Top 10 Hair Metal Tracks from Stuck In The 80s

Sean and Steve from over at the Stuck In The 80s podcast http://blogs.tampabay.com/80s just did a hair metal show which really seemed like it would never happen. You see Steve is known for not liking very much hair metal at all but he finally succumbed to overwhelming fan pressure (and maybe Sean's hover dance) and gave us what we want. I thought I'd comment on their choices but I want to let it be known that I understand that these are their personal choices and that mine might differ. Being different doesn't make it wrong. So here we go.

First off I need to say that their definition of what they were looking at for hair metal and some of what they chose were a bit contradictory. They wanted the L.A. Sunset Strip, West Hollywood vibe which means that Poison, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, AC/DC and Metallica do not fit in their category. Now I never considered Bon Jovi to be hair metal myself. They were close but not quite there musically. I'd put them down as a hard rock/melodic band. Ac/DC and Metallica really don't need any comments as there is no way you can consider either of them to be hair metal. Metallica was thrash and AC/DC is/was hard rock bordering on metal, but not hair metal at all. Def Leppard are very close but have changed styles many times over the years. When tehy started out I would say that they were metal but then morphed into a hard rock band and then into a slick, poppy rock band. Lastly we have Poison. To me they are the epitome of hair metal however many people state that they were not a true Sunset Sunset Strip kind of band so I guess I can see their point. You'll see what I mean as we go along.

First we have Sean's top 5:

1. Motley Crue "Same Old Situation" This is not even close to my favorite but then again it's not my list is it? Motley are clearly in the criteria listed above and are one of the most well known bands from the era.

2. Twisted Sister "I Wanna Rock" No problems with the song but Twisted Sister are definately not a Sunset Strip sounding band.

3. Skid Row "Youth Gone Wild" Another East Coast band that doesn't seem to match the criteria but it is a great song. Sebastian Bach can really whail but he's become almost as much of a reality show whore as Bret Michaels.

4. Cinderella "Don't Know What You've Got (Til' It's Gone)" Another band that didn't have the prerequisite sound, theirs was more of a bluesy metal type. They were from Philly but in order to get their dream the label made them get rid of their drummer and guitarist. IN recent years vocalist Tom Kiefer has had numerous throat problems which has held the band back from touring.

5. Ratt "Lay It Down" Great song from a great L.A. band. I saw them at Rocklahoma 2007 and vocalist Steven Pearcy sounded horrible but supposedly he sounds better now. The band sounded amazing.

Now we have Steve's top 5:

1. Motley Crue "Home Sweet Home" No complaints here. One of the best hair metal ballads out there.

2. Vixen "Edge Of A Broken Heart" I liked this song at the time it came out. The idea of attractive females who could really play their instruments was an exciting one. Hey, I was young and horny, forgive me. The band of course imploded and now has regrouped with one original member.

3. Whitesnake "Here I Go Again" A British band that doesn't seem to meet the criteria but really they were the definition of hair metal in the mid to late 80s. It was mentioned on the podcast that there was a different version of this song on their greatest hits release. It was horrible to say the least. Most of the guitar was taken out and replaced by even more cheesy synthesizers. I recommend you stay away from it.

4. Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford "If I Close My Eyes Forever" This ballad partially meets the criteria and was a huge hit for this unique pair. Ozzy did go kind of glam in the 80s and Lita definintely was hair metal. She came out of retirement last year for Rocklahoma and is now toruing again. Ozzy recently put out a very good cd titled "Black Rain" but his tv career has severely hurt his legacy.

5. Kiss "Lick It Up" I completely agree with the inclusion of this song. I was never much of a fan of Kiss but after they took off the makeup (and put on a different kind) they went hair metal in a big way. I can remember getting this cassette and then driving to a regional fraternity meeting (think Animal House in Oklahoma) in Oklahoma City with 3 of my pledge class brothers. We played this song almost the entire way down there. I'm actually surprised we didn't break the rewind button.

Sean also mentioned on the podcast that so-called country artist Carrie Underwood likes to do cover versions of hair metal songs. Now I've heard several of them and while she isn't as bad as Celine Dion I have to say I don't care for her cover attempts at all. It's her Pat Boone like vocal cleansing in her delivery that just turns me off musically. I can only hope and pray that she'll stop soon. There was also a discussion about female metal and Steve posed the question of whether Joan Jett could be included as hair metal and I have to emphatically say NO to that! In my opinion Joan Jett's music is more of a bar rock but it isn't metallic at all, not even light metal. So there is my review and added comments. Take them for what you will and remember it's just my opinion. Don't get worked up over it.

Where's the summer concert listings?

