Popdose: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 54
Rob
· 5 months ago
Damn, this was a good week.
Los Lobos. Lone Justice. Living Color. And (oh yes) one of my favorite songs of all time, "Forever" by Little Stee and the Disciples of Soul. Besides all the E-Streeters, the band also featured the late Jean Beauvoir, formerly of the Plasmatics, a BFTAEOTE alum and one-time Ramones producer. This song still gives me shivers to this day. Myself? I love Little Steven's vocals on this. I forgot: Did Stevie's "Sun City" already get covered or did it actually hit the top 40 despite all the white stations refusing to play it because of all the rappers?
I met Vernon Reid of Living Color once at the New Music Seminar a while ago. A great guitarist and truly a nice and down-to-earth guy.
My long-neglected blog, Play It and Be Damned (see the Popdose blogroll), has a story about my encounter with Lisa Lisa, Cult Jam and Full Force back in the day – and how I got a new measure of respect for them. At least in the case of Full Force. If you think about it, they were pretty groundbreaking. And their stuff doesn't sound as dated as other hits from the 80s. That said, I agree with you: Their non-hits were nowhere near as good as their hits.
But I'm sorry. I can't agree with you about Kenny Loggins. I'll take Michael McDonald over him any day.
steed
· 5 months ago
I agree, I think this is a very good week.
"Sun City" actually went to #38 - so not part of the series.
I'll have to go read the story about Lisa Lisa. I agree, I love a lot of the Full Force work I just wonder where they really missed the mark. Something should have come together to make them bigger than they were.
David_E
· 5 months ago
Petty's version of "Ways To Be Wicked" absolutely rocks, and it's worth searching out for any fans of McKee's cover. Especially fun are the liner notes (it's part of the Playback box set), where Petty chuckles his way through the memory of McKee taking endless shit during live performances for singing his line "You ain't afraid to let me have it. You ain't afraid to stick it in."
My timeline is all messed up. I simply can't remember a world where the Little River Band shared a chart (85) with Lisa Lisa.
David_E "David_E" David_E Popdose Comments
Mike
· 5 months ago
*I grew up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood that spawned Full Force, and it was not uncommon for a wildly expensive car driven by Bow Legged Lou or one of the other Full Force guys (they had the best stage names in the business) to barrel down the street in mid-afternoon, interrupting the street touch-football game that my friends and I had set up. Aside from the obvious Brooklyn pride, I always thought Full Force were an underrated band. Not only did they write and produce Lisa Lisa's run of hits, but they also produced a couple of other guilty pleasure hits, like UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne" and Samantha Fox's "Naughty Girls Need Love Too" and "I Wanna Have Some Fun". Their own albums weren't bad either, I have a Greatest Hits comp of theirs that I still spin occasionally to this day.
*I, like Rob, had the pleasure of meeting Vernon Reid, who also grew up not very far from me in Brooklyn. Meeting him was one of my favorite celebrity-encounter moments of all time, not only because he was an extremely nice person, but also because I got to (very inarticulately) tell him how Living Colour turned me on to hard rock music as a kid. They were the first rock band I saw that looked like me.
*You forgot to mention the coolest thing about Kenny Loggins' "I'll Be There"! El DeBarge sings co-lead vocals on that song, pairing two of the smoothest pop/soul vocalists around for the first and only time!!
steed
· 5 months ago
Aw - son-of-a-bitch. I missed a chance for another El Debarge sighting.
OJ Incandenza
· 5 months ago
Re Living in a Box: the only other time I remember that happening was Art in America's "Art in America", off 'Art in America'.
And ... damn. Maybe my least favorite Living Colour song (excepting Collideoscope, which never did it for me), but no "Middle Man", no "Solace of You", no "Elvis is Dead", nothing at all from Type or Stain anywhere near the Top 100. That's too bad.
