Show 257 – Cover or Not?

Show Notes

• Cover or Not? game!
• Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt calls Queen’s Brian May a ‘pervert wine pairing‘?!
• New Ellefson, Polaris, SteelCity, Phil X & the Drills, Psycle, Bad Omens, Hellz, Madre Sun, and Stone Horses
• Ratt back on the charts after 36 years with the same song!
• You won’t believe which Hard Rock, Metal, and Hair Band classics are actually cover songs!
• Celebrating National Cover Band Day in the US
• The singer who said “no thanks” to replacing Vince Neil in Motley Crue
• Rare Hare from Kik Tracee and Gorky Park

Cover or Not? Answers!

Did you play Cover or Not? Did you know which songs on this week’s show were cover songs and which were originals? Below are the answers. All the covers are listed, along with their original recording artists and first year of release.

[expand title=”Tap/Click to Reveal ‘Cover or Not’ Answers”]

Cover: Quiet Riot – Cum on Feel the Noize
Original: Slade, 1973

Cover: Mötley Crüe – Smokin’ in the Boys Room
Original: Brownsville Station, 1973

Cover: Bad Wolves – Zombie
Original: The Cranberries, 1994

Cover: Stryper – Immigrant Song
Original: Led Zeppelin, 1970

Cover: Gorky Park – My Generation
Original: The Who, 1965

Cover: Bon Jovi – The Boys Are Back in Town
Original: Thin Lizzy, 1976

Cover: Five Finger Death Punch – Blue on Black
Original: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, 1997

Cover: Van Halen – You Really Got Me
Original: The Kinks, 1964

Cover: Motorhead – Heroes
Original: David Bowie, 1977

Cover: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll
Original: The Arrows, 1975

Cover: Metallica – Stone Cold Crazy
Original: Queen, 1974

Cover: Tesla – Little Suzi
Original: Ph.D, 1982, as “Little Suzi’s on the Up”

Cover: Great White – Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Original: Ian Hunter, 1975

Cover: Kik Tracee – Mrs. Robinson
Original: Simon & Garfunkel, 1968

Cover: White Lion – Radar Love
Original: Golden Earring, 1973

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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.

Quiet Riot – Cum on Feel the Noize

Mötley Crüe – Smokin’ in the Boys Room

Bad Wolves – Zombie

Stryper – Immigrant Song

Gorky Park – My Generation

Bon Jovi – The Boys Are Back in Town

Five Finger Death Punch – Blue on Black

Van Halen – You Really Got Me

Motorhead – Heroes

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll

Metallica – Stone Cold Crazy

Ratt – Round and Round

Tesla – Little Suzi

Great White – Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City

Kik Tracee – Mrs. Robinson

White Lion – Radar Love

Beds by Audionautix.

Transcript of the Show

[INTRO]

It’s Hard, Heavy & Hair Show number 257, so “Cum on Feel the Noize”!

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Quiet Riot – Cum on Feel the Noize
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Quiet Riot kicking off another great Hard, Heavy & Hair Show. I’m your hard talking, heavy drinking, hairball of a horny hedonist host, Pariah Burke. Thank you for joining me.

And I am surprisingly, shockingly, sober right now. But don’t worry. I plan to remedy that forthwith. At this very moment I’m opening a new metric fifth of Four Roses Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. Ah… Smell that. Well, I guess you can’t.

While I pour my first glass neat–maybe over an ice ball, I haven’t decided–I want you to listen to a pair of songs you know well. We’re going to play a game on this episode of the show. I’ll tell you all about it in a few minutes, but see if you can guess where I’m going by figuring out what these two songs have in common. First is “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” by Motley Crue.

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Mötley Crüe – Smokin’ in the Boys Room
Bad Wolves – Zombie
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Bad Wolves doing the Cranberries’ “Zombie” following Motley Crue’s 1985 smash hit “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.” What do those two songs have in common? C’mon. You know. Tell me.

What? I can’t hear you over the traffic outside your car.

One more time.

Right! They’re both cover songs.

And Friday, June 19th is (or was, depending on when you’re hearing this show), is National Cover Band Day in the United States. So I’m honoring all the cover bands out there, all the bands that play covers some or all of the time anywhere on planet Earth, with this week’s Hard, Heavy & Hair Show. Let’s turn it into a game.

Many of the songs you’re going to hear on the show are cover versions. Not all the songs, of course. I’ve got for you brand new music by Ellefson of Megadeth, Phil X of Bon Jovi, Psycle, SteelCity, and many, many more. I also have some of your old and new favorites that are NOT cover songs. And that’s the game: As I play each song, you decide if it’s a cover or original. No Googling! Let’s see how well you know your Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Hair Bands.

On Friday June 19th, I’ll post on PariahRocks.com the answers to which songs on this show are covers, and which are originals. And maybe, if you ask really nicely, I’ll give away something cool to random listeners who check in with me after that.

I want to get us back to the music, but I also want to make sure you’ve got the game. For every track I play between now and the end of the show in a little over an hour and a half, you decide whether the song is an original by the artist playing it, or if it’s a cover version of another artist’s song. Got it? Have fun. It’s all for fun, because that’s what Rock N’ Roll is, and has always been, a celebration of fun.

The Stone Horses get that. This is “Good Ol’ Days” on Hard, Heavy & Hair.

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Stone Horses – Good Ol’ Days
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Brand new melodic Hard Rock tune from the Stone Horses out of Washington, D.C. Stick around. I’ve got more new music for you, along with some incredible 80s, 90s, and 2000s Hard, Heavy, and Hairy cover songs… And some songs that might not be covers. You decide. Be right back.

[ ======================================== BREAK 1]

We’re playing Cover or Not on this week’s Hard, Heavy & Hair. Do you know which of your old and new favorite Hard Rock, Metal, and Hair Band songs are original and which are covers? This next one should be pretty easy. Here’s Stryper with “Immigrant Song.”

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Stryper – Immigrant Song
Gorky Park – My Generation
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The very first musical act to come through when the Berlin Wall fell in late-1989, that was Muscovite Gorky Park and “My Generation.” That song was on the Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell charity album from the Make a Difference Foundation. Remember that album? That was a great f’n album. It also included this next song from Bon Jovi.

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Bon Jovi – The Boys Are Back in Town
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“The Boys are Back in Town” by Bon Jovi back in ’89.

How about something from 2018? Featuring appearances by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Brantley Gilbert, and Queen’s Brian May, this is Five Finger Death Punch with “Blue on Black.”

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Five Finger Death Punch – Blue on Black
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That was 5FDP with a few guest stars, one of whom is Queen guitarist Brian May. Brian May was just voted Greatest Rock Guitarist of All Time by other guitar players in a Total Guitar poll. If that isn’t awesome enough, on June 11th, Blabbermouth interviewed Nuno Bettencourt and Steve Vai about the vote.

Steve Vai was a man of few words, saying only, quote, “This is a totally appropriate recognition in my opinion. Congrats Bri. You will always be my hero.” End quote.

Nuno, however, had a lot to say, the best of which was, quote: “Most of the time you’d wait with anticipation for the guitar solo, to hear what a player has to offer. ..Brian did that. And ALWAYS like a pervert wine pairing, he served the perfect solo for song. But what made him extra special was his sprinkling of taste and genius throughout the song. A simple note. A bend. A quick flurry of harmonized guitar from the left to the right in poetic conversation with Freddie’s vocal. That’s Brian’s brilliance.”

Indeed.

As I record this show, Brian has just posted to his Instagram his response to the praise, humble as he always is. He said “So touched by these guys – who can both play me off the pitch, over the stands and way into the deep blue !!!

“One of the greatest things about having made the guitar the centre of my life has been that I’ve had the chance to work up close with so many incredible players, and get to know them as musicians, and as human beings. In my mind, you all deserve this award more than I do. But, just for a moment, I’m happy and honoured … thanks folks.”

You deserve the honor, Brian.

I’ll be right back with a song from another of the greatest guitarists of all time.

[ ======================================== BREAK 2]

If you’re just tuning in, welcome to the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show, your weekly dose of Hard Rock, Metal, and Hair Bands from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 20-teens, and today, including the latest new releases, your old favorites, and deep cuts and rare hair.

I’ve got brand new music from Megadeth’s David Ellefson after Motorhead and Van Halen. This is “You Really Got Me.”

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Van Halen – You Really Got Me
Motorhead – Heroes
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Motorhead, “Heroes.”

From the longest running member of Megadeth except Dave Mustaine himself, this is newest from David Ellefson’s eponymous band, “Over Now.” Is it a cover or original? Don’t forget: we’re playing a game of Cover or Not?

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Ellefson – Over Now
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll
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“I Love Rock N’ Roll”, too! Thanks Joan.

Don’t pass out in a puddle of your own bodily fluids yet! Still coming up is Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ratt, Kick Tracee, and new music by Polaris, Psycle, and more.

[Tease next hour] [ ======================================== BREAK 3 (Bottom of Hour)]

Welcome back to the show. This week we’re playing Cover or Not, a game. Each song I play, you decide if it’s a cover song or an original. Check PariahRocks.com, in the show notes for Hard, Heavy & Hair show number 257, to see which ones you got right.

This is something brand new from Rhode Island, from the band Psycle, spelled P-S-Y-C-L-E. This is “Last Chance for the Saints” on Hard, Heavy & Hair.

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Psycle – Last Chance For The Saints
Metallica – Stone Cold Crazy
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Metallica and Garage Days track “Stone Cold Crazy”.

Have you seen the Geico commercial with the band Ratt? In case you haven’t, there’s a new Geico insurance ad where the homeowners say they have a rat problem, which turns out to be Stephen Pearcy and the gang in Ratt with two Ts. They play part of this next song from 1984. So popular is the commercial, so big is the comeback for Hard Rock and 80s Hair Metal, that “Round and Round” is back and in the top 20 on the Billboard charts, on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart, 36 years after it was released! How cool is that?

