SCOTTS HIDDEN TREASURE #61 - Keep Reaching For The Stars

[Scott]

Aerosmith and Inspiration are not two words I’ve ever used together, so trying to use Jon and RJ's posts to generate this list was tough!  But here’s what I came up with.  Hidden Treasures from the American Charts.

The tie in is simple, Aerosmith pandered to the Mtv crowd and sought out Top 40 fortune and fame.  Well some bands did it well and some did not so well.  Aerosmith being in the latter category.  Here’s a hidden treasure trip around the mainstream charts from some of this sites favorites artists, at least they used to be...

PLAYLIST VITALS...
LENGTH: 20 minutes 46 seconds
LINK: http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/152d3c26d39df542f7058db1a1100693

---

 

TITLE: All Night Long
BAND: Billy Squier
ALBUM: Signs Of Life
YEAR: 1984
LENGTH: 4:48
DID YOU KNOW: Signs of Life. It was his third consecutive Platinum album. The album's first single release, "Rock Me Tonite" was Squier's biggest Pop hit. It reached #15 on Billboard's Hot 100, as well as #1 on the Album Rock Tracks chart in late 1984. However, the video for the track (directed by Kenny Ortega), which shows Squier dancing around a bedroom in a pink tank top, was named by Video GaGa as one of "The worst videos of all time".

Don’t Say No and Emotions in Motion are honest albums full of great rock and roll, but success must've went to his head because this album is really more of the same and didn’t showcase his ability to grow and write cool unique rock and roll like most of us thought this would be.  Oh Well...  At least this top 10 hit was solid.

TITLE: Dance
BAND: Ratt
ALBUM: Dancing Undecover
YEAR: 1986
LENGTH: 4:22
DID YOU KNOW: In an effort to be taken more seriously, Ratt broke from the tradition of featuring a girl on the cover. They instead opted for gritty black-and-white photos of each of the five band members. Likewise, the album does not contain a single power ballad amongst its ten tracks and even features experimental forays into thrashier and heavier sounds.

I like Dance, it’s a cool a single ... but let me try to wrap my head around this time period for them ...  1 - Ratt wants to be grittier, so they 2 - eliminate the thought of a power ballad and 3 - release Body Talk as the first single which is also 4 - associated with a bad Eddie Murphy movie, and then they 5 - embark on a US tour with Poison in tow..  What am I missing here?


TITLE: No One Like You
BAND: Scorpions
ALBUM: Blackout
YEAR: 1982
LENGTH: 3:58
DID YOU KNOW: After losing his voice during the writing of the album, lead vocalist Klaus Meine had to undergo surgery on his vocal cords and it was uncertain whether he would be able to record it. Demos of the material were recorded with Don Dokken as vocalist

Thank goodness for Lovedrive!  That’s when I grabbed hold of this band and really tuned into them.  Animal Magnetism rocked hard and got them on the doorstep of superstardom.  So why not record Animal Magnetism Part II and call it Blackout!  I even dug this album a lot even though it sounded very much the same as the previous album. I don’t go back to listen to Blackout much anymore, maybe that’s a shame, cause it sounds real good! 


TITLE: Crumblin' Down
BAND: John Cougar Mellencamp
ALBUM: Uh-Huh
YEAR: 1983
LENGTH: 3:36
DID YOU KNOW: He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one.

Then there’s artists who don’t want to conform to the top 40 standards of their times but that just makes them bigger than ever!  Somebody please tell me Mellencamp knew this was blow up as big as it did when he decided to strip his sound back to this?  I liked it and I don’t think he ever matched this albums quality again...


TITLE: She's A Beauty
BAND: The Tubes
ALBUM: Inside Outside
YEAR: 1983
LENGTH: 4:00
DID YOU KNOW: Show business excess was a common theme of the band's early work, with Waybill sometimes assuming the onstage persona of "Quay Lewd" (a pun on Quaalude), a drunk, drugged out, barely coherent lead singer, wearing flashing glasses and stilt-like tall platform shoes.

