interesting than the business element.

***

Biblical: Heavy Metal Scriptures, by Rob Halford.  Halford, of course, is the singer for Judas Priest, one of the more popular and famous heavy metal bands, originally from Birmingham, England (though drummer Scott Travis is from Norfolk, Virginia).  His prior book, Confess, was his autobiography, with lots and lots of details about his homosexuality.  Technically he only “came out” after leaving Judas Priest in 1992, but for many fans he was already “out”, and his official acknowledgement was more confirming what everyone – with any discernable “gaydar” – already knew.  Remaining officially in the closet, however, he had to remain discreet about his lifestyle, so all the tricks of remaining in the closet and “cruising” (this business where repressed homosexuals give each other subtle clues to alert that they’re up for slap and tickle) were likewise articulated at length in Confess.   All that was TMI for me.

Having gotten all that out in the open, now his goal is to wax poetic about literally every aspect of heavy metal:  album covers, songs, setlists, managers, producers, tours, tour buses, groupies, merchandise, etc.  It’s set up in a quasi-biblical fashion but 100% down to earth and non-spiritual.  70% of this is common knowledge which any Judas Priest fan who has been to a few shows is very much aware of; to the extent he had any deep secrets to reveal, they were in Confess.   In fact, so much of this is straightforward, it’s almost like he’s writing this for a 14 year old kid just learning about Judas Priest and music.  For my part, I found the circumstances behind each album’s creation and studio time were the areas of most interest because they were least obvious or well known.   So despite this business of telling me what I already knew, the reading experience was worthwhile all the same, and most likely of value to any Judas Priest fan of any age and experience. 

Oh, one element which is fairly substantial, and which I did not know, is that Rob Halford hates Spotify with a fierce passion.   As we may know, Spotify pays the artists a tiny percentage of a cent - not even a full cent - each time a song is played.   The result is that the artist can effectively discount Spotify as a direct source of income.  Moreover, many fans seem to use streaming sources as their exclusive means of listening to music, forgoing even downloads.  To that extent, Spotify is severely restricting the ability of musicians to make music.   Halford acknowledges that Judas Priest fans are more likely to use Spotify in addition to, not instead of, traditional formats such as vinyl and CD, but newer bands might not have the same fortune.  I'm one of those old school dinosaurs who still buys CDs; I only use Spotify to listen when I'm in a car without a CD player or on the cardio machine at the gym.  I can say I "feel your pain"/"see your point" without fully agreeing with him, as I do use Spotify myself AND still buy the music, AND see the band in concert.  If I listen to a band on Spotify I'm not familiar with already and like it, I'll tend to buy the CD and see the show.  

Confess, Maynard

 I put two books on my Amazon Wish List last Christmas, and my Santa-esque brother (my only one, Matt) thankfully got both for me.  The first is Confess, the autobiography of Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, and the other is A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, by Sarah Jensen with Maynard James Keenan, the enigmatic singer for TOOL, plus his side projects A Perfect Circle (APC) and Puscifer.  Confess is told in the first person by Halford himself, and covers the period all the way up to Andy Sneap’s replacement of Glenn Tipton for Firepower, the band’s latest album.  APUCT is in the third person with some direct quotes from MJK himself.

 Confess.  With the exception of original singer Alan Atkins – who left the band long before its first album, Rocka Rolla, was released in September 1974 – and brief replacement singer Ripper Owens, who only sang on Jugulator and Demolition (1995 and 1998), the singer for heavy metal band Judas Priest has been Rob Halford, from Walsall, a suburb of Birmingham, England. 

 Defenders of the Faith.  We received this album, on cassette, for free, in spring 1984 (i.e. their newest album at the time) and immediately got hooked on the band. That summer we picked up Sad Wings of Destiny on vinyl and discovered Early Priest.  When the issue of Halford’s social life came up, we took at face value his denial of homosexuality, but my friend Sean said – back in 1984 – “if he isn’t gay, why is he dressing that way?”  When Halford finally did “come out” in the early 90s, it was hardly a surprise.  Well, whatever.  We still bought Angel of Retribution, Nostradamus, Redeemer of Souls and Firepower, and still went to the concerts. 

 Having said all that, his autobiography is a bit heavy on the gay-ness, roughly 50%.  I wasn’t concerned about his “keeping in the closet”, of cruising and hooking up, of winding up with straights who have sex with men (“then you ain’t that straight!!!! Tiger Guy).  Talk about a heavy dose of TMI.  He could cut it down by half and still tell us all the stuff we care about:  how he joined Judas Priest (long before Rocka Rolla came out), the circumstances of each lineup change (particularly drummers), the background on each album and tour, and the band’s interaction with other metal bands.  Oh, and he loves “Spinal Tap”.  That’s the part I care about, and fortunately it’s here. 

 Gay Stuff.  I don’t want to devote an entire blog to this topic so I might as well address it here.   I am straight and always have been.  I have very few friends these days, and none of them are gay.  I’ve had gay acquaintances but not close relationships.   But what other people do among themselves, as consenting adults, is their business.  I have enough to worry about in my own life without getting bent out of shape about others.  Moreover, most people who bark and bray the loudest against gays usually turn out to be deep in the closet.  Again, I don’t care.

