A Kick Through The 80s

[Guybrush]

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 🙂

[Suburban Placeholder?]

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.....

27th January 1980 - 2nd February 1980
At No. 1 : The Specials - Too Much Too Young E.P.

Well this week there are 12 new entries into this weeks top 75 vying for my attention, lets have a look at them.


Highest New Entry - No. 29 : The Selector - Three Minute Hero

Anything released on the Two-Tone label during 1980 or 81 are essential listening in my book. Sadly I won't get to do The Selector's debut single On My Radio which came out just a couple of months earlier at the tail end of 1979, which to this day one of my favourite singles ever.
Luckily Three Minute Hero is up there with their best.
There are virtually 6 words in the entire song. Sure there are verses with other lyrics but you don't care about those because you're waiting to hear the chorus again because it's so fucking great. I love Pauline Black as a frontwoman, she's just crackling with energy and attitude, as is the whole band.
Plus the whole song is exactly 3 minutes long... Genius.
Also I'm trying not to get in the habit of mentioning the B-sides of the singles on this list but this time I am making the exception because the flip side of this single is the band ska-ified version of the James Bond Theme with the band's other vocalist 'Gaps' Hendrickson yelling DE KILLAAAAAA ... JAMES BAAAAND over the top of it.
It's amazing. Seriously go listen to it now it's only 2.18 mins of your life.

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

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 

[Trollheart]

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

[Saulaac]

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!).

"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

[Suburban Placeholder?]

Very chill and funky. One could call it chunky.

Sun Palace - Rude Movements

Was listening to this and the same image kept popping up in my head.....

[Suburban Placeholder?]

3rd February 1980 - 9th February 1980
At No. 1 : The Specials - Too Much Too Young E.P.

Another 12 new entries this week.


Highest New Entry - No. 35 : Michael Jackson - Rock With You
This kid is pretty talented, I wouldn't be surprised if I see a lot of him in the future.
Seriously though Off The Wall is my favourite Michael Jackson album by a country mile. Never mind him being black back then, his music was still black too. Sure he's always been a pop artist but I much prefered Jacko when he had elements of soul, funk and disco still in his music.
This is probably the 3rd or 4th best song on the album depending on whether I'm in the mood where I think this song or Burn This Disco Out is better.
Put a gun to my head and I would probably say this one. I love it's relaxed groove and chilled delivery. It's a perfect summer song which makes you wonder why on earth it came out in February.

No 46 : The Tourists - So Good To Be Back Home Again
The Tourists are the band that introduced Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart to the world long before The Eurythmics. And they weren't a bunch of schlubs either. They had a few top 10 hits and put out 3 albums before Annie and Dave went off seperately.
This is hot off the heels of their no 4 chart smash of a cover of Dusty Springfield's I Only Wanna Be With You which is still charting currently (It's at No. 67 this week).
I always thought this was a cover but it seems it's not. It was written to sound like an early Beatles song with Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production...
Well it had me fooled.
To me it sounds like The Ramones doing one of those early 60s girl group covers like The Ronettes that they would do. It's kind of odd to hear Annie Lennox singing power pop rather than synthpop or ballads.
Very good though, better than their previous cover in my view.

No 48 : Peter Gabriel : Games Without Frontiers
My Dad used to play this in his car a lot, he wasn't a fan of Peter Gabriel or anything he just liked the song. It was probably on some Dad Rock Driving compilation along with Chris Rea and Dire Straits.
Despite my aversion to anything related to Genesis or Phil Collins which has kind of waned in recent years, I am quite open to discovering more Peter Gabrial. I always thought his first 4 albums look particularly interesting. I think this is on the third ....maybe ?

No 53 : Dave Edmunds - Singing The Blues
Another crap boring 1950s cover.
However, Dave gets a pass for 2 reasons
1. Being a member of Love Sculpture, an underrated late 60s power trio who did a phenominal rock version of Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance. Both a 3 min single and a full 12 minute version on the album.
2. He was in Stardust, the greatest movie about the music business ever made, which you should watch because.
A. Keith Moon is the band's drummer.
B. Larry Hagman (years before he was J.R. in Dallas)  is amazing as the fast talking US tour manager Porter Lee Austin.

