THE UNMISSABLE END-OF-YEAR ISSUE
IRON MAIDEN ROGER TAYLOR KISS GARBAGE NIRVANA LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM STATUS QUO ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS and more!
ISSUE 296
2021 has given us more great music than we probably deserve from both big names and newcomers. Allow us to present the Classic Rock critics’ choice of the best 50. Words: Bill DeMain, Malcolm Dome, Paul Elliott, Dave Everley, Polly Glass, Rob Hughes, Rich Hobson, Ian Fortnam, Emma Johnston, Neil Jeffries, Siân Llewellyn, Henry Yates
50 MONSTER MAGNET 48 HAWKWIND A Better Dystopia NAPALM How good can a covers album be? Well, as it turns out, very good indeed, certainly in the case of this one. Clearly Dave Wyndorf’s enduring Magnet have invariably been driven by the power of the freakout, and here they further intensify the innate freak power of a selection of the (mostly obscure: Fuzztones, Poobah, Dust, Josefus, Hawkwind) songs that shaped their own lysergic journey into tripped out, hi-octane Spacelord Motherfuckery. IF Killer track: Born To Go
Somnia CHERRY RED The space rock veterans are no strangers to concept albums, but this is one of the best they’ve done in a career that’s now 50 years and counting. Somnia deals with the myriad mysteries of sleep and dreams, and does so with a sense of surrealism both musically and lyrically that fits such a vast subject. The sound is stripped bare, leaving a primitive yet opulent approach that resonates long after listening. Beautiful and unpredictable. MD Killer track: Sweet Dreams
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47 VEGA
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Anarchy And Unity FRONTIERS Formed in 2009, British rockers Vega always had a big sound. Now, on their seventh studio album, it’s even bigger. “We wanted this album to be really in-your-face,” said singer Nick Workman. And so it is, with the band’s signature style of modern melodic rock pumped up for maximum effect on anthems such as End Of The Fade and Welcome To Wherever. They might tour in clubs, but on Anarchy And Unity they have music that’s built for arenas. PE Killer track: Welcome To Wherever
For Free THREE BLIND MICE/BMG The former Byrd might be facing mortality as he embarks on his ninth decade, but latest LP For Free (the title track is a gorgeous cover of the Joni Mitchell original) offers ample evidence to suggest that not only does his solo output actually get better with age, but also that his remarkable singing voice remains entirely untouched by the ravages of time. Produced by his son James Raymond, and featuring appearances from Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen and Sarah Jarosz, this truly is Croz in excelsis. IF Killer track: River Rise
45 THE WAR ON DRUGS I Don’t Live Here Anymore
ATLANTIC
The Record Company
A UK Top 10 hit when released in October, the fifth studio album from Philadelphia’s the War On Drugs confirms leader Adam Granduciel as one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation. Alongside a set of familiar reference points – there are shades of Springsteen in Living Proof, as well as 80s-era Dylan in Changes – the stunning title track has a heady whiff of Don
TRAVIS SHINN/PRESS
Fat Pop SOLID BOND/UNIVERSAL Weller describes this lockdown project as a collection of “standalone singles”. And whether he’s channeling influences like Bowie (True), Krautrock (Cosmic Fringes), Motown (Shades Of Blue) or Gainsbourg (Still Glides The Stream), he always sounds like he’s having an absolute blast. All the while he reminds us that – from The Jam to the present – he is both a student and master of the three-minute pop song. BDM Killer track: Shades Of Blue
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Henley’s The Boys Of Summer. In these songs, and throughout the record, there is depth, beauty, a timeless quality. In short: classic rock. PE Killer track: I Don’t Live Here Anymore
44 THE DEAD DAISIES
Holy Ground SPV Employing Glenn Hughes as singer and bassist, and Doug Aldrich on guitar, makes this easily the best line-up yet (founding guitarist/Aussie businessman David Lowy remains the constant presence). The resulting album, a heavy and soulfully funky work throughout, even boasts a killer cover of Humble Pie’s 30 Days In The Hole sung by drummer Deen Castronovo. It’s Hughes, though, who dominates to make this fifth Dead Daisies album both the strongest in their catalogue and a highlight of his own. NJ Killer track: Chosen And Justified
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WEEZER
David Crosby
Van Weezer CRUSH / ATLANTIC ‘Summertime, press rewind, go back to a simple place,’ Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo sings on I Need Some Of That. For alt.rock’s favourite Peter Pan figure, now at the ripe old age of 50, that simple place is this loving tribute to 80s hair-metal. With their blend of mega-crunchy guitars, mile-high stacked harmonies and sky-punching choruses, standout numbers like Hero, The End Of The Game and 1 More Hit will make you feel giddy – like you’re bouncing on a trampoline with a white Flying V in your hands. And who doesn’t need a bit of that in their lives? BDM Killer track: Hero
TOP 5
PROG
ALBUMS Words: Jo Kendall
1 FIELD MUSIC Flat White Moon
MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES
Sunderland’s Brewis brothers returned with an eighth album, this time tackling political and social vexation via rockin’ cues from Free, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin, with a heady twist of psychedelic Beatles. Disgruntled they might be, but with Flat White Moon they’ve created their most sparkling avantpop-prog melodies since their 2012 album Plumb. Killer track: Orion From The Street
JUSTIN BORUKI/PRESS: DAVID CROSBY:ANNA WEBBER:PRESS
42 JERRY CANTRELL
Brighten JERRY CANTRELL The Alice In Chains guitarist/singer says he employs the same method whether writing songs for his solo albums, of which this is his third, or the band in which he made his name. Any difference in sound therefore reflects the musicians around him – here including Vincent Jones on piano/organ, Michael Rozon on pedal steel, Paul McCartney’s drummer Abe Laboriel Jr and Duff McKagan. Collectively, with Brighten Cantrell’s crew created an album both gloriously different yet comfortably close to AIC. “This record offers cleaner glimpses of what I grew up on,” he said. “I was raised by two country fans, so I think you can hear that energy in there.” NJ Killer track: Brighten
2 THE ANCHORESS 3 CARAVAN Art Of Losing KSCOPE
It’s None Of Your Business
MADFISH
4 PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS
SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound WHAT REALITY?
Jerry Cantrell
5 GRYPHON
Get Out Of My Father’s Car
GRYPHON MUSIC
41 THE STRANGLERS
Dark Matters COURSEGOOD With the 2020 passing of keyboard player Dave Greenfield and an impending retirement from widescale touring, Dark Matters looks likely to be The Stranglers’ swansong. Striking a balance between near-post-punk moodiness, wry whimsy and pogoworthy proto-punk, the band cover most bases of their near-50-year career while never wallowing in saccharine nostalgia. Themeninblack have never lacked confidence, but their eighteenth record positively brims with character, the interplay between JJ Burnel’s bass and Greenfield’s keyboards a kind of inimitable magic that will never be repeated. RH Killer track: This Song
RECORD 40 THE COMPANY
Play Loud CONCORD On their first two records, the LA trio built a fan base with blues rock. With album number three it was time for a shake-up. Bringing in an outside producer, songwriters and musicians, they’ve expanded their horizons and ended up with something that feels bigger in every sense. Bluesy numbers rock harder (e.g. the heated stabs of Out Of My Head), and choruses pop out with confidence (see the bright-eyed, Black Keys-y single How High), and on Paradise they even venture into gauzy, psychedelic territory. PG Killer track: How High CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 25
ALICE COOPER
With his twenty-first studio album, Detroit Stories, an in-vintage-form Alice came up with a stone-cold classic. Now he's looking forward to making up for lost time taking his latest show on the road. Words: Ian Fortnam
A
month into a US tour, we find a newly trim Alice Cooper just minutes away from his nightly beheading in Tupelo, Mississippi. The septuagenarian shock-rock legend spent the majority of the pandemic’s second year promoting Detroit Stories, his extraordinary return-to-form album, while enthusiastically limbering up for a return to the road that really couldn’t come soon enough. Might Detroit Stories have been a different record were it not for lockdown? I don’t think so. We were trying to get all of the aspects of Detroit music in there and still not lose hard rock. Even when we did songs like $1000 High Heeled Shoes, which I wrote as a Motown song, I made sure the guitars and the beat were there. I kept it in the Alice Cooper range even though we certainly did season it towards different things.
