This is a monster set with the music of so many people’s lives and memories that it can be hard to turn down Bret Michaels when you see the infomercial for this monster collection advertised on any number of stations late at night. The question is; is this monster collection with 8 Cd cases and 2 video’s worth the price of owning? After listening to many hours of music and watching 2 DVD’s I do think I may have the answer for you!
Inside the ultra cool packaging is a relative smorgasbord of some of the greatest Rock ‘N’ Roll tunes from the late 70’s to the early 90’s. Each Cd has a title based on a song by a band which is to set the theme and tone for that Cd. What is very cool is that in each collection next to the song, it gives the original label that the artist recorded the song on, and how high the song charted on the Billboard Charts! For useless information junkie and trivia addict I thought that was a really cool and cleaver idea. Each Cd also has a write up by Abba Biographer Carl Magnus Palm. It gives a sneak peek into some of the songs, and some small facts about selected songs from each Cd. What I didn’t get was why they chose an Abba expert for a collection that is mainly Rock to Hard Rock; but it is well written, and he does have a nice writing style, and some interesting facts about some of the bands he wrote about. It is a nice touch to this monster sized collection.
The collection has the 8 Cd cases, with the Power Ballad Cd containing 2 Cd’s. Though all the Cd’s have some great music on them, and while I agree with many of the songs chosen for each collector Cd, I think that some songs could have been replaced with other songs from different bands. The first Cd is “Lay It Down” Which should really kick things off with a major WOW, started a pattern I noticed through much of the collection. Many of these songs are a must for this collection; with “Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy” by Bad Company being the lead track fits right in, along with a couple great Alice Cooper tunes “Eighteen” and “Schools Out”, “Burnin’ For You” by the great Blue Oyster Cult and “I Wanna Rock” by Twisted Sister being just a few of the songs for the first part of the collection. What I didn’t quite get was why Enuff Z’ Nuff and Honeymoon Suite where included on this set, they may have been better served on a different disk. The 2nd Cd “Nothin but a Good Time” based on the Poison song is a good Cd. With songs included by Dio “Rainbow In The Dark”, Heart’s “Never”, even some Billy Squier coming in with the early 80’s teen girl fantasy “The Stroke” where I can still envision him dancing around in super tight jeans and my friends and I falling in love with the songs he sand and the guy on the screen. Every song is a feel good fun song; but I question if you can consider The Tubes song “She’s A Beauty” Hard ‘N’ Heavy. The 3rd Cd called “Bang Your Head” and the giant hit for Quiet Riot is a good Cd minus “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. It is a good song, with a catchy hook; but a head-banging song; I don’t think so. You will also find “Cat Scratch Fever” form the great Ted Nugent there along with “Magic Man” from Heart, “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest as well as another good 8 songs that when I think of banging my head, I can actually do it. Cd 4 is named “Rock You like a Hurricane” by the German Super-group The Scorpions. I had high hopes for this Cd; but about 3 or 4 of the songs just did nothing for me, then or now; like (Can’t Live without Your) “Love and Affection” by Nelson. Besides the few missed opportunities on this Cd, like putting in some Motley Crue or Gun’s N’ Roses, it is a decent Cd in this collection, but not the best of the bunch... I loved many of the songs including: “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman –Turner Overdrive, “Never Enough” by LA Guns and “Nobody’s Fool” by Cinderella. The “Shout It Out Loud” Cd number 5, almost hit a homerun, most of the songs and artist really put you in a great party mood and the classic Kiss song sets the tone for a group of songs including the Queensryche song “Jet City Woman”, “Rock The Night” by Europe, and you can even sing “Promises in the Dark” by Pat Benatar at the top of your lungs. Again to me a song or two seemed a bit out of place including the Beatles like “All the Young Dudes”, but for the most part it was a Cd that you can really get into and sing at the top of your lungs; even if you don’t have a Rock Stars vocal ability. When I saw the title to the 6th Cd “Talk Dirty to Me” the #9 Billboard hit song from Poison; I thought that the songs should be hot, sexy and filled with lustful lyrics was also a pretty decent collection; yet again, they did seem to get confused when compiling this one. Though I love the Beastie Boys song “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right to Party” a song about well partying; this as song was a strange choice that should have been on the “Nothin but A Good Time” Cd, since it had nothing to do with lust, love or breaking up. While the rest of the songs main theme where about love and lust and all that goes with Rock and Roll Love songs, it does range from hard hitting tempos as heard in Ratt’s “Round a Round” to some slower but still mildly hard hitting songs such as “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger. A sucker for lustful love songs, this is one of my favorite Cd’s in the collection, though I do wish “Cherry Pie” by Warrant was included in place of the “We’re not Gonna Take it” The great Twisted Sister song; again the vibe and songs are right, some just seem placed in the wrong place, with bands that should be included totally excluded. The 7th disc “Up All Night” the Slaughter song is pretty tight, and I found “Cherry Pie” there which should have been on disk 6, hits pretty well with a collection of 18 songs that most people that are now around 35-50 probably did stay up all night partying to. The only song that seemed misplaced a bit is “Juke Box Hero” by Foreigner their #26 charting hit. Which could have found a better home for this set; this set of songs is Rockin’ and great if you want or need to be kept amped up ALL NIGHT LONG! The final Cd which has two discs is the Power Ballad double Cd set. This two set collection is most consistent collection for its theme of the impressive collection. It conjures up pain and heartbreak for almost everyone who has ever had their heart broken, fallen in love, or is just a romantic rocker at heart. The two Cd’s have 26 song in all; with some of the highlights being songs like Extreme’s “More Than Words”, “To Be With You” by Mr. Big, Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” and of course likely one of the best known and most loved power ballad of its generation “Every Rose Has its Thorn” by Poison. Even though some songs may sound iffy when you see the title and artist, if you haven’t heard the song in awhile and you start listening it is sure to conjure memories of your youth and early adulthood when every song meant something to you and heartbreak and love were intensified. I do think they could have added “Every Breath You Take” by the Police and a few other songs, but you can’t have it all. When I looked at the labels that the entire collection came from; most came from Epic, BMI, Warner, Atlantic, and a few others. It did make me wonder if some songs and artist were left off because their labels wouldn’t release the rights, or just didn’t wish to be part of this MONSTER collection of music. The majority of songs on Hard + Heavy do deserve a spot in this massive collection; but a bit more artist diversity would have been incredible.