No 50 : Rocky Sharpe and the Replays - Martian Hop
Novelty 50's rock-a-billy revival that's so bad they would probably even turn it down on kids TV like Cheggers Plays Pop. This is horrible.
The first album my Dad ever bought me was a EMI records compilation called Knuckle Sandwich

This contained not one but two songs by this band, and as a 5 year old kid I loved them. However as I got a little older I gravitated towards some of the other songs on the album such as ... i dunno. How about fucking Overkill by Motorhead, or Highly Inflammable by X Ray Spex or Jilted John or Sylvester's You Make Me Feel as well as Ian Dury's Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick.
So yeah, even this bands better songs I got bored of by the age of about 7 or 8, so imagine how shit this one is.

No 57 : Marti Webb - Take That Look Off Your Face
Andrew Lloyd Webber tries to write an ABBA song.
It's dull, I've no idea which musical it's from, and I don't really care either.
Ironically Lloyd Webber would write the musical 'Chess' with Bjorn & Benny from ABBA a couple of years later.
I thought Marti Webb was the stick thin singer/comedienne/impressionist that my mother could not stand, but further research suggests that was Marti Caine, not Webb. Which then begs the question, Who the fuck is Marti Webb??

No 58 : Angelic Upstarts - Out Of Control
So there's this clip on YouTube of John Lydon and PIL walking off a Newcastle based TV show called Check It Out which is roughly about 2 minutes long.
If however you find the full 12 minute version ( Which I shall kindly link for you) you will find out the reason he walks out is because the host showed Lydon an interview he did with these jokers walking around Newcastle where they basically call Lydon a sell out for forming PIL.
Let's put things into perspective here. These 2nd Division regional punks were pushing out this kind of tired sounding aged punk shit in 1980 while Lydon was at his creative peak putting out albums like Metal Box and Flowers Of Romance.
Spirit of 77?
Fuck off
 

No 66 : Shalamar - Right In The Socket
BONGO FURY!!!!!!!!
There's some serious bongo action on this track and I want MORE.....
Shalamar are one of those bands I've come to appreciate with both time and my own tastes moving away from the 'rock music' bias I had say 15 or 20 years ago.
Jody Watley's vocals are amazing and clear as a bell, Jeffrey Daniel is the coolest muthafucker ever to set foot out of the disco era, and the other guy... well he's there too. I don't think I have ever heard a Shalamar song I didn't like.
Of course this is just the taster, Shalamar revolutionised the 80s. But that entry is going to have to wait a couple of years.

No 68 : Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Red Frame White Light
I could never quite get to grips with OMD. On the one hand they have written some fine songs. On the other hand there are through the roof levels of pretentiousness with this band, starting with the name of the band itself which is really really bad for this era of music which was awash with pretentious band names.
And then there's lead singer Andy McLuskey, without doubt a man with the most punchable face in rock music, who these days looks like he should be on the Labour Party's front benches.
But NO! dear reader, don't put those fists away just yet. Let us not forget during the late 90s when OMD were on an indefinite hiatus this is the man who not only formed, but also wrote songs for and produced Atomic Kitten.
Arsehole.
As for the song, it's pretty amaturish early sounding synthpop. Kind of like how The Human League sounded before Joanne and Susan joined on the first couple of albums.
They would write far better.


No 69 : Flying Lizards - TV
The great thing about doing this journal is hearing some of the stuff that one hit wonders came out with after their one great hit, the failed follow up so to speak. And boy, do we have a great example here.
In the summer of '79 the Lizards had an unlikely top 5 hit with their off the wall cover of Barrett Strong's 1959 hit Money (That's What I Want), which ended up being Motown Records first ever hit single. Four years later it was famously recorded by The Beatles.
This song is just as odd. It has a hammond organ playing a 1950s style tune with vocalist Deborah Evans-Stickland doing her trademark robotic deadpan style singing over it, and that's basically it.
The song would go on to spend six weeks hovering outside the top 40 before sinking without trace.Their S/T debut album would be released later this month and peak at No. 60 on the album chart and then disappear again in the matter of three whole weeks. Music journalist Simon Reynolds, a man who I have a lot of time for and who wrote the amazing book 'Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984' says about the album
"an exercise in pop absurdism" which included "a Brecht-Weill cover, Sanskrit chants, found sounds, and unlikely instrumental textures" alongside "David Cunningham's penchant for excessive studio processing and daft effects."
Consider me interested.
The Flying Lizards would go on to release six more singles and three more albums ..........
None of them charted.

