A lot of Rock-haters (people who hate Metallica’s output from 1991-2003) have no idea that the man is quite the musician himself. Canadians remember the Payola$ and Rock & Hyde, but then there was Rockhead. Bob Rock found a great Canadian punk rock vocalist named Steve Jack, who as it turns out, was also a great screamer. Some of the screams on this album are unreal — check out “Bed Of Roses”, “Heartland”, and “Chelsea Rose” for some awesome vocals. Face it, Canada has some great screamers (James LaBrie, Gerald McGhee, Sebastian Bach!) but Steve Jack was a contender.
This album was born during the the difficult Motley Crue sessions (not to mention a Bon Jovi album), while Bob was going through a divorce. This comes out in the song “Warchild”. In fact it ACTUALLY comes out during that song: Bob can be heard yelling and throwing stuff around the studio at one point, which he recorded after a painful phone call.
I don’t find there is a weak track on this album, and plenty of Bob’s buddies show up. Art Bergmann, Billy Duffy, Paul Hyde, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora all contribute songwriting skills. Duffy and Sambora also contribute solos. From the screamy Aerorock of “Bed of Roses” to the metal of “Heartland” to the acoustic Zeppelinesque “Angelfire”, every single track is worth a listen. It’s a diverse album actually, running the gamut from light to dark and embracing different sides of rock. Boozy, bluesy, epic, acoustic, you name it. Its roots are firmly planted in the 1970’s, but if this had come out in 1989, it could have spawned 5 singles.
Sonically if you like Bob Rock, you will like this. It’s right in the ballpark of that Motley Crue/Keep the Faith sound he had going on during that period. Big big drums, layers of guitars, a lil’ bit of keyboards here and there, but mostly, lots and lots and lots of guitars.
If Tattooed Millionaire had not happened, neither would so many things in Maiden’s history: No #1 single (“Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter), Janick Gers might never have joined the band, and so on.
Due to the six months downtime between Seventh Son and No Prayer, Bruce decided to have some fun. He first recorded “Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter” for the Nightmare on Elm Street 5soundtrack. This opened the floodgates and before too long, Bruce and guitarist Janick Gers had more than enough songs for an album. (Other band members: Andy Carr – bass, Fabio Del Rio – drums.)
And an album there was, and what a fine album indeed! Bruce made no bones about it: This is not a heavy metal album like Maiden. This is a hard rock album, along the lines of his influences: Deep Purple, AC/DC, Mott the Hoople, and more. What was surprising even to me at time was just how good it was.
The first single, “Tattooed Millionaire” was catchy as hell while still sounding very British and uncompromising. Vocally, the song and album combines Bruce’s classic soaring voice, with his newer style of spitting out the words in a furious assault. The combination is effective; Just listen to “Hell On Wheels”. While innuendo-loaded verses are spat out, the chorus soars in a singalong fashion. “Dive! Dive! Dive!” and “Lickin’ the Gun” tackle similar lyrical territory.
But it’s not all sexual innuendo. Bruce tackles more philosophical topics on songs such as “Born in ’58” (a great single), “Son of a Gun”, and “Gypsy Road”. Meanwhile, “Tattooed Millionaire” pokes fun at the rockers of the L.A. scene, loaded with cash but not too much in the way of brains.
Tattooed boys with expensive toys,
living in a bubble of sin.
Money can buy you most of anything,
fix your nose or the mess you’re in.
Some speculated that this was aimed at former tourmates, Guns N’ Roses. I believe Bruce later said the inspiration was Motley Crue!
Bruce admitted that doing a cover song for a single was “cheating”, but “All the Young Dudes” was a great choice to cover. Fear not; Bruce does it justice. Bruce kicks it in the head. Gers’ guitar work is perfect for the song, and it’s good to have a chance to hear him play a more laid-back style, unlike his usual work.
The album spawned plenty of singles, each with their own B-sides worth collecting. But luckily, the fine folks at Sanctuary put all of this stuff together, along with “Bring Your Daughter”, on a tasty bonus disc.
The bonus disc includes some acoustic music (“Winds of Change”, “Darkness Be My Friend”, and the joke song “Ballad of Mutt”). It also has some kickass live covers: Deep Purple’s “Black Night” and “Sin City” by AC/DC among them. Bonus — there’s also a studio version of “Sin City”, and some live versions of the album’s hits.
