Posted on 04/29/2020 12:04:00 PM PDT by PROCON
The 80's were an absolute haven for great music from all different genres. Whether it was pop, rock, or even new wave, music was progressing by leaps and bounds in terms of new sounds and general hookiness. Though many musicians would need a Casio synthesizer to get their songs on the air, these bands stuck to their guns with letter-perfect rock and roll.
Though many of these songs fall under the domain of rock in name, none of them seem to fit neatly in a single category. While many artists were still following in the bluesy tradition of bands like Led Zeppelin, other artists were making bold new innovations for the genre whose presence can still be felt to this day. Even if you weren't sure how to feel about them on first listen, these songs have aged into modern marvels of the rock pantheon that deserve to be celebrated as such.
From hair metal to progressive rock to regular rock and roll, nothing is off the table when it comes to picking the cream of the rock scene. There may have been a technicolor haze sprinkled across the decade, but these songs don't need any trend in order to warp your brain.
(Excerpt) Read more at whatculture.com ...
I have a sister who is an enormous Buddy Holly fan. He was a big influence on the Beatles.
I remember when I first bought The Police’s “Synchronicity” album and heard “Synchronicity II” for the first time, and how blown away I was.
Roundabout, if you look at the lyrics in the middle of the song are pure earth worship and panic about the future.
Fair enough, but the band was formed in Los Angeles
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No argument there. I was just mentioning that I live in Cliff’s hometown. We have an annual Cliff Burton Day.
Sacrificial love of neighbor and unlimited love of the Creator is never found in this genre. The absence of true Charity is the mark of this music.
Self-love is in almost every song. So sad and fleeting.
I don't know if you are trolling or being for real; but you are exactly right. It's taken me almost twenty years of excruciating refinement in His fire to unlearn what (among other things) twenty-odd years of popular music fostered in my soul.
Every time one of my old favorites dies these days, (Bowie, Prince, Ric Ocasek, etc) I'm that much more aware of how empty and, frankly, dangerous was my total abandon to the tunes and the artists and the lifestyle. Idolatry all the way. I think the passing of Neil Peart was the nail in the coffin (ba dum) for me. Here was a guy who was a true musical "god" by the world's standards. And by my former standards. But now I see him as just another dead atheist whose music will count for nothing in eternity. (Unless he had some conversion that I'm not aware of. He was in the old days famous as an atheist and Randian objectivist.) And this is coming from a guy who cried when I found out he had died.
Yup. Great hooks and every song at "11". Don't know what happened to them. I was too late to see them live. Got the album as a "cut out" for pennies of lawnmower allowance money during that awkward time when many of us still had turntables even tho' everyone else had CD players.
How do you leave off the Stalkers Anthem. Every Breath You Take- The Police
Well Big Country kind of sort of did, on "In a Big Country".
Yeah, we’re runnin’ a little bit hot tonight
I can barely see the road from the heat comin’ off of it
Ah, you reach down, between my legs
Ease the seat back
You dog
“Didn’t those guys start playing together in the late 1950s?”
From what I see, they formed in 1969.
What about Huey Lewis and the News?
Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in ‘83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.
In ‘87, Huey released Fore!, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is “Hip To Be Square”. A song so catchy, most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It’s also a personal statement about the band itself.
Yep. 50 years, no personnel changes. That has to a record.
Yup. And I should have mentioned Bruce Hornsby. And Paul Simon's "Graceland" is arguably the most perfect song ever written in that decade.
Classic rock was 70’s. The 80’s had great music, too, but it wasn’t “classic rock.”
But... If I had to choose:
KEEP: #3 Rush-”Tom Sawyer” on the list.
REPLACE:
#5 with Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Couldn’t Stand the Weather.”
#8 with AC/DC’s “Back in Black.”
#4 with Def Leppard’s “Foolin’”
DUMP the rest.
ADD:
Triumph - “Lay It on the Line”
Deep Purple - “Perfect Strangers”
The Firm - “Midnight Moonlight”
Billy Thorpe - “Children of the Sun”
The Pretenders - “Mystery Achievement”
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
No talent POS. If not for his backup band, he’d have never gone anywhere.
Oh my god, is there any more smug, liberal tripe than "That's Just The Way It Is"?
Awesome guitar solo.
“Yep. 50 years, no personnel changes. That has to a record.”
No kidding!
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