REVIEW: Mötley Crüe – “Beauty” (1997 promo single with “Audio Bio”)

MÖTLEY CRÜE – “Beauty” (1997 Elektra promo single)

Generation Swine was a weird album, and “Beauty” was a weird single. Just the facts.

Swine was a “reunion” album with Vince Neil, yet there are several songs with other members singing lead. Not the usual thing to do for a reunion album with your original lead singer!  “Beauty” was one of the songs with multiple singers:  Tommy Lee is credited for “Beauty and Head vocals”.  Not only that, but Vince doesn’t sound like Vince, singing the verses in a low register.  It was definitely an odd choice as the second single, when fans were expecting a return to the 80s.  Not happening here!  Produced by Scott Humphrey, Generation Swine dipped its toes into techno, with “Beauty” being one track that sounds nothing like Motley Crue.

Promo singles are usually not worth buying.  They are strictly for collectors now who have to have everything.  This one, however, might be of wider interest.

Track 1 is just the album version of “Beauty”.  Vince sings the verses in that low voice, but the samples and drum loops are more disorienting.  They were going for a more urban groove here, with mixed results.  The lyrics, referencing prostitution, are apparently about Hugh Grant.  “She got me thrown in jail, my black beauty, she’s still up for sale.”  Motley Crue had the balls to put Hugh Grant’s mugshot on the CD, which makes it immediately interesting enough to be collectible.

Track 2 is perhaps more interesting.  This “Audio Bio” features some pretty crazy quotes.  From Rolling Stone:  “The perfect union of ZZ Top celebration, and Nine Inch Nails self-immolation!”  From Billboard:  “There’s no denying the chemistry between Vince Neil and bandmates Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars.”  What??  What chemistry?  Did you even listen to the album?  MTV calls the album impressive, and Guitar World simply said “fuck yeah!”  It’s really hilarious with hindsight.  It also exposes these magazines for the hacks they often are.  Not really listening, just writing what they’re told.

Give it a listen for yourself.

No point rating a promo out of five.  Score one in the wild if you can, for the Hugh Grant mugshot and the unintentionally hilarious bio.

 

12 comments

  2. That’s great, Mike. I’ve never heard the song but I remember well the Hugh Grant incident which happened in 1995. I was walking in Boston with a friend and we saw the story on the front page of a tabloid newspaper. Henry. 

    Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

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        1. Remember when he threw a bottle into the crowd and injured a girl?

          Hit Parader fabricated a quote used against him in court: “That’s what rock stars have lawyers, man.”

          Bach personally confronted Andy Secher over it. When you read 80s HP interviews, they were largely fabricated. You can tell. All the interviews were very similar in wording. As if the same writer was coming up with them.

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        2. What a rag. I remember the bottle thing. Didn’t Bach say something about it being an adjustment from playing clubs? Reminds me of the time Seth Putnam decked that woman who grabbed his microphone cord. There’s a video that one. He’s pulled off camera, but you can hear the thonk of the metal hitting her face. Then all the people there who sound like stoned hippies start yelling at them to leave.

          “Get your fatass out of here, man!”

          “My ass isn’t fat, my stomach is.”

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        3. I don’t remember Bach saying that. There’s video of it, on one of their VHS tapes. It was during Piece of Me on the first tour. Someone hit Bach with a bottle…he said “You wanna take a piece of me?” and they started the song. He whipped it back into the crowd and hit the wrong person. Permanently disfigured a girl.

          It became known as “the bottle incident”.

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        4. I didn’t know she was disfigured. That’s fucked. Pretty sure Seth went to jail for his thing, and that woman wasn’t disfigured. What money can do for you I guess.

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