Ratt 'Reach For The Sky'

Everyday I exercise my mental illness when it comes to selecting my musical choice of the day. And there was a question about how the CD by Life, Sex, & Death came up again within a week or so. Look… It just happened. A new CD was introduced to my collection (Kansas) and by using the last two numbers in that selection’s catalog number to count off to the next selection… Life, Sex, & Death’s CD made a return visit. I didn’t get to the same Metallica CD because I didn’t write up an entry that day.

At least I admit my mental problems and I’m willing to do it on the World Wide Web.

My life generally seems as if there’s no order because I have no set schedule. I have to basically drop everything in my life for something that may come up concerning Rock 92 or 1075KZL. And when you work with Jack Murphy… There’s no telling what and when something is going to happen. You have to be fairly flexible with that man.

The only sense of order that I have in my life are my rotations. I rotate my musical choices and I also rotate my clothing. It’s the two things that I have control over. So that’s it… Within my skull nutshell.

Today’s musical selection is by a band that just doesn’t get enough respect. Ratt were an awesome band. But now they’ve been heaped onto the “hair metal” pile with other bands that clearly suck now as much as they did then. In my opinion… Ratt never sucked. They were clearly better both musically and lyrically than most of the other bands from that era. How Bon Jovi remains a viable and hit producing band these days is beyond me.

Bon Jovi has only 2 songs that I like… “Wanted Dead Or Alive” and “Roulette”. They had keyboards and immediately a red flag sprang up before my mind’s eye. Don’t even get me started on the band that I saw Ratt touring with this past summer… I just don’t like Poison and I never have. I've always considered them an insult to hard rock. Many bands like Black N’ Blue, Kix, Y&T, Kick Axe, Raven, Masters Of Reality, and Trouble were pushed out of the way and forgotten because of Bon Jovi and Poison. They were stylish and good looking. Therefore they got more attention. Style was more important than substance because of the video heydays of MTV.

I wanted an old friend of mine to see Ratt so bad! They were touring with Poison. As it turned out that night… Poison outperformed Ratt. I admit it. I was let down that my friend didn’t get to see the Ratt that I remembered and fell in love with back some 25 years ago. It was only the second time that I was impressed with Poison’s live performance… I have seen them live at least a dozen times.

I had seen Ratt about as many times and that last show was the most disappointing. Oh well.

Ratt’s ‘Reach For The Sky’ CD was a big disappointment to me when it was released back in 1988. For some reason, the rock rodents from L.A. used horns in their music and it sounded as if they were losing their edge. You can hear those horns in “Way Cool Junior”. And the other thing that I didn’t understand about ‘Reach For The Sky’… The album cover never made any sense to me.

In my opinion… Ratt’s EP was not only a great hard rock release, but there’s a slight little punk undertone littered throughout. They looked slick on the outside cover (almost like Duran Duran), but the music within was harsh, loud, poorly produced, and in your face. The first chords of “Sweet Cheater” make me reach for the volume knob and crank it up to this very day.

My little rotation habit (an OCD really) brought up Ratt’s ‘Reach For The Sky’ today. I probably haven’t played this CD since I got it almost 20 years ago. And I must say that it has grown on me a bit. Or perhaps I have mellowed a little over the years like a good brand of Scotch Whiskey.

The weather was perfect for Ratt today. The high temperature was 78 degrees. That allowed me to roll down the windows and crank up some Ratt, baby!

For those of you that legally download MP3’s, I will suggest a few of my favorites:

“Lack Of Communication”
“You’re In Love”
“Back For More”
“Sweet Cheater”*
“You Think You’re Tough”*
“She Wants Money”
“Tell The World”*
“Round And Round”
“Dangerous But Worth The Risk”
“U Got It”*

* Songs from that first EP. Yeah… It’s that damn good!