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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: The Eighties

  • MisenPOPic- Why 80’s Dance Parties Irk Me!!!

    Bars and clubs all across the country promote their 80’s nights every weekend.  As a fan of 80’s music, you would think I would want to hit the 80’s nights and enjoy the sounds.  You thought wrong!  Because the dim-witted DJ’s refuse to play anything out of the ordinary because the paying customers don’t want to think outside the box.  We’ve all been reading Mike Heyliger’s outstanding Infatueightes countdown to know there are more than just the same 40 danceable tunes that came out of the 80’s.  Isn’t it the DJ’s job to inspire with new sounds and different beats?

    Don’t they get tired of spinning “Come On Eileen” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me” on a constant basis?  I get frustrated when I hear the opening notes to the same tunes, so much I want to find a stick and repeatedly hit the DJ over and over and over again for having no sense of originality. It pains me when I request a song from Dokken, and they don’t even know what I’m talking about.  I’m not saying the DJ even has to play obscure songs that you read about in my Out There! column.  Mix it up!  I envy these guys and girls, don’t they realize they have the best job in the world?

    Here are some examples of songs we hear all of the time that need to be removed from the weekly playlist immediately,  or else we still continue to dumb down the musical educations of future generations!

    Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard
    Now look, I’m a huge Leppard fan, maybe one of the biggest Def Leppard fans on the planet. Pour Some Sugar was one of my favorite songs until I’ve heard it replay thousands of times over the years at dance clubs and bars.  Does the DJ realize there are other fast-beat songs/hit songs on the same album (Hysteria)? Why not think outside the box and play Animal?  That will get people singing along.  “An I Want, An I Need, An I Love, Animal!  C’mon, I just got that stuck in your head.  You telling me if you were drunk and you heard this anthem, you wouldn’t start shaking about.  Can’t we give some loving to some other pop metal bands like Ratt and Poison as well.  And I don’t mean hearing “Nothing But A Good Time” which is another bar staple.

    Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi
    Do the 21 year olds understand that this song has overstayed it’s welcome?  It’s a fun song to dance to with a group of friends, this I understand.  But aren’t there a whole slew of songs from the 80’s just like this from corporate rock giants such as REO Speedwagon and Journey?  Wouldn’t “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” be a song to huddle up with your buddies and belt out the worlds.  “Some day love will find you,break those chains that bind you..” You know the rest.  Guitars and keyboards just like the Bon Jovi classic, c’mon DJ, put that record on.

    Come On Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners
    You know when the opening of this song comes on, people are getting ready to throw up their legs and pretend they are a Rocktette.  Do aye do aye do aye do aye YAY!  Ugggh!  Can’t we maybe replace with a fun 80’s tune from a similar band like Men At Work or Madness?  How about “House of Fun”, it could work and get people lifting their legs in the air?  You know, I haven’t heard “Who Can It Be Now” at a bar in a few years, this might just work also.

    I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston
    Another R&B 80’s staple that is sometimes played more than once in the night.  Is it supposed to automatically remind the girls that there are tons of meat int the bar and they need to dance with some of them? How about “The Neutron Dance” by the Pointer Sisters?  I’ve always defended this song as a classic dance hit that hasn’t aged one bit.  I never understood why I have never heard this song ever at a club.  It has a great beat, is totally familiar to the naked ear, and heck, the DJ can even work up some new steps and create a new dance sensation to compete to the Electric and Cha Cha Cha slides.


    Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield
    The DJ always has to include the 80’s pop rock tune.  Another great tune, but does it need to be played every time?  There are other pop/rock songs just as good.  How about something from J. Geils Band?  “Love Stinks” or “Freeze Frame”?

    Tainted Love by Soft Cell
    You know it’s not a true 80’s night without this staple.  Doesn’t the DJ realize there are plenty of syntho-pop songs that would work so “Tainted Love” can be played every fifth night instead of every night.  How about some lesser-known gems like “Space Age Love Song” from A Flock Of Seagulls or “Love Plus One” from Haircut 100?  A lot of bands experimented with synthesizers in the 80’s, is “Tainted Love” the only one that still works?  I think not.

    Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
    I know, I know, it’s the popular tune for all the girls out there.  But if Girls want to have so much fun, how about kicking off the shoes to “Girls” by Dwight Twilley (if you don’t know this one, you will in a future Out There! column) or “Valley Girl” by Frank Zappa?

