Man of Steele

I have a lot going on personally right now. Parenting always seems to throw you a curve ball when you are least able to field it with anything resembling finesse or aplomb.

Consequently, emotionally, I'm kind of a wreck, which in turn, affects my ability to be interesting, relevant or witty (Assuming I ever was).

Still, I feel a certain sense of obligation to my readers and my offerings of late have been decidedly meagre.

I need to post something, but all I've got for you today is music stuff.

In the '80's when everyone else was heavily into metal and hair band mania, I was listening to Euro techno synth pop type stuff. You know...Pscychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, Howard Jones, Violent Femmes...

I completely bypassed my metal stage. I think that this has resulted in a state of arrested development in that, I never really got to indulge all that angry, angsty, bile spewing, poetry scribbling teenage melodrama.

I think that generally speaking, though of course I had the same predilection for sulking and moodiness as any other teen, I was really too happy to be into all the really dark stuff. I flirted with being punk for a while, but honestly, I just didn't have the necessary blackness of the soul to sustain the image for very long.

But it seems that missing that important stage of my emotional evolution has caused a regression later in life.

Because I've recently discovered "Goth Metal".

I am entirely too old to be mucking about with "Goth" anything, but I find myself mesmerized by the sound of one band in particular, which apparently, has been around since the stone age, but of whom I was completely unaware, immersed as I was in over synthesized, over mixed and over coiffed Eighties Euro Pop musical culture.

Which I still heart very, very much by the way. It was the backdrop of my formative years, and thus, will always have a deeply nostalgiac effect on me.

Anyway, most of this band's stuff is way too hard for me. Screaming guitars and shouted lyrics rattle my nerves. A lot of it is overblown, cheesy, and blatantly panders to the deeply misanthropic Goth mindset and love of all things related to death, sex, and death. Oh, and vampires.

So it's not something I would listen to normally, even though my musical tastes are almost schizophrenically eclectic.

But this guy's voice, people...it's like...silk. Chocolate? No. Velvet. Yes. His voice is like...something. Whatever that something is, it makes you want to wrap yourself up in it and daydream of being kissed. HARD.

I think his talents have been wasted, frankly, because his voice can part knees like Moses parted the Red Sea. Had his career taken a more mainstream turn, he could have put any and all power balladeers to shame.

I think I've mentioned before that I am drawn to quirky, unusual men and he definitely fits that bill. Pretty boys just don't do it for me. Plus I have a strange fascination for those profoundly massive in stature. This guy is 6'8" and solid as an Oak.

In his youth...yowza. He truly something to behold. He's aged now, and not particularly well, thanks to the ravages of drugs and alchohol. But if you just close your eyes and listen.....



See what I mean? The ultimate Power Ballad. The ultimate Power Balladeer.

Check out the band's cover of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" as well. It's really good.

And, as an added bonus, he posed for Playgirl back in 1995. If you want to take a peek, click here, but be forewarned, these pics are most definitely NSFW.

He's definitely uh...proportional.

So there you go. I have expanded your musical horizons today. Don't you feel broader? I know I do.

FOOTNOTE: It turns out they will be in concert here May 23rd. For a brief moment, I considered buying somet tickets. But I think I would look and feel completely out of place, lacking as I do, any piercings or tattoos. I don't think I really have the attitude to pull off Goth and I know I don't have the bod to pull off the ripped fishnets and leather look. Once one passes a certain decade, such trappings look a little sad and desperate anyway. One can't exactly attend such an event in capris and a twinset, however, So there you go...not for me. SIGH.