The complaint that many have with this Yesterday And Today album is its production, words such as murky and muddy have accompanied ‘Struck Down’ ever since, that might be so, but the album still has a certain amount of charm.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Yesterday And Today
ALBUM: Struck Down
LABEL: London
SERIAL: PS 711
YEAR: 1978
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Dave Meniketti – vocals, guitars * Joey Alves – guitars * Phil Kennemore – bass * Leonard Haze – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Struck Down * 02 Pleasure In My Heart * 03 Road * 04 Nasty Sadie * 05 Dreams Of Egypt * 06 Tried To Show You * 07 I’m Lost * 08 Stargazer (Round & Round)
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Here we address the second Yesterday And Today record ‘Struck Down’, and one can only say that the album-title was a forewarning. It’s an album I don’t play often, but it does have its moments.
The Songs
The lead-off title-track ‘Struck Down’ is a slow-paced burner, with a depth and intensity not heard on the debut. The song swims in guitar effects, and chugs away as best it can. More flange effects introduce ‘Pleasure In My Heart’, this one not as razor-sharp as other tracks we’ve heard so far from this band. The boys really ramp it up on third track ‘Road’, a fast rocker at a touch under 3 minutes.
So too the speedy ‘I’m Lost’, which is played in the same vein. This is more like it. ‘Nasty Sadie’ with its glammy song-title sets the template for songs like ‘Dirty Girl’, and all manner of girl-oriented material the band have released over the years. I’m unsure about ‘Dreams Of Egypt’. Musically it’s pretty decent though not so sure about the lyrics. ‘Stargazer (Round And Round)’ goes down the epic route, and ends up sounding more like a recorded jam session.
In Summary
The complaint that many have with this Yesterday And Today album is its production. Words such as murky and muddy have accompanied ‘Struck Down’ ever since. That might be so, but the album still has a certain amount of charm that fans brought up through the 70’s can appreciate. Less so for those discovering the band for the first time during the 90’s and 2000’s, who quite frankly, don’t have a clue.
With their London Records tenure now at a close (in fact ‘Struck Down’ was one of the last rock albums released by the label before they folded their North American operations), Yesterday And Today signed on with A&M, and released the amazing 1981 LP ‘Earthshaker’ under the Y&T banner, an album which completely blew their previous work out of the water. The rest as they say, is history.
Yesterday And Today on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
