Eliminator Review

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Eliminator ReviewReleased on LP and Cassette in March 1983 on Warner Brothers, the blues boogie of "Eliminator" was an absolute phenomenon for the Texas trio ZZ Top.
They'd been bubbling under for years - "La Grange" in 1973, "Tush" in 1975 - and a minor hit with "I Thank You" in 1980. But none of it even remotely indicated what would happen in 1983 and 1984. "Eliminator" - one of the best boogie albums ever made - changed everything for them and us - it was little short of absolute global domination.
It was a combination of things - the umpteen tracks that were all single/radio friendly hits, the emergence of rotation MTV, the videos with leggy sexy babes - the fabulous 1933 coupe car - the ZZ TOP keyring flying through the air to the hapless buck trying to be a 'sharp dressed man' - the image of dusty dudes with beards - all of it combined in one heady mix to produce domestic sales in the USA topping 10 million with the same number estimated for the rest of the world. And if you take into account second-hand sales since that heady time 25 years ago and an early issue on CD, you're looking at a "Rumours", a "Purple Rain" and a "Thriller". This September 2008 (delayed release) has it good points and bad though...
Here's the layout first:
Disc 1 (78:27 minutes)
Tracks 1 to 11 are the album REMASTERED in its entirety with the original lengthier mix of "Legs" at 4:34 minutes re-instated for the first time (it was replaced after initial pressings by the shorter single mix of 3:37 minutes)
Tracks 12 to 18 are bonus tracks; 12 is the single mix of "Legs"; 13 to 17 are 5 previously unreleased live tracks (13, 14, 16 and 17 recorded at Castle Donington Festival in Leicestershire in England, while 15 was recorded at The Marquee Club in London - no dates supplied)
Track 18 is the 12" "Dance Mix" of "Legs"
The remastering of the album is FANTASTIC - muscular, in your living room, detailed - all that it should have been these last two and half decades. I've waited years to hear "I Need You Tonight" in this sound quality and it was worth it. But the really bad news is the audio bonus tracks, which are a huge letdown. The live versions have what is laughably called `audio restoration' on them - they sound like rubbish bootleg recordings - someone standing in a field with a microphone held up (Donnington was exactly that - a vast field). The truly awful extended mix of "Legs" was on the box set anyway - unlistenable then and the same now. Worse - there are single edits of "Gimme All Your Lovin" and "Sharp Dressed Man", but maddeningly they're not included here - they should have been - it would have been far more appropriate to a supposed `collector's edition'. Also there's nothing new worth hearing - no outtakes, alternatives, no demos, no new songs - nothing. Really disappointing stuff I'm afraid. The album is great, but the supposed bonuses are awful.
Things fare better on the 2nd disc, an 8-track DVD. First up are the 4 famous videos that broke the album with a worldwide TV audience and their inclusion on this `special edition' is only right and proper - they were such an integral part of the "Eliminator" experience. The prints are clean, but unfortunately blurry in that cheap 1980s kind of a way. They're fun to re-watch, but not much more than that. Things get considerably better with tracks 5 to 8, which are professionally filmed studio performances. They were recorded live in front of a studio audience on 17 November 1983 for one the UK's popular pop programs of the time - "The Tube". The sound and visuals are great and while the vocals are live, I'm fairly sure some tweaking has been done to beef up the sound. Whatever way you look at it - this is primo ZZ TOP and makes up somewhat for the disappointing crap that is tail-ending the Audio CD. Fans will really enjoy these.
The packaging isn't great either - a gatefold digipak with a 20-page booklet. The layers under the see-through trays have no photos of singles - outtakes - they're blank - pretty crappy really. The car's pictured a couple of times, lyrics reproduced, a basic essay on the album - but no real event feel to it - no live shots - no interesting formats pictured - fan stuff left out - it's basic really, when it could have been so much better.
In truth, you'd have to say that if Rhino had just issued the remaster of the album with the single edits and the 12" mix added on at the end - then that would have been so much better. As it is, you're being asked to spend ?13 to ?16 on a package that smacks of laziness and greed - and worse - leaves you with a bad taste in the mouth - an underwhelming experience that should have been a real celebration of a really great album...
To sum up - fantastic remaster of the album, good stuff on the DVD, but docked a star for the rubbish filler at the end of Disc 1.Eliminator Overview25th Anniversary deluxe edition with 7 bonus tracks, as well as a DVD with videos of the albums singles & rare live performances.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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The Ragpicker's Dream Review

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The Ragpicker's Dream ReviewFinally! A rock star who understands his strengths and knows how to use them to optimal effect! This is a brilliant, exquisite dispaly of song craft, subtle and sophisticated guitar playing, sublimely wrought melodies and arrangements that will stand as a hallmark of one of the truly great writers to have emerged at the end of the seventies. 25 years on and Mark Knopfler is more in command of his considerable powers than ever before. Perhaps through his soundtracks, stint with the Notting Hill Billies, his "Sailing to Philadelphia" Mark has shed his money for nothing vapour lock and emerged, or better reemerged as the eminent storyteller who so finally crafted epics like "Telegraph Road" and "Brothers in Arms" and of course "Sultans."
The genuine article, as one might say, he is Geordie through and through, and his borderlands colours wave bravely over this album of finely written stories. From the opening "Way Aye Man", all full of Tyneside atmosphere and courage to the closing "Old Pigweed" the narrators are real people with very effecting tales to tell. Knopfler and James McMurtry share that unique ability to gain the insight of people who live close to their circumstances, like most of us do, and dissect the issues that are the crest jewel of the decisions we make in life.
The band on this disc is just incredible. Chad Cromwell's drumming is the absolutely perfect foil for Knopfler's guitar lines, and fellow Notting Hillman, Guy Fletcher is on board to keep things organically true to the bone. The bass lines are as dynamic as the guitar runs and when you listen to "Coyote", complete with horns, it strikes you how well intelligence can swing. In some phrases, Knopfler brings to mind fellow Geordie Martin Stephenson, and perhaps it's in the Newcastle blood, the ability to swing. Certainly the pipe tunes from the tradition there roll with a sea spray you don't hear in other traditions, so it must carry over to more contemporary writers as well.
The waltz, "Ragpicker's Dream" is achingly beautiful, full of all the sentinmentality and bittersweetness of the waltzes he wrote for "Local Hero". Each and every song on this collection is a gem. As my headline states, this is a subtle, sophisticated masterpiece: it swings, it waltzes, it rocks and it stands on its own merits as a statement from a consummate musiciian and insightful writer of the daily vicissitudes of life that propel us as we embrace our past, present and future. Well done, Knop. Best of the Year!The Ragpicker's Dream OverviewThird solo album from the acclaimed leader of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, a rootsy American-leaning epic about theworking man. 2002. Warner.

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Aqualung Review

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Aqualung Review. . . or choose your own favorite cliche. Whatever you call it, this album was and is of historical importance, for Tull and for 1970s rock.
In part, that's because it was misdescribed. No sooner was it released than the rock press started hailing it as a "concept album" (prompting Ian Anderson to go to work on the surreal and Pythonesque _Thick as a Brick_ so as to give everybody, tongue firmly in cheek, a _real_ "concept album").
"Concept albums" are frowned on these days (although I like them just fine); nevertheless this isn't one of them. Sure, there's a lot of thematic unity; the first half ("album side") involves homelessness and lechery, and the second Anderson's reflections on the religious upbringing of his adolescence. But a "concept album"? Not really.
But it does reflect a critical stage in the development of Jethro Tull. Bassist Glenn Cornick had just departed and been replaced by Anderson's boyhood friend Jeffrey Hammond; as of the next album (TaaB) Barrie Barlow would replace Clive Bunker on drums and percussion. And crucially, two things were happening on this album that would affect Tull's direction for the remainder of its still-ongoing career: Anderson was developing both his songwriting and his acoustic guitar chops, and Martin Barre was successfully finding his "voice" as a guitarist.