Absolutely essential: “Son of a Gun”, “Tattooed Millionaire”, “Born in ’58”.
Great: “Gypsy Road”, “Zulu Lulu”, “No Lies”, “All the Young Dudes”
MOTLEY CRUE – Generation Swine (1997, 2003 Motley Records reissue)
It is hard to believe that the mighty Crue, who had released the record of their lives in 1994 (Motley Crue with Corabi on vocals) put out this bunk next. Such was the 90’s. Fans did not embrace Corabi as predicted, the album flopped, and immediate pressure was on the Crue to kiss and make up with Vince Neil. So that’s what they relectantly did.
The Crue were already in experimental mode when Corabi was still on board. They had already said that this album wouldn’t be produced by Bob Rock (a shame, that was) and that it would be more “raw” and “heavy”. Then, as time went on, you started hearing things like, “The new album is Motley Crue meets Sisters of Mercy with the intensity of Nine Inch Nails”. Bands that have nothing to do with the Crue’s roots. In the end, the band was spinning tires so fast that Corabi couldn’t handle it anymore and Vince was brought back. All of this is well documented in the latter half of Motley Crue: The Dirt. A five-piece Crue with Neil singing and Corabi on rhythm guitar was briefly considered (damn! that would have been sweet!), but it was the original four-piece sans Corabi that became the next Motley Crue lineup.
And what they made together was just…what the fuck is this? Remember when Crue showed up at the AMA’s and lip-synced that new techno-y sample ridden version of “Shout at the Devil”? What the hell was that?
I place the blame squarely on the head of producer Scott Humphrey. Humphrey was actually from around here. People who know Humphrey personally have said he’s always been a tech-head. Just listen to his records with Rob Zombie. That’s fine. But here, Humphrey uses all his techno-wizardry to suck the life out of Motley Crue, no mean feat. The band must also share the blame, as they should have stopped the directionless proceedings before it got too far. In the end though, Motley Crue continued on with this sound, even over Mick Mars’ very strong objections. Mars was sidelined in the recordings, but it turns out Mick was right about Generation Swine.
Generation Swine (formerly: Personality #9 while Corabi was in the band) is the most confusing, un-Motley disc ever recorded. The drums are processed and sampled to the point where there may as well have been no live drummer. It may as well be a computer rather than Tommy Lee, for what it sounds like. The guitars, also sampled, squeezed, processed and spat out by a computer, show little of Mick’s spark and feel. I can see why Mick was pissed off. Vince’s return was hardly worth bally-hooing, as he’s barely able to wheeze out a passable melody here. In fact, both Sixx and Lee take lead vocals, too. What kind of reunion album is that?
The real shame of it is that these songs could have turned out quite well. Check out “Let Us Prey”. It is easy to imagine what this sounded like when Corabi was singing it. In fact he insists that his vocals are still intact in the mix, and that you can hear him scream on the choruses. Corabi also says his rhythm guitar parts on the album are intact too.
But I digress. The point is, songs like “Let Us Prey”, “Generation Swine”, “A Rat Like Me”, and “Anybody Out There?” show enough of the original Motley spirit that this could have been a halfway decent album. However each of those four songs are choked to death under a muffled blanket of samples, sound effects, bells & whistles, and processed unnatural guitars and drums. It’s a shame because any of those four songs (the only solid hard rockers on this disc of slow paced dreck) had potential. Also decent was the single, “Afraid”, although it sounds more like Def Leppard.
To add weirdness on top of the confusion, the album closes with a track called “Brandon” sung by Mr. Thomas Lee Bass himself. “Brandon, I love you. I love her. She is your mom.” Yes, he actually sings that. God knows what he was thinking when he wrote that lyric. Nikki Sixx’s “Rocketship”, a hippy dippy ballad for his wife is slightly better, but why not get Vince, the singer of Motley Crue, to sing it? Nikki’s not an especially good singer – that’s why he plays bass. Yet he insists on singing three songs, on Vince’s comeback record. I still don’t get that.
People, do yourself a favour. It doesn’t matter that Vince Neil came back for this album (it was mostly finished before he came back anyway). Check out the 1994 album with Corabi, a truely heavy beast that will probably blow your head off if you’re not wearing a helmet. It is a beautiful record. This is not. And don’t worry about the bonus tracks on the reissue. The demos are no better than the album tracks. Nobody needed a demo of “Confessions” with Tommy singing.
