Who were the best "hair" band? Why?

[kaos2900]

Cinderella easy.

Tesla and Skid Row often get lumped in as hair bands but I never viewed them as such.

[Samsara]

Ya know, it is really hard to define what a "hair band" is these days. I mean, people love their lists and genres (most of us, including myself fall into this category), but it is really subjective.

SO many great musical acts had big hair and makeup back from like 1985-1991. There are some killer bands that wrongly face a stigma of their music not being really good because of the high priority on image at the time. For example, most people would, I think, call Winger a "hair band." But Winger has some of the best musicians in rock music. Reb Beach is a virtuoso, Kip Winger is a brilliant songwriter, both in rock and classical music, and Rod Morgenstein plays in the Dixie Dregs. So how is Winger a "hair band" ya know?

You can say the same thing about groups such as Extreme and Skid Row. Both those bands get that hair band label too. But Extreme is much, much, more than that. And Skid Row is a metal band. Are we going to call Guns N Roses a hair band? Last I checked, back then, Axl's hair was teased up to the moon. 

I'm sorry to be shouting from the soapbox. I guess as I get older and grumpier, I don't really like the stigma attached to it. It makes it sound like the music created was bad, when it wasn't. Cinderella, Bon Jovi and Poison weren't metal bands. They were rock bands with a pop sensibility to them. Cinderella was bluesier, Bon Jovi was more pop and Thin Lizzy rock inspired, and Poison was a party vibe. Their songs were good and catchy. But the thing is, those songs, for the most part, stand up today, even if they are simpler.

So, I am not sure how to "pick" a hair band. I mean, if the majority of the lyrics were about tits and ass, and that's how you define "hair band" music, then maybe it would be Poison? I just don't know.

I just hate the label and stigma attached to it. It doesn't seem fair, and I think for years people have said -- "no, that band was labeled as a hair band, but they weren't because..." You can make that argument for every band in the 1980s except for the thrash bands.

p.s. no disrespect to Skeever and the original post. It just caught my attention this morning and I felt like ranting. 

[bosk1]

Ya know, it is really hard to define what a "hair band" is these days. I mean, people love their lists and genres (most of us, including myself fall into this category), but it is really subjective.

Yup, totally.  For purposes of this thread, I'm going to be way overinclusive and go with basically

You can make that argument for every band in the 1980s except for the thrash bands.

So, along those lines:

Y&T:  Fantastic hard rock band that repeatedly sniffed but never quite achieved arena superstar status, except in select markets.  But before desperately trying to go all-in and throw up the "hair metal hail Mary" with Summertime Girls and what followed, they had an INCREDIBLE run of outstanding hard rock albums in Earthshaker, Black Tiger, Meanstreak, and In Rock We Trust.

Def Leppard. At their peak (Pyromania and Hysteria) they were about as good as it gets (for 80's hair/glam bands). 

Absolutely.  Pyromania was such a huge game-changer for me musically.  I was dumbfounded that music could sound like that and be that cool.  And even when they overtly went a more pop route with Hysteria, they did it so well that it was hard to argue with. 

Whitesnake:  I realize I'm going to come across as a bandwagon jumper, but the run of Slide It In, s/t (1987), and Slip of the Tongue were outstanding.  Coverdale just killed it with those albums.

Scorpions:  Another band with a LONG career that had a sweet spot of a handful of albums that really did it for me.  For me, it was Blackout (although the two albums preceding it were pretty good as well) through Savage Amusement, and then the resurgence with Face the Heat (Crazy World didn't really do it for me, despite its commercial success). 

Tesla:  Their first two albums are incredible, straightforward hard rock.  Doesn't get much better.  I didn't care for subsequent releases as much, but there were still some strong songs here and there.  Into the Now was a HUGE comeback.

Skid Row:  Similar to Tesla, their first two albums are amazing, and then they fell off my radar.  Such a huge change in form from the s/t to Slave To the Grind.  But Slave is so raw and heavy, and yet still melodic, and that's what makes it. 

