Customer Reviews

Suzi & Other 4 Letter Words

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

 

 

Suzi Quatro--more popular as the fine musical talent that she is (even legend, in reality) overseas-- is best known stateside as the always-young-and-tough Leather Tuscadero from "Happy Days" repeats.

Suzi was one of my fantasy girls when I was in school. She was tough, and she was tender in a nobody's-fool kind of way. I wanted a girl just like her. Then I found one, and... she was so independent that I don't have any idea where she is today!

So far as I'm concerned, there's not a single lie in the lyrics on this disc. This should be passed down from generation to generation of young women like Barbie dolls. The cross between the tenderness of Barbie and the toughness of Suzi would really work for all-time.

Certainly one of the first hard-rocking females, Suzi no doubt inspired Heart, Lita Ford (the rest of the Runaways, Joan Jett, et al), and countless others.

Suzi once opened for Alice Cooper in the hey-day of the original band, and not just any woman could do that. In fact, at a 1997 Cooper concert, "48 Crash" played over the P.A. between sets. Alice hasn't forgotten this legend, and he force-fed her on Texas! Good for Coop!

"I've Never Been in Love" -- rocks. Rocks. I've never been in love... like this before. She tries to deny, but can't. Very cool.

"Mind Demons" -- She sings, "I grabbed a magazine, you know the kind I mean," which would suggest Cosmopolitan. Guys, I have a crash-course in women here for you if you don't know. Women don't like to look at naked guys as much as we like to look at them that way. Double or nothing she was reading a story. Black and white words. Don't say I didn't clue you in.

"She's in Love With You" -- really good pop, and easy to dance to. I give it a 98, and I give the fever at least a 99: "Take her home and hold her close, touch her where she feels it most, but be true."

"Four Letter Words" -- "Last night you said, 'love,' love is what you said, when you should have said, 'take,' 'cause take is what you did." Then she says, "Get your four-letter words and get on over to me." This is for people way too young to run for President, and way too young to care. But as Sada Thompson said on "Family," "I wouldn't be that age again for all the tea in China." (which reveals me to also have been a Kristy McNichol fanatic, why else would a teen boy watch a family drama? It was for the babe).

"Hollywood" -- the classic story. There has to be something better at the end of the rainbow: "Long distance ringing in the middle of night, saying something 'bout suicide. 'Missing Persons' calling from the coast, 'your daughter's dead from an overdose.'" Suzi also delivers with a four-letter-word beginning with "f" on this track, which I always found cool, and frankly still do. To imitate God, I can't look upon this kind of thing anymore, but I'm willing to offer a sacrifice to still be among the young and raucous. I'll never throw away the young, because I remember, and I regret. But we were f-----g good, just like the protagonist in "Hollywood."

"Mama's Boy" -- This song used to hurt. It still does, but it's instructional, and useful. "First he holds me too softly, then he touches me barely, mama's boy. Then he loves me too quickly, oh he's anything but manly, mama's boy." Anyone who has done the proper research knows that women don't fall in love as fast as men do, on average. This CD should be kept in a brown paper wrapper for every generation of girls. It would be silly to call it classic or to promote it that way, BUT IT IS! GET IT!

"Starlight Lady" -- pleasant Quatro, in the usual vein.

"You Are My Lover" -- another great pop song. "We're like two lovers in the movies, stranded on an island out or reach. That's always been my secret fantasy, making love right on the beach." I think they call this youthful indiscretion. I would apply the word "cute" to it.

"Space Cadets" -- another cool song. There's not a dud on here. I gave it three stars because I'm not sixteen anymore.

"Love Hurts" -- not the song made famous by Nazareth, but another one written by Suzi Quatro and husband-guitarist Len Tuckey (which sounds like Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo, don't it?) -- "You kicked me in my pride, but I came through the other side."

And so it ends. That's youth for you. Not over 'til it's over, and it's far from over. It's OK to end on a sour note, becuase life is often a 24-7 sour note at the age this CD targets.

Go ahead and be a big Britney Spears fan, have the posters up everywhere and go to the shows, and get this CD and don't tell anyone. It can be our little secret.

If you're young, this is great. If you missed it the first time, I guess you had to be there, but oh what a time you missed. This is not classic, but really good.

After dabbling with AOR for 1978's "If You Knew Suzi", and spending time on American sit-com Happy Days as Leather Tuscadairo (sp?), Suzi noticed a renewed interest in raw rock'n'roll thanks to the wave of punk and New Wave bands. She was determined to show the likes of Blondie and X-Ray Spex that she could rock just as good as them, and boy did she do it with this album!

I've Never Been In Love: This songs tears along like an express train with ecstatic lyrics about finding true love. There's a great guitar riff on this track which has unfortunately been mixed so far back you have to listen to it on the headsets.
9/10

Mind Demons: Penned by Suzi and her then-husband Len Tuckey, it is about having your head screwed around by evil spirits during the night. A two-chord chunk of rollicking rock, this is bound to get the adrenaline level going in you. 10/10

She's In Love With You: As a single, this reached No.11 in the UK charts. Written by the hitmakers Chinn & Chapman, it has a persistent bass-line with some nice organ in the chorus. It's all about how to win a girl's heart by numbers. 9/10

Hollywood: The sordid story of a girl leaving home to start a new life as a naive star in the domain of debauchey in America. It contains the 'f' word towards the end, but is hardly noticeable. 8/10

Four Letter Words: A soft, pleasant song about addressing a cheating lover. Although written by Chinn & Chapman, it's definitely an album track that doesn't challenge the listener much. 7/10

Mama's Boy: Designed to offend ineffectual lovers, it was the first time one of Suzi's compositions made it to the "A" side of a single. Sounding like "I've Never Been In Love", it fits well on this album and still doesn't sound dated. 10/10

Starlight Lady: Suzi in reflective mood over a lonely woman who blew all her life chances. It has a slight flamenco feel, and some nice synth playing. 9/10

You Are My Lover: Written by Jack Lee (who also wrote "hanging On The Telephone" for Blondie), it sounds rather like another Blondie song "Picture This". It's a rather romantic song with some spicy lyrics to match. 8/10

Space Cadets: The B-side of "She's In Love With You", it is built along a droning two chord riff with some stringy keyboards in the chorus. The vocals sound rather tired, and often hard to understand. 8/10

Love Hurts: A fine closing track. This is not the Everly Brothers cover, but rather an original about the hardship of ending a relationship. It sounds like a more rocking version of Abba with Suzi's voice nearly cracking from emotion. But I still like it. 9/10

1979's `Suzi ... And Other Four Letter Words' sees Suzi Quatro's foray away from hard rock continue in a brasher, more energetic follow-up to 1978's softer, image-changing approach on `If You Knew Suzi". It also boasts a far more eclectic track list. Quatro tries everything from hard rock and country to 50s-styled pop and some rather classy disco overtones - with varying levels of success. While its production and strengths are greater, its weaknesses are not dissimilar to the previous album.

It opens with two hard, piano-heavy rockers that are perfect companion pieces - `I've Never Been In Love', penned by Melissa A Connell, and `Mind Demons' by Quatro and husband, Len Tuckey. These are followed by one of the two Mike Chapman/Nicky Chinn compositions, the disco-fied heavy dance pop of `She's In Love With You', the main single. Other highlights include two more of six Quatro/Tuckey tracks. `Mamma's Boy' (the second single) is an extremely bitchy, blush-inducing, 50s-esque piano-heavy rock song, delivered with a wall of bouncy female backing vocals. And `Space Cadets' (one of their best songs) is a dirgy, dancy, spacey reflection on the vacuousness of life in Los Angeles. Another highlight is the beautiful middle-of-the-road ballad, `You Are My Lover', from Jack Lee who wrote `Hanging on the Telephone' for Blondie the year before.

The remaining songs are problematic, not because they are necessarily bad - they aren't (though `Love Hurts' is certainly not very good!) - but because they seem to be glossy popped-up grabs at the country style of the previous album. This drags things down, leaving the overall effort feeling slight. There are just too many soft moments when the juxtaposition of rockier tracks would have elevated the albums best moody songs even further. Instead, frustratingly, Quatro croons over twangily strumming guitars instead of screaming commandingly over slabs of rock.

Chapman's production is fine, as always, capturing an excellent thumping drum sound throughout, effecting background vocals and some atmospheric keyboards (though an over-reliance on piano dangerously risks making the whole exercise sound hokey). The absence of covers in truly refreshing, allowing her to truly own the songs,as is the heavy presence of her own writing. Nevertheless, it is hard to shake the fact that this woman should be rocking and that `Four Letter Words' is still well below her best.

This collection of Suzi's work dates back to the 80's. During this rebellios time she produced some of her best music. Without any doubt this is surely one for everyones collection!

This collection of Suzi's work dates back to the 80's. During this rebellios time she produced some of her best music. Without any doubt this is surely one for everyones collection!