Lists such as Pitchfork's 200 Greatest Songs of the 1980s are inherently problematic but the following seem to me to be 15 very egregious omissions:
The Winner Takes It All (Abba)
Don't Dream It's Over (Crowded House - or Better Be Home Soon or Into Temptation)
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon - or any of the other big Graceland hits really)
Tinsel Town In The Rain (The Blue Nile - or Walk Across The Rooftops or Stay)
Song From Under the Floorboards (Magazine - hipster city, seriously, how did Pitchfork miss this one?)
Two Tribes (Frankie Goes To Hollywood - or Relax)
Just Be Good To Me (SOS Band)
Come On Eileen (Dexys)
Ashes to Ashes (Bowie)
Luka (Suzanne Vega)
Going Underground (The Jam - or That's Entertainment)
Greetings for the New Brunette (Billy Bragg - or Levi Stubbs' Tears or God Save The Youth)
Cattle & Cane (The Go-Betweens - or Bye Bye Pride or Rock and Roll Friend)
Some epic power ballad cheesefest like Keep on Loving You, Living on A Prayer, Alone, Don't Stop Believing, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Photograph, Here I Go Again (some people would say all should be on any top 200 list but sure as hell at least one of them should be!)
Some more synthpop: Love Action, Fade To Grey, Vienna, To Cut A Long Story Short, I Travel, Only You, Enola Gay, Freedom of Choice, Tainted Love, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Love Plus One, Mabuse, All of My Heart, Time (Clock of the Heart), Victims, XOYO, Love My Way, Ghosts, Visions of China, Planet Earth, Fascist Groove Thang, Get The Balance Right, October Love Song, Perfect Way, The Flat Earth, Take On Me are obvious standouts; surely one or more of them should have made it?
Tears for Fears' original was, of course, one of the best #1s of the 1980s.
Its 10 minute, extended version is worth listening to at least once just to hear all the synth layers separately.
The Bad Plus's jazz trio arrangement is lovely (I'm not sure why these guys get sneered at).
Clare & The Reasons' chamber pop/torch reworking (live on The Culture Show) is pure seduction.
Lorde's grim reimagining (which sounds like it's a good fit for The Hunger Games Part 2) initially struck me as too mannered, but has grown on me these past few days.
Glee, as is its wont, used the song as an anthem of perseverance and (gay) self-affirmation. Anything I've missed?
Gap-filling on Sight and Sound's new Hot 100, I'm checking out Godard's Histoire(s) (1988-1998), which some have praised, see, e.g., here and here (for a vital aid). In his New Biographical Dictionary of Film Thomson lauds as follows:
Of course, it was natural that Godard would provide his own retrospective—and sweep up the entire medium. Histoire(s) du Cinéma is a great catalogue work, worthy of Robert Musil or Walter Benjamin—or Chris Marker. But in its astonishing beauties, and the suggestiveness of its editing, one may still see and feel the Godard of the early sixties. Thus, the Histoire(s) reasserted, beyond doubt, that his is one of the great critical yet poetic minds in the medium.
Unfortunately, so far (just one headache-causing hour in) I feel like Thomson's more caustic remarks about Godard's 1950s criticism apply equally well to Histoire(s):
"[T]ruly useful insights were offered in writing that was appalling, trite, chaotic, and gratuitously unreadable. It came armed with frightful name-dropping from literature and painting. Hardly a film could be classified without reference to Faulkner, Proust, Auguste Renoir, or Velázquez. In part, this was his need for classification, the unappeasable urge to cross-refer rather than to describe a thing itself. And these references are meaningless....Godard’s criticism is so aggressive that one feels only its insecurity... It means that his articles are addressed to himself, rather than to readers. The tone is austere and forbidding, as if to exclude others from cinema in the very act of celebrating it."
