72. Signs (live) by Tesla

"Signs (live)" by Tesla

Written by Les Emmerson
Produced by Dan McClendon
Released on Five Man Acoustical Jam (November 13, 1990)
Released as single in November 1990
Peaked at #8 on Billboard Hot 100
amazon spotify music video
Warning: Explicit Lyrics

For years, I thought that Tesla had started the whole "unplugged" fad in the early 90's with their Five Man Acoustical Jam album and its top 10 single, "Signs." For me, the timeline in my head made sense since I had seen the video for "Signs" on MTV before I knew that MTV Unplugged existed. That was the history I remembered, Tesla made a live acoustic album, and MTV reaped the benefits.

It turns out the timeline actually went something like this:

• September 1989 - Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora perform an acoustic duet of "Livin on a Prayer" and "Dead or Alive" at the 1989 VMAs.
• November 1989 - The first episode of MTV Unplugged TV show airs.
• Summer 1990 - Tesla performs and records a series of acoustic shows
• November 1990 - Tesla's live album Five Man Acoustical Jam and single "Signs" are released. 
• April 1991 - LL Cool J does MTV Unplugged (and I become aware of its existence)

So, things were a little bit different from what I remember, and the internet remains undefeated in its battle against my flawed memory. It's humiliating. But, even though Tesla were not the first band to do something acoustic, the success of both their acoustic album and "Signs" certainly paved the way for other acts to seek money, fame, and glory by going acoustic.

While I enjoy listening to a number of songs from Tesla's catalog, there is a reason that "Signs" is Tesla's most successful and most recognizable song. It's awesome, and the fact that it's awesome is impressive considering that on its own "Signs" is not a very good song. It was originally written and recorded by the Five Man Electrical Band and their original recording was pretty terrible.

"Signs" is ultimately a protest song, but I still don't quite understand why they were protesting signs. I mean, signs are typically a big part of most protests. It is almost certainly a flawed concept for a song. While the lyrics tell an interesting story, the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the verses are inconsistent, and there's not much of a melody until you get to the hook. Overall, the song is a complete mess.

Somehow Tesla took an uninspired and uninspiring song and made it fun, interesting, and memorable. By performing and recording it live, they made the "Signs" swing by playing it fast and loose (literally). They also got the crowd into a song that most of them had probably never heard by throwing a few f-bombs into the lyrics. (I didn't realize they had done this until years later when I bought the album because before that I'd only heard the radio edit.)

As a band, I find Tesla kind of fascinating. The short version of their origin story makes them sound like they were just another hair metal band: They came up in the 1980's out of California. While they did play hard rock and sport long hair, Tesla didn't fit into the same mold as most of those other California bands. First of all, they didn't come up through the clubs on the Sunset Strip in LA. Rather they grew up in Sacramento. While I don't know much about California, I do know that Sacramento is physically, spiritually, and metaphorically about as far as you can get from LA without leaving California altogether. But as a California band in the 80's, even though they didn't quite look or sound like many of their hair metal colleagues, they were often lumped in with them. As a result, they faded away in the 90's once grunge and alternative rock hit the mainstream.

To me though, I was happy to listen to "Love Song" and "Signs" alongside musical offerings from Bon Jovi, Poison, and Motley Crue, and it seemed just as natural to listen to "Song and Emotion" and "What You Give" while also listening to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden.

Right now, "Signs (live)" by Tesla is (probably) my 72nd favorite song of all time.