Matt Wardlaw has also been radio-silent lately, ever since he became the official biographer of…who was that again? Julian Assange or Julian Lennon? Ah heck, either way he’s going to be tied up awhile (though not as tied up as Mayor Cass, I’ll wager).

So there I was on Thanksgiving night with a flashlight in one hand and the keys to the kingdom in the other, and you know what that means, don’t you?

ANARCHY! THAT’S WHAT BRINGS OUT THE MANIC IN ME! YARP!!

I would not go so far as to say I plundered the vaults so much as I lovingly, spiritually futzed with them. My dear friends, Bootleggians, street urchins of all races, creeds, colors, and degrees of B.O., lend me your ears (and a clothes pin cause y’all stink some). The doors of City Hall are wide open. Come on in!

And to anyone who finds Mayor Cass, that ain’t candy.

Al Stewart – Year Of The Cat

Andrew Gold – Kiss This One Goodbye

Beastie Boys – Big Shot

The Duckworth Lewis Method – Mr. Blue Sky

GTR – When The Heart Rules The Mind

Joe Jackson – Obvious Song

Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out

Joe Satriani – Crushing Day

Pugwash – Radio Ga Ga

Pugwash – Telephone Line

Steely Dan – Reelin’ In The Years

Related articles

• Bootleg City: Warrant in Tokyo, April ’91 (popdose.com)

However, when there’s a death in the rock ‘n’ roll family, the citizens of Bootleg City find that it’s our civic duty to present a memorial to a fallen comrade. Therefore I’d like to say a few words in memory of John Kennedy Oswald, a.k.a. Jani Lane, the lead singer and main songwriter for Warrant, one of the more popular acts of the “hair band” era. Lane died of an apparent overdose on August 11 at the age of 47.

For a group like Warrant the key was to get your brand set up quickly: put out a hard-rocking stadium anthem as the first single, then immediately follow it up with a killer power ballad. Warrant followed the formula to a T, debuting with “Down Boys” and segueing into the awesome earworm “Heaven,” both off their first album, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1989). Their sophomore LP, Cherry Pie (1990), went the same route: the title track paved the way for “I Saw Red” on the Billboard charts.

“Cherry Pie” wasn’t the band’s choice for the lead-off single — it was written by Lane at the request of Columbia Records president Don Ienner — but it led to a controversial and highly popular video that cemented Warrant’s reputation as the latest band willing to rock out with its collective cock out. In other words, they were the latest Led Zeppelin knockoff. (It didn’t hurt that the “Cherry Pie” video used iconic ’80s video vixen Bobbie Brown, who’d previously appeared in Great White’s “Once Bitten Twice Shy” and Hurricane’s “I’m On to You,” to seal the deal.)

Warrant became a popular band — they even got to lip-sync during halftime on an episode of RollerGames, a staple of Sunday-night college life at the time — in part because hair metal was a popular type of music from the mid-’80s through the early ’90s. It was so popular, in fact, that ’70s icons like Kiss and Aerosmith (and, to a lesser extent, the Scorpions) reinvented themselves as hair bands in order to become relevant again. Unfortunately, the genre was critically panned throughout its heyday, and by 1992 a downpour of gloom-and-doom grunge music from Seattle had washed away whatever popularity hair metal had left.

But enough with the history lesson. You either like Warrant or you don’t. You like that style of music or you don’t. Either way, you know the basic story. So let’s move on.

Some of you may remember that whenever I present a show here in Bootleg City I try to give listeners a bonus. (And if you’ve ever worked in the mayor’s office, you know that I don’t believe in bonuses. —Mayor Cass via prison) But this time I want to do something a little different by presenting the bonus first: today’s featured bootleg is an audio rip of a show the band recorded in front of cameras in the spring of ’91 on a tour stop in Japan. As far as I can tell, the “Live in Japan” video is long out of print and long out of mind, but with a simple Internet search I found a copy of it on — where else? — YouTube. The audio quality on display here isn’t the best, but you’ll get the idea.

For the Cherry Pie tour Warrant headed out with the now classic lineup of the band: Jani Lane on vocals, Erik Turner and Joey Allen on guitars, Jerry Dixon on bass, and Steven Sweet on drums, with touring keyboardist Scott Warren rounding out the talent onstage. This particular concert was recorded on April 21, 1991, at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo, a venue that’s always welcomed hard-rock and metal bands with open arms (the Scorpions’ 1978 Tokyo Tapes album was recorded there).

