“It’s not big, it’s not clever, but it is a lot of twelve-bar fun with that Keith Richards’ twist”: Faster Pussycat’s debut is a middle-finger-in-the-air collection of songs about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll

Contemporaries of L.A. Guns and Guns N’ Roses, Faster Pussycat were as brassy and sleazy as the Russ Meyer skinflick from which they took their name. Their singer Taime Downe was at the centre of the LA movement, thus both Taime and his band were scenesters, a fact reflected in their debut record.

Don’t Change That Song was raucous and memorable, as was their other stand-out tune, Bathroom Wall, a touching paean to the kind of girl Taime picked up at Hollywood rock club The Cathouse. Faster Pussycat never quite broke out of LA, but this is a salacious documentation of their attempt.

“I couldn’t resist; I absolutely love this song,” Slipknot leader Corey Taylor says of Babylon. “Seemed like every band had a weird tune on their albums for a while, but this song was really different. Great chorus – makes me forgive them for stealing lyrics from Cheap Trick’s She’s Tight and using them in Bathroom Wall.”

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Other albums released in July 1987

• Napalm Death – Scum
• Echo & The Bunnymen – Echo & The Bunnymen
• Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Life
• The Grateful Dead – In The Dark
• Ace Frehley – Frehley’s Comet
• Faster Pussycat – Faster Pussycat
• Lion – Dangerous Attraction
• Dio – Dream Evil
• Starship – No Protection
• Triumph – Surveillance
• Great White – Once Bitten

What they said…

“Faster Pussycat’s self-titled debut is mostly Aerosmith boogie sleaze, glammed up by way of the fertile L.A. club scene. The band is somewhat similar to contemporaries Guns N’ Roses, but with that band’s urban grit and substance replaced by a Crüe-ish party-hearty attitude. The music is slick, but fun.” (AllMusic)

“Supposedly, these glammers are the plastic (isn’t that the term?) Aerosmith rip, as opposed to the authentically (right?) nasty boys in Guns N’ Roses. They sure do mow down their allotted share of dynamite riffs on side one, though–fit right onto Toys in the Attic. And if side two is pretty generic, it’s only a rip, its meaner impulses undercut by Russ Meyer camp.” (Robert Christgau)

“Tracks like Bathroom Wall capture the spirit and humour of hair metal in a concise, thrilling fashion, transcending the genre’s typical trappings every so often with a countrified guitar wail or a flashback to New York Dolls-era glam punk. And that’s to say nothing of the super-weird and prescient Babylon, which may be ground zero for the rap-rock movement of the ’90s.” (Consequence)

What you said…

Mike Canoe: Ah, the glory days of the Sunset Strip, when men were men and women were sex workers – or so Faster Pussycat would have you believe. Their 1987 debut is part Mötley Crüe sleaze, part Guns N’ Roses nihilism, part Poison simplicity.

Aerosmith’s Rocks was more than a decade old by this point, so the recycled riffs on display here weren’t as obvious to the MTV generation. Heck, even the revitalised Aerosmith didn’t sound that much like Aerosmith anymore, so Taime Downe’s cat-in-heat yowls and the band’s ground-down sound felt momentarily fresh.

So you have the “rocking out while cringing at the lyrics” of Bathroom Wall, Cathouse, Smash Alley, etc. Glam metal parody band Steel Panther may have based their entire career on Babylon. Still, Don’t Change That Song is a helluva calling card and City Has No Heart suggests that there might be something more to the band than sex, more sex, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Faster Pussycat is not one of those albums (or bands) I’d use as evidence that grunge had to happen. Even their big power ballad from their next album, House of Pain, was one of the few that had nothing to do with falling in and/or out of love. Faster Pussycat’s debut is dumb and derivative fun that, at 36 minutes and change, doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Nigel Mawdsley: Great raw production, arrangements and musicianship on this album, very powerful. The songs are good, but there’s no particular ‘stand out’ track IMHO.

I’ve not played/ heard any Faster Pussycat material for some time and enjoyed ‘revisiting’ them, but my opinion remains the same after a few decades!

