Tag: Stephen Pearcy

My Sunday Song – “Lay It Down” by Ratt

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For My Sunday Song #254, we are going to explore the song “Lay It Down” by Ratt off the band’s 1985 album ‘Invasion of Your Privacy’. The song broke the Top 40 and landed at #40 on the Hot 100. This helped the album sell over 2,000,000 copies and push the band to super stardom after they massively successful debut album. The song is one of the few that is credited to every member of the band except for Bobby Blotzer. He doesn’t have any writing credits on this album.

The song is not very deep lyrically. It basically sums up to trying to getting some female action. It does talk about how she doesn’t really know him and that she might not even care. They play the game of romance but she won’t get to see the real him until they are in the sheets having some fun and letting themselves go completely. I’m sorry there isn’t much more to it than that, but Ratt never claimed to be Bob Dylan now did they.

Musically though, it is a fantastic song. That opening guitar riff from Warren DeMartini is one of the best they’ve ever done. Bobby Blotzer’s drums are hard and heavy and he lays down a cool groove along with Juan Croucier on bass. The song is typical 80’s rock, but Ratt has a way of putting a blues edge to it with both Robbin Crosby and Warren’s playing. It helped set Ratt apart from some of the other bands. The song is also a little on the sleazy side which fits well with the lyrics. Stephen Pearcy’s gritty vocals bring the sleaze to the forefront, but when he whispers that last verse, he shows a softer, sexier side that helps catapult the song to the next level.

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My Sunday Song – “Luv Sick” by Ratt

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For My Sunday Song #253, we are going to dissect “Luv Sick” off the band’s 1999 album ‘Ratt’. Don’t remember this album? Well, not many people probably do. It isn’t their best. In fact, I don’t think I spoke very kindly about it. However, this song was the highlight for me. The album didn’t chart, I don’t think it had any singles and I think I didn’t hear it until I wrote the review on it back a few years ago.

But the song is what we want to talk about and not that album. “Luv Sick” was written by Warren DeMartini, Stephen Pearcy and Taylor Rhodes (who has worked with Aerosmith). The lyrics are a little pedestrian and nothing that Shakespeare is going to drool over. The song is basically about a guy who is obsessed with a woman. He tries to walk away and move on but he can’t. He wants her too much. I am not sure if he crosses any kind of line to hurt her or anything, but I am a little worried for her. Stalking laws might have been written for this guy!!

It is the guitar playing on here that is really what I love. Warren gets flat out down and dirty laying down some nasty Blues licks. I love how when they sing the “Luv Sick”, part in the chorus, Warren rips into this little riff that is a great little combo with the lyrics.  It is really cool sounding.  Towards the end, the guitar gets even more bluesy and it is just Warren jamming.  This the first album the band has with bass player Robbie Crane and he lays down a great bass line and drives the song home with Bobby Blotzer banging heavy on those drums. The real drawback is Stephen Pearcy as his vocals aren’t what they used to be. If there was a negative to the song, it would be that.

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My Sunday Song – “Way Cool Jr.” by Ratt

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For My Sunday Song #252, we are going to go through “Way Cool Jr.” by Ratt. The song is off their 1988 album ‘Reach for the Sky” which was produced by legendary Beau Hill. The song was the first single off the album and didn’t really light the world on fire. It only went to #75 on the Billboard Hot 100 so no Top 40 for this one. The band was on the downslope of their career but it was songs like this that still kept me interested in the band.

The song was written by Stephen Pearcy, William DeMartini and Beau Hill. It seems to be about a handsome fella that was living his best life and thought he was so cool and that all the women loved him. He was slick, charismatic and probably wore sunglasses inside. He wasn’t a good guy though as he was a drug dealer and getting everyone high. The lyrics make you think he is a blues guitarist, but he is serving something else. It shows the glamours side and the seedy side and is full of contradictions. There has even rumors that the song is about Robbin Crosby who was deep in to the throes of heroin by this point.

Now there is also a possibility this song is about Elvis as he came from Memphis and was really cool guy hanging with the blues crowd that is where he got that sound. He is good-looking and the women love him. Either way, it is pretty cool.

Musically, the song is pure blues rock and roll from the gritty slide guitars by Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby and Bobby Blotzer playing the harmonica and cleaning things with his washboard. Juan Croucier is laying down a funky rhythm on bass and Steven Pearcy struts around on the vocals laying out his coolness for the world to hear. It is a cheesy, over the top song and for me this wasn’t your typical 80’s glam song, it had a little more style and depth musically.

