Hi all and welcome to another Simpsons On Sundays post. First of all, happy Father’s Day to all the men out there who are proud dads, or a tired papa depending on the age of your children. On the birthday front, former Simpsons writer Greg Daniels turned another year older on Thursday. He had a hand in writing Treehouse of Horror IV, along with others including Conan O’Brien. Greg Daniels also collaborated with Mike Judge on another TV show, called King of the Hill. Cool!
This week it is another Simpsons Sabbatical post on a band whose debut album came out 20 years ago. If you are into hard rock and (I guess) alternative rock) you hav heard of Velvet Revolver. Right? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, how about Guns N’ Roses? Okay, how about Stone Temple Pilots? You should know them both, because both bands make up nearly all of Velvet Revolver and they had put out 2 albums. The members were: Scott Weiland, Duff McKagan, Slash, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner, a childhood friend of Slash who also plays guitar. The supergroup released only 2 albums: Contraband in 2004 and Libertad in 2007. The debut album did the best out of the two, with hits like: Slither and Fall To Pieces as the biggest for rock radio and it also sold well. Libertad had a couple of radio songs with She Builds Quick Machines as the first single and The Last Fight being another. Unfortunately, brawling egos got in the way and especially with Scott, who had his own problems with drugs, being arrested and going to rehab again and again and again. Then there was the matter of a possible reunion with Stone Temple Pilots in 2008, which had happened and then, even they got sick of his shit and fired him in 2013. Then Chester Bennington joined and left, with both singers passing away within almost 2 years of each other.
I mention Velvet Revolver because on at least one or two occasions, a song by Guns N’ Roses was played on The Simpsons. Welcome to the Jungle was played during the Season 5 episode Marge On the Lam and Season 12’s Skinner’s Sense of Snow. I think you can hear it more likely than not, on the former episode, as it is played when Ruth Powers takes Marge for a drive in her car on their girls night out, to go shoot antique cans and go on a car chase. Jungle was also the first song by the Gunners I had heard in July 1987. When the band broke wide open in 1988, I was happy, that rock had finally arrived back and gave top 40 radio a kick in the ass it had needed. These days, Slash and the rest of Velvet Revolver are active with either Guns, or their own solo projects and obviously, Scott is no longer with us. The band had tried to move on with at least one other singer, namely Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour in 2010, but it didn’t happen. It would have been cool if it did and it would be interesting to see if Corey would either stay down in the lower range, or occasionally scream like he does in Slipknot on a regular basis, as well as clean vocals. Then again, there would have been another label to deal with and so, it would be quite weird.
These days, Slash is putting out music with Myles Kennedy on lead vocals and has just released a blues album as his latest solo album. To tell the truth, I haven’t heard any of it yet and at some point, I may try and give it a listen, before deciding whether I wish to own it from iTunes. Everyone else is also active, both inside and outside of Guns N’ Roses and I wonder if one day, there could be a one-off reunion like there was with Scott before he died. It would be cool if it could happen and as for any VR songs on The Simpsons, I don’t expect any to appear in episodes. However, stranger things have happened and we shall see what music from rock and metal bands will be heard, if any during Season 36 and beyond.
To end off the post, let’s remember the music of Velvet Revolver with the best known and some of my personal favourites from both albums and even a non-album track. Let’s start with the first song which had appeared in the 2003 movie Hulk, from Marvel Comics. https://youtu.be/lyu8ri7kHVw?si=rWJXEUh9vKT4wN9w
Set Me Free was the first single, but Slither was the true first single from the debut album. https://youtu.be/BKz2U4fvA4U?si=f4ApkLLwNfm85Wvw
Next, the second single which has a bit of a Gunners feel to it, with Slash’s guitar melody and the fact that it is in tuned down half a step, from E standard. https://youtu.be/9JhsUFuqbCM?si=PiqnZaqEuHkqiu6j
Next, the lead track which opens with a siren. https://youtu.be/KLvZUKBS1HA?si=41VvaOfoCQgaudCQ
Next, not the David Bowie song of the same name, but a Stonesy type ballad. https://youtu.be/9TrHZNGKLr4?si=r4sG9jgWVy_V5K0V
In 2005, this track came out around the time of the London terrorist attack and I don’t know what else to say after that. https://youtu.be/sFXZ8T4klyc?si=HP5MUUaTBb59M6BO
Now we get to the second and final album, witha cool lead single. https://youtu.be/4Hqe3jMHhvA?si=Zi3JJx46BOchrL4B
To be honest with you, I never had Libertad in any form so I can’t really speak to it as much. Also, I didn’t like what I heard other than the song I just gave you and I could tell that something was wrong and that the band was about to fall apart. Put in this post together reminds me (in a way) of what happened with Audioslave and Chris Cornell. In this case, they put out three albums before Chris decided to bail and go back to his solo career and then Soundgarden and keep both the band and his solo career going at the same time. Both great bands with great singers, with both great main bands from the 90s and it’s sad that neither Chris or Scott are alive today. Anyway, that’s it for this weeks post. Next week, abandon who will probably never be heard on The Simpsons, but I like them anyway.
Simpsons on Sundays 