BY JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

DOKKEN – TOOTH AND NAIL (1984)

Since it has been nearly six years since I wrote about a Dokken album for “The Cassette Chronicles” series, I thought now might be a good time to take a look at another one.

I chose Tooth and Nail despite the fact I don’t actually listen to the full album that much. I know it’s got plenty of the band’s best known songs on it, but when I looked at the track listing as I prepped to write this article, it dawned on me that I usually just listen to those well known individual songs rather than do full album listen.

So I figured it’s about time I do that full listening session and give more of a thought to the album cuts as well as those big numbers.

The first sort of surprise for me was the instrumental “Without Warning” opening up the album’s first side. Obviously owing to the fact that I don’t listen to the full Tooth and Nail album all that often, I’d kind of forgotten that Dokken chose to have the instrumental open things up. It’s a short bit, just about 90 seconds or so but it’s pretty cool. I like the main riff that runs through it at the beginning where the music is a bit softer in delivery. That opening sound fades into the background over the 2nd half of the track as a more intense and crackling electric sound takes over as the song ends its run.

It leads into the album’s title track which is a frenzied and fast paced rocker. I actually like the song a lot and have heard it any number of times over the years, but I’m not sure if it is considered a “hit” track for Dokken or not but that could be just my own personal ignorance talking. Still, it certainly gets your blood pumping. Not that I don’t like the instrumental track, but in my own personal hindsight, having the “Tooth and Nail” song open up the album might’ve been a better sequencing decision so that you get hit right at the start with Dokken’s fiery delivery. Don Dokken sounds pretty good here and actually has a nice big scream at one point in the song. George Lynch’s guitar work is phenomenal and clearly his six-string work merged perfectly with the bass and drums from Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown.

The biggest track on Side One is “Just Got Lucky” which is pretty much one of their best known songs. The song’s title refrain in the song lyrics hit hard and I can imagine that it comes off as a perfect spot in a live setting for the audience to pump their fists in the air or have that back and forth with the band letting the crowd to provide the vocal. The song is another high energy rocker and remains a particular favorite of mine.

While the song title “Heartless Heart” might conjure up the notion of some kind of power ballad, you do get a bit of a twist when it turns out to be a full on rocker track. But I couldn’t rightly tell you that I’ve really had this one in my memory over the years. As I listened to the album, the chorus seemed to be a bit familiar to me but overall it was almost like it was a brand new track to me in a way.

Yet more in the way of indictment on my criminal underappreciation of the Tooth and Nail album is the Side One closer “Don’t Close Your Eyes”. Man, that song is a freaking killer track! Another cool Don Dokken scream and a monster musical score that kicks up the adrenaline factor immensely.

For the second side of the album, you get two more stone cold Dokken classics with “Into The Fire” and “Alone Again”. The latter track is the band’s first big ballad number. And while a lot of 80’s ballads don’t age well, “Alone Again” still retains its original allure more than four decades later. The opening of the song fits right into that ballad designation with a soft musical score and a rather involving vocal take from Don Dokken. As the song progresses towards the first chorus break, the music kicks up the intensity so the power portion of “power ballad” gets its time in the spotlight. As the tempo alternates between these two deliveries, Dokken fashions one of the better ballads of the era.

As for “Into the Fire”, its place in the pantheon of great Dokken songs is secure. It’s got a tiny bit of a softer delivery in the song’s immediate opening but then turns up the pace. I love the part in the song, after the solo, when the band is singing in full with the lyrical passage that begins with the line “Take me back…”. I still get a bit of an extra kick when that part of the song plays.

But of course, before you get to those songs, you’ve got the side opening “When Heaven Comes Down”. That’s a pretty straightforward rocker but while there’s plenty of uptempo pacing in the song, you’ve got a bit of an additional thump going on as well. Not that Mick Brown doesn’t announce his presence throughout the album, but I think he gets just a bit more room to shine through on this number. And the solo from George Lynch is damn good as well.

While my memory does fail me at times when I need to recall certain songs or albums that I haven’t listened to in a while, for some strange reason I also seem to remember other tracks that you’d wonder how they made an impression when the rest of an album might not have. Such is the case with “Bullets to Spare”.

As I looked at the song title on the track listing, I couldn’t remember what the song sounded like. But then the song started playing and man, I could actually sing along with the track. I remembered the song but I don’t know why that particular album track stuck with me and others didn’t. Still, the song kicks ass! Fully rocking on this track, I really need to give more respect to the song from now on.

The Tooth and Nail album closes with the song “Turn on the Action”. The funny thing is I remember the song more for its appearance on the band’s live album Beast From The East than the studio version here. On that live album, the song closes out the live show and is introduced by Don Dokken as a song that just has “pure attitude” (though I don’t remember the exact quote). He’s not overselling that notion because it is a full on burst of killer rock and roll. There’s no reinventing of the rock and roll wheel here but the song makes its bones for that very attitude Dokken referred to on the live album.

When I was reading the story behind the making of this album on the Tooth and Nail Wikipedia page, it made me wonder how the hell it ever got made. The fighting between Don Dokken and George Lynch is well known but the other parts of the creative process and album’s production might not be quite as familiar. The fact that the album turned out to have some of the biggest Dokken tracks is testament to the songwriting capabilities of all involved. Especially since you are left thinking it is amazing no one killed each other during the recording process.

That said and set aside, Dokken really hit their stride on this album and it led to two more platinum plus selling studio albums in the succeeding years for the band. And for me, listening to Tooth and Nail now shows me just how much I’ve been missing out by not doing more full album listens all these years because it is just a damn fine album and I need to spin it more often.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Tooth and Nail album peaked at #49 on the Billboard album charts. It became a Gold selling album in 1985 but it hit platinum record status for Dokken in 1989, the third of their albums to do so overall. The increased sales figures gave them a much bigger profile to say the least. Not bad for being a last chance album with Elektra ready to drop the band if the album hadn’t been successful.

All four members of the band had a hand in the songwriting credits.

The tour in support of the album saw Dokken opening for Y&T, Twisted Sister, Dio, Sammy Hagar and Kiss. They did some co-headlining dates with Loudness as well.

I never saw Dokken live in concert during their heyday. It wasn’t until 1995 when they were touring for the Dysfunctional album that a friend of mine got us on the guest list to see them play a show in Rhode Island. I actually had to go look up the info on that Setlist.fm website. It was at the Strand in July of that year when we saw the show. I remember the bands that opened for Dokken on that date were awful but Dokken themselves put on a pretty good show.