SOUNDTRACK: Y&T-“Mean Streak” (1983).
In the early 1980s Y&T had a couple of albums that made it onto my radar. This one, Mean Streak, had this song which I liked enough. It’s got some cool riffs and Dave Meniketti’s raspy but distinctive voice.
I remember liking this song, even though I really had no idea what was going on in the lyrics. The chorus where everyone sings “mean streak” behind his lyrics was certainly the catchy selling point. But this is hard rock more than metal and is not really my thing.
I may have bought this album, but I know I have the follow up In Rock We Trust, which was more poppy (and they were more pretty). I had forgotten all about “Lipstick and Leather” yet another cheesy pop metal song about, well, lipstick and leather.
People who were fans of Y&T (like Posehn) were die-hards, but even listening now I see why I never really got into them, even if I liked them for a bit. Maybe it was a California thing.
[READ: January 2019] Forever Nerdy
S. got this for me for Christmas after we saw Posehn on a late night show and he talked about his nerdy obsessions, including Rush. It seemed like an obvious fit. And it totally was.
Posehn is a few years older than me, but if he had lived in my town we would have totally been friends (except I would have never talked to him because he was older). Anyhow, we had more or less the same obsessions and the same nerdy outlook. Although I was never really picked on like he was so perhaps I was a little cooler than he was. Although I never smoked or drank when I was in high school so maybe he was cooler than me.
Things to know about before reading this–Posehn is a vulgar dude–there’s not much kid friendly is in this book. Also this book isn’t really an autobiography exactly. I mean it is in that he wrote it and its about him, but if you were dying to find out fascinating stories about his crazy life, this book isn’t really it. I t’s more about the things he was obsessed with–in true nerdy fandom.
Although, Brian, what nerd doesn’t have an index in his own book?
Posehn had a rough childhood–his dad died when he was little and his mom worked a lot. So he spent lots of great time with his grandparents, whom he loved. But no one cares about that stuff. He was picked on and made fun of and even his friends abandoned him yadda yadda yadda so he spent a lot of time watching movies. Jaws was first and like any good ten-year old he became obsessed with sharks. He says the book of Jaws is a lot dirtier than the movie (lots of fucking–who knew?).
It’s with chapter four that the book starts to get really fun because that’s when we both relive out Kiss obsession. He had listened top music before and liked various singers (Olivia Newton John, Cher etc). But then he heard “Detroit Rock City.” It had a car crash and it was awesome (this is verifiably true). Then he found Destroyer and it was a comic book come to life. (True again). Meanwhile the world was also becoming obsessed with them–they appeared in comic books (and gave some of their own blood) and had a TV show and all kinds of stuff. It was a good time to be a KISS fan.
There’s an amusing story about church-going Brain bringing a Kiss poster to a youth group and having the pastor freak out on him about it. I love how he went through a phase of who was hi favorite Kiss member. First Paul, then Gene and then Ace. He even dressed as Ace for a drama class lip sync and strapped a smokebomb to his cardboard guitar (as Ace does) and smoked everyone out of the room. Can you even imagine that today?
And then came the Kiss Army.
The KISS army is the shittiest army…. How did the KISS Army prepare e for life? Disappointment.
Because of the number of times that Kiss has let us down and then brought us back. His first let down was the disc of 1979’s Dynasty (which he now loves). Mine was not until two albums later with The Elder (which I now love). They won him back with Creatures of the Night and then lost him again with “God Gave Rock n Roll to You” (which is godawful). And now the marketing machine is bigger than ever: “By the way what fucking weirdos were stoked when Hello Kitty finally teamed up with Kiss.”
I wonder if he’s going to their final tour? I am not.
Sure its been hard to be a KISS fan for forty years. I feel like I’ve spent more time being annoyed or disappointed with KISS than I have loving them. But nothing compared to the amount of annoyance and disappointment and out-and-out hatred I would come to feel for something I previously loved held up to the things I’ve felt about Star Wars.
