Today was going to be a jovial day where I shared the best of life. Yet sometimes events overtake everything else, and it is with deep sadness that today finds me in mourning.
One of my favorite rock bands of all time was Warrant. The 1980s featured many “glam rock” bands, and Warrant was one of the best. Sadly, at age 47, Warrant lead singer Jani Lane has died. Initial reports are that his death was alcohol related.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/arts/music/jani-lane-warrants-lead-singer-dies-at-47.html
While this story of rockers dying young happens far too frequently, Jani Lane’s music really meant something to me. I grew up in the 1980s, and loved all of those bands.
I even struck up a friendship with a guy named Howard who worked at the local record store back in the early 1990s on Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles. I lost touch with Howard years ago, but he and Jani were very close. My condolences on the loss of your friend, Howard.
Jani was also a huge fan of the National Football League, and remained forever loyal to his beloved Cleveland Browns. In one of his albums he thanked “Browns fans everywhere.”
I met Jani Lane back in 1993. I was working at a gift store making $5 an hour. I was 21 years old when he walked in, at the peak of his fame. He was a really nice guy and I was star struck. I thought he was the biggest rocker in the world. I told him I had wanted to meet him since I was 19.
I was supposed to go see the “Blood, Sweat and Beers” tour with Warrant, Trixter, and Firehouse. I had the ticket, but did not even own a car back then. My ride flaked, and I missed the concert.
Warrant was about big hair, high falsetto, and lust fueled videos. Yet Jani Lane knew what he was. He never made himself out to be a revolutionary force in music. He was just the lead singer and partier in a great party band. He often referred to the lead guitarist as, “my favorite slut on guitar, Erik Turner.”
The one thing about Warrant was that some of their songs were great stories. Jani Lane said his grandfather was a great storyteller, and Jani could tell a story in song.
“I saw red” was a passionate ballad about a man who walks in on his woman and finds her with another man.
“I saw red when I opened up the door…
I saw red, my heart just spilled on to the floor…
I didn’t need to see his face…
I saw yours…I saw red and then I closed the door…
I don’t think I’m going to love you any more.”
His best hit in my opinion was a tale of rape and murder in a small town called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” A young boy and his uncle see a corrupt sheriff commit the deed. The boy wants to fight for justice but the uncle says keep quiet.
“Oh my God Tom, who are we gonna tell…
The sheriff he belongs in a prison cell…
Keep your mouth shut that’s what we’re gonna do…
Unless you wanna wind up in the wishing well too…
I know a secret down in Uncle Tom’s cabin…
I know a secret that I just can’t tell…
I know a secret down in Uncle Tom’s cabin…
I know who put the bodies in the wishing well.”
In the end of a brilliant music video, the Uncle decides to fight for justice, and the sheriff kills him in a firefight. The bad guy wins. The young boy escaped and lives, haunted with the truth he cannot tell to anybody.
Jani Lane had a dark side in his writing in his later years as the glam rock era faded and tastes changed. A song called “Ultraphobic” was a tale of unrequited love.
“All the kings horses and all the kings men…
Could not put my heart back together again…
Smashed into pieces and cast to the wind…
I’ll have to start all over…all over again…
Been shot down…broken in pieces…all over the ground…
Been shot down…totally speechless…can’t make a sound.”
Yet the heart of Warrant will always be that of a sex crazed party band.
In concert they were introduced as “the horniest band in the world.”
The official “Warrant hello sign” was Jani Lane taking two fingers and putting them in a letter “V” arond his mouth with his tongue hanging out to symbolize a man putting his mouth on a woman’s (redacted).
“V-action” was slang I used for that activity, and it was inspired by Jani Lane.
The first album “Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich” was fun, but their second album “Cherry Pie” was even better. The lead track was about a man having sex with a woman when her father walks in on them.
“In walked her daddy standing 6 ft 4…
Singing ‘ain’t gonna swing with my daughter no more…’
She’s my cherry pie…
Cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise…
Tastes so good, makes a grown man cry…
Sweet cherry pie.”
Jani Lane was twice divorced, and his first wife was the model in the “Cherry Pie” video.
Warrant’s third album did not have commercial success, but the first single off the “Dog Eat Dog” album was “Machine Gun,” and it was quite good.
“Well, my heart is pounding like a big bass drum…
Excited at the thought I might get me some…
Licking off my fingers, squeezing off my tongue…
Love you little baby like a m-m-m-machine gun.”
Jani Lane had a sense of humor. When Al Gore’s ex-wife Tipper led a campaign against explicit lyrics in music, Jani added a one minute track on one of his albums entitled “Ode to Tipper Gore.” It just featured him cursing with an occasional phrase he used to scream in his concerts.
“All right, I want all of you to scream the hair off of your nuts!”
Like I said, when I was 19 I thought he was the coolest guy on the planet.
20 years later I am just sad that a man who brought me so much joy has left us all far too soon.
Farewell Jani Lane. You will be missed.
eric