Motley Crue/Saints of Los Angeles(2008)

 

Nikki Sixx man! You gotta hand it to him as once again I drank from the Motley Kool Aide and was duped….

This time it’s 2008 and I’m about to turn 41!? I’m still being fooled! Haha… If you recall from my other Crue reviews I was in my late teens(Mid 80’s) when the Crue were riding high with Multiple Platinum albums/Sold Out Tours/Tons of Press and I was lapping it all up!

Funny though that some of their 80’s output which I reviewed haven’t really stood the test of time…If you dig around the site I have reviewed a ton of their stuff…

To save you time though How about a quick little summary of each review I done…

(for all you Canadian Readers we can call this the Coles Note Section I posted a pic of three titles below! Basically they were cheater books back in the 80s which would explain certain book titles in a lot fewer pages than the actual book and for ding dong’s  like me in simpler english like King Lear. )*****

Too Fast For Love(1981)- Wicked Awesome Debut!

Shout At The Devil(1983)-Not bad..not as good as the debut but a pretty decent follow-up! Bastaaaaaard!

Theatre of Pain(1985)-Oh oh Vinnie destroys a band in seconds(Hanoi Rocks) while Sixx digs in his bag of trixx and tries to save this album from the scrap heap! If it wasn’t for the Home Sweet Home track I think even in the mid 80’s this album would have tanked quicker than Tbone shot gunning back a quick 12 pack of Molson Canadian Beer!

Girls/Girls/Girls(1987)- Crue keeps partying and release this piece of unproduced slop a roo! Sixx I guess is into the brown sugar  and this album limps along and man oh man Your All I Need and Jailhouse Rock are the last two songs on the album  and are awful. This album has a large D.N.R on it(Do Not Recessitate)

Dr Feelgood-Bob Rock finally gives the Crue a big Rock(no pun) sound that still holds up today. The title track is a smorgasboard of all great things that the Crue could do.  Big ass rhythms/pounding bass/cool guitars/tons of percussion and that is just the opening track. Of course there’s silliness in the form of Sticky Sweet and She Goes Down but this can be forgiven ..somewhat!

Motley Corabi(1994)- The self titled album after Vinnie gets the boot and in comes John Corabi  in which the Crue put out what I consider their best studio album since the debut and last real good album. We all know the story of the Corabi album as it tanked. The tour tanked and Nikki/Tommy send Corabi packing like it was his fault! Bullshit I say as Johnnie got a raw deal…..

Generation Swine(1997)- Vince returns to save the day. Well that’s what we’re led to believe but this album is Crue going techno metal and when I reviewed it a while back it kinda grew on me like I wanted to trash it but I kinda didn’t mind it. Sure there’s filler! Glitter is pure yuck but saying that songs like   Black Beauty and Afraid  are brilliant.  To this day love the cover…Pigs! Generation Swine  for myself is like a wart on your body that won’t go away…

There ya have my reviews.  Short n simple if you want the full sordid stories of each one just search around, there all there….

Ok…so Saints of Los Angeles comes out and I want to give a chance! How many times have I been down Tricky Sixx Avenue?

So this is another one of those Crue albums that was tough listen….

13 Tracks and so I dialled this album up on my iPod. After not listening to it since well….2008 would my opinions change?

L..A.M.F is the opener albeit a minute and a half of silliness with  Vince’s voice and devilish sounding guitars  and what not..which leads into

Face In The Dirt is Motley flexing their muscle with a cranked up sound on guitars especially with the production. This tune is actually not a bad opener. Almost punk mashed up with Motley Metal. It’s basically the Crue defying everything around them and instead of conforming they would rather be dead? Um ok! Mars plays a real slick solo…

What’s It Gonna Take is another pretty decent track sounds total autobiographical as these guys had to fight for there right to party! Mars plays again plays some slick guitar. Sleazy Vince’s voice sounds quite good here and for good measure he tosses down a few M’fuckers out for good measure…

Down At The Whiskey keeps the autobiographical Crue tales rolling around Motley’s favourite water hole from yesteryear.  Not a bad track actually. Kinda funny as I was listening to this album I wonder how many takes it took to get Vinnie to sing these songs as live he’s Mr Huff N Puff…

Actually Saints of Los Angeles the title track with its vibe  and song wise harken back to the Feelgood days of yesteryear. Neat groove as Vince try’s  to be a tough guy. Hahaha…Nice drumming by Tommy Lee….

I always find it amusing when dudes who are in there 40’s try to be tough guys and with MotherFucker of The Year ol Nikki is flexing his rock muscle and this tune is real good as the course is so catchy. I mean be careful when this song gets lodged in the back of your brain! Here I am again ….I’m The Motherfucker of The Year! Thanks Nikki I’m in my late 40’s and now I’m a tough guy minus the Tats/Money and Mansion! Love the video edit. Sounds like Vince is singing MotherFuger of The Year!. Maybe that’s why Sixx is flapping his arms around at those security guys in the video…..

Well…

The rest of the album kinda gets lost on me..

Animal In Me….meh!

