Unknown Soldier

Overview
For many a year I knew just various songs from Motley Crue despite their superstar status (in fact I could say the same for a number of the other glam metal bands as well) as I was always one of those metal-listeners that shunned to a degree glam metal in favour of its more traditional heavy metal and extreme metal counterparts. But since starting this journal sometime ago, I’ve secretly been looking forward to re-evaluating this whole glam metal sub-genre, largely because my metal musical tastes have changed in recent years. This is largely because I now see the fun aspect of metal, to be just as important as its more serious side and the Motley Crue debut in 1981 is probably the best place for anybody wanting to jump onto what would become known as the ‘glam metal genre’ within a few years. Motley Crue were one of a number of bands that grew out of the booming LA metal scene that contained other scene leaders such as Kix (who moved there from Maryland) and the already veteran Quiet Riot, and it was a scene that was based around the colourful and hedonistic LA ‘Sunset Strip’. Most of the scene was heavily indebted to the likes of the New York Dolls, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and the British glam rock bands of the 1970s stylistically and were now being fuelled along by the booming power of a band like Y&T and the glamorous commercialism of Van Halen, whose position as ‘The American Metal Band’ made them an obvious focal point for these bands to follow. Motley Crue were like a lot of the LA scene bands and came together from various feeder outfits, of which one called London was probably the best known and would supply bassist and band founder Nikki Sixx. The band was therefore formed by Nikki Sixx who had teamed up with drummer Tommy Lee and they would soon hire guitarist Mick Mars. After going through various vocalists, they decided to settle on vocalist Vince Neil who amongst other things had been in a Cheap Trick tribute band and they dug his frontman attitude and wanted him from the word go! The band then released their debut album Too Fast for Love on their own Leathur Records label (which has quite a different song order than the Elektra version) and they went down a storm with the quality of their shows and one of their many fans had been a certain Ian Gillan amongst others. Soon various labels were looking at them before they were hitched up to Elektra, who made them have the album remixed and produced to a higher standard (the album everybody knows and loves) This was done by acclaimed producer Roy Thomas Baker and since the time of its release the album makes most ‘best ever metal albums’ lists and and is usually regarded as probably the greatest ever ‘glam metal’ release as well. Its pronounced album cover is based on the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers era style crotch-shot, which of course has the Rolling Stones version of a man wearing simple denims and in a normal pose. Motley Crue go in for a much more unisex image with a swagger pose along with all the trimmings that go with it, adjectives which would perfectly sum up what Motley Crue were all about. It wouldn’t be long though, before the band became known as the ‘Tinsel Town Terrors’ and the ‘Horrors of Hollywood’ and the band would be an arrival that were here to stay!

Verdict
Motley Crue simply arrived like a sleazy tornado and this torrent of glamorous sleaze arrived in superb fashion with the album opener “Live Wire” where its pounding speed and glammy blitzkrieg assault announced the band’s arrival on the scene and with Vince Neil chanting ‘I’m alive’ it was quickly apparent that few bands were alive as Motley Crue were. The second track “Come on and Dance” slows things down a bit but the heaviness gets even heavier here and the song has some pretty slick percussion thanks to Tommy Lee’s trash-can drumming. A track like “Merry-Go-Round” might be one of my favourites, because quite simply the song sounds like a homage to classic-era Cheap Trick, despite the fact I don’t dig the chessy bubblegum intro to the song that much, but the rest of the song is Motley Crue at their best, as Vince Neil delivers this type of song almost as well as Robin Zander could. If you’re not already rocking out by now after the first barrage of tracks, the first side album closer “Take Me to the Top” should remedy this with its instant energy pill thrill and its driving guitar riff by Mark Mars who is right on the ball here. Just when you think things can’t get that much better the band dish out the title track “Too Fast for Love” and close up with “On with the Show”. Other tracks like “Public Enemy #1” have an almost addictive anthem style and would be the type of thing that the band would always excel at, also the song was co-written by Nikki Sixx with London guitarist Lizzie Grey. But it’s the sleazy feel of “Piece of Your Action” which is probably what Motley Crue were all about, as here was a band that made no qualms about cutting into the action of all the numerous bands that they had been influenced by and Motley Crue made it clear on songs like this that they would do it their own way! Constantly like any good glam metal band pop sensibilities were high on the agenda as well and an obvious album track like the excellent “Starry Eyes” shows this style to perfection. Also the production skills of Roy Thomas Baker are most evident across the album, where his deliberate style brings out the best of the band. As a band Motley Crue came across as a hybrid of Kiss meets the New York Dolls and probably boasted on Too Fast for Love, an even greater bunch of addictive tracks song for song than these two previous bands had ever put out over an album. As for the band members Vince Neil as a vocalist was never the most gifted out there but his vocal style and obvious nod to his influences across the album is impressive to say the least and he serves as the perfect outlet for the other members of the band to show off both their attitude and energy, and in my opinion there is some pretty impressive playing by the other three members of the band. Overall cheap gutter-style metal never sounded that much better than this and Motley Crue announced that sleazy low rent rock was here to stay and I’ve gotta say that this was the most addictive listen on this year's list without a shadow of a doubt.

Vince Neil- Vocals
Mark Mars- Guitar
Nikki Sixx- Bass
Tommy Lee- Drums

Production- Roy Thomas Baker

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