Something Completely Different

I love pina coladas. In the past I would never think to have them all that regularly and the one positive thing about hearing that wretched song was that it reminded me of how much I liked them.

I don't drink anymore, therefore the song has no more reason to exist in my life and I will happily support it being purged in the flames of Tartarus.

What a great idea for a journal! And yes, I too like piña coladas but am a boring teetotal and that song can go fuck itself.

That English teacher and a couple of drug lords description is pretty spot on 😄

Looking forward to seeing what comes up next!

Anybody reading this now has that song in their heads.

I'm sorry

 :laughing:

I'm a yacht rock guy to the core and even I hate Rupert Holmes.  He's just a bad knockoff of Stephen Bishop (who is pretty underrated now that I think about it).

Now that the Christmas rush is over and I'm not working insane hours I can devote my time again to sitting on my arse listening to music and taking the piss out of it with a couple of cases of blood orange cider close to hand ....lovely.


No. 44 : Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover
Confession Time, I adore the first four Prince albums, and later this year (1980 not 2023) he will release my all-time favourite album of his in 'Dirty Mind'. This song is off his S/T second album. In a time when funk bands seemed to consist of 10 or more members I love Prince's stripped back minimalist funk. Almost similarly that synth pop was stripping back pop music, Prince was doing almost the same thing to funk in a way that makes the music sounds very fresh and in tune with that era. this song is very typical of early Prince, Lots of synths and high pitched squeals.
Love it.

No. 47 : Sister Sledge - Got To Love Somebody
Got to write another tune more like, this is We Are Family with different lyrics no matter how bad the sax player tries his damnedness to save it.

No. 50 : Matchbox - BuzzBuzz A Diddle It
In the late 70s there seemed to be this sort of 50s Rockabilly revival with bands dressing up as 50s Teddy Boys (My Dad was a Teddy Boy in his teen years). On the cooler end of the spectrum you had elements of The Clash as well as The Cramps and Brian Setzer and the Stray Cats, and then on the BBC light entertainment end of the spectrum you had Showaddywaddy with their colour co-ordinated zoot suits.
I was actually expecting Matchbox to be closer to the Showaddywaddy end but this is actually pretty good. Not that far removed from the whole Pyschobilly thing that would happen a bit later.

No. 52 : New Musik - Living By Numbers
Never heard of this lot despite owning nearly every single synth pop / new wave compilation out there being of that era AND actively searching out this stuff for a good 25 years. Which is odd really because they seem to be quite a big deal in thier native Australia. The song itself is pretty catchy and is about typical 80s George Orwell paranoia about everybody being a number rather than a name. I've seen them described as folk/new wave which shouldn't work but does.
This is alright.

No. 53: Sad Cafe - Strange Little Girl
I HATED this band when I was a kid.
Whenever they appeared on Top Of The Pops that meant it was time to grab a drink or some food, or go on a bathroom break. I just found them DULL.
It didn't help that they always seemed to be introduced on the show by people like Simon Bates or Dave Lee Travis, the uncoolest of the DJ's on Radio 1's roster at the time. Almost like The Anti-John Peel or Anti-Annie Nightingale plaguing the nation with tepid Dad Rock.
It came as no shock to me then that lead singer Paul Young (Not that one) went on to join Mike & The Mechanics, a band who bored the shit out of me during my teenage years.
So you would expect me to hate this.........
Welllllllll

It's pretty fucking great actually. Young has a very Jagger-ish vibe about him. There's this great ominous bassline with chellos and strings helping it along the way with a short sharp jagged riff punctuating the song giving it a great edge to it. It kind of sounds like Jagger fronting a band who can't decide if they are Roxy Music or The Auteurs and that's pretty fucking awesome if you are me.
So I say to Paul Young (Who died very young in 2000 at the age of 53)
I am so so so sorry, forgive me????

Highlight of the week.

No. 54 : The Commodores - Wonderland
To me songs by The Commodores end up in either of two catagories. 'Brick House' and 'Smaltzy Crap'
This isn't a 'Brick House'

No. 57 : Herb Alpert - Rotation
Jazz with Synths?
No thanks.
The best thing I can find to say about this is it sounds like should be the title track from some late night detective show. But not one of the good themes like Miami Vice or The Equalizer, one of those generic ones.

No. 58 : Amii Stewart - Paradise Bird / The Letter
One of my biggest pet hates in music is R&B from the 80s onwards. All the grit and the rawness from the 60s & 70s has been lost replaced by boring ultra cleaned up slickness and it's so boring to listen to. At 6:33 Paradise Bird is a chore to sit through. Amii has a pretty nice voice but there's nothing here.
Thankfully this is a double 'A' side and we have a second song to save it.
That song is 'The Letter' and yes it's a funked up version of The Box Tops song, and as a card carrying member of the Alex Chilton fanboys club it's my duty to find it pretty fucking great, and Amii seems like she's having fun with it too.

No. 61 : Billy Ocean - Are You Ready
I was expecting a dull ballad but this is a pretty decent slab of Funk/Disco.
You'll forget it 10 minutes after you heard it, but for the 4:28 you're listening to it you'll be shaking those hips.

No. 64 : Suzi Quatro - Mama's Boy
Fuck off Joan Jett, The REAL Queen is in town.
Sure it's not the wonderful glam rock stomps of her heyday but this is pretty decent.
If Suzi wasn't so associated with being a 'Rock' Artist you could almost call this Power pop.
Another song I liked more than I was expecting.

No. 70 : Dexy's Midnight Runners - Dance Stance
I have a whole big entry about Dexy's Midnight Runners where I'm going to get on my soapbox and preach and try to convert people (I.E. Amercians) to this band. But I'm saving that for the entry for 'Come On Eileen'. So you'll have to wait.
So what about this song?
Well all you need to know is this is a song off their debut album 'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels'. A magnificent blend of New Wave, Punk, Ska, Funk and Northern Soul that deserves a much bigger audience (*cough* Americans).
And the irony is this is probably the worst single off it and it's still bloody great.

One hit wonders?
Fuck off !!!

No. 75 :  Barbara Dickson & Mike Batt - Caravan Song
This is the theme song to a movie of the same name about kidnappings and gun runners set in the middle east in the late 40s starring Anthony Quinn and Christopher Lee so I may well have to take a look at that.
Why am I talking about the movie?
Because it's a damned sight better than the turd of a song I'm currently listening to.

The only way you could get me to actually listen to this song again is to play it over a medley of clips from Top Gear of them destroying caravans.

I'll have to come back to this later to read the rest, but I do want to say that Dirty Mind is my favorite Prince album too!

I think that album is the purest distillation of his early stripped down synthfunk style, only 30 minutes but none of them wasted.

Sometimes I wonder how he would have sounded had Purple Rain not been such a massive success.
Kind of like indie Prince on a budget type thing.

Quote from: Suburban Placeholder? on Dec 24, 2023, 11:30 PMNo. 57 : Herb Alpert - Rotation
Jazz with Synths?
No thanks.
The best thing I can find to say about this is it sounds like should be the title track from some late night detective show. But not one of the good themes like Miami Vice or The Equalizer, one of those generic ones.

'Rotation' and 'Rise' both got sampled like crazy in the hip-hop/rap world for awhile.  They know their smooth grooves when they hear 'em.

Thanks for the write up, @Suburban Placeholder?

I listened to your mentions and there's quite a few ones for me, like Matchbox and New Music.

Otherwise, besides Brass in Pocket being a classic, I think I enjoyed Prince the most and it was nice to be reminded of Suzi Quattro again. Is she the one who became a chainsaw artist?

I also didn't care much for Rotation.

Quote from: Guybrush on Dec 27, 2023, 12:19 AMit was nice to be reminded of Suzi Quattro again. Is she the one who became a chainsaw artist?

Now that would be interesting.

She went on to do television, she played The Fonz girlfriend in Happy Days.
These days she does loads of musical theatre and the occasional solo tour, She's still got a massive following in the UK & Australia

She also gave Alice Cooper a black eye.

Quote from: Suburban Placeholder? on Dec 27, 2023, 03:08 PMNow that would be interesting.

