Heavy metal craze: Remembering “Cum on Feel the Noize” by Quiet Riot

Quiet Riot was in Calgary yesterday at the Grey Eagle Casino, and immediately “Cum on Feel the Noize” was called up from my memory bank.

It was one of the ear worms that reminds me of junior high dances and the heavy metal craze that took hold for a couple years.

Heavy metal craze
By the time I reached Grade 9 at St. Joseph’s School in Coaldale, we were finally the big kids in school. We were beginning to develop unique tests that took us in wildly different directions when we went to high school the next year.

One of the things that was popular in 1983 and 1984 and 1985, in particular, was heavy metal music. It was loud, obnoxious, featured the sawing of guitars and loud beating of drums, as well as a lot of hair – so much hair.

Many of the fans sported similar hair – so much hair – and black t-shirts. They the name of the band on the front, and some sort of graphic which was often from the album cover. If they were concert shirts, as they some times were, they would have the date and place of their tour stops.

There were so many bands, some that may have been considered but preceded the heavy metal craze, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, and KISS, or transcended it, like Motley Crue and Bon Jovi.

Yet, there were so many others that were such a big part of it.

The first band I remember was Iron Maiden with “Run to the Hills”. They had this creature on all their swag named “Eddie”. Bruce Dickinson was one of the big players for them. They would put “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” to music, and do some interesting things.

There was Judas Priest and “Breaking the Law”, with their unique lead singer Rob Halford, who had this white blonde hair cropped tightly to his head. Judas Priest was also used as a kind of a proxy swear word back then too. I first recall hearing it said by Howard Hunter, a character on the police drama “Hill Street Blues”, played by James B. Sikking.

Krokus was a Swiss band who did a great cover of “Ballroom Blitz” by The Sweet. It was played at many a dance.

Twisted Sister had an amazing run with “I Wanna Rock”; “We’re Not Gonna Take it”; “The Price”; and a cover of “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-La’s. Their song “Under the Blade”, garnered a lot of attention from the Moral Majority, Tipper Gore and the other pro-censorship, anti-free speech crusaders. It was more about unnecessary surgery than anything, but hey, why actually read and listen to the lyrics. They were a band whose members were also well known, especially lead singer Dee Snyder who went a bit heavy on the rouge to go with his thick, long, frizzy blonde hair. Twisted Sister also included Mark Mendoza with his red guitar and a black spiral pattern painted on it, and Jay Jay French.

There was Ratt, who had “Round and Round” from their album “Out of the Cellar”. I saw them on an episode of “The New Music Magazine”, where they were autographing the bodies of their female fans, and in some pretty provocative places.

Autograph had the song “Turn Up the Radio”, which was another candidate for ear worm status.

Slade also had an ear worm with “Run, Run Away”.

KISS had a bit of a resurgence with the heavy metal crowd. They were no longer wearing their face paint. Their costumes were more of the bare torso, heavy metal band variety then the love object, demon, cat variety. They had a bunch of songs including “Lick it Up”; “Heaven’s On Fire”; and “Tears are Fallin’” from the “Lick it Up” and “Animalize” albums. My best friend, Chris Vining, went to see them and got an “Animalize” scarf. He would later hang it in our room in student residence at the University of Alberta. The members of KISS were also well known from front man Gene Simmons to Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and drummer Peter Criss.

Motley Crue would start out as a heavy metal band with favourites such as “Shout at the Devil”. they would transcend that, starting with their third album “Theatre of Pain” and a cover of the single “Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room” by Brownsville Station. They too, had a band whose individual members were well known – Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, and Tommy Lee.

Bon Jovi was yet another band that started out heavy metal with the first albums “Bon Jovi” and “7800 Fahrenheit” and singles such as “Runaway” and “In and Out of Love”. Everything changed with the release of their third album “Slippery When Wet” and the number one hit singles “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

For a bit of Canadian flavour, there was Helix, who actually came to Lethbridge, with “Rock You” and a cover of “Anything You Want”, initially recorded by the group Foot in Cold Water. They would put out an album called “Long Way to Heaven” that produced the singles “The Kids are all Shaking in the USA” and the ballad “Deep Cuts the Knife”.

There was Kick Axe, which I always thought was a cool play on words with “With a Little Help from My Friends”, and I believe they actually opened for Helix in Lethbridge.

For really loud and angry music there was Wasp.

There was even Christian heavy metal with Stryper, who threw Bibles in the crowd and had an album called “To Hell With the Devil”.

“Cum on Feel the Noize”
And then there was Quiet Riot. Their album “Metal Health” had this man in an iron mask in a straight jacket on the cover. They had a successful single in “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” to go with their smash hit “Cum on Feel the Noize”.

“Cum on Feel the Noize” went all the way to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1983. It propelled the album “Metal Health” to number one on the Billboard 200 album chart.

The song was initially recorded by Slade and was a hit in Europe about 10 years earlier.

When I was in junior high, I was erroneously told that Slade sued Quiet Riot for “ripping off” a bunch of their songs. That was not true at all, as Slade gave their permission to Quiet Riot to cover “Cum on Feel the Noize”.

Summer time
My cousin Fred was one of my musical mentors. For a lot of summers in the first half of the ‘80s, I would spend a couple weeks each summer in Brooks.

One summer, 1985, Fred was really into metal. He talked a lot about bands such Twisted Sister, and had compilation tapes such as “Metal for Breakfast”.

It gave me a new appreciation for heavy metal.

Parting thoughts
Initially, I detested heavy metal, but for the absolutely weirdest reason. My Uncle Ed had this friend who believed heavy metal was an instrument for worshipping the devil. If you played certain records backwards, called backmasking, you could hear subliminal messages. I heard the same thing at school from a couple girls who added another layer to the message. They said there were subliminal messages in heavy metal music. If you woke up with a song in your head, your subconscious was worshipping the devil. They also pointed out that KISS actually stood for “Knights In Satan’s Service” or alternatively “Kings In Satan’s Service”, while AC/DC stood for “Anti Christ Devil’s Children”. These people also indulged in record and tape burning, which even now disturbs me.

It turns out my uncle’s friend and these girls all went to the same church, so this all came from the same source. Interestingly, I went to Catholic school. All this came up on the playground and at lunch hour from non-Catholics, not in religion class.

However, once I actually listened to more heavy metal, spent that summer around my cousin Fred who was an afficianado, and started Grade 10 at another school, I began to like the driving beat, the loud guitars, and the distortion that comes with heavy metal music.

It may have been a craze in the mid-80s, but it still has a massive and loyal following.

So, whenever I hear “Cum on Feel the Noize” by Quiet Riot, it takes me back to those days of frizzy hair, tight jeans, thick eye make up, and black concert shirts.