1984

"Darling Nikki" is the best song Prince has ever written.

do i detect an important distinction between "favorite" and "best"?

I have it on some weird vinyl German K-Tel-like compilation from the mid '80s and it sound like, um, some weird German thing. Sort of in the Trio/Falco/Nena genre, but you neglected to list all those guys!

And if "Darling Nikki" is Geir's favorite Prince song, he would be deceitful if he DIDN'T also refer to as Prince's best song.

See? told you.

At least, "Jump" was in my list. :-)

And oddly not the Aztec Camera version, wow! You've HEARD that, right?

and the bruce springsteen tracks on that list should all be the arthur baker remixes.

The Aztec Camera version
1. Is not an original composition
2. Does not have one of the best synth themes ever. :-)

and if your list is supposed to be cover-free, geir, you're gonna have to delete the bangles' "going down to liverpool," since katrina and the waves did it first. although this is another case where the cover destroys the original.

More love for Tracey. I like her version of "Bobby's Girl."

Who all agrees with me and Matos about the supreme wonderfulness of the year that was 1984?

I would have never guessed Geir for a Romantics fan, but I'm pleasantly surprised.

"The Cowboy Rides Away" -- conceivably his second best single (after "Amarillo By Morning") off what's concevably his best album ever (*Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind*) I say "conceivably" because I tend to never keep up with said goody-goody bore of a man all that much. I don't even remember that other song you named!

I meant his 2nd best single EVER (+ "Amarillo" isn't on *Fort Worth*)

well, hell, what's not to agree with? a year when mainstream pop was dominated by two of the greatest albums of all time ("purple rain" and the two-year-old-and-still-piping-hot "thriller") ... PLUS "born in the usa" PLUS every track mentioned above PLUS morris day's sensational acting debut PLUS can i hear it for lisa lisa's "i wonder if i take you home"??? PLUS the releases of about half of the all-time indie-rock canon PLUS the hoodoo gurus' "i want you back," which should be on your list, too, geir PLUS the jesus and mary chain's first 7-inch PLUS for crying out loud the lyres' "on fyre" came out that year PLUS not to mention "roxanne roxanne" PLUS PLUS PLUS PLUS PLUS...

"If he is against it, i don't want to hear the reason why" -- thus ensuring that we all will

Of course, Billy Idol "Rebel Yell" came out that year, too, and the IL80's crew made fun of it, but man... you all are aware that that's a really good album, right?

"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins?
"Hello" by Lionel Richie?
"I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder?
"Reflex" by Duran Duran?

All (US) number ones; all stinkers (tho I know many Durranies would disagree with me. I actually like Geir's pick "Wild Boys," btw.) And Lionel's song actually came from an otherwise fine (1983) album.

On the other hand, looking at the # 1's in Whitburn, I just realized that nobody seems to have mentioned "Owner of Lonely Heart"," "What's Love Got to Do With It," or "Ghostbusters" (unless they mentioned them and I wasn't paying attention.) So yeah - a really good year.

Plus, it was such a good year that even people like Yes and John Waite were somehow forced to make great singles.

http://www.netwaite.com/images/Cleve%2010-01.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7587/waits_fin.jpg

Hmm don't see it.

OMG I;m crapping my pants right now!

Anyway, I don't CARE what y'all think about 1984 vs. 1981 vs. 1966 vs. 1929 vs. 1953 vs. 1971 vs. whateva. 1984 is MY fuckin' year, people! Step off!

what if it were done by, say, critic's darlings Huey Lewis and the News?

It would fall pray to the incredibly biogted and uneccessary Huey-hate of 'smart' rock critics everywhere. Which I happen to share. Your point?

Ha ha ha. Yes yes, I KNOW "Ghostbusters" is supposed to, hell, was written to sound just like "I Want A New Drug," though those similarities didn't occur to me at ALL until over fifteen years later with the Huey Lewis Behind the Music episode. Seriously! Anyway "IWAND" doesn't have a shouted chorus, which is why it's not as good as "Ghostbusters." A subtle distinction, I know, but rock is a game of subtle distinctions between unsubtle things.

Plus if George had written it we'd have had "Ghost Dog." In fact, that's how I'm gonna sing "Ghostbusters" from now on. Or at least for the rest of the day.

You make a persuasive case.

.38 Special, "If I'd Been The One"
Abafana Bomoya, "Sesiydalya"
Accept, "Balls To The Wall"
Bryan Adams, "Run to You"
King Sunny Ade, "Gboromiro"
Laurie Anderson, "Sharkey's Day"
Apollonia 6, "Sex Shooter"
Arrow, "Hot Hot Hot (Hotter Mix '84)"
Art of Noise, "Close (To the Edit)"
Awesome Foursome, "Funky Breakdown"
Bad Religion, "Bad Religion"
Bananarama, "Cruel Summer"
Baron, "Feeling It"
Belfegore, "All That I Wanted"
Pat Benatar, "We Belong"
Jorge Ben, "Irene Cara Mia"
Big Black, "Cables"
Big Boys, "Which Way To Go"
Black Flag, "Slip It In"
Ruben Blades, "Buscando America"
Blue Nile, "Tinseltown In The Rain"
Bon Jovi, "Runaway"
Jocelyn Brown, "Somebody Else’s Guy"
Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, "We Need Some Money"
Peabo Bryson, "If Ever You're In My Arms Again"
Cars, "Drive"
Cameo, "She's Strange"
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "From Her to Eternity"
Cherelle, "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On"
Chills, "Pink Frost"
Chuck Chill-Out, "Hip Hop On Wax Vol. 1."
Cocteau Twins, "Lorilei"
Cold Crush Brothers, "Fresh, Fly, Wild & Bold"
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, "Perfect Skin"
Phil Collins, "Against All Odds"
Elvis Costello, "I Wanna Be Loved"
Culture Club, "The War Song"
Dazz Band, "Let it Blow"
Dominatrix, "The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight"
Duran Duran, "The Reflex"
Sheila E., "The Glamorous Life"
Echo and the Bunnymen, "Ocean Rain"
Debarge, "In a Special Way"
Def Leppard, "Bringin On The Heartbreak"
Dennis Edwards, "Don't Look Any Further"
Depeche Mode, "People are People"
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, "Capitalists Suck"
Thomas Dolby, "Hyperactive"
Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Harold Budd, "Late October"
Eurythmics, "Here Comes The Rain Again"
Ex, "Rabble With a Cause"
Fat Boys, "Human Beat Box"
Morton Feldman, "For Phillip Guston"
Foreigner, "I Want to Know What Love Is"
Franco & TP OK Jazz, "Limbisa Ngai"
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, "Two Tribes"
Serge Gainsbourg, "Lemon Incest"
General Public, "Tenderness"
Gilberto Gil, "Toda Menina Bahiana"
Go-Gos, "Head Over Heels"
Manuel Göttsching, "E2-E4"
Half Japanese, "Hall of the Mountain King/Louie Louie"
Hall & Oates, "Say It Isn't So"
Herbie Hancock & Grandmaster DST, "Megamix"
Dan Hartman, " I Can Dream About You"
Ofra Haza, "Im Nin' Alu"
High Rise, "Induced Depression"
Hüsker Dü, "Hare Krsna"
Icicle Works, "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)"
INXS, "I Send A Message"
Jacobites, "Kings and Queens"
Jean-Michel Jarre, "Zoolookologie (Remix)"
Rebbe Jackson, "Centipede"
Jesus and Mary Chain, "Upside Down"
Judas Priest, "Defenders of the Faith"
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, "Ifa Lobukhosana"
