It’s time for the obligatory Halloween post about scary stuff like horror movies and survival horror video games. Actually, it’s not so obligatory for me because I absolutely love that kind of stuff. But let’s be honest: lately, there haven’t been a lot of great horror movies that are truly scary. In fact, I’m beginning to think that for sheer scares and frights, gaming is the way to go these days.

It’s because of several great rock and roll books that I’m a writer today. When I wrote my own music tome, Bang Your Head, my goal was to try and write a great story along the lines of my favorite rock books that inspired me. I don’t think I came anywhere close, but I tried dammit, and now I realize writing any book, let alone a great one like the titles I’m about to mention, is far more difficult than I ever could have imagined.

When I read Fredric Dannen’s Hit Men, I was blown away that someone finally exposed the corruption of the music industry. Like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Hit Men told one outrageous story after another, and I read it over and over. I often call it the All the President’s Men of the music business, and since its 1990 publication, nothing’s come close.

I can still remember when No One Here Gets Out Alive (written by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman) was the must read book for high school and college kids when it came out in the early eighties, not to mention it also sparked The Doors revival. I also loved Sugerman’s Wonderland Avenue, his autobiographical account of his descent into a drug abyss.

I also find it funny that Motley Crue’s The Dirt is considered the first hard rock / metal tell-all, when as far as I’m concerned that title belongs to Hammer of the Gods, the insane saga of Led Zeppelin, who set the standards for rock debauchery that many bands would later try to top. In the mid ‘90’s, Legs McNeil and Gillian Cain wrote the definitive history of punk, Please Kill Me, and in more recent memory, Charles Cross’s biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven, was an incredible read that really did, as Rolling Stone put it, set “a high, new standard” for rock books.

But those books came out years ago now. These days, it’s been too long since we’ve had a great rock and roll book, and this generation needs one. The newly released autobiographies of Eric Clapton and Guns N Roses / Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash may not exactly reach the realm of greatness, but they’re both terrific reads that prove there’s still rock and roll stories worth telling.

The rise and fall of Guns N’ Roses is definitely one of those great rock and roll sagas that deserved to be told, and here it is, the good, the bad, and the very ugly. Slash’s autobiography is being touted as the first time he’s giving it up to the press, but on the contrary, Slash has always been a straight shooter in interviews, not to mention he’s one of the most down to earth people in rock and roll you’ll ever meet.

Having talked to Slash twice for my own book, I was surprised at just how candid he was, and I always knew he had a hell of a book in him if he ever decided to do it (along with his candor, he’s also got a great sense of humor and is a terrific storyteller). Having read an insane excerpt of the book online, I knew it would deliver.

I won’t reveal any of the books contents by giving away any choice anecdotes, why spoil the fun of discovering it yourself? All I can say after finishing it is if he left anything out, I’d be afraid to read it. If you’re a fan of the man’s guitar playing, a fan of GNR (and back in the day, who wasn’t?), or want to read a sex, drugs, rock and roll story on steroids, you won’t be disappointed.

If there’s really any guitar player who’s finally giving it up to the public, it’s Eric Clapton. Clapton has always been such a private man, I’m amazed he would ever write a book, but I’m glad he has the courage to finally open up his life for all to read.

Where Slash’s book is uninhibited, Clapton is more restrained. He doesn’t sensationalize his life, he recalls it in a very matter of fact tone, and there’s a lot of tragedy that hit him that would be a lot harder to get through if it wasn’t written this way. The chapter where Clapton writes about the loss of his son is especially sad to read, and as he recently told amazon.com, he could only delve so far into it. “It’s almost like I have this reservoir of sadness, which I can only dip my toe into,” he said.

Like many rock stars, Clapton delved deep into self-destructive behavior, and his story has plenty of sex, drugs, and band drama, but not without redemption at the end. As the book comes to a close, it seems that in the last ten years of his life he’s finally achieved a peace and happiness that’s long eluded him. It was certainly a hard and rocky road to get there.