It's something of a cliche among Tull fans that Anderson's songwriting had taken a darker, more cynical turn as of _Benefit_ (the album preceding this one). Well, on _Aqualung_ that bitter fruit is really starting to ripen. There's the title track, of course, for which Anderson credits the lyrics to his first wife Jennie (he lifted many of them from her notes on the back sides of her photographs of homeless people). There's "Cross-Eyed Mary". And there's all the stuff about Anglican-and-perhaps-other Christianity. This sort of thing was to continue through _Minstrel in the Gallery_ (especially "Baker Street Muse"), roughly until Anderson moved to the country.
Anderson was also developing what we now know as "his" acoustic guitar style. There was a bit of it on _Benefit_ but it's really here that we started hearing his acoustic tunes ("Wond'ring Aloud," etc.); we heard some more early acoustic tunes on _Living in the Past_, but that album hadn't been released yet when _Aqualung_ came out.
And Martin Barre had turned himself into the Tull lead guitarist we all know and love. The opening blast of "Aqualung" is quintessential Tull; the guitar solo on that song ranks among rock's greatest; and I don't know about you, but when I listen to "Locomotive Breath," I have to remember to breathe myself.
Now, for all that, this is not my favorite Tull album (or even my favorite _early_ Tull album). But I don't think a month goes by that I don't listen to _something_ from it.
The remastered version is clean and crisp, and to my ear somewhat anechoic. The extra tracks are notable mainly for the inclusion of "Lick Your Fingers Clean" (an earlier version of "Two Fingers," released on _WarChild_ but originally intended for this one). There are also extended excerpts from an interview and remastered versions of "Song for Jeffrey," "Fat Man" and "Bouree", all of which are now available on the remastered _Stand Up_ anyway (where I think the remastering is done better), and a "quad" version of "Wind Up".Aqualung OverviewLimited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Frampton Comes Alive Review

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Frampton Comes Alive ReviewAhhhhhh...1976...America was celebrating its 200th birthday, Farah Fawcett hairdos were all the rage, everyone wore either pooka shells or a mood ring (or both) and this album was EVERYWHERE.
I was eleven years old.
I remember sitting in the garage of my aunt's house listening to this album with my significantly older cousins. We'd have the garage door shut and Mike would light incense so that his mom, my aunt wouldn't smell the.....uhm, the biscuits that we were baking, in the garage...well, maybe it wasn't biscuits, but something was getting baked.
I just remember shutting my eyes while the music was going and feelung like everything was just this weird and wonderful dream. The music just kept on going and going even though I knew that my cousin periodically pulled himself up from the avocado colored beanbag he was sitting on to change the record. This music just seemed to register into my pre-teen brain. It even made me want to take guitar lessons even though my dad insisted that I should learn a more "practical" instrument first and then move on to the guitar.
Since when is the accordian practical?
But I never learned to play either of those instruments. Kind of sad, really. But cue up Show Me the way and I play a real mean Fender "air-caster". This album is just loaded with gems and even though later on, I was informed that a lot of stuff was done in a recording studio with stadium effects put in later, it still didn't sour my memories any.
I had this on vinyl and my friend at the time begged me to let him borrow it, after much pleading and promising, I succumbed to his whining. He promptly left it on the seat of his truck on a 105 degree Southern California Summer day. Oh, the carnage. He didn't even offer to replace it. He just told me it was an unfortunate accident. No, his mom not keeping her legs closed 20 years ago was an unfortunate accident. I did find another copy in a used record store, but it's still not MY copy. My copy had vibrations of my love, my joy, my gladness seeping through the album cover onto the album itself. The album that I was now holding had vibrations of someone desperate for a little cash money to buy their next beer so in their desperation they pawned this record for a buck...maybe even less. There's no love coming from this. Only desperation.
