80s Music

Though pioneering Los Angeles punk rock band X had become a shadow of itself by 1987, the year its penultimate studio LP, See How We Are, was released, the long-term creative duo of John Doe and Exene Cervenka still managed to make some important music together following both the end of their marriage (to each other) and the loss of an essential founding member. Guitarist Billy Zoom, after all, had been a major part of the band's driving, kinetically exhilarating sound, and the addition of two perfectly inspired guitarists (Tony Gilkyson and roots rock legend Dave Alvin) could not be expected to replace him sufficiently. Nevertheless, "See How We Are" works tremendously well, not only as an anchoring  title track for an underrated rock album of the late '80s but also because it contains some positively incisive songwriting and singing from frontman Doe.

On several tracks from multiple earlier records, the writing tandem of Doe and Cervenka had proven to generate uncannily accurate social criticism (note the scathing 1983 classic "The New World"). However, the pair's take here on a "What the hell is going on around us?" rock anthem comes awfully close to their best work, which is really saying something. Additional support from Cervenka's odd-couple monotone harmonies behind Doe's impassioned lead vocals takes this tune to a height for which, unfortunately, it has never been properly recognized. When staccato lyrics culminate in the melodic climax of the chorus, the listener can almost forget the fracture that spoiled the band's remarkable original quintet. Especially with the knowledge we now have that the original band has recently reformed and that even in interim years Doe has continued to produce consistently as a first-rate roots rock singer-songwriter.

• Sample or download "See How We Are" here.
• Compare prices on X CDs here.
• Top 10 X Songs
• '80s Artist Profile - X
• Top L.A. Punk Songs

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Elektra

After yet another week shrouded by tragic and early celebrity deaths, the pop music world was forced to join in the mourning with Friday's announcement that founding Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch had passed away at 47 following a three-year cancer battle. So now, just three weeks after the pioneering rap-rock trio was enshrined into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, death strikes again in what could be construed by the extremely conspiracy-minded as a cruel attempt to silence the music. Now, I'm not literally saying some cosmic force in charge of death has something against rock and roll, but let's face it: 2012 has not been thus far kind to several creators of legendary music.

Yauch leaves behind his two Beasties cohorts, Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz, as well as a towering legacy for the innovative blending of seemingly disparate pop music genres. "She's On It" stands as a prime example of this, even if it's as juvenile and posturing as you might expect from three sneering white punks from New York City barely in their twenties. In fact, this unflinching dose of attitude was one of the draws for the early Beastie Boys recordings, saddling the group with a reputation it ultimately worked hard to transcend on later efforts that typically became critical darlings. But this tune deserves respect if nothing else for the rather seamless way it serves as a marker between the Beasties' early NYC hardcore punk roots and its eventual position as critically favored hip-hop dignitaries. Yauch will be missed on several wide cultural levels, many of the same ones the Beastie Boys will continue to inform going forward. That won't block the current requisite sadness, but such a breadth of impact is bound to outlast it at least.

• Listen to "She's On It" & watch the music video here.
• Compare prices on Beastie Boys CDs here.
• Beastie Boys Artist Profile
• Top Punk Rock & Hardcore Artists of the '80s

Single Cover Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

The passing last week of Men at Work's multi-instrumentalist and key creative force Greg Ham likely caught more than a few pop music fans off-guard, but those who knew the 58-year-old best probably (and sadly) weren't all that shocked. Ever since the puzzling 2010 court decision that determined the band's signature 1982 hit "Down Under" duplicated "substantial portions" of popular Australian children's song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree," friends say that Ham had been despondent, even relapsing into drug and alcohol abuse in part due to his discomfort over the situation. The cause of death for the musician - found dead April 19 in his home near Melbourne - has yet to be determined, but it's difficult for any original fan of Men at Work's early-'80s heyday not to feel resentful about a court decision as suspect and potentially damaging as the "Down Under" judgment.

