The History Of Jop Part 6 aka Animals strike curious poses

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Beware the savage jaw of 1984! The Pazz and Jop poll takes some curious turns this year with plenty to analyse in the comments boxes. For once no holdovers from last time or entries from the EP list, though I was sorely tempted to put Into Battle With The Art Of Noise in.


[Poll #823959]


The Joptimist Metapoll Remix (1983 Dub) is as follows:

1. Billie Jean (35 votes)
2. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (34)
3. Little Red Corvette (30)
4. Beat It (28)
5. White Lines (Dont Dont Do It) (26)
6. It's Like That/Sucker MCs (21)
7. Burning Down The House (18)
8. Every Breath You Take (17)
9=. Lets Dance (16)
9=. Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (16)
9=. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (16)

Much wider spread of voting last time btw.

Comments

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

where is MADGE?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Good question!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This selection feels much more 'American' than some previous ones, though most of these were big international hits too. I've noticed US posters on ILM talk about 1984 as some amazing best-year-ever for pop, too.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Apart from the obvious two - 'When Doves Cry' and 'Time After Time' - this seems kind of underwhelming for me.

Have never heard any Springsteen!

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

You are bang OTM about 'feels very American'. And you really should have included that Art of Noise EP: it outclasses everything here.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

also, where is Frankie? or black lace

[koganbot]

I was going to say "...and very white, too," though looking at the board there are actually 11 songs w/ black performers. But the taste in blacks seems very white, if you know what I mean. Shit list for club music and hip-hop (Run-DMC klutzy on this one, the two Bambaataa mediocre, even w/ famous guests (Lydon's on "World Destruction"), McLaren & Williams fine, but you wouldn't know from this list that dance music is being reconfigured amazingly on all fronts). But honestly, it is a good list, a year when MOR pop-rock was generally pretty engaging.

[epicharmus.livejournal.com]

As you well know, I am one of those posters.

Later P&Js get markedly less Euro. Some pop-house charts (Dee-Lite wins one year) but very little techno does. This designates some kind of shift, but I don't know exactly what.

More bullet point opinions

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

- I couldn't manage nine ticks although I know the majority of these songs.

- Because none of them really are in the same league as Chaka Khan, one of my favourite songs ever.

- The "What's Love Got To Do With It" vid is hilarious.

- Broooooce! He changed the world by shutting down the steelworks etc

Re: More bullet point opinions

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I only voted for Bruce because I adore Natalie Cole's cover of Pink Cadillac. I've never knowingly heard his version but in my head it sounds horrible.

Re: More bullet point opinions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Chaka Khan was my last tick to be removed to get down to 9 (which includes your pick for worst, ha!)

A Prince fan speaks

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Yay! Four prince-penned songs in one poll (or 6 if you include the b-sides - how come they get a listing even though the singles weren't double-A sides?). All marvellous, including the B-sides. I'm kind of surprised to see Sheila E in there. Was she a lot more popular in the states than over here?

Re: A Prince fan speaks

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, on the P&J poll you vote for 'tracks', and then votes for the separate tracks on one single are amalgamated, so the overall votes for WDC also include individual votes for 17 Days. Presumably nobody voted for the B-Sides of the ones which don't have them listed.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I'm genuinely surprised that no one else has ticked Eight Miles High so far.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I've never heard it! I hate Husker Du, but on the other hand I doubt it sounds like the Husker Du I hate (their later stuff)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

That's cos it's RUBBIDGE!

HUSKER DON'T MORE LIKE!!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

sorry. entirely unnecessary. bit carried away.

AKA what exactly?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Did "Free Nelson Mandela" actually manage to free Nelson Mandela?

Re: AKA what exactly?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

AKA "the ones that were left after most of them ran off to be fun boy three" i think.

i think cause and effect is rather difficult to prove in this case, although it gave the people marching/protesting etc something else to sing other than "we shall overcome", so in that way it wins.

Cho Cho San

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I am kind of delighted to see Madam Butterfly here as it's very funny. But also...WTF??

Re: Cho Cho San

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

US critics trying to make amends for all but ignoring Duck Rock the previous year? (= The Actor Getting the Oscar for the Wrong Movie rule)

Meanwhile In England

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The NME's critics Top 50 (crossovers in bold)

Love Wars - Womack And Womack
I Wanna Be Loved - Elvis Costello
Free Nelson Mandella - Special Aka
Don't Look Any Further - Dennis Edwards
Slippery People - Staple Singers
Yah Mo Be There - James Ingram
What Difference Does It Make - The Smiths
Dancing In The Dark - Bruce Springsteen
When Doves Cry - Prince
Jump - Van Halen
I Feel For You - Chaka Khan
No Sell Out/Malcolm X - Malcolm X
Hey Dj - World's Famous Supreme Team
War Is In The Dance - Frankie Paul
And I Don't Love You - Smoky Robinson
Love Has Finally Come At Last - Bobby Womack/Patti Labelle
Bachelor Kisses - The Go Betweens
Keep On Keeping On - The Redskins
Somebody Else's Guy - Jocelyn Brown
We Need Money - Chuck Brown
You're The Best Thing - Style Council
Venceremos (We Will Win) - Working Week
Taxi - J Blackfoot
Madam Butterfly - Malcolm Mclaren
Track Three - Scott Walker
What Presence? - Orange Juice
Tinsel Town In The Rain - The Blue Nile
Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cindy Lauper
Calamity Crush - Foetus Art Terrorism
Small-Town Boy - Bronski Beat
What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend - The Special Aka
In The Ghetto - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dark Streets Of London - The Pogues
Sensoria - Cabaret Voltaire
Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
Don't Go Lose It Baby - Hugh Masekela
Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Peace In Our Time - The Imposter
It's A Man's Man's Man's World - The Residents
Pride (In The Name Of Love) - U2
Ain't Nobody - Rufus & Chuka Khan
I Bloodbrother Be - Shock Headed Peters
Do The Square Thing - The Three Johns
The Big Music - The Waterboys
The Killing Moon - Echo And The Bunnymen
Michael Caine - Madness
Abele Dance - Manu Dibango
Honey At The Core - Friends Again
Each And Every One - Everything But The Girl
Out Of The Flesh - Chakk

