Published on Feb 4, 2000
Spread Eagle hit the scene in 1990, just as the Hair Metal
Explosion (HME) was about to get hit with Nirvana. Too late to ride
in on the coattails of Poison, Winger and Skid Row, who by this
time had established themselves as headliners, Spread Eagle only
had the last few Saturday nights of
Headbanger’s Ball to get their message across.
If only more people had been turned onto them. I remember first
seeing this band on
Headbanger’s Ball. Their video was for the 7th track
“Scratch Like A Cat.” The video was a performance video, complete
with a black backdrop and a large logo on the stage a la Poison.
The band scorched its way through its short song with enough
interesting licks and drum parts that made me go out to the record
store the very next day and lay down my money for this tape.
The tape starts out with “Broken City,” an epic ballad type
song, complete with slow parts and then more aggressive parts.
Vocalist Ray West does a very impressive Axl Rose squawk when he
wants and while recording this track, he must have wanted to sound
like Rose. “Back On The Bitch” continues the momentum. Third track
“Switchblade Serenade” was/is my choice for a second single. It’s
somewhat poppy hook, chorus and lyrics “I gotta wicked woman/ Woman
got a vicious tongue/ Late at night I come home a little drunk/ and
we go one on one/ Sittin’ in the kitchen/ Listenin’ to your
bitchin’ / Every night of my life . . . You ain’t the same girl/
Same girl I used to know/ Love and hate seems to be our fate/ And
it cuts me to the bone.”
The raunchiest track, “Hot Sex” is a laughable attempt at being
lewd and crude with lyrics like “Hot sex/ push it to the limit/ Ah
yeah, do it till we’re satisfied.” Yawn. “Suzi Suicide” gets things
back on track with an all-out thrash song with lots of double bass
pounding and guitarist Paul DiBartolo pulling licks out of his
strings that, 10 years later, leave the listener impressed.
Side two of my tape brings the band full-circle, expressing
indecision in a relationship in “Dead Of Winter.” “Scratch Like A
Cat” still is the stellar track on this tape. “Thru These Eyes” is
the band’s ballad, but even here, the band didn’t confine itself to
stupid sentimentality. Sure they walk the borderline with these
lyrics, “Love’s passed by and left me here/ You’re so far away/ and
time’s brought on a change.”
“Spread Eagle,” easily the band’s anthem, is about an exotic
dancer as West explains, “In a stripper bar, ready for hot T&A/
Dirty li’l lady thrown down in my face/ Show me all the things you
can do.” Raunchy stuff here.
The tape ends with “Shotgun Kisses,” which would be my candidate
for third single. It’s story about “Daddy’s little baby made my
dreams come true” appeals to the bad girl motif that blanketed the
early 90s metal scene, Winger’s “Seventeen” coming to mind.
In the end, Spread Eagle is a band worth revisiting. Their
follow-up CD sucked so bad I won’t even peak your curiousity to
seek it out. Instead, find their self-titled disc for some
excellent epoch metal. Some of the material sounds a bit
cliché 10 years later.
But the overall essence of this band is not the lyrics or the
sleaze attitude. Instead, check out this band because of guitarist
Paul DiBartolo and drummer Tommi Gallo. They steal the show with
precision and power examples of playing their respective
instruments.