Violent Femmes The eponymous band from Milwaukee used to play around in Madison while I was still in college there. Their first album included several great songs like Kiss Off, Gone Daddy Gone, Blister In The Sun and Add It Up, all purportedly written by Gordon Gano while still in high school. The latter song was the first time I remember hearing the f-word on vinyl since Country Joe and his Fish Cheer.
Combat Rock by The Clash included Rock The Casbah and Should I Stay or Should I Go
1982 Singles/Videos
Avalon by Roxy Music. So what was Brian Ferry doing for all those years since Country Life?
Thriller by Michael Jackson is the best selling album of all time -- and I never owned it! I did enjoy the video singles from this work including Beat It.
Boogie in Your Butt by Eddie Murphy. Still an LOL!
Winnebago Warrior ~ Dead Kennedys. Classic Jello Biafra humor:
Littered campgrounds, folding chairs
Feed Doritos to the bears
Honey, quick, the polaroid...
Save It For Later by The English Beat.
Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac who rekindled the last of their old magic before fading away forever.
Crimson and Clover covered by a smokin' hot Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. She also released I Love Rock and Roll around this time.
Valley Girl ~ Moon Unit & Frank Zappa A novelty hit fer sure fer sure. OMG, I think we underestimate the impact of Valspeak on modern language. LOL!
Mental Hopscotch Missing Persons. Former Frank Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio and his Playboy playmate wife Dale made a brief splash on MTV with this one.
Only The Lonely ~ The Motels's Martha Davis (eye-candy alert) drove me to go buy a special skinny tie to go see them that year at a Madison club.
Urban Struggle by Orange County punk band The Vandals from their EP called Peace Through Vandalism. I first heard these guys via my girlfriend (now wife) who was well-versed with all the SoCal punk bands.
Caught Up In You by .38 Special. My soft spot for Southern Rock latched onto this one.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) by The Eurythmics.
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club. No didn't, but I did feel a little Schadenfreude when Boy George was arrested and did time. I forget what for exactly.
She Blinded Me With Science Thomas Dolby. Sie hat mich mit Wissenschaft geblindet.
Jack and Diane John Cougar Melonball. Goofy, quirky song I liked by a Midwestern guy who wound up on the wrong side of politics.
Back On the Chain Gang by "The Pretenders". They were just the "Pretenders" before half the band OD'd in 1982. This song and the theme song for the Rush Limbaugh Show were hastily recorded and released as singles. Both songs later appeared on the 1984 album Learning To Crawl. Both songs got heavy rotation on MTV.
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow. The version is remarkably close to the original 1965 song by The Strangeloves.
White Wedding Billy Idol. Weird video played a lot on MTV.
Love My Way by The Psychedelic Furs
Come Dancing by The Kinks. Ray Davies keeps his band alive (barely) in the MTV era. A nostalgic look back at his London of the 1950s.
Rio by Duran Duran. More hot chicks in flix by the Fab Five.
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Whip It by Devo This video belongs to 1981 and I slipped it in here for Ron and Victoria hoping nobody would notice.
Was Billy Idol the Justin Bieber of his day? I like Idol's songs, I just think his appeal was about attitude. Teens back then wanted "cool" instead of "cute" is all.
ReplyDeleteI used to like Rio (and Hungry like the Wolf), until I got the album and compared it to Duran Duran. Those songs sound so lazy! Just one hook!
ReplyDelete1982 also had Upstair At Eric's by Yaz. A lot of good songs on that. Situation, Only You, and Goodbye Seventies, plus the now weird sounding Bad Connection.
ReplyDeleteI still like Billy Idol - the attitude was campy back in the 80's but there is a style to the guy that still resonates.
ReplyDeleteBilly Idol had the sneer down pat.
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