Customer Reviews

Don't Tread

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You know when you listen to an album and can just tell the band who made it was having a blast playing the songs. Don't Tread is like that. You can just hear Damn Yankees having a blast recording this disc, and the songs and spirit of the album reflect that. This disc reminds me alot of the first couple Van Halen albums. You just want to put this disc on when you are in the mood for good guitar rock. Most of the songs have a Southern Rock flavor like the title track "Don't Tread". "Uprising" features the best drum work Damn Yankees ever recorded. There are a couple ballads of course, but not the typical "Every Rose has it's Thorn" syrupy stuff. They are just solid rock ballads. If you are a fan of Ted Nugent, this album should be a must have. If you liked the earlier Damn Yankees album with "Coming of Age" you will definately love this album. I think "Don't Tread" is a better written and better played album than the first one. And seeing as how Amazon is offering used copies for under $3 you can't go wrong!!

Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades, Ted Nugent, and Michael Cartelone are back with a vengance on this hard-driving follow-up to their highly successful debut cd. Shaw and Nugent both play lead guitar on this disc, which gives every song a definitive sound. Blades' bass and Cartelone's drums combine to make the sound that much better.

From the opeing title song, along with such others as "Where You Goin Now" and "The Silence is Broken", the listener is treated to a brand of high energy rock and roll. Shaw sings lead on both "Where You Goin Now" and "The Silence is Broken". He proves his versatility by being able to sing ballads as well as the great rock songs he was famous for while with Styx.

Its too bad that Damn Yankees only produced two cds. I'm a fan of great rock and roll, and they were definitely one of the best bands of the early 90s. I highly recommend this disc, as well as their self-titled one. The songs are first-rate, and the vocals and insturmentals will keep you coming back for more. Buy this great cd and hear some really great rock and roll at its absolute best.

I love every song on Don't Tread!!! From the title track to Mister Please and Uprising. Just an all around good rock cd.
Compared to their first album, this one has more variety to it.
A little rock, blues, and of course the ballads. Its all here.
Plus, the production is better on this one than the first. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the first album, but this one just gets me. I can't stop listening to it. Its too bad they didn't regroup to put out more great music. Well, I guess I'll have to get the new Styx, Ted Nugent, and Night Ranger cds.

All of these guys are killer players. Together, they rocked and sang their nuts off. Great songs, great guitars, great drums, great hooks = Great sales.

So WHY did the IDIOTS AT WARNER BROS. MISMANAGE THIS BAND SO BAD, CAUSING THE BAND TO SPLIT AND LEAVE A THIRD ALBUM IN THE CAN???? Seriously stupid move on their part. Yeah, the same company that gives us music virtuoso's like "Snoop frickin Dog" and "Ashlee Simpson" chose to let one of the great R O C K acts slip out of their fingers. STUPID F**KING IDIOTS! Wake the he** up Warner!

This album and their debut sold a buttload of CDs and both of these still stand up to ANYTHING out today. Grunge may have scared the crap out of every record company suckup during the time of the Damn Yankees, but where is grunge now??? Also VH1 pans this band as 'lightweight'. Give me a break! You think it's light weight? Put on 'Uprising', 'This Side of Hell', 'Don't Tread, or '15 Minutes of Fame'. Hardly light weight. Stupid public just thinks "Oh Tommy Shaw's in there so it must be "Babe" " Niggah Please!!!

While I'm a huge Styx fan and Night Ranger was a great band too, THIS BAND was the SH*T. These records blow away their former bands. And Micheal Cartelone- nobody ever mentions him. ONE KICK A$$ drummer!

BUY THIS AND THE DEBUT. If you like to rock, you'll love these cds.

Though "Don't Tread" isn't as good as the first Damn Yankees album, it is still a kick-ass recording. It is fun to listen to in the car driving on the highway. Worth a roadtrip! I love the sense of humor in the lyrics as well as the Ted improvisations. Well worth the price! Wish they would put out about ten more CDs with new tracks on them. Just can't find music worth listening to anymore.

Don't Tread released in 1992 is the great sophomore effort by Damn Yankees who are made up of tough-guy superstars such as Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Tommy Shaw of Styx and Ted Nugent rock-n-roll beast icon.

It is as damn as their debut album in 1990 and one of my all time bests as well. Damn Yankees as a whole is predominantly
Night Ranger minus keyboard,partly Survivor partly Styx with extra damnness.

My first pick is Where Are You Going Now, first single from this album. It is as if popped out from Survivor's Vital Signs(boy it is also produced by Ron Nevison). And Silence Is Broken, Zep&Purple styled Mister Please. Rockers such as Fifteen Minutes of Fame, mid-tempo tracks such as Dirty Dog, Someone to Believe
are fine as well.

Why such great album has been treated so damn bad by classic rock market?

Note: Michael Cartellone who looked obscure and fresh guy among the gang of four found his place as an ACCEPT drummer just before the band broke up. Also known as a drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd tours

Verdict: Well-done second effort
Rating: 92 out of 100
Recommended for: Night Ranger, Tommy Shaw and Survivor fans and wide range of 80s and 90s hard/pop rock fans.

Most supergroups are destined to fail due to the intractable egos of the various stars that never fully align within the universe of the group. DAMN YANKEES is not one of those failed supergroups.

DAMN YANKEES debut was a creation of a band still defining itself with three very successful front men having joined forces after decades of playing. However, after more than 2 years of immensely successful touring and a multi-platinum hit album under their rock and roll belts, the band found its identity and went into the studio to record their superior follow up album.

