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Was it written in the starlight? Mark Knopfler’s Newcastle pub-turned-arena rockers Dire Straits had certainly built a formidable following by 1985, thanks to his brimstone-and-ambrosia guitar playing on debut single Sultans Of Swing and beyond, the breathless melodic beauties of 1980’s Making Movies album and the immersive tonal song-films of 1982’s Love Over Gold. But 30 million sales? The first CD to shift a million? Somehow, above the cramped Caribbean studio of its making, the planets aligned.
Revisiting their behemoth fifth album Brothers In Arms on this five-LP/three-CD reissue four decades on, its era-defining charms still exude the assured, enfolding warmth that first made it such a massive hit with estate agents testing the limits of their Mazdas on the M11.
Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms (Official Music Video) – YouTube
So Far Away slips down like honeyed malt whisky, subtle and undemanding yet fundamentally satisfying, like the 80s drifting by in fragrant, gaseous form. Walk Of Life still bristles with fairground honky-tonk vivacity; tranquil ballad Why Worry? is rendered even more affecting with the 2022 Dolby Atmos mix enhancing its Mediterranean stillness.
Some tracks are museum-ready now: the shoulder-pad blues of One World, and Money For Nothing, presented in its full eight-minute version and dated by its casual gay slurs and sense of Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days.
Dire Straits – Walk Of Life (San Antonio Live In 85) – YouTube
But much has grown rewardingly evocative. Jazz-bar torch song Your Latest Trick, recalling Sade, Arthur’s Theme and Moonlighting. Ride Across The River, their take on Peter Gabriel’s electro-fied world music, telling of Latin American mercenaries, swathed in pan flutes, reggae brass and mariachi trumpet. And the war-themed second half, including the lustrous title track and the dramatic impacts of bluegrass confessional The Man’s Too Strong, recalling a time when arena rock aspired to be a force for global political good.
Key to the reissue’s appeal, however, is the inclusion of a two-hour 1985 live show from San Antonio, pure manna for a fan base denied any whiff of a reunion. Here the likes of Ride and Sultans are energised for the stage, Tunnel Of Love stretches out over 20 dense and driving minutes, and we can revel once more in Knopfler’s acoustic refrain rising balletically from the back end of Romeo And Juliet’s chorus, still one of the most wonderful moments in recorded music. It ends with a euphoric Going Home, but this package feels more like the ultimate arrival.
Mark Beaumont is a music journalist with almost three decades’ experience writing for publications including Classic Rock, NME, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Times, Uncut and Melody Maker. He has written major biographies on Muse, Jay-Z, The Killers, Kanye West and Bon Iver and his debut novel [6666666666] is available on Kindle.
“Driving in the middle of the night in North Ontario, someone flags us down. At that same moment, I smell smoke”: Six things you didn’t know about The Damn Truth
(Image credit: Natali Ortiz)
One minute you’re doing a session backing a pop-princess hopeful in the studio, the next you’ve got a kickass rock band. Well, that’s what kind of happened to Lee-La Baum (frontwoman/ guitarist), her partner Tom Schemer (lead guitarist) and drummer Dave Traina.
Rooted in Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane, Montreal quartet The Damn Truth (now completed by bassist PY Letellier) have just released their fourth album, a self-titled banger, with production legend Bob Rock at the controls. Baum and Schemer tell Classic Rock some lesser-known things about the band.
They started by playing together naked at a hippie festival
“That worked for us, man,” Baum says with a laugh, remembering the event where everyone was naked. Schemer heard someone playing CSN&Y’s Almost Cut My Hair on an acoustic guitar and was compelled to investigate.
“I loved that song, and I’d never heard it played in the open, by a bonfire. I sat down, we started jamming, and it turned out we knew a bunch of the same songs. At the end of the night Lee-La said: ‘Maybe we should start a band?’”
It was the first Damn Truth tour for new bassist Letellier, and Baum and Schemer had brought their young son Ben. The van and trailer were packed with merchandise, music gear, nappies…
“Driving in the middle of the night in North Ontario, someone flags us down,” Baum recalls. “At that same moment, I smell smoke.”
The van was already in flames as the band leapt from it, and another passer-by helped to hoist the trailer from the van, which eventually burned out. Before exhaustedly hitting the sack in a nearby motel, Baum reached out to family and friends online for help, hoping to make enough money to get home. By morning “the whole rock ’n’roll community had come together,” she says. “We had enough money for another van! We finished the tour, and this support made it extra special.”
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Love Outta Luck – THE DAMN TRUTH (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Bob Rock produced 2021’s Now Or Nowhere, and was back on board for The Damn Truth.
“After the first album with him we went to dinner and bonded like family,” says Baum. When she sent Rock some new songs while on tour in the UK, he rang her to say these could be the best songs they’d written so far.
“Even though Bob did all those metal albums in the eighties and nineties that people know him for, he comes from the same place as us,” says Schemer. “He loves the late-sixties, early-seventies stuff, and you can’t hide any reference from him. ‘I know where you’re going with that,’ he’ll say, and he’ll help direct us.”
They hung out with Billy Gibbons – with him in his pyjamas
In 2018 the band were chosen to open for ZZ Top in the US and Europe. For The Damn Truth it was a huge – and scary – deal. “We were shitting our pants,” says Baum. “We were so in awe.”
After going down well on the first night, the band were having a drink in their dressing room when Gibbons popped his head in. “He was in a onesie pyjama with his leather jacket over it, and his fuzzy hat and glasses. He said: ‘Guys! Good job!’ and our jaws dropped.”
I Just Gotta Let You Know – THE DAMN TRUTH (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Thanks to their rhythm section, The Damn Truth have a vodka ’n’ Mexican spice blend aptly called Truth Serum. “That’s PY and Dave’s department,” says Schemer. “They are hot sauce fanatics. They teamed with a maker in Montreal.”
You are what you wear
Baum’s Instagram page is filled with wild, colourful vintage outfits, a visual theme that the whole band embrace.
“I love how it makes me feel. I don’t want to be humdrum,” she says.
