Now it’s time to really get into the meat and potatoes of the worst of 1992.  The eighties hair and glam metal bands that dug trenches against the grunge and shoegazing movements and refused to retreat.  I can just imagine the conversation between rock subgenres in 1992:

As I briefly touched on in the intro, 1992 was littered with old standbys and eighties mainstays dominating the charts when U2 and the Seattle scene weren’t involved.  U2 had the biggest Mainstream Rock song of the year with “Mysterious Ways,” but finishing in fourth was Ozzy Osbourne, continuing his now four-decade run of success even without Black Sabbath and Randy Rhoads.  Finishing with three of the top 75 songs was Van Halen, who seven years after the loss of David Lee Roth scored the #3 song of the year on the chart with “Right Now.”  I can’t go through all the supposed has-been artists that had big years in 1992 now, since I’ll be giving too much away.  But of particular note were two bands, who screamed “eighties” in their sound and presentation, that peaked in 1991 and 1992.

First up is Tesla, a glam metal band from Sacramento, since surpassed by Deftones for the title of Sacramento’s greatest heavy metal band.  Ever heard of them?  It’s okay, I’d never heard of them before I started this project.  Well, they had three songs on the charts in 1992.  Their biggest hit this year was “What You Give,” which along with “Call It What You Want” was a song that just screamed “eighties” with Jeff Keith’s emphatic vocals and the blues-inspired glam melodies.  I could smell the hair gel from here in 2021 when I listened to them.  Tesla did have talent, as their other hit “Song And Emotion” is one of my favorite new discoveries I made during this project and a real possibility for an honorable mention, but I just sat baffled listening to them.  These guys were more emblematic of 1992 than Alice In Chains?  And then there’s Queensryche.

Queensryche was another glam metal band, from Seattle oddly enough, who have largely been forgotten through time with just three of their songs surpassing the ten million mark on Spotify.  But in the early nineties, they were big.  Based on my final stats, “Silent Lucidity” was the biggest Mainstream Rock song of 1991, with “Jet City Woman” not too far behind.  In 1992, they had two songs in the top 100 of the year-end chart.  The second, “Anybody Listening?” is actually pretty good: Not quite as good as “Song And Emotion,” but still an epic song that proved Queensryche had talent.  But because life’s not fair, “Anybody Listening?” failed to make the top 75 while the other song easily made eligibility.  And in a world where Nirvana and Pearl Jam had become the next big things… we didn’t need this.

“Another Rainy Night” – Queensryche

Mainstream Rock
#7 peak (January 4, 1992)
#23 year end, 28 weeks on chart (20 in 1992)

Most glam metal songs that made it big in 1992 have the key problem that they are dated.  Heroic guitars, lots of treble, and dramatic vocals and melody lines that would promptly get squashed the second grunge took over.  While “Another Rainy Night” is dated, it is not my main problem with the song.  The problem with “Another Rainy Night” is that from its sound to its vocals and especially to its lyrics, this is a miserable song.  I’m pretty sure emo kids chose this song to listen to while slitting their wrists before pop punk became a thing.

On paper, this doesn’t sound like a particularly dreary song.  Michael Wilton’s opening riff sounds pretty powerful, and quickly grabs your attention.  It sounds like it’s leading the charge into the valley of death.  His lead guitar riff in the chorus, which comes off after, sounds pretty decent too.  It’s generic, sure, but it also provides the listener another catchy hook.  But therein lies the problem.  His riffs, while effective, are effective in setting the tone of the song.  Which is, they’re perfect for some angry beast sitting in his mansion, angry that their Belle has run off for the night and left them alone.  Combined with the band’s inclusion, the whole scene paints the picture of a dreary night, probably with thunder outside.  Then in the ensuing verses, it shifts to a single Am7 chord on the guitar, followed by just a two note pattern on the bass.  The creativity of the song has descended into boring, basic progressions.  Add to that the fact that the song is in A minor – indicating that it’s designed to be a sadder, angrier sounding track – and you have the last song you would ever want to hear when you’re trying to cheer yourself up. 

And if you thought that was bad… well, wait until we get into the lyrics.  Frontman Geoff Tate sings about losing his loved one.  This time, however, there’s a twist.  Tate is not going through a breakup, but rather is home alone while his girlfriend is out and about without him.  But apparently according to Tate, this feeling is on par with a breakup.  I don’t buy it.

Another long distance night alone
You leave me wanting, always leave me wanting more

I mean, maybe they’re long distance, but at least they’re together.  Why is this such a big deal?  Just cling to the fact that you’re happy that you’re with this woman.  And the song’s description of this relationship just keeps getting worse.

But now my take-out food is growing cold
And the candle’s burned a hole in the floor
And I’m still waiting for the ring of the phone

Wow.  What real problems.  Because your lady isn’t there with you… as a consequence your takeout food has gone cold and a candle has burned a hole in the floor.  Uhhh… I’m pretty sure all you have to do with your takeout food is to put it in the oven.  Even single guys who can’t cook anything besides frozen waffles know that.  With his description of problems that are occurring without his girlfriend around, the message is that all these terrible things are happening because he is alone.  He interprets a simple night where he and his partner are not together as a breakup.  That’s… crap.  Just crap.  Why don’t you just play video games all night?  And then there’s the whole problem with the song.  Tate just wallows in misery for the whole song.  And with him, so does the song as a whole.

If you are trying to gain happiness in your life, the last thing I would recommend is to listen to “Another Rainy Night.”  Everything about it is gloomy.  The music may be effective in setting the mood, but when you consider how the tone of the song is just doom and gloom for four minutes, it worked a little too well.  And the lyrics just put the kibosh on how frustrating this is to listen to, because it’s about a man who doesn’t have a real problem but interprets it as the end of the world.  I don’t know who would want to listen to this, other than the stereotypical emo kids I mentioned earlier.  Even to glam rock fans: Glam rock is not my genre, but going through this list taught me there is better Queensryche and glam rock out there.  Check out “Anybody Listening?,” but leave this song in the rain where it belongs.  Who cares if it’s stricken by thunder.

UP NEXT: A legendary 70s band fails to update a rock and roll anthem at #6.

SOURCES

Chords taken from Ultimate Guitar: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/1820778.

Key taken from Tunebat: https://tunebat.com/Info/Another-Rainy-Night-Without-You-Remastered-2003-Queensr-che/4tUma2etb9HVEHTeIdJjl3

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from Discogs

Photo of Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder from Tone Deaf – The Brag

Image of the French Taunter from Monty Python And The Holy Grail from Twitter

Photo of Queensryche from Billboard