1305. Mötley Crüe / New Tattoo. 2000. 2/5

The 1990’s had not been kind to bands of Motley Crue’s ilk. Having spent the previous decade at the top of their game, living the life of excess in every imaginable way, while being at the forefront of the hair and glam metal movement, and at times setting the template for other bands to follow and replicate their success, the change in the rules in the 1990’s was the first keystone that loosened on the path. This was followed by the volatile working relationships between certain members of the band finally falling into ruin, requiring changes to both the way the band approached their music, and also who would be involved in their music going forward. Five years had stretched between the high point of their career with “Dr Feelgood” and the follow up, the self-titled “Motley Crue”. This album had seen the departure of lead vocalist Vince Neil and the recruitment of John Corabi as his replacement, and the bluesier sound envisioned on the album was critically acclaimed and yet mostly rejected by the fan base, or of that which remained. The same line up began to write songs for the follow up to that album, but their record label, who feared another hit to the album sales and therefore their own profits, engineered a reunion with Vince Neil coming back to the fold, and Corabi being moved aside. The resulting album, “Generation Swine”, saw what was described as a ‘return to form’ by the record label, though the songs mostly had Corabi’s stamp over them, and were obviously composed for his vocals and not Neil’s.
The reunion was not universally loved, and drummer Tommy Lee was the main hold out. The ill feeling between Lee and Neil had not dissipated, and it was also during this time that Lee had many domestic disputes with his then wife Pamela Anderson, which led to him serving jail time for domestic violence. While in jail, Lee had decided that he wanted out, and following his release from prison, and completing a greatest hits tour the band had booked, Lee left the band.
In his place, Motley Crue recruited former Ozzy Osbourne drummer Randy Castillo to take his place. Castillo was a proven performer, a professional, and bringing him into the band at this time seemed like an excellent proposition.
The band spent three months in early 2000 writing and recording the new album. In recent interviews, following the acrimonious split between the band and guitarist Mick Mars, Mars was quoted in an article for Rolling Stone magazine as saying that he didn’t write any of the material on “New Tattoo” nor barely played on the album, and that he was being held accountable by the band because of the poor performance of the previous album “Generation Swine”. "I didn't write any of those songs, since I wasn't invited," said Mars. "I think I played one lick on that album”. Nikki Sixx, interviewed for the same article, dismisses that claim, saying Mick played all lead and rhythm guitars, and whatever else he wanted to. Mars also has three co-writing credits on the album, so it is hard to know exactly what the real truth to the matter is. In any case, the album was released in July 2000, at a time that fans were looking for music from their favourite 80’s artists that more reflected the music of that time. This was Motley Crue’s chance to deliver on that statement.

The opening track “Hell on High Heels’ hits the brief immediately when it comes to providing a song that gives the listener the feeling that they are back in the heyday of the band. No, it isn’t spot on, because the band is older now and it doesn't have that same intensity and energy that those original songs did, but it does provide exactly what the fans and record label would have been hoping for, a song with some similarities to that era.
From here, the lyrical content of the songs of the album begins to take shape, and for the most part it comes across as... unseemly. “Treat Me Like the Dog I Am” just immediately makes you think ‘what the hell are these guys up to here?!’ It is also the start of the writing partnership between Nikki Sixx and James Michael, a musician and producer who would be tied closely to future projects that involved the two of them, including Brides of Destruction and Sixx AM. Here the music is of the right attitude, but it is hard to sing along with the lyrics without either laughing or cringing. In most cases, both. Then they offer us a country acoustic based ballad, the title track “New Tattoo”. Now somewhere along the line this became something that Motley Crue wanted to do, and they are all the worse for it. The band’s point of demise can almost be pinpointed to the success of “Home Sweet Home” from “Theatre of Pain” that was reviewed here on a recent episode, because that led the band down the path to chase that success and it has ruined so many of their songs in the process. This is rubbish, with no redeeming features. It should be played to kids in school in detention to punish them, because it would certainly stop them from ever doing anything to be sent back there again. Even then, it is better lyrically than what is served up on “Dragstrip Superstar”. The music is fine, sounds good even, but lyrically this is another Nikki Sixx clanger. “Jailbait playmate, freakshow masturbate, fuel inject carburette, underage penetrate”. Jesus Nikki how old are you? Actually, don’t answer that. If it wasn’t for the good riff and great solo on this song is would be at the bottom of the barrel. In many ways, it still is. But then you come to the next great instalment on the album, “1st Band on the Moon”, a straight Nikki Sixx song, but you wouldn’t need to take long before you came to that conclusion. Seriously, once again the music is good enough. It isn’t ground breaking, but it is good. Vince sounds great. But the lyrics are puerile trash. Great sounding guitar Mick, I like the solo in the middle of the song. Just... c’mon... it can’t be that hard to come up with something else to sing about. Well... apparently not, because there is more of this to come on “She Needs Rock N Roll”. On the surface it’s just a typical teenager needs to listen to rock and roll music, but the connotations – well, not connotations because the lyrics are straight to the point – just seem like they should have been locked in a box in the past and forgotten. Sure, maybe I’m just old and don’t need to hear this stuff anymore, or feel like I WANT to sing along to it anymore. That part is true, but goodness me there must be a way to be more inventive in songwriting.
Yes, all of this will continue for the remainder of the episode. You have been warned.
The generic side of the band’s music comes to the fore with “Punched in the Teeth by Love”. Firstly, musically. There isn’t a great effort here to create something that is different from anything that hasn’t been done before. Before we even get to the lyrical content, if the music had been more inspiring – you know, offering a great riff or bass line or scintillating solo – then this song may have been better than just generic fluff. But it doesn’t. But then the lyrics: “Flash a smile like an alligator, move her hips like a generator, all over town like an oil spill, if there’s meat on the bone she’ll wag her tail”. This song is credited to all four members of the band, which truly makes it worse. And the repeated concourse of the song title through the last few minutes of the song is overbearing. Not that the follow up is any better, as “Hollywood Ending” is the power ballad that desperately tries to recreate the success and depth of feeling that their ballad hits of the past have provided. In this case though, it is a pretty half hearted effort to do so. Even the quick fade at the end of the track seems like it is an afterthought, a way to stop the pain from going on any longer. It is almost a country acoustic ballad much like the earlier one on the album, that’s the depths that this song falls to, replete with the background singers in the chorus. The band’s writers are trying to pull out all the tricks to create the illusion that this album is bringing back the best of the band from its greatest era, but it is a poor facade that they hare building on. This is a god-awful song.
I can’t work out if “Fake” is an autobiographical song, or if it is actually trying to proclaim that the band is different from the people that they discuss within the lyrical content of the track. They are obviously having a crack at record labels and critics alike, but are they owning their own excesses or blaming them on others? Are they trying the accept that they haven’t always done the right thing, or are they just trying to drag everyone else into the mire with them? There are two ways of interpreting the lyrics. What IS true is that musically, again, this is fairly average fair, unexciting, stuck in a rut and stuck in a rhythm, without the great music that drives the best Motley Crue songs. It may be a statement but as a song it doesn’t do much to advertise that fact. Still, lyrically it is like Shakespeare compared to Nikki Sixx’s offering on “Porno Star”, which is exactly as you would expect a Crue song with this title to be about. Listen to this marvellous composition: “Dot com, dot cum, web cam super scam triple x cyber sex, shoot my rocks on the box, peeping tom on the net, down I’m going down going down, I’m a cyber junkie what a freak”. Welcome to the new millennium everyone. The album then concludes with the cover of The Tubes song “White Punks on Dope”, a song title that is probably very appropriate for some members of this band.

