Y&T should have been bigger, but I’m afraid that with time no one will know who they are or were.

Dave Meniketti is one of those guitar heroes who had pipes to sing and play awesome guitar, bassist Phil Kennemore is the underrated lyricist in the band, while Joey Alves, along with Kennemore and Leonard Haze held down the foundations.

And Meniketti, brought his late sixties hard rock roots into the mix merging Hendrix, Purple, Cream, Sabbath and Clapton with the new California sounds of San Francisco and LA.

For Y&T to even get to this stage, it meant they had to survive a label deal which went bad, a manager who ripped them off with royalties, their “Struck Down” album was dead before it even came out, A&R reps telling them to change their music style and other recording industry people telling them to break up.

Y&T (before “Black Tiger”) recorded two demo tapes, a new wave tape and a hard rock tape. Gene Simmons came across both of these tapes and he really liked the new wave songs. He even told the band to pursue that new wave sound and if the band wanted his help, Simmons would need to have artistic control. But Y&T decided to pursue the hard rock sound and A&M Records showed interest here.

“Life, Life, Life” is from the excellent “In Rock We Trust” album released in 1984.

It starts off with a triplet 8th der der der, der der der, derrr de. And it repeats, before it morphs into a sweet tasty lead before it morphs into the verse riff.

It’s a bloody scene
Hear the population scream
As the missile rushes in
Can’t you feel the flames of hell?

What’s changed in the last 35 years?

Missiles are still rushing in and for people living in these war zones, it is hell. And for all of our technological advancements to integrate and socialise, we are even more divided.

There is a status gap, a digital divide gap, a racial divide still exists, a religious divide, a pay divide and eventually when people rise up to demonstrate, they either get ignored, imprisoned or killed depending on the country and the type of government they are demonstrating against.

And that “is it too late” section, puts Def Leppard’s vocal harmonies to shame.

We let the insane play their fools game

We don’t just let the insane, play, we vote them in and give them the keys.

It’s time to make a stand for
Life, Life, Life
It’s time to break down the chain of command

We are the only ones who can make change happen, but we choose to opt out so we don’t upset other people.

It’s time to break down the chain of command and stop the war machines, which also includes the corporations trying to hijack democracy.  

And we need to do it, to preserve life.