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My Sunday Song – “Body Talk” by Ratt

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For My Sunday Song #251, we are kicking off a 10 song set of Ratt songs. And to shake it up, I am going to pick one song from each release (they had 9) and soundtrack song not on any studio album. First up will be “Body Talk” off the band’s 1986 album ‘Dancing Undercover’. The song was released as a single in Japan only but it had a video on MTV in the US because it was used in the Eddie Murphy movie ‘Golden Child’ (Note, this is not the soundtrack song I mentioned earlier). I don’t believe the song charted, but it was in very heavy rotation on MTV which was all I was listening to any way at this point in my life.

The song is credited to Warren DeMartini, Stephen Pearcy and Juan Croucier as each had a part to play. Warren had the cool ass riff, Stephen who maybe came up with the title and Juan who really did all the heavy lifting. No one was able to do anything with the song and under a one day turnaround due date, Juan took the song and came up with all the vocal melodies and basically all the lyric as well. I guess he works well under pressure.

The song is about sex, what else, but it is that driving guitar riff by Warren that is killer. It is almost speed metal fast. Bobby Blotzer’s drum beat is super fast and the driving force behind the song. With the dynamic duo of Warren and Robbin Crosby on guitar you get some wonderful guitar work as well. Stephen’s raspy vocals sound great here. He is the emotion and the heart of the song as delivers the lyrics quick and effortlessly. The band captured some massive energy and gave one of their best performances captured on an album.

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The Top Rock Albums of 2018

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2018 was another year with some great releases and way too many to get through them all so I am sure I missed a number of great albums and if you look around the web, there will be tons of Top Album lists you can get a pretty good idea of what you should check out in case you missed any of these.

This list will be my favorite “Rock” albums of the year.  All other types of music will be for a later post.  I am going to leave this one to my favorite genre.  It is a broad genre, but these are the albums that I consider to be ROCK!!

Also note, these are MY FAVORITES!!  These are not the most popular or trendy albums.  These are the albums that I connected with during the year and I kept coming back to again and again.  And without further adieu, here are the Top Rock Albums of 2018:

My #1 Album of the Year:

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Reach – The Great Divine: A modern, yet melodic rock album that just grabs hold and won’t let go from beginning to end.  A band I had never heard of prior to this album and I am now wondering where they have been my whole life.  Just a fantastic album with no songs to skip or delete.  Almost pure perfection.  The first album I bought that was new in 2018 and still listen to it today.  With songs like “The Great Divine”, “Nightmare” and “Into Tomorrow” you can see they have the goods.  The production value was great, the music, the vocals, it was all solid and my favorite album of the year!!  Give it a try (and check out my original review by clicking the album title).

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Friday New Releases – November 9th

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Wow!! The new releases are coming in droves. Another extensive list of releases this week just like last.  There has to be something for everyone as the artist here cover the gamut of genres.  There are a handful I am interested in streaming at least, not sure about buying…yet.  I will test the waters first.  Those are highlighted in Blue.  What do you see that you like?  Let me know and let me know what releases are missing from the list.  I hope you find something.  Have a great weekend!!

  • 71z5r6SxinL._SL1200_.jpg  Stephen Pearcy – View to a Thrill – (Frontiers Records):  The lead singer of Ratt (or some version of it) is back with another solo effort.  I am becoming very skeptical of this release with all the antics going on with him from the latest Ratt tour…not a pretty picture. The tracks I have heard so far are so, so…but after his last one was pretty decent, I will give this one a try.  We will see.

  • 51WFlCQ79xL._AC_US436_QL65_  Red Dragon Cartel – Patina – (Frontiers Record):  Jake E. Lee isback with Red Dragon Cartel’s 2nd album.  I get the impression this is a real band now and so the songs should be solid and consistent.  I am digging what I have heard and have higher expectations for this one over the last.  I can’t wait to crank this one up.

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Ratt – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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For most of 2018, I have been reviewing all the Ratt albums from the Ratt E.P. in 1983 all the way to 2010’s Infestation. It has been an enjoyable ride walking through the history of the band, all the ups and the downs, the good and the bad and loving every minute of it (wait that is Loverboy)…and loving watching the wax or cd spinning round and round (much better).

