Influence
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CD Details
Performer: Shaw BladesPerformer: Tommy Shaw
Performer: Jack Blades
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Music Label: VH1 Classics
Soundtracks:
- Summer Breeze
- Time Of The Season
- Your Move
- I Am A Rock
- Lucky Man
- The Sound Of Silence
- California Dreamin'
- On A Carousel
- Dirty Work
- For What It's Worth
- Dance With Me
Music reviews of Influence
Music Review: Influence
Rating: 4 Stars
The playlist on this album of covers initially turned me off and tuned me out--but I've been won over.
I loved Tommy Shaw's song Girls With Guns even before it zoomed through a Miami Vice episode back in my childhood. And I also liked forgotten stuff from his unCharted territory like See Me Now, and Count On You, and even What If from that Remo Williams movie. I was even there for Weight Of The World.
And as for Night Ranger--okay, Sister Christian, yes--but I loved Rumors In The Air even before that annoying kid in the movie Sixteen Candles was listening to it on his no-doubt wax-encrusted earphones. As for unCharted territory, I loved Don't Start Thinking (I'm Alone Tonight), I Did It For Love, and the title track from Night Ranger's Man In Motion, uh, cassette.
But let me jump to the present and yet blast to the past at the same time, via Influence.
The first four tracks really get me pumped, and I'm not even a big fan of the original when it comes to Your Move. What's happening here--for my ears, anyway--is the removal of any Sixties or Seventies mellowness, or softness, in favour of some fist-pumping, maybe even head-banging on I Am A Rock. Summer Breeze--not a song I love--gets a bit of a hard-driving gust to it. My favourite of the first four, when it comes to the originals, is probably Time Of The Season, and the cover here is also somewhat rowdier than what was before. All these shots of adrenalin to the tunes work for me, as does trimming Your Move.
Now, I don't like the song Lucky Man much at all, though I know how groundbreaking the original was (listeners trying to pinpoint what was making that sound!)--and Shaw/Blades at least give me a fresh take on it. I still can't really get with the pretentious lyrics.
Okay, now we come to two classics which, IMO, really need to keep some of the haunting, ethereal quality (I see leaves blowing in an aimless wind) to stay great: The Sound Of Silence, and California Dreamin'...easily my two favourite songs here. I like the cover versions on Influence, but I miss the soft sadness that flows through what went before. Nice job, anyway, and Shaw's vocals really suit all the material so far. His voice effortlessly exudes wistfulness, loneliness, pain and regret when necessary, or he can shift gears and make that high pitch of his happy or delighted. But he can't quite haunt me, and he's definitely not trying to mellow me out.
The final four songs: again, very interesting...none of the originals ever really lit me up, except for For What It's Worth. And so Shaw/Blades can sneak in there and give me a new appreciation of these tunes, just with some tweaking, and some enthusiasm (though I'll probably never come around to On A Carousel; I prefer a candy bar). Dance With Me provides a lively wrap-up to a playlist yanked into the new millenium with lots of energy, and some refreshing experimentation. I like some of these cover versions more than the originals.
Description of Influence
Legendary STYX guitarist Tommy Shaw and former NIGHT RANGER and DAMN YANKEE frontman Jack Blades team up again for their second venture on INFLUENCE. INFLUENCE is also the first CD release coming out on the new created VH1 Classic Records label. From Tommy Shaw, on the making of INFLUENCE: 'This album has been years in the making. The recording process didn't take years, but the concept had been looming in our conversations for years. From the day Jack Blades showed up on my doorstep, we discovered our chemistry as writers almost immediately. We became best friends as a result of the music and the experiences we had because of it.' ' After two albums and two world tours with Damn Yankees, we decided to do our first Shaw Blades album, Hallucination. The album was a departure from Damn Yankees that it was more acoustic in nature, not nearly as heavy and more organically produced.' 'On INFLUENCE, we went song by song; some we held very close to the original version, while on others we departed from the familiar arrangements and made them our own.'Classic Rock CDs
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