Life Songs: the ’80s part two

I’m back! Sick as a dog, can’t go out (missing a gorgeous day out there too), so thought I’d continue with the Life Songs project.

1983

• Bauhaus – She’s In Parties; Night Time — Great sound. Not sure what to say about these two tracks. Night Time is a cover (and we all know how good their covers are), maybe my favourite ever Bauhaus song.
  
• David Bowie – Modern Love — My favourite track from this album. Stylish bugger. Love a man in a suit.
  

• Divinyls – Science Fiction — Ignore that later hit they had, about touching and whatnot. This one’s where it’s at. It’s so sweet.
  
• Eurythmics – Love Is A Stranger — I think I like this one so much because of what it’s saying. I think I agree that love is a danger of a different kind.
  
• The Fall – Eat Y’self Fitter — Mark E. Smith and his little group. Sort of an awful song. But it’s constantly stuck in my head.
  
• Fixx – One Thing Leads To Another; The Sign Of Fire; Running; Saved By Zero; Reach The Beach; Liner – Just get the entire Reach The Beach album, it’s perfection. Especially Liner for some reason, I’ve always really loved that one. Really reminds me of Sunday afternoons in the Campus Centre.
  
• A Flock Of Seagulls — Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) — So much better than I Ran, actually quite romantic and sad.
  
• Freur – Doot Doot — Strangely, I’d forgotten about this song for a while, then found a mixed tape I’d made 15 years ago and it all came flooding back. How could it have ever left my mind?
  
• INXS – The One Thing; Don’t Change — One Thing is sexy. Don’t Change is heartfelt. Both are completely worthy.
  
• Kajagoogoo – Too Shy — Now I know what you’re thinking. Such a bubblegum song, really? But think about it. Yes, it’s a bit bubblegum, but it’s also got a sound that was sort of unique (not for long, of course), and Limahl had a great voice. And his awesomeful (awesome+awful) hair.
  

• Men At Work – Overkill; It’s A Mistake — Two of their best songs ever. Have you heard Colin Hay’s solo acoustic version of Overkill? Beautiful.
  
• Models – I Hear Motion — I might never have heard this if I’d never seen Young Einstein, which was a ridiculous little movie with an AWESOME soundtrack.
  
• Robert Plant – Big Log — Lovely American dusty twang to this one, tumbleweeds and scorpions and suchlike. Mournful.
  
• Police – Synchronicity; Wrapped Around Your Finger; Tea In The Sahara; Once Upon A Daydream — Synchronicity was an awesome album that basically took over the airwaves when it was released. Why isn’t Every Breath You Take here? Because, honestly, I got so sick of people thinking it was romantic and requesting it for their girlfriends “because I love her” that I honestly would be fine if I never heard it again.
  
• Public Image Ltd. – This Is Not A Love Song — Awesome song to dance to, I much prefer the original version to the re-released version.
  
• Tangerine Dream – Love On A Real Train — Not a song per se, moody and emotional and evocative. And, of course, memorable for that sex scene in Risky Business.
  
• Tears For Fears – The Hurting; Mad World; Pale Shelter; Change; Start Of The Breakdown — The Hurting was an amazing album, almost every track a winner. All angst and tears. Breakdown is my latest fave of the bunch. There have been some very good covers of Mad World, but this will always be my favourite.
  
• The The – Perfect — I must admit I prefer the version off Soul Mining to the original single, I don’t care if that makes me a heathen.
  
• Tom Tom Club – Pleasure of Love — “He was oh-oh-oh over me, oh-oh-oh”
  
• Violent Femmes – Please Do Not Go — No party in high school was complete without Violent Femmes (or Beat), and this one’s my favourite. When you get past the awkwardness and less than perfect singing, at its core it’s a sweet plea from a lad in love.
  
• Tom Waits – Frank’s Wild Years — This will always be the ultimate Tom Waits song for me. Reminds me of living in Vancouver. Never could stand that dog.
  
• Neil Young & The Shocking Pinks – Wonderin’ — Love the song. Love the video too, he looks like a completely insane Jack Nicholson. And the guy in the middle looks like Gary Kroeger.
  
• Frank Zappa – The Dangerous Kitchen — If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. Kinda makes me afraid of my dishrack.
  

1984

• Laurie Anderson – Gravity’s Angel — There are so many great tracks on Mister Heartbreak but I think this is my current fave. Not sure I can explain why.
  
• Art Of Noise – Close (To The Edit) — Hey! Hey! Hey! There really wasn’t anything like Art Of Noise when this was out, and it was a surprising hit. The video with the teeny little punk girl was awesome.
  
• David Bowie – Blue Jean — Somebody send me! Tonight wasn’t really my favourite Bowie album, I thought it was a bit patchy (might have to re-listen), but Blue Jean was a stand-out.
  
