Thinking About 'Dr. Feelgood'

Today, Motley Crue's album Dr. Feelgood turns 31. The album is pretty much perfection from beginning to end and really showed what the band could accomplish while sober. To this day, I still crank the title track whenever it comes on Hair Nation or when I've got my Amazon Music on shuffle. Definitely one of my favorite albums of all time.

Sep. 1, 1989: @MotleyCrue released their #DrFeelgood record.
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Is Time For Change your favorite song on this? pic.twitter.com/mIItexnM4F

— CIRCUS Magazine® (@circusrockmag) August 31, 2020

Comments

[Basileus]

Motley’s third best album, containing two all time Motley classics and a bunch of solid-to-very good songs. Not any outright bad songs on it, even though I was never into Without You all that much. Outside the singles, She Goes Down is probably my favorite song.

[Steverox]

I forgot about She Goes Down! That’s a great song agreed.

Love all the singles iff this album too.

[Jeff]

Their 4th best album.

1. Shout at the Devil
2. Theatre of Pain
3. Girls, Girls, Girls
4. Dr. Feelgood
5. Too Fast for Love
6. Motley Crue (w/Corabi)
7.Saints of Los Angeles
8. New Tattoo
9. Generation Swine

[Basileus]

Oooh, good idea, let’s list them;

1. Shout
2. TFFL
3. Dr Feelgood
4. GGG
5. Self-titled
6. ToP
7. SOLA
8. New Tattoo
9. Swine

[Jeff]

Would be interesting to see everyone else's order!

[bkallday]

As a diehard long time fan, Dr. Feelgood was a little too mainstream(or too "poppy") for me. I wasn't the biggest fan of this album, although She Goes Down, Same Old Situation, & Kickstart My Heart, are all classic staples for the band. My rankings by the way:

1. Shout
2. TFFL
3. GGG
4. TOP
5. Feelgood
6. SOLA
7. Swine
8. NT
9. Self titled

[Shawn]

I remember listening to KNAC and they had Motley in the studio on release day hanging out and talking about the album. I was driving from San Diego to Orange County for recreational pharmaceuticals. It was the end of the 80's and just about the end of recreational pharmaceuticals for me :) I still don't understand why they couldn't do it again (create great music) but I guess they are all in different places in their lives and just not interested in it anymore.
For Me it is...
TFFL
Shout
GGG
Feelgood
Then TOP this one was lacking in some respects for me.

[GNR]

I had a buddy would always point out that each song had like a sister or twin song on the album.

Feelgood - Kickstart
Without You - Time for Change
Sticky Sweet - Rattlesnake Shake
Slice of Your Pie - She Goes Down
Same Ol Situations - Don't Go Away Mad

I always think of his comment when listening to this album.

1 - Shout At The Devil
2 - Too Fast for Love
3 - Dr Feelgood
4 - Theater of Pain
5 - Girls, Girls, Girls
6 - New Tattoo ( I know I'm probably in the minority)
7 - Motley Crue
8 - Saints Of LA
9 - Generation Swine

[Gary]

@GNR Actually if you’d swap Girls with Theater at numbers 4 & 5, you pretty much nailed the way I’d rank them. Lol (I think the songs “New Tattoo and “ Hell On High Heels” are super underrated)

[Mike]

My "Feelgood" CD was out in the car so I cranked the vinyl.. still sounds amazing after 31 years. Their best sounding album for sure, even if the first 2 albums have better material.

PS -> to everyone ranking Crue albums... I am here to correct something for you...

Generation Swine >>>>>> New Tattoo, by FAR.

I can understand some folks being turned off by the production on Swine, but at least we had a band still moving in forward momentum and excited about their new material.

Releasing New Tattoo it was like giving up, surrendering to their close-minded, aging fan base "ok, we are sorry we tried doing different things musically, here is a half-assed attempt at redoing Feelgood".

New Tattoo was already overly dated and cheesy the day it was released, and has not aged well at all.

Granted, I was unhappy when they announced Swine was coming out, mostly because they had brought Vince Neil back. I wanted to hear the next Corabi album; felt that Corabi could have been the "Eric Carr" of Crue, and canning him after one album was killing their potential to be a real player into the mid-late '90s rock/metal scene... but all in all, Swine is a decent album with good songs; just missing the sweet guitar tones.

Furthermore, Swine was really the last tour where they were musically firing on all cylinders. Vince could still pull off a 90-120 minute set; Tommy was still excited to be there. The "New Tattoo" tour in contrast was about exciting as watching Steel Panther, which is to say a cheesy caricature of 80s Hard Rock... and it became evident that Motley NEEDS Tommy Lee (but does not NEED Vince Neil!).

I will say it again, pay attention...

Generation Swine >>>>>> New Tattoo,

And while I am here, 58 >>>>>> New Tattoo

[GNR]

Mike - I like that you stick up for Generation Swine as moving forward album and try to advance as a band, but c'mon it failed. And I've tried countless times to really listen to it. There is a reason that had to put one of their biggest hits of Shout at the Devil and add a '97 to the title. Maybe those aged closed minded fans like what they like ?

New Tattoo never had the chance because Swine killed off any momentum Motley had getting Vince back. By 2000 Motley was just a shell after that disappointment. Motley is a singer, guitarist, bassist, and a drummer. Not much of that is heard in Swine with any long term appeal. Too bad Tattoo couldn't of been first in release order with a little more depth of songwriting level that obviously went into Swine but with the sound and schtick that is Motley.


As Vince would say "Nikki wanted to be Nine Inch Nails one day and U2’s Zooropa the next."

[Mike]

Hi GNR,

The point is - the close minded aging fans needed to be left in the 80s, not catered to! They aren't going anywhere, they will be lifelong fans of the '81-'91 output no matter what new directions the band explores.