 If there is one part which does bug me, it’s this business of gays being pretentious.   I love watching “Modern Family” (though Sofia Vergara, Ariel Winter, and Sarah Hyland receive most of my attention) and the gay couple, Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) seem to click all the boxes on gay stereotypes, even to the point of their friends, e.g. Pepper (Nathan Lane).  Of course, the show makes fun of Colombian drug lord culture (Gloria Pritchett, played by Sofia Vergara), goofy magic nerd realtors (Phil Dunphy, played by Ty Burrell), and stupid hot chicks (Haley Dunphy, played by Sarah Hyland), so the ridicule is evenly spread throughout. 

 In any case, Halford’s orientation was already common knowledge when he formally “came out” in the early 90s after leaving Priest, and certainly is now.  So “Confess” is somewhat of a meaningless title.  Anyhow. 

 A Perfect Union of Contrary Things.   Apparently MJK grew up in the Midwest, Ohio & Grand Rapids.  He joined the Army, but though picked to go to West Point itself from West Point Prep, actually decided to go to art school (????) in Michigan, then work in a pet store in Boston, and eventually relocated to L.A., where he worked at another pet store and met guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey.  They formed TOOL with bassist Paul D’Amour in 1992.  After only 6 live shows, all as opening acts at microscopic clubs in L.A., somehow they got a record deal almost instantaneously. 

 After Aenima, their second album, TOOL had legal issues regarding their record contract, so MJK wound up with free, idle time, which he spent getting A Perfect Circle off the ground.  At some later point he started his second side project, Puscifer.  He also discovered jiu jitsu and set up a vineyard in Arizona.   ZZZ.

 Awhile back I read the autobiography of Brian Johnson, the singer for AC/DC (Rockers and Rollers), and blogged about it (back in 2012).   I also blogged when Axl Rose took over on the recent tour.  Brian Johnson’s voice has been accurately described as “Marge Simpson”, and of all the band members, he’s clearly the band’s weakest link.  Whether it was 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, or 2020, Angus could find any number of singers, either professional or undiscovered in a club somewhere, who could do better than Brian Johnson. 

But to get back on topic:  Johnson’s autobiography actually made me like him LESS.  And same deal with Maynard’s.   Goes to art school instead of West Point?   Jiu jitsu and wine?  The utter pretentiousness of the book is off the chart, yet this is not a critique or expose, it’s supposed to be HIS story. 

 In fact, it does such a spectacular job at making him appear pretentious that I begin to wonder if that wasn’t the whole point all along.  Of course he’s pretentious.  He’s Maynard.  Listen to TOOL lyrics and you’ll figure that out.  The book just adds into the whole equation, a Fibonacci spiral….

 Will I stop listening to TOOL or going to their shows?  Of course not.  Same deal with seeing AC/DC live even if Marge Simpson is still their singer.  And Halford’s private life is not my concern, his music is.  These people are imperfect humans just like I am and their music is still top quality.   Sometimes, though, you find your heroes have clay feet.  And life goes on. 

Bald and Goatee

Back to less substantial issues, in this case, a “look”, naturally limited to men:  bald with a goatee.  Where have we seen this before?

Bryan Cranston as Walter White (Breaking Bad).  I’ll start with this, because Walter White is a fictional character.  In fact, by the last season of “Breaking Bad”, he had shaved his goatee and let his hair grow back.  Moreover, I’m not aware that Bryan Cranston himself ever adopted this look. 

For those of you out of the loop, “Breaking Bad” is an AMC TV show about a high school chemistry teacher who says, “WTF”, and decides to translate his skills as a chemist into the lucrative drug trade making crystal meth.  He teams up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) and goes into business.  It also turns out he has cancer, the chemotherapy costing him his hair, so he grows the goatee and adopts a clever nickname, Heisenberg.  Ironically, his brother-in-law Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) is a DEA agent who is trying to track down this mysterious kingpin whose crystal meth is 99% pure and the most popular strain around.  And there’s a colorful attorney, Saul Goodman – who we’re seeing in prequel series “Better Call Saul” – who makes the show that much more intriguing, especially for guys like me who went to law school (George Mason U., now Antonin Scalia Law School, somewhat more prestigious than the University of American Samoa), passed the bar (Virginia and Maryland, plus waive-ins to DC and New York) and are actually practicing law.  Anyhow.   If you haven’t already, check out “Breaking Bad”, and if you’re already familiar, you know who Walter White is…

Rob Halford of Judas Priest.   Back in the 70s he was clean shaven with long, blond hair.  In the 80s he switched to short blonde hair and leather (was he gay?  Need you ask?) and around the time of 2wo, his second solo project after he left Judas Priest (Ripper Owens taking over briefly for two albums) he finally adopted the current look.  It’s usually combined with sunglasses.  His voice and stage presence remain impressive, though I can’t say I really care that much for the bald and goatee look in his case.  I remain a fan of Judas Priest and continue listening to the music, buying the albums, and attending the concerts.  I’d say my favorite Priest album is, hands down, no contest whatsoever, Sad Wings of Destiny.  

Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash.  Back in the 1970s, Andy Powell had long hair and glasses and was clean shaven.  As the rest of Wishbone Ash melted away – Ted Turner (guitar), Martin Turner (bass) (no relation), and Steve Upton (drums), Powell kept the band going.   I actually have Ted Turner’s solo album, purchased directly from him.   Martin Turner wound up creating his own Wishbone Ash band, appropriately named Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash.   As with Priest, I’m still an ‘Ash fan and still go to shows as often as possible.  I’d say my favorite Wishbone Ash album is Argus. 

