Ask the 80s Music Buff

[dread pirate jimbo]

[quote=Hippy Hollow]

Not a whoosh but an error. I swear I had seen confirmation from what I consider to be a reliable source that Prince had penned that tune. Apparently I was 100% wrong. Thank you for fighting my ignorance (can I say that here?)

Why not? :wink: The writers according to Wikipedia were Melvin Riley, Jr., Gordon Strozier, and Gerald Valentine.

Don't forget Nile Rodgers of Chic, who produced hits for Madonna, Sheena Easton, The Power Station, David Bowie, and others. I believe David Foster also really started making a name for himself as a producer in the 80s. And then there's also Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

Nile... absolutely, can't believe I forgot him. Duran Duran, INXS, Debbie Harry, and Diana Ross all benefited from his ears. I know David Foster did a lot, but for some reason I think he did a lot of the schlocky stuff, am I right? Eno and Lanois - were they exclusively U2, or did they work with other artists?

Tracey Ullman is tops, I also love "Move Over Darling."[/quote:c6c67lr3]
Nile Rodgers-produced music almost always included drums by my main man, Chic alumnus Tony Thompson. I loved to hear that guy hit things with sticks!

Foster does almost exclusively schlocky stuff, but he has produced some monster hits as a result. He produced the Payola$'s biggest selling album, which no one remembers (everyone recalls "Eyes of a Stranger" from their earlier days but not so much "You're The Only Love"), and he has also produced songs for Madonna, Earth Wind and Fire, Cher, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, etc... Pretty much if Diane Warren writes a an instantly disposable power ballad that a lot of people will run out and buy, David Foster produces it. Eno and Lanois worked together on several U2 albums, but have also done some well-know work on their own for other artists; Lanois produced Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy" album in 1989, and also did work in the 80s with Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, and the Neville Brothers while Eno has produced Devo and the Talking Heads, among others.

[Hippy Hollow]

If we're going to praise all the talent of Chic, let's not leave out Bernard Edwards! Amazing bassist.

Tony Thompson must have shredded millions of drum heads in his life. RIP.

The Power Station is a band that has only two remaining members. Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson, and Bernard Edwards all died at a relatively young age. The surviving members, of course, are the two Durannies, John and Andy Taylor.

Duran Duran, of course, had Andy, John, and Roger Taylor, none of whom are related.

John Taylor's first name is Nigel. I'm sure he had to change his name to stay in the band.

[tunaman]

The Power Station is a band that has only two remaining members.

Well jeez - how many Ramones are left? One?

[MsRobyn]

Brian Eno was also part of Roxy Music.

[leander]

This thread has taken a strange though informative turn. Good to have some serious 80s music experts. (b1972)

[tunaman]

Oh yeah, "One Night In Bangkok." I still like that weird little song.

It makes much more sense in the context of the show it comes from, Chess, which was written by Benny Andersen, Bjorn Ulvaes (both of ABBA), Tim Rice (more famous for other lyricizing) and Richard Nelson. A lot of people who don't realize it was part of a musical theater production are puzzled by all the chess references.

... and "Bangkok" was sung by Murray Head, whose younger brother, Anthony Head, played Rupert Giles in the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Sarahfeena]

If we're going to praise all the talent of Chic, let's not leave out Bernard Edwards! Amazing bassist.

Tony Thompson must have shredded millions of drum heads in his life. RIP.

The Power Station is a band that has only two remaining members. Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson, and Bernard Edwards all died at a relatively young age. The surviving members, of course, are the two Durannies, John and Andy Taylor.

Duran Duran, of course, had Andy, John, and Roger Taylor, none of whom are related.

John Taylor's first name is Nigel. I'm sure he had to change his name to stay in the band.

I've heard that all 3 Taylors are back for the latest reunion tour, including Roger, who has be long gone. Does anyone know if it's true that it's a real reunion?

[dread pirate jimbo]

If we're going to praise all the talent of Chic, let's not leave out Bernard Edwards! Amazing bassist.

Tony Thompson must have shredded millions of drum heads in his life. RIP.

