HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Open Up And Say… Ahh! – Poison
1988 – the twilight of what some call the greatest decade for rock and heavy metal. It was also peak time for cocaine and heroin use but we doubt the two are connected. The 80s spouted some of the greatest records of all time. That’s simply fact. What the decade also spawned is many people’s guilty pleasure: Glam Metal. While bands such as MÖTLEY CRÜE were the standard bearers, a band which carried a lot of musical prowess were POISON. A band which ultimately suffered at the turn of the decade, with their album Open Up And Say… Ahh! being one of the last great glam metal records.
Before Bret Michaels (vocals) was plastered all over MTV looking for his Rock Of Love and proclaiming “I’ll be your sugar daddy/ I’ll be your rock star” on questionable material in the late 2000s, he fronted one of the cheesiest yet better glam metal bands of the 80s. Building on the success of debut album Look What The Cat Dragged In (1986), POISON hit the studio to prove they were more than a one hit wonder.
Bringing the foursome back together, POISON descended upon Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The original plan was to have rock heavyweight Paul Stanley (KISS) produce the sophomore records but Stanley was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts. POISON instead turned to Tom Werman who had produced the likes of aforementioned MÖTLEY CRÜE, CHEAP TRICK, and TWISTED SISTER.
Open Up And Say… Ahh! offered ten tracks of inoffensive sex, rock n’ roll, and heartbreak. The 36 minute run time would spawn four hit singles: Nothin’ But A Good Time, Fallen Angel, Your Mama Don’t Dance (originally by LOGGINS AND MESSINA), and Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Your Mama Don’t Dance took on a life of its own, hailed as the best glam metal cover since MÖTLEY CRÜE’s Smokin’ In The Boys’ Room (originally by BROWNSVILLE STATION). Any self-respecting MÖTLEY CRÜE fan, including ourselves, would have to agree on that. But it was Every Rose Has Its Thorn which would prove most popular. An acoustic ballad about a buxom blonde breaking our heart, it would be POISON’s sole number one single. In an interview with The Gazz, Michaels finally gave up the story behind the track: ““Every Rose” [sic] was written in a laundromat in Texas while I was waiting for my clothes to dry and lamenting the fact that my stripper girlfriend broke up with me. Like no one saw that coming.”
Where are the drug references – one may ask. POISON may have been promiscuous at the height of their fame but they weren’t about to plaster their tendencies to indulge in narcotics until guitarist C.C. DeVille left the band in 1991. Turns out being under the influence at an MTV Awards show leads people to play the wrong song during a live set and Bret Michaels subsequently punching them in the face backstage.
Before that unsavoury moment, POISON became a point of controversy upon Open Up And Say… Ahh!’s release. Retail giant Walmart refused to stock copies of the album due to its suggestive and demonic nature. The artwork features model Bambi dressed as a she-demon, red body paint and all, with luminous green eyes and a tongue to rival Gene Simmons. With the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) still running rampant on what the children might be exposed to despite having copies of Playboy plastered all over every newsagent and magazine rack known to man in the US, this simply wouldn’t do. In order to maximise sales, POISON offered a more modest album cover which had the photo cropped to where only Bambi’s piercing eyes were visible.
A perfect example of the ‘Streisand effect’ in play. Coined after songstress Barbra Streisand attempted to sue photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for $50 million for violation of privacy in 2003 after a photograph of her California residence was posted online. The photograph was used to document the erosion of California’s coastline cliffs over time, rather than tell anyone where Streisand lived. As a consequence for causing such an uproar in having a singular photograph removed, the photograph actually gained more attention than it would have if it were simply left alone. In POISON’s case, the rebranding of Open Up And Say… Ahh! had fans going to Walmart in their droves, catapulting the album to chart at number two in the Billboard 200.
While the album fared well in terms of sales; reaching Platinum status in the US in 1988, and Gold certification this side of the Atlantic, it received rather tepid reviews from critics. Steve Huey of AllMusic would write: “POISON‘s best album still has a bit of filler that fails to deliver the big hooks and catchy riffs of their best material…” yet goes on to surmise the second album “solidified the group’s status as hair metal’s top party band.”. That is largely true. Anthemic Nothin’ But A Good Time is still on regular rotation for those looking for a party soundtrack and recently featured in an advert for insurance company Direct Line. Though not everyone was so tactful when it came to their reviews as Rolling Stone would prove. Already prolific for not being the fairest to glam metal bands, they branded the record “an annoying parade of limp three-chord clichés and breathy harmonies, songs so formulaic that it’s a challenge to distinguish one track from the next.”. The album still scored four and a half stars out of five which is a conundrum for even us to fathom. Though in retrospect, Rolling Stone placed the record at number 26 on their 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums Of All Time list in 2019. To sate curiosity: DEF LEPPARD’s Hysteria (1987) took the top spot. POISON would fare better with Metal Rules’ Top 50 Glam Metal Albums where it sits in sixth position and has the bold claim that “any glam fan’s collection is incomplete without it”. Good thing it currently resides in our vinyl collection.
Open Up And Say… Ahh! would receive a re-issue for its 20th anniversary and included an original B-Side Livin’ For The Minute. The other B-Side which had been written at the same time, Face The Hangman, was reserved for Crack A Smile… And More! (2000). It’s a shame POISON never really recovered after the turn of the decade. There were some decent tracks in the albums which followed but the population had simply fallen out of love with glam as grunge took over. While relative obscurity may have come for POISON now, Open Up And Say… Ahh! will always be an integral album in the world of glam metal.
Open Up And Say… Ahh! Was originally released on May 3 1988 via Enigma Records.
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