Category: 1986

Songs published in 1981

French Wanderlust

On 9 September 2022

In 1986, 80ies, Around The World

It’s a rare occasion for a French song to get to the top of the charts in countries that do not speak the language, which might explain why Claudie Fritsch-Mentrop, better known by her stage name “Desireless” is kind of considered a one-hit-wonder outsider her native France. But “Voyage Voyage” made it to the top in several countries, including the UK and Ireland, West Germany (you do remember there used to be two Germanies, don’t you?), Norway and Spain. Ironically it only made it to second place in France itself.

Fritsch-Mentrop was originally in fashion design and started her singing career relatively late, after a trip to India. She created the androgynous and cold persona of Desireless and had a falling out with her label as they wanted too much influence in the character for her taste.

While she’s still performing and writing new songs she was never able to reproduce the fame outside France.

Probably the only music video featured on our blog that prominently mentions its director.

This Time Run That Way

By vanElden

On 20 July 2022

In 1986, 80ies

Yesterday we talked about a terrible chimera produced by mixing two genres. In order to soften the impact a little let’s have a look at an example where doing that went just fine:

Originally released by Aerosmith in 1975, “Walk This Way” was a fairly successful rock song, one of a number of hits that gained them some traction. But it wouldn’t be until ten years later, when Run-D.M.C. covered the song, creating a cornerstone for the subgenre of “Rap Rock” (which would have a good go up to the early noughties, when it kind of trickled out), that the song really came to shine. While half of Run-D.M.C. had never even heard the name “Aerosmith” and none of them knew the song or lyrics in it’s entirety, they just so happened to freestyle over the first few seconds of the song during their shows. But when Rick Rubin pulled out the song while working on their album “Rising Hell” and proposed to do a proper cover he met quite some resistance.

They were in a for a surprise themselves, when the song – which they had not intended at all to become a single – eventually started to get lots of airplay on urban and rock stations. In the end, it would mark a comeback for Aerosmith as well, who at that time were at the brink of being disbanded, but were able to follow up with a number of multi-platinum albums.

If you have followed the course and done your homework, you should by now spot the reference to Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” at the beginning.

Half the Work for the Bassist

By vanElden

On 4 July 2022

In 1986, 80ies, Around The World

Music is and always has been political. So it’s about time we’re going to deal with a song where this was a huge deal. In hindsight Paul Simon’s album “Graceland” turned out to bring much-needed attention to African talent. But the decision to work around the cultural boycott, put into place due to the country’s Apartheid regime, was very controversial at the time.

The bass-solo in “You Can Call Me Al”, short as it is, certainly is one of the most iconic ones in pop history. Simon had taken extra care with all the bass lines on “Graceland” at the time. But with this solo, even though it’s not that long, they went another mile:

What we hear is actually double of what was originally recorded, with the second half being the palindromic result of playing the recording backwards. Genius. And so good, that I can even live with finding out that what I thought to know about the solo (embodying the notion that it was recorded in a telephone booth in the streets of Johannesburg due to conflicting schedules) turns out to be an urban myth…

Despite the controversies, Graceland would become Simon’s most successful solo studio-album and that it came at a bit of a low point in his life, with his relationships to both parter-in-crime Art Garfunkel and partner-in-life Carrie Fisher having deteriorated, fits the song just well, seeing how it tells the story of a mid-life crisis in general and his journey to South Africa in particular.

Paul Simon is the guy on the left.

The Mannequin Band

By vanElden

On 28 June 2022

In 1986, 80ies, Must-See-Video

While it’s a simple enough concept, the video to Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” back in 1986 provided us with a proper “WTF” moment. It certainly was one of the most noted ones of the era.

The concept of five models of the time as a – quite obviously fake – band was so iconic, that it would be recycled by Robert Palmer in two further videos – but much more noteably in 2003’s epic rom-com “Love Actually”, where the video is parodied by models going one step further when it comes to blank expressions, to the point of being obviously bored to death.

The video that would define a genre

By vanElden

On 24 June 2022

In 1986, 80ies, Must-See-Video

No, it was not the first video by far to accompany a song. MTV had existed for a good five years by the time Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” came out in 1986. Nevertheless, this was a game-changer. Combining a number of techniques that had been tried out tentatively before, this video would become the definition of what the term “Music-Video” would mean in the future. It featured heavily in MTV’s then-famous self-referential clips. It required Peter, at the time still mostly of Genesis-fame, to spend 16 hours lying under a glass sheet and it won 9 MTV awards in 1987, to this day the most any video ever won.