Nevertheless, former bandmate Colin Hay has been quick to praise the positive elements of Ham's life and the enriching perspective his personality brought to so many of the lives he touched. This, of course, is fitting and essential in the face of the loss of someone young and talented, but the sentiment is especially resonant in light of this week's feature, one of Men at Work's few tracks that featured Ham on lead vocals and drew from his solo songwriting efforts. Despite its seemingly downbeat title, "Giving Up" - a deep album track from the band's seldom-heard 1985 swan song LP, Two Hearts - actually embraces an uplifting if contemplative view on treasuring the joys of life while it's still possible. In essence, the song is about NOT giving up, and it serves as a particularly poignant requiem for an individual Hay remembered as "a beautiful man" graced with boundless humor and energy. Musically, this tune showcases one of Ham's least recognized gifts - his singing voice - and demonstrates the important role he served in a band clearly fronted by Hay but also most certainly graced with far more than mere backing from Ham. Fans celebrating the famous respective saxophone and flute parts from Men at Work hits "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under" should probably also check out the group's unjustly out-of-print final record, which really allowed Ham to stretch out quite memorably as both songwriter and lead vocalist.

• Listen to "Giving Up" in its entirety here.
• Compare prices on Men at Work CDs here.
• Top Men at Work Songs of the '80s
• Top Down Under Artists of the '80s
• Best '80s Songs Featuring Saxophone

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Columbia - Greg Ham Pictured Above, Far Left

During the past eight years or so, something happened within American pop culture that many music fans assumed would never actually come to be: in the form of a 2004 stroke, the ravages of time had finally begun to catch up with seemingly ageless, legendary musical TV personality Dick Clark. Unfortunately today - despite an impressive recovery from that stroke over the past several years - Clark passed away at age 82 from a massive heart attack suffered during a hospital visit for an outpatient procedure. It's a genuinely sad day for music lovers of the rock and roll era, who one way or another grew up with Clark as a broadcast icon. And yet there's also so much to celebrate about a man who witnessed massive changes in the music industry and its styles across the decades as host of the long-running American Bandstand. Always earnest and business-like in his attempts to interview '80s acts disparate and seemingly unlike himself - from heavy metal band Autograph to sultry R&B vixen Vanity - Clark believed in his platform for pop music appreciation across the ages, which is perhaps his greatest legacy.

That brings us to this week's feature. I poked around the hundreds of '80s artists that appeared on the program during its final decade, and ultimately I settled on Patty Smyth's band Scandal as a reasonably representative example of the type of moderately successful music acts that performed week to week on Bandstand. Clark treated them all with respect and genuine interest, and in the case of Scandal, the rather brief period of fame wasn't really enough. Smyth and the band are generally best known for their bigger hits (the worthy "Goodbye to You" and "The Warrior"), but "Love's Got a Line on You" continues to stand tall as an energetic and highly listenable new wave-tinged mainstream rock song. Despite barely cracking the Top 30 on the Billboard mainstream rock charts in 1983, this track shines as more than just an above-average arena rock tune. Buoyed by the muscular, passionate lead vocals of Smyth but also by the solid, underrated songwriting of bandmate Zack Smith (something Clark probably detected during his brief encounter with the band), this song is as good a way as any to mark the passing of a true pop music populist. Rest in peace, Ageless One.

• Sample or download "Love's Got a Line on You" here.
• Compare prices on Scandal & Patty Smyth music here.
• Top Rock Music Women of the '80s
• Worthy Underrated Arena Rock Songs of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Sony

I'm the first to admit anytime the subject comes up that I was probably about as far as one could be from being hip to the early alternative/indie sound continuing to emerge out of the U.K. circa 1988. Trapped far too exclusively in a music world (though it seemed kind of wide open at the time) composed mostly of classic rock, hair metal and arena rock, I would have had no idea what to do if exposed to a band like The House of Love at that early point of my rock music education. So perhaps it's just as well that this London outfit remained as alien to me back then as a good, modestly stylish haircut. After all, only years after their peaks did I discover and appreciate the work of such bands as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychedelic Furs and Echo & the Bunnymen - all seminal influences on the dreamy, proto-indie rock strains of The House of Love.

