Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The 80s Most Essential Albums [Episode 277]

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The 80s Most Essential Albums [Episode 277] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Coming up on Booked on Rock, going back to the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: decade of the Walkman, the boombox, MTV. That's right, the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: essential rock albums of the nineteen eighties. That's next.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We're totally rock and roll. I mean, I'll leave you
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: you're reading little hands this, It's time to rock and roll.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Roll up, I totally booked. Hey guys, welcome back to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: booke Don Rock and Eric Senich. Author Gary Graf is
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: back on the podcast this time is here to talk
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: about his brand new book, five hundred and one Essential
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  Speaker 1: Albums of the Eighties. Gary, Welcome back to the podcast.
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  Speaker 2: Always a pleasure, one of my favorites.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, thanks Bock, thanks so much. So much happened in
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: music during the eighties, MTV, Walkman, boomboxes. You say it
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  Speaker 1: could be the most impactful decade in music history. From
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a music journalist perspective, What do you remember most about
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  Speaker 1: that decade.
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  Speaker 2: I just remember the totality of music, how it was
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: integrated into every fiber of the culture. You know, you
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: had music with your TV, you know, starting with MTV,
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  Speaker 2: but that filtered into the rest of TV. You had
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: music with your movies, you had music twenty four to seven.
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  Speaker 2: Here you mentioned Walkman. I remember seeing my first Walkman
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the summer in nineteen seventy nine when I was interning
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  Speaker 2: for a concert promoter in Pittsburgh, and they played us
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  Speaker 2: a Journey concert spot on a cassette and this Walkman.
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  Speaker 2: We know, within two years they had taken over, and
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  Speaker 2: then they became the boomboxes and everything else. So music
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  Speaker 2: was with us twenty four to seven, everywhere we went,
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  Speaker 2: and like I say, every fiber of the society. So
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  Speaker 2: I just remember feeling like music was part of and
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  Speaker 2: was enveloping everything.
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  Speaker 1: As you did with the previous book on the nineties,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred and one Essential Albums of the Nineties, bringing
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  Speaker 1: a staff of writers to contribute to this, So talk
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  Speaker 1: about that. How's it laid out? How did you go
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  Speaker 1: about picking these albums?
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  Speaker 2: Like with the nineties, The great joy of doing this
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: book was to work with friends and colleagues and have
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  Speaker 2: these I'll call them euphemistically discussions about what should and
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: shouldn't be in the book. The first step was, once
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  Speaker 2: I assembled the crew, was we establish a spreadsheet. You
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  Speaker 2: fire a bunch of choices, you know, back and forth,
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  Speaker 2: and then you you know, then you have the long
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  Speaker 2: list which was about twenty five hundred. Oh, we're so
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: albums to consider, and then you have and then you
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  Speaker 2: have discussions of what the five hundred one are going
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  Speaker 2: to be from that the much like the nineties book.
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  Speaker 2: One of the fun things about those euphemistic discussions was
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  Speaker 2: because a number of us are from here in Detroit.
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  Speaker 2: We would be in our regular course of our day
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: jobs as journalists covering the same concert and before the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: music or in between acts, we'd be having those discussions
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: about what should be in the book and about the list.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: And the discussions were passionate enough that some of the
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: people seated around us would motion to security, like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: maybe these people are gonna swing at each other. We
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: weren't really, but it got it got loud. Yeah, So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: there was a lot of great give and take, which
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: if your music geek, it's those are the those are
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: the discussions you live for. Is to just go to
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  Speaker 2: the mat on what were the best albums.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I should know we're going to be talking about the
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  Speaker 1: rock and roll albums of the eighties, but this covers
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  Speaker 1: all this is pop country. I mean, obviously hip hop
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: was starting to become a huge thing by the late eighties, they.
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  Speaker 2: Have gospel electronic music really mean began. It's a scents
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  Speaker 2: in there. Wow. Craft works in here, but so are
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the Detroit techno guys who were putting
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  Speaker 2: out their first albums. One of my contributors, a guy
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  Speaker 2: named Mike Hines, was a record store owner and he
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  Speaker 2: was one of the first in on that scene. And
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  Speaker 2: he had a number of DJs who worked for him
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  Speaker 2: in the stores, and so he was ground zero around
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  Speaker 2: here for the Detroit techno scene. So to have him,
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  Speaker 2: somebody like him be able to weigh in, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I knew we were in good hands there with both
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  Speaker 2: what we were choosing and then how they were being
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  Speaker 2: written about.
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  Speaker 1: The very first album, A C. D C's Back in Black.
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  Speaker 2: They did that. Yeah, I mean alphabetically it works, but yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you never know what the design staff, well, you know,
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  Speaker 2: what's the first album in the book going to be?
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  Speaker 2: But could there be because we're chronological, could there be
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  Speaker 2: any other? Right?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this is not just an essential when it
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: comes to eighties albums. This is a muss half for
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  Speaker 1: every rock and roll fan. I would call it the
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  Speaker 1: biggest comeback album in rock history. What are your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: because there is you do have fifty one fifty in
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  Speaker 1: there by Van Helen, which is a pretty big comeback album.
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  Speaker 2: Et cetera. Comebacks. That's that's a great term and a
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  Speaker 2: turned well worth discussing because ac DC came back from
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  Speaker 2: the death of Bond Scott, but and Van Halen of
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: course came back from the departure of David Lee Roth.
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  Speaker 2: But were those really comebacks. Both groups were on the
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  Speaker 2: ascent at the time. That assent did allow a new
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  Speaker 2: singer to come into the band and be successful. But
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's a comeback yet.
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  Speaker 1: Probably yea the most surprising continuation. Maybe we should.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you would think you lose. But
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's interesting to two different situations here. Bon
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  Speaker 2: Scott became an icon by dying, whereas David Lee Roth
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  Speaker 2: was an icon you know, while he was alive and
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  Speaker 2: when he departed Van Halen. So I think the bands
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  Speaker 2: were in slightly different, you know, different situations at the time.
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  Speaker 2: Ac DC, you know, they'd had Highway to Hell. They
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  Speaker 2: were really they were still in their sense and you
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  Speaker 2: had the right material and the right new singer, whereas
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  Speaker 2: Van Halen had hit a peak. But then you bring
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: in this various stablish singer and Sammy Hagar and allowed
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: them to go to a new at least commercial peak.
