Well folks, we've reached the end of another Rocktober. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for Phởvember, a daily look at the best versions of Vietnam's most popular noodle soup. Yeah yeah, I know it's pronounced "fuh." For Christ's sake, let me have this one.
But before then, we have one last dark song in this Rocktober's look at first tracks off of debut albums, courtesy of doom metal pioneers Pentagram. Despite the fact that they have formed in the early '70s and made music during that decade, they didn't release their first album until 1985. On a side note, the compilation of their early music, First Daze Here, is phenomenal. Also, I highly recommend the 2011 documentary about the band and lead singer Bobby Liebling, Last Days Here.
Their self-released, self-titled debut album (which was retitled Relentless when it was reissued on CD by Peaceville Records in 1993) is a masterpiece in doom metal, with plodding, down-tuned, fuzzed-out guitars, dark lyrics, and a generally brooding attitude. Lead singer Bobby Liebling's voice is a perfect combination of rock and creepy. I have no idea how I heard about Pentagram, but I've had their first album for a while now. It's a damn good metal album –- the kind of music you'd expect to hear in a room with only black walls. If you want some good music to play while you're handing out candy on Halloween, definitely check the album out –- assuming, of course, you're like me and you want to keep the neighborhood children and parents guessing about whether you drink goat's blood on a regular basis.
"Relentless" is the first track off of the album. It starts off with a gut-punch riff, and the energy never fades. Behind a backdrop of fuzzy guitars, the lyrics tell a "sinister tale[]" from the point of view of what one can only assume is the devil himself.
Our penultimate song in this year's Rocktober look at first tracks from debut albums comes from one of my favorite albums from the '90s, Stone Temple Pilots' 1992 debut album Core.
It was one of the first CDs I ever owned, after my begrudging, but overdue, transition from cassette tapes. From top to bottom, it's a great album, featuring some of the band's signature songs, like "Core" (my favorite song from the '90s), "Wicked Garden," "Creep," and "Sex Type Thing."
But the very first song on the album fits with the macabre theme of Halloween week Rocktober songs. "Dead & Bloated" has one of the most memorable opening lines to a debut album, or maybe any album, for that matter. Singing a cappella through some mic that makes it sounds like an old timey radio show, Scott Weiland belts out "I am smelling like the rose that somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed / I am smelling like a rose that somebody gave me 'cause I'm dead and bloated," with the drums kicking in on "bloated." 32 years later, I'm still not sure what it means, and having read some more about the song, I don't feel bad about that. Weiland said the lyrics to the song don't really mean anything in particular, but were more of a stream of consciousness stringing together of words. Very James Joyce. But behind the strange and apparently meaningless lyrics is a plodding, brooding grunge song that immediately transports me back to my freshman year of high school, for better or worse.
Last week, original Iron Maiden lead singer Paul Di'Anno passed away at the age of 66. His health had declined over the last several years, and we was confined to performing a wheelchair. But a mere four and a half decades ago, he fronted what would become one of the most influential bands in metal history -- well, until they decided to go with someone else after two albums.
Iron Maiden released their eponymous debut album in April of 1980. By all accounts, it was a pretty big success, reaching #4 on the UK album charts, eventually going platinum in the UK. It was ranked #13 on Rolling Stone's 2017 list of the 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. Di'Anno's raspy vocals, combined with the twin guitar attack of Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton (who would leave the band six months after the release of the album), the phenomenal bass playing of Steve Harris (also the band's main songwriter), and the pounding drums of Clive Burr, provided the world with the beginning of a new genre, one that combined the speed and energy of punk with the technical proficiency of metal: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. And, of course, the album's cover would also introduce the world to heavy metal's most enduring mascot, Eddie.
The first track on Iron Maiden (the album) is "Prowler." This is a perfect introduction to Iron Maiden (the band). A little rat-at-tat guitar starts the song off, just before that snarling riff kicks in, giving us a frenetic song about some creep who walks around stalking women. There's some wicked guitar solos and the great bass lines and fills that we would come to know and love from Harris. Di'Anno would sing on the band's next album, the masterpiece Killers, before the band kicked him out (thanks in large part to his excessive drug use) and replaced him with Samson lead singer Bruce Dickinson, who took the band into the metal stratosphere, where they remain today.
