Trollheart

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Nah, the worm doesn't go in for all that love nonsense! Anyway, her highness probably already has you zoned out on love songs, so let's have something with a bit more bite, eh?

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Trollheart

Part three

Welcome back to part three of my hundred favourite love songs. Hope you're enjoying your Valentine's so far. Starting off with a relatively unknown, but still lovely song from Mike and the Mechanics, from their first album, this is “You are the one”.


And this is an undeniable classic from the Moody Blues.


Good Irish song now from Mary Black, this is the title to her album “No frontiers”.


Another classic, this time from Harry Nilsson.


Richard Marx made this one a modern classic too.


Nice one from Asia's album “Phoenix”, this is “Heroine”.


From Heart's self-titled album, this is “What about love”.


And a super classic from INXS, with “Never tear us apart”.


Lovely song from Lighthouse Family, it's “Lost in space”.


Experts at the art of the love song, here are the Carpenters, with “Only yesterday”.


One of Robbie Williams' lesser known songs, this is “Love calling Earth”.


Love him or hate him, you can't deny the power and smoothness of Michael Bolton's voice.


After Trollheart's tribute to Gary Moore, I'd be remiss if I didn't include one of his lovely blues ballads, so here's “Still got the blues”.


Classic from U2's heyday, this is “With or without you”.


Rod Stewart does a great version of Cat Stevens' “First cut is the deepest”.


Another gorgeous love song no-one will know, it's Shadow Gallery with the lovely “Vow”.


And one everyone will know!


Something from Steve Earle? Certainly. How about “I don't want to lose you yet”?


Biggest hit for Styx, this is “Babe”.


From the album “White on blonde”, here are Texas, with “Put your arms around me”.


Another good band few people outside their fanbase know, this is Threshold, a really nice song called “Keep my head”. (Think Troll recommended this not so long ago...)


Ah yes, crying bitterly into a shot glass: the epitome of Valentine's Day for many people. Whaddya say, Tom?


Shamelessly ripping off “Free bird”, it's nevertheless a really nice song from Will To Power.


Total, timeless classic from the master, this is Nat “King” Cole...


And we'll end part three with a very important question from the Bee Gees. See you all soon for the final part. Byeeee!

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Part four
Well I hope you've enjoyed my selection of love songs for this special day. Here's the final part.
Kicking off with a man whose voice is synony --- sinniny --- linked with love and romance, this is the Big Man himself, the Love Machine, Barry White.


Complete classic from the Righteous Brothers.


I don't remember Samantha Sang having any other hits, but this was big. This is “Emotion”.


This was also big for Kool and the Gang, it's “Cherish”.


And as for REO Speedwagon, well...


How do you set out to write a classic, and then call it “Classic”? Adrian Gurvitz did. And it is.


Madonna has had a few good ballads, and this is one of her best, it's “Crazy for you”.


Not a huge Neil Sedaka fan, but this is great. It's “Laughter in the rain”.


Yes, yes, I know a lot of people hate it, but come on! It's a classic...


No-one can hate this classic from the Hollies...


Biggest hit song for Berlin, from the movie “Top gun”, this is of course “Take my breath away”.


And another big classic and top hit, this one for Jennifer Rush.


Beautiful song from Dan Hill, called “Sometimes when we touch”.


Band called Heatwave with a huge hit for them, it's “Always and forever”.


And here's Exile, with “Kiss you all over”.


Something from Shania now, here's “Still the one”.


And staying with the ladies, here are the Bangles, with “Eternal flame”.


A powerful song from Bette Midler, this is “The wind beneath my wings”.


A bit Extreme, maybe?


Written by Prince, it became Sinead O'Connor's biggest hit. What could it be?


Old classic from Morris Albert, this is “Feelings” (ask yer ma!)


In part three we had “Heroine”, so it's only right we should also have a “Hero”...


Nice one from the Pretenders, this is “I'll stand by you”.


And a lovely one from Toni Braxton, “Unbreak my heart”.

