Request Lines Are Open...'80s Flashback

In honor of my man, "mat", joining the blogosphere in earnest (a new blog site is almost sure to follow...), I am attempting to take his request. Unfortunately, after scouring my collection, it appears that, as I suspected, I never actually *had* Motley Crue's DR. FEELGOOD (1989). Of course, I wouldn't have needed it, as its presence was nearly as ubiquitous as both GnR's Appetite for Destruction and Def Leppard's Hysteria before it, and GnR's Use Your Illusion I & II after it.

A look at the track list reveals no less than 5 singles that charted (tracks 2, 5, 6, 7 and 10):

01. T.N.T. (Terror 'N Tinseltown)
02. Dr. Feelgood
03. Slice Of Your Pie
04. Rattlesnake Shake
05. Kickstart My Heart
06. Without You
07. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)
08. Sticky Sweet
09. She Goes Down
10. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
11. Time For Change

Now, I must admit that I was never the biggest Crue fan around. However, I'm not going to tell you that this album/tape/disc/whatever (1989-90 was a transitional time, format-wise) didn't sound good blaring in the dishroom of the U of I cafeteria, where both "mat" and "haahnster" were student workers. It had that high-energy, party feel to it (hence, "Dr. Feelgood"...it's not complicated).

My personal favorite, though, was the closing tune--the obligatory power-ballad "Time For Change". This was especially my favorite during drunken stupors as I mourned the end of a nearly-three-year relationship with my former high school sweetheart. We tried the long distance thing (as in, I wasted my freshman year in college), but it just didn't work out. Well, actually, it "didn't work out" because she decided that we "needed to see other people." That bitch. But, I digress.

Axel Rose and the boys in GnR were already saving themselves a fortune in reduced hairspray usage. In many ways, the Crue's Dr. Feelgood was the last of a dying breed. Well, I guess Poison released Flesh & Blood in 1990. But, suffice it to say the GreatWhiteLionSnake was almost dead, and few were mourning its (their) passing. Why weren't they mourning? How could the masses survive without their hair-metal? Because Kurt Cobain saved the world, of course. But that's a story for another day (and, if you don't catch that I'm deliberately exaggerating, well here's your clue).

Rock on, party people.