Infinite MonkeysThis was the main entry section that got accidentally replaced by spam.
[Prediction: Mitch Berg - Springsteen's Nebraska]
I immediately thought of The Clash's London Calling. Not because I've ever owned a copy. It just seemed like the right thing. Monkey friend Fingers narrowed down my Pixies suggestion with Surfer Rosa. As for XTC, I'd go with An English Settlement, though friends suggest Skylarking (they expressed reservations about recommending it to kids at a Christian school, but I'm confident enough in our Apologetics classes). For The Smiths, my favorite is Hatful of Hollow. Oh, and I'd want to show them what REM used to sound like with Murmur. That still leaves The Replacements (I lean towards Pleased to Meet Me since I know it the best), something by Echo and The Bunnymen, and something by The Cure. At the time, I'd have nominated Cocteau Twins' Treasure, but with more perspective, (and since Heaven or Las Vegas is from the 90's) I'll go with Blue Bell Knoll. Ooh, just checked and found out that The Sundays' Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic came out in '89. I don't care what you say, since that one lived in my tape deck until I could hear the opposite side playing backwards though the music, I have to nominate it. (Though I may be thinking of their 1992 album, Blind.) There's still the task of deciding which early U2 album (Boy?), and Talking Heads album (Remain in Light?) to suggest. And of course, I still have too many.
Obviously, I need your help. And remember, it's for the children.
Posted by Brad at January 25, 2004 04:54 PM | TrackBackUm...Joshua Tree? U2? The Joshua Tree? Are these students high? Well, yes, probably. (I sure was.)
Not to mention The Cure, and New Kids on the Block.
Posted by: The Hearn at January 25, 2004 05:08 PMI love "Nebraska", it's true - but it wasn't an "Eighties" album, it was an album released in the eighties.
Best handful of eighties records:Joshua Tree, U2The River, SpringsteenFables of the Reconstruction, REMShoot Out The Lights, Richard and Linda ThompsonThe Crossing, Big CountrySparkle In The Rain, Simple MindsBlood On The Bricks, the Iron City HouserockersWill The Wolf Survive, Los LobosLearning To Crawl, PretendersTim, The ReplacementsLondon Calling, The Clash,I'm sure I'll think of two or three more lists as I go, here, but that's my personal list to answer your question.
Posted by: MItch at January 25, 2004 06:13 PMHey, you disabled HTML!
OK, my list again, in a readable format:
* Joshua Tree, U2
* The River, Springsteen
* Fables of the Reconstruction, REM
* Shoot Out The Lights, Richard and Linda Thompson
* The Crossing, Big Country
* Sparkle In The Rain, Simple Minds
* Blood On The Bricks, the Iron City Houserockers
* Will The Wolf Survive, Los Lobos
* Learning To Crawl, Pretenders
* Tim, The Replacements
* London Calling, The Clash
Ooh, and now I can't stop:
* King of Rock, Run/DMC
* It Takes a Nation of Millions, Public Enemy
* Roses In The Snow, Emmylou Harris.
I'll stop before I hurt myself.
Posted by: Mitch at January 25, 2004 06:16 PMPlus:
* Diesel and Dust, Midnight Oil.
REALLY done now.
Posted by: Mitch at January 25, 2004 06:21 PMI teach High Schoolers, and they certainly don't have a clue. Utterly lacking in clue. My picks?
Blue Öyster Cult: Fire of Unknown Origin, and Cultosaurus Erectus
Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms
Yaz: Upstairs at Erics
Thomas Dolby: Golden Age of Wireless
Tears for Fears: Songs from the Big Chair, and Seeds of Love
Sade: Stronger than Pride, Promise, Diamond Life
Peter Cetera: One more Story
Pete Townshend: Empty Glass
Janet Jackson: Rhythm Nation 1814
Frankie goes to Hollywood: Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel of Love
David Sanborn: Close Up
Basia: Time and Tide
Anita Baker: Rapture
Stevie Nicks: Bella Donna
Gipsy Kings: Mosaïque
Belinda Carlisle: Runaway Horses
The Smiths: The Queen is Dead & World Won’t Listen (The soundtracks for future meterosexuals)
The Tubes: Outside/Inside (“She’s a Beauty” was the most played song of my junior year but “Wild Women of Wongo came a close second.)
