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Dawn patrol --- Night Ranger --- 1982 (Boardwalk)


Ever heard one track by a new band and rushed out to buy the album on the strength of that one track? It doesn't happen that often to me, but back in 1982 I heard “Don't tell me you love me”, the opener from Night Ranger's debut album, on the radio, and immediately hied me to my local rock record shop, demanding the innkeeper there relieve me of my cash and place in my sweaty hands the album which contained such a gem. And so he did, and happy he was to do so.

And happy was I when I got the album home and spun it, and found to my everlasting relief that it wasn't a one-track-wonder! No, although “Don't tell me...” is far and away the best track on the album, there are other prizes therein too. But I get ahead of myself.

Night Ranger were formed back in 1982 under the name Ranger. It wasn't until they had their debut recorded, finished and pressed that they found out, rather belatedly, that a band already existed with that name, and were forced to change it at the eleventh hour. As vocalist Jack Blades (cool name, huh?) had written a song for the album called “Night Ranger”, they settled on this as their new name. The handful of copies which had already been pressed which bore the name “Ranger” were destroyed, so find one and it could be worth something!

It's a hard rock/heavy metal album through and through, and doesn't let up for one second. There are NO ballads on it, not even a slow song. The band throw down the gauntlet from the beginning, with the screeching “Don't tell me you love me” pounding its way out of the speakers. Starting off with a double-guitar attack, courtesy of Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson, it's only seconds before the rhythm section, in the shape of Blades on bass and Kelly Keagy on drums, smash in and the song just takes off. You can probably guess from the title that it isn't exactly a love song, more an anti-love song, as Blades croons ”Don't tell me you love me/ Don't tell me/ I don't wanna know!” Eh, yeah: call me in the morning, like, I'll be on the road outta town! It's a powerful, frentic opener with simply savage guitar solos and the kind of hooks that surely should have made it at least a top ten single, though staggeringly it only just barely crept into the top 40! The keys of Alan Fitzgerald make their presence known too, though the song is driven along on axepower mainly. It's a song that just drags you along as you hold on for the ride, and by the time it ends, like the musical equivalent of smashing your car into a wall at 60 mph, you just feel like you've gone twelve rounds and barely survived to tell the tale! Yeah, it's THAT good!

So, to be fair, it's going to take one hell of a track to top that, and there isn't one on “Dawn patrol”: this is the pinnacle of the album, but that isn't to disparage the rest of the songs at all. It's sort of like, well, having a race with a load of good drivers and Michael Schumacher. The other guys are probably all great, but they're up against the master, and there's no contest. Or substitute your own favourite sporting analogy here. Anyway, “Sing me away” is less breakneck than “Don't tell me you love me”, but a great song nevertheless, in the same vein, but with a more relaxed lyric, as Blades recalls a girl he once knew. Again it's quite commercial, almost AOR as compared to the previous heavy metal stormer, and would have made a good followup single, but it seems only the one was released from this album. Night Ranger wouldn't achieve their worldwide fame until the next album on which resided a little song called “Sister Christian...”

Blades truly is the architect of this band. He sings, plays bass and either writes or has a hand in writing every track on the album. “At night she sleeps” is another power rocker, somewhat in the mould of the Scorpions, with a great thumping drumbeat and a weird, quirky little keyboard riff, recalling the Cars at their best. God-damn it, THIS would have made a good single, too! Who was in charge of marketing this album??

When the first piano notes of “Call my name” are heard, you would definitely be forgiven for thinking ah, here's the obligatory ballad! But weren't you listening earlier? I said there are NO ballads on this album. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. No, this song begins slowly, but quite unexpectedly it kicks off and becomes yet another rocker. Bad move? No, not really, as it's a great track, and rather cleverly it ends as it began, with the quiet piano and a restrained vocal from Blades, but in between there's some metal mayhem, believe me! Police sirens, even! I kid you not! Certainly some balladic lyrics though: ”Summer kisses never last till September/ I thought you'd understand/ Holdin' hands ain't exclusive to lovers /Guess it was part of your plan/ The tender moments were part of your plan.”

Next we come to one of the standout tracks on the album, the glorious “Eddie's comin' out tonight”. Starting off with a deeply bassy keyboard intro, it's not long before the guitars take over as Blades introduces us to Eddie: ”He wears his trousers real tight/ And his skin's so white/ He lives beyond his means/ He wears Italian shoes/ That are used to good news/ They walk behind the scenes/ He lives a tenderloin life/ The street's his type/ In the alley's where he's king/ He got a grin on his face/ Says he loves the rat race/ He always plays to win!” Alan Fitzgerald really comes into his own on this track, where his keyboards have been somewhat subdued beneath the twin guitar tongues of Gillis and Watson. It's a powerhouse of a track, and in many ways, bringing side one of the album to a close (hey, bear with me! I'm fast approaching 50, ok? When I bought albums they were on vinyl and had two sides...).