No 70 : The Players Association - We Got The Groove
Here's a transcript of this song
Step 1 *cool bassline*
Step 2 *Vocals - "We Got The Groove"
Step 3 *Vocals - So mumbeled I can't make them out
Step 4 * See step 1
Add in a chorus about dancing, some POW-POW disco drums which I actually have my phone set to for message alerts, an extended bassline break down and a sax solo and then repeat for 8 minutes.
I was going to shit on this for being a generic disco song but the 8 minutes just flew by.

No 73 : The Vapors - Turning Japanese.
Oh piss the fuck off.

[Lexi of the Dawn]

Off the Wall is such a stone cold classic, so many bangers. Burn This Disco Out is a great shout to mention, the main riff of that song never gets old.

[Saulaac]

No 70 : The Players Association - We Got The Groove
Here's a transcript of this song
Step 1 *cool bassline*
Step 2 *Vocals - "We Got The Groove"
Step 3 *Vocals - So mumbeled I can't make them out
Step 4 * See step 1
Add in a chorus about dancing, some POW-POW disco drums which I actually have my phone set to for message alerts, an extended bassline break down and a sax solo and then repeat for 8 minutes.
I was going to shit on this for being a generic disco song but the 8 minutes just flew by.

No 73 : The Vapors - Turning Japanese.
Oh piss the fuck off.

Players Association rings a bell so I need to check them out pronto. Your walkthrough-by-text is very helpful lol. Exactly like Ceefax!

[Saulaac]

No 73 : The Vapors - Turning Japanese.
Oh piss the fuck off.

Oh I loved that one. Bill Bruford liked the chimes and chord progressions irrc. The chimes, a bit like the Quasimodo's "The Bells!"

[Suburban Placeholder?]

10th February 1980 - 16th February 1980
At No. 1 : Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County

A whopping 14 new entries this week?
Easy


Highest New Entry - No. 17 : Elvis Costello -  I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

Costello takes a classic soul ballad by Sam and Dave from 1967 and turns it into a jaunty, bouncy up-tempo 2 minute pop song, not unlike what Dexy's Midnight Runners were doing around the same time.
The video is great too with Costello doing a kind of awkward Madness style elbows dancing around various picturesque Mediterranian veiws with the rest of the Attractions running around in the background. Looks like another artist took a page from the Duran Duran using exotic locations in the music video to get a free holiday book.
Incidently this song plus the B side Girl Talk clock in a a total of 4 minutes and 5 seconds in total.
That has to be some sort of record surely?

No 37 : Rainbow - All Night Long
The follow up to the mighty Russ Ballad written Since You've Been Gone which was a top 6 smash in the summer of '79.
Yes yes , I get it. This is an unpopular era for a lot of fans of Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio being fired and the switch to a more commercial sound, but hear me out. Down To Earth was a pretty great album and I enjoy Graham Bonnet's vocals and wish he'd been in the band longer.
And speaking of the band, look at it....
Cozy Powell on Drums, Roger Glover on Bass, Don Airey on Keys
and add to that Blackmore and Bonnet. That's one hell of a line up.
As for the song itself, it's the album's opener so it's heavy riffs and big choruses right from the off. It kind of reminds me of Rock n Roll Over era Kiss a little given the extremely dumb lyrics that accompany this song....
 You're sorta young, but you're overage, I don't care 'cause I like your style,
Don't know about your brain, but you look alright.
I mean , come on I know this is rock n roll and not poetry, but that really is the sound of a barrel being scraped.
It's OK but Lost In Hollywood would have been a great choice of a single off that album instead.

