MR. BIG – Mr. Big (1989 Atlantic)
Mr. Big started as a “supergroup” of sorts, with bassist Billy Sheehan being the most well known due to his stint with David Lee Roth (and Talas before that). Because of his bass prowess, we know his band Mr. Big would be heavy on the shred. What set them apart was the blue eyed soul of singer Eric Martin. Their debut record possessed the speediest chops imaginable, but used sparingly. It’s a song-oriented album, with “Addicted to that Rush” leading off with heavy space-age playing. Unfortunately nothing else is as memorable, except the Humble Pie cover “30 Days in the Hole”.
Tracks like “Had Enough”, “How Can You Do What You Do”, “Rock & Roll Over” and “Merciless” are all competent rock tunes, and due to Billy’s bass, the bottom end is unbelievable. Unfortunately it took Mr. Big one more album to really come up with the songwriting goods. Their debut is fine enough indeed, but folks who dig the playing will be sticking around. Those looking for soul and memorable hooks will have to dig deep. There is good stuff here, but little that will make repeated spins in the CD player months and years down the road. Good, but not quite good enough.
3/5 stars
Holy format change. when did this happen? It looks cool but does the M in “.com” mean to spill down to the next line? Oh yeah they opened up for Rush on the Presto tour. Yeah, they were, um medium sized.
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Oh, never mind. I see I have to resize my window and it fits. Good job! :)
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Hahaha true they did open up for Rush, which made Addicted to that Rush all that more poignant!
Thanks for noticing the redesign, I am still tweeking. It doesn’t look right on mobile to me.
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Yeah. Eric Martin Was like “We know you are all Addicted To Rush!!!
Haha
Rme
;)
I think the new design looks good. As long as the links all still work you are golden!!
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Links should all function! Unfortunately I find the biggest issue with functionality comes down to youtube videos. So many of the music videos I embedded over the years are now gone due to copyright violation! It’s easy to go and find a new video to replace it with, but that’s a lot of time too.
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I never got around to this debut at the time (or since) but was intrigued because, while unaware of Talas, I was a fan of shredder Paul Gilbert from those first Racer X records. Sounds like I shouldn’t regret failing to pull the trigger for this one. Thanks for letting me off the hook!
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I think the players that came from Racer X were better than the band themselves. I have one Racer X album…where did I put it? Haven’t played it in years.
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I heard in passing it is in rear acre of the secret cave vault #14 from one of your security guards.
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Right next to Joey. Jesus.
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I totally agree with that. Racer X were a band full of brilliant musicians but they didn’t have the songs, very mediocre in that department. But it went really well for some of the guys, like Gilbert and Scott Travis.
Bruce Bouillet (guitar) and John Alderete (bass) went on to form The Scream with John Corabi later on.
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And let’s not forget Jeff Martin! He did a stint in Leatherwolf as their singer, and of course with Badlands on the drums!
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Looking kinda professional around these parts!!? Hahaha….I like it! I bought this on Billy’s deal with Roth so I was onboard with that…
Fair review and points for….
So much music that came out that year….
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Hahah thanks for noticing dude! This was written BEFORE the #200wordchallenge. This was just trying brevity before we did the hard 200 word limits!
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Believe it or not, other than the big hit, I hadn’t heard any Mr. Big. I wasn’t even aware they were a super group. Or are (still on the go!). A friend threw me their second album a few months ago (the one with the big hit), but I haven’t listened to it. Perhaps I should?
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The second one is pretty good but very commercial. Lots of great playing but the songwriting was a lot more mainstream. No 30 Days in the Hole on that one.
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Maybe I won’t like it so much. I was never all that into the ‘big hit’. Still, I’ll keep it for a rainy day.
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In my opinion, the better band was called Talas. That was Billy’s band before he joined David Lee Roth. Mr. Big often covered his old Talas material live like Shy Boy.
Anyway Talas did a couple studio albums and a couple live albums. They were nothing unique except the bass player, but I really enjoy their albums.
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I’ll keep this in mind, Mike!
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Fear not because I’ll be reviewing the three Talas albums I own. Just a matter of getting ’round to it!
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That’s more than half the battle, eh?
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Yeah now if only I could get Weiland going. I was even reading about him today trying to get motivated!
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I’ve been listening to him and STP a fair bit recently. Not that that’s unusual, but I guess I’m just missing the music… specifically the fact there’ll be no new music.
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I think the recent rumours have had me sort of digging into STP more.
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Might as well listen to the old stuff and enjoy it before they completely destroy their legacy.
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I like the sound of the rumoured new STP singer.
Frankie Banali may want to consider this route as well. I heard a local guy last weekend that sounds exactly like Kevin Dubrow.
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I don’t get the point of Quiet Riot anymore. You can’t even buy their last album, as far as I know.
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I thought that chap sounded fairly generic. Which is fair enough if they start a new band. He was with Fuel for a while?
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My opinion. Do a search like STP did. Tell the fans they are doing a search for a new lead singer. Going back to the “early days”. Find someone that sounds just like Dubrow.
Put out an album of guest stars singing QR songs in 2017, then 35th Anniversary Tour of Metal Health with new singer in 2018, reissue album with some new songs and outtakes, limited edition etc. Then the same thing on anniversary of Condition Critical.
Also hire some writers. That has always been their biggest downfall.
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I wonder if they could even get the label interested in another reissue. I have a feeling not.
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If they can generate buzz with the lead singer search, they can present this to the label. It can’t hurt, as they are pretty close to the bottom of the dung heap. Can only go up from there.
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Well that is certainly true. Playing Kitchener city hall and then cancelling, ooft.
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I wonder where my Quiet Riot buddy went, haven’t seen him around here since he was calling people morons.
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He’s a busy dude. He has 2 jobs. One is running the drive thru. The other is writing new songs for Quiet riot. He’s working on the newest one now called ‘Do you want fries with that?’
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I have not heard the old Fuel singer.
I was speaking of the guy from the Phillipines.
Taking a page from the Journey scrapbook.
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I never heard any Fuel, period.
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That’s probably a good thing!
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I think that chap was the Fuel singer, no?
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I really like their S/T song.
It does sound quite a bit like Metsllica though.
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Never heard this one, back in the day. Everyone had the one that contained To Be With You on it, though. A train crashing through a building on the cover? Anyway. A 3/5 here isn’t sending me running towards it, but I do like the players involved here.
Did you know that the Kick Axe’s Vices album has their cover of 30 Days In The Hole on it? Oop, apparently only my cassette version did. My LP and CD don’t. Alas.
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iTunes has finally added Vices and Welcome To The Club….
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About time, it’s only been 15 years iTunes has been around…
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I think I’ve only heard the first song from this and that’s probably about it. Mr. Big never really got on my radar for some reason…
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There’s a “best of” out there that covers a lot of this stuff. Not a very good one though.
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I’ll try some stuff online probably. The Talas is quite intriguing!
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They had a lot of lineup changes but the one live album I have with Phil Naro singing is just awesome! Live Speed On Ice, it’s called.
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I’m sure you sent me a Talas song a while back… trying to remember what it was!
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Probably Shy Boy or the bass solo NV43345. (Which is his name upside down and backwards!)
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That was it, it was the bass solo!
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got that as well……great title for a album
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I hadn’t realized there was a record before Lean into It – good to know!
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No sophomore slump for Mr. Big. Unfortunately they had something perhaps worse — a hit ballad. Nothing like a career killer for a rock band than a one-hit ballad.
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though I really like the acoustic guitar playing in that big ballad!
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It’s great but the funny thing is, Paul Gilbert didn’t think it was. He referred to his playing as “caveman technique”. But that’s how you drive yourself to improve I think.
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I agree, this just never grabbed me at all.
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Too bad. This came out the same time as Badlands. Same label too, I think.
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Mr. Big is okay, it was a mediocre band with exceptional musicians. I like their stuff, even the newer albums, but noting was outstanding for me. Good review of the first album.
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Mr Big is such a phenomenal live band! Addicted to That Rush and How Can You Do What You Do are my favourites off this record.
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Amazing players. When asked who I think the best bassist in the world is, I usually answer Billy.
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I wore my cope of this LP out when it came out. Re-bought in CD later. I love this record even tough there are a couple of fillers. I’d give it 9/10 without hesitation.
The follow-up Lean Into It was a let down, very underwhelming, but they made a couple of really good albums after that one, like Bump Ahead and Hey Man.
Their two album that they recorded after the reunion were fantastic and easily their best work to date. And they’re an amazing live act.
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Hey Man is an incredible album! That song Take Cover alone should have been the biggest hit of their career. But nobody heard it. What a true shame. As for Bump Ahead, I think that album really could have been huge too. Their cover of Wild World would have been huge only 2 years before.
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Dug this album back in the day. Had Enough was probably my favorite with the bass solo at the end. I was a little let down that Gilbert and Sheehan did go more songwriting than progressive but still a great band. Met them in San Diego after a show at a club, late 80s i think…good times!
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Oh that Had Enough bass playing is awesome. I’d love to see Sheehan live. And yeah they tipped their songwriting balance towards hits, but on the other hand, that’s perfect for Eric Martin’s vocal style.
Bet they were super nice guys.
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