Sweet & Lynch: Unified

There was a time when I thought there was no more good, new music.  I even used to joke that "the day the music died" did not refer to the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, but December 31, 1989, for once we left the '80s, there was nothing good anymore in the musical world.  That was, of course, an exaggeration, but let's face it.  There comes a time when many of us stop listening to new material and just replay our favorite albums over and over.  The 21st century, however, has seen a rebirth of some great rock music, and the latest testament is the sophomore release from Sweet & Lynch.

Their 2015 debut, Only To Rise, was a solid record, but their new album, Unified, simply blows it and many others out of the water.  Michael Sweet (Stryper, Boston), George Lynch (Lynch Mob, Dokken), James LoMenzo (White Lion, Megadeth), and Brian Tichy (Billy Idol, Whitesnake) have returned tighter than ever.  Their individual efforts mesh on this album, and they simply sound comfortable together, a fact that gives the album its defining characteristic, creativity.  I have never heard an album that experiments as much as this one from track to track, and those experiments pay off, yielding music that is intensely interesting and that makes you want to keep the album on repeat.

The opening track, "Promised Land," forms a clear bridge with the last album.  In fact, it could well have been on Only To Rise and has much in common with that album's title track melodically and rhythmically.  After listening to it, you say, "Okay.  Sounds good.  Pretty much as I expected.  What's next?"  And that's where things get interesting and take off.

Track 2, called "Walk," is unlike anything these guys are known for in their other bands.  It is certainly unlike anything Michael Sweet has ever sung.  It opens with a funky rhythm followed by Michael's rapid fire vocals that recall Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes on "Hard To Handle."  Early comments on this song based on the video likened it to Queen, and that is clearly evident in the chorus. After two verses and twice through the chorus, things change again for a tasty solo from George Lynch that is again evocative of Queen, yet at the 3:14 mark we hear a throwback to "Under The Bridge" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.  From there, it is back to a big, Queenesque finish.

At this point, any first-time listener should be wondering what is going on and curious for the next track, for it is clear that this album is not going to sound as if each song were cut from the same mold.  And if curiosity killed the cat, it is probably because the cat tripped and fell as it stumbled into the dark metal of the third song, "Afterlife."  It is dark, heavy, and sludgy.  Oh, and did I say it is dark?  It features a slow rhythm that, when it does accelerate, moves into a swagger and then back into slow...what's the word I'm looking for...darkness.

It is well known that I'm a huge Michael Sweet fan, but these opening three songs display an amazing talent.  The lyrics are wildly different as are his vocal styles, and he pulls each one off with great success.  For someone who has enjoyed his metal screams for years, "Walk" and "Afterlife" are delicious treats.

"Make Your Mark," the fourth track, returns to the familiar Sweet & Lynch of the first album and Michael's aggressive screams, although at the 2:07 mark his vocals call to mind Steven Tyler from "Sweet Emotion."

A slow, country/southern-rock groove opens track 5, "Tried & True," and turns into a melody that would have stood well alongside Bon Jovi's "Never Say Goodbye."  In fact, you could well imagine this playing at the high school dance or in the car as you and your date hung out after the football game.  It takes you back to a simpler time and is quite a lovely tune.

And speaking of taking you back in time, the title track, "Unified" comes up next and does just that.  While Sweet & Lynch is without a doubt a rock outfit built on the solid guitar work of George Lynch, it is the subtle, almost ethereal keyboard floating above the verses that conjures up images of big hair, Aqua Net, and spandex, and for this Roman Rocker, that always fits the bill.

Is it the theme song to a 1970's sci-fi film?  No, that's just the intro to "Find Your Way," the seventh song, but despite prompting us to imagine George and Michael dressing like Space Ace Frehley, this one is again solidly in the vein of Sweet & Lynch's first album with thundering vocals and good, meat-and-potatoes guitar work.

"Heart of Fire," track 8, is a true sing-along song.  Great harmonies on the chorus bring this one home, and by this point in the album, you've pretty much stopped paying attention to whatever else you were doing and have just settled back into the music.  But at the 2:39 mark, you look at your device or record player with a "what is that?" expression on your face as George Lynch takes off on a solo that goes in an unexpected direction.

Track 9, "Bridge of Broken Lies," could have been a Michael Sweet solo number.  In both music and lyrics, it sounds as if it could have come from his 2014 album I'm Not Your Suicide.  A slow number that explores the pain of broken relationships, it is a solid rocker that really opens up with Lynch's solo in a blues-rock groove.

