Theatre Of Crue, 1985-1986

The Theatre Of Pain era brings back so many memories for this Cruehead. I remember sitting in class & hearing some kid, probably skipping school, walking through the school yard with a stereo blasting ‘Smoking In the Boys Room’ in about 1985. The Crue hit the big time with this record. ‘Smokin’’ & ‘Home Sweet Home’ were tunes that appealed to a broader audience & Hard Rock/Heavy Metal music was a more popular genre after all the pioneer work of bands like the Crue, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden & Ozzy Osbourne.
 

But Theatre is mostly regarded as a misstep these days, with Nikki leading the pack in calling out the records’ weaknesses. It’s hard to disagree. Songs like ‘Fight For Your Rights’, ‘Raise Your Hands To Rock’, ‘Tonight (We Need A Lover)’ do sound like filler (& certainly touched with the dated Twisted Sister anthemic, mid ‘80s production value).
 

For those of us who grew up with the Crue in the ‘80s, Theatre Of Pain is the bastard fuck-up that you love as much for its highlights as its low-lights. Opinions vary but I’ve always loved the ‘filler’ tunes on the record. The opening track, ‘City Boy Blues’ introduces the world to the Crue of the next two records with their more mainstream, bluesy, Aerosmith-influenced hard rock. It’s a groovy tune with a great lyric . . . Nikki sets the urban scene in an almost poetic intro.

Fireflies . . . & dog fights . . . Running hot in the heat . . . Street noise . . . another bribe . . . things too hard to believe, so head out!
 

My heart’s in the country, my feet in the city with you . . . Well my friends were eating sushi talking bad about you-know-who-who-who . . . My tongue was talking riddles but I just can’t seem to find the clue . . . So I take a swig of whiskey & I jump into the saddle with you-you-you . . . & I just can’t seem to break the shackles of the City Boy Blues . . .  
 

Another verse & then a nice breakdown before the solo with some particularly choice words from the Sixxster:

Don’t look to Jesus to change your seasons, it’s the American Dream . . . Sold out gypsies, roads of stone . . . can’t seem to find no peace, so head out!
 

Vince’s car accident in 1984 that resulted in the death of Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicolas ‘Razzle’ Dingley cast a pall over Motley operations & spirit in these years. After the controversies of Shout At the Devil, Theatre represents a creative revision that also reflects where the band was heading musically. Too Fast & Shout are the odd men out as far Crue’s ‘80s sound . . . Too Fast with its power pop punk & proto-Sunset Strip Rock N’ Roll & Shout with it’s Heavy Metal/Satanic/Violent/Gang/S&M overtones. Theatre has most in common with Dr. Feelgood, to my ears. Both are obvious attempts at garnering more of the generic hard rock audience of the times.
 

 

It’s a turn to more hard rockin’ sounds but the Metal flavour is still there in some of the songs.
 

While Shout At the Devil lives on & has become a classic album that still wins fans, Theatre Of Pain remains a record of its time. A product of sudden & overwhelming success & overkill . . . & the effects of indulgence. 1985!

Magazine Readers’ Awards #2: 1986-1987

 

The Motleys were the darlings of Hit Parader, Circus & Metal Edge magazines in the mid to late 1980s & would often top the annual Readers’ Polls. It’s surprising how many Crue fans were filling out those ballots because they would often beat bands that outsold them, record-wise. Our Readers’ Awards posts will cover the years 1986-1992. [The first Readers’ Poll post for Metal Edge in 1987 can be found HERE]

Hit Parader fans edge Motley for the 1986 ‘Group Of The Year,’ garnering around 30,000 more votes than the second place Ratt. Although The Hit Parader writers insist that Motley are ‘the most popular band in the world’ they were more accurately only one of the world’s biggest bands (Bon Jovi sold approximately 6 million MORE records than Motley in those years) & were riding the high off another smash record with Theater Of Pain.

The Motleys almost swept Circus Magazine’s 1987 Readers’ Poll with wins in Best Band, Concert, Vocalist, Drummer, Bassist, Songwriters, Album, Video (‘Wild Side’), Producer & Best Long-Form Video (‘Uncensored’). Anne Raso caught up with Vince in Knoxville, Tennessee where the Crue were playing the Civic Coliseum on November 17th, 1987. Honored that it was his fourth year in a row winning Circus’ Best Vocalist Award he admits, ‘I’m not really that good of a singer’ & talks about his life on & off the road in 1986-87.

Nikki is interviewed by Adrianne Stone in his Knoxville hotel room & responds to the news that he has been chosen Best Bassist by Circus readers by confessing that he stole a subscription of the magazine as a teenager! This classic interview has him telling wild road stories including one involving Slash of Guns N’ Roses (who were then currently on tour with the Motleys & on the brink of becoming the biggest Rock band in the world).

