Metal Mythos: ALCATRAZZ

King Day mouths scream Moffit mouth ministry yes now I know what many of you are asking who in the piping-hot [ __ ] our Alcatraz to put it succinctly Alcatraz are easily the most important and seminal band that 90% of you have never [ __ ] heard of the band that launched the careers of both Steve Vai and the subject of metal mythos episode number two the immortal Yngwie Malmsteen while simultaneously cementing the legend of rainbow luminary Graham bonnet this is something I've wanted to do for quite a while you see there are many many metal bands throughout the 80s and Beyond who aren't in musical sense eminently worthy of having their careers chronicled in an episode of metal mythos but who for whatever reason do not have a large enough musical catalog to devote a full hour long mythos episode to so call this whatever you like metal mythos mini metal Mike Grell mythos call it a grilled cheese sandwich for all the [ __ ] I care so long as we at last have an opportunity to celebrate the storied career of the bygone badasses Alcatraz but this story would be incomplete without its prologue because Alcatraz had its Genesis with the pulverizing proto power medal of Ritchie Blackmore's rainbow when Graham bonnet arose from the 60s moptop do off of his Bee Gees produced musical project the marbles who enjoyed fleeting top 10 UK chart success with a forgotten hit only one woman he shortly thereafter embarked on a less than sterling solo career he re-recorded Bob Dylan standards employed songwriters to pen original material but despite having a voice that could drive a [ __ ] hurricane back into the sea solo success was more elusive than Kim Kardashian's shame and then the great Ronnie James Dio left rainbow by this point Ritchie Blackmore had played the role of starving artist for quite long enough and was ready to rake in the pop metal paola which left do is [ __ ] gandalf metal caught between the moon and Ritchie Blackmore's ego Roger became Ritchie's conduit so he came to me and told me what Ritchie would liked it could I stopped writing in such a fantasy oriented way and maybe write some love songs and of course my reply was no and that was it goodbye well do shacked up with Tony Iommi in Black Sabbath the hunt was on for a new rainbow singer and during an alcohol-fueled brainstorming stupor bassist and songwriter Roger Glover through on a marbles record and like anyone at all with taste Ritchie sat up and said that voice that one right the [ __ ] there then the rock-and-roll equivalent of James [ __ ] Dean Salters into the recording studio and Ritchie's jaw hit the floor Ritchie Blackmore didn't like your short hair or something he wanted yeah yeah I wanted to upset him I had my hair cut and I know he didn't like the way I was the way I dressed him stuff but he wanted me for Robertson here what was you know not the clothes on the hair you know so they took me for my voice not for my fashion well he may not have looked the part but he's sure his [ __ ] sounded it hitting dog-whistle notes Ronnie James Dio couldn't even catch a faint whiff off even in his prime and a full [ __ ] voice no less without an over-reliance on falsetto endemic to untold legions of heavy metal frontman before and after and without even a [ __ ] microphone if legend is to be believed he said well ok I'm to sing this song and I was really frightened of really yeah messing it up so I didn't sing on microphone and this mystery do you think is kind of like a big bluesy type thing and so I stood back from the microphone and the guys said well you've got the job but don't a single microphone this time which in here you you know but so but could you stand on the microphone look I love do elf rainbow Sabbath or solo but do couldn't sing that if he wanted to whatever your feelings are the resultant down-to-earth album rainbows most commercially successful release to that point for the record there can be no debate over the fact that Graham bonnet carved an inimitable niche for himself in the bedrock of rainbow lore paving the way in the process for the even more commercial climbs of the Joe Lynn Turner era and era I routinely argue might have been even more successful at Graham bonnet elected to remain behind the mic but hey opinions [ __ ] and so forth after departing rainbow Graham bought it seemed to pinball the [ __ ] from project to project cutting a frankly superb early eighties pop record entitled lineup before enjoying it turned the wheel for the Michael Schenker Group that was his brief as it was controversial at the final show for which Graham accidentally rocked out with his [ __ ] out [ __ ] literally what really happened between you and the Michael Schenker ban oh it's a kind of long story um I don't want to get too personal here just I didn't know a lot of things happened on stage unlike that shouldn't it was very unfortunate I presence my flight boss this is this is why I wear these now I had a sipper perigee yeah thing is they're okay but you know Bruce drew up there wow it's just a sa