Good Morning Stackers!
It's December and we're diving into "Decades" starting with the 80s!
So "step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey!"
The 80s were iconic, glam everything, glam in pop, glam rock, nothing needed less always more. Hair? Bigger! Clothes? Tighter! (Looking at you Bowie) Make-up? More of it! Heels? Just yes, taller, sparkler, glitzyer... Just more.
So who better to kick off our 80s dive into "Decades in December" than the Queen of Pop, HRH Madonna!
So stackers in the immortal words of Pat Benetar "Hit me with your best shot!"
We might be arguing on symantics here but you mentioned 'Glam Rock', this was an early 70s thing than it was in the 80s. Glam rock was, for me glitter on faces, and the clothes and makeup you mentioned. Think men in platforms - Elton or Ziggy - Bowie 'retired' Ziggy as a stage persona in 1973.
I'm thinking a more fitting category would be the New Romantics of the 80s that were influenced by the era of Glam Rock twenty years earlier.
You mentioned the Big Hair and Big Shoulders trend in the 80s - you're spot on there. However, you've gotta remember this was the time of Indie labels and Indie Bands too - who would want to keep their integrity and not sell-out and change who they were but lose themselves.
Some bands really thrived in the New Romantics scene - my go to to epitomize this would be Duran Duran
I should know, a friend of mine used to design their gear.
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You're right about Elton and Bowie and glam rock like kiss being more 70s than 80s but for me, when I think glam, I think glam rock, I think of motley crue, skid row twisted sister, Def leppard, white snake, aerosmith those kind of guys. But in my defence, I wasn't there sadly :( and as you mentioned they were heavily influenced by the acts that pioneered it 10-20 years prior. I may also be out by miles on where I picture those bands in what era 🤣 but ah well, I'll make sure to not get it wrong next week 😉
You had a friend design gear for Duran Duran! How cool! You got any fun stories from them, back stage craziness? General messing about and enjoying themselves stories?
Duran Duran 1982 Rio, I remember my mum playing this album to me on repeat, always liked it, hearing it brings back memories for me of being a kid dancing in the kitchen with me mum. So thanks for that little memory jog.
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I wasn't that interested in Mainstream bands - if they'd have designed for Bowie, that would've been another matter... I'd have wrung every last story out of them. I believe that I was surprised to hear that they were likeable and down-to-earth. I think I was slightly disappointed to hear this - which puts me and my indie-band liking head in a bad light and not them.
I did get a bit more respect for the band, in maturity. Especially in respect of their longevity - this happened when I was in Italy on vacation in the Noughties. Another friend of mine who was living there tried to convince my skeptical side that Duran Duran were still huge in the country as I hadn't heard about them in ages. However, I had to believe him when he stopped to ask an Italian tween on the street ahead of us if he liked the band.
I didn't need to know Italian to see just how pumped he was for them.
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Haha I know the feeling of musical maturity, when I was a kid if it wasn't metal it wasn't music. Anything lighter than Iron Maiden was soft and not real music. But nowadays I'll bang on opera, metal, pop, classical, indie, you name it I'll listen and appreciate the artists talent, even if I don't understand the music so much.
I'm glad to hear Duran Duran weren't douchebags from what you heard. It always seems to be better when bands are just real and not to-good-for-mere-peasants.
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I guess us muddy peasants in the pit don't have the honesty of Rock Royalty. I've frequently caught ourselves discriminating with our ego in earlier years - like you, that thankfully isn't the case any more and embraced it all.
I remember shortly after the death of Hawkwind and Motörhead icon Lemmy, I was amazed to hear that he put the musical genius of Abba.
Maybe he lived by his lyric, "it's all the same to me".
It's doubtful that he was inspired by Abba's, The Winner Takes It All - but who knows... ¯_ (ツ) _/¯
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Lemmy did seem like that dude didn't he someone l, who just appreciated it all.
At least in our older age we've been able to appreciate it, I still hear of many metalheads in forums and YouTube comments degrading one subgenre of metal saying that's not real metal or even real music. It's like, cmon guys listen to the artists, listen to the talent behind the sound, then suddenly you start to appreciate it all a whole lot more don't you.
In the immortal words of Henke Port - good music is good music.
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Sheesh, that's pretty dire. Harsh words and tribalism are a social media staple though.
Glad we're not into to that kind of mindset anymore...
As an aside, although I didn't see Lemmy perform.
I did once go to a very Hawkwindesque gig with the late Nik Turner and band and Hawkwind's dancer Stacia (body painted of course). They performed after a screening of Michael Moorcock's film adaptation of The Final Programme.
I see Lemmy described Stacia as 6 ft 2 inches (188 cm) tall with a 52 inch (132 cm) bust and a bookbinder by trade.
I can verify that what Lemmy said was correct - all I could think that night was, 'Boy, I bet she could bind some books'.
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I was fortunate to catch motorhead at download and they were excellent. Didn't disappoint at all.
🤘🤘
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🤘
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I wondered how long it'd be before we got Metallica. Ride the lightning was a massive album. Still one of my go tos when I can't think of anything to listen to.
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Incredible when I want to listen to metal, I also don't come to mind another thing.
Eventhough I didn't experience this decade. My dad definitely did! He is a massive KISS fan, so ofcourse I grew up with some glamrock in my early years! This year was also the 50th anniversary of KISS! Yes I do know their 80's songs are trash and the 70's period was way better, but whenever I hear glam, it immediately makes me think of them. Replace 'girl' with bitcoin in this song :D
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They played in Prague during BTC Prague, saw them live.
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Really! Wow! Always loved Prague as a city, been fortunate enough to visit multiple times over the years.
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I saw kiss live at download years ago and they were excellent.
On the topic of "I was made for lovin you" there's a wicked cover done by halocene with sershen&zaritskaya (who I believe now go by the name NO APOLOGY) awesome cover.
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Saw them live at Graspop in 2019 with my dad, I believe. They can definitely still put up a great show! Although unlucky for Paul Stanley, the voice of singers is always what suffers the most, let's say the high notes weren't really getting hit that night haha :D
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Shame isn't it. But they were still amazing live.
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80s eh? I guess I'll just drop this here then...
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Hahahaha!!!! Very good. It did have to be done 🤣🤣🤣
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There's a lot of things I want to forget about the 80s but this is one of my best memories.
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Ahhh back when axl was good. How good an album was appetite for destruction? Brilliant album.
It's a shame he's lost some of his vocal ability he had such an amazing range and was just as good with the softly softly as he was with the bang vocals.
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100%. And Slash was killing it. Can't listen to the Gunners after Use your Illusions but they were geniuses back then.
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Slash still kills it with Myles Kennedy and the conspirators. That's a hell of a combo
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Ok, I will share another one. Because IM is international, but 1980s was behind Iron Curtain where I live, let's put on some local rock from that era (that TV recording is from 1988, but it was banned and only allowed to be shown later, after breakup of Soviet Union).
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There's a surprising amount of NWOBHM elements in there. Like old school original Iron Maiden styles. I enjoyed that thanks kristapsk.
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Damn. You get me. My formative musical years were more the 90s but I still love 80s music.
Here is a quintessential 80s tune for you.
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Don't you panic GR, your time in the sun will come. The 90s are coming, it is "Decades in December" after all. But we might jump to the left, step to the right, place hands on hips, and bring knees in tight, pelvic thrust until we're driven insane. Back to the 50s or even forward into the 2Ks first, we'll have to see.
Nice track aswell, I'd never heard of the psychedelic furs before. Got quite a Bowie sound, that British accent sounds so strong and funny, very London sounding. That whole era does have a particular sound, everything sounds very electric, the drums, the guitars, the keys all very electronic. I'm quite surprised I'd never come across them before cheers for the recommendation.
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50's and 60's are right up my alley too. You guys merely adopted the oldies, I was born into them. The oldies station was the staple in the car when I was growing up.
Don't sing it. Bring it.
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Then you are gunna have a wicked December 🤣🤣
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Can't wait.
This month we finally discover who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong.
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The clairvoyant is an interesting choice!!! I'd half expected iron maiden or killers or run to the hills or number of the beast but the clairvoyant I was not expecting. This is a pleasure to hear again and a gem of a recommendation. I'm a huge maiden fan and am very happy to hear the clairvoyant again, it's such an underrated track and not one they play live often.
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Gotta go with a Yugoslavian hit here, very indecised wich one to pick
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1984! That's got that big 80s sound, you know the one, terminator intro electronic style. Could easily be Depeche Mode on this track and you'd hardly know the difference, except for a different language.
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Banger of a track. But it was 1993. Couple of years out but I don't mind, it's always good to hear a track I've not heard for a long while.
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