Spread Eagle

Anyone familiar with this band highly underrated pity they started out at the wrong time if they had started out five years before they would of been huge way better than Poison and Motley Crue actually borrowed a few riffs from their song back on the bitch for their song smoke the sky Ultmetal you need to review this band

More than familiar. Played the dickens out of the S/T and Open to The Public and still do. The S/T is an instant classic in my book and Ray West has/had a perfect voice for this style of music.

If you can figure it out and find the different versions the S/T actually has 2 different releases/mixes/whatever which are similar but certainly different, both amazing however. I've asked the question a number of times but have yet to find the answer. Most notable difference is in the song Switchblade Serenade especially the pre chorus...

I certainly think that timing was a little late, but MCA is a turd on your shoe of a record label that I'm certain didn't push the band enough/at all...

In closing GREAT BAND. Certainly one of my top 10.




From Open To The Public

Wow, I thought you were referring to the 70's band. Never heard of the above version, will check them out. The only Spread Eagle I know about was the 70's band from Chicago formed by John Curulewski after he left Styx



Here's a bootleg show they did. I have no idea if they were ever signed to a label or even released anything. Generic sounding Classic Rock.

I love the self-titled. Open to the Public is also good, but doesn't have as many standout tracks.

I don't care for much Ray West has done outside of Spread Eagle, with groups like Uttaro. Spread Eagle reunited for a few shows in recent years, but he can barely sing in the range he used on the SE albums anymore.

I remember taping "Switchblade Serenade" of the Z Rock 50 one night back in high school and immediately flipping for this band. The debut, as was stated above is an absolute classic; but the sophomore offering doesn't get as many spins from me as the first. Whenever I would make a sleaze rock / metal comp for a friend, "Switchblade" always made the cut.

I'm only familiar with the song Switchblade Serenade off a comp cd I own. Pretty good song and I'd like to check them out further.

I was just listening to their first album yesterday!  They were a great sleaze band that had many vicious, snarling songs.  It's too bad that they were so late in the game, because they might have made more of an impact.  

I also noticed that there were two different versions of "Switchblade Serenade" but I had assumed one was a pre-release (demo) version (the one on this video) and then the album version.  



Album version:



I think the album version is much, much better than the video version.

Also their song "Hot Sex" is an embarrassment. Egads.

^^^

That's what I was getting after in my post and I actually had the cassette for ever (which is the video version of the song), finally got the CD years later (the 2nd version of the song) and immediately went, wtf? The difference (s) are there and not just in the Switchblade Serenade cut... Both versions are great, but defo a difference.


And to the 70's SE. I knew of that band too. Also be cautious when looking for SE, there is also a newer punk band using this moniker today.

I remember their video for Scratch Like A Cat on Headbanger's Ball. Looking back now, they kinda had a Dangerous Toys type sound.

martinsane, I do know there was a remastered version of the album released a few years back. Maybe that could account for the different sound? Can't explain the Switchblade Serenade thing, though.

Infinite wrote:

martinsane, I do know there was a remastered version of the album released a few years back. Maybe that could account for the different sound? Can't explain the Switchblade Serenade thing, though.

I have thought of this too, but the re-iss came much later than my discovery, almost like maybe a first run and then a second issue or ???

i kinda missed them. Ill have to listen more.

Great band!!! Both albums are great but the first is the best. I got to see them twice. Once opening for Scatterbrain and then a headlining show in a very small club in Charlotte.

glassprison wrote:

I love the self-titled. Open to the Public is also good, but doesn't have as many standout tracks.

I don't care for much Ray West has done outside of Spread Eagle, with groups like Uttaro. Spread Eagle reunited for a few shows in recent years, but he can barely sing in the range he used on the SE albums anymore.

Speaking of members of this band bassist Rob DeLuca was playing with UFO.

Yes, he's a great bassist. I have never seen Spread Eagle, but I saw him playing with Sebastian Bach on tour with Dokken and Poison in 2008.

Play the self titled on a weekly basis.I have it on my iPod and play it at work.Great sleazy stuff.They should have been bigger.

New video from their new album. Sounds very modern. Nothing like the SE of old. Not sure how I feel about it yet.

Thrasher73 wrote:

New video from their new album. Sounds very modern. Nothing like the SE of old. Not sure how I feel about it yet.

That sounds like pretty typical Spread Eagle to me.  I like it!

tohostudios wrote:

Thrasher73 wrote:

New video from their new album. Sounds very modern. Nothing like the SE of old. Not sure how I feel about it yet.

That sounds like pretty typical Spread Eagle to me.  I like it!

I’m gonna have to listen to it again when I get home. I was listening to it at work on my phone speaker with a lot of background noise.

It's maybe not quite as "raw" as the songs on the S/T but musically it still sounds like Spread Eagle to me.

Man, those are some monotonous vocals! The overall style was more in line with Spread Eagle than I was expecting, but I don't think this works anymore with Ray West's current vocal abilities. He tellingly doesn't even attempt anything like the screeches that were key to SE's sound on their first two albums.

I've heard some bootleg material, and even a decade ago it was clear that Ray simply cannot do that material anymore.

A case in point:

Yeah it’s missing that raw, gritty bite that his vocals brought to their sound. I’m curious to hear more songs.

Boring.

This was one of the first bands I discovered when I joined this board. Hot damn, you guys made an impact right out the gates! They've been a favorite of mine since. The closest I've been able to get to that Sabo-Hill Skid Row snarl that no one seems to be able to copy very well. Yet they don't sound anything like Skid Row. Great and rather original band.

Can't say I enjoy the new single though. I'm with the Witch-Man on this--boring.

Quote :

The closest I've been able to get to that Sabo-Hill Skid Row snarl that no one seems to be able to copy very well.

Taime Downe had it too, and still does to some degree, though Faster Pussycat doesn't seem interested in recording any new music.