Rest in Peace, Tom Petty

In the shadow of one of the worst shootings in American history, in between the news network full coverage, and the madness that follows such things, we have lost one of our great musical lights. Tom Petty was found unconscious yesterday morning, and finally, after much heartache and misinformation, pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at the age of 66, early last night.

The first time I saw or heard Tom Petty, or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was in the movie FM, friends had referred to him as the new Mick Jagger. I don't know how accurate that is or was, but it was memorable. His music was the sound of my teens, my twenties, and so on, it truly mapped the 1970s, the 1980s, and 1990s for me. Hard Promises was one of three albums I bought with my very first paycheck. The great thing about Petty albums consistently is that you not only got the hits like "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)" and "The Waiting," you also got AOR tunes and hidden gems like "A Thing About You," "Kings Road," and "The Criminal Kind." Yeah, I wore those grooves out.

I can remember having two, not just one, cassettes of Tom Petty's songs recorded from the radio when I first got a cassette recorder. He was an FM rock favorite and almost all of his music got airplay. Even before I graduated high school in 1982 (and Petty was white suburban FM rock and roll then) he had a catalog that included some of the best of the time, from "American Girl" and "Breakdown" to "Listen to Her Heart" and "I Need to Know." He was not a favorite, like Bowie or Prince, but man, he was always there, and always rocking. Yeah, he was a favorite, I just didn't know it.

Later favorite albums would include Long After Dark, which holds a special place in my heart for getting me my first date with a college girlfriend. She was a Petty fan, and my inside knowledge of when the album was coming out (easily found in Billboard magazine which I read obsessively when I worked at the college radio station) dazzled her enough to date me. This album also included Petty's move into the MTV era from that of FM AOR. I remember loving the post-apocalyptic music video for "You Got Lucky," the red vinyl single for "Change of Heart," and my favorite tune off the album, the B-side "Between Two Worlds."

My favorite Petty song comes from the next album Southern Accents, an album full of oddities mixed into the usual southern rock and roll highlights. This one had the hilarious country ditty "Spike" about a punk rocker, as well as the hit single with acid trip video, "Don't Come Around Here No More," coolly co-written by genius co-producer Dave Stewart from Eurythmics. But it was the weird dance vibe of "It Ain't Nothin' to Me," also with Stewart, that still blows me away. I don't know why, but I love this song even today and turn it up whenever I hear it.

Later Tom Petty, already a superstar in his own right, would officially go solo from the Heartbreakers, and also join with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Obrbison, and George Harrison to form the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Petty, with and without the Heartbreakers, would continue to release albums and singles through to 2014. He was always producing and always innovating. We have lost another legend, a man who filled my life with music, creating a soundtrack of memories. We will all miss Tom Petty. Rest in peace, man.

Rest in Peace Chris Cornell

Soundgarden and Audioslave front man Chris Cornell took her own life last night after performing with the reunited Soundgarden in Detroit. I had been texting with a Facebook friend about the concert when it was done. He was telling me what a great show it was, and how bigger things were coming for the band. He texted me later, saying that Cornell was dead. He had hanged himself.

I admit, until last night, it had been a few years since I thought of Chris Cornell. I loved his "You Know My Name," the first real rocker to be a James Bond theme in decades. I was never really an Audioslave guy, but Soundgarden was on my playlists long before Cornell became one of the founders of the grunge movement in Seattle. I loved their cover of the Ohio Players' "Fopp" early on and played that to death on mixtape after mixtape. I stayed with the band through grunge success, and remember the summer of 1991 with Temple of the Dog with Cornell on lead singing "Hunger Strike," which whenever it came on the radio I would yell back, "Domino's delivers." Fun times.

Here's the part where I usually say we've lost a legend, and he will be missed, and we have, and he is, but there's just something missing there. My good friend, and a terrific writer, Jessica A. Walsh, posted something on her Facebook wall that says exactly what is really on my mind. Chris Cornell seemed okay last night, he seemed amazing, and now he's gone. Here's what Jess wrote:

"Chris Cornell's apparent suicide is another reminder that what people reflect on the outside may not at all resemble how they're feeling on the inside. You can work, laugh, play music, hang out on social media, have a loving family, and still be dying inside.

"That's why we need to spend more time communicating and building relationships and being of service to one another."

