I had to laugh during the Styx part. At first I was sticking up for Kilroy in my head. I love that record. Then when you said it was made for 8-year-olds, I realized I was 8 when it came out. Well played, sir. Well played.
Hah! Awesome! 😄 I was a bit older then, 13, and I couldn't STAND that gawd-awful 'Mister Roboto'. And it felt satisfying to read in a Ronnie James Dio interview at the time that he too strongly disliked it, especially the lead vocals... About 4 or 5 years ago, I heard 'Mister Roboto' again for the first time in a veeeeery long time - and was surprised at myself for suddenly quite liking it! 😳😅 My two Sons, 8 and 10 then, thought it was pretty cool, too! 😄
I loathed Styx in high school, so Kilroy was just one more log on the fire; however, Mr. Roboto has refused to go away, and I crank it up when it comes on the radio now. Complaining about goofy concept albums in the 70's and 80's is like complaining about the goofy fashions. It's all part of the zeitgeist and Kilroy certainly wasn't the worst. Plus, without Kilroy we wouldn't have the best Behind the Music Episode ever.
@@mightyV444 your story is perfect, and so many can relate. If you hold onto the way you first heard it you’ll always remember it that way but if you go onto forget and then hear it again you hear it through your current ears where life is different an expectations aren’t the same
20:00 - I one owned a Beach Boys album titled "Good Vibrations" It was put out by the Pickwick label. Their method of 're-channeling': highs on the left channel, lows on the right!
Robert, I forgot to mention this prior but...do you recall back in the '80's when you'd go into a dept. store, and they'd be playing the Muzak overhead through the cheap speakers? Well, I don't know where why or when it was done but my friend and I heard a Muzak version of 'Stairway to Heaven'-we had to do a double take b/c it was in-between a Muzak version of Oliva Newton John's 'Magic'...sh!t you not! It was either in JC Penny's or Sears
I worked at a Kmart in the '80s and let me tell you buddy, you haven't lived until you've heard a muzak version of Hotel California..strings where the vocals would be. Hot diggety!!
I don’t think Phil Collins screwed up Led Zep’s Live Aid appearance as much as Jimmy being possibly drunk and definitely out of tune, with a flanger on the whole time, and Robert being hoarse from a week of solo shows plus the rehearsal. Phil might have messed up during Whole Lotta Love, but it was minimal.
Wow! When Robert Fithen said about going to a 'break' at around 12:06 into the video, two commercials popped in for: 1). Firestone; and 2). T-Mobile; and then the video continued with Robert commenting about the Beatles remixes. In all my years of UA-cam viewing, I have never witnessed such well-timing when it came to commercials breaking into a UA-cam video. xD
I consider The Doors-American Prayer to be their 7h album of essentials. It doesn't evoke disco music as you hinted. It's a brilliant last hooray from Mr. Morrison posthumously.
Robert Plant asked Phil to do it. Phil had reservations. Phil Collins wrote an interesting autobiography where he had a whole chapter on the Live Aid debacle. I don't think it was Phil's fault.
The worst thing about all these remixes and remasters is how they make it so hard to know if you're buying something faithful to the original (Movies do this with their director's cut crap as well).
I did a whole video about misleading artwork. If they were so proud of their remix or re-recordings, they would advertise it on the cover not try to deceive people.
Kilroy is a take it or leave it record. "Don't Let It End" is an underrated Top 10 pop hit power ballad that got only a few to NO spins on Album Rock radio stations back in the day. Many people think "Mr. Roboto" is WAY too poppy and new wave for a band who began as a full blown prog-rock band. No mention of Yes's 1991 flop "Union" or Genesis's 1997 bust "Calling All Stations"?
When it comes to artists doing "covers;" John Lennon did well with the 1975 LP release of "Rock N' Roll." That album was a collaborative effort by Lennon and Phil Spector. A lot of drama in the production of that album; loads of info online about that.
@@TimBee100 Yes. It was a graffiti cartoon painted or drawn on fences, walls and anything with an edge depicting a guy peering over with just his hands holding the top, with his big nose and upper half of face showing. In Europe. Absolutely no connection to this overblown, pompous, avant-garde disaster that I can see, except the cartoon part. Mr.Roboto? Nevermind. 🚫🤖
Correction: Led Zeppelin never played Wearing and Tearing live, not even for the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988. Instead, two years later Plant and Page performed the song at the Knebworth benefit concert in the summer of 1990. It was Plant´s name on the bill, but Page came on to perform a few Zeppelin numbers to close out his old singer´s performance that day. They actually did a decent rendition of Wearing and Tearing, with Plant almost blowing out his voice towards the end of the song.
My take on the super deluxe box sets (as a teenager) is that I like them doing the more obscure albums. Not only does it stop them repeating the same albums over and over again for different anniversarys, but it is also good for fans of obscure albums. Personally, I love NSD, and the Tony Martin era is super underrated for me, so I would love to hear outtakes from that
I just had to stop in the middle of your vid to say THANK YOU for shining a light a bit on the resurgence of vinyl. Besides the nostalgia factor. I never purchased the Aerosmith or Metallica titles you showed that had “the bar” of volume knobs maxed out. But THIS may have been one more factor in the cd market getting slapped down by vinyl. I grew up with vinyl, but with the advent of cd’s in the 80’s I never looked back. I’m perplexed by so many that DID.
So far I agree with 95% of everything in this video - just those Beatles remixes... I got into the Beatles in 1979 when I was 11 and my dad gave me one of his copies of Let It Be. But this new Let It Be is astounding to me. Much like Pink Foyd's Animals, they just a different beast all together.
@@soleman1112 am I misremembering or when Let It Be was first recorded APPLE took a listen and said NO WAY and then it got handed to Spector to try and salvage something. Disaster start to finish.
I used to love Grand Illusion...then in recent years i couldn't stand it except Castle Walls and Miss America...now i don't really like Castle Walls either
I've always hated when bands re record their albums! Suicidal redid their first album....terrible! Destruction redid a bunch of their old songs...doesn't have the same "magic"!