As I related very recently on the episode dedicated to the “Theatre of Pain” album, my introduction to Motley Crue came reasonably early on in my conversion to the heavier side of music. I had asked my heavy metal music dealer to record me an album that had become the next in my line of requirements. He asked me what I wanted him to put on the other side of the cassette, to which I said to him to choose something he thought I might like. The cassette came back with “Shout at the Devil” as the chosen second side album, and I never looked back.
I got a copy of this album reasonably soon after it was released. At the time I hadn’t heard the “Generation Swine” album, and though I was disappointed that Tommy Lee had left the band I was also pleased to hear Randy Castillo had joined in his place, and was looking forward to what he would add to the album. I still had an overall positive mindset when it came to the band and was hoping that what they produced would be worth the wait. And as it turned out, when I did get the album, I wasn’t disappointed in it terribly. It wasn’t “Dr Feelgood” or “Shout at the Devil”, but it was mostly upbeat and sounded as good as I had thought it might without any outlandish expectations. The band hadn’t turned to nu-metal or industrial metal, so most of it seemed above board. After the requisite number of listens, it moved into the usual pile to be found some time in the future.
This has had the very occasional play since. It isn’t something that I go to when I am in the mood for Motley Crue. A couple of times in the years since I have worked my way through the catalogue and this has come up again, and I listen to it and move to the next album. And mostly through that time I have avoided the obvious question that arises from my podcast episode today. And that is - how did Vince Neil bring himself to sing some of this crap? Because overall, I don’t mind the music. The two country ballads are complete and utter rubbish, don’t get me wrong. Whenever I have listened to this album since, I always wonder if Nikki Sixx had a desire to go down the route Def Leppard did at one stage and collaborate with country and western artists and make that kind of music. Because that is what those songs remind me of. But apart from those, and though some of the songwriting is slightly generic in the way it comes across, the music is mostly good, and I can listen to it without any qualms whatsoever. But the lyrics... my goodness, there is some utter crap there. Though the band has only released one album since this, they have still done a lot of touring, at least up until the aborted Final Tour status that they must have stolen from Kiss. And apart from the tour to promote this album, they have never played ANY of these songs live again. And it is no surprise, because even though in this day and age it is difficult to understand anything Vince Neil actually sings anyway, I’m sure he just drew a line under these songs and said “Nikki, the lyrics are shit, I refuse to sing them”.
So yes. Music is fine, lyrics are crap. That is the best way to sum up “New Tattoo”. Even when listening to it this week, I find myself enjoying about half of the album, and groaning loudly about the other half.
Motley Crue were booked to tour Australia on this album, but unfortunately firstly Randy Castillo got sick, a duodenal ulcer requiring surgery that then discovered cancer, which killed him less than two years after this albums release. Then his replacement Samantha Mahoney from Hole also had problems and the tour never happened. Perhaps that was for the best. The album still resides in my collection, but it is one of the ones that will remain in ‘near mint’ condition as the years pass.

1302. Mötley Crüe / Theatre of Pain. 1985. 2.5/5

Motley Crue’s sophomore album, the heavy yet accessible “Shout at the Devil”, had catapulted the band to national and international recognition, on the back of songs such as “Too Young to Fall in Love”, “Helter Skelter”, “Looks That Kill” and the title track “Shout at the Devil”. It was this song, and its perceived imagery of Satanism that was exacerbated by the album cover, that had many religious and political groups claiming that they had nefarious thoughts and plans. It was the time of the PMRC in the United States and their growing influence upon the media. In the long run this did not harm the sales of the album and even provided further promotion for it. During the recording of that album bass guitarist Nikki Sixx had crashed a friend’s Porsche which he had stolen while drunk, and the resulting shoulder injury found him develop a Percocet addiction that transitioned quickly to a $3,500 a day heroin addiction. They then found even greater popularity and airplay – and infamy - on tour when they supported Ozzy Osborne, before going on the Monsters of Rock tour in 1984 with Van Halen and AC/DC. On each of these occasions the band were a huge hit, but their backstage antics caused friction wherever they went. The band’s debauchery had shocked even Ozzy himself on that tour, and on the Monsters of Rock tour the band was eventually restricted to only leaving their trailer to play their slot, and having to leave the venue immediately afterwards, following incidents where Vince Neil had bitten Eddie Van Halen, Tommy Lee had bitten Malcolm Young and had also gotten into a fistfight with David Lee Roth. Popular with fans they may have been, but not with touring bands. There was even a discussion at one stage by the band of firing guitarist Mick Mars, which was only saved by then Ozzy bass guitarist, Bob Daisley, reminding them that they should not change something that wasn’t broken.
On December 8, 1984, in a car driven by Vince Neil while severely under the influence of alcohol, Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle was killed when Neil crashed the car that he was a passenger in. With the threat of serious jail time a possibility, Neil found a way to escape this threat by writing a very large cheque and doing 30 days jail time, of which he only completed 20. Never a dull moment in the Motley Crue camp.
With all of this going on, the band finally entered the studio in January 1985 to finally write and record their follow up to their sophomore album. At the time, given the lengthy period between releases, there must have been some concern that they had failed to strike while the iron was hot. The end result offered a mixed response to those thoughts.