Thank you, Jessica. And if anyone out there is feeling this way, please talk to someone, talk to me, talk to anyone. You have friends, you have choices, you have life, and it can all work out.

History of the Eagles

History of the Eagles ~ The Eagles have always been in the background of my life, and that's saying something for a boy from the South Jersey suburbs. The Eagles were FM radio, they were California, they were marijuana, they were the seventies. "Hotel California" was one of the first rock 45s I bought and their last album, The Long Run, was one of the first albums I bought. I was never a huge fan, oh I had favorites like "On the Border" and "The Disco Strangler," but they were just always there.

This two-part documentary takes it from the beginning as back up for Linda Ronstadt to their big hit years to the solo years to the never-ending reunion tour. Interviews are done individually with members and associates covering in the first volume such topics as Jackson Browne's songwriting technique to the early production of Glynn Johns to the Eagles' own songwriting styles to trashing hotels with Joe Walsh to the wild after parties of the 'third encore.'

We watch as membership changed in the band, and differences emerge. They spend almost thirty minutes on Hotel California without ever saying what the title track is actually about. Eventually it becomes clear as to why the interviews are all separate, they can't stand each other. During the making of the album the band members realize they were all alphas fighting for supremacy, and the breaking up began there.

As work on The Long Run began, they were already effectively shattered, mentally, physically, and socially. Drugs and drink only accelerated the process at that point. During and after one apocalyptic concert, tensions were so hot that the band was over. As they say, the Eagles went out with a whimper not a bang.

Part two of the documentary picks up the solo careers of the separate Eagles, leading up to the reunion tour fourteen years later. I was intrigued that getting Joe Walsh into rehab was partially behind the reunion. Rivalries aside, it kinda proves they were for the most part still friends. Or should I say, selectively still friends.

The second half mostly covers the recording of Hell Freezes Over and the reunion tour. There's still some tension, and money got in the way, eventually squeezing Don Felder out. Other than that, it's just the tour. This is sad as it comes off as little more than an average rockumentary without the context of the first part.

History of the Eagles is very long at just over three hours, which is probably why it was cut in two parts. After watching it I had had enough of the Eagles for a while, and that's just the opposite effect that such a film should have. Interesting stuff, but just a bit too much, for me at least, and I'm an Eagles fan.

Joe Cocker Dead at 70

Singer/songwriter Joe Cocker has passed away after a prolonged battle with lung cancer. He was 70.

This is embarrassing but I knew of the man for a long time before I ever saw or heard him. In the comics of my youth there were those Columbia Record Club ads which always included Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and I experienced John Belushi doing Joe on "Saturday Night Live" long before I ever saw the real thing. And the real thing was unique, powerful, and wonderful.

Joe Cocker had his own style, was his own man, and although he only had a handful of hits, they were amazing epic musical triumphs. His cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from my Friends" may well be one of those rare covers better than the original. He's worked with some of the best in the business over his forty-plus year career and will be missed. We've lost one of the legends.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #35

"Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring

One of the reasons I started this Lost Hits of the New Wave series on my blog was to rail against the concept of the one-hit wonder, because they rarely are. For instance, neither "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats nor "Take on Me" by a-ha are one-hit wonders, much to the horror of many a VH-1 special. But Golden Earring is that rare but elusive true two-hit wonder.

Golden Earring's first hit, an FM radio staple in the 1970s, "Radar Love," in the days before the internet, was also the subject of many misheard lyrics discussions. How can it be 'radar love'? What the hell does that mean? Surely they must mean 'red hot love,' at least that makes sense. The haunting song, as much about driving as about telepathy, with the mysterious lyrics was released in 1973.

The Dutch band had been around since 1961, first known as the Golden Earrings, and are still active today, having scored dozens of hits in their homeland of The Netherlands in their long and distinguished career. They had to wait more than a decade for their second international hit however after "Radar Love."



From the 1982 album Cut featuring the iconic image of a playing card being shredded by a bullet, Golden Earring released the single "Twilight Zone." Fledgling music video network MTV picked it up almost immediately, although showing an edited version of the video, sans nudity.



While the obvious assumption is that the song is about the Rod Serling 1960s TV series of the same name, it's not. Sure, the pop culture reference is there, but listen to the lyrics, it's about something else. The song is about Robert Ludlum's novel "The Bourne Identity" that decades later became a successful movie franchise.


