Alcatrazz – Rock Justice – Complete Recordings 1983-1986
Alcatrazz – Rock Justice – Complete Recordings 1983 – 1986
Cherry Red Records
Release Date: 26/01/24
Running Time: 3:00:00 plus!
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 10/10
Welcome once again to a thousand words or so of Dark Juan attempting to entertain you. I have just completed dry January with only a couple of slip ups and therefore am lucid and not either a) massively hungover or b) drunk at the moment, which has been a voyage of discovery and no mistake. I have ascertained that I have a really bad temper. So have the Smellhounds, Mrs Dark Juan and most of the town where I live. I picked a fight with a man in a Land Rover because he was stationary over the Pelican crossing I was attempting to use. I really shouldn’t have accused his probably quite charming wife of being on the game on Sunbridge Road in Bradford, or indeed asked whether or not his mother turned into bacon because he had a face like a pig’s arse. I accept my mistake although he SHOULD NOT HAVE BLOCKED A FUCKING SIGNAL CONTROLLED PEDESTRIAN CROSSING IN HIS FUCKING STUPID BASTARD CUNTMOBILE CHELSEA TRACTOR, THE SPUNKBUBBLING FUCKTRUMPET SHITWEASEL!
Arseholes, whores, and fucktards. I’m fucking surrounded by them. But not at Team Ever-Metal.com, who are all beyond reproach and are fine, fine people. Even Rory. Although Oli Gonzalez’s output is putting us all to shame now seeing as he is writing 47,000,000 reviews to my one at the moment. I blame work and sobriety.
I really need to get drunk again. I have not noticed any tangible health benefit from a month off the sauce and all it has done is make time off work really rather dull, especially when it got to the 314th of January and the bastard depressing arsebiscuit of a month was still not over.
Hence, I have only just got some spare time to write some words – here’s a spoiler alert for you, it’s about Graham Bonnet and his time with Alcatrazz. So, if you are a regular reader, you will no doubt be bored shitless because you are well acquainted with Dark Juan’s admiration of the man himself (and his rather more obvious infatuation with Bonnet’s bass player and partner Beth-Ami Heavenstone) and you will not be surprised to know that the Platter Of Splatter™ is getting a right good kicking from the absolute God of Hard Rock vocals and Dark Juan’s hearing is being sorely tested, especially when you consider that Disc One (being “No Parole From Rock and Roll”) of this 4 CD retrospective of Alcatrazz’s studio records plus disc of rarities and unreleased goodies from the good burghers of Cherry Red Records (who are becoming Dark Juan’s favourite label for retrospectives – I recently reviewed “Control I’m Here” which was an Industrial Dancefloor compilation from the 80s) has a young finger-flaying fret-fancier called Yngwie J. Malmsteen playing guitar on it, in his first mainstream showing in a band, in which he formed a strong songwriting partnership with Metal’s favourite impenetrable shades sporting accountant’s haircut. Obviously, I am not going to wax lyrical in a full review of an album released in 1983 (holy FUCK!) because it is a product of its time insofar as it is very traditional hard Rock bordering on Heavy Metal that was enhanced considerably by the presence of Bonnet and his insanely talented pipes and the neo-classicism of Malmsteen’s incendiary guitar playing (although I still consider ‘Big Foot’ a massive weak point of an otherwise wholly classic album) with a really highly polished, Stateside shininess to it. Highlights of this album include ‘Kree Nakoorie’ with its soaring, muscular chorus, and the singles (both of which got heavy MTV rotation back when MTV played fucking music videos – remember that?) ‘Island In The Sun’ and ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, which kicked off a massive Japanese fanbase for the Bonnet-fronted, Malmsteen-fuelled Alcatrazz. The sheer exuberance of the performances of this debut long-player is still jaw-dropping FORTY-ONE YEARS later. A bonus track on this first disc is a promo interview with the band, starting off with Jimmy Waldo (keyboardmeister) and this is an interesting piece of aural history if you are a massive fan of the band, and it is these vignettes and previously unreleased items that make the Cherry Red Records releases so great.