Welcome To The Machine is a straight ahead slop of a rocker nothing special here folks. One part of this track has Vince panting right before the start of Mars solo…

Just Another Psycho another straight ahead rocker that just does nothing. Vince sings the line “I should be committed for being so Twisted” Ha…. Another Slop Rocker…

Chicks=Trouble Great title but the song just has nothing going for it. No catchy hook…no catchy like MotherFucker of The Year chorus..nothing… Next!

This Ain’t A Love Song has Tommy starting off the song with his straight ahead drum beat. Sounds like a leftover from Generation Swine. 

White Trash Circus does squat….

Going Out Swinging ends the album with a full-out assault with he Crue playing a fast tempo  with nothing to write home about. Even after the song slows down only to ramp back up…Not interested… Safe to say that the Crue went out swinging and striking out as well!

What can I say….

Believe it or not this album started off promising but after M’Fucker Of The Year it was a real hard listen to get through this album. Should have released this an EP.  I  got hosed by Sixx again!

Pass the fucking Kool Aide!

***** -of course all my reviews are in simple English/mistakes and punctuation are a total mess but you get the gist of my silliness right?

 

Krokus/Heart Attack(1988)

 

Krokus named there 1988 release Heart Attack and it was an appropriately named album if there ever was one. It’s basically Krokus flatlining once and for all after a  promising start career wise in the early 1980’s.  By the end of the 80’s Krokus and more importantly there creative gas tank was on empty….

The dry up started back in the 86 with the Change Of Address album where Krokus got all glammed up and put out a stinker of an album. I bought it…..Tbone bought it….we were fooled by the zany Swiss fellows…. Krokus man in that pic below would have had their asses handed to them if they were involved in a street brawl against the Village People!

Swiss Cheese…

Marc Storace – vocals
Fernando von Arb – lead guitar
Mark Kohler – rhythm guitar
Chris von Rohr – bass, piano, percussion
Dani Crivelli – drums

Tbone was smart. He zipped right off the Krokus Tour Bus after the Change Of Address fiasco whereas I stayed the course and bought the awful live album Alive And Screaming.  The awful part was the recording of  it. I think I only listened to it a few times as the sound was atrocious. The cover was Goofy….see pic below…

See what I mean….Gah!  Show a live action shot for Gawd’s sake! Crap Cover =Crap Album…

Yet still…

1988 and Krokus ditch the glam look that scared Tbone away and went for a street look and a back to basics kinda vibe with trying to release a Rock N Raw album. Like a true Music Fan Boy I bought  Heart Attack in the summer of 88 on cd….

The verdict….

Not Good! It’s surprising that outside the drummer this is the classic lineup that demolished my senses with the Headhunter release from 1983. Von Rohr split before the Blitz album from 84 but returns here to salvage a sinking ship but it’s too late ….

Code Blue…The Song’s..

Side one
“Everybody Rocks” – 3:50
“Wild Love” – 4:01
“Let It Go” – 4:31
“Winning Man” (Fernando von Arb, Chris von Rohr) – 5:15 (originally on Hardware)
“Axx Attack” – 4:24

Side two
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Tonight” – 3:58
“Flyin’ High” (Krokus, Jürg Naegeli) – 4:14
“Shoot Down the Night” – 4:37
“Bad, Bad Girl” – 5:58
“Speed Up” – 6:24

The only song I recall even somewhat liking 1988 style is Let It Go(posted the video for it) …

The production handled by Von Rohr and Von Arb is decent enough but that isn’t gonna salvage the tunes…

 

Motley Crue/New Tattoo(2000)

The 90s were kinda brutal for Motley Crue…

QuickTime Line…..By Deke…

1992- Vince Neil (singer) gets canned! 

1994-Crue release what I would consider there second best album (after the debut) in the self titled Motley Crue or as I call it Motley Corabi  featuring John Corbai as the new singer.. Album and Tour Flop!

1997-Corabi gets the Boot. Sleazy Vince returns and the Crue release Generation Swine(Flop #2) which I consider a better record than most others but  doesn’t really do much sales wise!

1999-Tommy Lee splits and is replaced by Randy Castillo(RIP)….

So at the start of the New Millennium( 2000) Nikki Sixx dusts off his Dr Feelgood Leather Trouser’s for one more kick at Hair Metal  Throne Of Yesteryear to see if there’s another shot  at Success…

And Guess What Folks?! This one kinda fuses out but there are a few good ones here….

Now for me at the time I bought all this stuff the day of or the week of when new releases would come out….I would play the album non stop of course but over time some fall to the wayside and New Tattoo does.

Having not listened to this album since 2000 pretty much I’m gonna steamroll through some tracks and to be quite honest let’s see how my memory holds up….

 

Hell On High Heels- Pretty decent track. I thought it was a typical throwback Crue tune which would have fit nice and snuggly on Side 2 of 1987’s Girls/Girls/Girls album. These are the kind of tunes that Motley could excel at but by this time not too many were caring. Motley raised the Musical Bar High(and probably drank it dry) on the 94 Corabi album. There playing on that album is phenomenal to say the least as they went from Chucky Cheese Rock of Dr Feelgood into a Music Blender stuffed full of Pissed Off Feelings mixed with a slab dose of Dirty Grunge tunings and no one Fuckin cared! Except Myself/Robbo and Tbone!

