New Purchases/Acquisitions

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Iron Fist has always been my favorite. Unpopular opinion I guess but it's stacked with some of their best songs: Heart of Stone, Loser, Title track, Go to Hell, Bang to Rights, America...all of them really.

[markm]

How about Bomber? I believe that's the final album of the classic lineup....seems to get mixed reviews.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Bomber's good and worth having but you already have 2 of its 3 best songs on No Remorse. You're missing Dead Men Tell No Tales.

[markm]

Actually, I've got that song somewhere, prolly a bonus track, but I know that tune. 

[Dead1]

Finally had some spare cash for some new music though had to get CDs and not more costly vinyl

 

Darkthrone - Eternal Hails

Enforced - Kill Grid

Exciter - Violence and Force

Midnight - Let There Be Witchery 

[Sheol]

On 4/2/2022 at 6:05 PM, Hungarino said:

I think I missed BC Friday, was packing for a 6 month assignment to Hawaii. Only found out 3 weeks ago and was doing all kinds of shit and saved all my packing until the day before. Plus getting house and wife and shit squared away, and negotiating an apartment on island. Need to buy a car straight away too. Sitting in the airport now because flight is delayed. 

Totally off topic, but usually I post my monthly haul of NYP gems and others about this time. 

Shit man, so you have to leave your family and life for 6 months with 3 weeks notice? That's rough. I take it she's used to it?

[Hungarino]

6 hours ago, Sheol said:

Shit man, so you have to leave your family and life for 6 months with 3 weeks notice? That's rough. I take it she's used to it?

My wife is a trooper. Devoted and loyal. I have to remind myself not everyone is cut out for this lifestyle. I think it helps us keep from getting in a rut. But I am a huge introvert that does not mind living alone and doing my own thing, including regular travel to far flung places. She will be flying out regularly and has family here too, and that will help. 

[markm]

GG and Navy were discussing ZZ Top somewhere in the forums recently, and I started thinking, that's one band missing from my rock collection. I always liked their early stuff...never had any studio albums, but I recall a greatest hits with La Grange, Jesus Left Chicago and Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers and the like. Did a little research on boxed sets and comps, and found Chrome, Smoke & BBQ but at 4 discs with tepid reviews on the last disc, felt like more ZZ than I would ever want, so went with a double disc titled, Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top...now granted it's the first disc that holds my interest, but I don't mind the random odd song from their pop 80's singles. 

And for old time's sake just picked up

Kiss Alive and Kiss Alive II. It's cold gin time again. 

[navybsn]

47 minutes ago, markm said:

GG and Navy were discussing ZZ Top somewhere in the forums recently, and I started thinking, that's one band missing from my rock collection. I always liked their early stuff...never had any studio albums, but I recall a greatest hits with La Grange, Jesus Left Chicago and Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers and the like. Did a little research on boxed sets and comps, and found Chrome, Smoke & BBQ but at 4 discs with tepid reviews on the last disc, felt like more ZZ than I would ever want, so went with a double disc titled, Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top...now granted it's the first disc that holds my interest, but I don't mind the random odd song from their pop 80's singles. 

And for old time's sake just picked up

Kiss Alive and Kiss Alive II. It's cold gin time again. 

The only problem with some of the ZZ Top boxsets is that they include rerecorded tracks from the early years with electronic drums. For some reason in the 80's, the band thought this was a good idea. It was not.

I've been listening to more KISS of late. Never been a big fan, but man I keep finding good shit I shouldn't have missed. The older I get, the more I have started to go back to the 70's (and in some cases 60's) stuff I always dismissed as my "dad's music". In the past few years, bands like KISS, UFO, Uriah Heep, Scorpions, BOC, and the like have become a much bigger part of my listening than before. One of these days I need to start filling out my collection with some of these records.

[markm]

2 hours ago, navybsn said:

The only problem with some of the ZZ Top boxsets is that they include rerecorded tracks from the early years with electronic drums. For some reason in the 80's, the band thought this was a good idea. It was not.

I've been listening to more KISS of late. Never been a big fan, but man I keep finding good shit I shouldn't have missed. The older I get, the more I have started to go back to the 70's (and in some cases 60's) stuff I always dismissed as my "dad's music". In the past few years, bands like KISS, UFO, Uriah Heep, Scorpions, BOC, and the like have become a much bigger part of my listening than before. One of these days I need to start filling out my collection with some of these records.