• The Box – Must I Always Remember — I honestly don’t know if anyone outside of Canada ever heard this song. If you haven’t, give it a listen. There’s an edginess here masquerading as pop.
  

• Cocteau Twins – Ivo; Lorelei; Persephone; Pandora — Just listen to all of Treasure. You’re welcome.
  
• Lisa Dalbello – Gonna Get Close To You — The first time I heard this, I was watching that video show on 47 (the same one that introduced me to Robert Palmer’s Clues, see the post on 1980). She was so severe-looking, but I couldn’t stop watching, and this song was etched into my brain along with the visual. Don’t listen to covers, they’re all wrong. Also, apparently her guitarist lived upstairs from us when I was little.
  
• Dalis Car – The Judgement Is The Mirror — Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) and Mick Karn (Japan) teamed up for one album, this was the single. I think it still stands up, others might disagree. Apparently a second album is in the works...
  

• Thomas Dolby – Dissident; Screen Kiss; I Scare Myself — The Flat Earth is my absolute favourite Dolby album, and Screen Kiss is my favourite song from it. It’s gutwrenching, it’s heartbreaking, it’s gorgeousness and gorgeousity, as one might say. I am on the verge of tears every time I hear it.
  
• Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon — Everyone remembers it from Donnie Darko. For me, it will always be a car song, my friend Mike and I used to drive around and this song was almost always on.
  
• Joe Jackson – Be My Number Two — You must know how I feel about Joe Jackson by now. This song is so incredibly sad. I much prefer the live version off his Live 1980–1986 album, it’s got less instrumentation and is carried by just his voice and piano.
  
• Kid Creole & The Coconuts – My Male Curiosity — The man makes no excuse for himself, why do they stay with him? But you gotta love a man in a zoot suit, and hairy armpitted girls in disco ball bikinis...
  
• King Crimson – Three Of A Perfect Pair; Sleepless — I’ve already mentioned how much I loved this lineup, their edges all fit together so well. Love Adrian Belew’s voice with them too, these are two excellent examples.
  
• Level 42 – The Chant Has Begun — Most people remember this song from 1985’s World Machine, but it was on True Colours first. My brother was really into them and already had some of their cassettes at this time so of course I was also into them.
  
• Malcolm McClaren – Madame Butterfly — I’d never heard of him before this (didn’t really grow up with The Sex Pistols, but started hearing this one and seeing the video, and it was just so different from anything else out there. Wasn’t quite an obsession, more of a slow-burner.
  
• Midnight Oil – Best Of Both Worlds — Oils can be so demanding. Just give in.
  
• Parachute Club – At The Feet Of The Moon — A far superior song to Rise Up. Not to knock that of course, but this one had more going on. I don’t remember them having anything after this...
  
• Prince & The Revolution – I Would Die 4 U — A more recent favourite. It demands that you dance.
  
• Public Image Ltd. – The Order Of Death — From the Hardware soundtrack, which was an odd little movie with an odd little cast and an awesome soundtrack. No depth, goes on for a bit, too repetitive for most I’m sure. Still, I love it.
  

• Pukka Orchestra – Listen To The Radio; Might As Well Be On Mars; Cherry Beach Express; Rubber Girl — Happy little Toronto band — popped up, put out an album (including one song that the Toronto Police REALLY didn’t like) and then disappeared again. Still a favourite, listened to them again just yesterday.
  
• Queen – I Want To Break Free — My love of this song was initially powered by the outrageousness of the video (which, in hindsight, was actually very tame). Freddie Mercury made just the UGLIEST GIRL. But the song is almost always in my head. Is that a comment on my life? Not sure.
  
• Les Rita Mitsouko – Marcia Baila — Never heard it on the radio, never saw it on TV before the 90s — a friend made a tape for me, and that was it. I was officially a fan. Bizarre videos, ever-changing music, awesome.
  
• Rush – Afterimage; Red Sector A; Between The Wheels — Another departure from past style for the boys, still with some keyboard elements, but with different styles coming in. Loved the themes too.
  
• Sheila E. – The Glamorous Life – Yeah, secret shame. Deal. And from the opposite end of the spectrum...
  
• Skinny Puppy – Smothered Hope — I think this was the first Skinny Puppy song I ever heard. I’m sure I hated it at first. But one of my friends was really into them so I gave it some time. Glad I did — they were a staple for me from about 1991–1996, and I still have a bunch of vinyl. Really should digitize it all soon...
  
• Spinal Tap – Gimme Some Money; Cups And Cakes; (Listen To The) Flower People — Come on, you love them. Don’t deny it. They go to eleven!
  

1985

• Big Audio Dynamite — The Bottom Line; E=MC² — The horses are on the track!
  

