1981 = year of 70s dino rockers w modren/wavo comeback LPs

cheap trick - one on one
zz top - el loco
rush - moving pictures
blue oyster cult - fire of unknown origin
genesis - abacab
j. geils band - freeze-frame

imprecise, cuz j. geils, b.o.c & rush were following up less successful 1980 efforts, and zz top wouldn't quite hit stride w the style until eliminator, but 1981 still seems like ground zero for this kinda thing.

context = cars' shake it up, blondie's autoamerican, go-gos' beauty & the beat, devo's freedom of choice & new traditionalists, b-52s, romantics, vapors, etc.

any other "modern rock" crossover/cash-in LPs circa '81 from 70s hitmakers?

alternately: any other years that were defined by this kind of industry-wide trendhopping?

Pat Benatar - Precious Time
Tom Petty - Hard Promises

fix apostrophes?

Oh, didn't Ian Gillan do one of those?

Or was that some time later?

tom petty & pat benatar = OTM as examples of the context these bands were responding to. but not as old-timers suddenly changing their sound in the early 80s, right?

ian gillan (as "gillan") has an album called future shock from '81, but i haven't heard it. cover art is priceless.

plus trans, by neil young! - from '82, but close enough to count

rush went "new wave" with permanent waves which was a big hit so you're wrong there
also, you could argue the yes/buggles album, but that was 1980

Billy Joel's Glass Houses is 1980 but definitely qualifies, I think (insofar as he could be thought of as a biz dinosaur, not a "rocker" per se).

pointed out that moving pictures was rush's second (and more successful) stab at the sound, so hold your charge, velko

yes's drama totally counts! a year early is all

steve winwood's arc of a diver 1980 and talking back to the night 1982 fit here

oooh, yeah: glass houses is canon! slots in very well w the cheap trick & j geils lps. plus he totally rockered out for that one.

1980 has Pete Townshend - Empty Glass, & Phil Lynott - Solo in Soho

Both of which fit the bill perfectly.

A couple of oldsters that went new wave in 1981, but I don't know that they were famous enough or came back enough to qualify.

Sir Douglas Quintet - Border Wave
Joe Ely - Live Shots

alternately: any other years that were defined by this kind of industry-wide trendhopping?

Didn't Debbie Gibson, Poison, and other 80s teen idols release "grunge" records around 1994?

"Camera Camera" by Renaissance (1981) is a textbook example of the attempted wavo comeback.

Alice Cooper's Flush the Fashion was 1980

these last few (plus gillan future shock) are EXACTLY what i'm looking for, 'cuz i love this sound, but am real tired of the old standbys. i mean, i've heard empty glass, but the phil lynott, sir doug and joe ely recs are news to me.

also: dave edmunds' jeff lynne-produced information from '83 (a year or two late, but a fine specimen nonetheless - note the title's clear announcement of intent)

fugg! how could i forget flush the fashion?!? thanks, dan.

and is the renaissance LP any good? i mean, i've never so much as heard of the band...

also, dad a OTM about the grunge thing. was 94 really the peak year for "seattle sound" grabs? any other noms for years/albums? i mean, i'm not as up on my best-forgotten mid-90s radio pop...

awesome! i (vaguely, almost) remember that. coming in late at 84, but note-perfect. machine talk noises! want to hear grace jones version. video is ace, too.

I just pulled this out to listen.

Sir Douglas Quintet - Border Wave (1981 Takoma) it's got a colorful cover and skinny ties. Craig Leon produced. The music is the same Tex/Mex roots rock Doug Sahm worked his whole life, but the 96 Tears keyboards are emphasized and the tunes are extra bouncy and catchy. Kinks and 13 Floor Elevators covers. Someone probably gave them a budget thinking they could be as big as Joe King Carrasco.

This is a case where linking the sounds of original garage rock with the New Wave made perfect sense.

currently listening to phil lynott's very mysterious & crepey "yellow pearl" offa solo in soho. so great, want the whole album now. wish there were a proper video, but i can only find this lame cover shot fan job:

assume sir doug will be harder to track down...

linking the sounds of original garage rock with the New Wave made perfect sense

The 1980 Paul Simon movie One Trick Pony is a somewhat tepid protest anticipating this sort of thing. (The problem with the movie is that if you want to make a movie about how awful it is to have new wave pressure bearing down on fogeys past their glory days, you DON'T use prime period B-52's as Exhibit A of the shape of things to come. It sends a different message than intended.)

(x-post) Renaissance, 1977:

"Camera Camera" honestly isn't very good at all, iirc. (Didn't know listenability was a criteria!) Just a great example of a formerly long-winded, classical-inspired prog band shortening the song lengths (and the hair!) and donning stripy clothes:

https://www.insideoutshop.de/images/RenaissanceCamera.jpg

In addition to Empty Glass, Face Dances comes out in 81 as well.
Also King Crimson: Discipline, Lindsey Buckingham: Law & Order, Frank Zappa: You Are What You Is.

does this count?

Dan! I'm so happy to hear from you, but I keep hearing Donna Summer MacArthur Park now. Please make it stop. I've got to stop.

make it stop
she shimmies her tits in this thing

I just wanted one gay queen icon, just one. Couldn't you let me have one?
I'm going to have to come out of the closet as a gay man who likes men.
I feel a lot of shame about it, but there she is, and she's like broadway.
Let her be the karaoke inspiration for the world.

Also, I've never heard any more of the album than the single, "Find Your Way Back," but Jefferson Starship's 1981 album "Modern Times" sure doesn't LOOK like "After Bathing at Baxter's..."

http://covers.mp3sparks.com/covers/j/jefferson_starship/1981_-_modern_times/cover.jpg

^^ HI BIMBLE, WRONG THRED!

anyway, goddam, that resaissance is horrid. plus totally not wavo. no offense, dan.

plus from 80, though it's off his 1st solo lp, belew is so obv a 70s prog guy doing the new wave thing:

video is beyond great

fuck is with this embedding disabled? goddam

>>that resaissance is horrid. plus totally not wavo

No, that's the 1977 prog Renaissance on Midnight Special. I couldn't find a vid for their wavo phase.

Lots more of these, I think; I just need to pour through my vinyl shelves. (Linda Rondstadt's 1980 Mad Love, full of new wave covers of bands like the Cretones, was her Glass Houses.)

Agree ZZ Top didn't hit their commercial stride til Eliminator, but El Loco is actually the weirder and more new wave album. ("Party On The Patio" is totally their B-52s song, and seems they were probably listening to Captain Beefheart, too.)

Geils' Freeze Frame also totally a post-Cars new wave album (and yeah, a commercial leap up from the somewhat new wave Love Stinks.)

You also had old guys coming back under new names and in new wave clothes like Donnie Iris (formerly of the one hit wonders Jaggerz) with Back On The Streets in 1980 and King Cool in 1981).'

Plus Marianne Faithful (Broken English, 1980).

More will popping into my head all afternoon, just wait. (Let's see...Golden Earring didn't go new wave til 1982, Slade not til 1984. How bout Steve Miller?)

Foreigner 4 with its Thomas Dolby guest spots and funk and rockabilly moves was 1981, too (though they were more new wave than people ever gave them credit for from the gitgo, with "Headknocker" on the debut and "Dirty White Boy" on the third album plus all those Cars-style post-Roxy synths and stuff.)

This thread is totally what I think of as your thing, xhuxk.

Didn't know Doug Sahm did a new wave-y album. And Craig Leon/Takoma too, wtf?? Eugene Chadbourne laps it up on AMG. Need to check this out. Added Sahm facticity: according to wikipedia, Sahm's son later drummed for the Meat Puppets

yeah, golden earring's cut (w the textbook twilight zone) came out in 82, didn't hit til 83, but i'm trying to rope in as much stuff as possible. plus great song, so okay w me

moody blues massive (and justly forgotten) long distance voyager is another one from 81, with the gemini dream, etc. they'd arguably been moving in this direction since 78's octave, though (steppin' in a slide zone). somewhere between disco, new wave and showtunez

and yeah, i think of foreigner as part of the moment that the dinosaurs were responding to, more than old dogs learning new tricks

Not sure if Hall & Oates are the brand of Rock in question, but their 1981 comeback set the benchmark (and for many, seems to be their only known material)

Also Styx, with "Too Much Time On My Hands"' post-Kraftwerk/Devo electropop on Paradise Theater.

