Eighties songs that don’t suck
OK… I admit that a lot of the music of the eighties is equivalent to the French Rococo art style. Frivolous, pointless and gaudy. To get rid of that, French peasants ran amok, burned, looted and generally started a revolution. Ok, that is simplifying the French revolution a little, but…..a good listen to the typical 80’s play list would give you the idea.
Now, I know stereotyping is wrong and saying all 80’s music sucks is a n unfair generality. It didn’t. There were the consistent performers, many of who had started their careers in the 70’s and 60’s who still cranked out some impressive music during the 80’s. But, the advent of MTV definitely threw a curveball at the pop music genre. Pre-video channel, it didn’t take a pretty boy to crank out a fantastic guitar solo (see Jimi) or a beautiful woman to get a number one hit, ala Janis Joplin. The faces on video brought in a while new emphasis on the music.
OK. 80’s music is diverse in some ways. There were still remnants of the 70’s punk movement who even managed to get on MTV despite their less than charming looks. The Clash rocked the Kasbah and gave birth to a new movement of music, the New Wave that borrowed heavily from 70’s punk with a touch of early 60’s garage band influence mixed in. It produced a few better dressed, but still snarling musicians such as Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and the Pretenders.
Late 60’s and 70’s heavy metal still survived, but took a fashion twist from the glam rock of the 70’s. David Bowie gave birth to spandex, long hair metal. Def Leppard, Poison, White Snake, and Guns n’ Roses ground out the decibels album after album for those more inclined to feel their ears bleed with a melodic metal sledge hammer.
The giants of music played on. Billy Joel and Elton John had video hits hat played often. Even ex-Beatles McCartney, Lennon and Harrison graced the music channels. U2 gained more and more momentum throughout the 80’s to become one of the biggest bands in the world.
Stiil, those bands are not who wee think of when we consider the music of the 80’s. It had a peculiar sound. There was synthesizer. There was an influx of dance music. The 80’s took Glam, romanticism, synthesizers and video to create something that while not always lasting, served at least as a temporary distraction for a fascinated TV crowd.
The true 80’s sound was like the old cliché’ about Chinese food. Listen to it and an hour later you’re hungry again. It was not truly filling or satisfying in most cases. It was Milli Vanilli. It was Soft Cell and “tainted Love.” It was Spandau Ballet and OMD. It was ABC and Bananarama. It was Boy George in drag with Culture Club and The Cure singing “Friday I’m in Love.”
Thomas Dolby Blinded Us With Science” and Duran Duran dressed the part of the new romantics and sang about “Rio.” The icing on the 80’s sound was Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Flock of Seagulls, and the Human League.
They all had hits. And for some reason, no matter how much I wanted to know what I had to do to “Wang Chung” tonight, I just could not see most of that music as permanent and lasting.
Some of the music definitely did not suck. The 80’s were gracious enough to give us some thoughtful gems and quirky experiments. The Talking heads twisted our brains with lyrics both hard to decipher and seemingly meaningless. The Police introduced a whole new population to Reggae music. Reggae fests soon began to appear everywhere.
PatBenetar could belt out a song, just as could Cindi Lauper. Elvis Costello turned out to be quite the wordsmith. Prince cut out a niche as a great musician and songwriter despite the fact he took the stage in a G-string in his early days. Madonna has definitely become a music icon in her own right, if not for her music then her ability to recreate herself over and over.
I could never list AHA’s “Take on Me” or Kajagoogoo’s “Too Shy” in my top 80’s sound list, and would probably not be seen dead at their concert despite the fact I let myself be talked into going to an 80s’s concert in which Flock of Seagulls performed. The shame!
Ok… so my list of 80’s sound music that does not suck follows….
1. Church of the Poison Mind- Culture Club
2. Burning Down the House – the Talking Heads
3. When Doves Cry by Prince
4. Melt with you- Modern English
5. Life in a Northern Town- Dream Academy
6. From a Whisper to a Scream- Icicle Works
7. Blister in the Sun- Violent Femmes
8. We’ve Got the Beat – the Go Gos
9. Eternal Flame – the Bangles
10. I Don’t Like Mondays- Boomtown Rats
11. Money Changes Everything- Cindi Lauper
12. Pink Houses – John Mellencamp
13. Steam – Peter Gabriel
14. Sister Christian – Night Ranger
15. Losing M Religion – REM
16. Tempted – The Squeeze
17. Shout – Tears For Fears
18. Jenny 867-5309 – Tommy Tutone
19. Whole Wide World – Wreckless Eric
20. Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler
21. Turning Japanese- the Vapors
22. Voices carry – Til Tuesday
23. Beds are Burning – Midnight Oil
24. Fake Plastic Trees- Radiohead
25. White Wedding – Billy Idol
Now, there are some songs that are identified as the 80's but actually released in the 70's. I excluded those. Elvis Cosstello's great LP, "My Aim is True" contains the song Allison. Joe Jackson's "Look Sharp" with "Is She Really Going Out With Him," the Knack's "My Sharona" and the 80's and MTV classic "Video Killed the Radio Star " by the Buggles. "Video" was released just 3 months before 1980. It did go on to be the theme of a new video music generation.
Now, a lot of these people have multiple songs that don’t suck. And. , a lot of artists had great tunes, but most of the had sounds that were not 80’s sounds. They were the bands who started in another era and continued through this desert without many musical oasis.
Sure, there were bands that sucked in other eras. The 80’s has no monopoly on that. It just seems that the advent of the music video brought a lot of groups to the screen who fit the look, and seemed more manufactured than the bands of the 70’s or 80’s.
That Fact was illustrated by the Video by BLues Traveler, in which a visual band, headed by a thin singer and cool looking musicians lip synced on stage while the real band, fronted by the more than ample JohnPopper played behind a screen.
Ah... the 80's.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Zen Music Moment - Changes
Zen Music moment
I sat in the small Pizza King restaurant in Lyons Kansas. The overhead fluorescent lights gave a bluish hue to everything. Late, and tired, I was bushed. My first year of college football and the practices were killing me. I had been used to being the big dog in high school, but now I was getting pounded daily. I was trying to adjust to college classes, and it was a new thing. High school had been way too easy for me.
In the small town of Sterling, there was very little to do after the evening rolled in. Late, after study, or goofing off, a few of us discovered the pizza place from some of the local guys. It was a 15 minute drive from Sterling to Lyons, and there we sat, waiting on hot pizza and Coca Cola. We let the frustration of being a freshman, confused and bewildered, slide away with something familiar. The jukebox played and we watched the pretty Lyons high school girls waitress.
I have this memory, of myself and friend and future room mate Terry Brady, sitting there, elbows propped on the plastic red and white checkerboard tablecloth. The new song that played over the jukebox seemed very appropriate to me. David Bowie’s “Changes.”
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time
Changes seemed to be washing over me like waves on the beach. Yes, it was a small college and in a small town, but suddenly I was outside the comfort zone, and an unknown. The coaches didn’t know me from any other freshman. The professors didn’t know my reputation as a good student and I was a little homesick and beaten.
Things were changing.
I thought I had to keep up the facade of being brave, tough and a football stud while daily I actually felt lost, beaten and alone. The new friends I made, including Terry, helped to soothe that feeling of displacement and fear. We were comrades, me, Terry, Mack, Don, Greg, Sammy , John and others who all started as a high school football standout and now began life again at the bottom of the food chain. We bonded from common experience and common situation.
But, there at Pizza King, as the pretty blond waitress named Dixie waited on us, for a just a few moments, Bowie’s song washed over us. Thoughtful, listening to the words and another day of challenge waited outside the door, more changes would have to wait for another slice of pepperoni and a glass of Coke.
I sat in the small Pizza King restaurant in Lyons Kansas. The overhead fluorescent lights gave a bluish hue to everything. Late, and tired, I was bushed. My first year of college football and the practices were killing me. I had been used to being the big dog in high school, but now I was getting pounded daily. I was trying to adjust to college classes, and it was a new thing. High school had been way too easy for me.
In the small town of Sterling, there was very little to do after the evening rolled in. Late, after study, or goofing off, a few of us discovered the pizza place from some of the local guys. It was a 15 minute drive from Sterling to Lyons, and there we sat, waiting on hot pizza and Coca Cola. We let the frustration of being a freshman, confused and bewildered, slide away with something familiar. The jukebox played and we watched the pretty Lyons high school girls waitress.
I have this memory, of myself and friend and future room mate Terry Brady, sitting there, elbows propped on the plastic red and white checkerboard tablecloth. The new song that played over the jukebox seemed very appropriate to me. David Bowie’s “Changes.”
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time
Changes seemed to be washing over me like waves on the beach. Yes, it was a small college and in a small town, but suddenly I was outside the comfort zone, and an unknown. The coaches didn’t know me from any other freshman. The professors didn’t know my reputation as a good student and I was a little homesick and beaten.
Things were changing.
I thought I had to keep up the facade of being brave, tough and a football stud while daily I actually felt lost, beaten and alone. The new friends I made, including Terry, helped to soothe that feeling of displacement and fear. We were comrades, me, Terry, Mack, Don, Greg, Sammy , John and others who all started as a high school football standout and now began life again at the bottom of the food chain. We bonded from common experience and common situation.
But, there at Pizza King, as the pretty blond waitress named Dixie waited on us, for a just a few moments, Bowie’s song washed over us. Thoughtful, listening to the words and another day of challenge waited outside the door, more changes would have to wait for another slice of pepperoni and a glass of Coke.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Should Have Been a Rock Star- Rapping for an old dude
Should Have Been a Rock Star- Rapping for an old dude
Looking at some lyrics the other day… actually rap lyrics. My sons have started listening to rap music, something they distained at one time. My wife, Ash, was actually the first person in the house to give credence to Rap as an art.
Maybe it’s because she teaches literature and words are her tools, but she often, over my moans, spoke of some of the complex lyric she heard in Rap songs.
Me, just like my slow evolution to music’s new technology, I am a slow person to convert. There are a few things you will find on my IPOD that could be considered rap, or at least have Rap line in them. I really like the music by Tony Morello and Street Sweeper Social Club. It has great sizzling guitar with a rap vocal that caught my eyes and ears when it came on MTV with “100 Little Curses.” Morello says he is looking for the perfect blend of rock and rap. He’s pretty darn close.
I also have some things by Black Eyed Peas who first caught my attention with the song “Where is the Love. “ I do truly love that song and its content. I have to admit there was a time I would have turned it off before giving it a chance, which is funny because when Run DMC made the airwaves with their innocuous version of “Walk This Way,” I listened and even got the LP. I was even a fan of their song “My Addias.” For me, and my musical tastes, it was a big departure.
There were even experimental entries into white boy rap that preceded people like Eminem. Years ago artists used some rapid fire spoken lyrics, but as late as the ’93, Todd Rundgren made an LP that seemed to me to be based on William Gibson’s “Neuromancer,” called “No World Order.” Rundgren rapped the largest part of the lyrics. Even Who guitarist Pete Townshend added a sizzling bridge rap with a guest rapper to a solo live performance of the song “Who are you” in ’98 at Shepard’s Bush. Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys and Anthrax, who is credited as being the first band to mix heavy metal and rap lyrics, all paved a way to what is pretty common place on the video channels today
These aren’t the first rappers to cross the line and bring rap music out of Black American culture. I know that when my sons turned on to it, I was surprised because, me the fossil still saw it as a cultural music, rather than something more universal. When some white artists rapped, such as Vanilla Ice, I must admit, I saw them more as a caricature. But the list is a lot longer than the few I have and they played a big part in introducing the art form to a new crowd. And, the white artists seemed almost cartoonish compared to the darker, more street oriented music that I heard from Ice-T, or Public Enemy or even NWA.
Those acts did seem to represent a culture of the streets, poverty and disenfranchisement. I could understand that their music spoke to something different, to oppression, racism and poverty. I have often wondered how those original innovators feel about the Rap/Hip Hop on the airwaves now, filled with wealth, garish display and lyrics less about cause and more about “see my wealth.” Do they see it as a violation? As a sell out? Do the rappers that burned a pathway into the public eye see the new rap as a perversion of the music of the street?
.
In its early days, the complaints about Rap music were many. Some complaints usually referenced the misogynistic theme of much of the music. Women were referred to as ‘bitch’ and many other less than polite terms. Yes, the same thing permeated some rock music, but the Rap music seemed to be less subtle in its sexism. Eventually, female rappers like Queen Latifah , Salt-n-Pepa, and Missy Elliot forced their way onto the Hip Hop scene and spoke against the inherent sexism in the lyrics. Once a voice against oppression, the Rappers had developed their very own ‘good ‘ol boys’ club.
Violence is also a focus of the criticism of Rap music. As late as 2007, a congressional hearing called witnesses concerning the focus on bad language and violence. Is the violence in the music dangerous for the listener? Even pop and rock faced the same challenge during the PMRC hearings in 1985. Those trials were inconclusive with little more than voluntary labeling for content as a result of the spectacular driven by Tipper Gore.
Even Illinois representative Bobby Rush, an ex-Black Panther, implied that the companies are not doing enough to protect young listeners. “This hearing is not anti-hip-hop,” said Mr. Rush. Still, he said, violence and degradation have “reduced too many of our youngsters to automatons, those who don’t recognize life, those who don’t value life.”
Is rap a bad influence? Is it worse than pop or rock in which semi-clad singers writhe around in videos leaving no doubt about the sexual content of some lyric like Lady Gaga’s“I Want To Ride on Your Disco Stick?” Is it the most common race of Rappers, and hints of racism itself that draws the attention of the public to this genre’s excesses? Or, it the criticism accurate in its assumption that this musical form has gone too far, degrading women, promoting violence and desensitizing the youth to foul language, violence and sexism?
A tough question that every generation seems to have to answer, whether it is the Ed Sullivan Show only showing Elvis from the waist up, making the Rolling Stones sing “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” instead of the night together, or early attempts to ban rock and roll because, as a southern radio station DJ in the 50’s said, it was “Nigger music.”
Will rap mellow? Mature?
Will it be diffused by its spread into a wider culture? Will it settle into a formulaic genre as some pop music has? Will it take the reins of social upheaval or slide into the same corporate interchangeable parts form of entertainment as so much of Rock has done, losing its mandate as the changing force in society?
Does it still speak for the disenfranchised or a display for the Nouveau Riche?
We can only hope that among the hours and hours of drivel, that somewhere in both Rap and Rock, someone is fermenting rebellion, and that someone wants to make the listening public aware of injustice, and someone is still trying to shake the foundations of complacency by using the music we love so much.
Looking at some lyrics the other day… actually rap lyrics. My sons have started listening to rap music, something they distained at one time. My wife, Ash, was actually the first person in the house to give credence to Rap as an art.
Maybe it’s because she teaches literature and words are her tools, but she often, over my moans, spoke of some of the complex lyric she heard in Rap songs.
Me, just like my slow evolution to music’s new technology, I am a slow person to convert. There are a few things you will find on my IPOD that could be considered rap, or at least have Rap line in them. I really like the music by Tony Morello and Street Sweeper Social Club. It has great sizzling guitar with a rap vocal that caught my eyes and ears when it came on MTV with “100 Little Curses.” Morello says he is looking for the perfect blend of rock and rap. He’s pretty darn close.
I also have some things by Black Eyed Peas who first caught my attention with the song “Where is the Love. “ I do truly love that song and its content. I have to admit there was a time I would have turned it off before giving it a chance, which is funny because when Run DMC made the airwaves with their innocuous version of “Walk This Way,” I listened and even got the LP. I was even a fan of their song “My Addias.” For me, and my musical tastes, it was a big departure.