I just wasn't ready for it back then, I suppose. And to be honest, my penchant for aggressive rock may never allow me to fully "get" The House of Love's thickly atmospheric pop punctuated by seemingly sedated yet passionate crooning. Nevertheless, I'm stretching here only to make sure I don't forget how to do so in the name of appreciating worthy, complex music. "Love in a Car" did not appear as a single from the band's 1988 debut (the better-known "Christine" made quite a mark as a Top 10 hit on the newly formed U.S. modern rock charts). However, the distinctive vocals of frontman Guy Chadwick and the precise instrumentation of guitarist Terry Bickers set a palpably otherworldly mood on this track that is highly emblematic of what the early lineup of The House of Love was all about. But don't take my word for it; by admission, I'm still at times a bit of an infant - aurally speaking - when it comes to late-'80s early British indie rock. So just sit back and take your own listen to a band making truly unique if not immediately fashionable music during a time not terribly favorable to such musical daring.

• Sample or download "Love in a Car" here.
• Top College Rock Pop Songs of the '80s
• Top Psychedelic Furs Songs of the '80s
• The Church Artist Profile

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Creation

Over the years, commercial country music has not been a particularly solid breeding ground for successful bands, Alabama and current stalwarts Rascal Flatts notwithstanding. For some reason or another, mainstream country has always been dominated by solo artists supported by highly capable but frequently mercenary session musicians. This is but one important reason why The Desert Rose Band represented such a refreshing change of pace during the latter part of the '80s. The other, more important reason is that the group was fronted by Chris Hillman, one of the founding members of legendary, pioneering '60s country-rock bands The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Nevertheless, the band also had plenty more going for it than mere pedigree, as accomplished masters of various stringed instruments Herb Pedersen and John Jorgenson helped fill out the Desert Rose lineup. The fruits of the partnership, displayed so well on the band's self-titled debut album, include a number of worthy tracks that spotlight Hillman's charming and spirited lead vocals but also his singular songwriting voice. "One Step Forward" manages to function as an instantly familiar mainstream country song and also something far more permanent. In addition to reaching a peak at No. 2 on the country charts in late 1987, the song proves that deft and even somewhat calculated songwriting can also be accompanied by fine musicianship and a serious, artistic mentality.

• Sample or download "One Step Forward" here.
• Compare prices on Desert Rose Band CDs here.
• Top Authentic Country Music Artists of the '80s
• Top '80s Artists with Geographical Names
• Top Kenny Rogers Solo Songs of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of MCA/Curb Records

British blues/hard rock guitarist Alvin Lee has always been viewed as one of rock's finest old-school instrumentalists, and his work with his band, Ten Years After, during the late '60s and early '70s remains highly celebrated in classic rock circles. However, Lee had also functioned as the band's primary songwriter and lead vocalist - even while backed more than ably by a solid and consistent lineup of musicians to complete the quartet. Unfortunately, typical rock cliche tensions inevitably developed, leading the band to take a lengthy hiatus in 1974 that probably seemed to many fans like it would never end. Luckily, that break came up far short of forever and gave '80s music fans the chance to hear and see one of rock's most admired legendary bands - with original lineup intact.

1989's About Time rocks plenty hard without giving up the vintage Ten Years After sound for a glossier, pop metal-inspired direction. And although "Wild Is the River" may not be able to measure up to "My Baby Left Me," "I'm Coming On" or "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain," but those tracks reach a particular pinnacle that few artists experience twice. Even moderately above-average work from Alvin Lee translates to excellent, energizing rock and roll, and that may be the closest thing to an insult that one could hurl at this thoroughly solid reunion record. Blues rock singer-guitarists like Rory Gallagher, Terry Reid and Lee often receive less adulation for their vocal work than they deserve, but such multiple talents will always be welcomed by rock audiences in any decade.

• Listen to "Wild Is the River" in its entirety here.
• Compare prices on Ten Years After CDs here.
• Top Eric Clapton Songs of the '80s
• Top ZZ Top Songs of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Chrysalis

In honor of St. Patrick's Day (even if a day late and - let's face it - probably more than a dollar short), I thought the time was right to seek out some Irish music of the '80s for this space. It didn't take me long (once I shook my usual weekend lack of focus) to settle on The Undertones, one of the punk rock era's finest examples of the earliest and purest melding of formative punk-pop and classic power pop. Led ably and appropriately frantically by the desperate vocal strains of the incomparable Feargal Sharkey, the band surged on into the early '80s before its almost inevitable premature break-up in 1983. The Undertones never received much attention in the U.S. despite major success on the British Isles. For the life of me, I can't imagine why - even given the notoriously lowbrow tastes many American music fans have long displayed.