For those who like more cheese in their pop rock, the eponymous debut is more to their liking. Fans who appreciate more intelligence, more blues, more originality within their rock and roll are more appreciative of the sophomore release DON'T TREAD.

The lead track DON'T TREAD ON ME starts the album on a free for all fun ride of machismo (relational and nationalism) with a very powerful guitar bite that carries the song throughout.

DOUBLE COYOTE is a rolicking blues twanged (much more than tinged) rocker with a humorous bent from Tommy, while MISTER PLEASE is a pleasurable psychological nightmare from Jack Blades. SOMEONE TO BELEIVE and SILENCE IS BROKEN are laments from Tommy written from the perspective of a man struggling with the break up (and subsequent divorce) of a long relationship. THIS SIDE OF HELL is an anthemic hard rocker (maybe even a head banger) with lines as hillarious and self-effacing as can be found from a rock supergroup - "I'm in over my head/ why can't I be like Ted?/ I'm living this side of hell." UPRISING is one of those heart wrenching hard rockers that makes one grab hold and hang on for a roller coaster of a ride in which Ted Nugent writes and sings about the plight of the independent Native American/ American.

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME and WHERE YOU GOIN' NOW (a feeble attempt to follow HIGH ENOUGH into the stratosphere of pop hits) are the weakest tracks on the album.

Many reviewers remark about Ted being the lead guitarist and about the lack of lyrical credibility. But neither could be farther from the truth. Tommy and Ted trade off lead work nearly by halves (with Tommy playing lead parts on the left channel and Ted playing lead parts on the right channel.) Ted performs most of the center channel/ multi-channel leads while Tommy plays the acoustic, dobro and slide guitars as lead and rhythm instruments. Long-time followers of Ted Nugent and long time fans of Tommy Shaw equally mis-identify the lead guitarists as the band intended, as the two interplay and often simply mimic one another in styles and tones.

While I beleive the two best DAMN YANKEES songs ever recorded are found on their debut (COME AGAIN and MYSTIFIED), I thoroughly appreciate the vast superiority of DON'T TREAD over DAMN YANKEES. The songs are more sophisticated, better played (maybe not as flawlessly mixed and mastered) and the band is truly enjoying the music much more than on the first (and they had a lot of fun on the first one.)

This foursome truly created a band, that while non-musical personalities may clash, that when the music starts everyone has a rollicking good time and enjoys sharing the numerous spotlights with the other band mates. Ted Nugent is not one who has been known for relinquishing center stage, but he thoroughly enjoys recording with and performing with, Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades. And Mike Carteollone is simply too easy going to not fit in with the others like the younger brother of every family.

As much as I am a fan of Tommy's solo work (and prefer the music of STYX more than DAMN YANKEES), I cannot stand this seemingly eternal wait for another DAMN YANKEES album and tour. Tommy is long overdue in displaying his penchant for blues, hard rock and simple carefree fun.

As for those who discredit this album... "Don't you dare, don't you tread on me..."

This is one of the few albums that I can just let play all the way through... No skipping around required (although I tend to skip "Fifteen Minutes of Fame" sometimes). Kind of along the lines of a Def Leppard album.

Overall, there are no significant singles from this album, which is it's only shortcoming. The previous album had about 3 very solid singles, and maybe 3 others that were worth listening to regularly... (IMHO) This one is more balanced all the way through. It's energetic, it rocks, the sound is very balanced (both the instruments and the harmony of the singers) and the lyrics have meaning. Good for a gym workout or a long drive.

With DON'T TREAD, Damn Yankees step up to the plate again. And yes! Another grand slam. The vocal-songwriting team of guitarist-singer Tommy Shaw and bassist-singer Jack Blades, along with guitarist Ted Nugent and drummer Michael Cartellone, create another slab of fire-breathing rock & roll, once again blending the Southern rock of the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, and the Outlaws; the hard rock of Grand Funk Railroad, Montrose, Night Ranger, and solo Nugent; and a touch of Styx's progressive pop-rock into a unique hard rock & roll sound that holds up better than anything by Ratt, Poison, or Motley Crue. The fact that Nugent, Blades, and Shaw supported the right of the police to use deadly force to rescue two girls kidnapped in California in 2002 makes this CD and its predecessor essential purchases for both your ears AND your conscience.

One of the last highly successful melodic rock groups of the 1990's, Damn Yankees was a supergroup featuring guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw (Styx), bassist/vocalist Jack Blades (Night Ranger), drummer Michael Cartelloni (Tommy Shaw's band) and guitarist/deer annihilator Ted Nugent.

1992's Don't Tread was the band's second album. Ted Nugent played a larger role in the songwriting process for this one, so Don't Tread is a little less clean and polished than the first Damn Yankees album, and a bit more rowdy (see Don't Tread on Me and Dirty Dog, which is completely fun despite some ridiculous lyrics). The single Where You Goin' Now is pure Shaw/Blades though, and is a good counterpart to their earlier hit High Enough. The rest of the album is hit and miss. There are some great songs, and some obvious filler.

Unfortunately Don't Tread proved to be the band's final offering, as the 90's soon became unwilling to embrace this kind of music. Fortunately Shaw and Blades would continue to work together as Shaw-Blades and would include some unreleased Damn Yankees material on their debut album Hallucination.

If you enjoyed the first Damn Yankees album, chances are you'll like the second one too. It's not as strong as the debut, but it's still a very solid melodic rock album, and a good example of what the pre-grunge, early 90's hard rock sound had to offer.