Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1984 - (page 198)

An artist who influenced Bruce Springsteen, who played his song ‘Quarter to Three’ as a regular encore for many years.
In 1981 Bruce returned the favour and resurrected his career.The album ‘Dedication’ featured some of Bruces songs and the E Street band

Gary US Bonds. ‘JOLE BLON’
 
homerdog said:
This was one of the albums I bought in Singapore and to my surprise contained a reference to the job I was doing at the time! Can't Happen Here has great lyrics that still resonate today, but it's the reference to "Huge supertankers on Arabian trips" that was relevant to me, as I was on this at the time, having headed to Singapore from the Gulf:
View attachment 170373
Bonus points to anyone who knows this ship's claim to fame!

Blue Öyster Cult's Fire of Unknown Origin has already been mentioned and Veteran of the Psychic Wars was originally released on that album, one of their best songs. However, BÖC also released a number of excellent live albums over the years and, although not released until 1982 on Extraterrestrial Live, the live version of the above song was recorded at the Hollywood Sportatorium, Florida, in October 1981, so I think counts for inclusion. I reckon it contains one of the greatest guitar solos of all time, by the legendary Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser.
Click to expand...

Buck is the most underrated rock guitarist
 
On the BOC front, and given this is the year MTV debuted we can't let Joan Crawford go unmentioned!

Despite there not being too many bands producing videos and BOC putting in a lot of effort in :-) MTV wouldn't touch it with a barge poll. I wonder why? Lol.

A travesty, a brilliantly daft song that could have been a hit if only MTV hadn't been (justifiably) terrified about being dropped by every cable company !
 
Fantastic write-up again, @OB1, and what a 1981 you had.

I think that like Star Wars, I didn’t see Raiders of the Lost Ark until the following year. I know there were adverts for it on the TV but I remember my uncle raving about it at the family Christmas get-together. We got the see it in the new year and it remains my favourite film of all time.

Also in 81 was City’s run to the cup final. I was never a regular match goer but because the replay was on a Thursday, there were suddenly a bundle of tickets available if you were prepared to queue for a few hours at the Maine Road ticket office. With my Dad working it was left to my Mum (no interest in football) to take a very excited 12-year old down to Wembley. We lost, of course, but I’ll never forget Steve MacKenzies’s goal.

On the music front, I’ll keep my offering to two. First up, my favourite Tom Petty song, “The Waiting” - if there is a better intro-chorus-bridge-solo-outro in rock, I’ve yet to hear it.

Premonition was probably the album that Sylvester Stallone had heard when Queen had turned him down for the use of “Another One Bites The Dust” in the upcoming Rocky III. Survivor got the gig and came up with an all-time classic that we will hear next year. Frankie Sullivan is one of my favourite 80s guitarists.

The Waiting - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Take You On A Saturday - Survivor
 
Absolutely superb write up that @OB1 and it must've been incredible to have been around New Year back then!!

I absolutely love 'Dare' by the Human League and could pretty much nominate any number of tracks from that album. For me personally, I adore music with melody - that's pretty much my first I go for. Dare has these almost monotone vocals but the synths and production ooze melody. Whilst it's very computerised and synthy, it still feels vey human and has a 'warm' sound for want of a better word.

Dare! is easily one of the best albums of the 80s I think. I think it's a touchpoint in how to write electronic/pop albums. If I had to nominate one track from it then it's...

Human League - The things that dreams are made of

I'd also be tempted to nominate a track from one of the albums I put forward on the album review club which is regarded as an ambient classic - Planetary Unfolding! :) but I won't.

We're also starting to get some more hip hop tracks coming through and The Sugarhill Gang released the classic Apache this year. Fairly soon, this is going to become a dominant form of music:

The Sugarhill Gang - Apache

As a kid, I remember hearing this song and just thinking it sounded so futuristic. It's really hard to try to explain to people who've not been there just how 'exciting' and modern these synth-based songs sounded. My biggest musical influence is my Dad and I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Zappa etc but when I heard Kids In America, it just sounded like something from Mars to my young ears!

Kim Wilde - Kids In America

As a young kid in the early 80s I got a telescope for my birthday and I was completely mesmerised looking at the Moon and seeing the red glow from Mars. Maybe it's another reason why I loved Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds so much (I can still feel the weight of my Dads Wharfedale DD1s on my head). There are 2 songs which were the soundtrack of just looking at the Moon and this background music that I remember. It just felt like, as a kid, it was the cusp of a new era with synths, going into arcades on holiday, the arrival of the home computer and this telescope I got. It felt like everything was going electronic and this song summed up that feeling:

OMD - Joan Of Arc
 
Maybe I'll just stay up in Canada for most all of 1981.