Like most hair bands who emerged during MTV’s golden years, Warrant paid special attention to the visual elements of their live show. They had their patented “knee dance,” for which Lane, Turner, Allen, and Dixon would line up on their knees and bang their heads in unison. Climbing up on each other’s shoulders wasn’t uncommon either, nor were the required actions of hair-metal frontmen at the time, namely Lane’s sophomoric sexual innuendos and gestures, which become tiring after a while in the Tokyo concert video. It’s too bad, because there’s actually some good music here; all the hits from the first two albums are featured, of course, but as usual it’s the live surprises that make this boot so enjoyable. For example, a three-minute cover of Blackfoot’s classic “Train, Train” becomes a surprising 13-minute jam. Then there’s the spectacle of a drunken Jani doing his Elvis impression on “Jailhouse Rock” as well as Cheap Trick’s “Baby Loves to Rock” during the encore. And since this show took place in Japan, the audience is awesome — vocal and enthusiastic yet always respectful.

Billed as a “special guest,” Scott Warren was a larger fixture on the Cherry Pie tour than the usual hidden touring keyboardist. His synth arpeggios in lieu of a banjo on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” are a highlight of that awesome track, but where he really stands out is his piano work on “I Saw Red,” the best song Jani Lane ever wrote (and Warrant ever recorded, for that matter). Watch this performance on “Live in Japan”: Warren and Lane work as a duo while the latter drinks a beer, obviously still anguished over the song’s subject matter. The story behind “I Saw Red” is well known, and I firmly believe that if another rock ‘n’ roll songwriter — one who didn’t front a hair band, that is — had come up with the imagery contained in those lyrics, the song would now be considered an all-time classic.

So RIP, Jani. You wrote some good songs, you had the usual rock-star personal problems, and you even got to be married to Bobbie for a while. But, most importantly, you did your job as an entertainer, and no matter what the critics and the general public thought of you and Warrant, you guys were one of the better bands out there.

So Damn Pretty (Should Be Against the Law)
Down Boys
Thin Disguise
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Sometimes She Cries
Heaven
Love in Stereo
Song and Dance Man
I Saw Red
[Joey Allen guitar solo]
Train, Train
Mr. Rainmaker
Sure Feels Good to Me
[jam]
Cherry Pie
Big Talk
Baby Loves to Rock
Jailhouse Rock

Oh, you mean why did a riot almost break out?

Well, it all started when the Associated Press reported that HarperCollins had canceled the publication of Billy Joel‘s memoir, The Book of Joel (cowritten with veteran entertainment journalist Fred Schruers), less than three months before it was due to arrive in bookstores. The company’s decision was made after the singer-songwriter decided, appropriately enough, that he’d rather keep it to himself, it’s his life.

“It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I’m not all that interested in talking about the past,” Joel told the AP, “and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music.”

Uh … April Fool’s? In the past 18 years the Piano Man has written and recorded a grand total of two new songs, neither of which help answer the question “Soooo, whatcha been up to since River of Dreams?” nor do they recall his memorable, melodic hits of the ’70s and ’80s, for what it’s worth. “All My Life,” from 2007, may have been written about Joel’s third wife, Katie Lee (they split up two years later), but it’s more or less a Sinatra pastiche, while “Christmas in Fallujah,” released at the tail end of ’07, features leadm vocals by 21-year-old singer Cass Dillon, not Joel. Is this his way of reminding listeners that working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack?

Right now you’re probably asking yourself one of three questions: (1) “Why am I still reading this?”; (2) “Why does this convict assume I’m asking him anything?”; and (3) “Why would a bunch of prisoners try to set their mattresses on fire simply because the guy who sang ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ wants to keep his private life private?”

Answers: (1) You’re lonely; (2) I’m lonely; and (3) Because the book club I started here in prison a few months ago refuses to read anything but rock-star biographies, so they were really looking forward to The Book of Joel. (What’s with that pseudo-religious title, Billy? You used to have sex with Christie Brinkley. That’s not exactly the ultimate sacrifice.)

It’s my own fault. For our first book I assigned the group Moby-Dick, explaining that Herman Melville’s 1851 novel revolves around a motley crew of seamen as they hunt the title character, a deadly sperm whale.

After their laughter finally died down, one of the older members of the book club, who goes by the name “45,” spoke up (sadly, he didn’t earn that nickname because of his singles collection). “Doesn’t Motley Crue have a book?” he asked.

That’s when everyone decided they’d rather read The Dirt: Confessions of a Notorious Rock Band (2001), written by the Crue and reporter Neil Strauss, instead. Frankly, I was relieved — I’d picked Moby-Dick just so it’d look like I had good taste, but my only real knowledge of the book comes from a porn flick of the same name that I watched in high school, which I’m pretty sure took major liberties with Melville’s themes and symbolism (though, technically, the “whale” in the movie isn’t a whale).

Our book club devoured The Dirt in record time, then dove right into Tony Fletcher’s Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon, Keith Richards’s Life (cowritten with James Fox), The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super Freak, and — not my choice, but our group is a democracy in which everyone has a say — Sarah Gallick’s Divinely Decadent: Liza Minnelli — The Drugs, the Sex & the Truth Behind Her Bizarre Marriage, which I personally found to be tawdry and invasive.