Dark and foreboding that explodes with wailing guitar.  That's what you get with the opening of the tenth song, "Better Man."  And then comes another surprise, for this is a love song.  Again there is the '80s-inspired keyboard and driving, child-of-the-'80s rhythm and guitar wail.

The final number, "Live To Die," opens with a straightforward rock drum and guitar attack, but when the vocals kick in, you would swear you were in 2005 and listening to a lost recording for Stryper's Reborn album for the first two minutes.  The solo that enters at that point gives you the Sweet & Lynch vibe from their first album, and then shifts again at the 3:00 mark to sound like a Michael Sweet trademark guitar assault.

This is an album for music lovers, and by that I mean it is a project that those who are genuinely interested in the making of music will enjoy.  It experiments.  It plays with different sounds from what we are used to from these musicians.  It mixes things up, proudly reveals its roots in other eras and styles of music, and creates something new.  This is what music making is all about, and this what musicians, not merely entertainers, seek to do.

As I said before, I'm a huge Michael Sweet fan, but it is not for that reason that I note this is his project.  Yes, George, James, and Brian brought their tremendous talents to the table, but if you watch any of the behind-the-scenes videos (here, here, and here) you will see just how much Michael was the ringmaster of this musical circus.  These are some of his most interesting and heartfelt lyrics to date, his vocals in even this wide range of styles are spot on, and his ability to arrange and get the sounds he is looking for all add up to one thing.  The guy is a serious musician who has aged better than a fine wine, and when you put musicians the likes of George, James, and Brian in the same studio with him, the result is fantastic music for the serious and discerning listener.

Serpens Albus

I'm not sure if any album was better suited to launch me into a lifetime of enjoying hard rock and metal music than Whitesnake's 1987 release.  I had already been enjoying the sounds of Stryper and Bon Jovi, but in the late spring of my senior year in high school, Whitesnake released their self-titled seventh album, and  the soundtrack of my life would be changed forever.  Described in the Columbia Record and Tape Club's monthly catalogue as being "Zeppelinesque," I had to give it a try.  As soon as it played through my jam box once, I was hooked.

It is a minor point to some, but the Latin phrase serpens albus at the base of the amulet caught my attention.  I was a Latin student back then with plans to become a Latin teacher, so that was, in my mind at least, immediately cool.  Still, it is all about the music, so let's get back to that.

The opening track, "Crying In The Rain," reaches out with a fist of iron, grabs you by the neck, and then passes you on to the next song, with each successive track manhandling you as if you were a rag doll to be left spent at the end of an album that you can't wait to replay from the start.  The whole thing is a tsunami of sonic aggression, and the lyrics have a pure blues-rock pedigree.  It has been said that David Coverdale could not write a song if the word "love" were removed from his vocabulary, and tales of needing love, losing love, and seeking love fill this album.  There are the ballads, of course, such as "Is This Love" and "Looking For Love," which was originally released only on the European version of the album, but what sold the album for me were Coverdale's vocals.  He remains one of my all-time favorite singers, and his vocals here are strong, soaring at times into the hair metal scream zone, but clear and able to carry the emotional freight of the songs.

A few months after purchasing the cassette, I found myself a freshman in college and soon discovered that I only had the tip of the iceberg, for there were six other Whitesnake albums I had never heard of.  I quickly began acquiring those and going absolutely nuts for their blues-rock roots.  Still, it was the granite-fist-in-a-steel-glove-smashing-me-in-the-face sound of the '87 album that made me wish I actually had speakers that could be cranked to eleven, and nothing captures that better than "Still Of The Night."  I remember once walking with a friend past a dorm on campus and hearing the sounds of this album blasting from one of the rooms.  I shouted up, "Hey, Whitesnake dude, is that a CD?"  Compact discs were still new, and I was impressed with the sound making its way down to the sidewalk.  He stuck his head out the window and said that it was, then asked if there were a track I wanted to hear.  I shouted, "Still Of The Night!"  Moments later my buddy and I were rocking out, and I knew that a CD player would be in my near future, and in fact it was this album that was my very first CD to accompany the Sony Discman that I got just a few months later.  Although I never had the album on white vinyl, I did have this poster in my apartment my senior year, and it will always be one of those songs that I turn up to ear-bleeding level whenever it comes on the radio.

I have been fortunate to see Whitesnake in concert three times, twice in the '80s and once in 2016, and through this band I came to know the music of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and the rest of the rock legends, and their 1987 album was the start of it all.

