Popdose: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 6
jack
· 1 year ago
Gotta say I'm enjoying the massive scope of this series, and all the "lost" tunes you're discussing. I'll admit 1980s Beach Boys were pretty sad. Dennis was dead, Brian was being controlled by Dr. Landy, and Mike Love was picking fights with Mick Jagger(!). They'd later record "Kokomo" and bring John Stamos on stage. Sigh. But their '60s and '70s stuff was awesome... douchebag ;-)
jasonhare
· 1 year ago
When I first heard "Today is the Day," I immediately started singing "Easy." (Then I stopped listening to the song.) I'm with you on the other two, though; they're fantastic. "Freakshow" actually got my officemate out of his chair dancing.
My hmphs
· 1 year ago
I remember reading in the newspaper that Toni Basil's follow-up to "Mickey" (guilty pleasure) was to be "Shoppin' from A to Z." I thought to myself, "Now that's going to be an awfully long song." Thank God I never heard it. So should I click your link and hear it after 25 years? I'm tempted...
steed
· 1 year ago
Dude. You must. And you absolutely have to listen to it until the end. It will put a smile on your face!
My hmphs
· 1 year ago
Aaagh! I did it! And I think I could wait another 25 years to hear it again!
MatthewBolin
· 1 year ago
Dave,
To get you out of your Beach Boys stereotype-ing, you need to listen to the albums they made between 1966 and 1973 (Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile Friends, WIld Honey, Sunflower, Surf's Up, Holland) and 1977's "The Beach Boys Love You". A lot of Bacharch influenced pop, blue-eyed soul, classic rock, and weird experimentation on those records. Very little like their classic hits, and really surprising to those who have been raised on the Mike Love-led oldies act. Also, check out "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" from 2004 to see what the group could have become.
MatthewBolin
· 1 year ago
Smiley Smile and Friends and two separate albums....damn commas.
steed
· 1 year ago
I've heard Pet Sounds and Surf's Up all the way through - obviously I can't even compare Pet Sounds to anything from the 80s but even that wasn't that thrilling to me. However, I'm always up for a challenge, so I'll go back and listen to at least a few of these and see if my opinion has changed at all.
Retro DO
· 1 year ago
2 things to add about "Shoppin' A to Z":
*The song is awful, but Rerun from What's Happenin' freak dancing around a supermarket while eating potato chips in the video is kinda awesome. *I bought the 45 when I was a kid and the sleeve was made out of brown craft paper with ridges at the top to simulate a grocery bag.
steed
· 1 year ago
Aw damn, here again is something I must own. I'll have to go searching for the original sleeve now! At least one thing was creative about it.
Retro DO
· 1 year ago
Hey Steed- I had to see it again for myself--found it on this link:
The bag sleeve is kinda neat, but did we need Toni aiming her bad news into space like that??
Steed
· 1 year ago
That is kind of neat....that's definitely something for me to add! Thanks for the link.
scrumble
· 1 year ago
Never consciously heard "It's Getting Late" by the Beach Boys before but it's pretty exceptional for what it is ... I remember that 1985 comeback album was supposed to be a big deal but it kind of fell apart as a joke, which is when they went to full-on nostalgia minus Brian.
Toni Basil was almost 40 when she became a one-hit wonder, never seemed like she was trying to be taken seriously in the pop medium--the idea of her then using that opportunity to try for real, via "Over My Head", should be recognized as a Warholian pop art gesture.
I think the version of "I Love to Bass" you have there was the single version, "I Love the Bass" ... there was an issue with the freebasing connotation, hence the title change. The producer was the same guy who brought you Stacey Q.
steed
· 1 year ago
You know Scrumble - I think you are right. In this song the word "the" and "to" sound very similar to me - I just listened again and I still can't really tell which one it is. I'll have to go back and listen to the album version tonight and see if I can tell the difference. Not sure if I've ever put the two versions on back to back.
Mike
· 1 year ago
Add me to the list of folks who loves The Beastie Boys (although it took me something like ten years to actually appreciate "Licensed To Ill") and doesn't really *get* The Beach Boys (although I bought "Pet Sounds" and like it a lot, I'm not terribly curious about exploring further beyond a hits compilation).
Man, I'm tempted to listen to "Shopping From A To Z" (and see the video), but I'm afraid of how bad it's gonna be. I will say, though, that "Over My Head" is a great song. Better than "Mickey", in my opinion. Aw, damn it, I'm off to Youtube to search for the video. Anything featuring Rerun and potato chips has got to be good.