These books generated many thought-provoking questions among our group, such as “What does ‘success’ really mean?” and “Is a popular entertainer automatically responsible for being a role model to young people?” and “How is it possible that Keith Richards is still alive?”

I think you can see now why my book club was up in arms about The Book of Joel‘s sudden death and the tales of booze-fueled debauchery that will now go untold. (Coincidentally, “An Innocent Man” is how every prisoner I’ve met in the past eight months describes himself.)

The Long Island native and his music inspire powerful emotions even outside of heavily guarded walls. Slate‘s Ron Rosenbaum deemed Joel “The Worst Pop Singer Ever” in 2009, calling him out for his “self-righteous contempt for others and the self-approbation and self-congratulation that is contempt’s backside, so to speak. Most frequently a contempt for the supposed phoniness or inauthenticity of other people as opposed to the rock-solid authenticity of our B.J.” On the flip side, Chuck Klosterman defended Joel in his 2003 book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, admitting that the singer’s never been “cool,” per se, “yet Billy Joel is great. And he’s not great because he’s uncool, nor is he great because he ‘doesn’t worry about being cool’ (because I think he kind of does) … What he does as an artist wouldn’t be better if he was significantly cooler, and it’s not worse because he isn’t. And that’s sort of amazing when one considers that he’s supposedly a rock star.”

Mr. Joel, you get people talking, for better or worse. And you can get people reading in prison book clubs all over this great nation if you’ll only let HarperCollins publish your memoir. If you do reconsider, though, I have one favor to ask: no e-books, please. My book club will definitely read The Book of Joel, but once we’re done with it some of the club’s members would like to have a place to store their contraband, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, it’s impossible at present to cut a dime-bag-size hole in the middle of an e-book, but I’ve been assured that technology will catch up sooner or later.

Below is a performance by Joel that was recorded at the Bottom Line in New York City on June 10, 1976, shortly after the release of his fourth album, Turnstiles. Joel “welcomes” special guests Joe Cocker and Bruce Springsteen (whom Rosenbaum loves and Klosterman teases by saying that some of the lyrics of “Born to Run” are “as funny as anything Tenacious D ever recorded, except Bruce is trying to be deep”), and as he introduces the members of his band he lifts a line from the greatest comedy album of all time, Albert Brooks’s Comedy Minus One (1973), making Billy Joel eternally cool, if you ask me*.

Prelude/Angry Young Man
Somewhere Along the Line
Summer, Highland Falls
Piano Man
Root Beer Rag
James
Travelin’ Prayer
New York State of Mind
The Entertainer
The Ballad of Billy the Kid
[band introduction]
I’ve Loved These Days
[interlude]
Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
Captain Jack
All You Wanna Do Is Dance
Ain’t No Crime
Weekend Song

* Please ask me. Anything. I’ve got a lot of time to kill.

Now, I suppose the above items would be perfectly acceptable items of hospitality (keep the goddamn green beer coming!) at a celebratory event, but the problem is that I kept hearing people making reference to some St. Patrick’s Day holiday something or other. Holiday? I don’t know about you, but I was at work.

Oh, you weren’t at work? Then what the hell happened to me?

Taking it upon myself, I decided to phone up Gary Cherone and congratulate him personally on the anniversary of Van Halen III.

“Hi, this is Gary ‘The Man’ Cherone. I can’t make it to the phone right now because I’m out touring the planet with my new project called Hurtsmile. Check out our music on YouTube — where all the kids go these days — and oh yeah, leave me a message!”

Wow, that was an odd voicemail message. But then I started talking. “Gary, you don’t know me, really, but there I was in the audience at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on the night when you stone-cold rocked my world with Van mothertruckin’ Halen! You were the man up there! While it wasn’t quite as awesome as that time I saw you dressed head to toe in black at the Odeon Concert Club, climbing all over the speaker columns, it was still awesome, because my man, Gary Cherone, had grown up and he got himself a job fronting one of the most awesome rock bands since Extreme!”

*disconnect tone*

“Hey, man, sorry — I got cut off. Where was I? Oh yeah — so I realize now, all these years later, that the whole Van Cherone– Is it cool that I call it that? Okay, cool. That Van Cherone thing didn’t go so well commercially in the eyes of the industry, and most Van Halen fans hated it, but I thought it was pretty cool. By the way, I checked out some of that Hurtsmile disc, and I have to tell you, that ‘Jesus Would You Meet Me’ tune is pretty awesome. Alright, man, hopefully I’ll see you out there somewhere. Peace.”

Life gives you weird things to think about sometimes. For instance, my friend Jim — actually, he’s my girlfriend’s friend Jim — posed the following question/realization:

“Tossed on Night Ranger’s Midnight Madness tonight and realized something — they are the original Van Hagar. Shredding guitarist(s), keyboards, harmonies galore, lovable ‘everyman’ frontman that was good-looking but not super good-looking.”