Ratt has been a love/hate relationship.  While I love most of what they do, they don’t always deliver the goods and I tried to be as honest as I could be throughout the review processes.  I believe I was brutal where I needed to be and kissed their ass when it deserved it as well.  I hear they band is planning a new album in 2019 and when it comes I will review it in detail like the others and I will update this list and put it where it belongs among the classics or the crap.

You can go back and read each review in detail by just clicking on the album title.  This ranking will be just a summary of the good and bad of each album.  I hope you enjoy.

THE WORST – RATT (1999):

The hardest review of them all to write. I couldn’t connect to this album when it came out or even now.  The production quality was horrible; Stephen’s vocals needed some cleanup and weren’t always up to par; the double guitar of Ratt of old was gone and so the songs were missing that punch; and overall it was just bad.

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Ratt – Ratt (1999) – Album Review

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After the album ‘Collage’ in 1998, the band signed with a label again and this time it was Sony. In July of 1999, they released their self-titled album “Ratt” or 1999 since their debut E.P. was titled ‘Ratt’.  The album was very bluesy and not quite the Glam rock (with a blues edge) as they had done before which is a good thing as we are in 1999 and not 1989.

The band was down to three original members…Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer.  There is still no Robbin Crosby or Juan Croucier.  Replacing Juan on Bass is Robbie Crane making his first appearance with the band.  They didn’t replace Robbin which means only one guitar and that is a one of the negatives of the album.  The dual guitar sound was always a “Ratt” sound.

Out of all their albums, this is the one I am least familiar with.  I had lost interest with anything new from them and what I heard I didn’t like.  So, I had passed and have not ever owned this album and still don’t. I will pick it up if I ever catch it in the used section of a record store (is that giving away anything on my review???).

This has been a very hard post to write for me.  I have had to take a lot of time as I wanted to give the album a fair shake as I really love this band.  I needed to be inspired to write something about the album and although I am writing this post now, I still don’t know really what to say.  I will do my best though.

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Ratt – ‘Collage’ – Album Review

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After the disappointing sales of their album ‘Detonator’, Ratt seemed to be falling apart.  Robbin Crosby would leave the band due to his substance abuse problem and the dominos would fall from there.  The band went on “hiatus” in 1992 and it felt like the band was done.  Well, the weren’t just year.

In 1997, reunion talks began with the five original members.  However, Robbin Crosby developed HIV due to his substance abuse problem and was in no shape to carry-on.  Juan Croucier would soon afterwards decide he didn’t want to re-join the band.  So that left Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer and they decided to continue as Ratt and the set out to go on tour.  Before they did that, the decision was made to release a compilation album of B-sides, alternate recordings and even re-work some old Mickey Ratt tunes.

I wasn’t planning on reviewing any compilation albums in my Ratt Review Series, but this one was different as it wasn’t a greatest hits collection.  Being that most of the songs haven’t been on any Ratt album, I decided it was worth getting a review of it’s own.  I will warn you, this is a collection of songs that is strictly for Ratt fans.

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Ratt – ‘Detonator’ – Album Review

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The year is 1990 and we are getting to the end of the Hair Metal era, but at the time, no one knew that end was coming.  Ratt released their fifth album in August of 1990 and it brings us to the end the long running stream of Platinum albums.  It is also the last Ratt album with the line-up that has been on all 5 of their albums.

  • Stephen Pearcy – vocals
  • Robbin Crosby – lead guitar
  • Warren DeMartini – lead guitar
  • Juan Croucier – bass guitar
  • Bobby Blotzer – drums

After the disappointing reception for ‘Reach for the Sky’ (although it did go Platinum), the band needed to make a change.  That change was not to use Beau Hill as producer on the next album as he had produced all previous albums to much success.  The band (or label) brought in powerhouse songwriter Desmond Child.  You know Desmond…he had great success writing with Kiss, Aerosmith and a few Bon Jovi classics.

And did he ever get involved in the songwriting as he has writing credits on 10 of the 11 tracks on the album.  Not only did Desmond assist with songwriting, he was also the executive producer along with Sir Arthur Payson.  While Ratt did maintain the classic Ratt sound which was a little bluesy and little sleazy, the songs were much more polished and contained more hooks than a fisherman’s tackle box.  It definitely leaned to a more Glam rock image than prior albums.

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