And Olivia Newton-John with Physical. (And maybe Moody Blues with Long Distance Voyager? Haven't heard that in forever, but they were for sure dabbling in new waviness around that time.)

38 Special started making their Cars/powerpop move in 1981, too, with "Hold On Loosely" off Wild Eyed Southern Boys (though I don't think they really kicked it into full skinny-tie gear until Special Forces a year later.)

[xp -- made my Moody Blues nomination before I saw Dagmar's]

<3 Hold On Loosely

Joe Ely - Live Shots isn't New Wave at all in sound, it's roots rock, country rockabilly like all his other stuff, but it was recorded live in England opening for the Clash. (the cover is very two tone looking).

His 1984 one Hi-Res is the one with synthesizers and production. (cover is primitive computer graphics)

I suppose there has to be a "going disco" equivelent a few years earlier, but I don't know enough to pinpoint exactly what year that is. 78, maybe?

equivalent*

1981 (and awesome):
http://www.dragcity.com/catalog/records/dc80.jpg

And don't forget Ray Manzarek doing Soul Kitchen with X in 1980.

george clinton - computer games from '82 (not a big change in sound, but period production)

kraftwerk - computer world (not that they were really "70s dinosaur rockers", but you can really hear the influence of their offsprings here)

The Stones kept going from disco to new wave from 1976 to 1981.

Rod Stewart's "Young Turks" was 1981, and he'd already been into disco.

I wouldn't count Red Krayola... 1. Mayo + Art of Language had an arty album before that, and 2., the entire band of Red Crayola at the time were certified post-punkers.

xhuxk's styx nom for paradise theater is a good one, though too much time on my hands is an anomaly (most of the rest is unwave glop). came out in '81, total dinosaurs, 80s production, got tons of radio play. still, kilroy was here took it much farther

>>You also had old guys coming back under new names and in new wave clothes

Took me a while to remember the initials, but Jack Casady had a "new wave" band in 1981, SVT.

The Kinks' Give The People What They Want had all the new wave trimmings and got a fair bit of MTV and KROQ play in 1981.

from 80, but does "games w/o frontiers" and the melt album count?

The Stones kept going from disco to new wave from 1976 to 1981.

― james k polk

^ this, especially so on some girls and emotional rescue.

(song is from 81)

yeah, matt, i'd say the weirder peter gabriel solo albums count! thread is slipping away from the cheezeball synthpop sounds i most love towards discofied post-punk whatever, but it's still rock and roll to me

weird... wmg is totally anti-"IGY" video which is a great one!

This is one of my favorite eras. Rock got tight and shiny, but it hadn't yet gone into "Boys of Summer" synth production overload.

Something like Point Blank's "Nicole" is just a rock song, and a sell-out to their southern rock fans (perhaps), but it fit right in on the radio with The Kings "Switchin' to Glide" or Donnie Iris.

it is hard to remember that these old-timers trying to cut their hair, get hip and fit in were really only in their 30's and not that old at all.

xpost to dan hmmm yeah, but the whole project of reconceptualizing Red Krayola as a New Wave Band & associating with the Rough Trade axis seems to me like both A) an idea naturally arising out of their preexisting mix of avant-grade approaches, AND B) a willful, market-savvy means of getting into people's ears -- not that there's anything wrong with that!

i wonder why the 80s were so friendly to an older generation of artists getting hip to the new techniques and styles? i can't think of a another time when this happened to such a degree.

^^^ Is this what yr after? Dave Stewart was in various prog rock things (Egg, Hatfield & The North, National Health), Barbara Gaskin was in Spirogyra (folk rock)

i think there's a difference, between the bands that were just tuning into the sound for a song or two, (like styx) maybe indulging in some big boom drums, and those who REALLY latched onto the synthpop/new-wave thing as if life depended on it. primo stuff is all sharp, boingy-sounding tunes, lyrics about your modern disaffections, undisco dancebeats, and an almost desperately "youthful" giddiness. alice coopers "clones" perhaps being the unbeatable apex.

Chris Barrus OTM: when I was a kid I thought the Kinks were a new wave band.

Moody Blues, as mentioned above -- ELOish "Sharp Dressed Man" premonition.

I'm old enough to remember this time period as kid who lived on rock radio. The DJ's kind of had to apologize for playing Talking Heads, Duran Duran, U2.

I remember one of the DJ's trying to justify Billy Idol by pointing out how similar this music was to The Doors.

I'd never really seen Robert Plant, so when videos started getting bigger and bigger, seeing him with a perm and suspenders didn't seem strange. I don't know how the kids 5 years older than me felt.

Have you ever seen the early Johnny Cougar videos? wacky keyboard player.

xxx-post - GOD YES!!! that's fantastic (gaskin & stewart thing). that's EXACTLY the sort of thing i like to imagine exists out there, somewhere.

i wonder why the 80s were so friendly to an older generation of artists getting hip to the new techniques and styles? i can't think of a another time when this happened to such a degree.

― M@tt He1ges0n

kind of the million-dollar question here. doesn't seen to happen anymore. someone mentioned the "grunge explosion" upthread, but i don't remember many 80s dinosaurs getting a new lease on life with the yarling bigmuff. just didn't happen. and nu-metal didn't seem to provide many cash-in opportunities for long-in-the-tooth headbangers.

Here's another from 1981...

http://www.hunter-mott.com/discography/sleeves/short_back_n_sides.jpg

someone mentioned the "grunge explosion" upthread, but i don't remember many 80s dinosaurs getting a new lease on life with the yarling bigmuff.

yeah i mean there was neil young, but that was more just neil young making neil young records and the press said he was the godfather of grunge. bowie made some drum n bass shit but that was just bowie being bowie not really a trend.

That Ian Hunter is great. An example of a guy using elements of punk and new wave while keeping his integrity. (but not his hair)

yeah but honestly ian hunter's general MO was pretty in line with powerpoppy new wave to begin with.

xpIan Hunter, fwiw, already seemed pretty new wave with You're Never Alone With Schizophrenic in 1979, though yeah, the haircut counts for something. (Also weird to think of people like him and Roxy Music as "going new wave," since they were already pretty new wave to begin with, before new wave ever happened. I used to call them "old wave" back then.)

Even better example of proto-new-wave old wavers going new-new-wave in the early '80s might be the Tubes (whose 1981 album was The Completion Backward Principle, with "Don't Want To Wait Anymore." Though for them, the whole switch in sound was maybe more like an MOR sellout, actually.)

Not sure I understand how Cheap Trick, Benatar, and Petty (all mentioned above) fit into this, to be honest. They'd all been sort of new wave from the beginning, and if anything, to me, the 1981 albums mentioned above make them seem less new wave (less frantic tempos & blander hooks, for instance.)

Anybody mentioned Kim Carnes yet? "Bette Davis Eyes" definitely an '81 biggie; not sure about the album.

Also, if nobody's mentioned them, you had all these old prog guys like King Crimson (Discipline, '81) and Adrian Belew (The Lone Rhino, '82) coming back as reborn Talking Heads fans.

um, maybe albums like drama represent an evolving but overall consistent aesthetic that influenced new wave, and not the reverse? although i suppose that disrupts convenient timelines which diminish the dinos in favor of the young turks, so forget i said anything

dave edmunds' jeff lynne-produced information from '83

Yeah, but again, he was new wave already(Repeat When Necessary absolutely conisdered new wave in '79 -- even read Xgau's Pazz & Jop essays from around then; he even covered a Costello songs, right?); he just added ELO keybs later, big whoop.

Alice's Flush The Fashion a great LP, btw.

I think that After The Fire were pretty prog rock until 1980-ish, then they started doing this stuff ^^^

alternately: any other years that were defined by this kind of industry-wide trendhopping?

