Running with the Devil
ROBERT WALSER
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Running with the Devil
POWER, GENDER, AND MADNESS IN HEAVY METAL MUSIC
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With a new afterword
Foreword by Harris M. Berger
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
© 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
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Foreword to the 2014 Edition vii
1. Metallurgies: Genre, History, and the Construction of Heavy Metal 1
Genre and Commercial Mediation 3
“Nasty, Brutish, and Short”? Rock Critics and Academics Evaluate Metal 20
2. Beyond the Vocals: Toward the Analysis of Popular Musical Discourses 26
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
Photographs follow page 107