Best Song of the Eighties?
 

Taking nominations and discussion for <b>Best Song of the Eighties</b>. Any artist, any song, so long as it was originally released in the United States in the 80's.

My nomination - <b>The Clash - Rock the Casbah</b>.

Now I just want to hear what you all think. :)

dissed
 

dissed, no 99 Luftballoons :(

that's okay, you know my vote goes for Rock the Casbah anyway :thumb:

That would be choice D) -- There was no good music in the 80s.

pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttttttttttttt!

You didn't like a single song from the 80's?

Our Bloom County lawyer is going over the top but the eighties pop music scene really sucked. There were a few punk acts that were amusing but got zero air time unless you lived close enough to a good college station. The Clash was great but for a lot of us that lived through the decade we spent a great deal of time listening to stuff that wasn't really eighties music. I was listening to a lot of sixties stuff and seventies arena rock back then mixed with some blues because the pop airways were populated by the likes of Boy George, Culture Club, Madonna, Frankie Goes to Hollywood blah blah blah. As a generation of listeners [middleagedman]we weren't catered to like today.[/middleagedman] We were trapped at the tail of the baby boom left with whatever scraps they didn't devour.

Way too difficult to pick just one. If you didn't like the 80s you weren't listening, but that's de rigeur for a world that saw commercial radio go down the drain to be replaced by nothing. We didn't know where to turn, but if you were paying attention:

"How Soon Is Now" - The Smiths
"Once in a Lifetime" - Talking Heads
"Eighties" - Killing Joke
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2
"Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson
"Blue Bell Knoll" - Cocteau Twins
"Cloudbusting" - Kate Bush
"The Downtown Lights" - The Blue Nile
"Waters Part" - Let's Active
"Writing the Book of Last Pages" - Let's Active
"Horizon" - Let's Active
"Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" - Squeeze
"Tempted" - Squeeze
"Summer's Cauldron" - XTC
"29" - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

I partially agree with Tony, in that it's difficult to pick just one. But I still put "Rock the Casbah" above anything that I'm familiar with (and I listen to a <b>lot</b> of 80's music)... I guess just because I like it the best. It's easy to listen to a million times, it's fun... it brings a smile. I'm not sure how anyone can't like it, and I guess that's why it gets my vote.

Tony also lists a lot of really good stuff. I wouldn't say any of it is better than "Rock the Casbah", but still really good stuff. As far as picking one Michael Jackson song, I would probably go with "Beat It" or "Thriller" over "Billie Jean", but taste plays a huge part in this. :)

Sting fans would also put one or two songs from the Police's Synchronicity into the list, usu. "Every Breath You Take" or "King of Pain".

Tony nailed it on the commercial radio front. We didn't/don't have much radio coverage here. We lacked access to quality music. Sifting through the eighties now you can dig up some fine music. Living through it then, I was unwilling to stand the bombardment of high rotation crap to hopefully catch a gem. Maybe the more urban areas were better served back then but all I can say is thank Gore for the net. ;)

insert anti FCC rant here

And how could I forget

"Avalon" - Roxy Music

That was too obvious - there must be a ton more I've forgotten.

Hmmmm... I'm being way to negative here but after scraping around in my mind for the tunes T listed it turns out that one mans high rotation crap.... :)

Anyway just cue up the Grosse Point Blank soundtrack if you want some good eighties music.

Well partly, and partly I'm just being a smartass as usual.

I'm mostly interested in classical music... I could say that "Nixon in China" by John Adams was my favorite piece of "classical" music to come out of the 80s.

The "pop" music I absorbed was mostly stuff that got played a lot and that I associate with fun times of high school. To the extent that they trigger a pleasant nostalgia trip, I'm there. I don't think I (or anybody else) would consider them fabulous music. Stuff like Video Killed the Radio Star, Material Girl, and Bohemian Rhapsody. And some Billy Joel stuff.

I also like any kind of comedy, so when some parody comes along that uses 80s or any other music I usually enjoy that, often more than the original. (Example: "Like a Surgeon," "Amish Paradise".)

Damn, that's a great movie. "Tapeheads" was also another witty Cusack movie, though it never got much publicity.

Can't say much about 80's music. Too much pop to be considered worthwhile, but Ratt and Cinderella and the likes were quite okay. Don't forget Twisted Sister.

what do you mean? ive been trying to forget twisted sister for years. :)

~james

The Brits, man.
Elvis Costello! He was my 80s. and others technically on the 70-80 cusp.
- Man Out of Time
- Human Hands
- Clubland
- Almost Blue
- Shipbuilding
- Everyday I write the Book
- Indoor Fireworks
- I'll Wear it Proudly
- Love Field
- Head to Toe
- Jack of All Parades....

Yea! Squeeze
- Black Coffee in Bed
- Another Nail for my Heart
And I played the hell out of Roxy Music
-Avalon
-More Than this
-India
And...Thomas Dolby. Who could forget Golden Age of Wireless and beyond.
- Europa
- I Scare Myself
The Police
I always liked - Canary in a Coal Mine
which kinda segways to
Ska stuff like
The Specials
Madness

Wow. I really need to figure this Mp3 stuff out so I can gather tunes up to improve my quality of life.
:)

Blinded by Science - Thomas Dolby

No greater tune did I hear throughout the '80s ...

(Although I admit that I can listen to "Shiny Shiny" by Haysie Fantasie more times than is probably good for me. And I really liked Paul Hardcastle's "19")

I listen to a lot of 80s music ... pop, punk, and metal.

I LIKED Twisted Sister dammit ... even went to see then in concert.

Oh, in other 80s heavy metal news ... Great White burned down a nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island last night when their unlicensed pyrotechnics display ignited some foam on the ceiling of the club ... 75 dead thus far and they're still bringing bodies out of the club.

Dad asked me if I wanted to run up to Touch of Texas tonight. It seems he's expecting a club fire trifecta to take out a buncha C&W freaks. He's a strange man.

Texas touch...is that like Texas toast?

Touch of Texas is neitherYummy, Freaky, Crunchy norFun but rather Lame

Oh My! I do recall part of the 80s was the whole Travolta-Urban-Cowboy thang. "Lookin' fa lub in aw da wong paces"
Do they have a bull? TOT's layering of that with American Idol marketing projects in the North East I find particularly... well...I'm at a loss.:)

If'n they hadda bull Ah'd think about it. :) What they have is white people, lots of them, in cowboy hats, fancy shirts, boots, mini skirts and pressed jeans, dancing in lines, as instructed by the Man, getting loaded and driving their oh so shiney 4x4's back to suburbia. Hmmm... theres a stage play in there somewhere.

Hey! Who hijacked Davids thread?

Mullets, Parachute Pants, Flock of Seagulls, Cindy Lauper.... discuss.

(forcing 80s link)
Amazingly true, I went to a middle school musical production of "Footloose" last night. I believe one pivotal scene was set in a place not unlike Touch of Texas (this was rendered in painted plywood). The kids made the most of 80s fashions. The red leather Jackson jacket was present. cowl necks and low cuffed boots. This sounds like its not true, but it is. And it was great! Bacon, Kenny Loggins would be proud. (Last year they put on "Tommy".)

the vapors, "turning japanese". i checked, its 80's, just barely. :)

~james

Mine's a guilty pleasure -- I'd have to go with Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

My sister-in-law votes for "Manic Monday"...
The brother-in-law votes for the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams are made of This" (good choice!)

Badger votes for A-ha, "Take on Me" (Yeesh...) :whofart:


- Pie

I just informed Rho of this thread...she will probably come on here and post her entire CD collection (which is heavy on 80s stuff).

I can't pick just one...too many good songs to choose (from the obscure to the obvious), so I present a list:

Ozzy Osbourne--"Crazy Train"
Wham--"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
Depeche Mode--"Never Let Me Down Again"
New Order--"Bizarre Love Triangle"
Erasure--"Chains of Love"
10,000 Maniacs--"Like the Weather"
Living Colour--"Cult of Personality"
Talking Heads--"Once in a Lifetime"
Nitzer Ebb--"Captivate"
Elvis Costello--"Veronica"
John Lennon--"Nobody Told Me"
The Church--"Under the Milky Way"
Van Halen--"Jump"
B.D.P--"Criminally Minded"
Bryan Ferry--"Kiss and Tell"
Dead Milkmen--"Punk Rock Girl"
Ministry--"Stigmata"
Nine Inch Nails--"Head Like a Hole"

I'll fess up to starting it ... it's my job, after all. But I did have help. ;)

I've been pretty much watching the death toll climb on the club fire throughout the day ... (96 when I left work, but was 75 when I left FOR work. I'm also expecting deaths of a number of critical patients in hospitals, as that is the way of the 3rd degree burn victim) ... My fascination relates to the fact that it was a big damn fire, apparently caused primarily by human stupidity, has the extra sardonic touch of all the video footage being shot by a local TV station who wouldn't have given a damn about Great White's performance otherwise, but they were shooting a series on "club safety". Talk about synchronicity, the interconnecting causal principle, of course, not the cool song by The Police. Also, my sister lives in West Warwick, RI. I'm still waiting to hear from her. She has a total dislike of any heavy metal music and the club scene so she wouldn't have been at the club, but I'm anxious to find out if anyone she knows was.

In an attempt to make minor amends, in re: thread piracy ... I was listening to my 80's New Wave Millenium CD in the car on the way home (switched over from Soundtrack from OZ halfway home) and was reminded of another Oh-So-Great tune ... Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics.

Cool! Thanks for the tip. Cusack's musical taste is spot on.

I called John today and he agrees that "Rock the Casbah" is the greatest song of the 80's.

Watch "High Fidelity" as well. It rules.

Yah, caught that one. Rule it does.

I don't think anybody picked a cut from Dire Straits Making Movies album. Hmmm... can't pick a favorite. Okay Romeo and Juliet. Back in the day, I spent a LOT of time on AC/DC's Back in Black, Hells Bells being the favorite cut and Ozzys Blizzard of Oz....

Gonna have to agree with the wipper snapper though The Clash, Rock the Casbah is #1. We must however give the Violent Femmes props for Blister in the Sun though.

S'interesting, though - what tends to really last, over time, are strong melodies. Of what we've thought of so far as the "best", which ones have a melody that could compete with standards like such as "Smoke Gets in your Eyes" or "Yesterday" or "Girl From Ipanema" "As Time Goes By" "Misty" etc.?

It's the stronger songwriters that get it done. Squeeze. "Tempted". An instant standard.

Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry is your unmistakeable standards singer - and writes great standards melodies as well.

Mr. Costello and Mr. Dolby also write excellent melodies. And then there's They Might Be Giants - I think their earlier better work is 80s. They're all about melody.

Do you like amercan music
I like american music
don't you like american music baby
I want you to hold me
I want your arms around me
I want you to hold me baby
did you do too many drugs
I did too many drugs
did you do too many drugs too baby
you were born too late
I was born too soon
but every time I look at that ugly moon
it reminds me of you
it reminds me of you ooh ooh ooh
I need a date to the prom
would you like to come along
but nobody would go to the prom with me baby
they didn't like american music
they never heard american music
they didn't know the music was in my soul baby
you were born too soon
I was born too late
but every time I look at that ugly lake
it reminds me of me
it reminds me of me
do you like american music
we like american music
I like american music baby
do you like american music
we like all kinds of music
but I like american music best
baby you were born too late
and i was born too late
but every time I look at that ugly lake
it reminds me of me
it reminds me of me
do you like american music
it reminds me of me
do you like american music...

Thats the hard part for those of us who were there. We get wound up in the memories, so the songs are touch tones. We have a hard time looking at the music critically, when its tied in with graduation parties, smoking in vans, driving girls home, playing ball... Think I'll start digging around in this music more and see how many layers the onion has.

That's a good point, Griff. It's hard for older people to look at newer music critically, and it's hard for the youth to appreciate the older tunes (though I think it's easier for youth than older folks).

Rho's bread and butter music is 80s pop...her formative years were the last half of that decade. Mine is grunge-hard rock-modern rock, and my formative years were the tail end of the 80s and early part of the 90s. It actually works well for us, because we happen to like each other's music, yet our CD collections don't overlap much (beyond our DM stuff).

Over the past decade, and especially in the past 5 years, I've tried to give props to the old school. I like a lot of new music, but maybe I'm falling into the above trap when I say that the music of the past year or two overall has just sucked ass. I see hope in the upcoming year with new shit from Ministry, Martin Gore, and possibly Tapeworm (a project of NIN's Trent Reznor). (And I haven't listened to radio much since late 2001.) But most of the CDs I've purchased in the past year have mostly been jazz or old school soul-funk. Because if you don't know the past, you really can't understand the present.

Avalon and Bete Noir are two CDs that I keep meaning to add to my collection...but then I forget about them.

I dunno UT...Flood was a fantastic pop record...and that was '90.

Elvis Costello is going to be part of the tribute to Joe Strummer tomorrow night on the Grammys. His new CD happens to be really good.

I liked the first Dolby album, but I thought Aliens Ate My Buick was pretty good too...and he did a great video for "Airhead."

We're in sync on Aliens. All killer, no filler. I saw that band on that tour, from the second row. It was magnificent.

Avalon plays 24 hours in the ideal lounge in your mind. Its beat seeps in through the carpet, up through the seat, and controls your soul. Little saxes and guitars nip at you from behind curtains. A single spotlight from above widens to a solitary soul with a cigarette. Our hero is cool like Bogey or Clint, impeccably dressed, and dark and mysterious. You feel comfortable, and yet there is something strange about it, something compelling. Maybe it's the drink.

<b>Tapeworm</b> is actually a project of Charlie Clouser, but Trent is contributing some stuff (as is Maynard James Keenan).

Dave, not according to what I've been reading. Clouser is out.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/145...06/story.jhtml

(This is from last August...the most recent info I can find.)

That's disappointing. It was originally Charlie's project, and he was seriously talented. Which is not to say that Trent isn't; I consider him the most talented musician today. But Clouser did some pretty amazing stuff. Oh well.

Dave, for clean representation of 80 I think you may be right with "Casbah"- captures the whole punk wave thing. A great song that stands. But "Should I Stay or Should I go" could do it too.

I have the flashbacks: Oh yeah baby. The clove cig is figuring in there.

U2- "I Will Follow". "Sunday Bloody Sunday". "Pride". I can remember reading a Rolling Stone article about this young Irish band like in 1981, then seeing the Bloody Sunday video - I remember thinking how very cool it was. Joshua Tree was a huge 80s album.

REM- "Fall on Me", from Lifes Rich Pagent. "End of the World as We Know it" still wakes me up. REM adds that kinda roots/ accoustic thing. Leads towards the cowpunk-rockabilly daze.

My sister doesn't JUST live in the same town where the fire occured. She lives just down the STREET. She's having trouble getting in and out of her development because of the number of people driving down to the site for 'vigils'. She's that close. (not next door close, but it's not more than a quarter-mile.) At least she's unlikely to have teddy bear and flower overflow into her backyard.

I forgot U2; shame on me; I would nominate "Pride" too.

I tried to think of an REM song that summed it all up, but IMO they changed everything but never really knocked it out of the park with a specific song. "Fall on Me" is as good a choice as any during the 80s. Or "Finest Worksong" or, for the early, "Radio Free Europe".

Under a Blood Red Sky- very important album to me personally. Vinyl copy hanging around here somewhere. Its silly to keep them but...

I've got the vinyl for "Unforgettable Fire". Good album. I've recently completed my CD collection of U2. Didn't have "Boy" or "War".

The Fixx: "One thing leads to another"

The Smiths "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"

Genesis "Home by the Sea" from the album "Mama".

I don't know why I think it is the best 80's song, because there were much better, more meaningful lyrics, but "Home by the Sea" is a ripping ghost tale in musical form, and the music is terrific prog-rock, synth-laden, percussion driven stuff.

Genesis has always been one of my favorite bands, so that's another reason I pick it, I guess.

Spode -

Have you seen "American Psycho"? :)

No...it is one of those on my 'gotta see it eventually' list. Why do you ask? Is there some tawdry scene therein which will give me a whole new outlook on "Home"?

No, but there is a great scene that heavily involves Genesis. :)

Well heck, I've gotta see this one, then! I can get out my autographed Mama Tour program and fondle it while I watch. Wait...that sounded pretty pornographic, didn't it. Sheesh.

How the fuck did I forget about U2? My bad. Hmmm...their best song of the 80s? I'd either go with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" or "I Will Follow." (Honorable mention goes to "Pride.")

i don't know if it's been mentioned or not, because i neglected to read the entire thread thus far...

but my vote probably goes to "out of touch" by hall and oates. either that or "run to you" by bryan adams. man, i love those songs.


of course, i love lots of others. i am the 80's music queen. i love it. i can't really pick one this easily, but i've been listening to a lot of the vice city soundtrack in the past couple of months, and those songs are both on there.

some more of my favorites include a-ha's "take on me" and "walking on sunshine" by katrina and the waves. and, of course, "walk like an egyptian".

Interesting that nobody has mentioned his purpleness. Prince.
He was hot stuff, at least in these parts. 1999 was the party soundtrack. Then all the spinoffs- Morris Day and the Time, Shelia E, Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam.

Agreed..."Little Red Corvette" is just an awesome song. Grabbed my ass the first time I ever heard it, and hasn't let go since.

what about the THE PIXIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
too many songs to list.
(OK-it's late eighties)

Pixies definitely had some good ones. If I had to pick a single favorite, I'd probably go with "Where Is My Mind?"... "River Euphrates" is also extremely good.

But I wouldn't put them at the top of the heap. They definitely have a song or two in the top 100, and could maybe squeeze into the top 10, but not the single one.

Crowded House
 

I think that Crowded House and Neil Finn in particular had/have an enormous amount of talent and musicality. Someone was commenting on melodies - I don't think there is a greater melodic singer songwritere working today (and working then) than Neil Finn.

"Fall At your Feet" is just plain beautiful as is "Better Be Home Soon."

XTC was mentioned up-thread, too. One of my all-time favorites and I'd put "Black Sea" up as one of the best 80's records (even though it was released in 1980 and therefore not technically in the 80's decade) along with "Skylarking."

Re: Crowded House
 

I totally forgot about XTC's "Dear God". What a killer song. Great message, and you could almost dance to it.

I heard "What I Like About You" by the Romantics today and judging by the weight and spectral color of the flashback plus the thrust of the Pavlovian-like bad, spastic, 80s hop-dance urge, I submit it as Best Song of 80s. Or at least in the pantheon.