Rogue Male's (Almost) Third Visit by Ian Indridson
In
the midst of the British New Wave of Heavy Metal, Rogue Male established a
killer niche: Blade Runner-meets-Mad Max garb, menacing make-up that
separated the rogues from the glam pooves, primal howls, gritty-to-givin'-er
explicitness, primal howling and vocals that ranged from Phil Lynott's
smoothness to the gear grinding of Old Sarge, as Zodiac Mindwarp calls the
now-sexagenarian Lemmy Kilmister.It landed them a deal with Elektra, North American release, and an album cover that grabbed me enough to take a chance and buy it. (I only ever bought two other albums based on the album cover - Def Lep's Pyromania and Heathen's debut. Two out of three ain't bad.) I could play First Visit over and over, and was lucky enough to find a new copy years later when my first cassette wore out.
In 1989, I found an unsold, new copy of the 1986 follow-up, Animal Man, at an alternative shop. Again, I would have bought the album just for the wild cover, so I couldn't believe no-one had snapped it up, even if they'd never heard First Visit.
More than a decade later, I'd cruise Web sites for RM stuff every so often... and finally, it paid off: some guy in the UK who'd known Rogue guitarist John Binnie had a five-song demo cassette the band produced before splitting, presumably in 1987. I've had it since the start of the year, and probably played it 50 times. Sadly, it's the best Rogue metal you've never heard. The songs include:
Motorbikin'. Anyone who's heard RM's Crazy Motorcycle and The Real Me will think this is yet another of their passionate, rambling tributes to two-wheeled mayhem ("I'm gonna ride it into Hell"). Actually, this is the first and only Rogue re-make, of a song originally penned by Chris Spedding. If you've heard Spedding's version, imagine Jim Lyttle doing with it what Nashville Pussy did with J. Geils's "First I Look at the Purse." Nothing wrong with covering a great song when you make it kick ass.
Rawhide. At the outset, the heavy beat of this one may remind you of the post-disco hit "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" - but that's where the similarity ends. With subtle riffs and Jim Lyttle's trademark whisper-growl, this song captures the forlorn landscape of an old western movie.
Rogue Male (All for You). Five minutes of progressive, hard-edged metal with the kind of ego-driven lyrics you'd expect from a great metal band - or, more recently, those crotch-grabbing, no-talent rappers. Such as, "We are the gods to which you pray/You'll recognize all this one day." Interestingly, this song was apparently named for the band because the more likely title, All for You, was too close to All Over You, that wonderful First Visit tribute to pulling out last minute and skeet-fucking your missus's face. (Pull!) Not a topic that really warranted a song, but the Rogues handled it with their usual, balls-out subtlety.
On Patrol (In the Dark). Another bittersweet RM song presumably inspired by politics in Ireland, this song captures the Phil Lynott-like subtlety Jim Lyttle was capable of, and proves beyond a doubt that he had range and singing ability somewhere between that of Zodiac Mindwarp and Rob Halford. Why only the latter two performers toured all over North America - while Jim and company, to my knowledge, never came to North America - is a mystery to me. But hey, my 40th birthday's coming up, and if the price was right, I'd pay the Rogues to play my bash in Canada.
Fit to Drop. This song is about partying, period. Again, this demo shows all the polish of the rogues' first two albums, with equally good lyrics and even better vocal theatrics by Jim Lyttle.
If anyone can shed more light on why this great demo never made it out of the studio, I'd be eager to know.
-II