"Straight On" was written by Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, and Sue Ennis, a contributing songwriter who was also a member of The Lovemongers, a band founded by the same Wilson sisters in the 1990s. Ennis and the Wilson sisters have a friendship going back to childhood.
"Straight On" is an unusual song for being mostly composed of chorus and instrumentals. It's a basic love song that mixes in gambling metaphors like "deal me in."
The album Dog & Butterfly went double-platinum and the group set off on a grueling tour that covered 77 cities. This might have taken its toll, as the group partly broke up during this tour: guitarist Roger Fisher had a breakdown and left to form his own Seattle band; their manager Mike Fisher (Ann Wilson's lover) left both Ann and the band, and both bass player Steve Fossen and drummer Michael DeRosier split away not long after.
As conventional wisdom has it, side 1 of Dog & Butterfly is the "dog side," and side 2 is the "butterfly side." This is because side 1 has the hard rock numbers, while side 2 has the slow ballads.
Science fiction fan alert: The early incarnation of Heart called itself "White Heart" - and yes, this title refers to the Arthur C. Clark short story anthology Tales From the White Hart. The "White Hart" of the title is a fictional pub where writers and intellectuals gather to swap tall tales and 'creepy pasta'-type stories, modeled loosely after the pub "White Horse," located at New Fetter Lane, just north of Fleet Street in London, England. Memorize all that and bring it up the next time Heart comes on the radio!
Wayne from New Jersey"Cook with Fire" was made to sound live by mixing in the live crowd noise and announcer, but they never recorded it live. Aerosmith did the same thing with "Train Kept A-Rollin", they had two versions recorded, couldn't decide which to use, their producer came up with the idea of taking the more aggro version and making it sound as if it was recorded live, and combining them together.
Pat from St. Paul, MnThe only live track on the album is "Cook With Fire," which sounds pretty live to me. Heart used to open their concerts with that song, the song opens with an announcer saying, "Now for their first time in Memphis, Heart!", and Ann Wilson finishes the song by shouting out, "Good evening! Welcome!" If it is fake (which I doubt) they did a good job of making it sound live.
I from San Jose, CaThere is an extended version of this song, originally only available on the 8-track release.
