I always thought that given the time period that BADLANDS put out their S/T debut was such a bold musical statement in regards to the zenith of over drenched production big hair rock/hard rock/metal bands that were over saturating the music world with vapid empty calorie songs and even the image of a lot these bands out does anything a cosplay devotee of Comic Con could ever achieve to do. Enter Jake E. Lee's BADLANDS....stripped down production ,dry (operative word here) over all sound (Esp. guitar) no big obnoxious overly enhanced snare drum sound to list a few examples. Proudly seeped in the era of music they grew up in and loved (the '70s hard rock years) and all of this after leaving Ozzy and before it was in vogue to be retro sounding. Was suddenly blindsided by the lead vocalist passing away from (cancer?) after two albums. I saw them at The Bacchanal (in San Diego) with their new drummer Jeff who was the former lead vocalist from Racer X ( He's a great drummer as I recall BTW!)Any one have thoughts OR corrections if I mucked up some facts here please set the record straight as I'm goin' off my memories here!
Loved the debut and THE STREETS CRY FREEDOM but didnt really care too much for the 2nd (fire and rain come on no one should be covering that) and the guitars sounded different on the 2nd album. Was always pissed that Ozzy dropped Jake for that caveman
Great band, loved both of their albums. Ray Gillen was a hell of a singer. I believe he died of AIDS.
Really liked both Atlantic albums, especially "Voodoo Highway". The music definitely went against the grain of current trends (it's was very influenced by 70's hard rock). The band's refusal to compromise really ticked off Atlantic Records who refused to promote the 2nd album.
Also hunt down their 3rd posthumously-released album Dusk. It's mostly demos recorded before Ray died, but there's some really good stuff on there: Badlands (2) - Dusk
A great band - the debut being an astonishing peak right out of the starting blocks and is an essential album for any Hard Rocker out there. The follow was decent - in fact its a great album - just couldn't match what happened on that debut. Dusk is another great collection of songs, so recommend picking up all three for sure. They at least gained some MTV and other Rock Video show coverage but another band that just destroyed on their debut was Burning Tree (and mining that retro rock gold before it became popular) - but they caused no dents on the radar at all - until Marc Ford was poached and coaxed to join the Black Crowes.
The S/T and Voodoo Highway both reign supreme! The third album Dusk also has some great stuff. I love Healer.
The S/T and Voodoo Highway both reign supreme! The third demo album Dusk also has some great stuff. I love Healer.
When this was made available I jumped on it knowing it was " in the works /unfinished album" and posthumous But I didn't realize until recently that this, as you're stating, were Demos to be shopped for a label deal /approval as I thought the leads were soooooooo short on the songs as I recall. Still great to have this. period. I knew all Jakes guitars were one takes I think on this release
I thought it was some sort of stomach cancer? AIDES was why then, he was a great singer and such a frustratingly sad event to have happened.
Great band. Love all the albums. You'd swear Voodoo Highway could have been released in 1974 by the way it sounded. To bad they didn't last. RIP Ray. I'm surprised Jeff Martin didn't step out front after Ray died. He's a great singer in his own right.
Jake's output after Badlands was kind of dissapointing to me A Fine Pink Mist (drum machine? why?) in the late '901 (I think) I paid $ 35 as it was only available from Japan at the time ( but I had to have it right?) all other releases (cover songs only?) Anything I'm missing?
Not my bag but I did pick up their self titled CD and a Jake E Lee solo CD at a charity shop today for my brother. They had "Voodoo Highway" as well but he already has that one.
When I saw them Jeff put on an impressive drum solo. At one point he was doing sychopaited paradidles (right spelling and description?) on top of the Hi Hat hardware (the piece that sticks straight up if I'm describing this accurately ) as I've seen a lot of great drum solos ( don't know where Jeff ranks as a drummer ) but, never saw that done before.
I think it was mutual as Jake highly recommended the bassist to Ozzy (when Ozzy was looking for a new one) and flat out rejected him after being flown out to the UK as he was just getting off the plane. Ozzy's response, " He looks like a ******* mechanic send him home" I think at that point Jake was making plans as well as he had to tell him it's a no go BUT, Jake said things where going to be changing soon and to stay in touch. Guess who became the Bassist of BADLANDS? As I recall from an old RIP Mag interview with Jake & Ray.
It was unfortunate timing in many aspects that sunk the band. The first album was produced by Paul O'Neill, who at the time was probably most known for Savatage, but when on to assemble the Trans-Siberian Orchestra before passing away a few months back. Singles were released, but none did particularly well at radio, although the Winter's Call video got some play on MTV. Voodoo Highway was released in 1991 when the writing was on the wall for that type of music, with Atlantic, as others have mentioned, putting in little promotional effort as the onset of alternative was bumping hard rock off the label. Atlantic spent a bunch of money on the recording, then just basically threw it out there to fulfill the contract. The band didn't really help matters with a reputation of being difficult to work with...and Eric Singer had left to join Kiss by that point. It was also rumored that Jake had a fairly serious drinking problem... Ray Gillen died of complications from AIDS in 1993, just before treatment options became more readily available.
I that answers the weak output after BADLANDS. Jake was from my parts (San Diego,CA.) as I recall and always had high hopes for him after Ozzy. Thanks for all the inside scoop about their many issues.
(sorry didn't mean for that to read like a Wikipedia page, that was all from memory!) here's an interesting side story though: Ray Gillen and Badlands: When Rock Bands Split Up In Front Of An Audience
Oh yes, I dig the debut Badlands album, that still gets semi-regular spins nowadays. I used to have Voodoo Highway too (on cassette) but that's been lost to the ages. Never heard Dusk.
