Warning - this is not a new studio album from
Stephen Pearcy. "Before and Laughter" contains demos and different versions of already released songs. The songs chosen are from Stephen's personal song collection that he has written with his bands ever since Mickey Ratt started in 1976.
Instead of searching the Internet for various bootlegs, I think this album is justified because it contains everything that hardcore fans request. Of course the sound quality varies, but overall it is much better than the old tapes traded. Only Mickey Ratt's take on Out of the Cellar from a concert in 1978 has unacceptable sound. Even though this CD aims toward the hard core fans and collectors, other fans of Hard Rock from L.A.'s sunset strip will get a kick out of this too.
After Pearcy left Ratt he formed
Arcade. From
Arcade's first album All Shook up is included plus a stripped down version of Mother Blues with only Stephen and Johnny
Angel both playing acoustic guitars. The ballad is beautiful with superb vocals from Pearcy and great slide playing from Johnny
Angel, which gives this ballad a flavor of the Wild West. Most of the included
Arcade songs are the studio versions in perfect quality. Unfortunately
Arcade was overlooked even though they had some really strong songs, listen to the great party tune All Night Long or the beautiful ballad Cry No More.
I was not too fond of
Vicious Delite, which was formed after
Arcade before Stephen pursued a solo career. However, while the album sounded monotonous as a unit, a song like Railbreak sounds much better squeezed in between some party Hard Rock material.
Representing Ratt's first EP is Tell the World and U Got It. The EP was released in 1983. Another great inclusion is a "live in the studio" version from 1982 of a track called Cry in time.
Jake E. Lee plays guitar on this fantastic atmospheric track. There is also a rehearsal version of Ratt's first smash hit Round and Round. Really cool for fans, but not so interesting if you're not familiar with the studio version.
Overall this album is a pleasant surprise with both collectors items and great inclusions from Pearcy's former bands Ratt and
Arcade. For hard core fans the album should be rated 9, while for others it should be 5 - so the final grade is the average. However, just to underline Pearcy's song writing skills, this release is above average. A must for all
Stephen Pearcy fans.
Written by
Michael Saturday, July 26, 2003
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