I heart Rick Springfield

Tiffany is the best sister-in-law ever.

When she met us for dinner last night, she slipped a CD across the table to me. “What’s this?” I asked. The label read 80s Hits Stripped.

“I think you’ll like it,” she said. “It’s eighties songs done acoustic by the original artists.”

I do like it. Or most of it. We listened to it in the car on the way home. The first two songs didn’t impress me, but Men at Work (“Down Under”) and Asia (“Heat of the Moment”) were pretty good. And when Rick Springfield started strumming “Jessie’s Girl”, I squealed like a little girl.

I kid you not.

I took my hands off the steering wheel, squeezed them into fists, closed my eyes, and jiggled, squealing the whole time. I loved Rick Springfield (a.k.a. Richard Lewis Springthorpe) as a teenager. I am completely in earnest when I declare that he’s the most under-rated recording artist of the 1980s. His concert was the best I’ve ever seen.

Here, for your edification, until I am forced to remove it (please do not link directly to this file from your own web page), is a clip of Springfield’s acoustic “Jessie’s Girl”:

Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl (acoustic)

My favorite Springfield album was always Tao (five stars at Amazon, and containing songs like “Celebrate Youth”, “State of the Heart”, “Written in Rock”, and “My Father’s Chair”), but you might be more interested in his hits Working class Dog (with “Jessie’s Girl”, “I’ve Done Everything For You”, and “Love is Alright Tonight”), Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me yet (with “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “I Get Excited”, and “What Kind of Fool Am I”), or Living in Oz (which gets five stars at Amazon and includes “Human Touch”, “Affair of the Heart”, and “Souls”).

Of course, there are always greatest hits collections:

Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits
The Best of Rick Springfield (another five-star Amazon rating)
Greatest Hits…Alive (another five-star Amazon rating)
The 12″ Collection is expensive, but would make a perfect gift for someone you know.

While researching this entry, I discovered the Springfield is still making music. The Day After Yesterday, released in 2005, is an album of covers. Rick Springfield says, “[These] have been favorites of mine for a long time. They are songs I wish I’d written.” Tracks include I’m Not In Love (10cc), Under The Milky Way (The Church), Life In A Northern Town (Dream Academy), Broken Wings (Mister Mister), Human (Human League), Holding On To Yesterday (Ambrosia), Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty), Waiting For A Girl Like You (Foreigner), Let’s Go Out Tonight (Blue Nile), For No One (Beatles), Miss You Nights (Westlife), Blue Rose (Lizz Wright), Cry (Rick Springfield) and Imagine (John Lennon).

Rick Springfield covering The Blue Nile? I’m so there!

For more about my never-ending nostalgia for eighties music, check out:

U2: A Love Story, in which I describe discovering my favorite band.
Before my love affair with U2, I had a fling with Asia.
Loverboy — I don’t claim they’re great artists, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the group Loverboy.
Please Please Please, in which I like The Smiths better when it’s not The Smiths.
Top Albums of the 1980s, in which I list my fifteen favorite albums.
Best Songs of the 80s, in which I pick the three best songs from the decade.

Tune in next time when I’ll rave about Styx.

Madworld

I hate seeing the pop songs of my youth co-opted for advertising. “Our House” by Madness used to advertise Maxell House coffee?

Jesus wept.

“I Melt With You” by Modern English used to promote Ritz Crackers?

Don’t break my heart!

What’s next?

U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in a V8 commerical? “Forever Young” by Alphaville used to sell knives?

Walk the Line

I’ve been listening to Johnny Cash for a little over two years, only having discovered him after he died, yet it seems to me I’ve been hearing his music my entire life.

Perhaps this is because The Essential Johnny Cash (two CDs, thirty-six songs) has become the official soundtrack of “J.D. getting things done around Rosings Park”. My old stereo lives in the workshop. Whenever I have work to do there, or in the garage, or in the yard, I turn on Johnny Cash and let him sing. After nearly two years of this, I’ve gotten to the point where I need Johnny Cash in order to do any significant labor outside. (For example, Johnny Cash was blaring on Saturday morning as we hauled barkdust.) I can’t start working until I hear the familiar tones of the first song: “Hey Porter! Hey Porter! Won’t you give me a sign? How much longer will it be til we cross that Mason-Dixon Line?” I also have a Johnny Cash playlist that resides permanently on my iPod.

Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biopic from last year, is remarkably similar to 2004’s Ray, which told the life of Ray Charles. This plot summary could describe either film: a young boy is raised in poverty, suffers the death of a beloved brother, carries on due to a love of music, struggles to find a Voice, records some hit records, becomes a slave to Vice, and overcomes said slavery through the love of a woman, who saves him from destroying his life.

Walk the Line and Ray are both well-made films, but they’re both just sort of there. They’re a little dull to watch at times, the inevitable result of trying to compress a lifetime of experience into two hours while still putting the artist’s greatest hits on screen.

That being said, I liked Walk the Line better than I liked Ray, if only because I’m now familiar with Johnny Cash and his music. It was fun to watch Joaquin Phoenix (as Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (as June Carter) melt into these characters, actually performing the songs themselves.

Walk the Line is certainly worth seeing if you like Johnny Cash.

The Waters of March

It was cold this morning, and a thick layer of frost clung to the car, the road, the trees. Traffic moved slowly, wary of ice.

Climbing the hill next to the mill in Oregon City, I could see billowing frothy clouds of steam from the falls. Entropy. The mist roiled outward, fog-like, making the road slightly more slippery.

Down the hill, past Canemah, I saw the full moon, bright white and glowing, hanging like a low fruit in the cerulean sky. Its light fell silver and shimmering on the smooth surface of the river, forming a road of white from the far bank to this. I was mesmerized. I could not look away. My attention ought to have been focused on the iced road in front of me, but instead I was drawn to the light on the water.

Later in the morning I found a fabulous song: Aguas de Marco by Antonio Carlos Jobim. (Jobim, a Brazilian composer and poet, produced such gems as “The Girl From Ipanema”, “How Insensitive”, and “Desafinado”. He also wrote the English lyrics for many of his songs, including this one.) The song stuck in my head, the melody repeating again and again. I googled the lyrics.

The Waters of March
(aka Aguas de Marco)
by Antonio Carlos Jobim

A stick, a stone, it’s the end of the road,
It’s the rest of the stump, it’s a little alone,
It’s a sliver of glass, it is life, it’s the sun,
It is night, it is death, it’s a trap, it’s a gun.
The oak when it blooms, a fox in the brush,
The knot in the wood, the song of the thrush.
The wood of the wind, a cliff, a fall,
A scratch, a lump, it is nothing at all.
It’s the wind blowing free, it’s the end of a slope,
It’s a beam, it’s a void, it’s a hunch, it’s a hope.

