1981

I grew up in a Rolling Stones household. My Mother loved - and still loves - Mick Jagger, and so I grew up surrounded by the Rolling Stones. Although I appreciated a lot of their music, it was, of course, the worst way to explore a band. Unless I had thrown myself into the group with the same enthusiasm, the only possibility was that I would grow to feel rather indifferent towards them. This was pretty much how I felt until I (re)discovered them myself. It was with Between the Buttons, but that was just an in for me to be able to explore what is undoubtedly one of the greatest catalogues in pop music history. There are a lot of heavily represented groups on this project, groups that took a big chunk of music history and made it their own. There's no shortage of Beatles, Bowie, Marvin Gaye, the Kinks. But at current count, the Rolling Stones have ten songs on this project, more than any other artist. It begins, as does this mix, with "Start Me Up" a great stadium rock song from the Stones last solid record (although their last one was pretty decent). It's been sold and marketed so many times that it's difficult to just hear it as a song, but if you listen with an open mind, you can still hear a band going strong sixteen years after they broke. It's quite an accomplishment.

Elsewhere on the mix, some really great songs stretch their legs out. The full version of "Tainted Love" is too good to cut, even at nine minutes it stands as a near perfect pop song, shoving two great covers together to create one great new wave classic. The similarly epic "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club is truly fun, especially mixed in with "Super Freak" and Heaven 17's debut single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang." The last seven minute-plus track is the revolutionary "Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel." One of the great early displays of the DJ on record, keep in mind that Flash was not using any samplers or multi-track recording. This was all done on the fly with turntables and wax.

Rick Springfield, Bowie and Queen, and Psychedelic Furs we all know, along with one of the better songs by Depeche Mode and the best song by Billy Idol. But 13-16 might be new to some people (to varying degrees). Japan are actually british, and "Ghosts" was their biggest hit in their home country. Then it's three punk classics from three very different punk scenes, the mostly straightforward Boston punk scene, and D.C. and L.A.'s very different hardcore scenes. The best of the three is probably Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," though there's little doubt that Bad Brains are one of the most important hardcore bands in that genres history.

81 is an odd year, where leftovers from the late 70s meet some 80s start ups. But the transition is not as surprising as one would expect. There has always been a strong contingent of Punk/New Wave fans, and looking to groups like Devo and The Talking Heads it is no surprise. That one genre has been so unfairly maligned in recent years while the other continues to stand as a defiant alternative to the mainstream is partially due to Mtv's new wave push causing backlash, but also because of the other influences that New Wave added to its basically Punk roots. Like disco before it, new wave suffered from homophobia and people who were mostly turned off by the gender neutral aspects of many of the genres biggest stars. The fact that the music was essentially dance music obviously didn't help it either. Certain bands have been totally immune to this backlash, like the Cars and The Talking Heads, mostly because they were on the fringe of the movement and focused more on its rock and roll roots. I'm not saying that this was the only reason; certainly everything from the 80s has been hurt by the dated nature of so many of the trends that were meant to seem futuristic, but only ended up becoming dated. I just find it sad how many decent genres have been hurt over the years not because of its quality (as you'll see in the late 70s, there is some fantastic disco), but because of universal biases that people still haven't gotten over.

Sorry to be so depressing. The mix is exactly the opposite, so get listening.

Download the mix here.

1. Start Me Up - The Rolling Stones
2. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
3. Under Pressure - David Bowie and Queen
4. Pretty In Pink - Psychedelic Furs
5. Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode
6. Dancing With Myself - Billy Idol
7. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
8. Super Freak - Rick James
9. (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang - Heaven 17
10. Genius Of Love - Tom Tom Club
11. Don't You Want Me Baby - Human League
12. Ghost Town - The Specials
13. Ghosts - Japan
14. That's When I Reach for My Revolver - Mission of Burma
15. Banned In D.C. - Bad Brains
16. Rise Above - Black Flag
17. Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five