No 45 : Stiff Little Fingers - At The Edge
I spoke before in the last entry about regional punk bands, this time we are blessed with probably the kings of regional punks. Northern Ireland's Stiff Little Fingers.
The gulf in class between this and an Angelic Upstarts or a Vapors is like night and day.
Although the song itself sounds like a B Side from Give Em Enough Rope era Clash, it's the intensity in the delivery and the attitude behind it which makes this band the real deal.
The way Jake Burns barks his way through this song makes you wonder how on earth he can still sing this kind of stuff 47 years later. In fact watching them perform this on Top Of The Pops, Jake and the rest of the band all look about 15 years old and it's actually scary how someone who looks that young can have all that gravel in their voice.
It also becomes appaerent they cannot mime on TV to save thier lives either.

No 46 : Fern Kinney - Together We Are Beautiful
'I am the rain, he is the sun, and now we've made a rainbow'
There is no way in Hell that I should like a song with a lyric in the first verse like this.
And yet this song has it's charm. It's one of those songs you know you've heard a million times before but you have no idea who sings it.
So who is Fern Kinney?
Well it seems she was a session musician / backing singer throughout the 1970s who was given a opportunity to release her own version of a song she sang on backing vocals for originally. That became a hit by getting to no 6 in the disco charts and she was signed to a record deal and this was the follow up single. Only this did even better and got to No 1 in the UK Charts.
After this she recorded a couple of albums to diminishing returns as the whole disco thing faded and by the mid 80s she was back doing session work.
Shame really, I love the laid back vibe of the song and her voice is childlike, almost fragile in a  similar way to Diana Ross, which I much prefer to the overpowered aggressive vocals from the likes of your Whitney Houstons or your Mariah Careys.
I like this one a lot,so much so I would like to hear her sing something else. Maybe I'll check out those 3 albums she put out.

No 48 : Sammy Hagar - I've Done Everything For You
This may come as a surprise but Sammy Hagar is someone I've never really crossed paths with despite being a massive Van Halen fan. I have only heard 2 records by him, Van Halen's 5150 album and the Montrose debut album. That's it, that's my whole Sammy Hagar experience. I did used to own Van Halen's OU812 album too but I don't think I've listened to the whole album, and what I have heard was in 1988 or whenever it was, fair to say that didn't leave much of an impression. I never bought another Van Halen album ever again.
So I'm biased towards Diamond Dave, deal with it.
I thought this was going to be a ballad by the title but I was wrong, it's kind of Cheap Trick style power pop with all the interesting hooks removed. It's rather bland and totally forgettable and 5 minutes after hearing it I remember nothing about it.

No 54 : Donna Summer - On The Radio
Yessssssss!!!!!!!!
Giorgio Morodor and Donna Summer, a match made in heaven.
Starts off as a gentle piano ballad and then builds and then builds some more and by the time you get to the chorus you've just lost yourself into it.
Just like every other collaboration between these two.
Did they ever make a bad record together?
You know what? Screw it, if they did I don't want to know

No 63: Shakin' Stevens - Hot Dog
How on earth do you explain the phenomenon that was Shakin' Stevens to people who were not around at the time or who were not from the UK? and just how big this guy was FOR THE WHOLE DECADE!!!!!
Shakey (As he was known to everybody in the UK) real name Michael Barrett had been trying in bands since the mid 1960s, he even had some success in a band called The Sunsets.
Then in the late 70s he got the main role in a musical as Elvis Presley, a record producer saw him and Mike became Shakin' Stevens, the Welsh Elvis.
Hot Dog was his first ever single, yes it's even more 50s rock a billy. However unlike the shower of shit doing it in the last entry it's not dull and Shakey has the charisma to pull it off and it also doesn't reach the 2 minute mark.
Not his best but he will get better, the first of his 33 top 40 hits just in the 80s alone.


MIND BLOWING ENTRY COMING UP IN....

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No 64 : Zaine Griff - Tonight

