1980

So after 3-4 years of rapid musical evolution, we hit the 1980s with a year of consolidation, and probably a slight step back.  Although considering how great 1979 was, this is probably inevitable.  Still, if ’77 was about the New Wave starting up, ’78 about it starting to really pick up momentum, and ’79 about it reaching its fullest potential, ’80 is where it starts to consolidate. 

For some genres, this consolidation is a bit of a retreat.  In both the US and the UK, punk is reformulating from the radically innovative sounds of the first wave into something better suited to a long development in the underground.  Most of the first-wave groups have moved beyond punk to some degree or another.  Sometimes they’ve done so radically (the Clash), but the Damned and Buzzcocks both are working much more nuanced art-pop territory at this point (although the Damned only have a live album this year, and the Buzzcocks have more completed their transformation into a post-punk band, albeit one without the doom of most post-punk).  The Ramones even make their first major attempt to reformulate their sound, by working with Phil Spector.  This produces some tracks that use the old Wall of Sound approach, including some that shamelessly  echo the old Spector songwriting style (with mostly mixed results).  On others, though, the biggest difference is the addition of lead guitar parts, often oddly with the Blue Öyster Cult guitar tone (also used by the Clash sporadically on Give ‘Em Enough Rope).  The Stiff Little Fingers do put out another straight-ahead punk record, but considering how quickly the other Brit-Punks evolved, it’s almost a disappointment, despite not being a real step down in quality from the debut.

Outside of the first wave, punk is really starting to diverge between the US and UK.  In the UK, the second wave of punk is dominated by a shambolic, consciously sloppy style embodied by such acts as the Mekons and the Fall.  Both of these groups have been around since ’78, but the Mekons only put out their first album this year, and the Fall put out their first great album this year.  In both cases, the conscious sloppiness masks some real sophistication musically and lyrically, making these the kind of bands that you listen to once and dismiss as tuneless noise, but you listen to a few dozen times and these become some of your favorites.  In the US, hardcore is starting to form up, with Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys keeping going with a more aggressive, less musically innovative version of the classic punk sound.  Elsewhere, though, American punk is as innovative as its British counterpart.  X is deepening its rockabilly/roots-punk sound, with their debut LP, which, if nothing else, has some fantastic song titles (personal favorite: “Your Phone’s Off The Hook But You’re Not”).  Also, the Minutemen make their first appearance in my collection.  At this point, they’re not great yet, but they’ll soon grow up to be one of the most innovative bands of the 80s.

The most radically new sound in 1980 is undoubtedly hip-hop.  If “Rapper’s Delight” could have been dismissed as a novelty last year, that’s much harder this year, where a clutch of excellent foundational singles are released, including especially Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” and Afrika Bambaata’s “Zulu Nation Throwdown.”  The beats at this point are still primitive by later standards, but still already distinctively hip-hop, with a more foregrounded beat than the funk & disco samples they’re built out of.  It’s also impressive how quickly the punk/New Wave artists start picking up on rap.  Both Blondie and the Clash put out rap tracks this year, although the latter’s “Magnificent Seven” is much more credible to my ears than Blondie’s quite gimmicky “Rapture.”  “Mag Seven” even got some NYC radio airplay, although chiefly in its surprisingly funky instrumental version. 

The Talking Heads don’t rap themselves, but are definitely influenced by hip-hop beats on their Remain In Light, a much more groove-oriented album than their last.  (including an amusing and surprisingly accurate attempt to approximate the Joy Division sound despite having only read about them in the music press).  I miss the song-based focus, but Talking Heads are definitely the leading lights of American New Wave this year, at the cutting edge of pop and experimental music, and fusing them both to great effect.  And American New Wave overall has a tremendous year this year, with all of the big bands putting out great music.  Blondie make downright surprising comeback, with four of my favorite of their singles.  “Call Me” and “Atomic” even better the disco formula of “Heart of Glass.”  (disco itself, incidentally, is basically absent from my collection by now, but I know it lurked out there in real life like some half-glimpsed monstrosity).  Devo also has a career year, and the Cars put out their most boundary-pushing album.  It’s interesting to note that, while the British New Wave splits into various autonomous sub-genres very quickly, the artier and poppier elements of American New Wave blend seamlessly into each other.  Bands like Blondie and the Cars are putting up big hits, but still sound of a piece with the more experimental elements like Talking Heads and Devo.  This year you even get some Americans starting to play with UK-style post-punk styles, especially Mission of Burma up in Boston and Pylon down in Athens.  Interestingly, though, Burma’s debut single (“Academy Fight Song”) foreshadows Athens’ biggest export, but we won’t get R.E.M.’s debut single until next year. 

As I mentioned above, the British New Wave is much more atomized than the American, and this year you can pretty clearly split the UK bands into the more trad bands and the post-punks.  Even bands that formerly bridged the gap, like Squeeze, now firmly fall in one camp or the other.  The trad camp, which has a solid year this year, is heavily indebted to the Mod Revival spurred by the Jam and the Who’s Quadrophenia film release.  The Jam themselves obviously fall in this camp, although if last year was Paul Weller’s Who-influenced masterpiece, this year it’s his Kinks/Revolver-era Beatles-influenced one.  Like the Revolver-era Beatles, this means that the Jam are incorporating a soul/funk sound into their mod rock, although this owes a lot more to ‘60s-vintage soul than the contemporary stuff.  Elvis Costello too is incorporating ‘60s soul into his sound, although it was there all along, so it’s more a question of foregrounding the soul elements vs. the garage-rock, country-rock, or ABBA-esque pop elements (the latter are almost entirely missing this time around though).  Joe Jackson, who last year sounded a lot like an Elvis follower, this year has started following a reggae/ska muse, which is interesting but doesn’t really work for him. 

It does, however, connect him to the Second-Wave ska bands, and that movement is probably hitting its peak this year.  The Specials and Madness both follow up their debuts with very strong sequels.  The Specials’ More Specials may even better their debut, with fewer covers and a more diverse musical palate.  One of my favorite records of the year, and probably the high-water mark of the Two-Tone movement, when it expanded its reach to all kinds of musical styles beyond ska & music hall (also a major influence on the Brit-poppers of the ‘90s).  Madness don’t expand their grasp nearly so far, but still probably better their debut, if only because of the more prominent organ grooves and (again) greater willingness to foreground their originals.  They also show a stronger Kinks influence, with their little slice-of-life vignettes lyrically.  Also this year, we get the third of the Big Three of Second Wave, with the (English) Beat’s debut.  The Beat are probably the most directly punk-influenced of the three, with a much more aggressive sound.  Also, “Mirror In The Bathroom” scans as a New Wave song more than a ska song, which is something you really wouldn’t say about the Specials’ singles (or Madness at this point).  Finally, although outside of the Big Three (largely because they never made an album anywhere near this good again), the Selecter put out their own ska record.  Unsurprisingly, given that they’re protégés of Specials leader Jerry Dammers, they sound pretty close to that sound, but more upbeat, and with female vocals.  Also, both the Specials and the Selecter share a fascination with James Bond this year, each releasing a tribute song.  Given that this is a year after Moonraker, it’s hardly the peak of the Bond franchise.  Still, ska-revival, mod-revival, and the 60’s vintage Bond films all go together quite nicely, so in another sense not so surprising.

If the Mod-Revival end of the British New Wave has a solid year this year, the news is less good on the post-punk side of things.  Joy Division do put out their 2^nd album, which I know some prefer to last year’s Unknown Pleasures.  Still, while Closer certainly sets a mood well (and even incorporates a touch of dub reggae on “Decades”), it’s missing some of the diversity of tempo & energy levels of Unknown Pleasures.  Magazine do lighten up a little, at least musically, sounding closer to the art-pop of the Buzzcocks than they have since the two bands split apart.  The Buzzcocks themselves, meanwhile, sound more abstract and arty than they have since the bands split.  Sadly, this is the end of the line for the Buzzcocks.

Elsewhere in post-punk, though, things are less exciting.  Wire have disbanded (for now), Public Image are silent this year, and Gang of Four release a placeholder EP.  Decent songs, but nothing different from their debut.  Plus half of them will be re-made for next year’s album.  The more goth post-punks are also still churning, but not really innovating.  I suppose the most interesting thing is the credible debut of a young post-punk band from Dublin, who sound like Public Image fronted by David Bowie at this point.  Even if they don’t sound radically innovative (and wholesale rip off “Public Image” on their debut single), the singer’s got a great voice and the guitarist has some tricks.  I’d keep an eye on this U2 band…

If the post-punks are having a down year, the prog-rockers who last year I dismissed as surpassed by the post-punks this year bounce back in a big way (or at least Yes and Rush do).  Both, moreover, do it basically the same way: by incorporating the New Wave.  Yes do this Borg-style, assimilating the Buggles and adding their technological and musical distinctiveness to their own.  In practice, this means somewhat more rhythmic keyboards and a slight reggae touch.  Not nearly as great a shift in sound as Relayer, but considerably fresher than Tormato.  Rush, meanwhile, are the only band of the whole prog-rock scene to actually hit their peak by incorporating New Wave.  Adding synth sounds and touches of reggae make a big difference, but I think the biggest key is that Neil Peart’s great leap forward as a lyricist.  No longer telling epics about space travel or allegories about the economic philosophies of bitter sociopaths, Peart discovers a real genius for more grounded but still high-minded lyrics, about things like self-determination (“Free Will”) and balancing commerce, technology, and personal expression in music (“Spirit of Radio”).  And the incorporation of synths really kinda recalls what the Who were doing back on Who’s Next  - synth parts layered over churning guitar rock to great effect. 

Prince also has his own great leap forward here, and as with Rush, by adding New Wave to his sound.  In fact, in Prince’s case, it’s almost fairer to say he becomes a full-on New Wave artist at this point, albeit one with a dry funk beat underneath him (that, for what it’s worth, definitely owes much more to Rick James than the Brit-funk New Wave).  But “When You Were Mine” is the best Cars song Ric Ocasek never wrote.  Prince becomes one of the major artists to watch right here on Dirty Mind.  And he only gets better from here…  Meanwhile, if Prince is adding New Wave to his funk, David Bowie is adding funk to his New Wave.  Scary Monsters is his first album since the Berlin records, and although he’s now sans Eno and writing songs with perhaps more commercial appeal, it’s almost as innovative as those, and I personally will take it over Lodger, at the least.  Bauhaus, incidentally, borrow heavily from Bowie’s Berlin stuff this year, but because they have a baritone vocalist, end up recalling Iggy Pop more.

Stevie Wonder also has a very good year, and also incorporates New Wave elements (although considering how much he defined the synth as a pop instrument, it might be more a case of his own influences filtered back).  Still, Hotter Than July is an actual song-based follow up to Songs In the Key of Life, and if it’s not as strong as his classic 1972-76 run, it’s still worthy, and quite diverse, incorporating reggae, country, and (as I suggested before) hints of New Wave.  Also, the last really solid album he’ll make, unfortunately.  John Lennon also has a comeback this year (and sadly the last album of his lifetime).  He doesn’t sound very contemporary, but his tracks on Double Fantasy are probably the best collection of songs he’s released since Imagine (and very much in that album’s style).  Yoko, however, is much more in tune with New Wave, and also releases some of the best pop-song material of her career.  I get the thematic core of the record (about marriage) and I dig how some of the songs comment on each other, but from a strictly musical position, it would be a better listen if they’d done a John side and a Yoko side, as they don’t exactly complement each other musically.  Still, if that were the case, narrower-minded Lennon fans would never even listen to the Yokosongs, so it is a way to force them to do that, at least (and at least in its original LP format). 

Elsewhere among the “old wave,” things are less encouraging, at least among the artists who previously responded extremely well to punk/New Wave.  Bruce Springsteen puts out his double-LP The River, but while all of the individual songs are good, the overall effect of all of these songs is a but overwhelming/deadening.  I realized while listening this afternoon that there are some really great songs on sides 3 & 4 that I’d never really taken notice of before, as I either don’t get around to finishing the album, or have stopped focusing on it at this point.  Still, at least Springsteen is doing interesting things, both recalling his old Born To Run style and presaging Nebraska, and even trying to write a Ramones song (“Hungry Heart,” which he decided to keep for himself; Stevie Wonder, by the way, did the same thing with “Superstition,” which was originally meant for Jeff Beck).

The Stones, by contrast, stumble pretty hard from Some Girls, having basically given up on the punk energy of that one.  There’s a hint of it on “Where The Boys Go,” but Mick’s mockney accent makes it sound too much like parody.  Elsewhere, they sound kinda on autopilot, whether on the traditionally Stonesy tracks or the disco ones.  “She’s So Cold” is a fun song, but a far cry from the ragged, about to fall off the rails vitality of “Street Fighting Man” or “Gimme Shelter.”  With its every note in exactly the right place, it recalls the studio perfection of ABBA more than the rough energy of classic Stones.

Neil Young also formerly was energized by the punks, but his year sounds like he’s going through the motions.  I was prepared back in ’77 to say that American Stars ‘n Bars showed that Neil’s album-a-year-pace would wear on him, but that one turned out to be an overlooked gem.  Hawks & Doves, however, definitely fits that tag.  Side One is forgettable old folk-rock songs, and Side Two is forgettable new country-rock songs.  About the only interesting thing about it is that Young, like Johnny Ramone, shows an unexpected pro-Reagan right-wing slant in his lyrics (well, not unexpected for Ramone, but still there on his pro-war and anti-liberal tracks on End of the Century).

What is exciting in the mainstream is in the world of metal, where pop-metal has its breakthrough.  Both Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne return, and unsurprisingly sound fairly close sonically.  What is surprising is that neither of them are working the old sludgy Sabbath sound, and instead have a much more polished sound, drawing much more heavily on Deep Purple and AC/DC than their own pasts.  Judas Priest, who also historically worked a Sabbathy sound, have also burnished their sound into something much more AC/DC-like, with their commercial high point British Steel (the one with “Breaking The Law” and “Living After Midnight”).  AC/DC themselves hit their high point as well, surprisingly after losing original vocalist Bon Scott; they’re probably more metal than they were earlier, when they more recalled a harder Rolling Stones.  On the less pop-metal and more punk-influenced side of things, Motörhead put out their generally acknowledged high point, Ace of Spades.  All this plus Iron Maiden’s debut make for a very solid metal year. 

Finally, surprisingly to me, a very good year for reggae, with Marley’s final album, plus solid records from Black Uhuru and Wailing Souls, and some very good miscellaneous singles.  At this point, reggae is probably the genre with the most swagger to spare, and both of the aforementioned groups have a mix of the sophisticated, Al Green-inspired arrangements of late Marley with the more processed effects laden rhythmic sensibility of dub.  So a good year for them, and it’ll be interesting to see how the British Second Wavers take notice of this (or if they do) in the years to come, to say nothing of the development of reggae itself into the 80s.

Song of the Year:  Either Rush’s “Spirit of the Radio” or the Talking Heads’ “Once In A Lifetime.”  The former is the best Rush ever got, with a Who-like construction of synths over rockin’ guitar, plus outstanding lyrics and a reggae breakdown which is surprisingly credible for Canadian prog-rockers.  One of a handful of songs that always lifts my mood.  On the other hand, “Once In A Lifetime” is so fantastically weird to have been a hit record.  Like “Heroes” (which Brian Eno also played a role in), it’s not so much played on instruments as a cascading wall of sounds.  But while “Heroes” was basically a futuristic soul song, “Once In A Lifetime” is essentially a futuristic gospel song, with the Rev. David Byrne preaching over this shimmering, rippling noise.

Album of the Year:  The Clash – Sandinista!  How do you follow up an album like London Calling?  By trying your hand at every genre you can think of.  Only the White Album compares to the Clash’s triple-lp in terms of its sprawl and genre boldness.  They’re not all winners (although the hit-miss ratio is at least as good as the Beatles’), but that’s not how you evaluate an album like this.  This is a world to get lost in. 

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  The Cars.  I always knew they were a great pop band,  but I didn’t realize just how innovative and willing to experiment they were.  They could have been big stars if they’d kept making their debut over and over again, but they push deeper and deeper into experimental waters.  On this year’s Panorama, they sound practically post-punk, albeit closer to Devo and Suicide than the Brits.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  Neil Young, I think.  I always knew that Hawks & Doves was a minor record, but 1) I didn’t realize just how consistent Neil’s streak was until this point (no duds except for the Stills collaboration Long May You Run) and 2) I didn’t realize just how jarring it was to go from Neil all of a sudden embracing the punks to this mediocre and reactionary country-rock.

Album List

 ABBA - Gold

AC/DC - AC/DC

AC/DC – Back In Black

B.B. King - B.B. King

Bauhaus – 1979-1983

Black Flag - The First Four Years

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

Black Uhuru - Sinsemilla

Blondie - Best Of Blondie

Blue Öyster Cult - Workshop Of The Telescopes

Bob Dylan - Vol. 3: Rare And Unreleased, 1974-1991

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend

Bruce Springsteen - 18 Tracks

Bruce Springsteen - The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen – The River

Buzzcocks - Parts 1-3

Cheap Trick - The Authorized Greatest Hits

Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Carry On

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

David Bowie - Changesbowie

David Bowie – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Earth Wind & Fire -0 Faces

Elvis Costello - Best Of

Elvis Costello – Get Happy!!

Elvis Costello - Out Of Our Idiot

Elvis Costello – Taking Liberties

Fela Kuti - The Best Best Of Fela Kuti

Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac

Frank Sinatra - Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years

Gang Of Four - Yellow

Iron Maiden - Misc.

