THE FULL IN BLOOM FLASHBACK
The story of RATT’s “Round and Round,” according to Warren DeMartini, Robbin Crosby, Stephen Pearcy, and Beau Hill.
LISTEN TO THE STORY VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP BELOW. You can also access the video directly on our YouTube channel @ this location.
Metal Edge: Kix front man Steve Whiteman talks ‘Blow My Fuse,’ breakthrough ballads and ‘pushing that magic button.’
Your vocals on the classic KIX ballad “Don’t Close Your Eyes” are powerful. Do you have any vivid memories from cutting that track?
Steve Whiteman:
We were so adamant about our demos that by the time we got into the studio, there wasn’t a whole lot of work that needed to be done. I just had to remake the demo. And it sounded almost like what we did in the studio. Our preparation has always been very, very good so by the time we hit the studio, it’s just do it and get out.
How many takes do you think “Don’t Close Your Eyes” vocal was then?
Well, [Blow My Fuse album coproducer] Tom Werman had a unique way of recording vocals. He would have me sing the song three times all the way through, and then he would go back and then he would just put piece everything together. And I rarely had to go in and fix anything, but then I would go in and double the vocal track.
As you were recording Blow My Fuse, did you get the feeling that even if the record company mishandled the previous album, this one was so good there was no way it would be denied?
Honestly, we didn’t know. We’d been disappointed three times before, so we were just hopeful that this was the one. We knew we had the material. And honestly, I think if it wasn’t for MTV, that record company probably wouldn’t have pursued it as hard as they did. The other thing, and I’ve told this story before, but when we were out on the road with Great White and Tesla, Great White’s manager, whose name escapes me now for some reason …
Alan Niven [who also managed Guns N’ Roses early on].
Thank you. He was on the side of the stage watching our show and when we came offstage he said, “What was that ballad you guys played?” And we told him. He said, “I’m gonna call [label executive] Doug Morris at Atlantic Records and he needs to put that out. That’s a single.” And that’s what he did. He called Doug Morris and Atlantic Records and next week we’re filming a video for “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” That’s the one that really catapulted the album. I mean “Cold Blood” did well and “Blow My Fuse” did well, but “Don’t Close Your Eyes” put it over the top.
You can read the entire interview @ this location.
Skid Row:
Tearing it DOWN…. New album webisode talking “October Song” Watch now.
Paul McCartney:
“I just started to imagine her life ‘wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door’”
Last year, Paul sat down with Bob Mortimer to tell a story from his monumental book ‘THE LYRICS: 1956 to the Present’ – The #1 New York Times Bestseller plus Waterstones and Barnes & Noble ‘Book of the Year’ 2021.
Give the gift of ‘THE LYRICS: 1956 to the Present’ this Christmas: ORDER NOW
LYRICS:
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby
Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window
Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Father McKenzie
Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there
What does he care?
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby
Died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie
Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved
All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong?
Lamb of God:
Randy returning 6 years later to the site of the Oceti Sakowin Camp on Standing Rock Sioux Reservation – this is the exact spot “Routes” was written about.
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Metal Edge: Exclusive: W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless on death threats, getting shot at (twice) and the worst mishap he’s ever had with the sawblades.
You can read the entire interview @ this location. An excerpt has been provided below.
INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
W.A.S.P.’s cover of The Who song “The Real Me” off The Headless Children album was so great. Not everybody can sing Roger Daltrey, but you nailed it. Did you ever hear from The Who guys about what they thought about that cover? Because for many teenagers in 1989, the W.A.S.P. version was their introduction to that song.
Blackie Lawless:
In ’89 after the record came out, the Who came back to America and were doing Tommy and it was the first time they’ve done it in many, many years. They were playing in New York, and I was going to be in New York at the time, and so we did a thing where I presented [The Who guitarist and songwriter Pete] Townshend with a gold record, after the show. And we talked for, I don’t know, 20, 30 minutes.
We talked mostly about songwriting. But he paid me what I think is a pretty high compliment. He says, “A lot of people have covered my songs, but no one has ever done to one of my songs what you’ve done.” And he had this look in his eye when he was saying it, and then he followed it up. He said, “Must have taken a lot of courage to do that.”