Nick Oliveri, currently with Mondo Generator and formerly of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age.  He’s grown his goatee down a little further.  I saw him with QOTSA and Kyuss Lives!   I haven’t followed his post QOTSA career and haven’t seen him in concert since he left the band, though that’s more out of indifference than any principled objection.  Rated R, by QOTSA, is probably my favorite work of his.  Back in that band he would sometimes play naked, only covered by the Fender Precision bass covering up his naughty parts – a look I never witnessed in person – and that got him in trouble when the band played Rock in Rio in Brazil.  I sense he’s quieted down a bit in recent years. 

Anton LaVey.  Here’s the guy who started this whole thing back in the late 1960s, forming the Church of Satan and writing the Satanic Bible; he died in 1997.   For all his provocativeness, he was actually an atheist and pro-life.  As I noted before, his “Satanism” is more a deliberately provocative form of atheism, very similar to what Ayn Rand preached:  do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt other people.  Initiating the use of force is wrong, but if attacked you’re free to retaliate as you see fit.  Remarkably sedate notwithstanding all the rigamarole around it.  I suspect far more of us are practicing Satanists without even realizing it…(wicked smile)….

Hoodies

Amidst all sorts of topics I cover, I like to keep a broad range, including some more mundane ones.  In this case, a type of clothing I recently discovered.   They’re highly casual, and maybe beneath my age range (50), but very comfortable and very practical.  They’re light enough for all but the warmest summer weather, and heavy enough for all but the coldest winter weather, and I live in an area – Northern Virginia – which gets snow in the winter and heat waves in the summer. 

The hood itself is nice, as it acts as a de facto umbrella for all but the heaviest rain, for which an umbrella is essential.  The front pocket – which is one reason I prefer pullovers over zip-ups – acts as a handy place to keep the smartphone. 

I’m not keen on zip-up hoodies, preferring pullovers, but in one case I had to take the former as the latter was not available.   I attended a festival which featured a hoodie with the distinctive image of the Maryland flag, so the purchase was not binding but certainly persuasive.

The remaining hoodies are all pullovers, these being the topics thereof:   

All Them Witches (black).   The only decent item at their concession, but it’s good enough to wear. 

Clutch (black).   Psychic Warfare!  You better believe it!

Grateful Dead, Live/Dead (red).  The Live/Dead album from the late 60s is the imagery and theme.

Hofmann (Heineken) (green).  An homage to the famous Swiss chemist of Sandoz.  Note that his name is spelled with ONE f and TWO n’s. 

Judas Priest (black).  Purchased at the first of two Priest concerts at the Anthem in DC, for the Firepower tour (most recent album).

Kyuss (black).   The famous stoner rock band which featured Josh Homme and Nick Oliveiri of QOTSA and Brant Bjork.

Minnesota Vikings (purple).   A very light purple, and VIKINGS isn’t even in the older or newer logos. 

Queens of the Stone Age (red).  My favorite album of theirs is Rated R, which is usually blue.   This is one of the earlier albums back when Nick Oliveiri was still in the band.  Later they re-released it as a deluxe edition in red, Rated Rx.

Too Old To Rock'n'Roll, Too Young To Die

No, not the Jethro Tull album (1976).  Ironically, Ian Anderson is still touring today.  So much for that. 

My topic comes up due to Judas Priest replacing Glenn Tipton with Andy Sneap on its current Firepower tour of the US.

Glenn Tipton has Parkinson’s Disease and has had to stop touring (though he did play the most recent JP show…).  There’s some dispute as to whether he’s in the band or not.  My understanding is he’s become like Brian Wilson in the Pet Sounds and later era Beach Boys), contributing in the studio but with a live replacement for the tour.

For the upcoming tour, he’s been replaced by Andy Sneap, much to the annoyance of K.K. Downing (second from left above), who quit several years earlier (2011) and resented not being asked to fill Tipton’s shoes.  This has opened a whole can of worms.  As I understand it, Tipton actually wrote and played on this album, along with Downing’s replacement (and youthful lookalike) Ritchie Faulkner.  As noted, Downing QUIT the band several years earlier, and my impression is that it was under bad terms but everyone concerned kept their mouths shut out of mutual respect and tactfulness.  It was NOT because Downing was too old to tour and had to retire for health reasons, the usual excuse these days.  But when the Tipton/Sneap deal emerged, Downing felt no longer compelled to hold his tongue.  As I said, a can of worms.  One thing is certain:  Sneap, not Downing, has replaced Tipton on the current tour.  We’ll see how well he does and IF Downing can repair any damage.

Judas Priest (Black Star Riders, Saxon), at Anthem, DC.  This is a brand new music venue in Washington DC, on a newly developed pier/wharf district just southeast of 395 and the 14 Street Bridge.  It opened last fall with the Foo Fighters being the first act to play here.  In terms of format it’s a bit like a larger version of the 9:30 Club:  big floor/standing room with seats up on the edges.   The original 9:30 Club at 930 F Street (1980-1996) had a capacity of 200 standing, probably a minority of that standing room actually anywhere near the stage. We saw Faith No More (The Real Thing tour), Hawkwind, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, and Type O Negative (headlining) (RIP Peter Steele) at this venue.  The new version, at 815 V Street, is much larger: 500-1200, most being floor standing room (except Steven Wilson’s show, which was floor seated), with some upper level sitting areas.  This new venue is much larger: 2500-6000. 