Matt
· 5 months ago
Damn, you beat me to it. Too bad Black Sabbath never made a video. And Talk Talk spoiled the fun by naming their debut album "The Party's Over"
Elysium
· 5 months ago
The tracks from the Time's Up (Type, Solace For You, Elvis Is Dead) and Stain albums were from the early 1990s. So, they would not be eligible anyway. Some of the tracks did well on the Modern Rock charts, missing the Hot 100, no idea how close they got.
MatthewBolin
· 5 months ago
"Essential Kenny Loggins"
Those words....I understand them all, but somehow, they don't look right together.
TuffGong
· 5 months ago
When I read "Essential Kenny Loggins" all I could think of the whole time was this:
Today I heard that awful Steve Perry duet "Don't Fight It" at the orthodontist's office. What a crap song. I'm sure it's on Kenny's Essentials, right?
kingofgrief
· 5 months ago
I had the One-Sided Single of "Don't Fight It". Anyone remember those? It was a CBS promotion: "Get the Hit! Special Low Price". You paid .59 and sacrificed the B-side. I also had Ricky Skaggs' "Heartbroke", and my best friend found "Sexual Healing" at a thrift store. (That did NOT come out right...)
steed
· 5 months ago
I had never seen that Bill Maher clip - funny.
My buddies and I used to have a running joke about wanting to see some Kenny Loggins Roasters - show the Gambler who's boss. Too late now I suppose.
DwDunphy
· 5 months ago
Sounds like an additive, don't it? Total has your daily requirement of essential vitamins, minerals and Loggins.
andrewTee
· 5 months ago
Re your question about there being other Hot 100-charting Latino rockers in the 80's. I got curious and snooped around on Wikipedia for a bit.
Santana would appear to qualify, and he/they had a number of charting hits that decade, including "Winning." The only other breakout Latino rock act seems to be Cruzados, who either didn't release any singles or didn't have hits with them.
Bottom Feeders is the (OK, a) highlight of my week; your almost-scary knowledge of the music and dogged collecting of same are inspirations to me.
steed
· 5 months ago
Ha. I always try to inspire others. :)
Santana, yes - I did forget about him. We'll have three from him later on. Good call. Cruzados did have three singles on the Rock Charts - but never crossed over to the Hot 100.
MichaelFortes
· 5 months ago
Lisa Lisa herself is also Latina.
steed
· 5 months ago
Actually, so is Denise Lopez now that I look. Well, that was a silly question then. The mind didn't put two and two together this week. Gotta get off the crack.
OJ Incandenza
· 5 months ago
Did Nuclear Valdez make the cut? That's the only other one I can think of right off hand.
Russ
· 5 months ago
How 'bout Joe "king" Carrasco? I know, no Hot 100 appearances, but "Buena" got airplay on some better stations.
theroux
· 5 months ago
Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Some Label
Thats the one that sticks with me. One word. That's it. Insanity!
DavidMedsker
· 5 months ago
The Talk Talk album was actually called The Party's Over.
kingofgrief
· 5 months ago
Before The Party's Over was released, there was an eponymous Talk Talk EP with their namesake tune and (I believe) three other tracks that would resurface on the album. So for the early part of the video's existence, the MTV credit did indeed read:
Talk Talk "Talk Talk" Talk Talk EMI America Records
But I'm jumping the gun by a few months...
Jerry
· 5 months ago
This is probably my favorite week yet. I can't argue with Living Colour for best song, but Lisa Lisa for worst? C'mon! Give me a well-meaning R&B ballad with a cheesy spoken word interlude any day, especially when the band members address each other by name. "Hey, Paul Anthony, why don't you say somethin' to all the lovers out there?" Classic.
DavidMedsker
· 5 months ago
Wow, listen to how hard that keyboardist is trying in the intro to that Denise Lopez song! Man, I was a DJ back then, and I have no memory of that song.
As for same band, song and album title:
Icehouse "Icehouse" Icehouse Chrysalis Records
Chris X
· 5 months ago
well, I've had stuff to talk about for 2 weeks in a row now, I'd say we're back on track!
