Hidden Treasures - Killer Songs

[Scott]

Some songs are killer and some are killers.


Do you recall a time when a great band who was on great run released a song that made nearly everyone scracth their head? This week were looking at songs that killed a bands momentum, or in some cases their career!


Lets start off with a video version of what I'm talking about this week. In the case of Billy Squire's Rock Me Tonite, it wasnt that the song was bad, it was the video.


The song ranks as Billy's highest charting U.S. single, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hitting the Top 10 on the Cash Box singles chart. It also returned him to #1 on the Top Rock Tracks chart in August 1984.  Despite its major success, the single is sometimes associated with the end of Squier's career as a singles artist due to the music video, often described as one of the worst ever. Many viewers who saw it thought Squier was gay, or on drugs. It was directed by Kenny Ortega, the third director to be considered for the job. He had offered to make it despite reservations from the record label and Squier's management so MTV could air it as a World Premiere Video on the date Squier and his label had originally promised them. Squier's concert ticket sales immediately suffered, and he later fired his managers. He has accused Ortega of deceiving him and altering his original concept, which Ortega denies.


Heres 4 more...


PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/a1klo8al

	April Wine Power Play 1982 1 - If You See Kay NSFW because Jon is reading something into this...   Having just released two blockbuster albums in a row (the second of which contained the highest charting single of their career, "Just between You and Me"), April Wine was riding high in the early '80s. So it was quite surprising when their hot streak came to a screeching halt with the release of 1983's terribly humdrum Power Play. If only this mediocrity could have been blamed on a change of musical direction, new personnel, or another mysterious force of nature, but the album simply lacks good songs and perhaps musical mastermind Myles Goodwyn had simply run out of creative steam. Not that the album is a complete wash-out, as the band manages to pull it together on a few mid-paced rockers like "Anything You want, You got It" and "Enough Is Enough." But even these are performed with muted enthusiasm and most fans will want to give this record a miss.
	Peter Frampton I'm In You 1977 2 - I'm In You It was almost inevitable that I'm in You would be thought of as a letdown no matter now good it was. Following up to one of the biggest selling albums of the decade, Peter Frampton faced a virtually impossible task, made even more difficult by the fact that in the two years since he'd cut any new material, he had evolved musically away from some of the sounds on Frampton Comes Alive. The result was mostly a surprisingly laid-back album steeped in lyricism and craftsmanship, particularly in its use of multiple overdubs even on the harder rocking numbers. From the opening bars of "I'm in You," dominated by the sound of the piano (played by Frampton) and an ARP synthesizer-generated string section, rather than a guitar, it was clear that Frampton was exploring new sides of his music.
	Van Halen III 1998 3 - Without You According to the party line, Van Halen ditched Sammy because they wanted to try new musical and lyrical approaches that Hagar was reluctant to pursue. And it is true that Van Halen III makes a slight break from his dunderheaded party rock, but that's a difference that only hardcore fans will be able to hear. Less tired but no more inspired than Balance, Van Halen III suffers from the same problems as Hagar-era Van Halen -- limp riffs, weak melodies, and plodding, colorless rhythms. On top of that, there are layers of pretensions, from portentous lyrics to segmented song structures that don't sound all that different from "Poundcake." Evidently, the group wanted to prove that it could still rock more than it wanted to stretch its musical muscle.
	Styx Kilroy Was Here 1983 4 - Mr. Roboto Although Dennis De Young's concept about man being replaced by robots in the near future failed to get off the ground, Kilroy Was Here still harbored two of the band's best singles. "Don't Let It End" almost captures the same endearing qualities as their number one hit, "Babe," did four years earlier, peaking at number six, and the synthesized novelty of "Mr. Roboto" went all the way to number three, accompanied by a lively and rather extravagant Dennis De Young at the helm. It was the song's mechanically spoken chorus and slight disco beat that made it Styx's fifth Top Ten single up to that point, overshadowing the rest of the album's tracks. Pretentious, weakly composed, and rhythmically anemic, songs like "Cold War," "Heavy Metal Poisoning," and "Double Life" couldn't even keep the album's main idea interesting, solidifying the fact that Styx's forte was singles, not conceptual pieces. The saxophone playing from Steve Eison gathers some redemption, cropping up here and there, but even some decent guitar work from Shaw and Young can't save the rest of the album.

[Niels (Mod)]

I don't know, if everybody else, felt like I did back then, but Def Leppard's "Let's Get Rocked" killed "it" for me.

Same as when Judas Priest put out "Johhny B goode" after the (at the time) exellent "Turbo"-album. 

Or Iron Maiden's "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter".

Van Halen "killed" themselves, when they released OU812, as far, as I'm concerned. What a boooooring album.

[Scott]

I think we agree...  Not sure Lets Get Rocked was the Def Leppard dagger (if you will) but the overplaying of everything on Hysteria spoiled their follow up for me and that's when I bowed out of DL.  And I remember the backlash toward Priest for that Johnny B Goode cover, it was terrible and still is, in fact Ram It Down still suck too...  However, I too thought Turbo was awesome at the time it was released...  Doesn't get spinned much anymore.

I lost track of Iron Maiden after Seventh Son...  Then picked back up with Brave New World.

Your take on VH is interesting.  OU812 as the dagger for them, hmmm.  Certainly very poppy and very superficial lyrically.  You may be onto something here, but my gut response would have been For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, with III being the final dagger.

[Niels (Mod)]

It looks like we agree on quite a few things, Scott.

Hysteria wasn't overplayed imo, though. For a very long time, it was one of my absolute favorite-albums. 

But just like Turbo, it sounds VERY dated nowadays.

Ram It down sucked big time, and still do.

Seventh son was also my last Maiden-album, but I never picked up again. 

OU812 might only have killed it for me personally, but you're right: it was waay too poppy. It's been decades, since I heard it.

[RJhog (Admin)]

April Wine - I like AW, but I'm far from well versed on their entire body of work.  I own a couple of albums. but this isn't one of them.  I have to trust you that this was the killer for them, because I wouldn't know otherwise.  But this song isn't bad at all.  It actually sounds a bit like John Waite on vocals.  Of course, the premise is a bit childish, but that's not really a problem.

Frampton -  I totally dig this song.  I remember loving it back then.  I didn't know enough about music back then to realize that this killed his career, but it certainly did.  I can't remember if I owned the vinyl at one time or not.  I don't remember any of the tunes other than the bookends, this track and the cover of Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours.  It was a nice cover, by the way.  I don't own this on cd, not even sure if you can get it on cd.  Amazon says it's a CD-R.

Van Cherone - I have no problem with this album.  It's certainly no worse than the previous couple of Van Hagar albums. 

Styx - I bet Tommy Shaw really hated Dennis DeYoung at this point.  I'm guessing that's why he quit the band.  But this song was fantastic.  So was Show Me The Way, one of my favorite Styx songs.  So it wasn't all bad, but it really was the beginning of the end for an awesome band.  Styx has never been the same.

As for Billy Squier at the top of the article, his had to be the all-time biggest career killer of them all!