Taking in everything that I’ve mentioned in the opening monologue to this episode, one can only wonder what the mood and headspace of the band was as they wrote and recorded this album, and in many ways that seems obvious when you listen to the finished product. The lyrics are not groundbreaking or particularly outstanding, and as they came from a mostly overly influenced lyrics writer that isn’t much of a stretch, though Nikki did seem to stick to a central theme. “City Boy Blues” is basically just a revved-up blues riff throughout as Vince moans about being unable to break the shackles of the city boy blues. It’s mostly a repetitive uninspired opening track that hardly sets the world on fire like the opening tracks on just about every other Motley Crue album does. “Louder Than Hell” mirrors the sound and style of track from “Shout at the Devil” with the guitar riff and Neil’s vocal stylings and squeals, but without the attitude that album possesses. It was actually a leftover track from that album, which explains why it sounds similar to that album, and also why it didn’t make the cut for that album. “Keep Your Eye on the Money” has some good lyrics early on, switching between the gambling and drug metaphors, but eventually becomes a song where the title of the song is repeated over and over in the back half to completely sink whatever credence it may have begun with. It isn’t a new technique for the band, and one that gets the same treatment on the second side of the album, beginning with “Tonight (We Need a Lover)”, “Use It or Lose It”, “Raise Your Hands to Rock” and even “Fight for Your Rights”. And yes, it is a very rock and roll formula to have repeated choruses or verses to encourage pop lyrical memory from the fans, and maybe it is just me, but this album does have it in overkill mode.
So lyrically the album does fall a little short on the band’s opening two albums. Musically... well there is a similar problem really. Tommy Lee’s drumming is solid on this album, but he isn’t really pushing himself to new heights, trying to be innovative or at the very least energetic in a way that has your head bobbing along in time with him. Mick Mars guitar work is as clean as always; he lets loose with a couple of bursts of soloing and with a riff that makes its mark but none of it is as spectacular as the previous two albums. Vince Neil’s vocals are serviceable but don’t inspire much enthusiasm. And Nikki Sixx’s bass work – well I guess that’s another story as well. In recent times it has been claimed from several sources that Nikki has not recorded the bass guitar in several instances during the band’s history. Now this isn’t unusual in the history of music, where other musicians have recorded instruments on an album uncredited, so it isn’t really a shock or surprise, but it has been made to be so. In the instance of this album, former Motley Crue guitarist Greg Leon recently said in an interview that Sixx did not play any bass on “Theatre of Pain”.
The two songs that stand out on this album, and the ones that have proven to be the most popular through the years are the two single releases, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” and “Home Sweet Home”. “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” is a cover of the Brownsville Station song, and is immediately a standout on this album because it suddenly revives the fun and energetic part of the band that for the most part of this album lies dormant. And it sounds like they are having fun playing it. Vince sounds up and at his best, Mick’s guitaring is suddenly inspired, and Tommy’s drumming is far more upbeat. It stands out like sore thumb on this album. “Home Sweet Home” of course is the power ballad, the piano driven song that concludes side one of the album, and became the band’s signature song. It is a step further along from what they had tried before, and its style grabbed the attention of the target audience. As a leading light and forerunner to the singles oriented glam metal future of bands such as Poison, Cinderella and others, “Theatre of Pain” can lay claim to the one they all used as a template. Not only with the cover song they turned into a teenage anthem, but the power ballad that seduced the hopeless romantics of the world, or those just hoping that it would end up in sex. “Home Sweet Home” became that template that drove many bands that followed Motley Crue into the charts on the back of the sickly-sweet ballad, and with that cemented the bands reputation, and arguably also their conversion from the heavier side of metal to the glam styled version that exploded in the mid-1980's.

My introduction to Motley Crue came reasonably early on in my conversion to the heavier side of music. I had asked my heavy metal music dealer to record me an album that had become the next in my line of requirements. He asked me what I wanted him to put on the other side of the cassette, to which I said to him to choose something he thought I might like. The cassette came back with “Shout at the Devil” as the chosen second side album, and I never looked back.
As it turned out, “Theatre of Pain” is not an album I actually got until the start of the 1990’s decade, well after I had acquired the other albums of the band’s discography. I knew of course the two singles – very well as it turns out, as one was the overplayed ballad on TV and at parties, and the other was covered a band that my heavy metal music dealer played in around the local pubs. So, having been very familiar with Motley Crue’s four other albums, I eventually came around to buying my own copy of this album. And it is fair to say that I was underwhelmed by it. But I’m guessing you all had already guessed that by now. I don’t think it would have mattered what order I got these albums though, this for me would always have been the least likely to succeed. It doesn’t have the raw aggression of “Too Fast for Love” or the heavy tones of “Shout at the Devil”, the energetic exaltations of “Girls, Girls, Girls” or the anthemic “Dr Feelgood”. I’ve always found this to be the ugly duckling of the band’s iconic era. Much of the album is uninspiring in the ways you look for Motley Crue albums and songs. If I was to choose a best of track list between those five albums I wouldn’t choose one song from this album. And initially that may well have been because I heard it last of all those five albums, all of which I found at least half of their tracks appealing. Here though, it doesn't grab me.
The CD came back off the shelves this week for its habitual listen in the Metal Cavern. I’ve had it on at work also. And at no stage did I ever really grasp anything new from it. In fact, the only time my head popped up at work because of an energetic burst of a song was when “Theatre of Pain” had concluded, and the next album started in rotation. I think for me that sums up exactly how I feel about this album.
In the Crue catalogue, “Theatre of Pain” for me ranks at #9 of their 9 studio album releases. I’m sure there are fans out there who have thrown their listening devices out the window upon this revelation. Sorry to disappoint you. Just think about the fact though that this album has always disappointed me more than you are disappointed with me. Or, something like that.

1098. Mötley Crüe / Mötley Crüe. 1994. 2.5/5

After the monster that Motley Crue’s 5th album “Dr. Feelgood” became upon its release in 1989, and the subsequently enormous world tour that followed to promote that album, the band appeared to have the music world at its feet. Following this they released a greatest hits package “Decade of Decadence 81–91” and toured again, raking in more dollars as they went. Once this had concluded, there seems little doubt that the four members of the band needed a break in order to recover from the long period on the road and away from home. Instead, either at the insistence of their record company or by individuals around the group, they began writing for a new album in early 1992 on the basis of working two weeks on, and then having two weeks off. Perhaps on paper this seemed like a good idea, but it soon proved to be the opposite.
Vince Neil's drinking according to some reports was affecting his ability to perform. At the time, the band blamed Neil's race car driving in the Indy Lights circuit as the reason, later releasing a statement that stated that they felt his racing had become his priority and that he didn’t share the band’s same desire and passion for the music any longer.
Even to this day there is no clear statement that would confirm or deny whether Neil was fired or quit the band. Bass player and band leader Nikki Sixx has long maintained that Neil quit, while Neil insists that he was fired. "Any band has its little spats," Neil observed in 2000, "and this one basically just stemmed from a bunch of 'fuck you’s' in a rehearsal studio. It went from 'I quit' to 'You're fired' ... It was handled idiotically. The management just let one of the biggest bands in the world break up”. Prior to his leaving of the group, Sixx says the band was open with Neil that they were considering a new lead vocalist, with Sixx telling him "We are down here working, and we want to be here. This isn't going to happen if you don't want to be here, and we have to force you out of bed every afternoon because you've been out all night drinking." Drummer Tommy Lee accused him of failing to contribute to the creative process and Neil stormed out, and his firing was announced to the public four days later.
At the same time, John Corabi was in his own band The Scream, and having heard Nikki Sixx had had good things to say about their album, wanted to get in contact with him, in order possibly have him collaborate on material for that band’s next album. When Sixx got back to him, he informed him that Neil had left Motley Crue, and asked Corabi if he would audition for the gig. A short time later and Corabi was inducted into the Motley Crue group, and a new chapter was about to be written, with an open ending that no one was sure which way it would go.

