The music and image the band had presented previously in 1982-1983 were so complimentary and lurid and had a particular 1980s innovation of earlier cliches. The band were a mix of Metal and Punk or New Wave and 1970s bands like Kiss and Alice Cooper. They also looked great with each member a distinguishable, memorable character that stood out in the new MTV video age. 1982's "Live Wire" debuted on the channel in early 1983.
Theatre Of Pain was a new direction for a band that had already proven they were no mere Heavy Metal or Hard Rock genre band. Although released in 1981 and again in 1982 to a scene that already had established Metal and Hard Rock acts, Too Fast For Love sounds like it comes from a different world than what Kiss or Judas Priest or Iron Maiden or Ozzy or anybody else were writing about in the new decade. Metal and Hard Rock were then in a middle-aged, dinosaur phase and Too Fast For Love sounds like aggressive, early 1970s Glam Hard Rock. It's Rock, Hard Rock music informed by Punk and Glam and is not similar to other Hard Rock sounds of the time. Even Shout At The Devil occupies its own space in the genre in that there is nothing else that is a similar mix of Metal, Punk, Hard Rock, Pop and Glam. Theme-wise it wasn't until the "Hair Metal" years and the success of bands like Guns n' Roses and L. A. Guns and others that you once again heard the mini-Los Angeles dramas and autobiographical street life themes that Motley introduced: authentic, autobiographical Sunset Strip music.
Theatre Of Pain ends this style. We now have a band who have achieved success and experienced disaster with Vince's December 1984 car accident that killed Hanoi Rocks's drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley (Theatre was recorded just after this and released in June of 1985). We hear a band innovating their sound and very intentionally moving away from some of the Heavy Metal cliches of the last record. Although Metal Motley was the one we all fell in love with and the style and era often deemed most "authentic" by fans, this is more a judgment of quality. In 1982-3, Nikki and company were adopting the styles and language of the popular music of the time and were flirting with Metal.
"Shout At The Devil was us kinda rebelling against ourselves which would become a pattern you would see for the rest of our career . . . I also think it was us accidentally stepping into Heavy Metal."
-Nikki, Google Play Audiobiography, 2013
Motley have always been Hard Rock chameleons and have used Metal, Punk, Classic Rock, Blues Rock, Industrial, Pop, Rap and more flavours to write their songs. During these years Nikki spoke of his love for bands like Sweet and T. Rex and Aerosmith. That Shout At The Devil sounds like it's more influenced by Judas Priest than many Glam Rock bands shows Nikki's plan. So, Theatre Of Pain was inevitable and was a sincere next move for the band.
Why they decided to simultaneously adopt an over-the-top, almost clownish and feminine Glam image was almost more shocking but it proved to be a highly influential about-face. Although the Crue would never quite reach the sales heights experienced by the more Pop Hard Rock artists like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, the Crue's trend-setting Theatre Of Pain style was to be an important shaper of the next phase of 1980s Hard Rock.
What elements of the album existed before the release in 1985?
The oldest demoed song from the album is "Louder Than Hell" which the band prepped for possible inclusion on Shout At The Devil. It was then titled "Hotter Than Hell" and was demoed in circa December, 1982. It has some of the remaining Heavy Metal flavour the band would retain on Theatre Of Pain but which would be completely gone by 1987's Girls, Girls, Girls.
"Raise Your Hands To Rock" is a slight although pleasant anthemic rocker and was performed live by the band on the Shout At The Devil tour in 1984. The acoustic guitar intro and the Twisted Sister-influenced gang vocal chorus ("I Wanna Rock!" "Rock!" informs "Raise Your Hands to Rock!" "Rock!") (with Tom Werman producing both songs) show a more commercial side to the band that was becoming evident in 1984. Even appearance-wise, just look at Motley's 1984 European garb and some of the photo sessions done at that time. The Glam touches are already seeping in. Again, I truly think that as soon as the band embraced a Heavy Metal persona they grew tired of it and believed it wasn't who they truly were as personalities and writers and musicians.
What they may not have understood at the time is that although they were dudes from the 1970s and had a variety of tastes and experiences (you can imagine the Heavy Metal years being particularly trying for the older Mick who was a Blues Classic Rock style player) they were four young musicians alive and breathing and being creative in the years 1981-1991 and they were far more susceptible and far more a part of 1980s culture than they could appreciate. They may have wanted to be Aerosmith but Motley Crue were simply not the musicians nor the talent that Aerosmith were. "City Boy Blues" isn't great because it's just like Aerosmith, it's great because it's an innovation of the Aerosmith sound with a 1980s Hard Rock, almost-Metal power. That is Motley Crue's sound: a Heavy Metal/Hard Rock sound.
"City Boy Blues" is a strong song although a surprising, mid-paced opener to the album. The lyrics offer a perspective, a self-consciousness and a style of songwriting that was different than the then genre, boxy, cliche' style of bands like WASP, Dokken, RATT and 1980s KISS.
Fireflies and dog fights . . . running hot in the heat
Street noise, another bribe
Things too hard to believe, so head out!
The tough-sounding Bluesy intro shows a Rock sound you wouldn't expect from the band. The whole mood is more laid back and groovy. Vince sounds at home singing this type of Hard Rock which would be more like the music he covered in the bands he was in before Crue. The extreme and almost scary vibe is gone and we're hearing more mature Rock from a band trying something new. There are almost no 1980s Heavy Metal elements here and the album has a noticeably more "Pop" production.
"Smokin' In The Boys Room" was an inspired decision by Vince. The Classic Rock cover song move has always been done by bands. In the 1980s Metal world, Quiet Riot had the most notable success with their cover of Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize". Theatre Of Pain's formula was to take cues from Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister's recent success and show the band's Pop and Rock capabilities. Theatre borrows many ideas from Twisted Sister's highly successful Stay Hungry from 1984. These may not have been band decisions as much as their production teams'. There is a slight sense with Theatre that the band is atoning somewhat for the highly violent and sexualized content of their first two records and their behaviour which culminated in Vince's accident. In MTV interviews on the set on the "Smokin' In The Boys Room" video shoot in early 1985, Nikki seems defensive about the band's reputation:
We are a Rock n' Roll band, you know, it's not Classical Music; It's not Pop Music; it's not Bubblegum Music, you know, we are a Rock n' Roll band and we do get in trouble now and then. Everyone's gotten in trouble. The bottom line is we want to have a whole lotta fun.
So the vibe has changed. The songs are no longer autobiographical about their violent and sexual lives. They cover safer Classic Rock tunes (the Manson mania reference of "Helter Skelter" has been replaced by smoking in a high school's bathroom. Teenager hijinx); they record a wistful Pop-Rock ballad; they write socially-aware lyrics; they reference the cartoony Heavy Metal imagery and sound of Twisted Sister, another black sheep group with a long history playing covers in the New York bar scene who had brief fame in the 1980s with albums of original material. So if Tom Werman is the source of the "Rock!" chant used on the Twisted and Motley records, whose idea was it to copy Twisted Sister's video vibe from "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" on Motley's "Smokin' In The Boys' Room"? These videos were great because they were like short comedy films, very light-hearted and breezy. Teens and kids watching MTV ate it up (Probably the epitome of this kind of teen movie was 1986's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"). Motley had already done something similar with 1984's "Too Young To Fall In Love" where the group are portrayed as anti-superheroes who attempt to save a young girl from prostitution.
"Home Sweet Home" is the special song on the album and it is a highlight of the band's catalogue. Nikki had partially written it as a youth and it came together at rehearsals for the album in early 1985. The re-release of Theatre on CD has all the surviving demos and we have two very interesting "Home Sweet Home" takes. The first sounds like a live run-through of the song by the whole band. Vince is out of tune and Mick has most of the solo and the song is pretty much there. The second demo is just of some of the early rhythm tracks of the final recording.
"Home Sweet Home" has a music box melody and borders on triteness but is saved by a rather naked and pleasant vocal by Vince and a powerful accompaniment on guitar, bass and drums. The song is defined by the most obvious Motley trait: heaviness and power. The titanic solo by Mick Mars is a highlight of 1980s Rock guitar and shows his pre-'80s sensibility to play passionate and melodic heavy guitar but not be show-offy and overly technical.
"Use It Or Lose It" and "Save Our Souls" are two of the more Metal-sounding songs with "Souls" a very slow and groovy Blues rocker. On "Use It" Nikki's lyrical gifts shine
Ragtime, fastlane, another overdose
You know James Dean ain't playin' no role
JFK, Marilyn Monroe,
Street-walkin' gypsy, Margaret Trudeau
Said "hey, you! Whatcha gonna do
when Time runs out on you?"
"Keep Your Eye On The Money" has an AC/DC vibe which is a sound the band already tried out with "Ten Seconds To Love." There is a vibe attempted between the hard rockin' sounds and the feminine appearance on the album art and some of the published photo sessions.
