The Evil Never Dies Podcast

S4 Ep284: Mid-Week Great White Once Bitten Review

Carl reviews Great White Once Bitten from 1987! #greatwhite #oncebitten #bluesmetal #heavymetal #heavymetalpodcast #hornsup #stayevil Intro and outro music by: Omni Slim @omnislim5381 on YouTube
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Duration:: 34m
Broadcast on:: 28 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This is the Evil never dies podcast midweek show stay evil everyone and. [MUSIC] This is the evil never dies podcast I'm your host Carl Todd for the midweek episode Brett is on assignment so I talked a couple weeks ago the passing of Jack Russell of Great White that I wanted to cover a great great white album I always try to talk too fast when I'm doing these shows solo so I'm going to slow down so anyway and I wasn't lazy this time actually pulled the CD out of the out of the rack and this is actually the original CD I bought back then this album will be the third album from Great White and it is called once bitten from 1987 and I was just the simplicity of CDs back in the 80s you know and for one thing still good everybody said CDs won't last a lifetime well they do then they all came with this little CD sticker on on there that the compact disc audio system offers a small convenient sound carrier state-of-the-art reproduction and then it gives for best results you don't know the CD around well we all learn you could throw these things like frisbees and they didn't break so Great White once bitten there's the album cover with the model trying to think of what her name is Tracy Martenson she was actually in their videos they did three videos for this album very 1987 glammy I mean always argue that Great White was not a glam rock band but when you listen back they definitely had some elements of glam rocker glam metal but they were a blues band they were a blues rock band and this album was really the beginning of them showing off these blues roots more the first album the debut album sort of my more kind of flashy metal and the second album sort of it was actually on an independent label they they were a bidding more for Great White because they were big in LA and they signed the EMI records on that first debut album which was called Great White it didn't do as well so the label dumped them so they were seven labels that were after them and they decided well you didn't want us we don't want you so they released their second album as an independent and it was a pretty good surprise so there was another bidding more and capital records one Great White found the I guess the the third try was a success because this album is where they finally broke loose is a major act in the United States they're Alan Nevin forget his name right Alan Nevin was their manager and he also managed Guns N' Roses but he seemed to be more involved with Great White than he was any other band because he actually helps them with writing the songs and sort of sediment or in the right direction I believe so let's just go over the stats on once bitten it was released on June 17th of 1987 and I remember buying this album pretty soon after it came out recorded at the total access recording studio in California we're gonna call this genre of glam metal blues rock and hard rock and that really does fit this album pretty well because it's a little bit of both of all three I should say mixed together the album runs 46 minutes it's only got nine songs so that tells you these songs have some length to them it was on capital records and it was produced by Alan Nevin their manager Mark Kendall the guitar player and Michael Lardy who played on their second album as a guest and joined the band as a full member for this primarily as a rhythm guitar player and keyboard their keyboard does not really come out until the next album which is twice shy so I think Michael Lardy brought a lot to Great White still does I think he was very underrated and Mark Kendall the guitar player also one of the most underrated guitar players from this 80s period I think he should have got a lot more praise than he did but Great White was just a band that did not get a lot of spotlight you know they I think I said on the on our remember a Jack Russell episode they ended up American music awards and all kinds of things but I just don't think they got the due of some of these other glam glam rock bands like Cinderella and Poison and I honestly feel that Cinderella and Poison sort of stole some of Great White's thunder when they started including a lot of the more bluesy songs and you know acoustics and stuff and more keyboards I really because that first Cinderella album was not no glam rock blues album it was just so yeah I mean I might be wrong with that's my view I think Great White influenced a lot of the other LA bands or not so LA bands glam rock band Cinderella was from Pennsylvania I believes Poison I think they went to the Los Angeles don't really care about them too they can all go to hell far as I care not a fan of Cinderella or Poison anymore Great White still good stuff let's talk about Great White the band so lead vocals is Jack Russell who recently we lost you know after a long sickness one of the best voices from that period of music that's all that can be said the emotion in his voice is just so real you don't hear that in all these other fakey blues glam rock bands like like Brett and Michaels and Brett didn't have any emotion in his voice Jack Russell did there was a story I heard that George Lynch and Jeff Pilsen guitar player and basses of Dachin called Jack Russell at some point and ask if he would join Dachin and he was confused he's like why would I join Dachin that's Don Dachin it's his band and they're like well we're gonna get rid of Don and we just thought your vocals and our music could become this incredible machine and he's like well sorry guys I'm gonna band I love and you know Dachin is Dachin so I'm gonna have to turn you guys down so ah who knows Mark Kendall was lead guitar and Mark Kendall and Jack Russell actually co-founded Great White back in the 70s and they go back further than that they were in several bands together before Jack Russell went to jail he like yeah he was a bad boy so when he got out of jail they got back together and they actually got the name Great White because um Mark Kendall used to walk around the sunset strip where in like all white clothes and his hair was literally almost white so then they had some weird scheme where they would dress in like he dressed in white Jack Russell dressed in black and white just sort of a weird thing and Alan Niven their manager told him to get rid of that goofy gimmick so they did rhythm guitar keyboards harmonica and backing vocals is the great Michael Lardi like I said I think he really brought this band to a new level and a new light he would also be a night ranger so he had quite a career this would be the last album on bass of Lauren Black who they had several bass players over the years and they still to this day can't keep a bass player in the band don't know nothing about the guy I think he passed away actually years later very good blues player blues bass player he fit the band well and on the drums was Audie de Braille or a desk brow I never knew exactly how you pronounce his name he's been with the band for a long while again he's not your classic you know glam rock hard rock drummer he's got that that blues sound to him and the drums are real intense on this album you didn't hear that from these you know late 80s bands the drums were sort of hidden and the bass was out there too this is one album or the production is absolutely phenomenal all the instruments blend in just the way they should no one overshadows anybody you don't get that kind of production from the late 80s and this is what I listened to is the straight straight original master I don't know if this has ever been remastered or not I know they rerecorded some of it probably because capital records have a tendency to not let artists have their music so they had done some re recordings of this album and songs and I was not very impressed the original is good I think I mentioned it was arranged and produced by Alan Neven Michael Artie and Mark Kendall and it was engineered by Michael Artie and Eddie Ashwood and it was mastered by a man named George Marino and this master is great I wish more of the album from that time period sounded like this because it's phenomenal job you know from 1987 just wow it's it still sounds really great today so let's talk about how this thing did then we'll get into some of the details of the songs it was a commercial success it went platinum in April of 1988 so about a year later it actually made platinum there were three music videos from this album and they all had that sort of glam rocky look to them even though the music might not have fit they had the girl in it their hair was pretty teased but that's how it was in 1987 unless you're in a thrash metal band you know let the music do the talk and is the great Joe Perry once said so the videos were very MTV for the period lady red light was the first video followed by rock me which was a big hit on MTV and the third video was save your love now as far as singles they only released rock me and save your love they did not release lady red light probably wouldn't have been a big hit on on radio anyway so it was good for MTV so it did go platinum let's see where are we out of here there's not a lot of stuff on this album I'm kind of looking through the notes and I'm going to free style it from there well we'll go over the track list in a moment because I'm what I want to go by each song because this is one of those pure albums that really really deserves a look closer look it did peak at 23 on the billboard 200 which is really impressive for a you know that first major label release although you got to look at the fact 1987 there was so much of this type of music coming out you know Guns N' Roses debut album which took it about a year to finally start to sell really well white snake had become big in America and they were a blues based band that sort of dabbled in the poppy or glam rock blues fusion so 23 was a good good good thing for for great wide I think it this album definitely led them to where they needed to go it went golden Canada and platinum in the US so I think it probably should have done better I mean if you compare Kindle and Michael Larty to some of the other guitar players and these bands from that era they were way far superior I think Tesla and Great White are the two most then overrated underrated whatever you want to call it bands of that era not overrated underrated overrated I think we get into the poisons and the Cinderella's and some of them guys they didn't get their due it gets good reviews from people so let's get I want to get into the actual songs now because that's the key to it let me turn my light on okay now I can see what my actually wrote a few notes down for this one so I wouldn't miss anything so track one is Lady Red Light it's got a guitar intro which immediately kind of hit your speakers then the song kind of draws consider considerably from this main rift but it's pretty damn hard singer Jack Russell comes in singing about a woman well in the booklet he makes sure to know that this was not a prostitute so because Lady Red Light would make you think of the red light district so there's some cool little notes in the book I'll try to look at those before we're done so musically this song rocks with a vengeance the course is great you know halfway through it it there's a little keyboard rift and great excellent guitar solo so this is a great opener I mean I would give this probably one of the best songs on the album track two is gonna get you it starts on a riff that sort of feels very glam rocky they haven't gotten to that full blues yet the song sort of it it's sort it's kind of deceptive it's a really great song the course is really really really catchy and the keyboards are sort of absent so it does make it a little bit of a harder number than it did it would have been if they'd have put more keyboards in it the guitar solo is excellent again it's I think it could have been a tad heavier especially maybe added some more rhythm guitar to it but it's definitely a good song it's it's it's it's sort of a forgotten hero song of the album track three is the the hit and it's rock me that was the first song that I really got drawn to great white from and it's very bluesy it's got harmonica's sort of Led Zeppelin II this is definitely the highlight of the album for me and it was their biggest hit from the album it's probably one of the that might be the best song great white ever done honestly and they had some good music I contemplated doing a top 10 great white songs for this show but I don't think great white is as known by the audience as is they probably should be so that's why we're doing the album track four is all over now it sort of brings the album back to where it was before rock me kind of that up tempo anthem again a little bit more hard rocky here than I'm out of luck but it's a good song track five is mistreater and this song is is killer it's not as quiet as I'm catchy but the guitars are pretty thunderous on this thing it's a great song it's sort of got the blues sound going again so I like this song a lot never change heart which is a weird