She went on to do television, she played The Fonz girlfriend in Happy Days.
These days she does loads of musical theatre and the occasional solo tour, She's still got a massive following in the UK & Australia

She also gave Alice Cooper a black eye.

The chainsaw artist is Cherie Currie 😄 not sure why I got those lines crossed.

(https://www.rover.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Cherie-Currie-chainsaw-carving-Indian-face-2019.jpg)

No. 33 : Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County
Well, Damn. That was a bit of a come-down.
Actually, I'm being a little unfair. I used to love songs that were stories when I was a kid, and so did the British public as it only seemed like country songs like these would do well in the charts.
I used to love to sit up late and watch the folk musician Mike Harding's BBC show even though I knew nothing about folk music at the time because he would tell jokes in between playing songs that had stories in them. You also had Billy Connelly and Jasper Carrott playing the odd folk song in their stand up shows which I would watch avidly also. Folk music and Country seemed to be the best type of music for this type of thing which is why I would listen to them back then and it wasn't until quite recently I appreciated the talent behind it.
And let's be honest, at least it's not modern country.

No. 45 : The Boomtown Rats- Someone's Looking At You
Is there a single celebrity that has more fame for so little work than Bob Geldof?
For a guy who's music was relevant for about 6 months in 1979 he somehow still manages to be a widely know figure in the world of entertainment, obviously because of Live Aid. But almost 40 years later?
I remember seeing him performing one of his solo songs on some chat show in the early 90s and being surprised that such a high profile figure could release something so boring, as I wondered to myself 'Who buys this shit'? I mean Sting takes a lot of shit but at least he wrote An Englishman In New York.
I'm not a huge Boomtown Rats fan, I know about 3 or 4 singles and that's it. I looked at the chronology and all those songs I had heard were before this one. In fact I looked at all their singles released between this one and their break up in 1986 and didn't recognise a single song.
I remember watching a documentary about Live Aid, on hearing that Bob wanted The Boomtown Rats to play the show the legendary promotor Harvey Goldsmith replied something along the lines of "Why? He's not had a hit in 5 years".
As for this song, It's OK but all it does is make you want to hear the other hits instead, The decline starts here.

No. 49 : Jefferson Starship - Jane
If you had told me this was Toto, I would have 100% believed you.

No. 54 : Buggles - The Plastic Age
Speaking of one hit wonders in my last entry here we have a genuine one.
This isn't as catchy as Video Killed The Radio Star but it is better. There's a kind of dark brooding background with tons of hooks over the top of it that'll you'll be humming for days. Also the video is basically a batshit insane mash up of early 80 special effects and some kids art school project that's well worth a watch. I have no idea what's going on. At one point Trevor Horn is singing inside a woman painted up like a telephone box.
Awesome stuff.

No. 60 : The Ramones - Baby I Love You
Phil Spector and The Ramones were made to work with each other. End Of The Century is the best Ramones album and this single is awesome.
And I'll fight you on that.

No. 63 : The Shadows - Riders In The Sky
My Father's favourite band.
I respect them more than I like them. Hank Marvin was Britain's first guitar hero in the late 50s and each of their songs is dominated by his 'Twang' sound, and they have made plenty of bangers in their time.
Why they decided to release a disco version of a country song dating back to 1948, that Johnny Cash had released his own version just a year earlier (And played live On The Muppet Show, go watch the video ....now!) seems very odd, and it doesn't work either.
Think of this song as Cotton-Eyed Joe's more serious Dad.

No. 67 : John Foxx - Underpass
I think about 15 years ago I had a discussion on MusicBanter about this guy where I told someone I'd never heard any of John Foxx's stuff that he did with Ultravox, but I was going to. (He was their original singer)
Well I've still not got around to hearing anything .... Oh Well.
As for the song it's like if Kraftwerk's Autobahn had a shorter seedier nihilistic younger brother.

No. 68 : Brass Construction - Music Makes You Feel Like Dancing
It's a disco song, It has a cool bassline , blasts of horns and strings. people go "OW" a lot, things that sound like samples from early video games. Just like pretty much every other disco song around this time.
Is it bad?
Hell no!

