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So Far, So Good...So What!
Now that Megadeth was completely on the scene, things began to change. First off, Chris had faked a
break-in at the studio during the recording of PS...BWB? and taken all of Dave's guitars to sell of
in order to get money for drugs. Dave eventually found out that Chris had lied to him about the break-in,
and so Chris was pretty much immediately out of the band. Since Chris and Gar had their relationship
before coming to Megadeth, it appears that Gar quit the band soon after, and moved to Florida for some
reason. So now Chuck Behler, a former drum tech for the band, and Jeff Young, whose origons I am not sure
about, entered the band to make its second linup, which Dave has called the "three men and a baby" linup
( Dave Jr. is the baby with only 20 years to his name at this point ). This linup was the one which was
notorious for being out of touch with reality most of the time. They actually weren't that badly hooked,
but it was the most drugged period of the band's career. Accordingly, they released what some consider to
be their worst album. As Dave said, "I tried to approach ( the album ) with the fans at heart, trying to
write music that was for them, first and foremost. And I screwed myself. I had to think like them, 'these
guys [ fans ] think that I'm an asshole, so I'm going to title the album So Far, So Good... So What!, so
stick it up your ass! I'm Dave Mustaine and you're lucky I did another record'. I had this kind of attitude
for some people that needed me to co-sign their own obnoxiousness." Although several of the songs are good,
and they are much more melodic than the band's previous effort, it was a far cry from what the band was
capable of. Origonally, Dave wanted to cover the Sex Pistols song "Problems" on this album, but he didn't
get too much support for that one. People kept on telling him "that's a bit negative, try "Anarchy." "Yeah,
a happy flower growing song" replied Dave But after a but of pressure, Dave gave in and said 'OK fine.
We'll do a medley of the two songs. It'll be called "Anarchy... The Problem Is You".' Then, Problems was
completely cut out and it was just Anarchy In The U.K., although Dave didn't want it to be that way.
Well, at least they got to Problems eventually. This album also featured Megadeth's largest stand against
censorship, in the form of Hook In Mouth. I believe it was for this verbal assault on the PMRC (Parental
Music Resource Center ) that the album received a Parental Advisory sticker, since the only other violations
are one "bitch" ( from In My Darkest Hour ) and one "fucking" ( from Liar ). Considering that Machine Head
can make an album with a song which has a chorus that is "FUCK IT ALL" yelled real loud twice in a row on
two occasions, and six times in a row once ( not to mention other """"vulgar"""" language throughout the
album ) and not earn an Advisory sticker, the SF, SG... SW! phenomenon is quite interesting. The album
was released on January 13th, 1988 and was accompanied by two singles, neither of which did especially
well on the billboard charts, but they are both are good all the same. In all my travels, not even I
have been able to come across the release dates for either of the two, but I personally believe ( after
looking at the release patterns of singles for the some of other albums which had many singles ) that it
can be assumed that one of them came out around a week or two before the album did, and then the other
one came out a bit afterwards, maybe another three weeks or a month or so. The one which was released
first was most likely the Anarchy In The U.K., the cover art for which was a copy off of that of the
origonal Sex Pistols cover for THEIR origonal version of the song, and Mary Jane, with probably the
best ever Vic art, came second. A large tour followed the releaseof the album. The tour went extensively
into Europe for the first time in the history of the band. The band was also invited to play at the Monsters
Of Rock show in Donnington, England, in August of 1988. There was an audience of something around 40,000 or
so, which was a great promotion for all the bands there. Since Guns And Roses and Metallica were also at
Donnington, Axl and Lars provided backup vocals for Anarchy In The U.K., the first sign that relations
between Megadeth and Metallica were improving. However, during the tours, Dave began to see that Chuck and
Jeff were not up to his standards. He told the drum tech, Nick Menza, to just wait around until Chuck really
messed up, and then he ( Nick ) would be in. It was going to happen pretty soon, Dave thought.
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