Customer Reviews

Native Tongue

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

80s rock bands didn't have it easy in the 90s. With the overnight popularity of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, just like that, almost instantly, bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, Skid Row, etc, were suddenly completely passe. Most old-school rockers probably didn't even know what hit them, as they went from the arenas to theatres in just a few short years.

In 1990 Poison were at the top of their game. That year saw the release of their third multi-platinum album "Flesh and Blood" and their first headlining arena tour. Songs like "Unskinny Bop" and "Something to Believe In" dominated MTV and Poison were one of the most popular bands of the very early 90s.

Unfortunately for Poison, however, in the fall of 1991 the band suffered two major blows. First was the release of Nirvana's "Nevermind" which completely changed the landscape of hard rock, and second was the departure of lead guitarist C.C. Deville.

Knowing full well that Poison's brand of power-pop, anthem-laden hard rock was out-of-touch with the times; the band sought a new direction. Guitar virtuoso Ritchie Kotzen was brought in as Deville's replacement, and in early 1992, the band started work on their new album.

Old-school hard rock and metal bands reacted differently to the musical sea change in the early 90s. Some bands like Motley Crue tried to embrace a current sound, whereas others, like Arcade (Stephan Pearcy's post RATT band) and Vince Neil lived in a vacuum, not acknowledging that anything had changed. Poison, however, took a different path. Rather than try to jump on a bandwagon or remain stagnant, the band attempted to mature, while at the same time keeping many elements of their signature sound intact. In early 1993, Poison's new album "Native Tongue" was finally released.

In some ways, "Native Tongue" sounds like the natural follow-up to "Flash and Blood." Listening to "Flesh and Blood" you can see where the band was going, incorporating elements of blues into their sound, along with some mature themes. The three minute sex-laden anthems that had so defined the band's first two albums were eschewed, in favor of longer songs with greater musical complexity. All this was done fairly successfully, as "Flesh and Blood" came of as a sincere, non-pretentious attempt for Poison to grow as artists.

"Native Tongue" sees Poison delve further into the bluesy ballad/anthem territory that made its mark on "Flesh and Blood." Gone, however, with the departure of Deville is the power-pop styling that defined the band's sound on their first three albums. Kotzen, a far more technically proficient guitarist, gives the album rapid-fire riffs and solos, far more complex than anything the band had seen before. Kotzen's writing on the album is apparent, as the band's level of musical sophistication increased significantly. Many of the band's key signature elements are still in place, however, such as strong harmonies and sing-along choruses.

The album's title track, "Native Tongue" is a short drum instrumental with effects, and sounds like theme music from "King Kong" setting the mood of the album. Injustice is addressed in "The Scream," a would-be arena anthem which makes for a great opening song. The album's first single and minor hit "Stand," written around the time of the L.A. riots, is another attempt to look at prejudice and inequality. A soft-spoken balled with force and a church choir, the song is ambitious and effective. The mid-tempo "Stay Alive," is a pretty good rocker that keeps up the momentum. One of the album's strongest songs "Until You Suffer Some (Fire and Ice)" is a balled that Bon Jovi could only dream of writing. The rocking "Body Talk" and "Bring it Home" are good, although the latter sounds a little flat. The album mixes it up a bit with "7 Days Over You," featuring a horn section, which works quite well. "Ritchie's Acoustic Thang" is a short instrumental that's pretty cool. Another very strong track "Ain't that the truth" is quite catchy and would have been a good choice to use as a single. The balled "Theatre of the Soul" sounds like a mature update of "Every Rose has its Thorn." "Strike up the band" sounds like a gritty remake of "Ride the Wind;" although not as good, it's still effective. "Ride Child Ride" is a good, if not great rocker. "Blind Faith," another more lyrically mature song about taking chances and having confidence, is another very strong song. The bluesy closing "Bastard Song of a Thousand Blues" is good, if not overly long.

Although "Native Tongue" was an earnest attempt to mature and stay relevant, the album unfortunately bombed. Kotzen was soon fired from the band for sleeping with drummer Rikki Rocket's girlfriend and the album was soon forgotten. Throughout most of the 90s "Native Tongue" sat in the cut-out bin next to Vince Neil's "Exposed," (1993) Motley Crue's self-titled (1994) album and David Lee Roth's "A Little Ain't Enough." Today the album is ignored by the band themselves, as they play only "Stand" live; and even then only occasionally.

While "Native Tongue" may not be a masterpiece, it's still a pretty good album, one that deserves to be heard. If you see a used copy lying around, give it a chance.

I love everything that this band has ever recorded. There is one exeption. Native Tongue, by far, exceeds any album ever written by this great band. I'm not saying that C.C. is not a great guitarist. Kotzen really lifted the band to a higher level of songwriting and maturity that disappeared when DeVille came back. This is without question, the best cd they have ever released!

