Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 98

Excellent work as always, Dave. I'd never heard “I Get Off On It” before and I can't stop laughing. That lyric is hilarious. How in the world did that get any airplay in 1980? I remember seeing it on the Hot 100 at the time and I always wondered what it was about, considering the title.

Maybe White Lion was a hair metal band for those who weren't really into hair metal. I always liked their stuff and really wasn't into too many other bands of their ilk. “Wait” has a great hook.

I really liked Wet Wet Wet's first album. The three singles from it all hit the UK top ten, (#6, #5, and #5, in fact) with “Angel Eyes (Home And Away)” being my favorite. They seem to be one of those British bands whose sound is peculiarly British, so they never crossed over to the US (kind of like Mud and Status Quo). They were huge stars in the UK, and I even saw their lead singer, Marti Pellow, play Billy Flynn in a production of “Chicago” at London's West End back in 2002. Other random note about WWW: all the guys were really short. I have no idea why I remember that.

And I totally agree with you that the image of Wham's first few singles didn't seem to match up to their visual image! They really didn't take off until they became less rebellious, though. I remember the very first time I saw the video for “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” – on Night Tracks on WTBS over Labor Day weekend, 1984. I remember being a little shocked at just how gay George Michael was – I mean, that one scene where he rolls his eyes? Wow. When he came out later and said he didn't realize that he was gay until around 1989, I remember thinking, well, man, you just should have asked me! I could have told you much earlier.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Following this series has really given me a better appreciation for why the grunge movement had to happen in the early '90s.

I can still recite the entirety of “Five Minutes of Funk”…I've never grown tired of it.

So pull your bottom off the tree stump.

There WAS one bright spot on the first Wham! album, but you had to dig for it – it was the ballad “Nothing Looks the Same in the Light”. I still think some R&B singer or group needs to cover that track and have a top ten single.

Music from the Edge of Heaven was the sound of the band disintergrating. They had to add a live track, a cover of one of their “old” hits (“old” meaning from four years ago), AND use the extended remix of one of their previous singles (“I'm Your Man”) just to make the damn thing long enough to be CALLED an album. It's amazing there's anything good on there, but “Edge of Heaven” is one of my favorite tracks. I loved the opening verse – “I would lock you up but I could not bear to hear you screaming to be set free/I would chain you up if I thought you'd swear the only thing that mattered was me, me, me.” That's pretty heady stuff for mid-80s pop.

I've always loved “I Get Off on It”. I can't recall where I first heard it, but I had it on 45 for many years, and it ended up on mixtapes a lot.

I remember seeing the video for “I'll Be Around” on VH-1 Classics, and getting excited, since I had yet to track it down. And then thinking “…really? That's it?”

On a similar note, Maurice White's “Stand By Me”. So you've been in a band for years, usually in the shadow of another lead singer. So you finally step out on your own…and do a cover version? That's precisely the path Martin L Gore did, as well. Twice in fact. I would assume that it'd be a chance to be egocentric, and show the world how you could carry the ball yourself. Are these artists afraid to “go it alone” whole hog? Or were these just songs they always wanted to record, but couldn't convince their lead singers to do?

I know I've heard “Wishing I Was Lucky” before, but it didn't quite stick in the brain. It's now on the mental maxi-single wishlist, as I bet it would benefit from an extended remix.

I remember seeing the video for “Wake Me Up Before You Go Squared” for the first time and wondering if George an' Andrew had been born again, hence the “Choose Life” tees. “Young Guns” is my favorite Fantastic track for its vicious use of the phrase “Hey sucker”.

You forgot the most important factor about “I'll Be Around”…its producer. that's right, sports fans, it's another TODD RUNDGREN SIGHTING! The WIT record I want to track down is their 1984 EP, Squeezed. Here's why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntcFfSPctk8

I was at a suburban sports bar a month ago for a new 80s night a DJ friend is trying out. Nobody danced for the first hour, but I did see quite a few patrons mouthing along to one song in particular: “The Promise”. Solid proof of its endurance. “Heaven Knows” is decent as you said, but it should have been cut in a different key in order to sound less like a “Promise” clone.

You know what really made Maurice White's “Stand by Me” passé? The resurgence of the Ben E. King original a year later. Mickey Gilley's ballad treatment from Urban Cowboy isn't bad either.

“I Get Off on It” will be worked into my Bottom Feeders S-Z special (temporarily scheduled for the first week of June after our next pledge drive). Tony Joe was already tops in my book for writing “Rainy Night in Georgia” and “Polk Salad Annie”. Now this.

The Who are my third-fave band of all time, behint the Beach Boys and Betales and just before Talking Heads. It's Hard was the first 'oo album I ever owned, thanks to Columbia House. It's no threat to the early classics, but it has its merits, particularly on side two. “Eminence Front” easily takes Best Song I Was Already Familiar With honors. (FYI, this is the corrected-first chorus version from the '97 reissue. If you want the actual charting rendition, pick up the original 45 or LP if you don't have either. See the second paragraph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminence_Front#Wri…)

“Friends” I'll always associate with a youth-group lock-in I was part of in high school. We went to a roller rink and it was playing as one of my then-best friends and I hit the floor.

