Saturday, November 3, 2018

The Finale!

It's been a fun ride, but all things must come to an end. I began this blog on April 13, 2017. The Top 200 list ended on October 28, 2017, at which point long-time commenter Was joined me as co-conspirator as the blog morphed into the Just Missed It and Awesome Song of the Week duopoly. 

I'd like to take a moment to thank Was for all his work, effort, and great blog content over the past year. Not only that, but he introduced me to "Save It For Later" by the English Beat! Eternally grateful for that alone.

Well, today is November 3, 2018, and this is the final post.

I thought I'd use this space to post twenty great songs that didn't make it onto the blog for one reason or another. Then I'll turn out the lights and lock the door. Thanks for reading and never stop the music!

20) Anna Domino - Take That 
 

19) Trans-X - Dreams I Have Had
                       

18) The Box - Dancing On The Grave


17) The Police - King Of Pain

 

16) T'Pau - Secret Garden


 
15) Benjamin Orr - Stay The Night
 


14) Blind Date - How Did You Get To Me


13) Suzanne Vega - Blood Makes Noise and In My Book Of Dreams


  


12)  Concrete Blonde - True 


11)  Crowded House - Fall At Your Feet

10) David Bowie - As The World Falls Down



9)  Dead Or Alive - Hooked On Love



8)  Dear Enemy - Restless


7) Eddy Grant - Romancing The Stone


6) FM - Just Like You

 5) Furniture - Brilliant Mind

4) General Public - Tenderness



3)  Icehouse - Electric Blue



2)  One 2 One - Hold Me Now




1)  Talking Heads - Girlfriend Is Better (Stop Making Sense version)



  Bonus videos!

A) The Police - King Of Pain


B) Peter Gabriel - Shock The Monkey 




C) David Bowie - Modern Love






That's all she wrote. See you round the internet, folks.

-Marc

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #53: Ministry - Every Day Is Halloween

 
BOO!  Happy Halloween, loyal fans of Marc’s Top 200 and Awesome Song!  

Being that this entry arrives on the day of Halloween, you know we had to pick a good one!  And continuing with our wicked goth trend on Awesome Song, this week we return to a gothy artist that even featured black nail polish on the cover of one of their LPs!   That 1984 album from Ministry, “With Sympathy”, gave us a song that hit a stratospherically spooky #13 spot on the Top 200 - the fantastic tune “Revenge”.  In fact, the entire first four songs on the LP are all spectacular and superb examples of the goth/New Wave/synthpop nexus that was rising at the time.  After this album, Ministry released a string of singles and 12”s in 1985, the best of which is today’s Awesome Song - “Everyday (is Halloween)” !  Released on a 12” with “All Day” (another great song!), "Everyday is Halloween" is just a marvelous rhythm-synth-chant of a song that perfectly meshes all of the elements we so enjoy.  Unfortunately it was also one of the last releases Ministry did as a synthpop group; by 1986 they were abrasively annoying industrial outfit and completely disowned their entire old (vastly superior!) catalog.  

But we’ll always have "Everyday is Halloween”! 



Halloween Bonus! A two-fer bonus from another artist who did a song that is befitting for Halloween!   Killing Joke’s “Love Like Blood” is best known for the iconic guitar sounds that start the tune.  It’s a passionate song with a great driving bass and magnificent drums as well.  And it features blood so it’s Halloween friendly!  Enjoy!
 

 

And to wrap up this entry - and an awesome run on Awesome Song -  we don't even need to switch albums!  We can stay right on the same piece of 1985 vinyl and just flip sides!   Because what better song to end with than ….. “Eighties” !  





Enjoy everyone - thanks for listening - and keep on being Awesome!  

DJ WAS