 

Tommy got top honors (his fourth year as well) but Mr. Mars did not  win the blue ribbon spot in his category. Although Mick would usually place & even won Best Guitarist in Circus’ 1985 Poll he was not often awarded first place in these polls. Does that make him the least talented or least important Crueman? No sir. These polls were popularity contests & Nikki Sixx’s appearance was as important as his songwriting or instrumental abilities to the average Circus reader.

The staff at Faces Magazine seem to be less than impressed with Motley’s reign of their 1987 Readers’ Poll. P. T. Barnum & even Oscar Wilde are quoted to sum up the writers’ opinion that Motley are essentially style over substance & that their fan base consists of a whole lotta suckers. 

So Randy Rhoads wins Best Guitarist & he had been dead how many years by 1987?? [edit-commentor reminded me that Ozzy Osbourne’s Rhoads ‘Tribute’ album was released that year] Mick ties second place with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, that’s cool.

Motley win Hit Parader’s Readers’ Award for Best Band for the fourth straight year in 1987. When asked why he thinks Motley’s appeal has endured, Nikki insists it’s the authenticity of the band & offers up one of his favorite sayings from the 1980s:

‘Look, you can paint a garbage can with gold paint, but underneath it’s still a garbage can.’

More Magazine Readers’ Polls in future Sleaze Patrol File Posts, stay tuned!!!!

Nikki Sixx Part 5, 1987

 

We’ve got a candid Nikki article from 1987 in today’s post. Gary Graff from Faces Magazine has a brief chat with Mr. Crue as he lounges on a hotel bed strewn with porn mags and empty liquor bottles . . . a phone rings . . . 

 

Motley Magazine Covers II

 

Tommy Lee Part 4-The Girls, Girls, Girls Drum Solo Mystery

I wrote about Tommy’s famous Girls, Girls, Girls drum solo HERE and soon after found out a couple things that cast a lot of doubt on Tommy’s claim that he got the idea from a dream. First, check out this video of the solo from Des Moines, Iowa in 1987. Tommy goes through his regular spiel. 

Here and elsewhere, Tommy insists that he dreamt the idea to rotate in his drum set in front of an audience, and he very well may have had that dream, but it looks like Buddy Rich had the same dream and beat him to the execution!!

What?!! That is some funky classic video. The band looks pretty damned amazed! Or amused!

Tommy has seen the above video and has responded that he did not know of its existence and as far as he knew he was was the first to do this stunt . . . and I would say that this is not an impossible thing for two drummers to think of and execute . . . they’re a nutty breed to be sure. So I would normally leave it at that if this were the end of the mystery. But it ain’t. Watch this:

So yeah, 12 years before the above Tommy Lee video, Mick Mars (at this time he was still Bob Deal-he’s the red-headed guitarist to the right) was in a band in which a drummer went upside down as he played . . . ! Right. Did this never come up during the whole Girls, Girls, Girls tour?! And although that Buddy Rich vid is from the early ‘70s, pre-dating the above Whitehorse video, it is explained at the YouTube page that Mick’s former band mate Jack Valentine apparently did invent the contraption/conception and Buddy did the act on TV for him when he broke his leg and was unable to perform.

 

[EDIT] I have known about the following video for years, a 1984 home video of Mick Mars being interviewed and reminiscing about his days as Robert Deal with old band mate Jack Valentine. In the two following parts Mick talks about Motley’s upcoming tour of Europe and fields a lot of questions from Jack about memories of the old days, very personal and candid stuff. The drum trick is mentioned several times in the second part and there are even pictures. Also, we should remember, Jack and Mick (or, Bob) were in a band that was once called Motley Croo or some such spelling . . . so how much exactly did Motley get from Mick’s old band? You’ll notice that Mick seems to get uncomfortable when Jack reminds him of the old Motley Croo name . . . obviously there was no discussion of usage between them at that time. Mick himself is said to have acquired his name from another L. A. performer known as Mickey Mars. Jack mentions several times how completely different Mick looks as compared to his Bob Deal days and how his trademark faces are the one dead give-away. They call it the "Mars Face."

Probably, Mick brought the drum idea to the band or told Tommy about it several times and then Motley paid his old band mate for the idea and to shut up and let-on that it was Tommy’s invention . . . or . . . Tommy dreamt it, brought it to the band, Mick mentioned he was in a band where a guy did it and etc. However it came to be it was a huge asset to the Motley’s show and Tommy’s rep as a wild man. 

TOMMY LEE DRUM SOLOS FROM OTHER TOURS COMIN’ UP . . . . SOME DAY . . . AT THE SLEAZE PATROL FILES  . . . .