Recently it was reported that Keith Richards was paid over $7 million to write his autobiography for Little Brown, which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2010. This certainly has potential to be an amazing book with a lot of scope. I’d love to read the history of rock and roll from Keef’s point of view, and how the Stones became a big part of that history. Not to mention his extra curricular activities, which could have easily killed a herd of lesser rock stars. I’m glad he’s decided to put it down on paper while there’s still time, but then again, we can’t forget the old joke about when they drop the bomb, only the cockroaches and Keef will come out of the rubble.

It took some time to build the brand awareness since the game first started, but now the music biz is reaping the Guitar Hero rewards. In what should be no surprise to anyone by now, Guitar Hero III had a huge first week on the market, grossing over $100 million its first seven days on sale in North America, according to variety.com (some estimates put the amount as high as $115 million).

As Guitar Hero guitarist Marcus Henderson told us, “The industry has definitely taken notice of the immense power of video game placement. Music in games has grown so much it’s become the major selling point for games, and it's responsible for the content of the core game-play in rhythm games and music puzzle games.”

Guitar Hero III was also finally able to land two Metallica songs, One and Enter Sandman. As Guitar Hero producer Will Littlejohn told Tom’s, “Metallica's been sought after since the very first inklings of the game, and now that they’ve finally come aboard is really exciting for everybody. It's even better that they're gonna be using their master tapes, which we think is great.”

Right before the release of Guitar Hero 3, the Wall Street Journal revealed why Metallica have finally joined the party: royalties. As Nick Wingfield reported in the Journal, Metallica was indeed approached before, but turned down being on Guitar Hero because they would only be paid flat fees instead of royalties from the game. With both Guitar Hero III and the upcoming Rock Band, Metallica’s wish was granted (several members of the band also play the game).

In what’s also clearly a big show of Guitar Hero’s impact, the indie label Roadrunner has reported a 183% increase in sales for their band, Dragonforce, who have a song on Guitar Hero (source: Blabbermouth.net). As Guitar Hero guitarist Lance Taber told us, the music business “needs different outlets to be able to move catalog now. They need different delivery systems. The record store days are gone, and they need to rethink how to get their content out there. That’s probably why we’re seeing a lot more people warm up to this sort of content and artists wanting to do this. I think they want to get into as many outlets as possible.”

With the release of John Woo’s Stranglehold game, my editor Rob Wright asked me to compile a list of my favorite Asian films. Okay, so the game didn’t do so well, doesn’t mean I can’t recommend these great A-list and B-list Asian films. Here are my personal faves:

ENTER THE DRAGON (1973)

The first martial arts film that reached the U.S. was Five Fingers of Death in 1972. Enter the Dragon, released a year later, took the “chop socky” film to a higher level than its badly dubbed, interchangeable brethren. Dragon made Bruce Lee a top box office star, yet he would not live to reap the rewards of a long career. He died the year Dragon was released, 1973, under mysterious circumstances (Lee was 32).

Enter the Dragon blew up the martial arts craze not just on the screen, but also in karate classes all over the U.S. Who didn’t want to learn kung fu after watching Bruce Lee? A shirtless, ready to strike Bruce Lee was an iconic poster on many teenage walls throughout the seventies. He was a bad-ass mofo onscreen, but at the same time appealing and likeable.

Lee called his style “street-fighting,” and his trademark battle cry, which has been infinitely imitated and parodied, was called the kiai. Some of his moves were so fast, the cinematographer of Enter the Dragon reportedly couldn’t film them at the camera’s regular speed. As Danny Peary reported in the book Cult Movies, Lee rejected several devices that were commonly used in kung-fu films like pulleys and trampolines, preferring do to all his action without any trickery (yet as we’ve seen in recent Asian, and Asian influenced, films, wire work has become a popular style of its own).

When you look back on the legend of Bruce Lee, he’s like two other iconic, legendary figures: James Dean, because he died young and left behind a small body of work that’s still well remembered, and Muhammad Ali, because you can argue there have been better fighters, but only Lee, like Ali, had the complete package of skill, grace, class and charisma.