Excluded: A techno song only released on the Japanese disc called “Song To Slit Your Wrist By”. An expensive trinket. I don’t own it myself. The only time I saw it up close and personal was at a record show in London, and the vendor was asking $70 for it.
MOTLEY CRUE – Theater Of Pain (1985, 2003 Motley Records remastered edition)
Crue’s third was a mess, a smokey muddy mess of an album that served only to confuse and disappoint those who were enthralled with Shout at the Devil. The Crue, now wearing ridiculous striped (stryped?) jester suits had dropped the chromium metallic sheen of Shout, and replaced it with nothing but a notable lack of direction.
Theatre of Pain was one of the most anticipated albums of the ’85, and one of the most biggest disappointments. Yes, “Smokin’ In The Boys Room” is a fun jokey novelty, but it is also a novelty cover. “Home Sweet Home”, billed by the band as their “Dream On”, is not really. Broken down, it is a cliche-ridden proto-ballad, the type of thing that every L.A. band has done at least once. And usually, better. I mean, think about it — you can name better ballads by Bon Jovi or Cinderalla, can’t you? I can.
There is precious little metal on this album, the terrible “Use It or Lose It” being the only foot on the gas pedal, but itself also being nothing more than a grade C song worthy of most bands’ album outtakes. There is absolutely nothing on this album that would have made the cut on the great Shout at the Devil. Even a track like “Louder Than Hell”, one of the better songs, was demoed for Shout and dropped; the band obviously lowered their standards.
The mix is muddy, an alcoholidaze of robotic drumming and lifeless, uninspired vocals. You can hear the wasted band barely trying. Or, rather, trying as hard as they were capable given the chemicals. If a major band released this today as the followup to a beloved classic, it would be a career-ender. Not so with the Crue, as the 80’s were much kinder.
Bonus tracks on the remastered edition are laughable. Did we really need three versions of “Home Sweet Home”? The vaults must be a lonely place indeed. Tommy’s sleepy “drum piece” is worthy only of the skip button.No standout songs, terrible mix, and dull performances aside, the one guy who swims to the top is Mick Mars, who plays several solos that rise above.
1.5/5 stars
1. City Boy Blues
2. Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room
3. Louder Than Hell
4. Keep Your Eye on the Money
5. Home Sweet Home
6. Tonight (We Need a Lover)
7. Use It or Lose It
8. Save Our Souls
9. Raise Your Hands to Rock
10. Fight for Your Rights
11. Home Sweet Home [Demo Version]
12. Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room [Alternate Guitar Solo-Rough Mix
I used to get recognized a lot, from the record store. Work in one place with customers for 12 years and eventually you start to see familiar faces in the streets. It was both good and bad.
For example, the bad: One time I was sitting in the mall, on my lunch break. With my face full of pizza, a man walked up to me.
“I can see you’re eating your lunch, and that’s fine. I’d like to see you later about returning a tape.” Like, dude? That couldn’t have waited?
That was a small minority of times. Often people that recognized you would politely ignore you, or at least be friendly about it.
I’d be walking through the mall, and some guy would nod at me. I’d nod back, not really knowing who the person was, but not letting on. One time I was walking through a park, and these two kids stopped. “Hey look! That’s the guy from the CD store!” I smiled and waved sheepishly. I was a celebrity of sorts I guess?
The most common thing would be being recognized in a rival store. Often I’d be shopping at my local HMV store, or downtown at one of the more collector-oriented places. I’d love it when, in another store, somebody would ask me if I had a CD in stock. I once used a pay phone (no cell back then) to call and ask, but I’d think to myself: Really? You think I have them all memorized or something?
Most of the time though, it was a simple, “Hey man! What are you doing here? Checking out the competition?”
While I did sometimes “check out” the competition (comparing prices and selection), the main goal was always to find rare musical treasures. Besides, a lot of other record store people in town had come selling discs to me numerous times. Usually it was pretty friendly. It was better to have friends at the rival stores than enemies. I even had a buddy at HMV send customers my way, when he knew that something was out of print! So, being recognized in public as “that guy from (insert name here)” wasn’t a bad thing.
LeBrain will always be straight with you when he doesn’t know something. I have had a few requests for a write up on Steel Panther. The problem is, I’ve never actually listened to Steel Panther. Maybe I should change that.
