Hollywood Vampires (2015)

So there are a lot of preconceived notions when it come to a record like this.

A covers album. Sounds like a weak idea but when I really think about it, I enjoy covers albums. I liked Anthems by Anthrax and Feedback by Rush was pretty fun as well, just to name two. I was disappointed when I initially heard about the project, because I felt the song choices were obvious. Who needs to hear Whole Lotta Love or Break On Through more than we already do?

Nevertheless, the cast of characters is so vast and dazzling that you can’t help but start to get curious….Christopher Lee, Bob Ezrin, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith, Brian Johnson! Robby Krieger! Zak Starkey! Slash, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp (he's actually a good guitar player), Joe Walsh, Paul McCartney not to mention Alice Cooper!....holy cow! (sigh...ok….it also has Dave Grohl on it, big deal).

The record arrives in the mail, I open it. It’s a handsome gatefold. But...I can’t help but wish that the sleeve itself were made more to look like the book of the Hollywood Vampires complete with embossed cover, rather than just being a photograph of a book. Would have been that much cooler. Images-wise, it’s also very sparse.

Let’s jump right into the music, shall we?

Side A

The Last Vampire

Well, the cavernous barritone of Christopher Lee is a very worthy successor to the brilliant Vincent Price from way back in 1975. Only I’ve heard the story he tells here a few times now and I still can never quite follow it. But I have trouble following lyrics in general. He sure sounds cool, though.

Raise The Dead

So this is the new Coop. An original song, it sure is robust and leaping out the speakers. Alice isn’t back, he never left. He manages to always sound contemporary and this is no different. It’s blazing rock but somehow feels very modern and energetic. The concept, of course is that by celebrating the songs of fallen Hollywood Vampires we are, in effect, raising the actual dead. A pretty neat concept that also fits right into the Alice Cooper ethos. It’s a pretty kickass song.

My Generation

The guest list is partly the fun of listening to each track. So here, let’s get our groove on listening to Zak Starkey, Ringo’s son. He is the embodiment of Keith Moon (stylistically) when he tours with the two-Who, and so it is fitting that he is on hand to be Moonie on record. Still, this cover is certainly fine in every detail, but my gut tells me it’s a little too spot on. It sounds like a studied replication, and so somewhat pointless.

Whole Lotta Love

This was the one song I’d heard prior to release and I was impressed. Because it goes new places. It’s edgy and experimental, it rocks and it’s fun to listen to guest Brian Johnson screeching outside of AC/DC. And that’s the Coop himself doing Page on the harmonica, in one of the interesting twists on the original.

What you can take away from Side A is that this supergroup, the Hollywood Vampires, the backbone of which is Alice on vocals, Johnny Depp & Tommy Henriksen on guitars, Bruce Witken on bass and a rotating cast of drummers is that this is a hard-charging, forward-thinking "band".

Side B

I Got A Line On You

Waitaminnit...Didn’t Alice cover this song already? Why do the same one again especially when Spirit have countless great songs. This one is not among my favorites on this. It is high energy and very (ahem) spirited. But it oozes out a little too polished for my tastes.

Five To One/Break On Through

Robby Krieger himself plays guitar here, so right away I’m intrigued. Five To One has a nice swampy stomp to it, although they stick pretty closely to the original recipe and then segue into Break On Through. And this was a mistake, if you ask me. The vocals in the chorus are weak and it ruins the whole piece for me. They don’t match the wild abandon and dark mysticism of the original. Vince himself never seems sure if he’s chanelling Alice or if he should stick with aping Morrison.

One/Jump Into The Fire

Alice’s version of One is the best thing I’ve heard from the Coop in a long time and the bitch is that they only tease you with it before segueing into the main piece Jump Into The Fire. Snaky, creepy and sexy, this is classic Coop straight out of the mid-70’s.

Even though I’m disappointed that they didn’t play the whole thing, this rendition of Jump Into The Fire is a lot of fun and has the same buoyant clamor of the original.

After the first platter, conspicuously absent from my thoughts and observations is Bob Ezrin. I can’t hear “him” per se. Maybe because we’re dealing with covers mainly, so his compositional stamp isn’t on the material as it usually was with Cooper’s material.

Side C

Come And Get It

I don’t really get why McCartney is on here other than they could get him? He wasn’t a vampire. There was a lot of death surrounding him and Badfinger. Ok, he gets a pass. Sill, seems off a little. The rendition itself is ok, sounds a little weightier and lumbering than the original. It’s not bad, but nothing special either.

Jeepster

Here’s a spot-on rendition that works! Alice channels Marc Bolan surprisingly well. Nice bright jangle to this one that recalls the jubilant yet romantic love affair Bolan had with Elvis and Chuck Berry’s brand of what essentially is hillbilly rock and roll.

Cold Turkey

This is the 2nd best track on the whole thing. Alice turning in a snarling peformance and paying homage to the original Lennon single, as elsewhere across the album, in a close facsimile. But it works here, indeed elevating the original by reminding us what a masterstroke of dark rock this was in the first place.

Manic Depression

Once again sticking to the original template, we nevertheless have another winner.

It’s interesting listening to Alice’s Hendrix impression, but it’s well sung and the tumbling instrumentation of the original bounces forth here in an equally raucous manner.

The album hits a peak on Side C with several great renditions and performances providing the standout tracks for this oeuvre.

