Dokken/ Back For The Attack(1987)

 Rokken Dokken Rokken Dokken….

There I said it! Love Dokken! To me even with there 80’s output of 4 studio albums and 1 Double Live they were pretty consistent with their albums…

In 1987 Dokken released the super-duper long Back For The Attack and to this day I still remember the ads for it saying it was over 60 minutes of Rokken With  Dokken! Now that’s giving the Fan base what they want. This was easily a quick purchase upon release  and I along with many others scooped it up quick when it hit the shelves… If were keeping score it went to #13 on the U.S Charts and to # 25 on the Canadian  Charts.

A lot of years have passed and it was when Mikey Ladano reviewed this album I thought “Sheeeeit…I gotta dust off that bad boy and give it  a listen!” So listen I did and here are my Dokken Facts!

Incase you forgot Dokken is….

Don Dokken – lead vocals
George Lynch – guitar
Jeff Pilson – bass, background vocals
Mick Brown – drums, background vocals

Back For The Attack Track Listing….

Side 1
1. “Kiss of Death” George Lynch, Don Dokken, Jeff Pilson 5:51
2. “Prisoner” Lynch, Pilson, Mick Brown 4:20
3. “Night by Night” Pilson, Lynch, Brown, Dokken 5:23
4. “Standing in the Shadows” Dokken, Lynch, Pilson 5:07
5. “Heaven Sent” Dokken, Lynch, Pilson 4:52
6. “Mr. Scary” (instrumental) Lynch, Pilson 4:31

Side two

7. “So Many Tears” Dokken, Lynch, Pilson 4:56
8. “Burning Like a Flame” Lynch, Pilson, Dokken, Brown 4:46
9. “Lost Behind the Wall” Lynch, Brown, Dokken, Pilson 4:19
10. “Stop Fighting Love” Pilson, Lynch, Dokken, Brown 4:52
11. “Cry of the Gypsy” Dokken, Pilson, Lynch 4:51
12. “Sleepless Night” Lynch, Brown, Pilson 4:32
13. “Dream Warriors” Lynch, Pilson 4:42

13 Tracks! That’s a lot of L.A Hullabaloo so let’s see what the Dokken Crew can muster up…..

Lynch one of the 80s Guitar Hero’s leads off with a SuperStar Riff that charges out of the gate and that would be Kiss Of Death. George is cranked and blasting off like a rocket along with Pilson and Brown leading the charge for Don and his melodic rock voice to come in and take over. Don sings the tale of the Kiss Of Death and it’s  about Aids and Wowzers has Don been hanging out with Bono circa 1987 in preaching? Na…..this is Dokken! On one hand Don will tell you all be careful about what you’re doing while on the other hand  Dokken and staff were stocking up on Party Treats!  Great opening track and Lynch lifts off….

Prisoner being Track 2 is one of mine and I believe Mikey Ladano’s Fav’s as well! It seems to be a forgotten Dokken track as I don’t think they ever tackled this live but it oozes cool! Lynch once again sets his guitar ablaze right  off the bat with a great intro solo while the verses are chill and the chorus take us into money shot…

Night By Night  keeps the party going and its a great song and like many a good band the song is built by the riff. This mid tempo rocker features some good vocals by Don and George of course takes over. Like all good thing syrupy from the 80s Night By Night will keep you humming all night long…..ummmm thats a stretch but if you were my age when this album was released(I turned 20 in 1987) you’ll know what I mean!

 Yep. I dig Standing In the Shadows. The Boys dig deep and come up with a real good pre chorus which is Dokken catchy. Lynch plays another one of my fav solo’s here. That is the thing with these guys and Ratt. Both of these bands had great lead guitar players Ratt with Warren Di Martini and Lynch hanging around Dokken. Plus they had the songs to back it up.

Heaven Sent is melodic Dokken at it’s best. George takes a different approach and instead of playing Guitar Hero he takes a back seat plays some nice clean electric almost Ed Halen like picking. The chorus is an excellent written piece of Rock. The song falls far from wimpdom  as  Brown keeps the  song moving at a decent clip!

Mr Scary is George locking Don out of the studio and slamming down a bunch of Riff N Rolls in a musical Tour De Force with Mick slamming double bass drums while Pilson plays his Simple Simon Bass Licks and Lynch solo’s solo’s and solo’s…..

Thats just Side 1

So Many Tears is a Dokken Melodic Metal To A T! Great straight ahead rocker to start things on Side 2! Dokken 87 was a great band and there friggin egos between the guitar player and singer destroyed this band. At the time I always thought  why can’t Dokken be like Sam Halen in getting along and such. Boy was I  a ding a ling in thinking that way! George and Don combusted as they were about to really make the move from opening  act into Headlining Arenas and KABOOM!  They all went solo and came nowhere near what they had as a unit in Dokken. Maybe they had suffered brain damage from all that hair spray whiffing around when they shot the cover for 1985’s Under Lock And Key. See Hair Do’s Pic Below…..

HAHAHAHA….remember the video to this tune! This is the case of a Fruity Video ruining a good tune. At the time I giggled as Don and The Boys are blasted off their rockers and hanging off a Fire Truck! Ok I Geddit…Burning Like A Flame if you close your eyes and not watch the video is a real good track..Frigg Yeah I’m posting it…

Did you watch it? Cool in some ways back than when you were a 80s Rocker in LA and you could  get Loaded and cruise around on a Fire Truck while Mick Brown plays his drum sticks on a ladder for Fucks sake! Sounds like I’m bitter? You bet your Ass I am! Hahaha… In 1988 I was washing dishes in a Hospital Kitchen while George is playing pool with his guitar in a rock video!  Aaaaaaaargh! FTW!

For myself and myself only the next three tracks Lost Behind The Wall/Stop Fighting Love and Cry OF The Gypsy are ok tracks. Nothing I really want to discuss about them but that there ok. Filler like perhaps? I dunno when I spun them for this review after not listening to them for years they didn’t really do it. Even back in 87-88 I recall these songs being a slog to get through…

Sleepless Nights! Wowzers what a great end of the album GEM! Lynch set’s sail with a Sleazy L.A.  like Riff and were off! This mid paced walloper has a real good chorus and yes as per protocol whether Don likes it or not George carries a lot of the Dokken albums with his playing. Real cool use of some percussion during the chorus as well. Bona fide Winner! Sleepless Nights puts the Dokken train back on track after the slight derailment of the previous 3 songs!

Dream Warriors. Another decent tune which was included here as I didn’t ever seldom buy Soundtrack albums. (Come to think of it Tbone had a pretty decent one back in the day which I should review sometime) Dream Warriors is a decent paced end of the album throwdown track album which the boys hang out with Freddy Kruger…. Read an interesting  blurb (Think it was in the excellent I Want My MTV  book) that when Dokken was filming the video to this track i read something about Krugers Finger Nails/Blow and Dokken? Ummm you figure it out…….HA!

Dokken put out a fine album stuffed with 13 tracks! I think if they would have shaved of the 3 song’s that didn’t do it for me they would have still had a decent 10 song album which was a lot stronger than what others were putting out at the time…….