The 1981 Listening Post - The Rockets - Back Talk

 The Rockets - Back Talk

#435

July 3 1981 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY YMMV edition)

The Rockets

Back Talk

Genre: The nexus of glam, power pop and…heartland rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Shanghaied

Love for Hire

Tired of Wearing Black

American Dreams

Go with me here. 

I’ve never heard The Rockets. 

But at first listen I can’t help but feel that you add a lot of alcohol, some makeup and heavier licks and you get Motley Crue which shows that Sixx and Mars were really on to something inasmuch as this is an amalgamation of Power Pop and latter day glam with a touch of garage and…isn’t that really what Motley Crue was, in the end? Just a whole lot sleazier.

The album gets decidedly more heartland-y on the second side and, to me, that makes it more accessible. It has a journey. It starts off tight and tense and opens up like a story.

I actually found this delightful.

There are no hits here. Just a bunch of perfectly fine songs that boogie and rock and then are immediately forgotten.

But that don’t make it not good. I found myself loving each song more and more progressively until I realized…this is a discovery of sorts. 

But, your mileage may vary.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/back-talk/321973780

The 1980 Listening Post - The Rockets - No Rockets

 The Rockets - No Ballads

January 7 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

The Rockets

No Ballads

Genre: Rock, straight, no chaser. 

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Desire

Don’t Hold On

Takin’ It Back

Requisite 80s Cover: Lou Reed’s “Sally Can’t Dance”. Lou’s never sounded this good. 

As much as I love their follow up what I hear on this first Rockets record is a line from late 60s Paisley rock through the South, even though it might just be South Detroit, where a band that might have been a little tambourine heavy tossed all that shit, grew their hair long and doubled down on the Zeppelin Adulation. Even when they are Presley derivative (I Want You To Love Me, they still rock and I wanna play pool in the bar where they play. 

David Hood once played with these guys. His son is Patterson Hood, lead singer of Drive-By Truckers.

There are really good bones here. And you what else? 

No Ballads. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/no-ballads/417979570