From Zoot to Chrome - The Rick Springfield Retrospective - The Red Locusts

2021

Lollipop Records

If The Beatles were fronted by Rick, it would sound like this. Because that's what this is. "Locusts"? "Beetles"? 

Remember that Zoot did a fantastically bizarre version of "Eleanor Rigby" in the late 60s? This is just keeping that fire burning.

Thing is...while it's deeply John and Paul flavored, it's 100% Rick. 

Where Utopia's Deface the Music was seemingly designed to say, "See? It's easy to do what they did!" The Red Locusts seems to be saying, "Man, we loved what they did. We hope we came even slightly close."

Paul Ramon was the name Paul McCartney would use as a pseudonym in his very early days with the silver beetles.

So, it makes sense that, when he would write an album in the style of The Beatles and early Power Pop, Rick Springfield would use that name as nod to the great Paul McCartney.

He teamed up with the Bissonette brothers and the three of them, along with a keyboardist and an additional guitarist to create The Red Locusts. Rick said, “We wanted to do an album that was influenced but would send us to Beatle jail”

Give a listen for a sec.

The song Miss Daisy Hawkins is based on the original name for Eleanor Rigby and could definitely get them in that jail.

As an inveterate lover of all things Rick Springfield, when I learned that this was available on vinyl, it became a grail.

It's a perfect Power Pop homage to the greats.

4.25 out of 5

ASide: Another Bad Day for Cupid, Miss Daisy Hawkins, Honestly

BlidSide: Sons and Daughters, Glow Worm

DownSide:

 

From Zoot to Chrome - The Rick Springfield Retrospective - The Snake King

 

The Snake King

Soulfood Music

Frontiers Music

2018

Rick Springfield, Blues Man?!

Yes. 

For all the Noah Drakey/Jessie's Girlian/Mission Magic telegenic actory stuff, Rick is, above all things, a musician. He's also good friends with Tim Pierce who is all over this thing, showing why he's one of the best guitarists of the modern era. 

But it's not just Tim. It's Jorge Palacios. And so many others. AND Rick, who solos here with the best of them. Check him out on the title track.

This was one of my favorite discoveries of the past few years because it's hard to break through the Taylor Swift and Pop noise when you are a 68 year old who is only known for those TV shots and pop tunes of the 80s.

4.25 out of 5

ASide:In the Land of the Blind, The Devil That You Know, Jesus Was An Atheist, Santa Is An Anagram

BlindSide: The Snake King, The Voodoo House, Orpheus in the Underworld

DownSide:

From Zoot to Chrome - The Rick Springfield Retrospective - Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz by The Morris Springfield Project

Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz

2021

Ambition Records

Until about 2 weeks before this writing I had no idea that this project existed. 

Russell and Rick have known each other for decades. Morris sent Rick a song. Rick sent one back. Next thing you know, they are collaborating on a bluesy, folksy, dark meditation on the Dias de Los Muertos. 

It's moody and emotive. It would work in a David Lynch movie and I think I could hear Tom Waits covering this whole album. 

4 out of 5

ASide: I Am Jack Chrome, Carmelita's Dance

BlindSide: Death Drives a Cadillac, We Are the Dead, La Calavera Catrina, The Darkness Waltz

 

The Sweet Spot - The Sweet – Desolation Boulevard (Live & Demos - 50th Anniversary)

 

The Sweet – Desolation Boulevard (Live & Demos - 50th Anniversary) - 2025

It's not an RSD without some kind of Sweet release and this one might be the worst. 

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their greatest achievement Andy has pulled out some live recordings where Brian sounds as bad as he did on that reformed version of the band he put together. 

Surely there could have been an opportunity to really do up the 50th anniversary of this seminal Glam rock record but maybe no one wanted anything to do with Andy or maybe it was the rights, I don't know. 

Instead what we got was the last released by this band, and it might be the final release ever. It's half live tracks and half Andy demos and I own it and it's really not great. 

1.5 out of 5

The Sweet Spot - Sweet - Give Us A Wink (Alternative Mixes And Demos)

 

Sweet - Give Us A Wink (Alternative Mixes And Demos) - 2022

Andy Scott's archives are deep. The man kept everything. 

This was the first time Andy was in the producer's chair, along with the rest of the band, with Mack engineering. Andy explains at the top in an interview that Mack added all the intro stuff to "Action" without permission and that he wanted to be the producer but Andy wasn't going to give up his chance. 

Had he not remixed it, it would've been a much heavier record and I think that is reflected here. 

I think this is the record the band is most proud of. It's Sweet. The theatrics are gone. The Bubblegum is in the past. They are free from all the glitter and show. "Cockroach" and "White Mice" are as heavy as anything the band has done, heavier, in fact. 

I think this is better than the original in many ways. The addition of "Fox on the Run" is the selling point, I guess, but this is a beefier record than the 1976 record and I think that's what it should've been from the start.

