Ben WesthoffSee also: Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: The Complete List
It's hair metal week on West Coast Sound! And it's hard to imagine a greater enthusiast for the genre than Chuck Klosterman. His 2001 music memoir Fargo Rock City does an exemplary job of examining what was great about the cock rock era. (It might well be the only serious book-length treatise on the subject.) It also gets into his one-time obsession with Lita Ford, above, who “made me think about sexy women as people — not just as the subject of some long-haired guy's lyrics.”
In the process of putting together our top 20 hair metal albums list — which we're counting down this week — we compiled suggestions from writers around the country. We were honored to get input from Klosterman, and you can see his top 25 below. Oh, and check out his most recent novel, The Visible Man, which concerns a character possessing the technology to make himself invisible. Does he use it to visit Lita Ford in her boudoir? There's only one way to find out.
Chuck Klosterman's top 25 hair metal albums
24. The Cult
Electric (1987)
23. Living Colour
Vivid (1988)
22. Ratt
Out Of The Cellar (1984)
21. Ozzy Osbourne
Bark At The Moon (1983)
20. Britny Fox
Britny Fox (1988)
19. Def Leppard
High N' Dry (1981)
18. Tesla
The Great Radio Controversy (1989)
17. David Lee Roth
Eat'Em And Smile (1986)
16. Ace Frehley
Frehley's Comet (1987)
15. KISS
Animalize (1984)
14. Poison
Open Up And Say…Ahh! (1988)
13. Ratt
Ratt (EP) (1983)
12. Warrant
Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1988)
11. W.A.S.P.
Live…In The Raw (1987)
10. Skid Row
Skid Row (1989)
9. Cinderella
Long Cold Winter (1988)
8. Motley Crue
Too Fast For Love (1981)
7. Poison
Look What The Cat Dragged In (1986)
6. Def Leppard
Pyromania (1983)
5. Faster Pussycat
Faster Pussycat (1987)
4. Guns N' Roses
G N' R Lies (1988)
3. Vinnie Vincent Invasion
Invasion (1986)
2. Motley Crue
Shout At The Devil (1983)
1. Guns N' Roses
Appetite For Destruction (1987)
See also:
*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #20-16