Cinderella:  Again, two outstanding albums to kick off the start of their career.  These two albums are classics.

Badlands:  They occupy a strange place, as a pseudo-super group.  But they wrote some incredible tunes. 

Stryper:  Every album of theirs other than THWTD seems to have a few really good songs, and then a bunch of others I couldn't care less about.  But those good ones, and that one solid album throughout, put them on my list.  And Michael Sweet is a REALLY good guitarist and singer.

[Bertie_Wooster]

White lion because they had Vito Bratta on guitar.

[nobloodyname]

Cinderella:  Again, two outstanding albums to kick off the start of their career.  These two albums are classics.

Now that's interesting. I'd put Heartbreak Station quite some way ahead of Night Songs although it's still a fine album. Long Cold Winter, though: For me, the only weak track is Fire and Ice but it's still perfectly okay.

[bosk1]

Cinderella:  Again, two outstanding albums to kick off the start of their career.  These two albums are classics.

Now that's interesting. I'd put Heartbreak Station quite some way ahead of Night Songs although it's still a fine album. Long Cold Winter, though: For me, the only weak track is Fire and Ice but it's still perfectly okay.

Really?  Huh.  I like it, but I just feel the dropoff.  I mean, they are a band where you can clearly see/hear what they were about by following the evolution of their four albums.  For Night Songs, they had that blues base, but had put themselves into that hair metal mold to capitalize on it.  It is part of their sound, and I felt that they did it well.  They achieved enough success that they had a bit more say in their sound by the next album, and it was mixed in terms of them bringing to the table what had made them successful, while sprinkling in a lot more of that blues sound that Tom was a huge fan of.  They had enough clout to bring out that influence more, and had been enough of an industry success that the label was going to have big names work with them enough to package it all in a way that would be commercially successful.  And it was.  And that gave them more clout and more freedom to just do what they wanted for the third album.  And that is where, to my ears, they went too far and got just a bit afield from what I liked about them to begin with. 

[cfmoran13]

Cinderella:  Again, two outstanding albums to kick off the start of their career.  These two albums are classics.

Now that's interesting. I'd put Heartbreak Station quite some way ahead of Night Songs although it's still a fine album. Long Cold Winter, though: For me, the only weak track is Fire and Ice but it's still perfectly okay.

Really?  Huh.  I like it, but I just feel the dropoff.  I mean, they are a band where you can clearly see/hear what they were about by following the evolution of their four albums.  For Night Songs, they had that blues base, but had put themselves into that hair metal mold to capitalize on it.  It is part of their sound, and I felt that they did it well.  They achieved enough success that they had a bit more say in their sound by the next album, and it was mixed in terms of them bringing to the table what had made them successful, while sprinkling in a lot more of that blues sound that Tom was a huge fan of.  They had enough clout to bring out that influence more, and had been enough of an industry success that the label was going to have big names work with them enough to package it all in a way that would be commercially successful.  And it was.  And that gave them more clout and more freedom to just do what they wanted for the third album.  And that is where, to my ears, they went too far and got just a bit afield from what I liked about them to begin with.

I'd have to agree that LCW is Cinderella at their peak.  Heartbreak Station strayed a little too far from what they did best.

[bosk1]

^Yeah, exactly.  I think Heartbreak Station was the album they (or at least Tom) always wanted to make.  But it wasn't they type of album that represented what they were best at. 

[Stadler]

I thought that Heartbreak Station was just so... clichéd.   Not that Night Songs wasn't, haha, but it seemed like HS was that album that "showed we had substance", but it was, for me, a bad Stones knockoff, whereas there was some interesting, reasonably fresh stuff on NS and LCW.

By the way, Still Climbing is worth searching out.  It's kind of more towards LCW than HS, though it doesn't have the songs from top to bottom that LCW does.  But it does have two of my favorite Cinderella songs:  "Hard To Find The Words" (that song hits SO close to home) and "The Road's Still Long".   

