"THE DIRT" Movie/Motley's Music and Fame - World Of Motley Crue

This post was originally published in March of 2019 when the movie had just come out. Although I still pretty much believe today what I wrote at that time I would say that if I enjoy the movie at all it's as a cheesy, guilty-pleasure romp. I was hoping for something more along the lines of "Boogie Nights" but the director and the scriptwriters for THE DIRT were not at that level of awareness or talent.
For comparison, I only recently watched the Queen bio movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, and I can see why "The Dirt" did so well: the Queen movie is only marginally better. What a cheesy, dishonest, vapid film. The Live Aid ending was strong and Queen's music is great but it was only a step above the Crue movie. I'm very surprised it's been so successful.

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THE DIRT (2019) - Netflix

This is what happens when you spend the last 20 years of your career celebrating your bad behaviour and not your music.
They did an autobiography with a director and a cast and, probably, a whole production team who aren't even fans of the band's music.

Out of their nine studio albums they've released you could make the argument that only four of them are strong. They would be 1981's TOO FAST FOR LOVE, 1983's SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, 1989's DR. FEELGOOD and 1994's MOTLEY CRUE. I've been reading and discussing Motley online for almost 20 years, have watched thousands of hours of concerts and interviews and media and in my "research" (cough) these four albums are passionately and consistently celebrated at chat boards and in the comments at YouTube and other video streaming services. The 1994 album has John Corabi on vocals and many 1980s Crue Heads don't like it but its cult popularity continues to grow over the years.

"The Dirt" is a bad movie. The positive reviews from music fans (most critics are panning the film) shows perhaps a low expectation from a band they see as a joke anyway. But the movie is a cheap and artless reproduction of cardboard cut-out readings of lurid events from the book. The songs are performed periodically and pop up on the soundtrack but they are barely broached. No band is this famous simply for their reputation. Before documentaries and books they had to write five to seven albums' worth of material and some of it even had to be good. It had to sell millions and kick the asses of millions of mostly immature kids and continue to bring them joy into their middle ages to become a movie on a popular platform that many will watch 30 plus years after the fact.

Or at least you need the perfect songs to carry the narrative and sell the story. "The Dirt," with the same stories and fates as presented in that book, but, with, say, Poison songs as the soundtrack? Or even WASP or Dokken or Quiet Riot or Twisted Sister or Ratt? That book doesn't sell as much and Netflix doesn't commit it to celluloid. Motley are a truly 3D band.

Ever since the success, first, of the bands' VH1 "Behind The Music" special in 1998, then the autobiography in 2001, Motley have been playing out the third and fourth acts of their career. They have not had a creative relationship, the four of them, since 1997's GENERATION SWINE and that was mostly between the "Terror Twins," Nikki and Tommy. Vince and Mick were alienated and almost ousted in those years. 2000's almost parody of Hard Rock and other assorted songs, NEW TATTOO, showed the band forging ahead without Tommy. 2008's SAINTS OF LOS ANGELES and all the singles since are Nikki songs written and partly informed by his SIXX AM crew or friends who do approximations of a Modern Hard Rock sound. Factory assembled-sounding Rock even if some of the tunes are pretty catchy.

But there's four strong albums, by vote. I personally like songs from other albums more than songs off these strong four, but in the end, the point is that Motley Crue have a respectable amount of good music. This is why we are fans. Google "Motley Crue tribute bands." Many more than any other band from their scene. See the many fan-curated pages there are dedicated to, say, Poison or Warrant as compared to Crue. Even bands who sold twice as much as Motley like Bon Jovi or Def Leppard do not have the following that Crue have. Back in the 1980s, Crue would routinely win the popularity contests in Hard Rock magazines. They have always been something of a "people's band" and have received an almost rabid fan base. I recently listened to a 2014 interview Mick Mars did with Eddie Trunk on Trunk's radio show. Fans called in to talk to him and the reverence the fans had for the Man from Mars was touching and impressive. "You are the reason I play guitar." "I think you are the most underrated Rock guitarist EVER" I'm not sure a C. C. Deville or even a Ritchie Sambora or the Def Leppard guys would necessarily draw such a response from the public.

Anyway, we'll always have 1981-1991.

Circus Collector's Issue, 1994 (1984 Crue Article)

This Circus Magazine Collector's Issue was published in early 1994 and features classic interviews from the 1960s to the 1990s. Motley joins such illustrious company as Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. This would have been published before the band released their self-titled record with new vocalist John Corabi. The table of contents blurb says

"Til death do they party. It's 1984 and the gates of hell have opened siccing Nikki, Vince and their pack of wacks on a shocked music scene."

Richard Hogan's article, "Motley Crue: Glad To Be Bad," begins by telling us that everyone (except the Rock magazines) seem to be putting the Crue down. Hogan says that MTV Host J. J. Jackson recently reported that Vince punched out a female patron at The Rainbow Bar and Grill when she objected to his Marine outfit (Paul Miles' Chronological Crue page has this happening at The Troubadour in January of 1982). Jackson drops the script and surmises to the camera that Vince may not have been so tough if the objector was an actual Marine!

J. J. Jackson

This video of Nikki and Vince on MTV talking to host Martha Quinn comes from January-February 1984, after the Shout at The Devil album and the premier video "Looks That Kill" had been released. At around three minutes and thirty seconds Martha says that just a few weeks back Vince was in the news regarding the assault. Vince says that it was a man he hit, not a woman  ("You know, everyone in Hollywood looks like a woman  . . . I hit somebody but it wasn't a girl"). This is one of the many stories that never made it to "The Dirt" book or movie.

