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Night Ranger's Discography Explored: Hits And Hidden Gems [Episode 300] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Coming up on Booked on Rock, we go through the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: discography of one of the most underrated bands to come
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: out of the eighties, Night Ranger. You can Still rock
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in America, Sister Christian, Sentimental Street, Don't Tell Me You
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Love Me so many more. We'll get into it with
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: author Tim Durling, who's just written a brand new book
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: all about Night Ranger. That's next. We're totally booked.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Rock and Roll. I mean, I'll leave you you're reading
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Little Hands this. It's time to rock and roll.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Rock roll out. I totally booked. Welcome back, so booked
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: on Rock andmeric Senich. It is great to have Tim
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Durling back on the show. His latest book is sing
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Me Away, The Night Ranger Album Review. Tim, welcome back.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks Eric.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Love your story when you became a fan of the band.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: This is one of those childhood moments that every music
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: fan has. Take us back to that moment on the
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  Speaker 1: playground summer nineteen eighty four.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, everybody's got an entry point, right, everybody's
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: got a point where they remember hearing a song for
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the first time, and after that they can't imagine a
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: world without that song. I you know, I'd love to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: be able to say. I was in on the ground
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: floor and was watching MTV and saw the video for
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Don't Tell Me You Love Me. But unfortunately I'm up
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: here in Canada, we didn't have MTV, and so I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: first heard a night Ranger when probably most of the
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  Speaker 2: world did, which is Sister Christian. But I distinctly remember
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: being at a playground and it was summer, like, yeah,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: summer eighty must have been summer eighty four, and there
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: were some older kids, and they had a boombox, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like like you do, and probably I don't know if
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: they were playing like a set or they're just playing
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  Speaker 2: the radio. But I heard this song motor in I'm like,
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  Speaker 2: I didn't know what they were saying. I just knew
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  Speaker 2: I liked it, and I liked it a lot, and
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  Speaker 2: that was it. That was the first time I heard
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  Speaker 2: the song. Took me a while before I put together
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  Speaker 2: who it was, what it was actually called. I just
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  Speaker 2: knew I liked it.
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  Speaker 1: This band has sold seventeen million albums total. Pretty impressed
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: if their first five albums sold more than ten million.
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  Speaker 1: Sister Christian number five single, several other top forty hit
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  Speaker 1: singles in the nineteen eighties, Don't Tell Me You Love
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  Speaker 1: Me When You close your eyes, Sentimental Street, four in
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the Morning, I Can't Take any More, and Goodbye. So
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  Speaker 1: we'll get to all those in this episode. Let's start
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: with the debut album, Dawn Patrol, released November of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty two. The lineup Jack Blades on bass, lead vocals,
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  Speaker 1: Brad gillis lead guitar, Jeff Watson on guitars, Alan Fitzgerald
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  Speaker 1: on keyboards, and Kelly Keegey on drums and lead vocals.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Don't Tell Me You Love Me, sing Me Away, Young
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Ger in Love are the singles you Know It in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the book How Accomplished This album sounds for a debut
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  Speaker 1: pretty impressive. How long had the band been together at
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  Speaker 1: that point.
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  Speaker 2: I think the band had been together for maybe a
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: little less than two years, but they were all music
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: biz veterans at this point. Alan Fitzgerald had the probably
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the longest recording career at that point because he replayed
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Bill Church on the second Montrose album. So he goes
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: all the way back with Sammy Hagard in nineteen seventy
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  Speaker 2: four in the Paper Money album, so he plays bass
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  Speaker 2: and keyboards. A few years after that he actually joined
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Sammy solo band with Bill Church. It's the only example
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  Speaker 2: I could think of where somebody ended up in a
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  Speaker 2: band with a guy that they replaced in another band.
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  Speaker 2: So Bill was on bass and Fits was on keyboards,
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  Speaker 2: and then you know, he went back to Ronnie Montrose
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  Speaker 2: for a while and he was actually a keyboard player
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  Speaker 2: on one of the Gamma albums Gamma. So that band
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  Speaker 2: that was Ronnie's band, late eighties or late seventies, early eighties,
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  Speaker 2: they did three albums in and around that time, Jack
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  Speaker 2: Blades and Brad Gillis were in a band called Rubicon,
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  Speaker 2: which was formed by Jerry Martini who had been in
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  Speaker 2: Flying the Family Stone. And it's very very different. It's
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  Speaker 2: very different than night So don't make the mistake that
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  Speaker 2: I made and think, well, this has to sound like
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  Speaker 2: Night Ranger if it's got Jack Blades and Brad Gillison.
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  Speaker 2: Not at all. And it's much more sli in the
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  Speaker 2: Family Stone than it is Night Ranger. Jack plays some
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  Speaker 2: incredible like slap bass on that you would never know.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's a total you know, given
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  Speaker 2: the background. It's sometimes I wonder how did Dawn Patrol
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  Speaker 2: come out of? Where did that come from, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the hard rock stuff, unless it was just fact that
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  Speaker 2: they just liked, you know, music. But then at one
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  Speaker 2: point even Kelly Keigy was in Rubicon. I think Rubicon
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  Speaker 2: only did two albums. Kelly was not any of the albums.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: And then the three of them were sort of a
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  Speaker 2: core and they formed a band called Stereo, which was
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: more of a new wave thing. No recordings have ever
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  Speaker 2: been released to my knowledge, and eventually that morphed into
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  Speaker 2: some of the songs were the same, but they morphed
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  Speaker 2: into more of a hard rock thing. And then we know.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, Brad Gilli got the gig with Ozzie after
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Randy Rhodes died, and he did you know that the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: tour and ended up on the Speak of the Devil album,
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  Speaker 2: which is all Black Sabbath covers. So he has that
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  Speaker 2: cred and that's one of the reasons why Night Ranger,
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  Speaker 2: even though they're they're a lighter band, they have a
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  Speaker 2: lot of cred in the metal world because of Brad's
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  Speaker 2: time with Ozzie. It's it's almost like if you've been
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: anointed by Ozzy, people think of you as one of
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: his guitar players forever. In a day because Jaki Lee
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: he played on two albums and people always bring him up. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: he played with Ozzie, but night Ranger was their thing,
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  Speaker 2: and he passed up a permanent gig with Ozzie because
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: he believed in what his band was doing, so and
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  Speaker 2: I think we're better for it.
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  Speaker 1: That's the story. Yeah, that he could have joined Ozzy
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  Speaker 1: said no, no thanks. So that's the question is if
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  Speaker 1: he did join Ozzy, does night Ranger go forward.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know because I mean, they had Jeff Watson
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  Speaker 2: on guitar, but they really wanted the two guitar players
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  Speaker 2: at this point. And if you think about it, it's
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  Speaker 2: I can't think of another band that is I know
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  Speaker 2: there's a better word, Eric, I can't think of a
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  Speaker 2: better word than configuration, but I know there's a better
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  Speaker 2: word for the setup of night Ranger. It's a unique
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: lineup because you've got Jack Blades on bass and vocals,
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  Speaker 2: Kelly Kagey on drums and vocals, so your lead singers
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  Speaker 2: are your rhythm section. You've got two amazing guitar players,
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  Speaker 2: and then you got a keyboard player. So it's a
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  Speaker 2: unique setup. It's not your typical five piece rock band
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  Speaker 2: where you've got a front man, you know, two guitar players,
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  Speaker 2: maybe a guitar player, keyboard player, bass player. It's really different.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody's got an instrument, everybody's got their part to play
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  Speaker 2: in this band. And that's three fifths of the band
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  Speaker 2: are intact. But that's still the lineup they go by today.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, they weren't They weren't kids at this point,
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  Speaker 2: but they were all pushing thirty. Not that that's old,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: but they had that experience under their belts. So I
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  Speaker 2: think that's one of the reasons why, you know, some
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  Speaker 2: debut albums you like them because there's a certain naivete
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  Speaker 2: about them or a quaintness and there's hints of greatness
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  Speaker 2: to come. But some bands just come out firing, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Van Halen and Boston and Foreigner, and I would put
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  Speaker 2: Night Ranger in that category. There's no growing pains here.
