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101 Best Songs of 1988:#1 – Guns n’ Roses – Sweet Child o’ Mine (1 Viewer)

#46 - Def Leppard - Love Bites

"When you make love, do you look in your mirror?"  That's a question so weird that even a young @rockaction wouldn't ask it.

What can anyone really say about Love Bites?  Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it's the last power ballad to show up here.  It was the 5th single off 1987's Hysteria and Def Leppard's only #1 hit.  If Every Rose Has It's Thorn just seemed like it was everywhere, then Love Bites was positively inescapable.  I think at 11th grade homecoming, the DJ even played it twice.  I honestly don't mind it at all, but it's also not a song I ever need to hear again.

Love Bites

 
scorchy said:
Thanks for the info - I know he's been amazingly generous with his time and produced a few of my favorite records. I read about the U/O feud a few years back in a book by Jim DeRogatis (who Steve Albini also hates).  A quick google to refresh my memory revealed this quote:

“I have to admit that my hatred of them is slightly irrational, in that special way that you feel hatred when people who were once good friends turn into pieces of ####.  Urge are scheming, careerist, and manipulative.”

The  careerist line has me looking even more forward to the next book in my queue - Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007).  Jawbreaker  - another band produced by Steve - figures prominently.  Funny how the whole concept of sellout was so prominent then and pretty much non-existent now.
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Now I really want to know the story.  :popcorn:  I'll ask when he gets home tonight.

To be fair, every musician in the Chicago area hates DeRogatis.

 
scorchy said:
#46 - Def Leppard - Love Bites
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I’m firmly a Pyromania and beforehand guy, but I’ve always had a soft spot for this tune.

The harmonies are stellar and Mutt Lange’s production is terrific.

 
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The only songs from Hysteria that hold up for me(assuming I'm sober)

1.  Hysteria

2.  Animal

That's the list 

Pyromania definitely > Hysteria

 
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TripItUp said:
The only songs from Hysteria that hold up for me(assuming I'm sober)

1.  Hysteria

2.  Animal

That's the list 

Pyromania definitely > Hysteria
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Saw Def Leppard in 2017/2018 and they had a video montage of the band over the years while they played Hysteria.  Was really cool and made me like the song alot more than I did when it originally came out.  

 
scorchy said:
#46 - Def Leppard - Love Bites

"When you make love, do you look in your mirror?"  That's a question so weird that even a young @rockaction wouldn't ask it.

What can anyone really say about Love Bites?  Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it's the last power ballad to show up here.  It was the 5th single off 1987's Hysteria and Def Leppard's only #1 hit.  If Every Rose Has It's Thorn just seemed like it was everywhere, then Love Bites was positively inescapable.  I think at 11th grade homecoming, the DJ even played it twice.  I honestly don't mind it at all, but it's also not a song I ever need to hear again.

Love Bites
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Not a Mutt Lange fan, and not a fan of post-Pyromania Leppard. It just sounds like a bunch of hot air to me. 

 
Here's the reply I got regarding Steve and Urge Overkill:

"Urge Overkill were junkie rock-star wannabes who burned a lot more bridges in Chicago than just irascible old Steve.  I mean, Julia and Sue banned them from Lounge Ax, and they are the nicest people in the world.

Back in the day Steve wrote for a couple of zines like Matter and Forced Exposure with an editorial voice that was just obscenely mean-spirited.  If all you knew about Steve was Big Black, Rapeman, and his culture writing from the 90s, you could be forgiven for thinking that he is just a ####.  Most people who spend time with him are shocked by how nice he is.  I was."

For non-Chicagoans, Lounge Ax.

 
#45 - Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - What I Am

Another band that broke off from the alternative label for a brief moment of mainstream success.  To be fair, "alternative" in 1988 meant pretty much anything with guitars that didn't get played on pop, classic rock, or country stations.  Their debut album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars found a pretty good foothold with all the throwback hippie kids and lots of boomer parents, reaching #4 on the Billboard albums chart.  Leadoff single What I Am - with that wonky guitar riff - peaked at #7 on the Hot 100.  Follow up singles Circle (which I still love) and Little Miss S failed to crack the top 40.  The follow-up record, 1990's Ghost of a Dog barely sold and the band broke up soon after.  If I ever get around to doing one of these for 1990, look for Edie to reappear with a cover from the Born on the 4th of July soundtrack.