J.J. Cale - Very Best Of

Joe Jackson – Beat Crazy

John Lennon - Imagine Soundtrack

John Lennon &^ Yoko Ono – Double Fantasy

Joy Division - 8 Feb 1980 University of London Union

Joy Division - Closer

Joy Division - Heart & Soul - Rarities

Joy Division - Les Bains Douches: 18 December 1979 [Live]

Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Joy Division - University of London Union 2 February 1980

Judas Priest - Metal Works '73-'93

Madness – Absolutely

Magazine - Rays And Hail 1978-1981: The Best Of Magazine

Merle Haggard - Back to The Barrooms

Merle Haggard - HAG: The Best Of Merle Haggard

Minutemen - Georgeless e.p.

Mission Of Burma - Signals, Calls, And Marches

Motörhead - No Remorse

Neil Young – Hawks & Doves

Nick Lowe - Nutted By Reality

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz

Parliament - Tear The Roof Off 1974-1980

Paul McCartney - Wingspan: History

Paul McCartney - Wingspan: Hits

Prince – Dirty Mind

Prince - The Hits

Pylon - Gyrate Plus

Queen - Greatest Hits

Roxy Music - The Best Of Roxy Music

Rush - Chronicles

Rush – Permanent Waves

Squeeze - Singles 45's And Under

Steely Dan - A Decade of Steely Dan

Stevie Wonder - At The Close Of A Century [Disc 3]

Stevie Wonder – Hotter Than July

Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heroes

Sun Ra - Sleeping Beauty

Talking Heads – Remain In Light

Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline

Talking Heads - The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads

The Beat – I just Can’t Stop It

The Cars – Panorama

The Cars - The Cars Greatest Hits

The Clash - Clash On Broadway

The Clash - Clash On Broadway [Disc 3]

The Clash - Live: From Here to Eternity

The Clash - Sandinista!

The Clash - Super Black Market Clash

The Damned - Live At Shepperton

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Fall - Grotesque (After The Gramme)

The Grateful Dead - 1980-10-06 Warfield Theater

The Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks, Vol. 21: Richmond Coliseum 11/1/85

The Jam - Compact Snap

The Jam – Sound Affects

The Kinks - Come Dancing With The Kinks

The Mekons - I Have Been to Heaven and Back..., Vol. 1

The Mekons - The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen

The Police - Every Breath You Take: The Singles

The Ramones - End Of The Century

The Ramones - Mania

The Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue

The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks

The Selecter – Too Much Pressure

The Specials – More Specials

The Specials - The Singles Collection

The Who - The Ultimate Collection

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback IV: The Other Sides

Toots & The Maytals - Time Tough - The Anthology

U2 – Boy

U2 - The Best Of 1980-1990

V/A - 12 Classic 45s

V/A - Back In The Day Jamz

V/A - Children Of Nuggets I

V/A - Children Of Nuggets II

V/A - Children Of Nuggets III

V/A - Children Of Nuggets IV

V/A - Old School I

V/A - Old School II

V/A - Pure Funk

V/A - Russ's Punk Mix

V/A - Trojan Dub Massive Chapter I

Violent Femmes - Add It Up (1981-1993)

Wailing Souls - Fire House Rock

Waylon Jennings - Best Of Waylon Jennings

X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology

Yes – Drama

1979

                 Ah, 1979.  Quite possibly the best year in all of rock & roll.  At the very least, at this point in the project, I’ll go ahead and say that it’s the best year so far, and I don’t really expect any years after to better it.  So much good stuff going on.  Punk is still in full bloom, New Wave is exploding in all directions (including post-punk), we get major developments in soul/funk/R&B, and even the old guard are doing some interesting stuff.  Career best records from the Clash, the Jam, Buzzcocks, PiL, Tom Petty, & Gang of Four, very solid entries from a whole host of other bands, and the birth of both sub-genres (dance-punk, Second Wave ska, modern R&B) and entire genres (rap).  A fantastic year for so much stuff, it’s hard to know where to begin.

                But I’ll begin with punk, I guess.  Last year I hinted at my disappointment with what the LA/DC kids would turn it into with hardcore, and this year is a great example of what the original punk had that hardcore lost (& replaced with dogma): a real sense of boundary-shattering adventure.  This year, for instance, we get fantastic records from both the Damned and the Buzzcocks that are not only energetic and catchy and unpretentious (the cardinal punk virtues) but also daring and experimental without losing that punk drive and brevity.  For the Damned, this means turning into the kind of psych-pop band that walked the earth post-’67, albeit with a far lower tolerance for tedious jams.  For the Buzzcocks, it means doubling down on all of their Krautrocky experimental tendencies, sounding like a band that could go in all sorts of directions, pop, prog, post-punk, or whatever, all with a punk sensibility and the best ear for hooks of any of the punks (Ramones included).  Sadly, they instead will break up after a last series of singles next year.

                Even more straight-ahead punk still shows lots of life.  X, especially, are starting to really gel into a phenomenal band, even if they haven’t yet shown just how far beyond that basic punk sound they’ll go.  Meanwhile, punk has spread to Ireland by ’79, with the Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers.  I’ve never quite understood why people love the Undertones so much, as they’re pretty much a standard Brit-punk band to me, comparable to, say, Sham 69 – fun, but nothing to get too excited about.  Stiff Little Fingers, on the other hand, are the last great band to emerge out of Brit-Punk.  If you couldn’t tell by the last paragraph, I love me some Brit-Punk – a punk movement unafraid of experimentation but also fantastically catchy.  The only bad thing I can say about it is that it came and went so quickly.  Anyway, SLF: obviously Clash-influenced, especially at the start, although they lack the Mott the Hoople influence of the early Clash.  But like the early Clash, they’re driven largely by adrenaline and politicized anger, and are unafraid to mix in the genres.  Reggae obviously, but less obviously doo-wop, which is a form they’ll return to quite a bit over the years, but perhaps never more successfully than on the punk love song “Barbed Wire Love.”

                The Clash themselves, meanwhile, have moved radically beyond their original sound to make what might just be the finest album in all of rock & roll, melding all sorts of various strains of music into a cohesive whole: punk, glam, & reggae, sure, but also soul, jump-jazz, a hint of disco, and even a dash of Springsteen-style epic rock.  The example of how genre was treated extremely casually in the late 70s.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: purity, in almost anything, from music to politics, is a vice far more often than it’s a virtue.

                Also showing a callous disregard for genre are the New Wave artists.  The Cars and Blondie both are in the position of following up their best album.  The Cars make a good show of it, expanding their sound to incorporate more synths, sounding more modern than the at-times classicist bent of their debut.  A slight step down, but more importantly a step forward, so easily forgivable.  Blondie, meanwhile, really kinda fall down.  Parallel Lines sounded like an accidental hit; a record that, like London Calling, was born out of a restless band throwing styles against the wall to see what stuck (and one of the things that stuck ended up being a massive hit).  Eat To The Beat, however, sounds like an extremely calculated attempt at repeating the formula.  Especially on side one, this is absolutely dreadful: tepid, dull, and overwritten.  Fortunately, the rest of the New Wave do much better than what was arguably the founding band.

                We are getting to the point where we’re starting to see different camps within New Wave, although you wouldn’t say they’re too radically far apart from each other.  One that still gets a fair amount of radio play today is the “angry young men” camp, basically consisting of Elvis Costello and his followers.  Nick Lowe probably belongs in here too, since he’s similarly focused on an articulate, lyrically- and musically-clever, and extremely sarcastic & cynical pop-rock style, although not nearly as angry as the others.  In a sense, these guys are far truer followers of the caustic electric Dylan of the mid-60s than any of the putative “new Dylans” of the folk-rock of the early 70s.  They’re also quite a bit more musically sophisticated than either Dylan’s garage rock or their fellow New Wave/punk acts.  Elvis and Nick Lowe both are pushing more into conventional pop sounds, albeit with an acid lyrical sensibility and attendant vocal sneer.  Elvis himself would claim that he was consciously trying to sound like ABBA on Armed Forces, although he’s better than them.  Joe Jackson, meanwhile, has a solid jazz background that he puts to good use on his deceptively simple songs.  At times, he sounds almost like an angrier Steely Dan. 

                The other big camp in New Wave that gets my attention this year are the Second Wave ska bands (aka the Two Tone bands).  Obviously both the Clash and the Police set a precedent for mixing punk and reggae, so maybe Second Wave was inevitable.  There’s a real argument to be made that Second Wave ska is at least as good as First Wave: it’s less sophisticated musically than the 60s Jamaican stuff, but has a lot more going on lyrically.  It also melds some punk-rock or New Wave elements, which may cause the purists to decry it, but 1) purity is a vice, as I’ve discussed above, and 2) especially with ska, searching for purity is nonsense, since First Wave was born of jazz/doo-wop/folk mixing anyway.  Anyway, the Specials are somewhat secretly one of the best bands of their era, embodying just about everything good about the genre.  Who they really recall are the early Rolling Stones: capable of penning great originals, but also loading up their debut with covers at least as much because of a desire to spread these excellent songs to more ears than from a need to get enough material.  Elsewhere in Second Wave, the Selecter have started touring, but don’t have an album yet, and Madness’s debut is out.  Madness, right out of the gate, are a whole lot of fun.  Unlike the Specials, who can be rather dour lyrically, Madness are basically a party band, mixing ska in with Kinks-style music hall and garage-rock.  I imagine you could dislike Madness, but I don’t really understand why you’d want to.  Maybe if you wanted to keep a proper dour pose, maybe.

                Of course, if it’s a dour pose you’re looking for, then what you want is some post-punk.  There’s a lot of really interesting stuff in post-punk this year, both in the more synth-based older stuff and the new dance-punk of Gang of Four and the Pop Group, but it’s all so incredibly glum and bleak.  I know that a significant portion of my readership can’t appreciate Joy Division because the bleakness overwhelms the fact that underneath these are fantastically well-constructed pop-rock tunes.  I can sympathize, as Magazine especially is a band where the lyrically preoccupation with being as dour and “disturbing” as possible really comes off as somewhat juvenile & off-putting.  I feel incredibly old writing that sentence.  *sigh*  Anyway, it’s all really interesting musically.  Also, a reason why Wire is my favorite of the post-punks: not only a cut above in terms of musical experimentation & composition, but lyrically more abstract and without the self-conscious “darkness.”  Sadly, this year, they’re sounding more like the class of ’78 post-punks, with a heavier synth element and generally more focused on down-tempo numbers and atmospherics than the more punk-based earlier sound.  Still, they churn out another fantastic pop song, with the typically lyrically oblique “Map Ref. 41°N 93°W.”

                It’s a tribute to how quickly music is evolving than you really can make a clear distinction between the class of ’78 post-punks and the new class of ’79 bands.  Chief among these are Gang of Four, who are the first band to really combine punk with disco or funk (apart from the Stones, of course).  They do it in a far more Spartan fashion than the Stones’ dabbling, and the stark, bare-bones sound really suits their lyrical sensibility, drenched as it is in Marxist dialectics.  A sound this distinctive can’t help but inspire followers, and sure enough not only do the Pop Group crop up in the UK, but Athens, GA’s Pylon put out their own version of this sound. 