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  Speaker 2: That first album is fully realized and just amazingly good
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  Speaker 2: and amazingly consistent.
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  Speaker 1: Booked on rock podcast will be back after this when.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: When impatients Madia patients absence makes the heart grow fonder.
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  Speaker 1: Who are the main songwriters for Night Ranger?
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  Speaker 2: Jack Blades is definitely the main songwriter. You know, he
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  Speaker 2: has solo writing credit on a lot of the songs.
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  Speaker 2: If you look through their writing credits. I mean Brad
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  Speaker 2: Gillis co writes, Jeff Watson would co write you know, Kelly?
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  Speaker 2: Would you know? Famously Kelly wrote Sister Christian. Alan Fitzgerald
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  Speaker 2: is like the unsung hero because his contributions I think
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  Speaker 2: further than some the songs that he's credited for, Sister
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  Speaker 2: Christian being a good example. He wrote that piano part
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  Speaker 2: at the beginning pretty iconic, right, can you imagine the
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  Speaker 2: song without it? So they were all accomplished songwriters, but
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  Speaker 2: Jack is the main one, and I think he's also
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  Speaker 2: the main lyricist. And I like his lyrical style because
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  Speaker 2: he tells stories. His lyrics are sort of self contained stories,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of them are, and they're very evocative. It's
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  Speaker 2: easy to see why he became an in demand songwriter
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  Speaker 2: in the nineties.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that debut album sent him up nicely for the
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  Speaker 1: follow up. They had the attention of radio, they had
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  Speaker 1: the attention of MTV. The result, the band's best selling album,
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  Speaker 1: Midnight Madness October eighty three, came out over one million copies,
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  Speaker 1: sold three singles. You can still rock in America, Sister
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  Speaker 1: Christian and when you close your eyes all three still
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  Speaker 1: get played on classic rock radio. And you're say in
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the book, the front and back covers make for a
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  Speaker 1: fun Where's Waldo experience.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's tons of characters you could spot there. There's
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  Speaker 2: vampires and magicians and cheerleader and astronauts, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's one of those things you really got to get
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  Speaker 2: the vinyl to figure out everything that's there. There's a
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: lot of things going on. Somebody's like climbing up the
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  Speaker 2: wall and I think that was that album cover shoot
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  Speaker 2: was done in the Universal Studios lot. The other thing
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: though about Night Rangers that they were very fortunate they
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: had a major hiccup with Don Patrol because their record label,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Boardwalk Records, went under. Boardwalk Records was formed by Neil Bogart,
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  Speaker 2: who had formerly been with Casablanco Records, so Kiss fans
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: will know the name Neil Bogart. He died in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty two and the label kind of folded with him.
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  Speaker 2: And really there were a handful of artists on Boardwalk
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  Speaker 2: and the only ones that went on to any success
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  Speaker 2: were Night Ranger and Jon Jett and the black Arts.
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  Speaker 2: But fortunately, there was difficulty with getting the record don
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  Speaker 2: Patrol in stores because Don't Tell Me You Love Me
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  Speaker 2: was taking off on radio and the video was getting
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of play on MTV. Because again, this is
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: this point, were sort of into early nineteen eighty three.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: MTV had been on the air for less than two years.
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  Speaker 2: They still don't have a huge backlog of videos to play,
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  Speaker 2: so when a new video came out, I'm told by
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: a lot of people older than me that grew up
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: in the States watching MTV that video was on. It
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: almost seemed every hour we saw the video that Don't
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Tell Me You Love Me. So even though the song
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: was popular, it was hard to get the album stocked
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: in stores. Fortunately, MCA picked up the deal. Their deal
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: reissued Dawn Patrol and that was their label for the
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: rest of the eighties. Now, they didn't do everything right
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: as a label, but what record label does. But that
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: was one good thing because most bands, you put your
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: first album one on, your first album in your record
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  Speaker 2: label implodes. That's pretty much it. The only other band
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I can think of that recovered from that was Twisted Sister.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Oddly enough, right around the same time because their first
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: album came out in eighty two and their label tanked
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and then Atlantic picked them up. So yeah, Midnight Madness
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  Speaker 2: was I think some of the songs they were working
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  Speaker 2: on before Patrol. I've been told that Sister Christian was
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: actually written for, you know, in the sessions that produced
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: the Dawn Patrol album, but it was saved for the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: second album, and obviously that was That's a career song
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  Speaker 2: for them, right, That's the song that gave them a
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: name but actually went all the way to number one
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: up here in Canada. Night Ranger were never a band
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: that toured Canada all that much, but for that particular time,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the Midnight Madness album went gold and they did have
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: a number one song. But yeah, that was their calling
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: card song to this day. More it's a unique situation
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: where you have a band where the success of one
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: song sort of outsizes the success of the entire band.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: In other words, there's a lot more people that know
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Sister Christian than would know say the individual players and
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Night Ranger and maybe even who does the song. Sure,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: it's a little bit like you know, you could say
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: mister Big is like that, Extreme is like that. It's
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: not like Journey where you have a dozen or so
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: radio staples that you could never beat. Label them one
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: hit wonder, it's like, well, which one are you talking about?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Even though night Ranger had six top forty singles, Sister Christian,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: it's unique, it's got a unique title, it's got a
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: unique cook everything about it is. It's not a cookie
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: cutter power ballad by any stretch of the imagination. And
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  Speaker 2: it's remained in the public eye, and it's a song
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  Speaker 2: that will outlive all of us. Now. I happen to
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: think that Night Ranger had in their arsenal songs as
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: many radio staples as Journey or Foreigner. I think that
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: they should have been They did all right, I think
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: they should have done better. I just think that they
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: had the capability and not the capability. They did deliver
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: songs that should have been radio staples and that we
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: should all be sick of hearing. But for whatever reason,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: it just didn't. It didn't exactly happen that way. They
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: sold a lot of albums, but it's always easy to
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: blame record labels because they're an easy target. But MCA
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: weren't exactly a hard rock label. Well, now, maybe they
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: had a little bit more savvy than say an M.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: I always pick on them when I talk about Y
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: and T not becoming superstars, But I know, for a time,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Night Ranger were MTV darlings. So there was probably a
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: period between like eighty three and eighty six where they
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: played Night Ranger a ton that helped. You know, they
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: did well on the road. They became a headline act
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: during that time, but they never stayed there long enough
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: to the point where they can go out now and
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: headline big places. They can go out now and headline
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: large sized theaters, you know, places like that. They can
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: do very very well as special guests on a bigger
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: tour and you know, and often cases below the headliners
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: off the stage. But yeah, they're just one of those
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: bands that I've always been a huge fan of, and
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: to my knowledge, there's never been a book on them.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: It is a head squatcher. We're talking again. How many
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: albums thirteen albums.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they kind of, you know, like a lot
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: of bands, they had some growing pains adjusting to the nineties,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of eighties bands did. But once they signed
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: with Frontiers Records. Because Frontiers Records Italian label, they become
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: home to a lot of classic bands and a lot
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: of newer bands that have a classic sound. Now. Unfortunately,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you know, you get on a label like that and
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: it's a ceiling. There's a ceiling, right like, your reach
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: is limited, and sometimes those albums don't always stay in print.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Like I myself, I've never seen a Frontier's Records album
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: in a store. I've always had to, you know, order
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: them online, which is fine, But in twenty eleven, I'm
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: gonna mention this a lot because it's a pivotal moment
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: in their career. I think they came up with an
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: album called Somewhere in California that was like a renaissance
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: that began, like a Night Ranger renaissance. And they've since
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: released three more albums. So between twenty eleven and twenty