HARD BOILED (1992)

Back in the day, the name John Woo was an urban legend among film geeks, who rabidly traded copies of his movies on video (no DVDs yet, but if you were a true die-hard, you’d have a VHS dupe off a Japanese laserdisc). A Better Tomorrow and The Killer were the titles you’d hear underground fans rave about, but the first Woo movie I ever saw was Hard Boiled, and his work lived up to the word of mouth.

Hard Boiled felt like Die Hard on steroids, but it wasn’t all explosions and bombast. Woo could do great action on a big scale, yet he also had a great eye for little details and nuances. His multiple camera / multiple speed action scenes were like wonderful, violent mosaic pieces that were clearly created by a master of his craft.

It was only a matter of time before the American studios came calling, and like they do with many brilliant foreign directors, the big film companies tried to neuter and American-ize Woo. Where the American studios didn’t get him, his style influenced a number of American directors, and their interpretations of his style were finally what made Woo’s signature filmmaking acceptable to Western audiences.

John Woo opened up a whole new era for action films and Asian cinema as well. With Woo’s films, Eastern action films finally shed the schlocky “chop socky” tag, and his influence in American cinema still looms large today.

KUROSAWA (2001)

I caught this incredible documentary of the late, great cinema genius Akira Kurosawa on PBS Great Performances, and it’s one of the best documentaries on a filmmaker I’ve ever seen. Written and directed by Adam Low, this documentary begins with Kurosawa winning his honorary Academy Award in 1990, which was presented to him by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and Kurosawa is filled with many great moments like this.

In one segment, the crew of Rashomon go back to the forest where the movie was filmed. In another scene, the production manager of Seven Samurai shows her personal copy of the script, which is frayed and torn from the weather during the shoot. Clint Eastwood is interviewed about Yojimbo’s influence on Fistful of Dollars, and he recalls his first time seeing the film in a small L.A. theater, thinking, “This would make a wonderful western, but nobody would ever have the nerve to make it.”

This comprehensive documentary covers many aspects of Kurosawa’s life and work including:

*How he grew up in a samurai family.

*How his films truly showed oriental culture to the West.

*His relationship with actor Toshiro Mifune.

*The behind the scenes stories not just of his greatest films, but also the hard periods of his career, including his failed attempt at directing Tora! Tora! Tora!, and the collapse of his production company with three other directors, which was named The Four Knights.

*His search of independent financing when his homeland would no longer back his films.

*His triumphant return to moviemaking with the help of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

This documentary even has footage of the master director shooting the final shot of his career for the film Madadayo. Whether you’re a newcomer to Akira Kurosawa and are ready to take a hell of a crash course on his films and life, or are already a major fan of the man and his work, I can’t recommend this documentary enough.

MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE (1975)

There have been tons of God-awful kung fu movies that polluted the airwaves of Saturday morning and late night T.V. This is one of the few good movies you’d catch. After seeing it once, you’d look forward to it airing again, or it would be a great surprise when you’d stumble onto it channel surfing.

The film stars, and was written and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu, a legendary cult figure in the world of Asian cinema. The flying guillotine was one of the craziest weapons in martial arts history. Some have compared it to a hat on a leash, with a buzzsaw blade around the inside edges. You hurl it through the air, and it lands on your enemy’s shoulders. Once the leash is yanked, your enemy’s head is ripped off.

This film was a clear favorite of Quentin Tarantino, and he even used part of the soundtrack in the House of Blue Leaves scene in Kill Bill (listen for the slow motion noise that sounds like a huge, steam rolling chord).

Guillotine was restored and re-released to theaters for a brief run, and I regret not catching it on the big screen. Several reviewers have complained that even restored the print is still not in great shape, like many movies that played the grind houses over and over, but as the site Combustible Celluloid writes, “After the first five minutes, you won’t mind the print quality. You’ll feel blessed that you’ve had an opportunity to see this unbelievable film.” (www.combustiblecelluloid.com)

They also liked the film’s incredible soundtrack (which at times has a pre-modern metal / industrial feel) as well as the fight noises. “The sound effects alone make this film a must-see,” writer Jeffrey M. Anderson continues. “When a fighter connects with his target the screen rings out with ‘biff,’ ‘pow’ and ‘bam’ noises that will make you feel 10 years old again. If you don’t walk out of the theater kung fu-ing your pals and making slamming, oof-ing sounds with your mouth, you should immediately demand your money back.”