As someone who had all those Doors' original albums sonically imprinted in my DNA, I get your point, though I can live with the ''40th anniversary mixes'' ,as interesting alt versions. (thankfully held on to all my original CD issues) and don't mind the variations and added reverby ambience, though L.A Woman admittedly suffers the most and is for my $$$, the most egregious of the lot. On the positive side, I think the debut actually improves upon the original, as it has Light My Fire at the correct mastered speed, only previously available as the horribly truncated original 1967 single version.
All in all I agree with you on a lot here. I can’t believe you didn’t mention Paul Simon’s Graceland, The Remixes. WRETCHED! Also, your shirt probably should’ve been aborted too, but I give you props for wearing it out like that. ;)
You got that right I remember hearing about a survey or test or study in which early Beatles music was played to and for young children in parks and playgrounds - it had an overall calming affect a happy mood affect. What I remember is that this was in the early 80s the children were preschool to 1st and 2nd grade. could have been late 70s me born 1949
When i was young, i was a guitarist totally into Jimmy Page...I had a drummer friend in my neighborhood that was totally into Genesis and Phil Collins...We tried a couples of times to play together...never worked...didn't mix well at all...too different world...
I think you make a very good point about executives and such not giving young people enough credit. People are smart enough to understand that art belongs in its particular context. Nobody expects an album from 1975 to sound like something from 1985 or 2015 or whatever. We don't need old films to be 'touched up", either. We want to see them as they were, so we can imagine ourselves in that special time and place when they were created. I'm not a young person anymore but growing up in the 80s and 90s it was definitely something i started to notice. THe ZZ Top thing is totally inexplicable
Sometimes movies that were shot on film do need touching up because film degrades. I have a DVD of Hitchcock's Rear Window. It was restored. On the DVD they showed the state of the film before the restoration, then after. Before it was restored it was almost completely washed out. That's because the film was passed around to TV stations after TV stations all over the country, ad a result there is all that degradation. I don't mind restoration. There is a difference between restoration and do over. And restoration is different than colorization. Sometimes the only reason films were in black and white had nothing to do with someone's vision and everything to do with Edison's monopoly of film in the US. You might be surprised to see color film footage in Europe as early as 1902.
@@nellgwenn Maybe "touching up" was the wrong phrase to use; I don't mean cleaning up films taht have degraded over time and have artefacts and blemishes as a result. I was thinking about "updated" special effects, redone scores, things like that. And if there's an original colour print source, then sure, why not use it.
One thing I totally agree with you about is the whole "electronically reprocessed for stereo"nonsense we were subjected to in the 1960's and 1970's. Sometimes they boosted the treble on one side and the bass on the other to create the artificial "stereo" effect. Sometimes they did worse things. I have an album on Guest Star Records. in which they got hold of a mid-1950's Duke Ellington record of "Stomp, Look and Listen" from the defunct Bethlehem label and simply cross-faded between the channels to create an artificial call-anbd-response effect between the eections of the band. Blecch! Also there are seven authentic Doors albums recorded and released when Jim Morrison was still alive, six studio and one live. The studio ones, in sequence, are "The Doors," "Strange Days," "Waiting for the Sun," "The Soft Parade," "Morrison Hotel" and "L. A. Woman." And if you want to talk about bad record. concerts that should have been aborted, one was the other three Doors continuing as a three-piece after Morrison's death and making two of the worst albums of all time, "Other Voices" and "Full Circle."
It's amazing how different mono songs can turn out when given the "stereo" treatment. My favorite Beach Boys song, The Lonely Sea, goes from being poignant in the mono to narcotic background music in "stereo".
"The Clash" were a regression to a period before they were born, when rock and roll got labeled "rebellion" (don't tell anyone: it was actually about capitalism and fame -- getting rich and famous) and kids actually bought into that, so ever since rock and roll has been imbued with that establishment "anti-establishment" attack.
I think i must have been on too much dope during the Gary Extreme Van Halen edition. Thank god I survived the dope, thank god for the dope in some aspects and thank god i took too much to miss the Van Gary edition. Great Job again!!!
Mark Kozelek did a cover album of Bon Scott era AC/DC songs. He did all of them in a slowed down acoustic/sleepy way, but it's one of my favorites. He also did the same thing with Modest Mouse songs - not as good though...
Ace Frehley had the BEST solo lp out of all of the Kiss members. I wore the grooves off of it when I was 11 years old...could be also that I had a wicked crush on him too😅😅
No, the reason Led Zeppelin would have chosen Phil Collins as drummer for Live Aid is because he was as good as Bonham. People forget this because of his later career. But his drumming with the Peter Gabriel version of Genesis and with Brand X is outstanding. The problem was having two drummers, which just confused Collins, as they'd had no time to prepare and work out who was doing what unlike when Collins drummed on occasion in tandem with Chester Thompson.
The The, did an album of Hank Williams covers. Its great, also, he released an album of people covering his songs and they are superb. So, in conclusion, not all cover albums are bad.
This was hilarious, and very well done. May I suggest two other terrible ideas: "Let's do a public casting to find our new singer" (Genesis, INXS) and "Hey let's call King of Mono Phil Spector and hire him to produce our stereo records filling every channel"
I was in a shop some years ago when this a cover of Skating Away..by Jethro Tull appeared on the tannoy (are they still called that? Probably not). Some teenage girl wittering over a 90s-style production. Lots of programming. I had to put down my stuff and leave by the nearest exit.
I so often wish that before the solo albums were about to be pressed, someone would have had a moment of clarity and convinced the band to take the best ten songs and just make it a regular Kiss record. Hot take: "That's the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes" and "Hooked on Rock 'n' Roll" would make my cut.
I have a thing that I've done a couple of times where I say I've compiled the best tracks from all of the solo albums and made a great album. Then just show the Ace Frehley album.
@@SeanKagalis what if the record company took half of pauls and added half of genes and took nothing from the other two . that;s what would've happened and it wouldve been worse than taking three from each.
The best was Ace Frehley's solo album..from start to finish. Hands down the best out of all of the solo albums. I wore the grooves off of it when it came out!
Regarding the Led Zeppelin réunions: the reason Collins was there was he had been in Robert Plant’s band before and recorded with him. It was supposed to be just a Robert show at first. And they didn’t play “Black Dog”. Also, in the 1988 reunion they didn’t play “wearing and tearing”, that was in 1990 on a Robert plant appearance at Knebworth. There’s a guy on UA-cam who has recently done a series of videos on Led Zepp in the 80s, you should search for those.
