Things You Just Don't Say To Metalheads

Let's face it- we live in a world where everybody talks about how open-minded they are, and how they don't believe in stereotypes, but metalheads are still mocked and are still prejudiced against by a good percentage of ignorant people. Such is hypocrisy at the finest, and I hear statements like the following far too often than I should for a world where everybody allegedly respects the tastes and beliefs of others.

1. "Are you drunk or stoned?"

Everybody has bad days or days when they are not feeling well and this is not a nice thing to say to anybody, even somebody who has a reputation for being this way. It is a harsh character judgement and implies you abuse substances to avoid coping with reality. Especially to a metalhead, this is a tremendous insult because it implies that you are a directionless degenerate just because of the music you listen to. Let me just say this, Kanye West is more likely to provide the soundtrack to a teenager's dropping out of high school than Black Sabbath.

2. "It's only metal. It doesn't mean anything."

Music is a source of inspiration and guidance to everybody to some degree. Just because somebody listens to metal doesn't mean that they aren't getting as many morals out of their music as somebody who listens to gospel music. It's all in your interpretation of things. 

3. "This song was written a long time ago. It's content is obsolete."

Many challenges faced by humanity nowadays were the same ones faces by humans a long time ago. The song might be old but the issues addressed remain the same. Why is the speakers voice any less important just because it occurred some time ago?

4. "Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a dove/bit the head off a bat/urinated on the Alamo/etc."

Freaking get over it. Did it hurt YOU in any way?

5. "This music is terribly satanic."

Nobody took satanism seriously. It was all a part of an image and of publicity stunts. Many metal musicians come from strictly religious and proper households and maintained that lifestyle in their free time.

"I don't wear a pentagram because I worship the devil. I wear a pentagram to piss people off." -Nikki Sixx

6. "Rock stars exploit women."

It isn't exploitation if it's voluntary. Don't judge the whole sex of females by the actions of these women, look at them as individuals whose actions are only affecting themselves.

7. "I don't understand the makeup/hair/costumes."

I don't understand Lady Gaga's meat dress or why all of One Direction dress the same way.

8. "Musicians make more money than they deserve."

A large percentage of musicians donate money to charity or even run their own organizations. Tons of them are spokespeople for important causes. Not to mention they work their asses off touring and making a name out of themselves and that they deserve any penny they get, and not to mention the fact that not all of them have as much money as you'd think they do.

9. "Pop music is better."

Playing good heavy metal requires skill, talent and effort. Pop music requires computer and some geek who knows how to use one. Any questions?

10. "You must not be all too smart because you listen to this kind of music."

I have no idea how metal fans became associated with stupidity because, I can assure you, the grand majority are not. Ones taste in music does not necessarily reflect their IQ.

One big rambling paragraph about how great the first two Ozzy Osbourne solo albums are

     "Blizzard Of Ozz" and "Diary Of A Madman" may very well be the two best albums Ozzy ever did. Correction. They might be the best two rock albums made in the 80s. Correction. They might be the two best rock albums ever made (to the exception of Led Zeppelin). Correction. They might be the two best albums ever made (to the exception of Led Zeppelin). I mean, listening to those albums again and again is convincing me more and more each time that they are rock and roll's true masterpieces. Each one is loaded with amazing songs- there isn't a bad one on either album. The music is heavy but melodic, memorable and radio friendly without being nauseatingly commcercial, enjoyable, lyrically fantastic, creative, distinct, unique and fresh. I mean face it- nobody is tired of Crazy Train. The radio stations play the shit out of it but you don't turn it off ever, do you? Because it still sounds great. The music on these albums is totally timeless and just so good that you couldn't get tired of it if it was all you ever listened to. They're a great mix of straight ahead rockers like Over The Mountain, political relevance like Revelation (Mother Earth), soulful like Goodbye To Romance, heartbreakingly powerful like You Can't Kill Rock And Roll and Tonight, hard driving like I Don't Know, catchily melodic like S.A.T.O, groovy and funky like Believer, sentimental like You Looking At Me Looking At You, dark and creepy like Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution and the chilling Diary of a Madman. Of all of them I'll say I'm probably mostly a sucker for You Can't Kill Rock and Roll and S.A.T.O. mostly. And don't forget Dee. That's such a pretty, tasteful piece. The musicianship on the albums is particularly notable- the finest work of rock's finest guitarist Randy Rhoads. Ozzy's vocals are fabulous as well and just how tuneful and melodic the songs are without being any less hardcore is what defines Ozzy's style as his own. Okay. I'm done rambling now. Just go listen to these albums if you haven't already.

The Bar Fire Was Not Great White's Fault

It angers and sickens me to hear people- alleged rock and roll fans- calling Jack Russell and Great White murderers in connection to the infamous incident in which a bar they were playing in burnt down due to faulty pyrotechnics, killing a hundred people and injuring a couple hundred more. It cannot be disputed that what happened that night at the Station nightclub was an absolute tragedy and one of the worst things that ever happened to rock and roll, but in no way was it the fault of Great White, and the things that are being said about them because of it are being made in pure ignorance, because they are not to be held accountable at all. 

     First of all, it wasn't even truly a Great White concert. The name Great White means all the members of the band Great white- that is to say Mark Kendall, Michael Lardie, Tony Montana or Lorne Black, and Audie Desbrow, as well as singer Jack Russell. The band that performed that night was not Great White, it was Jack Russell's Great White- Jack was the only actual member of the real band who was there that night. Great White are being given a bad name for this incident when in reality only one member of the band was even implicated that night. How terribly unfair is that to the rest of the band Great White, to be held by name accountable for an event they were not even present for?

