1. Mötley Crüe
What to say that hasn't already been said? For a few years around the mid-80's, these fools were the kings of metal mountain and anyone at least halfway prone to hairspray wanted to be them, until GNR came along in 1988 and knocked them off, putting out a record better than the Crue could come up with in a million years. They didn't hang their heads, though, releasing their biggest and at least, most fleshed out LP in '89.
Make no mistake, this is a relatively crummy band and you can't even look at one or two guys and say that's what drove the sound. Nikki Sixx could write a hook, Mick Mars played dirty, Tommy Lee could push a heavy, exciting beat, and last but not least, Vince Neil had the perfect pipes, distinctive and never forced. A true balancing act.
I remember reading back then that Vince had been a big time high school baseball player, but I'm not finding much on it. Vince knew Tommy in high school. Nikki and Tommy got together on the Strip after Sixx's band London dissolved, a band that seemed to have its share of turmoil in its short lifespan.
Crue's sound, and presumably shtick to some extent, blew the doors off the scene, as we heard from a former Ratt member, at a time when skinny ties and new wave had been the thing.
Too Fast For Love
Live Wire that pentagram.. that was their thing .. half a million Trapper Keepers would later burn in hell
Piece of Your Action
Shout At The Devil
the whole thing rules
Looks That Kill rules
Too Young rules
Helter Skelter! @Leroy?
Vince kills Razzle. Their misadventures with hard drugs and drinking would continue to be widely publicized.
Theatre of Pain - outside of a monster ballad, this is a fart in the wind. There's just no muscle.
Smokin
Home Sweet Home
Use It or Lose It
Girls Girls Girls
I liked this back then. Dumb but good.
Wild Side
Dancing On Glass
Dr. Feelgood
I don't love it but it feels like a band who's comfortable.. I guess they weren't comfortable, or happy, but Bob Rock did yeoman's work here and it got him the Metallica job.
Dr. Feelgood
Kickstart My Heart
I liked this
Tommy Bolin cover off the Stairway to Heaven comp
Vince Neil
did a song in that Andrew Dice Clay movie too
And I didn't mind
Primal Scream
But that was just about it. Vince got fired, did a
lame solo album. Did his car racing thing. Tragedy would circle back to Vince with the unthinkable, death of a child, and he slowly made his way back to the Crue. The one song I like from the later years is
Saints of Los Angeles. (probably because of Rock Band)
I don't have anything to offer from the John Corabi album but I knew people who liked it.
Why is Crue above Ozzy -- Ozzy was #1 for a while but, Ozzy and Sharon gained younger musicians' trust, exploited them and screwed them over. Crue was just a sloppy ### drug fueled rock and roll steam engine.
Face of the era, I give you Mötley Crüe