Rose Tattoo – Outlaws, Legends and more…
Let’s cut the shit and get right in the thick of it, if you clicked this link then you know the band we’re about to speak on – the immortal ROSE FUCKING TATTOO!! If you don’t, hit youtube right now, find a long playlist, click it, turn it up to 10, put your head in the speaker and get your brains/eardrums blown out by the best band to come out of Australia next to AC/DC. On a personal note, I prefer the Tats over the Johnson led era of AC/DC, don’t get all pissy, it’s only my preference. Why are we talking about a band as old as the Tats, cuz they fuckin’ rule and I said so, it should also be mentioned that without them you don’t have a great deal of the 80’s Metal, specifically Guns N’ Roses – Axl Rose owes his career to the Tats front man, Angry Anderson, no doubt! Big ups and FUCK YEAHS to the Tats because they’ve just re-released/re-recorded their debut album “Rock N’ Roll Outlaw”, complete with 3 bonus cuts that didn’t make the album the first time around. I won’t dig too deep in on the album because if you know about the original LP, you know what you can half expect on this one. Firstly, they’ve titled it “Outlaws” and it was released via Cleopatra Records, I can’t tell you about the legitimacy of the pressing – thanks to the current Pandemic, Amazon has chosen to hold my album until May – BASTARDS! I pre-ordered it in February along with a few others that I’ve gotten already, but I digress. Not to worry, I got the download, so today I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, and I’m letting the mp3’s rip! The 12 year old in me just couldn’t wait any longer. I did spend an hour or so trying to see if I could have the record mailed quicker from somewhere else and ultimately it was a no go.
Onto Outlaws… What we have here is a true blue re-recording with the new band line up. The differences are of plenty, most notably a good few of the songs are a bit slower, not sure why – I strongly doubt Angry Anderson has slowed down nor would he piss on the memory of this album as it’s still one of the most important releases in Rock music and every single member from the original recording has passed to my knowledge. The one thing that I really like about this effort is the sound, it’s quite good compared to the original, specifically in the Drum dept. It should be, back in the late 70’s you couldn’t get that dank deep snare tone unless you were Charlie Watts – no disrespect meant, but there ain’t but one Mr. Watts! A great few of the songs are slower as mentioned earlier – “Rock N’ Outlaw” most notably, it never was very fast but here it almost comes off a bit sluggish, I know that’s not the intent, the song is too well played for that to be the intent. It’s just the feel, I guess, we’re a long ways past 1978, that’s for sure! I enjoy it, but I wouldn’t prefer it over the original. The tune “Nice Boys” ain’t slow, it’s still pretty smokin’, I couldn’t accept anything less, it has been a personal anthem since I first heard it back in the early 80’s. On this version in the break down/lead part, Anderson rips into a few old-school medley parts that fit like a glove – “Lucille”, “Heartbreak Hotel” & “Tutti Frutti” as well as a few others. He may have been doing this in live shows for years, but since I haven’t ever had the pleasure, it’s very new to me – I dig the FUCK out of it! The real stand outs here are the bonus tracks “Snow Queen”, “Sweet Love” & “Rosetta”. If you’re a hardcore Tats fan, you’ve heard them already via bonus tracks on other editions or rare compilations and live albums. But let me say this – you’ve never heard them sound this good, these 3 tracks are straight up WICKED! “Sweet Love” is boiling over with swank ass boogie woogie riffs and a ton of slide licks. “Rosetta” is a sweet little mid-paced Pseudo ballad that has a nice Stones quality to it – my girl and I will spend many more years listening and enjoying this one whether she wants to or not.
My personal favorite off the album is “Snow Queen”. Sure I’d heard this one before, but this updated version is exactly the way it needs to be, it’s rough/tough and serves up a big-assed knucklesammich of ROCK N’ FUCKIN’ ROLL! As far as Outlaws goes, it’s a winner from front to back, different than the original, yes, could we say better – hell no, but again, I don’t believe that was the intent. Who really cares, this is a new to us Rose Tattoo album, it has been 13 or so years since we’ve gotten anything new (studio wise) from the boys from down under – I’ll happily take it, shut my mouth, drop the needle and get my teeth knocked out!
Apologies for the various array of pics at the top, I didn’t get around to snapping pics of all my Tats LPs or Cds, but you get the idea, I hope. If you haven’t, I strongly urge you to dig back into the band’s catalog – ALL of it and listen to those albums. It’s a sure fire way to find old and often forgotten anthems. For my money it doesn’t get much better than their 1982 album “Scarred For Life” – another album that’s as important as the original Rock N’ Roll Outlaws release. “Assault and Battery”, their sophomore effort is another ripper that shouldn’t be overlooked. You get the picture – if you don’t have all of Rose Tattoo’s discography, don’t wait, I mean that! If you have a knack or a love at all for GNR or any of the other bands that came out at the height of the 80’s Metal scene, you owe it to yourself to check out Rose Tattoo. Without them, the Metal we enjoyed in the 80’s would’ve been so much different. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Tats and Sir Angry Anderson! T.F.F.T.
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