1980
Jeez, it feels like I started this two weeks ago, and here we are, on the cusp of the '70s. Time really goes by fast.
Okay, 1980, another great year, up there with the best in my opinion. Two of my favorite songs ever are included on this mix, the essential Talking Heads single "Once in a Lifetime" and the great, great "Mirror in the Bathroom" by the Beat, or, as they are known in America, the English Beat. Check out DK and DJ Food's Solid Steel mix for a great drum and bass remix of the song.
The rest of the mix is basically self-explanatory. Joy Division's single, a few great one hit wonders in "Shack Up" and 'Never Say Never," more tail-end punk in "Los Angeles" and "Holiday in Cambodia," arena rock at it's highest peak with Queen and AC/DC, and the last big single from one of musical heroes, "(Just Like) Starting Over." There's more to come from the ex-Beatle, of course, just as we haven't seen the last of Bob Marley, who by this point had made the shift from political figure to pop star, but still had the ability to make deeply moving music.
Blondie's "Rapture" was the first big hip hop crossover, with Debbie Harry (kind of) rapping and name-checking Grandmaster Flash (which he would later sample). Similarly, Kurtis Blow was the first hip hop solo star, and "The Breaks" is his best, party-starting song.
Next week, the 70s. It's a big transition as we go furthur back, because we are moving into years that I wasn't alive to experience. This obviously changes my perspective, and it makes me rely more on charts and second hand accounts of what was popular at the time. I'm trying to reserve only a small portion of each mix to music that would only make it simply because it lasted longer, but this will happen more and more the further back I go, simply because some music sounds dated now and I wasn't around to experience it first hand. I'm sure ten or twenty years from now a lot of the music that I loved simply because it was of the the time will fall by the wayside; in fact, I'm sure a lot of it already has. But this is inevitable, and the best I can do is talk to my elders, read the books, check the charts, and wish for the best.
This is as good a time as ever to remind everyone that these are works in progress, so if you have any suggestions (or you were around when I wasn't) please don't hesitate to let me know where I got it wrong. I want to make these as good as possible, and while my taste dictates many of my decisions, I may have included one song and neglected another because of a misguided assumption about what mattered in, say, 1974.
Anyway, 1980 is here, so enjoy some far-reaching pop from the beginning of the me decade.
Download the mix here.
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
2. Whip It - Devo
3. What I Like About You - Romantics
4. Never Say Never - Romeo Void
5. Shack Up - A Certain Ratio
6. Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
7. Back in Black - AC/DC
8. Ace of Spades - Motorhead
9. Holiday In Cambodia - Dead Kennedys
10. Totally Wired - The Fall
11. Los Angeles - X
12. Precious - The Pretenders
13. Rapture - Blondie
14. The Breaks - Kurtis Blow
15. When You Were Mine - Prince
16. Video Killed the Radio Star - Buggles
17. Mirror In the Bathroom - The English Beat
18. Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
19. People Who Died - Jim Carroll Band
20. Redemption Song - Bob Marley
21. (Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
posted by bza @ 3/13/2006
5 Comments:
im missing 1985 and 1998 i was wondering if you could put those back up. thanks.
Another great one. I forgot about the Jim Caroll band. good song. still not feeling the fall, but that's my problem really.
i realized that two white singers used the n-word on this mix. is that going to happen again? interesting trivia.
question: how big a hit was when you were mine? i really like that song, and dirty mind as a whole, but never really knew what the status of that song was. I'll never be the one to take prince off the mix, but how do other early prince songs fit into this, i.e. Controversy, which was I think a bigger hit off of a weaker album, or even "I Wanna Be Your Lover", which was I think the world's introduction to Prince. Just wanna know what you think, or what you can ad to that in terms of chart positions and/or your opinion of say, those three song's cultural value.
I know I initially got excited about Tiffany, but this is definitely the best mix up to now. Especially because it has the English Beat. Is Joy Division making 1979's mix, by the way? I almost feel guilty that none of their songs off Closer made the 1980 list and would hope that something better than "Love Will Tear Us Apart" would make at least one list. But that's just fussiness, maybe. Nice list.
like it or not, love will tear us apart is the signature joy division song. maybe we can hope for transmission or she's lost control on a future mix.
i think ace of spades is another reason why 1980 totally rules.
Sorry, I'm not putting up any mixes that already expired. You can ask someone else to put them up in the comments section if you want.
Jules, I think I picked "When You Were Mine" over those two songs for a few reasons. While "Controversy" was a bigger hit (I think), it was only successful because of Dirty Mind, and the success of "When You Were Mine" propelled that record into a higher sales category than Controversy, which was really a holding pattern for Prince.
I didn't include "I Wanna Be Your Lover" partially because Prince is identified with the 80s, and he didn't really become a superstar until Dirty Mind. I know I am slightly biasing one song over the others because the record it was on was so successful, but it's a fine line, and I think "When You Were Mine" doesn't cross it, both because it was a high profile single for years afterwards, and because I think of the three songs, it is the most influential in terms of other peoples' sounds.
Oh, and sorry, but no more Joy Division. It just didn't seem to fit, but if you can make a case for it over another song, be my guest.
Post a Comment
<< Home