So I asked the infamous T-Rev, aka Trevor from the Record Store Tales to see if he could do a review. He could, and he did. Enjoy.
STEEL PANTHER: Feel the Steel (2009) & Balls Out(2011)
Steel Panther: Your New Favourite Band, by T-Rev
Michael Starr, Satchel, Lexxi Foxx, and Stix Zadinia are Steel Panther. The X-rated, Spinal Tap-esque modern day Hair band. Intent on bringing back Heavy Metal , with a sound that will impress any fan of the “hair” genre. Formed with ex-members of various metal bands in the 1990’s ( Rob Halford’s Fight, Paul Gilbert’s Racer X, and L.A. Guns!) originally as Metal Skool (yes…Metal’s Cool) in the early 2000’s, and a brief stint as Danger Kitty (getting some recognition on MTV and the Drew Carey Show). Feel the Steel, the first album as Steel Panther, stands out because of its period-correct guitar assaults, its bandana wearing 4-armed drummer and the spandex covered, lipstick sporting, teased hair bass player, (reminding me of Warrant circa Cherry Pie mixed with some early Motley Crue attitude!) and of course, its lyrics!
Feel the Steel has it all, killer riffs (often mimicking classic tunes of the past like “Fuck All Night, Party All Day’s” intentional resemblance to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer”) Hilariously refreshing lyrics (like the first time you ever heard “Fuck Her Gently” by the D) throw in some top notch guest star clout (Justin Hawkins duets with Michael Starr) and top it off with manufactured “rock star” personas (a la Spinal Tap), and you’ve got all the best parts of what a hair metal band should be…SEX & DRUGS & ROCK ‘N’ ROLL! Crazy stories of sex with asian hookers, sex with fat girls, sex with neighbours, and copious amounts of “blow”, all done in a way you’d never expect…even though it feels strangely familiar. Sounding like it came from 1989, but containing enough modern relevance to remind you it’s current. After about the first verse, I knew I was a fan for good. “Eminem can suck it, so can Dr. Dre, or they can suck each other…just because they’re gay” screams Starr on “Death To All But Metal”. “Two in the pink, one in the stink”describes the “Shocker” to newcomers. And “You’re the only girl that I like to screw…when I’m not on the road,” Michael reassures his girl on “Community Property”.
Balls Out, their sophomore effort, continues where F.T.S. left off. A lot of the same sexual scenarios, but the music seems to have picked up another gear, with more focus on riffage (bigger, faster, louder). The lyrics, however, are lacking the furious onslaught they had on F.T.S. Perhaps because the initial shock is over, now I expect it! There is more celebrity name-dropping than before…mentioning that Charlie Sheen “is winning in the bedroom upstairs”, and that Tiger Woods thinks “3 holes are better than a hole in one”. A good album upon first listen…just didn’t have the impact that Feel the Steel did on me. Having said that, this album grows on you…big time! Like any good album…it takes a while for their sauce to mix with yours!
I should also discuss Starr’s instrument…this guys voice is classic, vintage, powerful, cheesy, awesome, hilarious, and adaptive! Vocal range that would bring a tear to Dio’s eye, heartfelt (x-rated), ballads on par with anything Bon Jovi or Poison ever did, rockers that could have appeared on stage with the great Bon Scott! I don’t mean to come across as though I consider this band “flawless”, but, these guys are PRO’s! Certainly impressive musically…sometimes though, they sway over the cheese line a bit, and even take the lyrics too far, but all in all, I do love these albums. Afterall, isn’t it the cheese that we now love about 80’s metal?
You really get the feeling that these guys are true fans of metal, not just cashing in on the novelty of wearing spandex and makeup. Much like the ribbing the Darkness took during their invasion, some people misunderstood the flattery for ridicule. True fans see past the hair and hear the talent in the music…every time I listen to them, they get better! Like a drug that you can’t get enough of…you want to hear it again and again. In a world where Justin Beiber and Nickelback win music awards, this is a welcome addiction. A perfect mix of metal and comedy! Destined to become a staple at everyone’s annual “sausagefest”
I decided to dust off the ol’ guitar today to do some writing and recording. I haven’t played a note in two years. Needless to say my fingers hate me right now. But I got the job done and a piece of music I don’t hate.
