Show 193 – UK Versus US

Show Notes

• The true story behind two famous 80s power ballads. Who is Cinderella’s “Nobody’s Fool” about? When Tom Keifer wrote “I scream my heart out, just to make a dime, and with that dime I bought your love but now I’ve changed my mind” who was he singing to? In Warrant’s “I Saw Red, ” who did Jani Lane walk in on? Find out on the show!
• How much does the music industry make each year? How much of that revenue actually goes to musicians and songwriters? The shocking figures on this Hard, Heavy & Hair Show.
• Big hits by Warrant, Godsmack, Judas Priest, Cinderella, Tesla, Hinder, and more!
• Rare hair from Tigertailz, Hericane Alice, Southgang, Great White, Queensryche, and more!
• The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra helps take the Scorpions biggest hit to new heights of symphonic perfection!
• A Judas Priest song with a connection to an elementary school shooting and a real British Knight.
• Two albums censored by their record companies.
• Music by The Fever 333, Bring Me the Horizon, LIVE, Modern Mimes, Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy, and Bones (UK) and perhaps the last new music you’ll ever hear from Kobra and the Lotus! The full story on the show.
• A Glam song by the writer of hits for P!nk, Avril Lavigne, Bowling for Soup, and Lindsay Lohan.
• Music from a modern industrial metal duo Nylon Magazine calls “Trent Reznor-level cool.”
• Read the Jani Lane 2011 interview Pariah mentioned during the show.
• Indie & Unsigned: Whiskey River Gun Club. Get their debut album, 100 Proof on iTunes/Apple Music and Amazon.
  
  Visit Whiskey River Gun Club on Facebook.
• The Kobra Paige tweet discussed on the show.
  
  

  After 11 years, I’m starting to really believe this industry isn’t the one for me. I’m not quite done making music yet but we’ll see.

  — Kobra Paige ♆ (@KobrasLotus) August 18, 2018

• Censored Great White Hooked album cover art side-by-side with the original artwork including John Scarpati’s photograph.
  
  

Playlist

Own the hits and deep cuts you hear on Hard, Heavy & Hair! Click the iTunes/Apple Music or Amazon Digital Music icons to the left of each song.

AC/DC – For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

Queensrÿche – Last Time In Paris

Junkyard – All the Time in the World

Turbowolf – Domino

GodSmack – Take It to the Edge

Stephen Pearcy – I’m A Ratt)

Hericane Alice – Tear the House Down

Judas Priest – Hell Bent for Leather

THE FEVER 333 – Made an America

Hinder – Waking Up the Devil

Scorpions & Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Hurricane 2000

LIVE – Love Lounge

Warrant – I Saw Red

Great White – The Original Queen of Sheba

Tesla – Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)

Kobra and the Lotus – Velvet Roses

Cinderella – Nobody’s Fool

Bring Me the Horizon – Mantra

Modern Mimes – Stare

Tigertailz – Noise Level Critical

Southgang – Boys Nite Out

Beds by Audionautix.

Transcript of the Show

[intro]

Stand up and be counted
For what you are about to receive
For YOU are about to rock, and I salute you

—————————————-
AC/DC – For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
—————————————-

I love the imagery in that song.

We’re just a battery for hire with a guitar fire
Ready and aimed at you
Pick up your balls and load up your cannon
For a twenty-one gun salute

If you haven’t guessed, THIS is the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show with Pariah Burke. I’m your host and producer, the hard rocking, heavy drinking, hairball of a horny hedonist, Pariah Burke.

Hard, Heavy & Hair is your weekly 2 hour dose of the hard rock, heavy metal, and hair bands from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 20-teens. On Hard, Heavy & Hair you’ll hear fresh modern rock and hair so new, your parents haven’t figured out yet that they hate it!

Let’s get back to the music with a block including GodSmack, Junkyard, and Turbowolf coming up after rare late-80s Queensryche. By request for Denee on Facebook, hidden away on the soundtrack to the 1990 rock and roll comedy adventure film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane

[Ford Fairlane SFX]

and as a bonus track on the remastered reissue of Empire, this is “Last Time in Paris.” It’s one of my favorite old Queensryche songs, too, and a song I can’t help but play in my head every time I visit Paris.

Sur demande, c’est “Last Time in Paris” sur le salon Hard, Heavy & Hair. Je m’appelle Pariah Burke.

