The 1981 Listening Post - Neil Diamond - On the Way to the Sky

 Neil Diamond - On the Way to the Sky

#617

By Bobby Bognar

November 6 1981

Neil Diamond

On the Way To The Sky

Genre: Great-Grandma Pop?

Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Bobby’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Highlight: 

Be Mine Tonight

Lowlight: The lyrics

I never much got into Neil Diamond.

While I’m certain I MUST have heard some of his songs earlier, the earliest I remember hearing his name was in 1984 when I was a freshman in high school. My drama teacher, Mrs. Baugher, was a huge ND fan, and had a life-sized poster of him in the classroom.

The first time I was able to identify a Neil Diamond song was “Heartlight,” which was written for the movie E.T., but didn’t make the cut and was released as a single. I later learned that he had written “I’m A Believer” for the Monkees, and of course started singing “Sweet Caroline” at ball games after “Beautiful Girls” came out.

All of this is just to say that I was completely unaware of any of these songs before receiving this album to review.

“Yesterday’s Songs” opens the album, and it seems to have been engineered in a laboratory to be peak “breezy.” Pleasant to listen to, and over in less than three minutes, I’m not offended,but I’m certainly not buzzing with excitement. I’ve never before paid any attention to Diamond’s voice, and it is certainly solid, though I can’t imagine falling in love with him because of it. 

A little internet buzzing shows that Neil was a big sex symbol at the time. For what it’s worth, I don’t see it. This was a year when Van Halen put out “Fair Warning,” the Police had “Ghost In The Machine,” and Phil Collins put out his massive hit “Face Value.” There were lots of hot musicians out there with whom he had to compete. It’s hard to see where Capital Records thought this album would fit into the pop landscape. Somehow, though, “Yesterday’s Songs” hit #11 on the charts.

Song after song seems to have been pulled from a gauzy, late night love scene from “Moonlighting.” All love songs, all quietly mid-tempoing all over the place.

“Only You,” the fourth track on the album lifts up the tempo with a “Love Boat” groove (and what sounds like the only live piano on the recording), and on my third listen through the album, I start feeling like any line from any of the songs on this album could be cut and pasted into any other. Lots of mentions of “you,” “me,” and “love.” There are no distinct characters (the one exception being “The Drifter,” where ND describes himself as “the dreamer who climbed the mountain and saw forever across the ocean,” which seems like a superpower deserving of more excitement than we get to hear). As a guy who writes average lyrics, but appreciates appreciates great ones, the blame rests squarely on the artist’s shoulders, as he has songwriting credits on all but one tune.

“Be Mine Tonight” is the most up-tempo track on the album, and because of that, stands out a little from the rest of the pack, but suffers from the same generic sentiments of the other tunes.

OTWTTS gets its Diamond-est with “Rainy Day Song,” where we are told he knew we “never believed in rainbows.” Whether this is lazy or bad is up to the listener, I suppose, but I choose to believe the former. Remember Murph And The Magic Tones? Probably not, but I guarantee that “Rainy Day Song” was on their set list. 

Would you like to know what Guitar Heaven is? Me, too! Unfortunately, track 10, “Guitar Heaven” shows us nothing of that dream world. Instead it has a nice acoustic lead that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Porter Waggoner record, but it’s the sonic equivalent of calling a menu item “Prime Rib” and serving up a Hot Pocket: It tastes good, sure, but you’re sure gonna be disappointed.

Mrs. Baugher cast Matt Mitchell as the lead in “Barnum” in my senior year, even though I OBVIOUSLY deserved the part, so I am at least a bit comforted by the proof that she had sketchy taste way back then.

https://open.spotify.com/album/5lOAyD9C2rOYOxqPwVf6ZJ?si=YYWwiuRDQeuJ1ZVJ74kWpgq

The 1981 Listening Post - Blue Oyster Cult - Fire of Unknown Origin

 Blue Oyster Cult - Fire of Unknown Origin

#298

By Bobby Bognar

June 19, 1981

Blue Oyster Cult

Fire of Unknown Origin

Genre: Classic Rock

4 out of 5

 

Highlight:

Burnin’ For You

 

 

It’s easy to forget how fucking metal Blue Oyster Cult was in their heyday.

 

When you think of their biggest hit, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” not only do you immediately want to throw up devil horns, you also want to very neatly put them into the Classic Rock bin at your local Peaches or Sam Goody.

 

But on this album, BOC puts their influences on full display, from Cream to Led Zeppelin, as well as lay out the path later followed by everyone from Iron Maiden to Winger. That’s right, those early rock and blues influences thread their way from K-Tel to Headbangers Ball.

 

The standout track on this album is “Burnin’ For You,” which is DNP (“damned near perfect”) in it’s writing and arrangement. Every piece of this song, from the opening guitar riff to the chorus, could be the load-bearing hook to another, lesser quality tune. This song is assembled like a Volvo: high quality parts on a rock-solid chassis. You can easily get 300,000 miles out of this baby.

 

“Veteran of Psychic Wars,” the third track, really begins to show it’s metal stripes. If you told me that this was a demo by Queensryche, I would believe you. It’s theatrical and bold, which, if that’s your thing, then this could also be your thing.

 

 “Heavy Metal: The Black and Silver,” not only has the term “heavy metal” in the title (and chorus), but it also has the sound of many bands I played with at Mancini’s, FM Station, and Palomino’s (all well-known hair metal venues in the 80’s and 90’s). Stomping riffs, screaming vocals, etc…it’s all there.

