Music Banter - View Single Post - The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal

Trollheart · 10-22-2014, 08:44 AM

I'm always happy to see someone tackle metal outside of their own area of influence. I loved Hayseed Dixie's rendition of “Ace of spades”, and of course metal acquires a really deep sense of grandeur when it's performed by a full orchestra, whether instrumentally, as in the “Hooked on Classic Rock” series or the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra going metal, or indeed with a band, as Metallica proved with “S&M”. So in thisnew section I’m calling

I'll be looking at albums, mostly, where an established artist who was not anywhere near the usual metal arena took on the task of interpreting our favourite music, or where a metal band decided to give their songs that added oomph! Factor by calling in and working with an orchestra.

And the first one out of the gate, discovered entirely by accident when I was researching for another feature, to be published later, is this man, believe it or not.

Yeah, the Christian crooner, the man with more Christmas albums than Perry Como and Val Doonican put together --- maybe --- and who would be more at home in my “Rocking Chair” slot than in Metal Month II. A man who has over seventy albums to his credit, and was the darling of American radio and TV in the 50s and 60s. The man who brought us “Speedy Gonzales” (Yee-hah! Hondalay! Arriba!), “Love letters in the sand” and many others, and whose fundamental Christian beliefs and persona would, you would think, have him spouting fire and brimstone from the pulpit at the godless music of the Devil. But he decided, in 1997, to take himself less seriously perhaps, or just reach out to the young 'uns, and cover metal songs.

In a metal mood: No more Mr. Nice Guy --- Pat Boone --- 1997 (Hip-O)

Whatever possessed (!) then then-sixty-three year old Boone to do this I don't know, but at least he recognised his own limitations. He was hardly going to pick up a Fender and start blasting out killer riffs in a voice that sounded like he ate cigarettes for breakfast! No, he would stick to his traditional genre but, literally, jazz metal up by playing famous tunes in a big band style. How did it work out? You know something? I don't know. Let's take a listen.

He wasn't alone in his endeavour, pulling in star help from the metal community in the form of ex-Rainbow stalwarts Ritchie Blackmore and the late Ronnie James Dio, as well as Dweezil Zappa to realise this album. Almost every song on it is a metal standard, including obviously Dio and Purple ones. We get going with, perhaps oddly enough as he could have really kicked out the stays and made a mission statement for this project with “Breaking the law”, a track from Judas Priest's “Screaming for vengeance” album, one of the singles, “You've got another thing comin'”. With a big brass intro and then accompanied by uptempo trumpets, Boone takes the vocal himself on this song. I'm not that familiar with it so I don't know if he does a good job on it, but I think I heard it once or maybe twice, and he seems to not ruin it. Nice sax solo takes the place of, I assume, guitar on the original, while upright bass thumps away happily. More to the point is the second track, the acid test as it were, as he tackles stone-cold classic “Smoke on the water”.

Blackmore's guitar gets that familiar riff going (why would be be there if not to play that oh-so-famous intro anyway?) but softened by the addition of wailing organ and some saxophone, which definitely turns the metal classic into a jazz tune. Again Boone takes the vocal himself, and while he is of course no replacement for Gillan, and his vocal is lacking the anger and passion of the Purple man's at the tragedy of which this song speaks, it's still believable. Very jazzy guitar solo from Ritchie, and the timbales and bass carry the latter part of the song nicely. AC/DC's “It's a long way to the top (If you wanna rock'n'roll)” is up next, introduced on chunky organ then some really nice trombone as it strides along with a real boogie beat.

Nice female backing vocals from Merry Clayton, Clydene Jackson Edwards and Carmen Twillie, who we met on the “Cobra” soundtrack a while back. Well this certainly swings, and Boone sounds like he's really enjoying himself, and truth to tell, he probably got a kick out of annoying the stuffed shirts who watched this drama unfold in silent horror that their hero could get involved with “that sort of music”. Another great sax solo, but there are so many players here I couldn't tell you who's responsible for it. Again perhaps an odd choice if you're gonna cover a Val Halen song, “Panama” gets the full jazz treatment --- pity Boone couldn't have enticed Eddie to add his skills, but Blackmore puts in a seriously smoking solo at the opening of the song before the brass take over and the female backing vocals start the song off.

