Dog Eat Dog
Warrant (1992)
The third studio album from Warrant, and the final album that featured all five original members of the band, has turned 30 years old today. Despite the fact that it didn't have the sales or number of hit singles as their 1989 album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich or their 1990 double platinum follow up, Cherry Pie, I think that this is the best record the band ever put out. Unfortunately, it came at the wrong time, as the bands that were associated with 80's hair metal were being pushed into the background by the emerging grunge rock scene.
I was living in South Florida with my dad and my then-stepmother and stepsister when this album was released. My stepsister was a metalhead who sometimes made mixtapes for me of songs that she thought I might like. She included the third song from this album on one of those mixtapes. It's a song that was never released as a single, and has not received any significant airtime on the radio or MTV that I am aware of. It's a post-apocalyptic song about a world that has suffered from wars and the pollution of the environment for so many years that we had reached a point where there was no hope of fixing the problem, and that the best we could hope for is to live out our days as best we can in the wasted world that our species has created. This song made me shiver the first time I listened to it, and it scares me even more to hear it today as we inch closer to the date named in its title.
Jani Lane passed away eleven years ago, so he won't be here to experience the month and year that he sang about. The rest of us are eight years, seven months and six days away from April 2031.
Warrant (1992)
They say the sky used to be blueI don't quite believe itIt's probably always been the color that it isAnd there were cotton candy cloudsBirds to fly through itStories we all love to tell our kidsSo I'll close my electronic door and keep the cold outsideHug my aluminium pillow so tightAnd pray the radiation doesn't make me sick tonightThey say there used to be a windWasn't caused by fansI wonder how it would have felt in my hairAnd the nuclear ring around the moonWas caused by manIf it was, then it's much too late to careSo I'll put my safety goggles on and gaze out at the sunThe artificial atmosphere machines give off a constant humIn a world that's cold and peaceful, April 2031No more sky and no more treesApril 2031No more oxygen to breatheApril 2031No more hate and no more warApril 2031Nothing left worth fighting for2031As far back as VietnamWe should have learned our lessonBut we closed our eyes and sent our sons awayAnd they told us we were winningAs we sold more ammunitionSome were angry, most just looked the other wayThe night's illuminated by the endless glowing sandThat swallowed all the oceans and choked off all the landIn a world beyond resuscitation, even by God's handNo more mountains, no more seaApril 2031No more you and no more meApril 2031No more music, no more songsApril 2031No God left to blame it onApril 2031No more children playingApril 2031No more need for prayingApril 2031No more children playingApril 2031No more need for prayingApril twenty thirtyOne
