The Pornographic Motley Crue, Part 1 - World Of Motley Crue

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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

1981 Discography - World Of Motley Crue

Nikki, Tommy and Mick were demoing tunes in circa March 1981 and were working with a vocalist named O'Dean Peterson. At the same time they were looking for other singers and Tommy gave Vince a demo tape. Vince joined the band and recorded his own vocals in April. By their first shows at The Starwood on April 24th-25th they had pressed a single 45 of the tunes "Toast Of The Town" and "Stick To Your Guns." In the next few months the band put together four songs on a cassette for promotional purposes. The two songs from the 45 as well as "Public Enemy #1" and "Take Me To The Top." These last two tunes were possibly demoed in circa May and the band made video performances of the songs. In the 21st century fans were treated with the discovery and release of two songs from Motley's first April sessions: "Nobody Knows What It's Like to Be Lonely" and a cover of the Raspberries song, "Tonight." Some Crue fans had already heard these songs back in the day as they are performed on the April 24-25th Starwood video bootleg.
 
Recorded March-April, 1981 at Crystal Sound Studios at 1014 Vine St, Hollywood with engineer Laura Livingston.

 1. Nobody Knows What It's Like To Be Lonely
    [aka "I Got The Power"]
     -First and only official release in 2001 on the Lewd, Crued and Tattooed DVD. This song was not even in bootleg circles previous to this release. The only other surviving performance of this song is from the April 24-25th Starwood bootleg. The song sounds to be playing back at a slow speed and could be tweaked to play slightly faster. This is also the longest song the band ever recorded (approx. 7 minutes).
2. Tonight [originally recorded by The Raspberries]
     -First officially released in 1999 on the "Crucial Crue" [Motley Records] "Too Fast For Love." This was not even in bootleg circles previously. The only other Motley performance of this song is from the April 24-25th The Starwood bootleg. It is also included on the 2003 Motley/Hip-O Records "Music To Crash Your Car To Vol. 1" box set (Disc 2).
3. Toast of the Town    
     -First released on the April 1981 "Leather Records" 45 rpm single. Side B to Side A's "Stick To Your Guns." Then on the c. June 1981 "Coffman & Coffman" promo cassette along with "Stick To Your Guns," "Public Enemy #1," and "Take Me To The Top." In 1999 it was re-released/remastered on the "Crucial Crue" "Too Fast For Love" (bonus track) as well as 2003's "Music To Crash Your Car To Vol. 1" Box Set (Disc 2) and 2005's "Red, White And Crue" (Disc 1). "Toast" was remastered in the digital age and is slightly different than previous versions but it is all from the single original recording from early 1981.
  4. Stick To Your Guns
     -First released on the April 1981 "Leather Records" 45 rpm single. Side A to Side B's "Toast Of The Town." Then in June 1981 on the "Coffman & Coffman" promo cassette along with "Toast Of The Town," "Public Enemy #1," and "Take Me To The Top."


Recorded circa May, 1981 at Crystal Sound Studios at 1014
Vine St, Hollywood with engineer Laura Livingston.

5. Public Enemy #1
     -only official release on the June "Coffman & Coffman" promotional cassette.
6. Take Me To The Top
     -only official release on the June "Coffman & Coffman" promotional cassette.

[Motley filmed promotional videos for both songs at International Rehearsal Studios circa May, 1981.] 


*****The above information for Motley's first six recordings is as close to accurate as I've been able to estimate what with the skimpy info they've provided regarding their early recording sessions. The often told story that Vince was so new to the band that you can hear the pages turning on the recording as he sings along to lyric sheets is funny but I've never heard those pages. "Public Enemy #1" and "Take Me To The Top" do sound like Vince is new to the material and the band. He's out of tune periodically and seems to not know lyrics despite the cheat sheets! "Nobody Knows" and "Tonight" are supposed to be the first two songs the band recorded and they sound surprisingly competent, considering, so I wonder what the actual order and state of these tracks is. Their first singer, Odean Peterson, stated in 1984 that he demoed all of the aforementioned tunes with them in March, except "Take Me To The Top" so it could be from the second session in May. *****

Paul Miles gives a circa October-November 1981 date for the Leathur "Too Fast For Love" recording session "over a drunken four days at Hit City West Studios on the corner of Pico and La Cienega boulevards." Wikipedia says it happened in October. "German producer Michael Wagener is brought to the helm of the brand-new Soundcraft 2400 series console board."
The following photo of Wagener with Vince comes from the amazing Crue collection of Ryan Anderson. 
 

