Stephen Pearcy
Before and Laughter (Triple X)
by Scott Hefflon
Life’s too short to spend much time on these 19 tracks, so I’ll summarize by saying I had no idea Stephen Pearcy had been writing songs since 1976 yet only gets it right a few times. And that’s being charitable. “Round & Round” was a hit with strippers (and therefore with young men), and, um, maybe another one or two… So Before and Laughter is demo versions and a few unreleased (for good reason) versions of songs only die-hards give/gave a shit about. It’s interesting to note that I finally hear Ratt tracks with Jake E. Lee (Ozzy), Fred Coury (Cinderella), and Chris Hagar (Rough Cutt) only to discover it makes no difference.
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