An Ear For An Era: 1985

I feel like I should have more to say about 1985 music. There were some all-time classics released, mostly ones that I don't have as much personal experience as would be required to do any justice to these albums. But aside from a handful, lots of it was forgettable. So this one's kind of short.

The first album that came up for 1985 was the classic Weird Al piece known as Dare to Be Stupid. One of my favorites by him, for reasons such as the Devo-inspired title track and the Kinks-and-Star-Wars-inspired "Yoda." Yesterday I was skiing in the trees and my dad once said "watch out for that tree," so for the rest of the day I had "George of the Jungle" stuck in my head. But the most memorable track on here was an early favorite for sure. Keep an eye on those background singers/dancers.

"Weird Al" Yankovic "One More Minute"

Talking Heads' Little Creatures is the first albums of theirs that I got once I got cool enough to seek them out. Opener "And She Was" might still be my favorite song of theirs. But I dig the whole thing, from "Creatures of Love" to "Stay Up Late" to "Road to Nowhere." Good travel music and such.

Minor Threat released their last music, the Salad Days EP. These three songs are pretty mellow relative to their earlier output, which I guess suggests the directions Ian MacKaye would head in his post-Minor Threat days. Speaking of stuff Iam MacKaye would go on to do, his future bandmate Guy Picciotto was making waves with Rites of Spring and thanks to him we now have lots of crappy emo music in this world. But in 1985, emo meant something very different. Not to go into a history lesson, but it's much less embarrassing to refer to this music as post hardcore or whatever than emo. End On End has nothing in common whatsoever with whatever '00s emo you have in mind when I use that word (over and over I admit). It's kind of mathy, kind of post rock, and it's very heavy. It's just the wail Guy Picciotto used here, it's otherworldly, it's coming from somewhere so deep and dark and pained.

Rites of Spring "Persistent Vision"

The Cure was also obviously a big influence on what would become fake "emo" or whatever stuff with all the mopin' around. The Head On The Door is one of their better albums in my opinion (I prefer their pop music). "Close To Me" is a top tier Cure pop single. And this album was full of pop with a darkness. I don't know. I like this song though.

The Cure "Screw"

I was a late adapter of The Jesus And Mary Chain's Psychocandy but when Stephin Merritt made all those great comments on it describing its production I knew I had to hear it. It is a huge influence on the indie pop to come. Not only Magnetic Fields, but Best Coast and Animal Collective and everyone in between. All the noise and distortion serving just to obscure the pop melodies just beneath. 

Tom Waits. Rain Dogs. The follow-up to Swordfishtrombones. More experimental jazz sorrow coolness. I can't come up with the right adjectives to describe this album. But duh. It's amazing.

Something completely different again: Remember a couple years ago when that hip hop track came out starring all sorts of giants of the genre? That was cool. And a very similar thing happened in 1985 when Fat Boys, Run-DMC, Sheila E, and Kurtis Blow got together for "Krush Groovin'." That is the jam right there.

Fishbone is red hot!! One of my favorite live shows ever is any time I ever saw Fishbone. They'll get the party going. Strangely I used to not like this song when it was played on the ska show on the college radio station KCSU when I was in high school.  But that has changed. I oddly don't have this full album but this song is worth showing a video for anyway. I need to go more obscure I think. Whatever, Fishbone is red hot!

Fishbone "Party At Ground Zero"

Other things.

• The Smiths. Have I mentioned them yet? I have the "Louder Than Bombs" (their quotation marks, not mine) collection and quite enjoy the song "Asleep." And obvious hit "How Soon Is Now" was also from 1985.
• Dead Kennedys got all serious and long songy in 1985 with Frankenchrist. No more short songs, they were now focused on creating creepy atmosphere.
• They Might Be Giants demo!
• If Kurtis Blow ruled the world...
• Prince just kept being awesome with Around The World In A Day. "Raspberry Beret" was the big hit but the whole album is catchy as hell.
• Brian Ferry's Boys and Girls is pretty awesome.
• Mekons were quite good.
• The Descendents' second album took a turn for the pop. I don't mind that at all, but some of the magic of the first album is gone. They're still good at the pop stuff though.
• Tears For Fears accomplished some strange feat of sounding so dated and 80s yet aging so well. "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," "Head Over Heels," "Mothers Talk," Songs From The Big Chair is just so inspiring to listen to.

Next Time...

I'll do better. Ha! I know I phoned it in this time. Sorry. At least I picked good clips to show you. But I'll have plenty to say about 1986 because The Beastie Boys! And Big Black! And my TWO FAVORITE Elvis Costello albums. And the actual debut of They Might Be Giants. And another classic from "Weird Al" Yankovic.