This past Friday, I had the very great pleasure of seeing the '80s rock icons known as Motley Crue. Now, I'm sure some of you are ready to pop off comments mocking them, and dismissing them as merely a "hair band". Well, first off, that label is somewhat deceptive, as they certainly belong alongside other "hair bands" like Ratt, but they definitely don't deserve to be lumped in with Poisonwarrantwinger and bands of that ilk. Motley Crue gets my respect on the basis of their first two albums alone: Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil are two fantastic, hard rockin' albums, no matter how you slice it. The cuts on those albums are raw, visceral and pack one hell of a punch. Moreover, they truly stand the test of time as good, ol' fashioned, rock-with-your-cock-out style metal.



For me, The Crue was my first foray into pre-teen rebellion. The were the first band I liked that my parents disapproved of. I discovered them on MTV (yes kids, back in those days MTV played music videos!), as they were promoting Shout At The Devil with their first single "Looks That Kill". I was in 7th grade at the time, and had previously just listened to whatever my parents did. Now, my parents DID listen to the top forty station at the time (and, this being 1983, quite a bit of it was decent), so I wasn't totally ignorant of music. Still, The Crue was something new to me. They dressed in crazy outfits, and played loud tunes about shouting at Satan himself. Since I was pretty much of the opinion at the time that my parents were the Devil, or at least his agents here on earth, this concept was quite appealing.




I can clearly remember buying a copy of Circus magazine, a publication dedicated to hard rock and heavy metal bands, featuring Crue lead singer Vince Neil on the cover. When my dad got a look at it, the look on his face was akin to that of someone who has discovered that they just stepped barefoot on a banana slug. He was totally repulsed by these grungy guys with big hair, ripped leather, make-up and war paint. He was even less thrilled when he heard "Looks That Kill" blaring from my room. He frequently made comments about that "noise" I listened to. Naturally, this fueled my love of The Crue even more. If mom and dad hated it, it must be friggin' great!




Eventually, I discovered all the bands that influenced Motley Crue, such as The Sex Pistols and Black Sabbath, and this in turn led to me broadening my musical horizons even more. Soon, I was listening to everything from Madonna to Metallica, but in all honesty it started with The Crue. In many ways, they were the ones that started my obsessive love of music.



I still followed them over the years, as their careers exploded with Theater Of Pain, Girls Girls Girls and Dr. Feelgood. Their music became more slick and polished, lacking much of the edge that initially appealed to me about them. Still, they continued to crank out some great tunes over those years. I had grown to become a fan of many other bands, but there still was a soft spot in my heart for those four crazy, drug-addled, womanizing hoodlums.



The wife and I decided to go to their show here in Houston at pretty much the last minute. To be honest, I really wasn't sure what to expect. I feared that they were long past their prime & we weren't in for much of a show. I mainly wanted to go because it felt like unfinished business to me that I had never seen them live. To my great delight, my fears were unfounded. The Crue played an incredible, energetic, wild and lewd set that would still cause my parents great distress! The entire first hour of the show was dedicated to tunes from those first two albums that so impacted me as a youth. From the opening moments of Vince leading the crowd in the chant of "shout, shout, shout, SHOUT AT THE DEVIL", I was instantly transported to those days of early rebellion and self-discovery. For three hours Vince, Nikki, Tommy and Mick rocked my ass off like those twenty some-odd years had never happened! Pyrotechnics, wild strippers making out and midgets in demonic clown costumes all added to the craziness on stage.It was a fantastic experience, and I'm happy that I got the chance to see them live!

So here's to The Crue! Still kicking ass after all these years!

Anyone who claims to love rock-pop-punk must own Shout at the Devil and (even more importantly) their debut, Too Fast For Love. Nikki Sixx wrote some truly brilliant stuff on these first two.

I clearly remember sticking my head between the boom box speakers every morning before school in 1985, blaring 'Ten Seconds til Love'. Just rock n roll. Later that year I would say they totally fell off with 'Theater of Pain', which sucked hard. The drugs won. I hated them and never went back. Oh well, they started showing Purple Rain on HBO around this time and I had a new obsession..

Rudy said:

Yeah. I didn't hate them with Theater Of Pain, but I was certainly let down. It was even weirder to me that they suddenly were huge! I was like "but wait, their first two albums totally blow this stuff away".

Funny, but Prince was a big part of what eclipsed my obsession with The Crue for me as well. I discovered 1999 around the same time, and really dug it, but when "When Doves Cry" first popped up on the radio and MTV, it was all over!

Stax said:

i only own the "dr feelgood" album.


