Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Various Artists - Music from the Motion Picture Heavy Metal (1981)


By request!

I didn't love the movie (in fact, I don't think I've ever sat through the whole thing) and I've never seen a copy of the magazine, but this soundtrack has its high points. Since the movie is named after the magazine and not the genre, it's understandable that this joint isn't all heavy metal music. Actually, this is more power pop and pop metal than anything else. And for that, I thank you. To be honest, there's two groups on this compilation that I don't recognize and have never heard beyond this soundtrack: Riggs and the French band Trust.

This album was released in the middle of what I'll call "The Golden Age of Movie Soundtracks" which started in 1978 with Saturday Night Fever and Grease then ended in 1988 with the chart reign of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

Album chart peaks:
  • US Billboard 200: #12
  • Billboard Rock: #6
  • CashBox: #13
  • Rolling Stone: #10


Tracks:  16 tracks, 62 minutes, ranked in order of personal preference:
  1. Heavy Metal - Sammy Hagar
  2. Working In The Coal Mine - Devo (#43 Pop, #53 Rock)
  3. True Companion - Donald Fagen
  4. Heavy Metal (Takin' A Ride) - Don Felder (#43 Pop, #5 Rock)
  5. Open Arms - Journey (#2 Pop, #35 Rock, #7 AC)
  6. Queen Bee - Grand Funk Railroad
  7. I Must Be Dreamin' - Cheap Trick
  8. Blue Lamp - Stevie Nicks
  9. Reach Out - Cheap Trick
  10. Heartbeat - Riggs
  11. All Of You - Don Felder
  12. Radar Rider - Riggs
  13. Prefabricated - Trust
  14. The Mob Rules - Black Sabbath
  15. Crazy (A Suitable Case For Treatment) - Nazareth
  16. Veteran of the Psychic Wars - Blue Oyster Cult




Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Many of my friends had this album on cassette because it was perfect for a car date, cruising down 7th Street and hanging out in the Dairy Queen parking lot, because it gave the guys lots of rockin' tunes but also gave the ladies a little something with the Journey tune. Just think of how different a teenager's world was back when we were crusin' in '81: there was no graduated driver licensing, there were student smoking areas on the high school campus and no minimum age to buy tobacco, the legal drinking age was 18, and there were no mandatory seat-belt laws or open container laws. As a parent now, I can't believe some of the stuff we did back then (shhh....don't tell my sons).

3 comments:

  1. Unlike your experience, my circle of friends paid the music and the movie no attention. There were a couple of weeks when it was the single most important thing in my life, even managed talking my Mom into taking underage me to see it. Left her speechless. For that act alone I should be ever indebted to her but there have been so many more. (Love ya, Mom.)

    I covered the film and soundtrack HERE.

    We are surprisingly close in our track by track rankings, too. Thanks for dusting it off and giving it a spin.

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    Replies
    1. Dirk comments on a comment, about a link within a comment, regarding another post, on an entirely different blog; and in doing so, throws off the whole space-time continuum as we know it... Now that's "Heavy Metal"!!

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  2. I did not own a copy of the soundtrack (but would like too as it is solid music). I do have a copy of the film on DVD. Saw it not in theatres back in the day but on HBO after hours many times. The animation is pretty crude so it does not hold up so well. Gotta remember it for the time it was from.

    I did have issues of the magazine as a teen. Like the film, very much an anthology with one-shot tales and on-going serials. And boobs, lots and lots of boobs. Yes, targeted to hormonal teen boys like myself.

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