Monday Metal (Irish Version)

The greatest/most pleasant surprise of our deep dive into recent Irish history for Thatcher's War was the discovery of Irish guitar god Rory Gallagher. We've been listening to Rory Gallagher at the gym nonstop for a couple of weeks. Right now, Bad Penny echoes in our head [Plenty of room for that-Ed]. Go ahead and click over. 

We found a nice little documentary on the man. Interviewees include one Brian May, Brian effing May, saying how Rory Gallagher was a huge influence on him. 'If you're influenced by me, you're influenced by Rory,' May said. By the way, our man on the ground in Ireland informs us that one absolutely does not pronounce the second 'g' in Gallagher. [Well of course not, dumb Yank-Ed].

For no reason whatsoever yesterday, we decided to look up David Lee Roth's Yankee Rose video. We thought the opening vignettes at the convenience store were hilarious in 1986. They're amusing still, though we wonder what was the point of all that. Dave's a whacky guy, we guess. It says something for Roth's star power that MTV accepted the video as is, and didn't trim it down. We enjoy the color splash sequin outfits. As for Yankee Rose...Steve Vai shows off his impressive guitar chops, otherwise the song is interestingly constructed. We like the outro. Oh boy, though. One listen and we're back in our room during the summer of 1986, AC blasting, laying on our brown 70s era shag carpet and listening to the vinyl in glorious stereo. We sigh with just a hint of longing. 

It seems appropriate to address the death of Jack Russell, Great White's lead singer. Great White was an 80s band that rode the hair metal craze to success.*  They had hair-everyone did, but the band's hair wasn't sprayed and teased up. Great White wasn't really a hair band. They were founded in the late 70s as a blues-based guitar band and managed to keep that sound through the 80s. 

Great White had half a dozen hits, the most notable of which was Once Bitten, Twice Shy in 1989. That summer one would hear OBTS on the radio and see the video on MTV at least once a day. For younger reader(s) that made OBTS a big hit. OBTS is a rockabilly song with decent riffs and a piano. The non radio version of OBTS has a solid guitar outro. Here's the video:

It's all there, a cool set, motorcycles, groupies. The video earns a late 80s hard rock/hair metal score of 4.5/5.  Alert reader(s) will notice black leather jackets, a long coat, big belt buckles and a cowboy hat. Like a lot of bands of the time, Great White is going for a southwestern look.

Note, of the five babes that sing along in the video, one is Bobbie Brown (blonde wearing studded bralette), who gained fame as the Cherry Pie girl in Warrant's infamous video the next summer. We've always been partial to the Mexican looking babe, second from left. 

Anyway, like the video and song, Great White was a fun band. They're worth a deep dive. 

*See also Tesla and Cinderella for example.