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: twenty one, they put up four studio albums. They're all really,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: really good, and sadly they just don't get the recognition.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: But I'll be honest, I didn't even know they were released.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Again, that's why I did this book. You know, and
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: you're someone that knows about music, right, so you imagine
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: the average radio listener, you're never gonna hear about this
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: stuff ever. So you know, Night Ranger could have been
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: a band that lived and died in the eighties because
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: they put up five albums on MC well five if
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: you count down Patrol, but five albums in the eighties,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: and by the time that they put out their fifth album,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: which is actually probably my favorite album, Man in Motion,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty eight, MCA was not promoting them. MCA
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: was not promoting a lot of veteran bands at this point.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: They had moved on to pop and R and B.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: It was all about Bobby Brown and Tiffany and you know,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: acts like that. But your rock bands are your bread
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: and butter. But I digress. So Night Ranger, not because
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: of any real internal conflict, more just frustration with the
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: music business. Disbanded in sometime in nineteen eighty nine, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: that could have been the end, but they eventually did
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: get back together after sort of a lot of classic bands,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: if you look through their career, have one album that,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: for one reason or another is kind of an outlier.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: You know, if you think about Aerosmith, They've got Rock
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: in a Hard Place, Kiss has Music from the Elder.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: You know, Van Halen's got Van Halen three. You know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: there's tons of other examples, I'm sure, but you know,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: most bands have one album where you know, Mentallic has
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: got st anger where people go, I don't know about
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: that one. I don't know about that one. Well, night
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Rangers version of that is an album that came out
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety five called Feeding Off the Mojo. Now,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: this was the first night Ranger album in seven years.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: But the notable thing about this album is that Jack
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Blades is nowhere to be found. Jack Blades, of course,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: had a very successful second act as a member of
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Damn Yankees, and I think he proved a lot of
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: naysayers wrong. That first album is double platinum, High Enough,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: went all the way to number three, and he reinvented
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: himself and they did two albums ninety and ninety two.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: First one was more successful. The second one did go gold,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: and it went gold and had a top twenty single
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: called where Are You Going Now? In the Heart of Grunge.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: So they were doing okay, but Jack Blades was doing that.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Then he and Tommy Shaw formed an acoustic duo Shaw Blades.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: While that was going on, Kelly Kiggey and Brad Gillis
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: still had obviously the rights to use the night Ranger name,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: so they sort of reformed, and they reformed with a
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: guy named Gary Moon on bass and vocals. Gary had
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: been kicking around the scene for quite a long time.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: One of his gigs that would be recognizable to sort
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: of melodic rock listeners was he was a member of
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Jeff Paris's band. Jeff Paris is mostly known as a songwriter.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: You've probably seen his name on a few songs, Yeah
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Vix and Mister Big Yan t. He's on one of
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: his albums, as is Matt Soarm. Actually it's a rabbit hole.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: But they demoed a bunch of songs and they started
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: playing around, obviously playing very small places. They put this
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: album out called Feeding Off the Mojo in nineteen ninety five,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: and opinions are divided on this album. Some don't consider
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: it a night Ranger album because Jack Blades isn't there.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I think it's quite a good album, and when Kelly
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Cagy takes lead vocals, it sounds like night Ranger. Gary
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Moon doesn't sound at all like Jack Blades. Gary Muons
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: get more of a Tom Keefer voice. It's very raspy,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: sometimes a little Kipwanger, sometimes a little Mark Slaughter, but
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: very much of the of the early nineties period, it's
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: a little bit different musically, and the closest comparison I
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: can make is the ninety four Motley Crue album, which
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I really like that album because it's different.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: The self titled one Yeah.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: With John Carobbie vocals. A lot of people said, no Vince,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: no Motley. It's kind of the same idea, although, like
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: I said, you do have one of the main singers
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: still on this album. But the band themselves, the original
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: five piece lineup of Night Ranger, reunited in ninety six
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: and they did two albums and then things got complicated.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: But they themselves don't even consider feeding off the Mojo
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: part of their catalog because in nineteen ninety eight they
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: released an album called seven. Well actually that's their eighth album,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: but that just shows you that that feeding off the
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Mojo album is. It's like the album that dare not
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: speak its name, which, of course, when you're somebody like me,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: you're like, why, I want to know more. It's like,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: before I got into Kiss, I knew about this album
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: called The Elder that nobody liked to talk about and
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: the band didn't like to talk about. That just made
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: me want to listen to it all the.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: More those are the most interesting parts of their career.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'm sure you know what I mean
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: by Chuck Closterman. He's a well known he's a well
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: known writer. And I saw an interview with Chuck talking
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: about It's so true. If you like a band, you're
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: interested in the high points of their career. But if
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: you love a band, you want to know about the
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: low points where the wheels were coming off. You just
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: want to know about everything. And that's really true because
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: there is something very interesting because you look at it,
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: not that you're oh, yeah, I want to know the dirt.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I want to know what they went through and what
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: they had to do to come out of it. You know.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: But like I said, the original five piece lineup did
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: come back together. Now, Alan Fitzgerald was the first of
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: the original guys to permanently leave.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Alan Fitzgerald was the one that was some kind of
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: a falling out reposes something on social media.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: I think that's Jeff Watson.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: That's Jeff Watts.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I've never Alan fair Fits as most people call him.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: He's been very quiet. He's like the mystery guy. The
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: only thing I know for sure is that in between,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: you know, before Night Ranger reconvened. He was Eddie Van
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Halen's keyboard tech. He was with Eddie for a long
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: long time, which is of course at that time would
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: have been you know, he and Sammy go that far back,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure how he ended up with that gig,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: but it might have been do you know anybody that
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: can tech keyboards? And Sammy's like find out what Fitzgerald
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: is doing. But he was with him all the way
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: up until even on the Tokyo Dome album from twenty fifteen.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: He's credited on that album, and at one point he
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: had something to do with Springsteen. So really I'm sure, yeah,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm not a Springsteen aficionado, but I at one
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: point he was doing these acoustic shows which just him
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: and like a piano player or something. Fitz was that
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: piano player. Springsteen paycheck has got to be more than
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: a Night Ranger paycheck, Let's be real. And also I
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: think fitz was older than the rest of the guys.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: With Jeff Watson, who was the blonde guitar player, there
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: was a bad falling out and it got personal, and
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I remember on Melodic rock dot Com I used to
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: follow that website a lot well, Andrew mcneese's site out
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: of Australia. He posted this long, open letter and it
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: was you don't like to read the dirty laundry in public,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: but when you see it, you kind of can't help it.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: It's like passing by an accident. You kind of have
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: to look.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: And it was posted by who Jeff Watson.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Jeff, Yeah, Now the band posted a rebuttal, but it
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: wasn't It was very much shortened to the point, but
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Jeff went.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Seen is the rebuttal on Wikipedia? There's nothing about what
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Jeff said.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that may have you know, that may have been
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: something that's you have to go to the dark web
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: to find it now. But I do remember reading it
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: at the time.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, what was the gist of it? Or is
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: it something that's not worth repeating or.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: They think it had something to do with well, the
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: easy answer is probably money, but I think it had
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: to do with who actually owns the name night Ranger.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I think it had a lot to do with that,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: like you know, what percentage of the name does he owner?
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: And that culminated the point where Jeff was no longer
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: with the band. It was a long, long period in
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: between albums, So they put this the album seven out
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety eight, and it was nine years before
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: there was another night Ranger album, and it finally surfaced
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: in Japan and other parts of the world in two
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: thousand and seven. It didn't get a US release until
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, and it was called Hole in
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: the Sun. And it is far and away my least
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: favorite night Ranger album. When I hear it, I hear
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: conflict and I hear anger, and that's not what I want.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: That's not what I listened to night Ranger for, you
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like you listen to Metallica for
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: aggression and m you know, stuff like that, you don't
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: listen to night Ranger for it. But I can hear
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: the conflict on the album. Jeff has only got two
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: soul songwriting credits on that album, and they're both stuck
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: at the end of the album. I doubt they were
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: ever in the same place at the same time recording it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: And that was it. He's been gone ever since and
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: there's never ever been any talk of reunion. So whatever
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: it was, it runs deep and fans will still say, well,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I wish the original guys would get back together. Listen.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: They've had great lineups since, and they've had a solid
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: lineup now for about ten years because when they sort
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: of reconvened, because after Alan Fitzgerald left, he was the
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: first leave. They got a guy named Michael Lardy who
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of people know him because he was in
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Great White, keyboard player and producer in Great White, so
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: he was with him, then he left or whatever happened,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: they got it. They had a guy named Christian Cullen
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: who's never been on an album, but he briefly was
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: the keyboard player. Then he was replaced by guy named
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Eric Levy right around twenty ten, and Eric's been with
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: the band ever since. And Eric has fit right into
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: that Alan Fitzgerald role as far as his choice of
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: keyboard sounds and has just been a really good fit
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: for the band. Initially, their second guitar player they had
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: was believe it or not, Reb Beach. And that's something
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: when I was doing the research for the book, I
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: don't even think I knew that Reb was a night Ranger.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: And I'm a fan, I'm a huge winger fan. I
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: saw Reb when he was in dock, and I knew
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: that he wasn't all exclusively with White Snake. Yeah, White
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Snake was the big gig. Yeah, but I don't think
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: I ever knew he was a night ranger. So this
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: would have been circa two thousand and seven, two thousand
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: and eight, just basically long enough for a tour. Then
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: he was replaced by a guy named Joel Hoakstra, who
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: also ended up in White Snake. Joel was on two albums.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Then Joel was replaced by Carrie Kelly. Carrie had been
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: in a lot of bands. I think he was a
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: version of La Guns. He's a great fit too, great players.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: So you've got three fifths of the original band intact,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: the two singers, one of the main guitar players, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: you've got two other guys that are doing their jobs
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: very very well. You see clips of those guys on stage.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: They still bringing it on stage. And as vocalists, Jack
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: and Kelly don't get enough credit for how well their
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: voices have held up. Yes, there's degradation over the years
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: that comes with being seventy years old or almost, but
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: they're still pulling it off and way better than singers
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: that are ten fifteen years younger than them. And they're
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: playing bass and they're playing drums, you know.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Kelly had some health issues, didn't he.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Kelly had like a bit of a heart scare. And
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: I know I think Dean Casternovo sat in for a gig,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: which that. You know, he's a good guy for a
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: job like that, because he could sing too rock podcasts.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: We'll be back after that.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Surely you can't be serious. I am serious, and don't
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: call me surely.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Kelly and Jack their voice is similar, well, I thought
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: for the longest time, Jack singing Sister Christian.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: You know, I have had people say that to me.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: To me, I've always been able to pick them apart.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: But I can understand they're not dissimilar. You know, it's
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: not like Triumph with Rick Emmon and Gilmore. It's really
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: easy to pick those guys apart. You know, when they're
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: singing in a lower key, it is kind of hard
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: to tell who's singing what. Jack and Kelly are both
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: great singers. I think they have very different tones. Though
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Kelly has a lot of what I would call soul
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: in his singing. I mean, he just can just when
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: he sings it.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: It just at the end of Sister Christian.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah example, Yeah, that's Kelly sentimental street is Kelly, Goodbye
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: is Kelly, even though Jack wrote it. Now Jack sings
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Rock in America and Don't Tell Me You Love Me.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Jack's got a naturally higher voice, and it's interesting. I've
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: always found this interesting because when it comes to harmonies,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Jack will tend to do the high harmonies and Kelly
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: will do the lower harmonies. But in Damn Yankees, Tommy
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Shaw sang higher than Jack, so they switched roles as
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: far as who did the And in both of those cases,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Jack was just this guy that just his voice blended
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: with whoever he was singing with. He's just got that ability, right.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: But lest anyone think Jack can't sing a ballad, there's
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: plenty of examples where he does. But because Sister Christian
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: was such a huge hit number one, the record company
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: wanted another ballad as a single. They wanted ballads to
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: come out as a singles, and no rock band wants that.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: It's the double edged sword, right. You ask any rock
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: band that had hit with a ballad, especially their first
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: hit and their biggest hit, it hangs around their necks.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: But we're a rock band, It's like, yeah, but you
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: wrote this song and it was a big hit. You know,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: there are problems a band could have, but I do
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: know that it does eat away at a band's credibility,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: a band that I grew up on. It was one
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: of my all time favorites. I've said this before. It
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: ate bon Jovi Alive. You know, the temptation to go
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: with too many ballads, but because they had such a
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: hit with a ballad and Kelly sang it, MCA's like,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: give us more ballads, and we want Kelly to sing them.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: So even Jack wrote Sentimental Street and Goodbye. You know
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: those are his lyrics, and Goodbye is a very very
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: personal song for Jack. It was partially inspired by his
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: brother that died young. Kelly ended up singing them and
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: I don't think that caused any conflict within the band,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: but like I said, it caused the frustration with the
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: music business. And then there are songs where they trade
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: off lead vocals. And actually the best example if you
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: want to hear what each of them sounds like, listen
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: to when you close your eyes, because Jack will sing
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: the first part of the verse and then Kelly takes
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: over for the bridge of the song. That's a really
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: good way to distinguish. Okay, that's this guy, that's that guy.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: And you were surprised, as I am, that you can
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: still rock in America. Wasn't a bigger hit.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was actually a song that I also heard
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: back in the day, around the same time that I
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: first heard Sister Christian.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: My personal favorite night Ranger song.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: That's a great song. But I remember, now this is
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: really going back in time, and I've yet to talk
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: to someone else that remembers this show. But in Canada
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: we had much music. It was Canada's answer to MTV,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: and it went on the air in nineteen eighty four.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: It was not until nineteen eighty six that it was
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: on the air where I lived. I knew what existed,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and the idea of twenty four hour music videos just
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: seemed like, that's amazing, that's the coolest thing ever. So
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: because I was just sort of obsessed with these little
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: movies put to music, I just, you know, like like
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: so many others, it was the generation for it, right,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I was the MTV generation, even if you didn't watch MTV,
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: just the music video craze and anytime that there was
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: a show that played videos, you know, like at one
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: point American Bandstand would one video per show, right, they'd
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: have their standard the kids dancing format and an interview
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: and somebody like lip syncing on the show, but then
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: they'd play one video they started doing that, so there'd
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: be like a half hour video countdown, or there'd be
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: an hour long countdown, and you'd just comb through the
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: TV guides and try to find them. Well, there was
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: one show that I discovered quite by accident, and I'm
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: not sure how long this show ran, but it was
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: on PBS, of all networks, and it was called Color
