Author: brant

by Tom Petty

~ Remember when Tom had a confederate flag on stage ~

This album is famous for the Alice in Wonderland-themed “Don’t Come Around Here No More” video. And while the video gives a sly wink and a nod to the underlying theme, Tom’s Southern roots definitely show through on this album more than any other. There was a time when much of the country was either unaware of or didn’t care about how Southern pride made a good chunk of the Southern population feel, and Tom tapped into it with this album, and this song, both of which he seemed to later repudiate with his disavowal of the Confederate flag and multiple references to social justice.

At the time though, the songs and themes he was singing about were less racially-tinged and more socially-tinged. Tom wasn’t telling African-Americans not to come around here, he was telling other white folks who were trying to boss around the Southern states. All of this seems horribly naive and light of the past 35 years, but at the time it really didn’t stick out as anything overly-remarkable. The fact that something like this could never be recorded today is definitely a sign of a societal shift

by Ratt

~ Western theatrics, ahead of their time ~

It’s not their most famous tune, but it was the initial kick in the teeth from their major label debut and it set the stage for what you would expect from Ratt for the next decade. What was cool though, was the idea of the hard rock cowboy and gunfighter themes that fit the music so well. Usually, as soon as the cowboy hat came out, so did the country music.

Ratt were the first of the 80s hard rock bands to reclaim the cowboy hat. Brett Michaels donned one regularly, once the “Cat Dragged In”-era makeup came off. And lets just all agree to pretend the “Ronnie Lee Keel” era never existed. Bon Jovi is more famous for the cowboy hat with “Wanted Dead or Alive” – and to be fair, it was a bigger chart hit. But within the hard rock community, folks know that Ratt beat him to the punch by at least 2 years and did it with a song that holds down it’s hard rock roots a little better.

by Blackberry Smoke

~ Texas calling ~

Yes, I know these guys are not from Texas. But anybody singing a song that includes a reference to Shiner Bock immediately gets tied to Texas, whether you want it or not. And this isn’t a West Texas song, it’s an East Texas song, where the fields are green, the hills are rolling, and there’s always a lake that’s not too far away where you can hang out with your two six packs of Shiner and some friends getting hammered over a weekend after a week of work that you just didn’t think you would survive.

Those blondes in the ragtop mustang? You’ve got them in every town in Texas, and they’re more than happy to follow you down to the lake if you’ve got something to keep the party flowing.

They didn’t just feel a good one coming on, they brought you along, too.

by Linda Ronstadt

~ If you know how the Eagles were formed ~

It’s not like it snuck up on anyone that they started out as Linda Ronstadt’s backing band. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that she’s singing Eagles covers. And given how well she can sing, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she sings as well or better than the Eagles do.

In fact, she sings this song so well that it almost feels like the Eagles should give it up.

Her range and inflection go way beyond what you’re expecting from the guys. In it’s heyday, Linda Ronstadt’s voice was an instrument of mass destruction and this song showcases its range and power as well as any of her originals.

by Triumph

~ Epic music ~

As a kid, I loved grand sweeping stories. In elementary school I couldn’t stop reading Greek & Roman mythology. In middle school, I devoured Eddings’ Belgariad series, among others. I like multi-part movie sagas, and 30-issue 7-title crossover comic events. And while Rush mastered the art of the epic album with 2112, Triumph weren’t very far behind in the category of “legendary Canadian power trios with long songs and epic, sweeping vocals.”

This one doesn’t tell a particular story, but for a kid with an overactive imagination who had read way too many fantasy novels, it wasn’t hard to slap this lyrical template on any number of fantasy stories and imagine the moves being played out by some cosmic chess masters pushing people around a map, not unlike Zeus in the old 1960s version of Jason and the Argonauts. The lyrics are just ambiguous enough to apply to any number of stories while still hinting at a much broader societal scope as they’re carried along by big soaring guitar lines that fade in and out around the vocals. The rhythm section isn’t trying to set anything on fire and the way Mike and Gil hold down the song is eminently competent without being overly flashy.

11/10, would listen again

by Van Halen

~ Sound effect intros ~

One of the best memories of this song was having it cranked up in the back of the bus on the way to a soccer game in high school, and the staccato intro scared the crap out of the coach driving the bus because he thought it sounded like a flat tire on the highway.

This was everyone’s first glimpse of Van Hagar and it was definitely an evolution of the band. The musicianship was still top-notch, but the emphasis in the songwriting had shifted from sun & surf, beach & babes, to slightly more sophisticated themes about love and relationships and a few more socially-conscious tunes. There was definitely a difference in the band. And it’s not bad, but it’s not the same.

Turns out the driving force behind the revolving door of lead singers was the fact that Eddie was batshit crazy but no one really knew that at the time. But the ’70s and ’80s were a definite high-water mark for the band when they were still getting along enough to keep cranking out good albums full of all-time classic tunes like this one.