"Living in a Box". by Living In a Box, from the album Living In a Box! True story: I can never refer to the song by it's name alone, I have to give it the full treatment EVERY SINGLE TIME I TALK ABOUT IT, and even got my girlfriend (who didnt know the song, or many of the other great songs of this wonderful decade til she had the (mis)fortune of meeting me) doing the same. Not digging this other song of theirs so much.
I always had a soft spot for Lisa Lisa. And Cult Jam. And Full Force. And whatever other army of dudes she had backing her at any given moment. que cera, que cera! "Can You Feel the Beat" is a good one, very freestyle, which is probably the biggest guilty pleasure of my musical taste (there is a show this weekend featuring Expose, The Cover Girls, Lil Suzy, Brenda K. Starr, and about 7 others that I want to goto badly, but sadly have prior obligations...woe is me...)
Little Steven is better left playing with The Boss. No need for solo projects from E Streeters.
No interest in anything the Little River Band have to say besides "Reminiscing" ..seriously, what a great song.
Living Colour's "Open Letter to a Landlord" is a PHENOMENAL song, and it's hitting especially hard this year with the pending implosion of the Spectrum. Seriously, apply (most of) the lyrics to that hallowed building's impending doom, it fits perfectly for someone who lives, breathes, sleeps, eats, and drinks orange and black like myself (steed, you're from the area, you know what I mean-everyone else can just carry on thinking I'm a weirdo) I am demanding my videographer friend use this song as the soundtrack to his upcoming Spectrum tribute DVD.
I hate Kenny Loggins more than you hate Corey Hart. He needs to drive down the highway to the Dangerzone and stay there.
Finally, LL Cool J's "I'm Bad" is badass. Seriously, great song. Always been a fan of his.
steed
· 5 months ago
Yes, I understand. I'm more into those teams in the other stadiums (I'm wearing vintage powder blue and maroon sneakers now) but I get you.
wow. I'm not even a baseball fan, but those are pretty sweet. I need to find me some Flyers sneakers.
kingofgrief
· 5 months ago
Every time I refer to it (and it's more frequently than most of the known universe) it's always "Living in a box...living in a cardboard box". It's an effective lyrical hook, gotta give them that.
I'm reminded of the early days of my music retail career (almost twenty years ago!) when confused clubbers would come in and pick up the Living in a Box album, thinking they were getting "LIVING IN Oblivion" by Anything BOX. I'd always have to sing part of the chorus to set them straight.
This is my first time to hear "So the Story Goes" and this would be worthy of my show. Hereby keeping an eye out for the album and/or its accompanying 12"ers...
EDIT (2 minutes later): Oh, wait! They're on iTunes! With two different best-ofs after only having released two albums. Ah well, at least "So the Story Goes" is easy to track down in digital form...as is the extended mix of "Living in a Box". (Living in a cardbord box.)
DwDunphy
· 5 months ago
I'm fairly sure that Living In A Box indicates you're homeless... Something the individual members of Living In A Box may well be by now.
RoyBatty
· 5 months ago
Iron Maiden "Iron Maiden" Iron Maiden EMI
Sharon
· 5 months ago
Love this week! Of course, I'm partial because I am a Loggins fan. I am such a pop junkie. I do have the "Essential" and all the others! Naturally. Not sure how you can like McDonald, but not Loggins. I like them both, but that's probably a given. Looking forward to next week!
steed
· 5 months ago
Finally. Someone shows some love for Mr. Kenny Loggins.
Sharon
· 5 months ago
Doesn't really amount to much. Everyone seems to dislike him and/or think he's so not cool. Ah well. I'm not that cool. It's weird though, I still come back to Popdose, day after day...
WHarrisBullzEye
· 5 months ago
I gotta tell ya, I love "Great Gosh A'Mighty." More than once, I came very close to picking up the soundtrack to "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" just so I could own a copy of the song. Getting it here makes this week's column worthwhile.
The Little River Band produced some of my favorite pop singles of the late '70s and early '80s, but by 1985, they pretty much NEEDED to change their name to LRB, given how few members of the original line-up were still in the band. This problem has only gotten worse over the years, to the point where - last I heard - the band was touring with precisely ZERO members of the original line-up.
