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Bryan Adams – Live At The Royal Albert Hall

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What does it sound like?:

Adams releases have been consistent if not prolific across 43 years – 18 studio, 6 live and 2 soundtrack albums plus no less than 75 singles, along with a prodigious amounts of touring (2 years on “Reckless” alone). My own relationship with his music has been somewhat binary – “Reckless” is one of 3 cds I purchased the day as I bought a cd player, and one I still play (stream) to this day. Rockers like “Long Gone” and “The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You” have appeared on almost every playlist I’ve ever made. In contrast “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” is one of only two songs (the other being “Love Is All Around) I had to insist were not played at my wedding, it’s simpering tweeness just too much to bear.

Always the down to earth blue collar guy, his music was more muscular than Johnny Cougar, less bouffant than Bon Jovi, and more accessible / radio friendly than Springsteen. Adams found a formula quite early on of making albums that mixed catchy rockers with lovelorn ballads with the multiple singles culled from each cross promoting the albums and live work. There are three albums presented in full here, recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall last year starting with his breakout album “Cuts Like A Knife”, but then skipping “Reckless” and jumping to “Into The Fire” and “Waking Up The Neighbours”. The recording of “Knife” was self released on Adams own label in download only format to coincide with it’s 40th anniversary. This is now combined with “Fire” and “Neighbours” in physical CD and vinyl format. Curiously, only “Neighbours” was performed in front of an audience – the other two albums being recoded with the band standing in a circle, facing each other, the (huge) auditorium empty.

“Cuts Like A Knife” was Adams breakout album and 40 years on it stands up well. “Take Me Back” has acres of swagger and snarl, before dropping quickly into the bouncy “This Time”, replete with sing along chorus and the jangly breakdown over snare rimshots. The songs flow thick and fast, “I’m Ready” and “What’s It Gonna Be” advanced from the original album running order so that the set closes with the acoustic “Straight From The Heart”, the song which gave Adams his first chart success in Canada. Standout track for me is “Don’t Leave Me Lonely”, a song written with Kiss drummer Eric Carr that made it ono “Knife” after Kiss cut it from “Creatures of the Night”.

“Into The Fire” starts with the title track, with the ride cymbal and a crunchy guitar the bed for an unusually strident Adams vocal. It has a similar feel to “Heat of the Night” which follows- bold, sweeping, anthemic but trying just a bit too hard. Having had a smash hit with “Reckless” there’s a sense of the songs trying to be both the same but a bit different, ruminating about finding love, losing love, dancing and drinking, and fighting. “Another Day” works well live as high tempo shuffle before “Native Son” takes us back to the jangling and rimshots (see also “Run To You” where it was done much better). “Only The Strong Survive”, slide guitar laden and an all out rocker provides the highpoint, whilst “He’s A Rebel” invokes “Piano Man” era Billy Joel.

“Neighbours” gets a bit of a lift from having a crowd present and there’s some Adams banter about catching mice and drinking tea. “Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya?” is an OK medium paced opener that’s lifted by some nifty guitar work but things really pick up with “Hey Honey I’m Packing You In” which is such a close relative of Sir Rodney’s “Hot Legs” I nearly rang social services. “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started” is a chugfest with monster hook, defying you to sit still as you listen. Of course there are the lighters in the air ballads – now mobile phone torches aloft, health and safety y’know – such as “Do I Have To Say The Words” and “Depend On Me” which leave me unmoved. As with “Knife” Adams changes the playing order so that the multi multi platinum “Everything I Do” closes the set rather than appear four songs from the end. And I’m surprised to say that despite my previous visceral dislike of the song, this version is actually pretty good. Yes, there’s the inevitable sing along but at nearly double the length of the original, two quite splendid guitar workouts lend an edge and dynamic that elevates the song significantly.

The 3 albums are crisply recorded and the live format allows some nifty guitar work from Keith Scott that give the rockers more heft. The absence of “Reckless” may be down to the extent to which songs from the album featured on previous live offerings. More likely however is that the 3 nights he played at the Royal Albert Hall in October of this year, which featured “Reckless”, “18 Till I Die and “So Happy It Hurts” will now get the same treatment.

What does it all *mean*?

I don’t know. But what I do know is that Adams takes a mean snap, and has royalty in his portfolio. And he sang backing vocals for Motley Crue on their “Dr Feelgood” album. From Brenda to Nikki Sixx in two steps.

Goes well with…

A Bud and a burrito

Release Date:

Dec 8th

Might suit people who like…

Robin Hood

4

Comments

  1. Great review.

    When I was at University I had the mixed fortune to be close friends with a guy who was literally a Bryan Adams superfan. He owned every album and single ever made. He collected bootlegs. He had seen him live dozens of times. Eventually he would get engaged at a Bryan Adams concert.

    At one stage I lived with this individual, and as a consequence of his endless proselyting he slowly converted the rest of the household into fellow Adams fans, myself excluded (I was still in my “proper music” phase back then, and looked down on the Adams oeuvre from a lofty peak).

    As a consequence of the above, I believe I have heard virtually every Bryan Adams song ever released up until the turn of the Millennium, often in multiple forms (demo, live, etc). These included such monstrosities as “We’re Gonna Win” (for which the term “half-assed” does insufficient injustice), and “I Wanna Be Your Underwear”, the lyrics of which can render a person impotent at 50 yards.

    In amongst this Adamsfest there were a small number of gems. The obvious Run To You is a banger, although I would never have admitted as much at the time. Summer of 69 is pretty undeniable. Everything I Do is obviously the subject of mass aversion therapy, but underneath all that there is a fairly brilliant power ballad that goes about its business with aplomb.

    But the one which took me by surprise and upon which I look most favourably is this live rendition of When The Night Comes, in which the audience end by singing the song right back at the self-styled Groover From Vancouver (ick).

    It’s actually quite lovely, and relatively gentle by the standards of Adams. Anyway, I thought I’d post it here because it’s a happy memory and – let’s face it – this is the only time I’ll get the excuse.

    • Run to You and 69, along with the Mel C-tactic When You’re Gone, are the ones most of us couldn’t resist tapping a foot to, even if Run To You starts with the worst bit of pronoun abuse since English Rose.

      • Unfortunately, When You’re Gone was released during the co-habitation phase, and as a consequence I experienced it as a resident of Guantanamo Bay might have experienced Enter Sandman. Which is to say I still flinch when the opening bars are played.

  2. It’s a tough job, but i commend you. Being a fan of an unfashionable act requires dedication, and I think every one of us here is a fan of someone who another may regard as “uncool”, but carry on, regardless. Sharing the enthusiasm and seeing the good in another’s enthusiasm is what this place is all about. It’s opened me to a number of bands I was previously pissy about.

  4. Having seem him live a couple of times, I can confirm that does put on a good turn. Good rockers, well-turned ballads, and all points in between, performed by a band as tight as a, erm, drum. And for a multimillionaire hitmaker turned snapper to the stars, Adams still comes across as a down to earth chap.

    I’d snap up this release if it included Reckless – Run to You is still an absolute stormer – but it sounds like I’ll have to wait for that.

  5. Reckless is a power pop classic, with some of the greatest recorded guitar tones of the 80s (apparently Vox amps cranked all the way). It’s production remained a benchmark for American rock for the next decade, for better or worse. He’s a fine example of an artist who had one great moment in them.

    I remember being hugely disappointed by Into the Fire at the time, and I suspect its relative failure led to him taking the path he has taken the last few decades. I may give it another listen as it’s likely there is something there that my 15 year-old ears missed.

    Regarding Adams live, what you are going to hear is immaculately recreated versions of the album cuts. He’s not an artist who is going to reinvent his catalogue in any interesting ways, so I’m not sure why the purpose of this is. He seems like a nice guy and I’ll always love him for the hours I spent listening to Reckless through headphones in 1984.

  6. Don’t Leave Me Lonely was my entry point, a great track.

    Reckless followed and I saw him at Hammy Odeon in 1985, a great gig, row 10!

    Then kind of fell away but saw him again at Wembley Stadium (1991/2 I think) with Squeeze as one of the support bands.

    Thanks for posting this as I need to re-connect with some great tunes from my younger days.

  7. Saw him in 87 for the Into the Fire tour, down in Brighton – excellent.

    Then in 1990 I served him in the Farnham Sainsbury’s, where he was accompanied by what might be described as the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in real life.

    He wanted a pawpaw.

  9. Loved Reckless but the follow up Into The Fire was a bit of a let down. Had high hopes for the next one, the Mutt Lange produced Waking Up The Neighbours, but it ended up sounding like Def Leppard without Def Leppard. If I remember correctly an album’s worth of material written with long time collaborator Jim Vallance and produced by Steve Lillywhite was scrapped in the interim.
    By the way, there will be another RAH residency in May 2024 featuring 18 Till I Die, So Happy
    It Hurts and of course Reckless.

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