So far this year I've noticed an alarming trend. There have been virtually no concert listings for the summer for either Tulsa or Oklahoma City. I mean sure there are a few for the BOK Center but overall it's been extremely dry. I have been going to websites of venues on a daily basis but unfortunately have been coming up empty and disappointed. At this time last year venues like the Zoo Ampitheater, Frontier City (both outdoor venues), Cains Ballroom and a few others had enough listed to make it possible to check out your options and have a plan of action. Of course there will always be shows added at a later date as tours come around and bands want to pick up some extra cash on a side day. Zoo Ampitheater just put on a teaser on their site about 2 days ago which wasn't much of a teaser at all since both bands (REO Speedwagon and Styx) had already announced the show on their websites. Frontier City has 5 very lame shows announced about a week ago which equal an absolute zero on my concert going scale. Cains Ballroom has 7 shows listed for May and 1 for June and absolutely nothing after that. What about the (overpriced) Brady Theater you say? There's nobody listed past May 4th and lately they've had more comedians than music groups. There is a new venue in Tulsa called The Flytrap Music Hall that offers lower level groups for a pretty good price but they only have 2 listed for May and 3 for June.

Last year at this time I had already seen several shows and was making plans for others (which almost all fell through for a myriad of reasons) throughout the summer but this year it's just not there. One thing holding me back is that I am very picky on who I will spend my money on. As tickets prices keep escalating at an alarming pace I find that I am not willing to spend money, that I usually have to work overtime to get, on a group I am only slightly interested in. I made a deal with my wife that if I go to a show I won't take money away from the house, bills, etc but will instead work extra hours for it. Since we also have an (almost) 2 year old that also limits us in traveling very far for a show. We don't have any family out here that we could leave our son with overnight to travel to Dallas or Kansas City so that limits us even more. There are some good friends that we trust but he'd have to be willing to stay with them and I don't see that happening right now. So within my limitations I try to plan for a few good shows for the year. So far I've only seen AC/DC and should be going to OKC to see Street Dogs on the 20th but after that I really don't know when the next show will be. Devo is playing a one off show in Dallas next week but it's too far and too short of notice for that to happen. That's too bad because they are at the top of my concert wish list. It's been rather bleak so far but I can only hope for better things as the year goes on. Perhaps the casinos will get some good shows or who knows, maybe Rocklahoma won't suck as bad as last year and I can go to a day or 2. Stranger things have happened.

What happened to the time?

Wow, another month has gone and all I got done was 2 whole posts. I have started several others but I just never seem to have the time I need to work on them properly. My 22 month old son takes up most of my time during the day and then it's off to work. Occasionally I can work on a story during my break time but lately those opportunities seem to be drying up as I am constantly bombarded with questions from our newer employees. That's what you get when you're a supervisor though, it comes with the territory. I just need to make a better effort and concentrate more no matter how easy it is to lose focus and believe me, I can lose focus like a world champion. One thing I have decided to do is to make a serious effort to learn to play the guitar. My son seems very musically inclined and I want him to grow up in an atmosphere where music is being played so that it will be normal and natural for him if he wants to pursue it. An added benefit will be that perhaps in year or so I will have the ability to come up with some rough melodies or licks that I can framework some of the lyrics that I write for my friends band when I feel they don't exactly fit their style of music. Then I can see better where the song needs to go. Anyway, big dreams but the only way to do it is to just do it and see what happens, otherwise you'll only look back and wish that you'd done something and I've done that enough in my life.

Metallica: The Untold Story or My Version of the Story

The time has finally come to talk about the megaforce that is Metallica. This is a topic that I’ve thought a great deal about and now am ready to share with the world, okay my friends, okay really nobody is reading this but it’s alright. Let’s just say I’m sharing it with myself and call it even okay? Last year Metallica released their album “Death Magnetic” and to be honest I was skeptic about it before even hearing it. For a very long period of time I was unable to listen to any of their songs which was tough when you consider that the local “rock” station where I was living had a Mandatory Metallica bit on Tuesdays and generally played them about every 15 minutes.

I won’t pretend that I was a super fan from the very beginning, quite the opposite actually. I didn’t have anything against them but when they were young (and at their best) I just didn’t have much interest in thrash metal. No, my musical interests lay elsewhere although an occasional thrash song by the likes of Anthrax or Testament found its way into my music collection but that was the exception rather than the norm. However I was aware of them and their music and understood that their music was changing slightly as each album went by. Most people will note that on 1988 when “And Justice For All” came out that there was a larger shift in Metallica’s music mainly due to the song “One.” Three years later came the so called “Black Album” which shifted things even farther into the mainstream by going extremely radio friendly. The big sellout however didn’t come about until 1996 when they cut off their hair, started wearing designer clothes and released the album “Load.”

