I'm still loving Dokken although I rarely play their 80s stuff. The only album that I never enjoyed with Shadow Life. I admit it took me a while to warm up to the "Dysfunctinal" and now it's a favorite. My most favorite Dokken album is "Erase The Slate" from 1999. That's a desert island album for me. Guitarist on that album was Reb Beach.
Nice to see Jeff and Reb working together again...and it sounds great! Black Swan Robin McAuley - Lead Vocals & Background Vocals Reb Beach - Guitars and Background Vocals Jeff Pilson - Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Keys & Background Vocals Matt Starr - Drums and Percussion Shake The World
I've never been that much of a fan of McAuley (based on his albums with Schenker/MSG back in the day) but I think his voice has actually gotten better. And that song is great, adding it to my "must get" list. More info here: BLACK SWAN Feat. JEFF PILSON, ROBIN MCAULEY, REB BEACH And MATT STARR: 'Shake The World' Album Due In February BLACK SWAN, the new band featuring bassist Jeff Pilson (DOKKEN, FOREIGNER), vocalist Robin McAuley (MCAULEY SCHENKER GROUP, SURVIVOR), guitarist Reb Beach (WINGER, WHITESNAKE) and drummer Matt Starr (MR. BIG, ACE FREHLEY), will release its debut album, "Shake The World", on February 14, 2020 via Frontiers Music Srl. The disc's lead single and music video for the title track will be released tomorrow (Tuesday, December 10). Speaking to Rock Titan, Starr stated about how his involvement in the project came about: "[In early 2019], Jeff reached out and said, 'hey, I've got this new thing with Robin McAuley and Reb Beach, and I wanted to see if you'd be interested in talking about playing drums.' And I said, 'Yeah. Of course.' I know all those guys — [they're] super talented. They have a record, and the record was done and they needed to put some drums on it. So they had asked me, and I checked out the music and it was very cool. I said yes, and then, three days later, I was up at Jeff's place and we were cutting drum tracks. We spent four days, three and a half days recording 12 songs. And it's awesome… And it's really, really, really good. Everybody says that about whatever they're working on, but we were all, like, 'Holy ****! This is awesome.'" The drummer, who has played with a number of high-profile acts in the past, said that he is an official member of the new project, "which is great. And I think that's kind of the first time for me, because I'm always coming into situations where I'm the hired guy," he said. "And look, there's advantages to that too — you negotiate your rate and then the tour can do whatever it does and you don't have to worry about it. So there's pluses and minuses to all that. But, yeah, I'm a member of this band. And I think everybody's pretty excited to get out there and play. Just how and when we can do that, we'll have to wait and see." Back in February, Pilson officially confirmed the project's existence, saying that the album was "turning out amazing. Wait until you hear everybody's playing and singing. It's beyond — way beyond," he promised. Pilson — one-fourth of the classic DOKKEN lineup — joined FOREIGNER in 2004. In recent years, he has also produced albums by LAST IN LINE, KILL DEVIL HILL, STARSHIP and WARRANT. Beach — who was among the artists recently interviewed for Guitar World's February 2019 cover story on the "last days of hair metal" — is an original member of WINGER. He joined WHITESNAKE in 2002. Notably, he also performed on one DOKKEN album alongside Pilson, 1999's "Erase The Slate". Irish vocalist McAuley is best-known for fronting MCAULEY SCHENKER GROUP from 1986 to 1993. Alongside Graham Bonnet and Gary Barden, he has toured with MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST in recent years and also appears on "Resurrection", the group's 2018 album. Starr — who joined Ace Frehley's band in 2012 and continues to perform with him periodically — began touring with MR. BIG in 2014 and appears on the group's latest album, 2017's "Defying Gravity". He has also toured and/or recorded with HOOKERS & BLOW, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and BURNING RAIN, among others.
Under Lock and Key is probably my favorite of theirs. I see promo vinyl on Ebay and wonder if they are worth getting . Any thoughts?
Between George Lynch’s Dirty Shirley effort and Black Swan, it’s certainly an exciting time for old Dokken fans. Black Swan sounds tremendous. After a few listens, it’s loaded with stellar tracks: Sacred Place, Long Road to Nowhere, Make it There, Shake the Word, and Unless We Change. What a pleasant surprise.