you know it happens all the time you hear about people working on stage air whatever not because of their the multi that's coming out of their genes but that's what happened to me that was that was the finishing I talked I just had to go Ezard I was trying to get it back here who'sa up he was playing with his cartoons races but I was I was good I've gotta get it and it wouldn't go back idiot begin it he's future uncertain in the glory days of a bonnet rainbow lineup still splayed across FM radio the world over even to this day quite frankly he marshaled a few close friends had decided if he couldn't rejoin the band he'd help establish as a commercial powerhouse he did tempt to make one of his own enter Alcatraz you know they'd be set up the speaker the instruments and he's to say how he bring the version and I was the bird man for Alcatraz so ladies and gentlemen what Powell's about to present having moved from dreary Old England to the more verdant climes of Hollywood Graham bonnet threw himself into the thriving Sunset Strip metal scene feat [ __ ] first as great as successes having come with rainbow he deliberately set about to make a band in the rainbow mole de fiery virtuosic 5-piece with a strong keyboard undercurrent he'd already linked up with bassist Gary Shea and keyboard player Jimmy Waldo and during auditions former Alice Cooper drummer Janna Vina who played with Alice during perhaps his most bizarre experimental new wave period on I believe a zipper catches skin well we'll get to that saga at a later mythos but what good is forming the 80s answer in a rainbow without your very own personal lychee Blackmore grahame bonnet in the gang set out to find just that but on Passage to India they inadvertently landed on the guitar equivalent of the new [ __ ] world when someone introduced them all to inve Malmsteen later on I wanted a band of my own that was pretty much like a rainbow thing and that's when in vacay malong and somebody told me about its really young right yeah yeah he was 19 I think yeah 20 because I remember we celebrate his 21st birthday party and he got this call from us and he thought it was a joke you know I thought oh so no you what gram wasn't me to sing it to play with his band you know because he was a big fan of rainbow Richy obviously and then he came along he played just like Ritchie Blackmore just as well he looked library to Blackmore you know so it was like it was like rainbow marked too you know and on the inaugural outing no parole from rock and roll the vast majority of which was written by the young swedish guitar prodigy malmsteen's playing has never been quite so blistering or pristine but perhaps most importantly it's got the one thing in Vaes very first solo album rising force [ __ ] didn't and that x-factor my friends is [ __ ] songwriting particularly the best track an anti-nuclear anthem by the name of Hiroshima mon amour unflagging ode to the bravery and determination of the survivors of the Hiroshima nuclear assault well I'm not some historical revisionist who considers the attacks unnecessary or a war crime given imperialist regime of tosia was outright training women and children a fight to the death of the streets with broomsticks to repel the Allied invasion rather than entertain the notion of surrender I will say on camera to your face and for all time harry s truman saved a [ __ ] of a lot more lives that he took by dropping those bombs but all the same the courage and resolve of the japanese people to emerge anew in the shadow of a nuclear specter should serve as an example of bravery to the entire human race it's that feeling precisely that the iron lungs of graham bonnets so pristinely captures on hiroshima mon amour no withering Jeff Scott Soto falsetto just untraveled face-melting planet smashing power as for the worst track I'm gonna have to give that to the aimless radio ballad suffer me it's not the worst I've heard but it sure is [ __ ] inspired either with the opening salvos of the alcatraz assault it appeared bottom of the boys it somehow managed to caging Vaes fury but one thing they couldn't control was how the public would perceive it what began as a vehicle for Graham bonnet by the end of a grueling Japanese tour was rapidly evolving into a backing band for Yngwie Malmsteen as his solos and guitar fills became increasingly indulgent and self-serving Graham bonnet famously lashed out onstage leading to one of the most epic public meltdowns of a band in the history of heavy metal play this big soul I have after song called clean our quarry I sold everybody has bought up space all sudden my skipper goes dead for some reason I thought been anything but I thought no Graham must've tripped over my speed cable so I went by my my happens showing up those three kills I do the solo that whole thing but Oliver and it was my big noise sound that I always do and then after my soul would be like his part of the show which will play his big hit since being on so I start playing his riff dad and I better all of a sudden guitar goes that