By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

D.A.D. – NO FUEL LEFT FOR THE PILGRIMS (1989)

After two albums that were only released in Denmark and not internationally, the band D.A.D. broke through with their third album No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims. Not only did it give the band a profile outside of their native country, it got them played on MTV and touring the US.

While the band was still known as Disneyland After Dark when the album was released in Denmark, the band had to change the name to avoid getting sued by the Walt Disney Company once they started getting notice here in the States. After all, there’s nothing Disney likes more than suing people who can’t possibly defend themselves against the corporate behemoth.

Setting that aside, I bought this album when it came out solely on the strength of the first of the album’s two minor hits, “Sleeping My Day Away”. But a funny thing happened when I listened to the album. I just didn’t really like it all that much. In fact, since I first listened to it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the full album in the ensuing almost 36 years since. I pretty much remembered nothing about any of the other songs on the album.

And yet, the album was considered one of the best Hair Metal albums of all time by Rolling Stone in 2019. (Not that Rolling Stone has much credibility anymore but still.) Plus, any time the album came up in conversation, Roger from Purchase Street Records would rave about just how much he loved the album. So when I saw a copy of the album on his store shelves a couple weeks back, I decided it was time to give it another shot. I had completely dismissed the album and almost totally erased it from my memory, so what would I think of it now?

Well, I have to be honest here…I’m an idiot. Well, maybe not a COMPLETE idiot but after listening to No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims in the here and now, I have shake my head and for the most part wonder what was wrong with me back in 1989.

“Sleeping My Day Away” opens up the album and it still has that great hook and catchy chorus that made it break on MTV and with listeners back in the day. I did notice that I had a bit of a hard time fully understanding singer Jesper Binzer as the album and song got underway but I think that’s basically because I hadn’t listened to D.A.D. in so long.

As I said, I don’t really remember much about the rest of the album so it was almost like a totally brand new listening experience for me. So as I listened to the gritty and fast moving “Jihad”, I was just getting more and more amped up. The music was giving me a feeling of exhilaration. By the way, the album title comes from a lyric in this song.

On the song “Point of View”, not only did I like what I was hearing in the mid-to-uptempo song, but the lyrics are amazingly on point for how things are going in modern day. I doubt the band could’ve seen that coming but it does give them a bit more standing in my mind. The line I loved most was “See, I’d like to share your point of view / As long as it’s my view too”. Tell me that doesn’t sum up the majority of discourse these days, right?

There’s a heavy and deliberate thump to the otherwise hard charging track “Rim of Hell”. The song was the other minor hit from the release. The song has a cool sounding chorus and really landed well with me this time around.

Okay, while the song “ZCMI” certainly has an abundance of explosively charged energy coursing through it, for some reason it just fell flat for me. But as the first side of the album comes to a close the rocking “True Believer” gets the album back on track.

Before I talk about the 2nd side of No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims, I should note that despite the fact that I ended up not liking the album back in the day, I did see D.A.D. live in concert. They were opening for Badlands at the Living Room in Providence, RI. Sadly, there’s very little I remember about their set. Heck, I’m not even sure who I was with at the show. But the reason I do remember seeing them was because Badlands was fantastic and I got a great shot of their singer Ray Gillen that came out better than how I took it when the developer screwed up how the final photo turned out. As for D.A.D., the one thing I do remember is that during the Badlands set, I left the main floor because it was way too packed for me and I watched about half the set from the side of the stage. It was during that time that D.A.D. drummer (at the time) Peter L. Jensen came out to watch the show and he was standing next to me for a good part of that time.

As for the second side of the album, it opens with the song “Girl Nation”. It’s got a lively uptempo style and I found that I really quite enjoyed the song’s rhythm.

I wasn’t quite as taken with “Lords of the Atlas” but I liked the guitar playing on “Overmuch”. It has a pretty kicking rhythm and vibe to it. The same can be said for “Siamese Twin”, the guitar playing from Jacob Binzer really soars on the two songs and makes it that much more appealing.

The fiery soundtrack for the track “Wild Talk” was instantly appealing and I think it does another excellent job of showcasing all of the band members at once.