So this song is a prime example of why I am attempting this foolhardy mission.
Now I wasn't expecting much going into this song. I was expecting some kind of syrupy ballad that would bore me to death for 4 minutes, I'd write down a few pithy comments about it to some how justify those 4 lost minutes of my life that will never return, and then we could happily go on to listen to a song by a bunch of piss poor punk rockers.
So I google the guy and find a picture. Wow, that's quite a David Sylvian look he has going on there. I also discover he recorded 2 albums and promptly disappeared.
Playing the song, O.K. this isn't bad. I was right about the David Sylvian thing, this sound very much like middle-era Japan. Kind of glam rock with synths I'm really enjoying it actually.
So much so I listen to the entire album at work the next day, and it's really really good. The two singles off the album are very Japan like but the rest of the album is a lot more poppier.
I go home and google him again to find out more about him.
It turns out his parents were Dutch and lived on various Polynesian Islands before settling in New Zealand. He played in a fairly well known band there for a while called The Human Instinct before moving to London in the mid 70s.
Then I read about the album, well fuck me .... Tony Visconti on Bass and producing.
OK no surprise there there's a definite Bowie influence.
Wait!!!! what's this ... Hans Zimmer is his fucking keyboard player.... W.T.F.
This get odder by the minutes.
I look at the second album. OK Visconti is gone but Zimmer produces, fair enough.
What's this...??
KATE BUSH ON BACKING VOCALS!!!!
How?
Just How?
Not how did she sing on the album, but how the hell do I not know about this man? He even went on to work with Bowie himself for fuck sake.
I have been listening to Post Punk / New Wave / Synthpop for over 40 years, ever since I was old enough to turn the radio on or use a record player. I have explored literally every obscure band and artist from that era as I possibly can. How on earth does someone work with such high profile names and yet not make the tiniest dent on the world's musical conciousness.  It's almost like this guy arrived in a wormhole from an alternate dimension.
He seems to be touring and recording again in the last few years after a 40 year hiatus, so props to the guy.


Wow what a trip, now your normal service shall be resumed.......


No 65 : Cockney Rejects - Bad Man!
Come On
Come On
Hurry up Harry, Come On
Come On
Come On
WE'RE GOIN' DOWN THE PUB!!!!!!!

Well, it's close enough...........


No 68 : The Police - So Lonely
Wait, isn't this off their first album that came out in 1978 or something?
A little digging and it seems it was released as a single in 1978 but failed to chart.
It's strange, but listening to this now and knowing the stuff they were doing in 1980, the progression the group made in such a short time is pretty phenominal.
It's good for what it is, which is the second song on a debut album, but it does seem a strange choice for a single 2 years down the road.

No 70 : Phyllis Hyman - You Know How To Love Me
Didn't know anything at all about Phyllis before hearing this. Her list of credits reads like a who's who of Jazz. Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Grover Washington Jr, Lonnie Liston Smith, Barry Manilow...... OK maybe not that last one then. Add to that other acts like The Fatback Band, The Four Tops, Gamble & Huff.....
This is one in demand lady.
She even sang a Bond theme although it wasn't used, and this was on Never Say Never anyway so does that really count?
The song is pretty great and Phyllis' voice is the reason for that. You can easily see why this was a huge hit in the (gay) clubs, and went on to become Phyllis' most well known song.
Sadly Phyllis suffered from Bi polar disorder for much of her life and 15 years after this was released she commited suicide

No 72 : The Captain and Tennille - Do That To Me One More Time
Captain and Tennille, or as I know them The Uncool Carpenters.
There was no ringing endorsements from alt rock royalty in the 80s & 90s like Sonic Youth for Tennille or The Captain like there was for Karen & Richard C who were showered with love from those kind of  bands back then, even though to me there's barely any difference between both artists. Although having said that one had a kick ass drummer and the other wrote Muskrat Love so there is that I guess.
This song was one of their no 1 hits in the U.S. (No 7 in the U.K.)
It's a bit too schmaltzy for me although it does have a catchy chorus, not really a big fan of this.
I did find this funny though......

"I went to see the Pink Floyd concert at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. There was a 15-year-old boy sitting in front of me who recognized me. He turned around and snottily said, 'What are YOU doing here?' So I told him I sang on the album (The Wall).  He ran off to find a friend who had brought the LP to the show, and looked at the back to see if my name was really on there. A few minutes later, he came back and apologetically said, 'Can I have your autograph?' - Toni Tennille.

No 73 : The Dickies - Fan Mail
In the famous vinyl box I have spoken of many times.....

