Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 13, 2024 19:33:56 GMT -5
Oh Lordy, this really isn't my kind of thing at all, I'm afraid Slam. I absolutely detest The Scorpions' music, but, as I think I mentioned a few pages back to driver1980 , I was friends with a lot of "Metallers" or "Metalheads" when I was a teenager in the mid-to-late '80s, so I got to hear lots of this kind of stuff. Looking up the cover of Love at First Sting online (and that's a terrible album title BTW!), yep...I definitely remember some of my mates having that album. I remember hearing that track "Rock You Like a Hurricane" back in the day too, and I think it was a reasonable sized hit here in the UK. Actually, their album covers were often pretty raunchy for the times, and often very misogynistic too! Which, of course, was par for the course with this kind of "cock-rock" ( see also Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P., Ratt etc). What's that album they did with the business guy in the back of a limo pulling strands of bubblegum off a woman's exposed breast? That one sure sticks in my memory!  And wasn't there another album by The Scorpions with a woman kneeling next to a dog in front of a man who was standing dominantly over them both? I mean, I can definitely laugh at the cartoonish misogyny of it all, but that would definitely not fly today!  Musically, like a lot of those heavy metal bands from that era, I bet they were all great musicians though. But yeah...this isn't my thing at all, I'm afraid. Of course it's impossible to look at or listen to this kind of thing today without thinking of Spinal Tap. Your memories of the questionable content and design choices for some of those album covers immediately made me think of the line from the band's manager in the movie, "You should have seen what they wanted to put there - it wasn't a glove, I'll tell you that!"
Ha! Yes!!! It's absolutely Spinal Tap-worthy! You know, one of those old "metalhead" buddies of mine from back then always says (with tongue a little in cheek), "I don't know what everyone found so funny about Spinal Tap. They seemed like a really great band." |
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Post by berkley on Apr 13, 2024 19:37:52 GMT -5
Split Enz' Conflicting Emotions... Split Enz created some of New Zealand's finest pop songs, but they were nearing the end here. There was very little about this album that was musically interesting. Some OK songs but barely enough material to stitch together an album. Tim Finn's Escapade... Tim Finn was never as good on his own as he was working with Spit Enz and Crowded House. I hope he isn't reading this, but he simply isn't as good as his brother. Daniel Johnston's Yip/Jump Music... Yet another album from Daniel Johnston. The tunes here weren't as catchy as on other albums, but you have to admire how amazingly prolific this guy was. This is generally more of a positive album than his more tortured stuff. Topics covered include Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Beatles, King Kong, and Danny Rapp of Danny and the Juniors fame. Tony Rice's Church Street Blues... this is meant to be progressive bluegrass. I don't know enough about bluegrass to tell you what makes this "progressive." I assume it borrows elements from other forms of music. It's a nice record, though. Mari Wilson's Showpeople... this was interesting. Mari Wilson was a British pop and jazz singer who did a retro throwback thing with a 60s beehive. It seems like she's taking the piss at first, but it ends up being a genuine homage to the era. She does a mean cover of Cry Me a River. James Booker's Classified... this was a fun album. You don't hear a lot of New Orlean Blues from 1983, but this was the real deal. The highlight is an incredible cover of King of the Road. The Henchmen's We've Come to Play! DIY New Zealand punk rock. Terrible sound quality, but fun to hear what a group of West Aucklanders were trying to do out of a garage in 1983. Liquid Liquid's Optimo... This dance punk EP is most notable for the song Cavern, which Melle Mel stole the bassline from for White Lines. That led to lawsuits and Sugar Hill Records filing for bankruptcy to avoid paying Liquid Liquid the money they were due. I believe they did get some money from the song when Duran Duran covered it years later. Anyway, the EP is really good. Well worth your time. This Mortal Coil's This Mortal Coil... This EP foreshadows the band's debut LP from the following year, and features one of the creepier album covers of 1983, intentionally or otherwise. There's never really a mood, time or place that makes me turn on some dream pop, but I can understand people who love the ethereal nature of it. And it was definitely a new style that was emerging, so that's always interesting. So, by all means, check it out. Anthony Davis' Hemispheres... this was an avant-garde jazz record, but not an overly challenging one. Of course, you have to be in the mood to listen to something like this since it's not exactly background music, but it wasn't as messed up as some avant-garde jazz can get. Naked Spots Dance's Falling... for the past week or so, I've been discovering forgotten New Zealand records that aren't that well known in NZ. Mostly, because they're DIY efforts, I assume. It's kind of neat to hear what folks were getting up to back home. This is pretty cool post-punk record with female vocals. Held its own, I thought. I like Split Enz and Crowded House without knowing much about them, just the radio stuff. Daniel Johnston I like a lot. Scary life-story though. I got to see him live once in a small club and ended up feeling almost a little guilty as he was guided in by his management or care-worker and appeared not to be too aware of his surroundings. He still performed well, though, so possibly he was more cognizant of what was going on around him than it looked. This Mortal Coil were one of the bands I totally missed at the time and have never got around too checking out even now. I think I had an idea once I might like them, must have been something I heard or read somewhere but I can't remember now. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 13, 2024 19:47:54 GMT -5
James Cotton - a bit too much straight blues for me, though I can listento this kind of thing when I'm in the mood
Tom Russell, Robert Earl Kane - sounds nice, maybe a little bland, musically, on first listen; I don't usually notice lyrics much unless the music has dragged me in by the ears first - which is perhaps why rap music doesn't often grab me, though I admire the artistry of some of the wordplay
Stevie Ray Vaughan - I liked him OK, but he was just a bit too show-offy for me; nothing of his I ever heard ever really made me love it, though I admired his dedication and ability.
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Post by commond on Apr 13, 2024 20:28:42 GMT -5
I don't really consider Scorpions to be a metal band. They've always struck me as more of hard rock group. They borrowed some metal elements after Roth left the band, but it was very melodic. Love at First Sting was their big commercial album that brought them international success. It's fine as far as those types of albums go, but most Scorpions fans prefer their earlier work. Rock You Like a Hurricane is an all-time great riff. It was awesome when they used it in Stranger Things even if it was the shitty re-recorded version.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 13, 2024 20:47:03 GMT -5
Playing catch up now... #7 - Into the Gap by Thompson Twins The Thompson Twins were one of my favourite bands of the 1980s and I don't care who knows it!  Yeah, yeah…I know that they're viewed as a bit of a joke nowadays, but I maintain that they were a far more interesting, artsy, and musically adventurous band than most people give them credit for. I first discovered them in 1983 and received their then-current album Quick Step & Side Kick for my birthday that year. Their follow-up album, Into the Gap, appeared in February 1984 and I remember being frustrated that Christmas had gone by and my birthday wasn't for months yet – how was I gonna get my hands on this new Thompson Twins record?! As luck would have it, an old friend of my Dad's named Edgar came visiting that spring and he gifted my brother and I a five pound note each (which was a lot of money for a kid back then), telling us to treat ourselves to something nice. I knew immediately that Into the Gap would be mine! Musically, the album is very much a consolidation of the catchy dance pop/New Wave/synth-pop blend that the band had debuted on their previous album. It's a melting pot of brilliantly arranged New Wave pop hooks, intelligent lyrical content, and occasional quasi-Middle Eastern musical textures. Great production from Alex Sadkin too! This is the album that took the TTs into the musical stratosphere, spawning a series of hit singles. The whole album is very strong though, with standout album tracks like "Day After Day", "The Gap", and the moody "Storm on the Sea" easily holding their own against the much better-known hits like "Hold Me Now" and "Doctor, Doctor". The really nice thing though is that every single time I listen to the album, I still think of my Dad's old mate Edgar, who is now long dead, and smile a little. In terms of selecting a track for this post, I've gone with the obvious colossal hit, "Hold Me Now", just because I think it has a beautiful, wistful yearning quality to it and a killer anthemic chorus. Oh, and I love that percussion track (best heard in the intro), all malleted bass drum, castanets, and guiros. Great bass sound on this track too! |
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Post by berkley on Apr 13, 2024 21:22:51 GMT -5
Playing catch up now... #7 - Into the Gap by Thompson TwinsThe Thompson Twins were one of my favourite bands of the 1980s and I don't care who knows it! Yeah, yeah…I know that they're viewed as a bit of a joke nowadays, but I maintain that they were a far more interesting, artsy, and musically adventurous band than most people give them credit for. I first discovered them in 1983 and received their then-current album Quick Step & Side Kick for my birthday that year. Their follow-up album, Into the Gap, appeared in February 1984 and I remember being frustrated that Christmas had gone by and my birthday wasn't for months yet – how was I gonna get my hands on this new Thompson Twins record?! As luck would have it, an old friend of my Dad's named Edgar came visiting that spring and he gifted my brother and I a five pound note each (which was a lot of money for a kid back then), telling us to treat ourselves to something nice. I knew immediately that Into the Gap would be mine! Musically, the album is very much a consolidation of the catchy dance pop/New Wave/synth-pop blend that the band had debuted on their previous album. It's a melting pot of brilliantly arranged New Wave pop hooks, intelligent lyrical content, and occasional quasi-Middle Eastern musical textures. Great production from Alex Sadkin too! This is the album that took the TTs into the musical stratosphere, spawning a series of hit singles. The whole album is very strong though, with standout album tracks like "Day After Day", "The Gap", and the moody "Storm on the Sea" easily holding their own against the much better-known hits like "Hold Me Now" and "Doctor, Doctor". The really nice thing though is that every single time I listen to the album, I still think of my Dad's old mate Edgar and smile a little. In terms of selecting a track for this post, I've gone with the obvious colossal hit, "Hold Me Now", just because I think it has a beautiful, wistful yearning quality to it and a killer anthemic chorus. Oh, and I love that percussion track (best heard in the intro), all malleted bass drum, castanets, and guiros. Great bass sound on this track too!
Another example of a band I knew only through the radio. I should stop saying this since it's going to be true of just about everybody from this era, which is why I'm having a hard time coming up with my own 1984 Top Ten - though I think I might be getting there, slowly.
I don't think we heard as much of them on this side of the Atlantic, and Hold me Now is the only one I recognised after skimming through their singles list, though it could be it's just the titles I've forgotten. I do like this one. I was about to type that my favourite song of theirs was Head Over Heels but luckily I looked it up to check and was reminded that that was Tears for Fears, not Thompson Twins!
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 13, 2024 21:45:44 GMT -5
I was about to type that my favourite song of theirs was Head Over Heels but luckily I looked it up to check and was reminded that that was Tears for Fears, not Thompson Twins! Yes, it was TFF. "Head Over Heels" is a fantastic song though! |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 13, 2024 21:51:33 GMT -5
