UNDERATED

Motley Crue came into the public conscience in the early 1980s'. Formed in early 1981, the band was founded by a Frank Feranna. Frank was a teenage runaway who would soon rechristen himself with the name Nikki Sixx. Nikki rounded the band out with drummer Tommy Lee, guitarist Mick Mars, and lead vocalist Vince Neil. Their early live performances hit the sunset strip like a bomb. It was evident, that this was not your mother's rock and roll band. In fact, Motley Crue were your mother's worst nightmare.

From the crazy look, to the satanic imagery, to Nikki lighting himself on fire on stage, Motley Crue were definitely not the role models parents wanted for their children. Teenagers however, fell hopelessly in love with the band. Their multi-million album sales and thousands of sold out concerts all over the world make that clear. Motley Crue were the bad boys of rock, and there was no question about their authenticity. They had the criminal records, broken marriages, and overdoses to prove it.

Over five albums, 1981's "Too fast for love", 1983's "Shout at the devil", 1985's "Theater of Pain", 1987's "Girls, girls, girls", and 1989's "Dr. Feelgood" the band climbed the rungs of the rock and roll ladder until they found themselves on the top of the heap. They ruled the rock roost for a decade, living every debauched, sex crazed, and drug fueled second of the 1980s' not to the fullest, but to overflowing. Against all odds, they did what nobody, even their own record label, thought they could do. They survived it.

The stories of the band's excessive debauchery and drug use are legendary in the annals of rock history. By the time "Dr. Feelgood" came along, the band had cleaned up their act, and seemed to be happy and healthy. In 1991, they released a retrospective, greatest hits album, "Decade of Decandence." The album chronicled the first ten years of their career, and also had a few new and previously unreleased tracks. This too was a huge success. The future looked bright for the crue, but the time to bask in their success was to be short lived.

Motley Crue were a band that truly seemed as if they were a family. Since their inception, they had always portrayed themselves as brothers with a all for one, one for all mentality. That all changed in 1992. The story gets kind of convoluted. It varies depending on who you ask, as to whether singer Vince Neil was fired, or left the band. Whatever the reality was, fans were hit out of nowhere with the news that Neil was no longer in the band.

It's not that odd for a band to change out a member over the course of their career. Whether it's because a member quits, is fired, or even dies, it's not unheard of. But for some reason, for a lot of their fans, it felt different with Motley Crue. Right from the outset, fans seemed to divide themselves up along what side of this divorce they were going to come down on. This was true even among their most dedicated fans. Making the matter even worse, the band seemed to go out of their way to insult Neil in the press every chance they got.

Vince Neil for his part, tried to stay out of the mud slinging, instead getting straight back to work. He released his first solo album, "Exposed" less than a year after his departure from the band. Shortly before this, Motley Crue announced Neil's replacement, former "The Scream" singer John Corabi. Corabi was a mostly unknown commodity. Initially, we began seeing magazine articles with the band glowing about Neil's replacement, with the occasional poster or pin-up shot of the new line up. It was a completely different look from what fans were used to from the crue. In the grand scheme of things, fans seemed to be cautiously hopeful.

It would be another two years before we would finally hear music from the new line up. By that time, the "grunge" movement was in full swing. Los Angeles was no longer the epicenter of the rock universe. Now, it was Seattle, and to say that the slick sound, and glam look of the 80s' bands was out of fashion would be a huge understatement. Many of the Motley Crue's contemporaries were already feeling the sting of both album sales and ticket sales falling off the fiscal cliff.

The band released their 1994 self titled album in March of 1994. Initially, it seemed as if they may fare alright. The lead single, "Hooligan's Holiday" was recieved pretty well, and was even getting some airplay on MTV, which was playing grunge rock, hip-hop, and pop almost exclusively by this point. The album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200, and eventually went gold, a pretty good place to be for most bands. For Motley Crue however, this was a big step backwards. The band hadn't released an album that failed to go platinum since their debut, and many of them were multi-platinum. For the first time in their career however, the critics were actually kinder to the band than they had been in the past, praising them for the heavier sound, and more mature songwriting featured on the album.

With Motley Crue, the real test would be how well the tour performed, as their live show had always been a big driver in their album sales. Sadly, ticket sales for the tour were less than spectacular. On the previous tour the band sold out basketball arenas all over the world. On the 1994 tour, the band was struggling to half fill the secondary venues. They were playing hockey arenas, sheds, and theaters, and eventually had to cancel the remainder of the tour. The album and tour, by Motley Crue standards, were a dismal failure. The most unfortunate part of this, is that I believe this had very little to do with the quality of the album.

From start to finish, the album is in my opinion, the best work of the band's career. It has a much more bottom heavy sound, than their earlier work. Musically, it feels like the next logical step from the "Primal Scream" single from their 1991 greatest hits complilation. Its a heavier, bluesier sound, made even more so by Corabi's unique, gritty, and soulful voice. From the first note of the opening track, "Power to the Music" it's abundantly clear that this is not the same Motley Crue that made "Home sweet home" or "Dr. Feelgood." This was a different beast entirely.

Not only was John's voice the diametric opposite of Vince Neil's thin, nasal, whine. He also played guitar. And as icing on the cake, he was an amazing songwriter to boot. It was the first time in the bands career that Nikki Sixx didn't pen every lyric on the album. I believe this additional mind in the songwriting mix, probably helped to spark even more creativity in the already extremely talented and driven Sixx. The album flows from beginning to end better than probably any other album in the band's career, and is without a doubt more cohesive as an album in it's entirety.

The second single, "Misunderstood", was a different type of ballad than fans were used to from the band. Instead of your run of the mill love song, it took a deep at life, time, and how people later in life sometimes feel like they've been forgotten or misunderstood. "Smoke the sky" was another single that I felt was among the very best songs of the bands career. It was a balls out, no holds barred, rock and roll assault. The video was rather good as well, unfortunately by that time in the cycle the band had been written off by radio and MTV for all intents and purposes. In the end, Motley Crue went the way of so many of their contemporaries in the 90s. Like the dinosaurs, they disappeared almost overnight. Grunge rock had ushered in the age of the anti-rock star. In the opinion of this writer, one of the most tragic casualties of the grunge revolution, was this album.

Luckily for Motley Crue, after a couple of lean years, they folded to the pressure of the record company, the marketers, and the concert promotors. They fired John Corabi, and brought back Vince Neil. After one dicey record, "Generation Swine", the band finally got back on track in the begining of the new millenium. Many of their contemporaries were never so lucky. Luckily for Corabi, all these years later, the 1994 album is viewed much more fondly than it was when it was released. It may have taken a while, but that is in the end, the work that launched Corabi into the rock and roll mainstream. He's continued to work both as a solo act, and in several other bands since, including Union, with former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick.

If you've never given this album a chance, then I highly suggest that you do so. It's probably one of my top ten favorite rock and roll albums of all time, and it's definitely my favorite Motley Crue album. As for Motley Crue, they never play any of the material from the album in their live sets. Corabi did a tour a few years ago, where he played it in it's entirety. By all accounts, it was a pretty successful outing. The album will celebrate it's 30th anniversary in 2024. Whether we will see a new 30th anniversary remix or box set remains to be seen. But, I'm not ashamed to admit, that I'm secretly hoping for a reunion tour.