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Poison
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Poison was an American rock band from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The group began in 1983 under the name Paris and moved to Los Angeles that same year. In the clubs of the Sunset Strip it built an audience with an exuberant show and a deliberate image. The best-known line-up consisted of singer Bret Michaels, drummer Rikki Rockett, bassist Bobby Dall and guitarist C.C. DeVille, who in 1985 replaced the first guitarist Matt Smith.
Music and breakthrough
The debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In appeared in 1986 and was the breakthrough. Open Up and Say... Ahh! followed in 1988 and Flesh & Blood in 1990. With Every Rose Has Its Thorn the band reached number one on the American Hot 100. Other singles were Talk Dirty to Me, Nothin' But a Good Time and Unskinny Bop. In the 1990s the band lost ground when grunge arrived, but it kept performing and came back in 1999 in the original line-up.
Influence
Poison played glam metal: hard rock with souped-up guitars, sing-along choruses, plenty of hairspray and make-up. The genre was about image and fun, and Poison counted as one of its examples. In School of Rock the band appears beside Mötley Crüe as a textbook case of 1980s glam metal.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1986Look What the Cat Dragged In
- 1988Open Up and Say… Ahh!
- 1990Flesh & Blood
- 1993Native Tongue
- 2000Crack a Smile... and More!
- 2002Hollyweird
- 2007Poison'd!
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader