DOKKEN

^^ Yikes. Somebody poke Don, I think he fell asleep.

Terrible!

Makes me sad.

I saw Dokken in what I'll label some swashbuckling saloon in 2009 or 2010, somewhere around the Cincinnati area and it was really sad then. During "In My Dreams" that night, he held the microphone out into the crowd during the parts where he would have had to hit all the high notes. I turned to my buddy Chris and just sort of sunk my head. It was fairly obvious back then that his voice was shot. Don is really like the athlete, who has stuck around way TOO long. With all these embarrassing moments, we begin to forget the accomplishments that he should be remembered for and are now left with these moments.

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I saw Dokken in what I'll label some swashbuckling saloon in 2009 or 2010, somewhere around the Cincinnati area and it was really sad then. During "In My Dreams" that night, he held the microphone out into the crowd during the parts where he would have had to hit all the high notes. I turned to my buddy Chris and just sort of sunk my head. It was fairly obvious back then that his voice was shot. Don is really like the athlete, who has stuck around way TOO long. With all these embarrassing moments, we begin to forget the accomplishments that he should be remembered for and are now left with these moments.

To be fair I think he was dealing with stomach cancer around that time. He gained a ton of weight and sounded dreadful. I think he improved somewhat after Broken Bones came out. I didn't even think he was that bad at M3 last year. The early 2000s was probably the last time that he was able to sing songs like Kiss of Death without dropping them down an octave though. He started doing that on the 2003 tour after Reb Beach left the band.

I have mixed feelings about getting the upcoming live album... I am a huge fan but I don want to be disappointed the way I was with Van Halens DLR live disaster a few years ago. I have heard the rerecorded Dokken's greatest hits and wasn't impressed with Don at all... The newer songs are ok because they were written for his current range but hearing the old hits tuned down was horrible to me...

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Van Halens DLR live disaster

I still haven't listened to that. I imagine it must be one of the worst live albums ever released.

glassprison wrote:

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Van Halens DLR live disaster

I still haven't listened to that. I imagine it must be one of the worst live albums ever released.

Yeah, that about sums it up. The boot I have from that tour is only marginally better.

I just listened to the first verse of Dance the Night Away on youtube... how did they ever let this see the light of day!!?? It makes the Dokken live track seem above seem listenable!

Well this is much better than the awful live tracks:

The main riff and George's solo sound great! However the vocal melodies and especially the chorus are quite dull. And not just because Don is singing in a lower register. I think Dokken's past three albums have all had much better songs than this.

New track is OK, but not good enough to justify buying the sub-par live album.

I am pleasantly surprised by the new song. I think it's very good. I did really cringe at the beginning of the video though. They would've been wise to leave that part off.

The thing is if you are expecting the glory days Dokken you wont find it.. Don is just incapable of doing it... When this show and album was made it was for the money alone...not the music and not the fans...All 4 members made that clear from the beginning....and they still make that clear. That being said I like what I am hearing. I like the new song a lot. And I like the newer Dokken albums in general. I am leaning to buying this album...

Some things about this album are just plain puzzling. For example, the dvd and cd have different track orderings, which seems pointless.

It's especially annoying on the cd with the fade-outs. For example, "The Hunter" is the second song of the live show on the cd. But, then six songs later at the end of "Tooth and Nail" you can hear them break into "The Hunter" again during the fade-out.

Then they put the elongated intro to "Alone Again" and the actual song as separate tracks...and there is a super awkward fade-out separating them! Who on earth thought that was a good idea? You can't tell me there was no way to simply bleed them together.

Taken on their own, the songs don't actually sound that bad, especially compared to what Don *actually* sounded like on the tour. Listening to them without having to see Don's listless demeanor and pouty facial expressions like on the DVD helps some. The exceptions would be "Unchain the Night," which is so downtuned that it sounds like you are listening to it under water, and "Kiss of Death," where Don changes the chorus melody each time he sings it.

I do really like the guitar solo on the new song "Just Another Day," and the acoustic versions of "Heaven Sent" and "Will the Sun Rise" are nice to have.

Don Dokken sez there will be a new studio album in Spring of 2019:

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"We're gonna write it in December and January and we'll have it out in the spring. We have a new record company, and we're just gonna put a new record out for the spring for the next tour." Don went on to say that DOKKEN will release "a couple of videos" to promote the new disc.

After "Broken Bones" failed to meet his expectations commercially, Don Dokken publicly questioned whether the band should or would make another record. He was also ruthlessly criticized by fans after radiation treatments from a bout with stomach cancer and eventual vocal-cord surgery hurt his performances.

"I was getting so bad I had to say, 'Guys, I'm just destroying our brand. I suck,'" Dokken said. "I put on 40 pounds. I couldn't sing. I just didn't look good; I didn't feel good. I just had to get the radiation over with and rehab and come back."

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/dokken-to-release-new-studio-album-in-the-spring-says-don-dokken/

I'll check it out, Broken Bones felt mostly lifeless to me. I did enjoy Lightning Strikes Again.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I'll check it out, Broken Bones felt mostly lifeless to me. I did enjoy Lightning Strikes Again.

Agreed... hope it's more like LSA than BB.

I just dusted off Broken Bones recently for the first time in a while and aside from the leadoff track "Empire," meh.

Need to spin some Dokken again. It has been quite some time now.

I haven't really checked out any of the recent Dokken albums. What's the best starting place?

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

I haven't really checked out any of the recent Dokken albums. What's the best starting place?

Lightning Strikes Again from 2008 was good stuff. Their most solid album in a long time.
Most of the others post-Erase The Slate have been sketchy; each has a couple of good songs surrounded by filler.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

I haven't really checked out any of the recent Dokken albums. What's the best starting place?

Lightning Strikes Again from 2008 was good stuff. Their most solid album in a long time.
Most of the others post-Erase The Slate have been sketchy; each has a couple of good songs surrounded by filler.

Sweet, I'll look into that one. Thanks!

I like "all" of the Dokken catalog. Just some a lot more than others. Like FF, I too am a fanboy. I thought LSA was pretty darn good. I had kind of hoped it would be the last studio album as it would be like going out a high note. I really don't want to see them release one or two more albums that continue a slow slide into obscurity. If Don, as he stated in the Blabbermouth blurb Fredo posted, is aware of hurting his "brand" then I think this will be a more focused and better effort than Broken Bones.

I liked Broken Bones well enough, and think it's a solid effort, especially considering what Don was going through in terms of his health at the time.

I'll definitely be waiting for the new one. I'm a big fan of Jon Levin. I imagine this one will have a bit more life to it than the recent Dokken reunion live album and studio tracks, as Don actually likes this lineup.

"as Don actually likes this lineup"

Very good point. I think we all work better when we like our co workers.