My weapon of choice (my only guitar) is the Vince Neil Washburn, a limited exition axe exclusive to Future Shop stores in Canada. It was limited to 2500 pieces, numbered, and retailed originally for $299.99. I got mine on clearance — $69.99, including the little practice amp, three Vince Neil picks, strap, and certificate of authenticity with Vince’s autograph. A close inspection reveals that it’s actual pen, not just printed on.
When I told people about my purchase, they’d usually respond, “Wait…isn’t Vince Neil the singer from Motley Crue?” Yes, he played guitar once in a blue moon live, but I guess that’s why I got mine so cheap on clearance. And it wasn’t the last one; my buddy Chris bought one too and re-sold it for profit.
Currently, there are none on eBay, so I suggest if you find one at a decent price, may as well pick it up! It’s a decent sounding guitar, the amp works as a practice amp but for me to record with, not so hot. I’m not really a guitar player, I can basically just play my way around blues scales, so I can’t really really review it as an instrument — just as a collector.
A sample of how the Vince Neil Washburn sounds can be found below. (Reminder: I am NOT a guitar player!)
Nikki Sixx – “Sounds like it could have been on our first album.”
LeBrain – “Bullshit!”
Don’t be fooled by the hype. “Sex” is a good song, but it sounds nothing at all like anything on Too Fast For Love. It sounds like it could have been on Saints of Los Angeles. Which is fine, if you like that album. I do like that album, I think it is a good Motley album. Not a great Motley album like Too Fast, but certainly better than, say, New Tattoo.
I think what Nikki did with “Sex” was to try, on purpose, to write a single. A single in a particular style, that being, hard rock Motley Crue. And I think that is what I don’t like about it, it sounds contrived.
So, that’s what “Sex” is: An overproduced single with lots of backing vocals, loud drums, and some guitar effects. The chorus is fine, copping the “woah, yeah” from “Kickstart My Heart”, only not as good. I’ve heard the song a few times now, for $1.29, it was painless to buy. It just fails to excite me. Not the way “Feelgood” did in the summer of ’89, and “Primal Scream” did in ’91. Those summers, I could not get those tunes off my deck! I don’t think I will be going back to listen to “Sex” too often, unless there’s something going on here that I’m just plain missing right now.
Having said that, Mick’s solo is cool and I think he’s an underrated player.
2.5/5 stars
(NOTE: I hate downloads! I like physical product! I want liner notes! Who produced it, who wrote it?)
MOTLEY CRUE – Shout at the Devil (2003 remastered edition)
If Too Fast For Love was nothing more than a gloriously wreckless demo pressed to vinyl, then perhaps Shout is the first “real” Motley Crue album. It is certainly among the best, with only Too Fast and ’94’s self-titled coming close to the metallic goodness of this disc in my world. It is a shame that the original cover did not survive to CD (a pentagram embossed on a pure black cover) because it was a statement of purpose: You are about to Shout at the Devil.
Instead, the CD (and cassette!) cover had four makeup wearing dude-chicks scowling, primping, preening and teasing. However, it was the 80’s, and it was OK then. Don’t let the cover scare you away. The Japanese vinyl replica CDs also have a replica of the original pentagram cover. I had one years ago, but sold it off to buy the remaster with bonus tracks. But we’ll get to those later.
The album opens with a piece that, when we were kids, I loved and played over and over again because it just sounded cool: the spoken-word “In The Beginning”. “In the beginning, good always overpowered the evil of all man’s sins…” It sounded cool, so we used it on Halloween tapes and just about anything else we could think of.
Then, the opening chords of “Shout At The Devil” hit you right between the eyes, Mick’s guitar as wreckless and hammering as ever. The man had yet to really discover his bluesier talents; for now he was just content to sloppily riff you to death. All is well. Vince Neil drunkenly slurs every lyric, but it works. Tommy’s drums are as simple but as hard hitting as ever. Really, Tommy’s not a great technical drummer but his hard hits give him a great sound perfect for this album.