When you hear the first three albums of Poison with CC in it, you dont know when a song stops and when the next one starts. It all sounds the same. There are some cool party anthems but it gets pretty boring and highly predictable. Native Tongue is absolutely amazing. Ritchie Kotzen fires up the album with terrific Blues Influenced playing and his solos show his mastery of styles of Rock, Blues, Funk and NeoClassical. His playing is also so fluid and effortless than you begin thinking it's so easy to play unless you have a clue to how to play guitar. This one is a Master Piece.
Get it. Even if you have the Slightest Idea of the kind of player Ritchie Kotzen is, you will know that CC is nothing other than a bunch of happy tunes...

By the time Poison released their fourth album Native Tongue, Poison's musical world was literally turned on it's head. Long time guitarist C.C. Deville had been kicked out of the band, and was subsequently replaced by guitar virtuoso Richie Kotzen. Also, by 1993, Poison's brand of pop-metal was about as popular as constipation, being replaced by flannel-clad grunge bands, and the commercial rise of hip-hop music.

Upon first listen, you hear the massive shift in musical direction that Poison was taking with Native Tongue. Poison wasn't jumping on the grunge bandwagon or such, but they overhauled their sound to incorperate a more blues based rock, and centered it more on Richie Kotzen's guitar playing than on big anthemic choruses. I'm sure most Poison fans aren't huge Native Tongue junkies, but the album is actually quite decent. Every song is listenable and had potential, but the massive sound shift is why i'm sure most people kicked this record to the curb. Even though Native Tongue isn't Flesh & Blood or Open Up And Say Ahh, it does have some great tracks on it. My favorites are Ride Child Ride (which is also my favorite Poison song), 7 Days Over You, Strike Up The Band, The Scream, Ain't That The Truth and Until You Suffer Some.

My summary of Native Tongue is quite simple. Poison wanted to stay relevent into the 90's rock scene, that however was a major problem in itself. You see most Poison fans wanted the band to stay glued to their 80's roots and never change a thing, but the old saying goes, if you ain't changing, all you're doing is dying.

1993's Native Tongue is something of the black sheep of the Poison catalogue. The famous party rockers were faced with two obstacles when recording this album - the departure of guitarist C.C DeVille and the rise of grunge. Overcoming the first obstacle wasn't too tough. C.C, for all his style, wasn't the greatest guitar player and his replacement, Ritchie Kotzen, was a real talent. The second obstacle was a bit trickier. What does a party rock band do when the party ends?

Poison didn't try to go grunge with this album (thankfully), but they did try to get more serious. In this case, that meant a sharp turn into blues rock territory. We caught a couple of hints of that on 1990's Flesh & Blood, but it's way more prominent on Native Tongue. I assume Kotzen, who has some serious blues chops, had a lot to do with that. For a band like Cinderella, the bluesy sound makes sense, but from a band whose previous hits champion looking for "Nothin' But a Good Time," it's a little awkward. There are some fun rock songs here (like "Ain't That the Truth), and the minor hit "Stand" sounds a bit like "Something To Believe In," but for the most part the songs on Native Tongue, technically sound as they are, just don't excite. It didn't help that most of Poison's fanbase was being told that what they used to like was impossibly uncool and that grungy, flannel-clad Seattle bands where what they needed to listen to.

I was a big fan of Poison growing up, and still play their albums from time to time, but Native Tongue rarely gets taken off the shelf. It's a perfectly solid blues-based rock album, but it just doesn't feel like a Poison album. I'd recommend it only to completists or Kotzen fans.

