I’m going back to the wonderful world of 80’s pop rock for this week’s song pick. Mr. Mister had a brief but successful career and this was one of two mega hits for the group. It was an age where synthesizers and technology were all over music, and Mr. Mister did not squander the opportunity to create something out of it.
Mr. Mister was the brainchild of Richard Page and Steve George, who had a project called Pages in the late ’70’s that didn’t gain much traction. The pair spent the next few years as session musicians for a number of pop luminaries, then formed Mr. Mister to give it another go on their own. They were joined again by their friend John Lang, who did not play in the band but provided lyrics. This time they’d garner a lot more notice.
Broken Wings hails from the group’s second album, Welcome To The Real World, released in late November 1985. While Broken Wings was released as a lead single a few months prior, it would gain hold of the top of the charts in December ’85, and the next single Kyrie would do the same.
Today’s song is a pretty simple one – musically it’s a pop rock thing, perhaps even new wave to some degree, I don’t know. It is electronic based with a lot of delays on the guitars, synth stuff and electronic drums going on. It’s not an “organic” rock song, which personally is fine by me, I’m up for something different once in awhile.
Lyrically the song is pretty easy to grasp – like, get up and fly. It does have a bit of depth to it, this isn’t some vapid pop experience. There’s a longing for a relationship and better times in the song, then the chorus with its motivational “fly again” is a pretty uplifting thing. The song does keep a pretty melancholy tone through it, which is probably why I like it.
There is an interesting quirk lyrically – the line from the chorus “Take these broken wings and learn to fly” is identical to one found in a Beatles song, Blackbird. This was not meant as an homage to the Beatles – rather, lyricist John Lang had read the 1912 book Broken Wings by Kahil Gibran and used that as inspiration. It was described as a totally unintentional aping of Paul McCartney’s lyrics. I don’t recall any controversy over it, but also I was 8 at the time so I probably wouldn’t have noticed, they didn’t air music news during episodes of G.I. Joe.
Mr. Mister scored big with their twin number one singles, but success wouldn’t linger for long. Their next album did not move a lot of copies and their 1990 album Pull was recorded but didn’t interest the label and the band broke up. That album wound up being released a whopping 20 years later. Mr. Mister did not reunite at all, though the members have collaborated on various other projects in the years since.
Broken Wings has remained on airwaves in many forms since its release, through movies and TV, as well as video games. In fact, the inspiration for this post was me hearing the song on my latest playthrough of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where Broken Wings takes up residence with several other pretty damn good songs on the soft rock station Emotion. After the heavy metal pounding of V-Rock, Emotion is probably my next-favorite station on the game.
This song holds up pretty well far outside of the shine of the 1980’s. Of course, that’s just my opinion. But I think Mr. Mister landed a pretty damn good tune with this hit.
For my two parter on the music of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, check out the links below
Time to head back to 1998 and revisit what wound up being a breakout album for one of stoner rock’s foundational acts. It doesn’t actually require any mind-altering substances to enjoy this whale of an album, but it doesn’t hurt either.
Monster Magnet – Powertrip
Released June 16, 1998 via A&M Records
My Favorite Tracks – Power Trip, Space Lord, See You In Hell
Monster Magnet had a good run up to 1998, being an early herald of stoner rock and getting a bit of notice from their single Negasonic Teenage Warhead off their prior album Dopes To Infinity. The early “stoner” scene got a lot of bad press for being associated with what was considered a dangerous drug at the time, now a few decades later that all seems silly.
While hailing from New Jersey, the influence for Powertrip would come from the crown jewel of the Nevada desert. Singer/guitarist and main songwriter Dave Wyndorf took up residence outside Las Vegas for 21 days and wrote a song each day after spending the night on the Vegas Strip. This 1998 interview from the Las Vegas Sun provides more info on Wyndorf’s Vegas excursion and the background for the album.
Today’s album is a long one, with 13 tracks clocking in at an hour. Bonus tracks on different editions do exist but there is plenty to talk about here already.
Crop Circle
A bit of a trippy intro leads into a bright and heavy jaunt through a very strange set of experiences. I don’t know what the hell this song is about but I’m sure drugs are involved. Comprehension is not necessary as the song is excellent and sets the table nicely for the album. There is a badass guitar solo on this one too.
Powertrip
The title track was issued as a single and is probably the second best-known track. It uses the “quiet opening/sudden shift into heavy” dynamic that several songs here employ. This one is a pretty standard hard rock track and it works brilliantly in its simplicity. The chorus’ opening line “I’m never gonna work another day in my life” sums up the song well – this is about hitting it big, perhaps in the Vegas casinos, and not having to grind it out in the work force. It’s pretty well the true American Dream now, as prosperity through wage earning has become elusive and the choices are jackpot or destitution.
