The History Of Jop Part 2 aka Clap your hands everybody if you got what it takes

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The second instalment of this poll series takes us to the Pazz and Jop poll of 1980 - if you don't know what Pazz and Jop is, refer to the previous episode (or ignore it and do the poll anyway). You get to pick NINE of these.


[Poll #810979]


And now here's the results of the 1979 poll: the Joptimists Top Ten

1. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (44 votes)
2. Rapper's Delight (40)
3. We Are Family/Greatest Dancer (37)
4. Good Times (34)
5. Pop Musik (31)
6. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick/Reasons To Be Cheerful (30)
7. My Sharona (28)
8. Dreaming (26)
9. Hot Stuff (25)
10=. Gangsters (21)
10=. Life During Wartime (21)
10=. Damaged Goods/It's Her Factory (21)

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Viciously hard, this one - I would have liked a few spare ticks for Ross/Springsteen/other JDivision.

First thoughts:

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Hip-hop jumps from scraping into the top 25 to topping the poll BUT "The Breaks" is the only hip-hop record on offer - were there really so few others? (Surely not - my "Ego Trip 1980" folder of dodgy MP3s seems well stocked). Or is this a block vote for the best one. Regardless it's quite a statement.

Lots of tracks I've not heard here - Pylon, Jim Carroll, this particular Paul Simon.

Slightly surprised to see Lipps Inc doing so well, not sure why because it's excellent, but it has the reputation now of being a bit cheesy maybe?

Re: First thoughts:

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

re the Lipps Inc - it's one of the few I've actually heard (about half my ticks are there for general artist-approval eg Pointer Sisters)! I love it to bits. I got their best of out of the library when I discovered that Justus Köhncke's 'Timecode' was based on 'How Long', and the entire thing was like, ooh, so that's where they got that idea from x 100.

Re: First thoughts:

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

recently revived (irono-)cred thanks to 2 Many DJs perhaps

i loved the Psuedo Echo cover version AT THE TIME.

Jim Carroll

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I can upload this if anyone is interested. A classic of sorts for many years among the college radio crowd.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Carsmile OTM about Super Trouper - grate stuff.

Were grown up Tom to inhabit the body of a 1980 pazz and jop critic, Quantum Leap style, ABBA's "Winner Takes It All" would top my list.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

it's very odd how few proustian moments* looking through the top threes from 1980 did in comparison to 1979, except Baggy Trousers and Super Trouper...

And i already KNOW that 1981 (the year pop broke (all over 7 year old carsmile)) is CHOCKA-BLOCK of some stuff that is still amongst my favourite records ever.

*is this acceptable usage by the way? or a bit pseudy? or just incorrect?

Pol. POT. Pol. POT. Pol Pot Pol Pot Pol Pot etc etc etc

[juror8.livejournal.com]

I know there's always that "Amazing songs/douche of a human being" dichtomy in music, but has it ever been so pronounced as with Jello Biafra?

Re: Pol. POT. Pol. POT. Pol Pot Pol Pot Pol Pot etc etc etc

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

An old pal of mine worked for him for a while in the '80s, and he did not report good things about him.

Also, the Dead Kennedys might have had punk's best bassist in Klaus Fluoride.

New Wave

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm not rly surprised there's such a big New Wave leaning on Poptimists.

I blame the Sound Of The Suburbs compilation.

Re: New Wave

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

New Wave > Post Punk

tho' not necessarily more important than

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this will work, but I've tagged most of these songs over in last.fm. So in theory some of you should be able go to this page (http://www.last.fm/tag/pazz%20and%20jop%201980) and listen to the tracks through last.fm radio.

As if you didn't know any of these songs...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I can't remember 'He's So Shy' if I've even heard it at all. Bush Tetras and the final six on the list are all unfamiliar to me as well!

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Am I the only person who thinks Joy Division are dull and overrated? (Though I don't dispute their influence.)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

well even the LEX ticked LWTUA so probably YES.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

I am listening to Late in the Evening as feeble protest at Paul Simon's lack of votes.

stuff i feel is missing

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

That's The Joint - Funky 4 + 1
A song from under the floorboards - Magazine

Where is GENO ?
There there my dear wd be a strong contender as well.

Re: stuff i feel is missing

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Funky 4+1 are in the 1981 one it turns out.

old school tie mindmeld, slight return

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

On our favourite track, at least.

and these are the hands we're given

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

cis! mindmeld over supreme importance of ms ross!

Re: and these are the hands we're given

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Upside Down' was Diana Ross's biggest hit (in the UK) for nine years so v important for her at least. I'm always surprised it's from the 80s* (but only just) as it's production suggests 3-4 years earlier and the impression I get is that the disco-funk (that didn't co-opt synths) backlash was well in effect by this point. But things were probably a lot blurrier than I imagine - and Chic and Sister Sledge were still selling well only 12 months previously.

*see also Rolling Stones 'Start Me Up'

WORLD KORREKT SHAPE AT LAST

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

clash and vapors neck and neck!!

Re: WORLD KORREKT SHAPE AT LAST

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

!!!!

bah!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

can't find NME xmas 1980 -- i think it featured the slits but that bit of my "archive" is in a big useless unsorted pile at the moment

Fear not!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Crossovers in bold. Strong showing for UB40 here.

Love will tear us apart - Joy division
Going underground - The jam
Mirror in the bathroom - The beat
Atmosphere - Joy division
Ashes to ashes - David Bowie
Your cassette pet - Bow wow wow
Private life - Grace Jones
Fashion - David Bowie
C30 C60 C90 go - Bow wow wow
Master blaster - Steve Wonder
Treason - Teardrop explodes
Geno - Dexys midnight runners
Start! - The jam
Food for thought/King - UB40
New Amsterdam EP - Elvis Costello
Shack up - A certain ratio
Rescue - Echo and the bunnymen
My way of thinking - UB40
The breaks - Kurtis Blow
Stand down Margaret/Best friend - The beat
I can't stand up for falling down - Elvis Costello
Drug train - The cramps
Fiery jack - The fall
Dance stance - Dexies midnight runners
Johnny & Mary - Robert Palmer
Hands off .. she's mine - The beat
My flamingo - The subterraneans
A song from under the floorboards - Magazine
Independence day - Comsat angels
My perfect cousin - The undertones
Runaway boys - The stray cats
At last I am free - Robert Wyatt
Looking for clues - Robert Palmer
There, there my dear - Dexys midnight runners
My girl - Madness
Another nail in my heart - Squeeze
Flight - A certain ratio
Diet/It’s obvious - The Au pairs
Funkin’ for Jamaica - Tom Browne
Seconds to late - Cabaret Voltaire
I’m coming out - Diana Ross
Hi-Fidelity - Elvis Costello
Warrior charge - Aswad
Love comes in spurts - Richard Hell
Edward fox - Smack
Don’t stand so close to me - The Police
Hello I’m your heart - Bette Bright
Rise and shine - Linx
Happy house - Siouxsie and the banshees
Dog eat dog - Adam and the ants

What alternate world have I slipped into

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

where a group called "poptimists" thinks the Dead Kennedys did the fifth best song of the year?!?

Re: What alternate world have I slipped into

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

b-but this is DK's towering pop moment!

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

I agree w/ Tom - Devo may be the most mystifyingly overrated group of all time, a total critic's wet dream whose actual records are dreary and unfunny

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

jocko homo and satisfaction are pretty good

Call Me should not be winning this

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Least good (pre reforma) Blondie single?

This is all relative. They set such a high standard up to this point obv. I'll accept it's "any good at all", but it was (is) a real let down after the magnificence of Eat To The Beat.

Re: Call Me should not be winning this

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

everyone* is confusing it with the SPAGNA one is why




*where everyone = JUST ME THEN, once again

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Not only have I never heard "Echo Beach" but I have never even heard OF it. I guess I'll have to track it down if y'all like it so much...

Also, maybe this is covered in one of the threaded posts above, but: I understand how JD seems more important right now, but stack the number of records that stem from the DKs next to the ones that stem from JD and the DKs win in a pop-punk avalanche.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Haha yes very true but REMEMBER WE'RE BRITISH (or a lot of us are).

So what does the utter failure of some songs mean?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Were voters in 1980 too caught up in the rush to recognize their myopia, that Pylon and Jim Carroll (or Lennon and Simon!) just weren't that good? Or are we seeing a split between the US-dominated Pazz and Jop voters, and UK-leaning Poptimists? Or have tastes really changed?

Re: So what does the utter failure of some songs mean?

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Can't defend the Pylon and Carroll, but the Lennon and Simon were quite pop for their day, just not "proper pop." Very much the "sound of the moment."

