Street Lethal (album)



Street Lethal is the first album from Racer X, released on New Years' Day 1986 on Shrapnel Records. The majority of the material for Street Lethal was written by Paul Gilbert while he was a student at GIT. At the time of the album's release, Gilbert was only 19 years old.

In the 1987 World Time Card Clinic, Paul Gilbert says that Street Lethal only cost $9,000 to produce. Jeff Martin reports that the album only took 99 hours to record, mix, and master.

Composition
Much of Street Lethal had already been written by Paul Gilbert while he was a student at GIT. He recorded several demo tapes of the instrumental compositions, then sent them to Jeff Martin in Phoenix, AZ. Jeff would then write lyrics and record vocals for the tracks before sending them back to L.A.

The album opens with "Frenzy", an unaccompanied guitar solo in the vein of Van Halen's "Eruption". The solo demonstrates advanced alternate picking, sweep picking, and tapping at high tempos.

The title track, "Street Lethal", was a frequent setlist item at Racer X concerts prior to the release of Second Heat. "Into the Night", "Blowin' Up the Radio", "On the Loose", "Loud and Clear", "Dangerous Love", and "Getaway" were played at concerts throughout Racer X's career.

"Hotter than Fire" was a track brought over from Jeff Martin's previous band, Surgical Steel.

The instrumental track "Y.R.O.", which stands for Yngwie Rip-Off, is heavily based upon Yngwie Malmsteen's "Black Star" from his debut solo album Rising Force. The middle section breaks off into a guitar cover of Niccolo Paganini's "Moto Perpetuo" (Perpetual Motion) before resuming the Black Star motif.

Street Lethal is the only Racer X album to feature drummer Harry Gschoesser. After the release of the album, Gschoesser's visa expired and he had to move back to Austria.

Tracklist

 * 1) Frenzy
 * 2) Street Lethal
 * 3) Into the Night
 * 4) Blowin' Up the Radio
 * 5) Hotter Than Fire (Surgical Steel cover)
 * 6) On the Loose
 * 7) Loud and Clear
 * 8) Y.R.O.
 * 9) Dangerous Love
 * 10) Get Away
 * 11) Rock It

Personnel

 * Jeff Martin: vocals
 * Paul Gilbert: guitar
 * Juan Alderete: bass
 * Harry Gschoesser: drums

Trivia

 * Y.R.O. is not the only three-letter abbreviation on Shrapnel Records. On Vinnie Moore's debut solo album Mind's Eye, he has a track entitled "N.N.Y." which stands for No Name Yet (he had not thought of a name in time for the album's release).
 * The album artwork identifies the artist as "Racer X with Paul Gilbert", likely to capitalize on Gilbert's existing local fame.
 * The main riff of "On the Loose" uses the same notes as Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water"
 * Paul Gilbert says that his favorite albums while he was writing Street Lethal were LOUDNESS' Disillusion and Accept's Reckless and Wild . He also confesses that he borrowed heavily from LOUDNESS' "Satisfaction Guaranteed" when writing "Into The Night"
 * Street Lethal is the only Racer X album recorded in standard tuning. Second Heat is in Eb and every subsequent album is in D Standard.
 * The album artwork for Street Lethal was done by Guy Aitchison, who did the cover artwork for most of the Shrapnel releases in the 80's. In 1988, Aitchison transitioned from painting into tattoos, and gave Rob Zombie his first tattoo in 1989.