Hidden Treasures - 1983

[Scott]

1983 Year in music...

• February 26 – Michael Jackson's Thriller album hits #1 on the US charts, the first of thirty-seven (non-consecutive) weeks it would spend there on its way to becoming the biggest-selling album of all time.
• April 11 – Dave Mustaine is fired from Metallica just as the band is set to begin recording its début album. He is replaced by Kirk Hammett.
• September 1 – Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash issue a press statement announcing that Mick Jones has been fired from the group.
• September 4 – Phil Lynott performs his final show with Thin Lizzy in Nuremberg, Germany.
• September 18 – The members of Kiss show their faces without their makeup for the first time on MTV, simultaneous with the release of their album Lick It Up.
• November 26 – Quiet Riot's Metal Health album tops the US album charts, the first heavy metal album to hit #1 in America. This commercial breakthrough confirms the ascendancy of "glam metal", which will remain popular with American youth for the next eight years.

My Top 5 Albums...

1. Bryan Adams - Cuts Like A Knife
2. Def Leppard - Pyromania
3. Krokus - Headhunter
4. The Tubes - Outside Inside
5. Survivor - Caught In The Game

 

1983 isn't just another year in this series for me, it was also my Senior year in High School. So music had a little more significance as it played as a soundtrack to an important transition in my life. So this week let's breakout the discussion and go a couple different directions. First, lets talk about your favorites from 1983 and then what music was important to you during your Senior year of High School, regardless of the year. Here's 5 track that were important, prevalent and still hold a high place of value to me from my Senior year.

 

PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/ahiqdey0

 

	Bryan Adams Cuts Like A Knife 1 - I'm Ready Cuts Like a Knife included the hits "Straight from the Heart", "This Time", "Cuts Like a Knife", "I'm Ready", "The Only One" and "Take Me Back". All the singles had accompanying music videos. The first three singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100, while only "Straight from the Heart" peaked at the top ten. "Cuts Like a Knife" would become the most successful single from Cuts Like a Knife at its time of release on the rock charts, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the mainstream rock chart. "Cuts Like a Knife" is regarded as one of Adams' most commercially successful and acclaimed albums. The album is regarded as one of the iconic albums of the 80's. It is often regarded as one of the Greatest Canadian Albums of all time. The title track has become one of Adams' signature songs and is a rock radio staple. It is the most-played song by Adams in his concert. "Straight from the Heart" is often regarded as one of the best ballads by Bryan Adams. Don't Leave Me Lonely" was co-written with Kiss drummer Eric Carr, intended to be included on the Kiss album "Creatures of the Night", but left off the final release.
	Jackson Browne Lawyers In Love 2 - Tender Is The Night Although "Lawyers in Love" and "For a Rocker" were successful singles, the album received a lukewarm reaction by critics. In his review for Allmusic, William Ruhlmann referred to Browne's often overlooked songcrafting, but wrote "...the craft, and the familiar tightness of Browne's veteran studio/live band, couldn't hide the essentially retread nature of much of this material." Critic Robert Christgau called the album "A satire on, celebration of, and lament for the upper-middle classmates an Orange County liberal knows like he knows his neighbor's backyard..." Rolling Stone critic Christopher Connelly had a more positive response. In reviewing the album at the time of its release, Connelly felt that the record was "a more nervy, intelligent LP than its predecessor" and "a welcome widening of perspective that allows Browne to escape, once and for all, the L.A. albatross that has hung around his neck." Christopher Connelly was right, but HOld Out is my favorite Browne albuj of all time.
	Rainbow Bent Out Of Shape 3 - Street Of Dreams This album is generally referred to by critics and fans as a commercial effort, with the band attempting to repeat the success of the song "Stone Cold" and the album Straight Between the Eyes. As a result, some of the songs, like the first single released from this album, "Street of Dreams", are usually considered to be more in the album-oriented rock style, instead of the hard rock sound of earlier Rainbow albums. The album was particularly aimed at the US market: the title is an American idiom rather than a British one. The song "Street of Dreams" has been re-recorded in two versions by Blackmore's Night in 2006 for their fifth studio album, The Village Lanterne. The version featured on a regular album was sung by Candice Night. The other version, a bonus track on a special edition of the album, was performed in a duet by Night and former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner.
	Heart Passionworks 4 - How Can I Refuse Passionworks is the seventh studio album, released by the hard rock band Heart, in 1983. The album marks a shift in musical direction from hard rock and folk to mainstream rock. This album spent 21 weeks on the U.S. Billboard 200 and reached #39. The single, "How Can I Refuse?" hit No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and No. 1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for 1 week. Passionworks was the band's final album with Epic Records before their comeback-fueled move to Capitol Records. It is the first Heart album to feature Denny Carmassi and Mark Andes, who had replaced longtime members Mike DeRosier and Steve Fossen.
	Krokus Headhunter 5 - Screaming In The Night Headhunter was awarded Platinum album status in the United States and hit number 25 in the 1983 album charts. The album was Krokus' most successful album to date, both commercially and critically. It boasted the hit power ballad "Screaming in the Night", which saw heavy rotation on MTV and would become one of the band's most recognizable songs. Judas Priest's Rob Halford contributed backing vocals on the song "Ready to Burn". Bassist Chris von Rohr was fired in late 1983, prior to the band's appearance at the RockPop Festival in Dortmund, Germany, with rhythm guitarist Mark Kohler switching over to bass and Patrick Mason, aka Patrick Mahassen, from the Swiss band Crown taking over rhythm guitar duties for the remainder of the Headhunter touring cycle.

