Poison: Were They Really That Bad?

[Tommy2Tone84]

“Fuck! That guy is awesome!”

Thanks.

That was good!

[BulletProofPoet]

I fucking love that first album, the cover, title, everything about it.

This x 1000! That album for me was the coolest thing since Motley’s Shout got me into hard rock/metal/glam.

[thunderdan]

love the poison love here on sludge. i've been belittled for years about poison, nice to see. i think stadium tour made people realize and compare w/motley if you think motley was bad. poison'd 13 would be proud.

[BDG135]

They connected to their audience to the point that they still sell a good amount of tickets for their reunion shows. I wouldn't pay for it. I stopped caring about Poison when I was older than 13.

[Love_Industry]

They connected to their audience to the point that they still sell a good amount of tickets for their reunion shows. I wouldn't pay for it. I stopped caring about Poison when I was older than 13.

I'd pay to see them, one of the few bands from the era that still deliver and even may have improved since then - Saxon did it so why not them.
They only played in Sweden twice though and I doubt they will play here again as they won't sell out an arena or play a smaller place.
Maybe as part of a tour package ie. 45 min set opening for someone.

[Gibsonite]

[Ozzy Stradlin]

I’d say that Rikki has improved considerably between their first album and now.

Contrast him with Blotzer, who has gotten worse.

[Sleek]

They were fiiiiine.

I was into heavier stuff when I first saw them, but appreciated how fun, energetic and charismatic they were...plus, I liked a lot of old pop and pop metal from the first glam era, and Poison had those great bubblegum songs. It was all basic chords and : "La la la" melodic vocals. You could sing along. You were invited to, even.

They also weren't as dreadfully serious about themselves as 99% of the bands back then were...liiiiiike, especially with DeVille, he was fully cognizant of just how fucking silly all of the shiny clothes and big-hair rockstar posing was, but would simultaneously just give himself over to it.

...this was not something you got from the other Hollywood bands. Shit like Reinkus Tide or Hans Naughty were 100% sillier, but also played it completely straight and MACHO, which made it sillier still.

I meannnn, you would get these bands who looked completely fucktarded, all made up with big teased hair and fancy clothes who would come out dead serious, then do some dreadful rock cliché song with a name like: "Rock School" or "Babe, I just need you to rock Babe" with these like, shitty complicated DARK sounding guitar riffs and Yngwie-light solos, and they would be "Yes! We are rocking you!!!! Everybody say: Rock! Rock! Rock!!" or some shit and it was just like...so fucking stupid.

King Kobra springs to mind...100% goofy looking, then they would do this: "HOLD UP YOUR HAND IN THE SIGN OF THE KOBRA!" and the singer would make like, a hand snake or some shit, and launch into a song called: "Raise Your Hands to Rock!"

Ahem.

...then you had Poison. They came out and jumped around and played Cheap Trick-meets-Sweet pop metal while laughing and smiling and looking great, never asking you to take their posturing seriously, never doing that godawful macho bullshit.

This wasn't ugly ol' Ron Keel pouting his way through "THE RIGHT TO ROCK!!!!" while the rest of the band tried to look tough, it was pretty-boy Bret laughing his was through "Talk Dirty to me" or "I want action" while the other guys hopped around smiling. The shit was infectious, the music+look synergy was spot-on, and, unlike the other bands, they were in on the whole ludicrous joke and having fun with it.

So yeah. Poison.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Fun band with fun songs, and I'd say CC is actually underrated. His vibrato absolutely sounds like someone on coke, but his solos are often melodic, tasteful, and have a surprising amount of flash in them. I can see why insecure dudes might hate on them, but I think they're fun.

I hated his lack of vibrato on most solos.

One of my friends bagged on the Everything About You solo by calling it a "Poison solo"

[FreddyFender]

Poison had “it”.

No matter what kinda criticisms I have about them now, it doesn’t change the fact that I had all their albums on cassette and even bought Native Tongue later on. So did pretty much everyone else.

[ParaDime77]

To me, Poison has always been a very entertaining band. The look and the vibe of the first album captivated me as a young kid. The band always had cool, modern colors involving their logo, videos. Really flashy and cocky sounding. They stuck out in an a era with heavy competition.

Also, the band always kept their energy on stage in comaprison to their counterparts. The show is always fun and high energy.

Poison has some great songs and great guitar solos. “Life Goes On”, “Life Loves Tragedy” &”Fire and Ice” are fantastic songs.

[GreatWhiteSnake]

On the Mt. Rushmore of Dreck...

[VinnieVincentsVag]

Fun band with fun songs, and I'd say CC is actually underrated. His vibrato absolutely sounds like someone on coke, but his solos are often melodic, tasteful, and have a surprising amount of flash in them. I can see why insecure dudes might hate on them, but I think they're fun.

I hated his lack of vibrato on most solos.

One of my friends bagged on the Everything About You solo by calling it a "Poison solo"

He wasn’t wrong.

[GreatWhiteSnake]

Cheap Trick, Sweet, Poison.

First two are TOP 10 all time faves. As mentioned above, Poison is on my Mt. Rushmore of Dreck. So yeah, I guess I see it differently....

[pieceofme]

No. Those first three albums were good. Especially the debut.

[Tommy2Tone84]

They were fiiiiine.

I was into heavier stuff when I first saw them, but appreciated how fun, energetic and charismatic they were...plus, I liked a lot of old pop and pop metal from the first glam era, and Poison had those great bubblegum songs. It was all basic chords and : "La la la" melodic vocals. You could sing along. You were invited to, even.

They also weren't as dreadfully serious about themselves as 99% of the bands back then were...liiiiiike, especially with DeVille, he was fully cognizant of just how fucking silly all of the shiny clothes and big-hair rockstar posing was, but would simultaneously just give himself over to it.

...this was not something you got from the other Hollywood bands. Shit like Reinkus Tide or Hans Naughty were 100% sillier, but also played it completely straight and MACHO, which made it sillier still.

I meannnn, you would get these bands who looked completely fucktarded, all made up with big teased hair and fancy clothes who would come out dead serious, then do some dreadful rock cliché song with a name like: "Rock School" or "Babe, I just need you to rock Babe" with these like, shitty complicated DARK sounding guitar riffs and Yngwie-light solos, and they would be "Yes! We are rocking you!!!! Everybody say: Rock! Rock! Rock!!" or some shit and it was just like...so fucking stupid.

King Kobra springs to mind...100% goofy looking, then they would do this: "HOLD UP YOUR HAND IN THE SIGN OF THE KOBRA!" and the singer would make like, a hand snake or some shit, and launch into a song called: "Raise Your Hands to Rock!"

Ahem.

...then you had Poison. They came out and jumped around and played Cheap Trick-meets-Sweet pop metal while laughing and smiling and looking great, never asking you to take their posturing seriously, never doing that godawful macho bullshit.

This wasn't ugly ol' Ron Keel pouting his way through "THE RIGHT TO ROCK!!!!" while the rest of the band tried to look tough, it was pretty-boy Bret laughing his was through "Talk Dirty to me" or "I want action" while the other guys hopped around smiling. The shit was infectious, the music+look synergy was spot-on, and, unlike the other bands, they were in on the whole ludicrous joke and having fun with it.

So yeah. Poison.

Great post!

I guess I saw it differently. I agree the band had a great sense of humor and sold having fun better than any of their competitors. But I did think CC, Bret and Bob did take themselves too seriously at times. I don’t blame them. You have to at times in their business because small, trivial things become important.

I always wished CC hadn’t tried to keep up with the guitar hero joneses. He had such a great, melodic style and did have some chops that he didn’t need to over play live. But he did. He’s come in it his own a lot over the last 20 years. I’m proud of him. He’s awesome

Bret has taken himself way too seriously over the last 30 years or more. But he’s gotten some great songs out of it and I agree with what he said about critics.

Bob was always the druggie edgy guy even though CC probably out snorted him by a mile.

I don’t feel the band released a bad album from 1986 to 1995. The two albums with Richie and Blues are so killer. I find their catalog stronger than Motley Crue’s

[thunderdan]

speaking of which. is bret just going to call his solo shows "pardi gras 2024" like he a few dates stated. he only did 12 shows live nation would sign off on last summer. is he doing this? he should do what we all want on here, poison headlining sheds w/warrant and firehouse for example like on the 9/1 show. seems like a one off, bret w/warrant and firehouse hypothetically though it won't happen would be class enough to poison i guess.

Tommy2Tone84=thanks brother

[LurkingAtWork]

The solo in Life Goes On is a masterpiece. It's a shame it's in such a shitty song.

[Kerry67]

I really liked Look What the Cat Dragged In. Didn't care for anything after...

[Whatever Happened To…]

Bret Michaels - Vocalizin' and Socializin'
Rikki Rockett - Sticks, Tricks & Lipstick Fix
Bobby Dall - Bass Rapin' & Heartbreakin'
C.C. Deville - Guitar Screechin' & Hair Bleachin'

That text from the back cover of the LP is pretty much seared onto my brain.

The LP cover was so outrageously shocking when it came out. You just didn't know what to think. Even being into stuff like KISS, Motley and Twisted sister, like Sleek said above those bastards were all ugly, this Poison LP was a totally different proposition. Never got to see them live in the UK which I really regret, but my circle of metal friends that were getting into glam would scour shelves for copies of Hit Parader and Metal Edge that had anything on Poison. It was hard to even see the videos at the time, you'd get snippets here and there but to see the full promo clips for the singles we had to track bootlegs down at record fairs.

Remember buying Open Up (still at school) on LP and being really disappointed that the image had been toned down. Not a great listen either and we were already getting into Pussycat and Guns n' Roses, then onto Hanoi, Thunders and the Dolls. Poison were old news by then. But that first album made a massive impression and I still love going back to it.

[factchecker]

Werman did Open Up. Fairbairn did Flesh & Blood, which was the one after.

This place needs a new factchecker.

a- serves me right for misquoting the greatest hits cd inlays rather than vinyl inserts.

b- I honestly can't distinguish between Werman's work on Open.... against Fairbairn's work on Flesh....Maybe a case of (under-rated) musicians determined the final sound against the producer producing. PANTERA Cowboys onwards had the same magic with Terry Date.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Werman did Open Up. Fairbairn did Flesh & Blood, which was the one after.

