After the disco era dried up, the new wave took over for me and for the most part there was some new rock and roll to go with the classic rock favorites. For the most part I kept an open mind an big selection of vinyl in my house. For the most part I tend to pick up the CBS 5.98 series of new artists that they were touting and place to go was their 1980 Exposed 2 record set which sold for like 3 bucks and had artists like Ian Gomm, Adam & The Ants, The Romantics and many others. Again label association was the reason why I bought and for Stiff album I did buy the New York based Dirty Looks, who 1980 Stiff/Epic is hard rocking new wave.
Some of the bands I discover was The Rockets who made some good to great albums on RSO and Elektra to which my favorite was 1982's Rocket Roll, which got zilch airplay. And of course, the beloved Brains whose 2 albums and EP I still have to this day. And of course that time I discovered Motorhead and No Sleep Till Hammersmith which gave us the filth and fury of Lemmy's three chord rock and roll turned up all the way to ten. Foghat at that time was going for a more new wave sound although the reviews were getting bad I still thought that Zig Zag Walk is a fun listen. About that time, REM was ready to take over the college music scene with Murmur but they wouldn't figure into my playlist three years later. More about that in later blogs.
The decade was the changing of the guard, John Bonham died, Keith Moon died, Bon Scott ditto and Zeppelin broke up, The Who stumbled along with Kenny Jones and Robert Plant outdid Jimmy Page. And Journey was getting BIG and BIGGER. But in 1983 Jason & The Scorchers and Rank & File sowed the seeds of what would be cowpunk and later Americana. My album play list is all over the place but it still showed that I was always open for good music.
In terms of remembering things, I think I remember more of my high school years more than the junior college years although I think I did more fucking off than preparing for the future with wasting many a time in the Kirkwood Broadcast Training booth and playing albums and wasting more time. The Kirkwood lounge had a great jukebox to which I could play Foghat's Love Zone over and over. At that time I was working up at the old Marion 76 with my dad and we would be butting heads half the time. Basically I was your typical do nothing brat that would spend all his money on video games at the arcade in Lindale Mall or hang at the record stores. I did play in a part time band off and on but it seldom paid the bills. Wednesday nights I'd be up at Skate Country on 2 dollar family night hanging out and skating around the rink a bit. But as the decade progressed the free ride at home was just about over and it was time to go find another trade school and learn a trade and make a damn living. It would and it would lead to the next part of our journey, the working years and the rise of garage rock and MTV.
The Albums that mattered
Motorhead-Ace Of Spades, Iron Fist, Another Perfect Day, No Remorse
Dr. Feelgood-Case Of The Shakes
Nick Lowe-Nick The Knife,
Dave Edmunds-Twangin' DE 7th, Infomation
Rockpile-Seconds Of Pleasure
The Kings Are Here/Amazon Beach
Frank Marino-Tales Of The Unexpected, What's Next, Power Of Rock and Roll, Juggernaut
Rockets-No Ballads, Back Talk, Rocket Roll
Robin Trower-Victims Of The Fury, Back It Up
Rainbow-Down To Earth
Black Sabbath-Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Born Again
Whitesnake-Ready N Willing, Live In The Heart Of The City, Come An Get It
Devo-Freedom Of Choice, New Traditionalists, Oh No It's Devo!
Dio-Holy Diver, The Last In Line
Yes-Drama, 90125
The Clash-London Calling
The English Beat-I Just Can't Stop It, What Is Beat?
Paul Collins Beat-The Beat, The Kids Are The Same
Gary Myrick & The Figures, Living In A Dream
Journey-Departure, Captured, Escape, Frontiers
Foghat-Tight Shoes, Girls To Chat & Boys To Bounce, In The Mood For Something Rude, Zig Zag Walk
Utopia-Deface The Music, Utopia, Trivia
Off Broadway USA-On, Quick Turns
Blue Oyster Cult-Cultosaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin, Extraterrestrial Live, Revolution By Night
Graham Parker-Squeezing Out Sparks, The Up Escalator
Blackfoot-Strikes, Tom Cattin
20/20, Look Out!
Dirty Looks
Angel City-Face To Face, Dark Room, Night Attack, Two Minute Warning
Rank & File-Sundown
The Romantics, National Breakout, Strictly Personal, In Heat
Robert Plant-Pictures At Eleven, The Principal Of Moments
Van Halen-Women & Children First, Driver Down, Fair Warning
AC/DC-Back In Black, For Those About To Rock, Flick Of The Switch
Nantucket-Long Way To The Top
The Bus Boys-American Worker
XTC-Black Sea, English Settlement, Drums & Wires, The Big Express
Trio-Trio & Error
Jason & The Scorchers Fervor EP, Lost & Found, Still Standing
John Cale Comes Alive
Lou Reed-Blue Mask, New Sensations, Growing Up In Public
Danny Joe Brown & The Danny Joe Brown Band
Little Steven & Disciples Of Soul-Men Without Women
Asia, Alpha
Moody Blues-Long Distance Voyager
Chicago 14
REO Speedwagon-Nine Lives, Hi Infidelity
Gerald McMahon & Kid Lightning-Blue Rue
Bram Tchaikovsky-Funland, Pressure, Strange Man Changed Man
Fastway, All Fired Up
Nazareth-Malice In Wonderland, 2XS
Humble Pie-On To Victory, Go For The Throat.
