Now Playing - The Great Divide
Welcome to a very special edition of Now Playing. This will be the first installment of a 4-part miniseries written by antiMusic Editor and all around bad mamma jamma - Keavin Wiggins. Now Playing was just an opportunity to highlight important songs, whether it be for emotional, musical or purely booty-shakin' reasons. Keavin's is an ambitious entry that could act as a "History of Metal: The '80s years" for all the faithful, yet uninitiated Lloyd Zeffler readers. I hope you enjoy it, as whenever Keavin takes the time to write, you know it is going to be good. Without further ado...here is Keavin.
Zane has a great feature on his blog called "Now Playing". So he innocently asked me if I wanted to write a little something for it and I agreed. So I grabbed my iPod, hit shuffle and Metallica's "Fade to Black" came on. I started thinking about what I could write about the song and as always happens, a torrent of thoughts and reflections came rushing out. So the little blurb turned into 18 and half thousand words. What can I say? It's like I told Zane, it was sort of like that line from 'Almost Famous' and I was writing pages and pages of dribble just to write. I guess subconsciously this topic's been in the back of my head for a while, waiting for the chance to come out. I'm sure it's nothing like what Zane expected, but it is what it is. Here is how I witnessed the great divide and the conclusions I drew from it. - Keavin
Home Sweet Home
The memory is still fresh in my mind like it was just yesterday. It was right before summer break of my 7th grade year. I walked into my history class and saw my friend Rob with a look on his face like someone had died. I asked him what was wrong and he sneered and tossed a metal magazine at me and exclaimed, "They look like pansies!"
I looked down at the full color photo spread in the mag (Circus or Hit Parader) and there was Motley Crue in pink, white and black outfits and make-up that made them look like skinny bikers in drag. It was a bit shocking to see. My initial thought was that it was some kind of gag. I tried to reassure Rob that it had to be a joke and he looked desperate enough to believe that since Motley Crue was his absolute favorite band. I was proven wrong a short time later when the video for "Smoking in the Boys Room" came out and they had those silly drag queen outfits on.
Music isn't all about image, so I told Rob to hang tight. Surely Motley Crue wouldn't change their music drastically on their new album. Sure, "Boys Room" was a far cry from "Looks That Kill," but it still kinda rocked, in a song to try and win your girlfriend over to a band you like, kind of way.
Soon the other shoe dropped when Theater of Pain came out. Poor Rob was devastated. Not only had the band gone with a pansy image, but the music pretty much matched the look. Mick Mars may have tried, in vain, to add some blues licks here and there to at least give it some rock feel, but it was the sound of a band selling out in a huge way.
Then the ultimate insult to Rob's past devotion came, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back for him. He was thru with the Crue! That insult was the second single from the album and the video that accompanied it, "Home Sweet Home". The pink and white was back, but with a ballad, complete with Vince running around in assless pants with a pink bandana covering up only enough to make the video safe for viewing on MTV. And did MTV ever play it. It was on ad nausem and helped take Motley Crue from being a popular band in the metal scene to a mainstream pop band. They had gone from the power chords of "Shout at the Devil" to Tommy playing a piano on "Home Sweet Home." A short time later I remember watching an interview with Vince where he claimed they were always more glam then metal, because metal was too punk. He still hasn't gained back my respect.
The success of Motley's sellout was a large mark on the wall of what was soon to happen to metal. It was in the midst of a seismic shift that would send the genre off into two totally different directions. Pretty soon the heavy weights of the metal mainstream, at the time, were going soft in sound and dressing like drag queens. Even Ozzy got into the glammed up image with the release of The Ultimate Sin in early 1996. It was complete with a MTV friendly video for the radio friendly song "Shot in the Dark," which gave us the Prince of Darkness decked out in sequins with a Tammy Faye Bakker perm and makeup.
Even Judas Priest was pulled down this dark path. For their album Turbo, they replaced most of the guitars with guitar synthesizers, and ended up sounding like a little heavier edged Duran Duran. Rob Halford's mullet from the period is still pretty comical. Then Poison appeared on the scene and it was all over. Metal had gone pop in a big way.
Fade to Black
When I started back to school the next fall, Rob was over the Crue sell out. A new band had caught his attention over the summer. In fact, the band had caught the attention of a lot of the older metalheads in our town, which is where Rob heard about them. It was a band of thrashy upstarts from San Francisco that didn't give a damn about image or dressing up, and played a bit faster and a bit heavier then the metal we were used to at the time. The heaviness of the music made "Shout at the Devil" sound like "Home Sweet Home" in comparison. The band even refused to make a video (unheard of in 1985). The band was Metallica and once Elektra re-released their sophomore album Ride the Lightning, they moved out of the deep metal underground (where those of us in Jr. High had yet to travel) and they began slowly getting exposure among a wider metal audience.
Ride The Lightning was new to us, but it wasn't a new album. It had come out in 1984, but by the time it started catching on in wider metal circles, the timing was perfect. With the exception of Iron Maiden, it appeared that all of the big metal bands had gone soft and taken a trip down the slippery slope that Motley help lay out. So metal fans, being fans of metal, wanted some real metal, not Ozzy harping like Jane Fonda about nukes. He was starting to look like a heavier Jane Fonda as well.
