So, I’m tooling around Vegas a couple weeks back, listening to Ozzie’s Boneyard when I hear this story about the origin of No More Tears. Apparently, Ozzie was in the bathtub, so the story goes, when inspiration struck.
I’d always wondered about that.
It’s just a little disappointing, isn’t it? I mean, this is hard rock and metal. All this time, I thought the Devil himself was supposed to be speaking to us through Ozzy. Is he using commercial jingles for a translator? I suppose that could be, right? Perhaps his evil word is too much for the ears of a professional musician, so maybe the Dark Lord has to find a truly evil minion to convey his word to the chosen spokes-stars. When he wants to reach the masses he turns to rock-stars; when he wants to reach rock-stars, Satan turns to advertisers.
…which actually makes sense to me.
That aside, you have to wonder if the folks from Warrant ever realized why the phrase “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” resonated with them. Seriously, I can just imagine it. They are sitting their, doing what rockers do when they write lyrics (and seriously, whatever the procedure is, I hope it’s truly depraved), and they are trying to write a song about a brutal murder out in the boonies, and suddenly somebody comes up with this reference to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Does everyone just think it has a nice ring to it?
Or better yet, maybe they knew what the were doing all along! Was that song a stealth history lesson, guys? Subliminal edumacation comin’ through your radio. Cause that would be awesome if it were true.
By ‘awesome’ I might mean ‘awful’.
Really, I’m not sure which.
Speaking of Rockin’ History lessons that almost happened, I can only assume Ian Astbury was well aware of the fact that there really was an American Horse. Given his own love of indigenous themes, I’d guess he was thinking about that very person when he wrote the song American Horse. At the very least, I imagine he was thinking about the old Lakota leader when inspiration for that tune began to take form, but of course “American Horse” isn’t actually about American Horse, at least I don’t think so.
…which come to think of it is probably just as well.
Gosh, Old Nick sure does work in mysterious ways:
