Okay, so here's my slightly more involved and explanatory list. I’d given this a lot of thought, and even then, it was difficult. Ranking them was tough. I love 80’s hair metal mostly, but I may have included a band or two that aren’t specifically hair metal, by most peoples'definitions. Bands that sing about drinking, partying, and f*cking are pretty much my thing.
1. Poison – Seriously, for my money, they’d have to be the first band one would think of when it comes to 80’s hair metal. Their hair was huge and they dressed like rock stars. Great party music that shows the band’s personality perfectly. Nothin’ but a Good Time is about as anthemic as it gets. Any playlist at a good party is incomplete without Poison on it. Last time I saw Poison, I’m not sure if C.C.’s feet ever actually touched the stage. He danced around like a madman rockstar all night. Awesome. Other favorites are the obvious ones, but I really like Fallen Angel. One notable negative mark for these guys is Every Rose Has Its Thorn. I don’t care if I never hear it ever again.
2. Warrant – Like Poison, they were masters of hair and excess. Catchy tunes, twin guitars, and a great sound. Not enough to take Poison from the top spot, but close. They (like Poison and many other bands) wrote tunes that, for me, are just undeniably mood-enhancing. Songs that make you wanna roll the windows down, crank the stereo up to the threshold of pain, and cruise down to the beach to check out scantily clad babes and party the night away. Down Boys, Cherry Pie, Love in Stereo, So Damn Pretty, etc.
3. Cinderella – Seeing a theme here? Hair and women’s fashion sense. Tom Keifer’s voice is fantastic and he is a crazy underrated guitar player. I saw them at M3 last year, and despite the Scorpions being the headliner, all the reviews I read indicated that Cinderella stole the show. Gypsy Road is one of my favorite songs, by Cinderella or anyone. It’s one of those kinda songs I referenced above. Then you have other great tunes like Shake Me, The More Things Change, Shelter Me, Heartbreak Station (one of my all-time favorite ballads, incidentally). Great band.
4. Dokken – Lots of hair, but what I call “serious hair”. Their songs were less about “Hey, let’s party”, but a slightly more introspective, dramatic, or serious look at things. They seemingly wrote more songs in minor keys, solos with odd scalar lines, etc. It all worked great, though. It gave them a slightly darker feel, as I implied above, but there were the occasional major key exceptions, like Burnin’ Like a Flame and Sleepless Night. George Lynch is a wicked guitar player and I always love Don Dokken’s voice, though it’s now a shadow of its former self. Other favorite songs are Prisoner, Heaven Sent, The Hunter, and In My Dreams. Under Lock and Key is one of my favorite albums.
5. Def Leppard – This band is a f*cking hit-making machine. Though it took them forever to come up with new albums, it didn’t matter. The strength of each album was enough to be satisfying til the new one came out. High and Dry, Pyromania, and Hysteria is as good a 3-album run as it gets. The production they got was always one of their biggest selling points. The background vocals in particular always had a certain slightly overdriven quality to them that really make them stand out. This band has more classics than you could shake a good head of hair at. High and Dry (Saturday Night), Photograph, Rock of Ages, Hysteria, etc. Hell, as much as I tire of it, Pour Some Sugar on Me is an undeniable toe-tapper and always gets the ladies dancing, if your band can pull it off.
6. Guns n Roses – Appetite for Destruction. Plain and simple. I’ll reiterate the two things I always say about this album. If someone asked me the easiest way to learn to play rock drums, I’d say “learn AFD inside and out”. It is a textbook example of how to play kick-ass, hard-hitting, no apologies rock and roll drums. Also, there is not one song on this album that you would be out of place in a strip club. A couple of songs are a little fast to dance to, but still. I’ve listened to this album so much that it should be criminal.
7. Whitesnake – Again, lots of fantastic hair and great hits. It starts to get a little confusing, because the s/t album is gold from start to finish, but not a shred of the promo or videos you see for it represents any of the people who actually recorded on, aside from Coverdale. No matter. John Sykes completely tears it up on this album. True story – if you play this album more than twice in a row, your CD player will start to smoke. Then DC moves on to do Slip of the Tongue with Steve Vai “fulfilling all guitar responsibilities”. Awesome. Many, including Adrian Vandenberg, didn’t like Vai’s style for Whitesnake. Being a Vai fan, I loved it.
8. Bon Jovi – Their hair was a little more tame, but their hits weren’t, really. Raise Your Hands is as good a show opener as any I’ve ever heard. What an ass-kicker. JBJ and Richie Sambora are an amazing duo. I remember a bit they did at the MTV music awards, the year George Harrison died. The show opens to show a small lit platform with JBJ, RS on acoustic guitar, and a string duo. Everything else is dark. They do a ridiculously great version of Here Comes the Sun. As they start the second verse a huge screen comes up in the background, showing lots of pics of George and the Beatles. It was so perfectly well done. Unreal. So yeah, even if the band didn’t exist, the two of them could record acoustic stuff alone and get by. I saw Bon Jovi a few years ago. They did Livin’ on a Prayer towards then end of the night. They did NOT downtune it to make it easier for JBJ to sing. Impressive.
9. Motley Crue – Like a marriage of glam and hard rock/heavy metal. The look says “we’re clearly, undeniably in an 80’s rock band” and the sound said “don’t f*ck with us, because we’ll kick your ass and f*ck your girlfriend”. Something like Looks That Kill makes you involuntarily show the horns and bang your head, like you have no choice but to rock. Also, Girls, Girls, Girls is another essential for cover bands to play. It will bring damn near every female in the place to the dance floor. This is especially important when the dance floor is directly in front of the band.
10. Winger – At this point, I’ve run out of gas and am tired of making explanations, so I’ll say simply that if anybody took as much of a beating as these guys did, then they can’t be that bad. When Stewart wore a Winger shirt, in contract to B&B’s AC/DC and Metallica shirts, you knew they were in for trouble. It’s like Roxy Blue. I read a review for their (one) album in a guitar magazine, back in the day. It eviscerated them and the album. My first thought? “That bad, huh? I’m going to LOVE it!” I was right. So yeah, Seventeen is awesome, because it pretty much says what’s going through most guys minds at some given point or another. Also, Madalaine is an awesome song.
Topic: DTF's top 10 "'80s metal" bands (Read 24027 times)
