Let's watch early-80's videos!
Aldo Nova, "Fantasy"
Oh man, I wanted this album so bad. But thanks to a long series of record club screw-ups, I could never manage to get it. You might be tempted to skip the intro and get right to the leopard lounge gear rock action, but then you'd miss the laser guitar blast. So don't.
The Cars, "Just What I Needed"
Benjamin Orr got no respect. Everybody assumes Ric Ocasek sang all the Cars songs, but Orr sang many of them - many of the hits, even. And Elliot Easton remains a criminally underrated guitarist.
Red Rider, "Lunatic Fringe"
Back in the day when MTV wasn't pure flaming ass, they played this one a lot. I loved it. And then he did that fucking "Life Is A Highway" song.
Split Enz, "One Step Ahead"
I always liked this one better than "I Got You". I'm not sure if I still do.
Devo, "Girl U Want"
Search the iTunes store for "Girl U Want", there are dozens of covers. For good reason. Devo's best song, IMO.
Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys
My favorite Pretenders song, I think. The guitar break is just fucking awesome. I get chills every time I hear it. All hail J.H. Scott.
Blue Oyster Cult, "Burning For You"
Not a great song, but a sentimental favorite because it was one of the first wave of vids on MTV.
The Kings, "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide"
Not sure if there was ever a real video for this one; I don't remember seeing one. But I remember hearing this song a lot because my mother and all her friends were really into it. "Nothing matters but the weekend, from a Tuesday point of view". You said it, head King.
David Bowie, "Ashes To Ashes"
Love this video.
Depeche Mode, "Just Can't Get Enough"
I was amazed when I first saw this: it was all done with keyboards! The future was now. Then. Whatever.
I used to play that Split Enz song over and over again on my turntable. In the 90s I found the tape at Pharmor and bought it, but it wasn’t the same when I had to rewind. One Step Ahead–probably my favorite song that year. Pure keyboard goodness. (I liked Iris also.)
It’s too bad that Circuit City and ClearChannel have combined to overexpose “Just What I Needed,” because it’s a really good pop song.
One of my favorite parts of this song comes at 2:10 in the above video, where the drummer inverts the beat. It’s short, and it’s simple, but it always comes as a surprise and is just disorienting enough to make your ears perk up.
They did a similar thing with Since You’re Gone, where the downbeat of the bare rhythm pattern in the intro turns out to be on the upbeat once the band comes in. (The YouTube link doesn’t do it justice because they cut off the beginning.)
I’m right with you on that Pretenders’ song, Cleek. Lemme guess–you’re just about the same age as our President-elect–amirite?
what’s that? 47-ish ?
nah. take a few years off that. i was just musically precocious. :)
I’m also a few years behind 47–I guess I was musically precocious too. I was into the Pretenders, Talking Heads, Blondie, Buzzcocks, XTC, Clash and all that (oh, and David Bowie, of course) in high school, and everyone thought I was some scary punk rocker, the poor dears. They should’ve seem me a few years later hanging out with the Dead Kennedys at Barrington Hall…those were the days!