Tairrie B!!! I thought I was the only person on Earth who remembered this woman!! She made records before she was the first white female gangsta rapper?!?! Awesome!!!
DavidMedsker
· 1 year ago
My wife was stoked to see "Shoppin' from A to Z" on this week's list. She thinks it's funny. Anyone laugh, and I'm kicking your ass.
That Beach Boys cover of "California Dreaming" was so dreary. Luckily, Dead Milkmen made fun of it a year later in their song "Punk Rock Girl."
Bardeux. God, I had forgotten all about them. Damn you, Dave.
steed
· 1 year ago
I have a "trilogy" of bad 80s songs - those three songs are all in my worst of the 80s list and they go together because they are so unintentionally hilarious that they completely stand out from all the other crap. Those other two will be coming in future posts.
JonCummings
· 1 year ago
Like, Omigod! You'd think Basil and her shouty chorus might have at least put an ironic pause before "Nothing!", but I guess ironic pauses and doing the pogo are mutually exclusive.
That "Love Songs are Back Again" medley is truly excruciating. I mean, for crying out loud, at least Stars On gave imitating the original artists a decent shot. As for "Hooked on Big Bands," isn't the opening to "In the Mood" irresistible enough that, even in the early '80s, it could push a record up the charts...at least as high as #61? I will say one thing about medleys: Yes, they were almost all horrible, but at least the trend gave us "Squabs on Forty Fab."
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
I have it on pretty good authority that you can get X-acto knives at the grocery store. However, X-acto is a brand name, like Band-Aid, and that meant Toni would've needed to pay for rights... Which she didn't... Which makes the song horrible AND makes Toni a cheapskate.
MarlboroTestMonkey7
· 1 year ago
“Move Your Boogie Body” has just given me a brain freeze headache
jabartlett
· 1 year ago
Wow, this is quite the festival of suck.
The medley craze (cue the shameless self-promotion: I wrote about it at http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/530/) was one of the strangest fads I can recall. As rock was needed to kill off early 50s pop pap, and as the British Invasion was needed to kill off early 60s fabricated teen-idol crap, perhaps MTV was needed to kill whatever impulse made people think medleys were a good idea.
steed
· 1 year ago
Haha. I'm figuring there are 6 good tunes in this field of 20? And maybe that's being generous too. Nice article - thanks for the link. I'm glad most of them went Top 40 as I won't have to discuss them. The Medley and the cover song that's clearly worse than the original are my two biggest pain points.
wombosi
· 1 year ago
Jimmy Barnes has an amazing voice, but never had the songs to take advantage of it.
Rich
· 1 year ago
Basia... I read this post this AM, then went out to do some shopping. Trying on sneaks at The Sporting Consortium, and "New Day for You" came on. COINCIDENCE? I don't THI... well, yes actually.
I was reluctantly listening to a smooth jazz station at work a couple months ago (boss had stereo rights) and the DJ says, in his Tesh-y way, "That's right y'all, you heard me. It's finished. The new album from Basia." as if it were the Beatles reuniting.
I snorted, got glared at, then had to back pedal and explain that actually I have a couple of Basia albums and Hey Put Down That Umbrella AIIEEEEE.
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
If you have ever worked a job featuring Muzak, you're way, way, WAY familiar with Basia SomethingPolishHardToPronounce. You're also familiar with the incomprehensibility of her lyrics at times... F'rinstance...
Baby, you're mine You are blowing my mind We are two of a kind Baby, (you'll be? Yuri? Youee? Whooeee?) be mine!
Still, it was easier to take than the 10,000th playing of the Will To Power "Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird" medley.
Retro_Remixes
· 1 year ago
Hey, what's with all the Basil bashing ? Toni was avant garde, cool and cheesy all at the same time. So she was perfect for the 80's. Mickey & AtoZ are great guilty pleasures and that's what they're supposed to be. If you're expecting more than that then you're taking it WAY too seriously and missing the entire point about what makes them so groovy.
And if you think Toni's songs were the worst stuff from the 80's then you haven't heard much 80's music. You can spit and hit MUCH worse stuff.
rwcass
· 1 year ago
I agree with DJ D, and "Shopping" sounds like a children's song more than anything else. I can imagine a hip kindergarten teacher in 1983 supplementing her students' learning of the alphabet with this song.
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
I can imagine the same students going on a gun totin' school rampage a decade later.
mojo
· 1 year ago
Does anyone remember Toni Basil was one of the Mardi Gras LSD bettys in "Easy Rider?"