(Quick update in case you don't know what I am talking about)

When I was around 9 years old my Dad was working as a groundsman in various public parks and playing fields. One day he came across a box of 7 inch singles left on a bench so he handed it in to lost property. After a few months nobody claimed it so he was told he could have it. He took it and gave it to me. That box was full of Punk & Two Tone stuff.
This was my introduction to bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Tubes, The Stranglers, X-Ray Spex and Public Image L.T.D as well as a bunch of singles by bands I already knew like The Specials, Madness, Bad Manners, The Beat and The Jam.

Ok now you're up to speed.

So in this box one of the singles was The Dickies with their cover of the Theme From The Banana Splits and another was their cover of the Moody Blues Nights In White Satin both released in 1979.
Interestingly 5 of their first 6 singles were covers (The other 3 being Paranoid, Eve Of Destruction & Silent Night). Amazingly 4 of those songs charted in the UK. The Banana Splits cover even even reached No 7. in the UK charts.
Now we get to Fan Mail, their third attempt at getting an original song into the charts, and this time they finally do it. It'll only get as high as No 57, but it's an improvement on their last original single which didn't chart at all.
I may have under-estimated this band a little. I was expecting very cartoony punk-pop. I mean hat's exactly what I got, but not obnoxious late 90s cartoonly punk pop. This is very Ramones-y & Buzzcock-y and much easier to stomach. This is off their 2nd album Dawn Of The Dickies which was always there, but just shot up about 1000 places on my 'Get around to hearing this album' list.


No 75 : Godiego - Gandhara (The Theme From Monkey)
Only it isn't!!!!!!!!!!

It was advertised as being the Theme from Monkey, but this is the music to the CLOSING credits, some Japanese prog band. Not the catchy theme tune from the opening credits.
I'm guessing people complained because it was re-released just weeks later with the opening title music on the B Side.
The TV show Monkey was a HUGE deal around this time. A weird Japanese TV show that ran from 1978 till 1980 somehow became a UK and worldwide smash. I remember as a kid every Friday night on the school bus all the talk was centred around that night's upcoming episode, and all the talk on Monday morning's trip back to school was 'Did you see Monkey on Friday?'
I was never a part of these conversations. We were a one television household and my Dad wanted to watch the local news which was on at the same time, so I never got to see it.
I did however eventually catch an episode.... and thought it was utter crap and never watched it again. I had no idea what was going on, later I found out I wasn't the only one. Even the writer for the English voice overs of the show, David Weir** had no access to Japanese translations so he made it up as he went along  only using abrief synopsys.
I'm such that there are a lot of people who get all misty eyed and nostalgic for their youth at the sound of this Japanese prog / folk song.
I'm not one of them.

Well that was whopping, another one done, If you hate Doctor Who you can ignore the below peice which is just another titbit of info I felt like sharing.....




** The year previous David Weir would write a Doctor Who script called Killers of the Dark which was to be the 6 part finale of Season 15. He sent in a draft script about a race of cat people living on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifey which was accepted. When the final script came in the production team were horrified to discover that in final showdown the Doctor and Leela would be in a stadium surrounded by 50,000 people in full cat make up and costumes.
The script was abandoned as being to complex and expensive to shoot, causing Producer Graham Williams and Script Editor Anthony Read to have to write a replacement 6 part story in less than 2 weeks.

[Suburban Placeholder?]

17th February 1980 - 23rd February 1980
At No. 1 : Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County
2nd Week

12 entries today, only one in the top 40 but some real interesting ones bubbling under.


Highest New Entry - No. 3 : Blondie - Atomic
You have to think if you were in Blondie at this time you must have thought you had the whole world at your feet. Everything they touch seemed to turn to gold as they released banger after banger after banger. I mean look at their run of UK singles since the release of Parallel Lines....
Hanging On The Telephone, Heart Of Glass, Sunday Girl, Dreaming, Union City Blue, Call Me, and now Atomic. Atomic is probably for me the most iconic Blondie song and their most recognisable but it's not my favourite (Union City Blue...BTW). That run of success would end very soon and the band would dissappear for a good 15 years, but for the 4 years they shone as brightly as they did they were untouchable.
R.I.P. Clem Burke