What I Am

 
zamboni said:
I’m firmly a Pyromania and beforehand guy, but I’ve always had a soft spot for this tune.

The harmonies are stellar and Mutt Lange’s production is terrific.
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Interesting.   This is how I feel about Def Leppard as well.  I cannot believe how weak Hysteria sounds compared to the earlier work.   

 
scorchy said:
#45 - Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - What I Am

Another band that broke off from the alternative label for a brief moment of mainstream success.  To be fair, "alternative" in 1988 meant pretty much anything with guitars that didn't get played on pop, classic rock, or country stations.  Their debut album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars found a pretty good foothold with all the throwback hippie kids and lots of boomer parents, reaching #4 on the Billboard albums chart.  Leadoff single What I Am - with that wonky guitar riff - peaked at #7 on the Hot 100.  Follow up singles Circle (which I still love) and Little Miss S failed to crack the top 40.  The follow-up record, 1990's Ghost of a Dog barely sold and the band broke up soon after.  If I ever get around to doing one of these for 1990, look for Edie to reappear with a cover from the Born on the 4th of July soundtrack.

What I Am
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This song was not in my wheelhouse but I loved it and I’m not sure why.  I guess it’s a fun song that puts me in a good mood. 

 
scorchy said:
#45 - Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - What I Am

Another band that broke off from the alternative label for a brief moment of mainstream success.  To be fair, "alternative" in 1988 meant pretty much anything with guitars that didn't get played on pop, classic rock, or country stations.  Their debut album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars found a pretty good foothold with all the throwback hippie kids and lots of boomer parents, reaching #4 on the Billboard albums chart.  Leadoff single What I Am - with that wonky guitar riff - peaked at #7 on the Hot 100.  Follow up singles Circle (which I still love) and Little Miss S failed to crack the top 40.  The follow-up record, 1990's Ghost of a Dog barely sold and the band broke up soon after.  If I ever get around to doing one of these for 1990, look for Edie to reappear with a cover from the Born on the 4th of July soundtrack.

What I Am
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Big crush on her back in the day - always dug that hippie girl thing.

 
scorchy said:
#46 - Def Leppard - Love Bites
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At my wedding, we went with the DJ's idea to have a table sing the chorus of a song with the word "love" in it to make my wife and I kiss instead of clinking glasses.  We thought this may cut down on the constant clinking but led to about 10 tables in a row taking turns singing songs.  My (on their way to) drunk friends closed it down with a rendition of "Love Bites".  Good times.  😄

 
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scorchy said:
#45 - Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - What I Am

Another band that broke off from the alternative label for a brief moment of mainstream success.  To be fair, "alternative" in 1988 meant pretty much anything with guitars that didn't get played on pop, classic rock, or country stations.  Their debut album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars found a pretty good foothold with all the throwback hippie kids and lots of boomer parents, reaching #4 on the Billboard albums chart.  Leadoff single What I Am - with that wonky guitar riff - peaked at #7 on the Hot 100.  Follow up singles Circle (which I still love) and Little Miss S failed to crack the top 40.  The follow-up record, 1990's Ghost of a Dog barely sold and the band broke up soon after.  If I ever get around to doing one of these for 1990, look for Edie to reappear with a cover from the Born on the 4th of July soundtrack.

What I Am
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Edie had four months in the late summer, through the autumn of 1988 that matched up with any four random months of her husband's career. 

She was everywhere. You couldn't go an hour without hearing this song on the radio, or seeing it on MTV or VH-1 (she was one of the rare artists to have ubiquitous airplay on both channels).

She had all the magazine covers, was the SNL music guest--where she met Paul.

And then six months later she was gone, just disappeared. One of the more severe career arcs in memory.

 
#44 - Danzig - Mother

Best song ever about Tipper Gore?  I love Anthrax's Starting Up a Posse but it's definitely a little on the nose.  Mother is positively subtle in comparison - I didn't even realize it was about the PMRC until I read it in a book years later.  I just thought it was some bad-### #### about turning someone's daughter to the dark side.  