There was an obviously great deal of anticipation on the follow-up album to “Dr Feelgood” and how it would go in comparison. There was a lot to live up to, not just from that album but from the change in lead vocalist. It is fair to say that by the time “Mötley Crüe” the album finally hit the record shelves that it was not like anything that anyone expected it to be.
Apart from Vince Neil’s demise, five years had passed between albums, and the music world had completely changed from the one that Motley Crue had dominated. Glam metal was not extinct, but it had gone the way of the dinosaurs nonetheless, found only in the smallest of clubs with a shrinking audience. In its place had come grunge and the bands and sound that followed it, and it was nothing like the kind of music that Motley Crue had created over the previous decade and more. These occurrences were all things that they had to overcome when it came to how to approach this album.
What John Corabi brought to the band though was significant. He is a terrific lead singer in his own right, though different in style and substance from Vince Neil. He was also a guitarist, which brought with him the ability for two guitars on the album and allowing Mick Mars to be the lead guitarist in his own right while Corabi played rhythm, which did open up new possibilities with the songs. And finally, Corabi was a songwriter and a lyricist, which gave Nikki Sixx a real collaborator in this respect that he generally did not have, which gave the band the chance to write songs that they had never attempted before. All of this should have led to a more rounded writing and recording effort than the band had ever had before.
The sound on Mötley Crüe is tied very much to the times. Grunge had come and had eradicated the hair metal movement, or at least the sound that it had proliferated to the point between 1981 and 1991. Those hair metal bands that had not disappeared had for the most part tried to adapt to the new landscape. This is Motley Crue’s answer to that, a stripped back sound with a grungier outlook and a different vocal direction, though that is an obvious one given that it was a different vocalist on board.
Play this back-to-back with any of the previous Motley Crue albums and you would swear they are by different bands. It’s not just the vocals. The whole sound is completely different to what has come before. And that takes some getting used to. The best way to approach this album is to listen to it without knowing who the band is, so that you can give it the time it needs without the judgement of the band's past. Easier said than done when you buy the album for the name of the band emblazoned on the front of it. As a result, there is not so much joy and intensity and fun in the music here that had been such a part of their earlier albums.
After the opening tracks of “Power to the Music” and “Uncle Jack”, “Hooligan’s Holiday” starts off okay but drags on far too long without changing tune all the way through. “Misunderstood” too just goes on far too long. I mean, it’s not the kind of song that necessarily endears itself to you, and the fact that it drags that soft acoustic start out so long, and then does exactly the same thing at the end of the track, doesn’t help its cause. The attitude in the middle goes some way to offsetting that, but it still is a bit too close to country rock in places for my liking. And part of the problem with the feel of the album is its tempo, so different from past Motley Crue albums, that it does exacerbate the feeling of the songs going on too long. The comparative shortness of “Loveshine” at least compensates for its lack of excitement. “Poison Apples” is the first song on the album that sounds like it is trying to break the mould they have set for themselves and come closer to a true Motley Crue song, and with it a familiar sounding Mick Mars solo along the way. and “Hammered” at least allows Mick Mars to break out a decent solo to get the tracks moving. “Smoke the Sky” is probably my favourite track along with these two because of the better tempo.

For me, this is the equivalent of what Metallica did in the same era with the “Load” and “Reload” albums, a really definitive decision to slow the music down and incorporate the changing times of the popular alternative movement that had occurred. With the none-too-subtle change in the musical direction of both bands at this time, who should be in charge of twiddling the knobs of those two Metallica albums? Bob Rock. And who was also in charge on “Mötley Crüe”? Bob Rock. Coincidence? It doesn’t feel like it. The slower, crunch guitar rather than the fast paced, squealing guitar and solos is a feature of both of these bands' previous releases. While Metallica’s foursome had been retained though, at least Motley’s recruitment of Corabi gave some semblance of originality to the changes that came forth. Five years between albums, and the amount of change that had happened in the music scene during that time, certainly added some reasonability to it.
If you judge this album as an alternative or grunge album you will certainly find some positives within the songs. Perhaps it is heavier than an average alternative album but it is rooted in that genre. Which means that it is difficult to please either or any fans. The inclusion of acoustic guitars, sitar and mandolin, along with synth and even the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in places on the album tops off all of the differences you could have when creating this album.
Did it work? Was there just too much baggage from fans who couldn’t handle the band without Vince Neil on vocals? It wouldn’t be the first nor last time that happened in the history of music. Think Iron Maiden and Blaze Bayley, think Van Halen and Gary Cherone. Both of those happened in this era also. This does not sound like a Motley Crue album, that is the simple truth. Three of the four members might be involved, but it doesn’t sound like the Crue. And that’s OK, unless you’ve come for a Motley Crue album. If you were to put this album on, without knowing who it is, you would never pick the band. But you know what? You might actually enjoy the album for what it is rather than trying to compare it to what has come before it. Motley Crue is not a mid tempo, slow drummed band, and that’s what this album is.
When I first listened to this album, I too dismissed it offhandedly. It didn’t sound like I wanted, so move on to the next band and album. There’s no doubt to me that that was a mistake, and mainly for the reason I mentioned before. Listen to the album but not who the band is. And this is a much better album than it is given credit for. I had made my peace with it a few years ago, so went into this episode with expectation rather than trepidation, and over the past month I have again discovered how much I enjoy this album in the modern day. It isn’t flawless by any means, but taking the album on face value and ignoring who it is credited to, I really enjoy this album.
Corabi has been touring in recent years playing this album in full, in order to give it a fresh audience or chance to see the light. He in fact came to Australia a couple of years ago to do just this. It went over really well. And as most people will know, this was the only album he made with the band. Following the tour to promote it, Corabi was out and Neil was back in. The band lost the extra guitarist and a damn fine singer and composer and got Vince instead. Keeping both surely could have been an option, one discussed further on the episode in Season 2 of this podcast that talks about the follow up album “Generation Swine”.
As a Motley Crue album such as the ones released in the past, it doesn’t rate well. As a stand-alone album of the era, there is a lot to like here. Personal taste will play its part as it always does, but don’t dismiss this just because it isn’t a Motley Crue album. Give it a chance because it isn’t.

1013. Mötley Crüe / Shout at the Devil. 1983. 5/5

Motley Crue is a band that has either been loved or despised over the years, both for their contribution to the music world, and their antics away from the writing and recording process. In many instances, people are unable to separate the two, and should they disapprove of the behaviour of members of the band then they also disapprove of the music they create. It was around the time this album was being created that the behaviour patterns were set in stone. Coming off their debut album, “Too Fast for Love”, an episode of which you can find in Season 1 of this podcast, the band were on significant tours with high profile artists such as Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, and eventually the 1984 Monsters of Rock with Van Halen and AC/DC. Each of these bands had major problems with the way Motley Crue conducted themselves. Gene Simmons had them replaced after just five shows of the “Creatures of the Night” tour. Bob Daisley counselled them not to change their guitarist when they spoke on the tour bus of replacing Mick Mars. And Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Malcolm Young were left furious at some of things that the band perpetrated. For their part, Motley Crue just didn’t care. They were high on life and doing it their own way. They trashed every motel room thy stayed in, and Nikki Sixx got into an accident in a friend’s Porsche he had stolen, the consequences with pain killer addiction were not fully realised until a few years later.
In and around all of this, the band had to write and record the follow up their first album. While it had some excellent tracks and had been well received, following that up to the point that they could back up their over the top behaviour on tour was going to be another thing entirely. "Too Fast for Love” had been a good album that showed promise, but not on a scale that this album produced. The jump in quality and energy between it and this is quite remarkable. Some fans disagree and think that this album waters down the punkish edge that the debut had and thus made it less alternative and more mainstream. I can see where that argument could be made, but the extra ‘polish’ that may appear to be here does actually help to tie in the whole album rather than expose any lesser tracks such as could be argued appear on “Too Fast for Love”.

