Wednesday
Aug132014
Ace Frehley Releases New Track - 'The Joker'
Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 12:02AM Ace Frehley will release Space Invader next week. It's his first new record in about five years. One of the album cuts is a cover of Steve Miller's classic "The Joker." That song is streaming online now and I've posted it below for you. I think "The Joker" is an interesting cover choice - at least it isn't completely overdone.
Reader Comments (18)
Since Alyson put it up I gave it a shot.
How ya gonna change & make your own, "The Joker" I don't see point. But it sounds vaguely Sam Kineson-ish a la the "Wild Thing" coupled with Ace sounding like the Lou Reed of metal! Fun I suppose.
Gosh how I miss Sam Kineson!!! He defined 80's fun & his stand up was witty and sharp especially when it came to religion & marriage. Talk about a fun guy to have at a party. Another dude who left us too early.
As for Ace's version.I don't think it's the greatest,but I don't think it's the worst. He doesn't destroy it,but he doesn't kill it either.Basically a throw away kind of track to me...
Re: Sam's take on Jesus. Disciples say: "Oh lord up there on the cross. Why do you have to suffer and die?" Jesus: "well maybe I wouldn't have to die if ya got me a ladder and a fucking set of pliers!!!!!"
As ordained minister, Sam knew bible better than most!! Classic stuff
ACE IS BACK AND HE TOLD YOU SO!!!
Has nothing to do with spelling, but obviously if you're a fan of a band, you know how to spell the name..You're not a fan of Led Zeppelin and thats fine JAT. That was the point I was making,obviously the joke sailed over your head..
Enjoy you day,,while I go crank up some fuckin' LED ZEPPELIN baby!!!
I look forward to hearing the rest!
I dunno. Sounds like Ace to me. And I happen to like it.
Anyone happen to catch him on _The Tonight Show_ last night? Fallon made a point to backtrack and shake his hand, not something he always does with musical guests sitting in with the band. Ace was in fine (older) form. He seemed to get a good reception all around.
Nice to be back on the site after a few weeks away. Even nicer to see that not much has changed.
As in "How can this guy have not OD'd already?"
Maybe Frehley's next cover tune will be "Walk On The Wild Side"... It couldn't get any worse than this.
I feel you, Ace, but I don't think it's bad at all. Yeah, Ace can't sing his way out of a paper bag but I do like the instrumental treatment.
I appreciate his adventurism with recording this song and ya gotta love the solo, no?
Even saw a few bands that were not exactly Glam material: Don Felder (Henleyesque vocals and a solid backing band), Doobie Brothers (tight and focused), Boston (musically solid but vocally horrific), and Y&T (overlooked and underrated, but still a great live band).
But back to the topic proper . . . I can certainly understand why people don't like the song, even those that like Frehley. Perhaps a bit more polish to the production would have helped things. Eddie Kramer did a great job on his first FC album and was co-producer on _Trouble Walking_. Not sure who (co-)produced this one. Perhaps Fredericksen, who did _Anomaly_?
Could be. BTW, Eddie Kramer mixed a bunch tracks used in Cheerios commercials for me. I was speechless as I stared at black and white photographs of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, among others, that he took from his front row cat bird seats seeing all of them live, as he was there, front and center, for the obvious reasons, having worked with them all and then some!
Too bad about BOSTON. Sholz seems like he's become even more of a dingus, not knowing to get a killer singer AND turning his band into another WINGS by allowing his talentless wife up on stage to hack up the keyboards. What is it with these guys that allow that to happen. This sh*t ain't Fleetwood Mac!
Scholz can replicate the sound of the older albums quite well, and DeCarlo is a good singer. But it is impossible for DeCarlo to hit the notes that Delp, and then Delp and Cosmo, were hitting live as recently (in Boston-time) as the _Walk On_ tour. Kimberly Dahme attempts to pick up some of the back-end on songs. But it sounds forced and jarring. It just isn't the same. The result? The live show is frustrating (and let's not talk about the "keeping it in the extended family" atrocity that is "Walk On" by way of American Idol . . . what in the hell is that?).
And the albums themselves? _Corporate America_ showed the first sign of cracks in the overall Scholz formula, and it has only widened on the most recent release. I really don't expect another album out of them. Which is sad. I enjoy them.
Absent some new spark of inspiration, the inclusion of better production, and a singer (or singers) who can approximate the classic sound, Boston strike me as a spent force. All of Scholz genius (and he is a genius at crafting music) is for naught if myopia and lethargy set in.
No one has ever suggested working with Scholz is easy. I am starting to think he drives away talented people and surrounds himself with only those who nod. Pihl (of Hagar fame) seems happy to just go with the flow. And Delp, before his tragic death, was having issues with Scholz. If you look at the list of people who have jumped ship, a narrative starts to appear that is hard to ignore. When it was great, no one gave a rip. But this latest iteration struggles, even if certain sites and critics fawn over the band--live and as recorded--like they are hearing Third Stage II.
When I read the circumstances of Delp's death minutes after it was reported, I couldn't help but wonder if Scholz being such a d*ck didn't contribute to Delp's untimely demise, as terrible as it is to think it.
Though, ultimately, we are all responsible for our own outcomes. Yet their is a pattern throughout history of mistreatment by others that can contribute to one's frustration and depression.
When I saw 'em at The U.S. Naval Academy off "Don't Look Back", Delp was not hitting EVERY note from the record (Who could?), he still sang the stuff as know one else can.
Interesting aside from The Fly On The Wall Department, as I've reported here before, hours before seeing them, I was walking past the Annapolis Hilton (now a Marriot) which is harbor side on the way to my girlfriend's house at the time (1979) to pick her up to go to the show, when several black limousines pulled out front. First out was Delp, stretching and staring at the sky.
Out came the rest of the band and finally Scholz, who I gave the finger, just to get a reaction. He did a double take and promptly gave me the finger back, hahaha!!!
As you can see, when it comes to Metalboy!, once a hypocrite, always a hypocrite! Must have been the Pistols, Damned. Generation X and 999 albums under my arm when I happened to be strolling by at the time. Perhaps, I should have gone up to Scholz and asked him if he had listened to any of them. My guess is he probably had heard "Never Mind The Bollocks" but not the others, simply because they didn't garner the same commercial attention he is all about.
And the story of Delp's death only got worse when you read the articles in the months after his passing. He made some poor choices that, it seems, he couldn't forgive himself for making. The Boston situation might have been an irritant. But Delp's choices seem to have led him to that tragic decision (read the article on Boston.com by Edgers on 27 May 2012 if you want).
The thing about the Cosmo and Delp combo on the "Walk On" tour was how seamlessly they played off of each other on the older Delp-based hits and how Delp filled in the background on the "Walk On" era songs. It was a smaller pavilion (in Concord, CA), so the sound was front and center. There wasn't room to hide. I feel lucky to have seem that version of the band.