No 46 : Iron Maiden - Running Free
And the N.W.O.B.H.M has officially begun.
For me Running Free is one of the greatest debut singles of all time, so obviously i'm going to talk about Judas Priest.
As much as I love Judas Priest there's always been one thing that bugs me about them. They like to think of themselves as the gatekeepers of metal, pioneers of what would become thrash and speed metal blah blah blah. And don't get me wrong, they are, but....
What exactly were Judas Priest doing in 79 and 80, I will tell you. Doing 2 appearences on Top Of The Pops for Take On The World and United. 2 of the worst songs on their respective albums if not the whole Judas Priest back catalogue with their dull singalong and clappyalong anthemic nonsense that suggested they listened to Queen's We Will Rock You a few too many times, Oh ... and they mimed, both times.
Meanwhile Motorhead were appearing on the show doing Ace Of Spades and Iron Maiden were doing this song ... LIVE. What do you have to say to that Rob? Huh? Who was doing more to spread the word of metal back then. Ha!
The energy, the rawness, Paul Di anno's snarling vocals, Steve Harris' galloping bassline. The only thing stopping this from being punk is the Thin Lizzy style guitar harmonies in the solo by Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton. It's a simple solo, but it's not a solo it's a fucking statement of intent that this was a new type of metal that had taken the best bits of classic rock and the best bits of punk and fused the 2 together and even today it still sounds fresh. I mean shit, look at the first verse...
'Just sixteen, a pickup truck
Out of money, out of luck
I've got nowhere to call my own
Hit the gas, and here I go'
Iron Maiden don't do songs like this anymore, or even since Bruce Dickinson joined,these days  it's all 14 minute epics about the Crimean war and whatever classic novel Steve Harris happens to be reading that week. Henry Rollins does a wonderful piss take on this subject which I shall link below.
God I fucking love this era of Iron Maiden. I remember hearing this for the first time. I'd only heard Bruce Dickinson's stuff first (Beast & Somewhere in Time). The debut was the 3rd Iron Maiden album I owned, although I liked those first 2 albums it was the debut which made me LOVE them, which is why I will always remain a Di anno loyalist.
R.I.P. Paul

No 48 : The Beat - Hands Off.... She's Mine
i refuse to call them The English Beat so fuck off murica.
Not one of their better songs. I didn't hate it, it's just after the initial blast it doesn't really go anywhere and get's a bit repetative. And that's quite an accomplishment in a song that's barely over 2 minutes long.
They'll go on to make a lot better stuff.

No 52 : Gibson Brothers - Cuba / Better Do It Salsa
YES!!!!
I know this one.
It's the one that goes
'Cuuuuuuuuuuuuba, better do it saaaaaaaaal-SA!!!'
It's another of those songs I must have heard a million times growing up but had no idea of the title or the band. Knowing it now it seems so obvious but I was never entirely sure of what was being sung in the opening line. despite all that this song is a total banger and even has a great piano solo in the middle of it.
Wasn't disco supposed to have been killed in 1979?
Not feeling that here.

No 62 : Jocko - Rhythm Talk
WOAH!!!!
What the hell was that?
I see the logo on the record 'Philadelphia International Records' so I'm expecting that lush Philly disco sound with lots of strings and soaring vocals. And for the first 30 seconds thats what we get. And then Jocko's lyrics start.....and he starts rapping them!!!!!!!!
Wait a sec, this is a full year before Blondie's Rapture, 2 years before Grandmaster Flash did The Message and 3 years before White Lines (Don't Do It), why on earth it this man not held up as some sort of Hip Hop pioneer? Dare I say it this is even better than those 3 songs?
A Jocko deep dive is needed badly.

No 65: The Brothers Johnson - Stomp
Wow. 3 disco classics in a row. well, 2 and a hidden gem really.
The biggest problem with this song is at 4 minutes and 2 seconds it's too short.
I want more, those strings are gorgeous, and the bass...fucking wow.
Anyone who has the slightest hint of interest in the bass guitar has to hear this song right now.
This is one of the reasons Classic Rock bores irritate me so much and makes me wonder if the hatred of disco by them is really 100% totally musically motivated . I mean how can you listen to a song like this and not appreciate the musicianship involved.

No 68 : Narada Michael Walden - Tonight I'm Alright
I mean there's nothing inherently bad about this song, but after hearing the last 3 songs it places this one firmly into the Division 2 of disco/funk. I mean the guitarwork sounds like a total rip off of Nile Rogers just by itself. Also the ryhming of Alright with Tonight get's really annoying after a while.