OTOH, Lennon was the Dylan of his day, critics would vote for him no matter what. But Paul's is like him crossed with Lionel Richie! I.e. great!

So yeah, I suspect it was the equivalent of the fogie-votes that still place high on P&J today. "Oh singles? Er...Lennon released a single didn't he?"

Whither Talking Heads?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

In lieu of posting a longer list things I was into in 1980 here, I'll just point out that Remain In Light was a key record of the last three months of that year (for me). So the absence of TH feels odd, esp. given "Life During Wartime" made the '79 P&J list.

Perhaps "Once in a Lifetime" makes the '81 list...?

Re: Whither Talking Heads?

[koganbot]

Remain In Light was third on the albums list. Some critics have the stupid policy of not voting for a single when they've voted for its album. (That's my only explanation, anyway.)

Many of your questions will be answered here:

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/index.php

Echo Beach

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Is BY MILES my favourite record on here but then again it's one of my favourite records of all time. It's one of the only moments in pop where a sax solo is actually a REALLY GOOD IDEA!

[koganbot]

General thoughts:

(1) Useful to check here if you have any questions about whether something placed in a later year, how albums were doing, etc. 1979's album winner will make you gape.

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/index.php

(2) This is a terrible list in comparison to 1979's, and it tempts me to start muttering things about stupid white people, stupid journalists, stupid bohemians, critics' basic dunderheadedness when it comes to pop music, and on and on and on. But there are mitigating factors:
i. Xgau as always was trying to further expand the voter rolls beyond people like himself, getting more rank-and-file journos, and he was succeeding.
ii. A lot of the best club music (what two seconds earlier had been called "disco") was now only getting airplay in a few markets or none at all, so a lot of great tracks weren't hitting the bulk of critics. So you had to search for them specially or be part of their scene, and most critics were doing their special searches and conveying word-of-mouth enthusiasm for post-punk, not for dance.
iii. Hip-hop was bursting amazingly onto record, but mainly in New York; and even in New York, black adults were frightened of hip-hop, so only a few hip-hop tracks at a time would be allowed on black or r&b radio, and Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rapping" and "The Breaks" were the lucky ones with airplay.
iv. Punk and its relatives and friends and progeny were getting, you know, dumber and more boring.

(3) To elaborate on iii and answer Tom's question upthread, yes, hip-hop was bursting hugely and wonderfully on record, though people hadn't really figured out how to translate live DJ mix-and-cut brilliance to vinyl and make it work in short-enough-for-radio nuggets. But 1980 produced the best-ever Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five cut ("Supperrappin'"), the second-best ever Spoonie Gee cut ("Love Rap"), the best ever Sugarhill Gang cut ("8th Wonder"), the best ever Treacherous Three/Kool Moe Dee cut ("The Body Rock"), an astoundingly great DJ Hollywood track ("Rock Rock the House," which happens to be the only DJ Hollywood track I've heard), a great club take on hip-hop (Vaughn Mason & Crew's "Bounce Rock Skate Roll"), a great hip-hop take on a great club take on hip-hop (Trickeration's "Rap Bounce Rock Skate"), numerous great, terrible, fascinating one shots (e.g., there was a guy who called himself Sicle Cell who put out a track called "Rapazooty in Blue"), probably some obvious other things I'm not thinking of. But this was receiving almost no airplay anywhere, 'cept for "8th Wonder" and Flash's two follow-up singles. There's still no acceptable reason for "8th Wonder" not making this list. Maybe critics bought the crap about how the Sugarhill Gang weren't real hip-hop.

(4) You might want to keep an eye out for songs on these lists that fall into the following categories: Adult Contemporary, Country, Ballads. The numbers are usually sparse.

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

people who died is really cheap and easy, a sort of funeral mass forthe punks in carrols life, a litany of the dead and dying, i should hate it.

but i dont hate it, because of that mass bit--when you say intentions in the middle of church, and it seems like there will be power there, that talking to the heavens can actually do some shit, and then you walk outside, and some ones asking for change, or the alley smells like piss or the city is too humid that day, and you get beaten down, and you wonder, how do you get the magiv words to mean something/be effective outside of that pyschic landscape.

carroll is one of the last great catholics, and (one of the few/the only) man who managed to make (punk/pop/spoken word/?) liturgical. its a rare gift.

(xpost)