I was never huge into Kiss as rock/metal was getting heavier and darker beyond their ability to really hold my attention, but I always liked their 70's tracks. In retrospect those early albums are just fun R & R . When I was a kid I spent most of my time listening to Double Platinum just as I did Motorhead's No Remorse. But I always liked Dressed to Kill, Destroyer, Rock and Roll All Over and especially Love Gun. Think I'll grab some of those to add to my discs of Double Platinum and the three Alive albums. Sure, they're king of bubble gum but hey.....

[navybsn]

If it's good shit, it's good shit.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

8 hours ago, markm said:

GG and Navy were discussing ZZ Top somewhere in the forums recently, and I started thinking, that's one band missing from my rock collection. I always liked their early stuff...never had any studio albums, but I recall a greatest hits with La Grange, Jesus Left Chicago and Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers and the like. Did a little research on boxed sets and comps, and found Chrome, Smoke & BBQ but at 4 discs with tepid reviews on the last disc, felt like more ZZ than I would ever want, so went with a double disc titled, Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top...now granted it's the first disc that holds my interest, but I don't mind the random odd song from their pop 80's singles. 

And for old time's sake just picked up

Kiss Alive and Kiss Alive II. It's cold gin time again. 

 

Not saying there's anything wrong with your best of comp, I know you're a best of kinda guy. But as a long time lover of the Top and the Reverend I feel compelled to say that I consider: Degüello, Tejas, El Loco, Tres Hombres & Eliminator absolutely mandatory. That double comp is pretty good, I looked over the track listing, but as a ZZ fanatic it pains me to see there are some glaring omissions in the deep cuts department! Ten Dollar Man, Pan Am Highway Blues, She's a Heartbreaker, El Diablo, Manic Mechanic, She Loves My Automobile, Bad Girl, Party on the Patio, I Wanna Drive You Home, I Got the Six, I Need You Tonight...I could go on. How they only elected to put on two songs from their all-around strongest album is a mystery to me. There's some cool shit on the early albums and even some cool tracks interspersed randomly throughout their later albums, I've got them all as far as I know. But really those 5 albums would give you all the essential Top a casual fan could want. If nothing else at least pick up Tejas.

1 hour ago, navybsn said:

If it's good shit, it's good shit.

Nothing beats a good shit!

[JonoBlade]

7 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Not saying there's anything wrong with your best of comp, I know you're a best of kinda guy. But as a long time lover of the Top and the Reverend I feel compelled to say that I consider: Degüello, Tejas, El Loco, Tres Hombres & Eliminator absolutely mandatory.

I went through a ZZ phase. For some reason Rio Grande Mud was always my favourite. Those early albums sound fantastic. It is like you're in the room with them. Probably easier to pull off with a three piece band where a lot of the material is quite laid back.

I am staunchly anti-comp. No greater travesty is visited upon an artist than the dreaded "greatest hits" album. Yet of the best selling UK albums....

No	Album	Artist	Record label	Released	Ch...
1	Greatest Hits	Queen	EMI	October 1981	1
2	Gold: Greatest Hits	ABBA	Polydor	September 1992	1
3	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	The Beatles	Parlophone	June 1967	1

Which just goes to show most people in this world are empty vessels, gliding through their pointless existence with never an original thought or useful contribution to the universe. ...and I even like those top two bands so it has nothing to do with the quality of the music. 

Interesting comparison, which I think is worldwide:

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Total certified copies (from available markets)*	Claimed sales*	Ref(s)
Michael Jackson	Thriller	1982	Pop, post-disco, funk, rock	show 49.2	70	[4][5]
AC/DC	Back in Black	1980	Hard rock	show 29.5	50	[32]
Whitney Houston / various artists	The Bodyguard	1992	R&B, soul, pop, soundtrack	show 32.4	45	[37]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums

[navybsn]

3 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

I went through a ZZ phase. For some reason Rio Grande Mud was always my favourite. Those early albums sound fantastic. It is like you're in the room with them. Probably easier to pull off with a three piece band where a lot of the material is quite laid back.

I am staunchly anti-comp. No greater travesty is visited upon an artist than the dreaded "greatest hits" album. Yet of the best selling UK albums....