Space Lord
This is the song everyone knows Monster Magnet for. It has a similar vibe to Powertrip, with a quiet build into a very loud chorus, though this song keeps the throttle down a bit. The chorus of “space lord, mother mother” was changed from its original version, I’ll let everyone guess what the first draft might have said. A few recordings of the original version are out on various compilations released years after this album.
Space Lord is about exactly what the title would imply – a crazy cosmic tyrant comes to Earth and gets psycho. It’s a cool space rock vibe with ample drugs and base urges to sleaze it up. The single would hit number 3 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The pretty crazy music video has its own place in music trivia – it was the very first video played on MTV’s new show Total Request Live in 1998. Too bad TRL didn’t keep up that kind of energy.
Temple Of Your Dreams
Up next is pretty cool and trippy song. This stays at a constant and medium pace as it goes through this weird, time-travelling and psychedelic hook up song. The chorus is wordy and a bit mysterious at points but works out to be really cool. This one was also released as a single and got to 25 on the Mainstream Rock chart.
Bummer
This one is pretty long and heads on quite a journey, but starts on familiar ground. This is a hard and rather savage admonition of someone. Wyndorf states in this 1998 interview with Beermeolides.com that the song was inspired by his experiences in the US South and the women who are concerned with image and virtue, but not really.
Later on the song heads off onto a trippy interlude where Wyndorf goes into a whole other speel. Then the song comes back and rounds off its original message one more time. It took me a bit with this one but I got to where I dig it.
Baby Götterdämerung
This one is quiet and atmospheric. It is weird, but that’s the norm here. There’s a reference to the semi-obscure Marvel Comic villain MODOK, which threw me for a loop when I first heard it. This song doesn’t entirely move me, though I’ll give points for effort and doing something different.
19 Witches
It’s back to the boogie, this time with a total rockabilly riff. This one is a fun trip to the swamps, both musically and lyrically. In the 1998 Las Vegas Sun interview, Wyndorf discusses the song’s origins – he penned it after being basically a captive of some hardcore Louisiana goth girls for a few days. At least he made it out and we got this really cool song from it.
3rd Eye Landslide
This is a monster rock tune full of grit and attitude. It gets pretty dirty, both implicitly and explicitly. There’s not much room here to dig beneath the surface, everything is out in the open here and this sounds like Wyndorf’s statement song.
See You In Hell
This track scores big with me with its creepy keyboards and absolutely twisted tale. Wyndorf, in the previously mentioned Beerandmelodies.com interview, relays that he heard an old hippie talking about a crazy experience and based this song off what he heard. He took this to some pretty twisted places, this is like a drug-fueled horror movie in song. This one is a total winner.
Tractor
This one is a re-recorded song, it was originally on the band’s self-titled debut EP in 1990. It’s a short and fun song about drugs, not much more to get into.
Atomic Clock
Heading towards the close, this one keeps things mostly slow and simple. It might be too simple but it’s an ok song, just doesn’t build to a whole lot like the other songs. Not too sure what’s going on here, but there are nukes at the end and I’m all about nukes.
Goliath And The Vampires
This is an instrumental. It’s a vibe song and it’s pretty cool to check out.
Your Lies Become You
The final track is a trippy ballad, sounds like something that could have been in a Tarantino movie. It’s not a song I’m really into, I don’t mind listening to it for the overall atmosphere but it’s not one I give a lot of spins to.
Powertrip would be Monster Magnet’s peak of success. The album charted in several countries and found itself at the top of the US Billboard Heatseekers chart. A gold certification would come in January 1999. Space Lord was a hit and was played all over the place, and can still be heard today. It and other songs were used in a variety of films and still get picked up for TV shows and video games decades later.
This was a magnificent album for its time. It might be a bit long and could dump a few tracks, but the songs that are worthwhile are plentiful and they’re home runs. Rock had totally transformed by ’98, the alt-rock revolution was complete and the old school styles of rock were almost forgotten. Wyndorf and Monster Magnet brought back the attitude, the vibes and the sounds of years past in a cosmic orgy and put the good stuff back on the map.
The Iron Maiden singles series is now truly headed to the home stretch. Today marks one of two from the epic album A Matter Of Life And Death. I have both from this release, stands to reason as the album is one of my favorites.
I am also, once again and thankfully for the last time this series, out of order. Today’s single was the second from the album. It doesn’t make a huge difference, though next week’s does have quite a pre-release story behind it.
But for today I’ll tackle the second single since that’s how Discogs presented the list to me. This one has a handful of versions and honestly each on has different stuff on it. I have the US CD and it has 2 of the band’s best tracks recorded for a BBC Radio One session.
Since it’s Iron Maiden I’ll talk about the cover – it’s a shot of Eddie holding the Earth. It’s fine, by all means, but it’s pretty nondescript for Iron Maiden art. The still was pulled from the computer animated music video for the song we’ll get into in a minute.
Different World
The feature song was the opening track from the AMOLAD album. It is a fairly bare-bones track that hangs a bit lower in the register as a whole, a bit of contrast to the higher tones Maiden had been messing with in the early reunion years.
There was intent on the lower register thing, especially from Bruce Dickinson – the song is, in part a tribute to Thin Lizzy and Bruce did his singing a few steps off from his usual air raid siren stuff as homage to Phil Lynott.
I’ll admit this song doesn’t do too awful much for me. It’s ok but certainly not their best. If this were on a different album I might think a bit more of it, but being on AMOLAD this song kind of pales compared to the near buffet of masterpieces the rest of the album has. I’m even a bit shocked that they released this one as a single, when heavyweight songs like The Longest Day or For The Greater Good Of God were lurking as potential singles. The latter one might be long for a single, but Maiden do whatever they want anyway so I don’t see the problem.
There are two music videos for the song. The main one is a computer animated thing that shows Bruce stealing a vial of something, then he gets chased around by some machines for awhile. Eventually Eddie comes along and holds the world in his hands. The video looks fairly dated today and maybe it even was back then but it’s fairly impressive to put that kind of animation together for a music video on a song that wasn’t going to be a mega-hit. The second music video is simply a clip of the band playing the song in studio, bits of that video are seen in the animated one.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Both B-sides come from a live in studio performance at the BBC Radio One in September 2005. First up is Iron Maiden’s magnum opus, the song hailed by many as their greatest work. This rendition sounds really good, everything sounds studio clear but it’s also obvious the band are playing it live. This version doesn’t go quite as fast as some live cuts of the song do, this one was kept at a more even pace. I’ve always enjoyed the “balls out” live versions but this one is a really good cut.
This is the same deal as Hallowed Be Thy Name and from the same session. This also sounds good and does retain a bit more of a live feel, it still sounds clear but is rough in the parts that The Trooper is on stage. If you’re unsure about this version of The Trooper you have a week to think about it, as the very same song is a B-side to the other single.
That does it for this single, not a triumph of a lead single but some pretty nice B-sides. Next week there will be quite a story behind what was the lead single from AMOLAD. And yes, this series is nearing its bedtime.
My schedule is off because mid-week holidays are kind of a pain. But with all the Happy Birthday America stuff out of the way I can get to the Song of the Week a day late. And since it’s not the 4th of July now I’ll skip the patriotic stuff and go with some Motörhead.
Killed By Death is one of a handful of new songs recorded for the compilation album No Remorse in 1984. This one was chosen as a single, though it didn’t perform terribly well. It would cement itself as one of Motörhead’s most-beloved tracks as time went on despite its lack of commercial appeal.
The Motörhead line-up was a four piece set at the time, with Lemmy obviously in his place as bassist and singer. Phil Campbell and Michael “Würzel” Burston were the guitarists and Pete Gill was on drums.
Killed By Death is a prototypical Motörhead anthem, loaded with noise and sleaze. Lemmy oozes attitude (and makes references to his junk being a lizard and snake) and is a no-good son of a bitch to deal with up until he is “killed by death.” The song’s premise is simple and the execution is sound, as was usual for Motörhead. The song is silly in respects but brings enough sonic firepower to be taken seriously, also a general summation of Motörhead as a whole.
The song got a music video which was banned from MTV for excessive violence. The video is pretty goofy, with Lemmy riding a motorcycle through a wall in the beginning, but winds up being a bit of an ’80’s action scene with the band running from some kind of SWAT team sort of guys. Lemmy gets shot and then is put in the electric chair. His funeral is held and the scene spends a minute or so foreshadowing that Lemmy will ride his motorcycle out of his grave, which is exactly what happens.
Killed By Death didn’t light the singles charts on fire, something Lemmy seemed bothered by. But the song worked its way into the Motörhead setlists and stayed there, finishing out at number 4 in terms of the band’s most-played songs with over 1,200 noted live appearances. It wasn’t a commercial darling but it was well accepted by Motörhead fans.
While Lemmy is an immortal name in rock and metal lore, sadly he would be killed by death, or more specifically cancer, in 2015. But the legacy of Lemmy and Motörhead live on in heavy metal infamy, and Killed By Death was a large part of that legacy.
It’s hidden gem time this week, I’m digging up an old rock album that had some banging tunes but didn’t quite get the love it should have gotten, at least until the band’s members went on to other things.
