Saxon - Denim & Leather
#477
By Rob Slater
October 5 1981
Saxon
Denim & Leather
Genre: Smack Dab in the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal).
Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Rob’s Rating: Solid 4.25 (was a 3.75 on the first listen.)
Highlights:
Princess of the Night
And The Band's Played On
Fire in the Sky
Denim And Leather
My first rock concert in 1981 was Cheap Trick at the Paramount in Seattle. You can read the somewhat fictionalized version of the long strange drive to the concert in the back of a carpeted, seatbeltless Chevy Van here: “The Swamps of Jersey” (mashed together with several other concert experiences over the last 40 years as part of my collection of {eventually} 100 short stories and a pandemic frame story built around them.) Promoting this album, Saxon opened for Cheap Trick at least on the leg of the tour that I saw. Kind of an odd pairing.
I remember two significant things about their show. The first was the lead singer grabbing the guitarist’s crotch and later taking a sweaty towel and rubbing it on his own crotch before tossing it out into the audience. I was a sheltered 13 year-old boy from a small town and I thought they were loud and gross. Definitely nowhere near as cool to me as the KISS records Cheap Trick tossed out. The second thing was that the guitarists could spin their guitars like ZZTop. The unison double spinning guitars was cool until about the third time!
Mostly what I remember is that I really didn't like them. I wasn't ready for anything that loud, having only just discovered Def Leppard's On Through The Night and a year or two away from realizing that I loved the Scorpions, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. So when I saw this album and realized that it was for the tour I saw them on, I decided to give them another chance. Glad I did.
The first side opens with Princess of the Night. Cool song. Sounds totally like Maiden thematically and aurally. Pretty cool; an old train that used to bring the narrator his mail is long gone. Vocals sound like a combo of Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson.
Never Surrender also sounds like a Priest/Maiden. Nice interstitial guitar work and understated leads.
The next three songs, Out Of Control, Rough And Ready, and Play It Loud, run together for me, but not in a bad way. I was hammering, sawing and nailgunning to them. Seemed especially appropriate. In the LP days, I would have definitely gotten up and flipped it over.
And The Band's Played On was their first single for the album. It kicks off side two with power. Written about the original Monsters of Rock Tour 1981. There are band name and lyrical nods for all the bands that played what was not expected to be a continuing tour!
Midnight Writer (Midnight Rider. TYVR [Thank You Voice Rec.]. That’s an awesome Author’s Blog title. Midnight Writer. I think Dokken had a song with the same title. Midnight Rider not Writer.) follows strong, though more rock and less metal.
Fire in the Sky really rocks. Apocalyptic. Sorry I gave Saxon short shrift.
Denim And Leather is a tribute song to all the fans of NWOBHM who made the wave happen. Pretty catchy if also a little cheesy.
https://open.spotify.com/album/40v5zR6YBrjhkodFEjZcKs?si=o32iR61dQFycoF76bvOXNQ
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