Here on “Shout at the Devil” there is a nice mixture of tempo on the songs without ever losing the energy and power of the album, and each member of the band can be thanked for that. Tommy Lee’s hard hitting drums are a constant metronome. He doesn’t always sound like he is doing anything special outside of a regular drum beat, until you realise that the nuances he uses are so much more than average, they are extraordinary. His drum sound on this album is perfect, it doesn’t take centre stage nor is it hidden in the background, it rides along with the other four in harmony. Nikki Sixx’s bass lines rumble along in much the same way, not appearing to be out of the ordinary but in fact are driving the songs, supplying the energy in the tracks throughout. An interesting thought, given the recent developments that suggest Sixx did not play any of the bass guitar on this album, that it had been re-recorded by an unnamed session player. Mick Mars and his guitar shine along the way, not only matching the riff of his bass partner but making the perfect punctuations when his solo slot comes up in each song. He really is a very underrated player. Topping this off is the marvellous vocals from Vince Neil whose falsetto voice pierces through in places that are sometime unexpected, supported by the chanting back up voices of his three band mates to allow him to be the star out front. Whatever problems he may be faced with in the modern day in the live environment, his vocals sound great here on this album.
As to the songs themselves, I love every one of them on this album. That could be put down to having had this album imprinted in my brain back in those early days rather than the songs being spectacularly good, but that is the advantage of listening to the album and not just having heard a couple of singles off the album. For instance, most people would know “Looks That Kill” as it is a well aired video and song, but how many of those people would know of songs such as “Bastard” and “Red Hot”, or the album closer “Danger”? A very low percentage I would suspect, and these songs to me are just as enjoyable and important as “Looks That Kill” is. “Bastard” and “Red Hot” are the two fastest tempo songs on the album, and help to raise the action and adrenaline of the song list. They’re not singles by a long shot, but they are terrific songs that make up the core of the album itself. “Knock ‘em Dead Kid” and “Ten Seconds to Love” settle in that same range that every great album needs, the songs that may not be the stars of the show, but are terrific supporting cast. And you can’t have a great album if the bulk of the tracks, the ones that don’t get a single release of played at the live shows, aren’t great in their own way. Then you can add in the excellent cover of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”, which to me is the best version of this song, by any band. Again, the key word is ‘energy’ and this version has plenty of that in order to get the most out of it.
“Shout at the Devil” and “Too Young to Fall in Love” are the two real foot stompers on the album, based around the great Mick Mars riffs and leading drums from Tommy Lee. They both have that heavy mid-tempo riff with the drum pattern that encourages not only hard foot tapping in time but a solid head banging rhythm as well. And that is one of the key characteristics of this album. Perhaps the song structure isn’t complex or difficult, but it is enjoyable and entertaining, and that’s all you can ask of an album.

Back in my teenage years, in the middle of the Age of Discovery where new music and new bands were hopping out of the ground by the dozen, I gained my first exposure to the band Mötley Crüe. Initially it was through the video clip for the song “Looks That Kill” that had popped up on music video programs at specified times, and eventually metal music dealer picked up the album “Shout at the Devil” and taped it for me. Thus began my love affair with this band in general, but on a wider scale the hair metal genre as a whole. The album is a product of its time. The carefree ‘we are indestructible’ quartet looking to make their way in a music world that was finding success in several different quarters, and Motley Crue were able to knock down a couple of doors with their antics, their stage persona and the music itself.
I came into the band just beyond the halfway mark of the 1980’s decade, and when I did I came in hard. I had this on one side of a cassette with “Girls Girls Girls” on the other, which made for a riotous 90 minutes whenever I put it on. Driving around town with the drivers side window wound down and this blasting out of the car stereo was not an unusual sight in those days. And it was this album in particular that solidified my love of the band. Critics like to suggest that there is nothing outstanding about the song writing or the performance, but to me that’s what makes this such a great album. Lee’s drumming sounds simple but is so intricate, it makes it more special. Mars’s riffing is superb, and his solo’s his every spot perfectly. And Vince’s vocals don’t go for extremes, they are exuberant and enticing. And the fact Nikki Sixx almost single handedly wrote the album makes it what it is.
Plenty have suggested this is Mötley Crüe’s finest hour. There is enough evidence here to suggest that’s a fair comment. I believe they at least equalled this with “Dr. Feelgood” a few years down the track, but as much as I like their other surrounding albums I don’t think they get close to this one in terms of greatness. The formula comes up as a winner on this album, and when I put this on again over recent days to listen to it for this podcast review, it has now been on constant playback for a couple of weeks, and there is every chance it will continue to stay on my playlist now for a while to come. Surely that alone is enough to indicate just how highly I rate it.

891. Mötley Crüe / Too Fast for Love. 1981. 3.5/5

Sometimes it's hard to believe Mötley Crüe have been around for as long as they have. It was not until the mid-1980's that I started to be introduced to heavy metal music, and thus began listening to the Crüe as well. Their debut album, Too Fast for Love however was released way back in 1981, when I was but a boy in 6th class and oblivious to this kind of music. Only five years passed between the time this was released and the time I first heard it, but it still seems hard to comprehend that it was released so long ago.

It may not be their best album - well, let me clarify that, I don't believe it is their best album - but it shows all of the ingredients that were to help make them such a force throughout the remainder of the decade. My favourite songs from the album are those that have had the majority of the limelight - the killer opening track "Live Wire" which remains one of my favourite Mötley Crüe songs, the side one closer "Piece of Your Action" which has the best of that Crüe attitude, both musically and with Vince's spitting vocals, and the title track "Too Fast For Love" which apart from the endless repeating of the title track words through the middle and then the end of the song still comes across as one of the better songs.
The other songs are all middle of the road rockers that Mötley Crüe made their own over the course of the next three decades. Songs that had the requisite Vince Neil nasal vocal line, Nikki Sixx's rumbling bass, Mick Mars and his solid riff and short sharp flailing solo break and Tommy Lee's marvellous timekeeping and solid use of the cowbell. Songs such as "Come On and Dance" and "Public Enemy #1" and "Merry-Go-Round" are harmless songs that hold their ground but don't do anything that would break new ground. "Starry Eyes" probably sits in this category also, "On With the Show" ends the album somewhat limply.

I came to this album having already bought the three preceding albums, and so I guess I was always a tad disappointed with Too Fast for Love because of that, because of how far they progressed in a short space of time on those albums. This is still an enjoyable outing when you put it on, but it is the highlight songs that keep this album above the average.

