Already seen The Dirt? Watch this then.
Back in 1990, before Motley Crue released their own Decade of Decadence video, MuchMusic made one themselves. And it’s pretty good. They were already gearing up for the ill-fated Motley ’94 album. “No ballads,” says Nikki Sixx. It was a good time to be a Crue-head.
Youtube would not allow the music videos that were a part of this documentary. They have been edited out.
The 1993 American Music Awards – Favourite Country Single. Just the place for Motley Crue to introduce their brand new singer John Corabi, right? Am I right?
Billy Ray Cyrus was the winner for “Achy Breaky Heart”.
Poor John, what a debut.
You wanted the Dirt? We got the Dirt. The real Dirt, right from the horse’s mouth, not some actor who used to play Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones.
These clips were recorded from the Motley Crue Spotlight on MuchMusic in late 1990 and has three parts:
1. 1984 interview with Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil
2. 1985 interview with Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee
3. 1990 interview with Vince Neil
Subjects discussed include Motley Crue as the “good guys”, touring and drinking with Y&T, and Vancouver.
You’re right Tommy; that car accident was a “misfortune”.
Rest in peace Razzle Dingley.
GETTING MORE TALE #681: Bad Lessons
Parents of the 80s were always concerned about the impressions that their kids were getting from music videos. Objectifying women? Drug and alcohol use? Absolutely a concern. But what about other misleading lessons from the music video age?
Bad Lesson #1: You can play guitar with gloves on!
You’re guilty, Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P.! You too, Jeff Pilson of Dokken! You both played your instruments in music videos while wearing full leather gloves. As children, we simply assumed if it got cold outside, you could continue to play your guitar with gloves on. I’m not talking fingerless gloves, but full coverage.
It doesn’t really look cold in that Dokken video for “Burning Like a Flame”. Why the gloves, Jeff? George Lynch isn’t even wearing a shirt.
Bad Lesson #2: Great hair just happens.
How many music videos of the 80s showed the band members doing up their hair? None! Probably due to the “hairspray” stigma of the 80s. Some videos showed the band members literally getting out of bed, with hair intact. I assumed that once you grew your hair long enough and had it cut by a professional, it would just automatically look cool every morning. Naturally, I had bad hair for years. Thanks, rock stars. Don’t be embarrassed by your hair care products!
Bad Lesson #3: Guitars are eeeeasy to play!
Since we didn’t fully comprehend that music videos were mimed, and not an actual performance, we assumed guitars were easy to play! After all, they made it look so easy! C.C. DeVille could jump around and swing his guitar everywhere without missing a note. Others would just…hit their guitars…and the song played on! Paul Stanley seemed to play his without even touching it. You can imagine how we felt when we actually bought our first guitars ourselves. Hitting it didn’t play a song, it just made a hitting sound. We were lied to!
Players like DeVille and Jeff Labar of Cinderella also made it look far too easy to swing your guitars over your shoulders. We damaged some necks and some ceilings trying to imitate these guys. We learned you had to buy strap locks or watch your guitar get launched skyward.
Bad Lesson #4: Adulthood involves walking the streets at night with your boyz.
As young impressionable kids, we didn’t know what adulthood was really about. We saw our dads go to work every day. Mom worked hard too. But what about before they met and got married and settled down to have kids? What was life like at that stage? Judging by Dokken, Journey or Motley Crue videos, adulthood meant walking around town a lot with your buds. Some bands even cruised in cars! Is this what growing up looked like?
“Don’t Go Away Mad” (by the most Mötleyest of Crües) is guilty on two counts: plenty of downtown walkin’, and Vince waking up with hair perfectly coiffed.
Bad Lesson #5: Getting arrested is no big deal!
David Lee Roth was led away in handcuffs in the “Panama” music video. Bobby Dall of Poison got arrested in one of their clips, too. Let’s not forget Sammy Hagar getting busted for speeding in “I Can’t Drive 55”. But it’s all good – the guys were all there at the end of the songs. No big deal!
It was never the alcohol, or devil worship, or women that made rock videos dangerous. Turns out it was the mundane stuff. Who knew long hair was so hard to upkeep? They never told us that. How naive we were!
GETTING MORE TALE #656: The One They Call Dr. Feelgood
Hard rock peaked in the summer of 1989 with Dr. Feelgood. The charts were already filled with hard rock acts. Warrant were picking up steam. White Lion and Winger were getting airplay. Bon Jovi and Def Leppard were still raking it in with their last albums, New Jersey and Hysteria. Aerosmith were back. All we needed was the return of Motley Crue.