     Jack Russell himself cannot be blamed at all either. It may have been his performance that night that meant the end of the lives of all those people there, but it was not him that defined the circumstances which allowed such a great number of people to perish that night, and it was not him who lighted the fire. It should not be him who receives the blame. Jack was the singer that night, no more, no less, and everything that happened can be blamed on the other people there that night who did not make the music, but who were running the show. Let's blame them and not Jack. He had nothing to do with it.

     So who did? If Jack and the band Great White were not to blame, then who was? It was a lot of people who made this happen, let's name a few and their role and you'll agree that Jack had nothing to do with it.

1) The restaurant managers.  The club only had a seating capacity of 404 people, but 464 were present. The restaurant was past it's maximun capacity and so when pandemonium broke out, there was not enough room for them to move around. That's how they all got blocked in the entrance- there were too many people to evacuate fr the building and they couldn't all make it. Jack was not the one who let all those people in.

2) Daniel Biechele. The tour manager was the one who ignited the outdoors fireworks indoors, which flared some sparks which ignited the building. His impromptu pyrotechnics started the fire, not any actions of Jack's.

3) People panicked. Let's face it, humans are not rational creatures and do not keep their heads well in times of great danger. When everybody headed for the door they formed a messy stampede and blocked each other from the entrance. In no way can Jack be held responsible for a bunch of people acting a certain way, not according to rules of free will.

4) The bouncers. More than one person present at the event said that the bouncers blocked certain exits saying only the band was allowed through. Jack was not a bouncer and probably did not give these instructions, placing this blame squarely on the shoulders of those who were security that night.

   

     So have we straightened things out a little bit now? Can Jack Russell really be held accountable for the fire? No. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The people who were running the show did a really bad job and were ill prepared, and thanks to their carelessness, a lot of people were hurt. It could have been any band- it was just bad luck that Jack Russell happened to be the one performing that night. So please don't go around calling him a murderer again and hating Great White for the incident. It must be hard enough on Jack having to live with what happened that night and feeling some sense of responsibility. Don't show any moregreat disrespect for him, just a little sympathy. It wasn't his fault not was it Great White's. It could have been anybody.

No need to figure Mick Jagger out... Or to read Marc Spitz's biography

     I understand that after a couple dozen books about Mick Jagger have been written, it must be hard to come up with new things to say about him so that your biography is unique and not just a regurgitation of previous novels. Everybody who attempts to write a book about the illusive Mr. Jagger has to search for a new angle to write about, to make their book the one about Mick Jagger to read. (Even I don't have the patience to read every book about him out there.) With so many books about available I plan on only reading the good ones.

     I gave Marc Spitz's book Jagger: Rambler, Rock Star, Rebel, Rogue a chance because somebody bought a copy for me. Overall it wasn't an unreadable book, but it had one major flaw. The angle Spitz went for to make his book unique was the attempt to figure out Mick Jagger. His book was essentially a long rambling effort to answer the question "Who Is Mick Jagger?" And let's be honest, that is not a question that we should try to answer.

     This book did little to actually describe the life and times of Mick Jagger; for example, what I like in a biography is an account of important things that happen in the life of one of my heroes and how that influenced his music and his life henceforth. This was pretty much absent from the book altogether. Instead, it gives us a timeline of the different faces of Mick Jagger, the author always asking who he truly was, but never providing an answer or any good information which could lead the readers to create an answer of their own.

     Mick Jagger was a very complicated individual. He changed his image and his behaviour and his persona simply whenever he felt like it, whenever the times were changing and before he got bored of himself. He always stayed current and so he was always what the times were, but he was always himself. That's all that needs to be said, isn't it? Who is Mick Jagger? He is Mick Jagger. And I'm sure Mick Jagger knows who he is, and he's the only one who really needs to know. So why do we still keep talking about it? I think it's time to move on to more important Rolling Stones related questions like "How is Keith Richards still alive?" 

Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis - Song Interpretation

     First of all, I must start by explaining that this is only a personal interpretation of the meaning of the song's lyrics. Noel Gallagher, who wrote the song himself, stated it was not about anything. He wrote it while under the influence and the character "Sally" is not a real person, and that the line "So Sally can wait" was conceived when Noel was just goofing around and his brother Liam thought he was singing those words. They thought it sounded good and so they turned it into a song. For the full story, I refer you to Wikipedia.

     I guess the song isn't deep then, or wasn't intended to be, but nevertheless it is an amazing piece of poetry from which much meaning can be derived.

     So my personal interpretation of the song. The true meaning of the song is to say that everybody goes through bad breakups and that the best thing to do us just to move on, continue with your life while learning from your mistakes and just letting the bad times go. The specific story in Don't Look Back In Anger is about a breakup between the singer and his ex girlfriend Sally. In the song, the character Sally is anger and bitter. She wants to get back together with the singer, or she wants to make him burn to make up for what he did to her. The singer's attitude is relaxed. He feels like it's mostly the fault of the rock and roll lifestyle he leads, and wants to just forget the whole thing and move on. The two had obviously been a close couple until things went bad between them, and the singer- we'll call him our male protagonist- called it off. His tone is forgiving though- he doesn't really care anymore about what happened between himself and Sally, he's done and moved on, and the purpose of the song is that he is telling her to do the same thing. 

     The song opens with what is to me a clear drug reference:

Slip inside the eye of your mind

Don't you know you might find

A better place to play

     Most likely a reference to hallucinogens, this line is the singer telling Sally to go to a different part of her mind, and to think about things a different way, using drugs if she needs to. The next line

You said that you'd never been 

All the things that you've seen 

Will slowly fade away

     Is Sally stating that she has never done drugs before- we're probably talking about acid tripping here. Then the singer encourages her some more, telling her that all the bad things that have happened between the two of them will fade from her mind and she will be able to not think about it for a little while, which would benefit her.

