'Dr. Feelgood' Turns 30

I just turned 40 about two weeks ago... so I don't know why I was shocked to see that Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood was turning 30. What a milestone for such a successful album! Motley is selling some limited edition items to celebrate the anniversary. What is your favorite memory of Dr. Feelgood?

Celebrating 30 Years of Dr.Feelgood‼️⁣
Share with us your Dr. Feelgood stories. ⁣

To celebrate this landmark we have a VERY limited Edition collection of 30th Anniversary Dr Feelgood music and merch available from now 🤘🤘⁣https://t.co/8WSjDN367a pic.twitter.com/AF1iDC0VNP

— Mötley Crüe (@MotleyCrue) September 1, 2019

Comments

[bryon]

I bought Feelgood on cassette the day it was released from Sam the Record Man, a famous Canadian record store chain. I then tore home as fast as I could and sat in my kitchen listening while reading the lyrics and liner notes. I remember getting shivers during the bridge of Kickstart, when Vince does the whole "when we started this band..." thing.

Later that year, I saw them on tour when they came through Toronto. I bought a shirt that had this written on the back: "the mother f**kin' ass kickin' ear splittin' loudest tour on earth". I loved the shirt, but my mom didn't and it ended up getting "lost" in the laundry within a week.

My favorite Crue album will always be Too Fast for Love, but Feelgood is just so well made, with some of their best written songs. Motley was absolutely at the top of their game.

[JCD]

This is when Motley ruled the world, well them and Bon Jovi. They could really do no wrong at this point, every rock radio station was playing them and they were selling out every arena they played. This genre domination and tour cycle lasted maybe 2 years but little did anybody dream it would take a massive turn downward. The trouble and eventual leaving/firing of Vince would accelerate their slide from the top, not to mention the undercurrent of the new direction rock music/radio would adopt seemingly overnight. Motley fan's reluctance to accept this new direction and the new singer was the deathblow. Six million copies of Feelgood in sales as opposed to 500,000 sold for S/T (Corabi) and Generation Swine respectively, quite a drop-off. I saw them them on this tour in 1990 with Lita Ford opening. It was great but I still have to say that the Girlsx3 tour was my favorite (I know I'll take some heat for that). Cool album and tour and I can't think of a more fitting way to close out the 80's. Decadence at it's finest.

[Bkallday]

They mayve been at the top of their game in some aspects but it was also the beginning of the end for them, imo. Any time a band sells out like they did with Feelgood, Metallica did with the Black Album,& many others before and after, the end is near. At least the end of relevance and reverence from the very fans that helped to make them in the first place! Feelgood is down at the bottom for me, when it comes to their discography. Even below TOP. I don't include any of their albums that all 4 originals werent on, btw.

[bryon]

bkallday: unfortunately, it was the beginning of the end of the entire genre at that point. Rock/metal was the biggest thing in the world when Feelgood came out, and whenever that happens, there's nowhere to go but down.

Great bands stand the test of time, though, and the fact that they scraped through the 90's to ultimately re-emerge as one of the biggest live bands in the world is a testament to the quality of their music.

[Bkallday]

True that, bryon. But still the material was nowhere near as good as on the other albums, and definitely not as long lasting. Feelgood did not age well imo. Agree to disagree! \m/

[JCD]

Rattlesnake Shake, She Goes Down, Sticky Sweet and Same Ol' Situation are just throwaway songs for me. I did actually dig Slice of your Pie though.

[Basileus]

Taking the nostalgia factor away (Motley was my favorite band when this album came out), I’m partly with Bkallday here. I hardly ever feel the urge to spin this album because of the amount of dated filler on it (although I do like Same Ol Situation). Where I will disagree is in ranking it below ToP. Fact is, Motley recorded only two stone cold classic albums, the first two. The rest are all flawed, with some incredible highlights peppering a lot of middling material. But those first two, man, they’re untouchable.

[Gogmagog]

I'm so old ...

Not my favorite Crue album, but Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) might be my favorite Crue song. I maintain that is really a song about Sixx getting off drugs, but apparently I'm the only one.

[Bkallday]

I hear ya, Basileus. I’m definitely in the minority with my opinion. Most fans see TOP as a throw away, & even some of the band seem to agree but with songs like Save Our Souls, Tonight, Louder, & City Boy Blues, added to the obvious classics of HSH & Smokin, it’s absolutely better and holds up much better, than Feelgood. Not that it’s a bad album at all but this band is legendary and so is their catalog, so it’s just hard to rank their albums.

[Metalboy!]

“Dr. Feelgood” is a h*lluvan album, no doubt, but really in the strength of the title track and “Kickstart My Heart” rather than the rest of it, including the semi-throwaway hits like the obligatory power ballad, “Don’t Go Away Mad”.

For me, as I have stated many times before, “Too Fast For Love” is their masterpiece and is probably the main reason Crüe should be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, IMHO. That album is what is known as PURE Rock & Roll, people!

p.s. Let’s hope Mick Mars and Vince Neil are able to stick around for when the band is finally inducted! TRaRHoF have screwed up inductions of bands before by not inducting them when all the members are still alive. Let’s hope they’ve learned and get it done this year!