For today I’m gonna continue extolling the virtues of the music of 1984. In this case I have long since covered the album in question and I’ve also talked about the song a bit when I covered the cassette singles I have. But today I’m gonna go more in-depth on one of my favorite Metallica songs, which just so happens to be from that hallowed year of 1984.
Creeping Death was the only actual single released to market from the album Ride The Lightning. Two other songs, For Whom The Bell Tolls and Fade To Black, were released as promo copies to radio. While today we talk about Ride The Lightning in terms of an album that has sold roughly seven million copies in the US alone, bear in mind a lot of those sales came during the band’s world-conquering run for their 1991 Black album. The album didn’t go gold until 1987, while today’s single only has a gold certification from Australia for 35,000 copies sold. What happened in 1984, while vital to the band’s reputation and success, was a far cry from what happened when they became literally the biggest band of the 1990’s.
So let’s peel back all the layers of Metallica’s legacy and get to the core of Creeping Death – this song is an epic thrash masterpiece that centers around the plagues of Egypt as told by the Holy Bible. The verses that tell this story are in the Book of Exodus, which will become especially ironic in a moment. I don’t have the specific verses on hand but I consider it a spectacular passage from the Bible and I don’t even subscribe to the religion. It’s a goldmine for heavy metal references, only surpassed by the concluding Book of Revelations.
The short version of the biblical story is this – the Hebrew people were kept as slaves in Egypt for several hundred years. Their god finally grew tired of it and appointed Moses as his prophet to lead them out of their hardship. The Egyptian pharaoh did not release the Hebrews, so their god delivered ten plagues as reprisal. After this, the Hebrews were freed and began their forty year exodus to the promised land of Israel.
Metallica’s song picks up at the tenth and final plague, which was awfully heinous. A destroyer was sent to kill the first born son of every Egyptian family. Hebrew families were instructed to paint lamb’s blood on their doors so that the Destroyer would “pass over” their dwellings, this is the origin of the Jewish Passover holiday.
The song is unique in that it tells the story from the perspective of the Destroyer. Usually this story is recounted in the terms of Moses and his people led out of Egypt, or the Pharaoh and his dumb decisions during and after the plagues that led to he and his forces being drowned in the Red Sea. But we are dwelling in thrash metal here and we get to the heart of the matter – sometimes things are brutal.
Metallica does a masterful job of telling this story. The verses are interspersed with specific passages outlining the plight of the Hebrews and the coming storm the Egyptians faced, while the chorus outlines the role of the Destroyer and the devastation he is about to bring to Egypt. It’s honestly pretty clear and concise, nothing is really left to interpretation here even though the whole premise of the story is widely open to interpretation.
And the music only serves to further the brutal nature of the plagues. This is an absolute thrash magnum opus, being a massive serving of riffs and pummeling despite its length of 6:36. There is a bit of an intro before the meat of the song kicks in and the riffs keep slamming in consistent fashion through both verses and chorus. And of course we get a wild solo from Kirk Hammett before the most famous part of the song kicks in.
After the solo, the song breaks down into a chunky bridge that has become central to the Metallica experience. James Hetfield shouts “Die by my hand, I creep across the land, killing first-born man” as gang vocals shout “Die!” behind him. This part is often extended for several minutes live to encourage crowd participation and is one of the most compelling moments in live music.
As for how the song came about, that story comes in two parts. It was Kirk Hammett who originally came up with the signature bridge riff when he was just 16 years old, which puts this early thrash riff in 1978. He would introduce it to the band he was in prior to Metallica, who was ironically the pioneering thrash act Exodus. Exodus messed around with a demo called Die By My Hand but it went unused, then Kirk brought it to Metallica when he joined in 1983. Kirk outlined this story to Louder.com in a 2014 interview.
Metallica would fill out the song as they were writing for Ride The Lightning. While sources are locked behind unaccesible interviews, the band got the idea for the song from the old Charlton Heston movie The Ten Commandments. It was Cliff Burton who coined the “creeping death” idea from the movie, and then the band was off to the races to flesh out the song.
Creeping Death has reigned as one of Metallica’s dearest signature songs, even in a career filled with many examples of prime material. It ranks as the band’s second most-played song live, just behind Master Of Puppets. The song has been widely covered by acts like Stone Sour, Drowning Pool and Bullet For My Valentine. It has also made the cut on to classic rock radio despite not getting a ton of airplay originally.
It was dark days in Egypt when the Destroyer visited destruction upon the populace of Egypt, but it was absolute heavy metal glory when Metallica recorded a song about it a few thousand years later. For all of the arguing about Metallica these days, there is no arguing their undisputed mastery of the genre they were central to the creation of forty years ago, and Creeping Death is a pinnacle example of that.
As 2024 rolls on, so does the 40 year anniversary celebration of the music of 1984. Today I’m going to loosen the constraints of release dates a bit and include one of metal’s landmark albums in this celebration.
Accept – Balls To The Wall
Released January 1984 (US) via Portrait Records
My Favorite Tracks – Balls To The Wall, London Leatherboys, Losers And Winners
Accept’s fifth album was released just on the “border” of a year – it came out in December 1983 across their native Germany and elsewhere in Europe, but was held back until January 1984 in the US. Its impact would be felt in 1984 and beyond so I am including it in this 1984-versary thing.
Accept’s line-up has never been one prone to long periods of stability, though most of the same group was around from the band’s prior effort Restless And Wild. Udo Dirkschneider provided his unique vocals while bandleader Wolf Hoffmann was the lead guitarist. Joining the band for this set was guitarist Herman Frank, who would be gone before the next album. Carrying on in their positions on bass and drums were Peter Baltes and Stefan Kaufmann, respectively.
Balls To The Wall was self-produced by Accept. All songwriting is credited to the band equally. Lyrics are credited to Accept and “Deaffy,” a pen name for Gaby Hauke. Hauke was Accept’s manager and would also marry Wolf Hoffmann.
The album covers offers a striking visual and was inspired by a 1977 image from photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This cover, along with the songs London Leatherboys and Love Child, had some complaining about Accept being homoerotic. Band members and Gaby Hauke have stated that Love Child was about the suppressed gay community but overall the complaints about their links to homosexuality simply helped get Accept’s name out there more.