Laid Back, "White Horse"
John Lennon/Yoko Ono, "Nobody Told Me"
Lord Kitchener, "Gee Me The Ting"
Linton Kwesi Johnson, "Di Eagle An' Di Bear"
Chaka Khan, "I Feel For You"
Killdozer, "A Man's Gotta Be A Man"
Cyndi Lauper, "Money Changes Everything"
Papa Levi, "Mi God, Mi King"
LL Cool J, "I Need A Beat"
Madonna, "Borderline"
Louisa Marks, "Caught You In A Lie"
Malcom McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team, "Hey DJ"
Christine McVie, "Love's Got a Hold On Me"
John Cougar Mellencamp, "Pink Houses"
Hugh Masekela, "Don't Go Lose It Baby"
Michael McDonald & James Ingram, "Yah Mo B There"
Membranes, "Spike Milligan's Tape Recorder"
Stephanie Mills, "The Medicine Song"
Mighty Sparrow, "Doh Back Back"
Mighty Wah, "Come Back"
Minor Threat, "Out of Step ['84]"
Minutemen, "Corona"
Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakey, "Together In Electric Dreams"
Ennio Morricone, "Deborah's Theme"
Morris Day and the Time, "Jungle Love"
Motörhead, "Killed By Death"
Nena, "99 Luftballons"
Newcleus, "Jam On It"
New Edition "Cool It Now"
Billy Ocean, "Carribean Queen"
Orchestra Super Mazembe, "Shauri Yako"
OMD, "Talking Loud and Clear"
Ray Parker Jr., "Ghostbusters"
Steve Perry, "Oh Sherrie"
Pointer Sisters, "Neutron Dance"
Pretenders, "Middle of the Road"
Prince and the Revolution, "Let's Go Crazy"
Propaganda, "Dr. Mabuse"
Psychedelic Furs, "The Ghost In You"
Ratt, "Round and Round"
Red Kross, "Heaven Only Knows"
Lou Reed, "I Love You, Suzanne"
Clarence "Blowfly" Reid, "Electronic Pussy Sucker"
R.E.M., "Pretty Persuasion"
Romantics, "Talking In Your Sleep"
Ronald Reagan, The "We begin bombing in five minutes" snippet
Jesse Saunders, "On and On"
Scorpions, "Rock You Like A Hurricane"
Scratch Acid, "Monsters"
Scritti Politti, "Wood Beez"
Shannon, "Let The Music Play"
Roxanne Shante, "Roxanne's Revenge"
Sheila E. "The Glamorous Life"
Slade, "Run Runaway"
Smiley Culture, "Cockney Translation"
Smiths, "How Soon Is Now?"
Stephen Sondheim et al., "Chromolume #7/Putting It Together"
Special AKA, "Free Nelson Mandela"
Bruce Springsteen, "Dancing in the Dark"
Staple Singers, "Slippery People"
Strafe, "Set It Off"
Sun City Girls, "Caravan of Scars"
Toru Takemitsu, "riverrun"
Talk Talk, "It's My Life"
Temptations, "Treat Her Like a Lady"
Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now"
This Mortal Coil, "Song to the Siren"
The Three Johns, "Class War"
Tina Turner, "What's Love Got To Do With It?"
T La Rock and Jazzy Jay, "It's Yours"
Toure Kunda, "Ne Nam I"
Twisted Sister, "We're Not Gonna Take It"
U2, "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
UTFO, "Roxanne Roxanne"
Van Halen, "Jump"
John Waite, "Missing You"
Whodini, "Five Minutes Of Funk"
Deniece Williams, "Let's Hear It For the Boy"
Womack & Womack, "Baby, I'm Scared of You"
Stevie Wonder, "I Just Called To Say I Love You"
Yeah Yeah Noh, "Biased Binding"
ZZ Top, "Legs"
John Zorn, "Once Upon a Time in the West"

