It’s more catchy than a dose of clap in a Soho brothel. It’s a solid, firm, foundation for the band to build on and if your foundation is solid and firm then the rest just falls into place.Īnother four to the floor rock song that sees Hanoi Rocks deliver music you can dance to, even if you end up looking like Andy does during the solo, it’s a celebration of freedom, sex, and drugs as Mike hits the streets on a Saturday night looking for what he needs to help scratch that itch. There’s an almost tribal element to how this song starts, with Razzle bringing his trademark sound to the opening bars before Sami’s bass starts dancing over the top of it. Motorvatin’ is the perfect example of why Sami Yaffa and Razzle were one of the best rhythm sections to ever grace music. It’s not difficult to see why so many women, and men, wanted a piece of the voice of Hanoi Rocks. Sometimes you’ll reach me, sometimes you don’t, Sometimes when I’m all alone…” While all this is going on, Mike Monroe is doing what Mike Monroe does best, he sings about sex with such a vicious vocal that he could seduce a nun from 1,000 paces. The riffs he lays down just seem off and there’s no way that that solo should work but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t. This is the definition of down and dirty rock, with the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar pounding out the kind of backing track that would make the New York Dolls green with envy, while Andy McCoy weaves his magic over the ensuing insanity.Įverything he does here sounds out of tune. This is how Taxi Driver announces itself to the world. I’ll be a taxi driver for you, honey, Take you anywhere you want to”Īn ominous pipe organ wails, a snare kicks, and Mike Monroe unleashes a guttural scream that you’d burst at least three blood vessels if you attempted to copy. In less than three years the band would go from being an underground sensation to the cusp of world domination, only for it all to be snatched away when Razzle was killed after Vince Neil’s car was involved in a collision with another vehicle.īut this is not a time for tears, they will come later, for now, let’s concentrate on what made Hanoi Rocks one of the best bands you’ve, probably, never heard of. This would help kick start their career and would lead to them moving to London in 1981, where they would hook up with Razzle and the final, and most definitive line-up of the band would be born. Life wasn’t easy for the group as they lived hand to mouth, begging on the streets along with other questionable activities being their main source of income for a while, but things would eventually take off for them after they performed a 102-day tour. Hanoi Rocks were formed in Finland in 1979 by Mike Monroe and Andy McCoy. They were a wall of noise with teased hair and eyeliner, a sonic statement that looked good in lipstick, they were beauty dragged through a hedge backward and brought the seedier side of life to the world in all its unapologetic glory.Īnd they are much more than a bit part in a Motley Crue film. Hanoi Rocks had more in common with The Stooges than Poison, drank deep from the well of punk instead of glam, and made music that you could drink, f*ck, or fight to better than any that had come before or any that have followed since. I’m also guessing that some of you took a look at the header that accompanies this column and decided that if all I was going to do was rant on about some old 80s hair-metal band, you’d cut out. After last week’s break from the norm, where I talked Birdeatsbaby with Mishkin Fitzgerald, we’re back to the usual format of me telling you what band you need in your life, and which are the five best songs to get you there.
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