Treat Me Like The Dog I Am- No dice Amigo….

New Tattoo-The Title Track and well …….Next

Dragship Superstar- Oh Boy a pattern is developing here…

1st Band On The Moon-Ah …Sixx reaches down into his Musical Bag of Trixx and nails off a Gem! This has those 80s Trimmings of a Kewl Chorus. Go figure as Sixx is the lone co writer on this song. Perhaps he should have taken a few more years and just wrote the album himself.

She Needs Rock n Roll- ?

Punched In The Teeth By Love- I wish Nikki would have had this title back in the Crue’s 80’s Heyday and used Punch In The Teeth By Love and written a Power Ballad for it and placed it once again on Side 2 of the Girl’s album and taken off that Your All I Need track. Yeah that one where it Sounds like Vince has taken his cue from Mr Stanley from KISS’s 1984 Album Animalize and sung in the Highest Vocal Registry possible. Hey don’t bash me I actually like Animalize but man Stanley sang so high-pitched on that album my cat went bonker’s……Since were keeping score here…I have no idea what this song is about but what a  Great Fackin Title!

Hollywood Ending-  For $1  Alex (Trebek) I’m thinking Ballad? Can’t recall….

Fake- I like this track. Sixx writes whats Fake around him. Fake People/Fake This/Fake That. Great Sludgey like tune, Dirty Crue  even Vince sounds Sleazy Good on this track, They should have called the album Fake/Fake/Fake. 

Porno Stars- No recollection of remembering this tune Judge Judy.

White Punks On Dope- This is an Iggy & The Stooges cover and I don’t even know how this tune goes…..

I’m sure there are some out there that Dig this album and for that I Salute You! Seriously I do…

For me …Man it’s on my iPod but I skip it all together. Maybe I’m being a tad harsh but cut me some slack man I littered Sixx’s and The Crues pockets full of dough through the 80s into the 90’s so if its  dud  I’m calling  ya out on it!

If anything the titles on this album are Cool! Sixx though was trying to keep the Crue afloat by  putting out product and touring. By the time  the tour rolled around Castillo got Cancer and had to give up his drum stool….I think Ladano reviewed this album so check out all the Nitty Gritty Details over at his site……

I even bought the new Crue album  Saints of Los Angeles.

See! Bands still can put out mediocre at best stuff and I will still stick around. I’m Kinda like the Dude who doesn’t  know when to leave the party after everyone has left and all you wanna do is sleep off your Late Night Drunkenness…

Party’s Over So Get The (Bleep) Out!

 

 

Poison/Look What The Cat Dragged In(1986)

Haven’t done one of these(3/4’s Filler) in a while and since I rip on Poison  in other reviews on this site all the time  why not delve into something a little deeper like this debut from Poison.

Look What The Cat Dragged In  was the name! Hairspray/Lipstick/Cheese Rock was the game. Fair enough these guys sold a shitload of records and hey I’m not that Evil as I dig the followup (Open Up And Say AHHH) . Flesh&Blood released in 1990 was good also (some filler but pretty decent).

As you followers all know I caught along with our friend Oinks, Tbone and T’s younger brother Rugg, Poison in Jan/1991 in Winnipeg and I’ll leave it a that for now!(review is on the site)

But let’s back up to 1986…

Read in Circus Magazine that Poison is opening for RATT so if those cool rodent rockers are letting Poison open up they must be decent so I checked em out and bought this album at a record shop called Poor Pete’s here in Tbay. They had a dude that worked there that was a splitting image of  Randy Rhoads and that day Randy Rhoads sold me the album(nice guy from what I remember)…

I played the album and it was ok. I mean I’m 18 so I’m easily influenced and basically buying everything in sight at the time (1986).Like I always did was to scoot on over to my best pal Tbones place and show off my latest purchase.  Tbone took a look at the cover squinted and asked me…well our conversation went something like this…

(For people  reading on a device that doesn’t show the you tube clips below I have posted the cover of LWTCDI along with the track Cry Tough. Just so you can get an idea where I’m coming from…

TBone: “Is that a chick on the bottom right hand corner?”

For a split second I thought of telling Tbone Yup it’s girl and her name is Rikki Rockett  she plays the drums. It would have been cool to hear Tbone tell our fellow hard rockers at the time  that the chick drummer in Poison is awesome! haha….anyways back to reality…1986 style

Deke: “Naaa it’s a dude but shit they could all pass as chicks..”

TBone:”Where did you get this?”

Deke: “Poor Petes. Randy Rhoads sold it to me….”

TBone:” Let’s Go I need this….’

We hopped into Tbones hot rod and headed down to Poor Petes. Tbone wanted the cassette  copy! Randy Rhoads  didn’t have it in stock or for that matter there was not any vinyl left as well. We hit all the record shops A&A Records/Sam The Record Man/Kings Stereo/St James Stereo and about 4 different Music City  locations! We hit all the record shops as listed none of them had Poison.

We had to go to Plan B which was for me to record this for Tbone on a Maxwell cassette tape which would hold Tbone over until he could purchase the tape at a later date. Which he did…

(Now two years later in 1988 Tbone scored Poison’s sophomore Open Up And Say Ahhh the first day before I even got my hands on it! Read the sordid tales of this fine story here…)
https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/sonic-waves-poisonopen-up-and-say-ahh/

Wowzers were all being Poisoned!

So the first single drops and it’s Cry Tough. What a great opening number and first single even though it bombed on the charts and no one cared but I. Still think it’s a solid track 30 years later!  The pre chorus with the drums and guitars colliding is Gold! Speaking of which Tbone does a bang on impersonation of  Elvis singing Cry Tough! Dump a few Beers down the Man’s Hatch and you just never know when Elvis Michaels will reappear!

30 years on and yeah it’s a bit of tough sledding getting through this record. The last 3 tracks(Blame It On You/#1 Bad Boy/On With The Show) I couldn’t even bother with dunno why to me they haven’t aged well and perhaps neither have I.

Compare it say to RATT’s “Dancing Undercover” album from 86 as well and I have no problem getting through that album as its sleaze rock 101 even 30 years later but Look What The Cat Dragged In sold tons more. So there ya go!

But there are some good songs like Want Some, Need Some even for Poison with stuffiness schmooze tunes. I Won’t Forget You is a pretty decent written track! The title track is not too shabby as well I mean the lyrics are friggin funny and hokey but sometimes hokey can be cool. After all its the 80s!

But yeah Bret Michaels/C.C.Deville/Bobby Dall and Rikki Rocket hit pay dirt with this record so good on them!

Didn’t Motorhead have a track at the time called The Chase Is Better Than The Catch? Wonder what Tbone would say now about it. Was the chase to get a copy of this cassette worth the catch?

Cheap Trick /Lap Of Luxury(1988)

Cheap Trick….always loved the quirkiness of these Rockford Illinois dudes! How could you not! You had the two cool looking Rock guys (Robin Zander & Tom Petersson) and the two looking Geeks( Rick Nielsen & Bun E Carlos)  Great marketing job and it worked for years especially with the album covers (In Color & Heaven Tonight) but say what you want about image it was the music that did the talking but with these guys with the hits came the misfires. Albums that kinda skidded by the wayside fell short in Trickville.

1986s The Doctor album I reviewed and tossed it under the bus! The first song(It’s Up To You) and the last song (It’s Only Love) which speaking of It’s Only Love which is a well written piece of Power Trick Pop are the two best tracks from The Doctor. In between was a hodge podge of lack lustre material to say the least. Here’s my link to my review of The Doctor……https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/34s-filler-cheap-trickthe-doctor/

I was pretty stoked to learn that after a 8 year absence Petersson was returning with his 12 String Hamer Bass replacing Jon Brandt who filled in admirably while Tom was doing whatever it was he was doing….

1988 and after the debacle which was The Doctor here comes Lap Of Luxury which to my ears is another misstep in Cheap Tricks mid 80s to early 90s commercial slide ….

Course I bought it!

The first couple of tracks are just straight ahead  syrupy power rock. Album opener Let Go could have been a great track but its  washed in keyboards and Bun E’s drums are mixed in a sterile box along with all the trappings of dudes who are floundering for any second crack at success.

No Mercy is another so so tune. Zander and his voice save the day from this song from hitting the scrap yard just like how Brad Delp salvaged Bostons Third Stage album.  Zander can sing. Wowzers even Rick drops a guitar solo in this song amidst electronic everything floating around.

Yikes! The Flame for me is a sellout track. Trick especially Nielsen hated this tune as no one in Trick had any say in the writing of it! I will say that I was glad it got Trick back in the spotlight and made them cool again and this song I’m sure people out there like it. Fair enough but not me….Cool Cheap Trick for me is stuff like She’s Tight from 1982s criminally underrated  One On One album…..

Space is like if you were to mash-up The Cars/Cheap Trick and I like this song. ‘I need some space’ belts Robin in a Ric Ocasek kinda way and toss in some female backing vocals and its Quirky Trick with an added tinge of Quirky Cars. This is a good song in a 1988 way!

Try as they may Trick tries to muster up some rock serious rock and Never Had A Lot To Lose is a great song! A driving rock track that has a real good chorus and it only took to track 5 to ramp things back up into old school respectability!

Don’t Be Cruel is the Elvis tune. Good on these guys getting another hit single off of this album but it must have been worrisome that both your big singles from this record are tunes you didn’t  write! In fairness it was a long 10 years (1978-1988) for Cheap Trick to go without a real decent seller and if I was in their boots I  would have done the same thing.

Wrong Side Of Love is decent tempo with a pretty decent chorus  but it gets drowned in a wash of late 80s keys. Holy man even Bun E is slamming that ride cymbal down on this track.

All We Need Is A Dream is pomp rock and another stab at a hit but i think this would fall under ‘NOPE!’ Nuthin fancy here folks…Next….

Unfortunately things are sliding at a rapid pace around here  as Ghost Town is a one stop order of Schlep Rock meaning MEH! Trick in the year of 2016 should sell this song to one of those wannabe New Country Hee Haw acts and they could retool this song and make it a hit. This  song is a slowly slow tune….Next…

All Wound Up has the boys trying to salvage the end of the album blahs with a  ramp up in the tempo but nada nope. It’s just the sign of a band wanting to toss a Life Preserver for any diehard to latch onto.

