I don't think I knew that you had seen my production of "Slam!" Joe. (Great one-act play, two punks in the bathroom of a club in the Bowery in 80s NYC, Rob Morrow was in the original production). I remember that I knew who you were at AHA! Theatre while we were working on different productions there, then we finally worked together at Theater Schmeater for the live Twilight Zone shows that I assistant directed. I thought that was when you were first aware of me.
Could we be heading towards an all swedish region final? Keith, you cracked me up with your rendition of the intro, I couldn't stop laughing! As we'd say over here: "¡Me hizo bosta!". The Final Countdown is cheesy, over the top, unapologetic, and it definitely gets my vote! Have a great weekend, you guys!
It’s SO over-the-top!! Alejandro, are you telling me I made you poop your pants? 😂 Well, you know I can’t resist showing off my glorious falsetto! Thanks for listening, and we will see you next week! —Keith
Haha! "me hizo bosta" doesn't have a direct translation, but it means something like "it killed me" or "it was too much to handle". It applies to when you just can´t stop laughing or crying (or both!). Your falsetto kicks ass, my friend! It's kind of your trademark.
That high-pitched Final Countdown was pure nails-on-a-chalkboard. Please don't do or play that again. Love and Rockets are fantastic and So Alive would be on my 80s playlist every day and you won't find Final Countdown -- but Final Countdown is all 80s and gets the vote here.
I think he’s joking that you’re a traitor to Love & Rockets with your Europe vote, because he is on Team L&R (as opposed to a Europe traitor for not liking them)! 😃 This is one of those votes that I have no idea where it will go! —Keith
Love and Rockets were a really important band in my "scene" that I was a part of. I'm disappointed you guys did do a little deeper dive into their history. Love and Rockets consists of 3/4 of the members of Bauhaus, formed after that band broke up. The fourth member, lead singer Peter Murphy, went on to a successful solo career (he in fact had the #1 alternative chart song the year after So Alive did it). Bauhaus are probably THE gods of the goth music scene. They've had several reunions over the years.
Ball of Confusion is a cover Keith - originally by The Temptations. I actually saw The Temptations play it live in 1989 (I think?).
To me, the best song by Love and Rockets is Haunted When The Minutes Drag off of their debut album. There is a single edit version on the She's Having A Baby soundtrack but the original full 8-minute album version is so superior to the edited one. Epic track.
I voted Love and Rockets, of course. Not because I like the song better (thought I do, even though it is not anywhere close to being one of my favorite L&R songs) but, as I've argued to you guys in the past, there is more to the 80s than the synth-heavy pop. Love and Rockets are another example of the great Post-Punk/New Wave/Goth scene that was so great in that era. And the late-80s really saw the emergence of the stupidly named "alternative" market. Suddenly all these normies had heard of the bands I had been listening to for years. That was a double edged sword.
Look, man, that "alternative" market is how I found bands beyond the pop that our local station was pumping out. '89 is the year I found They Might Be Giants and Elvis Costello and R.E.M. and other stuff that would become some of my favorite music. I had NO access to that stuff living in rural Ohio. (And being an out-of-it nerd, because apparently we DID have folks in our school who were into the good stuff.)
The branding is what is bad. Alternative to what exactly? Mainstream radio and publications were finally turning on to what the college radio stations were playing, the kids that were finding all the cool shit. The "alternative" charts were basically just the college radio charts, so why not just call it the college radio chart? I suspect it was because they wanted to cash in on those acts but didn't want to actually encourage people to tune into (non-profit) college radio stations.
*Ahhh, I have heard of Bauhaus, but don’t really think I know their music. Give me a favorite track to listen to?
*OH! THAT’s where I have heard it before! I like the L&R version, but it felt different to me, and that’s why! Thanks!
*I will check out this other L&R track you recommend, betting I will love it.
*Just to clarify something: I absolutely agree with your stance that there is more to the 80s than synth-pop! However, it just happens to be that most of MY 80s experience was that stuff. So I absolutely agree with your voting for them because they were a big part of your decade! Unfortunately for MY life, it was much more a “Final Countdown” life than the cool “So Alive” life! Hahahaha oh well, I ended up just fine! 😊
*So I assume you’d rather have stuck with the names of the genres like Post-Punk/New Wave/Goth, etc. than “Alternative” or “Progressive”? Or what would you have preferred it be called? Genuine question, I always thought it was a far too simplistic label for a tent that held everything under it that wasn’t Classic Rock.
With Bauhaus you should always start with their debut single Bela Lugosi's Dead. It's like nine minutes long. Many would argue it is THE first goth song. I'd say music is more complicated than that and everything is a gradual evolution, but yeah, it's probably the first real goth song.
