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August 12, 2006
Mudge's Favorite 134 Songs of the 80s: Rushed version
So much to do today, so little time... and I was out playing cards until 3:00 am last night, so I ended up sleeping till 10. Ugh. Here's an abbreviated (for me) version of the next four on the list.
45. Good Times, INXS and Jimmy Barnes Oops, I goofed. I said INXS was done on the list, and overlooked that just two songs later, they're here again. This was a cover of an Easybeats song from like 1966. I guess Jimmy Barnes is pretty legendary in Austrailia, but this was his one appearance on the US charts, courtesy of INXS and the movie "The Lost Boys," on whose soundtrack this was the big single. It's a rollicking, bar-band kind of song -- in fact, if I were to have a band right now, I'd want to do this cover. "Good Times" made it into the top 5 in 1987, but it peaks out at #45 in my Top134. Check the video here.
44.Say It Isn't So, The Outfield For a pure pop album, I sure wore out my cassette of the Outfield's debut album "Play Deep." But while the big single off the album was the "what she doesn't know won't hurt her" classic, "Your Love," I always liked this one -- the first single off the album -- much better. Check the video here.
43. Let's Dance, David Bowie David Bowie had been absent from the US charts for more than five years by 1983... and then suddenly he was back, starting with this monster comeback hit, only his second #1 in the US. Great bass line, easy song to dance to, and a video that, while hard to connect to the actual song, reinforced Bowie's reputation as an artistic visionary. Check the video here.
42. Cult Of Personality, Living Colour A black metal band? What? That's crazy! Unfortunately, the novelty of actual diversity in the hard rock world sometimes overwhelmed how good these guys were; Vernon Reid could wail on guitar. And their biggest hit, "Cult of Personality" is one of the 80s songs that holds up the best 15-20 years on. From the classic opening riff, to the socially biting lyrics, to Reid's kick-ass solos in the middle... "Cult of Personality" remains an absolute classic of the time.
41. Big Time, Peter Gabriel There was a time when I hadn't yet fully grasped the irony and sarcasm dripping from this song... and I adopted it as my own. I mean, I knew it was a little self-deprecating and all, but I didn't quite get that Gabriel was hammering the overly ambitious, overly self-serious types. And to my late-teen self, the lyrics seemed to fit everything I wanted to believe about myself. "The place where I come from... is a small town. They think so small; they use small words. But not me -- I 'm smarter than that; I worked it out... I've had enough, I'm getting out -- to the city, the big big city. I'll be a big noise with all the big boys; so much stuff I will own!" Yeah... teenage selves can be embarrassing to revisit, huh? But combine those parody of materialism lyrics that I misinterpreted as self-deprecating ambition... with yet another video from Gabriel that was ahead of what anyone else was doing, and you have a song that I loved then, and that now makes me laugh at what a dork I was. (Shut up... I know I still am, but you didn't have to tell me!)