Re: Meanwhile In England

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

SMITHSBAND

A good year for the remix

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

It was in 1984 that I started compiling personal End Of Year lists - top 75 tracks, top 25 LPs usually. Clearly, Xmas 1984 must have been v. quiet chez Worrell. I even went back and retroactively compiled charts for 1980-83, but I'm pretty sure what follows is the first list of favourite tracks that I compiled contemporaneously. I've reproduced just the Top 15, but that sums up the pop I was listening to very neatly.

An interesting quirk about the 1984 list is the number of "tracks" that had great remixes. Only they didn't call them remixes back then but rather "versions". In the case of ZTT releases, it was often difficult to choose one version over another. So I lumped them all together as one track for list-making purposes. The "/" symbol used frequently below implies the version was on the flip side of the vinyl record, and that is true in some cases, but in others the version was on a completely different release. For example, "Beat Box (Diversion 1) and "Beat Box (Diversion 2)" were the A and B Side of a separate 12" to the Into Battle... EP, while "Beat Box (Diversions 3 and 4)" were released only on an NME cassette. And you could fill both sides of a C-60 with all the versions of "Two Tribes" that were knocking around. I even made my own mix/edit of the track, using TV interviews with Frankie and Paul Morley and other 'found' media material.

My top 15:
1. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes / versions
2. Art of Noise – Beat Box / Beat Box (Diversions 1-4)
3. 23 Skidoo – Language A / Language B
4. Cocteau Twins – Aloysius
5. Cocteau Twins – Ivo
6. The Smiths – Suffer Little Children
7. Bronski Beat – Why? / Why? (12” extended version)
8. Rush – Red Lenses
9. Wham! – Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
10. New Order – Thieves Like Us
11. The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
12. Scritti Politti – Hypnotise / version
13. Smiley Culture – Police Officer
14. Tears For Fears – Mothers Talk*
15. 23 Skidoo – Coup / Version: In the Palace

*ex-post substitution for ‘Reel Around The Fountain’ by The Smiths (I later decided much preferred the ’83 Peel session version of this, which became #2 in my 1983 chart).

Re: A good year for the remix

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Was it not all the different versions of Two Tribes (and other ZTT releases) that lead to the chart introducing rules about the number of formats and remixes?

Creatures of the Night

[koganbot]

Billboard Top 26 Pop Singles of 1984 - * Song went #1

*1.. WHEN DOVES CRY, Prince and the Revolution (Warner Brothers) (#1, July)
*2.. WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, Tina Turner (Capitol) (#1, Sept)
*3.. SAY, SAY, SAY, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson (#1, Dec 1983)
*4.. FOOTLOOSE, Kenny Loggins (Columbia) (#1, March)
*5.. AGAINST ALL ODDS (Take a Look at Me Now), Phil Collins (Atlantic) (#1, April)
*6.. JUMP, Van Halen (Warner Brothers) (#1, Feb)
*7.. HELLO, Lionel Richie (#1, May)
*8.. OWNER OF A LONELY HEART, Yes (Atco) (#1, Jan)
*9.. GHOSTBUSTERS, Ray Parker Jr. (Arista) (#1, Aug)
*10.. KARMA CHAMELEON, Culture Club (Virgin) (#1, Feb)
*11.. MISSING YOU, John Waite (EMI-America) (#1, Sept)
*12.. ALL NIGHT LONG (All Night), Lionel Richie (Motown) (#1, Nov 1983)
*13.. LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY, Denise Williams (Columbia) (#1, May)
14.. DANCING IN THE DARK, Bruce Springsteen (Columbia) (#2, June)
15.. GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN,.. Cyndi Lauper (Portrait) (#2, March)
*16.. THE REFLEX, Duran Duran (Capitol) (#1, June)
*17.. TIME AFTER TIME, Cyndi Lauper (Portrait) (#1, June)
18.. JUMP (For My Love), The Pointer Sisters (Planet) (#3, July)
19.. TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP, The Romantics (Nemporer) (#3, Jan)
20.. SELF CONTROL, Laura Branigan (Atlantic) (#4, June)
*21.. LET'S GO CRAZY, Prince and the Revolution (Warner Brothers) (#1, Sept)
22.. SAY IT ISN'T SO, Daryl Hall and John Oates (RCA) (#2, Dec 1983)
23.. HOLD ME NOW, The Thompson Twins (Arista) (#3, May)
24.. JOANNA, Kool and the Gang (De-Lite) (#2, Feb)
*25.. I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU, Stevie Wonder (Tamla) (#1, Oct)
26.. SOMEBODY'S WATCHING ME, Rockwell.. (Motown) (#2, March)

("All Night Long" and "Karma Chameleon" made the '83 P&J)

I'd forgotten "Self-Control" was 1984. Great song.

Tear Ducks

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

How does When Doves Cry go?

Re: Tear Ducks

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I can hum the bass line!

Learned to rock like a Dolomite

[koganbot]

Did "Jam On It" not hit in the U.K.?

Re: Learned to rock like a Dolomite

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Nope. But, it sounds good!

Jam on Revenge (the Wikki Wikki song) reached no.44 in 1983.