                Of course, the big name in post-punk is Public Image Ltd., John Lydon’s new band.  They put out their generally agreed-upon masterpiece this year, Metal Box or Second Edition, depending on which pressing you happen to have.  It’s very good, as close as the post-punks ever came to capturing the dread of dub reggae, although it’s more a question of borrowing the sensibility than the sound: apart from the basslines, you’d never call this reggae.  Not at all pop, either, which makes it even odder to watch the old clips of PiL appearing on American Bandstand.  It’s also quite interesting to use as a basis to compare John Lydon/the Sex Pistols/PiL and the Clash.  They both, after all, release their masterpieces this year, and both are double-LPs heavily influenced by contemporary reggae sounds.  What I take away from the comparison is that the Clash were fundamentally a rock & roll band, and John Lydon essentially a prog-rocker.  For the Clash, musical experimentation took the form of a pan-global musical palette, but always used as a platform for constructing tight rocking songs; not unlike a Rolling Stones with reggae replacing the blues and a slightly wider ear for other musical sounds.  Therefore, they put out a sprawling, varied and expansive collection of songs.  PiL, on the other hand, put out a far more monolithic block of an album, uniform in tone and mood, and much more analogous to the sort of thing King Crimson or Can would do: focused on deconstruction of both song and lyric, and making a Grand Artistic Statement.  The Clash’s Grand Statements were always more political, and the polyglot music followed from a political argument for openness and focus on the concerns of the disenfranchised globally. 

                The last major album in the realm of post-punk, or New Wave art-rock, is the Talking Heads’ Fear Of Music.  It’s my own personal favorite Talking Heads record, if only because it’s exactly halfway between the nervy claustrophobic new-wave of the first two, and the expansive Fela Kuti-influenced grooves of their next couple.  Also halfway between the conscious artistic statements of a PiL and the pan-global musical experimentation (and sense of glee in that experimentation) of a Clash.

                It’s also clearly a major influence on David Bowie, and I can’t help but wonder how much Eno is both the conduit and the inspiration for both the Talking Heads and Bowie.  Lodger is the last and least of the Berlin records, if only because Bowie sounds more like a follower here than he did in ’77.  Still, fantastically experimental, and melding all sorts of interesting new sounds, largely the same African and Jamaican influences of the Talking Heads and Clash, onto the template he built with Low and “Heroes.”  His old ’77 partner in Berlin, however, Iggy Pop, is much more conventional this year.  It probably indicates just how much Pop’s ’77 sound was due to Bowie’s influence, but New Values sounds much closer to Pop’s other ’77 record, Kill City.  Which is to say like a slightly calmer and more musically sophisticated version of his Stooges sound.  Not that the calmness or sophistication of an Iggy Pop record should ever be overstated, though.  And he still remains one of the most captivating front-men in rock.  You could make an argument, I suppose, that this is the best representative Iggy Pop record of them all, since Kill City was really a demo collection, and Lust for Life and The Idiot were as much Bowie records as they were Pop records.  Also, because Iggy starts to slide a bit after this record.

                Deeper into the mainstream, New Wave influences are becoming more common.  Led Zeppelin put out their last album (barring odds & sods and archival live stuff), and it’s in a lot of ways a return to the genre-hopping form of Houses of the Holy, instead of the less varied metal-funk of the last couple.  In addition to their more traditional Zep rockers, some ballads, and country, Zep also start playing around with New Wave influences, esp. on “Caroselambra,” which almost sounds like the Cars at one point.  Not their strongest record, but a wholly-respectable one to bow out on, showing them still to be a band interested in what’s happening around them and willing to try new things.  Also a band somewhat surprisingly showing an ear to the ground is Fleetwood Mac, all the more remarkably as the previous two albums sounded like they were recorded in 1972.  Tusk, though, while not the best record they ever made, is certainly the most interesting.  It’s one I wish I had on CD, too, so I could trim off the pleasant but forgettable Christine McVie songs and the downright tedious Stevie Nicks ones, leaving behind a surprisingly credible attempt at New Wave by Lindsay Buckingham.  If ever an album was an argument for a band breaking up, it’s this one. 

                Elsewhere, we still find rock dominated by disco fusion.  This year the Kinks and Pink Floyd both start adding disco to their sound, although in much different ways.  The Kinks more or less just put out a disco record (“Wish I Could Fly Like Superman”), while Floyd take more steps to integrate disco into their sound.  The Wall is an interesting one to try and place in any kind of context.  Definitely much different than anything Floyd had done to date.  Not really a prog record, but one with a whole bunch of subtle compositional tricks that show it was written by a band with prog leanings (my favorite is the unresolved ending of “In The Flesh?,” building to a triumphant chord and instead ending with a baby’s cry, setting up all the tension right at the beginning).  More properly, this is a Kinks/Who-style rock opera, and like those, it can be quite good when it focuses on rocking, but downright miserable when Floyd try to combine theatrical show-tunes with rock (“The Trial”).  It’s also massively self-absorbed, but in its own way both as nihilistic and as anarchist-political as the Sex Pistols.  I can both see why the punks would hate it, and see it as coming from a very similar place.  I have no problem appreciating both, but that may be the advantage of viewing it from a distance.  At any rate, definitely the best rock opera not by the Who.

                And speaking of, the best rock opera by the Who resurfaces this year, this time in partially re-recorded/remixed form as the soundtrack to the Quadrophenia film.  This is one that shows much clearer links to punk, especially to the mod-revivalism of the Jam.  Not as good in soundtrack form as album form, due to resequencing and cutting some songs, but a clear indication of how the Who were simpatico with the punks.  The Jam, incidentally, have their own great leap forward this year, with their stab at a concept album.  By this point, the Jam are full-fledged mod-revivalists, with the tighter playing and rhythmic emphasis vs. their early punk days, plus a fine way with a lyric setting up Paul Weller as a worthy Pete Townshend/Ray Davies heir.  Another argument for the quality of 1979.

                Also (finally) responding to punk is Neil Young.  Like the Stones, not really making a punk record (although “Sedan Delivery” is pretty punk), but rather making a record in his own personal style responding to the energy of punk.  For half the record this means stripping down his folk sound to its barest essentials, and for the second half cranking up the distortion.  A record so nice he basically released it a second time as Live Rust, which duplicates all of the electric side (except the surprisingly terrible “Welfare Mothers”) along with a greatest hits of both his acoustic and electric material to date.  The electric live stuff especially is as good as or better than the studio stuff.  This was the record that first got me into Neil Young, and I’d still recommend it over any greatest hits or single album as the place to start.  However, I also understand why people might have been grumpy at Young duplicating himself so quickly.

