TS: 'Funhouse' vs. 'Shout at the Devil'

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First, "Looks that Kill" sounds a bit similar to "TV Eye". Beatwise, fumbly-gtr-lead wise. "Red Hot" is a also close in feel to "1970" as well, let's go to a dangerous party where bad stuff might happen. That's the similarities. Diffs.? OK. Iggy was an educated guy from a liberal college town who was into free jazz and performance art and Jim Morrison, the Stooges took psychedelic drugs to reach their 'cosmic O-mind'[remember this] and the extent of their rebellion was that they hated Alvin Lee. Nikki Sixx was a fuckup from nowhere who wanted to be in Social Distortion and TSOL. (What's more 'rock'?) The Stooges sang about sex and violence but they weren't really evil, they were just celebrating the new freedoms and loveliness of a world where the huge population of teenagers would see to it that people would quit doing dull old jobs and wars and marriages and instead kick out the jams all day long and fuck everybody in sight!!! Motley Crue sang about sex and violence in a world where everybody's parents had absolved all responsibilities and were now crackheads and bikers who pimped their kids until the kids were old enough to run away from home and start bands like Social Distortion and TSOL. 'Shout at the Devil' is NOT party rock. It's an amazingly bitter album. "Now I'm killing you, watch your face turning blue." "Out go the lights, in goes my knife, pull out his life, consider that bastard dead." All the old Stooges fans shook their heads. "Sure, Iggy sang about that stuff too, but it was about existential-rage-for-life, not Motley's cheap, crass exploitation." Well who exactly created the cheap crass world Motley came from, boomer shit? Free sex-n-drugs don't look so good when it's your mom indulging in same now, does it? Iggy hated cops because they were part of a huge monolith that silenced the wisdom of John Sinclair and had the temerity to impose draconian $10 fines on Ann Arbor potheads. Nikki Sixx hated cops because the LAPD likes to beat the shit out of anybody they see, particularly punks and junkies who ended up on the street because their revolutionary-generation parents put their new freedom and assertiveness in action and dumped the kids when they got in the way of their porno-film/crank-dealing business. (Motley/Nirvana = Pistols/Smiths?) (Back to sonics - compare side-closers, "Dirt" ["I'm lerrrning..." WHO FUCKING CARES! The reason everything's so fucked up is your generation was content to 'learn about themselves', forever] to "Danger" [they rip off Judas Priest where Iggy rips off ALbert Ayler, who is more 'honest'?], and also, Mick Mars session-frustration might be less 'rock' than Ron Asheton's drug-frustration but it sounds kind of similar in the end except with a squeaky trebly grating tone instead of that thick pretty chewy Asheton thing - in fact, Mars sounds more like James Williamson) THe Stooges = hippies and a poet who protested too goddam much, and however much they bragged about being stupid (tip-off), you can't imagine any of them losing in Scrabble to Tommy Lee, could you? (Also re the Morrison thing - Vince Neil's fat, slobbering, drunk vehicular menace is truer to the Lizard King's spirit than any rippling torso. RIPPLING TORSOS! Since when is that a good thing? Since Iggy!) Final seal of argument (for dave q if nobody else) - the Stooges could, under a certain light, MAYBE pass for being English. The Crue never, ever, ever, ever could be mistaken for being English in a million years. Therefore they are both more 'rock' and 'better'. Too bad they only made one good album, but then, the Zakary Thaks only made one SINGLE and that was enough.

dave q, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

In fact, next time somebody sniffs, "What do kids have to complain about", the only reply is "YOU, boomer fuckhead". Another good reason for killing all of them, then we can finally stop hearing about the fucking Stooges and VU and start discussing G'n'R and the Crue instead.

dave q, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

, then we can finally stop hearing about the fucking Stooges and VU and start discussing G'n'R and the Crue instead.

hasn't that happened tho? or let's talk about pop ... you know ... this 'learning' that you talk about so derisively and for good reason, that selfish individualism and resultant anxiety etc, isn't all this, all this here, just a search for fresh fields of research, having overtilled the stooges/vu? that's not an insult to us

maryann, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I mean WE ARE like the Stooges and the VU. The authentic critical question is maybe how can we be like Motley Crue - I mean, your authentic critical question

maryann, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Can't we just stop hearing about the Stooges/VU and G'nR/Motley Crue, and move on to some more worthwhile stuff? Wouldn't we all be better off if we just forgot those tragic worthless shits? Or is shoveling through dung so gratifying?

Siegbran Hetteson, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

If you're not moved by "Looks That Kill", you're either a cold waste, or a human being.

B-Rad, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

If you ARE moved by "Looks That Kill", you're either a cold waste, or a human being. (But not both.)

