Customer Reviews

Red, White, & Crue

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

/me rolls eyes.. another band releases a greatest hits album. This is now the third such release by Motley Crue, following 1991's "Decade of Decadance" & 1998's "Greatest Hits". There was also 1999's "Supersonic & Demonic relics" album, which was a greatest hits (sort of) of a bunch of oddball songs scattered all over the place on soundtracks, bsides, etc.. Then there's the Music to Crash Your Car to box sets, so Motley has really been releasing their old material over and over again, as there's been only three actual new albums of material since the 1991 greatest hits albums (those being 94's brilliant yet underappreciated "Motley Crue", 97's mostly awful "Generation Swine", and 00's "New Tattoo", which was dreadful). So in the last 14 years, we have gotten 3 studio albums, 3 greatest hits albums, one live album (99's Entertainment or Death), and a box set. Not a lot of new output, and an awful lot of recycling of material.

What's my point in bringing all that up you might ask? It's that I feel that Red White & Crue might be the best of the group. Sure it was put together to have something that the "reunited" Crue can tour behind (although it's just Tommy Lee coming back, the rest were already there). However, if you don't have any Greatest Hits motley crue albums, this is probably worth it. Over time I had bought all of these albums, but as I sit here in 2005, the only actual Motley Crue album I still own is the one they did with John Corabi, I dumped all the rest of them, as I never listened to them. I'd want to hear the hits, and that's about it. So that's what this package is. It covers all their best hits from all their albums. Surprisingly, they include John Corabi material (unlike some bands who ignore things like that - I speak of Van Halen ignoring the Gary Cherone album). Disc 1 is a bit more solid than Disc 2, but overall, it's a wonderful collection of songs marking the progression of Motley Crue from their earliest days to what they've become. It even covers the atrocious New Tattoo album, which does have two decent songs on it (one is included here), plus there's the usual "three new tracks" (which are OK, nothing terribly groundbreaking, and one is a Stones cover anyway). As usual with a Greatest Hits package, there will be songs that people are mad that are left off, and this is no exception (I actually would have liked to have had "First Band on the Moon" from the New Tattoo album, as well as couple more songs from the Corabi album (Loveshine, Uncle Jack), but it is a very good selection of songs overall.

This is a two CD package at a price that a lot of single CD's are sold for. As I write this (on Feb 12, 05) , Amazon is selling it for $14.99, which is a decent deal for about two and a half hours of music.

So in summary, I give this package a 4 out of 5. I was originally going to give it a 3 due to Motley re-releasing their stuff a lot, but that's not really the fault of this package, which is what I'm reviewing, not Motley Crue the people. :) As I said above, if you don't own any Motley, you should get this, it should do you quite fine.

THE BAND: Vince Neil (vocals), Mick Mars (guitar), Nikki Sixx (bass), Tommy Lee (drums). Home town: Los Angeles, CA.

THE DISCS: 37 songs on 2 discs. Digitally remastered sound. A nice tri-fold CD case with a 14-page booklet. The booklet includes a brief band retro by 'Rolling Stone' writer David Wild, band pictures, and song listings - including the year written and from which album the song came from). Disc 1 contains 20 songs ranging from 1982-89 ("Too Fast For Love" through "Dr. Feelgood"). Disc 2 contains 17 songs - covering all kinds of goodies - from bonus songs from previous "Greatest Hits" releases, as well as late era Crue albums from the 90's, as well as the ultra heavy "Motley Crue" album featuring Vince Neil's replacement for a year, John Corabi. If you dig deep, you'll see this collection is really an ode to Nikki Sixx - who is on 33 of the 37 song writing credits (Mick Mars is on 16, and perhaps appropriately Vince Neal on only 7 songs). There are 4 cover tunes ("Helter Skelter", "Smokin' In The Boys Room", "Anarchy In The UK", and "Street Fighting Man"), all but the latter were fairly successful. While most of the 90's era songs can't touch the tracks from the 80's, I feel the best songs from the late era Crue are well represented here. Footnote - Mick Mars is a severely underrated guitar wizard.

ALBUM REPRESENTATION: Too Fast For Love (4 songs), Shout At The Devil (4), Theater Of Pain (2), Girls, Girls, Girls (4), Dr. Feelgood (6), Decade of Decadence (2), Motley Crue w/John Corabi (2), Quaternary (2), Generation Swine (3), Greatest Hits (2), New Tattoo (2), Unreleased/New (4).

COMMENTS: The Crue represented 80'S "glam rock" at it's ultimate best. The Hollywood bad-boys ripped it up on stage as well as behind the scenes. Always seemingly in trouble - anywhere in the world. They rocked the house down - show after show. They had SO many great tunes and the standards are all here ("Live Wire", "Looks That Kill", "Too Young To Fall In Love", "Smokin' In The Boys Room", "Home Sweet Home", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Kickstart My Heart", "Dr. Feelgood", "Primal Scream", "Hooligan's Holiday", etc). Fond memories of Mars shredding his guitar; Sixx on steady bass, Tommy Lee pounding the skins upside down, and Vince Neil leading the way with his high pitched wail. "Red, White & Crue" (2005) is easily the best 2-disc Crue compilation of the band to date. Any other Crue compilation ("Decade Of Decadence", "Greatest Hits", "Millenium Collection", etc) are now considered mute. All the studio albums are represented here on "Red, White & Crue". It's a great recollection and history of the band. If you are fairly new to the Crue - "Red, White & Crue" is THE place to start. Sure, Motley Crue has several 'Best Of' packages and for those fans that have much/all their material - this release may or may not be considered essential. I say - trade in your old Crue compilations for this one. It would have been great to see a few obscure favorites of mine like "Red Hot", "Dancing On Glass", "City Boy Blues" or "Ten Seconds To Love"... but I won't look this gift-horse in the mouth. Thank you Hip-O Records for making all but 3 of these tracks the 'studio' version (only 3 re-mixes and NO live recordings). The selection of Crue tunes here are first rate (5 stars).

I feel odd even WRITING this review--even odder than I did when I picked up this CD set.

In short, I never liked Motley Crue in their heyday. When I was in high school, cranking up the Cramps or the Flesheaters on my Walkman, a friend of mine praised the Crue, while I thought they stunk. MTV didn't help either, rotating "Home Sweet Home" endlessly (and unfortuantely all of the hair rock power ballads to follow). While my friend Frank praised _Shout at the Devil_ and denied that there had ever been a band called Brownsville Station and insisted that "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" was an original Crue, I scoffed at his inferior musical tastes.

So why the hell would I even bother LOOKING at this collection? To tell you the truth, the omens came threefold--first, I got into Brides of Destruction. I saw the video for S.T.F.U. on Headbangers' Ball and loved it. When I got it, I found out that the outfit was lead by Nikki Sixx, and though it didn't make me like the album any less, I'd still grimace a bit and say to myself, "This band has a member of the Crue in it."

Then, when I went to see _Evil Dead: The Musical_, "Kickstart My Heart" was played during the intermission. Listening, I realized that this was one Crue song that I didn't mind so much when Frank forced some Crue on the turntable. In fact, I kind of liked it.

Last, this CD set was basically for free at a sale I came across at a CD store. Enough said--I figured that I could find at least two or three tracks that I liked.

But in listening to this collection, I've come to realize that the Crue was a band that suffered for its desire for fame. They can no doubt rock - "Kickstart My Heart" remains one of my favorites, and "Live Wire" is a juicy one. But other times their songs felt very off-the-mark, sometimes starting with a good hook but falling off very quickly. "Toast of the Town" was like this, as well as "Hooligan's Holiday," and "Planet Boom" just plain fizzled out. Some songs suffer for trying to sound too pop, and they just come across as empty.

I don't think this set turned me into a Crue 'fan,' nor am I sure that it was supposed to, and possibly a Cruehead may think that this collection is just blast after blast of Crue par excellence, but I did come out of it highly pleased with some select tracks, but also kind of thinking that they were a band who had the wherewithall to strike up hook after hook but forwhatever reason fell flat a lot of the time. Rather than distinguish themselves as a singular band in rock mythology, I think they ended up forging themselves as the prominent name of a name brand of rock, for though they proved themselves to be the better of the whole hair-metal pop-rock genre, they never fully came together to do solid music.

But then again, they had the fame, money, booze and women, and I was just a raging gutter punk, so they may be able to say that the last laugh was theirs.