Now, I knew exactly what he meant when he said that. That band, when you listen to Live At Leeds, was a freight train out of control, musician-wise. I mean, these guys were unreal. So for another band to come along and think that they could do that justice, you’ve either got to be able to do it or you’re totally insane and you’re gonna embarrass the hell out of yourself.
So, I told him, “Well, we weren’t trying to emulate exactly what you did on the record.” We chose that song for two reasons. Number one, we had another song from Quadrophenia we were thinking about doing, “The Punk And The Godfather.” But “The Real Me,” we felt the song was a hit that never was a hit.
And so I went into rehearsal the first day, and everybody was already there. It was in a big room. And when I walked in, the lights were only on the stage where they were at, so when I walked in nobody could see me. And the crew was all in there.
They started rehearsing the song without vocals, and I just remember standing there at the door listening to what was happening. And the ferociousness of it, what was coming off of that stage, I mean, it was there. I don’t know how long they had been working it up, because I was about an hour late getting there, because I was doing an interview or something. But when I walked in, they had it pretty much as you hear today, and I listened to it. And it literally was blowing my hair back. And we never attempted “The Punk And The Godfather.” There was no reason to even do it.
I always thought there’s two reasons to do a remake of a song. One, you think you can do it better. Or you can do it different. So what I told Pete was, “We weren’t trying to emulate what they did exactly. We took the spirit of what we thought was Tommy, Live at Leeds, Who’s Next, Quadrophenia,” that period, which is really the peak of The Who, “and we went for the spirit of what that was.”
You know, I remember when we were in the studio recording it, Frankie [Banali, drummer] was frustrated with his performances. And for a song like that the drums have got to be right. So he got mad, and he says, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” And he took off and I didn’t know where he went and so I went back into the control room. He came back about 45 minutes later, he goes, “I’m ready.”
And so we went in, and we played and there it was. That was the take. And he told me later, I said, “Where did you go?” He goes, “Well, I went down the liquor store and I got myself a half pint of Jack Daniels, and I drank it, and I came back.” That’s the take that you hear on the record to this day.
A rare photo of the Laurel Canyon Country Store in 1958. Ten years later Jim Morrison and his girlfriend Pam lived briefly behind it. Jim wrote LOVE STREET after watching Pam walk back & forth from their apartment to the store. Lyrics include: “THERE’S A STORE WHERE THE CREATURES MEET.”
This is a full in bloom interview with Grand Funk Railroad co-founder Mark Farner.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP BELOW. You can access the video directly on YouTube.
DESCRIPTION:
Mark talks about how we wrote the Grand Funk Railroad classic “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home).”
Megadeth: Check out Dave Mustaine’s latest interview with Irish Times on the new album, overcoming adversity — and his brush with the Troubles. You can read the entire interview @ this location.
An excerpt from the interview can be found below.
INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
Irish Times: On May 11th, 1988, at the height of the Troubles, you caused uproar at a concert at the Antrim Arena. It inspired one of Megadeth’s greatest songs, Holy Wars … The Punishment Due, from their 1990 classic album, Rust In Peace.
Dave Mustaine:
Holy Wars was about the naivety coming there. I was so honest and so innocent. We were backstage, and some stuff had happened during the day which really set the tone for the night. It was just a powder keg ready to go.
I went downstairs and somebody was caught trying to bootleg T-shirts inside the venue. Talk about brass! We went to take the shirt, and he said, “These are for the cause.” I didn’t know what the cause was. “What’s the cause?” I asked him. “It’s about prejudice and religion. The Catholics think they are better than the Protestants; the Protestants think they are better than the Catholics.”
I understand that. I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, and they hate every religion except theirs. I was drinking Guinness straight from the source. I had a bunch of Guinnesses. We are up on stage, and some kid was throwing coins. I don’t know if he was trying to hit Chuck Mehler [the band’s drummer] or Dave Ellefson [its bassist], but I got hit one time. I was pissed. I saw the guy who threw it, and I said something to him. The show stopped. I came back out on stage, and I had just heard that Paul McCartney had said, “Give Ireland back to the Irish,” and I thought Paul’s a knight, he’s cool, it’s got to be something worth saying — so I said what he said and added, “This one’s for the cause,” and the reaction was much different, because I was an American.