—————————————-
Queensrÿche – Last Time In Paris
Junkyard – All the Time in the World
—————————————-

Junkyard, “All The Time in the World,” from ’91’s Sixes, Sevens, and Nines LP. Junkyard’s back, by the way, if you didn’t know. My friend David Roach and the guys have been touring the past few years and releasing new music including last year’s High Water LP which peaked at an impressive number 24 on the Billboard Hard Rock Album chart.

Coming up is….

Brand new music by THE FEVER 333, Bring Me the Horizon, LIVE, Modern Mimes, Stephen Pearcy, and Bones.

A brand new song from Kobra and the Lotus–perhaps the LAST new music you’ll ever hear from Kobra and the Lotus! The full story on that coming up.

Big hits by Warrant, Godsmack, Judas Priest, Cinderella, Tesla, Hinder, and more!

Rare hair from Tigertailz, Maverick, Hurricane Alice, Southgang, Great White, Queensryche, and more!

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra helps take the Scorpions biggest hit to new heights of symphonic perfection!

The true story behind TWO famous 80s power ballads. Who is Cinderella’s “Nobody’s Fool” about? When Tom Keifer wrote “I scream my heart out, just to make a dime, and with that dime I bought your love but now I’ve changed my mind.” who was he singing to? In Warrant’s “I Saw Red, ” who did Jani Lane walk in on? The answer to both questions is the same! Find out in just a few minutes.

A Judas Priest song with a connection to an elementary school shooting and a real British Knight.

Two albums censored by their record companies. [Great White and Judas Priest]

A Glam song by the writer of hits for Pink, Avril Lavigne, Bowling for Soup, and Lindsay Lohan. [Southgang]

Music from a modern industrial metal duo Nylon Magazine calls “Trent Reznor-level cool.”

—————————————-
Turbowolf – Domino
GodSmack – Take It to the Edge
—————————————-

“Take It to the Edge” from Godsmack’s 2018 When Legends Rise album following more new music, Turbowolf and “Domino.” Turbowolf is an interesting 4-piece with a wide range of influences and musical elements ranging from hard rock and metal, through punk and psychedelia, and even electronica. In March they released their third studio album, The Free Life, from which Domino was the first single.

And, of course, the Cover Song of the Week, a mystery for you to solve. Throughout the show I’ll be dropping hints and clues about the song getting a Hard, Heavy or Hairy cover version, about the artist doing the cover, and about the artist who originally recorded and released the song. From those clues, YOU try to devine the song and artists and beat me to the reveal on the Cover Song of the Week segment.

Ready for your first clue? Here it is.

The original song is by one of the biggest names in music we lost in 2016, the year that, when it was happening, I was calling the Year the Music Died. This artist is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was constantly reinventing himself musically and on stage, inspiring many of the other greats in music. With approximately 140 million album sales, he’s also one of the world’s best-selling musical artists. Despite all that, he also provided the voice for a character in the 2007 SpongeBob Squarepants movie.

[clip SpongeBob movie]

Now it’s time for the first of the brand new songs debuting this week. Here’s a name every hair band fan knows, brand new song from the original Ratt himself. This is the world premiere of Stephen Pearcy solo single, “I’m a Ratt” right here on the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show with me, Pariah Burke.

—————————————-
Stephen Pearcy – I’m A Ratt
Hericane Alice – Tear the House Down
Judas Priest – Hell Bent for Leather
—————————————-

We started that block with brand new Stephen Pearcy, frontman for Ratt, confirming his position via his new solo song, “I’m a Ratt.”

After that was “Paint by Numbers” by Maverick and Hericane Alice

The block ended with “Hell Bent for Leather,” a song that connects Judas Priest to a real Knight of the British empire and an American school shooting. The Knight is Sir Bob Geldof, the man behind 1985’s Live Aid. The shooting is the January 1979 Grover Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. How does all that connect?

Let’s work backward. The Cleveland Elementary School shooting was committed by a 16 year-old girl who lived across the street from the school. The girl, Brenda Ann Spencer, killed the school’s principal and custodian while injuring eight children and a police officer. Before her arrest, a reporter asked Spencer why she shot up the school. Her answer? “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”

Irish rocker Bob Geldof, who would later be knighted by Queen Elizabeth, wrote the song “I Don’t Like Mondays” about the incident. You can hear that song playing in the background. Rather than the original Boomtown Rats version, I’m playing a version Bob Geldof sang in concert with Bon Jovi.

The Cleveland School Shooting connects back to Judas Priest’s “Hell Bent for Leather” because not only was that the title of the song, it’s also the title of the 1979 album containing the song–at least, it is the U.S. The album was first released in the United Kingdom under the title Killing Machine, which is also the title of another song on the record. When it was to be released in the U.S. a few weeks after the school shooting, Columbia Records rebranded the album as Hell Bent for Leather to avoid any connection with that event or the controversy that surrounded it.