Whether you're a new fan of Motley Crue or a lifelong diehard fan, you must get this album. It's a steal; you're getting 2 CDs for the price of 1! You get all the greatest songs and 3 new ones in one collection. This album takes a good portion from every studio and compilation album. This is the band's 4th "greatest hits" album, and it's by far better than all the previous ones. Here's how "Red White & Crue" stacks up against those others.

DECADE OF DECADENCE (1991): Contains the best 2 songs from the band's first five albums and some new songs. This album is excellent except I would have preferred the album version of "Kickstart My Heart" over the album's live version.

GREATEST HITS (1998): This album leaves out "Live Wire," and leaves out the classic 1983 "Shout At The Devil" track in favor of an inferior 1997 version of the song.

20th CENTURY MASTERS-THE MILLENIUM COLLECTION: THE BEST OF MOTLEY CRUE (2003): This album leaves out important songs like "Smokin' In The Boys Room", "Live Wire", and "Dr. Feelgood", the band's biggest hit ever.

RED WHITE & CRUE (2005): All the best songs from all the albums. This is the complete anthology of Motley Crue--Case Closed.

Yes, another Motley Crue "greatest hits." This is a great album though.

First off: Price. I paid $12.98 for 2 cds. That's great.

Second: 3 news songs. If Die Tomorrow is a huge hit, and rightfully so. It lives up to it's hype. Sick Love Song throws Motley into 2005 in ferocious style. And much like their cover of Anarchy, they took the Stones' Street Fighting Man and really gave it a shot of adrenaline and really made it their own.

Third: The first-time appearance of Black Widow on an album.

Fourth: Use it or Lose it. One of my favourite songs from one of my favourite Crue albums: Theatre of Pain. Just listening to the tracks from that album, you could taste the Jack Daniels.

Fifth: Order. I love the way the album is laid out. The first disc features tracks from their 80's albums, and and 2nd disc is 90's and the new millenium. So whether you want to go old school, or new school, it's up to you!

The new Motley Crue greatest hits album, "Red, White, and Crue" is an EXCELLENT greatest hits package. I have this album playing in the background on my Ipod as I type this. When it comes to a greatest hits album, it can't get much better than this. This album covers all of Motley Crue's material from 1981 up until now, and all of the material on here is great. You will get to hear Crue material on here that was previously unreleased until now, stuff from there most recent studio album, "New Tatoo" is to be found on here, and you really won't have too much (or nothing) to complain about, because several Motley Crue classics, such as "Dr. Feelgood", "Looks That Kill", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Shout At The Devil", among other Crue classics, are here. And now that Motley Crue has finally returned, there are three new songs on here: "If I Die Tommorow", "Sick Love Song", and a pretty good cover of The Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man". Another bonus for this album is that there are liner notes written by Rolling Stone editor David Wild about the whole career of Motley Crue, and four songs from the Motley Crue era with John Corabi are here. That is a good thing, since Corabi was not well liked by several Motley Crue fans, mostly because several Crue fans were angry that Vince Neil was gone and also because Motley Crue expirimented with grunge rock when they had Corabi, and several fans didn't like the idea of Motley Crue doing grunge. Van Halen didn't bother putting any songs with Gary Cherone on their new two disc greatest hits album "The Best of Both Worlds", so I'm glad to see that the Crue is giving recognition to John Corabi. Go out and buy this album. Besides the two volumes of the Motley Crue box set "Music To Crash Your Car To", this is an excellent deal for all Crue fans. I hope they make a new full-length album. Since Amazon won't anybody recommend something in the box unless they bought it off of this site, in addition to this I recommend Slaughter's first home video, "From The Beginning"- Vince Neil and Tommy Lee appear very briefly in the beginning. Motley Crue rocks!

Motley Crue's third official cash-in...I mean greatest hits CD...finally presents the closest thing to a definitive track listing, the closest you'd come to your own best-of if you burned a 2-disc set yourself. Every song that has ever been released as a single, and every album track that received significant airplay is on here as far as I can tell, with the exception of "Shout At The Devil '97" (no big loss), and the original "Home Sweet Home", represented by its much superior 1991 remix. In both cases, it would've been nice to have both versions present, but that's quipping.