Many apologies for the hiatus. I unexpectedly had to go out of town to deal with a family medical issue for nearly a week, and then was catching up on work and other stuff last week. But rest assured, Rocktober is still in full effect.
We've reached Halloweek, which means all the songs from here on out will have some sort of dark, macabre, Halloween, or devilish theme. Today's first track from a debut album is "Runnin' With the Devil," from Van Halen's magnificent self-titled 1978 debut album.
The song starts with a chorus of horns, and until today, I didn't realize how that sound had been achieved. The horns were car horns from the band members' cars, mounted in a box and controlled with a foot switch. The album's producer, Ted Templeman, then slowed the horns down, giving them that air raid siren effect. Then Michael Anthony's pounding bass comes in for a few beats before Eddie and Alex drop in with the riff and the drum beat. And then Diamond Dave brings us home, announcing to the world the arrival of the next great American rock band with his signature howl.
Though it only reached #84 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song has become a classic. Among other accolades has been ranked #9 on VH1's list of the Greatest Hard Rock Songs of All-Time and #68 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time.
Back in the '70s, rock producer Kim Fowley noticed there was a dearth of all-female rock groups. He decided to assemble a group of young women who could rock, and so The Runaways were born. Through auditions and happenstance, and after a few lineup shifts, the "classic" lineup of Cherie Currie on lead vocals, Joan Jett on rhythm guitar, Sandy West on drums, Lita Ford on lead guitar, and Jackie Fox on bass came together. Not a single one of them was yet 18 when they released their self-titled debut album in March 1976, and it didn't exactly set the world on fire, only reaching #194 on the Billboard album chart.
The song "Cherry Bomb" was the band's first single, and it was quickly written by Jett and Fowley for Currie's audition for the band when the band couldn't play the song that Currie had chosen for the audition. The song is a short but powerful hard rock song with a driving beat and street smart lyrics, punctuated by Currie's husky vocals during the verses that unleashes in the choruses.
Though the song didn't crack the Billboard Hot 100, it was highly influential and regarded, landing at #52 on VH1 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs list. And for many of us younger Gen Xers, we may have heard it for the first time while watching Dazed and Confused. The Runaways only put out a couple more albums before officially breaking up in early 1979. Of course, Jett went on to a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career as a solo artist and leader of The Blackhearts. Ford went on to a successful solo career. West formed her own band and became a drum teacher before succumbing to lung cancer in 2006 at the age of 47. Currie and her twin sister Marie formed a band and had a minor hit before becoming a drug counselor, dabbling in acting, marrying (and divorcing) Airplane star Robert Hays, and eventually becoming a chainsaw wood carving artist. Fox earned a BA with honors from UCLA and her JD from Harvard (where Barack Obama was one of her classmates), becoming an entertainment lawyer.
The Runaways' influence can't be understated, as they paved the way for pretty much every all-female rock band that followed them, from The Bangles (whose bassist Michael Steele, then known as Micki Steele, was The Runaways' original bassist) to The Go-Go's to Vixen to L7 to The Donnas to many more.
With our second Hair Band Friday of this Rocktober, the choice was pretty simple. It would be a sin if a Rocktober dedicated to first tracks off of debut albums didn't include the first track off of the best-selling debut album of all-time.
I'm not going to delve into what a phenomenal album Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses is, but if you were to argue that this is the best album released in my lifetime, I don't know that I would dispute that. Top to bottom, it's one of the best rock and roll records ever made.