Not to mention the impressive fight scenes. “Wang Yu mostly follows the Fred Astaire rule,” Anderson concludes. “Show the head and feet in the same shot, and hold the shot for as long as possible without cutting. This way we can see the poetry of the fight, and we know that the fighters are actually fighting. Most American action directors continue to blatantly ignore these rules, and Master of the Flying Guillotine not only shows them up, but also proves how behind the times they are.”

SHOGUN ASSASSIN (1980)

If you like your kung-fu violent and bloody, this one’s for you. In fact, Shogun Assassin is probably one of the most violent Asian films I’ve seen along with Sonny Chiba’s The Street Fighter.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, even if you’ve only seen a few of them, martial arts movies usually aren’t that big on plot, it’s just a thin string to hold the fight sequences together. Shogun Assassin has a classic kung-fu framework of a traveling assassin wandering from place to place, killing for a price. With him is his young son in a baby cart, which also has a built in, pop out blade the child activates in one scene when he’s being attacked.

Before doing a little research, I didn’t realize that Shogun Assassin was based on a comic by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. The comic, Lone Wolf and Cub, appeared every week in Manga Action magazine, and was compiled into a number of paperback books. “The saga of Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the most influential stories to ever come out of Japan,” wrote Brian Thomas for mania.com. Thomas also pointed out that the fight scenes in the film were adapted directly from the comics.

There were a series of successful Lone Wolf and Cub films in Japan. Roger Corman’s New World Pictures bought the rights to several of the films, then writer / director Robert Houston combined ten minutes from the first Lone Wolf movie, and 75 minutes from the second one, and turned them into Shogun Assassin. Houston also wrote a whole new script for the story, and added a clever twist of adding a voice over narration from the child’s point of view (also providing her voice talents for Shogun was then-unknown comedienne Sandra Bernhard).

It’s been hard to find good quality copies of this film, although the Lone Wolf and Cub series have been available on DVD for a while (at the dawn of the VCR / laserdisc boom, Shogun was available from MCA in the early eighties). Now AnimEigo, the same company that put out the Lone Wolf and Cub films, has finally released a fully restored version of Shogun that is reportedly top-notch.

In their review of Shogun, the website kfccinema.com wrote that it “stands out as a movie in its own right” from the acclaimed Lone Wolf and Cub series, “but also as a film which played an important role in carrying Asian cinema from its home territories to the global audience it reaches today.”

A lament you constantly hear in Hollywood is today’s lack of risk-taking, and how so many great movies from the ‘70’s wouldn’t get made today. As odd as it to believe, Star Wars was a risky project that no one knew the potential of until late in the game. Recently, Variety celebrated the studio executive whose faith in George Lucas got Star Wars made, and it would be just one of many film gambles he was willing to make throughout his career.

Alan Ladd Jr. is of course the son of Alan Ladd, and the offspring of the famous Hollywood legend has made his own place in Hollywood history. He joined 20th Century Fox in 1973, and became president in 1976. Fox had a number of ups and downs throughout its history, most notoriously with the big budget Elizabeth Taylor debacle Cleopatra, which almost put the studio out of business. By the time Ladd became studio president, Fox was back on the upswing with the success of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, and The Omen.

Yet before the massive success of Star Wars, science fiction was considered a limited genre that didn’t “crossover” to everyone. Not to mention the outline for the film made no sense on paper. Both Universal and United Artists passed on it. Former Universal head of production Ned Tanen recalled in the Lucas biography, Skywalking, “I had a very tough time understanding the treatment. I would ask most people in the world to visualize what See-Threepio means from reading a thirteen-page treatment of Star Wars.”

The sci-fi genre was especially anathema to Universal. As former Universal president Thom Mount recalls, the patriarch of the company, Lew Wasserman, “had turned down Star Wars famously at Universal. After American Graffiti, Lucas was obligated to offer his next picture to us, so he brought Star Wars to the company. Mr. Wasserman read it, and his words were very simple: ‘We don’t make science fiction movies.’ End of conversation. The company didn’t really do much science fiction. We dabbled around the edges here and there, but since Lew didn’t like it as a genre, we didn’t pursue it very hard.”