[bosk1]

I generally hate using this criticism, but there's no other way to say it:  I found Still Climbing to be fairly unmemorable, other than having more in common with Heartbreak Station than LCW.  I didn't hate it.  But after listening to it a few times when it was released, I never really felt like going back to it for any reason.

[Chris Hinton]

Dokken

This.  I went through 2 or 3 copies of the of Under Lock and Key cassette.  Damn, now I have to go listen to it again.

[Stadler]

I generally hate using this criticism, but there's no other way to say it:  I found Still Climbing to be fairly unmemorable, other than having more in common with Heartbreak Station than LCW.  I didn't hate it.  But after listening to it a few times when it was released, I never really felt like going back to it for any reason.

Admittedly, my opinion might be colored by the times.  I saw Cinderella - having never heard of them - open for David Lee Roth, and they blew me away (it was the Night Songs tour).  So friggin' good.  And I thought LCW was just the next step above for me.  I was SOO looking forward to the next album and was totally underwhelmed by "Shelter Me" (one of my least favorite Cinderella songs ever).  Coming as it did right as the Black Crowes hit it big with their version of the Rolling Stones Revue, it just seemed so... opportunistic. This was, after all, the time that Fish issued his first solo album and Robert Plant had sort of put his "Zeppelin" demons to rest with Manic Nirvana.   I didn't get Still Climbing until WAYYYYY later, around the time I saw them at the Electric Factory in Philly (around 2010) and figured I should complete the catalogue. 

[TAC]

Stadler, when was the DLR show? I saw DLR in Providence in January of '87 and Tesla opened. Are you sure that wasn't '88? I don't remember who opened his next tour. I didn't go.

I did see Cinderella (and Extreme) open for DLR in '91 in Mansfield.

[Samsara]

re: Cinderella

Love the band. I agree with bosk1 that Heartbreak Station is where the "drop off" feeling occurred. Night Songs and Long Cold Winter were excellent, but it felt like they were starting to lose steam a bit. I like it a lot, but it hit me the same way. I never got around to getting Still Climbing until about seven or eight years ago, and stupidly sold it during a CD purge. I still have it digitally, but need to find it again on CD and put back in the collection.

p.s. I thankfully got to see them live on Aug. 1, 2010, opening for the Scorpions. So glad I did, given that it doesn't look like they will reform any time soon.

Re: Dokken

I get the appeal, but was never a big fan for whatever reason. I'm still not. And not really interested any longer in seeing them without that classic lineup. I've seen Lynch Mob, and George Lynch solo, but never Dokken (or Don Dokken). I was supposed to, but a winter storm in 2003 prevented a flight that would have gotten me there (it was a package tour with Whitesnake, I believe).

Re: Def Leppard

Ya know, like most, I found out about the band during the Pyro/Hysteria years. I became a fan and followed them though Euphoria (which had a couple of tracks, Promises, and most importantly, Paper Sun) that I loved. After that...pass. But it's hard to deny Hysteria and the era it was in. Def Leppard was a borderline stadium act then, before 80s metal bands played stadiums...

Re: Winger

Winger is an incredible band, regardless of era. I was very disappointed in their last release, because it was co-written with some 80s songwriter whose name I can't recall. But before that, starting with Pull and going through Karma, the band really developed some great progressive songwriting. And that's not surprising, given my previous post about the individual members of the band and just how incredible they are.

That said, you can't deny the self-titled (Sahara) and In the Heart of the Young albums' marketing...Kip went the sex symbol route...and it worked. LOL.

