Six-Pack Summer Suggestions – Part-3 chosen by our friend and music collaborator Claude Lemaire. “For this third installment, I selected six songs from the early 1980s featured in their 12-inch format. The first three representing well the final peak of popularity of new wave before the genre rapidly declined and just about disappeared from the map while the last three represent more the last legs of electrofied disco prior to house and techno taking over the major club and dance scene.”
1- Robert Palmer – “Johnny and Mary”/”What’s It Take”+”Remember to Remember”. Island Records – 12WIP 6638 (UK) (1980, Aug.), 12″, 45 rpm. Genre: synth pop, new wave.
After experiencing great success with the harder-sounding top charter “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)” in July 1979, singer Robert Palmer smoothed the rough edges the following year, switching styles to the emerging trend transitioning from new wave to synth pop–epitomized by bands such as The Cars, Soft Cell, and Depeche Mode. With its strong melodic structure and sensibility modulating over a simple fast-tempo repetitive synth run, I always had a soft spot for this particular track, preferring it to a large degree to his other hit single–”Looking for Clues”–taken from the same album, 1980s Clues. Side B features two tracks taken from the previous 1979 album Secrets, which are quite good but differ in style than side A, with a mild reggae flavor thrown in. The sound is slightly compressed but never fatiguing with a generous full-sounding bass, fine synth sweeps, crisp drums, clear guitar, and clean close up vocals. Engineer Alan Sadkin mixed the album so I am assuming–without certainty–that this is also the case here. The original UK twelve-inch single was lacquer cut by Graeme Durham at The Sound Clinic in Chiswick, London, England, and pressed by EMI Records.
2- Talking Heads
“Crosseyed and Painless”. Sire – PRO-A-903 (1980, Sept.), 12″, 45 rpm, promo. Genre: new wave, avant-funk, afrobeat, worlbeat, dance-rock, art pop, experimental influences.
This is easily my favorite Talking Heads track, fusing several disparate musical genres into quite an original catchy crafted pop song. The New York quartet signed to Sire with their 1977 self-titled debut, and is generally considered among the first new wave acts, alongside Blondie, and Television–all of which are not truly representive of the later mainstream new wave genre spearheaded by The B-52’s, The Cars, and Lene Lovich. The highly-syncopated rhythmic structure of the composition gives it a nervous hiccup-feel, setting it apart from the vast majority of pop songs. Add to that plenty of percussive elements, performance-loops, providing a rich mosaic of sounds, participating in the drive density, and addictive staccato groove. Typical of David Byrne, the verses veer more towards stated observations rather than conventional singing, while in counterpoint the choruses are richly melodic, smooth, and harmonious. From their forthcoming fourth LP Remain in Light [Sire SRK 6095], it is produced and co-written by iconoclast Brian Eno, and gives us an avant-goût of his collaboration with Byrne on their grounbreaking 1981 LP–My Life in the Bush of Ghosts [Sire SRK 6093] pioneering rhythmic loops and early sample work. Engineers Dave Jerden, John Potoker, Rhett Davies, Jack Nuber, Steven Stanley, and Kendall Stubbs are credited for the album so I assume they apply here also. I don’t have this promo twelve-inch single cut at Sterling Sound in New York but given the higher speed format and short track duration it should surpass the sound of my original LP which is already good and well balanced, but slightly compressed and lacking a bit of top end air.
3- Talking Heads
“Once in a Lifetime”. Sire – PRO-A-930 (1980, Oct.), 12″, 45 rpm, promo. Genre: new wave, avant-funk, afrobeat, worlbeat, dance-rock, art pop, experimental influences.
The second single emanating from Remain in Light. There are some similarities with the first single selected above regarding the complex rhythmic groove and Byrne’s strange vocal dry delivery during the verses–the choruses being more melodic. As in the former case, this one also combines multiple musical ingredients, probably producing in the end an even more original song. It would remain their most memorable track, putting aside their highest North Amercian charting single–1983’s “Burning Down the House” [Sire PRO-A-2057]. Like the previous selection, I don’t have this promo twelve-inch single cut at Sterling Sound in New York and pressed at Allied Record Company in Los Angeles, CA, but given the higher speed format and short track duration it should surpass the sound of my original LP which is already good and well balanced, but slightly compressed and lacking a bit of top end air.
4- Yvonne Elliman
“Love Pains”. Moby Dick Records – MDR-1201 Gold Standard series (1982), 12″, 45 rpm. Genre: disco, electro disco.
Better known for her Bee Gees-penned megahit single “If I Can’t Have You” from Saturday Night Fever’s soundtrack in late-1977, Hawaiian-born singer Yvonne Elliman had a second but minor hit single two years later with the Steve Barri-produced “Love Pains”. Fast forgotten, it took Moby Dick Records to release their re-edit version in 1982 done by Rob “Scissors” Kimbel to rekindle the flame. As mentioned this is not a remix of the original 1979 promo 12-inch single [RSO RPO 1019]–which was a “Special Dance Music Version” different from the one on her final LP Yvonne–but rather a re-edit meaning cutting, swapping, and looping certain key parts of the song such as a much longer and exciting intro and middle break with multiple drum punches. The sound is warm and very well balanced in tone with nice kick bass modulation permitting higher volume levels without ear-fatigue.
5- Claudja Barry
6- Berlin
To explore in further detail visit: Claude Lemaire/soundevaluations