You got a peek into my admittedly bad taste in music from my “Guilty Pleasures” post…. now it’s time for even more of my BAD RECORD COLLECTION!
Most of my favorite “bad” records are from the great decade of the 80s. For me, it was a very important time in my musical development. I had just “discovered” rock and roll having grown up with primarily R&B and country music. I was like a “Rock and Roll Pac Man” just gobbling up any and all rock music.
In January of 1986, a little film starring Lou Gossett Jr. and Jason Gedrick called Iron Eagle came out. Iron Eagle was the story of the teenage son of an Air Force F-16 pilot and his daring mission to save his father. Gedrick’s character recruits his rag tag bunch of Air Force brats (and one Air Force reserve Colonel) to steal two F-16s and mount a rescue.
Of course, our hero, Doug Masters, is a music lover and straps a Walkman to his leg while flying. Doug is partial to guitar driven rock like Queen and John Butcher Axis. His magical Walkman even helps Doug and the Colonel bend the laws of time and space while on the mission!
The song I really love from this film plays over the end credits, “Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)” by King Kobra. It’s a song that personifies early 80’s glam-metal and never fails to raise my spirits. Mike Wolfe‘s guitar work is solid and works perfectly with Appice’s killer drum work. Lead singer, Mark Free, adds the energy that propels the song and makes it (for me) more than just a song written just for a B movie.
Just imagine, it is 1986 and you just watched a film about a 16-year-old stealing an F-16 and invading a Middle Eastern country to save his father and this song comes on over the credits…
PERFECT!
Of course with all the metal bands hitting at the time, King Kobra got lost in the shuffle. A few months after Iron Eagle, another film soundtrack was released that spawned a guitar driven hit….TOP GUN. It seems that more people took the highway to the danger zone than never said die…
Appice reformed the band a few times in the last 20 years but the first album is still the best. NEVER SAY DIE!
– Submitted by Jose Brown, Music Design