The Crue were not exactly laying low, but they did have problems to resolve. Nikki Sixx “died” of a heroin overdose on December 23 1987, but was revived with a shot of adrenaline right to the heart. Then he had to deal with a lawsuit from an imposter named Matthew Trippe, who claimed he took over the role of “Nikki Sixx” in 1983 and was owed royalties. Both these incidents inspired new songs. “Kickstart My Heart” was about by the overdose and subsequent recovery. “Say Yeah” took a shot at Matthew Trippe and that whole strange situation.
Fearing the band would end up dead if he did nothing, manager Doc McGhee sent the band into rehab (except for Mick Mars who quit drinking on his own accord). Then, a clean Motley Crue headed up to Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver to work with Bob Rock for the first time.
Bob Rock was on a roll. He finished up the soon-to-be-mega-successful Sonic Temple for The Cult and was recognized for the sound he was able to capture, particularly on the drums. He was also excellent at playing babysitter with musicians who were notoriously hard to work with. To minimize infighting, Rock split Motley up and had them all record separately. And because Aerosmith were in town recording Pump, Steven Tyler dropped by. He offered support for the newly clean band, and vocals on a new track called “Slice of Your Pie”.
The Crue’s first gig clean and sober was the Moscow Music Peace Festival in August of 1989. Although they had finished a new album, they played no new songs, saving them for proper release and promotion. Instead they played oldies from Girls, Girls, Girls, Theater of Pain, Shout at the Devil and Too Fast For Love. It was anything but peaceful. The gig, organized by McGhee, had been pitched to the bands involved as an equal opportunity. Bon Jovi, who McGhee also managed, were arguably the best known in Russia, as they were the only one with an official release there. They were booked to play last, but McGhee stressed there was no “headliner”. There was already friction between bands, because Ozzy Osbourne felt he should have been the headliner. Black Sabbath were massively popular with Russian rock fans, although they had to scour bootleg markets to find any.
Vince Neil live at the Moscow Music Peace Festival 08/12/1989 – Robert D. Tonsing/AP
Things came to a head when Bon Jovi featured pyro in their set, which none of the other bands had. Motley Crue interpreted this as favouritism towards Bon Jovi. Tommy Lee responded by ripping the shirt off Doc McGhee’s back. Motley Crue fired him and headed home on their own.
This drama did nothing to defuse Motley Crue’s momentum. Their new album Dr. Feelgood was released on September 1 1989, eventually going #1 and spawning five hit singles.
Meanwhile back in Canada, I was following all the Motley news with great anticipation. A Hit Parader magazine interview implied that Dr. Feelgood was so ambitious, it might even turn into a concept album. In fact the band had so many new songs that a second album, called Motley Crue: The Ballads was considered for 1990 release. The concept at that point was to do a new Motley Crue studio album that was all-heavy, no ballads. The softer songs would be saved for the second LP. Ultimately they got cold feet and realised putting out an album with no ballads in 1989 was commercially stupid, and so Dr. Feelgood was released with a mixture of tracks – the best 10 songs and one intro.
“Dr. Feelgood” was the first single, and it dominated airwaves just as summer holidays were ending. It, and “Love in an Elevator” by Aerosmith were absolutely everywhere. “Feelgood” had the edge with me, due to its massive drum sound and serious vibe. Bob Rock captured what might have been the biggest drum sound since Zeppelin, or Creatures of the Night by Kiss. Either way, Motley and Aerosmith really put Little Mountain Sound on the map as the studio to beat.
I tried to catch “Feelgood” on the radio and record it, but failed. Instead I bought the cassette single at the local Zellers store. Considering how many tracks the band worked up for Feelgood, I hoped they would be releasing non-album B-sides. They did not. Instead, “Feelgood” was backed by “Sticky Sweet”, probably the weakest album track.
I wondered what happened to all those unreleased songs that Hit Parader mentioned. “Say Yeah” was not on the album or singles. Neither were “Get It For Free” or “Rodeo”. (We’d have to wait another 10 years for them to be issued on the “Crucial Crue” remastered series.) A CD could hold almost 80 minutes of music, but Dr. Feelgood was the standard 45 minutes long. Since CDs were so expensive at the time, some fans argued “You have room, so put all the tracks on there and give us the value for our money.” Of course, this attitude changed later on, when listeners realised that albums with lots of extra filler were not as much fun to listen to. And, sadly, the unreleased Motley songs were pretty much filler. The stuff that went on Dr. Feelgood was as good as they had.