Today’s album offers up 10 songs in 45 minutes, a standard rock and metal offering at the time. Several reissue versions of the album exist and seem to contain various live bonus tracks, I’m not aware of any sort of demos or unreleased outtake versions of anything.
Balls To The Wall
The album opens with the title track and the song that came to be Accept’s defining moment. Much like the rest of the album, the song is tough and to the point. The riffing is simple yet aggressive and everything is in just the right spot without any embellishment.
Udo does a great job with quieter verses and loud pre-chorus dynamic, then launching into the song’s title for the to-the-point chorus. The lyrics are a manifesto for the downtrodden and oppressed, the song one of a revolution of the masses against those who keep them down.
Accept have a handful of songs as jewels in their crown, but none shine brighter than Balls To The Wall. This broke across MTV in 1984 and remained in rotation well past that. This is Accept’s signature anthem.
London Leatherboys
One of the songs that was mistakenly pegged as “homoerotic,” any cursory reading of the lyrics would offer that it’s clearly about biker culture. This is more guitar work that tells a story with riffing and without a lot of flash, Wolf’s excellent yet brief solo aside. It’s easy to chant along and headbang to, which means one big mission accomplished.
Fight It Back
Another revolution anthem here, this one has such a great turn from verse to chorus both musically and vocally, it’s impossible to not get sucked into this one. It moves at a nice clip and remains easy to digest and appreciate. Though the song is short, this one does get a lengthy solo.
Head Over Heels
This one is a total ’80’s melodic metal song. Udo delivers a very wordy chorus but glides right through it, almost rapping it. It seems someone found some nefarious activity going on at night in a park, and wound up enjoying what they found.
Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had
This one keeps the ’80’s alive and well as it rocks through a tragic tale of a guy losing his girl to another man, this other man being Udo. It’s not a bragging story, instead Udo cautions the guy how his own faults led to the split with his woman. A bit more sophisticated take on the “I stole your girl” trope found through ’80’s rock.
Love Child
It’s the song that actually was about homosexuality. Accept members have said they viewed the gay community as oppressed in the ’80’s, which is very much true, and the band’s aim was to focus on suppressed people in their lyrics through this time. It’s a song about someone out on the prowl and confused about his feelings toward a guy. It’s another groovy and basic tune that plenty of people probably headbanged to without knowing what the hell it was about.
Turn Me On
A nice dirty rocker about finding a lover and a spot to have at it, getting the deed done and getting out real quick. It’s “the ol in-out” from A Clockwork Orange fame. The line between love and lust may be a fine one, but here everything is clearly on the lust side.
Losers And Winners
This song goes into turbo mode and it’s another tale of Udo getting the girl that someone else wants. The girl doesn’t want the other guy so Udo slides in to take advantage of the situation. Udo offers up some sage advice, like “take it easy and screw the girl that’s next to you.” The lyrics here are honestly a bit of a laugh riot and are worth reading along to. And the song totally rocks out, putting the track far above the honestly goofy as all hell premise of the lyrics.
Guardian Of The Night
The song itself is another upbeat rocking track, though the lyrics are fairly dismal. Here is a man who is left to live in the night, shunning the light of day and the normal life of most people. It does seem this night owl lives a pretty brutal life and is on the wrong side of society.
Winter Dreams
The album closes with a bit of a ballad. It’s a nice, simple song about the calm and peaceful side of winter. Winter nights can be very pleasant and this song communicates that very well. The song is a bit of a curveball after nine straight ahead headbanging tracks but it also isn’t a vast departure and it closes the album well.
Balls To The Wall would be Accept’s breakthrough album. It charted modestly in a handful of countries, but it would eventually be certified gold in both Canada and the US, marking the group’s greatest US success.
Accept would roll through the ’80’s with two more solid albums, Metal Heart and Russian Roulette, before long periods of line-up instability and hiatuses plagued them. The band would eventually solidify a new line-up in the late 2000’s that did not include Udo. This modern version of Accept has run consistently through to this day, though not without some roster changes.
But back to the time period at hand – Accept were now players in the ’80’s metal game. Their sound would contribute influence to a wide number of acts across the rock and metal spectrum – anyone from the rising hair band scene to aspiring thrash bands found something to like in Accept. And while Germany had the Scorpions representing them well on the rock front, Accept helped open a wide door for a wealth of German metal acts to spread across the world in the ensuing years.
Accept’s story is long, sometimes complicated and formed of many different parts. But the most central part of that story is Balls To The Wall, the album that offered up the group’s magnum opus and broke the group to worldwide recognition.
First things first – I clearly haven’t been posting this week. I was off work the week before, then when I went back this week I walked into an absolute meat grinder. My job gets busy this time of year but this week was insane to a degree beyond what I expected. Things are going to calm down some next week so I decided just to punt my posts to a week beyond in order to keep my time free.
So to the point of today’s post – recently I had to make a few “money moves,” and in the end I came out a hair ahead of the curve. It allowed me to shop around for a few things I’d wanted to buy and, all of a sudden, I noticed this set of gold-disc remasters of the Nevermore catalog on sale for a great price. These were done by Brutal Planet Records and seem to be the only licensed, in-print version of the Nevermore albums available now. Their former label Century Media doesn’t have any Nevermore stock on their site. But that’s fine, as these remasters are well worth the money.
So what’s sitting here is the seven full-length Nevermore albums, as well as two solo albums from guitarist Jeff Loomis and the first solo album from singer Warrel Dane. This is nearly a complete collection, but not quite. It does give me the idea to run through a series on the Nevermore albums and associated solo works. I won’t include Sanctuary in this as I feel they should be treated as a separate entity.
There is an EP, In Memory, that wasn’t a part of this bundle but is also available in the gold remaster series and I have it on the way. Nevermore also issued one single in their career, which seems odd but hey, it is what it is. I was able to find that for a decent price and it’s also en route to my mailbox.