Re: Extreme

Being a Long Islander, a diehard Yankees fan, and a proud overall New Yorker, I hate Boston. (No offense to some of the great people I know from there.) I even turned down a scholarship to attend a prominent law school in Boston because I didn't want to live in the city. That said, Extreme was one of the best things to ever come out of Beantown. They were and are such a dynamite band. The key thing about Extreme was the complexity of their music flew over the heads of so many people. Everyone knows how deep Three Sides is, but not many realize that Pornograffiti is a concept album. Nuno has talked about that over the last few years when they celebrated its anniversary. They sort of patterned some of it after The Who. Queen, and Queensryche.

Sure, they got the "hair band" stigma because of the image from the first record (which is grossly underrated), the flamboyance of Cherone, and of course, the big ballad with More Than Words. But they weren't singing about tits and ass to sing about tits and ass. There was a story involved.

[cfmoran13]

I still can't believe Fred Coury only played drums on one of their four albums (Heartbreak Station).  Okay, two.  He played on one song from Still Climbing.

[jingle.boy]

So many of these "hair" bands had the most talented (still today) guitar players.

Vai - DLR/Whitesnake
Becker - DLR
Bratta - White Lion
Gilbert - Mr. Big
Bettencourt - Extreme
Yngvie
Beach - Winger
Collen - Def Leppard

The list could go on.

[Samsara]

I still can't believe Fred Coury only played drums on one of their four albums (Heartbreak Station).  Okay, two.  He played on one song from Still Climbing.

Never knew that. Who did?

[bosk1]

I still can't believe Fred Coury only played drums on one of their four albums (Heartbreak Station).  Okay, two.  He played on one song from Still Climbing.

Never knew that. Who did?

I believe Denny Carmassi did some, but I don't remember.  Hang on...

EDIT:  Jody Cortez on Night Songs.  No idea.  Must be a session guy.  Denny Carmassi on LCW.  Kenny Aronoff on Still Climbing.  LWC was the one I remembered.  I was surprised at the time because I didn't know it was a thing for non-band members to step in on albums.  But there are reasons for it, I guess.  As much of a beast as Jimmy DeGrasso is, and as much as he has done more complicated drum parts before and after, he couldn't for some reason get his anxiety under control when recording Y&T's Ten album and had to excuse himself from the studio, so they brought in Steve Smith to lay down the drums on that album.  Steve says he kept 99% of what Jimmy did, so it is still Jimmy's parts that are on the album.  But Steve Smith played them.  My understanding is that Coury similarly wrote the drum parts for most Cinderella songs, but just didn't play them for whatever reason.

[Samsara]

re: White Lion (thanks for mentioning them jingle boy)

I love this band. They were great, and while a product of the era, Vito Bratta was the real f'in deal on guitar. That guy was phenomenal.

Funny story - back in 2008, Mike Tramp did a tour for "Mike Tramp's White Lion." He was coming my way, so I was planning to go. I saw an email from his promoter sent out to those that signed up for news, that the show in my town was tentatively canceled due to a venue problem. I inquired, and apparently the place was shutting down. He said they were trying to book at another venue in town.

About a week later, he sends out the updated venue. I had never heard of it. It was simply called "The Motorcycle Club" with an address in a suburb. A day before the show (the gig was a Saturday night, I believe), I am driving back from dinner with the Mrs., and we go hunting for the venue. The address brings us to this storage facility. Unmarked, not one of the chains, just an office park with a bunch of storage garages. I shook my head. It certainly couldn't be this...

Well, I go to the show the next night, and yup, that's it. Apparently someone in a local motorcycle club that rented one of the bigger garage spaces there for a hangout, wanted the band to play. I parked on the road, walked in, and there were maybe 20 people there, and there was an opening band called "The Grumpy." They were playing in a corner of the storage garage. Bathrooms and a makeshift bar were on the other side. They were selling beer out of coolers.

A really cheap RV rolls up, and about 20 minutes later, out steps Mike Tramp and his band. Tramp is clearly nervous as hell for whatever reason. They play, do a decent job, but they cut out the ballads. He thanks them for having them at their club. 75 minutes of watching Mike Tramp literally look like he's going to piss himself (he was all rock star looking). It was one of the saddest, but most funny concert moments I've ever had. I just sat on one of the bar stools the whole night, nursed a beer, and just wondered what Vito Bratta was thinking...

