Why do we listen to Music? One group gives us the Answers

Why do we listen to music? To express regret? To get our nerve up? To relive a memory? Crimson Glory delves into feelings of recrimination, love lost, determination, horror and more on their little known masterwork Transcendence from 1988 (MCA Records/Roadracer Records). Caught up under the label of “hair band,” it was partially their faults—they looked the part—this group compares favorably to a better known 1980s progressive metal band, Queensrÿche, who thought enough of the group as to recruit one of their later lead singers when their own vocalist Geoff Tate had a falling out with the rest of the band.

Splitting into several camps during the 1980s, heavy metal evolved the genre with the emergence of speed metal and had forward motion in progressive rock, as well. Crimson Glory took on the mantle that some had thought handed off by Rush at the start of the decade with their more radio and MTV friendly compositions. More than up to the task, Crimson Glory put up amazing effort in Transcendence having an alternate-reality, forward-looking perspective of material with a science fiction/fantasy theme in large part.

Original Crimson Glory lead singer Midnight
looked the part of heavy metal singer
on 1988's Transcendence, but sang
with much depth and emotion.

Crimson Glory showed a lot of prescience in anticipating the explosion of fantasy themes in the media with their song “Where Dragons Rule,” which brings to mind a martial marching number with its rat-tat-tat-tat backbeat courtesy of drummer Dana Burnell. Before there were Lord of the Rings and Reign of Fire movies and other stories of reptilians of lore, Crimson Glory was singing of creatures rising from the lake of fire on wings of steel. And the chorus of all the members of the band answering to lead singer Midnight’s call, “In a world between myth and strange reality | In a world where dragons rule,” they answer, “Mission: Kill”. And in similar fashion, Midnight asks, “We die for the dragon—is there a reason?” This song really stirs the soul, striking a chord of defiance. When that Millennial blaring the latest 50 Cent Hip Hop iTune download comes barreling up alongside you in his daddy’s BMW, give him a blast of Old School Heavy Metal from Crimson Glory to snap him back to the real world.

The band also takes a very literary tack on “Masque of the Red Death,” which encapsulates the entire plot and character development of the Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name into a mere four minutes and 15 seconds. We join the king and his guests at the masquerade ball while the pestilence ravages the land outside his high castle walls. But Crimson Glory relates how the personification of disease and death makes his way into the dance and takes all with him.

De rigueur mysterious symbols
accompanied Crimson Glory's
liner notes on the 1988 release
Transcendence.

I am sure there must have been other groups that have interpreted other pieces of literature into song, but I would have to believe that Crimson Glory is one of the few groups in heavy metal who has done so. Vocalist Midnight sings of “feeling” the disease flowing through his veins. And you can nearly experience the terror of falling into the bleeding arms of the stranger. Midnight (John Patrick Jr. McDonald 1962-2009) performed exceptionally on Transcendence but perhaps with the most dramatic presentation and dynamic vocal range on “Masque of the Red Death,” hitting and sustaining high notes that would make operatic-style singing archetypes Bruce Dickinson or Rob Halford proud.

On “Burning Bridges,” Crimson Glory really channels the emotional side. As a gut-wrenching ode to love lost and isolation, Midnight croons about never wanting to cause pain, never wanting to cause sorrow. Seriously, these lyrics made me misty, nearly bringing a tear to my eye. The metaphor of burning bridges makes a powerful statement of irrevocable loss and irredeemable regret:

Now I feel the bridges burning
Flames reflecting in my eyes
The feelings much too cold to share
Smoke clouds dream I’ve left behind

This song can really get under your skin after repeated listening—but in a good way. You may find your mind wandering to those who you might have wronged in the past. Could small slights lead to failed relationships? They say don’t sweat the small stuff—and it’s all small stuff. This song gives me pause to think that the reverse is truer.

Circa 2011, Crimson Glory now rock on without their
late and previously separated singer Midnight. 

Photo credit: Pepalaje Photography / Foter /
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Another outstanding track, “In Dark Places,” uses a sea-as-woman metaphor as an unnamed ingénue entices Midnight forward to a solitary and shadowy world beneath the waves. Clocking in at a little over seven minutes, it’s by far the longest cut on Transcendence and most haunting one, as well. It is really a cryptic hymn about someone considering ending it all by drowning, saying goodbye to the sunlit world for the permanent freedom of the great beyond—in dark places we will be free.

Transcendence seems to have been out of print for some time, but Amazon.com does list an import edition available on an orderable basis, though as of this writing it was temporarily out of stock. There are also numerous new and used CDs from individual sellers and MP3 download files for the entire album. If you are interested in mind-expanding music you missed the first or second time around Crimson Glory’s Transcendence is worth a look.

-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener

4 Facts you do not know About David Bowie’s Young Americans

By the time David Bowie recorded and released his album Young Americans in 1975, he had undergone at least three previous transformations from the Space Oddity to Heavy Metalhead to Proto Punker to Ziggy Stardust. Now cooling his jets from leading the glam rock revolution, the tall Brit settled down in Philadelphia to cut the album that would define his next great transformation as The Thin White Duke. Someone at the time described Bowie as the whitest man he had ever met—translucent white. An odd sobriquet given that he was going to put down the grooviest work of his even-then legendary oeuvre. Working with future R&B Grammy winner Luther Vandross, Bowie successfully made his transition to the hip, laidback grooves en vogue in the mid 1970s where funkified rock-pop planted its flag in the Disco Era.

I bought Young Americans in the compact disc (CD) format in the used bin at The Wherehouse in Lakewood or Long Beach, California, circa 1997 or 1998. And as with a bunch of the other CDs I have been spinning in recent times, I was not completely familiar with this material despite having it on hand all of these years. Oh sure, I’ve heard the title cut “Young Americans” and “Fame” on and off over the years on classic rock radio stations. I have even seen the iconic performance of “Fame” from TV’s all-time hippest trip Soul Train, when Bowie became just the second or third white recording artist to make the reverse crossover.

So it was pleasant surprise to hear the depth of content on this set of songs. To be sure, The Thin White Duke is tied to the times of 1974 and 1975 singing on “Young Americans”:

Do you remember, your President Nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay?
Or even yesterday?
Have you been the un-American?

But the rest of the disc is packed with listenable and danceable tracks that transcend time and could feel at home in any decade that knows how to swing. You could probably even put Young Americans in the headphone album category—of course, that would be the iPhone earbud category nowadays. That’s unless you have some of Beats by Dr. Dre audio headphones.

An outstanding track that gets overlooked is “Fascination,” on which Bowie really gets down with Carlos Alomar riffing stylistically on guitar with syncopation in tow. Saxman David Sanborn, later to be hailed as one of the progenitors of Smooth Jazz, wails along—sho ’nuff, oh yeah—lending new credence to the by-then moribund theory that the instrument was the tool of Old Nick hisself!

As it turns out, Alomar would become a longtime collaborator of Bowie’s, working with the Human Chameleon over the many changes he would conjure forward for the next 30 years plus, but most heavily during Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy” period on the albums Low, Heroes, and Lodger culminating with his commercial mass-market MTV smash followup to Let’s Dance, Tonight.

Of course, as I have already alluded, what really makes all of Young Americans work is the omnipresent saxophone work of David Sanborn. On just about every track, Sanborn shines through with sultry sax lines that exude an atmosphere of elegant decadence amidst a world-weary attitude toward libidinous behavior.

Speaking of libidinous behavior, “Can you Hear Me” offers an interesting lover’s lament where Bowie could be chiding his ex paramour spurning him by not taking his affections to heart. Or it could also be read as a double entendre where Bowie asks, “Can you feel me inside?...Why don't you take it?” Perhaps, I digress.

There are several bonus tracks on the CD version of Young Americans: “Who Can I be Now?”, “It’s Gonna be Me”, “John, I’m Only Dancing Again”. These were all tracks that were recorded contemporaneously with the rest of the Philadelphia masters. But they were dumped in favor of “Fame” and “Across the Universe,” which were recorded a few months later in New York City, although “John” was released as the A-side of a single to work the promotion of the album in 1975. These tracks have merit, but obviously Bowie thought better of them during the original production and only reconsidered their release on the full album due to marketplace expectations for the number of songs to be present on a higher-cost CD in comparison to the lower cost/quality cassette tapes and vinyl records the then still dominant form factors for major label music releases in the early 1990s.

For all of its Philadelphia infused soul sound, the most famous song on this album was recorded in New York City at the site of so much rock music history, Electric Lady Studios. The track of course is “Fame,” which was a collaboration with former Beatle John Lennon. Resulting from a jam session, according to Songfacts, the music for “Fame” came together very fast with the track being based on the jam and Bowie quickly dashing off the lyrics in about five minutes. Lennon was given a co-writing credit as he gave Bowie the inspiration for the lyrics based on their discussion of the how fame itself takes a little piece of your personal life every day. Bowie was later quoted as saying:

I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.

