May 1986. I had just celebrated my 8th birthday with presents that ranged from G.I. Joe toys to Transformers and, no doubt, some Rambo and The Force of Freedom toys. One of my older brothers, Mark, had a white 1979 Pontiac Firebird with T-tops. Mark was at the forefront of ’80s rock and was even in a band himself. An aspiring singer in a cover band at the time, he always seemed to have the latest rock band T-shirts and cassettes. It was Memorial Day weekend 1986 when Mark stopped by, either on his way to Ocean City or on the way back, and I first heard the band Poison.
There was a little burger joint where I grew up called Tastee Freeze that had the best milkshakes. Our mom had given Mark some money, and off we went to get milkshakes in his Firebird. We pulled out of the driveway, and I remember the words, “I WANT ACTION TONIGHT, SATISFACTION ALRIGHT!” filling my ears. We lived on a long straightaway, and as Mark gunned that Firebird, I was hearing a newer form of music. Squealing guitars, pounding bass and a drumbeat that drove the song. I had heard KISS and Queen by this point, but this was different.
The stop-start vocals, along with the squealing guitars, had their infectious hooks in me. I looked over at my brother Mark, who was starting to grow his hair out, and he had the biggest smile on his face as he watched my reaction to this “freedom.” Fast muscle car, T-tops out and music straight from the Sunset Strip right here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. “Long legs and short skirts, these girls hit me where it hurts,” the song went as my 8-year-old ears consumed every word. The song ended about the time we were pulling into Tastee Freeze.
Hilariously enough, I was still singing the words to the song as we stood at the counter. Imagine the surprise of the older lady behind the counter hearing an 8-year-old singing about wanting action tonight. As we left town with our strawberry and mint chocolate chip milkshakes, the ballad “I Won’t Forget You” was next. Mark asked me, “Do you like this music?” A very excited “YES!” came out between pulls on my milkshake, which was still way too thick to drink. Mark promised to make me a copy of the tape.
Before the song had ended, we were back home, but no fear. Mark brought the tape inside and put it into the little AM/FM cassette player I had in my room. When “Look What the Cat Dragged In” started, I stopped worrying about my milkshake and became completely enamored with the song. The main thing that drew me to Poison was the guitar playing. C.C. DeVille was then, and still is today, one of the most underrated guitarists in rock.
Flash forward to the summer of 1999. After hit songs, breakups and grunge music, a reunion tour finally happened.
Bristow, Virginia. Early July 1999. Your author is sitting on the lawn anxiously awaiting Poison to take the stage. The lights went down, the band started jamming, and green lights lit up a dark stage hidden behind a curtain that simply read “POISON.”
“Washington, D.C., please welcome… POIIISONNNNN!” blared through the speakers.
C.C. tore into “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” followed by a vicious blast of pyro and a sonic boom as the curtain dropped. Bret, Rikki, Bobby and C.C. came out of the gate pedal to the metal. The bill that night featured L.A. Guns, Great White, Ratt and headliners Poison.
I spent many nights listening to Poison, Ratt and Mötley Crüe during the dead of a Maryland winter, with ice on the single-pane glass windows of my bedroom, dreaming of California beaches. No sooner had the notes of “Look What the Cat Dragged In” finished than the band sang in unison, “I WANT ACTION TONIGHT, SATISFACTION ALRIGHT!!!,” and the smile on my face lit up that dark lawn.
Three songs from Look What the Cat Dragged In made the setlist that night. This was far removed from 1988, 1989 or 1991, the band’s commercial heyday, but tell that to the sold-out crowd of 18,000 people who, like me, sang every word.
Listening to this album 40 years later, “Cry Tough,” the first single released, feels like the battle cry as they made their way from Pittsburgh and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
“You got to cry tough, out on the streets, to make your dreams happen,” go the lyrics, no doubt inspired by Rikki, Bret and Bobby as they drove across the United States. Emerging from the dive bars around Pittsburgh, where they started as Paris playing KISS and Mötley Crüe covers, Poison developed the stage show that helped launch them to the next level.
In need of a new guitarist after a few months in Hollywood, the band held auditions. It all came down to a couple of guys who not only had distinct looks but distinct guitar styles. C.C. DeVille, a brash New Yorker who had been grinding away on the L.A. club scene, and another guitarist by the name of Saul Hudson, a young L.A. musician whose mother had connections to the Rolling Stones.
C.C. eventually got the job, cementing the lineup that would crawl out of the gutters and onto the world stage. Saul Hudson would soon slash his way to stardom as Slash with Guns N’ Roses.
Poison wrote songs they had lived, such as “Cry Tough” and “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” as well as songs they wanted to live, such as “I Want Action” and “Talk Dirty to Me.” “Want Some, Need Some” is a sleeper that hits you immediately after “Talk Dirty to Me” or, in the case of us ’80s kids, was the first song on Side B.
“Play Dirty” is another track that grabs you with its lyrics and singalong chorus. What always stood out to me as a kid was the incredible guitar work of C.C. DeVille. At ages 6, 7 and 8, I had no idea what most of the lyrics meant. I knew exactly what a screaming guitar sounded like and how it made me flinch while playing air guitar.
Listen to the guitar solo in “Play Dirty” and tell me if C.C. DeVille made the right choice dropping out of New York University to pursue a career in rock. That blistering solo deserved to be heard by far more fans than those packed into places like Long Beach Arena or the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1986 and 1987.
Recorded with money the band had saved themselves, this album proved to be an incredible return on every ounce of sweat equity earned from loading in, playing clubs and loading back out across Pennsylvania and California.
Finally, the crown jewel of the album: “Talk Dirty to Me.”
Even in 2026, this song can still be the anthem of teenagers or adults sneaking off for a rendezvous at the drive-in, behind the bushes or in the basement. Lock the cellar doors! The second single, but the song that truly started it all for Poison on local Hollywood rock radio before spreading across the country and eventually the world.
Whether it’s the hits everyone knows or deeper cuts like “No. 1 Bad Boy” and “Want Some, Need Some,” these songs capture a moment in time and instantly transport me back to riding in a Pontiac Firebird with my older brother, getting introduced to great music.
Rumored to have cost somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000 to record, Look What the Cat Dragged In went on to sell more than 3 million copies in the United States alone. I eventually saw Poison again in 2000 with Cinderella, Dokken and Slaughter, then again in 2002 with Cinderella, Winger, Faster Pussycat and Pretty Boy Floyd. Nothing, however, will ever capture hearing songs from the iconic record performed live for the very first time.
Another testament to the strength of these songs came in 1996, during the so-called “dark ages” for glam bands, when Poison released a Greatest Hits album that went platinum. That was almost unheard of for the genre in the mid-’90s.
In 2006, for the album’s 20th anniversary, the band released a deluxe edition featuring three bonus tracks, one of which was a fantastic cover of Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.”
It has often been said that you have your whole life to write your first album, and if that’s true, what an amazing collection of songs these young musicians created. Look What the Cat Dragged In remains a testament to the dedication of three kids from Pennsylvania and one kid from New York who came together to become Poison.
Forty years later, all it takes is the opening blast of “I Want Action” to put me right back in that white Pontiac Firebird with the T-tops out, a milkshake in my hand and my older brother smiling as he watched Poison change everything.
One final thought: Jon Bon Jovi, Tom Keifer, and Bret Michaels, the three lead singers featured in my recent “Back In ’86” articles, have all been forced to cancel shows this summer due to a mix of health and/or vocal issues.
It’s a real reminder that the singers we grew up listening to won’t be out there forever. If one of your favorites comes through town, buy the ticket and make the memory. Don’t put it off, because there may not be a next time.