What separated KISS and Aerosmith from Foghat and Grand Funk coming out of 1970s? Evolution. The bands who continue to thrive can do so because they grow, roll with the punches, and work to create current sounding albums, even if there is a misfire along the way.

Motley Crue had a shot, with John Corabi, to be a relevant contemporary heavy rock band throughout the 90s. They could have done an Ozzfest. They could have toured with Pantera, White Zombie, Alice In Chains, Manson, Prong, etc. Hell, they took out Type O Negative and Kings X for the 1994 shows.

But when Elektra and Management pressured them into bringing back Vince Neil, they had to once again figure out their sound for the time, now within the confines of Vince's vocal range (and limitations). Now we have two "growing pains" albums back-to-back, and yes it hurt them big time.

Again... production issues aside, most of the songs on Generation Swine are good; far better than anything on New Tattoo. "Afraid" is an excellent song. I cannot name one excellent song on New Tattoo... "Porno star" is kind of fun I guess?

Try to imagine "Let Us Prey" with John Corabi singing, and Bob Rock production. It would CRUSH.

[oper8n]

I requested that Dr. Feelgood be my entrance music into the operating room to get pumped up in the morning, but my crew refused the request. 😒

[Basileus]

Mike,

To each their own.

I just listened to Let Us Prey to see if your comment resonated and no dice. That’s a bad song. I’ll give you Afraid, that’s a great song. No song from New Tattoo is as good as Afraid. And Glitter is acceptable. But besides those two songs, I’m not sure I like anything else.

I have no love for New Tattoo (i ranked it just ahead of GW as MC’s worst album) so I kind of agree with you that its a step backward for the band because they were trying to sound like their old self without quite remembering how to make that kind of music again. But at it’s worst it harkens back to a kind of timeless hard rock sound, not unlike a lesser ACDC album. Which is not a terrible thing in my book.

And before you accuse me of being an aging, close-minded fan, just know that only about 30-40 percent of my music collection consists of hard rock/heavy metal. I just don’t particularly like the sounds coming out of Swine. Not that I like NT much better.

[Bkallday]

Sorry Mike but you lose all credibility by saying they made the wrong move getting Vince back. The album they made with em wasn’t that good(didn’t even sound like Motley), didn’t sell well, & if he’s so uber talented, why has he not done shit since? Although youre right about Swine being better than NT, you’re completely wrong about them needing to keep Corabi.

[Mike]

Basilius,

I appreciate the reply, gonna stand firm that "Let Us Prey" would have been a stomper if it were on the next Corabi Crue album though ("Personality #9" was the working title for that record).

Also, and most inportantly, I hope that I didn't offend you or anyone else on this board with the "ageing close minded fan" remark; that was intended to illustrate a portion of the market place and never as a personal attack.

[Him]

Nice to see the variety of opinion on this post.

Me? Personally? Well, I would have loved to have seen a second Corabi album. But I have read what Crab had to say about those aborted sessions before and after they brought Vince back. I certainly understand the reasoning. Just didn't care for the seasoning going forward (aside from a few songs).

I can also say that I understand the idea that Crue should have changed names when they brought Corabi into the fold . . . but only in retrospect. Why would they do that, at that point? Makes no sense. The brand must move on, until it needs to move back, so that it can make money again. I guess?

At this point, I rank most albums starting at Feelgood as lesser than the ones previous. But I will still put the self-titled one into the mix for top four simply because they sounded energized. Did it sound like the Neil-era Crue? Well, not really . . . save if you consider what "Primal Scream" hinted at when Vince was still in the band. As I see it, the self-titled album took some of "Scream" and some of the current trends floating about and put them into a blender and made a mighty fine drink! Did it sell? No. Was it classic Crue? No. Do most of the members of that band still love or like that album? Yes. Who doesn't? Well, you know. He likes to pick his spots so that he can claim his chops. You know, he is the underrated guy in the band. Wink.

I love that the Crue generates such passion from the posters. Proves them to be a classic band.

[stu]

wow. so many opinions. and they’re pretty much all correct. the crüe has always been a sonic evolution - the next album sounds nothing like the previous one. and i like that. but it also hurt them a bit. and makes it difficult to rank because they each have great parts of the whole. (except saints, i just can’t get into that one).

1 - Shout At The Devil
2 - Too Fast for Love
3 - Motley Crue
4 - New Tattoo
5 - Girls, Girls, Girls
6 - Dr Feelgood
7 - Theater of Pain
8 - Generation Swine
9 - Saints Of LA

[Mike]

Bkallday - I stand by my statement they should have kept John Corabi throughout the 1990s.

Eric Carr's first album with KISS was "Music From The Elder". A BOMB. What if they had brought Peter Criss back and tried to revisit "Love Gun" as their next move? No Creatures Of The Night / Lick It Up / Animalize / Asylum / Crazy Nights ... you get the point.

Might have taken them a couple kicks at the can, but I believe they would have found their place in the 90s scene, and we could have had a proper "Corabi Era" consisting of slamming heavy tunes over 5-6 albums. Tommy wouldn't have felt the urge to leave and do rap/rock either I think.

Ahh what could have been....

[Metalboy!]

Obviously, a little late to the party here ... Just gotta day, such great comments, one and all, with it being very apparent this truly is The Thinking Man’s Metal site ... er ... I ... um ... I mean, Thinking Person’s Metal site ... Sorry, Al ...

1) Too Fast For Love
2) Girls, Girls, Girls
3) Dr. Feelgood
4) Shout at the Devil
5) Theater of Pain
6) Mötley Crüe
7) Saints of Los Angeles (As I always say, just think if every song on this album was as good as the title track)