"Slut Me Out 3": the most exuberant song ever to promise "fuck her till my dick bleeding." Not to mention "shit in the cup and the bitch might drink it."
1984 up for me 'cos Brad just posted his Top 20 1984 albs on his Substack Notes (see link below), so's time for me to swoop in and challenge, augment, and troll him with my singles. Won't have time to dive deep to e.g. find out what was happening in country music, in Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, etc. (I remember excitedly seeing Charlie Palmieri play a park in Brooklyn that August). But am trying to fill out some things, and very definitely '84 contains the seeds of my asking a couple of years later in Readers' Poll Oct. 1986 "Why does music of the 1980s suck?" (indie-alternative flowering but also disappointing, way fewer oddball-goofball post-disco dance singles making their way to my ears than in 1981, hip-hop creating interesting sparks but seemingly nowhere near the ebullience of 1980 (nor as stunning as what's to come), the synth-pop-rock amalgam not as exciting as what was promised a year earlier from Soulsonic Force, etc.) (the "seemingly" and "make their way to my ears" in the previous parenthesis indicating that it may well have all been there but I simply missed it both at the time and in retrospect) while ALSO contains, unheard by me, the seeds of what was to make me change my mind by late '87 or early '88 about music sucking, in fact '80s turning out to be the great dance decade: freestyle and Italo disco and hair metal, oh my! And frustratingly for my list, it seems to have been an off-year for *recordings* in freestyle (both the band and genre), in Miami, in Canada, and the best of hair metal and of "West End Girls" was to come. (See "seemingly" and "made their way to my ears" caveats, but even more so.)
AND, of the first five songs I thought of off the top of my head for a top twenty, *four* turned out to actually be 1983: Shannon "Let The Music Play," Dimples D "Suckapella" (on the B-side of the "Sucker D.J.'s" 12-inch), Womack & Womack "Love Wars," Run-DMC "Sucker M.C.'s" - well, my memory was already thinking that "Sucker M.C.'s" was 1983 but I needed to check; I *did* already know that "When I Hear Music" and "Looking For The Perfect Beat" and "Holiday" were 1983; so, it turns out, are Spandau Ballet's "True," Bananarama's "Cruel Summer"; also from 1983 (all these on a 1984 singles list that Chuck did for Rolling Stone in 2017): J. Blackfoot's "Taxi" (a keeper that I just listened to for the first time (afaik) a couple of days ago), Lionel Richie's "Stuck On You," John Cougar Mellencamp's "Pink Houses," and Nena's "99 Luftballons." Of course, I can't tell you about year of impact on any of these, but I've just given you a slamming top 13 for 1983, and you haven't even started!
Yep -- there were several 1983 Madonna singles on my shortlist, plus Shannon and Bananarama and Nena. (Debbie Deb made my list.) Was mostly responding to widespread opinion that 1984 is a banner pop year, one that I've never had any particular connection to, and thinking about how interesting 1962 turned out.
I've been using the descriptor "babydoll voiced" for a while now without ever expecting someone would mic up an actual baby, which sounds great. Also, lazy works for me, and notice that actual living musicians found work making beats on that track without it sounding dated. The integration of live and digital music making is a work in progress but might just be the future.
"Slut Me Out 3": the most exuberant song ever to promise "fuck her till my dick bleeding." Not to mention "shit in the cup and the bitch might drink it."
He finally found the audio mix to suppress my gag reflex (NLE Choppa don’t use that image in the next version challenge)
1984 up for me 'cos Brad just posted his Top 20 1984 albs on his Substack Notes (see link below), so's time for me to swoop in and challenge, augment, and troll him with my singles. Won't have time to dive deep to e.g. find out what was happening in country music, in Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, etc. (I remember excitedly seeing Charlie Palmieri play a park in Brooklyn that August). But am trying to fill out some things, and very definitely '84 contains the seeds of my asking a couple of years later in Readers' Poll Oct. 1986 "Why does music of the 1980s suck?" (indie-alternative flowering but also disappointing, way fewer oddball-goofball post-disco dance singles making their way to my ears than in 1981, hip-hop creating interesting sparks but seemingly nowhere near the ebullience of 1980 (nor as stunning as what's to come), the synth-pop-rock amalgam not as exciting as what was promised a year earlier from Soulsonic Force, etc.) (the "seemingly" and "make their way to my ears" in the previous parenthesis indicating that it may well have all been there but I simply missed it both at the time and in retrospect) while ALSO contains, unheard by me, the seeds of what was to make me change my mind by late '87 or early '88 about music sucking, in fact '80s turning out to be the great dance decade: freestyle and Italo disco and hair metal, oh my! And frustratingly for my list, it seems to have been an off-year for *recordings* in freestyle (both the band and genre), in Miami, in Canada, and the best of hair metal and of "West End Girls" was to come. (See "seemingly" and "made their way to my ears" caveats, but even more so.)
AND, of the first five songs I thought of off the top of my head for a top twenty, *four* turned out to actually be 1983: Shannon "Let The Music Play," Dimples D "Suckapella" (on the B-side of the "Sucker D.J.'s" 12-inch), Womack & Womack "Love Wars," Run-DMC "Sucker M.C.'s" - well, my memory was already thinking that "Sucker M.C.'s" was 1983 but I needed to check; I *did* already know that "When I Hear Music" and "Looking For The Perfect Beat" and "Holiday" were 1983; so, it turns out, are Spandau Ballet's "True," Bananarama's "Cruel Summer"; also from 1983 (all these on a 1984 singles list that Chuck did for Rolling Stone in 2017): J. Blackfoot's "Taxi" (a keeper that I just listened to for the first time (afaik) a couple of days ago), Lionel Richie's "Stuck On You," John Cougar Mellencamp's "Pink Houses," and Nena's "99 Luftballons." Of course, I can't tell you about year of impact on any of these, but I've just given you a slamming top 13 for 1983, and you haven't even started!
Here's the link to Brad's list:
https://substack.com/@bradluen/note/c-72991413
and to "Suckapella"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK8_d10saIY
Yep -- there were several 1983 Madonna singles on my shortlist, plus Shannon and Bananarama and Nena. (Debbie Deb made my list.) Was mostly responding to widespread opinion that 1984 is a banner pop year, one that I've never had any particular connection to, and thinking about how interesting 1962 turned out.
I've been using the descriptor "babydoll voiced" for a while now without ever expecting someone would mic up an actual baby, which sounds great. Also, lazy works for me, and notice that actual living musicians found work making beats on that track without it sounding dated. The integration of live and digital music making is a work in progress but might just be the future.
it's certainly our route out of the antonoff synth soup plague!
though I would argue it does sound dated (at least dated to 2019, though)
Also, the new Sophie Hunter ep Wail is amazing, her back catalog wall to wall bangers, why didn't Substack tell me?
Was about to say I was on it but no, I’m thinking of Sophie Powers! Will check it out