The Metal Years
I simply love this movie. I watched it again yesterday for the billionth time. It’s interesting seeing many of the people in the movie that I’ve met a time or 2 over the years and seeing how much they’ve changed.
I’ll always love the section on ODIN. Sure, Randy O. was pretty wasted and said a few outlandish things, but at least the guy believed in the dream. And he had guys with him who believed it as well…his bandmates and Gazzari (RIP).
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Shawn and Jeff Duncan of ODIN. Those guys are legends to me. And to no surprise, they are very cool dudes. They latest band, DC4, was here in Austin for the SxSW festival and I got to help them around town a bit. They completely kick ass. It was a pleasure for me to assist in every way that I could. Especially since I’ve been a fan of their debut since it came out. After watching the Metal Years again yesterday, it was cool to see them back then and compare them to the now. They seemed so familiar to me when I finally got to meet them.
The Chris Holmes section of the movie was always a bit weird to watch for me with him being completely tanked in the pool with his mom sitting there. I recently read on the Wikipedia page about the movie that the bottles of vodka that he was drinking and pouring all over himself were full of water.
I love the section on London as well. I had the cassette of their 2nd album way back when and liked it a lot. Would love to see this stuff come out on separate CDs…official or not.
One of the best bands featured on there was Detroit’s Seduce. A former friend from high school and I used to listen to them all the time back in the olden days. They looked glammy but were pretty damn metal IMHO.
The Faster Pussycat stuff was cool. One of my bands opened for them about 6 years ago and it was almost scary to see how much taime had changed. That dude’s a freak.
All in all it’s a fun movie to watch, even if it did focus more on the glammier side of LA. At least Lemmy and Alice Cooper got some good footage in there. It seems that this is coming out in an official DVD version sometime as well according the the Decline Movies website.
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
It’s no secret that I am a huge Stones fan. I practically love everything up to and including Steel Wheels (minus that horrid nightmare Dirty Work). I think that Goats Head 
Soup is one of my favorites, if not my #1 from their 70s era. The album is a bit mellow and smooth and very different from the albums before it and after it, Exile On Main Street and It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, respectively.
Silver Train, Star Star, Hide Your Love, Dancing With Mr. D, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) and even Angie are all great tracks.
This album has Mick taylor all over it. He was a great guitarist and arguably a better writer than Keef. My opinion of course.
I really wish I had some sort of life story to attach to this album like I do with many others from my collection, but I don’t. I will say that this is a fun album to play bass too and one of the first ones I put in to learn how to play when I started bassing in 2000. Nothing majorly difficult, just cool progressions.
How You Gonna See Me Now
One of my older brothers, Robert, was a pretty big influence on me musically in my pre-teen years. He was the one who got me into KISS, Priest, RUSH, Uriah Heep, The Stones, The Who and thankfully Alice Cooper.
Now, I’m not the biggest Cooper fan in the world even though I own pretty much everything up to and including Constrictor. But some of his albums are very special to me…especially From The Inside. This seems to be one that alot of Cooper fans love to hate. For me it’s brilliant. Sure it got slick production and had songwriting credits from Bernie Taupin (Elton John) and guitar work from Steve Lukather (Toto). Philip Bailey even adds a cameo falsetto on the album albeit uncredited.
Throughout the late 70s and early 80s I spun this album a lot. I know every lick and sound on this album by heart. I can recite it in my sleep. When we lived on the farm, Thomas would come over from time to time and hang out and we’d spin this one. I remember he especially liked the closing track “Inmates (We’re All Crazy)’.
There’s not a stinker on here. As a kid I didn’t get some of the references on this album like this from “Nurse Rosetta”:
I’m suddenly twice my size
My pants are all wet inside
C’mon. I was under 12 years old, I had no clue. haha.
In case you didn’t know and have been living under a rock, this is a concept album about living in a mental institution. Sure, a bit cliche for Cooper but it worked. I really like “Millie and Billie”, “For Veronica’s Sake” and especially “Jackknife Johnny”, “How You Gonna See Me Now” and “The Quiet Room”. Cooper really displays the sadness and depression of the characters in these songs.
And of course when I spin this on CD now, it really takes me back to those days in the late 70s and early 80s…far simpler times. I mean really, what worries did I have when I was 10 or 11? Not too many. Mostly just worried about my brother and the trouble he was getting into. That really did take a toll on me at a young age. I looked up to him a lot and watched him go down some pretty bad paths. Unfortunately I couldn’t help him although I wanted to. I felt it was my job. But there was nothing I could do, especially being 6 years younger than him. I was his bratty little brother and with the things he was getting into, we weren’t as close as we were when we were both younger.
I will say that even today I am surprised that he’s still alive. I had to learn at a young age that I couldn’t live his life for him…a life lesson for me. A difficult lesson when it’s about someone that you love and looked up to.
So again, when I listen to this album and think about the time when I first heard it (I was 8 and he was 14), those were good times…sunny days…but really the beginnings of some dark years ahead.
The Metal Files 
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