Randy Travis: Storms of Life (The birth of neo-traditional country.)
A-ha: Hunting High and Low (But just the stuff that didn’t make it on the radio. (e.g., “Sun Always Shines On T.V.))
The Lost Boys Soundtrack (The coolest alternative music for alt-wannabes)
Peter Gabriel: So (The one with “Big Time” and “Sledgehammer”. ’Nuff said.)
Kate Bush: The Whole Story (The godmother of Lilith fair-type fem alt-rock.)
George Strait: Greatest Hits (50 albums later he has yet to top this collection from ‘85.)
Luther Vandross: The Best of Luther Vandross (Johnny Mathis for Gen-X.)
James Ingram: It’s Your Night (This one had been in my tape deck (well, CD player now) since 1984. It never gets old.)
Steve Taylor: I Predict 1990 (The man who saved us from Amy Grant clones.)
Posted by: Joe Carter at January 25, 2004 10:40 PMOkay, I'll bite.
Peter Gabriel, So
U2, Joshua Tree
Tears for Fears, Seeds of Love
Crowded House, Crowded House
Husker Du, Warehouse (or Zen Arcade)
I mentioned Pink Floyd's The Wall in the extension of this call or recommendations at The Evangelical Outpost. It was released in the United States in December of 1979, but certainly had a stunning impact in the music world of the early '80s.
Posted by: Jon Luker at January 26, 2004 10:23 AMHey guys, you need to enable HTML for comments; at least basics like bold, italic, underline, etc. It's in Weblog Config | Preferences
Posted by: Jon Luker at January 26, 2004 10:27 AMOh, and what's this aversion to comments? That's been my primary motivation in bugging you to move to MT! A blog with no comment interaction is like a bulletin board with a glass case over it. Sterile.
Posted by: Jon Luker at January 26, 2004 10:35 AMHmmm... First, I'll second the votes for:
* The Clash: London Calling (Give 'Em Enough Rope comes a close second)
* REM, Murmor or Fables. (If you like early REM, also look for the EP "Chronic Town".)
* U2, either Boy or War. (IHMO, Unforgettable Fire was the really last worthwhile thing they did.)
* Dolby, Golden Age of Wireless
* Husker Du, Zen Arcade
* Tears for Fears, Big Chair (but Seeds of Love? Puuulhease...)
How could we forget:
* The Police: Ghost In the Machine or Regatta da Blanc
* Madness and The Specials (can't remember the names of either of these albums, alas... warning, kids, this is what age does to you...)
* Eddy Grant: Electric Avenue
* The Fixx: Reach the Beach
* New Order: Power Corruption and Lies (the album with the cover that looked like a giant floppy disk). Actually, Brotherhood and Low-Life are probably better albums, but everyone remembers that floppy-disk cover...
* Earlier Pretenders stuff: The first album, Extended Play, or Pretenders II. (IHMO, by the time of "Learning to Crawl" J-H Scott was dead, Chrissie was turning PC, and the band had jumped the shark.)
* Rush: Signals or Grace under Pressure (Rush started as '70s power trio... who would ever have thought..)
* Run-DMC: As Nasty As They Wanna Be (does anyone remember the "Clean" version? It was a lot shorter too...)
* X: (pick one... they're all good)
* Art of Noise: In Visible Silence (Who's Afraid of The Art of Noise runs a close second)
* Peter Gabriel III or IV. (PGIII is the one with the half-melted cover photo; PGIV is the one that has "Games Without Frontiers" on it). Both are much better than "So" IHMO.
