« Philadelphia 8K, November 19 | Main | Ideological Purity »
August 05, 2006
Mudge's Favorite 134 Songs of the 80s: The Swingin' Sixties
I can't make myself want to give up my computer. I'm an addict in full shakes at even the prospect of not being online. Seriously, this is a problem. I will survive without it, I am sure -- but here I am risking fire rather than just release the laptop from my clutches. Is there such a thing as Internet addiction?
And of course, when one mentions addiction,one thinks of drugs -- which instantly brings the Sixties to mind. And fittingly, we've reached the sixties in my countdown of my 134 favorite songs of the '80s. So picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees, marmalade skies, parachute pants and fringe jackets. Because here's the sixties of the 80s.
65. What You Need, INXS Long-time reader and Mudge-friend Jill has indicated her, er, fondness for the late Michael Hutchence. While I suspect her appreciation of him occurs on a different level than my own, I'm also a fan. I saw INXS on the KIck tour in 1987, and he was as electrifying a front man live in concert as I have seen in rock. The guy owned the audience. Whatever story you believe about his death, it's still a terrible shame that he's not with us anymore. "What You Need" was the monster single off the "Listen Like Thieves" album in 1986, and was the band's first US top ten hit. This is one that grew on me; I didn't like it when it first came out, but when Kick came out in 1987 and I started really liking the band, I went back and started listening to "What You Need" with fresh ears, and really got into it. INXS make their first of three appearances in this countdown here at #65. Check the video out here.
64. Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel What would have been a really cool song anyway became kick-ass when it was supported by what was, at the time, probably the most creative and unique video in the genre's history -- or at the very least since the Michael Jackson Thriller video. The song had an almost Motown-like feel to it, with a great horn line behind the chugging rhythm line. And there were those pretty unsubtle lyrics: "Open up your fruit cage, where the fruit is as sweet as can be. I wanna be your sledgehammer." Gosh, Wally... what did he mean, 'fruit cage?' And why does he want to be her sledgehammer -- wouldn't that hurt?
True story about this groundbreaking video: the first time I saw it, it was about 3:30 in the morning on a Saturday night/Sunday morning... a bunch of us had been, uh... adding to the pension plan of the Stroh's brewing company, shall we say. I'd ended up crashing, slumped out on a couch in my buddy's basement while the party raged upstairs, a girl curled up in the crook of my (unfortunately still clothed) arm, her head on my chest, with the TV still on. I woke up in the middle of the night, probably because my arm was asleep or something, and as my party-impaired eyes strained to focus on the room around me and my brain tried to remember whose house I was in and which girl was nestling with me... the first thing I saw when my eyes cleared was two dancing forkin' turkeys (during the instrumental bridge of Slegdehammer). When you're half-awake, more-than-half inebriated, and not entirely sure of where you are... well, let's just say that spinning, dancing turkeys in front of your eyes does nothing to improve your state of mind or comfort level. Anyway - great song, and one of the all-time best videos ever done, and Peter Gabriel's second appearance on this countdown.
63. Jessie's Girl, Rick Springfield Guilty pleasure. I admit it. Yeah, Springfield was supposed to be the idol for teenage girls, not tough guy 13 year old boys. But I'll admit it: I really dug "Working Class Dog" when Springfield released it in 1981, and "Jessie's Girl" is still one of my more embarassing iTunes purchases. Oh, shut up... you have a bunch of them too, don't even pretend otherwise. Plus, he breaks a mirror with a guitar in the video... so that means he's at least a little bad-ass... doesn't it? Are you sure? (Worse yet, this is one of the songs that I still think would be fun to sing with a band in front of a crowd... geez, I'm freaking sick, aren't I?) Check the video here.
62. Panama, Van Halen The VH boys, DIamond Dave version, make their third appearance in just the last twelve songs, with what was pretty much David Lee Roth's swan song single with the band. From here, he went off to do his "Crazy From The Heat" EP, Eddie got sick of sharing the spotlight with another egocentric (only this one ten times more annoying), and the Van Hagar era was soon to be underway. Not that I minded; while the band's better songs came in the non-Hagar years, I frankly always found Roth to be someone you had to merely tolerate in order to get Eddie. Nothing special about this video, pretty much your standard performance video stuff, but it's a good, rocking, hard-driving song that's fun to sing along with, and even more fun if you're in a convertible with the top down on a sunny day. Check the video out here.
61. Too Late For Love, Def Leppard This song holds up, I think, as not an artifact of the 80s, but as purely a rocking, drum along on the steering wheel classic. The fourth single off of the monster "Pyromania" album, "Too Late For Love" has that menacing, E minor opening... the somewhat foreboding lyrics... it just sounds kind of bad-ass. (Maybe it's that howling wind effect that they threw in there.) The video was the weakest of the Pyromania videos, but who cares? Def Leppard kicked ass back then, and dammit, they still do. "Too Late For Love" is their second appearance on this countdown, and it clocks in at #61. Here's the video.
Comments
My appreciation is probably on a different level, yes, but I would actually articulate it the same way. That guy owned the audience. That degree of stage presence is a very rare thing. You can admire it in a man; I mostly want to get it naked.
Posted by: Jill at August 6, 2006 04:06 PM
