LoveRock Awaits You

Mother Love Bone is considered by many to be forefathers of the whole 90’s Seattle Grunge sound/scene. The fact that
two of its members bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard went to form Pearl Jam and the premature death of lead
singer Andrew Wood helped cement Mother Love Bone’s legacy. What many of these people may or not be aware of is that Mother
Love Bone WAS A FUCKING GLAM BAND. You know, the kind of band Grunge was supposed to be the anthisesis of, The type of band
that according to popular legend Grunge ‘killed’ in the early 90’s.

Before Mother Love Bone, Ament, Gossard and guitarist Bruce Fairweather were in a band called Green River. Green
River’s debut EP Come On Down is considered by many to be the first ‘Grunge’ record. Their next EP Dry As A Bone was the
first non compilation release from legendary Seattle label Sub Pop records. According to Seattle folklore Green River
imploded due to musical differences. Original guitarist Steve Turner and vocalist Mark Arm wanted to retain the grungy
Stooges meets Black Flag sound of the first two Green River EP’s while Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Bruce Fairweather (the
guitarist guy who replaced Turner) wanted to go in a more the glam/Hard Rock/Mainstream Metal direction that Green River was
leaning towards on their final EP Rehab Doll. In the end, Arm and Turner formed the grungier Mudhoney while the other three
guys formed Mother Love Bone with ex Malkfunkshun singer Andrew Wood.

Earlier Green River

Later Green River

According to what I read online Andrew Wood’s pre Love Bone band Malfunkshun was turned down by Sub Pop for not being
“grunge enough.” Despite Andrew Wood’s Kiss inspired look and stage raps Malkfunkshun’s music was compatible with other
Seatle Grunge bands of the area but different enough to stand out. One thing that set Andrew Wood apaart from many of peers
like say Kurt Cobain, is that Mr. Wood embraced the idea of becoming a larger than life ‘Rock Star.’ I doubt he would have
been content staying under the mainstream radar.

Mother Love Bone might had been an 80’s Glam Metal band but their version of Glam was more Jane’s Addiction than
Poison. Like Jane’s Mother Love Bone had a slightly funky, psychedelic feel to their music but Jane’s music was built around
Eric Avery’s rock solid bass and Stephen Perkins’ tribal beat with guitarist Dave Navarro and singer Perry Ferrell working
around it. Mother Love Bone’s music on the other hand put greater emphasis on the the dual lead guitar work of Stone Gossard
and Bruce Fairweather. Jane’s had more of a post punk verging on Goth feel while Mother Love Bone was more Classic Rock and
“fun.” Mother Love Bone was also not very ‘angsty’ when compared to say Nirvana or even Alice In Chains.

Notice how Andrew Wood looks like he could pass for a less Mexican slightly less flamboyant relative of the singer
in this band:

For the record, I think it’s cool that the two of the founding members Pearl Jam are closet Glam guys. I prefer the
kind of sort of glam music of Mother Love Bone. to Pearl Jam. Especially to the music Pearl Jam has been done since Vitalogy.
I even like the Bulletboys. Sure the dance the singer does on that “Smooth Up In Ya” video is panty sniffing creepy and his
wailing can be irritating at times but these guys did a cover of a Tom Waits song that’s pretty damn legit.

As a fan of 80’s Glam Metal and 90’s Grunge I noticed that these two Rock sub Genres have more in common than many
people realize. Grunge and Glam Metal are not polar oppossites but rather distant cousins who do not always get along. I
also don’t buy the popular Grunge killed Glam in the early 90’s argument. Especially when you take into account that Mother
Love Bone one of the bands theoreticaly helped bring the ‘Seattle Grunge Scene’ into the mainstream was more ‘Glam’ than
‘Grunge.’ And I’m not even gonna talk about Alice In Chains, a band that was an opening act for Poison AND Slayer… That could
be another blog in and of itself…

Strangling an Elastic Wire

Right now I am in the middle of reading Rip It Up and Start Again: PostPunk 1978-1984 in an effort to further my musical education. I’m enjoying the book, I have learned a lot so far and I’m not even half way done with this thing. Sometimes I will read the book in front of my computer. That way whenever the author mentions an artist I’m not familiar with I can look their music up on You Tube. One of the many bands I have discovered through this book is Wire. I’m pretty sure I’d heard the name before but I never heard their music. So I go to you tube and look up the Wire song “Three Girl Rhumba.”

