TBone 2020- Less Than Zero (1987)

Happy New Year Folk’s!

Welcome to a new series here at Arena Rock where I dissect some of the music choices my Best Pal since 1975 the only and only Tbone was making back in the mid-1980s! Why you ask? Simple really as I basically got Tbone really onboard with Hard Rock with Van Halen’s 1984 released earlier that year.

After that Tbone was snapping up cassettes quicker than a stripper straddling a pole.  Tbone was off and running and at times went a little off course with some questionable scratch your head purchases but Tbone always found his way back to the Hard Rock.

With a new Decade upon us I thought it might be a hoot to revisit and expand and try to dig into Tbone’s noggin at what the F*#K was he thinking going back with some of these musical picks from the  mid-80s!

Shall we?

 

I was never big into Soundtracks and for the record I’m still not but Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody Soundtrack from 2018  was brilliant so there are exceptions to the rules. Having said that back in 1987, me and Tbone went to see the movie Less Than Zero which really was about preppies and cocaine and starred Robert Downey and James Spader. Brad Pitt before he became Brad Pitt was in it as a partygoer and 3/4’s of the Red Hot Chili Peppers were in at as band.

Not that I knew any of this at the time but to get my head into this review I recently streamed this movie.

At one point in the movie, The Cults Little Devil was played which of course we took notice as that song came from the brilliant Electric album that the Cult had put out earlier in 87. Better yet there was another scene in the movie that had David Lee Roth’s Bump and Grind playing in the background. Bring on the Blow!

Now back to late 1987…

When I next saw Tbone a few days later ( after seeing the movie at the theater) we went cruising in Tbone’s car to the college to play some tennis and he had the Less Than Zero soundtrack.

I was like ” Whaaaat?”

1. Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu – Aerosmith

2. Life Fades Away – Roy Orbison

3. Rock And Roll All Nite – Poison

4. Going Back To Cali – L.L Cool J.

5. You & Me (Less Than Zero) – Glen Danzig & The Power & Fury Orch

6. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – Slayer

7. Bring The Noise – Public Enemy

8. Are You My Woman? – Black Flames

9. She’s Lost You – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

10. How To Love Again – Oran ‘Juice Jones’

11. Hazy Shade Of Winter – Bangles

Tbone handed me the cassette tape cover and I flipped it over and the first track was an Aerosmith tune Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Wu Flu which even though was a cover tune would have slid right onto the Permanent Vacation album no problem as it had that late 80’s Aero gloss swagger!

Roy Orbison was up next which I didn’t listen to until I dubbed the cassette on my tape deck at home. Think about it for a second as here we were in 1987 turning 20 cruising in Tbone’s 2 door Chev that rumbled like a tank so playing Roy would have defeated the purpose of looking like a couple of rock dudes with mullets intact trying to be cool!

Poison was selling a ton of albums on the back of 1986’s Look What The Cat Dragged In. Poison knocks out a cover of KISS ‘Rock N Roll All Night‘ which sounds exactly like it would which is Poison covering KISS. The best part of Rock N Roll All Night was the tambourine! We were driving at the time in Tbone’s Chevy Tank and Tbone hollered “Tambourine” we almost spun off the road and ditched the car as ‘T’ punched the gas!

Never owned any Slayer and to this day I still don’t. Tbone did with one track and that was this ripping cover of In A Gadda Da Vida! This song was an easy turn it up! Thank God it wasn’t like the original track that was 17 minutes long. Slayer wraps it up in under 4 minutes. What a hammer over the head track. Brilliant and one of the best covers I have ever heard.

The rest of the soundtrack was a first for both us I’m sure I can speak for Tbone as It was our first time hearing LL Cool J/Orange Juice Jones/Glenn Danzig/Black Flames/Public Enemy.

The Joan Jett tune was so so and The Bangles tune I can’t even recall except for Suzanna Hoffs! Double Schwing!

Too bad The Cult and Roth track’s never made the soundtrack.

I have to hand it to Tbone as he went outside his comfort zone on this soundtrack as there was some filler but it was a hoot hearing Public Enemy and LL Cool J before they really became household names a few years later! Well in our world that is.

God damn Tbone had some hipster in him circa 87!

deke’s score of Less Than Zero- 6/10

deke’s score of Tbone going all-in on Less Than Zero- 8/10 (gutsy call buying a Soundtrack)

 

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