1981: "I Hear Music In The Streets"

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In response to IM’s far-reaching compilation of post punk 1981 here’s my take on the other end of the dial. Moving from Ohio to NYC early that year, I was stranded without records or stereo for seven months. Strange as it sounds now, I survived by listening to the radio. It wasn’t torture, it was an education thanks mostly to one man: the late great DJ and WBLS-FM program director Frankie Crocker, love man deluxe and self-declared “Chief Rocker.” His on-air ID was a giggling ecstatic female voice (a la “Love to Love You, Baby”), “ahh…frankie CROCKER!” He signed off every show by reading a sentimental/hip poem that included non-ironic use of the word “lady” and then he’d segue to a version of “Moody’s Mood for Love” (by Billy Eckstine?) that just oozed sex and violins. But his message was in the music, and he didn’t limit himself to disco.

What follows is a recreation of his play lists during that monumental year, reconfigured as a six roughly hour-long CDs. I recommend the original radio edits as a starting point. Use them as a basis for appreciating the various and divergent remixes. While I’ve got no problems with file-sharing, I remain an observer, not a participant. I’ve written some fairly harsh criticisms of the RIAA and don’t want to be perceived as a P2P advocate. But if some enterprising young person wants to use this as a rough guide…happy hunting.

Though the Sony Walkman was starting to catch on, in New York City the boombox still ruled in 1981. At some point you could hear any one of these songs echoing across the steel and concrete canyons, everywhere you went.

― mark coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 19 March 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

Disc 1
“Let’s Start II Dance Again” Hamilton Bohannon
“Can You Handle It” Sharon Redd
“Fantastic Voyage” Lakeside
“On The Beat” BB&Q Band
“Double Dutch Bus” Frankie Smith
“I’m In Love” Evelyn King
“Make That Move” Shalamar
“Snap Shot” Slave
“I’ll Do Anything for You” Denroy Morgan
“It’s A Love Thing” The Whispers

Disc 2
“Rapture” Blondie
“Don’t Stop the Music” Yarbrough & Peoples
“Being with You” Smokey Robinson
“Never Too Much” Luther Vandross
“You’re the One for Me” D Train
“What cha Gonna Do for Me” Chaka Khan
“Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)” Billy Ocean
“Mama Used to Say” Junior
“Must Be the Music” Secret Weapon
“Birthday Party” Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5

Disc 3
“Push” One Way
“Body Music” The Strikers
“Try It Out” Gino Soccio
“I Hear Music in the Streets” Unlimited Touch
“A Little Bit of Jazz” Nick Straker Band
“Bon Bon Vie (Gimme the Good Life)” TS Monk
“Heartbeat” Taana Gardner
“Funky Sensation” Gwen McCrae
“Square Biz” Teena Marie
“Are You Single” Aurra

Disc 4
“Hit & Run” Bar Kays
“Running Away” MAZE featuring Frankie Beverley
“Pull Up to the Bumper” Grace Jones
“Searching to Find the One” Unlimited Touch
“Apache” Sugar Hill Gang
“Paradise” Change
“She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)” Carl Carlton
“Sweeter As the Days Go By” Shalamar
“I Like What You’re Doing to Me” Young & Company
“Dying to Be Dancing” Empress

Disc 5
“Chilling Out” Inez Brooks
“Time for Love” BB&Q Band
“Inch By Inch” The Strikers
“Genius of Love” Tom Tom Club
“That’s The Joint” Funky Four plus One
“Zulu Nation Throwdown” Afrika Bambaataa & Cosmic Force
“Spoonie is Back” Spoonie Gee
“Let’s Groove” Earth Wind & Fire
“Super Freak” Rick James
“Controversy” Prince

Disc 6
“Betcha’ Wouldn’t Hurt Me” Quincy Jones featuring Patti Austin
“Just the Two of Us” Grover Washington Jr.& Bill Withers
“Moody” ESG
“Tainted Love” Soft Cell
“Give It to Me Baby” Rick James
“Breaking and Entering” Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble
“Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)” Gap Band
“Walking on Thin Ice” Yoko Ono
“Numbers” Kraftwerk
“Magnificent Dance” The Clash
“The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” Grandmaster Flash

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Saturday, 19 March 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

Seems like there is still need for a third take, containing New Romantics and synthpop only. Was still a great age for dance/R&B though, the genre's finest after 1970.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 19 March 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

Funky 4 + 1, The Gap Band, and ESG. That rules.

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

Wow, very cool. There's definitely overlap between our sets, but it is/was my hope that someone would gather up the funk/hip-hop/r&b end, since that wasn't the charge I gave myself. Are you making copies of this?

― I.M. (I.M.), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

D'oh. Sorry, read the tracklist first.

― I.M. (I.M.), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

Wow. Excellent and so comprehensive. I might be out by a year , but all I can think that might be missing are "More Bounce to the Ounce", "Take Your Time" and "Funkin' For Jamaica". And was Frankie playing any Linx back then? I used to love "Together We Can Shine".

― Allen Baekeland (Allen Baekeland), Saturday, 19 March 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

One distinguishing characteristic in many of these tracks is the sonic combination of synthesized keyboards, electric bass guitar & drumkit rhythm sections and soul/gospel inspired vocals. This interplay of then-contemporary technology and traditional instrumentation creates a delicious tension, something quite different from the pure electro/hiphop sounds that would dominate urban radio by 1985 or so.

If one person discovers the joy and wonder of The Whispers' "It's A Love Thing" cause of this thread, my mission is complete. (sighs)

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Sunday, 20 March 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

:-) Mr. Lovebug sir, might I ask if a copy of this could be available for when I come to the New York City place this weekend?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 20 March 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

Mark, this set is AMAZING. Wowza.

― Thomas Inskeep (submeat), Sunday, 20 March 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

The first version of this thing was made a couple years ago. (Thread about the original version.) The original had 100 tracks but I scaled it down to 80, wanting to keep it somewhat succint and able to fit on one CDR. (Roughly 250 tracks did not make the cut, even though my feelings for each one fall somewhere between love and lust.) I used 12" mixes whenever possible and ripped everything at 192.

― Andy K. (ADK), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

Andy K's is the bridge between Mark's and mine.

What a year.

― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 21 March 2005 04:13 (twenty years ago)

=8-O

wantwantwantwantwantwant

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 21 March 2005 06:06 (twenty years ago)

Mr. Matos -- if it's any consolation that he's not making copies, your copy of my set should be there in a day or two.

― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 21 March 2005 06:12 (twenty years ago)

ah, fuck, didn't notice that, already emailed, will send retraction. and yay! :-)

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 21 March 2005 06:13 (twenty years ago)

Didn't mean to tease your ears w/this!

The problem is I have these songs spread across multiple formats including lots of vinyl. All my records have been in storage for nine years now and have probably turned to dust in their sleeves. But I'm getting motivated to convert and compile, so maybe in a few months. This is a view of a specific time-and-place, it really can't hold a candle to IM's comprehensive set -- more like a supplement.

I kept listening to the radio after I got a stereo (and that got stolen in 1983 by my junkie neighbors). Sometimes I'd stay home on Friday nights just to catch the double header on tiny WHBI out of New Jersey: veteran reggae DJ Gil Bailey ("the man") followed by another giggling female voice-over: "OMG I'm having a rap attack." YOURE HAVING A MR. MAGIC RAP ATTACK FEATURING YOUR HOST MR. MAGIC.

But that's another thread ;)

― mcoleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:29 (twenty years ago)

It's all in Mr. Magic's wand...

Lovely stuff. Time I dug out those 1983 WBLS/KISS cassettes... it's been too long.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Monday, 21 March 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

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