Whitesnake, Slayer, Stryker, Warrant, Great White, Ratt. These were the 80's "B" hair bands. There were also the "A" listers with bands like Poison, Scorpions, Def Leppard. I consider these A list because the general public knows who they are and they had more hits. Now I know I'll probably get some avid Whitesnake fan arguing about their ranking in my list, but come on...just look at the picture! Then there are some bands I don't count in this list because they still have gigs and huge followings (Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, Van Halen, etc.)
I can't always remember who sang what, or what some of them sang at all. But with anthems like "Cherry Pie" and "Here I Go Again", they cannot be forgotten. A few weeks ago while cruising beautiful San Diego, we were doing the ol' search-for-a- station-in-the-rental-car, when - BAM! The radio blares, "...here i go again on my own. Goin' down the only road i've ever known...like a drifter I was born to walk alone..." Sweet, sweet music to our ears.
Now for the best part. I was searching online for these lyrics (I wanted to quote correctly), and instead of the word drifter, there was the word "hobo" with an asterisk *. I scrolled down to find this nugget: "* in the 1987 version this word is changed to drifter. David's [David Coverdale, lead singer of Whitesnake] management thought that hobo could be confused with homo!" Oh no, because the make-up, spandex, and frizzed out prom hair wouldn't make us think that already.
Then there was the quintisential band, KISS. When I was in junior high, my friends and I loved KISS. but we also did that thing where you had to pick your favorite one. Mine ended up being Peter Criss. (For those that shamefully don't know, he was the cat/drummer.) I don't even know why I chose him. I think because he wrote "Beth" so I knew he was deep, ya know, deep in a 7th grade kinda way. That summer, we all went to summer school and took this class where we made these leather wrist bands. I made one that said KISS. Well, I used the stamper to make the KI on a piece of leather, and then I had to hand carve the SS, KISS style. Kind of like a lightening bolt.
Anyway, I wore that thing for a year and thought it was so cool. One day I just stopped wearing the wrist band and my KISS era was over. It was well before they took their make-up off. I always thought they should of stayed "Masked" because they are not good looking guys, but with the make-up, there was an air of genius. But, things started to spiral after that. And years later, Gene Simmons did a
mortifying interview on NPR with Terry Gross. He's a real a-hole.
Even though I shed my KISS fan days, one year, some co-workers and I decided to be KISS for Halloween. Adrienne insisted on being Peter Criss, so I took the next best thing...Paul Stanley.
I don't remember if Anita was Ace or Gene, because she "forgot" to dress up on the day, but we had a blast shopping for the shoes and catsuits on Haight St. in SF, and Anita outfitted us with some great studded belts and wrist bands from her private collection. Peter and Paul were a hit at work that Halloween. (Pictured L-R: Supergirl, Johnny Cash, Ghost of Western Post, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley)
So whenever I talk about music with my class at school, those dang 10 year olds never seem to be educated about music from the 80s. Sometimes I'll play a song and make them guess the artist. This game is not very fun because after their two guesses of The Beatles and Elvis, the game is over. Clearly, they just think I'm old and that's the only "old" music they know. Finally, now, I have my class trained into also guessing Prince and Michael Jackson. That's something. But if any kid ever busts out with Whitesnake, even if it's not right, they're winning the grand prize.