For all these reasons, I had to get the 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition that was just released.  And yes, I tracked its shipment on Amazon, hardly able to wait to get home from work the day it arrived, which was also the day of its release.

When they say "super deluxe," they aren't kidding with this item.  It all comes in a handsome, hefty, well-made box that  feels in the hand as if you are holding a tome of literature. In fact, David Coverdale himself said it felt like holding The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and from a rock perspective it is just as epic.

As you can see from the picture I took moments after taking off the cellophane as eagerly as a kid at Christmas, there are lots of goodies.  There is a handsome poster of the album cover that will soon be framed and hanging with my other favorite rock posters.  Now, working our way counterclockwise from the top left of the photo, we see the exquisite 60-page, hardback book chock full of photos from the era and text detailing everything you could want to know about the meteoric rise of this multi-platinum stunnner.

Next is the disc called "87 Versions," which starts out with four remixes of "Still Of The Night," "Is This Love," "Give Me All Your Love," and "Here I Go Again."  I listened to these alongside the original releases and the 2017 remasters (more on these later), and I can honestly say the remixes bring something fresh.  You can hear individual tracks and instruments more sharply, and often the low-end sounds are clarified, which contrasts them with the high-end vocals.  It is as if the lines of a sculpture have been chiseled anew, not differently, but to make the cuts deeper and to bring the details into sharper relief.  The disc goes on to include "Standing In The Shadows," "Looking For Love," "You're Gonna Break My Heart Again," and "Need Your Love So Bad" from the Japan mini album.  This last track is a true gem, one that may be unknown, criminally and tragically so, to many.

At the bottom left you can see the DVD, which is the first item I played in this treasure box.  It starts off with the four MTV videos restored and remastered in 5.1 of "Still Of The Night," "Here I Go Again," "Is This Love," and "Give Me All Your Love."  For some of us, this is how we want our music videos...lots of shots of the band in action and a bit of the story line dramatized.  Watching these takes you back to that golden age of rock videos and music television.  Next comes  "Video Memories - The Making Of The 1987 Album."  Coverdale narrates in that rich voice of his, and coming in at a full half hour, this is a great look at what took place.  It examines everything from Hugh Syme's design of the now iconic Whitesnake amulet, Tawny Kitaen's replacement of Claudia Schiffer in the videos, and of course the making of the music.  After this is the Purplesnake Video Jam of "Here I Go Again," which for me was simply the most wonderful gift. Backstage and behind-the-scenes clips are interlaced with footage from various concerts on that tour, and the effect is that you are reminded just how much fun rock was in those days.  The hair is big, the costumes are flashy, and taking me back to the days of my youth as it did, it darn near brought a happy tear to my eye.  The DVD concludes with actual tour footage of "Crying In The Rain," intros of the band members, and "Still Of The Night."  It was if it I were back in Louisville, Kentucky's Freedom Hall on February 14, 1988, when I saw Whitesnake for the first time.  The showmanship of David Coverdale, Adrian Vandenberg, Vivian Campbell, Rudy Sarzo, and Tommy Aldridge really shine through in these glimpses from the 213-date tour that tore through the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Puerto Rico.

Next in the picture you see the disc of "Snakeskin Boots," which was the second disc I couldn't wait to open.  It contains twelve tracks recorded live in June of 1988 in Tokyo.  This is the mighty Whitesnake at the height of their hair-metal glory.  Songs are mostly from the '87 album, with "Slide It In," "Slow An' Easy," and "Love Ain't No Stranger" from their preceding album Slide It In.  Listening to the disc in 2017, the track I couldn't wait to hear was "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City."  Their cover of the 1974 Bobby Bland song appeared on their debut album Snakebite back in 1978 and became the featured song on all their tours.  I once asked David on the old Whitesnake bulletin board whether he had sung it or Deep Purple's "Mistreated" more often, and he replied that it would be hard to tell.  I love all of the countless versions I have listened to, and it is indeed one for the famous Whitesnake Choir that David loves and appreciates so much to join in on with full-throated abandon.  Of course the track that gets the crowd to blow the roof off the place is Track 10, "Still Of The Night."  There is nothing like this song, and nothing like it played live.

On on the bottom right is the disc "87 Evolutions," filled with demos and rehearsals.  I love this kind of thing.  It's like unearthing an original manuscript of a famous work and seeing how it changed over time.  We hear alternative arrangements and lyrics, and by gaining access to these works in progress, we are taken deep into the creative process.  If you are the kind of person who loves rockumentaries and the nitty-gritty of music development as I do, you will enjoy this disc.