There is another Warrel Dane solo album, Shadow Work, released in 2018 after his death. He was working on the album when he died and this was compiled from the recording sessions. I don’t own this yet but it is pretty easy to get so I’ll pick that one up soon too.
There is one other Nevermore piece – the 2008 live album Year Of The Voyager. I had this on both CD and DVD back when it released but they wound up parting ways with my CD shelf at some point. And as it would turn out, they are out of print and pretty hard to get right now. The DVD is unobtainable but the CD seemingly can be found within some reason. It is on streaming services so if worse comes to worse I can play it on there if I can’t hunt down a copy.
After I gather the rest of the stuff I will take some time to evaluate it and then later on in the year I’ll throw together a series going over everything in detail. I might as well since there is no hope of adding to the Nevermore catalog. The only component that might add to this series later on would be another Jeff Loomis solo album, which I can happily add in if and when that comes.
So all that will come later this year, I would guess it’ll be an after summer thing. I wasn’t planning on doing it but having all these nice gold remasters got the idea going for me. Something to look forward to later on in the year.
One other thing about the reissue set – each CD also came with a cool trading card in it. It’s a bit of a tricky collectible to be inside of a CD case, but luckily I have some protective sleeves for trading cards laying around so I can keep these in a spot where they’ll stay minty fresh.
This post will offer up a series of links to the various posts and series I’ve written about Iron Maiden. They are my favorite band and I’ve covered them extensively here, with more to come, so I thought it’d be wise to create a central hub for easier navigation between all of the stuff I’ve posted over the years.
This will be updated with new posts as they come. Also I will eventually use this as a hub for any Maiden associated acts, such as Bruce’s solo albums, Blaze’s stuff or the wealth of side projects and other solo albums out there.
Albums
I have covered a handful of Maiden’s studio records and eventually will get to them all. I’ll just post a list of all the albums and link up to the posts for those already done.
I’ve ran through my collection of singles and discussed the ones I presently own. I am planning on restarting the series to fill in the gaps at a future point in time when I’ve bought more.
I did a full run-through series in the same vein as the singles series. Here is the first post of that series and the, for now, most recent live album. There is also a live album ranking and a wishlist for stuff I hope gets released officially at some point. This series also has links to each post in the series within it.
Unplayed Songs Live
This two-parter looks at the songs Maiden haven’t played on a live stage. The post was heavily updated to reflect the current Future Past Tour, which knocked the list down a fair bit. Part One is here, Part Two is here.
Songs
I occasionally take a look at a specific Maiden song. I have not done a great deal of these yet but this list will grow over time.
This section will compile various posts I’ve done regarding Maiden. I am still putting this list together and will update it soon.
Other updates will come as I scan through my old posts to identify anything I missed. I hope this assists readers who want to check out the scope of things I’ve done.
For questions, comments or other concerns, use the comment form below or use my contact page to reach me.
I was thinking about the state of my music collection recently. By this point I have a fair amount of stuff – around 800 CDs and 250 or so records. But the point of today’s post isn’t really the amount, but more of the timing of it all.
I’ve had a music collection of some sort since I was probably eight. Tapes and a few old records, then CDs for a long time, then back to records to some degree. As I got to thinking about it, I realized that the vast majority of my collection is from 2008 and on. I built most of it through the 2010’s, and honestly most of my records have been picked up these past couple of years.
It’s kind of sad in a way, as I wish I had more of the stuff I used to way back when. I honestly didn’t have any real collector’s items or anything, this isn’t about that – the stuff I have bought in the past several years commands way more value than the stuff I had in 1991.
But I do kind of hate that I had to let things go over the years. In some cases, stuff simply got lost due to moving. A box misplaced at one time was actually a bunch of old records my relatives gave me. It wasn’t all great stuff but there were some cool albums in there and I liked having them. Other odds and ends I couldn’t even really tell you what happened – I’m not even sure what I did with my old tape collection, it might have walked off when my family moved houses while I was in the Navy in the mid ’90s’.
The bulk of stuff though, mostly CDs, met a more obvious fate – at various points in my life I had to sell stuff off. Back in the early 2000’s, a CD could actually fetch a few bucks from a store. Throw ten in the pile and you got enough for food and gas money, or even beer and cigarette money, which honestly was where I blew a fair bit of that cash. I had one or two times where I had to basically start my life from scratch, and the vast majority of my music collection was sold off for that purpose. These days a CD collection probably isn’t valuable enough to float a person for a month’s rent or whatever, but back then it did work.
With ever rule or tendency there is an exception, of course. And my collection being a pile of stuff I’ve bought from ’08 onward does have its exception – this one CD that I bought on release day in 1994. It’s the unsellable CD – not because it’s worth anything or even for sentimental value – I love the album, but I have it on vinyl and a reissued CD edition. It’s unsellable because it’s just that – the packaging just doesn’t hold up and no one would buy it.
A lot of people reading now who were around back then probably already knew what album I was talking about. The CD packaging for The Downward Spiral was infamously “collector unfriendly.” It has a rickety cardboard sleeve to hold a slimline jewel case and a thick booklet. These did not hold up well at all and the packaging bombed out pretty quick on them, even if someone tried to take care of it. As I recall from a lot of collections back then, many people did not try to care for their stuff.
My copy I guess still holds up – the CD itself has small scratches but plays just fine and the whole jewel case part is in primo shape. But the outer packaging is hosed, in fact it broke apart when I dug it out for these pictures. It all looks a bit waterlogged but I can’t for the life of me figure when it got wet – I think it might just be from the famous Missouri humidity. Nothing else around it or in my collection at all has any signs of being waterlogged.
In the end I guess I do have one CD from my old collection, if only because it was such dim packaging that no one wanted to buy it. I’m kind of glad, it’s nice to have on hand even though it only serves sentimental purposes. I can’t be “that guy” who has an entire life’s worth of a collection on hand, but hey, that’s ok – I have this beat up old copy of a Nine Inch Nails album still.
Last week I covered The Downward Spiral in great detail for its 30th anniversary, that post is here.
For questions, comments or other concerns, use the comment form below or use my contact page to reach me.