Cheap Trick man I still love and listen to these guys all the time but its a mix n match of stuff. Love the 70s output! Love 1982’s  One On One album and also the classic 1997 self titled album that is so good that no one knows about….

Lap Of Luxury I  was happy that Trick got another crack at success but in the general scheme of things it was a commercial bunch of mish mash.

 

Motley Crue/Girls Girls Girls (1987)

1987 and I turn 20 years young while that same year Tbone turned 30! Hahahaha…Nope he didn’t he’s just 6 months older than me but hey when opportunity Knocks you gotta kick the door in to bug your best friend!

This post on The Crue came to me when myself and Mikey Ladano were yacking about how a lot of 80s band just put out album after album tour followed by tour and sometimes the bands recorded material suffers…..

Case in point….Girls Girls Girls….

Hop aboard the Arena Rock Tour Bus as we dissect just what the hell went haywire in the Crue Camp….

Nikki Sixx(bass and main songwriter) Vince Neil(when he could  sing) Tommy Lee(drums) and Mick Mars(guitar) are the culprits  here…..

Time for another installment of 3/4s Filler and as per protocol I only toss albums that I have purchased sometimes twice over (like this one) on vinyl and later on cd so my blog, my rules! Hahaha!

Mikey Ladano did make the point over at The KMA site that most Motley Crüe albums half sucked anyways …hahahaha….and Ladano does make a pretty decent point!

For Every Crue Classic Album that I would consider top notch rock (Too Fast For Love and Motley Corabi) there are some duds(Theatre Of Pain and Girls) ….you can read about my yammerimg on Theatre Of Duds here…..https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/34s-filler-motley-crue-theatre-of-pain/

Consider the Bastard dead!  Is that  me?

WILDSIDE-Wowzers Sixx nails a grand slam right off the bat with this tune! With what Sixx is shovelling I’m digging it here! Wildside is a well written piece of LA street rock! From the opening of  Mars wang bar diddle doodle and Lee playing some hard rock cool drum beats  Sixx slams a straight ahead Cliffy Williams of ACDC fame bass line and Boom were off and running and hey Vince man sings this real good and the opening line of Wildslide is the best written opening verse by a LA Glam Rock band ever….”Kneel Down Ye Sinners To Streetwise Religion,Greeds Been Crowned The New King,Hollywood Dream Teams,Yesterday’s Trash Queens,Save The Blessings For The Final Ring,Amen…..Amen indeed! Check out the live vid posted from the Girls Girls Girls Tour! This 8 minute vid has all the trimmings of 80s Arena Rock. You want Vince dropping F Bombs and plugging the new album?  Check! You want a couple of floozie back up singers whose backing vocals are jacked up way to high too the point of hilarious? Check Check! You want a Mars guitar solo in the middle of Wildside? Triple Check! How about a huge live production with pyro,lights and screaming women? Cheque Please Waiter! Yup ,I miss 1987 hahaha…kinda!

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS- ok let’s face it this when I was  20 this was cool. You know the background to this! Sleazy Vince tells the tales of how many bad ass stripper clubs The Crue has visited like The Body Shop and The Marble Arch! I mean the middle part where Tommy and Vince are whistling and calling each other’s names to check out the women is plain dumbo! Thought it was back in 87 and more so in 2015! So for that Blah! Poor Mick Mars by this point he has no choice to go along with the gimmick he plays some good guitar on this record but man it’s amazing you go from a deadly start with Wildside and quickly you start to meander around by track 2! Last time I went into a strip club here in Tbay was  with Tbone,Darr and Rugg and some other yahoos it was for Tbones  Stag night   we got tossed out over the fact that someone punched in some roof tiles! Yup there Ya go we’re bad ass like Sixx and company minus the blow,hookers and Tats! Ummmm I’m gotta think about this one for a sec!

DANCING ON THE GLASS-a big problem for me listening to this album is the production! Tom Werman handles the producers chair here and man the sonics sound weak and sterile! Dull I guess would be the word. Dancing On Glass i dunno Tommy pounds the drums into the ground but Dancing On Glass is really not a spectacular tune!  Just never registered with me…

BAD BOY BOOGIE-kinda like the somewhat Aero Groove here that starts the song! That’s about it. Actually Mars plays a decent solo with Sixx slobbering all over his bass and laying down a decent line(ahem!) The lyrics about getting your hands caught in the cookie jar and getting banged in the back seat of your car are just plain out goofy doofus rock 101! Wonder if Tbone got a lyric writing credit for this Hodgy Podgy piece of rock?

NONA-hey this is about Sixxs GrandMother so  it’s his band his deal and who doesn’t  love there G-Ma! (That’s what my daughters call there Grandma!) it’s all good here man all good!

FIVE YEARS DEAD-side two starts with some promise! I dig Mars and his slide guitar playing over the years I like  his style more now than I did back in the day as poor Mick was buried under a avalanche of LA Hot Shots!  Yeah this song has a neat groove and aero like shuffle ….pretty damn good….

