For all the focus on the cheesy parts of the 80's, that was one of the best bands of the decade for me - unfortunately ending in tragedy for the guitarist D Boon after a couple fantastic albums.

Black Flag was pure aggression and "Six pack" I saw live in Sao Paulo with a Ramones super group circa 2001 - but they had something like 5 singers on their first 5 albums - a Greg Ginn project for the most part,

Wow! Thank you for the suggestion.

Her performances are an absolute smoke show.

Her phrasing and sensual musical performance beats any number of modern performers who had to resort to a lot more blatant dance moves in an effort to convey a similar vibe.

The Butthole Surfers, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, Ministry, My Bloody Valentine, all the amazing hip-hop from New York...Just to add a few more to the list.

The 80s was all about music going really portable and there needed to be "content" for all these devices. Is it any wonder that Sony became a big name in audio production? Add to that the massive technology changes with digital instruments and the wonderful ability of cocaine to lose objectivity...

I think a lot of bands were not happy with how their albums turned out, but they sold units and it's hard to imagine putting the brakes on when there is a paycheck. Just because you can put Random Hall on everything doesn't mean you should!

The 80s weren't all cheesey at all, but 80s cheese is so identifiable. Kind of like white rapping metal bands in the 90s, 00s. You groan a little bit whenever you hear you it, but if you were there, you understand why it existed and could find something else.

It's 6/8 or 12/8 depending on whether you want to feel it in 2's or 4's. Those time feels exist in Classical music, Blues, R&B, and rock to probably the same degree as they do in country music. It is very much a classic R&B feel that never went away. That that feel exists in country is likely a result of the blues and R&B influence on country.

The country visuals do appear to be a goof. Not necessarily satire, but maybe. Maybe making fun of today, not yesterday? Maybe just a non sequitur to be silly? The cigarette is there to confirm that it's not serious.

Actually, I was just joking... even though it's true.

White rapping over funk metal emerged in the mid-80s; it was happening in the Bay Area at the same time Primus was active, such as with the Limbomaniacs.

Yes, except citing Journey for this time feel is like citing Greta Van Fleet for hard rock.

No. If they were making records today, they'd demand modern production. All of their stuff has the production of the times it was made.

And this song is very well played by qualified, real human musicians.

I still prefer Ella and Aretha and the sounds of those old records. Because, like those records, I am old.

She had that smoky voice, which could be attributable to her 3-pack-a-day habit like Nat King Cole had.

I think she's one of the most sultry singers at that time, when most songs were about wanting to make whoopee without actually saying it.

And today I learned something! Thank you!

Yeah. I heard the triplets and jumped to 3/4 without paying much attention. Same result.

Some were - actually a lot were. But there were some good ones.

Today to me they represent how fake things are now and back then the beginning of rock music with a majority female audience...

Anyways, the Yamaha CP-80 Electric Grand Piano and the CP-70 too were one of the highlights for me of the 80's in terms of keyed instruments.

I live on an island and out of the question now, though I'd be tempted if a good one was nearby.

Journey is the beginning of rock music?

Wouldn't that be Beatlemania? And in the pop sphere, Tom Jones, and in R&B, Teddy Pendergrass?

It's like Ike Turner and Little Richard never existed...

I have to admin. I always hated Journey. I still don't get why they got revived with the new generation. Don't get me wrong, I have a huge amount of respect for Steve Petty's vocal abilities, but man do I hate their music.

You can blame Don't Stop Believin'.

In my crowd in the 80's, the Beatles were neutral - not like the lop sided things that happened soon after Journey like Def Leppard.

Tom Jones, and in R&B, Teddy Pendergrass ... I'd say those 80's bands were much more successful in terms of arena audiences in their respective eras and even legacy.

my father would not have gotten so far as to listen to the lyrics of any of my records. He would dismiss it all as "a bunch of noise" and say things like: "the drums carry the melody". Which I assume he thought was huge insult that would make me feel bad.

This thread is my dad in a nutshell:

"my music = good .... your music = bad"

my gast is absolutely flabbered as to how many people willingly pass along this thing - to the next generation as if they cannot even recall it being done to them.

Hold on to that fee-ee-ee-eeling?

Calling the monkey song good was a stretch, but it's not bad. There's a reason it was popular. The point is, at least you remember it. Doesn't really matter what you are remembered for, as long as you are remembered.

I'm kind of surprised it was that Journey song which endured as it was forgettable when it came out and faded quick.

The Safety Dance was pretty huge and pretty cheesy ... not much of a synth patch but catchy - about the worst moment of the decade for me.

How about this Monkey Song?

It is from the 80s.



Or the Jam & Lewis remix version of this George Michael song:

I love Peter Gabriel. Because Adolf builds a bonfire, Enrico plays with it.

How do you play with a bonfire? Always wondered about that one, it's a big black cow.

It got featured in a bunch of TV shows, most notably the Sopranos in their finale episode.

It was also played in many stadiums at sporting events. When the SF Giants went through their WS run it was played constantly, often with huge Giants fan Steve Perry leading the sing along.

Yeah that's an interesting one, the song "Games without Frontiers" named after the European TV Show competition.

Made me look up some information about the rather disturbing lyrics I did not know about:

"Gabriel and Fast had read a book by Michael Herr titled Dispatches, which recounted Herr's experiences and observations from the Vietnam War, including one story of an American urinating on a dead Vietnamese soldier. This scene, which Fast believed was a reflection of the actions that American soldiers found permissible and excusable, inspired the line "pissing on goons in the jungle".[12] Gabriel said that the names in the song were "meaningless, but they do have certain associations with them".[10] The lyrics "Adolf builds a bonfire/Enrico plays with it" echo lines from Evelyn Waugh's V-J Day diary ("Randolph built a bonfire and Auberon fell into it").[14]"

"Enrico Fermi (Italian: [enˈriːko ˈfermi]; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age"[1] and the "architect of the atomic bomb".[2] He was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical and experimental physics. Fermi was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. With his colleagues, Fermi filed several patents related to the use of nuclear power, all of which were taken over by the US government. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics."

I guess the name *Adolf needs no explanation . .


(*Gee, I wonder why that boy's name became unpopular?)

Chicago also did their part to stink up the '80s.

Occasionally I hear that one song, After all the who you've been through.... I still don't know what the fk they are saying. They were legit at one point, way before my time.

Cetera did double duty then.

Journey had good album covers. Gotta give em that.

I like this Peter Gabriel song from 2002. The break sounds like a James Bond movie, the bass and drums kick ass and the chorus has shades of Red Rain.