To Be With You In Heaven

Alright! My latest favourite song, from the German heavy metal band, the Scorpions! Now when I did some research about this song, I was super disappointed! This song never reached any top tracks or subtle praises, but what it has reached, is the top of my list of track favourites, which in all honesty, is not much, but this is just a fantastic song! Now the first thing you need to know about this song is that it was released on Crazy World, in 1990, meaning that it's still fairly recent. Crazy World is considered the last of the classic Scorpions albums, why? Simply because it's the last album to feature Francis Buchholz, the bassist in the classic lineup. Now I find the whole so be quite attractive, but what really appeals to me is the vocal work. The guitar's great, classic Rudolph Schenker and Matthias Jabs lead and rhythm work, bass work is great, creates a lovely power feel in the main riff, and the drums are heavy and blunt, which I love to hear. The vocal work is just great though, the smooth vocal work on the chorus contrasts beautifully with the verse and bridge, not to mention the lyrics, which don't speak "stalker" to me, I see it as just plain lust and longing. I've never been one for songs about heaven and hell, but this one just speaks to me, I hope you enjoy.

Lay it Down

What a surprise! Another ballad.  Have you heard this song? It's exquisitely empathetic, sincerely sagacious   and chalk-full of fantastic rhythm, rhyme, and heartfelt affection. Not really, that's how they want you to imagine it, but they're really just singin' 'bout sex. Many people do not consider this to be "Aerosmith", but it is, just not in a classic sense. I can understand why people might be upset with it, it's not the classic stuff that Aerosmith is known for, but hey, just because this song isn't tragically traditional doesn't mean it's a domestic downfall, I think it's quite pleasing.  Lay it Down was released on O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, in July of 2002, and was one of two songs on the album to be radically raw, along with Girls of Summer. I've never been crazy about Aerosmith, don't get me wrong, I'm a fan, of course, but they've never been my favorite, but I'm lusciously lustful for this song, especially the first verse, just a vindication or vacation from voracious vain.

Dancing in the Street

Wow, what a complete game changer, I had no idea that this song wasn't written by David Bowie, Mick Jagger or Eddie Van Halen, all of which did a cover of this song. This is Dancing in the Street, by Martha and the Vandellas. This song was released as a single of theirs in 1965, but was originally written by William "Mickey" Stevenson and Marvin Gaye, who's version I was unable to locate. This song was apparently thought of when Mickey was watching children cool off in Detroit (Rock City) in an open fire hydrant, and to him, they seemed to be dancing, Dancing in the Street. Though the song was meant to be nothing more than an innocent dance anthem, many protesters for the civil rights movement took it as being written for them, to invoke change in the nation. Many radio stations actually banned the playing of this song because many civil rights' demonstrators were playing it to form the crowds into a cohesive entity. Martha Reeves, the lead for Martha and the Vandellas  was interviewed on the subject, and officially stated that it meant nothing of the sorts, but that didn't stop them. It's a tossup for which of these versions I like best, I love the vocal work in Bowie and Jagger's, but Eddie's guitar, what can I say.

The Boys Are Back in Town

Ah, take a listen, this song is so easygoing and heartwarming. I don't care how satanic or demonic you might think Rock and Roll is, this song is so simplistic and nostalgic, I can't even listen to it without the shadow of a grin sneaking up on me. You may scoff because this is their most mainstream song, but this is a fantastic song, and was awarded number four hundred ninety-nine in Rolling Stone's top five hundred rock songs of all time. The Boys Are Back in Town was released on the Irish band, Thin Lizzy's sixth album, Jailbreak in 1976. Jailbreak was their most popular album, and this was the that gave them their rise to fame, as well as the title song, Jailbreak. The song is most praised for its double lead guitar solo, which features Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, and is simply marvelous. Most people believe this song is about The Boys returning from a military school, but to me, it seems broader. In my opinion, it's just about getting together with old friends, and hanging out reminiscing about the good times. I hope you enjoyed the song.

Feel Like Makin' Love

Alright, well this is my favourite Bad Company song. Whenever I hear this song, I always think of Homer Simpson, a character from the popular series The Simpsons doing his rendition of it ( http://download.lardlad.com/sounds/season12/snow14.mp3 ) and it brings back the nostalgic feeling of being a child again, what a great television program that used to be. Anyways, this song was recorded on their second album, Straight Shooter, and was released June of 1975. This song was declared number seventy-eighth best hard rock song ever by VH1, a short-lived music television program that was pretty much MTV, except based on older music, oh yeah, and they were actually about music. Now if you listen to the chorus, you might notice (if you like The Who) that the riff is almost exactly the same as The Who's Sparks, an instrumental that was released six years earlier. I found this to be quite intriguing, as instrumentals are quite beautiful, but they have no lyrics, meaning that the notes and chords are everything, and if someone copies a riff off an instrumental, it seems more like a slap in the face than sampling a riff from a song with lyrics, but hey, that's just my take.