on the road, because, as the main cog in the Alice Cooper touring machine, you have to remain fit? And I’m not one to sit in my hotel room. I play golf every morning with [Ryan] Roxie, our guitar player and Chuck [Garric, bass]. We know we’ve been tested and it’s just the three of us, then we go back to the hotel until the show, which is the high point of the day. In the live arena you inhabit the character of Alice, a character that’s a long way away from your relatively mild-mannered off-stage persona, which must be a cathartic experience. Do you find that when you don’t have that release it affects your mood? That fragments of Alice start to infect your regular personality? No, I can turn Alice on and off at will. I used to be a lot different, when I drank and took drugs I didn’t
Frankenstein could always dispose of his creature in a pit of molten sulphur or a burning mill, but you have to face yours in the shaving mirror every day. [Laughs] The Feed My Frankenstein monster character is sewn together bits and pieces from all over the place, and introduces what the show is going to be. It’s going to encompass different pieces from different albums, all sewn together like the monster. Then at the end, when the ninefoot creature comes out for Teenage Frankenstein, it’s a nice capper. Did teenage years running on your high school track team shape the man you became, and is running still a large part of what keeps you in shape today? It’s funny you ask about that, because for four months before we tour I run two to three miles a night, and I go right back to my cross country and track workouts. So by the time I get on stage I’m in very good shape. I’m almost seventy-four, and have been very lucky not to have any physical problems, and during the show I feel great.
“There’s a big difference between having to tour and wanting to tour. I don’t have to tour, I just love it.”
After over eighteen months off the road, how was finally hitting the stage again after such an extensive lay-off? We were so excited about getting back together and hearing it again, getting on stage, getting the levels and all that stuff. It’s a complicated show but it came back surprisingly quickly. Yours is a long show. Is it a a big ask physically after a year and a half of home comforts and home cooking? Yeah [laughs]. When I left the tour I weighed a hundred and seventy pounds, which is normal, but I wanted to lose fifteen pounds. Then I got covid in December, had it for a month, and lost fifteen pounds like that. It’s the hardest way to lose it, though. I wouldn’t suggest it. I was just a wreck after about a week. Now I’ve had all three shots and we get tested every night before the show. In this new world of infectious disease is it difficult to exercise any degree of social distancing while 34 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
know where I began and Alice ended. So I was living in that chaos for quite a while. When I got sober I could separate the two; I could be talking about a movie when the curtain goes up, and in the time I turn from left to right I become Alice. It’s a different posture, brain, look, everything. When the curtain comes back down and the audience isn’t there any more, I’ll go right back into talking about the movie as myself. I can turn the character on and off. That’s something I had to learn to do. The new show is bookended by Feed My Frankenstein and Teenage Frankenstein. Do you feel something of an affinity for the doctor? We’ve always associated ourself with being the monster. We were never part of the flow, so I made sure that we made Frankenstein our mascot.
What does 2022 hold for Alice Cooper? Well, you know us, we’re road rats, so now things are opening up again… We had to cancel a hundred and eighty shows across seventeen countries, so we’ve a lot of catching up to do. You’re almost like Bob Dylan now, on that neverending tour. I read this article about Dylan recently, and when they asked him when he was going to retire he said: “Put the money aside, I write songs and I sing songs for the audience. That’s what I do and everything else is secondary to that.” And I think the same way. I did a thing recently with Smokey Robinson, and we said if the promoters only knew we would do this for free [laughs]. There’s such a big difference between having to tour and wanting to tour. I don’t have to tour at all, I just love it.
JENNY RISHER/PRESS
15 ALICE COOPER
Detroit Stories EARMUSIC The Coop’s twentyfirst album, a Bob Ezrin-produced tribute to his home city, pays rich dividends on many levels. Featuring some of the Motor City’s hottest talents (MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Grand Funk’s Mark Farner), weighty names along for the ride (Joe Bonamassa, U2’s Larry Mullen Jr) and the Alice Cooper O.G.s (Dennis Dunaway, Mike Bruce, Neal Smith), Detroit Stories is a stone cold classic. Channelling garage-rock roots, ageless Alice finds vintage form in worthy company. IF Killer track: Social Debris CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 35
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM Ousted from Fleetwood Mac, the guitarist/vocalist bounced back with one of our albums of 2021. While happy to continue as a solo artist, he’s still hopeful that he can make one more record with the Mac.
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Interview: Bill DeMain
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e had this legacy that was all about rising above our difficulties,” Lindsey Buckingham tells Classic Rock. “That was always the subtext of Fleetwood Mac – that we stayed together through thick and thin.” Buckingham is reflecting on his lingering disappointment over being forced out of the band in 2018. It couldn’t have been fun seeing the Mac then tour without him, even if it did take two guitarists to fill his absence. “I didn’t see the show, but looking at the set list I thought: ‘Hmm, it’s like a covers band.’” Add to that his triple bypass heart surgery, a vocal cord scare and covid, and it’s been a tumultuous few years for the singular 72-year-old-musician and producer. All of which helps make his brilliant new self-titled solo album such a triumph. Deeply personal songs, artful vocal arrangements and fiery guitar work – it has all his trademark touches, and also, as he describes below, a weird prescience about it. This record totally upends the cliché of a seventysomething artist and diminishing returns and having your best work behind you. Thank you, that’s very kind. I think a lot of it is about the choices you make along the way, and somehow not losing your perspective, you know? I’ve seen a lot of people do that. I’ve seen people in Fleetwood Mac do that, allowing themselves to be defined by external forces and expectations rather than their inner beliefs and the soul of where all this stuff should come from. Staying creative takes work and not getting distracted by the task of that, for sure. What was your vision for the album? I think much of my solo work collectively is a little more off to the left than what was generally offered in Fleetwood Mac. There was kind of a conscious interest when I was making this to circle back on earlier reference points that were less about defining myself as that counterpoint to the band. It encompasses all that I’ve learned by having taken that route, but it also comes together with the earlier parts of myself as they existed in Fleetwood Mac. I can hear how you circled back to more concise pop songs with simpler structures. But the ‘architecture’ on top of that makes the songs remarkable and distinct. That’s always been in many ways what I contributed to Fleetwood Mac. Take songs of Stevie’s [Nicks], where she had the absolute center of the song, which was the lyric and the melody but nothing around it. Songs like Dreams or Gypsy needed so much architecture around
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them to set off their potential. The same with Christine [McVie]. I don’t necessarily think of myself as a writer as much as a stylist. It’s all about the style and the architecture and the bigger picture of it. Was On the Wrong Side written as a pointed comment on your life in Fleetwood Mac? It’s sort of a comment on the challenges of being in a band where the machinery is so great that you have to keep fighting to rise above it. But weirdly, it was written before my departure from Fleetwood Mac. That’s not the only song that has that prescient thing. There are songs about my relationship with my wife too [Buckingham and his wife filed for divorce earlier this year, but are currently “working” on their relationship]. There was perhaps kind of a subconscious sense that crept into the writing of a lot of these songs. Likes postcards to my future self.
