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March 19, 2024, 07:52:47 AM

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An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 2, 1982 -

Started by jamiefairlie, January 20, 2021, 05:43:47 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

jamiefairlie

The Beloved - My Heart's Desire

https://youtu.be/NSINR9hDNTU



One of a clutch of demos recorded in the transition phase between their indie and dance incarnations when they were down to a duo. Most of them, including this, were discarded.

jamiefairlie

McCarthy - The Myth of the North South Divide

https://youtu.be/h8zKgSVdAxQ



Taken from their third and final Peel session, recorded 1st November.

Brundle-Fly

Why Don't You Do It Right? - Jessica Rabbit AKA Amy Irving . Released on Touchstone in 1988.







Another musical f**k my hat moment for me. I had no idea Amy Irving was the singing voice of Jessica Rabbit (BTW Google Imaging her was 'interesting'. Watching this scene again has made me realise what a brilliant movie that was. The SPFX are still fantastic!

"Why Don't You Do Right?" is an American blues and jazz-influenced pop song (now a standard) written in 1936 by Kansas Joe McCoy and recorded by Peggy Lee. It is a twelve-bar minor-key blues form with a few chord substitutes. It is considered a classic "woman's blues" song. It was performed in the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? by Jessica Rabbit at the Ink and Paint Club. Although Kathleen Turner provided the speaking voice for the character, the vocal performance of the song was performed by Amy Irving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy5THitqPBw

Oz Oz Alice

Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Last Beat of my Heart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCh_IWVecuw

Quote"The Last Beat of My Heart" is a song written by Budgie, Siouxsie and Steven Severin. Budgie said of the song that "it was a sad, intense expression of how far you would go for somebody", written at the time that the band was beginning to fall apart even by Banshees standards. It was released in late 1988 as the third and final single from the band's ninth studio album, Peepshow and has been covered by a few artists including DeVotchka.

QuoteFrom another angle entirely, you come out with what seems to me a bonafide love song.  "The Last Beat Of My Heart."  Can that be taken as genuine, or is there an ironic subplot there?

Siouxsie:  It is, but something we're not very good at doing is making it just a love song.  It's on the brink of being something else.

Severin:  Like anything with our songs, it's got a twist in it.  It certainly attempts to be as honest as it could be without tearing your flesh off.

Siouxsie:  It's about being fragile and exposed.

Severin:  It's really, really hard to write a love song.

Because the genre is so full of clichés and smarminess?

Siouxsie:  And so full of insincerity.  It started with the vocal melody.  And then Steve and Martin joined in, and we co-wrote the words, knowing that, how the melody sounded, it should be crafted to not meander and not be allowed to be a small statement.  Which it could've been; it could have just been a mood piece and had the mood say it rather than actually saying it in words.

jamiefairlie

The Waterboys - When Ye Go Away

https://youtu.be/SY2oNuEbbtk



One last track taken from their Fisherman's Blues album.

daf

Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians – Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)



Released as a promo 12-inch single in the US in 1988 - did not chart

Quote"Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)" was the closing track on the album 'Globe of Frogs', and featured the duetting pipe-work of Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook.

Having failed to winkle out any more interesting info about this song, instead, here's Robyn talking about his father, Raymond Hitchcock, who's various achievements included writing the rib-tickling knob-transplant book, Percy . . .

Robyn Hitchcock : "He was an engineer...not an engineer on a train, but a trained engineer...who worked for the telecommunications system, early satellites and things, and the British post office, which was part of it. Then, he became a cartoonist who then became a painter, and he was a great cartoonist, then not a particularly great painter as he began to imitate other people. He was an original who then lost confidence and started imitating Jackson Pollock and Francis Bacon, and doing sort of '60s-styled sculptures...well, it was the '60s! And then he started writing and hit the bonanza with a book about a penis transplant ("Percy").