The Circus interview is likely from December, 1983 when the Crue were in Massachusetts rehearsing for their opening slot on the Ozzy Osbourne Bark At The Moon tour in 1984. Nikki and Vince illustrate their violent and wild temperaments with stories of a recent (Nikki) car crash and a (Vince) Halloween incarceration. "We are extremists," explains Nikki. The band members and their current ages are shared as well as the circumstances of the making of their independently-released Too Fast For Love back in 1981. 

Motley were going out of their way to gain notoriety in these years and the Metal magazines ate it up and shared the debauched details. The above video clip also shows that the band was singled out by the PMRC. Nikki's x-rated groupie stories in the pages of the magazines would land the band in hot water soon after this interview and 1984 would end with the death of Razzle Dingley of the group Hanoi Rocks at the hands of drunk driver, Vince Neil.

The Motley Crue drama played out in real time in these years. Fans devoured these popular rags to hear news of their Rock God heroes and to get images for their teenybopper shrines. Circus Magazine almost exclusively featured live shots of the bands on tour. The mixture of video channels, Rock magazines with articles and posters and LPs or cassettes blaring the music was a heady mixture.



Above is the Classified page (for some more flavour of the age) and an ad that reminds us when this Circus was published: 1994. Motley were about to release the self-titled album with new singer John Corabi and Vince was a semi-successful solo artist. This back page ad for Gibson Guitars shows Mr. Neil with two members of his band. He is still playing solo shows today. Vince would get back with Motley by 1996-1997 when the magic of the 1984 years was long gone. That a movie biography of the band would be released in 2019 is a testament to the strength of the music and the allure of the notoriety of the group in the 1980s.

More Rock Magazines to come at The Sleaze Patrol Files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Feelgood Part 6: Golden Days of 1989-1990

 

The Motleys were riding high in these boon years of 1989 to 1990. Here’s some Hard Rock artifacts from those halcyon days of yore!

Metal Muscle magazine describes our boys as ‘The Most Notorious Act of the ‘80s’ & then goes on to sum up Motley operations to the late ‘89, early 1990 point.

The above Metal Edge Magazine story gives us a time capsule of the band as they embarked on their most successful tour. Late 1989 concerts are mentioned, like the December 10th, 1989 encore at the Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, with Ace Frehley & Sebastien Bach helping the boys out with a version of ‘Jailhouse Rock.’
The article also mentions Vince’s turn as an actor portraying a murdered rock star in the Andrew Dice Clay vehicle, Ford Fairlane. Here be the trailer with our Vinnie shouting, ‘Hello L. A!’ before he falls to his death. So Motley.

Decade Of Decadence Part One–Metal Edge, January 1992

 

Decade Of Decadence was released in October of 1991 after the band played shows in Europe. A bunch of video from this tour has been popping up on YouTube. The band did a show at the Marquee club in London in August & billed themselves as ‘The Fourskins'. Here’s audio of the very first performance of one of the new Decade tunes, ‘Primal Scream.’

Metal Edge’s Gerri Miller contacted Nikki & Vince in the summer of 1991 while they were still working on tracks for the new album. They give details on the then as of yet unreleased Decade & plans for the next Crue record . . .

I still have this magazine intact so I’m posting all of the Crue-related material from the issue including a centerfold, an ad for the new record & random Crue content.

Here’s part one (two, actually. Part one seems to have been removed) of a Motley fan’s collection of DOD-era Motley media with footage from the boys at Donington for the Monsters of Rock fest. More Decade of Decadence down the long & winding road at the SPFiles . . .

Revolutionary Comics: Motley Crue Vol. 1 #4, October 1989

 

More retrospective-type content in the media for the event that Dr. Feelgood almost seemed to be: Revolutionary Comics, an unauthorized & independent company, took on the comedy & tragedy of the Motley’s biography. Crue were the fourth band to be featured (with G n’ R, Metallica & Bon Jovi the precursors) & with a second bio being published only 6 months later (& to be featured at the SPFiles down the road . . . ) . Todd Loren was the President of this controversial company who would be served lawsuits from several of the featured bands. Check the bottom of the post for links to more info on Revolutionary Comics & Todd Loren including a trailer from a recent bio film.

  

There is so much wrong with this comic. The script reads like a note-form list of details, there are all kinds of anachronisms, we see a 1984-era Crue talking to tour headliner Ozzy Osbourne . . . & his 1988 era guitarist Zakk Wylde. Vince Neil’s fatal car crash that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicolas ‘Razzle‘ Dingly happens after Theatre Of Pain is released when it actually happened before. The whole thing ends with a mention of the cancelled 1987 European tour & Nikki talking about Dr. Feelgood & the Crue returning to form. Pretty classic stuff.

President Todd Loren’s humour comes out in the piece ‘Snotley Crue’ which is inked by Lyndal Ferguson (who did the cover graphic). This is kinda funny & I like Ferguson’s style enough to get my vote for the best piece in the whole publication.

A sixteen-year-old Dean Hsieh wrote to Todd Loren to tell him how disappointed he was in the quality of the comic’s first issue & offered his ‘Addiction’ for publication. Here it is (above). Not bad for a 16 yr old.

There is more content in this issue but I figured because it wasn’t Motley-related I’d leave it out of this post but if I change my mind anytime I will just edit the post & add the images.

What present-day Crue fans will see is that all the things that made The Dirt such a success - the sex, drugs & violence - was already a big part of the Motley reputation for almost 15 years prior. Too much trash & not enough substance has killed the Motley machine in recent years. They’re actually quite successful a touring act now but the days of making a meaningful new recording are probably long gone.

Revolutionary Comics @ Wikipedia

Revolutionary Comics Bio Flick Info @ IMDB