A Dozen Great 1984 Singles

All included in Rolling Stone‘s 100 Best Singles of 1984: Pop’s Greatest Year website feature, published on that year’s 30th anniversary. Not a bad year for albums either, as I recall. Bryan Adams, “Run To You” Former glam-rocker/future schlockmeister from Canada, at his commercial and creative peak, borrows hard-popping six-string jangle from the Byrds via…

Smokin’ OPs

So I’m just about to stash away at the top of the closet the super-generous box of early ’80s OP magazines (the predecessor of the much more staid and seemingly market-researched Option) that Clifford Ocheltree gifted me through the mail last month (18 of the 26 alphabetically themed issues, in excellent condition), and I’m sitting…

Teena Marie mash note, 1991

Hadn’t intended to post this here (parts may or may not redundify my infamous top 10 writeup of Emerald City in Stairway to Hell), but Craig Seymour (self-identified “Black gay music critic, Writer/photographer/ archivist/activist, Author: Luther Vandross bio; All I Could Bare: My Life in Strip Clubs & more”) tweeted it yesterday, which makes posting…

How British is Kate Bush?

Chris Molanphy had a fascinating, typically deep-researched piece up on Slate today about Kate Bush’s four-decade road to a sizable U.S. pop hit, thanks finally to being heard on Stranger Things, one of my favorite TV shows though I’ve still yet to start the new season with “Running Up That Hill” in it. But I…

Post-Punk & New Pop Notes

One thing people really have to understand is that, when Simon Reynolds writes about “post-punk” or “new pop” in Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984, it doesn’t necessarily mean those phrases were widely used when that music actually existed — and if they were, they weren’t always used exactly as he defines them.…

Videos I’ve Loved Before

I didn’t notice until today, but last week Alfred Soto posted a list of his favorite music videos ever, after participating in an I Love Music poll calculating the top picks of lots of other folks. Realized I’ve never put together such a list, and I’m not sure how feasible it would be — my…

150 Best Albums of 1984

“This is the age of Genesis, the beginning. Of Genesis, of ‘Where’s the beef?’ and Cabbage Patch Dolls. Of benefits for Ethiopia, & Ethiopia jokes. Of Prince and the Revolution, David Bowie and the Police (always the age of the Beatles of course). Of teenage sex movies (Porky’s, Class, etc.) and of horror movies (Friday…

Two Salt-N-Pepa singles, 1988

Have been wanting to post this for quite a while now, but my hard copy is too blurry to be legible. Now that the Boston Phoenix archives are on line, though — problem solved! I hope. As for Salt-N-Pepa, one single I write about here became their first pop hit — and, let’s be honest,…

Cassettes! The Wave of the Future!

What’s most surprising now is that eight-track tapes were even still available at all by New Year’s Day, 1982 — or that eight-tracks were ever considered “venerable” in the first place. Nonetheless, plenty of good quaint context in this journalistically written college feature: Bow Wow Wow, R.O.I.R., Walkmen, “ghetto blasters,” smaller cars… Plus I like…

DOR! The Wave of the Future!

Posted more for socio-historical interest, than because it’s any good: A confusing college-daily-paper trend piece, conflating at least two different kinds of music (am I talking about new wave or talking about funk? why can’t I make up my mind?) and tossing in a questionable anti-disco subtext to make things even more disingenuous. Rap and…