A writing riff...I was there...80s Metal

In the not to distant past if you wanted tunes you relied on a network of friends...you needed someone to have "acquired" the album, I say acquired because when you are 14, stoned and broke, running out Sound Warehouse with a copy of Van Halen II doesn't seem all that crazy! If you bought it, so be it, records were what 8 bucks, either way... once the original was available you needed a tape player w/ recorder, or if the "original" was a tape; tape to tape with high speed dubbing was the way to go. You needed blank tapes. You needed someones pad with the gear and cool parents...


It just so happens my old man's love of vinyl is just as intense as mine and his network even more expansive so we had the best gear the pawn shops could acquire, awesome turntables, amps 'n recorders and my parents are cool as shit.  I had/have a few albums, decent amount, but many were my brothers or sisters that I "kept". But borrowing from a buddy or friend of a friend was a right of passage, swapping what you had, something you thought worthy of buying (or stealing) and felt a certain sense of pride in lending out. It was one of your prized possession so you borrowed as you lent, you see by getting an album back, a kind of collateral was established and it was a confirmation of your coolness. 


One condition was, well condition! As long as it came back in the EXACT same condition! Many a friendship was damaged due to new scratches/skips, torn sleeves or heat or water damage! I still have a very warped copy of Back in Black....lent to a buddy, he put it next to the furnace and damned if it didn't warp the shit out of that record. I could play half the album, it was years before I even heard "Have a Drink on Me" all the way through.


A reoccurring theme as of late is the way it is so easy to get music today, for Metalheads is was really tough back-in-da-day! We as kids had to literally wait for M-M-M-Metal Shop every Friday Night to get any fix or info. on who, what, where... I remember the first time I heard Dio's opus Holy Diver on the radio, I freaked out! On the radio RJD solo we were like who the hell is that awesome guitar player! It turns out it was little-known Irish player Vivian Campbell, given his big break by one of the godfathers of Metal only to turn his back on Metal and RJD to join....def leppard.....a band that I actually loved for a brief time...I still remember ditching school going to the mall where my buddy Peanut bought...Pyromania.... after "school" we went back to my house, into my room with a six pack of Schlitz Malt-Tall Boys and proceeded to be really disappointed....we had advanced warning things had pussified since High -n- Dry... but to hear what came out of my speakers was like a kick in the balls! We had all loved these guys, young , tough drunks from the mean streets of Sheffield but what we got was bandannas, hair-color and pop metal! ( in hindsight Pyro is almost Death Metal compared to the fluff that came after Rick Allen's arm got torn off... that shit on the subsequent records is the epitome of SELL OUT...don't even get me started on Van Halen!) I blame Def Lep for the whole 80's Hair Band thing that is so much a part of popular American thinkin' when it comes to Metal.... MTV got a hold of the industry made 'em look like fags and we got shit music in return. 


Proof! Pre-MTV D.L.....note the booze! There was time when I wanted to be Rick Savage...another bad-bromance?

Post MTV d.l...gone are "Steaming" Steve and Willis they partied too hard for little Joey n Rick.,well Clark did die because of drugs n booze but still ...gone too is Allen's left arm.....cool-O! 
                                                        Gay looking but not Gay!?!

Yeah most of us hardcore metal dudes were disappointed but also galvanized! The success of DL or Motley Crue and crap like that created a very distinct line in the sand, it was easy to spot the Posers!! With the more crap that came out disguised as Heavy Metal an underground sound was emerging heavy-louder, aggressive and pissed, it began slowly but all the sudden there were bands with hair down to their waist wearing leather w/spikes and studs and the music was good, tight and fast and much more evil in content and image, it was like an occult version of Judas Priest on meth...with real spikes! 


                                        Halford with Hair n Studs....Gay but not gay looking!?!

                                       King with Hair n Spikes! KICK ASS!

Here's a little tale I want to share, a bit of a tangent but what is ESG if not one big tangent! This tale involves Slayer,Drugs, Alcohol and the Supernatural yep I said it...Supa-Natural... 


It is true. If you care to believe, cool, if not, cool too, I've never told anyone, four of us were there and I bet the other three have not told anyone either so let me be the first.


