My Amazon Reviews: Starz "Violation"

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No! That's a Violation
4 out of 5 Starz

There's this kid from the future, and his name, see, his name is Johnny. Johnny and his girl, Cherry, survived the war, and now live under the guidance of The Committee. The Committee likes nice, well behaved boys who "join the Union, learn to bowl." But something happened to Johnny. He was being a bad shoplifter at the Welfare Store where he snagged a "scratchy little record called 'Walk This Way'." Johnny was turned into a rock and roll rebel who just wants to "rock six times, all right," but when the repression gets to be too much, he cracks and goes on both a sex spree and a killing spree. "The Committee says 'shape up'," and sends in Dr Klein to "steady" Johnny up. Who will win?

Sound a little like "2112" to you? Well, Starz DID have a drummer with a great handlebar moustache, but that and the dystopian future was where the similarities end. Starz didn't want to be prog-rock Ayn Rand devotees, they wanted to be Aerosmith. And each of these albums, in their own way, is a classic in its genre and time. For Starz, who wanted nothing less than to be hard rocking bad boys, "Violation" was their most ambitious and cohesive album, succeeding in their own way in making a hard rock classic. The darn thing even managed a hit single, with the pop-rock brilliance of "Cherry Baby."

All around, though, "Violation" is loaded with killer hooks, stun-guitar riffs, catchy choruses and lead singer Michael Lee Smith's charismatic vocals. "Subway Terror" managed to be both menacing and wickedly funny at the same time (as the killer croons to his next would-be victim, "by God, this blade is razor sharp, do you know how to play a harp?" The goofy sex romp of "Cool One" is all double entendre joke (and pretty juvenile, as one would guess), but contains the great line about making out at the movies "That's when me and the cavalry came." And frankly, if you aren't shouting along to the title track after the second listening, back up and try again.

Unfortunately, the success of "Violation" had a double edge. Capitol smelled mega-success and tried to boost the band more towards power-pop than rock, and it started causing rifts in the band. After all, this was a band who had a legendary underground boot-leg of a concert only fave called "P!sz Party." Trying to get that faction of the band to "clean-up" sapped their strength. "Violation" became Starz' creative high water mark, from the music to the burning logo in the desert painting that composed the cover. It's a lost classic of the seventies.