Life needs to be sweetened.

Did you ever wake up in the middle of the night because of a dream? A nightmare? Shaking and sweating trying to catch your breath but choking instead? It happens to me more times then I'd like lately. And it's always the same. Same concept I mean. All of the worst things I could imagine happening to me in one giant ''movie production'' playing in my head and it's horrible. Which is why I'm here right now, 3 am Sunday morning, trying to catch my breath...

This is not a good start for the first actual post I did in a while *and I'm sure the post won't be good either*, I know, I'm sorry, life has been absolutely insane. It really has been a couple of crazy weeks. So it's safe to say my mind has been...occupied with other things. Like people around me, is there something wrong with me or literally everyone around me? When did people get so stupid, judgemental, egoistic and self centered? When did they turn so evil, wishing bad upon everyone and everything slightly different then them? I really don't seem to understand. What do you get from so much hate? God knows.

I think it's best I focus on some music instead, gonna be interesting, here I am writing about an album and listening to something completly different and very local on my iPod while doing so. Lets see how this works out.

So this album is also on Rolling Stones 50 greatest hair metal albums of all time. And it really is one of the greatest. I mean not better then Skid Row's debut but pretty damn close. I got my copy at a flea market for like ten bucks. Which was the first and only time I ever found anything good or remotely interesting at our flea markets. Usually it's all trash with a price tag on it. Judging on that I could sell a ton of my old stuff that I threw out instead. Maybe that was my blonde moment.

Timing is everything isn't it? And isn't it funny how some people are just on the right place at the right time? So were Cinderella because guess what? Non other then Jon Bon Jovi is responsible for Cinderella even having their hair metal fairytale *bless you Jon* because he discovered them after catching their set in some Philadelphia club where he was recording his Fahrenheit album at the time. Jon was aparently completly in love with them and made the guy who signed Bon Jovi at Mercury go check them out who aparently said ''great looks, great music, great energy, but the drummer and the guitar player need to go'' or something along those lines. If I understood it correctly they've been listening to that a lot at the time. When they held auditions for that guitar player Snake Sabo auditioned. Can you imagine that? Snake! At the end LaBar got the place, they got the deal and the rest is history...is it ever that easy? I doubt it. Hah.

Can we just talk about the cover for a second though? What's with the pink fog and that huge hair? And the clothes? I mean there is so much more, SO MUCH MORE to this band then the whole glam thing they've got going on. It's giving me this vibe, what would you call it today, ''mainstream''.

Their first big hit was Nobody's fool which really is a great song, to be fair the album is worth getting for that song alone. Though I think what really put this album on the map and gave it a place in music history was when they were invited on tour with Bon Jovi. The Slippery when wet tour that is. Totally made them stars, got them number three on the Billboard chart and the album went triple platinum. Can we just take a moment here, like can I just point out how unfair life is? I really should be 20 years old in the 80's, all the band boys...this is so unfair. Or maybe this is one of those moments when you realize there's a reason behind everything...I'd be a total groupie in those days. Let's move on before this post gets out of control. Hah.

Cinderella's second album, which I actually prefer was just as succssesful and then it all went south with Heartbreak station. I'm still not sure what happened there but jesus it was bad. Their fourth album was pretty much ignored and it may had to do something with this new decade and alternative music starting to grow or the fact that the albums just aren't good. I'm sorry boys, I still love you but I don't love those two albums.

But still all that aside when we talk about my favorite glam, hair metal, hard rock from the 80's without too much thinking Cinderella makes that list. Bon Jovi really knew what's up. Back in the day they played their music the way they wanted to and it was the best thing ever. Glam metal at it's finest. And let's not forget all the emotion in it too.

Night songs their debut came out in 1986 and totally rattled the glam metal scene at the time because it was something new and different. They had that dirty sleazy metal yes but they managed to put raw emotion into their music as well but that is far more obvious on their second album which is also better then this one but let's not go there again. I really do love ''Don't know what you got'' that much yes.