Hold up now, I said. HOLD UP. Kelly Keagy, Jack Blades, did you just hear what he said about you? I think he just insulted your mother as well (a regular practice here in the ‘Dose hallways).

But let’s hear him out …

“Kept thinking during it that this was what the Van Halen brothers had in mind when adding Sammy to the mix.”

Ponder that, folks.

And in the meantime, enjoy this mighty fine bootleg of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, recorded live in L.A. in June of ’88. As far as we know, they weren’t Van Hagar fans, but I can nearly guarantee that Sammy Hagar rocked “Nightmare on My Street” at least once.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
June 29, 1988
Greek Theatre
Los Angeles, California, USA

Line-up:
Will Smith (The Fresh Prince)
Jeffrey Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff)
Clarence Holmes (Ready Rock C)

Get Louder (Intro)
Banter One
Ready Rock C Human Juke Box Routine
Rock the House
Banter Three
Donkey Kong Beat Box Performance
Banter Four
Nightmare on My Street
Parents Just Don’t Understand
Banter Five
Brand New Funk
Brand New Funk Continued

Purists might turn up their nose at the game, with schools using cost-cutting measures like metal bats and pretty much only playing teams in the same region until tournament time. However, these people have to realize that baseball is the only sport in which colleges compete directly with the professional leagues in obtaining players.

Here in Bootleg City, our community college has a pretty good team. (Go, Fighting Acetates!) Like any self-respecting school, it pays for its players — but only through scholarships, of course (wink wink) — and over the years we’ve had some pretty good athletes who’ve gone on to greater glory in the pros.

(Recognize the guy on the left? He pitched for Bootleg City Community College for a few years. Cost a fortune, but totally worth it.)

To add to the magic, today will be the first game in the Acetates’ new stadium, a 100,000-seat monster with hundreds of luxury boxes, and each seat comes equipped with its own Internet-connected monitor so fans can watch replays at their convenience and even check their Twitter feeds.

Jerry Jones, you’re an amateur. (I thought this city was broke. Nobody tells me anything! —Mayor Cass, via prison)

For us baseball fans, opening day is a special time. Green grass, red-brick clay, hot dogs, and adult beverages. Peace on earth seems possible, and for a few hours all is right with the world.

And baseball ties into this week’s concert how, you ask? Simple — only on opening day can miraculous events occur, such as the one witnessed by myself, a semi-recognizable ’80s glam-metal guitarist, and Megadeth.

In Bootleg City we have several thousand ROIOs, or recordings of independent origin (wink wink again), stored in the archives, an underground climate-controlled vault with reinforced concrete. It’s a good system: any citizen can bring their MP3 player to the library and “check out” what they want.

And so, last Monday, seeing as how I was in the mood to get the blood flowing for the festivities to come, I put Megadeth’s May 29, 1995, gig from Kanagawa Kenmin Hall in Yokohama, Japan, on my iPod. Little did I know that the universe was about to bestow something special on me: a companion piece to my boot-listening pleasure appeared out of nowhere, a testament to this week’s serenity.

See, earlier this week Popdose contributor Chris Holmes took time out from his lucrative career as a swimming-pool-based motivational speaker to write part one of a Megadeth career overview. He does a kick-ass job covering Megadeth’s life span up through ’95, so this Yokohama concert pretty much ties a bow on where part one ends. Dude, it’s like he somehow knew what I was listening to! Sometimes the universe is in harmony and ends up making everybody happy.

A few notes about the show: This being a Megadeth concert, Dave Mustaine is front, center, and all points in between. Then again, you can’t really argue with his approach — he’s the group’s frontman, after all. Besides Mustaine, the other founding member of Megadeth, bassist Dave Ellefson, is here, as is drummer Nick Menza, and the Yokohama show features one of the greatest guitarists ever in the realm of metal, Marty Friedman.

“Angry Again,” from 1993′s Last Action Hero soundtrack, gets a workout here, and I’m surprised Mr. Holmes didn’t mention it in his Megadeth guide when talking about their Hidden Treasures EP. As far as I can ascertain, it was the most popular of all the soundtrack contributions the band recorded in the ’90s.

“Tornado of Souls” showcases Friedman’s patented reverse string picking; one can assume he really liked this song. He isn’t credited as one of its writers, but he later covered “Tornado” on his 2008 solo album Future Addict.

Ellefson’s killer bass solo that opens “Train of Consequences” gets a lot of help from the crowd. Japanese audiences are the best, especially on bootleg fan recordings like this one: they’re quiet when they need to be, and they sing along only when requested, unlike American crowds, who never seem to shut the fuck up. Plus, they clap on the beat, as opposed to UK crowds, who annoyingly find the backbeat oh-so-interesting.

Another quick note: The usual set closer at the time, a controversial cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.,” gets a little twist, with Mustaine and the boys breaking out “Crown of Worms” in the middle. Originally released as the B-side of the “Train of Consequences” single — it later appeared as a bonus track on the remastered reissue of Countdown to Extinction (1992) – the rare “Crown” makes its live debut in Yokohama, almost as if it were a gift being handed to the crowd. It’s kinda obvious they aren’t too familiar with the tune, but it’s also kinda obvious they don’t give a crap.

Skin o’ My Teeth
Hangar 18
Wake Up Dead
Reckoning Day
This Was My Life
Countdown to Extinction
Angry Again
Foreclosure of a Dream
A Tout le Monde
In My Darkest Hour
Train of Consequences
The Killing Road
Tornado of Souls
Holy Wars … the Punishment Due
Sweating Bullets
Mechanix
Symphony of Destruction
Peace Sells
[interlude]
Crown of Worms
Anarchy in the U.K.

Bonus time!!!!

In his Megadeth guide Mr. Holmes brought up Metallica’s 1982 demo tape No Life ‘Til Leather, which includes the Megadeth classic “Mechanix” in its first incarnation, then titled “The Mechanics,” with Mustaine singing lead. The original lineup of Metallica as well as their fans sold this demo all by themselves. (Cliff Burton wasn’t in the picture yet — Ron McGovney was the band’s bassist.)

The above photo is the cover of the No Life cassette. (Kids, ask your parents what a cassette was.) It makes you wonder what this version of Metallica would have done, although two huge egos in the band was more than enough. The third — Mustaine’s — became expendable.

Hit the Lights
The Mechanics
Motorbreath
Seek & Destroy
Metal Militia
Jump in the Fire
Phantom Lord

And for a double bonus, here’s “The Mechanix” (final spelling, if not the final title) performed live by the No Life ‘Til Leather lineup at the Stone in San Francisco on August 9, 1982. Mustaine screams his throat out, then kicks ass with a solo. The sound quality is iffy, but hey, it’s a historical document. Do you bitch that the Constitution is written on paper that’s yellowed over the years? Of course not.

The Mechanix [Live: 8/9/82]

College baseball’s opening day. Two like minds independently reach across the ether and jam to some Megadeth. It can be a special time. Enjoy.

Mr. Holmes, I’m looking forward to your opinion of “Breadline,” not to mention a reunion with Blackie. The world cries out for “The Headless Children Volume 2.”

Play ball!

Then again, I don’t remember receiving any cards or letters from you guys. What’s your excuse? Walgreens doesn’t have a special section in the greeting-card aisle marked “Thinking of You, Especially Whether or Not You’re Somebody’s ‘Bitch’ by Now”? (For the record, Big Ricky is my “master,” but I’m not his “bitch.” I can teach you about the intricacies of our prison’s hierarchy if you ask politely, but otherwise please don’t waste my time.)

No wonder there’s such a high recidivism rate in this country — convicts can’t wait to return to a place where they actually feel wanted.

For those of you who haven’t already skipped down to this week’s bootleg, you might be interested to know that I’m getting good grades in my library science classes so far, and my internship at the prison library is going well. I think I impressed my supervisor, Mad Dog, when I suggested that the library rethink its policy on late fees. With most libraries in the outside world you’re charged a quarter or less for every day past the due date that you fail to return a book. Not a harsh fine, but you’d never know it from the way those Gestapo agents at the circulation desk stare you down.

At this prison your punishment is tied to whatever book you’ve checked out. For instance, if you return Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo past its due date, you’ll be given a tattoo by Dragon, our resident Japanese yakuza, and it’ll be applied to a certain area of your body that some would say resembles a dragon cave. Think “where the sun don’t shine,” but above all else think good thoughts while Dragon’s pressing that needle into your flesh.

Similarly, if you’re late in returning Larsson’s sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, you’ll be handed over to the prison’s resident arsonist and psychopathic beekeeper. Patrons are advised not to test the logic of the system: one movie fan returned the library’s DVD of the late Blake Edwards‘s The Days of Wine and Roses one day late, thinking he’d receive a bottle of wine in return. He did receive a bottle, but presumably not in the manner he had hoped for.

This week’s featured concert, from Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, was recorded on October 16, 1974, at the Cleveland Music Hall. Have you ever been to Cleveland, Ohio? I haven’t, but mayoral bridesmaid Matt Wardlaw is from there, and that says it all, doesn’t it? (He did, however, generously provide us with the Utopia bootleg. I hate when he does nice things like that.)

This summer Popdose.com, my online home for these municipal updates since October of ’08, will host its first annual employee convention in “the rock ‘n’ roll capital of the world.” Take a look at some of the fun presentations they have lined up for their writers and editors:

• ”Bruce Springsteen: Is This Guy Underrated or What?”

• “The ’80s: The Decade That Never Ended, So Stop Saying It Did”

• “The ’90s: The Decade That Never Happened Because the ’80s Never Ended — Haven’t You Been Listening?”

