When you think of the Los Angeles metal bands of the 80’s who comes to mind? Motley Crue? Ratt? W.A.S.P? Poison? Guns N Roses? Maybe even Armored Saint. While all these bands are terrific and have made their mark in the heavy metal community, the scene wouldn’t have kicked off without a group called Dokken. While they didn’t directly influence their younger peers like the New York Dolls and Aerosmith, they did essentially create the 80’s sunset strip sound that all of their colleagues followed. Leader and singer Don Dokken started forming the band around the same time Van Halen were about to explode. He wanted to combine clear, radio friendly melody with an equally heavy instrumentation to go along. The result? Pop metal was born. Dokken set out to find the right players for his group. Initially he was singing in a Los Angeles based group entitled ‘Airborne’. They scored a small record contract in Germany which amounted to nothing. It was around this time that he witnessed a live performance of the band ‘Xciter’ featuring drummer Mick Brown and guitarist George Lynch. Dokken knew what he had to do, get these guys in a band with him. It took much convincing on Dokkens part to get the two to join his fantasy group, as well as bassist Juan Crucier (later replaced by Jeff Pilson when he went on to join Ratt). Eventually they joined what Don Dokken decided to name ‘Dokken’. Unfortunately there was tension from day one, particularly between Lynch and Dokken. However, the band knew they had something special and cut their first album ‘Breaking the Chains’ which would become the first hair metal album. The first of hundreds, maybe even thousands of it’s kind; released over the course of 12 years. The album featured polished melodies, a tight rhythm section and guitar playing so advanced that even the heaviest of the metal listeners, most of whom hated the growing pop metal trend, had to admit was pretty bad ass. Dokken would go on to major success in the following decade, although they never really got the credit they ultimately deserved. Yes they were big, but they weren’t a top ten band by any means. This is probably due to the fact that the group couldn’t get along. After four albums the band was set to become the biggest group in the world, but they imploded due to tension and the opportunity was lost in time. Know one has any idea what could have been. We can only imagine that Dokken would have rocked on through the 90’s surviving the alternative revolution and beyond. Fortunately there are hopes of a full scale reunion tour as the classic line-up is set to play four dates in Japan at the end of 2016. Fingers crossed.
An era is born!!
Their popularity did last through the 90’s while others faded. Even after replacing George Lynch who was iconic to the bands image. However, they never gained their due as a top 10 band, even in the 80’s.
Live from the Sun theater (a large theater) in Anaheim 1999.
