WASP – The Headless Children
Joe Siegler
- AllMyVinyl #123
- Band: W.A.S.P.
- Album Title: The Headless Children
- Release Date: 3 Apr 1989
- Date purchased: October 2023
- Location purchased: Gift
- Color of vinyl: black
- Number of discs: 1
- Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]
“I am the wind…. forever freeeeeeee!”
If you’re a WASP fan, you probably will say that The Crimson Idol is their best album. There’s no denying that’s a great album – good story and all that, but I find myself far more drawn to this album, their fourth studio effort, “The Headless Children”.
The band themselves had gone though a change somewhat. Now I don’t recall ever hearing this stated, but I think the shock value of their early years had overstayed its welcome. In their early days they’d do the flaming codpiece, the throwing meat into the crowds, yeah, honestly a bunch of juvenile bullshit IMO. I still was into the music, but the visuals were less of a big deal to me. They had three studio albums (which I’ll get to all in this project) – 1984’s self titled “W.A.S.P”, 1985’s “The Last Command”, and 1986’s “Inside the Electric Circus”. There was a live album in 1987 (“Live… In the Raw”), which to me marked the end of that version of WASP.
Because when they regrouped for this their fourth album (which came out in 1989), the band changed a bit. Their last drummer was out, replaced on Headless Children with Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot fame. This was actually their third drummer already. The first album had Tony Richards on drums, then the second, third, & the live album had Steve Riley. Well, Riley was out now, replaced by Frankie Banali. The rest of the band (Blackie Lawless, Chris Holmes, & Johnny Rod) were the same from the album before.
Still, this album had a marked change in tone. The songs had a more mature feel to them – at least to me. It wasn’t just about the good old “sex, drugs, & rock and roll” that permeates a lot of 80’s hard rock music. Even the music was better. It still sounded like WASP – I mean three of the four musicians were the same. Yet it sounded different. Definitely more polished, yet still retaining that same sound – which I suspect is down to Chris Holmes. The band also had a keyboardist this time out (Ken Hensley), so that helped with the different sound too, I imagine.
Back in the day I never had this on vinyl. In 1989 I wasn’t buying vinyl anymore, I had long ago moved past cassettes, and was big time into CD’s. Somewhere around here I still have my original 89 CD, but it’s buried in long term storage, I’m not digging that out right now for a picture. :) Vinyl never became a thing until October 2023 when my brother gitfted me the WASP box set “The 7 Savage (1984-1992)”, which contained the first five studio albums plus a live album and a disc of rarities and B-Sides. I was quite surprised by that, and pleased as it of course contains this album, “The Headless Children”. When I got the box, I listened to all the albums back to back, and what I said above about more mature seemed way more obvious when you listen to them all in a row. So I’m quite pleased to finally get to this in the vinyl series.
I can’t think of anything else to add to this intro part, so I guess we’ll get to some tunes.
The Heretic (The Lost Child) – The album starts off STRONG out of the gate with its longest song (at 7:16). It instantly shows that it’s not something like I Wanna Be Somebody, “LOVE Machine”, or “9-5 Nasty”. This is a more refined band writing about things that matter a bit more. Now it’s not like they’re suddenly some social justice warrior thing – they’re not. It just feels more polished more refined. Even the opening to the song, which has a cool intro that fits their mold, yet is something different is a highlight for me. The sections between Blackie singing the verse lyrics is a different sound – feels slightly keyboard influenced – I can’t quite put my finger on it. As I sat here waiting for inspiration for something to say I reached that zen moment you get with music where you close your eyes and just zone out and washes over you. Loved that. Then the song changed gears and brought me out of it – going into the last part, there’s a completely different guitar sound/tone to Chris’ playing. It goes back to the main sound, but the tonal change in guitar I really loved. The guitar solo is towards the end – something different – Holmes really smokes it here. Great stuff from hom. Perhaps I’m not being the most erudite with my descriptions of the various parts here, but this is one of those song that for me falls under “Oh, just listen to it, you’ll get it”. Killer opener, and doesn’t feel like it’s a 7+ min long song.
