26. Black ‘N Blue Black ‘N Blue 1984 (Geffen)
Glam Metal
Big shots are always trying to put us down.
The Lowdown
This is the first of numerous glam metal albums on this year’s list and to be fair this album could equally be at number 16 instead of 26, given the small amount of difference in terms of quality between the albums situated in these positions. Black ‘N Blue were effectively formed by ex-drummer come vocalist Jaime St.James and they soon created a buzz when they moved from their hometown of Portland to Los Angeles and appeared on the first Metal Massacre compilation. It wasn’t long though before they attracted the attention of new label Geffen (who would go onto become one of the biggest labels of the 1980s) and at this time were riding the crest with high profile bands like Asia. The label brought in German producer Dieter Dierks who had produced all those great albums with the Scorpions and sent the band to Germany to record their debut there. I’ve recently read that the band hated being dictated to by their label, as they had planned their own debut album! Given Geffen’s commercial ambitions its probably no surprise that Dieter Dierks was chosen, as he had helped guide the Scorpions into commercial territory and after this Black ‘N Blue’s second album would be recorded by Bruce Fairbairn another producer that knew a thing or two about producing albums that sold by the million, as his albums with Loverboy had proved. The story of Black ‘N Blue is a story that could be attributed to any number of glam metal bands at this time, as American labels saw glam metal as an extremely viable package in order to sell lighter-on-the-ear metal to the masses. Also these bands with both their sound and image were able to embrace MTV, surely the biggest and best advertisement for any band around this time. The album opens up in great style with “The Strong Will Rock” an archetypal song from this time for a metal band, firstly it’s heavy a la Twisted Sister style song, secondly the vocals of Jamie St.James are both powerful and clean, thirdly the song has a great chorus and finally there is enough here to keep everything firmly in a metal camp. Second track “School of Hard Knocks” works the same formula again, but operates the formula in a much lighter manner. The track “Hold on to 18” was the band’s big single and a great track, and the type of track that any glam metal band would’ve been proud to have put out, in fact it might be one of my all time favourite glam metal tracks! The second side throws up strong tracks like the driving “Show Me the Night” and “One for the Money” which I could easily imagine Ratt singing, but then again “I’m the King” sounds like a Ratt song as well. The album closer "Chains Around Heaven" closes up one of the most solid glam metal releases of the year in powerful fashion. The weakest track is probably “Wicked Bitch” and the only song to really drift from the album formula is the faster “Autoblast”. Finally there is a cover of Sweet’s “Action” kind of expected really that one of these bands would cover Sweet sooner rather than later. So how good is this album as far as glam metal went at this time, given the fact that market was now being flooded with similar style bands? The first thing you notice is how clean sounding the band sound in comparison to Motley Crue, Twisted Sister or Ratt (the last two further up on this year’s list) and they were certainly heavier than both Motley Crue and Ratt as well, but on a par with Twisted Sister. So taking all this into consideration, the band’s debut is a clean but heavy sounding metal album and very contemporary for its time. As far as record labels went this sound gave metal a viable way to compete with the polished and clean sound of AOR, which in America was the biggest seller at this time on the rock spectrum. Also the band’s image was glam but almost in a clean and repectable way and nothing like the sleazier looking Motley Crue style or the more gharish Twisted Sister one, and in my opinion Black ‘N Blue at this time looked damn great as a band. Also Geffen at this time were probably looking for a formula to sell their albums and as far as glam metal went, they certainly hit a formula with Black ‘N Blue. Despite all this the album performed a modest 129 on the US album charts but did spark a hit single for the band with “Hold on to 18”. The album is a perfect example of a radio friendly glam metal album, a style that so many other glam metal bands would adopt. Despite all this Black ‘N Blue always complained that Geffen failed to capture their raw sound in the studio, but then again countless bands have often complained of the same thing.
Jaime St.James- Vocals
Tommy Thayer- Guitar
Jeff ‘Woop’ Warner- Guitar
Patrick Young- Bass
Pete Holmes- Drums
Production- Dieter Dierks