Released on 21 July 1990 "Flesh & Blood" was the third studio album by US glam metal band Poison, the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned five singles "Unskinny Bop", "Something To Believe In", "Ride The Wind", "Life Goes On", & "(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice)".
The front cover art features the Poison logo and album title as a tattoo on drummer Rikki Rockett's
arm. The cover was originally planned to have a slightly different
version of the tattoo after being freshly inked, with inflamed red skin
with dripping ink or blood.
Parts
of the album are darker and more serious, including overcoming hard
times, missing loved ones, long-term relationships, and mass
sociopolitical disillusionment. Fun topics include sex, exhilaration
from music or motorbikes, and tongue-in-cheek poverty. Some songs have a
blues rock style. The meaning of the album's lead single "Unskinny Bop", one of the
band's most popular songs, is obscure. DeVille later confessed that the
phrase "unskinny bop" has no particular meaning. He devised it as a
temporary measure while writing the song, before vocalist Bret Michaels had begun working on the lyrics. The phrase was used on the basis that it was phonetically
suited to the music. The song was later played to producer Fairbairn,
who stated that although he did not know what an "unskinny bop" was, the
phrase was perfect.
Poison lacked respect
from music critics who damned their music as "hard-rock candy", and
characterized the "harder and more realistic" Flesh & Blood as an attempt to address this, balancing more typical hard rock topics like liberation and sex with more thoughtful subjects. Despite finding "lots to respect" and smile at on the album, they
bemoaned that by "taking life more seriously, Poison is taking itself
more seriously, too", as per the record's studio chatter, guitar
fragments and answer machine messages, and believed the band "plays
eagerly but not very well". Poison was the band everyone loves to hate, especially the trash and death metal fans at the time cause they thought the band just making music for girls.
By the time in the late 80's and early 90s, Poison's musical proposal began to change toward a hard glam metal in the line of Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe and Kiss, this was because the music was dominating by a certain Guns N' Roses band, so many glam bands adopted that sound and look-a-like, you can noticed that on "Flesh & Blood" the band just got rid of the pink wigs, make up and colourful wardrobe to embrace leather, rip denim, boots and cowboy hats, in order to notice their new sound will be serious now.
The music become serious too, well...not really you have certaint tracks such as "Unskinny Bop" and "Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice", that retained their funny side of their first two albums, another tracks talks about riding your bike "Let It Play" and the catchy "Ride The Wind" evocating that freedom spirit of the moment, but then you have a full pack of serious tracks such as "Valley of Lost Souls", "Life
Loves A Tragedy", "Something to Believe In" and "Come Hell or High Water". The band wanted to be respected so they're looking for real and serious emotions, well...remember the 90s arrived and the music scene is about to change, but it's was not about the music, the lyrics had another level, and a more mature style, think about the nostalgic and pain reliever in "Something To Believe In".
Even thought the album success was in huge part due the astonishing single "Unskinny Bop", but in general, the album goes beyod that, they don't necessarily forget their business but you can't notice that serious change into a rock and roll music with less disto-verses on "Don't Give Up An Inch" for instance, and what about the instrumental "Swampjuice (Soul-O)", the blues sound on "Ball And Chain" and the properly final track "Poor Boy Blues" with a savaged harmonica marking a new horizon, well it would be the same path the band will take with their next and failed record.
Don't forget the power ballads "Life Goes On" and "Something To Believe In" their most powerful touching tracks, nothing rare with the band, remember Michaels voice knew how to touch the mainstream heart and just added C.C. DeVille guitar and you have the hit.
"Flesh & Blood" was the last huge success for Poison, then the tide changed and they would be a part of all those hard rock band that suddenly began to sound outdated due grunge and alternative music, also the the terrible relation between Michaels and DeVille seriously affected the band, cause they adopted a brand new guitar man, Ritchie Kotzen and with him, the sound would be more bluesy and less hard, a good artistical result but lack of success, althought DeVille come back years later, the band never achieved the same successful scale, despite of that, this album reamins as a pure testimony of their golden era.
Flesh & Blood Track List:
1. Strange Days Of Uncle Jack
2. Valley Of Lost Souls
3. (Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice
4. Swampjuice (Soul-O)
5. Unskinny Bop
6. Let It Play
7. Life Goes On
8. Come Hell Or High Water
9. Ride The Wind
10. Don't Give Up An Inch
11. Something To Believe In
12. Ball And Chain
13. Life Loves A Tragedy
14. Poor Boy Blues
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