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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 15:49:28 GMT
Quick, name an American band whose first three albums each went at least triple platinum, each reached or exceeded the #3 spot on the Billboard charts, and combined spawned 11 Top 50 singles (including six in the Top 10 and one #1).
If Poison didn't come to mind, it might be because they were always critically panned and, especially once pop music tastes changed in the early '90s, became even a popular punchline.
But like KISS before them--and the KISS thread was my initial inspiration for this exercise--Poison had a roughly five-year run of tremendous success and, like it or not, really, really catchy music. They weren't remotely original, but they were a well-oiled synthesis of their influences. The first three albums, the ones from the original lineup, were all tremendously successful. They were tight, hits-filled examples of a kind of pop masquerading as hard rock...or vice versa. The point, the message, was overwhelmingly to rock and roll all nite and party every day. As were their fellow late-80s superstars Bon Jovi, they were well received by both men and women (or at least boys and girls).
Even if you didn't hear, or heard and hated, Poison at the time, I encourage you to follow along and join in the listening and discussion of those first three albums. It'll be a small investment of time, a limited-run series, if you will. And I think you'll have nothin' but a good time.
But please, KDS, don't talk dirty to me.
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Post by kds on Nov 8, 2019 15:55:13 GMT
I have never, nor will I ever, understand the hatred Poison gets. Was it the image? Was it the glossy music? Do the people who hate them just plain hate fun? For a half decade, Poison churned out three minute melodic, hooky rock songs. Frankly, I prefer to have nothin' but a good time to smelling like teen spirit any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
It ain't high art, but not every freakin' rock band needs to make you think. Some bands just provide the soundtrack to having some beers with your buddies or that special boy or girl and just forgetting about all your trouble and raising a toast to all us, who are breaking their backs every day.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 19:09:29 GMT
Poison, Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986)Boom! Boom-boom BASH! Boom! Boom-boom BASH! Poison’s first single and the first song on their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, “Cry Tough,” opens the same way as so many songs had over the preceding 25 years, with that Hal Blaine, Phil Spector drum beat. It’s fitting that this new band sounded so familiar from the get-go, as their catalog was always more about radio-ready, singalong hits than innovations. It might have come as a shock to Bret Michaels, Rikki Rockett, Bobby Dall, and C.C. DeVille that some music fans saw Poison as an overnight success in the summer of 1987. After all, the former three formed the club band Paris, the predecessor to Poison, in Pennsylvania with guitarist Matt Smith in 1980. In 1983 they took the group to Los Angeles and changed their name to Poison after a Kix song of the same name. When Smith returned to Pennsylvania in 1986, the group chose DeVille in auditions (over future Guns ’n’ Roses guitarist Slash). Known for their outrageous glam look and endless self-promoting hustle on the club circuit, Poison recorded their debut album in 12 days for $23,000 and released it on independent Enigma Records in August 1986. Nobody cared. Half a year later, things began to change with the second single, “Talk Dirty to Me.” With its power-chord riff straight out of the Ace Frehley handbook and a refrain listing the various places in which Michaels and the object of his affection could, well, I guess talk dirty, it was a better version of KISS than KISS itself could muster at the time. For its lusty lyric, it’s actually a relatively innocent song, and it’s sugared over by the harmony vocals throughout halves of the verses and DeVille’s classic rock-and-roll solo. The single, helped by its hugely popular video on MTV, eventually reached #9 on the Billboard charts and went platinum. That video encapsulated everything Poison would use for its success, at least in its rock and roll songs. It combined every cliche and the band members’ looks to great ends: the cartoonish, Twisted Sister homage of an introduction, the faux-live footage, no shortage of attractive women, and the group prancing, posing, and playing around like a hair metal Beatles.1987 saw artistic videos from U2, Peter Gabriel, Genesis … this was not to be considered among them. (In a somewhat clever move, each video began with a short scene that included the previous video.) They rolled on through 1987 with the springtime release of another anthem of KISSic proportions, “I Want Action.” Its lyrics moderately offensive even at the time and obviously inappropriate for a #MeToo world, it’s inarguably another catchy song that helped build their success. It reached #50 on the charts. A full year after the album was released, Poison finally did the inevitable and released a power ballad, one of the era’s best known of the subgenre, “I Won’t Forget You.” The simple tune of lost love made hearts swoon and let dance-phobic junior high boys actually touch a girl as they slow danced, thrilled and terrified. (What, just me?) It climbed to #13 on the charts. And those four singles really summed up the album: mostly lust, more than a little exaggerated naughtiness, a little love lost, and a heaping helping of rebel-spirit confidence building. Not sugar and spice and everything nice, but that’s what little boys are made of. Look What the Cat Dragged In, which went triple platinum and peaked at #3 on the charts, seemed equal measure KISS, New York Dolls, Twisted Sister, and Aerosmith. If you said you also heard Quiet Riot, Slade, Ratt, and Motley Crue, I wouldn’t call you a liar. But it was a tried-and-true, basic rock and roll based hard rock sound with just enough metal to keep the boys leery of the glam look interested. The one non-single I’ll reference here is the album’s closer, “Let Me Go To The Show,” a synthesis of everything written above (minus the power balladry). Another anthemic refrain, identifiable guitar solo melody, and softly rebellious lyric, it’s a diamond in the rough. It’s also the song that has a personal note. Sometime in 1987, I was hanging out with some friends in A—- S——-’s basement, playing Nintendo, no doubt drinking soda and eating licorice or chips, and listening to this. Just as the album was coming to a close and the shouting “father” voice yells as the song ends “you heard your mother, turn that shit off,” A—-’s mother started coming down the stairs. Now, our tweenage rebellion stopped short of swear words around our parents, so A—- did the only thing he could think of. Just as the voice on the cassette shouted “shit,” he screamed. “AGGGHHHHHHH.” Smooth move! (His mother wasn’t able to get a decent explanation as to what in the world he was yelling about, but at least we weren’t busted for listening to albums with swear words…) That anecdote describes Poison to me. It’s rebellious … kind of. A little. For 11- and 12-year-olds. But mostly it’s just good, dumb, hard rock and roll.
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Post by kds on Nov 8, 2019 19:22:02 GMT
To be honest, I'm not an familiar with Poison's catalog as I am with some other groups from that era, but I think I want to acquire at least those first three albums at some point. I've also gotten to the point where the fact that this band is so despised by elitists, snobs, critics, and folks of that ilk makes me actually like them that much more.
If somebody asks me to sum up rock music in the second half of the 1980s in under five minutes, Talk Dirty to Me on the list of potential songs I'd play. Like Kap said, it's got everything you want in a rock song. I Want Action, Cry Tough, I Won't Forget You, and the title track are also great 80s hard rock.
I've said before that Poison is probably more of the time than timeless. So, I don't forsee future generations discovering their music, or Poison touring in 2036 for the 50th anniversary of Look What the Cat Dragged In to an increasingly young fanbase. But, stranger things have happened. As pointed out, the music here is really not that far removed from the classic hard rock of the 1970s that's so revered. Who knows, maybe Poison will have some sort of pop culture breakthrough and get discovered by the younger crowd in the same way Journey has.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 19:30:03 GMT
You know, rewatching those videos, what really struck me was the silliness. There was definitely an element of that Twisted Sister (stealing Roadrunner) vibe, the "old" parents watching TV. There was the horseplay on stage. There was the diner scene to open "I Want Action." Sexist, inappropriate, yeah, no doubt about it. But it's goofy. They were relatively charming, and a lot more fun than the similar bands who tried to be serious (yet had nothing to say).
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Post by kds on Nov 8, 2019 19:39:58 GMT
You know, rewatching those videos, what really struck me was the silliness. There was definitely an element of that Twisted Sister (stealing Roadrunner) vibe, the "old" parents watching TV. There was the horseplay on stage. There was the diner scene to open "I Want Action." Sexist, inappropriate, yeah, no doubt about it. But it's goofy. They were relatively charming, and a lot more fun than the similar bands who tried to be serious (yet had nothing to say). That's exactly why I don't get the hate for bands from that era. It was all about fun. Rock's supposed to be fun right? Hell, The Beatles used to star in full length comedies. Yet, in the early 90s, things got so.............damn............serious. And that's the bugaboo I mentioned a while back in regards to MTV, where it seemed there was only room for one style of rock on their airwaves.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 19:43:43 GMT
At that time, there were still pretty diverse styles going. 1987 had hits from Madonna, U2, Genesis, Poison, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, Whitesnake, Heart, Bryan Adams, Whitney Houston, Los Lobos, Billy Idol, Crowded House, REM, Starship... Admittedly not much in the way of more serious metal, but I don't know how many of those bands were actually making videos at that time. I know it was quite an event when Metallica finally made one. (No pun intended.)
But certainly once the whole grunge nonsense came around, MTV just ended it for hard rock that wasn't "alternative." And shortly thereafter they just quit showing music videos at all, more or less.
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Post by kds on Nov 8, 2019 19:50:11 GMT
At that time, there were still pretty diverse styles going. 1987 had hits from Madonna, U2, Genesis, Poison, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, Whitesnake, Heart, Bryan Adams, Whitney Houston, Los Lobos, Billy Idol, Crowded House, REM, Starship... Admittedly not much in the way of more serious metal, but I don't know how many of those bands were actually making videos at that time. I know it was quite an event when Metallica finally made one. (No pun intended.)
But certainly once the whole grunge nonsense came around, MTV just ended it for hard rock that wasn't "alternative." And shortly thereafter they just quit showing music videos at all, more or less.
I'll agree that there was far more diversity in the 80s on MTV than in the 1990s. In the 90s, it got so bad that they were even playing grunge videos during their heavy metal showcase - The Headbanger's Ball. You play Alice in Chains and Soundgarden all the time, yet during the one block a week devoted to metal, they play Alice in Chains and Soundgarden videos. MTV changed the landscape so much that bands like Poison couldn't keep their heads above water without support from MTV. And the less said about their attempt to adapt to grunge, the better.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 19:53:51 GMT
To some degree, I also think there is blame to go around to the fans. Unfortunately, a lot of people are truly that susceptible to the top-down approach: the labels (and radio, and MTV) say "this is what's big now, listen to it," and a lot of fans at that time said, "OK."
I remember so many friends who just yesterday (it seemed) loved GnR or Van Halen who were suddenly the angst-ridden, goatee-wearing, flannel-clad grunge fans. It was remarkable and sad. It's not that there was no good music from that subgenre during that era, but that didn't mean the rest of the other good music had to disappear. OK, so "Jeremy spoke in class today," but does that mean we can't ever have fun again? I felt like 17 or 18 years old was awfully young to have soured on life...
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Post by kds on Nov 8, 2019 20:00:54 GMT
To some degree, I also think there is blame to go around to the fans. Unfortunately, a lot of people are truly that susceptible to the top-down approach: the labels (and radio, and MTV) say "this is what's big now, listen to it," and a lot of fans at that time said, "OK."
I remember so many friends who just yesterday (it seemed) loved GnR or Van Halen who were suddenly the angst-ridden, goatee-wearing, flannel-clad grunge fans. It was remarkable and sad. It's not that there was no good music from that subgenre during that era, but that didn't mean the rest of the other good music had to disappear. OK, so "Jeremy spoke in class today," but does that mean we can't ever have fun again? I felt like 17 or 18 years old was awfully young to have soured on life...
I agree. Although, I also think that speaks of MTV's influence. I think some free thinking in the minds of music fans was stripped away, and to a certain degree, I'm not sure if it ever returned (Honestly, would Imagine Dragons be as popular as they are if this were not the case?). Am I saying MTV made music fans dumber? Maybe. Am I typing about boogeymen who have changed music from what my taste was in a vein attempt to rationalize my own opinions? Maybe. Probably a combination of the two. It's funny, I have a really good friend who went all in on alternative music in the 90s with grunge then eventually stuff like Weezer and Sublime, but as an adult, he came back around to 80s hard rock.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 20:04:14 GMT
I've had that same experience! A friend of mine who I met after the grunge era, so I can't speak to that, but who was just the ultimate hipster in the early 00s and talks about how in the 90s he was into the Pixies and all that, sometime later in the 00s he was talking up the Frehley solo KISS album. You can imagine my double-take, like, "wait, WHAT? YOU!?" I mean, I was happy about it...but shocked.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 8, 2019 22:50:50 GMT
KDS, I forgot to ask you, were you aware that the name Poison was after the Kix song of the same name? I wasn't until today when I was doing a little prep for the write-up. (I also didn't realize Kix went back to the late 70s.)
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Nov 9, 2019 0:27:57 GMT
Wow. I haven’t heard this in forever… since I was about 12, in fact. I don’t think I can give a review, but I’ve just finished listening to it with my adult ears for the first time and I’m glad I did, it’s as much fun as I remember it. Of course the songs I remember the most are I Want Action, I Won’t Forget You and Talk Dirty to Me – all really great songs. Definitely takes me back to memories of hanging out in my family’s rec room in the basement with my sisters and our friends.
While I don’t have much knowledge of Poison’s albums, I’ll come along for this ride. I think I know a few songs off of each of the ones we’re covering and it’ll be fun to listen to those albums in full.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 9, 2019 0:53:32 GMT
Wow. I haven’t heard this in forever… since I was about 12, in fact. I don’t think I can give a review, but I’ve just finished listening to it with my adult ears for the first time and I’m glad I did, it’s as much fun as I remember it. Honestly that’s roughly where I am, too. Various conversations got me thinking about it and, presto! New project! Looking forward to any and all contributions.
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Post by kds on Nov 9, 2019 3:32:15 GMT
KDS, I forgot to ask you, were you aware that the name Poison was after the Kix song of the same name? I wasn't until today when I was doing a little prep for the write-up. (I also didn't realize Kix went back to the late 70s.) I did not know that.
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