* King Crimson: Discipline ('70s art-rocker Robert Fripp not only groks the '80s, he becomes a trendsetter...)
* Soft Cell: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
* Kraftwerk: Man-Machine
* Smithereens: their first album (can't remember the name)
* Adam and the Ants: Antmusic
* The Producers: You Make the Heat
* The B-52: Wild Planet
Oh come on, who can have an 80's 'best of' without Oingo Boingo? Classic 'party music' and then there is Men at Work, come on guys, you are missing a ton of raging tunes. Lost Boys soundtrack contains many fine musical interludes but you can't forget the Breakfast Club sountrack!
Posted by: Larry at January 26, 2004 12:51 PMI think the question is, what's the premise here? Best of the 80s or albums that demo to "the kids today" that the '80s weren't a wasteland.
Which is why, for example, I picked Gabriel's "So" over earlier works -- because I think the production and the hits would wow them more than PG3 ("Melt"), which would otherwise probably be my pick.
Similarly, I don't like "Zen Arcade" very much, and much prefer "Warehouse: Songs and Stories." But these kids today might really appreciate the all-out punk feeling in ZA.
Posted by: Jason at January 26, 2004 01:07 PMGood recommendation, folks. Thanks for the submissions. (I hope to see even more.)
Jason, you're right about the premise. It's really about what would appeal to today's teen. Of course I didn't want to take the time and space to go into detail about this teen's (or his peer group's) personal preferences. I undestand as much about what he listens to as adults/parents understood about the music I listened to back when I was that age. I can't even figure out what it's called (Emo? Emo-core?), and they can't nail it down either. It's very guitar and drum driven.
Larry, I'm left wondering if your comments are an ironic response to the qualifiers that Joe at Evangelical Outpost put on his version on this thread. Check it out. (Until our admin guys get around to enabling HTML in our Comments windows, you'll have to follow the trackback info, or cut & paste this URL:
http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/000322.html
Like the late 70's, the amazing thing about the 80's is that once you got off the radio dial, there was an amazing diversity of bands & music. The “alternative” scene was going strong, unnoticed, years before Nirvana hit.
I’ll try not to replicate selections from above.
(Btw -- So are we going >strictly< 80's? Some of the pics, like "London Calling" & X's first coupla albums, are from the late 70's. Just being picky!!)
Anyway, here are a few:
*Trio, "Trio & Error" -- I totally loved this record because it was so sublimely stupid. Three german clowns with a casio keyboard, some dinky guitar, a tinny drum machine, and a minimalist aesthetic. One of their tunes got used for a VW commercial a while back -- “Da Da Da”, I think.
*The Minutemen, "Double Nickels on the Dime" -- like "Zen Arcade", a double LP tour-de-force from SST records. Short, dry, punchy songs with irresistable momentum. Sounds like it could have been made yesterday. A bit politically naive -- like lots of SST bands!!
*Camper Van Beehtoven, "Telephone Free Landslide Victory": This is David Lowery's band before he formed "Cracker" in the 90's. Much more musically eclectic than "Cracker" -- tight arrangements featuring violin / guitar duels and unusual meters. A bit surreal and whimsical -- "Take the Skinheads Bowling", for instance. Super musicianship.
*Dinosaur, Jr., "Bug": You couldn't get any farther away from the likes of Flock of Seagulls or the hair-rockers than this. Punk-Rock guitar hero J. Mascis makes huge amounts of noise with Lou Barlow before the latter split off to form "Sebadoh".
*Sonic Youth, "Sister" or "Daydream Nation". Arty New York noise-rockers.
*Let's Active, "Afoot" or "Cypress". This is Mitch Easter's band, the man responsible for producing R.E.M.'s early albums. Jangly guitars & lots of melody. The band featured Sarah Romwebber on drums -- sister of Dexter Romwebber of Flat Duo Jets.