And the riverbank talks of the water of march.

It’s the end of the strain, it’s the joy in your heart,
The foot, the ground, the flesh, the bone,
The beat of the road, a slingshot stone.
A fish, a flash, a silvery glow,
A fight, a bet, the range of the bow.
The bed of the well, the end of the line,
The dismay in the face, it’s a loss, it’s a find.
A spear, a spike, a point, a nail,
A drip, a drop, the end of the tale.
A truckload of bricks in the soft morning light,
The shot of a gun, in the dead of the night.
A mile, a must, a thrust, a bump.
It’s a girl, it’s a rhyme, it’s the cold, it’s the mumps,
The plan of the house, the body in bed,
The car that got stuck, it’s the mud, it’s the mud.
A float, a drift, a flight, a wing,
A hawk, a quail, the promise of spring.

And the riverbanks talks of the waters of march.

It’s the promise of life, it’s the joy in your heart,
A snake, a stick, it is John, it is Joe,
It’s a thorn in your hand, and a cut on your toe.
A point, a grain, a bee, a bite,
A blink, a buzzard, the sudden stroke of night.
A pin, a needle, a sting, a pain,
A snail, a riddle, a weep, a stain.
A pass in the mountains, a horse, a mule,
In the distance the shelves rode three shadows of blue.

And the riverbank talks of the promise of life
In your heart, in your heart.

A stick, a stone, the end of the load,
The rest of the stump, a lonesome road.
A sliver of glass, a life, the sun,
A night, a death, the end of the run.

And the riverbank talks of the waters of march

It’s the end of all strain,
It’s the joy in your heart.

Through much cleverness I discovered and downloaded a wonderful video recording of a 1973 performance of this song by Elis Regina, which I am hosting here:

Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim — Aguas de Marco

Enjoy it. May it make you as happy as it has made me.

(p.s. There are many versions of this song available for purchase from the iTunes Music Store, both in English and in Portuguese. I bought the entire album called Elis y Tom because I liked this music so much.)

King Kong, American Idiot

Will and I saw King Kong yesterday. It sucked. The biggest thing on the screen wasn’t the twenty-five foot ape, but Peter Jackson’s ego. The trip wasn’t a complete loss: Will introduced me to a fantastic remix of Green Day’s American Idiot; and, of course, we walked out of the theater to a world shrouded in snow.

First things first: I don’t know what kind of kool-aid you people are drinking, but Peter Jackson’s exercises in digital masturbation are not quality filmmaking. My complaints about his bastardization of Tolkien are well-documented; now he’s decided to “improve” a cinematic classic.

How does Jackson go about “improving” his source material? He changes things that don’t need to be changed. He adds subplots that contribute nothing to the film. (In King Kong, there are scads. My favorite: the wizened black man who serves as a sort of mentor to the young white sailor. What the hell? Why is this in the film?) He throws as many digital images on the screen as possible. He s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s running times to the breaking point. He discards reason for spectacle.

Many critics and viewers have complained about how bloated this film is. I watched the original King Kong last Tuesday, and it, too, owns a similar structure. In the original, it takes forty-five minutes for Kong to appear, then there are forty minutes racing around the island fighting dinosaurs, and finally there are nineteen minutes during which the ape rampages through New York. In the original, the first forty-five minutes seemed overlong, but that’s nothing compared to Jackson’s re-imagining. God, the first act drags as he tosses in subplot after subplot, “money shot” after “money shot”. I didn’t time it, but I’d guess it takes seventy-five minutes before Kong appears on screen, after which there are about six hours of running around the island (though it feels like sixteen), followed by half an hour in New York.

Here’s a scene that sums up my frustration with the film: Kong has stolen Ann Darrow and taken her deep into the jungle of Skull Island. Our heroes are in pursuit. When they stop to rest in a narrow canyon, they are startled by a stampede of brontosauri. Not one, not two, not three, but a dozen (or more!) brontosauri come flailing down the canyon pursued by a few small ambiguously carnivorous dinosaurs. The next five minutes are a dizzying mess of visual effects: flailing brontosaurus legs, snarling meatasaurus teeth, falling rocks, etc. As our heroes race along beneath the mammoth creatures, avoiding death by inches again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, the viewer grows numb and disinterested.

“Suspend your disbelief!” you will cry. Hey — I suspend my disbelief all the time. (My main hobby is collecting comic books, for god’s sake.) I have no trouble buying into the universes imagined by competent creators. I can suspend my disbelief on a macro-level, and for a few times per story on a micro-level. (Meaning I can buy a few hairs-breadth escapes or violations of physics, etc.) However, when a story asks me to suspend my disbelief on a micro-level several hundreds times an hour, it loses me. I can’t do it.

As with the Lord of the Rings films, King Kong has garnered fair praise. Why? I have no idea. I didn’t understand it for the Rings films, and I don’t understand it now. These are not good movies. (The Rings films aren’t necessarily bad; Kong is.) Despite the critics, it seems King Kong may not do well at the box office. “Wednesday and Thursday were slower than any of us expected,” a studio executive has said. (Another article here.)

King Kong is major suckage.

I was shocked — shocked! — by how many people had their cell phones on during the movie. When did this become acceptable? Little shiny screens popped up all around the theater. Worse, I heard at least six phones ring. Worst of all, the woman next to us actually answered her phone and carried on a conversation. This is deplorable. Fortunately, she and her husband left. I suspect that most of the calls were related to the early arrival of our little storm.

It’s been cold and dry for the past ten days. A wet weather system finally moved in yesterday afternoon, arriving a few hours early. We walked out of the theater to a about half an inch of snow. It was fun to watch how pleased everyone was by the stuff: kids threw snowballs at each other; one man slid around the parking lot, using his shoes as skates. A father led his daughter out of the theater, holding his hands over her eyes. “Don’t peek,” he told her. “Keep walking. Now look!” She opened her eyes and gasped in delight.

Will and I sat in his car, shivering, as we waited for all the high-tech heating devices to kick in. Gradually the seats got warm, and then hot. The snow on the windshield melted away, succumbing to a network of heated wires. While we waited, we listened to American Edit, which is a mind-blowing full-length remix of Green Day’s American Idiot album (which you’ll remember was my favorite CD of 2004).

King Kong may have sucked, but the rest of the outing was good.

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music

I have never learned to love opera, but I may be beginning to do so.

Inspired by last month’s book group selection — Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music, which is, in part, about the life of a string quartet — I have eschewed my normal audiobooks in favor of Robert Greenberg’s Teaching Company course entitled How to Listen to and Understand Great Music.

The Teaching Company is an organization that provides outstanding college lectures on CD and DVD and other formats. To quote the company’s FAQ:

The Teaching Company brings engaging professors into your home or car through courses on DVD, CD, audio, and other formats. Since 1990, great teachers from the Ivy League, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities have crafted two hundred courses for lifelong learners. We provide the adventure of learning without the homework or exams.

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music is both a music appreciation course and a music history course. It is long — forty-eight lectures of forty-five minutes each — but I love it. Greenberg is passionate about his material, and this enthusiasm is contagious. The course touches on early music, on the music of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. It delves into the Baroque Era, the Classical Era, and — my favorite — the Romantic Era. Tomorrow I will begin the last section, which covers music of the twentieth century.

A course like this allows the instructor to cherry-pick. Greenberg not only focuses his lectures on the best compositions (from the best composers) throughout history, but he also selects some of the finest recordings. The recording he uses for Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” is bright and vibrant. In his choice for Beethoven’s fifth symphony, each instrument sounds marvelous and clear; I thrill to the deep thrum of the cellos.

It is Greenberg’s discussions of opera that have opened my mind. Opera has always seemed to me a pursuit for the wealthy. I have viewed it as the ultimate in highbrow entertainment. Apparently, this has not always been the case. In fact, it’s the opposite of what once was true. Originally, opera was music for the masses. Before the era of radio and television and motion pictures (and the internet), opera was the ultimate popular entertainment, a position it held for three hundred years.

During his lectures, Greenberg highlights an opera or two from each compositional period. From the early Baroque, for example, he features Henry Purcell‘s Dido and Aeneas. In particular, he discusses the well-known aria, “When I am laid in earth” (a.k.a “Dido’s Lament”). I say “well-known”, but I had never heard of it. What a shame. Listen and weep at its beauty. (Note: this is not the recording featured in the course.)

(Greenberg does not discuss Mozart’s The Magic Flute, but since Kris loves the Queen of the Night’s aria (“Die Höle Rach”), and since I have an mp3 handy, I’ll post it. I recently watched The Magic Flute on Discovery HD‘s Friday night opera lineup. This aria, in the context of the show, kicked major ass. The Queen of the Night is pissed. She gives her daughter a dagger and commands her to kill Sarastro, the Priest of the Sun.)

From the Romantic Era, the course includes “Una Voce Poco Fa” from Rossini‘s The Barber of Seville. Here I’ve posted tracks eight and nine from Greenberg’s lecture. Track eight features one recording of the bulk of the aria. Track nine features the full aria (including the introductory bits). Both tracks include some of Greenberg’s lecture.

The highlight of the course so far (for me, anyhow) has been The Wolf’s Glen scene from Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber. Drawn from a German opera of the Romantic Era, this music sounds absolutely modern. It is raw and powerful. It is dark and fantastic. It is filled with eerie malevolence. It is amazing. I listened to it on the drive to work today and it gave me chills not once, not twice, but three times. (No, the chills were not from the frozen air outside.) This is an astounding piece of work and I am shocked that I’ve not heard it before. The scene lasts for sixteen minutes, which is a long time, I know, but it’s worth listening to if you have the chance. The setup:

Kaspar has sold himself to the devil (who, in this case, takes the form of the wild huntsman named Zamiel). Kaspar’s time is running out. In order to gain more time, he plans to trade the life of his friend, Max. Kaspar brings Max to the Wolf’s Glen and together they mold seven magic bullets. The first six will go true to their mark, but the seventh will go where Zamiel wills it.

If this is opera, then sign me up. I want more. I guarantee I’ll be purchasing another Greenberg course, How to Listen to and Understand Opera.

Courses from The Teaching Company are expensive; they cost several hundred dollars on CD. However (and this is important), at least once every year, each course is marked down significantly. A $500 course like this one, for example, might be marked down to $140. I know that $140 for a college lecture series on CD might still seem expensive, but I believe this one has been worth every penny.

Other courses I have purchased include: Soul and the City: Art, Literature, and Urban Living; Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality; The Roots of Human Behavior; The History of the English Language; and The Iliad of Homer. Earlier this year, another Metafilter reader noted my interest in Teaching Company lectures and shipped me a boatload of courses on history and philosophy. (Thanks, Lee!) I’ve managed to convert most of these from audiotape to mp3, and they’re on my iPod, ready to be audited.

I would love to share these lectures with you. Because they’re expensive, and because they’re good, I want them to get as much use as possible. If you have the time and the interest, please let me know. I will loan you whichever course suits your taste. Maybe you, too, will learn to love opera!

622 Music Videos

Somebody on Metafilter posted a link to a page compiling 622 music videos. There’s some great stuff there, though there’s some other stuff that’s missing. To each his own, right? (I’d like to see a-ha’s “Take On Me” and Dirty Vegas’ “Days Go By” on the list, for example.)

(It’s also worth noting that the above site — which apparently dabbles in all things naughty — includes an entry where one can download the unreleased Fiona Apple album if one has not already done so…)

I’ve taken the time to go through and cull a list of my favorite songs and videos. Over the next couple days, I’ll download them from this list to my hard drive.

Air – Playground Love (dir. Sofia Coppola)
Fiona Apple – Criminal (dir. Mark Romanek)
Beastie Boys – Intergalactic
Beck – Jack Ass
Bjork – Army of Me (dir. Michael Gondry)
Blondie – Call Me
David Bowie – Modern Love
Johnny Cash – Hurt (dir. Mark Romanek)
Depeche Mode – Master and Servant
Depeche Mode – People are People
Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus
Devo – Whip It
The Donnas – Strutter
The Donnas – Too Bad About Your Girl
Dresden Dolls – Coin Operated Boy
Dresden Dolls – Girl Anachronism
Duran Duran – Careless Memories
Duran Duran – Come Undone
Duran Duran – Hungry Like the Wolf
Duran Duran – My Own Way
Duran Duran – Night Boat
Duran Duran – Rio
Duran Duran – Save a Prayer
Duran Duran – The Chauffer
Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice (dir. Mark Romanek)
Fugees – Killing Me Softly
Peter Gabriel – Big Time
Peter Gabriel – Biko
Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers
Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes (live)
Peter Gabriel – Shock the Monkey
Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
Garbage – Stupid Girl
Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Guns ‘n’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)
Billy Idol – White Wedding
Iron Maiden – Flight of Icarus
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game (dir. David Lynch)
Michael Jackson – Thriller (dir. John Landis)
Wyclef Jean – Another One Bites the Dust
Wycle Jean – We Tryin’ To Stay Alive
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Madonna – Borderline
Madonna – Material Girl
Madonna – Papa Don’t Preach
Madonna – You Must Love Me (dir. Alan Parker)
Massive Attack – Angel
Metallica – One
Kylie Minogue – Come Into My World (dir. Michael Gondry)
Moby – In This World
New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
New Order – Blue Monday
New Order – Shellshock
New Order – The Perfect Kiss (dir. Jonathan Demme)
New Order – True Faith
Nine Inch Nails – Closer (dir. Mark Romanek)
Nine Inch Nails – Hurt (live)
Nirvana – Come As You Are
Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
No Doubt – It’s My Life
Sinead O’Connor – Fire on Babylon (dir. Michael Gondry)
Outkast – Hey Ya
Public Enemy – Fight the Power (dir. Spike Lee)
Rammstein – Du Hast
REM – Everybody Hurts
REM – It’s the End of the World
Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al
Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm
Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight
The Strokes – Hard to Explain
The Strokes – Last Night
Sugarcubes – Birthday
Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die
U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
U2 – With or Without You
U.N.K.L.E. – Rabbit in Your Headlights
The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
The White Stripes – Fell in Love With a Girl (dir. Michael Gondry)
The White Stripes – I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (dir. Sofia Coppola)

It’s fascinating that certain directors — particularly Michael Gondry and Mark Romanek — seem to produce consistently excellent videos. I never knew the director of a music video played such a key role, but I guess it’s so.

I’ll have to use file-sharing to track down a few more videos that I’d like to have…

Pre-Crash Comments

On 13 April 2005 (02:19 PM),
J.D. said:

If you’ve got a little time to spare and you’re feeling adventurous, check out these videos: “Coin Operated Boy” by Dresden Dolls, “Army of Me” by Bjork, “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” by The White Stripes, “Come Into My World” by Kylie Minogue, “Weapon of Choice” by Fatboy Slim, and, of course, “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. The latter is amazing.

On 14 April 2005 (08:42 AM),
Rich R said:

The way music videos usually work:

The band has a concept or the director presents a concept which the band approves. Once the concept is decided on, it is the director’s vision and style that bring that concept to reality. Lots of times the director’s role is much more important than the band’s in determining what the final product is like.

On 14 April 2005 (05:47 PM),
jeremy said:

Hurt!!!! Funny thing is, I downloaded this and watched it before I got to your comment.

On 17 April 2005 (09:04 AM),
pinti said:

nirvana come as you are

On 17 April 2005 (09:04 AM),
pinti said:

nirvana come as you are

On 22 April 2005 (05:57 AM),
alex napster said:

green day homecoming

On 12 July 2005 (11:26 AM),
Paulinho said:

acho o seu site uma bosta completa pois tudo que alguem precisa naum consegue…quer um conselho vai se ferrar.

On 19 July 2005 (01:17 PM),
michael said:

i have to see u please u all am in love with u

On 20 July 2005 (09:58 PM),
Littleboy said:

The site is fucking cool. Cash makes the diference here. but I like other things on the list. How about an Alice in Chains video? I´m not talking man in the box, ok? Thanx anyway and forgive these stupid brazilians.

On 20 July 2005 (10:01 PM),
Littleboy said:

On 26 August 2005 (04:54 AM),
aleksandra said:

Alice in Chains songs, themes and feeling – come on people, Alice in Chains is classics – 100% should be included in every list of best piece of music ever – so do it, 10 titles should be !ok! for beginners who happen to explore music in the net – make them this voluptuous present – – – -Mkey!!
Take care!

On 29 August 2005 (07:58 AM),
J.D. said:

Just found a page with a few more videos. Also, I love this video for Eurostar from Ye Ye.

The Decemberists (Live in Concert, 2005 Edition)

Update: the Decemberists have released a BitTorrent of their latest video, 16 Military Wives. It’s a great song!

My favorite Portland band, The Decemberists, play a show at the Crystal Ballroom tonight. I won’t be able to catch the concert, but I did see them on last night in Eugene, the first stop on their new tour.

The Decemberists have a new album due out Tuesday, which means you can be sure of one more entry on them before the end of the month. Previous entries on The Decemberists include: The Decemberists, The Decemberists (Live in Concert), Red Right Ankle, and The Decemberists (recorded live from KEXP).

I drove to Eugene on a cold and blustery afternoon which featured the first rain the valley has received in nearly a month. I had a warm and hearty meal with Paul and Susan (about which more tomorrow), and then we headed to the show.

As we walked into the Woodworkers of the World meeting hall, I was startled to hear somebody say “hey” to me. There stood Tom Denton, whom I mentioned yesterday as the supplier of one of the songs for my latest mix. He’s the only other person I know in Eugene besides Paul and Susan; what are the odds that I’d run into him at this concert?

The Woodworkers of the World meeting hall (or Wowhall) is a smallish, boxish sort of room, perfect for a mid-week concert aimed at college kids. The space held a few hundred people, most of whom were dressed in what must pass for the latest in fashion: dirty clothes and pierced lips. (I hadn’t realized that piercings were still so popular. It seemed that everyone present was required to have some part of their head pierced, and preferably multiple parts. I saw one guy with two studs in his upper lip; it looked like he had fangs. I felt naked.)

By design, we missed the opening act. In fact, we arrived just as The Decemberists were taking the stage. The crowd cheered. Toward the front, some bozo with a digital SLR took photo after photo after photo. Flash flash flash. (This went on for the entire show.)

Colin Meloy, the band’s lead singer, has an easy, jocular repartee with an audience. He’s chatty. “Ah, Eugene,” he said. “I went to school here.” And, of course, the crowd loved it. “Isn’t it finals week?” he asked. “Shouldn’t you be back at the dorm studying?”

The group began the show with the ever-bouncy “Billy Liar”:

Billy Liar’s got his hands in his pockets
Staring over at the neighbor’s, knickers down.
He’s got his knickers down.

