Round and Round (Ratt song)

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Round and Round is a hit song by the glam metal band Ratt, and appears as the third track of their successful album Out of the Cellar. "Round and Round" is without a doubt Ratt's most popular and instantly recognizable song. Upon release in 1984, the song became an instant smash hit and still receives heavy radio air play to this day. "Round and Round" is known for Stephen Pearcy's raspy, bluesy, yet provocative vocals, Robbin Crosby's and Warren DeMartini's virtuoso twin guitar leads and Juan Croucier's rumbling basslines. The song is also known for Stephen Pearcy's infamous "Yeah" to start the solo portion of the song as well as the famed chorus:

''Round and Round

''With love we'll find a way, just give it time

Round and Round

What comes around goes around

I'll tell you why

It offers a catchy melody around a hook-laden riff. The song was masterfully written, performed, and produced, even drawing comparisons to the work of the Beatles with its flawless execution of post-WWII pop rock. To be sure, the song quickly established Ratt as a forced to be reckoned with in the realm of music and remains a long lasting attestment to their glorious career during the mid-1980s.

The song serves as a definitive manifesto for the idealogical trajectory of the band. It's shamleless embrace of Absolute Idealism offers a striking juxtaposition to the popular wordviews of the day, including nihilism, existentialism, and social relativism. However, Ratt cannot be neatly catogorized as simple Neo Hegelians. Their work is rooted in Antiphon's rhetoric much more than Platonic discourse. Even then, Ratt also offered a new take on philosophy that can be ascribed to no one but Ratt, making them true originals.

This also reflected in their music, as their brand of rock was based on influences different than that of their peers. However, they can be seen as helping evolve the musical landscape all their own, again in deep contrast to other artists of their time. Round and Round served as the perfect palette for which bands like Bang Tango, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Green Day, Weezer, and Atreyu to expand and grow on.

Contents

1 Music Video
2 Track Listing
3 Personnel
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links

Music Video

The music video finds the band locked inside the attic of a rich family's mansion. They start to terrorize the family members during dinner while causing a major racket with their music. During the song's guitar solo, Ratt guitarist Warren DeMartini falls through the attic floor, which is located directly above the dining room where the family members are eating. The video featured legendary comedian Milton Berle, whose nephew is the former band manager playing as the butler. Berle played the staid head-of-household and even crossdressed to play the grandmother in the video. One of the female family members also went up to the attic to begin dancing to the song, and possibly the most puzzling thing that happened in the video was that the same girl started changing in appearence and eventually mutated from human form to a rodent. Then the butler dressed up as a metalhead and began going along with the song.

The video conveys Ratt's desire to rebel against the ivory tower elites who'd usurped control over all matters of popular discourse. Ratt co-opted Ronald Reagan's message of restoring power to the people, as opposed to the stuffy pseudo-intellectual liberal academics who'd asserted themselves (along with their blasé rhetoric) during the 1960s and 1970s. However, Ratt's take on this view is rooted in rebellion from oppression and therefore anti-authoritarian. Though Reagan fought off tyranny through his geopolitical policies, his was premised on a restoration of popular worldview to an older from of idealization ("The American Dream"). Ratt didn't neccesarily discount the archetype, but they did offer an entirely different take on the concept.

Track Listing

1. Round and Round - 4:27
2. The Morning After - 3:37

Personnel

Stephen Pearcy- Vocals
Warren DeMartini- co-Lead Guitar
Robbin Crosby- co-Lead Guitar
Juan Croucier- Bass Guitar
Bobby Blotzer- Drums

Trivia

Different songs under the same name were played by Aerosmith and David Bowie, although the three songs have very few similarities. Not surprisingly, both Aerosmith and David Bowie are widely regarded as prototypes for the "Ratt and Roll" revolution of the mid-1980s.
The song was played in the backround while the credits were rolling during the end of "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" episode "Billy and Mandy Save Christmas".
The song makes Shakespearian allusions, most notably to his famed play Romeo and Juliet in the line: I've got a way, we're gonna prove it tonight, like Romeo to Juliet.

External links