Rating:  "If you're looking for satisfaction, I'm satisfaction guaranteed". 3.5/5

439. Mötley Crüe / Girls, Girls, Girls. 1987. 4/5.

By 1986 Motley Crue was riding high on the back of three successful albums, and were leading the pack of the glam/hair metal brigade of Hollywood and Los Angeles, while the thrash metal scene gained steam in the bay area and San Francisco. Their previous album, “Theatre of Pain”, had contained two surprising tracks that had gone huge – the cover version of “Smoking in the Boys Room”, of which the video had become immensely popular and on constant rotation on MTV, along with the power ballad “Home Sweet Home”, one whose success could easily have led to the band heading further in that direction on future albums to catch that popularity phase. And it is true, that most of their albums following this did contain a power-ballad-type track on them, but to the band’s credit they didn’t compromise their own sound by moving down that track. And it is certainly true that each of their power ballad tracks down the line are still entertaining and not the kind of dribble that European power metal bands dabbled with through the 1990’s and onwards.
And so from “Theatre of Pain” the band moved to their next album. From all reports and interviews with the band members over the years since, it is obvious that writing and recording the album was a struggle. Not only through the drugs and alcohol, but the inability to have all four members in the same room at the same time. There were stories where members just didn’t show up to the studio at all, or if they did they were so wasted they were unable to perform. Nikki Sixx wrote in their book “The Dirt” many years later, “Like “Theatre of Pain”, “Girls, Girls, Girls” could have been a phenomenal record, but we were too caught up in our personal bullshit to put any effort into it. You can actually hear the distance that had grown between us in our performance. If we hadn’t managed to force two songs out of ourselves, 'Wild Side' and the title track, the album would have been the end of our careers.”
Whether or not that would have been the case, somehow those around the band managed to find a way to get them together, for Nikki to pull back on his heroin addiction enough to write the songs, for Tommy to pull away from his then girlfriend Heather Locklear to come to the studio, for Mick to be able to play without restriction due to his medical condition, and for Vince to be sober enough to sing. Somehow, it all came together, and we were able to enough the finished product, “Girls, Girls, Girls”.

“Theatre of Pain” did good sales especially through the US, but in some instances was somewhat maligned. Ok, by me, it was me. But the opening to this album is always the hit that draws you in deeper. That opening guitar riff from Mick Mars and collaborating drum fill from Tommy Lee is a killer, and the song is a cracker, one of my favourite all time Motley Crue songs. It sets the album off on the right foot immediately, and this continues with the title track that follows it. This was the first single released from the album, and the accompanying music video of the Crue being filmed through strip clubs and driving down the Sunset Strip became one of the most watched videos on MTV, and pushed sales of the single to number 12 in the US, and a moderate 43 in Australia. “Wild Side” was then the second single released, and both helped to increase the sales of the album – along with making a great start to the album.
“Dancing on Glass” is another high energy track, written by Sixx about his heroin overdose in London, and is another of the best songs on the album. The remainder of side one of the album is more middle of the road, with “Bad Boy Boogie” living up to the song’s title with a bit of boogie woogie hard rock style. This song though is really effective both for the band itself and also the album. It keeps the flow of the album going in a place where other bands occasionally feel the need to change it up. I often think that if I got into this album at a later date rather than at the time of its release that I may well have disapproved, but I did not, and I still enjoy it. “Nona”, which closes out the first side of the album, is a minute and a half that I don’t think the album needs. Back in the days of cassettes, I used to cut it out completely, and go straight into the hard rocking “Five Years Dead” instead, which is a much better feel for the album as a whole. It probably didn’t matter so much when listening to it on vinyl as I would just end that side early. On CD you have to skip it. Ah, if only I had the ability to conjure up a version of the album without “Nona”...
Anyway, I digress. “Five Years Dead” kicks off side two in the same energy as side one started, and while it sounds great on the album, you can also imagine just how great it would when played live, with the bones of the track making easily malleable in that arena. Then you have the awesome Crue deliverance of “All in the Name Of...”, the perfect combination of great guitar and bass riff and Tommy’s hard hitting drums, and Vince’s spitting lyrics. Classic Motley Crue, showcasing everything that is great about the band. “Sumthin’ for Nuthin’” eases back in hard hitting and pace of those two tracks, finding the middle range Crue sound by falling into a groove with the music and letting Vince move through the tail. This is followed by this album’s power ballad “You’re All I Need”, which in many ways is a lesser attempt at recreating the spectacular that was “Home Sweet Home” from the previous album. This is OK, but it doesn’t match that song, and in many ways it feels like that is exactly what it is trying to do. The album then concludes with a cover version of the old Elvis staple “Jailhouse Rock”, a somewhat strange decision I’d have thought. Perhaps they just needed a song to pad out the album at the end. It seems the other reason why they would do it, when the majority of the songs on the album were already fantastic.

Motley Crue is a band that generally you either love or hate, there is little in between. My wife dislikes their music. I’ve always find that they straddle the faster heavier music and lighter rock music really well, able to create songs that can combine both styles or sit comfortably in the middle such that they are accessible to both side of that spectrum.
I came into the Crue at the time this was released, first finding their sophomore album “Shout at the Devil” and then this album on its release, mainly through the ability of their video for “Girls Girls Girls” popping up almost every weekend on the video shows MTV and Rage. And while that song and video drags you into the album, the great part about it is that once you have discovered the other great songs here it made it all completely worthwhile. I wouldn’t say there were a lot of my friend group who really enjoyed Motley Crue at that time, but that didn’t stop me devouring those two albums in particular. And there is no doubt that it is their high energy, faster paced songs that attract me, and while the casual fan will only really know the opening two tracks to the album, the other songs such as “Dancing on Glass” and “Five Years Dead” and “All in the Name of” are right up there with the best songs Motley Crue ever released. I had this on vinyl for years before a flood put paid to the majority of my original vinyl collection, and it was well used and well worn by the time I lost it. This for me is in the top three albums the band released, and perhaps I will always reach for “Dr Feelgood” and “Shout at the Devil” more often than I will for “Girls Girls Girls” in this day and age, at the time of its release it was one of my most played albums. And having been able to binge it again over the past couple of weeks has been a lot of fun, and a lot of air-drumming to “Wild Side” again at my desk at work, much to the amusement of those that caught me doing it.

435. Motley Crue / Generation Swine. 1997. 2.5/5

Having finished the 1980’s as one of the biggest metal bands in the world, Motley Crue had undergone some significant change since, all of which if it had been handled better could have been a boon for them. The band had parted ways with lead vocalist Vince Neil and recruited John Corabi as his replacement. The resulting album, the self-titled “Motley Crue” in 1994, had been a change as a result, as Corabi not only contributed to the lyrics he also played rhythm guitar, allowing both Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars more freedom and also a collaborative partner.
The album had not been a commercial success, certainly not like “Dr Feelgood” had been, though it should be again pointed out that the music world had moved considerably since that album’s release in 1989. With the record label pushing the band to reunite with Neil as lead vocalist, something neither side was interested in at that time, the band instead made other changes, moving on their manager as well as their producer Bob Rock, feeling as though he was ‘over-producing’ the band. Scott Humphrey was hired as producer, with Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee acting as co-producers, but the resulting confusion seemed to create more problems. Mick Mars was restrained from playing the way he wanted to (which even today seems like an extraordinary step for a producer to take, or for an artist to allow), and eventually, with the record label still heavily pushing for Vince Neil’s return to the microphone, Corabi left the band, and Neil was reinstated.
And yet, the problems remained. With much of the material already written, and co-written by Corabi, Neil apparently had trouble singing many of the songs the way they were structured. He had produced two solo albums during his time away from the band, one well received and the other generally ignored, but with the music that Motley Crue produced having changed its context since he was last in the band, it became a challenge to sew his vocals back into songs that were not written for him.

