Great Metal Albums of 1982: Girlschool- Screaming Blue Murder

 

Everything I said in my last post about Anvil not getting the respect they've deserved for all these years can be said for Girlschool. Like their Canadian counterparts, Girlschool blasted onto the scene in the early 1980s only to disappear a few years down the line, although they were bigger in the UK than they were in America. But with all of the other bands from the UK who came on the wave of new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), Girlschool seemed to be the first to fade from view. Should I play the 'it's because heavy metal is sexist' card? After all, Girlschool were an all female outfit. No I won't do that unless clear evidence can be provided, but whatever the reason, one thing I know for sure was that they could rock just as hard as the men.

The 1982 album "Screaming Blue Murder" is proof alone that Girlschool weren't just four pretty bimbos who decided to take up instruments. They could at least play them. Each song, except for maybe the closer, is a true metal tune and each contains something of the basic elements to be a true metal song. "Screaming Blue Murder" is a fantastic opening track and sets the pace to the album ever so appropriately. The introductory riffs on "Take it From Me" are the type to grab you by the ears and say, "Here's a song you should listen to." Other stand out tracks for me are "Don't Call It Love," "Live With Me," "Turns Your Head Around" and "When Your Blood Runs Cold." So, I ask myself, why didn't these girls go onto to the same accolades as the likes of Saxon, Maiden or Priest?

Another issue I noted from listening to the album is the guitar work of one Kelly Johnson. She can shred, plain and simple. Just have a listen to "Don't Call it Love" and you will be convinced. That's the song where she shines the most but she certainly makes her presence known on the other tracks on "Screaming Blue Murder." So, let's all give Johnson the respect she deserves as a guitarist. P.S. You could probably add Kim McAuliffe to my list of great rhythm guitarists as well.

Track Listing:

1. Screaming Blue Murder

2. Live With Me

3. Take It From Me

4. Wildlife

5. Turns Your Head Around

6. Don't Call It Love

7. Hellrazor

8. When Your Blood Runs Cold

9. You Got Me

10. Flesh and Blood

[caption id="attachment_2373" align="aligncenter" width="329"] Girlschool[/caption]

Kim McAuliffe- rhythm guitar, vocals

Kelly Johnson- lead guitar, vocals

Gil Weston- bass, vocals

Denise Dufort- drums

1982 was full of great metal bands, probably so many that some possibly slipped through the cracks and faded into obscurity. That might be said for Girlschool but in that year, they made their mark with the album, "Screaming Blue Murder." For me, it was another metal album made in the way the gods of metal intended and it has played a major role in getting me psyched for Friday.

To buy Rock And Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

Great Metal Albums of 1982: Anvil- Metal on Metal

 

The other night I was watching Anvil performing the title track to their 1982 album, "Metal on Metal" and it got me thinking about the now famous Anvil Documentary that came out a few years back. Many bands admitted that they were blown away by Anvil back in the day and seeing their performance on You tube, I now know why. They were just so full of energy and the way they played was just mind blowing. I wished I could have seen them back then. Fortunately, their first three studio albums were just as mind blowing, including this one.

While I can easily say that all the songs on "Metal on Metal" are mind blowing metal anthems, it is the title track that I like best. Seeing it performed live only makes it that much sweeter. It's just metal as metal was intended. However, it is likewise for the rest of the album as well. I get the distinct impression that the band had a good time recording this one. "Mothra," "Jackhammer" and "Heat Sink" all fall in line with the title track, all great head bangers. The instrumental "March of the Crabs" show that these guys can actually play. One thing I do find surprising is the closer "666." I'm surprised that it hasn't appeared on an American fundamentalist Christian hit list, just for the title alone. The other reason I'm surprised the album hasn't appeared on the same list is that "Metal on Metal" is what metal was meant to be. If someone with no experience of metal, who wanted to hear it in its purest form, this would be one of the albums I would reach for.

Track Listing:

1. Metal on Metal

2. Mothra

3. Stop Me

4. March of the Crabs

5. Jackhammer

6. Heat Sink

7. Tag Team

8. Scenery

9. Tease Me Please Me

10. 666

[caption id="attachment_2368" align="aligncenter" width="226"] Anvil[/caption]

Steve 'Lips' Kudrow- vocals, guitar

Dave Allison- guitar, vocals on "Stop Me"

Ian Dickson- bass

Rob Reiner- drums

One observation I've made about Anvil today and was probably true back in the early 1980s, was that people either loved them or hated them. No prizes for guessing which side I'm on. Even when they played Bloodstock in 2012, these things were said. All I know is that their first three albums were all killer ones and though I didn't experience them until 1984, I was glad for the opportunity.

Next post: Girlschool- Screaming Blue Murder

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com 

A Metal Tragedy: The Death of Randy Rhoads

 [caption id="attachment_2796" align="aligncenter" width="220"] Randy Rhoads[/caption]

Actually, I'm quite surprised that no one pointed this out when I posted my "Triumphs and Tragedies" post for 1982. While the death of John Belushi was certainly a tragic occurrence, for metalheads, the terrible loss of Randy Rhoads was a far bigger tragedy because on March 19, 1982, the world was robbed of a guitar god. That is why I felt that Rhoads's death deserved its own post because for metalheads, his death overshadowed everything else in 1982 in the same way that John Lennon's murder did for the world in 1980.

