As you're no doubt aware, we've been granted Top 10/Bottom 10 licenses by the proper authorities. In other words, these are official lists of what was good and bad about Eighties music. If you see similar lists elsewhere and someone tries to pawn them off as the real thing, just say no.
To make the lists palatable, we've broken them down into three groovified sections. First, the critics count off their favorite and least favorite albums of the decade. Then local music bigwigs list their Top 10s. After that, we pick the Top 40 local bands. Along the way, check out the best and worst singles of the Eighties, our look back at the Sixties and Seventies, and ten wishes for the Nineties.
Simple enough? Read.
THE TEN BEST ALBUMS 1. PUBLIC ENEMY It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Def Jam/Columbia, 1988). In an age of Reagan-Bush-yuppie-Cosby glossiness, the Eighties' rawest truth--an hour's worth of hip-hop that raged prophetically against America's institutionalized apartheid. A record that sent shivers up your spine and lodged in your brain. Believe the hype.
2. THROWING MUSES Throwing Muses (4AD, 1986). Muse matriarch Kristin Hersh walked a barbed-wire fence between breathtaking flights of imagination and sumptuous rock 'n' roll songwriting.
3. DE LA SOUL 3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy, 1989). This has been touted as the Sgt. Pepper of rap, but the Beatles were never this funky or funny. Full of psychedelic spaciness and sampling slickness, it was the final and best example of how hip-hop turned out the Eighties' most creative pop music.
4. R.E.M. Murmur (I.R.S., 1983). Go to any college bar, and chances are you'll hear some version of the dreamy, jangling Murmur blueprint. Then listen to this for the seamless, lush guitar pop hundreds of bands are trying to imitate but never will.
5. PRINCE 1999 (Warner Bros., 1982). The title track, "Little Red Corvette," "Delirious," and "Let's Pretend We're Married" are as classic as the album they're sliced from.
6. MEAT PUPPETS Meat Puppets II (SST, 1983). The Tempe trio's country-punk meld remains Arizona's finest musical moment.
7. RUN-D.M.C. Run-D.M.C. (Profile, 1984). Gave modern-era hip-hop everything it needed--a suburban-urban double m.c. setup, a deejay that could be a band, ironic social consciousness, and the best crossover rap ("Rock Box") before or since "Walk This Way."
8. 10,000 MANIACS In My Tribe (Elektra, 1987). Singer Natalie Merchant's arty delivery, poetic presence and storytelling skill made this one pop music's most literate disc.
9. MINUTEMEN Double Nickels on the Dime (SST, 1984). A double album of rock 'n' roll stripped to its essence--a 45-song, 78-minute minimalist search for the truth.
10. THE REPLACEMENTS Let It Be (Twin/Tone, 1984). Wacky and weepy, rockin' and restrained, the Mats balanced raw power and brain power in a formula that sacrificed neither.
Pop music's biggest enemy in the Eighties was not the PMRC or the FBI, but itself--specifically, a right-wing record industry more in tune with history than creativity. Compact discs, classic-rock radio and nostalgic media ignored acts with something new to say but made success simple for any group that peaked before this decade. The record biz perpetrates lies when it says the Rolling Stones are still the greatest and that Bob Dylan is the voice of our generation. Hardly anyone seemed to mind that record-industry movers and shakers required us to relive their childhoods. They pretended that there is no musical revolution and no one to lead it. Anyone who's ever listened--and listened seriously--to Public Enemy or Throwing Muses or any other like act of this generation knows that's false. If performers in the Nineties can learn anything from the Eighties' best artists, it's to keep on reinventing pop music. And never to be satisfied with someone else's past.
John Blanco 1. THE REPLACEMENTS Tim (Sire, 1985). Ornery, heartsore and often on the verge of self-destruction, the band in all its ragged, drunken splendor.
2. PIXIES Surfer Rosa (Rough Trade/4AD, 1988). That mind-shredding sound! That chilling sense of desperation!! Those stupid spoken bits!!! This beyond-cool Theme"--a great early-Ramones imitation.
3. FETCHIN BONES Galaxy 500 (Capitol, 1987). The earthy North Carolina Boneheads dealt the precious, floral New South sound a serious kick in the ass.
4. PRETENDERS Pretenders (Real/Sire, 1980). Chrissie Hynde talked tough ("I'm too precious--FUCK OFF!"), but wasn't afraid of naked confessions. Sexy, aggressive, vulnerable, she ushered in a new age of rock 'n' roll feminism.