No	Album	Artist	Record label	Released	Ch...
1	Greatest Hits	Queen	EMI	October 1981	1
2	Gold: Greatest Hits	ABBA	Polydor	September 1992	1
3	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	The Beatles	Parlophone	June 1967	1

Which just goes to show most people in this world are empty vessels, gliding through their pointless existence with never an original thought or useful contribution to the universe. ...and I even like those top two bands so it has nothing to do with the quality of the music. 

Interesting comparison, which I think is worldwide:

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Total certified copies (from available markets)*	Claimed sales*	Ref(s)
Michael Jackson	Thriller	1982	Pop, post-disco, funk, rock	show 49.2	70	[4][5]
AC/DC	Back in Black	1980	Hard rock	show 29.5	50	[32]
Whitney Houston / various artists	The Bodyguard	1992	R&B, soul, pop, soundtrack	show 32.4	45	[37]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums

I was 8 when Thriller came out. Everybody and their brother had that album. Same for Back in Black. Still hard to fathom that those are the 2 top selling albums of all time. I haven't listened to Thriller in years. Always had a soft spot for it just because it takes me back to those baby goat years. Back in Black is still in semiannual rotation.

I used to buy comps when I was a teenager. My thought was more bang for the buck. I could get all the good songs without having to buy several albums. Of course later on I learned that was a bad strategy, but I do think for folks that don't take music too seriously as we all do, they're fine. If I was to introduce a friend to Queen, personally I'd make them a mixtape of all the good shit with a different track list than the Greatest Hits, but if I didn't like them enough to take the time I'd tell them to buy the comp.

[JonoBlade]

3 hours ago, navybsn said:

I was 8 when Thriller came out. Everybody and their brother had that album. Same for Back in Black. Still hard to fathom that those are the 2 top selling albums of all time. I haven't listened to Thriller in years. Always had a soft spot for it just because it takes me back to those baby goat years. Back in Black is still in semiannual rotation.

I used to buy comps when I was a teenager. My thought was more bang for the buck. I could get all the good songs without having to buy several albums. Of course later on I learned that was a bad strategy, but I do think for folks that don't take music too seriously as we all do, they're fine. If I was to introduce a friend to Queen, personally I'd make them a mixtape of all the good shit with a different track list than the Greatest Hits, but if I didn't like them enough to take the time I'd tell them to buy the comp.

I have the Thriller LP and break it out occasionally. I guess at 70 million estimated units, and the other releases, Michael Jackson was literally the biggest human star that ever lived or ever will live.  

Thriller is a bit metal in that the title track is spooky and Beat It has Eddie ripping a solo. There are some clunkers on there though. Not quite as classic throughout as Back in Black.

For Queen all you need to make the point is A Night at the Opera. 

[navybsn]

21 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

I have the Thriller LP and break it out occasionally. I guess at 70 million estimated units, and the other releases, Michael Jackson was literally the biggest human star that ever lived or ever will live.  

Thriller is a bit metal in that the title track is spooky and Beat It has Eddie ripping a solo. There are some clunkers on there though. Not quite as classic throughout as Back in Black.

For Queen all you need to make the point is A Night at the Opera. 

I would agree although I would say everything between Sheer Heart Attack and The Game are essential. If I was recommending just one album, Opera isn't a bad choice.

[JonoBlade]

15 hours ago, navybsn said:

I would agree although I would say everything between Sheer Heart Attack and The Game are essential. If I was recommending just one album, Opera isn't a bad choice.

Putting my Queen nerd hat on, my favourite is Queen II. Like Black Sabbath, the first six albums are definitive. And like Sabbath the first album is still finding its feet but obvious that there is something special going on. 

Jazz is good, almost classic even, but by The Game....Don't Try Suicide is the musical equivalent of jumping the shark.

80s Queen has its moment but Freddie had gone way off the rails. Perhaps, in an alternate Universe without AIDS, Queen would have had a renaissance somewhere around 2008. Gone back to basics without the synth drivel. Unlikely because. as a creative force, they were spent but I like to think that the dinosaurs can pull one final classic out of their aged arses.

 

[navybsn]

3 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Putting my Queen nerd hat on, my favourite is Queen II. Like Black Sabbath, the first six albums are definitive. And like Sabbath the first album is still finding its feet but obvious that there is something special going on. 

Jazz is good, almost classic even, but by The Game....Don't Try Suicide is the musical equivalent of jumping the shark.