Don’t get me wrong, it was and is their right to do whatever they wish and to go into any musical direction that they deem to be appropriate and the last thing I would expect them to do is to still be playing the same style of music and wearing their black t-shirts and jeans when they were 50. But the honest truth is that the Metallica from 10 years previous would have beaten the crap out of this version of the band. “Load” was a total commercial sellout and the band responded with vigor by doing things they never would have done in the past. Their videos were constantly played on TRL and the band appeared on as many talk shows as they could. When that new attitude is coupled with the haircuts and designer clothes how can anyone say it wasn’t a conscious effort to soften the music and reach as many people as possible? The sad truth is that if they had just continued on with their gradual changes I think they still would have reached unbelievable levels of success without having had to resort to making the music suffer.

After this I think as they continued to try to write in this more commercial vein it became harder and harder for them to write relevant lyrics. They had already changed their lyrical style once which was an attempt to compensate for the fact that James Hetfield could no longer write from the same place anymore as the band had reached a comfort level professionally. Gone were the songs with political opinions and social observations and now the writing became more personal and fueled by anger. By the time the dreadful “Reload” album came out it was clear that writing was becoming exceedingly difficult. The songs on the album were written during the “Load” sessions but were deemed to be average by the band so instead they worked on them and polished them up as much as possible before releasing the album. After that they re-released previous music and did a cover album and their symphonic release which was older material performed with an orchestra.

To me this points towards the fact that they were having difficulty coming up with songs period. If you were a young and hungry band (both physically and musically) and now you’re in a situation where you have some success and things are comfortable you just can’t write from the same place anymore. Most fans wouldn’t believe you when you try to write the same things when they know you don’t have it rough anymore. So they changed their style. Then when you have the commercial sellout that occurred and you have so much money that you’ll never have to worry about anything in your life ever again how do you write with anger? How do you make your fans believe the words you write come truly from your emotions once you have everything you want? How can you still be angry?

It is my contention that they no longer could write music that way and were left wondering how could they move forward and continue as performers and still remain viable. I think they struggled with that and treaded water for as long as they could by re-hashing their old stuff. Finally in 2003 they released the huge steaming dump that was “St Anger” and billed it as a return to their old ways. A return of course that featured no guitar solos and horrible production sound which only proved that they were still struggling for a gimmick. It wasn’t until they released “Death Magnetic” in 2008 that the band really did return to their old ways by having a musical resurgence and put out music that not only sounded good but also sounded true. Coincidentally for this album they had switched from their long time producer Bob Rock and gone with Rick Rubin who injected some fresh blood into their sound.

It’s true that you can’t please everybody and there are still people griping about “Death Magnetic” most likely because some people want to complain no matter what. They complained because the band sold out and when they returned to what they loved and enjoyed these so called critics complained about that too. Truthfully you can never please those people and honestly you should never try. Metallica only needs to try to please themselves with their music and the rest will come automatically. At this point in their careers they don’t need to do anything else if they don’t feel like it. They’ve got the money and the awards and now I hope they have some happiness as well. As for me, I own a copy of “Death Magnetic” and look forward to their continued return to good music.

More Random Thoughts

Well this is the first opportunity I've had to write anything for over a week now. Let's jsut say theere hasn't been a whole lot sleep coming my way and if my son is around when I get onto the computer he tries to take over.

First up is my take on UFC 94. I predicted 2 out of 4 winners but aS i said the most hyped fights generally do not live up to the hype and BJ Penn vs GSP was no different. GSP won albeit not without some controversy. GSP dominated BJ in a way no one has ever done before. Penn's vaunted jiu-jitsu skills seemed to disapear which was most unusual. Afterwards it was revealed that GSP's cornerman was seen rubbing and tapping his back and chest area after having put vaseline on his face before several rounds. This is a big violation as being greased down prohibits your opponent from being able to grab ahold of you. The biggest question is how much vaseline was used. Right now an appeal will be filed but I doubt anything will come of it other than perhaps another fight between these two warriors down the road.

It's looking like the only concert I'll make in the upcoming months is the Street Dogs in March unless I decide to break down and start listening to local radio in an attempt to win tickets or some other shows are announced for Tulsa.

I'm currently reading a book about Guns n' Roses called "Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns n' Roses." There have been a few errors or things mentioned as fact when they are the authors personal opinion but overall it's been a pretty good read. There's lots of info on the early days of the band and it shows how Axl Rose came to be the control freak that he is. More on this later.

That's all for now, I've got to get to bed so I can get up for church early in the morning and then it'll be off to work.

