I was born in April of 1983. One album listed on Wikipedia as being released in "April 1983" was Minor Threat's only actual album Out of Step. I have a lot of love for this album. It exemplifies the greatness of Ian MacKaye's lyrics from the clarification of the title track (insisting that he doesn't care if you drink/smoke/etc he just doesn't happen to care for it) to the satire of the closing track "Cashing In." There's a bit more complexity to the music on this album, they started turning into something more. But still with the energy level that I love about them.
Minutemen sure doubled down on Double Nickels On The Dime. (DAMNIT I just saw it was released in 1984, not 1983. Someone needs to go through my music and correct all the dates! I'll still write about it here though because I listened to it in a slightly-incorrect context). This is all I have from them at the moment but I'd like to hear more. I kind of liken this album to a more stripped-down version of Gang of Four. The same rhythm attack is there in the bass and drums, but they were not trying to make you dance. It's thinking music. And it's 43 tracks long, so it's a commitment. It's got punk rock rage without being dumbed down and it's not afraid to slow it down. There's way too much going on for someone like me without more time to devote to it to give it justice, but just listen to "West Germany." I think it covers what I've said here. Unfortunately, people that put stuff on youtube are strange so I can't find just this track. Here's apparently the full album in youtube format. "West Germany" is probably around the 45 minute mark (or just listen to the whole thing, why not??).
Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime
Latter era Ramones are a strange beast. Oddly enough, Subterranean Jungle is the first Ramones album I got because I gave vague instructions one year that I wanted Ramones albums for Christmas and this is what I got. Of course I knew the classic early hits so this wasn't my first exposure to them as a whole, but this album wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I listened to it quite a bit anyway though, and then didn't, so this album still takes me back to those days. It's more of a classic rock/pop album, not really trying to be punk amongst an era of great artists running with what they had kickstarted only 7 or so years earlier. But it really just feels out of touch, like a band of grandpas trying to fit in. Or dads I guess. At least on tracks like "Time Bomb" about how "I'm gonna break every rule" and "I'm not gonna stay in school." Fake rebellion that is not sold by the music or the vocal delivery. But I do enjoy the songs that play to their pop strengths, like this one.
Ramones, "My-My Kind of a Girl"
Kind of a timeless song on an otherwise cheesy/dated album. Now let's flip it.
Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones is crazy. And timeless. And one of the greatest albums ever recorded, really. It starts off with Waits screaming over a circus, includes allusions to everything he's done in the past (some spoken word content, some beautiful ballads, etc), but it's all so different. The music particularly. This is where he turns "unclassifiable" in my genre labels. Because what is this, aside from amazing? It's heartbreaking all over the place, but it's a rough-and-tumble ride through rage and such a high level of "cool" that only a few people in music have ever accomplished. Basically he could have farted into the microphone and it would have been amazing. This was ten years into an already incredible career, in the midst of an incredible string of albums, in a way that just makes everything he would do from now on "credible." And he ran with it, producing it himself, throwing everything at the wall, and all of it managed to stick.
Tom Waits "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six"
The only full Daniel Johnston album I have is Yip/Jump Music. Super lo-fi bedroom recordings, simple songs with outrageously simple arrangements, but it's all just straight from the heart and it hits you in the heart in the most direct way that music can. He is such a great writer in the way he manages to distill it down to a few simple words.
Now we'll begin our drift from the timeless back to the dated, but this one is still timeless in a way that it doesn't matter that it sounds exactly like it's from the early 80s. I'm speaking of course about Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues. Past their original era, past their work with Eno, they were now well-seasoned veterans of great composition. And I guess this is their most popular album because of "Burning Down The House." Which is a great house-burning track for sure. But I think "Girlfriend is Better" is a better single.
David Bowie also was getting very popular with Let's Dance, the title track of which was the #1 song in the UK on the day I was born. I used to like that track, but it's been overplayed which makes me realize that there's just not that much to the song. There are a couple other good songs on the album, but it's just not up there. And looking through what I have coming up, there's barely any Bowie I have from 1983 to 2001. I'm sure there's some good stuff I'm missing, but I think this marked the end of his great era of art rock dominance before some great comeback material he would later come back with.
New Order. "Blue Monday." One of the great house burners of the 80s and 80s revival nights and so 80s but so good. I've heard this song tons of times without getting sick of it. It comes from Power, Corruption & Lies, the only New Order album I actually own aside from their 2005 return. "Age of Consent" is a good opener, "Your Silent Face" is a good deep cut that you should listen to if you haven't, but "Blue Monday" is just one of those songs.
And now for the timelessly cheesy.