The set also includes two DVD’s. One is done by the infomercial’s spokesman Brett Michaels. I found this DVD to be very entertaining and easily understood why they chose him to be the spokesperson for Hard + Heavy. Though his fame factor is very high right now; a large reason he makes a great spokesperson is the fact that he is very relatable and human. In this DVD he does 4 acoustic versions of songs he has written and sung in the past. Before each song he would give the back-story on where he was when he wrote the song, what was going on in his life and instead of most celebrity endorsements or even video like settings, you can really feel the emotion of the stories he was telling and sitting on a stool alone with his guitar it is very obvious that Brett is very human. He wears his music and feelings on his sleeve; during the story and performance of the hit song”Something to Believe in” about the death of a good friend; he was visibly emotional. His love for music and feelings about losing his friend could be felt through the screen, as his sky blue eyes seemed to tear up a bit during the storytelling portion and singing of the song. There was no sign of arrogance at all throughout this 40 minute DVD; just Brett telling the stories behind the four songs and being true to himself (if you wish to know all the songs, purchase the set). The video did have some extras as well, while they did not show the infomercial itself, they did have clips of the making of it. They showed where and how him and his co-stars, two beautiful but very attainable co-hosts Stacy Hayes and Lesi Matta, would move (blocking), talk and say there lines. It was a nice behind the scenes way of how everything you see in movies and TV are made without being boring or too technical, which is important. Also part of the DVD, was some pictures of stills from the shoot with Brett taking still photos together with the cast and crew of the infomercial, again the personality that has made him a sensation once again was apparent; you could just from a photo see how much Brett loves people in general and how and why people are finding him to be so appealing. Though rather short, this DVD gave the viewer 4 great solo performances and entertaining bonus footage. The entire cast and crew did a really great job on this DVD titled Hard + Heavy Confidential Featuring Brett Michaels.
The other DVD “The History of Rock ‘N’ Roll” was two different actual rock documentaries which were made in 1995 and narrated by Gary Busey. The first of the two documentaries was aptly titled “Guitar Hero’s”. Much of this video I have seen clips of or may have even seen in full in the past. It was at times refreshing especially when they paid tribute to the two main men responsible for inventing the electric guitar Les Paul and Leo Fender. Though Les Paul is actually in this documentary and thus gets mentioned more it is a great homage to both men’s brilliance and how because of them Rock ‘N’ Roll as we know it is such a huge part of our culture. Even though I felt this documentary dragged on at times (just like this review), it was interesting to see where some of the top guitarists in the world got their inspiration and who influenced them. There were also pre-MTV clips of many of the artists doing what they do best; play the electric guitar and see many of these great guitarist evolution over the years. At times there were also some memorable lines and quotes, if you had never seen this documentary before and love guitar players this first documentary and it’s extra full live performances is really worth your time.
The second documentary also made in 1995 and narrated by Gary Busey was a quicker moving and more entertaining for a general audience. In this documentary called “The 70’s: Have A Nice Day”, it was at times a love fest and a bitching post for music (disco) and even Pete Townshend of The Who spouting off about how he believes Led Zeppelin is overrated, which actually came across as more jealousy than anything else. It was interesting to watch how some major acts of the 70’s like Kiss, David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, Alice Cooper and Queen paved the way for the Glam Rock of the 80’s; with their make-up and huge arena shows. They did show clips of various musicians even the Village People performing YMCA and some old wise tales like Alice Cooper biting the head off a chicken at one of his earlier live shows that are now part of music legend. Peter Frampton and several other musicians talking about how his Breakthrough album Frampton Live was one of the first albums to go multi-platinum and make history all over the world; and how it amazes him that that album is one of the best selling albums ever and how fleeting fame can be. I don’t want to give too much away; but this portion of the 120 minute DVD is entertaining, informative and interesting with some great bonus features which include short interviews with Eddie Van Halen, Santana and Jimmy Page talking about their own Guitar Hero’s, musical influences and lives.
So while both the Cd set and the DVD “The History of Rock ‘N’ Roll” can be either musically misplaced as I wrote in the Cd review or a bit lengthy in the “Guitar Hero’s” part of its DVD, the price tag is well worth the cost of the music and the music history that is a must for young and old Rock ‘N’ Roll lovers. I do think for most people who would purchase a collection like this it would be worth their money and to make sure you can visit www.timelife.com. If you wish you can go even further than this $119.96 collection. Also if you can’t afford the cost of the entire thing up front it can be broken down into payments up on your credit card. To add to this already humongous collection you can purchase the extended 17 disk collection which includes an additional 8 Cd’s called “Legends”, which includes songs from mainly the late 70’s and Early 80’s and includes such music legends as: Bruce Springsteen, Steppenwolf, Santana, Queen and many more. The cost of the added Cd’s is $219.92
Here are a few websites with more info on this, must have Cd collection!