Faster Pussycat have so many influences that it’s difficult to define the Faster Pussycat sound. Their music is derivative of Aerosmith, Ratt, Beastie Boys, Poison, Billy Idol, Quiet Riot, Rolling Stones, Slade… and, as I left Spotify on, after the album had finished, the random selection of similar music was Me And My Wine by Def Leppard. 7/10.

Iain Macaulay: It’s raw to the point of being very underproduced. It’s catchy, like an STD in the Cathouse toilet, which the lead singer ran. And it’s packed with more sleaze than Axl could have dreamt of having in his songwriting hand. In fact, the Rock City Angels too.

If you want to know what the New York Dolls would have sounded like if they’d been from LA and had the beach and sunshine to brighten things up, rather than rain and heroin, then this is the album. It’s not big, it’s not clever, but it is a lot of twelve-bar fun with that Keef Richards’ twist. It’s also closer to the Hanoi Rocks blueprint than what GN’R achieved.

It was even better live, courtesy of seeing them in the Barrowlands in Glasgow. The first band I was in as a kid played nearly half this album; it had that much of an effect on the 80s glam scene, until Sweet Child broke. It is a debut album, and they did get much better, and more technically proficient at songwriting, but it’s a real middle-finger-in-the-air collection of songs about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Maybe it still holds up, maybe it doesn’t, but the time it represents was definitely a one-off, and this album is the perfect soiled Polaroid picture to reminisce about.

Jon Peacock: As I was at a loose end for the day and the weather is rotten, I took the opportunity to listen to Faster Pussycat, an album I had never listened to previously, so felt it was an opportunity to indulge in an album that apparently landed around the same time as Appetite For Destruction, a rather excellent debut to be up against.

Sorry to say it was not a positive experience for me. It opens okay with Don’t Change That Song, which romps along with a decent riff, before moving into Bathroom Wall, which is an okay song, but find the lead guitar a bit lacking in excitement for a glam style band.

However, I felt that from then on, it went downhill somewhat. Starting with No Room for Emotion. A song that just drags, the playing is dull, the vocal style feels out of place here, he’s trying hard to be sleazy, but it’s not working, plus the guitar playing is basic at best.

I found the rest of the album to be much the same, trying very hard but just not memorable, nothing really to catch the ears and not up to Motley Crue, RATT or LA Guns standards, bands with songs with catchy riffs and get you singing while driving the car attitude, and then there’s Appetite For Destruction, an album with real swagger that knocks Faster Pussycat into a cocked hat.

So, it’s a 4/10 for me. It opens OK, but just fails to grab on any real level. I won’t be digging into their other albums (something I do if the choice piques my interest), and not surprised they slipped into the background.

Dave Hinsley: Excellent choice! Sleazy and catchy!

Andrew Johnston: As I recall, this came out slightly before Appetite and I always preferred it.

The production, if you can call it that, was much truer to the music – less metallic and much more raw – which was an unholy amalgam of Stones, Sex Pistols, Aerosmith, New York Dolls and Slade (well, to my ears anyway).

The quality dips a little on Side Two, but not so much that I don’t still play it regularly four decades on. However, given Side One contains rock evergreens like Don’t Change That Song, Bathroom Wall, Cathouse and the Beastie Boys-apeing Babylon, matching or beating it was always going to be a big ask.

The follow-up, Wake Me When It’s Over had a much glossier sound, even rewarding them with a couple of US hits. And though they managed to pull things back (sound-wise) with 92’s Whipped, the world had moved on.

Mark Veitch: I recall buying this and Appetite at the same time, and I was convinced this would be the bigger seller. Just shows what I know. But even after all this time, I still prefer this. Sounds like a long-lost Aerosmith album from the 70s. It’s a great sleaze rock album, and they were never this great again.

Philip Qvist: I don’t think Faster Pussycat’s debut was ever released down here in South Africa, because it never appeared on my radar. If it had been readily available, then it would have likely appealed to the early 20s version of me, and I probably would have bought it. However, it would have been forgotten by me after a few spins and left at the bottom of my record collection as a result.

