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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Motley Crue, formed by Vince Neil (vocals) and Nikki Sixx (bass) in Los Angeles, were for several years the shock-rock heroes of Hollywood, worthy heirs to the traditions of Alice Cooper and Kim Fowley. They debuted by self-producing the single “Stick to Your Guns” (1981) and the album Too Fast for Love (Elektra, 1982).
The scandal provoked by the gratuitous obscenity of their lyrics, the delirious, depraved decadence of their shows, and the seductive power of their anthems (“Take Me to the Top,” “Too Fast for Love,” “Live Wire,” “Piece of Your Action”) ensured that the album Shout at the Devil (1983), with “Looks That Kill” and the title track, became one of the year’s biggest successes.
Theatre of Pain (Elektra, 1985), though elevated by scorching, anthemic boogies like “City Boy Blues,” “Fight for Your Rights,” and “Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room” (a cover of Brownsville Station), cemented their cliché as heroin-addled pigs with “Tonite” and the ballad “Home Sweet Home”—a stereotype reinforced by the savage lust of “Wild Side” and “Girls Girls Girls” (the highlights of Girls Girls Girls, 1987).
A delirious synthesis of Black Sabbath and Kiss, Motley Crue established themselves as the typical exponents of leather-clad machismo: devoted to satanic rituals, sexually insatiable, and utterly incapable of inventing a riff that hadn’t already been used at least a dozen times. Their moral values are null on every level; their sole interest is the most banal, reactionary, and opportunistic kind of “fun.” They are the heavy metal version of the Beach Boys, but without their meticulous professionalism. They are also the materialization of the disturbing subconscious of Los Angeles’ jet society, into which they perfectly inserted themselves, flooding both the crime pages (Neil’s manslaughter case, Sixx’s alleged overdose) and the gossip columns (the drummer’s marriage to a popular actress) with their swaggering antics.
The title track of Dr. Feelgood (1989) presented them in a more melodic guise, and “Kickstart My Heart” held its own alongside their classics—but the band was already nearing its end.
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