Whenever anyone tries to ask me my guilty pleasures, I have a hard time with that question. I don't think musical pleasures should be guilty. No matter what. But then I say something along the lines of "people might consider "Weird Al" Yankovic a guilty pleasure, but there's so much talent and intelligence there, and so many of my peers grew up on him that he's pretty universally loved." I don't know why that's in quotes, that's the first time I've expressed it exactly like that. But he's just great and his self-titled debut already has so much going on. It was my brother that had his self-titled tape on cassette, and the reason I got into Weird Al. We would listen to it a lot and laugh about the moaning/grunting guy that randomly popped up in "Another One Rides The Bus." And the wordplay of "Gotta Boogie." And playing "Happy Birthday" on people's birthdays. And thinking that "Stop Draggin' My Car Around" was an original and someone should reverse-parody it with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (turned out that already did exist as a song that was being parodied by Al, of course). And this music video, oh this music video:
"Weird Al" Yankovic "I Love Rocky Road"
Rocky Road is one of my favorite ice cream flavors and now I'm not sure if that is because of this song or not. I just can't remember if it was the reason I first tried it, if it's the reason I repeatedly asked for it afterwards, or what. I'm sure it had some influence though. But marshmallow in chocolate ice cream is a brilliant idea.
Now the guy that probably could be considered a guilty pleasure if I'm being honest. 80s Billy Joel holds a significant place in my heart even though in my heart I know his 70s output has to be better. I think my parents probably just listened to An Innocent Man a lot and because it's so catchy it caught on with me as well. Once I was talking to Neil of The Lawrence Arms about Billy Joel, insisting this was his great achievement, but now I'm kind of embarrassed for saying that because his 70s stuff probably was his great achievement. Even from the perspective of accepting that everything he did was cheesy. But An Innocent Man is all songs I know from my childhood, and I know it's silly but "Uptown Girl!" (particularly thanks to the hippie episode of The Simpsons) and the a capella "For The Longest Time!" Even in college this was one of the albums I would put on before going out, listening to this song to get me excited about hanging out with a girl I had a crush on (nothing ever happened because I didn't "Tell Her About It").
Billy Joel "This Night"
So let's see what defines me based on my birth year. Creative, punk rock, artistic but simple, and not afraid to be silly and downright cheesy. Sounds about right.
Other commentary:
- Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" came up. It's a good rocker.
- Madonna's first single "Holiday" is a pretty good one there.
- I quite enjoyed "Radio Lover" by George Jones. A good story, gets country sad of course.
- "Every Sperm is Sacred," of course. Monty Python and whatnot.
- I don't have Sports, a purportedly great Huey Lewis & The News album according to some media (American Psycho). But according to Bender on Futurama, it didn't age well. All I had was "I Want a New Drug" which is entertaining enough and reminds me of more incoming Weird Al.
- Just a couple Prince singles for 1983, but both are great jams. "Delirious" and a dance remix of "Little Red Corvette."
- Berlin is a very dated sounding band but since Alkaline Trio and others covered them I developed an interest. I have the full album on vinyl, but all I've bothered with obtaining digitally are "The Metro" and "Sex (I'm A)," the latter of which is a pretty good entry into that whole clever sexy dance thing that got so popular in the revival of the early 2000s.
- Into to Pulp! So weird that Pulp was already up and going way back in 1983. They had a ways to go before they got to some of their later era genius though.
- For the moment Elvis Costello & The Attractions are pushed to this category. Punch the Clock is one of his lesser albums in my opinion. It's mostly all bombastic horn driven stuff and some more of that dated 80s sound. Of course there are some absolute classic greats on there. I quite enjoy "Charm School" and "Shipbuilding" is still one of his greatest ballads.
- Rick James' "Cold Blooded," later to be covered by ODB, is a great jam.
- What? They Might Be Giants AND Weird Al got going in 1983? The year I was born? No wonder I'm such a nerd! I never got as much into TMBG as I would have liked to (and I still hope to even though I'm now in my 30s) but some demos here are pretty good...
- Violent Femmes had some singles, "Ugly" and the brilliant "Gimme the Car." Wikipedia says the album I gushed about for 1982 was also actually from 1983 (April even!). Oops. I wonder how many of my dates are inaccurate, screwing this whole project up?
- I only had one hip hop jam for 1983! But it's yet another classic: "Renegades of Funk" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force.
- R.E.M. had their debut with Murmur. I need to give it more spins before I say much about it. But it probably signals some big step in alt rock that should be noted.
Next Time:
Big Brother is after you! Well I'm sure my 3-year-old big brother was super sweet on 1-year-old me, but watch out! 1984! Bruce Springsteen is back to being cheesy/bombastic, hip hop starts expanding with Fat Boys and Run-D.M.C., Husker Du is the classic punk rock band, a return of Leonard Cohen, The Pogues arrive, Purple Rain falls, Scratch Acid, The Smiths, and another Weird Al classic (I might have this at the end of every "Next Time" for a while since I look in alphabetical order and they were all classics in my eyes).
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