Dick Wagner Full Meltdown II

New CD from guitarist Dick Wagner: FULL MELTDOWN

Written by Joe Viglione

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 14:09

Direct link to this review is here: http://tinyurl.com/dickwagnerfullmeltdown

A review by Joe Viglione is in the works right now...5:09 PM 11-18-09...completed 1:29 am 11/23/09...yes, these things take me days to write sometimes!

Enclosed is the official press release (below) CD cover

FULL MELTDOWN by Dick Wagner

Review by Joe Vig 11/22/09

15 selections from the artistry of Dick Wagner on a compilation entitled Full Meltdown come with the obligatory 4 page liner notes/insert that we who appreciate classic rock need. So to the xerox machine at Staples I went to enlarge the type and translate it all for you, dear reader. Five minutes and 20 seconds of "Still Hungry" open the disc, a 1991 production created at Trax Studios in Los Angeles with Jack White on drums, Matt Bissonnette on bass and Fred Mandel on keyboards/B3. It slips into "Blue Collar Babies", one of six songs recorded at Gil Markle's Long View Farm in 1979 with a band called Meltdown, managed by the late Charlie McKenzie, he of the group Boston and Willie Loco Alexander fame. The 90s and 70s material actually sounds very 80s, infringing on the territory that Eddie Money, 38 Special and Van Halen traveled, though Wagner has more grit than Money and 38 Special and his formidable songwriting skills make these titles a bit more appealing than some of the music that actually made it to radio.

"Insatiable Girl" from the 1991 Los Angeles sessions could be a sequel to the 1989 Grammy winner from Robert Palmer, "Simply Irresistable" while "I'd Take The Bullet" was recorded that same year, 1991, in Lawrence, Massachusetts with Brad Hallen from Ministry and Boston's Pastiche on bass. This tune and "Another Twist Of The Knife" which follows would've been good for Alice Cooper back in the day...and though the music flips from Los Angeles to Lawrence to back to Los Angeles it is all very consistent. The delightful cover of "Stagger Lee" opens with a John Lennon-styled vocal straight out of Double Fantasy...I played this for Buzzy Linhart over the phone tonight (11/22/09) and Buzzy thought the arrangement was fantastic (it is)...Linhart calling this one of the greatest songs of all time and one he has his own arrangement for. (Prakash John, Steve Hunter and Penti Glan, all cohorts of Wagners, appear on a recent release of Linhart's entitled Studio; Buzzy is the guy whistling from the audience on Lou Reed's Rock & Roll Animal album...with a real...and loud... whistle, probably on the song "Heroin")..."Stagger Lee" is close to four minutes and the song becomes a Bob Seger-like "Hollywood Nights" talk/song...the material from Long View Farm was lost to the ages until recently, Gil Markle telling GemmZine "Many of these tracks were recorded at Long View in 1979, and lay undiscovered in a mis-labeled packing container for almost 30 years. The members of Charlie McKenzie's Boston-based band "Meltdown" played on some of them. The rest were recorded a few years later, mostly in L.A. I re-mastered the material for Dick a few months ago in Tobago."

"Ecstasy" nicks a bit of the melody from Van Halen's "I'll Wait" (from their MCMLXXXIV CD a.k.a. 1984) but it veers off into a different territory, the riffing and guitars moving from pop/rock into progressive becoming something totally original in the process. You can listen to Van Halen here just for fun: Van Halen's "I'll Wait"

For Alice Cooper fans there's Dick's own version of the co-write that he created with Desmond Child and Cooper, "I Might As Well Be On Mars". Released on Cooper's 1991 disc, Hey Stoopid, it's as close to Christopher Cross's "Sailin' as Alice will ever get...and Dick does a fine job on voice and all instruments as recorded in 1995 at Fenton Woods Studio in Fenton MI as well as Disc Ltd. in Eastpointe MI.

It's great to have this music produced by Dick Wagner compiled so uniformly, the liner notes precisely telling where and when each track was laid down and who plays on it along with two letters from Dick to the reader/listener all packed in a good compilation for his long-time followers and those who appreciate superb musicianship and creative songwriting.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

"This is a must have CD! My pre-release copy is spectacular! Every song is in your face rock n roll!" - Don Richard, Dream Domain

Full Meltdown features 15 lost and newly discovered songs recorded by Wagner between 1979 and 1995 -- a journey of pure Rock and Roll songs and dazzling guitar virtuosity. Wagner’s songs detail the essence of life; his guitar work continues to inspire guitarists world wide, and his productions recall the era of great songs with great melodies and universally accessible lyrics.

The opening song on FULL MELTDOWN is a lyrical, powerchordal stadium rock song that gets you pumped up to flow with the rest of the CD’s song lineup. From the sublime opening organ riff, backed with the heavy backbeat of the drums, you are ready to rock, with your heart already in high gear.

When Wagner’s guitar enters, you are taken away to the land of rocklove and history, where you fully understand what “Still Hungry” really means. It’s a song about sex and devotion, interspersed with a great guitar solo that is reminiscent of the fiddle solos of the Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw. From “Still Hungry” on through “Feel it all Over”, the final song on this CD, you are swept up on a journey from Detroit, Cleveland, New York and across the world; towel dried at the end by the sirens of soul accompanied by some of the finest musicians in Rock’n’roll.