While most people are aware that Bowie and Lennon co-wrote and sang together on “Fame,” Bowie’s first chart-topping No. 1 hit in America and his breakthrough to the pop mainstream, there are several other facts about Lennon’s involvement with Young Americans perhaps only the most ardent of Bowie fans will actually recognize, such as did you know that:

• Lennon also played rhythm guitar on “Fame”?
• “Across the Universe” on Young Americans is a cover of the Lennon/McCartney song of the same name?
• Lennon also played and sang backup vocals on this Bowie cut?
• And you might know—but it’s easy to miss—the nod to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band tune “A Day in the Life” in the title cut: “I heard the news today, oh boy”

So where does the legacy of Young Americans leave us today? There is so much to consider in the career of Bowie that it’s difficult to know where to start and stop. Perhaps, the answer is not to look too closely behind the curtain that this master illusionist of rock ‘n’ roll has woven but just marvel at the wondrous auditory landscape beneath our very ears. But if you like to indulge additional senses, such as vision, and you live in Europe, you may want to take in a new exhibit that has just opened examining the years Bowie spent in the German capital (though it was not at the time).

-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener

Blow Your House Down: John Kay & Steppenwolf Huff and Puff into the 80s

There was a time when the name Steppenwolf was synonymous with rock ‘n’ roll rebellion. With hits and significant movie soundtrack and album cuts such as “Born to be Wild,” “Magic Carpet Ride” and “The Pusher” Steppenwolf led by charismatic frontman John Kay ruled the airwaves in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Unfortunately, success could not be sustained and the group fell apart and broke up in 1972. But through fits and starts, Steppenwolf would regroup and disband again and again over the course of the next decade plus. But with the proviso that the only original member of the band in each incarnation would be gravelly voiced crooner Kay.

Rolling, or panting, into 1987, the group now booked as John Kay & Steppenwolf entered a new phase of their career. Perhaps inspired by the successful reunions of other veteran rock groups such as Aerosmith, Deep Purple and others in the 1980s or out just to re-establish his legal rights to the name Steppenwolf, John Kay decided to give it another try. Along with noted Hollywood session guitarist Rocket Ritchotte, keyboardist Michael Wilk and, allegedly, drummer Ron Hurst, Kay and the group put together “Rock & Roll Rebels” in 1987.

In a curious development, Kay and Steppenwolf did not sign with a major label for “Rock & Roll Rebels,” but instead decided out of principle or by necessity to use Qwil Music as the label, which was distributed through K-tel International, the infamous “As Seen on TV” purveyor of “20 Great Hits sung by 20 Great Artists” type compilation albums. But the contradiction of a once-ultra-cool, cutting-edge rock act on the kitschy television record label mostly featured in commercials during the “The Midnight Special” and “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” seemed a perfect-fit for the schizophrenic 80s, when First Lady Nancy Reagan preached “just say no” to drugs in the midst of the crack cocaine epidemic.

In any event, the actual album “Rock & Roll Rebels” has a decidedly upbeat, fight-the-good-fight vibe in resistance to the jaded, seen-it-all ambiance that had taken hold by 1987. On “Give Me Life,” Kay and crew exhort us to grab some fun and not let the good times pass us by without grabbing all you can—you need to be bold. Ritchotte does some nice soloing and quick-fingered fretwork on this song. Even though online sources now list Ron Hurst as the drummer on this album, I’m pretty sure it’s actually a drum machine. This idea is reinforced when I recall seeing advertisements in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section showing only Kay, Ritchotte and Wilk for a local show.

John Kay circa 1972. Photo credit: Affendaddy /
 Foter / Creative Commons -NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

An anthem for those who have a chip on their shoulders against naysayers is “Hold on (Never Give up, Never Give in),” or what I like to think of as the Galaxy Quest song. While risking clichéd sentiment, Kay earnestly sings the chorus of “Hold on, never give up, never give in | Stay young and believe in your chance to win.” For those everywhere who have ever heard the wolf at the door at 3 a.m., these are powerful words indeed to steel your nerve and harden your resolve to triumph against incredible odds.