“It also connects people to us,” says Schemer. “When we started around ten years ago we were hated in Montreal, we didn’t fit in with the dominant indie scene. So the way we play and dress is timeless, true to ourselves. And that’s the damn truth.”
The Damn Truth is out now via Spectra Musique.
Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer with 23 years in music magazines since joining Kerrang! as office manager in 1999. But before that Jo had 10 years as a London-based gig promoter and DJ, also working in various vintage record shops and for the UK arm of the Sub Pop label as a warehouse and press assistant. Jo’s had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson’s favourite flute (!), asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit, and invented several ridiculous editorial ideas such as the regular celebrity cooking column for Prog, Supper’s Ready. After being Deputy Editor for Prog for five years and Managing Editor of Classic Rock for three, Jo is now Associate Editor of Prog, where she’s been since its inception in 2009, and a regular contributor to Classic Rock. She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London, hoping to inspire the next gen of rock, metal, prog and indie creators and appreciators.
“Getting kinda saucy already. Jeez!” Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham analysing a Charli XCX video with his daughter is the joyous, uplifting online content that the world needs right now
(Image credit: Lindsey Buckingham YouTube)
Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham has given his seal of approval to British pop star Charli XCX after watching her video for Von Dutch for the first time.
This unanticipated development took place during the launch of ‘Lindsey + Leelee React’, a new YouTube series from Buckingham in which he and his 25-year-old daughter analyse music videos, a format which will be familiar to fans of ’90s MTV stars Beavis and Butt-Head.
At the outset, Buckingham admits that he isn’t overly familiar with Charli XCX’s musical output, though he does recall seeing her perform on Saturday Night Live. Leelee Buckingham then asks her father if he has enjoyed a “Brat Summer’ – a reference to the Cambridge-born pop star’s zeitgeist-influencing 2024 album Brat – to which her father gamely replies: “The brattiest.”
Leelee then introduces the video by stating that Charli XCX – real name Charlotte Aitchison – is “coming in fierce”, as she struts through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. “She’s ripping off her pants in the airport” Leelee then observes, leading her father to respond, “”Getting kinda saucy already. Jeez!”
“That’s not a good place to get saucy,” Lindsey then observes sagely.
The 75-year-old guitarist is visibly taken aback when the pop star appears to head-butt the camera, leaving a smear on blood on the lens.
“Ouch!” he says, wincing, then looks shocked once more when Aitchison spits on the camera.
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When the pop star is filmed climbing on to the wing of a plane on the tarmac at Paris–Le Bourget Airport, Buckingham senior comments, “I can’t believe she got away with all this… I’m surprised the airport let her do all this stuff.”
“Well, she’s Charli XCX, she’s huge now,” Leelee reasons, leading her father to comment that he thinks he’d be told “Get outta here!” if he asked permission to perform in such a manner.
Summing up his reaction to the video, Lindsey Buckingham says, “I thought it was very entertaining. I mean, there was so much going on, and all in the context of a normal restrictive environment, paranoid environment, uptight environment. That set the whole thing off very well, I thought.”
In conclusion, Leelee Buckingham asks her dad, ‘What does it really mean? What is she really saying?”
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Alice In Chains drummer Sean Kinney as shared an update on his health with fans after the Seattle grunge legends were forced to cancel shows due to him being diagnosed with a “non-life-threatening medical emergency”.
The group cancelled their show at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on May 8, at the 11th hour, and subsequently cancelled all additional shows they had lined up in May, including scheduled appearances at a number of major US festivals, including Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple.
“While we were all eager to return to the stage,” the group declared on social media, “Sean’s health is our top priority at this moment.”
Kinney posted his update on the band’s social media platforms on May 15, writing: “Firstly, to everyone who came out to the Mohegan Sun show and was affected by the short-notice cancellation, and to everyone who had tickets to come see the band at one of the other shows, thanks for your understanding. It’s not lost on the band and myself that you spend money, make plans and alter your schedules to come and see us, and it’s deeply disappointing to have had this happen.
“I was very much looking forward to getting back out there and playing with the band again, and it’s been a difficult but necessary decision to make. I don’t personally utilize social media and I’m not particularly fond of my health issues being made public, but I understand that people are concerned.
“When the doctors advised me against playing in the short-term, I quickly went through The 5 Stages of Grief:
1. Denial (I’m fine) 2. Anger (F*** this – I’m still going to play) 3. Bargaining (What’s it gonna take for me to hear a better diagnosis?) 4. Depression (This sucks) 5. Acceptance (This sucks, but okay)
“I finally concluded that medical doctors with many hard-earned degrees on their walls might know a bit more about health than a musician with some shiny spray-painted records on his wall.
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“The outpouring of love, concern and well wishes has been both extremely humbling and very much appreciated.
“The good news is that I’m going to be fine and I’m going to live. The bad news (for some of you?) is that I’m going to be fine and I’m going to live.”
The band’s next scheduled performance is at Black Sabbath‘s Back To The Beginning farewell show in Birmingham in July.
The concert will see the original Sabbath lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – share a stage for the first time since 2005. It will also features a who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal – Metallica, Pantera, Anthrax, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Gojira, Mastodon and more – paying tribute to Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, who will also be making his last bow as a solo artist.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
“We need him much more than he needs us. Prog as a genre owes him a huge debt of gratitude”: The lasting impact of Brian Eno, the glorious anomaly who’s a genre unto himself
(Image credit: Getty Images)
In 2019 Simon Godfrey (Tinyfish, Shineback, Valdez) told Prog about his admiration for Brian Eno, listing some of the ex Roxy Music man’s achievements over the years, and saluting the attitude behind them.
“Without the works of Brian Eno, I absolutely wouldn’t be making music today. That might sound a little dramatic, but over the years I have come to realise that all that I hold of interest in the creation and arrangement of sound has its roots in the tools and techniques which were pioneered by this unassuming art student from Suffolk, England.
