Lesser of two evils

The year 1991 saw an outpouring of hard rock releases, most were on major labels and many of them had little or no impact as the days for this style of limp, thin music were numbered. There were good bands who didn't get their due, but there were plenty more weak and generic acts as well who were just fortunate that labels were signing them based on image rather than talent. So that brings us to this match up between Baton Rouge and Wild Horses (not the UK band, but rather the U.S. one). I seem to remember Baton Rouge getting a fair amount of mentions back then in the metal mags of the day. Not just fluffy nonsense like Metal Edge either, I think they got some notice from RIP as well. Wild Horses got less notice as I just barely remember hearing about them. Yet they had more connections with two former Kingdom Come members (drummer Kottak and guitarist Steier), Dokken bass player Jeff Pilson is listed as having played bass although I don't know to what extent and former King Kobra vocalist Johnnie Edwards was originally in this band until he had the opportunity to jump ship to front Foreigner. In the end neither act made much of an impression in the crowded and dying poofy haired hard rock scene of 1991. Yet both get a chance to earn a slight amount of respect (or at least not lose) as they square off in the arena of forgettable hard rock acts, so let's get ready to rummmmmmmble! It is.....


Baton Rouge-Lights out on the playground

vs.


Wild Horses-Bareback



Vocals

So it's Kelly Keeling for Baton Rouge against John Levesque for Wild Horses. Keeling went on to sing for a lot of different acts and his range his fine, but he just really lacks personality. He's going through the motions and he's doing enough to be steady yet it's very dull. Levesque might be the best thing about Wild Horses. He sounds something like Sammy Hagar on several occasions and manages to liven up a few songs that would have died otherwise. He's never really completely on fire yet he does manage to remain fairly consistent.

Point to Wild Horses

Guitars

It's Lance Bulen and Tony Palmucci for Baton Rouge taking on Rick Steier and John Levesque for Wild Horses. Bulen and Palmucci run through a rather routine delivery of hard rock/AOR licks with all the passion and feeling of someone tying their shoes. Not that this put them below standards for this style in the early 1990's. Their tones are alright and they try to put some blues rock tinges in there, but it's all rather watered down and they sound rather reluctant about put any edge into the playing. Steier and Levesque play a rather routine sound as well, but the excitement level and the tone is adequate enough. They don't know much about conveying any soul either, but they have a fair handle on pacing and they kept my interest.


Point to Wild Horses


Rhtyhm section

For Baton Rouge it's Scott Bender on bass and drummer Corky McClellan squaring off against Wild Horses' drummer James Kottak and bassist Chris Lester (and as I noted above Jeff Pilson is listed as having played bass as well). If the guitarists had a difficult time standing out then this contest was even tougher. As with most hard rock bands of the times, the rhythm sections here just kind of exist in a rather stale state, chugging along in the backgroundin a state of minimal existance. There really wasn't a whole lot here to distinguish any of these guys from the other. I could just close my eyes and pick at random, but it seems like the drum sound of McClellan stuck with me a little more after the albums were over or maybe I was just amused that his first name war Corky. So...

Point to Baton Rouge



Originality/Production

As for originality, Baton Rouge are kind of like a cross between Whitesnake and Bon Jovi only scaled down quite a bit. Wild Horses are more like Hagar era Van Halen at best and at worse sort of like Warrant. So neither band would get their pictures placed in the dictionary under the definition for "originality". Both bands were on divisions of Atlantic so production was decent enough on both, but definitely sharper on Wild Horses.

Point to Wild Horses



Who rocks more?

I save this category for last because I know it will likely be the toughest to figure out because if these bands rocked to begin with then they wouldn't be chosen for Lesser of two evils in the first place. However this one was a little easier to determine than some of the bozo battles in the past. Baton Rouge struggle to put together a solid minute of real rocking music during this whole album. They hurt themselves even more by feeling the need to squeeze in some keyboards that should have had a label that said "please use by 12/31/1987" on them. Wild Horses aren't knocking it out of the park either and they were also kind of dated for 1991, yet they do string together some parts for long enough to be alright in this department.


Point to Wild Horses

Wild Horses win a not too tough competition by the final score of 4-1. I am sure the Baton Rouge fans (all three of them) will now proceed to swarm me with such criticisms as "U suk, Baton Rouge roxx!" or "you're just mean, critical and don't like fun music".



Anyways, I made it through another segment and somehow soldiered on through these CDs all in the name truth, justice and producing a daily blog post.