Friday 5: The Worst Instances of a Band Re-Recording Their Own Material
Happy Friday, MetalSucks reader! Welcome to MetalSucks Friday 5, our awesome series that appears every Friday (duh) on MetalSucks (duhh) and involves the quantity of five (duhhh).
Here’s how it works: A list of best/worst/weirdest/whatever five somethings is posted by one of your beloved MetalSucks contributors or by one of our buds (like you!). Then you, our cherished reader, checks it out, has a chuckle, then chimes in with a list of the same. No sweat, just whatever springs to mind, k? (Just like that movie about those losers working at a Chicago record store!) After all, it’s Friday — the day dedicated by the gods to mindless, fun time-wasting.
Here we go!
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THE FIVE
What are the five worst examples of a metal band re-recording one of their own songs?
THE LISTER
Axl Rosenberg, MetalSucks Co-Found/Co-Editor-in-Chief
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https://youtu.be/IuaSsLXO-qo
“No More Tears”
Black Label Society
Sonic Brew (Spitfire) | 1999
At the turn of the century, while he was still waiting for Joe Holmes to go the fuck away already so he could return to Ozzy’s band, Zakk Wylde decided it would be a sweet career to re-record the song for which he is most famous (including a guitar solo so perfect that Wylde has said they wouldn’t let him try a different idea for the song). There was almost no chance this was ever going to top the original, but JESUS CHRIST, dude, trying to make the song heavier did not work out very well. As a bonus, Wylde recruited bassist Mike Inez, who co-wrote the original song, to appear on the track, so that they could both totally fuck up their legacies.
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“Shout at the Devil ’97”
Mötley Crüe
From Generation Swine (1997) | Elektra
When Vince Neil returned to The Crüe after a several year absence, everyone assumed the band’s reunion album would play their strengths, and ostensibly be Dr. Feelevenmoregood. Instead, we got Generation Swine, a lame attempt to fit with the darker grunge and industrial bands that were dominating the charts at the time. Not content simply to look old by desperately appearing to be hip, however, the band also decided to update their classic anthem. The results: weak fucking sauce.
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“House of Pain”
Faster Pussycat
From Between the Valley of the Ultra Pussy (Deadline Records) | 2001
Like Mötley Crüe (and a lotta other hair metal bands for that matter), Faster Pussycat made an attempt to modernize their sound so as to reclaim the glory of their heyday… and like Mötley Crüe(and a lotta other hair metal bands for that matter), go well it did not. In fact, the Faster Pussycat industrial era is even more embarrassing than most hair metal bands’ sad attempts at remaining relevant, because they started dressing like Marilyn Manson in his Nazi phase, and ruined all their best songs. All FP really succeeded in doing here was alienating their core fan base: I remember seeing them open for Poison around the time this album came out, and the crowd’s response was less-than-enthusiastic.
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https://youtu.be/7iSYgFIbrME
“I Remember You Two”
Skid Row
From Thickskin (Blind Man Sound) | 2003
Apparently, the band started playing this sped-up version of their biggest hit when they first swapped Sebastian Bach for Johnny Solinger. We can only assume that this was part of an effort to make sure that no one wanted to see live ever, out of nostalgia or any other reasons. The Skids eventually recorded this version of the song for their first album with Solinger; it’s a testament to the shittiness of that record that this is its strongest song.
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“Paradise City”
Slash featuring Cypress Hill and Fergie
From Slash (EMI/Universal/Roadrunner/Sony) | 2010
Many have said that the best thing which could have happened to Guns N’ Roses would have been for all of them to die in a plane crash after they made Appetite for Destruction, thereby ensuring that they be remembered fondly forever, Richie Valens-style. Which is a horrible thing to say. But this version of “Paradise City” makes me think they’re right.
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Your turn! Have a great wknd!