October-November, 1981, Hill City West Studios, L. A., CA

Too Fast For Love [Leathur Records]

1. Live Wire
2. Public Enemy #1
3. Take Me To The Top
4. Merry-Go-Round
5. Piece Of Your Action
6. Starry Eyes
7. Stick To Your Guns
     -1999 "Crucial Crue" "Too Fast For Love" (bonus track).
8. Come On And Dance
9. Too Fast For Love    
     -1999 "Crucial Crue" "Too Fast For Love" (bonus track).
     -2003 "Music To Crash Your Car To Vol. 1" box set (Disc 2). 
10. On With The Show

-The album was released November 10th. See below for more versions and later releases.
-2003's "Music To Crash Your Car To Vol. 1" has a needle-drop of the full Leathur LP (Disc 1).

Before the band signed with Elektra in 1982 and the album was edited and re-released there were several printings of the Leathur version. An Italian Cruehead made a page explaining the different pressings.

****************************

The Vince and Michael Wagener photo is from Motley fan Ryan Anderson who has a Facebook group called "The Leathur Lair - Motley Crue Collection" where he shares his one-of-a-kind images and memorabilia from the 1981-1982 era. Ryan's collection is a stunning gathering of Coffman-era Crue collectibles and the group has become a kind of meeting place for fans and early Motley associates who share memories and their own rare memorabilia. Ryan is very open with his rarities and he has graciously allowed me to share some of his watermarked images at this blog. If you want to see the amazing Crue memories at his group just search and join at Facebook.

Locker Art #3

Locker Pin-Ups 2

 

Locker Pin-Ups 1 - Vince, Vince, Vince

This pin-up of Vinnie is from the Girls, Girls Girls era of 1987. My memory is that this was hanging in the locker of a girl I had a "crush" on back in Junior High School in the late 1980s. I don't remember how I got it from her but every time I see it I think of her. She died in a car accident in the mid-1990s.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Sleaze Patrol Files Blog Origin Story

2019 marks NINE years of The Sleaze Patrol Files Blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This collection spans the years 1981 to the early 1990s. I was growing out of Motley in the 1990s and the bulk of this collection is from the Girls, Girls, Girls era of 1987 to the Decade of Decadence era of 1991-1992. Stray pieces made their way into the collection in the ensuing years, but not much at all.

The Corabi years were partly intriguing. I bought that record. I did not purchase 1997's Generation Swine as I had fully moved on from the band and it was awkward, overwrought music. I kinda like the record, now, but this is in the cool light of hindsight. In 1997, I was more interested in The Velvet Underground.

My Crue collection was retired to a series of tubs in my parents' basement. I graduated High School, attended University and did the grown up boogie.

Around fifteen years later, some time in the late 2000s, I returned from my adventures and rediscovered these tubs nestled among my mother's Holiday decorations and bags of old clothes and keepsakes. There were my beloved childhood folders of Motley Metal Edge pin-ups; my Circus articles and T-Shirts and VHS and Buttons and Cassettes and LPs and Door Posters and mirrors and magazines and scrapbooks and flags and original Crue art from school chums . . . a mid-sized, intense little collection of the Crue by an uber-fan in the years when the Crue walked tallest and most brazenly on Mother Earth.

As I compared what I had with the then burgeoning online fan culture I could see a difference: where most were collectors who purchased identifiable "collectibles" and expensive rarities from the Motley memorabilia universe, mine was a period teeny-bopper type gathering of all things available in the popular culture of the time. So pin-ups and posters and memorabilia purchased at convenience stores or at carnivals or from other kids at school; or scrapbooks and drawings; T-shirts purchased at now-defunct Malls and retailers like Zellers and many long-gone record shops. When I opened these tubs in the late 2000s it felt like I was stepping back into my youth of the 1980s and early 1990s.

And my home video VHS collection survived in boxes under the stairwell. I taped a lot of Crue content in the early 1990s and it appears I got some rare content from Canadian music video channels because a decade after sharing it online I've never seen any other copies?!

And so I've continued to keep it mostly all intact (even after a couple close calls where I almost sold off the whole collection due to disinterest) to share with the Crue Heads from around the world.