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  Speaker 2: We can argue about artistic peak or not, but certainly
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  Speaker 2: they were more popular with fifty one fifty, even more
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  Speaker 2: popular with fifty one fifty.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Maybe more fitting with the comeback label would be Azzie's
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: debut solo album, Blizzard of Oz, which makes the list.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And then it's interesting because his former band Black Sabbath
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: is in here too with an essential album pick nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eightys Heaven and Hell with Ronnie James Dial. I was
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: just listening to that this afternoon, Lady Evil above.
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  Speaker 2: Such a nice nice but.
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  Speaker 1: The odds are up against both Sabbath and Azzie both
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  Speaker 1: had success, which was a bigger surprise for you.
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  Speaker 2: Probably Black Sabbath And this is kind of so this
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  Speaker 2: is the antithesis of what we were just talking about
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  Speaker 2: with ACDs and and Van Hale, and Black Sabbath was
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  Speaker 2: on the downhill. They had really damaged their brand, you know,
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  Speaker 2: with inferior albums and you know, performances that were inconsistent,
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  Speaker 2: shall we say, and so you know it was almost
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  Speaker 2: like somebody's finished here, you know, when Ozzy of course
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  Speaker 2: had the image. Sabbath for those who know they had
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  Speaker 2: the songwriting. You know, they had Tony Iom, which you know,
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  Speaker 2: you never discount that guy, but they were definitely there
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  Speaker 2: was definitely a downhill trend going on there, and then
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  Speaker 2: they both pop out with these really good and successful
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  Speaker 2: albums and it's kind of like how there really was
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  Speaker 2: talent there, independent maybe of each other.
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  Speaker 1: Also interesting too that Ozzie sound as a solo artist
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  Speaker 1: drastically different from Sabbath. Sabbath sound with Ronnie James deal
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  Speaker 1: pretty drastically different than what we heard before. And you're
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  Speaker 1: still getting the same guitar tone and crunch from from Iomi,
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  Speaker 1: but still the grooves, the lyrics. Obviously Ronnie James Dio's
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  Speaker 1: voice is so different.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's why they were successful in both
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  Speaker 2: cases is you know, Sabbath's case, you bring in a
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  Speaker 2: guy like Dio also a writer, so you were able
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  Speaker 2: to forge a sound that had one foot in the familiar,
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  Speaker 2: one foot in the new Ozzie finding Randy Rhodes who
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  Speaker 2: became an architect for this very modern sound, you know,
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  Speaker 2: modern nineteen eighties version, modern sound for Ozzy. And I
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  Speaker 2: think if they had both kind of come out sounding
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  Speaker 2: like they were trying to sound like Sabbath. It wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: have worked, but they both embraced the idea of let's
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  Speaker 2: try something new and had it really worked out for
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  Speaker 2: both of them, for Ozzy longer than for Sabbath, of course.
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  Speaker 1: Moving on in nineteen eighty one, this chapter leads with
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  Speaker 1: the Stones Tattoo You, one of probably in my top
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  Speaker 1: three on Favorite Stones Album's list, arguably the last great
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  Speaker 1: Stones album, and I remember thinking it was an album
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of all originals. It's not until you get into the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: internet era and then you start to read articles and
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  Speaker 1: you find out it's songs that date as far back
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  Speaker 1: as mid seventies, I think, right Stitch Together? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: pretty impressive. Where do you rank it among Stone's greatest albums?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think it's certainly a top ten Stones album,
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  Speaker 2: I think, without a doubt. And it shows you how
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  Speaker 2: much talent was there. And we've learned this now with
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  Speaker 2: the anniversary reissues of Sticky Fingers and Some Girls and
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Let It Bleed and Exile on Main Street hearing these
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  Speaker 2: other leftover tracks that are still of a very high quality.
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  Speaker 2: So you know what we saw with Tattoo You was
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  Speaker 2: I guess a tip of the iceberg of what was
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: in the Rolling Stones vaults. And then you know they
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: went back in, of course and did do some things
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  Speaker 2: to them. And then of course we get the Tattoo
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: You box set and we hear what else was around.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was so cool. Finally here start me up
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the reggae version, because it read about that for the
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: longest time. And it's not that bad. I mean, it's
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: really you know, it would have worked, I think, but
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: not as well as the version that we know.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: No, there were a lot of there were a lot
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: of interesting different takes on, and you know, we've we've
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: been lucky enough to get a real glimpse over the past.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I guess it's been a decade now since the expanded
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: sets have started to come out. But into the working
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: nature of the Rolling Stones and the trial and error,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: and you know how at least back in the day,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: those guys would just get in the studio for hours
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: and days and weeks, and you know however long Keith
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: could stay awake.
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  Speaker 1: Ye's exactly and just.
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  Speaker 2: Create really good stuff and then you know, make you wonder. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so how did you figure out this was the one
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: you were going to put out when you had all
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: these other things. So yeah, that's definitely for me. That's
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: one of the one of the top ten, you know,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: maybe top eight or seven even of stones, so consistent,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: which given the Hodgepodge that it was pretty amazing.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: You write the entry on Russia's Moving Pictures for eighty one,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: their biggest selling album went five times platinum. What made
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: this album so special?
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  Speaker 2: You know? And Rush was among the bands that it
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: was tough to pick what from the eighties was going
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: to be included, and we wound up only going with
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  Speaker 2: Moving Pictures because again essential to the decade. Yeah, that
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: was the paramount thing. I mean the other there were
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of other good Rush records during the eighties,
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  Speaker 2: but not necessarily essential to Russia's catalog, much less to
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  Speaker 2: the decade. But Moving Pictures I think was an album
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: where everything Rush Phase two was trying to do what
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: they started with Farewell to Kings, I think really coalesced
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  Speaker 2: on Moving Pictures. There was a stronger There was both
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: the great sonics and musicianship that are the hallmarks of Rush,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: but a kind of song craft that came in that
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: didn't take them as you know, as far as they'd
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: get with something like New World Band later, but you
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: still like Tom Sawyer as a perfect example were Limelight.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: You know, these were great songs as well as great tracks. Yeah.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: They worked well on the radio and FM rock radio.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I really felt like this was where everything
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: kind of fell together that Rush was trying to do
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: in what I consider Rush phase two. It's nice they
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: did they divide him by the live albums usually Yeah,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: so you so you can see what the band's thinking.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by the story of Men at Work. I
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: don't know if there's been a book written about this band,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: but here's a band that they won Best New Artist
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: at the Grammys, I think, yeah, at the Grammys and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Business as Usual, which has who can it be?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Down under? Be good, Johnny. You write the entry on
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  Speaker 1: this one too, number one on Billboard, six times platinum,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the Grammy Best New Artists, and you quote singer Colin
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Hay from the Grammys. He said, quote, we are the
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Men and we'll see you again. And you're right. They did,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: albeit for only two more albums. What led to the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: quick decline because they had the potential of being huge
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the rest of the decade, maybe beyond Crazy Australians.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, you know, I've had the chance to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: talk to Colin Hey about it, and Ron Striker, the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: guitar player, and yeah, crazy Australians, but much you could say,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: like any other band that breaks up. Crazy Americans, crazy Brits,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: crazy crazy Germans, crazy Canadians. They just you know, they
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: had been a band for a while before the success. Yeah,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: playing the pubs, coming out of the pub scene, much
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: like an Excess was, and they just didn't have it
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: to hold it together. Clearly Colin was the man, but
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: the rest of the band had some issues with that
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and just just wasn't able to kind of let it
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: be and keep walking down the road that made you successful.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Man, That happens, right. But I think by the mid eighties,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Snakes and Ladders was an album because I remember getting
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: their best of it was a cassette in a bargain bin.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I said, let me listen to it, and there's some
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: really good stuff. Post Well, there's two big albums, right,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Cargo came.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I think Cargo was the second one, which in some
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: ways I like better. Yeah, but we still felt that
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: the first album was the essential one. But there was
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: something that Cargo I thought was a great follow up.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: They had already had a lot of that album written
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: when the first album was a huge success, okay, because
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: nobody expected the first album to do what it did,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: so they were like okay, and it started slow, so
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: they felt like, Okay, let's get to work on the
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: next thing.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: He's done well for himself now, Colin Hay, He's got
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: a solid solo career. And then I think, I think
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Men of Work has done. But he is part of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the package eighties tours.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I see he leads a Men at Work. He has
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the name. Okay, so he leads he leads Men at Work,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: a band that's called Men at Work, which is essentially
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: his solo band. And I think it just depends on
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: circumstances and if you know where he's playing and what
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: promoters want to do with the with the name. I
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: think I think on the art Rock tour it's Colin
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Hey up Men at Work or something like that.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I remember hearing a great reworking acoustic version of who
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Can It Be Now, which has been used in television
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: shows and.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Really good And what's the other way this is? It's
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: a cargo track there's like a version he did with
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: a choir in New York really, you know, kind of
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: a hip bohemian choir.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: The hits off that one where oh, doctor Heckel and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: mister jive overkill.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: It's a mistake, sorry, over Ok. There's a beautiful version
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: of it. Like I say, it's some hipster choir I
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: think from Brooklyn, and it's just it's just great.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: You're right though, that is a good album. I've got
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: high Wire on there too, which is another great one.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a wonderful song.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: So a two hit wonder booked on rock podcasts. Will
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: be back after this.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Always in Motion is the future.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty two, there was an album called Thriller.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I think is that what it was called.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I've heard of it. I've heard of it. It was
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: some guy he was on Motown, right right, he was
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: some oldie from Motown. Yeah.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: That that's the year pop and rock merge because of Thriller.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Paul McCartney's on that album The Girl's Mine, but Eddie
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: van Halen my man plays the solo un beat it
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: for free. Didn't take any payment on that. That's the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: story that Alex always what are you doing? His brother Alex,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: but talk about how important that album is in terms
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: of pop culture, in terms of race, rock and pop
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: coming together. Has there been anything like it since?
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean Prince you know, yeah, the immediate
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: wake of that, but no, hugely, hugely important for so
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: many reasons where Michael, you know, where it took Michael
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Jackson's artistry and what we saw was possible on a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: pop album. Beat it such a great case in point,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: but this wasn't now. This was a pop album that
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: had significant balls. Even the lighter track had an emotional
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: weighted resonance that you associated with rock albums, you know,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: whether it was Joni Mitchell or Van Halen. There was
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: just you know, there was just such a depth in
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the writing, which you know was Quincy Jones was the
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: one who encouraged Michael Jackson to write more this time
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: than he had on Off the Wall. And then the
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: sonics of it were so great. There's you know, it
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: was such a great headphone album, which you know, in
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: the Walkman era when we're all sticking stuff in our
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: ears to be able to hear all that sonic detail,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: just a tremendous piece of musical work. And then on
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: the business side to have beat. It be the video
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: that broke down the color wall on MTV in a
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: big way. It's sometimes overstated because there were some black
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: artists on MTV, but you know, they had initially said
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: no to this because Michael Jackson was considered toupop And
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: it took Walter yet Nikoff and Columbia Records to go
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: to the mat with MTV threatened not to get you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: to pull all their videos and not give them any more,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: and for them to finally take a shot at it,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: and lo and behold, the audience loved it. The rock
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: audience really did love Michael Jackson, even if they'd end
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: up making fun of them later on. But that's because
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: it became so ubiquitous. The only thing we've had in
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: our recent history with that level sensation is Taylor Swift.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Taylor Swift. I was gonna said, Britney Spears, but
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Taylor Swift.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And the music. But even in Taylor Swift's case,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: the music didn't make the same type of impact the
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Taylor Swift package did, and certainly live but you know, wow,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I mean this was and it just kept going and going. Oh,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: I remember getting into nineteen eighty four and thinking this
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: is still the biggest album right in the world.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I'm now at that age now where they have more
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: people younger than men than ever before. So I have
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: these generations of music fans that just have no idea
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: how popular that album. And Michael Jackson was like you
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: can't even describe because he was everywhere right up through
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the rest of the decade. But that album, and at
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that time, Michael had a perfect image. You know, There's
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: no controversies, no headlines that were painting him in a
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: negative light. So he was just he could do it.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Didn't it didn't show.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: It's crazy now we have we didn't get the Hyperbaric Chamber,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the Elephant Man's but right till until the other side
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: of the Victory tour. Yeah, and then and but Bubbles
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: was there for the Victory Bubbles, so we really no,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: I mean peopleeople were just blown away by the artistry.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty three, Huey Lewis and the News sports Heart
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and Soul. I want a new drug, Heart of rock
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and roll And if this is it again, you got
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the entry on this one. I'm picking all the ones
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: you write the entry it. Yeah, this was a band
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: on the ropes, right. This is a story of we
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: got to have a hit otherwise we're going to have
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: to drop you. And they come up with this album
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that is to me, it's one of my favorite and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I love Hugh Lewis and the News. They always kind
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: of took a little hit for being a little too poppy,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: but to me, I love this album. I love this band.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: So I guess that was my question. Were they not
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: taken seriously enough?
