I listen to rock stars talk about the music they were introduced to when they were young and I get jealous. As shown in my previous post, I wasn’t exposed to the cream of the crop when I was pre-pubescent.
One morning in the sixth grade, my classmate, who was one of the cool kids, walked in the room and declared, “I just saw Motley Crue last night and it was awesome!” We gathered round to hear his triumphant tale. His brother was going and an extra ticket materialized. This was Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil tour. They were the opening band for Ozzy and Kiss and Iron Maiden for many of the shows (the Iron Maiden thing went south when Nikki slept with Bruce’s wife). My classmate saw them in a tiny arena as the headliner. It must have been great. Especially for a kid in the sixth grade.
I became a Motley Crue fan that day. I hadn’t even heard their music yet, but my classmate had brought in the album to show off. It opened up like a double album and showed each of them posing in their doomsday get ups. They were cooler than Kiss. They were Kiss if Kiss was The Rolling Stones. Their first album too fast for love is bubble gum rock, but it’s bubble gum you picked up off the city street and stuck in your mouth, and enjoyed.
I can’t say enough about Motley Crue as a band. Like Kiss, they were limited as musicians, but they were the biggest fucking rockstars ever. They lived every rock and roll cliche. Nikki died twice already, I think before he even hit thirty. Watch their behind the music on VH1 or read Neil Strauss’s biography the dirt. They’ve been threatening a movie for years, but they keep messing it up.
Here’s a demo version of shout that’s interesting. Couldn’t find the regular one. Record company took it down...
Be strong... And Shout ...AT THE DEVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!