The Steel Horse Archives: Slaughter, “Fly to the Angels” (1990)

SLAUGHTER
Title: “Fly To The Angels”
Album: Stick It to Ya
Release Date: January 27, 1990

Why You Remember Them: Credit Slaughter with arriving (late) to the hair-metal party without any even vague designs on rocking it. Slaughter’s tapes, available at Kmart and Venture stores nationwide, were solely prom-theme delivery machines; their attempts at lip-licking lasciviousness, mostly in titles like “Stick It To Ya” and “Up All Night,” were about as dangerous as a Tuesday night episode of Jay-Walking. “Fly to The Angels,” the video for which was made for $49.50, most of which was spent on airplane stock footage and an oscillating fan, is 50 minutes of viscous cheese puncutated by seagull sound effects, in case you were unclear about that whole flying thing. (Sorry – I’m told it’s actually only 4:30. How about that!)

Sales Figures: Stick Moved over 2 million copies, and was nominated for an American Music Award for best metal album in 1991. Yeah, I said it. AMERICAN MUSIC AWARD. Suck on that, haters.

Key Tracks: “Up All Night,” “Shout It Out,” “Spend My Life”

Is It Me, Or Does “Shout It Out” Sound Oddly Excellent?: Yes! That’s because it was commissioned for the soundtrack of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, marking the first of many times Slaughter would appear on a record with Faith No More. And not to go off on a tangent here, but can I tell you that the Bill and Ted movies hold up amazingly, and if Bill Sadler as Death isn’t worth an American Music Award, I don’t know what is. If you learn anything from Slaughter, it’s this: Put Bogus Journey on your Netflix queue TODAY. I’ll wait.

Best Part Of Their Wikipedia Entry: “Due to the changing musical climate and Chrysalis’ absorption by EMI Records, Slaughter was dropped from the label in a massive cleaning house (sic) that included dismissals of other previously popular acts such as Billy Idol and Huey Lewis and the News.” Can you imagine standing on a street corner in 1994 and seeing a dejected-looking Mark Slaughter, Billy Idol and Huey Lewis all come out of the same office building revolving door?

Damning Review From My Buddy Aaron Bradshaw in a Separate IM Window Right Now: “Essentially, they were a poor man’s Trixter.” NO YOU DIDN’T, BRADSHAW.

More Tales Regarding Slaughter and My Friend Bradshaw: Oh yeah, he did see Slaughter live at the Star Plaza Theater in Merrillville, Ind., with opening act Alias. “Front row of the balcony, although we snuck downstairs,” he reports. “Rebels we were.” Bradshaw also saw Belinda Carlisle there in the front row. Merrillville was so effing awesome.

Sweet Christ, They Actually Covered: OK, I got totally excited when I saw “American Pie” from their 1997 record, Revolution, but it turns out this is an original, albeit one with lines like “I’m a silver-tongued poet and I like to say/That you’re lookin’ really groovy and I like it that way.”

Most Improbable Lyric: “Jesus says he loves you and that’s outta sight,” again from the endlessly giving “American Pie,” which later involves somebody getting naked on the moon. Not Jesus. I think.

Pre-Nirvana Song Titles: “Up All Night,” “She Wants More,” “Reach for the Sky”

Post-Nirvana Song Titles: “Silence of Ba,” “Heaven It Cries”

Arbitarily Scored Ferocity of Devil-Horns Thrust: Two. “Fly to the Angels,” despite being thawed out in a children’s treasury of acoustic versions, etc., etc., over the years, isn’t even good enough to warrant eventually getting to hang out with Huey Lewis.

Recent News: Slaughter remains an active force on the metal-tent circuit, surfacing frequently on the Rock Never Stops Tour.