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Though they put almost no real effort into it, Mötley
Crüe achieved their greatest commercial success to date
with Theatre of Pain (1985). That probably wasn’t
the best motivation to work harder on the follow-up, 1987’s
Girls, Girls, Girls. It doesn’t mean the band
was complacent, however.
“It was really exciting when we started Girls,
Girls, Girls,” frontman Vince Neil said in the
liner notes of the 1999 rerelease. “I thought Theatre
of Pain was a little light. The whole glam thing and
everything was great, but it was exciting to get into something
tougher and meatier—something you could sink your teeth
into.”
The big hair remained, but the androgynous glam look was
replaced by leather and motorcycles in the black-and-white
photo on the Girls, Girls, Girls album cover. The
Crüe was taking it back to the streets, perhaps in an
effort to recapture the fire that fueled their first two albums.
It certainly appears to be back in the first two songs. The
opener, “Wild Side,” is a dark, heavy track depicting
an urban nightmare of drugs and violence, a clear indicator
that the glossy, pop-metal sheen of Theatre of Pain
is a thing of the past. It’s followed by “Girls,
Girls, Girls,” the ultimate exercise in hedonism and
maybe the greatest strip club anthem ever written. No pair
of songs in the Mötley catalog sums up the band better
than this one.
Ironically, the strength of the first two songs dooms the
rest of the album. Nothing could live up to that standard.
There are some solid selections (“Dancing on Glass,”
“All in the Name of …” and the ballad “You’re
All I Need,” possibly the Crüe’s most disturbing
song), but much of it feels like filler. A cover of Elvis
Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” recorded live
indicates a struggle to fill out the album.
Once again, the band’s self-destructive naturewas to
blame. “Like Theatre of Pain, Girls, Girls,
Girls could have been a phenomenal record, bassist/songwriter
Nikki Sixx wrote in The Dirt, “but we were
too caught up in our own personal bullshit to put any effort
into it. … If we hadn’t managed to force two
songs out of ourselves (the title track and “Wild Side”),
the album would have been the end of our careers.”
Tom Werman is back for round three as producer, though there
has been some controversy of late over how big a role he actually
played during the recording. Regardless, the production is
a step up from Theatre of Pain, giving the music
a darker, punchier feel. The biggest improvement is in Mick
Mars’ guitar tone, which cuts through the recording—a
significant achievement considering the state he was in (falling
off of his stool while recording the title track, then not
bothering with another take).
Though the band members barely remember recording it, Girls,
Girls, Girls was another smashing success, reaching No.
2 on the Billboard charts and selling some four million
copies. After the first two songs, it’s far from classic
Mötley Crüe, but after the artistic letdown of Theatre
of Pain, they had started to right the ship.
®2009 Live-Metal.net
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