Despite the title, Motley Crue will never be called America's band. (But then again, the Beach Boys have that title, so that wouldn't be such a compliment after all.)
In recent years, members of Motley Crue have been known for many things, most of which did not involve a recording studio. Arrests, jail time and pilfered home videos have harmed the band's reputation. While Lee made regular visits to his parole officer and family court, frontman Vince Neil has been a semi-staple of reality TV with appearances on "The Surreal Life."
Although bassist Nikki Sixx and guitarist Mick Mars have managed to keep lower profiles, all these stunts have distracted from the fact that Motley Crue was one of the better groups hatched from the heady L.A. Sunset Strip scene of the '80s. They never quite reached the critical and commercial heights of peers Guns N' Roses, mainly because the Crue never put out a legendary product on the scale of "Appetite for Destruction."
Their recently released "Red, White and Crue," a third career-spanning compilation, is not exactly a new marketing strategy for the quartet. While it was mainly put together to be used as a push product while the group starts its reunion tour, it does remind listeners that the band had more than just a few moments of prominence.
The initial tracks culled from "Too Fast For Love," the Crue's 1981 debut album, present the band as they really were at their best - raw, crude, angry, hungry (literally) and youthful. "Live Wire" and "Toast of the Town" are just a small sampling, but they show that no matter how Hollywood/Vegas-like they later became, the band did live the L.A. musician's life and had street cred to spare.
After the doors for metal bands were opened by Quiet Riot in 1983, the Crue went softer for "Shout at the Devil" that same year. The shift landed them on Top 40 radio and, more importantly, a video in heavy MTV rotation.
The album's tracks become more mainstream by the middle of Disc One. A cover of "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" put them in the Top 10 and paved the way for the metal-pop feel of "Girls, Girls, Girls" and the disc-closing "Dr. Feelgood." This is where the band loses its direction and listeners can hear the group digging too deep to come up with glossy productions.
All this flash was apparently negative, as it followed on the heels of the Crue's too-slick-to-be-true remake of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." (and slick is never a good thing when you're covering the Pistols). Neil was booted out of the band and the Crue, as seen in lackluster tracks like "Hooligan's Holiday" and "Generation Swine," never recovered its commercial momentum.
Even the mainstream side of the Crue has plenty of bright spots though. "Kickstart My Heart" and "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" are filled with machismo-laced beats that were perfect for fist-pumping concert moments, as well as appealling to their Harley Davidson-loving fans.
While "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)" could have been weak and might at first sound like a tune form the Poison catalog, it is saved by some heavier-than-usual guitar work from Mick Mars and an appealingly urgent tone in the vocals. "Dr. Feelgood" also could have fallen into this category, but its salvation comes from a heady and forceful rhythm ? la Lee and Sixx. Not that they were the best rhythm section of all time, but they did capture a certain driving emotion that makes you forget the tune's pedestrian lyrics.
The aforementioned "Street Fighting Man" is a brave attempt at a cover of the Rolling Stones classic, but withers off into mediocrity and is mostly the result of a sad, self-indulgent delivery from Neil.
And why the set chose only to include the 1991 remix of "Home Sweet Home" and ignore the original cut from the group's 1985 CD, "Theatre of Pain" is very odd. Like it or not, "Home Sweet Home" is one of the staples for the power ballad craze of the '80s and was certainly better than any other attempts to copy the genre.
Some may not care that the band is back, but a true fan will be glad too see them regrouped. In the midst of the past couple years' dull and financially disappointing concert scene, maybe we need a Motley Crue reunion more than ever.
"Red, White and Crue" is like the Crue itself; it has its highs ("Street Fighting Man" and "Helter Skelter") and lows (any song that Neil did not sing on),but it is never tedious.
