18 Holes Spotlate On The Slick Party

[Yngve J. Chapleen]

     We've been at this for a while and I'm ashamed to admit, we've been late to each and every single one of these parties. That has to change. Now that we reached the age of majority we should be displaying maturity and discipline by aiming to make up for the time lost. Nah, screw that! Let's buy some booze and boogie! (Without adult supervision) But seriously, if we continue our progress one album at the time, we'll never get to the bottom of my collection. Starting immediately, sporadically you'll get more than one album to chew on. Appropriately, the new idiosyncrasy is called SpotLate On The... Party as a play on words to it's beloved auxiliary feature, Late To The... Party and Spotlight. Got it?

     Our first recipient of this highly prestigious award is none other than Earl Slick. You might know him as a guitarist who played alongside David Bowie or perhaps from the album East Of Eden's Gate, by Billy Thorpe, but there is much more to him than meets the ears of the casual listener and I'm gonna give it to you.

1. AMPAGE - Gimme Some Truth

from "Iron Horse" CD ℗ 1997

Although I don't have any John Lennon CD, with Earl Slick on it, he can be heard performing a John Lennon song here in a capacity of a guest. Perhaps it should be noted that Ampage performs two songs co-written by Tommy Shaw, on this album as well.

2. EARL SLICK BAND - Games 

from "Razor Sharp" CD ℗ 1976/1991

Second release by the band carrying his name.

Now we're talking.

3. DIRTY WHITE BOY - Lazy Crazy

from "Bad Reputation" CD ℗ 1990

David Glen Eisley (Giuffria, Sorcery) thought, him and Slick should take a stab at the popular genre of the time, with a twist. I'm not sure implementing Southern Rock elements was very original, but works well for me.

4. EARL SLICK ft. Edgar Winter - Slow Down Slicky 
from "In Your Face" CD ℗ 1991

This was the first Slick CD I bought. What caught my ears was the Instrumental nature of the album. However, it wasn't like most Guitar Instrumental releases at the time. There was no shredding. Only well written Rock instrumentals and couple of cover songs, sung by Ron Young (Little Caesar) and a guest appearance from the sax legend Edgar Winter. Enjoy.

5. LITTLE CAESAR - Slow Ride
from "Influence" CD ℗ 1992

You knew something was up in the air when Ron Young sung two songs on Earl Slick's solo CD and the collaboration continued on Little Caesar's second album with Earl as a full member. It was match made in heaven. I don't think Earl or Ron (for that matter) sounded better, before or after this CD. Too bad the pooling only lasted for one album.

Coming Next Week: A Stroke Of Genius

Finally getting around to listen to, (for the first time) some music I've been putting aside (for years). Including, things from the past I recently discovered, projects I previously had, but replaced with a newly remastered version, or those simple cases, were my last years order didn't arrive on time.

[Jon]

I had the Phantom, Rocker & Slick album when it came out, had the killer "Men Without Shame" on it. It was OOP for awhile, but it's became available on CD a few years ago.

These are all pretty good, especially like the 2nd & 3rd songs. One these days I'll maybe post that PR&S album, even though MWS has been featured before off of a comp album. There's a single version of MWS but ya need the full version to get all the geetar goodness.

[Yngve J. Chapleen]

You should post that album. I would like to hear him play with the Stray Cats rhythm section. Long time ago my co-worker pointed out Phantom, Rocker & Slick to me as we were talking about Earl Slick. I went to pick up the CD, but all I could find was the "Guitar Gods" compilation album, where the guitars were chopped. (Why would someone compile a guitar centric album, then cut out the guitars? Dumb.)

So for me to post, was either that version or his guest appearance on Ampage.