Saturday, September 13, 2008

CD-R Cassette Deck Revisited

Theater of Pain - Motley Crue 

Rewind: Released in 1985. Listened to while driving a candy apple red '76 Century. Tape deck worked if you shoved a matchbook in under the tape. Was what me and Cindy listened to while cruising the Ave. and hanging out with friends. 

Fast Forward: Revisited while driving in the car Sept. 12, 2008. On the way home from a day-long judges school for figure skating. 

Why Tipper Hated It: vague references to ol' el diablo, sexual double entendres, all the vices are covered - whiskey, women, gamblin', smokin', rabble rousin'. 

The Tunes: the album was custom-built to have something for everyone: rockers for junior ("Raise Your Hands to Rock"), ballads for sis ("Home Sweet Home"), that's-the-way-we-used-to-rock for dad ("Smokin' in the Boys' Room," "City Boy Blues"), message music for mom ("Fight for Your Rights") and a religous sounding song to fool grandma ("Save Our Souls"). 

Catchy Surprise: Vince Neil, in his helium screeching glory, gives a scat-tastic delivery in the song "Use It or Lose It". 

Shelf Life: Classic rock staples "Smokin' " still has a boys just want to have fun vibe. "Home Sweet Home" has lost a step as the quinessential hair metal ballad of the '80s, losing out to offerings by Bon Jovi, Poison, etc. I forgot how fun "City Boy Blues" and "Use It or Lose It" were. Songs like "Save or Souls" and "Raise Your Hands to Rock" are dated and cliched. 

As for sound quality, 23 years later, the color graphics are still in decent shape, the song lyrics still legible, in teeny 3 point-or-less type. Flyleaf features full color photo of the band on the horizontal. Vince is wearing more pink than I did in those days. 

Rating: 3.5

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