The band was very careful in trying to shield this album from any comparison with grunge and alternative genres, insisting that although they experimented with the sound of the songs on the album there was no drawing of those genres nor trying to position the band’s sound in that direction. However, listen to the album a bit and you will likely come to the conclusion that if this isn’t the case, then there is a definite influence from John Corabi in the songs that is not reflected in the credits for the album.
From the outset it is obvious that this album is an extension of the previous album, but firstly in a way that tries to bring some method of the older Motley Crue sound into this album, as well as having Neil singing which automatically does that. And the first four tracks, though varies, offer a great contrast to the old the new and the newest. “Find Myself” opens up the album excellently, showcasing each member in a positive fashion from the outset. The first single “Afraid” follows, and while it does have familiar overtones to earlier Crue singles the alterative strangle does have its place here, in fact it reminds me very much of Smashing Pumpkins in its sound.
“Flush” is one of the two songs only that Corabi is credited with writing – and that seems ludicrous to believe that his influence was only on those two tracks. Indeed, he eventually sued the band for several things including claiming he wrote about 80% of the album. Nevertheless, this song sounds great but it definitely is a song that Corabi would have sung brilliantly and that Neil has had to change a lot of his usual output in order to make it sounds this good. “Generation Swine”, the title track, has a more likely bounce to it and one that Neil’s vocals sound more like themselves in.
From this point of the album, the real changes in music technique come to the fore. “Confessions” has a very alternative sound to it, perhaps exacerbated by Tommy Lee’s backing vocals in the back half of the song. This is followed by “Beauty” where Lee shares lead vocals with Neil and certainly sits in that category. “Glitter” is probably the most boring song on the album, one that seems to draw in synths and other electronica that is very unlike the band – a song that was co-written with Canadian soft rock king Bryan Adams. This is dreadfully out of place. “Anybody Out There” harks back closer to an original Crue sound, but in some ways because of this also feels out of place with how the first half of the album is constructed. “Let Us Prey” is the second of two Corabi credited co-writes, and you can hear that influence immediately as Neil tries to sing it in a way that Corabi would.
The album should have stopped there, but its final four tracks as they exist really drag down the ultimate enjoyment of what has come before it. “Rocketship” is sung by Sixx, a ballad written for his then wife Donna D’errico, a song that should have been cut from an album release. A B-side to a single, yeah go for it. But not on an album. “A Rat Like Me” is fine, and I guess at a pinch could have been used as the closing track after “Let Us Prey” in the “Music from a Lifetime” album cut. But then this is followed by “Shout at the Devil ‘97”, a re-recorded version of the great title track of their second album. Why, you may ask? Well, who really knows. Was the band trying to prove they were still a true metal band by producing this version of one of their great past tracks? And, if you can believe it, they played THIS song when they played at the American Music Awards in January 1997, to promote that Vince was back in the band and that they had a new album coming out, that the record label probably hoped would sound like this but did not. And then the final track is Tommy Lee’s solo singing ballad “Brandon” written about his song and also his then girlfriend Pamela Anderson. Really? This is how Motley Crue ends an album? With these types of songs? Is it any wonder that fans and critics alike felt that the future for the band was very dim indeed.

It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to this album. As it turns out, I have listened to “Generation Swine” now more over the past month than I had in the 25 years before this. And again, that came from first impressions, and what I was listening to when this was released, and there was another good half a dozen albums that probably presented themselves to me with better credentials than I felt this offered at the time. So, it sat on the CD shelves, and collected dust, just as I mention at the end of every one of these episodes, and as I say is the reason, or one of them, as to why I am doing this podcast. To find albums like this. Because this is nothing like a Motley Crue album from the 1980’s, and I made the mistake of wanting it to be that when I first heard it all those years ago. This is very much a product of its age, and although the band tried to distance itself from being branded as an alternative album, it most definitely is different. In fact, it is closer to their 1994 self-titled album than they wanted to admit and given that it SOUNDS like Corabi was involved in writing most of these songs even though the band did not credit him with it, you can understand why it does. So that didn’t make this a bad album when it was released, it was just different from what most of us understood Motley Crue had been.
But the more I have listened to this over recent weeks, the more I have come to understand that I missed a trick back in those days when it was released. If I had just been able to come at it with an open mindset, allowed it to play in the background while I was doing other things around the house or at work, and let the album grow on me, I think I would have found out exactly what I now know – that this is a pretty good album. It isn’t great by any means, and it does feel as though it is pulling in two directions and not actually getting anywhere. The vocals from two members who were not Vince Neil don’t enhance it or those songs, and I think Corabi could have been a great ADDITION to the band rather than dismissing him completely. A rhythm guitarist, and a great vocalist to back up and share spots with Neil? Seems like a reasonable idea, doesn’t it? But that wouldn’t have been Motley Crue.
So yes, “Generation Swine” has plenty to offer fans of the band who are willing to accept that it is a change from their other material. This change was not to last beyond this album, as the band returned to a sound closer to their roots, and tho0ugh this may not be an album I will reach for too often, I do know that I will definitely reach for it again out of my collection in the future, and that in itself has made this a worthwhile venture.

250. Motley Crue / Dr Feelgood. 1989. 4.5/5.

Despite their growing success throughout the 1980’s, with albums that led the glam metal genre and songs that caught the attention of fans around the world, Motley Crue as a band was doing a fantastic job of attempting to implode from their own excesses. Adopting a party attitude that included alcohol, drugs and women to overload proportions, by the time they had reached 1988 the writing appeared on the wall. In late 1984 Vince Neil had been involved in a fatal car crash when driving under the influence, which had left Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle dead. Two years later Nikki Sixx suffered an almost fatal heroin overdose while in London, and another year later he succeeded in overdosing on heroin again, this time he was legally dead for two minutes before being revived. Mix all of this in with the usual debauchery the band went through night after night, and the band’s management had begun to seriously wonder how much longer it could go on before someone actually died.
As a result of this, the management cancelled Motley Crue’s tour of Europe in 1988. In fact, they held what was basically an intervention to tell the band this news, and that they would have to change their ways if they were going to change the course of their lives. Following this, all four members of the band entered drug rehabilitation in order to kick their habits and move forward as a band.
Once they all came out having completed their time, Motley Crue faced a clear vision of the immediate future, certainly clearer of mind. And the writing and recording of their new album to follow up “Girls Girls Girls” became their main prerogative. Along with clear minds, the band also brought in Bob Rock to produce the album. Rock of course was currently on an upward trajectory having been involved in engineering the recent blockbuster albums by Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, and in producing the albums by Blue Murder and The Cult. He made two decisions when it came to recording this album that were to be direct factors on its success. Firstly, the band relocated to a studio in Vancouver in Canada, in order to get the band away from the influences that were obvious in their hometown. Secondly, each of the members performances on the album were recorded individually without the other members in the studio. This came about firstly to reduce the infighting that was a regular occurrence with the band in the studio, but also in order to focus on each individual’s performance and allow them to do so without the usual distractions.
What came from the culmination of this 18 month period was the album “Dr. Feelgood”, one that showcased just what the band could offer free from their addictions and ready to fight the world. It was an album that became the peak of hair metal genre at a time when it appeared its popularity could go on forever.