Godard actually says relatively little in his own voice, and there it's mostly sententious nostrums to which one mostly wants to shrug or perhaps laugh (much as you would to a standard, empty political speech). But occasionally he makes a factual claim, some of which are plainly wrong, e.g., at 19 mins into the first part of the doc., Godard claims that Howard Hughes was a producer (producteur) of Citizen Kane, which is false. (Compare: a fluffy, largely content-free political speech that nonetheless makes a few it's easily-checked claims about unemployment rates or Benghazi or whatever.... that turn out to be flatly false.) The impact is devastating... it becomes very hard to stick-with Godard, to take him seriously. Overt contradictions such as between 'Cinema is not part of the communications industry or entertainment. It is part of cosmetics, the industry of masks.' (2nd part, 7 mins in) and 'It [cinema] boils down to entertainment. It can't be explained otherwise.' (2 minutes later) don't help either.
Since Godard doesn't care enough to get basic stuff right it's hard to have faith in or even ascribe determinate content to his more oracular, necessarily uncheckable remarks. Whether Histoires(s) can be satisfactory conceived as its own self-contained mega-video-art-piece/work of political science fiction remains to be seen, but on current evidence (update: 2 hours in) it can't be. Rather it appears to just be a mess, stuck in some messy zone between The Power of Nightmares, Sans Soleil, Cremaster Cycle, and Inland Empire, and decidedly inferior to all of those boundary points.
So who got Godard's Histoire(s) onto the Sight and Sound list (and ahead of, I dunno, Rear Window, M, NbNW, Touch of Evil, Night of the Hunter, and Sunset Boulevard)? Jonathan Rosenbaum, Richard Corliss, and who else?
Update: Finished it! Good God, well that's 4+ hours I'm never etc.. One of the (in my view, relatively few) highlights is his tribute to Hitchcock in the penultimate Chapter 4a (Le Contrôle de l’univers (1998) - The Control of the Universe). Godard's characteristically hyperbolic remarks (whch work much better accompanied by counterpointing, often slow-mo Hitchcock clips) are as follows:
We forget why Joan Fontaine leans over the cliff.
Why was Joel McCrea in Holland?
What confession did Montgomery Clift keep secret?
Why did Janet Leigh stop at the Motel?
Why does Theresa Wright still love Uncle Charlie?
What isn't Henry Fonda entirely guilty of?
Why did the American government hire Ingrid Bergman?
But we remember a handbag.
But we remember a bus in the desert.
But we remember a glass of milk, a windmill, a hairbrush.
But we remember a row of bottles, a pair of glasses, a musical score, a key chain.
Because with them and through them Alfred Hitchcock succeeded
where Alexander, Caesar, Hitler and Napoleon failed:
In taking control of the universe.
Maybe 10,000 people haven't forgot Cèzanne's apple
but a billion remember the lighter in Strangers on a Train.
Hitchcock, the only accursed poet to meet with success.
Our century's greatest creator of forms.
Forms tell us what is at the bottom of things.
What is art, if not the way forms become style?
What is style... What is style, if not man?
So it is a bra-less blonde tailed by a detective scared of heights
who proves that it's all cinema, that is, child's play.
Sonic Youth makes explicit the subterranean connections between Hitchcock's Shadow of A Doubt and Strangers on a Train. Both films feature trains, and have both have hauntingly disturbed and insinuating villains (Bruno, Uncle Charlie) who are also disturbing duals of their respective sympathetic leads (Guy, Young Charlie).
While much of the lyrical content of SY's song draws directly on SOAT (albeit straightened), Kim Gordon's breathy voice places the song's perspective behind the fearful eyes and tortured imaginings of SOAD's Young Charlie. It's as if Young Charlie has grown up to become Guy, but without leaving childhood behind. And what is childhood but a dream from a thousand years ago? asks Gordon. A flat-out spooky masterpiece.
