As I wrote before, I think some artists genuinely appreciated punk and new wave. And what's more genuine than saying, "I want in on this thing because I got bills to pay"? But some of it reminds me of the "hope you enjoy our new direction" scene in Spinal Tap.
You can hear punk and new wave influences on Some Girls and Who Are You (1978) as well as 1979 albums like The Wall, In Through The Out Door, Low Budget, and Rust Never Sleeps.
1980 was the year of Drama, Duke, Permanent Waves, The Game, Mad Love, Glass Houses, Hi Infidelity, Scary Monsters, Empty Glass, and Chipmunk Punk. It was the year of "Hold On Loosely", "I'm Alright", "Jessie's Girl", "Starting Over", "Coming Up", "Games Without Frontiers" and "Love Stinks". Cher started a band called Black Rose.
By 1981, even ZZ Top had a synthesizer. Olivia Newton-John dared to get "Physical". "You Better You Bet", "In The Air Tonight", "Freeze Frame", and "Urgent" (with an assist from Thomas Dolby) were on the radio. Even "O Superman" was on the radio! (Possibly the strangest avant garde art project to become a hit song since "Money" by the Flying Lizards.)
In 1982, Neil Young underwent a Trans-formation; Bruce Springsteen explored the influence of Suicide's music on Nebraska; and the solo debuts of Robert Plant, Donald Fagen, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were released. Pat Benatar was beginning to Get Nervous (1982), and she enlisted songwriter Billy Steinberg (aka Billy Thermal).
In 1983, Kansas took Drastic Measures and Styx released Kilroy Was Here. Both groups broke up over those albums. Other progressive and hard rock bands (Genesis, Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Heart, BOC) survived the 80's by simplifying their sound and updating their image to stay on the radio and get on MTV. This gambit didn't always pay off, as some bands alienated old fans without gaining new ones (e.g., Foghat, Gentle Giant and Jethro Tull).
Some of the songs here are terrible. None of them represents the artists' best work. They are collected here not to be mocked, but as examples of how performers faced the challenge of adapting to new trends in the face of declining sales and airplay.
Berni and Richard have been sending in more triple song titles, so here's another trio of compilations. Fake Fake Fake is all Japanese punk rock (from 1990 to 2020). Boing Boing Boing includes country, rockabilly, Western swing, bluegrass, Cajun, etc. Fool Fool Fool is mostly 1960's pop. (Just for fun, Boing Boing Boing also includes a song called "Fool Fool Fool", and Fool Fool Fool ends with a song called "Boing Boing Boing".)
Just remember: when love is gone, there's always justice. And when justice is gone, there's always force. Here come the planes!
DO YA THINK I'M NEW WAVE II: https://pixeldrain.com/u/pyPNPG2x
ReplyDeleteBOING BOING BOING (country, rockabilly, etc.): https://pixeldrain.com/u/yWA3cXPZ
FAKE FAKE FAKE (Japanese punk): https://pixeldrain.com/u/GTWFAUTQ
FOOL FOOL FOOL (60's & early 70's pop, rock, soul, etc.): https://pixeldrain.com/u/5jbgCdq4
Jeff Filthy Bezos blocks your previous New wave post
ReplyDeleteSorry about that! Here's a new link to DO YA THINK I'M NEW WAVE pt 1: https://pixeldrain.com/u/jMFQM5JT
DeleteSo I cannot check if Herbie Hancock - Rockit is on it. Alvin Stardust - Weekend, Nico - Fearfully In Danger, Paul MacCartney - Temporary Secretary. In The Netherlands, Ernst Jansz (from CCC Inc) found new inspiration in Punk/Ska and started the hughely succesful Doe Maar. Like The Beatles in 1963 they inspired a whole generation of New Dutch bands and artists, singing in their mothertongue.
ReplyDelete(btw, you start with early eighties, artists going new wave. Are you open for late eighties, when artists went h-h-h-h-house, like Shamen, Underworld (Freur) etc)
Abba's last single UnderAttack/You Owe Me One, Eddy Grant after the Equals had some issues, making a curious mix of Pop songs in a pensionplan and some great tunes both as himself and as Coach House.
And when Do you think I'm new wave has a slight hint of Rod Stewart, we mustn't forget Cliff.
It's easy to forget Cliff Richard in the US, where he had little chart impact (other than Devil Woman, Dreaming and We Don't Talk Anymore). I don't know much about house music, but did any artists from the 60's or 70's get into it?
DeleteTemporary Secretary is on the first volume. Alvin Stardust and Nico are great suggestions, thank you! Rockit was more of a hip hop crossover, like Rapture.
Interesting pick for Blue Oyster Cult when they actually got in really early on the fake New Wave thing, with Albert Bouchard's "You're Not The One (I Was Looking For)" from 1979's Mirrors being a dead ringer for a Cars song!
ReplyDeleteListening to it now -- you're right! Wow. If it came on the radio, I would never guess it was BOC. At 2:45, Buck Dharma's guitar almost quotes Elliot Easton on "Just What I Needed".
DeleteB.O.C. also wrote a number of songs with Patti Smith like Baby Ice Dog (1973), Career of Evil (1974), etc.
DeleteWow, what a great topic. I'm so glad I stumbled on this. I'm going to be stewing on this for a while. There's probably an analog that you could do for the 90s, when some established bands tried to dip into the grunge and big-beat thing with varying results.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, and I'm glad you stumbled on it too! Funny you should mention the 90's. When I wrote about "how performers faced the challenge of adapting to new trends in the face of declining sales and airplay," it crossed my mind that it probably wasn't the first time or the last. Grunge was another of those challenging times for older musicians, although the grunge bands drew a lot of influence from the 70's (Kiss, Zep, Sabbath, etc). Hadn't thought about big beat (or house music, which Richard mentioned). Food for thought!
DeleteBilly Joel didn't start this fire
ReplyDeleteHa! But he did earn a spot on the Chipmunk Punk album. Billy's old band ATTILA earned a spot on a compilation that Stinky and I made a few years ago called DISOWNED AND DERIDED (featuring albums that have since been criticized, disowned and even deleted by their creators).
Deletehttps://jonderblog.blogspot.com/2022/05/disowned-derided-and-deleted.html
https://jonderblog.blogspot.com/2022/05/disowned-derided-volume-2.html
Thanks Jonder, another quartet of compilations, great job!
ReplyDeleteFor me a big surprise in 1980 was Queen releasing Crazy Little Thing Called Love, a rockabilly song!
That was a surprise indeed! Or how about when Elvis Costello went country with Trust (1981)?
DeleteStinky's series "Get In Loser, We're Going Rockabilly" collects a lot of artists from other genres who dipped their toes into rockabilly.
Costello going country was unreal at the time... Love that Stinky's series "Get In Loser, We're Going Rockabilly". hopefully he will continue it!
DeleteFor me, shapeshifting chameleons like Freddy and Bowie, never surprised but delighted me with their swings. Bowie invented new wave on Low and Heroes before Punk/Sid died. Freddy , from Sheer Heart Attack on, had a string of genre crossing songs. Bring back That Leroy Brown, '39, Seaside Rendezvous, The Millionaire Waltz, Somebody to Love or Fun It. And these are songs from Sheer to Jazz. Crazy little thing fitted perfectly in the revival with bands like Matchbox, or artists like Shakin Stevens, who was struggling for recognition and had a string of hits right after Queen restarted the public interest.
DeleteI think it is a bigger thing in the States. Artist there are more genre bound. Stick to your tools. "I was a lifelong fan, the last four years and now they go all disco on me. I Like it but can I admit it amongst friends? Questions, questions, I need counseling".
Before 1980 (just to draw a line) it was within limits OK to go disco. I mean, The Stones and Rod Stewart did it, The B-G's did it. Kool And The Gang, and EW&F went from funk/jazz to disco. Punk and Wave were much more youth defined. Then there is a difference between The States New Wave and the Brittish/European New Wave. I don't think The Cars or The Knack or UK Dire Straits were New Wave, just new bands in the same time-frame. Pop bands.
Both Grunge and Techno had only a few older big guns (Neil and Madonna)
After 2000 when we got older, and some had children, there was little need for older artists to change. Restart the band, and play the old songs with some new ones for Fun for Money because we have families to feed. And because we just don't have a job beside it.
