DOKKEN's 'The Lost Songs: 1978-1981' Due In August
DOKKEN will release an album called "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" on August 28 via Silver Lining Music.
It wasn't always multi-platinum sales and stadium gigs for DOKKEN. There was a first-phase and there were early days, and it is those bold first steps to stardom which are celebrated comprehensively on "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" LP.
Featuring spectacular sleeve art by renowned U.S. artist Tokyo Hiro (MOTÖRHEAD, MOTLEY CRÜE), "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" show the crackle and craft of a hungry young Don Dokken as he embarked upon a journey which started in Southern California and Northern Germany. It is a trek which is testimony to the sheer endeavor and perseverance Don Dokkenshowed in those few years between 1978 and 1981, starting from when he spent time at a guitar store called Drake's Music, owned by Drake Levin in Manhattan Beach, California.
A fair selection of the treasure on "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" are from these early European days. "Felony" carries a thuggish fuzz-coated riff -think early VAN HALEN in really greasy embroidered denims, while "Day After Day" showed that Don could pen a radio-slaying ballad.
The writing and creation of "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" are further tribute to enduring early days of struggle in both Germany and L.A., Don would return to L.A. for a spell after those brief European gigs, and he worked with Juan Croucier on material, including perhaps the truest view of DOKKEN's then-future "Hit And Run", which incredibly did not end up on the eventual "Breaking The Chains" release. From the sunbaked SoCal hook of "Step Into The Light" to the furious, fledgling, late-Sunset Strip sound of "Back In The Streets", "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" shows Don in his unfettered early days of balls-out attitude, qualities doubtless forged in the sheer nature of the adventures undertaken in writing, recording and deciding Europe was the place to keep cutting his teeth.
"The Lost Songs: 1979-1981" not only shares that magic with the fans, it gives them the final, vital and undeniably missing (until now) early album in the DOKKEN collection.
A year ago, Dokken spoke to the WSOU radio station about the "The Lost Songs" collection, saying that it was a "fun" release that would include "songs recorded in the '70s when I was a little pup in my early 20s. And I have 12 songs that I haven't released," he explained. "So we're gonna go in and remaster them and all that, and I might put out that record and call it something like 'Dokken: The Early Days' or 'Dokken: The Lost Tapes', or something like that. 'Cause it was just an accident. I was cleaning out my locker and I found a bunch of master tapes from '77 to '79. And I said, 'What the heck are these?' And it turns out it was all these demos I did in the early '70s, before we had a record deal… It's kind of fun record. My voice sounds a lot younger. I listen to it, and I go, 'God, I sound like I've got helium in my voice.' I was 23 years old. I sound like Mickey Mouse."
Musicians who appear on "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981":
Don Dokken - vocals, guitar Jon Levin - guitar BJ Zampa - drums Juan Croucier - bass
Greg Leon - guitar Gary Holland - drums Mick Brown - drums George Lynch -guitar Rustee Allen - bass Bill Lordan - drums Greg Pecka - drums
"The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" track listing:
01. Step Into the Light 02. We're Going Wrong 03. Day After Day 04. Rainbows 05. Felony 06. No Answer 07. Back In The Streets 08. Hit And Run 09. Broken Heart 10. Liar 11. Prisoner
"Step Into The Light", the first single from "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981", can be streamed below.
Longtime DOKKEN guitarist Jon Levin recently confirmed that the band was working on material for the follow-up to 2012's "Broken Bones" album.
DOKKEN's new LP will be released via Silver Lining Music, the label owned by Thomas Jensen, one of the founders of Germany's Wacken Open Air festival.