Less than a week after Universal officially passed on Star Wars, it was set up at Fox. Having seen American Graffiti three months before its release, Ladd loved the film, and was willing to bet on Lucas before he was a proven commodity at the box office. Ultimately, the film would make $55.1 million on a total budget of $1,275,000. Before the Blair Witch Project, Graffiti was reportedly the most successful film in history in terms of what it cost, and how much money it made back.

Most couldn’t see the vision of Star Wars until the film was complete, which would make any studio executive nervous, but as Ladd told us, “Star Wars is a classic good against evil story. Those have always proven to be winners, and if George could pull off half of what he talked about…He described it in terms of Robin Hood and Buck Rogers, which I was very familiar with. I knew he was striking new territory, and I just believed in him. And I believed that if anybody could ever pull it off it would be him.

“I feel a great sense of pride that I was involved in Star Wars,” Ladd continues. “It helped establish me in the business, and gave me a stronger reputation that I had the courage to say yes to it.”

Above: Alan Ladd Jr.

Where a lot of studio executives constantly meddle movies into mediocrity, Ladd was an executive who liked films and filmmakers, and let them follow their hearts. He told Variety, “My biggest contribution to Star Wars was keeping my mouth shut and standing by the picture.”

Once Star Wars became a monster hit, it allowed Ladd to green-light smaller, riskier movies that didn’t always have the biggest audience potential, but if the budgets stayed low, he’d leave you alone. If a picture flopped, it didn’t cost the studio that much, but if it was a hit, the rewards could be huge.

Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz (Superman, Live and Let Die), took a dark comedy, Mother, Juggs and Speed, to Fox, with Peter Yates (Bullitt) directing. Ladd told them, “If you guys can make this for $3 million, go make it and I won’t interfere with anything.” It didn’t do blockbuster business, but The Omen, which Richard Donner had to make on a tight $2 million dollar budget, became a big smash.

In the notorious directors of the ‘70’s tell-all, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Robert Altman recalled showing Ladd Three Women, a film he had just completed starring Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall. At the end of the screening, Ladd told the director, “Well, I don’t know who you think you’re going to sell this picture to, but good luck.”

When Ladd left Fox and formed the Ladd Company, he continued making edgy films like Blade Runner, which didn’t do well during its initial release but is a classic today, and Star 80, the bleak Bob Fosse movie about murdered centerfold Dorothy Stratten. Just as Star Wars provided the money that could fund smaller films, the Ladd Company had a big hit with Police Academy, which as Ladd told Variety, “paid the rent so we could afford to do other things.”

These days, with so much money at stake, risks are not encouraged at major studios. Everyone wants to think they’re players, but no one wants to roll the dice. “In my time, I was very lucky that I had creative control and I could make decisions like that,” says Ladd. “Now you’ve got fifty accountants all sitting around a table trying to make a decision. That’s why you get so much crap now, because nobody’s putting their individual input into taking chances on something. They’re all trying to play it so safe, but when you try to play it safe you’re not going to make anything interesting at all.”

We at Tom’s salute you Laddie, and we wish there were more like you out there.

In one of the stranger lawsuits I’ve seen in the gaming industry, the 80s rock band The Romantics has sued Guitar Hero publisher Activision and its subsidiary RedOctane over the band’s song “What I Like About You,” which is featured on the Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s title. As it turns out, The Romantics gave permission to Activision to use its hit song for Rock the 80s. As a result, a cover version of the song was created by WaveGroup Sound, which is the music studio that has produced much of the material for all Guitar Hero games. But here’s the problem: The Romantics contend that the cover version on Rock the 80s sounded too similar to the band’s original recording. So in essence, the lawsuit complains that WaveGroup’s version of “What I Like About You” is too good, if that makes any sense at all.

