Who's That Bart?!?

Clive Burr’s career (as far as I know)

Before his Maiden days, I think Clive appeared on two Samson singles. Mr. Rock and Roll and Telephone.

His career in Maiden is obviously well documented, as is his unceremonious firing.

From there it is a bit hard to sequence properly, but I’ll give it a shot.

He recorded an album with Trust. It was a self-titled album, and the original release was in French. There was also an English version called Man’s Trap. It is believed that it is Clive on this recording, but he is not credited on the album.

Next was the Gogmagog experiment. Gogmagog was supposed to be a metal super group, but for some reason it fell flat. It was Paul Dianno, Jannick Gers, Pete Willis, Neil Murray and Clive. They recorded a three track single that was pretty good, but that was it.

After that he formed Clive Burr’s Escape with the guys from Praying Mantis. They recorded some demos that were never released until Praying Mantis released the a few years ago as part of the Demorabilia package. The band changed their name to Stratus, and released one album called Throwing Shapes. Stratus and the Escape demos were very Journey like. Not too heavy, kind of commercial. Hearing it today it is very dated 1980’s pop metal. Really not terrible, but not good either. I also believe that Stratus recorded a song for a movie and it was on the soundtrack, but I’ve never heard it. “The Class of Nuke ‘Em High” or some such nonsense.

After Stratus fell apart it gets fuzzy. I think he hooked up with Desperado in the late 1980’s. Their one album, Bloodied But Unbowed was pretty good. Dee Snider and Bernie Torme both sounded good on the album. It had a southern feel to it, but it was heavy enough. I think this band could have developed nicely if the recorded and toured together for a few years, but it was no meant to be I guess.

In 1990, Clive appeared as a session drummer for the band Elixir on their album Lethal Potion. In my opinion this was the highlight of his post Maiden career as this is a good late term NWOBHM album.

Shortly there after he toured with Praying Mantis while their regular drummer was recovering from an injury. Mantis recorded a live album with Clive called Captured Alive in Tokyo City. Not too bad. I really am not a Mantis fan, but I have the single CD, coz Clive is on it.

Then he appeared on an album by True Brits called Ready to Rumble. Clive appears on about half the songs. I really didn’t care for it as it has a glam metal sound to it.

I think that’s it. If my sequence is out of order or I missed anything please let me know.

Blame it on the Truth That Ran Us Down

Bruce Springsteen is an interesting guy. I have to admit I hate his politics. I pretty much hate anyone with extreme politics (except Ann Coulter, for a variety of reasons) especially if they are entertainers. Some blowhard conservative pundit (I don’t remember which one – but it was not Ann) once wrote a book called “Shut Up and Sing”. I agree with that sentiment, especially when it comes to Bruce.

Now unlike many who feel Bruce is too extreme politically, I really have not noticed it that much in his songs. Every now and then he’ll do something ridiculous like “41 Shots”, but that’s OK. Also. I feel that his more recent material is just as good as his old stuff. I am not too crazy about the violin use on The Rising, but it’s tolerable.

So, Bruce has a new album due out this month called Devils and Dust. I really hope this is not an over the top political commentary. Some pundits feel that The Ghost of Tom Joad was that. I do not agree, I think TGoTJ is a really good album, a lot like Nebraska. Granted, there is an underlying sense of dissatisfaction, but the songs are based on the characters in the songs, and not on the politics of the day. As long as Bruce continues to write about people and their demons and problems he’s OK in my book.

I recently put together a Springsteen mix CD. I think this illustrates his great career quite well.

My Love Will Not Let You Down
Night
Downbound Train
Trapped (Live)
4th of July, Asbury Park (Live)
Candy’s Room
Tougher Than the Rest (Live)
Lost in the Flood
Open All Night
Youngstown
Further on Up the Road
Backstreets
Tunnel of Love
Wreck on the Highway
Land of Hope and Dreams (Live)
My Beautiful Reward