"Welcome to the Jungle" has become ubiquitous over the years, but try to remember a time when it wasn't, when you were hearing it for the first time with a fresh, innocent pair of ears and blown away. Written about the harsh realities of small-town kids (like Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin) coming to the big city (LA), it's like a dinner bell that summons you to the table for the 12 tracks that make up Appetite -- only the meal is cocaine, heroin, Night Train, and sex. Gritty and brash, the song opens up with Slash's echoey, crunchy guitar riff, then Axl howls in the background as the song kicks into the main riff and you're taken to the streets of Hollywood in the mid '80s. Needless to say, it's a classic, and it's pretty amazing how tight the song and whole album were for a band making their first record.
Today's selection in this year's Rocktober look at first tracks from debut albums is from Leeds-based rockers Kaiser Chiefs. They released their debut album Employment in 2005, and it was a huge success in their native UK, reaching #2 on the UK album chart and #4 on the UK year-end album chart for 2005, selling over 2 million copies in the UK, and helping the band win Brit Awards in 2006 for Best British Group, British Live Act, and British Rock Act.
The album is a fantastic indie rock/post-punk collection of songs that is very clearly influenced by '70s punk and new wave. It wasn't a hit by any means in the U.S., so I'm not sure how I heard about it (maybe a Rolling Stone review), but I got the album shortly after it came out, and I loved it. They played at Lollapalooza in 2005 -- less than a month before I created this here blog -- and I remember lead singer Ricky Wilson climbing a trellis on the side of the stage at some point during their set and thinking that was not a great idea. He made it up and down unscathed, which is good because that meant the band would continue to make music (they put out their eighth studio album, the aptly titled Kaiser Chief's Easy Eighth Album, in March of this year).
Employment spawned three Top 10 hits on the UK pop charts and another single that barely missed: "Oh My God" (#6), "I Predict a Riot" (#9), "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" (#10), and "Modern Way" (#11). While it was the third single released from the album, "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" is the first track off the album. It's a danceable art-punk anti-love song about dealing with the aftermath of a breakup when one side wants to hold onto the relationship, while the other side just wants to move on.
Our next foray into first tracks off of debut albums takes us back to 1975 for Heart's debut album, Dreamboat Annie. The album rose to #7 on the Billboard album chart, and it eventually went platinum in the U.S. It featured three Billboard Hot 100 hits: "Magic Man" (#9), "Crazy on You" (#35), and the title track (#42).
"Magic Man" was not only Heart's first Top 40 and Top 10 hit, but was also the first track off of Dreamboat Annie. And what a first track it is. Starting with that wailing guitar intro from Nancy Wilson, it has an air of mystery from the start. The lyrics, belted out by Ann Wilson, speak of a man who has cast a spell of love on the female narrator. Her own mother has reservations and cries for her to "come on home, girl." But what she doesn't understand is that he's saying the same thing to her -- and he's a magic man. The song has some fantastic guitar work, as well as some delicious drum fills.
Of course, it's one of Heart's most well-known songs and one of their signatures. And as a big fan of the movie Swingers, I can't help but think of the scene in the movie where Mike (Jon Favreau) and Trent (Vince Vaughan) are in Vegas and go back to the casino waitresses' trailer. This song plays while Trent tells a great story about a TV audition gone wrong, which seals the deal with Christy, the waitress he was trying to bed -- played by Deena Martin, who also played Shavonne in Dazed and Confused. Well, we all have stories.
We haven't done any first tracks from debut albums from this millennium yet, so let's change that, okay? In November 2001, a 22-year-old son of a University of Michigan law professor released an album with a cover photo showing blood streaming from his nose because he his himself with a cinderblock and complemented that with animal blood.
Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet was (and still is) 12 energetic songs that mix punk, metal, pop, and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. The first time I ever heard of Andrew W.K., I kid you not, was from my Wills and Trusts professor in law school, and I checked out the album and thought it was great.
What make this album great, though, is that behind that wall of sound and bombast are well-crafted pop hooks. This isn't just some hard-on blowing off steam by yelling into the mic; this is someone who is calculatingly harnessing pop sensibilities while blowing you away sonically. If you combined mid-'70s Springsteen and Meat Loaf with Black Flag, The Ramones, The Replacements, and Motörhead, this might very well be the result.
