He posted the link to the Rock Daydream Nation episode in his forums, and his readers went to work skewering us! Peter Jones received the brunt of the brutality but we were all called “dicks”, “incels”, “angry”, “probably Rush fans”, and “dorks”.
Speaking personally, I’ve never heard a Tuff song. I’ve never seen a Tuff music video. I’ve never watched a Tuff interview aside from this movie. Stevie Rachelle has spent more time looking at my face and listening to me talk, than the reverse. And I think that’s just wonderful.
“Makes you wonder why those fucking nerds even bother. I scrolled through his channel – dozens and dozens of videos and almost all of them not even a thousand views. A thousand is bare minimum for putting effort into a video, and even then it’s pretty pathetic. What’s the point? These guys must just like listening to themselves speak.”
It was truly an honour to be invited back onto Rock Daydream Nation to discuss to infamous “documentary” film The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years directed by Penelope Spheeris. This deep discussion went right to the hotspot scenes we still talk about today: Chris Holmes (W.A.S.P.), Ozzy, and a parade of airheads wanting to be rock stars.
It’s not a flattering look at the Hollywood metal scene in 1987-88. The cavalcade of cartoon characters rolled out largely range from jerkoffs to misogynist douchebags. Our panel takes the position that Spheeris set up most scenes to portray the genre and its artists in a negative light. We discuss the portrayal of women in the film and hard rock, as well as the alleged staging of controversial scenes.
The panel: a seasoned septuplet of rock experts comprised of:
Kudos to Reed Little for gleaning the value of rarely-revealed financial data, of being a hard rock band on the road in the 80s, from the film. Brilliant observations and research here from Reed. We also asked questions such as: where were Guns N’ Roses? What happened to Odin? Is Ozzy unable to pour a glass of OJ for himself, and what’s with the raw bacon? Each panel member brought something from their own unique perspectives to the discussion.
Special attention was paid to the Chris Holmes pool scene. Is it exploitation? A cry for help? Partially or completely staged? What was the impact upon W.A.S.P.’s career from that point onwards? We had W.A.S.P. expert John Clauser on hand to give that issue a close look. Peter Kerr pointed out that the pool scene haunts Chris to this day, as it inevitably comes up in every interview he does. I talk about the impact of seeing the first rock star that I ever liked sitting in that pool, and how it affected me.
We looked back upon our first impressions of the film back in the day, our feelings in 2024, and memorable scenes. From Poison, London, Aerosmith and Faster Pussycat, there’s a lot of hair to wade through. Please give this show a watch – we are all very proud of it.
It’s a holiday weekend in Canada! Happy Thanksgiving. Because it’s a holiday weekend I thought I’d be lazy and just review two songs instead of an album!
W.A.S.P. – “Mean Man” (1989 7″ single)
I bought this at a record show in 1995. For $8 it seemed like a great deal: Non album track “Locomotive Breath”, purple vinyl, and a “means test”. A what?
“Locomotive Breath” is one of my favourite Tull tunes anyway, so I was fine with Blackie and the gang pummeling their way through this cover. The riff is perfect for a metal band like W.A.S.P. to utilize anyway. They do it straightforward and it works.
The A side was from The Headless Children LP. In my opinion, that’s the best W.A.S.P. album anyway, and has my favourite lineup: Blackie, Chris Holmes, Johnny Rod, with Frankie Banali. Not the best song from that album, though. It’s catchy and has a solid riff with a tough-guy singalong chorus. The lyrics are a pretty funny send-up on guitarist Chris Holmes, that’s why he’s on the cover! I’m sure the song did nothing to ease the public’s image of Chris, after being seen drunk in a pool in The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.
Blackie stated on MuchMusic in 1989 that Chris was not drunk, and that it was an act for the cameras. It certainly does seem staged. Either way I think this song and single was clearly an attempt to capitalize on that image!
The purple vinyl is cool, gotta love the cover image, and as for that “means tester”, it works like a mood ring. Push your thumb on it and it changes colour due to your body heat. The best I seem to do is somewhere between “hard” and “firm”!
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