Letting it out: My 80ies Guilty Pleasure ...

[uwe]

I know, I know, U2, Simple Minds, Duran Duran and The Alarm all rolled into one, but I really liked (and continue to) that song and the album it was on:





This is quite lovely to, the chord changes from verse to chorus appeal to my strict perceptions in such matters, move over Kurt Cobain:



Much as I squint my ears I can barely hear the keyboard entering here at 0.22, we definitely need more keyboard ...  

[gearHed289]

Nothin wrong with the 80s! 

[uwe]

Back then, wild boys wore leather and wielded Kubickis ...



I admit getting my Kubicki because of him!

[westen44]

This song always kind of baffled me.  Seriously, WTF?  Only in the 80s could something like this happen. 

[godofthunder]

 Love The Cult! Oh man The Alarm was my 80's band.  Walk Forever By My Side was our wedding song We got to see them for free at the University of Rochester, one of my favorite early memories of me and Cath.

[uwe]

All the more confounding because it was written by the two ABBA men and a radical departure from their previous work. Murray Head was Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, so he had experience in musicals. I was never sure whether I liked that song or not.  

[westen44]

All the more confounding because it was written by the two ABBA men and a radical departure from their previous work. Murray Head was Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, so he had experience in musicals. I was never sure whether I liked that song or not.  

It has a similar effect as Nordic Roots revival music on me.  I can find myself being strangely attracted to it but slightly repulsed at the same time.  Truly an odd, ambivalent feeling.  Although it's hard to find, "Brekken" by the Swedish band Hoven Droven is a good example. 

[TBird1958]

The Cult is likely my fave band ever............."Love" is an album that has never grown old for me - I still get goosebumps when  I hear "Sanctuary". "Electric" ain't too far behind it either.

As for guilty pleasures Duran Duran is my choice, I didn't much care for them back in the day but sure enjoy them a lot now.

[Granny Gremlin]

I know, I know, U2, Simple Minds, Duran Duran and The Alarm all rolled into one, but I really liked (and continue to) that song and the album it was on:

The 80s were very much my formative years as far as musical tastes go (thanks , oh goodness thanks, to the older kids in Scouting/summer camp; I dread what I'd be into otherwise), but I never heard of these guys.  Maybe they just never made it over the ocean .... or those older kids saw through them (they appear to be kinda pop distilations of the other bands you mention, heavily produced and somewhat manufactured looking - check out the melodramatic, even by 80s standards, moves in the first minute of that vid). Kinda like Loverboy or A Frankie Goes to Hollywood that takes themselves too seriously.  Also I can't stand that production style; very few songs from that period can overcome my hatred of it.

Love is classic, as mentioned in another thread I have just about every 12" version of SSS ever released including a demo version from era of the Cult's first record (Dreamtime; never really caught on, I think the producer just didn't klnow what to do with a green gothic rock band; Love hit the nail on the head).  I played it for a friend recently to show them how gothic they really used to be before Rick Rubin took over the production of Electric and made it into an archetype of rock riffage  vs (and I'll admit that many Cult fans would flame me for this) the indulgent wankfest that the original 'Manor Sessions'  for that record were... and what subsequent albums returned to; Sonic Temple wasn't too bad but then recording Ceremony in LA just brought it all back - I blame LA [read: coke]).

The 80s for me, besides the obvious huge acts (Clash, Cult, Cure.... what's with all the Cs... Joy Division/New Order, Depeche Mode, Smiths.. you all know them all) there were some really influential (to my generation of musicians) gems that aren't quitre as well known.  Like this one, which I think is the best of Joy Division and Talking Heads rolled into one.... still has that annoying mid-trebly bass tone though (I can forgive them for it; not as bad as most of their contemporaries in that regard anyways):



and these guys:



Basically after Joy Division, The Cure owes these last 2 a bit of money (so to speak, not literally... though I do maintain that Plainsong is an obvious rip off of JD's Atmosphere, right down to the wind chimes).

and my guilty pleasures (trying to get my band to do a punkish cover of the TT track actually.... yeah there's that annoying dated bass sound again, which always makes me picture some guy wearing a boutique Fenderish active bass up under his armpits, but the songwriting makes up for it by a country mile):

[uwe]

"check out the melodramatic, even by 80s standards, moves in the first minute of that vid"

Two words: Depeche Mode. Which singer did not want to be a bit like David Gahan in the eighties? This guy obviously did (or the director of the vid thought he should!).  I don't think Silent Running were manufactured or otherwise the Simple Minds wouldn't have taken them under their wing, a bit like Rush did with Max Webster. Not that it helped either Silent Running or Max Webster in the long run. The Sanctuary vid saw allegedly some MTV play, but then you weren't even alive back then, Jake!

[Granny Gremlin]

LOL, I was 9.  

David was much more awkward/not coached though.... and even though young me loved the band (and I still do), I always thought Mr Gahan was a bit of a lame duck depsite a good voice (his look before Music for the Masses was very nerdy and now dated in a bad way; the sandals were the worst.... everything that my mom wanted me to wear, she was involved in the fashion industry then, and also everything I got teased about, or I suspected I would be, at school - I had to keep my DM love secret from the class; it was all metalheads or B-boys).  Gore was always the hero in that band.

What's with me and my love of any guitarist with a White Falcon anyways?

[Denis]

The aforementioned bands are making me run, screaming, to visit other threads...

[TBird1958]

You couldn't even hear Joy Division or Depche Mode on the radio in Seattle in the '80s, no station played it. It's funny, until I came out as Veronica I really didn't visit dance clubs - that was my first exposure to a lot of '80s "Dance" music, it's not music I'd want to try and play as part of a band, but it sure is fun to dance to       

[Dave W]

The aforementioned bands are making me run, screaming, to visit other threads...

The 80s weren't a complete waste. There was Men Without Hats.

Feel better now? 

[Granny Gremlin]

The Safety Dance

Not quite as safe as advertised

And come now Dave, there's much worse 80s pop to pick on (including some other Canadian doozies, like the aforementioned Loverboy, Honeymoon Suite and Glass Tiger, who I briefly learned to almost like due to the insane amounts of airplay they were getting up here .... and lets not forget Bob Rock's old band The Payolas).

One 80s relic that helped reignite the local indie scene here in Toronto after punk fizzled out and is still well respected was The Pursuit of Happiness.  Dunno how well they did outside of Canada (I expect not well at all) but good stuff; fighting the good fight against the synthesizers and not that dated-sounding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&v=pSDF8VvU13M

That dancer is part of the band - just not so many backup vox in that track; not a sign of low budget T&A.  See also, Two Girls and Hard to Laugh.