Saturday, February 13, 2010

Zebra - Self Titled (1983)

Zebra is a hard rock band that came together in 1975 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It features Randy Jackson (guitar and vocals), Felix Hanemann (bass, keyboards and vocals) and Guy Gelso (drums and vocals). Their mainstream debut on Atlantic Records was in 1983, highlighted by the singles "Tell Me What You Want" and "Who's Behind The Door". Like Twisted Sister, Zebra cut their teeth on the East Coast club circuit, frequently playing at clubs on Long Island, NY.  Zebra started their career by playing covers of Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues and Rush songs: it was their early fans' reaction to their Led Zeppelin renditions that helped convince the band to bring their act to New York.  They had introduced their original material into their cover sets years before they were signed to Atlantic Records, including "The La La Song", "Free" and "Bears" (originally entitled "The Bears are Hibernating").  Zebra had been noticed as an original act to contend with by local colleges and even had some of their early original performances recorded by Long Island FM radio station WBAB, culminating in the inclusion of one of their songs on a release of "WBAB's Homegrown Album", which commemorated some of the station's best local acts and performances culled from their on-air "Homegrown Hour" program.  The band continued to tour throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2003 released their first album of all-new material since 1986. A DVD of recent live performances, mostly from a show at the House of Blues in New Orleans, was released in the summer of 2007. - taken from Wikipedia


1983 - Zebra

Zebra is the debut album by American hard rock band Zebra, released in 1983, eight years after they were founded. The album features all original material, with the exception of "Slow Down," a Larry Williams tune best remembered in a 1964 cover version by the Beatles. It is generally considered the band's strongest work, featuring minor hits "Who's Behind The Door?" and "Tell Me What You Want."
Dream Theater covered "Take Your Fingers From My Hair" for the special edition of their 10th studio album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

Track Listing:   

1. Tell Me What You Want
2. One More Chance 
3. Slow Down
4. As I Said Before
5. Who's Behind the Door?
6. When You Get There
7. Take Your Fingers From My Hair
8. Don't Walk Away
9. The La La Song


Everyone in South Louisiana knows who Zebra is.  They are probably the most underrated band of their time.  I still to this day do not understand how these guys aren't well known.  

 Check them out here


getyousome

3 comments:

  1. I'm an old cat, and I remember jamming this album back in 83 or 84, just out of High School. I remember that 'Tell Me What You Want' song. They had a Zeppelin sound. another group I was into at the same time was Motorhead's guitarist Fast Eddy's other band Fastway. That singer had the same kind of voice.

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  2. Sweet. My mom said that these guys used to play at their high school dances and stuff. They were actually the first band that I ever saw live. Randy's solo stuff is pretty damn good too. I'll post it up later.

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  3. Sweet, dude. I can't believe I always thought Zebra was Canadian for some reason. To me "Who's Behind the Door" always makes me think of riding the Matterhorn at the fair (I was about 10 when this album came out and it got a lot of play on KISW in Seattle).

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