ALL IN THE NAME OF ROCK N ROLL-Drugs,Boobs,Sex,Young Girls are on tap for this tune. Tommy smashes the drums at the beginning and Mick joins in as well Nikki plays a decent bass line but the over dubbed guitars just ruin this song I mean there a ear sore to me anyways if that means anything! Not to Sixx as he cashed his zillion dollar cheque at the bank on the sales of Girls Girls Girls …..

SUMTHIN FOR NUTHIN-Track 8 and pure genius! This is a great great song! Love the groove as it just reeks old school rock! The chorus is just plain sick! Cowbell Tommy and the band lay down a real solid song! Sumthin For Nuthin In and Out Is Never Free yodels Sleazy Vince and man I’m buying what there selling! Hahaha….like the Gang like backing vocals. Crank the video posted!

YOUR ALL I NEED-Sleazy Vince sings in a register so high that my parents probably thought i was skinning the family cat! Ha…seriously though I guess Sixx thought “we hit paydirt with Home Sweet Home” so let’s do it again. Not exactly! Guess this song is about some guy who offs his ex girlfriend  you know the deal when he doesn’t want anyone else seeing his ex! Not really PowerBallad material hahaha….like if EveryRose Has It Thorn went cuckoo is Your All I Need! I remember at the time thinking that if Journey did this kind of tune they would be locked up! Don’t Stop Believin Chop Chop!

JAILHOUSE ROCK(live)- Live? Blah? Not? This is a waste man! Poor Elvis! Let’s slap some audience on a studio track and call it live! This is brutal man..this album finished after Sumthin For Nuthin! Arena Rock Filler these last two tracks and I bought this album twice! DeKEs + Girls Girls Girls Album+$$$ Spent = Sucka!

IN CONCLUSION- Sixx Sixx Sixx and his bag of Trixx fooled a young me and you know what in my rock circles no one ever really talked about this album. What people did talk about was the live show with Lee going 360 in his drum cage and the cool looking strip club stage. That’s what people talked about and when myself and Tbone went to see the Crue on the Feelgood tour (1990)only Girls and Wildside were played and that pretty much tells the tale of said record. Even Sixx,Lee,Sleazy V and Mick M even know the deal!

I can say what I want but bands like Maiden,Leppard,Priest and Crue are firmly implanted in my DNA so i guess Sixx is having the last laugh after all ……

Maybe 3 songs I dig here 4 tunes tops! And I bought the damn thing twice??! I think I should be committed!

 

NightRanger/ 7 Wishes

Well,Well,Well! It’s that time my friends to toss my good pal Tbone under the bus in what we call here at Arena Rock 3/4’s Filler!

NightRanger came onto our musical radars of course when Brad Gillis played some oh so good guitar on Ozzys Speak Of The Devil album from 1982..you can all read about my way with words right here…https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/sonic-waves-ozzy-osbournespeak-of-the-devil/

Mr Gillis got himself off of the Crazy Train and rejoined his own band NightRanger as they were plugging the Dawn Patrol(1982) debut album with that pretty good rock track Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.

So with that momentum built up came Midnight Madness (1983) with that ultimate sap song Sister Yada Ya! For that song man there were some real good rock songs especially Rumours  In The Air! We all bought it I mean no one ever talks about NightRanger but I think they may have been one of the first of the newer 80s bands to dip there sticks into power balladry material and Wowzers it worked! Hey we all bought Midnight Madness but the overplay and the overkill of Sister Christian did me in!

Come 1985 and NightRanger hooks Tbone whose buying a ton of tapes to build up his cassette collection, purchases 7 Wishes but keeps it on the down low but still tells me he had purchased it!

Tbone pretty much let me borrow 7 Wishes right away(that should have been the sign of trouble) and I took it home as I had a dual cassette tape deck and was gonna record it but I thought I would play it first!

Ummm well….lets just say,now I’m gonna on memory here 30 years ago folks(yikes!) I do not have this album on the sacred IPod  but 7 Wishes was a exact duplicate of a running order of the  previous album (Midnight Madness)

Case In Point #1

Midnight Madness- track 5 Sister Christian…7 Wishes- track 5- Sentimental Street…..both bore the snot out of me back than and Sentimental Street was just a copycat of Sister Christian like why fellas why??? One kick at the cheese mo bucket wasn’t enough? Pour Some Syrup On It!

Case In Point #2-

Midnight Madness – track 10-Let Him Run…7 Wishes- track 10- Goodbye…..Yep both are end of the album REO Speedwagonish Wimpy Mid Tempy Peter Pan of Rock Material Leftover Songs…

Basically 7 Wishes is just a cheap followup to Midnight Madness! Just same OL same OL! Same mid tempo songs no change nothin! Sad really as NightRanger went down the road once  again in 1986 with the Big Prize with the big song being Secret Of My Success! Ha!  I think Tbone may have bought that one as well? Will he fess up? Who knows??

The track that I posted is the song 7 Wishes and that was the cover of the album as well,I really think that’s Tbone squished in the cock pit with his homeboys in NightRanger! Really Do!

3/4’s Filler….Cheap Trick/The Doctor

I’m starting to realize that 1986 produced some real musical duds!(it only took me 29 years to realize this…!! Ha!)

Case in point…Ted Nugent rolls out Little Miss Dangerous/Quiet Riots Kevin Dubrow buys a wig with QR3/Triumph writes and performs the Trainwreck Masterpiece titled Sport Of Kings/Krokus with the ultimate Filler with Change Of Address and Y&T with (Ahem) Down With The Count!

All of these albums listed above I paid $$$ for so i will throw em all under the bus! Come to think of it I never bought Y&Ts Down For The Count. Tbone has the honor of that one!

If you haven’t already, you can click on the main page(right-hand side) look under Categories and right at the top is my 3/4s Filler section and you can read about all my musical mishaps and hell even T-bones closet band of homeboys  Bad English are featured!

Carrying on with the theme of 1986 duds …Cheap Trick issues The Doctor album and for God sakes, this thing crashed real fast after I spun it a few times…..basically, a Do Not Resuscitate is ordered by Deke to put down The Doctor…

I’ll tell Ya why…..

Cheap Trick man I love these guys and from about 1980 or so when I got my mitts on the Budokan release I bought all things Trick! The 1980s weren’t too kind to the Tricksters after they released the real good 1982 album One On One. 4 years later in 86 man I got Cheap Tricked and it ain’t funny…

Who the hell is responsible for all the programmed keyboards, Synthy sounds, sterile production?

Bun E Carlos/Rick Nielsen/Robin Zander and Jon Brandt what happened man?

It’s UP TO YOU- boom a wall of keyboards erupts and considering this song is dripping with a wall of keys, programmed drums at least Nielsens guitar is somewhat cranked but I’ll be damned the chorus is really good and for an opening track this is really good considering with what’s to follow…..

REARVIEW MIRROR ROMANCE- umm nope next……

THE DOCTOR-this is the title track its 1986 man like a Top Gun soundtrack throwaway tune.

ARE YOU LONELY TONIGHT/NAME OF THE GAME/KISS ME RED/TAKE ME TO THE TOP and GOOD GIRLS GO TO HEAVEN(BAD GIRLS GO EVERYWHERE)- these 5 songs I have no recollection of and well I will explain later ….next…..

MAN-U-LIP-LATOR- Ummm ok The Trick perk me up somewhat out of my Musical coma somewhat with this tune it has a great chorus so yeah there’s life somewhat left in this album…..

ITS ONLY LOVE-holy heck this song is the deal ..PURE GENIUS! I’m not joshing ya’s! This song is one of the best Trick songs ever! It’s Only Love is a well written back to basics power-pop Trick tune and its buried at the back of the album! This song is why I love Cheap Trick! The song is great some cool acoustic by Robin and Rick while Bun E and Jon lay down some cool drums and bass plus some chicks do some impressive background singing. Zander is easily in my top 5 fav lead vocal guys! Watch the video and speaking of the video they included the girl in the bottom right corner doing actual sign language to Robins lyrics! What a great move and the story is even better as Trick used to play this basement club in Chicago and there were deaf people living above them and they could feel the beat of the Tricksters playing!

Watch the vid its a classic still to this day…..crank it! The ending of the vid is classic Goofy Cheap Trick Atta Boy Rick!

IN CONCLUSION- yeah I was duped totally by the Trick on The Doctor those 5 tracks I have not listened to since 1986 except for the last track which is a wickedly good track as I could have easily done it as a Cool Lil Number easily! So I give them total props for that! Yep if your keeping score I have It’s Up To You, Man-U-Lip-Lator, and Its Only Love on my iPod. Those are the only 3 tracks I bought from The Doctor!

2 years later they hit paydirt with The Flame. That song made me wanna puke but I was happy that the Cheap Trickers were back on people’s radars!

3/4’s Filler….KROKUS/Change Of Address

A little bit of Rock History 101 with yous! Krokus I first heard thru my buddy Muc who had there earlier album Metal Rendezvous with the great track Heatstokes! It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the lead vocals of Marc Storace were very similar to the late great Bon Scott!

So Krokus became the band for me and Muc to fill the void in the early 80s  with a sound very similar to AC/DC and for a while it worked. Below I will talk about a few of there releases in short before I get to the main review and well by the time you get to that part of my babble you will understand why I explained there previous works before Change Of Address!

Krokus/One Vice At A Time- this one came out in 1982 and I purchased it quickly as did Muc and mean how could we not? The sound was raw like ACDC,the songs sounded like ACDC,the song titles could have been ACDC. Tracks like Long Stick Goes Boom,To The Top,I’m On The Run,Playin The Outlaw…plus they did a cover of the Guess Who’s American Woman as well so that won some street cred with us! Krokus for me and Muc were our rock smack for some ACDC style rock when the main dudes(ACDC) were hibernating in between releases!

Krokus/Headhunter- geezus these guys get Tom Allom(Judas Priests producer) and ramble off the Headhunter album in 1983. Sure they sound still ACDC but now they got a little Priest mixed in as well. Songs like the title track Headhunter,Nightwolf and Eat The Rich drive the album along and oh yeah Krokus covers Stayed Awake All Night the BTO Tune and its a good cover.