Have to say that after that things go not downhill, but certainly level out a bit. “Can't find me a thrill” is a good rock song, as is “Young girl in love”, whereas the less said about “Play rough” the better (”So ya wanna play rough tonight?/ It's all in the way that you roll the dice/ Wanna play rough tonight? Better think once, better think twice.” Hmmm. Yeah. OK...); it's not until the penultimate “Penny” that things get back on track. To be fair, “Play rough” is purely Jack Blades' composition, and he also wrote two of the better tracks on his own, “Eddie's comin' out tonight” and “Call my name”, so I guess anyone can have an off-day.

The aforementioned “Penny” reminds me of Journey at their heaviest: good hooks, great chorus and backing vocals, but it's still a long way from “Sing me away” or “Eddie”. The album finishes on the title track --- well, the name of the band: there IS no title track. “Night Ranger” is a growling, snarling mid-paced rocker, which suddenly and unexpectedly kicks into thrash metal territory, with Keagy going absoutely Animal (remember the Muppet Show?) behind the drumkit, and the two axemen responding gleefully before the track slips down a gear and fades out on its original beat. Also contains a rather obvious section where the fans are expected to cheer, or clap, or cheer and clap. I guess I would. Not a bad closer but I think “Penny” would have been a better choice to end the album. I

All in all, after the heady adrenalin rush of “Don't tell me you love me”, “Dawn patrol” does its best to live up to the promise of that track, and on some songs the boys almost get it right, on some they fail utterly. But for a debut this is no mean shakes. There's many a band gone on to bigger things that did not produce such an impressive first album. But hey, take my advice: listen to it just for “Don't tell me you love me” --- worth the price of admission on its own!

TRACKLISTING

1. Don't tell me you love me
2. Sing me away
3. At night she sleeps
4. Call my name
5. Eddie's comin' out tonight
6. Can't find me a thrill
7. Young girl in love
8. Play rough
9. Penny
10. Night Ranger



Suggested further listening: “Midnight madness” and “Seven wishes”, though avoid “Big life”...

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Long road out of Eden --- The Eagles --- 2007 (Eagles Recording Company)


This being the first full studio album since 1979's “The long run”, which saw the Eagles break up --- ostensibly for good --- it was something of an event when announced. Discounting 1994's PR-driven “Hell freezes over”, which had after all only four new tracks on it, this was the first time anyone had heard from the legendary country rock band in 28 years, so it had better be good!

It is. Six years in the making, this was not a record that was rushed out to capitalise on the success of the aforementioned “Hell freezes over” and its associated tours. This was a proper album, a real renaissance and rebirth for the Eagles, coming smack up to date for the 21st century, and it has a lot to say. It's a double album, and unlike many similar efforts by other bands, that doesn't mean it's one disc of original material and the other made up of live recordings, unreleased tracks and remixes. In other words, this ain't “Hell freezes over again”. Oh no. This is the real deal.

It would be fallacy to say it's a perfect album; there are tracks on it I don't like, or more accurately, like less than others, but the good very much outweigh the bad, or at least the less good. The first disc kicks off with an unexpected treat, and in very low-key fashion. “No more walks in the woods” is truly an eco-ballad, using words from a poem by John Hollander to create an almost acapella song arranged for four voices, with a few guitar chords here and there. It really is a beautiful little piece, though very short (two minutes exactly), and certainly one of the standout tracks on the album. It's followed by a track that would be released as a single from the album, J.D. Souther's “How long”, which recalls the likes of “Take it easy” and “Already gone”, while “Busy being fabulous” is a swipe at career women who put their enjoyment above the needs of their family: ”You were just too busy being fabulous/ Too busy to think about us/ I don't know what you were thinking of/ Somehow you forgot about love.”

There are a total of seven ballads on the album, and “What do I do with my heart” is the first of these. It's typical Eagles, and could sit just as comfortably on any Don Henley or indeed Glenn Frey solo album. It's a nice ballad, but nothing special. It's not really till “Waiting in the weeds” comes along that we get anything really spectacular. It's again a ballad, but much longer than usual, almost eight minutes long, with a lovely piano outro and some great lyrics: ”I imagine sunlight in your hair/ You're at the county fair/ You're holding hands and laughing/ And now the ferris wheel is stopped/ You're swingin' at the top/ Suspended there with him / And he's the darling of the chic/ Flavour of the week is melting/ Down your pretty summer dress/ Baby, what a mess you're making!” Taken at face value it's a pretty creepy song, the tale of a guy who can't accept that his girl has moved on, and is, in effect, stalking her. Despite that, it's a great great song, and one of my favourites on the album. Some great guitar and piano work combine to make a truly lovely melody, with some excellent vocal harmonies at the end.

