OB1
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Struggling to narrow down my quite short, shortlist. Decisions, decisions.
Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1985 - (page 203)
- Thread starter RobMCFC
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Black&White&BlueMoon Town
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The summer of ’85 was the longest break I’ve had from school or work to this day as I write this, so I look back on that time pretty longingly now. It is hard to believe Back to the Future was now 40 years ago. Marty only went 30 years into the future at the end of that classic movie that made one think about life's choices and the ramifications of such.
As I look back now, that year in my life is when some of the most important decisions were made that has me where I am now. I had 6 universities to choose from, of which I could only afford two, so the choices were pretty limitedly clear at the time. I got into the same university as my senior girlfriend at the time, but everyone from my high school was also going there, and it was 20 minutes from home. I instead decided in May of that year to go 7 hours away south to the school where my cousin was attending and I had visited a few years prior with my oldest cousin also there at the time.
That led to a pretty involved summer with my girlfriend discussing how a long distance relationship might work. Sting’s debut album came out in June, and we both latched onto the first single “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" with the lyrics being pretty direct on the subject.
If you love someone, set them free
Free-free, set them free (set them free)
Things worked for a while that fall until we both met others at where we were, and try as we might, we found the final song on that album more appropriate to the ending of a relationship. As Sting would say about this song, “its about appeasement, about trying to bridge the gaps between individuals. The central image is a minefield that you've laid around this other person to try and protect them. Then you realize that you have to walk back through it. I think it's one of the best choruses I've ever written.”
"Fortress Around Your Heart" – Sting
So that leaves me with one song left. One song left for 1985 that I have to think about in context of what I was listening to by the end of that year. I was introduced to this band and their entire album Crush in 1985 by the person I had met from the dining hall and Calculus class. I had never heard of this band or anything really in this genre, but I soon learned that this time going forward was about being open to new music, experiences, and people as a relationship was starting.
I've got a secret I can't explain
All the time I've waited for this day
All along I was never in doubt
I always knew it would never get out
There are things that I cannot tell
And there are things that you know damn well
This is getting very hard for me
I guess you'd better just wait and see
“Secret” – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
(to be continued in 1986…)
As I look back now, that year in my life is when some of the most important decisions were made that has me where I am now. I had 6 universities to choose from, of which I could only afford two, so the choices were pretty limitedly clear at the time. I got into the same university as my senior girlfriend at the time, but everyone from my high school was also going there, and it was 20 minutes from home. I instead decided in May of that year to go 7 hours away south to the school where my cousin was attending and I had visited a few years prior with my oldest cousin also there at the time.
That led to a pretty involved summer with my girlfriend discussing how a long distance relationship might work. Sting’s debut album came out in June, and we both latched onto the first single “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" with the lyrics being pretty direct on the subject.
If you love someone, set them free
Free-free, set them free (set them free)
Things worked for a while that fall until we both met others at where we were, and try as we might, we found the final song on that album more appropriate to the ending of a relationship. As Sting would say about this song, “its about appeasement, about trying to bridge the gaps between individuals. The central image is a minefield that you've laid around this other person to try and protect them. Then you realize that you have to walk back through it. I think it's one of the best choruses I've ever written.”
"Fortress Around Your Heart" – Sting
So that leaves me with one song left. One song left for 1985 that I have to think about in context of what I was listening to by the end of that year. I was introduced to this band and their entire album Crush in 1985 by the person I had met from the dining hall and Calculus class. I had never heard of this band or anything really in this genre, but I soon learned that this time going forward was about being open to new music, experiences, and people as a relationship was starting.
I've got a secret I can't explain
All the time I've waited for this day
All along I was never in doubt
I always knew it would never get out
There are things that I cannot tell
And there are things that you know damn well
This is getting very hard for me
I guess you'd better just wait and see
“Secret” – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
(to be continued in 1986…)
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I first heard Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in '80 when a mate gave me Damn the Torpedoes (he sold his record player and gave me all his albums, including a Japanese copy of Rumours!). But I bought Southern Accents and nominate Don't Come Around Here No More, a song he co-wrote with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.
I'd always loved CCR, so when John Fogerty released Centerfield, his first album since the '70s, I bought it straight away and was not disappointed. The lead single from it is The Old Man Down the Road.
I'd always loved CCR, so when John Fogerty released Centerfield, his first album since the '70s, I bought it straight away and was not disappointed. The lead single from it is The Old Man Down the Road.
lastmanback
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I see. Single was released 85.
Cry - godly and creme :-)
OB1
Well-Known Member
I always liked TP&TH but I really started to collect heir albums with the release of “Southern Accents”, which I bought on release. The title track was on my short list but “Don’t…” will do fine.
Black&White&BlueMoon Town
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Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
Playlist updated to 54 tracks. Some nice picks yesterday :-) Cry a particular favourite.
threespires
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Oh for the days when the nearest we had to deep fake was the video to Cry. G&C could do a nice line in melodrama and theatricality; your nomination has reminded me of one of theirs from a few years earlier Under Your Thumb.
Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
Just jumping back in here, not to nominate a track for the list, but to add some musings about life and listening in 1985, if anyone can be interested.
By then I was living in Japan, into my thirties, had nearly given up on rock and pop — not without a sense of mourning — and was discovering, with great delight, the jazz of the sixties, fifties and even forties that I'd always skirted round. (In the seventies I'd thought that jazz was Manfred Eicher and ECM. And I don't recant on that — there are some fine, fine albums on that label, and yes, they are jazz, and yes, I still listen to them. But enough…)
In any case, living that far away, you were inevitably disconnected from what was going on in rock. Years before K Pop (I think), the Japanese had their own, very similar version for entirely internal consumption. Boys bands and girls bands dolled up in an eerily similar way, cavorting in an eerily similar way, with lyrics that, in so far as I understood them, were studiedly vacuous. And I mean that — deliberately vacuous, I believe.
As for the west, from that distance, there seemed at that point to be only two games in town — Springsteen and Madonna. Most of my American and Canadian colleagues were listening to one or the other. And I was interested in neither.
One day, I went into a record shop in a town called Hon-Atsugi (where I taught part-time at the local university). I was riffling through LPs, the way you do (and I idled away hours doing that, during much of my youth). It was the rock section, which I was visiting, hope against hope. I came across this cover that intrigued me — an absurdly young man, a radio operator, obviously in Vietnam. Clearly taken from life. I'd never heard of the group, but I liked the dandyish banality of the name.
On a whim, without having heard one note, I bought it.
Everybody on here knows what I'm talking about.
It's difficult to indicate the delight when I put that record on. I was immediately taken, immediately a believer, as I have rarely been with any LP or CD. I thought to myself, shit, yes, there is something going on in rock that says something to me about my life! Not that I'm gay, grew up in Moss Side, or am a vegetarian…
It seemed to single-handedly save the eighties, for me. And the subsequent work. Now, like many on here, I've given MES a gentle ribbing — he can take it, water off a duck's back — but I'm now finally owning up to how important those records were to me. However, I'm afraid that for me, they were the last grand hurrah of British rock.
By all means, persuade me otherwise…
By then I was living in Japan, into my thirties, had nearly given up on rock and pop — not without a sense of mourning — and was discovering, with great delight, the jazz of the sixties, fifties and even forties that I'd always skirted round. (In the seventies I'd thought that jazz was Manfred Eicher and ECM. And I don't recant on that — there are some fine, fine albums on that label, and yes, they are jazz, and yes, I still listen to them. But enough…)
In any case, living that far away, you were inevitably disconnected from what was going on in rock. Years before K Pop (I think), the Japanese had their own, very similar version for entirely internal consumption. Boys bands and girls bands dolled up in an eerily similar way, cavorting in an eerily similar way, with lyrics that, in so far as I understood them, were studiedly vacuous. And I mean that — deliberately vacuous, I believe.
As for the west, from that distance, there seemed at that point to be only two games in town — Springsteen and Madonna. Most of my American and Canadian colleagues were listening to one or the other. And I was interested in neither.
One day, I went into a record shop in a town called Hon-Atsugi (where I taught part-time at the local university). I was riffling through LPs, the way you do (and I idled away hours doing that, during much of my youth). It was the rock section, which I was visiting, hope against hope. I came across this cover that intrigued me — an absurdly young man, a radio operator, obviously in Vietnam. Clearly taken from life. I'd never heard of the group, but I liked the dandyish banality of the name.
On a whim, without having heard one note, I bought it.
Everybody on here knows what I'm talking about.
It's difficult to indicate the delight when I put that record on. I was immediately taken, immediately a believer, as I have rarely been with any LP or CD. I thought to myself, shit, yes, there is something going on in rock that says something to me about my life! Not that I'm gay, grew up in Moss Side, or am a vegetarian…
It seemed to single-handedly save the eighties, for me. And the subsequent work. Now, like many on here, I've given MES a gentle ribbing — he can take it, water off a duck's back — but I'm now finally owning up to how important those records were to me. However, I'm afraid that for me, they were the last grand hurrah of British rock.
By all means, persuade me otherwise…
Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
I'd probably have been snobbish about it at the time. The plain fact is that he has a very melodious voice, it's an incredibly catchy song, and I simply love the accompanying animation.
Edit: By the way, sorry to backtrack on this speed-of-light thread, but talking about incredibly catchy tunes, in 1983, did we pick up on Kajagoogoo's “Too Shy”? The bass line alone, by Nick Beggs, has been much admired, and rightly so.
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OB1
Well-Known Member
I’m going for a cover for my third pick: The Power Station - Get It On
The Power Station were a British-American rock and pop music supergroup consisting of singer Robert Palmer, former Chic drummer Tony Thompson, and the unrelated Duran Duran members John Taylor (bass) and Andy Taylor (guitar). Their first album Taylors wanted to branch out from Duran Duran and play some Zep inspired R n R.
