WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #44: The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Ah, the last week of summer … a time when autumn is approaching much too fast, school is about to start and those warm nights spent hanging out end …. and often that brief fling or torrid summer romance either burns out or just fades away…  

This week’s Awesome Song aways brings back memories of such summer crushes and wild romance, steamy dalliances during the hot months while summer lasts … before you go back to school, or work, or end vacation.  And who better to bring us a song about such things than that hopeless romantic... the doyenne of drama… Stephen Patrick Morrissey!   Morrissey scored a mammoth #25 on Marc's Top 200 with another romantic ballad from his solo career, "Every Day Is Like Sunday”.  But today we go way back to his original band The Smiths, who in 1986 released their third (and best!) album, The Queen Is Dead, and the incredibly beautiful and sad “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”.  I remember hearing this in New Jersey in the summer it came out, while having and ending one of those relationships, on a little-known but fantastic radio station called WHTG-FM.  Those synthesized strings are a work of absolute wonder ….  the song still brings back happy, sad and bittersweet memories to this day. Enjoy The Smiths!

But wait .. there’s more!  Lest we conclude on a depressing maudlin note, here’s another song on the same topic … with powerful emotive vocals and synth galore!   Images In Vogue nailed the end of romance very well too with “Breaking Up” …  enjoy!

 

Just Missed My Top 200: After The Fire - Starflight

After The Fire took the #23 spot on my Top 200 list with "Laser Love", my favorite song by the band. Just missing the list was their second-best offering, the cosmic, trippy, galactic tune that is "Starflight".

With epic synth soundscapes by Peter "Memory" Banks and sparse, out-there lyrics sung by frontman Andy Piercy, "Starflight" concluded the first side of ATF's landmark 1980 LP 80-f. Though never released as a single, the track was a popular album cut and still gets airplay on new wave radio stations across the world and on the web.  

The band split in the 80s but a new lineup toured up until 2011. Here is a live performance of "Starflight" from 2009.

See you next time with another great song that didn't quite get there.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #43: Pete Shelley - Many A Time

The Awsomeness that is Pete Shelley is no secret to our frequent readers!  Having scored #136 on Marc’s Top 200 with “If You Ask Me (I Won't Say No)” - and mentioned in several other places - Pete is one of those New Wave geniuses whose talent manifested itself over and over again.  Whether it was forming the Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto or breaking new ground in his solo career, he always crafted memorable songs, usually with a killer hook.  But he was so much more than that ….

His first full solo effort “Homosapien” is a spectacular example of his ability to look far ahead of his time, from it’s crunchy title-track groove to the Commodore PET computer on it’s cover.  But this week’s Awesome Song is “Many A Time” - and comes from the same album as Marc’s #136 pick, a record called XL-1.  XL-1 is fantastic from start to finish, and would be a Top 5 “Awesome Album” of mine from the 80s (the era being mainly singles-based, very few New Wave albums qualify for that title!)    “Many A Time” is 6 minutes and 43 seconds of superbness, from it’s over-the-top bass line to it’s wild drum rhythms and great synth work.  A long song by New Wave standards, it’s so great it actually seems too short!  Enjoy “Many A Time”!  

But wait!  There’s more …

XL-1 was groundbreaking in another way …. it came packaged with computer software for the long-dead Sinclair Spectrum ZX personal computer that generated graphics to watch along with the lyrics - timed to match the audio - for the entire album!  Yes, Pete Shelley was a multimedia master at the dawn of the personal computer era!   Even though we are all about the 80s here on Marc’s Top 200, we also love modern technology… so rather than ship every reader cassette tapes and floppy discs, here’s a YouTube video of what you would have seen had you gone through all that trouble 35 years back. 

Enjoy the full album of XL-1 as it was originally meant to be experienced - with both sound and vision! 

 

Just Missed My Top 200: Dresden China - We Are Wise

Dresden China was formed in 1984 in Hamburg, Germany by Uli Werdin and Werner Littau. The duo saw Alphaville perform live and were inspired to start their own new wave band. They wrote songs and began to rent studio time to produce the demo tracks that would become their first (self-titled) album. In October of that year, RCA heard their demo material and offered them a record deal.

"We Are Wise" hit #63 on the German charts in late 1985 as the second single off the LP. It's always been my favorite Dresden China song, and just missed making the Top 200.

Dresden China continued to release material, on and off, until they finally called it quits in 2012.

Bonus! Here's the band's biggest hit, "Come Back", which charted on Top 40 lists throughout much of Europe in mid 1985.

See you next week with another song that almost made it.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #42: The Jam - Going Underground

WAS and family are just back from a week vacation in London (England, not Ontario!) so this week’s Awesome Song will feature some 80s UK gems!

The Jam were one of the biggest bands of the 70s-80s in England but basically unknown in North America...  A power trio from Woking, Surrey, they were punk mods with 60s fashions and music that was rocking, hook laden and politically heavy (that last point likely explaining their strictly provincial popularity).  Think of them as what you would get if The Clash made “Quadrophenia” instead of The Who.  Their leader Paul Weller later went on the form “The Style Council” - which landed #138 in Marc’s Top 200.

The Jam’s best song IMO was one that was released in 1980, hit #1 in the UK and had many themes in common with the present day.  “Going Underground” is a roaring gem with hooks, vim & vigor that makes so many British songs of the era so great.  

My favorite line :

"We talk and we talk until my head explodes - I turn on the news and my body froze - These braying sheep on my TV screen - Make this boy shout, make this boy scream!"

38 years later, I believe we can still relate ?

Enjoy “Going Underground” (and if you like the Jam, I highly recommend “Snap!” - a collection of the best songs - great from start to finish!!). 

Our Bonus Awesome Song this week is in the same vein … it’s a song that’s quite manic punk, but was released way past the heyday of punk.  It earned the coveted “Screamer of the Week” spot on NY New Wave radio station WDRE on October 1, 1983... but wasn't very well-known.  Like “Going Underground” it echoes the issues of the present day and easily gets stuck in your head...  The video has a totally spooky & paranoid feel to it and still looks fresh today!   

Enjoy Intaferon and “Get Out of London”!

 Oh and despite these angry London songs, I did have an awesome vacation!

Just Missed My Top 200: John Foxx - Stars On Fire

John Foxx week continues! In 1985, Foxx released In Mysterious Ways, which was lauded as his "New Romantic" LP. A commercial failure (only reaching #85 on the UK album charts), In Mysterious Ways was his most accessible and radio-friendly work to that date. "Stars On Fire", the leadoff single, barely scratched the pop chart, reaching a lowly #89. I've always loved the song, and it just missed making my Top 200.

Here's the title track as well:

...and here's "Your Dress", another awesome Foxx track from his previous album, 1983's The Golden Section.

...how about one more? "Quiet Men" from Foxx's days with Ultravox - specifically, 1978's Systems Of Romance.

 

That brings Foxx week to a conclusion. Hope you enjoyed it! I'll be back next Saturday with another (non-John Foxx) song that almost made my list.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #41: John Foxx - Swimmer II

Frequent readers of Marc’s Top 200 know that there is much love for John Foxx (both with and after Ultravox) here. He landed #128 on Marc’s list with “Europe After The Rain”, a spectacularly melancholy solo song, and his masterpiece with Ultravox “Hiroshima Mon Amour” blazed to a scorching #29!  Speaking of scorching, it has been an unusually hot summer, so this week’s Awesome Song dives right in to a cool refreshing pool of scorching solos with our second featured instrumental - courtesy of the genius of Mr. Foxx - Enjoy “Swimmer II” from his phenomenal release “The Garden”!

Bonus!  Another wonderful instrumental from 1980’s Metamatic!  Enjoy “Glimmer"

 

Just Missed My Top 200: Tangerine Dream - Le Parc (L.A. - Streethawk)

My partner in crime, WAS, brought us the first ever instrumental on this blog when he featured Ad Infinitum's "Telstar" as his Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week series' 14th entry. I figure it's time I spotlight an instrumental as well! 

To my mind, there's no better choice than "Le Parc" from 1970s synth phenomenon Tangerine Dream. Formed way back in 1967 and featuring an ever-changing lineup of amazing musicians, Tangerine Dream reached their apex when the band was comprised of founders Christopher Franke, Edgar Froese, and, of course, Peter Baumann (see above photo).

Baumann left to go solo, and his later albums snagged him several spots on my Top 200 (#185 and #22), plus a prior mention on an earlier edition of Just Missed It. 

Without him, Tangerine Dream continued, and were tapped by ABC to write the theme song for their 1985 motorcycle-superhero TV show, Streethawk.

The resulting song, "Le Parc (L.A. - Streethawk)" has been recognized as one of the best television themes of all time. I considered it for my Top 200, but ultimately decided to leave it off.

Here's the actual show opening, because I can't help myself!

More awesome Tangerine Dream!
"Beach Scene", "Monolight", & "Choronzon"...

Be back next week with another song that didn't quite make my list.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #40: The Specials - Pressure Drop

The Specials were a band out of Coventry, England formed in 1977.  Part of the Two-Tone ska revival along with bands like The English Beat (who scored Awesome Song #15), the Specials were a whole troupe of stylin’ multi-racial musicians with a unique sound and great original songs as well as covers.  My favorite song of theirs and this weeks Awesome Song is one of those covers, a Toots & the Maytals Jamaican reggae song from 1969 - a huge hit at the time called “Pressure Drop”.  This Specials song is also notable for having appeared in a movie with one of the greatest New Wave based soundtracks of all time - Grosse Point Blank!

But let’s not stop there - as a bonus here are two more Specials treats - their first hit “A Message To You Rudy” as well as another Toots cover, "Money Man”!

Enjoy!