Something 4 The Weekend # 163

Montrose: Montrose: "Space Station #5" [mp3]

No, this isn't Stiff Little Fingers doing their punk classic "Suspect Device". This is the Sammy Hagar-penned tune they blatantly ripped off for "Suspect Device".

When I was first getting into hard rock as a kid, "Space Station #5" used to actually get played on the radio (in addition to Montrose's biggest hit, "Bad Motor Scooter"), and it was one of my favorite songs. A few years later, a friend named Grace turned me on to Stiff Little Fingers, and it isn't surprising that "Suspect Device" became one of my favorite tunes.

Now, here I am 30+ years later, and both tunes still rock my world. And while it's probably not fair to Sammy Hagar and Montrose, "Suspect Device" remains one of my favorite songs of all time, and certainly one of the greatest Punk songs ever.

But this week's S4TW is meant to honor Sammy Hagar, when he was still cool, writing cool tunes, and not making me hate Van Halen, and perhaps moreso, to honor Ronnie Montrose, one of the most overlooked and forgotten guitar gods of his (or any) generation.

I mean, consider this - in the years prior to this album, Ronnie Montrose was the guitar player for Van Morrison. Van Morrison! How's that for versatility? From "Tupelo Honey" to this...Amazing...

Hotcha! Hank