Favorite 80s albums

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:08 pm

Since we're talking about the 80s so much, how about representing for your favorite albums of that decade. This is in no particular order, just as they come to me.

1. Ozzy, "The Blizzard of Ozz"- It's an absolute pity that Randy Rhoads decided to get in that plane. Why couldn't it have been John Bon Jovi? Randy was just as talented as all the shredders who would follow him. But he knew how to play his arpeggios with soul.

2. Motley Crue, "Shout at the Devil"- This was the album that you bought in 1984 if you wanted to scare the living shit out your parents. And truth be told, there's not a clunker on it. It was the best major label debut since Van Halen and would remain so until my next selection.

3. Guns n' Roses, "Appetite for Destruction"- After 3 years of bands like Poison, Bon Jovi and Cinderella fucking things up, GnR's debut was a sonic sledgehammer to the face of hair metal. Sadly, eventually they realized there was even more money to be made dishing up the usual hair metal "power ballad" formulas (See Use Your Illusion 1&2). But for one brief shining moment, they were the baddest band on the planet.

4. Prince, "Purple Rain"- If you get laid while listening to a particular album more than 100 times, it's got to rate a place on a favorites list. Somebody wanna que 'Darling Nikki" while I get my groove on?

5. Bruce Springsteen, "Nebraska"- Bruce painted a musical picture of a morally and emotionally bankrupt America that still rings true to this day. His explanation for the Starkweather killings "I guess there's just a meanness in this world" sounds as haunting today as ever. Were there a merciful God, this album would have outsold "Born in the USA" 5 to 1.

6. Metallica, "Ride the Lightning"- This is the most important album in the history of speed/thrash metal. Period. Hearing "For Whom the Bell Tolls" for the first time was something akin to a religious experience.

7. U2, "War"- Best workout album of 1983. Probably the best U2 album ever. Not a bad song on the album from start to finish.

8. The Police, "Regatta De Blanc"- Seriously kids, there was a time when The Police did not suck and when Sting was not a complete pompous ass. And that time was 1980. My only complaint was that the title track should have been 10 minutes long.

9. Genesis, "Duke"- The last great Genesis album. "The Dutchess" is still one of my all time favorite Genesis songs.

10. Rush, "Moving Pictures"- Seriously guys, I used to love Rush. Yea sure "Tom Sawyer" and "Red Barchetta" have been played to death. But if you ask me, the reason it still gets run in my mp3 player is "The Camera Eye".

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:04 pm

Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Alan Parsons - Eye in the Sky
New Order - Low-Life
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
Robert Palmer - Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:08 pm

Both the Randy-fuelled Ozzy albums are sooooo $$$$$$$. Revelation/Steal Away is one of the best metal jams ever laid down.

Crue -- Both Shout and Too Fast were quite good, before the mainstream sellout. While they advanced metal in the early 80's, they also played a big hand in ruining it.

G'n'R -- We've covered this one. Pretty much "what BSmack said." Broke the death-grip that Poison and other complete shit had on the genre at the time. Historically significant in that regard -- brought MTV's reign of terror over hard rock to an end.

Purple Rain was so well liked by people from all walks of musical taste, it's a good inclusion.

Metallica -- put speed metal on the map. There were certainly others before them, but they just weren't Metallica. And whenKill and Lightning came out, if you didn't have access to a college station or a ZROCK affiliate, you had never heard of Metallica... anyone remember the original "Mandatory Metallica" on ZROCK back in the day? Master and Justice were awesome, as well... before the sellout.

Rush -- while it's become popular to bash Rush, if you can't see the genius of Moving Pictures, you need a hearing test. So solid, start to finish. As a fan at the time, Signals was a huge disappointment... not bad, but disappointing, and I know I'm far from alone on this.

Queensryche -- Operation Mindcrime. Brought back the rock-opera/concept album. If you're the kind of person who can get wrapped up in the story line as well as the music, then this may be the best album ever made. Very hard-hitting politics for those disallusioned by the Reagan years. "There's one more candle left to light...." Queensryche was hair metal before there was hair metal, and they were awfully good at the artsy-fartsy stuff in their early days.

SRV -- Texas Flood, Couldn't Stand The Weather. Nuff said.

DLR -- Eat Em And Smile, Skyscraper. In an era where being King Shredder was the goal, Dave showed what money could buy, and took the over-the-top shredding to levels that pretty much made it impossible for anyone else to try and attack the mainstream with it. Face-peeling licks from start to finish on both albums, to gratuitous levels. The two best shredders doing nothing but showing off.

Crazy 8's -- Law And Order. Yeah, most of you guys have never heard it -- which is too bad. It's been rereleased several times. But the 8's took what the English Beat and the Specials were doing, and made it American. They told the record companies to fuck off, and started their own, to do things their way, which was ultimately their undoing. But their first release was a monster -- something much different, and they brought very high levels of musicianship to the dance clubs, which certainly wasn't the norm in those days. I'd still have to rank them as the best club band I've ever seen, and it's probably not a close contest. The first band to really ever have any sort of chart success under an independent label, so historically notable for that alone. They were enormously popular in the U&L and oither western states, but with no support from a major label, they remained a cult. They parlayed their western popularity into headlining Bumbershoot more than once. Their stage-presence was insane (still is, when they do a reunion). Geat album, from a great band... pity they never got more run.

Joe Satriani -- Surfing With The Alien. This album was huge. Without any real backing from the label, and essentially no PR, dude word-of-mouthed his way across the country, reenforced with a tireless slate of club shows. Word spread almost entirely through "dude, you gotta hear this album!" Satch made instrumental rock cool again -- no small feat in that era. Also showed that there was so much more to shredding than hammering out scales at lightspeed, and pretty much made the hair-shredders look foolish. Very influentail album in its day. I had the pleasure of seeing the Surfing tour, and it was amazing at the time.

Those are a few that come to mind quickly. Great idea for a thread that could grow serious legs, considering the age group that's most heavily represented here. I'll think of dozens more, I'm sure. With the widely varied tastes here, there should be some nice blasts-from-the-past mentions.

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:19 pm

The band Laid Back, which is an inspiration to MGMT.

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:22 pm

Here you go.

You’re welcome.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:30 pm

Goober McTuber wrote:Here you go.

About 90% of that list makes me want to shove icepicks through my eardrums.

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:35 pm

Screw_Michigan wrote:The band Laid Back, which is an inspiration to MGMT.

Never heard of this “Laid Back”. This is a sample of their lyrics:

Baker man is baking bread
Sagabona kunjani wena
Sagabona kunjani wena
The night train is coming
Got to keep on running
Got to keep on running
Baker man is baking bread
Baker man is making bread
Sagabona kunjani wena
Sagabona kunjani wena
The night train is coming
The night train is coming
Baker man is baking bread
Sagabona kunjani wena
Baker man is baking rbead
You've got to cool down
Take it easy
You've got to cool down
Relax, take it easy
Slow down (slow down) relax (relax)
It's too late to worry
Slow down (slow down)
take it easy
take it easy
take it easy

Inspirational.

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:09 pm

[quote="MGMT's cover of Laid Back's "Roger""]I've been out on a space trip
far behind the moon
close to the real stars
roger

roger roger can you hear me?
am I too far away?
send me back to station
roger

if you call me spaced out
you got it wrong
i've been looking for the real world
roger

roger roger can you hear me?
am I too far away?
send me back to station
roger

if you call me spaced out
you got it wrong
i been searching for the real world
roger

roger roger can you hear me?
am I too far away?
send me back to station
roger

i'll be honest with you baby
i miss you so
need someone to talk to
roger

roger roger can you hear me?
am i too far away?
send me back to station
roger

roger roger can you hear me?
am i too far away?
send me back to station
roger[/quote]

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:13 pm

At least that one appears to be in English. Mawkish, but English.

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:22 pm

They're a Swedish band. Dumbfuck.

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:32 pm

Screw_Michigan wrote:They're a Swedish band. Dumbfuck.

So that's Swedish? Looks a lot like English. Still sounds rather mawkish. You also have the complete works of ABBA?

smackaholic · Post by **smackaholic** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:25 am

BSmack wrote:Since we're talking about the 80s so much, how about representing for your favorite albums of that decade. This is in no particular order, just as they come to me.

1. Ozzy, "The Blizzard of Ozz"- It's an absolute pity that Randy Rhoads decided to get in that plane. Why couldn't it have been John Bon Jovi? Randy was just as talented as all the shredders who would follow him. But he knew how to play his arpeggios with soul.

2. Motley Crue, "Shout at the Devil"- This was the album that you bought in 1984 if you wanted to scare the living shit out your parents. And truth be told, there's not a clunker on it. It was the best major label debut since Van Halen and would remain so until my next selection.

3. Guns n' Roses, "Appetite for Destruction"- After 3 years of bands like Poison, Bon Jovi and Cinderella fucking things up, GnR's debut was a sonic sledgehammer to the face of hair metal. Sadly, eventually they realized there was even more money to be made dishing up the usual hair metal "power ballad" formulas (See Use Your Illusion 1&2). But for one brief shining moment, they were the baddest band on the planet.

4. Prince, "Purple Rain"- If you get laid while listening to a particular album more than 100 times, it's got to rate a place on a favorites list. Somebody wanna que 'Darling Nikki" while I get my groove on?

5. Bruce Springsteen, "Nebraska"- Bruce painted a musical picture of a morally and emotionally bankrupt America that still rings true to this day. His explanation for the Starkweather killings "I guess there's just a meanness in this world" sounds as haunting today as ever. Were there a merciful God, this album would have outsold "Born in the USA" 5 to 1.

6. Metallica, "Ride the Lightning"- This is the most important album in the history of speed/thrash metal. Period. Hearing "For Whom the Bell Tolls" for the first time was something akin to a religious experience.

7. U2, "War"- Best workout album of 1983. Probably the best U2 album ever. Not a bad song on the album from start to finish.

8. The Police, "Regatta De Blanc"- Seriously kids, there was a time when The Police did not suck and when Sting was not a complete pompous ass. And that time was 1980. My only complaint was that the title track should have been 10 minutes long.

9. Genesis, "Duke"- The last great Genesis album. "The Dutchess" is still one of my all time favorite Genesis songs.

10. Rush, "Moving Pictures"- Seriously guys, I used to love Rush. Yea sure "Tom Sawyer" and "Red Barchetta" have been played to death. But if you ask me, the reason it still gets run in my mp3 player is "The Camera Eye".

How the hell do you prop the crue, then bash hair metal in the next paragraph? I will give you that MC was the best of hair metal, but, it's still hair metal.

Don't really hear red barchetta on the radio much. Not near as much as tom sawyer or limelight. Not sure how tom sawyer seems to be the one song that gets so much run that even the non rush fans know it. Not their best work. Not even the best on that album, imo.

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:15 am

Dins, Queensryche is playing GR soon. If I still lived there, and considering their dearth of quality shows, I'd definitely go see them. Plus, they'll play Jet City Woman. Yeah, I know, radio single. But RACK it either way.

War Wagon · Post by **War Wagon** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:18 am

Screw_Michigan wrote: Alan Parsons - Eye in the Sky

There may be hope for you yet.

But just so's you know, it was the The Alan Parsons Project... along with an assist from Todd Rundgren.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:45 am

uh boy....i'm going to list 10. leaving off a bunch surely (no order)

1. minutemen: double nickles on the dime
2. rem: reckoning
3. tom waits: rain dogs
4. velvet underground: VU (came out in 85)
5. sonic youth: daydream nation
6. pixies: surfer rosa
7. meat puppets: mp II
8. husker du: flip your wig (probably supposed to say "Zen Arcade" though).
9. replacements: let it be
10. gang of four: entertainment!
11. XTC: Black Sea and/or Skylarking (another Rundgren joint).

hon mention: police: regatta de blanc; judas priest: screaming for vengence; iron maiden: powerslave; flaming lips: EP; defenestraion: EP; U2: war; Game Theory: Real Nighttime; Motley Crue: Shout at the Devil; translator: everywhere that i'm not.

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:04 am

and: hon mention: Billy Squier: Don't Say No.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial · Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:07 am

Don't really hear red barchetta on the radio much. Not near as much as tom sawyer or limelight. Not sure how tom sawyer seems to be the one song that gets so much run that even the non rush fans know it. Not their best work. Not even the best on that album, imo.

BShellacked is right. That honor goes to The Camera Eye with Limelight and Vital Signs following.

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:42 pm

smackaholic wrote:How the hell do you prop the crue, then bash hair metal in the next paragraph? I will give you that MC was the best of hair metal, but, it's still hair metal.

Hair metal had atrophied in the years since "Shout at the Devil" (1984) and Appetite (1987). Do you not remember?