To me, it sounds like just another record from another hair metal band of that era. It’s okay, it’s fun, it’s meant to be played loud, while the lyrics are typical of that period, as in chase women, drink a lot, and who cares about tomorrow. Nothing wrong with it at all, as we all need some fun in our lives, but it is hardly ground zero for innovative songs that leave a mark on the music industry.

Don’t Change The Song, No Room For Emotion and Cathouse were the songs that stood out for me, although there were no real stinkers on Faster Pussycat. The album is okay without being memorable, but at least it is just 36 minutes long. A 6, maybe a 7, from me.

Brian Hart: The self-titled debut by Faster Pussycat! What can you say… no one will confuse it with thinking man’s rock. However, it is what it is: sleazy, raw, and aggressive. Every song is short and to the point. It rocks from front to back. My least favourite is the Stonesy No Room for Emotions and even that song is listenable. To me, this album is like the snotty little brother to GN’R’s Appetite for Destruction. I’m not saying it’s just as good as AFD. However, it’s not that far off and has just as much attitude. IMO, Faster Pussycat is the one 80s band that should’ve been huge. Wake Me When It’s Over and Whipped are excellent as well. Go check them out!

John Davidson: There’s nothing original about this record. Borrowed riffs, lo-fi production, whiny/ rasping vocals and lyrics about sex and drugs. It’s a cosplay version of the Stones, the Faces, Aerosmith and the New York Dolls all dressed up in their big sister’s blouses and hairspray. But for all that it’s completely derivative, it’s still kinda fun, and it’s over before you can get bored with it.

Greg Schwepe: Fun album of glam metal songs full of Sunset Strip sleaze. Turn it up. No thinking involved. 36 minutes of raunchy riffs and raspy vocals.

They say write what you know about. So Faster Pussycat must know a lot about trying to score with leather mini-skirted females on the Strip. We aren’t saving the rainforest, and we aren’t curing cancer with the subject matter! And who cares? Don’t Change That Song and Bathroom Wall put you right there in the dingy clubs of the Sunset Strip.

I’m pretty sure the lead vocalist was a big fan of Draw The Line-era Aerosmith. He has a few “Tyler-isms” that he exaggerates to get his point across. His style fits the genre.

I’ve seen music documentaries where the band says “we were like nobody else out there. And that conscious effort to set ourselves apart is what got us signed.” Now, the funny thing about all these 80s glam metal bands is they all sounded alike. All looked alike. Nothing really set them apart. And I’m sure they all got signed when the record companies went “Go find and sign another band like [current hot band of the moment].” But hey, it didn’t matter; it was more of the same stuff we liked. But then you had the “haves and the have-nots.” The “haves” with a little more songwriting and musicianship made the leap to arenas and the like. The “haves nots” found themselves in purgatory, still playing the bars and clubs in West Hollywood.

First time listening to Faster Pussycat and I liked every song. Again, fun rocking songs that put you in a good frame of mind. 7 out of 10 on this one for me. Good Kitty!

Stephen McCann: Pure sleaze, I still play it. Got the guitar tab book for it when I was a kid – good rock’n’roll foundation.

Faster Pussycat – Don’t Change That Song (1987) (HD 60fps) – YouTube

Watch On

Brian Carr: By November 5, 1987, I had attended concerts at the Coliseum in Fort Wayne for over two years. I was there to see a couple of longtime musical heroes, Alice Cooper headlining, and Ace Frehley with his Comet. It was different from what I was used to in a couple of ways, but the main difference was the small number of attendees. This enabled my friend and I to get right up on the fence at the front of the stage, as all of the concerts I saw in Fort Wayne from 1985 to 1988 were general admission.

Before Frehley’s Comet, on walks the opener, no bombast, no voice of doom announcing their presence, just five dudes swaggering onto the stage, plugging in and blowing through a set of sloppy, punk-influenced hard rock. I didn’t know what to think. Didn’t really dig them that much. I didn’t get it at the time.

I don’t know if I first heard Faster Pussycat on radio or MTV before that show or after, but my tastes at the time were geared towards melodic vocals and killer guitar playing, which didn’t fit the Stones/Faces(?) influenced rock of Faster Pussycat. I did like the follow-up, Wake Me When It’s Over, where I thought their songwriting and riffs improved considerably.