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Lindsey Buckingham REPRISE ‘I’m out of pity, I’m out of time,’ Lindsey Buckingham sings on the defiant On The Wrong Side, before launching into a blistering guitar solo. That moment sums up his past three years – get fired from Fleetwood Mac, survive open-heart surgery and a pandemic, come roaring back with the best solo album of your career. Everything we love about Buckingham meshes perfectly here – the cascading, layered guitars, the whisper-to-ascream vocals, the adventurous, sometimes bonkers production touches (check out the hall-of-mirrors arrangement on Swan Song). And there isn’t a single dud among the album’s 10 tracks, with Scream, I Don't Mind, Santa Rosa and Blue Light rivalling his Rumours and Tusk-era work. While his old band continue to trade in hitrecycling nostalgia, Buckingham sounds revved and ready for a brave new future. BDM Killer track: On The Wrong Side
Songs having a subtext about intra-band relationships have always been part of your work. Right. Much like Rumours had this subtext, and there was a point where the appeal and the popularity of that album started becoming less about the music and more about the success. Obviously there was a great appeal to the fact that we were laying bare our personal lives through the songs, but also that we were co-existing in a band together having been two couples who broke up. It was a musical soap opera. I think there has been a subtext that has emerged around the subject matter of this new album that I didn’t necessarily foresee. Is it fun for you to make records completely by yourself? I think working on my own has become a strength – that process of sitting alone with a machine and being able to discover things just as you’d slap paint on a canvas. I find that to be very exciting and very inspirational. It really began before Fleetwood Mac, when I was making the demos for the Buckingham Nicks album. I was basically taking the lead from how Les Paul had bounced tracks back and forth, and playing everything myself. After Rumours, I think because I wanted to make an album like Tusk and undermine the external expectations that were about to take hold of us as a band had we made something like Rumours 2, I started down a path where I worked on my own. Tusk remains such a divisive record. Forty years on, do you see it as a fork in the road, for both Fleetwood Mac and you personally? I probably would’ve been quite happy to go on ➤
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Having just released his highest charting solo album and toured it, Queen's Roger Taylor is enjoying life away from his ‘day job’. Words: Stephen Dalton
T
he past 18 months of pandemic panic and existential terror have been good for Roger Taylor. Forced into an extended break from touring the world with Queen, the veteran drummer, songwriter and vocalist began tinkering in his Surrey studio during the early days of lockdown. Before long an entire solo album began taking shape, Taylor having followed strict social-distancing rules by playing almost all the instruments himself. “I guess lockdown just seemed to spur a creative
a chord in these virus-haunted times. “’Autumnal’ is a very good word for it,” says the 72-year-old. “It’s slightly nostalgic and wistful and a bit more grown-up than my last couple of albums.” For all its mellow mid-life motifs, Outsider is not entirely free of hard-rocking moments, with Taylor grunting lasciviously as he wallops the drum kit on the bluesy, raunchy More Kicks. “Oh yeah, I can still clobber away, believe me,” he says with a laugh. “But I like to think I clobber with more subtlety these days. Maybe not quite as much power, but more technique. My son
“When you have the freedom to express yourself as a single person you can say what the hell you like.”
WILL IRELAND
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spurt,” Taylor explains. “I had a few songs that have crept out in the last three or four years, and then I just had a rush of blood to the head and we suddenly realised this would make a nice album.” Released in October to warm reviews, Outsider rounded off a quiet 2021 on a triumphant note for Taylor. His sixth solo album, it debuted at No.3 in the UK chart, his highest-ever placing outside Queen. These autumnal reflections and pastoral musings on mortality, regret, love and the soothing eternal rhythms of nature clearly struck
Rufus has got all the power now. He plays for The Darkness. He is possibly the loudest drummer on earth.” Outsider climaxes with Journey’s End, an ambitious mini-symphony that clocks in at even longer than Bohemian Rhapsody. Lush and cinematic, most of the album’s ruminative sound paintings are rich in echoes of Bowie, Lennon and Pink Floyd, but far removed from the sound of classic Queen. “I don’t try and sound like anybody,” he ➤
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“This just very easily fell into place. It was the right time.” Alison Krauss
ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS Finally, the duo have released Raise The Roof, the follow-up to their hugely successful Raising Sand album. And it was more than worth the wait
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Words: Niall Doherty
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Finally released in November, Raise The Roof was worth the wait. Produced by US production guru T Bone Burnett, who oversaw their debut, it’s a perfect meld of country soul, Americana grooves and swaying, bluesy ballads. “It’s also got a little bit of dark shuffle in there as well,” says Plant. “That’s why T Bone wears dark glasses – you don’t want to see those eyeballs.” “I think it has a lot of joy in there,” adds Krauss, who says it was a very happy reunion. “There’s a lot of joy and a lot of mystique.” As with Raising Sand, central to the record’s triumph is the dynamic interplay between its two
“What’s the name of that band you used to be in again?”
DAVID MCCLISTER PHOTOGRAPHY, LLC/PRESS
round the point in lockdown where he had taken up tidying as a new hobby, Robert Plant’s ex-wife turned up at his door with a great big trunk of all his stage-gear from 1971 onwards. This collection of what presumably contained many pairs of 22-inch bell-bottomed jeans and patterned shirts that had never been buttoned up sent the former Led Zeppelin frontman off on a journey through the windmills of his mind. “The madness of my times was, one way or another, laid at my feet,” he recalls. “I found that I’ve actually been able to track the course of my time and the various adventures I’ve had, for better or worse, all the way through.” It was a welcome distraction for Plant, who had another more recent artefact he wanted to celebrate but wasn’t sure when it was going to see the light of day. Sessions for Raise The Roof, his long-awaited reunion with bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss and the follow-up to their 2007 Grammy Award-winning collaboration Raising Sand, had been completed in Nashville just before the world was thrust into lockdown, and the forever marching-forward Plant was perplexed by his latest work being stuck on the shelf. “We weren’t the only people to have been caught in the trap of getting so encouraged and enthusiastic about it all, sticking it on one side, playing it, then there’s another six months gone,” he says. Recently he stuck it on for one last check. It passed muster. “I was just marvelling at the sound of it.”
vocal leads, something that Krauss reckons is down to their opposing backgrounds. “I think both of us coming up in such different environments musically makes something very different. You have people who are working together but don’t compromise who they are. I grew up listening to traditional music, much like Robert, but just a completely different path. I grew up on the Jimmy Rogers side, and he grew up on the Robert Johnson side. It has a beautiful contrast and it shows up on the recordings.” Burnett says Plant and Krauss singing together creates some magical other, their blend of tones concocting some alchemical magic. “It’s nothing you can manufacture,” he beams, “it’s just something that happens. I think all three of us have done a tremendous amount of musical archaeology. It’s a thrill when Robert pulls something out of nowhere, while it was really important to Alison that we put out a positive vibe. She’s got a real sense of what the band should be representing and should sound like.” Since Raising Sand, the duo had often talked about making a follow-up, it was just a question of fitting it in. “It didn’t feel like a moment too soon,” says Krauss. “You want something to be inspired and not forced or contrived. This just very easily fell into place. It was the right time.” Plant remembers the sessions starting tentatively until they just agreed: “What have we got to lose?” “It’s a great vacation that we share,” he says, “and a thing we look forward to, but nervously – we’re both pretty heavy on the opinion stakes.” With the record now out in the world, the next logical step is to hit the road. The all-conquering tour that followed the release of Raising Sand is remembered fondly by all, a victory lap that they’re keen to repeat. “I think it would be a blast,” says Krauss. “We had a really great time last time, and I have no doubt we would have fun again. It was a really great, spontaneous live show. We had incredible musicians and it had its own life.” There was joy to be had in Raise The Roof’s creation. Now it’s time for the duo to spread the love.