Can’t agree more in the BRICKWALL. My ears can’t take it. I love Black Sabbath. My favorite album is Sabotage. I didn’t buy the super deluxe. There is nothing there. Most reissues with extra tracks are meh. There was a reason the songs didn’t make the cut. Jethro Tull does the best box sets. Remixes and unreleased material. The extra tracks are great. Broadsword and The Beast is a great example.
It would be nice if the record companies would issue the original mixes as well as the remixes. Hint hints (Apple/ Universal). That way there's a choice and people aren't subjected to pay high flipper prices.
Love your takes, Robert. One of the only all-covers albums I loved was Siouxie and the Banshees "Through The Looking Glass" (1987). Very thoughtfully done and it's ADDITIVE. I put that in CAPS because most crappy covers add nothing to the song. You know a band does a good job when the original bands commend the effort. Kraftwerk's Ralf called the version of "Hall of Mirrors" on this album "extraordinary". Iggy Pop loved the version of "The Passenger" on here. It's all great stuff and shows that the band's influences were not so much punk but people like John Cale, Roxy Music, Lou Reed and Television. And, it sure took some balls for the band to do some far-out covers like "Trust In Me" from the friggin Jungle Book and Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". Whacky. But, somehow it works and sounds wonderful.
I actually have "Cut The Crap" on cassette somewhere in this apartment. I liked "This Is England", and the other tracks which I thought had a punk rock sound. As for re-records and remasters (If it ain't broke, don't screw with it!), I wished Blue Oyster Cult didn't put out "Cult Classic". "ETI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)" was one of the major victims on this re-do compilation. The heavy guitars were severely cut, and replaced with acoustic piano. I didn't care for the re-done "Burnin For You" either.
Damn, I thought Michael from the In Groove is the Scotty Kilmer of VC, you the man!! Keep it coming brother, I truly believe musicians should just retire when they have run out of their voice.... Peace from down under
if you really don't know why Led Zeppelin chose Phil Collins to drum for them it's because he and Robert Plant were collaborators and Collins ruled the pop charts then. Everybody begged Zeppelin to play again, so they did then people complained.
I disagree with some things. Do not discourage record companies from releasing any outtakes, cause yes I do buy them. Your videos are always fun and interesting so I give thumb up anyway.
Easily the worst brickwalling I have ever heard was the CD re-release of hard rock band Holland - Little Monsters, quite a bit worse than Death Magnetic. I would also like to nominate using nude underage girls on album covers ala Blind Faith and the Scorpions
Hate to tell you, Let It Be Naked is the most artificial, remixed Beatles product ever made. Most songs consist of multiple different takes stitched together. between that and removing all traces of any between-song studio chatter, false starts, or bits like the brief warm-up run through of "Maggie Mae" or the jam excerpt "Dig It" it kills any notion of "capturing The Beatles live and raw" in the studio, which makes removing Spector's overdubs completely pointless.
I don't why everyone disses Phil Collins for his performance with zeppelin. He's a great drummer. People forget this. Everyone thinks of him as the pop star. Genesis started out as a progressive rock band right there with yes, king crimson, ELP. I watched the performance on MTV live back in 1985. I don't remember it being that bad. Of course I haven't seen it since.
I wish I could put gifs in the comments because I would use one that says “F**kin A”, finally someone makes a video about this, even though I differ on The Beatles remixes, but I remember for a while they were trying to modernize 60’s music in the 80’s by having this weird drum overdub on them, an idea that should never have been.
Another thing to stay away from that should gave NEVER BEEN A THING was those Madacy compilations you find at BestBuy & WallyWorld by The Countdown Singers, Countdown Orchestra, Countdown Mix Masters, and etc. where they do covers & sound-a-like songs of popular songs from different years and such. If you don't pay attention, you could think it's by the original artists but it's not but you have to loom on the back, at the bottom somewhere in small writing that it's by this group of cover artists.
Roxy Roller was the big hit. When Nick left the band, they tried to do it again with a young Bryan Adams singing (as in Summer Of '69 and whatever movie Everything I Do, I Do It For You is from) Nick went on with a solo career. Big hits include Hot Child In The City, Here Comes The Night & You Really Rock Me. If the songs don't ring a bell. It's no surprise as I am convinced that 95% of Canadian bands are never even heard of from people in the states. Unless they live along the boarder and can pick up our radio stations.
How about those 1987 remixes to Help and Rubber Soul? When I got a chance to listen to the original stereo mixes, I completely knew what the better mixes were. And yes, the recent Beatles remixes are just cash grabs. Why even remix an album that's already great as is?
I heard about Cut the Crap by The Clash, but somehow just never got around to it. I didn't buy it, I didn't even borrow it from anyone. I stop with Combat Rock.
I love remix slamming. Just so dumb. Who thought these classics needed any sort of tweeking. As Jerry Reed said,"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The ZZ Top drums are atrocious. Great Video.
Sometimes the remix are because the artist wants to make more money off his or her hits. If they go in and remake them, then they make all the money when they sell them at shows. Not saying that they’re doing a good job of remaking them, but that’s why. I too liked the love remix album that Giles Martin did. I thought that was pretty creative. Other than that though, I am with you I hate remix albums
I'm with you on the remixes (except the album on your wall "Destroyer Resurrected" really blew me away, and destroyer is on of my all time favorites). Another cash grab is most "remasters", and unfortunately vinyl rereleases not taken from the analog tapes.
Haha 😂 Brilliant vid, Robert! “Cut the Crap” is just a dreadful and cruel joke. “Load” was titled perfectly. OMG, the super deluxe boxset sh’t. 🤷♂️🙄 Re-channeled stereo… Absolutely fantastic, Robert! Loved this vid!
Chris Rea was another one who remade old songs - okay I guess to introduce new fans to things they might've missed, but still not a patch on the originals.
In 1982 There was the wildly popular The Who's Greatest Hits album with the British flag cover where the top song "We Don't Get Fooled Again" was so butcher edited in the true ( K-Tel ) sense of the word with the famously iconic lead guitar and keyboard solos being hastily edited out. That cut version of "Fooled" was, for a time in the early to mid 1980's was very popular even getting regular rotation on FM rock radio much to my disliking. Thankfully by the late 80's the original uncut version of Don't Get Fooled Again returned to radio and the general public as well.