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Sounds and the object, the idea behind this show is
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: that each episode they would show a bunch of videos
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: they were actually they'd show the actual videos, but they'd
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: have the lyrics going almost like karaoke or almost like
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: you know what they call lyric videos now, but they
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: would highlight certain vowel sounds. I'd really love to know
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: what was behind this show and how it ended up
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: on PBS, you know, the almost asame Street and stuff.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I always wonder if there was somebody that worked for
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: PBS that was a younger person that just really wanted
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: to have a music video show, and their excuse or
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: the reason they were able to get it on the
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: air is that they found this educational angle to it
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: and teach people about vowel sounds. Anyway, I remember catching
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: one particular episode of this. I'm like, why are there's
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: videos on PBS like this is stranger? They're showing the
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: lyrics anyway, one of those videos which you can still
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: rock in America, So that stuck with me. I liked
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: that song too. Now I didn't, and I mentioned this
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: in my intro. I didn't realize that was the same band.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: You know, when you're a kid and you don't have
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: the internet, the internet was not an option. You just
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: had to find things out any way you could, you know,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: you just the information was just not at the drop
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: of hat. I mean, I remember for years and years
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: in our house we had encyclopedias. If you wanted to
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: look something up that you're not gonna find anything. You're
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: not gonna find anything about rock bands.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Encyclopedia.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like it's it's It was just such a different time.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: But then when I started listening to Casey caseon you know,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: American Top forty, then I would take in everything he
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: said if it was information about a group, and I could,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: so I was actively listening to the radio by the
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: time Seven Wishes came out, and I remember hearing Sentimental
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Street and just being just blown away. That's still one
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: of my favorite night rangier songs.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Well, one of the things I discovered by reading the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: book is that I should give more credit to Jeff
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Watson because when I hear a song like you could
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Still Rock in America, Brad gillis the Wammie Barr, you know,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the Floyd Rose he's famous for. But Jeff Watson is
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the guy you're hearing doing the two finger tapping.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well the eight two handed, but eight finger tapping
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: any finger. He was really and the best example. I
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: think Rock and America is a good example, but I
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: think Don't Tell Me You Love Me is even better.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: There's a twin lead solo on that. It's one of
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: my favorite guitar solos of all time. You know, it's
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: a good example of both. Yeah, they were. They were
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: great because they didn't sound like each other at all.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: They each had their styles and even though they could
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: shred their faces off, what I loved about you know,
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: I still love about those guys. Well, I don't know
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: what Jeff's been up to, but they play for the song.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: It's always about the song, and it's always cool little
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: parts to It's what we love about Eddie, right, It's
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: what we love about the Van Halen solos. They were
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: never the techniques that Eddie used, were never there just
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: for show. They were to get to the next part
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: of the song and keep you interested. And Night Ranger
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: songs are just packed, even on their ballads. I mean,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: brad solo on Sister Christian is a masterpiece. It's almost
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: a piece of music undo itself. The choice of notes,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: the way that he was able to get a feedback
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: loop going so that he could sustain the notes throughout
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: that entire solo. If you listen to that guitar solo,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: there's never a point where there's never a note playing.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: And that's just him, you know, letting the guitar sustain.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Great use, very tasty use of the whammy bar. I mean,
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: he can go nuts on the wamby bar too.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: But is he a ciple of Randy Rhodes, because I
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: really hear that influence in his play.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I mean he would have been. I'm
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: thinking he and Randy were, but probably about the same age.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I'm sure that he had to study up on Randy's parts,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: but I'm not sure who Brad's influences were. If I
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: had to make a guess, I would say Jeff Beck
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: was probably a big influence.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Can hear that?
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: For somebody from a previous generation?
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: He was on the third guy to get the Floyd
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Rose because it was Eddie war Neil Sean two. And
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: then Brad Gillis, who says he traded in his guitar,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: which his friends thought he was crazy to sell his
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: guitar so he can get a Floyd Rose.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: He's always had that red and black strat and I
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: remember when I finally got to see them live a
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: couple of years ago. It's like, there it is. There's
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: that guitar. You know. It's like you get some of
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: these guys, you just know them. For certain guitars like
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Dave Menichetti playing that sunburst Les Paul that's all beat up. Yeah,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: that's that's his guitar. No one else can play that.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Booked on rock podcasts will be after this Bam the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: future rock And tell me about the songs you mentioned.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Sentimental Street Four in the Morning was the number nineteen single,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and Goodbye is number seventeen. All these off that third album,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Seven Wishes. But you don't hear these songs on the radio,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: and you don't hearrazy people talk about them.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Why, Yeah, I don't understand that Sentimental Street was number eight,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: it was a top ten single in the States, and yeah,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: it doesn't get the recurrent play. I don't understand why
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: that is other than it's just radio change. Pick whatever.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Classic rock songs, they're set in stone and very rarely
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: do they add to those. And it's you know, it's
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: it's just how it is. And again it just what
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: it does is just strengthen my resolve, Like I something
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: needs to be out there. Look, I know we've got
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: the big wide world of the Internet. If you're trying
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: to look up something, let's be real, it's not easy
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: because there's bits of information here, there's bits of information there,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: and there's never one place where you know, Wikipedia is
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: only as good as its contributors, right, same as discogs.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: But there's something about a book that you can pick up,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: take with you anywhere you go and consult it. I
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: want to know about this album. Okay, Well, here's a
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: bunch of people talking about this album. Here's the songs
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: on it. Should give you a kind of an idea
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: of what the album is all about. Another thing that
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Seven Wishes did for Night Ranger is it kind of
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: solidified that they were going to be around. They weren't
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: just you know, a one hit wonder and a one
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: album wonder, like just one successful album. They were able
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: to repeat that success. And I've always wondered if they
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: had Seven Wishes came out, I think June or May
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: or June of eighty five, and it wasn't until February
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: of eighty seven until Big Life came out. That's and
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: if you think about what happened between May of eighty
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: five and February of eighty seven, there was a huge shift.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: It wasn't as big as shift as grunge taking over everything,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: but it was pretty big. You had Guns n' Roses
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: come out in that time. Bon Jovie hit it, Big
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: White Snake hit it, Big Van Halen went through, the
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: singer changed, a whole bunch of things changed. The PMRC happened,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: and I always wondered if Night Ranger had come out
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: with a new album Fall of eighty six, if they'd
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: been able to keep the momentum up and had another
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: platinum album. I've always wondered about that. You know, I
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: also think that they put all of their eggs in
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: one basket, and that basket was secret of my success.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: That's one of the first times I think that Night
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Ranger had wrote a song that was sort of made
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: to order. They came to them and said, here's the
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: title of the movie. Go write as a theme song
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: and spoiler alert. I like that song. I also realized
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: that if a younger listener was to listen to it,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: they would say, Man, is this Samiti soundtrack cheese or what? Yeah,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: that's what I like about it, you know what I
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: mean exactly. It feels as good. A lot of their
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: best songs are like vanthemic, and they feel good to
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: listen to. That's why I like Night Rangers, why like Triumph,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: It's why I like Survivor, It's why I like Sammy.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: You know, I like that kind of upbeat stuff, but
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: it's pretty dated and its use of the sequencer. You know,
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: you got that sequencer thing, Di do do do Do Do
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Do Do Do Do Do do do. It's got that
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: that thing running underneath the whole song. They didn't do
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: that before. That's not that's not Alan Fitzgerald going like this,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: that's him going hitting one key and it just sets
