Classic Rock Bottom

By Scott "The Wiki Man"

 

The Year that was 1988...

  • January 3 – The Cinemax television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night, recorded on September 30, 1987 at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, USA, is broadcast
  • April 19 – Former rock and roll singer Sonny Bono is inaugurated as the Mayor of Palm Springs, California, USA.
  • April 25 – Rock supermanager Doc McGhee is sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to charges of drug smuggling stemming from a 1982 seizure of nearly 40,000 pounds of marijuana entering North Carolina from Colombia.
  • May 14 – Atlantic Records stages a concert at Madison Square Garden celebrating its Fortieth birthday with performances by many of the label's greatest acts of the past. Artists include Crosby, Stills & Nash, Iron Butterfly, Ruth Brown, Foreigner and Wilson Pickett, but the most talked-about performance is by a reunited Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham on drums.
  • May 27 – The Monsters of Rock Tour 1988 commences in East Troy, Wisconsin. Van Halen headlines with the other acts on the massive bill consisting of Metallica, Scorpions, Dokken and Kingdom Come.
  • September 24 – James Brown faces a variety of charges after leading police on an interstate chase, after reportedly breaking into a seminar in an Augusta, Georgia building he owned an office in, waving a gun and demanding to know who had used his restrooms. Earlier in the year Brown had been arrested on drug and firearms-related charges
  • November 7 – John Fogerty wins a self-plagiarism lawsuit with Fantasy Records. The record label had contended that Fogerty's 1985 comeback hit "The Old Man Down the Road" was too similar to his 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival song, "Run Through the Jungle".
  • November 12 – U2's Rattle and Hum hits the Number One spot on the U.S. charts, the first double album to do so since Bruce Springsteen's The River in 1980.
  • December 4 – Singer Roy Orbison gives his last concert in Akron, Ohio, USA, before his death from a massive heart attack.

My Top 5 albums...

  1. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
  2. Honeymoon Suite - Racing After Midnight
  3. Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
  4. Van Halen - OU812
  5. Mike and the Mechanics - Living Years

 

Note: As the decade comes to a close it has become very clear that Hard Rock music was in a rut. The commercial/radio/Mtv approved styles of what was getting airplay had really taken hold. So I began to drift a little in my tastes, for several reasons... 1 - I got married, had my first child and was graduating college I didnt have time to pay attention, and 2 - it was easy to disconnect given the state of music. Its no wonder Nirvana was able to take the music world by storm. Looking back however, I did miss on some good stuff, but I think alot of us did ... So I had to build this weeks playlist, not from my 1988 experience, but based on what I know now.

 

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

 

Scorpions
Savage Amusement

1 - Don't Stop At The Top

Savage Amusement is the tenth studio album by the German heavy metal band Scorpions, released in 1988. It peaked at No. 5 in the USA, where it became platinum on June 20, 1988. It was also the last Scorpions record to be produced by Dieter Dierks.

The album was the follow-up to the successful Love at First Sting and had some musical differences when compared to its predecessor. The overall feel of the album shows that Scorpions wanted to experiment with some different genres, going to a more radio friendly style and incorporating more synthesized sounds. While there are still some straight hard rock songs, like "Don't Stop at the Top" and "Media Overkill", there are also dance rock songs such as "Walking on the Edge" and "Passion Rules the Game".

Bad Company
Dangerous Age

2 - No Smoke Without A Fire

Dangerous Age is the eighth album by hard rock band Bad Company, and their second album with Brian Howe as lead vocalist and Steve Price as bass guitarist, released in 1988. Singles "Shake It Up" and "No Smoke Without a Fire" were played substantially on rock radio stations at the time.

AC/DC
Blow Up Your Video

3 - Heatseeker

The album was the band's biggest-selling album of new material since For Those About to Rock We Salute You, being certified Platinum in the US. Blow Up Your Video reached #2 in the UK and #12 in the US. However, the band played four tracks from it on the subsequent world tour, "Heatseeker", "That's the Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll", "Nick of Time" and "Go Zone". "Heatseeker" and "That's the Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll" are also featured on AC/DC Live Collector's Edition. "Heatseeker" was a top 20 hit in the UK. The album was re-released in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series. During the Blow Up Your Video world tour, Malcolm Young decided not to participate in the North American leg, in order to get over an alcohol addiction. Filling in for him was Malcolm and Angus' nephew, Stevie Young, although Malcolm was present on the rest of the tour and in the Blow Up Your Video promotional videos. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental in 1989, but lost to Jethro Tull's Crest of a Knave.

Van Halen
OU812

4 - Mine All Mine

"Mine All Mine" kicks off the album. During production in a ten-day period, Sammy Hagar was having a hard time writing lyrics to the song, until one day, Donn Landee suggested that everybody leave so he and Hagar could work on the lyrics alone. After seven rewrites and a bottle of tequila, Hagar sang the vocals from beginning to end in one take. When he finished, Landee embraced Hagar, before calling everybody back in the studio, where they heard Hagar's vocals done.

Queensrÿche
Operation: Mindchrime

5 - Eyes Of A Stranger

In the United States, the album was certified gold a year after its release, and was certified platinum in 1991. The band shot a one-off promotional video in 1988 for the song "Speak" using performance footage. It did not include a dramatization of any of the story's concepts. The song "I Don't Believe in Love" was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1990 in the category "Best Metal Performance". During the tour promoting the 1990 album Empire, Operation: Mindcrime was performed in its entirety. The stage show featured video, animation and guest singer Pamela Moore as Sister Mary. A recording was released as Operation: Livecrime. The story was initially explored in a series of video clips for MTV in the 1989 VHS video, Video: Mindcrime.