Didn't Debbie Gibson, Poison, and other 80s teen idols release "grunge" records around 1994?

― dad a, Monday, February 9, 2009 2:43 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Disco beats in the late 70s & trip-hop in the late 90s. There's gotta be tons of examples of this.

yeah but it's not like those records did half as well as say, tina turner or bruce or steve winwood or whoever in the 80s

Notice that Cheap Trick are at the start of this thread. NOTICE

that's a good point about cheap trick, xhuxk. i count them here because of the significant overhaul of the sound circa one on one, seemingly in response to MTV culture, and due to their having made a home for themselves on 70s rock radio. i'm also drawing a faint line between jittery, power-poppy guitar music, and the shiny-happy post-cars danceparty sound. thus pride of place to acts who incorporate full-on synthpop sounds, a la pete shelley's homosapien.

that also goes as a response to yr. point about information. yeah, the earlier edmuds stuff was new wave, but it hadn't yet been reprocessed for MTV. i.e., it wasn't the NEW new, retrofitted for flash-in-the-pan pop stardom.

also lots of waved-out cover art on mostly unwave LPs:

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/elrayox.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/boptillu.jpg

Look, there is no way Cheap Trick are not going to claim my Beatles soul.

"If You Want My Love"

It's all your fault, ilx. I blame all of you.

I know you guys want to fight me down the pub, I know, but I'm going to have to take you on.

i am going to walk behind you with a pipe, ominously whistling "he's a whore"

i express solidarity with bimble in his cheap trick beatles love, if not in pub fights

maybe albums like drama represent an evolving but overall consistent aesthetic that influenced new wave, and not the reverse? although i suppose that disrupts convenient timelines which diminish the dinos in favor of the young turks...

― kamerad

i'm sure it cuts both ways, but it's hard not to attach a BIG part of the shift in yes' sound circa drama to trevor horne and geoff downes, who though they weren't much younger than the rest of the band, were closely affiliated with the emerging "new wave scene".

Didn't Cheap Trick go way more synthy/keyby on Dream Police than One On One, though? (Though I admittedly haven't listened to the latter forever. Always seemed like kind of a retreat to me (especially after 1980's All Shook Up, which was both a much better album and a higher charter.)

Btw, pretty sure there are previous threads where lots of these issues have been addressed, just not sure what they're called. There was definitely one last year where we were talking new wave moves and Scott Seward, I think, mentioned how much he didn't like Cooder's Bop Til You Drop. Also one a few years ago where the idea was to come up with '70s artists who actually improved in the '80s. (Winners, I think: Rick Springfield and Billy Ocean, the former of whom almost definitely fits here.)

Eddy Grant made a new wave move in the early '80s too, right? (Though maybe not until 1983. And I'm not sure whether reggae dinosuars count or not.)

someone mentioned the "grunge explosion" upthread, but i don't remember many 80s dinosaurs getting a new lease on life with the yarling bigmuff.

yeah but it's not like those records did half as well as say, tina turner or bruce or steve winwood or whoever in the 80s

Even if you can't find a market that's interested, you can still be crossing over/trying to cash in.

Warrant went way more grunge in the '90s than Poison or Debbie btw. (In fact, I'm far from convinced that either of those latter two even went grunge at all.)

Didn't Cheap Trick go way more synthy/keyby on Dream Police than One On One, though?

"she's tight" vs. anything on dream police for toeing the new wave line. plus, geez, all of side 2: "saturday at midnight", "i want be man" (so devo!!!), "four letter word", etc.

way better record than all shook up, but that's just me...

how did i manage to not say "party line"?

Yeah, okay, I can see "She's Tight" I guess. (Also, I prefer their hard rock to their powerpop -- like the first and third albums more than the second one, too -- which explains my All Shook Up thing.)

fwiw, ZZ Top's first real new wave move was "Manic Mechanic" on Deguello (1979.)

And if we're gonna count Ian Hunter and Dave Edmunds, why not Iggy Pop on New Values and Soldier? (After all that artsy-fartsy Berlin B.S. Just kidding. Sort of.) (Speaking of which, if disco dinosaurs going new wave in the early '80s count, there's obviously Grace Jones on Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing.)

grace jones compass point trilogy and iggy circa soldier are totally OTM (haven't ever heard new values - eep!) thought of grace jones earlier, but failed to nom for no good reason...

In the bigger picture, Cheap Trick's early to mid-Eighties albums weren't very good, if you were there. They weren't so much new wave-y as they were flashy pop. They'd lost some of their grit when Tom Petersson left to be in a band with his wife (can you remember the name?). An official No Prize if you do.

Nazareth just made a bad album -- The Fool Circle -- in 1981. Their 1980 one, Malice in Wonderland, had their last charting single, I think, "Holiday." That wasn't a new wave-y record, either, just a stab in a lot of different directions, most of them kind of lame.

Foghat did Boys to Chat, Girls To Bounce. That was another lame record which might have had a slight new wave influence, more accurately a stab at writing something that would get on the radio. It just alienated their audience.

Aerosmith basically didn't exist in 81. Rock in a Hard Place was their only early Eighties thing and it was missing both Whitford and Perry. It was just a bland hard rock LP.

Status Quo was in the middle of a run of records which spawned a variety of bland pop singles like "What You're Proposing" and "Something Bout You Baby I Like," none of which were released in the US.

Scorpions definitely weren't New Waving it in 1981. They were between Blackout and Animal Magnetism.

UFO didn't do New Wave. In 1980, George Martin produced them and a couple songs on it sounded more influenced by Bruce Springsteen. In 1982, they did "The Wild, Willing and Innocent" which was standard hard rock/heavy metal.

So for dino rockers, some of these acts were not much moved by New Wave. Some were on the up-tick, most notably Scorpions. Some on a downward slide like Aerosmith, Nazareth, Foghat, UFO.

Ted Nugent was still big in arenas but wouldn't do anything that was a concession to change until 1986 with Little Miss Dangerous</A>.

Sammy Hagar's [i]Standing Hampton sold big in 1981. Definitely not new wave-y. More produced and heavy (heading toward "I Can't Drive 55-land") than his early hard pop rock albums, like Red and Musical Chairs.

Budgie were in the middle of a resurgence because of the NWOBHM. But their early Eighties albums aren't any good.

Slade were in the midst of a minor comeback in England but had no release schedule in the US. Till Deaf Do Up Part and We'll Bring the House Down are screaming rock 'n' roll records. These came about as a result of a bang-up appearance at Reading in 1980.

New Values was a mediocre album, the last one James Williamson played on and wrote stuff for. And Soldier was just lousy hookless mostly mid-tempo hard rock with dumb lyrics. I stupidly bought both. New Values has a couple keepers on it.

Cheap Trick's "She's Tight" seems to owe more to the Beatles to me.

I was thinking Boston but "Amanda" didn't come out until 86.

No way on Iggy. He didn't have a new wave comeback album, he practically invented New Wave in the 70s (with the help of Bowie and Visconti), and New Values is a great album. I wrote it off as inferior to The Idiot and Lust For LIfe, but now think of it as an equal. Production isn't as interesting, but the songs are awesome.

^ this was my rationale for not mentioning iggy earlier. he seemed to have been at it forever, was as much an influencer as the influenced.

rescinding previous agreeance

he practically invented New Wave in the 70s

was as much an influencer as the influenced

Right. Which is why I prefaced by quasi-nomination of him with "if we're gonna count Ian Hunter and Dave Edmunds."

I'd forgotten Foghat, who to my ears definitely seemed to be heading in a new wave/powerpop direction circa Tight Shoes in 1980.

Believe George has elsewhere mentioned Gentle Giant making a bad new wave move toward the close of the '70s, too.

UFO didn't do New Wave. In 1980, George Martin produced them and a couple songs on it sounded more influenced by Bruce Springsteen. In 1982, they did "The Wild, Willing and Innocent" which was standard hard rock/heavy metal

Though its title seems to retain the Bruce influence!

xp Though as I hinted at before, if we're going to talk about somebody in the mid '70s "inventing new wave" (as in, what new wave as opposed to punk rock would sound like a few years later), I'd be more inclined to pick the Tubes or Sparks than Iggy, I think.(Actually kind of surprised that nobody mentioned Sparks til now, come to think of it.)

