Customer Reviews

Under a Raging Moon

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really like this album more than any other Daltrey solo album that I've heard. There are 6 excellent hard rocking songs on this CD that are some of his best work; DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS,BRINGING DOWN PARADISE,UNDER A RAGING MOON,AFTER THE FIRE,LET ME DOWN EASY, and MOVE BETTER IN THE NIGHT. The rest of the songs are good, but not great. Roger's vocals are strong throughout the album as well as the production,mixing, and musicianship of the session players. If I was to buy only one Roger Daltrey CD, I would pick this one.

Roger Daltrey stepped out on his own in a big way when "Raging Moon" was released. Mostly spurred by the MTV play of "After The Fire," this album had a great combination. Daltrey in fine vocal form, a good backing band, good production and great songs.

Some have said this was like a Who album, and perhaps it was, though Daltrey has staked out territory for his voice on other recordings (witness his work on "Daltrey," doing Dave Courtney/Leo Sayer tunes).

This one just rocked from end to end--"Fire," "Move Better In The Night," and the title track are among the better tracks, while Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance contributed "Let Me Down Easy," which had a minor bit of play on MTV and radio (I think).

Roger also handled the ballads again--"The Pride You Hide" and "Love Me Like You Do" were well done.

Drummers and likewise also get a huge thrill out of the title song's use of 8 drummers, including Stewart Copeland, Mark Brzezecki (I hope I got his name right) of Big Country and others. Interesting, but I wished they'd cranked the drums a bit more.

Exceptional, one of Daltrey's best on his own.

Even though I currently only have a handful of his solo albums, I tend to believe what most people say, that Roger's solo records are hit and miss. Sometimes you get a really cheesy or lame one, and sometimes you end up with a great album like this one. He even co-wrote four of the songs on here, and it reached #42 on the charts. I think it works so well because it sounds so much like a Who album (Pete even wrote the famous first track, "After the Fire," which reached #48), though unlike 'McVicar' it's not a de facto Who album because the other bandmembers don't play anywhere on it. These are the types of songs he should have been recording in his solo career all along, songs that really match his vocal abilities and personality well, where he can showcase primal screams (like at the end of "Rebel"), gruffness, and the equal ability to sound angel-sweet besides just gruff or raunchy. The songs are also very introspective; though I didn't realise this till it was pointed out, it also reads very much like a midlife-crisis album, a guy who's getting older going back to his old town and realising that he can never go back, that times and people have moved on, he's no longer as young and vital as he used to be, and dealing with the pain of lost love. The opening track of "After the Fire" brilliantly and poignantly sets the mood of the other songs to follow, and though I can't say if this really is true or not, not having all of his solo albums, it's said that this is his last album where he screams from start to finish, a last hurrah of fading youth, glory, vibrancy, and vitality. He made fantastic choices about songwriters, backing musicians, and songs, and it proves that not all of his solo albums were jokes or a waste of his incredible vocal prowess.

Now how do i give this album the praise it deserves without sounding like an absolute Roger Daltrey fanatic.Yes have been a big Who fan in past years (like proberly every other person who has make the effort to check out his material) but first and foremost i am a fan of this album. It's "the Who grown up". It is Daltrey at his very best, the perfect soft rock album. Opinions are of course subjective but for what mine is worth i honestly do not think the likes of Bryan Adams, Bruce Springfield, or Meat Loaf could have put on a better rendition of this album. Daltrey emitts all of the qualities needed to turn a song into "rock song". Even in this studio recording you can not only hear but feel the raw energy, emotion, anger, frustration and heart and soul required for a true rock performance.. Just one album filler entitled "Fallen Angle", but hey, even "Sergeant Pepper" had "Within you, without you" "After the fire" like most of Townsend's material is a brilliant but very personal and almost self indulgent composition, but it works well because it also fitted perfectly with Daltreys position at the time.We can sumize that deep inside Daltrey is still sceaming "hope i die before i get old", but also coming to terms with the onset of middle age with the realizeation that he can still keep those youthfull fires burning inside. Haveing said that, this album does not have to be analized to be enjoyed. However i feel that i must reply to those pro Townend, anti Daltrey, reviews. Firstly, " weak songs and lyrics?" What about this example from "The Pride You Hide" "i found some things of yours today,with an old guitar you used to play, i through them all away. They took me to another place, smelled your perfume, saw your face with your hair that way. If there is anyone out there who can not relate to that then lucky old you. And Daltrey seemes to be almost hurting when he sings that line(after all he did co write the song as well as numerous others on U.A.R.M.) Frankly i believe Daltrey was at is finest here because he was no longer restricted by Townsend's genious.(like many great minds Townsend seems a little mad and it shows in his often quirky and sometimes very odd lyrics.)It was Daltrey's rock performances which turned the Who into a rock group and not the compositions. Great songs but unlike the songs on this album not written to a standard rock formale.This is a recording that is deleted in the UK and after first buying it in 1985 i am delighted that due to the magic of the internet i have finally managed to get old of a copy on Compact Disc.