I agree that the American market is more genre-bound. There was a backlash here against rock artists (Kiss, Stones, Rod Stewart) going disco, and that backlash was at least partly rooted in homophobia. The "Chicago disco demolition" (a rock DJ stunt at a baseball stadium) sums it up pretty well. I'm less familiar with the funk bands (and soul divas) who went disco.
DeleteThe success of Elvis Costello (for example) led to singer/songwriters like Joe Jackson, John Hiatt, Graham Parker and Moon Martin being marketed as Angry Young Men with skinny ties and vintage suits. Dire Straits is a good example of a band that was marketed as New Wave but really didn't have anything in common with it other than being a new British band in the late 70's. I suppose you could say the same of The Knack (whose success was followed by their own "Knuke the Knack" backlash).
Some might disagree with you about The Cars (or with your statement that Bowie invented New Wave). I guess New Wave is more loosely defined as a genre ("music that isn't punk or classic rock"?) Maybe it was more of a marketing tool than a musical movement.
Or maybe New Wave is like that famous definition of pornography -- "I know it when I hear it"
DeleteI'm really weary of the notion that homophobia drove anti-disco. Disco was awful, and quite a lot of the punk/new wave backlash was from gay/bi/nonconforming people. It's become a lazy pseudointellectual argument that anti-disco was simply the work of bigots. Seems odd to me then that disco took over the charts and the box office. Was most of America gay-friendly in the 70s? But then... not? Look at all the innovation in popular music in the 60s/70s, and the replacement of that on the charts by 4/4 repetitive dance music from producers/writers with anonymous musician non-groups, and with a focus on conspicuous consumption of clothing, drugs etc. Disco was unlikable enough on its own merit.
DeleteI don't think there has ever been a time in American history when the majority of the population was "gay friendly". I don't recall much of a "punk/new wave backlash from gay/bi/nonconforming people". I do remember being called a faggot by jocks and bullies who were anti-punk, and in many cities the earliest punk and new wave bands could only book shows in gay bars.
DeleteSome would argue that disco was a form of musical innovation, not by anonymous musicians but by pioneers like Giorgio Morodor, Patrick Cowley and Arthur Russell. And "a focus on conspicuous consumption of clothing, drugs etc." is a criticism that can also be made of rock bands like the Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Queen, Aerosmith, The Who, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Guns & Roses, etc. Limos, private jets, custom made clothing, dating supermodels, mountains of cocaine and heroin, trashing hotel rooms...
They're American planes. Made in America. Smoking or on-smoking?
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you revisited this concept, Jon.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t know that Randy Vanwarmer went new wave!
For me, Elvis Costello’s country album was Almost Blue, which I love! “A Good Year For The Roses” is a triumph. It makes sense that he’d try his hand at country. E.C.’s dad was a bandleader who sang what was on the hit parade—so Declan was exposed to everything growing up.
Get In Loser, We’re Going Rockabilly does still has gas in the tank, Koen. Although the first volume of Get In Loser, We’re Going DISCO is gonna be unveiled first.
- Stinkeroo
Oops, I meant Almost Blue (1981), not Trust! I didn't know about Declan's dad at the time, and I think a lot of us EC fans were surprised. Like when Joe Jackson released Beat Crazy (1980). Joe too had deeper musical roots than his New Wave fans knew about.
DeleteCheck out OneBuckGuy's collection of Randy Vanwarmer, a guy who got pigeonholed by his soft rock hit "Just When I Needed You Most".
Deletehttps://onebuckrecords.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-1000-faces-of-randy-vanwarmer.html
Public service aanouncement: I didn't immediately renew the Randy VanWarmer link, but that's done now, so if you went away disppointed, have a quick swin by and grab new wave Randy. It's really solid, fun stuff!
ReplyDeleteJonder, lest you think I'm sleeping on the job:
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/iv4R0Yja#UhaUcTGT-ll77i2U6x05__vjpPPhW3cX4r_iPeIUo5Y
Thank you, Berni! All new to me and very much appreciated. I hope you got a chance to hear "Boing Boing Boing". It includes a number of your earlier finds!
Delete"Fake Fake Fake" (the Japanese punk comp) also turned out really well -- a fun listen for anyone who is into J-punk or is J-curious!
I did listen!
DeleteStill waiting on that raise though...
https://mega.nz/file/O35WUJxa#1qIQvQtmYmWZoR90EyWAls9wEiMHysLY8_Z2-SCNXaI