MUSICIAN AND SONGWRITER CREDITS

Still Hungry (Dick Wagner, Alan Hewitt)
Vocals: Dick Wagner, Guitars: Dick Wagner, Drums: Jack White, Bass: Matt Bissonnette, Keyboards, B3: Fred Mandel. Recorded at Trax Studio, Los Angeles, CA, 1991.

Blue Collar Babies (Dick Wagner, Mark Williamson), Modern Times (Dick Wagner), Motor City Showdown (Dick Wagner), Feel It All Over (Dick Wagner)
Vocals: Dick Wagner, Lead Guitar: Dick Wagner, Drums: Greg Schroeder, Bass: Jay Henshall, Piano: Norman Jolly, Keyboards: Mark Williamson, Rhythm Guitar: Jeff Morley, Chuck McKenna. Recorded at Long View Farm, North Brookfield, MA, 1979.

Insatiable Girl (Dick Wagner, Dennis Morgan)
Vocals: Dick Wagner, Guitars: Dick Wagner, Drums: Jack White, Bass: Ian Gardiner, Keyboards: Fred Mandel. Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, CA, 1991.

I’d Take the Bullet (Dick Wagner)
Vocals: Dick Wagner, Guitars: Dick Wagner, Drums: John Sands, Keyboards: Dave Branch, Bass: Brad Hallen. Recorded at Soundside, Lawrence, MA, 1991.

Another Twist of the Knife (Dick Wagner, John Wetton), Ecstasy (Dick Wagner)
Vocals: Dick Wagner, Guitars: Dick Wagner, Drums: Gregg Bissonette, Bass: Matt Bissonette, Keyboards: Fred Mandel. Recorded at Music Grinder, Los Angeles, CA, 1991.

Stagger Lee (Lloyd Price, Harold Logan)
Vocals: Dick Wagner, Lead Guitar: Dick Wagner, Drums: Greg Schroeder, Bass: Dick Wagner, Piano: Norman Jolly, Keyboards: Mark Williamson, Rhythm Guitar: Jeff Morley, Chuck McKenna. Recorded at Long View Farm, 1979.

She Said (Dick Wagner)
Vocals and all instruments: Dick Wagner. Recorded at Platinum Studios, Los Angeles, CA, 1988.

These Days (Dick Wagner)
Vocal and piano: Dick Wagner. Recorded at Long View Farm, 1979.

I Might As Well Be on Mars (Dick Wagner, Alice Cooper, Desmond Child)
Vocals and all instruments: Dick Wagner. Recorded Fenton Woods Studio, Fenton, MI and Disc, Ltd., Eastpointe, MI, 1995.

Steal the Thunder (Dick Wagner, Dennis Morgan)
Lead Vocal: Dick Wagner, Guitars: Dick Wagner, Drums: Gregg Bissonette, Bass: Matt Bissonette, Keyboards: Fred Mandel. Recorded at Music Grinder, 1991.

Darkest Hour (Dick Wagner)
Vocals and all instruments: Dick Wagner. Recorded at Fenton Woods Studio, 1995.

Produced by Dick Wagner
Executive Producers: Susan Michelson, Alex Cyrell, Gil Markle
Stereo re-mix by Gil Markle 2009, for Desert Dreams Productions, LLC and studiowner.com
Original Release: 10/30/2009

"Sweet Jenny Lee" opens the album Frost Music like some unholy marriage between the Zombies and Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes. And that sums up nicely this wonderful amalgam of British and Detroit rock, a surprisingly poppy effort from Dick Wagner and company. As a future purveyor of hard rock, and within the decade, eventual producer of his friend Mark Farner, the English sounds of bands like Kaleidoscope (U.K.) reverberate through songs like "Stand in the Shadows." With hints of very early Pink Floyd meets Strawberry Alarm Clock in track two, "The Family," Frost Music is more than a respectable effort from the young Wagner, and an adventurous offering from the label famous for Buddy Guy, Joan Baez, Eric Andersen, and Mimi & Richard Farina. Read more here:

The Frost's second album on Vanguard, Rock and Roll Music, has the 1969 Dick Wagner four years before he would tour as part of the Lou Reed Rock & Roll Animal Band. The title track, recorded live at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit by engineer Ed Friedner, has an incessant chant over a bellowing guitar foundation. It is a good, raw picture of early Wagner music, a vital document of a Michigan band that helped shape that scene. Read more here:

The most refined of the three albums by the Frost features singer/songwriter Dick Wagner as producer, with Sam Charters, producer of the first two albums -- Frost Music and Rock and Roll Music -- listed as executive producer. The album kicks off with a seven-minute, 38-second "Black As Night," taking this Detroit band further into the domain U.K. rockers dominated. Excellent low-key Sabbath riff, progressive rock melody, and "Hey Jude" chorus conclusion. If the first two Frost discs are some hybrid of Brit and Detroit rock, the line gets further erased on "Through the Eyes of Love," the title track. The flavor is more like Marmalade's "Reflections of My Life" than Grand Funk's "Closer to Home," but the tune veers off into a direction explored by neither of the above with a relentless chorus of "God help us please" -- the subtitle of this song. Read more here: