In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy - Boone, Pat (CD 1997)

Pat Boone has gone down a very strange route with this album, but he did this before Lounge Against The Machine released their first album, and for that I must give him credit. Besides, this is in fact more than just lounge music. This actually has some thumpin drums, loud trumpets, and great backup singers. He went the whole nine yards when producing this album.

If you look at the booklet, there s an explanation of just where the idea for the album came from. Pat Boone is apparently an open-minded individual after all, and he simply wants to make his genre more accessible to metalheads. He wants to have a good influence on these supposedly wayward souls. Well, covers are still the only music from this genre I m willing to listen to. Sorry.

The first track is Judas Priest s You ve Got Another Thing Coming , and this is one of the tracks with those thumping beats I ve talked about. It s extremely lively and could almost be called heavy despite the style. Boone s vocals are a little...how shall I put this...perfect. Yes, he s no Rob Halford. He sings a little too clearly, but you can tell he s pretty old by his voice. This has the trumpets going on full-blast and it s something you can wake up to.

Smoke On The Water actually has an electric guitar in some parts, but at the same time it s more subdued than the first track by far. There s even a pretty cool solo. You d almost think it is indeed a rock song if it weren t for the jazzy big band background. The guitars ARE in fact played by Ritchie Blackmore and Dweezil Zappa. Wow. I guess Mr. Blackmore didn t want his work getting slaughtered too badly.

You can just see Mr. Boone snapping his fingers as he sings It s A Long Way To The Top by AC/DC. This one s even more subdued than Smoke On The Water , but it s a fun little listen. There s a little bit of organ playing here, and we can hear Boone get a little gritty with the vocals.

Then there s Panama . This one has some light electric guitar too, but it s much, much slower than the original and the lyrics have been cleaned up quite a bit. This sounds like something you d hear on daytime t.v. for all the entertainment value it provides. This sounds like an album produced by the people who write the theme music for talk shows. I just...ugh. There s some piano in it and it comes off sounding tropical; if you re into big band or oldies you may in fact get a kick out of the track. It s good where other genres are concerned, but a rock fan will want to commit suicide.

Track 5 is No More Mr. Nice Guy . Another slow swingin track, Boone takes a conversational approach to the opening vocals, with the backup singers doing the work, then cooing later while he sings the rest. And of course the band is forever active behind him. This song doesn t sound vengeful at all like the Megadeth version. This one has a lazy sound to it, as this genre is supposed to.

Love Hurts is the track which makes the most sense. Boone croons while the piano plays lightly behind him, along with a violin and a flute (well I think it s a flute it sounds like all that boring supermarket music). The song builds a little as it progresses, but it remains light and relaxing. I don t know which version I prefer, this one or the Gregorian Chant version...

Enter Sandman. Another of the upbeat tracks, how in the Hell can we expect him to make a big band Metallica track, especially when it s one of their heavier songs?? Well he pulls it off, and makes it sound like any other song of the same style. His rendition of the vocals sounds perfectly natural. And if you have enough trumpets you can replicate the heavy guitar riffs well enough. Kind of. It sounds good. The solo, also, is of course a trumpet. It sounds like he actually got a kid to repeat the prayer line by line like in the original. As I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep... Yeah. But the effect is kind of lost since it s not accompanied by loud, crunching guitars.

The next track opens up with sorrowful violins which become dark and are joined by trumpets to sound like something out of an old horror movie. Then they start riffing with low notes and it remains dark. You just can t make Holy Diver sound happy. This is probably the song which translated the best to this genre, and it s even better considering that, since it was recorded on Ronnie James Dio s birthday, he contributed backing vocals. You can definitely hear him in certain parts. Wow. They did exceptionally well because it almost still sounds like metal. It has an otherworldly feel. Also, it kind of sounds like something out of a Quentin Tarantino film.

He even does Paradise City . This one winds up sounding completely different. Completely. Without the guitar, what do you expect? There s a fast jazzy piano underlaying the song instead, and Boone s vocals are a huge contrast to Axel Rose.

The opening of The Wind Cries Mary is a classic big band opener, and the song works as well as Love Hurts . It sounds like something written for this genre. It s light and lazy, and Boone once again croons very naturally to the melody.

Crazy Train has a deep bassline and is another song that works well with this genre. With the backup singers going Crazy crazy train! Choo! Choo! you ll either laugh or cry, depending. I find it amusing, but yeah I d rather listen to the original. The tempo during the choruses is upbeat, but during the verses it s rather boring.

Stairway to Heaven is the finale, and taking a song this long and converting it to another genre is always commendable, especially one this dynamic. I wonder if there s a similar reason I haven t heard of any covers of Bohemian Rhapsody . Incidentally, I wonder why he didn t cover that instead. He could have pulled it off, but I guess it has to do with the fact that he s religious. Anyway Stairway loses its ominous mood, its sense of gradual build, its otherworldly feel, in this rendition. It still has a slow build, don t get me wrong, they change it up constantly, but it just doesn t feel the same. Not to mention that this version s only five minutes long. Very disappointing.

At least one can tell that this was a serious endeavor. That is, the musicians are all talented and they converted every song completely and utterly to the other style, with more than a modicum of effort. I think this is all in all a well-done album and deserves a listen. At least for Holy Diver ...or posterity, if that doesn t work.