• ”Memphis Soul: The Greatest Music Ever Created by Black People, According to White People”

Mr. Wardlaw’s significant other, Annie Zaleski, informed me that she’ll be conducting the following seminars:

• ”Hall or Oates: Whose Side Are You On?”

• “Too Much Time on My Hands: An Exhaustive Critical Reappraisal of Styx”

• “25 or 6 to 4, or: How Many People Have Been in the Band Chicago Since 1967?”

And, somehow, Matt himself was given the go-ahead to lead this one:

• ”Punctuation; A Really Important Big Word (That Semicolon Should’ve Been a Colon, But You’d Know That Already If You’d Read the First 15 Volumes of the Style Guide)”

I hope I’ll be out on parole in time to lend my services at the convention, but if not, I’ll continue to do what I can from here.

Say, is that a segue I see approaching? Why, yes, it is …

In 1971 Todd Rundgren recorded a song called “Parole” for his second album, Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren. Three years later his new prog-rock band, Utopia, released their first album, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, which they were promoting when they made a tour stop in Cleveland in October of ’74. In addition to Rundgren on guitar and lead vocals — he performs several cuts from his solo albums, including “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” and “A Dream Goes On Forever” — this lineup of Utopia featured Mark “Moogy” Klingman and Roger Powell on keyboards, John Siegler on bass, and John “Willie” Wilcox on drums.

If you’d like to learn more about Rundgren and Utopia, visit your local library and look for a copy of Paul Myers’s new book, A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio. Just be mindful of that due date, you hear? (For what it’s worth, if you lose the prison library’s copy of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, you’ll become lost yourself — and stay lost — with a little help from the establishment’s Mafia contingent. So check yo’ self — and the things you check out from the library — before you wreck yo’ self.)

Utopia Theme
Don’t You Ever Learn?
Another Life
A Dream Goes On Forever
Real Man
Freedom Fighters
The Wheel
Good Times Were Better
Sunset Blvd./Le Feel Internacionale
The Last Ride
Bass Ball
Number 1 Lowest Common Denominator
A Night in New Orleans
Do Ya
Freak Parade
Born to Synthesize/The Spark of Life/The Goon
Slut
Couldn’t I Just Tell You
Black Maria

In Walker, MN, at least, they make really good use of the warm weather period and hold an awesome rock and roll festival called Moondance Jam. For years, the festival has been made up of a lot of the standard classic rock fare, from Sammy Hagar to REO Speedwagon to Foghat, etc. etc. (In other words, it’s my dream festival that I have yet to attend!) In recent years, they’ve expanded the focus to include some of the more popular ’90s alt-rockers in the mix and this year’s bill included Tonic, one of my very favorite bands from the era.

I always felt like Tonic got the shaft during the ’90s, doomed as “that band” with the success of the mushy hit single “If You Could Only See,” from their first album Lemon Parade. To those of us that were paying attention prior to that moment, Tonic was a great rock band, with initial singles “Open Up Your Eyes” (a co-worker called it “Open Up Your Thighs”) and “Casual Affair” (which should have been a bigger hit at rock radio) as evidence.

When I saw them live prior to the release of their second album Sugar, they showcased a number of songs from the album and proved that Lemon Parade was no fluke – Tonic was a great band with plenty of great songs and yes, still more rock with “Knock Down Walls,” and “Drag Me Down” being just a couple of songs that kicked down the door the first time I listened to Sugar.

To skip ahead a lot, Head on Straight (the band’s third album) was released and later nominated for a Grammy on the same day that the band found out that they were being dropped by Universal Records (while on the road, no less). Updates became sporadic after that and the band eventually packed it in (although guitarist Jeff Russo says that the band never really called it quits) with lead singer Emerson Hart launching a solo career while the other band members pursued the usual individual projects.

Ballads or rockers, Hart and the members of Tonic wrote some of the finest music during the ’90s that deserved more of an audience than it received. They regrouped for a new album last year and although I can’t say that it hits the mark like their previous albums did, I wouldn’t count these guys out – I think they’ve definitely got another great album in them.

Tonic’s set from the Moondance Jam is nearly perfect – 5 songs from Lemon Parade, 4 songs from Sugar (including the wonderful title track), 1 from Head on Straight and surprisingly, only 1 from their newest self-titled release. Perhaps they simply wanted to take the typical approach and come loaded for bear with a festival-friendly “greatest hits” type set and if that was the goal, they certainly achieved it. The guys at Classic Rock Revisited (who have been Moondance Jammers since the beginning) summarized the band’s set, saying that “I don’t think anyone thought before the show that Tonic would be this good-or heavy.” Their reaction is a common one for many that are seeing the band live for the first time and perhaps are only familiar with the “big hit.”