name for some of these bands have some weird ass names of four songs never change heart yeah that's that's the name of it I'm not making up sort of a cheesy set of lyrics definitely a cheesy course but it's okay I think they could have done them without the cheese it would have been a better song but you know they're still learning this is their third album and they're trying to find their direction fast road is next it's more of up tempo musically it sort of is a frenzy of some hard rock riffs and some good solos again the course sort of is a letdown but it's pretty a pretty catchy damn song it's a good track there really no fillers on this album that's what I'm kind of getting to now the filler of the album could be the song called on my edge it's pretty generic but again it's you put it on some other great wide albums that might have been the best album only on the whole record so it might be a skippable track but it's track you know that this album is pretty fucking solid and the album ends with the ballad which had sort of been threatening that it would get to a ballad that finally did and the song is called save your love it's starts with acoustic beginning and some keyboards and very bluesy one of the better ballads from this time frame because Jack Russell's voice just really feels the emotion you don't get that with these other guys from from the LA scene or the glam scene Jack Russell just he had a freaking voice and you know I could almost see where people could say that he's trying to you know mimic or copy Robert Plant but is that a bad thing Robert Plant was probably the greatest singer in rock and roll so save your love is a really good ending to this album I would recommend Lady Red Light all over now and rock me and save your love if you want to be introduced to this great album so let's talk a little bit about the tour the tour is very easy and simple they toured with Whitesnake they were opening for Whitesnake throughout the 1987 tour and into 1988 what a perfect fit Whitesnake and Great White they mesh together just that that would have been one of the best shows of the year right there they did play the monsters a rock festival which I thought was cool in 1988 for you know a blues glammy band you know being up there with some of the heavier bands I thought that that was good for them so they did play that like I said in the 80s things were a lot more simple they didn't print the lyrics they just gave little notes it's dark in here let me turn my lot back up again I make it too dark because I normally don't read things like for the song Save Your Love I love their little note it just says dream on so it was just a dream the song you know the guys wanting wanting his girlfriend back and save his love but unfortunately she did not so that is about all I've got for this album Great Whites one's bitten the cover it's got the girl on it in the shark fin I think they could have probably done better there's the back as you see they've got the hair metal going there Jack Russell still did not look like he belonged in that scene he he looked like a blues guy to me but for all you babies this is what a CD looks like an original from the 80 CD so I'm proud to say I've still gotten most of mine I will give once bitten a 4.5 out of 5 that's high praise for me it's probably their best album their next album twice shy got a little bit too commercial in places but it also got a lot more bluesy in places you know unfortunately Great White would not have a long run because grunge would end up killing the band off and they would break up and tragedies would happen and reunions would eventually happen and now the Great Jack Russell is passed away so although Great White still exists with another singer so take it for which you will I also heard that Jack Russell's band that he was touring with have changed their name to once bitten and they're going to continue to tour in his memory so I guess that's kind of cool maybe at least they're not trying to call it Jack Russell's Great White without Jack Russell so I give him praise for changing the name to once bitten because it's a be a good tribute to the man you know I'm sure the guys in his band he wants to see him you know continue to make a living so I think things like this are pretty cool long as they don't try to steal the names you know like we have quiet rat running around without any original members and various things like that but Great White holds a dear spot in my heart and if you're not familiar with them it's on Apple music and Spotify once bitten is the perfect place to learn about the band and then check out the rest of their catalog so highly recommended and hope you enjoy because it's some good music a lot better than the contemporaries from 1987 in my opinion and I'm gonna end it with that I'm sure we'll have a few snippets at the end I recommend going straight to Spotify or Apple music wherever you get your music from and listen into the whole album and giving it a chance if you're into the you know more blues rock with a little bit of glam elements they're perfect so like and subscribe if you choose our subscribers are going up www.countcarabi.com for the haunted house there's a lot of stuff going on on that Facebook page now new props old props coming back to life lots in the world of the haunted house coming as you all know it's almost September so if that interests you please check it out evil never dies podcast and all the social medias the evil never dies group the evil ones you can join there and and talk to the fans and talk to us a lot of good times are found there and I don't anything else to push I know Brett still got some t-shirts for sale this is not one of them this is the old-style shirt the new shirt is all white real slick we're gonna try to get some more some better pictures of the shirt and post them on the social medias and maybe even the YouTube page here and check it out it's a cool shirt we would appreciate your support and that will do it for this episode I have no idea what we're gonna be doing for the main episode it will probably be a movie because we've been on music the last couple of weeks we will find out by then so we'll talk to you Sunday I'm Carl Todd thanks for listening and watching and thanks for making the YouTube page that's a success - because it's it's really going up each week and I definitely want to think our podcast listeners cuz you're what made us and you will always be our bread if that's a word is that even a word I'm just making up words now bread and butter I think that's what I meant to say all right everybody we will talk to you Sunday and stay evil [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] (upbeat music)