A strange affair my car stereo is at the minute. Have got G'n'R's new album 'Chinese Democracy' sitting next door to UFOs live class 'Strangers in the Night' sitting next to 'Appetite for Destruction'. And regardless of the naysayers and knockers they're all classic albums. Chinese Democracy has been slagged off left, right and centre but you got to listen to it a few times to get it. If every track was just like 'Better' you'd get it straight away but they're not - it's a wierd album that grows. Okay it took a ridiculous amount of time to produce, okay there's only Axl from original lineup, yes there's a million guitarists on every track and hundreds of layers, overdubs and loops all over it but it's brilliant - it's a modern day masterpiece that deserves more than a cursory listen.
If you want to hear a classic live album; get your lugoles wrapped around 'Strangers in the Night'. Phil Mogg's crew with the classic Schenker lineup were short-lived, underated but absolutely as tight as it gets as live performers. You sense from this album that they were on a mission to prove something over headliners Blue Oyster Cult (who were in the multi-changer until a few weeks ago), slagging the p.a. company and the licensing laws off from track to track. Schenker's guitar work is something else on this album, when he left I don't think UFO were ever the same and I reckon he lost something too. What knocks my socks off about this album is how tight they were - no bum notes, never a beat missed, sharp ending, note-perfect solos the works.
Apparently, Slash the former G'N'R' axe-hero cites 'Strangers' as his favourite live album and the wierd thing is you can spot similarities - G'N'R's 'Rocket queen' shares something with the intro to 'Light's out' which is great.
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