Quote:
Originally Posted by nightinr
Very interesting....thanks for the response.
Out of interest were there any stand out tracks that you think could have been big hit singles?
|
Well, that's quite the loaded term
("big hit singles"), but, in the context of the era, sure, there's a
bunch of great tracks on there.
I went back and listened to half of the record for the first time in
five years last night. I'll tackle the rest tonight if I can free up the time. It's a thrilling listen.
The whole project is like Bat II meets Phantom of the Opera by way of The Who (with emphasis on the latter).
I'd say the immediate stand outs are pretty much the songs you already know (especially Amnesty, which has a great vibe under this arrangement), but also the title track, Freak, would've been an interesting choice as a lead single.
For me, with Meat on vocals, the verses rewritten to reflect a more general sense of the narrative (as opposed to the character addressing the listener in the first person), and a Steinman-esque production, it could've been truly great (in fact, in a perfect world, I would've loved to hear Jim work on some of the more challenging lyrics).
I think it needed just a little development time and it could've landed more in the direction of where I'd hoped Meat would've gone after BAT II (less commercial than WTTN, but not quite as narrative heavy as the demo).
Listening back after all this time and there's some insanely great lead vox that somehow manage to channel both Meat, Phil Lynott, and Paul Stanley by someone whose name I just can't recall at the minute.
Patti's on this record, too -- can't remember if we discussed that on the podcast at the time.