'Love On The Rocks'
Friday, February 19, 2021 at 03:59PM
I have no idea if I have stated it here before, but that album is one of the top 10 most important of my life. Poison was my glam gateway in the 80s. I was only 8 or so when Open Up came out, so being a big fan soon opened me up to other acts like Motley Crue, Def Leppard, the whole gambit.
In a lot of ways, Open Up is just the perfect 80s glam release: it is fun, the songs are memorable and yes, there's a huge power ballad too. My mom immediately loved "Fallen Angel" when that song was a single. I thought the video for "Nothin' but a Good Time" was the best thing ever.
These days, I don't listen to Open Up all that often because I have heard it probably a million times. When I do choose to give it a play, I tend to gravitate toward the B-sides. I think "Love On The Rocks" is one of the best songs Poison ever recorded. At just over three minutes, it is the perfect length. It is raunchy and crunchy and has a nice riff. The chorus gets stuck in your head. Here's the band doing the song live, way back in 1990.
Reader Comments (7)
Occasionally, we grow out of love with some music. Sometimes, we grow into love with a song or album that our ignorant ears first scorned. Then there are those bits of music that, no matter what happens, we always return to (even if we don't always listen to them). Funny how our passions for music mirror those other passions that we have in life.
Poison are (as you all know) not one of my favorites. But, boy oh boy, do I understand the sentiment in that post. Thanks, Allyson (and Gary and Stu).
It was eye opening. Remember this is before the youtube era, so I had no idea what the stage would look like, what the setlist would be, what they would open with etc. I was blown away by Tesla as the opening band, they sounded insane.
Then the stage lights dimmed for Poison, and it was the most fun 1.5 hours of my life. Not just the band, but also the crowd. I saw things a 15 year old hadn't seen before, at least not for real... I smelled things a 15 year old had never smelled before. I was sold on concerts forever.
I now go back and watch shows from that tour on youtube and still recognize some of it. I remember the pyro at the end and to start the show. I remember the fog ... and LOTS of it. I remember how CC was really close to me on his riser stage right during his "Fallen Angel" solo, my favorite song. I also remember either the sound being so bad, or the crowd noise so loud that I didn't recognize he was playing "Fallen Angel" till the first chorus lol. I remember him playing the doubleneck during "Every Rose". In fact, I remember he changed guitars almost every song and all his classics from that era were played. I remember the stage lighting change structure for Rikki's drum solo, and him standing up to play the drums attached to that structure. I remember Bobby's "Pink Panther" bass solo before "Talk Dirty". And I remember being fooled that CC really didn't want to leave the stage at the end and kept playing while a security guard had to haul him away. These were real shows, events, and there was a noticeable buzz around the arena before the show, just amazing.
This album is my favorite Poison album and the first one I owned. I still listen to it all the time ... the hits and the lesser known songs. "Love on the Rocks" is an awesome song. Back to the Rocking Horse as well. And I really love "Face the Hangman" which was a B-side but has some of that "Fallen Angel" vibe and structure.
I'm looking forward to the Stadium Tour. I know Poison will only play 7 songs, a few solo's and that's it. But we know that's all that Bret can do anyway these days. We'll never hear these "deep tracks" live, but frankly that's what Tribute Bands are for now. I'll enjoy the hits like everybody else and they'll have fun on stage. As long as Bret doesn't pull that "Here's Poison's Fallen Angel" shit ... we get it Bret, you have a solo career, but you're on stage as the damn Poison frontman so cut that crap out lol.
Long Live Poison, the Glam Slam kings of Noise. One of the most underrated bands in US history because ask any non-Poison fan how they still get 10,000 people to their show in any city and you'll get really weird looks. They just don't get it. Poison said it themselves, it's about "Nothing but a Good Time", and they deliver that, always!
Every song is fantastic, but Back to the Rocking Horse has always been my favorite.