980. Iggy Pop, Party (1981) Arista Records executives held onto some bizarre ideas about which performers were likely to stride purposefully into sudden crossover commercial success. As I noted a couple weeks ago, the label badgered Lou Reed through the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #980 to #977
Although I was present and aware during the time when the Go-Go’s dominated radio, MTV, and good chunk of pop culture as a full-on sensation, I don’t recall if there was any particular pressure to identify a favorite band member. … Continue reading One for Friday — Jane Wiedlin, “Rush Hour”
984. UB40, 1980-1983 (1983) The early nineteen-eighties was a good time to be dishing out gentle, reggae-influenced pop in the U.K. The band UB40 started germinating around 1978, when Ali Campbell took the compensatory award he received after enduring a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #984 to #981
As we come upon the time when exhaustive discussion of the Winter Olympics swamps out all other topics for a couple of weeks (with the sartorial and broadcasting stylings of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir the only aspect of the … Continue reading One for Friday — Meryn Cadell, “The Sweater”
988. Jefferson Starship, Modern Times (1981) It’s easy — and given the inferior quality of the latter iteration — to view Jefferson Starship as the inconsequential afterthought of Jefferson Airplane, but that group lasted longer and released more albums, even … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #988 – #985
I have been writing weekly College Countdown posts for many years by now. Depending on the chart — and of course the position on said chart — my commitment to listening to can deliver some rough material into my ears. … Continue reading One for Friday — The Dictators, “Next Big Thing”
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Before there was a single note of … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “That Thing You Do”
992. T Bone Burnett, Proof Through the Night (1983) In the early nineteen-eighties, T Bone Burnett was a musician of high regard who hadn’t yet broken through. A few years earlier, Burnett earned his keep as a guitar-slinger on Bob … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #992 – #989
When I arrived at the college radio station where I grew up, I discovered a strange, wonderful, boldly enlivening world. That’s hardly a new observation for me to tap out in this space, but I truly can’t repeat it enough. … Continue reading One for Friday — The Fall, “Big New Prinz”
996. Boz Scaggs, Middle Man (1980) “Say, what do you think/ Of gentlemen wearing mink?,” Boz Scaggs croons on “Jojo,” the lead track on and first single from Middle Man. That’s suitably emblematic of the affected prestige and classiness of … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #996 – #993
Coffee for Two 