So I bought a CD version. Still not the same. At least it's mine, though. My little nephews get a kick out of this music. My youngest likes to pretend he's playing drums and my oldest is a chip off the old block playing his Fender air guitar just like his uncle. It makes me proud that I was able to provide them with some groovy music for some groovy memories later on.
Not too long ago I asked my cousin whatever happened to his vinyl version of this recording. Tears welled up in his eyes as he recounted a very sad tale of him being so desperate one night for cash. He said he sold it to a used record store for a buck so he could get a beer.
Buy this album. Make it yours and never sell the things that move your soul.
Peace & BlessingsFrampton Comes Alive OverviewThis double album spent 97 weeks on the charts on its way to becoming the best-selling live recording of all time! Remastered from the original source tapes and compiled on one CD. This is '70s rock!

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Face The Promise Review

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Face The Promise ReviewA song-by-song review. I also added some comments from the man himself I read in a Detroit Free Press interview with Seger the day before the album was released. My perspective on Seger is that he's one of my favorite artists, his music has been incredibly inspirational to me, and I'm of the age that I go back to the Beautiful Loser album where we couldn't wait to go to "Katmandu" or be a "Travelin Man" ourselves.
As an album, this has the best collection of hard rock, mid-tempo numbers, and ballads since Stranger in Town, though nothing at the level of "We've Got Tonite" and "Hollywood Nights". Starting with Against the Wind I was wondering if Seger should stop with the rockers and focus on the country charts, however this album destroys that idea starting with Wreck This Heart and three other really solid rock songs.
1- "Wreck this Heart" A very Stones-like rocker, loose and vigorous. A great leadoff song!!! Seger's lyrics often are a point of view narrowly drawn to a specific age group and this shows that while he's 61, the pressures are those of a man with young children, which Seger has. Bob's always had a very special relationship with those 10 - 15 years younger than him, like me, as he provides insight to their experiences from a position of having just lived it with the perspective and wisdom that comes from experience yet still near to the experience. Great song.
2- "Wait for Me" - This song is really growing on me. Very inspirational, a very Bob-like ballad. Seger's voice soars into the bridge like it did with "Like A Rock". Another great song that requires some time to appreciate. Bob is as good a singer as ever in terms of putting a ton of soul into each song, his voice is even better in the mid and low notes with a little more gravel adding more levity, as if he needed more, however, he does concede the higher notes but that only hurts him on one song in this collection (the Loveless duet).
Seger's comments - I don't think anybody got it. In my mind you've got to have the discipline to allow your kids to make their mistakes. . . Sometimes I've got to get away, but I'll always come back.
3- "Face the Promise" - Hard guitar track like "Makin Thunderbirds". Good filler. Makes you think he's hangin' with the post-college crowd now though, working-class people are moving to North Dakota and Arizona, not away from there.
Seger's comments on "Face the Promise" - This is about small town kids looking at the big American dream. "I'm gonna to out and face the promise of the promised land. . .".
4- "No Matter Who You Are" - Great song. Mid-tempo rocker like "Still the Same", while the lyrics are reminiscent of "Against the Wind" in terms of providing strength by realization that we all have challenges.
Seger's Comments on "No Matter. . ." - You have to guard your special, pure thing and cherish it.
5- "Are You" - Drum driven song, rocker with a great groove line and classic Seger lyrics. Memorable line, "This is a whole new faith almost like a new religion". He also does a great "Ow" backed by the soul singers, this one will get cranked!!!
6 - "Simplicity" - Music sounds like it came from a band named "The Time", an old band associated with Prince. Lyrics are obvious and contrived. Filler.
7 - "No More" - Bob singing against a background of classic strings. The lyrics are a negative indictment of how Bush got us into Iraq. While I agree with his political position, I would have preferred he chose different lyrics for this song, they sound mismatched, with uplifting music coupled with a negative indictment.
