Okay, on to the albums...
9. Musically Incorrect (1995). This is easily Y&T's most obscure album, but is probably their most creative. And it easily has my favorite album cover. The time was 1995. After frustration upon frustration about their career, the band decided to make the Ten tour their "farewell tour" and call it quits after that. A bit more on that when I discuss the Ten album. But Dave is one of those guys that just has music in his soul. And Phil Kennemore is cut from the same cloth. Despite that '80s metal was firmly on the outs by the mid-'90s and grunge and alternative had taken over the rock scene, Dave and Phil decided to reunite and put some of their ideas on paper. Jimmy DeGrasso and Stef Burns, who had kept busy with Alice Cooper and various other projects were onboard (although I don't believe Stef participated in the writing). The title, "Musically Incorrect" was basically a reference to the fact that the type of music this band was known for, which they still wanted to remain true to, was on the outs and not popular. But they were going to do it anyway. And more than they had done in a LONG time, they let a lot of their early influences really shine through, such as the very Beatles-esque Nowhere Land, or the funk/psychedelic influenced Fly Away. Again, this is perhaps their most creative album ever. It is diverse. It is fun. But it is also very hit and miss for me, and came at a time when I wasn't ready for it. I dunno. Maybe upon further reflection, it should rate a bit higher. I'll ponder on that. But some notes on the songs:
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Long Way Down: The main riff is one of my favorites the band has ever written. And I am not alone in that assessment. I remember them doing a "release party" at a local Tower Records location in the Bay Area (Jimmy could not be there as he was, as Dave put it, "off playing golf with Alice Cooper), and whoever was doing sound during the meet and greet had this song on loop. At one point, Dave said, "You know, there ARE other songs on the record." The only thing that keeps this from being an all-time favorite for me are Phil's scathing, anti-religious lyrics. Phil was a rebellious kid who grew up in a strict religious household and parents that did not understand his rebellion or his love of rock and roll, so he rebelled harder, and...well, you know. This song was his opportunity to vent about how he felt about "organized religion." And while I get and sympathize with where he was coming from, the lyrics are offputting to someone like me who holds faith very dear. But instrumentally, this song is TASTY.
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Fly Away: I mentioned that this song has heavy funk and psychedelic vibes. It is SO '70s. After the initial intro noodling, when Dave launches into the main riff at about 1:38 in, the insanity of what he is playing goes off the charts. They performed this song a handful of times in the late '00s, and I am so glad I got to see it live.
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Quicksand: One of a handful of songs that was written around a creative drum groove brought in by Jimmy DeGrasso. The odd off-tempo meter and middle eastern vibe make this song unique and fun.
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Nowhere Land: One of the few songs where Phil takes lead vocals. This song just drips Beatles. Really fun little tune that I look back on with nostalgia when remembering the life of our fallen comrade, Phil Kennemore.
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21st Century: Another one that I am glad I got to see live. Best complete song on the album. This is Y&T playing with groove and a bit of a dark edge, which is one of the things I liked about them from day 1. Sounds like it could easily have been something that sat on a shelf from the In Rock We Trust sessions that was developed later on. Not flashy, but just an incredibly solid song.
In writing the above descriptions, it REALLY feels like I should rank this album higher than I do. Maybe the intervening years of getting into prog and exploring other styles makes what the band was doing back then "click" more now for me in retrospect. But the flip side of that is, I find the other songs on the album to be pretty forgettable. Eh, it's an album ranking on an Internet discussion forum. No need to overthink it...
8. Down for the Count (1985). This album isn't as good as it's #8 rank. But it isn't bad either. But here's the problem a lot of fans have with it: This band started as just a straightforward, no-frills, jeans leather and t-shirts hard rock band. By their 6th album, In Rock We Trust, there was a marked shift. The band noticed that their glammier, big-haired, spandex wearing counterparts that were newer on the scene were having more commercial success, so the band started in that direction and saw that album take off like none of its predecessors had. But with 1985's DFTC, they had become a full-tilt, stereotypical hair metal band, and it showed in both the image and the songs. Not that they had abandoned their signature sound altogether. But there was just less meat and more fluff (not to mention keyboards), and a lot of fans did NOT like it. Still, it spawned the band's biggest hit to date in
Summertime Girls, which was featured in Real Genius and many times on Baywatch. There are some solid songs on this one though, but as I look down the list, I notice that they are generally on the "softer" side. Some of my personal faves are: Face Like an Angel, Looks Like Trouble, and Hands of Time. And their cover of Your Mama Don't Dance is FAR superior to the one Poison would release a couple of years later.
