The 1985 Listening Post - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freaky Styley

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freaky Styley

#298/933

August 16 1985

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Freaky Styley

Genre: Funk Rock

2 out of 5

Remember that story about the New Video manager who had seen RHCP and come to the store the next day in ecstasy and awe? 

I think it was this album that they were touring.

If they didn’t play naked with just socks on would anyone have given a shit about them after these first two records? I don’t know. It’s ugly and not fun. I sat through “Brothers Cup” (an interpolation of “We’ve Got the Funk”) so you didn’t have to. 

But here’s the question I have now: 

U2, while putting out their first album in 1980, were rehearsing and playing in the late 70s. Is there ANY other band that came out of the 80s that is still around today? I mean, they just put out a record a couple years ago. Who else has that track record? One that suggests relevance, that could headline Coachella tomorrow and sell out? Anyone?

I ask this because I think of RHCP as a 90s breakthru band but they were putting out rekkids in the mid-80s. I think they are the only one.

Says something, I think

https://music.apple.com/us/album/freaky-styley/1440873689

The 1985 Listening Post - Diorites - Sacred Heart

Dio - Sacred Heart

#297/932

August 15 1985

Dio

Sacred Heart

Genre: Heavy Metal

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

King of Rock and Roll

Rock ’N’ Roll Children

I really hated this during the epic Purple Sabbath retrospective. So, this is my second time with the one and…it’s not as terrible. 

I mean, yes…we have the tired medieval tropes but, Did and his ex-Rainbow/Sabbath/soon-to-be-Leppard backing guys know what they are doing. 

If this is the stuff you like, you will like this stuff. It fits in nicely in that Bat Out of Hell III house. Which is not a great compliment but really, the best I can do. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/sacred-heart-remastered/1134781314

The 1985 Listening Post - Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit - The Rose of England

Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit - The Rose of England

#296/931                                  LISTENING POST ADMIN DISCOVERY

August 14 1985

Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit 

The Rose of England

Genre: Power Pop/Rock

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

She Don’t Love Nobody

7 Nights to Rock

I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)

Indoor Fireworks

(Hope to God) I’m Right

This is nucking futz. 

I’ve never heard this album and yet!!! “I Knew the Bride” is one of my top 10 favorite songs of all time. Seriously. Although, like “From Small Things, Big Things One Day Come”, I think Dave Edmunds version is slightly better than the writer’s. I’m not kidding. Those are two songs I wish my band had covered. I can listen to them any time of day. I’m always happy when they come up and I will stop doing whatever I am doing to listen, air guitar, sing at the top of my lungs. And!!! I always get the lyrics wrong. On both songs!! Because remembering lyrics was never my forte. There’s a story about me, The Andersons and a failed attempt at “Life During Wartime” during a Wheat from Chaff festival. 

I think I even forgot the lyrics to “Madeline” when I sang that song with The Piper Downs one night at Molly Malone’s (This is probably the reason I was never asked to sing with them again…)

Side Note: Huey Lewis and the News are the backing band on “I Knew the Bride” here. Yes, that’s Huey on the Harmonica at the break. It’s slower than the Edmunds version, almost as if Nick was saying, “This is how it was supposed to sound, Dave!” and yet, they are both perfect. Just the faster one is preferable. 

Lowe is so great here, it’s impossible to find fault when he’s on point. And the band…listen to Carrack lick the keys on “7 Nights to Rock”. I’m air piano-ing and I’ve never heard the song before. Yes, I know it’s a cover. There’s a few here. Still great. 

This album is a dance hall tossback. It’s a love letter to the “Rock and Roll” of wing tips and poodle skirts, of Mary Janes and slicked back, jet black hair. But it’s never nostalgic. It’s infused with its inspiration. That makes it brilliant. 

Excuse me while I flip it over and start again.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-rose-of-england/1220591390

The 1985 Listening Post - Artillery - Fear of Tomorrow

Artillery - Fear of Tomorrow

#295/930

August 9 1985

Artillery

Fear of Tomorrow

Genre: Thrash Metal

1.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Show Your Hate

This Danish band was obviously influenced by Metallica…or maybe Venom. And every other thrash metal band of the era. They’ve take all the good ideas and put them into their own taffy machine and come up with a decidedly lesser product. One that shifts from idea to idea within choruses and verses. It’s more like a metal soundtrack of incongruity playing against a movie of jump cuts and just trying to keep time. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fear-of-tomorrow/1280967191

The 1985 Listening Post - Neil Young - Old Ways

Neil Young - Old Ways

#294/929

August 12 1985

Neil Young

Old Ways

Genre: Country

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

The Wayward Wind

Get Back to the Country

Um…Allen…this is…psst…this is country. You said we weren’t doing country. 