The Real Me – Track 2 on the album was also the second single. This is a cover of the same song by The Who (original here). Covers have never been a stranger for WASP. There’s covers on nearly every single studio album of theirs – and a ton as B-Sides. So to see one here is no surprise. I have a friend of mine who is a major Who fan, and he definitely goes all “bitter beer face” to this cover. WASP and more to the point Lawless puts their own spin on it. It’s a fairly authentic cover – not a straight up copy of course, but the structure is mostly the same. The bass accents are here, although the WASP version has the keys mixed in a bit higher. Overall, a good cover, but given the generally serious nature of Side 1 of this album, it’s an odd choice to stick in between The Heretic and the title track next up. There was a music video made for this, which if I’m not mistaken was the first time I found out that Frankie Banali was there and not Quiet Riot anymore. One thing I liked is the video was mostly in black and white, except for one part where the lyrics talk about the “the girl I used to love lives in this yellow house” – they made the house yellow. Always liked that.
The Headless Children – Another one with an intro we never would have seen on the first three albums (at least not like THIS). The title track is one with a simple, yet killer riff and beat that runs through the entire song. Love the chorus, but for this one it’s the lyrics that are the major draw for me. So much of it can apply to the current political climate in this country (and more specifically Blackie’s political leanings, but enough of that). Here, check this:
Father come save us from this madness we’re under
God of creation are we blind?
Cause some here are slaves that worship guns that spit thunder
The children that you’ve made have lost their minds
This monster that we call the earth is bleeding
Cause the children have been left along too long
This thing that we’ve made is fat and feeds on the hate
Of the millions that it’s taught to sing the song
It’s odd, as early on I never saw it as an overly political song, but it’s all I can see now. Once the lyrics are over the rest is a smokingly hot batch of guitar work – the beat’s still there, but this album for me shows Chris Holmes’ best work in the band I think (I believe he was on five total studio albums, maybe six). One of my favorite tracks on the album.
Thunderhead – This is a song about drug addition, more to the point of what someone who is under the needle of something like heroin will do. In Blackie’s own notes confirm this, with him saying “that’s anti heroin. If you’ve ever seen anybody shooting junk, it’s not a pretty sight, especially if they miss the vein.” Yeah, not a light and fluffy song AT ALL. Musically this isn’t as killer for me as Headless, but I adore the chanting of “HEY HEY HEY” we get in the chorus. It so works with the way Blackie delivers his vocals. It’s not like the music is bad, as it’s also one of my favorite tracks – but I think I prefer Headless a bit more. There’s an interlude about 3/4 of the way through the song with these lyrics..
“Thunderhead, yes, I am your master
Will you steal for me? Yes
Will you ruin yourself and give everything unto me? Yes
Will you lie, cheat, deceive, dishonor everything
And even kill thy brother for me? Yes, yes
Will you worship only me as your true master? Yes
Thunderhead, will you die for me? Yes, master”
When this was new, I thought it was the standard old “evil sounding” rock lyrics – but what I didn’t get until later is that it was heroin talking to the user. That was a nice touch. I liked that. It’s suitably delivered with pained responses from Blackie as the user. The song closes out with the chorus again. Great stuff, a song that’s only gotten better in my mind over the years. I always liked it, but grasping the meaning made it that much better. Hell of a way to close out Side 1 of the album.
Mean Man – This song is about Chris Holmes directly. It also sounds more like the earlier version of WASP – less orchestration, more guitar / bass / drums in your face with a fast riff and catchy chorus. “I’m a mean mutherfucking man” – I mean it’s right there in you face. It’s less complicated than the two songs that immediately preceded it on the album. Not a ton to say here. It’s a good enough song, but after the last two it feels like it should been on another album.
