After the unsuccessful US release of the band's 1983 debut album, Breaking the Chains, the record label was reluctant to give credit to Dokken for a follow-up. Dokken's management struggled to convince the label's executives to give the band another chance and this fight for recognition is reflected in the album's title. This album was the group's first with bassist Jeff Pilson following Juan Croucier's departure to join Ratt.
Tom Werman produced the album, but the recordings were hampered by the clash of egos between vocalist Don Dokken and guitarist George Lynch, who could not work together in a studio at the same time, and by the excesses of musicians and technicians. For these reasons, Werman was unable to carry on his work and quit the job after a few weeks, replaced by Roy Thomas Baker and Michael Wagener, who completed the recordings and mixed the album. The music of the album ranges from fast and aggressive tracks to pop and melodic ballads.
Tooth and Nail received positive reviews but was a slow seller, reaching the peak of No. 49 on the US Billboard 200 album chart and Gold status more than ten months after its release, on the wake of the success of the single "Alone Again" and of its accompanying music video. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 1989, after both Under Lock and Key (1985) and Back for the Attack (1987) had achieved such status.
Background
Elektra wanted to drop us. They said, 'Forget this band. They aren't going to go anywhere'. Our managers had to beg them to keep us on the label. They said, 'We'll give you one more shot'. So we were up against the wall. So that's why we came up with the title Tooth and Nail. If we're going to make it, it's going to be with a fight.
After the release of their debut album Breaking the Chains through French label Carrere Records in November 1981, Dokken had toured in support of the album in Europe,[5] but were still relegated in local clubs in the US, where the album had not been issued.[6]
Only when Dokken came under the management of the influential Q Prime Inc. of Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, which also represented the successful Def Leppard, the band signed a contract with the major American label Elektra Records and eventually had the album released in their home country in 1983.[6][7]
Dokken went on an arena tour in the US as support act for Aldo Nova, Blue Öyster Cult and Rainbow,[8] but the band's increased exposure did not save the remixed reissue from commercial failure, and Elektra meditated to drop them.[9] Their management convinced the label to finance the release of another album instead.[4]
Meanwhile, bassist Juan Croucier had left Dokken to join the Los Angeles outfit Ratt[6] and guitarist George Lynch had quit and rejoined multiple times.[10] It was apparent from the start a manifest incompatibility of character between Lynch and vocalist Don Dokken, which prevented the two from working together and more than once escalated in open hostility.[9] During Lynch's lapses of membership, Dokken tried out other guitarists, including Warren DeMartini, who later joined Ratt when that band's career began to take off.[9] Lynch auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne's band to replace the deceased Randy Rhoads but was not selected,[8] and finally settled in with Dokken after the release of their first album in the US.[10] To fill in the vacant bass-player slot, Shrapnel Records manager Mike Varney suggested to Don Dokken a member of his band, Cinema, named Jeff Pilson, who joined the band after an audition in 1983.[8]
Composition and recording
Lynch began laying down guitar riffs and music ideas on a four-track recorder at his home in 1983, soon joined by Pilson and drummer Mick Brown.[11] The three of them formed a cohesive songwriting team which produced several demos including lyrics and vocals.[12] Don Dokken was excluded from this creative stage and worked on songs and lyrics on his own or with Pilson.[13] The power ballad "Alone Again" was the result of a Dokken/Pilson collaboration and is the reworking of a song written by Dokken in 1975.[13] Lynch opposed the inclusion of the song in the album because he did not want ballads in it, but was finally convinced otherwise.[14] According to Don Dokken, the band wrote 25 songs in this period, which were then narrowed down to the ten best.[4]