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: No, I think they were. I mean, they certainly established
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: their cred on the road what preceded sports. While they
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: were holding on to sports to make sure they had
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: the right commitment from their record company, they were out
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: on the road on the working on the Living Tour,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: literally doing that because that was their only income. Kind
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: of a now to what Bruce Springsteen had to do
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: before Darkness on the Edge of Town in the seventies.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: But no, I think I think Huey Lewis and the
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: News always had cred with the rock audience that people
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: knew and understood. They were a live band and they
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: were like a bar club band, so there was there
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: was an affection for them. And they were fortunate enough
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: that they had made some videos so that even during
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: the Weight to Sports, you could still see working for
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: a living on MTV. And by the time they were
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: able to put Sports out, you had people primed for it,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: and you had a record company ready ready to promote it,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: and a band ready to work for it. And you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: they took such great They really worked hard to make that.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: It was like you said, it was do or die here.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Christlis right, that was their label. Christmas.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Christmas was their label, and you know, they knew this
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: was their last, potentially last shot, and they really went
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: to work on it.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And they were everywhere pretty close to Michael John so nobody,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: nobody could match MJ. But when they were on Back
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to the Future soundtrack, I mean it was. They were
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: huge for for a while. They had a great run
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and h and I really enjoyed what they did. Into
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the nineties. They had the Mutt Lange produced album Yeah
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Hard to Play, I think it's yeah, that's.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: And they had the sole album, the Soul Covers album.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Now they were a it's kind of tragic what happen
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: there with Hughey and his his hearing issues, because they
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: were far from done.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I know, min years they call it Minear's disease. Yeah,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: if he tries to sing, he can't hear the notes.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: He's here now he has the same issue with speaking too. Yeah,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: it's it's it's very sad.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: But but he's got a Broadway thing that's going to
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: be happening.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: No what it already did. It already came and wents Okay,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: it was reviewed well, and it'll be it'll go on tour.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I think that's almost the kind of production that's made
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: to to be on you know, to come to the provinces,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: even more than to be on the Great White Way.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Talking about Mutt Lang def Leppard's nineteen eighty three album Pyromania,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Michael Glucci writes the entry on this one. He writes,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: quote nothing on def Leppard's first two albums pointed to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: its future as one of the biggest rock bands in
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the world in just a few short years, but the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: arrival of album three during the first month of nineteen
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: eighty three changed that. So Mutt Lang the big difference
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: maker here.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: How important well he had worked Yeah, he had worked
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: with them on High and Dry all Yeah, and keeping
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: and you know, keeping mind. Mutt Lang was also behind
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Back in Black with ac DC. He knows how to
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: produce a rock record, a big commercial rock record, and
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: he took them in with the intent of making every
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: song a hit single. And that's what you got. You know,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: everything under the microscope. Def Leppard itself was peaking. You know,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: they had two albums under their belt. They had a
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: new guitarist and co writer, and Phil Collin who had
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: worked with them on High and Dry and was now
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: a full time member. And he and Steve Clark really gelled,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: you know, as both as guitarists and Phil Collins as
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: part of the writing team. So all the all the
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: ingredients were there.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: And you know stem hard that Joe Elliott tells a story.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: He's saying he was singing so hard that the blood
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: was he didn't have any blood circulation in his head
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and he had to stand upside down and get the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: blood going back into his head.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: The bad And these were the days before pro tools,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: and so the guitar players had to play every overdub part.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: You just couldn't cut and paste and stack.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And this also set the template for rock the rest
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: of the decade. I mean, this was one of the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: go to sounds.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: That was the Boston's first album of the eighties if
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: you remember, you know, when the first Boston album came out,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: everybody wanted their rock and roll records to sound like that,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: and you know, I think Matt Lang was influenced by
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: that sound that Tom Scholz had. Conversely, you the rest
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: of the rock world wanted to get the Pyramedia sound,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: the hard rock world at least, and we certainly saw
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: that quickly. It was with bon Jovi, with Motley Crue
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: and you know, Scorpions. Everybody you know was looking at
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: that as sort of a template for at least the
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: sonic impact they wanted to have, even if it didn't
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: hit all the same sonic basses.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Phil Colin talked about going back to Thriller again.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Thriller had I believe it was seven singles. I think
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it was, And that was the goal of Hysteria when
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: they came out with Hysteria in nineteen eighty seven. We
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: want seven singles. We want to do what Michael Jackson did. Yep,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and they did it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it took him a minute with Hysteria, though. People
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: forget that that came out of the box slow, right,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: and there was real concern about whether that album was
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: going to be so successful. You know, you're sitting at
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: triple platinum and worried about whether you're successful. Once upon
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: a time, they would have been deliriously happy.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I have an ore here. First two singles, Animal and Women.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Right, and just didn't didn't connect in the same way
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: as Photograph did and the other you know, the other
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Pyromania songs. But got around to pour some sugar on
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: me and everything was all right.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: He got played in a strip bar in Florida and
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the local radio station started playing it. And now that
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the album's coming back, Armygednet Love Bites Rocket. I'm a
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: big hysteria guy. I love pyromania, but I always have
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to go with hysteria.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: You have.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: It's like the first girlfriend, right, yeah, what about you?
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: What's I mean?
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: There's a part of there's a part of me that
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: goes with on through the night. Oh yeah, but there's
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: a person, you know, there's a personal thing there too.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I were the same concert promoter I mentioned earlier that
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I was working for. During that summer, we had the
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Judas Prix Scorpions def Leppard tour in a theater that
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: the promoter owned, and I spent a Lovely Afternoon with
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: pretty sure it was Joe and Rick and maybe sav
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: just hanging out in my little office. Oh cool, I
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: was working from so you know that was on through
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: the night, So there's there's a sentimental attachment there. But
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: you know I would I if it was between Hysteria
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: and Pyramedia, I'd probably go with Pyramania for me, a
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: little more raw, not quite as going for the hits
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: as this. Hysteria was juggling the two.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And Jim Steinman almost produced Hysteria in the beginning. He
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: was the guy that we were.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not surprised that didn't work out. I meink
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: it barely worked out with meat Love. I think a
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: lot of that that was just he's not a band guy,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: whereas Mott knew how to work with a band.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Gary Graft, the author of five hundred and twenty Central
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Albums of the eighties, one of the era's biggest bands,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: came to an end in nineteen eighty three. That was
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the Police. What a way to end though, synchronicity sting.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: If he's stuck around, What would the rest of the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: eighties been like?