Dust – self-titled
Released January 1971 via Kama Sutra Records
My Favorite Tracks – Often Shadows Felt, From A Dry Camel, Love Me Hard
Dust was formed in New York in 1969. Richie Wise was the band’s guitarist and frontman, while Kenny Aaronson provided bass and Marc Bell the drums. The band’s manager was Kenny Kerner, who also wrote many of the lyrics and produced the band’s albums along with Aaronson. Many of these names probably sound familiar, I’ll cover their post-Dust exploits after going over the album.
Dust were signed to Kama Sutra Records, a smaller California label who had its initial run from 1964 through 1976. It is perhaps most notable as the early home of the Charlie Daniels Band, though as we’ll see later both an executive from Kama Sutra and a member of Dust would play a huge part in rock history.
Today’s album is a lean one with 7 songs at 36 minutes, and one song taking up nearly 10 minutes of that time. Let’s head into one of the early “lost” albums of American rock and heavy metal.
Stone Woman
The opener is a very interesting track, a fairly fast psychedelic rocker with some steel guitar provided by Aaronson on top of everything. The song kind of feels like it could go off the rails but it holds together with Bell’s drumming and Wise’s electric guitar and singing about hooking up with a nice sounding gal.
Chasin’ Ladies
While the intro might lead someone to think they are listening to Mississippi Queen by Mountain, they are in fact listening to Chasin’ Ladies by Dust. While certainly inspired by Leslie West, Dust do take the track into their own territory. There is a lot of worthy guitar to take in on this tale of a man and a woman apparently splitting up and the man wishing to go find his next hook up.
Goin’ Easy
This one has a blues feel to it though the twang in the beginning does push it for a second into country. This doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot to it but it’s a decent song to check out as Wise laments the loss of a lady friend.
Love Me Hard
This one really picks things back up and gets itself into early heavy metal grounds with its riffing and drum-bashing. The song’s subject is looking for a new woman to “love him hard” after he discovers his current lady is loving other people hard. There’s a bit of an interlude where the band lays up for a moment before building back into the pounding. It’s a pretty remarkable bit of arrangement on this and other songs here from a group of teenagers who were just getting started.
From A Dry Camel
Get comfortable because we’re gonna be here for the next 9 minutes and 49 seconds. This is quite the turn, going for a dark psychedelic groove that wouldn’t be out of place on a Black Sabbath record. The song goes slow for a few minutes while it delivers its lyrical message, then it hits a very nice jam passage that’s a few minutes long and goes some really crazy places. The verses then reprise again before closing out with a bang in the final minute.
Oh, and that lyrical message? If your woman “dries up,” just hop on a camel and ride somewhere. Yeah, that’s about it.
Often Shadows Felt
This one gives off a “High Plains Drifter” or desert vibe, very gritty and sad sounding stuff to trudge through a hot and shitty landscape with. Despite the song’s more “quiet” nature, there’s a hell of a lot going on both with Aaronson’s bass and Bell’s drumming. This one comes out to a very nice track with its sweet, sad vibes.
Loose Goose
The final song is an instrumental. It’s a “rockabilly on steroids” sort of thing that could start a mosh pit.
Dust would release without any chart positions, notable sales figures or a lot of fanfare. The band would make their mark as a live draw through the Midwest US during 1971. They would record their second and final album Hard Attack and release it in 1972. After failing to gain momentum that year, Richie Wise chose to go into production and Dust would split up.
Richie Wise along with band manager Kenny Kerner were noted for their production skills by Kama Sutra exec Neil Bogart. Bogart got both into studios to kick off their production careers in earnest. Bogart wound up starting Casablanca records, and Wise and Kerner were the knob-turners for the first two Kiss albums. Wise retired from production several years ago and Kerner died in 2014.
Kenny Aaronson would go on to develop a resume that would require a book to print. He spent time with Rick Derringer and Joan Jett for awhile. He would also do stints with Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, Hall and Oates, and many others. He was part of the New York Dolls’ final line-up and was also involved with The Yardbirds in the past decade.
The name Marc Bell may not ring a bell (…), but the name Marky Ramone should. Bell/Ramone did two stints with the legendary punk outfit, playing on 10 albums and at over 1,700 live shows until The Ramones’ dissolution in 1996. Bell has since kept buys with podcasts and radio hosting, guest drumming spots and interviews.
Dust remained an obscure group, though as interest in rock and heavy metal developed through the US in the 1970s, their two albums became sought after by die-hard collectors. The albums were pretty scarce until 2013 when they were re-issued as a two-in-one package.
Dust would wind up with a legacy as one of America’s first heavy metal acts, though they didn’t get their due back in their time. Each member turned out no worse for the wear, going on to storied careers in music, and eventually the music of Dust would get out to more ears in the world once the true history of metal began being traced beyond its obvious English roots. Both Dust albums are easily worth a visit to hear some excellent rock and metal from way back when.
The Crooked Wanderer 