Def Leppard 'Hysteria': C/D?

Nothing against Metal Mike, who I admire for his strength of conviction, but I suspect a lot of this is retrospective rockism. "No, THIS is what works, not that popular Nirvana crap everyone liked!" (Not that he's specifically saying that but c'mon, invoking the Beatles and the Kinks and all the usual templates, please.)

Well, 'rockism' as attitude doesn't necessarily mean talking about rock vs. something else NOT rock (similarly in the way that music can 'rock' without being rock, if you will).

> (i'm no dunce, i know that the subtext of my rant includes the point that after the 60's catalogs--beatles/kinks/beach boys for me, i'm not gonna kick the disguided Stones fans anymore than everyone else does already--i hate that hippie-rock laidback shit from 1968 to 1972 with only a couple 45 A-sides excepted--uh, stuff like "mother's little helper" is just HORRIBLE and we all thought so--teen garage band wannabes--at the time; bad song, out of tune guitar, just crap..."19 Nervous" whatever is almost as heinous. there was a huge gap for some band to take over the hard rock field in 1966 but the Who sure didn't do it...that's how the giant market niche existed for Hendrix to claim (believe me, the 1st american hendrix set was every white boy's wet dream of pure rock noise when it hit the racks...that's some crazyass drumming to match the guitar noises). but whatever. uh, i could almost all of ELECTRIC LADYLADY as "hippie rock" too. 2nd Ohio Express album rocks WAY harder (the one with a ton of Kenny Laguna writing credits on the album tracks)...too bad it wasn't mixed/issued in mono.

anyway that Warrant post (separate e-mail) will keep the "fucked-up ness" hecklers happy. seriously, doesn't THE BEST OF WARRANT rock like holy fuck? it's REALLY well mastered/EQ'd, kicks total ass. and their final CBS single, the "We Will Rock You" movie soundtrack single? (charted down in the 70's or 80's Top 40 Pop i believe) cover tune genious. totally rearranged, and in a cool way. someday i gotta buy or patch together a full chronological warrant CBS video comp... i actually do not even have the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" video which is totally aggressive/hard rock-ish kick ass (the video to match the tune)...unless it's buried mid-tape on that odd QUALITY YOU CAN TASTE pastiche retail VHS comp (for the 2nd album). .

for what it's worth, i still like the Small Faces and Green Day catalogs BIGtime. put on "Nice Guys Finish Last" and tell me those little gas-fume malcontents don't rock like fuck! they were using that as their permanent live opening song apparently, when i saw them at the SF Civic in 2001 (it was the first large show of theirs i'd ever seen during 1994 - 2001 where they'd finally sorted the material into a greatest hits set and really had the showmanship/screwoff antics sorted out likewise, into a Greatest Schticks. ha ha...that night when they were recruiting the four miscellaneous goobers from the audience to play the 3 chords to "knowledge," the first wannabe guitarist applicant guy jumped off the quite high 2nd level into the crowd...they picked him of course. the last time i ever ran into Mike D(irnt), at his Frustrators gig in alameda about 6 months later, he reminded me of that, and i of course went, "ohhhhh yeah!" "yeah man, when i saw that guy go off the balcony i thought, oh fuck here we go...we're gonna be in court the next five years like Judas Priest!" JP had the wrong lawsuit brought tho.. it shoulda been for "bad riffs inflicted upon rock audiences without permission." if nothing whatsoever, i have noticed that the Stairway To Hell editons opened up like the Red Sea the debate between yay/nay sayers whether Priest and Maiden totally suck the "useless" bone....uh, duh? the signifiers that ten entire years of mostly useless years of lame generic heavy metal were about to commence? (with the start of NWOBHM for my opionion). not that Priest weren't utterly hopeless long before that. Sad Wings Of Destiny is just....crap. and the singer! jeeesus. honestly, i still really dig the Geddy Lee guy in Rush. i think he dumbed down Robert Plant's mannerisms into somethjing at least in tune and fairly rhyt hmic (catchy). the other 999 Plant wannbes till this day...oh man. anyway i gotta cut/paste that Warrant tirade from the network "message board" (it makes I Love Music look positively authoritatie and informed...the great unwashed coughing up a million variant opinions on everything. uh. i brought a pile of 75 cent thrift store albums today...there was nothing else to buy this weekend, no good movies... i guess you don't need a EX/MT Journey CAPTURED 2-live lp? man. it is seriously NOT good. i just wondered what "wheel in the sky" and "anyway you want it" would sound like...ah, i bet they sold a lot of T-shirts, which basically is what rock is all about right?<

Hmmm, I always assumed it was the Steppenwolf/Burroughs allusion, and not some cat who thinks Warrant is real boss. In any event, his judgement remains clouded.

