History Of Metal-1981-Host Jon “The Vernomatic” Verno is joined by show correspondence” Metal Walt” and Ian O’Rourke as the three dissect so

Happy Holidays metal heads! Welcome to another edition of Metal Mayhem ROC.
This week we are continuing our ongoing Happy Holidays metal heads! Welcome to another edition of Metal Mayhem ROC. This week we are continuing our ongoing series “The History of Metal”-
Host Jon “The Vernomatic” Verno is joined by show correspondence” Metal Walt” and Ian O'Rourke as the guy's dissect some of the greatest releases from the year the year-1981.

“Metal Walt” covers Killer releases by ACDC- For Those about To Rock, BLACK SABBATH -Mob Rules, DEF Leppard- High N Dry, JUDAS PRIEST Point of Entry and RUSH- Moving Pictures and Exit…Stage Left.

Ian O’Rourke handles IRON MAIDEDN- Killers, Ozzy -Diary of A Madman, SAXON -Denim and Leather and MOTORHEAD-No Sleep till Hammersmith.

Vernomatic handles all the honorable mentions covering new releases and milestone albums from EVERYONE ELSE.
We mix in samples of some of the music mentioned, with commentary and personal reflection on all of these releases from the guys. It’s a great escape and reminds all of us how and why we love our metal heritage.

We invite you to share your comments at www.podchaser.com. Just enter Metal Mayhem ROC in the search box, scroll down and press the MMROC logo and Rate and Review.
As Always you can contact us at Vernomatic @metalforever.com and join the discussion at the Metal Mayhem ROC Facebook Group page https://www.facebook.com/groups/409879766475870
Thank you for your support. Please listen, like and share with even your nonmetal friends and as always remember to -KEEP IT HEAVY!!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
W l d D Radio. Areyou ready live from the Metal Mayhem Studios
in Rochester, New York. Ifwe are gold and heard around the world
by metalheads just like you. Thisis Metal Mayhem ROC heavy metal music.
You're weekly dose of metal music interviews, album reviews, news and more.

(00:25):
I want to be part of theshow. Send us a message to our
website, Metalmayhem roc dot com orhit us up on Facebook and Twitter search
Metal Mayhem ROC. It's good andnice and heavy and now welcome to night's
host, John the Verna Madic Verno. Good evening everybody, and happy holidays

(00:45):
to all. We invite you tovisit the Metalmayhem roc dot com website.
There you'll find direct streaming links toSpotify, Apple, podcast, Stitcher.
While you're there, sign up forour email list. That's our way to
stay in touch with you. Downloadsand past shows, rate review, subscribe
to the podcast recent episodes. Lastweek we had Frank Bellow of Anthrax talking

(01:07):
about his brand new book. Meand the guys went down to New Jersey
hung out with the guys from Ravenand we are doing our continuing series History
of Metal and we did the yearnineteen eighty that leads us into tonight's show.
We're continuing that series. We're doingthe year nineteen eighty one. A
lot of great stuff going on ineighty one. Sabbath Head, that Mob

(01:30):
Rules the last one with Dio forthat first chapter, Ozzie with Diary of
a Madman, Rush with their movingpictures, the heavier stuff, Saxon,
Dunham and Leather, Let's see whatelse was out there, made in Killers,
and Motorhead and Sleep to Hammersmith.So there's a whole bunch of stuff
going on in eighty one. Iwill be joined with Metal Mayhem, ROC

(01:53):
correspondent Metal Walt and Ian R.Rourke from the band motor Lord. These
two cats have been helping me navigatethis series and we're up to year in
nineteen eighty one. I just wantto remind you about two kickass radio shows.
Monday nights, I host a liveradio show on that metalstation dot Com.
It's three hours of metal. There'sa chat room you could sign on,

(02:16):
get in there and talk with otherbangers around the world. It's a
real, real cool time. Ifyou haven't checked it out yet and have
kept hearing this, we'll get overthere and hang out with US and the
other shows are on the weekends.Friend of ours Mark James, he's been
in broadcasting for thirty plus years puttingthese metal shows together. He has two

(02:37):
kick ass shows, one on FridayNight called Metal Marks of Vault where he's
specializing in rare and classic metal,but then he regroups it comes back on
Saturday for Metal Marks Audio Aggression.This is new music from up and coming
bands in the classic bands that havenew music. So these two shows are

(02:57):
on the weekends. Mine's Monday Night. Marx is Friday and Saturday. And
you could just circle back to theMetal Mayhem ROC dot com website and there
we have links at information to listento both of these shows. It's really
easy. We make it easy oneverybody. So that being said, let's
get into tonight. We're doing thehistory of metal the year nineteen eighty one.

(03:19):
Let's welcome Metal Mayhem ROC correspondent inMetal Walt and Ian or Rourke of
the Central New York power band motorLord. Hey, guys, happy holidays.
How you doing metalwalk calling in fromJersey feeling good? Ian, hope
you're doing well as well. Ayah, there brother, I'm doing all right,
I hope you're doing well, Runal, glad to see you're feeling better,

(03:40):
feeling much better. Little rust andrelaxation goes a long way. Tonight
we are tackling the year nineteen eightyone. Nineteen eighty was jam packed with
stuff. In eighty one's even biggerand better. Well it won't you.
Good things started tonight. So nineteeneighty one is the year nineteen eighty in

(04:01):
retrospect from our last episode. Well, that was a big, giant year
and that one was going to bevery hard to top if you think about
it, from the releases to wherethat pinnacle of metal was at at that
stage. But I must say thatI think nineteen eighty one comes very very
close to eighty I think you sawreleases that were even bigger from some of

(04:27):
the same artists where you didn't thinkthey could top what they did in eighty,
Well they did it in eighty one. And I'm thinking artists like Ozzie
Rush, ac DC and def Leopard. You saw a lot more of the
same in a really great metal way. From the top bands out there,
Black Sabbath, Saxon Van Hall andMaiden and Judas Priest all put out stellar
material in eighty one, and thenwe also had some memorable live albums,

(04:53):
ones that you look back at manyyears later and you say, this is
one of those staple live albums thatdefines their catalog. And the bands that
released those albums were Motorhead and Rush. I think we also saw, as
I've mentioned before, the continuation ofthe trend of bands releasing material on albums