They played old favorites, of course, but also featured a fine sampling of stuff from the new album. I’ll admit that I didn’t care for all of it, but some of the songs — “Mariner’s Revenge Song”, “Sixteen Military Wives” — were classic Decemberists. (Which means precious clever lyrics, bouncy strings, a smattering of accordion, and lots of songs with nautical themes.)

Midway through the show, Colin made an announcement. “We’re going to do a cover song,” he said. “We’ve never done this live before. Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Petra Haden.” (The group made some lineup changes recently, adding Petra as vocalist and violinist. This was her first show with the group.

Paul leaned over to me: “Hounds of Love,” he said, referring to a twenty-three-year-old Kate Bush song.

“Ha ha,” we laughed at Paul’s silly joke.

Our laughing faded quickly as we were shocked to hear the tinkling piano that marks the beginning “Wuthering Heights”. It wasn’t “Hounds of Love”, but it was a Kate Bush song. How strange is that? Stranger still was that Petra did a marvelous job with the song. “Wuthering Heights” is difficult, yet she nailed it. The crowd roared, giving the biggest applause they’d give all night. (I wanted to shout “Petra rocks!” — about as clever a pun as I’ll ever devise on my own — but the crowd was too loud, we were too far back from the stage, and I was too shy.)

It was a great show. The Decemberists shine in live performance, especially in a small venue like the Wowhall. For a time, I hoped to catch them again the following night at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, but it just didn’t work out.

Will the band ever become truly popular? I doubt it. They’re too smart. But they’re certainly worth a listen if you’ve never heard them before. Amazon has all their albums for sale, including the newest, Picaresque; their last album, Her Majesty, which is loaded with great songs; and their first album, Castaways and Cutouts, which is perhaps less mannered and more easily accessible.

Blogiversary

It’s this weblog’s fourth blogiversary! In celebration, I’m sharing my latest CD mix. I’ve made a couple hundred mixes over the past two decades; few are as good as this one. I’ve been fine-tuning it for two weeks, but its final form only crystalized this morning before I left for work.

Without further ado, here’s Say Something New:

Take Your Mama Out – Scissor Sisters: via Paul Carlile This song is fun. Kris and I think it sounds like “Crocodile Rock”-era Elton John. “Gonna take your mama out all night / Yeah we’ll show her what it’s all about / We’ll get her jacked up on some cheap champagne / We’ll let the good times all roll out”
How Soon is Now? – t.A.T.u.: Of the songs on this mix, this is the one I’ve been listening to longest. It’s been in steady rotation for a couple of years now. “I am the son / and the heir / of a shyness / that is criminally vulgar”
Starving in the Belly of a Whale – Tom Waits: via Tom Denton I’m not a huge Tom Waits fan — his gravelly voice can grate — but Kris and I like this song. A lot. “When the day breaks, and the earth quakes / Life’s a mistake all day long / Tell me, who gives a good gooddamn / You’ll never get out alive”
Dakota – Stereophonics: I don’t know where I found this song, but I love it. In fact, it’s my favorite song on this mix. It’s got a sort of eighties power rock thing going on. I wonder if the Stereophonics are always this good. “Thinking back, thinking of you / Summertime, think it was June / Yeah, think it was June / Laying back, head on the grass / Chewing gum, having some laughs / Yeah, having some laughs”
Night on Fire – VHS or Beta: Here’s a group — or a song, anyhow — that sounds eerily like a blend of Duran Duran and The Cure. Seriously. “Put your hands together and we’ll light this night / Light this night on fire”
Kate – Ben Folds Five: According to audioscrobbler, this is my third-most listened-to song since October. I don’t doubt it. “And you can see the daisies in her footsteps / Dandelions / Butterflies / I wanna be Kate!”
Say Something New – Concretes: via Paul Carlile Paul told me about this band almost a year ago, but I didn’t pay attention. Then I heard this song in a television commercial, and developed a fleeting obsession with the band.
The Book of Right-On – Joanna Newsom: via Craig Briscoe “I’ve got a CD for you,” Craig told me recently. “But you have to listen to track three several times before you listen to the rest of it.” Why? Because Joanna Newsom is an acquired taste. She sounds like Iris Dement. Rapping. With a harp. “Do you want to sit at my table? / My fighting fame is fabled / And fortune finds me fit and able”
Dance Music – The Mountain Goats: I have no idea where this song came from, but I found it on my hard drive recently and thought it quite good. It reminds me of acoustic Neutral Milk Hotel (thus the next track). “I’m in the living room watching the Watergate hearings / while my stepfather yealls at my mother / launches a glass across the room straight at her head / and I dash upstairs to take cover / lean in close to my little record player on the floor / so this is what the volume knob’s for / I listen to dance music”
The King of Carrot Flowers – Neutral Milk Hotel: via Joel Miron Neutral Milk Hotel songs were made to be sung at the top of your lungs. “When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers / and how you built a tower tumbling thru the trees / in holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet”
Letter From an Occupant – The New Pornographers: via Jeremy Gingerich For some reason, I cannot listen to an entire New Pornographers album. When I listen to them one song a time, though, I think each song is great. I think this song is great. “I cried five rivers on the way here / which one will you skate away on?”
C’mon – Go Betty Go: Another song that I can’t explain how it found its way to my hard drive. Go Betty Go sounds very much like The Go-Gos. Do you think that’s intentional? “Today I’ve come to choose my ways / I’ve seen it all before”
Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson: This song is the internet song du jour, currently #2 on the iTunes Music Store. It’s so pop it hurts. Whatever. I like it. “Here’s the thing / We started out friends / It was cool, but it was all pretend”
All My Little Words – The Magnetic Fields: via Craig Briscoe Last year, Craig loaned me this group’s multi-CD set entitled 69 Love Songs which contains, as you might have guessed, sixty-nine love songs. This is one of my favorites. “You are a splendid butterfly / It is your wings that make you beautiful”
Bullet and a Target – Citizen Cope: via Paul Carlile “I predict that this will be the song of summer 2004,” Paul told me last year. It wasn’t. But it is pretty damn catchy. “You can blame it on Zeus and Apollo and Adonis / But what you’ve done here / Is put yourself between a bullet and a target”
If It Were Up To Me – Cheryl Wheeler: via Betsy Betsy recently sent us a CD of songs she thought we’d like. I was listen to it casually one Sunday afternoon, and was simply floored by this song. YMMV. “Maybe it’s the high schools, maybe it’s the teachers / Maybe it’s the tattooed children in the bleachers / Maybe it’s the Bible, maybe it’s the lack / Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the crack”
Apply Some Pressure – Maximo Park: via Todd DomineyPerhaps the least accessible song on the mix, this is a gem nonetheless. Another song with an eighties thing going on (but this time a little edgier — like New Order or Echo and the Bunnymen?). “What’s my view / well how am I supposed to know / write to review / well how objective can I be?”
Dirty Girl – Fisher: One of the internet’s best-kept secrets. This group hasn’t made a big splash in the real world yet, but they should. Instead we get to hear them in all sorts of tire commercials… “I had your name in my head / with Mrs. on it”
Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jet: We’ve been listening to Jet for almost a year now, and we still love them. Kris says they sound like Guns’n’Roses with a touch of Pink Floyd. I say they’re old school hard rock done right. “Now you dont need that money / when you look like that, do ya honey.”
Nowhere Again – Secret Machines: via Scott Scott loves the Secret Machines. I’ve only heard this song, but I agree that it’s good. “maybe the rain will stop following me / with millions of colors reflected in daylight”
A Shot in the Arm – Wilco: “The ashtray says you were up all night / When you went to bed with your darkest mind / Your pillow wept and covered your eyes / And you finally slept while the sun caught fire / You’ve changed”
I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise – Rufus Wainwright: I loved the music in The Aviator. This song was the best of the bunch. “I’ll build a Stairway to Paradise, / With a new Step ev’ry day. / I’m going to get there at any price; / Stand aside, I’m on my way!”