The Black Star Riders went on first, and I immediately recognized Scott Gorham, former Thin Lizzy guitarist, at stage right playing – you guessed it – a Les Paul through Marshalls.  Only one TL track: “Jailbreak”.  Although Gary Moore is deceased, classic Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson is still alive and playing music.  If anyone knows why he hasn’t played with Gorham in decades please let me know.

They were followed by Saxon, who still have Biff singing and Paul Quinn on guitar, plus Nigel Glockler on drums.  “Heavy Metal Thunder” closed the set.  Thank you.  We’d first seen Saxon back in Paris in the 80s on the Innocence is No Excuse tour.  Along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, Saxon are one of the few surviving bands from the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal which emerged in England around ’79-81, after the punk movement finally lost steam.  Whereas Def Leppard morphed into a pop band with Hysteria, and Iron Maiden developed their sound without straying too far from their NWOBHM roots, Saxon has been by far the most faithful of the three in trying to remain true to their roots of 1980.  Fortunately we’ve seen them a few times in the past, mostly as headliners in smaller clubs, and they were always honest and high energy.  My brother even got his picture taken wiff Bith. 

And then… The Priest came on, and it was sad seeing two relative unknowns on guitar:  Ritchie Faulkner replacing K.K. Downing, even down to the long blond hair and Flying V; and as noted above, now Andy Sneap on a Gibson Explorer (or clone) (similar to mine before I swapped in EMG81s and a mirror pickguard).   Faulkner joined the band in 2011 and is on Redeemer of Souls (second newest album), Firepower (newest, freshly released album), and the live video Epitaph, which I have on DVD.  Our last JP show was in 2009 at Merriweather, the tour when they played British Steel in its entirety, so this was our first time seeing them live with Faulkner.   Sneap did a fair job of replacing Tipton.  Ian Hill (bass) and Scott Travis (drums) were as solid as ever.  “Painkiller” made it into the set, apparently the band’s most popular late-model song, but I never cared for it.  “Saints In Hell”, a song I much prefer, also made it, for the first time ever since its original release on Stained Class all those years ago (1978); “Beyond the Realms of Death” is my favorite from that album, and fortunately we’ve seen them play it on prior tours, just not this one.   For me the top song of this set was “The Ripper”, but my prayers to have Sad Wings of Destiny played in its entirety instead of British Steel have fallen on deaf ears.  On Epitaph they did play “Never Satisfied”, from Rocka Rolla.  Fingers crossed for “Run of the Mill”. 

Overall set:  Firepower (new); Running Wild; Grinder; Sinner (!); The Ripper (!!!); Lightning Strike (new); Bloodstone; Saints In Hell; Turbo Lover; Angel; Evil Never Dies (new); Some Heads Are Gonna Roll; Breaking The What?; Hell Bent For Leather; Painkiller (zzz); Encore: Hellion/Eclectic Eye; Metal Gods; You’ve Got Another Item On Its Way; Living After Midnight.  Nothing at all from Rocka Rolla, Point of Entry or Ram It Down. 

Ironically, with Halford replacing original singer Alan Atkins (far right in the picture above) ages ago (before the first album was even released) this makes bassist Ian Hill (far left) the only remaining original member left, similar to Deep Purple, Ian Paice being the only member to serve in all lineups from 1968 (Mark I, Shades of Deep Purple) to the present. 

To go a step further, the current touring lineup of Foreigner has NO original members left, though guitarist Mick Jones (getting too old to tour) has played with the lineup in the past and has apparently given his blessing to this one.  I don’t know where singer Lou Gramm is these days.  The Eagles are down to Don Henley, although Don Felder is alive and active (touring separately as he doesn’t get along with Don Henley), and Joe Walsh still tours with them.  Blackfoot is touring without Ricky Medlocke, himself in Lynyrd Skynyrd which only has Gary Rossington left.  Wishbone Ash only has Andy Powell, but that’s because he won’t let Martin Turner into the band.  Ted Turner and Steve Upton are retired.  I don’t know if their absence is because Powell insists on keeping the profits to himself and touring with paid musicians, or whether Ted and Steve would rejoin even if Andy asked nicely and agreed to share $ with them on acceptable terms.   [Mind you, Rick Wright was demoted to paid musician on The Wall tour, but since that tour lost money, he was the only member of Pink Floyd to actually make money on that tour.] 

All these bands are getting old and losing their original members, leading some fans to accuse the current lineups of being little more than officially sanctioned tribute bands.  This is nothing new, though:  the Marshall Tucker Band lost Toy Caldwell ages ago (1993), and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (SAHB) actually toured without Alex Harvey after his death.  

The fans seem to be split on this.  One segment refuses to see a band under these circumstances, no matter how well the band actually plays on stage; the other segment is willing to see the band IF the replacement members do a respectable job and know their places.  I took a chance and saw Wishbone Ash back in 2002 despite Andy Powell (as noted above) being the only original member, and I’m glad I did.  The rest of the band is competent and they play all the classic songs well.  Holding out for the return of both Turners and Upton means missing some good shows. 

Van Halen recently got David Lee Roth back, but bassist Michael Anthony was not invited back even though he was ready & willing to do so.  I suspect Eddie was paying his son Wolfgang nowhere close to the cut Anthony would be justified in asking for, so it’s money above all.  Having said that, we saw the show with Roth and he was fine.  Then again, we had never seen them play earlier with him (1984 and earlier tours) so the only comparison we had were the OU812 and F.U.C.K. tours with Sammy Hagar. 