I love the song dr feelgood,

Too fast for Love was the album to own.

Mick Mars voted by guitar player magazine as the worst guitarist in history and I have to agree.

S.A.T.D was great, but I agree "Too Fast" was and is THE Crue joint to own. Saw them last year. Fun and insane show.

i admit this was my first introduction to Heavy Metal.

but i was only 13 at the time and all the cool kids were listening to it.

i remember when my mom found the album cover she damn near called for an excorsism, which made me even more curious about that dark sound.

i'm a big fan of Too Fast For Love also. that album is timeless and there's just something about the vibe of if that's really spooky. if anyone can find the video of Livewire online, check it out! you'll like it, trust me.

Im a major Cruehead. I actually saw them twice on there Carnival of Sins tour. The first time was in San Antonio TX and the second time was in my hometown of Laredo, TX.

Both shows fucking rocked. I mean, as far as decadence and showmanship goes, it's the best show Ive laid my eyes upon.Both times left me walking out with goosebumps.

I remember the San Antonio show was packed to the max. The Laredo show was a little more than half filled, mainly because it's a smaller city than San Antonio.

I think my fav song from them right now is "On With The Show" from Too Fast For Love. Ever listened to Green Day's recent single "Jesus of Suburbia"? An entire section of the song blatantly rips off "On With The Show"(though Im sure it was all done in homage)

Slave2daGroove said:

Oh PLEASE!!! Worst guitar player??? Have those fools never listened to the crap from Poisonwarrentwinger and all those crap bands? Mick is no Jimi, but he is hardly the worst.

sinisterpentatonic said:

Great stuff.

Yeah, my dad was none too pleased with me liking The Crue. He was even less thrilled when I started picking up stuff by Sabbath, Led Zepplin and Prince. He was fairly certain that these bands were corrupting me with their subliminal backwards messages.

newskin69 said:

I totally agree! I was truly amazed at the showmanship. The over-the-top, decadent spectacle was just incredible! I would go see them again in a heartbeat!




I was stunned to hear them play "On With The Show" here in Houston! Great song!

Hardly surprised with the Green Day thing. I like some of their stuff, but I frequently can find whole sections of their tunes that are rip-offs of other people's songs.
[Edited 3/30/06 9:14am]

Well, the standard for worst guitarist ever is unfortunately Mick Mars, who turns 78 this month. But I know of one worse. Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick! I'm practically better than he is - very possibly. But then Rick's written some of the very greatest of hard rock songs, most notably "I Want You To Want Me". And his odd style has had a profound effect on me and the way I play. So bad or not, he's among my all time faves.

JediMaster said:

Easy killer, I was just agreeing.

Poison, Warrant, Winger and the list goes on for crap guitarists, I also agree that the list is too long to go into here.

What about that Crue tell-all book? I've only read a few excerpts but these guys are disgusting animals. The way they lived before they got signed was just gross.

Too Fast for Love

Slave2daGroove said:

The Dirt is simultaeously the funniest and saddest book I've ever read. Some of the stuff is downright hilarious, like the drug antics with Ozzy Osbourne, but Vince talking about his little girl's death is just heart-rending.

The stuff before they were signed? Oh yeah, friggin' disgusting!

I dig the Crue, but to me they wasted too much of their career. Of course the first two albums are awesome but what about 1985-2006? In over twenty years what did they give us? Yes, Dr. Feelgood was a terrific album, and they did deliver some great songs during that time, but not nearly enough. I can't help wondering what they may have done during that time if Nikki Sixx had been at least partially sober. In my opinion Theatre Of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls are extremely disappointing. I think you can blame Nikki for that.

rialb said:

Well, you can also "blame" Nikki for the first two albums. There is definitely some wasted potential over the years, no doubt about it, but I have to say that I was thrilled with the show that they put on. If nothing else, they still can rock an arena.

I used to LOVE Motley Crue!! Nikki Sixx was my favorite!!
Saw them in concert a few times!!
Always great!!

JediMaster said:

I'm totally pro-Crue and I give Nikki all the credit in the world for the first two albums, but it kind of makes me angry that he was more concerned with getting high than making great music. Yes, it's fun to read the Dirt and see all the stupid crap they've done but it's also pretty sad. Too many people lump the Crue in with other inferior '80s bands and they were more than that. What they gave us was great but I think they could have given us so much more.

rialb said:

Totally agree, especially after having seen them live. The fact that they can rock so hard this late in their career just proves that sobriety is the way to go for them. Makes you wonder how great they could have been if they'd been sober in their youth.