The album closes out with the song “Ill Will”. While it features plenty of fast moving parts, I got the feeling this song was really going for a very heavy in-your-face vibe at the same time. The vocals seem to be more intense with a bit of a growl and musically this one is quite the ass kicker. The guitar playing that ends the song is blazing and despite the song’s short length, D.A.D. packs quite the sonic punch to finish off the album.

Once again an album that got basically deleted from my memory comes back to bite me in the butt! While there’s still a couple of songs on the release that don’t really do anything for me, it’s clear that I’ve been missing out on all the great music No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims has been waiting for me to hear (again) all these decades later. I have a feeling I’m going to end up playing this one a lot in the days and weeks to come because man did my opinion of the album do a reversal. Who knows, it may even lead me into checking out more of what D.A.D. has to offer. And isn’t that what it is all about? I just really loved what I heard this time around.

NOTES OF INTEREST: D.A.D. is still together today and other than a change of drummers from Peter L. Jensen to Laust Sonne, the lineup of Jesper (vocals) and Jacob Binzer (guitar) and bassist Stig Pedersen has remained constant.

For a band that has always struck me as relatively obscure in comparison to other bands from the 80’s Metal Years, D.A.D. has released 13 studio albums, 3 live releases, 8 compilations and an EP. Their most recent album, Speed of Darkness was released in October 2024.

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and under-appreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

SAVATAGE – STREETS: A ROCK OPERA (1991)

“As darkness falls…so hard…”

With that line, the title track to the 6th studio album from my personal favorite band Savatage, begins to spin its yarn about D.T. Jesus, a New York rock star who rises from a drug dealer to the heights of the music profession, only to then experience another fall.

Like I said, Savatage is my favorite band. The fact that I’ve written about four of their albums already in The Cassette Chronicles would lend credence to that statement. But back in 1991, my fandom was still growing. I’d seen the band on the tour they did for the Gutter Ballet album where I’d gotten to meet four of the guys from the band. Add in that the show was great and my fandom was definitely ascending when Streets: A Rock Opera came out.

While singer Jon Oliva seems to hate the fact that “A Rock Opera” was added to the album title, I’ve always appreciated the extra dose of the dramatic that term added to the release.

The album opens with the “Streets” song. Much like how the album was based on a book that producer Paul O’Neill wrote for a Broadway play, the song serves as a kind of introductory overture for the rest of the album. With Jon Oliva providing his vocals over the music from guitarist Criss Oliva, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and drummer Steve Wacholz, the track gets you keyed up for what’s to come.

The story gets underway in full with “Jesus Saves”. It introduces you to D.T. Jesus. He’s a drug dealer but he ends up becoming a big rock star…and falls prey to all the vices that would seem to entail. By the end of the song, his star has faded and he’s lost amongst the streets of New York, addled by drugs and on a slow road to nowhere or oblivion. The solo in this song is fantastic, Criss Oliva being on fire.

And that’s just in one song! The funny thing about this song in how I related to the song as someone listening to it. Like a lot of people I would sing along with the track. One day my mother heard me singing the chorus which includes the words “Jesus Saves”. She was a bit taken aback, thinking I was somehow having a religious awakening or something. She asked me, and I laughed as I told her that this particular Jesus was a New York drug dealer. Her response? “Don’t let your grandmother hear you saying that.”

As D.T.’s addictions continue to get the better of him, the song “Tonight He Grins Again” takes you inside the monkey on his back until the next track, entitled “Strange Reality”, shows him beginning to see what’s become of him and the resulting shock to his system. The way Jon Oliva’s vocals become strident without being overbearing is a deft touch as he brings this particular chapter to life.

The piano based ballad “A Little Too Far” has always struck a chord with me. The spare opening of the song with just the piano and what I think is a marvelously beautiful vocal performance from Jon. The song would seem to be showing us D.T. has he gets his act together, getting clear headed and taking a kind of inventory of what he’s done and what he’d like to do now. I also love the way the lyrics work in John Wayne, Captain Kirk and Spock in such an organic way that you can’t imagine any other persons being mentioned in their place.

