When that first song hit my ears and I knew was in love. Raucous guitars, cigarette drenched screeching vocals, and back alley drums made my heart pump and my foot stomp. I was into them before I even knew what hit me. The tongue and cheek lyrics with a bit of double entendre had me laughing. Simple. Pure. Rock n Roll.
The album was on heavy rotation while growing up. I flipped it endlessly on my walkman cassette player while playing along on my drums in the garage. I remember sneaking to my brother’s room and looking at the guitar tab book he had of this entire album under some cigarettes, coins, and other “stuff”. The classical guitar in his room was exactly tough, but it allowed me to figure out a few riffs. At 12 years old, I don’t think I had felt so empowered before.
This heavily underrated band and album never received the full appreciation and sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Flipping through the photos section in the guitar tab book, I saw these strange scrappy underdogs with their Johnny Thunders/Keith Richards inspired swagger and attire. I knew these weirdos came straight from the gutters of Los Angeles, like a bunch of raccoons. They spoke right to my heart.
Stay Gold and don’t change that song,
Will