The Importance Of Being Dokken

This past Saturday afternoon, I was taking a quick nap when “In My Dreams” by the popular ‘80’s metal band Dokken came on my iTunes (I had it on shuffle mode because I am a guy who likes both variety and surprises and also a bit of Dokken every now and then). Since I hadn’t heard Dokken in a long time, I decided to push the issue and listen to Dokken and only Dokken during the rest of my nap. It was pretty exciting on several levels.

For the uninitiated, Dokken is a band from Los Angeles specializing in hair metal or pop metal or rock or just plain metal depending on whom you ask. They used to be on MTV all the time back in the ‘80’s when such music was king. While many of Dokken’s peers played major key songs about banging chicks and stuff, Dokken tended to favor minor key songs about breaking up with chicks they used to bang. It was good music to listen to in your car while your girlfriend (or at least the girl you hoped might one day be your girlfriend) ran into the convenient store for smokes or something and ended up talking to that dude over by the magazines for just a little too long. What the fuck?

My friend Tim and I were seriously into Dokken’s guitar player George Lynch, who is pretty awesome. Even Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins has talked about how he used to listen to George Lynch’s cool guitar playing and be all like wanting to play like that and stuff. George can play really fast and make cool squealy sounds when he does it. In short, he is pretty awesome, which I was saying earlier. Tim and I actually liked George Lynch more than Dokken as a whole. George was so good that we didn’t mind listening to rest of the band playing and singing along with George and his awesome guitar playing. It was worth it in the end. Besides, the chances of George leaving Dokken and joining the Replacements- thus combining most of our favorite things into one unstoppable band- seemed kind of unlikely any way you sliced it. Then again, that might not be the best idea the more I think about it anyway.

Now when I hear Dokken I remember back to being a youngster and first learning guitar and wanting to be able play all fast and shit. I’m older now and I still can’t play nearly as well as George Lynch, but I do have my moments of being fairly shred-capaple from time to time. My hair is not as cool as George Lynch’s used to be back in the day either, though it’s not too bad I suppose. Regardless, hearing Dokken reminds me of what it is to dream. Here is one their hits:

Dave Hill