That puts her cheerleader act in "Mickey" in a whole new light for us closet biker boys.
"Shopping" is so brutal.
Also thanks for the Bar-Kays stuff, I did not have 2 of those cuts. Even though it was slightly buried under the cheezy '80s synth-mix those guys still brung the funk with "Boogie Body."
wags
· 1 year ago
Late to the party as usual but I thought this cross-section was kinda interesting for the in-roads in rap. I don't think I would've guessed after going through college in the early 90s where you couldn't go to a party without hearing "Joy and Pain" or "Brass Monkey" or likely both, that they'd done so miserably on the charts when they first came out.
All Comments
To get you out of your Beach Boys stereotype-ing, you need to listen to the albums they made between 1966 and 1973 (Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile Friends, WIld Honey, Sunflower, Surf's Up, Holland) and 1977's "The Beach Boys Love You". A lot of Bacharch influenced pop, blue-eyed soul, classic rock, and weird experimentation on those records. Very little like their classic hits, and really surprising to those who have been raised on the Mike Love-led oldies act. Also, check out "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" from 2004 to see what the group could have become.
*The song is awful, but Rerun from What's Happenin' freak dancing around a supermarket while eating potato chips in the video is kinda awesome.
*I bought the 45 when I was a kid and the sleeve was made out of brown craft paper with ridges at the top to simulate a grocery bag.
I had to see it again for myself--found it on this link:
http://www.netsoundsmusic.com/nsudsii/2/3423584...
Enjoy-
Retro DO
Toni Basil was almost 40 when she became a one-hit wonder, never seemed like she was trying to be taken seriously in the pop medium--the idea of her then using that opportunity to try for real, via "Over My Head", should be recognized as a Warholian pop art gesture.
I think the version of "I Love to Bass" you have there was the single version, "I Love the Bass" ... there was an issue with the freebasing connotation, hence the title change. The producer was the same guy who brought you Stacey Q.
Man, I'm tempted to listen to "Shopping From A To Z" (and see the video), but I'm afraid of how bad it's gonna be. I will say, though, that "Over My Head" is a great song. Better than "Mickey", in my opinion. Aw, damn it, I'm off to Youtube to search for the video. Anything featuring Rerun and potato chips has got to be good.
Tairrie B!!! I thought I was the only person on Earth who remembered this woman!! She made records before she was the first white female gangsta rapper?!?! Awesome!!!
That Beach Boys cover of "California Dreaming" was so dreary. Luckily, Dead Milkmen made fun of it a year later in their song "Punk Rock Girl."
Bardeux. God, I had forgotten all about them. Damn you, Dave.
That "Love Songs are Back Again" medley is truly excruciating. I mean, for crying out loud, at least Stars On gave imitating the original artists a decent shot. As for "Hooked on Big Bands," isn't the opening to "In the Mood" irresistible enough that, even in the early '80s, it could push a record up the charts...at least as high as #61? I will say one thing about medleys: Yes, they were almost all horrible, but at least the trend gave us "Squabs on Forty Fab."
The medley craze (cue the shameless self-promotion: I wrote about it at http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/530/) was one of the strangest fads I can recall. As rock was needed to kill off early 50s pop pap, and as the British Invasion was needed to kill off early 60s fabricated teen-idol crap, perhaps MTV was needed to kill whatever impulse made people think medleys were a good idea.
I was reluctantly listening to a smooth jazz station at work a couple months ago (boss had stereo rights) and the DJ says, in his Tesh-y way, "That's right y'all, you heard me. It's finished. The new album from Basia." as if it were the Beatles reuniting.
I snorted, got glared at, then had to back pedal and explain that actually I have a couple of Basia albums and Hey Put Down That Umbrella AIIEEEEE.
Baby, you're mine
You are blowing my mind
We are two of a kind
Baby, (you'll be? Yuri? Youee? Whooeee?) be mine!
Still, it was easier to take than the 10,000th playing of the Will To Power "Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird" medley.
And if you think Toni's songs were the worst stuff from the 80's then you haven't heard much 80's music. You can spit and hit MUCH worse stuff.
That puts her cheerleader act in "Mickey" in a whole new light for us closet biker boys.
"Shopping" is so brutal.
Also thanks for the Bar-Kays stuff, I did not have 2 of those cuts. Even though it was slightly buried under the cheezy '80s synth-mix those guys still brung the funk with "Boogie Body."