Back in 1999, Motley Crue released two new CDs. One of those was a brilliant live album which spanned the bands career up to that point & the second new CD gave the hardcore Crue fans a collection of unreleased tracks & also the bonus songs from the now out of print Decade Of Decadence all in one 16 track disk. Like I said “hardcore” Crue fan, it is unlikely that someone who is looking to invest in their first Motley album would check out this CD, because the songs found within are relatively unknown, some of which the band forgot about themselves, so to a new fan of the band stray clear of this one, at least for the time being.

Tracking Listing
1. Teaser
2. Primal Scream
3. Sinners & Saints - (previously unreleased)
4. Monsterous - (previously unreleased)
5. Say Yeah - (previously unreleased)
6. Planet Boom
7. Bittersuite
8. Father
9. Anarchy In The U.K.
10. So Good, So Bad - (previously unreleased)
11. Hooligan's Holiday - (Extended Holiday Version by Skinny Puppy)
12. Rock 'N' Roll Junkie
13. Angela
14. Mood Ring - (previously unreleased)
15. Dr. Feelgood - (live)
16. Knock 'Em Dead, Kid - (bonus track, demo)

Now for the more serious Motley Crue fan, this is going to be a real treat for you, because it does have a lot of rare songs, but with the well known Primal Scream & Anarchy In The UK thrown in, you can’t go wrong!! I’m guessing that if you’re interested in this album, you are in my books at least more then just a casual fan & would have a good knowledge of the band. So what this album features is going to make you pretty excited, because as first glances may suggest, this isn’t just a CD of recently recorded material, some of it goes way back to 1982 with the rare demo of Knock Em’ Dead, Kid which features slightly different lyrics then the album version. From 1983 we have a song that was cut from the classic Shout At The Devil album, Sinners & Saints which has a slightly heavier feel then the other songs from that period. It was forgotten about for fifteen years until Nikki Sixx found a copy of it and played it to the band after a show on the Generation Swine tour.

Moving on to 1984-85 we have two songs, So good, So Bad which Nikki wrote about his heroin addiction which describes the ups and downs of the drug & the other song Mood Ring which is a great example of why only hardcore Crueheads would like the album. You could almost say Mood Ring wasn’t a song but more of a recording of the band drunk, just after rehearsal making a racket and saying whatever bizarre thing that comes into their minds. There are three songs from 1988-89 which is Monsterous which runs in at a short 1 minute and 3 seconds, the song is experimental and wasn’t meant for an album, it’s just the band trying a different style (hip hop) and is yet another reason why the album is for hardcore fans. The next song is Say Yeah which is reasonably catchy and is about an impostor who claimed he was the real Nikki Sixx. The impostor wanted to be “reinstated into his band” and receive royalties for songs he claim he wrote. Strange indeed!! Moving on to the last song from the period Teaser which sounds like a cross between something that came of the Girls Girls Girls album and the Dr Feelgood album, which for the non Motley fan would sound like pop rock and the blues mixed together.

Now, we are at the early to mid nineties which is the period which will make up the rest of the album. The next three songs are from 1994 which were solo efforts by Tommy Lee, Mick Mars & Nikki Sixx meaning that each band member wrote the songs and played all the instruments, this was the idea of the bands producer at the time, Bob Rock, to see what each band member brings to the table. The results were Planet Bloom by Tommy, which is obviously centered around a pretty funk beat. The song has an up to date feel with some hip hop vibes, I’m not a fan of hip hop but Tommy did a pretty good job, nonetheless. Next is Bittersuite by the heavily underrated Mick Mars. He wrote this piece because of his underratedness (if that’s a word, please confirm it for me). The critics have always given Mick crap but this song is more then enough to shut them up. It is a beautiful piece of music that is great to listen to as it is difficult to play!!! The last song in the “solo series” is Father by Nikki Sixx which is the angriest song on the album, because Nikki’s father abandoned him when he was just three years old. This song sounds great, it hasn’t aged one bit. The most amazing thing to me about the last three songs is the fact that every band member played all the instruments. I know I’ve already mentioned it but it was just amazing to me that each band member could play all the instruments well.

The live version of Dr Feelgood would’ve been recorded in 1989-90 and is “one of” the best live versions I’ve heard of the song which even features an audience interactive chorus lead by singer Vince Neil at the end of the song which goes to show how much fun a Motley Crue concert is!! Rock N Roll Junkie & Angela are two songs from Decade of Decadence which the latter song is far superior in my opinion with a great riff, verse and chorus you can’t go wrong. Primal Scream is one of the Crue’s biggest hits, based on the tough up bring Nikki Sixx had (for a detailed account on Nikki’s story, just follow the link), the song features a very memorable riff and angry vocals. Hooligans Holiday is the only song from the John Corabi days that made the compilation, well a remixed version of it anyway. In my opinion, I’d much rather the original then this remixed one. The only song don’t like from the album. Finally we come to Anarchy in the UK, the Crue’s cover of the Sex Pistols classic which the critics hate. But don’t listen to them! The Crue did the song better then the Sex Pistols, and I know I’ll accumulate some hate mail from that statement, but it’s my opinion, and I stand by it. That is every song covered. If you are considering buying this album, you get all these songs plus a bonus video of Anarchy In The UK which I find to be pretty damn entertaining.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of this album, because about 90% of the songs making up the album were unknown so I was worried if it would be a consistently good compilation, I went away very satisfied with only one song I didn’t like which was just a bad remix. Very solid effort overall, but still is something I’d recommend only to a hardcore fan of the band.


Thanks for checking out the album. See ya next time.

The Motley Kid

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening