$1.95 Spent In February 1985

Gotta laugh At The Title of The Accept Article The Metal Avengers! Who wrote this stuff? Ha!

The Pic of Roth is classic! Funky Roth it says. Ha! Classic pants with a tinge of a woman’s flair tossd in for good measure!

My sister in law Kristy came across this mint(all pages intact including the Judas Priest Centerfold) copy of Hit Parader while she was out doing  as she calls it Junkin! This mag came in at under $1! I paid $1.95 for it back in 1985.

So for this past  Christmas as a gag she wrapped it up and my nephew Cameron(Cambo)presented it to me. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in there 80s heyday glory on the cover of the February Issue(1985)

I howled as I unwrapped it and once I  seen the cover and the red Hit Parader title at the top! Wowzers I flashbacked like Marty Mcfly in Back To The Future and basically for about a minute I tuned out the whole world around me and flipped through it like I standing at Larry And Gary’s Convienance Store in Current River (Tbay)circa 1985 as a 18 year old!

Kristy laughed as I had told her I had this copy and many other magazines as well. It was a total score!

Once I snapped myself back into present day reality  I passed the Hit Parader over to my sisters boyfriend Darren who turned the pages and we laughed at the title of the articles! Man how much was it snowing at the editors table at Hit Parader?  Haha! We also marvelled at the one of the many T shirt adds for Rock bands! 2 Rock shirts for $11! That was 1985 and for those wondering that included the Maiden Shirts! The Number Of The Beast,Purgatory,Killers,The Trooper! The ironic thing is these Maiden shirts are in circulation today except it’s gonna cost you a lot more today! Damn Inflation!

My 75 year old Father (Don and Yep if your wondering if he has a nick name,it’s Ol Boy!)even took a turn leafing through the magazine! He even hollered over the people in the house “Derek is this one of the Kiss guys?” when he got to the Kiss article on page 34! Ha….

Brent Jensen in his superbly written No Sleep Til Sudbury book  states that magazines like Hit Parader and Circus were handlers for the record industry back in the 80s and I totally agree with Brent! Except at the time I didn’t realize it but after Brent wrote about and explained it I just had to laugh about it! Call Me Sucka!

Lemme explain ….

Basically I would buy the magazine…read the articles about bands and than go and buy the album! Repeat this process over and over,month after month!  Add in more magazines like Circus,Creem,Rock Scene,Faces and later on RIP and Metal Edge Magazines. Looking back and thinking about it I was the record company’s mule in the 80s! Transporting back and forth and spreading to all who would listen (take a bow Tbone) the new bands,what the current bands were doing! Holy hell I was doing free promotion for a ton of acts! Mr Jensen I could have used your wisdom back in 1985 …

They should have hired me I mean I laugh now at  it all but some of these  band articles with the titles are classic…. for instance and just  this issue….

Dokken-Rough And Ready,Dio- The Evil Eye,Scorpions- The Continental Noblemen,Fastway-Rocking On The Edge,Kick Axe-Pedal To The Metal and my fav titled article …Zebra- Earning There Stripes! Hahaha….

The back of each issue of Hit Parader would feature about a dozen or so pages of current rock songs with the lyrics. Can you say magazine filler! It irked me back than but today it made giggle! I mean here’s the lyrics to New Girl Now by Honeymoon Suite,Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden, Heavens On Fire by Kiss and many more! Give me more rock info so I could babble more about it. Than again maybe these dozen wasted pages did me a service by not featuring more articles whereas I would have spent more cash!

Writing this Ramble was fun! Thanks Kristy and now I know why Axl Rose went off the rails lyrically in the song Get In The Ring when Axl  spewed venom towards Andy Secher(editor) and Hit Parader Magazine. Ha!

Full Circle!