A most interesting track on the album is “Give me News I can Use,” which seems to completely encapsulate everything that made the Crazy 80s, with its literary device of an early evening newscast and highly improbable but very plausible incidents: a train hijacker is shot dead by a midget G-man dressed like Donald Duck at Disney World, the referee was crucified and tore limb from limb at a playoff game. Kay would have shown these live but they will have film at 5. Seems completely reminiscent of news anchor Jerry Dunphy coming on KABC-TV L.A. Channel 7 during the 10:30 station break breathlessly pumping the trainwreck story of the day, punctuated with the motivating “film at 11” signoff. Who could resist watching?

In 1970, Steppenwolf was on par
with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
Photo credit: brizzle born 
and bred / Foter / Creative 
Commons Attribution-
NoDerivs 2.0 Generic 
(CC BY-ND 2.0)

While you will not find any howling, leather-lunged rockers in the spirit of “Born to be Wild” on “Rock & Roll Rebels” it is a divergent platter that went against the hedonism-for-its-own-sake grain of the Decade of Reagan. Speaking of platters, if you are into collector’s items or just like the warm sound of analog records, the Steppenwolf staff recently found some long out-of-print vinyl copies of “Rock & Roll Rebels.” It might be a good investment as well as good listening! Otherwise, you’d need to buy the CD reissue “Feed the Fire” on Amazon.

-Derek Handova

Appreciative Listener

Change Your Evil Ways: Mark Farner Rocking for God and Against Injustice

In the long annals of rock and roll, no one stood larger in the hearts and minds of teenagers than Grand Funk Railroad in the late 1960 and early 1970s. Led by drummer Donny Brewer and guitarist Mark Farner, they set the standard for hedonism by which all following rockers are to be judged. The lyrics to their seminal hit “We’re an American Band” are a prime example of the hijinks they were up to in the 70s:

Four young chiquitas in Omaha | Waitin' for the band to return from the show | Feelin' good, feelin' right, it's Saturday night | The hotel detective, he was outta sight | Now these fine ladies, they had a plan | They was out to meet the boys in the band | They said, “Come on dudes, let's get it on” | And we proceeded to tear that hotel down

Grand Funk Railroad peaked out about 1976 and Farner and Brewer and the other members of the band went their separate ways. Farner tried his hand at a solo career without much success or acclaim. Brewer and the other Funkers remained together and released one album under the name Flint, an ode to their hometown, which went mostly unnoticed. Farrner, Brewer and Grand Funk reunited in the early 1980s and were included on the soundtrack to and in the 1981 full-length animated sci-fi movie Heavy Metal. After that, the band remained moribund until 1996.

In the meantime, Mark Farner underwent a spiritual awakening and became a born-again Christian. He reemerged on the musical scene in 1988 with his Christian-oriented rock album “Just Another Injustice.” I saw him on tour that year in support of this album, but unfortunately, he was unable to play the worldly “We’re an American Band,” although he did go through the repertoire of other Grand Funk hits that night in Long Beach at the Bogart’s nightclub.

Even while wearing his faith literally on his crucifix-encrusted armband, Farner does not come off as overly preachy on an album that has an admittedly niche audience. To show he was still capable of rocking it up Farner’s album opens up with “Airborne Ranger” and a set of double-meaning lyrics that can be taken either for a patriotic serve-your-country anthem or a faithful call to action against “the darkness all around you” Actually, the double meaning is not that cloaked, but it’s an enjoyable song to blast with the four windows down and blowing the doors off some lucre-loving snob in his new BMW. His solos are more restrained than in the 70s on FM heavy rotation album cuts such as “Shinin’ On” but he gets in his hot licks.

Perhaps a better cut is the pure blues jam “Judgement Day Blues.” Farner really blasts the materialistic culture of the late 80s as suffering from a “vast epidemic” of people breakin’ all the lord’s rules. A great day is a comin’, and Farner proceeds to explain it on his axe, sinfully soloing over the slow beat backed up at the bottom end by some funky bass playin’.

It’s probably just serendipity, but a track that still really speaks to me is “The Writing on The Wall” about a world full of lies, confusion and illusion. If the country was in a spate of moral crisis in the 1980s, what about today? Farner warns us not to watch it slip away again. If only we would or could learn from the examples of past generations. Every generation faces its own temptations—ours is no different from our predecessors. Hopefully, we’ll heed Mark’s warning and change our evil ways before the Day of Reckoning comes post-haste!

