Tag: The full in bloom Chronicles

Dokken “Alone Again” Released This Week in 1985 – VIDEO – INTERVIEW – The full in bloom Chronicles

Post author By admin
Post date

RIP Magazine: This week in 1985, Dokken released “Alone Again,” the third and final single from their sophomore album, Tooth and Nail. Thanks to a strong show of support from MTV that year, the track spent 14 weeks on the Mainstream Rock chart (peaking at #20), and 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at #64). The success of the single also gave Tooth and Nail a considerable boost in sales, pushing it up to #49 on the Billboard 200 while en route to a platinum certification. And, because it was released after the supporting tour for T&N had come to a close, it undoubtedly gave Dokken the momentum they needed to begin recording Under Lock And Key later that year. 🤘

Don Dokken originally wrote the song in the mid-’70s. He recorded it on a cassette, and it stayed in a closet for nearly a decade. Don rediscovered the song during the Tooth and Nail recording sessions and reworked the track with bassist Jeff Pilson in the studio.

Don Dokken:

People ask me all the time, ‘Who did you write it about?’ I don’t know. ‘Was it about a girlfriend?’ I don’t know! I just wrote it. My memory’s not that good.”

Don Dokken Talks About “Alone Again” w/ full in bloom:

If you haven’t already, make sure to listen to our 2020 interview w/ Don Dokken @ this location.

Also make sure to listen to our 2021 interview w/ Don @ this location.

Tags Dokken, Don Dokken, The full in bloom Chronicles

History Listen Music Top Stories

White Lion “Wait” from ‘Pride’ Peaked @ #8 on this Day – The full in bloom Chronicles – SONG/ALBUM/VIDEO

Post author By admin
Post date

RIP Magazine: On this day in 1988, nearly a year after its release, WHITE LION peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “WAIT.”

CHARTS:
Canada Top Singles (RPM) #48
UK Singles (OCC) #88
US Billboard Hot 100 #8
US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard) #18

“Wait” is a song recorded by White Lion and written by White Lion vocalist Mike Tramp and guitarist Vito Bratta. It was the lead single from their second album, Pride.

The single was released on June 1, 1987, but did not chart until February 1988, around the time the band filmed their Live in New York concert for MTV. In May 1988, “Wait” finally cracked the top 10 in the US, due in no small part to MTV airing the “Wait” music video in regular rotation—nearly seven months after the single’s release. The song peaked at #8[3] and also charted at #48 in Canada and #88 in the UK.

The music video featured Christie Muhaw of The Flirts, who died in a car accident less than a year after the video propelled the song into the top 10. Her death at only 24 years old made the song’s lyrics especially poignant. –Wikipedia

White Lion
Pride
Released: June 21, 1987
Produced & Engineered by Michael Wagener
The album peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 and sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone.

The Pride tour started in July 1987, as White Lion opened for Ace Frehley’s 80’s band Frehley’s Comet. The next year and a half was filled with constant touring, opening for such bands as Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne. KISS in December 1987. In January 1988 White Lion landed the opening slot for AC/DC on their Blow Up Your Video American tour. They’d end the tour opening for Stryper in the summer of 1988.

Tags History, James LoMenzo, Mike Tramp, The full in bloom Chronicles, White Lion

Behind the Album Interviews Listen Music Top Stories

Kingdom Come: The 1988 Self-Titled Album w/ Vocalist Lenny Wolf – full in bloom Legacy Interview Excerpt

Post author By admin
Post date

Released: February 29, 1988
Recorded: August 1987
Recorded @ Little Mountain Studios, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Produced by Bob Rock, Lenny Wolf
The album peaked @ #12 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone.

full in bloom: In 1987 you signed with Polygram Records. Does anything stand out from the day you signed your record deal?

Lenny Wolf: Drunk on happiness! What else?!? Breaking a bed in New York while I was jumping up and down.

fib: What were the terms of that deal?

Lenny: It was a deal I would not sign again today, but in those days, it was common to sing your songs for love. Money was fair, and later on, after we went gold, of course fantastic. Unfortunately, we don’t own the rights for the first 3 Kingdom Come records, which we would like to offer to people. Universal, who owns the songs now, is not doing anything with them. A pity.

fib: What was the search process like for you during those days when you were forming Kingdom Come?