A harder, more sort of thumping rhythm to this, the closest you could say Boone has come to real rock on this album so far --- which is odd, given that he covered the Deep Purple classic, but that was jazzed up, whereas this is not, not so much anyway --- with a brash, almost AOR rhythm to it as Boone sings about the famous city once lauded by Dave Lee Roth. Traces of Manilow's “Copacabana” in here I feel, very latin in style, not surprisingly given the title. Very enjoyable. Next we have a real swing version of the title track, “No more Mr. Nice Guy”, originally by Alice Cooper. It could almost be a signature song for Boone, if you drop the first two words, but it makes sense here, because it's what he's saying: this is a side of me you ain't seen. You may never see it again, but fuck you cos I'm having a whale of a time! Fair play to him. The girls do really well with the backing vocals here, but again the brass have it all tied up. Great song, really cleverly arranged.

A ballad should be easy to put to a big band setting, and Nazareth's “Love hurts” is the only slow song on the album, riding on a superb little soft piano line and it must be said a deep, passionate vocal from Boone that never goes over the top; in fact, it's very restrained. Dave Siebels (who he?) must take credit for a sublime performance on the piano, while flutes or clarinets or something add an extra layer to the song, as do strings courtesy of Doug Cameron, Bruce Dukov and Michelle Richards on the violins, and Evan Wilson on the viola. Add in trombones and trumpets all building up the atmosphere and you have one smoky, jazzy lounge ballad that whispers rather than screams its sultriness.

Metallica's standard is introduced by Blackmore with the classic guitar riff but is quickly joined by trumpets and bones as Boone ups the tempo from the original, which pretty much crawled, but whereas that exuded a sense of menace and creeping fear, there's nothing about this version that evokes that sort of aura. It's actually like a lion with all its teeth pulled, and whereas he managed great with “Smoke on the water”, here I think he stumbles for the first time. I just think this does not work. Not to say it's not well treated, but it's made too light of. Dark bassoon, tuba, heavy bass might have been better. Here, the instruments are too light and airy to even come close to conveying the original feel of the song.

There is of course only one man who could do “Holy diver” justice, and it's really interesting to hear Ronnie sing --- oh no wait. It's Boone himself. Strange. The credits show Dio as being on vocals, so where is he? I think this was a mistake; if he had Ronnie there with him why did he not use him for the lead vocal, or at least duet with him? That's like having a shiny new Ferrari in the garage and going off in an old Camaro. No offence, Pat, but you're no RJD! Anyway, the song is played against a mournful violin opening that turns into a dramatic brass salvo that almost recalls “Jesus Christ Superstar” for me, then heavy trumpets and trombones usher the song in fully. It swings, but I'm disappointed there's no Ronnie. Boone also decides to recite the Lord's Prayer at the end over the violin, perhaps in an attempt to placate those fans who were rabidly against this experiment.

Great jazzy piano takes “Paradise City”, and he does a fine job on this, the brass again rising to the occasion. He does kind of sing it in almost a rap style though, which is a little odd. You can't help but tap your toe though! The upright bass also does really well here, and there's a super instrumental break near the end. Another which should on the face of it seem an easy transition to Boone's particular brand of soft jazz is “The wind cries Mary”. Soft trumpet opens the song, with acoustic guitar and bass. Of course it's missing Hendrix's weary growl, and there's none of the tension that came only from Jimi's nimble fingers. There's also an uptempo brass piece put in that I think kind of ruins the song. He's extended it by about a minute that in my opinion was not necessary.

Ozzy's “Crazy train” is again an odd one. If you want to include the big O, I would have taken a Sabbath song to cover. But it must be said that with a very few exceptions there's nothing wrong with the selection chosen here, and they give a good overall picture of the metal scene from the seventies to the eighties. This has a really swinging rhythm, lots of brass and a really nice bass, but I could do without the “choo choo” noises from the girls. And we close on the classic of classics, as Boone brings the curtain down climbing the “Stairway to Heaven”. This has been covered many times of course, but I don't think I've ever heard a version like this. Good or bad?

Well...

It opens on soft flute and strings, which is certainly evocative and substitutes the acoustic guitar well, although that itself comes in then with attendant piano. However it soon gets a little too jazzy, sort of striding along, which doesn't really work for me. It'll be interesting to see how the midsection --- originally taken by Page --- turns out. It gets very big band in the “It makes me wonder” section, then the horns take the tune. They work, mostly, but I'm not convinced. Nice work on the piano, and here comes the part where the guitar normally rocks out. And we get... um, nothing. He just cuts right to the vocal with “As we wind on down the road...” Boo! Nice sax solo near the end but I think he really missed a trick by cutting out the iconic guitar solo, even had he substituted it with horns, piano, violin --- hell, I'd have taken flute! But nothing?

