Rich Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Yes there was a lot of dross during the 80s, but 1) there was also an awful lot of absolutely fantastic music too and 2) every decade has its good and bad, and I think the 80s gets an undeserved bad ride. Oh, and 3) the 80s was the decade when I started playing bass, left school, got a job, bought a car, bought my Wal , joined an amazing band, played a whole load of gigs in London, nearly landed a record contract , fell in love, left home, bought a house, etc etc. IT WAS A FABULOUS DECADE and I would go back in a heartbeat if I could. *wistful sigh* 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 4 minutes ago, Rich said: Yes there was a lot of dross during the 80s, but 1) there was also an awful lot of absolutely fantastic music too and 2) every decade has its good and bad, and I think the 80s gets an undeserved bad ride. Oh, and 3) the 80s was the decade when I started playing bass, left school, got a job, bought a car, bought my Wal , joined an amazing band, played a whole load of gigs in London, nearly landed a record contract , fell in love, left home, bought a house, etc etc. IT WAS A FABULOUS DECADE and I would go back in a heartbeat if I could. *wistful sigh* Whereas the '60s is worshipped and revered, when there was even more, let's be nice and say 'sub par', output. To be clear, I was brought up in the '60s, so it's not as if I don't have a connection to it. For me the '70s and '80s were decades when not only were there significant changes, but the level of musicianship seemed to increase too. It was born out of the '60s certainly, but one swallow (or two) does not make a summer, to coin a phrase. As ever, YMMV. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I do love the 1980s. I have been known to dep for an 80s rock band on occasion, in fact 3 years ago today we were in the south of France at the Montalivet Showbike festival closing the Friday night shenanigans. Great fun, the act on immediately before us was a number of striptease acts. Both male and female. Bonkers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I'm currently in an 80s duo. Keyboards and live guitar with backing tracks. There are so many good songs from the 80s. our set includes Wham! Culture Club Men without hats Duran Elton john (I'm still standing) Queen (Radio GaGa) Rick Springfield ABC Billy Idol, Survivor, Bon Jovi, Bryan adams, Depeche mode Dexys, Men at work, Erasure, Genesis, Ultravox, Toto, Howard jones, Huey lewis, KC and the sunshine band (give it up, cracking song) Kim Wilde, Lionel Ritchie, OMD, Pet shop boys, Frankie goes to Hollywood,, Soft Cell, A-Ha, The Police, Yazoo so many good songs 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 There was some great music made in the 80's and legendary bands were still on the road. Delbert McClinton released Live In Austin, Little Feat relaunched with Craig Fuller fronting the band. The Allman Brothers, Gerry Rafferty, BB King, Bobby Bland, Doobie Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire, John Hyatt, Jeff Beck, Stevie Wonder, Ry Cooder, Bruce Springsteen. The list goes on. . . . . . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Rich said: Whoops. Not a bit of it ... @MacDaddy has now named some songs, but it was a long wait! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 On 21/06/2020 at 18:09, Happy Jack said: I'm still waiting for someone - anyone - to name a single song from the 80s that I have ever covered, with any band, ever. I don't understand what you mean. Songs you have or haven't covered 'scuse my thickness here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 On 21/06/2020 at 18:09, Happy Jack said: I'm still waiting for someone - anyone - to name a single song from the 80s that I have ever covered, with any band, ever. 2 hours ago, police squad said: I don't understand what you mean. Songs you have or haven't covered 'scuse my thickness here I think Jack is just fishing to see if anyone bought his concept album of The Birdie Song. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 16 hours ago, Lozz196 said: I think Jack is just fishing to see if anyone bought his concept album of The Birdie Song. I feel a Basschat competition coming on -- record The Birdie Song in as many different time signatures and genres as possible. Please can someone do a prog metal version? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubit Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Every decade has good and bad music. I was born in the 60's, so my main memories of liking music was the 80's but the 90's was even better for me with grunge coming along. Even today I love new music just as much as the older stuff. If it's good, I like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 (edited) On 21/06/2020 at 14:38, casapete said: To be fair though, didn’t the good 80’s stuff decline during the decade? Most of your great list does still have a late 70’s feel to it ( except Green Onions, obv.) 😄 The 80s music went down the pan when Stock Aitken and Waterman raised their heads. Ive been watching the re-runs of TOTP from the 1980s and there’s a huge variety of stuff for most of the decade, some bad, some good. But by about 1988 it solidified into identikit soft pop dross by SAW and fronted by Kylie, Jason, Sinita, Sonia etc which just seemed to dominate the charts forever after. And that High-80s era of big shoulder pads, mullets, bingy-boingy electro noises etc seems to be the stuff that’s aged least well. Edited June 26, 2020 by bassbiscuits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 I went to Canada for a wedding a few years back and the wedding function band were just full on 1980s and were absolutely brilliant! Half the smarty dressed guests got changed into neon, legwarmers etc and everyone danced their a..es off. Was an excellent night. They were weirdly called Val Kilmer and the New Coke. (Nope me neither...). Quality tho. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubit Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, bassbiscuits said: The 80s music went down the pan when Stock Aitken and Waterman raised their heads. This! I used to dislike pop bands like Duran Duran etc. Then Stock Aitken and co. came along and started the manufactured rubbish that we now know of as real pop. Now I realise all those bands I disliked were decent musicians who played and wrote their own music. For the record I like Duran Duran now. Edited June 26, 2020 by ubit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubit Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 33 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said: I went to Canada for a wedding a few years back and the wedding function band were just full on 1980s and were absolutely brilliant! Half the smarty dressed guests got changed into neon, legwarmers etc and everyone danced their a..es off. Was an excellent night. They were weirdly called Val Kilmer and the New Coke. (Nope me neither...). Quality tho. I just looked them up on Youchoob. They are indeed really good! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnyman Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 I’m in an eighties cover band. Before I joined I would have taken the view that (largely because of Stock, Aitken and Waterman and my own prejudice) the 80s was a decade full of absolute dross. Turns out that - not for the first time in my life - I was completely wrong. Once you get past S, A & W, there are some cracking songs and some superb bass parts. And this thread has given me a bunch of good suggestions to give to the band...thanks, everyone 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 My usual answer to the oft-heard accusation that '80s music was all skill-less manufactured crap' is to tell the accuser to listen to Duran's 'Rio', Level 42's 'World Machine', Go West's 'Bangs & Crashes' (and any one of a million others), and then try telling me it was all skill-less manufactured crap. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassman68 Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 I play in an 80's covers band, which focus on the more 'synth era' stuff.....I love it! I cut my teeth on bass in the 80's, so playing this stuff is like revisiting where I learnt to play.. Thompson twins, China crisis, Howard Jones, Duran duran, Nik Kershaw, Kajagoogoo etc. I'm in heaven? Bassbiscuits is right about SAW ruining the decade, but I feel it was the progress of the computer technology in the sampling,looping,drum machine etc. which started to create the demise for real musicians? Once the sequencers took over, all that was required was a face to front the song? I realise a lot of those bands I mention used sequencers etc. but they still had a 'band' to perform it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 49 minutes ago, Skinnyman said: I’m in an eighties cover band. Before I joined I would have taken the view that (largely because of Stock, Aitken and Waterman and my own prejudice) the 80s was a decade full of absolute dross. Turns out that - not for the first time in my life - I was completely wrong. Once you get past S, A & W, there are some cracking songs and some superb bass parts. And this thread has given me a bunch of good suggestions to give to the band...thanks, everyone The 80s is a fab genre for us low enders. For those, like me, who like* the sound and feel of fretless, it's when the bumpless beast© was often front and centre in everyday 'pop' songs. * love in my case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Actually I think you SAW bashers are partly wrong here. We play, Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley, it goes down a storm. Rick is a great singer and some of the songs SAW wrote were good songs. Granted about Kylie, I don't like her voice but she can do it live as can Jason Donnovan. SAW production made it all sound too similar which I think was the real problem. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 The mid 70's to mid 80's was my decade off, family, job, house, etc, so I missed out on most of the names listed here first time around. Since then I've played a lot of 80's songs and every one has been a well crafted piece of music. IMO it's the good music that defines an era not the bad music. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 The issue I have with 'the 80s label' has pretty much been summed in this thread. There was a huge diversity of popular music in the 80s and the changes which different genres went through and the speed at which those changes happened was immense and exciting. The 80s get remembered for the cheesy pop, but the alternative and indie scene was incredible. I'd love to see an 80s band that did an upbeat, danceable set of alternative classics, New Model Army's Get Me Out, Sisters of Mercy's This Corrosion, The The's Infected, etc. The 80s started with the last throws of punk and disco, punk led to post punk, new wave and the new romantics. From the disco scene there came rap which led to hip hop, then the acid house and rave scene, and the beginnings of the Manchester indie scene. Metal was huge with the NWOBHM and 'the big four' of the thrash scene were huge in the 80s. Goth and alternative was at its height, and we haven't even started on the 'pop' that the 80s gets remembered for. I'd say the 80s was quite possibly the most diverse decade for popular music with the biggest growth and change out of any decade. Music released today could've been released a decade ago and you wouldn't really know but most music from '89 could never be mistaken for music from' 79. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnyman Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 45 minutes ago, police squad said: SAW production made it all sound too similar which I think was the real problem. That’s my issue with it. The songs and singers were okay - just the production that made it all sound the same 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 2 hours ago, ubit said: I just looked them up on Youchoob. They are indeed really good! Yeah they were mint. Combined with too many tequila cocktails I had a grand old evening! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 9 minutes ago, Maude said: I'd love to see an 80s band that did an upbeat, danceable set of alternative classics, New Model Army's Get Me Out, Sisters of Mercy's This Corrosion, The The's Infected, etc. Funny you should say that... at one time, I did toy with the idea of putting together an 80s band covering the more alt/indie/rock-oriented stuff of the time, e.g. early Simple Minds, Black Sea-era XTC (would love to do Generals and Majors), Cult, etc. I didn't go through with it in the end, but I bloody wish I had now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 I think 80’s and I think REM, RHCP, and U2, two of whom I like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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