In the past, I’ve been awful about sharing my CD mixes with those of you who request them. I vow that, at least with this mix, I’ll not be so forgetful. Anyone who wants a copy may have one!

As for this weblog: will it be around for another four years? I’m not sure. Sometimes I don’t think it’ll be around for another four days, but mostly it’s a lot of fun.

Comments

On 16 March 2005 (12:54 PM),
Denise said:

I think Jet is AC/DC reinvented and a bit more metrosexual.

On 16 March 2005 (01:59 PM),
Amanda said:

Oh me me me!!!

On 16 March 2005 (02:29 PM),
Kris said:

Part of the reason I love the second song (“How Soon is Now?”) is the alternate interpretation of those lyrics as “I am the sun / and the air”. It always strikes me as clever.

And I must admit that the Joanna Newsom song is catchy. Maybe too catchy– you might find yourself humming it on the way to the loonybin.

On 16 March 2005 (06:52 PM),
al said:

Me please. Shall I send an address?

On 16 March 2005 (07:53 PM),
Courtney said:

Me too, please. Thanks!

On 16 March 2005 (09:11 PM),
Scott D said:

I highly recommend Stereophonic’s CD -The Word Gets Out. There’s a song on there called “Traffic” that is amazing.

Lest you get tired of your mix, I do have some fodder for your next one:

Beck – Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes remix)
Death Cab for Cutie – The Sound of Settling
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Anything by Snow Patrol
Blue Merle – Burning in the Sun
Modest Mouse – Ocean Breathes Salty [Actually the video is excellent] or Bury Me with It
Caedmon’s Call – Center Aisle

On 17 March 2005 (05:42 AM),
Betsy said:

Me, please!

You should definitely check out The Killers. A colleague at work has it in his network folder; I’ve been listening to it non-stop…

On 17 March 2005 (09:41 AM),
Rich R said:

I feel happy that I played a small part in this mix…I gave Jeremy the New Pornographers!

Would you make a mix for me and give it to Mr. Gingerich?

On 17 March 2005 (04:35 PM),
Craig said:

I’d like a copy too, please.

The lyric you quote from “Sixty Nine Love Songs” is my favorite on the three CDs, potentially my favorite opening lyric ever. The heartbreak of the whole song is summed up in that one line.

About “Stairway to Pradise,” does anyone realize that this song was in “An American in Paris?” Gene Kelly’s tres Frenchy rival for the love of Leslie Caron sings it in his nightclub act. He has such a delightfully over-the-top (and potentially fake)accent that I’m not sure I can listen to anyone else sign it.

And, in re Joanna Newsom: She can sing me off to any looney bin she so chooses.

Craig

On 17 March 2005 (08:43 PM),
Denise said:

I forgot to add I want a copy as well! Happy Blogiversary!

Top Albums of the 1980s

While preparing my year-end review entry (coming Friday), I began ruminating about the music I grew up with. How much of it is truly great twenty years later? What were the best albums of the 1980s? (Using Garrison Keillor’s definition of “good” as discussed yesterday, which albums are “sticky”?)

Here are my favorite albums from the 1980s:

15. Culture Club – Colour By Numbers (1983)
One of only two albums I ever shoplifted (a story for another time), this was destined to become one of my favorites for years. I’d been mildly interested by the songs from Culture Club’s first album — particularly “Time (Clock of the Heart)” — but I fell in love with the obtuse “Karma Chameleon”. So much in love that I was willing to steal this from the PayLess Drugs in Woodburn. To my surprise, the entire album was impressive, breezy and light, soulful and true in a way I’d never heard before. (I was only fourteen.) To this day Boy George’s melodramatic “Victims” makes me misty.

14. Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman (1988)
Though it’s her song “Crossroads” that’s become a personal anthem, Tracy Chapman’s debut album has stuck with me more than the follow-up. I don’t listen to it much anymore, but I think of it often. I used to hate “Fast Car”, but now that I’m older, its lyrics have more resonance. The entire album — a testament to growing up poor and black — might seem irrelevant to a young white man like me, but something about it got in my soul, wormed its way into my center and stayed there. This is a fine album.

13. Asia – Asia (1982)

Yes, I’m serious. This and its follow-up (1984’s Alpha) were two of our most-listened-to albums growing up. This album was the first that Jeff and I bought with our own money. It was the first album I bought from the iTunes Music Store. Why do I love it so much? The power chords! The cheesy lyrics! The bouncy synths! This is accessible 80s power rock at its finest.

12. Duran Duran – Rio (1982)
I was a sensitive boy, almost a fop. Duran Duran’s sparkling emotionalism made me feel at home. These guys wore their hearts on their sleeves. Forget “Hungry Like the Wolf”. This album’s gems were songs like “Lonely in Your Nightmare”, “Hold Back the Rain”, and “Save a Prayer”. I was just feeling the first pangs of teenaged angst when this was released, and it helped to ease the pain. This album is a pleasure to hear now, a smooth ride down Memory Lane.

