When a RAT(T) Is A Snake
Today's post is from our friend HIM.
Generally speaking, I think fans at BBG! greeted the new, newest, newier (is that a word?) version of Ratt with some suspicion. When you are chasing Blotz’s tail in a bid to come up with some legitimate explanation for the dumpster-fire your band has become, it does give one pause.
Lost amongst all of this discussion was Pearcy’s promotion of his soon-to-be-released new album, View to a Thrill (and Roger Moore, Sean Connery, and others he is certainly not). Pearcy stated, and has done so in the past, that his solo records are a chance for him to stretch beyond Ratt, to do things that he wouldn’t normally do with Ratt. Fair enough. An artist should be allowed that option.
What, then, is this?!?!
Well, first off, it is a song that starts off sounding like Pearcy is stuck in an echo-chamber. But it is also another instance where Pearcy says one thing and does another. Not only does he borrow references to Ratt’s former glories in the lyrics, he also invite such comparisons when he decides to go for the “double T” in the song title. No, I am not over-thinking this.
And neither is Pearcy. Which begs the question: why use this on a solo album when it could have been—with a bit of polish, revision, tear down, rebuild, and so on—become a perfectly middling song on the next Ratt album? I can almost hear a better version of this song being on a suitable follow-up to Infestation. It speaks to a person who is always one step behind himself and always kicking said self in the tookus because he can’t keep his reasoning straight. All the same, he projects a vision of himself as the capable captain steering a ship into better waters. Who ever believed Pearcy was in a position to direct, much less use a compass?
Perhaps I am deaf. Perhaps not. But I think people who give any credence to what Pearcy says, no less what he does, are huffing Mars Bars. Blotz, you are a train wreck. But I think you are right. Leatherface and Bandanna Man angled, then struck. This song, to me, is exhibit A . . . of a man without scruples and a band without a rudder.
Snakes eat rats. Fans suffer.
Stephen Pearcy - View To A Thrill