There were even experimental entries into white boy rap that preceded people like Eminem. Years ago artists used some rapid fire spoken lyrics, but as late as the ’93, Todd Rundgren made an LP that seemed to me to be based on William Gibson’s “Neuromancer,” called “No World Order.” Rundgren rapped the largest part of the lyrics. Even Who guitarist Pete Townshend added a sizzling bridge rap with a guest rapper to a solo live performance of the song “Who are you” in ’98 at Shepard’s Bush. Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys and Anthrax, who is credited as being the first band to mix heavy metal and rap lyrics, all paved a way to what is pretty common place on the video channels today
These aren’t the first rappers to cross the line and bring rap music out of Black American culture. I know that when my sons turned on to it, I was surprised because, me the fossil still saw it as a cultural music, rather than something more universal. When some white artists rapped, such as Vanilla Ice, I must admit, I saw them more as a caricature. But the list is a lot longer than the few I have and they played a big part in introducing the art form to a new crowd. And, the white artists seemed almost cartoonish compared to the darker, more street oriented music that I heard from Ice-T, or Public Enemy or even NWA.
Those acts did seem to represent a culture of the streets, poverty and disenfranchisement. I could understand that their music spoke to something different, to oppression, racism and poverty. I have often wondered how those original innovators feel about the Rap/Hip Hop on the airwaves now, filled with wealth, garish display and lyrics less about cause and more about “see my wealth.” Do they see it as a violation? As a sell out? Do the rappers that burned a pathway into the public eye see the new rap as a perversion of the music of the street?
.
In its early days, the complaints about Rap music were many. Some complaints usually referenced the misogynistic theme of much of the music. Women were referred to as ‘bitch’ and many other less than polite terms. Yes, the same thing permeated some rock music, but the Rap music seemed to be less subtle in its sexism. Eventually, female rappers like Queen Latifah , Salt-n-Pepa, and Missy Elliot forced their way onto the Hip Hop scene and spoke against the inherent sexism in the lyrics. Once a voice against oppression, the Rappers had developed their very own ‘good ‘ol boys’ club.
Violence is also a focus of the criticism of Rap music. As late as 2007, a congressional hearing called witnesses concerning the focus on bad language and violence. Is the violence in the music dangerous for the listener? Even pop and rock faced the same challenge during the PMRC hearings in 1985. Those trials were inconclusive with little more than voluntary labeling for content as a result of the spectacular driven by Tipper Gore.
Even Illinois representative Bobby Rush, an ex-Black Panther, implied that the companies are not doing enough to protect young listeners. “This hearing is not anti-hip-hop,” said Mr. Rush. Still, he said, violence and degradation have “reduced too many of our youngsters to automatons, those who don’t recognize life, those who don’t value life.”
Is rap a bad influence? Is it worse than pop or rock in which semi-clad singers writhe around in videos leaving no doubt about the sexual content of some lyric like Lady Gaga’s“I Want To Ride on Your Disco Stick?” Is it the most common race of Rappers, and hints of racism itself that draws the attention of the public to this genre’s excesses? Or, it the criticism accurate in its assumption that this musical form has gone too far, degrading women, promoting violence and desensitizing the youth to foul language, violence and sexism?
A tough question that every generation seems to have to answer, whether it is the Ed Sullivan Show only showing Elvis from the waist up, making the Rolling Stones sing “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” instead of the night together, or early attempts to ban rock and roll because, as a southern radio station DJ in the 50’s said, it was “Nigger music.”
Will rap mellow? Mature?
Will it be diffused by its spread into a wider culture? Will it settle into a formulaic genre as some pop music has? Will it take the reins of social upheaval or slide into the same corporate interchangeable parts form of entertainment as so much of Rock has done, losing its mandate as the changing force in society?
Does it still speak for the disenfranchised or a display for the Nouveau Riche?
We can only hope that among the hours and hours of drivel, that somewhere in both Rap and Rock, someone is fermenting rebellion, and that someone wants to make the listening public aware of injustice, and someone is still trying to shake the foundations of complacency by using the music we love so much.
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