As soon as I heard the song the first thing that popped into my head was: ‘that guitar riff sounds very familiar…and sure
enough…

If you remember listening to ‘Alternative Radio’ in the 90’s then you probably remember this song by the group Elastica. The song stuck out to me because it had an 80’s New Wave vibe with a 90’s Alternative attitude. I did a little digging and it appears that “Connection” was not the only Elastica song that borrowed musical ideas from Wire. I present you the People’s Exhibit number 2 “Line Up” by Elastica:

Which bears a strong resemblance to the song “Iam the Fly” by Wire:

The band Wire did notice the song similarities and tried to sue Elastica. They settled out of court. Wire was not the only band that tried to take Elastica to court for Plagarism. The Stranglers felt that the Elastica song “Waking Up”…

…ripped off “No More Heroes” by the Stranglers.

The Stranglers also settled out of court.

Maybe the girls (and boy) in Elastica were just a bunch of enviromentaly concious people who were all about preserving the
enviroment, saving the earth, recycling, etc etc. Maybe their need to recycle stuff was so great that it overlapped into their songwriting and even their music videos. If you were paying attention you would notice that the videos I posted for “Connection” and “Waking Up” are practically identical. Or maybe they figured they could pull the wool over people’s eyes and hoped that the avreage kid who listened to rock music back then would be unaware of the existance of Wire and
The Stranglers. I wonder if Elastica played any shows with Oasis…

The Mad Men Twist

Lately I’ve been getting into the TV. Show Mad Men. For those who do not know, Mad Men revolves around the lives of a group of people who work for some fancy New York Advertising firm in the early part of the 60’s. There was this one particular episode in which some of the office workers decide to go to a local bar after work to drink, have fun and possibly get loose. At the bar some lady puts some coins in the jukebox and picks “The Twist” by Chubby Checker. The Corporate Men didn’t quite get it but the little girls understood and twisted the hell out of the song.

When I saw this scene and “The Twist” came on one of the first thoughts that came to my head was: this sounds like a Ramones song played at a slower tempo. Now I’m versed well enough in my Rock History to know that it’s the other way around; that “the twist” predates the “Blitzkrieg Bop.” I am aware that the Ramones music was influenced by Rock n Roll from the 50’s and early 60’s. I knew that the band had a thing for giving old Rock N Roll songs the Ramones treatment. But it’s one thing to read about this sort of thing and another to actually HEAR IT for yourself. To actually ‘get it’ and not just go by what something you read or what you’ve been told. It’s a Rock N Roll Epiphany.

Def Leppard was born to boogie

I’m certain that the musical/movie Rock of Ages was named after that one Def Leppard song and Def Leppard has made a point to make the most out of this situation. They played at the Film’s premier and even called their recent summer tour (with Rock of Ages alumni Poison in the supporting slot) Rock of Ages. Why else would they name their recent tour after a 29 year old song? I’m actually surprised that Def Leppard has been so cooperative with these people being that they’ve (mainly singer Joe Elliot and to a lesser extent guitarist Vivian Campbell) spent the last decade or so trying to DISTANCE themselves from the type of music scene Rock of Ages attempts to emulate.

http://www.sleazeroxx.com/news08/0622def.shtml

Mr. Elliot was quoted in one interview as saying: “We refuse to go out Poison or Winger or Warrant or any of those shite bands.” Mr. Elliot’s smack talking even led to a bit of a feud during a press conference on June 6 of 2008. He said that LA Glam bands from the 80’s “totally missed the point.” That these type of bands “didn’t have any substance musically” and alluded to Poison and Motley Crue being “fake.” The next day Poison singer Bret Michaels responded to his remarks in a different press conference. He was mostly civil about the whole thing but did rag on Def Leppard for lip synching on the TV show “Dancing with the Stars.” Poison drummer Rikki Rokket wasn’t as civil and challenged Mr. Elliot to a Mix Martial Arts Fight. The next summer, Poison and Def Leppard did their first U.S. Tour together.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=100855

I guess pride doesn’t pay the bills like it used to…It is very tempting to rag on ole Joe for his remarks and dismiss him as being full of shit but there is some truth to what the man was saying. Despite Def Leppard being one of the biggest selling Rock bands of the 80’s and having TWO RECORDS that have sold over ten million copies EACH in the U.S. ALONE they are still odd men out within their own genre/peer group.

It wasn’t always this way. When Def Leppard got started, the band was part of the “Rock Brigade” known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal a movement that served as a bridge of sorts between the Metal of 70’s (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest etc) and what became the Thrash/Speed Metal sound of the 80’s. Def Leppard’s debut On Through The Night was musically compatible with what NWOBHM peers such as Tigress of Pan Tang, Sweet Savage (which featured future Dio/Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell ) and yes even Iron Maiden were doing back then. Then Mutt Lange came along.

On the first album Mutt and Def Lep did together High N Dry Mutt essentially did for Def Leppard what he did on the three AC/DC albums he produced. He polished the group’s rough edges but kept the music big, loud and Heavy. It also helped that the band’s material was stronger on album number 2. I ain’t gonna lie; High N Dry is STILL my favorite Def Leppard album. The main reason being the song “Lady Strange” but the album is solid all the way through.

The big difference between High N Dry and Pyromania is that Mutt Lange produced the fuck out of Pyromania to the point that it made High N Dry sound like a bunch of cheap demos. Legend has it that he cracked the whip them Leppard boys pretty damn hard in an effort to reach some ridiculous level of perfection. Rumor has it that a good chunk of Rick Allen’s drumming was replaced by a drum machine in the studio. Even with all the studio tricks, Pyromania essentially picks up where High N Dry left. Pyromania was in part so successful because it was poppy enough to attract a wide audience while still being heavy enough to satisfy fans of the first two albums. Even some of the quieter moments on songs such as “Foolin” and “Too Late for Love” are pretty dark. Then Def Leppard recorded Hysteria.

Def Leppard released Hysteria in summer of 1987. Back then, MTV was not only all about music but they were all about Heavy Metal. Granted, it was mainly the lighter, makeup wearing, hair teasing form of metal but nonetheless…Even though Def Leppard’s music and videos were embraced by MTV the guys looked relatively normal compared the other glammier bands. Of the five guys in Def Leppard only two members (bassist Rick Savage and the late guitarist Steve Clark) kind of sort of had the typical “Rock Star” look of the day. Even then, those two guys would have never been confused for a member of Poison, Motley Crue or even Dokken. Lead singer Joe Elliot back then preferred ripped jeans and a mullet to teased hair and spandex and guitarist Phil Collen was one of the very few Metal guitarists with short hair way back then.

According to what I read on Wikipedia Def Leppard and Mutt Lange set out to make Hysteria the Rock equivalent of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. A rock album was every song in it could potentially be a big hit. Commercially Def Leppard achieved this goal. Hysteria had SEVEN singles which consisted of the ENTIRE first side of the record and the title track which was squeezed at the tail end of the record. All seven songs charted on the U.S. billboard chards and benefited from heavy MTV rotation. With all that mainstream success a backlash was inevitable. Especially if the band in question was actively seeking far reaching mainstream commercial success.

Despite all the studio tweaking, Pyromania is still a heavy guitar driven Metal record. Hysteria on the other hand, might have had enough heavy guitar work in it to qualify as Hard Rock/Heavy Metal but it’s a pop album at its core. It is understandable to some degree why older Def Lep fans and many other Metal heads feel so much scorn towards Hysteria but the album still “Rocks” in its own overproduced poppy sort of way. Sure opening track “Women” doesn’t come out the gate swinging the way “Let it Go” (off High N Dry) and “Rock Rock Till You drop” (off Pyromania) do, it’s slower and moodier but it has some pretty cool guitar playing. It is also true that the “heavier” songs (“Don’t Shoot Shotgun,” “Run Riot) on the record are pushed aside to tail end of side two but they’re just as good as anything on Pyromania.

Another thing that a lot of people (and in all honesty I didn’t for the longest time) realize about Def Leppard is that despite not embracing the “80’s Glam Metal” look of the day that Hysteria was heavily influenced by 70’s Glam Rock. Take for example their hit single “Rocket” which is a love letter to 60’s-70’s rock with lyrical “shout outs” to 70’s Glam artists David Bowie, Sweet and T Rex. Also, whenever Joe Elliot isn’t employing high pitch squeal to go along the 1500 vocal harmony tracks the guy has a raspy croon that tries to channel the spirit of Marc Bolan.

Speaking of Marc Bolan, had the ‘Metal Guru’ himself lived to see the 80’s…

I’m pretty damn sure he would have written a song along the lines of “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”