*Buzzcocks, "Singles Going Steady". This is cheating, because it's a compilation of late 70's singles released in 80 or so. It was hugely influential to punkish 80's bands. And any teenagler will enjoy songs like "orgasm addict".
*Prince, "1999": Come on. Prince, 1999. Of course.
*Go-Go's, "Beauty and the Beat" -- Great pop album. Hooks galore.
*The Pogues, "Rum, Sodomy & the Lash": "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainne" must be the best drinking song ever written. As close to punk as traditional Irish music ever got (so far as I know).
*Big Black, "Atomizer" or "More Songs About F***ing". Steve Albini’s band. Grinding, pitiless, bleak music, very industrial in feel. -- Trent Reznor & other 90's angst-puppies like Limp Bizkit & Korn are wusses in comparison.
*Violent Femmes, “Violent Femmes”: Kids have probably heard this one -- it became improbably popular in some sets -- you would hear it an the oddest places. Anyway, an album that manages to rock hard with mostly acoustic guitars. No one else sounds like ‘em.
That’s all I can think of just now -- .
Posted by: Twn at January 26, 2004 03:51 PMTwn,
I had the Violent Femmes revelation on the way home from work today. I'm not surprised somebody beat me to it. And I'm thrilled to see somebody nominate Let's Active. I had the BIGGEST crush on Sarah the drummer back then. By the time I saw them live (great show - even an electric Fender madolin) she had made the unexplained split from the band. Never knew that about the connection with Flat Duo Jets. [Robb is also a Let's Active fan, and just last week lent me his DVD of "Athens, G.A. Inside Out."]
Robb also happens to be one of the world's preeminent Camper fans. He has posted a bit about his pilgrimages to see their shows.
Good points, and good recommendations. Happy to have you reading.
Posted by: Brad at January 26, 2004 04:37 PMIn no particular order:
Tom Petty & The HeartBreakers: Damn the Torpedoes
Kansas: In the Spirit of Things
The Clash: London Calling
Peter Gabriel: So
U2: War
Heart: Brigade
Don Henley: Building the Perfect Beast
Rush: A Show of Hands
B-52s: Mesopotamia
Alan Parsons Project: Eye in the Sky
Asia: Asia
The Fixx: Reach the Beach
Talking Heads: Remain in Light
Van Halen: Diver Down
ZZ Top: Eliminator
Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy. Easily one of the most revolutionary albums ever.
Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation.
Someone picked the wrong Kate Bush album. The correct one is The Hounds of Love, which has its own mini album as half of it--with Waking the Witch, etc.
Burning from the Inside, Bauhaus.
REM's Life's Rich Pageant, which seemed at the time to not live up to the beauty of Murmur, and seemed awfully sharp and brassy compared to Fables of the Reconstruction, but over time, was clearly better.
The Cure's Kiss Me Cubed was really astonishing in breadth and depth, but of course, it's Disintegration that is the masterpiece, and like the Pixies' best album, Doolittle, it came out in 1989, but is mostly a 90s album. Also, Nirvana's EP Bleach came out in 89; Again, brilliant, though 90s music.
I second Big Black's Atomizer and Public Enemy's it takes a Nation of Millions...
Posted by: greifer at January 26, 2004 11:27 PMAnd of course, I forgot,
Spacemen 3's The Perfect Prescription. Brilliant.
Actually I really like Oingo Boingo, I think Danny Elfman is an incredibly talented composer and a very entertaining performer.
How many people that grew up in the 80's can resist singing along, or at least keeping the beat with the Men at Work songs?
I hadn't seen the thread over at Evangelical Outpost so I plead ignorance on that one.... I just have very interesting tastes in tunes. I guess if I was posting along the Steve Taylor lines, I would have to throw in names like the 77's and Undercover.
Brad -- happy to be here!!
For a quinessential "80's" sounding performer, Gary Numan can't be beat. I think his hit "Cars" was on "The Pleasure Principle".
Posted by: Twn at January 27, 2004 12:25 PM