This album was a very controversial one when it came out in the nineties, because the band changed style with Native Tongue, passing from a very cheesy, bubble gum, party type of hair metal to true, serious music. Serious that by no means means boring, but on the contrary "music with serious value", with serious quality. It was controversial even because it came out in a difficult decade for the music, the one that saw the end for a lot of hair metal bands and the beginning of the grunge era. So I guess that a lot of people who loved hair metal took a position against this album because they tought that Poison, the epitome of hair metal sold themselves to jump on the grunge winner wagon. So it is an album that was born in a very hard time. maybe it was not the right choice for the band I don't know, but at the time probably it was the only thing they could do with CC that was almost a Junkie unable to play anymore and grunge rapidly overlapping their original style. So what could they do? Probably one of the wisest thing to do could be to invest in the quality of their music, on the true value of music trying to maintain their identity, but injecting in their formula a sort of hyper fuel. And they did. It was the only serious thing they could do to survive. Try to imagine if they chose to release another album like "Open up and say ah!"... probably the whole world would have judged them CLOWNS in those years. So they took one of the guitar youngest and brightest stars, one with a killer look, the ability to write killer songs, incredible guitar chops and with a bluesy style that could take them to new places, to new more serious, more value music. A very good idea it was. And which kind of album cam out from this chance they took? A very strong album, made entirely by Richie Kotzen's songs at the point that now that we have a lot of Kotzen songs albums, now we know that Native Toungue came out entirely by his pen. A very strong blues infected album with killer songs and more that few true ANTHEMS that sold very well and had great hairplay and videoplay if I remember well by the way (Stand, Until you suffer some). And the album stood the test of time, a lot better than any album of their no matter what the die hard fans of the band may say. It is a killer album that trascended the genre boundaries and took the guys in a land they never were legitimate to enter, the true value music. I love all the albums from the band even the cheesiest ones, but Native tongue stays way way above the others in terms of songwriting qualities, musical values, attitude, musical chops, consistency. By the way in my opinion this is even one of the best album from Richie Kotzen ever in my opinion, a lot better than his albums from Mr Big era and a lot better than some of his solo albums (very good albums by the way). This one and Mother Heads (the best form Richie in my rating) stand on the same very high quality level. I think a lot of people who hate hair metal could love this album and a lot of people who love it could love it too. But this album is not a bi**h. It has value, personality and integrity. Too bad the guys decided to fire Richie for a stupid story. The band could do very good things if they continued to be together. The next guitarist the band decided to try (the fabolous Blues Saraceno) for different reasons didn't success in taking a comparable contribution to the band. Native toungue is a true treasure for me.

This is one of those CDs that if you've not specifically heard all of it, or some of the songs on it, you might not give it a try. Not sure why this CD wasn't more popular, but could be because of the change in musicians. Poison hit the rock scene a bit after I began listening to rock music. I was looking for new sounds that perhaps I didn't give enough credence to in the first place. This is one of them. I am, and always will be, a classic rock fan - and in some circles, perhaps this CD will become a classic for Poison. Although the magic didn't last long with Kotzen leading the way, Native Tongue is in my opinion, the best they did. My favorite cut is "Bastard Son Of A Thousand Blues," which just plain rocks. If you're not a Poison fan, which I wasn't either, listen to this CD and you might find it more than you imagined Poison being capable of doing. "Theatre Of The Soul" will move you too.

I like when a band spends a good time in studio working to get really good stuff. This album is evolution, the blues songs are great and the introduction of female chorus fits great on the type of ballads it has.

Won't get bored of this one.

Seems ridiculous to be hearing this for the first time in 2011 but hey, I was only ever a very casual listener to this mob back in the day having had other guilty pleasures taking up my time. But having listened to this thing three times in a row yesterday I have to admit it is sprightly and lightly rendered rock `n' roll from a band that by this state (1993) were veterans of the music biz.

The album comprises 15 tracks with the bands trademark zest for life imprinted all over them but on this album they had moved on from their earlier image and modus operendi somewhat. The lavender boy vocals of Bret Michaels are still in place but on this album the band seem to stretching out and doing different things. This becomes obvious from the title track, which is also the first tune on the album. It shows a few studio tricks being used to create a more offbeat result and it's not a bad move. As the album mooches along the band are able to go up and down the gears with ease. There aren't too many genuinely crunchy guitar numbers but this very much feels like a rock band working hard to put on a show. In fact the lightness of being here is one of the reasons you can play it in the background to good effect and even though there are 15 tracks here the album doesn't feel overlong.

Production is as nice as you'd expect it and Ritchie Kotzen certainly adds something different in the guitar department. I remember the quip at the time being that in order to maintain their previous guitar stylings that Kotzen would have to play with boxing gloves on. Well it doesn't sound like he went that route but certainly his being in Poison for a while is an interesting adjunct to the chaps career. Probably paid OK too...

The main downpoints here are how G rated this feels. How hollow many of the songs come across as in terms of having any meat on the bone. Not just musically, it's just that when you have the background of Poison it's pretty hard to get people to take your musings on lifes ups and downs too seriously. Bon Jovi had the same issue in his desperation to be seen as something akin to Bruce Springsteen or even John Mellencamp. So while there is an attempt at growth here it's hard to take it too seriously and the cover art, which was probably supposed to come across as understated and/or embattled just comes across as dour. Something that is anathema to this bands manifesto. And while the band have tried manfully to incorporate more blues into their side... well I was around at the time and let me tell you brother, darn near EVERY pop metal band tried to do the same thing, either to mature with their fans, to get taken seriously or just because everyone was doing it.

This probably isn't a bad album to throw on in the car. It's not cringe inducing stuff you can only play when nobody else is around (trust me, I have plenty of those albums myself!) but given it's not terribly accomplished and given how much more great music there is out there I just can't see anybody throwing this on at any time when they are actually in the mood to really listen to the music coming out of their stereo. And therein lies a big reason why this is only three starss IMHO.

I used to have this on tape years ago and found it on sale on Amazon.com. It is an ok disc from Poison, songs are very different from the last disc. Guitarist is much better than original.