Since I Don't Have You

Well, I was listening to Guns N' Roses, and this song came on, it's on of my favourites. However, this is the original, written by The Skyliners and released in their 1958 album under the name of their band. Jimmy Beaumont is now seventy-one years old, as of Saturday, and still plays with the band, even though he is the last remaining original member. This song is considered to be one of the greatest "heartbreak ballads" and is a wonderful example of before Beatles rock and roll, as they changed everything. The Guns N' Roses version  was released on their fifth album, The Spaghetti Incident? in 1994 and is the last album to feature Slash or Duff McKagan, two original members, as well as drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Gilby Clark, and has the most recent music video of theirs to date. The subject of the song is simple, it's about a man who's gal has left him, and she was his everything. 

Jack The Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots

Well I've always been a fan of early Sabbath in particular, So I was listening to Paranoid, and track eight came up... Now I have a lot of affection toward guitar intros and riffs, and this song is just chalk full of fantastic cutis anserina(goose bump)-forming guitar spiels. This song is composed of two parts, Jack The Stripper, and Fairies Wear Boots. Jack the Stripper is the instrumental intro, and the instrumental part after the first chorus, while Fairies Wear Boots is the verse and chorus of the song. This song was released on Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid, in 1970, which hit the UK's top album shortly after its' release. The meanings of the song are quite differed, and there are a few different stories to it. According to Tommie Iommi(guitarist), Ozzy Osbourne(vocalist) and Geezer Butler(bassist) were smoking cannabis outside and observed fairies wearing boots, so they later wrote the lyrics to this song. According to Geezer, they were encountered by skinheads, and derogatorily called them fairies, fairies being a derogatory term for feminine males, and wrote the lyrics after that. According to Ozzy, he wrote this song while he was not in his right state of mind, and has no idea what it is about.

Touch Too Much

Alright! New semester, so I'm going to start it off right, with some current, alternating or direct. This is very fitting, as the lead guitarist, Angus Young, always dressed as a schoolboy for live performances. Touch Too Much is one of my favorite songs by AC/DC, filled with the classic lyrical work of Bon Scott and the stunning rhythm and lead guitar styling of Malcom and Angus Young, respectively. It was released on their sixth album, Highway to Hell, in 1979, and was the last album that Bon Scott helped create. Bon Scott passed away the following year, while the band was working on their next album, which was  known as Back in Black. When researching this song, I noticed that many of the single's artwork was reversed, which showed the guitarists and bassist as playing left-handed, go ahead, look it up, it may get a chuckle out of you. Anyways, I would describe this song as both jagged and fluid, you can hear the classic AC/DC rough sound, but it also has the velvety-soft feel to the bass and rhythm guitar that is wondrously appealing. Now the lyrical work on this song is something, this song is filthy, and I love it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

The Zoo

I thought about doing a post by a different artist, but I just got a new Scorpions album, and I couldn't resist. The Zoo, in my opinion, one of Scorpion's best. Though it never made it far on the charts, this song has depth and is very well written. Written by Rudolph Schenker(guitarist) and Klaus Meine(lead vocalist) , The Zoo was released in Scorpion's 1980 album, Animal Magnetism. Though it was never very popular, The Zoo is one of Scorpion's most acclaimed songs, and contains many appealing factors. The tempo of the song is heavy and ominous, giving it a supernatural and deadly feel. The guitar riffs are of notable factor in this song, being heavy and jagged, but at the same time melodic, catchy, and smooth. A very nice guitar solo in contained within it, being notably appealing to the most sensitive of ears, and powerful enough for the rockers and metalheads. This song is about a date, to put it simply, though it's not an ordinary date. It's a very cynical date, they walk along, and notice the streets around them to be a zoo, filled with wild and savage beasts, intent on demise. Yet the pair walk onward, feeding upon the misery of others. This might be a little dark of an interpretation, but hey, everyone's entitled to their own opinions.

My Michelle

Guns N' Roses, about time, right? This song actually has a lot more depth into it than I'd thought. My Michelle was released in 1987, on Guns N' Roses' first album, Appetite For Destruction. In terms of composition and things to note throughout the song, it starts quiet and slow, as if it's going to be a slow song, they quickly change that by adding distortion and a heavy drum beat. There is one thing missing from this song though, one of Slash's solos, he has a few licks, but no real solo. Anyways, this song was written when Axl and Slash were in junior high. Michelle was Slash's girlfriend's friend, and one night her and Axl were in his car together. Your Song, by Elton John came on the radio, and Michelle voiced how she would love it if someone would write a song for her. Axl had originally intended for the song to be soft and sweet, but after writing it, decided he didn't like it and wrote this instead, taking a more truthful approach to the whole matter. When the band heard the lyrics, they told Axl not to show them to Michelle, as they might upset her, but he did anyways. She liked them for their honesty, telling the truth about her life. Her father worked in pornography, her mother passed on due to heroine, Michelle had a drug problem, these things are what the song is about, the truth regarding her life. Michelle later cleaned up herself, and moved to California.

