It was a time when young synth boffins were in demand. Robert Palmer invited Gary Numan to Nassau. Thomas Dolby arranged Foreigner's "Urgent". Midge Ure remade/remodeled Ultravox, and The Buggles essentially took over Yes. Bill Nelson reinvented himself. Fripp reinvented King Crimson, and busied himself with Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Roches, and his own League Of Gentlemen.
Speaking of The Buggles, the rise of MTV and the decline of freeform FM radio altered listening habits. New groups like Duran Duran were Taylor-made to be video stars. Older artists cut their hair, or at least put on skinny ties, shoulder pads and "cheap sunglasses". Some used stand-ins: Sting sang "I want my MTV" for Dire Straits, and Pink Floyd cast Bob Geldof in the film about the album about the "ever-popular tortured artist effect".
In this period (1979-1982), some of the "class of 77" finally reached the American airwaves. Mainstream US radio played The Ramones and The Clash, as well as Blondie, Devo, The Go-Go's, Talking Heads, Boomtown Rats, Joe Jackson, The Police, B-52's, Squeeze, Gary Numan, The Human League, Adam & The Ants, The Psychedelic Furs and The Pretenders.
Punks (and critics) liked Bowie, Bolan, Iggy, Ian Hunter, John Cale and Lou Reed; they were "marked safe". But concept albums and long instrumental solos were out of vogue. Genesis, Rush, Queen, and Led Zep trimmed their arrangements. American bands like BOC, J.Geils, Styx, and ZZ Top did the same, and scored hits.
Today's share includes some folks who you may not have expected to "go New Wave", or might have forgotten. Do you remember the Serious Artiste albums of Daryl Hall and Shaun Cassidy, Alice Cooper's buzzcut, Peter Noone's power pop band, or the Village People's New Romantic makeover?
LINK: https://www.mediafire.com/file/kqo7aj28wi02duz/DoYaThinkI'mNewWave.zip/file
ReplyDeleteLove it! - Stinky
ReplyDeleteThank you for your encouragement and feedback when I first started thinking about this odd little time period, Stinky!
DeleteVery Cool ! neat concept very well done , thank you for this
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comments, Strummer62 and Nick. Same thing happened to me at the same age, Nick. Got rid of all my "dinosaur rock" LP's. It was easier to embrace an opinion that judged all of it as hippie crap, rather than to sort the wheat from the chaff with a critical ear (or to develop one's own opinion in defense of music that didn't deserve to be dismissed).
ReplyDeleteThe hardcore punk era made that kind of reflexive thinking even worse. It was a relief when bands like Black Flag, Redd Kross, the Minutemen, the Replacements and Die Kreuzen grew their hair out and expressed their affection for Black Sabbath, Kiss, BOC and Aerosmith.
What we took as an absolute dictum was probably never intended to be one. Johnny Rotten may have worn a shirt that said "I hate Pink Floyd", but he didn't stop listening to Hawkwind, Can or VdGG. Mark E. Smith also loved Can, Beefheart, Zappa, the Groundhogs, etc.
I bought the Alice Cooper single "Clones" when it came out. I still find something very satisfying in that particular combination of guitars and synthesizers. That song got me thinking about those strange years. I wonder how long it took Alice to grow his hair back?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on a rainy Scottish Monday.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Popular music sucked ass to an extent not seen again until ... well I guess it has sucked ass ever since then! But the underground music scene was incredible and quickly morphed into so many different creative paths (hardcore being the most dead-end and of those and therefore the most popular!).
ReplyDeleteRedd Kross and the rest of the bands you mention definitely rekindled my love for KISS, Zeppelin, etc. as well and opened the doors to the Stooges, Blue Cheer, MC5 and on and on from there. I've really never taken to synthesizers and drum machines though (even Suicide leaves me cold) unless you go back to Hawkwind and Cluster, etc. This recent resurgence of 80s influences (synthesizers, echoey vocals, etc) in current "Alternative" music leaves my just as cold.
Well said, Sir Dave. To my own ears, guitars and synths combined can be as irresistible as chocolate and peanut butter. Hawkwind is a perfect example. Chrome, Devo, Pere Ubu, Killing Joke -- or even Alice Cooper's "Clones".
DeleteThose are all great counter-examples. I guess it's synth-pop and 4AD/goth styles in particular that I dislike (not to mention 80s pop music production values!). Real drums always help. Sorry for all the sloppy typos in the other comment -- normally I do a better job of grammar-policing myself.
DeleteI'm not a fan of synthpop either -- except for "Chains Of Love" by Erasure, because it's just glorious. And that 80's drum sound can spoil just about anything. Not much of a goth fan, again with one exception, which is "Snake Dance" by the March Violets.
Delete4AD signed some great American bands (Pixies, Breeders, Throwing Muses). I dug the Birthday Party, Bauhaus, Rema Rema and Cocteau Twins. A couple of The The songs were great. I keep meaning to do a deep dive into A.R. Kane and His Name Is Alive. But a lot of the bigger 4AD bands never appealed to me. I'm definitely biased toward bands with loud guitars, and I can't dance. I'm just a symptom of the moral decay that's gnawing at the heart of the country.