Wire-154, Document & Eyewitness
The Specials, More Specials
The Brains, Electronic Eden, Dancing Under Streetlights EP
Badfinger-Say No More
Tom Waits-Heart Attack & Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs
Neil Young-Re Act Or, Trans, Everybody's Rockin
Jefferson Starship-Modern Times
Peter Townsend-Empty Glass
Molly Hatchet-Beating The Odds, No Guts...No Glory, The Deed Is Done
David Gilmour-About Face
Led Zeppelin-In Through The Out Door, Coda
Gary US Bonds-On The Line
Bruce Springsteen-The River, Nebraska, Born In The USA
The B'zz-Get Up
Micheal Stanley Band-You Can't Fight Fashion
ZZ Top-El Loco, Eliminator
6 comments:
Crabby!: Hey look at you, all over the place with yr musical taste! Get ready 4 another epic comment....
Commenting only on the shall we say less-popular stuff:
Motorhead! Great! Even tho I can't say I've heard all that much. "Ace of Spades" is killer! & do you know what album "Killed By Death" is on? How bout "Born to Raise Hell"? Great stuff.
Hey, I've heard Gary Myrick! "She Talks in Stereo," right?
Foghat's GIRLS TO CHAT/BOYS TO BOUNCE has the great "Wide Boy" on it, but that's about as far as I got....
20/20's LOOK OUT hasa coupla great songs, "American Dream" & "A Girl Like You," but that's all I remember....
XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" offa ENGLISH SETTLEMENT is the only thing of theirs I've heard that ever grabbed me, & it's pretty great....
Bram Tchaikovsky was worth it just 4 "Let's Dance," with its great ringing, clanging guitars -- why wasn't it a hit? People never know what's good 4 'em....
Nazareth's MALICE had "Holiday" on it, that was a great song that I thot shoulda bn all over the radio, 2... which shows what I know....
& I remember the EXPOSED package 2 -- man, it sounds like you were busy buying up everything back when I was in the record store biz. You shoulda swung out 2 Idaho & said Hi, we coulda set you up....
You should do more of this nostalgia stuff, it's suprising what bells you ring with me even if all you do is run a list of titles. Thanx....
Hey TAD, glad ya like my little history of music and how it changed my life. As you can tell I listened to quite a bit of things back then and yes that's Gary Myrick She Talks In Stereo your thinking of. Myrick would have a hand in John Waite's comeback album No Brakes with the chart topping Missing You
Lonesome Dave's new wave fever on the later albums turned a lotta people off, Girls to Chat hasn't aged very well but In The Mood For Something Rude was a nice album of covers.
Motorhead's Killed By Death was off the No Remorse Best of, which was a 2 record set with four new tracks KBD being one of them. Born To Raise Hell is off Bastards (1993)
I love Bram T's albums especially 1981's Funland but that record didn't sell and he retired from music I gather. Nazareth's Holiday was the first single that the FM station played since Love Hurts and it actually made me go out and buy Malice In Wonderland which wasn't hard rock at all. Fool Circle wasn't that great but 2XS kinda returned them to the charts with Our Love Leads To Madness.
I'm sure I'll be returning to more nostalgia in the weeks to come. They seem to get my brain to remember things long forgotten. ;)
You're a little older than me, Crabb, yet I remember getting into a lot of this stuff. In fact, I've got much of this stuff in my music library.
I never really got into new wave, although I did dabble with Duran Duran, Prince and INXS for a little bit. (What was I thinking?) That was before I thought heavy metal was a bit better.
Hi Drew, I did buy the INXS singles (One Thing, Don't Change) along with Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran although I never did buy anything from DD and the INXS LPs i Found in the dollar bins. I think I got more into the early 90s alt rock more than the 80s new wave. But I will get around to that era sometime in the near future.
Hey Crabb, always good to see Angel City (aka the Angels) make any list. Not enough people know about them and they should. Of course it would be easier if you could find more than Face to Face. Mahogany Rush Live was another I wore out in the summer of '78. Enjoyed some of the early 80s output, but then listened to less and less as the decade wore on. Those big hairdos and big echoey drums got annoying after a while. Take care, and RIP Gary Moore.
Hi Starman-Angel City never seem to get much love here in the states although I did buy their albums when they came out. And we played the heck out of Frank Marino live in HS.
Always great to hear from you.
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