80s Queen has its moment but Freddie had gone way off the rails. Perhaps, in an alternate Universe without AIDS, Queen would have had a renaissance somewhere around 2008. Gone back to basics without the synth drivel. Unlikely because. as a creative force, they were spent but I like to think that the dinosaurs can pull one final classic out of their aged arses.

 

I quite liked A Kind of Magic, at least a few songs off of it, but otherwise I agree on the 80's. The front side of The Game carries it for me with Dragon Attack, Another One Bites the Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Definitely the weakest in the run from 1973- 80, but still mostly good enough for inclusion. Essential might be a little strong, but I wouldn't kick it out of my collection. And I should have included Queen 2. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Queen II is probably their all-around best effort, but it's easy to forget about the first 2 albums because they do kinda sound like a different band than the one they ultimately became. I was always mad at Queen back in the 70's. Every album they'd tease me with one or two up tempo rockers that showed me they could rock out when and if they wanted to, but clearly they just didn't want to. I had their first 4 albums back in the day until I quit on them.

I can now manage to dig some of their later radio tunes (first 3 albums are 'early Queen' to me, everything after and including Bohemian is 'later Queen') like Fat Bottomed Girls and Tie Your Mother Down, but I couldn't sit through an entire Queen album except II or SHA. Bites the Dust sends me right over the edge into "Turn this shit off!!" mode. They were dead to me for many years after that abomination came out. Probably took me 20 years til I could stand to listen to anything of theirs again. Basically the same thing that happened when VH released Jump. Dead to me, and now 40 years later it's first 3 albums ONLY.

So Queen would be a perfect playlist band for me. I can't stand their full albums and I know without even looking it up that if there were a corporate robot created "Best of" collection it would suck goat balls. But if I were to just take all their rockingest rockers and make a playlist out of them I'd probably really enjoy that. But it wouldn't really be worth the trouble to me to collect all the material necessary for this endeavor so I don't bother. Favorite Queen song: Tenement Funster, except on the days when it's: Now I'm Here.

 

QUEEN - Tenement Funster (BBC Session Recordings 1974)

 

Queen - I'm In Love With My Car 

 

[navybsn]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

So Queen would be a perfect playlist band for me

Same for me these days. In the same category with Thin Lizzy.

[markm]

8 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

So Queen would be a perfect playlist band for me. I can't stand their full albums and I know without even looking it up that if there were a corporate robot created "Best of" collection it would suck goat balls. But if I were to just take all their rockingest rockers and make a playlist out of them I'd probably really enjoy that. But it wouldn't really be worth the trouble to me to collect all the material necessary for this endeavor so I don't bother. 

 

You just unwittingly gave a pitch perfect summation of my much derided tendency for compilations but I would extrapolate that to include larger box sets.  Remember in the late 80's when Clapton's massive Crossroad box set came out?

Well, no, you probably never listened to slow hand given his mellow nature,  but we got it for my Dad and I bought it for myself a few years back.  Perfect example. Do I love Clapton? No, but I dig a lot his 60's and some of his 70's material. I'm pretty sure Crossroads set the standard for interspersing "hits" with rarities and unreleased tracks and new live cuts to appeal to both new and old fans. Dylan followed suit with Biograph and then went bonkers with his Bootleg series. 

Now, I'm not about to go out buy individual Yardbirds and Darek and the Dominoes and Cream albums just like I'm not going to buy individual Dire Straights and Mark Knopfler albums....but for a big rock genre playlist, I'd like to occasionally get a hit of these kinds of artists.

I did that with a bunch of classic and alt rockers a few years ago. 

And, the thing is, I might get a box set, as I have with the Kinks, Doors, Dylan, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Ramones and Byrds and then get turned on enough to go out and buy individual albums.   But those comps still have a place as they might have a track or two from the albums I don't buy or something that was never properly released like Dylan's amazing Blind Willie McTell, a song I've seen you post that is IMO without a doubt, one of the most arresting songs Dylan ever recorded that was scrapped from his Infidels album and as in No Remorse, IMO a perfect distillation of a band at a particular time and place with out the fat. As I've said lately, I've gone back and love Overkill and Ace of Spades, but neither are as consistent as the stunning 29 tracks on NR.

I got nostalgic for a bunch of cringy hair and other 80 rockers like Whitesnake, Ratt, etc. decades after I ditched my old vinyl copies. So a comp of WS makes sense to me because I don't really need to buy Slide it In, and the comps going to give me that horrid hair urge and give me some of his bluesier material before Coverdale became a huge stadium artist. Same kind of thing applies to dozens of other artists. 

Now, most of the time, I'm going for the albums-Blondie's Parallel Lines or Costello's Armed Forces and This Year's Model, London Calling, individual Sonic Youth etc., etc., etc., but comps and sets have a place often inspiring more investigation.

Sure, I have a compilation of Queen and Yes and many others. But after this thread I think I will pick up a copy of Sheer Heart Attack which I owned as a Kid and Night at the Opera even though I don't think I ever really need to hear Bohemian Rhapsody again. 

 

[navybsn]

I don't buy comps anymore mainly because I have Spotify. Playlist bands are perfect for Spotify.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I totally understand your logic behind wanting to have some Best Of comps as a way to get some of these tracks from various albums by some bands you may not have ever made a deep connection with but you still like a few of their songs and would like to get them into your playlists on shuffle. No crime in that.

My problem with Best Of comps is three-fold. First, and most importantly, as a control freak I have never ever in my entire life seen a Best Of comp that included what I would personally consider to be the band's best and most essential tracks. As you might imagine, I don't want the hit singles and the ballads and the fluff, I want the rockers from side 2 that casual radio listeners don't know about because you'll only get to hear them if and when you buy the albums. It's the same for every rock band that has ever existed. There will always be tracks that I can't stand on the comp and invariably tracks that I love will be missing. Quite often my absolute #1 favorite song from a band will not even make the comp rendering it useless to me.

I don't even look at Best Of comps anymore these days, but I did sometimes back 20+ years ago when I first started buying CD's and would occasionally find myself browsing through the racks at brick & mortar record stores. I've picked up plenty of Best Of's over the years and 99 times out of 100 I had to put them back down because the track selection was fucking retarded. In this digital era I'm surprised you can't just order your own Best Of comps from the record company and select your own favorite tracks from their library. Mix and match, pick whichever tunes you want up to an hour or whatever the limit is for a CD. I bet that would be a big seller.

Secondly, to me an album is more than just a random collection of songs. Especially older albums. Each album is essentially an audio snapshot of a band during a certain specific period of time when that band went into the studio and recorded themselves for posterity. Albums reflect a lot of where a band was at that time and they can even prompt one to reflect on what else was going on in the world at that time. To me old rock albums from the 60's, 70's and 80's are a lot like looking through old photos. You can see/hear where a band was at in their development during that particular time period, and see what they looked like when they were younger, and you can also get a nostalgia hit remembering where you were and who you were with back when that album was new. You just don't get these same feelings from a random collection of radio hits culled from across the entirety of a band's career.

Thirdly, and what I think is one of the best parts of buying complete albums is the surprise factor. You may go in thinking you know which of their radio songs you like and boom, some obscure track from side 2 you've never heard before blows you away. I think for me personally it would almost always be a better option to try to narrow it down to a band's best album or two and just buy those instead of investing in Best Of comps. Funny thing about old rock albums, when you listen to them all the way through uninterrupted several times you will often start to see value in some of the deeper tracks that might not have grabbed you straight away. A good album needs some sleeper tracks too, just like a lead actor needs a supporting cast if you will. Not every song needs to be the big hit and get played into the ground and be on the cover of the Enquirer and followed around by the paparazzi 24/7 (if you'll allow me to mix metaphors). And honestly, the people who get to decide which bands and songs will get played on the radio have never known what the fuck they were doing anyway. So many really great songs from years and decades past that have never seen the light of day because radio programmers and Best Of buyers only care about the big hits.

[markm]

Some very valid points. And prolly a lot of times it's better to invest in a couple of key albums as I recently found with Depp Purple and settled with In Rock and Machine Head-all I really need in the end. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Depp Purple, what is that like Johnny Depp's Deep Purple tribute band?

It all depends on the band and which era you're into. Some bands only really had one or two good albums so that makes it easy to decide. Other bands don't have enough quality material to even make a decent Best Of comp and in those cases I generally just let the band go. Deep Purple and Rainbow are two perfect examples. A handful of timeless tracks and a whole lot of crap that does absolutely nothing for me. I don't need to get hung up on every last band from the past that had two or three good songs, there's just too much metal I need to spend time with.