I'd also highly recommend Peter Murphy's solo work (I'm probably a bigger fan of him than L&R), the songs Cuts You Up and Strange Kind Of Love from the 1989 album Deep and Indigo Eyes from 1988's Love Hysteria.
I mentioned it in my comment to Joe, but the alternative chart was essentially made by tracking college radio play. So why not just call it the college radio chart? Probably because they wanted to capitalize on the music being played on college radio without encouraging people to actually listen to college radio.
Ah I know Peter Murphy's song from "Pump Up the Volume," but didn't realize where he was from. And I have also heard the name of the "Bella Lugosi" song but didn't realize whose song it was.
Your point about "college radio" is a fair one, especially in terms of the profits driving the decision.
I still love Velveeta. Yum. Delicious heart attack in a box. (I try never to buy it, though.)
Go ahead and mock, but I love "Carrie." Sorry, you know my deep and abiding love for romantic melodrama. Although I still say it's drama, not MELOdrama.
Iconic or not, I cannot in good conscience vote for "The Final Countdown" because I no longer associate it with the 80's but with my favorite TV comedy of all time, "Arrested Development." Gob Bluth uses it for the intro to his magician act. Fucking. Hilarious. Also, there is an argument to be made that this should be in the Metal/Hair Band bracket.
Geez, cut Daniel some slack. He didn't talk to her.
Love Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side." Great song. I can't believe you guys didn't call him out for "colored girls." Seems like you would have. lol
Shout out to Concrete Blonde, on that list you mentioned. Bloodletting is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Going against the tide with this one. "So Alive" gets my vote.
Bloodletting is a great album. Came out a year too late for our Side B, here.
True story, I bought Velveeta for a mac and cheese recipe, had a ton left over and tried to serve it on something for my kids and they were grossed out. Would not eat it.
*I may have mocked “Carrie,” but I have spent the past 3 days singing it to myself! So there’s something there!
*I loved “Arrested Development” also, and yes, it’s the perfect song for his magic act! And you’re right, this could have gone into the Hair Metal mini-game, but damn, I just didn’t associate them with that scene at all for some reason—then when I saw them it was WHOA.
*I will give Daniel credit for not pursuing the girl, definitely. I was just trying to picture what MY wife would do if I started cranking out worldwide #1 hits about other women! 😆
*I left Lou alone for that one, given what I assumed was an acceptable term at the time?
It was released in 1972, so I don't know necessarily that it was still an acceptable term at that time, but I think it still fits the song even if it wasn't (isn't). It's more a thing about tone than anything else, possibly referring to (or an homage to) black female back up singers a la Motown in the 50s and 60s. Truthfully, it almost seems empowering in this song (to me, not being a black woman, so take it with a grain of salt). Or, as per usual, I could be complete full of crap.
I've never been to a Europe show because, well, I have a brain. But the setlist question got me curious so I scrolled through a bunch of their setlists on setlist.fm. I did a bunch of random sampling - not a deep deep dive - and it looks like when the song was their current single back in 1986/87 that they always opened their show with it. Then it seems like sometime in 1988 or so it became their first song of the encore. When it was the first song of the encore it looks like they always closed then with a cover song or two, usually The Beatles and/or Elvis.
It looks like since about 1990 that Final Countdown ALWAYS ends their shows. I looked at quite a few setlists through the 90s and early-mid 200's and to their last listed shows from September this year and have not found a single one where that is not the closing song.
Carrie seems to consistently be a mid-set song. And there was an era is the early-2000s that Carrie was done every night as an acoustic version.
And boy, when they start a tour they pick a setlist and lock it in. It does not alter by even one song from night to night.
I love that you were driven to go check this out, and the results of your research are awesome! Did you also happen to note, is “Rock the Night” their usual opener? I picture it as “Rock the Night,” 30 minutes of unknown songs, “Carrie,” 20 minutes of unknown songs, and then a 12-minute version of “The Final Countdown” as the encore! 😂 Thanks, Deni! Consider yourself our unpaid research assistant! —Keith
It looks like for a lot of years that Rock The Night was the last song of the main set before the encore. In the recent years it looks like it is usually the 2nd song, sometimes 3rd.
I have never done this big of a dig into a band I don't even like. The curiosity of where a 1-hit-ish wonder puts their big hit in a live set was too much for me. :)
I don't think I knew that you had seen my production of "Slam!" Joe. (Great one-act play, two punks in the bathroom of a club in the Bowery in 80s NYC, Rob Morrow was in the original production). I remember that I knew who you were at AHA! Theatre while we were working on different productions there, then we finally worked together at Theater Schmeater for the live Twilight Zone shows that I assistant directed. I thought that was when you were first aware of me.
I absolutely saw "Slam!" It was in the small room off the lobby at AHA! And that was why I knew you could direct.
Ha! Fooled you!
