King Kobra -- Ready to Strike!

Man, I've been sleepin' on this one! I've heard a few songs here and there from King Kobra, but never a whole album. This album is amazing, they've gotta be one of the better hair bands of their day. They should've been huge.

Favorite songs: Ready to Strike, Hunger, Breakin' Out, Dancing with Desire, Second Thoughts, Piece of the Rock

How does 'Thrill of A Liftetime' and 'III' compare to this one?

King Kobra is a treasure.

Ready to Strike is their opus.

Unfortunately Thrill of a lifetime is an attempt to catch the mainstreams eye and it is for collectors only. It is pure pop rock. But Mark Free shines on this album.

III, they changed again trying to cash in and became a "sleaze" band. Because of this Mark (Marcie) Free left before the recording.

In summary, because of Carmine Appice's attempts to take this band to the mainstream, they come off as being inconsistant. But I will always love them all.

BTW, forget about ever finding a copy of III on CD. I have been searching for 14 years.

spectrefate wrote:

BTW, forget about ever finding a copy of III on CD. I have been searching for 14 years.

I have King Kobra III on CD.

Damn you Freddy. God created you to mock me!!!

Wasn't the guitarist from Bullet Boys in a version of this band at one time?

These guys pretty much wrote most of the BulletBoys early songs, in effect the BulletBoys were a King Kobra cover band. Much like Pretty Boy Floyd was a Kery Doll/Ariel Stiles cover band.

Guitarist Mick Sweda was in both bands, but he didn't write any of King Kobra's songs. So when King Kobra dissolved he took songs written by the other guys in King Kobra with him to the BulletBoys.

Apparently Mick Sweda offered Carmine Appice he's gold record he recieved for the BulletBoys debut.

And what about Mark Free's sex change, one of rock n' roll's most bizarre trivia bits.

GREAT ALBUM!!
Played it to pieces back in the day!!
BUT, i still remember the day i bought Thrill of a lifetime on the day of it`s release!
Don`t think i have ever been so dissapointed by an album as i was with this one!

Love 'em! Met them on the Hungry tour with Autograph. Johnny Rod was a total nut!! He signed my shoe. I just sent Ult a copy of III to check out. I love Ready to Strike, but III just blazes. One of my all time favs! Spec, I'll be putting III up for auction within the month.

I only own "Ready To Strike" and it's great....

The only King Kobra I've ever owned was a dubbed cassette copy of Ready To Strike. I recently heard Ready To Strike (the song) on XM Radio. I should try at some point to pick up some King Kobra.

rattpoison wrote:

And what about Mark Free's sex change, one of rock n' roll's most bizarre trivia bits.

Indeed.

I read somewhere that the King Kobra stuff is going to be re-issued.

Back in the day I preferred King Cobra malt liquor to King Kobra the band.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Back in the day I preferred King Cobra malt liquor to King Kobra the band.

Haven't seen that in a coon's age.

Great album and my fave of their first 3. Have this one on cd and the other two on lp´s.

So I just picked this one up last weekend. It didn't blow me away. In fact, I find it sort of mediocre. I like it, but I was expecting a classic here.

Eyesore wrote:

So I just picked this one up last weekend. It didn't blow me away. In fact, I find it sort of mediocre. I like it, but I was expecting a classic here.

Listen to it again, fruity. It IS a classic. Do you have the jewel case issue or mini LP replica?

Another little bizare trivia note: The song 'Hunger' was actually written by Canadian hard rockers Kick Axe, but it got bought out from them and given to King Kobra. Kick Axe's version (apparently it's just a slightly touched up demo) appears on the 'Transformers' soundtrack where they're credited as Spectre General.

The music business can be pretty weird

Anything with Mark (Marcia) Free is gold. Ready to Strike is a great album and one of the few where most of the best songs sit at the end of it.

ArmouredAngel wrote:

Anything with Mark (Marcia) Free is gold.

Marcie Free.
..and that statement is true.

spectrefate wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

So I just picked this one up last weekend. It didn't blow me away. In fact, I find it sort of mediocre. I like it, but I was expecting a classic here.

Listen to it again, fruity. It IS a classic. Do you have the jewel case issue or mini LP replica?

The mini-LP reissue. Cost me $1.99, sealed.

$1.99?


I hate you.

spectrefate wrote:

$1.99?

I hate you.

Yeah, at a place called Looney Tunes. I don't go there often, even though it's right down the street from Nuggets. I found some great discs there last weekend, though. It's most vinyl in there, which is why I never used to go. So I think I'm going to start going more often now. Haha.