On their return to the US, Croucier left the band to join Ratt, and in his place they brought in Jeff Pilson as his replacement. The band had also picked up Cliff Bernstein as their manager, who got them signed to Elektra Records, who remixed and re-released their debut album for the US market. However, the album failed to ignite the charts, and Elektra was on the verge of dumping them. The band’s management had to fight enormously hard to convince the record company executives to give them a second chance, to prove that they could produce an album that would satisfy their needs. Eventually, Elektra agreed to give them one more album. It was this fight from their management to get them the chance to record a new album, and the fight the band knew they were up against to produce an album that would save their career, that brought forth the title of the album. That album is what became “Tooth and Nail”.
The writing of the album came together basically in two separate groups, the combining of George Lynch who was putting down riffs on a four track being joined by Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson to flesh them out, and Dokken himself who worked on his own and also with Pilson.
The production and recording of the album was a chaotic hot mess, and on the face of it, it is truly amazing that the album was made at all. Dokken himself wanted to use Michael Wagener again, who had produced the first album, but George Lynch was so dissatisfied with the way that album sounded he fought against it, and Pilson and Brown took his side. Instead, the record company brought in Tom Werman, most noted for Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil” album. One wonders if that experience helped him for this job, because his troubles were about to begin. Due in no small amount to the copious amounts of cocaine and alcohol in the studio, relationships between engineers and band members alike were at fever pitch. So difficult was Werman’s job, and so poor was the relationship between Dokken and Lynch, that he came up with a schedule to separate the parties at all times. Lynch, along with Brown and Pilson, would record during the day, while Dokken would come in and record on his own at night. It’s interesting that this arrangement, the fact that Lynch and Pilson never saw each other during the recording process, carried on for the entirety of their time together in the band, not just this album. This didn’t solve all of Werman’s problems, and when Lynch reacted badly to some of Werner’s suggestions, he point blank refused to continue to work with him, and Werman quit. Dokken of course then went straight back to suggesting bringing Wagener back in to complete the recording and mixing of the album, which the studio agreed to, but his three band mates would not.
The compromise? Amazingly, the record company brought in TWO producers. Roy Thomas Baker, who had produced Queen and Journey, was brought in to keep the band occupied and recording during the day shift, while Wagener recorded Dokken’s lead vocals at night and mixed the album, secretly (of course) with Dokken by his side. Like I said, it is a miracle this album ever saw the light of day.
The album opens with all of the best aspects of the band at the fore. “Without Warning” is the instrumental opening composed by George Lynch, building from acoustic to electric, and bursting into the frenetic beginning of the title track “Tooth and Nail”, highlighted by Lynch’s terrific guitar solo through the middle stretch of the track and a punchy chorus sung with gusto by Dokken. This slides into “Just Got Lucky”, the second single released from the album, relying heavily on Dokken’s great vocals and Lynch’s excellent riff and solos again. I never fail to be reminded of George's solo, which in the video for the song he was playing on the side of a volcano, and his boots were apparently melting from the heat while he played. Great commitment. Everything bounces on this track, and it is one of their best tracks.
The middle of the album settles itself into a constant groove, with a whole bunch of songs that find themselves in a similar style and structure, an even rhythm, and one that may sound as if it is slightly repetitive as a result. Each of the songs - “Heartless Heart”, “Don't Close Your Eyes”, “When Heaven Comes Down”, “Into the Fire” and “Bullets to Spare” - have their differences of course, but at times you could almost sing the lyrics of one song over the music of the other, and not have much difference in effect. Just instances such as “You got a heartless heart, got a heart of stone” and “Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes or I'll be there” and “Cause I’ll be waiting, when heaven comes down” and “Into the fire I'm falling” and “Cause I've got bullets, bullets to spare”. The way they are sung, and the rhythm of the tracks, seems to meld in places.
Then comes the power ballad, Dokken and Pilson’s reworking of a song Don had written ten years earlier to become “Alone Again”. This is pure sugar-coated fairy floss, something Dokken and Pilson both do very well. It’s interesting that Lynch was against the song being included on the album as he felt it compromised the rest of the songs, but he was eventually talked around by Pilson. “Alone Again” became the best performing single from the album and drove album sales as a result of its chart position and rotation on radio throughout the US in particular. And the album closes out with the fastest song on the album, “Turn on the Action”, a song that mirrors the opening track for its upbeat tempo and riding the rails to generate the excitement of the fans.
While it is certainly the case for other bands as well, with Dokken, I absolutely missed a trick when it came to first discovering them. This album, along with their next two, should have been prime time listening for me as I finished my high school years, and they should be albums that I recall to this day with the memories of those heady days. Instead, it wasn’t until the turn of the century that I finally began to listen to their albums, and soon realised what a massive mistake I had made not finding the band earlier.
So, I pretty much first came across “Tooth and Nail” at the same time as the other 1980’s released Dokken albums and listened to them all in one big lump. Eventually they came to stand apart and be judged as their own entity, and while “Back for the Attack” was the immediate stand out for myself, this one came in at a close second. With so much of the album coming from the trio of Lynch, Brown and Pilson, it all comes together nicely, with “Tooth and Nail” and “Turn on the Action” being the best examples of this. They appealed to my enjoyment of faster tracks, and for me set up and closed the album nicely. Don’s vocals are terrific, and with the added support of Jeff Pilson’s voice as well combines to make that side of things perfect. Mick Brown’s drumming, alongside Pilson’s bass guitar, are the solid grounding that the album needs, and George Lynch on guitar is superb as always, especially on those songs that he has composed. The success of this album eased all of the pressure that had come before its recording by the threat of being dumped, and despite all of the shenanigans in the studio it comes out as a terrific product. In many ways, it could be said that Dokken the band had really... just got lucky.
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