DANZIG - SKELETONS DIGICD

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Skeletons is the tenth studio album by Danzig, consisting entirely of cover versions of songs from the 1960s through 1980s, selected by singer Glenn Danzig.

Glenn Danzig claimed to have planned to do an album of cover songs as far back as 1979. In 2011 he stated that he had recorded "about seven or eight covers" and was considering releasing them as an EP: "There's a cover of Sixties band The Young Rascals and I'm doing a Nuggets track too. Nuggets were these pre-punk, psychedelic, garage albums. They produced a bunch of influential compilations in the early Seventies. So currently this is an ongoing project, laying down as many tracks as I feel like and maybe releasing a seven- or eight-song EP of the best ones once they're done."

In announcing the album in June 2015 he stated "I had to put it out now or else there would be so many songs I'd want to do that I wouldn't be able to do it. Even the way I did it, there are so many songs I still wanted to cover. My attitude with covers is, make it your own or else leave it alone." In addition to Glenn, Skeletons includes contributions from Danzig band members Tommy Victor and Johnny Kelly, but does not include bassist Steve Zing. Glenn sang and played piano, guitar, and bass guitar on all of the tracks, and played drums on half of them. Kelly played drums on the rest of the tracks, while Victor played lead guitar as well as other guitar and bass parts. The album was produced by Glenn, engineered by Chris Rakestraw at Sunset Lodge in California, mixed by Glenn and Rakestraw, and mastered by Gene Grimaldi. With the exception of ZZ Top's 1986 single "Rough Boy", all of the songs covered on Skeletons date to between 1962 and 1974, when Glenn was between the ages of six and eighteen.

The album's title refers to "'skeletons in your closet', it's like pulling out old songs", he said. "These are my skeletons. You may or may not know that I dig these songs. You could say that some of this music is the actual basis and skeleton of what I listened to growing up — ultimately informing the kind of music I like. It's the foundation. If you took Elvis and [Black] Sabbath out of my life, I probably wouldn't be the Glenn Danzig you know! I'm glad both sides are represented on this record." Two songs from outlaw biker films of the late 1960s are covered: "Devil's Angels" from the 1967 film of the same title, and "Satan" from 1969's Satan's Sadists. A cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's 1967 hit "Some Velvet Morning" was recorded as a duet featuring former Runaways singer Cherie Currie, but was left off of the final album because, according to Glenn, "the publisher wouldn't let us use the song because they didn't like what we did with it." He also stated that a cover of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western theme was recorded, but that he was "not happy with the way it came out, but maybe I'll fix it and put it on some kind of limited edition thing."

TITTLE / ORIGINAL PERFOMERS:

01. "Devil's Angels" - Davie Allan & The Arrows

02. "Satan" - Paul Wibier

03. "Let Yourself Go" - Elvis Presley

04. "N.I.B." - Black Sabbath

05. "Lord of the Thighs" - Aerosmith

06. "Action Woman" - The Litter

07. "Rough Boy" - ZZ Top

08. "With a Girl Like You" - The Troggs

09. "Find Somebody" - The Young Rascals

10. "Crying in the Rain" - The Everly Brothers