White Lion And Other '80s Hair Metal

[Vic2012]

Every time that commercial with Ratt comes on I mute the sound. What an embarrassment. Ratt.....

[frinspar]

Unabashed RATT lover here.
Robbin Crosby and Warren DeMartini were a great tandem who wrote some really good and interesting riffs, and DeMartini is a killer player.
I still have all of my old cassettes.

[SteveSly]

Every time that commercial with Ratt comes on I mute the sound. What an embarrassment. Ratt.....

Not Ratt fan at all (saw them right up close opening for Blue Oyster Cult once and they did very little for me), but I still think that commercial is hilarious.

[GuitarGeek]

I kinda like the Ratt commercial. I'm sure my dad doesn't get it, though.

I still think the best Geico ad was the one they did with Peter Frampton, oh I guess that must have been, what? 15 years ago?

[Dan Roth]

I kinda like the Ratt commercial. I'm sure my dad doesn't get it, though.

I still think the best Geico ad was the one they did with Peter Frampton, oh I guess that must have been, what? 15 years ago?

Yeah that Frampton commercial is still pretty great.


I still enjoy this ad with Survivor with the late Jimi Jamison on vocals:

[Vic2012]

The thing that I find embarrassing about that Ratt commercial is the look on the lead singer's (StevePearcy?) face...... Hey, for whatever they got paid a little embarrassment is worth it....

[TheLoony]

It's probably being played through a Rockman, with the bridge and middle (or middle and neck) pickups on something like a Strat, or a Jackson Soloist.


I remember there was a Y&T song called Don't Stop Runnin' that I remember from the MTV days. So much later, when Napster appeared, that was one of the things I went looking for, since I don't think their albums had been reissued on CD yet. Thing was, the first line of the refrain is "Keep on runnin'", so that's what I thought was the title of the song. So I'm looking for Keep On Runnin' on Napster, and this Journey song (from Escape) kept popping up, as well as every other Y&T song imaginable. So eventually this other file sharing thing turned up, I think it was called Aimster, and that had a feature where you could search for a song, then search for songs from the same album. I knew the second single off that particular album, In Rock We Trust, was Lipstick And Leather, so I looked for that, then activated the "search for songs from same album" function, and BOOM!, that's when I found out I had been looking for the wrong song title.

That reminds me, I need to get more Y&T. I got In Rock We Trust, from a 90's era Japanese pressing, and like 18 months after I got, domestic reissues finally surfaced! I know everyone says Earthshaker and Black Tiger are supposed to be really good, but I've never heard them.

Two things. IMHO, Black Tiger is Y&T's finest album. Consistent and the best tunes are some of the best from their catalog.

As for Napster, I found a boatload of boots and what not just by looking for live tunes. While I didn't fine everything I was looking for, I found some really great stuff. Rush doing Twilight Zone live(total boot where you can hear the audience members), Billy Corgan doing Limelight acoustic, etc. I worked Napster to it's best and got some really cool stuff.

All the bull about Napster stealing money, hell, I didn't steal any money from anyone. None of the music I pulled from them cost anyone anything, but it - Napster - had to be stolen by the industry anyway and turned into iTunes.

Doesn't matter now, it's all up on Youtube. What was once rare, is now totally and completely not. I did have some trouble finding the Dream Theater trilogy A Mind Besides Itself, IIRC. I kept looking up Erotomania, the first song in the trilogy. Had the wrong titles but did get a live version of Erotomania.

Gotta have the right keywords. It's definitely hit or miss.

[TheLoony]

Solid band. I get a definite Hagar vibe from a lot of the vox on Y&T's stuff. Which is fine.

Sammy has been a much more consistent song writer over the years but I see the comp. Dave and Sammy do have similarities. How the hell Sammy and Dave are still doing this at their ages is amazing.

[dropforge]

Every time that commercial with Ratt comes on I mute the sound. What an embarrassment. Ratt.....

The thing that I find embarrassing about that Ratt commercial is the look on the lead singer's (StevePearcy?) face...... Hey, for whatever they got paid a little embarrassment is worth it....

Ratt's been an embarrassment for 30 years, bruh!

[dropforge]

Sammy has been a much more consistent song writer over the years but I see the comp. Dave and Sammy do have similarities. How the hell Sammy and Dave are still doing this at their ages is amazing.

Dave "vocalizes," but that ain't singing.

[TheLoony]

Thought you guys would like this.

