Fans of pure AOR and westcoast have always appreciated Fee Waybill’s endearing 1984 gem ‘Read My Lips’, but it would be a dozen years later that Waybill would return with a follow-up solo album.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Fee Waybill
ALBUM: Don’t Be Scared Of These Hands
LABEL: Edge Of Fluke Records
YEAR: 1996
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Fee Waybill – vocals * Steve Lukather – guitars * Richard Marx – backing vocals * Bruce Gaitsch – guitars, programming
TRACK LISTING: 01 I Know You * 02 Tall Dark And Harmless * 03 Shut Up And Love Me * 04 The Swing Of Things * 05 Fools Cry * 06 Surprise Yourself * 07 I’ve Seen The Movie Before * 08 Dying Of Delight * 09 What’s Wrong With That * 10 Somewhere Deep Inside
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Fee Waybill has always been an interesting character within the industry. The Tubes early forays are stuff of legend, as was their move to melodic territories during the early 80’s. Fans of pure AOR and westcoast have always appreciated Waybill’s endearing 1984 gem ‘Read My Lips’, but it would be a dozen years later that Waybill would return with a follow-up solo album.
Less dynamic than its predecessor, and more organic in content, ‘Don’t Be Scared Of These Hands’ is a reasonable effort with the occasional quality track, and with a small but stellar cast, it’s worth doing a vivisection of this CD.
The Songs
Probably not the strongest start to any album, ‘I Know You’ is an energetic (and mainly) acoustic workout which lets off steam early on in proceedings. ‘Tall Dark and Harmless’ is a busy movable feast of music, hi-tech, percussion oriented, big female backing vocals on the chorus, plus a guitar stinger for a solo. I like the cool swing of ‘Shut Up And Love Me’, with some very clean picking guitar lines and a morass of synths and backing vocals filling the spaces.
‘Swing Of Things’ follows suit in terms of the breezy guitar parts and overall hi-tech presentation. ‘Fools Cry’ is the atmospheric wonder of the CD. It took awhile to arrive, considering Bruce Gaitsch‘s involvement and his predeliction toward this style. A nice track for sure. Not too far behind is the melodious glory of ‘Suprise Yourself’. This is one I really enjoyed, and good to hear the familiar tones of Richard Marx on backing vocals.
‘I’ve Seen This Movie Before’ is another album favourite, at five minutes, one of the longer tracks here, but it flows well, some superb guitars from Gaitsch adds the classy element along with Marx’s vocal contribution. Exotic percussion and fusion threads introduce ‘Dying Of Delight’, not unlike Marc Jordan on many of his musical excursions.
‘What’s Wrong With That’ is hybrid track with laid-back verses and fiery choruses, a highly volatile mix that seems to suit Waybill’s to a tee. ‘Somewhere Deep Inside’ is the ballad on the CD, acoustic guitar led, poignant lyrics.. you get the drift. It’s a tender side of Waybill that many of us haven’t heard before, a far cry from ‘White Punks On Dope’ that’s for sure!
In Summary
Don’t be put off by any negative reviews that you might see on the Net. Glory Daze gives Fee Waybill’s second solo album a worthy recommendation, and anytime you see an album with the names Gaitsch, Lukather and Marx on it, know that you are dealing with quality.
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Entire Album (Select Tracks)