    And the list goes on and on.  The clueless DJ’s need to do their homework.  Watch old MTV clips on youtube, do some research on Wikipedia, sample songs on iTunes, read this blog!!  Play some more Rick Astley! Play some more Human League! Play some more A Flock Of Seagulls!  Play some Romeo Void or Yaz!  Play some more lesser known hair-metal bands.  Play something else off of AC/DC’s Back In Black besides “You Shook Me All Night Long”! Hell play more Michael Jackson and Madonna, just play different songs you don’t hear on a constant basis!  Because the next time I hear “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey even if it’s remixed with a dance beat, I’m gonna drop my pants and pee all over the DJ’s equipment!

    Oh how I miss the Culture Club!  Although come to think of it, they could have used some lessons as well!!

  • Infatueighties: “Yah Mo B There”

    Chances are, if you were anywhere near a radio station from roughly 1980-1987, within thirty minutes you’d hear something from either James Ingram or Michael McDonald. The two Midwestern guys (Ingram was from Akron, OH while McDonald repped St. Louis) were very fond of the duet and/or the background support vocal, and their list of collaborators reads like a laundry list of Eighties hitmakers: Michael Jackson, Shalamar, Kenny Loggins, Donna Summer, Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, Nicolette Larson, Linda Ronstadt, Patti Austin, Anita Baker and Toto, just to name a few. It was inevitable that the two would eventually collaborate.

     

    Actually, it wasn’t that eventual. “Yah Mo B There” was the second single from Ingram’s debut solo album “It’s Your Night”. Of course, Ingram was already a Grammy winning success story at that point, due to “Just Once” and “One Hundred Ways”, his featured spots on Quincy Jones’ “The Dude” album. McDonald was only a year or so removed from his lead singer’s spot in the Doobie Brothers and had only released his own debut solo album a few months before. The result was a smash: “Yah Mo B There” reached the Top 15 on the pop charts, Top 5 R&B, and won the pair a Grammy for “Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group”. It was Ingram’s third Grammy as a solo artist, McDonald’s second.

    The song itself screams “Eighties”, with a hypnotic, synthesized beat. Rod Temperton, the former Heatwave member who wrote many of The King of Pop’s biggest hits, co-penned this track, while the legendary Quincy Jones produced.  Both men were at this time riding high off the success of “Thriller” (in which Ingram was also a participant, having co-written “P.Y.T”. Thematically, it comes thisclose to being gospel. “Yah”, of course, being shorthand for “Yahweh”. Ingram purposefully fudged with the spelling of the title phrase so as not to scare off pop listeners from it’s fairly explicity spiritual message.

    One person they definitely didn’t scare off was me. Ingram and McDonald both give phenomenal performances, full of passion. They’ve not always given themselves the best material, but they scored here. Over twenty years later, this song still moves me. Not to sermonize at all, but even as an occasionally lapsed Catholic (maybe even more because of that) this song’s message resonates with me especially when I’m going through dark patches. Both the song and it’s video make clear that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

    Although this video version is of a slightly inferior remix (what’s up with the percussion tracks?), the power of the song’s message rings as clear as the voices that sing it. Well, maybe those voices aren’t so clear. I can never figure out what the men are singing after they vocalize the title (folks say it’s “up and over”, but it sure doesn’t sound like it)

  • I Guess Mr. Collins Has Had His Phil


    So the music world has been rocked-ROCKED, I say!!-by the announcement that Phil Collins is retiring from touring and releasing new albums.

    OK, so I’m being a little sarcastic. Considering Phil hasn’t made a better-than-average record in a decade and a half (some folks would say more, some would even say he’s *never* made a better-than-average record), I don’t think a whole lot of people are wiping away tears at Phil’s retirement. Actually, his decision to bow out now should probably serve as sort of a guideline for most rockers who find themselves north of 50.

    That said, I’m far from a Phil Collins hater. Over the past thirty-five years or so, Phil’s established himself as not only one of rock’s best drummers, but also s a fantastic pop craftsman. Even if you’re not a pop fan, you’ve gotta admit that through the Eighties, he ranked as one of the decade’s best singles artists-and he’s certainly one of the better blue-eyed soul singers the world has produced. I’ll even admit that about four years ago, I dragged my then-boss to an intimate concert Phil held in New York City that was filmed for a VH-1 special that I don’t think ever aired. Anyway, I even made my boss (who DETESTS Phil Collins and Eighties’ pop in general) stay after the show and wait in line just so I could shake Phil’s hand and tell him how big a fan I was. I’m surprised I didn’t get fired afterwards.

    I really wanted to include the clip of Stewie Griffin singing “In The Air Tonight” to pay tribute to Phil, but Youtube doesn’t have it, dammit.

    So instead, you get one of my favorite songs of the decade: “Sussudio”. Enjoy. We’ll miss you, Phil. Enjoy skiing in the Swiss Alps and boinking hot chicks young enough to be your daughter. And take Tony and Mike with you so they don’t try to reform Genesis with some lameass lead singer again.