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: the whole thing off and the band plays to it.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't know was night Ranger. This was nineteen eighty seven,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: for those who may not know, the Michael J. Fox
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: movie of the same name. Yeah, when I first heard it,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: had no idea it was night Ranger.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was produced by David Foster. It's very slick.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: It's it's not that Night Ranger wherever a really raw band.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: But this was very, very slick. I mean this this
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: was produced to just be a radio hit. They really thought,
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they thought that that this movie, The Secret
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: of My Success, was going to be every bit as
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: big as Back to the Future was. Michael J. Fox
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: was one of the biggest stars. I mean he was
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: one of the biggest TV stars and movie stars. Now,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: my understanding was this movie did okay, but it wasn't
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: a blockbuster. I never saw it. It wasn't a one
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: of those ones that everybody went out and saw. And
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: I also know that they when they came up with
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: the trailers for the movie, they didn't even play the
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: night Ranger song. They played Katrina and the Waves walking
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: on Sunshine, so they kind of got a raw deal there,
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: and the song only peaked at sixty four on Billboard,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: which is you know, for I'm sure that the record
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: label and you know, and even the band and probably management,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: we're thinking this is going to be top ten and
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: we don't need to worry about it. We'll have another
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: platinum album for sure, We'll you know, release Big Life
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: on the back of it, and it just something just
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: did not click and they were never the same after that. Now.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: I mean Big Life it did go gold, but I've
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: seen Big Life in cutout bins for years after that,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: like with holes punched through them. So obviously it was
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: an album that was overproduced. I don't mean overproduce sonically.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I mean they just manufacture too many of them for
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: how many they sold.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Booked on Rock Podcasts, We'll be back after this.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: I've seen this as you know what it is. It's
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: a forty seven year old virgin sitting round of this
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: space with Damas picking a Bana Brocoli shakes thing, and
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: I'm an Oscar Mayer Wiener.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Find the Bookdown Rock website at booked on rock dot com.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: There you can find all the back episodes of the show,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: the latest episode in video and audio. Links to all
• 40:26
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• 40:29
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• 40:34
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• 40:37
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• 40:40
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• 40:43
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• 40:46
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• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Sing Me Away The Night Ranger album review. It's the
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: latest book from our guest Tim Durling. Let's talk about
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: an album that came and went very quickly. Yet you
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: say this is your favorite album from This is from
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight Man in Motion. That's the album, right,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: their fifth album. Alan Fitzgerald no longer in the band
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: as the keyboardist Jack Blades left the band after this
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: to form Damn Yankees. Why did it come and go
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: so quickly? And why is it that you really love
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: this album? Well?
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: I have a few theories on why it came and
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: went so quickly, But the first thing is that, yeah,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: analyfis Gerald left and there are keyboards on Man in Motion.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: There aren't as many, they're not as prevalent. They're certainly
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: not as prevalent as on Big Life. The album was
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: produced by Keith Olsen. It's a great sounding album sonically,
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: but it's very guitar centric. And that was the press
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: at the time Guitars Are Back, that was their whole
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: press campaign. They were down to a four piece and
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: all their publicity photos, the photos inside the album, there
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: were just four of them. Unfortunately, I've said this before.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: I've said this about a lot of different bands when
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: you get to nineteen eighty eight, bands that were not
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: full on hard rock, like bon Jovi, like Death Leopard,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: like White Sneak, bands that made that I'm sure influenced
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: the likes of bon Jovi and def Leppard, you know.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: And I'll put Ario Speedwagon and Survivor thirty eight Special
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: in Toto. I'll put a bunch of those bands, all
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: of them. By the time eighty eight eighty nine rolled around,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: they weren't selling and they weren't having hits. It wasn't
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: their time anymore. And unfortunately, if that's the case for
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: night Ranger, because you put night Ranger next to a
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: band like Guns N' Roses and they seem very polite,
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like they didn't have a
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: wild image. Now I don't think a wild image means
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: it amounts to anything. You have to have good songs,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: but to the mainstream, people gravitate towards somebody that's always
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: getting attention, and night Ranger were always more about the music.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Also they had They were on MCA Records, who were
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: notorious for just burying albums, and the same fate happened
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: to Kansas right around the same time on the same label.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: Because Kansas put out an album called In the Spirit
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: of Things, produced by Bob Ezrin, and it hit the
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: delete bins within months of it coming out.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Why do these record labels bother signing an artist if
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: they're not going to do anything with them.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: I think at a certain point, if they think that
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: they're done and say it's the last album on the contract,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: it's cheaper to put the record out and not promote
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: it than to go back to the band and say
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: we reject this album, because then they got to pay
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: more money to go back into a studio for another
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: year and do another album. I mean, Man in Motion
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: came out fairly quickly, you know, it came out a
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: year and a half after Big Life, You don't. I
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: can't think of a lot of other examples by the
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: late eighties where a band put out a studio album
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: and then the very next year puts out another studio album.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: That's pretty quick turnaround, and it didn't stand a chance.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: And there was one single that charted, and it's one
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: of a few times that you have a song that
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: was written by an outside songwriter. They did a song
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: called I Did It for Love, which was written by Ballard. Now,
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Russ Ballard is a proven hit songwriter, of course. He
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: wrote New York Groove. He wrote God Gave Rock and
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Roll to You. He wrote songs for all different kinds
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: of artists. He wrote America's you Can Do Magic. He
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: wrote I Know There's something going on by freda great songwriter.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: You know you can look up since you've been gone.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: I Surrendered by Rainbow Night Ranger were proven songwriters too,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: And my understanding is they submitted the album to MCA
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: and they said, we don't hear a single. You got
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: to have a single on here, even though there's a
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: ballad on Men in Motion called Restless Kind that could
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: have been a huge song.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: So that's why they brought in.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they brought in this, They brought in this Russ
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Ballard song.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: The eighties that happened a lot. Yeah, Heart brought an
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: outside songwriters well.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: And I if you think about it, I think as
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: many times as it worked, it didn't work. Every situation
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: is different, and in this situation, I think it peaked
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: at number seventy four. Now they did a very expensive
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: looking video for it. I don't remember seeing it at
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: the time, but with the advent of YouTube, I remember
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: seeing Morgan fair Child's in it, like it looks like,
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: oh my god. Yeah, apparently she was friends with Jeff Watson,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it looks like money was spent. The band
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: looks cool in it. But as far, I think that's
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: the only video they did for Man in Motion, and
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: it just didn't get the push, and so the album
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: ended up being deleted and by nineteen eighty nine they
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: collectively decided that we're gonna knock this on the head,
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: as the British say. I don't think they ever said
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: we're breaking up. Maybe they did, but I don't think
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: it was like I said, it wasn't due at that time.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: It wasn't due to any real animosity. It was like,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: we are sick of we got it. Maybe it was
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: to get out of their deal. I don't know. It
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: might have been to get out of the MCA deal.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, within less than a year, Jack
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: finds himself in another multi platinum band. It's pretty amazing.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: And I think the fact that he and Tommy both
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: sang on high Enough, I think that was that probably
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: felt really good to him. Other than it's it's a
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: magnificent song. It's an amazing it is. It's an amazing song,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: you know, probably one of the best power ballads ever.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: But he's singing on it, you know, whereas he had
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: years of MCA telling him, no, no, you don't have
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: a voice for ballads, and he's like, you know what,
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: I guess maybe I do.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Did they put that in Night Ranger setlists?