Actually, the 40th Anniversary Atlantic Records show for Led Zeppelin consisted of Kashmir, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love, Misty Mountain Hop, and Stairway - five pretty banging tunes IMO, with Jason Bonham on drums. Robert's voice not 100%, and Jimmy slightly sloppy here and there, but overall a pretty good show. The Live Aid gig was simply a rushed non-rehearsed affair that no one was ready for - and probably should've been aborted. To this day Jimmy Page still laments that gig.
I 100% agree with you about the Giles Martin remixes. Its disgusting that he was able to do this to these masterpieces. Painting a mustache on the mona lisa.
Led Zep got Phil Collins because he was playing with Robert Plant at the time, (even live - I saw them in concert together) not because of the fill from "In the Air Tonight."
2 good cover albums I can think of--Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) from 1996 and True Life Blues: The Music of Bill Monroe. Red on Blonde by Tim O'Brien is pretty fantastic too
maybe its best to hear the Beatles in mono, because i do like the remixes, example the original stereo version of “She’s Leaving Home” sounds like a warped tape dragging as compared to the original mono version and now the new remixed stereo. i hated that draggy, slowed down, warped tape sound of the original stereo mix. there’s other examples but this one stands out to me.
Don't forget the Pink Floyd recent release A Momentary Lapse in Reason... I would say that title is a correct foreshadowing! I wasn't paying attention when I bought that one thinking I was getting the normal, original 1987 release being repressed on 180g vinyl. I kept asking myself if I had forgotten how the album originally sounded? Nope, it's the remix version and it sucks and they ruined it! That's not something I thought David Gilmour would do but he did 😡
@@RobertFithen I just don't get what the idea is with this remix concept? It's like saying the original wasn't good enough the first time. I could understand remixing something that was horrible to begin with maybe? But please leave the great originals alone. They definitely aren't going to make them any better haha!
I agree with much of what you've said. I remember watching Live Aid in '85 and wondering what the hell Phil was doing with them. Excellent bio by Phil as someone mentioned Also - the new Elvis movie soundtrack has rapping and "re-imagining" some of Elvis' classic songs. Terrible. Horrible. Sad. One that should have been aborted as well.
Box sets of albums that the bands didn’t even like like Technical Ecstasy by Black Sabbath is interesting. It’s like memorializing their worst moments in 24k gold. Interesting 180 approach from the bands who try to hide their worst albums like the Clash with Cut the Crap. I’m guessing the difference in approach has to do with how much the artists need money lol
I had to laugh during the Styx part. At first I was sticking up for Kilroy in my head. I love that record. Then when you said it was made for 8-year-olds, I realized I was 8 when it came out. Well played, sir. Well played.
Hah! Awesome! 😄 I was a bit older then, 13, and I couldn't STAND that gawd-awful 'Mister Roboto'. And it felt satisfying to read in a Ronnie James Dio interview at the time that he too strongly disliked it, especially the lead vocals... About 4 or 5 years ago, I heard 'Mister Roboto' again for the first time in a veeeeery long time - and was surprised at myself for suddenly quite liking it! 😳😅 My two Sons, 8 and 10 then, thought it was pretty cool, too! 😄
I loathed Styx in high school, so Kilroy was just one more log on the fire; however, Mr. Roboto has refused to go away, and I crank it up when it comes on the radio now. Complaining about goofy concept albums in the 70's and 80's is like complaining about the goofy fashions. It's all part of the zeitgeist and Kilroy certainly wasn't the worst. Plus, without Kilroy we wouldn't have the best Behind the Music Episode ever.
@@mightyV444 your story is perfect, and so many can relate. If you hold onto the way you first heard it you’ll always remember it that way but if you go onto forget and then hear it again you hear it through your current ears where life is different an expectations aren’t the same
20:00 - I one owned a Beach Boys album titled "Good Vibrations" It was put out by the Pickwick label. Their method of 're-channeling': highs on the left channel, lows on the right!
Robert, I forgot to mention this prior but...do you recall back in the '80's when you'd go into a dept. store, and they'd be playing the Muzak overhead through the cheap speakers? Well, I don't know where why or when it was done but my friend and I heard a Muzak version of 'Stairway to Heaven'-we had to do a double take b/c it was in-between a Muzak version of Oliva Newton John's 'Magic'...sh!t you not! It was either in JC Penny's or Sears
Wow! Now that's a special ring of hell that I'd want to avoid!
@@deirdre108 🤣
I worked at a Kmart in the '80s and let me tell you buddy, you haven't lived until you've heard a muzak version of Hotel California..strings where the vocals would be. Hot diggety!!
I don’t think Phil Collins screwed up Led Zep’s Live Aid appearance as much as Jimmy being possibly drunk and definitely out of tune, with a flanger on the whole time, and Robert being hoarse from a week of solo shows plus the rehearsal. Phil might have messed up during Whole Lotta Love, but it was minimal.
Wow! When Robert Fithen said about going to a 'break' at around 12:06 into the video, two commercials popped in for: 1). Firestone; and 2). T-Mobile; and then the video continued with Robert commenting about the Beatles remixes.
In all my years of UA-cam viewing, I have never witnessed such well-timing when it came to commercials breaking into a UA-cam video. xD
I consider The Doors-American Prayer to be their 7h album of essentials. It doesn't evoke disco music as you hinted. It's a brilliant last hooray from Mr. Morrison posthumously.
Soft Parade is missing. That would make your pick the 7th.
I like the album also ! The version of Peace Frog/ Blue Monday is the Best!!!!
Robert Plant asked Phil to do it. Phil had reservations. Phil Collins wrote an interesting autobiography where he had a whole chapter on the Live Aid debacle. I don't think it was Phil's fault.
he was doing them a favor really, whatever issues there were, I don't think he was reasonable at all. I would be annoyed too
He also played on Plant’s first solo album, except for the two Cozy Powell tracks.
It was John Bonham's fault...he shouldn't have died...lol...
The worst thing about all these remixes and remasters is how they make it so hard to know if you're buying something faithful to the original (Movies do this with their director's cut crap as well).