And, of course, the album features various songs about partying, including the first track, which sets the mood for the album. "It's Time to Party" is a minute and a half of energy that tells you exactly what time it is. It's beauty lies in its simplicity. The video, which I believe was made about ten years after the album came out, is also about partying. And who wouldn't feel like partying with Andrew W.K.'s inviting big ol' grin?
As we begin our second week of Rocktober, we're gonna take a journey back 50 years to a time when four guys from New York decided to put on kabuki makeup and take over the rock and roll world.
KISS's eponymous debut album was released in February 1974, and if you were to walk into a record store and see that front cover, you would have been intrigued, terrified, or both. The album didn't exactly make a splash on the charts, only reaching #87 on the Billboard album chart, but as you know, KISS built its following through its legendary live shows. The album eventually went gold in the U.S. a few years later.
The first track off of the album is one of my favorite KISS songs, "Strutter." Written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, and sung by Paul, it's a damn fine rock and roll song that lets you know what KISS is all about in a little over three minutes. There's a catchy riff, a chorus you can shout in an arena, lyrics about a good-looking woman, a nice guitar solo from Ace Frehley, and a few little cheeky Paul yelps. They rocked, but they were accessible, despite outwardly appearing like demon clowns. And I think that sentence right there sums up the allure and prolonged success of KISS.
Our first hair band entry of this year's debut album first track Rocktober is from New Jersey rockers Skid Row. Their self-titled debut album was released in January 1989, while the Hair Band Era was still very much in effect, still a couple years from grunge's takeover.
The album has a special place in my heart. "Youth Gone Wild" and "18 and Life" had been released as singles by the time the summer of '89 rolled around. I was 11 and had already dove into the hair band genre, so aside from saving up for Nintendo games, I used my allowance and lawn mowing money to buy music. A year or so later, I would discover the joys of the Columbia House music club (12 tapes for a penny!), but I purchased the Skid Row tape at Beautiful Day Records, a narrow little record store in downtown LaGrange. My friend Jeremy was with me, as I was staying at his house that night. He managed to forge a note to the local video store, All Star Video, that said he could rent whatever movies he wanted, even R-rated ones. So we decided to rent The Shining, based solely on the box -- Jack Nicholson's crazed face peering though the bathroom door he just busted open with an axe -- not having any idea what the movie was about.
We went back to his house and started watching the movie. About 30-45 minutes in -- when Wendy and Danny are playing in the hedge maze and Jack can hear them talking from inside the Overlook -- I had seen enough. I went upstairs to Jeremy's room, listened to my new Skid Row tape, and played Wizards and Warriors on the Nintendo. Eventually, The Shining would become my favorite horror movie, but I guess I wasn't ready for it yet.
What I was ready for was some ball-busting, gritty hard rock. Skid Row (the album) remains one of my favorite debut albums of any genre. Top to bottom, it's a great record. Other than the two Top 10 ballads -- "18 and Life" and "I Remember You" (both of which are great songs, mind you) -- the album is pure energy. And I remember opening up the liner notes and seeing photos of the guys in the band. I was taken aback by the chain that went from bassist Rachel Bolan's earring to his nose ring. What if you get that caught on something?!
The first track is "Big Guns," which is a great start to the album, from the gnarly opening riff to the streetwise lyrics to the sing-along chorus. I didn't know what "Like Valentino with a hand grenade" meant (and I still don't really), but I thought (and still think) it's a cool lyric that paints a picture of whatever the hell the narrator was hoping to accomplish with this "ballerina on a subway train."
As you may have heard, the Gallagher brothers have made nice with each other (for now), and Oasis has reunited for a tour in 2025. At first, only UK and Ireland dates were announced, but earlier this week, the band announced some limited North American dates in August and September next year. Thankfully, Chicago is one of those dates. I've never seen Oasis live before, and I was lucky enough to "win" the presale lottery and then luckier enough to be relatively low in the presale virtual waiting room this afternoon. All of this is to say that I'll be seeing Oasis at Soldier Field next August on the floor, so I'm pretty excited, even if it's just under eleven months away.