Not the best of ways to end the album and while it's an interesting treatment of the classic we all grew up on, and I don't feel slighted or insulted by it --- Boone paid the proper respect, mostly, to the original --- I feel it was definitely an opportunity missed.

TRACKLISTING

1. You've got another thing comin'
2. Smoke on the water
3. It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock'n'roll)
4. Panama
5. No more Mr. Nice Guy
6. Love hurts
7. Enter sandman
8. Holy diver
9. Paradise City
10. The wind cries Mary
11. Crazy train
12. Stairway to Heaven

It's always good to see someone step outside their comfort zone, and it's especially satisfying to see a man whose music is pretty much the antithesis of metal --- philosophically --- give it a chance and play around with it. I like picturing the faces of the Bible Belters who frowned in annoyance and disbelief when Boone announced this album, and the equal puzzlement of many metallers, myself included, when we heard of it. But one of the best things you can do with something you have no real truck with generally is to try to gently poke fun at it and if not understand it then at least appreciate and experience it.

Donny Osmond (yeah) tells a tale of when he played a rock festival and some bikers were giving him hell about the song “Puppy love”. In case you don't know or care, it's a soppy ballad that was a hit for him in the seventies. Rather than shout back, get annoyed or try to have them removed, he decided to play them at their own game, and instructed his band to play heavy metal, then sung the song in a total death vocal style. The bikers, apparently, ate it all up and laughed and applauded.

That's how to do it. Don't be afraid of or hate something just because you don't understand it. As an artist, a singer, you can reinterpret the music to fit into your own sphere of influence, and that's exactly what Pat Boone did here. Did it work? Not always. Did he alienate many of his longtime fans by going down this temporary route? Most likely. Did he enjoy it? I bet he did.

And so did I.

I'm just glad I don't subscribe to Last FM: it would be hard to explain all those Pat Boone songs on the list!