It polarized the audience. We had to be taken out of the place in a bulletproof bus. The next day I was in Nottingham, and I wrote the lyrics “Brother will kill brother, spilling blood across the land, killing for religion is something I don’t understand / Fools like me who cross the sea and come to foreign lands / Ask the sheep, for their beliefs / Do you kill on God’s command? A country that’s divided surely will not stand / My past erased, no more disgrace / no foolish naive stand.”
That’s part of my elementary evaluation of the situation, which was grossly underestimating the pain and suffering that people have because of this. I penned this song. It just came out. I love the Irish people, and I don’t really see any distinction between north and south, east and west.
You can read the entire interview @ this location.
The Sick, The Dying … and the Dead! is released on Friday, September 2nd
The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! is #1 on @amazon’s Best Sellers List in CDs & Vinyl!
Pre-order now: https://t.co/7BfqJedlDN pic.twitter.com/iUAas1MqOj
— Megadeth (@Megadeth) August 31, 2022
Tracii Guns:
I remember writing the music for this song in March 2020. Ole was barely a month old. We lived on the top floor of a tiny apartment in Trøjborg. They had just cancelled my return flight to the states due to Covid restrictions. The lockdown was in full swing, and I was doing everything I could to not completely freak out. We took a trip to the west coast of Jutland for a week with the baby and I was completely out of my body. I was with the best people I could have been with, but I was still out of my body like living in a nightmare that just wouldn’t end. Well, that’s why this music is so fucking depressing. ❤️
Classic Rock: Alice Cooper: my stories of Lemmy, Raquel Welch, Pink Floyd and more. You can read the entire feature @ this location.
You couldn’t help but get caught up in Jim’s mystique. He was always this ethereal type of person. I remember sitting down with Jim one time. He said: “So, what’s up, man?” I replied: “Oh, I don’t know, man. I woke up this morning and got myself a beer.” And that ended up being one of the lyrics in Roadhouse Blues by The Doors.
We were in a car going up to Topanga Canyon. I was driving, and Jim and his girlfriend Pam [Courson] were in the back seat. It was all winding roads and everything. I looked back to say something to Jim, and he was gone.
He’d jumped out of the car and fallen back down the hill, just for the hell of it. I stopped and yelled: “Jim?!” And a voice came back from somewhere in the distance: “I’m alright… I’m okay.” It was like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon.
The fact that Jim lived until he was 27 was a miracle. I can see how his heart gave out. He’d walk into a room, there’d be a bowl full of pills – uppers, downers, acid, you name it – and he would gobble them down the way you and I would eat M&M’s. Then he’d wash them down with whisky. I never caught him sober. But then neither was I, so we were fine together.
You can read the entire feature @ this location.
“Robby Krieger was telling a story one time. We were in Portland, Oregon, opening for them in a theater. He says, “You and Jim were hanging from the balcony to see who could hold on the longest.” This was after a bottle of V.O. and a bottle of you know, and I don’t even remember that. I mean, this is like a blank to me. He said, “I remember it very specifically because we had to pull you guys up.”
Applause is interesting, but I’m a monster with or without it. Something is either well written or it isn’t. “White Rabbit” is not well written, and no amount of applause can convince me it is. I could have done a better job with those lyrics. They didn’t say what I wanted.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small
When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head
“White Rabbit” was written and performed by Grace Slick while she was still with the Great Society. Slick quit them and joined Jefferson Airplane to replace their departing female singer, Signe Toly Anderson, who left the band with the birth of her child.
The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane was Surrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group: her own “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”, written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick and recorded under the title “Someone to Love” by the Great Society. The Great Society’s version of “White Rabbit” was much longer than the more aggressive version of Jefferson Airplane. Both songs became top-10 hits for Jefferson Airplane and have ever since been associated with that band.