Let’s do more new music. We’ll start AND end this block of four tracks with brand new songs. In the middle, something special. Are you ready to make an America? Here’s brand new Fever 333 on Hard, Heavy & Hair. I’m Pariah Burke.

—————————————-
THE FEVER 333 – Made an America
Hinder – Waking Up the Devil
Scorpions & Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Hurricane 2000
LIVE – Love Lounge
—————————————-

“Love Lounge,” the brand new song from Live’s original lineup reunited. “Love Lounge” is from the bands upcoming EP, which as yet doesn’t have a title.

Before that was the Scorpions joining with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to take the Scorpion’s hit “Hurricane” to new heights of musicality.

Ahead of that was Hinder “Waking Up the Devil,” an anthem for any true rocker or metal head. Drinking, frakkin’, and fightin’. Hell yeah! Waking up the Devil!

Ready for another Cover Song of the Week clue? Remember: they get easier as we go along.

The artist who just this week released the song that I chose for this show’s Cover Song of the Week is a new artist, one you probably haven’t heard of before. That makes giving you hints about them rather difficult. They are, however, a band Nylon Magazine calls “Trent Reznor-level cool.” The band is a British duo whose music has been featured in commercials for Apple and Victoria’s Secret and on episodes of Orange is the New Black and the Vampire Diaries.

When Jani Lane opened up the door, when he saw red, when his heart just spilled on to the floor, who WAS it? Whose face did he see? Who was she with? The answer coming up after three-pack of hair.

—————————————-
Warrant – I Saw Red
Great White – The Original Queen of Sheba
Tesla – Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)
—————————————-

Tesla with “Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)” following Great White with “The Original Queen of Sheba” off the ’91 Hooked album. The artwork for Hooked was censored by Capitol Records. If you have the album, you’ll remember that it’s cover art shows a giant hook descending from the sky and into the ocean. Hanging onto the hook, her head and shoulders above the water line, is a blonde beauty. That’s not exactly how the band wanted the cover art.

Fashion photographer John Scarpati shot the cover photo, which featured the blonde fully nude, sitting on a giant hook already hoisted out of the water. Capitol Records thought the image was too risqué, so they had it reworked to put the women below the water line.

If you’d like to see that original, uncensored album cover art, you can find it in all original glory in the show notes on PariahRocks.com. This is show number 167.

Before Great White was Warrant’s massive hit power ballad, “I Saw Red,” which achieved equal popularity with “Cherry Pie”. Since the song first came out, rumors have abounded that the woman Jani Lane wrote the song about was ex-girlfriend Bekka Bramlett or the even more high profile Bobbi Brown, the blond from the Cherry Pie video with whom Lane had a daughter. The story goes that Jani wrote the song after walking in one of those two women in bed with his best friend. The event allegedly caused Jani a nervous breakdown which delayed Warrant finishing their debut record.

So, was the girl Bekka Bramlett or Bobbi Brown? Or was the story all made up, just good song writing, as some websites maintain?

The story is true–in broad strokes–but it happened before Lane met either of the double-B double-Ds.

In a 2011 interview with Skabpickers just months before his tragic and untimely death, Jani Lane confirmed the veracity of the song, though he refused to name the woman. “It was a girl that I knew when I lived in Northridge. But “I Saw Red” is a true story, and I still hate the bitch. I’m sure she’s doing wonderful now. She probably made a very smart move getting rid of me when she did. So, God bless her.”

Now you know the truth behind “I Saw Red.” You read that entire interview with Jani Lane in the show notes for this episode of Hard, Heavy & Hair.

Speaking of truths, this one is a little more timely and a little more worrisome for fans of melodic metal.

I first played this next song back on Hard, Heavy & Hair show number 151 in May. Then, I played it as a deep cut from the then brand new Prevail II album. Having heard the entire album, I knew “Velvet Roses” was a song worthy of being a single. Now, more than three months later, my instincts are vindicated as Kobra and the Lotus just released “Velvet Roses” as a single.

But it’s at risk being the LAST new music you hear from Kobra and the Lotus. Prevail II could be the final album for the female-fronted Canadian metal band.

Kobra Paige, the eponymous frontwoman of the band, indicated in a tweet that she might be getting out of the music business, and the band she started and named going with her. In her tweet she said “After 11 years, I’m starting to really believe this industry isn’t the one for me. I’m not quite done making music yet but we’ll see.”