Stephen Pearcy said in an interview with Variety Magazine that the timing was auspicious. Both 2020 and the year of the songs original release, 1984, are the Year of the Rat on the Chinese zodiac. “What goes around comes around–no pun intended,” he said.

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Ratt – Round and Round
Madre Sun – Trick Up The Sleeve
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Another new track, “Trick Up the Sleeve” from British four-piece Madre Sun.

More new music, rare Hair from Kik Tracee, and plenty more chances for you to guess Cover or Not? is still coming up.

[ ======================================== BREAK 4] [ ————— BREAK FILL for NET → ]

From their debut album Mechanical Resonance, Tesla is going to tell us how “Little Suzi” is on the up.

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Tesla – Little Suzi
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Ready for a double-shot of new tracks? We’ll go female-fronted with Hellz right after Bad Omens and “Limits.”

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Bad Omens – Limits
Hellz – Bitch Ran Away
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“Bitch Ran Away” from the Australian band Hellz featuring singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lisa Perry. You might have heard a different version of that song called “Witch Ran Away”–W-I-T-C-H. That’s Hellz’s radio-friendly version of the song, which I’m not going to play, because the Hard, Heavy, and Hair Show isn’t pussified.

Great White and new SteelCity is next.

[← —————- BREAK FILL for NET]

You’re listening to the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show, and this is Great White with “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.”

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Great White – Once Bitten, Twice Shy
SteelCity – Hearts on Fire
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SteelCity’s newest, “Hearts on Fire,” from their second and current album, Mach II, on Perris Records.

I’ve been sipping on the Four Roses Bourbon I opened at the top of the show. It’s my first exposure to the Four Roses line, and I started with what they call the “yellow label” bottle. I was intrigued by the process, which is unique among Kentucky bourbons. The distiller makes Yellow Label by blending 8-10 of their different bourbon recipes, which result from two different mash bills and five different yeast strains, and then age the Yellow batch between 4 and 12 years.

It’s a well-balanced and lightweight bourbon, low proof, with both a nose and palette that are pleasingly floral and fruity without having any single strong flavors to call out.

It’s decent as a sipping bourbon, but I think it might be better as a mixer, so I think I’m going to switch to drinking something else neat for the rest of the show. Still, if you want a light, clean, and better-than-entry-level bourbon at an entry-level price, you can’t go wrong with Four Roses Yellow Label at $20 a bottle.

That’s my opinion, anyway. Yours may vary. Give it a try. It just might take you down to “Paradise City” where the booze is cheap and the girls are easy.

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Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City
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Guns N’ Roses, “Paradise City.” Cover song or original? We’re playing Cover or Not on this show, and I think you’re going to be surprised when you see on PariahRocks.com exactly which of your favorite Hard Rock, Metal, and Hair songs really are covers.

Next, the singer who turned down the chance to replace Vince Neil in Motley Crue will ask a little about you for their files.

[ ======================================== BREAK 5]

This next band is Kik Tracee, a long-gone 80s Hard Rock band whose lead singer, Stephen Shareaux, said “no thanks” when Motley Crue asked him to take Vince Neil’s place in 1992. Now he’s working on his second solo album due out this year. This is him in ’88 with Kik Tracee singing “Mrs. Robinson.”

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Kik Tracee – Mrs. Robinson
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Ready for another double-shot of new tracks that may or may not be cover songs? We’ll start with Bon Jovi’s guitarist, the guy who had the six-string chops to step into Richie Sambora’s shoes, Phil X. His solo band, Phil X & the Drills, just dropped this single, and it landed “Right On The Money.”

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Phil X & The Drills – Right On The Money
Polaris – Masochist
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Australian Metalcore and Prog Metal band Polaris and their newest, “Masochist.”

We’ve been playing Cover or Not? on this episode of the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show. Every song I’ve played has been either an original–by the original artist–or a cover song–originally recorded by someone other than who you heard play it on the show. It’s in honor of National Cover Band Day, June 19th in the United States. Many of your favorites that I played are, in fact, cover songs; some aren’t. Did you figure out which ones were covers and which were not?

If not you’re not sure–or just want to validate your awesome knowledge of Rock N’ Roll–hit the show notes for show 257 on PariahRocks.com, that’s P-A-R-I-A-H-R-O-C-K-S-dot com. I’ve identified every cover song on the show in the show notes.

And, if you’d like to be entered in a random drawing for something cool (maybe music, maybe something else), tell me what you thought of this Covers or Not show. That’s all. Just drop me a note on the Hard, Heavy & Hair Facebook page, on Twitter or Instagram @PariahRocks, or using the Feedback form on PariahRocks.com. Even if you didn’t like the show, tell me your opinion. I’ll randomly draw a name or two from those I hear from, and reach out to give you a not-crappy prize.

We’ve got time for one last song, one last Cover or Not entry.

My name is Pariah Burke, I’m your hard talking, heavy drinking, hairball of a horny host and producer. Thank you for listening.

I’ll see you back here next week on this station for another all new Hard, Heavy & Hair Show. White Lion is going to play us out with “Radar Love.”

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White Lion – Radar Love