The last disc in the picture is the complete '87 album remastered.  It includes the full eleven tracks from the European edition, but in a different order from either the U.S. or European release.  The sounds are a bit cleaner than the original, and anything that opens with "Still Of The Night" is going to be a scorcher.

In the upper right corner of the picture, you will notice a small, purple booklet.  It includes all the lyrics to the songs along with David Coverdale's own handwriting, including the crossing out of words he decided against.

So there you have it, a look at the 30th anniversary super deluxe edition of an album that truly shattered the darkness in rock and will always have a special place in the discography of this Roman Rocker.

Rockin' Graduation

It was May 22, 1987, and 15,642 tickets were sold for the Bon Jovi concert at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.  They were on the Slippery When Wet tour, and Cinderella opened.  I could hardly wait.  I had been to other concerts, but it would only be my second rock/metal concert following Stryper's To Hell With The Devil tour earlier that spring.  Those were the days of arena rock, and Freedom Hall did not disappoint.  Holding 19,200 seats, it was the longtime home of the Louisville Cardinals basketball team and a prime venue for concerts in that part of the country.

Anyone remember those buttons on the Walkman?

The Sears SR2100!

I had nearly worn out my cassette of Slippery When Wet by then, having played it over and over in my Sony Walkman and Sears jam box.  I knew every word and every note, even smiling at the fade out at the end of "Raise Your Hands" as Jon sings "Sayreville, New Jersey" in homage to his hometown.  I was less familiar with Cinderella, not yet having purchased their debut album.  In fact, I completely misunderstood the title and chorus of the title track to the album, hearing in my mind Tom Keifer screaming, "life sucks!" instead of the actual words "night songs."  Nonetheless, I was excited for the concert, and I was well rewarded.

Cinderella opened and rocked the place, and I banged my head accordingly, even though I did not yet have long hair.  I was a straitlaced kid (more on that in a moment), but my neck worked just fine, flinging my head back and forth in rock 'n' roll abandon.  And then Bon Jovi took the stage, and the arena exploded.  It was lights and sound and energy like nothing I had ever seen, and it was wonderful.  The band ripped through their hits, and I could not believe that I was in the same room, albeit with more than fifteen thousand of my closest friends, with Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Alec John Such, David Bryan, and Tico Torres.

About halfway through the set, Jon took flight.  Literally.  A harness flew him out to the middle of the arena where a small stage had been set up.  The rest of the band was on the main stage, but Jon sang "Livin' On A Prayer" from the smaller stage in the middle and then flew back to the front.  It was incredible.  Again, this was arena rock.  It was a show, a spectacle as big as the hair of the band members themselves.

I mentioned that I was a straitlaced young man, and this is true.  I was president of our high school's Latin club and one of the valedictorians of my senior class, and that is where Bon Jovi and graduation cross paths.  The concert was on Friday night, and the following Monday was the rehearsal for our commencement.  Since it was the next school day after the concert, I naturally wanted to wear the tour shirt I had bought, and I did, but this put me in the interesting position of rehearsing my valedictory speech in front of the senior class and administration while wearing a Bon Jovi t-shirt!

I'm second from the right. Hardly headbanger appearance!

Wish I still had this one!

Stryped History

R.E.M. once had an album titled Life's Rich Pageant.  I think of that phrase whenever I reflect on the wildly different threads, so intricately woven, that form the tapestry of life, and yes, I know I am mixing metaphors here.  Can there be only one metaphor to capture the complex beauty of human life?  How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand indeed.

Part of my life's rich pageant involves classic rock, hard rock, and heavy metal.  I love these kinds of music.  Nothing else even comes close.  Okay, blues comes close.  And some country.  And the classic hymns.  Gotta love the '80s pop, too.  Throw in some Motown and ballads while you're at it and don't forget the crooners.  But on a regular basis, it is the sounds of rock and metal that blast through my speakers as I drive to and from school each day.

A dream came true recently when I interviewed Michael Sweet, founder and lead singer/guitarist of Stryper and Sweet & Lynch and also a former member of Boston.  Yeah, that's right, a high school Latin teacher got to interview one of his rock heroes, a guy who has enjoyed multi-platinum success and tours to millions around the world.

Back up the story to around 1985.  My youth minister, John Cutshall, introduced me to a cassette tape of Soldiers Under Command by a Christian metal band called Stryper, and I went to Beethoven's, the music store in Greentree Mall in Clarksville, Indiana, and purchased it.  It went straight into my Sony Walkman and hardly left.  Okay, I did put it in my boom box so I could play it for my grandma one Sunday.  I told her it was church music.  The point is, I was hooked and immediately went back to Beethoven's to get their debut album, The Yellow And Black Attack.

