SO FAR, SO GOOD... SO
WHAT!?!
Before the band could begin recording their
third album things began to fall apart for the first line-up of Megadeth.
There were
internal problems made worse by the drug
use within the band. A major problem was caused by Chris Poland who stole
some
of Dave's gear during the recording of Peace
Sells... and sold it to buy drugs, He then lied to Dave and said the studio
had been
broken into (that is what the song Liar is
about). So Chris had to leave, because Chris and Gar had been in bands
together
before and because of Gar's big drug problems
(Gar was a heroin addict) Gar left at this time also.
The replacements for Messers Poland and Samuelson
were Megadeth's former drum roadie Chuck Behler on drums and Jeff
Young on guitar. This line-up was not as
strong as the last but Dave stuck with it to keep Megadeth constantly realising
new
material.
So the new line-up went into the studio to
record their first and only album together. The album was of course So
Far, So
Good... So What and received mixed reactions
from fans and critics alike.
The album had a few surprises on it though
the first was the cover of the Sex Pistol's Anarchy In The U.K. There are
a few
stories behind this one, the first is that
Dave wanted to do a different Sex Pistols song Problems but the record
company said
this was to negative. So then Dave arranged
a medley of the two songs called Anarchy... the Problem Is You. The record
company still weren't happy so the band ended
up doing Anarchy In The U.K. instead. The second little anecdote about
this
song is to do with Steve Jones the Sex Pistol
who played on the track. When Dave asked him what he wanted for doing the
track Steve said he wanted $100 and some
suction! Dave gave him $1000 and a phone directory and told him to get
his own
suction.
The other surprise with the album is the
parental guidance sticker on it. I can't see or hear anything on the album
which warrants
this sticker and I have albums with loads
more swearing on which don't have stickers on. The reason for the sticker
than you
ask? Well the final song Hook In Mouth is
an anti-censorship song with a strong anti-PMRC (Parental Musical Resource
Centre) lyrics, the PMRC didn't really like
this and so they did the only thing they could and slapped a sticker on
it. For those
of you who don't know the PMRC is an association
set up by Tipper Gore (yes the wife of the Vice-President) in response
to
the Thrash Metal scene and all the bad, violent
messages it was sending out! The PMRC listen to lots of albums and stick
Parental guidance stickers on the ones that
have to many 'rude' words or the ones that have anti-PMRC songs on them.
The singles from So Far, So Good... So What
were Anarchy... and Mary Jane which inspired some of the greatest Vic
Rattlehead art ever. Neither single charted
particularly well and are now so rare it's stupid.
The tour that followed the release of the
album was bigger than ever before and the band visited Europe for the first
time. While
in Europe the band played Donington in front
of 40 000 people. At Donington there was the first sign that relations
between
Megadeth and Metallica were getting better
when Lars Ulrich sang backing vocals with (Guns n' Roses') Axl Rose on
Anarchy
In the U.K.
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[History written by Josh]
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