I already deemed this a five-star CD, so I'm going to continue nitpicking slightly in the "if I were in the record company's chair" mode. First off, like a lot of recent deluxe 2-disc anthologies, there seems to be an effort to strike a balance between a straight reissue of the hits and one that includes rarities, new songs, or remixes/edits. One look at all the parentheses on the back cover tells you that this is clearly the case here, that since the original mixes were already available on the original albums, why not throw in a few retooled versions here.

Well, this is not an issue as far as I'm concerned, since all of the remixes differ little from the original. Probably the most drastically altered one is HSH '91, and you're all familiar with that comparison. The remixes are often in fact edits to ensure radio airplay, as indicated in their titles, such as "Hooligan's Holiday (Brown Nose Edit)" and "Misunderstood (Successful Format Version)", both subtle digs at the industry that forces them to alter their work. "Misunderstood" in fact, is a full 2 minutes shorter than its 7 minute epic length on the "Motley Crue" album. But so what, if you're that loyal to it, hold on to your old version of that one, it's a pretty good CD anyway.

The inclusion of "Black Widow" (essentially a demo version of "Danger" from "Shout At The Devil", previously only available on the pricey box set "Music To Crash Your Car To Vol. 2") serves a major bait to entice old fans, as do their first single "Toast Of The Town" (available on recent re-issues of "Too Fast For Love", but not on CD prior to that), two songs from the "Quarternary" EP, and the three new songs. Of those, both "If I Die Tomorrow" and "Sick Love Song" update the Crue sound nicely, blending modern arrangements and production techniques with excellent structure and songwriting. The third, a barely recognizable version of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", is embarassing and should've been shelved.

Which leaves my only real nitpicking point, that being the selection of some of the various album tracks. "Helter Skelter" is one that always puzzled me as to why it keeps turning up in their live shows. Not a bad version of the tune by any means, but I've always felt that "Ten Seconds to Love" or "Knock 'Em Dead Kid" were the ones that really hit home with fans. Plus, along with "Smokin' In The Boys Room", "Anarchy In the UK", and "Street Fighting Man", that brings the number of cover tunes here to 4, an inappropriately large number for a band that is quite prolific in their own original compositions to have to pad this set with yet another unnecesary cover version. At least they had the sense to leave off their caffeinated version of "Jailhouse Rock" off here.

Also, the sole non-single entry from "Theatre of Pain" - "Use It Or Lose It" is puzzling. There's at least three better tunes from that disc, like "Raise Your Hands To Rock", "Keep Your Eye On The Money", and truly the most underrated song in the Motley catalog, "Louder Than Hell". "Too Fast For Love" and "All In The Name Of..." are wise choices from their respective discs, but what's really surprising is that nothing more than the five singles from "Dr. Feelgood" are here. I would've gladly bumped pretty much any of the aforementioned tracks to get "Slice Of Your Pie" or "She Goes Down" on here. Of course, "Feelgood" is already the most represented album here with five tracks, so perhaps it was a deliberate move.

Anyhoo, other than that, you got all the typical window dressing associated with the cardboard Digipak (nice as they look, I hate the fact that you gotta watch out not to spill anything on it or handle it with dirty hands since it stains easily). The liner notes are admirable, but as one reviewer pointed out, the lack of reference to Randy Castillo (how ironic is it that the only member of MC to pass away actually died of NATURAL CAUSES?) is appalling.

Overall, the ultimate MC collection for your car. Throw out that worthless POS "Greatest Hits" CD, and burn the unique tracks from "Decade of Decadence" to another disc and throw that out as well. This is the ultimate Crue collection, bar none.

I doubt if any but the most sycophantic Crue fans will deny that their 90s work failed to match up to that of the previous decade by a long shot, and that's the one thing keeping this from being a five-star collection.

By the time disc two starts you can already hear the band going through the motions. Their cover of "Anarchy in the UK" should no more have ever been recorded than Megadeth's bastardized "Anarchy in the USA". Furthermore, I've actually heard a few people claim the self-titled Crue album as their all-time favorite, but don't be fooled: "Motley Crue" was issued at the height of the grunge takeover, and although it isn't by any means a grunge album, it does suffer from that obvious need to strip the band's sound down to a more bottom-heavy rock and roll, a move not at all unusual in the erstwhile hair metal scene as band after band tried to go the grunge route while tangentially staying true to their glam roots at the same time. "Motley Crue" was far less of a disgrace than other such efforts as Warrant's "Belly to Belly" and - God forbid - LA Gun's "American Hardcore", but that doesn't necessarily make it a hidden treasure either.