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: For that? That's great, That is a great question.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Is they did try reuniting and they just couldn't get
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: along right.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know they eventually reunited to tour again.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Understood you know we were bad. We're bad together when
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: we're in the studio together. Although I will say it
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: would be interesting because they've I've spoken with all three
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: of the guys over the years and they've all grown
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: up more and come to appreciate each other more. It
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: would be interesting to see what they could do together
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: now that they've chilled out a little bit. It's hard
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: to say where they would have taken it. You know,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: would it have been that dream of the blue Turtle
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: sound that that sting kind of went on that more,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: you know, the jazzier, slightly jazzier, definitely thicker in terms
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: of sound type of direction. Or would they have stripped
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: it back down from synchronicity and and gone punky again.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: It's really hard and maybe pssible to say. It's intriguing.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: You're the author of the two thousand and five book
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: The Ties That Bind Bruce Springsteen A to E to
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: z born in the USA from nineteen eighty four, is
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: in this book his biggest seller, Is it his best?
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Is it better than Born to Run?
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I don't think it's better than
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: The River, really, but it's a great album. The Pump
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: was primed for Bruce Springsteen in nineteen eighty four. He'd
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: come off of Hungry Heart, you know, his first big
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: hit single, The River being such a great album. He
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: had won a great degree of artistic credibility with Nebraska,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: stepping back from what would have been the logical next
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: move and putting out this stripped down, rustic acoustic album
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: or not all acoustic, but you know, this crazy raw album.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Then came with the big hit album you know that
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: went then went for Broke, but I think he made
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: people wait a little longer for that album. But he
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: won a lot of respect too by putting the brass
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: galp before it and so, and you know, the market
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: was just ready for him. People loved him obviously as
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: a live act, and there were a bunch of people
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: who had not yet seen him, so they were ready
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: to have an album and then a tour to come
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: with it, and basically to jump on the Bruce train.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Books on rock podcasts. We'll be back after.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: This, right, that's it. I'm gonna be right outside those
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: doors the next time. I have to come in here.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I'm cracking skulls.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: We gotta talk about Phil Collins because by nineteen eighty
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: five he was the definition of ubiquitous. He was everywhere
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and his album No Jacket required huge. He's writing for
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: movie soundtracks. He was in movies, and you'd hear he
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: was producing.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: You could hear h wings wedding with people.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Philip Philip Bailey, right, yeah, yeah, and then you'd hear
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a hit single on the radio and it'd be by
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: different arts like that. Those drums sound familiar. Yeah, he's
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: on that one. And then he had Genesis a year
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: later Invisible Touch in nineteen eighties. As we talked about
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: MTV and Walkman and maybe was that the decade of overexposure?
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, was he overexposed because by the nineties then
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like it just turned against him.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He No, he was, without a doubt he was
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I love films. But well, right, the key here is
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: it was all honest. He wasn't trying to be, you know,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: the constant in your life. He was just out there
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: doing his music, you know, getting over another divorce. And
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: it seems like whenever he goes through those hard personals.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Times he becomes very prolific and very very creative. And
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: so he was just taking the job. He was being
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: a working musician. He was doing his own work, he
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: was playing with his band, he was taking the jobs
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: that came to him. And like I said, this wasn't
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: part of some Machiavelli plot. He was just being that
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: guy who wanted to wanted to make as much music
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: as he could, and he made a lot of really
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: great music. Award Jones, you know, he was. He was
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: all over the place. But I caught him slack because
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: he was honestly all over the place. Do you tell
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: a guy don't produce this album that you really dig
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: because you're overexposed? Is that a reason not to not
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: to create? Yeah?
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I mean why why would he say not of those offers?
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Don't do a Genesis album? Because your last solo album
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: was so good that it's counterintuitive. And the market in
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: the eighties was big enough to handle him.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: To me, and it was admirable because those are his buddies, Genesis,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: those were his guys. He's not going to ditch him.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: He's making album.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: He loved being in a band still.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I wonder now because he's in pretty rough shape physically.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: That how much that played a role in it, because
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: he really probably took its toll.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, yeah, I think, I mean, yes, probably,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: But here he went on for another couple of decades
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: still sure, and he just I mean, he's he's a
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: case of wear and tear, and somehow Keith Richards manages
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: to wear the wear and tear better.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: He's still going.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: But everybody else but Keith and Phil worked hard eighties.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Bon Jovi is another huge band during that decade. Slipper
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: When Wet nineteen eighty six. Also Peter Gabriel So came
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: out that year. But I want to talk about Metallica's
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Master of Puppets, released early March nineteen eighty six. Talk
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: about how influential this album is. Rob Saint Mary writes
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in his entry about how its influence is heard to
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: this very day.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, you know, and not just in in metal,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: but you do hear it in hip hop, and you
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: hear cadences, you hear rhythmic approaches in ed M. You know,
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: even in some aspects of pop. They go for a
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: sonic impact, not unlike what Metallic introduced really with Kill
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Them All. But you certainly. You know, Master of Puppets
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: was the refinement of it and the and the first
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: real the first I'm trying, you know. It was almost
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: like Genesis they did back in the seventies. They did Trespass,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: you know, good album, interesting, you know, definitely a foundational album.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: But then you get the like Nursery Crime in Foxtrotta.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Now you're telling the story. Same thing with Metallica. You
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: had kill them all, you know, But then you get
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: to Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning and you know,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: we're talking about this is the story here, this is
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: the sound, and from here we're going to refine it
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: and tighten it and you know, really perfect it till
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: we get in the nineties and we're ready to mess
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: with it.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: My first exposure was Ride the Lightning. My older brother
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: had the cassette, so that's my personal favorite.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: That's the way to hear it too, is on cassette.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, on that walkman a GPX walkman nobody. Yeah,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: but it's amazing.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: You know how, I think back to how foreign Metallica
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: and all the thrash bands sounded, even though they really
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: should all at that time. If you were like a
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: fan of Deep Purple or Black Savage, you should have
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: at least under and I think the fans, of course
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: they did understand where, you know, what this was and
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: where it came from, but it was it still felt
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: very foreign and very new, and I think it frightened