Lenny: One of Derek Schulman’s (head of A&R Polygram and former singer of Gentle Giant) big points before signing was, I must put together a band. Which is exactly what I wanted to do anyhow. I knew a friend by the name Lucy Forbes in Los Angeles, who made a living by connecting musicians. I gave her an audition tape for the players to learn and met with them later on in a rehearsal room. As simple as that, with James Kottak, I knew instantly that he was my man, Danny (Stag) had the “tone,” Rick (Steier) was James’s best friend and happened to play a reliable rhythm guitar, and Johnny (B. Frank) was just too cool to not have him in the band. He was as crazy about cars and women as me; that just made sense enough back then.

fib: Kingdom Come was the first time you fronted a band without playing guitar. Was that an adjustment?

Lenny: It felt strange in the beginning since I’m not that David Lee Roth type on stage, but it was okay later on. I now enjoy playing the axe myself again very much. Even though I am very busy at times with all my floorboards due to so many different sounds we have to deliver. For example, like “Twilight Cruiser.”

fib: What stands out when thinking about the recording sessions for the Kingdom Come self-titled debut?

Lenny: I was very busy pulling Bob Rock out of the studio to that great strip joint and eating place in Vancouver, where we fell in love on a daily basis. Vancouver is kind of a bridge between Germany and the US. Very big but with lots of European influences as well. I really liked it. The singer from Loverboy came by, showing us his new Ferrari. Just funny seeing the guy whose song I heard a million times in Hamburg while growing up. Welcome to the real banana! Many more stories I would not want to yell about today. Things you just don’t talk about. Respect and shame, you figure it out. We occupied a whole floor at the hotel, which fast became the exchange place for the young and free, or shall I say stupid and careless. Happy to see how Bob became a big guy after establishing Metallica.

fib: How much was the recording budget, and how long did it take to record?

Lenny: I see; you just keep trying. The time frame, as I remember, was about 4 weeks in Heaven. The money was about the same as with Stone Fury. A lower 6-digit number. Thinking about it today makes me wonder.

fib: What was it like working with Bob Rock?

Lenny: Great, great, and greater! I miss him. The last I heard is that he is burned out by the Metallica boys. Very cooperative, very talented, and very serious. He knows how to get the best out of a band’s strengths.

Kingdom Come – “Get it On”

fib: Where were you the first time you heard “Get It On” playing on the radio?

Lenny: I think in Los Angeles, where I lived at that time. I freaked big time. There he is, a little German remote-controlled idiot, hearing the song I wrote all over America. Hallelujah.

fib: Tell us how the song ended up on radio stations across the country before the album was even released.

Lenny: Oh, my God. This would really blow my time frame now: PLEASE visit: lennywolf.com. There it is written in detail.

fib: **Excerpt:

Having finished the record, Bob and Lenny flew to New York to mix it at the Electric Lady Studio, formerly owned by Jimi Hendrix. During the mixing session of “Get It On,” John Kalodner, a John Lennon look-alike and back then one of American most listened to men, stopped by to say “hi.” He liked the song and asked if he could take a cassette with him. As far as is known, the tape ended up at a radio station in Detroit, which played the song without anyone in the band or Polygram Records knowing about it. Hard as it is to believe, other stations actually recorded the song off the air since the record had not even been released yet. The American music industry magazine “Album Network” reported about a mysterious band, which kept the telephone lines of Detroit’s rock stations busy for days. Suddenly, a few weeks later, all of America’s rock stations were playing “Get It On. Kingdom Come shipped gold (500,000 copies).”

fib: How did you guys end up doing the North American Monsters of Rock tour in 1988?

Lenny: I had to decide whether to go out with AC/DC, Def Leppard, or the first US stadium tour. My manager Marty felt it would be best to join the Monsters of Rock tour. I had a blast, but I don’t know if it was the right decision. Who knows? I thank God for having lived through that time. Something nobody can take away from me. But never again will I sing at 2 pm right after breakfast.

fib: Later in ’88 you toured with the Scorpions. Any cool memories from the road?

Lenny: Cool, I don’t know. But it was nice to hit the big stages with them further on in the US. The Scorpions are a very professional band that always had a good sound. I had to do some growing up ever since, which I did. My first “drunk on stage” experience, due to a cold which I was trying to overcome with tequila. Bad idea. Happened in Chicago. Jim Morrison saying hello.

fib: Why was Kingdom Come pulled off the tour?

Lenny: I don’t remember being pulled off?! I do remember having a lighting issue with them because I kept walking on Klaus’s stage extensions, which I wasn’t allowed to do, which in the heat of the moment, I kept forgetting. Shame on me. But I think we finished the tour as planned.

fib: The debut album ended up going platinum in several markets. Did you see a nice chunk of money from it?