Not included because I don't like them: Let It Be, "The Boys of Summer," "Rockbox," "Small Town Boy," Alphaville, Robyn Hitchcock.

Weak on: classical/post-classical, blues, gospel, reggae, Africa, Brazil.

Suggestions would be grand.

seconded. Your kind words on the Vels will not go unreported, sir.

Oh, and country. Way weak on country.

did mick mercer have the best taste of any melody maker critic in 1984?

http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF http://www.anirrationaldomain.net/images/memo/memo48.GIF iv

I'm reading the Replacements book right now. They talk as if it were a complete wasteland that year with no good records besides the Mats, the SST trilogy (Husker/Minutemen/MPuppets) and Prince. So absurd.

I've been enjoying these lately:

Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos
The Jazz Butcher - A Scandal In Bohemia
True West - Drifters
The Lotus Eaters - No Sense Of Sin
The Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show
Gun Club - The Las Vegas Story
Hunters & Collectors - Jaws Of Life
Scientists - Blood Red River
The Effigies - For Ever Grounded
The Rip - A Timeless Peace EP
Nits - Adieu, Sweet Bahnhof
Care - Diamonds & Emeralds
The Cult - Dreamtime

Complete wasteland? My god, 1984 was beyond fertile. Granted, it was my year zero in terms of exposure to the underground but there's such a huge variety of great records from this year:

Altrock: REM - Reckoning / The Smiths - The Smiths & Hatful Of Hollow / Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Rattlesnakes
Alternapop: The Blue Nile - A Walk Across The Rooftops / Prefab Sprout - Swoon / Felt - The Splendour Of Fear & The Strange Idol Pattern
Synthpop: Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward / Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth / Nik Kershaw - The Riddle & Human Racing
Dreampop: Cocteau Twins - Treasure
Aussie rock: Nick Cave - From Her To Eternity / The Saints - A Little Madness To Be Free / Laughing Clowns - Law Of Nature
Folk punk: Billy Bragg - Brewing Up With... / Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground / Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains
Second wave punk: New Model Army - Vengeance
Industrial: Cabaret Voltaire - Microphonies / Foetus - Hole / Fad Gadget - Gag / Danielle Dax - Jesus Egg That Wept
Kiwi weirdness: This Kind Of Punishment - A Beard Of Bees
Doing their own thing: The Fall - The Wonderful And Frightening World Of...
Celtic punk: The Pogues - Red Roses For Me
Paisley Underground: The Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show / The Long Ryders - Native Sons
Old punks still doing their thing: The Stranglers - Aural Sculpture

I could go on. The Replacements' "Let It Be" was a fantastic record but it competed with a crapton of amazing albums that year.

Whatever happened to Geir, anyway?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Onthenile.jpg
landmark electro album "On the Nile" by Egyptian Lover came out in 1984

What a year!

Lena – 99 Luftballons

So Matos’ new book on 1984 in music is released today and it looks amazing. I expect I’ll have bought and devoured this by Christmas.

https://www.slate.com/culture/2020/12/cant-slow-down-review-best-prince-madonna-book.amp

Good interview with Matos by Chris O'Leary:
https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2020/12/08/1984-pops-blockbuster-year-an-interview/

Yeah, looks great, if a bit pricey as a hardcover.

1. Rock Box - Run-D.M.C.
2. Roxanne's Revenge - Roxanne Shante
3. Roxanne, Roxanne - U.T.F.O.
4. Freaks Come Out At Night - Whodini
5. Jam On It - Newcleus
6. Unity - Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown
7. One for the Treble - Davy DMX
8. The Real Roxanne - The Real Roxanne
9. When I Hear Music (It Makes Me Dance) - Debbie Deb
10. Egypt, Egypt - Egyptian Lover
11. Just Having Fun (Do the Beat Box) - Doug E. Fresh
12. Request Line - Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three
13. Jail House Rap - The Fat Boys
14. 8 Million Stories - Kurtis Blow
15. It's Gotta Be Fresh (Revelation/2 Live) - 2 Live Crew
Honorable Mention: What People Do for Money - Divine Sounds
Honorable Mention: Reckless - Chris "The Glove" Taylor with Ice T and David Storrs

Nice, will check that book out. 1984 was definitely THE landmark year of the '80s. I know it seemed that way at the time, just read Robert Christgau and Dave Marsh's write-ups published at year's end and soon after. But time has been especially kind now that the underground scene and the groundbreaking hip-hop records of that year have blown up in stature.

So did he dedicate the book to Geir for starting it all with this thread?

Don’t you know she’s coming home with me?