This weeks’ Awesome Song is a first on Marc’s Blog... That’s right, after 200+ songs we have not yet seen … an instrumental ! The honor of the first vocal-free track was a real toss-up. I was going to go with “DNA" by Flock of Seagulls, which is fantastic but the Flock is already well-represented and well positioned. Another favorite is of course the B-52s' extended instrumental mix of “Party Out of Bounds” which was used as backing music by new wave radio stations everywhere. But I wanted a song that was not just a voiceless mix but an original instrumental … and being first, it also had to have some gravitas.
So we go back to 1984 when a band very briefly known as Ad Infinitum put out their one and only release called “Telstar”. That’s right, they were not a one-hit wonder … they were a one-song wonder! Released by New Order’s production firm Factory Records, and with Peter Hook on bass, Ad Infinitum made just a single song (the B-side being a piano version of the same). It was named after the Telstar 1 communications satellite launched in 1962 and popularized the same year by a group called The Tornadoes. The Tornadoes released it at the height of the ‘space race’ of the time and it rocketed to #1 on the charts. I especially like that the 1962 original includes some very nice synth-work (on a prehistoric doohickey known as a “keyboard”) while some of the remake’s actual synths almost sound like french horns. Ad Infinitum never did anything else but their 1984 version of ‘Telstar’ was a great one-and-done release. And it was also the first record ever released with a holographic cover… now that’s gravitas! Telstar 1 the satellite is non-functional but still orbits the earth today. And like new wave, the brand is timeless … Telstar 18V will launch later this year.
Experimental new wave band Landscape was formed in London in 1977 by Richard Burgess (vocals) and Christopher Heaton (keyboards). After the band was fleshed out by the addition of another three members (Andy Pask, Peter Thoms, and John Walters), and a record deal was negotiated, work began in earnest on their debut eponymous album. Released in 1979 to little fanfare, Landscape built an audience for their electronic sound by touring and using independent radio airplay to get noticed.
This work paid off when second album From The Tea Rooms Of Mars exploded, producing two UK top-40 hits in 1981. No one was more surprised than the band when "Einstein A Go-Go" hit #5 and "Norman Bates" reached #40. Seeking to strike while the iron was hot, Burgess got the band back in the studio and recorded their third LP Manhattan Boogie-Woogie right away. Released only one year later, in 1982, Landscape was primed for their big breakthrough with lead single "It's Not My Real Name", which featured pounding percussion and complex, multi-layered synth lines.
The single and album unexpectedly flopped, and Landscape soon broke up. They later reformed, but never recaptured the success of their early years.
"It's Not My Real Name" just missed making my Top 200. It's an awesome song that should have been a hit, but for some reason wasn't.
Be back next week with another song that didn't quite make it.
This week’s Awesome New Wave Song is not just one song… it’s an Awesome Trifecta !
There
are artists who are considered punk, or post-punk, or new wave, or
goth, or alternative, or dance, or trance … but how many can do them
all? And even rarer … do them all well? These week we celebrate a
band that was there at the birth of all of those genres… and influenced
many others.
Siouxsie Sioux started her career
as a Sex Pistols fan (and was part of their famous expletive-laden BBC
interview video in 1976). She was doing goth before it even had a name,
wearing dark eye makeup and bondage attire to London clubs. By 1977
she had her own band, Siouxsie & The Banshees (SATB) and started a
20 year run with them that constantly generated innovative singles,
albums and videos. Like any artist that constantly tries different
things, some of their music was not terrific... but when they nailed
something it was beyond fantastic. A song off their fifth album was so
good that shoegazer band Slowdive named themselves after it!
My
favorite SATB songs start at their seventh release Tinderbox in 1986.
That’s where “Cities in Dust” is found, a darkly vivid and atmospheric
song about Pompeii. Odd tribal rhythms, mysterious chiming and gruesome
imagery make the song unique especially for the time…. very few
releases have ever painted a dense and spooky ambience with sinister
sonic discord so well.
In 1987 they released
“Through the Looking Glass”, a covers album where they out-Iggied Iggy
Pop. While his original version of “The Passenger” is a sparse and
classic reading, SATB kicks it up several notches, even adding terrific
backing horns… it could have gone horribly wrong but instead works
perfectly and I prefer her version. And even better is the video …
while the original SATB video has much better sound (and has the audio
synced to the video) - the version below is my favorite as it was
filmed at Portmeirion, Wales … which is of course where the best TV
series of all time, “The Prisoner” was filmed in the late 1960s. Good
old Number Six and Rover even have a cameo in the video!
Then
in 1991 SATB released Superstition which had a hit single “Kiss Them
For Me” … but the real star of this album was “Fear (of the Unknown)” … a
song produced by Stephen Hague (he’s everywhere!) that not only outdid
your typical attempts at the style by artists native to it, it also was
an homage to Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The song’s dense vibe and trance feel
charted on both the Modern Rock AND the Hot Dance Club Play charts.
And if all that wasn't enough, in the video, a lithe and sexy 34-year
old Siouxsie climbs a building in heels, sans goth makeup, and proves
once again that she is one of the most gorgeous creatures ever. I mean,
just look at that butt! I could watch that snippet of her running in
place all day… run, Siouxsie, run!
Taken from their third album, How to be a ... Zillionaire, "How To Be A Millionaire" was ABC's return to form after the dissapointing Beauty Stab LP.
Reaching #49 in Britain and #20 on the US Billboard charts, the song featured a cool animated video (which the band has unfortunately disowned and had removed from YouTube). You can see a few snippets of the animated video during the performance clip above.