[Jon]

Let's see........

Back then, my top 5 would have been:

1. Def Leppard--Pyromania

2. Motley Crue--Shout At The Devil

3. Iron Maiden--Piece Of Mind

4. Krokus--Headhunter

5. Accept--Balls To The Wall

And now:

1. Raven--All For One

2. Metallica--Kill 'Em All

3. Iron Maiden--Piece Of Mind

4. Blue Oyster Cult--The Revolution By Night

5. Fastway--Fastway

6. Thin Lizzy--Thunder And Lightning

7. Def Leppard--Pyromania

8. Krokus--Headhunter

9. Robert Plant--The Principle Of Moments

10. Accept--Balls To The Wall

and honorable mentions go to:

Pink Floyd--The Final Cut

Molly Hatchet--No Guts, No Glory

Yes--90125

Rolling Stones--Undercover

John Cougar Mellencamp--Uh Huh

Y&T--Mean Streak

Talking Heads--Speaking In Tongues

Dio--Holy Diver

ABC--Beauty Stab (discovered way, way, WAY after 1983).

Back in '83, I had the BOC and Plant albums and did not like them at all. Through the years though, I have grown to really like them. Both were different than the previous albums and I guess I wanted more of the same. 

So, I had 4/5 of these albums and now have 3/5. The Bryan Adams album I had back then, as well as everyone else. Never felt the need to get the CD. Jackson Browne I'm kinda maybe starting to like, have picked up a couple of his albums recently. That Rainbow album was and still is kinda "meh" to me. Except for the beginning of "Can't Let You Go", "Desperate Heart" and this song, I really don't remember much and I have the damn thing. Maybe it's the cover. 

With Heart, you either like "those" two albums or you don't. I like them both better than the 3 albums that followed "Passionworks".

And "Headhunter"?? What can be said other than THE GREATEST KROKUS ALBUM EVER??!!

Nice job, Scotty.

Oh, I never graduated from elementary school much less high school, so no music was important to me during a "senior year", whatever that might be.

  

[Scott]

After I graduated High School, I took a summer job in South Dakota.  It was a ~15 hour drive.  I think I listened to Hearts Passionworks and Loverboy's Keep It Up the entire way there.  So ya...  I like that album

Thanks!!

[Jon]

15 hours and two albums? That's insane.

[Scott]

I had a bucket of KFC and plenty of soda also...  It doesn't take much to make me happy!

[Niels (Mod)]

In 1983, my top 5 would probably had been:

 

1. Pyromania - From the first listen, in January '83, I could hear, that this was something special. The first couple of minutes, I was a little dissapointed, that it wasn't as heavy as "High'n'Dry", but it didn't take long before I could hear, that it was as good or even better.

2. Lick It Up - At the time, I thought this was sooo much better than "COTN", and it was cool to see (some of) them without make-up. I saw them in concert 1 or 2 months after, they released LIU. It was the last time ever, that I was anywhere near being a fan of a new KISS-album.

3. Bent Out Of Shape (Rainbow)

4. Piece Of Mind (Iron Maiden)

5. Holy Diver (DIO)

Ozzy's "Bark At The Moon" would probably had hit the 6th spot.

I didn't buy "Eliminator" until 1984.

Cheap Trick's "NPP" was a big dissapointment after "One on One".

Uriah Heep's "Head First" was another favorite of mine, but it was also a dissapointment after the CLASSIC Abominog.

Raven's "All for one" was just okay, nothing special.

"Shout At The Devil" was crap imo.

"Headhunter" by Krokus was also crap.

"Thunder And Lightning" was just okay.

"Balls To The Walls" was rather good, would definitely have entered my top 10-list.

"Mean Streak" was yet another dissapointment after the very good "Black Tiger". Only the title-track was great.

  

[Scott]

Hard to top Black Tiger...  My only disagreement from your fine list is Headhunter.  Still love that album to this day!

[Niels (Mod)]

I totally forgot about "Flick of the switch". That one would definitely also had made it to my top 10.

That was the last (new) AC/DC-album, that I really liked.

[Niels (Mod)]

And I also forgot about "Born Again" by Black Purple Orchestra or Deep Electric Sabbath or whatever they were called. I kind of liked that one, and I'll probably put it on later today.

If I had to make a top 5 today regarding 1983, it would be:

1. Pyromania (Leppard)

2. War (U2)

3. Swordfishtrombones (Tom Waits)

4. Eliminator (ZZ Top)

5. .....I actually don't know. It's a mish-mash of the albums from Ozzy, Rainbow, Heep, Kiss, Accept, Sabbath, Dio and Maiden.

[Scott]

It was a fine year indeed!

[Niels (Mod)]

Yes, I agree. When I think back, I remember most of the good (and not so good) albums were released around the same periode of time (Sep-Okt): Heep, Kiss, Rainbow, Ozzy, Sabbath, Raven, AC/DC, Y &T and Cheap Trick.

[Niels (Mod)]

Oh, that memory: I just remembered another album,I bought that year: The debut-album by danish Doom/black-Metal band Mercyful Fate called "Mellisa".

I HATED it!!!!!!

[Jon]

Awesome album!