Your Mama Don't Dance

Hey Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew is cranking up the turntables and laying down Poison's take on "Your Mama Don't Dance" from Open Up And Say...Ahh!, and this one still hits like a Saturday night on the Strip. Those Pennsylvania boys took a 1972 Loggins and Messina number that was already a party starter and twisted it into pure glam metal swagger, complete with C.C. DeVille's screaming guitar runs and Bret Michaels' raspy howl that makes you want to grab a cold one and hit the highway. It was the fourth single off that multi-platinum monster of an album, climbing to number ten on the charts and earning gold status, and it still feels like the perfect freeform rock anthem for the listening audience that hangs around THE ZOO.

The original writers never saw this version coming. Jim Messina, who co-wrote the tune with Kenny Loggins, later said he first heard Poison's cover and thought, man, that doesn't sound like the song I wrote. He was coming from the Americana side of things after Buffalo Springfield and Poco, so the teased hair and the big glam production threw him. But he dug deeper into the rest of the album and realized it was all about the art and the style. He compared it to how Picasso and Dali each have their own thing, and once he looked at it that way he started appreciating how other people record other people's music. Kenny Loggins has said they wrote it as a fun throwback in the style of old Wynonie Harris and a little Elvis, not some deep heartbreaker, and they almost skipped recording it until live crowds jumped up and danced like they already knew every word. Messina drew the famous line straight from his own upbringing. His Arkansas-born stepfather was more of an Ernest Tubb and Johnny Cash guy who figured the Beatles were just screaming long-haired idiots, while his mama loved Elvis, Ricky Nelson, and the race music of the day. The lyric was just a fun way to talk about that funky household, and it stuck around long enough for Elvis himself to slip a few lines into a medley on a live album.

Poison had been rocking that song out in the clubs long before the record, and they refused to treat it like some dusty oldie. Bret Michaels has talked about how everybody told them you can't redo a mellow song like that, but they just completely rocked it out the way they used to play it live. Producer Tom Werman remembered the sessions for Open Up And Say...Ahh! as hard work because C.C. was going through a rough stretch, yet the band still delivered a record full of energy and hooks. The video directed by Marty Callner opens with skateboarders stirring up an older couple in a park before cutting to the band ripping it for a packed crowd, which matches the generational rebellion in the lyrics about sneaking out, getting busted at the drive-in, and the cop yelling out of the car longhair. In the original version that cop voice was actually their drummer Merel Bregante messing around in the studio. Poison kept that rebellious spirit and turned it into a three-minute blast that still gets people moving decades later.

The guys who pulled it off started out a long way from the Hollywood lights. Bret Michaels and Rikki Rockett grew up around Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, jamming in basements and VFW halls with Bobby Dall and original guitarist Matt Smith under the name Paris. They were covering Aerosmith, Van Halen, Kiss, and the Scorpions, writing their own fast songs that were so quick a ballad sounded like Metallica, and hustling local bar owners for gigs. When the hometown scene felt too small they packed up and headed west so they would have to make the music work or go home. New York was too close and too familiar. Los Angeles meant no safety net, better weather, and girls wearing less, so they loaded into a beat-up car, drove the Strip, and started over. Matt Smith headed back to Pennsylvania when family life called, and the band auditioned replacements. The short list included Slash, who later joined Guns N' Roses, and a guy from the Joe Perry Project, but C.C. DeVille from Brooklyn won the gig because of the fire he brought and because he already had "Talk Dirty to Me" in his pocket. They lived together in warehouses and cheap rooms, ate Top Ramen, worked odd jobs, and stood outside the Rainbow handing out flyers with no money to get inside. One Christmas they decorated a little tree with ripped-up flyers. Those lean years forged the lineup of Bret, Bobby, Rikki, and C.C. that signed with the independent Enigma label for about thirty thousand dollars and cut Look What the Cat Dragged In. By the time they reached Open Up And Say...Ahh! they had real pre-production days, a real budget, and the experience of knowing what it took to get there.

That second album became their commercial peak, peaking at number two and moving millions of copies on the strength of "Nothin' But a Good Time," "Fallen Angel," "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," and this cover that brought a whole new generation to a song written about a strict household and a mama who loved rock and roll. The boys have sold more than forty million records and DVDs worldwide since those early days of scrounging gigs and sleeping in warehouses. You can catch more of their story and the catalog over at the official site PoisonOfficial.com, follow the band on Facebook, check out the photos and updates on Instagram, and keep up with the latest on X. Fans keeping the flame alive can join the conversation in the FANS OF POISON group where the stories and the memories keep rolling. The Zoo Crew will keep spinning the deep cuts and the hits alike, so stick around and let the rock and roll keep on rolling.