558 Hello Poison - Talk Dirty To Me

Chart  entered : 23  May  1987

Chart  peak : 67

Number  of  hits :  10

In  the  mid-eighties  heavy  metal  fractured  into  sub-genres. At  one  end  you  had  the  serious-minded  exponents  of  thrash  metal; at  the  other  end  you  had  bands  that  made  radio-friendly  singles  and  had  photogenic  lead  singers,  soon  attracting  the  pejorative  name  of  "hair  metal" although  fans  preferred  glam  metal". These  guys  are  generally  regarded  as  the  epitome  of  the  bands  who  came  under  that  bracket.

Poison  were  formed  in  the  town  of  Mechanicsberg  ( sounds  like  something  out  of  Cars ) in  Pennsylvania  in  1983. Vocalist  Bret  Michaels  ( originally  Bret Michael  Sychak, born  1963 ) , drummer  Ricki  Rockett  ( originally  Richard  Ream , born 1961 ) and  bassist  Bobby  Dall   ( originally  Robert  Kuykendall, born  1963 )  had  been  playing  in  garage  bands  together  since  their  teens. With  guitarist  Matt  Smith  they  founded  Paris  and  played  the  clubs  as  a  covers  act. They  then  took  the  decision  to  decamp  to  L.A.  but  there  was  no  immediate  change  in  their  fortunes.  In  1985  Smith's  girlfriend  became  pregnant  and  he  decided  it  was  time  to  quit  the  band  and  return  home. The  band  held  auditions  for  his  replacement  and  eventually  chose  CC  DeVille  ( originally  Bruce  Johannesson  1962  )  over  an  English-born  guitarist  who'll  feature  here  soon  enough. CC  was  originally  from  New  York  but  had  move  to  LA  in  1981 and  been  in  a  string  of  local  bands  before  joining  Poison.

The  following  year  they  got  a  record  deal  with  Enigma. They  released  their  first  album  "Look  What  The  Cat  Dragged  In"  in  August  1986  with  "Cry  Tough"  as  the  first  single  a  few  days  later. The  group  took  their  visual  inspiration  from  American  glam  and  look  like  a  truncated  New  York  Dolls  on  the  sleeve  but  "Cry  Tough"  has  little  hint  of  sexual  ambiguity  or  menace. Instead  it  suggests  a  Reagan-esque  misreading  of  Springsteen  with  a  first  verse  about  a  gang  dreaming  of  better  things  leading  into  a  cliched  stream  of  platitudes  about  making  it  if  you  really  want  to. Anchored  to  the  drum  pattern  from  Be  My  Baby  ,it  also  has  a  pretty  lame  chorus  and  never  gets  out  of  second  gear.

It  wasn't  a  hit  and  the  album  sold  very  slowly at  first. However  support  slots  with  other  acts  at  the  glam  end  of  the  spectrum  such  as  Quiet  Riot   and  press  support  turned  it  into  a  hit. In  the  UK  they  were  signed  to  the  label  Music  For  Nations  and  "Talk  Dirty  For  Me"  the  second  single  in  the  US  , was  their  first  UK  release.

"Talk  Dirty  To  Me"  is  an  improvement  on  its  predecessor  if  only  for  abandoning  its  pretense  at  interest  in  social  issues. As  the  title  suggests , it's  a  celebration  of  furtive  teen  nookie   aimed  squarely  at  the  MTV-watching  audience. C.C.  re-purposes  the  Something  Else  riff   to  drive  the  song  and  the  chorus  this  time  round  has  a  decent  tune. It  is  of  course  entirely  vacuous  but  that  didn't  bother  the  viewing  hordes  who  placed  it  at  number  9  in  the  Billboard  charts. Given  that  Poison  hadn't   yet  played  in  the  UK ,  I'm  guessing  that  it  was  exposure  on  Jonathan  King's  Entertainment  USA   that   propelled  this  into  our  charts.