again I seen come out of my amp so she pulled it out again but this time he sabotage himself which is very strange and so I basically you know being bothered to plug in a guitar back in I just all this and what's up for this [ __ ] you know right and he started yelling at me told you and he pokes his stomach with his microphone and I lost it and you know get a knuckle sandwich and I was out of that no parole from rock and roll is bizarre it's somewhat discordant simultaneously poppy and synth driven yet slathered in Yngwie Malmsteen signature neoclassical affectations with a latent prog metal underpinnings that eternally characterized alcatraz there truly is nothing else that sounds quite like it in its genre like van Halen having a game [ __ ] with genesis rainbow and Mozart but the bottom line it's good really [ __ ] good and you should listen to it next withing days 10-story ego rampaging through downtown Tokyo in front of legions of fleeing Japanese the search was on for a new ax man and as improbable as it was that alcatraz would stumble on one guitar legend in defiance of all logic and probability lightning struck twice when in walked former Forex app a guitarist Steve [ __ ] Vai a man every bit as eccentric as he was uniquely goddamn gifted Steve was say to me what's this what note is that I said I don't know what is he said that's an e so what says that's an F I said how do you know that he said well Franco taught me how to to hear every sound in the world as a note is music everything even stamp one foot or has a nun I spoke to Steve a few years ago and he said you're my favorite album is the one that United together with the Alcatraz man anyway having thrown one of his legendary temper tantrums and left in a huff it was up to Steve by to learn the entire Alcatraz set in just one [ __ ] day and then the band braced for perhaps one of the most galvanizing trials by fire in the annals of heavy metal Alcatraz was out on the road Ning babe just left the band and they had this major show coming up and he his fans were like hardcore at the time this is when he was coming to fruition and I remember I was broken out on the stage and nobody knew that anyway wasn't in the band I had learned the whole show in one day and I'm Oceana here in Bay Inn hey so it was a unique moment and when I went on stage mouth dropped to the floor I consider it a success a successful gig because nobody clapped but nobody left ganghwa is a genius but he had music of his own to make music that as we learned in metal mythos number two is among the finest catalog of neoclassical power metal in history in short keeping Malmsteen and alcatraz would have been like putting a leash on a [ __ ] cyclone I'm glad he broke away but the stylistic shift was every bit as apparent as it was immediate whereas Yngwie had been a neoclassical [ __ ] blitzkrieg and God bless him for at Steve I was it is a more contemplative technically-minded player unafraid to take his copious skills off display in service to the song but the bonus teen verses by debate really has no place here because the simple fact is in Vaes great but Steve vibe was good for Alcatraz the band moved into an even more progressive musical direction while simultaneously enhancing their commercial prospects and perhaps best of all Graham bonnet no longer had to sing over in Vaes wall of amps and ego the dramatic difference in the quality of bonnets performance in a live setting is [ __ ] jaw-dropping and let's not even talk about Jeff Scott Soto vainly trying to sing gram bond it's full voice high f-sharp vocal parts and being forced to resort to his patented Muppet falsetto during his tour with inve in 84 it's not easy being green 1985's disturbing the peace consequently ranks to the band's creative and commercial Zenith eleven tracks of sleek painstakingly produced prong buff to a glossy Sheen beneath the keyboard laden veneer of upbeat pop metal really the only weak link here is a fallow bit of filler by the name of breaking the heart of the city and on ceremony is closing to an absolutely superb effort with a unified front musically personally and creatively it seemed Alcatraz had finally arrived and then Steve vais phone rang I used a lot of different voices I have probably three or four voices that I use on our records anyway but I have one voice I haven't used yet and that's my operatic voice you inve Malmsteen Steve I do Danny Johnson young man well Alcatraz had cranked out an album tailor-made for radio play for whatever reasons success eluded the Vai incarnation of man and record company's support virtually evaporated it should surprise absolutely no one then that when Steve buys phone rang and David Lee Roth's voice was on the other end alcatraz mark ii was effectively splitsville no acrimony this time however Steve I got along with Graham bonnet just fine and continues to praise the band sophomore album as one of the finest offerings of his career and then with bands like you know like Alcatraz it was a great experience you know there was I learned band