(05:14):
that also became not only radio friendly, but video friendly, and it put
them on the map in a slightlydifferent way. And I think you think
of bands like Blue, Orser Call, April Wine, and Rainbow, to
name a few. These were bandsthat had MTV hit videos which were on
consistent airplay, and a lot ofthe listeners learned about these bands through that

(05:36):
channel, maybe not even necessarily buyingthe albums or hearing it on the radio.
I think you also saw stellar releases. You know, the bands such
as Sammy Hagar and Triumph and Yand T and MSG and Riot. These
are all those bands that were justgetting established in the late seventies early eighties,
and they're really kicking it into highgear. And then when you imagine,

(05:58):
the Debused came out in nineteen eightyone, and this was really the
beginning of the landscape of what wouldcome towards the middle to late eighties and
the classic eighties type fans. Sowe get releases from Motley, Crude,
Docking and Kicks Loudness, and thenmore on the heavier side, you have
Raven and Anvil with her debut releases, and even Venom. I will say,

(06:18):
I'll give a special call out inan odd kind of way to some
of let's say, the more classicrock artist that had a harder edge again
that were radio and MTV friendly,but also had really really good hard rocking
type song and I think of youknow, nineteen eighty one, Yeah,
Billy Squire and Pat Benatar, thoseare just a few of the artists.

(06:41):
Joan Jet even to a degree thatreally really also kind of slid into that
category and I had a real appreciationfor. So I think what we can
really say is nineteen eighty one wasvery similar to nineteen eighty and I think
even in years to come, nineteeneighty two will be just more of the
same in a fantastic way. Soonto getting into the reviews, I think

(07:06):
we're gonna get it started here andthen also have a break in the show
where we're going to talk about thehonorable mentions and then come back for let's
say the top five or albums fornineteen eighty one. So Ian motor Head,
Yeah, well you said it eightyone. I mean continuation of more

(07:28):
fantastic music and with the advent ofMTV, I mean now it's getting to
that point where there's a certain blossomfor good are bad that's starting to occur
within the industry. But yeah,motor had mostly to Hammersmith. This is
another one of those classic live albums. I can't find much information as far

(07:51):
as too much studio doctoring. Whenyou listen to it, it sounds raucous
and raw. Kicking off the albumasa spades, I mean you just right
off the bat. You're getting slammedin the face. Than what you're saying,

(08:41):
I would say it lead l Thiswas released in June twenty second Think
Gave Me One on Bronze Records,and believe it or not, it actually
peaked at number one on the UKcharts. UM for its release just kind

(09:05):
of I guess, signifying how muchappreciation our friends over in the UK have
for their heavy music. Um,you know, buying and and and supporting
a band like Motorhead and just youknow, putting them up into that level.
Another band that jumped out that yearas well was sax and this has

(10:13):
got even more of that fantastic classicalbum. This is you know, part
of that that trilogy of classic albumsas we've mentioned, with a bunch of
bands. You know. Uh.He started off with Strong Armata Law,
kicked over to Wheels of Steel.Now you've got dNaM and Leather to kind
of bookend those three classic albums.Um, it's it's not short of anything

(10:37):
that's great. I mean it kicksoff with Princess of the Night. You
know, the closing song is youknow, the track Denham and Leather never
Surrender Out of Control. There's somany freaking great songs that are on this
album and anybody that is a fanof Saxon knows that this is another one
of those high honor albums that youknow, you hold in great esteem and

(11:03):
put above many other albums from otherbands, because it's just you know,
like I say, it's part ofthat that that trinity of great albums from
that at the time. To Auntian'spoints about the Motorhead album No sleepfil Hammersmith,
I think This was also a periodwhere the band was on the rise,
and I think their fans were,let's say, expecting a live album,

(11:26):
and I think they delivered this one, and it became one of those
memorable albums where you could look backin time and say that was a peak
of the band's career captured in thatlive setting, and you know, it's
it's it's nothing short of amazing thatyou can look back forty or fifty years
later and look back at an albumand say that defines that band from that

(11:46):
period of time, and they capturedit. And no sleepfil Hammersmith for certain.
You know. I want to talka little bit about def Leopards.
The release High and Dry. Thiswas the second full release from def Leppard.
It was the last recording featuring guitaristPete Willis, who he played on

(12:07):
the album, but shortly after that, I guess the year after, in
nineteen eighty two, he was removedfrom the band due to alcohol abuse,
and he was replaced by Phil Collins. I think this album he's got a
lot of classic elements to it.I think in thinking and painting the picture
of the album cover, I meanthe image of the person standing outside an

(12:31):
upside down pool, that is empty, It's just again and one of those
funny titles, and you said You'rehigh in the air and the pool was
dry. A little humor there.The album featured Mutt Lange as producer.
He came in off the heels ofhis success on Back in Black from ec
DC. The album itself is reallyknown, let's say, for the legendary

(12:54):
side one in the hard rock world, songs such as the title track and
let It Go and Bringing on theHeartache. I think this album also was
one that saw the band rising upin popularity. They were getting airplay on
MTV, and I think you sawthem more in a concert type setting on
some of those early videos, andI think there was a big rise in

(13:18):
popularity also because they had the openingslot on the Aussie tour in the US.
So I think in my takeaway onthis is this was a really stellar
album. It was probably their lastreally hard rock album before they started their
transition into more of the melodic style, and I think it was just a

(13:39):
good album for that time. RegardingJudas Priests point of entry, this was
the seventh album from the band,and I think that it was let's be
honest, here. This was atough act to follow, following up on
let's say The Heels of British Steal, which to find him commercially and successfully
as a global band. This albumwas a little bit more radio friendly than

(14:03):
it was let's say from British Steel. It was recorded in Spain, although
some history here on the songs thatthe songs were all pre written and they
really only just came into Spain torecord the album. Now interesting note there
that further down the line, ofcourse, Rob will admit to a heavy
addiction of alcohol and drugs, andit seemed like one of the reasons the

(14:26):
band recorded in Spain because of thebooze was cheap, so I think you
could see where this was going asthe band continued in the early eighties.
The cover, I think is reallyreally cool, and there are actually two
different covers. The US cover wassort of a simulation of a road where
you had what looked like a straightline on a road, and it started
out from the tip of let's saythe automobile of a motorcycle and you're seeing

(14:48):
out at that horizon, Whereas thereleases for the rest of the world had
a different cover and it came acrossas a very metallic in nature. Look
where you kind of appeared that youwere looking from the inside of an airplane
out and you saw sort of thewing of a plane kind of hanging over
the horizon of the sun. Soboth I think we're really really cool.

