’80s movie soundtracks totally rocked. They were the famous ones like Footloose and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Top Gun, and the not-so-famous ones like this one from American Anthem – a mediocre movie about Olympic gymnasts that happened to star a couple of former Olympic gymnasts trying to make the transition to acting.
Where the song is a perfect soundtrack song is that it’s a sing-along chorus and a nice little radio-friendly riff but with an utterly forgettable set of lyrics and a feel that makes you comfy when you’re hearing it but not so memorable that you’re tracking it down on iTunes.
It’s like Brad Pitt told Matt Damon in Oceans 11, “…he’s got to like you then forget you the moment you’ve left his side…” and that’s what Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor gives you right here.
The Black Star Riders grew out of an attempt to get Thin Lizzy back on the road. Scott Gorham* rounded up some of the usual suspects but had a problem – who the hell is going to sing?
Enter Ricky Warwick.
The dude is seriously a dead ringer for Phil Lynott’s voice. And after a couple of tours playing Thin Lizzy covers, they started writing some original material. Fortunately, they came to the very good decision to not release those songs as Thin Lizzy tunes but instead changed the name to Black Star Riders for the new original material. So even though it sounds just like Thin Lizzy updated for the ’90s, it’s not quite the same.
The one place where it’s definitely differentiated from Thin Lizzy is that the production is a thousand times better. Aside from a couple of times that Tony Visconti was on the production board, much of Thin Lizzy’s work was mangled in the studio. The Black Star Riders albums actually have a competent hand guiding them in the studio and it makes all the difference in the world.
Everyone has that first song that you heard by a certain artist that made you a fan of that artist. This one is mine for these guys. Satellite radio gives you way too many options. Sort of like cable TV, only easier to dial around and harder to look ahead on the guide. But every now and then, you dial into another station that has a song you like, and then you stay there for a few more, and then something like this comes on.
Heavy staccato intro, nice guitar riff, and then HOLY SHIT THAT GIRL CAN SING. She just peels the paint off the car as you’re cruising around and you wish you had a repeat button to hear it all over again. You end up snapping a cell phone picture of the display screen so you don’t forget how to spell the band’s name, and then hit YouTube when you get home to put the song on repeat.
The death growl vocals need to go away. They’re not charming and they’re not enjoyable. But otherwise this is a great tune they could turn anyone into a fan
There are definitely two parts to this song as the lush 12 string guitar arrangement at the beginning gives way to a more traditional blues rocker with no real change in the lyrics. It’s almost like David Coverdale had two different arrangements of the same song, couldn’t decide which one to do, and rather than release both, he just mashed them together. GNR did this 8 years later when they released two different versions of “You’re Crazy”. Coverdale just made one song and stretched it out.
Whitesnake got famous later in the ’80s for much heavier tunes, but their bluesier roots from the late ’70s until about ’82 (basically, from Coverdale’s solo discs “Northwinds” and “White Snake” through to about the “Saints & Sinners” album) showcased better songwriting and a wider array of musicianship with fellow Deep Purple refugees Roger Glover and John Lord along for the ride. The MTV version of Whitesnake was built around virtuoso guitar players. The live touring version of Whitesnake playing heavy blues tunes was built around an entire band that had space to play in the songs.
So let’s just say I’m only a fan of about 10% of what my son listens to. And most of that is stuff he got from me and my wife, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or The Struts. But for some reason, he likes Post Malone, and a ton of other hip-hop stuff. And while Post isn’t one of my favorites, it’s probably the one of his favorites that I’m actually okay with, and the song really isn’t too bad.
It’s a hypnotic little riff that he’s singing over, and while the lyrics are typical 21st century mumbling and a lot of pop culture references, it’s very much music of its time, and that’s not really a bad thing given what he’s going for.
So just chill with a nice little groove that hit whatever charts matter these days and is a surprisingly good song by a current artist that really no one over 23 gives a rip about.
There’s nothing particularly fancy or revolutionary about the song structure here. Its a basic blues structure with dual repeating lines at the start of each verse. It’s got a good driving beat and the bass guitar almost takes the lead on the whole thing. It’s a fun windows-down-Summer-day kind of song that just gets the whole car energized.
Not every great song has to break new ground or be wildly inventive for you to enjoy the hell out of it.
Podunk, Oklahoma didn’t have a ton of musical acts come through. We would occasionally get a name brand act come through the base, like Lee Greenwood on 4th of July (where he was selling pre-packaged patriotism to a fan base that loved the soldiers as a backdrop to the photo op, but never could find a recruiting station when it mattered). But by and large, it was a whole lot of folks on the fringes of the music world, or occasionally you would get some up-and-comer who was sort of from the area, like the time Dangerous Toys (from Texas) played in town.
So here comes Tangier, playing at the only real club we have in town that’s actually primarily a live music venue. And it’s a band we’ve actually heard of, and seen on MTV, back when Headbanger’s Ball existed, and actually played music. And you know what, I don’t care how derivative and mediocre the band was. On that night, they were awesome. It was a glorious night of a bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings at the local rock club watching live music tear the place up. Heavy blues, fast dueling guitars, and some smokey vocals while watching everyone gyrate around the club as best as you could dance to late ’80s hard rock
This was the lead single from MTV and the only song most of the crowd knew. I happened to have a copy of the album, so I knew the rest of what they were playing, too. While this was the show-stopping highlight that brought the house down, it wasn’t the best musical performance they had that night (“Sweet Surrender” was).
And that’s totally okay.
Sometimes the vibe has nothing to do with musicianship and everything to do with the organic feel of the whole performance when the audience and the performer are totally in tune with each other and just grooving on the flow like there’s nothing else in the world going on.