Well, it's been lovely being here and I hope you all enjoyed my special Valentine's Day selection of my hundred favourite love songs, and I hope too that there was at least something in there that meant something to you personally. Thanks for your company and time, and have a really great night tonight. We'll close with a truly beautiful song from Hazel O'Connor, this is “Will you?” Good night, and Happy Valentine's to you all.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

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Trollheart

Let's take a real classic for a murky Wednesday, shall we? Here's the great James Taylor...

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Cowboy Prostitutes --- Cowboy Prostitutes --- 2004 (Retrospect)
Moderator cut: image removed

Oh, you just have to love the name! Now this album could be total crap, but I simply can't resist a band who call themselves Cowboy Prostitutes, and typically I can find little or no pertinent information on them. I absolutely HATE Facebook and MySpace pages, but at least when I was led to theirs I did get one piece of information: well, two, if you include the fact that they're still recording: they apparently hail from Sweden. Would not have figured that one out, no. Also, every --- admittedly tiny --- entry I come across on them seems to concern their last (at least, I assume it's their last, as in, most recent) album, 2010's “Swingin' on the fences”, but this is their debut --- again, I don't know but I have to assume, both from the title and the year --- so there's going to be very little I can tell you about it.

So, as they say, let's see if the music can do the talking.

Opening with a “Yee-hah!” and a blasting guitar, a rockin' rhythm and a singer who sounds like he wants to be Axl Rose, it's a good start. “Blood on your blade” has all the prerequistes: it's fast, loud, upbeat and fun, although I have to say the vocals are very far down in the mix, as I can't believe anyone would have that weak a voice and be a singer in a band, but it's really hard to hear Luca Isabelle, who also plays bass, but guitarists Tobbe Johansson and the enigmatically-named Lao make up for that. Now there are keyboards here too --- I can hear them --- but no credit so I can't tell you who's playing.

“Make a name for yourself” has a Rolling Stones vibe to it, with hard, sharp guitar and growled vocals which, it has to be said, can now be heard much more clearly and loudly: definitely must have been a fault with the production, as I thought. There's a piano going there too, giving the music a sort of hard-rock-country-punk feel, if such a thing can exist. Kind of reminds me of a harder, faster Quireboys or Poison on speed, maybe Bonfire. Certainly has me moving, that's for sure! Just a little slower and restrained --- though not much! --- “Wasted” is another hard rocker, but I'm sorry to say that the production problems resurface here, and although Isabelle (come on, let's be fair to the guy: we'll refer to him as Luca, or he'll end up with gender identity problems, which is something you definitely don't want to have to deal with in this sphere!) shouts and roars it's all he can do to be heard above the music. I don't think either that it's that the guitars or drums, or even his own bass are too turned up in the mix, just that whoever's producing this album seems not to know how to push vocals to the front. How can you not know that? Still, as information is so sketchy (read, almost non-existent!) on this album I can't identify the culprit.

“Joy” keeps the power up, and as the guitars riff in the start I can at least hear Luca now, whether that will remain the case once they let loose is another thing. Well, as it gets going, the song seems to be a somewhat more laidback one, almost a ballad perhaps for the Cowboy Prostitutes way of singing. Yes, in fairness, Luca's vocals are keeping up with the music, and there's some really nice organ in there too: pity there's no data on who's behind the keyboard. This is quite commercial --- compared to their other tracks --- and probably would have made a good single. Whether or not it was I can't say. Oh, Wikipedia! You let me down!

Dammit, I can't even tell you who's writing the songs, and some of them are really good. I hate it when I have this dearth of information on a band, or an album, or both, but as I hoped at the beginning of this review, the music is filling in the gaps and telling its own story, and I guess in the end that's the most important part of any review. You can have all the bumpf in the world, but if the music sucks then what is the point? Luckily, as I may already have intimated, the music of Cowboy Prostitutes does not suck, and “Welcome back” keeps up the quality with another fast rocker with some great hooks, more guitar-centric than previous songs, and again you can hear Luca fine this time. For a guy from Sweden he certainly sounds like he was reared in the Deep South!

