Huey Lewis & The News/Fore(1986)

Sure the title of this post says Huey Lewis & The News /Fore(1986) but I could have added Huey’s 1983 album Sports to the title  as well.

I never owned these two albums and this is the first time I’m breaking protocol of reviewing something I don’t own but my good pal Tbone purchased and owned these so that counts for something right??

1983 and  here comes Huey and the News along with the Sports album and this album takes off like a rocket. The songs and videos are everywhere and well lookie here as Tbone is branching out and purchasing some Huey!

Man! That is news in my world!

I didn’t mind the Sports album actually, The Heart of Rock N Roll was a decent opening track with that snap ,crackle,  pop with a ton of horns throughout with Huey name dropping a bunch of Cities in the tune as well. What? No shout out for Tbay?

Heart and Soul/I Want A New Drug/If This Is It were all mega singles and this album kept selling right into 1984 .When the videos were on MuchMusic I never turned Huey off. Out of 9 songs on Sports,five ended up as singles.  He always made goofy 80’s rock videos. Kinda like a PG version’s of the Van Halen videos of the time(Hot For Teacher/Panama). For some crazy reason I never took the plunge and purchased Sports.

One Million Canadians did though making it to the Diamond Certification that not too many artists can do. Basically 10 times Platinum.

( I remember reading at the time that the record label  that Huey was on got snapped up by another record company so until issues were resolved financially with the new record company Huey would take the master tapes home of Sports with him overnight and not  leave them at the studio just in case  the ol record company politics crept in!)

What I did do was borrow Tbones purchased cassette and tossed it into my duel cassette at home and dubbed it. Sorry Huey!

Pretty decent album actually and I have been tinkering about buying this on iTunes, Well I have thinking about it for a few years though but I do like the fact that Huey comes across as a likeable chap plus give him a few props as he opened and hung with Phil Lynott(RIP) decades ago. Deep down Huey does have the rock in him…..

Now I wasn’t around when Tbone purchased Sports but I was with him back in 1986 when he coughed up his hard-earned cash and purchased the Fore album at Music City(InterCity Mall)  and paid though the nose for it! Like all Music City CD’s/Cassette Tapes they were obviously priced higher at the mall than a local shop.

Tbone didn’t care! These were the roaring 80’s! Cash was  flowing. A ton of music to be had and instead of buying blow we bought tunes! Lots of em… Our vice was Music Candy not Nose Candy!

I may have questioned Tbone at the time as he was drooling over the new Huey album on the new release shelf at Music City. I was leery. I think I may told him about the first single/video Stuck On You wasn’t a real   hard rocking Huey track . (First album singles always tell the tale for me. If it was a slow mid tempo tune we might have to abort ship on the release)

Tbone did not care. I quickly realised that Tbone was with the News on this one and I figured if anything I could borrow it and dub it…..

Fore had some good tracks like Jacobs Ladder and the goofy Hip To Be Square. Huey though was a smart chap. Record 40 minute albums and write a bunch of singles. Six of the ten tracks on Fore were released as singles and they were everywhere.

Huey once again sold a bunch of records with Fore( 5 times Platinum in Canada ) but I dunno I never even borrowed Fore at the time to dub…

Maybe it was the first single that lost me by being a sluggish like track.

Tbone never even talked about Fore as in 1986 it was Van Hagar/David Lee Roth/Iron Maiden  and AC/DC (Who Made Who) that was on our  musical radar a lot more than Huey.

Still though Tbone took the plunge found some merit in  listening to the News. I’ll give him props 31 years later for this…..

 

 

 

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?

SONIC WAVES…Van Halen/5150

Summer of 1985!

I hear on our  local radio station that David Lee Roth exits Van Halen and is replaced by Sammy Hagar! As a VH/ Hagar fan I’m A-Ok with this move as myself and Muc a year earlier in Oct of 1984 saw Hagar Live so we knew he would deliver.

After I heard that Roth was out I called Tbone stat but he was out at his camp for that summer so I wasn’t gonna phone about any silly OL thing but this was warranted!

So I called. Tbones mother answered and called him to the phone.

The first thing T said to me was it must be true,” I laughed and said “holy shit how did you hear about Dave splitting?”

Tbone said that he was hanging out and they’re was a couple of friends that knew he listened to VH  and they told him that Dave was out! Tbone did not believe it but no sooner is he told this by his camp friends than the phone rings,his mother calls him and tells him that its Deke on the phone….

Tbone knew it was true! Hahahahaha…

Now onto 1986!

In these hallowed pages of Arena Rock their aren’t many times I was out scooped but when it came time for Van Halen to release their Sammy Hagar(Dave Rothless) debut 5150 Tbone hooked up with Jack Loaf and skipped out of our first period Grade 13 class (1986) and went down and picked up 5150! I being the scholar did not skip school that day so when second period rolled around that day Tbone and JackLoaf were back with there that fresh copy release of 5150 at our school(Lakeview High School) I was like and this is putting it mildly….”you two sons of Bitches!!”  Ha! That’s the edited version!