(But right, there were actually a few different "new waves," and the '79 one on rock stations wasn't quite the same as the MTV one a few years later.)

tom petty & pat benatar = OTM as examples of the context these bands were responding to. but not as old-timers suddenly changing their sound in the early 80s, right?

I think there's a old Sandbox thread about straight-up rock acts taking advantage of the "new wave" label. Dire Straits was another one that sorta fell into that tag just by being part of the pub rock circuit.

if we're gonna talk about inventing new wave in the 70s i'd be more inclined to pick eno

xp

Dire Straits never seemed new wave to me back then, but oddly enough Sniff 'n the Tears, whose sound wasn't very far from Dire Straits' sound, did. Maybe they just had a new wavier name. Which reminds me:

old guys coming back under new names and in new wave clothes

= Flash and the Pan, a/k/a Vanda and Young from the Easybeats (though that was in 1979, not 1981).

Also Moon Martin, formerly just some guy in the early '70s country rock band Southwind, but now wearing much crazier glasses. (Also in 1979.)

Great thread, also, great idea for a box set - I nominate Chuck to curate it.

Sparks made their comeback a couple years earlier, yet "Whoomp That Sucker" may have been the first Sparks album that was more new wave than disco.

Hell, Kimono My House (and everything else they did before they met Giorgio Morodor) was more new wave than disco.

What about the Queen album that nobody remembers, Hot Space? That was 1982, but close enough.

Well, except for "Under Pressure," but that's remembered more on its own than as part of the album.

Hell, Kimono My House (and everything else they did before they met Giorgio Morodor) was more new wave than disco.

I can agree with that. Except their 80s material was new wave in a less experimental and more "pop" way.

Hot Space is popular amongst disco and beardo-disco type fans. It's a really cool new wave funk type rock album.

And about inventing New Wave...there's any number of influences, glam, glitter, punk, art-rock, whatever. I'm not talking about just another influence. Those Iggy Pop records are the very moment that certain key strains of New Wave as we know it crystalize. The combination of the eno and krautrock sonic influences via Bowie/Visconti and the more raw and less ambitious songs of Iggy. The Idiot and Lust for Life both came out in 1977. Maybe I'm looking more at the UK post-punk aspect of New Wave. This has little to do with american punk bands drawing on power-pop and disco and tossing in some synthesizers. I'm talking about Joy Division/New Order, Magazine, Wire, the Associates, etc. Maybe that's not strictly the New Wave we're talking about here. I think much of the british New Wave derives from some of the post-punk trends.

With Sparks, the pre-moroder stuff is certainly influential, but like with Bowie, I think it's too ambitious for the average punk to new waver types. They may have wanted to ape it, but would probably have dumbed it down. No. 1 Song In Heaven is totally ambitious Sparks + Eurodisco, but their following albums I think they played more with simplifying the songs and making more awesome dumb catchy new wave songs, probably due to the influence of punk.

xp Uh, what about the Queen album that everybody does remember, The Game from 1980? (Doubt they would have done "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in pre-new-wave days. Probably not "Another One Bites The Dust" and some other stuff on there too, even if "Dust" was more a Chic/rap-type move. And "Dragon Attack" was real funky in its own right.)

And yeah, Dan, my definition of new wave is a lot cheesier, crasser, more commercial and less artsy than the Brit post-punk stuff you're talking about (which was a part of new wave, sure, but not necessarily the biggest or most interesting part. And certainly not the part that got on the radio.)

agree w xhuxk that british post-punk and american new wave seem like very different beasts now, and did then. some american acts slot in well w the uk stuff (talking heads, frinstance), but when i think of new wave, i've got my mind on a much less arty vein of smirky dance-pop. at it's extreme: big square beats, shiny production, bouncy synths, tuff guitars, cute & quirky lyrics about modern problems & enthusiasms, absolutely shameless pop ambition. sci-fi themes a plus. begins shading over into synth-pop almost from day 1.

Uh, what about the Queen album that everybody does remember, The Game from 1980

What I love most about that album is how for YEARS, Queen was militant about their "no computers" "no synthesizers" policy and then the first 15 seconds of The Game is a Huge Dramatic Synth Intro that out progs everyone.

Kenny Loggins wasn't a dino rocker but has to fit in here. House at Pooh Corner in the 70s, Footloose in the early 80s.

Loggins and Messina is rather dino in this context

What about Mad Love by Linda Ronstadt?

http://991.com/newgallery/Jethro-Tull-A-276824.jpg

a little synthy

George Harrison's "All those Years Ago"

"Mad Love" by Linda Ronstadt is perfect to mention here because of the backing band, the Cretones. And the Cretones Thin Red Line which was Mad Love w/o Linda Ronstadt in 1980 really hits the groove of the thread. I'm astonished Thin Red Line hasn't been gobbled up for a deluxe remaster. Almost everything else from that time has been. The follow-up, Snap Snap was not so good.

Sparks' closest to abject new wave was Big Beat in 1977 in which they obtained Jeff Salen, guitarist from the Tuff Darts, whose debut was as campily new wave as it could be. "Fill 'Er Up", "Throw Her Away and Get a New One" -- virtually perfect genre stuff, all parodying Tuff Darts better than the Tuff Darts did Tuff Darts.

I interviewed Tom Petty at the Tower in Philly ca. 77-78 (the Hearbreakers were opening for Rush on the way up; can you imagine following 2112 and "Working Man"?) and he got pretty annoyed when the subject of new wave was brought up. This jibes with the reactions in the 4 hour long documentary out in the last couple years. They were trying to do British invasion as channeled through Florida bar band guys.

And the Tubes' chart pinnacle was "Talk to You Later" in '81 although they'd actually owned new wave onstage definitively from What Do You Want from Live in '77 at the Hammersmith Odeon. They reproduced the show in the US where they had a smaller following. They spent a fortune on stage gimmicks for near empty theaters. They just didn't go over in the US until the much milder "Talk to You Later" single.

And Starz did Attention Shoppers! in 77-78, a complete sell-out to new wave. It cost them all their momentum and a good deal of their, at the time, growing fanbase. It's the poorest album in their catalog which was given the deluxe treatment by Ryko a few years ago.

And then there was the rhythm section of Hot Tuna, Jack Casady and Bob Steeler, who went new wave in SVT. SVT's No Regrets is a huge departure from Hot Tuna's blues and boogie rock but it was still essentially hard rock, only dark and twisted with virtually no tuneful hooks.
Ryko reissued that, too, and I reviewed it but can no longer remember what the hell I said. If you wound up liking the Wipers later, you would have found something in 1981 SVT and I did although it's no longer a keeper of an album.

With Sparks, the pre-moroder stuff is certainly influential, but like with Bowie, I think it's too ambitious for the average punk to new waver types. They may have wanted to ape it, but would probably have dumbed it down. No. 1 Song In Heaven is totally ambitious Sparks + Eurodisco, but their following albums I think they played more with simplifying the songs and making more awesome dumb catchy new wave songs, probably due to the influence of punk.

Ironically, from then on, all commercial success eluded them.

How about Dave Edmunds' "Information" album from 1983?

Now, Edmunds always worked closely with new wave acts such as Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, but his own musical style was still very retro in a 50s/pre-beatles-60s way. Until he worked with Jeff Lynne and produced an album with a couple of tracks shock full of synths.

Also Robin Gibb's "How Old Are You" album from that same year (1983). Another Jeff Lynne production, I believe, but it sounded more modern in an early 80s/synthy new wave way than The Bee Gees' own 80s work ever did.

This was a couple of years later, but does this fit in to what you're talking about?

I love that song – maybe his last good one.

"Mad Love" by Linda Ronstadt is perfect to mention here because of the backing band, the Cretones.