So what do you do when you’re searching for a hit?  You hire David Foster as your producer and voila!  But in this case the bands too cool to make their hit too corny, no not The Tubes!  The inspiration for the video of this song speaks volumes, do a little research!

 

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

I think you gotta little backwards activity on Ratt...

[Scott]

fixed 

[Jon]

Ahh, that Billy Squier album. I remember the Rolling Stone review and the last line was something along the lines of "he's going to sell a lot of these". So I bought it and didn't like it, except for one track. Still don't like it much to this day (except for that one track).

 

I hated JCM because of that Jack & Diane and Hurts So Good garbage from the previous album. But I did buy this one because it rocked and still love it to this day.

 

I actually have all these albums, even the one by Ratt. Really? There's some thrashier moments? Gotta revisit I suppose. 

 

As for the Tubes...where's the Wild Women From Wongo love????? 

 

 

Great post, now I have to listen to it. Even without Wild Women From Wongo....

[Scott]

I had to restrict my tracks to those that hit the pop charts.  Although I have been tempted to post WIld Women of Wongo before.  It may make an appearance in the future.

 

The Thrashier comment came from the band themselves. Its their self-described attempt at recordng a heavier ablum.  See my comments, I think its an epic fail at trying to be harder edged, although I think the album is pretty good if you listen to it as Pop Rock album.

 

As far as the one track you liked form the Squier album, please dont tell me it was Rock Me Tonite? 

 

By the way - coded message alert...  1017 arrival at rencen

[Jon]

You know, I didn't read the white writing, I was drawn to the red. Tricky! And "experimental" which means they must have failed?

 

Nooooo..not Rock Me Tonight. Nooooo.

 

10-4, 1017 off though, others good.

[Jon]

And wait...Wild Women From Wongo was NOT a hit? You kidding? How could it not be?

[Gordon Williams]

It's funny how you change as you age. For such a long time, I hated the way Aerosmith went from being a killer rock band (first 4 albums are all still classics to me!). I hated the softer, poppier stuff that was getting so much airplay.

But now? I actually like some of these hits they put out in later years, like "Janie's Got A Gun", "Love In An Elevator", "Crying", "Dude Looks Like A Lady", "Living On The Edge", etc.

And I really hated stuff like The Tubes and even Toto. Just did n't rock enough for me. But now? I may just like it. I enjoy your series of posts Scott, and appreciate the chance to hear stuff I never listened to in the past.

[Scott]

Awesome reply!  Thanks Gordon, thats why I do this, besides the fact that I never get tired of flipping through my catalog and listening to everything possible...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Hey, big surprise this week.  I actually know 4 of the 5 songs here.  The only one I'm not familiar with is the Billy Squier tune, and it easily gets my "favorite hidden gem" award for this playlist.  I like it, and I must pick up this album or something by him, I only have the greatest hits disc right now.

 

I actually like that Ratt song as well. 

 

Isn't Talk To Ya Later on that Tubes album?  I don't have it, but I remember listening to it as a teenager at my cousin's house. 

 

Nice job.  Maybe, if Jon and I ever work together again for AOTW/LAOTW, we should tip you off.  You are doing a super job at relating what you are doing to what we are posting.

[Scott]

Im surprised the Squier tune is new to you, it was all over radio and Mtv for what seemed like an eternity!  hahahaha

 

Talk To Ya Later is from the Tubes previous album titled "The Completion Backward Principle"  thats a cool album also, but cant compare to Outside Inside.  However, I believe both are David Foster produced.

 

Dont tell me you two are done syncing the forums up!!  I liked the format and the way it was working!  Keep going ...

[RJhog (Admin)]

We have something lined up, I'm just not sure when we will start it.

 

 

 

 

[Jon]

No, he wanted to do a Kiss synch-up. Ain't happening and now he's angry.

 

 

I think Completion is a better album than Outside. Just letting you know.