RECORD STORE TALES #1058: I Love It Loud
Lately, after Grab A Stack of Rock on Friday nights, my wife and I have enjoyed watching old 80s music videos. I’m not sure the program she watches – I’m not a TV guy – but they always have a lot of old videos that I remember from childhood, along with a bunch that I don’t. Conversation ensues for a few solid hours, and it’s often the highlight of my week.
“Tears Are Falling” by Kiss is one video that runs semi-regularly. I explained to my wife that I was 13 years old when that video came out, just discovering girls, and hot for the one in the Kiss video. Then on will come an old Scorpions video, or Motley, or Priest, or Ozzy. I’d laugh at all these images I used to take so seriously, and think were so cool! But the songs…they still rock!
Skid Row, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi…all these definitive bands for my teen years.
On comes “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar and I’m splitting my sides, laughing in memories. There is one specific shot. The courtroom scene. The judge is stamping “REVOKED” on Sammy’s driver’s license, in a big close up shot. All you can see is two fingers on the stamp, it’s so close up. My friend Allen Runstetler thought the two fingers looked like a bum.
“Is he stamping his license with his ass?”
Gotta laugh. Wouldn’t put it past an 80s music video to do that, but it was just a hand!
They play a lot of Kix videos on Friday nights. I was never a big Kix fan. They actually play a lot of bands that I never got into, especially from 1990-91-92. I was getting tired of hard rock and seeking heavier sounds like Testament. Danger Danger and the like? Just couldn’t get into ’em. I wanted bands with stellar musicianship and less-silly lyrics by then. A lot of the music I listened to wasn’t exactly respected in musicians’ circles, but could still play circles around the competition. Winger had Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstein. Mr. Big had Paul Gilbert and Common Knowledge. Even Poison joined the upper echelon in 1993 with a stellar album featuring Richie Kotzen on guitar. I wanted music that at least had a little bit of integrity. I wasn’t hearing that so much in Danger Danger.
As the music videos come and go, I feel like I’m in highschool again. Especially when they play “Sleeping My Day Away” by D-A-D!
“Oh my God Jen! I was sitting in Bob Schipper’s basement when this video played on the Power Hour for the first time!” I marveled. “Bob was obsessed with the two-string bass that they had!” And together we’d rock out. In 1989 with Bob, and in 2023 with Jen. Fists still pumping.
When Jen and I first met, she didn’t know any of these songs. She didn’t think she’d even like many of these songs. Now she knows most of ’em by heart. I’d like to consider that a job well done. I’ll talk, and talk, and tell my stories, and for some reason, she loves it! I’ll take that as a life win.
mikeladano.com 
“They play a lot of Kix videos on Friday nights. I was never a big Kix fan.”
Shots fired at me!
I think about your comments about Paul Stanley peeing on the side of his house in the “Tears for Falling” video every single time I pee in my backyard now.
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Sorry man just because you like Kix doesn’t mean I do!
Nothing like a real ODP (outdoor piss)
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Couldn’t tell you the last time I listened to a Kix album. Years.
Pissing outdoors is always a treat. I try to do it whenever possible.
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It’s almost as good as pissing on someone you love.
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Have I ever told you my ritual for peeing outside?
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Nope. Pour it on me.
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I like to raise my hands slightly and recite: “Returning my fluids to the Earth as God intended”.
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No hands on your cock? Me neither, usually. Even indoors. That way I don’t have to wash my hands. Only when I take a shit.
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Hands free. To be free.
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Did you like that Mentors song? I figured you would appreciate it.
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I am listening to Blackout by Scorpions right now but I will check it out soon.
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Have you heard of them? Their debut album, “You Axed For It!” is a treasure trove of vulgarity.
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I have heard OF them, maybe from you! LOL
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I’m a bad influence. If we’d lived on the same street as kids, your parents wouldn’t have let us play together.
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Oh definitely. Just like the older kid next door with the Playboys!
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I had no Playboys! I was pretty good at behaving around parents. As long as you never told on me, we’d have been fine.
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I would probably not, but you’d have to make sure my sister doesn’t find out.
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I was pretty good at avoiding little sisters too because they’re tattletales.
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That’s so sweet you and Jen watch old music videos on TV during Friday nights! What a lovely bonding moment.
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Hey Lana! I know you’re a Kevin fan – don’t miss tomorrow’s show!
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Oh shoot! I’m sorry for reading this so late. I’ll check out the show this week!
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Thanks for featuring my favourite Sammy song.
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Had to! Such an important video, then and now.
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I was in to Danger Danger as they were one of those bands that made rock fun and mindless, and I needed that as I was starting out in the real world with a new job and needed that release. I liked Kix a little, but not in to them as much. Danger Danger got better when Paul joined in.
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Danger Danger with Paul is more my thing because of Paul. But they were really a great example of what I didn’t want in 1991.
They came out with Monkey Business, Skid Row came out with Monkey Business, and I don’t need to tell you which song spoke to me more in 1991.
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They both spoke to me in different ways and I had them both. But, yeah, I get that about Danger Danger and bands around that time. The market was oversaturated and almost a parody of itself. Which is why it died.
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