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: some people.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, at that time when the video for one
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: came out, we're talking hair band era, we're talking winger
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Warrence Slaughter, and here's this video that is so huge,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: it's so hugely popular that that just speaks volumes for
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: just how good that song was. And Guns and Roses.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Similar with Appetite for Destruction. It's like that connection, that
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, here we are on that glam
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: hair band era and here's this band it's just dirty, raw.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: It's like a I always call them like the Stones
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: on steroids. And it would almost bridge the gap to
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: what we would hear in the nineties.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: With grunge in some of it. I think with Appetite
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: for Destruction, you know, you really had a very commercial
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: that wasn't That's not a metal album, right to be,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: That's a hard rock album. You know, that's the next
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: the next evolution of I guess the Aerosmith generation, but
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: it had enough of the glam the hair band because
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: they were from LA And there's a good juxtaposition. Guns
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: n' Roses definitely an LA band, metallica from another planet,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: but they came from San Francisco where the underground there
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: was a little darker and a little bit dirtier and
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: a little more raw. You know. Guns and Roses came
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: from a place that was slicker and flashier and glossier,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: and they understood how to throw just enough dirt on
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: it to make it a little dangerous.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Yet that took a while to take off. Why do
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: you think it took a while because that I think
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: it came out in eighty seven, But it wasn't untill
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: eighty eight.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: Right, because it was a little foreign sounding too. It
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: wasn't as easy a sell as rat or dock In.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: These were not hard rock songs with pop hooks, or
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: rather pop songs with hard rock sonics. This was hard
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: rock that in some cases had hooks.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and didn't slash audition for poison at one point. Right,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: That just boggles the mind.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: You know, it's such a small you know, if you
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: ever read Tom mind Stocks, even if you read you know,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: there are nothing but a good time. How how small
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: and insular that community was.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so not much of a surprise.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: It was. It was hard not to audition for some
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: of those bands if if you were an all part
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: of the scene.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty seven was a year of Joshua Tree, U two.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: What an album? That's my favorite you two album?
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: Is it?
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I still Optune Babies a close second.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: I'm octing Baby one Unforgettable Fire too, and then you know,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: and then we can talk about about the rest. But yeah, no,
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: that was that was a breakthrough album for you too.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: It really well. It was another one where the pump
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: was primed, much like it was for Springsteen with Born
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: in the USA. You two had made this gradual ascent,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: and you know, by the time they got done, they
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: were at an arena level with the Unforgettable Fire, and
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: we're able to take that next leap to the Joshua
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Tree where the whole world from Time magazine on was
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: ready for them.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I missed those days of gradual as sense. You know,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: we don't have that anymore.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: We kind of do, But you can't ascend to a
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: place as big as you used to be able.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: To true and what record labels you don't have the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: record label fostering a young band and giving them some time.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there still are some rock bands who
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: are I don't think it's there necessarily being allowed that time.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: It's just that, you know, you hit this plateau that's
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: so much lower than what it was in what we're
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: talking about the eighties here, and everybody's kind of okay
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: with that, and they're not necessarily working to get it
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: to the next level. I think, especially in the rock world,
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: we really have surrendered and capitulated to the idea that
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: it can only get so big.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And you can't grab as many people's attention
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: at once like we once were able to do because
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: everything's splintered off into different options.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And the audience isn't as the audience is bigger,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: but it's not nearly as loyal, and like you say,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: it is splintered in different directions, so it's hard to
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: get the same type of traction and the same type
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: of ascension. I mean, even if you look at a
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: band like Arcade Fire, now, I mean, they're going to
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: do well, but they're not going to turn into Pyromania
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: or the Joshua Tree, you know, that ship sailed. Even
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: though they've had the kind of ascent we're talking about
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: within their world, it's just not there. Isn't that level
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: to ascend all the way up too.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: On to nineteen eighty eight and an album that was
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: so ahead of its time. We talked about this on
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: your last appearance for the book on the nineties. Jane's addiction,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Nothing Shocking comes out in nineteen eighty eight. You're talking
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: about an album so ahead of its time. With bands
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: like GNR and def Leppard and Poison ruling the charts,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: this album would have trouble finding a place. But how
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: important is this album in terms of what was to
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: come in the nineties.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Well, extremely important. I mean this was nothing shocking. Everything's
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: shocking about that album. We didn't know how to classify it,
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: you know, so what is this weird mix of rhythms
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: and the guitar approach and attack and Perry's vocals and
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: what he's singing about and what the hell is he
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: singing about? It was arty, but it was also hard.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, metals it was.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: There was metal in there. There was punk in there,
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: there was funk in there, there was jazz in this.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: It was this real kind of alchemy that would become
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: so much a part of what we heard in in
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: a lot of the nineties, there was grunge. There were
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: elements of what we would come to call grunge, which
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: was developing at the same time that Jaine's addiction was,
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: you know, it's another one where you compare, like, let's
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: compare sound Garden. In Jane's addiction, okay, one's clearly an
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: La product. One is clearly the Pacific Northwest. But yeah,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: we nobody knew what to make of it other than
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: this is really cool and this is this is really different.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: And it was polar I remember it being so polarizing
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: at the time. You either liked it or you didn't,
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: and a lot of people didn't because it wasn't straightforward.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: And we had, as you said, we had GNR, and
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: we had Metallic and we had the hair bands and
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: for some people, yeah, we had the sound Garden. Even
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Nirvana was around by that time. But you had these
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: more straightforward rock bands with more discernible and more familiar
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: kind of rock flavors, and then you had these or
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: odd babbles and what do you make of them?
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Jane says, is on there too. The acoustic.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, nice cool and you know, so how did
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: we get? How did we jump from one to the next?
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: But that was its appeal.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Another one you have from eighty eight's Living Colors Vivid,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: which is oh yeah, fabulous. Booked on Rock Podcasts, We'll
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: be back after this.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Full out your pants, pockets, hold kids in the future,
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: where the pants and sign out.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Find the Booked on Rock website at booked on rock
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: dot com. There you can find all the back episodes
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: of the show, the latest episode in video and audio,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: plus a video highlight and link to our YouTube channel.
• 42:37
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• 42:39
  Speaker 1: to the podcast, plus all the social media platforms were
• 42:42
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• 42:47
  Speaker 1: out the Booked on Rock blog. Find your local independent bookstore,
• 42:51
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• 42:53
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• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Pick up some Booked on Rock merch. It's all at
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: booked on rock dot com. Moving on to the final
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: year of the decade, released in nineteen eighty nine, Aerosmith's
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Pump and We talked about big comeback albums, Permanent Vacation,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: it's is really the comeback.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: But right, we have it in there because I just
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: thought it was. It took Permanent Vacation to the next level.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: To me, it was just like, okay, yeah, this is
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: the songwritings fully back. Now you have the little bits
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: of the unsteadiness that was part of Permanent Vacation, solid
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: on pomp. Everything just locked in.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: And for people who may not undersstandard, remember Aerosmith at
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: the start of the decade and Aerosmith at the end
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: of the decade, two very different stories. They were done.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: Oh well yeah, I mean they were what was it
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: rock and a hard place? Was it?
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: Two guitar players. I mean, what an abysmal record from
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: a great band and you know, done with mirrors was okay,
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: there were there were moments there, but yeah, it really
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: was first vacation and then Pumped. That was okay, we
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: were back.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: And I believe the run DMC walked this way right,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: that was in the middle of that was That's what
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: sparked it. Then Permanent Vacation. But yeah, Joe Perry was
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: out and they had the guitars from also I think
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: from the Boston area.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm Rick what's his name there? Were two
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: of them, because you know Brad dropped out as well.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: But you know those guys were those guys were Buss
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Bus And you know, it's funny when you mentioned the
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: idea of this run DMC, the arass met that great
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: collaboration on Walk This Way. That says so much about
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: what the eighties were the rock audience and MTV, you know,
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: really was the catalyst for this. Rock fans were willing
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: to listen to hip hop songs and vice versa because
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: you had this very democratic kind of institution, and MTV
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: was a decade where you had music fans more than
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: any other, just music fans. If it was going to
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: be Public Enemy and then the next thing you played
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: was bon Jovi. That was happening in the eighties. Not everybody,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: of course, and you know, certainly you still had had
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: some barriers, but but you had people who were just
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: music fans. And that's really what set the eighties apart
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: from all the other decades.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: It's what I remember about MTV coming home from school
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: watching it and seeing how they would lay it out.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: It would be just as you said, rock and roll,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and then all the Aerosmith maybe, and then Public Enemy, yeah,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and then Jody Whattley, and then Prince and then Michael Just.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: I mean a cameo. I mean it was just it's
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: just everything that went by you on side. As I said,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: I think that really made made for many millions who
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: would just call themselves music fans.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Crespow, by the way, that was that's right, Yeah, yeah,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Crespow. He was there for a short period. A
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: few more to wind down here, I got to mention
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: The Cure because it's one of my favorite bands, and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: they made this book more than a few times. But
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine they released Disintegration, which is a masterpiece.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Were you a fan of The Cure in the eighties
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and what are your thoughts on this?
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: I was I thought some of the mope was a
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: little overdone.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: That's why I asked.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, it's just okay, it's it's it's
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: a stick. It works for you if you're that miserable
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: of a person. God.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: We had that group of kids in high school that
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: were the goth kids. You know, you know, Edward scissor Hands.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Look, yeah, Robert Smith and Morrissey. You know, I'm sorry,
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: you guys are so unhappy. But yeah, and Disintegration was
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, kiss Me, kiss Me, kiss Me is in
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: here too, where I think that was the that was
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: really the commercial take off for them. But Disintegration was
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: so conceptually and thematically locked in. That is an album
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: with a capital A. Listen, please let to me from
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: front to back. You're gonna love some of these songs
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: more than others, but you were just gonna love. And
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: you know, it's in the CD era, so there was
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: more of it to love.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, rand thematic openings on long tracks, Yeah, long tracks,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: and on their most recent album, I think it's even
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: extended further because there's songs where it's literally half the
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: first half of the song is instrumental and then then
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: you hear Robert kick in with the vocals.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know that's what the Cure does, and
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: they do it arguably better. They certainly do it as
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: well as the prog bands with their own particular flavor.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: But yeah, and Disintegration, it just that to me, is
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: the Cure album. That's like, here's everything this band is about.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Because there are tunes on there, and there are hooks
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: and there are melodies, but within this great thematic piece
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: that is everything about the miserable bastard he was at
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was singing about getting old unhead on the
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: door in nineteen eighty five, and he was.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: He would have been twenty six or something that.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: He would twenty five, twenty six. Yeah, I'm getting old,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: are you really?
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, sure?
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Well those were the rock and roll you know. I mean,
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: you know, that's when thirty seemed like, oh yeah, we
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: didn't know we were going to have eighty year old rock.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Star, right, didn't they? They said the Stones were old
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: when they were doing Missie some Girls.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: You know, when Stones turned thirty, there was a lot
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: of dis I remember reading at the time, you know,
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: being younger and a fan, and you know, can these
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: old guys still rock and roll? And you know, now
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: we look back up it and like, really, yeah, you
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: didn't have that perspective.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Hey, what do you What do you think of Hackney
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Diamonds by the Stone.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a fine, fine album. Everything about
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: it was really good. I did not expect it to
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: to become a sticky fingers or even a tattoo you
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: you know, or some girls already. I didn't expect it
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: to have the impact of a classic because you can't
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: do that any no, it just the marketplace doesn't allow
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: for it. But solid, solid album.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, above your expectations, because that's what it was for me.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: One thing I've learned with the Stones is to never
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: count them out. When they mean business. They can still
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: do it, and they've shown that throughout their careers. You know,
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: you can go from black and Blue to some girls.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: How do you feel that the decade ended because we
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: have also in that year Martiny Cruz, Doctor Feel Good,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: skid Row There's self titled debuts out in eighty nine,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: but we also had Full Moon Fever from Petty, So
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: rock and roll was still rocking the charts by the
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: end of the decade. How do you feel it.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: And would into the nineties? Yeah, we would know. I
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: thought there were you know, there were a lot of
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: good albums. Bob Dylan had one of one of his
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: best albums with Oh Mercy. You had a great many
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: really good rock albums, even on the underside, like Bob
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: MoU going solo with Workbook, and the Red Hot Chili
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Peppers really coming into their own. Yeah.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't mention them.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: You know, that's that was the your sound Garden had
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Louder than Love, and then you had the Stone Roses,
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: which was the harbinger of britpop, you know, the Brit
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: pop of the nineties. So there was just there was
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of great stuff to have
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: the decade on. And then we had the you know,
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: off the rock tip that you had the Country Class
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: of eighty nine, Garth Brooks and Clint Black and Alan
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: Jackson and you know those guys who basically created a
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: whole new era of country music. And let's not forget
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: Nine Inch Nails had pretty Epe Machine.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: And then there was this band called Nirvana that nobody
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: knew about that had an album out right in nineteen nine, or.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I think that was before that. I think it was
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: seven eighty.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Eight, right even further back. So yeah, you know, here
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: was this band about to emerge and become the biggest band.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: I mean say what we you know you already saw
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: it with I mean, Alison Chains was starting to emerge.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: You had obviously you had sound Garden, Mother Lovebone happening.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: You know, that scene was starting to make a lot
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: of noise. Yeah.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Soundgarden had been around since the mid eighties.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they were Yeah, Bleach.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Was nineteen eighty nine.
