SCOTTS HIDDEN TREASURES #35

[Scott]

Hair Metal came in two waves.  Wave 1 is typically associated with the music scene from 1980 - 1984 with wave 2, obviously being 1985 - 1989.  Today when we think of hair and glam rock we always think of bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Skid Row, Warrant, and Cinderella among many others, but while I like these bands, I never recalled being into them to the same degree that they are associated with that music scene.  In other words, it seemed to me that 80's Rock was more than just Hair Metal.

 

So, this week I wanted to step back into the 80's metal music from the perspective of my collection and reconnect with the bands I was into at that time, kind of wanted to see how much Hair music I was really into.

 

What I found was interesting.  I hope you enjoy...

 

~~~~WAVE 1 (80-84)~~~~

 

TITLE: Snortin' Whiskey
BAND: Pat Travers
ALBUM: Crash and Burn
YEAR: 1980
Starting with one of the earliest riff based tracks I can remember from the 80's.  Kind of a lead into the Hair jams to come.  It’s cool because it’s a great riff and catchy lyric that we played a lot when were jammin' and partying.  As I recall this song, it seemed like every time it was playing, everyone joined in.  Lasted the entire decade and beyond, fun stuff here!

 

TITLE: Breaking The Chains
BAND: Dokken
ALBUM: Breaking The Chains
YEAR: 1982
Not sure Dokken ever got any better than this album.  I may be alone on that opinion, but its mine and I'll stick with it.  I seem to recall this being in a fairly recent Video post as well.  Real cheesy stuff there if you want to laugh, but the tune is strong, and it still sounds cool.  Lynch is a great riff-master and his lack of cohesiveness with Dokken may be why they never got better than this.  Again, my opinion only...

 

TITLE: Breakin' Down
BAND: The Headpins
ALBUM: Turn It Loud
YEAR: 1982
In the late 70's this band was a side project for Chilliwack band members Brian "Too Loud" McCloud and Ab Bryant.  The original drummer was Matt Frenette while Bernie Aubin drummed for Loverboy.  The drummers eventually swapped bands and Chilliwack went another direction, which opened the doors for this album!  I played Chilliwack and The Headpins constantly in the 80's and for anyone who would listen I made sure they heard it loud as suggested... don't they still sound great today?

 

TITLE: Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy
BAND: Sammy Hagar
ALBUM: Three Lock Box
YEAR: 1983
My Senior year of High School consisted of 3 albums.  Axe - Offering, Aldo Nova's debut, and Hagars Three Lock Box.  I have a hard time remembering too much other music being played in the parking lot.  As such there’s not a track on this album that doesn’t mean something.

 

TITLE: Follow Your Heart (Remixed)
BAND: Triumph
ALBUM: Thunder Seven / Greatest Hits: Remixed
YEAR: 1984
I’m posting the remix cause of the production quality, but it’s essentially the original tune.  Thunder Seven was one of the first releases to come out on the new Compact Disc format.  This was also the last Triumph album I bought for a long time.  It's a good album but they went to a more pop sound after this so for me this is the last pure Triumph release.

 

~~~~WAVE 2 (85-89)~~~~

 

TITLE: Sink The Pink
BAND: AC/DC
ALBUM: Fly On The Wall
Year: 1985
I think Mtv played this video once and then I kept trying to watch for it and it never showed back up.  Stupid Mtv!  A few years later we got the Headbangers Ball and that was cool for a while, but they took that away too and from that point I tuned them out forever.  But this album lives on and still rocks really nice. I thought this was a very strong record for ACDC, it was a slight departure from what they were putting out up to this point, and the riff's got even better.

 

TITLE: Love Is The Hero
BAND: Billy Squire
ALBUM: Enough Is Enough
YEAR: 1986
Listen close you will hear Freddie Mercury, actually you don’t even have to listen that close, his presence is obvious.  I believe this album got posted as a Lost Album of the Week on the CRR site quite a while back.  I think some of Squire's best work came after he hit the charts.

 

TITLE: Calling On You
BAND: Stryper
ALBUM: To Hell With The Devil
YEAR: 1986
What's striking is the bands image at the time.  I thought they looked really cool!  I didn’t really know about the Christian Rock thing until after I bought this (yeah I know, how could you not).  I really dug the drum sound and production of their music.  I also learned about Oz Fox!  What a cool rock and roll name and what a great shredder he is!  Call it what you will, God Rock, Christian Rock, whatever, its good music, and this album contains a bunch of cool tracks.  This is one I really got into.

 

TITLE: Private Property
BAND: Judas Priest
ALBUM: Turbo
YEAR: 1986
When this album first came out it did so in a big way.  It got lots of press and loads of airplay.  I got into it as well.  And then it started to get panned and slid off the charts and out of the view of the mainstream.  I guess "Commercial Priest" didn’t work to well.  And now looking back, there are some pretty slacking tracks here, but still some strong work also.  The guitar synth's are still pretty cool to hear.  I may have to revisit a couple other tracks from this in the future as well.  "Locked In" could have fit in here real easily also.

 

TITLE: Infinite Dreams
BAND: Iron Maiden
ALBUM:  Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
YEAR: 1988
The close of the decade begins to see the return of the distorted guitar as the synth guitar sound faded away.  Overly produced sounds disappear in favor of the crunchier in-your-face rock and roll.  I think that’s what make this album special, well, that and the songs are real strong.

So my conclusion is that Hair Metal and its image got way too much credit for a decade full of great rock and roll.  I don’t find my collection saturated with overly glossy and over-produced music that doesn’t work anymore.  Yes, I have some, but not as much as I thought I would find.  Even the couple of tracks in this list which can be clearly identified with Hair Metal (e.g. Dokken and Stryper) still have a quality that trumps current music and current trends.  But then again what do I know, I'm older now and have passed the generation gap by a long way.  But you know what?  I'm still right!

HERES YOUR LINK... ENJOY!!

 http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/769751591db23cb335f4b23b9a347773

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Stryper and Dokken?

[Jon]

You are on a STREAK!

[Lance Hanna]

I like all types of music, but this genre runs through my veins! I like each of these selections. I own each one of these albums except for the Pat Travers. Somehow I've never known much about the Pat Travers band, but as I listen to them right this moment, I'm glad you just introduced me to them. I also don't own this specific headpins album, but I have two of their cassettes lingering around somewhere. I really dug on them when they first came out.

"Calling on You" is not one of my favorite Stryper tunes, but I do enjoy the band as a whole. Their brand new album of cover tunes is extremely good (imo), and I'm not a fan of cover tunes.

Good "batch" of tunes Scott!! Thanks for sharing!