Their first album was one that I bought in 1985 and this cover of the T.Rex classic is both faithful and possessing of its own identity. It was a hit single.
The band did appear at Live Aid in Philly but with Michael Des Barres on vocals, that same line-up also made a cameo in Miami Vice.
The Power Station were a British-American rock and pop music supergroup consisting of singer Robert Palmer, former Chic drummer Tony Thompson, and the unrelated Duran Duran members John Taylor (bass) and Andy Taylor (guitar). Their first album Taylors wanted to branch out from Duran Duran and play some Zep inspired R n R.
Their first album was one that I bought in 1985 and this cover of the T.Rex classic is both faithful and possessing of its own identity. It was a hit single.
The band did appear at Live Aid in Philly but with Michael Des Barres on vocals, that same line-up also made a cameo in Miami Vice.
Mancitydoogle
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I’ll add another rock super group, made up of Paul Rogers and Jimmy Page aided and abetted by Tony Franklin on Bass and Chris Slade on drums.
The Firm ‘RADIOACTIVE’
The Firm ‘RADIOACTIVE’
Black&White&BlueMoon Town
Well-Known Member
I think you should nominate one...
I think it's pretty clear where at least 5 of us regulars on this thread sit on that divide given the wealth of songs nominated in prior years.
My ex-senior year girlfriend was also more Madonna too, so there was that as well.
I think there are at least a few significant events in the 90's, so what I consider grand or influential or groundbreaking may not be what you fancy, but I hope you at least hang around to listen to the offerings because I know they will be coming.
On the album cover and subject from this year at hand, I had never heard of or music by this band until the fall of my freshman year heard first via my college roommate. He already owned and played that album non-stop in our room, and it was quite the interesting contrast of my Springsteen and his enjoyment of this band. We'd meet in the middle over R.E.M., U2 and Rush, but to be clear his enjoyment of this band and my being exposed to their music for the first time is something I'll always remember.
You've got a few nominations left and we've only had one from that album, so surely another one is warranted? I could ask about the timing of your nomination, but that would give it away for what song I'm hoping you'd put up? ;-)
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Black&White&BlueMoon Town
Well-Known Member
Yes, @Saddleworth2 had it in the original 10 and apparently you liked it, so it was rightfully represented. :-)
I'm sure someone would have also nominated that song had it not already been covered initially as that was pretty popular all around.
Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1985 - (page 203)
There's a few songs that need to be on this list and a couple that I'm adding in. Special mention to a few that I'm not including that maybe can go in the Coda. Dire Straits - Special Investigation, Midge Ure - No Regrets, OMD - Maid Of Orleans and XTC - Senses Working Overtime. First up, Wham...
forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk
Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
Well, I'm trying to be a bit original, and also not feel that I'm worshipping at the Smith Shrine too much, and contributing to the general smitholatry.
So… just realised that BAD's first was released that year. So yeah, there was in fact some really good stuff.
One of the best, announcing-yourself-with-pizzazz, marching-in-all-guns-blazing first tracks on a début album that I know of:
Medicine Show — Big Audio Dynamite
Again, it's that burbling, almost walking bass on that just tickles me in the right place. And of course accompanied by that delightfully camp clip, with its guest appearance by Mr Lydon. And, well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go back on desire for originality, and nominate
The Headmaster Ritual — The Smiths
which, inexplicably, Mr Screamer does not appear to have. Again, like “Medicine Show”, it's one of those opening tracks on an album that just springs fully armed, like Minerva, from the forehead of Jupiter.
And, being an educator by trade, I'm very amused by the lyrics. I did not give up education as a bad mistake, but I know exactly what he means by sadistic masters. I was more than once beaten up at the age of nine or so by a master with that kind of blue eyes that gleams with incipient violence. Not badly beaten up, you understand, “just the right amount.” People could do that in those days. Especially at boarding school. Probably I was a bit out of order, or just generally uppity. Yes, that's possible.
Incredible that I've gone on to become, I think, a fairly gentle teacher…
threespires
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Ah but that track was never on the UK release only the US one. As @Lovebitesandeveryfing has gone for a different (also excellent) track you're spared me banging on about how Marr created that opening sound and how no one would go to that level of trouble these days :-)
Mad Eyed Screamer
Moderator
Ha! I had a good think about what tune from Meat Is Murder to select and this was in the top 3. Was very happy with my choice made in Well I wonder……
Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
Yep. I could have chosen most tracks off it. If I choose the opening one, remember that I had heard nothing whatsoever by them, and indeed had not heard of them. Think of the aural shock! Marr's peremptory Rickenbacker chords striding in…
By the way, I've always understood that that closing sound on “Well I Wonder” is rain. If you listen to it on good cans, I think it becomes obvious. Heavy rain, but rain. It's also more poetic, more Morrissey-like, it seems to me. Matches his melancholy mood.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
Completely off topic, hard to believe, but I watched Almost Famous for the first time last week. Mrs S and I were entranced taking us back as it did to our youth. Brilliant film, cast and soundtrack.