Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1987 - (page 218)

Released on their own label this debut album was named and had a front cover featuring Rag hero George Best but sometimes you have to turn a blind eye to this sort of sacrilege.

Just done a 40th Anniversary tour and still very much a going concern they also hold a joint record with Elvis of having 12 concecutive Top 40 hits by releasing a 7 inch single each month in 1992.

Some discussion has been had on what constituents Indie.
Anyone wondering this is it.

The Wedding Present - Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
 
homerdog said:
Hard to say when you've got 2112, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures to compare it to and I know it divides opinion.
I've always admired the way they moved forward and experimented, although the production has always seemed a little bright to me.
However, Time Stand Still and Force Ten are still 2 of my favourite Rush tracks.
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ffs :)
 
OB1 said:
Love the write-up Rob and the track selections, most of which would have been on my short list for the year had I made one yet. Also delighted to see you pick more than 10 and be up for a coda :-)

1987 was a great year for music and one of the greatest years of my life. My musical (and movie going) year centres on the five months over summer / early fall that I spent on secondment working in Nashville, Tennessee - one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences of my life, it was also where on 5 July, my marriage proposal, made a month earlier in the UK, was accepted by wife, who made me wait for the answer until she visited me. She arrived on the fourth and we rushed straight out to downtown to see the fireworks, so it was the fifth by the time we had a moment to get serious…

I’ll share some more about my Nashville sojourn but for now my first playlist pick is inspired by my beloved flying out to see me for a couple of weeks (at my employer’s expense) - Pink Floyd: Learning to Fly from their Bob Ezrin produced Watersless comeback album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”. The track got a lot of airplay on Nashville radio and was the lead off from the album, which I was drawn to by it and purchased in Nashville. It was actually this album, despite owning DSOTM and loving but not owning WYWH, that finally turned me into a full blown Floyd fan.
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Started a shortlist and it is already quite long even without the tracks already selected. Some of those are songs that had heavy rotation on the rock station in Nashville that I had my car(s) tuned into for the long journey into work. My first rental car was very dull but the second was a Ford Thunderbird, which I loved. The trip to work was in fact very short.

A colleague from our Danish parent company and I were sent to look after a newly acquired subsidiary until it was bedded in / a local was hired for the role I covered. For accommodation, much to the chagrin of my UK employer company who had to foot my bill, the Danes let us stay in one of the best hotels in Nashville at the time, which was out by the airport / near to the office there, where we had a lovely suite each. We worked plenty of longish days but I could phone room service from work and order my dinner (the bacon cheeseburger with skin on fries was a joy), drive back to the hotel, change out of my suit and then the food would arrive.

Anyway, I digress, some of those songs on heavy rotation instantly transport me back to Tennessee in 1987, “Time Stand Still”, “Satellite” and “Don’t Mean Nothing” are especially evocative; as are two tracks from “Lonesome Jubilee”, the second of which I am trusting Rob will add to the Coda. U2 and Leppard were prominent.

Whitesnake have already been selected and they along with Motley Crue are bands that I closely associate with my time in Nashville. during the first week that my Fiancée was with me, I had to work so she would spend the day by the hotel’s very nice pool. On one of the days, she was surprised to find some scruffy long haired guys around the pool of our relatively gentile residence, wondering how they could afford it. That evening, I took her to have her ear drums burst at the Arena in town, where we managed to survive the most painfully loud gig I have ever been to: Motely Crue supported by Whitesnake. You’ve already guessed the punchline, as she sat there ears bleeding profusely, it dawned on her that the Ne'er-do-wells who had been around the pool that afternoon were now seranading us from the stage.

So my next pick has to be Motley Crue: Girls, Girls, Girls
 
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Just a reminder that the 1987 playlist will run over the Christmas period with the 1988 write-up due on 6th January.

@Black&White&BlueMoon Town - as we haven't had any takers, 1988 is all yours.

Also, as I will be off on my Christmas holidays on Monday evening, I will close the 1987 playlist at 12.00PM on Monday 22nd December.
 
1987 was the year I discovered another of my favourite artists ,although this was his 8th release .This was the first album that hit the billboard 200 and started to establish him as renowned song writer.It contains ‘A Thing Called Love’ which was a hit for Bonnie Rait.

‘Bring The Family ‘ was the first John Hiatt album I bought and this is one of his best love songs.

HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN ME
 
Mancitydoogle said:
1987 was the year I discovered another of my favourite artists ,although this was his 8th release .This was the first album that hit the billboard 200 and started to establish him as renowned song writer.It contains ‘A Thing Called Love’ which was a hit for Bonnie Rait.

‘Bring The Family ‘ was the first John Hiatt album I bought and this is one of his best love songs.

HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN ME
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Great album. Funnily enough, I only bought this in 2007, although I discovered John Hiatt in 1988 with the excellent Slow Turning.
 
The Reid Brothers tossed a coin to decide who would be the lead singer and had a reputation for playing 20 minute gigs with their backs to the audience leading to what the laughable Sun newspaper called a riot and dubbed them the new Sex Pistols.
They were certainly a volatile pair but by 87 and the Top 10 2nd album Darklands were having Top 10 singles like this one as well.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies
 
OB1 said:
I guess someone has to, so I will: Fleetwood Mac: Everywhere

Although I prefer “Little Lies” from The Mac’s excellent 1987 “Tango in the Night” album and it was another heavy rotation on Nashville radio. So, could we have it it the coda, pretty please.
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I actually had “Seven Wonders” down for the coda but I’ll try to remember to put “Little Lies” in instead.
 
