Youthanasia

You're going to look at me weird, but Youthanasia is the most beautiful sounding album i can think of. It's also the actual act of dying. Or rather, it's the end of the transformation from child to Vic Rattlehead, the not at all subtle doppelganger of Uncle Sam.

Whether he intended to or not, he was writing a story through Megadeth albums, and Youthanasia was the end of the story. It had to be absolutely perfect, completely democratic, and actually be the metaphorical death of Megadeth. It manifested itself as a kind of tug of war in the studio. Dave was meticulously anal retentive about the technical/musical stuff, but he demanded that the other three guys be equal and fight with him. It confused the hell out of everybody, because they didn't really get it.

Dave didn't want to be the egomaniacal owner of the band, but that's what the world turned him into. It's time for that character to die and be another useless corporate drone for our war machine of a country. We kill our youth and call it "winning."

He concludes that story, by the way, with a "life flashing before your eyes" moment constructed from Megadeth song titles. Then, they publish their soundtrack and tribute songs as an epitaph (Metallica was famous for refusing to let any of their music be used in movies or commercials, except for 1 documentary about Damian Echols). What's the bad guy supposed to do? Sell out.

Such a good story. Go read it again, it's awesome.

Next

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho
Read more

Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Image
I don't know about you, but i love Pat Benatar. Yes, that's also her debut album with the single most underrated song in the universe (My Clone Sleeps Alone) in the background, but that's just a generic non-self-titled debut album. We're jumping ahead to her 6th album, Seven The Hard Way, because that, ladies and gentle germs, is how you kalaidescope a concept. Not one, not two, not three, but 4 protien-packed layers to this metaphor. You don't really need to know the overly complicated rules of Craps to know that A) it's gambling, B) "the hard way" refers to rolling doubles, so good luck rolling two 3.5s, and C) you're going to lose, one way or another. It's a joke, but more importantly, it's Pat Benatar and the roll out is Sex As A Weapon, so the innuendo is not intended to be subtle. Wait wait wait, that's only 3, Bottle, where's 4? You're right, last but not least, side B opens with Seven Rooms of Gloom, a Holland-Dozier-Hol
Read more