One reason this album ranks so high for me is the nostalgia factor. I mentioned above that I missed the early years of Y&T. Here's how I got into them. Warning: SEVERAL '80s buzzwords bound to trigger uncontrollable nostalgia follow. You have been warned. So...in the 2 years or so leading up to '84, I was just kind of discovering hard rock for myself. A big factor was my Columbia House membership, through which I got a ton of tapes rather quickly. My first "real" hard rock album was Van Halen I. This soon led to Ozzy's Blizzard of Oz, Dio's Holy Diver, Def Leppard's Pyromania, Quiet Riot's Metal Health, and a few others. Well, thanks to another '80s standby, K-Tel compilation albums, my friend Alex and I got the idea to create the ultimate hard rock compilation tape. So we pooled our resources and our two Columbia House memberships and set out to collect albums. But who would make the cut and who wouldn't, and which albums from those bands that made it? On some advice from a girl in my freshman class named Shannon, I told Alex he HAD TO get Y&T's Black Tiger album. Only problem was, Columbia House didn't have it. They only had the then-new release, In Rock We Trust. So Alex got that. And he loved it. I liked it, but it didn't really click. Until...one Friday night, we went to the video store to rent some VHS tapes for a sleepover. I wanted to get the Scorpions' live set they had just put out. Alex wanted Y&T, Live at the SF Civic. So we got both, and agreed that Y&T would be the "opener" and Scorps the "headliner." After the Y&T tape, I was blown away. I mentioned above how good a live band they are. This was my first taste, and it was amazing. They blew Scorpions off the figurative stage that night. Alex immediately bought Black Tiger. And I...did what kids did back then and taped his copy on a cheap Memorex cassette rather than immediately buying my own copy (and did the same with IRWT). So...that's all well and good, but what exactly does it have to do with Down For The Count? Well, in my roundabout way of getting to that, the short story was, since Alex already had copies of two albums, and I could make copies of his, I was content not to buy any Y&T for myself right away. The first album I bought was when their "new" album came out in 1985. And it was, you guessed it, DFTC. Because this was MY first Y&T album that I bought for myself, the nostalgia alone probably makes it rank a bit higher than it should. But there you have it.
Interlude:
Open Fire - Live (1985). This was released a few months earlier than DFTC. The band had become frustrated with A&M, as I pointed out earlier. Interestingly, the Down For The Count - Contagious era of the band bears some striking similarities to DT's Falling Into Infinity period, right down to writing a bunch of songs that were rejected by the label, and working with Desmond Child to co-write "hits." Anyhow, they were writing for DFTC and having their songs rejected. Summertime Girls was one such casualty. The label heard the demo and hated it. But the band kinda liked it and played it live. They decided to put out a live album to help meet their contract so they could ditch A&M faster, and also because they couldn't get green-lit on the studio album. In fact, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get anyone at the label to even listen to their demos. So they got creative. They rented a mobile sound truck, parked it in the label's parking lot, and mixed the album there, with the music blaring from the truck's speakers. A label exec heard the live version of Summertime Girls and LOVED it, and next thing the band knew, they were told they had to record a studio version and include it on the album. In case you ever wondered why (A) there is a studio track on this otherwise live album, and (B) why that song appears twice on two separate albums in 1985, that is the reason. Anyhow, although this is short, it is a really good live recording from a band that is known for its live performances. Also featured is the rare Go For The Throat, which only existed in this live form until...much later. Another interesting note about this time period: John Nyman would join the band on the tour on backup vocals. But this was not his first time onstage with the band. On the In Rock We Trust tour, he was also onstage with the band...dressed in the Rock the robot costume.
Topic: 80s metal/hard rock: Y&T Discography - #1 album reviewed (Read 9221 times)