The Power Station is a band that has only two remaining members. Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson, and Bernard Edwards all died at a relatively young age. The surviving members, of course, are the two Durannies, John and Andy Taylor.

Duran Duran, of course, had Andy, John, and Roger Taylor, none of whom are related.

John Taylor's first name is Nigel. I'm sure he had to change his name to stay in the band.

I've heard that all 3 Taylors are back for the latest reunion tour, including Roger, who has be long gone. Does anyone know if it's true that it's a real reunion?

When we saw Duran Duran in concert a couple years ago, it was the original lineup of Simon, John, Andy, Roger, and Nick (2005, I think) in support of their "Astronaut" album (which was pretty darn good, I must say). Apparently Andy has subsequently parted with the band for good and Dom Brown is now their guitarist, so the "classic" lineup only managed to hold things together for a couple years.

[featherlou]

It seems like it's cool to dismiss Duran Duran, but after seeing them live 20 or so years after they were first famous worldwide, I have a lot of respect for the boys. They do their brand of pop very, very well. I give them full props for basically creating the music video as a marketing tool, too.

[BiblioCat]

... I give them full props for basically creating the music video as a marketing tool, too.

What, no props for creating a meme on that other board, a meme that would not freakin' die?

[featherlou]

You know, I thought about tossing a "Rio, by Duran Duran"
in there.

[tunaman]

Oh... the chick in Power Station's "Some Like It Hot" video... wasn't a chick. It was Caroline Cossey (a.k.a. Tula).

[Sarahfeena]

[quote=dread pirate jimbo]

If we're going to praise all the talent of Chic, let's not leave out Bernard Edwards! Amazing bassist.

Tony Thompson must have shredded millions of drum heads in his life. RIP.

The Power Station is a band that has only two remaining members. Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson, and Bernard Edwards all died at a relatively young age. The surviving members, of course, are the two Durannies, John and Andy Taylor.

Duran Duran, of course, had Andy, John, and Roger Taylor, none of whom are related.

John Taylor's first name is Nigel. I'm sure he had to change his name to stay in the band.

I've heard that all 3 Taylors are back for the latest reunion tour, including Roger, who has be long gone. Does anyone know if it's true that it's a real reunion?

When we saw Duran Duran in concert a couple years ago, it was the original lineup of Simon, John, Andy, Roger, and Nick (2005, I think) in support of their "Astronaut" album (which was pretty darn good, I must say). Apparently Andy has subsequently parted with the band for good and Dom Brown is now their guitarist, so the "classic" lineup only managed to hold things together for a couple years.[/quote:142hipab] I kind of figured it wouldn't last. Too bad...Andy's a good guitarist. He wrote a memoir recently, which I've been thinking of reading. I have not heard Astronaut...you have inspired me to give it a listen.

[Hippy Hollow]

When we saw Duran Duran in concert a couple years ago, it was the original lineup of Simon, John, Andy, Roger, and Nick (2005, I think) in support of their "Astronaut" album (which was pretty darn good, I must say). Apparently Andy has subsequently parted with the band for good and Dom Brown is now their guitarist, so the "classic" lineup only managed to hold things together for a couple years.

I saw DD in Atlanta around 2000, with Cucurillo on guitar and whomever was the drummer. They were still great. It was pretty amazing that they had a "second moment" with the Duran Duran album ("Ordinary World," "Come Undone"). I would have loved to see the classic lineup, though. I always wondered how Andy fit with the Durannies... they moved away from a guitar-led sound pretty quickly, and it's only if you listen to the "Night Versions" or remixes that you can hear how good he was - "Planet Earth" and "Girls on Film" are riff-tastic.

Andy did the "Hollywood" axeman thing for a while, did a solo album of cock-waving 80s pseudo-metal, and kinda disappeared in the background.

I wonder what the setlist was like for the reunion tour? Did they play stuff from the Cucurillo era like "Ordinary World," which had pretty distinctive guitar work from him? That would be interesting, the original guitarist mimicking the guy who replaced him...