"There Goes Norman" presents itself as a pure celebration of guitar pop, which would be more than enough alone to merit its high recommendation. But the tantalizingly quivering vocal delivery of Sharkey takes the work of The Undertones to its own singular level of immediacy that should have had a greater impact on the expansive post-punk movement. Irish rock music has long graced the world with valuable and understated artists, ranging from the phenomenal instrumental talent on display in late-'60s power trio Taste and the ongoing solo work of its leader, Rory Gallagher, to rootsy hard rock band Thin Lizzy and, ultimately, one of the biggest rock bands in the world, U2. Even so, people sometimes tend to focus mostly on the novelty of all things Irish and miss the point of just how great the music is. I hope I'm not contributing to that phenomenon here, of course.

• Sample or download "There Goes Norman" here.
• Compare prices on Undertones CDs here.
• Top Irish, Scots & Welsh Artists of the '80s
• Top U2 Songs of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Union Square Music

Unfortunately, the loss last weekend of Ronnie Montrose, one of '70s American hard rock's most beloved yet unsung guitarists, probably hasn't resonated all that strongly for many '80s music fans. On the other hand, hard rock aficionados were certainly aware that Montrose followed up his most famous years as frontman of his namesake band with plenty of workmanlike projects into the '80s and beyond. One of the most successful of these ventures was undoubtedly Gamma, a hard-rocking outfit Montrose formed with vocalist Davey Pattison, who presciently received mention in this space a few weeks back when I spotlighted another legendary guitarist, Robin Trower. Based on some cursory online research, Gamma seems to strike many listeners as too derivative, but rock music fans are usually more forgiving about limited ingenuity when an artist is at good at his craft as Montrose was.

"Mean Streak" does not blaze new trails of guitar rock, but it certainly delivers on all cylinders in terms of what hard rock was capable of offering circa 1980. This means that synthesizers and glossy production have a certain degree of impact, but the combination of Pattison's high-octane style with the nimble and forceful riffs of Montrose manages to transcend far more often than it merely imitates. Former bandmate Sammy Hagar had a number of positive things to say about Montrose this week, as commonly happens when a rock music icon passes away too soon. Still, Hagar's comments are candid and specific, giving Montrose credit for teaching him many lasting lessons through the energy the latter gave to his guitar playing and stage performances. Gamma may not have been the peak of Montrose's musical output, but the generally high quality of the man's work sometimes gets taken for granted. If it presents nothing else favorable, at least perhaps Montrose's death provides the opportunity for music fans to do that - for a time anyway - a little bit less.

• Sample or download "Mean Streak" here.
• Compare prices on Gamma CDs here.
• Compare prices on the Sammy Hagar-era '70s peak period of Montrose
• Top Hard Rock Songs of the '80s
• Top Van Halen Songs of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Rhino/Elektra

While searching for a song to spotlight this week in this space, I've encountered a few unexpected obstacles, including a minor but nevertheless derailing bout with illness, an unlikely near-duplication of another entry I wrote two years ago involving Adam Ant, and general early-month sluggishness I've by now come to expect from myself. But I think I've punched through the paralysis now that I've stumbled upon the relatively brief but always interesting music career of American singer-songwriter Rachel Sweet. I also did another smart thing to help me get out of my own way; I consulted my wife about her gut reaction to my song selection for this week.

While listening to the punchy guitar rock of "Take Good Care of Me," an energetic album track from Sweet's 1980 LP Protect the Innocent, I immediately noted the similarity between Sweet's swaggering vocal style and that of Pat Benatar, another woman with powerful pipes who deftly employed power guitars in her music. However, when I asked my wife for her initial impression, she quickly referenced Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, noting the bouncy, somewhat ska-like rhythms of Sweet's track as well as the plaintive urgency of both artists' vocal styles. Ultimately, I think both impressions are completely accurate, without offering a complete description or explanation of why Sweet's work should be regarded more highly than it is. Pigeonholed a bit into the sweeping early-'80s new wave category, Sweet actually stands rather independently as a versatile rock artist (like Benatar and The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde) who would only be compromised by genre restrictions.

• Sample or download "Take Good Care of Me" here.
• Compare prices on Rachel Sweet CDs here.
• Top Pat Benatar Songs of the '80s
• Top Pretenders Songs of the '80s

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Stiff/Columbia