This is a good example; "How Do I Make You" is snotty EL Lay punk. But wasn't it 1980?

has anyone mentioned Rosanne Cash's Seven Year Ache?

awesome! didn't know Lester Bangs was one of the lawyers at the end of the vid.

xp

information got talked around upthread, geir. good record.

guess i've gotta check out mad love & the cretones. plus more tubes, cuz all i've heard = 1st lp, & "outside inside" era - neither of which i like. do like "talk to you later" tho.

prince was mixing up new wave and funk circa 80/81. maybe zapp, too, though that's a stretch. any evidence of this influence on older funk/disco acts at this time? cameo didn't go this way til 85/86. mentioned george clinton's computer games upthread, but the influence is subtle there. rick james' street songs?

"lawyers in love" ist rad! falsetto vocals & "ooh-sha-la-la" whistling bit = SO GREAT, then spooky organ gives u chills. "the russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like russians will."

Shalamar made a blatant (post-Prince) new wave move (incl haircuts) on The Look, from 1983, featuring their great funk-rock hit "Dead Giveaway" but (like Kool and the Gang's "Misled" and Phils Bailey and Collins's "Easy Lover") the music on that single was probably more Foreigner than new wave.

And oh yeah -- duh! -- the Village People's new romantic album Rennaissance was '81, right?

Rick James talked about "the kind of girl you read about in new wave magazines" on Street Songs. (His music had actually been referred to as "punk funk" in the late '70s, which never made much sense. And in the early '80s, magazines like I think Musician were talking about a new genre they called "funk'n'roll," which consisted primarily of, um, Prince and the Bus Boys, I think. And maybe the Time and, uh, Prince Charles and the City Beat Band.)

busboys are a good call. goofy lyrics, campy midcentury retro vibe (esp on the debut), danceable but kinda square, lotsa synths. but they pretty much stand alone, right?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F8T3B821L._SS500_.jpg

This was '82 tho.

most interested in 81, as there seems to have been a LOT of activity during that year, but 82 is cool

Van Halen's Fair Warning featured their first use of synth. And I believe 1981 was the year Genesis discovered funk (to Geir's horror).

'Nother big '81 new wave move I thought of by an arguable aging proto-new-waver: Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice" (though I guess stuff like "Kiss Kiss Kiss" on Double Fantasy the year before may have prefigured that, dance-oriented-rock-wise.)

Disco guy going new wave in 1980: August Darnell (formerly Dr. Buzzard, now Kid Creole).

Jazz guy probably playing to new wave crowds around the same time (though more New Yorky new wave crowds than country guy Joe Ely was playing for): James Blood Ulmer. (Neither changed his sound much.)

Another r&b guy making a rock (if not new wave) move circa 1982: Ray Parker Jr., with "The Other Woman."

Also, nobody has answered my Steve Miller question yet. "Abracadabra," pretty darn new wave, was '82. In '81 he put out Circle Of Love, which I've never heard, but one of its tracks, "Macho City," wound up on one of those Disco Not Disco compilations a few years ago. So he counts, right?

Re Rosanne Cash, Seven Year Ache from '81 was indeed new wavey in the pubby Carlene Carter sense (in its hair and song choices) (and also the best album she would ever make), but what did her two earlier LPs ('78 and '80) sound like? (And how am I so sure it's her best if I don't know those two?)

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/443/cover_14571823112005.jpg

Anyone heard this? Apparently Peter Hammill's stab at new wave.

Jon Anderson & Vangelis "The Friends of Mr. Cairo"

and I just discovered a band The Monks UK that has members of the Strawbs doing fake punk. Suspended Animation is from 1981 and was big in Canada. They did go new wave early (in 1979) though.

I had a cutout of that Hammill album once; thought it was okay, I guess, but remember nothing else about it. It does remind me though that Bill Nelson of Be Bop Deluxe had a new wave (I think) band called Red Noise; that was around 1978 or so, right?

dunno about circle of love. "heart like a wheel" was the big pop tune, and that sounds exactly like mid 70s prime SMB. "macho city" sounds a lot like NYC nu/no wave, though: all awkward, jittery white boy funk. hard to say whether it's a funk/disco move or a punk/wave one. i guess, circa 81, that can be a hard distinction to make no matter what

abracadabra, though, is fully waved. check out synth bass on "keeps me wondering why"

xp Also, Col. Bruce Hampton (of the Hampton Grease Band) put out what I assume were his two new waviest LPs with the Late Bronze Age in '80 and '82. (Both reissued on CD a couple years back; they're good.)

no mention of Jethro Tull, who kinda tried the new wave thing with 1980's A, either.

The cover of A was posted way upthread.

never heard tull's A. dunno why, as i got some use out of both stormwatch and broadsword (both absolutely miserable records)

I'm not sure I'd count Bill Nelson because Be Bop Deluxe bordered on New Wave, and his entire '80s career was pretty darn new wave! I mean, he palled around with Yukihiro Takahashi and YMO.

Also, I wouldn't call Belew a "dino rocker." Didn't his career start in the late '70s as a guitarist for Frank Zappa? I don't think of his solo albums or his Talking Heads work as a "rebirth," but more of his core. His solo albums and Bears albums are jerky, XTC/Talking Heads-esque new wave. In fact, I think his unique guitar style was quintessentially new wave and in fact influential in the new wave scene. When I think of a new wave guitar solo, I think Adrian Belew.

Excellent call on the Jon Anderson, though!

Also, unless my control-F just isn't working, I can't believe nobody has mentioned one of the most definitive examples of this (especially since I've seen it mentioned on ILM fairly often elsewhere): Robert Palmer's Clues, which first charted in October 1980, according to Joel Whitburn.

Tim Curry "went" new wave in 1979 with "I Do the Rock," though maybe his Rocky Horror stuff before then counts as new wavey to begin with (more post-glam, I'd think); fairly sure I knew a guy in college who also had one of his singer-songwritery '70s solo albums, but I could be totally wrong about that.

agree about belew, but think he's more a bridge-type guy than either the one thing or the other: the grey area where edgy 70s future-prog starts to overlap with the arty/punky stuff that would become "new wave". there's no clear line between the things. plus i really just LOVE "big electic cat".

I can't believe nobody has mentioned one of the most definitive examples of this ... Robert Palmer's Clues

― xhuxk

WAIT! "johnny & mary" holy crap!!!! i've been trying to figure out what this song is for YEARS! i head it in a wamu in brooklyn about 3 yeas ago, but couldn't make out any words, and have been looking relentlessly (though cluelessly) for it ever since. thank you thank you thank you chuck! so freaking great, and one of the secret lipstick traces behind this thread.

embedding of the actual vid disabled :(

I'd like to hear Mad Love. I remember reading once that L.R. almost ruined her voice recording it.

Howard Werth went from:

to:

on LA punk label Dangerhouse, of all places.

Robert Palmer's "Johnny & Mary": C or D?

listening to mad love right now. fantastic! - about as note-perfect new wave as anything on this thread, and another one i'll have to pick up a proper copy of. with the r palmer, she's making a real strong case for 1980.

ha, missed that "johnny & mary" thread, though i might not have connected the song in my head with the thread anyway. agree with geir: palmer's best moment (or, at least, the one i love best)

Though it's from '82, Arthur Brown's "Requiem" is totally synthed out and worth seeking.

also, i'm a bit late, but jkpolk OTM way upthread about rod stewart's tonight i'm yours - another iconic new wave move from 81 (though, yeah, not terribly shocking given the goofy pop/disco he'd gone for a few years before).

plus "young turks", of course

Tonight I'm Yours is a good album!

Also: I'd love a copy of Mad Love. Someone email me.

A few more '70s has-beens going new wave in whatever year:

-- John Hiatt
-- David Werner
-- Ish Ledesma of Foxy (as Oxo)
-- Godley and Creme of Hot Legs (and oh yeah, 10cc)
-- Joan Armatrading
-- Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators
-- A couple Stackridge guys (as the Korgis)

I completely forgot about that Rod Stewart song! Not sure why, because I certainly liked it at the time. Not as good as Young Turks, though.

Hawkwind's "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" always struck me as punk-influenced, but it's from 1977. And the rest of the LP isn't so much that way. I think we've had this thread before (shocker) because I remember mentioning this one elsewhere.

