Music of the Day, 29 April 2024
the man with the cure
After a weekend of poor sleep and niggling distractions, I awoke this morning knowing I needed a serious punch of motivation to start this week on a better, more focused note. A beloved concept album from the late ‘80s has been popping into mind lately for various reasons, so I decided to go all in on it today.
This blistering performance of “Revolution Calling” is from Queensrÿche’s 1991 Operation: LIVEcrime release. It was recorded in Madison, Wisconsin and is canon for me. My brother gave me the box set of CD and VHS recording of the concert back then, and it’s the only version of the album I’ve heard all the way through. I’ve heard the studio versions of the hits from Operation: Mindcrime on radio and while they’re fine, they feel a little restrained in comparison. I don’t need restraint today.
Operation: LIVEcrime came out right when I was really getting into metal and starting to notice cracks in my marriage. At the time, for me the “revolution” was much more personal and internal rather than cultural, although the references to the rank hypocrisy rife in both politics and religion weren’t lost on me. The album’s themes hold up quite well at this nearly 40-year remove—the only thing that seems different is that political scandals have overrun sex scandals.
Revisiting “Revolution Calling” today after years away, the call for revolution has circled back to being personal to me.1 On a sociopolitical scale, there is no “man with the cure” for everyone. Trying to follow others’ plans and goals for my life has only led me to disappointment, so—to take a line from another great Queensrÿche song—I’m working on being the best I can.
Okay, more than enough with the politics and introspection. Can we focus for a few minutes on how terrific every bit of Queensrÿche’s sound is here? Each band member (songwriter Chris DeGarmo on guitars and backing vocals; Eddie Jackson on bass and backing vocals; Scott Rockenfield on percussion and keyboard; lead vocalist Geoff Tate on keyboards; and songwriter Michael Wilton on guitars) is at the top of their game; and guest vocalists Pamela Moore (Sister Mary) and Debbie Wheeler (the nurse) breathe life into the tale of a drug addict recruited into a demagogue’s political organization.
The music is unmistakably metal, but also progressive in a way I don’t remember hearing before from other bands. Today, I can see how Queensrÿche set the stage for Dream Theater, whom I also adore. If I were prone to “what if” musings, I could easily invest hours in wondering what might have been if alternative and grunge hadn’t started taking over the rock scene. A better use of that time would be immersing myself into the full Operation: LIVEcrime experience, though.
The only other Queensrÿche release I own2 is Empire, the hugely successful follow-up to Operation: Mindcrime. I learned today that the Tate-led Queensrÿche variant released a sequel, Operation: Mindcrime II, in 2006. I’ll be looking for that on YouTube later in the week, as much for the continuation of the story as for the appearance of metal god Ronnie James Dio as Dr. X.
But for now, I have to turn away from music and focus on more pressing matters. Here’s hoping your week is off to a banging start!
For some time, I’d taken up the call of revolution as a political fight, which—bad as things are today—I now have regrets about
in any of the band’s iterations and forms
I've always meant to listen to Queensryche but haven't gotten around to it. Enjoyed it very much!
Huge Queensryche fan. I saw them circa 1983 when they first hit the road, and I saw them twice in the aughts. They came twice to Tucson's "Rialto Theater" and once they did the full Operation: Mindcrime set that was spectacular.
Great choice!