Later that day we were bunkered down in Tbones basement for the Van Hagar debut and Wowzers I likey what I heard and still do….

One Two Three Rock Box!

GOOD ENOUGH- “Helloooooo Baaaaaaby” chirps Sammy and were off with a squeal of delight from Edward Van Halens guitar  and here’s brother Alex joining in on his electronic drums circa 1986 and slammimg straight ahead on bass is the Van Halen brothers favourite human kicking bag Michael Anthony. (Side note ..Ed its 2015,your Billboard interview slamming down Anthony’s contributions was to me sounding like sour pissy grapes….take the high road man..) Good Enough kicks some real good serious straight ahead goofy cool lyrics and some deadly music and we all breathe a sigh of relief! Love the song tempo change after the solo and throw down vocally some Woot Woo… It’s 1986 and we’re all digging Van Hagar! Rack a What?

WHY CANT THIS BE LOVE- I remember this track like it was yesterday. We were like I said earlier in Grade 13 when 5150 hit the street and to build hype VH released Why Can’t This Be Love as a single before the actual release of the full album. Now in one of my classes in High School some rock dudes were kinda hemming and hawing about Hagar singing lead and Roth being gone yada yada. For once I kept my musical trap shut and stayed out of it but one classmate who wore fancy dancy sweaters and played sax in the High School band who I didn’t even know listened to rock(or maybe he did?) pipes up and said ‘ I like the new guy (Hagar) better!” Ha I thought the third floor that we were on was gonna collapse! Boom end of discussion! Bell Rang…Class is now in session! Anyhoo this song starts with  Eddie farting around with the  opening on his Halen synth and Bam here comes the rest of the fella’s and Van Hagar drop a great song into our laps! Hagar shows that he’s no slouch in the lead vocal department and nails done a great vocal and Eddie does a chill solo and Alex Pounds the drums and Mikey holds down the fort with his bass!

GET UP- Ed starts off with some guitar hero snaz and brother Al speaking of drums launches into hyper speed and Get Up puts any doubt to rest that Halen is laying off the gas! GET UUUUUUUUUP! MAKE IT WORK…..sings Sam and him and Mike stand toe to toe with each other vocally and before you know it the song chills out with Ed and Al and then ramps up into Eds solo and my heads gonna blow as WTF Is he doing to that guitar! Love this tune…

DREAMS-power rocker tune fuelled by Eds banging tempo on the keys and Sammy gives her vocally big time on this tune and hits registers that even makes the staunchest of Roth supporters say what?! Dreams rocks in a great way. Great writing on this tune,performance. It’s all here folks!

SUMMER NIGHTS- one of my favs from this album! Ed noodles around at the beginning of this tune and does some Guitar hero action and Sammy tosses down some “lines into the fishing hole. Them girls are biting good tonight!” Sam sez that not me! The chorus is awesome Mikey carries the backing vocals and  Ed flings riff after riff and Al power drives the tune at the end to the fade out…

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS-Ed begins what became a staple in the live show in the Hagar era. Great driving Halen song! These were the good OL happy Hagar daze of yesteryear! Great song and better solo with Mike being Freddy Steady on Bass and Alex flinging around cymbals like Keith Moon!

LOVE WALKS IN- hmmmm very interesting. You know Van Halen as in Ed was tampering with keys already with mid tempo rock tracks(I’ll Wait from 1984 is a Classic in moi’s book!) so it didn’t really surprise me that this kinda song would appear along with Dreams and Why Can’t This Be Love on 5150. Sammy could deliver this stuff with ease and great melodic solo from Eddie. Hate using the term Power Ballad associated with Halen so let’s say Melodic Ass Kicker!

5150-Wowzers the title track and Ed starts off with some nifty picking and Al follows suit on the drums and the song picks up its pace for a few seconds and once Sam I Am starts singing that the ” Love line is never straight or narrow” love the tempo change and the chorus ramps up! Ed flings down some cool twirly cool doodle as fuck solos and it ramps back up again!

INSIDE- Ha! No one ever talks about this track! Time to show it some love! It’s a mix mash of Sammys lead vocals and a background of  yakking and Sammy just me being crazy or just a bit too high! Cool little riff! And better yet is that Al chirping the word “Alimony”in the background? Ha! Hey so that’s what’s going down on the Inside! Ed mashes up some synth with his guitar and the song ends! Boom Done!

IN CONCLUSION- the build up and the hype for 5150 back in 1986 was friggin huge! Imagine the pressure of following Roth and the 1984 album but Sam and his new friends deliver this album in spades and just think a few months later here comes Diamond Dave with Eat Em And Smile! 1986 yeah man,a great year musically speaking for myself,Tbone and others!