Archive for Italy

Gone and Done It!

Posted in Death, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2023 by 80smetalman

There’s another objective achieved, another scratched off my ‘to do’ list. I spent the weekend in Paris and had a really nice time. My main objective, if you haven’t already guessed from the photo above, was to visit Jim Morrison’s grave. Unlike what you see in the film, “The Doors,” there is no graffiti around the grave and it’s now behind a fence. Thank God for mobile phone cameras which let you zoom it. Ever since I got to Europe 36 years ago, it was something I always wanted to do. Covid prevented me from doing so on my 60th birthday but now I’ve done it, hooray!

I don’t know who this derelict is standing in front of Jim’s grave. Oh wait, that’s me.

My daughter Rowena and future daughter in law, Eline

After my objective was achieved, I let my daughter and her fiance pretty much decide the rest of the weekend. On the Saturday, we spent several hours at The Louvre doing all the touristy things. We saw the obvious attractions, The Mona Lisa and the statue of Venus DeMilo as well as many other objects of fine art. A few years ago, I posted about my trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum but The Louvre eats that one for breakfast and lunch. Unless everyone really wants to see it, I won’t post all the photos from there but there was one painting, I can’t remember the artist, which really caught my eye. The reason was that the painting reminded my so much of the video for the song “Mystery” by Dio.

It’s always a mystery.

There are two other interesting happenings over the weekend which are worth me sharing. In my hotel room on the Friday night, I caught a French album show on TV. Most of them weren’t to my musical tastes until the last two. First of these was a band called Indochine. Judging from the video performance where they played to a packed out arena, they’re very big in France. Having just read their biography, this band has been around since the 1980s! Why haven’t I heard of them? They’re considered soft rock/new wave and they sounded quite good. Closing out the album show was a band I introduced last year, Maneskin, from Italy who won last year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The video was of their latest song, a power ballad called “Loneliness” and it’s very good.

Indochine

Måneskin during Rock am Ring at Nürburgring, Nürburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany on 2022-06-03, Photo: Sven Mandel

As for the second happening, I feel that I would be letting everyone down if I hadn’t discovered a cool heavy metal bar while in Paris. Fortunately I did. It is called Le Black Dog and is located about five minutes walk from The Louvre. It’s not a very big place and unfortunately they were all booked up so we couldn’t sample the cuisine which is said to be very good. I did enjoy a new beer called Polar Dog and they played some great death metal. Another interesting note, there was one guy in the bar who could have been the result of a liaison between Lemmy and a female Motorhead fan. He did look a lot like him. So, if you’re in Paris, you know where to go for a good metal time. I just wished we could have stayed longer.

Patrons of Le Black Dog

My refreshing pint of Polar Dog

Some more cool decor, I took this photo from my stepson Teal

Overall, I had a great weekend in Paris and I hope you all enjoyed reading about it. At least, should you ever go there, you know of a great place to go to and yes, I didn’t have a bad meal the entire weekend.

Next post: Virgin Steele- Age of Consent

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

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Great Rock Albums of 1980: Dire Straits- Communique

Posted in 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , on September 5, 2013 by 80smetalman

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I first came by this album back in 1980 in what for me was rather unusual fashion. In December of said year, I was on liberty in Naples, Italy often referred to by American sailors and marines as the grease pit of the Mediterranean. Not to offend any Italians who may be reading this but it’s not the cleanest city I’ve been to and if you want to see your life flash before your eyes, then take a taxi. I only saw one traffic light in the whole of the city. Well, two marine buddies and I were letting our hair down in the city, (it was our first port call after leaving the Persian Gulf) so we went a bit wild. We began partying with this Englishman who had just bought this album and one owner of one of the bars we went to let him play it and I must say that through my drunken haze, I rather liked it.

Thirty three years later and sober, I still like it, probably even more. Mark Knopfler’s guitar work grabs you on the very first track, “Once Upon a Time in the West” and holds you there. The next four tracks bring you more bluesy guitar work and it reminds me a little of the Grateful Dead or Little Feat. All good tracks and just as you think you’re settling in for more of the same, the sixth track, “Angels of Mercy” changes the tempo and gets you back into it again. A very strong track and I’m pretty sure they played it when I saw them live in 1985. Then you get more of that same blues guitar from Knopfler and co in the next to the last song, “Single Handed Sailor” where the guitar work is reminiscent of the classic “Sultans of Swing.” When it’s all over, you end with a feeling that you’ve just heard an album by a very good band.

Track Listing:

1. Once Upon a Time in the West

2. News

3. Where Do You Think You’re Going

4. Comminque

5. Lady Writer

6. Angel of Mercy

7. Portobello Belle

8. Single Handed Sailor

9. Follow Me Home

Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Mark Knopfler- lead guitar, vocals

David Knopfler- rhythm guitar, vocals

John Illsley- bass, vocals

Pick Withers- drums

B. Bear- keyboards

“Communique” to me is a very underrated album, which is why I’m slightly surprised to discover that it got to number 11 in the U.S. charts and much higher in others. For hearing blues based guitar, this album is one of the best, a great gem.

Next post: Journey- Departure

To buy Rock and Roll Children, go to http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Froogle and Barnes & Noble and at Foyles Book Shop in London