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.

.38 SPECIAL – WILD-EYED SOUTHERN BOYS (1981)

In the mystery writing world, there are those who meticulously plot out their books before doing the actual writing of the story and there are those authors who write by the seat of their pants. While I don’t write mystery novels, I take the seat of my pants approach when determining which album I’m going to write about for a given week. 

Of course, then I have to do a little research about the album so I can learn about an album if I’ve never heard it before or have stuff to flesh out a piece on a release I’m already pretty familiar with.

In the case of writing about .38 Special’s 4th studio album Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, I had to learn about most of the album. While I have managed to acquire all of the band’s albums on either cassette or CD, it’s not like I know every song in their catalog by heart. 

For this album, I ended up knowing three of the nine tracks beforehand. And of those three tracks, I’m pretty sure the album’s title cut I only heard when I owned just a greatest hits release for the band. 

I do remember hearing “Fantasy Girl”, probably on the radio and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard “Hold on Loosely”, the biggest song from the album. While it had some success on the singles chart when it was released, it has gone on to become one of the biggest hits for the band. It still has a home in their live set and if you tune into any classic rock radio station you will inevitably hear this song. 

But that’s a good thing because the song does hold up quite nicely. Besides the great vocal from Don Barnes (who trades off lead vocals on the album with Donnie Van Zant), the guitar line provided by Jeff Carlisi provides a killer hook that always manages to draw me in.

For the title cut, I find it funny that given the song’s title, the song isn’t a bit more of a wild rollicking track in terms of tempo. It still has an uptempo drive to it but it is still a bit more mellow in its delivery compared to some of the other fast moving numbers.

That would include the song “First Time Around” which has a smoking musical score to it. Meanwhile, the song “Back Alley Sally” has a nice little rocking beat to it. Given the lyrical subject matter of the song, I thought this song coincided more with the album’s cover art than the actual title track.

Getting back to “Fantasy Girl”, the song ranges from mid-to-uptempo but has a solid hook that keeps me very entertained each time I hear this particular song.

That .38 Special can successfully combine both the Southern Rock and arena rock sounds to make high quality radio friendly tracks has always been the biggest key aspect of their appeal. However, since I’m nowhere near being an expert on their catalog, I was a little surprised to find that the song “Hittin’ and Runnin'” had a bit more of a pronounced bluesy feel to it. It’s woven throughout the song but unless my ears were playing tricks on me, it was there and it made the song that much more interesting to me.

When I first heard the song “Honky Tonk Dancer”, my notes said that I liked the sly guitar playing on the track. And that stuck with me through each successive listen to this song. The guitar work has a nice subtle touch at times and that deepens the overall tone of the music to me.

“Throw Out The Line” was used as the B-side for the “Hold On Loosely” single. While it is likely only remembered as an album track, I liked the hard rocking nature of the song a lot. The same could be said about the album’s final song “Bring It On”. It’s a straightforward rocker that will keep your excitement level high.

I’ve written about two .38 Special albums in the past (Special Forces and Tour de Force) and liked them both. You can now add Wild-Eyed Southern Boys to that list as well. At the moment, I don’t have any more of the band’s albums on cassette but hitting the high water mark on these albums certainly has whetted my appetite to get my butt in gear and investigate the rest of their catalog ASAP.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Wild-Eyed Southern Boys album was the first album for .38 Special to go platinum. The album was reissued in 2023 via Rock Candy Records with four live cuts added on as bonus tracks.

Survivor’s Jim Peterik co-wrote three songs on the album but wrote the album’s title track on his own.

The song “Hold On Loosely” was the first single released from the album. It rose to #27 on the singles chart. It has appeared on the soundtracks for the movies Joe Dirt and Without a Paddle. It was also used in an episode of the TV series Better Call Saul.  The video for the song is credited with being the 13th video played on MTV the day the network premiered. The album version of the song runs nearly five minutes but the single version is edited down to just under four minutes in length.

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.

SURVIVOR – CAUGHT IN THE GAME (1983)

“Jackie no, Jackie don’t go
You’re a hard act to follow”

That lyrical line from the song “Jackie Don’t Go” might also sum up the relative lack of commercial success that Survivor’s Caught in the Game found upon its release in 1983.

Let’s face it, when you write the #1 song in the world in 1982, there’s only one way to go from there. But dismissing this album in the face of being sandwiched between the “Eye of the Tiger” song and album and the Vital Signs album that came afterwards is doing quite a disservice to yourself and the band.

You might be asking why you should go back and check out Survivor’s 4th studio album and the simple reason is that it contains some of their best work. The album’s musical direction had a bit more of a harder edge to it, but it still maintained some great pop melodies throughout as well.

With all but one song written by guitarist Frankie Sullivan and keyboardist Jim Peterik (Peterik wrote the song “What Do You Really Think?” on his own), the album opens with the title track. And while the song itself failed to chart as a single, it is a memorably rocking track. I loved the riff that powers the song. You first hear it in the song’s intro but it is threaded throughout the song and is the first definitive example of how the guitar would be much more in the forefront of the music on Caught in the Game.

