A love letter to the hard-rocking, but often snubbed, music of the era of excess: the 1980s There may be no more joyous iteration in all of music than 1980s hard rock. It was an era where the musical and cultural ideals of rebellion and freedom of the great rock ’n’ roll of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s were taken to dizzying heights of neon excess. Attention to songcraft, showmanship, and musical virtuosity (especially in the realm of the electric guitar) were at an all-time high, and radio and MTV were delivering the goods en masse to the corn-fed children of America and beyond. Time hasn’t always been kind to artists of that gold and platinum era, but Don’t Call It Hair Metal analyzes the sonic evolution, musical diversity, and artistic intention of ’80s commercial hard rock through interviews with members of such hard rock luminaries as Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Poison, Whitesnake, Ratt, Skid Row, Quiet Riot, Guns N’ Roses, Dokken, Mr. Big, and others.
"An oral history and timeline of the popular 1980s heavy metal subgenre, including its prehistory and decline, profusely illustrated with relevant photographs and memorabilia"--
Soon to be a Paramount+ exclusive docuseries! The New York Times Bestseller The Explosive National Bestseller "A backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history—you'll feel like you were right there with us!" —Bret Michaels of Poison Nothin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it. Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated—and maybe even helped to define—a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, PAC-MAN, and E.T. From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it. Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over two hundred author interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged, chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era—one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin’ but a good time...and found it.
“We gotta get out of this place.” —Any kid in the ’80s trying to make it playing rock and roll. Mix one dash of high school and two jiggers of teenage angst with a metric ton of heavy metal, and you have the recipe for the improbable wild ride of five kids with limited means and big dreams. Seventeen-year-old Sean needs a lot of things: He needs his parents to stop hassling him. He needs his car to actually start. He needs his Jewfro to grow out into heavy metal hair. But most of all, he needs a band... Without one he isn’t sure that he’s ever going to make it out of this two-horse town. He’s been trying to put a band together for as long as he can remember, but finding like-minded metalheads in rural America has been challenging. Finally the stars align and a band is born. It’s magic. But can these five talented metal kids keep things together long enough to play the show of a lifetime? If you are a fan of heavy metal music and grew up in the 1980s (or just wished you had) this story is for you.
YOU'LL NEVER READ ABOUT MUSIC THE SAME WAY AGAIN. Pop metal burst onto the scene in 1980s along with Reaganomics, video games, and Apple Computers. You either loved it or you hated it, but it was impossible to avoid. Bands like Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Poison were all over MTV, vying with Madonna and Michael Jackson for musical supremacy. And then, in a flash, it was gone: as suddenly obsolete in 1992 as disco was in 1980. But there's a lot more to this music than meets the ear. It didn't appear out of nowhere, and it didn't vanish, either. Pop Goes the Metal traces the musical and cultural phenomenon that came to be known, both derisively and affectionately, as "hair metal." Musically, it was rooted in the British Invasion, power pop, and early heavy metal. Visually, it began with Bowie and Sweet and T. Rex, and kept right on going through Kiss and Alice Cooper to Poison and Twisted Sister. Travel to L.A.'s Sunset Strip scene that gave birth to Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, and halfway around the world to explore the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Revisit the early years of MTV, the era of heavy metal magazines, the "Satanic Panic," and the PMRC; read about overdoses, car crashes, unscrupulous managers, and concert chaos. Growing up in the suburbs meant playing air guitar to vinyl and cassettes, or waiting for the DJ to play your favorite songs on album rock radio - which never happened often enough. Pop Goes the Metal captures an era and a musical movement indelibly impressed, for better or worse, in the souls and memories of millions. It served as the soundtrack to our youth and it's still playing in our heads. So Cum on Feel the Noize as you relive the memories of this gone-but-not-forgotten time. Even decades later, it's still all about the music.
The year is 1983, and Chuck Klosterman just wants to rock. But he's got problems. For one, he's in the fifth grade. For another, he lives in rural North Dakota. Worst of all, his parents aren't exactly down with the long hairstyle which rocking requires. Luckily, his brother saves the day when he brings home a bit of manna from metal heaven, SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, Motley Crue's seminal paean to hair-band excess. And so Klosterman's twisted odyssey begins, a journey spent worshipping at the heavy metal altar of Poison, Lita Ford and Guns N' Roses. In the hilarious, young-man-growing-up-with-a-soundtrack-tradition, FARGO ROCK CITY chronicles Klosterman's formative years through the lens of heavy metal, the irony-deficient genre that, for better or worse, dominated the pop charts throughout the 1980s. For readers of Dave Eggers, Lester Bangs, and Nick Hornby, Klosterman delivers all the goods: from his first dance (with a girl) and his eye-opening trip to Mandan with the debate team; to his list of 'essential' albums; and his thoughtful analysis of the similarities between Guns 'n' Roses' 'Lies' and the gospels of the New Testament.
Canada has produced many successful proponents of the genre known as heavy metal. Drawing on interviews with the original artists of the 1980s, this book provides a new perspective on the dreams of musicians shooting for an American ideal of success ... and ultimately discovering a uniquely Canadian voice in the process.
"What's wrong, Mommy?" Even a five-year-old could tell something was wrong. There she was-the same little girl I had seen years ago. She was standing at the front window of Duncan's nursery, holding the rag doll from the old toy box in the attic, silently saying, "It's me, it's me..." A true ghost story that will give you chills and warm your heart In 1971, Kathleen McConnell and her family moved into a historic home known as the Fontaine Manse. Two days after moving in, she and her husband had an extraordinary experience that left them with no doubt that unseen residents occupied the house, too. This is the true story of how Kathleen McConnell came to know and care for the spirit children who lived in the attic of the mansion-Angel Girl, Buddy, and The Baby. From playing ball with Kathleen, to saving her son Duncan from drowning, the spirit children became part of the McConnell family in ways big and small. Finally, a heart-wrenching decision triggered an unexpected and dramatic resolution to the spirit children's plight. Don't Call Them Ghosts is the inspiring story of the transcendent and lasting power of a mother's love.
In the much-anticipated sequel to the bestselling Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Trunk picks up where he left off by featuring 35 new bands, both legendary and forgotten, and sharing his passion for all things metal. Complete with his favorite playlists, band discographies, memorabilia, trivia, and more than 200 color photographs, this new book combines brief band histories with Trunk’s unique personal experiences and anecdotes in a must-read for all fans of rock and roll. Featuring a diverse lineup, from Marilyn Manson and Ace Frehley to Lita Ford and Whitesnake, Volume 2 salutes all those who are ready to rock!