When I think back to this year, it was another year of firsts. First graduation from middle school, first year of high school, first year of seeing MTV in my homeroom in not having cable at home, and ...
first steady girlfriend.

I remember most of it, including the school dances and the music that accompanied it, including her favorite artist Tom Petty.

This song was my favorite of mine off this band's 2nd album, even if it wasn't the most popular as the track already on the playlist.

From the iconic synth opening that starts this off and then goes along with the guitar that runs though this track, it was the song of theirs I most identified with from them at the time.

Here's lookin' at you
What do you think the chances are we're gonna make it together?

That answer wouldn't come until the following summer as all good things...

Take Me To The Top - Loverboy
 
1981
My love of Siouxsie & The Banshees grew stronger with 2 gigs in the year and the release of my favourite Banshees album (and my all time second best loved album) Juju.
A very dark album, not surprisingly with titles such as Halloween, Night Shift, Voodoo Dolly and the lead single Spellbound (influenced by the Hitchcock thriller with the same title.) John McGeogh firmly hits the heights on guitar and Budgie hammering away on drums.
When I mention this being my favourite Banshees album, folk usually follow up with 'Oh, you were a goth?' and yet I never was. And the Banshees themselves never made an album in the same mode again, 1982's follow up being way much lighter and far less 'gloomy'.

A band heavily influenced by the Banshees were making waves in Glasgow. I failed to mention in 1980 that 'Dead Pop Stars' was one of the best debut singles of the year and in 1981, Altered Images exploded into the charts with 'Happy Birthday' and more hits to follow over the next two years.
Billy Idol had cleared off Stateside and lay low for a while, dropping off my radar...... for now......
The Stranglers had a huge hit with Golden Brown and I saw them on the Meninblack tour. I went to loads of gigs but can't recall many others.
One gig I can recall was U2 on their October album tour, supported by The Comsat Angels. Fantastic night out for something like 2 quid 50p.
I saw Toyah on tour too. A small room in Warwick University (U2 had played in the newer, main venue there). There was no stage, just a long narrow room with the band at one end. The diminutive Toyah bounced around and danced as she always did but after a few songs the crowd grew restless and shouted "we can't see you!" Off Toyah went and came back with a beer crate, stood on it to loud cheers and performed the rest of the gig stationary on the beer crate!
My liking of electronic pop grew more too with the emergence of Soft Cell with Tainted Love and Bedsitter, while OMD with Maid of New Orleans / Joan of Arc and Souvenir were big tunes on the radio, making life in work a little more bearable.....
Adam & The Ants had released a great album in 1980 (Kings of the Wild Frontier) but Adam went all Smash Hits on us and attracted the teeny boppers with Stand & Deliver and Prince Charming. One of them was number one when City played Spurs in the Cup final I seem to recall. The less said about Ant Rap the better.
I hadn't got into The Specials - my dislike of living in Coventry and of anything Coventry related saw to that, yet Ghost Town was one of those incredibly rare and incredibly powerful songs that captured the mood of the nation at the right time. It nailed Coventry in 3 and a half minutes and the country, at a time when youth unemployment was on the rise, riots taking place across the country in inner city areas throughout the summer months. Amongst the backdrop of violence and looting, Charles & Diana were "uniting the country' by taking part in the "Wedding Of The Century........"
Yet for all of the impact Ghost Town had, it was released with two absolute belters of a B Side. “Tell me why?” was a big fuck off to the National Front, while “Friday Night Saturday Morning” was pure kitchen sink drama, recreating the scene over a three minute pop song detailing ofa night out, fighting with bouncers, being in the chippy at 2am and being in the taxi queue, whilst “standing in someone else’s spew
Wish I had lipstick on my shirt
Instead of piss stains on my shoes”
as another unsuccessful night on the pull had unfolded……

My two songs for the play list
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Spellbound 12 inch version
The Specials - Friday Night Saturday Morning
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Maybe I'll just stay up in Canada for most all of 1981.

When I think back to this year, it was another year of firsts. First graduation from middle school, first year of high school, first year of seeing MTV in my homeroom in not having cable at home, and ...
first steady girlfriend.

I remember most of it, including the school dances and the music that accompanied it, including her favorite artist Tom Petty.

This song was my favorite of mine off this band's 2nd album, even if it wasn't the most popular as the track already on the playlist.

From the iconic synth opening that starts this off and then goes along with the guitar that runs though this track, it was the song of theirs I most identified with from them at the time.