I did a whole video about misleading artwork. If they were so proud of their remix or re-recordings, they would advertise it on the cover not try to deceive people.
The big warning that Kilroy would be terrible was.... It was Styx.
BINGO!!!
Kilroy is a take it or leave it record. "Don't Let It End" is an underrated Top 10 pop hit power ballad that got only a few to NO spins on Album Rock radio stations back in the day. Many people think "Mr. Roboto" is WAY too poppy and new wave for a band who began as a full blown prog-rock band. No mention of Yes's 1991 flop "Union" or Genesis's 1997 bust "Calling All Stations"?
When it comes to artists doing "covers;" John Lennon did well with the 1975 LP release of "Rock N' Roll."
That album was a collaborative effort by Lennon and Phil Spector.
A lot of drama in the production of that album; loads of info online about that.
"Kilroy was here" was a big thing to write on bathroom walls and school textbook covers all across America.
Since it was popular in the 1940's, I don't think a lot of 80's teens got the reference. I still don't get the connection with "Mr. Roboto".
@@RobertFithen That's all new to me. Hmm. 1940's?
@@agomodern - WWII
@@TimBee100 Yes. It was a graffiti cartoon painted or drawn on fences, walls and anything with an edge depicting a guy peering over with just his hands holding the top, with his big nose and upper half of face showing. In Europe. Absolutely no connection to this overblown, pompous, avant-garde disaster that I can see, except the cartoon part. Mr.Roboto? Nevermind. 🚫🤖
Correction: Led Zeppelin never played Wearing and Tearing live, not even for the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988. Instead, two years later Plant and Page performed the song at the Knebworth benefit concert in the summer of 1990. It was Plant´s name on the bill, but Page came on to perform a few Zeppelin numbers to close out his old singer´s performance that day. They actually did a decent rendition of Wearing and Tearing, with Plant almost blowing out his voice towards the end of the song.
My take on the super deluxe box sets (as a teenager) is that I like them doing the more obscure albums. Not only does it stop them repeating the same albums over and over again for different anniversarys, but it is also good for fans of obscure albums. Personally, I love NSD, and the Tony Martin era is super underrated for me, so I would love to hear outtakes from that
I just had to stop in the middle of your vid to say THANK YOU for shining a light a bit on the resurgence of vinyl. Besides the nostalgia factor. I never purchased the Aerosmith or Metallica titles you showed that had “the bar” of volume knobs maxed out. But THIS may have been one more factor in the cd market getting slapped down by vinyl. I grew up with vinyl, but with the advent of cd’s in the 80’s I never looked back. I’m perplexed by so many that DID.
So far I agree with 95% of everything in this video - just those Beatles remixes... I got into the Beatles in 1979 when I was 11 and my dad gave me one of his copies of Let It Be. But this new Let It Be is astounding to me. Much like Pink Foyd's Animals, they just a different beast all together.
Yer I like the re mixes. Let it be Naked is Awesome
@@soleman1112 am I misremembering or when Let It Be was first recorded APPLE took a listen and said NO WAY and then it got handed to Spector to try and salvage something.
Disaster start to finish.
@@2ridiculous41 *forgetting something
One last thing: Jeff Lynde rerecorded his ELO albums because he had the publishing rights but not the rights to the original masters.
It's all about the mighty $$$
Sorry Jimmy (Page), but you can't blame the drummer for that guitar solo.
11:05 Kiss Double Platinum from 1978 had remixes as well! I would play the record and go "WTF"???
I'm not familiar with the album Kilroy was here...but I've got to admit, i think Mr Roboto is fun!
I used to love Grand Illusion...then in recent years i couldn't stand it except Castle Walls and Miss America...now i don't really like Castle Walls either
I've always hated when bands re record their albums! Suicidal redid their first album....terrible! Destruction redid a bunch of their old songs...doesn't have the same "magic"!
Ha! I spoke too soon! You were already gonna say ST! 😂🤣
Maybe speaking too soon again, but......Queen! Shoulda left it alone!
I only ever cared for Cone Sail Away and Miss America.
As someone who had all those Doors' original albums sonically imprinted in my DNA, I get your point, though I can live with the ''40th anniversary mixes'' ,as interesting alt versions. (thankfully held on to all my original CD issues) and don't mind the variations and added reverby ambience, though L.A Woman admittedly suffers the most and is for my $$$, the most egregious of the lot. On the positive side, I think the debut actually improves upon the original, as it has Light My Fire at the correct mastered speed, only previously available as the horribly truncated original 1967 single version.
It sounds like a lot of these belong on a “remixes that should never have happened” video rather than one about concept albums.
All in all I agree with you on a lot here. I can’t believe you didn’t mention Paul Simon’s Graceland, The Remixes. WRETCHED! Also, your shirt probably should’ve been aborted too, but I give you props for wearing it out like that. ;)
You got that right
I remember hearing about a survey or test or study in which early Beatles music was played to and for young children in parks and playgrounds - it had an overall calming affect a happy mood affect. What I remember is that this was in the early 80s the children were preschool to 1st and 2nd grade. could have been late 70s
me born 1949
A good covers album? Bowie's Pin Ups. Not great by Bowie's standard, but great by anybody else's.
When i was young, i was a guitarist totally into Jimmy Page...I had a drummer friend in my neighborhood that was totally into Genesis and Phil Collins...We tried a couples of times to play together...never worked...didn't mix well at all...too different world...
I think you make a very good point about executives and such not giving young people enough credit. People are smart enough to understand that art belongs in its particular context. Nobody expects an album from 1975 to sound like something from 1985 or 2015 or whatever. We don't need old films to be 'touched up", either. We want to see them as they were, so we can imagine ourselves in that special time and place when they were created. I'm not a young person anymore but growing up in the 80s and 90s it was definitely something i started to notice. THe ZZ Top thing is totally inexplicable
Sometimes movies that were shot on film do need touching up because film degrades. I have a DVD of Hitchcock's Rear Window. It was restored. On the DVD they showed the state of the film before the restoration, then after.
Before it was restored it was almost completely washed out. That's because the film was passed around to TV stations after TV stations all over the country, ad a result there is all that degradation.
I don't mind restoration. There is a difference between restoration and do over. And restoration is different than colorization.