_______________
Lyrics: Met a stranger on a train He bumped right into me I swear I didn't mean it I swear it wasn't meant to be Must a been a dream From a thousand years ago I swear I didn't mean it I swear it wasn't meant to be From the bottom of my heart He was looking all over me Together everafter He said
"You take me and I'll be you" "You kill him and I'll kill her" Kiss me
I swear it wasn't meant to be
I swear I didn't mean it
Kiss me
Kiss me in the shadow of
Kiss me in the shadow of a doubt
Kiss me
Kiss me in the shadow
Kiss me in the shadow of a doubt
It's just a dream
It's just a dream i had
Nononoooooh
Swear it's just a dream
Just a dream
Dream i've had
No
No
No
No
Take me to it
Take me to her
Maybe
Maybe it's just a dream
It's a dream
It's just a
Just a No
Met a stranger on a train Bumped right into me Swear i didn't mean it Swear it wasn't meant to be Must've been a dream From a thousand years ago Kiss me Kiss me in the shadow of a doubt Kiss me
Laurence Olivier, A Life (1983) was the extraordinary opening gambit of the BBC's South Bank Show presented by Melvyn Bragg. Stephen Oliver's music was a big part of that film's success, and never more so than when the main theme returns at the end of the first episode, when (in the show's chronological tracking through Olivier's career) Olivier is on top of the world (before, e.g., Vivien Leigh's desperate mental and physical ill health take their toll). You can watch the whole of the great documentary on youtube starting here.
Oliver died in 1992 of AIDS-related complications at the age of only 47. Read Simon Callow's lovely tribute to his brilliant friend here. Film scores have become increasing anonymous and unmemorable over the last 20 years. I dare say that if Oliver had lived he would probably have had something to say about that.
Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin released an excellent single in 1984: a heavily reworked Four Tops cover, I'm In A Different World (b/w Henry and James). Neither side of the single was a hit, but other musicians paid attention, and everyone from the Pet Shop Boys at the time to Mark Ronson recently has strip-mined these tracks. Stewart & Gaskin's IIADW strikes me as perfect Manic Pixie Dream Girl Movie s/track material. My visuals go back to the original, slightly frightening, manic pixie, Kate Hepburn's Susan Vance in Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938), but I'm vaguely hopeful that my vid. might help get the song discovered by someone making a contemporary film. We'll see.
BTW, the cutie at the beginning of the clip (with the good comic timing and Grace Kelly voice) playing Cary Grant's fiancee is Virginia Walker. Under personal contract to Hawks, BUB was Walker's debut and big break. But in a screwball-worthy twist, soon after BUB wrapped, Walker eloped to Mexico with Hawks's brother, thereby leaving the business. Walker did return in a few (mostly uncredited) very minor parts in 1945-1946, but died soon after that, at age 30, following (according to Louella Parsons) 'a long illness'. Too bad/sad.
The Expresso's Want (a.k.a. What She Wants), not previously available on youtube, is my favorite album track from the splendid Pillows and Ties (1981). It broadly apes the great Doc Pomus song (Marie's the Name Of) His Latest Flame which was a hit for Elvis in 1961. The Smiths' Rusholme Ruffians strip-mined the same tune 3 years later to excellent effect on Meat is Murder, but the Expressos got there first!
My visuals are from the Drum Boogie sequence in Hawks's Ball of Fire (1941). Although I regard BOF as second-tier Hawks and second-tier screwball more generally, Barbara Stanwyck is incandescent in it, and the Drum Boogie number lights that fuse. The unadulterated Drum Boogie number is widely available on youtube, e.g., here, so I hope that purists won't object to me adapting it to give the unjustly overlooked Expressos a boost. And if you like new wave girl pop, you owe it to yourself to see some screwballs of the '30s and '40s. There's a still under-explored connection between the feisty movie gal generation of Stanwyck, Colbert, Lombard, Arthur, etc. and the music generation of Pattie Smith, Siouxsie, Pauline Murray, Chrissie Hynde, and Debbie Harry (to which The Expressos' Roz Rayner certainly belongs).