• The Box – L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me) — Not really your typical radio fare, but L’Affaire was a surprising hit for them.
  
• Kate Bush — Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God); Hounds Of Love; Cloudbusting; Under Ice — Got it on cassette for my 16th birthday. Listened to it until the tape died. Then started borrowing it from the local library. Their copy was in pink splatter vinyl, I seriously thought of stealing it, I mean seriously how did that end up in the library?
  
• The Cure — Close To Me — Who doesn’t love that one?
  
• The Damned — Grimly Fiendish — Transformed from a punk band into a goth band in one album, really. Such a fun song.
  
• Falco — Vienna Calling — What, you only know Rock Me Amadeus? Give it a listen.
  
• Fine Young Cannibals — Johnny Come Home — Awesome song. Two Beat boys + a model with an awesome voice = constant favourite.
  
• The Firm — Radioactive — Such an awesome song. I can still listen to it over and over. Powerful and sexy. Don’t honestly remember anything else off the album.
  

• Images In Vogue — In The House; Call It Love; Save It; Lust For Love — First band I ever saw live. Looking back, they were a little too whiney, maybe trying a bit too hard, but the results were worth it.
  
• INXS — Listen Like Thieves; This Time — Why do the men who are sex on legs always end up crazy or dead? Have I mentioned this before?
  
• Grace Jones — Slave To The Rhythm — Produced by Trevor Horn, who’s got magic. Truly excellent song.
  
• Killing Joke — Love Like Blood — Absolute necessity for any great dance night (my kind of dancing of course). Very powerful. Obsessed with it in university, the Skinny White Demon is to blame for that.
  
• Level 42 – Something About You; Good Man In A Storm; Leaving Me Now; Hot Water — The aforementioned World Machine album, was a massive hit here. I played that cassette into dust.
  
• Pigbag — Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag — Hey, it’s the theme to The New Music! Well, that’s all I knew it as until a friend informed me differently. Be careful in a dance club if you hear this, you will have to dance until you fall over...
  

• Stanard Ridgway — Pick It Up; Can’t Stop The Show; Drive She Said; Salesman — As awesome as Wall Of Voodoo were, Ridgway’s solo work surpasses it by leaps and bounds. Thanks to my friend Ben (yay!) I have a crisp digital copy of the vinyl of Drive She Said, which is SO MUCH BETTER than the CD release, I had no idea I was missing all those layers!
  
• Rush — Mystic Rhythms — I had a full-on obsession with this song for a couple of years. And the video. I love stripped down music, but I also love piled-on music — and there’s so much going on in this one.
  
• Sisters Of Mercy — Walk Away — The soundtrack to my first year at university.
  
• Siouxsie & The Banshees — Cities In Dust — Ever see the film Out Of Bounds? The Banshees have a cameo, playing in a bar, playing this song. It’s my favourite Siouxsie song.
  
• Skinny Puppy — Assimilate — Good, wholesome Vancouver boys, who really, really don’t like animal testing.
  
• Sting — We Work The Black Seam — Dream Of The Blue Turtles made me incredibly happy, not just because I was in love with Sting. There were so many different styles on display on this album. This one’s my current fave, but I could switch to another in a wink.
  
• Talking Heads — Road To Nowhere — Strangely happy. I feel like it shouldn’t be.
  
• Tears For Fears — Everybody Wants To Rule The World — Honestly I wasn’t sure I’d include this song, I mean The Hurting was so good, and I don’t feel like Songs From The Big Chair is comparable (more money and more production doesn’t make a better album). But there’s no denying that Rule The World is catchy and addictive, and I love Curt Smith’s voice in this one.
  
• Pete Townshend — Face The Face — Remember this one? It was excellent. So different from other Townshend I was familiar with. And so much fun! Bouncy even. And his cute daughter in the video, aaaw... (Do I remember that right?)
  

• Tom Waits — Singapore; Clap Hands; Jockey Full Of Bourbon; Rain Dogs; Downtown Train — seriously, just get Rain Dogs, the whole album is a joy. And leave Rod Stewart out of it, please.
  
• Waterboys — Whole Of The Moon — I feel like the lyrics are too simplistic, but at the same time the imagery is fantastic. It always makes me happy.
  
• Yello — Oh Yeah — Lisa and I, sitting beside each other in Economics class, distracting each other from the tedious subject.
  

What did you think, anything else you would have included? I left a bunch out so as not to have a MASSIVE LIST. I’ve made most-of-it lists over on Grooveshark for 1983, 1984 and 1985, should you want it all that way…

Also, it’s David Bowie’s birthday today, and also Stephen Hawking’s, so everyone have some cake for them.

Next time, 1986!

Previously: Life Songs: ’70s; Life Songs: ’70s, additional; Life Songs: The ’80s, Part One. Did you miss them?