Hidden Treasures - 1989

[Scott]

The year that was 1989...

• February – Roy Orbison joins Elvis Presley as the only singers to ever simultaneously have two top 5 albums on the Billboard charts.
• February 12 – Tiny Tim launches an unsuccessful campaign to be elected mayor of New York City, USA.
• February 17 – Whitesnake's David Coverdale marries Tawny Kitaen.
• April 9 – The Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman announces that he will marry 19-year-old Mandy Smith, his girlfriend for six years.
• July 9 – All four original members of The Monkees reunite in Los Angeles, USA, for a concert performance at the Universal Amphitheatre. The following day the quartet attend an induction ceremony at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where they receive a star.
• July 23 – Former Beatle Ringo Starr forms his own band named Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
• August 11 – August 12 – The Moscow Music Peace Festival is held in the Soviet Union. The event is put together by Doc McGhee and the Make-A-Wish Foundation and headline acts include Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Cinderella, and the Scorpions.

My Top 5 albums...

1. Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love
2. Rush - Presto
3. Bee Gees - One
4. The Doobie Brothers - Cycles
5. Don Henley - The End of the Innocence

 

So here we are, the end of an era.  1989 will not likely rank at the top of anyone's best of the 80's lists.  In fact, throughout this journey I've noticed the downward slide of our beloved Classic Rock genre with each passing year.  Alas, its far better than what was to come...  Lets end this thread with the typical responses but also lets add our Top3 favorite years from the 80's!  I will add mine later as well....  This has been a ton of fun!  I might go back to the 70's and do this again sometime later in the year...

 

PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/a1c9qp9p

 

	Tesla The Great Radio Controversy 1 - Love Song The hit singles "Love Song", "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)" and "The Way It Is" received considerable MTV airplay and rocketed the band to stardom. Many tracks on this album later received acoustic versions on their follow-up album, Five Man Acoustical Jam, a precursor of the Unplugged trend. The album is titled after the controversy about the identity of the inventor of radio. It is posed that Serbian engineer Nikola Tesla (whom the band is named after) is the true inventor of radio, while the Italian Guglielmo Marconi took the credit and is widely regarded as having the title. The album's inner sleeve recounts this story. The album was certified double platinum by the RIAA on July 23, 1998.
	Kim Mitchell Rockland 2 - Rocklandwonderland Rockland is the third solo album from Canadian singer and guitarist Kim Mitchell. The album was released in 1989 and is certified double platinum in Canada. In 2004, Mitchell entered the radio broadcasting industry, becoming an afternoon drivetime host on Toronto classic rock radio station Q107 (CILQ-FM). He also opened for Def Leppard at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto on July 16, 2007. His eighth studio album, entitled Ain't Life Amazing, was released on July 17, 2007. The Kim Mitchell Band features his musical partner of 26 years Peter Fredette on bass and vocals (originally 2nd guitar and keyboards) with Chris Sutherland on drums and vocals, and Ray Coburn on keyboards.
	Billy Joel Storm Front 3 - I Go To Extremes Storm Front is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on October 17, 1989. It features one of Joel's three #1 hits, "We Didn't Start the Fire", a fast-paced song that cataloged a list of historical events, trends, and cultural icons from after World War II (when Joel was born) until 1989, and "Leningrad", a story-song about a friendship between an American and a Russian during the final years of the Cold War. "I Go to Extremes", a song describing the ups and downs of his emotional life, placed at #6.
	Tears For Fears Seeds Of Love 4 - Badmans Song The first song composed for the album was "Badman's Song" (originally titled "The Bad Man Song"), written during the band's 1985 world tour after Orzabal overheard two members of the tour personnel maligning him in a hotel room one night. The song was co-written by Orzabal with keyboardist Nicky Holland, who was touring with the band throughout 1985. Holland would go on to play an integral part in the writing and recording of The Seeds Of Love album, much as keyboardist Ian Stanley had on the band's previous album.
	Rush Presto 5 - Scars I kicked off the 80's with a track off Permanent Waves, it seems most appropriate to end the decade with another Rush classic. "Scars" features a complex drum pattern in which both acoustic and electronic drums are utilized. The pattern was derived from a tribal rhythm Neil Peart experienced while on a bicycle tour of Africa (later chronicled in his first book, The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa). He has gone on to incorporate this pattern into his live drum solos. The song also features the use of a sequencer in place of, and often mistaken for, a bass guitar.

[Jon]

Then:
1. Queen--The Miracle
2. King's X--Gretchen Goes To Nebraska
3. Tears For Fears--The Seeds Of Love
4. The Cult--Sonic Temple
5. Blue Murder--Blue Murder

Now:
1. King's X--Gretchen Goes To Nebraska
2. Tears For Fears--The Seeds Of Love
3. Queen--The Miracle
4. Blue Murder--Blue Murder
5. Faith No More--The Real Thing

Honorable Mentions:
Extreme--Extreme
Tom Petty--Full Moon Fever
Simple Minds--Street Fighting Years
Badlands--Badlands
Trevor Rabin--Can't Look Away
Enuff Z'Nuff--Enuff Z'Nuff
Annihilator--Alice In Hell
Aerosmith--Pump
Joe Satriani--Flying In A Blue Dream
Savatage--Gutter Ballet

[Jon]

Top three years? Probably 82, 83 & 84.

