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My Mötley Crüe story begins in the summer of 1989.
I had not yet reached my 10th birthday and had only recently
discovered MTV. (You see, kids, there was a time when “Music
Television” showed almost nothing but three- and four-minute
short films, each set to a song, known as “music videos”—but
those were simpler days.) One of the first videos to capture
my attention and imagination started with pounding drums leading
the way for the most evil-sounding guitar my young ears had
ever heard and a hook that got under your skin and refused
to come back out, and depicted a band—including a positively
monstrous guitarist—surrounded in flames as they performed.
I had never seen anything so cool.
The song was “Dr. Feelgood,” the title track
of Mötley Crüe’s fifth album. I vividly remember
my mom driving me to Records Plus on the day of its release
(Sept. 1, 1989) so I could use my saved-up allowance money
to buy it on cassette. (You see, kids—oh, never mind.)
Dr. Feelgood is nothing short of an arena rock masterpiece,
sending the 1980s out on the highest note possible. Most probably
consider it the Crüe’s finest hour (I give a slight
edge to Shout at the Devil), and it’s hard
to make a convincing argument against that. From the songwriting
to the playing to the production, it’s virtually flawless.
The key: sobriety.
Mötley reached its lowest point during the Girls,
Girls, Girls tour, Nikki Sixx’s infamous overdose
being rock bottom. So they checked themselves into rehab (except
for Mick Mars, who cleaned up on his own), kicked the drugs
that had fueled the band throughout its entire existence and
set to work on their next album with a newfound focus.
“I had the time and clarity to cut away the fat of
my writing, get together with the band, and put the songs
through the Mötley machine, discussing and changing each
until we all liked them,” Sixx wrote in The Dirt.
The process was more collaborative than it had ever been.
“Together, we all wrote what we thought could be our
best album yet,” Sixx wrote. “For once the studio
wasn’t a place to party and bring chicks, it was a place
to work.”
Their taskmaster was producer Bob Rock, who pushed them as
they had never been pushed before. Working in Vancouver, far
away from the many temptations of Los Angeles , they lived
and breathed their work.
“They came up to Vancouver and we just worked our butts
off for three months,” Rock said in the liner notes
of the 1999 rerelease of Dr. Feelgood. “There
was nothing that got in the way. They were just totally focused
on their music.”
The recording boasts the thick, full sound for which Rock
is known, but the magic goes beyond that. There is an energy
and hunger—still palpable two decades later—that
the band had not even approached since Shout at the Devil.
It is not a stretch to say that, with Rock riding them so
hard, each band member gives the best individual performance
of his career.
Following the short introduction of “T.nT. (Terror
‘n Tinseltown),” the title track immediately puts
the record into overdrive; “Slice of Your Pie”
builds from an intro featuring the vocal stylings of Steven
Tyler (Aerosmith was recording Pump at the same Vancouver
studio) into a grooving rocker; “Rattlesnake Shake”
uses horns and piano to get its boogie going; “Kickstart
My Heart” is an up-tempo, adrenaline-fueled rocker that
has served as a concert opener on many tours; “Without
You,” unfortunately, is known more for its cheesy video
than it is for being the best ballad in the Mötley catalog
not called “Home Sweet Home”; “Same Ol’
Situation” is arena rock at its finest; “Sticky
Sweet” and “She Goes Down” are solid album
tracks, but don’t call them filler; “Don’t
Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” sneaks up on the listener,
lulling you in with a reflective first half that gives way
to fists-in-the-air, sing-along chorus; and on the closer,
“Time for Change,” Sixx displays a more mature
side, commenting on the world around him.
Despite the polish, the album retains the signature Mötley
attitude, with songs about drugs (“Dr. Feelgood,”
“Kickstart My Heart”) and a whole lot of sex (“Slice
of Your Pie,” “Rattlesnake Shake,” “Sticky
Sweet,” “She Goes Down”).
Dr. Feelgood is without question the Crüe’s
biggest success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard
charts, spawning five hit singles (“Dr. Feelgood,”
“Kickstart My Heart,” “Without You,”
“Don’t Go Away Mad,” “Same Ol’
Situation”), selling more than six million copies and
supported with nearly two years of sold-out concerts. Mötley
Crüe was a machine that could seemingly do no wrong.
It is one of my biggest regrets that I was not able to see
them in concert on these tours, this period when they were
at the height of their powers.
“The crowds were fanatical,” Tommy Lee wrote
in The Dirt. “They knew every lyric, every
chord, every downbeat off every album. And, for the first
time, we were sober enough to enjoy it.”
®2009 Live-Metal.net
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