#6 - Native Sons by The Long Ryders Enter the Paisley Underground!  I stumbled upon a used vinyl copy of this album at a car boot sale in about 1993 or 94, I guess. I had never heard of the Long Ryders, but I was fascinated by the realisation that here was an 80s band who looked like the Byrds, spelt their band name a bit like the Byrds, played Rickenbacker guitars like the Byrds (shown on the back cover), and who even had ex-Byrd Gene Clark singing guest vocals on one song. I was already a total Byrds-nut by this point, so I knew this had to be worth a punt! Turns out, I was right! Native Sons is easily one of the best "blind" purchases I've ever made. The album brilliantly blends jangly '60s folk-rock, roots rock swagger, Chuck Berry-esque rock 'n' roll licks, and Gram Parsons-style country-rock -- delivering it all with an irreverent and exciting post-punk energy. Little wonder that this album is seen as an essential signpost on the musical road towards the Alt. Country scene of the '90s and 21st century. I love all three of the Long Ryders original '80s albums, but Native Sons is perhaps their purest. There's an innocent, small label indie aesthetic to this record that was inevitably lost on their follow-up and major label debut State of Our Union (great though that album is). In terms of picking a track to showcase, I'm gonna pick two this time, just because I can't decide. First, the album's opening track "Final Wild Son", a song about Jerry Lee Lewis which sounds like something off Gram Parsons' final album, but played by Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers or the Buzzcocks… And the second track is "Run Dusty Run", which is a cracking Chuck Berry-flavoured thing about a desperate, drunken gambler hopefully watching a horse race, with his money and hopes of wedded bliss to his sweetheart riding on the eponymous horse Dusty …
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Post by berkley on Apr 13, 2024 22:26:08 GMT -5
#6 - Native Sons by The Long RydersEnter the Paisley Underground! I stumbled upon a used vinyl copy of this album at a car boot sale in about 1993 or 94, I guess. I had never heard of the Long Ryders, but I was fascinated by the realisation that here was an 80s band who looked like the Byrds, spelt their band name a bit like the Byrds, played Rickenbacker guitars like the Byrds (shown on the back cover), and who even had ex-Byrd Gene Clark singing guest vocals on one song. I was already a total Byrds-nut by this point, so I knew this had to be worth a punt! Turns out, I was right! Native Sons is easily one of the best "blind" purchases I've ever made. The album brilliantly blends jangly '60s folk-rock, roots rock swagger, Chuck Berry-esque rock 'n' roll licks, and Gram Parsons-style country-rock -- delivering it all with an irreverent and exciting post-punk energy. Little wonder that this album is seen as an essential signpost on the musical road towards the Alt. Country scene of the '90s and 21st century. I love all three of the Long Ryders original '80s albums, but Native Sons is perhaps their purest. There's an innocent, small label indie aesthetic to this record that was inevitably lost on their follow-up and major label debut State of Our Union (great though that album is). In terms of picking a track to showcase, I'm gonna pick two this time, just because I can't decide. First, the album's opening track "Final Wild Son", a song about Jerry Lee Lewis which sounds like something off Gram Parsons' final album, but played by Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers or the Buzzcocks… And the second track is "Run Dusty Run", which is a cracking Chuck Berry-flavoured thing about a desperate, drunken gambler hopefully watching a horse race, with his money and hopes of wedded bliss to his sweetheart riding on the eponymous horse Dusty …
Brand new to me - I like it! The second song more than the first. It reminds me a little of Rockpile and some other Dave Edmunds stuff from around this same time, though obviously it's that they were influenced by some of the same artists. I'll probably be looking for this cd next time I'm in a record store.
Unexpected discoveries and blind purchases that pay off in a big way are some of the greatest pleasures of record/cd buying. I bought the first Jam album around 1978 or 1979 in a dollar-discard bin with hole punched out in the corner, just because I liked the cover and it was only a dollar.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 14, 2024 2:53:09 GMT -5
Catching up with this thread after just glancing at it over the past few days; on the topic of 1984 albums, I'll just say that Legend and Unforgettable Fire will reappear when I get around to drawing up my own list (and I strongly suspect that at least one of my other picks will also appear before I get around to posting). Otherwise, I know I've heard some of James Cotton's material before, the guy's voice and the songs are really familiar, but I never connected a name to the music, so thanks for that, Slam_Bradley. And I never liked the Scorpions, not back then, nor now ("The Zoo" is the only song of theirs that I like). |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 14, 2024 13:07:59 GMT -5
More playing catch up.... #5 - Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen The first Echo and the Bunnymen song that I really remember liking was the lead single from Ocean Rain (their fourth album), the now classic '80s alternative anthem "The Killing Moon". I'd heard of the band prior to this – mostly due to their weird name, which intrigued me – but I hadn't knowingly heard their music. I loved "The Killing Moon" though; it sounded mysterious and a bit creepy, but strangely uplifting too. I didn't buy the single, though I did tape it off the radio (hey, funds were scarce when I was 11). In fact, I didn't manage to get my hands on a copy of the album until about 1987 or 88, but upon hearing it in its entirety it became, and remains, a firm favourite. Ocean Rain is a brooding, but whimsically eccentric masterclass, full of percussively strummed acoustic guitars, weirdly metaphysical lyrics, and sweeping orchestral arrangements – all crowned by singer Ian McCulloch's sullen, but expressive baritone. It is, without doubt, the Bunnymen's best and most melodic album. There's a breathless romantic sweetness to a lot of McCulloch's lyrics, but couched in a soundscape that is at turns exhilarating, emotional, and decidedly unconventional, with a strange, haunted ambience to it all. The track I've picked to showcase was the third single taken from the album, "Seven Seas". This has always been a big favourite of mine (it's probably my all-time favourite Bunnymen song, in all honesty), but I also think it demonstrates a lot of the album's appeal. It's a weird, off-kilter song, mostly acoustic guitar-based, with a melodic, but simple bass part and gently propulsive "brush on snare" drumming. Great chiming guitars and bells in the chorus too! I have no idea what the song is about, and yet it has always spoken to me in a way that I find hard to articulate. It also has a great opening line: "Stab a sorry heart with your favourite finger." Damn, I wish I'd written that! |
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Post by berkley on Apr 14, 2024 13:08:52 GMT -5
Catching up with this thread after just glancing at it over the past few days; on the topic of 1984 albums, I'll just say that Legend and Unforgettable Fire will reappear when I get around to drawing up my own list (and I strongly suspect that at least one of my other picks will also appear before I get around to posting). Otherwise, I know I've heard some of James Cotton's material before, the guy's voice and the songs are really familiar, but I never connected a name to the music, so thanks for that, Slam_Bradley . And I never liked the Scorpions, not back then, nor now ("The Zoo" is the only song of theirs that I like). I think I will eventually be able to post a list too. Since I never bought many albums in 1984 I'm trying to listen to a few albums from that year that I thought I knew and liked - but in several cases I've found I don't know the album in question well enough to conscientiously include it on a list of personal favourites. For example, I was thinking of Husker Du's Zen Arcade but when I played it I hardly remembered any of the songs. But I'm re-discovering a few albums that I do know and like, though in many cases they're things I heard for the first time long after the actual year of 1984. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 14, 2024 14:23:11 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1984
#2 - Phillip Walker - Tough as I Want to Be
I've talked at some length about Phillip Walker over the years. This is a guy who should have been a star, but just never broke through. This is a guy who I saw in a very small venue with a pretty darn small crowd who, not only gave it his all, but was kind enough to stop and talk to me for a few minutes between sets. So, I'm always going to love Phillips work.
This is just a tight solid album of Walker originals and a few covers of songs by the likes of Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin. Nine songs. 34:53. That's efficiency. Phillip played his guitar, sang his songs and didn't spend his time noodling around. I'm not sure what else there is to say. Is it the second best album of the year? Nah. Is it better than a few I've mentioned before? Doubtful. But if Phillip released even a semi-good album in a given year...it's going to be one of my favorites.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 14, 2024 14:28:56 GMT -5
Playing catch up now... #7 - Into the Gap by Thompson TwinsI pretty much only know the Thompson Twins from MTV and the radio. Nobody I hung out with listened to what I will now refer to as "Confessor Music" when I was in high school. So my exposure to new wave was pretty much just on the periphery of my listening. #6 - Native Sons by The Long Ryders I'm not sure these guys even made it on to the radio here. And if they were on MTV I missed them. I'm kind of digging them though. More playing catch up.... #5 - Ocean Rain by Echo and the BunnymenSee above. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 14, 2024 23:54:00 GMT -5
More catching up... #4 - Welcome to the Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes to Hollywood Liverpudlian band Frankie Goes to Hollywood were THE pop music and tabloid newspaper sensations of 1984 here in the UK. Their first three singles all went to number 1 in the charts (a feat that had not been achieved by a band since the early '60s); their debut single "Relax" was banned by British TV and radio due to lyrics explicitly advocating sex and masturbation; the videos for their first two singles were banned from TV for offending taste and decency; and their two front men were out and proud gay men in an era when such things were far from common. On top of all that, their records were absolutely brilliant! Myself, I loved FGTH at the time. I bought the "Relax" single in late '83, thrilled by the controversy surrounding it and fascinated to learn a new verb: "to cum".  The band's second single "Two Tribes", an anti-war song dealing with Cold War fears of nuclear Armageddon, was even better and I spent my pocket money on multiple 12" singles of it to get the various mixes of the song ("Two Tribes" was at number 1 in the UK charts for a staggering 9 weeks!). So, it was a no-brainer that I would eagerly pick up the band's debut album when it appeared in October '84. Released as a double-album on vinyl, Welcome to the Pleasuredome is a gloriously and outrageously over-the-top slice of debauched synth-rock. Singer Holly Johnson's literary and romantic lyrics have a delightfully perverted and deviant venom to them and are all delivered in a leering croon, with just a touch of a punk sneer. Musically, it's a bold, cocksure album and a brilliant marriage between the band's subversive songwriting and producer Trevor Horn's genius-like skills for engineering and arranging. A slight criticism might be that the album is padded with a few too many covers, perhaps speaking to the fact that what we have here is a single album that has been stretched out over two LPs. But, then again, the band's renditions of Edwin Starr's "War", Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run", and Dionne Warwick's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" are actually pretty good and certainly don't weaken the album at all. Of the self-penned material, the three smash hit singles, "Relax", "Two Tribes" and "The Power of Love", along with "Wish (The Lads Were Here)", "The Only Star in Heaven", and the epic "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" are real standouts. For us '80s children who were just slightly too young to have experienced punk, Welcome to the Pleasuredome was kind of like our generation's Never Mind the Bollocks. This was a subversive, day-glo explosion of scandalous sex, Cold War politics, and infectious dance grooves. I mean, it's not every album that mixes provocative and insidiously catchy pop-rock hooks with U.S. President Ronald Reagan quoting Hitler, Prince Charles discussing orgasms, and a song about anal fisting ("Krisco Kisses", which is apparently a gay slang term for that particular act). If you have the time, the album's title track – a 16-minute Samuel Taylor Coleridge-inspired ode to hedonism and debauchery which takes up all of side 1 (including the fragments "The World is My Oyster", "Well", and "Snatch of Fury") – is the best illustration of the album's sweeping, high-octane dance pop majesty. I really do urge you to check it out, if you're interested. If, however, you are a little shorter on time, here's the banned video for Frankie's first smash hit, "Relax". Set in an S&M-themed gay nightclub, populated by leathermen, scantily-clad women, and glamorous drag queens, this was like nothing else that was being presented as a pop video at the time (needless to say, it's NSFW)… |
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And wasn't there another album by The Scorpions with a woman kneeling next to a dog in front of a man who was standing dominantly over them both? I mean, I can definitely laugh at the cartoonish misogyny of it all, but that would definitely not fly today! 
Yeah, yeah…I know that they're viewed as a bit of a joke nowadays, but I maintain that they were a far more interesting, artsy, and musically adventurous band than most people give them credit for. 
The band's second single "Two Tribes", an anti-war song dealing with Cold War fears of nuclear Armageddon, was even better and I spent my pocket money on multiple 12" singles of it to get the various mixes of the song ("Two Tribes" was at number 1 in the UK charts for a staggering 9 weeks!). So, it was a no-brainer that I would eagerly pick up the band's debut album when it appeared in October '84.