Tag: dokken

I really do just like some classic cock-rock. And this I think is classic cock-rock. I don’t know anything about the history of Dokken and Don Dokken, it’s mid to late 80s stuff and all information about rock bands came from magazines in those days. I didn’t really care for that stuff. Does it matter who leaves what band and who fought whom? I guess it’s a bit like a soap opera if you are really into that stuff but I don’t think I was really bothered by it. When Izzy left G ‘n’ R it was more a understanding of “yes that makes sense” than OMG G ‘n’R are breaking up. Bruce left Iron Maiden and I wasn’t fussed and so on.

Sometimes I wonder why people give up on a thing that clearly makes them plenty of money. If I had an acting job that meant loads of money but it was shit TV then part of me would want to keep doing that job. However, the motivation of money is much higher in my personal priorities having grown up with not much of it and as an adult choosing a career where the financial rewards aren’t great [even diminished under the tories]. Ah, now I see my motivation – I chose a career path that I find fascinating and fun and the lack of money is just a side product which I cope with – hence other people choosing to leave their success and seek fulfilment. Good on them.

I don’t think Dokken were ever megastars with the ability to retire whenever they want. One of their songs was used for a film soundtrack and that’s about the limit of their fame and fortune. Their favourite album of mine was recorded in Japan and as a previous headteacher of mine said to me once regarding his own music success in Japan – they buy any old shit over there. So as I write this the songs are playing and they are broadly speaking very well constructed rock songs with reasonable riffs and verses that are a little too ballad for my tastes now. I don’t really like songs which slow down. The verse should be upbeat and then the chorus should be even more so. It’s an 80s thing to have ballad shit in songs and keep repeating it. I don’t think I’ve ever really liked it.

Some song highlights are:

• When Some Nights – I like the guitar and bass combo in this one. It’s the fist song with some life in the album.
• Give It Up – good bass sound. Good quality sing along song.
• Down In Flames – interesting opening with mechanical voice.
• The Hunger – opening drums – amazing, riff – amazing. Balled verse – shit.

Comms #1991, so here are some things from that year:

• I was working at Raytheon/Cossors and almost considered joining the air force if the Gulf War became “bad” whatever that means.
• I started university and met some great people.
• Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
• The Moby Prince sinks killing 140 people.

My relationship with Dokken has mostly been down to an album I bought when I was about seventeen, it’s called Beast From The East. I also had the album Back For The Attack in my collection for ages. This particular album is a much later addition to the collection and bought because I really liked the dynamic shift from the live album to the studio version when I got Back For The Attack. I am not sure I’ve played this one in its entirety. It’s on now and the opening song is a short sketch to get us to the title song. After that it’s a mixture of songs that appear on the live album and songs that don’t. It’s classic cock-rock. I do like it. I don’t think there are any particular surprises here, you know, songs that make you go WTF? It’s a solid album.

This is communication 1946 and I’m hoping I might be able to find more “interesting” stuff in the Wikipedia entries than just death and destruction. Mind you, I get to chose what I write within and I think I’ve been focussing on human rights and natural disasters!

• Project Diana is successful.
• The republicans filibuster a bill for equal rights for workers.
• Women vote for the first time in Japan and Italy.
• The Philippines is granted independence from the USA.
• A fire at a hotel in Atlanta kills 199.