You should know most of these songs: The adrenaline rush that is “Looks That Kill”, the mid-tempo harmonies and drama of “Too Young To Fall In Love”, and even the Beatles cover “Helter Skelter”. Side two of the album is the real surprise, loaded with non-singles that kick as much butt as the singles. “Red Hot” is a proto-thrash number, while “Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid” is as good as anything on side one. There’s also the equally good but controversial “Bastard”. The PMRC attacked it for the line, “In goes my knife, I pull out his life, consider that bastard dead.” When I was 12 years old, we owned this on cassette. There was no lyric sheet and Vince Neil slurred so much, you couldn’t make out the lyrics. I had no idea at all what he was singing until about a decade later. By then I was old enough to understand that it’s just storytelling.
There’s a bit of filler in “God Bless the Children of the Beast”. It’s nice for Mick Mars fans, a caveman version of neo-classical guitar, but otherwise it’s just an intro to the manic “Helter Skelter” cover. Kind of like how Sabbath used to throw in a slow instrumental just before hammering you once again with riffage, just that I think Sabbath’s stuff was a little better executed.
The bonus tracks here are rough and not nessesary, except for collectors (like this guy!). “I Will Survive” was completely unreleased until the first run of Crue remasters came out. It’s a decent track but not up to the album’s lofty standards. “Hotter Than Hell” is a demo version of “Louder Than Hell” from the next album. (Not availablke on this CD is a great track called “The Black Widow”, finally released a little later on Red, White & Crue. Also missing is “Sinners and Saints” which is on Supersonic & Demonic relics.)
There are also three more demos from the albums sessions: “Shout”, “Looks That Kill” and “Too Young”. The 1999 remastered edition did not have “Too Young To Fall In Love”. That was a Japanese bonus track instead.
There’s also a music video for “Looks That Kill” for your PC if you care, but I don’t. All the Crue vids were made available on the Greatest Hits DVD.
I believe Shout At The Devil is the essential Crue album to own, and also a great metal album for any collection. Yes, Priest, Sabbath, Maiden and Purple are the cornerstones, but Motley Crue for a short time were the flag bearers. This is a great sloppy metal meal, a burger and fries with all the works. Enjoy the meal.
Sometimes, things just came into the store that no matter the cost, you had to get it. You’ve all seen Pawnstars, right? It could get that way. 99% of transactions were pretty ordinary, but sometimes you’d get a pretty wild score, and you couldn’t back down.
You’d see imports, singles, bootlegs, promos, special editions, bonus tracks, bonus discs, and sometimes damn near complete collections of several artists. Tom tells the legend of a guy who came in selling a near complete Zappa collection.
There was one guy that I just loved. We’ll call him C. He was addicted to hard rock, heavy metal, and Euro metal. He was a collector and he had numerous Japanese imports. And frequently, he sold us those Japanese imports, of just about anything decent. A few that weren’t so decent, but very very few. I don’t know where he got the stuff, and I didn’t ask. None of my business!
Thanks to C, I have a pretty close to complete collection of Japanese Harem Scarem imports, Bruce Dickinson, and Journey. Whoop de do for a lot of you, but these things are mucho expensivo to buy! Why?
In Japan, it is actually cheaper to buy a CD imported from America then their own (superior) domestic product. So the Japanese counteract this by putting bonus tracks on their domestic product. Much of time, these are songs specifically exclusive to Japan.
A really good example of a song written and recorded specifically for the Japanese market would be “Tokyo is Burning” from W.A.S.P.‘s K.F.D. album. Another would be “Himalaya” by Glenn Tipton. (Ignore that the Himalaya mountains are not in Japan, please, I’m guessing Glenn didn’t know that when he wrote it.)
There are collectors in every city and every town who pay premius prices to get these discs imported here from Japan. Average prices can run from $35 to $50 for a single disc, much more if you’re talking about multi-disc sets. The most I ever paid for a single Japanese disc (new) was $80 (Come Hell Or High Water by Deep Purple), and the least I paid (new) was the “Woman From Tokyo” single by the same band.
So back to the point, these discs were worth coin. And C might actually bring in 4 or 5 at a time. I recall he brought in 4 Harem Scarem imports at one time, each with bonus tracks.
Now, C wasn’t stupid. He knew that if he didn’t get what he wanted for the discs, he could try downtown where there were more collectors and afficianos, and fewer hockey moms. However, he also knew it would be much easier to come to me personally, because I knew what I was doing when it came to imports.
And frequently, since I was usually seeing stuff I wanted for my own collection, I’d be willing to up the ante when needed. Since I frequented Amazon, I knew exactly what these things were worth.
