Rick N. Backer

I'm actually not a huge Tull fan as a general proposition, but when they hit I am. I did a deep dive not too long ago on Apple Music because someone here was talking about them, or might have been posting about playing their discography. Quite a bit that doesn't really interest me. That said, CCR is one of those bands I don't dislike, but I've never owned anything of theirs and I don't feel like I've missed out. Aqualung is Tull at their high water mark IMO. And they have enough other material to put them over the top. If you put M.U. against Chronicle it would be the same result for me.

Drastic Symphonies - Def Leppard. You know something? If you're in the mood for Def Leppard, but not in the mood for hard rock, these are a good listen. If you don't like the band, this won't change your mind. The Emm Gryner collaboration on Pour Some Sugar on Me is catching some flak, because the lyrics are incongruous with the vibe, but I really like her performance.

The last couple of days I've spun Vol. IV, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! I figured I'd give the Holy Trinity a break.

Charles Barkley was right: the Celtics win games on talent, not on fundamentally sound basketball. And when everyone is settling for “hero” shots, and they don’t fall, you get blown out. “If you take another 3, I’m gonna punch you in the face.” That’s why Barkley is a great analyst. Maybe Wyc can convince him to coach the team next year.

JMO, but Roger Waters seems to hate Nazism in the same way Sam Malone hated Diane Chambers in the first few seasons of Cheers.

Bryan Adams - Reckless, 30th Anniversary Edition. Yes, it sounds dated. So what?

I don't see why the technology behind the unholy Dio hologram couldn't be used to accomplish this in a sense.

I have to take issue with anything from Snakes and Arrows making the list before we've emptied the tank on the post-PoW, pre-Vapor Trails catalog.

It's not looking good for the Whalers. But old friend Bruce Cassidy looks like he's going to be vindicated.

Great video. I really liked his point that EVH wasn't all about the pyrotechnics. He had to literally slow down the tape to figure out what EVH was actually doing on Hang Em High. Greatest rock guitarist ever.

That really wasn't my point ("I have to do this song better than the original"). My point was that if the original is itself very well known to your audience and is something they probably like, if you're not Van Halen you're going to have a hard time selling people on the cover. That's why I referenced the covers I did. I doubt many Talking Heads fans were big Al Green fans, or that many kids into metal in the early 80s were big Slade fans. And actually, Van Halen themselves sort of prove the point. Where Have All the Good Times Gone is still great, but it didn't make the same impression You Really Got Me did.

I love the early Whitesnake albums, because I love Burn, Stormbringer and Come Taste the Band.

I'm not exactly sure what that means. You can't know how successful something will be until you do it, sure. But let's say Andrew Stockdale did a cover of Welcome to the Jungle. I think he'd be inviting trouble, because the original is very well known, and he's not different enough from GNR.

Good covers, IMO, often leave you surprised that they were, in fact, covers. For example, many people may not realize that Take Me to the River isn't a Talking Heads original. It's only in the last several years that I learned that Big 10-Inch Record by Aerosmith and Stayed Awake All Night by Krokus were covers. I had never heard Cum on Feel the Noize or Mama Weer All Crazee Now before Quiet Riot covered them. I'd be very surprised if a substantial percentage of casual music fans know that Van Halen didn't write You Really Got Me. I suspect that for a lot of people, the VH version is the one they immediately think of when someone mentions the song title. For the record, the Kinks aren't garbage. They just don't belong, IMO, in the same class as The Beatles or Van Halen. No shame in that. One band is the inspiration for the 80s metal bands. The other is the inspiration for every band.

Not even close, bro.

Indeed. If we're considering it to be a rocker, it's not better than I Saw Her Standing There, which is track 1, side 1 on Please Please Me.

Give One For the Road a spin. It's a good live sampler of (IMO) their strongest material. It seems to translate better live.

Such a great truly live album.

Yeah, it seems logical that people try to blend Davies' voice with EVH's, Mike's and Alex's playing.

What did you say earlier? Oh, yeah. "Bullsh*t."

Van Halen had a habit of covering a song and making the original obsolete. In the Midnight Hour was recorded for 1984 according to a Circus magazine article I read right before 1984 came out. Shame we never heard it. If you hear a bar band cover You Really Got Me now, I suspect you're going to hear them doing a cover of the cover. They won't be able to get the guitar down perfectly, of course.

It depends on how much of a particular artist I'm planning on listening to. If I'm going to binge, I'm more likely to start with lesser albums and work my way up to the best stuff. So, I wouldn't start a Rush binge with PeW. If, however, I just feel like listening to a little Rush one day, I'm most likely going to listen to MP.

You're a good man, Mick.

My goodness. I sincerely hope this is the dumbest thing you say today.

I disagree. I think it beats yours senseless.