The fanboy in me can’t really argue with this setlist – I’d love to hear the previously mentioned “Drag Me Down,” “Knock Down Walls” or a couple more from Head On Straight, but they make up for all of that with a pavement peeling 7 minute version of “Casual Affair” that just rips. If you’ve never given these guys a good shot, skip ahead to that one and then check out the rest of the set – I’m guessing it will make you a believer.

On my side of things, as the Moondance Jam celebrates 20 years this year, I’m thinking that the time might be right for me to finally make that trip. Now, I just need to check to see if my buddy Brian can drive me there….

Tonic
Live at Moondance Jam
Walker, MN
7/15/10

Open Up Your Eyes
Take Me As I Am
Future Says Run
Top Falls Down
You Wanted More
Sugar
Mountain
Precious Little Bird
If You Could Only See
Casual Affair
Irish

Bonus Track:

If You Could Only See (Live on MTV ’98)

Unfortunately, events like this help to educate music fans about people like Bill Maddox that are often bit players buried within the liner notes.

In 57 years on the planet, Maddox racked up some interesting career highlights besides his gigs with Johnson (the pair have a recording history and friendship that began in 1974), including a lengthy employment stint at Dell before the company even was operating under the “Dell” name. According to Alien Love Child bassist Chris Maresh (Alien Love Child was a side project of sorts for Johnson, featuring Maresh and Maddox), Maddox was able to afford a hobby collecting vintage Fender guitars thanks to the many stock options he had purchased during his employment with Dell. Maresh also shared high praise for Maddox’s drumming in Alien Love Child, calling him the “glue of the group” (via an interview with Austin360.com) and noted that he brought a lot of energy to the project, comparing his drumming to Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell.

Maddox had recently wrapped up work on a solo project and shares a co-writing credit on “Brilliant Room,” a track that in my opinion is one of the best on the new EJ album, featuring lead vocals from fellow Austin compadre (and Alien Love Child associate) Malford Milligan.

Out of all of the Eric Johnson shows that I’ve seen, I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to catch an Alien Love Child gig, but there’s plenty of good jams that have been captured in high quality for posterity. A good chunk of those can be found officially on the Live & Beyond release, recorded over 3 nights at Antone’s in Austin (and released in 2000 on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label). Having heard audience boots of the 3 nights in that same time period, I can assure you that if they did any doctoring to the tapes for the release, it was subtle. EJ and crew were on fire for the weekend of shows. (And there’s a really cool personal account of the shows that can be found here.)

A couple of weeks after the release of Live & Beyond, Johnson and Alien Love Child played a gig at Antone’s to celebrate the album release and the full show was broadcast by local Austin music station KLBJ. For anybody like me that never had the opportunity to catch a gig in person, this show will serve as a really enjoyable listen. The ALC shows were a mix of both familiar Johnson solo material (including the always beautiful “40 Mile Town”) and stretched out ALC jams like “Last House on the Block,” which rolls for nearly 14 minutes on this night. I’d always hoped that perhaps ALC would regroup one day for another tour and album.

Our thoughts are with the family of Bill Maddox, Eric Johnson and his organization and the many friends and associates that are grieving the tragic loss of a much loved friend and family member.

Eric Johnson and Alien Love Child
Antone’s
Austin, TX
11/4/00

Intro
Zenland
Friends
Trademark
Nothing Can Keep Me From You
40 Mile Town
Trail of Tears
Last House on the Block
Rain
The Boogie King
Soulful Terrain
Shape I’m In
Desert Rose
Spanish Castle Magic
World of Trouble
Righteous

Photo of Bill Maddox via Texas Oasis

Two weeks ago the mayor called from his dorm room jail cell and asked if I could whip something up for a special holiday edition of Bootleg City. I answered, “No problem,” and asked if he had any particular genre or band in mind that would be appropriate. The answer was simple: “Put up something you like.” Therefore I’m giving myself — and by extension, you fine folks — a belated Christmas present.

Have I mentioned that I really, really like Styx? Well, I do, especially their Paradise Theater era. The band’s 1981 LP was the first “concept album” I’d heard that centered on an actual concept, not a story like the ones found on the Who’s Tommy or Rush’s 2112. The whole idea that the world’s gone to hell but there’s still hope resonated in my junior high mind, plus the packaging of the record was cool: the gatefold sleeve simulated a playbill poster from an old theater when you opened it, and a kick-ass hologram was etched into the B side. (The 45 single of “The Best of Times,” which I bought on eBay a few years ago, had the same hologram.)

As for the tour that Paradise Theater spawned, well, what can I say? It expanded on the album’s concept, with frontman Dennis DeYoung taking on the role of a vaudeville emcee and the images projected onto the back of the stage slowly deteriorating as the show went on. There was even a roadie dressed like a janitor who slowly swept the stage during the closing number, “State Street Sadie,” as the lights came up.

So, the visuals were cool and the stage show dovetailed perfectly with the album — but how was the music? In a word, awesome.