Nice one on the Armatrading. She went from singer-songwriter with folky/bluesy '70s production to full on synthy new wave. Some songs ("I Love My Baby" comes to mind) have no guitar at all.

How about Chris de Burgh? Went from 12-string folky and medieval to "Don't Pay the Ferryman" (with Rupert Hine becoming his producer of choice).

another crazy OTM jkpolk nom that i missed: jon & vangelis the friends of mr. cairo. wish i didn't hate anderson's voice so much

also, juice newton's juice, from 81, if just for "queen of hearts"

how about '70s dino rockers recruiting a buggle?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Asiaasia.jpg

(released '82, but they formed in '81 totally in response to all the stuff talked about here.)

xp! (wrote this before I saw nickn's post, I swear!)

Also Hawkwind (as Hawklords in 1978 and maybe first with Quark Strangeness And Charm in 1977)

alternately: any other years that were defined by this kind of industry-wide trendhopping?

Assorted garage-rock guys went "heavy" circa 1970-71 (usually in different bands), though that should probably be a different thread.

Mention of Jethro Tull's A upthread, but Ian Anderson's solo album Walk Into Light was the real new wave move (think it was 1983 though). Sure there were more proggers who did this around that time. Parts of The Wall maybe? Not that synthy though I guess.

how could i forget chris de burgh?!? but wish i knew the joan armatrading stuff in question, cuz i can't say either way

a partial list of stuff mentioned so far (80-82, more or less):

adrian belew: "big electric cat" - lone rhino
after the fire: "der kommisar" - ATF
alice cooper: flush the fashion
barbara gaskin & dave stewart: "it's my party"
billy joel: glass houses
boc: cultosaurus erectus
boc: fire of unknown origin
cheap trick: one on one
chris de burgh: the getaway
dave edmunds: information
don henley: i can't stand still
foreigner: 4
frank zappa: you are what you is
genesis: abacab
george clinton: computer games
gillan: future shock (???)
golden earring: "twilight zone" - cut
grace jones: warm leatherette
grace jones: nightclubbing
grace slick: "all the machines" - software
hall & oates: voices
hall & oates: private eyes
hall & oates: H2O
ian hunter: short back and sides
iggy pop: soldier
j geils: freeze frame
jackson browne: "lawyers in love"
jon & vangelis: the friends of mr. cairo
juice newton: "queen of hearts"
kenny loggins: "footloose", "i'm alright"
kim karnes: "bettie davis eyes"
king crimson: discipline
kinks: give the people what they want
kraftwerk: computer world
linda ronstadt: mad love
moody blues: "gemini dream" - long distance voyager
neil young: trans
olivia newton john: physical
pete townsend: empty glass
peter gabriel: 3
peter gabriel: 4
peter shelley: homosapien
phil lynott: "yellow pearl" - solo in soho
queen : hot space
robert palmer: clues
rolling stones: some girls
rolling stones: emotional rescue
rush: permanent waves
rush: moving pictures
sparks: whomp that sucker
steve miller band: abracadabra
styx: "too much time on my hands" - paradise theater
the who: it's hard
the tubes: "talk to you later" - completion backwards principle
zz top: el loco
zz top: eliminator

^ want all this records

Dunno if it counts, but the first Eurythmics album came out in 1981 after Dave and Annie left the Tourists. Dave was originally an old folkie bastard wasn't he?

Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay play on that album btw. And Robert Gorl of DAF!

anderson's walk into light (talking heads ref?) comes in kinda late, 83, but seems to fit much better than anything tull ever did. plus yeah, asia, all the way!

eurythmics debut: conny planck produced it, too! great record, but belongs more in proto-shoegaze (or proto-stereolab) thread more than here

wish herbie hancock's rockit had come out a year or two earlier, cuz 83 is a little late for this thread. but it's so perfect! and if information gets a pass...

What's cool about all these albums is that the level of musicianship tends to be very accomplished because these are old smokey's who can shred, who have better access to nice equipment, and who can hire the best producers/studio musicians.

MacCartney II was 1980 - that was lots more synthy and new wave than what had gone before wasn't it?

chilliwack OTM

This thread reminded me of my Dad telling me about going to a bar to see Peter Noone's new wave band, The Tremblers.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/336Smn4EhRI&hl=en&fs=1";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/336Smn4EhRI&hl=en&fs=1"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

bonnie raitt made a mad love-ish move on green light in '82. especially "me and the boys" (an nrbq tune).

1984, but still:

How about (at least parts of) "McCartney II"? Not his best moment IMO, but I know it does have its legion of supporters on ILM.

OK. I see it has been mentioned before, only with typo that meant I didn't see the post.

While 1981 was very much new-wave-ish, Shakin' Stevens made it big doing old fashioned purist rock'n'roll based in the 50s. However, two years later, he did the synthy "Cry Just a Little Bit", and the synths were even more evident on his 1985 single, "Breaking Up My Heart", probably his one and only single which didn't sound 50s- or 60s-like at all.

I reread this whole thread & didn't catch any mention of Todd Rundgren's Utopia, specifically the self-titled LP from 1982 that has "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" on it. Not sure how successful their take on the new wave was; I wasn't paying enough attention at the time. They were on MTV a lot early on, though. I think they had the new wave colors & clothes...

re "girls w guns": yeah, styx's committment to 'the approach' runs a sliding scale from tasteful dabbling on paradise theater to grotesque hybridization on kilroy to some kind of hideous apotheosis on tommy shaw's GWG, one of the most irritating and bizarre wave-pop tunes of the era. it's like a diplo version, with the "annoy you" meter pushed so far into the red it come back around again to kinda cool. wish the video were better

robert plant's first couple of albums deserve mention in this thread, although i don't know if they were "new wavey"...i honestly don't know what genre they were

Good pick. Shaken 'n' Stirred, recorded in 1985, is even more New Wave (several years after the fact).

never was a big rundgren/utopia fan (my mistake?), but "feet don't fail me now" is/was a new wave classic and a heavy rotation early MTV staple to boot. so yeah.

Speaking of shaking, Shakin' Street's self-titled from 1980 had Ross the Boss from The Dictators on guitar. The band didn't necessarily make the switch, but he certainly did.

Also, any excuse to post this:

split enz, after cleaning things up on frenzy, go ultramodern with true colors & waiata in 80 & 81. shark attack!

And as I mentioned on some previous Rolling Metal, Cultosaurus Erectus is a tragically underrated record. Quite a few great songs on that one. Fire of Unknown Origin is also pretty excellent, but more widely considered to be such.

damn, don't know that i've ever seen that "joan crawford" vid. so cheap, so cheezy (note cow skull on roof), so CLASSICK! thanks, jthreeff. and yeah, i'm a big fan of cultosaurus erectus, too, though i'd say it's more uneven - for better & for worse - than fire.

wish i could find a good "shark attack" vid...

best i could find is some kid dancing around to it, which i will spare you. no decent vid of BOC's "monsters", either

:(

It's cheap and cheesy, but kind of creeps me out nonetheless.

WORST NEW WAVE ALBUM EVER (from 1980):

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/d2/30/6ac4c0a398a0bec598a2f110.L.jpg

if scott's dave mason record generated the vid that xhuxk linked upthread, then cosign

re matt on floyd: closest the wall gets is funky & uptempo/aggro, as on "another brick 2" & "you better run". not making any direct new wave moves, though obviously tapping into that youthful discontent thing. same for "not now john" on the final cut: angry and modern, but that's about it.

i still have never heard this album:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Donovan-Neutronica.jpg

(supposed to be lots of synth action on it)

if scott's dave mason record generated the vid that xhuxk linked upthread

Er, that was Nick Mason (from Pink Floyd), with Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt helping out, I believe.

some kind of hideous apotheosis on tommy shaw's GWG, one of the most irritating and bizarre wave-pop tunes of the era. it's like a diplo version, with the "annoy you" meter pushed so far into the red

I actually prefer it to any Styx song ever, I think.

re matt on floyd: closest the wall gets is funky & uptempo/aggro, as on "another brick 2" & "you better run". not making any direct new wave moves, though obviously tapping into that youthful discontent thing. same for "not now john" on the final cut: angry and modern, but that's about it.