From notable anniversaries to desirable retrospectives and compilations, there was a ton of superb reissue activity this year. The following are definitely worth your time. THE BEATLES
Let It Be APPLE/UME What we said: “Five discs (one of which is an EP) of live songs, rehearsals, significant between-songs chatter, and – at last – the Johns LP make it an essential purchase for fans… At no point does the listener throw up their arms and shout: “My God! Let It Be is the greatest Beatles album ever made!” but this larger, panoramic overview does wonders for it, giving us a bird’s-eye view of the sessions. Buy it and you’ll play it a lot.”
The Beatles
CARAVAN
Who Do You Think We Are? MADFISH What we said: “No fewer than 37 discs form a career-covering box set, along with a book and off-centre memorabilia. So their appealingly quaint, capricious blends of prog, psychedelia, folk, jazz and pop lilt across their 14 studio and four live albums. Added to those are 11 previously unreleased live sets, a DVD of live footage, plus a Blu-ray of Steven Wilson’s remix of In The Land Of Grey And Pink. That ’71 album is their masterpiece, sprawling into the 23-minute odyssey Nine Feet Underground.”
THE WHO
The Who Sell Out (Super-Deluxe Edition) UMC/POLYDOR
What we said: “A fivedisc set of The Who’s 1967 album, with previously unreleased tracks, Townshend demos and other goodies. The additional CDs comprise stereo and mono recordings of the original album, alternative takes, very rough runthroughs that eerily take you back over 50 years… This collection is generously weighed down with memorabilia, including posters, flyers, and a crack-back bumper sticker for Wonderful Radio London, beneficiaries of one of the album’s jingles. There’s also an 80-page booklet including liner notes by Townshend. “A veritable capsule in pop/rock time.”
GRATEFUL DEAD
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MOTÖRHEAD
Black Sabbath Rory Gallagher
No Sleep Til Hammersmith BMG What we said: “Try naming just one live album that captures the sheer thrill and adrenalin rush of heavy rock moshin’ better. The 40th Anniversary Edition ramps up the ante even further. The hardback book packs (two-CD/three-LP) feature a new remaster of the original album, bonus tracks and the entire Newcastle City Hall concert from March 13, and previously unseen photos and the story of the album. The four-CD version includes all three full live recordings, plus posters, a plectrum and shitload upon shitload of killer stuff.”
BLACK SABBATH
Sabotage (Super Deluxe Edition) BMG What we said: “The original album remastered by Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham (who did the Super Deluxe versions of Paranoid and Vol 4 following work on Deep Purple and Free classics) now plays better than ever. There are no out-takes, and the reproduction picture-sleeve single is of
little merit, so the bonus carrot is the 100-minute, two-disc live album recorded on the Stateside Sabotage tour (probably at Asbury Park Convention Hall, New Jersey on August 5, 1975).”
BE-BOP DELUXE
Live! In The Air Age ESOTERIC What we said: “The 1977 original version of this album comprised 10 songs on an LP, plus a 33rpm EP to be played between the two longer sides of vinyl. This 16-disc box exhumes all seven complete-show source recordings, spreading each over two discs. Bookending those are Disc 1, the original album in its intended sequence plus a superb John Peel Session, and Disc 16, a DVD of Star Rider, a live TV broadcast. A more affordable three-CD version pairs Disc 1 with the tour’s second night at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.”
RORY GALLAGHER
Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Edition UMC
What we said: “This five-disc box set marks the start of his postTaste solo career with a fresh perspective on his debut album via a new mix, and unearths lots of previously unreleased material. Gallagher’s desire to keep the recordings predominantly live pays dividends in alternative versions of each track, his guitar improvisations and suggestions between takes giving insight into the creative process. “A powerful and welcome reminder of Gallagher’s unique range and flair.”
THE BEACH BOYS
Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 CAPITOL/UME What we said: “With Brian Wilson having largely taken to his pyjamas in a hump, on account of father/ manager Murry Wilson
RORY: BARRIE WENTZELL/PRESS
Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) RHINO What we said: “The Dead were on a roll come 1971, having twice made the US Top 30 the previous year. As if to reconnect with core principles, their response was Grateful Dead, a live double that found them in their natural habit, squaring melodic rock with long-form experimentation. Included in this edition is a previously unheard show from July 1971. An epic The Other One and a 17-minute extrapolation of the Young
Rascals’ Good Lovin’ account for the jams, but it’s the brittle, folksy Cryptical Envelopment that lingers longest.”
selling their Sea Of Tunes publishing company for a trifling $700,000, the remaining Beach Boys were forced to step up to the plate and deliver. Which they did. Dennis Wilson’s Forever (Sunflower) is simply stunning, while Bruce Johnston’s Disney Girls (Surf’s Up) is idealistic escapism incarnate. Weighing in at 133 tracks, the bulk of Feel Flows might be harder to validate than existing sets for the Pet Sounds/Smile era, but as a locked-down summer’s soundtrack its mellifluous existential musings are hard to fault.”
JOHNNY THUNDERS & THE HEARTBREAKERS LAMF – The Found ’77 Masters JUNGLE
What we said: “From what was hailed as New York punk’s archaeological discovery of the century, previously buried clarity enables the astounding live chemistry sparking between the band members to rear unfettered at full power… The RSD-targeting purple vinyl adds former B-side Can’t Keep My Eyes On You and their spectacular encore cover of the Contours’ Do You Love Me. The CD version adds a disc of demos and alternative versions from previous reissues. Nobody in love with this definitive NYC classic should hesitate to splash out.”
URIAH HEEP
Every Day Rocks BMG What we said: “[Last year’s] 50 Years In Rock rounded up Heep’s studio catalogue on CD. Every Day Rocks is aimed squarely at vinyl aficionados. Containing a picture disc of each studio album from 1970’s Very ’Eavy, Very ’Umble debut to 1974’s Wonderworld, this set also includes seven T-shirts featuring the covers of the albums included. Rounded off with lyric cards, a year planner and Mick Box’s autograph, Every Day Rocks is a refreshing reboot of the traditional box-set format.”
BLACK CROWES/METALLICA: GETTY
THE BLACK CROWES
Shake Your Money Maker: 30th Anniversary UME/AMERICAN What we said: “1990’s Shake Your Money Maker was one of the all-time great debut albums in American rock’n’roll. This box set includes a bunch of out-takes – one of which, Charming Mess, is essentially Rod Stewart’s Hot Legs with different words – and early demos from when the band were still called Mr. Crowe’s Garden. Best of all is
Blues John Mayall’s bands/blues finishing school over the decades (Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Mick Taylor to name just a few), in which he was often the catalyst rather than the star. This set includes compilations, and a bucketful of previously unreleased material including seven gigs from ’67-70 with some particularly thrilling performances. Mayall continued after ’74, of course, but most fans would agree that of his huge catalogue the material here is the gold.”
a 14-track full set from the Atlanta, Georgia band’s homecoming show on the Money Maker tour, with them on a high and the atmosphere triumphant. But of course, being the Black Crowes, that feeling wouldn’t last.”
GEORGE HARRISON
All Things Must Pass (50th Anniversary Edition) CAPITOL/UME What we said: “In many ways, All Things Must Pass picks up where The Beatles’ White Album leaves off, with songs such as Apple Scruffs and Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp capturing the former’s delicious lightness of spirit, and second single What Is Life ebullient and exultant… The new superdeluxe edition features 70 songs over five CDs/eight LPs, including 42 previously unreleased demos, out-takes and studio jams, plus an exclusive scrapbook.”