His first four solo albums after he left Roxy Music completely changed my notion of what progressive music could do. He replaced bombast with erudition, and repopulated the musical landscape with an entirely new menu of exotic sonic entrées for our delectation and delight.
One of the central tenets that excites me most about Eno’s work is his endless quest to confound his own expectations. From his debut record Here Come The Warm Jets, through to his contemporary generative music apps, Eno eagerly invites his creations to take him in unexpected directions.
That was never more apparent than in his 70s masterpiece Another Green World, where he collaborated with the singular talents of artists such as Phil Collins, Percy Jones and Robert Fripp, and ended up using their jams to form an otherworldly melancholy which sounds as fresh and inventive today as it was groundbreaking back then.
With a music production and collaborative portfolio that reads like a Who’s Who of some of the most obscure (Cluster) and famous (U2) bands out there, you get the sense that his thirst for discovering new and interesting things at all levels of music continues unabated to this day.
In short, Eno is a glorious musical anomaly. For me, his curiosity and outlook on the creation of sound place him in a select group of artists who are effectively a genre all to themselves.
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We need Brian Eno much more than he needs us. His pioneering studio techniques and sonic interventions have touched everyone from Genesis to Bowie. Prog as a genre owes him a huge debt of gratitude, and possibly several pints of his preferred tipple of choice at pubs up and down the UK.”
Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term “thrash metal” while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.
“At that point in our life the party never stopped. It usually degenerated into a drunken brawl by the end of the night”: The wild story of Goo Goo Dolls’ A Boy Named Goo, the album that turned three punk kids into A-list stars
(Image credit: Bob Berg/Getty Images)
Goo Goo Dolls were on a deserted island in the middle of a shark-infested sea when they got the call that changed their lives. Granted, it wasn’t a real island. This was a pile of sand with a chintzy fake palm tree planted in it, located in the middle of a studio. And the sharks? They were guys in black suits with fins on their backs.
This unlikely set up was the video shoot for Only One, the first single from the Buffalo, New York trio’s fifth album, A Boy Named Goo. This was 1995 and the Goo Goo Dolls had been around for nearly 10 years at this point, having evolved from a scrappy punk band into something more grown-up and anthemic. But they were still chasing the crossover song that would introduce them to a mainstream audience and kick things to the next level. The scuffed but sparkling Only One stood as good a chance as anything of doing it. And then something unexpected happened.
“We were literally shooting this video and somebody ran into the studio and said: ‘KROQ, the biggest rock station in Los Angeles, has added the song Name to their playlist,’” remembers Goo Goo Dolls singer and guitarist John Rzeznik. “When they added you, every station in the country added you.”
Nobody saw this one coming. Name was a bittersweet semi-ballad positioned midway through the album. A great track, for sure. But a hit single? Apparently so, if the programmers at KROQ were to be believed. And so it proved.
“Name took off and brought everything along with it,” says bassist and co-vocalist Robby Takac. “Suddenly everything got a little more real.”
Goo Goo Dolls in 1994: (l-r) Robby Takac, Mike Malinin, John Rzeznik (Image credit: Frank Forcino/WireImage)
The Goo Goo Dolls that released A Boy Named Goo in March ’95 were a long way from the trio that formed in Buffalo in ’86. Back then Takac, Rzeznik and drummer George Tutuska were a bunch of unruly street rats who’d graduated from Kiss and Cheap Trick to Hüsker Dü and The Replacements.
“We were just a bunch of kids having fun,” says Takac, who was the band’s main vocalist on their first three albums. “It was pretty much a drunken brawl.”
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Over the next few years they began to smooth out their ragged, drunken punk-rock edge, and released a string of albums that were increasingly less ragged and marginally less drunken. Their fourth record, 1993’s Superstar Car Wash, was the one that really signalled what was to come. As well as being their first for major label Warners, it showcased the Goo Goo Dolls as the tight, melodic rock geniuses they always were under the ramshackle 100mph thrashings. It also saw the division of vocal labour split equally between Rzeznik and Takac for the first time.
“That album was a real leap,” Rzeznik says of Superstar Car Wash. “But the thought of becoming these huge rock stars just never seemed to be on the cards for us. We were not in the mainstream of music. We were just doing our own thing.”
Rzeznik was sitting on his couch with his acoustic guitar when he came up with the bones of the song that would transform the Goo Goo Dolls’ fortunes. He’d been trying to work out the guitar’s tuning when he began playing the chord sequence that formed the basis of Name. “A pure accident,” he says now.
Goo Goo Dolls – Name [Official Music Video] (HD Remaster) – YouTube
The song’s lyrics were inspired by his friendship with Kennedy, now a provocative libertarian political commentator but back then a hip and buzzy MTV VJ.
“I used to ride down to New York City on the train and I would see her, and we’d roam around the Lower East Side of Manhattan and eat at a Ukrainian restaurant and just hang out. I’d be lying if I told you I did not have a crush on her, but I was married and I very much believed in that. But I was inspired by her, because she was this fearless young woman, a total smartass about everything, and I had never met anyone like that before. Then she wound up growing up to be a Republican.”
Name was an unusual track for the Goo Goo Dolls, although not unprecedented. “Acoustic songs were always part of our vocabulary, but it was always the oddball part,” says Takac. “But when we were doing the demos, we could feel something special about Name. We just didn’t know how it would all go off.”
There was an angsty streak beneath the surface of many of the Goo Goo Dolls’ songs, particularly Rzeznik’s. ‘I don’t think I’ll make it on my own,’ he sang on Long Way Down, the album’s eventual opening track. ‘I don’t want to live in here alone.’ “There’s always a dark corner in my mind, and I go there sometimes,” he says now. “I’ve had depression my entire life, and you draw from those dark places. Sometimes it’s cathartic, sometimes it drives you deeper into it.”
(Image credit: Bob Berg/Getty Images)
The band headed across New York state to BearTracks Studios in the town of Suffern, just outside Woodstock, to record the album with producer Lou Giordano. They booked themselves into the cheapest motels, and Rzeznik remembers buying recording tape himself because it was half the price of the tape the studio provided. Still, there was enough money left to have a good time.