Forgot to mention Metal Urbain and Tubeway Army as great guitar/synth bands. "Shadow In Vain" is a bop, as the kids say. They still say that, don't they? Or have they moved on to saying something else? I bet they did, the sneaky bastards! Why was I not informed of this?
DeleteMy 17 year old daughter just recently taught me what a "bop" is and I was very surprised to discover that the term's been around for a while. So they still use it but it may have reached the ironic use stage by now. Makes you feel old!
DeleteThe younger of my two kids recently turned 20, so I don't even have a teenager anymore. It's hard to tell whether my kids are being ironic. They claim to genuinely enjoy TV shows like the Golden Girls and Columbo. To paraphrase The Hold Steady, I survived the Seventies once already, and I don't recall them all that fondly. BACK IN MY DAY, kids knew where we stood in terms of enjoying things ironically.
DeleteOh, I love this stuff, whether it's 50s pop stars engaging with psychedelia or 70s dinosaurs figuring out how to tie a skinny tie. My favorite of all in this class is the Pretty Things' Cross Talk LP from 1980 where if you didn't know better, you'd think they were new to the scene. And the Searchers had a pretty credible go at power pop (cf. "Hearts In Your Eyes" et al).
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, Macca outdoes them all with your closer. Freakin' brilliant.
Thank you for the kind words, and for recommending that Pretty Things album. I had the Searchers' version of "Switchboard Susan" in my first draft of this compilation. That draft also had "Temporary Secretary" in the middle of the mix, but I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. (I say that as a person who genuinely enjoys hearing "Wonderful Christmastime" during the winter holidays.) Sir Paul is also a repeat offender in the "cod reggae" category.
Delete1950's singers coming to terms with the hippie generation would make a great compilation (I'm not the one to compile it), especially if it included sincere efforts like Del Shannon's "Charles Westover" album rather than the "Golden Throats" type material, even though the latter stuff can be funny when you're in the mood for it. I still have my cassette of Irwin Chusid's "Atrocious Versions" that I bought by mail from the man himself.
Wow, the Pretty Things sound a bit like The Police on "No Future" and "Young Pretenders". "Falling Again" has the New Wave herky-jerky keyboard sound down pat. I'm really enjoying this record. Phil May and Pete Tolson sound great. "Bitter End" is my favorite song so far.
Delete1980 was a busy year for producer Jon Astley (who later had a hit of his own with "Jane's Getting Serious"). In addition to producing The Pretty Things, The Who, and Eric Clapton, in 1980 he produced albums for The Jags and Manchester band The Distractions, plus singles for Simon Townshend's band On The Air (among others). Jon Astley's sister Karen is Pete Townshend's ex, and his other sister Virginia Astley is a solo artist.
Those Ultra-Lounge "On The Rocks" comps did a pretty good job with crooners covering rock songs. Mel Torme does a great rendition of "My Little Red Book" (and the album it is from, "Right Now!" is a gem though it is more mainstream pop covers than dirty hippie stuff).
DeleteFunny you mention that song. I had the Bebe Buell version of "My Little Red Book" on the first draft of "Do Ya Think I'm New Wave?"
DeleteI never understood why Tony Bennett was embraced by early 90's alt-rock fans when Mel Torme was infinitely more talented. My wife and I sing along to Mel's Christmas album every year, and I've been thinking about writing a False Memory Foam piece about this snazzy disc:
https://www.discogs.com/release/2657286-Mel-Torm%C3%A9-Songs-Of-New-York
"Right Now" looks like a winner. Thanks for the recommendations, MrDave and Foppington!
All I'll say regarding Bebe Buell is "BOY HOWDY!!"
DeleteCompletely agree regarding Tony Bennett -- a mediocre singer who cashed in big on just being old (I need to figure out how to do that trick). I guess his album with Bill Evans was ok but, yeah so many better singers! I'd love to see a write up on Songs of New York -- I see it in my library but I'm not familiar with it as an album per se and he definitely deserves some love!
Sorry to have been AWOL for a couple weeks, may have missed the window on continuing this dialogue. Glad you liked the Pretties--I remember buying that record as a new wave-obsessed teenager in 1980 and being blown away that a bunch of guys NEARLY FORTY could make music so modern! Little did I realize that rock was going to become the domain of the superannuated.
DeleteThere have already been a few comps that look at olde tyme rock stars unironically trying to come to terms with a newer, more lysergic day. One called Marshmallow Skies is floating around this place somewhere. A lot of them did try to take it seriously, like Del Shannon, with varying results. I think Tommy Roe's It's Now Winter's Day is particularly impressive. It took until 2010 to release the lost Jan and Dean masterpiece Carnival of Sound (basically all post-accident Jan Berry painstakingly directing an astonishing cast of back-up and lead vocalists and players. A listen to the first track, "Girl, You're Blowing My Mind" made it worth the wait.
Peace and, um, whatevs.
Thanks for coming back and sharing more thoughts on musicians straddling the generation gap (and the credibility gap).
DeleteYo, Jonder. Finally took some time to check Farq's sidebar. Lovely little place you got here.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like fun, so in the download bag it goes...
Hey, OBG! I'm glad that you paid us a visit. Come back anytime!
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