Rated R version

In their day Golden Earring toured the States often, notorious for their sometimes half-hour jam cover of "Eight Miles High" and the drummer catapulting into the audience at the climax of solos. Notably they were so big at one time that both KISS and Aerosmith opened for them during tours. After a Great Adventure concert ended in a fire tragedy in 1984 however, the band tended to stay away from the States and stick to smaller venues.

The Eye of the Tiger

Jimi Jamison, the lead singer of Survivor, a mainstay of the eighties pop/rock scene, died yesterday of a heart attack at the age of 64.

While many who weren't there, listening to the radio or watching MTV, might believe Survivor was a one-hit wonder with their biggest hit, "Eye of the Tiger," the song of the summer of 1982 and the musical vibe of Rocky III, that just wouldn't be true. Several hits from Survivor came and went, unfortunately now unremembered, in the 1980s, like "High on You," "Burning Heart" (from Rocky IV), "I Can't Hold Back," "American Heartbeat," and "The Search Is Over."

After breaking up at the end of the decade, the band reunited four years later and continued on for quite some time. Jamison left the band, was replaced, and then returned later that same year of 2012. Survivor continues from then on with two lead singers.

Jimi was also the lead singer of Cobra before joining Survivor, and was also noted for writing the theme song of "Baywatch."

Lost Hits of the New Wave #32

"Rock Me Tonite" by Billy Squier

Here we have another example of a rocker trying to climb on board the New Wave sound and ride it to a top charting hit. Billy Squier was always a hard rocker, probably best known for his hit "The Stroke" with its unique use of certain synth drumbeats. In his day, he was a rock god, notably opening for both Queen and Pat Benatar for two of the greatest concerts of my high school days.

I first got into him with his early AOR hit "The Big Beat" (you might not know it, but trust me, if you're a hip hop fan, you've heard it sampled hundreds of times), and rode along happily when "The Stroke" carried through to two hit albums with a string of hits from each. He was even one of those artists savvy enough to record a holiday song so he'd get played at least once a year. Then came "Rock Me Tonite," and it was all over.

Previously Billy had done only performance videos, him and the band on stage rocking out, now he decided to make a more traditional -or as luck would have it- a more bizarre video, to go along with his more pop new wave sound. The video featured Billy dancing and prancing in a pink Flashdance shirt and sliding through silk sheets. His dance, his affectations, and his gestures could at best be described as 'flamboyant.'

Here, take a peek…

Yeah. You get the idea. And that was the end of Billy Squier's rock career. Surprisingly, the song was his biggest charting hit, but the video, directed by Kenny Ortega, the mastermind behind Disney's High School Musical, succeeded in crashing Squier's career and causing many to question his sexuality.

Billy Squier continues to record and to perform today, including a stint with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. He does a lot of blues, jazz, and charity work, and on occasion, he does still rock. Just don't rock him tonite…

The Rock Blog Tour - Skinn Jakkitt

Welcome back on board the Rock Blog Tour featuring Skinn Jakkitt...

Skinn Jakkitt released their first national release, a self-titled album, on November 5th of this year, recorded with The Tate Music Group.

The Hickory, North Carolina-based band consists of Barry Sams and Shane Farris on guitars, Jeff Hayworth on bass, Jeff "Pup" Price on drums, and Greg Stephens on vocals.

The first song and video from the album is "Epiphany," check it out below:



For a taste of Skinn Jakkitt live, these videos show the band in their natural habitat:





You can see Skinn Jakkitt perform live next on December 14th, with Amnesis in Waynesville NC, and at The Wizard Saloon in Hickory NC on January 25th.

If you haven't already checked them out, please see the previous stops on this Skinn Jakkitt Blog Tour with Whitney Coble, Tim Marquitz, Becca Butcher, Kristyn Phipps, and Jennifer Walker. Please come by and check out my friend Robin Renee's blog The Dream Between for the next installment on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Please visit Skinn Jakkitt's website, hear them at ReverbNation, Like them on Facebook, and Follow them on Twitter.

Women 2 Women II

Please join us for the 2nd Annual Women to Women Event (W2W2). Women to Women is an advocacy group with the mission of bringing female artists together to share a night of music while raising awareness and funding for Women’s causes, locally and nationally.

