Customer Reviews

Save Your Prayers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

1986, the era of big hair and big audio production for commercial Hard Rock albums. It was in that time that a "can't miss" album came out and missed.

Waysted's Save Your Prayers album had everything that the hits of the day had, only Waysted did it all better.

Slick production? Yes, but not annoyingly slick (like KISS' Crazy Nights or Heart's albums from that period). Big vocal melodies and infectious hooks? You bet. Nice guitar riffs working around nice keyboard melodies? Tons of 'em.

Save Your Prayers was a very well written and performed album, as the band showed an energy and honest enthusiasm for the music that most other bands of the Melodic Metal genre just didn't have.

So what went wrong? Who knows. EMI probably didn't push the album very hard and gave up on it too soon. Whatever the case Save Your Prayers is now available on CD and if you like Melodic Metal and Hard Rock you should give it a shot. I ran a record store when Save Your Prayers came out and sold a ton of it - and no one was disappointed with it. I never had anyone trade it in as a used LP or Cassette, so clearly the people who bought it liked it a lot. You will too.

In 1986, ex-UFOers Pete Way and Paul Chapman wrangled a record contract with Capitol Records and drafted in a young American vocalist by the name of Danny Vaughn. To say that Vaughn put in an impressive performance is a vast understatement. His vocals soar throughout the entire record. Highlights include the poppy "Black And Blue", "How The West Was Won", the re-recorded version of "Heaven Tonight", the epic "Heroes Die Young"- hell, the whole record is excellent. Way has contributed a ton of great material to UFO over the ages, but this might be his best collection of songs to date. And Chapman must have found the fountain of youth, because he competes with all of the young guitar slingers of the time, throughout. Despite supporting Iron Maiden on their '86 tour, the band broke up soon after due to lack of interest. Someone dropped the ball big time. I think Capitol missed the mark because they were doing big business with Maiden and Megadeth at the time and didn't know how to market an "AOR" band. Pete Way went on to reform UFO with Phil Mogg and put out a string of excellent albums to this day -with or without Michael Schenker.Danny Vaughn went on to front Tyketto and his own band Vaughn.All of his albums are available here on import and are highly recommended if you are a fan of quality hard rock and AOR. He has such a high quality voice, that I'm surprised he never was approached to be the new singer in Journey. Because his voice is THAT GOOD! "Save Your Prayers" was unavailable for years, so seize this chance to pick this album up now. You won't be disappointed.

Without exaggeration, this may be the most solid Hair Metal album to come out in the 80's. Waysted was never able to break through that glass ceiling of 80's metal to join the likes of Ratt or Poison, and I just don't understand why? "Save Your Prayers", from top to bottom is a great album. The guitar work, the vocals, the driving backbeat are the epitome of Hair Metal. The songs just click, and if you aren't playing air guitar to "Hell Comes Home" or "Heroes Die Young" then you just don't have an ear for 80's metal. Even the obligatory power ballad "So Long" exceeds expectation. It's not as syrupy as "Every Rose Has a Thorn" and sounds great next to the other tunes on the album. I am so glad to finally get this on CD!! I wore out my cassette years ago, and unless you were willing to fork over major cash this ablum was unavailable. If you like 80's metal, and missed this band the first time around, pick up the re-issue, the extra tracks are okay, but it's the original album that will keep this cd spinning for a long time in your stereo.

I'm not really familiar with Waysted's material prior to or after their 1986 album Save Your Prayers. I bought this album for one reason: Danny Vaughn is on vocals. I understand Waysted was a harder-edged band, but when they decided to release a more polished melodic rock album like Save Your Prayers, they certainly picked the right singer for the job. Danny Vaughn has a warm, strong voice that is ideally suited for this type of music.

The music on Save Your Prayers is very much the AOR/melodic rock style that was so popular at the time. It had plenty of catchy songs, better than average guitar work, and a good use (but not overuse) of keyboards. The vocals are the real highlight, even though Save Your Prayers was Danny Vaughn's first (and only) album with Waysted. He would go on to form Tyketto and then launch a solo career.

If you're a Danny Vaughn fan, Save Your Prayers is a must have album. It should appeal to pretty much any AOR/melodic rock fan as well.

The good news is that Save Your Prayers was reissued in 2004, and with two bonus tracks added for good measure. The bad news is that the album was not remastered, so the sound quality is not up to today's standards.

This album is without a doubt Waysted's best album. Each of their other releases have their moments, but this album is great throughout-not a bad song on it. Also, because of Danny Vaughn, this sounds more like UFO than the albums with Fin Moore. Nothing against Fin, I just don't think he could have handled the songs on here as well as Vaughn. The songs have more melody and aren't as "raw" sounding as say Vices.
As I said, there REALLY isn't a bad song on this album and some favorites are Walls Fall Down(great opener), Black & Blue, Hero's Die Young, Singing To The Night and How The West Was Won. They also do a good "remake" of Heaven Tonight. One thing that I always thought was-"what if Mogg, Way and Chapman had stayed together in UFO rather than splitting up.
If you are a UFO/Pete Way/Paul Chapman fan buy this album. It's straight ahead catchy hard rock with Chapman's usual strong playing and Vaughn's more than capable vocals.

This album is a lost gem of eightie's hard rock at its best. Featuring Pete Way (ex-UFO) and great guitar work by Paul Chapman (also ex-UFO), the songs are strong and catchy.

this was one of the best none schenker albums from a couple of ufo members, it is very solid and stands up to anything out there.... i myself think it was waysteds best effort.....

Even the band cites in the liner notes the difficulty recording this album, blaming the record company and everyone else. Truth is, Pete Way was still heavily in his drug phase on this album, but newcomer vocalist Danny Vaughn brought life to this party band.

Save Your Prayers is a standard and by the books AOR album, but chocked full of memorable vocal melodies, great chord progressions, monster ballads, and party anthems. "Walls Fall Down" appropriately starts things off, and it is an anthem to partying and rocking. "Black and Blue" and "Singing To The Night" are melodic rockers, carried by Vaughn's tasteful and powerful vocals, the latter being one of the best choruses to come along in a long time.

Side Two begins with "Heaven Tonight", probably Waysted's best known song, and ends with "So Long", a strong power ballad light year's ahead of Poison and Motley Crue. Production is excellent, with the drums getting fair representation, and Vaughn's vocals and overdubbed backing vocals really helping to carry the album. In fact, Vaughn demonstrates just how well fairly standard yet melodic guitar riffs can benefit from an excellent singer. Danny Vaughn went on to sing for Tyketto, arguably the best 90's AOR band, while Pete Way and the crew slid into mediocrity after a brilliant career with UFO. Save Your Prayers remains an album that is overlooked and lost in the latter 80's, never truly embracing the two most popular genres of the time, thrash and glam.

I was a huge Waysted fan from day one. Having been a big UFO fan (and after wondering what Pete Way would do once he bowed out of Fastway)I was eager to follow Pete's new band. Their first release Vices was alright. then they really hit their stride as a great hard rock band with the follow up Waysted e.p. and then with The Good The Bad The Waysted.

All that said I was intially disapointed that vocalist Fin was no longer in the band when i picked up this realease. This album is just a countinuance in the music aspect from their previous effort " The Good The Bad The Waysted" (with even the song Heaven Tonight re-recorded on this release)with one huge difference. the addition of vocalist Danny Vaughn. The guy has a great set of pipes and their are some really good tunes here, but they traded all their dirty rock edge in for a polished 80's rock/metal sound.

I'm sure lack of sales outside europe and the labels want for the band to break in the US helped this turn of events. I seen these guys on this tour open up for Maiden and thought they had a chance to break the market. They seemed to have the crowds attention which can be difficult at a Maiden show (just ask Twisted Sister). After 20 years of not listening to this album i have come back to try it again. while songs like Heros Die Young, and So Long still hold their own, i find myself wanting to hear Fin's raspy Scottish voice on these tunes. To me this is a decent Waysted release that would have standed the test of time better if they hadn't changed their vocal approach.They took a shot and it missed. In all fairness Fin and Pete were a disaster because of drugs at this point in time and prob wouldn't have lasted another album anyways.

If you're not a die hard fan of the band or if you're a Danny Vaughn fan, you'll dig this album. It's a good overlooked 80's album. If you're wondering what the original Waysted sounded like look em up on youtube. to me this is like Vince Neil(no offense Vaughn fans) singing for AC/DC. It just dosn't cut it.

I understand that this was Waysted's best selling album at the time, but for me, after Fin was gone, Pete Way's band went from inspired growling sloppy riff rock into predictable overproduced eighties hair band mediocrity, and this is the result. Paul Chapman is a very talented and usually exciting guitarist; his best work here is buried in the mix and it is a shame. Vaughan can sing, yes, but the result is a cross between Triumph and Poison at their worst. There are a couple of decent songs here, especially Heaven Tonight (and Fire Under The Wheels bonus track), but the rest just comes off sounding like Cinderella, and I don't mean that in a good way.

Buy Vices or The Good The Bad The Waysted or Organized Chaos Live if you want to catch this band at their best.