Want's lyrics near as I can make out (corrections/improvements welcome) are as follows:
Want Want Want [That's what] Is there someone to meet here [What you want] Every thing I see here [Want] Somebody tell me What you gonna do for a guy that's true? [Want] A pretty conversation [What you want] Electric lubrication [Want] A whole lotta love from you
Is there someone here I can call on tonight? Take me by the hand, I'll lead you to unite Our feelings grow so tired I want to get out And when I get the chance I can show you what I want
[You know you want] A little bit of loving [What you want] A little bit of something [Want] A whole lotta love from you
Got my tickets in the hand and I'm walking out the door If you stop me now, I'll never walk away no more If these sophisticated people for a while And when I get the chance I can show you what I want
[You knows you want] Uh oh, come on [What you want] Gimme gimme gimme gimme [Want] Gimme gimme gimme gimme Owwww
(Solo)
If these sophisticated people for a while And when I get the chance I can show you what I want
[You knows you want] Oh [What you want] Oh, come on [want] Gimme gimme gimme gimme [Want] Give it to me [Want] Gimme gimme gimme gimme [Want] Gimme gimme gimme gimme [Want] Ohhh [What you want] Gimme gimme gimme gimme [What you want]
Jane Siberry's brilliant, gorgeous, but relatively obscure, geek-girl anthem, Symmetry (The Way Things Have to Be) from her 1984 album No Borders Here hasn't been represented anywhere on youtube. My video plugs that gap. Our visuals are from the title number of Dames (1934), created and arranged by Busby Berkeley. Dames is a 'must see' film in my view (see this blog post for terrific promotional images from the film including the ultra-classy ad. image at right), but it has recently drawn attention mainly because Michel Gondry and Matthew Barney have spent the last 15 years strip-mining it! Edgar Wright, however, has repeatedly advocated for Dames itself by screening it at various festivals. At any rate, I think the combination of Siberry and Busby Berkeley works well - two genius level items together for the first time, what could go wrong! - and hope that the relatively distinct audiences for these materials might productively cross-pollinate.
While many people nowadays associate symmetry in film with Wes Anderson or Kubrick, Busby Berkeley got there first and deepest, especially in the numbers for a remarkable string of somewhat risque, pre-Code, pictures he directed for Warner Bros in the early 1930s. Note that Dames probably isn't the best starting point if you're new to Busby B., for that I recommend the very topical (Depression-themed) Gold-diggers of 1933, e.g., here, here and here.
Berkeley influenced Escher and the wider development of Topology, and since he occasionally had his chorines dance and rearrange themselves on what look for all the world like giant folded proteins and viruses, Berkeley's influence on the sciences probably hasn't fully played out even now.
Mind-bogglingly, given that it's now a favorite, I only heard Siberry's track for the first time just over a week ago thanks to the wonderful Now you're at Songblague! blog. (Forget politics, a week is a long time in music appreciation!) Since one of my discoveries of last year was (the original mix of) Moev's Cracked Mirror - which I only heard about from a College remix 'tape' after liking their contribution to Drive (2011)'s soundtrack - I'm beginning to think I've got a thing for '80s C(anadian)-pop, as the kids might say.
Finally, a couple of other (recently-new-to-me) Siberry exceptionally-goodies from the '80s. From The Speckless Sky (1985), Taxi Ride:
and from The Walking (1987), the official video (with somewhat unfortunate poor audio quality) for The Walking (And Constantly):
Just heard this for the first time on a College mix-tape... Wow. Very much in a Chris and Cosey vein, I almost can't believe I've never heard of this early '80s band before (apparently they're from BC, Canada - I suppose that that was a little out of the way at the time).
The only track from Holly and the Italians that I remember from my youth is 1980's Miles Away:
Looking back, this should have been some sort of hit: it's a perfect power-pop song, and Holly Beth Vincent's voice has star-quality (w/ Florence Welch esp. in Dog Days perhaps being the closest comparison case), and she's flat out cool in the (gold-standard) Chrissie Hynde/PJ Harvey-ish/Karen O-ish way in the vid.. Mark Sidgwick and Steve Dalton (a.k.a. Steve Young) monster the bass and drums respectively on this one like they're McKagan and Adler respectively. (Were the latter guys listening?)
Other tracks seem specifically influential on others:
Youth Coup sounds like both Liz Phair's Exile (esp. 6'1") and PJ Harvey's Stories (esp. Good Fortune) to me.
