Hidden Treasures - Dont Look Now But Here Come the 80's

[Scott]

Lets go on a journey, a journey through the 80's to recall a great musical decade... friends with mullets, cranking tunes in the school parking lot, and the concerts, OH the concerts!!, and your mullett... A magical time indeed. So lets take our time and soak it all in, year by year. So as Dennis DeYoung once sang...

"Don't Look Now But Here Come the 80's!"

Hows this for a year in Rock and Roll?

• February 7 – Pink Floyd's The Wall Tour opens at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
• February 19 – Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC, dies in London. Although common folklore cites pulmonary aspiration of vomit as the cause of his death, the official cause is listed as "Acute alcohol poisoning" and "Death by Misadventure".
• April 1 – Brian Johnson is made the new lead singer of AC/DC.
• April 25 – Black Sabbath release Heaven and Hell, their first album to feature new vocalist Ronnie James Dio.
• June 25 – Kiss plays its first show with new drummer Eric Carr at the New York Palladium.
• July 25 – AC/DC release Back in Black which later becomes the highest selling album by any band to date.
• July 31 – The Eagles end their tour with a contentious show in Long Beach, California. They would not play together again until 1994.
• September 25 – John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin, is found dead by bandmate John Paul Jones.
• December 4 – Led Zeppelin disbands following the death of drummer John Bonham.
• December 8 – Mark David Chapman buys a copy of The Catcher in the Rye and spends most of the day outside John Lennon's apartment building in New York City. Having obtained Lennon's autograph at about 5pm, he approaches the star again on his return at 10:50pm and shoots him dead. Lennon's single, "(Just Like) Starting Over", subsequently becomes a number one hit in many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
• December 14 – Over 100,000 mourners attend a public vigil for John Lennon in Central Park. 10 minutes of silence are observed at 2pm.

PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/a7higffi

	Genesis Duke 1 - Turn It On Again I first heard this song, correction, seen this song played live on either the Midnight Special or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, I can't recall. What I do recall is going out and buying the album based off this one-time heard song. I didn't care for the album at the time, so I tried to take it back, claiming it had a scratch, but they would only exchange the album for the same album so I was stuck with it! Then the song "Misunderstanding" hit the radio and I gave it another spin, to only a bit more acceptance. Then I went to party at a friends house and noticed they were into Genesis - I have a bad habit of looking through others record collections (with permission of course) - anyway, I really liked these people and their musical tastes were top notch so, long story short I gave Duke yet another chance and ended really digging it. Ababcab followed what I thought would be a cool trend but then they went too poppy and any thoughts of getting into the back catalog were shelved for years and years, until you guys came along!
	Triumph Progressions of Power 2 - Woman In Love Released after their best ever album (Just A Game), I was high on this band and this album worked very nicely for me. The production wasn't as tight as Just A Game but this was heavier and at the time thats where I was headed. I wanted to rock! Bands like Triumph worked really well cruisin', at parties, and other occasions as well.
	Whitesnake Ready an' Willing 3 - Fool For Your Loving Seems, in America, this slipped right under our ears. But it wouldn't make it out of the 80's without becoming a massive hit, just a little rework is all it needed I guess. After discovering Whitesnakes back catalog relatively recently (which for me are the albums pre-Slide It In) I have had a great time spinning this one in particular.
	Journey Departure 4 - Precious Time Probably my favorite Journey hidden treasure ever! The band was really emerging as a Huge attraction and they were everywhere. Sometimes its hard to recall songs like this when Open Arms dominates what people think about them. So good... but it was also the last time we would hear this version of Journey as well. I have often wondered what directions Journey would have taken if Rollie stayed around. No doubt they would have still ended up at Raised On Radio with Perry asserting himself and all, but in-between Departure and Raised on Radio are two killer LP's that I think Rollie's influence would have been magical on.
	Rush Permanent Waves 5 - Entre Nous C'mon, after my December listening challenge this has to make a 1980's playlist. I'll try to be careful not include them in every 80's list I make but that will be hard. That said, Permanent Waves was musically life changing for every Rush fan. This albums rivals anything in their catalog IMO, and the cover is pretty darn cool as well...

PS: I would have posted something from Dire Straits Making Movies but Ive posted that whole album twice I think

[RJhog (Admin)]

Genesis - They weren't on my radar at all in 1980.  This already sounds like they were moving in that pop direction, but this song is pretty good.  I have heard it before, but never really played it much.  This will tie in nicely for the upcoming AOTW.

Triumph - I like Triumph.  But as much as any group I know, they really are hit and miss.  There good stuff is really good and everything else can be quite forgettable.  I'd put this in the former category.

Whitesnake -  Believe it or not, I can't remember all of the nuances of the re-recorded song.  I'd imagine that it's much more polished.  But, this being the first time I've heard this version, I like this better (probably should listen to the re-record before I make that statement).  I really like the guitar solo on this.

Journey -  I've seen you mention this song several times.  It has just never been on my hidden gem radar.  But you are right, it really is a good song.  Perry's voice is just so perfect.  I'm not really crazy about the harmonica.  But that's the only thing that doesn't really move me.

Rush - I know this band is well loved.  I'd say I like 'em, but it's really been a required taste.  And not all of their songs register with me.  This is one of those.  It's just kind of bland if you ask me.  I have this album but have never listened to it.   Maybe when I finally spin the whole CD I'll feel better about this track?

Four out of five, you're batting .800.  Not bad at all.  Enjoyed this 80's listening experience Scott.