“At that point in our life the party never stopped,” says Takac. “We were still in our late twenties. We were trying to be responsible, but it usually degenerated into a drunken brawl by the end of the night.”
The finished record sounded great: still recognisable as the Goo Goo Dolls, but more confident than anything they’d done before and gleaming with just the right amount of polish. Rzeznik’s Long Way Down, Flat Top and Only One were perfectly crafted 90s rock anthems shot through with blue-collar authenticity. Takac brought a little of the old raucousness to Burnin’ Up, Impersonality and Somethin’ Bad. Then there was Name, sitting gracefully yet innocuously in the middle of the album.
There was just one sour note. Album sessions brought tensions between drummer George Tutuska and his bandmates to the surface. “I think George was a little resistant to what we wanted to do, and it slowed the process an awful lot,” says Takac.
Tutuska finished the record, but by the time A Boy Named Goo was released on March 14, 1995, he was no longer a member of the Goo Goo Dolls, his place taken by Mike Malinin.
Name wasn’t the first single to be released from A Boy Named Goo. That was Only One, the track with the video on the fake desert island that finally got the band played on MTV’s influential alternative rock show 120 Minutes. It wasn’t even the second single – the breezy Flat Top had that honour.
Instead, Name was the album’s third single, but it was the important one. Released in September 1995, six months after the album came out, the backing of KROQ and pretty much every other radio station in America helped propel it up the chart to the nosebleed heights of No.5 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Part of Name’s success was down to timing. In the wake of grunge, anything guitar-based and vaguely alternative was hot. Part of it was down to its universally relatable emotional undercurrent and sense of something unrequited. But mostly, as Takac puts it, it was because “John wrote a fucking amazing song”.
Helped by Name, A Boy Named Goo rose from nowhere to peak at No.27 in the US album chart – the first time the Goos had been in the Top 100, let alone the Top 30. There had been a minor controversy when Walmart deemed the album’s cover – featuring a photograph of a young boy topless and covered in goo – to be perverted and refused to stock it. At least until it became too big to ignore, at which point Walmart changed their minds. John Rzeznik had more pressing personal issues to worry about anyway.
“When Name became this massive mainstream hit I got a heavy dose of imposter syndrome,” he says. “It completely fucked up my mind, it really did. If this had been our first album, Robby and I would have been dead instantly. We would have taken every drug, every last drop of booze and just killed ourselves.”
There was backlash, too, from fans of the old, punk rock Goo Goos who didn’t like what their band had become. Some musicians from bands they’d previously considered friends were equally scathing .
“People fucking hate it when you succeed, and we had some of that,” says Rzeznik. “But I’d done that too. There were a couple of people in my life that did better than I did, and I was, like: ‘Fuck that guy.’”
But the punk flame still flickered, albeit in unexpected ways. When the producers of glossy teen soap Beverley Hills 90210 invited the Goo Goo Dolls to appear on the show to perform Name, they accepted.
“Yeah, it was kind of strange,” Rzeznik says of the offer. “But by that point Robby and I had taken so much shit from our peers that we just thought: ‘Fuck you guys, we’re gonna do whatever we want to do.’”
Goo Goo Dolls performing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in 1996 (Image credit: Margaret C. Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Goo Goo Dolls managed to cling on to the bucking bronco that was their career post-Name. By the end of 1996, A Boy Named Goo had sold more than two million copies, positioning them solidly in the centre of things. Where once they’d aspired to become as successful as Hüsker Dü or The Replacements, now the competition were the platinum-plated likes of Bush, Live and, yes, Matchbox Twenty. This was an overnight success story a decade in the making.
Things would get even crazier a couple of years later. Their 1998 album Dizzy Up The Girl took everything they’d road-tested on A Boy Named Goo and fine-tuned it. That record was home to Iris, an inarguably perfect alt.rock ballad that would go on to soundtrack births, marriages, divorces and deaths and every event in between. But without A Boy Named Goo’s centrepiece hit, the latter wouldn’t be the song it was. Name walked so that Iris could run.
The Goo Goo Dolls themselves were changed by A Boy Named Goo. On one hand they were established as one of the breakout US rock bands of the second half of the 90s. On the other, Rzeznik in particular struggled with some of the issues that had been brewing before the album and were brought to a head by its success.
“At that point I was in the early phases of my substance-abuse problem,” says Rzeznik. “The thing about alcohol is that it really works until it doesn’t, and then it becomes a problem.”
He finally got sober in the mid-2010s. Today both he and Takac have the clarity to appreciate A Boy Named Goo for what it is: a great record, for sure, but a turning point for the band that made it.
“When Dizzy Up The Girl happened we had a clue what was happening,” says Takac. “But with A Boy Named Goo everything was still a surprise.”
“I think the songwriting on Superstar Car Wash is better, but that’s personal taste,” says Rzeznik. “A Boy Named Goo had to happen to get us to where we are today.”
The vinyl reissue of A Boy Named Goo is out now via Warners
Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.
From Journey‘s early fusion-driven days to modern-era LPs with long-standing frontman Arnel Pineda, the band clearly aimed to set a tone with album-opening songs. More often than not, these tracks work like a cheat code for everything that’s inside.
The towering, guitar-stuffed “Of a Lifetime” and “City of Hope” tell you everything you need to know about face-melting LPs like 1975’s Journey and 2011’s Eclipse. “Don’t Stop Believin'” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” heralded the sleeker, radio-ready sounds to come on 1981’s Escape and 1983’s Frontiers.
As Journey leveled up commercially with the late-’70s arrival of Steve Perry, they placed the best-known tracks from 1978’s Infinity and 1980’s Departure right up front. But stalwart guitarist Neal Schon also had an instrumental moment on 1979’s Evolution.
Band co-founder Gregg Rolie got to stretch out on more time on his final album with the group, 1980’s Dream, After Dream. Perry successors Steve Augeri and Pineda were later introduced with signature songs on 2001’s Arrival and 2008’s Revelation, respectively.
Not every introductory track necessarily met expectations, but all of them hold a place of importance in beginning the story of the albums that follow. Here’s a ranking of every Journey opening song:
No. 17. “Majestic” From: Evolution (1979)
Journey must’ve loved this minute-or-so-long instrumental, because they later opened concerts with a taped version. There’s nothing particularly offensive about “Majestic” – or particularly interesting. It’s really just a fragment of guitar and collective sighs. For some reason, “Lovin,’ Touchin,’ Squeezin,'” Journey’s first-ever Top 20 single, is still two songs away.
A small army of songwriters gets credit for “Together We Run,” including Schon, Jonathan Cain and their occasional bandmate Randy Jackson. This time, however, Jackson’s presence doesn’t lead Journey to another R&B-leaning triumph like “After the Fall,” “Girl Can’t Help It” (found later on this list of Journey Album Opening Songs Ranked) or “I’ll Be Alright Without You.” “Together We Run” is instead just another typical modern-era vehicle for big-voiced Arnel Pineda to soar over a closing Schon solo.
No. 15. “Destiny” From: Dream, After Dream (1980)
Gregg Rolie’s final album with Journey wasn’t the heralded Departure, a three-times-platinum Top 10 smash LP featuring the hit single “Any Way You Want It” (found later on our list of Journey Album Opening Songs Ranked). Instead, it was a forgotten soundtrack to a film that returned Journey to their wide-open early sound. Steve Perry doesn’t do much singing on Dream, After Dream, but he adds a few soaring lines to “Destiny” – and that sets the stage for a rangy second half of throwback fusion rock.
No. 14. “Never Walk Away” From: Revelation (2008)
Pineda simply bursts out of the gates with the opening track on his first Journey studio effort, singing with power to spare. Kevin Shirley, back for his third Journey album after 1996’s Trial by Fire and 2001’s Arrival, turns everything up around Pineda – particularly Neal Schon.
Rolie opened Journey’s second album with an approachable, yet still tough-minded song that confidently moved the group more toward traditional classic rock, if not all the way over to the pop-leaning sound that later sent them to the top of the charts.
No. 12. “Red 13 / State of Grace” From: Red 13 (2002)
Journey returned after the soft rock-dominated Arrival with a scorching, fusion-kissed opening song. They spend two minutes easing into things before launching into a wrecking-ball groove – and Perry successor Steve Augeri is with them, step for breathless step.
Co-written by Aynsley Dunbar and Gregg Rolie, “Spaceman” offers Journey fans some of the most obvious initial flowerings of a pop sensibility. They placed it first on the album, and released it as a single – to no avail. “Spaceman” failed to chart as a single, and Journey was ordered to rework their lineup. They briefly added Robert Fleischman — who arrived shortly after the album’s release, toured with the band and even received co-writing credit on three songs for Journey’s following album — but eventually went with Steve Perry instead.
No. 10. “City of Hope” From: Eclipse (2011)
You could say Schon is an unstoppable force on this song, except that Pineda – in one of his most impressive vocal performances – is every bit the equal of his molten riffs. At least at first. Eventually, Schon and company step forward for a floorboard-rattling, song-closing jam that edges all the way into fusion. Journey hadn’t sounded this wide open since the Jimmy Carter administration. Eclipse became their second consecutive Pineda-sung Top 20 album.
No. 9. “Message of Love” From: Trial by Fire (1996)
Journey got back together after nearly a decade apart, with Perry still firmly in control of their sound. “Message of Love” isn’t just a continuation of the untroubled sleekness of Raised on Radio-era Journey. This could have easily passed as a Perry solo track.
No. 8. “Higher Place” From Arrival (2001)
Journey boldly moved beyond Augeri’s similarities with Perry on this composition by Schon and Jack Blades, which at one point had an almost proggy feel. In that way, “Higher Place” smartly referenced the group’s previous successes, but ultimately used them as a foundation for something new.
No. 7. “Faith in the Heartland” From: Generations (2005)
The urge to return to an everyday working-stiff theme has been almost unavoidable for a group best remembered for “Don’t Stop Believin.'” And yet “Faith in the Heartland” never slips into tribute – or, worse still, parody. Credit goes most of all to Augeri, who strikes a visceral pose on upbeat tracks like this one, singing every line as if his whole heart is in it. Unfortunately, Generations went nowhere, and Augeri – citing throat problems – was gone after just two albums with Journey.
No. 6. “Girl Can’t Help It” From: Raised on Radio (1986)
Perry essentially took control of Journey in the run-up to this album, switching out band members for sidemen with whom he’d worked before then serving as the project’s de facto producer. That led them to some song treatments that moved well away from anything Journey had done before, or since. “Girl Can’t Help It,” one of three Top 40 singles from Raised on Radio, was the exception. This was classic Journey, spit-shined up for a new era.
Cain and Perry looked on, feeling a little helpless, as bassist Ross Valory and Schon endured painful divorces. “There’s got to be a more soulful way of looking at this,” Perry countered in long-time San Francisco Chronicle music writer Joel Selvin’s liner notes for the Time3 box set. Just like that, the pair had the makings of the Top 10 opening single from Frontiers. “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” so energized Journey that they began performing it onstage before Perry had completely learned the words.
No. 4. “Of a Lifetime” From” Journey (1975)
Journey’s recorded output begins here, with a seven-minute jazz fusion-influenced, at times Pink Floyd-ish excursion that boldly stepped away from Rolie and Schon’s previous work in Santana. “It was based on jams, real eclectic – very different,” Rolie said in the band bio Journey: Worlds Apart. “That’s still really valid today. It’s almost like, ‘What, are we ahead of our time?’ You know, in a way – yeah.”
No. 3. “Lights” From: Infinity (1978)
Perry had an early version of this song in his back pocket when he joined Journey, and it’s a good thing. Rolie has said that the rest of the band wasn’t sold on Perry until they harmonized on “Lights” while backstage in San Bernardino. “It dawned on me right then,” Rolie admitted in the Time3 notes, “that this could really be great.” Oddly, however, this radio favorite stalled out at No. 68 on the Hot 100. “Journey achieved the almost unprecedented feat of earning a platinum album for one million units sold,” longtime San Francisco music writer Joel Selvin marveled back then, “without the aid or benefit of a hit single.”
No. 2. “Any Way You Want It” From: Departure (1980)
Perry said his vocal interplay with Schon’s guitar on “Any Way You Want It” was inspired by Phil Lynott, after Thin Lizzy opened for Journey: Perry sang “she loves to laugh” and Schon answered on guitar. “She loves to sing” and “she does everything” then led to more riffy responses. Perry and Rolie brought a tight focus to the bursts of shared vocals that close things out, fashioning Journey’s second-ever Top 40 hit.
No. 1. “Don’t Stop Believin'” From: Escape (1981)
The story of “Don’t Stop Believin'” will always be about waiting: Waiting until the song revealed itself: Cain had been carrying around the phrase for years. Waiting for the right vocalist: Who else besides Perry could have carried this song to such heights? And waiting for the chorus: Its unusual song structure has given “Don’t Stop Believin'” an utterly timeless feel. And yet this anthem, despite becoming so rightfully ubiquitous, somehow only barely cracked the Top 10. What’s up with that, 1981?
Rosanne Cash, a 16-time Grammy nominee, has been around music and musicians her entire life.
The eldest daughter of Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash started her own musical career when she was still a teenager, dabbling in songwriting and sometimes singing backing vocals for her dad. She released her debut, self-titled album in 1978 and has pretty much not stopped since.
Of course, having a famous parent has its pros and cons, and Johnny Cash is nothing if not a legend in the music industry.
“I tried to avoid it in the early years,” Rosanne Cash said to Billboard in 2010, “because I couldn’t figure out who I was in the glare of that; it was just too enormous. I don’t think it’s that different for any young person, particularly one that enters the same field as their parent. You have to separate to find out who you are. It so happened that my dad cast a very large shadow. I probably pushed away longer than was necessary or gracious. But fortunately, he completely understood that.”
But she’s more than proved herself with four Grammys, 14 albums and multiple charting hits. She’s also well-versed in other artists’ music and has occasionally put her own spin on them. Here are 10 Classic Rock Covers by Rosanne Cash.
1. “Girl From the North Country” by Bob Dylan
Way back in 1969, when Cash was approximately 14 years old, her dad recorded “Girl From the North Country” as a duet with Bob Dylan for the latter’s album Nashville Skyline. Four decades later in 2009, Cash recorded her own version for an album called The List, which also featured guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Jeff Tweedy. But she was initially hesitant to record the song.
“I told John [Leventhal, The List‘s producer and Cash’s husband] that I can’t do this,” she told Magnet in 2009. “It’s almost sacrilegious. Not only did I have Dad and Bob’s version of it in my head, there’s even TV footage of them doing it, so I had pictures of them doing it, too. So, John said, ‘No, let’s listen to Bob’s original version and approach it that way.’ And Bob’s original version is a classic folk song in the Elizabethan tradition. Also I loved doing it in the folk tradition of the woman singing about another woman. It’s great because it expands the repertoire. I could be singing about my daughter or my sister or my mother. It adds mystery to it, too.”
2. “Hometown Blues” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
In 1996, Johnny Cash released Unchained, the second album in his American Recordings series with Rick Rubin serving as producer. On that album, he was backed mainly by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. But many years before that, Rosanne Cash put her spin on a Heartbreakers song called “Hometown Blues” which originally appeared on their debut album in 1976. Cash’s version was placed on 1981’s Seven Year Ache, an album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart.
BONUS: Cash also recorded a Heartbreakers song called “Never Be You,” which she put on her 1985 album Rhythm & Romance. The Heartbreakers’ own original version would not come out until the 2024 deluxe edition of 1982’s Long After Dark.
3. “I’m Only Sleeping” by the Beatles
In 1995, Cash put out a compilation album titled Retrospective, which pulled material from her 16 years of working with Columbia Records. It contained quite a few covers, including one of the Beatles‘ “I’m Only Sleeping.” Like many songwriters of her generation, the Beatles were a key influence on Cash. “I deconstructed how those songs were written,” she explained to The Bitter Southerner in 2024, “in both rhyme schemes and the way the choruses and the lyrics were set up, and that was the first imprint.”
4. “Magician” by Lou Reed
Cash was given her choice when it came to what she wanted to contribute to 2024’s The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed. She chose a song from her favorite Reed album, 1992’s Magic and Loss, called “Magician.”
“I thought that record [Magic and Loss] was the most beautiful musical meditation on death I’d heard. I went to see him at Radio City when it came out, and he performed the album in sequence. I wept. It was spectacular,” Cash recalled in 2014 for Talkhouse. “He was always so sweet to me. He couldn’t have been more of a gentleman. I saw the other, difficult side of him in glimpses, but he just seemed like a really sensitive guy who hated pretension and who found it intolerable to compromise on anything that was important to him, whether it was the sound of his monitors or the meal he had ordered. I’ll always respect him.”
5. “The Weight” by the Band
In the spring of 2011, a laundry list of acclaimed musicians gathered at Levon Helm‘s studio in Woodstock, New York to record a charity single called “Toast to Freedom.” Cash was on it, along with Donald Fagen, Carly Simon, Kris Kristofferson and many more, plus Helm himself. But that wasn’t the only time Cash and Helm worked together. Below you’ll see them performing the Band‘s “The Weight” along with Larry Campbell, Helm’s daughter Amy, Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers and others.
6. “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore” by Elton John
Back in 2016, Cash posted a photo of herself, her husband and oft collaborator John Leventhal and Elton John, writing that she and John had written two songs that day. What became of those songs, we do not know. What we do know is that Cash has been a longtime admirer of John’s, has performed at several of his AIDS Foundation galas and also covered his song “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore” as a duet with Emmylou Harris.
7. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” by Bob Dylan and the Band
Both Johnny Cash and Rosanne Cash performed at Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert in New York City in 1992. The former performed “It Ain’t Me Babe” with his wife June Carter Cash, while the latter did a rendition of Dylan and the Band’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” as a trio with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin.
8. “Time” by Tom Waits
In 2019, Cash contributed to the album Come on up to the House: Women Sing Waits, a tribute LP to Tom Waits that featured, along with Cash, Aimee Mann, Patty Griffin, Phoebe Bridgers and more. “What an honor to sing a song like ‘Time,'” Cash said of her cover. “Many years ago, I recorded it just for myself, for the pleasure of singing those words. Maybe I seeded the notion in the deepest part of the creative ether, the place from where these songs travel through Tom. For whatever reason and from whatever source, I’m just thrilled to be a part of this album. There is no other songwriter in the world, past or future, like Tom Waits.”
9. “Things We Said Today” by the Beatles
Here Cash and Joan Osborne offer a beautiful version of the Beatles’ “Things We Said Today.” “I’m still well aware and in touch with the feeling that the Beatles had on me at 10 years old,” Cash said in 2021. “That’s, you know, that doesn’t go away.”
10. “Hello in There” by John Prine
John Prine was a friend to both Cash and her dad. “My dad instantly recognized what a tremendous songwriter John was, but I never saw John get starstruck,” Cash said for Vulture in 2020. “I saw admiration, and I don’t think he lived in that world where he thought about fame or hierarchy. It wasn’t about that — it was about artistry. With my own songwriting, I sometimes think, ‘Would John think this is a good line?’ If it feels self-conscious or pretentious, then my inner Prine meter goes off.”
44 Famous Records You Probably Didn’t Realize Were Covers
Bet you didn’t know somebody else recorded these songs before they got popular.
“My first gig as a lead singer, not a background singer, was singing one of their songs,” she explained. “I always wanted to be a background singer, like Merry Clayton. I just loved Merry Clayton growing up.
“I started to feel like background singers had more freedom than lead singers because you could get to really sing high. It was cool in the background.”
She continued: “I wasn’t good at dancing in platforms, and I used to fall a lot… that helped me learn how to talk to the audience, because if you fall, you gotta say something.
“I got the job to be the lead singer because the manager said, ‘Look, you see that girl in the back who can’t dance, but sings really good? Just make her the lead singer.’”
Remembering the moment, Lauper went on: “I sang a Free song and a Bad Company song… It was at the Boardy Barn in front of 5,000 nickel beer-drinking folks in the Hamptons. I remember being terrified. But as soon as I started swinging that tambourine to the rhythm and singing, that was it. I stepped off the platform, and I was the lead singer.”
Cyndi Lauper Hints at Rock Hall Ceremony Plans
She reported that she had an idea about who might induct her at the Rock Hall ceremony in November, but didn’t offer any details, saying she wasn’t allowed to. Asked which three songs she might perform on the night, she confirmed at least one of her biggest hits would be heard.
“I want to have a super girl band backing me for ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun.’” she said. “And I don’t mean just singing girls, but a band of motherfuckin’ players who could kick ass. That will be so awesome.”
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Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.
The story of Poison begins in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where Bret Michaels, Bobby Dall, and Rikki Rockett came together in 1983 under the name Paris. The band’s earliest years were marked by ambition and a raw commitment to the hard rock lifestyle that would define them. After guitarist Matt Smith left the band in 1985, the remaining members relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of a major record deal and a more vibrant rock scene. It was in California that they completed their classic lineup with the addition of guitarist C.C. DeVille. The group changed their name to Poison, and within a few years, they transformed from small club regulars to MTV mainstays.
Their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, arrived in 1986 and proved to be a surprise commercial success. Initially overlooked by critics, the album’s combination of pop hooks, glam-metal image, and raw energy caught on with a young audience. Songs like “Talk Dirty to Me,” “I Want Action,” and “I Won’t Forget You” helped push the album to triple platinum status. Poison’s image — big hair, makeup, and flamboyant clothes — made them instant icons of the 1980s glam metal movement, whether loved or loathed.
The band followed up their debut with Open Up and Say… Ahh! in 1988, a record that cemented their status as a chart-topping act. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and delivered their only number one single, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” Other hits such as “Nothin’ But a Good Time” and “Fallen Angel” reinforced their popularity. Despite protests over the album’s original artwork, the record’s success continued to grow, eventually reaching five-times platinum status in the United States.
Poison’s third studio album, Flesh & Blood, released in 1990, marked a slight shift in their style, incorporating more serious and reflective lyrics alongside their party anthems. The album featured hit singles like “Unskinny Bop” and “Something to Believe In.” It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and sold over three million copies in the U.S., reinforcing their staying power at a time when glam metal was beginning to fall out of mainstream favor. The album showcased a band striving for maturity without abandoning the swagger that made them stars.
By the early 1990s, internal tensions and changing musical trends began to take a toll on the band. C.C. DeVille was fired after a chaotic performance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, and he was replaced by Richie Kotzen for the 1993 album Native Tongue. The record, though musically ambitious and featuring more blues-influenced guitar work, did not match the commercial heights of its predecessors. Kotzen’s tenure was cut short when he was fired for personal reasons and was replaced by Blues Saraceno.
In 1996, Poison reunited with C.C. DeVille and released Crack a Smile… and More!, an album that included recordings with Saraceno and previously unreleased material. The band’s next major commercial move came in the form of a greatest hits package — Poison’s Greatest Hits: 1986–1996 — which re-ignited interest in their catalog and went double platinum. This collection became a staple of their live shows and underscored just how many successful singles they had amassed in a relatively short time.
As the late 1990s gave way to the 2000s, Poison capitalized on a wave of nostalgia. Their 1999 reunion tour was a commercial success, and the band became a regular fixture on summer touring circuits. They released Power to the People in 2000, a combination of five new studio tracks and live cuts from their recent tour. Though it did not chart significantly, it demonstrated the band’s resilience and dedication to creating new music while honoring their past.
