Stroke Me, Stroke Me....

[Hörnisse]

Cool article on Billy Squier.

http://nypost.com/2013/11/16/the-hip-hop-rebirth-of-billy-squier/

[TBird1958]

 Cool, I had no idea his work had been sampled so much.
I count myself very lucky to have seen him early on, when "The Strike" was hitting the charts.
His drummer was indeed an impressive player, they opened for Pat Benatar -Great show!

[Hörnisse]

I never got to see him live.  I did see Benatar on the "Get Nervous" tour.  Red Rider opened.  Benatar had a pretty impressive drummer as well!

[lowend1]

Squier's drummer was the late Bobby Chouinard. Benatar's drummer was Myron Grombacher.
I saw Billy Squier with his then band, Piper, back in 1976, opening for Angel. Great Stones-y feel rock-n-roll - very different from his solo work. I highly recommend their two albums.

[gweimer]

I saw Squier when he was at the peak.  He was a good show, and I've always liked his songs.  The show I saw had Def Leppard as the openers, right when Pyromania came out.  I even interviewed them after the show.  This had to be a tough tour for Squier.  At least 1/3 of the crowd literally left after Def Lepard played, and by the time the tour hit the west coast, it was Squier opening for Def Leppard.

[godofthunder]

  I remember seeing that video and thinking wtf is this? Almost over night he did drop off the radar.

[gweimer]

  I remember seeing that video and thinking wtf is this? Almost over night he did drop off the radar.

We ALL said that.  And with jaws dropped to the floor.  They still call it the video that killed a career.

[uwe]

I had heard about the sampling thing. The vid was horrible, true, but could it really kill a career after that AOR classic Don't Say No? Puzzles me. Squier (a non-gay performer, not that I care being the Judas Priest diehard I am) didn't look any more gay in it than Frampton did on the I'm in You cover (but then that nose-dived his career too!).



I saw Squier with Kenny Aaronson (he's in the vid below) and Chouinard on Whitesnake's Come and Get It tour, it was one of the most impressive opening acts I have ever seen. Squier tried to poach Ian Paice and Jon Lord from Whitesnake on that tour, would have been interesting to hear how that would have worked out.

I only recently bought the remaster of Don't Say No and it's pretty much AOR heaven if you like AOR which I sometimes do. As single artists (as opposed to bands) go, it's up there for me with Rick Springfield's Living in Oz. Excellent production, arrangements that effortlessly combined seventies hard rock elements with eighties new wave sounds and tuneful song writing of the highest calibre. (If I want the world to change I listen to Dylan.)





Looking at him now, Squier had something of Marc Bolan with his Les Paul and the way he moved, but dear Marc was another non-gay that didn't make it in the US of A.



Hey, I don't mind handsome men if they play their music well and will now resume listening to those Starcastle remasters. It's my guilty pleasure whimp rock day today.  

[TBird1958]

 Elton Johnon the Piano in that vid.


Even tho I don't recall it as well as some other shows, I'm always very happy to recollect that I saw Marc Bolin and T-Rex.