No. 70 : Barclay James Harvest - Love On The Line
Every time I see this bands name it just fills me with rage and I have no idea why. Yes, they sound like a firm of solicitors but my hatred shouldn't be this viceral just for that. After hearing this song my overriding impression is if you took all the most boring bits of Pink Floyd, Supertramp & Steely Dan and stuck it in a blender you'd end up with this garbage.

No. 71 : Revillos - Motorbike Beat
Well, someone has been listening to The B52s

No. 72 : Stevie Wonder - Black Orchid
The road to 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' starts here. What happened Stevie? :(

No. 75 : Captain Beaky - Captain Beaky /  Wilfred The Weasel
I remember getting a Captain Beaky book at a Christmas party at school possibly around this time.
I remembered him being an Owl for some reason, turns out he's some kind of hybrid Seagull / Chicken thing.
It was the brainchild of writer Jimmy Perry (Writer of Are You Being Served, Dad's Army, Allo Allo etc etc.......) and actor Keith Michell who was the illustrator and narrator of this 'song'
It's still better than the Barclay James Harvest song.
Ha!

John Foxx's Metamatic is fantastic if you're into cold, futuristic synthpop.

1980-82 or so is my favorite part of the 80s for synthpop, after that it felt like all the cornballs jumped on it and it led to a lot of really dated stuff IMO.

It's been a while, but I listened quite a bit to The Specials' debut album. Too Much Too Young was my favorite track, even though it's way too long.

About Bob Geldof, I've also wondered why he's such a big celebrity. However, he did also star in Pink Floyd's The Wall movie, so a tiny trickle of popularity came from there. Maybe he did more acting gigs?

Will listen to some of those mentions when I have time 🙂

Wow is it really almost a year since I last updated this?
Given it's taken me a whole year just to get to February, I guess that means I should finish this in .... erm 2144.
Oops.....


No 30: Queen - Save Me
Dull ballad, with a moribund anthemic sing-a-long chorus, off a shit album.
The worlds most over-rated band on auto-pilot.
And I LIKE Queen........
When the hell does Dragon Attack come out?

No 37 : The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On
Thought this might be some new wave band covering the Sonny & Cher classic but it turns out it's a funk band not covering Sonny & Cher. If this song sound familiar to you it's because Will Smith ripped it.... sorry, Sampled it off wholesale for his song 'Miami'.
It is pretty great though.
This.... not Will Smith.
That cucked little bitch can do one.
God I hated that guy in the 90s.

No 58 : Symarip - Skinhead Moonstomp
During this lookback I will only be focusing on new entries, I won't be looking at songs have already charted before and been re-released (Unless they've been wildy changed and almost unrecognisable). This was original released in 1969 but never charted hence me covering it now, and boy what a trip this lot are.
So first of all don't be put off by the Skinhead connection, this is the genuine article. A band made up of proper Jamaican skinheads who immigrated to the UK in the early 60s. If the song sounds familiar, it's because The Specials version of it is currently No 1 in the charts this week.
Also this band have had loads of different names over the years. The Bees, Syramip, The Pyramids, Seven Letters, Zubaba and currently the extremely original Syramip/ Pyramid'
As for the song, you've heard it a million times, you've just forgotten the title.

No 60 : AC/DC - Touch Too Much
Eerily prophetic release by AC/DC just 2 weeks before the death of Bon Scott.
I Never really warmed to the Highway To Hell album from which this is from.
When I listen to the Bon Scott era (and Bon Scott is on my Mount Rushmore of Rock Vocalists) I prefer the rawness of Let There Be Rock or the bluesiness of Powerage. When it comes to the polished pop rock AC/DC I actually prefer Brian Johnson singing it.

No 62 : Cliff Richard - Carrie
Between 1976 & 81 Cliff Richard released some real bangers. This was when he was on fire with stuff like Devil Woman and We Don't Talk Anymore. Now I don't know enough about Cliff Richard to know if at this point in his career he had a kind of Rick Rubin / Johnny Cash type relationship with a producer making him relevant again but this is up there with his best, and we still have Wired For Sound to look forward too in the future.
Sadly after that song Cliff begins his descent through the 80s and into the 90s with nothing but crap ballads, christmas slop and God bothering.

