Running with the Devil. Robert Walser

      

       Running with the Devil

      ROBERT WALSER

      *

       Running with the Devil

      POWER, GENDER, AND MADNESS IN HEAVY METAL MUSIC

      *

      With a new afterword

       Foreword by Harris M. Berger

      WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

       Middletown, Connecticut

      Wesleyan University Press

      Middletown CT 06459

      www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

      © 2014 and 1993 by Robert Walser

      Foreword © 2014 by Harris M. Berger

      All rights reserved

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Designed by Anita Walker Scott

      Typeset in Galliard

      Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press

      Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.

      ISBN for this edition: 978-0-8195-7514-2

      The Library of Congress cataloged the previous edition as:

      Walser, Robert

      Running with the Devil: power, gender, and madness in heavy metal music / Robert Walser.

      p. cm.—(Music culture)

      Includes bibliographical references, discography, and index.

      ISBN 0-8195-5252-6 (cl).—ISBN 0-8195-6260-2

      1. Heavy metal (Music)—History and criticism.

      I. Title. II. Series.

      ML3534.W29 1993

      781.66—dc20 92-56911

      5 4 3 2 1

      Acknowledgments for song lyrics quoted:

      “Electric Eye”: Words and music by Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford, and K. K. Downing, © 1982 EMI APRIL MUSIC, INC./CREWGLEN LTD./EBONYTREE LTD./GEARGATE LTD. All rights controlled and administered by EMI APRIL MUSIC, INC. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

      “Suicide Solution”: Words and music by John Osbourne, Robert Daisley, and Randy Rhoads, TRO—© Copyright 1981 Essex Music International, Inc. and Kord Music Publishers, New York, N.Y. Used by permission.

      Cover photograph of Van Halen by Chris Walter/Photofeatures.

       Contents

      *

       Foreword to the 2014 Edition vii

       Acknowledgments xvii

       Introduction xix

       1. Metallurgies: Genre, History, and the Construction of Heavy Metal 1

       Genre and Commercial Mediation 3

       Casting Heavy Metal 7

       Heavy Metal in the 1980s 11

       Headbangers 16

       “Nasty, Brutish, and Short”? Rock Critics and Academics Evaluate Metal 20

       2. Beyond the Vocals: Toward the Analysis of Popular Musical Discourses 26

       Genre and Discourse 27

       Musicological Analysis 34

       Writing about Music 39

       Metal as Discourse 41

       “Runnin’ with the Devil” 51

       Negotiation and Pleasure 55

       3. Eruptions: Heavy Metal Appropriations of Classical Virtuosity 57

       Classical Prestige and Popular Meanings 58

       Ritchie Blackmore and the Classical Roots of Metal 63

       Edward Van Halen and the New Virtuosity 67

       Randy Rhoads: Metal Gets Serious 78

       Yngwie Malmsteen: Metal Augmented and Diminished 93

       Popular Music as Cultural Dialogue 102

       4. Forging Masculinity: Heavy Metal Sounds and Images of Gender 108

       Behind the Screen: Listening to Gender 112

       No Girls Allowed: Exscription in Heavy Metal 114

       The Kiss of Death: Misogyny and the Male Victim 117

       Living on a Prayer: Romance 120

       Nothing but a Good Time? Androgyny as a Political Party 124

       “Real Men Don’t Wear Makeup” 128

       5. Can I Play with Madness? Mysticism, Horror, and Postmodern Politics 137

       Professing Censorship: The PMRC and Its Academic Allies Attack 137

       Suicide Solutions 143

       Mysticism and Postmodernism in Heavy Metal 151

       Horror and History 160

       Guns N’ Roses N’ Marx N’ Engels 165

       Afterword to the 2014 Edition 173

       Appendix 1: Heavy Metal Canons 181

       Appendix 2: Heavy Metal Questionnaire 183

       Notes 187

       Select Discography 213

       Select Bibliography 217

       Index 223

       Photographs follow page 107