THE ROLLING STONES Metallica
ROLLING STONES
Rolling Stones
METALLICA
The Black Album Remastered BLACKENED RECORDINGS
What we said: “Does Metallica – aka the Black Album – still sound like a sky-punching, riffcrunching, firebreathing, gamechanging landmark in heavy music? Fuck yeah! Among the gargantuan haul of previously unreleased off-cuts, band interviews, B-sides and concert recordings here are almost 100 basic ‘riff tape’ snippets and rough work-in-progress demos of Black Album tracks… A companion release to the box set, The Metallica Blacklist (8/10) is a new 53-track tribute compilation of Black Album cover versions.”
Wargasm: The Slash Years 1992-97 CHERRY RED
Déjà Vu RHINO
L7
What we said: “L7’s Bricks Are Heavy, their third, managed to rise above the grunge noise and make its presence known in grand style. As weighty as the title suggests, clever, melodic and deeply, deeply sarcastic, L7’s best record is the peerless starting point for this beautifully presented reissue of the three albums they made for Slash Records… Still electrifying after all these years, there’s no midweek slump that can’t be shaken with a blast of these magnificent calls to arms.”
PAUL AND LINDA MCCARTNEY Ram EMI
JOHN MAYALL
The First Generation 1965-1974 (35-disc set) MADFISH/SNAPPER What we said: “Even non-fans must marvel at the list of top-drawer musicians that have passed through Godfather Of British
What we said: “Their first release since Charlie Watts’s departure spectacularly reboots the 1981 outtakes classic. Losing none of its lustre, the album is bolstered by Lost And Found’s disc featuring nine tracks from that seemingly bottomless well of out-takes given a modern respray and overdubs. Watts’s astonishingly intuitive genius gives every song its heartbeat, Mick’s immortal observation “Charlie’s good tonight, in ’ee?” ringing loud and clear throughout this sumptuous addition to the Stones’ ongoing refurbished legacy.”
L7
CSNY
What we said: “Half a century after it was first released, the highlights have lost none of their lustre, be it Young’s expansive Helpless, David Crosby’s scat-jazz title track, or the leaping harmonies of Stephen Stills’s masterly Carry On. The selling point of this four-disc set, though, is the addition of 38 extra tracks (demos, out-takes and such), many of which are being released for the first time.”
Tattoo You (40th Anniversary Super-Deluxe Edition)
The Black Crowes
What we said: “Where now we enlightened many see Ram as McCartney’s acknowledgment that men grow up and that having a family is not the death of the soul, but rather another step on life’s journey, panic-stricken fans and critics in their early thirties used words such as ’muzak’ and ‘cosiness’ to put down the music on Ram. Time, however, is even CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 55
better than a half-speed remaster, and now Ram stands revealed as a good album with some great songs on it.”
NIRVANA
Nevermind GEFFEN/UME What we said: “Is Nevermind such a big deal? Should my friend give it a listen? I reckon he should. This being the 30th anniversary of Nevermind’s original release, the reissues come in a bewildering array of formats ranging from Super Deluxe Editions (eight LPs or five CDs plus Blu-ray) to standard digital, CD and single-disc vinyl with bonus seven-inch. All deluxe reissues feature four complete live shows that are absolutely incendiary stuff.”
KISS
Destroyer UNIVERSAL What we said: “This anniversary edition comes in various guises, but the one you really, really want is the top-of-the-range superdeluxe edition, retailing via Kiss’s online shop at an entirely reasonable $200 (£146). It has more bells and whistles than a Don Partridge convention: four CDs, earboggling Blu-ray Audio surround-sound disc mixed by Steven Wilson, 68-page hardcover book, replica 1976 Kiss Army Kit… the kollektibles keep on komin’.”
DAVID BOWIE
Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) PARLOPHONE/ISO
What we said: “Spanning 1992 to 2001, this latest addition to the ongoing flood of posthumous Bowie box sets is full of qualified gems and rare treasures, notably the first official release of the fabled ‘lost’ album Toy… A rich feast for connoisseurs, a rewarding research project for curious casual fans.”
THE BAND
KISS/PRESS
Stage Fright UMC
What we said: “After two albums that opened up a whole new rural landscape for rock’n’roll, for their third album The Band turned inwards. Despite being better protected from the rigours of fame and fortune than most of their contemporaries by secluding themselves in Woodstock, upstate New York, they succumbed to drugs in general and heroin in particular. It broke their easy-going camaraderie and left main songwriter Robbie Robertson groping for partners.”
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THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT KISS’S DESTROYER In 2021 we celebrated the 45th anniversary of the release of Kiss's most ambitious and celebrated album, the songs from which are still staples of their set-lists. Think you know all there is to know? Think again. Words: Ken Sharp
1
Before landing upon the album title Destroyer, there were numerous titles being bandied about, including Dynasty, which the band would eventually use for their 1979 album. Ultimately, the idea for the title of Destroyer came from an unlikely source. GENE SIMMONS: “Back in the seventies, Howard Marks was Kiss’s business manager. He was a financial suit-and-tie New York City guy who worked in advertising. When we were trying to think of a name for the new record and couldn’t come up with a title, Marks said: ‘My son heard your conversation and suggested: “Why don’t you call the record Destroyer?’” Just like that. We all looked at each other like: ‘Out of the mouths of babes, I guess.’ We immediately went: ‘Yeah, that’s right, Destroyer. Wow, that’s cool.’ I remember wanting to call it Dynasty, which we used much later on, you know, like the Ming Dynasty, the continuation of China.”
2
Detroit Rock City is a colossal mind movie, a cinemascope fantasia of sound and fury. Unveiling its tale of an unlucky teenager tragically killed in an automobile accident on his way to a Kiss show, in the song’s introduction, producer Bob Ezrin is the voice you hear as the newscaster reporting this tragic tale. CORKY STASIAK (engineer): “We put his voice through a little radio and recorded it off the radio. If you listen to this opening through headphones, you get this eerie feeling that this is all happening to you.”
3
Whether working with Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Kiss or any of his other clients, producer Bob Ezrin is a wellknown task master in the recording studio.
During the recording of Destroyer, Ezrin wore a whistle like a camp counsellor, which he’d use to keep Kiss in line. PAUL STANLEY: “[Bob] would blow the whistle and call us ‘campers’. He was not above pointing a finger in your face and yelling at you. That’s pretty funny when you’re selling out arenas and you have somebody in the studio that’s treating you like an imbecile. Really what it was was musical boot camp. It was trying to get the best out of us and try to get us to set a new standard for ourselves.”
4
With its Spanish flamenco flavour and flair the signature lead guitar solo that explodes at the center of Detroit Rock City was an idea that came from producer Bob Ezrin. BOB EZRIN: “I wrote the guitar solo on Detroit Rock City. We got to the point that we had seen the introduction and met the characters, and it was time to set up a little tension with a moment of high drama. I felt like this was the sequence where he was driving and this would be the music that would go underneath it. I wrote that in my head; I don’t think I actually picked up an instrument. It’s not exactly original. It is pretty well an old-fashioned flamenco theme adapted to hard rock music. And it’s not because I’m some kind of musicology major. It was my take on gladiator music.”
5
The classic bass line underpinning the verses to Detroit Rock City were borrowed from an unlikely source. GENE SIMMONS: “The bass part is very nontypical of me. It’s very R&B, almost like the song Freddy’s Dead by Issac Hayes. That’s the bass line from his song Shaft. The bass line from ➤ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 57
was always in my mind that that’s what I wanted. I mean, I love Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds and a lot of that eighties, nineties blues, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, but most of my daily listening is old-school Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf, early Aretha. There’s a whole vibe with those records. Who’s a tougher producer to work with, Kevin Shirley or Joe Bonamassa? I think Kevin would throw me more curve balls [Shirley produced her 2016 album Wild]. Also it’s Kevin Shirley; I'm not gonna say no to him. He’s a massive South African dude, for one, so the physical presence is quite intimidating. And Joe was just… I couldn’t get past the fact that we’re such good friends.
JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR
Top of the list in our Blues Albums Of 2021 on burnout, her new covers album, working and relaxing with Joe Bonamassa, and being “a giant nerd”.
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Interview: Polly Glass
n balance, Joanne Shaw Taylor needed a break. Having played professionally since she was 16, touring non-stop from the age of 21, the Black Country native found herself looking at a very different life after March 2020. “I’ve done one show since then, which was a private party for some BMW motorbike guys,” Taylor, 36, says over the phone from Detroit. “So quite a burly audience, which was great!” With much of her crew based in Europe, her tour plans were scuppered again this year by covid. Making the most of things, she embraced her glut of home time – catching up on sleep, learning to cook, watching Downton Abbey – and made a covers record, The Blues Album, with Joe Bonamassa.
How much of the decision to do a covers album was prompted by not wanting to write a load of ‘quarantine blues’ originals? I probably wouldn’t have made this album now if it hadn’t been for covid. Being off the road sort of forced that, with the label saying: “Okay, you might as well make an album.” And yeah, having nothing to write about. It gave me time to stop and think about why I do this. I had burnt myself out. I wasn’t in the best mental or physical health. And after a break I was like, I’ve always wanted to do a covers album and… fuck it, frankly!
You’ve lived in Detroit for fourteen years now. What keeps you there? I saw a comment on my Facebook page the other day, some guy having a go at me for “making lots of money and pissing off to America”. I was like: “Dude, I moved here when I was twenty because it was the one place I could afford to live!” But yeah, it’s home now. And Michigan as a state, I feel very at peace here. We have lovely summers, beautiful autumns, cold Christmassy winters. And Detroit’s got this very working-class, industrial vibe which I like.
Little Milton, Don Covay, the Fabulous Thunderbirds… It’s not a standard selection. Yeah, me and Joe knew: “Look, we’re not doing Sweet Home Chicago and Mustang Sally.” You don't disregard anything because it’s too recent or well known, but we certainly didn’t intend to do a ‘greatest hits of the blues’.
There’s footage of Joe with a megaphone behind the sound desk. That was a trying day [laughs]. I think I was in a right strop, to be honest. I’m usually pretty good temperament-wise, unless I’m tired, and then I’m a horrible witch of a person. I think he was trying to cheer me up. What would you both do to unwind after a long day in the studio? We would go to dinner with Josh [Smith, co-producer], or maybe we’d go guitar shopping first – Joe was the only person who bought anything, obviously. And then we’d go back to his, open a bottle of wine, and I got him into watching The Crown. He loved it, but we had to keep stopping so he could ask me questions. He’d be like: [Joe voice] “So is that her dad?” “No that’s Prince Philip, her cousin and her husband.” And “Is that Meghan?” “No, this is still the 1950s, Joseph…” Which musician’s death this year hit you hardest? Losing Charlie Watts was really shocking to me. I’m a massive Stones fan, and he was such a gent and a fantastic drummer. He came to a couple of my gigs. I think Exeter is the last one he was spotted at. I think he used to sit at the back and then just leave. If you could be the guitarist in any band for the day, which would it be? The Stones, or AC/DC. They’re my two favourite bands. And I wouldn’t mind playing with Pink. I think she’s awesome.
“I had burnt myself out. And after a break I was like, I’ve always wanted to do a covers album.”
You have a Harry Potter Christmas tree? I do. The baubles are claret and gold, Gryffindor colours, and then all the other baubles are characters and the Sorting Hat and… I’m a very, very giant fucking nerd. I think it’s very important you know this.
CHRISTIE GOODWIN/PRESS
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Anyone who knows you’re a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan might be surprised at how much sixties music there is on there. Yeah. And I don't think I ever said it to Joe, but it
How will you be spending Christmas? I’m hoping to get home, because I haven’t seen my family for nearly two years now. If not I’ll stay here and have a Zoom Christmas with them. I’m seriously debating putting up the tree this weekend [this is late October]. I think after the last year, if it makes you happy why not do it? And having my Harry Potter Christmas tree up is going to make me very happy.
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It's good to talk. Certainly Status Quo's Francis Rossi thinks so, as in 2021 he continued his marathon spoken-word tour around the UK. Classic Rock's Mick Wall was alongside him every step of the way.
F
rancis Rossi’s I Talk Too Much UK tour, for which I joined him on stage as compere and second-banana interviewer, finally completed its second leg this summer. His first attempt – 56 dates between March and June 2020 – had been scheduled to coincide with the paperback publication of Rossi’s official autobiography, I Talk Too Much. Ghost-written by me, it was built on months of face-to-face interviews with Francis, and first published in hardback form in 2019 – when the first, 36-date Talk Tour, took place. We had only managed four shows in 2020, however, before You Know What Hell descended and the tour had to be postponed. After it was hurriedly rescheduled for July, it then became clear that that wasn’t going to happen either, and the tour was put back to February 2021, because the whole lockdown thing couldn’t possibly still be happening then, right? And then it was put back again, this time to June. Officially it was due to recommence on Freedom Day – then was cancelled yet again as Freedom Day got put back to July 19. By the time
it finally got going, our original 56-date tour was cut down to 33 dates. And then to 28 when some theatres cancelled late, as covid reared its ugly head again (and again). And yet, despite all the delays and endless complications, the often-half-empty theatres and the sense that the whole thing could grind to a halt at any moment, it turned into the most unexpectedly uplifting tour any of us on board the tour bus bubble had ever experienced. There were two main reasons for that. First, the show. When Francis and I had first appeared on stage together, in March 2019, we literally had no idea what we were doing. I had built a show on paper that consisted of several videos and a few verbal cues for stories I hoped to get him waxing lyrical about. But he refused to rehearse anything as he didn’t want to lose the spontaneity. The only thing we knew for sure was that he would not be singing any songs. He had been most insistent on that point. Then, within five minutes of being on stage at that first show, in Whitley Bay, he picked up his acoustic and began playing and singing. Okaaaaay…
‘Someone in the audience fainted during the story of Rick’s death. Early versions were extremely graphic.’
