) and in particular American rock music. KISS were his first love and he would buy pretty much any album as long as the band had long hair, leather trousers and make-up - and came from the opposite side of the Atlantic. On the odd occasion that I'd rave about an American band, he would dismiss them: LA Guns and Smashed Gladys were two such examples. Likewise he didn't rate Vain's No Respect
.*To be fair, it's a far from perfect album. I never much rated the ploddier songs but Secrets, Beat The Bullet, Who's Watching You (as good an opening trio of songs you could wish for), Aces, No Respect and Down For The Third Time represent a more impressive canon of work on their own than, say, Warrant, Roxx Gang, Lilian Axe and Winger managed between them.
I was fortunate to see Vain when they toured this album (but less fortunate to have to buy a ticket to see Skid Row, the band they were supporting - and Vain's superior performance made me appreciate Seb & co even less).
Arguably Vain's problem was that they were just that little bit too late. Maybe they were also too 'dark' for some (a side-effect of not being from LA perhaps). But No Respect stands the test of time, and almost 20 years on that's no mean feat.
* Actually apparently he did! But as for LA Guns 'they really were arse', so I was right about that. (29/10/08)
No comments:
Post a Comment