DISQUS

Popdose: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 35 | Popdose

  • jabartlett · 10 months ago
    About the Georgio cover: Sexappeal fail.
  • DwDunphy · 10 months ago
    Meth lab chic?
  • Jeff · 10 months ago
    Man, I forgot how good that Bob Geldof album was. I think that my favorite track is August was a Heavy Month, but this one brought back good memories, too.
  • Ray · 10 months ago
    Another Geldof track that actually had a single release in '87 was "Love Like a Rocket". Got a little airplay in Chicago on Z95, apparently never charted nationally though.
  • rob · 10 months ago
    The Robin George album was released by Island on clear red vinyl. ("Heartline" was the title track. Get it?). We got it at our radio station and it broke after a couple of spins. Seems that specialty vinyl had some endurance issues.

    That said, the tuneful second song off the album – "Spy" – is one of my guilty pleasures from the 80s.
  • David_E · 10 months ago
    With Dan Huff at the wheel, Giant should've been greater. Still, I've always liked "Innocent Days" and "I'll See You In My Dreams," in a kind of "Hey, shouldn't this be Honeymoon Suite?" kinda way.
  • scrumble · 10 months ago
    "Shipwrecked" by Ray Wilson-era Genesis would have been a good one for this series--uh, had it not come out in 1997, and actually charted. But a ballad better than most that did. At least you get the sense of how hard they were trying to find a new Peter Gabriel who would sing Phil Collins-style songs:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8xiyx9BuB0
  • steed · 10 months ago
    I never realized there was a video for "shipwrecked" - that album really isn't terrible, but there's nothing I couldn't live without.
  • eddie · 10 months ago
    I used to buy so many $1 records there in the 80s, when the store was on Nassau St right where the anthrax mailbox was discovered recently. I remember that Gene Ween worked there back then. Most of the $1s were 70s records and it was fun to take a chance on an act I never heard of, or hear what other songs sounded like from one-hit-wonders like Stories or Steelers Wheel or whoever
  • Mike · 10 months ago
    Prex is the devil. Last time I went in there, I came out with about 40 CDs (and a couple slabs of vinyl) for about $30 (including the hundred bucks or so of stuff I traded in). Now THAT's a record store.
  • steed · 10 months ago
    I love the fact that half the population that walks in that store brings in a billion CD's to trade and walks out with another billion. The amount they must be making on that is kind of nuts. And I love the fact they give you more in trade than cash. Spend it right now and we'll give you an extra $20. That's great. If I were to ever open a record store, I would only hope for half of what Prex has. Every record store should look at that model and copy it exactly.
  • JonCummings · 10 months ago
    I've been waiting for this week, just to get my hands on a file of "Concealed Weapons." Not that it's such a great song, but it brings back memories of the week that album came out and my friend Robert rushed right out to buy it. The disappointment was soon palpable, but we did have a good time for a week repeating the chorus incessantly--"Concealed weapons? Concealed WEAPONS?"
  • Malchus · 10 months ago
    At long last, I can create my own soundtrack to "The Sure Thing" now that I have a copy of the hard to find "Concealed Weapons."

    And "Battleship Chains?" One of the best rock songs of the 80's.
  • jefito · 10 months ago
    You fuckers, "Concealed Weapons" was part of the J. Geils Band Idiot's Guide that ran all those months ago.
  • Malchus · 10 months ago
    What? That can't be true. Otherwise I would have a copy! I have every single song that was part of that Idiot's Guide.
  • David_E · 10 months ago
    He speaketh the truth. That's when I downloaded it, listened once and shuddered.

    Then deleted.
  • jefito · 10 months ago
    Thank you, David. Everyone is an asshole except for you.
  • JonCummings · 10 months ago
    Dude, I wasn't even reading music blogs when you ran that Idiot's Guide. And just look at me now, ma! Top o' the world!
  • JonCummings · 10 months ago
    Actually, I just checked your publication date, and I WAS reading blogs by then. So I am an asshole. Like I didn't know it already.
  • Ted · 10 months ago
    I agree that "Fright Night" was the worst track featured. I saw that movie when it came out, and I have no idea where this song was featured ... maybe the end credits.

    I have (or maybe had) a version of "This is the World Calling" that was a bit different from the one you feature here. Maybe it's a "radio edit" and that's why the mix is a little different, but I don't recall that guitar intro in the version I used to have.
  • steed · 10 months ago
    I'm shocked "Fright Night" is on DVD. It's been added to my netflix list now. I don't believe I've ever seen it myself.

    I don't have the Geldof album to compare this MP3 to it. But this is not the version released on the 45 - that's a little dancier, doesn't include the guitar intro as you mentioned and is actually labeled as a "special remix of the LP version".
  • Eric S. · 10 months ago
    I would have given J. Geils both the best and worst songs as I love "Just Can't Wait". I can't believe it only hit #78. It was all over my college radio station in 1980.

    I didn't get the self-destructing red vinyl version of Robin George's "Heartline", so I still have the album in my collection. I listened to it enough that I bought the CD when it was reissued.
  • steed · 10 months ago
    Another damn record I need to get. I too don't have the disintegrating vinyl version - but I'm sure it will be on it's way soon - if any are still alive today.
  • Keith · 10 months ago
    Been following this hidden gem of a series on the web, and what a great installment this week. To emphasize how much of a nerd I was as a teenager in the 80's, I actually used to make my own hot 100 chart of favorites every week. "Mama" (#7), "Battleship Chains" (#7), and "Heartline" (#10) all reached my personal top 10. The Giant Steps tune creeped into my top 20, and I've always liked Giant. The live version of "Turn It On Again" is even better than the studio version. And for the record, Georgio never appeared on my chart. Don't think I have ever heard those before now, actually.
  • EightE1 · 10 months ago
    Somewhere in my life there is a box with all my old self-penned weekly Top Tens from, like, '81 to '84 (albums and singles). Never did a Hot 100 (no offense, but you're a bigger nerd than I was), but proof of my early adolescent desire to be the next Casey Kasem is somewhere in this house.

    On with the countdown ...

    Rob
    EightE1
  • JonCummings · 10 months ago
    Geeks.

    Actually, at the time "Mama" was on Keith's personal Top 10, I was probably at the college library tracking Billboard Hot 100 charts from the '60s on microfiche, instead of going on dates. So you've got nothing on me,
  • steed · 10 months ago
    I was reading this back myself yesterday and I do agree that this is one of better weeks overall.

    Until I started my collection, I had never heard those Georgio songs either.
  • JonCummings · 10 months ago
    Dave, you do NOT want to start collecting every charting country hit from the '80s. There's too much utter crap involved. Save your money and take a vacation to Branson instead, and you can hear a lifetime's worth of yucky music in a weekend.

    That said, I continue to harbor untold reserves of affection for the Judds, and you gotta give '80s country credit for making room for both early Dwight Yoakam and early Steve Earle. And if you think about it, between Dwight and Steve and Randy Travis and those people, the whole New Traditionalist thing of the late '80s was to "countrypolitan" what punk was to flabby-assed '70s AOR. (In a corporatized, cowboy-hatted way, of course.)
  • steed · 10 months ago
    I'm seriously trying to get through these ones I bought now - trying to do one record every morning as I'm getting my son ready for day care and it's just not working. It's just total shit. I did get two Steve Earle records in the mix - Guitar Town and Copperhead Road - which are mighty different and probably the most tolerable of what I got. It's when I'm listening to Moe Bandy, Mel McDaniel and Ballie & The Boys that I can't stand it. I realize the utter crap point too - and yet I'm still torn. I've never bought a record for my collection because it's good, I buy to complete what I started - this is why I'm scared at country, because I don't even know if I could get anywhere near completing what I started.
  • ElCartero · 10 months ago
    My advice is don't do it, Dave. Not only is too much of it bilge, but if you look at those '80s charts, a lot of the songs down on the lower end are by barely-known artists on small labels that probably only got regional play, and who knows how tough THOSE are to find now.
  • chadwicktron · 10 months ago
    I'm an eighties dork, but who the f*#k is Georgio? I even remember asong the "Solid Gold" male dancers did, but Georgio?
  • steed · 10 months ago
    AND, he was able to chart three songs. I honestly don't know if there's another artist in this series so far that so many people have said to me they've never heard of.
  • JonthePrexguy · 10 months ago
    Hey Dave,

    I have a Google blog alert for our store and stumbled on to your amazing site after you mentioned us. Thanks for the kind words about our store (especially since I know we have caused you emotional and economic pain;) ) I am extremely impressed with the loving care and hard work you have put into this blog...big kudus to you.

    Next time you're in, please introduce yourself. It would be great to meet you.

    I'd also like to give a big thanks to your other readers who chimed in about their experiences here...it's a lot of fun to hear people's thoughts about us.

    Regards,
    Jon Lambert
    General Manager
    Princeton Record Exchange
    jlambert@prex.com
  • steed · 10 months ago
    Trust me - more economic pain than anything else. If you've been there a while, I'm sure we've met at some point - back when I was music director at WTSR and skipped class to come twice a week. '98-99 maybe. But yeah, man - I'll say hello next time I come by.

    Thanks for the kind words and for running such a gem of a business.
  • Chris X · 10 months ago
    Maybe I'm alone in this, but I definitely dig "Fright Night"...I even spin it at my annual Halloween DJ gig. The movie is pretty good too. It genuinely scared me back then, and I just rewatched it about a year ago and still found it enjoyable.