acroyear | Today's AT40 (Reply)

Is May 17th, 1986. I'm 8 days shy of the (re)discovery that would change my musical life, and the rest of my life in the process, that of the existence of Pink Floyd. Generally, most of my sophomore year was spent in and out of typical adolescent depressions. Nothing serious, just the typical moping, pining over unrequited love (girl in my math class - how typical of me), catering into depressing musics in the pop and film score scene.

2 weeks later my eyes were opened, literally, to a much larger world. Really, I've never had a depression so deep since. I also started to give up on the pop world and embrace the (new to the market) classic rock scene. I didn't get a haircut the entire summer!

Yes, Pink Floyd can do that. I'm not sure how.

This particular one I heard on the road last year, while heading to an MSFB meeting. Today, I'm home cleaning, so here it is.

Well, the recap of "last week" is
#3 - Greatest Love of All - ick
#2 - Addicted to Love - ok
#1 - West End Girls - Excellent

The countdown at this peak of the 80s sound features other hits by Falco, Tears for Fears, Julian Lennon, INXS, Simple Minds, Simply Red, and much more. Yeah, a very big week for British and European artists (21, more than American acts).

On with the countdown...

Starting at 40, El Debarge goes solo with Who's Johnny from the movie Short Circuit. Cute kids thing, but generally a waste of the talents that starred in it, I thought. Maybe it's that I was just shy of 16 and not into the kids thing anymore.
39 is INXS's What You Need. HATED this video. I really didn't see the point.
38 - Falco's Vienna Calling. Again, the HORRID American dance mix rather than the poiniant European original. Lots more "flash" added, though at least unlike Rock Me Amadeus, they at least left the original (Austrian) lyric alone.
37 is John Cougar Mellencamp's Rain on the Scarecrow - one of the few times he actually gets angry in music (and got him an invite to be part of Willie Nelson's Farm Aid). Jethro Tull would since a similar sentiment the next year with Farm on the Freeway.
Speaking of Falco, that horrid American mix of Amadeus (that still got to #1, go fig) is falling down to 36. Seriously, it hiccups so much I wonder if the cd is having a problem, the added female vocals are annoying beyond sanity, and the historical reading is atrociously useless. I wish I could ask why did they bother, but the ex-#1 status obviously had something to do with it. Everything the original had that would make it "music" was thrown out or buried under the effects
35, on its way down, is "Lets go all the way" by Sly Fox, which I know was a popular tune in the post-football game sockhops. I'm ok with it, but I don't necessarily see the point in the lyric at all. then again, its pop music, so go fig.
34 is Julian Lennon's Stick Around. Great video - serious babes in bikinis, and a cameo by Michael J Fox.

Speaking of Pink Floyd, this week had marked the point where Dark Side of the Moon crossed its 12th consecutive year in the album chart (yes, after the album was released and did its first year on the chart, it dropped out per any pop album's lifecycle, but then re-entered and stayed in for an eventual 14 years (741 weeks) straight, rekindled regularly by subsequent releases and the great reforming and tour in '87, plus, of course, being one of the most anticipated CD releases of all time (several times over). Casey celebrates by playing Money (though the 45 edit, oh well, sorry Dave, but I'll hear your guitar solo in full later).

I now wonder if that landmark was one of the reasons that friend of mine (re)introduced me to the band's work...

Brit Pop rekindled, here's "I Wanna Be Your Cowboy", from Boys Don't Cry. cute, standard keyboard washings, odd video, and a redundant chorus, all the trademarks of brit pop at the time.
Now the other side of British pop, the amazing blues voice of Simply Red and Holding back the Years. I didn't appreciate it at the time (too slow for my tastes), but now I understand what that vocalist was capable of and he is amazing.
Simple Minds leads the wave of supporting Amnesty International, donating all of their royalties for #31, All The Things She Said, to the charity effort. As I wrote before, I LOVE this Steve Lillywhite produced album far more than anything before including Don't You Forget About Me. Apparently, they did as well, since their live album and tour would use this album's "sound" on all of the older tracks they played to impressive effect.

