YouTube: lnkfwd.com/u/LAZt4nmT
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Well, not exactly new, as a matter of fact Billy released the same song last year to crickets. But now it's been remixed to sound like Billy in his heyday, the "Don't Say No" era.
And what an era it was.
How do I know Billy was in Piper?
That's how hungry we were for information back then. We read incessantly, the key was to be comprehensive, to know everything. Furthermore, the acts inspired this curiosity. I mean how did Billy Squier come out of nowhere to top the chart? And it wasn't only "The Stroke." No, it was one hit after another, "In the Dark" was fantastic, "My Kind of Lover" as good as what it preceded it and "Lonely Is the Night" phenomenal too. But having said that, my favorite song ended up being "Too Daze Gone."
I didn't buy the LP upon release. I didn't love the ubiquitous "The Stroke," but then came "In the Dark" and then one day I just had to pop for the album and I played it just like everybody else on my powerful stereo that could blow the roof off not only my house, but my next door neighbor's.
This was just before MTV. When rock ruled. AOR ruled. Disco had been killed two years before by Steve Dahl at Comiskey Park, even though in truth it just went underground, and Prince released the heavy beat "Dirty Mind" in the interim. But only aficionados were aware of that well-reviewed album, it was the next album, "Controversy," that got the public to pay attention to the man from Minneapolis, if for no other reason than he opened for the Stones and...
Well, you know the story.
Just like you know the story of Billy jumping on the bed in that video and...
1981. Even though the mainstream didn't truly embrace Bryan Adams until 1984's "Reckless," with "Run to You," in July of that year, just before the launch of MTV on August 1st, Adams put out the best album of his career, "You Want It You Got It," with "Lonely Nights" all over FM radio, if not "Fits Ya Good." Play "Lonely Nights," it will bring you right back, to when most of America was on the same page. It was white and it was rock, but country was still considered twangy and like I said above, disco had been squeezed off the main highway and...
In 1981 AC/DC followed up their breakthrough "Back in Black" with "For Those About to Rock..." Which was nowhere near as good, but we played it.
And ZZ Top had switched to Warner Bros. and followed up "Deguello" with "El Loco."
And Rush put out "Moving Pictures" and Genesis put out "Abacab" and Van Halen released "Fair Warning" and Foreigner put out "4" and Hall & Oates released "Private Eyes" and Ozzy put out "Diary of a Madman," with the FM staple, my favorite Ozzy track, "Flying High Again," as well as "Over the Mountain"...
Everything was groovy.
And along comes this interloper.
Billy Squier had no history. Was unknown, whereas most of the acts burning up the airwaves had history. But there was this sound on the record, which was produced by Mack, who'd streamlined the Queen sound on "The Game," an album which ranged from the undeniable acoustic rockabilly hit of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to "Another One Bites the Dust" and you could hear the through line, the punch in Billy's album.
Haven't heard much from Mack recently.
Nor Billy Squier.
I heard Billy was back on the road, but it all seemed a bit off the radar.
And then...
I got an e-mail about Billy's new track.
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This guy knew Billy, despite living in Oz. I told him I wanted to do a podcast with Squier. Could he hook me up.
Took a while, but ultimately I got into conversation with Squier himself and he said no. Even though this was contradictory to the title of his breakthrough LP.
Let's be clear. I would have to ask him about that video, Billy in the pink top jumping on the aforementioned bed, that tanked his career overnight, took Billy from big time star to has-been nearly instantly. He just didn't display the proper macho.
Didn't matter what Squier said, how it wasn't his decision. It rarely was in the video days, at least at this point, but it was too bad. The public decided that Billy was...
Not for them. A wuss.
And it was not long before you never heard from Billy again. He got a bit of airplay thereafter, but it didn't sustain, and at that point you were either on MTV or off. And Billy was off. And ultimately he became a footnote.
But why was this new track so GOOD?
3
Rock has come a long way since Billy Squier's heyday. Well, let's just say there's a huge distance between where Billy was forty years ago and where we are today. Today, if it hints of mainstream, of sellout, Active Rock doesn't want to play it. Active Rock is all about edge, the other. If you play mainstream, straight ahead rock, there's no place for you. Metallica is the model. Loud, thrashy, angry. That foursome used to be considered fringe, and then ultimately mainstream with "Enter Sandman," but then hip-hop truly triumphed and the acts that followed Metallica were angrier and noisier and faster and...the mainstream checked out, and now rock is niche.
But sometimes to come back you've got to go back to the garden.
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So I figured that's the last I'd hear from Billy, I told him a podcast would not be gotcha, but he was not going to say yes, yet he kept e-mailing me about this new release.
He'd given it away on his website. I told him that was an antique strategy, files were for the Active Rock crowd, no, you had to be on streaming services.
Then Billy told me he'd made a deal with UMe and...that's why I'm writing about it now, it's just a click away, everywhere.
And if you were ever a fan, you should listen.
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It's the guitar. You can see the player in front of the amp, getting that big sound from the Marshall. And then Billy comes in sounding...
Exactly like he used to. How can this BE?
And if you ever liked this sound you're immediately in the groove. You're nodding your head involuntarily. The sounds are layered, there are changes, you can picture yourself driving your Camaro on the highway with the windows down blasting this number.
Which seems to have no place in today's music world.
But the funny thing is, unlike all the modern people, Billy is taking a stand.
"Molly's got a problem – what she gonna do
Took away her freedom – she can't believe it's true"
What's going on here?
Billy Squier has written a PROTEST SONG! Yes, in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
"Freedom takes a holiday – it comes as no surprise
Justice in America is dust before your eyes
And no man is your brother – it's all a bed of lies
Gotta fight for your rights"
When seemingly the harder you rock, the more you lean right, Billy Squier is standing up for women, against the elimination of their rights.
But the amazing thing is the track works irrelevant of the lyrics. We could argue for a stronger chorus, but there are so many changes, it's infectious, the song starts off a full throttle and then it goes into hyperdrive, and then all you can do is PLAY IT OVER AGAIN!
"Harder on a Woman" is completely out of time. I don't know if Generation Alpha could even understand it. Gen-Z would be flummoxed. This sound hasn't been on the airwaves, hasn't been fashionable for decades, to the point where it sounds fresh. If rock ever comes back it'll germinate from this sound, not what passes for rock today, whether it be that outside stuff on Active Rock or all the people who can't sing and can't write songs who believe they deserve attention.
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And the funny thing is it was released a year ago.
But the remix is everything. Listen to the two side by side. Here's the old version:
Spotify: shorturl.at/q6ZjG
YouTube: tiny.cc/5twrzz
It's the same song, but it's different, it doesn't have the same PUNCH!
Here, I'll let Billy explain it:
The initial recording of "Harder on A Woman" was released on March 8, 2023. It was written in the summer of 22, as a response to the Dobbs Decision and the implicit threat it poses to our individual freedoms. Music is my mouthpiece - if I have something to say, I choose to speak through that medium. The song wasn't conceived as a "Billy Squier Comeback Record", but rather a musical call-to-arms that I felt compelled to put out on the street. It was recorded in a very straight-forward manner, with some of my great musician friends: Simon Kirke on drums, Mark Clarke on bass, and GE Smith as second guitar. I gave no real time or thought to "producing" the track - I simply wanted people to hear the song and focus on the message.
In the Fall of 2023, I got this idea to revisit the song as a proper "Billy Squier Record", that is, make it sound like a track I would have cut back in the 80's, with the production values and recording techniques I would have used in making "Don't Say No" and my other albums. You might say I put the original track into a WayBack Machine and set the destination for Power Station 1981. I added a few bits, but the original performances are pretty much intact.
If you listen to the two versions back-to-back, the sonic differences are readily apparent, with the emphasis more on 'Billy' in the later version. The limited feedback I've gotten on "Harder 24 - Don't Say No Mix" has validated my process. People identify with this as a Billy Squier Record, which is what they've been waiting for...
And now they'll have it.
Billy
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