For once I’m going to handle something from this century. And today’s song is only going to turn seven this year so I can conveniently ignore the fact that the year 2000 was 24 years ago.
Our song today comes from The Chats, an Australian group who got their start in 2016 but would find themselves with the kind of fame every new band wishes they could have – a viral hit. It isn’t nearly as easy to score an attention-getting Internet hit as some might believe, but when it does happen it can pay in spades.
The Chats describe themselves as “shed rock,” while the music community at large applies the punk rock label to them. The band formed in school when they were 17 years old and they quickly issued two EP’s. “Chat” in Australia is slang to mean something gross, or along those lines. It should not be confused with the general use of “chat,” as in conversation; or the American use of “chat,” as in the Oklahoma noise rock act Chat Pile, which is mining waste.
It’s the band’s second EP Get This In Ya!! that houses today’s song. Smoko is another Australian slang term, this one simply refers to a break at work, it’s the typical 15 minute or so break most workers get and doesn’t actually have to involve smoking. And yeah, like many I had never heard the term until this song.
The song is a quick and easy one. It rolls through with the bass providing the bulk of the rhythm while the guitar accents over the music. Eamon Sandwith on vocals delivers a snotty sort of vocal take that is perfect for the song. This isn’t they type of punk rock where people slam out a few distorted power chords and scream about how the government sucks – this is very ear-pleasing stuff with a good hook and premise to draw the listener in.
The song and video work together to communicate one of life’s important lessons – don’t mess with people when they’re on break. In the first verse, Eamon bothers a guy on his smoko. In the second, he tries to get his benefits payment but finds that the phone rep is on smoko. And then Eamon himself heads to smoko while on lifeguard duty and a swimmer is caught in the waters off the beach. It’s all pretty hilarious stuff and well put together on an indie budget.
Smoko took the route of becoming a viral hit – it sits at over 20 million views on YouTube and nearly 30 million Spotify plays. Buzz increased when Josh Homme brought a few friends to a Chats gig in Los Angeles, those friends were Dave Grohl as well as Alex Turner and Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys. The group also drew the attention of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and punk legend Iggy Pop.
The Chats found that their quick shot of notoriety had staying power too – the single for Smoko was certified gold in Australia and their subsequent full length albums have charted internationally. They aren’t a case of here today, gone tomorrow – they’ve got the legs to run it out and stick around.
Smoko was a nice surprise hit and The Chats were able to take advantage of the viral success to kickstart their career. They continue to tour the world and build on the buzz from nearly seven years back. As for me, well, I’m done with this post and I’m on smoko, so leave me alone.
By 1984, Bruce Springsteen had been on quite a run of albums – his past four records shaped his sound and defined who he was as an artist. But in 1984, The Boss would embrace some pop stylings and conquer the world.
Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA
Released June 4, 1984 via Columbia Records
My Favorite Tracks – Born In The USA, Glory Days, I’m Goin’ Down
Recording of this landmark album turned out to be really easy – a lot of these songs were written during the same sessions for The Boss’s prior album Nebraska. In fact, there was a point where Nebraska and this record could have a been released as one double album. A trove of unreleased songs from this time period also exist, many of which wound up in the box set Tracks.
Springsteen recorded the album with his E-Street Band – Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Seven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg all on their chosen instruments for recording. Production was handled by Jon Landau, the journalist who had deemed Springsteen the “future of rock” in 1974 and would be Springsteen’s co-producer until the mid 1990’s. Also involved in production were Chuck Plotkin, Springsteen himself and Steven Van Zandt.
The album would get immediate press for its striking cover image – The Boss’s backside clad in jeans with a ballcap hanging in his ass pocket, standing in front of the American flag. The shot was taken by Annie Leibovitz and is one of rock’s enduring album covers. The Boss reportedly worked out to make sure his butt was in prime shape for the photo shoot.
This record comprises 12 songs with a run time of 46:57, none of the songs venture beyond 4 minutes and it’s a fairly lean playing time for that many songs. Fans have long awaited a massive reissue of this album with the surplus of unreleased songs from this time period though to date that reissue has not seen the light of day.
A note on the album’s singles – there were a total of 7. All of them wound up in Billboard’s Top 10, though famously Springsteen did not generate a number 1 hit that he performed. He still has not to this day, his only number 1 is Manfred Mann’s performance of his song Blinded By The Light. I wanted to make the note about singles here so that I don’t have to bring it up through each song.
Born In The USA
Right off the bat we’re into the storied title track. It’s a very simple song, bright keyboards and a steady march through verses and chorus that keeps a consistent tempo. While sounding very bright, the song’s verses are a dark portrayal of the struggle of the common American – many Vietnam veterans returned from an unpopular war, only to find a lack of available jobs. The simple chorus is just Bruce’s raspy delivery of the song’s title. Set against the upbeat, pop-tinged music, many mistook the song to be a celebration of the US rather than a criticism. It’s a misinterpretation that still goes on sometimes today.
In the end the song is brilliant in its simple delivery and stark contrast between the music and the theme. The plight of the working person in the early ’80’s dark economy was a focus of Bruce in his songwriting and here he hit a grand slam in his effort to highlight it.
Cover Me
This bright and grooving track was originally a song Bruce composed for Donna Summer, though Jon Landau convinced The Boss to hold on to it for his own album. Summer got the song Protection from Springsteen and Cover Me stayed here.
The song is a great jam featuring all of the E-Street band going off. The song’s theme is again a few shades darker than the music’s beat – here, Bruce seeks a companion to be into and see their way through the rough and tumble world. Stay in with the one you love to weather the “storm” of society.
Darlington County
Up next is a very fun song, highlighting two guys who couldn’t hack it in New York so they move to South Carolina to try and swing in a smaller town. They come with tall tales, bragging that their dads own the World Trade Center, and they’re trying to get lucky with the southern girls because they couldn’t get any action in NYC. It’s song that both in theme and musical style really sets the tone for the Heartland Rock scene that would explode after this album’s release.