Hell, there were people bitching that Tommy Clufetos was touring with Black Sabbath instead of Bill Ward on this final farewell tour.  But Ward has NEVER been consistent since 1978, dropping off tours as early as Mob Rules and Born Again, and only showing up again briefly in 1999.  Expecting him to tour now is downright idiotic, as is a boycott of a tour with Clufetos on drums.  

Finally, the big NO NO here was the infamous Deep Purple tour of 1980.  Rod Evans was the only original member left.  The Mark IV lineup had broken up back in 1976 and the other members were scattered through other bands like Rainbow and Whitesnake; fellow Mark I veteran, bassist Nick Simper, wisely refused to join this fiasco.  Yet they claimed to be Deep Purple and played Mark II and III material as it was their own.  Surely a distinction can be made between this blatant ripoff and an older band trying to bring music to the fans with as many original members as can reasonably get up on stage and play. 

One more thing I’d like to point out.  Not only musicians, but us fans as well are getting older and dying, whereas some fans are younger and had no opportunity to see the band play decades ago with its classic lineup intact.  For the latter group, the current lineup is the only option.   If you’ve seen the band play back in the day and don’t want to waste your money on what you consider a glorified tribute band, save your money and stay home.  As for me, intent on seeing the band in as many different lineups as possible, regardless of how many past shows I’ve seen, I’ll spend the money and see the show and won’t bitch that so & so is too old to tour, is dead, doesn’t get along with the rest of the band, or for whatever reason, good or bad, isn’t on the tour.  And I’ll enjoy sitting in the seat you might have taken if you weren’t staying home.  We all win.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986)

Just a small sample of the extremely articulate and well-mannered crowd members at the Judas Priest concert in 1986 at the Cap Center in Maryland. Check out the Glen Burnie chick who proudly claims she'd jump Rob Halford's bones (but would he jump hers?). By all means, purchase the full 15 minute video, now on DVD!

Judas Priest Then And Now

I recently caught Judas Priest on the Masters of Metal tour with Heaven & Hell and Motorhead.  Somehow I knew we weren’t going to hear “Dreamer Deceiver” or “Run of the Mill” (although Halford had specifically mentioned the latter song in a recent interview, which shows he hasn’t completely forgotten that era), so what we could expect would be the best of their more recent material.  I have to divide their material into two phases:  “old” and “metal”.

The “old” phase includes the first two albums Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny.  Rocka Rolla has a few so-so songs, “Rocka Rolla” itself and “One For The Road”, the better ones, “Winter”/“Deep Freeze”/”Winter Retreat”/”Cheater”, “Never Satisfied”, “Dying to Meet You”, and the best of all of them, “Run of the Mill.”  Sad Wings has “Victim of Changes”, “Tyrant”, “Genocide”, “The Ripper”, “Island of Domination” (a great closer); the two light songs to balance it out, “Prelude” (opening side 2) and “Epitaph”; and my favorite Judas Priest song, hell, one of my favorite songs, period, by any band, “Dreamer Deceiver”/”Deceiver”.  Ages ago a pair of US teenagers killed themselves over this song, but I never heard anything in it which would lead to depression or suicide, or which I perceived as a call to either; “Beyond the Realms of Death”, however, would fit that role far better.  Priest were sued over the issue but won – rightly so.

This older material has a 70s feel and vibe to it, and Halford sometimes even sings with a normal voice (wait, is that the same guy? Do they have two singers?).  The clear highlights are “Run of the Mill” and “Dreamer Deceiver”, which have long, winding guitar solos and really take you up into the clouds, or deep into Hell.  I can hear some vague touches of this on Nostradamus, emphasis on the word “vague”.   Even the logo – in an English font – is somehow older than the more modern version they’ve had since Stained Class.  We picked these up on vinyl back in 1984.  Just like Rush prefer to avoid mentioning Fly By Night and Caress of Steel (I’m sure Neil Peart cringes whenever anyone even mentions “The Necromancer”) Judas Priest tend to avoid these albums.  Even “Ripper” and “Victim of Changes” are out of the setlist these days.  With “Live At Wacken” the Scorpions played with Michael Schenker and Uli Roth, and played songs from their first two albums Lonesome Crow and Fly to the Rainbow, which have a similarly stylistic relationship to the rest of the Scorpions’ mainstream metal material.  If the Scorpions can Accept their past, why not Judas Priest?  In addition to the usual gripes about the sound quality, they talk about not having the rights to this material – so it can’t be properly remastered the way Sin After Sin and later albums were redone.  What we need is a tribute band to play a 1975-era Judas Priest lineup.

Alan Atkins.  This was the first singer, before Rob Halford.  His name still appears on credits for some songs on the first two albums, including “Victim of Changes”.  In a more recent interview he explains that he left the band because he didn’t think it was going anywhere; most likely it was Halford’s voice which made the difference, so yes, they weren’t going anywhere – with him.  I got his solo album, which contains reworked versions of some of those songs.  Verdict?  Excellent voice, but not Halford – like comparing a Z/28 to a Corvette.  [Hmm… maybe get Atkins to sing for that tribute band….]

The “metal” era starts with the third album, Sin After Sin, and continues to the present, including the classic albums British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, and Defenders of the Faith.  Of these, Defenders is my favorite, even over British Steel.  From “Freewheel Burning” all the way to “Defenders of the Faith”, the album is solid.  The production kicks ass, without being too polished (it also happens to be the very first Priest album I ever listened to, which may affect my objectivity somewhat).  Ram It Down and Painkiller were a little too raw and obnoxious; I analogized Painkiller to daring someone to drive fast, and they did so pulling their tired, broken-down Chevy Nova (80s era) to 100 mph with the damn thing falling apart.   I’ll probably catch hell from the entire faithful for saying this (especially since I don’t like Painkiller), but I like Turbo.  “Parental Guidance” and “Private Property” are bit too catchy and goofy, but the rest – particularly “Out in the Cold” and “Reckless” are fine. 