For those of you wondering about the whereabouts of the members of Living in a Box, allow me to steer you over to Amazon, where you can sample the tracks from lead singer Richard Darbyshire's most recent album, "Love Will Provide": http://www.amazon.com/Love-Will-Provide/dp/B001...
I can't believe "Shelter" wasn't a top-40 hit. It might be true, but I still can't believe it. It seemed like it was played every other song when it was first released.
Lastly, I'd just like to say that I have a television set signed by Living Colour. I won it from WNOR (FM 99) in Norfolk when the band was passing through on the "Vivid" tour, and Vernon Reid signed the top of it, "I'm the smiling face on your TV." It still works, and it's in my daughter's room at this very moment.
kingofgrief
· 5 months ago
Great anecdote about the TV set. Take pictures of that!
I was surprised to see that "Great Gosh A'Mighty" charted as high as it did. I never heard it on the radio, only in ads for D&OiBH. Of course, my favorite single to chart as a result of that movie will be discussed alongside "Talk Talk" in a future entry.
All Comments
Los Lobos. Lone Justice. Living Color. And (oh yes) one of my favorite songs of all time, "Forever" by Little Stee and the Disciples of Soul. Besides all the E-Streeters, the band also featured the late Jean Beauvoir, formerly of the Plasmatics, a BFTAEOTE alum and one-time Ramones producer. This song still gives me shivers to this day. Myself? I love Little Steven's vocals on this. I forgot: Did Stevie's "Sun City" already get covered or did it actually hit the top 40 despite all the white stations refusing to play it because of all the rappers?
I met Vernon Reid of Living Color once at the New Music Seminar a while ago. A great guitarist and truly a nice and down-to-earth guy.
My long-neglected blog, Play It and Be Damned (see the Popdose blogroll), has a story about my encounter with Lisa Lisa, Cult Jam and Full Force back in the day – and how I got a new measure of respect for them. At least in the case of Full Force. If you think about it, they were pretty groundbreaking. And their stuff doesn't sound as dated as other hits from the 80s. That said, I agree with you: Their non-hits were nowhere near as good as their hits.
But I'm sorry. I can't agree with you about Kenny Loggins. I'll take Michael McDonald over him any day.
"Sun City" actually went to #38 - so not part of the series.
I'll have to go read the story about Lisa Lisa. I agree, I love a lot of the Full Force work I just wonder where they really missed the mark. Something should have come together to make them bigger than they were.
My timeline is all messed up. I simply can't remember a world where the Little River Band shared a chart (85) with Lisa Lisa.
David_E
"David_E"
David_E
Popdose Comments
*I, like Rob, had the pleasure of meeting Vernon Reid, who also grew up not very far from me in Brooklyn. Meeting him was one of my favorite celebrity-encounter moments of all time, not only because he was an extremely nice person, but also because I got to (very inarticulately) tell him how Living Colour turned me on to hard rock music as a kid. They were the first rock band I saw that looked like me.
*You forgot to mention the coolest thing about Kenny Loggins' "I'll Be There"! El DeBarge sings co-lead vocals on that song, pairing two of the smoothest pop/soul vocalists around for the first and only time!!
And ... damn. Maybe my least favorite Living Colour song (excepting Collideoscope, which never did it for me), but no "Middle Man", no "Solace of You", no "Elvis is Dead", nothing at all from Type or Stain anywhere near the Top 100. That's too bad.
Those words....I understand them all, but somehow, they don't look right together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPyo6rwxV48
My buddies and I used to have a running joke about wanting to see some Kenny Loggins Roasters - show the Gambler who's boss. Too late now I suppose.
Santana would appear to qualify, and he/they had a number of charting hits that decade, including "Winning." The only other breakout Latino rock act seems to be Cruzados, who either didn't release any singles or didn't have hits with them.
Bottom Feeders is the (OK, a) highlight of my week; your almost-scary knowledge of the music and dogged collecting of same are inspirations to me.
Santana, yes - I did forget about him. We'll have three from him later on. Good call. Cruzados did have three singles on the Rock Charts - but never crossed over to the Hot 100.
