BILLY SQUIER – The Tale Of The Tape [Rock Candy remastered +2]

Requested by one of you and quite hard to find, here’s BILLY SQUIER‘s solo debut LP “The Tale Of The Tape” remastered by Rock Candy Records plus 2 bonus tracks.

It takes a brave man to go it alone, in music or in life, and with “Tale Of The Tape” Boston-born Billy Squier showed he had sufficient backbone (and material) to put his own name squarely behind his songs.
Squier spent the late ’70s watching his band Piper rise through the rock ‘n’ roll ranks, but after two albums with them, he knew he needed something more, and by the end of the decade, he’d departed the group’s ranks to begin his solo career.

That album turned out to be “The Tale of the Tape”, a nine-track collection that heralded Squier’s arrival as a solo performer. Like a lot of new artists, he found it difficult to achieve immediate mainstream success, but the record’s huge riffs, stomping beats and singalong choruses helped Squier make early inroads at rock radio that would benefit him in a big way later in the decade.

The packed Queen schedule prevented Brian May from producing album, but ‘professor’ Eddie Offord did a great job capturing Squier’s and rocking attitude
It’s well worth noting that while Squier failed to land the producer he originally wanted for the album, he ended up securing the services of a group of people who were pretty impressive in their own right, including future Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick and former E Street Band members David Sancious and Ernest “Boom” Carter, all of whom helped him further realize the ambitions that drew him away from Piper.

“The Tale of the Tape” offers a rare glimpse into the early, post-Piper years of Billy Squier. His unique vocals perfectly compliment a stripped-down accompaniment of raw guitars and thundering drums.
Standing out particularly is the anthemic opener ‘The Big Beat’, now topping the list of most sampled songs ever. “The intro of the song is me with my hands in a trap case, beating on the side of it – says Squier in the Rock Candy interview – I just walked around the studio banging on stuff, looking for a sound”.

But the album contains a lot of little-known, yet catchy tunes. Not really a bad song on here.
There’s the potent ‘Young Girls’, the girlfriend-gone-astray ‘Who’s Your Boyfriend’, Axl Rose favorite ‘Calley O’, and the radio hit ‘You Should Be High Love’ (co-written by Desmond Child), songs that laid the foundations for a multi-platinum career that continues to this day.

“Tale Of The Tape” was the record that established Squier as a singer / songwriter / guitarist of genuine stature, brimming-full of simple, effective and catchy rockers.
The Rock Candy remastering comes with 2 bonus tracks: roughly taped, acoustic tracks of ‘The Music’s All Right’ and ‘Young Girls’, the two last songs on the regular album. The 16-page booklet contains old pix and liner notes written by Dante Bonutto, Paul Suter and Billy Squier himself.

You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox

01 – The Big Beat
02 – Calley Oh
03 – Rich Kid
04 – Like I’m Lovin’ You
05 – Who Knows What A Love Can Do
06 – You Should Be High, Love
07 – Who’s Your Boyfriend
08 – The Music’s All Right
09 – Young Girls
BONUS TRACKS:
10 – The Music’s All Right (Original Acoustic Version)
11 – Young Girls (Abbreviated Acoustic Demo)

Billy Squier – Vocals, Guitar, Percussion
Bruce Kulick – Guitar
David Sancious – Keyboards, Synthesizers
Richard T. Bear – Keyboards
Bucky Ballard – Bass
Bobby Chouinard – Drums
Ernest Carter – Percussion

BUY IT !
www.amoeba.com/tale-of-the-tape-bonus-tracks-remastered-uk-import-cd-billy-squier/albums/3190753/
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