"I see that the first penis transplant has actually just been carried out in China, and after two weeks, they had to take it off the recipient...not because it physically didn't work, but because there were psychological problems! Which means that the guy's back with his stump, so I don't know what he's going to do. And, anyway, I was wondering what my father would have thought of that. And, yeah, Ray Davies wrote the music for the movie of "Percy," which...I don't know if there's any real classics on that, but it was just after "Lola," so it wasn't long after his heyday as a songwriter. So Raymond then spent the rest of life as an author, and he died in very early '92."

jamiefairlie

The Wedding Present - Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?

https://youtu.be/4mFZI1KWXzA



Eighth single and most successful so far, reaching number 42 in the UK charts and number 8 in the Festive Fifty.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Will it be 1989 soon? As no one ever said in 1988.

jamiefairlie

Wire - German Shepherds

https://youtu.be/8o4_9u6RKmY



This first surfaced as part of their fourth Peel session of 24 April, and was also featured on their hybrid live/studio album "It's Beginning To And Back Again".

jamiefairlie

The House of Love - Destroy the Heart

https://youtu.be/5nza7AlHV5I



Fourth single, it reached number 1 in the Festive Fifty

jamiefairlie

Ok, 1988 is drawing to a close, get your last minute entries in soon, 1989 will start later on Tuesday.

Brundle-Fly

Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants.   Released on Bar/None in 1988.





Well, I happen to love Marmite. Their album debut.

They Might Be Giants are an alternative/indie rock band that was formed in 1982. The band was started by John Linnell and John Flansburgh, who are still the band's only official members. They were initially accompanied by a drum machine before employing a backing band in 1992.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEjutUbgpH8

Brundle-Fly

Satan Kicked The Bucket - Lee "Scratch" Perry   Released on Wackie's in 1988.






...and here's the Guvnor. How is this man still alive? His lungs must've been replaced by a pair of elephant leather bellows at some point in the eighties.

Rainford Hugh Perry is best known by his nickname Lee 'Scratch' Perry, and his work with Lee Perry & The Upsetters or the Lee Perry & Friends releases. Born on Mar 20, 1936 in St. Mary's, Jamaica. First called "Little" Perry, in reference to his height of 5'6 (1.68m), he is a major founder of Reggae and Dub. First working with ska, he cut his first record in 1959.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTL4Nywdj0I

famethrowa

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 06, 2021, 08:59:40 AM
Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants.   Released on Bar/None in 1988.

Well, I happen to love Marmite. Their album debut.


Surely their self-titled first album came a year before?

Anyway, I'm a fan, and this one is nicely representative of those early years, arcane americana, quirky lyrics and a nice major key middle eight. The robotic drums and clanking synth bass does wear thin after a while, but they got over that.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: famethrowa on April 06, 2021, 10:53:30 AM
Surely their self-titled first album came a year before?.

I Might Be Idiot. Yes, you're absolutely correct. I was multitasking band suggestions and got them mixed up with another act I have planned for 1989.

Phil_A

Talk Talk - John Cope



B-side of "I Believe In You" single, released 1988.

The only non-album track from the only single released, bregrudgingly, to promote Hollis' & Co's career suicide masterpiece Spirit Of Eden. UK chart placing: 85. Oof.


jamiefairlie

Lush - Scarlet

https://youtu.be/g4Ga0gSl8_4



Formed in 1987 in London, initially named the Baby Machines, with a lineup of Meriel Barham (vocals), Emma Anderson (guitar, vocals), Miki Berenyi (guitar, vocals), Steve Rippon (bass) and Chris Acland (drums).

This is from their debut release, the mini-album "Scar".

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: jamiefairlie on April 07, 2021, 12:02:55 AM
Lush - Scarlet

https://youtu.be/g4Ga0gSl8_4



Formed in 1987 in London, initially named the Baby Machines, with a lineup of Meriel Barham (vocals), Emma Anderson (guitar, vocals), Miki Berenyi (guitar, vocals), Steve Rippon (bass) and Chris Acland (drums).

This is from their debut release, the mini-album "Scar".

Good start,Jamie. I bought that album on the strength of a Melody Maker review describing it as 'brutally ethereal'. It might be that but also chock full of beautiful melodies.

Brundle-Fly

Sentimental Thing -  Joe Jackson. Released on A&M in 1989





We've covered JJ back in 1979 on AAHO"P"M

Sumptuous orchestral pop break-up ballad that is the salty flip side to the likes of Make It Easy On Yourself and Walk On By.

The track is from Blaze of Glory, the tenth studio album by English rock and roll singer Joe Jackson. Jackson has stated that the album and the songs themselves were an examination of his generation as the 1980s were ending, ranging from the optimism of the 1950s ("Tomorrow's World") to the politics of terrorism ("Rant and Rave") and the Cold War ("Evil Empire"), to yuppies ("Discipline") and rockers who are well past their prime ("Nineteen Forever"). The title track compares the legacy of a classic rock musician who died young ("...went out in a blaze of glory") with the current wannabes ("They're just cartoons" who "think they're Superman" but "can't even fly").

Although Blaze of Glory was a modest seller, the resultant single "Nineteen Forever" reached No. 4 in the US Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.. Jackson felt the album was one of his best efforts and toured to perform and support it with an eleven-piece band in the U.S. and Europe from June to November 1989, and was disappointed with both the critical and commercial reaction as well as his record label's lack of support

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW_5sxROOKo

gilbertharding

The hip sound of young Huntingdon - it's The Charlottes!



Formed from the ashes of the Giant Polar Bears in 1988, the Charlottes (Graham Gargiulo (guitar), Petra Roddis (singing), Dave (bass) and Simon Scott (drums) released their debut single - like all the other bands in Huntingdon at the time - on Molesworth Records in 1988 (the very poppy Are You Happy Now? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbG7Nw7vMxw).

They very quickly developed a more intensive, darker sound, influenced by My Bloody Valentine by the time of their first album Lovehappy, released on Subway in 1989 (title track here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDc87wYbg54).

They released another album (Things Come Apart) on Cherry Red in 1990, and recorded a Peel Session. Then Simon Scott was head hunted by Slowdive (though he was a member of an Acid Jazz style band called Foxy Brown with Russell McNamara at one point around 1992 - I can't remember how that fits into the whole thing), and that was it for the Charlottes.


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Rebirth Brass Band - Feel Like Funkin' It Up



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfGVKEcCGYg

Meanwhile, way down yonder in New Orleans...

QuoteThe Rebirth Brass Band are known for combining traditional New Orleans brass band music, including the New Orleans tradition of second line, with funk, jazz, soul and hip hop.

Rebirth's longstanding regular Tuesday night gig at the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak Street in the Carrollton neighbourhood of Uptown New Orleans is one of the pillars of the New Orleans music scene, and has served as a reliable introduction to the city's nightlife for many new arrivals to the city. During his speech commemorating the 10th year since Hurricane Katrina, President Barack Obama jokingly mentioned that maybe he'll "finally hear Rebirth at Maple Leaf on Tuesday night" after he is out of office.

The Rebirth Brass Band and its members appear in several episodes of David Simon's HBO series Tremé. Some of the members also served as consultants on the series. The band's music is featured as live performances, recorded music in the background and in the score.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 07, 2021, 11:40:15 AM
Good start,Jamie. I bought that album on the strength of a Melody Maker review describing it as 'brutally ethereal'. It might be that but also chock full of beautiful melodies.

Yeah it's a storming opening statement. Here's another two from it which are all-time favourites of mine:

Etheriel https://youtu.be/ZV-gZ6ssc9k

Thoughtforms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFEbLn_TZVA

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on April 07, 2021, 01:51:11 PM
Rebirth Brass Band - Feel Like Funkin' It Up



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfGVKEcCGYg

Meanwhile, way down yonder in New Orleans...

I just glanced at that as I was scrolling and thought 'surely Musical Youth had split up by then???'

jamiefairlie

New Order - All the Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Eu8sKgeBN8



After the, for me, somewhat sterile years of Lowlife & Brotherhood (what we'll call the John Hughes and John Robie years). Technique was a return to the warmer NO sound of earlier times. It's no coincidence that this track is structurally very similar to Age of Consent or even Procession.

Brundle-Fly

Love, Love, Love - Pere Ubu. Released on Fontana in 1989.





David Thomas's rare stab at the Hit Parde with this bouncy New(ish) Wave pop single that sounds like Talking Heads after several expressos. I love, love, loved it.

Pere Ubu was formed late in 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio by Thomas (aka Crocus Behemoth) and guitarist Peter Laughner (who died in 1977). Ubu's classic early singles, "Heart Of Darkness" and "Final Solution," oozed restless angst way before it became the domain of spoiled mallrats. By 1978's aggressive The Modern Dance and the wilder Dub Housing, Pere Ubu's subversions of rock were guided by superior musicianship and fallout from Thomas's Jehovah's Witness upbringing. Personality quirks split the band, and Thomas regrouped for three more self-indulgent albums through 1982, including the abstract stare-down of The Art Of Walking, all with some difficult sonic perversion to recommend them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JmvL8KWWDo

Les Negresses Vertes – Zobi La Mouche (William Orbit Mix)






QuoteLes Négresses Vertes, which formed in 1987, is a French music group that is best described as a fusion of world music and some aspects of alternative rock. Tracks often feature acoustic guitar and accordion, with some containing other traditional instruments such as piano and brass. The group's style is fairly upbeat and energetic on the majority of its tracks, with unusual rhythms, vocals delivered with a generous dose of zeal and vibrant energy, and accompaniment melodies ranging from lilting and distant to eccentric and fast-paced. These two factors give many of the group's pieces a strong sense of direction.

Formed in 1987, Les Négresses Vertes arose from the alternative-music scene in Paris. The original line-up included singer Helno (also known as Helno Rota de Lourcqua, born Noël Rota), Jo Roz (also known as l'Ami Ro; real name Joe Ruffier des Aimes) (piano), Stéfane Mellino (guitar), Jean-Marie Paulus (bass), Gaby (drums), Matthias Canavese (accordion), Michel Ochowiak (trumpet), Abraham Sirinix (also known as Abraham Braham) (trombone), and Iza Mellino (backing vocals).

The original members were a group of friends, many of whom had not played their instruments before forming the band. The group's name translates as green negresses; and arose from abuse hurled at the members at one of the group's first concerts. The insult is a comparison to the kitsch art of Vladimir Tretchikoff. The group was initially signed to the independent Off the Track label and released the punk protest song "200 Ans D'Hypocrisie" in response to its home country's French Revolution bicentennial celebrations.

In 1989, they released their first album, Mlah, to good reviews in both France and the UK, where the single "Zobi La Mouche" just failed to reach the charts. The group also toured and played the WOMAD festival. The group also made a controversial tour of Lebanon. Their second album, Famille Nombreuse, in 1991, featured new drummer Zé Verbalito.

In 1990, Les Négresses Vertes contributed the song "I love Paris" to the Cole Porter tribute album "Red Hot + Blue", which was produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Helno was by this time struggling with serious heroin addiction, and Stéfane Mellino and Canavese replaced him as the main songwriters. Helno died at his parents' house on January 22, 1993.

Several members left the band after Helno's death, but Les Négresses Vertes continued around the nucleus of Mellino, Canavese, Ochowiak, and Paulus. In 1995, the band released the album Zig-Zague, followed by the live album Green Bus. By the 2000s Trabendo, the group's style had shifted to a dub-oriented lounge style.

Norton Canes

Nitzer Ebb - Hearts and Minds (Mix Hypersonic)

Released 30th January 1989





Alternative pop history: Highest chart position 2 | Weeks on chart 11 | Top of the Pops studio appearance 23rd February 1989 | Going Live studio appearance 10th February 1989 (featuring the infamous 'split shorts' moment that appeared to cause Sarah Greene some consternation)

She-Rockers- On Stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhNcVVEjKRU


This banger is by the London hip-hop group best known because Betty Boo was briefly a member, and because they did a track with Professor Griff from Public Enemy. I think the line-up here is the later duo line-up of Donna McConnell and Antonia Jolly, but I'm not 100% sure about that. A lot of the material on-line about them seems to suggest that they publically disowned their later 1990 LP as too lightweight and poppy and after that they seem to have stopped.

Depth Charge - Bounty Killers
Single released on Vinyl Solution



90s 'big beat' genre – bow to your sensei. Hard to imagine there could be anything remotely interesting or invigorating left to do with voice samples at the end of a decade that had mercilessly wrung the concept bone-dry. Step forward J Saul Kane - DJ, musician and importer of Chinese 'heroic bloodshed' films - exploiting his love of exotic cinema to lace heavy duty breaks with well chosen chunks of spaghetti western/martial arts/porn film dialogue. Very much a man on fire in 1989 – two memorable singles as Depth Charge (this and a martial arts inspired eponymous debut) plus the beautifully brutal 'Free-er Than Free' as The Octagon Man. All highly recommended. Almost certainly the first sampled use of Mad Professor's 'Fast Forward Into Dub' here too, more famously featured in The Orb's 'Blue Room' a few years later and by anyone who wanted to invoke a quick dose of mysticism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDZahyDl9VQ