Re: FireHouse

Any love for these guys? I dug em. Still do. Got to see them years ago at a casino (2006, I think). They played for 75 minutes. Great set, CJ Snare sounded amazing. It was sad though. There were like 50 people, max. CJ called out to them during the show, as the band stop playing, to sing a line, and there were...crickets. It was SO uncomfortable. LOL. But solid gig.

[Samsara]

re: studio musicians subbing in

Bosk -- thanks for the Cinderella info. That's interesting. Here's another band from this era that did that:

WARRANT

I thought Warrant's first three records were really good. What I didn't know was, all the lead guitars on the first record, and I am guessing some of the rhythms, were done with an outside guy. Apparently the guitarists in Warrant weren't good enough at that point to play to a level that would benefit the record. So someone else recorded the guitars on Jani Lane's songs. Unreal.

BTW - Jani Lane was a great songwriter. I love that first Warrant record, and Cherry Pie aside, the second record smoked. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" remains their best song ever (for me) and I really wish the label wouldn't have made them write Cherry Pie and change the name of the record to that. Jani shouldn't have caved, but it was a double-edged sword...such as shame he is no longer with us.

[Stadler]

Stadler, when was the DLR show? I saw DLR in Providence in January of '87 and Tesla opened. Are you sure that wasn't '88? I don't remember who opened his next tour. I didn't go.

I did see Cinderella (and Extreme) open for DLR in '91 in Mansfield.

It was October of '86, the Eat 'Em and Smile tour.   Cinderella played the entire Night Songs record (though not in order). 

As for drums:

Jody Cortez played on Night Songs, as Fred didn't join until after the album was recorded.   The album cover was shot on my street in Philly, about four blocks from where I lived for several years.

Denny Carmassi played on Long Cold Winter (though I've heard Cozy Powell played some as well).  I don't know why Coury wasn't on the record.

Kenny Aronoff played on Still Climbing, though Fred Coury played on the song "Hot and Bothered".  H&B was recorded earlier for Wayne's World. 

Vito Bratta is a beast; it's a shame his muse isn't music anymore. 

EDIT:  I just saw Bosk's post.  Sorry, I didn't mean to repeat. 

[cfmoran13]

Vito Bratta is a beast; it's a shame his muse isn't music anymore. 

I'd love to know what happened to him.  He's more elusive than Jake E. Lee ever was.  And, last night, I was listening to a podcast interview with Mike Tramp (who sounds like Lars Ulrich's little brother).  There's definitely no love lost between those two.  Tramp kept saying the two of them never had anything in common and never hung out together back in the day.  He went on to say that, even if Vito Bratta ever decided to come back, he'd have no interest in playing with him again.  I wonder if he's just that butt-hurt that Vito won't come back or if there really is another reason why he would never play with him again.  It's not like Mike Tramp, solo artist, is in huge demand.  Although, I would be curious to hear his recent stuff.

[Samsara]

Vito Bratta is a beast; it's a shame his muse isn't music anymore. 

I'd love to know what happened to him.  He's more elusive than Jake E. Lee ever was.  And, last night, I was listening to a podcast interview with Mike Tramp (who sounds like Lars Ulrich's little brother).  There's definitely no love lost between those two.  Tramp kept saying the two of them never had anything in common and never hung out together back in the day.  He went on to say that, even if Vito Bratta ever decided to come back, he'd have no interest in playing with him again.  I wonder if he's just that butt-hurt that Vito won't come back or if there really is another reason why he would never play with him again.  It's not like Mike Tramp, solo artist, is in huge demand.  Although, I would be curious to hear his recent stuff.