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I know we we really kind of thought
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: about that really interesting for the book and just decided,
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: you know, no, not an essential part of the eighties story.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: No, because it was more of an essential when you
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: get into the nineties to go back and listen to it, right,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: But at that.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Time, actually we felt like sound, you know, we felt
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: like having sound guarded in there, you know, having louder
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: than love in there was a was a more essential
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: representation of the eighties than Bleach was.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Booked on Podcasts. We'll be back after this, well.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: Well waiting.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks so much for checking out the Booked
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: on Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support,
• 52:11
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• 52:13
  Speaker 1: share on social media and let people know about Booked
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: sure you subscribe give a five star review. Wherever you
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: listen to the Booked on Rock podcast, run Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: tune in, and on YouTube music. You can check out
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the full episodes on video, along with video highlights from
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel find it
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: at booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: to the show. Was Millie Vanilli in there?
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, they're in there. I thought they were there.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: They're in there for a number of reasons forgetting. Everything
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: that Happened a pretty good pop album, very emblematic of
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: what pop sounded like in the eighties, given everything that
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: happened that it wasn't those two guys. It's essential because
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: it's part of what happened in the eighties. It's also
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: emblematic of what the pot machinery did. You know, we
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: had kind of forgotten and or excused the Archies and
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: the Partridge Family, and you know some of those examples
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: of quote unquote bands that weren't necessarily really singing or performing,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: and we kind of forgotten that. So that's why this
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: was so shocking. The eighties felt like they had so
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: much credibility for all the glitz and the glamour and
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: the MTV. You felt like these acts were really performing
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: and Millie Vanelli was this wet slap across the face.
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, somebody could fake it.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: And the moment it all came crashing down was right
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: down the road for me. Here in Connecticut at Lake Compounds, Bristol, Connecticut.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: That was where the record or whatever whatever they were playing,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: skip the tape skip.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: They used a DAT tape I think, and it skipped. Yep.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was Summer of eighty nine or ninety whatever.
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: It was I think earlier even maybe it was the
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: club MTV tour I remember that, And yeah, so it
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: was really really shocking, but we felt like that had
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: to be in here. That was so much a part
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: of the eighties and represented so much of the good,
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: the bad and the ugly, and you know, we do
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: tend to forget that it was a pretty good pop album.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: It just wasn't the two guys who were on the
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: cover or on stage.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: If they had come honest with it, maybe it would have.
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we know, now, let the ugly
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: people sing, right, if the tunes are good, the audience
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: is gonna go with it. And by the way, when
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: we finally saw him, they weren't that ugly.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, well on the other end of it,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: do you think I mean they ended up Robin what
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: was his name? They ended up singing that Robin fab
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: They were on our sineo and sang the songs pretty decently.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: I think they could have gotten I mean, if we
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: did some more in the studio on it probably would
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: have been able.
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: To get around. It's a sad story. It really is
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: a story all the way around. But definitely an essential
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: album for somebody to listen to.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: Five hundred and one Essential albums of the eighties. It's
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: out now. Find out where books are sold and look
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: for at your nearest bookstore too. Go to book on
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: rock dot com. You can find your nearest independent bookstore.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: And where can people find you online?
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: Gary, They can find me at graph on Music on
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: x Gary, graf On Music on Facebook, Real graph On
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: Music on Instagram, and Graphon Music on Blue Sky Cool.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Now you do plan one more right, seventies I.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: Hope may maybe more than one more where we have
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: started the seventies spreadsheet, So that's.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Fun on The sixties will be fun.
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: Sixties will be fun too. Those are the to me,
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: those are the four crucial album decades. We could do
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: an odds at two thousands, it wouldn't feel quite the same,
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: but those other decades were such album decades. So so
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: hopefully if people want to want to see those, you know,
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: please buy copies of the eighties and nineties books, so
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: we can get a green light, certainly for the seventies.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: I feel bad if we couldn't get to the seventies
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: because that's where the you know, that's where the album
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: really came into its own as the primary art form
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: of popular music. You know, the sixties were where it began,
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: but the seventies was where it really became that primary
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: art form. So I'd really like like the crack to
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: figure out which led Zeppelin album we're going to leave
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: out or or you know what. Thank goodness, the Beatles
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: didn't have many albums in the seventies, you know, but
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: the Stones did, and you know, so many We have
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: this problem in the eighties to so many significant acts
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: that released significant albums every freaking year, And so how
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: do you get your head around that and knock it
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: down to five hundred and one. We've done it twice.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: I guess we'll be able to do it again.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it makes it's a super fun read, and
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: it's a great conversation starter. If you're having some friends over, Yeah,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: brack that open and start discussing. You're bound to get
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: in a few few few arguments.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, and that's that's like I said in the introduction
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: to the Nineties book, these are books that are meant
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: to cause arguments, hopefully joyous arguments. As I said earlier
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: that our interviewsic.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: Rebels in Gary Graf, thank you again, man.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Always a pleasure, it really is. I hope we get
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: to do another one and keep this rolling. That's it.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: It's in the books.