![]() ![]() “Just Like Paradise” was - and still is - a track that I always loved back in the day. Kind of like on “Billion Dollar Babies” where Alice Cooper and Donovan trade off lines. Almost as if there were two singers battling against each other. The production on the vocals was very impressive, with the phrasings overlapping each other. As I listened to the first track “Knucklebones”, I found this keyboard heavy cut to be very dynamic. I do admit the vinyl sounds much better than the CD. I did manage to find my original vinyl copy I bought back in ’88. Then a few days later, I decided to look through my extensive album collection. So much so, that when it was finished, I let it run through for a second time. Funny how time can change your outlook and perception of things isn’t it?Īs I listened to this album for the first time, I couldn’t believe how much I was truly enjoying its contents. ![]() ![]() From that point forward, we became inseparable. Regardless, it was at that point that fate took its course and the rest is history. Turns out the guy she was dancing with liked her much more than she liked him. What the hell? Who is that guy? She’s way too pretty for him. There she was, in all her beauty, dancing with another dude. As I was onstage playing the infinite Bon Jovi ballad “Always”, our eyes met. There I was in 2013, recently separated from my first wife, playing in two bands every weekend, broke and living with my parents. We would drift off into the sunset, meeting other people, with me having children, her trying to figure out who she was, living our unfulfilled lives without each other. Of course there was that un-relented sexual tension between us, but it just wasn’t our time. My wife and I met some twenty years ago, but we just didn’t make sense. The analogy I can associate this too, is in terms of my relationship with my wife. Amazing how so many years can go by and suddenly one day, it just clicks. Well, I will truly admit that upon listening, I fell in love with this album for the first time. Like I stated, this was an album that did not inspire me in any way, shape or form back in ’88. I can’t even begin to think of the last time I had put the Skyscraper CD in my stereo. So a few weeks ago upon learning that the 30 th anniversary of this album was fast approaching, I decided to give it another listen. My maturity as a listener really has changed my outlook on how I perceive an album. ![]() My musical tastes have surely gone in a different direction. As for the songs you may ask? Well they just didn’t live up to the in your face direction of the first album. Bassist Billy Sheehan was replaced by drummer Gregg Bissonette’s brother Matt. What was it about Skyscraper that bothered me so much? Well let’s see - first of all, the band had added keyboard player Brett Tuggle. The band’s 1986 album, Eat ‘Em And Smile was a collection of inspirational, good time music that I played over and over again for the next two years leading up to Skyscraper’s release. The band consisting of Roth, guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Gregg Bissonette was indeed a band made in heaven. When David Lee Roth released his second full length album in two years, I have to admit I was majorly disappointed. ![]()
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