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, you better believe Yeah, you better believe it. Yeah,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: even if they're just doing a special guest slot. I
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: saw them. I've only seen them once. I saw them
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. They came on before Brett
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Michaels when Brett was doing his PARTI gra thing almost
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: every set. You can guarantee you're gonna hear high enough,
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: coming of age, you might even hear come again. Now
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't. They didn't do that long. Yeah, then they
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: didn't do that when I saw them, But they did
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: coming of Age and high Enough. And I'm I'm looking
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: at It's funny because like you know, you and I
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: we know so much about this stuff. I'm looking around
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: the crowd and everybody's singing along. But I bet you
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of people there going, I didn't know
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Night Rangers saying this right, not putting two and two together, like, well,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: that's they didn't, but he did, you know. And they
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: usually also do Crazy Train to honor Grant's time with Ozzy.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Now that's a double. A lot of fans say out
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: wish they do more Night Ranger songs. You can't make
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: everybody happy, Yeah, gotta play songs people know, right, that
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: was you know, that was a double platinum album, that
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: first dam Yankees album, So people know those songs.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Speaking of songs, everybody knows. This is interesting. Let's go
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: back to Feeding Off the Mojo from ninety five. There
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: were three albums I think you mentioned all three from
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the nineties. There's ninety fives Feeding Off the Mojo ninety
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: seven's never Land in ninety eight seven, but off Feeding
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Off the Mojo, that's the one they covered Frampton's do
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: You Feel Like We Do Right? Combined with the Beatles
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow Never Knows. Yeah.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: See, Feeding Off the Mojo came out on this label
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: called Drive Entertainment, which is I've never heard of it
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: since that's the only album I've ever seen on this label. Now,
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: there's a guy that's credited on that album named Don Grierson,
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: which is the name I recognized because he was an
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: an R guy for Capital. And my understanding is that
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: he had a lot to do with getting Heart signed
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: to Capitol in the mid eighties and of course setting
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: them for that huge comeback, and this might have been
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: his He might have been trying to form a label
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: and it never got a major label distributor. I happened
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: to read about it a Metal Edge. I didn't otherwise
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: I never would have known that it existed. And I
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: have to think that that was a label thing saying
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: we need something for radio to play, and you know,
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: like you know, at a certain point, almost every band
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: it covers albums.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Yes in the nineties, because they thought classic rock radio
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to play the new single in your.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: Best shot was to play okay, well, if they know
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: the song and they know the band, maybe you'll get
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: some play.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Well, play a new single if it's old material or
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: old music that we already know.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: I think that's what happened, because I do know that
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: there were other songs that those guys were working on
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: that didn't end up on the album. Now. I think
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: a couple of them ended up on one of Brad's
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: solo albums. I think one of them ended up on
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: Kelly's one of Kelly's solo albums. I'm not familiar with
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: that stuff. I probably should be, but I do know
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: that there were other songs that they were working on.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Some would say they were better songs. I have to
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: think the reason that they did this was to have
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: something a talking point for, you know, classic rock radio.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Classic rock radio was a relatively new thing too by
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: the mid nineties, if I recall correctly, so, I think
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: it's well done, but I would just rather hear another
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: original song. It's a good sounding album too, was produced
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: by David Prater. He produced Firehouse, he produced Dream Theaters,
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: Images and Words. He had you know, semi reputation and
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: for an independent album, it doesn't sound like it was
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: done on a shoe string budget either. It's a good
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: sounding album. I think a lot of people would be
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: surprised even if they can listen to it and go, well,
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: it didn't really sound like night Ranger, but I like
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: it was.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: The labels packaging of the seven album low budget. You
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: do not like, okay, so let's get to this.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: So what happened there?
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: You're not a fan of this.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: The feeding off the Mojo album kind of came and
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: went all right. Then the band got an offer. They
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: got an offer from I think a Japanese label to
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: reunite because that's night Ranger and bands like that they
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: always did well in Japan. You know, you could always
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: think about if you were trying to fill out a
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: collection of a band on CD. Before the advent of
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: things like rock Candy records, you pretty much had to
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: get Japanese imports. That's how I got most of those
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: yant albums that came out in the eighties. It wasn't
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: for the Japanese imports, I wouldn't have one CD. So,
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: you know, it stands to reason a band like night
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Ranger would have quite a following over there, so they reunited.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: They actually signed with Sony. John David Kalodner, the famous
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: A and R guy who left Geffen for Sony. You know,
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: he revived Darrow Smith and Whitesnake. He's a pretty well
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: known an probably one of the most well known an
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: R guys in our in our field the music that
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: we tend to talk about he and Jack. I think
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: he had something to do with forming Damn Yankees. I
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: don't know. He Klawdner did a lot of trying to
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: find guys that weren't in bands at the time but
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: had been and put them together. I mean, I think
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: he had a lot to do with the Coverdale Page album.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: Well what about this, aren't you know? Put these two
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: guys together and see what happens. But anyway, he got
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: them signed to Sony and they put the Neverland album out.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Ron Nevison produced it, and I think there's a couple
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: of songs in there that could have caught on to radio.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: But again, bands like night Ranger were the scene was
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: hostile towards veteran bands, and just about every band took
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: a big sales drop. I mean even a band like
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: def Leppard with two diamond selling albums, couldn't get past
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: gold for the slang album. So it was just it
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: was not favorable for bands from the eighties. It was
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: it was like you didn't dare admit that you were
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: from the eighties.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Remember def Leppard went back to their signature sound on
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: before to just get their fans, their longtime fans.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: Made me happy. I know that I have promises on
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: the radio. This is more like it.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: That's a good album.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: But anyway, yeah, but anyway, Neverland didn't sell. It wasn't
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: promoted very well. And again it's like, I don't know
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: why Sony bothered. They didn't even do a video for
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: the lead single, which is just it boggles my mind.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: So by the time seven came around, they were down
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: to CMC International, and I'm sure you recognize that name
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: because that was a label that started up in the
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: early nineties.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Slaughter was on there.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Slaughter was on there, Warrant was on there, Ingvey was
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: on there. D Snyder's band Widow Maker was on there.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: Accept I think was on CMC Lynyrd skinnerd. They actually
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: had a gold record and I think they're the only
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: gold record on that label. But obviously they just didn't
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: have deep enough pockets. So the seven album cover is
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: just the guy sitting on a porch and that's it.
