3/4’s Filler…Y&T/Down For The Count

TBone asked me to do a review on the flip side of a Sonic wave and that would be an album or two that irked me at the time.  I thought  what a challenge and there are some albums that I just could not wrap my head around at the time and now is a good time as any to do this….

So Batter up!

Back in highschool me and TBone would like  try too out album scoop each other at times,of course when the huge releases would come out we would be there in line together buying the latest sellers ie Halen/Cru/,Ratt etc. but then there would be times when we weren’t in line together and this is one em……

So one day back in late 1985 as I was headed out of the door of my highschool (Lakeview) and going home TBone and a buddy who we called JackLoaf roared up beside me in Jackloafs truck into the parking lot with windows down and tunes a blaring!

The conversation went like sumthin like this….

deke- ‘Hey man what’s up?

Tbone- ‘Nuthin much check this out’

(TBone cranks up the tape deck in Jackloafs truck)

Tbone-‘deke! Do you know what this is?”

( I knew I heard the toon from years past and it was Your Mama Don’t Dance)

deke-‘I dunno man sounds really weak”

TBone went from I’m gonna fool this bastard look to a look of horror when I didn’t take the bait put forth by his rock trap! One of the very times in our 40 yrs of friendship I  have seen TBone dumbfounded!

deke-  Well man what is it ??

At this point TBone said Nuthin JackLoaf was speechless and TBone finally put forth a mild ‘Y&T’ …what? How could it be ? I mean Y&T I first heard a few years earlier with BlackTiger and Meanstreak thru a pal named John Young. Of course I picked up on his lead and purchased those along with their latest release at the time In Rock We Trust but you could hear in the grooves the change of commercialism in there sound and even though this was the case I still bought into it . John Young did not, he got off at the next bus stop in regards to Y&T saying they sold out. Hardcore that fellas was!

Sure my first impression was Your Mama Don’t Dance and the snapping of the fingers in the track at the beginning were just plain right brutal ! Of course a few years later Poison put Your Mama ….out as well as a single and it sold like gangbusters. Dave Meniketti must have lost it back than.

Upon further inspection what an appropriately named album Down For a The Count.Yep  as far as I was concerned Y&T were and what a goofy album cover. Compared to the Maiden covers and even Black Tiger and Meanstreak covers this one  was awful.

I did borrow Tbones cassette and man the use of keyboards just bogged this album into like a bunch of Journey scraps left on the floor and Y&T came along and went thru the trash and manufactured this into Down For The Count! The songs don’t do it for me (Don’t Tell Me What To Wear,Look like Trouble,In The Name Of Rock)man I dunno what else to tell ya…TRAINWRECK  comes to mind but this may be a result of record company politics calling the shots!

I had bought in the summer of 85 Y&T  Open Fire the live release they put out which was good and it had the studio version of Summertime Girls on it and it was so out-of-place with the rest of Open Fire meaning Y&T were a serious rock machine live and then the twiddly keyboard infested sonic of Summertime Girls just ruined the vibe of Open Fire! This my followers is what you call a Red Flag!

Having said all of this about Down For The Count I did still buy their next release Contagious with the title track featuring some whoah whoah whoah your Contagious so Dangerous! Ha somewhat goofy but a better effort! The album after Contagious I bought was there farewell live album from 1990. It had a ripping version of Meanstreak man I couldn’t get enough of that version ! Don’t believe me ask my bro Todd he must have heard that tune a million times over in the summer of 91!

But back to 1985…it’s ok TBone ya got duped and the Y&T ship was sinking and I had to throw ya a life-preserver and well since there was only one life-preserver I had to let Jackloaf go down in the S.S Y&T !

IN CONCLUSION – hey if you think a Down For a The Count is a classic that’s alright and your still ok in my books! It’s good to agree/disagree at times, makes conversation especially in the musical realm interesting! I gotta get to work on another one of these 3/4 Fillers shortly….