Published on Oct 27, 1998
Our look at the recently remastered catalog of W.A.S.P. takes a
familiar turn for me today — their 1985 release
The Last Command, the album that caused Tipper Gore to have
convulsions and the religious zealots to preach fire and brimstone
against the band.
It’s also the album that got me hooked on Blackie Lawless and
crew, courtesy of such songs as “Blind In Texas” and “Wild Child”.
In a time where one radio station in Chicago had the guts to play
such music (normally a foreign-language station, the evening was
“brokered” for metal), it was a haven from such pabulum as Chicago
(if I heard “You’re The Inspiration one more time, I was gonna kill
someone) for a 14-year-old like me. I quickly snagged a copy from
my local record store, and nearly wore it out.
Thirteen years after its initial release,
The Last Command still remains a high-water mark for
W.A.S.P. in my book. With the change behind the drum kit from Tony
Richards to Steve Riley, to my ears, Lawless had his killer lineup.
Powerful performances backed with some of Lawless’s best
songwriting equalled an album that I don’t think they’ve topped
yet.
“Wild Child” might be seen as a strange way for W.A.S.P. to open
The Last Command. It’s not as heavy of a song as they had
become known for; it was even – dare I say it? – melodic. If its
goal was to get MTV’s attention, it worked; I saw the video for
this one… once. It still is a great track, and in retrospect,
it’s almost the perfect way to open the album – sort of a “calm
before the storm”.
The Last Command was one of the first albums to feature a
“parental warning” label of some sort, though if it was for songs
like “Ballcrusher” and “Sex Drive,” then they were really grasping
at straws. True, they do allow Lawless to explore the more raunchy
side of his songwriting, but they’re both written and performed
well. And, compared to some of the other stuff that the PMRC had
their nipples in a twist about, these two songs were rather tame.
(For the record, the worst word on this whole album is “bitch,”
used once. Strange… R.E.M. can say “fuck” and not get any type of
label…)
But the material that seals this album as a true classic for me
are the six songs from “Widowmaker” to “Sex Drive”. “Blind In
Texas” was the first song of W.A.S.P.’s that caught my ear, and
it’s still a fun song to listen to. “Cries In The Night” is a song
that Lawless says in the liner notes that he wishes he had left in
its original version. Now, with all reverence to Mr. Lawless and
admitting the fact that I’ve never heard the original, I have to
say that he’s crazy. “Cries In The Night” is a beautiful song (if
that term can be used with heavy metal) that is stellar from the
faded in guitar work of Randy Piper and Chris Holmes to the ending
bellow of Lawless. The title track and “Running Wild In The
Streets” both could have been teenage anthems when I was in high
school.
With all this great material, I almost feel that the bonus
tracks included on the recent remaster ruin the mood ever so
slightly. “Mississippi Queen” tries to stay somewhat faithful to
the original version by Mountain, but it’s not a song that lends
itself well to cover versions, and this version falters. Likewise,
the b-side “Savage” was not a strong enough track to have been
included on
The Last Command, and it shows. However, the inclusion of
five live tracks from a 1984 London concert are interesting, and it
makes me wonder if there was enough material like this to even
justify releasing a live album from the vaults. (How about it,
Blackie? I’d gladly be the first in line to buy it.)
Of course, you could say that I went into listening to this
album with a pre-set notion of it. You’d be right… but I’ve
listened to this album some 100 times over the past 13 years, so
it’s not like I wasn’t familiar with the work. Fact is, whether you
listen to something once or a hundred times, you know a classic
when you hear it, and
The Last Command easily qualifies as that.
This lineup, as great as it was, almost was doomed to splinter,
for such greatness is hard to repeat. By the time the third album,
Inside The Electric Circus came out, Piper was gone, Lawless
had hung up his bass to return to the guitar, and Johnny Rod
stepped in to be the bassist. But that’s a story for another day…
say, in two months.