Working On The Highway
This one has a marriage of rockabilly and ’80’s synth pop to it, another really fun song that still again possesses a darker lyrical offering. This time the song’s main character of a guy who worked on highway construction and winds up with a pretty young girl. The girl’s family is not happy with her relationship with this older, salt of the Earth kind of guy and the couple run off to Florida for a bit. The guy winds up getting busted and is out working on the highway again, this time as part of a prison work gang. It is a pretty amusing story so it’s not as “down” as other songs.
Downbound Train
Popularly known as the depressing song on this record, this song’s music actually matches the harrowing tale it tells. It’s about a guy who gets laid off of his job and loses his love in the process. The guy winds up working on the railroad, pretty brutal work that ties into the title’s figurative train. The music retains the fit of a song from this pop-oriented record but it’s also clear that this was conceived during and could have been put on the Nebraska album.
I’m On Fire
Very interesting stuff going on with this very brief song. A quiet rolling guitar part is accented by very, very quiet drums as Bruce is trying to pick up a married woman. Some misinterpret the song and believe Bruce is after an underage woman here but that is totally not the case and honestly it’s a pretty stupid take on the song. It’s clearly Bruce in over his head for a taken woman.
No Surrender
This is another straight up 80’s rock track that offers up a far more positive energy than the doom-laden lyrics of other songs. The song is a tribute to childhood friendship that endures through the struggles of life. There are some confusing parts of the song that seem to intertwine romantic interest, the meaning there is unclear and has been speculated on but I’ll leave all that alone for today.
This cut made the album at the insistence of Steven Van Zandt and can be seen as a tribute to Bruce and Steve’s long-running friendship and musical partnership. Van Zandt had wanted to see Bruce get famous and this album would accomplish that, and Van Zandt left the E-Street band just after recording on the album was wrapped. He would jump in as a guest and then later return to the group in full.
Bobby Jean
It’s on to what is another tribute to Van Zandt, the song was composed after Steve announced he was leaving and was one of the final tracks recorded. The song fits as a lost love sort of thing as well, with the fictional Bobby Jean. This one really goes in to a groove that eclipses the music found elsewhere on the album and could be seen as a lead-in to Bruce’s upcoming pop phase.
I’m Goin’ Down
This song offers up tinges of rockabilly in a very simple and pleasing rhythm through music and words. The music is again upbeat but the story told is a sad one of a couple that’s had the magic of their relationship wear off. Bruce also repeats the title about a million times through the song, making Iron Maiden and The Scorpions jealous. This one doesn’t get played much live because the band has a hard time recreating the swing of the recorded track, but the song is also offered up by some critics as one of Bruce’s best tracks.
Glory Days
Up next is one of the more well-known songs and one that still lingers on airwaves today. It’s another fun, upbeat jam with some thought-provoking lyrics but not necessarily down and dark this time. This is a tale of people who’ve gotten older looking back on their younger, more fun days as a way to relieve the tension and monotony of common adult life. It could be seen as a shot at those who “peaked in high school” but the idea of “glory days” is fairly universal.
This song did have a verse cut, it was about Bruce’s father being laid off of his long-time factory job. Versions with the missing verse are out there though it does cast the song in a more depressing light.
Dancing In The Dark
The album heads to the close with the lead single and a song that Bruce didn’t want to write that also became his biggest solo hit.
As the album was being compiled, Jon Landau felt like it needed a good hit single. Bruce and Jon got into it arguing over the point, then Bruce spent the night writing this track. The lyrics are Bruce’s frustrations with trying to do exactly what he wound up doing – writing a hit single. It’s set to a danceable pop rock beat, nothing overly complex here.
The song was the highest-charting of Springsteen’s career – it went to number 2 on the charts, blocked at first by Duran Duran and then Prince’s mega-hit When Doves Cry. It’s also the only Bruce single that sold over a million copies in the US. The music video featured a young Courtney Cox in an early acting role being picked as the girl to come on stage and dance with Bruce.
My Hometown
The finale is a somber and sparse atmospheric pop track that recounts a kid growing up and being stuck in his hometown. The song runs through racial tensions of the 60’s and the deterioration of the American job market in the 70’s. The final verse sees the narrator pass on the “legacy” of the hometown to his kid in the present day, just as his father did with him way back when. The narrator and his wife talk about packing up and splitting town, which I personally did to get out of my small hometown and I fully recommend. It’s a pretty nice song to wrap up the album.
Born In The USA was a runaway hit. The album spent a month of 1984 at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, then re-entered the top spot for 2 weeks in 1985. It was number 1 in 10 other countries and in the top 10 of 5 others. It has been certified diamond in the US for sales of 10 million copies, presently it has sold 17 million US and a total of 30 million worldwide. It is the best-selling album of Springsteen’s career and the best-selling album from 1984.
For Bruce this was a leap into the pop fray after years of more pure rock styling. He would continue to explore that ground on his next few albums as the E-Street band, at least officially, broke up around this time.
The success of Born In The USA would thrust the concept of “heartland rock” into the spotlight. It was already a term, meant to corral artists like Bob Seger, Tom Petty and Springsteen together. It would also envelop a few country artists, notably Steve Earle. This subgenre term, with country and rock leanings and a socially conscious song message, would mostly become entwined with Bruce and the man who’d quickly become his spiritual twin, John Mellencamp. It’s not hard to find people who confuse the two, some believing both artists are the same person.
For Bruce Springsteen, this album was the all-conquering victory he had long been plugging away for. He crafted one of the best-loved and best-selling albums in history. The seven singles from this record were inescapable in 1984 and for years beyond, the songs are still around today. The legend of The Boss was now solidified.
Today marks thirty years since the release of this landmark album. This one hit me like a bullet when it was released and all these years later it’s still toward the top of my favorite releases ever.
Also, be warned – this post is really damn long.
Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
Released March 8, 1994 via Nothing/Interscope Records
My Favorite Tracks – Mr. Self Destruct, Hurt, Reptile
Nine Inch Nails had arrived to a good degree of fanfare in 1989, and by 1994 the name had become household on MTV and in the now alternative music scene. The stage was set for Trent Reznor’s next move, which would prove to be career-defining.
