Sometimes it takes me a really long time to get around to doing something. The other day – from what seemed like completely out of nowhere – it occurred to me that I have wanted the first W.A.S.P. album ever since it came out in 1984 but I have never gotten around to buying it. By '84, I had discovered Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe and the like. I read about W.A.S.P. in Circus and Hit Parader, but the band received absolutely no airplay on any of the radio stations in Lexington, including WKQQ which played more metal than the other local stations back then. Plus, we didn't have cable when I was a kid, so even if MTV ever did play any of their videos (and I doubt this happened very often), I wouldn't have seen them anyway. But I was pretty intrigued by W.A.S.P. based only on what I had read about them along with what probably amounted to several hours of staring at the record cover at the Record Bar shop in Turfland Mall. Tipper Gore and the PMRC were on the march around that time and it was getting more difficult for suburban kids to get their folks to spring for metal records. Besides, my folks had already been kind enough to buy Metal Health, Condition Critical and Out of the Cellar for me. I don't recall ever specifically asking either of my parents to buy the W.A.S.P. LP for me, but I would like to think that I knew better anyway. In November 2008 he endorsed John McCain in the Presidential election saying, "I will vote for McCain, not because I believe in all he stands for, but as a mandate against Obama, to keep him from becoming President."
And I was like, "Oh, crap." But then again, I did say the same thing about voting against McCain. Then I read on...
"Yes, I will cling to my guns and my religion, and continue to believe in the Constitution, the Cornerstone of our society and trust that this is STILL a "Government of the People, By the People, For the People"
And I was like, "Um...Really?"
Really.
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| Blackie Lawless |
And by the way, I'm still waiting for a coherent, succinct, election-year critique of socialism that doesn't include the words "Marxist," "un-American" or "sucks." Still waiting.
So at the end of it all, despite some professions of a misgiving or two, Blackie decided to cozy up to the Republicans. Well, I'm sure the Repubs were really gunning for the old-school, aging headbanger vote, right? I mean, you can't win an election by limiting your appeals to moose hunters, secessionists and Glossolalists.
All kidding aside, if you don't know anything at all about W.A.S.P., then the irony of all this is probably lost on you. So, consider three things that I have known about W.A.S.P. and Blackie Lawless since I was about 12 or 13:
1. Their first album was called Animal (Fuck Like a Beast).
2. Blackie Lawless drinks blood from a skull during live W.A.S.P. shows.
3. The members of W.A.S.P. once asserted that the name of the band is actually an acronym for the phrase "We Are Sexual Perverts."
Call me crazy, but when John McCain whipped the wingnuts at the Republican National Convention into a jingoistic frenzy, I don't think there were many W.A.S.P. fans chanting the lyrics to "Killahead" in the crowd. And I doubt that Blackie's band would be welcome to play their song "The Headless Children" at the reception for Bristol Palin's upcoming shotgun wedding. After enduring years of harassment by the quasi-fascists of the PMRC, it's just unbelievable that Blackie would put all his faith into a political party that has embraced the likes of zealots like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan and David Duke. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, "Say it ain't so, Blackie!" Where the PMRC merely lobbied for legislation to overhaul the recording industry, McCain's running mate Palin actually contemplated the implementation of real, unilateral censorship when she was the mayor of Wasilla. And remember, her political career is just getting started. To me, the prospect of a Palin presidential administration is a hell of a lot scarier than any heavy metal lyrics I've ever heard. The idea that McCain and company might have somehow been friendlier to civil liberties than Obama is so backwards, I wouldn't know where to begin with that one. Let's just say that I'm pretty sure that the ultra-conservative, theocracy-craving "base" that McCain championed would be more than happy to throw some old-school metal albums on their book-burning bonfires. 2. Blackie Lawless drinks blood from a skull during live W.A.S.P. shows.
3. The members of W.A.S.P. once asserted that the name of the band is actually an acronym for the phrase "We Are Sexual Perverts."
With Blackie's open letter, he's pretty much joined the ranks of Alice Cooper, Dave Mustaine, and Lars Ulrich. See, all of these heavy metal heroes are all still enormously talented, but they've changed into completely different people as they've "grown up". They've forgotten the power of radical ideas and why it's important to shake things up now and again. Alice and Dave have been completely consumed by religion to the point that it has significantly changed their legendary acts – and not for the better, either. Mustaine won't even perform "Anarchy in the U.K." any more because it has the word "antichrist" in it. (Sorry Dave, but I liked you better when you were evil.) And Lars Ulrich, who launched his multi-platinum career through a heavily copied demo tape (one might even use the term "pirated" to accurately describe the tape), made it his personal business to lay waste to the Internet-based file sharing community when he realized that kids were sharing Metallica songs on a royalty-free basis. Lars killed Napster almost single-handedly, but the idea still lives on. In fact, the file-sharing community is still going strong on the 'net and it's even bigger and better than ever these days...And depite all that, Lars is still a freaking multi-millionaire. Go figure.
About year ago, I was struggling with some political differences that I had run into with a longtime friend and another friend of mine gave me some important advice: "Don't sacrifice a friendship at the altar of politics." I guess I need to consider that when it comes to music, too. Especially if it's music that I really like. After all, I haven't trashed my collection of Rush albums even though I have some serious political issues with Neal Peart's overt affinity for Randian objectivism. I really do think that W.A.S.P and Blackie Lawless have put together some great music over the years, so I'm not going to just give up and stop listening to their stuff just because Lawless has written some backward and inaccurate garbage that is completely devoid of political sense, facts and logic. At the end of the day, I think I'll just treat Blackie's letter like a bad concept album or a lame power ballad and just ignore it. I have read quite a few reactions to his tirade on other blogs and I think a lot of metal fans aren't taking it too seriously. My favorite reaction was on the blog Life in a Bungalo where the site's author wrote, "I think I prefer members of WASP drunk in swimming pools." Anyone who has seen the film The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years gets that joke. (Seriously, I laughed for about 20 minutes when I read that line.)
"I Wanna Be Somebody" by W.A.S.P. (1984) |
By the way, here's yet another piece of evidence which supports my belief that headbanging is hereditary: The other night, I was checking out W.A.S.P videos on YouTube in hopes that would placate my "jonesing" for a full-length album of W.A.S.P. songs. I cranked up the video for "I Wanna be Somebody" on YouTube and after just a few choruses, I heard Baby Z. singing along as she played next to me: "I wanna be somebody/be somebody too!!" Awesome.
Two horns up!