Whether you’re a believer or just a fan of overlooked rock albums from the past, “Just Another Injustice” is worth a look and a listen. If you’re a traditionalist, it’s available in limited quantities on Amazon, but if you tend to a more 21st century based solution iTunes and Spotify also seem to have at least the title track, if not the entire CD, online.

-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener

Not Who You Think it is: Getting it Wrong with Kingdom Come

By the mid-1980s, the music listening public was so thirsty for a Led Zeppelin reunion, any rumor of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, the lead vocalist and lead guitarist of Zep, respectively, working together again would spread like wildfire. Flash forward to 1988. Hard rock radio stations begin playing a song that sounds very much like Zeppelin—something in the spirit of “Kashmir.” At the time in the Los Angeles-Long Beach market of Southern California, KNAC disc jockey Long Paul would introduce the song saying “It’s not who you think it is.”

The song being played was “Get It On” from the German heavy metal band Kingdom Come. Reportedly, the buzz from the song was so strong, someone at the recording studio released a rough demo to several U.S. rock radio stations even before the final tracks for the album were completely mixed. Legend has it that Kingdom Come lead singer Lenny Wolf and producer Bob Rock were at the board at the famous Electric Lady Studios in New York City when they heard their track on the radio.

Not to be caught flatfooted, they quickly rushed the finished master tracks to the record label and Kingdom Come’s eponymous debut album shipped Gold (i.e., 500,000 units sold). To further capitalize on their unforeseen good fortune, they were quickly signed onto Van Halen’s Monsters of Rock tour. With Van Halen, Scorpions, Metallica and Dokken on the bill, Kingdom Come was instantly legitimized as a rock ‘n’ roll heavyweight.

Unfortunately, the comparisons to Led Zeppelin hung heavily on Kingdom Come, with some wags tagging them with the moniker “Kingdom Clone.” Others came up with an epithet even more unsavory that cannot be repeated in polite company. The band persevered with their tour and a subsequent followup album. But they quickly disbanded with only Wolf remaining into 1992 still performing under the Kingdom Come banner. By that time, any heavy metal bands from the 1980s not named Metallica were speedily swept into the ashbin of history caught under the undertow of Grunge. That’s too bad.

Kingdom Come’s debut album showed much promise. Beyond the Zeppesque “Get It On” there are several standout tracks including “Living Out of Touch,” “Now Forever After” and “Shout It Out;” all hard rocking and blues based without any pretentiousness of the Led Zeppelin supergroup mentality of the 1970s. Not one to give up the dream, Lenny Wolf/Kingdom Come continues to release albums, with the 13th studio release “Outlier” coming onto the market in May 2013.

-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener

Man on Metal Mountain—Ronnie James Dio: This is Your Life

The dark poet of heavy metal, Ronnie James Dio, has been departed from those of us in the rock ‘n’ roll community for almost four years, having died in May 2010. Though a man of slight stature, he left behind a towering musical legacy to which all sectors of the metal brotherhood continue to pay homage. In that spirit, titans of the genre united to record cover versions of some of Dio’s greatest work from the Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio—his eponymously named group—eras on “Ronnie James Dio: This is Your Life,” with all proceeds dedicated to the Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund. The record has been out since early April 2014 and has charted at No. 20 on the Billboard Top 200 list.

But for all his success as a member of supergroups along with the likes of Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow and Tony Iommi in Black Sabbath and phenomenal solo work, Dio’s music was about beautiful, surrealistic lyrics evoking paradoxical imagery of “shadows shining ever-bright” and “rainbows in the dark.”

But more than anything else, Dio wrote anthems that made people jump out of their seats and wave the two-fingered, so-called “devil’s horns” salute. Most of the cuts on this tribute to Dio are of the full-throttle anthem variety.

To prove the point, Anthrax comes out all guns blazing on “Neon Knights” to start. Just like the original version from Black Sabbath’s first collaboration with Dio on 1980’s “Heaven and Hell,” Anthrax sounds like a B-52 bomber with a full payload carpet-bombing the Viet Cong with napalm on the Mekong delta. Joe Belladonna channels the vocals of Dio spot on and Scot Ian shreds on the Iommi riff.

What may be the best track on the album is turned in by Adrenaline Mob covering, naturally “Mob Rules” from the Black Sabbath album of the same name. Anchored by Mike Portnoy, the drummer of Dream Theater fame, the Adrenaline Mob thunders ahead with this fist pumper. There’s nothing quite like cruising down the freeway with the moonroof open and this track singing your eardrums with the volume at 11! The full visual power of Dio’s lyrics comes to the fore as the song opens with “Close the city and tell the people that something's coming to call | Death and darkness are rushing forward to take a bite from the wall, oh.” Adrenaline Mob lives up to its name upping the pace and the volume in salute to Dio.