     

Gonna start a revolution from my bed

Cause you said the brains I had went to my head

     This line here is a John Lennon reference. Lennon actually said almost these exact words himself once in an interview, and Gallagher tossed the lines in as an homage to his hero. The words almost certainly refer to Lennon's bed-ins in the late 60s. Beatles influences and references can be commonly heard in several Oasis songs, and the opening piano chords in this song are strongly reminiscent of "Imagine."

Step outside the summertime's in bloom

     In this line our singer tells Sally that everything is okay, and that she just needs to open her eyes and see that everything really is alright.

Stand up beside the fireplace

Take that look from off your face

You ain't never gonna burn my heart out

     Here he tells Sally to stop wasting her time. She is putting to much effort into trying to hurt him and to get back at him. He thinks she is taking the situation too seriously, and he's telling her to stop, because he's never going to feel bad about what happened.

     

     The second verse begins with what might be another drug reference-

Take me to the place where you go

Where nobody knows

If it's night or day

     He may again be implying that they should use drugs to alter their mental state so they can either cool down and look at their situation a different way, or just to relax and forget about their lives for a while. 

Don't put your life in the hands

Of a rock and roll band

Who will throw it all away

     This is the saddest and most humane part of the song. Here the singer accepts much responsibility for what happened between him and Sally. He admits that his profession caused him to do things in their relationship he may not have done otherwise- maybe seeing other girls while touring, or spending much time away from the house, or partying excessively, all common habits of rock and roll bands which greatly hurt the ones- particularly the women- they love. He tells her here that a relationship with a musician like this will only do her harm, and he begs her next time to choose a more stable partner, not to put all her heart into a musician who won't treat her as well as she deserves.

     Then the chorus:

And so Sally can wait

She knows it's too late as she's walking on by

Her soul slips away

But don't look back in anger I heard you say

     Here he says that Sally knows in her heart that things have gone bad between them and that they are never going to be together again. As they pass each other in silence, with no feelings from him for her anymore, her spirits fade because she realizes there is no hope left. He simply tells her that she should not look back in anger at what happened between them- the "you" would be the conscience of the main character- and to move on.

    At the end of the song, the chorus ends with;

But don't look back in anger

At least not today

     What is meant by this line in the song is that maybe one day the time will be right to look back on the situation and feel angry about it, but that time is not now, and until then, she should forget it and be happy with life. It isn't a situation to be worried about now. Maybe in the future, things will be bad and you can think about this angrily, but right now, all is well. Right now, Sally, don't worry about it. Put it behind you and move on, and please don't look back in anger.

    

Metalhead prejudice still an issue

     I don't mean to sound like yet another teenage metal fan who is convinced the world disrespects them because they are young, listen to heavy metal and wear a lot of black, by saying that adults in the world do not understand us and think we're a problem when we're really not, but well, it's true- the world does have a terribly unfair paradigm of metalheads as being bad news, and I'm really sick of it.

     I fall victim to this kind of prejudice every day. When I go out with my parents, they tell me to look respectable and to act well behaved and like a good girl. Especially when meeting people for the first time, they always yell at me to take my makeup off before we leave the house. The makeup in question here is not even heavy black eye makeup, but fun and goofy stuff like say, silver or gold eyeliner. Harmless. Yet even my own parents think that the way I appear on the outside and come across superficially is more important than my right to express myself and my individuality by the way I dress.

     Sorry for the rant here, but after all, this blog is called Rock and Roll Ramblings, and was named that for a reason! And this is hardly a personal rant either because I know a lot of people go through the same thing. I am far from being alone. 

     Beyond my parents, the teachers hate it too. As can be expected from people who have such little life experience and brain power as teachers, they're practically afraid of anything that moves, and the idea of an independently thinking individual human being in the public school system is enough to positively drive them up the wall. One of my teachers laughs outright at my outfits when she passes me in the halls, she marks my papers with an air of contempt, and tries to cut me down whenever she can- all her efforts are wasted because she never got to my head, and all her behaviour is made even more senseless because I am the top student in her class, and my grade is so much higher than everybody else's that I'm keeping the whole class average way up. She raises her eyebrows at the Mötley Crüe shirts and holds it against me, even though I am not a troublemaker, and I never started the problems in her classroom. She just always looks at me first when things go wrong.

     So why is everybody so fast to point their fingers at the kid who listens to metal when things go wrong? Do kids who listen to metal and dress and act the part actually burn down buildings, or worship Satan? Do people honestly still believe that musicians sell their souls for talent and that rock and roll is the devil's music? Can you give me some good examples of times when heavy metal music pursuaded people to do horrible, nasty things? This and so many other questions unanswered are the reason why I'm not asleep right now even though I really ought to be.

     I'm not a bad person. I'm a very, very good person. People who look past my exterior and my lifestyle and who know ME, not my taste in pop culture, well, know that I'm a loyal, happy person who will do anything for a friend and whom has helped out many people in need in her seventeen short years on the planet. People who are able to ignore my love for heavy metal love me. Everybody who actually knows me loves me. But too many people won't have anything to so with me because they find the idea of somebody who listens to metal too intimidating, and they think I'm dangerous. All those people who don't get to know people for being metalheads are truly depriving themselves of wonderful experiences and friendships, because I know what I'm talking about when I say that metalheads are among the best people you'll ever meet in your life, and if you don't believe me, it's your problem, your loss, and not ours.

Reviewed: "Low" by David Bowie (1977)

     As can be said about all Bowie albums preceding this one, Low is a very unique album and is unlike all albums released before by the Thin White Duke. Largely instrumental and with tones varying from cheerful and optimistic, to dark and brooding, and sometimes sinister and mysterious, there is not a hit single to be found on the whole record. With the possible exception of Be My Wife, the songs are as non commercial and single unfriendly as can be. It is truly an album which must be listened to as a whole, instead of broken down into its components- it is great proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The overall effect of the whole album is spacey and distant, like the soundtrack to a science fiction movie, a space rock opera. There is not a single catchy chorus or guitar riff to be heard, the whole thing is heavily synthesizer driven, featuring songs containing no structure. It is not a collection of songs the way his earlier albums are, the whole thing melts into one epic piece. I wouldn't recommend it to diehard fans of Bowie's glam era because they would be disappointed- this work is from a different artist altogether than the man who made Aladin Sane. It stands out to me in my mind as one of the most unusual and interesting albums ever released, and a true classic in its own sense, even if Ziggy Stardust 'tis not.

Hair metal blog on the rise as well!

Due to my success of my latest project, the Rainbow fan blog on Tumblr (check that out at http://rainbowfansrising.tumblr.com) I've launched a second blog, similar in plot, only this one is all about hair metal! My goal on this one was to help share fun posts about the popular hair metal bands we all know and love, like Guns n' Roses, Poison, Skid Row and Motley Crue, and also to talk about some of the lesser known and more obscure bands as well, to help them gain some recognition and to help more people find out about their music. Also like the Rainbow blog, this blog can have multiple authors and administrators, so anybody who wants to become involved and help make posts themselves is more than welcome to! Just inbox me on the hair metal blog on Tumblr or in my main account http://zeppelin-is-the-answer.tumblr.com. It's an interactive blog too so we hope to involve all its followers by asking questions, creating polls, and welcoming submissions. Hope to see you all there! It's well on it's way to being amazing!

To help set the mood, here's two of the most blond and most beautiful hair metal stars, the awesome Jani Lane and th fabulous Bret Michaels!

Rainbow Fans Are Rising

You guys may have figured out that I'm a bit of a Tumblr nut and a massive Rainbow fan. Well, my Rainbow love inspired a new Tumblr blog which I'm trying to use to help the band gain some recognition. There isn't enough about them on the web so the blog is here to just bring more Rainbow into your lives and to help introduce some new people to their music, which is so underrated. The blog URL is http://rainbowfansrising.tumblr.com. Even if you don't use Tumblr I recommend you go check it out because it's got lots of cool stuff on it.
It's also an interactive blog, at least that's what I'm calling it because I want people who visit the blog to help it roll. We ask a lot of questions, we give surveys and links to surveys, we answer all Rainbow related questions and we love submissions. Most of all, the blog has multiple authors. We're looking for as many people as we can to sign up as authors and to help make posts, to make this blog as big and versatile as possible. So if this sounds like it might interest you, get on Tumblr and contact me,cause I'd be honored to sign you up! Or if you want more info more directly feel free to kik ilovesnakesabo.

The possible true meaning of Led Zeppelin's Carouselambra

     For legal reasons I have to say the possible true meaning, as I have no certified proof that this is the actual meaning of the song. I am absolutely dead sure, however, that I have finally came across the song's meaning.

     It just hit me one night when I was listening to the In Through The Out Door album. Prior to recording the album, Robert Plant's five year old son Karac died from a mystery virus, and many of the songs on the album deal with the way Robert was feeling during the aftermath of the tragedy, and all the things that happened because of it, including a change in the way Robert felt towards those close to him. In The Evening was about the stress of being a musician, and it also served as a reminder that self pity is never the answer. I'm Gonna Crawl and All My Love were both Robert's tributes to Karac. (Another song Robert wrote for him was called I Believe, and it can be found on his solo album Fate of Nations, possibly his best post-Zeppelin album.)

     Caroselambra seems to be the enigma of Led Zeppelin's career. At ten and a half minutes long, it is their second longest song (In My Time Of Dying being their longest) and musically, John Paul Jones dominates with a danceable bass line and a childlike, catchy synthethizer riff. The song is anything but lighthearted though. Carouselambra tells the story of Led Zeppelin's demise: first, it talks about the glory days. Led Zeppelin were the kings of the world, with everything working in their favor, loving all and loved by all.

"In times of brightness no intruder dared come on
To jeopardize the course, upset the run,
And all was joy and hands were raised toward the Sun 
And love in the halls of plenty overrun."

     But then, just out of the blue, in a second, everything changed for the band forever. Robert received the news of his son's death, and his whole life was turned upside down. Grief stricken, he returned home, to spend the next couple of years out of the limelight, with his wife and daughter.

"How keen the storied hunter's eye prevails upon the land 
To seek the unsuspecting and the weak; 
And powerless the fabled sat, too smug to lift a hand 
Toward the foe that threatened from the deep. 
Who cares to dry the cheeks of those who saddened stand 
Adrift upon a sea of futile speech? 
And to fall to fate and make the 'status plan' 
Where was your word, where did you go? 
Where was your helping, where was your bow? Bow. 
Dull is the armor, cold is the day. 
Hard was the journey, dark was the way. Way. 
I heard the word; I couldn't stay."

     This serves as the set up for the main theme of the song, which was Robert's shaky relationship with Jimmy Page and Peter Grant at the time. When Karac died, the band had been taking a brief break from touring in the States. Richard Cole, their road manager, John Bonham, and Robert had went to New Orleans, where they received the news. They both went back to England with Robert, and were there to support him the whole time. They showed up to Karac's funeral, which is more that can be said for John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Peter Grant, who all stayed behind in the States. I cannot offer any excuses for their actions. They truly let Robert down when he needed them the most, which only added to his devastation. I don't know how much heroin Jimmy must have been doing to make him not think that he would hurt Robert even more.

Robert's feelings are shown most plainly and simply in the one line:

"Where was your word, where did you go?"

I cannot imagine the kind of pain all this put Robert through. I know his relationship with those three band members has improved since then, but you can never really forget it when your closest friends do something like that you to you. I know I wouldn't.

From all this, I suppose there are some lessons to be learnt about friendship (and about good songwriting) and you really got to hand it to them- they turned a tragedy into a masterpiece. They just don't make bands like that anymore.

