KICK AXE as SPECTRE GENERAL – “Hunger” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stand In Our Way”
from Transformers: The Movie original motion picture soundtrack (1986 BMG)
Although the recordings were not released until 1986, it makes sense to talk about “Hunger” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stand In Our Way” now, in terms of storytelling. After the Vices album was completed in 1984, Kick Axe were tasked to contribute to another project. And it wasn’t a movie soundtrack.
Producer Spencer Proffer was scheduled to go into the studio with Black Sabbath — a Black Sabbath still fronted by Ian Gillan, though not for long. Proffer felt that Sabbath needed fresh ideas and recruited Kick Axe to write some. Though details are murky, we do know that Gillan left Black Sabbath abruptly to record Perfect Strangers with Deep Purple. Kick Axe frontman George Criston was one of the singers that Tony Iommi was interested in as his replacement. Whatever happened, no recordings of Sabbath with Criston have surfaced, but we do have the songs Kick Axe wrote for the sessions.
In a strange coincidence, they all first came out on November 9 1985, on two separate albums. W.A.S.P.’s The Last Command (produced by Proffer) featured the Quiet Riot-like “Running Wild in the Streets”, though without proper writing credit. Another album produced by Proffer was released the same day: Ready to Strike by King Kobra. “Piece of the Rock” and hit single “Hunger” were written by Kick Axe for the Sabbath project.
Ultimately, “Hunger” by Kick Axe did finally come out in the summer of 1986. Too late, perhaps, considering people assumed it was a generic cover of a King Kobra song. Especially since no one had ever heard of…Spectre General?
Who the hell is Spectre General?!
For reasons unknown but said to be contractual, Kick Axe couldn’t release their own song under their own name, so Proffer invented Spectre General, and that’s how they’re credited in Transformers: The Movie. The band didn’t even know about it. They had two songs on the original 10 track album: “Hunger”, and a new song called “Nothing’s Gonna Stand In Our Way”, written for their next record Welcome to the Club.
Perhaps it’s the familiarity of the King Kobra recording, but this version of “Hunger” does stand in its shadow. Both Mark (Marcie) Free and George Criston are stellar vocalists, and the Free version just had more…weight. Kick Axe’s original is heavier and chunkier, so perhaps in that way it’s actually superior. “Nothing’s Gonna Stand in Our Way” is an upbeat number, hook-laden, with the trademark Kick Axe “chug” and backing vocals. It’s pretty essential to have both these tracks to augment a Kick Axe collection.
Besides not getting their real name in the album, other contributions by Weird Al Yankovic and Stan Bush were featured more prominently in the movie than the two “Spectre General” songs. The band Lion got to do the movie theme song. Those were some memorable movie moments to any kid in the theater, particularly the Stan Bush selections.
It’s pretty amazing that Kick Axe came up with “Hunger” but were never really recognized for it. It’s a great song and their original version of it is the proof. Also strong, “Nothing’s Gonna Stand in Our Way” would have made a fine addition to the next album. Clearly, the Canadian quintet had big league talent the whole time.
4.5/5 stars
Nothing’s Gonna Stand in Our Way is major awesome. I might have to investigate this “Spectre General” a bit more…
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Well y’know, these guys are an important part of mid-80s Sabbath. Worth checking out and wondering what Sabbath could have done.
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Maybe. I like the direction Sabbath took anyway
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Me too. But I also like the idea of alternate history, both in fiction and in music!
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I do too, but mainly when it’s big name people, and Kick Axe isn’t really big name enough to pique my curiosity
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I’d like to listen to this.
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Me, I’d like to hear whatever they did with Sabbath….
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That does sound interesting.
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The Sabbath connection is pretty cool. That would be awesome if there were any recordings…someday, maybe they will surface.
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A lot of Sabbath stuff has leaked. I had the stuff with Ray Gillen years ago, and I have some stuff with Dave Donato and Dave Walker too. No Criston material has surfaced if it exists, nor any demos of these songs. Imagine a Sabbath version of “Hunger”.
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I’m trying to recall back in 86 about these songs on this soundtrack and I can’t recall. I’m sure if I did I would have bought the damn thing even though I wasn’t big on soundtracks.
Kick Axe had talent and with both Blackie Sabbath(did u get that?) pooching material and in Iommi’s case almost pooching the lead singer for his band these K.A were the deal!
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BLACKIE SABBATH
Iommi probably stole a lot of band members. Ozzy too for that matter.
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Those two guys were the original Lynch Mob at poaching players
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Nice to see Dare to Be Stupid make an appearance!
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And since seeing this movie was a rite of passage, you know that song came from the Eric Idle scene!
Right? RIGHT?
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