Go home Vince Neil, you’re drunk

This blog post (#3) is one of two available for comments September 25-28.

-Dr. J.

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Motley Crue was a popular band of the 80’s known for their long hair, good looks and heavy music. The band consists of Vince Neil, the singer, Tommy Lee, the drummer and piano player, Mick Mars, the guitarist (who is very underrated in my opinion), and Nikki Sixx, the bassist. They made their debut with their first hit album and single Too Fast For Love in 1981. As the band’s popularity went through the roof, they became glorified sex symbols in the world of rock-n-roll, which is reflected in the context of their music.

Being the rock icons that they were, being glorified for their raunchy lyrics and hardcore guitar solos in songs such as, Girls, Girls, Girls and Kickstart My Heart and Shout At The Devil, from their earlier albums, coming out with a song as insightful and powerful like Home Sweet Home really showed a different side to the group. At the time of their immediate success when the group was constantly touring and making music, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil got heavily involved with drugs and drugs. Nikki Sixx was constantly in and out of rehab and developed a heroin addiction that he battled for years. The years that he was in his darkest time was 1986, just as the bands fame was only getting larger. Tommy Lee also struggled with addiction,  but not the way Sixx did. Nikki Sixx’s book, The Heroin Diaries, undoubtedly allows the reader to visualize what touring was actually like from Sixx firsthand.

When Tommy Lee wrote Home Sweet Home, it shows you that partying is fun and all but there is no place like home. This is a very significant song with a powerful meaning because to the members of Motley Crue and their fans, they had never made a song that touched so many fans the way Home Sweet Home did. Everyone wants to be home or at a place they consider home. Releasing Home Sweet Home changed their career because the fans never saw that vulnerable, softer side to the band. Giving off the message to their fans that even they miss home. Tommy and Nikki did not really get along with Vince Neil because of his ego problem that he formed on the road. Simple differences in personality can affect a bandmates experience when touring given that there were four band members who had found each other at different points in their lives. Each of the members struggled with their own addiction problem, there came a point in their career where it wasn’t just about the music anymore, and that is when Tommy Lee realized that. The book, The Dirt, which is written through the perspective of each individual member hich genuinely allows the reader to compare and contrast the dynamic of the group. It is important because the band temporarily went their separate ways in the 90’s signifying how it was time to go home. Although the band reunited by making a new album in 2008 and have not stopped touring since, Home Sweet Home indicated that the band was in need of a break from the life of rock-n-roll to find themselves. The history of the Motley Crue remains apparent in the song, Home Sweet Home, because the experiences that the members of the band underwent shaped their career as well as the writing of the song.

This is an interview which the members of Motley Crue:

Something to pay attention to when listening to Home Sweet Home, is the piano because it is repeated throughout the song in the beginning and at the end. The piano is repeated softly in the beginning and end of the song which balances out the guitar in the middle. It is significant that the piano is in the beginning and at the end because you are left off with the same feeling in the end that you felt when the song first began. To me, the guitar solo speaks the loudest, not just because it is the loudest but because the sharpness of the notes as well of the depth in the solo gives me a raw, soulful feeling. The lyrics are important because it really illustrates the meaning of the song in Neil’s voice, as well as the guitar solo later on in the song.

“Just take this song and you’ll never feel left all alone”

This line in particular stands out to me because as a fan it is reassuring me that Motley Crue is still there. Which is also the same feeling that is presented to me through the guitar solo and loud drums in the background throughout the song.

I was introduced to Motley Crue at a young age, being that my father was always listening to them and I caught on soon enough along with all the other types of music I listen to that is from the same time, the 70’s and 80’s. As I grew up and was able to understand the music better in terms of lyrics and meaning, I was curious about Motley Crue which is what led me to read the bands books. The reason I chose Home Sweet Home is because it is a song that I can relate to and a song that I believe many people can relate to and is personally one of my favorite songs.

Do you think that the band would have been as equally successful is they did not temporarily breakup given the issues that they battled individually?

What do you think is more powerful in this song, the lyrics or the music itself?

-Calista Argyros