Dr. Feelgood was one of the first CDs I ever got, on Christmas Day 1989, along with my first CD player. The sonics of the album were everything they were hyped to be, but what really impressed me were the silences of compact disc. I was used to tape hiss. As “Time For Change” slowly faded out to nothing, I cranked the volume to 10. It was amazing to hear the fadeout clearly, without the tape hiss that had become part and parcel of music listening.
The album earned some great reviews for its sound, songs and even some of the lyrics. “Time For Change” revealed a new more mature direction. “Kickstart My Heart” took a serious subject and made it inspiring without wimping out. “When I get high, I get high on speed, top fuel funnycar’s a drug for me.” Some called it Motley’s best album, and still hold it as such.
As the album rocketed up the charts, Motley embarked on an 11 month tour. Most of the new album received live attention, with five songs being part of the regular set. One person who was paying attention to this was Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Lars fell hard for the Motley drum sound, and sought out Bob Rock to produce their next album too. The rest is history. Like Motley before them, Bob Rock helped push Metallica into the upper echelons.
On Monday June 18 1990, Motley Crue headlined at the SkyDome in Toronto. The following day, June 19, the highschool halls were flooded with Motley Crue T-shirts. Where were all these “fans” last year when I seemed to be about one of two people in school who liked Motley Crue? It was always so bizarre to see concert shirts on people who never expressed interest in the band. All those girls who always seemed to say, “I hate Montley Crue”!
What goes up, must come down. Motley relapsed after partying too hard with the Skid Row guys. Infighting ramped up. As the band were set and poised to top Dr. Feelgood with something truly special, they fired Vince Neil. It was as if they were handed the keys to the kingdom, to promptly throw them off the mountain. Although their 1994 album with John Corabi is a monster (and possibly their all-time best), as a commercial entity, Dr. Feelgood was never surpassed. It eventually sold over six million copies.
We’ll have to see how Motley portray it in their movie The Dirt, but the truth is that Dr. Feelgood was a one-off mega-success story they’d never repeat.
JOHN CORABI – One Night in Nashville (2018 RatPak)
John Corabi needs no introduction in these pages. We have ranted and raved about the awesome 1994 Motley Crue album and the complimentary Quaternary EP. We’ve broken down the details of his departure from Motley Crue and the chaos that followed. We’ve also gone on record loving the Union project with Bruce Kulick. In short, John Corabi can’t really do much wrong in our books.
One Night in Nashville is John’s live run-through of the entire Motley Crue album with his ace band, including his son Ian on drums. Many of these songs have never been played live, and never in sequence like this. Veteran producer Michael Wagener ensured a kickass sound.
Ian Corabi has no problem duplicating Tommy Lee’s hard hitting style on opener “Power to the Music”. John’s voice is still more than capable of shredding these songs two decades later. His rasp and power have barely ebbed. Compare this to Motley Crue’s final live album The End and…actually, no don’t compare. Corabi buries The End.
“Uncle Jack” is one of the most pounding tracks on this CD. It was a departure for Motley Crue, a deadly serious track, and John nails every scream. The guitarist also duplicates Mick Mars’ underrated solo, note for note. Yes, underrated. Mars is rarely given the credit he deserves for creating his own style, and thereby defining the sound of the Crue.
If you know the album then you know these songs; if you don’t then buckle the fuck up.
Through the single “Hooligan’s Holiday”, Corabi and Co. breath life into songs we only know from the album. “Everybody wants a piece of the pie” — at least in this Nashville crowd they do, soaking up every riff and blistering scream. Even the complicated “Misunderstood” burns it down. Guitars instead of keyboards, backing band instead of Glenn Hughes, and it’s full speed ahead. Once again the solo is note for note, but there’s a brand new outro where it once faded.
“Loveshine” is a bit of a respite, a nice little acoustic jam a-la Zeppelin III. These last two songs are so far above and beyond what Motley Crue were capable of when Vince Neil was in the band. Corabi opened up entire new soundscapes for them to explore, and “Loveshine” is cool on the psychedelic side. Back to the rock, “Poison Apples” is a tribute to glam rock and what Motley Crue are about. “Took a Greyhound bus down to Heartattack and Vine, with a fist full o’ dreams n’ dimes…” Of all the tracks on Motley Crue, “Poison Apples” was the closest to the original Motley sound, and John owns it.