Don't really hear red barchetta on the radio much. Not near as much as tom sawyer or limelight. Not sure how tom sawyer seems to be the one song that gets so much run that even the non rush fans know it. Not their best work. Not even the best on that album, imo.

It's length is radio friendly.

smackaholic · Post by **smackaholic** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:06 pm

red barchetta is short, by rush standards. that prolly does get it some run, but, I still don't hear it much. If I had to list most played Rush material it would be...

1. TS-by a lot
2. Limelight
3. Freewill
4. spirit of radio
5. working man

Sure I missed a few others, and numbers 2-5 are all pretty much interchangable. I think if you did a poll amongst the Rush faithful, TS doesn't crack the top 10. Maybe not the top 20.

buckeye_in_sc · Post by **buckeye_in_sc** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:22 pm

My albums

Ride The Lightning - Creeping Death, Call of the Kutulu...wow
Master Of Puppets - Disposable Heroes is one of my all time favorites
Among The Living - Anthrax brought the house down with this one
Shout At The Devil
Appetite
Peace Sells...But Who's Buying
So Far...So Good...So What

just a few

as far as Rush goes...I am a huge fan and I hate the song Limelight...my faves on Moving Pictures are Through The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt (Neil fucking pwns on this song live), and YYZ...

My favorite Rush songs (not all in the 80's obviously)

Natural Science
By Tor and The Snow Dog
Finding My Way
Red Sector A
The Trees
Xanadu
Cygnus X-1

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan · Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:44 pm

Slayer - Reign in Blood

Nothing else even comes close.

Shlomart Ben Yisrael · Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:03 pm

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan wrote:Slayer - Reign in Blood

Nothing else even comes close.

Buddy, I got shit upon for linking to a YouTube of "Chemical Warfare".

You're on your own with these gender-benders in the Music Forum. Sorry.

buckeye_in_sc · Post by **buckeye_in_sc** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:31 pm

I never got into Slayer...but maybe now I should give them a listen...

Mike any songs you can recommend?

There is quite a dearth of metalheads in this forum but oh well...

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:39 pm

buckeye_in_sc wrote:I never got into Slayer...but maybe now I should give them a listen...

Mike any songs you can recommend?

There is quite a dearth of metalheads in this forum but oh well...

Are you serious? Dude, you need to step up your game. Get away from that silly fucking Slipknot shit. God Hates Us All is a good album, too.

RumpleForeskin · Post by **RumpleForeskin** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:56 pm

Purple Rain is in a league of it's own.

Appetite is probably my second favorite album of teh 80s with Shout at the Devil just behind it.

As for the other seven -

Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses
Billy Joel - Glass Houses
AC/DC - Back in Black
Metallica - ...And Justice for All
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Rush - Moving Pictures
David Bowie - Let's Dance

buckeye_in_sc · Post by **buckeye_in_sc** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:22 am

Screw - heard a lot about em...just never go into them back then...I was more into Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Hair Metal...

I mean I got no problem checking them out...just want some stuff to start with...that is all...

trying to step up my game...but I am particular about some of the music I have grown to like...trust me when I first heard Korn I was like...wow...this is the fucking shit...but now when you got bands like Lamb Of God, Killswitch, etc...well I evolved...sort of...

give some stuff to check out screw...i trust your opinion

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan · Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:26 am

buckeye,
Don't worry about songs. Just buy Reign in Blood. It demands to be listened to in its sub-30 minute entirety. Any self-respecting heavy metal fan needs that album in their collection. At the time, it was the loudest, fastest, heaviest album anyone had ever heard. I was into all the stuff you mentioned back in '86, but then Slayer just came out and raised the bar. It's hard to even describe how different it was. Metallica and Megadeth all of a sudden seemed tame in comparison.

Honestly, I didn't even like it at first. It was almost too much to digest. But I was 13, with an afternoon paper route and a Walkman, and I listened to Reign in Blood over and over until it clicked. The cassette version was great, because it had the whole album on both sides, so you could just listen to it, flip the tape, and start over again. It's by far my all-time favorite album and the one I've listened to the most by a good margin. It's burned into my brain.

Just get it and remember the "Rome rule" - give it two weeks. If you still don't get it after listening to it for two weeks, give it two more weeks...

