Re: Dokken...The Band Thread
That "Tooth & Nail" - "Under Lock and Key" - "Back for the Attack" series was, in my opinion, their masterpiece. Pilson had a very tasty, unique and round-sounding bass guitar sound that you wouldn't hear again until Empire by Queensryche and, to a certain extent, tracks like "Funny Vibe" from Vivid by Living Colour. George Lynch had the greatest tone in Tooth & Nail (that open G chord on the D-G strings in "When Heaven Comes Down" was BITING through the mix). My only complaint about Tooth & Nail was that some tracks were mixed a bit too hot for the (then) tape to handle... Heartless Heart was the worst example of this, followed by Bullets to Spare. Probably two of Dokken's most recognizable songs of all time come off that record: Into the Fire and Alone Again.
Under Lock and Key was not nearly as famous from what I could tell but "In My Dreams" has that rock-stead, mid-tempo walk beat that I love with Lynch and Pilson teaming up for that pristine 80s "crunch" (with the muted palm E chord). The Hunter has some pretty nice chords and, again, Pilson's just slapping that G on the E string like this is a funk song. I loved it.
Back for the Attack had a lot of songs on it, and much of the material was really, really good. Even some of the "deep tracks" (Sleepless Night, Behind the Wall) and, obviously, Mr. Scary; an epic work on Lynch's part. But I thought his guitar tone was a little on the thin side this record. :-( Like, Kiss of Death and Heaven Sent, both INCREDIBLE songs, had, IMO, guitar tracks that, if it weren't for the overall forcefulness of the mix, would have been too wirey to pull of that truly Heavy Metal sound.
So despite all of that, Tooth and Nail is my favorite album by Dokken. Played from beginning to end, you can truly imagine it played live, in that order. It had all of the right elements for a live show--a suspense-building intro before the lights come on and "Tooth and Nail," the title track, blows the doors off the stadium... You had your down tempo songs before closing out with that amazing track "Turn on the Action." Just beautiful, beautiful hard rockin' fun.
Ah, those were the days.