Following this is “No more cloudy days”, a Glenn Frey-penned tune and very much his sort of song: reminds me of “Part of me, part of you”. A sort of mid-paced ballad, with some really nice sax at the end, it complements the previous track very well. The guys try updating “Life in the fast lane” for the 2000's, but “Fast company” doesn't really work for me. I much prefer the two closers, “Do something”, which is a real call to action within a kind of ballad structure: ”There's no time for saving grace/ Don't just stand there/ Taking up space/” Perhaps some people might balk at such advice from a group of guys who have enough money to completely change the world, if they wanted, but the sentiment is nice I think, in a time when everyone seems to be doing their best to cover themselves and rip people off. Closer “You are not alone” is a gentle little guitar ballad, again with nice sentiments.

And so disc one comes to a close. Have we heard all the good songs? Have they kept the dross for disc two? Not a chance. Opening with the title track, disc two introduces us to Arabic chants, eastern rhythms set against the backdrop of a desert wind, and as it gets going, a powerful, politically-charged song protesting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The opening lines set the mission statement: ”Moon shinin' down through the palms/ Shadows movin' on the sand/ Somebody whispering the 23rd psalm/ Dusty rifle in his tremblin' hands/ Somebody tryin' just to stay alive/ Got promises to keep/ Over the ocean in America/ Far away they're fast asleep.” The song reflects Henley's politics, which can be heard on his last album, “Inside job”, and it pulls no punches. It's a long song, over ten minutes, easily the longest on the album. There are plenty of digs at the Bush administration: ”We're ridin' to Utopia/ Road map says we'll be arrivin' soon.../ Captains of the old order clinging to the reins/ Assuring us these aches inside are only growin' pains.” The song presents the two wars from the perspective of a young soldier who has found himself thousands of miles from home, and not sure why? ”Back home I was so certain/ The path was always clear/ But now I have to wonder/ What am I doin' here?” The song features a truly epic guitar solo before it drops into what I guess would be the second movement.

Here, Henley sings of the “power corrupts” theme: ”We're on the road to Damascus/ The road to Mandalay/ Met the ghost of Caesar on the Appian Way/ He says it's hard to stop this bingein' / Once you get a taste/ But the road to empire/ Is a bloody stupid waste.” The song fades out on a dramatic outro, possibly symbolising the never-ending war on terror. This epic is followed by a truly beautiful instrumental called “I dreamed there was no war”, and then the paranoia-laden rocker “Somebody”, which really takes the tempo up a few gears.

Of all the ballads on the album, I could have done without “I love to watch a woman dance”, which is pure country schtick, but followed by a true Henley number, another political song, “Business as usual”, which definitely recalls the title track of “Inside job”, before the album comes to a close with two nice little tracks, “Centre of the universe”, a vocal harmony triumph, and “It's your world now”, which sounds like a father handing over the reins to his son, driven on a mariachi/Mexican melody, reniniscent of some of the Eagles' early work. You can just imagine the guys relaxing in some cantina south of the Rio Grande, tequilas in hand, toasting their success and passing on their experience to the next generation. If this is to be their swan song, they couldn't have chosen a better track to bring down the curtain on an illustrious career, and we thank them for the music.

There were always going to be the sceptics, those who would scoff and say this was nothing more than a load of old guys getting together to make some money off their fans (after all, the Eagles have had no less than four greatest hits compilations --- but then, that's the record labels, not the band), but a listen to “Long road out of Eden” proves that these lads cared about this project, put a lot of work, energy, thought and heart into it. It's a record that should, if there's any justice in the world, stand the test of time like their greatest classic, “Hotel California”, and prove that the Eagles are far from dead. At the very least, it's great value for money: nineteen tracks, and every one an original.

After they had released the record, Don Henley told CNN this was probably the last Eagles album they would ever make. On the strength of what they've come up with here, I really hope that's not the case. It has been a long road out of Eden --- twenty-eight years long --- but to my mind, the Eagles have finally reached the Promised Land.

TRACKLISTING

1. No more walks in the wood
2. How long
3. Busy being fabulous
4. What do I do with my heart
5. Guilty of the crime
6. I don't want to hear anymore
7. Waiting in the weeds
8. No more cloudy days
9. Fast company
10. Do something
11. You are not alone
12. Long road out of Eden
13. I dreamed there was no war
14. Somebody
15. Frail grasp on the big picture
16. Last good time in town
17. I love to watch a woman dance
18. Business as usual
19. Centre of the universe
20. It's your world now



Suggested further listening: “Hotel California”, “Desperado”, “One of these nights”, “The long run” and Don Henley's “The end of the innocence” and “Inside job”.

(Note: footage from this album proved exceedingly hard to come by. It was either crappy cover versions (WHY do people think we care about them playing songs on their guitars??) or restricted or even blocked content at the request of the copyright holder, so apologies for a) the dearth of clips and b) the quality of some. Believe me, this is the best there is out there!)