Before pre-production began, Don Dokken proposed as producer his German friend Michael Wagener, whose curriculum included works with Accept, Raven, Great White and the production and engineering of Breaking the Chains.[15] Predictably, Wagener's friendship with Dokken and Lynch's dissatisfaction for the sound of their debut album brought to the rejection of the singer's proposal by the rest of the band.[15] Elektra Records selected instead the expert Tom Werman to produce the album; his accomplishments in the music business included multi-platinum albums with Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, Ted Nugent and the production of rising stars Mötley Crüe's second album Shout at the Devil.[15] Werman was present at rehearsals and helped to select and arrange the songs before production began.[16] The recording of the album started in the spring of 1984 at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood, California with veteran sound engineer Geoff Workman, whose personality and erratic behaviour did not mesh easily with Werman's direction.[17][18] This troubled relationship only added up to the escalating clash of egos between Lynch and Dokken, which was furtherly exacerbated by the abuse of cocaine and alcohol by musicians and technicians.[15] Werman set the working schedule to avoid the contemporary presence of guitarist and vocalist in the studio, with the former recording with the rest of the band late morning and in the afternoon and the latter at night.[19] This arrangement was maintained for all the permanence of George Lynch in the band, as he and Dokken never worked together in a recording studio.[20] After a few weeks of work, the situation exploded when Lynch violently rejected Werman's advice for some of his guitar solos and refused to work again with the producer.[17][18] Werman quit and left for a summer vacation with his family,[18] bringing Don Dokken to request again the hiring of Michael Wagener to complete the recordings and mixing the tracks.[19] Despite Werman and Burnstein's agreement on Wagener's involvement,[18] the rest of the band continued to refuse him, jeopardizing the release of the album.[19]
The singer expressed his concerns to the label executives and pleaded with them for Wagener's help.[21] Elektra complied to Dokken's request, but hired also the British producer Roy Thomas Baker, famous for his work with Queen, Journey and The Cars[15][21] and for his hedonistic lifestyle.[22][23] Baker's main task was to keep the band in check and occupied while Wagener recorded lead vocals by night and mixed the album, secretly assisted by Dokken.[19][22] Production also overcame the sudden and unmotivated disappearance of Lynch for a week and wrapped up recording and mixing in August 1984.[20]
Music style
Dokken are considered players of the hair/pop/glam metal subgenre by many critics and fans[24][25][26][27][28] and Tooth and Nail is included in various polls of best glam metal albums.[29][30] However, in a 2004 interview, Don Dokken disclaimed the band's belonging to that category and any comparison with acts like Mötley Crüe and Poison.[31]
A more thorough analysis by Canadian music journalist Martin Popoff places Tooth and Nail in transition from the NWOBHM-influenced debut album towards a more melodic and poppier kind of music, similar to the rising glam metal which would dominate the LA scene in the following years.[32] The extremes in music styles are touched with songs like the title track and "Turn On the Action", which resemble speed metal for their fast pace and aggressive riffs,[33] versus "Just Got Lucky" and "Alone Again", typical pop metal songs.[34] In another statement, Don Dokken himself acknowledged this shift in style, regarding it as more suited to his vocal limitations.[35]
Release and promotion
Tooth and Nail was mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound in New York City and released on September 14, 1984. The lead-off single for the album was "Into the Fire", which was released on September 11, 1984,[1] and received enough radio coverage to spend eight weeks in the Top 40 of Billboard'sHot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart from October to December 1984, peaking at No. 21 and charting for a total of eleven weeks.[36] The music video for this song also received moderate play on MTV. The song had a minor revamp in 1987, when it was featured in the soundtrack of the horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors along with Dokken's newly written "Dream Warriors".[37] The song can be heard in the VHS and DVD versions of the film in the opening sequence when the character Kristen Parker, played by Patricia Arquette, is listening to the radio in her bedroom.[38]
"Just Got Lucky" was the second single, released on November 19, 1984[2] and somewhat less successful. Even though it was supported by a music video directed by Wayne Isham,[39] it charted only on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks during January and February 1985 where it peaked at No. 27.[36]
To support the release of the album, the band started a long US tour on October 9, 1984 in Texas.[40] During the tour they were opening act for Twisted Sister and Y&T,[41]Dio[42] and Kiss.[43] Dokken co-headlined a few dates with Loudness and concluded the tour on April 10, 1985 in Syracuse, New York, opening for Sammy Hagar.[44] In the following months they ceased live activities to compose and record their third album Under Lock and Key, which was released on November 22, 1985.[45]
Third and last single to the album "Alone Again" was released in March 1985,[3] after the tour had concluded and became the band's biggest hit, spending fourteen weeks on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, which included two at its peak position of No. 20.[36] More significantly, the ballad was aided by strong rotation of the Isham-directed music video on MTV that spring and summer,[39] giving the band their first and biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where its eleven-week run from May to July 1985 peaked at No. 64.[46]
Tooth and Nail received mostly positive reviews. Paul Suter, in his review for the British magazine Kerrang!, praised Don Dokken's "strongly melodic" vocals and the "thunderous riffing and dazzling soloing" of George Lynch, judging the album probably not the band's best but "more than a match for the pretenders to the throne of LA Metaldome."[49]Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic was enthusiastic of Lynch's guitar playing, claiming that "there isn't a single solo on the album that isn't worth hearing", and appreciated Don Dokken's voice for making even the most "clichéd material sound convincing".[47] Taylor T. Carlson in his book HAIRcyclopedia Vol. 1 - The Legends calls Tooth and Nail a "true classic" among Dokken's production.[50] Martin Popoff described the album's music as a mix of "Def Leppard-ish mood metal", "AOR-ish and pop-sweet" songs and "muscle-rockers." He put Dokken almost on par with Van Halen, both for the "live-feel bombast" of the music and for the "heated conflict between guitarist and vocalist."[48]
Though clearly more an album act than a singles act, Dokken's album sales were tied to the videos for the singles from those albums.[51]Tooth and Nail rose to No. 71 on the US Billboard 200 chart during the release of "Into the Fire",[52] but fell off the charts for a week before re-entering and rising to No. 77 during the release of "Just Got Lucky".[53] It was during the run of the third single "Alone Again" that the album, sliding down the charts after "Just Got Lucky" faded, reversed course and hit its peak of No. 49.[54]
This time, Tooth and Nail would be certified Gold by the RIAA on August 13, 1985,[55] the band's first certification, and would linger on the charts for the remainder of the year.[56] This continued buoying of sales resulted in the unusual circumstance of the album being rated higher on the 1985 year-end charts (No. 35) than it had actually reached in its chart peak.[57]
On March 16, 1989, on the strength of continued sales, Tooth and Nail, Dokken's first Gold album, was their third to be certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1 million in the US alone.[55]
Dokken is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1976. It split up in 1989 and reformed four years later. The band has had several hit singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, such as "Alone Again", "In My Dreams", and "Burning Like a Flame", and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide. The live album Beast from the East was nominated for the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1989.
George Lynch is an American guitarist, best known for his work with the hard rock/heavy metal band Dokken and his post-Dokken solo band Lynch Mob. He is regarded as one of the most renowned and influential metal guitarists of the 1980s, noted for his distinctive playing style and sound.
Back for the Attack is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Dokken, released on November 2, 1987, through Elektra Records.
Under Lock and Key is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Dokken, released on November 22, 1985, through Elektra Records. The album reached No. 32 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for 67 weeks. Two singles also charted: "The Hunter" and "In My Dreams", both reaching No. 25 and 24 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock respectively, with "In My Dreams" at No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100. Under Lock and Key was certified Gold on March 4, 1986, and Platinum on April 14, 1987.
Jeffrey Steven Pilson is an American musician best known for being the bass player in the glam metal band Dokken and currently classic rock band Foreigner. He has also had an extended stint with Dio in the 1990s.
Donald Maynard Dokken is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and founder of glam metal band Dokken. He is known for his vibrato-laden, melodic vocal style which has made him an influential figure in American heavy metal/glam metal.