No real need to discuss a band line-up, the recording roster for Nine Inch Nails was often Trent Reznor. Several friends and guests were brought in to help, including Mark “Flood” Ellis who would help with production. Other names that would become familiar to Nine Inch Nails were involved, including Chris Vrenna, Adrian Belew and Danny Lohner. The list of production credits is a mile long, this was the Manhattan Project in terms of recording engineering at the time.
This album also had a story in terms of where it was recorded – Reznor rented a house at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. This was the site of infamous murder of Sharon Tate and four others in 1969. After dubbing the studio “Le Pig” and recording both Broken and this album there, Reznor felt remorse for possibly exploiting the house and vacated it, after which the house was torn down.
The meaning and themes of The Downward Spiral have long been a subject of debate and interpretation. It is clear that there is a person breaking down as the songs go along. It could be a solid theme that ties things together, or it could go as deep as being a true concept album where a specific story unfolds through the songs. It isn’t entirely clear and there are arguments both ways about it. I personally do support the “full concept” theory though I also see a few odd holes in the story. I’ll prod the meaning of these songs but I won’t be discussing the concept theory much here, I simply don’t have room. I may pick that thread up another time.
Reznor stated his primary influences for this album were Low by David Bowie and The Wall by Pink Floyd, Reznor was moved by both albums’ use of space and texture.
Today’s album has a massive 14 songs at a 65:02 runtime. An excellent 2 CD reissue offers up great bonus material, including the soundtrack song Burn and Reznor’s cover of Joy Division’s Dead Souls.
Mr. Self Destruct
The opener kicks off with a machine noise intro then launches into the harsh industrial noise that NIN had become familiar for. This song sees a dark force pushing a person into vices and ills, all in order to use the person up. A quiet interlude breaks up the mosh pit-worthy main sequence. This song is absolute gold and a great way to bridge into the new album from the equally harsh Broken EP.
Piggy
The next track is one of the album’s singles and is a slow, quiet march through a person’s breakup and the fallout from that. The song introduces the phrase “nothing can stop me now, ’cause I don’t care anymore,” which is repeated through the record. The bass anchors this song as it rolls along, then Reznor plays live drums toward the song’s end, one of the very few uses of “organic” drums on the record.
“Piggy” can have multiple interpretations here, given where the album was recorded and also the word’s use in other songs. But there is another story behind the name – Richard Patrick was in Nine Inch Nails as a guitarist from 1989 through 1993. Reznor nicknamed him Piggy, then Reznor felt resentment that Patrick was focused more on his own music than NIN. Patrick would leave the band and form his own group Filter, who had great success. Patrick has stated in interviews, such as this 2010 talk with the Sacramento Press, that Piggy is about him and Reznor’s anger with him.
Heresy
Up next is a techno-driven song with moments of distorted wailing. The angst is directed at religion, though the specifics are deeper than just ranting about church. Reznor wrote this one influenced by how Christian sects in the 1980’s and early ’90’s turned AIDS victims into scapegoats. This song is Trent’s response to the edict “there is no hate like Christian love.” Whether or not someone likes this song or not probably centers on one’s thoughts about religion. I’ve always enjoyed the track.
March Of The Pigs
This next song was also a single. Musically it is a contrast study with noisy and quiet parts, though it’s the verses that are loud and the chorus that is quiet. It is a clash between the main character and the “pigs” of society who are fake and without substance. At points Reznor is singing from the main character’s point of view and others the pigs, and the trade-offs are not easy to spot without actually reading the lyrics to see what the hell is going on.
Closer
And now on to the song that most people are likely familiar with. The song builds slowly, using mostly electronic instruments but this one remains easy to process on the surface, it’s all fitting and catchy. There is more going on under it all but this is a song that was taken purely on its surface level and became the most famous song Nine Inch Nails ever did, save perhaps for another from this album.
The song is about someone obsessing over an object of desire. The lyrics are a harsh account of the main character’s depression, lack of purpose and shallowness. But this song didn’t get famous for being psychoanalyzed to find a messed up human being’s story. No, the song got famous for being catchy and for the line “I wanna fuck you like an animal.” It was taken as a lust anthem rather than the desperate echoes of a tortured person. And that is what it will always be known for, and honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. Reznor has spoken out about the true meaning of the song and the popular reaction to it, but artists have to know that art isn’t yours anymore once it’s out in the wild.
Ruiner
Time for a bit of a rave here with some slamming techno beats. The song does call back a bit to the debut Pretty Hate Machine with its dance beats. Other parts of the song slow down and go harsh, and there’s also a bit of a guitar solo here and the old, jamming kind of solo. Reznor has said he was unsure of this song and that it was two songs mashed together. I personally think he got it right, it’s a good track.
The song deals with the “ruiner” who is likely a metaphor for someone in power. The ruiner could also be a specific person or even facet of the main character’s personality, but that’s more than what I can get into here for length reasons. Either way, here the narrator is lamenting the power that the ruiner has over him, and at the end we get the cold refrain of “nothing can stop me now” again.
The Becoming
This one sounds like a robot toy come to life and on the hunt to kill someone, pretty quirky intro. It slides into another techno-driven song with a bunch of screaming in the background. The song sees the narrator give in to what’s happening and figuratively become a machine. It’s the loss of the soul as life has been too much to bear. This is a lively descent into losing personhood.
I Do Not Want This
Kind of a mid-paced beat here that keeps quiet until a chorus where Reznor yells “You can’t tell me how I feel!” It seems here the narrator is struggling with his loss of humanity and is reaching back out for it, though he is also lashing out at everyone. The end offers up grandiose ambitions, such as “I want to know everything, I want to be everywhere, I want to fuck everyone in the world.” It is the sort of thing seen from people who truly have lost their mental center and are reaching for anything to cling to.
Big Man With A Gun
This one is a short, noisy track that is absolutely an allusion to rape and the lyrics don’t allude at all, they spell it out fairly clear. Reznor intended the song to be satire, he was calling out the other forms of music at the time that glorified rape and sexual assault. His take didn’t really come through and NIN landed in a bit of hot water with politicians, though noting ultimately came of it. Reznor said the song was originally created to be about madness and that this was another stage of the main character’s insanity. I do think this song misses its mark but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal either. It fits the album sonically and is over real quick.