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Then:
1. Toto--The Seventh One
2. Rod Stewart--Out Of Order
3. Living Colour--Vivid
4. The Cross--Shove It
5. Scorpions--Savage Amusement




Now:
1. King's X--Out Of The Silent Planet
2. Kansas--In The Spirit Of Things
3. Rod Stewart--Out Of Order
4. Metallica--....And Justice For All
5. Queensryche--Operation: Mindcrime


Honorable Mentions:
Kingdom Come--Kingdom Come
Iron Maiden--Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
Elton John--Reg Strikes Back
Blue Oyster Cult--Imaginos
Pat Benatar--Wide Awake In Dreamland
Big Country--Peace In Our Time
The Godfathers--Birth, School, Work, Death
BulletBoys--BulletBoys
Steve Earle--Copperhead Road

yeah

Thanks, Wikiman!

1988 was when it started to really go wrong in the 80's, except for my top 3, off course. The "new" album, I bought that year was:

Operation Mindcrime - Queensryche

Out of the silent planet - King's X

Blow up your video - AC/DC

So far, so good, so what - Megadeth

Skyscraper - DLR

Live+1 and Second Sighting - Frehley's comet

If you can't lick 'em.... - Ted Nugent

The seventh one - Toto

Odyssey - Yngwie Malmsteen

Seventh son of a seventh son - Iron Maiden

Lap of luxury - Cheap Trick

Savage Amusement - Scorpions

Vivid - Living Colour

Ram it down - Judas Priest

OU812 - Van Hagar

Open all night - Geogia Satellites

Roll With it - Steve Winwood

Wings of heaven - Magnum

Out of this world -Europe

....and justice for all - Metallica

Small World - Huey Lewis

New Jersey - Bon Jovi

State of Euphoria - Anthrax

Keeper of the seven keys part 2 - Halloween

Vixen - Vixen

No rest for the wicked - Ozzy Osbourne

Rattle and hum - U2

Travelling Vilbury's - Vol. 1

Beast from the east - Dokken

G'n'R Lies.. - Guns'n'Roses

Kingdom come - Kingdom Come

Children - The Mission

Lillian Axe - Lillian Axe

My top 5 at the time in 1988 was probably:

1. Operation Mindcrime

2. ...And justice for all.

3. Out of a silent planet

4. Kingdom Come

5. Travelling Vilbury's

 

Now, I can only make a top 3, and it's the same as it was in 1988, except for King's X and Metallica swithching places.

Nice list.... 88 really wasn't a great year for hard rock fans

I think we're a couple of the few that like that Scorpion's album. I played it quite a bit back then, like it more than "Love At First Sting", but that's just me.

Let's pretend that Wikiman gave me these five albums and he demanded, in a rather bossy tone of voice, that I pick one song from each of these albums. I'd do it, but would grumble mightily. 

1. Media Overkill--I like the groove on this song, plus have no clue what he's singing. It's awesome!

2. Dirty Boy--Because that's what I am. A dirty, DIRTY boy. It also has a nice groove and you can dance to it.

3. Heatseeker--Personally, there's nothing else really new or different or that exciting on the rest of the album. Now I completely understand why it lost to Jethro Tull.

4. Source Of Infection--I do not like this album at all. Production sucks and it really didn't any VH balls, escept for this one song. 

5. This is a push. You could pick really any song off of this and it would be good.

1/4 with a push. Yuck. Gotta admit that you keep trying and one of these days you'll get it right!  

   

   

Then:

1. The Smithereens - Green Thoughts

2. Dreams So Real - Rough Night In Jericho

3. Bon Jovi - New Jersey

4. Cinderella - Long Cold Winter

5. Guns 'N' Roses - Lies

Now:

1. The Smithereens - Green Thoughts

2. Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

3. Metallica - ...And Justice For All

4. Dreams So Real - Rough Night In Jericho

5. Living Colour - Vivid

Special Mention to Journey's Greatest Hits.  This is one greatest hits compilation that I wore out.  And I think it sold about 65 billion copies.

Scorps - One of these days, you guys are going to convince me to pick up some more Scorpions stuff.  Every time you pick one of their songs I like it.  I have a couple of their albums, but I need some more.  I just haven't gotten around to it.  This is a good track.

BadCo - I found this CD in the used store some time last year.  I haven't gotten around to listening to it.  I have heard this song and I think it's pretty good.  I still like Rodgers overall better, but I have nothing against Howe.

AC/DC - Meh....It's okay.  I think Back In Black is a masterpiece, but everything since is really "heard one, heard 'em all" if you ask me.  But I do have this album.  I have several Johnson fronted albums but I never listen to 'em.

Van Hagar - I've always considered this my least favorite of the Hagar era albums.  I haven't listened to it in forever so I really can't even recall why I thought that.  But this song is actually really good.  Maybe I'll go back and listen to the album again.  By the way, this one is mastered at a much lower sound level compared to the other stuff here.

Ryche - Awesome song, awesome album.  And I never even listened to it until a few years ago.  Masterpiece.

Rank: 

1. Eyes Of A Stranger

2. Mine All Mine

3. Don't Stop At The Top

4. No Smoke Without A Fire

5. Heatseaker

I own 4/5 here.  Enjoyed it.

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