No 64 : Errol Dunkley - Sit Down and Cry
Christ, there's a lot of reggae around this time.
I thought this might be a re-release from the 60s because of the production but was surprised to discover it was actually recorded in 1978.
Nice little reggae song with a gentle melody chugging along, Errol has a charming inoffensive voice and the whole thing is just .... well nice.
Apparently Errol is still around and released a new album just a few months ago.
Good for him.

No 70 : The Chords - Maybe Tomorrow
The Jam from Pound land
OK maybe that's a little harsh, It's alright and it is barely three minutes long which is just short enough for you to hear the whole thing before you realise you'd rather be listening to Setting Sons or Sound Affects.

No 72 : Carolyne Mas - Quote Goodbye Quote
Never heard of this woman before.
The cover for this is her in a top hat and tails giving a wide eyed stare into the camera which immediately made me think she would be some kind of Kate Bush rip off, Oh how wrong I was.
Her voice kind of reminds me of a less shouty Hazel O'Connor singing Sheena Easton style pop songs.
Actually this isn't bad, it's made me was to explore her work some more.

No 73 : Cheap Trick - Way Of The World
One of my favourite songs on the Dream Police album, which just happens to be my favourite Cheap Trick album.
C,mon, it's Cheap Trick for fuck sake you know what you're getting. Great riffs, singalong choruses and amazing melodies and harmonies.
Awesome Shit!!!!!

No 74 : Roy Ayers - Don't Stop The Feeling
(https://i.ibb.co/4K7Ny7x/roy.webp)
That cover...
Just look at it!!!!!
You can tell what you're getting just from that.
But that's not the most interesting thing.
So Roy Ayers, respected Jazz Funk musician, been around since the early 60s. Has recorded around 50 studio albums and yet THIS was his only foray into disco. And THIS ended up being his ONLY charting hit single.
What's it like?
We'll it's fucking great, all 9 minutes of it. Just look at that cover and you can already hear it.

No 75 : The Jags - Woman's World
If you want to encapsulate 1979 or 1980 into one song this is it. Power pop with a slight touch of reggae like The Police, vocals that sound like Elvis Costello and riffs that sound like they came straight out of My Sharona.
Literally nothing original about this whatsoever, that's not to say it's bad.
Again, much like The Chords the song is over before you even get the chance to become sick of it.
Maybe that's why the late 70s and early 80s are probably my favourite period of music to look back on.

Well that was fun, I don't think i'll leave it so long til my next update  ;D

Damn but I love your journal ideas! Mind you, I do a chart thing too, but your pisses all over mine. My own fault for not wearing rubber boots I guess. Read through it all and I want more more MORE! Come on: you know what the people want. Charge that bull! You know what I mean.
Dedicated reader here, or as the kids apparently say these days for some reason, stubbed.
Or is that subbed?
Well anyway, more please.


Oh, and by the way, as a Prince fan, let me point you in the direction of
 Baby I'm A Star: The Once and Future Prince (https://scd.community/index.php?topic=785.0)
(https://media0.giphy.com/media/BZhvKu7MT0n2voRhtf/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952zs0apuqywo590spkhuficv7o9bkgnl2w78xy8xcw&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)

Was looking for a quintessential 80s thread; Suburban's thread might be the closest to a general thread encompassing all things 80s. (Or should the correct spelling be '80s, as I learnt recently).

This track by Mike Collins goes back a long way, to 1981 it seems. Anyone remember/recognize this very unique sound of synths, drum machines and picking guitar? I certainly recall hearing different versions being played by DJs in UK clubs ten years later when I was old enough to enter them (...the clubs I mean!).

Quote"Recorded in 1981 at Mike's home studio in London, 'Rude Movements' was originally released as the B-Side to a track called 'Winning'. A true Brit-funk oddity, the track's improvised nature and lack of vocal hooks initially consigned it to obscurity, until its pristine sonics and irrepressible groove caught the ear of David Mancuso and he presented it at his already influential Loft Party."

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/mike-collins-sun-palace-lost-tapes-interview/

Very chill and funky. One could call it chunky.

Sun Palace - Rude Movements