A Warm Place
This one is an instrumental with one very quiet, almost unnoticeable spoken phrase at the beginning. It’s widely believed that line represents a last bit of the narrator’s humanity trying to poke through. The song itself is very pleasant, it’s a nice interlude in this descent into total madness.
Eraser
Up next is a song without a ton of words but there are a handful. The piece goes on for a few minutes of very nice music before Reznor sings a series of short blurted out lines that are likely tied to someone who has truly snapped now. The song goes out in a distorted mess as Trent screams “Kill Me!” repeatedly. Not a conventional song but one that fits this part of the story very well.
Reptile
This is one twisted track. It has very sick use of electronic beats and tells its sordid tale very well through music and words. Here the main character is admitting to being twisted by a woman, who might be the same object of desire from Closer and is also likely the Ruiner. This song is absolute magic and, given the “concept” theory, ties this whole album together. Reznor is famous for a fair few songs but this one is kind of slept on by the wider public.
The Downward Spiral
It’s another almost instrumental here. The main hook here is a guitar playing the piano outro of Closer. Here someone reaches rock bottom and commits suicide, the brief lyrics lay that out clearly. It is apparently the main character, though it doesn’t entirely jive with the story theory since, you know, there’s a whole other fucking song to go. This passage is pretty nice and twisted.
Hurt
The album closes on the other very well-known song. It is a quiet and haunting track featuring Trent’s voice, a keyboard, a bit of guitar and sparse noise to generate atmosphere. Here the narrator is reflecting on a lost life, being alone and having nothing to offer but his empire of dirt. Whatever the main character was supposed to achieve through his loss of humanity did not come to pass, and he lies here a broken shell of a person. The end does generate the smallest glimmer of hope that he will seek to regain his human self. The actual meaning of Hurt in terms of the album story is hotly debated and something I won’t get into here.
This was one of Nine Inch Nails’ signature songs, but of course that changed in 2002 when the venerable Johnny Cash, toward the end of his life, recorded a stark cover version that lit the music world on fire. Reznor admitted that the song was Cash’s after the cover was released.
The Downward Spiral would mark the crowning achievement of Nine Inch Nails’ career. The album hit at number two on Billboard and went four times platinum in the US. It has remained the centerpiece of Trent Reznor’s discography and the album’s legacy is still widely discussed now thirty years after its release. Closer remains NIN’s most well-known song and Hurt is close behind.
“Light Industrial” would become the new sound bands chased as NIN sound-alikes hit the scene in the years after this album. A few acts got a bit of mileage out of it and I won’t discount the whole scene as a rip-off, but this album was the clear reference point for the industrial-tinged rock and metal of the late ’90’s.
What this album gets right is most everything. The layers of electronic music do not alienate here, instead they build both a beat and atmosphere that allows the songs to mostly be taken in on a casual listen while also offering a lot of texture for the deeper listener to explore. It’s a masterpiece of arrangement and something that 99.99999% of musicians could never pull off. The story contained within is ugly and horrible, but told in splendid fashion and left with enough breathing room for personal interpretation. It isn’t handed out on a silver platter where everyone draws the same conclusions.
I don’t feel like the album really gets anything wrong, though Big Man With A Gun might be a miss. Maybe Reznor was a bit too opaque in his expression in a few places. That might be more of a discussion about Trent Reznor and pop culture views at the time rather than much to do with this album, though.
During and after this album’s release, NIN would tour and Reznor also went on to help launch the career of Marilyn Manson. It would take five years for another Nine Inch Nails record and Reznor has gone through various iterations in the years since. But there is no denying the legacy of The Downward Spiral, tortured though its story may be.
It’s been a good long while since I’ve played this silly little game. Awhile back I was prepping one and pretty much all of the songs were horrible, so I shitcanned that post and haven’t revisited this concept since. I finally got to looking the other day and stumbled into a great batch of songs and artists for this, so this concept lives again.
For those unfamiliar – here I take a bunch of songs with the same name, all from different artists, and decide which one I like the best. It’s an exhaustive process of playing them for all of 30 seconds before I make a snap verdict. Though honestly on this one I did play all the way through these songs and I have a fair few of them in my collection anyway.
Today’s pick is Bad Reputation. There are a whole boatload of songs with that name, thankfully there are enough that keep me in my favored genres so I can stick to familiar ground for this one. I am at least roughly familiar with all but one of these songs, I own most of the albums these are off of and I’m very, very familiar with a few of them. There are seven entries here today which is more than I’ve ever done for this before so buckle in and get ready to go around.
Damn Yankees
Right off the bat it’s the 1990 supergroup featuring members of Styx and Night Ranger, as well as Ted Nugent. This album was a showstopper back in the day, one of the last remnants of good old hard rock before alternative took over.
Bad Reputation was the 5th single from this album, these songs got a lot of mileage back in the day. It’s a very, very nice track that cuts a nice groove and rocks out above the “hair” fray. I have no clue who wins this as I write these blurbs but this one is very hard to argue against.
Heavens Edge
Up next is the lone entry I haven’t heard at all. Heavens Edge were (are, maybe) a hair metal group that didn’t really catch on back in the day, they have been sporadically active through the years. This song was also from 1990 and from their debut.
Honestly this is a pretty good song. I mean, I can see “hair metal” and “1990” and get why they didn’t really hit back then, but there’s no shame in the game when it comes to the music. Also I wanted to separate the first and third artists, there are people who won’t want to be next to each other.
Joan Jett
Up next is the song I would suspect most people would know from this grouping and also the person I wanted to keep away from the person mentioned up above. Jett’s song is one of her most known and loved tunes. This was first out on the album in 1980 then got a single release in ’81. All these years later and it’s one of the first Joan Jett songs people are gonna know, for sure.
And there’s reason for all that – this song is 100% pure, ferocious punk rock attitude. Joan knocked this one out of the park. This song is the business and it’s the favorite to run off with the win here today.
Sammy Hagar
This is one I know very well, which is chalked up to me being a pretty huge Sammy fan. This came from his 1980 solo album Danger Zone, which was the album before he really broke out. This wasn’t a single or a live staple but it did make some of the many greatest hits packages that Capitol Records put out after Sammy got famous and then joined Van Halen. For me personally it is a contender in this contest, it’s been a song of Sammy’s I’ve always enjoyed.
The Reverend Horton Heat
Shifting gears for just a bit from rock into rockabilly. This cut comes from the good Reverend’s debut album Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em from 1990. This one changes the theme of “bad reputation” up a bit – some of the other songs indicate that the bad reputation is a warning sign, while in this song it’s an attraction. This is a really fun rockabilly track and yet another viable contestant to take the crown today.
Thin Lizzy
It’s now on to the oldest song on the list, this one hailing from the band’s 1977 album of the same name as the song. The album was regarded as a return to form for Thin Lizzy, who were struggling through all manner of issues, including Phil Lynott’s chemical dependencies. The song also departs a bit from the theme of the others, this one is a warning to someone to watch their step, as they have a bad reputation.
This song is also a total monster. It has fat riffs to spare, not that anyone would be surprised by that in a Thin Lizzy song. It also has a great groove to it, a bit of funk in spots but still on track as a hard rock ballbuster. The field of strong contenders is crowded but Thin Lizzy are certainly in the mix.
Vixen
We wrap up with a song from the band’s second album Rev It Up. If you guessed that it came out in 1990 like over half of the stuff here, you’d win a prize if there were any prizes. This was not a single from the album and this time frame also marked the end of Vixen’s mainstream run, which isn’t a shock given that the dark figure of 1991 was just around the bend.
While Vixen would lose their record deal in the fallout of alt-rock, they went out with a bang. This song is very well done melodic hard rock. Nice guitars, hot vocals and good arrangement here. Nothing wrong with jamming this hot rocker out at all. It picks up speed at the end as a nice touch too.
So there’s a deliberation process here. I’m not actually going to narrate it, no one wants to read internal monologue. All of these songs are at least good and few are great. It did quickly whittle down to a two-horse race for me, but in the end I found my champion of Bad Reputation.
The Winner – Thin Lizzy
I can’t knock Joan Jett’s song at all, that is a total banger. But in the end I gotta go with the champions of monster guitar. Thin Lizzy edges out Joan Jett to take the crown today in a very close race. These are all really good songs, I might keep the playlist I built to run them down. But there can be only one winner. It was as close to a tie as I can recall on these, maybe there was one more, yet the Irish rock gods take home the prize.
That’s all for today. Be sure to join me this Friday as the Album of the Week moves to a special slot for one time only, in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of my favorite records. It’s also an album with a bad reputation in some parts. See you then.
As a note – I am changing my post order this week. I’m doing a song today, I’ll have a different post on Wednesday, and I’ll do the album of the week on Friday to mark the exact 30th anniversary of that album. The change is simply to accommodate that and things will go back to normal next week.
There was so much music released in 1984 that it’s tough to nail down a song that really defines the year. But one possible candidate is this monster of a theme song for a movie soundtrack, a song so catchy attached to a movie so popular that the song was literally everywhere.
Ray Parker Jr. had formed the R&B group Raydio through the late ’70’s and into 1981. They landed several top ten hits on the singles chart, then Parker went solo and had continued success. But no matter his other accomplishments, his calling card is the Ghostbusters theme song.
This song has quite a story, involving other artists, lawsuits and the whole rigmarole. The movie heads approached Lindsey Buckingham about doing the song – he turned it down, not wanting to be typecast as a soundtrack artist. Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall submitted a song for consideration, but were rejected. Huey Lewis and the News were offered the song but also declined, and that part will be important here in a bit.
In the end Parker was offered the song with very little time to compose it. He came up with the idea of the song being a faux commercial jingle and was off to the races, it was an easy way to create a good song while also incorporating the odd name of the movie.
The song fit the movie like a glove, and both song and movie would see blockbuster success. Ghostbusters would bring in over $200 million dollars, making it the second-best grossing movie of 1984. The movie went on to become a billion dollar franchise with licensing, toys, cartoons and sequels and that money train is still rolling 40 years later.
As for the song, it wound up on a lot of charts and its position was at or near the top of many of them. The song was number one on the charts of seven countries and top ten in at least eleven others. It would remain the number one hit in the US for three weeks and it stayed on the Hot 100 chart for four months. It sold in excess of one million copies in the US, the UK and France. In short -this song was a massive hit.
And the song is about as effective as it could possibly be. Parker worked in a load of supernatural problems one could have and offered up the catchy jingle “who you gonna call?” The refrain of Ghostbusters! Rang through to make a sing-along that everyone could get into, including kids who would want anything Ghostbusters-related. I would know as I was one of those kids – the movie came out just before I turned seven and that’s all we cared about during the summer and well beyond.
The song was aided in popularity by its music video. The clip features shots of the movie and also features an assortment of guest shots from notable actors including John Candy and George Wendt, all of whom agreed to film for free as a favor to movie and video director Ivan Reitman. The video clip was super popular across MTV and became the model for how to market a blockbuster movie in the 1980’s.
All of this success came with the usual trappings, one of those being lawsuits. And one lawsuit was especially compelling – Huey Lewis filed a plagiarism suit, alleging that Parker had used the melody from the song I Want A New Drug, mostly involving the bass line. The lawsuit was settled out of court, with the terms being under lock and key. That would come back to haunt Lewis in the 2000’s, as he discussed the case on VH1. Parker filed suit over that and won, getting back at least a bit of the money he’d lost in the original suit.
And we’d learn that Lewis had one hell of a case – when the film was being put together, I Want A New Drug was used as a placeholder song in many scenes, as the film heads were still hoping to have Lewis do the theme. Parker was given footage to watch that had Lewis’ song in it.
Lawsuits aside, the song was a massive haul for Parker and anyone involved with the movie. Parker had no chance of recapturing that kind of success, but has gone on with a recording and performing career, as well as songwriting and studio ownership. And for us in 1984, the Ghostbusters theme was one hell of a time as we were going nuts in the summer. This was a mark on the culture like no other.
The Crooked Wanderer 