One of the coolest things he ever brought in was a Helloween Japanese box set, 4 discs. I’m shooting myself in the foot for not picking it up back then. I’ll never see it again, I’m sure.
Often, the Japanese imports were packaged with extra goodies: stickers, extra booklets, patches, posters. To find a used Japanese import with these goodies still intact was very rare. That ups the value as well. And for the ultimate collector, Japanese discs come with something called an obi-strip. They are a piece of paper with Japanese writing on it, that goes over the jewel case of the CD. This is what they look like: click to embiggen
Because the obi strip is actually outside the jewel case, it’s hard to keep, and most people end up throwing them away. Add a couple bucks to the end value of a CD if the obi strip is intact. See how this goes?
Unfortunatley, C usually threw out to obi strips, so most of my Japanese imports lack them. You can easily store the obi strip by putting your CD in a sandwich bag as you can see with my Bon Jovi single.
One of the drawbacks of dealing with C is that he became used to a certain level of money when he came in. And, nobody else liked C. They all hated him. I heard it had something to do with him chewing gum when he talked. Never mind the cool-ass shit he brought into the store that nobody else in town could get! So, negotiations could get heavy. He knew what his stuff was worth, and if I could have owned it all, I would have!
Another situation where negotiations could get fierce were with large sales. The largest I ever saw was an estate sale. I can’t remember how many discs we looked at. I’m thinking the number is close to 3000, all in one shot. I think they were in these big gray convention containers that could hold about 400 each. And there were 7 containers, plus a few boxes. And in this case, it was good, good shit. Sometimes, you’d buy a handful of crappy stuff just to get a mountain of good stuff. Because the seller often wanted them all gone and not to deal with them anymore. Clear slate.
When going through these big estate sales, you’d often have a pile of awesome jazz titles alone that probably numbered in the hundreds. Blues, same deal. Of course you’d also get boxes of crap, but sometimes you’d take it just to get to the blues and jazz titles.
Inevitably, there were times when you just could not justify asking as much as the customer wanted. I remember, very unhappily, having to turn down this Rolling Stones CBS years box set, which came with a bonus EP. The box even had this neat paper tongue. I just couldn’t give the guy what he wanted and still make any money off the thing.
Another one that sucked to turn down was the CultCollection 1984-1990 box set. This sucker is hard to find. I just couldn’t give the guy what he wanted. I wanted it for myself as it was, so I was willing to go even higher than the call of duty allowed. Alas, it was not to be. Thankfully, most of those tracks have been released on the Rare Cult boxed set(s), which I have…thanks to C!
Other great box sets I got from C: Black Sabbath‘s The Black Box. Bon Jovi’s 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong. Metalogy, by Judas Priest, complete with limited edition DVD. A complete Motley CrueMusic to Crash Your Car To box set with the poster and stuff still inside.
Sometimes you’d see stuff that, if you don’t grab it, you’ll never see it again. One of my treasures is an Aussie import of Faith No More‘s Angel Dust with a 4 song bonus disc called Free Concert in the Park. Snagged it. Never seen again. On the Faith No More front, I also picked up a split live bootleg album with King’s X called Kings of the Absurd. I have the first Tea Party album, which actually came in more than once. I paid at least $50 for it. Possibly $100, I don’t remember anymore. There was at least one album that we could sell for $100, which was Standing in the Dark by Platinum Blonde. And people would pay it. I was offered a $100 reward once to find the album, as in, whatever the CD cost if I found it, plus a $100 finder’s fee. I never did find it, but I later picked up Alien Shores at a cool hole in the wall in Stratford, and gave it to Peter.
Nowadays, just about everything I want is available from my sofa, even if it’s located in Japan. eBay and Amazon have changed everything about finding rare music. Just a few weeks ago I snagged the Japanese disc of You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! by Kiss. Been hunting for that since 1996. Never seen it for sale anywhere, and the one I got was mint. Got it for $40. Incredibly, a month or so ago, I found one of the last two Maiden singles that I still needed. I got “Hallowed Be Thy Name (Live)” for $35. This single, thought at the time to be Dickinson’s swan song with the band, features a cover of Eddie impaling Bruce through the chest!
My advice to aspiring collectors out there: Pick your #1 favourite band, and start on Wikipedia. Explore the discography, and see what you’re missing. Check eBay and see what the pricing is like. Then hunt until you find one at the right price. Good luck!
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