The dual track “You’re Alive” / Sammy and Tex” has D.T. returning to the stage. “You’re Alive” is about his return to the stage and how everyone reacts to it. As for “Sammy and Tex”, that song whether taken as part of this great story or as a standalone song from the band’s catalog, I think it is one of my favorite songs from the band. It’s a full-tilt metallic assault on the senses with an amazing guitar run through from start to finish, a viciously ripping vocal turn and lyrics that show D.T.’s past coming back to haunt him…and hurt those around him. Just a monster track! I’ve spent all these years listening to the track in such a way that I can actually “see” the fight that is described in the lyrics and the results of said fight. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it is the lyrics of this song that creates a picture in my mind that sticks with me every time I hear the song.

The first side of Streets: A Rock Opera comes to an end with the showstopping epic “St. Patrick’s”. As D.T. reels from what’s happened, he faces a dilemma. Will he return to the drugs to hide away from his pain…or will he carry on and reclaim his life. And in this song, I guess you could say he sort of ends of having a conversation with a deity in a rather well known church. The first half of the song is geared more towards a slower and more deliberate delivery but you can feel the intensity ramping up as the song goes on and as the second half of the song kicks off…the heavier side of Savatage takes over for a bit before you get a coda of sorts and it is just Jon and a piano as the conversation comes to an end…and I love the last line, “Or give a call, explain it all…I’ll even leave the dime”.

The second side of the album kicks off with “Can You Hear Me Now”, the brief slower opening gives way to a far more intensely driven rock beat, fed by a pretty scorching drum track from Steve Wacholz. The tempo rises and falls for the rest of the track but the two styles blend superbly for an underrated gem of a track. The guitar playing is immense here as well.

D.T. has had his rise, then his fall. Then came his, if not second rise at least a bit of a redemption and now faced with the potential of losing it all again, he’s wandering the streets and we are left to wonder what path he will choose. On “New York City Don’t Mean Nothing”, the song actually feels like the city it mentions. I am not quite sure how better to describe it but that’s the way this particular track has always struck me. There’s something just intrinsically fantastic about how this song develops. You could say the same kind of thing for “Ghost in the Ruins” which has the same kind of gritty edge to it.

The song “If I Go Away” finds D.T. questioning if he should just disappear again, what he would leave behind or if anyone would really miss him. This is more of a power ballad track as the early part of the song which is keyed by the piano gives way to a bigger rock score for a lot of the song as well. And I love the way this song shows off the different vocal styles from Jon Oliva. You get the focused clear vocals in the “ballad” portion of the song but as the song’s tempo picks up, his vocals get more intense and a bit more of an edge or perhaps a rasp comes into play as well.

I like the contrasting styles of the next two songs. On “Agony and Ecstasy”, the tempo and full throttle metal soundtrack reminds you of the way “Sammy and Tex” sounded. But what I like about this one is how the lyrics are from the point of view of D.T.’s addiction calling out to him to return to the addiction’s embrace. It’s a fascinating way of telling this part of the story and it is also a superb track at the same time. Oh, and give a good listen to that guitar solo from Criss Oliva right before the song’s end. The counterpoint to that song is the follow up “Heal My Soul”. Soft and spare with a piano once again accompanying the vocals, it is an amazing song that always gets me a little choked up for what it means to the story.

The album comes to a close with the songs “Somewhere in Time” and “Believe”. The former track starts off a tad slower in pace but it ends up becoming more of a heavy rocker as the story winds down with D.T. finding a measure of peace and redemption from the trials he’s gone through. The song “Believe” has been a rather effective song not only for this album as the exclamation point to the album and story but a line from the song has been used in other material from the band, giving it an extended life of sorts. In fact, the entire set of lyrics for the song are chock full of great lines that really stick with you.

Streets: A Rock Opera may be a fictional story of a rock star’s self-driven ups and downs but for me, it is one of the statement showpiece albums for Savatage. It’s been nearly 34 years since it was released and it still manages to thrill, chill and stun me with its rather astonishing and unequaled delivery of some of the most amazing work I’ve not only heard from Savatage, but from any musical act that I listen to. It is quite simply one of my favorite musical works of all-time!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The CD version of the album has an essay that tells the story of D.T. Jesus and the Subway Messiahs (the band he led) and of D.T.’s life before, during and after his fame, rather than just relying on my own interpretation of the story here for you. 