In 1994, Oasis released their debut album Definitely Maybe, which went straight to #1 on the UK album chart and became the UK's fastest-selling debut album of all-time (a record the Arctic Monkeys since broke). Definitely Maybe was one of the defining albums of the '90s, kickstarting the Britpop movement, which rejected the gloom of grunge and found more positive and optimistic themes, like cigarettes and alcohol. Four songs from the album reached the Top 40 on the UK pop chart, including two Top 10 songs: "Cigarettes & Alcohol" (#7), "Live Forever" (#10), "Shakermaker" (#11), and "Supersonic" (#31). It has since maintained its status as one of the most beloved British albums ever, even beating out Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the greatest album of all-time in a 2006 NME readers poll.
The first track off of the album is the prescient "Rock 'n' Roll Star." It's almost as if Noel Gallagher could sense the trajectory of the band and wanted to put it out there front and center, so it was the first thing you heard when you popped that CD in. The song is upbeat and uptempo, representative of the hooky rock that would define the Britpop genre. I also love the chorus. It's simple, but universal: "Tonight, I'm a rock 'n' roll star." Whether or not we are actual rock and roll stars, we should all feel that way every now and then. If you haven't, I recommend getting a couple friends together, dressing up as KISS on Halloween, and going out to bars. Sure, you might accidentally drink your wife's contact lenses, but dammit, that night, you'll be a rock and roll star.
Song number two in our look at first tracks off of debut albums comes from one of my favorite bands, The White Stripes.
Like most (or so I assume), I didn't become familiar with The White Stripes until 2001 when I heard "Fell In Love With a Girl." It was a refreshing garage punk song, and there was something interesting about Jack White's voice. When Elephant came out two years later and I actually had some disposable income, I went back into their catalog and bought their first two albums.
The band's self-titled debut album came out in 1999 to positive reviews, albeit little fanfare. Thankfully, legendary BBC DJ John Peel randomly spotted it at a record store and was intrigued by the cover -- with the band's now-iconic red-white-and-a-little-black color theme -- so he bought it and started playing it on the air, helping to break the band in the UK. As we know now, the band consisted of only two people: Jack White on guitar and vocals and Meg White on drums. They were married at the time the first album came out, but divorced in 2000. Amazingly (and thankfully), they decided to continue to make music together.
The first White Stripes album is a beautiful combination of DIY punk, garage rock, and blues. At a time when rock was dominated by nu metal and post-grunge, this wasn't really like anything you'd hear on the radio. Like grunge had reinvented rock earlier in the decade, distancing itself from over-the-top glam metal, The White Stripes were on the forefront of doing the same at the end of the decade and in the early 2000s, bringing the garage back to rock. Of course, it didn't hurt that Jack White is a hell of a guitar player and songwriter with a wide range of influences. And they showed that two people can make a hell of a racket, paving the way for the likes of The Black Keys, The Kills, The Raveonettes, Death From Above 1979, Best Coast, JEFF The Brotherhood, Japandroids, Royal Blood, Black Pistol Fire, and many more great rock duos over the following couple decades.
"Jimmy the Exploder" is the first track off of their debut album, and it truly is a perfect introduction to The White Stripes. Meg starts the song of with a pounding beat before Jack comes in with a little riff, just before they break loose into the catchy main riff and bust into a frantic garage punk song. You can see why John Peel was into it.
Our first song in this Rocktober featuring first tracks from debut albums is the song that inspired the theme of this year's Rocktober: Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times."
After seminal British blues rock band The Yardbirds broke up, the other three members left guitarist Jimmy Page with the rights to the name, but with that came the band's contractual obligations, which included a tour of Scandinavia. Page was forced to bring together a new band that would perform as "The New Yardbirds." He recruited session bassist Jimmy Page and Band of Joy lead singer Robert Plant, the latter of whom recommended his bandmate, John Bonham, on drums.