Most of Paradise Theater‘s songs have appeared on the 300-plus live albums Styx has released over the years, but it’s nice to hear such concert rarities as “Lights,” “Great White Hope,” “Borrowed Time,” and “Boat on the River” on the bootleg featured here, which was recorded at the Scandinavium in Göteborg, Sweden, on October 31, 1981. Back then it was unusual for Styx to play “Boat on the River” in concert, but the song was a genuine hit in Europe; “Lady” took its slot on the North American leg of the Paradise Theater tour that spring, seeing as how it was far more important to the history of the band in the States.

Paradise Theater was the second-to-last hurrah for the classic Styx lineup of Dennis DeYoung (keyboards and vocals), Tommy Shaw and James “J.Y.” Young (guitars, keyboards, and vocals), and the very underrated rhythm section of fraternal twins Chuck (bass) and John Panozzo (drums). They released one more major-label album, the polarizing Kilroy Was Here (1983), which was coupled with an even bigger stage show, but Paradise Theater and its tour were the professional peaks of the band’s career.

Although it’s now considered uncool to admit you like Styx, rest assured nobody will know you downloaded this Halloween concert if you don’t tell them. If you keep the volume down, nobody will know you’re even listening to it, and if you don’t sing along or play air guitar in public, nobody will know you’re unironically enjoying it.

Nobody but your fellow Popdosers, that is. Because we’ll be doing the same thing.

[intro]
State Street Sadie/A.D. 1928
Rockin’ the Paradise
Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
The Grand Illusion
Lights
Great White Hope
[Tommy Shaw acoustic guitar solo]
Crystal Ball
Suite Madame Blue
Snowblind
Too Much Time on My Hands
State Street Sadie [Reprise]/The Best of Times
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
Boat on the River
[James "J.Y." Young guitar solo]
Miss America
Babe
Renegade
Come Sail Away
Borrowed Time
Half-Penny, Two-Penny/A.D. 1958
State Street Sadie [Reprise]

And here it is, the reason you guys bother reading my stuff in the first place — the bonus tracks!

This extra Styx bootleg, recorded at Detroit’s Ford Auditorium on November 29, 1976, is from the Crystal Ball tour and is only about an hour long since the band was sandwiched between Graham Parker & the Rumour and Kansas on the bill that night. I’m guessing time restraints kept Shaw’s acoustic guitar in its case since he didn’t perform “Crystal Ball,” the song that earned him his spot in the band. But even though he was the “new guy,” he got to front two songs, the rocking “Shooz” and the Queen-esque “Mademoiselle.” He was also given the chance to wank around a bit on a solo.

Another notable aspect of this gig is Dennis DeYoung’s organ work. You may have dismissed him in the past as some sort of torch singer with a piano, but in reality the man was — and, I assume, still is — one kick-ass rock keyboardist.

So there you go, folks. Merry Styxmas to all of you from Bootleg City, and I hope Santa brought all you wished for.

[intro]
Put Me On
Lorelei
Shooz
Mademoiselle
Light Up
Suite Madame Blue
Lady
Midnight Ride
[Tommy Shaw guitar solo]
22 Years

Let’s face it, if you’re reading this, you should be with your family right now. But maybe you’re like Mayor Cass and you find yourself spending the holiday in prison with a different kind of family.

Whatever your situation is, we’d like to wish you the happiest of holidays from all of us here at Bootleg City. This year’s Christmas cheer comes in the form of two vintage shows from Huey Lewis & The News, proving once and for all that no matter what Mayor Cass might say, the ’80s are still alive and well and will live on in our hearts forever!

The first show might be one of my favorite live concerts of all time and it finds Huey and the boys at home in San Francisco at the Kabuki Theater, recorded during the Sports tour. The audio was transferred directly from my own personal laserdisc, a show that sadly remains unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray. The liner notes describe the show as “no glitter, no studded wristbands, no heavy handed special effects here: just everything that rock and roll really is.”  Late in the broadcast at the end of “Workin’ For A Livin’,” Lewis informs the crowd that “you’ve just heard the news, yes you did!”

Testify!

Enjoy the power of love this show and a bonus show recorded the following year in Portland, OR on the Fore tour.

Happy Holidays!

Huey Lewis & The News
Live at The Kabuki Theater
San Francisco, CA
1985

Intro
The Heart of Rock and Roll
Trouble in Paradise
Heart and Soul
If This Is It
Walking On a Thin Line
It’s Alright
Workin’ For A Livin’
Buzz Buzz Buzz
Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do
I Want A New Drug

Huey Lewis & The News
Live in Portland, OR
December 1986
Jacob’s Ladder
I Never Walk Alone
Walking On A Thin Line
Bad Is Bad
The Heart of Rock and Roll
If This Is It
The Power of Love
Buzz Buzz Buzz
Hip To Be Square
Stuck With You
Back in Time
I Know What I Like
I Want A New Drug