SONIC WAVES….Autograph/Autograph

Huh! What!? Trust me I said that myself but back in 84 these L.A homeboys of David Lee Roth were the opening act on the Mighty Halens 1984 Tour! So there Ya go as far as my tie in with these guys!

Now say what you will ….

Steve Plunkett was the lead singer,rhythm guitar player and main songwriter and by golly he wrote for the most part a Pop Tart  kind of record and by that I mean there’s layers of sugary toppings sprinkled all over the place by new hot shot guitarist Steve Lynch (he no relation to Curious George Lynch from Dokken that rhymes with Rokken!) but these guys were pretty good for one record.

Tbone building up his cassette collection bought Autographs second album That’s The Stuff and I passed come to think of it Tbone never talked about it much either….hmmmm.

So Plunkett,Lynch,Randy Rand,Keni Richards,Steve Isham(RIP)for the most part put out something that when I listened to it recently didn’t make me barf!(that’s saying something!)

TURN IT UUUUUUUUUP!

SEND HER TO ME- Wowzers this track transports me back to 1984 with Send Her To Me. Right off the hop the guitars,drums,bass and are  mixed right up alongside Ishams keyboards. Holy crap it works this is a great track with a real great HOOK! Send Heeeeer To Meeeeee …Send Heeeeeeer To Meeeeeee sings Plunkett and he delivers a grand slam right off the top! First song in and a classic,verses,prechorus and chrous are mint! ……I have no problem saying that even today! You scoff at me …Ha click the video! You still scoffing ..well ok than……

TURN UP THE RADIO- ha….just watch the video posted! There’s really no other words to explain it! Hahahaha. This is the song that put Autograph on the rock map in records sold and them in print magazines like Hit Parader and Circus. Good on Plunkett writing a big hit single and I’m sure opening up for Van Halen certainly moved a few albums sold as well. Good for them! Basically there biggest single and after that no other singles would come close! I could be wrong and if i am forward your questions of concern to Tbone as he is owner of the proud second Autograph release That’s The Stuff!

NINETEEN AND NON STOP- power rocker and these guys are like if Honeymoon Suite back in 1984 powered down a bunch of speed and Jack down the musical chute!  The song begins with the chorus which is kinda cool and than shifts into blast mode! Autograph were big on the  backing vocals and Lynch plays a neat little nifty solo! Plunkett if anything has a unique voice and that may be the difference I hear between them and the Honeymoon Suite debut of 1984 as well! Oh yes of course the speed and Jack Daniels….

DEEP END- keyboard fuzzy intro and the band jacks it up and this is song about the bottom of the bottle! Can Ya relate? Going off the Deep End throw Ol Plunky a rope will Ya! He’s asking! Good mid tempo rock tune!

MY GIRLFRIENDS BOYFRIEND ISNT ME- I guess Keni the drummer dude counts this track in. Steve says he wants to tell us a story of well the title does say it all doesn’t it! This has the trappings of rock tune 1984 ….underground keys filling in the sound…drums plodding along and power chords,big vocals!

THRILL OF LOVE- Lynch starts off with his guitar and this song is another mid tempo rock track! Keys are upfront in this tune and this may have been a single or maybe not! Not bad track for the time!

FRIDAY- Lynch dials up a little neat picking at the beginning and Rand on his bass try’s to keep up! This is another straight simple rock track! Nothing fancy nothing technical just Autograph!

IN THE NIGHT- oh boy this is sucky 80s rock and man. Plunkett is following the game here in other words. He’s trying to write his own catchy pop hooks! For me though….this is musical turd rock! Skip!

ALL IM GONNA TAKE- Lynch starts off like he does on many tracks! This is a decent send off of the Autograph album. Just a simple forward rock track! Nuthin fancy …..

IN CONCLUSION- Plunkett,Lynch and Crew put out in 1984 a decent debut and for me well that was it for my purchases of anything Autograph but man I will say that 31 years later Send Her To Me is a real good rock track! For a debut though it should have warranted another purchase but Tbone took the plunge and well thanks man for doing that! (I still owe you)  seriously though Autograph ahhh who knows how big they coulda got and for my money I really dug Honeymoon Suite more( this style of Rock) but man The Suite did themselves no favour to me by doing that friggin Wave Babies song …..but in all,Honeymoon had way more consistency with there following albums  than Autograph had!