Sad news for Quiet Riot fans today: Kevin Dubrow was found in his Vegas home dead at age 52:

The cause of death has not been announced. The Clark County coroner will conduct an autopsy and toxicology tests this week, but the official results won’t be known for several weeks.

Quiet Riot’s original bassist Kelli Garni asked not to speculate on what the cause of death might be so I’ll respect the dead and not do that at this time in the post body. Among friends and in the comments feel free to speculate all you want. This is the second rocker to be lost this year under sudden circumstances, the other being Boston’s guitarist Brad Delp who had committed suicide.

Why Delp was so sad remains a mystery to me, but there seems to be a terrible price to be a rock and roll star on many of these folks psyche. I’m sitting here listening to an all Quiet Riot playlist. Need to go out and buy a few CDs to complete our QR CD collection. By far my favorite CD from QR is Metal Health, followed by Condition Critical and then all the other CDs are kind of just there. The QR CD with the Randy Rhoads Years is special if you enjoyed Randy’s incredible guitar play but the songs are kind of weak. Look in any Window sticks out as my rocker favorite on that CD.

I saw Quiet Riot with Kevin Dubrow on the Condition Critical tour in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Was a decent show where they played all the live hits expected. I can’t remember whether it was Kick Axe or King Kobra that opened for them. It’s kind of sad to see Quiet Riot meltdown the way they did after their first album and over the years I continued to follow them hoping for some of that original magic. There were a few bright B-side style moments.

Here’s a list of Quiet Riot songs I’d grade B or higher off each of their albums below along with my favorite from each:

Quiet Riot The Randy Rhoads Years (best of QR I 1977 and QR II 1978)
Afterglow - my favorite on the CD, outstanding acoustic guitar by Rhoads and shows Dubrow had a good range not often heard in later albums.
Look in any Window

Metal Health (1983)
Metal Health - my favorite on the CD
Cum on Feel The Noize (overplayed on the radio, but a solid Slade cover)
Don’t Wanna Let You Go - perhaps the best mellow guitar song in their catalog
Love’s A Bitch - catchy opening guitar riff, great lyrics
Breathless - the opening Dubrow scream might be his best ever recorded
Thunderbird - a tribute song to Randy Rhoads which now if you fit the lyrics to this news sounds fitting: “Fly on, thunderbird high …” The Cheers TV show theme piano sounds a bit like Thunderbird or vice versa. Didn’t check to see who came first.

(Notable, but not one of my personal favorites: Slick Black Cadillac - this song plays better live which if you buy the remaster version, there is a great live version there)

Condition Critical (1984)
Sign of the Times
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Winners Take All - this was their featured ballad. Sounded great live.
Condition Critical - my favorite on this CD and also very good live. Dubrow’s scream before the solo is excellent.
Bad Boy

QR III (1986)
This album was wildly panned by critics because it had too much keyboards and synths and even some different backup (female?) singers on songs like Still of the Night. I didn’t think it was as bad an album as sales would indicate but it was the last album where I liked more than three songs. After this album the band fired Dubrow as the singer. Kind of odd because usually the singer is the one who leads the band.

Main Attraction
The Wild and The Young
Twilight Hotel - my favorite on this CD.
Still of the Night

Quiet Riot (1988 with Rough Cutt’s Paul Shortino on vocals instead of Dubrow)
Paul Shortino of Rough Cutt stepped in for one Quiet Riot album. I never got a chance to hear Shortino sing Dubrow’s songs, but his voice was very raspy and worked on a couple songs. I’d like to hear something live from this gig. The Shortino era had more of a bluesy feel than any previous QR effort.

Stay with me Tonight
Don’t Wanna Be Your Fool - my favorite on the CD

Terrified (1993)
There was at least one reunion attempt for the original QR and Terrified wasn’t a terrible effort, but not as good as Condition Critical. Definitely harder edged stuff.

Cold day in Hell
Itchycoo Park - good cover, my favorite on the CD
Terrified

Down to the Bone (1995)
Pretty Pack O’ Lies - I have to listen to this CD again, but this is the only song I remember from the track listing at Amazon. Had it on tape or CD at one time but don’t seem to any more. This is my least favorite album by them, at least from memory.

Alive and Well (1999)
Don’t Wanna Let You Go 1999 - I enjoyed the remakes of their first two albums better than any of the original songs. Sadly, it has been this way for Quiet Riot for awhile.

Guilty Pleasures (2001)
This album has a few songs that sound like they tried to borrow too heavily from Metal Health and Condition Critical. It didn’t sell very well, I reviewed on December 5, 2005 and gave it a B overall.

I Can’t Make You Love Me - my favorite on this CD
Let Me Be The One - this one feels like something from the Randy Rhoads years, but improved production value.

Rehab (2006)
The most recent Quiet Riot album received better reviews and I tried to get into it, but just couldn’t beyond two songs. I prefer the 80s Quiet Riot to the other directions Dubrow tried to take.

Beggars and Thieves - my favorite on this CD
Evil Woman - nice cover

What’s next for Quiet Riot?
With Dubrow gone, does this close the chapter on Quiet Riot? Something tells me that after a respectable amount of time the band might cobble together a tour in his honor, perhaps with Paul Shortino back on vocals again? It would make sense if Paul is still out there and available.

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