MIKE SAUNDERS
2003 Ballot
Albums
# artist title label points
Singles
# artist title label
1 Nena & Kim Wilde Anyplace Anywhere Anytime Warner Bros. import
2 A*Teens A Perfect Match Universal
3 Lindsay Lohan Ultimate Hollywood
4 Skye Sweetnam Billy S Capitol
5 Triple Image Turn It Up (japanese import) Wire
6 Hilary Duff Why Not Hollywood
7 Nikki Cleary Summertime Guys Jive
8 Hilary Duff What Dreams Are Made Of Disney
9 Lillix What I Like About You Hollywood
10 Hilary Duff So Yesterday Buena Vista/Hollywood

Though I've only heard one Warrant album, I really agree with a lot of what Metal Mike is saying (irrelevant of Nirvana's existence, the qualities they hold do exist). Warrant's songs are considerably RICHER than any other pop-metal band's. Where Kix doesn't grab me quite as much after they make their post-Pyromania moves (I really prefer them when they truly sounded like AC/DC meets the Cars), Warrant take the basic Poison template and embellish it with chewier lyrics and a more varied attack.

Said singer of the Angry Samoans DID just send me this very rockist email, however, just five minutes ago (apparently he posted this on some other web forum somewhere):

>white boy guitar rock sucks

white boy guitar rock has been total crap for almost 20 years now. doesn't matter which genre...metal, punk, emo....any of that shit. put any of it on against a great Buddy Holly track (on VINYL) and it's obvious = the thread has been lost. lost forever. obviously, all the best forms of hard rock, early metal, and early punk 1965 - 1982 were great for different reasons (than pre-Beatles rock), BUT the rock and roll that preceded that = was primarily dance music. in a good way. we're talking the entirety of 1955-1963, buckwheat.

the crap that has posed/passed as guitar rock (all genres) for almost two decades is not. the beats suck. and i say this as someone who was heavy metal's target audience in 1971 = alienated pissed off white boy who thought black sabbath was the greatest shit i'd ever heard in my life (still do).

pop music has been dominant for almost a decade now because of just those reasons. great songs, good beats, etc... hip hop took over cause the beats are good, likewise.

don't even get me going on "indie rock" (the college rock that crawled out of Satan's butt around 1983 on out). REM, husker du, and five million after them....i hated them all.

let me repeat = DANCE MUSIC (any type of music with good beats) kicks ass on the stuff that isn't. always has, always will. why the fuck do you think rock and roll took over in 1955? duh! Little Richard swung/rocked harder than Mitch Miller, do you think? as in made your feet move?

i swear i'm going to kill the next white boy w/guitar i see making bad noises.<

I admit I'm always a bit baffled by claims like this for 'pop' because surely it's true that pop is never NOT dominant.

Well, I'm all for that! But to tie in with the Iraq theme:

41) Slightly repeating a previous point about the Reagan samples on "Gods of War," but a new example -- hearing this last night actually freaked the hell out of me:

"WE WILL NOT CAVE IN." *rocket launch*

There's yer America May 2004 attitude right there.

42) The likelihood their decision to dress down was based on the fear that people would assume they'd been replaced by cyborgs.

Gear OTM!

And early R.E.M. WERE danceable in the same way that a lot of new wave was danceable.

true.

And they were way less danceable (not to mention way less weird, and way less beautiful) than the Byrds, too.

Hmmm...I think "Stumble" is a bit more danceable than "Eight Miles High," unless you're simply doing a wavey arm dance.

Or maybe Jefferson Airplane.

This is brilliant