Yeah, the audience for this thread will be small, but what the heck, right? If you liked this outstanding hard rock band or want to know a bit more about them, this is the place. It is no secret that I am a long-time fan, although my interest has waned.
First, a bit of backstory: This band started WAY back in 1974 and wasn't really a "hard rock" band at all at first. Some of their big influences were Elvis, the Beatles, and David Bowie, and their original sound (when they weren't playing covers) was a pretty good mix of those bands. But it wasn't long before they took the direction they are best known for. They and another fledgling SF Bay Area band called "Journey" were the pet projects of a young manager named Herbie Herbert, who booked both bands in any venue he could to try to gain exposure. When Journey began to take off, he eventually cast his lot with them, and the rest is history. But Y&T continued to play everywhere they could, and built a hard core following, especially in California and overseas in Europe and Japan. For some reason, they always seemed to fall just a hair short of making it huge in the U.S. despite being one of the most respected hard rock bands among fellow musicians. They are much like King's X in that regard. But the list of bands that were discovered opening for Y&T in Northern California and L.A. that went on to become huge is almost endless and includes, among others: Van Halen, Motley Crue, and Metallica.
I did not discover this band until late 1984 or so. I will get into the specifics later.
The band has 12 studio albums, 4 live albums, 2 albums of previously unreleased tracks (sort of like Ytsejam releases, but were actually released through the label), and 4 compilation albums. Y&T are one of those bands that are known for their live shows, and it comes through on their live releases, which often take the songs to another level. For that reason, I will discuss the live albums in this thread. I may also discuss the three Meniketti solo releases when I get there. I'll see. But at the very least, I plan to discuss the following:
Studio:
-Yesterday and Today (1976)
-Struck Down (1978)
-Earthshaker (1981)
-Black Tiger (1982)
-Mean Streak (1983)
-In Rock We Trust (1984)
-Down for the Count (1985)
-Contagious (1987)
-Ten (1990)
-Musically Incorrect (1995)
-Endangered Species (1997)
-Facemelter (2010)
Bonus:
-Unearthed, vol. I (2003)
-Unearthed, vol. II (2004)
Live:
-Open Fire (1985)
-Yesterday & Today, Live (1991)
-BBC in Concert: Live on the Friday Rock Show (2000)
-Live at the Mystic (2012)
I think I will go in reverse rank order (leading up to the "best") for studio albums, and include short interludes to discuss the bonus releases and live releases.
So...here we go...
12. Struck Down. (1978) This album is truly a microcosm of the kinds of things that dogged this band their entire career. Coming off strong touring from their debut album, they had some strong ideas. But they were still unfortunately stuck on a small label that did not get hard rock at all, and had no idea how to make a hard rock album or how to promote it. So the band got stuck with a producer who had no idea. When the band heard the final product after the final mix, they were shocked at how much their sound had been changed in post-production, and were outraged at the fact that the sound was changed without their permission, and the original, unaltered tapes destroyed. This is one of the strangest sounding rock albums I have ever heard, and I am not alone in that assessment. Still, there are some standout tracks, like the title song and
Dreams of Egypt.
11. Facemelter. (2010) Wow. From the band's second album way back in 1978 to the band's most recent album in 2010 in one swoop? Yeah. This album had some strong moments. "Prelude" and "On With the Show" are a great way to open the album, and are a nice tribute to late bass player Phil Kennemore. The single,
I'm Coming Home was pretty good, but felt a bit "Y&T by numbers," as much as I hate to use that description. One of the bonus tracks, "Losing My Mind," may just be my favorite from the album. I was pretty excited for the band's first studio release in 13 years, especially given that Dave Meniketti had released a couple of stellar solo albums in the interim, the band had been touring and had great energy, and the initial lead single was pretty good. But overall, this album fell very flat for me, which is a shame. It has some good moments for sure, but also fell very flat overall. This is a band that very much had a pattern on their albums of having about 1/3 good songs, 1/3 okay songs, and 1/3 "filler" (although fans might disagree about which songs would be considered "filler"). Despite my rabid fandom, I never considered them a band that wrote albums that were incredibly strong from start to finish (although they have a couple that fit that description). This album definitely falls into that category. But unfortunately, the "good songs" don't reach very high, the "okay songs" don't really interest me much, and the "filler songs" are ones that I would rather avoid. Some days, this might be #12 instead of #11.
10. Yesterday and Today. (1976) Not sure if I will continue to go at a clip of 3 albums at a time, but I wanted to start the top 10. Drawing heavily on their Beatles influence, the band was booked for a gig and did not have a name, so they hastily grabbed the name of one of their favorite Beatles albums, and it stuck. (They wouldn't officially shorten it to "Y&T" until their third album, in response to fan chants of "Y&T! Y&T! Y&T!" at their shows) And what better way to name your debut album than to have it self-titled, right? At times, this album is rough. REALLY rough. But it does show some promise as well.
25 Hours A Day, a song that would show up later on their live album, Open Fire, is a fun little track. My Heart Plays Too is perhaps the best ballad they have ever written (and that is saying a lot for a band that helped pioneer the "power ballad," and really were masters at writing those kinds of songs). Earthshaker is an awesome little rocker. Alcohol is goofy, and is made all the more goofy by Leonard Haze doing a rare lead vocal performance, but somehow works as a fun interlude. And Beautiful Dreamer would become one of those very rarely played, but always in demand, fan favorites. The lack of focus, the rawness, and the meager production values (because it was the '70s and because the budget was next to zero) keep this from ranking higher.
Trivia: Before the two "Yesterday & Today" albums were re-released on CD in 2009 or so (that's what Wikipedia says, but I thought for sure it was earlier in the 2000's), they were LONG out of print and almost impossible to find. It was the rarest of fans that had an 8-track, cassette, or vinyl of either of these two albums, and despite growing up in Y&T's backyard less than 10 miles from the place where they practiced, I didn't know any. In the early '90s, a fellow Marine in my battalion claimed to have copies on cassette. I offered him $100 each, but he never managed to procure them.
Topic: 80s metal/hard rock: Y&T Discography - #1 album reviewed (Read 9195 times)
