Rocktober '80s Song #22: "Shout at the Devil" by Mötley Crüe (1983)

Sadly, we've reached the end of another Rocktober.  I hope you've had as much fun as I have during our aural journey through the rock of the '80s over these last 30 days .  Stay tuned, as Monday we will start Gizmovember, a daily look at the trials and tribulations of the mogwai.

But before then, we have a final '80s Rocktober selection to end Halloween week on a Hair Band Friday, no less.  With the pagan equivalent of Christmas coming tomorrow, it's only fitting that the last song of Rocktober -- Mötley Crüe's "Shout at the Devil" -- have demonic undertones.  1983's Shout at the Devil was Mötley Crüe's second studio album, and it was their breakthrough album, reaching #17 on the Billboard album chart and eventually going 4x platinum in the U.S., despite not having a Top 40 song on the album ("Looks That Kill" was the highest-charting song, reaching #54 on the Billboard Hot 100).  The album is a solid piece of hard rock –- made in an era before the power ballad (which, of course, Mötley Crüe would popularize on their next album with "Home Sweet Home"). As a result, all of the songs are heavy rockers, and there aren't any damned pianos.

The original album cover was black, with a darker black pentagram and red writing the the band and album name.  Very pagan sheik.  There was also an alternate cover for CDs and cassettes, featuring a 2x2 shot of the band members looking like cross-dressing barbarians, but you have to remember that's what any respectable man was wearing in the early '80s. 

The title track to the album is a metal/hair band classic.  On the album, it's the second track, preceded by "In The Beginning," a fire-and-brimstone, creepy, ethereal, spoken-word intro to the album, by some Vincent Price-esque dude describing basically how the world has gone to hell in a hand basket, although you can be assured that the term "hand basket" appears nowhere in any Mötley Crüe album. Anyway, the old man encourages you all to "be strong and shout at the devil!"

Then Mick Mars's heavy riff kicks in, and the band implores you to "Shout! Shout! Shout! / Shout! Shout! Shout! / Shout at the devil!"  A lot of people are confused by the title of the album and song, believing it to be some sort of invitation to summon the devil. I always took it to mean the opposite -- that you should holler at the devil, like, "Hey, devil, you're a jerk!  Cut it out!"  See, that's not so bad after all, is it?