In high school I was obsessed with Minor Threat. I even did the straight edge thing when it didn't matter (i.e. when I wasn't 21 yet). I judged people that drank underage. So when I was getting into punk rock and discovered Minor Threat they became my favorite hardcore band. They had two EPs in 1981, both very solid. There was a self titled one and In My Eyes. This coming up early on in the rotation was very energizing and brought me right back there. In My Eyes has two of their classic songs "In My Eyes" and "Out of Step (With the World)" but the self titled debut is front-to-back hardcore brilliance. I admit that it's weird for me to separate these out because I know it as the "Complete Discography" album and I always listened to the full thing, but the tracks that ran through as I listened to just the first release they ever had were full throttle, 8 songs in 9 minutes, and it all begins here:
Minor Threat "Filler"
So that was the DC scene. Let's go to the west coast. I finally got to catch up with Black Flag, who I know went back to punk's beginnings, but the earliest material I had available was Damaged. I hate that I keep saying classic but that's what this is (Kill yr idols!). More music to throw yourself around the room to. This video is one I saw back in those high school days on a show called Punk TV that aired late at night. It's so dated but it's so enjoyable...
Black Flag "TV Party"
The Cramps' second album already kind of had them slowing down. Psychedelic Jungle just kind of went by. There was stuff on the album I quite enjoyed but it was more in a slow, brooding way as opposed to the unhinged nature of their early stuff. Kind of like when The Stooges went slow. But someone else took over in most evil sounding group in punk. Or post punk or whatever. I'm talking about Nick Cave's early group The Birthday Party. Prayers on Fire shows the darkest side of Cave, before he developed his cool. Here is a song where he sounds like Zorak, the music sounds vaguely jazzy, but entirely straight from Hell. Maybe this was my favorite album of 1981?
The Birthday Party "Nick The Stripper"
Because I have no better place to put this, AC/DC! Is this my first actual metal I've covered here? Yes besides a couple mentions of Judas Priest and Ozzy. For Those About To Rock We Salute You is the only AC/DC album I own, so I'll just talk about what I like about them. The drums. The beat. It sounds classic. Like it's from another era in another dimension. It doesn't seem like typical metal drumming to me. The guitars are metal, the drums are some sort of alternate classic rock. The vocals bring them together.
And now new wave because why not. Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell is so much poppier than the Depeche Mode I typically associate with the name (and I like to call them The 'Peche). Did you know Violator came out way in 1989? We won't get to that for a bit. But this is when they were one of those new wave bands cashing in more on dance beats than darkness. I can't resist the catchiness of the popular "Just Can't Get Enough" and this one:
Depeche Mode "Boys Say Go!"
The poppy new wave group of choice for me for 1981 is definitely Soft Cell. In the early aughts when I was all into electroclash and dancing and such, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret was my go-to record for dance mixes and getting excited to go out and requests. Sure, the "Tainted Love" cover is popular enough to call them a one hit wonder, but there's so much great sleaze to this album, it's enticing and sexy and danceable in all the best ways. I've long wanted to create a mashup of Franz Ferdinand's "The Dark of the Matinee" and this song for a sexy jaunt in the cinema:
Soft Cell "Seedy Films"
How about hip hop? If the day comes that I have a child, and that child one day goes to school, I might have to play the Connecticut hip hop novelty gem for them "Get Up And Go To School" by Pookey Blow from that Third Unheard compilation I mentioned last time. Unfortunately that song is not on youtube. But Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5 kept reminding me of Jurassic 5 (I'm guessing Jurassic 5 was aimed partially at reminding people of The Jazzy 5) with this song. Fine, we'll do an actual great song!
Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5 "Jazzy Sensation"
I don't have a lot of ska from 1981, but I have one of my favorite 2-Tone era songs, which was released only as a single. It's been in some movies (Shaun of the Dead used it quite well) and can put me in certain movie moods, but it's still such a great stand-alone song that I have to share.
The Specials "Ghost Town"
And now we have to talk about Elvis Costello. He put out two albums in 1981. First was Trust, a favorite of many but one of my less favored in his overall library. Something about the cover with the sunglasses, the beats used, it seems like he's just trying to be cool in 1981. It feels more dated than the rest of his material. It still has some great songs and I feel like I need to give it more spins to fully appreciate it. I always love the ballads. Particularly "Different Finger." But there was another album: "WARNING: this album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners." Almost Blue was his country covers album. And kind of like My Aim Is True, I kind of preferred the bonus disc. This bonus disc had 27 tracks. Apparently he recorded a lot of country covers (ok some of these are live performances, some are countrified versions of songs he would later release in a different style, and some tracks appear multiple times in different versions). One of my favorite Costello songs is "Stranger In The House," an original country tune that has appeared on several bonus discs of his tracks from earlier in his career and never on a proper LP. But what I tend to like about cover albums and/or genre-concept albums like this is what it opens up in future released by the artist. This is the predecessor for my favorite Elvis Costello album King of America (coming in 1986!), and it also paves the way quite heavily to his next album of original material Imperial Bedroom (which is another favorite). I think I just like him doing ballads, and covering all these sad country songs sparked the same piece of the songwriter that had originally written "Stranger In The House" in the mid 70s. So...good ballads coming up thanks to Almost Blue (which is also the name of one of my favorite ballads by him, coming up on Imperial Bedroom).
Elvis Costello "A Good Year For The Roses"
Some other great country was coming out. I'm not sure what the deal was with country around this time. But the outlaws were chuggin' away makin' great tunes. George Jones had "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)" and Emmylou had this heartbreaking (big surprise!) "Colors of Your Heart," which does not seem to be on youtube.
Also to Say...
- Bob & Doug McKenzie's album The Great White North was from this year. I just have a couple tracks from it. But those dudes're funny.
- The first stuff I have from Daniel Johnston from the Welcome to My World compilation popped up. "Living Life" is a great track but I know even better is on its way.
- Yep, cheesy pop was a very big thing. This year brings us "Endless Love" by Diana Ross & Lionel Richie, such Hall & Oates gems as "You Make My Dreams Come True" and "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)," Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," Phil Collins' great "In The Air Tonight,"
- Just the year after Lennon passed, George Harrison released "All Those Years Ago." Ah, memories...soon I will reach a time in this of where I had memories.
- One of my favorite 80s pop/new wave/whatever songs is "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League. Good show.
- Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' I Love Rock & Roll means we are close to Weird Al's infiltration of this blog. I for one welcome it. Also this album is quite enjoyable.
- The great Freddie Mercury-David Bowie duet "Under Pressure" by Queen was released as a single. I might talk about it more when I get to the album next year, but for now...remember how great this song is???
- The Ramones kept doing what they'd been doing. I don't have the album Pleasant Dreams but I have the track "The KKK Took My Baby Away," a classic despite coming out all the way in the 80s.
- "Super Freak."
- "Start Me Up."
- Rush! Classic year for Rush. "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight." If I felt like looking up what album this was from I'm sure it's one I'd enjoy quite a bit.
Next Time...
More great Afrikaa Bambaataa! More great punk (Bad Brains are introduced! So are The Descendents The Best Pop Punk Band Of All Time! And Flipper and The Misfits and The Vandals and More great Clash for maybe the last time with Combat Rock! )! Some more ska (Bad Manners! Madness has their biggest hit!), 80s goodness from Billy Idol, Bruce Springsteen (Nebraska, his best album??), another early favorite Elvis Costello Album, MAIDEN, Art from Laurie Anderson and a certain young band calling itself Sonic Youth, a belated farewell to Lou Reed (thanks to his classic The Blue Mask), and holy crap indie rock is a thing because The Violent Femmes are now a thing with an album.
And pop classics 1999 and...Thriller.
The last year before I existed.
But before all that I'm going to take a break here for December. I'm going to attempt to make sense of 2013 and come up with a list of what was good and stuff so December 2013 is dedicated to 2013. I'll make a post about that but AEFAE will see you in 2014 for 1982 if that makes sense. 1982 looks enticing though.
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