BILLY SQUIER — Don't Say No (review)

Album · 1981 · Hard Rock

5/5 · 2024-07-17
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One biggest stars of the early 80s of catchy riff-oriented hard rock, BILLY SQUIER has all but been forgotten in the modern world except for the fact his radio friendly hits still enjoy heavy rotation on classic rock stations around the world. While starting out in his native Boston with a short-lived power pop band The Sidewinders and honing his songwriting chops in the 70s band Piper, SQUIER embarked on a solo career and found a bit of interest with his debut “The Tale Of The Tape” which found his Queen meets Led Zeppelin style hard rock infused with catchy hooks and nebulously strange lyrics. While the singles “The Big Beat” and “You Should Be High Love” captured sparked marginal interest at radio stations, his big breakthrough would come with his second and most successful album of his career DON’T SAY NO which hit the scene in 1981. While not exactly a concept album DON’T SAY NO did deliver a consistent theme about the trials and tribulations of being famous in the music industry courtesy of SQUIER’s oft cryptic lyrics.

Fueled by a fledgling MTV, SQUIER enjoyed the best of two worlds by having not only having released the most consistently brilliant albums of hard rock that the 80s had to offer but also by the fact that MTV literally broadcast into thousands of homes simultaneously. Coupled with super infectious songs like “The Stroke” and “In The Dark,” the airplay propelled SQUIER into the limelight and was quickly picked up by rock radio stations around the globe. The album likewise jumped into the top 10 and “The Stroke” even hit the top 20 on the Billboard singles chart. The infectious mix of heavy guitar riffs, with catchy pop hooks that rode in the momentum of the recently defunct Led Zeppelin and the ever diminishing returns of a once great Queen, SQUIER actually solicited Brian May to produce DON’T SAY NO but to no avail but after the recommendation of Reinhold Mack who produced Queen’s “The Game”, the album captured the spirit of the recently ended 1970s and propelled the world of hard rock into the video killed the radio star 80s.

While posing as a solo artist on the album cover, DON’T SAY NO sounds more like a band experience and more like an evolution of the critically acclaimed Piper albums which sadly found little interest. An exceptional songwriter with a clear talent for instantly addictive ear worms, SQUIER nurtured cleverly crafted pop songs into bonafide hard rockers that offered a bit of Aerosmith boogie rock, a touch of Jimmy Page inspired guitar riffs and the effervescent delivery system of classic Queen. Comparable to the AOR / hard rock commercially successful bands like Foreigner and Boston with clever arrangements and a diverse array of dynamics, SQUIER offered the perfect mix of songs that were spiced up by SQUIER’s eccentric infusions of off-kilter intros and outros and clever ways to offer contrast. Offering a gruff vocal style, SQUIER delivered his power pop into bonafide hard rock performances that found competent guitar soloing and musicianship backing his every move.

Of the album’s ten tracks, the hits “The Stroke,” “In The Dark,” “My Kinda Lover” and “Lonely Is The Night” have remained classic rock radio staples since the album’s release however the rest of the album’s track listing is just as radio friendly. “The Stroke” was like the updated version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” with an anthemic percussive stomp and staccato guitar chord heft. “In The Dark” immediately showcases SQUIER’s propensity to construct unorthodox methodologies of beginning his songs with a slowly elevating synthesizer sound building up to the riff-laden rock. “Lonely In The Night” reminds of something off of Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti” while “My Kinda Lover” displayed SQUIER’s love of staccato guitar stomps that made use of silence on the versus before erupting into a full-band effect on the corresponding choruses. Likewise the closing title track featured a unique fade in that likewise found the same exact fade out faking you out before the song burst back into the chorus!

The lesser known songs have their own charm as well. “Too Daze Gone” is another riff monster that showcase SQUIER’s interesting songwriting skills of crafty verse / chorus / bridge simplicity while the acoustic guitar ballad “Nobody Knows” is a tribute to John Lennon and the sadness he faced being recognized by all as a god-like celebrity and not as a real person. While the tracks “You Know What I Like” and “Whadda You Want From Me” may be the least memorable upon first impression, even these tracks display unique drumming patterns, crafty slide guitar effects and unique melodies that have distinct personalities. Repeated spins yield equally infectious hooks as the overexposure of the bigger hits take their toll. The flow of the album is absolutely perfect with each song perfectly following and there is really not a dull moment throughout the album’s entire run, a trait that SQUIER could not sustain for the rest of his career however his following album “Emotions In Motion” is the closest contender.

No doubt about it that DON’T SAY NO was SQUIER’s finest hour and one where all the stars aligned perfectly to catapult him out of obscurity into the role of hard rock’s biggest acts of the early 80s. SQUIER would sustain this momentum on his following album but would fall from grace with his 1984 release “Signs Of Life” which found a changing tide in the music industry not favoring 70s inspired acts any longer. SQUIER was a perfectionist and tested the patience of his producers which often resulted in tumultuous drama however when you listen to DON’T SAY NO you can here how all the fussing around with small details really paid off especially with the strong addictive hooks that infused every motif of the album’s ten tracks. This is one of my favorite hard rock albums from the 1980s because not only does it stand on its own not sounding like any other act of the day but is one of those albums that you can sort of put on replay and be happy with hearing it again. The album was quite successful and spent over a year on the charts. It was eventually certified triple platinum.