Popdose - Latest Comments in Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

sfenn — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:41:54 -0000

I kind of like that Simon F song. He's one of those guys that was always in the pages of my Smash Hits magazine whom I had never heard. Until now. The backing vocals remind me more of Bowie's 'Absolute Beginners' than the Beach Boys. Maybe that's what I like.

Also digging the instrumentation of the 'Around the World in a Day'-era Prince on The Family tune. Might have to track down that record.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

steed — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:21:02 -0000

Oh, I got it. I thought you were talking about the first part. Now you just might be right.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

idogcow — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:24:42 -0000

Can still see the Felony clip from MV3 in my minds eye - esp. useful for illustrating the "...couple of them too..." line.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

twostepcub — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:28:54 -0000

hmm. oh wait I meant the second part of the clue wrote one of the songs this week... but I may STILL be wrong LOL

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

steed — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:59:11 -0000

Hmmm...I don't believe so.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

twostepcub — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:38:01 -0000

maybe you can rationalize that the "Fanatic" gets docked for being in the Pia Zadora vehicle "The Lonely Lady"...eh?

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

twostepcub — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:36:37 -0000

and writer of one of the songs this week, right?

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

steed — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:56:16 -0000

You have an original CD of The Family. Totally jealous. I only have the vinyl

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

breadalbane — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:57:10 -0000

Glad to see the love for Eddi Reader. She's fantastic. "Angels & Electricity" is my personal favourite ER album, but there's nary a bad one in the bunch.

Oh, and if you're thinking that her Robert Burns covers might be noble-but-uninvolving-folk-roots exercises, do yourself a favour a check them out. Burns earned his reputation as The People's Poet by being honest and direct, not fancy and high-falutin, and Reader (while still singing and arranging things gorgeously) honours that.

By the way, Joe Fagin sings the "As Time Goes By" theme, but he sure didn't write it -- it's the immortal Herman Hupfield classic made famous in "Casablanca".

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

steed — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:54:19 -0000

it took me a long time to enjoy that Fellini song - her voice really got to me for a good few years - but listening to it again as I was writing it up, it really isn't that bad of a tune.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

steed — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:51:40 -0000

I was definitely temped to put "The Fanatic" as the best, as I love that track, but I just can't get enough of the Thunderbirds.

Worst song was probably the easy choice in the 30 weeks I've done this. I find it amazing it was so easy to choose that song when Disco Evita was present.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

steed — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:48:05 -0000

That's a fine, fine guess. But not the answer. Although he could well represent this series, I kind of like him. The person I'm talking about is actually not an "F" artist but simply a collaborator one on the songs next week.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

Malchus — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:09:23 -0000

Wait, Felder's "Bad Girls" didn't even crack the top 100? No wonder he gave up on his solo career!

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

DDay — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:35:31 -0000

Wow, what a brilliant post this week.
Wrap It Up: I had completely forgotten how brilliant the Thunderbirds were! Thx for reminding me.
Donald Fagen: I'm a huge fan, so always nice to see these tracks reintroduced. Pure class.
The Family: I didn't even know this charted. And yes, as a Prince collector I do have an original CD copy :-)
Fat Boys: couldn't agree with you more. They're underrated, and certainly not (only) a novelty act.
Richard 'Dimples' Fields: what a discovery. Never heard this track before, but it's awesome.
FYC: brilliant, brilliant group. Their The Raw & The Cooked album is a classic.

As for the cover songs, I quite like Figures On A Beach (first time heard as well), let's not talk about the others :-)

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

Flaregun — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:36:08 -0000

I also look forward to wayback Wednesdays for bottom feeders. Here is my take on the letter F and more QUICK HITS:
Best song(s): Tie between FYC “I’m Not the Man I Used to Be” and Felony "The Fanatic"
Worst song: Far Corporation, “Stairway to Heaven” (you nailed it!)

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

ElCartero — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:05:08 -0000

"I know the second part of the clue (which is ironic given one of the songs this week) but clueless on the first part."

Let me take a guess on the first one: Jim Steinman (Fire Inc.) Am I a winnah?

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

Steve — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:34:36 -0000

I look foward to the Bottom Feeders posts. There's always an obscurity listed that I had long forgotten. "Century's End" is an example.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

wags — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:15:10 -0000

So much to comment on here Dave so I'll try to be concise:

I largely agree with you about iPod/iTunes comments. If I hadn't been given one as a gift I don't think I'd still be using it especially since there seem to be so many mp3 players on the market at much more reasonable pricing. I see one of the commenters sorted you out on some of the issues. But even those things mean that iTunes is user-UNfriendly -- which I thought was supposed to be Apple's big claim to fame. And I'm glad to learn that you can add file under info but it does seem like that should be coded in the songs. And you didn't even cover one of my biggest gripes which is say I download and mp3 from here and I want to listen to it on the iPod instead of just on the home computer. I've got to manually import each track so that iTunes can create a whole new file -- wasting memory on my windows machine as it duplicates the track into its proprietary format instead of just being able to read and play music files.

Sheesh. I've lost my steam. Anyway, I didn't know that Stairway to Heaven had been covered in the 80s. I sorta wish you could take that track back out of my head. Though, it wasn't until after this track came out that I became aware of Led Zeppelin so if the Far Corporation has any connection to revival of Zep, which in my opinion, saved "popular" music as we moved in the 90s, I'll give them some props for that. I still never want to hear it again. ;-)

And I'll give you some props Dave for introducing me to the hidden gems by Felony, Suzanne Fellini and Cee Farrow. Never heard them before now and they were all pretty good.

Finally I can definitely see a young Snoop Dogg being influenced by Dimples... good connection!

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

JP — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:51:47 -0000

Re: Richard "Dimples" Fields...the 45 version of "If It Ain't One Thing..." is far better...it actually fades down just before he starts quoting the Bible verbatim.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

twostepcub — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:50:28 -0000

wow. Now I have to go scrounge for the "Just Say Yes" comp sire records used to put out that had "No Stars" on it. It's down somewhere in the basement. Thirds on the awesomeness.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

twostepcub — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:49:01 -0000

OK, Toto and Zep have merged and a new portal to hell has arrived. All beware.

Jeez now all I can hear is "stairway to heaven" mashup with "Africa", which it basically is.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

arensb — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:01:10 -0000

Wouldn't that button give you all the foreign artists, though?

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

Pete — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:53:21 -0000

Also, on the main menu of the iPod, under Settings, is a shuffle option. If you change that to "Songs", and then select the playlist you want to listen to, no matter what song you select to start with the rest will be shuffled and not play them in the original set order. This setting works also when you choose all the songs by a certain artist as well.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

jefito — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:56:49 -0000

Count me in for the Eddi bandwagon, too -- as well as the "Weightlifting" love. As for the last BC record, I was partial to "See You," but I think that's probably due to a personality flaw on my part.

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

jack — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:30:16 -0000

I'm with you Jon. I first heard "Perfect" on a trip to England, where it was a much bigger hit at the time. Took me years to find it stateside after I returned (damn pre-internet world. How did we ever survive?!?!?). Her solo albums are amazing, and her duet with Stuart Adamson of "Fragile Thing" on Big Country's Driving to Damascus CD is beautiful.

I also love her brother's band Trashcan Sinatras. They're last release "Weightlifting" had at least three "in a perfect world this would have been a hit" songs.