(15:11):
I think the funny part about thealbum is the title. And if you
think about a point of entry,many many years later, when Rob Halford
came out of the closet, Ithink fans and critics could look back and
see to some of the album titlesand the song titles that had a slightly
different meeting, and I think,let's be honest, point of entry.

(15:33):
We don't need to describe it,but I think we know what Rob meant
that, and I think that reallycaptures the album. I think, in
my personal opinion, I think halfthe album was great actually, and I
think although the other half of thealbum was good, I think it left
me with a feeling of like thesongs were unremarkable, but hey, any

(15:54):
album that you can say that asheading out to the Highway, hot rock
and desert Planes. And my favoriteon the album solo Rangels is to me
is a smash show, really reallygood stuff. On that one. Hey,
well just want to quickly interject onthat Deaf Leopard. Pete Willis did
contribute some guitar parts to Pyromania.He was really eliminated from the band when

(16:17):
pre production and the started recording ofPyromania and they had High and Dry tour.
They did open up for Blackfoot,who were going to cover in the
honorable mentioned section. I had achance to see that tour in eighty one
and they had a nice ten songset and they split at five and five,
five from the On through the Nightalbum and five from the High and

(16:41):
Dry. And he also mentioned aboutthe MTV days starting off in that medium
really propelled that High and Dry toget popular because of the end concert videos
that they shot for that they letit Go and Saturday Night High and Dry
in bringing on the Heartbreak. Soright, round up, those are some

(17:03):
great brands and Judas Priests point ofentry, I'm not sure if that point
of entry is reference to what you'reimplying, but uh, I enjoyed that
album. It was it was,it was refreshing, and you know,
I still visit it now and again. And you got something on the docca
what are you ready to explore,Well, we're knee deep in the UK

(17:26):
already on this list, so wemight as well continue there with Iron Maiden
Killers, produced by the legendary MartinBirch, starting off with the IDEs of

(18:15):
March in the Rathchild, Murders inthe Room, Morgue Killers, Drifter Finito.
Nothing really needs to be said.It is such a great album.
It is a major step forward inmy opinion, from the first album.
The first album was extremely raw.This was a little bit more fine tuned

(18:38):
by the band probably getting a littlebit of direction from Martin Birch along the
way. They really really were honingin on their craft. Unfortunately, this
would be the final album with misterGiano, but I think that seeing where
the band was going, it stillcould make sense why they were going to

(19:00):
part ways with him and pick upBruce Dickinson as their singer because their trajectory
was on that straight up line.These guys we were ready to really make
a name for themselves. And alsojust a quick mention, they did also
relieve a live in Japan EP thatyear, which is one of those you

(19:22):
know, it's another fun live albumfrom these bands. You know, there's
not a lot of messing around withit. It's caught in the environment and
you get to, you know,catch the band, you know, doing
what they do best, you know, I mean you know it's It's Maiden.
I mean, there's you know now, it's at that point. You
know. They're one of those bandsthat when you give a descriptive like wat's
Iron Maiden, case and point,it's done. So yeah, Iron Maiden

(19:47):
Killers. It's a fantastic album.I know that we're all fans of it
here, so nothing more really needsto be said. I guess I will
add this. Let's have a littlefriendly debate here. How about album covers?
I mean Killer's album cover versus thedebut release Iron Made an album cover.
I mean, both totally great,but you look at them back and

(20:08):
forth and you say which one isbetter than the next? I mean iconic
images all over the place, allover the merchandise, all over their T
shirts, plastered everywhere, on ads, on metal sites, all over the
place. I take the nod tothe Killer's album cover. I think it's
got a little more color, alittle more context to it, and I
see building that mystique in the characterof Andy go forward that they'll continue through

(20:32):
their career up until twenty twenty one. In actuality, I totally agree the
Derek Riggs artwork is legendary and you'reright, Killers does smoke the first one.
But then again, you know,look at the cover of Number of
the Beast. It destroys Killers.You know that's one of those bands,
and that's part of what metals aboutthe imagery sells. And we can't emphasize

(20:56):
enough that back in the day itwas it went hand in hand. The
music went with, the artwork,went with, the merchandise went with It
was a it was a recipe forsuccess and Maiden they wrote the recipe,
so Iron Maiden, rushmore bands.In my book, I've got to just

(21:18):
add on that note, thinking backto all the guys with their denim jackets
and the full back patches, Ithink the two full back patches that I
saw the most were either The Killer'salbum or the Number of the Beast album
growing up going to school. Imean that, you know, that's that
iconic imagery is one of those thingslike that, you know, with guys

(21:41):
with their battle jackets that will stickwith you forever. It was it was
or Twisted Sister. So so itlooks like The guys are gonna do a
little section of honorable mentions. Walpbriefly touched on it in his opening The
guys are just gonna go down thislist and it's a lot of ends that
you know, they're not the heavyhitters, but they still hit their place

(22:03):
in the history of metal. Well, while you get this started, what
do you got for honorable mentions?Rainbow released Difficult to Cure in nineteen eighty
one. This enhanced their commercial soundthat was building on the prior album with
Graham Bonnet singing. It featured anew vocalist, guy from my own neck
of the woods, Joel and Turnerfrom New Jersey. He was in a

(22:25):
band called Fandango. But when youread up you find that Richie Blackmore was
really fascinated by the band Foreigner aroundthat time and they were at their pinnacle,
and I think he tried to mimicthe sound that Foreigner was bringing in
here. So I think you seesome of that again from the album cover.
It's kind of cool. You seethese surgeons. It looks like five
or six of them lining up ina little bowling pin type form, all

(22:47):
wearing masks, with the one guyin the yellow blob upfront and looks like
he's ready to go in and cutsomebody open. Little known fact that I
just discovered today and doing some researchis that image was actually developed ahead of
time by let's say, an adagency and it was pitched to Black Sabbath
as a potential album cover for NeverSay Die, but not used and picked

(23:07):
up by Rainbow. A great Stellarrelease. You have songs like I Surrender,
spot like hid can happen here?I mean, who can argue the
lineup with Blackmore and Joe and Turner, Roger Glover, don Airy and Bobby
Randanelli. Great album peaked at numberthree in the UK. I think he
had a couple of others here.You had the Raven debut in the Envil
debut, I mean Raven Rock untilYou Drop. It's a classic metal album.