This is very much an album that probably needs to be looked at in the two eras – the one it was released in, and the one we are in now. And in the same conversation, the album can be seen to be a carefully structured mixture of songs that are hard rock icons and the Motley Crue speciality of teasing lyrics and catchy tones. Each of these are spaced evenly through the track list of the album, giving fans of all musical tastes the chance to find something they like, and then hopefully become entertained by those songs that surround them.
Take a listen to those songs that are best described as Motley Crue’s ‘girl anthems’, the ones that have an obvious lyrical bent which Nikki Sixx believes best serves what he is trying to say directly to his female fans. “Slice of Your Pie” makes no secret of what he is hoping to portray, with lyrics such as “So young, ever get caught they’d arrest me, School girl, studied up well on hoochie coochie, lick lips, kitten with a whip so undress me, undress me”. Nikki is just looking for a slice of her pie, and while back in 1989 that kind of lyric would pass over your head, 35 years later and it is probably a little bit questionable. The rest of the song moves on a similar line, while musically the slide guitar start does come good with a nice Mick Mars riff. “Rattlesnake Shake” is less questionable lyrically and further up vibe and up tempo, creating a pleasing and fun discord leading into the almost unquestioned star attraction of the album.
The album’s big power ballad single “Without You” serves up exactly what you would expect, delivering the kind of lyrics and music that made “Home Sweet Home” such an enormous hit for the band. It’s a love ballad served up with the usual Motley Crue signature honeyed vocals from Vince Neil and harmless music style that radio was still looking for during the era, and that the female fans of the era lapped up. Following this we have the less cultured tones of “Sticky Sweet” and “She Goes Down”. In “Sticky Sweet” we are treated to lyrics such as “When she calls me up my voice starts to shake, she says come right over, over right away. Oh good God there's a fire in my pants, then lightning strikes and she laughs that evil laugh. She's so sticky so sticky so sticky. She's so sticky so sticky. She's so sticky sweet. Now when I've done good she slaps me on the ass, it takes more than ten seconds to satisfy this lass”. And then for the very classy “She Goes Down”, we have “All of the day, all of the night, lick those lips, do you up right. Up and down, 'Round and 'round, 'Round the world, Spit it out. You know she makes me feel good, See you out in Hollywood. Flat on my back, she goes down, For backstage pass, she goes down, With all of my friends, she goes down, She gives heart attack, she goes down”.
Motley Crue aren’t on their lonesome when it comes to these kinds of lyrics in their songs, with dozens of 80’s bands of the same ilk preaching from the same hymn book. And to all intents and purposes, in many ways modern pop is still on a similar scale.
Away from these tracks, the songs not written about hooking up with girls all stand up pretty well. Nikki Sixx did spend time writing about other things over his song writing career. The opening title track “Dr. Feelgood” is still a beauty to this day, with that awesome hard riffing from Mick Mars and hard hitting drums from Tommy Lee along with Vince Neil’s spitting lyrics, it opens the album with the kind of fire and intensity that it needs. “Kickstart My Heart” is still played at sports events and stadiums to this day, another perfect example of the Crue’s best songs with a fast tempo and the energy just exploding out of the speakers. It remains one of the bands best songs. “Same Ol’ Situation” pulls out all the stops after the power ballad “Without You” and restores the best of the album, once again intensifying the fun and tempo that makes the very best Motley Crue tracks. And the finale of “Don't Go Away Mad Just Go Away” and the thought provoking “Time for Change” give the album the conclusion it deserves on a satisfyingly high note.

As I have already mentioned in this episode, “Dr. Feelgood” is not only an album of two halves but also two eras. I bought this on vinyl within days of its release back in 1989, at a time I had just begun my first job (though only on a part time basis) and had an actual income coming in so I could buy albums that I wanted once again. And at that time, and for the following 12 months I had an undying love for it in its entirety. It was a part of my soundtrack for this period of my life and was never far from the stereo at whatever event or party I was at. Not only that, but I also got to see the band for the first time live on this tour in May 1990, where they were at their theoretical peak. The album for me had no weaknesses, it was just a perfect album. For my 19 and soon to be 20-year-old self, “Dr Feelgood” was an amazing album.
OK, so let’s flash forward to the present day, where music has changed, bands have changed, and I’ve gotten a lot older from those golden years of youth. This album is one I have still played during those years. It has never sat on the shelf unlistened for any long length of time. It has always been a mood lifter, it has always reminded me of those heady days of youth, and I’ve always enjoyed it. And in the lead up to this episode, it has again frequented by CD player and playlists as I listen with a more discerning ear in order to offer up my thoughts for this podcast. And what has become apparent to me in this process is that, for me at least, a part of the veneer of this album has worn away. There are still the outstanding tracks on the album, such as the title track and “Kickstart My Heart” and “Same Old Situation” which continue to be great to hear, as well as the solid songs like “Rattlesnake Shake” and “Don’t Go Away Mad” and “Time for Change” which build the strong spine to the album. But there are other songs that 35 years ago I had no problem with, that were a part of the gloriousness that was this album, that I sang along with without question… that now I see and hear as… slightly less worthy of that accolade. “Sticky Sweet” – I mean, lyrically and musically, not brilliant. “Slice of Your Pie”? Yeah… ok, I guess. “She Goes Down”? That’s a bit questionable. And “Without You”? The power ballad of the album that does not fit in with my musical tastes in any way, shape or form.
So, while the album hasn’t changed over those 35 years, my tastes have matured and some of the songs here have aged out of their era, at least lyrically. Do I still sing along to ALL these songs when I listen to the album? Absolutely, those lyrics are burned into my brain, and once those melodies start, I just join in. And I don’t want to claim I have had a revelation and now refuse to like this album, because that isn’t true. Do I realise that some of these songs are terribly dated, either musically or lyrically or both? Yes, I do. But this album has been a part of my musical lifeblood for 35 years, and that won’t change. There are still some amazing songs on this album that are as brilliant today as when this album was released. And at that time, it was a must listen. I still love listening to it today. I will happily skip “Without You” forever though.

217. Motley Crue / Decade Of Decadence. 1991. 4.5/5.

Another band that reached the ten year anniversary in 1991 was Motley Crue, and to celebrate they produced this best-of album.

Containing most of their greatest hits, a few of them remixed, and a couple of new tracks, this album is a pretty good compilation of their first ten years on the music scene. The fact that they haven't been able to produce anything to match it since is perhaps a little disconcerting.

Once again, however, I must have my objection noted on some of the track choices. Seriously – where is Too Young To Fall In Love? One of their greatest tracks, and it isn't here? Why couldn't the rather horrible version of the Sex Pistol's Anarchy In The U.K. have been left off? It would have improved this release a lot! Did the band choose these tracks, or the record company? That is just one of the disappointments. The live version of Kickstart My Heart? Why not just the studio version?

Despite that, this is a good release. Someone who wanted to know what Motley Crue are about could start here and be satisfied. But come on guys – get this best-of scenario RIGHT!! :)

Rating : At least they didn't CALL it a best-of! 4.5/5.