THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Left For Dead

THE FOUR HORSEMEN Left For Dead (live 88-92) cd 2005 192 kbps
75 Again / Moonshine / Tired Wings / Can't Get Next To You / Nobody Said It Was Easy / Hothead / The Roadie From Hell / I Need A Thrill / Wanted Man / Rockin' Is My Business / Let It Rock / Lookin' for Trouble.
The Four Horsemen: F. C. Starr: vocals /D. Lizmi: guitar / Haggis: guitar /B. Pape: bass / K. Montgomery: drums.
The Four Horsemen (there were actually 5 of ‘em, by the way) was formed by bassist Kid Chaos (Stephen Harris) in 1988. Chaos has the greatest goddamn pedigree in all of rock and roll. First, the fucker did time in Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction until Ian Astbury stole him for a 1987 Cult tour. Kid screwed up the dream gig by appearing on the Joan Rivers show wearing a Zodiac Mindwarp t-shirt (!), and soon found himself looking for a job. He split the UK and landed in LA, where we changed his name to Haggis, switched to rhythm guitar, wrote a bunch of songs, and formed the Four Horsemen. They quickly released a now scarce 4 song, self-titled EP in ‘89* that laid down the biker-friendly, blue-collar blueprint for their sound. The songs were amped-up classic rockers, with all the hard rock crunch of the Cult mixed with Southern riff rock, and pushed right over the top by Frank Starr’s hyperactive screech**. Critics loved ‘em because they thought all the macho swagger was ironic, and the kids loved them because they knew it wasn’t. The Horsemen started carving out a reputation as authentically bad-ass rock and roll motherfuckers with a series of kill for thrills live shows, and all this AC/DC meets Sturgis biker rally meets Texan roadhouse thunderboogie action quickly caught up to Rick Rubin, who signed them to Def American. In 1990, the band was all set to go to New York and record “Nobody Said It Was Easy”, and success was just around the corner.Then Frank got busted on a drug charge and went to jail for 6 months. Guess they got the title for the album right. Eventually he got out, and they recorded the record. It hit the streets in 1991, and fit right in with the whiskey drinkin’, poker cheatin’, tattooed and bruised biker metal aesthetic so gloriously prevalent in the early 90’s. “Tired Wings”, the album’s sole (pseudo) ballad, was a shameless Lynrd Skynrd inspired southern rock rambler, and it’s video got a decent amount of airplay on MTV. They toured with the Black Crowes and a cobbled-together almost-Skynrd, and developed a rabid following of bikers, metal heads, and assorted bad asses. Then they started writing songs for their follow-up. And then, in 1992, Frank got thrown back in jail for a year. By the time he got out, a lot of momentum was lost, but the band rallied, and work on “Getting Pretty Good… at Barely Getting By” began. Then, in 1994, drummer Dimwit died of a heroin overdose. He was replaced by his brother, Chuck Biscuits (Danzig), but by that time Haggis had enough of the madness, and left his own band, followed quickly by original bass Ben Pape. Axeman Dave Lizmi and Frank Starr soldiered on. Then, in 1995, a drunk driver smashed into Frank while he was riding his motorcycle, and he lapsed into a coma. Dave finished the mixing the record, and it was released on American in 1996. Dave hired Ron Young from Little Caesar to cover for Frank, and they toured the album until 1998, when they finally fizzled out. Frank (R.I.P.) never woke up from his coma, and eventually died in June, 1999. Sleazegrinder
Following Starr's death, the band broke up.
In 2005, Haggis and D. Lizmi assembled as much archive footage of the band as they could gather, and released a 2 disc retrospective "Left for Dead". Disc one is a dvd featuring all videos from the "Nobody said it was Easy"" album, plus rare interviews, live performances, and behind the scenes footage. Disc two is a live cd (buy it here!).
For the 21st anniversary of the band you can visit their store where you will find a bunch of great stuff in celebration of this fact. Re-releases of all their records with additional material. Plus, a pile of stuff never before seen or heard (unless you were there).