Wednesday
Sep052012
Richie Sambora, 'Every Road Leads Home To You'
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 12:01AM
Aftermath of the Lowdown is Richie Sambora's third solo album. The new record comes out Sept. 18. The album is Sambora's first new solo effort in 14 years, and it paints a raw picture of his life.
"Every Road Leads Home to You" is the first single from Aftermath of the Lowdown and the rocker just released a video to support the tune. It's pretty awesome. I can't wait for Sept. 18th!.
Reader Comments (14)
Regardless, there's no denying the trilogy of Desmond Child penned hits "Slippery When Wet" yielded them stand as some of the best music to go down in The Hair Metal History Books.
But this new solo effort just duzn't stack up, unfortunately. Even those classic cuts suffer from toned down guitars and this continues the trend. Why Sambora, who seems to be a very talented guitarist, goes along with the big mixdown, instead of really showcasing his guitar skills has baffled me for years.
It's a little challenging to tell how good he actually is since the beginning decades ago, as his guitars are always so down in the mix, but there's enough evidence you can piece together song to song over the years to bear out his talents.
However, that said, listen to "Every Road Leads To You" all the way through and the listener gets a little present from Sambora. For the last several seconds, just long enough to want more, we finally and quite unexpectadly get the "REAL" Sambora with all the overproduction stripped away from the song as we are treated to the raw story Allyson longs for. It makes us yearn for an album that really would lay bare his personal struggles over the last several years.
But what a treat we do hear despite my harsh critique -- the end is worth the wait as we are graced by Sambora's true voice accompanied by nothing more than his beautiful acoustic guitar. That ending makes you yearn for more and I actually wish Sambora would put out an all acoustic version. That could get picked up and turned into a hit if he were to release it. The L.A. Times said yesterday that if "Every Road Leads To You" got misfiled under Coldplay or Arcade Fire, the critics would be gushing over it and it would get wide exposure on what's left of radio. Instead, it will more than likely, and unfortunately for Sambora, pass with nary a whimper.
It's comical from beginning to end. Who's the bottle blonde actor who's either experiencing anguish over having to listen to the song or the fact that he's still suffering through the pangs of withdrawal? Or maybe he's bugging out because he overdid it with the Clairol.
Oh, it's Sambora!
I assume the reason this video is so rife with the over-simplistic symbolic imagery representing nearly every 90's Hollywood produced music video cliche is to lightly acknowledge Sambora's larger demons. We see our fearless hero "taking the cure" in an L.A. Skid Row flea bag motel and then, more than likely, unintentionally, appearing to be teaching himself how to play guitar again.
We then watch him walking down a dusty road and then across the desert and through various other scenes clipped from every sepia colored early 90's music video known to every MTV freak who was unstoned enough to remember.
Once we enter the trashed out trailer park, I was almost expecting the video to be over with him wandering home to his rusted out double wide only to be welcomed back in the doorway by a newly scraggly haired Heather Locklear smoking a cigarette while donning a pair of Daisy Dukes on permanent loan from the props department of Aaron Spelling Productions.
And that's my point about why the whole thing, even the song, unfortunately, just doesn't ring true. If you'll recall, Sambora's troubles began when he got pulled over in Laguna Beach for DUI while driving a black Hummer. I mean, gimme a break with the whole destitute vibe of the video.
More than likely, that's the first time Sambora's ever even been in a motel room like that in his life unless he's gone all Hugh Grant on us or something. No matter how bad things have gotten for him in recent years, it will never get as hopeless for him as what's portrayed in the vid.
The harsh locales captured in the grainy dusty footage is a far cry from the true reality of Sambora's insular orbit between his Malibu beach house and The Viper Room. The video's phony highly stylized grittiness brings any hope for the song's bid for authenticity as fruitless.
But, don't get me wrong, it's very entertaining and well done. The production values make it look like it cost well over a million bucks. And, like I said, this video document of Sambora's hypothetical parallel universe is really quite comical. If you get the joke, that is, which, funnier still, I'm sure, was equally unintentional.
Other than sobering up to realize his credibility as a guitarist is gone, by still being in BonJovi. No matter how profitable that is.
Kidding. I actually like Sambora's previous solo records. This one is such a bland wash of synths, I don't really hear any guitar in it.
There's one really good song on one of his previous solo records - "If God Was A Woman". He needs more material like that.
'm hoping this CD has a harder edge to it than the last couple of Bon Jovi albums as I found them to be pretty boring. They need to return to a harder sound. Too mellow for my liking these days.
Was going to type that exact sentence Rita! LOL. I remember seeing them in Hershey in 1986 or 87 on the Slippery tour.Richie did some of "Drift Away" with just him and his Ovation double neck acoustic.I turned to my wife and said "The wrong guy is singing in this band". Which of course she disagreed with, mainly because she wanted to jump Bon Jovi's bones, along with every other female in attendance...LMAO. Guy does have a killer set of pipes and is a more thn adequate guitaist.Like my man Ace pointed out, it's a shame he never gets to show that.
For a complete laugh, ever wonder where "You Give Love A Bad Name" came from?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nJAP_mJsUI
See what happens when you cast your lot w/ Desmond Child & Jim Steinman?