living it up in the 80s

Another classic 80s metal drama-fest was Metallica/Megadeth. Dave Mustaine was a founding member of Metallica, and he owned writing credits for several of the singles they'd independently released that in the long run, launched their career.

By the time Metallica had actually made it to the point of securing a major label record deal as a speedmetal band, Megadeth was already right there with them. There was quite a lawsuit going on though, because Mustaine had writing credits on at least a couple of the songs on Metallica's first full-length (albeit independent) album, and he claimed in the lawsuit, or at least tried to claim, that he had essentially created the idea of using an open chord as a bottom so that a player could play chard progressions effectively almost twice as fast unless they needed to bridge, and sometimes even through that. But anyway Mustaine essentially tried to intellectual property-ize a way of playing the guitar. He's pretty clearly a douche and it's hard not to see why the rest of Metallica wanted him gone; also not difficult to see how he made well without them, especially with a talented bassist behind him.

Metallica and Megadeth are definitely two of the big heavy hitters as far as 80s bands that were highly influential long-term. I think Mustaine is the most talented songwriter out of the bunch, and i mentioned else where, i prefer Megadeth's total body of work so far to Metallica's. But the fact is that Metallica, without any writing credits to Mustaine, recorded Thee Quintessential Speedmetal Album in Master of Puppets, and as much as i like both Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? AND So Far, So Good... So What!, neither is quite the equal of Metallica's Ride The Lightning.

tl;dr? (Del:)

Just for shits and giggles, check this shit out:





I saw both Metallica and Megadeth live in concert, though at very different times and very different venues. When i was 12 years old, i told my mom i was staying at my friends' place for the night and a few of us took off for ... fuck idr if it was Glens Falls or RPI, but something like that, to see Metallica open for Ozzy Ozbourne. It was 1986. Everybody knew Ozzy already, but i'd only heard of Metallica a little, and i think their first full-length had just been bought up but not released yet. Anyway, i saw one of Burton's last 12 shows or so. Ozzy was touring with Jake E. Lee, they were mostly playing stuff from Diary of a Madman and The Ultimate Sin, idr if that was released yet either beyond a few singles. But Metallica played mostly Master of Puppets, it was their first major label record and it was what the few who knew them expected. They were amazing. Ozzy and Jake were no disappointment either.

I saw Megadeth in the early 2000s i believe. Iced Earth opened for them. The two played Northern Lights, a moderate sized nightclub/big bar with a stage. Odd that Iced Earth, who'd recently opened for 3 million ravenous fans in Athens Greece, an American band, would have to open for metal gods like Megadeth in a place like this. It was awesome actually getting to shake hands and have drinks with guys from both bands in such an intimate setting, it seemed so surreal.

Iced Earth are truly gods of metal. Originally formed in 1985, for some reason i've never fathomed, they never caught on in the US scene, but they headline massive metalfests in Europe and Asia, and i wasn't exaggerating about that crowd in Athens...

OMG Iced Earth, wasn't Richard from the Howard Stern show their drummer for awhile???

our kate bush providing wonderful backup vocals


(king of the fuck you attitude, Mr Mellencamp - bless you sir)




(where the hell did Paul Young go, dude has a seriously great voice)

(high school anecdote: for our graduation song we wanted Journey's "Open Arms". WELL I grew up in Dallas, and that was considered far too racy. So they made us take this one instead.) Our mascot is a Tiger.


(always liked Poison, even if their songs are somewhat hokey.)


(another fun cover)


(I've always loved Joanie's stuff. and another cover.)


(this vid always tripped me out)




(Frida from Abba busting out her own hit, with assistance of Phil Collins on drums)

I remember this being on a non-stop loop when M-TV was first launched.. ugh.. lol . I actually like the "Alles Klar,Herr Kommissar?".



Of course we mustn't forget MJ

@mrbill60 - lol i never could figure out the words to Der Kommissar

Hehe, you've got to speak German. I took a few years of courses way back when and I've recently done a refresher course on Duolingo, so I picked up on most of it. Alles klar?

haha nice. It was always fun trying to figure out the german in Schilling's Major Tom.

Somehow German and Metal go together like bread and butter. lol.

One of my favorite soundtracks is from Wim Wender's "Until the End of the World" which was released in '91 and features a lot of music from the 80's like Depeche Mode and Talking Head's "Sax and Violin's", and some from '90, '91 including U2's song of the same name.  Here is one my favorite tracks from Robbie Robertson post "The Band".