While the storyline of the album does bear similarity to what was going on in singer Jon Oliva’s life around the same time, it is not about his life according to everything I’ve read online.

Streets: A Rock Opera has been reissued at least four times that I can confirm. The CD edition in 2002 has one bonus track, “Desiree”. I own a copy of that edition as well as my cassette. A funny side note to that CD is that the hype sticker and the track listing on the back of the CD both manage to mistakenly spell “acoustic” as “accoustic”.  The album was reissued again in 2011 with two different bonus tracks. The next reissue came in 2013 and it is sometimes referred to as “the director’s cut” of the album because they worked in narration for the album as well as the bonus track “Larry Elbows”.

By JAY ROBERTS

As this 8th year of The Cassette Chronicles comes to a close, it is time to once again look back at ten of the albums I wrote about in the series this year.

There were 24 new articles this year and I enjoyed writing about each album that the series covered. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to anyone that has been reading the series for any length of time. Heck, even if there’s an album I don’t care for too much, I think I usually have a good time writing about the reasons why it didn’t really resonate with me.

The great news is that thanks to the continued support of Jay and Katie from Limelight Magazine. The Cassette Chronicles will be returning for a 9th year in 2025. I’m not sure exactly when the first new piece will be up but it will be either January 2nd or January 9th.

I wanted to thank everyone who has read the articles this year. Whether you’ve gone directly to the site or clicked on a specific link on whatever website or social media page I’ve posted the articles on, your support for this series is greatly appreciate.

Here’s to another great year in 2025 but until that starts here’s the ten albums I’ve chosen (in no particular order) to spotlight for 2024.
See you next year!

(Please click on the cassette title to read the article)

1 – SAVATAGE – EDGE OF THORNS

2 – THE SCREAM – LET IT SCREAM

3 – SURVIVOR – CAUGHT IN THE GAME

4 – DEF LEPPARD – ON THROUGH THE NIGHT

5 – HEART – LITTLE QUEEN

6 – MELISSA ETHERIDGE – BRAVE AND CRAZY

7 – SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – LIGHTS…CAMERA…REVOLUTION

8 – BATON ROUGE – LIGHTS OUT ON THE PLAYGROUND

9 – MR. MISTER – WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

10 – IRON MAIDEN – SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON

By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and under-appreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

(WRITER’S NOTE: THIS IS THE LAST CASSETTE CHRONICLES ARTICLE OF 2024. THERE WILL BE A BEST OF 2024 PIECE COMING NEXT WEEK. I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE FOR CONTINUING TO READ THE SERIES AND I HOPE THAT YOU WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO BECAUSE THE SERIES WILL RETURN WITH NEW ARTICLES AT THE BEGINNING OF JANUARY 2025!)

GREAT WHITE – GREAT WHITE (1984)

I’m sure you will be shocked…shocked I say…to learn that I’ve never listened to Great White’s self-titled debut album before now. I’m a little surprised myself but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a copy of this album (in any format) out in the wild before a recent excursion.

Now, that’s not to say I’m not at least somewhat familiar with some of the music from this album. In fact, two of the songs on Side One of the album are two of their better known songs even now.

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard both “Stick It” and “On Your Knees” both on the radio back in the day and through the greatest hits compilations I have in my collection. But before I talk about those songs, let’s pull back a little and talk about the tone or rather sound of this album.

When I was looking up information about the album, the one thing I noticed is that most articles describe Great White’s sound as being a lot more metal (aka heavier) than what we generally think about the band’s music. And while I do think the music leans more heavy and rocking than pretty much the rest of their catalog, singer Jack Russell’s voice still makes the music pretty identifiable as GREAT WHITE. He just has a readily identifiable sound so whether metal or blues rock is the musical style, Jack Russell still stands out.

This is the fifth Great White album I’ve written about overall but because I haven’t listened to it in full before, there was plenty to discover.

So now we can get back to those two songs I mentioned above. In regards to “Stick It”, the music is certainly in-your-face and so is the attitude the vocals project in the song. Particulary when Russell is intoning the song’s title. Being 1984 and metal developing a certain style that prevailed in the decade, the music also had a kind of echo to the production at times.

