Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Metal Queen Stalking a Stage Near You

Foxy lady, indeed

Back in the 1980s, there was a young lady who actually provided some fierce competition for all the boys in the hard rock/heavy metal camp. A little history: her name was Karen Greening when she was asked to join a local Belleville, Canada band called Lee Aaron. She adopted that band moniker as her own stage name and in 1982 she released her first album, The Lee Aaron Project (pictured below in the form of my ancient audio cassette tape). That album featured backup musicians from a variety of Toronto area bands: Moxy, Riff Raff, Santers, and even Triumph's Rik Emmett.

Aaron's Metal Queen album of 1984 cemented her status as the leading lady of metal. I was a fan. I saw her perform at Spanky's nightclub in Brampton, Canada right around that time. It was a full house, mostly guys, all crammed as close as possible to the stage. I wonder why. Her good looks aside, the leather-and-furs-clad vixen possessed a powerful voice that brought her some fame and fortune. I don't think this music has aged all that well, though. What little I've heard all these years later sounded pretty cheesy to me. But she made her mark at just the right time.

After the 80's, Lee Aaron failed to register on my radar. She had softened her sound into something more glam-rock than anything else, and I had moved on to heavier waters that included the likes of Metallica and Megadeth. And I even heard a CD of her singing jazz, of all things, several years ago. 

But those good old days are still locked in my memory banks. Good times.



No comments:

Post a Comment