Rock against Romance sounds a lot like G'n'R's Sweet Child o' Mine (only without Slash's great signature riff and Axel's special yowl over the top).
HATI evidently cut it live too: here are stonking versions of Youth Coup and Rock against Romance on OGWT (live in the tv studio w/o an audience). Holly's skinny sleek and is on her guitar (just rocking basically), injured leg notwithstanding:
Or consider Poster Boy:
I think it substantially anticipates both G'n'R's Rocket Queen and Green Day's When I Come Around.
And consider Means to a Den:
Surely that anticipates much of C86 pop (and Juliana Hatfield and...).
HATI also did quite a nice line in more traditional girl-pop, including esp. a cover of the Chiffons' Just for Tonight (for which the great Ellie Greenwich did some backing vox) as well as the single that got them a record deal in the first place, Tell That Girl to Shut Up.
In sum, HATI was a very good band with a magnetic singer and front-woman that never quite got its due, except indirectly/sincerely, by being diffusely influential and possibly being extensively strip-mined by others.
In 2011 women, and particularly solo women dominate both the pop charts (Gaga, Perry, Rhianna, Beyonce, Adele, Winehouse, Pink, Kesha, etc.) and the, as it were, indie charts (Florence, Janelle Monae, Robyn, Lykke Li, Calvi, PJ, Newsom, Bat for Lashes, Feist, Glasser, Class Actress, etc.). Not to mention acts like Dirty Projectors and Sleigh Bells that have strong female components.
I suspect that, for better or worse, this level of female dominance is a recent phenomenon. That said, I think one can make a case for 1980 as a banner year for women in rock/pop, one that's at least the equal of current times in terms of quantity of female excellence if not in terms of, say, overall quantity or overall market share. So let's make that case by listing important female-centered acts, singles and albums from 1980 in the order, near as I can judge, of their importance and excellence. Note that I've included items that charted very extensively in 1980 even if they were first released in 1979, and I've honored the best by selecting two vids. just for each of the 'top seven' items on my list.
1. The Pretenders (First self-titled album, Brass In Pocket, Stop Your Sobbing, Tattooed Love Boys, Up The Neck)
Chrissie Hynde arrives and explodes. This flawless album, with monster song after monster song, one of the greatest debuts was deservedly everywhere the whole year. Tragic deaths would scar the band soon after this, and the first album's incredibly tight guitars and rhythm section wouldn't repeat. Hynde would be good again after this but never quite this good.
2. Marianne Faithfull (Broken English, Ballad of Lucy Jordan, Broken English, Working Class Hero)
A '60s 'it'-girl returns a woman and makes an angry masterpiece and testament album. With brilliant synth-work from Steve Winwood (who'd obviously paid close attention to Eno's work for Nico in the mid. '70s).
3. Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees (Kaleidoscope, Happy House, Christine, Red Light)
Siouxsie the prototype, highly haughty, super-creative, indie 'it'-girl with the great haircuts arrives. With John McGeoch in her band she was now unstoppable, as 1981's Juju would further establish.
4. B-52s (First self-titled album, Rock Lobster, Planet Claire, 52 Girls)
Huge down under for the whole year, the B-52s debut contained three of the best party dance-tracks of all time.
5. Blondie (Eat to the Beat, Atomic, Dreaming, The Hardest Part, Call Me)
Blondie's strengths - clever concepts, Debbie Harry's voice and image, Clem Burke's ace drumming (fusing disco beats with rock power) - were perfectly displayed across this series of singles.
6. Abba (Super Trouper, Super Trouper, The Winner Takes It All, One of Us, On and On and On, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A man after midnight), Happy New Year)
Abba were fraying at the seams personally by 1980, were just past their hit-making prime, and were in any case subject to incredible back-lash. But even firing on only 80% of their cylinders, Abba's output was still better than most acts ever achieve.
7. The Motels (First self-titled album, Careful, Total Control, Danger)
Martha Davis introduced a note of LA Noir to pop across two albums in 1980, both of which were all over the radio down under. She and the Motels would break through in the US only with their third album, but their earlier records, and Davis's original sultry, smokey schtick were more deserving.