 

While Blue Oyster Cult carved out a pretty great career for themselves in the Classic Rock genre, this album suggests that they may have been co-godfathers of the metal movement in the 80’s, joined by Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Cream.

 

Listening to Fire of Unknown Origin, the roadmap is clear. Plus, any act that can sing “Joan Crawford Has Risen From The Dead” without a trace of irony is plenty metal for me.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7v4kEpVtppoMm80m43lGzt?si=pn6MXcZeSrunyu5o-4uzXA

The 1981 Listening Post - The Good Rats - Great American Music

 The Good Rats - Great American Music

#262

By Bobby Bognar

The Good Rats

Great American Music

Genre: Competency Rock

Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Bobby’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

 

Highlight:

New York Survivor

 

 

I’m not a very good person.

 

The Good Rats (they go back and forth using the “The” in their promotional materials) formed in 1964, and apparently played as recently as 2014. They have loads of great press, celebrity fans, and a 40-year career, so they have SOMETHING going for them, but I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what it is.

 

The Good Rats are all competent players, and lead singer Stefan Marchello has a cool rock voice that kept making me think of Billy Squire. The guitar solos were all pretty tasty, if sometimes too long for my taste, and the rhythm section did their jobs, rhythmically speaking, I suppose.

 

The opening track, “New York Survivor,” is the best of the bunch. Two minutes and forty seconds of what could be a Sweet outtake.

 

The rest just aren’t firing straight.

 

Here’s the math: If you took the Cars, KISS, and Styx, and added in Billy Squire’s vocals, you’d ALMOST have the Good Rats. I say “almost,” because the songwriting just isn’t there.

 

As a listener, the greatest failure was the lyrics. I don’t need depth in my tunes (see “Rock & Roll All Night,” “Bye Bye Love,” and “The Stroke” as examples), but The Good Rats are so LITERAL that there’s no fun in it.

 

Track 6, “Yes Or No,” perfectly encapsulates this weakness: “Do you like me, yes or no? Yes or no?” And then they ask a bunch more times.

 

In other songs, it’s spelled out for us as well:

 

“I am in love with you. You are in love with him. He is in love with her.”

“You are the beauty, I am the beast.”

“Our love is good, oh so good.”

“She called a friend of mine, and told him she was leaving.”

 

The hooks and playing aren’t enough to save what should have been placeholder lyrics.

 

Listening to this album was frustrating from a sonic standpoint as well. Yes, this album is old, but instead of sounding classic, it just sounds dated. You know how soundtracks will frequently feature sound-alike tracks (both to save money, and to not pull focus from the scene)? Listening to the Good Rats, I thought, “Man, these guys probably made a few bucks from background club scenes in Miami Vice, Knight Rider, and whatever other cop and actions dramas were on the tube at that time. That’s a compliment to any musician who is trying to earn from their art, but it’s not enough to get me excited about consuming it.

 

Calling the album “Great American Music” may have been tongue-in-cheek, but the content is neither good enough to hold the title, nor bad enough to make the joke work.

 

I have no doubt that the Good Rats were fun to watch, had fans, and created exactly what they wanted to create, but after three runs through this album, I realize that the fault likely lies with me.

 

I told you I wasn’t a very good person.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3V4X6NOYSAK4JD6puQKnnT?si=ukTNOMMnTg-J-6Yx-qvBGw

The 1981 Listening Post - The Exploited - Punk's Not Dead

 The Exploited - Punk's Not Dead

#181

By Bobby Bognar

The Exploited

Punk’s Not Dead

Genre: Punk

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Bobby’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Highlights: 

Fuck The System

Royalty

 

Punk and Reggae have something in common to my ears: The line between good and shit is very thin.

Lucky for me, The Exploited lean to the good.

My first exposure to The Exploited was in Richmond, VA, as the name seemed to be stitched on to every punk rocker’s leather jacket. Their embroidered patches seemed to always be next to a Dead Kennedys or Mistfits logo.

When I was dipping my toes into hardcore music, seeing Bad Brains, Four Walls Falling, and Buffalo Style in the nightclubs in my town, The Exploited were always hanging around in the ether.

I always thought they sounded American as hell, and if it wasn’t for a few spoken breaks on their albums, I would never have realized they were Scottish. They definitely seemed more Minor Threat than Sex Pistols.

What makes punk rock listenable to me?

1) Songs

2) Energy

The Exploited was definitely at the top range of songwriting for the punk movement. “Mucky Pup” has interesting breaks, and a simple catchy chorus. “Dole Q” opens with a naked drum beat, followed by a bass line that Mike Dirnt obviously spent hours playing in his bedroom.

As for energy, there’s no doubt that these guys were actually angry. “Sex & Violence” is lacking those songwriting skills that are showcased on other tunes, but it’s one song where energy carries the day.

“Fuck The System” is easily the best song on the album to my ears, all piss & vinegar, set to what could have easily become the bed music to every movie scene ever to take place in a punk rock club.

Here’s the truth: Green Day and Bob Marley are easily identifiable as the “top of the food chain” of their respective genres. When you get down to second tier (but still very good) acts like The Exploited and Steel Pulse, the truth is that if you don’t like the first taste, you’re not going to like the rest of the sandwich.

Giving The Exploited a spin will tell you within 60 seconds whether or not this is a meal you’ll be happy to eat over and over again. Luckily, I have a taste for “Punk’s Not Dead,” and as such, will be happy to sit down to a table and dig in again and again.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0gnF0LzBQWEemZUMSrWKey?si=j_IqoxCbSzOHyxfrguQkbg