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e were doing five shows a week, backto-back, two days off, then five more, and so on for seven weeks. Every day on the bus we would do a post-mortem on the night before, decide what to keep, what to change, what to never speak of again. After three weeks or so we had a version of the show we could more or less stick to. But Francis being Francis, he kept wanting to add to the show right up to the sound check for the thirty-sixth and final show in god knows where, I can’t remember now. Cut to two-and-a-half years and several lifetimes later, and although we still discussed the show, the subject was virtually closed. He knew what he wanted to do, I knew what he needed to help him do it, and that was that. Show highlights included: Francis’s childhood; the Status Quo origin story; meeting Rick Parfitt; 1970s success; Live Aid; Francis and Rick as a double act (OBE from the Queen, Coronation Street appearances etc); Rick’s death; Quo now. There were acoustic singalong versions of some old Quo nuggets, the theme to Corrie, and, to finish, a full-on, have-some-of-that, all-join-in version of Caroline. Those were the bullet points. But the real fun, as is often the case, would occur unexpectedly – almost always driven by the audience. Shouted one-liners, comic interventions, just the sheer energy of the people in attendance some nights meant everything just seemed to go right. There were other less fun moments too, though. The angry drunken woman in Scotland with the impenetrable accent who walked right up to the stage and began yelling at Francis for… we couldn’t work it out. Or the time someone in the audience fainted during the story of Rick’s death, early versions of which were extremely graphic, and I found myself appealing for “a doctor in the house”. When it happened again two weeks later, Francis agreed to make the story shorter, and to leave out some of the grislier details. On this summer’s tour, though, we had the whole thing down pat. Francis could have fun with it… The main overriding reason this tour was so special, though, was entirely to do with the bizarre nature of the situation. We were already soundchecking at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton, on July 19, as Boris announced his (delayed) Freedom Day. Of the five-man team in our bubble, we were all double-vaccinated and were testing every other day. But no one knew what to expect. Francis is 72 and has had pneumonia three times. One positive test and the tour is over. But as the days whizzed by and the nights got better and looser, those fears, while always there in the background, no longer dominated. Of the 28 towns and cities we visited, between July and September, almost everybody we encountered – not just at the shows but as we walked around, visiting shops and restaurants, pubs and cafés – was ecstatic to be out and about again, able to come to a theatre show without having to social distance or wear a mask (unless they wished to; nobody judged anybody else). Lateral flow tests available. Sanitiser everywhere. The feeling at the shows was also different to the original 2019 tour. They were much more heartfelt occasions. I began each night by explaining how Francis had been virtually the last major rock star
on the road in Britain in March 2020 when the shit hit the fan(s). And how he was the first major rock star to be back on the road the first chance he got, on yer actual so-called Freedom Day. Then invited everyone to give ourselves a round of applause for simply making it through this far, to where we were now actually at a live show again. Everything was less tense backstage too. In 2019 every show was studied forensically, often during the intermission, or straight after the show, always the next morning. And the next and the next x 36. Here in covid-battered 2021, however, there was none of that. Francis would offer some direction occasionally, always spot-on, I might come up with a quick suggestion for something. But the whole focus was no longer on such comparatively petty concerns. The irony of having Francis front a spoken-word tour called I Talk Too Much is not that it’s true – he really does talk too much – but that when he’s in the mood he tells some of the most outrageous and extraordinary stories I have ever heard from any rock star. Insane adventures from a life in Quo that would have me simultaneously doubled-up in stitches and gasping with horror. Of course, I would laughingly (but, secretly, hopefully) suggest he based his next book on some of these over-the-top treasures. And, of course, he would tell me to fuck off. “Maybe when I’ve retired,” he’d say to me smiling enigmatically. But of course Francis Rossi is not going to retire. Not in this lifetime. Status Quo is still his baby and that is never going to change.
Francis Rossi: “It’s the way I tell ’em.”
JAMES ECKERSLEY/PRESS
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ill there be more Talk-style shows, though? Possibly, or certainly a revamped version of it, I would have thought. Indeed, the idea of rock stars undertaking similarly stripped-down words-and-music tours has begun to take off in recent years. As we were touring this summer, we noticed that Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson had begun a similar jaunt. Under the heading An Evening With Bruce Dickinson, and originally based on his 2017 memoir What Does This Button Do?, Dickinson’s show is spoken-word, no acoustic singsongs. Then some of the shows towards the end of his tour had to be cancelled when he tested positive. “I thought: ‘Oh well, shit,’” he said. The shows have now been rescheduled for December. And although Bruce, like Francis, will be back with his band and appearing in much bigger venues next year, with a new podcast recently launched and surely more books in the offing, expect many more evenings with Bruce you can share. Danny Bowes and Luke Morley of Thunder also did their own songs-and-stories tour in November, based on their official new biography Danny & Luke: The First 50 Years. That tour was planned to follow the format established in 2019, when I joined them on stage in the same role as with Rossi: compere, comedic foil, story-prompter. I will not be there this time. I’ve got my own album to do, as the saying goes. Is this the start of a new trend for rockers with a story to tell – and which of them hasn’t? The smaller, seated venues and the atmosphere of cosy mateship these things evince, surely, guarantees it. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 65
Need a soundtrack for the holiday season that will satisfy all moods and musical cravings? Then try this smorgasbord of bangers, ballads and more from the past 12 months. Words: Rich Chamberlain, Polly Glass, Henry Yates
ICONS
Foo Fighters
& A-LISTERS Rock’s big names at their best. BILLY F GIBBONS
Limbo Man Written about “the time in your life as a young man where you’re hopping between poisonous relationships”, Limbo Man is not just the most biting riff in The Dust Coda’s catalogue, it’s also the perfect excuse for the Londoners to tear vintage Ford Mustangs up a runway for the video.
HALESTORM
Halestorm
IRON MAIDEN
Back From The Dead The band have been silent since 2018’s Vicious, and this cauterising comeback single is the sound of Lzzy Hale turning a blowtorch on her mental health issues. “Back From The Dead is about survival,” she says. “I’ve erased my name from my headstone.”
CRAZY LIXX
Death Of The Celts The first of three 10-minute-plus epics from Senjutsu, Steve Harris’s mist-shrouded marathon can be read as a thematic cousin of 1998’s The Clansman. “I’m not sure what it is with men in skirts,” Bruce Dickinson has said, “but Steve has a thing about it.”
Rise Above The Swedish melodic rockers might risk cancellation with the sweat-glazed sex kittens of the Rise Above video, but you can’t deny that they bring the hooks on this manic highlight from Street Lethal. For better and worse, it’s like the 80s never ended.
THE WILDHEARTS
INGLORIOUS
Sleepaway The oft-troubled Ginger has rarely sounded more glass-half-full than on this jangled charger. “Sleepaway is a song of hope, of fighting for improvement in ourselves,” he says. “Locating the area of unhappiness and striving to fix it for the better quality of life.”
CHEAP TRICK
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THE DUST CODA
You want the heavy stuff? This lot have it.
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Here’s Looking At You Splicing a verse that evokes a sugar-coated God Save The Queen, a synthy chorus born to soundtrack Ferris Bueller cutting class and a dash of their own She’s Tight, this highlight from latest album In Another World proves these veterans still have tricks up their sleeve.
Making A Fire With a groove that slips its centre of gravity, and gospel singers giving it a lungful, the Medicine At Midnight opener is both fresh and familiar. “After we recorded Making A Fire,” says Grohl, “I was like: ‘Oh fuck, yes.’”
THE RIFF LORDS
West Coast Junkie Holed up in Joshua Tree and “mindful of the desert’s implicit mystery” as he wrote parent album Hardware, the Top man takes us for a spin across the dunes with this surf-styled lead single from the album. On The Wrong Side Buckingham reminds us he can do without Fleetwood Mac on this chiming, driving, deceptively bitter solo gem, the chorus of which shares a little escapist DNA with Go Your Own Way. “It’s not a happy song subject matter-wise,” he says, “but it was an ebullient song musically.”
FOO FIGHTERS
Billy F Gibbons
THE PRETTY RECKLESS
And So It Went Derailed by the tragic bike crash of their beloved producer Kato Khandwala in 2018, the New Yorkers’ fightback album, Death By Rock And Roll, never sounded more bristling. Listen out for a typically squiggly Tom Morello guitar solo at the midpoint.
SMITH/KOTZEN
Medusa ‘She’s an evil witch but she looks so good,’ roars Nathan James as a hickory-smoke slide guitar riff strikes up. Sounds like an age-old theme, but perhaps the UK’s honorary southerners are literally talking about seducing a gorgon: ‘I cannot stress enough, she’ll turn you all to stone…’
Taking My Chances Born out of a jam between the Iron Maiden and Winery Dogs guitarists, one assumes this pummelling lead single made the coconuts fall when the pair recorded it on the Turks & Caicos Islands. It’s the sound of a supergroup with a future.
SKAM
TREMONTI
Circles Written amid the grim repetition of lockdown, this single from the Midlanders lifts us above our own personal Groundhog Days with one of the year’s rowdiest riffs and most redemptive vocals (‘Gotta hold myself up high to reach the sky’).
Let That Be Us A thunder-god groove propels this highlight of Tremonti’s latest album, but the deal is sealed by Marching In Time’s most stadium-tooled chorus, bringing us a flash of optimism on a track-listing that doesn’t spare the bad tidings.