11. Billy Joel – Greatest Hits vol. 1 and 2 (1985)

Billy Joel? Yes, Billy Joel. His music was always there in the background as I was growing up — and I loved his mournful tune “An Innocent Man” — but I never really heard him until he released this double-album. It’s filled with one great song after another: “Piano Man”, “Entertainer”, “Stranger”, “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”, “Movin’ Out”, “My Life”, “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”, “She’s Got a Way”, “Allentown”, “Goodnight Saigon”, ad infinitum. There’s something comforting in Joel’s voice, something that feels like home.

10. Paul Simon – Graceland (1986)
The critical darling of 1986 (along with Peter Gabriel’s “So”), Graceland seemed inaccessible to me at first. I bought it on a trip to the beach, a date with Lena Doak. We listened to it on the ride home, and I didn’t know what to make of it. This didn’t sound like the Simon and Garfunkel stuff I’d grown up with. It was all, well, African and stuff. In time, however, I wore my tape out. I listened to it that much (especially the beginning to “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”). In college, this was one of those albums everyone owned, and you could hear wherever you went on campus. (But especially at The Bistro.)

09. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
I used to hate the songs from this album, an album that I’ve never actually owned. Yet so many songs from this — seven — were radio singles that I feel I know the album well. And now that I’m older, I appreciate it more. These songs weren’t written for a fifteen-year-old; they were written for a thirty-year-old. Or forty-year-old. These are songs of growing older, of living life. These are songs about real people in real situations, a sharp contrast to the fluff I was listening to at the time.

08. Prince – Purple Rain (1984)

A brilliant album! This was like a shock to the head when I first heard it, so different from anything else I knew. Raw, emotional, direct. I remember sitting in Nicole‘s bedroom, the two of us raving about Purple Rain. There were a number of popular singles from this album, but it really works best as a single whole. I used to love when “Purple Rain” was played at a high school dance; the song wasn’t particularly sexy, but it was a slow song and what? six or seven minutes long. Awesome! Sad to say, I no longer own this album in any form. I’ll have to fix that, and soon.

07. Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982)
Yes, Michael Jackson has become a joke, a faint parody of himself. And even in 1982 and 1983 people mocked him. But that doesn’t change the fact that Thriller was everywhere back then. It charted top-10 singles for a year. The songs were simple but catchy. Even the cool kids on the back of the bus listened to this album (though only for “Beat It”, which they played as loud as they could on their boomboxes). Once in a while, when Kris is not home, I listen to Thriller. It’s only human nature.

06. Cyndi Lauper – She’s So Unusual (1984)
Probably another surprise to many of you, but not if you know me well. This album is amazing, filled with track after track of great music. I consider “Time After Time” to be the #2 song of the 1980s — “Every Breath You Take” is #1, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is #3 — but everything here is good: “When You Were Mine”, “Money Changes Everything”, “All Through the Night”, “Witness”, etc. The b-sides to the singles were also fantastic. It’s hard to remember it now, but there was a time when Cyndi Lauper was just as popular as Madonna. To my mind, she’s certainly the better musician. (Note: one reason this album was great was that Lauper’s back-up band was The Hooters, a group that produced the minor hits “And We Danced” and “All You Zombies”.)

05. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984)

Now we’re getting to the really good stuff. To most people, Frankie Goes to Hollywood is all about one song: “Relax”. This is sad because “Relax” is only a minor part of this double-album masterpiece. And make no mistake, Welcome to the Pleasuredome is a masterpiece. From the opening of “The World is My Oyster” to the rampaging “Welcome to the Pleasure Dome”, the first of this album’s four sides sweeps the listener along at breakneck speed, sixteen minutes of bliss. The second side is more pop-oriented, featuring the singles “Relax”, “War”, and “Two Tribes”. The second record returns to a moody, breathtaking exploration of love and lust, highlighted by the outstanding erotic “The Ballad of 32”. This album caused me great alarm in the mid-eighties; I was certain that homosexuality was a diabolic practice, and the openly gay themes espoused on the album — one song is “Krisco Kisses” — bugged me. But I liked the music. Ah, the moral dilemmas of youth.

04. The Cure – The Head on the Door (1985)

I was an angst-filled sixteen-year-old, and this record was the soundtrack to my life. It’s filled with songs of sorrow and pain: “Baby Screams”, “Screw”, “Sinking”. Yet through it all runs a thread of hope — “Close to Me” fairly breathes with life and love. Twenty years later, this album remains one of my favorites. What’s more, I love any song that covers a tune from The Head on the Door. I can’t help it. I’ve a weak spot for them. (My favorite is Ben Folds’ cover of “In Between Days”, a roaring piano-pop interpretation.)

03. Indigo Girls – Indigo Girls (1989)
I was driving to Portland to see Amy Ratzlaf, who had just returned from a year in Germany. A folk song came on the radio, but one like I’d never heard before. I loved it. When the announcer identified it — “Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls — I pulled off at the nearest exit to buy the album. And that was just the beginning of the rest of my life. Amy and Emily have been a constant presence in our lives for fifteen years. We try to see them in concert whenever they’re in town. Check out my latest audioscrobbler list. What group have Kris and Iistened to in the past three months? The same group we listen to most in any three month period: the Indigo Girls. I like to think that Kris and I are responsible for spreading the Indigo Girls around Willamette, largely due to the fact that we pushed them on our friends, and Kris played them all the time in The Bistro.

02. U2 – War (1983)
I’ve written before about my love affair with U2. This is where it all began. A cold, bleak album discovered during a cold, bleak winter. War is a raw and wonderful work from men who have something to say (a decided contrast to their overhyped and shitty How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, released last month — a shoe-in for worst album of the year). The songs here are haunting and beautiful, from the bleak “New Year’s Day” to the angry “Sunday Bloody Sunday” to the peaceful, hopeful “40”. It’s hard to imagine a better album…

01. U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
…but here it is. My favorite album of the 1980s. A true masterpiece. U2 steered from their standard power-rock to something more ethereal here, producing an album of kaleidoscopic sounds. True, there aren’t many catchy singles to grab hold of — “Pride (In the Name of Love)” comes closest. The Unforgettable Fire begins quietly with the gentle lyrics of “A Sort of Homecoming”:

And you know it�s time to go
Through the sleet and driving snow,
Across the fields of mourning —
Light in the distance.

And you hunger for the time,
Time to heal, desire, time —
And your earth moves beneath
Your own dream landscape.

