Customer Reviews

Turned on

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a great live document of a band that is clicking on all cylinders; truly transcendent. In addition, it contains the only "live" version of "Out there" (the Live in Australia CD is a "Live in studio" effort) and a truly awesome version it is. The version of "Down and away" is preceded by the unreleased in any form "Mask" and an amazing "Turned inside out" follows. As a matter of fact, this 15 minutes or so (Mask, Down and away and Turned inside out) is, in my opinion, the most astonishingly honest and brutal self-assessment on record. A great, essential document, you'd be a fool to miss it

My only complaint is that the whole show is one track. Other than that this is Rollins at his best. The show is tight and has plenty of improvision on Henry's part. I wish there was more material like this avalable.

With Hot Animal Machine currently out of print, Turned On is, I think, one of the earliest recordings available by the Rollins Band. This album is pushing to be ten years old and still sounds as good as any of this band's newer stuff. Each song is a solid work of music, with Henry's gravelly shouts and screams, Chris's distorted guitar riffs, Andrew's deep and low basslines, and Sim's hard drum hits and cymbal crashes. I prefer this live album to the subsequent studio recordings after it, if only for the passionate fire and fury of the Rollins Band live. Henry's throat must've been in shreds afer the rips he pulled on it during this show. Down&Away and Turned Inside Out are perfect examples. Yeah, the whole album on one track is a little annoying, but the honesty and heart of it all outweighs this petty complaint.

With Hot Animal Machine currently out of print, Turned On is, I think, one of the earliest recordings available by the Rollins Band. This album is pushing to be ten years old and still sounds as good as any of this band's newer stuff. Each song is a solid work of music, with Henry's gravelly shouts and screams, Chris's distorted guitar riffs, Andrew's deep and low basslines, and Sim's hard drum hits and cymbal crashes. I prefer this live album to the subsequent studio recordings after it, if only for the passionate fire and fury of the Rollins Band live. Henry's throat must've been in shreds afer the rips he pulled on it during this show. Down&Away and Turned Inside Out are perfect examples. Yeah, the whole album on one track is a little annoying, but the honesty and heart of it all outweighs this petty complaint.

This is very good live recording. This is, however, a horrible live ALBUM. Why? Because Mr. Rollins, in one of his more obnoxious fits of whimsy, decided that the entire show should be written to CD as one track. That means if you want to hear one of the last songs, you will have to fast-forward through 50-60 minutes to get to it.

Thank god we have software like Easy CD Creator, which let us edit audio files, and do things like split up tracks... now I have a nice 15-TRACK CD ... much much more enjoyable.

A couple of the songs here a bit too dirge-like, but overall the track selection is good. The live versions of "What Have I Got" and "Hard" in particular are awesome.

The best live Rollins is found on "Do It." But this is definitely worth purchasing if you find it used for 6 or 7 bucks. Rollins Band were one of the best live bands I ever saw.

for the record TURNED ON is not the earliest recordings of the ROLLINS BAND. they released HOT ANIMAL MACHINE, HENRIETTA COLLINS..., LIFETIME, and HARD VOLUME prior to it. the band containing ex-GONE members, sim and andrew put out albums from LIFETIME on. the first two were done with chris haskett and some foreign diplomats of hard rock. the TURNED ON album, tears you up. the emotional outpouring from the band themselves through their instruments and the release of henrys life through his throat can bring a grown man to his knees. for all of those who dont know the album was recorded on one track to be listened to at one time in order for the listener to experience the ROLLINS BAND live without actually being there, well, thats what HENRY told me, anyway. if you are in search of genre defying, deaf defying, heart and soul and fingers and blood music, give this album a spin...its garaunteed to warp your axle.

Make no mistake about it, I've seen it myself and I can tell you that the Rollins Band live (either edition) is a great show.
Why on Earth then should they take a show when the band was not in top form, in front of a virtually dead Vienna audience, give it a sub par mix courtesy of Theo Van Rock and issue it as the band's live album?
Even less appealing is that this is basically "The End Of Silence" tour and the long dirge quotient is running very high (playing "Down And Away" and "Turned Inside Out" back to back is never a good idea). Take all of this and add to it the extremely frustrating fact that the CD is recorded as one long track and the results can't be anything other than the disaster it is. Much better live shows from this era can be found on the original releases of "Lifetime" and the "Do It" EP, all later live work leaves this one in the dust as well.
For die hards and completists only.

I saw Hank and Co. at Lollapalooza, and believe me, this album is a poor excuse for a live performance. The sound quality is mediocre, the playing is uninspired (with the exception of 'Do it' and 'Out There', which are better than the studio versions), and worst of all it's on one track. You could get away with that if the performance was up to par, but it isn't. Avoid this one at all costs.