Here's lookin' at you
What do you think the chances are we're gonna make it together?

That answer wouldn't come until the following summer as all good things...

Take Me To The Top - Loverboy
Click to expand...
I particularly liked their first two albums.

Think I bought the first one on import from a record shop in Stafford that I would drive down and visit as it got a lot of rock import albums from North America.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
Absolutely superb write up that @OB1 and it must've been incredible to have been around New Year back then!!

I absolutely love 'Dare' by the Human League and could pretty much nominate any number of tracks from that album. For me personally, I adore music with melody - that's pretty much my first I go for. Dare has these almost monotone vocals but the synths and production ooze melody. Whilst it's very computerised and synthy, it still feels vey human and has a 'warm' sound for want of a better word.

Dare! is easily one of the best albums of the 80s I think. I think it's a touchpoint in how to write electronic/pop albums. If I had to nominate one track from it then it's...

Human League - The things that dreams are made of

I'd also be tempted to nominate a track from one of the albums I put forward on the album review club which is regarded as an ambient classic - Planetary Unfolding! :) but I won't.

We're also starting to get some more hip hop tracks coming through and The Sugarhill Gang released the classic Apache this year. Fairly soon, this is going to become a dominant form of music:

The Sugarhill Gang - Apache

As a kid, I remember hearing this song and just thinking it sounded so futuristic. It's really hard to try to explain to people who've not been there just how 'exciting' and modern these synth-based songs sounded. My biggest musical influence is my Dad and I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Zappa etc but when I heard Kids In America, it just sounded like something from Mars to my young ears!

Kim Wilde - Kids In America

As a young kid in the early 80s I got a telescope for my birthday and I was completely mesmerised looking at the Moon and seeing the red glow from Mars. Maybe it's another reason why I loved Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds so much (I can still feel the weight of my Dads Wharfedale DD1s on my head). There are 2 songs which were the soundtrack of just looking at the Moon and this background music that I remember. It just felt like, as a kid, it was the cusp of a new era with synths, going into arcades on holiday, the arrival of the home computer and this telescope I got. It felt like everything was going electronic and this song summed up that feeling:

OMD - Joan Of Arc
Click to expand...
Glad someone picked Kids in America. I bought that as a single and it was under consideration for my initial list, in part as I had a tale of two kids in America to tell.
 
BimboBob said:
Someone finally mentioned Kim Wilde.


*goes for a lie down*

View attachment 170523
Click to expand...

Tbh never really got Kim Wilde either musically or as a pin up though whenever I've seen her interviewed in the ensuimg years she seems very nice. Didn't she end up big in landscape gardening or something? We had a lad at school who was completely obsessed with her to the point that had we had the technology we have now I'm fairly sure he'd have been the subject of an injunction! Not sure if we've had any discussion on old fashion fan mail at all have we?

Debbie Harry was my poster preference, though I probably still had the likes of Tueart and Power on the walls too.
 
threespires said:
Tbh never really got Kim Wilde either musically or as a pin up though whenever I've seen her interviewed in the ensuimg years she seems very nice. Didn't she end up big in landscape gardening or something? We had a lad at school who was completely obsessed with her to the point that had we had the technology we have now I'm fairly sure he'd have been the subject of an injunction! Not sure if we've had any discussion on old fashion fan mail at all have we?

Debbie Harry was my poster preference, though I probably still had the likes of Tueart and Power on the walls too.
Click to expand...
She was nice though weirdly oblivious to my charms!
 
I missed this artist to nominate for 1979,when she released her self titled debut album, I’ve never been a big fan of female artists with a few exceptions and Rickie Lee Jones was one.I saw her live at the FTH back in 1979 and I loved her first three albums.The second album Pirates from 1981 contains a stellar cast of musicians including most of Steely Dan, her breakup from Tom Waits inspired most of the album.

She performed the whole of this album live at the Bridgewater Hall 20 years later.



“PIRATES” (SO LONG LONELY AVENUE )’
 
OB1 said:
I particularly liked their first two albums.

Think I bought the first one on import from a record shop in Stafford that I would drive down and visit as it got a lot of rock import albums from North America.
Click to expand...
None of the 3 tracks I've put up thus far charted as singles in the UK, so I have tried to be unique there, even though the first was very well heard via other avenues (TV and movies).

My fourth and final track is very calculated for a timely mention on a specific day towards the end of the week window, so please don't close it down too soon over the weekend. ;-)
 
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Was hoping that @Lovebitesandeveryfing might rock up to nominate something off Elvis Costello's Trust, an album that did little business at the time but one that's got some really good song writing and has grown in reputation over the years.
 
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