Metallica was still a bit too heavy for a lot of my metal friends. While it seems tame now in comparison to today's metal, at the time it was really heavy when heard against the backdrop of the big metal bands of the day. There was one song on Ride The Lightning that was just mellow enough to open the door for those that found Metallica a bit too heavy. It was the track "Fade To Black," and it's easy to see how it became an instant classic. It has the power of Metallica, but was more accessible. Whereas a "Fight Fire With Fire" might send an unsuspecting metalhead (of the time) running off to the hills screaming, "that's too punk!" When they heard "Fade To Black" they were usually sold, and over time songs like "Fight Fire with Fire" would gain a foothold as well. Metalheads absolutely hated punk and punkers at the time. So a band that was thought to be too punk, wasn't given a fair shake. And the punk comparisons were heard loud in clear in my circle of friends during the fall of 1985. That would soon change. Thanks in part to Ozzy and Priest going pop, but also in Southern California where I grew up, it was largely thanks to a little underpowered radio station out of Long Beach.
Home Sweet Home
The memory is still fresh in my mind like it was just yesterday. It was right before summer break of my 7th grade year. I walked into my history class and saw my friend Rob with a look on his face like someone had died. I asked him what was wrong and he sneered and tossed a metal magazine at me and exclaimed, "They look like pansies!"
I looked down at the full color photo spread in the mag (Circus or Hit Parader) and there was Motley Crue in pink, white and black outfits and make-up that made them look like skinny bikers in drag. It was a bit shocking to see. My initial thought was that it was some kind of gag. I tried to reassure Rob that it had to be a joke and he looked desperate enough to believe that since Motley Crue was his absolute favorite band. I was proven wrong a short time later when the video for "Smoking in the Boys Room" came out and they had those silly drag queen outfits on.Music isn't all about image, so I told Rob to hang tight. Surely Motley Crue wouldn't change their music drastically on their new album. Sure, "Boys Room" was a far cry from "Looks That Kill," but it still kinda rocked, in a song to try and win your girlfriend over to a band you like, kind of way.
Soon the other shoe dropped when Theater of Pain came out. Poor Rob was devastated. Not only had the band gone with a pansy image, but the music pretty much matched the look. Mick Mars may have tried, in vain, to add some blues licks here and there to at least give it some rock feel, but it was the sound of a band selling out in a huge way.
Then the ultimate insult to Rob's past devotion came, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back for him. He was thru with the Crue! That insult was the second single from the album and the video that accompanied it, "Home Sweet Home". The pink and white was back, but with a ballad, complete with Vince running around in assless pants with a pink bandana covering up only enough to make the video safe for viewing on MTV. And did MTV ever play it. It was on ad nausem and helped take Motley Crue from being a popular band in the metal scene to a mainstream pop band. They had gone from the power chords of "Shout at the Devil" to Tommy playing a piano on "Home Sweet Home." A short time later I remember watching an interview with Vince where he claimed they were always more glam then metal, because metal was too punk. He still hasn't gained back my respect.
The success of Motley's sellout was a large mark on the wall of what was soon to happen to metal. It was in the midst of a seismic shift that would send the genre off into two totally different directions. Pretty soon the heavy weights of the metal mainstream, at the time, were going soft in sound and dressing like drag queens. Even Ozzy got into the glammed up image with the release of The Ultimate Sin in early 1996. It was complete with a MTV friendly video for the radio friendly song "Shot in the Dark," which gave us the Prince of Darkness decked out in sequins with a Tammy Faye Bakker perm and makeup.Even Judas Priest was pulled down this dark path. For their album Turbo, they replaced most of the guitars with guitar synthesizers, and ended up sounding like a little heavier edged Duran Duran. Rob Halford's mullet from the period is still pretty comical. Then Poison appeared on the scene and it was all over. Metal had gone pop in a big way.
Fade to BlackWhen I started back to school the next fall, Rob was over the Crue sell out. A new band had caught his attention over the summer. In fact, the band had caught the attention of a lot of the older metalheads in our town, which is where Rob heard about them. It was a band of thrashy upstarts from San Francisco that didn't give a damn about image or dressing up, and played a bit faster and a bit heavier then the metal we were used to at the time. The heaviness of the music made "Shout at the Devil" sound like "Home Sweet Home" in comparison. The band even refused to make a video (unheard of in 1985). The band was Metallica and once Elektra re-released their sophomore album Ride the Lightning, they moved out of the deep metal underground (where those of us in Jr. High had yet to travel) and they began slowly getting exposure among a wider metal audience.
Ride The Lightning was new to us, but it wasn't a new album. It had come out in 1984, but by the time it started catching on in wider metal circles, the timing was perfect. With the exception of Iron Maiden, it appeared that all of the big metal bands had gone soft and taken a trip down the slippery slope that Motley help lay out. So metal fans, being fans of metal, wanted some real metal, not Ozzy harping like Jane Fonda about nukes. He was starting to look like a heavier Jane Fonda as well.
Metallica was still a bit too heavy for a lot of my metal friends. While it seems tame now in comparison to today's metal, at the time it was really heavy when heard against the backdrop of the big metal bands of the day. There was one song on Ride The Lightning that was just mellow enough to open the door for those that found Metallica a bit too heavy. It was the track "Fade To Black," and it's easy to see how it became an instant classic. It has the power of Metallica, but was more accessible. Whereas a "Fight Fire With Fire" might send an unsuspecting metalhead (of the time) running off to the hills screaming, "that's too punk!" When they heard "Fade To Black" they were usually sold, and over time songs like "Fight Fire with Fire" would gain a foothold as well. Metalheads absolutely hated punk and punkers at the time. So a band that was thought to be too punk, wasn't given a fair shake. And the punk comparisons were heard loud in clear in my circle of friends during the fall of 1985. That would soon change. Thanks in part to Ozzy and Priest going pop, but also in Southern California where I grew up, it was largely thanks to a little underpowered radio station out of Long Beach.Part 2 of this 4-part miniseries will be live on Lloyd Zeffler tomorrow!
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