With that, they toured Scandinavia as The New Yardbirds, but when they were recording an album, former Yardbirds member Chris Dreja issued a cease and desist letter to prevent them from using The New Yardbirds as their name. Thank the Rock and Roll Gods that happened because it forced them to come up with a new name. Legend has it that, upon hearing that Page and fellow former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck were considering forming a supergroup, The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle said the group would go down like a "lead balloon." Manager Peter Grant suggested they drop the "a" in "lead," and then the band changed "balloon" to "zeppelin." And Led Zeppelin was born.
Their debut album came out in January 1969, with its iconic cover featuring a photo of the Hindenburg disaster. The album pushed the blues rock sound of The Yardbirds and similar bands to a heavier place, and it's often credited as one of the first heavy metal albums (though I'm not sure I agree). However you want to categorize it, the album marked a sea change in music.
The only single released from the album was also the first track off the album, "Good Times Bad Times." Starting with Page's crunchy riff, with Bonham holding back in the background, the song announced that the "flower power" era of the '60s was coming to an end, and the era of hard rock that would last for the next several decades was here. The song is a great introduction to Led Zeppelin and the band members' talents. Page, of course, kills it on the guitar, both with the riff (written by Jones) and the solos. Jones's bass holds everything down, and he has a nice little bass fill. Bonham's bass drum triplets and fills let you know he's not your typical "hold down the beat" rock and roll drummer. Plant, while more subdued on this song than some others on the album, still shows his vocal range. And that first line just kind of grabs you: "In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man / Now I've reached that age, I've tried to do those things the best I can." We can all relate to that sentiment.
I've also always been intrigued by the line "But when I whispered in her ear, I lost another friend." The previous lines talk about being in love at 16 and a girl who swore she'd never leave. So does that mean she was the friend and he lost her because he whispered something a bit too tawdry in her ear? Or was she actually dating his friend, and he came onto her and she told her boyfriend? Was this whisper what led (pun intended, motherfuckers!) her to leave him for a brown-eyed man? These are the things that keep me up at night in Rocktober.
After eleven ho-hum months, we have reached the pinnacle of months of the year: the one, the only Rocktober!
For the prior six years, I didmy Rocktober Decade Countdown. But we've only been through less than half of the roaring '20s. So now what? Well, fair readers, I have a lot of Rocktober themes in the hopper. And yes, I have a hopper full of tennis balls with Rocktober themes written on them.
This year's theme is going to be first tracks off of debut albums. I realize that, in the streaming era, albums maybe aren't as big of a deal as they used to be, but there is still something magical about listening to an album for the first time, especially when it's a band or artist that's new to you. That first track is often your gateway to liking (or disliking) that band or artists. And there have been a lot of great first tracks off of debut albums. And there have been a lot of great bands and artists whose first track off their debut was maybe not so memorable -- and you won't hear those this Rocktober!
A couple ground rules:
1. I'm not counting EPs or singles that might have been release before a band or artist released its first full-length album.
2. I'm excluding bands or artists who only released one full-length album. Sorry, New Radicals fans.
3. If a band changed names or had some shift in members and re-formed, then I'm treating those as separate bands (for example, Ides of March into Survivor -- though rest assured, neither band will be featured).
4. To the extent there were bands who had different releases in different countries, like many British bands in the '60s, I'm going to go with the album that was released first.
As I do every October, I'm gonna give you a daily dose of rock, at least on the weekdays. There will be no repeated artists during the course of the month. I'm going to try my best not to repeat songs that I have featured in prior Rocktobers or artists, but I make no promises. As always, the week leading up to Halloween will feature songs with dark, evil, or macabre themes. And my Friday choices will, of course, be from hair bands. Retro Video of the Week will be suspended during Rocktober, but Hair Band Friday will continue because Hair Band Friday can never be stopped.
As always, remember that this is Rocktober, so these will all be bands, artists, and songs that rock, even though they may not always be from genres or artists that you would consider "rocking" or "rockers." There will be popular songs, songs that you may never had heard before, and maybe even some bands and artists you've never heard of. Rest assured, though, everything will rock.
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