[Scott]

The first 5 were pretty great!!

[Jon]

BTW, "Rockland" is Michell's 3.5th solo album. His first was an EP with 5 songs. Just correcting Wikipedia, WIkiman!

[Scott]

Wait...  what?  WIki was wrong?  un-be-weaveable!!!

[Niels (Mod)]

These are the "new" albums, I bought in 1989:

New York - Lou Reed (RIP)

The Great Radio Controversy - Tesla

Mystery Girl - Roy Orbison

Spike - Elvis Costello

When Dream And Day Unite - Dream Theater

Masters Of Reallity - Masters Of Reallity

Sonic Temple - The Cult

Headless Cross - "Black Sabbath"

Blue Murder - Blue Murder

Big Daddy - John Mellencamp

Badlands - Badlands

The Miracle - Queen

Flowers In The Dirt - Paul McCartney

Mr. Big - Mr. Big

Bad English - Bad English

Gretchen Goes To Nebraska - Kings X

Steel Wheels - Rolling Stones

Dr. Feelgood - Mötley Crüe

Pump - Aerosmith

Seasons End - Marillion

The Seeds Of Love - Tears For Fears

Hot In The Shade - KISS

Slip Of The Tongue - Whitesnake

Presto - Rush

Looking at these titles, I can only say, that 1989 was definitely the worst "music-year" in the 80's, even worse than the very lousy 1988.

My top 5 in 1989 would had been:

1. Gretchen Goes To Nebraska - Kings X

2. Badlands - Badlands

3. Pump - Aerosmith

4. Sonic Temple - The Cult

5. Big Daddy - John Mellencamp

I don't really want to make a top 5 "1989"-list now. There's not ONE classic among these albums, imo. Maybe only the Kings X-album, but not REALLY a classic.

Top 3 in the 80's:

1. 1981

2. 1980

3. 1987 (mostly because a few of the albums were among the best releases in the 80s. "Appitite", "Joshua Tree", "Hysteria")

[Niels (Mod)]

By the way: "Badmans song" is an AWESOME track!! That one and "Woman in chains" are the very best songs on that album. If only the whole album was as good, but imho, it's not. The title-track is overplayed, and I got tired of it even in '89.

[Jon]

My picks!

Tesla--This song was overplayed. A lot. So, I am going for "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)" because it rocks. And they swear in the song. They say "hell". I made me giddy.

Kim Mitchell--So, when I pulled some stuff for my 89 L/F post at the beginning of this month, this was one of the albums I had chosen. I didn't like it when I first listened to it and when I scanned it, I still didn't like it. The name of the album was "ROCKland" fer cryin' out loud. Where was the rock? It's a pretty mellow album, not what I expected when I first listened and it still hasn't grabbed my attention. I'll stick with your pick since it at least has some nice geetar, but it's still pretty mellow.

Billy Joel--Between "The Bridge" and this one, these are my least liked BJ albums. However, my favorite song of this album is "The Downeaster 'Alexa'". Great song, so that is my choice.

Tears For Fears--Any song off this album is a great choice. I have two versions of this album, the original CD as well as the remaster with 4 extra songs. The remaster sounds phenomenal, yet the original sounds really good as well. 

Rush--Uhhh....yep. This is one of those Rush albums I have heard quite a few times but can't recall any of the songs. This will do, this is a good song. I'll just forget I heard it by tomorrow. And then, when I listen to "Presto" again, everything will be new!

Final tally: 3/5

[RJhog (Admin)]

Then:

1. Aerosmith - Pump

2. The Smithereens - 11

3. Clint Black - Killin' Time

4. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

5. Garth Brooks - Garth Brooks

Now:

1. Aerosmith - Pump

2. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

3. The Smithereens - 11

4. Clint Black - Killin' Time

5. Tesla - the Great Radio Controversy

[RJhog (Admin)]

Tesla - Dig the song.  Several great ones on that album, but I still personally prefer Mechanical Resonance.  This album does have Paradise on it, which is my favorite Tesla song, studio and live version.

Kim Mitchell - Don't know much about him.  But I do know you guys give him some definite love.  This song is pretty good.

Billy Joel - This album is way underrated.  The song you picked is fantastic. The Downeaster Alexa, Shameless (a song that was covered by Garth Brooks, who had a much bigger hit with it that Joel) and Leningrad are all terrific songs.  But one of my favorite Billy Joel tracks is And So It Goes, which also appears on this album.  Great album pick Scott.

Tears For Fears - All I know of this band is their 3 big hits.  This is okay, nothing special for me.

Rush - You guys know by now that I'm a middle of the road Rush fan.  This song would not change that opinion.

[Scott]

Surprised at your response to the Tears for Fears song.  If memory serves me correctly (and it usually does) the first time I posted this (in SHT #14) it seemed you may have liked it to some degree.  In fact here was your comment...

"And the Tears For Fears song really surprised me. I need to listen to that again."

I'm guessing this is the second time you heard it and it didn't work...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Well, here's part of the problem.  I listened while working today, and work was a total shit hole today.  Nothing but a pain in the rear.  Problems all day, so I really couldn't concentrate.  If tomorrow is better, I'm gonna re-listen to it.  See if I can get a better read on it.