            As for the other albums, Sin After Sin gives us “Sinner”, Stained Class gives us “Beyond the Realms of Death” (now THAT’S a call to suicide), Hell Bent For Leather gives us “Delivering the Goods” and “Before The Dawn”, and Point of Entry gives us…well ok, it’s a shitty album.  For some reason, I can’t get too excited about the Halford comeback album Angel of Retribution, though I can’t identify any truly Point of Entry moments on it.  In any case, these albums established Judas Priest as one of metal’s defining elements, even before Iron Maiden came around to give them competition.  [Incidentally, if you subtract out the people wearing t-shirts of bands actually appearing at a metal concert, which includes freshly purchased tour shirts, and disqualify an Iron Maiden concert (for obvious reason), the most common band’s t-shirts at most metal shows seems to be Iron Maiden.  They must have an entire village in Indonesia doing nothing but making 1000 different Maiden shirts.]

Halford’s solo & Lifestyle.  For a brief period of time, Halford went off on his own, with two thrashy/industrial projects, Two and Fight (neither of which I’ve heard) before establishing a very brief solo career of material which sounded more like Judas Priest than Priest itself, which at the time was indulging its thrashier tendencies with Ripper Owens for two albums, Jugulator and Demolition. 

            Back when we were in high school, our friend Sean claimed that Halford was gay.  At this time Halford was still denying it – but dressing in leather, with the spikes, etc.  Hey, he denied it, it was good enough for us, even if we did share Sean’s suspicion, if not his conviction.  After Halford left Priest, he finally came out of the closet, and admitted that – despite all the denials to the contrary all this time – he had always been gay (he revealed that his dream celebrity crush was on…Howie Long!  I wonder if Long himself has ever been notified of this as-yet unrequited love).  Looking back, none of the songs have lyrics which would indicate this, with the possible exception of “Raw Deal” from Sin After Sin,  Was Point of Entry an anatomical reference?  It would be more accurate to say that some songs such as “Eat Me Alive” and “Before the Dawn” could be interpreted as having a female OR male love interest, but they are deliberately vague and ambiguous.  The reality was that we really didn’t care much when he did come out.  Part of that was because we already “knew” (despite the denials – and thanks to Sean!) and part was because the music really didn’t reflect his orientation.  We enjoyed the music before, and we still do.  What he does behind closed doors is his own business, as distasteful as we may find it.  We’ll focus on the music instead.  If the next Priest album, after Nostradamus, is called Penetrator, with songs about “between the pitcher and the catcher”…then we’ll find another band to listen to.

Ripper Owens.  Talk about up and down.  On one hand the guy went from being in a Judas Priest tribute band, to replacing Rob Halford himself.  On the other, he was put in the position of singing thrash songs on two Priest albums, Jugulator and Demolition, which are extremely atypical albums.  Vocally he acquits himself well, and he also does a passable Halford impression on the classic JP tracks on their live album from this era.  Similarly, these albums sound like well-executed thrash metal performed by competent musicians.  If you like or want that kind of stuff, it’s not bad.  For some reason, though, I can’t bring myself to compare it to Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, or Trouble, which are “real” thrash bands; I can only compare it to other Judas Priest material, and it comes up short.  By being put in this bizarre position, Owens was doomed to failure.  It was as if the Beatles hired a different drummer to replace Ringo, but only to make two albums of reggae music.  Of course Halford eventually came back, and of course, Owens was let go.  The whole thing is surreal, like a dream that’s so fucked up you can’t even call it a nightmare.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot.  If they ever gather all the Judas Priest live DVDs together as a group package, they should definitely include this.  Although it clocks in at all of 15 minutes – and the band itself is completely absent from it - this low budget (local access cable) documentary clearly captures the audience of a Judas Priest concert at its worst…er…best.   And I have to confess that had I been there in May 1986 at the Cap Center parking lot, waiting for the Turbo show to begin, I’d have been just as stupid and incoherent as any of the live action Beavis & Butt-heads they found cheering, hooting and hollering.  The extra features are just as entertaining, including “Neil Diamond Parking Lot”, a reunion with some of the HMPL morons, and one fan’s fairly accurate analysis of Judas Priest’s albums.  This movie is definitely a must-see for any true Judas Priest fan who was “there” in the 80s, even if they weren’t in that particular parking lot.  However, for anyone not into this music to see this film would give a grossly inaccurate picture of the music itself, as Judas Priest are far more intelligent and competent musicians than their fans would indicate.  However it is, after all, heavy metal, just some of the better examples of that genre.

Judas Priest: Rock Hard Ride Free (Live in Finland 3.6.2008)

While the sound and video quality here is less than perfect, it does showcase one of my favorite songs, which they DID play last night at Nissan Pavilion. Probably my own special preference, but I think "Defenders of the Faith" is the best of Priest's "metal" albums (as opposed to the first two).

Summer of '84

It’s summer of 2007, as hot and humid as any other I can remember, and by now I’ve gone through almost 40.  But a few special summers stick out in my memory, and none more than this one: 1984.