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:55 pm

What Mike said. I'm not a metal head. I used to enjoy old school Metallica and shit about 10 years ago, that was as far as my pallate progressed. But I had a roommate in college who was a huge Slayer fan and we used to listen to that shit all the time. Reign in Blood, God Hates Us All and Seasons in the Abyss are three albums I specifically remember. Go from there and listen to Mike.

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:46 pm

buckeye_in_sc wrote: give some stuff to check out screw...i trust your opinion

Enjoy your MGMT collection.

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:50 pm

One day I hope you blow your colon out while shoveling out from under the cubic yards of snow you get every season, you shit-eating dumbfuck.

I hope you get swatted someday and the officer mistakes the crank in your hand as a gun and blows your fucking head off.

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:58 pm

Screw_Michigan wrote:One day I hope you blow your colon out while shoveling out from under the cubic yards of snow you get every season

I have a two-stage snow thrower. I enjoy getting that bad boy out. Hopefully you’ll trip over your jizz-mop and face-fuck the large black dildo display. No wait, you’d enjoy that.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:59 pm

King Crimson wrote:iron maiden: powerslave

Powerslave over Number or Piece?

You're trolling, right?

I probably should have thrown Piece Of Mind on my list, if for no other reason than having the greatest air-guitar song ever recorded on it (The Trooper, which also gets double-RACKs for getting all crazy and just resetting the Charge Of The Light Brigade for its lyrics, because 19th century poetry is always fresh in metal).

Yer a Fuckin Jerkoff · Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:23 am

UB40 Labour of Love
Springsteen Nebraska
George Harrison Cloud Nine
Connells Boylan Heights
Eddie Money Can't Hold Back
Planet P Project self-titled
Tom Petty Full Moon Fever
Richard Marx Repeat Offender

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:26 pm

Dinsdale wrote:
King Crimson wrote:iron maiden: powerslave

Powerslave over Number or Piece?

number and piece are better, but I used to rock PS, shout at the devil, british steel and screaming for vengeance at my first job with my panasonic walkman knock off... driving the practice range tractor at a golf course (it was a loud fucking machine). and i had cassettes of those....vinyl for number and piece. sentimental pick. topic was "fave" albums.

Shlomart Ben Yisrael · Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:14 pm

The Meatmen - We're The Meatmen...And You Suck
Adrenalin O.D. - The Wacky Hi-Jinx Of...
Black Flag - Slip It In
Jane's Addiction - Nothings Shocking
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Love And Rockets - Express

MuchoBulls · Post by **MuchoBulls** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:46 pm

BSmack wrote:10. Rush, "Moving Pictures"- Seriously guys, I used to love Rush. Yea sure "Tom Sawyer" and "Red Barchetta" have been played to death. But if you ask me, the reason it still gets run in my mp3 player is "The Camera Eye"

RACK the reference to The Camera Eye. Excellent song.

AC/DC - Back In Black
ZZ Top - Eliminator
Van Halen - Fair Warning
Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

battery chucka' one · Post by **battery chucka' one** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:24 am

Let's see....here's my list, in no particular order:

Faster Pussycat-s/t
Vain-No Respect
Blue Tears-s/t
Pretty Boy Floyd-Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz
Slade=Take Your Hands Off My Power Supply
Cinderella-Night Songs
Poison-Look What the Cat Dragged In
Motley Crue-Too Fast For Love (as a fan, I'll say that Shout was slightly overrated. 11 cuts. One cover + 2 'fillers'=8 originals, of which, maybe 5 were standouts. God Bless the Children of the Beast was sooooo much better when paired with the deleted cut 'Black Widow'. On its own, it's rather pointless. TFFL smoked Shout in every conceivable way. But, the MTV philes enjoyed it, I guess.)
Gun-Taking On the World
Tracy Chapman-s/t (just good)
Shotgun Messiah-s/t
Tesla-Great Radio Controversy
Lizzy Borden-Menace to Society

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:31 pm

Did you just seriously mention Cinderella? Oh yeah, this BCO we're talking about here.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:52 am

Screw_Michigan wrote:Did you just seriously mention Cinderella? Oh yeah, this BCO we're talking about here.

Poison?

Cinderella?

Well, I'm sure that right about now, S_M is thanking BCO for getting him off the hook for the MGMT "indescretion."

battery chucka' one · Post by **battery chucka' one** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:24 am

Screw_Michigan wrote:Did you just seriously mention Cinderella? Oh yeah, this is BCO we're talking about here.

FTFY