The OCD Chronicles: Krokus-"Midnight Maniac"

It’s a two-parter. First of all, thanks to my cousin for getting that woeful piece of shit “Midnight Maniac” by the Swiss band Krokus stuck in my head for my trip. Shame on me for even having that woeful piece of shit on my IPod. I feel the need to point out that “Midnight Maniac” was on my Heavy Metal box set compilation and I imported those discs to my IPod prior to leaving for vacation. The truth is, I could have skipped that track entirely. In fact, there were plenty of other songs on that compilation that I didn’t import over. For some reason, I didn’t do this for Krokus. I considered it, noticed it wasn’t their awful version of “Ballroom Blitz,” a decided to keep it on for nostalgic reasons.
Even that is not entirely true because I can’t count one person who I used to hang out with that owned or listened to Krokus. There may have been one guy from my neighborhood that we played basketball with that may have owned it (I do remember him spinning a few Dokken cassettes) or my next-door neighbor that had awful taste in metal. Those are the only sources that I could remotely tie my youth to Krokus.
Years later, I came across a great story where the lead singer of Krokus, Marc Storace, was asked to review the new album by The Fall and Mark E. Smith was asked to review the new album by Krokus. Smith, of course, hated the album and eloquently whipped the band in the written review. Storace replied with a bit of verbal wit of his own, stating that he didn’t much care for the Falls’ music, citing that it made him feel depressive.

In other repeated spins, the recurring song for this trip is The Commodores’ “Easy.” For fun, I set the IPod to shuffle and enjoyed the ensuing train wreck. When we hit the Minnesota border, I changed gears and put in Lionel Richie compilation. It lasted until it reached “Easy” and then the gag ran thin. But in the ensuing days since then, I’ve heard that song at least two other times. Either it’s a Lionel Richie conspiracy or my brain is now hypersensitive to anything Richie-related.