 I had just finished sophomore year in high school in Paris, and most of my friends, including my best friend Phil, somehow chose that particular summer to have their families move away from Paris.  Fortunately we got home leave that summer, so we were able to spend about 6 weeks in the US, which for us was like heaven.  The night before the flight home was as exciting and difficult to sleep through as Christmas Eve.

 With our own house rented out, finding a place to stay was a challenge each time we returned.  This time we traded spaces with a family in DC, who had a small house off McArthur Blvd.  I was 15, my brother 14, and my sister was 9, but we were all much larger than the young children this family had, so the beds were all a bit on the small side.  Their “kitchen table” consisted of a booth from a subway car, about as large as the kiddie section of a McDonalds and way too cramped for a normal sized teenager.   They also had air conditioning, but with a huge Chinese bed on the ground floor (!) with really no practical purpose other than to block airflow through the ground floor of the house, the A/C didn’t work too well.   The kitchen had no glasses, only coffee mugs.  Finally, this was one of these Foreign Service families who had travelled all over the world and wanted EVERYONE who entered their tiny Bag End hovel to know it.  They decorated it like a travel museum – “this is where we’ve been!! aren’t we great??” – including the afore-mentioned bed in the living room.  With all the way-too-small crap of the entire house (built for hobbits!) what they really needed was a large, circular door to complete the Middle Earth connection.  Damn travel snobs.  Our own apartment in Paris was 3 times larger – these people clearly got the better end of the swap.  Returning to Paris and our own place was a rescue from claustrophobia. 

 The 1984 Olympics were going on in Los Angeles, and our relatives lived in McLean – in a normal sized house with properly functioning air conditioning and no Chinese bed – so we spent a considerable amount of time there.  We also watched lots of “Mork & Mindy” for some reason (don’t ask me why).  I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the Olympics, even Mary Lou Retton’s perfect 10, as much because I generally don’t care for the Olympics anyway as for the absence of the Soviet Bloc because of their boycott. Interesting – Romania did NOT join the boycott, but Retton won anyway.  The Romanian women’s team did win the gold for the team competition, whereas the US men’s team won the gold.  For being smart enough to buck the trend (“80 percent of success is showing up” - Woody Allen), Ceaucescu’s gang cleaned up with 53 models, #2 after the US with 174.  The overall consensus even among Americans was that our stellar performance was only because so many countries who usually compete heavily with us (e.g. the USSR and East Germany) were absent.

 Reagan was President, Bush Sr. was Vice-President, and the upcoming November election would feature Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro getting hosed big time (keep that in perspective when we see Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers!). 

 I got my first contact lenses, and had a devil of a time learning to take them out and put them in, but it was worth the effort.

 The trip started with a stay at the Howard Johnson’s hotel in Crystal City, where I got a massive sunburn, with the resulting days of unbearable itchiness.  D’oh!

 We met up with Phil, whose family was living in Greenbelt while they were waiting for their sea shipment to arrive from France; they would eventually move to Sterling.  This was notable as it was the first time we’d ever met any of the people we had originally met in Paris, in the US.  The place they were staying in had a VERY OLD black & white TV with a distorted picture tube.  More “dark brown and yellow” than black & white, and anything round, like an aspirin, looked more like an egg.  (“How do you remember this stuff??”)

 I was also doing lots of reading, in particular devouring, for the first time, H.P. Lovecraft (horror) and Michael Moorcock (fantasy).  We were also heavily into role-playing games at that time, so we got Stormbringer, which was Chaosium’s RPG for the Elric books.  I had bought Judas Priest’s albums Sad Wings of Destiny and Sin After Sin at the PX in Belgium prior to the trip, and Black Sabbath Master of Reality at Henderson Hall here in the US, so those three albums served as a musical backdrop for the horror stories and Elric saga.  Twisted Sister were big at this time, particularly their hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” with the classic video featuring Niedermeyer from “Animal House” as the nasty father.  More magic, listening to that, reading that, in this stupid little hobbit house. 

 It was a great summer – and I STILL listen to those albums fairly often.  At least NOW I can drive....

TOOL and Concerts

On Friday, June 8, 2007, I saw Tool in concert at the 1^st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, formerly known as the Baltimore Arena.  They played for two hours with no encore, and pretty much played the songs as they are on the albums, with over half the set from their newest (and in my opinion best) album 10,000 Days: Jambi, Stinkfist, Forty-Six and 2, Schism, Rosetta Stoned, Flood, Wings 1&2, Lateralus, and Vicarious.  9 songs in two hours = 13 minutes a song!  Since the running time for the studio versions of the songs comes up to less than an hour and a half, some of the songs were obviously extended.  I had to endure Friday rush hour traffic, including a substantial detour off 95 North, and the venue was NOT air conditioned, which the hot, humid June weather made quite noticeable.

 I’m not going to claim that I didn’t enjoy the show, because I did.  These guys are talented musicians and I like their music.  And they focused on the album of theirs which I like the most.  But it prompted me to consider certain things.

 This was concert 134 for me, since October 1984.  Tool was clearly worthwhile as I had never seen them before and had no idea what to expect – even though I’ve known of this band since 1992 when their first album, Undertow, came out, and their first single, “Sober” dominated the airwaves and MTV.  I don’t know why I ignored them for so long, as I liked “Sober” and hadn’t heard anything by them that I didn’t like.  I guess I just never got around to getting into them, and it took Maynard’s “we’re not worthy” worshipping at the altar of King Crimson to get me to pay attention to them. 