I mentioned the song “Jackie Don’t Go” and while the nostalgic look back at a lost love opens with more of a keyboard driven sound, the guitar dominates the rest of the song. It’s just a cool uptempo rocker that has remained one of my personal favorite Survivor songs from the first time I heard the track.

The one true straight up ballad on the album is the song “I Never Stopped Loving You”. It’s got a powerful delivery from singer David Bickler and while the song is more than forty years old at this point, it remains quite a draw and doesn’t sound dated in the least.

There’s a killer hook in the straight up rocker “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way” and the first side of the album closes out with another uptempo track in “Ready For The Real Thing”. Each of these two songs stand out on their own with great melodies threaded through the faster pace of the delivery.

The second side of the album opens with the song “Half-Life”. Now, I can’t remember if I’ve always thought this about the song or not, but when I was listening to it for this article, I thought the way it was presented in such a dramatic fashion, it felt like it was a track that belonged on the soundtrack of a science fiction movie. The song’s opening definitely feels like music you’d hear at a movie’s opening credits while the rest of the song would play over the end credits. But whatever the actual intent of the song, it was a damn fine piece of work.

“What Do You Really Think?” has a lively pace and hook that carries the listener along quite willingly.

As for the song “Slander”, I really loved the guitar work on this song. I felt this track had a darker tone to it that coincided with the song’s title and song lyrics. I found that tone really had a particular appeal for me.
The album closes out on what I think is one of Survivor’s finest works. The song “Santa Ana Winds” has an epic feel to it. I remember how blown away I felt when I first heard the song. It is vastly different from what most people who are only passingly familiar with the band’s music would expect. Peterik’s keyboards start off the song in the beginning but a more realized rock tempo soon takes over. Bickler’s performance is outstanding on this song and I loved the two extended instrumental breaks that help make up the song’s running time. In particular, the song’s outro really caught my ear.

While Caught in the Game barely broke the Top 100 on the Billboard album chart (#82) when it was released, this album is FAR AND AWAY better than it is given credit for. While nothing is going to replace the “Eye of the Tiger” song and by extension the Eye of the Tiger album atop the band’s list of successes, ignoring the fantastic work on this album is just criminal in my opinion.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Caught in the Game album has been reissued on CD at least twice. There was a 1999 Japanese edition from Pony Canyon and then Rock Candy Records reissued a remastered edition of the album in 2010. This edition has no bonus material other than an essay/interview with keyboardist Jim Peterik about the recording of the album.

There were four singles released from Caught in the Game according to the album’s Wikipedia page. The title track, “I Never Stopped Loving You” and “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way” were released in the US while “Slander” was released in Germany. However, other sources including that interview in the Rock Candy Records reissue say only 1 or 2 tracks were given single releases.

Survivor singer David Bickler left the band in late 1983. Though he did return for two stints fronting the band (1993-2000, 2013-2106), the band never recorded another album with him after Caught in the Game.

Special guest appearances on Caught in the Game included Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) and Richard Page (Mr. Mister) on backing vocals. Daryl Dragon is credited for providing “additional keyboards”. He’s best known as the Captain from pop duo Captain & Tenille.

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.

THE SCREAM – LET IT SCREAM (1991)

The Scream is a band that could be seen as a bit of a cautionary tale about missed opportunities.

When the band was originally formed in 1989, they were known as Saints or Sinners. The lineup featured John Corabi on vocals teaming up with three former Racer X members: guitarist Bruce Bouillet, bassist Juan Alderete and drummer Scott Travis. 

However, by the time the band got to recording what would become the Let It Scream album, Scott Travis had left to join Judas Priest. Call it a case of taking advantage of a much bigger opportunity. Considering Travis is still the drummer for Priest, it seems to have worked out well for him.

The band changed their name, brought in Walt Woodward III as their new drummer and the album got recorded. But in yet another example of seizing the bigger (or golden) opportunity, soon after Let It Scream was released, John Corabi left The Scream to take over as the new singer for Motley Crue.

I guess it was just never meant to be for The Scream. I’ve long known most of this story but like any number of other music fans I’m sure, I never actually got around to checking out the album itself. But just a few days ago, I was perusing a newly acquired collection at the local record shop and found a damn near pristine cassette edition of Let It Scream. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by yet again, so I bought it and jumped into listening to the album.

What did I think? Well, holy cow! I should’ve  followed Travis and Corabi’s example and seized the opportunity I had to listen to this album more than three decades ago.

The album opens up with the song “Outlaw” and it is made pretty clear from the outset that the band had everything going for it in the songwriting and performance departments. “Outlaw” is a keyed up hard charging rock and roller track from the start of the song. Corabi sounds incredible hear and the rest of the band is just on fire.