Why Hair Metal is Better than Thrash Metal

Don't get me wrong, not all hair metal is good music and not all thrash is bad music. I'm a fan of both genres, thrash metal is still newer to me but I love it. And what this article means to say is not really to express a personal opinion stating that hair metal is better than thrash metal, because I do not feel that way, I just wanted to supply some counter-arguments to the belief that hair metal sucks and that thrash should be acclaimed. Cause I hear that too much, hair metal gets too much unnecessary hate, and some thrash metal gets inexplicably high amounts of love in comparison, so I wanted to offer some points that would even out the score a little bit.

     First of all, hair metal songs are much more song oriented and individual songs do a better job of maintaining song individuality and recognizability. For example, if you hear a hair metal song on the radio, most likely the name of the song and band will come to mind instantly if it is a song you are even somewhat familiar with. Thrash metal songs individually are much less distinctive. Listening to a thrash metal album, you may not even be aware when a song ends and when a new one beings. You hear a thrash song on the radio and you may be able to identify the genre or maybe the band if their musicianship is distinctive enough, but the songs don't have a particular sense of individual identity. With the low growling vocals and long guitar solos and lack of any catchy choruses or vocal melodies, it can be hard for any people, music experts to amateurs, to tell the difference. 

     Hair metal generally is also a lot more positive. It tends to focus on the happy, good things in life, it says that life is a nice big fun party and you should go enjoy it to it's maximum. Maybe it preaches some irresponsibility as we'll, but overall it is a kind of music which celebrates the fun and joy of life. It brings out better moods and more optimistic feelings than thrash metal does. Let's face it- thrash metal is not something you would play at a wedding or at a good natured party. Its main themes include death, violence, and pure negativity. That definitely has it's time and place, as anything does, but good feelings are generally a lot healthier than bad ones and that is a major difference between the two bands.

     And now let's get superficial. Visually, hair metal was maybe the greatest genre of music that ever lived. Taking influences from Shock Rock and the early 70s glam rock, hair metal produced a look that was fun, colorful, and exciting. I'm not the only person out there who could watch hair metal videos all day long and not get tired! The musicians were mostly pretty gorgeous and I love the hair- admit it, you do too. The image of these long haired and happy looking musicians making videos that make you laugh and entertain you and being out such positive vibes, the idea of these lucky Californian boys living the dream life, it really is great. It's a great music scene visually, the visual aspect is probably greater than the music, and let's face it, the image does take a large role in a band's success and fan appeal. The whole image of thrash metal was much darker and less inviting. Hair metal said "Come party with us, we'll have a great time," while thrash metal said "Get out of here, we don't care about you." Which reception do you prefer?

      I shall remind you again that in this argument I am neutral and take no side, I love thrash and hair metal, but hearing so much about how hair metal bands are garbage and so much praise for thrash is starting to bug me and I wanted to make sure some good counter arguments on the topic were made. But both genres were great and should be loved. And really, I still don't understand how music as positive as hair metal can be so hated, and as negative as thrash can be so loved. So ironic...     

      

Hair Metal Is Not (Necessarily) A Derogatory Term

     Hair metal was a term originally coined as a sort of derogatory reference to the American rock bands of the 80s. While many fans of bands like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi or Dokken vehemently hate the term and call it insulting, I, biggest hair metal maniac out there, have got to take a second to say that it really isn't a rude thing at all.
     Hair metal means hair, as in the look of these bands, and metal, as in the music of these bands. The two are mentioned in equal importance in the monicker because in this genre, the look was every bit as important as the music. Don't deny that. Hair metal was about being hot, and singing about being hot. It's a central value of the genre of music, so it only makes sense that the title of this brand of music relates to the appearance as well as the music of these groups.
     Hair metal was a term coined by thrash bands which was meant originally as a way to write off these bands as rubbish. That much is true. However, it's still simply just a word. The word itself is not rude or derogatory, it is the intention with which the word is used. I say hair metal in a positive manner and to me it is a simple and correct term which applies well to so many of my favorite groups. Others may say hair metal in the context of "just another crappy hair metal band" and that to me is wrong and derogatory, but it is not the word hair metal which is insulting here. It is the way people use it to generalize and write off all those bands. The same goes for all other categories of music too. You can say "just another crappy hair metal band" just as easily as "just another crappy grunge band" or "just another crappy thrash band." Anything can be made to be an insult. We call redheads gingers, don't we?
     And plus, hair metal is just the normal, current term for this brand of music. If classic rock from the 80s is John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen heavy metal is Iron Maiden and Motorhead, and pop music is Madonna and Michael Jackson, well, what we call hair metal cannot really be associated with any of those bands. Hair metal is too pop to be rock, too heavy to be pop and too commercial to be rock. It is a separate entity, its own kind of music. That's not to say it isn't versatile though. Within hair metal you find many other divisions. There are "pretty" or "glam" bands like Poison, there are "sleazy" bands like Guns N' Roses or Faster Pussycat. Some of these bands even have a direct blues influence like Cinderella or Whitesnake. The term hair metal designates such a wide range of music that to use it as a write off is ignorant as well as pointless. Hair metal is a term, a word, simply to help distinguish a very awesome kind of music. Anybody who finds it derogatory has just got to get over themselves by now, or simply change their perspective.

I Don't Think Janis Joplin Was A Suicide

...Title says it all. I don't. I've been reading about Janis and the state she was in before her death lately, and the more I read, the more I feel that it wasn't suicide. It may have been an accidental overdose, or it may have been foul play... I have a strong feeling it was foul play.
Janis Joplin wasn't always a very happy person, buy everybody who was around her in the time shortly before she passed away said they had never seen her happier. She was working on Pearl and planning on getting married. It was believed that she was really picking herself up and moving along after the demise of Big Brother and the Holding Company.
That makes it seem to me that she herself didn't want to do herself in; the circumstances under which her body was found also suggest foul play. She had track marks up her arm, a bloody broken nose, and her body was found in her hotel room wedged in between the bed and nightstand. It's possible she OD'd, fell down, broke her nose and was stuck there. It's a long shot though. I can't help but feel that somebody else was involved, something else happened which the world may never know about... But until more concrete evidence is found, we can only speculate that it was an overdose.

The Censorship of Motley Crue's "You're All I Need".

I'm an honest person, and I can say quite honestly that while hair metal kicked a lot of ass, a lot of those ballads really SUCKED ass. The late 80s turned out a lot of sap. But a couple really, really good songs also came out of that era. Guns N' Roses had Estranged, Bon Jovi had Wanted Dead or Alive. Motley Crue had You're All I Need.
While most ballads traditionally have been about things such as love, or about loved ones passed on, You're All I Need is about both, but it puts a very different twist on things. It's a chilling story of obsession, about a derranged teenager who falls head over heels with a girl who just doesn't love him back the way he thinks he loves her, so he murders her so nobody else can have her.
It's a fascinating song and story. Not only are the lyrics and the story based on an interesting, poignant subject matter,the poetry of them and the style they're written in is genius. Beautiful lyrics accompanied by a haunting guitar solo, a great piano intro, and Vince's dramatic and emotional vocals, with Nikki's creepy lyrics. It's an utterly perfect song. The black and white video suits it supremely well, following the story of the song. It was a well casted, non cheesy video. The whole act screamed of classiness, and I consider the video to be one of the most important ever made: a sad, true reminder that sometimes, obsession can be mistaken for love, and that sometimes love can just go too far.
So of course the video gets banned. Wow. Figures. Motley would go and create such a masterpiece and then MTV would repay them by refusing to play their video. Why? Because the video's depiction of murder was "too violent" for television.
Okay honestly, come on and give me a break. It's not a violent video. It shows the cops cleaning up, it shows the aftermath of the murder, but not a drop of blood is shed over the course of the video. On top of that, back in the eighties even, there was Madonna. MTV absolutely ate her up, playing her shocking videos in heavy roatation. MTV would play Madonna's videos featuring shocking sexuality, which is far more damaging to our society with a video featuring traces of violence off screen. This was all a perfect case of the media overreacting. Motley Crue were a metal band with a bad boy image. Forget the fact that they were louay fighters and sweethearts. MTV saw them as street trash, so their most beautiful video was labelled as street trash.
To me, my friends, this is the ultimate in senseless prejudice. People just want to associate garbage with trash. Motley weren't trash and this video sure wasn't. When it was censored from MTV, a lot of kids didn't see an important cultural landmark and there's a good chance society suffered more from the video's lack of airplay than they would have had the "graphic" video been aired.

The Death of Steve Marriott and a Very Scary Coincedence

When Steve Marriott, frontman and guitarist of Humble Pie and the Small Faces, died at age 44 back in 1991, nobody was really surprised to hear that he was gone. He had a strong cocaine habit, and he was also a heavy smoker and drinker. The cause of his death was the shocker: house fire. Steve was alone when he died, so we can never know exactly what happened, but it is speculated that Marriott, exhausted and jet lagged, lit a cigarette, fell asleep and dropped it, which caught the house on fire. Firefighters found his body next to his bed as if he was trying to escape.
It's a sad, strange story, but thanks to an obscure old article, it's about to get stranger. It doesn't matter if this is true or not, point is, Steve Marriott stated in an interview in a 1975 CREEM magazine that when he was fourteen, he was smoking cigarettes in the school washroom, dropped one, and burnt down part of the school.
Wow. What a coincedence. Either there was some crazy karma going on here or Stevie really was the victim of a vengeful fate...

Alice Cooper's Best Moments

"Leslie West and Rick Allen should form their own group and call it The Stubs."

"When I form my own supergroup, we're gonna call ourselves Groupersoup."

"We're becoming politically correct to the point where we're all robots."

"I am very proud to say that my life and two daughters are all accomplished ballerinas. I am also very proud to say that my son is not an accomplished ballerina."

"The album cover for the Scorpions' Love At First Sting was censored because it featured a nearly naked woman... As long as it didn't feature a nearly naked Klaus Meine..."

"I love videos of cats doing funny things... Like urinating on copies of the Eagles' Greatest Hits album..."

The 5 Worst Hair Metal Songs

I had so much fun writing The Hair Metal Hierarchy last week that I decided I wanted to write some kind of a follow-up to it. A lot of people found my article by typing "worst hair metal bands" into Google, so, I was inspired to create this little list.
5.Once Bitten Twice Shy by Great White
Don't get me wrong, I love this band. But it was a rather lousy cover of what already wasn't a very good song (original was by Ian Hunter, a favorite musician of mine) and I especially don't like that it became their most well-known song, when they had many others which were far superior, like House of Broken Love, Save Your Love, or Rock Me.
4. When the Children Cry by White Lion
White Lion had the perfect foundation for a great hair metal band: a gorgeous singer and a very.talented guitarist. However, the songwriting wasn't always up to speed, and they tended to be on the wimpy side. This song, for example, is way on the wimpy side. I mean honestly, When the Children Cry?
3. We Only Come Out At Night by Lizzy Borden
I still feel sorry for these guys. I know they tried hard, but they simply weren't very good. Their songs were like Iron Maiden meets Los Angeles, and it just didn't quite work. Sorry.
2.Dreams by Van Hagar
Look, I really could have put any Van Hagar garbage in here, to the exception maybe of Love Comes Walking In, which isn't so bad. In the post David Lee Roth era, with Sammy Hagar singing, Sammy began to dominate the band, and even began playing guitar sometimes. Considering that Eddie Van Halen is one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived, this was completely unnecessary, and Van Halen fans like myself were pained to see Eddie playing keyboards more and more often. Dreams is probably the cheesiest and most irritating of the lot.
1.More Than Words by Extreme
Look, sorry to rip on Extreme again, they also made the bottom of my last hair metal countdown, but then again, I'm not so sorry, because Nuno Bettencourt was an asshole, Gary Cherone made Van Halen reach new lows, and their music sucks. More Than Words, albeit immense popularity, is boring, predictable, and forgettable.