  OK, so seeing Tool was a good idea.  But why bother going to a concert at all?  Just to see the band play?  Why is that important?   You can hear the music at home – any song you want, not just the greatest hits the band wants to shove down our throats tour after tour (“the fans demand it”, they claim.  Which fans?  They never asked ME).  Maybe because seeing a band play live gives you an experience you don’t get at home.  Every band claims to be great live, but they clearly differ in this.

 At one extreme are bands like Rush, who go onstage and play every song, note-for-note, exactly as it is on the album, with no improvisation, no jamming, and no unexpected gems popping out.  Alex and Geddy pretty much stay on their sides of the stage and play.  Neil gets his drum solo, though I find drum solos so dull that as far as I’m concerned, they don’t really count as “improvisation”.  More like “cure for insomnia.”   A reviewer made similar remarks about Boston, noting that from a distance, for all we knew these were cardboard cutouts of the band members; he wished Tom Scholz would sneeze or bend over to tie his shoelace so we could see it was a real, living human being up there.  For bands like this, there doesn’t appear to be any dramatic improvement over simply staying at home and listening to whatever album you want to hear – especially older ones they never play live!!! – such that you should feel compelled to pay $60 for a ticket, endure the crowds and parking lots, and see them again for the xth time. 

 At the other extreme is the Grateful Dead, where every night was a different set, they frequently played covers, and often had guest musicians – and you could expect a jam.  Moreover, they might play a familiar song in a different way, faster, slower, heavier, etc.  Even so, a Dead concert had a format you could count on: two sets divided by an intermission, with “drums/space” in the second set, a de facto second intermission as most of us don’t really care to watch Mickey and Bill square off against each other yet again.   But here again, you’re getting something completely different than what you could expect at home.  I don’t have an entire stadium parking lot of stoned hippies, selling dope and clever Calvin & Hobbes toke-off vs. Bart Simpson t-shirts at my apartment!  Somewhat more of an incentive to get off your butt and over to RFK, Nissan Pavilion, or Merriweather.

 In the middle are bands like AC/DC, Deep Purple, and Blue Oyster Cult.  You can expect certain songs are going to be in the set, but they leave room for jams and you get an experience you don’t get by simply sitting at home listening to the music on your stereo.  Ian Gillan talks alot during the show, though much of what he says doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense; his introductions to songs are somewhat obtuse.  Eric Bloom can usually be counted on to make a few clever offhand remarks.  In this regard, Jethro Tull are probably one of the better bands: Ian Anderson not only jumps around with his flute, far more spry than you would imagine a man his age would be, but also very clever and witty with the onstage chat.  He’s one singer where you DON’T think to yourself, “shut the fuck up and play more music!”

 Concert Crap. One element I could do without are these “call and response” sections.  Metallica, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden are worst at this.  15 minutes of “seek and....” “SEEK AND DESTROY!!!” “Very good!  Again!”  which could have been 2-3 songs.  Thanks!  I came to hear music, not to scream lyrics I’ve known for years at a band who also know them (or do they need 10,000 screaming idiots to remind them?).  MOSHING is another idiocy.  Whoever came up with that concept deserves a lobotomy, though I wonder if it would really make much of a difference.  Then there are these “food court druids”, especially at metal shows (Marilyn Manson comes to mind).  You know the type.  They can’t simply wear a t-shirt and jeans; they have to dye their hair black, white, purple, or other weird colors, have some tattoos and piercings, and wear some sort of really outlandish outfit (e.g. those black trench coats or fishnet stockings) and you can tell they take themselves SOOOO seriously.  It’s a whole IMAGE and PERSONA they’re cultivating.  Anyone wearing KISS makeup – or anything close to the full costume – at a KISS show definitely qualifies (has anyone ever seen anyone pretending to be Eric Carr or Vinnie Vincent?).  What are you, a General in the KISS Army?  Give me a break.  Finally, there’s the complete asshole who can only enjoy himself if he gets totally tanked and yells, screams, bumps into people, and makes a complete ass of himself; his “concert experience” consists of ruining it for everyone else around him.  At least potheads and Deadheads don’t do this.  Moshing at a Dead show?  I don’t think so.

 Venues.  I’ve gone to a fair amount of shows at clubs, which are an amazingly good deal.  Several times cheaper than a stadium show and no bad seats in the place – none of this business of paying $80 for a seat up in section 30,000,000 where you need the Hubble Telescope to see the band, AND the sound quality totally sucks.  Plus at the club shows the band frequently hangs around to sign autographs with the 30 fans it has left.  Good luck trying to meet Mick or Keith at the stadium concert.  Finally, you’re not stuck in a huge parking lot, breathing that fragrant aroma of carbon monoxide, for an hour trying to get out.  The trick is to show up in between the last (completely incompetent) opening act and the headliner.  Woo hoo!

 T-shirts.  When we were younger we’d eagerly snap up as many as we could.  We didn’t have many, so we wanted to accumulate a collection.  As years went by, and we can’t wear the Judas Priest or Metallica shirt at the office (and we have 3-4 of each anyway) AND the prices went up, it got to the point where you look and go, “do any of these $35 shirts reach out and blow me? Otherwise forget it.”

 I still go to concerts.  But I no longer have the youthful enthusiasm, unlimited energy, and clueless tolerance for inane bullshit and idiocy that I had when I was 15.   Life goes on. “Plus ça change, plus c’est le meme chose.”