No 69 : Tony Rallo and the Midnite Band - Holdin' On / Burnin' Alive
This has a very 'big band' feel about it, kind of like Earth, Wild and Fire with the brass section, backing vocals and about 100 band members all on stage. I'm listening to the full 7 minute 24 second version and it's incredible with it's horn solos and bass solos all over the place. This isn't disco it's full on funk.
This is a double A side and the 2nd track Burnin' Alive is just as good, starting off with a very Chic like gutar riff it slowly builds in it's own mellow way. In fact I listened to the 7 minute version of this song too. Looking at Tony Rallo's biography was interesting. The guy was born in Tunisia, became a respected guitarist in the french music scene in the 60s, conducted orchestras and written songs for France and Turkey in Eurovision during the 70s and since then has worked with a ton of people.

No 70 : Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back To You Girl (Forgive Me Girl)
I assumed this was a re-release but it's actually a cover as The Four Seasons did the original in 1966. Having heard both versions I much prefer this one. The problem with the original is that the vocals swamp the song with the insrtumentation firmly in the background including a rather cool hammond organ. I like the punchiness of this version, the beat and the bassline is much more promenant, the handclaps add to it giving the song a much more groove orientated feel.
Yet another disco classic.

No 72 : Def Leppard - Hello America
I guess the N.W.O.B.H.M. really is in full flow.
Not that Def Leppard were ever really a part of that scene, not really anyway they were always much more influenced by the glam & pop rock of the 70s like Queen, Bowie & Thin Lizzy than they were by Black Sabbath or Deep Purple.
You can see right from the start where their intentions lie with this song. They wanted mega stardom in the U.S. And to be fair they would get it very soon.
I love the naivity of this song. You can tell just be reading the lyrics they're clearly never been to the U.S. They mention wanting the go to Los Angeles and San Francisco, fair enough.
And ummm, San Pedro Bay Not New York? Chicago? Miami? Texas? OK then.
I do love this song, it does make for a great first single for a band to put out.
Another statement of intent.

No 73 : Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
Thought this song was utterly ordinary, just goes to show what I know really because it would spend 14 weeks in the charts, 5 of those in the Top 5 only being held off the No 1 spot by The Detroit Spinners and The Jam. Mind you I can imagine many a drunken mother dancing to this at some wedding.
Their Top Of The Pops appearence is a total trip, with the drummer wearing nothing but a gold lame tie and a pair of shiny green budgie smugglers and the guitarist in his 19th century military jacket.

No 75 : Joan Armatrading - Rosie
Years ago while I was at school a guy called Kev was in the year above me.
About a decade after I left school I ran into Kev again when we both started working together for the same company. Kev had 3 main interests, computers, video games and chain smoking.
All the time I worked with him I never once heard him talk about anything else. He didn't watch TV or films, he didn't talk about music or politics or sports, just computers and games.
Around this time Kev was on at me to buy a computer and get online which I did.
When I finally got my first P.C. he gave me a disc which was full of MAME arcade games.
I put them all on my computer and began playing them regularly.
About a year later I'm going through this folder with something like 1500 games in it so I had some idea of what was in there, when I come across a file named 'Joan'
I open it and inside I find another folder 'The Very Best Of Joan Armatrading' complete with every song.
I see Kev the next day at work.

'Why the fuck have I got Joan Armatrading on my computer?'
'Joan Armatrading? She's fuckin' class, she is'
'Yeah, if you're my mums age'
'Don't underestimate the Armatrading'
It was the only opinion I ever heard him speak about music.

So years later here I am facing this song, I'm more mellow than I was back then with what I would like to think a more refined musical palette, Kev's words are playing over and over in my head
'Don't underestimate the Armatrading'
At the time I had just assumed Joan Armatrading was just a singer songwriter who would sing soppy ballads. I hadn't realised back then she was better known as, and had made her name as a protest singer. The song is pretty damn good too. It's like an uptempo reggae song, but with a story attached to it so it has this reggae / folk feel to it. If all of her stuff is like this I wish I had listened to her 'Very Best Of' after all.
Don't underestimate the Armatrading... indeed.