Sometimes the only reason films were in black and white had nothing to do with someone's vision and everything to do with Edison's monopoly of film in the US. You might be surprised to see color film footage in Europe as early as 1902.
@@nellgwenn Maybe "touching up" was the wrong phrase to use; I don't mean cleaning up films taht have degraded over time and have artefacts and blemishes as a result. I was thinking about "updated" special effects, redone scores, things like that.
And if there's an original colour print source, then sure, why not use it.
I had Technical Ecstasy on cassette and played it to near breaking point in my car - but yer , I don't need a 5 lp boxset of it.
One thing I totally agree with you about is the whole "electronically reprocessed for stereo"nonsense we were subjected to in the 1960's and 1970's. Sometimes they boosted the treble on one side and the bass on the other to create the artificial "stereo" effect. Sometimes they did worse things. I have an album on Guest Star Records. in which they got hold of a mid-1950's Duke Ellington record of "Stomp, Look and Listen" from the defunct Bethlehem label and simply cross-faded between the channels to create an artificial call-anbd-response effect between the eections of the band. Blecch! Also there are seven authentic Doors albums recorded and released when Jim Morrison was still alive, six studio and one live. The studio ones, in sequence, are "The Doors," "Strange Days," "Waiting for the Sun," "The Soft Parade," "Morrison Hotel" and "L. A. Woman." And if you want to talk about bad record. concerts that should have been aborted, one was the other three Doors continuing as a three-piece after Morrison's death and making two of the worst albums of all time, "Other Voices" and "Full Circle."
It's amazing how different mono songs can turn out when given the "stereo" treatment. My favorite Beach Boys song, The Lonely Sea, goes from being poignant in the mono to narcotic background music in "stereo".
Robert, I think you’re having way too much fun doing those drum sounds.
"The Clash" were a regression to a period before they were born, when rock and roll got labeled "rebellion" (don't tell anyone: it was actually about capitalism and fame -- getting rich and famous) and kids actually bought into that, so ever since rock and roll has been imbued with that establishment "anti-establishment" attack.
I will completely agree with you on the Giles Martin Beatles remixes, except the Revolver one is pretty damn good.
Great video! I still have my picture disc of 'Smashes, Thrashes and Hits' that I bought in 1989 at Sound Wherehouse.
I think i must have been on too much dope during the Gary Extreme Van Halen edition. Thank god I survived the dope, thank god for the dope in some aspects and thank god i took too much to miss the Van Gary edition. Great Job again!!!
Mark Kozelek did a cover album of Bon Scott era AC/DC songs. He did all of them in a slowed down acoustic/sleepy way, but it's one of my favorites. He also did the same thing with Modest Mouse songs - not as good though...
Wow the modest mouse covers on Tiny Cities is not as good? High praise. I’ll seek out the AC/DC covers.
What do you think of the Vinyl Rewind guy?
It's a very professional looking presentation. It looks like a television show with the setting and lighting, etc.
Ace Frehley had the BEST solo lp out of all of the Kiss members. I wore the grooves off of it when I was 11 years old...could be also that I had a wicked crush on him too😅😅
Do we really want to live in a world without Mr. Roboto?
Yeah
Live Aid is the reason Led Zeppelin should NEVER reunite.
No, the reason Led Zeppelin would have chosen Phil Collins as drummer for Live Aid is because he was as good as Bonham. People forget this because of his later career. But his drumming with the Peter Gabriel version of Genesis and with Brand X is outstanding. The problem was having two drummers, which just confused Collins, as they'd had no time to prepare and work out who was doing what unlike when Collins drummed on occasion in tandem with Chester Thompson.
The The, did an album of Hank Williams covers. Its great, also, he released an album of people covering his songs and they are superb. So, in conclusion, not all cover albums are bad.
Flowers by Echo and the Bunnymen suffered from loudness distortion. I had to return it.
This was hilarious, and very well done. May I suggest two other terrible ideas: "Let's do a public casting to find our new singer" (Genesis, INXS) and "Hey let's call King of Mono Phil Spector and hire him to produce our stereo records filling every channel"
Excellent ideas!
:14 how the hell Mr. Roboto got into the Billboard Top 5 just puzzles me...this song is horrendous and irritating!
Not to mention embarrassing! Also do you notice it's not played on any stations ANYWHERE since 1983??? Very telling!
I agree. When it comes on I can't change the channel fast enough! Ugh...
This video is awesome! Bang on for all these. Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy deluxe album box set hahahah lol
LOL Thanks!!
"This Is England" is a keeper from 'Cut The Crap', but yes, bin the rest. They should have made good quality recordings of their busking tour ...
Not clearly labeling a remix has to be a crime.
I was in a shop some years ago when this a cover of Skating Away..by Jethro Tull appeared on the tannoy (are they still called that? Probably not). Some teenage girl wittering over a 90s-style production. Lots of programming. I had to put down my stuff and leave by the nearest exit.
I think some of the remakes are driven when artists are signed by a new label and the new label wants a chunk (mechanicals) of their catalog.
I so often wish that before the solo albums were about to be pressed, someone would have had a moment of clarity and convinced the band to take the best ten songs and just make it a regular Kiss record. Hot take: "That's the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes" and "Hooked on Rock 'n' Roll" would make my cut.
I have a thing that I've done a couple of times where I say I've compiled the best tracks from all of the solo albums and made a great album. Then just show the Ace Frehley album.
@@RobertFithen It is by far the most solid of the four. I very much disagree with the songs selected for the "Best of Solo Albums" release.
@@SeanKagalis what if the record company took half of pauls and added half of genes and took nothing from the other two . that;s what would've happened and it wouldve been worse than taking three from each.
@@SeanKagalis i'd like a vote on the best 1o tracks from all four .
The best was Ace Frehley's solo album..from start to finish. Hands down the best out of all of the solo albums. I wore the grooves off of it when it came out!
Regarding the Led Zeppelin réunions: the reason Collins was there was he had been in Robert Plant’s band before and recorded with him. It was supposed to be just a Robert show at first. And they didn’t play “Black Dog”. Also, in the 1988 reunion they didn’t play “wearing and tearing”, that was in 1990 on a Robert plant appearance at Knebworth. There’s a guy on UA-cam who has recently done a series of videos on Led Zepp in the 80s, you should search for those.