Because I hung out with skaters on occasion (I was the kid roller skating on a half-pipe), I was pretty well familiar with the Misfits.  I wasn't a fan of Glenn's next band Sahmain but Danzig's self-titled debut sucked me right back in (Rick Rubin's production probably had a lot to do with it).  Mother didn't make it beyond headbanger/satanist circles in '88, but a rerelease from Danzig's 1993 live album got a ton of airplay on MTV and helped it reach the Billboard Hot 100.  

Mother

 
scorchy said:
#44 - Danzig - Mother

Mother didn't make it beyond headbanger/satanist circles in '88
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Probably because the uncensored version of the video depicted Danzig killing a chicken over a woman (presumably a virgin?) and drawing an inverted cross in the fake blood on her. The censored version was almost as creepy. I don't think they played it on MTV, though I could be wrong. 

I owned the video in '88 or '89. Don't remember how I scored it, but I did. I was the headbanger portion of the headbanger/satanist distinction, a distinction that overlapped for quite a few people in the Venn diagram nature of things. 

When you think about it, that I remember it that well might mean I was scarred. Tipper might have actually been right about appropriate consumption for fifteen year olds, but that's a forty-eight year old's retrospective rather than the kid that wanted to stick it to Tipper. 

 
scorchy said:
#44 - Danzig - Mother

Best song ever about Tipper Gore?  I love Anthrax's Starting Up a Posse but it's definitely a little on the nose.  Mother is positively subtle in comparison - I didn't even realize it was about the PMRC until I read it in a book years later.  I just thought it was some bad-### #### about turning someone's daughter to the dark side.  

Because I hung out with skaters on occasion (I was the kid roller skating on a half-pipe), I was pretty well familiar with the Misfits.  I wasn't a fan of Glenn's next band Sahmain but Danzig's self-titled debut sucked me right back in (Rick Rubin's production probably had a lot to do with it).  Mother didn't make it beyond headbanger/satanist circles in '88, but a rerelease from Danzig's 1993 live album got a ton of airplay on MTV and helped it reach the Billboard Hot 100.  

Mother
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Never knew that either - interesting.

Danzig always seemed like a muscle-headed doosh - best thing he ever did was using his face to crash some other singer's fist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfD7agP1yxw 

 
rockaction said:
When you think about it, that I remember it that well might mean I was scarred. Tipper might have actually been right about appropriate consumption for fifteen year olds, but that's a forty-eight year old's retrospective rather than the kid that wanted to stick it to Tipper. 
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In hindsight, Tipper may have had a bit of a point about bands like Venom or, to a lesser extent, WASP, but putting We're Not Gonna Take It on the Filthy 15 for promoting defiance of authority is downright comical.

Today, She Bop and Dress You Up and In My House seem downright quaint.  

 
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rockaction said:
Probably because the uncensored version of the video depicted Danzig killing a chicken over a woman (presumably a virgin?) and drawing an inverted cross in the fake blood on her.
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I never saw that original version until scorchy's link above - I've seen a lot more shocking.

The aforementioned live concert version was played about 10x a day on MTV in the early '90s.

 
scorchy said:
In hindsight, Tipper may have had a bit of a point about bands like Venom or, to a lesser extent, WASP, but putting We're Not Gonna Take It on the Filthy 15 for promoting defiance of authority is downright comical.

Today, She Bop and Dress You Up and In My House seem downright quaint.  
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Yeah, Dee Snider legendarily spoke eloquently when called upon to do so in front of Congress, IIRC. And Tipper was indeed misguided. But there's a strong argument that fifteen year-olds shouldn't be watching what Danzig was pumping without at least parental knowledge. Not to turn this into a policy debate, though. I just thought that of all the guys, Danzig and his output is the living embodiment of parental fears about child indoctrination into darker arts. 

 
scorchy said:
In hindsight, Tipper may have had a bit of a point about bands like Venom or, to a lesser extent, WASP, but putting We're Not Gonna Take It on the Filthy 15 for promoting defiance of authority is downright comical.