Bracing myself for Bruno…

It might also be a case of the parent band not wanting their principle songwriter hoarding prime material for himself, at least in Gore's case. The first Counterfeit is a favorite of mine; it sounds little more than a Depeche covers project without Gahan, but I'm fine with that. By coincidence, it's been suggested by Roger Daltrey (among others) that Pete Townshend saved his best work from the late 70s on for his solo albums, making Face Dances and It's Hard less spectacular to most ears.

No idea When in Rome charted a second time. Wow.

For all intents and purposes. George Michael was the first male white rapper. “Wham! Rap” came out in '82. I don't remember hearing the Beasties until summer of '86. I remember seeing the “Bad Boys” video on TV back when they were still called Wham! U.K. Considering the vibe of that first album, “Wake Me Up…” sounded like it came from a different band entirely. I will co-sign what an earlier commenter noted about “Nothing Looks the Same in the Light”. It's really the only song on Wham!'s first album (which is cheesy, but not altogether bad) that hints at how good a songwriter George Michael would become.

I think the only reason Maurice White's solo album even existed is because of “Easy Lover”, Either Maurice himself or someone at Columbia had to have been like “well, if Philip can have a successful solo album, then why can't Maurice?” For what it's worth, I like both “Stand by Me” and “I Need You”, and there were a couple other good songs on that album.

Bracing myself for Bruce Willis indeed . . .

I own and have listened to the What Is This album! I meant to go back and listen to it again before this week rolled around and never found the time. I can't remember a thing from it – so it wasn't too memorable, that's for sure. Maybe I'll listen this weekend and update…

Both Who albums don't get much respect because they were the first albums released after Keith Moon's death. And at the time, Kenney Jones was not an adequate replacement. The power of Keith's drums was sorely missing.

Also, there was a sense that Pete was saving the best material for his solo albums, an opinion that Roger seemed to share. So, in comparison. “It's Hard” and “Face Dances” suffer.

That said, I think they are both really good albums that more than meet what their continual rivals, the Stones, were putting out at the time. “Eminence Front” is amazing, “Athena” has those killer lyrics and the horn section and the kick-ass “You Better You Bet” ranks up there with the band's finest work. I believe one of the albums received 4 stars from Rolling Stone and the other received 5.

FYI: A totally different take on “Eminence Front” is on Townshend's “Scoop” LP.

White had been around a while…he had a big hit in the early 70s called “Polk Salad Annie” and wrote songs that became hits at the time for Dusty Springfield (“Willie and Laura Mae Jones”) and Elvis (“I Got A Thing About You Baby”). He later wrote “Steamy Windows” for Tina Turner, which came within two chart positions of appearing in your column a couple of weeks ago. I'll email you another song by him which I think you'll like, being somewhat in the same vein as “I Get Off On It”. Which, indeed, is pretty unique and amazing.

I actually kind of liked the first Wham! album. Go fig.

I liked Whistle for their rap stuff, not their ballads. If nothing else, they gave the world the classic chorus: “We're called Whistle, and this is true/We like to do the things that we're not supposed to do/We don't mean robbing, or stealing, or mugging/In fact don't take it seriously, we're only bugging.” True that. Always liked Whodini, too.

Between this, the Three O'Clock article, and the Rowlf the Dog one, you guys sure gave me a lot of good stuff to read today and a lot of stuff to download tonight! (Couldn't wait to here the Tony Joe White song, had to get that right away!) Thanks, as always.

So I'm the only one who likes the What Is This version of “I'll Be Around”? I bought the 45 when it was out. I like how they updated the Spinners' original (which I also love) but didn't mess around with the basic melody or structure. It worked for me (and only me, it seems!).

Whodini's “Freaks Come Out At Night” did bubble under the Hot 100 at #104. That's the only song by them that I knew before this series, so I was surprised too that it didn't hit the Hot 100.

Oh, I'm in favor of it, too. It won't replace the original, but how many covers do? I think I might have had a 12″ years ago, should track it down again.

The EP was Squeezed – came out a year or so before the self-titled record that had “I'll Be Around” on it. That I don't own.

there's a promo of the CD up on ebay now with a BRUTAL review of the album. wow. it just trashes it.

Huh. I kind of like the mis-timed vocals in Eminence Front. Moving the vocal to the center is a definite improvement, though.

I have it and like it. That Spinners cover doesn't sound too much like the rest of the album… it's all still sort of light eighties, but the timing of the songs is quirky, and the trebly guitar licks are interesting. Had some songs like “chasing your ghost” and “dreaming” and “my mind still have I” which first come to mind. It's been out of print for quite some time…. most of the songs are posted on youtube to hear.