Some great energy and some really blazing guitar in “The damned”, then there's a honky-tony/bar-room feel to “Television”, with a great guitar riff and some well-placed harmonica, which again I can't credit sadly. Some very good organ keeping the melody together also, then “Alive'n'well” has a definite Hendrix vibe to it, but sad to say Luca's vocals are again dropping off the edge of a cliff: you can hear him, but it's like he's standing at the back of the studio without a microphone. Still, some great piano rollicking along on this tune: I'm not sure these guys even know there is such a thing as a slow song! Interesting guitar break and then a soaraway, frenetic solo as the song powers across the finish line.

Oh wait, what's this? Lonely piano notes? Could this be a ballad, a real ballad? Revving up guitar in a kind of Iron Maiden vein would tend to give the lie to that, and indeed the soft and acoustic opening turns out to be just the intro to another rocker which, although not quite as frantic and headbanging as previous examples of Cowboy Prostitutes' craft, is nowhere near a ballad. “Ghost of Venice” is one of the more melodic of their songs, however, and it's pretty darn good. The piano that introduced the song continues on throughout, keeping a nice line as it goes along, even getting a chance to play a solo, and extremely effective it is too, but the song never slows down again, not until the very last bars, and then we're into the closer.

Now with a title of “Over the top”, and opening with the sound of a motorcycle engine revving, it seems clear this is not going to be the much-looked-for ballad, and indeed it proves not to be. Another fast rocker, with lots of shouting and chanting, air-punching, fist-clenching, the sort of song Saxon and Motorhead built their careers on lyrically, with a nod perhaps to Steppenwolf. For this last song Luca struggles to be heard, and for the most part he manages it, but it has to be said that it's no credit to the efforts of the producer, who is either really incompetent or lazy, or just doesn't like our poor old vocalist! Pity, as Luca Isabelle seems to have a really strong and distinctive voice that really suits this kind of music.

A good closer to a good album. I wouldn't be rushing out to buy the rest of Cowboy Prostitutes' catalogue, (assuming I could find it!), but for an album you throw on when you just want to let your hair down (not in my case!) and just party, forget your troubles and not worry too much about musical intricacies, deep lyrics or avant-garde styles, these cowboys from Sweden will certainly fit the bill. Fun with a capital F! Now, if they can only sort out that production problem...

TRACKLISTING

1. Blood on your blade
2. Make a name for yourself
3. Wasted
4. Joy
5. Welcome back
6. The damned
7. Television
8. Alive'n'well
9. Ghost of Venice
10. Over the top

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Seems every time there's a tragedy, emergency or awareness of a good cause needs to be heightened, there are artistes prepared to give their time and talent to write, sing on and/or produce a charity song to help promote that cause. We can all laugh about how terrible and cheesy and twee these singles often turn out to be, but it's easy to laugh (fun, too!) when you're not actually doing anything to help.

So, in tribute to those who do what they can to make a difference, and often get ridiculed for it, or accused of just trying to raise a flagging public profile or promote a new album, we'll be featuring here some of the better charity singles that have been released down the years.

We all know of “Do they know it's Christmas”, of course, and its American counterpart, the somewhat superior in ways “We are the world”, but did you know that those guys north of the US border did their bit for famine relief too? Yeah, back in 1985 Canadian giants like David Foster, Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance got together under the name of "Northern Lights" and wrote “Tears are not enough”, pulling in big names like Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Dan Hill, Neil Young, Geddy Lee and Bruce Cockburn, among others, to record and release their version of Band Aid.

As most of these songs are, it's commercial, deriviative and somewhat cringeworthy, but considering they went to the trouble of recording it the least you can do is listen to it once. It's not as bad as some, I can tell you. Video is below, with the obligatory “making of” video beside it.

Northern Lights --- “Tears are not enough” --- 1985
Music by David Foster and Jim Vallance, Lyric by Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

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Another one of those one-hit wonders for ya today, this is Robbie Nevil, with “C'est la vie.”

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018