This unique event features talented female performing artists from all over the Tri-state area, from all walks of life, to share their love fro their craft, MUSIC! Performers include… Janet Bufano, Kathi Cooley, Megan Knight, Stephanie Davis, Britt Marie Zammer, Rachel Evans, Arianna Burmeister, Sandy Hall, Chrissy Hartline, Susan “Sooze” Lake, Tina Brand, Nikki Zammer, Kate Bradshaw, Danielle Denning, Carolyn, Christine & Cynthia Barbadoro, and The Bride, Jennifer Walker.

These performers will offer a diverse range of music for your listening pleasure while raising funds for our chosen charity, Providence House, Burlington County. Last year W2W Successfully raised $4700 for Breast Cancer Research for the ACS with the generous support of our local music community.

Our chosen charity, Providence House Domestic Violence Services provides comprehensive and confidential services to individuals experiencing or impacted by domestic violence. These services include a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, individual and group counseling, advocacy and support in the courts, information and referrals and PALS (Peace: A Learned Solution) Program for children who have witnessed abuse.

We hope you will come join us for a great night of entertainment while enjoying basket raffles, door prizes, with a 50/50 lucky ticket drawing.

The event happens Saturday, November 30, 2013. Doors at 7, and the music starts at 8. See you at The Indian Chief Tavern, 212 Route 70, Medford, NJ 08055.

RIP Lou Reed

Lost Hits of the New Wave #29

"Bop 'Til You Drop" by Rick Springfield



There was a time when Rick Springfield was cool, we may all want desperately to want to forget it, but it's true. Memory is a tricky thing. We may want to remember Rick Springfield as bubble gum pop, but there was a time he was considered not only rock, but even a little tiny bit new wave. I heard "Jessie's Girl" for the first time on WMMR, and follow-ups "Affair of the Heart," and the two videos featured here, all on WYSP during their new music hour.

Rick Springfield was impossibly huge in the early 1980s, between his music career, appearances on "General Hospital," and even a feature film Hard to Hold, before vanishing into semi-obscurity.

The truth is that he had been around a long time before his 'overnight success,' was a minor pop idol and even had his own Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s. And after, he was the original "Forever Knight," the original "Human Target," and released what I think his best album, Tao.

I fully agree with my online friend DJ Marilyn Thomas, "Bop 'Til You Drop" is a New Wave song, no matter what you say, you selective memory music heathens.

And then there's this one...

"Human Touch" by Rick Springfield



Rocker trying desperately to be new wave in a music video, trying to capitalize on the odd music video fashions of the time, pretending it's the future, and looking uncomfortable the whole time - check. For a long time, this was what music videos looked like. At least it's not...

"You Got Lucky" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers



Wow, the future looked kinda bleak in the early 1980s...

The Robin Renee Blog Tour

Today marks the start of the Robin Renee Blog Tour. For the next week or so, we'll be guiding you through a journey of the work singer/songwriter/poet/activist/journalist, Robin Renee.

Who is Robin Renee? Besides, my talented and creative friend of several decades of course, Robin Renee is Mantra-Pop! - accessible, lyric-driven alt-folk rock with a spiritual twist. Conscious and melodic with an edge, think of blending the voices of Chrissie Hynde and Joan Armatrading with the wordsmith intelligence of Elvis Costello and the mystical passion of kirtan chanting.

Her CDs include In Progress, All Six Senses (produced by the world renowned Scott Mathews who has worked with George Harrison, Elvis Costello, Barbra Streisand, and many more), Live Devotion (East-meets-West chanting), and spirit.rocks.sexy – mantra-pop headlines from the clairaudient dreams of the evocative Robin Renée.

She has shared the stage with some of the West’s best-loved kirtan singers including Krishna Das, Dave Stringer, and Girish. Also a poet, artist, and writer, Robin’s work has appeared in PanGaia, Big Hammer #12, Curve Magazine, Songwriter’s Market, Blessed Bi Spirit – Bisexual People of Faith (Continuum Press), That Takes Ovaries – Bold Females and their Brazen Acts (Random House), and many other publications.

Her newest recording, This. (chant and sacred song), will be followed by ..and Everything Else (songs and spoken word) in 2014.

