VAN HALEN 1 & 2

Van Halen 1 & 2

OK, well I just put both albums together as one, mainly because these albums both captured the spirit and party feel of Van Halen. After these albums, things started to unwind in the band and they lost their magic. “Magic,” meaning to me that all the albums after these though OK, didn’t hold a candle to the first two. Van Halen 1 & 2 rocked from the first song until the last song!! I remember listening to “Eruption” for the first hundred times and thought how in the hell did he make a guitar sound that way? Those dive bombs, shit, they kicked major ass! From the opening track from Van Halen 1 “Running with the Devil” to the closing track on Van Halen 2 “Beautiful Girls”, these albums rock and still stand the test of time. Eddie’s guitar playing has inspired thousands of guitarists to sit in their rooms in stead of playing football and try to hammer out his solos. David Lee Roth’s smooth vocals on the semi-somewhat-love song “Jamie’s Cryin” is over the top too!!

I can’t leave without bringing up some more of Van Halen 2. “Dance the night away” is an awesome rock pop song that went to # 15 on Billboards Rock charts back in 1979. I used to sit in my room and listen to these on 8-track tapes over and over and over and over, you get the picture. 🙂 Before we go any further, I have to “thank” Gene Simmons for discovering Van Halen and funding the first album and thankfully, taking some bad advice and “opting out” on signing them while we are at it. He wanted to rename Van Halen to “Daddy Shortlegs”…haha. What a moron that Gene is…Anyway, you might have Van Halen 1984 in your collection, but if you don’t have these two in there along with it, you not worthy of any ice cream from the “Ice Cream Man”. I rate both these albums together as one and give them “8 toes in the sand” out of 10 …

chuck gee

Alice Cooper “From The Inside”

Another legendary album that is a must have in your album collection. Orginally released in 1978 and co written with Bernie Taupin who has also written most of Elton John’s hits. This album is supposedly an autobiography of Alice Cooper and some of the people he encountered while he was commited to a New York mental hospital  trying to “dry out”. From the opening song “From the Inside” to the closing song “Inmates, We’re All Crazy”, there is not a “filler” throw away song on this album … The music on this album covers all the “Rock” bases. From Alice tipping his hat with the lyrics “we proposed a toast to Jimmy’s ghost”  in the song “Serious” to the vietnam veteran that he sings about in “Jackknife Johnny”, “You were washing cars down in Dallas when the holocaust came”. What a  great line that is and the song employs a haunting Hammond B3 Organ. Alice doesn’t forget the “soft” tender side of himself either. From the top 10 hit “How You Gonna See Me Now” to the wonderfully written love song about two crazy in love people named “Millie and Billie”. Check out these tender Romeo and Juliet lyrics. “And I liked your late husband Donald, but such torture his memory brings, all sliced up and sealed tight in baggies, guess love makes you do funny things”. Such poetry in motion. Alice has released a shitload of albums but if you don’t have any of his albums and want to buy one, this is the “one” you need to buy. All the others pale in comparasion to this one. If you don’t have it, you are a tool … I rate this album 5 out 5 guitars … enough said.

Rush 2112

Originally released in 1976. Luckily for us kids of the 70’s, back then we had “The Tape of the Month” Club and that album was one of the 8 track tapes you were sent automatically if you didn’t return the “mail in” cancel card on time … Come to think of it, we never returned any of those cards and got “The tape of the month” every month and never paid for any of them and got a shit load of good music!!! … Hey, we were just kids, we didn’t know any better 🙂 Ok, back to the Album, if you don’t have this one, you are a tool for real … First off, it’s a concept album now considered to be a classic. Meaning, each song ties into the next one and the whole album is based on a story. This album is one of the last albums that RUSH came out with that was progressive rock and was real heavy and kicked major ass. From the opening “2112 Overture” laced with thundering sci fi keyboards to the power guitars chords and drums that shortly follow, one can tell the journey is about to begin and you had better hang on. It is an air guitarist’s wet dream album too!!! The lyrics don’t even start until 3:45 minutes into the album. No one does that anymore. These days it’s hurry up and get to the “hook”. Well, the music here is the “hook” and the lyrics are more than just the icing on the cake!! They are about a futuristic civilization that is run by Priests and computers. They control everything. “All the gifts of life are held within our walls” as the song “The Temples of Syrinx” goes. Get the picture? Of course not, I understand. You gotta hear it to understand it. But as the album continues on, it tells the story of a man that finds an ancient instrument (Discovery) hidden behind a waterfall. The instrument he found is a guitar and he slowly teaches himself to play it before he takes “this ancient miracle” (Presentation) to the High Priests to see if he can share it with the common people to bring happiness to them. And that is were the conflict begans. The Priests destroy the guitar and, well, I can’t give the story away. Look, go buy it. It is well worth the money. If this album isn’t in your collection, your not even worthy of being called a tool … I rate it four out of five guitars …
chuck

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction

From the opening riff of Welcome To The Jungle to the final notes of Rocket Queen, this album grabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go. This album captures the raw energy that made Guns N’ Roses the megaforce that changed the face of the music scene in the late 1980s. It also succinctly captures Axl Rose’s “you can suck me” attitude. Each song is well written and the album covers a wide spectrum of musical styles. GNR managed to mesh the heaviness of Welcome To The Jungle, the anger of Out To Get Me, the melodic genius of Sweet Child O’ Mine, the sexual innuendos of Anything Goes, and the drug related content of Mr. Brownstone into the quinessential rock album. This album still sounds fresh even after having been released more than two decades ago. If you only have one GNR album in your collection, it should be this one.