THE FEELGOOD GANG
Admittedly not the cuddliest subject, but an important one, and delivered in an immaculately sunkissed, soulful way.
MOON CITY MASTERS
Pensive moments and beautiful ballads.
A mixture of tunes to make you smile.
No Warning Jordan and Talor Steinberg gave us a steady drip feed of first-class, heartwarming singles this year, and No Warning is the best of them; a blissful dopamine hit of disco glitter and California sunshine.
THE BYSON FAMILY
Riches Having experienced the highs and lows of life in a major rock band, former Temperance Movement frontman Phil Campbell is more qualified than most to sing of life’s rich tapestry. The result is perhaps the most stunning howl of catharsis you’ll hear all year.
THE CATHARTIC COLLECTION
JOE BONAMASSA
MYLES KENNEDY
A Thousand Words When Kennedy’s wife showed him a photo of a funeral attended by friends, the mourners’ body language birthed this wistful strum. “Something about the way our friends’ mother stood hunched over her father’s grave spoke volumes about life, love and our impermanence,” says the Alter Bridge man.
The Sheepdogs
WOLF ALICE
Delicious Things The guitars glisten and the harmonies beguile, but the most winning aspect of this Blue Weekend stunner is Ellie Rowsell’s wonder at infiltrating LA (‘I don’t care, I’m in the Hollywood Hills/I’m no longer pulling pints, I’m no longer cashing tills…’)
CHRIS CATALYST
King Of Everything The Eureka Machines frontman/all-round musical multi-tasker hit all kinds of sweet spots on his latest solo album Kaleidoscopes, and this was our favourite. King Of Everything is pitch-perfect pop-rock.
CHRISTOPHER SHAYNE
GROHL: DANNY CLINCH; LIZZY HALE: PRESS; GIGGONS: ROGER KISBY; SHEEPDOGS:MAT DUNLAP; KENNEDY: FUTUREPLC; LEVARA: NIKKI MATA; NEGRITO: PRESS
NiceRide If The Cadillac Three and Black Stone Cherry had a rogue cousin in Arizona, it might have been Christopher Shayne, judging by this summer singalong. Breezy yet ballsy southern rock with a pop melody, it’ll make you long to be a lovestruck American teeanger at a beach party.
THE WAR ON DRUGS
Fantastic Negrito
I Don’t Live Here Anymore It’s a song you feel you’ve heard a hundred times before – perhaps sailing closest in mood to Don Henley’s The Boys Of Summer – but there’s a case that nobody released a more sweepingly evocative synth stunner this year than the Pennsylvanians.
DIRTY HONEY
The Wire This California four-piece sound more like Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses’ long-lost children by the month. On The Wire they pulled out their finest chops, and a melody so dripping in honey – ‘dirty honey’, even – you could eat it with a spoon.
FANTASTIC NEGRITO FEATURING MIKO MARKS
Rolling Through California Blues maverick Xavier Dphre… Ah fuck it, Fantastic Negrito teamed up with country singer (and fellow Oaklander) Miko Marks on this tale of the Californian wildfires.
THE PARTY STARTERS Songs for the bar and the dancefloor. THE DARKNESS
Motorheart A track that rocks as hard as Motörhead, has a Queen-sized chorus and slips in some modern stoner riffing, what’s not to like? Oh, and it appears to be about Justin Hawkins’s fantasies of shagging a robot. We simply must cherish The Darkness.
THE SHEEPDOGS
Keep On Loving You The lead single off their No Simple Thing EP found The Sheepdogs at their sweetest. The perfect nostalgia refuge for anyone looking to leave 2021 behind, complete with the 70s-tastic twin-lead guitars and sublime harmonies we love ’em for.
Time Clocks It was among the song batch earmarked for 2020’s anglophile Royal Tea record, but with JB’s mournful country-styled verse and perhaps the biggest chorus of his career, Time Clocks sits better as the title track of this year’s ’midlife crisis’-themed return.
ROYAL BLOOD
Myles Kennedy
SWEET CRISIS
Ain’t Got Soul For about 15 seconds, these Cambridge soul-rockers fool you into thinking they’ve written a Bond theme. Then the fuzzy thump and Leo Robart’s battle cry kick in. We said they’re ‘the UK’s best-kept secret’, but we’re getting more wrong by the day.
THE HOT DAMN!
Dance Around Written in those now seemingly long-ago days of lockdown one, Dance Around ticks all the boxes for a summer anthem. The stadium-sized chorus is an 80s banger that sounds like it was written by Springsteen and performed by The Primitives.
LEVARA
Automatic Trev (son of Steve) Lukather’s power trio showed a lot of promise with this driving hit of contemporary AOR. It all ground to a halt rather prematurely, with Trev leaving shortly after the release of their debut, but it was good while it lasted.
Typhoons The funky Typhoons wouldn’t sound out of place at your local feet-stick-to-the-floor rock club – as long as they stick a giant glitter ball above the dancefloor. With Typhoons Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher beat you within an inch of your life and then get you up and dancing.
THE DEAD DEADS
Levara
First Tooth An ode to the painful process of ditching whatever’s holding you back in life ➤ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 69
Mastodon’s monumental latest record is a double album inspired by, and dedicated to, their late, much-loved manager. Words: Paul Brannigan
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t was a phone call Mastodon had been dreading for months. “We’re cancelling your tour,” came the instruction from a friend working in the office of Rick Sales Entertainment Group, the Los Angeles-based management team responsible for overseeing the quartet’s business affairs, alongside those of Slayer, Gojira, Ghost and more. “And you guys need to come to LA right now.” As summer 2018 unfolded, Bill Kelliher, Brent Hinds, Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor were increasingly, painfully aware that this day was coming. But that knowledge did nothing to prepare the four members of Mastodon for the almost physical hurt each one of them experienced as they listened in silence to developments of the most unwelcome kind. In an August 30 statement that broke news to fans and media outlets of the cancellation of their scheduled autumn tour with Dinosaur Jr., the band initially cited “a critical situation” affecting “a member of the Mastodon family”. Two days later, in an openhearted posting on Instagram, guitarist Hinds would be more specific, revealing that the group’s long-time manager and close friend Nick John, “the most kind and beautiful being”, had been stricken by pancreatic cancer and was in need of “very strong amazing vibes”.“He is withering away,” the guitarist wrote, “and taking a little bit of me with him.”
“It feels like someone always has to die for us to make a record.” Brent Hinds 72 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Within the week, US music industry resource Billboard shared the news that Nick John had died on September 8, and the moving tribute posted online by his heartbroken friends in Atlanta. “Thank you for your guidance, your wisdom, your never-ending hard work and dedication to Mastodon, always pushing and reaching, turning over every stone to make sure we were always protected and always had every opportunity any of us could dream of,” the quartet wrote. “Thank you for making yourself available morning noon and night to handle every crisis or situation that ever came up. Thank you for being so passionate and believing in us with such enthusiasm that we considered you part of the band… Thank you for your smile and your infectious laugh but most of all, thank you for your unconditional love and friendship, we love you very much and are going to miss you more than we know. We love you Nick John. RIP.” One year on, when this writer spoke with each member of Mastodon individually for a magazine article celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band, Kelliher, Hinds, Sanders and Dailor addressed the loss of their mentor and friend using word-forword identical language: “It seems weird to speak about Nick in the past tense,” each of them said. “It’s a cruel joke what life throws at some of the best people that ever existed,” said Sanders. “I’m still very angry about it. Everything we do from now on will be in Nick’s honour, and a tip of the hat to his legacy.”
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astodon’s monumental new album makes good on that promise. Titled in acknowledgement of the grief-laden atmosphere which descended as the four band members sat by Nick John’s bedside in his Los ➤
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