What does it sound like?:
A year ago Adams released a live 3 album retrospective which pulled together “Cuts Like A Knife”, “Into The Fire” and “Waking Up The Neighbours”, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. He broke the chronology as “Reckless” was skipped, but even before the det was released, Adams was back at the RAH to give “Reckless”, “18 ‘Til I Die” and his most recent studio release “So Happy It Hurts” the same treatment.
Available as 3 CDs or 4 LPs, there’s also a blu ray of each concert. I’ve bought a great many concert DVDs and watched them very little but, in this case, I found myself preferring them to the identical audio versions. “Reckless” is up first, and the band emerge from moody backstage monochrome onto a full colour stage, although the band are all decked out in black, white sneaker laces the only offset. Adams continues to sport a retro slicked back haircut and an equally vintage Gibson ES-295 and is in fine vocal form throughout.
Although Adams is reprising previous releases, he changes the playing order and here throws in tracks that didn’t make the original. He restores the song “Reckless” that rather bizarrely was cut from the album of the same name – it finally featured on the 30th Anniversary set – along with “Let Me Down Easy”. Amongst the other links to the original are guitarist Keith Scott, drummer Pat Steward and in the crowd, co-writer Jim Vallance.
I should declare at the outset that I’ve always loved “Reckless”. It yielded 7 Billboard top 20 singles and was packed with straight ahead, pretention free rockers that always had a clear pop sensibility. It’s no surprise therefore that it also makes for a banging live set which at just under an hour is 20 minutes longer than the original.
The first 5 tracks provide knockout after knockout. “One Night Love Affair” is followed by “Somebody”, “Reckless”, “Run To You” and “Kids Wanna Rock”. There are singalongs, punchy feedback from Adam’s, twin Strats on “Run To You”, tastefully judged guitar pyrotechnics from Scott and a crowd going ape shit. Rimshot heavy “Heaven” allows everyone to catch a breath, as does an acoustic “Let Me Down Easy” before the musical mayhem returns with “She’s Only Happy When She’s Dancing”, “It’s Only Love”, and the chugging “Long Gone”, an absolute all time favourite of mine. Unfortunately, it loses some beef when Adams stops playing guitar to provide the harmonica break, but his guitar interplay with Scott at the end almost makes up for it. A manic “Ani’t Gonna Cry” followed by “Summer of 69” and it’s goodnight London.
According to the backstage clock it’s 19:38, and the “18 Til I Die” set kicks off with the title track as a huge singalong, followed by the chirpy “Do To You” (which always makes me think of “Whatcha Gonna Do About It”). “Lets Make A Night To Remember” puts the crowd center stage again before the less than subtle “I Wanna Be Your Underwear” picks up the pace. “Star” dials things down again and hundreds of phone torch lights are held aloft.
Record sales tell a different story, but I felt Adams was never able to make another album with the song writing quality of “Reckless”, but that might be because I was never much of a fan of his ballads and mid-tempo stuff of which became his primary cash maker and makes up half the show here. It’s lower energy than “Reckless”, more so as the rocky “Black Pearl” is omitted. Original album opener and stone cold classic “The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me” is pushed to second to last and shows Adams could still write an out and out rocker. The set closes with the flamenco infused “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” which I’m sorry to say (as is the case with “Everything I Do”) always gets me reaching for the forward button.
“So Happy It Hurts” is Adams celebration of surviving the Covid pandemic, and opening with “Kick Ass” he returns to his rock roots, which carries over into the up tempo “On The Road” and “Just About Gone”. “I’ve Been Looking For You” takes the band into rockabilly territory with Scott switching to a Les Paul and bassist Sol Walker taking stage center with a stand up bass. It’s a welcome change of direction, although “Never Gonna Rain” is the clear stand out track thanks to the London Community Gospel choir lifting proceedings to a whole new level. “I Ain’t Worth Shit “Without You” is a solid rocker but there’s another moody close with Adams alone on stage signing “These Are The Moments That Make Up My Life”.
The visuals are down to music video and film director Dick Carruthers whose previous work includes “Bridges To Babylon”, “Celebration Day” and “Live And Dangerous”. He makes generous use of multiple cameras and it gives the performance a sense of pace and energy without feeling gimmicky. We get close ups of Scott’s fretboard, floor level shots of the band from the side and the back, views from the auditorium front, middle and back, plus the nosebleed seats some of us will have endured over the years plus dozens of crowd shots and even the ubiquitous look through a lofted iPhone screen.
Finally, a live concert DVD I’ll play more than once, and in “Reckless” one of the best live recordings around.