10-22-2014, 08:44 AM	#2421 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	I'm always happy to see someone tackle metal outside of their own area of influence. I loved Hayseed Dixie's rendition of “Ace of spades”, and of course metal acquires a really deep sense of grandeur when it's performed by a full orchestra, whether instrumentally, as in the “Hooked on Classic Rock” series or the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra going metal, or indeed with a band, as Metallica proved with “S&M”. So in thisnew section I’m calling I'll be looking at albums, mostly, where an established artist who was not anywhere near the usual metal arena took on the task of interpreting our favourite music, or where a metal band decided to give their songs that added oomph! Factor by calling in and working with an orchestra. And the first one out of the gate, discovered entirely by accident when I was researching for another feature, to be published later, is this man, believe it or not. Yeah, the Christian crooner, the man with more Christmas albums than Perry Como and Val Doonican put together --- maybe --- and who would be more at home in my “Rocking Chair” slot than in Metal Month II. A man who has over seventy albums to his credit, and was the darling of American radio and TV in the 50s and 60s. The man who brought us “Speedy Gonzales” (Yee-hah! Hondalay! Arriba!), “Love letters in the sand” and many others, and whose fundamental Christian beliefs and persona would, you would think, have him spouting fire and brimstone from the pulpit at the godless music of the Devil. But he decided, in 1997, to take himself less seriously perhaps, or just reach out to the young 'uns, and cover metal songs. In a metal mood: No more Mr. Nice Guy --- Pat Boone --- 1997 (Hip-O) Whatever possessed (!) then then-sixty-three year old Boone to do this I don't know, but at least he recognised his own limitations. He was hardly going to pick up a Fender and start blasting out killer riffs in a voice that sounded like he ate cigarettes for breakfast! No, he would stick to his traditional genre but, literally, jazz metal up by playing famous tunes in a big band style. How did it work out? You know something? I don't know. Let's take a listen. He wasn't alone in his endeavour, pulling in star help from the metal community in the form of ex-Rainbow stalwarts Ritchie Blackmore and the late Ronnie James Dio, as well as Dweezil Zappa to realise this album. Almost every song on it is a metal standard, including obviously Dio and Purple ones. We get going with, perhaps oddly enough as he could have really kicked out the stays and made a mission statement for this project with “Breaking the law”, a track from Judas Priest's “Screaming for vengeance” album, one of the singles, “You've got another thing comin'”. With a big brass intro and then accompanied by uptempo trumpets, Boone takes the vocal himself on this song. I'm not that familiar with it so I don't know if he does a good job on it, but I think I heard it once or maybe twice, and he seems to not ruin it. Nice sax solo takes the place of, I assume, guitar on the original, while upright bass thumps away happily. More to the point is the second track, the acid test as it were, as he tackles stone-cold classic “Smoke on the water”. Blackmore's guitar gets that familiar riff going (why would be be there if not to play that oh-so-famous intro anyway?) but softened by the addition of wailing organ and some saxophone, which definitely turns the metal classic into a jazz tune. Again Boone takes the vocal himself, and while he is of course no replacement for Gillan, and his vocal is lacking the anger and passion of the Purple man's at the tragedy of which this song speaks, it's still believable. Very jazzy guitar solo from Ritchie, and the timbales and bass carry the latter part of the song nicely. AC/DC's “It's a long way to the top (If you wanna rock'n'roll)” is up next, introduced on chunky organ then some really nice trombone as it strides along with a real boogie beat. Nice female backing vocals from Merry Clayton, Clydene Jackson Edwards and Carmen Twillie, who we met on the “Cobra” soundtrack a while back. Well this certainly swings, and Boone sounds like he's really enjoying himself, and truth to tell, he probably got a kick out of annoying the stuffed shirts who watched this drama unfold in silent horror that their hero could get involved with “that sort of music”. Another great sax solo, but there are so many players here I couldn't tell you who's responsible for it. Again perhaps an odd choice if you're gonna cover a Val Halen song, “Panama” gets the full jazz treatment --- pity Boone couldn't have enticed Eddie to add his skills, but Blackmore puts in a seriously smoking solo at the opening of the song before the brass take over and the female backing vocals start the song off. A harder, more sort of thumping rhythm to this, the closest you could say Boone has come to real rock on this album so far --- which is odd, given that he covered the Deep Purple classic, but that was jazzed up, whereas this is not, not so much anyway --- with a brash, almost AOR rhythm to it as Boone sings about the famous city once lauded by Dave Lee Roth. Traces of Manilow's “Copacabana” in here I feel, very latin in style, not surprisingly given the title. Very enjoyable. Next we have a real swing version of the title track, “No more Mr. Nice Guy”, originally by Alice Cooper. It could almost be a signature song for Boone, if you drop the first two words, but it makes sense here, because it's what he's saying: this is a side of me you ain't seen. You may never see it again, but fuck you cos I'm having a whale of a time! Fair play to him. The girls do really well with the backing vocals here, but again the brass have it all tied up. Great song, really cleverly arranged. A ballad should be easy to put to a big band setting, and Nazareth's “Love hurts” is the only slow song on the album, riding on a superb little soft piano line and it must be said a deep, passionate vocal from Boone that never goes over the top; in fact, it's very restrained. Dave Siebels (who he?) must take credit for a sublime performance on the piano, while flutes or clarinets or something add an extra layer to the song, as do strings courtesy of Doug Cameron, Bruce Dukov and Michelle Richards on the violins, and Evan Wilson on the viola. Add in trombones and trumpets all building up the atmosphere and you have one smoky, jazzy lounge ballad that whispers rather than screams its sultriness. Metallica's standard is introduced by Blackmore with the classic guitar riff but is quickly joined by trumpets and bones as Boone ups the tempo from the original, which pretty much crawled, but whereas that exuded a sense of menace and creeping fear, there's nothing about this version that evokes that sort of aura. It's actually like a lion with all its teeth pulled, and whereas he managed great with “Smoke on the water”, here I think he stumbles for the first time. I just think this does not work. Not to say it's not well treated, but it's made too light of. Dark bassoon, tuba, heavy bass might have been better. Here, the instruments are too light and airy to even come close to conveying the original feel of the song. There is of course only one man who could do “Holy diver” justice, and it's really interesting to hear Ronnie sing --- oh no wait. It's Boone himself. Strange. The credits show Dio as being on vocals, so where is he? I think this was a mistake; if he had Ronnie there with him why did he not use him for the lead vocal, or at least duet with him? That's like having a shiny new Ferrari in the garage and going off in an old Camaro. No offence, Pat, but you're no RJD! Anyway, the song is played against a mournful violin opening that turns into a dramatic brass salvo that almost recalls “Jesus Christ Superstar” for me, then heavy trumpets and trombones usher the song in fully. It swings, but I'm disappointed there's no Ronnie. Boone also decides to recite the Lord's Prayer at the end over the violin, perhaps in an attempt to placate those fans who were rabidly against this experiment. Great jazzy piano takes “Paradise City”, and he does a fine job on this, the brass again rising to the occasion. He does kind of sing it in almost a rap style though, which is a little odd. You can't help but tap your toe though! The upright bass also does really well here, and there's a super instrumental break near the end. Another which should on the face of it seem an easy transition to Boone's particular brand of soft jazz is “The wind cries Mary”. Soft trumpet opens the song, with acoustic guitar and bass. Of course it's missing Hendrix's weary growl, and there's none of the tension that came only from Jimi's nimble fingers. There's also an uptempo brass piece put in that I think kind of ruins the song. He's extended it by about a minute that in my opinion was not necessary. Ozzy's “Crazy train” is again an odd one. If you want to include the big O, I would have taken a Sabbath song to cover. But it must be said that with a very few exceptions there's nothing wrong with the selection chosen here, and they give a good overall picture of the metal scene from the seventies to the eighties. This has a really swinging rhythm, lots of brass and a really nice bass, but I could do without the “choo choo” noises from the girls. And we close on the classic of classics, as Boone brings the curtain down climbing the “Stairway to Heaven”. This has been covered many times of course, but I don't think I've ever heard a version like this. Good or bad? Well... It opens on soft flute and strings, which is certainly evocative and substitutes the acoustic guitar well, although that itself comes in then with attendant piano. However it soon gets a little too jazzy, sort of striding along, which doesn't really work for me. It'll be interesting to see how the midsection --- originally taken by Page --- turns out. It gets very big band in the “It makes me wonder” section, then the horns take the tune. They work, mostly, but I'm not convinced. Nice work on the piano, and here comes the part where the guitar normally rocks out. And we get... um, nothing. He just cuts right to the vocal with “As we wind on down the road...” Boo! Nice sax solo near the end but I think he really missed a trick by cutting out the iconic guitar solo, even had he substituted it with horns, piano, violin --- hell, I'd have taken flute! But nothing? Not the best of ways to end the album and while it's an interesting treatment of the classic we all grew up on, and I don't feel slighted or insulted by it --- Boone paid the proper respect, mostly, to the original --- I feel it was definitely an opportunity missed. TRACKLISTING 1. You've got another thing comin' 2. Smoke on the water 3. It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock'n'roll) 4. Panama 5. No more Mr. Nice Guy 6. Love hurts 7. Enter sandman 8. Holy diver 9. Paradise City 10. The wind cries Mary 11. Crazy train 12. Stairway to Heaven It's always good to see someone step outside their comfort zone, and it's especially satisfying to see a man whose music is pretty much the antithesis of metal --- philosophically --- give it a chance and play around with it. I like picturing the faces of the Bible Belters who frowned in annoyance and disbelief when Boone announced this album, and the equal puzzlement of many metallers, myself included, when we heard of it. But one of the best things you can do with something you have no real truck with generally is to try to gently poke fun at it and if not understand it then at least appreciate and experience it. Donny Osmond (yeah) tells a tale of when he played a rock festival and some bikers were giving him hell about the song “Puppy love”. In case you don't know or care, it's a soppy ballad that was a hit for him in the seventies. Rather than shout back, get annoyed or try to have them removed, he decided to play them at their own game, and instructed his band to play heavy metal, then sung the song in a total death vocal style. The bikers, apparently, ate it all up and laughed and applauded. That's how to do it. Don't be afraid of or hate something just because you don't understand it. As an artist, a singer, you can reinterpret the music to fit into your own sphere of influence, and that's exactly what Pat Boone did here. Did it work? Not always. Did he alienate many of his longtime fans by going down this temporary route? Most likely. Did he enjoy it? I bet he did. And so did I. I'm just glad I don't subscribe to Last FM: it would be hard to explain all those Pat Boone songs on the list! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 10-03-2015 at 05:34 AM.