(23:33):
I think this was the introduction ofthe world for the Gallagher brothers.
I think, you know, itjust brings everything we love about Raven in
there. The title track, hardRock, Help, patrol Tyrant of the
Airwaves, amongst some of the othersongs, and I think again painting the
picture of the album cover, it'sreally really funny and we just did a
segment last week on these guys,and you could see it in their humor,

(23:56):
and it's just shows on that albumwhere it kind of shows the band
members all looking like the stage collapsedon them and their equipment's all over the
place and they're trapped under amplifiers andequipment and everything. So really good release.
Anville released Hard and Heavy. Thiswas the debut album under the actual
Anvil band name. I Know Somethingwas released fly or prior under the name

(24:18):
Lips. I think the album covertwo it's just so classic and so symbolic
of heavy metal, where you havethe image of the Annaville with the fire
and the sparks and the hammer comingup above it. It speaks for metal
right there. I do think it'sa good album all I don't necessarily think
there's any great standout or memorable tracksthat I think their material. Better material

(24:41):
comes later, but again here itis bringing the world of Steve Lips,
Ludlow and Rob Reiner out into thescene. Sammy Hagar, I think,
released what probably would be his mostwell known solo album, and that really
is because there were many many hitsongs and five actually charted in the US,

(25:03):
and the album as a whole wascertified platinum. The title of the
album was called Standing Hampton, andI even had to reach back into some
of the let's say, the historyof metal of trying to find out what
actually that meant, and was ableto come up with the explanation that a
fan actually told Sammy that the wordhampton is British slang for penis, and

(25:27):
therefore the album really means standing erection, and the image ties that into it
because you see these various women invarious shapes and forms sort of undressing.
So a bit of a sexual innuendotype album, which is funny, but
again I mean listen one way toRock, heavy metal, all fall in
Love Again and Babies on Fire andall great songs and definitely his probably most

(25:51):
memorable solo release, Yant released Earthshaker. This was the release the first release
under the Act to a moniker Yand T versus Yesterday and Today. It
was also the first album that cameout where they really took that approach towards
hard rock and had a heavy metalstyle, and it featured the classic lineup

(26:11):
of Dave Mannichetti, Joey Al's,Phil Kennimore and Leonard Hayes. A killer
album, classic all the way through, such good variety of material on this
album, Dirty Girl, Rescue Me, Hurricane, the epic, epic song
that they still perform in concert tothis day. I believe in You,
just so much harmony and melody andguitar work in that. Just an amazing,

(26:33):
amazing song, A big highlight forme in their catalog. And then
I'll categorize the last few things aslet's say they debuts of the eighties right
for you know what would become laterin the ear as popular bands. You
had Moley c releasing Too Fast forLove, and this was the first edition.
The real release didn't come out inthe States still around nineteen eighty two,

(26:55):
but it was released under a smallerlabel late in the year, only
at least nine hundred copies, butit got them on the roadmap. I
think the imagery again was important onthe album, where it really just showed
the image of a guy's waistline waskind of hand on his hips. He
got the leather pants and the shirtthat felt like total macho looking image and

(27:15):
it kind of then leave itself tosee the image of the band with the
makeup and kind of gave me theimpression that they were going to have more
of a gland band image, butin reality it was a much harder and
sound through songs like you know,live Wire the title track and public Enemy
number one docin released Breaking the Chainsalso another similar story. It came out

(27:36):
in a limited form in eighty oneon a French label, but it didn't
do very well. It was pickedup on a bigger label in the States,
remixed and partially rerecorded so that theykind of gave the album of the
kickstart and it was an okay album, But I think really the band didn't
grow until a few years later whenthey did these Tooth and Nail. But
again the title track would probably bethe most memorable, and I guess maybe

(27:57):
the other track there was at thetime called Paris, which again we all
know they changed their name to Parisis Burning. So and then amongst the
last I think worth calling out isBaltimore based eighties band Kicks with their self
titled release. And this is aband that I've said this all along,
they really really are underappreciated. They'rethat really classic sound of party CDC,

(28:21):
partydies hair band and just a reallygood solid lineup, you know, really
good members and even to this day, I think at least four fifths of
the band is still intact. Itwas released on a major label, Atlantic,
and it featured let's say, thememorable songs the Itch and a big
show closure for them. Yeah yeah, yeah, So that would be my
honorable mentions. As we've said before, there'd be another dozen more we could

(28:44):
cover, but we can't cover themall. Ian, What do you got?
I gotta kick it right off withnot one, but two bands from
New York or New York and NewYork State. Okay, you've got Riot
had Fired down Under, which isprobably their most known album. It's safe

(29:07):
to say at that point, becauseyou know the original singers with the band,
they are firing on all cylinders.Things are going very well at this
particular point at least, so wouldappear the album kicks off. You know
you got classic songs and swords inTequila Outlaw is another one. I hold
this album in a high personal regard, so I definitely had to make sure

(29:29):
I had it in the honorable mentions. The Rods had their second album,
their self titled album. These areboys from Downstate in Southern tier of New
York. You know they got roots. They go all the way back to
Ronnie Dio and his alf years priorto joining Richard Blackmore's Rainbow. These guys,
the two of them together, youknow, I always said, you

(29:52):
know, it was funny because atone point or another, Raven the Rods
and Riot you know had uh youknow, interspersed with you know, early
touring connections with each other back inthe eighties. And you know, if
you know, you could ever hadin the moment where you could get the
three of them together, that thebuilding would probably collapse because I don't think

(30:14):
it could contain that much power.The next big one I'm going to talk
about is black Foot. They releasedtheir bookend Marauder, that classic three album
that they had, you know,strikes Tom Katon and Marauder. This is
probably also the last of that classicBlackfoot heavy Southern rock sound as they start

(30:41):
going into the eighties more. Thenext album, Sicago, sees them introducing
more keyboards, the production gets alot more poppy, which you know ends
up leading to a lot of descentwithin the band, uh, you know,
to the point where, event so, Ricky Medlock is the only original

(31:03):
member of Blackfoot left at that particularpoint, Um, you also had Thin
Lizzy had the album Renegade, greatgreat underappreciated album. Um, it's,
you know, chock full of thatclassic Thin Lizzy sound, the twin guitars,
the back and forth between you know, the hard rockers, and you

(31:23):
know some of the more soulful Balladytype stuff. They even thrown some some
quirky little numbers. Tigers are pantang. They put out their final two albums,
Spellbound and Crazy Nights. Excuse me, final two albums that would be
have John Sykes evolved with them.Um in this year. Um, and

(31:44):
these are great albums. You know, anybody that's into early New Way for
British heavy metal, you know there'sthere's a lot of great stuff on there.
UFO had The Wild, the Willingand the Innocent, which is the
next step in writing with a TonkaChapman on lead guitar. With the band,
they continued to still motor along anddo their stuff. This would be

(32:07):
the final hiccup before Pete Way departto kind of almost join Fast Way with
Fast Daddie Clark, but never reallyjoins the band and then starts his own
band Wasted instead. Venom. Wehave the incarnation of black metal coming or

(32:30):
at least the early incarnations of blackmetal, and you Know released Welcome to
Hell. This is another classic newwave of British heavy metal album. I
was never ever a huge fan ofthe production, but that was I think
intentionally done by the band to bringout even that much more raw and raucous

(32:52):
temperament to the sound when you werelistening to it, and it really kind
of does make you feel like you'rewalking through And the last one on my
list, Michael Schenker Group released theirsecond album MSG. This is Schenker just
continuing to be the mad X manthat he is and blazing along with some

(33:12):
more great material. It's another albumthat you know, I really didn't get
into it until later in life,but if given the opportunity to do yourself
a chance, go back and checkit out, because I think it would
be something that you would definitely appreciate. And that's what I got from my
honorable mentions. Blackfoot trying to introducekeyboards, The hell were they thinking?

(33:35):
It's not allowed him to solve.Yes, Yes, Sicago, it was
really if you look at the youknow, the cover art, you you
listen to some of the material,the name of the single that they released
is Escaping Man at the time,but I mean it was really fit right
into the MTV image era that wasthat was going on at the time.

(34:00):
Some of our arena rock bands enjoyedsome of their biggest albums. Ever Ario
Speedwagon released the multi multi multi platinumHigh in Fidelity. It was filled with
a staples that you hear to thisday. Sticks came around with Paradise Theater,
and then a couple years later theycame around with that Mister Roboto And

(34:23):
you know, they had some problemsin the band Kiss releasing The Elder.
They weren't sure what they were doing, but it had a couple of killer
songs on there, the Oath andI think the song I is on there.
Well, fact Check by Okay andTed Nugent released the live album Intensities

(34:45):
in Ten Cities, So you knowthere was stuff going on, but those
arena rock bands. Oh and onemore, I can't even believe I forgot
this Foreigner comes around with their Foreignerfour. You know, good work,
guys. Way to round up thehonorable mentions and get everyone up to speed.
Right now, We're gonna take alittle break and when we come back

(35:07):
Walt in Ian they're going to crackthe top five of the heavy hitters as
the Phrenomatic Metal Walt and Ian orRourke visits the history of metal the year
nineteen eighty one. But attention metalheads. Since we launched in twenty nineteen,

(35:34):
Metal Nayhem Roc has been the goto source for metal heads to talk
about and hear the music day Love. We can't thank you enough for being
part of the family. If you'relistening on Apple podcast, hit subscribe so
you know when we go live.Plus tell folks why you'd like to listen
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(35:58):
bar, Hit subscribe, then ratethe show and leave a comment on while
you get your metal fixed from theVernomatic and his guests that'll make him Roc
Now back of the show. Justwant to remind you folks to join us
for Monday nights on the Metalmayhem ROCLive radio show. You can find it

(36:22):
on that metalstation dot com. Visitthe website Metal Mayhem rc dot com for
direct links to that show. Speakingof shows, Metal Walt and in they're
gonna crack the top five of theheavy hitters of nineteen eighty one. Walt,
who do you got in here?Yeah? So this is always a
tough thing to narrow things down toa top ten to top five. It's

(36:45):
hard, but we did our besthere. So I'm going to go with
Black Sabbath Mob Rules. Every metalfan in the planet knows Mob Rules.
The image on the album, youknow, let's say, face lit mob
guys dressed in outfits with you know, hoods over their heads. You can't

(37:06):
see what they're doing. There's justblood and all kinds of whips and whatever
all over the place. There's anentry at door. It looks like a
bloody cloth over the top of it. You don't know what's going on.
And spray painted on the back ofthe brick wall is Black Sabbath Mob Rules.
Perfect album cover for the band.This is the second album featuring Ronnie

(37:27):
James Dio and the first featuring VinnieEpassy. The album title was actually taken
from the track Mob Rules, whichwas recorded prior to this album as a
standalone song for the classic animated movieHeavy Metal, And then they just carried
that song title over and made itthe album cover. They actually re recorded

(37:51):
the song for the album, andit's a slightly different version. Generally,
it's a strong album, but inmy opinion, it features growth in the
and in terms of let's say,their expansion into certain pieces that are more
epic in proportion, but it alsofeatures some direction into let's say, some

(38:13):
uncharacteristic melodic and catchy type short songs. As a big lifelong Sabbath junkie,
I love this album, but I'mreally not a great fan of songs like
turn Up to Night. I mean, even to a degree. The title
track is cool, but I've heardof a million times. I think the
album really expanded itself in terms oftheir songwriting and playing over Heaven and Hell,

(38:35):
and that Heaven and Hell album isvery, very hard to top.
But you see the band getting closerin some ways. But then there's also
the beginning of this variation of Sabbathspiring out of control. Perhaps for slightly
different issues, but I think youhad a division of power in the band
between Tony Aomi and Ronnie James.Do we all know Ronnie's a very headstrong

(38:58):
guy. Also, it was admittedby Volkeezer and Tony that drugs and alcohol
were rampant still, and even theproducer, Martin Birch was kind of tied
up in that drug exchange there too, and I think that led to inconsistencies
and how the album ended up.I think after this, it led to
the departure following the tour, whichturned into the Live Evil album, and

(39:22):
we'll cover that in the next episodeof what happened behind the scenes in that
album, which was really why bothVinnie and Ronnie left and started the Deal
band. But back to the album, I think, you know you have
my stand at tracks would be let'ssay Voodoo. I think this is a
different kind of song for Sabbath thatit featured really really strong, unique riffs,