This is where you’d flip sides on the original album, so it’s the perfect spot for telling a story: track 7, “John Joins the Band”. He got the call before it was even announced that Vince had left the band, and he couldn’t say a word to anybody. One of the first songs they wrote together was “Hammered”, an old riff that John brought to the band. Even darker is “Til Death Do Us Part” which was actually supposed to be the title of the album at one point. It’s one of many long bombers, but things lighten up a bit on “Welcome to the Numb”. Dig that slide guitar riff, another very Zep aspect to this batch of songs. By John’s intro, it sounds like a ball-baster of a song to play live. He says they didn’t think they were going to be able to do it! But they killed it, and John says that’s due to the hard work of guitarist Jeremy Asbrock.
Your head receives a good solid smack with “Smoke the Sky”, a waste-laying blitzkrieg of a smokeshow. Corabi touts the health benefits of rolling a joint. “Home grown version complements the senses, opens up my mind.” Perhaps Peter Tosh put it better, when he sang “Birds eat it,” and “It’s good for the flu, it’s good for the asthma.” Regardless of who said it best, “Smoke the Sky” is a flat-out mosh.
“Droppin’ Like Flies” continues the ass-kicking, but at a more sensible pace, trading speed for mass. And although in theory it shouldn’t work, after this fairly relentless assault, the album always closes on a ballad called “Driftaway”. After a sentimental version for the Nashville crowd, there’s a bonus track. This is another ballad, “10,000 Miles Away” from the Japanese Quaternary EP, live for the first time. Icing, meet cake.
This Corabi live album is far stronger than any of the three Motley Crue live albums. In terms of performance, John’s band just kills Motley Crue. Of course, they had a brilliant set to work with. Finally hearing these songs live, and in album context, is a long fulfilled wish. John Corabi has long been respected by the rock community and this CD is a testament to why.
5/5 stars
GETTING MORE TALE #620: The Retired Jedi Master (of Rock)
It is always sad when one of my old Jedi Masters of Rock loses their passion for it.
I think for Bob, that began when he entered college. While Bob taught me the ins and outs of Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, and Motley Crue, he was drifting away from heavy metal. There is nothing wrong with diversifying, but his passion for the heavier side of things was waning.
I remember in the summer of ’91 when Motley Crue released their awesome new groove-laden single, “Primal Scream”. I asked Bob if he liked it, and his response was that the new Motley was “too heavy”. My heart broke in two pieces that day. I was so excited about that track. Motley were doing exactly what I wanted them to do: turning it up and giving no fucks. Bob just wasn’t into that.
His tastes were changing. I think a big part of it was that the girls he liked at college weren’t into heavy metal. Bob was checking out more commercial sounds and ballads. One of his favourite groups was Frozen Ghost. I also remember he was very much into Bad Company’s Holy Water. Meanwhile I was digging into the roots of metal and the bands of the future as well: from Deep Purple to I Mother Earth. Our paths diverged. I couldn’t be less interested in new Bad Company, but I was intent on collecting the entire Black Sabbath back catalogue. It made me a little sad, but I’m not regretful about where my explorations took me over the years.
I think it can be summed up as below:
1. The girls we liked didn’t listen to metal.
2. Bob’s tastes diversified while he outgrew metal.
3. I doubled down on metal, going all in. The girls might not like metal, but maybe they’d appreciate my don’t-give-a-fuck attitude?
Bob’s method got him dates. My method did not! But my musical journey took me far and wide. From the deep neon coloured oceans of Frank Zappa, to the craggy peaks of Mount Marillion, and back to the Valley of Judas Priest. As real life took over – job, wife, kids – Bob was no longer the music head that I was. He has always been a hard worker, and a family guy. My passion only grew deeper. The longer, heavier and more complex the tunes, the more interested I was in the band. I loved musicianship. Ballads were starting to sound the same to me, and there were some cool new sounds coming out of the woodwork.
Life took Bob and I in different directions. He met a lovely lady named Trish and now has four kids. I have none. If I had four kids, would I still have time to invest in my passion, music? Bob’s kids keep him very busy, believe me!
Bob sold off his collection many years ago. He had some amazing Iron Maiden 12” singles and picture discs. I bought a few of his singles, but there was one tie-dyed bootleg picture disc EP that I would have loved to get my hands on. I couldn’t tell you anything about it today, except that it was Iron Maiden. He had to do what he had to do. It’s gone now and he has little recollection at all about it. That information is sadly lost to me now.
Not every Jedi Master of Rock stays in the trenches forever. Some do, and end up writing about it on the internet. Bob may have retired his rock and roll shoes, but his influence lives on right here in these pages. Thank you for your wisdom and friendship.
GETTING MORE TALE #616:
None of My Exes Live in Texas (But One Lives in Thunder Bay)
“You’re going to meet a lot of girls here.” — The Boss, at The Record Store, summer 1994.
Here’s the sad fact of the matter. Even though it was promised to me like some kind of perk, I didn’t meet any girls at the Record Store.* That perk was as non-existent as 15 minute breaks.
Here’s another sad fact. I was absolutely pathetic at talking to girls. It’s too embarrassing to think about, but if I ever do psychiatric regression to recall all those painful memories, you could write a pretty hilarious comedy movie about my exploits back then. The working title would be The 20 Year Old Virgin. It would be something along the lines of Swingers but with a nerd as the lead character. A heavy metal sci-fi geek.
I just needed the times to catch up to me. When the internet became popular, the nerds became the kings. I was always better at talking when I have a chance to write and think about words. Email was perfect. Otherwise I used to get flustered and just flat-out say stupid things, usually trying to be funny. I began online dating in 2000. Trevor was always willing and able to help me out with advice, but regardless, the first couple years of online dating were epically awful. I can distinctly remember a Christmas card that Trevor gave me. It had a timeline illustrating the 13 “Crazy Exes” I’d accumulated so far.
“Hey, that one wasn’t crazy,” I protested as I pointed to one near the middle.
I can’t remember all the names. The detail I remember most is what city they lived in.
First was Waterloo, then came Hamilton #1. She was nice, Hamilton #1. She was originally from Prince Edward Island, and her cousin was Paul MacAusland of the rock band Haywire. I saw Haywire open for Helix in 1987. My first date with Hamilton #1 was actually record shopping. I bought two Devin Townsend Japanese imports. She got Paul McCartney’s double Tripping the Live Fantastic. She wasn’t the problem though, Hamilton was. I got severely lost on my way home and had (what I now know was) a panic attack.
Hamilton #2 came a bit later that year. She was better with directions, at least, so I didn’t get lost. She was into music too, but not anything particularly good. She liked…Britney. I’ll admit my interest in her was more physical than otherwise, but we did have an incredible first date. I remember telling Trevor that it was the best first date I’d ever had. The third one, not so much. She took me to her AA meeting. Obviously, that was no place for a date and I should have dropped her off and gone home.
Toronto was a repeat of the situation of Hamilton #1; panic attacks getting lost. That one was a Sloan fan, but she really turned me off when I saw that none of the discs were in their proper cases. Sloan At the Palais Royale had something else in it. The discs were scattered! But she was also a stage-5 clinger and the night I called her to say it wasn’t working out, she didn’t want to let it go. I turned my cell phone off because it was constantly ringing and I was going nuts. I went mini-golfing with some friends from the Record Store to clear my head. When I turned it back on, a friend prank called me pretending to be the ex! That eased the mood of the evening.
I really liked Kingston, and fortunately we’re friends. She was a musician and I even have a copy of her CD that I’ll review one day. My heart was heavy when she moved to Thunder Bay for school. I could do long distance but not that long. That wasn’t the end of the city of Thunder Bay though. The city taketh away, but the city also returneth: Thunder Bay Girl herself, subject of Record Store Tales Part 264: Garbage Removal Machine. She moved here from T-Bay and was into the metal. Motley Crue was her favourite. We’d hang out and watch music videos all night. I gave her a giant box of my old cassette tapes. But if Toronto was a stage-5 clinger, Thunder Bay was stage-6. I had to get out, and she justifiably hated me for it. But she hated me even more for bailing on her when she had to deliver a ferret to somebody. Attempting to be friends, I offered to drive her some place to drop off this ferret. I had to cancel because, as always, the Record Store was insane and I had to work. Having a life was very difficult at the Record Store and the ferret thing was not my fault. She didn’t care, and it was all she needed to hate me forever. She went home to Thunder Bay a little later; that’s why I like to say all my tapes are in a Thunder Bay landfill today.
I’m not innocent through all this of course; I’m sure some of these exes have their own stories. I’ll never claim to be blameless. I just like to tell my tales, because at the end of the day, you just gotta laugh. That’s how you ultimately get over shit. Laughter, and music.
Fortunately the last online lady I ever met was Brampton. Her real name is Jennifer, but today she just likes to be called Mrs. LeBrain.
*Confession time! There was one girl that worked at the Cambridge location that I liked, so I invited her out to dinner and then over for a movie. I was living with T-Rev at the time, who worked with her in Cambridge. Well I was so bored on our “date” (IT WAS NOT A DATE, TREVOR! IT WAS A HANG-OUT!) that I went to bed early and she hung out with Trev for the rest of the night! “Very awkward!” according to Trevor.
MOTLEY CRUE – Greate$t Hit$ (1998 Motley/BMG), Greate$t Hit$ (2009 Motley/Masters)
Most fans will agree that Motley Crue’s 1997 reunion album Generation Swine was, at best, disappointing. The Crue tried to right the ship by returning to producer Bob Rock. Together they came up with two new songs, “Bitter Pill” and “Enslaved” that recalled better days. We discussed the wherefores and origins of 1998’s Greate$t Hit$ album in Getting More Tale #611: Afraid, on which the two new songs were released. As you’ll read here, the 1998 issue of Greate$t Hit$ is better than its 2009 update.
Both “Bitter Pill” and “Enslaved” bring Motley’s sonics back to their previous setpoint with Vince Neil, Decade of Decadence. The combo of Motley plus Bob Rock produces the kind of results you expect: punchy, heavy rock tunes with hooks. Neither is as memorable as “Primal Scream”, but serve their function. If this lineup had stayed together perhaps they could have taken it further, to the next stage of evolution. Tensions between Vince and Tommy Lee eventually erupted. Tommy left the band to pursue his own sanity and a side project called Methods of Mayhem.
The ’98 Greate$t Hit$ also offered up one other cool bonus: a previously unreleased remix of “Glitter”. It’s softer and more electronically processed, but a very cool alternate version. Dropped into this running order, Greate$t Hit$ turns out to be a remarkably fun and consistent listen. It would be a highly recommended way to get a broad assortment of great Motley and some rarities too.
Then, as part of the promotional cycle for a later, better reunion album (2008’s Saints of Los Angeles), Greate$t Hit$ was updated and reissued. Including its previous incarnation, the 2009 Greate$t Hit$ became the fifth Motley Crue best-of compilation (not counting box sets and rarities compilations).
So what’s the difference?
13 tracks overlap between the two: “Too Fast For Love”, “Looks That Kill”, “Smokin’ In The Boys Room”, “Home Sweet Home”, “Wild Side”, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, “Dr. Feelgood”, “Kickstart My Heart”, “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”, “Without You”, “Primal Scream”, and “Afraid”. The 13th track is “Shout At The Devil”. In 2009 they used the original version, where on the old CD it was “Shout At The Devil ’97” (a re-recording from Generation Swine).
Three tracks were previously released as “new” songs on other greatest hits CDs: “Primal Scream” (Decade of Decadence), “Sick Love Song” and “If I Die Tomorrow” (Red, White & Crue).
Two tracks were from the newest Motley platter, Saints Of Los Angeles: The title track, and a brand-new remix of “The Animal In Me” featuring more keyboards.
Zero tracks from the albums Motley Crue or New Tattoo are included (neither album had all four original members).
There are 19 songs total included, which is a beef-up from the 1998 version, which had 17 songs. “Bitter Pill” and “Enslaved” were excluded, but both are available on Red, White & Crue (2005). The remix of “Glitter” from the 1998 version is not and is now deleted.
The songs on the update, unlike the 1998 version, are mostly in chronological order. The exception is “Afraid” which is shuffled out of place with “Sick Love Song” for reasons unknown. The flow of the album is OK, with the kickass “Too Fast For Love” starting the proceedings. The mixture of rockers to ballads is engineered for high octane, and the ballads only kick in when needed. The album only runs out of gas towards the end: “Sick Love Song” isn’t very good didn’t require a second look here. “Bitter Pill” should have been kept instead. The final track “The Animal In Me” is just too slow for a closing song. “Saints Of Los Angeles” would have been more appropriate to close this set.
Even though the 2009 update has 19 songs compared to 17, the ’98 version wins due to the inclusion of “Bitter Pill” and “Enslaved”. It’s more enjoyable listen from start to finish, with better flow and song order. The ’09 Greate$t Hit$ smacks of an obvious cash grab. Check out the liner notes. They haven’t even been updated. The essays are 10 years out of date, the notes refer to the “two new songs” (which aren’t there), and the back cover artwork still reflects “Bitter Pill”. Essentially, the only changes to the packaging are the colours with a new slipcase added, displaying a newer band photo from the Saints sessions.
Greate$t Hit$ 1998: 4/5 stars
Greate$t Hit$ 2009: 2/5 stars
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