New Years Eve 2003. . .I was standing in the kitchen listening to VH1 Classic when I heard the opening notes to After the Fire. I couldn't beleive it! I yelled out: "Oh My Gosh!" and ran to my living room, grabbing the controller on the way and collapsed on the couch, wondering how this song would make me feel 20 years later. I had only seen the video once or twice back in 1985 and never heard the song on the radio , but it had always stayed with me. It came out two years after the death of a friend of mine. I was madly in love with his girlfriend and when he died I spiraled into a deep depression which I never fully recovered from. This song stayed with me and seemed to say everything I couldn't say or be to her (even though it isn't about unrequited love). We were the classic star-crossed lovers; I was the heavy-metal band poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks, she was the rich girl who probably thought I'd never amount to anything and told me I reminded her too much of her fallen lover. (12/31/03) The lump in my throat grew, the hot tears rolled down my cheeks and it was all I could do to keep from bawling as Daltrey belted out the lyrics. My teenaged daughters and my wife stared, wondering what was the matter. . . A Beautiful, Powerful song that will haunt my soul for eternity. . . .

Roger Daltrey is known as the singer for one of the greatest rock bands ever: The Who. When he left the band he built his reputation on, many expected another. Wrong!! This album has a more pop/ballad feel. All the songs are great, especially the title track which was written for Kieth Moon, the deceased drummer of the Who. Daltrey can sing and shows us on this album. Buy this album if you like Roger or the Who.

This woefully underappreciated album, dedicated to the memory of his late bandmate (hence the title), features some of Roger Daltrey's most inspired work outside of The Who.

The invigoratingly vibrant opener, 'After The Fire', and the ferociously rocking closer, 'Under A Raging Moon', are alone worth the price of admission.

The latter, which tries to capture the essence of Keith Moon's raging spirit, climaxes with terrific solos by a veritable who's who of rock drummers -- Martin Chambers, Roger Taylor, Cozy Powell, Stewart Copeland, Zak Starkey, Carl Palmer and Mark Brzezicki.

Too bad about the sound, though. The mastering's one of the worst I've ever heard on a major-label production. It takes away the thunder from that magnificent title track which could've blazed away brilliantly in the hands of a more capable engineer.

Now how do i give this album the praise it deserves without sounding like an absolute Roger Daltrey fanatic.Yes have been a big Who fan in past years (like proberly every other person who has make the effort to check out his material) but first and foremost i am a fan of this album. It's "the Who grown up". It is Daltrey at his very best, the perfect soft rock album. Opinions are of course subjective but for what mine is worth i honestly do not think the likes of Bryan Adams, Bruce Springfield, or Meat Loaf could have put on a better rendition of this album. Daltrey emitts all of the qualities needed to turn a song into "rock song". Even in this studio recording you can not only hear but feel the raw energy, emotion, anger, frustration and heart and soul required for a true rock performance.. Just one album filler entitled "Fallen Angle", but hey, even "Sergeant Pepper" had "Within you, without you" "After the fire" like most of Townsend's material is a brilliant but very personal and almost self indulgent composition, but it works well because it also fitted perfectly with Daltreys position at the time.We can sumize that deep inside Daltrey is still sceaming "hope i die before i get old", but also coming to terms with the onset of middle age with the realizeation that he can still keep those youthfull fires burning inside. Haveing said that, this album does not have to be analized to be enjoyed. However i feel that i must reply to those pro Townend, anti Daltrey, reviews. Firstly, " weak songs and lyrics?" What about this example from "The Pride You Hide" "i found some things of yours today,with an old guitar you used to play, i through them all away. They took me to another place, smelled your perfume, saw your face with your hair that way. If there is anyone out there who can not relate to that then lucky old you. And Daltrey seemes to be almost hurting when he sings that line(after all he did co write the song as well as numerous others on U.A.R.M.) Frankly i believe Daltrey was at is finest here because he was no longer restricted by Townsend's genious.(like many great minds Townsend seems a little mad and it shows in his often quirky and sometimes very odd lyrics.)It was Daltrey's rock performances which turned the Who into a rock group and not the compositions. Great songs but unlike the songs on this album not written to a standard rock formale.This is a recording that is deleted in the UK and after first buying it in 1985 i am delighted that due to the magic of the internet i have finally managed to get old of a copy on Compact Disc.

UNDER A RAGING MOON is Roger Daltrey's best solo album ever. It sounds like it could have been another Who album, which shows that Daltrey's solo work, by this point, no longer needed to stand totally apart from his work with the Who. The opening song, "After The Fire", is one of the most trenchant pieces of rock ever to grace a CD; many of the songs, including- especially- that one, speak of the dangers of too many good times, a theme reflected in my decision to hang up pictures of gorgeous actresses as a deterrent to such behavior, and the last two, "Rebel" (a Bryan Adams cover) and the title song, express the conflict between past, present, and future that ultimately led to me not going back to my old school for special meals in the hope that I might actually be able to look good for these beauties someday. In between, there are some great cuts, some not so great, but the whole album is a treatise on getting older, moving on, giving up bad habits, and knowing that you can neither escape nor return to the past.

Bought it on vinyl when it first came out. Sold the whole collection in '90 when I moved to Da Beeg Island. It fills that reminiscent craving every once in awhile.