camaraderie you know and touring and being in you know being with a band that would Frank it was different you were musicians and it was individual but the guys within Alcatraz they were wonderful guys and we got along it was nice you know nice kind of a family unit I enjoyed that very much so out with Vai in with Danny Johnson now before you leap down the man's throat a Burnham in effigy Danny Johnson wasn't is a more than competent guitarist serving admirable stints an axis private life Alice Cooper today in Steppenwolf and even Rod Stewart you perhaps wouldn't count him among guitar legends like inve or Steve Vai but it could perhaps also be argued that had 1986 is dangerous games album performed better he very well may have my thing is I'm a music guy it's not how much guitar plays how much guitar is needed and in Alcatraz a lot of people don't realize they had a great singer and in my opinion in Bay and Steve huh not really Steve but I remember grandpa and in Bay would do a guitar solo standing in front of him when he was singing and there was no guitar solos supposed to be there I would never do that with a more subdued melodic approach than his predecessors it's easy to forget just how competent his acts work truly is you let's say what you will is phrasing is pristine in his tone as [ __ ] glorious Danny Johnson isn't the problem here nor is the musical approach necessarily the problem of dangerous games isn't that the band went melodic or radio-friendly it's how they went melodic for all their neoclassical prog metal underpinnings whether it was island in the Sun or a god bless video the band were radio-friendly from the outset no the operative malady here is that this band is so melodic so pound-me-in-the-ass with an insulin syringe saccharine that it comes across as a callous cash grab by a band dripping with desperation which is frankly batshit the band formed in 83 dangerous games was released just three years later in 86 Alcatraz had plenty of time to evolve naturally and achieve breakthrough playability without attempting such a calculated and cynical plea for the AOR market instead they tried to hotshot they got burned and broke up in all the three [ __ ] years but more than melodic radio-friendly or even cynical the word that springs to mind when I think of dangerous games his mother [ __ ] rushed anytime a band record a cover song let alone more than one on a record it means one of two things either the band are short on original ideas or dropping trou and making a transparent play for radio or in the case of dangerous games [ __ ] both what does this say I hate it not even remotely I listen to it all the time in fact there's something infectious about dangerous games from the booming synth craft of the gated drums to the Panther in a living room knocking a martini off a zebra-print [ __ ] couch cover are dangerous games may well be the single most 1980s album ever released and when it steers into the 80s kid it emerges with forgotten classics like Undercover dangerous games didn't flop like our Kelly's dick on a preteens chin simply because it was melodic this album was left at the altar by the record company look say what you will about dangerous games but Alcatraz had just released their most radio-friendly record to that point that's where the record company is supposed to meet the band halfway and promote the everliving [ __ ] out of it yet the record company didn't spring for one promotional [ __ ] video in 86 the heyday of pop metal on MTV not one video not one radio spot in a tour schedule that was kneecap before I got off the [ __ ] ground [ __ ] Capitol Records and [ __ ] EMI you left money on the [ __ ] table here and brought an untimely end to what could have been an all-time classic 80s metal band in the process a band that has then fully been resurrected in recent years is a Graham bonnet side-project and Graham buddy if you're listening release that new [ __ ] album already I've been waiting for that [ __ ] longer than the last guardian I'm beginning to think it's a [ __ ] Mirage well that does it for this abridged edition of the mythos I live in hope I've converted many in Alcatraz skeptic with today's episode until the next time I emerge from the mists of the middle mythos i'm razörfist god [ __ ] speed we work with quite a few of famous guitar players pew yes sir maybe completers not really lovely people you would expect anyway no one it did who shall remain nobody's surprise me no doesn't like on it that she doesn't know [ __ ] thought hostile

Channel: The Rageaholic

Views: 129,562

Rating: 4.8819418 out of 5

Keywords: Alcatrazz (Musical Group), Graham Bonnet (Composer), Rainbow (Musical Group), Ritchie Blackmore (Songwriter), Yngwie Malmsteen (Musical Artist), Heavy Metal (Musical Genre), Steve Vai (Musical Artist), Alcatrazz Review, No Parole from Rock 'N' Roll, Disturbing the Peace, Dangerous Games, Alcatrazz Retrospective, Alcatrazz Discography

Id: nTyid2CALJg

Length: 23min 39sec (1419 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2015