I was never a big fan of Mötley Crüe. I liked their radio hits, but I never listened to one of their albums in their entirety until 1989’s Dr. Feelgood, which was orchestrated in a way to dominate radio stations and suck in casual fans, like me, who had trouble getting past the Crüe’s purposeful sleaziness. That said I always admired them more than the other Sunset Strip bands. Bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee were such a formidable rhythm section and laid down a solid groove to all their music. Guitarist Mick Mars had a knack for making his guitar hiss sinister, matching his perpetual scowl. Vince Neil was nothing to write home about as a vocalist, which made his unpolished singing just a little more intriguing than most of the other front then who dominated mainstream rock in the mid-late 80’s.
Girls Girls Girls was released in May of 1987, just in time for a long summer of Mötley Crüe taking over the minds and libidos of teenagers across America. There were guys on my senior year high school cross country team who loved Girls Girls Girls and cranked it on their car stereos. “Wild Side” and the title track are two of Mötley Crüe’s best songs. “Wild Side,” in particular, showed a maturity in the songwriting that wasn’t apparent in most of the hair metal music of that era. Hell, it’s not even present on most of this album! Mars guitar riff and Lee’s madman drumming really make this an enduring song, despite the dated mix and production by Tom Werman.
Side one of Girls Girls Girls is rounded out by “Dancing on a Glass,” a nasty little number inspired by Nixx’s near fatal heroin overdose in London in 1986. Like “Wild Side,” Sixx is writing about something a little deeper than strippers and getting laid. “Bad Boy Boogie” take its cue from the Crüe’s, wildly successful cover of Brownsville Station’s “Smokin in the Boys Room” from the previous album, Theatre of Pain from 1985. The album side closes with a sentimental instrumental “Nona,” which is repetitive and barely a concept at its 1:26 run time. Still, I can see why a piece like “Nona” would appeal to teenagers raised on Journey and Loverboy.
Side two opens with “Five Years Dead,” a retread of “Girls Girls Girls,” which is certainly permissible if you wrote the original. Plenty of Dylan, Springsteen and Neil Young albums have songs that sound very familiar. Some even reuse the same lyrics! “All in the Name of Love” foreshadows Dr. Feelgood’s massive hit, “Kickstart My Heart.” Unfortunately, “All in the Name of Love” is a lot grosser when you’re middle aged. In it, Vince Neil opines about the 15-year-old girl his has a thing for. In 1987, he would have been 26. Maybe he was singing from the POV of a 17-year-old dude? Somehow, I don’t think so. “Sumthin’ For Nuthin” is the best song on side two, a solid, blues-based rocker that both harkens back to classic Crüe and offers a glimpse of the tighter songwriting skills they would display on Dr. Feelgood. Girls Girls Girls closes with an insipid power ballad that seems like a blatant attempt to copy the success of their superior ballad. “Home Sweet Home,” from Theatre of Pain. The keyboard sounds as dated as the band’s moussed up hair from the album cover, and the band actually sounds bored on this insipid song.
Girls Girls Girls was a massive success. The album debuted on the Billboard album chart at number 2, and went four times Platinum. After the album’s release, Mötley Crüe embarked on a hugely successful tour that saw the band bring along female backup singers and Lee playing on a rotating drum rig that lifted out over screaming fans while he performed a death-defying solo. Nixx also had his own death-defying feat by surviving another heroin OD. With the popularity of hair-metal on MTV, their popularity soared. It’s not a surprise. They were nowhere as squeaky clean as Bon Jovi. They were literally the bad boys teenage guys dreamed about being, and teenage girls dreamed about being with. They were rock ‘n roll, man.
I saw Mötley Crüe live on their “farewell” of 2014. Nikki, Tommy and Mick were tight. They played were ferocity and like men half their age. Vince… not so good. Nevertheless, it was a fun show and gave thousands of middle-aged adults another chance to lift their fists and imagine they were teenagers again taking a walk on the wild side.
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