Fist (as MyoFist) - Fleet Street
#121
1981 Housekeeping
Fist (or MyoFist if you prefer the dumb name)
Fleet Street (Thunder in Rock in the US)
Genre: Canadian Rock
4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
Double or Nothing
Fleet Street/Open the Gates
You know how Van Halen II was just a continuation of what they did on the first record? Thunder in Rock is like that. They take their desire to be a big ass crunchy raw band to a more Southern Rock place and add Saxophones and it’s a rock fest. Like, they should be ON a rock fest. Like, I dunno, Monsters of Rock. With the likes of Motorohead and Krokus and Hatchett.
Which they were.
That also means they would never land on my radar at the time but, now that we are 40 years hence and I am listening to every goddamned thing the 80s shat out, I am here for Fist.
Is it the Sax of “Thunder in Rock”? Or the obvious attempt to sound like Gene Simmons on “Leather ’n’ Lace” (with synths!!!)? Is it that “On the Radio” could be a Huey Lewis joint?
All of that.
Mainly, for me, it’s that there’s a barber chair on the cover and I am a HUGE Sweeney Todd fan. I saw it on Broadway. I saw that weird revival that came through LA. I pretty much burned out the cassette I had of the show. So, I appreciate that a band would name their album “Fleet Street” and put a fucking barber chair on the cover.
Not sure what people could make of it when the album was renamed the generically AC/DC-esque Thunder in Rock.
But the Holmes and Watson spoken word theater about “People Pies” is actually better than the subsequent song, but damn that B3 section!
The record isn’t as strong as that debut, though, but it’s close.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/fleet-street/1463458768