The music industry has always been a meat grinder, pulling in talent and then chewing them up and spitting them out. The stories of artists getting screwed over by labels and distributors are as numerous as platinum wall plaques and as old as the first artist to commit music to wax.

And the challenges for artists, the ways in which they’re being cheated and abused, are ever changing. Artists used to make decent money on album sales, but these days, only a tiny minority of listeners actually buys albums. With individual songs available for purchase, non-single album tracks–what we call deep cuts or deep tracks–are only heard by the most dedicated of fans. That’s one reason the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show exists, to surface those great songs you simply can’t hear playing in regular rotation on FM or even Satellite radio because they weren’t released as singles.

So a lot of people buy individual songs–just the singles–from iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play, and the artists only see a small royalty from those sales. Even more people these days don’t EVER actually BUY any music. Instead, they spend their music money on streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. To keep costs to subscribers down, streaming services negotiate with the same ruthlessness of the record industry labels in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and it’s the artists, like Kobra and the Lotus, who get screwed, again, earning often less than a fraction of a penny per play of their songs.

The music industry’s total revenue in the U.S. is $43 billion dollars a year, according to a new report by Rolling Stone. That includes music sales, streaming royalties, AND concerts and merchandise. Concerts and merch have become the way artists make their money because album and music sales don’t net them much. But do you know how much musicians get of that 43 billion? A mere 12 percent, a little more than $5 billion dollars of the $43 million actually goes to the people who write and play the music live or on a recording. 5 billion U.S. dollars might seem like a lot, but remember that number is divied up among ALL the artists whose music is playing, hard rock, metal, pop, rap, country, classical–every artist. 12 percent to the artists, 88 percent to the labels, distributors, and everyone else.

And that’s just a start of the frustrations and challenges for professional musicians. Those frustrations are obviously getting to Kobra Paige. Could this be the end for Kobra and the Lotus?

I hope not, but whatever Paige and the band decide to do, I wish them the very best.

Here’s their latest and possibly last single, “Velvet Roses.” If you like it, visit PariahRocks.com. In the show notes you’ll find links to buy the song–or even better, the entire Prevail II album–and do your part to help keep the band in making music. I already bought their album, even though the record label sends me their singles. Also in the show notes on PariahRocks.com you’ll find that tweet from Kobra Paige if you want to reply to it and offer your encouragement to her the rest of the band.

They’re also on tour at the moment co-headlining with Butcher Babies. This might be your last chance to catch them live.

I’m Pariah Burke. This is “Velvet Roses” from Kobra and the Lotus.

—————————————-
Kobra and the Lotus – Velvet Roses
—————————————-

It’s time now to check out a band you’ve almost certainly never heard of. This is Indie & Unsigned, the segment of the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show wherein I get to showcase an up and coming artist, hopefully the next great Hard, Heavy or hairy hit maker.

This week’s Indie & Unsigned is Whiskey River Gun Club, a Southern-Rock influenced hard rock outfit from British Columbia. Their debut album is called 100 Proof. Here’s my favorite song off the album, “Sweet Life.”

—————————————-
Whiskey River Gun Club – Sweet Life
—————————————-

That was Whiskey River Gun Club, an indie 5-piece band from the wilds of British Columbia, Canada. If you want to hear more, check out the show notes for this, Hard, Heavy & Hair show number 167 on PariahRocks.com. I’ll have a link to their debut album, 100 Proof. 100 Proof is self-published by the band, so please BUY a copy and support independent and unsigned rock and roll in an industry so hard for musicians that even established acts like Kobra and the Lotus are considering quitting. Hit the show notes on PariahRocks.com and get a copy of Whiskey River Gun Club’s debut album, 100 Proof.

While you’re at PariahRocks.com, why not submit YOUR music for possible air play on the 5 continents that carry the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show with me, Pariah Burke? You could hear YOUR music playing all over planet earth, including in the largest markets in the world–New York, Los Angeles, and London. Visit PariahRocks.com slash Indie for submission instructions so simple you could even follow them after the after party.

Still coming up is three more brand new songs, Cinderella, Tigertailz, and Southgang, as well as the Cover Song of the Week. Here’s another hint about that.