Night songs has ten songs and they're all powerful, great songs, with Tom's growls and all the amazing solo's it really makes it for a bitchin album. The final product? Woah, all I can say is woah. First time I played it I was like ''damn'', such an amazing record. Guitar parts are really something else. And not to mention Tom's charisma, he's got it. That something that most modern singers lack on stage. But he had it. The accent, the growl, everything. You can't mistake his voice, it's so special and emotional. And let's not forget that Jon Bon Jovi actually sings on this album, yup he did some back vocals. I think that would make me love Cinderella even if I didn't. Huge Bon Jovi fan yes.

The opening title track has this wonderful dark prelude before it hits us with those guitars and that classic 80's metal sound which really makes it for an ideal opening. Shake me is a total metal anthem and lets not even begin with Hell on wheels and that guitar solo or drumming in it. You know what they actually remind me of? Like if AC/DC and Def Leppard had a baby, I think Cinderella would be that baby. Ha!

Then you've got Nobody's fool. Power ballads...such an 80's thing, even the toughest bands seemed to do ballads back then. This song though, it's really nice, still one of my favorites, Keifers voice really shines through on it and it has this slow, kinda metalish vibe. And the lyrics too, all in all it's a great song.

Other great songs on it are obviously Nothing for nothing, Somebody save me which has a serious AC/DC vibe with that one riff and of course Back home again which has a guitar solo to die for.

All in all, it's a great album and honestly you need to get pass the cover, listen with your ears not eyes, as I said there's so much more to them then big hair. There is only one singer out there with a voice like Tom Keifer and that is Tom Keifer so seriously give them a chance and play it, I promise you'll love it.

This is as good as it gets this week, and as much as you get, I'm exhausted, my mind won't cooperate properly. Now go listen to some Cinderella kids and party on.

Take me back cause I need to be reminded what I left behind me so far away. Take me back cause I need to feel the fire, yesterday's desire ain't far away.

''I can't tell ya baby what went wrong I can't make you feel what you felt so long ago, I'll let it show. I can't give you back what's been hurt, heartaches come and go and all that's left are the words I can't let go. If we take some time to think it over baby, take some time let me know if you really wanna go.

Don't know what you got till it's gone, don't know what it is I did so wrong, now I know what I got, it's just this song and it ain't easy to get back, takes so long.''

Did you ever notice how pain comes in waves? Sometimes nothing and sometimes it hits you full force? Sometimes you're completly alright, dare I say happy? And sometimes all you know is pain, pain, pain.

It's been a long week. Long hard week. And I sat here for an hour just thinking what to write about. Complain about the weather? Jesus summer go home you're drunk. This is Europe not hell. Well, feels like hell in more ways the one anyways, so I guess close enough. Should I give you another speech about any of the many things that bother me? About all the things that are wrong and ugly and unfair on this planet? Would I even make a difference?

I suppose I wouldn't. I picked a record to write about. Chester Bennington's death, literally swept the rug from underneath me and I am still processing and healing, it doesn't seem to hurt any less, thinking I'll never get to see him live again, thinking what an amazing man and kind caring soul was taken away from us by something as ugly as depression, thinking about his family and best friends…that is unbearable. So I've been listening to a lot of different music, to distract myself. Lord knows if I play their album I'd be a sobbing mess within minutes…

So it's this instead…

You don't know what you got till it's gone? Aint that the truth?

I love Tom Keifers voice. I absolutely love it and to think we almost couldn't get to enjoy it. He has been cursed with performance problems for so many years due to paralysis of one of his vocal cords, horrible situation for any singer. Yet I mean, would it be so bad if it happened to someone like Justin Bieber or would it actually be a blessing from above? Think about it…

Either way I believe that Long cold winter is not just Cinderella's finest moment but one of the best moments in 1980's hard rock. Yes you heard me hard rock. Calling them hair metal is just plain rude. They are so underrated it's not even funny. Sure they looked all poofed out on the back cover but under all the hair and makeup *yeah yeah hair metal I get it* their sound really more reminds of like 1970's southern rock. Did you pay attention to the inner sleeve? The cowboy hat? And live covers of Sweet home Alabama? Or Tom Keifer singing on a top 10 country album by Andy Griggs, okay it was what 14 years later but still. Not to mention the themathics, country songs have this eternal theme of trying to find your way back home, but isn't that what Gypsy road and The last mile and of course Coming home are all about?

This album is a step up for Cinderella if you ask me, I love Night songs but honestly this one is better in so many ways. This new found sound they got, a bit of bluesy rock kinda like the Stones you know. But we're at it again the ballad Don't know what you got, which I love don't get me wrong is what made them most commercial success. To be honest though the combination of those pop rock hooks and serious badass rock n roll on other songs such as Fallin apart at the seams is what done it for me. Amazing album, sound, lyrics. An amazing mix of screeching rock and bitter blues. Not to mention the lyrics, Tom is completly underrated as a song writer, you can hear just how much of his soul he bared on this record and he would deserve a lot more credit.

Night songs was all about hard rock, party all night long and basically sex. It was fun, but Long cold winter started picking up on some other influences which helped them find their own thing, their own voice. The acoustic blues parts that slowly transition into that well known hard rock sound are really cool, they actually remind me more of Aerosmith then of their first album.

Fun fact; did you know that Fred Coury their drummer was touring with Guns N' Roses almost through the entire recording process of Long cold winter. Steven Adler broke his hand while punching a wall. Really Stevie, really? Lol. Denny Carmassi and later Cozy Powell *R.I.P.* stepped in to help.

Bad seamstress blues is where I think it shows most clearly that the band has grown up and changed. In a good way mind you. The electric blues and organs and ''moaning guitar''. Not to mention how Tom stretches his voice almost to a breaking point. I'm willing to bet this right here was pretty much the first taste of blues rock if not blues alone that many hard rock loving fans got in the 80's.

Followed by Gypsy road and Fallin' apart at the seams which are holy shit amazing, they're hard rock, they're totally badass. That voice! My god. People call these two songs hair metal songs, which is why I don't like people. To be honest they only made one ''hair metal'' album which is Night songs, after that, their music sounded a lot more like Aerosmith rather then Poison. No offence to Poison either. I love them. But if you're still doubting then please, go check out their third album Heartbreak station, if you still hear hair metal there then all hope is lost for you.

Don't know what you got (till it's gone), power ballad. Epic one, radio stations still play it. Beautiful song to be honest. Tom's voice on it is really beautiful and that great guitar solo in between is also a total hair raising moment.

I really liked ''If you don't like it'' classic rock song which is follwed by three amazing songs, Coming home, which to be honest is the song that I was hooked up on almost more then Don't know what you've got, I like the vibe, the feeling, it's obvious they wrote songs while on the road. Then you've got Fire and ice, totally heavy and it totally stands out, for me at least. And then the album closes with Take me back, kinda the same vibe as Coming home yet a lot heavier, but an amazing closing song to such a great record.

Long cold winter is and will remain my favorite album they've put out and one of my favorite 80's rock albums in general. People lately are childish, ''embarrassed'' to admit they like something that was labeled ''hair band'' once. Like Poison. Well shit I still like Poison, Nothing but a good time, Talk dirty to me, So tell me why, Your mama don't dance and obviously Every rose has it's thorn are totally my jams and I aint ashamed to say I love them, so do expect me turning up the volume when either Poison or Cinderella come on.

Here's a life lesson for you kids, be who you are, don't be afraid to liking what you like, and loving who you love. No matter what people say. They have no right to tell you who to be or how to live your life.

''I can't feel the things that cause you pain, I can't clear my heart of your love, it falls like rain, ain't the same. I hear you calling far away, tearing through my soul I just can't take another day, Who's to blame. If we take some time to think it over baby, take some time let me know if you really wanna go...

Don't know what you got till it's gone, don't know what it is I did so wrong, now I know what I got it's just this song and it ain't easy to get back, takes so long...

Do you wanna see me beggin' baby, can't you give me just one more day? Can't you see my heart's been draggin' lately, I've been lookin' for the words to say.''