Well, Allen, that’s true. I did say that. I am also a creature of whimsy. And I would tell you that, if we were doing The Listening Post 2019 we would absolutely cover Springsteen’s Western Stars. And if this was The Listening Post 1981 we would most definitely be listening to Elvis Costello’s Trust. And, heck, we give The Knitters a listen. 

Look, “rock music” was going through one helluvan identity crisis in 1985. Everyone wa doing something different, be it use synths instead of guitars, doubling down on alternative sounds, or playing in different idioms. And this is Neil Young. You sorta have to cover it, no?

Neil is lamenting the loss of something. It feels like he’s longing for an ideal that America was built on but he knows (and you and I know) that it probably wasn’t real. It was a fiction. Which is what makes this album even more honest to me. Because I enjoy incongruity. And I enjoyed this. Because when he is earnest it makes me wonder if that means that he was being earnest on the songs where he sounds ironic and snarkily sarcastic. And that works in reverse. His snark makes me wonder if the heartfelt honesty of, say, “Once an Angel” or “My Boy” is actually sarcasm.

Young is a victim of his own intelligence. 

And his voice works here. 

This album is a nice curve off the rock and roll highway. I’m here for it. Thanks, Neil. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/old-ways/1443623555

The 1985 Listening Post - The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash

The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash

#293/928

August 5 1985

The Pogues

Rum, Sodomy & the Lash

Genre: Celtic Rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Wild Cats of Kilkenny

I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day

Dirty Old Town

The Gentleman Soldier

Is this “rock”? At this point in the project, deep in the middle of 1985, which is the heart of the 80s (the actual 80s, not the Richard Blade 80s of 1980-1984) how do you define “rock” anymore? Perhaps we can’t. We all know that the African beats that were absorbed into New Wave by Adam and the Ants and Malcolm McLaren were a tool 5 years before but in one year they will be the spine for the lovely and accessible to the masses Graceland by Paul Simon.

Is Celtic Music “rock”? 

Not really. And yet, yes, 100%. 

I admit that I don’t know The Pogues music. I wasn’t listening to this in 85 and not later as other sounds grabbed me. But, I did get to know their offspring like Dropkick Murphys (who I didn’t gravitate to) and Flogging Molly, whose “Drunken Lullabies” is one of my all-time favorite songs ever. (That album is pretty terrific as well). And even Bruce Springsteen would try to grab a little Pogue-ism in his “American Land”, another song I do adore. 

A couple tracks in and I am transported to the only place I know that sounds like this: The seaside shanty town of St. John’s Canada. Where I was screeched in, kissed the cod and discovered my love for Black Labrador Retrievers. 

It’s cold and dank and you really can’t understand a word anyone says, “Ey, bye?” And if you sit, for one minute, and you don’t have a drink in your hand, get one, cuz you need to be drunk by the end of the day. Not because it’s the only way to get through life there, but because everyone else is and you’ll feel left out. 

This record is the sound of drink. Not the sound of being drunk. Although it’s obvious that Shane McGowan is rarely sober. It’s also filled with great songs…that are covers of Irish standards or almost standards. And that’s the issue I have. I generally take points off for covers (although I understand that pop singers are basically Karaoke singers of other songwriter’s tunes. I’m a biased asshole. I know). But those songs are the best ones here. “The Gentleman Soldier”? “Dirty Old Town”? “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day”? “Jesse James”? But they are SO good I can’t fault the band for recording them. 

So, the rating is what it is and you can tell me how much I suck now. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/rum-sodomy-the-lash-expanded-version/189236068

The 1985 Listening Post - Sex Gang Children - Blind

Sex Gang Children - Blind

#288/922

July 1985

Sex Gang Children

Blind

Genre: New Wave

4 out of 5

Highlights:

I’ve Done It All Before

Strike Blind!

From the opener “Dead Metal” all the way through “Strike Blind!” this sounds like a Goth companion piece to Adam and the Ants’ Dirk Wears White Sox. I say that with affection. This album is steeped in late 70s New Wave art punk. Boy, does this make it weirdly anachronistic. And there’s no judgment for that, I just wonder who would be around to be interested in this. 

And maybe that’s why it’s so hard to find any information on the 85 vinyl release. Everything I find is about the 1992 CD reissue. Some of it is angular and lovely (The Lennonesque “I’ve Done Is All Before”) and some of it is garabgey nonsense (“The Quick Gas Gang”)

The PiL meets Ants vitriolic theatricality makes the entire thing feel much longer than it really is. 

It’s very possible that the reason this album has disappeared can be found in the lyrics for “Strike Blind”, the link to which I’ve included at the bottom. I can’t tell if it’s racist or a commentary on racism but the very first 3 words struck me hard as religion in music seems to be at a fever pitch in the 80s. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/1owsFAKnzJ74qmZZXsnPWW?si=ElnY23d1S4WWXYuKFnZBLw

https://www.elyrics.net/read/s/sex-gang-children-lyrics/strike-blind-lyrics.html

The 1985 Listening Post - The Honeymoon Killers - Love American Style

The Honeymoon Killers - Love American Style

#292/927

1985 Housekeeping

The Honeymoon Killers

Love American Style

Genre: Noise Rock

2.75 out of 5

Everytime I think of The Honeymoon Killers I get them confused with Honeymoon Suite and I am always disappointed to be subject to the wails and screams and sirens and pounding rhythms. 

I mean, I kind of wanna like it, but it never gets anywhere. They are like a long drive on a dark night on an unlit highway that ends up at a 7-11. You want it to be a David Lynch movie. But it’s not. 

There is a cover of the Batman theme and, man, I’m just so tired of this band that I forgot what I was writing about…dammit…oh, yeah…others have done this song much much better. Listen to them. The Honeymoon Killers are annoying. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5qh7dwykuA

The 1985 Listening Post - Flash and the Pan - Early Morning Wake Up Call

Flash and the Pan - Early Morning Wake Up Call

#291/926                                    LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

July 15 1985

Flash and the Pan

Early Morning Wake Up Call

Genre: New Wave

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Early Morning Wake Up Call

Midnight Man

Look at That Woman Go

Is it just me? can you hear Robert Palmer’s “Lookin’ for Clues” lurking inspirationally in the title track? Or maybe it’s something else. But it all sounds so very 1980 New Wave.

But also not dated. You know what sucks about this record??

Nothing. Well, except for the fact that it’s only on YouTube. I would add most of this to my Apple Music library and be happy when any songs come up. 

It’s funky and it rocks. It reminds me a bit of Doug and the Slugs but with more rock and less swing. There’s a cheekiness that also calls to mind The Tubes’ pre-Inside Out work. 

This album is terrific. I don’t even mind the programmed drums cuz I really like every single song. 

Makes me wish I’d heard of Flash and the Pan before. Score another one for Oz!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBJ7ztNazTVCco0nrJwbssctwonhzxRKI

The 1985 Listening Post - Chaz Jankel - Looking at You

Chaz Jankel - Looking at You

#291/925

1985 Housekeeping

Chaz Jankel

Looking at You

Genre: Rock

3.75 out of 5

I was at a director friend’s office one day. It was 1988. I was a young actor who was bored, lonely and often very hungry. He let me go and hang out and eat their snacks. I ate a lot of his snacks. I’m pretty sure I wore out my welcome. But he never said anything and he cast me in about 9 commercials over 3 years. He made some of his editors cut my demo reel for free. Introduced me to a few interesting people as well. Like Joe Pytka, who was there one day because my friend cut all of Joe’s commericals. Joe was not impressed. Never hired me. 

There was also a day when I was hanging out and this directing team was in talking about their ideas for their version of a cinematic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I was starstruck. Couldn’t speak. I know I auditioned for them at some point but I can’t recall if they cast me or not. It was a long time ago. But I think it was a Bud Lite commercial. Tiny Lister was in it. Phil Lamarr, too. 

Anyway. They didn’t go on to direct that movie. But they did a lot of other stuff. One of the directors was Annabel Jankel. She’s a legend. A legend, albeit, that also directed the Super Mario Brothers movie. 

Speaking of brothers, Chaz is hers. 

And he was a Blockhead with Ian Dury.

And this is an album he made. 

It’s fine. Lots of percussive rhythms. Sounds like generic jazz rock to me. Generic Jazz Rock as made by a big latter day Genesis fan. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbgHb3PaAI0