Lenny: Life was a peach.

Read the entire full in bloom interview w/ Lenny Wolf @ this location.

Tags full in bloom Legacy, Inside the Album, Interviews, Legacy Interviews, Lenny Wolf, The full in bloom Chronicles

Behind the Album History Listen Music Top Stories

John Lennon “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)” – The full in bloom Chronicles

Post author By admin
Post date

George Harrison: John phoned me up one morning in January and said, ‘I’ve written this tune & I’m going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow. That’s the whole point – “Instant Karma!” – you know?’ So I was in. I said, ‘OK, I’ll see you in town.’

“Instant Karma” reached the top five in the British and American singles charts, competing with the Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ in the US, where it became the first solo single by a member of the band to sell a million copies. It was was conceived, written, recorded and released within a period of ten days, making it one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history.

The recording session took place at Abbey Road Studios in North West London, on the evening of January 27, 1970. Lennon’s fellow musicians at the session were George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston – all of whom had performed at the December 1969 Peace for Christmas Concert, as part of the Plastic Ono Supergroup. The recording engineer for “Instant Karma!” was EMI mainstay, Phil McDonald. Phil Spector produced the session, arriving late after Harrison had found him at Apple’s office and persuaded him to attend.

According to author Bruce Spizer, the line-up for the basic track, before overdubs, was Lennon (vocals, acoustic guitar), Harrison (electric guitar), Preston (organ), Voormann (bass), and White (drums). Lennon later recalled of the recording: “Phil (Spector) came in and said, ‘How do you want it?’ And I said, ‘1950s’ and he said ‘Right’ and BOOM! … he played it back and there it was.” The song uses a similar amount of echo to 1950s Sun Records recordings.

The musicians recorded ten takes, the last of which was selected for overdubbing. To create what Spector biographer Mark Ribowsky terms a “four-man Wall of Sound” production, Lennon added grand piano onto the basic track, while Harrison and White shared another piano and Voormann played electric piano. In addition, Beatles aide Mal Evans overdubbed chimes (or tubular bells) and White added a second, muffled drum part. Rather than an instrumental solo over the third verse, Lennon vocalized a series of what Urish and Bielen term “grunts and moans”. Lennon felt that the chorus was missing something, and so Preston and Evans were sent to a nearby nightclub to bring in a group of people to provide backing vocals. These newcomers and all the musicians, along with Allen Klein, then added chorus vocals, with Harrison directing the singing.

Although Lennon and Spector disagreed over the bass sound, Lennon was delighted with the producer’s work on “Instant Karma”. White’s drums assumed the role of a lead instrument, positioned prominently in the mix. Spector biographer Richard Williams wrote in 1972: “No Beatles record had ever possessed such a unique sound; Spector had used echo to make the drums reverberate like someone slapping a wet fish on a marble slab, and the voices sounded hollow and decayed.” Spector wanted to add a string section to the track in Los Angeles, but Lennon insisted that the recording was complete. –Wikipedia

Tags George Harrison, History, John Lennon, The Beatles, The full in bloom Chronicles

Behind the Album Cool Chitz History Listen Music Top Stories

Billy Idol/Generation X/Tony James “Dancing with Myself” – The full in bloom Chronicles – Gen X

Post author By admin
Post date

Tony James: July 1980, Keith Forsey suggested Billy Idol and I take a stroll while he mixed our new song, “Dancing with Myself.” We walked to Regents Park in the sunshine. I found myself in that very spot this morning, back there where it all started. Love you, Billy. Good to be alive.

“Dancing with Myself” is a rock song first commercially released in the United Kingdom in October 1980 by the New Wave band Gen X, where it reached #62 in the Singles Chart. It was re-mixed and re-released by the band’s singer/frontman Billy Idol as a solo artist in the United States in 1981, where the song reached #27 in the U.S. Billboard’s Hot Dance Play Chart.

“Dancing with Myself” was written and first recorded by Generation X during demo sessions in mid-1979 at Olympic Studios in West London (this demo-recording was first commercially released retrospectively on the long-player K.M.D.-Sweet Revenge (1998). After that band had split later in that year Billy Idol and Tony James re-branded the act as ‘Gen X’, and in production sessions with Keith Forsey for a new long-player at AIR Studios in London in mid-1980 the song was re-recorded for commercial release as a single. The guitar parts of the song were a mix of the playing of three guitarists with distinctively differing styles, viz. Steve New playing the lead, Steve Jones playing rhythm, with another layer being added by Danny Kustow. On commercial sale in October 1980 as a pre-release single from the new band’s forthcoming long-player Kiss Me Deadly (1981), ‘Dancing with Myself’ was a retail failure, reaching only #62 in the UK Singles Chart.

