A click comes from the hammer that couldn’t drive a nail…
I remember it like it was yesterday. My parents were out on a cruise in the early summer of ’87 and I was left home alone with a freezer full of frozen pizzas and Perdue Chicken Nuggets, all by my request. I was 16 and my parents trusted me enough to leave me alone for a week. Hell, we lived out in the middle of nowhere and none of my friends from town would come out if I tried having a party. haha.
Anyhoo, I decided to use my mom’s car (Silver Subaru 4dr) to go to Portsmouth and hang out with a former friend from high school for the day. Got to his house and he let me hear Obsessions’ “Scarred for Life.” I freaked! “Let’s go to Tracks (record store)!” So we hop in the Subaru and drive over to Norfolk to hit one of the only cool chain record stores in the area. I went in and grabbed the Obsession cassette and saw Megadeth’s “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying” on the rack. I had seen some ads in Circus and Hit Parader about it and decided to buy that tape as well. of course my mom’s car didn’t have a cassette player (shoulda drove my Nova!) so we had to wait until we got back to my buddy’s before we could hear it.
We popped the tape into his stereo…holy shit. ‘Wake Up Dead’ started and we just looked at each other with wide-eyed gazes and our mouths open, trying to pick our jaws up off of the floor. What the hell was this? Heavy. Dark. Evil. Sense a theme in what I liked about much of the 80s true metal? We were both just sitting there quietly as each song played. It’s one of my fondest memories of that era of music. Each song came on and we were just floored by the massiveness of it all. Then…’I Ain’t Superstitious’ came on. I think he and I simultaneously said, “What the fuck is this?” Seriously. What the fuck was that? OK, we know Dave was a drunk and a heroin addict, but c’mon. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised since he did do a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots” on their debut…that sucked too.
“Peace Sells…” was my introduction to Megadeth. I adore this album, that one song not withstanding. The main drawback was the production. It was terrible. Were there any hihats or cymbals on it? Everything was so muddy. In the grand scheme it didn’t matter. This album was massive…rephrase…IS massive. I was fortunate to see this tour with Overkill opening. May 23, 1987. It’s the only concert date I think I’ll ever remember. The show was perfect. It was also the night of my junior prom. Screw the prom…Megadeth!
My favorites on this one are ‘Bad Omen’, ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Black Friday’ and especially ‘My Last Words’. I love it all except ‘…Superstitious.’ Weak.
I finally got to meet Mustaine 2 summers ago during Gigantour when they were doing a charity softball game at Harbor Park. I asked him if he remembered playing at The Boathouse. “Ugh. Yes. What a fucking dump!” I told him to look over the left field wall and he could see the roof of the place (RIP). I also mentioned that I skipped prom to see the Peace Sells tour. In typical Dave fashion he replied, “Don’t blame the fact that you couldn’t get a date for your prom on me!”
Good one. Dave.
The Metal Files 
I first heard the title track on the Metalshop radio show in 1986 and liked it so much I bought the tape a few days later. I loved it back then, but it hasn’t aged as well as say Reign in blood or Master of puppets.
Metal Mark
September 5, 2008 at 1:18 am
That.
Was.
Amazing.
KennyDoll77
September 5, 2008 at 2:25 am
See? I can’t even listen to Master of Puppets anymore. Even seeing the album cover makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
Sean
September 5, 2008 at 2:56 am
I think I wore out two copies of Peaces sells on tape before 1990 yet now I listen to it maybe once a year. I still listen to Master of puppets fairly often.
Metal Mark
September 5, 2008 at 11:23 am
If I am able to stomach any Metallica, I put on Ride the Lightning. It’s the only album of theirs I really ever liked front to back.
Sean
September 5, 2008 at 11:25 am
Ride the lightning is my favorite Metallica album as well, but I always considered it and Master to be similar in style.
Metal Mark
September 5, 2008 at 1:57 pm
[…] It was summer of 86 when I first heard Megadeth (click link to read about it). I was hooked. I immediately went back and bought Killing Is My Business and loved it. Dave could write riffs, especially when doped up. So Far So Good…So What! came out and while it was a little less sinister than the 2 previous albums, it had some good stuff on it. Then, as noted above, the Marty era happened. I was out. It really wasn’t until The System Has Failed album came out that I became interested again. I’ve loved every album since. […]
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