Text by Gary Sperrazza! / Big Star fanzine, 1978
Introduction by Bernie Kugel / Big Star fanzine, 1978
Introduction © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2020
Images from the Internet
This interview was originally published in Big Star fanzine, issue #3, dated Spring 1978. It was written by Gary Sperrazza!,
who passed away in 2016 (but his exclamation point lives on). Thanks to Bernie
Kugel, the fanzine’s publisher, who kindly granted permission for this reprint.
Metal Mike Saunders is a name that was a much larger known West Coast
punk personality than in the East, but he had quite an influence through his
early punk rock journalism at both national and fanzine levels, and later with
hardcore bands like VOM, and especially the Angry Samoans (who have been
touring again in the last couple of years). However, his biggest claim to fame
that no one seems to remember is that he is credited with coining the phrase “Heavy
Metal.” – RBF, 2020
* * *
In the early ‘70s, Mike Saunders was one of the leading and best writers
around, especially when he was writing about the topics most near and dear to
him: heavy metal and punk rock of the ‘60s, in such diverse publications as Flash magazine, Phonograph Record Magazine and Buffalo’s own lamented Shakin’ Street Gazette. He also was partly responsible for the legendary
Brain Damage mag, the great one-shot
parody of the big fanzines a few years back. He was also one of the guys initially
responsible for the quickly-becoming-legendary West Coast rock critic punk
band, VOM, even though he seems to have stepped back from taking a major role
in the band, preferring to just “churn out heavy metal riffs.” Some of the
classics he’s written over the years includes such underground hits as “Got a
Dagger for You Jagger,” “Just Killed My Dad,” “Getting High with Stephen
Stills,” “Gary Gilmore is my Friend,” and many others which will hopefully find
their way to vinyl in one form or another, eventually.
Lester Bangs [d. 1982 – RBF] recently told me that Metal Mike was truly “ahead
of his time.” So to satisfy the needs of all the Metal Mike fans across the
globe, we present this little interview recently done by Big Star West Coast Editor, Gary Sperrazza! – BK, 1978
* * *
Big Star: What have you been doing lately?
Metal Mike Saunders: Well, from 1973
through mid-’75, I worked a 9-to-5 office job here in LA that truly inspired me
to go back to Arkansas and get a second college (degree) so I could become an
accountant. I saved a lot of money those two years. A lot for what I was making, but… so now I’ve got the degree, got
suits in the closet, my hair is cut short, (and) I’m hunting for that first
accounting job. I guess my goal is to have $100,000 in the bank at the age of
35. That’s really sick, you know! But accounting is a vehicle through which to achieve
that goal, and it’s (a) great profession, besides. Do you really think anyone
cares about this trivia, outside of my mother?
Big Star: Not really.
Metal Mike: So let’s talk about
something interesting. How about the Dodgers?
Big Star: What about ‘em?
Metal Mike: Well, what it amounts to
is that in this town (Los Angeles), the Dodgers are bigger than rock’n’roll, TV, and movies all combined. They’ve run these surveys showing that 71.7% of all
males (females, 54%) over 18 listen to the Dodgers games on the radio or TV.
And the team is amazing anyway… manager Tommy Lasorda is a bona fide future
legend in the making. What it amounts to is that in LA, the Dodgers kill any current rock’n’roll phenomena
with the possible exception of KISS.
Big Star: KISS???
Metal Mike: Yeah, I think they’re the
‘70s Beach Boys. The best American rock group, hands down. I love their
records.
Big Star: Care to elaborate on that assertion?
Metal Mike: No, not really. KISS are
just the commercialization of heavy metal that I was really waiting years for.
Plus, they got the most and best riffs of any band around. Like, “I Stole Your
Love,” man – any of you MC5 fans who can’t get into that, I’m having your
record collections repossessed tomorrow! Or “Love Gun,” to stay current – that’s
as good a 45 as anything.
Big Star: Anything else you like in the current rock scene?
Metal Mike: ABBA are really, really
great; they’re the only other group whose albums I’d pay four bucks for. Aerosmith
are OK, Rush and Starz ditto, Ted Nugent, eh… I really liked all those rock’n’roll
Top 40 singles from the past year: Boston, Foghat, KISS, Steve Miller, ELO, the
Bay City Rollers’ rock’n’roll singles; paid 99 cents at K-Mart for all those
groups’ 45s. Basically, I’m just a heavy metal purist. AM radio finally caught
up with heavy metal guitar via Boston – so my taste now is really mainstream. Don’t
ask me about New Wave, I hate that stuff. “God Save the Queen” was a great
record, both sides, but otherwise… Limeys can’t do anything right, y’know. The Ramones albums literally make me ill.
Their 45s are neat though – I bought “Sheena is a Punk Rocker.”
Big Star: Any other hobbies or fandoms you like better than rock’n’roll?
Metal Mike: Oh, yeah, I’ve been back into
wargaming since 1975. It’s a great hobby… a couple nights a month, anyway.
Baseball is really the king, though.
Big Star: Tell us about R. Meltzer and VOM.
Metal Mike: Gregg Turner came by one
day and mentioned that Meltzer wanted to do a group; he was really serious
about forming a band. So I said, “Okay,” and the next time I plugged in the
fuzzbox to write some metallic riffs, I did a song tailored to Meltzer’s voice,
“Getting High with Stephen Stills.” Then a couple days later Turner came by
with a lyric he had called “Too Animalistic,” and I wrote some Fred Smith/Wayne
Kramer riffs for it, and it was obviously a VOM song! So it all took off, and
the concept of VOM has been expanding ever since.