All was not well, however, as Malmsteen sensationally quit the band and wandered off to go and play classical music on electric guitars and discover that his favourite things ever were arpeggios played at insane speeds. Graham Bonnet and the rest of Alcatrazz carried on regardless and recruited another young, virtuoso guitarist who had come to prominence playing in Frank Zappa’s band. That young man was one Steve Vai, yet another irrepressible talent on the guitar. On “Disturbing The Peace” Alcatrazz continued to use a very clean, American sound that had its roots in classic British Hard Rock and US perfectionism. The notable difference between “Disturbing The Peace” and “No Parole From Rock and Roll” is the thicker, harder sound of the second album and the fact that the band all pitched in with the backing vocals, rather than Bonnet handling it all himself like on the debut platter. This added a lot of interest when the band harmonised and added an extra foil to the already capacious musical arsenal of Alcatrazz. On this compilation version of “Disturbing The Peace”, Cherry Red once again bring us the good stuff in the form of five bonus tracks in the form of two instrumentals, a demo version of ‘Emotion’, a recording of a rehearsal in 1984 and a public service announcement by Graham against drunk driving. Musical highlights of this disc are ‘God Blessed Video’ (another MTV-pleasing offering from the band that enjoyed some heavy rotation), the epic ‘Breaking The Heart of The City’ and the strangely Pop-tinged ‘Will You Be Home Tonight’. Although somewhat constrained by the demands of being in a straight-ahead Rock band, Vai’s idiosyncratic guitar work still shines through and offers the listener a hint of the capabilities of this auteur of the six strings. Although he is truly unleashed on the lascivious ‘Stripper’. Again, this album is painfully 80s in style and execution, but it is still fucking brilliant, and the bonus tracks really crank up the value-for-money-meter and we are still only halfway through this 4-cd set…
In a curious return to form for Alcatrazz, Steve Vai quit the group in 1986, having had an offer he absolutely couldn’t refuse from David Lee Roth to join him for “Eat ‘Em and Smile”, causing them to lose another eye-catching focal point for the band, so he was replaced for “Dangerous Games” by Danny Johnson, who really didn’t have quite the cachet or ability of either of the previous string-slingers. This led the band to strip back the sound and the arrangements for a more straight-ahead, less avant-garde Hard Rock sound that had more emphasis on Graham Bonnet as frontman rather than vocalist and “Dangerous Games”, with its expansive, loud, super-clean production indicates the Enormo-Domes and stadia that Bonnet was aiming his band at on this third studio album. Notable tunes on this record are the opening track being a cover of The Animals (‘Its My Life’), the oh-so-Eighties ‘Undercover’ and ‘Only One Woman’, which was a reworking of a song from Bonnet’s 1960s Pop duo, The Marbles. Although a perfectly passable album and enjoyable on its own merits, you can really hear a band where fatigue has set in on “Dangerous Games” as the frantic, frenetic energy of the first two albums is replaced by a less exciting, more polished elder statesmanship that reduces the excitement quotient somewhat. Bonnet, however, is in his usual explosive vocal form and howls and wails his way through in his usual committed fashion. There are no less than six bonus tracks on this disc including a remix by Jimmy Waldo of ‘No Imagination’ and a couple of instrumentals among two songs with different vocal performances than the official recorded work.
The final disc in this extensive set is entitled “Capitol Crimes – The Unreleased Sessions (1985-1986)” and is just that, ten tracks of unreleased demos and Jimmy Waldo mixes of classic Alcatrazz tracks, which really is one for the ultrafan or the completist out there.
One has to wonder at the expertise of the Cherry Red legal and artist relations departments in putting together all their retrospectives and especially this Alcatrazz one, considering that there are currently two Alcatrazzes out there, one featuring Bonnet and a band he has put together and one featuring Jimmy Waldo and Gary Shea with Doogie White on vocals. Getting them to agree must have been challenging indeed. However, persevere and triumph they have and Cherry Red Records have once more released a fucking bargain for the serious Graham Bonnet/ Alcatrazz fan, even if some of the bonus stuff on this set has been on other releases (I distinctly remember the drink driving PSA being on the “Official Bootleg Box Set Vol.2”, also released by Cherry Red). You can’t do any better if you are looking for sheer value for money, you really can’t.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards the PACKAGE that this review is about a big fat 10/10 because it once more represents so much bang for your buck that the US military is looking to develop a weapons programme from it. From a personal point of view, Dark Juan will forever be Graham Bonnet’s biggest cheerleader, complete with pom-poms and short skirt.
I will leave you with that mental image. Traumatising, isn’t it?
TRACKLISTING:
DISC ONE
No Parole From Rock ‘N’ Roll (1983)
1. Island In The Sun
2. General Hospital
3. Jet To Jet
4. Hiroshima Mon Amour
5. Kree Nakoorie
6. Incubus
7. Too Young To Die, Too Drunk To Live
8. Big Foot
9. Starcarr Lane
10. Suffer Me
Bonus Track
11. Promo Interview
DISC TWO
Disturbing The Peace (1985)
1. God Blessed Video
2. Mercy
3. Will You Be Home Tonight
4. Wire And Wood
5. Desert Diamond
6. Stripper
7. Painted Lover
8. Lighter Shade Of Green
9. Sons & Lovers
10. Skyfire
11. Breaking The Heart Of The City
Bonus Tracks
12. Emotion Demo (Original Vocal)
13. PSA Against Drunk Driving
14. Lowengrin (Instrumental)
15. Run Into The Sun (Instrumental)
16. Rehearsal 1984
DISC THREE
Dangerous Games (1986)
1. It’s My Life
2. Undercover
3. That Aint Nothin’
4. No Imagination
5. Ohayo Tokyo
6. Dangerous Games
7. Blue Boar
8. Only One Woman
9. The Witchwood
10. Double Man
11. Night Of The Shooting Star
Bonus Tracks
12. No Imagination (Jimmy Waldo Mix 2020)
13. Lonely Rider
14. Let Me Go (Danny Johnson Scratch Vocal)
15. Dangerous Games (Partial Vocal)
16. Set Me Free (Instrumental)
17. Stand By Me (Instrumental)
DISC FOUR
Capitol Crimes – The Unreleased Sessions (1985-1986)
1. Emotion (Demo 1985 – New Master)
2. A Love Like Yours (Jimmy Waldo Mix 2020)
3. When A Man Loves A Woman (Jimmy Waldo Mix 2020)
4. Set Me Free (Jimmy Waldo Mix 2020)
5. Rider (Jimmy Waldo Mix 2020)
6. Losing You Is Winning (Demo 1986)
7. Please Call Me (Demo 1986)
8. Blue Boar (Demo 1986)
9. Ohayo Tokyo (Demo 1986)
10. No Imagination (Demo 1986)
LINE-UP:
Graham Bonnet – Vocals
Yngwie J. Malmsteen – Guitars (“No Parole From Rock and Roll”)
Steve Vai – Guitars (“Disturbing The Peace”)
Danny Johnson – Guitars (“Dangerous Games”)
Gary Shea – Bass
Jimmy Waldo – Keyboards
Jan Uvena – Drums
LINKS:
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