Sax and Violins live version.. video quality sucks, but it's an amazing solo w/ the orchestra and percussion.

Zaphod wrote:

OMG Iced Earth, wasn't Richard from the Howard Stern show their drummer for awhile???

Not that i recall. My favorite Howard Stern moment was actually from the 90's, when he won the Libertarian Party's endorsement for NYS Governor, and he actually ran a really strong campaign. So strong that several of his platform planks had to be co-opted and put into practice, and most of them are still in place. The one i didn't like that got through is still in place, but has still never actually been used, which was the reinstatement of capital punishment in NYS.

The State's first capital murder case after reinstatement of the death penalty featured a childhood friend of mine as the defendant. Kristian Hanson (or Hansen, idr) had a cab drive him to a crack house on Clinton Avenue in Albany, shot the cabbie in the back of the head, took his money, and was still firing rocks in the crack house when the SWAT team raided the place for him. Kris was always a pretty fucked up kid, and he was a terrible friend for the most part, but still he'd been a friend, and he'd just turned 19 a few weeks before the murder. I've thought about writing to him many times over the intervening years, but i never have. The jury gave him life w/o parole.

I noticed you posted some Great White. I saw them too, sandwiched between Trixter (godawful) and The Scorpions (fucking incredible) in 1990 or '91, touring for The Winds of Change. Great White was really great.

well the show is from the 80s...

ah man, FOS soooo takes me back.








love the angsty stuff of Gabriel's.

super depressing song, but it actually makes me happy when I listen to it. eta: i don't think he's actually bowing that bass, it sounds more like an electric violin to me. it's a beautiful sound, whatever it is.

Just a few carefully selected tracks from a band that was highly prolific in the 80s and made a lot of highly influential music in the decade, though they were virtually unknown even in many underground circles, until they toured with the first Lollapalooza in 1991.

yeah, do i need mention the awesomeness of VH - we had like 3 band devoted to in our high school, VH constantly vying for numero uno. eddie with those goddam boyish good look faces. DLR wanting to get into your pants.

miss George - dude had a great voice, and easy on the eyes (I am straight but quite ok to recog a good looking guy. Now Boy George....not so easy on the eyes - lol)

Interesting you mention them in the same post. IIrc they both came out of the closet the same day.

lol oh wow did not know that, I thought Boy G was out since a kid. (And I was only saying his face isn't great to look at, I do like his voice.)

heard on the way home on the OLDIES STATION. i guess NiN has been around awhile, but oldies??



another golden oldie

Well, he was pretty flamboyant throughout his career and you certainly wouldn't've been alone in an assumption, but yeah iirc he officially announced it the same day George Michael did.

I think i remember saying something along the lines of, "George Michael officially came out of the closet today, breaking the hearts of millions of women worldwide; interestingly Boy George also came out of the closet today, but perhaps that closet door had already been wide open or something." That's certainly tacky at best by today's standards, and i'm not proud, but that's why i remember it was the same day.

The first Nine Inch Nails album was released in 1989. It didn't hit until ~4 years later, but yeah. Almost 30 years ago now.

OMG stop Mo, I already feel goddam old as dirt

Yeah all the roots of the "90s alternative" thing were laid in the 80s. The aforementioned Violent Femmes but so so so many others. The Dead Milkmen, NIN, Ministry, Nirvana, Mother Love Bone, The Pixies, Primus, Fugazi, Prong, Jane's Addiction, Butthole Surfers, Beastie Boys, Faith No More, i could fill page after page after page but i'll just stop myself now.

It's easy to forget that people were making music like this in the 80s...

love almost all the bands in your list. a few i do not know. but yeah people shit on the 80s, but so much good music sparked from those times.

pffft, the 80s were the beest decade ever

In point of fact i think the nihilism that dominated 90s pop culture was best expressed in an 80s song, which iirc also just happened to prefigure Oliver Stone's seminal Natural Born Killers. Originally from the very same studio album by Ministry...

Obv tful282 or at least obv to me. I'll try to document a few other highly influential bands who made great music in the 80s but weren't recognized until the 90s. I'll mention just a few more too: R.E.M., Mission of Burma, Television, The Smiths

ok one Smiths song. I'm really not a fan of the group nor of Morrisey solo but this shit still kills me:



And if you never heard of Sonic Youth, idk what to say about that...

His Royal Dorkness wrote:

i'll just stop myself now.

There's no fool like an old fool.

love iggy. loved kate since oh 1979 or so.