In late 1981 Idol, now a solo artist after Gen X had broken up, had Forsey remix the record for its release as a single in the United States, fading down the guitar(s) and bass tracks from their dominance in the 1980 U.K. release and accentuating the vocal and percussion tracks to produce a more rhythmic sound for the American commercial market. It became his first hit single in the United States and launched his career there, two versions being issued: the 3:20 single version (which was later included on Idol’s 11 of the Best compilation) and the 4:50 extended version that appeared on Idol’s Don’t Stop EP.

The inspiration for the song occurred during a tour of Japan by the English post-punk band Generation X in mid-1979, when its vocalist/frontman Billy Idol and its bassist Tony James were struck by the sight of the young crowd in a Tokyo discotheque dancing with their own reflections in walled mirrors rather than with one another. –Wikipedia

Tags Billy Idol, Generation X, History, The full in bloom Chronicles, Tony James

Behind the Album Cool Chitz History Listen Music Top Stories

Quiet Riot Release ‘Metal Health’ – The 1st Heavy Metal Album to Hit #1 – Kevin Dubrow, Rudy Sarzo, Frankie Banali, Carlos Cavazo + Interview

Post author By admin
Post date

On March 11, 1983, Quiet Riot released their third album, Metal Health. The album has the distinction of being the first heavy metal album ever to reach #1 on the Billboard 200. It has sold over 6 million copies in the United States alone and over 10 million worldwide.

Band:
Kevin DuBrow – lead vocals
Carlos Cavazo – guitars, backing vocals
Rudy Sarzo – bass guitar, backing vocals
Frankie Banali – drums, backing vocal

*Chuck Wright plays bass guitar on “Metal Health” & “Don’t Wanna Let You Go.”

Recorded @ Pasha Music House, North Hollywood, California

Engineered & Mixed by Duane Baron

Produced by Spencer Proffer

The band’s cover of the Slade song, “Cum on Feel the Noize” sold over a million copies in the United States and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The single, “Metal Health,” reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The music video for “Metal Health” was filmed in the Walt Disney Modular Theater and the California Institute of the Arts. The total cost was $19,000.

The main riff of “Metal Health” comes from an older track entitled “No More Booze,” which was originally performed by Snow, Carlos and Tony Cavazo’s pre-Quiet Riot band.

highspeedonice · Snow – No More Booze (Part 2)

Quiet Riot supported Black Sabbath (fronted by Ian Gillan) on their Born Again tour in the US.

Here’s an old-school full in bloom interview with Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin Dubrow, where the singer talks about the making of Metal Health. The interview was conducted a few months before his death and was transferred from cassette.

Tags Behind the Album, Carlos Cavazo, Frankie Banali, History, Kevin Dubrow, Quiet Riot, Rudy Sarzo, The full in bloom Chronicles

Cool Chitz History Listen Music Top Stories

Motörhead Release “Overkill” Single – Top of the Pops – 1979 – Phil Taylor – Double Bass – The full in bloom Chronicles

Post author By admin
Post date

On March 10, 1979, Motörhead released the single “Overkill,” which reached #39 on the UK Singles Chart. To support the release, the band played the track on the BBC TV show Top of the Pops the day before the song made its debut.

Band:
Lemmy Kilmister – Vocals, Bass
“Fast” Eddie Clarke – Guitars
Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor – Drums

Recorded Dec 1978 – January 1979 @ Roundhouse Studios / Sound Development Studios

Produced by Jimmy Miller

-Released as 7″ & 12″ Vinyl Pressings

-Featured in the Video Games SSX on Tour & Guitar Hero World Tour

-Drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor Plays Two Kick Drums in “Overkill”

Drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Misfits, Mr. Bungle):

Motörhead was the first time I heard double bass done at that pattern. I had heard of other double bass drummers, but I don’t think they did anything like that, at that tempo and that beat.”

Drummer Lars Ulrich (Metallica):

Taylor introduced me to that double bass type of thing. When I first heard ‘Overkill’ in early 1979, that was what blew my head off.”

The song was covered by the thrash band Overkill, who took their name from the Motörhead album.

On September 14, 2011, members of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, collectively known as “the big four” of thrash metal, covered the song live at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

“Overkill” was the last song Motörhead ever played live.

Tags Fast Eddie Clarke, Motorhead, The full in bloom Chronicles