SCOTT'S HIDDEN TREASURES - #14

Ever just sat in front of your collection and pored over each album looking for something you might have missed earlier? At one time I had over 600 LP's and many times I would sit and organize, read, reread, and listen for things that spark something that I'd never noticed before. What was I looking for? Not sure, but sometimes I would find a liner note, or image in the sleeve, or lyric, or a tune that didn't strike me until that time I listened to it. This is what I want to do today, dig a little deeper...

Lets see if you find something on here that you've never heard before...

TITLE: That's The Way It Is
BAND: Uriah Heep
ALBUM: Abominog
YEAR: 1982

So Jon's playful dancing around the MSoTW made me go back and pull up some this bands stuff. Abominog was a new era for Heep. New singer, new keyboard player and a new record full of radio friendly music. What I didn't know about this release was that is was half covers. And I've still never figured out what an "Abominog" is.

TITLE: Key to the Rhyme
BAND: Lake
ALBUM: Lake
YEAR: 1977

Lakes career started with this album, and garnered a fair amount of air play for tracks like On The Run, and Time Bomb. I'm still not sure how they didn't take off, I think they had some good success in Germany however. Layered in perfect production, this track is so smooth and melodic its habit forming.

TITLE: Sister Moonshine
BAND: Supertramp
ALBUM: Crisis? What Crisis?
YEAR: 1975

Post 'Bloody Well Right' and Pre 'Give A Little Bit', you could really hear the bands direction and they were really working together well. This album is full of great tracks that have no concern for a top 40 hit. This is my favorite Supertramp CD.

TITLE: Down That Highway
BAND: Shaw Blades
ALBUM: Shaw Blades
YEAR: 1995

What I didn't know when I bought this but figured out later is that all the Damn Yankees except for Ted Nugent played on this, so this could have easily been the third Damn Yankees release. Instead, Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades broke out their acoustic guitars and wrote some really fantastic music. This is a catchy tune with bit of a folksy and blue grass feel to it.

TITLE: Can't Keep A Good Man Down
BAND: Eddie Money
ALBUM: Life For The Taking
YEAR: 1978

From his second album. This guy can write some good stuff!!! This is great track, Ive seen him play it live and it goes over real good.

TITLE: When The World Was Young
BAND: Kansas
ALBUM: Somewhere To Elsewhere
YEAR: 2000

The original band reunites after 20 years. All songs written by the band. Has a great progressive feel that recalls their early work (pre-Leftoverture).

TITLE: Pain Lies On The Riverside
BAND: Live
ALBUM: Mental Jewelery
YEAR: 1991

The U2 posting made think back to my college days when their album 'Boy' was going over big. So what does that have to with Live? They broke the same way and this CD was all over the college airwaves. For me it was just a very cool track.

TITLE: Badman's Song
BAND: Tears For Fears
ALBUM: The Seeds of Love
YEAR: 1989

Call it a guilty pleasure if you will. But these two guys have some really well written and played tunes. If you subtract the radio hits your still left with a strong catalog of work. This is one of those songs that's sandwiched in between two radio hits so it got skipped over bit, but these types of tracks have a habit of being played all the way through when your not there to tend the needle, this one grew on me, and still enjoys rotation on my various players.

TITLE: Raised On The Radio
BAND: Ravyn's
ALBUM: Fast Times At Ridgemont High (Soundtrack)
YEAR: 1982

Don't have very many soundtracks, but this is one that was specifically about my time in High School. As it turns out it was a huge hit. I love this track and never heard of the Ravyn's before or since.

TITLE: Rock 'N' Roll Party in the Streets
BAND: Axe
ALBUM: Offering
YEAR: 1981

Since I'm flashing back to High School, I'm gonna end on of my favorite High School tracks ever.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott on September 27, 2010 at 1:58pm

Go To FileFactory.com

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Permalink Reply by Jon on September 27, 2010 at 5:00pm

Axe...did they play it every Friday around 5pm for awhile? Just to get the party started I guess?

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Permalink Reply by Scott on September 27, 2010 at 5:21pm

Guess it depended on where you lived, for me and my friends we played it all the time and took it literally even more often...

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on September 28, 2010 at 5:31am

Half covers? Abominog?? I never thought of it like that?? It's been one of my favorite records since 1982!!

I know that Russ Ballard wrote "On the Rebound" (imo the weakest song on the album), but did he first record his own version, or did another band?

"Hot night in a cold town", "Thats the way that it is" and "Prisonor" are written by others, but do you know if the songs were recorded before Heep did?

"Think it over" was co-written by Trevor Bolder, who was a member of UH at the time. Is that a cover too??

I've allways liked, that you can hear, that it's the same GREAT rythm-section (Bass and Drums), that played on Ozzy's first two solo-albums. Especially Lee Kerslake was GREAT, and Bob Daisly was a great songwriter, also for Ozzy.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on September 28, 2010 at 9:37am

From Wikipedia...

* "On the Rebound" originally recorded by Russ Ballard, from his "Russ Ballard & the Barnet Dogs" album (1980).

* "Hot Night in a Cold Town" originally recorded by John Cougar, from his "Nothing Matters And What If It Did" album (1979), and John Kay & Steppenwolf from their "Wolftracks" album (1982). The song was written by songwriters Geoffrey Cushing-Murray/Richard Littlefield.

* "Running All Night" (with the Lion)"originally recorded by Lion, from their "Running All Night" album (1980). Lion keyboard player John Sinclair brought this song with him when he joined Uriah Heep.

* "That's the Way That It Is" originally recorded by Paul Bliss and The Bliss Band, from the "Neon Smiles" album (1979).

* "Prisoner" originally recorded by Sue Saad and the Next, from their self titled album (1980). Lyrics by D.B. (Dirty Boy) Cooper.

* "Think It Over" originally recorded by the previous lineup of Uriah Heep featuring John Sloman on lead vocal, the a-side from their single "Think It Over/My Joanna Needs Tuning (Inside Out)" (1980).

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on September 28, 2010 at 9:53am

Thanks for the info. I'm very surprised. I did NOT know, that it really was a "half-coveralbum".
You'll learn something new everyday, I guess. But it's STIL a GREAT album.

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on September 29, 2010 at 9:54pm

This is a good listen Scott. Three songs really stand out. First, Eddie Money's tune "Can't Keep A Good Man Down" is superb. I've only heard his hits and this tells me I should do some digging.

Second, that Live tune is fantastic. I have Throwing Copper but that's it. Is the rest of that CD that good?

And the Tears For Fears song really surprised me. I need to listen to that again.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on September 30, 2010 at 8:55am

Wow, I'm impressed that the Tears for Fears song struck you! I love that tune. I guess, to borrow Jon's love of ABC, Tears for Fears are my ABC. :-)

The Eddie Money track is off of his second release. Its a really strong album, but there are some tracks that are more radio friendly than others. If you don't mind those mixed in its a good buy. But, honestly, his first 4 releases are very strong. My absolute favorite album of his is "No Control'", by a long shot...

I also love the Live release, its pre-Throwing Copper and is a real nice segue to Throwing Copper, especially with tracks like "Brothers Unaware", which really could have fit on Throwing Copper very easily...