MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM (3)
By:
January 9, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of metal records from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Heather Quinlan. Also check out our MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM playlist at Spotify.
POISON | “TALK DIRTY TO ME” | 1987
I was never really a metalhead. In high school, it seemed to be what the “dirtweeds” listened to, while I was becoming interested in the alternative rock of the era: R.E.M., The Replacements, etc. But I’ll readily admit to some Metal Moments:
- During a 6th-grade wilderness sleepover, our cabin counselor introduced us to AC/DC’s Back in Black and Van Halen’s eponymous debut. “Eruption” was especially glorious.
- At our senior-year Post-Prom Party, I won a poster of the band Ratt.
- High school buddies formed a thrash metal band called Cryptic Void. I loved their signature tune “Moonless Night” and will always remember seeing them at the all-ages Electric Playground on the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey.
The aforementioned Ratt were part of the sub-genre known derisively as “Hair Metal.” Even at the time, we understood it was not cool to like hair bands. However, the hair-metal movement undeniably churned out some catchy choruses and guilty-pleasure songs. While Cinderella was probably my favorite of those acts, the single moment that crystallizes the hair-metal oeuvre for me comes from Poison. Approximately 2 minutes, 19 seconds into their 1987 top-10 hit “Talk Dirty to Me,” frontman Bret Michaels speaks the immortal line, “C.C.! Pick up that guitar and… talk to me!”
Talking to musicians in the band during a song wasn’t anything new. Western swing icon Bob Wills loved egging on members of his Texas Playboys. “All right, Tiny, let’s play!” he says to mandolinist Tiny Moore in a 1946 recording, for example. Of course there’s Brian Connolly’s legendary calling-attendance opening of Sweet’s 1973 classic “The Ballroom Blitz”:
“Are you ready, Steve?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Andy?”
Yeah.”
“Mick?”
“OK.”
Alright, fellas, well let’s go!”
But there was something so wonderfully contrived about that Poison lyric, it lodged itself forever in my edge-of-18 brain. And just to show the influence of MTV on our lives: that spring, during a visit to Six Flags Great Adventure, my pals E.J., Gadi, and I entered a karaoke studio where you could buy a cassette of your recording. We launched into the recent smash “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” by the Beastie Boys. Just before the guitar solo, I shouted, “Hit it, C.C.!” Looking back now, I had only learned that phrase from the “Talk Dirty” video.
To be honest, C.C. DeVille’s mid-song solo doesn’t hold up to decades-later scrutiny. But the chorus is still killer — “At the drive-in/In the old man’s Ford/Behind the bushes/Till I’m screamin’ for more/Down the basement/Lock the cellar door/And baby… talk dirty to me!” And I will bet you cash money that someday, when the hospice doctor instructs the nurse to inject me with 300cc’s of alfentanil, I’ll summon him bedside with one shaky finger and croak into his ear, “C.C.! Pick up that syringe and… talk to me!”
MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Crockett Doob on Metallica’s ENTER SANDMAN | Dean Haspiel on Mötley Crüe’s HOME SWEET HOME | Jack Silbert on Poison’s TALK DIRTY TO ME | Adam McGovern on Dio’s INVISIBLE | Mariane Cara on Faith No More’s EPIC | Heather Quinlan on Blue Öyster Cult’s SHOOTING SHARK | Steve Schneider on UFO’s DIESEL IN THE DUST | Carlo Rotella on Primus’ JERRY WAS A RACE CAR DRIVER | Erik Davis on St. Vitus’ BORN TOO LATE | Greg Rowland on Motörhead’s ACE OF SPADES (remix) | Kathy Biehl on Twisted Sister’s WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT | Nikhil Singh on G.I.S.M.’s GAS BURNER PANIC | Erin M. Routson on Metallica’s ESCAPE | Holly Interlandi on Helmet’s MILQUETOAST | Marc Weidenbaum on Celtic Frost’s I WON’T DANCE (THE ELDERS’ ORIENT) | Amy Keyishian on Living Colour’s CULT OF PERSONALITY | Josh Glenn on Scorpions’ STILL LOVING YOU | Alycia Chillemi on Danzig’s SOUL ON FIRE | James Parker on Godflesh’s CHRISTBAIT RISING | Miranda Mellis on The Afflicted’s HERE COME THE COPS | Rene Rosa on Type O Negative’s BLACK NO. 1 | Tony Leone on Slayer’s SOUTH OF HEAVEN | Christopher Cannon on Neurosis’s LOST | Brian Berger on Black Sabbath’s HEADLESS CROSS | MÖSH CONTEST-WINNING ENTRY: Tony Pacitti on Metallica’s THE CALL OF KTULU. PLUS: CONTEST RUNNER-UP: James Scott Maloy on Accept’s MIDNIGHT MOVER.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!