Sunday, June 03, 2007

Ten things I think about hard rock/metal in 1987

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


1-Despite having numerous songs severely overplayed on the radio, Whitesnake's self-titled album has still held up pretty well.



2-It's a shame Possessed broke up because I think they were just coming into their own with the "Eyes of horror" ep.



3-I still don't understand why Anthrax thought it was a good idea to record "I'm the man".



4-The "Eternal Idol" was a pretty solid album, but I still have problems accepting it as real Sabbath.



5-The $5.98 ep still cost more than it was worth.



6-The Ozzy/Randy Rhoads Tribute album was easily better than the two Jake E. Lee studio albums.



7-I think Celtic Frost were really onto something with "Into the pandemonium".



8-Armored Saint put out another killer album in "Raising Fear" but went largely unnoticed.



9-This was the year I realized that Motley Crue were never going to get back to the level of "Too fast for love"and "Shout at the devil".



10-Guns and Roses' "Appetite for destruction" livened up the metal scene and probably extended the life of metal by a couple of years.





***What do you think about hard rock/metal in 1987?

15 Comments:

Blogger aXe mAn said...

I think that 1987 was a great year for metal. It was at the height of its popularity, and several great albums came out. Including:
Def Leppard "Hysteria"
Motley Crue "Girls Girls Girls"
Whitesnake s/t
Dokken "Back For The Attack"
Y&T "Contagious"
GnR "Appetite For Destruction"
Aerosmith "Permanent Vacation"
Savatage "Hall Of The Mountain King"

& many many more!

7:12 AM  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

Those were great comments, Mark! 1987 is one of my favorite years period, and even though it didn't work out so well, having Monica in my life at the time was great, though everyone called her Monkey Woman.

I remember squabbling with her because she tried to impress me when she bought Europe's The Final Countdown and said she finally found something heavy we could appreciate together. I felt shit later, but I laughed at her. I think our only common ground was Stryper. I should've let her keep those tapes in Frostburg.

I think of Headbangers Ball and how important it was for me to be there watching. I wish I'd kept the interviews instead of taping just the videos.

I think that Motley Crue would've been unsalvageable if not for Dr. Feelgood. I felt like the bands I loved in the early eighties were betraying us one-by-one. Crue sucked then. Def Leppard sucked then. Priest sucked then, of all things. I remember us thinking Maiden might've sucked since they were tinkering with synths, but I still love Somewhere in Time.

I think of all the guitar heroes trying to outdo one another and still TNT just seemed to be so graceful about it, though Tell No Tales is much wimpier than their previous album. That seemed to be trend, the wussing down of metal, but at the same time, thrash and death metal was rescuing it from total annihilation.

I can on about this forever...

7:36 AM  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

Oh yeah, Monica would kill me, but the single greatest moment of 1987 was coming back on Black Rock Road after hiking trying to get her to work on time in that piece of shit Escort I had, and I was playing Anvil, which was pissing her off, but what pissed her off even more was that she had to change clothes in my car as we drove. It was innocent in retrospect with a slightly R-rated touch to it. The rest I'll keep to myself not that it's anything juicy, but it was a wonderful memory. For me, anyway. Anvil and a partially naked girlfriend in the car. Nice.

7:39 AM  
Blogger The Lone Beader® said...

My Buick is as old as that G&R album. And, both sound like they are brand new! LOL.

10:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

1987 was 20 years ago, and I was in my mid-30s. That's all I can remember. That's what happens when you get to be 55; your memory fades.

1:08 PM  
Blogger earlcapps said...

Agreed - 1987 was a great year for metal, and a lot of it had to do with GnR.

3:13 PM  
Blogger David Amulet said...

Great list. Number 10 is especially imporant 20 years later.

-- david

4:25 PM  
Blogger captain corky said...

Appetite for Destruction is probably one of the top 5 best albums of the 1980's.

6:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

1987 was the peak for Metal and Hard Rock. So many bands released solid albums.

Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation
Deep Purple - The House Of Blue Light
Def Leppard - Hysteria
Dokken - Back For The Attack
Frehley's Comet - s/t
GNR - Appetite For Destruction
KISS - Crazy Nights
Whitesnake - s/t
Black Sabbath - The Eternal Idol
Manowar - Fighting The World

I could keep going.....

10:32 PM  
Blogger bob_vinyl said...

1. At least Whitesnake's s/t isn't any worse now than it was then.
2. But the Possessed's demise led to the formation of Primus. Doesn't that exite you? Me neither.
3. Anthrax did "I'm the Man," because it was fun. It still is.
4. I don't think I spent much time with any BS album after Born Again, because i sucked so bad. I bet Tony Iommi would agree with you about that album though.
5. Maybe it should have been the free EP, but even then it'd be a tough sell.
6. Tribute didn't really feel like a tribute to me. Maybe it was a tribute by Sharon to money. Maybe I'm too cynical about Ozzy.
7. They were onto something alright: The road to Cold Lake.
8. I don't remember than album well, but you're probably right, because they were underrated.
9. I realized that the first time I heard "Home Sweet Home." It made me glad I'd broadened my horizons beyond metal.
10. It took me a long time to appreciate GnR, so in 1987, I still thought they were just stupid.

11:18 PM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

Bob-I'm the man is more annoying than fun. Into the pandemonium is not connected to Cold Lake. Cold Lake was a horrible idea all on it's own.

4:05 AM  
Blogger bob_vinyl said...

I knew I was off-base with the Celtic Frost comment, but I don't know them well and couldn't think of anything better.

6:36 AM  
Blogger :P fuzzbox said...

Shout At The Devil never was equaled by the Crue. But they did put out a lot of good tunes trying.

8:52 AM  
Blogger MrRyanO said...

LOL! I was jsut listening to "I'm The Man" the other day. Yeah, why did they do that??? LOL!

11:53 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

I was 15 and just short of driving age in NY. I made so many mix tapes with songs released that year in preperation of me driving I can't even count. I was glued to Headbangers Ball every Saturday night too.

Does that answer the question?

9:08 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home