Dee Snider has got to be the guy that epitomizes "butt rock". "Butt Rock" is about being a bad ass at the same time wearing ladies makeup and long hair. You listen to Dee talk on the radio without actually looking at him. He has a really deep voice and sounds like a guy you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, alone or no. As for the other guys on the list, not so much. Poison was about looking like a "butt rocker" while attracting as many chicks as possible. Were as Dee Snider was about offending people.
Guns and Roses was a new thing trying to branch out from "butt rock", but an easy mistake for someone that didn't live thru the transformation from Black Sabbath to Grunge really. Although I have to admit I am a little young when Black Sabath was in thier hayday.
5 comments:
i agree with your commentary on legitimate "butt rock." but to have great metal hair doesn't necessarily equate with great metal. you'll also notice that the poll makes no mention of "butt rock." but you're dead right about dee snider. definitely in a class of his own. that guy's still crazy (but not in a ted nugent kind of way)
yeah, i could have picked a couple better representatives.... but finding pictures of individual guys was pretty tough, actually...
in my research, found that a trend exists- the coolness of the hair is generally inversely proportional to the quality of the music. case in point: NITRO.
the best metal hair happened during the less serious glam-rock dominated era. iron maiden and metallica kept it real through the kiss, motley crue, and bon jovi years (compare the hair... tommy lee beats out james hetfield left and right and twice on sundays), but took the back seat in radio play and popularity even with far superior music. (until metallica did get the airplay... and then came the suckage... never fails.)
i should have done all glam-rock/butt-rock guys. best "glam" hair. but you have to admit you were smitten by Jim Gillette!! btw- are you lumping Black Sabbath together with any of the guys in my list? (ozzy would roll in his grave.... er...rehab hospital bed...)
and for the record: i never made the Black Sabbath to Grunge transition (Paranoid came out in '71 and the last Ozzy album in '79), but i did make the def leppard to metallica to GnR to Grunge to Herp Alpert and the Tijuana Brass transition. (heaven knows where i'm at now).
so, i throw down the gauntlet: a more definitive 80's rock/metal/glam/hesher poll. bring it!!!
As far as the hair poll goes, based on the pictures, then that dude Jim wins. But I'd say compared to Axl's hair in "Welcome to the Jungle", it's a close tie.
There is a difference between a lot of those bands though. The dudes dressing up like chics...butt rock, glam rock, whatever you call it. Bart's right, the bigger the hair, generally the worse the music.
Guns N Roses is hard to put in that category. "Appetite for Destruction" is in a different league than "Look What the Cat Dragged In" or "Open Up and Say Ah". Nighttrain vs Unskinny Bop? I think Nighttrain rips open Unskinny Bob's rib cage, pulls it's heart out, squeezes the blood out till the pulse stops, takes a bite, then throws it on the floor and stomps on it.
Unskinny bop bop bop bop.
dude, i was actually looking all over for axl's hair in 'sweet child of mine', but no good still shots.
that's cause Axl was always a-swayin a this way and that, hard to capture the hair flow with his grove.
er...groove
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