TAKE BACK THE EIGHTIES
Premise: during the rock era ('58 to present), there has always been at least some disconnect between the "underground" and the pop music that was on the charts . . . but never was that disconnect as pronounced as in the '80's. Think about it a minute: who was underground in the late '50's? Charlie Feathers? How different really was he than Elvis? And how different, really, are "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Psychotic Reaction"? And, without the juvenile obscenities, much of what Zappa did in the seventies would have been on the radio. By the time the nineties rolled around, all the "alternative" bands just wanted to get signed to majors, & sounded like it.
Alright, alright, settle down, I realize that this is a conceit. A strong case can be made for the '60's and '70's as well . . . . This is just a mania fueled by '80's rock radio bullshit: for some reason, I am forced to listen to an '80's station at work, and there is just a huge gap between what I listened to and what is getting played on this radio station. Now, on the '60's station I will occasionally here some songs that I'm in to ("The Letter", "Wooly Bully", an occasional Rolling Stones song), and maybe even the '70's station will play something I like ("Mississippi Queen" [?!], Blue Oyster Cult or Deep Purple [??!!], Black Sabbath or Thin Lizzy), but on the '80's station? Nothing, nothing at all.
So, what I'm proposing here is a little bit of revisionism: TAKE BACK THE EIGHTIES! No Journey or Huey Lewis for us, by god. The project is simple: make 90 minute compilation cassettes that define the eighties for you.
The rules? THERE ARE NO RULES! other than, of course, your tape should define the eighties. The rules I am working under are these: the tapes must define the musical span between The Clash's London Calling and Nirvana's Nevermind. I try to stick to the time frame, but there is also a psychic space to be covered: for instance, even though there is some Pere Ubu v. 1 recorded after 1980, everything before The Tenement Year belongs to the seventies. I have included MX-80 Sound on my compilation, though, in retrospect, I have to agree with Tony when he says that they were a seventies band. Also, you have to be honest with yourself: don't try to hide the fact that you really listened to that Leaving Trains record a lot . . . you can try to fudge a little (yeah, go ahead and put The Replacements "Coming Out" on the tape, even though you know you really liked "Unsatisfied" at the time), but be honest: if you listened to Journey, then put Journey on the damn tape. Also, this is pretty much a white boy rock thing, as was the whole underground in the eighties: so, while I listened to plenty PE, BDP, Eric B & Rakim, etc., that will be somebody else's job to document.
So join me, will you? Put the eighties on tape, the only medium truly suited for the job (and use a C-90 . . . anything longer was purported to jam easily in tape players or break easily because the tape was too thin [though, in my experience, it never did], anything shorter can be burned onto CD without dropping songs). When possible, use lps or 7"'s to get that authentic crackle and pop. If you feel like it, send your efforts to Adept Recordings, and we may pay you back with one of our compilations. Make the tapes, buy a cheap boombox, and blow them all over creation.
this "project" is humbly dedicated to the memory of Tom Donahue, the guy who sold all of us a good chunk of our interesting records from the ‘80's. godspeed, Tom . . . taste is overrated.
[Bill]