Well, there is this (from 1984)

marty balin's solo album wasn't new wave, but it has a definite '81 vibe. (plus: shirtless marty balin, yipes)

Judas priest - Turbo
totally fits this trend. And released in 1981 right?

Re: "Girls with Guns" and the various Styx forays into new wave stuff, it doesn't hurt that Tommy Shaw was apparently the only one who remotely understood the aesthetic. He brings you GWG and "Too Much Time On My Hands" and so forth. Dennis DeYoung gives you this:

Judas priest - Turbo
totally fits this trend. And released in 1981 right?

No, Turbo was part of a different, later trend in 1986 that included Seventh Star, The Ultimate Sin, and Somewhere in Time (and NOT Master of Puppets).

As for Styx, "Mr. Roboto" may be their most new wave-ish moment. Hadn't it been for the fact that it was taken from a concept album, which in itself was extremely un-new-wave.

drench OTM; in the early 80s, priest were doing "breakin' the law" type stuff. sorta too bad that turbo didn't do better, though. i like that sound (not as much as, say, painkiller, but still...)

plus marty ballin', amirite? remarkably, uh, frank for an old MTV clip. nude boob at three-oh-something...

Unsure how Gillan got hijacked into this classification. Future Shock" was a hard rock/heavy metal record with a notorious Ian Gillan pull-out-all-the-stops number, "No Laughing in Heaven" and a straight rock 'n' roll version of "New Orleans." Has Bernie Torme on guitar doing classic heavy metal, after which he was replaced by Janick Gers. All the Gillan records were HM, except for two prior, including [i]Clear Air Turbulence, which did jazz rock fusion, emphasis on the rock, played badly.

got roped in due to title & cover art and my hope that it might sound like scarabus & go-gos. no dice, i guess...

Strange thing about Gillan, I've got a Canadian 1980 PolyGram comp called Cash Cows. XTC, OMD, Human League, Japan, Magazine, Martha and the Muffins, Flying Lizards, Fingerprintz, Nash the Slash, Tangerine Dream, Captain Beefheart, and Gillan. It looks like they somehow tried to market him as part of the new wave.

the song is just regular hard rock though, except for an obnoxious keyboard sound. "Sleeping on the Job"

judas priest DID have a new wave album cover in 1981. or at least the u.s. cover of point of entry anyway. and it's probably their poppiest and most commercial album.(trying to repeat the success of "livin' after midnight" with as many songs as possible. this strategy didn't work too good, although "heading out to the highway" got play from radio and mtv. they got what they were after a year later with "you've got another thing comin'".)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/JudasPriestPointOfEntry.jpg

Cliff Richard started going new wave with "Rock N Roll Juvenile" in 1979. Cf. "We Don't Talk Anymore," "Dreamin'".

Does anyone remember Planet P? Tony Carey (ex Rainbow keyboard dude) doing concept album / new wave / soft rock records, maybe a bit later than 1981 though.

Turbo was part of a different, later trend in 1986 that included Seventh Star, The Ultimate Sin, and Somewhere in Time (and NOT Master of Puppets).

Not to forget Operation: Mindcrime! Something about using synths makes the dino rockers go all conceptual it seems.

LOVE the 1st planet p record! or at least love "why me?" it came out around 82 iirc. didn't know anything about the band, though, so i'd never have thought to include it in dino wavers thred.

oops, 83. darn. need to hear pink world. dunno why i let that pass me by

Franco Battiato - La voce del Padrone (1981)

Though he started the disco-y transformation in 1979...

Actually, it seems that loads of '70s Italian rockers were forced to do this. Le Orme (Venerdi - 1982), Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, PFM....

I think Planet P's "Why Me" came out in 1983 and "A Fine Fine Day" was in 1984.

I always kinda lumped them in with the non-new wave, new wavers who were populating MTV in 1982. Red Rider's "Lunatic Fringe" got a fair amount of rotation back then - just rock enough for KMET/KLOS and just new wavey enough for KROQ too. April Wine (who struck me then as just the Canadian version of Nazareth) sorta falls into the same category - those videos for "Enough Is Enough" and "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" were everywhere for a couple months. I remember being shocked when read that they've been around since 1970.

I also remember a 1980 last gasp single from Sweet getting a little bit of airplay in 1980... Think it was "Sixties Man" - well far removed from the glam stomp sound.

Slade was a heck of a lot more successful with "Run Runaway" a couple years later. Of course it helped having Quiet Riot around.

I listened to April Wine today just to determine if there was any New Wave trace in 1981, and there wasn't. Tony Carey (non-Canadian) was another example of someone who resisted the temptation, at least with the "Fine Day" album, (I love that song)

Triumph and Ozzy also managed to survive without the haircut and bouncy dance rhythms, although you could speculate how their music might have sounded if market forces hadn't required tightened up songwriting and production.

Strange that despite Jeff Lynne being mentioned several times on this thread that ELO's Time hasn't been mentioned yet which is any uneasy mix of newwave synth dystopianism and his Beatles/rock 'n' roll fixation.

And speaking of the Beatles, if Lennon had lived he would surely have moved in a new wave direction based on his work on Yoko Ono's 'Walking on Thin Ice'.

My dad had a Manhattan Transfer album called Extensions which came out in '79 and apart from the usual cocktail jazz vocal stuff there is one totally batshit track called Coo Coo U in which they come over all squaky and robotic, it really is quite unnerving, I'm not sure If I could even compare it to something, maybe Einstein A Go-Go.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/32812.jpg

squaky - squeaky

Yeah, April Wine had a bunch of Eighties albums, all pretty limp but not because of New Wave influence. They probably got the most mileage from their version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" which was an excuse to go wild and metal chopsy on the arena undercard. I lot of other stuff like "I Wanna Rock" and "If You See Kay" (ha ha), eeeesh, bad enough to make sweat break out on the back of the neck if you hear it more than once. I do recall "Gypsy Queen," too.

After awhile, it all turns into barrel-scrapings. Like how 'bout all the Charlie albums with sexy dames in leather skirts and hose on the cover, which you stupidly bought, only to take home and found there was nothing in them except spineless rock played in a myriad of journeyman styles?

This thread made me wonder, if Jim Morrison had lived, what the Doors' 1981 new wave comeback LP would have been like.

posting red rider's lunatic fringe not cuz it's any kind of "comeback", just cuz it's awesome

key lyric @ 1:08:

you're in hot egg
and you hope you're beyonce...

also, why does the ghost of john oates loom over the proceedings @ 1:51?

This thread made me wonder, if Jim Morrison had lived, what the Doors' 1981 new wave comeback LP would have been like.

― Maltodextrin, Thursday, February 12, 2009 10:42 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think it would have happened:

I've spent an hour considering the careers of Arthur Lee, Sky Saxon, David Crosby, and the Jefferson Airplane trying to figure out where Jim Morrison would have fit in.

I guess it would depend on how much damage prison and booze did. His new wave album could have been produced by Kim Fowley if he ended up as an L.A. street person, or he might have kept his act together and had his new wave album produced by Dave Stewart or Phil Collins.

also b dodds OTM about ELO's time:

^ going on the available photographic evidence, i think we'd have to assume that jim's 81 comeback would have been produced by this guy. and that there'd be beard duet with eric bloom

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/StopSmellRSCover.jpg/200px-StopSmellRSCover.jpg

Not as wavy as it could be, but this is still pretty good:

The most Doorsy New Wave song I can think of is "Red Skies" by the Fixx.

I never heard that Morrison interview above before. Thanks for sharing it.

All those Canadian bands were pretty new wave to begin with, though, probably thanks to their strong Nick Gilder and Streetheart influence.

1979, who cares

Hey at least I didn't post any Kix.

Strange that despite Jeff Lynne being mentioned several times on this thread that ELO's Time hasn't been mentioned yet which is any uneasy mix of newwave synth dystopianism and his Beatles/rock 'n' roll fixation.