Today, She Bop and Dress You Up and In My House seem downright quaint.  
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She probably missed the boat on "Little Red Corvette" as well, thinking "hey, we have two of those in our garage".

 
rockaction said:
Yeah, Dee Snider legendarily spoke eloquently when called upon to do so in front of Congress, IIRC. And Tipper was indeed misguided. But there's a strong argument that fifteen year-olds shouldn't be watching what Danzig was pumping without at least parental knowledge. Not to turn this into a policy debate, though. I just thought that of all the guys, Danzig and his output is the living embodiment of parental fears about child indoctrination into darker arts. 
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It seems to me that the main source for the proposition that Dee Snider spoke eloquently when he testified is Dee Snider.  Because he'll never stop talking about it.  

 
zamboni said:
She probably missed the boat on "Little Red Corvette" as well, thinking "hey, we have two of those in our garage".
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Because I didn't become a Prince fan until college, I honestly can't remember if the radio edit of Little Red Corvette cut out the "Girl you've got an ### like I've never seen.  And the ride is so SMOOOOOOTH you must be a limousine" bit.

 
scorchy said:
#45 - Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - What I Am

Another band that broke off from the alternative label for a brief moment of mainstream success.  To be fair, "alternative" in 1988 meant pretty much anything with guitars that didn't get played on pop, classic rock, or country stations.  Their debut album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars found a pretty good foothold with all the throwback hippie kids and lots of boomer parents, reaching #4 on the Billboard albums chart.  Leadoff single What I Am - with that wonky guitar riff - peaked at #7 on the Hot 100.  Follow up singles Circle (which I still love) and Little Miss S failed to crack the top 40.  The follow-up record, 1990's Ghost of a Dog barely sold and the band broke up soon after.  If I ever get around to doing one of these for 1990, look for Edie to reappear with a cover from the Born on the 4th of July soundtrack.

What I Am
Click to expand...


I remember that because of her weird sqatting in the video, the parody verse for this song was:

I'm not aware of too many things,

but I know it looks like I take a dump when I sing
Click to expand...

 
rockaction said:
Yeah, Dee Snider legendarily spoke eloquently when called upon to do so in front of Congress, IIRC. And Tipper was indeed misguided. But there's a strong argument that fifteen year-olds shouldn't be watching what Danzig was pumping without at least parental knowledge. Not to turn this into a policy debate, though. I just thought that of all the guys, Danzig and his output is the living embodiment of parental fears about child indoctrination into darker arts. 
Click to expand...
Oooh, I'm always up for a policy debate.*

Over the years, I've had to prep a bunch of folks to testify at Congressional hearings.  Without fail, I show them a clip from Dee Snider's speech - "Just don't imply a Senator's wife is into S&M and you'll be fine." 

* That's a lie.  I gave up debating policy in the FFA well before the politics forum was spun off.

 
scorchy said:
Over the years, I've had to prep a bunch of folks to testify at Congressional hearings.  Without fail, I show them a clip from Dee Snider's speech - "Just don't imply a Senator's wife is into S&M and you'll be fine." 
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I have to ask: Is this serious? I'm a credulous sort, so humor me. You have to imagine that in my headspace, this very well could be true. 

 
And the laugh emoji was about the futility and wisdom to not debate policy in the FFA. You're a more temperate man than I am. 

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
zamboni said:
Pretty much. Last time I saw it discussed so intently though was part of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey 
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Didn't he co-produce a TV movie or miniseries about it?  God bless, Dee.  He even ripped off KISS in the way he gives every thing he's ever done biblical significance.
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Sounds familiar, but I don't recall the movie/mini-series. Yeah, he readily admits about ripping off Kiss (among others), although given that Kiss's marketing machine should be an eternal case study at Harvard Business School, I guess it's hard to blame him.   

 
When my son and I were driving across the Midwest visiting colleges earlier this year, we were eating dinner at a brewery in Bloomington, IN when the Misfits Last Caress came over the restaurant's speakers.  It was right around the time of the big Cardi B/WAP/Grammy controversy.  I remember thinking "Damn, Cardi B's got nothing on Glenn Danzig."  On the other hand, he didn't perform Last Caress at the grammys either.

 
"What I Am" should be shoved in the shallow water...and not allowed to come up for air ever again. 

"Mother" is probably Exhibit A about how a song can be great, even if it's not all that complex, as long as it has a cool hook. I mean, it doesn't sound like anything other than a high school garage band - like punk should. 

 
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