[GuitarGeek]

Dave "vocalizes," but that ain't singing.

You're saying Dave Meniketti doesn't sing?!

[iguana]

Thought you guys would like this.

[dropforge]

You're saying Dave Meniketti doesn't sing?!

I thought he was referring to El Roth.

[GuitarGeek]

I thought he was referring to El Roth.

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought you meant.

[TheLoony]

Who can forget Michael Angelo? Pure cheese.

ETA: Pulled this out for the hell of it. A random video, but, as, "it turns out", this is a really cool guitar solo even with the extra cheddar.



It turns out, courtesy of Douglas Adams. What I get for reading the odd and wonderful.

[dropforge]

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought you meant.

Usually "Sam & Dave" remarks refer to Roth, not Meniketti, hence my goof. I like Y&T, whereas I own zero DLR albums.

[Gruno]

Usually "Sam & Dave" remarks refer to Roth, not Meniketti, hence my goof. I like Y&T, whereas I own zero DLR albums.

I own zero Y&T albums, but have every DLR solo/VH album.

[frinspar]

I had to go play with one of those old DLR soundboards and listen to a couple of isolated vocal tracks for some fun just because of this.

[dropforge]

I own zero Y&T albums, but have every DLR solo/VH album.

I've got VH, too, even the space-filler Diver Down.

Seriously, you should check out Y&T!

[dropforge]

I had to go play with one of those old DLR soundboards and listen to a couple of isolated vocal tracks for some fun just because of this.

That reminds of some on-the-air commentary after El Roth's first Vegas shows. You know, gems like "Hey, the guitarist is from a VH tribute! That counts for something, right?"

[Gruno]

I've got VH, too, even the space-filler Diver Down.

Seriously, you should check out Y&T!

Oh, I know Y&T. Just never was into them enough to grab an album. Saw half of their show They were the headliners on the Y&T-Frehley's Comet-Faster Pussycat tour when I caught them at The Wiltern in Los Angeles back in '87. It was bad, sad, and sorta funny.

Faster Pussycat came out first. Funny because my friend and I had their album and knew the songs but the album had only been out a month or so and hadn't spawned a hit at that point. We were 50/50 on the album. We had seen them perform in Pasadena a few times, one of those with W. Axl Rose joining them. Their set was ok. Cool to see them on a bigger stage. However, the crowd hated them. During every song the crowd was booing and throwing stuff at them. It was comical. It seemed as if they ended their set early each night. Their guitarist was flipping off people in the crowd between songs and jawing also. All band members had altercations with audience members throughout both nights. Odd since this was technically Faster Pussycat's home town shows.

These sold-out shows were attended by many KISS fans as this was Ace Frehley's first tour since leaving KISS. Apparently the majority of Los Angeles-based KISS fans were not into Faster Pussycat at the time. Frehley's Comet came out and the crowd was fired up and so was the band. The place was loud with music and the crowd made it louder!!! After their set, we stayed for the first few Y&T songs. The place emptied out severely by the time we had enough. I'm talking ghost town. You could walk around and pick a seat up front or any row. Y&T were playing off the crowd. They were dejected and their faces looked like pouting children. My buddy was a fan of theirs and he is the one who said that we should just leave. That's how bad they were. Night two I was told was worse. We didn't stay to see them night two because Peter Criss played in the encore with Frehley's Comet and we went out to the backstage alley to try to meet Ace & Peter, which we did. We were joined by what seemed like over half the venue.

Their drummer (didn't he pass away?) was production manager at The Warfield Theater in San Francisco. He was my direct contact when I'd be with a band performing there. I always wanted to reminisce about those August 1987 concerts but I don't think he would have been too into it. I also was told, and got the feeling, he was definitely chasing the dragon.

Summertime Girls.

[dropforge]

"Summertime Girls" is from Open Fire, Y&T's seventh album, released in 1985. By that point, they were done making serious hard rock. You saw the Contagious tour, which is one album later. The album pix...

The first five albums ca. '76-83 are what they're really about: Yesterday and Today, Struck Down, Earthshaker, Black Tiger, Mean Streak.

Not surprised an L.A. crowd composed of KISS fans shot down Y&T. I like Frehley's Comet, and I would've regarded that as a double headliner.

The Wiltern Theatre is a great venue. That's where I saw ELP's Black Moon show. Tangerine Dream and Patrick O'Hearn, too.