I agree on the Beatles remixes, give me the original mono and stereo mixes and call it a day!
Please do a video going through the Grateful Dead’s discography!
He does a video of things that shouldn’t have happened and that made you think of the Grateful Dead?
Can’t agree more in the BRICKWALL. My ears can’t take it.
I love Black Sabbath. My favorite album is Sabotage. I didn’t buy the super deluxe. There is nothing there.
Most reissues with extra tracks are meh. There was a reason the songs didn’t make the cut.
Jethro Tull does the best box sets. Remixes and unreleased material. The extra tracks are great. Broadsword and The Beast is a great example.
@@lezcobrandon6790 hahaha it sure makes me think of things that shouldn’t have happened!
@@lezcobrandon6790 The only thing worse than the Grateful Dead were their idiotic fans.
what about the beatles mono box?
This video was made before that
There are 6 classic Doors albums. Which one is missing here?
The Soft Parade.
@@klipkultur3680 This guy don’t like that album, but I do.
It would be nice if the record companies would issue the original mixes as well as the remixes. Hint hints (Apple/ Universal). That way there's a choice and people aren't subjected to pay high flipper prices.
Love your takes, Robert. One of the only all-covers albums I loved was Siouxie and the Banshees "Through The Looking Glass" (1987). Very thoughtfully done and it's ADDITIVE. I put that in CAPS because most crappy covers add nothing to the song. You know a band does a good job when the original bands commend the effort. Kraftwerk's Ralf called the version of "Hall of Mirrors" on this album "extraordinary". Iggy Pop loved the version of "The Passenger" on here. It's all great stuff and shows that the band's influences were not so much punk but people like John Cale, Roxy Music, Lou Reed and Television. And, it sure took some balls for the band to do some far-out covers like "Trust In Me" from the friggin Jungle Book and Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". Whacky. But, somehow it works and sounds wonderful.
A great covers album is definitely a rare find, but they are out there.
I actually have "Cut The Crap" on cassette somewhere in this apartment. I liked "This Is England", and the other tracks which I thought had a punk rock sound. As for re-records and remasters (If it ain't broke, don't screw with it!), I wished Blue Oyster Cult didn't put out "Cult Classic". "ETI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)" was one of the major victims on this re-do compilation. The heavy guitars were severely cut, and replaced with acoustic piano. I didn't care for the re-done "Burnin For You" either.
I had it on vinyl
Damn, I thought Michael from the In Groove is the Scotty Kilmer of VC, you the man!! Keep it coming brother, I truly believe musicians should just retire when they have run out of their voice.... Peace from down under
if you really don't know why Led Zeppelin chose Phil Collins to drum for them it's because he and Robert Plant were collaborators and Collins ruled the pop charts then. Everybody begged Zeppelin to play again, so they did then people complained.
Frank Zappa’s Joes Garage was the same concept as Styx but was a killer album.
I disagree with some things. Do not discourage record companies from releasing any outtakes, cause yes I do buy them. Your videos are always fun and interesting so I give thumb up anyway.
David Bowie's Pin Ups is a great covers album. They were all 60s songs that he loved😎😎
ANOTHER awesome video Robert🔥and I couldn't agree more. Sadly there are a lot of people out there who actually enjoy these titles 😝
Easily the worst brickwalling I have ever heard was the CD re-release of hard rock band Holland - Little Monsters, quite a bit worse than Death Magnetic.
I would also like to nominate using nude underage girls on album covers ala Blind Faith and the Scorpions
@9:54 - Dissing The Soft Parade now, are we?
How about duet albums with dead people (Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc)? There's just something creepy about these.
Hank Sr. and Hank Jr. and I think they also did Elvis with someone a few years ago.
@@RobertFithen yeah, it's unsavory and a bald-faced cash grab. We all know Cyndi Lauper never sang with Frank Sinatra so why pretend?
Hate to tell you, Let It Be Naked is the most artificial, remixed Beatles product ever made. Most songs consist of multiple different takes stitched together. between that and removing all traces of any between-song studio chatter, false starts, or bits like the brief warm-up run through of "Maggie Mae" or the jam excerpt "Dig It" it kills any notion of "capturing The Beatles live and raw" in the studio, which makes removing Spector's overdubs completely pointless.
I don't why everyone disses Phil Collins for his performance with zeppelin. He's a great drummer. People forget this. Everyone thinks of him as the pop star. Genesis started out as a progressive rock band right there with yes, king crimson, ELP. I watched the performance on MTV live back in 1985. I don't remember it being that bad. Of course I haven't seen it since.
Robert can u do a non ironic review of The Peanut Butter Conspiracy album Is Spreading please.
At one point. I don't actually own it, but have heard it. (and know what the peanut butter conspiracy means) lol
@@RobertFithen try and work on the non irony. I think ur sense of humour is up to it
I wish I could put gifs in the comments because I would use one that says “F**kin A”, finally someone makes a video about this, even though I differ on The Beatles remixes, but I remember for a while they were trying to modernize 60’s music in the 80’s by having this weird drum overdub on them, an idea that should never have been.
Thanks! "Daydream Believer" was an example of a 60's hit with a remix drum for the 80's re release.
What’s with McCartney the fire man project ,I’m here through David Atkinson 👌
Sir I have the album called
Free Spirit by Jimi Hendrix
and I thought it was him
but I have found out that it was
Herman Hitson.
A great Lp and . People think it pre fame jimi.These type of hendrix lps r often crap. So Free Spirit is cheap t buy
I’m shocked you didn’t mention Music From the Elder.
Another thing to stay away from that should gave NEVER BEEN A THING was those Madacy compilations you find at BestBuy & WallyWorld by The Countdown Singers, Countdown Orchestra, Countdown Mix Masters, and etc. where they do covers & sound-a-like songs of popular songs from different years and such. If you don't pay attention, you could think it's by the original artists but it's not but you have to loom on the back, at the bottom somewhere in small writing that it's by this group of cover artists.
Those Ozzy records with new drums and bass was weird, like those Zappa albums you mentioned. Those were the absolute worst
Aww man, the Giles Martin Beatles remixes were great! Other than that, I agree with everything else. 😅
The Giles remixes are fantastic.
I completely agree. Giles Martin did. honor to his father and The Beatles with these great remixes!