When I bought their album To Hell With The Devil in 1986, I had no idea I was getting such a rare treasure by purchasing the cassette with the controversial "angel" cover that was quickly replaced for later issues.  This album led to one of the iconic rock poster's of the '80s gracing my bedroom door and my first rock concert ever when I saw the band perform in Louisville, Kentucky.

When Stryper released their fourth and fifth albums, In God We Trust and Against The Law, I snapped them up as fast as I could get to College Mall in Bloomington, Indiana.  Studying to become a Latin teacher at Indiana University for many reasons, including my introduction to cable television and MTV, which played videos by Stryper, Whitesnake, and Bon Jovi and even had a show dedicated to the greatest musical form on the planet called Headbangers Ball.  The Stryper albums I purchased in those years were on the still relatively new format of the compact disc, which meant hair metal in all its digital glory cranked to 11.

And then came the long cold winter.  The band pursued other projects, and it was not until 2003 that I, as a now married man and father, found a new Stryper CD.  It was staring at me from the music rack at Wal-Mart in Westfield, Indiana, and was a compilation with a couple of new tracks.  Was Stryper back on the scene?  A year later saw the release of 7 Weeks:  Live In America, a live album from a tour the previous year that ranks with Deep Purple's famous album Made In Japan as my favorite live recording.  Something was up.  It seemed that Stryper indeed was making a comeback, and that was proved accurate from 2005 to the present.

Since that live album, the band has put out Reborn, The Roxx Regime Demos, Murder By Pride, The Covering, Second Coming, No More Hell To Pay, Live At The Whisky, and Fallen.  During that time Michael Sweet has continued his solo projects, done a stint with Boston, and formed Sweet & Lynch with George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), James LoMenzo (White Lion), and Brian Tichy (Whitesnake).

After nearly twenty years, I saw Stryper again playing an acoustic show in Pekin, Illinois, in 2014.  I met up with my own former Latin teacher and now colleague, Marcene Farley, and took my son to his first rock concert.  As we waited to enter the venue, Michael came out to meet the crowd, and Marcene got his attention.  I was like a kid myself as my son and I got our pictures with him.  Later that night as the band members tossed Bibles to crowd, I yelled to drummer Robert Sweet, and he tossed one directly to me.  Since then I have seen Stryper twice in fully electric shows and have seen Michael perform solo twice as well.

The first time I saw Michael Sweet play a solo show, I was with my friend Dr. Brad Oliver, an education leader in our state and a huge Stryper fan.  We met Michael afterward, and I gave him a copy of the lyrics to their 1985 hit "Soldiers Under Command" that I had a translated into Latin.  Shortly afterward, he tweeted out a picture of it, and earlier this year he autographed a copy for me.

And that brings us to the present.  When I knew I was going to attend Michael's solo show in Richmond, Indiana, I reached out to him and asked if I could interview him.  Amazingly, he messaged right back and said yes!  I was so excited!

Michael Sweet is a humble and honest man.  His faith in Christ makes him who he is, which is pretty amazing given his incredible talent.  The world is filled with people who elevate themselves, but Michael is a down-to-earth guy and the real deal.  So check out the time a Latin teacher got to interview a rock star!

Teachers Rock

Brownsville Station and Motley Crue both pleaded, "Teacher, don't you fill me up with your rules,," Alice Cooper seemed more than happy to discover that "school's out for summer," and Pink Floyd saw teachers with their "dark sarcasm in the classroom" as little more than "Another Brick In The Wall."

Fair enough, but I know quite a number of teachers who love to rock.  For me, it's about life, loud and proud.  It's about the exuberance of living boldly, and nothing captures that better than the rock, hard rock, and classic rock of the '60s and '70s, which found their pinnacle in the metal of the '80s.  So enjoy this new blog and come along with me as this educator indulges his hobby of rock 'n' roll by exploring videos, band news, classic albums, new releases, deep cuts, rarities, memorabilia, and more from our favorite artists.  The comment box is open!

So let's get started.  Which of these anthems really captures the spirit of why you want it "loud, right between the eyes," and turned up to 11?

Stryper, "Rock The Hell Out Of You"

Twisted Sister, "I Wanna Rock"

Whitesnake, "Children Of The Night"

Def Leppard, "Rock Of Ages"

Bon Jovi, "Let It Rock"