Vito doesn't play any longer. He hung it up to go get a regular job and support his parents, who needed it. He lives in Staten Island, I believe, with a regular 9-5. He was on Eddie Trunk's show a few years back, and basically explained that he loves the fact people still enjoy the music, he doesn't intend to go back to playing.

A few years after that, apparently Vito and Mike resolved a lawsuit, giving Mike the ability to call whatever band he has "White Lion." But I don't know the specifics of it.

[bosk1]

Here's another band from this era that did that:

WARRANT

I thought Warrant's first three records were really good. What I didn't know was, all the lead guitars on the first record, and I am guessing some of the rhythms, were done with an outside guy. Apparently the guitarists in Warrant weren't good enough at that point to play to a level that would benefit the record. So someone else recorded the guitars on Jani Lane's songs. Unreal.

BTW - Jani Lane was a great songwriter. I love that first Warrant record, and Cherry Pie aside, the second record smoked. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" remains their best song ever (for me) and I really wish the label wouldn't have made them write Cherry Pie and change the name of the record to that. Jani shouldn't have caved, but it was a double-edged sword...such as shame he is no longer with us.

Oh, I didn't realize that.  They were one of those few bands where I was in on the ground floor.  I saw them as an opener before the first album was released, and they put on an amazing show.  I picked up DRFSR on release and felt privileged when it blew up months later once Down Boys and Heaven started getting played on radio and MTV.

Jody Cortez played on Night Songs, as Fred didn't join until after the album was recorded.   

Ah, didn't know that was the reason.  Was Cortez a "former member" or was he a session guy brought in because they didn't have a drummer at the time?

And since no discussion of Cinderella's formative years would be complete without this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XOWYe9TgaU

...which sort of brings my entire post full circle, since the show I referenced above where I discovered Warrant was being headlined by Britny Fox.  And any diehard fan of Cinderella is going to know the connection between Cinderella and Britny Fox.  I thought the latter were a pretty good band as well.  Michael Kelly Smith is a fun guy to talk to.  I thought Tommy Paris was a much better fit for them at singer and was glad they moved that direction.  Shame it was so late in the game for bands of this type that they didn't get any traction.

[Grappler]

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" remains their best song ever (for me)

Just in case you need instructions on how to jam to this song, courtesy of our local tribute band.  https://www.facebook.com/hairbangersball/videos/10154596036673079/

Also my favorite Warrant tune.

[Stadler]

Jody Cortez played on Night Songs, as Fred didn't join until after the album was recorded.   

Ah, didn't know that was the reason.  Was Cortez a "former member" or was he a session guy brought in because they didn't have a drummer at the time?

As I understand it, he was a session guy because they were between drummers, though the Wiki article indicates that they HAD a drummer when recording the album, and that there was another guy in between recording and touring and before Coury joined.   But I've never heard that before.   Coury played with Ozzy as a fill-in before Cinderella.

I just noticed that "Kevin Valentine" was listed as a "previous member" but I can't see where or when that was.   Kevin Valentine basically played all the drums on Kiss's Psycho Circus.

...which sort of brings my entire post full circle, since the show I referenced above where I discovered Warrant was being headlined by Britny Fox.  And any diehard fan of Cinderella is going to know the connection between Cinderella and Britny Fox.  I thought the latter were a pretty good band as well.  Michael Kelly Smith is a fun guy to talk to.  I thought Tommy Paris was a much better fit for them at singer and was glad they moved that direction.  Shame it was so late in the game for bands of this type that they didn't get any traction.

A couple guys in Britny Fox were in an early version of Cinderella in Pennsylvania, no?   Poison was originally from PA too, I think. 

[cfmoran13]

A couple guys in Britny Fox were in an early version of Cinderella in Pennsylvania, no?   Poison was originally from PA too, I think.

Cinderella and Britny Fox were from Philly.  Britny's first drummer was from Cinderella.  I think Poison was from the Harrisburg, PA area.

[bosk1]

A couple guys in Britny Fox were in an early version of Cinderella in Pennsylvania, no?   Poison was originally from PA too, I think.

