“I’m on my way. Home, sweet home.” – Motley Crue

“I had to run away high, so I wouldn’t come home low.”

With the holidays upon us, much will be made in the coming weeks about the word “home.” You’ll hear it all the time, everywhere. It will come up in conversation with friends and neighbors and co-workers. You’ll see it and hear it with every sappy Hallmark Christmas movie you watch or don’t watch depending upon your stance regarding such movies. You’ll hear “home” sung about over holiday-themed speakers in restaurants and retail shops everywhere you go… “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays,” “Christmas, Please Come Home,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Home is everywhere and yet, home is nowhere. Home tends to meander through life like a chameleon blending into whatever surroundings the time and season dictate. Do we even know where or what home is anymore?

Growing up, home was pretty easily defined for me as where mom and dad and my sister were, in whatever house we occupied. Home also meant grandma’s house for holidays because that was home for mom. As I aged, home became the place where I grew up the most – the formative years shall we say from 8th grade through high school. Then, home became where the jobs took me, becoming at times a conflicting mirage of towns and cities of where my parents lived and the places I where I lived. Homes from the past changed, faded, and became distant memories. Then one day, home becomes a spouse and a child and before you know it, 22 years has passed and you’re left wondering how this particular place, this house, became your home and you’re left pondering how quickly it has all passed.

But alas, times change, homes change, we grow older, softer. After all, we are but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. Music does the same. It grows older and softer yet it remains long after our physical bodies. Maybe that’s the appeal of being a musician. Maybe that’s the appeal of being a writer. The leaving of a legacy through music, through word. Something “permanent,” whatever that means. What was once “loud” or “hard” or “dangerous” listening in 1985 doesn’t hold much the same punch in 2024. Kind of like Mike Tyson’s punch in his recent fight against Jake Paul. “Iron” Mike looked older, softer, less dangerous. No longer the baddest man on the planet, much like music, his punches didn’t land with the same power, the same ferocity as they did in 1985. And why should they? Why did we even have expectations of such? Time is always the true champion.

And, this seems like the appropriate time in this post to pause for a non-paid commercial break…

First of all, that is one bad ass Canadian Goose! Audi is appealing to me with this commercial (though my wife really wants a Tesla). And did you catch the tag line – “There’s no place like the road home.” The road home.

As a profession, I work at a bank, and have been at the same bank for 11+ years now. We have one of those subscription music services that plays over our speaker system in the bank lobby and throughout the offices. The music is intended as background noise to help provide a little privacy to customers conducting business or to employees on phone calls. The musical choices change on occasion. There may be country music for a few weeks or Christmas music during the holiday season. Many times though we’re playing non-threatening, safe-for-work “oldies”music… you guessed it… 80’s music!

Occasionally, I’ll walk out of my office, shake my head in mock disgust and say something like “you know you’re getting old when Def Leppard is playing in the lobby.” Sometimes I’ll time my entrance into the lobby just so I can play the air drums to Phil Collins “In the Air” and sometimes I’ll walk out and announce to the punk twenty-somethings (if you’re reading this, you’re not really punks) I work with and say something like “a million dollars if you know who’s singing this song right now!” I haven’t lost a million dollars I don’t own yet. They never know unless on the rare occasion when their mom or dad made them listen to it when they were really young. I do have one co-worker though whose mom has been to somewhere around 20 Rolling Stones shows, so that’s cool, and she knows her Stones’ music. But, groups like Poison, RATT, Bon Jovi, or Motley Crue. These kids, they don’t know.

Of course these artists and these songs are happening more often in commercials as demonstrated above with The Crue providing a soundtrack for Audi. Honestly though, it could have been a commercial to legalize heroin and I still would have been like “yeah!” That’s how much I love this particular song. It’s on every favorites playlist I have that contains 80’s music. Maybe it’s the commonality of longing for “home.” Maybe the song taps on my heart strings like Tommy tapping gently on the ivory keys making my only want is for these pillars of rock and roll to make it home to loving embraces from family and friends after months of months of a grueling tour schedule. Maybe it’s just because I see the music video in my head every time I hear the song, and I love the music video almost as much as I love the song.

“Just take this song, and you’ll never feel left all alone.”

And I do so love the video. Scoff if you will, but the time lapses of the bus rolling down the highway and the “Theatre of Pain” tour set going up, Vince Neil kissing the posters pre-show, Tommy’s stick twirls, Nikki’s beckoning finger, Mick’s steady guitar, and of course, the slow motion crowd and concert shots – the screaming, the singing along, the girls running on and practically crawling onto stage only to be hauled off by security. And of course, the girl on the shoulders of her boyfriend at the 2;24 mark. If you know, you know. As a 14 year old in 1985, I watched this video in anticipation that just maybe one time someone at MTV would slip in an unedited version of the video late some night when no one was suspecting, and I would be a vigilant benefactor. They never did. I do wonder if the girls in the video are still out there, somewhere in their own homes occasionally watching this video from nearly 40 years ago smiling to themselves while their children and/or grandchildren shake their heads in bewilderment giggling and laughing at the silliness of it all as they watch mom or grandma forever immortalized in the best power ballad song and video of all time.

In an utter travesty, much like Vince Neil’s pink tiger-striped spandex in the video, today’s song barely cracked the top 100 in 1985 on the first go round of its’ release, but then managed to crawl to #37 the second time around when it was remixed and re-released in 1991. Still, the music industry should be ashamed. Heck, a cover version by well renowned hair metal fan Carrie Underwood hit #21 on the Billboard charts in 2009, and then another version which was a duet between country music singer Justin Moore and the Crue’s Neil peaked at #28 on the hot country single charts in 2014. The Crue had to go country to break into the top 30 with this song. Blasphemous!

Directed by Wayne Isham, and featuring now 76 year old actor Michael Berryman in the albeit unnecessary opening scenes of the video (he also appeared in The Crue’s “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” video), here is Vince, Tommy, Nikki, and Mick with a video that topped MTV’s daily request chart for over three months. Here is Motley Crue with their last song to crack the top 40, “Home Sweet Home”…

Thanks for reading, and may your home be wherever you are this holiday season.

sincerely,

the80’s