Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, August 07, 2002

The Ten Best Rock and Roll Albums of the 80’s

This is bound to be a controversial topic. Whenever someone writes a”best of” list there’s always another opinion. That’s how personal taste works. Still though, there’s a lot to be said for taking the time to think about it because you really have to go beyond personal preference to look at a piece of art’s lasting influence. Questions have to be asked. Questions like, “Where did this come from?”, “Why is it important?”, “How does it capture a feeling or a mood or a movement of it’s time and carry it into immortality”, “What new thing does it introduce that remains beyond it’s short moment in the pop culture sun?”. I’ve tried to use these questions to frame my approach. One disclaimer is in order here. I wasn’t much into the punk movement into the 80’s. In many ways Punk Rock rescued the 80’s from disco and all that surrounded it. It returned a rawness and energy to rock and roll that the overproduction of the late 70’s had stolen. What this means is that some very deserving albums aren’t on my list, most notably the Clash’s London Calling. Rolling Stone named this work as the best album of the 80’s and I am not inclined to disagree. However, I don’t own the album and I haven’t ever heard the whole then so I can’t include it. Finally, if you’re looking for a place to begin the experience the music of the 80’s I suggest that this is a fine place to start but a bad place to end. Without further ado, here’s the list in no particular order (except maybe the first).

Dream of the Blue Turtles-Sting: This album was a lightning bolt from off the radar screen. Authentic jazz mixed with rock and roll. Extraordinarily intelligent lyrics. Time signatures never used before in a pop song. No other album like it was created during the decade. It was unique and it help restore jazz in America. Branford Marsalis was accused of selling out by playing on this album as was Omar Hakim. Instead they showed people that you could still swing. Sting’s lyrics are amazing. Listening to the album was like getting a lesson in the history of western civilization. As intellectual as the album is, the songs are so catchy that you scarcely realize that you’re being asked to expand your horizons. Who else but Sting could steal a piece of classical music, cast it in a rock/jazz framework, write a powerful tune about Cold War tensions and not sound pretentous. (A brief note here: One of the best soundtracks of the 80’s was “Russia House” where Marsalis continued to reintroduce America to it’s greatest artistic creation.)

Graceland-Paul Simon: This was the introduction of world music to the mass audience and they (we) ate it up. I can still remember listening to the harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambozo and being just totally blown away. Simon, like Sting, is an excellent lyricist but you can tell that the music flows from some spring deep inside that was filled listening to the ethnically rich music in the streets of New York. He had the courage to go searching for the headwaters of that music and the journey led him to Africa and South America. He believed enough in the music to see that a good tune was good whether it was sung on the shores of some distant continent or in America. The follow-up album “Rhythm of the Saints” could be considered a continuation of this album.

Joshua Tree/Rattle and Hum-U2: I group these two albums together because they act like bookmarks of U2’s rise to mainstream popularity in America. The tunes are emotionally powerful. In a way it was as if this psuedo-punk band had risen above the limitations of their musical style and had captured the essence of the roots of rock and roll. Maybe only a rebellious Irish band could understand the emotions that had given rise to the gospel influenced black music of the sixties. Like the Stones, they found the blues and it all seemed to make sense in the music they wrote and recorded.

Thriller-Michael Jackson: While Mr. Jackson may have taken a leave from reality following this album, the album itself is breathtaking. It is hard to relay the impact the album had almost 20 years after it was released. It single-handedly saved African-American popular music in America. All hip-hop/R&B music of today owes it’s existence to this album. Billie Jean may be the most dancable piece of pop music ever written. The driving rhythm of Bad, Thriller and Billie Jean propel this album with such a force that you can’t help but want to move. It is visceral music. It’s not really like you’re really down on the street but that the essence of the street has been distilled and captured in the music. You feel the anger and the fear and the bravado. It compels you to respond. Jackson would later do a video with a Westside Story theme but that feeling really comes from this album.

Paradise Theater-Styx: This was the greatest album of a great bar band because it captured a feeling in America at the close of the 70’s and beginning of the 80’s. The country was in recession, people had lost their jobs, money was tight. There were those who claimed that America was done as a dominant power in the world both politically and economically. This album is a rallying cry that said that while we may be down, we aren’t out. The message of hope is powerful in what may have been one of the first concept albums by an American band.

90125-Yes: This is the album that Asia should have been able to do two years earlier but couldn’t. Straight ahead rock from some of the best musicians to have ever played the genre. Jon Anderson’s voice is so distinctive and the tightness of the band so instinctive that the album has an energy not often found. This album may have the best piece of rock a capella singing ever.

Faith-George Michael: Maybe the best vocal album of the decade. Michael’s voice combined with some excellent grooves makes for some of the best pop music ever made. This album is, in some ways, the 80’s “Pet Sounds”. It captures so many different essences of what pop music was in the decade and still managed to sound remarkably fresh. The album had a funk to it that shocked a lot of people who thought Michael could only do “Wham” stuff. Topically it dealt with Sex in the time when AIDS was a huge topic, drug addiction and dependency in relationships. Yet, everything still fit within three minutes and it all rhymed. The album appealed to huge numbers of listeners from love struck teenie-boppers to 50 something big band era Sinatra fans.

End of the Innocence-Don Henley: While the music here is good, it’s the lyrics that make the album so memorable. Henley writes with such insight and clarity that you can’t help but wonder how he knew exactly how you felt about the topic he’s singing about. He captures the frustration many had with the Reagan years and the “Decade of Greed”. His song “Forgiveness” could well have been an anthem for many in the 90’s who were left holding the tatters of relationships from the past. In many ways, this album is the anti-grunge album. It deals with a lot of the same topics but from the perspective of a tired adult looking back at the wreckage. Grunge will be about the anger and isolation of the young victims of the “Me” generation’s pursuit of wealth and fame.

Strong Persuader-Robert Cray: This album reminded America that the blues is where it all started. I think that “Smoking Gun” is one of only two blues videos ever shown on MTV (the other being the pairing of U2 and BB King in “When Love Comes to Town” from Rattle and Hum). The album is a strong statement about authentic music from an almost lost tradition. No better introduction to the blues exists. That’s not to say that better blues albums don’t exist (though there aren’t many) but Cray delivers the goods in an unapologetic, unashamed way.

Synchronicity-The Police: Musically the album is brilliant and lyrically the album is deeper than 99% of all albums made. You just about needed a degree in psychology to understand a lot of this album. This is also one of the darkest albums made during the decade. It was an antidote to all of the Debbi Gibson like fluff that came out of the pop marketing machine of the time.

I’ve left out a large number of really good bands. Groups and individuals like Steely Dan, Tears for Fears, Def Leppard, The Alan Parsons Project, Midnight Oil, The Talking Heads, Duran Duran, Phil Keaggy, Brian Wilson, Stevie Ray Vaughn and many others deserve honorable mention. Unfortunately there’s not enough room. So, start here and go exploring. There’s a lot of good stuff that you won’t find on the 80’s flashback stations.

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