Cinderella and Britny Fox were from Philly.  Britny's first drummer was from Cinderella. 

Yes.  Cinderella's original lineup was Kieffer and Brittingham, along with Michael Kelly Smith on guitar and Tony Destra on drums.  Smith and Destra left to form Britny Fox. 

[TAC]

WARRANT

I am certainly no Warrant fan, but I've said this before. I saw them twice. Opening for Crue on the Feelgood tour in an arena and opening for Paul Stanley in a club, and they COMMANDED both stages.

Outstanding live band.

[cfmoran13]

I am certainly no Warrant fan, but I've said this before. I saw them twice. Opening for Crue on the Feelgood tour in an arena and opening for Paul Stanley in a club, and they COMMANDED both stages.

Outstanding live band.

There is a really good interview with Erik Turner from earlier this year on Dean DelRay's "Let There Be Talk" podcast.  Apparently, they always had a great live presence, even in the club days.  Not really being a fan of theirs, I wouldn't know.

[max_security]

Blue Murder with Tony Franklin and John Sykes , one of the best live bands I have ever seen. Hammerjacks  1980 something . I think Tony is still jamming somewhere.

[Stadler]

I am certainly no Warrant fan, but I've said this before. I saw them twice. Opening for Crue on the Feelgood tour in an arena and opening for Paul Stanley in a club, and they COMMANDED both stages.

Outstanding live band.

There is a really good interview with Erik Turner from earlier this year on Dean DelRay's "Let There Be Talk" podcast.  Apparently, they always had a great live presence, even in the club days.  Not really being a fan of theirs, I wouldn't know.

I've heard that before; if I'm not mistaken the Used Bin Radio guys (who were there on the Strip back in the day) said something similar, but I've also heard that the guitar players couldn't cut it on record.  Hard to believe the two are both true (though it's possible, I suppose). 

[Lowdz]

re: studio musicians subbing in

Bosk -- thanks for the Cinderella info. That's interesting. Here's another band from this era that did that:

WARRANT

I thought Warrant's first three records were really good. What I didn't know was, all the lead guitars on the first record, and I am guessing some of the rhythms, were done with an outside guy. Apparently the guitarists in Warrant weren't good enough at that point to play to a level that would benefit the record. So someone else recorded the guitars on Jani Lane's songs. Unreal.

BTW - Jani Lane was a great songwriter. I love that first Warrant record, and Cherry Pie aside, the second record smoked. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" remains their best song ever (for me) and I really wish the label wouldn't have made them write Cherry Pie and change the name of the record to that. Jani shouldn't have caved, but it was a double-edged sword...such as shame he is no longer with us.

There was a disclaimer on the 3rd album from the producer stating that all guitars were played by members of Warrant on that album. Strange as the guitars don't stand out as being anything other than ok on the first two albums.

At the time, I never heard the music referred to as Hair Metal. It was just metal, or hard rock.

I don't think there's been a band mentioned yet I don't like.

I'll throw Vain into the mix. Their No Respect album is killer. They toured the uk with Skid Row and blew them off the stage.

And Samsara, I love the first two Firehouse albums. They went to shit after that though.

But Brent had it right, don't listen to TAC 😀

[Samsara]

Warrant's Dog Eat Dog was really good. That is the one with Machine Gun on it, if I remember right. But that is an outstanding record. Either way, the songs were written by Jani, which shows how good he was as a songwriter. Good stuff.

Agreed on Firehouse. Reach for the Sky is my favorite track, and that's on the second record, Hold Your Fire. I have the third album, but if I remember right, there really wasn't much growth, and the songs weren't there.

[TAC]

They certainly looked the part for that album, even though they never sounded like hair metal. But maybe that makes them the best of them all.

Is that Hair band, or HEAD Band?

 

Well played, sir!

But Brent had it right, don't listen to TAC 😀

 

Not well played!