But as I would soon discover, there were a lot of different facets to the material The Scream had to offer here. Sure, most of the material was high energy rock but when the band switched things up here and there, they did it with great aplomb.

You’ve got pure straight up rockers like “Give It Up” on Side One. But then you have a song like “I Believe in Me” that blows the roof off the place and features a saxophone solo that deepened the song’s sound to my ears. 

Rounding out the first side of the album, you’ve got a couple tracks that incorporate far more of a blues rock style. “Man in the Moon” starts off slow, its bluesy drawl seeping into your brain through the song’s first verse, before the band comes on much stronger and you are hit with a solid ball of head-on rock. The side-closing “Never Loved Her Anyway” gives listeners a down home groove thanks to the track being fueled mostly by a superb acoustic guitar line threaded throughout the song. Add in a great vocal turn from Corabi and you’ve got a killer track. 

I loved all that uptempo rock but I found myself quite struck by the song “Father, Mother, Son”. It’s pretty much a slow moving track up until the guitar solo, but the deliberate nature of the music lets the lyrics shine through this song that serves as a reflection and thank you to departed parents. Perhaps because my own parents are gone serves as the reason why this song was such a stand out.

When the second side of the album kicks off, there’s kind of a funky style to the song “Tell Me Why”. It’s mixed in amongst the more hot rocking portions of the music but it sure caught the ear when I listened.

On the song “Tell Me Why”, I swear there’s a female vocal accompanying John Corabi’s vocal take but damn if I can find any info on the liner notes as to who it may be. But I liked how the two vocals played off each other. That song and “Every Inch a Woman” are both white hot rockers. The song “I Don’t Care” is also a lively number that will get your heart racing. 

The song “You Are All I Need” is the one track on Let It Scream that didn’t quite do it for me totally but that was mainly due to how repetitious it sounded towards the end of the track. Before that point, I thought the song was pretty good. It first focused on just the vocal performance with a light musical touch to accompany Corabi. As the song’s chorus hits you get more of an instrumental flourish. The backing vocals include Ray Gillen and Jeff Martin who were both in the band Badlands at the time. Martin was also a former member of Racer X.

The album closes with the song “Catch Me If You Can”. It has an extended instrumental intro that went on just long enough that I wondered if it was going to be a full on instrumental track before the vocals kicked in. The band plays this song like their was a fire under their collective butts. It’s got a lightning fast delivery that in some ways reminded me of what little I remember from listening to a Racer X album way back when. But there’s a killer driving tempo to the song that is undeniable and I found this song particularly enjoyable. You get musical fireworks and then comes a rollicking vocal performance that tied everything together.

While not having listened to this album before makes me just as guilty as everyone else, I can’t help feel that had the music world not “conspired” to take and take from The Scream, they might just have had a chance to be something really special. I say this because the Let It Scream album is chock full of great songs and performances. It’s a stunningly self-assured album that shows The Scream deserves to be remembered for far more than as a launching pad for it’s members going on to bigger opportunities.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The band recorded a 2nd album with featuring Corabi’s replacement Billy Fogarty. It was called Takin’ It to the Next Level but it was never released as the band was dropped the record label.

According to the album’s Wikipedia page, there is a bonus track on Let It Scream called “Young & Dumb” but it must only be on the CD version of the album because it isn’t on the cassette. That song was used in the movie Encino Man in 1992.

Drummer Walt Woodward III died in 2010. While he never played on the Let It Scream album, drummer Scott Travis does have a co-writing credit on the song “I Don’t Care”.

I saw John Corabi during his first stint with The Dead Daisies when the band opened for a Kiss tour. I got to meet him after the set.

By JAY ROBERTS

Assuming this article is posted on its regularly planned day, when you read this piece it will be four days until Christmas.

But once again this year, I didn’t have to wait until the big day to get some presents. Instead, I got 24 presents over the course of 2023. That’s how many articles were written in The Cassette Chronicles series for the year. I got to discover old gems that I’d never heard before, rediscover some albums I hadn’t listened to in a while and had a few stone cold classic albums to write about as well.

The good news for me is that The Cassette Chronicles will return again in 2024. I love doing this series and since Jay and Katie seem to like what I’m doing, I’m more than happy to keep writing this series. The series will return in either the first or second week of January and will once again keep the every two weeks publication schedule.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what I had to say about the albums this year and will continue reading into the new year. Until then, here’s a look back (in no particular ranking order) at ten albums I talked about in 2023.

See you next year!

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

1 – WITNESS – WITNESS

2 – JOHN WAITE – NO BRAKES

3 – HERETIC – BREAKING POINT

4 – JUNKYARD – JUNKYARD

5 – DANGEROUS TOYS – PISSED

6 – DIO – HOLY DIVER

7 – CINDERELLA – HEARTBREAK STATION

8 – GENESIS – INVISIBLE TOUCH

9 – HELLOWEEN – KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS, PART 1

10 – GREAT WHITE – SHOT IN THE DARK