Their 2002 studio album, Hollyweird, saw the classic lineup return with a more contemporary take on their sound. The album included the single “Squeeze Box,” a cover of the classic by The Who, and while reviews were mixed, it was clear that Poison remained committed to maintaining their presence in rock music. They followed it with The Best of Ballads & Blues and continued to release compilations and live recordings throughout the decade.
In 2006, Poison celebrated their 20th anniversary with a major tour and the release of The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock, which entered the Billboard 200 at number 17 and was certified gold. The album included a new cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band,” further expanding their connection to the classic rock world. Poison’s place as a live act remained strong, and their touring schedule continued into the late 2000s with co-headlining tours alongside acts like Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe.
Their seventh and most recent studio album, Poison’d!, was released in 2007 and featured covers of classic rock songs by artists such as David Bowie, Alice Cooper, and Tom Petty. The album was a commercial modest success and marked the band’s last full-length studio release to date. Poison’s ongoing popularity on the road continued to make up the core of their business, and they maintained a steady fanbase through constant touring and a willingness to embrace their legacy.
Over the course of their career, Poison has sold more than 16 million albums in the United States and over 50 million worldwide. Their ability to endure — through changing lineups, shifting musical climates, and decades of touring — speaks to the strength of their early work and the loyalty of their audience. Songs like “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” have become part of the larger rock canon, often referenced in pop culture and covered by a wide range of artists.
Beyond music, frontman Bret Michaels has kept the band in the public eye through solo projects, reality TV appearances, and his work as a philanthropist. His win on Celebrity Apprentice and continued visibility in media have helped introduce Poison’s music to new generations, even as the band itself has largely focused on live performances rather than studio work in recent years.
Poison’s story is not just one of success but of reinvention and survival. They are a band that embraced their image without apology, delivered hooks that defined an era, and weathered storms both internal and external. More than four decades after forming, they continue to tour with their original lineup, offering fans a chance to relive the energy and excess of the glam metal era — with the same passion they had when it all began.
Complete List Of Poison Songs From A to Z
Ain’t That the Truth – Native Tongue – 1993
Baby Gets Around a Bit – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Back to the Rocking Horse – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Bad to Be Good – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Ball and Chain – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Bastard Son of a Thousand Blues – Native Tongue – 1993
Be the One – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Best Thing You Ever Had – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Blame It on You – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Blind Faith – Native Tongue – 1993
Body Talk – Native Tongue – 1993
Bring It Home – Native Tongue – 1993
Can’t You See – Poison’d! – 2007
Come Hell or High Water – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Cover of the Rolling Stone – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Crack a Smile – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Cry Tough – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Dead Flowers – Poison’d! – 2007
Devil Woman – Hollyweird – 2002
Doin’ as I Seen on My TV – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Don’t Give Up an Inch – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Emperor’s New Clothes – Hollyweird – 2002
Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Face the Hangman – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Fallen Angel – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Get ‘Ya Some – Hollyweird – 2002
God Save the Queen – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Good Love – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Hollyweird – Hollyweird – 2002
Home – Hollyweird – 2002
Home – Hollyweird – 2002
I Need to Know – Poison’d! – 2007
I Never Cry – Poison’d! – 2007
I Want Action – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
I Won’t Forget You – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Just What I Needed – Poison’d! – 2007
Lay Your Body Down – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Let It Play – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Let It Play – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Life Goes On – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Life Loves a Tragedy – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Little Willy – Poison’d! – 2007
Livin’ for the Minute – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Livin’ in the Now – Hollyweird – 2002
Look But You Can’t Touch – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Look What the Cat Dragged In – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Love on the Rocks – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Mr. Smiley – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Native Tongue – Native Tongue – 1993
No Ring, No Gets – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Nothin’ But a Good Time – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
#1 Bad Boy – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
One More for the Bone – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Play Dirty – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Poor Boy Blues – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Richie’s Acoustic Thang – Native Tongue – 1993
Ride Child Ride – Native Tongue – 1993
Ride the Wind – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Rock and Roll All Nite – Poison’d! – 2007
Rockstar – Hollyweird – 2002
Set You Free – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
7 Days over You – Native Tongue – 1993
Sexual Thing – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
SexyBack – Poison’d! – 2007
Shooting Star – Hollyweird – 2002
Shut Up, Make Love – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Something to Believe In – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Something to Believe In – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Squeeze Box – Hollyweird – 2002
Squeeze Box – Poison’d! – 2007
Stand – Native Tongue – 1993
Stay Alive – Native Tongue – 1993
Strange Days of Uncle Jack – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Strike Up the Band – Native Tongue – 1993
Stupid, Stoned & Dumb – Hollyweird – 2002
Suffragette City – Poison’d! – 2007
Swampjuice (Soul-O) – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Talk Dirty to Me – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Talk Dirty to Me – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Tearin’ Down the Walls – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
That’s the Way I Like It – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
The Scream – Native Tongue – 1993
Theatre of the Soul – Native Tongue – 1993
Tragically Unhip – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Unskinny Bop – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Unskinny Bop – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Until You Suffer Some (Fire and Ice) – Native Tongue – 1993
Valley of Lost Souls – Flesh & Blood – 1990
Want Some, Need Some – Look What the Cat Dragged In – 1986
Wasteland – Hollyweird – 2002
We’re an American Band – Poison’d! – 2007
What I Like About You – Poison’d! – 2007
Wishful Thinkin’ – Hollyweird – 2002
You Don’t Mess Around with Jim – Poison’d! – 2007
Your Mama Don’t Dance – Open Up and Say… Ahh! – 1988
Your Mama Don’t Dance – Crack a Smile… and More! – 2000
Your Mama Don’t Dance – Poison’d! – 2007
Albums
Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986): 10 songs
Open Up and Say… Ahh! (1988): 11 songs
Flesh & Blood (1990): 16 songs
Native Tongue (1993): 15 songs
Crack a Smile… and More! (2000): 20 songs
Hollyweird (2002): 13 songs
Poison’d! (2007): 14 songs
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Poison articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
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