The song “On Your Knees” was co-written with Don Dokken and it is a hard-hitting straight forward rocker. I can definitely understand why it is still a well known track from Great White’s catalog.

Oh, and it is one of three tracks that originally appeared on the Out of the Night EP, even though the versions on Great White were fully new recordings.

The song “Out of the Night” itself opens up Side One and I noted pretty early on how fast and heavy it sounded. Definitely more of a metal track. But I tell you, despite what their record label and maybe other fans themselves might think, I thought this track was fantastic! Definitely showed the earlier style the band was employing at the time but it’s a darn good song no matter what.

For me, “Bad Boys” was OK. Solid rocker but of the five songs on the album’s first side, it is the one that left the least impression on me. 

But you know what song actually really surprised me and blew me away? It was the cover of The Who song “Substitute”. HOLY CRAP!  For me, I’ve been a fan of the many and varied songs from The Who that get played on the radio over and over again. But as surprising as this may be to some readers, I don’t actually own any of their catalog. And to the best of my knowledge I’ve never heard their original version of “Substitute”.  As I was listening to Great White’s quite masterful and rocking rendition, I was really getting into the song. I love the lyrics a lot but I thought Jack Russell did a fantastic job with his vocal performance as a whole. So much so that I actually find myself a bit fearful of looking up the original song on Youtube because I don’t want to spoil my feeling and/or love of this version.

For Side Two of the album, the song “Streetkiller” sure sounds like an 80s metal song title. But the song’s intro starts out establishing a moody almost eerie vibe. But as that intro ends, the music kicks in full burst and rocking pretty fast. I found myself getting into this track a lot.

But the song “No Better Than Hell” was a song that took more work to appreciate. It’s mostly got a mid-tempo delivery but the music seems like it was hushed a little, as if it wasn’t coming through the speakers in a full throated style. Maybe that was the planned method for establishing the feel of the song or something. But while the song does come off as interesting enough that I don’t hate it, I found that it wasn’t quite as intriguing as I might’ve hoped. 

On “Hold On”, Great White started out with a more subdued delivery of the song, picking up the pace a bit for the song’s choruse but by the end, the song was fully uptempo, albeit not quite as fast as a track like “Out of the Night” or anything. Okay song overall.

But the pacing picks up in full with the song “Nightmares”. It’s got a creepy sound to the guitar solo and just one of the tracks that does lend itself to that description of this album being a completely different sound than the rest of Great White’s discography.

That fast pacing continues on the album closing “Dead End” (which is the 3rd song re-recorded from the Out of the Night EP). It’s got a thunder and lightning delivery that I really found enjoyable and the vocals are delivered with Russell sounding at times as if he’s delivering the lines in a rapid fire manner. The band goes out a very high note with this song.

While there are of course definite differences between this first full-length Great White album and the slightly softer blues rock driven sound they adopted after it, I’d be remiss not to say that the band’s talent shines through with their songwriting and performances on the Great White  album. Sure it may not be perfect considering a couple of songs gave me pause but overall, this one turned out to be a very welcome surprise as I edge closer and closer to completing my Great White studio album collection.

I love Great White the band and Great White the album is the early primer on why that came to be. Check it out for yourself and I’m sure you’ll be as pleased as I ended up being.

NOTES OF INTEREST – The Great White debut album (which peaked at #144 on the Billboard album chart) was reissued on CD in 1999 with 5 cover songs included as bonus tracks. It was done by a French record label who re-titled the album as Stick It.

The four members of the lineup (singer Jack Russell, guitarist Mark Kendall, bassist Lorne Black and drummer Gary Holland are credited with writing the 9 original tracks on Great White. They shared writing credits with producer Michael Wagener on the song “No Better Than Hell” while the band’s manager Alan Niven provided backing vocals and got co-writing credits on two songs.

Gary Holland was a member of an earlier version of Dokken and was briefly a member of the band Sister which would eventually become W.A.S.P. He is credited with appearances on 2 Ozzy Osbourne releases and worked on albums by Twisted Sister, Autograph and Don Dokken as well.

Keyboardist Michael Lardie was not yet a member of the band but he is credited on this album as an assistant engineer and provided backing vocals.