#Richie Ranno

[preservationofmoments]

[rainingmusic]

Stories - Brother Louie 

[generationclash]

Retronaut Selects: Starz - Violation (1977)

I got into Violation because Starz is amazing.

My earliest memory of Violation is from about December 2011. I remember hearing “Cherry Baby” one day, but it wasn’t until a few months later that I really started checking out their stuff.

I remember in my early days of having Spotify, I used to listen to single songs of theirs instead of the albums. Once I started getting into them, I could never process how I only liked single songs.

This really sunk in when I listened to Coliseum Rock in full one day, and it changed everything.

I was no longer listening to single songs, I was living for every album.

When I got into Violation as a full album, I was into it for the entire summer. I only listened to Coliseum Rock and Violation exclusively.

Thinking back, 2012 was the year of Starz. 

It was quite a time.

Violation is a spectacle. It’s it’s own world. It’s an acknowledgement and a reflection of the world we live in. 

This world where we conform to being ordinary and we shed originality to be what the world wants us to be. 

What you find out in time, is that you have to be who you want to be, not who they want you to be.

Essential Tracks: Rock Six Times, Sing It, Shout It, S.T.E.A.D.Y. 

Listen on Spotify: Violation

[rockthedayaway]

[thefrogholler]

Musical Birthday Notes - January 21st

Musical Birthday Notes – January 21st

[earpeeler]

Rock Under Fire – Ep. 35: Richie Ranno of STARZ In Episode 35, we’re joined by legendary guitarist Richie Ranno of Starz, one of the most influential but overlooked bands of the 1970s.

[scorpionc]

Let It All Be For Me or: Attention Shoppers! (Eugeology Entry 14)

Let It All Be For Me or: Attention Shoppers! (Eugeology Entry 14)

Salutations™!!

©Capitol Records

I was really pleased with last week’s entry. That surprised a few people because they know how much I can’t stand Aerosmith. But, a good album is a good album. Jon has been traveling and Eugene has had work things to take care of. As I told them, it’s for fun. So, we’ll get their reviews in due time. Now it’s time for this week’s entry.

#14 – Attention Shoppers! by 

[aormetalrock]

Starz Hellcats - Hellcats 1/P*ss Party 1998

Starz Hellcats – Hellcats 1/P*ss Party 1998

Starz and their later incarnation Hellcats feature some great rare tarcks & cover songs. Hellcats – Starz – this is a combination CD of the very first Hellcats EP featuring Richie Ranno & Michael Lee Smith of Starz. 5 great, hard-rocking songs recorded and, originally released in 1982. This was basically the 5th Starz studio album but the band changed it’s name right before it’s release! (more…)

[recordstorefanatic-blog]

RECORDS YOU NEVER HEARD: STARZ “VIOLATION”

The idea of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is spectacular. A place of honor nestled on the picturesque banks of Lake Erie seems perfect for musicians who have formed the foundation this great genre of music. All under the roof of a spectacularly designed building. Unfortunately, the good people who choose such inductees don’t seem to know jack shit about the history of rock.

Over-hyped idiots such as Axl Rose get in their first year of eligibility when actual contributors to the art like Alice Cooper and Rush need to wait years…if not decades! When artists like Big Star, Link Wray, Television, and Yes are not in the Hall, and have NEVER been nominated! One-time nominees such as the MC5, Deep Purple (eligible 19 years before first nomination), and Rush (14 years before first nomination) are not in the Hall either…but they got Axl, even though he didn’t show up for the ceremony. Thank God for small miracles.

While the late Donna Summer (nominated five times) and Stevie Ray Vaughn will be inducted one day, there are some important groups that will never get in. Again, many of them never had a gold record, number one single, or sold out tour. Neither did Jelly Roll Morton or Alan Freed, but their contributions are obvious.

This is my nomination for one such band.

Everyone knows the song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by New Jersey band Looking Glass. After their second album failed to chart, the band reorganized as Fallen Angels. A year later, the band changed their name again to become Starz.

With the help of Kiss’ manager Bill Aucoin, Starz was signed to Capitol records in 1976 and their self-titled debut hit the stores before the end of the year. At the time, “Starz” was considered to be “arena rock” with its powerful guitars and strong vocals. Singable tunes like “Detroit Girls” and “Boys in Action” are obvious live songs, especially when you tailor the former to wherever the band is playing (the version on “Live in Action” changes the name to “Cleveland Girls”).

Sales of the first album were good, but didn’t reach Kiss or Aerosmith levels. As was the case with many bands of the era, a sophomore record would almost inevitably follow even the most lukewarm initial reception in order to build an artist’s audience, almost unheard of in today’s make-it-huge-or-lose-it industry. “Violation” followed in 1977.