Neutron Bomber – This one goes back to the sound that permeates this album. It’s a shorter track (at just 4:03), but it’s up my alley as it’s a faster paced song at 4 mins (long time readers of my series will know that’s my favorite). The chorus feels a little like the one from Thunderhead – like it’s going to launch into the “HEY HEY HEY” and doesn’t. Not a track that generally gets thought about when one thinks about this album, but it should be. It has a drum intro that starts off the song (and repeats in the middle). I know it’s Frankie Banali here, but it sounds like something Cozy Powell would have done. Basically if you liked Thunderhead musically, you’ll like this, but it’s a shorter song than that one.
Mephisto Waltz – This is a short 1:27 instrumental that sits in-between Neutron and Forever Free. It’s not really an intro to Forever, it seems disconnected to the songs on the other sides. Parts of it sound like things I’ve heard in some Sabbath instrumentals (Embryo perhaps)? Not sure why this is here, must have been some guitar piece that Chris Holmes was into. Officially the song was written by Blackie, so who knows?
Forever Free – This was a big hit on MTV back in the day – I saw the video for this a lot. The song is about someone Blackie knew that died in a crash. It was turned into this late 80’s power ballad – something that was common around that time. However, this works – it’s not like the sappy power ballad bullshit like Poison (ick) – this works. It’s technically one, but it doesn’t really feel like it to me. In fact, it wasn’t until I started hearing others call it that where I picked up that it was one. So I just saw it as an emotional song. It also goes heavy in the middle – leaving the “ballad” part of it behind. Returns to the slower part, but a full/proper power ballad wouldn’t do that. Great track. One of the two that had a music video made for it. Great song – rises beyond what you think a “power ballad” can or should be.
Maneater – This one has a more crunchy guitar sound than usual that starts off the song. It then goes into a familiar WASP “sound” for the song. The bass is a bit more pronounced than usual in a WASP track – definitely higher in the mix. According to Blackie it’s about motorcycles – I guess I don’t see that in the song, but then I’ve never owned one – so right over my head. It’s a pretty straightforward song – not a lot of different sounds or time changes – it starts with a vibe and sticks with it. Once again, not a bad song in any way, but not one that lights it up for me, either. The song ends with a
Rebel in the F.D.G. – Thats “fucking decadent generation”. Blackie himself calls this song “A throwback – more similar to Mean Man or the old sound”, so right there you know what kind of song you’re getting. He’s right – like I said on Mean Man, it sounds like earlier WASP, but still works here. In fact, parts of this remind me musically of “Wild Child”. Specifically the part of the song where Blackie sings this. “I’m a bad child, come and love me”. It SO reminds me of the part from Wild Child where it is “I’m a wild child, come and love me”. I mean the lyrics are structurally similar as well, so all I see is Blackie out the desert mugging for the camera in this song, even though there’s no video. :) Overall, a short fast song – works for me.
OK, the moment Rebel was done, I flipped the disc over and re-played the title track. That is probably my favorite song of the entire album – I wouldn’t go so far as to call it my favorite WASP song – that song came much later (. The cover art is based on what the song is about. Oddly, as much as I love this album, I kind of drug my feet writing about it – going a week since the last album in the entry. I wonder why – I love the album, and banging out 2,000 words about an album is turning out to be a non thing for me in this series. Oh well. Here it is.
The Headless Children remains my favorite overall WASP album of the 15 overall studio albums they have, so it was a great listen today. I’ll be revisiting WASP a few more times for sure. If you don’t know this album or just blew off WASP for the bullshit they used to do on stage from the first album – well, you need to spin this. It’s got some killer tunes, some great lyrics, and is Blackie’s best album in my opinion. Can’t go wrong.
“Time bombs in the hands of all the wicked warbabiesLight the fuse of temptation and we all burnFour horsemen sit high up in the saddleAnd waiting are ride the bloody trail of no return”
