The History of Pop Part 5 aka What is wrong in my life that I must get drunk every night?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

So, yeah, you know when I said in the last Now Poll that Now 5 was tons better than Now 4? Erm, well...that was before I typed it out. And also I remember this particular 'era' (first half of 85) with especial sharpness so my judgements may well be softer than yours. There are a few big hitters though - by now of course we're into the period where the success of Now had spawned rivals, and the brand's compilation predominance wasn't assured, so there was a hard fight for the good tracks. Things get gradually better from about Now 7 onwards (I think). As ever, "go for it" in the comments box.

Note a particularly annoying Now syndrome where the follow-up hit shows up on a comp and the better, bigger hit doesn't. PETE BURNS wuz ROBBED in other words.

Note the first thought given to actual sequencing w/the 'soul section' on disc 2!

RESULTS of Now 4 - a comfortable, perhaps too comfortable, win for "Together In Electric Dreams" over "Ghostbusters" and the Pointer Sisters. Nool Pwah to Eugene Wilde, though Limahl seems to have fared the worst in the write-in votes.


[Poll #622466]

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Sadly we can't discern exactly which of the 14 different versions of Kayleign this is.

[friedslice.livejournal.com]

10 year-old me didn't find pop music terribly interesting in the mid-80s but I can't pick out any particular year as being particularly awful.

Dredged-up memory: my mum listening to the radio, singing "Everytime you go away/you take a piece of meat with you..."

[zenith.livejournal.com]

I see that barrysarll holds that DANCE! INTO THE FI-YUH! is the key line, rather than the subsequent danceintothe:FI-YUH! - controversial.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Some thoughts:

- Is "Black Man Ray" defensible? (NB I am the only person who has given it a tick so far so I should be answering this not asking it)

- "The Unforgettable Fire" is U2's best song, isn't it? I almost put it as the best thing on the comp.

- I came quite close to giving J Nail a mark, even though it's very horrible, I think the mark - which I did not give! - was because it built my character.

- What's the current 'line' on 80s soul, I wonder? With some honourable exceptions, i.e. The Nipper, it seems to get very little attention let alone love.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

I think 'The Unforgettable Fire' is the U2 song most likely to appeal to people who dislike many of the things strongly associated with U2 (stadium-sized belters, hopeless attempts to keep up with the kids, so-thinly-veiled-you-wonder-who-Bonio-thinks-he's-kidding allusions to Jebus, etc).

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

nail v.nearly broke my contrariometer!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

But it's totally a stadium-sized belter! And it's probably about Jebus!

(Or Aslan)

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Whereas if I'm honest I like many of those things, and so my favourite song is probably something like 'Mysterious Ways'. It could be about God, or a lady, do you-

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Is it a belter? I am imagining it in my head right now and it is floaty and proggy. I suppose it builds to a Bonoan crescendo worthy of stadiums.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

- China Crisis played in our local pub-based music festival when I was a medium sized RickyT. This was generally regarded as a good thing, tho I can't remember anything about them at all.

- Yes, by MILES. Album of that name also their best, and only one I actually enjoyed when I went through my old tapes. If only it didn't have blooming Pride on it.

- Crocodile Shoes wz better.

- There isn't one, as far as I can tell. Ripe for revival/reconsideration, maybe?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Maybe my belter-detecter is too sensitive. Maybe it teases too much to be a belter, or rather it backs off within the song from its own beltingness (that marvellously un-Bono "I'm only asking")

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I think it is abt SECHS.

(But not with Aslan. He's not a tame lion, you know!)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

China Crisis were a kind of cerebral white funk outfit, a (mostly unsuccessful) mix of Level 42 and Japan. "Wishful Thinking" is a lovely ballad, "Working With Fire And Steel" is v.80s, "Black Man Ray" is about Ray Charles!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

In fact it occurs to me that you could make a good case for this single comp containing the finest moments of Bono, Weller, AND Mick Hucknall.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Jimmy Nail's best song:

P

If the mountains should crumble...

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It does belt a bit BUT this is OK because it has 1) ace piano riff 2) an actual BASSLINE 3) one of best uses of string section in mid eighties pop 4) atmospheric whooshy bits to glue it all together. Thus Bono's belting has gd backup and is therefore not empty hollering. Tho it does help that he is a bit more restrained than on most of the BIG! EPIC! ANTHEMS!

KEY CHINA CRISIS FACT

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Their first album has the 80s-riffic (& possibly awful) title

Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms (Some People Think It's Fun To Entertain)

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Hucknall, Bono = aye.
Weller = everything he ever did is equal in its awfulness.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

YA katstevens AICM£5

I JUDGE THAT...

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

from an uk perspective 80s soul got real bad (critical) deal trapped behind the firewall of MM-sanctioned anti-"soulcalist" hostility to warmed-over 70s (and indeed 60s) soul: the likes of s.arrington, frankie beverly's MAZE, kashif (i think gone quiet by 85?), even late doors EWF were totally off-radar, despite substantial presence in the actual real charts (and pro forma respect at best from the soulcialist faction)

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I know nearly every song from the earlier NOW polls even though I was only born in 1981. I am not familiar with many, many of these. This would support the assertion that 1985 was shit, or maybe that radio stations in my neck of the woods in my youth had an axe to grind and scratched all the records as soon as January 1, 1986 came around.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

U&K Question: N-n-nineteen not out is a p1sstake of yon Paul Hardcastle record, yes? We'd clearly have to hear it before we can determine whether it's good or not. (I'm fooling no-one, but the prespect of hearing a carcrash like this has me drooling).

Re: I JUDGE THAT...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

dorsalstop claims to have all these on mp3 - can this possibly be true?? Time to find out!

[zenith.livejournal.com]

It was an "homage".

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

In fact, he's a terrible Dublin band, of "This is" fame(?).