There is more to share. I still have articles and magazines and scrapbooks and video and etc that I haven't posted so The Sleaze Patrol Files should be sharing new content for at least a few more years. I have another Crue blog that I don't post at much but it highlights rare Motley film and video:

https://cruetube.blogspot.com/

For old fans who get a buzz from this stuff in recognizing images and feelings from their childhood or young adult days, to the new fans who maybe have just jumped on board since the release of the 2019 Motley biopic "The Dirt" . . . The Sleaze Patrol Files is here for you to time-travel and enjoy the band in their most successful and meaningful years: 1981-1991.

Motley Drawings, Part II: Not-So-Good Kid Art

In my first post sharing my childhood Motley Crue art from school friends there were some really cool images. In today's post? Not so much. Some friends were better artists than others. Some of these were drawn by really young kids and look like it but I was always happy to receive some Crue art from a friend. Enjoy these pieces from the 1980s to the early 1990s.

 

 

Bullwinkle

Here is a video featuring a woman who may or may not be Bullwinkle.

Tommy and the Crue, Summer 1987

This article written by Arlett Vereecke for BLAST! Magazine details an interview with Tommy in the summer of 1987. It is a candid piece; the Motleys stumble into their Burbank rehearsal space to play tunes and do press. Mick and Nikki and Tommy are hungover following a night of merriment after an evening photo session. Vince is sober and ready to play! Their back and forth is transcribed for a few columns ["Mars Aide", Puma-donated sweat pants, Tommy and Nikki's proposed production company "Unlimited Funz"]. This is a slice of a busy afternoon of the band about to depart on a reckless and dangerous tour that would be cancelled before the year was out.


Arlett corners Tommy and they chat. Tommy talks about how he started playing drums and his important role in the Crue. Arlett criticizes the sound of the live "Jailhouse Rock" on the new Girls, Girls, Girls album and Tommy shares the details of its recording. He then expresses excitement to soon go back on tour and regret in having to leave his bride, Heather Locklear, at home. Ha ha. Tommy would often talk about touring and being married in these years. 

Tommy shares what the new tour stage show will look like including his drum solo and new back-up singers. The interview ends with Tommy and band heading into the rehearsal room to work up the 1987 set-list. New tunes like "Wild Side", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Dancin' On Glass" and "All In the Name of Rock N Roll" would join already-classics like "Live Wire", "Shout At The Devil" and "Home Sweet Home".

Rock Power Magazine, Summer 1991

 

Mr. Sixx graces the cover of the British publication Rock Power Magazine in mid 1991.

Here is all the Crue content present in this issue including a gossip item about Vince going into rehab to deal with a drinking problem said to have been partly due the failure of his marriage with Sharise Ruddell. Motley's personal woes were always news in the Rock media of the day.

Tommy took part in the charity baseball game for the T. J. Martell Foundation in 1991. Lee and other Rock celebrities raised money for Lukemia research.

Nikki talks about the soon-to-be-released Decade of Decadence and the upcoming UK Monsters of Rock Festival performances. The next Motley record is discussed and is promised to be a more experimental Crue.

Crue Pin-Ups and Posters Home Video, 1991

Waaaayyy back in February of 1991 I made a three minute video showing many of my Motley pin-ups and posters from Rock magazines. I was fifteen years old. Back in those days, if I met a fellow Crue fan who said they didn't like the tune "Save Our Souls" from 1985's THEATRE OF PAIN, I thought they were jokers.
Enjoy!

School Notebook Crue Art and 2019's "The Dirt"

Going through some boxes at my folks' place recently I stumbled upon these old English and Math class notebook duo-tangs from the early 1990s. Tagging your school books with your favourite bands was a busy pastime for us old-school Metal Heads. I'm glad I went to public school where no one told me I couldn't graffiti my books! Looks like I was listening to Faith No More and Nazareth at the time, too. 

While we're here we thought we'd share the trailer for the Crue bio coming to Netflix on March 22nd, 2019. "The Dirt" is based on the 2001 Motley autobiography of the same same. Looks a little on the cheap side but hope it's entertaining.

They wrote three new tunes and covered Madonna's "Like A Virgin" for the soundtrack. They've released the tune "The Dirt." It's actually not as bad as I expected and grows on you.

Motley Used Images From the Sleaze Patrol Files . . .

 . . . on their trailer for the 30th anniversary release of GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS. I noticed when it came out and even contacted someone involved with the band, asking for a free CD but no luck. You can see the quick montage as it goes along with Tommy's fill at the 26 second mark. All the same tears and blemishes as my original copies. Kinda cool.