For any metalhead, it's standard 101 to know that Randy Rhoads was killed in a plane crash on that tragic day in March, 1982 but it is only now that I have fully learned the full details behind the crash. The pilot had taken Randy and the band's make up artist up in a small plane for a little bit of show boat flying. After making two successful attempts to fly close to the tour bus that was parked nearby, the pilot botched the third attempt, hitting the bus, severing the top of a pine tree before crashing into a garage of a nearby mansion. The contact with the bus forced Rhoads's head to crash through the windscreen and then he was immediately incinerated when the plane exploded into a fireball after hitting the garage. While only God himself could have saved the three people in the plane, it still took over a half hour before the fire service arrived on the scene and then it was only one engine. This leads me to speculate two possible reasons for this. One was the fact that it was rural Florida and the local fire department would probably have been a volunteer one so there would have been a great delay in the response. The other, a result of me seeing anti- metal conspiracies all over the place, is the fact that the locals weren't too bothered in responding quickly because it was a bunch of heavy metal people involved. In any case, heavy metal and the world lost a truly magnificent guitar player on that day.

Standard Metal knowledge 102 teaches that while Randy is no longer with us, his legacy will never die. From that fateful day, the tributes to Randy Rhodes and what he has done for music continue to pour in. His former band Quiet Riot dedicated a song to him on their next album and Ozzy Osbourne released a tribute album to Randy a few years after that and rest assured, I'll be visiting both when the time comes. Young guitarists still study his guitar style and Jackson Guitars still sell a replica of the one he used to wow audiences with his playing. Randy might have only lived for 25 years (way too young) but his memory has lived on for the last 33 years and will go on forever. Here's where I should urge everybody to go out and listen to some album where Randy appears. There's really no need because I know that everybody reading this will have already done so in the recent past and will continue to do so well into the the future.

R.I.P. Randy Rhoads

Next post: Anvil- Metal on Metal

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com 

Great Metal Albums of 1982: KISS- Creatures of the Night

 

KISS, in 1982, were very much in danger of slipping into musical obscurity in the same way Aerosmith were at the time. Unlike, Aerosmith, it wasn't drugs that were causing the slide, it was KISS  themselves. When I visited their album "Unmasked," I pointed out that they seemed to be abandoning the hard rock sound that made them a household name, for good or ill, back in the 1970s. "Unmasked" was a deliberate lurch to more commercial sounds that was feared to have started when they released a disco tune on the "Dynasty" album and continued onto the 1981 "Music From the Elder" album, although the latter was an improvement on the predecessor. By 1982, people like me were starting to forget them. My biggest memory of them that year was the night before my battalion was starting its combat readiness evaluation. My company gunnery sergeant told us that when we applied the camouflage make up the next day, that we were not to make ourselves up to look like KISS.

[caption id="attachment_2788" align="aligncenter" width="288"] Definitely not like KISS[/caption]

What KISS needed was to go back to their heavy roots. One night, at my favourite rock bar on Okinawa, a video came on that made personal history. It was for the song "I Love it Loud" and from first strike of the guitar string, it was clear that KISS had gone back to what made them great. "I Love it Loud" is a complete rock out and since that fateful evening, it has been my all time favourite KISS song. I think the band knew that too because it would be another three years before I would finally get to see them live and they played that song for me. Even to this day, hearing that song makes me want to jump out of my seat.

Insert tired cliche here but one song does not make a good album and there are plenty of other great rockers on "Creatures of the Night." In fact, there it is extremely difficult to pick one that isn't. Even the power ballad "I Still Love You" rocks and rocks hard. Maybe back then, I should have played that one as opposed to "Beth" in my attempts to woo the ladies. While I can't fault any track on the album, the ones that really do it most for me, apart from my all time fave, are "Rock and Roll Hell," the title track," "Killer," "Saints and Sinners" and "War Machine" is the perfect closer to this album. It's also the track for me where Vinnie Vincent comes into his own as a lead guitarist. What I said back then I reiterate now. When I heard "Creatures of the Night," I concluded that KISS were truly back.

Track Listing:

1. Creatures of the Night

2. Saints and Sinners

3. Keep Me Coming

4. Rock and Roll Hell

5. Danger

6. I Love it Loud

7. I Still Love You

8. Killer

9. War Machine

[caption id="attachment_2338" align="aligncenter" width="316"] KISS[/caption]

Paul Stanley- rhythm guitar, vocals

Gene Simmons- bass, vocals

Eric Carr- drums, backing vocals

Ace Frehley- lead guitar

Vinnie Vincent- lead guitar on tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9

Sometime during the recording of "Creatures of the Night," lead guitarist Ace Frehley would be out and new guitarist Vinnie Vincent would be in. Thus the course of metal history would be changed in the KISS camp. Notice, I said metal here. That is because I believe that this album would be the first KISS album that I would truly call heavy metal.

Next post: A Tragic Loss for Metal

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