What does it all *mean*?
Fun trivia fact – “Run To You” was written at the request of producer Bruce Fairburn for inclusion on Blue Öyster Cult’s “Revolution By Night”. Although it has a distinct “Reaper” vibe (or perhaps because of it) Cult passed, as did 38 Special. It ended up giving Adams a platinum single in the UK.
Goes well with…
A Pabst Blue Ribbon and loaded nachos
Release Date:
This week
Might suit people who like…
Pabst Blue Ribbon and loaded nachos
I bought Reckless when it came out, and absolutely loved the album. He was an unknown in Australia before this album, and I distinctly remember proselytising its virtues to an indifferent second form. That was also the year I started playing guitar, and I literally broke the tape trying to figure out the parts. I was excited for his next album (Into the Fire) but it dropped like a stink bomb. We then had Robin Hood and a bunch of soppy ballads and I rinsed him from my mind.
Cue forward to last year and there was a two-disc anniversary edition for cheap in an Op shop. I bought it for nostalgia, and it didn’t disappoint. It genuinely is a virtual Greatest Hits, and the production is superb. The guitars sound just as I remembered them. The live disc that came with it from 1985 is fantastic as well: he genuinely is a superb performer.
This is one of those instances where I think location matters: like Tom Petty, Bryan Adams doesn’t make much sense in the gloom of the UK, where it was all mopey, angular synth pop. But to a young kid in the Australian summer over Christmas 1984, this was what melodic rock music was all about.
Reckless is a very good album. He’s not remotely fashionable or indeed reckless.
Did anyone shout out for Too be Young (is to be Sad, is to be High) during the gig?
Reckless was the first album I bought that wasn’t a compilation – so basically the first record whose title didn’t start ‘Now that’s what I call music Vol…’. I guess I was 12. I loved it briefly but soon went indie and prejudice kicked in (though to be fair he soon made it pretty easy to be prejudiced against him. So many bloody ballads.). So much so that I barely recognize the song titles mentioned above let alone remember what they sounded like (honourable exceptions to Run to You and Summer of 69). But I’ve still got it somewhere so I’ll give it another go.
Reporting back after the first listen after many many years. Reckless is dreadful I’m afraid (IMO of course). As others say below Summer of 69 is a great, great song, but the rest not even close. Actually painful. As a child of the 80s I’m a sucker for most 80s sounds, but clearly not for 80s rawk.
Summer of 69 is brilliant in every way.
Yes I absolutely love it – the video is brilliant too.
The failing of Summer of 69 is that Bryan Adams would’ve been 9 years old, which brings into doubt the autobiographical detail of the lyric
I thought it was widely assumed to be a sexual reference.
Indeed, but I’m ignoring that in a vain attempt to be amusing
According to Adams it is. According to co-writer Vallance it isn’t.
I’d go with who wrote the lyrics.
Summer of 69 is a great song but for me his only great song. Saw him live as the guest of a company I was working with. He is a good live performer but his records are not for me I am afraid.
Run to You is good
It is. It’s an excellent song.
I would agree with you on this – I taped it off the radio back in 1984 and it sounded good, regardless of the poor sound quality recording.
It is very nearly as brilliant as Summer Of 69.
For me superior
That cover is absolutely terrifying, it really scares me to the core for some reason.
It’s the nose that gets me.
yes. There’s something… unintended, about how that looks.
I was going to make a joke about Glory Days but then I remembered that was Springsteen.
Oh! It’s a nose?
Ah yes, Run to You. It is, along with English Rose, a song I can never for its egregious pronoun abuse.
@Leffe-gin
At least we now know how many arseholes it will take to fill the Albert Hall…
Ooooh, sharp! In fact that cuts like a knife.
Has it got Firecracker on it?
Show that man out and give him a refund
This album cover is absolutely classic. It’s like something out of Hellraiser – imagine that showing up at your bedroom window in the wee small hours.
It could only be worse if it was combined with THAT Elton John cover (Wonderful Crazy Night).
Or maybe that one with the Millie Jackson on the bog.
(as an aside, that’s such a cliche – people haul that up as ‘did she know what she looked like, the idiot?!? – and hence are completely ignorant of her onstage persona which was even cruder than this, and deliberately so.
Thank God she and GG Allin never did an album together.
If you can look at the cover without thinking of the Mole Man from the Fantastic Four comics, then you’re a bigger intellectual than I am.
If you have access to Sky Arts in the UK, all 3 concerts are being shown on Friday Dec 27, followed by AC/DC, Eric Clapton and an Overdrive free Bachman and Turner.