Hidden Treasures - 1981

1980

Music Highlights...

February 14 – Billy Idol leaves the band Generation X to begin a solo career.
April 11 – Van Halen's lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen marries actress Valerie Bertinelli. (And this killed me!! I was going to marry her!)
April 27 – Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach marry, in London, England. (Out goes my backup plan!!)
June 4 – U2 appears on the Tomorrow show with Tom Snyder, their first U.S. television appearance.
June 5 - The TV series Night Flight, a variety show featuring music documentaries and videos, premieres on the USA Network.
August 1 – MTV debuts on cable television in the United States, playing music videos 24 hours a day.
October 26 - Iron Maiden plays its first show with Bruce Dickinson as the new lead singer in Bologna, Italy.
December 18 - An estimated 35 million people around the world watch a live satellite transmission of a Rod Stewart concert at the Los Angeles Forum. It is the first broadcast of its kind since Elvis Presley's "Aloha from Hawaii" special in 1973.
Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a dove at a record label gathering.
Alice Cooper drastically changes his appearance, leaving behind his trademark make-up and donning a military uniform.
Brad Whitford leaves Aerosmith and is replaced by Rick Dufay.
Starland Vocal Band broke up (Sorry Jon, hate to re-open old wounds!!)

My Top 5 Albums of 1981

Moving Pictures- Rush
Fair Warning - Van Halen
High 'N' Dry - Def Leppard
Paradise Theater - Styx
Allied Forces - Triumph

PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/a7tkathx

	The Tubes The Completion Backward Principle 1 - Sushi Girl The Tubes' live shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s were rife with allusions to mainstream film [Dr. Strangelove (1964), Rollerball (1975), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978)] then-forgotten B-movies [Wild Women of Wongo (1958), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)], music (Tom Jones, punk rock, a medley of Nelson Riddle television themes), contemporary pop culture (Patty Hearst, the Viking program), television (Let's Make a Deal, Fernwood 2Nite, the anime Raideen), and literature (Nelson Algren's A Walk on the Wild Side), presaging the subcultural reverence and over-the-top theatricality of later groups like The World/Inferno Friendship Society. These shows were expensive to produce, however, and while they earned the band a reputation for being one of the most entertaining live acts of the time, by the early 1980s, they found themselves short of money.
	Loverboy Get Lucky 2 - When Its Over Their debut record became a huge hit with eventually over 1,000,000 records sold in Canada alone. The album made its American debut in November 1980, and would go on to sell over two million copies in the USA alone. The band's follow-up album, Get Lucky, released in October 1981 when they were opening for Journey, included the hit tracks "Working for the Weekend" and "When It's Over". It became their best selling album in the U.S., reaching No. 7 on the Billboard album charts and selling over four million copies. In the same year Loverboy received six Juno Awards (Canada's highest award for music) in one year, a record that still stands today. The band would later receive an additional three Juno Awards, bringing their total to nine, which is the most received by a single group or individual.
	Blue Oyster Cult Fire Of Unknown Origin 3 - Fire Of Unknown Origin The biggest hit on this album was the Top 40 hit "Burnin' for You", a song Dharma had written with a Richard Meltzer lyric. He had intended to use it on his 1982 solo album, Flat Out, but he was convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album instead. The album went platinum, and contained other fan favorites such as "Joan Crawford" (inspired by the book and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy Metal, but only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (which, ironically, was not written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. After this album, Albert Bouchard had a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band's lighting designer) replaced him on drums. At the height of their popularity, the band's success spurred a host of cult-like activities, such as a Marshfield, MA Blue Oyster Cult themed summer camp which featured competitive air guitar and lip synching contests.
	Van Halen Fair Warning 4 - Hear About It Later Fair Warning was one of the first albums to reflect the rift in the Van Halen power structure; David Lee Roth wished to emphasize the pop influence that emerged on the previous two albums (which brought the band increased attention and a wider appeal), while Eddie Van Halen preferred to explore darker, longer and generally more complex song-structures that emphasized his innovative guitar work. Eddie apparently prevailed, as the album in fact featured longer, darker, more aggressive guitar-oriented material. Unchained can be heard frequently on rock radio stations. The album's cover artwork is accompanied by an insert of a black-and-white picture of the band, as well as a view of a ghetto drywall. This drywall has a wire running across it, cracked windows at the top and a Roth-era Van Halen logo with plaster cracked over the left wing. Also on the wall is a lyric from the album's opening song, "Mean Street".
	Sammy Hagar Standing Hampton 5 - I'll Fall In Love Again Hagar was scheduled to open for Boston in San Bernardino, California, during their 1979 world tour. Prior to the Boston show, Hagar was replaced on the bill by the up and coming Los Angeles club band, The Knack, rather than being an opening act so close to his former hometown of Fontana. After Street Machine and 1980's Danger Zone failed to break out, Hagar felt that Capitol wasn't supporting him sufficiently. Hagar left Capitol for the newly formed Geffen Records and made some personnel changes, including enlisting long-time friend and former Justice Brothers bandmate David Lauser as his drummer. His first Geffen release, Standing Hampton, was his biggest-selling album to date and went platinum on the strength of songs such as "There's Only One Way to Rock".

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on January 30, 2014 at 10:35am

And a couple of others that I don't think have been mentioned:

Rick Springfield - Working Class Dog

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Hard Promises

Journey - Captured (Live)

Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band - Nine Tonight (Live)

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Permalink Reply by Jon on January 30, 2014 at 1:08pm

"Escape" is another good one. I didn't pick that up until the end of the year, Bradlee's always had albums released the same year in a cutout bin for 99 cents at year's end for some reason.

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on January 30, 2014 at 11:13am

The Tubes - My cousin had this record, and I somewhat remember this song. I definitely remember Talk To Ya Later from the same album. We listened to it a good bit, but that's really the only song I remember from it. This song is pretty good. I'm hearing some very nice low bass right now. I think The Tubes are one of those weird bands that aren't the easiest to listen to. Maybe I'm wrong.

Loverboy - This album was not on my radar back then. It would be a few years later, probably '83 or '84 before I discovered it. If you notice, my current top 10 list from that year features it at a very high spot. Every song is melodic and just fun to sing along to. I'd have to say my absolute favorite from the album is Take Me To The Top. This album takes me back to a very good time in life.

Blue Oyster Cult - Didn't have the album back then. I do now. Bought it a couple of years ago and again last year as part of the complete albums collection. I definitely like it and wish I would have known it back then. Again, a very good album.

Van Halen - Definitely the second most played album of 1981 for me (Escape is still number one). They say this album is a little darker than your typical VH album. Maybe true, but it's outstanding. The lead track is a monster. The track you have featured is a true hidden gem. Great pick from a great album.

Sammy Hagar - I picked this up a couple of years ago. I really have only spun it once. You did manage to pick my favorite Hagar song for this list. From what I can remember on the one spin, it's a good album. I need to listen to it again.

Excellent SHT episode Scott. I really like these yearly subjects. They always seem to be fun and spark a lot of conversation.