The Hair Metal Hierarchy: 80s Bands From Best To Worst

Hair metal is most certainly a genre of music which arouses some very mixed emotions from people. It is both a very well-loved.and very well hated category, called everything from fun to cheesy and plastic and irrelevant. Overall, I really did like it... Some of it. It's definite though, that not all hair metal bands were created equally, and so, in my humble opinion, I rank them as follows, from great to... Not so much.
1. Def Leppard
Besides being pretty boys, these guys made great albums, awesome songs, and a great live act. It wasn't just hair metal. It was good. Gods Of War one of the most underrated rock songs ever in my opinion.
2. Guns N' Roses
They didn't last long or do many albums, but what they gave us was goldwn, high energy, and very substantial. I'd say it really is a toss-up between them and Def Leppard for first, but I gave Lep the nod because they lasted longer and survived some of the worst hardships to ever hit a rock band.
3. Whitesnake
Whitesnake only really went Hair Metal after 1987. In 1978 they were formed as a blues rock band, and although they never lost their blues roots entirely, they drifted farther and farther away from them as each album grew poppier.and poppier. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing though. In the late 80s, they gave us songs like Now You're Gone, Is This Love, Still of the Night, and, of course, Here I Go Again.
4. Motley Crue
I don't know where to begin here. Motley Crue, in my opinion, were quite an amazing band in many ways. They wrote really, really good songs and put out five of the best albums. They were gritty and real, (Dr. Feelgood) but happy and fun (Girls, Girls, Girls) and sometimes even terribly sad and insightful (You're All I Need.) It's been said that they were incompetent musicians (not true), that they were all wasted (true) assholes (not true) and that everybody who knows Vince Neil has a problem with him, but I can't find anything in my heart for these guys except for love, respect, and absolute admiration.
5. Cinderella
Don't laugh because I put them so high. Cinderella were good. Really, really good. Tom Keifer had an awesome voice, and their music always stayed original.
6.Dokken
My top 5 are the bands who I say are "more than just hair metal" as a general thing. After that, there is a decline in quality and more cheesiness associated to the bands here, but there are still quite a few very good bands here. Dokken had lots and lots of good songs, very talented members, and some of the greatest, most colorful videos I've ever seen. I love It's Not Love, In My Dreams, Burning Like A Flame and Alone Again especially.
7. Tesla
Band featuring two of the most underrated guitarists ever, Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, this group  from Sacramento made music which really wasn't hair metal so much as it was rock and roll. Modern Day Cowboy is one of the sickest rock tunes from the 80s, as Love Song was one of, if not the, greatest ballads.
8. Poison
The Kings of the Sunset Strip had a sound that was very reminiscent of the early 70s glam rock scene. The songwriting ability wasn't always all there, but the sound and the spirit sure was.
9. Skid Row
Fronted by one of rock and roll's most exciting characters, Sebastian Bach, Skid Row could be a bit noisy at times, and a bit sappy at others, but always kept a great attitude and sense of humour about life and about themselves.
10. Hanoi Rocks
Bad boys from Finland who started it all... And never got the credit. Favorite band of Guns N' Roses, particularly Izzy Stradlin'.
11. Bon Jovi
Most people would rank them higher than I did, probably, I put them here because they just did so many bad songs and too many ballads.
12. RATT
Sense of humor for miles, these guys had. Attitude and swagger to the 11 level and their tough-but-fun image made them well-loved stars. Very distinguishable sound and some terrific anthems like "I Want a Woman" and "Round and Round."
13.Quiet Riot
A good example of a "launching-pad" kind of band (QR produced Rudy Sarzo and Randy Rhoads), QR were sometimes flawed and didn't see the spotlight long (one huge album, Metal Health, and then completely forgotten about) but they were definitely one of the founding fathers of their genre. Fabulous guitar work from Randy Rhoads and, in turn, Carlos Cavazo, and some great songs, like the classic Bang Your Head.
14.Warrant
Possibly the cheesiest of the bands of their time, Warrant did seem to be in it, more or less, for the money. However, they were very talented musicians and performers, and some of their songs, like Down Boys, are ACTUALLY pretty good.
15.Great White
Another good example of a hair metal band with a strong blues influence, Great White had to work very hard for a long time to make some recognition, and from there it didn't last long. A shame that they're now best known for a crappy cover of Ian Hunter's Once Bitten Twice Shy and the bar fire incident, when they were quite talented. House of Broken Love is.easily one of the best guitar songs ever.
16.Danger Danger
One of the only two  hair metal bands from New York City (White Lion being the other) and possibly the five most gorgeous guys to ever.make music together, Danger Danger lost a lot of respect from critics by calling their first two singles "Bang Bang" and "Naughty.Naughty." Those were good songa though, and the band's premature split due to legal issues was a crying shame. Singer Ted Poley went on to record music for Sega video games, and guitarist Andy Timmons is still very active in the music industry to this day.
17.W.A.S.P.
More of a farce than anything else, W.A.S.P. were never meant to be taken seriously. Neither was everything Chris Holmes did in hid whole life, ever. One of the best stage acts ever.
18.Autograph
"Turn Up The Radio" is definitely a contender for Best Hair Metal Song, and their two records were very good. I'd put them higher if they were around longer.
19. Lizzy Borden
Their music is pretty sick and outrageous. Met Lizzy at a bar in LA a while ago too, he's a fantastic guy. Personal favourite is "Love You To Pieces."
20. Kix
One thing I really like about Kix is that they are extremely non pretentious. They were simply a very good band with a lot of original songs and pretty solid albums. Don't Close Your Eyes is a killer anti-suicide song.
21.LA Guns
Tracii Guns gets some credit from me for being able to look so sexy with such a goofy hairstyle. The band most often known for being the launching pad for Guns N' Roses (Steven Adler, Duff McKagan and Slash were all former members) never became known for much more than the ballad "The Ballad of Jayne," but if you dig a little deeper into their music you'll find some excellent rock tunes. I love the end solo in "Rip and Tear."
22. Faster Pussycat
These guys were a lot of fun, above all else, they were fun. House of Pain is a contended for one of the best hair metal ballads, a touching song about having a poor relationship with your father. Killer chorus in that one.
23.Slaughter
Personally I thought that Mark Slaughter had a very cool voice, a little bit like Jon Bon Jovi and a little bit like Tom Keifer. I remember hearing "Fly to the Angels" for the first time and just thinking to myself, Man, who is that guy singing? "Angels" was a very well-written song and I'm glad for them that they had a shining moment, but sadly they didn't really have much else going for them. Some of the opening tracks on "The Wild Life" had a good bite to them though.
24. Stryper
I won't start going on about Stryper now cause I have been talking about them a lot lately, so if you want to read something about them, scroll down and find my article "God Bless Stryper."
25.Mr. Big
All the songs you probably know by Mr. Big- "To Be With You," "Just Take My Heart," and a cover of "Wild World," suck pretty hard. I'm sorry. So why are they occupying a decent spot still on this list? Because they were really quite good, again, underneath the surface. "Daddy, Lover, Brother, Little Boy" and "The Whole World Is Gonna Know" were half decent. Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert were undeniable masters of their instruments, and although Eric Martin's voice is not to everyone's liking, it does justice to their style.
26. Vinny Vincent Invasion
What I have to say about VVI is a little bit like my opinion on Autograph, they were good, they just didn't last long and have many good songs. Bassist Dana Strum and Mark Slaughter went on to form, of course, Slaughter, and guitarist Vinny played for KISS for a while.
27.White Lion
White Lion weren't all bad... Mike Tramp wasn't bad at all... But they just wasted a lot of time being sappy to new levels. "Lights and Thunder" and "Little Fighter" were cool enough, and Vito Bratta was an exceptionally talented guitarist, but "When the Children Cry" and "Till Death Do Us Part" are the kind of thing that make me run from the room screaming.
28.Wildside
Wildside weren't bad at all, but they blew what would have been success with bad timing. Their first album came out in 1992, when hair metal was practically dead, and they never really saw the limelight despite working with Andy Johns and Jim Valance. Singer Drew Hanna was slightly reminiscent of Sebastian Bach, and came up with some decent hooks, but overall his voice had a bit of an annoying quality.
29.Van Hagar
I didn't include Van Halen in this list because although they definitely helped define the sound of hair metal, they really are a straightforward rock band to me. When David Lee Roth quit and wad replaced by *choke, gag* Sammy Hagar, they became an entirely different band. I can't call the music they made Van Halen because it was so far removed from their classic sound. So this new band I call Van Hagar, who were, ultimately, forgettable enough to make them the second lowest-ranking band on this list. So who's at the bottom then?...
30.Extreme
The fact that there is a hair metal band ranked below Van Hagar is cause for great alarm. As a musician and lover of musicians, I strongly dislike it when musicians trash-talk other musicians. So it is with no regret that I trash-talk Extreme, because I do not consider these rude, boring bozos to be musicians so much as they are disgraces. Get The Funk Out is rude and annoying, Hole Hearted gives lame a whole new meaning, and More Than Words can put Keith Richards and Ron Woods to sleep in the middle of a joking session while snorting exceptionnally large amounts of coke.