It was released as a single and became the band’s second top 10 success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was ranked number 478 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, number 483 in 2010, and number 455 in 2021 and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
I wrote White Rabbit on a red upright piano that cost me about $50. It had eight or 10 keys missing, but that was OK because I could hear in my head the notes that weren’t there.
— Grace Slick (@GraceSlick_JA) September 26, 2022
“Live Wire” was the featured single on Mötley Crüe’s debut album, Too Fast for Love. It was officially released by Elektra Records on August 16, 1982.
LIVE WIRE
Lyrics & Music by Nikki Sixx
Plug me in, I’m alive tonight
Out on the streets again
Turn me on, I’m too hot to stop
Something you’ll never forget
Take my fist, break down walls
I’m on top tonight, no, no
Better turn me loose, better set me free
‘Cause I’m hot, I’m young, running free
Little bit better than I used to be
‘Cause I’m alive, live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, I’m a live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, I’m a live wire
I’ll either break her face or take down her legs
Get my ways at will
Go for the throat, never let loose
Goin’ in for the kill
Take my fist, break down walls
I’m on top tonight, no, no
Better turn me loose, you better set me free
‘Cause I’m hot, I’m young, running free
A little bit better than I used to be
‘Cause I’m alive, live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, I’m a live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, I’m a live wire
Come on, baby
Gotta play with me
Well, I’m your live wire, yeah
Better lock your doors
I’m on the prowl tonight
Well, be mine tonight
‘Cause I’m alive, live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, I’m a live wire
‘Cause I’m alive, live wire
come on, be my baby
(‘Cause I’m alive) come on tonight
(‘Cause I’m alive) come on and love me, baby
(‘Cause I’m alive) I wanna be with you tonight
I’ll give you everything
(‘Cause I’m alive) you want inside
(‘Cause I’m alive) plug me in, plug me in, I want you
(‘Cause I’m alive) come on tonight
Nikki Sixx:
“Found in storage. Too Fast for Love skull used in our early videos and photo shoots. Sits on my desk to remind me how grateful I am to have been in Motley Crue.”
THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO REMASTERED
The video was directed by the members of Mötley Crüe and showcases the band’s stage theatrics, such as Nikki Sixx setting himself on fire and Mick Mars drooling blood.
GUITAR LESSON
“Live Wire” @ 1983 US Festival at Glen Helen Park
Scene from The Dirt
How does Robert Plant truly feel about Led Zeppelin’s iconic song, “Stairway to Heaven?”
Robert Plant:
It’s not about it being my favorite or not. It has nothing to do with that, really. It belongs to a particular time. If I had been involved in the instrumentation, I would feel that it’s a magnificent piece of music, which has its own character and personality. It even speeds up in a similar way to pieces of more highbrow music.
My contribution was to write lyrics and to sing a song about fate and something very British, almost abstract, but coming out of the mind of a twenty-three-year-old guy. And it landed in the years and the era of twenty-three-year-old guys. I think as time goes on, you may find another period of your life has got a little bit more substance or is more relative later on down the line.
During an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show in 2019, Plant said the following about “Stairway to Heaven”:
Of course, it was a good song. The construction of the song, the actual musical construction is very, very good. It’s one of those moments that really can stand without a vocal – and, in fact, it will stand again without a vocal, I’m sure, because it’s a fine, fine piece of music.
Lyrically, now, I can’t relate to it, because it was so long ago. I would have no intention ever to write along those abstract lines anymore. I look at it and I tip my hat to it, and I think there are parts of it that are incredible. The way that Jimmy [Page] took the music through, and the way that the drums reached almost climaxed and then continued. It’s a very beautiful piece. But lyrically, now, and even vocally, I go, “I’m not sure about that.”
I was recording the You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll album with Twisted Sister. I hadn’t seen my wife and newborn son in 3 months. When I said I was homesick, Jay Jay French’s sister-in-law said to me (on the phone), “Well, Dee, it’s the price you gotta pay.” I immediately wrote “The Price.”
Twisted Sister “The Price”:
Joe Satriani: Not sure what “Blue Foot Groovy” means? Don’t worry, neither does Joe, but it’s a direct song about being in your body & physically feeling good! Things get funky in the next track by track from ‘The Elephants Of Mars.’