Krokus/The Blitz- Krokus bids adieu to Real hard rock and shifts it’s gears to a little more Americanized sound on the Blitz! Big time production on The Blitz courtesy of the late Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock.This album was pretty good. Krokus tackle a somewhat kinda ballad (Our Love) which is kinda a stinker but there a few good tracks as well here including Midnite Maniac,Boys Nite Out(written by Adams and Vallance) and real cool cover of Sweets Ballroom Blitz recorded live of the floor and man they should a done the whole record like that! Also of note me and Muc caught Krokus opening for Sammy Hagar on the Sam mans VOA tour of 1984. Of importance welcome aboard Tbone as the Blitz is his first Krokus purchase on cassette tape!(umm T’s visit to KrokusVille would be short and sweet!)

So 1986 June of that year to be precise and Krokus drop Change Of Address and by than I don’t even know if Muc is still following them  but me and Tbone are boy did we  ever get fucked over by Krokus! This review of Change Of Address will be short and simple!

This album is bad so bad I don’t even Remember any of the songs! The only one  i do recall is Schools Out by Alice Cooper yeah a cover song! Shit even Quiet Riot who repeatedly released a turd album after a turd album  least had a couple of good tracks(just a couple) that you could at least say..Ummm, not bad! No sign here of anything good! This band officially flatlined Krokus went glam too glam in look and sound and chased the American $$$ and it flopped! So disappointed me and Tbone were with this both of us gave up on them after this slab of whatever you wanna call it so if Krokus came  looking for us we went M.I.A!(missing in action) I’m sure we weren’t the only ones….

Even Krokus knew the ship had sunk! Change Of Address sank quicker than the Titanic and in doing so they put out a 9 song live album with one song from C.O.A (Hot Shot City) in October of 1986! I never bought the live album titled Alive And Screaming but I did hear it as a guy at school had it(on his Walkman..ha I’m old!)and the somics of it (recording) was aweful! I passed(gas) on this and that’s being polite…..

watch the vid ….say no more….

 

 

3/4’s Filler…..Quiet Riot/QR 3

1986 and all is not well in the QR camp! 1984s Condition Critical was kinda a flop(it still sold, but nowhere near Metal Healths numbers) Dubrow was starting press fights with Vince Neil. David Lee Roth on VH’s 1984 tour chirped Dubrow every night when he took a swig from his Jack Daniels bottle that “this ain’t no QR show Babeeeeeee!” As Dubrow told the press that he only had ice tea in his Jack Bottle. All us young rock heads were like….Daves cool,Dubrow what a poser….don’t admit that shit dude to a bunch of 19 year old males!!

Rudy Sarzo had enough and was gone and Sarzo went on to play in one of Tbones hidden classic cassette gems “Project Driver! “But QR brought back in there Ol pal Chuck Wright on Bass and QR goes and hires a keyboard player and decides to shift direction in other words not a smart move ….and oh yeah Dubrow went from looking like the lead singer from Trooper to looking like well…..check out his new looking rock mop!

MANE ATTRACTION-Yep new sound,lotsa keyboards and new hairdos! Geez this is not a bad song for a leadoff track. Yep QR is the Mane Attraction…hmmm let’s see where this new direction takes us!

THE WILD AND THE YOUNG- to quote the video”No More Rock n Roll!” Hmmm, and Banali kicks off the track with his big sounding drums….Dubrow kicks it with “times are changing but nothing really stays the same  for this jukebox generation” actually this is a good song     But it’s starting to drown in layers of keyboards..oh..oh! Sez I.  Tbone, I know as well is on board with me! But fuck man strip away the keys and this tune as I have heard many a time live when QR has dropped in Tbay is so much stronger….

PUT UP OR SHUT  UP NOW- hey man this is also a good track and it leads off side 2. I always liked the chorus on this but once again buried under a pound of keys! Uumm….. If your keeping score your probably wondering hey where’s the reviews for the rest of the songs on side 1?(Twilight Hotel,Down and Dirty and Rise Or Fall) simple they didn’t register on my rock n radar back than and still don’t today…..Next….

STILL OF THE NIGHT- (sing with me here folks in Scorpions mode)Blackout I really had a Blackout?Blackout ,Blackout  out on this song! Seriously, no recollection on this one your Honor! …..I, the listener is Blacking out to this album!

BASS CASE- cool name for a 59 second Bass noodle fest but seriously 1986 and for me when I think  of a Bass solo I think of Billy Sheehan ripping out that sick fuckin bass line with Steve Vai on Elephant Gun from Dave Roths Eat Em And Smile album from 1986! Sorry Chuck Wright….cool title though….

THE PUMP- this is just bad 80s cheese! Hey QR you should have handed back your Kraft cheese single slices back this song reeks of it! Bad lyrics just a bad fruity goofy song. The QR Songwriting well is dry man ..real dry!

SLAVE TO LOVE and HELPING HANDS- nothin to write home about! Have no idea anymore why revisit the  scene of a train wreck ?

IN CONCLUSION- Holy Hell! Me and Tbone were totally fooled by this one. We both bought this and well not too many others did! But heck I’m still talking about it 29 years later! Seriously QR 3 has three songs that back than were alright but 3 songs don’t make a great record so guess what Tbone? Dubrow and company were smart they told us dumbasses that “hey buy our QR 3 album! 3 Good songs and 7 fillers ..hence we will call it QR 3!”  QR warned us they even called there album 3!