Reading that first headline announcing Peter Steele’s death yesterday was like a punch in the stomach. Just…no. Pete is one of those figures of notoriety who just seemed like he’d be around a lot longer. It’s still sinking in, I can’t believe he’s gone.
So, a list of things I thank the man for…
That cover of “Summer Breeze.” I don’t care if this was supposed to be ironic, I love it. And I’m not completely convinced this was a total put-on – the guy worked in the NYC Department of Sanitation prior to his career as a rock icon/sex symbol. Considering how much fun it must have been to get up in the morning for that, I can’t help but think that coming home from a hard day’s work and seeing the little light shining in the window must have been pretty fucking sweet.
The video for “Black No. 1.” Written about the gothiest goth chick on earth, it was totally primed for the blondes-and-chickens Danzig treatment. Instead, the band surrounded themselves with a bunch of their friends and went nuts beneath a Central Park bridge. No bikinis, no yawningly overt psychosexual romping between a lead singer and a video vixen imported from L.A. (that was in another video, haha), just a fabulous early 90’s snapshot of flickering lights, trees, and a lot of unbridled energy from the fans. And every time this gets played in a goth club, EVERYBODY has to dance to it.
Posing in Playgirl. That’s just cool. The first page of that shoot, with the lines from “On the Eve of All Saints” beneath an in-concert shot, hangs on my wall to this day. Being the Ewan McGregor of heavy metal is nothing to be ashamed of, so there really was no need for “I Like Goils.”
Bringing a lovely stripped-down darkness to metal fashion. The solid black, the long long hair, the tattoos, going on just pure fierce attitude to carry it all – just, thank you for getting more men to look like this.
I didn’t always like what you were singing about – it really quite sucks to be digging a beautifully-written song with a jarringly sexist lyric dropped into the middle of it – and the “I’m so un-PC!” thing got really grating. But, the body of work you left behind is a permanent part of my music collection. So many memories entwined with your voice. Coming home from my job at the occult shop and blaring “Christian Woman” first thing after getting through the door. “Love You To Death.” The version of “Blood and Fire” on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. “Cinnamon Girl.” (I’m a sucker for metal covers of 70’s a.m. gold classics, OK?) Lying back and just drowning in that knee-weakening baritone. There was always a lot of contention about how seriously we were supposed to take the lyrical content, but damn, that’s a lot of firelight and wine, perfectly captured in a sensuous haze of vocals and guitars and piano, to keep coming back to.
You gave my life the soundtrack to a lot of gorgeous moments. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.
Rest in peace.