The super-albums of the mid 80s (Peter Gabriel's So, Paul Simon's Graceland, and U2's Joshua Tree) would soon make Amnesty International a household name. When an AI chapter was attempted to be formed at my high school, my senior year, I called it the "U2 Fan Club" at the time, given the people who were founding it. It was an utter failure, the rumor mill being that one founder took the seed donations and wasted it on drugs.
Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair starts running out of hits with Mothers Talk, in at 30 but won't go much higher. Odd, this mix is quite different from the one on the greatest hits albums, much more rock than pop. I like it.
The Bangle's first hit, the Prince-written Manic Monday (and yes, it shows), is at 29.
Starship's hit-making ending is finally apparent with a song I already forgot the name of. Oh yeah, Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight. Mickey Thomas had such a great voice, its such a shame he wasted it on such trite lyrics and music.
Howard Jones says No one is to blame. Not my fav of his work, but its ok.
After a lame George Michael pre-"Faith" track, Heart continues their mid-80s hit run with Nothin' at All.
Bob Seger's An American Storm - sounds just like most of his rockers at the time (Even Now, Breakdown), so not much to add to the legacy here.
Billy Ocean talks about my depressing-pop past I mentioned earlier, with They'll be sad songs to make you cry. Yeah, that was the kinda song I would wallow in back then. In fact, its making crystal clear exactly what my bedroom looked like at the time.
Trivia note (to introduce Texas-based ZZTop's mellowed out Rough Boy, which my brother loved at the time), The first President (Sam Houston) of a free Texas actually considered to turn the then independent nation into a colony of Britain rather than join the U.S., 'cause he knew Congress would have a hard time adding Texas.
The Jets I Have A Crush On You. 'eh. As you might have seen, my attitude to American pop changed considerably around this time. I could tolerate it positively then, but by that summer, this song would have been a "quick change the station" moment.
After a weak Sade song, the Stones continue with Harlem Shuffle. 'eh 'eh 'eh. Really didn't care for most Stones '80s output.
Culture Club continue the brit-rulings of the chart with Move Away. 'eh, again. not as good as their other hits.
Now, my least-favorite pre-"symbol" Prince track, Kiss. I just didn't get it. Still don't.
16 has the return on the considerably modified Journey, with Be Good To Yourself. I had mixed feelings about the Raised on Radio songs at the time, but I found on deeper thought that the hits were fine, it was just the rest of the album that was obviously filler, when compared with Escape and Frontiers. There was no video for this, and subsequent songs didn't get videos until after they had filmed concerts. Steve (correctly) realized doing his solo album and videos that he's not an actor but a brilliant stage leader, so showing him anywhere but on stage in concert was simply a waste of time and talent.
Mr. Mister's Is It Love. An ok song, but not quite Kyrie and Broken Wings quality. Odd, hearing it now, I can really hear the syncopations in percussion that 10 years later would drive King Crimson's double-trio lineup and the subsequent ProjeKcts. Pat's having to be a pop-rock player here out of context and the needs of this music, but the clues to what he could really achieve are hidden in there. It's kinda like seeing Rod Morgenstein and his huge smile in the big-hair backing band for Kip Winger.
More British pop-rock, Mike and the Mechanics' all I need is a miracle, with a cute video staring the late Roy Kinnear. I didn't quite get the two-lead-vocalists thing at the time, as for some reason I couldn't connect that style with similar approaches by Pink Floyd and Toto.
Level 42's Something About You. More brit-pop-rock (sense a trend?). Pretty good for the style.
One hit wonder (and horrid spellers) Nu Shooz with I Can't Wait. 'eh. I actually preferred their followup, Point of No Return, but the market apparently didn't. The lead singer is still married to the other Nu Shooz founder, and is a session Jazz singer. If you go to her website, you can hear some of her new versions of Nu Shooz hits done in a jazz-accoustic style.
Patti Labelle and ex-Dooby Michael McDonald sing the #1 soul song, On My Own, giving legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach another hit. On McDonald, as "Nice Guys Sleep Alone" noted, could any singer have more hurt in his voice? Probably not...

Into the top ten with

Former Malta resident, the late Robert Palmer, making a HUGE drop with Addicted to Love, down from #2.
#9 - OMD's If You Leave. It's ok, but it got WAY too much airplay at the time, I thought. I also kept running into their album every time I looked for Mike Oldfield stuff (which in the states at the time was damned hard to find).
The Miami Sound Machine (before Gloria got top billing) with Bad Boys, the video for which featured her and what looked like the cast of Cats. Go fig. The video was actually on MTV before their bigger hit Conga was released, but Conga hit the top ten first.
#7, Phil Collins says Take Me Home. Great video, and I *really* hate it when vh-1 classic cuts out the ending, which is the whole point of it all. Granted, it does seem to go on a little bit too long.
Yet MORE British pop-rock, The Outfield, with I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonite
My favorite Madonna track, the ballad Live to Tell (from At Close Range, staring then husband Sean Penn) is #5.
Janet and What Have You Done for Me Lately. Ick.
Van Halen hits big with Why can't this be love at #3.
west End Girls drops to #2, leaving, in spite of a huge run of British hits this week, a new American #1,
that sanctimonious self-righteous song from hell that I hate far beyond most, so much I won't name it again. ICK.

oh well. G'nite.