Garnering a lot of attention and a big piece of the room on this disc is Metallica covering not one but four Dio songs from the Rainbow era in a medley aptly called “Ronnie Rising Medley,” melding the original tunes “A Light in the Black,” “Tarot Woman,” “Stargazer” and “Kill the King.” Metallica hasn’t sounded this good in years, with James Hetfield back to his old surly self from the “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets” period, barking out lyrics like a drill sergeant. Kirk Hammett scintillates on lead guitar as always. And Lars Ulrich keeps it all very martial sounding on the kit. Hetfield has been quoted as saying the group couldn’t settle on one song and that jamming on all four was something they’ve done in the past, so it came together very quickly. A definite highlight for any dyed-in-the-wool Metallicat!

Other nice performances are turned in by Scorpions on “The Temple of the King” and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford on “Man on the Silver Mountain.” Both tap the spiritual energy of Dio with understated performances.

Overall, an excellent album. And an excellent cause. Well worth the price of admission. “This is Your Life” is available at Amazon and any record stores remaining near you!

-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener

When it Pours: Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors (Disc 2)

The 1989 all-star double-CD set “Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors (Disc 2)” is a fascinating collection of tracks by a who’s who of modern and roots rock at the time (for this review, only the second platter is discussed—I’ll get to disc 1 if I can find it). It continues the proud tradition of high-profile rock performers banding together to help a worthy non-profit cause that started with George Harrison’s 1971 “Concert for Bangladesh” recording and was continued by the 1979 “No Nukes” triple live album (double CD when reissued in 1997).

However, “Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors” is not a live ensemble but a collection of some of the best of what the 1980s had to offer. Assembled to raise money for the mission of the Greenpeace non-governmental environmental organization to protect whales and other sealife and a raft of other ecological causes, artists like Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bryan Adams and Sade donated use of some of their best A-sides for this compilation.

Overall, the theme of the album is one of hope and sometimes defiance of authority—a natural attitude for the namesake album of a small ship that attempts to block large whalers in the open oceans. Another overriding subtext of the album is the reoccurrence of imagery of water.

The CD opens with Simple Minds doing a live version of “Waterfront.” Lead singer/guitarist Jim Kerr hoarse singing style and all revs up the crowd. Most famous for their top pop hit “Don't You (Forget About Me)” from the movie The Breakfast Club, “Waterfront” is more representative of their gritty, working-class sound but embellished with keyboards. Continuing on, Peter Gabriel croons his best on “Red Rain” with the water washing away all iniquity. As in baptism, the red rain has the power to expiate sin. Like much of Gabriel’s material, “Red Rain” has an ethereal, dream-like quality.

The liquid metaphor continues on “Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors” with the Waterboys offering an ode on “The Whole of the Moon.” One of the rock critics’ favorites in the late 1980s, the Waterboys combine Celtic musical influences from their native Scotland with a light rock sensibility. It’s quite infectious as you singalong to the chorus of the title, keeping time as you tap your toes.

Irish group Hothouse Flowers follows up the water theme again with “Hard Rain.” Although heralding from the Emerald Isle, the Hothouse Flowers channel their inner soul effectively to survive the hard rain in the ghetto. The tune really pumps with the piano playing a central role. It has the feel of a good jam from accomplished jazz musicians.

The disc saves one of the most legendary performers for close to the end in the person of Robbie Robertson, formerly of The Band, Bob Dylan’s backing group on some of his seminal electric work in the 1960s. In a half-song, half-spoken-word performance, Robertson takes a journey “Somewhere Down the Crazy River.” Throughout Greek Mythology and Biblical Scripture, rivers have played important roles as conduits, barriers, boundaries and sources of renewal. Robertson’s journey is more modern with the river standing in as a symbol for his urban meanderings to Nick’s Café. Robertson brings a quality of world-weariness to this track packed with allusions and other figurative language devices.

Considering this is the trailing CD in the two-disc set, it makes me wonder what I’ll find on “Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors (Disc 1)”—provided it’s still somewhere to be found. It’s such a revelation and revitalization, the sound just washes over me. Hopefully you can hold on with me.

-Derek Handova
Appreciative Listener