Side Two is all the unfinished demos of "Yesterday's Rain" and "4th of July" and "Cockroach" and others which sound like Andy laid everything down and then presented it to the rest of the band. I don't know, there's no liner notes. There are unfinished songs here like, "Cold Light", "Give Me Your Love" and "Go Back Home" and "Second Try". They don't make you pine for finished versions but they help complete the Sweet story.

4.25 out of 5

The Sweet Spot - Sweet - Platinum Rare

 

Sweet - Platinum Rare - 2021

This was originally put out on CD in the mid 90s, while Andy Scott was recording as "Andy Scott's Sweet". 

I hate thinking of musicians I like as cash grabbers but then again...if you can make some money from stuff you did in your past, why not go for it? At this point, Andy is in his 70s and still playing out with some incarnation of the band and he seems to have everything the band ever recorded. Sadly, this was a lost opportunity to give a history or backstory about each track. Since he doesn't and wants to let the music just speak for itself you have to be very very familiar with the songs to notice any differences. 

That said, there's enough curios for fans like myself to indulge in.

Like "Log One (That Girl)" which I think was previously unreleased and the demo for "Cover Girl" which was the B-Side to Love is Like Oxygen. And "Where Do We Go From Here" and "Maggie". I just wish we had more info on songs like those and what happened to them, what album were they recorded for?

For a long time this was really hard to find, it was an RSD release that would go for about $100 on Discogs. It was just rereleased and you can get it on Experience Vinyl and other places. 

4.25 out of 5

The Sweet Spot - Sweet - Give Us a Wink

Sweet - Give Us a Wink - 1976

Sweet was always seen by many as ventriloquist band. Puppets of Phil Wainman and the writing team of Chinn and Chapman. 

But they would always insist that the B-Sides of their singles should be written by them and, for the most part, that's what happened. 

And then, after Desolation Boulevard, they took their success and peeled away and wrote and produced this album all on their own. 

It does get a bit indulgent. "Healer" dives deep into that quasi funk, prog sound...for 7 minutes.

"Cockroach" sounds like they have been listening to a LOT of Priest and Sabbath and want to go in that direction. Sure. Why not. They aren't as good as those guys but they try. 

Here's your trivia:

The first side of this record was engineered by Mack. Mack, who, four years later, would produced the megahit album The Game for Freddie, Brian, Roger and John. 

Honestly, I think this is the best work Mack did. 

This is heavy rock made for the radio of the 70s. 

Sadly, this record is all over the place and can't really find a place to land. Sweet demanded that they be taken seriously and they wound up sounding very confused.

Or maybe this is who they really always were.

3.5 out of 5

A Side: Action, The Lies In Your Eyes

BlindSide: Yesterday's Rain, Keep It In

 

The Sweet Spot - Sweet - Isolation Boulevard

 

Sweet - Isolation Boulevard - 2021

"Still Got the Rock" is a deep cut. Dabbling in funk-tinged metal, it was the final track on a 2015 compilation CD collection and it's a Scott/Pete Lincoln song. So, it's very not Sweet. That one is 40 tracks and it's one too many. 

Why do this? Why re-record songs that you have already re-recorded in some fashion and do it in isolation during a pandemic and then release it to fans? Oh...right. Pete Lincoln is out as vocalist and Paul Manzi is in. 

This is a Sweet cover band, sanctioned only that the lead guitarist was in the original band and has the rights to the name. I like the songs. But this is only for completists. 

How did Blockbuster not use that song for a commercial?? I have to got a lot of props for the New York Groove in to Empire State of Mind mashup. 

Oh, and my version of Hell Raiser is light years better than this one.

4 out of 5

The Sweet Spot - Sweet– Sweet Fanny Adams Revisited (Recorded Live In 2012)

 

(Andy Scott's) Sweet – Sweet Fanny Adams Revisited (Recorded Live In 2012) - released on vinyl 2025

Recorded in 2012 this collection is Andy and Bruce Bisland and the band put together for the NYC Connection covers record performing Sweet's breakthrough record Sweet Fanny Adams. Live.

The track order is not the same as the album and I don't know why they did that since it's obviously not one solid concert but live tracks placed in an order...I don't know. 

I really don't get these guys sometimes.

3.5 out of 5

The Sweet Spot - Sweet Teenage Rampage

 

Sweet - Teenage Rampage - 1991

Some live recordings from 1972-1975 on Side One. Side Two is all The Rainbow in 1973. 

With how clean these sound for the era, I would wonder if there are some Kiss Alive overdubbing happening. Except that this is a bootleg. And I don't know if these tracks were ever officially released. 

A curio is the song Be With You Soon, which is only available as far as I know on the original Funny How Sweet Co Co Can Be CD. It's not on the original vinyl. And I can't find another version of it.

Many, they recorded a lot. A LOT.

4.5 out of 5