With Baron and 3C doing the film reviews for the annual Chompfest I kinda felt left out, and since I cannot write film reviews to save my life, it is my kryptonite I thought how could I contribute, and then read about Jack Rusell of Great White passing away – BINGO, of course the band name is a shark… Therefore, staying consistent I start with their discography review with an anniversary album …Twice Shy released in 1989 a fantastic follow-up to their previous album Once Bitten, it was their fourth studio album and had some stand out tracks. However, before I start there’s a huge misconception about the band, they are not a heavy metal band nor glam metal, rather straight-forward hard rock with a hint of blues-rock, their sound and image definitely felled into these styles.
Normally I would go through each song, but hey face it this album had a few standout tracks, namely it contained likely their biggest hit of their entire career which was cover of Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” so let’s start there with the last song on the album. Since the original was never a hit in the United States, most of their fan base as well as the causal listeners figured it was an original creation; in addition, it was Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses who suggested they do the song, which at first, they passed on, but since Alan Niven was managing both bands there was some insistence to cover it. The band never thought it would be hit… but hell it was a monster track. The meaning of the song is about life on the road, as a rock-n-roll band and the many groupies they all would meet for those special fleeting moments. Guitarist Mark Kendall was quoted as “We never went home; we were literally on the road all the time…”
Now, since this was a cover, it is only fair to compare the original to the newer version, in other words 1975 versus 1989, a 14-year difference. Ian’s version was done right after he left Mott the Hoople, on released on his self-title debut album, while good it never climbed the charts well. The song really was covered by any bands, but hell, the Great White’s rendition is killer. So, while the song is about touring the others have deeper meaning concerned the storyline of rock musician meeting intimately so-called young innocent girl only discover she’s been ‘visiting’ bands to have her world rocked hard. The 1989 version the guitar solo was thoroughly a deeper cut, and the chorus was impactful, however a few lyrics were change/ updated such as:
The original was “greyhound bus” but the band changed it to ‘grey tour bus;’ and the intention that the girl was with member of the band in the 1975 version switch to girl was sluttier as she was with the guys from the band.
A few other important tracks include the blues-soft edged song “The Angel Song” to the “House of Broken Love”, was inspired by two separate painful relationship breakups one involved Jack Russell and other with Mark Kendall, sometimes it is true what the band Nazareth said, “Love Hurts.”
I gotta note there were two other tracks that were removed and made into B-sides singles or only available at the time as imports, they were first “Bitches and Other Women” it was a mash-up of The Rolling Stones “Bitch” and “It’s Only Rock n Roll” with “Women” by Foreigner. It was replaced with “Mista Bone” with extremely suggestive lyrics, but the song that become popular in some interesting clubs at the time and the song left off the album is likely a fav of mine entitled “Wasted Rock Ranger” it oddly has an acoustic-country feel and the intention is clear – yet I find it really enjoyable.
Hey, gotta mention two wickedly fun details first the music video “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” was a huge success on then station called MTV that did honestly play music videos, which had Bobbie Brown who starred in Warrant’s “Cherry Pie.” Also, the …Twice Shy album cover of the two pairs of legs was from left to right Bobbie and Traci Martinson who was on the album cover of ‘Once Bitten.’
Track Listing:
Move It
Heart the Hunter
Hiway Nights
The Angel Song
Mista Bone
Baby’s on Fire
House of Broken Love
She Only
Once Bitten Twice Shy
Band Members:
Jack Russell – lead vocals
Mark Kendall – guitar, backing vocals
Michael Lardie – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, producer, engineer, arrangements
Tony Montana – bass
Audie Desbrow – drums
While some critics panned the album when first released, the fans and radio listeners ignored them in droves, most tried to pigeon-hole the band into the metal genre, such a false belief and suggestion what asses. This album featured an impressive mix of tracks, blues to hard rock, with lyrics on songs that encourage the typical mindset of the 80s. While they became a headline act with platinum albums there was slow decent to depths thanks primarily to the short-live grunge scene. While I am not going to dwell on the dreadful club show of theirs, and how it led to deeper cuts in the band’s personnel, was sad to learn of Jack Russell’s quick demise who announced retirement only to passed on August 15, 2024; at least he left a lot cool songs as the Shark is still working (to quote the Jaws documentary).
Vincent Rating: 4.5/5.0
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