ABC had sort of an up-and-down career, as debut The Lexicon of Love was amazing, but was followed by the flop called Beauty Stab, the return to form of the aforementioned third album, and then the execrable "When Smokey Sings" off next LP Alphabet City. They made #120 on my Top 200 with "Be Near Me", and just missed with "How To Be A Millionaire". Be back next week with another song that almost made it.
The Cold War … ABBA … Tim Rice musicals… US & Soviet chess-masters competing in exotic locales … nothing screams “The 1980s” like all of these things. But did you know that they were all successfully combined into a London West End musical called “Chess” ? Developed by Tim Rice and the two dudes Benny & Bjorn of ABBA, and released as a concept album in 1984, “Chess" went on to open as a show in London in 1986 and run for three years. Both the album and the play were critically and commercially acclaimed and the album charted on both sides of the Atlantic, and even hit #1 in (where else?) ABBA’s homeland of Sweden.
“One Night in Bangkok” is the new wave gem of the project. The song is sung by Murray Head, an English actor-singer who was chosen to play the American chess-master for “Chess” by Tim Rice because he had previously sung the part of Judas Iscariot in Rice’s 1970s longhair rock-opera spectacle “Jesus Christ Superstar”. His tune “Superstar” was the most famous song of that production and was released as the first single of the show in 1969. While ”Superstar” involved the affectation of a soul-style hippie boogie complete with backing gospel choir, “Bangkok” was a very different song. Murray Head absolutely nails it, singing with the precise sense of aloof detachment required, exactly what you would expect a cerebral chess master touring a city of sin to sound like. Many killer double-entendres in the lyrics allude to some of Bangkok’s more infamous lures and the chorus has a backing choir of sorts again, and a killer hook too.
And finally - the best news of all - 2018 will see the “Chess” musical revived both in London and on Broadway!
A Flock Of Seagulls appeared three times on my Top 200 list, with "Messages" (#122), "Space Age Love Song" (#15), and "Modern Love Is Automatic" (#2). They almost made it four, because "Telecommunication" just missed making the list. Clocking in at a brisk 2 minutes and 31 seconds, "Telecommunication" is a bright, up-tempo track featuring a mechanical, tinny-sounding drum machine beat and sparkling synthesizer work. From their first, eponymous LP, "Telecommunication" was released as a single, and reachedthe US dance chart's top 20.In my opinion, however, it's a fantastic track and should have had a much greater impact on the charts.
Part of the essential sountrack of 81/82, "Telecommunication" will always find a welcome spot on any early 80s new wave playlist.
Be back next week with another great song that didn't quite nab a spot on my Top 200.
After last week’s very traditional new wave synthpop entry "New Life",
this week we shall jump to the other end of the 80s new wave spectrum !
By
1988 New Wave had peaked … the fresh, new & interesting musical
releases that were previously happening constantly seemed to be petering
out, and the movement was starting to morph into other things like
goth, grunge, industrial, house, alternative and a bunch of other
sub-genres. However that didn’t mean that there weren’t total
surprises sometimes! In a manner reminiscent of innovative
musical-fusion huckster Malcolm McLaren - who had previously marketed
punk-rock (Sex Pistols), dub-scratching (Buffalo Gals) and
operatic-electronica (Madame Butterfly) - an Austrian group calling
themselves Edelweiss came out of nowhere and brought us into the
never-heard-before world of … hip-hop-yodeling!
“Bring
Me Edelweiss” was a monster of a song that went to the highest
mountaintops of the charts all over Europe and hit the North American
dance charts too, but never really got mainstream attention and remained
a cult hit on this side of the pond. It’s a unique song that is like a
pot-luck special of musical styles and nothing before or since sounds
quite like it. And the only thing more cuckoo than the Edelweiss song …
is the Edelweiss video! Alpenhorns, chameleon-colored cows, drunken
buffoonery, massive mammaries, slapping, nose-picking, whips, an African
rhythm section sporting lederhosen and a dwarf are all in there... I
shit thee not. So sit back and let’s go to the wintry mountains and
enjoy the yodeling-laden one-hit wonder that is …“Bring Me Edelweiss”!
Formed in 1977 by Doug Bennett in Vancouver, Canada, Doug & the Slugs combined rock and new wave elements to produce an extremely unique sound. They had 10 top-40 hits in Canada from the late 70s to the mid 80s, including "Day By Day", my favote song of theirs.
Released in January 1985 from their fifth album, Propaganda, "Day By Day" features Doug's distinctive vocal stylings combined with great percussion and a minimalist keyboard line.
Sadly, Doug Bennett lost his lifelog struggle with alcoholism in 2004 when he died of liver failure. Doug & the Slugs music continues to live on, however, and his tunes are still played on Canadian radio to this day.
Be back next week with another song that just missed making my Top 200.
Ah, the New Year … a time of rebirth, resolutions, joy and a celebration of the newness of life. In that spirit we return to a time when new wave, synthpop and the 1980s were all newly born… 1981, the year when a fresh-faced and unusual new band called Depeche Mode emerged and released their first album,”Speak and Spell" the first song of which was … “New Life”!
"New Life” began off a stellar album that kickstarted a long career for the young English boys … "Speak and Spell” was light, poppy, tuneful, innovative, ahead of its time … basically everything that Depeche co-founder Vince Clarke has always been known for. Vince went onto other things after this first album (ever hear of Yazoo or Erasure?) and Depeche Mode still made some good stuff albeit much of it was downbeat and could be used for the soundtrack for a funeral.
But in 1981 Depeche Mode was like a newly minted baby celebrating ... New Life!
