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My
earliest memories of Canadian beef singer Thor come from
perusing through 80’s issues of British magazine Kerrang, which
my older brother used to collect. If my memory doesn’t
fail me I don’t actually remember ever seeing a full article on
the man, but the monthly inclusion of a full page spread of this
dude with a naked torso and the usual making of a threatening
fist never failed to make a lasting impression. That
should tell you a lot about his music without actually reading
about it. This documentary covers the first decade of
Thor’s career as a muscle
man/stripper/novelty act/singer, not necessarily in that order.
The music is the last concern here, as most tracks, or early
classics as some might like to classify them as (“Keep the Dogs
Away”, “Thunder on the Tundra”, “Anger”) are utterly forgettable
or bland if you will. Still, it is a matter of taste, humor, or
irony. Truth is, in the end it’s all in the ear of the
beholder. For what it is Thor’s music is hard rock; as
Thor time and time again professes his love for Black Sabbath, his
rudimentary take on rock and roll never reaches the lethal
levels of heaviness or class of Ozzy and his cohorts. But
that’s perhaps an unfair assessment; after all during this nine
year (1976-1985) period hardly any heavy bands were crafting
rock as good as Black Sabbath. Thor’s music is not without any
merits; the man was never a great singer but that’s never been
an impossibility in rock music. His songs are simple, with
memorable hooks and choruses, and the guitar arrangements were
crafty enough to pass the time and never so downtuned as to
prohibit airing in pop radio. His material has aged rather well
mainly because the great majority of the public still sees Thor
as a novelty act and because his audience never went beyond the
cult level. In other words, no one ever got tired of his shtick
because mainstream media never embraced him and limited exposure
has kept him unspoiled. In any case, listening to his songs we
can come to the conclusion that when songwriting Thor never saw
longevity as an issue.
Entertaining
is a better way to classify this documentary and Thor’s music.
While the latter is passable some of the clips contained here
make for a perfect fun-filled afternoon. Most are bound to make
you laugh with no guilt. The mere sight of his spandex-clad
backing band and the middle-aged 80’s soccer mom haircut that at
least a couple of his guitarists sport is alone worth half the
ticket price. The price of the other half comes directly from
Thor himself. He is a humorous man; there is no doubt about it.
Yet at a point, the watcher is not one hundred percent sure if
he is supposed to laugh at these videos. Are we laughing with
him or at him? The answer is not so simple but when the
documentary is half-filled with TV appearances that exploit
up-front front his He Man persona (muscles, stripping abilities,
and potent enough lungs to blow up a hot water bottle) and the
music gets relegated, the answer seems to be rather simple.
Official Site |