[Scott]

I cite Precious Time as on e of my all time favorite Journey songs, and it still is. I love the harmonica, shows a side of the band rarely if ever heard before and after.

Can't wait to hear the tie in to Genesis, sounds cool, and as far as Triumph goes, and still to this day, the more I listen the more I like.

Rush? Permanent Waves. Dude your missing out on pure Prog magic?

[RJhog (Admin)]

I forgot to mention that two of my mostest favoritest Journey songs are from Departure.  Those would be Where Were You and Stay Awhile.  Is the title to the latter ever even mentioned in the song?

[Jon]

Kind of. The lyrics are "stay with me awhile".

[RJhog (Admin)]

As a follow up, I looked through all of the albums released in 1980 and jotted down some that I specifically remember listening to at that time because I had the album or one of my cousins had the album.  The following are the Top 5 Albums for me at that time (not necessarily the way I would rank them now):

5. Van Halen - Women And Children First - I liked the first two songs but wasn't crazy about the rest of it back then, but my cousin Steve had it and loved it.  Spun it all the time.  It has grown on me and is one original VH album that still sounds new to me.

4. Bob Seger - Against The Wind - Another one my cousin had.  Loved it then, probably even more than now, but it's still a strong album (even if Jon disagrees).

3. Queen - The Game - Don't think Jon would disagree with this.  This may be Queen's strongest album, top to bottom, for me.  Hearing this now takes me right back to that time period, a lot of time spent at my cousin's house listening to some cool music in the "shop" while playing ping pong.

2. REO - Hi Infidelity - I actually owned this one.  Listened to it constantly.  It made REO a household name.  Only one band could surpass the amount of spins this one got...

1. Kiss - Unmasked - Yes, in retrospect, not their greatest album.  Kiss was making pop music while AC/DC was jamming, as was Black Sabbath and many others.  But that didn't register with me then and I didn't care.  I loved anything Kiss was putting out at that time.  I still like the album.  The pop tunes are catchy.  And it contains possibly Gene's best song ever, Naked City.

AC/DC didn't make the list because, even though my cousin had it, I don't remember listening to it that much.  But it would easily be in my Top 5 albums of 1980 now.  I also like the Urban Cowboy Soundtrack from 1980.

[Niels (Mod)]

The Top 5 for the time (1980), for me would had been:

1. British Steel - Judas Priest
2. On Through The Night - Def Leppard
3. All Shock Up - Cheap Trick
4. Strong Arm Of The Law - Saxon
5. Heads Are Rolling - City Boy

Even though, I had Iron Maiden's first album, it was "Killers" the following year, that did the trick for me.

At the time, I was dissapointed in "Women And Children First". It did not at all compare to VH 1,

"The Game" would had made 6th. on my list.

[Niels (Mod)]

1980 was a great year! I wouldn't have picked these tracks, though.

I remember most of the stuff, you have written:

The magazines, I was buying at the time, had many, many articles about The Wall-tour. I got to see it myself, but had to wait until 1990 in Berlin.

I don't recall to notice the death of Bon Scott right away. And thats a bit strange, because I had known, and listened to AC/DC since late '77. Not my own records though, but at a friends house,

I think, I first heard "Back In Black" in january '81, and THEN I became aware of Scott's death, but I think I must have known, considering all the pop-magazines, I bought.

"Heaven And Hell" was another album, that I first REALLY listend to around the begining of '81. I especially remember listening to "Neon Knights" a lot.

Being a KISS-fan still in 1980, I knew, that Peter had left the band in the beginning of '80, and I first saw the name "Eric Carr" in the end of July '80. Shortly after, it was anounced, that KISS would play in Denmark in October, and I sure got some tickets.

The Eagles means absolutely nothing to me!!

I knew, that Zeppelin the year before had released "ITTOD", but I thought it was a very weak album, and could absolutely not understand what the fuss, was about. I remember, I read about Bonhams deat/Zeppelin break-up in December 1980, and I remember it, because it was an article about "they sold their souls to the devil", and I had just  about that time, been frightend out of my wits by "The Exorcist", so it scared me a bit, that article.

I can clearly remember the morning, I heard in the news, that Lennon had been shot. I was a little late at school that morning of the 8th or 9th December. I wasn't a fan then, but my sister had just bought "Double Fantasy" a week before his tragic death, and I did know about The Beatles of course. Still the most tragic loss (in music) of all time. Still he had so much to offer. I always become more of a Lennon-fan in December, than a McCartney-fan. The rest of the year, I'm a McCartney-fan first and foremost :-)

 

[Scott]

I thought of you when I added hat Eagles tidbit.

[Scott]

I wasn't aware of Scott's death either, until Back in Black came out, then I got curious. But, I was very aware of Bonhams, I am a fan of ITTOD as a result, likely due to its significance and overplay.... Though nowhere near the best Led Zeppelin album, it still gets attention from me time to time.

[Jon]

If this was 1980 and the end of the year, this would be my top five albums. These are ones which I purchased then, now the list might be different.

1. Queen--The Game

2. Dire Straits--Making Movies

3. Yes--Drama

4. Rockpile--Seconds Of Pleasure

5. Squeeze--Argybargy

[Scott]

It was a truly great year! More rocking than I remembered it to be. Dire Straits album was and still is a masterpiece! Outdone only by Permanent Waves, the rest if my list I still need to figure out though.

Have you ever posted that Squeeze album before?

[Jon]

Not yet for Squeeze!