So what do I think of their debut record now? I suppose I like it better to some degree now that I have more context and understand where they were coming from. But I still don’t think I like it enough to go out and buy it.

Gary Claydon: Well, look what the cat dragged in. Ten chunks of 80s sleazoid, channelling the likes of The Stones, Cheap Trick and Aerosmith by way of Hanoi Rocks. So what’s new, Pussycat? Err, not much, really. While not lacking in enthusiasm, Faster Pussycat is distinctly lacking in originality. That’s not to say it’s not entertaining in parts. Don’t Change That Song and Bathroom Wall get the show off to a rollickingly good start and Cathouse picks up in a similar vein. Best track is the Beastie Boys-aping Babylon. The rest is fairly sub-par late 80s fare. Thankfully, at around 38 minutes, the album isn’t long enough to become truly annoying, which is fortunate because Taime Downe’s whiny, atonal vocals can start to get as much fun as a poke in the eye with a mascara brush. 5/10.

Nigel Taylor: Bought this at the same time as Appetite for Destruction, and thought this was the better album at the time. Raw, sleazy, big hooks and P P P P P P Pussycat…Shut Up!

Still love it to this day and think it’s right up there with Appetite as the best album of that whole sleaze/hair/glam rock period. Like GN’R, though, they never made anything remotely this good again.

Evan Sanders: I’m happy to see another album that was released during my heavy radio listening days, which I had somehow never heard of. I like the straight-ahead rock in Faster Pussycat’s album, and I like the band name too! In terms of the music, all the songs are enjoyable, and the band probably would have worked well as an opener for a bigger act or as part of a multi-band festival. On the downside, I didn’t find any of the songs to be especially memorable. The album is a fun rocker, but not something that I would keep on a regular playlist. I wonder what would have happened if they had a big breakout hit. 6/10

Adam Ranger: Not one I will play again. For me, it’s ruined by the vocalist; I find his tone and delivery very annoying.

Apart from that, you get short, mainly fast-paced songs about sex and drinking. Some nice riffs and guitar licks thrown in, almost punk-like at times, but not enough to keep me interested. Maybe if it wasn’t for that vocal style, I would think differently. Not a high score from me this week.

Andrew Cumming: In 1987, two bands came to the UK for their first tours (not first shows) – Faster Pussycat and Guns N’ Roses. It was a double bill. To all intents and purposes, they were tracking neck and neck – both exciting new bands from LA just released their debut albums. I remember after the show (at Rock City) debating hard with my pal on who the better band was. And agreeing that Faster Pussycat had probably just shaded it.

This is a really good album with some great songs. Bathroom Wall and Cathouse are classics. Don’t Change That Song, No Room For Emotion, Smash Alley – all strong too. Babylon entertainingly channels the spirit of Chas & Dave’s Rabbit. It tails off towards the end, but is a decent album and stands up well against the hair metal competition of the time.

Of course, as Guns N’ Roses went stratospheric, Faster Pussycat didn’t. The two follow-up albums are fine, but diminishing returns set in, and they were an easy kill for grunge. They leave a legacy of a strong contribution to late 80s hair metal and are a quality listen for anyone wanting to explore the genre.

Mark Herrington: I’ve never heard this before, but the hair metal of the late 80’s wasn’t really my thing. It just seemed like a major decline from everything that had been before, from the early 70s onwards. Thankfully, for me, there were still good bands around like Metallica and Queensryche, and better stuff lay ahead.

Perhaps if I’d been in my early teens and just starting out I’d have felt differently. So, I gave this a listen.

Nothing really stood out for me. It was formulaic and a bit uninspired. The vocals were not great, and every song was so predictable. The sleaze element just felt feigned to me. A below-average score.

Mickel Knight: Decidedly pretty good. I kept thinking I should be listening to Steel Panther instead. Faster Pussycat do have some good hooks sprinkled through the album. No Room for Emotion is a keeper.

Factoid no one cares about: In the USN 85-91 I could play House Of Pain on guitar. Playing the intro lead on that song made me, with my meagre skills, feel like a guitar player.

Final score: 6.55 (42 votes cast, total score 275)

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