(39:43):
but it also had a very boozyfeel to it. It's a really
fantastic soloing in the middle by Tony. I'm a big plan of that song
and probably my two favorite songs offthe album falling Off the Edge of the
World and the Sign of the SouthernCross. And this is where I tell
you that this is where the bandexpands into those more epic pieces where they're
a little bit longer in nature,but they're not those straight ahead rockers that

(40:07):
just kind of go, come andgo over a forty five minute period.
There's a lot of changes in themusic from the start of it. As
the song evolves, it might startoff a little slower or ACOUSTICI it builds
into that epic proportion and there's alot of eggs and flows and ups and
downs. Both songs have just amazingtony riffs, fantastic solos, and I

(40:30):
think those, to my opinion,are the top tracks of the album.
And really those three songs, includingVudo, are in my opinion, to
stand out tracks along with some ofthe material from Heaven and Hell. Listen

(41:01):
to Me, I Shame Dream,this is you some places tell me I'm

(41:25):
saying I ain't come, chilling inthe wind, I ain't come to be
strong word and you'll see what you'rewrong. Ac DC. They released for

(42:08):
those about to rock this year andagain, as I said in the introduction
of the show, very very hardfor a band to follow up on the
success of a massive album, becausewhat can you do next? Well,
I think they did it again.Lightning did strike twice and this was the
perfect one two punch followed with thisalbum. I think in this album itself,

(42:31):
it was when it peaked in theUS. It was the first number
one album that they had ever hadin the US, and they wouldn't really
have another album in the top chartsuntil I think the late it was two
thousand and eight Black Ice or whateverthat album was that came out. But
again, record industry was dead atthat point. Doesn't really matter. But
this, this album at that time, I think has sold already four million

(42:53):
copies in the US, and that'sjust massive, seven million I think globally.
It said, you know, Ithink the imagery of the album is
worth calling out just as importantly asthe song. Right, So, I
think, you know, from thematerial on the album, I think you
don't get as many let's say,standout tracks that you can imagine in the

(43:13):
ACDC repertoire of material let's say froma concert setting or a radio setting.
But you do have the title trackand songs like let Me Put My Finger
on You and Let's Get It Up, right, So those are the three
big known songs. But I thinkwhat is interesting is around the imagery of
the title track, the album title, and the album imagery of the canon.

(43:35):
Right, So the canon became let'ssay, the centerpiece of ACDC at
the time, it defined them goforward as what they were as a concert
artist. I mean, to thisday, I don't think there's a show.
Well there is a show and I'lltell a little story on that in
which they have not performed that songas the final encore with the explosions.
But a little again, little knownfact that I just discovered today about how

(44:00):
the actual cannon came into play andin fact, when they were recording the
album was the year in which PrinceCharles and Lady Guy were getting married,
and apparently in the studio they hadthe wedding on in the TV and they
had cannons going off at the wedding. Maybe it's a British tradition of royalty
or something, and the band apparentlyraised their heads and looked at the TV

(44:20):
and they said, you know what, that sounds pretty damn cool. Why
don't we bring that into the bandAnd that's how the whole imagery was started.
So a great centerpiece to that,and I think, you know,
my final piece to this is alittle personal story. As I said,
the only time I've seen ACDC ormaybe it's ever Notting played was at a
club show they did around the timein the mid two thousands when they got

(44:45):
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hallof Fame. Well, this is an
interesting fact. Then, this isan actual true story that they were also
re releasing their catalog at that timefrom the Bond Scott years. And if
you went in an independent record storeon a certain day that the albums were
released, and you bought two rereleases at eleven ninety nine each, they

(45:06):
gave you a free ticket to theirRock and Roll Hall of Fame concert at
the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, which is now a long defunct club,
a place that held I think fifteenhundred people. The tough part of
it was the show was basically thenext day I was able to get myself
a ticket. They introduced a lotof rare songs that they've never played again
at that show, and because ofthe size of the venue they couldn't do

(45:30):
for those about to rock because ofthe explosions in the cabin. So I
do recall they ended the show whenyou Shook Me all night long and walked
out, and that may be theonly time they've never played that song.
So that's my recap of acdc Ian. What you Got so November nineteen eighty
one, the final release on JetRecords from Ozzy Osbourne with Randy Rhodes as

(45:53):
his lead guitarist. The album wasDire of a Madman, peaked at number
sixteen in the US and peaked atnumber fourteen in the UK. So that's
just gives you a little bit ofa hint of how great this album is.

(46:28):
At the Window What He Died NotOpen, It's a way s in
the rise I never been. It'sliterally one of those albums that is a

(47:09):
put it on play it beginning toend over the mountain, flying high a
gun, you can't kill rock androll, Believer, Little Dolls, Tonight,
Sato and Dyers and Madmen. Imean, it has to be listened
to that way because it's that typeof a classic album and it's something that

(47:31):
I think all of us as fansof hard rock metal and you know,
just the legacy of Azzi and Randy. I mean, it's you know,
you owe it to yourself to tryto listen to it every chance you get.
Going from one guitar hero to another, we're going to talk about the

(47:54):
fourth album from those Pasadena Boys.We're talking Fair Warning from Van Halen.
You can see where there is adifference now going forward in the sound.
This was again done a sunset sound, but this was one of those albums

(48:14):
because of how much they had beenthrough and what was going on with the
band and you know, pushing him, pulling from you know, inside the
band and outside the band and youknow, backs against the wall kind of
trying to come up with some othernew ideas. You know, they they

(48:35):
springboarded off some old ideas that havebeen around from those original demos that Eddie
had, but then pulling in morenew ideas to try to go into different
directions. There was a lot oftension at least between you know, Eddie
Dave and you know some comments thatyou know Eddie had made. You know,
I think he was looking for anybody, including Dave or Michael Anthony,

(48:59):
hoping that they we're going to getmore contributions for song ideas. But I
still think that they delivered, youknow, this album, you know,
kicking off with mean streets Um allthe way through, you know, you
flip it over first song on sideto the classic Unchained, you know,
finishing off with one foot out theDoor, that crazy Moog synthesizer riff going

(49:24):
on and Eddie coming in and justblazing through a ripping solo to close it
out. I mean, it's it'severything that we had come to expect of
Van Hilen at that point. Andyeah, you know, going forward,
diver down, you know, wewill discuss that. Um this is that
the really that final album and thatinitial classic Van Hillen sound, because things

(49:50):
are going to start to deviate aswe get going into the eighties and the
advent of MTV and the introduction ofmore keyboards. So fair Warning from here
on. I mean, it's ithad to be on the list. Oh,
it definitely had to be on thelist. Honestly, I love the
album, but I think it wasobvious that the well was getting dry.
But like you said, side oneof a Fair Warning is fantastic mean streets.