5. DEAD KENNEDYS Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (I.R.S., 1980). Politico-punk Jello Biafra bellowed righteously for social change, eerily prophesying the right-wing terror of the Reagan Eighties.
6. GUN CLUB Mother Juno (Red Rhino, 1987). Dark, disturbing lyrics and an abrasive blend of punk and Texas bluesabilly provided the soundtrack to your cold-sweat nightmares.
7. VIOLENT FEMMES Violent Femmes (Slash, 1983). These "I was a teenage psychotic" anthems would've sounded ridiculous in anyone else's hands, but the Femmes managed to make the school-boy angst poignant, powerful and hugely danceable.
8. R.E.M. Lifes Rich Pageant (I.R.S., 1986). The moody Murmur may have been groundbreaking, but Pageant offered a better collection of songs. A less ethereal R.E.M., scrapping gauzy atmospherics in favor of some of its most solid songwriting.
9. PLIMSOULS Everywhere at Once (Geffen, 1983). By 1983, power pop had been corrupted by commercial jokes like the Knack. The late, lamented Plimsouls brought the sound back into focus with shimmering purist-pop.
10. k.d. lang and the reclines Angel With a Lariat (Sire, 1987). More entertaining than a decade's worth of "new traditionalists," zany hickoid k.d. serves up a heapin' helpin' of some of the campiest country to hit vinyl since Jeannie C. Riley socked it to the Harper Valley PTA.
We spent the decade waiting for the son of punk--something, anything, that would turn the music world on its ear. It never came. Instead, rock faced as dire a slump as it had in the pre-Pistols mid-Seventies. The Top 40 charts were a wasteland of pop-metal lightweights and sound-alike disco divas. Bright, new bands were ignored in favor of the dinosaur-rock brigade and their corporate-sponsored comeback tours. The only relief from the mega-mediocrity came from independent labels and their coterie of young bands, many of whom offered the kind of honest, vital stuff rebellious enough to scare the hell out of your parents. In other words, rock 'n' roll.
MATT CARTSONIS 1. JOE ELY Live Shots (MCA, 1980). The greatest live album ever made. Enough Southwestern energy to fuel a winter's worth of snowbird golf carts.
2. RY COODER Borderline (Warner Bros., 1980). All Ry. Cooder slid his guitar through a cross section of American music loosely centered on early-Sixties R&B, with a liberal smattering of Tex-Mex and island flavor spicing it up.
3. RODNEY CROWELL But What Will the Neighbors Think? (Warner Bros., 1980). Isolating the essence of traditional country and cutting-edge rock 'n' roll, Crowell created one of the most borrowed-from sounds in either field.
4. JOHN HIATT Riding With the King (Geffen, 1983). When this one came out, Hiatt was still Ry Cooder's back-up guitarist, and hardly anybody had an inkling of the songwriting powerhouse that lurked behind that Ray-Charles-meets-Elvis-Costello voice.
5. DAVID LINDLEY El Rayo X (Asylum, 1981). A masterpiece of integration--ska, reggae, Cajun, R&B, and West Coast pop with some of the weirdest songwriting and production ever to grace vinyl.
6. CLARENCE "GATEMOUTH" BROWN Allright Again (Rounder, 1981). Big-band blues, swing, Cajun and country, featuring dynamic horn arrangements and Brown's inimitable guitar and fiddle.
7. ELVIS COSTELLO Almost Blue (Columbia, 1981). Was this one a shocker, or what? Tipping his Stetson to Hank Williams, George Jones, Patsy Cline, and Merle Haggard, Elvis sounded born to sing country.
8. DOLLY PARTON, LINDA RONSTADT, EMMYLOU HARRIS Trio (Warner Bros., 1987). The acoustic/ country/folk scene's event of the Eighties. Virtually every Nashville and Los Angeles recording name was here, the production was immaculate, the musicianship hot, and the singing sublime.
9. JOHN HIATT Bring the Family (A&M, 1987). Hiatt's songwriting was more personal than his earlier work, and his three-man back-up supergroup (Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner, and Nick Lowe) was beyond compare.
10. RICKY SKAGGS Highways and Heartaches (Epic, 1982). This, along with Skaggs' previous two, is the basis of today's new-traditionalist country movement. The production was simple, the musicianship impeccable and there wasn't a dud in the bunch.
