Rock and roll isn’t always about being pessimistic all the time. Before you had protest songs and artists looking to change the world with their music, this was the kind of genre you played during parties, with artists trying to have a good time every time they took the microphone. You can achieve this through excitement, but it doesn’t hurt to have a little humor in the mix as well.
Before we start this list, these songs aren’t meant to be your traditional comedy songs. While the likes of Jack Black have made musicals their niche with Tenacious D, they’re pretty serious bands who have dabbled in comedy and have done it with flying colors. Although some of them opted for a more warped sense of humor than others, you can truly tell the love they have for their craft, even if it means serving something that is entirely played for laugh.
When you really break it down, having that kind of language in your music is just another force in a band’s arsenal. Anyone can stand up and make people laugh, but you’re on another level if you can have someone laughing one minute and crying the next.
In the world of Anthrax, metal and hip hop have always gone hand in hand. As long as Scott Ian listened to rock and roll, he had always listened to the early days of bands like Run-DMC, having the same heaviness of hard rock with an emphasis on rhymes instead of riffs. The metal guys could hang on too, and their first attempt at rap metal made for one of the goofiest songs ever written by a thrash band.
Because if you listen to any kind of hip hop, Scott, Charlie and Frankie aren’t the greatest MCs by any stretch of the imagination, sounding almost like a bunch of frat brothers who got on the mic for the evening and shouting non sequiturs to each other. Again, part of the appeal is that everything is meant to be self-aware. These guys know they’re far from the greatest rappers in the world, and most of the verses revolve around how they can’t finish the rhyme right, just aiming for the right word and dropping it at the last second.
The gaffe worked though, becoming one of the first gold records the band ever had and continuing to be the launchpad for them to work with real rappers in the future, like when they teamed up. to Public Enemy for a remake of the classic song Bring the Noise. It could have easily come across as a mean parody, but for all the fear that comes with metal, it came from a place of love for the guys at Anthrax.