Here's the schedule for the Blog Tour:

Tomorrow, Thursday, July 18th, Shelley Szajner will be interviewing Robin at her blog.

Friday, July 19th, Marie Gilbert will be hosting at her blog, Gilbert Curiosities.

Saturday, July 20th, Becca Butcher will be hosting at her blog.

Sunday, July 21st, we return here to Welcome to Hell, where I'll be reviewing Robin's "This." Album.

Monday, July 22nd Patti O'Brien will be hosting at her blog, A Broad Abroad.

Tuesday, July 23rd, Fran Metzman will be guest blogging an interview with Robin here at my blog, Welcome to Hell.

Wednesday, July 24th Marie Gilbert will be hosting an interview with Robin at the South Jersey Writers Blog, Tall Tales and Short Stories.

Thursday, July 25th Robin Renee will be a guest on The GAR! Podcast, with Ray Cornwall and myself.

Friday, July 26th I will be conducting an interview with Robin Renee at Biff Bam Pop!.

Saturday, July 27th I will be closing out the blog tour here at Welcome to Hell.

And don't forget to check out Robin Renee's new single "All I Am" at CD Baby, with proceeds going to the anti-bullying organization, the You Will Rise Project.

See you tomorrow, at Shelley Szajner's blog!

Ray Manzarek 1939-2013

Amidst a whirlwind of false death rumors about the man, it turns out that music legend, and former member of the Doors, Ray Manzarek, has passed away. In a German hospital from cancer, the founder and keyboardist for the Doors is dead at 74.

This is a gut punch to me as strong as the passings of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, or Warren Zevon. Ray Manzarek is a voice from my youth. I wasn't cognizant for the first coming of the Doors, but their revival in the late 1970s, due to many factors, was strong in my formation.

There was AOR FM radio looking for music to play and not wanting to touch disco or new wave or punk, and began to mine the sixties for music, delivering the Doors to the forefront once again. There was the book, that everyone in my suburban white drug culture high school read - "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman - that made a legend of the late Jim Morrison.

There was, and is, some hardcore realist inside me that knows that Morrison was just a sullen alcoholic bully, but it was Ray Manzarek that created the legend, wove the tale, built the rock god, and manifested the Lizard King from the ground up. Whatever Jim Morrison was, Ray Manzarek made him.

I remember listening to Jim Ladd and his Sunday night "Innerview" interviewing Ray Manzarek multiple times, as he told apocryphal and supernatural tales of Jim Morrison, building the legend word by word. Manzarek talked of the Native American shaman who possessed Morrison as a child, the concept that he might not be dead, and all sorts of fantastic stories of the legendary Doors, fact and fiction. And he did it all the finesse of a master radio manipulator. Ray Manzarek would've made Orson Welles jealous with these performances.


For decades, Manzarek kept the infamous Doors alive, both on radio, and in sales, as he maintained his own career as well. He created a wonderful rendition of "Carmina Burana" with Philip Glass, as well as producing several albums for LA punk band X. He also worked with Echo and the Bunnymen and Iggy Pop among others, and even toured with Ian Asbury of The Cult in place of Morrison in a version of the Doors.


His charismatic personality, his fabulous storytelling ability, and his unique keyboard creations will live on for decades to come. We have truly lost one of the rock and roll legends. Long live Ray Manzarek and the Doors. Hopefully he's jamming with the Lizard King right now.

David Bowie - "Where Are We Now?"

Earlier this week, on David Bowie's birthday, he released the first single and music video from his new album. We all thought he had retired, so yes, it was quite a shock, and a delight.

David Bowie is a rock god. That is completely undisputed. I also love him. He is one of my favorite artists. I was thrilled to hear this news and downloaded the song, unheard, immediately when I found out about it. Take my money, iTunes, I don't even have to hear it. That's how I feel about Bowie.

Here's the music video for "Where Are We Now?"

Wow. What is most stunning about the video is that after over forty years in the music video business (that's right, kids, Bowie's been doing it longer than MTV has), he can still amaze, and mesmerize, and innovate. The video accompanies a song that is slow and drifting at first but builds at the end, almost like the work of Kate Bush. The more I listen to it, the more I like it.

I can't wait for the new album. David Bowie's The Next Day is scheduled for a March 12, 2013 release.