8. Kate Bush (Never for Ever, Babooshka, Army Dreamers)
Kate Bush continued to show that she was smarter and weirder than anyone else in music since Bowie. Even if you didn't like her latest exactly, she was someone to be reckoned with.
9. Diana Ross (Diana, Upside Down, I'm Coming Out)
Diana Ross had the two classiest dance tracks of the year courtesy largely of Chic, with whom Ross fought. Ross brought in her own engineer to remix, change tempos etc.. I'd always assumed that Chic's original mixes would be better, but having heard them recently, I must say that I prefer Ross's speeded up, slightly poppier mixes. Ross appears to have been very shrewd.
10. Young Marble Giants (Colossal Youth)
The retiring, intellectual, cool person's record of 1980. Alison Statton's vocals are tightly rationed throughout the record, but are an indie blueprint whenever they appear.
11. Olivia Newton-John (Magic, Xanadu, Suddenly)
One of the worst movies ever made had three good, cheesy, pop hits for Ms Newton-John.
12. Pat Benatar (Heartbreaker, We live for love, Hit me with your best shot)
Benatar arrived in 1980 with a series of great singles, spread over two so-so albums. Her albums would improve after this but her singles were never this good again. The gods are cruel!
13. Grace Jones (Warm Leatherette)
Grace wouldn't really arrive until 1981's Pull up to the Bumper single, but the Warm Leatherette album and its title track (a The Normal cover) announced the arrival of someone to watch.
14. Pointer Sisters (He's So Shy)
The Pointer Sisters continued their run of great singles by revisiting the ace groove from The Brothers Johnson's I'll be good to you and Prince's I wanna be your lover. (Note that the rudimentary video's shot in LA's famous Bradbury building.)
15. Holly Vincent (Miles Away)
Holly and The Italians (w/ Holly Vincent's stonking voice, guitar, and general coolness) released a pretty great album in 1981 (which they never really followed up), but this 1980 single was an especial stunner.
16. Lori and the Chameleons (The Lonely Spy)
This pretty stunning single could have been featured on Pitchfork last week! It anticipates and may have influenced recent, well-received work by Charlotte Gainsbourg, Glasser, Lykke Li, Grimes,...
17. Lipps Inc. (Funkytown)
An alternately irritating/awesome hit song.
18. Toyah Wilcox (Ieya)
Some sort of masterpiece that Toyah was never able to follow up.
19. Flying Lizards (Money)
Just a fun as hell cover and video.
In sum, there were a heck of a lot of women in both mainstream and, as it were, indie charts in 1980. The best stuff was all-time-great, and much of the rest was either solidly entertaining or interesting in a where-will-this-person-go-next? way or both.
I'm late to the party on this 2008 track and its album... but I like it a lot. Neu!, Simple Minds, Kate Bush, Tears for Fears, Talk Talk, Modern Eon, MBV, maybe a little Massive Attack are the obvious, general, background influences on the album, aside from the direct model of Air (M83 are French). And the 'Thou shalt not fall' chant from The Lost Boys s/track may have helped shape this track in particular. (I've sometimes heard 'of the night' and 'the night' designated/mocked as none-more-'80s phrases: think Benatar, Winwood etc.. I'm open to that idea, but want to see some data!) p.s. Excellent live at (fab!) KCRW version here:
And the B-side, Bamboo Houses (which was arguably even better):
Extraordinarily talented and serious and beautiful, Sylvian was too good for pop music (it felt at the time like pop music for aliens, for a higher form of life than humans were currently capable of). Amazing.
A personal favorite (and a demo version may be even better - wow!):
These guys were pretty good... Not so great that anyone who didn't grow up with them should necessarily track them down, but definitely worth dipping an ear into for a few tracks if you feel like exploring a little below the level of the very best stuff (e.g., Cure, Echo, Bauhaus, New Order, Siouxsie) from the post-punk/almost-new pop era.
