I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

On my WXJM radio show I had a spot where I put 2 songs up against each other and had listeners call in to vote for their favorite. Of course the winner would go on to defend their title the next week, and so on.

A local Washington D.C. area band named Kage held that #1 spot for geez… I can’t remember how many weeks. But it got to a point where we just had to retire them so others could have a chance. 🙂  That #1 song was “Darkness Descends”.

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

W.A.S.P. brings back some interesting memories.

I remember some kid showing me the “Animal (F**ck Like A Beast)” album cover (the saw blade cod piece) in the locker room before or after gym class. Dangerous stuff! Can’t let the teachers see it.

I also remember some kid in my 8th grade algebra class having a W.A.S.P. t-shirt on. He sat in front of me, and he and the teacher were having an informal chat about the shirt. I don’t recall the whole of the conversation, but I do recall her pointing out it stood for “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant”, which was a new term to me at the time.

In the end tho, we all need our anthems, and “I Wanna Be Somebody” is one of those.

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Much of the conflict in my teenage years came from religion. Be it the hypocrisy I saw at church, mom and sisters pushing me, me wanting to “be good” and “believe” but just having a hard time with it all. Music of course was a source of tension because so much of what I enjoyed was, on the surface, in direct conflict to what the familial influence wanted.

Then along came Stryper.

It was an interesting thing watching them having a tough time with songs like “To Hell with the Devil” because they could see the message was “right”, but the artistic delivery they still took odds with. But they still had a hard time trying to deny me the music. I enjoyed the music for what it was, but no question the other ways it permeated my life were interesting to me as well.

 

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Maybe I was exposed to this song in my youth, but it’s still a song that rings true to me today. Overkill’s “I Hate”.

I still hate people that make you feel small. I still hate having my back against the wall. I hate being talked down to. I hate your rules, I hate ’em all. Hate being marked to take the fall. And so on. 🙂  It’s just a cathartic expression.

 

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Like any good teenage male, I wanted to play guitar to be the guitar god. So when choosing the altar to worship at, it was simple: Eddie or Randy.

I was in the Randy camp.

Not that Eddie wasn’t awesome, but it was Randy’s background and interleaving of classical music into his playing that sold me. I had been studying music much of my life (piano, trumpet, french horn); my older sister was really into classical music, as were my parents. So with a lot of that around the house, Randy’s playing style resonated more with me.

“I Don’t Know” was one of the first Ozzy/Randy tunes that I learned to play:

But I think a more memorable moment for me was with the song “Crazy Train”. A reoccuring theme in my musical youth is my mother’s dislike for this music. One day I was wandering around the house with my acoustic guitar around my neck. I was playing “Crazy Train” and my mother actually stopped and commented on how nice that song sounded. See Mom? You just have to give it a chance. 🙂

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

I can’t recall the exact song or moment that enamoured me to Monster Magnet. I do recall seeing their “Spine of God” album in the WXJM library, but it didn’t move me. I did an interview with Dave Wyndorf, which was pretty cool. But I think it was hearing “Twin Earth” off Superjudge that really did it for me.

The heaviness, the fuzz, the psychedelia. “Twin Earth” was the first single, but really the whole “Superjudge” album was awesome to me. I mean “Cage Around the Sun”… the storytelling, the drug-induced trip that Dave was on… it was a new musical adventure to me. “Stoner Rock” became a thing for me.

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Yeah, Nirvana isn’t pure heavy metal, but they certainly are loud rock. And if you know any music history, they were the pivot point that changed the music landscape in the early 1990’s. Heavy metal suffered because of these guys. 😉

But I still remember when their album showed up at the WXJM studios. We all piled into the second studio to listen to the song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and thought it was pretty cool. We had no idea how it would change things, but at least for that moment everyone at the station agreed on something. 🙂

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Twisted Sister was pivotal for me for a few reasons.

“Stay Hungry” was my first album (a record). My younger sister got it for me for Christmas.

My mother instantly hated it. Scared her. 🙂

Twisted Sister and Dee Snider, their interactions with the P.M.R.C., how my Mom devoured Tipper’s message and well… it drove a lot of things in my life, be it good, bad, tension, or whatever. Stories for another day.

Of all the songs on “Stay Hungry”, “Burn in Hell” always stood out to me. It sounds all evil and terrible, not just the title but even the music  sounds all foreboding. If you just focus on the hook of the chorus chanting “you’re going to burn in hell!” and how scary that will be, how that will offend the sensibilities of some… well yeah, that’s what makes it cool. 😉

But even cooler then was to actually listen to the whole of the lyrics and realize how the song is actually quite positive and provides a warning for people that don’t keep their life on the straight and narrow. Really, it’s exactly the message those scared and offended by the song would appreciate, but they’re too focused on the artistic delivery and miss the point completely. That made the song especially cool, because of that form of delivery.

 

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Mötley Crüe was a big band of my teenage years. They were always dangerous, they were always something the parents didn’t like, and they wrote some fun songs.

“Kickstart My Heart” was perfect, because I was a senior in high school, had a car, and just felt unstoppable. Life was good.

 

I like giving “Sunday Metal” a theme, and so this theme is “Songs of My Youth”. I found heavy metal as a teenager and it’s always been a big part of my life. I wanted to highlight some songs that stand out from those youthful days.

Another Poison track, because the bottom line with them was simple: they provided a good time, and the anthem to go along with it. Plus, their videos were always fun — count the outfit and guitar changes. 😉