Seasons Greetings Eh

Good Rockin recently passed it's 7th year mark of bringing you the best of rocking goodness. Homercat doesn't exactly get the goods out on a daily basis, but unlike many other fine music blogs who have closed up shop, he is still around. So it has kind of been a Christmas tradition here to post up a couple of homercat's favourite Christmas songs to close out the year. Those of you who have followed Rockin' for more than a year will be familiar with a couple of these. One of them has been upped every year just in case someone has missed it or for those who have never heard it, because it is my all time favorite Christmas song.

Homercat will be on holidaze for a while. Not sure when we'll be back, probably in the new year. Sometime in the next two weeks I hope to be putting up my top ten list of the best albums of 2010, if I can come up with that many. Thanks to all who have stopped by over the year and here at Good Rockin' we're looking forward to a good 2011.  Be safe and have Happy Holidaze.


It's Christmas Time by Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors
Christmas Wrapping by The Donnas
Santa's Gonna Kick Your Ass by The Arrogant Worms
Twelve Days of Christmas by Bob and Doug McKenzie


Funny Toon

Sailor's Delight

Sailor's Delight

Back in July I posted a couple of tracks from the debut album by Doug Fieger's first band Sky. Sky's second album, Sailor's Delight, came out in 1971 and was produced by Jimmy Miller with Andy Johns, who as you all should know worked with the Rolling Stones. In fact the same horn section that the Stones used appear on this album as well as pianist Ian Stewart. The album is a solid representation of Fieger's song compositions and pre-Knack efforts; "Let It Lie Low" is a nice bit of pop/rock that foretells what was to come. Keep in mind that Doug was only 18 when this album came out, now that's some solid songwriting for a wee lad. A lot of fans are clamoring for these two rare Sky albums to be remastered and reissued because they're so friggin' hard to find and they offer an insight to the early genius of Doug Fieger. Because of the rarity of this album I once again make an offer to those who wish to hear it in it's entirety, just email the homercat and he'll provide you with a link for this goodie. You can find the email over there in the sidebar under words of wisdom.

Make It Tight
Let It Lie Low

Funny Toon

Special Forces

So I'm at work this morning and I hear on the radio that Alice Cooper is one of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductees for 2011.  Or should I say the Alice Cooper Band, he isn't being inducted for his post 75 work yet.  You know what? It's about damn time. For the last five years I have done many rants about the repeated, year after year snubbings that the voters have handed out to Alice, while other less deserving artists made it into the Hall. Finally this huge oversight has been rectified so I had to post this up today as my tribute to Alice.

Special Forces

Special Forces is the 13th studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1981. Alice had fallen out of favor when he released this album in 1981 which quickly went nowhere on the charts. That's the only explanation I can think of for it not yielding a handful of hits. This is a peppy, slick, high-energy feel good album with some of Alice's funniest lyrics. The loose theme is some kind of para-military fantasy and the album begins with a helicopter, (which Alice probably lifted from Pink Floyd and then Aldo Nova would steal it yet again a year or so later for Fantasy) dropping the head banging song Who Do You Think We Are into your ears.   Come to think of it, I've heard that darn helicopter in a lot of songs.  This album is probably not at the top of too many Alice Cooper fan's favorites list, but I absolutely love it.  I remember the day when I first listened to this album.  I can't remember if it was me or my old college buddy who first bought it the day it came out but I remember going over to his apartment and we listened to this album all night until we both had pretty much memorized every lyric on the album, even coming up with a little skeleton dance for the song Skeletons in my Closet.

This CD is a pure 80's delight, with sound effects, robotic background vocals, heavy synth use, all mixed with Alice's unique lyrical style create one of the most original CD's in the Cooper catalog. The stand out song, for me, is You're A Movie, which features Alice as a General, who is the reincarnation of Patton, with Hannibal's heart, and Alexander's prowess. It is delightfully smug and condescending and sung in a cocky,deadpan way that is marvelous. After all these years I still laugh out loud everytime I hear it.

A song called "Look At You Over There, Ripping The Sawdust From My Teddybear," was listed on the album packaging, but was removed by Cooper from the album itself before the release, as he felt it didn't fit with the overall theme. It was later released in demo form on the box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper, and again in demo form on the 2010 reissue of Special Forces. There is a completed studio version of the song which still remains unreleased. I have added the demo of the song on this one.  I remember wondering what the teddy bear song was all about at the time, was it a hidden backwards track or what the heck does it mean.  Congrats on your induction Alice and here's a couple gems from this least heard Cooper album.

Who Do You Think We Are?
You're A Movie
Buy It


Funny Toon

Introducing Sparks

Introducing Sparks

Introducing Sparks is the seventh album by Sparks released in 1977. It was their final release for Columbia records and did not fare any better than their previous effort, Big Beat. This album is another one of those rarities that can be hard to find. Other than it's initial vinyl release, it has been out of print for years. Even though Columbia had released Big Beat on cd it never bothered with this release and for many years it was the only Sparks release to only be available on vinyl and due to its commercial and critical failure, Introducing Sparks faded into obscurity. This was rectified in November 2007, when the album was officially re-released on CD on Sparks own record label; Lil' Beethoven Records. While I think it may still be available on cd one might want to scoop it up before it fades away again. As a Sparks fan I don't really understand why it was received so terribly. Certainly it's not one of their best but it is full of typical Sparks goodness that us fans love. It's also the last Sparks album to feature the 70's Sparks sound as their next album was the dance oriented No 1 Song in Heaven produced by Georgio Moroder.

A Big Surprise
Buy It

Funny Toon

These Are the Good Times People

These are the Good Times People

These Are the Good Times People is the fifth album by The Presidents of the United States of America. It was released on March 11, 2008. I sorta touched on this album back in December of 2008 when I gave this album the #2 spot in my top ten albums of 2008. Two years later and it still has heavy rotation on my mp3 player. In fact I was listening to it again today and it urged me to revisit the album here again. These songs have a habit of sticking in your head all day. I absolutely love the upbeat feel and the irreverent lyrics about everyday observances and find myself humming these songs all day long. I love it. Bugs, butterflies, and troglobytes! From the first song to the kick ass final track, there ain't a bad one on this gem. Pure pop genius. A long album title from a group with an even longer name so we shorten it to POTUSA. Actually most people might not even have realized that these guys were still together. The most infectiously fun, hook laden, and can't get those songs out of your head album from the last two years.

Sharpen Up Those Fangs
Deleter
Buy It


Funny Toon