This place needs a new factchecker.

a- serves me right for misquoting the greatest hits cd inlays rather than vinyl inserts.

b- I honestly can't distinguish between Werman's work on Open.... against Fairbairn's work on Flesh....Maybe a case of (under-rated) musicians determined the final sound against the producer producing. PANTERA Cowboys onwards had the same magic with Terry Date.

Well, it was the 80s, man... all the producers were running the same playbook.

[RaceFan3]

Their music is cotton candy, all sugar and no filling but it worked for them and their bank and spank accounts.

Not sure if a truer description of Poison exists. Well done.

They are what they are - a fun live band. I've seen them 6 or 7 times on various package tours over the years and they always put on a good show. Admittedly, I've never gone to just see Poison, as they've always had other bands on the bill that I like, but I was never bored during their set. And, to this day, the eyecandy at a Poison show rarely disappoints.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Werman did Open Up. Fairbairn did Flesh & Blood, which was the one after.

This place needs a new factchecker.

a- serves me right for misquoting the greatest hits cd inlays rather than vinyl inserts.

b- I honestly can't distinguish between Werman's work on Open.... against Fairbairn's work on Flesh....Maybe a case of (under-rated) musicians determined the final sound against the producer producing. PANTERA Cowboys onwards had the same magic with Terry Date.

Well, it was the 80s, man... all the producers were running the same playbook.

Producers did that long before the 80s and they did it long after.

[SW]

Remember buying Open Up (still at school) on LP and being really disappointed that the image had been toned down.

If you look at the photos on that back cover they really haven't toned down that much. I always thought Open Up... was even better than debut but both are great.

[Mister Freeze]

Bret Michaels - Vocalizin' and Socializin'
Rikki Rockett - Sticks, Tricks & Lipstick Fix
Bobby Dall - Bass Rapin' & Heartbreakin'
C.C. Deville - Guitar Screechin' & Hair Bleachin'

In my head, I always read that as "bass rappin" - whatever that means.

I now realize it's supposed to rhyme with "heartbreakin'" and Bobby Dall was raping his bass.

[diablomozart]

bad? nah...they were fun just not to my taste really...would be hard to argue that they didn't write catchy songs...d.m.

[Mister Freeze]

Even back then, it was a wig, wasn't it?

[killeverything]

bad? nah...they were fun just not to my taste really...would be hard to argue that they didn't write catchy songs...d.m.

I have this same opinion. Not my thing, I dislike the majority of this genre,' and I've always thought Poison was ridiculous.

However, in the mid 00s, I watched one of their concerts on VH1 Classic. I learned they were actually fun as hell and I would have went to one of their shows after seeing that. I also learned that "Look What The Cat Dragged In" is a pretty cool song.

[skatexedge]

They were fiiiiine.

I was into heavier stuff when I first saw them, but appreciated how fun, energetic and charismatic they were...plus, I liked a lot of old pop and pop metal from the first glam era, and Poison had those great bubblegum songs. It was all basic chords and : "La la la" melodic vocals. You could sing along. You were invited to, even.

They also weren't as dreadfully serious about themselves as 99% of the bands back then were...liiiiiike, especially with DeVille, he was fully cognizant of just how fucking silly all of the shiny clothes and big-hair rockstar posing was, but would simultaneously just give himself over to it.

...this was not something you got from the other Hollywood bands. Shit like Reinkus Tide or Hans Naughty were 100% sillier, but also played it completely straight and MACHO, which made it sillier still.

I meannnn, you would get these bands who looked completely fucktarded, all made up with big teased hair and fancy clothes who would come out dead serious, then do some dreadful rock cliché song with a name like: "Rock School" or "Babe, I just need you to rock Babe" with these like, shitty complicated DARK sounding guitar riffs and Yngwie-light solos, and they would be "Yes! We are rocking you!!!! Everybody say: Rock! Rock! Rock!!" or some shit and it was just like...so fucking stupid.

King Kobra springs to mind...100% goofy looking, then they would do this: "HOLD UP YOUR HAND IN THE SIGN OF THE KOBRA!" and the singer would make like, a hand snake or some shit, and launch into a song called: "Raise Your Hands to Rock!"

Ahem.

...then you had Poison. They came out and jumped around and played Cheap Trick-meets-Sweet pop metal while laughing and smiling and looking great, never asking you to take their posturing seriously, never doing that godawful macho bullshit.

This wasn't ugly ol' Ron Keel pouting his way through "THE RIGHT TO ROCK!!!!" while the rest of the band tried to look tough, it was pretty-boy Bret laughing his was through "Talk Dirty to me" or "I want action" while the other guys hopped around smiling. The shit was infectious, the music+look synergy was spot-on, and, unlike the other bands, they were in on the whole ludicrous joke and having fun with it.

So yeah. Poison.

THIS.

Poison was always fun. I’d seen them early on in SF opening for JETBOY and it was just like Sleek said. Fun energetic and catchy. They were a party band 100% and I dug it. I was glad to see them be successful and become rock stars!