                At least he didn’t flat out embarrass himself, though, like Dylan did in his At Budokan album, slathering his old classics with big-band arrangements that more than anything recall Neil Diamond or (slightly more charitably) Elvis in his ‘strung-out-&-no-longer-caring’ period.  Interesting but terrible, in the same sense as Bowie’s David Live, but (thankfully) not signaling a new direction.  Rather, Dylan’s new direction is to go Christian, which inspired him to put out a pretty good album, but honestly didn’t change his core sound very much.  He is starting to drift hard into irrelevance here.

                Of course, Dylan’s At Budokan suffers in comparison not only to his previous work, but also to the other At Budokan released this year, Cheap Trick’s.  Like Young’s Live Rust, this is a record that’s as good as a greatest hits (albeit for a band much earlier in its career).  A good indication that non-punk pop-rock is actually doing pretty ok in 1979.  By the same token, ELO is still more good than bad, although starting to sound a touch overwrought, perhaps.  Also, although he may still count as New Wave, Tom Petty puts out the best of his early rockin’ albums, but of course, Petty doesn’t really do albums as cohesive works, so that really just means, puts out another lp, this one with his highest killer-to-filler ratio.  Still working a Stones-Byrds sound that’s raw & fast enough to be punk, but much more studied in its songcraft and tight in its performance, yet trad enough to not really fit as New Wave. 

On the R&B side of things, it’s a good year for the new wave (small caps), but not so hot for the old wave.  Stevie Wonder finally follows up Songs In the Key Of Life with a disco-orchestral film score (with a couple of pop songs).  It’s not bad, per se, but it’s not especially interesting, either.  This is one where reviewing an artist entirely in hindsight works to the album’s advantage.  For me, who picked up Stevie Wonder albums as fast as I could locate them on LP, Secret Life of Plants was always just a minor aside, a blip between Songs in the Key of Life and Hotter Than July.  But at the time, for Stevie to have dropped such a masterpiece in ’76, and then gone completely dark for 3 years, then to return with this mediocrity must have been mighty disheartening.  Meanwhile, Marley follows up his masterpiece with Survival, an album that doesn’t have any obvious hits but is quite strong, almost sounding like a return to his earlier, more stripped sound.   Not having any Legend tracks for the more superficial fans, and not being one of the early albums that the fans who dig deeper go for, I’ve always felt like this is one that just kinda gets passed over by Marley fans.

On the more funk end of things, Parliament is still going, although undeniably slipping from last year’s peak.  Far more exciting is what’s newer in the world of funk.  Prince and Rick James both were already active last year, but while Prince is still mighty conventional, Rick James is developing nicely.  A strong argument can be made, I think, that if the goofily theatrical P-Funk sound was analogous to glam rock, James’s harder, more bare-bones funk is funk’s punk equivalent.  Not that it sounds much like the actual funk-punk of Gang of Four et. al. though – and better than them musically, if not as distinctive lyrically.  The biggest news in soul/funk/R&B, however, is the debut of Michael Jackson as an adult solo artist.  Off The Wall is the first of the trilogy of albums that would make him a legend, and it’s a pretty remarkable step forward in the development of R&B.  Obviously indebted to the Jackson Five’s later stuff (when they were The Jacksons), but sounding not at all like the classic Motown sound.  A disco influence, sure, but also a more stripped sound, and a willingness to do softer, more Beatle-esque ballads.  Somewhat astonishing how much modern pop music still sounds like this record.

Finally, I’ve previously tagged R&B as a genre that is more evolutionary than revolutionary, in that it changes over time, but seldom has great leaps forward.  One of those is arguably Off The Wall, but another is indisputably the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.”  At the time, you could be forgiven for mistaking rap as a novelty.  After all, “Rapper’s Delight” is not technically the first rap song; that would be “Personality Jock” by Fatback (also this year).  Fatback were a forgettable funk band, and their rap song undeniably was a novelty.  But, as we’ll see soon enough, rap itself was by no means just a gimmick. 

So 1979 was a very good year for a lot of music, especially funk & pop-rock.  What wasn’t it so hot a year for?  Mostly prog and roots-rock.  Prog is basically a dead genre at this point: the most exciting art-rock of the 80s will be post-punk, not prog, and the major prog bands of the 70s that keep making worthwhile records will either turn to New Wave or post-punk for their inspiration.  And I have never been able to care even a little about the new 80’s prog bands, of the likes of the Alan Parsons Project or Marillon.  You do get a pair of Zappa records this year that are among my personal favorites.  Joe’s Garage is another of Zappa’s not-to-be-taken-seriously rock operas, but is for whatever reason my Zappa Rosetta Stone.  After years of friends & family throwing Zappa records at me, trying to get me to like him, this was the one that made me turn a corner.  Maybe because it’s the easiest one to just appreciate Zappa & band as an instrumental unit, and leave all his somewhat off-putting lyrical obsessions and all their baggage to the side.  The other Zappa record, Sheik Yerbouti, is the closest he ever came to a straight up novelty record, though, so comes with a healthy dosage of said lyrical obsessions.  Fun, but it plays like a joke band with chops for a good portion of it.

Jethro Tull also have the last of their folk-rock albums, but they’re not at all a prog band anymore, and much more just straight folk-rock.  Not a bad thing in itself, but it’s by far the weakest of the folk-rock trilogy, and while pleasant enough while it’s playing, just not distinctive.  And that, plus a very good Townes Van Zant live album, is pretty much all the roots rock I have on offer this year.  Unlike prog, it’s a genre that will continue and revive, but it’s pretty weak this year, at least in my collection.  I don’t even have any live Grateful Dead from 79.