Including a couple of blatant Ultravox lifts.

A couple more hasbeen bands up above who I don't think agree went new wave in 1981: The Kinks (who had already gone new wave on Low Budget in 1979) and Hall and Oates (who had already gone new wave on either Along the Red Ledge in 1978 or X-Static in 1979, take your pick).

Strangely, Kim Mitchell of Max Webster did not go new wave until "Go For A Soda" in 1985. (Unless he went earlier and only actual Canadians noticed.)

(Who I don't think I agree. I'm not sure whether the bands agree or not, if they even care.)

include the hall & oatses i mentioned above cuz red ledge and x-static are more tenative, more disco, iirc. then again, it's been a while since i've heard either

And speaking of the Beatles, if Lennon had lived he would surely have moved in a new wave direction based on his work on Yoko Ono's 'Walking on Thin Ice'.

There were a few new wave-ish moments on "Double Fantasy" too. "I'm Losing You", for instance.

i thought conventional wisdom said that if the Doors were a punk/new wave band they'd be the Stranglers? Works in some cases.

Either that or Billy Idol. (Actually, lots of new wave stuff early on sounded Doorsier than the Fixxxx -- esp. in the vocal department. I always figured they were a fairly big inspiration for the genre. Not gonna come up with a list now, though.)

(For the more serious and gloomy and poetically pretentious ends of the genre, at least. Hell, goth singing in general -- maybe even starting with Ian Curtis -- can kind of be traced back to Jimbo.)

My friend called Jim Morrison "the godfather of goth" the other day. I laughed. Morrison seems more like a godfather of punk to me, if anything, but whatever.

iggy = godfather of punk
jim = godfather of nude drunkbeard, unloved 3rd uncle of goth

Why is Lou Reed so often referred to as the Godfather of Punk?

xp Also, obviously, Manzarek did stuff with X, who also covered "Soul Kitchen"; in fact, it's always seemed to me that lots of that decadent early '80s non-hardcore El Lay blues-punk stuff (X, Flesheaters, Gun Club, Alleycats/Zarkons, etc.) was somehow in the Doors lineage.

^ this OTM, esp WR2 the LA blues punk doors hookups. that doors punk angle kinda died of subsequent, tho, didn't it? (punk as gloomy doomy junkie blues thing.)

oh, but wait. what about birthday party and descendents? cave's persona kinda morrison-like. also swans as they rolled along (after the tooth-scraping stuff).

"died off"

Then there's that Echo and the Bunnymen band...

Yeah, it never died, just went further underground (definitely heard Cali bands this decade -- i.e., the Starvations -- that fit in that mold.) And also went Down Under, where the Birthday Party wound up being their own template for scores of bands from the Scientists on (and they also set the template for mid-American pigfuckers like Scatch Acid and Killdozer, a sound that still keeps coming back in incrementally diminished form.) Plus, yeah Goths -- Andrew Eldritch definitely. And Ian Astbury. And etc.

(Though at first I thought you were saying the Doors influenced the Descendants! Kinda doubt that.)

The Doors late-70s resurgence (with Apocalypse Now and the Rolling Stone "He's Sexy He's Dead" cover) coincided with the LA punk years which only fueled more hyperbullshitic nonsense from Manzarek. He would blather on to anyone about how the Doors were the original LA punk band and how if the Doors were still around they would be down with the punks, etc. etc. ad nauseum.

If Jimbo is the godfather of anything, it's late night poetry slam amateur hour at the local hipster cafe.

Still, I like the Doors a lot - mostly because of Kreiger and Densmore.

If Jimbo is the godfather of anything...

http://photos.posh24.com/p/243342/l/joaquin_phoenix/joaquin_phoenix_says_bye_good_to_acting.jpg

There's a great bit in a Mike Nelson piece in his movie review collection talking about the horribleness of Val Kilmer -- his role as Jimbo comes up, Mike takes the time to note that Mr. Morrison is one of his least favorite people in history and then comes up with this, which I can't get out of my head now:

...you can't deny that his voice is very much like any given dad's voice singing clumsily from the shower as he soaps his beefy arms. Just stop for a moment and imagine Morrison's ham-fisted baritone shouting out his idiotic free verse "Break on through to the other side," and now imagine your own father in his tiled stall mindlessly singing the same verse. See? They're indistinguishable!

^ v. klosterman

Pretty good one, from a couple years later: DNA (a/k/a Rick Derringer and Carmine Appice), Party Tested, 1983. Wrote a little more about it here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQDcNzD3s6k

Sir Douglas Quintet - Border Wave (1981 Takoma) it's got a colorful cover and skinny ties. Craig Leon produced. The music is the same Tex/Mex roots rock Doug Sahm worked his whole life, but the 96 Tears keyboards are emphasized and the tunes are extra bouncy and catchy. Kinks and 13 Floor Elevators covers. Someone probably gave them a budget thinking they could be as big as Joe King Carrasco.

This is a case where linking the sounds of original garage rock with the New Wave made perfect sense.

Here's a clip of the SDQ doing "Mendocino" and two cuts from Border Wave on the notorious "Andy Kaufman quits" ep of "Fridays".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6PoOT44zUo

see also womble-creator mike batt's jaw-dropping synthpop (and avant-orchestral operetta zero zero from '82, soundtrack to a musical TV special produced for australian television. he'd flirted with synthpop sounds on his previous waves and six days in berlin, but here he goes all in. scott seward started an excellent but little-visited thread about it a while back. kind of horrible, kind of amazing. selections:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wse5A0RO53k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3doI9Le35nQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ahqp_vBv8s

the Heavy Metal soundtrack is right in the center of this, dinos going new wave or modern w/ DEVO thrown in for street cred

more synthed-up Cheap Trick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s1Jsz1lj1Y

in my xpost, add an end-parens after "orchestral," iyp. recommended to anyone with fond memories of peter schilling's error in the system.

I've been into Judas Priest - Point Of Entry lately. I didn't like it much at the time, and while it was predictive of stuff like Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," it holds up. Way better than Turbo. I also have a soft spot for the albums by Saga and The Fixx from that period, Rupert Hine produced electro AOR prog wave!

Pretty Things on '80's Cross Talk fits right in here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tU3OgZT0DI

I had no idea that Andy Fraser of Free did this totally-80s song/video until today. The dance moves!

This is 1984, not 1981, and not exactly new wave but rather that dance-rock with gated drums and synths that was ubiquitous in the 80s. (Think Robert Palmer.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soE63vWxZnE

Civilian by Gentle Giant (1980) - strong Duke/Abacab vibes and sounds better now than it did then.

I feel like their previous two albums were their attempts at "punk" or new wave, and Civilian was more or less straight AOR with some prog trappings left over.

Alan Parsons Project - Pyramania (from the album Pyramid, 1978!)

No, really!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWTJmrPa5TQ

The only mention of Nick Lowe in this thread is Dave "Edmunds always worked closely with new wave acts such as Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello...," forgetting that Lowe was essentially a country/pub rocker for the previous 10 years.

Godley & Creme - Babies (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQlieiOnui0

and my personal favourite.

Alvin Stardust - Luxury
B-side of I Feel Like Buddy Holly.
Released in 1984 but sounds like it was recorded a couple of years earlier. Would love to have a whole LP of this style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7UBQ8uQSTM

Tangentially related note: were there any big 60s or 70s stars who continued through the 80s doing the exact same style they became famous for? There must be some but I can't think of any. Seems like pretty much none of them took that path.

maybe The Kinks?

James Brown, perhaps?

James Taylor?

Just reading some debate about Jim Morrison as either being godfather of goth or godfather of punk up thread.
On one side black leather and gloomy portentous/pretentious lyricism on the other what could be more punk than presciently getting your Dad to start the Vietnam war so you could have more of a counterculture audience to be an icon to and then claiming your parents were dead to disown them.

Tangentially related note: were there any big 60s or 70s stars who continued through the 80s doing the exact same style they became famous for? There must be some but I can't think of any. Seems like pretty much none of them took that path.

good call imo