Anyone who loved Star Wars knows this whole roller coaster. Although I may be the only kid who hated it first. I went through an “I hate Star Wars” phase because I was so sick of it (probably for a week). And then I saw it and became obsessed. Although not nearly as much as Posehn (and millions of others).
He talks a lot about his mom (and is quite nasty about her most of the time). But he is even nastier to her then boyfriend. This guy was a total asshole (if Brian is to believed). He took Brian to R rated movies (cool/asshole combination there). Imagine being taken to see Slapshot and Semi-Tough and the Kentucky Fried Movie in 7th or 8th grade? But this led him to love horror movies as well.
I also loved 1979-1981: The Making of a Teenage Metalhead. My metal phase came about two years later. He’s also the only person I’ve ever heard of who loved Y&T (or even heard of them) I have an album of theirs but never thought much about them beyond that. His accolades make me want to check them it again. By the end of ’81 he was obsessed with Van Halen, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy. And of course Rush. There’s a picture on the plates section (library nerd there) of Brian standing in front of three of the Rush posters that I also had on my wall.
High school really did suck for him, although Junior and Senior year were certainly better.
But by 1982 he was an obsessed metal head and that’s when I was too, My jean-jacket binder was covered with every metal band logo I could find the name of–even if I’d never heard them. And I loved living through all of these bands from Brian’s vantage point. I am quite puzzled why I never got more into UFO.
Metallica is his metal Star Wars.
I’ve been a fan of both forever, and yet I can’t think of another movie or heavy-metal band that has let me down more and then won me back as a fan.
He says Metallica won him back with Hardwired an album I haven’t listened to–they haven’t won me back.
Brian saw them when they first came out (Kill ‘Em All) and actually met the guys before a different metal show at a small club. But Kirk and James were jerks. I love the story of a dude he knew named Duncan who believed that Metallica sold out in 1984 with Ride the Lightning.
And he speaks this truth
Most of the time when you meet another metalhead, it’s like meeting a brother or sister you never met. But every once in a while you meet a dude who makes it a competition.
He and I were both obsessed with finding heavier and heavier bands which led to Anthrax and Testament and Death Angel.
He talks a bit more about horror movies. I loved horror movies when I was a kid but haven’t watched one in years. I didn’t know he was in the Rob Zombie movie The Devil’s Rejects, so that’s pretty neat.
His chapter on Rush is pretty awesome, except that everyone knows “I Think I’m Going Bald” is on Caress of Steel, not the debut. Come On, nerd.
Finally by chapter sixteen we move on to comedy as his final obsession. He talks about his early stand up shows. Then he started writing for TV. Since this is what I know him from, I wish he spent a bit more time talking about making Mr. Show but I guess it’s not his gig exactly. He was on a lot of TV–NewsRadio and Seinfeld among many shows I didn’t watch. And he was almost sully in Monsters, Inc, but its hard to pass up John Goodman.
He has chapter about his ex-girlfriends which I guess no one really needs to read. And then a chapter about meeting his heroes which is kind of interesting although I wish he trashed a few more of them. He knew the Zappa family who were nice to him and Scott Ian of Anthrax was cool (of course). He had Bad experiences with Night Ranger and W.A.S.P. (I have heard nothing but bad things about the guys from W.A.S.P.). He say that Paul Stanley was very friendly and very nice and even came to see his stand up act once. Years later his son and Paul Stanley’s son went to the same school and Paul Showed up to the Christmas pageant in a leather jacket with no shirt in.
Chapter Twenty Two is about his fight with Pandora while trying to program an all Rush channel. It’s total filler, but it is very very funny.
So this book reads like a list of Brian Posehn’s likes and dislikes. He’s not an especially gifted writer (the blurb says reading this is like talking to him) and he tends to use the same words and phrases a lot. Some of the chapters are a bit of a drag and I wish there were more stories about things that happened rather than whether people he knew were cool or not, but for the most part I enjoyed reading this parallel life of mine.
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