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One of my signature favorite albums of my youth was the 1983 release of Motley Crue’s ‘Shout At The Devil.’ I knew very little about these guys when I bought that album at the mall. I was young dude, obsessed with Rock music, and this new budding metal scene coming out of Los Angeles. I was already heavily into Van Halen, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. I had plenty of vinyl going on, and I was wearing out my crappy turn-table and speaker combo that I got for Christmas.
When I purchased the ‘Shout At The Devil’ album, my Mom immediately had an issue with it. There was a pentagram on the front, a mention of the “Devil”, and these makeup clad scary ass guys decked out in leather. Vince Neil looked like a girl, and Tommy Lee had more lipstick on than most women. Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars were both frightening, and looked like they just crawled out of the depths of hell itself. Despite the heat I was getting from Madre’, when I placed that album on the turn-table, I was immediately hooked. The title track had me and my friends singing along, and throwing up our ‘Rock-Fists!’ However, it was the other songs on this album that stood out to me as equally as strong. “Red Hot”, “Knock Em’ Dead, Kid” are two of my favorites. “Looks That Kill” was an obvious favorite, and their version of “Helter Skelter” was also great. Hard to believe that was 33 years ago this week. We will crank up some ‘Shout At The Devil’ Rock for you, let’s flashback, shall we?
-Bahan