Runaway

Runaway, one of Jon Bon's most popular, was written in 1980, and was submitted into a local songwriting contest. After doing this, he was told to assemble a band in order to perform it. He hastily got a group together, and they were known as Jon Bongiovi and the Rest. This group was not the lineup for Bon Jovi, but rather a temporary group created to perform this immensely popular song. Richie Sambora caught up with Jon after a show, and requested for a position as the lead guitarist. Jon gave him a shot, and when they next met, Richie had the material down, he continued to become the official lead guitarist, and Bon Jovi was born. Released in their 1983 album "Bon Jovi", this song was their first hit. It became a huge sensation in the summer of 1983, and hit number thirty-four on the US Billboard top 100. This song has a very haunting intro, which ties in well with the lyrics, which are about neglect and prostitution. It's about a girl who has a father that gives her no attention, so she resorts to fleeing from that frontier, toward men that treat her the same way. From lack of attention and contact, she turns to prostitution, in order to please others, not thinking of her own distaste for how she lives.

Jaded

Even if you don't have a strong affinity to Aerosmith, I hope you can put that aside and take a listen to this song. It's quite different from the standard Aerosmith, it's incredibly smooth, softer than the standard we have come to expect from them, and has a feeling to it that I can't really explain, sort of jazzy-blues thing. Jaded was released on Aerosmith's thirteenth studio album Just Push Play, which was released on December 21, 2000, exactly twelve years before the world is "supposed" to end. A couple of the things that appeal to me in this song are the lyrics, they're intricate, deep, and flow very well, and the guitar, they're sort of ripply and appeals to the ear with great ease. This song could have many interpretations, but to me it seems like it was written about just being sick of everyone and everything around you, needing to escape.

Coast To Coast

Instead of my usual vocal songs, I'm going with instrumental this time. I've recently stumbled across this song after not hearing it for a while, and I must say, it's intoxicating. the delicate smooth sensation is one like no other. It's a jam based song, but it does have the feeling of predetermined factors and ideas. The song starts out with a pair of distorted guitars, and shifts toward the fantastic with the addition of bass, drums, and later, a third guitar which brings the whole thing together. I posted a studio version here because I try and give the original, but I must say, the live versions are fantastic, and have that great messy feel to them. This song is the sixth studio album by Scorpions, Lovedrive, and it was released in 1979. This album marks entrance of the classic Scorpions feel that we know today, and this song in particular, is the feel that they kept going on later in their career.

Simple Man

I've decided to go South with this one, and give you some music from Florida, Lynyrd Skynyrd. This is my favorite song by them, though they do have a number of good ones. This one if from their first album, and assisted in skyrocketing them into popularity. The album was released in 1973, and consisted of a few hits,   Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Tuesday's Gone and Free Bird, the aftermost of which sent this band into rock and roll history forever, with the album hitting double platinum status by 1988. This song is about wisdom, and advice for the future. It was primarily written by Ronnie Van Zant shortly after his grandmother passed away. The band got together and shared the wisdom that their elders had shared with them in their younger days, and this is what came out, a slow song that crescendos in an amazing way, every chorus being a wave upon the verse, increasing the volume and overall feel to the song.

Desire

Desire is one anthem of a song, speaking to all with its timeless message of wanting to rock, I'm sure most of us have felt that. It was written by Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Randy Castillo, and Lemmy Kilmister, and released on Ozzy's sixth studio album, No More Tears in 1991. The song reaches number seven on the US Billboards Top 100, and ninth in the UK. This song has a heavy feel to it form the drums, but in my opinion, the guitar isn't quite like the usual Zakk, and it seems off from what he usually does. This song doesn't have any hidden meanings within the lyrics, it's straight and to the point. This song is about Ozzy's desire to Rock And Roll!

Head Games

I have a lot of respect for Foreigner, they might not have been one of the best bands out there, but being a vocalist, I bow down Lou Gramm's incredible vocal style and voice. Head Games was released on Foreigner's third studio album, which is under the same name. Head games was released on, believe it or not, September 11, 1979, which I find to be slightly interesting, if anything. This song features Foreigner's classic soft rock style, and a great bass intro if I do say so. This song is about a girl, no surprise, and how she plays head games(real surprise). Clearly it is upsetting the songwriter, and he just wants to know how she feels, and they keep fighting and staying up late talking about their situation. Granted this is not the best Foreigner song, but I chose to do it because of the interesting feel it has to it, and how it effects my mood.

Photograph

I know my last post was regarding a Def Leppard song, but I couldn't help myself. Throughout the day, this song has been playing inside my head, and I could not be happier, for this is one of those songs that I could listen to over and over without getting tired of it. Released in Def Leppard's third album, Pyromania, this song reach number one on the billboard's top tracks. I would love to categorize this song as a power ballad, but it's a little heavy to be one, and the vocals just don't quite match those of a power ballad. However, this song has a similar feel to it, and is one of my top Def Leppard tracks. This song is about someone that you just can't get your hands on, someone in your mind, your heart maybe, but they are not tangible to you, they are built up in your mind, due to you being unable to meet them and realize that they are human too.