[dread pirate jimbo]

When we saw Duran Duran in concert a couple years ago, it was the original lineup of Simon, John, Andy, Roger, and Nick (2005, I think) in support of their "Astronaut" album (which was pretty darn good, I must say). Apparently Andy has subsequently parted with the band for good and Dom Brown is now their guitarist, so the "classic" lineup only managed to hold things together for a couple years.

I saw DD in Atlanta around 2000, with Cucurillo on guitar and whomever was the drummer. They were still great. It was pretty amazing that they had a "second moment" with the Duran Duran album ("Ordinary World," "Come Undone"). I would have loved to see the classic lineup, though. I always wondered how Andy fit with the Durannies... they moved away from a guitar-led sound pretty quickly, and it's only if you listen to the "Night Versions" or remixes that you can hear how good he was - "Planet Earth" and "Girls on Film" are riff-tastic.

Andy did the "Hollywood" axeman thing for a while, did a solo album of cock-waving 80s pseudo-metal, and kinda disappeared in the background.

I wonder what the setlist was like for the reunion tour? Did they play stuff from the Cucurillo era like "Ordinary World," which had pretty distinctive guitar work from him? That would be interesting, the original guitarist mimicking the guy who replaced him...

Yeah, they played songs from the entire Duran Duran discography, from "Planet Earth" to "Hungry Like The Wolf" to "Save A Prayer" to "Wild Boys" to "Notorious" to "Come Undone" as well as a handful from the Astronaut album -- "(Reach Out For The) Sunrise," "Bedroom Toys," "What Happens Tomorrow," etc. Andy seemed right at home with the band and the material, even the stuff that required him to impersonate Cucurillo. The guy's a pro.

[lobotomyboy63]

Oh yeah, "One Night In Bangkok." I still like that weird little song.

It makes much more sense in the context of the show it comes from, Chess, which was written by Benny Andersen, Bjorn Ulvaes (both of ABBA), Tim Rice (more famous for other lyricizing) and Richard Nelson. A lot of people who don't realize it was part of a musical theater production are puzzled by all the chess references.

... and "Bangkok" was sung by Murray Head, whose younger brother, Anthony Head, played Rupert Giles in the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I just stumbled across that fact about two weeks ago. Anthony Head was in that serie of coffee commercials with the woman...it played out like a soap opera.



The intro that was never played on radio (at least in my neck of the woods) to "One Night" is really good:

[featherlou]

We saw The Fixx in concert this weekend, and it was lovely. Cy and the boys sang all the songs everyone knows and a bunch of other ones that you'd know from having their tapes. Everyone we told we were going to see The Fixx said, "Who?", but they all knew - if we'd played the first bars of "One Thing Leads to Another" they would have envied us. We've seen a handful of bands that have been around forever now, and every time it's been great. There's something to be said for guys who have been putting on shows for 30 years - they know their shit.

[tunaman]

Wow... that's really cool, featurelou!

A couple of Aussie 80s music trivia things to keep the thread going:

- Although many Americans consider(ed) Men at Work to be the quintessential Australian band, and their worldwide smash "Down Under" to be Australia's unofficial national anthem, lead singer Colin Hay is actually Scottish, and didn't move to Australia until he was 14.

- Peter Garrett, the famously bald lead singer of Midnight Oil, is a member of Australia's House of Representatives, and was appointed Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after Labour won the 2007 general election. His work has not been without controversy, however.

[dread pirate jimbo]

We saw The Fixx in concert this weekend, and it was lovely. Cy and the boys sang all the songs everyone knows and a bunch of other ones that you'd know from having their tapes. Everyone we told we were going to see The Fixx said, "Who?", but they all knew - if we'd played the first bars of "One Thing Leads to Another" they would have envied us. We've seen a handful of bands that have been around forever now, and every time it's been great. There's something to be said for guys who have been putting on shows for 30 years - they know their shit.

The Fixx was really quite good, playing to a house that was only about half full. It's the original band and they've managed to stick together as a group with virtually no lineup changes (they've swapped out the bass player once or twice, but Dan Brown is back with them after being away for around ten years). After the show they did a meet and greet session, so we now have a signed concert poster in a frame in our living room. Sweet!