(50:16):
Again, like Ian said, there'sbits of that from previous songs dirty
movies. Now that's a different kindof song in terms of the way they
wrote it, and uh, youcould probably uh comment further on this.
The way Eddie recorded that song,he was doing multi layering, uh dubbing

(50:38):
on the guitar. Is there's somethinggoing on with that because that was something
different than they've done in the past. Yeah, the one, you know,
basic track in the beginning is him, you know, kind of going
through his um, you know,crazed, you know, kind of fredd
and tapping. You know, I'llwhat he did the intro to Means Streets.

(51:00):
But he comes in playing um theslide and he had never really done
a whole lot of slide playing andthe room. One of the rumors was
he actually had and I think itwas a sixty one or sixty two Gibson
sg that he cut the lower hornoff. So if you ever see you

(51:22):
know, like Tony Iomi or Angusplay, it's got the two horns on
the guitar. He couldn't reach hishand up enough with the slide, so
he went into the other room,grabbed the hacks on, cut the bottom
horn off so he could reach upand get those higher freats with the slide.
So there was a lot of stuffgoing on, But I mean,
it's you know, that song alone, the way that it was made and

(51:46):
the way that it sounds, there'sa there's a dark, dirty street kind
of vibe to that whole album,and that after the after Mean Streets,
that just solidifies it, right offthe battle. Yeah, fair warning again.
My initial comment was as a lifelongVan Halen fan and knowing what I
know now, as the years andyears of following the band, you could

(52:09):
see the creative well drying up alittle bit as the band moved away from
that reliancy on the older material andthe relationship with Ted Templeman and Eddie Van
Halen, that relationship was ending.So center swing, fantastic rocker, you

(52:31):
know, get shits and gets hereabout it later, legendary and like you
said on Chained, big fan ofso this is love. The standout track
for me, Push comes to Shovegives me goose bumps, and you know
the filler the ender one foot outthe door Sunday afternoon into park, one

(52:52):
foot out the door. So wellagain, Verne, this was another you
know, you think about it.They hanged out all of their albums within
short order and automatically went right onthe road, so they had next to
no time to break, which Imean, you know, you want to
strike while the iron's hot, butmaybe they needed to take a little bit

(53:13):
of time, and I know thatthat was something that they approached on or
approached on later, you know,as being um a terse point with the
band. So van Halen, fairwarning, Ian, thank you, there
was a great round up. Goodjob. Well what do we got?
We got the number one big dogof eighty one. What do we have?

(53:37):
Yeah? I mean again, Ithink that Van Halen segment, you
could have put that at number onealso, but I think, hey,
listen, we gotta end somewhere onthe show. So we're going to talk
about, you know, talking aboutMount Rushmore Rush, the Canadian band,
and what they did and delivered tous hard rocket metal fans in nineteen eighty
one. You had two releases.You had Moving Pictures followed by a live

(54:00):
eggit stage left. So first offon Moving Pictures. What's interesting to know
was when they came off the roadfrom Permanent Waves, believe it or not,
they actually had enough ideas that endedup turning into songs on this album
that were made during jams, duringthe sound checks the Permanent Waves, And

(54:23):
you think about that, that's quitefascinating. As everybody knows, this was
the band at its commercial peak.It blew them out into a whole different
stardom and it put them on themap even bigger than that they were growing
at the time. It's the albumthat Rush is known for. It'll always

(54:44):
be the album that Russia is knownfor. For US uber geek fans,
yes, we love it, butit's probably not the one we pull out
of our CD shelf because we've justheard the album a million times over the
cover art doing a little research.Will I knew this being a fan?
Is that? Actually the facility that'staken out in the picture is actually Ontario

(55:07):
Legislative Building in Toronto. It's agovernment building and actually a couple of years
ago, my family and we dida trip to Niagara Falls in Canada.
I had one wish on my listwas to do a half of a Rush
day and hit all these really weirdsites, and one of them was that,
and to grab my Rush T shirtand go stand on the front entrance

(55:29):
and have one of my kids takea photo of me. Well guess what,
I wasn't the first Rush fan.I had to wait for somebody else
to get out of my way,which that just tells you I can't even
imagine how many other people have donethat before. But Side one of the
album, I mean, I callthis the side with the radio hits.
It's the first four songs that everybodyin creation knows, probably anybody that's a

(55:50):
musician as at some point started outplaying one of those four songs. Side
two is what I would categorize asthe deeper tracks. There's only three songs
on side two, but they areepic ones. So I think a couple
of little facts about some of thesongs inside one. I think Red bar
Chetta is obviously written about Neil's fascinationwith vintage cars. It's about a sixty

(56:12):
six Ferrari and it's, you know, based off some sort of book or
poem he written about the imagery ofa car driving through the mountain sides at
high speeds and that kind of thing, y y z. I don't know
if this is a little known secret, but those are the the acronym or
actually the three digit code for theToronto International Airport and the actual DAN A

(56:35):
D D DAN Dan Dan Dan anda nann that actually is Morse. That's
the Morse code for whatever it is, Toronto or something like that. And
that's actually such a Neil Pear kindof thing to do to make that beat
coming off of Morse code for thewords um limelight, I think is more
introspective for Neil and the lyrics.I think this was um. Even to

(56:58):
this day when I hear the song, I think of him. This was
his first let's say, acknowledgement tothe public through the eyes of his lyrics,
his dissatisfaction of being sort of uncomfortablein the spotlight. He was a
little quiet kid from Canada, ascholarly type kid, and he never really
got the famous piece of it.And I think he was just uncomfortable till
the end of his life. Hestayed out of the public eye let the

(57:22):
concert venues on his motorcycles right after. He didn't feel like he was,
let's say, worthy of getting allthe attention that he did, and that's
captured in some of the lyrics thereside too you Have Camera. I I
think that's their epic song. Ithink it's maybe at that time it was
the longest track locking in it overten minutes, and it's really based on

