One of the first CD's I ever bought was a three-disc rock compilation titled 'Headbanger's Bible' (https://www.discogs.com/release/4520957-Various-Headbangers-Bible). It was released in 2005 by Warner Music UK and is full of mostly classic rock hits, with a few oddities here and there - stuff that's probably not quite old enough to qualify as 'classic rock'. This compilation introduced to me to a lot of new bands as a 13 year old; many instantly stood out to me and were among my favourite bands back then and to this day. However, there's also some tracks here that I either ignored at the time or simply didn't care for. But looking back at this product as a whole, as a 31 year old man, many of the tracks I wasn't necessarily bothered about back then I do like nowadays.
First of all though, I've gotta comment on the cover, which claims "3 CDs - 45 MEGATONS OF METAL MAYHEM". Other than the 3 CDs and 45 tracks part, the "METAL MAYHEM" quote couldn't be further from the truth! True, there's some metal to be found here, namely Judas Priest ('Breaking the Law'), Black Sabbath ('Paranoid'), Girlschool ('Race With the Devil'), Faith No More ('From Out of Nowhere'), Montrose ('Space Station #5') and Motorhead ('Ace of Spades'... yeah I know, Lemmy never liked the metal badge and said they were simply 'rock n' roll', but whatever). And obviously Deep Purple and Rainbow had albums and songs that I would consider 'metal', but 'Black Night' and 'All Night Long' aren't good examples of this. Still, when did anyone on the face of this earth ever consider Yes' 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' or Queen's 'Killer Queen' to be metal?! Or how about the Quo's 'Down Down'?! What about Boston's 'More Than a Feeling'?! You get the picture.
So, misleading information within the packaging then, but metal or not, many of these tunes are absolute 'bangers regardless. It just needs to read "45 MEGATONS OF ROCK MAYHEM" instead! So anyway, the songs on here that resonated with me as a youngster when I first picked this thing up are as follows:
- Black Sabbath: 'Paranoid'
- Deep Purple: 'Black Night'
- Judas Priest: 'Breaking the Law'
- Queen: 'Killer Queen'
- Rainbow: 'All Night Long'
- Thin Lizzy: 'Rosalie'
- Van Halen: 'Panama' and 'Jump'
To be honest, I think I was already familiar with most of those tracks, which is probably why I got into those bands quite quickly. I was buying Sabbath, Purple, Priest, Lizzy, Rainbow and Van Halen albums not so long after. Then there's the other stuff on here that I liked from the get-go, but didn't actually buy anything from these artists until a year or so later, which I guess would be:
- Alice Cooper: 'Schools Out' and 'Poison'
- The Cult: 'She Sells Sanctuary'
- Faith No More: 'From Out of Nowhere'
- Free: 'All Right Now'
- Gary Moore: 'Rocking and Rolling'
- Mr. Big: 'Addicted to That Rush'
- Ted Nugent: 'Cat Scratch Fever'
- Rush: 'Summertime Blues'
- Skid Row: 'Youth Gone Wild'
- Status Quo: 'Down Down'
- Steppenwolf: 'Born to Be Wild'
- UFO: 'Doctor Doctor'
- ZZ Top: 'Gimme Some Lovin'' and 'Legs'
Classic stuff. Next, there's all the other classics here that I didn't care much for until I got older:
- Bad Company: 'Feel Like Makin' Love'
- Brownsville Station: 'Smokin' in the Boys Room'
- Golden Earring: 'Radar Love'
- Grand Funk Railroad: 'The Loco-Motion'
- Montrose: 'Space Station #5'
- David Lee Roth: 'Yankee Rose' and 'Just Like Paradise'
- Ugly Kid Joe: 'Everything About You'
- Joe Walsh: 'Rocky Mountain Way'
- The Wildhearts: 'Sick of Drugs'
- Yes: 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'
And finally, the songs from artists I didn't like then and still don't like to this day, which are:
- The Darkness: 'I Believe in a Thing Called Love'
- Poison: 'Unskinny Bop'
Yeah - I never particularly disliked the Darkness musically, but I absolutely cannot stand Justin Hawkins' voice. And as for Poison, well, I just think they suck. Always have done, always will.
What particularly baffles me is how I didn't give Montrose enough of a chance back when I was at school. I consider their 1973 debut to be one of the greatest American hard rock/heavy metal records of all time; it's a record that was ahead of it's time, and it would have been right up my alley even as a young teen. And 'Space Station #5' is literally one of the most kick-ass tunes ever written! What also surprises me is that as of writing this article, I still don't any Bad Company, Alice Cooper, David Lee Roth or even Status Quo albums! To be fair, I like the Quo, but they're so British that they're basically an institution at this point, and you can hear their music without even trying a lot of the time in this country.
More random critiquing comments: including Rush is great, but choosing their cover of 'Summertime Blues' is odd. Nobody ever talks about Feedback, the 2004 covers EP that this track is drawn from. I actually kinda like this cover, but it seems to strange to not include one of their originals. They should've gone with 'Anthem' or something. I also like Grand Funk Railroad's take on 'The Loco-Motion' - it's a good bit of cheesy fun, but there's a long list of better Grand Funk tracks they could've picked! How about 'Shinin' On'?!
Some of the choices are predictable however. Obviously 'Paranoid' is the most obvious Sabbath choice. Everyone knows it, but they have a million better songs in my opinion. And honestly, although 'Black Night' is a great song, it's one of the most basic and conventional tracks Deep Purple recorded during the original Mk. II stint in the '70s. I'd have gone with 'Highway Star' - it's still a very-well known hit, but it's far more representative of what the band were all about back then. As for 'Breaking the Law'... I mean, like Sabbath and 'Paranoid', it's one of Judas Priest's signature songs whether you like it or not. I think it's overplayed now, but I loved it then. Rainbow's 'All Night Long' sort of makes sense here though. From the Graham Bonnet era, it has mainstream appeal because it's catchy, but still heavy enough to sit firmly within the world of hard rock. The Dio era is obviously the best, but the majority of those first three Rainbow albums really weren't supposed to be radio-friendly at all.
Still, props to people that compiled this package for including Montrose, Joe Walsh, Brownsville Station and any Grand Funk whatsoever. Some underrated stuff right there. It's also kinda nice they included some slightly-less classic rock-related bands like the Cult, Faith No More and the Wildhearts. Adds a little more variety to what is mostly a classic rock compilation.
Naturally there's also stuff that isn't on here, which very well could have been in a different universe. It surprises me that there's no Def Leppard. I'd have thought 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' or 'Photograph' could have crept up on one of these discs somewhere, but no. Blue Oyster Cult's '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' is another one that's not on here. Mountain's 'Mississippi Queen'. Nothing by Aerosmith. Nothing by Saxon. No Scorpions, no 'Bat Out of Hell' by Meat Loaf... by the way, this isn't necessarily a complaint, it's just stuff I'd normally expect to see on a compilation of this ilk. I'm gonna assume record label restrictions mean certain bands and artists simply aren't available to add to the tracklisting?
Overall though, this was a great compilation (if a bit misleading) for me back in the day, even if I ignored a fair amount of the material it had to offer at the time. As I've gotten older, many of the stuff I wasn't so hot on as a youngster, is now stuff I like hearing on a semi-regular basis.
