Warrant Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich

Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich was the first cassette tape I ever purchased. I remember getting home and grabbing my tape deck, flipping the tape over to side 2, fast forwarding, and landing EXACTLY at the beginning of Heaven. Warrant had some good tunes and a few of them were on this album.

Updated Oct 28 2022

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Warrant Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich album cover — Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich

Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich Track Listing

32 Pennies
Down Boys
Big Talk
Sometimes She Cries
So Damn Pretty (Should Be Against The Law)
D.R.F.S.R.
In The Sticks
Heaven
Ridin' High
Cold Sweat

Warrant's Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1989) is a strong debut. Mega power ballad Heaven, along with Down Boys and Big Talk, are hair metal treasure.

I want to rate it higher, but the non-hits just don't commit to memory. If it were a baseball team, it would bow out in round one of the playoffs. Pants might feel differently about it, not sure.

Interesting note - producer Beau Hill lays down keyboards and some backing vocals on the album. Also on backing vocals is Bekka Bramlett.

Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich Album Cover

Cashly Guido Bucksley / Fugazi, the antagonist on the album cover, exudes the visage of Warrant's contempt. Look at all those bills, all that gold. Even the typeface screams money.

Mark Ryden's artwork captures the essence of the album and the band's 6th track.

Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich notes

This album has some great guitar solos. They aren't necessarily iconic or memorable, yet still, they rock. Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich really forces the listener to sympathize with Jani Lane's search for the secret hiding place of the Down Boys.

Just where could it be?

And, it seems the [Mike Slamer][/mike-slamer/) rumors have been put to rest and he did in fact shred the solos on the album. Guessing Erik Turner and Joey Allen were just pretty faces ...

32 Pennies

Not a bad opening groove to the album. Jani Lane makes the word Ragu sexy.

Down Boys

Always loved the intro, gets me ready to rock out. Love the arpeggio'd notes over the gritty rin-jin power chord chugging of the verse. Gotta respect the floating whammy note pre-chorus. Good breakdown pre-solo. Speaking of, a lot of guitar techniques being dropped in place of more melodic runs. Jani Lane (and the production team) really nails the nails the sound of the 80s with the harmonized ending "Goooooo".

The Down Boys has performed double duty, somehow achieving a modicum of notoriety as a team name in every beer league softball league, fantasy football league, and college intramural sports program out there.

Also ... If you don't know where the down boys go, you aren't one.

Big Talk

DRFSR's "rock tune". They were banking on this to be the hit, not Down Boys, and definitely not Heaven (side two). It had an interesting video with the money bags Fugazi character from the album cover. I enjoyed this tune thoroughly as a kid. Not much has changed. I dig the solo (and the drum buildup). I also love how they bring it back in at the end. I imagine this was a fun tune live.

As for the video, it takes place as the Buck$ley Arena. Hopefully Jani gets the best of Cashly Guido Bucksley ... and that ... ninja!?

Sometimes She Cries

4th spot ballad! A niiiiiice run up and down the scale to start the song. Strong chorus, strong vocal lines, cheesy, but acceptable lyrics. Overall good job by leaning on the Def Leppard chorus for this one.

So Damn Pretty (Should Be Against The Law)

Warrant might have written a song that is against the law in So Damn Pretty, the lyrics are not very kind to ladies. On the plus side, there is an absolutely shredded solo. And, a totally bad ass verse riff.

Whoa/Yeah factor is ridin' high on this one (see what I did there?).

D.R.F.S.R.

Total 80s start to the tune. Tough guy "huh" part always slays me. Interesting chromatic runs. "I'm gonna light my cigarettes with hundred dollar bills" is an all-time boss lyric. A dynamic and compact solo that's all over the fretboard. Did he just say "early term rollovers"? Way ahead of Diddy here as musicians who diversify their bonds.

In The Sticks

Awesome guitar intro. A real good tune on the album. Not really memorable across the hair metal genre. They do expose the softer side of Jani Lane with the ending "whoa oh oh".

Heaven

POWER. BALLAD. Heaven is a legendary power ballad. It has all the ingredients: acoustic start, building pre-chorus, huge chorus, third verse that's rife with angst, mega key change. DOUBLE KEY CHANGE.

The double key change is some four leaf clover, Bigfoot, Chupacabra, free beer stuff. You know it's out there, you just can't prove it.

And white leather. The video for Heaven really positioned Warrant as the white leather band, a somehow softer side of 80s hair metal, but tough, always tough. Cause leather jackets with tassels are for tough guys.

How do you know how good Heaven is/was? Jani Lane's daughter, Madison Lane, dropped a piano-based cover of it. Her version solidifies just how strong it is.

Ridin' High

GREAT intro. I wanna party ... someone grab me a Bud Heavy. I want the figurative tattoo on my heart, sounds tough. Are we going to chorus here at the end of verse one? No. Ok, straight to verse two. Love the backing vocals in the chorus. Grab me another Bud Heavy.

Cold Sweat

A very basic 80s rocker, the kind you'd expect to hear bumpin' out of a IROC-Z at [insert your local beach town strip]. It does the "band proclaims something, lead singer boasts even more" thing in the chorus.