Beast from the East is a live album recorded by the American heavy metal band Dokken in Japan in April 1988, during tour in support of their album Back for the Attack. It was released on November 7, 1988. The album features live versions of the band's most popular songs from previous four studio albums and also includes a new studio track entitled "Walk Away". The song was accompanied with a music video, which featured members of the band performing atop the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking Topanga Canyon and the Pacific Ocean. The album earned the band their only Grammy Award nomination for the Best Metal Performance in 1990, losing to Metallica's "One".
"Alone Again" is a power ballad written and released by the American heavy metal band Dokken on their 1984 album Tooth and Nail. The single reached #64 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1985. The song was written by singer Don Dokken and bassist Jeff Pilson.
Lynch Mob is an American hard rock band, formed in 1989 by former Dokken guitarist George Lynch, who is the band's only permanent member.
Shadowlife is the sixth studio album by the American heavy metal band Dokken, released in 1997. It marks a change in the band's musical style, moving towards alternative rock. However, critics and fans alike were not pleased with the change, and dismiss the album as one of Dokken's weakest. It is also the last studio album with original lead guitarist George Lynch.
Live from the Sun is a live album released on April 18, 2000 by American heavy metal band Dokken. The album captures a performance of the reunited Dokken, minus guitarist George Lynch, held at the Sun Theater in Anaheim, CA on November 4, 1999. The live set featured some of their most popular songs, including two from the then-recently released Erase the Slate album. A video of the performance was also released both on VHS and DVD formats.
Dysfunctional is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Dokken, released in 1995. It was the band's first release after reuniting in 1993.
Breaking the Chains is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Dokken. It was originally released in Europe as Breakin' the Chains on the French label Carrere Records, in 1981. This version contains different mixes and titles of songs from the later U.S. edition. "Paris Is Burning" is called "Paris", and is actually a studio version as opposed to the live recording in Berlin from December 1982. The album also contains a song called "We're Illegal", which later turned into "Live to Rock ".
One Live Night is a 1996 semi-acoustic live album by heavy metal band Dokken. The reunited Dokken recorded the album before a live audience at The Strand, an intimate concert venue in Redondo Beach, California, on December 13, 1994, and prior to their 1995 tour. The album went virtually unheard at the time of its release. Released at the time when grunge and alternative rock were dominating mainstream rock music, MTV had no interest in featuring glam metal acts; so Dokken decided to do their own "unplugged" album. This intimate performance included versions of "Tooth and Nail", "Into the Fire" and "Alone Again", as well as covers of the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "From the Beginning".
"Breaking the Chains" is a song by American heavy metal/glam metal band Dokken, appearing on the band's debut album of the same name. The song was originally released as a single "Breakin' the Chains" in 1981 through Carrere Records exclusively in Europe, appearing as the B-side to the "I Can't See You" single. "Breaking the Chains" was released as a single in 1983 through Elektra Records, being the band's first American single. The song was a modest success, peaking at #32 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The song remained on the chart for 13 weeks.
"Just Got Lucky" is a song by American heavy metal band Dokken, released as the second single from their second studio album Tooth and Nail (1984). The song peaked at number 27 on the Billboard mainstream rock chart.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by heavy metal band Dokken. It is a collection of re-recorded 1980s hits along with two new tracks. On March 1, 2010, it was digitally released to iTunes and Amazon.com. The physical album with additional tracks was released in the US by Cleopatra Records on May 4, 2010, and in Japan on May 11, 2010, by King Records. On June 14, 2011, it was re-released by Store For Music LTD under the new title The Anthems with a new cover. The Anthems contains both of the bonus tracks from the Japanese edition of Greatest Hits.
"Into the Fire" is a song by American heavy metal band Dokken, released on September 11, 1984 on the album Tooth and Nail. The song peaked at number 21 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States.
"In My Dreams" is a song by American heavy metal band Dokken, released in 1985 on the album Under Lock and Key. The song peaked at number 24 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and at number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
References
Tooth and Nail (CD Booklet). London, UK: Rock Candy Records CANDY193. 2014.
Ye Old Metal: Dokken's Tooth and Nail (e-book). Toronto, Canada: Power Chord Press. 2013.
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