Vince rejoining for "Generation Swine" was a great move, but there were really only a couple of good songs surrounded by a lot of well-meaning filler. "Afraid" is here in an alternate mix (I hate it when they do that), which was probably the highlight of the record, and the only video I remember seeing get any rotation on MTV. They did manage to come up with another great single in "Bitter Pill" for their late-90s "Greatest Hits" album, but the less said about "New Tattoo" the better.

But that's the bad news. There's a reason that despite all that criticism this collection still deserves a solid four stars. The Crue's run of singles in the 80s was phenomenal, not only from a sales point of view but from a pop songwriting perspective as well. In fact, the immense popularity of "Home Sweet Home" single handedly ushered in the era of the heavy metal power ballad. Prior to this, bands like Def Leppard had recorded power ballads such as "Bringing on the Heartbreak", but these had always been secondary in popularity to the harder titles like "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph". No more. For another 3-4 years the hair metal scene would vacillate in popularity between the heavier numbers and the power ballads, but the ballads kept gaining ground, and by 1990 they'd taken over to such an extent that the teenage males who had made the music popular in the first place had started degrading it as "chick rock". Grunge would be given credit for killing off hair metal, but it had already been mortally wounded long before Nirvana came along.

Which is not to say that Nikki Sixx - the Crue's primary songwriter - should be blamed or held responsible for later fan-driven turns of events. We can only judge him on the songs, and from the early punk inspired frenzy of "Live Wire" to the sleaze anthem "Girls Girls Girls" to the band's final masterpiece, "Dr. Feelgood", it's all here. Honestly you could make a great two disc collection that ended at Dr. Feelgood, but if you want that much early Crue you might as well go for the "Music to Crash Cars To" sets. As it is, disc one of "Red White & Crue" is untouchable, while disc two has it's share of winners, including - surprisingly - their comeback singles "If I Did Tomorrow" and "Sick Love Song". I'd heard in advance that "If I Die Tomorrow" was a Simple Plan outtake, so I was prepared to hate it (I think bands like Simple Plan and their ilk are the punk rock versions of boy bands), but this is a much heavier - yet still melodic - take on the song than I can imagine Simple Plan doing. Ultimately, the Crue can still play good songs in a heavier mode than their 80s heyday, but they do best when they remember that it's the melody that's their bread and butter. Despite it's rough, nasal quality, Vince Neil's voice has always worked it's way around a melody in a way no one else can, and as long as Sixx and crew keep that in mind they may be well on their way to a comeback

Most children of the 1980s know at least one Motley Crue song, even if they're too snobby to admit they love the band. Like AC/DC, the Crue were hard rock's bad boys, disregarding authority, and being every parent's worst nightmare. "Red, White and Crue" is the umpteenth hits album by the makeup-friendly band, but it's the first to cover their entire career on two CDs. The first disc, which covers 1981-89, is an automatic winner, featuring the jams we know and love like "Looks That Kill" (my favorite Crue single), "Dr. Feelgood," "Same Ol' Situation," "Too Young to Fall in Love," and "Smokin' in the Boys Room." The second disc, which covers their later stuff, is a bit of a mixed bag, though I do love their kickass cover of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" as well as "Home Sweet Home." And say what you feel about onetime replacement singer John Corabi, but I'm probably among the few who actually like "Hooligan's Holiday." "Red, White and Crue" has three "new" songs, including a cover of the Stones' "Street Fighting Man," but while they're not necessarily bad, they don't hold up to anything they did in the 1980s. Still, if you have to get one album, this baby's the one to get. After all these years, Motley Crue still have the looks--and sound--that kill.

What a good way to get reaquinted with old fans and introduce yourselves to new fans. By releasing a 2 disc greatest hits package with 3 brand new songs which are all amazing. Plus I saw motley on tour for this at 2 of the shows and they put on a show that was so far the best show I have seen. Do youself a favor if you like rock music and buy this now!