Am not sure if this has been posted anywhere up here yet (I didn't find it in a search) but just heard that there is a "new" (old leftovers actually) Dokken album coming out later this summer. Here is the info from Blabbermouth: .......................... DOKKEN's 'The Lost Songs: 1978-1981' Due In August; Complete Details Revealed DOKKEN will release an album called "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" on August 28 via Silver Lining Music. It wasn't always multi-platinum sales and stadium gigs for DOKKEN. There was a first-phase and there were early days, and it is those bold first steps to stardom which are celebrated comprehensively on "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" LP. Featuring spectacular sleeve art by renowned U.S. artist Tokyo Hiro (MOTÖRHEAD, MOTLEY CRÜE), "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" show the crackle and craft of a hungry young Don Dokken as he embarked upon a journey which started in Southern California and Northern Germany. It is a trek which is testimony to the sheer endeavor and perseverance Don Dokken showed in those few years between 1978 and 1981, starting from when he spent time at a guitar store called Drake's Music, owned by Drake Levin in Manhattan Beach, California. A fair selection of the treasure on "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" are from these early European days. "Felony" carries a thuggish fuzz-coated riff -think early VAN HALEN in really greasy embroidered denims, while "Day After Day" showed that Don could pen a radio-slaying ballad. The writing and creation of "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" are further tribute to enduring early days of struggle in both Germany and L.A., Don would return to L.A. for a spell after those brief European gigs, and he worked with Juan Croucier on material, including perhaps the truest view of DOKKEN's then-future "Hit And Run", which incredibly did not end up on the eventual "Breaking The Chains" release. From the sunbaked SoCal hook of "Step Into The Light" to the furious, fledgling, late-Sunset Strip sound of "Back In The Streets", "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" shows Don in his unfettered early days of balls-out attitude, qualities doubtless forged in the sheer nature of the adventures undertaken in writing, recording and deciding Europe was the place to keep cutting his teeth. "The Lost Songs: 1979-1981" not only shares that magic with the fans, it gives them the final, vital and undeniably missing (until now) early album in the DOKKEN collection. A year ago, Dokken spoke to the WSOU radio station about the "The Lost Songs" collection, saying that it was a "fun" release that would include "songs recorded in the '70s when I was a little pup in my early 20s. And I have 12 songs that I haven't released," he explained. "So we're gonna go in and remaster them and all that, and I might put out that record and call it something like 'Dokken: The Early Days' or 'Dokken: The Lost Tapes', or something like that. 'Cause it was just an accident. I was cleaning out my locker and I found a bunch of master tapes from '77 to '79. And I said, 'What the heck are these?' And it turns out it was all these demos I did in the early '70s, before we had a record deal… It's kind of fun record. My voice sounds a lot younger. I listen to it, and I go, 'God, I sound like I've got helium in my voice.' I was 23 years old. I sound like Mickey Mouse." Musicians who appear on "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981": Don Dokken - vocals, guitar Jon Levin - guitar BJ Zampa - drums Juan Croucier - bass Greg Leon - guitar Gary Holland - drums Mick Brown - drums George Lynch -guitar Rustee Allen - bass Bill Lordan - drums Greg Pecka - drums "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" track listing: 01. Step Into the Light 02. We're Going Wrong 03. Day After Day 04. Rainbows 05. Felony 06. No Answer 07. Back In The Streets 08. Hit And Run 09. Broken Heart 10. Liar 11. Prisoner "Step Into The Light", the first single from "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981", can be streamed below. Longtime DOKKEN guitarist Jon Levin recently confirmed that the band was working on material for the follow-up to 2012's "Broken Bones" album. DOKKEN's new LP will be released via Silver Lining Music, the label owned by Thomas Jensen, one of the founders of Germany's Wacken Open Air festival. DOKKEN's classic lineup — Dokken, drummer "Wild" Mick Brown, guitarist George Lynch and bassist Jeff Pilson — reunited for a short Japanese tour in the fall of 2016. The trek marked the first time in 21 years the four musicians had hit the road together. A DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band's reunion tour, "Return To The East Live (2016)", was made available in 2018. Since completing the Japanese reunion dates, DOKKEN has continued to perform with the group's current lineup — which also includes bassist Chris McCarvill and drummer BJ Zampa (HOUSE OF LORDS). .......................... Note that it looks like the entire "Back In The Streets" 1989 CD is included in this new release which I already have. I have the "official" version of that from Repertoire Records and this is the tracklist of that: 1. Back in the Streets 2. Felony 3. Day After Day 4. We're Going Wrong 5. Liar (live) 6. Prisoner (live) The new release does not specify "live" for Liar or Prisoner but I would be surprised if they were not the same thing. Unknown of course if the new release uses the exact same song versions/mixes/masterings etc. Although I will be picking this up when it comes out, I am much more excited by the news above that the current band lineup is working on a new album (?).
The drums sound remixed as well everything else so it will sound way different than that Back In The Streets LP.
Btw, the funny thing about this is while I stumbled onto the news about Lost Songs this morning I was listening to the new release of Don's Solitary album that came out last year. Have had that in my huge to listen to pile for months but just finally getting around to it.
I'm just talking about this new song Step Into The Light. Everything about it sounds like it was recorded recently. Don talks about these songs being demo tapes. That song does not in any way sound like a demo. And Don says in these recordings he sounds like a helium Mickey Mouse. Really? There's no evidence of that in this new track. He sounds downright bored.
I'm thinking Step Into The Light is a new recording as they list Jon on guitars and we know he wasn't in the Dokken camp way back when the other material was recorded. I'm guessing the press release fails to mention either "one new song" or "re-recorded demo" or something as this is also clearly a 2020 Don Dokken vocal too.
New to this thread. Short version: My introduction to the band was "Beast From The East" shortly after it came out. To this day, I'd say if you only hear one Dokken album, make it that one. It's the vast bulk of their best songs, but freed from the ropey excesses of 80s production. As with any "live" album I'm sure it's not 100% live, but meh. I own the bulk of the subsequent Dokken/Lynch-related releases (and Pilson's "War & Peace" project too). I thought "Erase The Slate" was an excellent release and a great way to exorcise the memories of "grunge Dokken". Jon Levin is an fine guitar player though and does "in the style of Lynch" so well that I don't really care that he's being derivative. I don't think anyone's mentioned the Lynch Pilson release "Wicked Underground" on this thread though, that was actually one of my favourite of the post-Dokken releases and I thought a good attempt to go for a more contemporary sound whilst not trying to be a cheap knockoff of the current trends *cough* Shadowlife *cough*. I've seen the Logan-version Lynch Mob a couple of times live, the Norum-version Dokken once and the Levin-version Dokken a couple of times. I enjoyed all the shows, but not sure I really need to see Don D. perform live again. There's a book that came out on Dokken relatively recently, wouldn't say it was essential but it's a decent read, the overriding impression is just how much Don Dokken and George Lynch despise each other. In articles I've read on the band, it's usually Dokken who comes across worst, but there's some Lynch behaviour that is possibly not that impressive either. So at least it's balanced! https://www.amazon.com/Dokken-Other-Embers-Metal-History/dp/0578669498/
