EPISODE 206: THE WHEEL HAS SPOKEN!

The wheel just roared louder than a Pride-era guitar solo and landed on White Lion’s Big Game!

Will Vito Bratta’s legendary guitar work carry the album to victory? Does Mike Tramp still have the eye of the tiger? Or is this one destined for the bargain bin instead of the winner’s circle?

We’re diving headfirst into Side One of Big Game and pulling no punches. Grab your Aqua Net, crank the volume, and join us as we find out if White Lion came to play… or got hunted.

Big Game is the third studio album by the American glam metal band White Lion. It was released on June 5, 1989, by Atlantic Records, reaching #19 on The Billboard 200 album chart, #28 in Canada and #47 In the UK. The album contains the MTV hits, “Little Fighter”, “Radar Love” and “Cry for Freedom”. This album has a lighter sound than previous albums.

In the first half of 1989, still riding high on the multi platinum success of Pride, White Lion re-entered the studio following the completion of their Pride tour to record the next album, a decision the group later came to regret due to the effects of fatigue from the heavy touring. A musically eclectic follow-up to Pride, the album featured the single “Little Fighter”, in Memory of The Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace boat which was intentionally sabotaged and sunk by the French Secret Service while docked in an Auckland harbour, New Zealand in 1985 and served as the inspiration for the Steven Seagal film On Deadly Ground. In 1989, a fundraising double album was released entitled “Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors”. A cover of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” was released as the second single, followed by “Cry for Freedom” a political song about apartheid in South Africa and was one of many songs from the band that addressed social or political issues such as uprising to oppression. “Goin’ Home Tonight” was also released as a single.

All of the singles featured music videos and the album quickly went gold,peaking at #19 on the US album charts and charting very well around the world. Following the album’s release the band continued touring with Ozzy Osbourne in US, and later in the fall of 1989 they had their own headline tour in Europe.

Mike Tramp has later told in interviews that he thinks the album was “half-finished”. He and guitarist Vito Bratta wrote the album over two weeks in a Palm Springs hotel room and soon recorded the album quickly. It was a decision they have regretted, but they were inexperienced and felt pressure from the record company at that point.

White Lion
Mike Tramp – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Vito Bratta – lead guitar, backing vocals
James LoMenzo – bass, backing vocals
Greg D’Angelo – drums

Production
Michael Wagener – production, arrangements

Intro Music/Wheel Spin Music by LiteSaturation from Pixabay