Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Georgia Satellites
Georgia Satellites tabs Georgia Satellites discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Georgia Satellites guitar tabs

CD reviews

Georgia Satellites

Georgia Satellites - Georgia Satellites Audio CD

A fair review of the Georgia Satellites "Georgia Satellites" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Georgia Satellites reviews here, or go back to the Georgia Satellites tabs.

Band: Georgia Satellites
Title: Georgia Satellites
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Keep Your Hands to Yourself 2: Railroad Steel 3: Battleship Chains 4: Red Light 5: Myth of Love 6: Can't Stand the Pain 7: Golden Light 8: Over and Over 9: Nights of Mystery 10: Every Picture Tells a Story

Bar band done good.
If you were anywhere over the age of eleven or so back in 1986, putting this on your turntable or in the cd player will instantly transport you back to the Reagan years. One in a long series of bar bands done good. The album kicks off with their monster hit from that year, "Keep Your Hands to Yourself," which was accompanied by an unforgettable video where the band played the song in the back of a moving pickup truck. A rocking ode to chastity was right up the alley of conservative radio in those days (I guarantee if someone does a remake of that song it will instantly skyrocket up the charts), and it was held back from #1 only by Bon Jovi's attempt at being Bruce Springsteen, "Livin' on a Prayer. "

The band tried to follow up with "Battleship Chains," the third track on the album, but it didn't garner much enthusiasm and the band faded back into relative obscurity. Don't let that discourage you, it's a great track. The rest of the album rocks equally hard, with varying levels of success. The next hugely successful bar band, Hootie and the Blowfish, only wished they could have rocked out as hard as these guys. Highly recommended for nostalgia trips. Moderately recommended overall.

The Old South Rose Again In 1986
Blending the influences of the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, the Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, and other 70s Southern rock bands with the pure, unadulterated raunch of vintage Rolling Stones, Foghat, Aerosmith, Little Feat, AC/DC, and Ted Nugent, the band created an old-school Southern sound and style that fans of all of the aforementioned bands could appreciate. With the Georgia Satellites' debut album, the Old South rose again in 1986. After this album's runaway success, the band produced two more less commercially successful, yet just as high quality, albums before calling it a day in the early 90s, with lead singer-guitarist Dan Baird having some success as a solo artist thereafter. This CD is an important purchase for anyone who thought that the last classic Southern rock moment was the Outlaws' 1980 hit "Ghost Riders In The Sky. ".

A fine debut
This one was the first, and a sizable hit, mostly due to the presence of the #2 hit single "Keep Your Hands To Youself". The Georgia Satellites issued three high-octane rock n' roll records in the latter half of the 1980s, at a time when such a thing wasn't excactly in vogue.
But the next two sank without a trace, and that's a shame, because the Satellites were (and still remain) a really great listen if you like straight-ahead blooze-n-boogie styled rock n' roll.

The last regular Satellites album, 1989's "In The Land Of Salvation And Sin", is the best, the most mature, and the most stylistically varied, but this one is not far behind.
"The Georgia Satellites" opens with that single, the one which remains the only Satellites number most people ever got around to hearing, a swaggering three-chord "hick-rocker" topped by Rick Richards' lead guitar and Dan Baird's drawling vocals.
If you're really just looking for that one song, you should pick up the excellent compilation album "Let It Rock: Best Of The Georgia Satellites" instead of their original albums. . . but that's not to say that "Hands" is the only good song here, in fact it may not even be the best one. Other highlights include the tough-as-nails hard rock of "Railroad Steel" and "Can't Stand The Pain", a great, shout-along-friendly cover of the Hindu Love Gods' "Battleship Chains", and the melodic mid-tempo rockers "Over And Over" and "Golden Light".
A three-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust-style rendition of Rod Stewart's "Every Picture Tells A Story" doesn't really add anything to the original, but it's still a great song.

The lyrics aren't excacly Bob Dylan, and there is not a lot of musical variation here, but "The Georgia Satellites" is a fun listen anyway. Casual fans will be perfectly satisfied by "Let It Rock", but Satellites diehards (there must be a few of those around) will want the "real" albums.

one of the most unappreciated bands - and still are
But I just can't help but comment on the 'sleepers'. Let me start by saying that The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, Joni Mitchell, Metallica's Master of Puppets, and of course Bob Dylan are still the tops of all time. The G. S. fits this to a tee. Keep your hands to yourself is cute - nuff said. battleship chains showed us a bit more versatility to them. but "Nights Of Mystery" and it's bleed into "Every Picture Tells A Story" is one of the few "i remember exactly where I was when I first heard that song" songs out there. I know the intersection I was passing when I first heard Eddie Veder bark out the lines to "Last Exit" just as I did when the first guitar riff of "Nights of Mystery" kicked in.
I agree this was a band in the rough - but they came together on those last two - pulling both melody, originality, and most importantly an expansion of a cover tune (nearly impossible to do) as their own.
Heck I don't even think they were ever aware of the strength of those last two tracks - they don't even appear on the greatest hits.
In short - they dared to take a haunted southern spin on their guitars during a time when "pour some sugar on me" blared across our radios. Had they followed this 'root' sound of theirs, I believe they would be much more than a favorite tune to play at hillbilly weddings.

Good debut!
However, a weaker second record scared people away. This was a good debut by a band who had a real chance to be something. This has some highlights, especially the first half. Those who know the best known songs may want to seek out "In The Land of Salvation and Sin" somewhere and come back to this one.

You can see a complete list of all Georgia Satellites discography, or go back to the Georgia Satellites tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.