Could we be heading towards an all swedish region final? Keith, you cracked me up with your rendition of the intro, I couldn't stop laughing! As we'd say over here: "¡Me hizo bosta!". The Final Countdown is cheesy, over the top, unapologetic, and it definitely gets my vote! Have a great weekend, you guys!
It’s SO over-the-top!! Alejandro, are you telling me I made you poop your pants? 😂 Well, you know I can’t resist showing off my glorious falsetto! Thanks for listening, and we will see you next week! —Keith
Haha! "me hizo bosta" doesn't have a direct translation, but it means something like "it killed me" or "it was too much to handle". It applies to when you just can´t stop laughing or crying (or both!). Your falsetto kicks ass, my friend! It's kind of your trademark.
And you could say: ¡Qué culiado, me hizo bosta! if you want to add some slang from Córdoba to it!
That high-pitched Final Countdown was pure nails-on-a-chalkboard. Please don't do or play that again. Love and Rockets are fantastic and So Alive would be on my 80s playlist every day and you won't find Final Countdown -- but Final Countdown is all 80s and gets the vote here.
I assume you mean MY rendition was nails on a chalkboard? Hahaha! Sorry about that! I will probably not need to play that again! —K
Traitor!
I can't imagine Final Countdown in any other decade. Sorry if you're upset that I'm not a fan. :-) It was a tough call.
I think he’s joking that you’re a traitor to Love & Rockets with your Europe vote, because he is on Team L&R (as opposed to a Europe traitor for not liking them)! 😃 This is one of those votes that I have no idea where it will go! —Keith
Yeah, that.
Love and Rockets were a really important band in my "scene" that I was a part of. I'm disappointed you guys did do a little deeper dive into their history. Love and Rockets consists of 3/4 of the members of Bauhaus, formed after that band broke up. The fourth member, lead singer Peter Murphy, went on to a successful solo career (he in fact had the #1 alternative chart song the year after So Alive did it). Bauhaus are probably THE gods of the goth music scene. They've had several reunions over the years.
Ball of Confusion is a cover Keith - originally by The Temptations. I actually saw The Temptations play it live in 1989 (I think?).
To me, the best song by Love and Rockets is Haunted When The Minutes Drag off of their debut album. There is a single edit version on the She's Having A Baby soundtrack but the original full 8-minute album version is so superior to the edited one. Epic track.
I voted Love and Rockets, of course. Not because I like the song better (thought I do, even though it is not anywhere close to being one of my favorite L&R songs) but, as I've argued to you guys in the past, there is more to the 80s than the synth-heavy pop. Love and Rockets are another example of the great Post-Punk/New Wave/Goth scene that was so great in that era. And the late-80s really saw the emergence of the stupidly named "alternative" market. Suddenly all these normies had heard of the bands I had been listening to for years. That was a double edged sword.
Look, man, that "alternative" market is how I found bands beyond the pop that our local station was pumping out. '89 is the year I found They Might Be Giants and Elvis Costello and R.E.M. and other stuff that would become some of my favorite music. I had NO access to that stuff living in rural Ohio. (And being an out-of-it nerd, because apparently we DID have folks in our school who were into the good stuff.)
The branding is what is bad. Alternative to what exactly? Mainstream radio and publications were finally turning on to what the college radio stations were playing, the kids that were finding all the cool shit. The "alternative" charts were basically just the college radio charts, so why not just call it the college radio chart? I suspect it was because they wanted to cash in on those acts but didn't want to actually encourage people to tune into (non-profit) college radio stations.
*Ahhh, I have heard of Bauhaus, but don’t really think I know their music. Give me a favorite track to listen to?
*OH! THAT’s where I have heard it before! I like the L&R version, but it felt different to me, and that’s why! Thanks!
*I will check out this other L&R track you recommend, betting I will love it.
*Just to clarify something: I absolutely agree with your stance that there is more to the 80s than synth-pop! However, it just happens to be that most of MY 80s experience was that stuff. So I absolutely agree with your voting for them because they were a big part of your decade! Unfortunately for MY life, it was much more a “Final Countdown” life than the cool “So Alive” life! Hahahaha oh well, I ended up just fine! 😊
*So I assume you’d rather have stuck with the names of the genres like Post-Punk/New Wave/Goth, etc. than “Alternative” or “Progressive”? Or what would you have preferred it be called? Genuine question, I always thought it was a far too simplistic label for a tent that held everything under it that wasn’t Classic Rock.
—Keith
With Bauhaus you should always start with their debut single Bela Lugosi's Dead. It's like nine minutes long. Many would argue it is THE first goth song. I'd say music is more complicated than that and everything is a gradual evolution, but yeah, it's probably the first real goth song.
I'd also highly recommend Peter Murphy's solo work (I'm probably a bigger fan of him than L&R), the songs Cuts You Up and Strange Kind Of Love from the 1989 album Deep and Indigo Eyes from 1988's Love Hysteria.