In the music business's trash/classic equilibrium, the former held most of the weight in the Eighties. The independent label did return, however, lending regional talent uncompromised exposure and allowing established artists--John Prine, Steve Goodman, and Arlo Guthrie--who'd lost their big-label contracts to continue as cottage industries. Sure, we watched the golden calf of topical songwriting turned into a cash cow by the likes of Tracy Chapman, Bruce Springsteen, and Sting. But we also saw the emergence of some great artists: John Hiatt, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, and David Lindley. What's more, country music became voguish, died out, and came back swinging. What else do you need in a decade?
SHERI SHEMBAB 1. CHARLIE HADEN The Ballad of the Fallen (ECM, 1983). Achingly perceptive, Haden reminded you the bass is more than a timekeeper; it's an infinitely rich, integral part of any ensemble. Joined by Don Cherry, Sharon Friedman, Paul Motian, and Steve Slagle, Haden's abstraction and sophistication blended moodily into otherworldly intonations.
2. JACK DeJOHNETTE'S SPECIAL EDITION Album Album (ECM, 1984). A tapestry of tightly interwoven composition and improvisation that showed off a dual purpose: respect for tradition and a healthy irreverence.
3. RUFUS REID Perpetual Stroll (Theresa, 1980). Warm and personable bass sounds emanated throughout, with uniquely placed notes and toneful phrases.
4. GEORGE RUSSELL So What and African Game (Blue Note, 1983). Recorded within days of each other, both showed off Russell's unique sense of harmonics.
5. STEVE LACY Futurities (Hat Hut, 1986). The Paris resident, known for expeditions into tonality, melded rhythms with the meters of literature.
6. DON PULLEN AND GEORGE ADAMS Breakthrough (Blue Note, 1987). Adams' muscular sax and Pullen's electrifying piano at their peak.
7. BETTY CARTER Look What I Got! (Verve, 1988). The grande dame of jazz reached inside your soul, and her swoons, sighs and word plays branded each syllable with passion and flair.
8. TERENCE BLANCHARD & DONALD HARRISON Discernment (Concord, 1987). Ex-Jazz Messengers youngsters Blanchard (reeds) and Harrison (trumpet) paid homage to Bird, Diz, and 'trane and still maintained highly individual voices.
9. ARTHUR BLYTHE Blythe Spirit (Columbia, 1982). Saxophonist Blythe, no stranger to streams of consciousness, combined percussive cacophony with the sly winks of New Orleans.
10. MILES DAVIS Tutu (Warner Bros., 1986). The inimitable Man With the Horn, who'd faded into a vaporous background for a time, strutted his stuff sparsely and smartly.
Jazz acts returned to the pleasures of acoustic sounds as audiences said "no" to the glitter and flash of loud, pounding and ultimately forgettable all-synthesized tunes. Electronics programmers are now aiming for a more natural, blended sound, mimicking the treasured, warm, ensemble tones of yore. Be-bop also came back, with its young, self-appointed Duke of Jazz (a.k.a. Wynton Marsalis) leading the charge back to the future, and old musical traditions from around the globe found their way into musicians' own expressions--the term "world beat" doesn't seem so foreign any more.
LOUIS WINDBOURNE 1. MEAT PUPPETS Meat Puppets II (SST, 1983). The Puppets in their prime, rambunctious yet refined. A healthy heaping of psychedelic country testifying to the virtuosity of the Kirkwood brothers and Derrick Bostrom. Maybe Arizona ain't such a bad place to be from, after all.
2. VARIOUS ARTISTS Battle of the Garages (Voxx, 1981). Sixteen songs from the winners of a nationwide competition in the then-up-and-coming psychedelic underground. Not only had the electric-Kool-Aid Sixties survived the sterile-disco Seventies, but there was even a vast army of mind-warping musicians ready to march headfirst into the Eighties.
3. TRUE SOUNDS OF LIBERTY Beneath the Shadows (Alternative Tentacles, 1982). TSOL added keyboards to fatten up its sound, creating a punk masterpiece that should have found its place miles above Bon Jovi on the charts.
4. TOM WAITS Rain Dogs (Island, 1985). A brutally realistic portrait of rural America with hoarse, poetic verse and spontaneous musicianship.
5. NEVILLE BROTHERS Yellow Moon (A&M, 1989). For years, Neville fans awaited a studio album where the bros would forget about commercialism and just play the music deep within their Creole souls. Worth the wait.
6. PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. Second Edition (Island, 1980). A gray, overcast panorama of entrancing bass riffs and droning chants flowing across a melancholy English countryside. It's a rotten shame this was PiL's only pure stroke of genius.
7. DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND Voodoo (Columbia, 1989). The Dirty Dozen got down further than any brass band ever has. And with songs like "Santa Cruz," "Don't Drive Drunk," and "Moose the Mooche," it got tighter than any band has a right to get.
8. BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO On a Night Like This (Island, 1987). Stanley "Buckwheat" Zural and the Ils Sont Partis Band let loose a Cajun cooker, a modern zydeco classic that expanded the bounds of tradition and demonstrated that the accordian is as good for a party as it is for a polka.
9. THE DAMNED Phantasmagoria (MCA, 1985). The Damned had one last gasp of greatness before selling out completely.
10. PINK FLOYD The Final Cut (CBS, 1983). This socio-philosophical look at the forces that shape one's life is also a damn good rock 'n' roll album. A CD must.
Snarling punks, who once put down the pompous rock stars of the Seventies, transformed themselves into equally sniveling egomaniacs. Fashion-conscious longhairs who denounced the punkers' leather and spikes immediately donned the garb as soon as it became heavy-metal chic, and stupid skinheads spewed racial nonsense over music deeply rooted in classic black R&B. In the Nineties, maybe everyone in pop music will finally realize how utterly similar they all are.
MICHAEL NEVINS 1. R.E.M. Murmur (I.R.S., 1983). Michael Stipe sang, "I'm the sign that you can't read," as apt a description as any of this impressionistic Exile on Main Street of the Eighties. Murmur planted the seeds of today's grass-roots scene by helping rock catch up with the Velvet Underground.
2. TALKING HEADS Remain in Light (Sire, 1980). David Byrne's African rhythm experiments came together with the Tom Tom Club disco of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz under the wizardry of producer Brian Eno. One of post-punk's greatest triumphs and a groundbreaking, head-first dive into the music of other cultures.
3. PETER GABRIEL Peter Gabriel (Mercury, 1980). Art-rock's most intelligent craftsman at his most disturbing. Mixing his post-Genesis sound with foreign ryhthms, Gabriel created a harrowing backdrop for songs laced with insane, narrative points of view from shadowy rapists, assassins and amnesiacs.
4. THROWING MUSES House Tornado (Sire, 1988). A neurotic guitar was the perfect vehicle for front woman Kristin Hersh to present her stream-of of-consciousness poetry on devotion to God, marriage and self.
5. PAUL SIMON Graceland (Warner Bros., 1986). Comprised of tight pop and South African township jive, the music made the political statement. Simon finally shed the romanticism of his Garfunkel days and offered a cynical look at technology, relationships and middle age.
6. COWBOY JUNKIES The Trinity Session (RCA, 1988). In one marathon session, this quartet grabbed a mesmerizing country-blues mood and never let go. Margo Timmons' hypnotizing voice played ruefully off brother Michael's heroin-inspired guitar.
7. U2 The Joshua Tree (Island, 1987). Still a musical dynamo, even if its commercial success turned U2 into a fraud. Bono's downright inspiring vocals and the Edge's soaring guitar reached a zenith together under the guidance of producer Brian Eno.
8. CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN Key Lime Pie (Virgin, 1989). Camper rerouted its early goofiness and experimentation into a series of complicated, but flawless, arrangements. Front man David Lowery's tongue-in-cheek lyrics adorned a sound that stirred together polka, psychedelia and new-wave.
9. THE SUGARCUBES Life's Too Good (Elektra, 1988). One of art-pop's crowning achievements. Bjork Gudmundsottir's vocals made the songs by turn joyous ("Birthday") and devastating ("Cold Sweat").
10. PINK FLOYD The Final Cut (CBS, 1983). Roger Waters' last primal scream from The Wall toward the West's right wing, it created bitter theatre that mixed a psychological profile with current events.
Seeing that the country is cancerous with baby-boomers, is it any wonder that music in the Eighties had a Sixties ring to it? Just like hippies-turned-yuppies, rock went commercial, fueled by the consumer-minded music video. Still, groups such as R.E.M. made the Velvet Underground popular and poet-lyricist Lou Reed a demiguru again. And artists like Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, and Paul Simon helped expand rock's horizons toward other cultures.