Nine more arena rock songs filled the second record. Richie Ranno’s fuzzy guitar leads into the title track along and Michael Lee Smith’s vocals scream out “Subway Terror” as perfect examples of tunes designed to echo across a large venue. But it’s the first track that broke the band.

The radio friendly “Cherry Baby” hit the American charts and peaked just inside the top 40. Success of the single, available on yellow vinyl, pushed sales of “Violation” to just shy of gold record status. But the lack of top-10 singles or albums started the friction between the band and the label.

Two more albums, the polished “Attention Shoppers” (with its brown paper bag inner sleeve) and harder “Coliseum Rock” failed to top the relative success of “Violation.” After the ubiquitous live album, Starz parted ways with their label. A lack of interest in the growing “new wave” market for a hard rock band caused the call it quits in 1979.

In hind sight, Starz was the prototype for hair metal of the 1980s. Their “glam rock” style matched to their hard rock sound opened the door for such legendary bands at Bon Jovi and Poison among dozens of other acts. While fewer than a million copies of their four studio records were sold, many of them must have fallen into the right aspiring musician’s hands.

Decades later, Starz has reunited for tribute concerts. Ranno has, over the years, released records of outtakes and live material, and the idea of a collection of new music still hovers around the remaining members of the band.

If the band never releases another new album, they will forever remain one of the biggest influences on 1980s rock music. When and if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ever learns about Starz, the tribute concert will be filled with some of the most exciting performers of the hair metal age. And these beneficiaries of genre’s foundation layers should flex their industry muscles in order to put Starz in the Hall, where they belong. Until then, any hard rock act of the 1980s inducted should thank Heaven for Starz.

[preservationofmoments]

[generationclash]

Retronaut Selects: Starz - Coliseum Rock (1978)

The first two albums I'm going to dive into are going to be the two albums that expanded my mind when it comes to music taste!

The first of these two albums is Starz' 1978 masterpiece, "Coliseum Rock". 

I vividly recall sitting upstairs in our music room and I remember my dad putting on his Rykodisc edition of Coliseum Rock and I just sat there in the middle of the room and I just absorbed all of it.

I had listened to rock stuff before, but I was really starting to get into albums more than just single songs at this point in my life. I recall listening to different songs by Starz, but hearing an entire album by them changed things. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before.

I didn't realize how much of an effect it would have on me, because once I got into them, it was a whirlwind. I was in full Starz obsession mode and it was amazing.

What really gets me about Coliseum Rock is that it's a journey. You hear all these elements of life and doing what you love and what comes with it. You get this freedom, but then real life settles in too and it's a lot to make sense of.

When I was 12 getting into this stuff, they were just a band that was unlike any other to me. I didn't really think about a lot of lyrics until I was older because I was always focused the tempo of the music over the message being conveyed.

Coliseum Rock is such an adventure and it has such an accurate title because this is music that is meant to played to a stadium full of people. There's so much to this album from how musicially fantastic it is and how real it is too.

I'll leave you with one of the many fantastic lyrics from that album, "Take it all to the top with no regrets."

Essential Tracks: Take Me, Last Night I Wrote A Letter, It’s A Riot

Listen on YouTube: Coliseum Rock

[rockthedayaway]

[earpeeler]

Rock Under Fire TV – Ep. 35: Richie Ranno of STARZ

Rock Under Fire TV – Ep. 35: Richie Ranno of STARZ

In Episode 35, we’re joined by legendary guitarist Richie Ranno of Starz, one of the most influential but overlooked bands of the 1970s. We discuss Ranno’s career before, during, and after the first incarnation of Starz as well as bands that followed such as Hellcats, the Richie Ranno Group, and his current projects, one of which is the ongoing existence of Starz. Our “What’s Going On” segment…

[earlydaysofkerrang]

[rockthedayaway]

[generationclash]

Retronaut Selects: Starz - Attention Shoppers! (1978)

I first got into Attention Shoppers! a few years ago and it was an album that took me some time to get into, because I heard it out of order.

You see, the version I knew was the Metal Blade CD edition which was the second half the album first, and the first half of the album second.

It always hit me weird, because it was strange to hear it that way.

When I heard the Rykodisc pressing, the track listing was the original order and it made sense. The album hit me in a different way and I really loved it.

Everyone always considers this album to be the “different” Starz album, and they panned it...but I think that it’s an amazing album because it’s different.

It’s such a fascinating listen and I listen to it more than ever now, and I think it’s my favorite...but that’s always gonna be a hard decision because I love Starz way too much to play favorites. I love all their stuff for different reasons.

Essential Tracks: Hold On To The Night, Don’t Think, Good Ale We Seek

Listen Here: Attention Shoppers!