A dream landscape is what U2 created with this album. A dream landscape that’s difficult to explain, a dream landscape that must be heard. The centerpiece is “Bad“, a tender lament about drug addiction (to be echoed later in The Joshua Tree‘s “Running to Stand Still”). The other songs are wonderful, too, and they lead perfectly into the coda, the gentle “MLK”.

Obviously this list is biased toward the first half of the decade. I sincerely believe that’s when the best music was being produced, but more than that, I didn’t buy as much music after I graduated from high school. I lost touch with pop culture. (And that’s not a bad thing.)

Also — just as obviously — this is a list of my favorite albums, the ones that have stuck with me. These aren’t the only albums I like from the 1980s, but only the ones that have stuck with me most. There are many other albums hovering just off the list that I think are very, very good. (Stuff from The Police, Dire Straits, a-ha, New Order, ABC, Stevie Nicks, etc.)

And that’s how you turn a two-minute meditation on your drive to work into a two-hour weblog entry. It’s a good thing it’s a slow time at work right now…

Comments

On 29 December 2004 (10:33 AM),
pril said:

i’ve kind of avoided blogging about my favorite 80s music. it would take me weeks upon weeks to get it all out.

I agree about U2 though. I thought Gloria, Boy, War, Live at Redrocks, and the Unforgettable Fire were the good ones. And Rio.. John Taylor was the bass player than made me perk up my ears and think, “wow, i want to play that instrument”. He was my favorite d2 guy, too. he had the best hair and the nicest smile ;P I’ve recently discovered, too, that i like Billy Joel a lot more than i thought I did. I’ve got a double-album greatest hits thing i ended up with and it is fab.

I would add Aztec Camera’s “High Land Hard Rain” and Guadalcanal Diary’s debut album, and Del Amitri’s debut album (so much better than anything they’ve released since) and the Alarm’s “The Stand”. I became a raving, slobbering New Model Army fan sometime in 1985 or so, and still adore everything of theirs. And then there’s the punk stuff – a whole other comment/post/etc. “walk among us” by the Misfits (’81 i think?), Dr. Know’s albums, The Descendents, TSOL with the first Jack (Dance with Me, etc)…

The 80s had a lot of really fantastic stuff. That’s for sure. And even though i don’t like the song, “Bad Medicine” by Bon Jovi will always remind me of hauling down the road to get to my college classes on time in my friend’s chartreuse Fiat Spyder as it rattled down the road.

On 29 December 2004 (11:00 AM),
Paul said:

That top ten list reflected your musical taste very well from my perception which is based on a lot of musical interaction with you during those days in the 80s.

My musical taste reflects a lot of your influence. You loved to look for singles and in hopes of finding great b-side releases from sythnpop groups like Frankie, The Cure, Soft Cell and so many others. Those 12″ remixes and b-sides demonstrated a much deeper electronic experimentation than the radio singles that most people listening to. Most of these remixes found there way on to your mixed tapes. Those were cherished items in my world. You had the wax, the tapes, the double tape player/recorder and the time & creativity to make those nostalgic artifacts. This has evolved to my enjoying artists like Flunk, Kosheen, Hooverphonic and Dirty Vegas.

I still have a hard time making a mix without judging myself against your production specifications. I watched many times while you re-recorded a song because you stopped it a tad too early or started a song too early which would upset the delicate time lag between songs. I also remember searching our collective memories trying to come up with a song that would fill in say the last 2:18 of a mixed tape.

Thanks for those experiences!

On 29 December 2004 (01:43 PM),
Denise said:

There is no Cheap Trick on this list.

I am appalled.

On 29 December 2004 (02:13 PM),
sennoma said:

Have you listened to the new U2 album? I think it’s terrific, and from your comments here I think you’d like it too.

On 29 December 2004 (02:55 PM),
Scott said:

Ah but I must differ Mr. Roth.

Nine Inch Nail’s Pretty Hate Machine (1989) is a groundbreaking work that from first listen to last still sounds original and fresh. No other album listed above can make that claim.

On 29 December 2004 (03:18 PM),
sennoma said:

Heh, I don’t read so good do I? You said above you didn’t like the album! D’oh.

On 29 December 2004 (04:21 PM),
Emily said:

Ah, to be a music lover of the 1980s…we are lucky enough to have an 80s radio station in my area. I agree with most of your album picks, I would have to lean a little more new-age. While listing to most of the above, I was a huge fan of Depeche Mode (5 concerts), The Smiths, INXS, New Order, Soft Cell, Love & Rockets (2 concerts, one with you), The Cure (that you mentioned, 2 concerts), Pet Shop Boys (1 concert) etc. I was drawn to the not-happy music that sang about pain from my age or older. I liked knowing that things were not always better then you get older, you still had hard break and loss. PIL was my angry music.

There was that group that did not fit in… Oingo Boingo (4 concerts all on Halloween). OB was my happy band; I could put them in and dance around. I still hold out hope that D Elfman will go bank to making music for the radio instead of movies.

On 30 December 2004 (06:09 AM),
Amanda said:

The Unforgettable Fire is by far my favorite U2 album. It seems to be overlooked in favor of the much-hyped The Joshua Tree, also brilliant, but The Unforgettable Fire is, to me, their masterpiece.

On 31 December 2004 (09:46 PM),
J.D. Roth said:

Holy cats. Kris pointed out that I left off one of my favoritest albums of all time, one that could fit in on the list anywhere from #1 to #5.

Sinead O’Connor’s debut, The Lion and the Cobra contains some of the rawest, most powerful songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a sonic wall. Sinead’s voice is a force of nature. “Troy” is one of my favorite songs of all time. How could I have forgotten this album?

Also, 10,000 Mainiac’s In My Tribe ought to have made the list. I’ve listened to that album a lot over the past fifteen years.

Thanks, Kris, for jolting my memory.

On 26 July 2005 (02:37 PM),
Jim said:

No R.E.M.? No Clash? No Husker Du? Shame!

On 26 July 2005 (02:40 PM),
Jim said:

Top Ten Albums of the 1980s?

10) “Green”-R.E.M.
9) “New Day Rising”- Husker Du

8) “Combat Rock”- The Clash
7) “Meat Is Murder”- The Smiths
6) “Cargo”- Men At Work
5) “Spike”- Elvis Costello
4) “Oranges and Lemons”- XTC
3) “Saint Julian”- Julian Cope
2) “Music For The Masses”- Depeche Mode
1) “Murmur”- R.E.M.

On 20 September 2005 (06:41 PM),
Kon said:

Two words – Sonic Youth.