Artist: Poison
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2007
Who would’ve thought that the bands who entertained us in the second half of the eighties with their tropically sculpted hairdos would be having such a hard time today. Surely a very interesting observation. If you just glance around for a moment, you’ll no doubt spot one of those ancient rock dinosaurs on almost every corner, ravaging Europe’s concert stages this summer. So what’s so interesting here? Mainly the fact that you won’t find a single one of the icons of the MTV-fueled glam rock scene among them, the scene that spread so unstoppably across the promised land on the other side of the pond during that golden age of circus-act rock & roll.
The band Poison also belongs in the category of fallen glam heroes mentioned above, a crew from Los Angeles that celebrates its (you won’t believe it) 23rd anniversary this year. Time just flies too fast for some. Anyway, after the Hollyweird disaster, Poison are back after five years. But not on the wings of long-awaited new material. Instead, they come armed with a full sack of second-rate covers! What the gentlemen are trying to tell us with them isn’t clear, since on top of that the covers make them look like a bunch of spoiled adolescents who, after all these years, still flat-out refuse to come to terms with the tragic cock rocker shipwreck of the early nineties. It’s mostly about the unpleasantly bitter aftertaste that this hastily assembled wreath of songs by legendary artists leaves behind, thanks to the over-the-top glam treatment. Of course it’s natural that the gentlemen want to hold on to their recognizability at all costs. If only the old boys had managed to pour it into a more convincing musical shape, a person might even have gotten moving a little while listening to it.
The selection of songs that Poison wanted to ennoble this time with a touch of Californian charm draws on a rather enviable rock catalog. Besides big names like Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Who, Tom Petty and Kiss, there’s a whole string of artists unknown to the vast majority, like The Romantics, Jim Croce and the duo Loggins & Messina. You’ll most likely recognize the latter from Your Momma Don’t Dance, which first appeared in identical form (!) back in 1988 on the hugely successful Open Up And Say … Ahh! And that’s all that’s worth mentioning on Poison’d. If Bowie’s Suffragette City, Townsend’s Squeezze Box and Rock & Roll All Night by New York’s masters of theatrical rock Kiss are perfectly digestible, the attempt to recreate the magic of the Stones’ Dead Flowers turns into a total fiasco. The most sympathy goes to a properly cranked-up We’re And American Band by good old Grand Funk Railroad, which interestingly delivers an edge and rawness that’s unexpected from Poison! Even more interesting would be seeing the look on Cooper’s face when I Never Cry brazenly forces its way into his ears in the future. Stuff like it on Poison’d simply stays trapped too often in the tight embrace of Bret’s and DeVille’s clichéd tricks. In 2007 the two are obviously still playing with the same cards, which surely spells nothing good for Poison.
Lineup
Bret Michaels: vocals
CC DeVille: guitar
Rikki Rockett: guitar
Bobby Dall: drums
Production
Don Was
Tracklist
1.Little Willy
2.Suffragette City
3.I Never Cry
4.I Need To Know
5.Can’t You See
6.What I Like About You
7.Dead Flowers
8.Just What I Needed
9.Rock & Roll All Night
10.Squeeze Box
11.You Don’t Mess Around With Jim
12.We’re An American Band