B-Rad, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i do believe the Stooges were from Detroit and iggy grew up in a trailer park... and the Crue were from LA? hmmm... i'd be quite happy to not talk about the Stooges, the gunners, et al. and talk about the Saints, who sound neither English nor American

Andrew, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

a) ask mike taylor the diff between Detroit and Ann Arbor, and b) the Saints' songs were too fuckin' long, and sometimes too slow as well, a bit too much like Eddie and the Hot Rods for my taste

dave q, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

yr argument comes down to the fact that you believe the stooges to be 'fakers' whereas the crue are 'authentic'. Whether you're correct or not it not the issue because I don't think that matters when dealing w/records.

Julio Desouza, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

People would be genuinely pissed off if Nikki Sixx gobbed on the Corrs.

Dave225, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i wouldn't.

Julio Desouza, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

That's because you're inauthentic.

Colin Meeder, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I'm lerrrning..." WHO FUCKING CARES! The reason everything's so fucked up is your generation was content to 'learn about themselves', forever

!!!

Kris, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Crue never, ever, ever, ever could be mistaken for being English in a million years.

I'm trying to imagine a Motley Crue from Stevenage and can't, so you're onto something.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

So, the Crue rules over the Stooges because ... they were dumber, fatter, drove drunk and kinda had some tenuous connection to cool "punks" like TSOL and Social Distortion, or because cops were nicer and the social milieu safer in the 'Nam era than the Reagan era? Way to stick it to the, um, "Boomers", Dave!

Love,

Mom & Dad

briania, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think the point was that no punks could be LESS cool than TSOL and Social Distortion.

Kris, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Granted, those groups aren't very cool. Therefore, any subsidiary cool from merely having been in the same town at the same time would be just about nil.

briania, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Most crue songs are too long if you want to measure it like that. And they sound like a poor man's Motorhead - who were/are poms, oh dear. And were do Iron Maiden fit into your universe of sound Dave? or Hawkwind for that matter? ( all of whom i enjoy more than the Crue)

Andrew, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Lord, that's a convoluted rant. For a start, where are you getting your facts? Nikki Sixx was never a punk and certainly never wanted to be in either Social D. or TSOL (the fact that TSOL themselves morphed limply into metalhead-wannabes later in their career is a moot point). I don't care what he might have told Neil Strauss circa "The Dirt", the Crue used to DERIDE the punks whenever they got the chance (sawing off the head of an effigy of Wendy O Williams -- herself barely credible by Punk standards, and actually changing their look by THEATRE OF PAIN towards a more glammy incarnation to get FURTHER AWAY from being mistaken for leather-clad, spikey punks). Sixx was the product of Aerosmith, Kiss and Nugent....maybe of the Pistols on purely a surface level.

Beyond that, while both albums (FUNHOUSE and SHOUT...) are irrefutably brilliant, the bands themselves are.....wait for it...APPLES & ORANGES! The Crue aspired from the get-go for stardom, where the Stooges aimed more to push the edges of the envelope, never seriously considering they'd make a viable commercial impact with their music. To try to assign merit based on authenticity to either album involves two completely different sets of standards. While both bands spiraled into tailspins of narcotic/alcohol-fueled depravity, their initial goals were different.

And in terms of the Crue not passing for being British (whatever that's worth to begin with), it should be rememembered that Sixx's pre-Crue band was called, somewhat pathetically, LONDON.

Alex in NYC, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

But GNR and Motley Crue are practically classic rock at this point! They're untouchable! What planet you livin' on, Dave Q? A few years from now, the kids will say to you "'Appetite' suXored, granddad! 'The Crue' sucked too! Take yr canon and stuff it, I want to listen to 'the Vines' because they know how to kick out the jams" (ps: they don't know how to kick out the jams)

oh god

geeta, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

haha alex FACTS STRAIGHT what the fuck do you think this is here

Josh, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Your point, Josh?

Alex in NYC, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ha, well I didn't know about the Crue's punk past, but dave q's post had me believing it.

Sean, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The crue were basically a hair metal band (admittedly with a lot more edge than most) that did well with their target audience, junior high school boys. Looks That Kill was a good song but it went downhill fast after that, the music got worse as the band got prettier.

g, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Mebbe so, but "Dr.Feelgood" was still pretty great -- as was "Kickstart My Heart".

Alex in NYC, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

see "the decline of Western Civilization Pt 2: The Metal Years for" and any Crue videos for more info ... particularly the one where they get interviewed whilst being tattoo'd.

Crue are definetly better than The Vines though - if that means anything.

Andrew, Saturday, 27 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link


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