When it was confirmed that Kevin DuBrow, the singer from Quiet Riot, has passed away of still undetermined causes, many metal musicians and fans alike acknowledged the band’s place in music history. As one fan wrote on the metal news site Blabbermouth.net, “Say what you want, but Quiet Riot put metal on the map in 1983. They got metal on the radio and started the entire L.A. invasion.”

The L.A. invasion? It may be a dubious legacy to many today, but the “L.A. invasion,” as this fan put it, wasn’t much different than the major label feeding frenzy that hit Seattle in the ‘90’s. After the success of Quiet Riot’s Metal Health, which was the first metal album to hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and reportedly sold over five million copies, every major label had to have a metal band. Quiet Riot’s success blew the door open for a number of Los Angeles bands, most notably Motley Crue, as well as Ratt, Dokken, and many others.

Quiet Riot were originally a hot club band on the L.A. scene in the ‘70’s alongside Van Halen. The band’s focal point was guitar legend Randy Rhodes, who would later go on to play on Ozzy’s first two solo albums. When Van Halen signed with Warner Brothers in 1977, many hoped it would open the door for many other local heavy rock bands, and finally put an end to disco, but Quiet Riot still couldn’t get signed to save their lives. Once Rhodes left for greener pastures, Kevin DuBrow made himself the focus of a newly incarnated version of Quiet Riot in the early eighties, and this time the mainstream was ready for them.

The year Quiet Riot broke through, 1983, was also the year of MTV’s explosion into popular culture. MTV took these bands to heights that would have taken years and years of touring. Before long, Quiet Riot, and a number of other metal and hard rock bands from L.A., were sitting on top of the charts, and playing on commercial radio along with Michael Jackson and Madonna.

“Who knows,” one fan wrote on Blabbermouth. “If it weren’t for hearing Quiet Riot’s Metal Health cassette when I was twelve years old, I may not have become the metalhead I am today.” Another fan wrote, “Quiet Riot was a part of my introduction to the metal world when I was younger.” And as yet another fan mentioned, “…you can’t overstate Quiet Riot’s role in breaking metal during the ‘80’s.”

But where success came quick in the age of MTV, often so did failure. Quiet Riot would become the ultimate one-hit wonder story, a cautionary tale for many bands who thought success in the music business would last a lifetime. After the success of Metal Health came Quiet Riot’s follow up, the aptly titled Condition Critical, which sold 1.5 million copies, and was considered a big disappointment compared to the success of Health (it was reportedly dubbed by one critic as “the platinum failure”). Soon MTV turned its back on metal entirely, and it wasn’t until 1986, with the success of Bon Jovi and Cinderella, that the network would play the music again.

But it wasn’t just MTV’s lack of support that caused Quiet Riot to falter. It’s hard to imagine this today considering how much bands talk sh*t about each other without consequence, but when DuBrow badmouthed a number of artists who got successful in Quiet Riot’s wake, including Motley Crue, the fans retreated in droves. Many years after the fact, DuBrow acknowledged the mistakes of his past, and said, “The bands I put down should have thanked me. I turned our fans against us and towards them. These people all became friends in their common dislike for me. By f*cking my career up, I helped them sell more units!

“It’s one thing hurting yourself,” he continued, “but I hurt the rest of the band, who were three really good friends of mine. That was the worst part about it, and something I regret more than anything else.”

Quiet Riot never regained the heights they hit in the ’80’s, but even when they were touring clubs, DuBrow was always the consummate front man who gave audiences 110% every night. One person writing in on Blabbermouth recalled going to see Quiet Riot in the ‘90’s “specifically to laugh at them, and they completely tore the roof off the place…it went down as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.”

Did you also know Quiet Riot also had a video game connection? Another fan wrote that DuBrow “holds a special place in my heart” because their legendary cover of Cum On Feel the Noize played on V – Rock in GTA Vice City, “an awesome game which I still play all the time.”

It’s still hard to imagine DuBrow as no longer being with us because he had such a strong life force in him. He certainly had his flaws, and his abrasiveness was, I feel, a shield for his vulnerability. Nevertheless, it’s good to see that fans and his musical peers remember his contributions to the metal world, and may he rest in peace…