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Thx Jack for the post and also for the clarification as to what the album art means. I must admit, though I often use Wiki to explore details of albums. meansing of songs, history etc, "The secret life of the album cover" was all done totally on the fly by me, and any and all conclusions reached therein, or any suppositions put forward (sounds painful!) are my own, and not to be taken as gospel by any means. It's just what I felt the album cover said to me.

Watch out for more of the same soon...

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I stand alone --- Agnetha Faltskog --- 1987 (WEA)


Agnetha who? Ok then, what if I said “that blonde one from ABBA”? Yeah, that's her: one half of the female pair in the Swedish supergroup. This was her third solo album, and it's not half bad. Produced by Peter Cetera of Chicago, who also duets with her on one track, it's got a nice crisp clean sound about it, without being clinically pristine and devoid of emotion.

It starts off well, with a mid-paced ballad, “The last time”, replete with digital piano and churning guitar. Perhaps strange to begin an album with a track so titled, but it sets the tone of the album, which seems to be more or less centred on the idea of breakups and betrayals, and is, I guess, in that way quite a dark album. No vacuous pop record then, but that's hardly what you'd expect anyway from someone who has spent the better part of her life making music that's cherished by millions the world over. “The last time” is really more a rock song than a ballad, quite gutsy and heavy, and Agnetha's soulful voice soars over the arrangement like an avenging angel.

Much more commercial, and less impressive, is the Gloria Estefanesque “Little white secrets”, which more or less comes and goes without leaving too much of a mark, and leads into the third single from the album, the aforementioned duet with Cetera. “I wasn't the one who said goodbye” has all the hallmarks of a Chicago song --- the only thing missing is production by David Foster! It's pretty much Peter Cetera sings with Agnetha Faltskog, rather than the other way round. Don't get me wrong: it's great to hear the man's voice on record again, but he does sort of take over the song. At least it's heavier and rockier than the previous track, though that's not hard.

Then we have a Bucks Fizz cover! Yes, you read that correctly. “Love in a world gone mad” was originally on an album by the blonde Eurovision winners who brought us such anthems as “Making your mind up” and “The land of make-believe”. Give me a break! This thing is so sugary I'm glad I'm not a diabetic! Pass!

And there we have the essential dichotomy of this album. Some tracks are good rockers or rock ballads, some are pop songs and some are just over-produced nonsense, so that it's hard to take it seriously as a whole. As if to underline the point, the next song, “Maybe it was magic”, is a fantastic, powerful ballad sung with power and passion by Agnetha, and if more of the songs were like this then this would be a knockout album. As it is, for every “Maybe it was magic” there's a “Little white lies” --- you're just starting to enjoy it when something slaps you upside the head and changes your thinking, so that it's hard to form a cohesive opinion of the overall product.

It's also telling that Ms. Faltskog doesn't write, or even have a hand in writing, any of the songs on this album. You would think that a talented songwriter like her would have wanted to be involved in the creative process, but no, every song is written for her. Personally I wonder if this is why the album falls down on so many fronts: some of the songs are good, a few great, but there are some very bad ones, and I wonder had she stretched her wings a bit and engaged in some songwriting, would we have had a better album?

For all that, the second side of the album is considerably better than the first. Kicking off with a nice little pop/rock tune, which was released as a single from the album, “Let it shine” is not half bad at all. “We got a way” is pure ABBA, circa the “Voulez Vous” period. Rocks out nicely, keeps the tempo up, nice keyboard solo. At this point, you begin to let your breath out, daring to think that maybe the album is beginning to come together,and you'd not be wrong. The title track is I guess what you might call a dark ballad, although the rhythm betrays it as more a pop song, and the horns give it a very latin feel. It's written for her by (you would have to say) co-star Cetera and his ex-Chicago compatriot Bruce Gaitsch, who apparently also co-wrote Madonna's hit “La isla bonita”. So he knows a bit about songwriting, then. You can also hear a little of that song in the beat and melody of this one.

The album closes on two songs penned by two true adepts of the art, Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, and of these two it's the final track, “If you need somebody tonight”, that stands out and is a fitting closer. A gorgeous little piano-driven ballad, with yearning and a hint of desperation, a sort of much slower and restrained “Take a chance on me”.

All in all, this is no classic album, but there are certainly tracks there which make it a very good one. My advice would be, listen to the opener, skip to “Maybe it was magic” and let it go from there. Mind you, she couldn't put a foot wrong in her native Sweden, where the album went to number one! Ah, those crazy Swedes!

TRACKLISTING

1. The last time
2. Little white secrets
3. I wasn't the one who said goodbye
4. Love in a world gone mad
5. Maybe it was magic
6. Let it shine
7. We got a way
8. I stand alone
9. Are you gonna throw it all away?
10. If you need somebody tonight

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