“1987” by Steel Panther

As strongly alluded to later in this article, Steel Panther is a band with a comedic slant. So as for the thesis sentiment of “1987”, that in and of itself isn’t anything we haven’t come across before.

What the sentiment revolves around primarily is a vocalist ruminating on the days of old and presenting them as being preferable to the current state of his genre. But the way Michael Starr makes that argument does feature quite a few observations that have you giggling or shaking your head.

For instance, he notes that back then Poison, an all-male American rock band who also happened to be heavily into wearing makeup, “look(ed) so damn good” that Michael began question whether he personally was gay or not. 

He also celebrates David Coverdale of Whitesnake fame for having “b-ng(ed) Tawny Kitaen”, i.e. the sexy and popular 1980s model, though to note they did more than just bang, as they did go on to marry (for a couple of years). 

Even More Nostalgia

In the second verse, Starr gets around to referring to that legendary incident in which Ozzy Osbourne reportedly bit the head off a bat. And in the third verse, he mentions that at the time, i.e. in 1987, he and his buds were engaged in activities such as “growing out (their) hair” and “getting high with girls”.

But this isn’t all about personal nostalgia per se. Instead, Steel Panther also uses the opportunity to basically lament the current state of rock music and even, to some degree, the world at large. For instance, in an indirect way, they note how most music these days tends to be computer-based. They feel “kids these days” have no experience in actually playing instruments, which in their minds definitely doesn’t sound like a good thing. 

Also, the days of old were a time in which “the friends we had were real”, as in being the types that you “saw… every day”. And that particular observation reads as if they are criticizing social media or what have you, i.e. most communication in the here and now being conducted electronically.

In Summary

So on one hand, it does sound comical when Michael concludes that “1987 will forever be the year when “guys wore more lipstick than girls”, as if he is actually making fun of that time period. But concurrently, the listener can ascertain that he genuinely considers that era to be better than the one we live in now. 

And for the most part, that belief is based on the late 1980s being an age of “heavy metal heroes” and also, quite honestly, that of Steel Panther’s (members’) youth. In other words, it’s pretty common for people to consider their late teens and early twenties to have been a more exciting time than their middle age. But also, it can be gathered that the Steel Panther homeys are sorta like luddites in a way, as in perceiving the earlier generation of less technology as a superior one.

Steel Panther

Steel Panther is a rock outfit from Los Angeles that has been around since the turn of the century. Between 2009 and 2019, they’ve dropped five studio LPs, all of which topped Billboard’s Comedy Albums chart. 

They’ve also fared well on the Hard Rock listing, whereas all of those projects, except for the first (2009’s “Feel the Steel”) scored within the top 10 of that ranking. 

The current membership of Steel Panther consists of co-founders Ralph Saenz, aka Michael Starr and Russ “Satchel” Parrish, who respectively serve as lead vocalist and guitarist of the band. They are joined by bassist Joe Lester, also known as Spyder as well as drummer Darren “Stix Zadinia” Leader.

Release of “1987”

Steel Panther ‘s sixth studio album goes by the title “On the Prowl”. “1987” is the album’s second single. It was unveiled as such on the 7th of December 2022.

Song Credits

The official writing credits for “1987” is as follows:

• Satchel
• M. Starr
• Stix Zadinia