"Real Mean Bottle" with Kid Rock - a Vince Gill song written by Gill as a homage to Merle Haggard (Kid's a big fan of Haggard). Lots of long notes that take advantage of Gill's great voice which cause Kid and Seger to strain in places. Seger and Kid turn this into a 50's style boogie-woogie rocker, including rock piano. I am a little underwhelmed with this song, Bob's covers are usually excellent choices like Rodney Crowell's "Shame on the Moon". This song doesn't do Kid justice either. Because the lyrics are fun, and everyone loves boogie-woogie, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a minor hit on the Country charts.
Seger's producer on "Real Mean Bottle" - He (Kid) came in and said, "Man we've got to rock this thing." He started singing it at double speed with all this attitude."
9- "Won't Stop" - A very sparse song, acoustic guitar, Bob, and a little drum. A counter to "Real Mean Bottle" preaching the dark reality of obsessive behavior. Bob sings great in this song, however because there is very little accompaniment, you can hear how his voice has weakened from the pinnacle of his singing on "Live Bullet" and "Stranger in Town". Still, Bob was always much, much more than the range and power of his voice. His talent has always been writing music and lyrics, making the personal universal and the universal personal, making music that is either a joy to listen or sustenance for trying times.
Seger on "Won't Stop" - We were kind of making fun of drinking (Real Mean Bottle). . . but then I wanted a serious song about addiction - like, I don't condone this.
10 - "Between" - Contains the best lead guitar on the album by Kenny Greenburg. A beat similar to Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry".
Seger's comments - I think my favorite song on the record is Between. I just love the groove. I love the way I sang it, I love the way I played it, I love the way the girls sang it. And it says exactly what I wanted to say.
11 - "The Answer's in the Question" w/Patty Loveless - I loved the lyrics and the melody and the basic structure of the song. However there are some incredibly poor choices in which notes to hit that had me physically cringing three times, all three times because I think Bob can no longer hit the high notes. I think this could be a huge country hit, but they need to release a single version that eradicates the cringe factor.
Seger's Comments - "I thought what a cool idea for a song: The answer is in the question. "Will you be home late again?" OK, if you ask someone that, there's something wrong.
12 - "The Long Goodbye" - Should have been placed between two rockers because as the last song, it causes the album to end with a whimper, I would have preferred seeing the album end with "No Matter Who You Are". Some interesting musical sounds and verses that linger after the song ends, "The long goodbye continues on, through fog and rain and far beyond, you stay awhile and then your gone again" is haunting and some of his best work.
Seger's Comments - It's about Alzheimer's disease. I dealt with that with my aunt after my mother died. And now, my wife is dealing with it her father. So it became fresh again.
Summary - this album is not perfect, where it's pretty easy to make the case Live Bullet and Stranger in Town were. Because Seger is not prolific, his fans have much higher expectations than those of say, Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen who publish a lot more music. This album is definitely one every Seger fan will want, enjoy and savor for years to come. For those that are too young to have grown up with Seger, I recommend buying the following songs which you can find at Apple's Music Store: Wreck This Heart, Wait for Me, and No Matter Who You Are.
Is the DVD worth the extra bucks? I'd say yes for two reasons, the DVD includes the video for "Like A Rock". I don't know of any song where the singing and lead guitar melded so perfectly, only Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart doing "People Get Ready" comes close. It also has some great concert footage from '78 of Seger doing two songs in San Diego, which really displays how great a performer he is, though his band was really lacking on those two songs. I was very disappointed there were no videos from this album on the DVD, Wait for Me is released as a single, why not at least that song's video? I did appreciate the short interviews they did with Seger showing him working on the album but really disappointed only two old videos were included besides the two song concert footage.Face The Promise OverviewBob Seger is one of the few truly defining voices of American music. Classic, urgent, honest, and timeless; Seger has sold nearly fifty million albums in his career. Earned eleven platinum and seven multi-platinum awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. "Against the Wind" won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Group or Duo in 1980. Capitol Records will release Bob Seger's first studio album in eleven years, Face The Promise, on September 12th. The album's first single is "Wait For Me;" the new album also features the tracks "Real Mean Bottle" with Kid Rock and "The Answer's In The Question" with Patty Loveless.

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