Big Star: Which is?
Metal Mike: Sort of a cross between
heavy metal Fugs and the first Stooges album.
Big Star: Who’s gonna be in the band?
Metal Mike: Three friends of Meltzer’s
on guitars and bass who’ve knocked around in bands, we’re auditioning drummer, myself
on anything from guitar to drums to vocals, plus Meltzer and Turner handing a plurality
of the vocals. So things as of this date (10/77) are in that embryonic stage of
finding the right musicians, then rehearsing for a couple months.
Big Star: So what’s the musical genre?
Metal Mike: Various levels of heavy
metal, because that’s all I write – Black Sabbath/Stooges, mutated ’66 metal,
or whatever level of tightness is attained, but with Meltzeroid lyrics and
stage presentation. Heavy metal Fugs is really a good description. Unless it’s
both stupid… and funny... then we’re not gonna do it.
Big Star: You have a really big backlog of songs of your own, don’t you?
Metal Mike: Oh, yeah, around 300-350
from over the past eight years. I love making up riffs; it’s like working algebra
problems. Quick and easy, (in) 10 minutes ya got it, another song. It’s like
permutations – 10 different basic chord changes in 10 different sequences, 10
different tempos. 10 x 10 x 10… a thousand songs. You’ve just got to know the
basic riffs really well, like very
good punk rock or heavy metal record ever made. I think Paul Stanley of KISS is
really one of the best riff-mongers ever; his output is just great.
Big Star: What’s your personal experience in rock bands?
Metal Mike: The mid- and late-‘60s,
as a drummer and guitarist in a lot of garage bands back in Little Rock,
Arkansas; some real megatonic heavyweights like the Rockin’ Blewz, the Living
Endz, Society’s Outcasts, among others… A Standells member I wasn’t – by the
end of high school I was a real basket case stage-wise… a walking time bomb
capable of blowing a chord change at the worst possible moment. Like the chorus
of “Talk Talk”… or the intro to “Louie Louie.” My position with VOM as musical
director/dictator and utility infielder is really ideal… I only have to play on
the songs I know I’m not gonna blow.
All three of them…
Big Star: Back to rock writing –
Metal Mike: Rock what?
Big Star: Rock writing; magazines…
Metal Mike: Boy, ya got me. It was just
something I did in lieu of working at McDonald’s during my college years, you
know.
Big Star: Any writers you like?
Metal Mike: Oh, yeah. Nick Kent of NME was amazing during his hot period.
Charles Shaar Murray is amazing. Max Bell also of NME has done real well at times. Over in this country you had or
have Lester Bangs. All the rest of us turkeys were a good six notches below Bangs
and those first two, I think you’ll agree. Like, I mean, Lenny Kaye for example
had a couple great moments, but… Like Circus
is really the best commercial American pro-zine at this point – don’t you think
that kinda says it all?
Big Star: Compared to NME, yes. Any comments
on Mark Shipper, Flash, or your Brain
Damage fanzine from 1974?
Metal Mike: No, not really. At this
late date it’s just all water under the cesspool… Let bygones be bygones. Who
cares, y’know?? I’m still gonna let the air out of Shipper’s tires someday,
though!
 |
| Angry Samoans: Metal Mike on far left |
Big Star: Anything else about VOM?
Metal Mike: Yeah. At the first VOM
business meeting, Meltzer was really drunk, knocking over things. We got into
an argument on how you write songs, me being used to patching lyrics onto riffs
I make up, and then he called me a folkie. I really wanted to deck him. But I
calmed down… so Turner and I went into his brother’s bedroom, locked the door,
and plugged in the guitar and took a couple of Meltzer’s finished lyrics, “Electrocute
Your Cock” and “I’m in Love with Your Mom,” and I made up riffs for them. Good
ones, right on the spot. So when we came back out in half an hour with finished
songs, Richard saw we weren’t kidding about being just what he needed musically….
He’s going, “Hey, Blue Oyster Cult takes six months to write a riff… this is
all right!” And it’s been easy working with him ever since; we write together
when we can in the same genre, lyric-wise, so it’s a real songwriting mill. All
that Meltzer needs is someone to crank out the music; he’s got the best lyrics
around. “I Live with the Roaches” is hilarious – I can’t believe BOC [Blue Oyster Cult – RBF, 2020] wimped
out on recording that! All that has to happen is for the group to attain a
reasonable level of competence and keep up with the quality of material that’s
gonna be coming out.
Big Star: How about records?
Metal Mike: Aw, that’s the best part…
for records, we’re gonna bring in Ross Friedman [Ross the Boss, at the time in the Dictators,– RBF, 2020], that
kind of thing. They’ll be real heavy metal 45s. I’m the musical Dictator of
Vinyl – so they have to be, or they
won’t happen. Back Door Man Records will have their first big chance to break
the 1,000 sales mark… maybe even 2,000!
Big Star: Sounds Interesting.
Metal Mike: Well, y’know… heavy metal
Fugs… I guess it beats watching the San Diego Padres on TV… unless they happen
to be playing the Dodgers, that is.
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