So far, I’ve given you two hard clues. This next one will be much easier–assuming you listened to good music in the late 90s. Remember: No Googling! The song that is the Cover Song of the Week is an industrial rock tune from someone no one ever expected to release an industrial tune. It features the lines:

Johnny wants a brain
Johnny wants to suck on a Coke
Johnny wants a woman
Johnny wants to think of a joke

It’s time for another threeway, starting with another 80s power ballad mystery. I’ll tell you more about that in a couple of minutes. Here’s Cinderella, “Nobody’s Fool” followed by two brand new song premieres from Modern Mimes and Bring Me the Horizon.

You’re listening to the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show. I’m Pariah Burke.

—————————————-
Cinderella – Nobody’s Fool
Bring Me the Horizon – Mantra
Modern Mimes – Stare
—————————————-

Fort Lauderdale duo Modern Mimes with brand new song “Stare.” Modern Mimes, which is Adi Elcida Hernandez on vocals, guitars, and sampling and Ernesto Paez on double neck guitar bass, describes its music as “Future Goth,” a term they coined in order to explain the fusion of alternative heavy guitar riffs, powerfully haunting vocals, subconscious provoking lyrics, electronic drums, and catchy pop melodies.

A little different, but those heavy riffs and low bass grabbed me. I wanted to present it to you, dear listener, in case Modern Mimes could grab your attention, too.

Metalcore English act Bring Me the Horizon was before that with their all new song “Mantra,” released just a day ago as part of a mysterious, worldwide marketing campaign.

In the beginning of August cryptic posters began appearing in the world’s major cities. Each poster included a unique website address and phone number and the provocative question “Do You wanna start a cult with me?” The only attribution was a hexagram logo sometimes used by Bring Me the Horizon. Calling the phone number gave the caller one of many messages. Visiting the URLs gave a website promising “An Invitation to Salvation”–direct quote–and a date. That date happened to be the one on which Bring Me the Horizon released “Mantra.”

Ahead of those was “Nobody’s Fool”, Cinderella’s biggest hit. Was it really about a particular woman like Warrant’s “I Saw Red”? No, it wasn’t. Tom Keifer wrote the song about something many people have experienced, but not about a woman or relationship he directly experienced.

[cow]

Have you guessed the Cover Song of the Week?

The song’s writer, the household name who released the song originally, said of the song: “It’s not as truly hostile about Americans as say “Born in the U.S.A.”: it’s merely sardonic. I was traveling in Java when [its] first McDonald’s went up: it was like, “for fuck’s sake.” The invasion by any homogenized culture is so depressing, the erection of another Disney World in, say, Umbria, Italy, more so. It strangles the indigenous culture and narrows expression of life.”

Do you know what it is? Do you know who sang it? One more quick hint:

It was the last hit with which David Bowie would chart in the U.S. until the posthumous hits “Blackstar” and “Lazarus”.

The Cover Song of the Week is David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid Of Americans” as done by a British duo Nylon Magazine calls “Trent Reznor-level cool.”

Released just a hours ago, here’s Bones (UK) with the first single from the upcoming Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie.

—————————————-
Bones (UK) – I’m Afraid Of Americans
David Bowie – I’m Afraid Of Americans
—————————————-

“I’m Afraid Of Americans” on the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show Cover Song of the Week, first as covered by bones, then the original, official version by David Bowie from his 1997 Earthlings album.

Here’s Welsh glamsters Tigertailz with “Noise Level Critical.” I’m Pariah Burke.

—————————————-
Tigertailz – Noise Level Critical
—————————————-

You’re listening to the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show with me, your humble hard rocking, heavy drinking, hairball of a host, Pariah Burke.

Hard, Heavy & Hair is YOUR 2-hour celebration of hard rock, heavy metal, and hair bands from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and all the way up to today’s newest releases that airs every week right here on this station. Every Friday morning, that week’s show is then posted to PariahRocks.com, that’s P-A-R-I-A-H-R-O-C-K-S-dot com, for on-demand streaming ANY time YOU want, 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, to your phone, computer, Smart TV, and any Internet connected device.

Find the show on FAcebook by searching for Hard, Heavy & Hair, and give it a like while you’re there. It lets me know you’re out there, listening, banging your head to the music I play. You can also follow and chat with the show on Twitter and Instagram @ Pariah Rocks.

We’ll end the show with a song written by the same songwriter who would go on to pen hits for Pink, Avril Lavigne, Puffy, Panic at the Disco, Train, Bowling for Soup, Weezer, and Lindsay Lohan.

[clip Dunham, “I am Lindsay Lohan”]

Before all that, Butch Walker wrote and played guitar for now long defunct glam band SouthGang. Here’s “Boys Nite Out.” I’m Pariah Burke, I’ll see you next week right here.

—————————————-
Southgang – Boys Nite Out