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Some Label
Thats the one that sticks with me. One word. That's it. Insanity!
Talk Talk
"Talk Talk"
Talk Talk
EMI America Records
But I'm jumping the gun by a few months...
As for same band, song and album title:
Icehouse
"Icehouse"
Icehouse
Chrysalis Records
"Living in a Box". by Living In a Box, from the album Living In a Box! True story: I can never refer to the song by it's name alone, I have to give it the full treatment EVERY SINGLE TIME I TALK ABOUT IT, and even got my girlfriend (who didnt know the song, or many of the other great songs of this wonderful decade til she had the (mis)fortune of meeting me) doing the same. Not digging this other song of theirs so much.
I always had a soft spot for Lisa Lisa. And Cult Jam. And Full Force. And whatever other army of dudes she had backing her at any given moment. que cera, que cera! "Can You Feel the Beat" is a good one, very freestyle, which is probably the biggest guilty pleasure of my musical taste (there is a show this weekend featuring Expose, The Cover Girls, Lil Suzy, Brenda K. Starr, and about 7 others that I want to goto badly, but sadly have prior obligations...woe is me...)
Little Steven is better left playing with The Boss. No need for solo projects from E Streeters.
No interest in anything the Little River Band have to say besides "Reminiscing" ..seriously, what a great song.
Living Colour's "Open Letter to a Landlord" is a PHENOMENAL song, and it's hitting especially hard this year with the pending implosion of the Spectrum. Seriously, apply (most of) the lyrics to that hallowed building's impending doom, it fits perfectly for someone who lives, breathes, sleeps, eats, and drinks orange and black like myself (steed, you're from the area, you know what I mean-everyone else can just carry on thinking I'm a weirdo) I am demanding my videographer friend use this song as the soundtrack to his upcoming Spectrum tribute DVD.
I hate Kenny Loggins more than you hate Corey Hart. He needs to drive down the highway to the Dangerzone and stay there.
Finally, LL Cool J's "I'm Bad" is badass. Seriously, great song. Always been a fan of his.
http://product.images.fansedge.com/51-65/51-650...
I'm reminded of the early days of my music retail career (almost twenty years ago!) when confused clubbers would come in and pick up the Living in a Box album, thinking they were getting "LIVING IN Oblivion" by Anything BOX. I'd always have to sing part of the chorus to set them straight.
This is my first time to hear "So the Story Goes" and this would be worthy of my show. Hereby keeping an eye out for the album and/or its accompanying 12"ers...
EDIT (2 minutes later): Oh, wait! They're on iTunes! With two different best-ofs after only having released two albums. Ah well, at least "So the Story Goes" is easy to track down in digital form...as is the extended mix of "Living in a Box". (Living in a cardbord box.)
"Iron Maiden"
Iron Maiden
EMI
The Little River Band produced some of my favorite pop singles of the late '70s and early '80s, but by 1985, they pretty much NEEDED to change their name to LRB, given how few members of the original line-up were still in the band. This problem has only gotten worse over the years, to the point where - last I heard - the band was touring with precisely ZERO members of the original line-up.
For those of you wondering about the whereabouts of the members of Living in a Box, allow me to steer you over to Amazon, where you can sample the tracks from lead singer Richard Darbyshire's most recent album, "Love Will Provide": http://www.amazon.com/Love-Will-Provide/dp/B001...
I can't believe "Shelter" wasn't a top-40 hit. It might be true, but I still can't believe it. It seemed like it was played every other song when it was first released.
Lastly, I'd just like to say that I have a television set signed by Living Colour. I won it from WNOR (FM 99) in Norfolk when the band was passing through on the "Vivid" tour, and Vernon Reid signed the top of it, "I'm the smiling face on your TV." It still works, and it's in my daughter's room at this very moment.
I was surprised to see that "Great Gosh A'Mighty" charted as high as it did. I never heard it on the radio, only in ads for D&OiBH. Of course, my favorite single to chart as a result of that movie will be discussed alongside "Talk Talk" in a future entry.