Random Thoughts

Well there is a really big sporting event this weekend and I'm not talking about the Super Bowl. No I'm talking about UFC 94 which has a main event of lightweight champ BJ Penn vs welterweight champ George St Pierre. In case you have no idea of what I'm talking about the UFC is the Ultimate Fighting Championships and is the premier mixed martial arts league in the states. Want more info than that? Try looking it up on the internet sluggo! Anyway, superfights routinely do not live up to the hype, it's just the nature of the beast and this one has been hyped up to maximum levels. However in this case I think it will live up to it. You have two athletes that when they are prepared and are on look unbeatable. On paper it appears to be a monstrous clash of champions and come tomorrow night we'll see if it transfers over to the actual fight. I'll go out on a limb and predict that BJ Penn will submit GSP in the 3rd round. As for some of the other fights, I see Lyoto Machida getting a decision over Thiago Silva, Nate Diaz submitting Clay Guida (Diaz always seems to find a way to win no matter what) and Jon Fitch over Akihiro Gono by TKO. Unfortunately I doubt I'll be able to watch the fights unless my dear beloved wife allows me to go visiting.

Upcoming concerts in Oklahoma:

1/31 Clinton - Ratt, Dokken and Warrant (too far away from me)

2/21 Red Rock - Flock of Seagulls (this is a maybe)

2/27 Newkirk - Rick Springfield & Mickey Thomas from Starship (doubtful)

3/20 OKC - Street Dogs - (definately will be going)

4/7 Tulsa - Bruce Springsteen (only if I work a lot of overtime for ticket money)

It's kind of strange that at this point of the year there haven't been many concerts announced for the next few uncoming months. Well, at least concerts I want to go to. Several places that do summer concerts haven't released any news for their schedules yet. Usually we already know who some of the first ones will be but so far no word. I will keep a diligant watch though.

I've heard rumors that Mexican rock group Mana (http://www.mana.com.mx/) will be coming to Dallas in June or July and I will be watching for news on this one as well. The wife wants to go in the worst way and since she's been so nice to let me go to concerts it's only right I reciprocate and take her to one she want's to see.

That's all for now folks.

Street Dogs - Real Boston Punk Rock

Recently I’ve been feeling like listening to some good street punk music. I started looking for my copy of "Do Or Die!" by the Dropkick Murphys but couldn’t find it so I jumped on the internet and started looking around. To my surprise I found that the original singer Mike McColgan was now in a band called Street Dogs and that they had put out several cds. I decided to give them a try and immediately started enjoying their music as soon I heard the first song and I've even been able to turn a few people on to to them. It was a surprise because Mike had left Dropkick Murphys after they released their first cd. He had always wanted to be like his uncle and become a Boston firefighter and the band knew this in advance. His number came up and he walked away with no regrets and the DMs recruited Al Barr from The Bruisers. For me though it just wasn’t the same without Mike and I drifted away from their music although history has shown that the band has had great success. After a few years though the music bug bit McColgan again and he started playing with Johnny Rioux and eventually they formed the band Street Dogs. He now no longer is with the Boston Fire Department and is giving music his full attention.

While researching about the band I was able to read a short interview that Mike had done and he was asked about his military service. Like me he had served in the first Gulf War. I have always had a habit of downplaying my role in the military and the war since I never saw combat nor had to fire my weapon however I was in Saudi Arabia for over six months and it did end up costing me something personal. In the interview Mike talked about his role in general and how just being there changed people. He never stated if he had seen combat or had to fire his weapon or just what his role was but it didn’t matter to me. He spoke the truth about how life changing it was and that resonated deeply with me to the point that I quickly banged out some lyrics for a new song about my own experiences in the war. Now I’ve been writing lyrics with my best friend Tom for a while and have had a hand in most of the lyrics for his band in some form or another but I’m unsure if they will ever do anything with this one. My mind was definitely occupied with punk music when I wrote the lyrics and that’s how I see this one coming out once music is married to the words and the thing is that Tom’s band is not punk. I'm unsure if their sound is what i want for these particular lyrics. Time will tell of course just what will happen with the song so i'll just be patient.

On a side note I went to Street Dogs website (http://www.street-dogs.com/) and through their links have found several other bands whose music I like such as Everybody Out!, TAT, Against Me and Death and Taxes. Even better, Street Dogs will be playing in Oklahoma City on March 20th at the Conservatory which is only about an hour and a half away and it only costs 10 bucks to get in! The wife has already been alerted and given her approval so I’ll be there more than likely solo barring any weird circumstances that pop up in the meantime. I’m certain to be one of the oldest people there but that’s okay as long as the music is loud and good which I know it will be. Just don’t expect me to get into the pit, I’ll only end up hurting or even worse embarrassing myself. Many thanks to Street Dogs for their music and in particular Mike McColgan for providing the impetus to make me rethink my role in the war and (hopefully) write some good lyrics about it. Hope to see you guys at the show in March.