Poison: Were They Really That Bad?

[killeverything]

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!

Reading stories like these make me appreciate them. I saw a pic, maybe a video of them and snickered. I never gave it a chance. Learning they thought it was goofy too and had the best time dong it is pretty cool.

[Love_Industry]

...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!"

Great point. You could as well have mentioned Rough Cutt, Quiet Riot, Icon or WASP. Or fifty other bands at the time. And Twisted Sister - even if from NY and tried to be funny they posed like tough guys and sang a lot about rockin'.

[aznsquirt]

At the end of the day, I think they get pigeonholed as a "silly band that's terrible but sold an image".

I'd agree, except that the important thing is that for me, the songs are there, which is what makes the difference.

There were a lot of bands like Poison, who had a similar image and overall lack of musicianship, but there just isn't a good song to be had.

You can pick up an acoustic guitar and play through a lot of their songs and have the average person who laughs at Poison go "man, that's a cool song, what is that?"

So the right way is to look at them as yes, a silly band who were just barely competent enough musically to pull it off, but if the songs are there, and they can play 'em, who cares?

[factchecker]

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

Hair Piece which is hair extensions (real hair donated) or a glued on wig (synthetic).

Just ask Quiet Riot The Crue or to a lesser degree Tigertailz on their before and after gig wig adjustment schedules. Trade secret of course

Edit- nah their road crew just ratted them out.

DOUBLE edit that includes the backing dancers behind him too.

[TooOldToCare]

I was never a fan, although I bought a few cassettes back in the day. I never really thought about it, but as an old guy, as much as I loved the 80s, many of these glam bands seemed to target teens. It's bubblegum despite party anthems. Then again, the drinking age was 18.

I have the same POV toward KISS despite emerging from the early 70s, and I swung from their nuts until Y2K.