I think the distortion caused the high recording levels? are the ‘power’ part of the ‘power ballad’. It can make the music too unclear. . .
How about the 2nd Sweeney Todd album with Bryan Adams instead of Nick Gilder on vocals?
I'm not familiar with either.
Roxy Roller was the big hit. When Nick left the band, they tried to do it again with a young Bryan Adams singing (as in Summer Of '69 and whatever movie Everything I Do, I Do It For You is from) Nick went on with a solo career. Big hits include Hot Child In The City, Here Comes The Night & You Really Rock Me.
If the songs don't ring a bell. It's no surprise as I am convinced that 95% of Canadian bands are never even heard of from people in the states. Unless they live along the boarder and can pick up our radio stations.
How about those 1987 remixes to Help and Rubber Soul? When I got a chance to listen to the original stereo mixes, I completely knew what the better mixes were. And yes, the recent Beatles remixes are just cash grabs. Why even remix an album that's already great as is?
I heard about Cut the Crap by The Clash, but somehow just never got around to it. I didn't buy it, I didn't even borrow it from anyone. I stop with Combat Rock.
I love remix slamming. Just so dumb. Who thought these classics needed any sort of tweeking. As Jerry Reed said,"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The ZZ Top drums are atrocious. Great Video.
Now was that before or after Jerry Reed added his guitar to the 1981 remix of Elvis Presley's "Guitar Man"? lol
Sometimes the remix are because the artist wants to make more money off his or her hits. If they go in and remake them, then they make all the money when they sell them at shows. Not saying that they’re doing a good job of remaking them, but that’s why. I too liked the love remix album that Giles Martin did. I thought that was pretty creative. Other than that though, I am with you I hate remix albums
I'm with you on the remixes (except the album on your wall "Destroyer Resurrected" really blew me away, and destroyer is on of my all time favorites). Another cash grab is most "remasters", and unfortunately vinyl rereleases not taken from the analog tapes.
Haha 😂 Brilliant vid, Robert! “Cut the Crap” is just a dreadful and cruel joke. “Load” was titled perfectly. OMG, the super deluxe boxset sh’t. 🤷♂️🙄 Re-channeled stereo… Absolutely fantastic, Robert! Loved this vid!
Lol Thanks Nick!!
Chris Rea was another one who remade old songs - okay I guess to introduce new fans to things they might've missed, but still not a patch on the originals.
In 1982 There was the wildly popular The Who's Greatest Hits album with the British flag cover where the top song "We Don't Get Fooled Again" was so butcher edited in the true ( K-Tel ) sense of the word with the famously iconic lead guitar and keyboard solos being hastily edited out. That cut version of "Fooled" was, for a time in the early to mid 1980's was very popular even getting regular rotation on FM rock radio much to my disliking. Thankfully by the late 80's the original uncut version of Don't Get Fooled Again returned to radio and the general public as well.
It was also featured on "Who's Better, Who's Best" where it was subtitled "Extended Version"! I can only assume this was a major mastering mistake.
Speaking of cover songs...The The Hanky Panky is an album of all Hank Williams covers and is one of my all time favorite albums.
Actually, the 40th Anniversary Atlantic Records show for Led Zeppelin consisted of Kashmir, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love, Misty Mountain Hop, and Stairway - five pretty banging tunes IMO, with Jason Bonham on drums. Robert's voice not 100%, and Jimmy slightly sloppy here and there, but overall a pretty good show. The Live Aid gig was simply a rushed non-rehearsed affair that no one was ready for - and probably should've been aborted. To this day Jimmy Page still laments that gig.
I 100% agree with you about the Giles Martin remixes. Its disgusting that he was able to do this to these masterpieces. Painting a mustache on the mona lisa.
Ha! I was an 8-year-old who LOVED Mr. Roboto. That was my first record I bought.
Led Zep got Phil Collins because he was playing with Robert Plant at the time, (even live - I saw them in concert together) not because of the fill from "In the Air Tonight."
2 good cover albums I can think of--Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) from 1996 and True Life Blues: The Music of Bill Monroe. Red on Blonde by Tim O'Brien is pretty fantastic too
maybe its best to hear the Beatles in mono, because i do like the remixes, example the original stereo version of “She’s Leaving Home” sounds like a warped tape dragging as compared to the original mono version and now the new remixed stereo. i hated that draggy, slowed down, warped tape sound of the original stereo mix. there’s other examples but this one stands out to me.
how about the cover of Glenn Miller's In The Mood by The Henhouse Five-now that's one cover worth hearing LOL
Country comic Ray Stevens ("The Streak") the one to blame for that one.
Phil played in Robert Plant's band and on one of his solo albums in the early 80's. That's probably why they asked him for live aid
I also found The Beatles when I was 10 or 11 also through the cartoon they had.
Don't forget the Pink Floyd recent release A Momentary Lapse in Reason... I would say that title is a correct foreshadowing! I wasn't paying attention when I bought that one thinking I was getting the normal, original 1987 release being repressed on 180g vinyl. I kept asking myself if I had forgotten how the album originally sounded? Nope, it's the remix version and it sucks and they ruined it! That's not something I thought David Gilmour would do but he did 😡
I haven't heard the remix. I haven't heard good things about it, though.
@@RobertFithen I just don't get what the idea is with this remix concept? It's like saying the original wasn't good enough the first time. I could understand remixing something that was horrible to begin with maybe? But please leave the great originals alone. They definitely aren't going to make them any better haha!
@@Bootradr Copyright crap. That's the reason.
I agree with much of what you've said. I remember watching Live Aid in '85 and wondering what the hell Phil was doing with them. Excellent bio by Phil as someone mentioned Also - the new Elvis movie soundtrack has rapping and "re-imagining" some of Elvis' classic songs. Terrible. Horrible. Sad. One that should have been aborted as well.
That new Elvis movie looked so bad from the trailer that I didn't watch it. Like his real story wasn't interesting enough?
Box sets of albums that the bands didn’t even like like Technical Ecstasy by Black Sabbath is interesting. It’s like memorializing their worst moments in 24k gold.
Interesting 180 approach from the bands who try to hide their worst albums like the Clash with Cut the Crap.
I’m guessing the difference in approach has to do with how much the artists need money lol