Motley Crue's Songs, 1981 - World Of Motley Crue

The first Motley Crue set-list included originals Nikki wrote before the formation of the band in April 1981, new songs the band worked on together and cover songs they performed at their shows.

The first four original Motley Crue songs were

Nobody Knows What It's Like To Be Lonely [aka I Got the Power]
Public Enemy #1 [co-written with Lizzie Grey]
Stick To Your Guns
Toast Of The Town

Nikki made a home recording of some of these tunes for vocalist Odean Peterson to hear sometime in February-March of 1981. By the end of March Nikki, Mick and Tommy spent three days in Crystal Sound Studio recording these tunes as well as a cover of the Raspberries song "Tonight." Odean recorded vocals for all the songs. In a 1984 testimonial he states that his vocals were erased from the 24 track master when Vince Neil joined the band and recorded his own vocals in early April. Friends told the band they thought "Toast Of The Town" and "Stick To Your Guns" sounded good so by the April 24-25th shows at the Starwood they had a 45 single of the tunes for sale ["That's the B-Side of our new single!"].

A choppy and very incomplete video bootleg exists of the first shows and gives us an idea of what they sounded like early on and what they played. It is the only live recording of the band that exists from their first six month existence. There are complete and incomplete versions of

Stick to Your Guns
Nobody Knows What It's Like To Be Lonely
Public Enemy #1
Toast Of The Town
Too Fast For Love
Paperback Writer [The Beatles]
Why You Killin' Yourself?
Tonight [The Raspberries]

"Why You Killin' Yourself?" is the only surviving version of this song. It sounds like it morphed into "Starry Eyes."
"Public Enemy #1" was co-written with Nikki's ex-London cohort Lizzie Grey. Here is a version of the song by one of Lizzie's bands from the 2010s. He died in August of 2019.

A circa May-June return to Crystal Studios yielded a recording of "Take Me To The Top." Odean stated he worked on all the aforementioned songs in March, except "Top" so it was possibly not recorded until this second session. The actual recording order and details of these early sessions is murky. "Public" and "Top" sound particularly rough and amateurish while the apparently first two recorded in April, "Nobody Knows" and "Tonight" sound more cohesive. Whatever they may have rerecorded on the other songs at this time is not known and may never be clarified.



Circa June they put together a four song demo to give to record labels. "Public Enemy #1," "Take Me To The Top," [these two had videos made by the band around this time] "Stick To Your Guns" and "Toast Of The Town."

The next surviving audio of the band is from October 2nd, live at The Country Club in Hollywood, California. They performed

Take Me To The Top
Two-Timer [Herman Rarebell]
Come On And Dance
Piece Of Your Action
Merry-Go-Round
Too Fast For Love
Toast Of The Town
Stick To Your Guns
Starry Eyes
Live Wire
Helter Skelter [The Beatles]
Jailhouse Rock [Leiber and Stoller-Elvis]

We hear tunes that will be recorded for the independently-produced Leathur "Too Fast For Love" LP in the next month and a few covers, two of which would make it to future Motley records. "Two-Timer" is actually "Hard Sensation" from Herman Rarebell's 1981 album "Nip In The Bud." There is no other Motley recording of this tune.
"Live Wire" makes its first appearance on a recording. The story was told (and filmed for the 2019 bio "The Dirt") that "Live Wire" was the first song the band worked on when they first jammed in April. Either that was a made up story or it took a while for the song to develop. It is a particularly more Heavy Metal-sounding tune, unlike their earliest material, so perhaps it wasn't actually written til later in the year.



MTV News caught up with the band at their November 12th performance at the Roxy where a brief clip of the band playing "Too Fast For Love" is shared. They had just finished recording and manufacturing their debut album on their own label and would sign a distribution deal with Greenworld who would soon have the album in stores and available through mail-order. The Leathur "Too Fast For Love" LP has the songs

Live Wire
Public Enemy #1
Take Me To The Top
Merry-Go-Round
Piece Of Your Action
Starry Eyes
Stick To Your Guns
Come On And Dance
Too Fast For Love
On With The Show

"Public Enemy #1," "Take Me To The Top" and "Stick To Your Guns" are recorded for a second time in 1981. All of these tunes would be performed and recorded live by the band in these years except "On With The Show" which wouldn't be played live for another 25 years!

On December 11th [Nikki's birthday] the band played The Whisky A Go-Go. They performed

Take Me To The Top
Running Wild In The Night
I Will Survive
Toast Of The Town
Starry Eyes
Piece Of Your Action
Come On And Dance
Too Fast For Love [without the intro]
Merry-Go-Round
Live Wire

Vince at the Whisky, 1981

Two new songs are performed: "Running Wild In The Night and "I Will Survive." Crue fans know these tunes from the "Shout At The Devil Demos" that have floated around bootleg circles since the 1980s and were recorded circa December 1982. With their first album completed the band must have been anxious to write and perform some new material. It would be almost two more years before the next album was released.

LOST SONGS

Nikki had songs written, rehearsed and perhaps even performed by the band that are only now represented by a mention on a surviving set-list or a lyric sheet. Odean recalled a tune called "Can't Stop The Music" that has never materialized ["Toast Of The Town" was titled "Talk Of The Town" in these early days]. "Why You Killin' Yourself?" seems to have become "Starry Eyes."
Crue collector Ryan Anderson adds "Breakdown Your Heart," "On My Video" "I'm In Hell"/"Welcome to Hell" and "TV and Violence." The last title had legs: it was considered for the title to albums that became known as "Shout At The Devil" and "Girls, Girls, Girls."

This article and research copyright Mick Funz, 2020