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OB1 said:
I guess someone has to, so I will: Fleetwood Mac: Everywhere

Although I prefer “Little Lies” from The Mac’s excellent 1987 “Tango in the Night” album and it was another heavy rotation on Nashville radio. So, could we have it it the coda, pretty please.
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Can't listen to it anymore without hearing SS1 sounding like a beast in the field going through a particularly painful labour.
 
RobMCFC said:
Seems like we like the same stuff! "Paper in Fire" is also in my all-time top 10.

"Midnight Blue" just missed out on the list. Another that I discovered via The Stereo Sequence, so glad it's now in.
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Lou Gramm’s “Lost in the Shadows” from “The Lost Boys” soundtrack is also a good track from 1987. I can recall going to see the movie the weekend it came out in the States. Back then of course the gap between US releases and UK ones was much bigger so I saw numerous movies in Nashville that only hit the cinemas in the UK when I was back home. Another really good track from that movie is “Good Times” by INXS & Jimmy Barnes.

I would usually go to the movies one afternoon per weekend, often seeing more than one film, at least once I saw three movies back to back. It was simply too hot to spend long sitting around the hotel pool, so the air conditioned multiplex was a haven and I was a bit of a film buff in those days.
 
RobMCFC said:
Another artist following up the biggest of his career was Bruce Springsteen. Since Born in the USA, he’d been married, split from his wife and as a result released the low-key Tunnel of Love, a collection of songs about love gone wrong.
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Great write-up Rob, looking forward to hearing the songs, and some great initial choices!

One small note was that Bruce was still very much married when 1987's Tunnel of Love album was released. The songs on the album itself were actually the public's first hints that things were not alright with Bruce and his first marriage at the time. Some of the songs caught fans by surprise despite interviews and claims by Bruce at the time that things were fine. I remembered that well. Songs like "Brilliant Disguise" and "One Step Up" dealt with themes of emotional distance, doubt, and relationship instability, which fans and the media later interpreted as reflections of his marriage struggles.

By the time of the 1988 tour, the couple had privately separated. Later on during that tour, the Italian paparazzi and tabloids caught photos of Bruce and Patti Scialfa on the balcony together in Rome, and the divorce filing wasn't far behind in August. I won't be choosing a song from this album.
 
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My first track for this year is one that very much fits the holiday theme, and though I am a bit late to this party, I'm not going to let this one get past.

1987 was the first year that the first A Very Special Christmas compilation Christmas album series was released, and wow, what a gift this was that year. The concept album and series was put together to benefit the Special Olympics, and lots of artists jumped at the chance to be involved. I remember getting this right away as it had such a classic lineup of popular artists: U2, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, The Pretenders, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Stevie Nicks, the Pointer Sisters, others, and this band...

When Bill Adler (director of publicity for Rush Productions) first asked Run-DMC to contribute to this album, they refused. After Bill gave the band the idea for this song title, they changed their minds and agreed to be on the album.

The title refers to Hollis, Queens, the New York City neighborhood in which the members grew up. The track samples Clarence Carter's 1968 holiday song "Back Door Santa", as well as "Frosty the Snowman", "Jingle Bells", and "Joy to the World" and features an Acme siren.

As great and novel as the song was, the video was even better. I remember vividly watching this one non-stop on MTV and laughing with my younger brothers who I think enjoyed it even more than me (Naughty/Nice). You can see that link below if you haven't ever seen it.

This song and album always helps put me in the Christmas spirit, and as this week and month at work starts to hopefully die down, it's one I needed to hear and see again tonight.

"Christmas in Hollis" - Run-DMC

It's Christmas time in Hollis, Queens
Mom's cookin' chicken and collard greens
Rice and stuffing, macaroni and cheese
And Santa put gifts under Christmas trees

 
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OB1 said:
I guess someone has to, so I will: Fleetwood Mac: Everywhere

Although I prefer “Little Lies” from The Mac’s excellent 1987 “Tango in the Night” album and it was another heavy rotation on Nashville radio. So, could we have it it the coda, pretty please.
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I bought my first CD player in 1987 and the first two CDs I bought were Tango in The Night,
and Van the Man’s Poetic Champions Compose.

‘DID YE GET HEALED’
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
My first track for this year is one that very much fits the holiday theme, and though I am a bit late to this party, I'm not going to let this one get past.

1987 was the first year that the first A Very Special Christmas compilation Christmas album series was released, and wow, what a gift this was that year. The concept album and series was put together to benefit the Special Olympics, and lots of artists jumped at the chance to be involved. I remember getting this right away as it had such a classic lineup of popular artists: U2, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, The Pretenders, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Stevie Nicks, the Pointer Sisters, others, and this band...
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I remember that album very well, although from the next year when I found the copy in the library of the Hospital Radio where I used to volunteer.
 
Thread Update

Looking forward to the next 10 years, we still have to find writers for 1990 and 1995. Any takers?
 
RobMCFC said:
Thread Update

Looking forward to the next 10 years, we still have to find writers for 1990 and 1995. Any takers?
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I've done a few already but if no one else comes forward I'm happy to do one. Preference would be 1990 as there's some cracking albums but will do '95 instead if needs be.
 
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