So now we enter the 1980s.  I’m pretty excited about this, actually.  I had a pretty good sense of how music changed in quality and evolved in the last 20 years, that the 60s would basically linearly increase in quality and the 70s would be more U-shaped, but while I know that a bunch of good music was released in the 80s, I have no idea how it all fits chronologically.  Ironic, since it’s the first decade I lived through, but my age 1-11 musical exposure was a touch limited, I think….

Song of the Year:  Buzzcocks – “I Believe”.  Because it’s the punk-rock “Hey Jude,” because it combines both the Buzzcocks’ pop sense and prog/post-punk ambitions, because it’s just straight-up great.  Although I very nearly picked Cookie Monster’s “I Lost My Cookie At the Disco.”

Album of the Year:  The Clash – London Calling.  In my opinion, the greatest album in all of rock & roll.  Experimental but accessible, intelligent but not pretentious, progressive both musically and lyrically, and ultimately optimistic but clear-eyed.  When I made Exile On Main St. my album of the year way back in 1972, I said it was one of a handful of albums I refuse to be without for any length of time.  This is another one.

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Talking Heads.  I knew they were a great band, but I didn’t realize until listening to them in context just how they were the best American art-rock band of their era.  To put it in modern (& standardized testing) terms: Talking Heads:New Wave::Radiohead:alt-rock/indie.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  The Pop Group.  At the time, I wondered why the early ‘00s post-punk revivalists borrowed so heavily from Gang of Four and not at all from Wire.  The difference, I think, is that to follow in Wire’s footsteps, you need a fractured compositional genius.  To mimic the Gang of Four, all you really need is a decent-ish drummer and the right effects pedals.  The Pop Group aren’t bad, but neither are they actually musically revelatory; they’re just the first to crack the Gang of Four formula of effects-free funk guitar + vaguely anarchistic lyrics.  Then they do some tuneless noise-jamming for the critics.

Album List

ABBA - Gold

AC/DC - AC/DC

Aerosmith - Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

Blondie - Best Of Blondie

Blondie – East To The Beat

Blue Öyster Cult - Workshop Of The Telescopes

Bob Dylan – At Budokan

Bob Dylan - Greatest Hits Volume 3

Bob Dylan - Vol. 3: Rare And Unreleased, 1974-1991

Bob Marley – Survival

Bruce Springsteen - 18 Tracks

Buzzcocks - A Different Kind Of Tension

Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady

Cheap Trick – At Budokan

Cheap Trick - The Authorized Greatest Hits

Danger Mike - DISSONANCE

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

David Bowie – Lodger

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Electric Light Orchestra - Strange Magic: The Best Of Electric Light Orchestra

Elvis Costello – Armed Forces

Elvis Costello - Best Of

Elvis Costello - Out Of Our Idiot

Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac – Tusk

Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage - Act I and II

Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage - Act III

Frank Zappa – Sheik Yerbouti

Gang Of Four - Entertainment!

George Harrison - Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989

Goblin - Goblin

Graham Parker – Squeezing Out Sparks

Iggy Pop - New Values

J.J. Cale - Very Best Of

Jethro Tull – Stormwatch

Jimmy Buffett - Songs You Know By Heart

Joe Jackson – I’m The Man

Joe Jackson – Look Sharp!

John Lennon - Imagine Soundtrack

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - The Beserkley Years: The Best Of Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers

Joy Division - 13 July 1979 - The Factory

Joy Division - Les Bains Douches: 18 December 1979 [Live]

Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Joy Division - The Complete BBC Recordings [Live]

Joy Division - The Factory 13 July 1979

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Judas Priest - Metal Works '73-'93

Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door

Madness – One Step Beyond

Madness - Total Madness: The Very Best Of Madness

Magazine - Rays And Hail 1978-1981: The Best Of Magazine

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson

Midnight Oil - 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits

Motörhead - No Remorse

Neil Young – Live Rust

Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps

Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps

Nick Lowe - Basher: The Best Of Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe - Nutted By Reality

Parliament - Tear The Roof Off 1974-1980

Patti Smith - Outside Society

Paul McCartney - Wingspan: History

Paul McCartney - Wingspan: Hits

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Prince - The Hits

Public Image Ltd. - Second Edition

Pylon - Gyrate Plus

Queen - Greatest Hits

Rick James - Motown Legends: Give It to Me Baby

Rick James - The Ultimate Collection:  Rick James

Roxy Music - The Best Of Roxy Music

Sid Vicious – Love Kills N.Y.C.

Squeeze - Singles 45's And Under

Stevie Wonder - At The Close Of A Century

Stevie Wonder – Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants

Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material

Talking Heads – Fear of Music

Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline

Tangerine Dream – Force Majeure

The Cars – Candy-O

The Cars - The Cars Greatest Hits

The Chieftans – Boil The Breakfast Early

The Clash - Clash On Broadway

The Clash - London Calling

The Clash - Super Black Market Clash

The Clash - The Vanilla Tapes

The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Jam - Compact Snap

The Jam - Setting Sons

The Kinks - Come Dancing With The Kinks

The Police - Every Breath You Take: The Singles

The Pop Group - Y (最後の警告)

The Selecter - BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert

The Specials - BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert

The Specials - The Singles Collection

The Specials - The Specials

The Upsetters - Arkology II: Dub Shepherd

The Upsetters - Arkology III: Dub Adventurer

The Who – Quadrophenia soundtrack

The Who – The Kids Are Alright

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback I: The Big Jangle

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback IV: The Other Sides

Toots & The Maytals - Time Tough - The Anthology

Townes Van Zandt - Rear View Mirror

V/A - 12 Classic 45s

V/A - Back In The Day Jamz

V/A - Beleza Tropical: Brazil Classics 1

V/A - Children Of Nuggets I

V/A - Children Of Nuggets II

V/A - Children Of Nuggets III

V/A - Old School I

V/A - Post Punk Chronicles: Left Of The Dial

V/A - Pure Funk

V/A - Trojan Dub Massive Chapter I

Wire - 154

X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology