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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

daf

ABBA - I Am the City



Recorded in May 1982 - released in 1993

QuoteIn May 1982, Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida convened to start recording ABBA's 9th album. After recording just three songs – 'You Owe Me One', 'Just Like That' and 'I Am The City' – the group abandoned plans for a new album, and announced the end-of-year release of a career-spanning compilation double album, The Singles: The First Ten Years, planned to include one or two new songs to be recorded in August. As a result of this, "I Am the City" remained unreleased for eleven years until it was first commercially released on the 1993 compilation album 'More ABBA Gold'.



Of the three songs, "Just Like That" has yet to be officially released in its entirety. Benny and Björn have stated that the song sounded 'wrong': the verse and chorus did not fit together, and that is why it was scrapped. The two men admit this happens regularly in their way of writing music: a mediocre song can become a bridge or a riff for another song, and a good melody line can lie around for many years until it surfaces in a composition.

Benny and Björn nevertheless allowed for a 'snippet' of "Just Like That" to be released in a 'medley' track on the box set Thank You for the Music in 1994. Although this snippet only revealed the chorus of the track, it is notable for featuring a saxophone solo by Bob Holness Raphael Ravenscroft, perhaps best known for his famous saxophone riff on Gerry Rafferty's 1978 hit "Blockbusters" "Baker Street". This was one of the very few times that ABBA used a musician outside the usual ABBA circle.



Other recordings of "Just Like That" exist; a version features a guitar riff that eventually made its way into the verse melody of the song "Under Attack", while another interpretation has come to be known as the 'na na na' version, where Agnetha is heard singing 'na na na na's on top of the instrumental melody.

Agnetha : "I haven't heard it in several years, but I remember it as a very good song and recording. It is one of my big favourites, and I hope it's going to be released one day"

jamiefairlie

The Fall - The Classical

https://youtu.be/cKRSzztJ6_0




Taken from Hex Enduction Hour, their fourth album. It was placed number 38 in Peel's all-time Festive Fifty in 2000.

daf

Paddington Bear ‎– Cross My Paws And Hope To Die



Released in 1982 - did not chart

QuotePaddington Bear was born in Darkest Peru. Aside from his Uncle Pastuzo, who gave him his old stained bucket hat, his only known living relative is his Aunt Lucy, who receives letters from him at the Home for Retired Bears in Lima. Paddington stowed away in a lifeboat on the Samskip Innovator. He was found sitting on a suitcase at Paddington railway station in London with a note attached to his coat that read "Please look after this bear. Thank you."

The Brown family adopted him, thus giving him the full name "Paddington Brown". Paddington means well when he tries to help, but he occasionally makes mistakes that get him into trouble. He is very fond of marmalade and often keeps a sandwich containing it under his hat for emergencies. When he is displeased with someone, he gives them a "hard stare" that his Aunt Lucy taught him if someone forgot their manners.

   

Born in London, Shirlie Roden was brought up and educated in South Wales from the age of three. She studied piano and later classical singing with a member of the Welsh National Opera and at fifteen was playing in London folk clubs alongside the then unknown Paul Simon and Al Stewart. The mid-seventies saw Shirlie touring America and Europe for three years with cult British rock band Ray Davies and The Kinks in their concept musicals 'Preservation', 'A Soap Opera' and 'Schoolboys in Disgrace.' She later joined the Gordon Giltrap Band, uniquely using her high vocal range as an instrument in amongst Giltrap's classical / progressive rock music.

In the eighties, she began to write for musical theatre, and British impresario Bill Kenwright commissioned and produced her original shows including two children's shows : 'Beauty and the Beast', and 'Paddington Bear's Magical Musical'.

jamiefairlie

The Go-Betweens - Cattle and Cane

https://youtu.be/vkrEiD9s0pU



My last Go-Betweens submission was back in distant 1978, with their debut Lee Remick, perhaps my biggest gap between entries so far? This is their sixth single.

Johnny Yesno

From their live album Hai!

Cabaret Voltaire - 3 Days Monk



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpn84V9-MjU

For years, I thought this track had come out of nowhere until I heard On the Corner by Miles Davis. That was a musical fuck my hat moment. I'm not complaining. I like the idea that however much music I hear, there's a world of it still to be discovered.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Cannon & Ball - The Boys in Blue



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUt8ARpnDU4

Written by Genesis P-Orridge, produced by Martin Hannett, released on Factory as a limited edition flexidisc.

Oz Oz Alice

Gary Numan - We Take Mystery (to Bed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY9ym3RiTHY

This absolute banger was a single from Gary Numan's unfairly overlooked 82 album I, Assassin. Probably overlooked due to shallow reasons like Gary persisting in his whole "looking like a twat on every album cover" thing. Regardless of this fact this is an incredibly infectious synth-pop / funk crossover with some great choppy rhythm guitar, Pino Palladino slapping and sliding all over the place in a way that I'd normally find hugely irritating and the trademark Numan Vox Humana synth lead. There are parts of this where it's hard to tell the fretless apart from Numan's own voice, and it all bears a very heavy Japan influence but I like it more than Japan so there. Also I'm a sucker for needless brackets in a songtitle.

Johnny Yesno


Brundle-Fly

The Beat - ESG. Released on 99 in 1982.





Dance music at its most spartan.

ESG wre an art-funk ensemble from the South Bronx, ESG (Emerald Sapphire & Gold) was formed by sisters Renee, Valerie, and Marie Scroggins, all of whom handle vocals and percussion, and friends David Miles (guitar) and Leroy Glover (bass). ESG's music is centered around the sisters' complex polyrhythms with atmosphere supplied by bass and pop-flavored guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Vf7YsPjao

daf


Brundle-Fly

Down At The Superstore - The Assistants. Released on BBC in 1982



Lyrically makes that Swap Shop single seem like Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding.

The Assistants One-off 'Supergroup' featuring: Junior, Cheryl Baker,  Dave Edmunds, Suzi Quatro, and B. A. Cunterson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AJm5bozpgA

daf

The Tweets ‎– Everybody Go



Released in August 1982 - did not chart

Quote"The Birdie Song" was composed by accordion player Werner Thomas from Davos, Switzerland, in the 1950s. The name of the original Swiss song was "Der Ententanz" ('The Duck Dance'), and played regularly in restaurants and hotels. During one of Thomas' performances, Belgian producer Louis van Rymenant heard the song, and had some lyrics created.

In 1980, Dutch local band "De Electronica's" released an instrumental version called "De Vogeltjesdans" ("The dance of the little birds") as the B-side of a single. The A-side was not a hit, but local radio stations in the south and east of the Netherlands decided to flip the disc - [it's a good story, but I've checked discogs and 45cat, and it's definitely listed as the A-side - wth 'Radio 2000' as the B-side] - The record entered the Dutch charts and stayed there for over seven months, and started the international success of the song.

   

In 1981, Henry Hadaway produced a version of the song, which was released in the United Kingdom as an instrumental novelty tune "The Birdie Song" by The Tweets. It reached number two in the singles chart in October 1981, making it the most popular version.

   

The follow up "Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing" reached #44 in December 1981. Further flop singles included "Everybody Go" in April 1982, "Tweets On 45" in August 1982, "The Plump Song" in 1983, and "Patricia" in April 1985.


jamiefairlie

The Room - Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl

https://youtu.be/nbzeLaYSK6U



From Liverpool and formed in late 1979. They released three albums and several singles (this is their third) before breaking up in 1985.

Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band- Grevious Angel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1oftchWWpc&feature=emb_logo



Born in Alabama in 1947, country singer Emmylou Harris performed on the 60's Greenwich Village folk scene and was for a while in the early 70's the backing vocalist
in Gram Parsons' band before becoming well-known for her 1975 solo album "Pieces of the Sky". On this 1982 live album she performs one of Parsons' best songs.

daf

Arlene Phillips' HOT GOSSIP - I Don't Depend On You



Released in April 1982 -  did not chart

QuoteArlene Phillips moved to London to learn and teach developing American jazz dance routines. Employed as a dance teacher, she taught at locations including the Pineapple Dance Studios and the Italia Conti Stage School. In 1974, Phillips started forming the core of a troupe, and Hot Gossip spent two years performing in Munkberry's club in Jermyn Street, London W1, where Phillips and manager/producers Michael Summerton and Iain Burton developed the group's dance act.

Spotted by the British television director David Mallet, he invited Phillips to make Hot Gossip a regular feature of the 1978 The Kenny Everett Video Show, which he directed for Thames Television on ITV. In 1978, Hot Gossip recorded "Making Love on a Phone" and with Sarah Brightman on lead vocals recorded "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper", which reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart.

   

After hastily signing The Human League in 1978, it became apparent to Virgin Records that the band were not very profitable, with none of their releases making any impact on the charts. Pressure was put on the group to use conventional instruments in an attempt to be more commercial and sell more records. Martyn Ware reluctantly agreed but insisted that any material recorded this way should be released under a pseudonym to ensure that it wasn't confused with the pure electronic sound of The Human League.

"I Don't Depend on You" was the only product of this compromise with Virgin. Written by Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, it was recorded with the addition of session musicians and was released under the name The Men. Released as a single in the UK in February 1979, it failed to chart. British dance troupe Hot Gossip covered the song for their 1981 album Geisha Boys and Temple Girls which was produced by Martyn Ware.

jamiefairlie

The Wake - Company

https://youtu.be/JlINKpRBVZg



Recorded live in Glasgow Nightmoves and released as a bonus on Testament, a best of collection, alongside a bunch of other early demos and live tracks.

Phil_A

Felt - I Worship The Sun



A lovely showcase for Maurice Deebank's nimble fingerwork from the 1982 debut album, "Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty".

QuoteFelt were an English indie pop band, formed in 1979 in Water Orton, Warwickshire, and led by the mononymous Lawrence.[1] They were active for ten years through the 1980s, releasing ten singles and ten albums. The band's name was inspired by Tom Verlaine's emphasis of the word "felt" in the Television song "Venus".

QuoteWith Lawrence initially on vocals and guitar, they formed properly in 1980 with the addition of schoolfriend Nick Gilbert on drums and local guitarist Maurice Deebank.[1][9] Becoming co-writer with Lawrence, Deebank's jangly, classical-influenced style of playing would provide the band's signature sound in its early years.[10]

The band performed as a trio before deciding that bass guitar was needed. Gilbert switched to bass and drummer Tony Race was added.[1] He was replaced soon after by Gary Ainge who would remain the only constant member besides Lawrence throughout the rest of Felt's existence, as well as the only member to play on all ten of their albums.


daf

Keith Harris And Orville ‎(with the children from Allfarthing Primary School, Wandsworth) – I Didn't



Flip-side of 'Orville's Song' - reached number 4 in the UK charts in December 1982

QuoteKeith Shenton Harris was the son of variety performers. His mother was a dancer, while his father was a singer, comedian and ventriloquist. From age nine Harris appeared on his father Norman's knee as a "dummy" in his ventriloquist act. Harris began creating ventriloquism characters as a teenager. After appearing in summer seasons at holiday resorts, he had spots on the television series Let's Laugh in 1965, and became a popular act on television variety shows, including a spell as the host of The Black and White Minstrel Show. He had his first solo series Cuddles and Company in the 1970s, but got his big break in 1982 with The Keith Harris Show.

 

Harris' best known creation, Orville the duck, came about after he saw some green fur lying around backstage at a performance of The Black and White Minstrel Show in Bristol. Orville, a huge, gormless, falsetto-voiced green duckling sporting a nappy fastened by a giant safety pin, quickly became Harris main puppet - causing a bitter feud between Orville and the hideous orange monkey Cuddles - not helped when his song "I Hate That Duck" was relegated to the B-side of the single, "Will You Still Love Me In The Morning?", released in April 1983.

       

Cuddles was particularly furious, as "that duck" had hogged both sides of their debut single, "Orville's song", which was written by Bobby Crush, sold 400,000 copies, and was later voted the worst song ever recorded - though most of those votes were rumoured to be from an embittered Cuddles. Further singles included "Come to My Party" in December 1983 - peaking at #44 in December 1983, "Bein' Green" in May 1984, "Superduck" in November 1984, and "White Christmas" - which reached #40 in November 1985.

   

The end of Harris's television show coincided with a period when television was "turning away from variety acts". He entered a period of depression, drank heavily and was arrested for drunk driving; his third marriage collapsed during this period. He also opened clubs in Blackpool and Portugal which failed, leading him to declare bankruptcy twice. However, he recovered and began performing in clubs, in pantomimes and at holiday camps, touring the United Kingdom..

Check out those horrific early puppets - don't have nightmares everyone!

jamiefairlie

Wah! - Remember

https://youtu.be/4iLeiFF9qgQ



Fifth single from Wylie's mob. It reached number 44 in the Festive Fifty.

Brundle-Fly

Don't Look Back - Madness. Released on Stiff in 1982.



The B side of their first UK number one, showing yet again they will not be pinned down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsbhTwXjs0

Johnny Yesno

23 Skidoo - IY



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bMD0Mj_1Nc

From 23 Skidoo's debut album Seven Songs, which was recorded and mixed in three days, and was co-produced by Tony, Terry and David, aka Genesis P-Orridge, and Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV and engineer Ken Thomas. The album reached no 1 in the UK indie chart.

Johnny Yesno


Johnny Yesno

Soft Cell - A Man Could Get Lost



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IieKRZY2r6Y

Not the version from a year earlier, which I think is ruined by the vocals, but the version from the remix EP Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing. As far as I can gather, it was criticised for being too similar to Non-stop Erotic Cabaret, but I think it's far more interesting than its parent album and has stood the test of time better.

This short article by its producer Mike Thorne is worth a read: https://stereosociety.com/nonstopecstatic/

Chris and Chris and Cosey and Cosey.

Quote from: Astronaut Omens on January 19, 2021, 10:46:31 AM
Chris and Cosey- Impulse

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on January 23, 2021, 07:51:15 AM
Chris & Cosey - Impulse

It's funny how some later, retro-styled electronic music, like Aphex's Analord series sounds exactly like this, in a way that never quite happens with retro rock music.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Astronaut Omens on January 23, 2021, 09:13:05 AM
Chris and Chris and Cosey and Cosey.

Fuck! No way. Sorry I missed your submission. The early 80s is an absolute goldmine. I'm finding it hard to keep up.

QuoteIt's funny how some later, retro-styled electronic music, like Aphex's Analord series sounds exactly like this, in a way that never quite happens with retro rock music.

I suppose there's a feeling that due to early synthesiser music being mostly created by people with money and/or expertise in electronics, that sound world was never fully explored. Rock music's relative accessibility meant stylistic scenes were able to develop, which exhausted the possibilities in those sound worlds.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

John Cale - Close Watch



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7wBvyrao8I

Bagpipe desolation from the former VU lynchpin.

QuoteCale described his mood while making his 1982 album, Music for a New Society, as "grotesque." In an interview with Melody Maker shortly after the album's release, Cale was quoted as saying "That album was agony. It was like method acting. Madness. Excruciating. I just let myself go. It became a kind of therapy, a personal exorcism. The songs are mostly about regret and misplaced faith."

In What's Welsh for Zen?, Cale further commented that "There were some examples where songs ended up so emaciated they weren't songs any more. What I was most interested in was the terror of the moment... It was a bleak record all right, but it wasn't made to make people jump out of windows."

Man Parrish - Hip Hop Be Bop



QuoteParrish is a native New Yorker of Italian descent. He attended the High School For The Performing Arts and the Academy For Dramatic Arts (NYC) as a teenager. He moonlighted as a non singing, onstage "extra" role in several operas at The Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan.

Parrish left home at the age of 14 and was a member of the extended family that converged nightly at Studio 54. His nickname, Man, first appeared in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine. Andy Warhol gave him the name "Man". His early live shows at Bronx hip-hop clubs were spectacles of lights, glitter, and pyrotechnics, which drew as much from the Warhol mystique as the Cold Crush Brothers.

Hip- Hop- Be- Bop is beyond a classic, beyond a genre defining masterpiece, and beyond the boundaries of earth music. Emotional, melancholic, interplanetary space funk for the intelligent b-boy & electronic listener alike. This was for many a life changing record. 20/10

If you want to see a lovely camp old NY queen (his words, not mine) discuss how he made this track I highly recommend (along with all the other videos on his channel) this video on the subject.

Phil_A

Klaus Nomi - After The Fall



One for the "Sad Bangers" thread.

QuoteKlaus Sperber (January 24, 1944 – August 6, 1983), known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona.

Nomi was known for his bizarrely visionary theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo that flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical opera to covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes". He is remembered in the United States as one of David Bowie's backup singers for a 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live.[1]

Nomi died in 1983 at the age of 39 as a result of complications from AIDS. He was one of the earliest known figures from the arts community to die from the illness.

Oz Oz Alice

The Gun Club - Mother of Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvvGM3QhtOg

From the Gun Club's 1982 album Miami, a shiveringly beautiful song and one I often find myself sticking on repeat. Some lovely slide work on this, and Rowland S Howard's live cover is also worth tracking down and checking out. This song feels ancient, hewn from rock.