Old Dude School of Rock-1984- PART 1

HEY FOLK’S! When I was compiling this list of 1984 releases it became pretty clear that I could not jam all the albums that caught my listening ear in 1984 into one post. In other words, this is going to a 3 part series!  Yup, that’s how much of an impact 1984 had on me musically! So enjoy Part 1…

As 1983 rolled into 1984 the first band out of the gate in the new year was Van Halen with Jump being the first single off of well you guessed it 1984! The album itself dropped in January and we were all first-day buyers as who wouldn’t be? Roth cooked up a bunch of cool lyrics about being Hot For Teacher while Ed dialed in a bunch of cool solos. Let’s don’t forget Alex’s drums leading the charge and Bassist Mikey Anthony‘s backing vocals. One of the all-time great records!

Tbone heard my copy of 1984 and then went out and purchased the other 5 Halen studio albums at that exact moment! Talk about an Impact Album.

Top Jimmy cooks, Top Jimmy swings.

Nuff Said!

Gene/Paul and Eric Carr along with here today gone tomorrow guitarist Mark St John released the very decent KISS album Animalize. Some decent tracks and Paul and Desmond Child hit paydirt with Heaven’s On Fire. Gene wrote Burn Bitch Burn with that classic line of…

When love rears its head, I wanna get on your case
Ooh baby, wanna put my log in your fireplace

Once again Nuff Said.

Queensryche released The Warning which had a different sound and a different vibe considering their EP from 83 was balls-out metal. This album was a real slow grower on me but one track that just floored me and still does tho this day is NM-156. What a corker of a track. I finally picked The Warning up on vinyl a few years ago and I finally could really appreciate it more now than back than. I guess that’s saying something right?

Filling a void that KISS wasn’t doing anymore in 84 came in the form of W.A.S.P who released there self-titled debut that featured all four guys wearing makeup and leather and a prop that was called The Rack. Like KISS though W.A.S.P wrote anthems like I Wanna Be Somebody which got a fair bit of video play and how about the classic L.O.V.E Machine! Give Blackie Lawless credit he had me on board with this debut and the followup The Last Command and then I resigned from WASP until 89’s Headless Children and then resigned yet again. Forever.

Another band that like WASP that came from California was Armoured Saint who I bought hook line and sinker with that whole medieval look they had going along with a cool track titled Can U Deliver. John Bush has a great voice and that’s what drew me to these guys at first. Bush, as you may recall, was offered the lead vocal spot for Metallica back around this time but turned it down?!

It’s it’s a Ballroom Blitz. Swiss cheese heads Krokus put out the streamlined sounding The Blitz that had some pretty good tracks on it like the opener Midnite Maniac and Out of Control. The Blitz had the production team of Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock so you know they weren’t fooling around so to speak. Headhunter from 83 I like more but when I’m in the mood for some ‘Let’s break into the American Market Rock‘ The Blitz covers the bases.

Judas Priest came at us with the mighty Defenders of the Faith. What a classic followup to 82’s Screaming For Vengeance. Rob Halford and company basically knocked my bedroom door off its hinges with opening track Freewheel Burning and from there it was a full out metal assault. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll/Love Bites/ Rock Hard Ride Free and The Sentinel just crush. Even today this album still crushes. Priest had an awesome run from 1979 to 1986 with what I could their classic period. To me that is!

TNT was a band that came from my Grandmother’s birth country that is Norway. I bought this back then but for some reason could not wrap my head around it. Maybe it was the falsetto singing or maybe the songs just weren’t there but I bought this so I guess you could say for the cover. Remember Folk’s there was no iTunes/Spotify/YouTube no siree it was always a gamble on taking chances on bands that you never had heard. No try before you buy back then.

Akimbo Alogo from fellow Canuck is one of Kim Mitchell‘s best full-length albums ever! Tons of ripping guitar solos (Rumour Has It) and just some real tasty nugget tracks as in That’s a Man and Diary For RockN Roll Men. Go For Soda was the biggie single on Akimbo but for me, it’s Lager And Ale which just cranks and Wowzers check out that fab solo as well!

Hey, I’ll pay your bar tab and even the cab, baby
Off to the hotel, we’ll wallow.

Check back Thursday for another 9 pack of records from 1984!