God Bless Stryper

Now, maybe, just maybe, you read my post about religion and politics in rock music, and maybe you recall that I used Stryper as an example about religion being used in music just a little too blatantly. Now that I've spent more time.listening to them and their music, I'm gonna just retract any previous statements I made about them and start anew.
It took guts to get on stage, play rock music, and sing about Jesus Christ and Christianity. In a time when everybody was singing about getting drunk, getting high, getting shot and getting laid, Stryper stuck to their morals and what they believed in to make more inspiring and motivating (albeit sometimes cheesier) music. There was more money the other way, but they stuck to it. And there were people who hated them because they sang about the Lord. That, to me, is horrible. If you choose not to be  Christian, that is your right and decision. But Christianity, no matter how you look at it, is a thing of love and kindness. Hating Christianity is hating love and kindness. To me, hating Stryper because of what they stand for is hating Christianity. I'm saying this all as a doubtful agnostic. I've never been able to make Christianity a part of my own life, but I have so much respect and admiration for those who have.
Whether you liked Stryper's music or not is irrelevant really. They were amazingly good people, who had strong morale, a lot of courage, and who tried very, very hard to provide an alternative to their day's mainstream rock. Next time you plan on calling them lame or gay, please pause midway through your sentence and say, "Oops. I meant to say Lizzy Borden, not Stryper."
Stryper really were alright...

A Little Bit of Rock And Roll Irony

Randy Rhoads, Pete Ham, Chris Woods, Keith Relf, Jim Capaldi, Marc Bolan, Mickey Finn, Brian Connolly and Mick Tucker are all, tragically, dead.

However, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, most of the Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses, and Megadeth are still alive and well. Nikki Sixx, who has died multiple times, looks like a 30-year old still.

Don't get me wrong, I am very, very happy that these guys are all still with us, and I don't think some people "deserve" to be alive more than some other people. But I find this to be a rather strange and ironic trend...