I first heard Slayer's Show No Mercy had to be early '84 my girlfriend had a friend...


She had starting dating this drummer, I played some still so it was like you guys hang out and get to know each other, I was cool with that, they come pick us up on a Friday night, it's winter cold windy... We hear 'em coming from in the house! Sound system blaring right through the closed doors from a block away. Dude rolls up in a red 1971 Camaro, totally 80s style, jacked up in the back, big fat tires on Cragars 'n everything! Kick Ass! Blaring the fastest heaviest shit I ever heard! Mexican dude with long,long black hair wearing a black leather MC jacket smoking a joint with my girl's girl sitting shotgun...grinning from ear to ear! 


I was a skinny little dude back then but was tough enough, could drink allot could smoke more, but these two were up to some shit! Anyway we give each other the international cool dude head nod and me and my girl we crawl in the back... and he punches it we take off like a rocket we are slammed into the seats and they are laughing their heads off! It didn't take long to realize were in a rocket ship and the capt. and co-pilot are tripping out of their minds! We are not a block away and I got a doobie in one hand a Budweiser in the other and Slayer on the system,( to listen to 'Mercy now it's slow and not scary but trust me I had just turned 17 and Slayer sounded like hell itself and it was sooo heavy!!!!) We rode all night stopping to piss in the bushes and buying more beer he puts in Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Venom just the heaviest most evil shit I had ever heard... and it started to snow... so of course someone says lets go to Trans-Mountain! In retrospect to ascend the steepest grade in town during a snow storm in a supped up Camaro while the driver is tripping and passengers are buzzing hard does not sound like a solid life choice but when you are 17 and you got a girl, beer, smoke, a hot-rod Camaro and Metal you go!


yeah it was kinda like this...

T-Mountain..fun all year round!

As we drove too fast through a heavy west Texas desert snow storm the music never let up this dude could flip tapes in so fast none of us could speak it was all hand gestures....until. In the middle of the empty highway far from everything in a raging snow storm is a person shaped being in camouflage ( nobody wore camo back then except dudes in the army) and we are racing towards this figure at light speed the four of us blasted out of our minds, someone, or all of us gasped or screamed and time stopped.


We drove on... never slowed...never stopped we drove right on through as the snow peppered the windshield... I can still see him, a seemingly solid being  his dead-black eyes staring back at us, he looked familiar like a cashier at the 7-11 you see twice a week but don't  really know.. dark hair, Chicano in a camo Jacket, jeans...he stared back at us, at four kids in the night out having fun, bad fun, the best fun. We got to the top of Trans Mt road, got out, it was really cold we didn't talk about it but it was understood we had seen something that was meant for us! 


The music was off on the way down the mountain... sobriety or something like it had taken over, giggles and stoner smiles had become yawns and nodding off, we got home that night and began to try and forget. I have never told a soul about it but I can't hear Slayer without seeing that dude and thinking about that night...Soon after I borrowed Mr. 666s copy of Show No Mercy and Haunting the Chapel and have been a follower ever since.....


Almost 30 years later and what did it mean? Not sure, and that is how it is, you see something unexplainable, you digest it but never quite get over it.         




"Evil will take your Soul....Evil my wrath unfolds!"   EPIC! 



" The source of evil liiiggggghhhht!" "Source of Satan's might!"


Then....maybe Joe's jacket & Savage's Butt-Pirate shirt are harbingers...of the fag-y-ness to come!


Allen was soo good with two arms....cool-O! Clark n Willis were the shit too! So basically I hate Elliot n Savage n everyone else who ever played in this band afterwards...it makes sense now!



Now...


Teen-Tank post-traumatic-self-medicating-coping....I was flannel-cool or is that a bank-y? If I had a dollar for every time I passed out on that couch...!

Tank-Peanut-Mr.666 mid-80s... we survived the Def Lep deception and free Lite Beer shirts!

Note Mr.666's Metal Up Your Ass shirt ....he would not be caught dead in a Metallica shirt now! But that as they say is a whole other story of deception,Metal-treason and heartbreak of the highest degree!