(57:43):
a trips that both Neil Pierre tookto both London in the London UK and
New York City and he, youknow, typical Neil kind of weird,
quirky fashion. He did this comparecontrast Peace comparing two different cities from the
field to the culture, to thevibe, to the speed, to the

(58:04):
sounds, and you hear it inthe trade off of the songs, even
break down the middle where it kindof breaks apart, and you can tell,
if you knew nothing about the story, you could tell that there was
a separation and it's going into adifferent part of the story. So for
everybody out there, take that oneback out and listen to it. And
I think, of course, asyou hit to the at the end of
the album, you got which Hunt, which is like what I call a

(58:25):
classic heavy metal type riff, darksong, and then it ends with Vital
Signs, which I think was whatthey would categorize as their pseudo reggae type
song, but it wasn't also asong that was heavily played on NTV.
You saw the band in lay studiosrehearsing. This was the first time I'd
maybe seen Russian that setting where youhad near Pio and I think Neil peered
on when he had his Montreal Expo'shat on and his big headsets over his

(58:49):
head and focus looking at the drums. So some just amazing, amazing things
about this. This was an albumthat you know, it was number one
in Canada obviously, and it hitnumber three in the Billboard Trucks at the
US and as I said, itjust becomes there. It'll be known as
their legacy. In twenty and ten, on the Time Machine tour, they

(59:10):
were coming back in between albums andthey decided to play a tour that had
some deep tracks, a few newsongs that were written for what would eventually
become Clockwork Jane Jels, But thewhole focus of that tour was the second
half of the show was going tobe played Moving Pictures Complete. I was
there. I saw that show.It was amazing and a memory. So

(59:30):
Rush Moving Pictures guys, what's yourcomments to this? You know the album?
What do you got for me?Rush? I've gone on record to
say it's a photo finish in myhistory. Who my favorite band is Van
Halen or Rush? I think MovingPictures is fantastic and never gets old for

(59:51):
me never. I just recently readan interview with Hugh Sime and Terry Brown,
their long time art chord Nader andtheir producer, talking about Hugh was
talking about when they're putting together thelayout for the exit stage left release and
they actually flew in that model thatdid the Permanent Waves girl, she was

(01:00:16):
actually there. And that guy,the Hemisphere Naked guy is actually the same
guy from the Farewell the Kings,the Dummy guy, so he's in there.
And just the attention to detail thecontinuity of the band in its history,
and that's one of the things Ijust love about the band. Just

(01:00:39):
a week ago on All Night Butthat time stamp of nineteen eighty one,
in my life, I was discoveringstuff left and right and moving pictures exit
stage left. Fair warning for thoseabout to rock Mob Rules. All these
albums that we're talking about, inmy eyes, these are like old lost

(01:01:00):
friends. If I could add tothe point, just to let's say,
check off on exit stage left.I mean, I think again, I
don't have to go through a tonof details on this, but it was
obviously taken from the tours in nineteeneighty and eighty one, recorded from shows
in Scotland and Montreal, Canada.Again, I love that album as well,
but I've been a critic of thesound quality of that album, and

(01:01:22):
I think that band has acknowledged thatas well. I think they almost polish
it up a little too nice.It's too clean, it's not raw enough,
it sounds too perfect, so Iagree with them on that one.
Something that again, here's a coupleof little weird facts that pop up right
that while they were in the studioevaluating the live recordings from those previous two

(01:01:45):
tours, they started dabbling in thestudio writing new material. And one of
the songs that actually was written andrecorded during the whole selection of songs writing
Stage Left was Subdivisions, which wouldcome up a year later on their Signals
album. I didn't even know that, to be honest, until today though,
I saw that research and another littlepieces about the album title itself,

(01:02:08):
which again shows back to the band'shumor that apparently, at the time the
band was into watching Hannah Barbara's cartoonSnagglepus, you know, the little lying
And apparently that was a catchphrase thathe always used when he got into himself
into some trouble and then he wantedto get out of it and kind of

(01:02:28):
get out, you know, ofthe scene with the other characters. And
that was always the phrase he usedexit stage left, And that's where they
took it from. And as yousaid, Verno, this was kind of
the centerpiece and the pinnacle of theband at that time, and for all
of us Rush geeks, right,we can kind of categorize the band into

(01:02:49):
maybe three or four categories. AndI think this was end of phase one
of Rush. Exit stage left ends. They come back in a year or
two later with signs. The soundstarts to change the image of the band,
starts to change the sound of hardrock and heavy metal music more since
in there more keyboards, little thingscoming in. Rush jumps on the badwagon.

(01:03:13):
They take it into the middle tothe late eighties. But not to
get into that now, but thepoint of it is this was end of
era one for Rush, and that'sthe bottom line. And they delivered to
just amazing classic albums. How canyou end in any other any other way
to pig it back off what Vernonsaid, you know, the Van Helen

(01:03:35):
and the Rush music, even thoughit's different in its actual scope, but
the explosion of creativity and the powerthat they possessed, and they run parallels
up through the eighties as well.You know, by the time Rush really
starts going into the direction with theheavy keyboards, you start seeing Van Hill

(01:04:00):
and tearing into the Sammy Hagar moreradio friendly pop keyboard era. And then
they kind of I'll circle back around. Rush continues to put out you know,
a lot of great albums, youknow, and stuff like that,
but there's that middle period where youknow, uh, you know, love
it or hated as a fan,you still listen to it because well it's

(01:04:21):
it's part of the part of thedictionary of the band. So I love
Rush. We all love Rush.So Walt and Ian, thank you for
spending the evening with me. You'requite welcome. I think this is a
good passionate discussion, and I thinkwe can all see where our love for

(01:04:45):
these bands lies and how much itmeans to us as people and fellow metal
heads. So just another great time, guys, and I can't wait for
eighty two. All right, Well, I'm gonna wrap this up. Just
a quick reminder Monday nights the liveradio show on that metalstation dot com.
Visit the metalmahem roc dot com websitefor details. There. Also click on

(01:05:08):
the podchaser dot com link. Gothere, leave a review of this podcast,
subscribe and um, you know,rate the episodes. That kind of
stuff really helps or Metalwalt and IanO'Rourke, I'm the phnomatic. This is
Metalmahem Roc keep it heavy metal forlive. Thanks for listening to Metalmayhem ROC.

(01:05:30):
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