Side D

Itchycoo Park

This plays with my mind. The parts are there but it sounds like some new, modern pop song. Do I think it’s great or cheesy? I’m worried that the cheese is a little too thick and studio polish has a little bit too much lustre.

School’s Out/Another Brick In The Wall part 2

I don’t deny this is a great song. But it’s overdone, and I don’t see the need for its inclusion here. Unfortunate because Neal and Dennis from the original gang are back here. But it’s a wasted effort. Pedestrian recreation with a less interesting production job and an out-of-place Brian Johnson guesting on vocals.

Melding this with Another Brick In The Wall part 2 is an interesting set piece during concerts, but doesn’t have any real reason to exist in a studio version.

My Dead Drunk Friends

I get it but I find it a bit long and cumbersome. Capped at a minute and a half with a fadeout, it would have been decent.

So what’s the verdict? Solid, fun effort that should have been cut down to a single piece o’ wax.

The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (1968)

Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.  Or is it Brightest Selection Ogden's Special Nut Gone Celebrated Flake Tobacco? Because that's what it says on the cover. Where did calling it Ogden's Nut Gone Flake come from? Who decided that?

Opening salvo "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" (oh, I guess that's where it comes from), sets the tone that this is an "album", so sit tight and listen up!

I am so familiar with Flo & Eddie's version of "Afterglow", the sumptuous following number that I'm not sure which is better, but it don't matter none anyhow! It's a beautiful song.

It seems an injustice that the greater world knows of The Faces, but I know sure as shit that most Canadians don't know diddly squat about the far superior Small Faces which preceded them. And small they were indeed! What an odd bunch of little hobbit men they were, but cuter.. almost Disneyesque, really.

Shall we just give singer, guitarist and defacto genius of the group, Steve Marriott, an award for inventing "the" vocal style for hard rock? Yes, let's do. Well, you go ahead and I'll applaud it from here, comfortably on the couch...

...as I do this album, a classic and hard to find in its original pressing with yon roundly shape and comely sleeve.

Marriott was famously furious with the record label for releasing piss-take Lazy Sunday Afternoon as a single; indeed, so much so that he left the group and formed Humble Pie, effectively ending the group (before they rose anew as The Faces propped up by Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood). But c'mon Sookie Stevie, it's a rousing number and everybody loves it!

By measures rocking, crooning, arvin' a larf and grooving, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is a deservedly celebrated work of heady pop art, its tenured status firmly assured in the cream of the 1968 crop (though personally, I could do with a bit less of the storybook gibberish between songs on side 2).

Deep Purple - Stormbringer (1974)

What could be more lusty than singer David
Coverdale's macho, breathy, crotch-thrusting, manly vocal delivery? How about bassist Glenn Hughes vying for attention right there alongside him as co-vocalist with his macho, panting, crotch-thrusting, manly vocal delivery?

Yes, it's an approach brimming with hormones. Macho hormones. If I were a woman, this kind of thing might make me feel a little violated.

This being a Deep Purple album and all, fans won't be disappointed by the usual rifferama excellence exemplified by the taut muscular boogie of the likes of Lady Double Dealer or High Ball Shooter, but the album's strength lies in it's looser, (trouser)snake-like deviations, like the bubbling funk of You Can't Do It Right, the sultry and soulful Love Don't Mean A Thing, or Holy Man. And it's this soul aspect laced with tinges of commercial appeal which make this album a treat, guitar supremo Ritchie Blackmore's last until the 80's reunion.

Just don't drop the soap whilst listening, David and Glenn sound a little pent up.

Buckingham Nicks - Nicks & Buckingham (1973)

If Buckingham and Nicks asked you, in 1973 while soaking in the hot tub and doing some blow, to participate in a lusty California threesome, what would you have said?

Buckingham Nicks. Nicks & Buckingham. Which is the band name, which is the album name?

You could quite easily argue that rather than Buckingham and Nicks joining Fleetwood Mac, it was actually Fleetwood Mac that joined Buckingham and Nicks. The powerhouse writing and performing team of B & N dominated every aspect of the mega successful Fleetwood Mac once they teamed up.

And so it's not surprising that this album also sounds very much like a Fleetwood Mac album. And as we all know, that means it sounds very much like a good album.




Yoko Ono - Approximately Infinite Universe (1973)

One day she will get her due.

Beatle freaks ought to listen to her early 70's albums to hear the most raw and inspired guitar playing that John Lennon has ever recorded.

But nevermind that because even into her 70's, she releases some of the most interesting, funky, groovy, and rockin' tunes even though she's been wailing into a void of apathy, indifference, hatred and disdain ever since 1968.

Yeah, sometimes it sounds like a puke omelette but not usually and for some reason it's those occasional missteps that people pick up on.

...that said, I guess it does help if you tune out her voice. Still, some seriously cool shit nevertheless.

Slayer - Undisputed Attitude (1996)

The audio equivalent of being repeatedly kicked in the face, and an overlooked gem in Slayer's catalogue of brutality.

Sparks - Propaganda (1974)

Not only the greatest album cover ever, but the music contained therein is as every bit as madcap, zany, ridiculous and adrenalized as the image suggests.

Grandiose and pompous, and bursting forth with a whirlwind of guitars, piano and harmonies, the songs by the brothers Mael are mini delirious symphonies beamed straight in from Planet X.

The band Queen were listening and took this same formula and sound to the top of the rock heap while Sparks remain a cult act.