Van Halen - "Panama" vs. Ratt - "Round and Round"
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Speaking of Van Halen, have you ever noticed the similarity betweeen "Panama" and Ratt's "Round and Round"? Both singles came out in 1984, but I'm not sure which was written and/or released first. I'd guess that "Panama" was written first, due to (a) Eddie Van Halen's tendency to have tons of material lying around, often for years, and (b) the fact that 1984 was the first Van Halen album recorded at EVH's 5150 studio, where he would have stored such material. Here are the tunes, as well as excerpts for comparison.
Van Halen - PanamaRatt - Round and RoundVan Halen vs. Ratt - Panama vs. Round and Round
Singer
Wikipedia describes Stephen Pearcy's vocals as "raspy, bluesy, yet provocative." I call them creepy. He sounds like a guy who'd cheat on your wife with your daughter. I suppose that was the point of hair metal, but even Vince Neil doesn't give me the willies like Pearcy.
Guitars
Normally, Eddie would win easily, but his solo is too short. He does hit that beautiful, complex chord at 2:29. Ratt's Robbin Crosby and Warren DeMartini turn in surprisingly robust Eurometal harmonies.
Rhythm Section
Man, Ratt's rhythm section is stiff. The blocky, compressed production doesn't help, either. Among the spandex and hairspray set, David Lee Roth-era Van Halen had unmatched groove.
Lyrics
"Round and Round" makes absolutely no sense. What the hell does "Tightened our belts, abuse ourselves / Get in our way, we'll put you on your shelf" mean??? David Lee Roth, on the other hand, is singing a sweet, double entendre-laced, ode to his car.
Record cover
Tawny Kitaen vs. "What the hell is Eddie wearing." (He's in the polka dots.) This one's not even close.
Video
The videos for both are absolute must-sees. But "Panama" is merely ridiculous in an era of ridiculous videos (Bon Jovi also flew around over their stage in "Livin' on a Prayer"), while "Round and Round"'s wackiness literally goes through the ceiling. We're talking Crispin Glover territory here - especially with the rats.
Wikipedia has a great synopsis. An excerpt: "Meanwhile, a seemingly shy yet incredibly attractive female family member is drawn by the music and makes her way up to the attic. Once there, she morphs into a sexy space oddity and begins dancing to the song. Possibly the most puzzling portion of the video has the girl change appearance yet again, this time to the form of a rodent."
PS. For research purposes, sometimes I pick up records I normally wouldn't buy. Today I was seen buying Van Halen's 1984 and Ratt's Out of the Cellar - by far my most embarrassing record store trip in years. The girl who rang me up must have thought, "Someone's stuck in their childhood. And tried to cover it up by putting a Disfear CD on top." At record stores, the only purchases that raise more eyebrows than metal is hair metal.
PPS. I will return to covering real metal soon, I promise.
Labels: clee, hair metal, rock, usa
12 Comments:
maybe it's because i wasn't even in kindergarten when the two albums were released, but i only ever saw the cherub with a cigarette cover for 1984, which is one of the best album covers of the decade.
These are the covers for the singles, not the albums - back when singles came out on record!
great post! i'm sitting here thoroughly surprised that i never picked up on the similarities. (i think you give Pearcy's vocals a bad shake though) in related news, i saw that Ratt has reformed the original lineup (without Crosby of course)and are touring. they play the House Of Blues here in LA on the 17th, i think.
Holy crap, someone willing to stick up for Ratt! So the band patched up their differences with Pearcy, huh. I love hair metal, but these reunions of '80s bands seem kind of ghoulish.
You will not be surprised that I love this Ratt song ("Panama" is good, too, of course). I don't think I own any complete Ratt albums but I do have that "hits" collection lying around somewhere (I might need to re-buy that now come to think of it). Great song.
Although the "hits" disc also has "Lack of Communication" from this album on it, and that song has possibly the shittiest chorus ever to be found in a cock rock song.
And these posts are great, man, fuck it!
i'll stick up for the band on Warren DiMartini alone. the guy is a brilliant guitarist.
I'd agree, DanO, that DeMartini is/was the best thing Ratt had going for them.
Andrew, "Out of the Cellar" is the only complete album I've heard by Ratt. It's not that great, and it's supposed to be their best one?? I'm thinking maybe Ratt were more of a singles band than an album band, so, yeah, maybe a greatest hits comp is the way to go.
The Rhino best-of from last year is all the Ratt you need; unfortunately, it's got some weird non-chronological sequencing so you get crappy late-period songs (and new tracks) wedged in between the three or four songs you actually wanna hear.
I like these posts (I like any post that leans on analysis more than description you make) but as a european metalhead with little or no exposure to hair metal, it's almost a bit like reading about a foreign genre of music when you or Andrew from Aversion go on about these things. This is the first time I listen to a full Van Halen song for example.
Holy crap, you've never heard "Eruption"?!?! Or "On Fire" (see below post)??? No Van Halen, no Trey Azagthoth or Dimebag Darrell, simple as that. The most influential 20th century guitarist after Jimi Hendrix. Get yourself a copy of the first Van Halen album, and you'll see where so much of today's guitar playing comes from.
Also, the divide between hair metal and real metal wasn't necessarily great - Randy Rhoads, for example, was Eddie Van Halen's rival in Quiet Riot, but then of course went on to Ozzy's band.
Yeah imagine that most of the hair metal I've heard has been on VH1 specials in the last couple of years and not in any of the other 13 years of my HM interest before them. A lot of HM listeners are like this in europe. Listening to it now without years of conditioning causes a serious disconnect for me as it's very far from my understanding of HM. Historically I'm very informed on the significance of Van Halen as a guitar player but I just can't bring myself to listen to them attentively.
For me the cock rock thematics are a rock n' roll thing and not at all what I'm looking for in HM. I've read that Dave is even a high-point of the quasigenre in the sense that his lyrics are often more multilayered than just straight I-have-a-boner moronic but reading though his stuff if that's the best the hair metal scene has to offer... not for me, heh.
All this just reinforces my opinion in that when we say 'Heavy Metal' the 'Metal' is a bare teachnical qualifier that deals with the amount of distortion used and whatever else and the 'Heavy' is a value judgement on the aesthetic concerns of the band. All these hair metal bands are certainly 'metal' but they are light as hell.
You're not going to find much lyrically in hair metal. Much of David Lee Roth's stuff was spur-of-the-moment, composed-in-the-studio. I can't think of any hair metal bands that went beyond superficialities lyrically. Maybe there were, but they didn't make it big.
I think the superficiality and glamness and party-ness of hair metal is uniquely American. I can totally see why it wouldn't click with European sensibilities. But occasionally there's a self-reflective/self-destructive darkness in there (Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls album or GnR's Appetite for Destruction). And I will say that Appetite for Destruction is pretty damn heavy, if not in the conventional metal sense.
Personally, I don't mind it. If I want deep music, I'll go elsewhere. If I want pop music with extremely ridiculous visuals and occasionally shit-hot guitar playing (see Steve Vai's work with David Lee Roth, holy cow), I will go to hair metal.
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