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: But what I really don't like is if you get
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: the CD to seven, the USCD, because of the background
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: that they print over, it's almost impossible to read the credits.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Like I think, it was a really big oversight and
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: someone should have fixed that. It's just about impossible to
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: read the lyrics to credit.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: It just tells you where things had gotten for all
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: of those bands.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: It was hard times. Even though oddly enough, I like
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: the Neverland album quite a bit, and I was quite
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: excited when it came out. I think I like seven better.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: It's a better album song for song, so you know
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: they really they were putting out good music. It's just
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: that it was just so hard to get in a foothold,
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: and like I said, they had to find their way somehow,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: and they put that Hole in the Sun record out,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: which I don't know how to. I would have to say,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: just listen to it and see what you think.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: Two thousand and seven.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: That came out two thousand and seven, but it sounds
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: more like the an album that a band like that
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: would have tried to do in the mid nineties. It
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: sounds more like doc and doing Shadow Life, although it's
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: not that bad, but it sounds like a band trying
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: to adapt somehow to changing musical trends instead of doing
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: what they're best at. And like I said, since somewhere
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: in California in twenty eleven, I think they finally realized,
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: this is what we do, this is what we're good at,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: and this is what people respond to. So this is
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: what we're gonna do. We're gonna just we're gonna stick
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: to work gun. It's not that they've been putting up
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: clones of their older albums, but I think it was
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: a stage they had to go through. Yeah, it was
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: an interesting period for sure. I mean I thought, after
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: the Whole in the Sun album, I thought, well, that's
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: probably gonna be it for Night Ranger. We're not gonna
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: have any more new music from them. Glad it was wrong.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Booked on Rock Podcasts. We'll be back after this.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's like no way that we can just
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: pause for a minute. You guys just go home and
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: do your stuff with an tomorrow we can just like continue.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks so much for checking out the Booked
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: on Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: and make sure you tell a friend, a family member,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: share on social media and let people know about Booked
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: sure you subscribe give a five star review. Wherever you
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: listen to the Booked on Rock podcast, run Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: tune in, and on YouTube music. You can check out
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the full episodes on video, along with video highlights from
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: to the show. Another album after Somewhere in California three
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: years later with High Road and then Don't Let Up
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen ATBPO twenty twenty one, which by the way
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: stands for and the band played on which is cool
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: because of COVID shutting down.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: That was very much a COVID inspired thing. That's why
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: the cover has a roadcase on it.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: A nod to the road crew.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Nod to the road crew. Yeah, and they've got they've
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: got a lot of guys in the road crew that
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: have been with them for many, many years. Too. It's
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: pretty much a family. But yeah, you know, there's so
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: many great albums and anything I see. There's even moments
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: on Home the Sun that I think that's not bad.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: That's not bad. It's just you can't always knock it
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: out of the park. It's pretty hard, especially if you know,
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine what it would have been like to
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: be trying to make new music in an era that
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: was just not receptive to your kind of music. It
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: must have been a very very strange thing. And yet
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: they had songs that they could go on the road
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: and play to size, you know, decent sized audiences. So
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: it's like, I don't get it. I don't know where
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: the disconnect is.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: If you want to just go by the hits from
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: the eighties, that alone is reason to go see these guys.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: But like you say, there's a lot more to this band.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: And now we're in an era where you can go
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: to YouTube, Spotify and listen to this stuff and really
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: enjoy it and not listen to it in the context
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: of when it came out at that time, listen to
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: it just as a standalone rock and roll album or
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: a standalone night ranger album.
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: M Yeah, and for the most part, I think that
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: their productions have stood up quite well to the test
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: of time. They don't really have a lot of albums
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: that sound dated to my ears. I mean, maybe the
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: eighties albums would sound dated to a younger listener, but
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: certainly the newer ones they've done are very very well produced,
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: and they kind of do it themselves. I mean, Jack
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: ended up being an accomplished producer in his own right.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: You know, he built his own studio on his property
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: and it's kind of all contained, and they come out
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: with good sounding albums, and like I said, they still
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: perform at a really, really high level. And I would
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: just love for more people to just know about more
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: than just Sister Christian for start. I mean, really, if
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: somebody was just mildly curious, please buy the book. But
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: if you're gonna buy one thing that original Greatest Hits
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: that came out in nineteen eighty nine, that's great. I mean,
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: that's a great collection of songs. If you find yourself
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: liking that, there's really aside from like I said, a
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: few left turns, there really isn't anything that's gonna that
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: sounds so different that you wouldn't even know it's the
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: same band like Somewhere in California, I have described as
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: one of those very rare examples of a band putting
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: out I'm gonna call it a latter day album even
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: though it's fourteen years but you know, an album in
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: this century from an eighties band that is so good
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: that I would almost say you could start with that,
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: And that'll tell you what Night Ranger sounds like. You
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: won't know any of the songs, but you'll probably end
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: up getting them in your head after you hear them.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: And they're on tour this summer, so if you live
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: in Tennessee or Minnesota, or Wisconsin or Michigan, Illinois, they
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: are coming around also New York. It looks like here
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: in north Tonawanda, New York. In August Ohio, California. So
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: check them out Nightranger dot com and get the book.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Written by a friend, Tim Durling, a much more in
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: depth review of all thirteen albums in sing Me Away
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: The Night Ranger Album Review, and it also includes a
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: forward from Phil Aston of now Spinning Magazine and a
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: discussion of Night Ranger guitarist with Canadian musician and author
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Sean Kelly, who was on the show to talk about
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: his excellent book, Don't call it here Metal, don't call
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: it hair metal. Yeah, great guy, great guests. So that's
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: in the book, great photos of the band. So it's
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: out now. You could get it at amaz that's the
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: place to go. You can not only get that book there,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: but go to Amazon to get Tim's book on Sammy
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: Hagar Wyan.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: T unspooled, Kansas, Kansas.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: They're all there.
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: I've got five now. Four years ago I didn't have any.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Now I got five.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: I think we can call you prolific. Can we go there?
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you can and
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: I'll and I'll take that gladly. But I got to
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: shout up my buddy Matt Phillips and go North Design
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: because he puts it all together for me and he
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: does a great job.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: So talk about where people can find you on YouTube.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: Whatever you want to plug besides the book, go for it.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: I've still got my you know, YouTube channel, Tim's Vinyl Confessions.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: I put out free new episodes every week and you
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: can find me on YouTube. Actually, if you type in
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: Tim's Vinyl Confessions dot Com, it'll take you right to
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: my YouTube page. I rent the url so someone else.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know why anybody else would want to use it,
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: but it's in case I ever want to do a website,
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: I've got the url anyway that'll open up my YouTube page.
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: But I'm on all the socials and post daily stuff
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: from my election and you could see me on the Contrarians,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm on the Contrarians a lot, and I'm
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: just very grateful to, you know, have the chance to
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: promote the stuff on your channel and a lot of
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: other great channels that have said, yeah, we'll have them
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: on and talk to them. And it's gratifying, you know.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: I've all of the books that I've done on specific
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: bands or artists, I've had people come back to me
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: and say, yeah, I only had a couple of albums.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Now I ordered a few more and it's really good.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: So that's what I want to see happen with the
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: night Ranger, you know, just have people go where has
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: this stuff been? Why haven't I been listening to this
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: for years now? Why isn't this you know, this is
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: so good and if you like this melodic, this kind
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: of melodic rock, and man it it doesn't get much better.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Great band San Francisco's night Ranger. All right, Tim, thanks
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: so much man.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: Thanks Eric. That's it. It's in the books.