I mentioned it in my comment to Joe, but the alternative chart was essentially made by tracking college radio play. So why not just call it the college radio chart? Probably because they wanted to capitalize on the music being played on college radio without encouraging people to actually listen to college radio.
Ah I know Peter Murphy's song from "Pump Up the Volume," but didn't realize where he was from. And I have also heard the name of the "Bella Lugosi" song but didn't realize whose song it was.
Your point about "college radio" is a fair one, especially in terms of the profits driving the decision.
I still love Velveeta. Yum. Delicious heart attack in a box. (I try never to buy it, though.)
Go ahead and mock, but I love "Carrie." Sorry, you know my deep and abiding love for romantic melodrama. Although I still say it's drama, not MELOdrama.
Iconic or not, I cannot in good conscience vote for "The Final Countdown" because I no longer associate it with the 80's but with my favorite TV comedy of all time, "Arrested Development." Gob Bluth uses it for the intro to his magician act. Fucking. Hilarious. Also, there is an argument to be made that this should be in the Metal/Hair Band bracket.
Geez, cut Daniel some slack. He didn't talk to her.
Love Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side." Great song. I can't believe you guys didn't call him out for "colored girls." Seems like you would have. lol
Shout out to Concrete Blonde, on that list you mentioned. Bloodletting is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Going against the tide with this one. "So Alive" gets my vote.
Arrested Development is the best! And Gob using Final Countdown was fantastic. Thanks Meg for calling that out!
Bloodletting is a great album. Came out a year too late for our Side B, here.
True story, I bought Velveeta for a mac and cheese recipe, had a ton left over and tried to serve it on something for my kids and they were grossed out. Would not eat it.
*I may have mocked “Carrie,” but I have spent the past 3 days singing it to myself! So there’s something there!
*I loved “Arrested Development” also, and yes, it’s the perfect song for his magic act! And you’re right, this could have gone into the Hair Metal mini-game, but damn, I just didn’t associate them with that scene at all for some reason—then when I saw them it was WHOA.
*I will give Daniel credit for not pursuing the girl, definitely. I was just trying to picture what MY wife would do if I started cranking out worldwide #1 hits about other women! 😆
*I left Lou alone for that one, given what I assumed was an acceptable term at the time?
*Concrete Blonde was great, I agree!
*Totally happy with your vote, love “So Alive”!
—K
It was released in 1972, so I don't know necessarily that it was still an acceptable term at that time, but I think it still fits the song even if it wasn't (isn't). It's more a thing about tone than anything else, possibly referring to (or an homage to) black female back up singers a la Motown in the 50s and 60s. Truthfully, it almost seems empowering in this song (to me, not being a black woman, so take it with a grain of salt). Or, as per usual, I could be complete full of crap.
I've never been to a Europe show because, well, I have a brain. But the setlist question got me curious so I scrolled through a bunch of their setlists on setlist.fm. I did a bunch of random sampling - not a deep deep dive - and it looks like when the song was their current single back in 1986/87 that they always opened their show with it. Then it seems like sometime in 1988 or so it became their first song of the encore. When it was the first song of the encore it looks like they always closed then with a cover song or two, usually The Beatles and/or Elvis.
It looks like since about 1990 that Final Countdown ALWAYS ends their shows. I looked at quite a few setlists through the 90s and early-mid 200's and to their last listed shows from September this year and have not found a single one where that is not the closing song.
Carrie seems to consistently be a mid-set song. And there was an era is the early-2000s that Carrie was done every night as an acoustic version.
And boy, when they start a tour they pick a setlist and lock it in. It does not alter by even one song from night to night.
I love that you were driven to go check this out, and the results of your research are awesome! Did you also happen to note, is “Rock the Night” their usual opener? I picture it as “Rock the Night,” 30 minutes of unknown songs, “Carrie,” 20 minutes of unknown songs, and then a 12-minute version of “The Final Countdown” as the encore! 😂 Thanks, Deni! Consider yourself our unpaid research assistant! —Keith
It looks like for a lot of years that Rock The Night was the last song of the main set before the encore. In the recent years it looks like it is usually the 2nd song, sometimes 3rd.
I have never done this big of a dig into a band I don't even like. The curiosity of where a 1-hit-ish wonder puts their big hit in a live set was too much for me. :)
Wow, so Europe fans really have to be patient for those hits! Thanks for dirtying your hands for me on this project! 😃
"The Final Countdown" is perfectly dramatic for a show! And memories like this one are what I love about doing this show!
"So Alive" is such a great song. When I ranked it, I envisioned myself voting for it, not knowing it would get matched against this juggernaut!
Awww yeaahhh--Def Leppard--you may be hearing from them very soon on the show! :D
--Keith