Phil Collins makes his solo debut in America on the Tomorrow Show

Phil Collins : You Know What I Mean

On August 3, 1981 Genesis frontman Phil Collins made his first solo appearance in the United States on NBC's Tomorrow Show starring Tom Snyder. He performed "In The Air Tonight" and "You Know What I Mean". He explained how the album Face Value came as a result of a "personal tidal wave". Collins would score seven #1 hit singles and two #1 albums in the United States during the 1980's.

 

Female Bonding celebrated on The Go-Go's debut Beauty and the Beat

Go Go's : This Town

On July 8, 1981 The Go Go's released their debut album, Beauty and the Beat, on IRS Records. It would take nine months and MTV, but the album topped the US charts for six weeks beginning in March of 1982."We Got The Beat", a #2 hit, introduced American audiences to the five musicians who came across as best friends. 

"This Town" is the mission statement. /"We all know the chosen toys/ Of catty girls and pretty boys". As Rob Sheffield writes in the Spin Alternative Guide:

In Go-Go's songs, the pretty boys just kept their mouths shut and preened, while the catty girls took center stage to make up that face, jump in the race, and get dressed up to get messed up, whether flashing their underwear in public fountains or prowling by night. The Go-Go.'s eventually developed a knack for songs about men ("Turn To You", "Yes Or No"), but their grand theme was always femme bonding : we rules the streets tonight, this town is our town, our lips are sealed.

The best Go-Go's songs begin with tomboy Gina Schock laying down the beat.

While American critics swooned, the English were less taken with the album .Robert Eggar from the NME summed up the album writing that 

"The Go-Go's play sixties pop for the eighties with a seventies philosophy. This record is three years of struggling with instruments, of sleeping on floors in strange cities, of flirting too close with an easy terminal escape from reality. It sounds like a joyous, bubbling celebration by five cute girls, with no thoughts inside their darling little heads save for tonight's beach party."

But there's also some disillusionment with the seedy side of Hollywood night life, summed up on "Tonite," "Lust to Love," and "This Town", which includes lyrics that provide a counterpoint to that joyous MTV video: We're all dreamers, we're all whores/ Discarded stars/ Like worn out cars ".

Beauty and The Beat finished #10 in the Village Voice Pazz and Jop critics poll. It topped Greil Marcus's list:

GREIL MARCUS: 

Go-Go's: Beauty and the Beat (I.R.S.) 20; 

David Lindley: El-Rayo-X (Asylum) 20; 

Red Crayola with Art & Language: Kangaroo? (Rough Trade) 15; 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Reactor (Reprise) 10; 

The Mekons (Red Rhino import) 10; 

Joy Division: Still (Factory import) 5; 

Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates (Warner Bros.) 5; 

The "King" Kong Compilation (Mango) 5; 

Au Pairs: Playing with a Different Sex (Human) 5; 

Raincoats: Odyshape (Rough Trade) 5. 

 

July 1981 : That's When I Reach For My New ELO Album

Mission of Burma : That's When I Reach For My Revolver

 On July 4, 1981 Mission of Burma released their debut EP Signals, Calls and Marches on the Ace of Hearts label. Best known for “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” and “ All World Cowboy Romance”, the “Marquee Moon” of post-punk, the EP’s intense, noisy, yet catchy punk rock sound nearly instantly transformed alternative rock and what we played on college rock radio. My favorite EP of the year, the CD version includes the first single “Academy Fight Song/Max Ernst” and other extra tracks.

Gang of Four : To Hell With Poverty

On July 3, 1981, Gang of Four released the single “To Hell With Poverty”, perfectly encapsulating the Reagan/Thatcher attitude towards people of lesser means. The punky funk number became a dance club hit in America where cheap wine comes in refrigerated boxes.

Foreigner : Urgent

As July of 1981 began, a new song topped FM rock station playlists.  Featuring synthesizers programmed and played by an unknown Thomas Dolby and a sax solo by the legendary Junior Walker, “Urgent” was one of the great booty call songs of the decade. The first single from 4, “Urgent” was a US#4 hit. The album is also a huge seller because most listeners aren't as annoyed as I am by Lou Gramm constantly pushing his vocal range to the breaking point (ie "He heard one guitar/juts blew him away" on "Juke Box Hero").

Electric Light Orchestra : Hold On Tight

Electric Light Orchestra : Yours Truly, 2095

Like a lot of fans I walked away from Electric Light Orchestra following the Xanadu soundtrack and I now realize that was a big mistake. For Time, released July 2, 1981, a concept album about time travel, Jeff Lynne traded his orchestra strings for the sounds of synth pop.  Gary Numan and OMD  are often mentioned as influences, but I hear a lot of New Musik. The album spent two weeks at the top of the UK charts. Its reputation has grown over the decades especially among science fiction fans. I'm posting "Hold On Tight" because it was the only American hit and the music video was the most expensive ever made at the time. But check out "Yours Truly, 2095" to hear why fans were originally baffled by the new ELO.

 

What's a Doll To Do? David Johansen and Syl Sylvain releases

                                                 David Johansen : She Loves Strangers

When the New York Dolls lost their recording contract the band split up with Johnny Thunder and Jerry Nolan forming The Heartbreaks and Syl Sylvain teaming up with David Johansen for Johansen's solo career. Sylvain helped with the songwriting on a couple of songs here but this is mostly the work of Ex Beach Boy/sideman extraordinaire Blondie Chaplin. Out of the gate, "She Loves Strangers" is the song that connects from Here Comes The Night, released in June of 1981. "Homer" Robert Christgau graded the album a very generous A-, writing "If In Style sounded desperate, this one sounds past caring, and carelessness was always the Dolls' secret. Inspirational Cliché: "You think I'm a whore/But I got a heart of gold."

Sylvain Sylvain : Formidable

Syl Sylvain and the Teardrops is the second solo album from the Dolls guitarist, who passed away in January of 2021. It's a charming pop effort, pretty much lost to history. Hey, I guess that's I do this blog when Trump can't. In any case "Formidable" got some radio airplay in the Summer of '81.

The Specials release the Song of the Year

The Specials : Ghost Town

In June of 1981 The Specials released the Ghost Town EP. The title track would spend three weeks at #1 in the UK and would top the critics end of year polls at the NME, Sounds and Melody Maker. The Village Voice Pazz and Jop Critics poll listed Ghost Town as the best EP of the year as well. 

The song was inspired by a UK tour The Specials did to promote their second album.

In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, "You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down ... We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong."

The song is also a reflection on the band, which had been written off by critics and would soon break up. There's surely enough misery here for everyone.

The Kinks : Better Things

If you're looking to the Kinks to get cheered up, you're out of luck. Despite the title, the UK#46/US#90 "Better Things" is a a breakup song Ray Davies wrote about his failing marriage. This Give The People What They Want track was covered by Pearl Jam and Dar Williams.

 

Future Yo La Tengo/ present day rock critic Ira Kaplan named "Better Things" one of his fave songs of the year.

IRA KAPLAN (alphabetical): 

 Cramps: "Goo Goo Muck"/"She Said" (I.R.S.); 

 Cyclones: "You're So Cool"/"RSVP" (Little Ricky); 

 Fleetwood Mac: "Farmer's Daughter" (Warner Bros.); 

 Funky Four Plus One: "That's the Joint" (Sugarhill); 

 Vic Godard and Subway Sect: "Stop That Girl" (Oddball import); 

 Grace Jones: "Pull Up to the Bumper" (Island); 

 Kinks: "Better Things" (Arista); 

 R.E.M.: "Radio Free Europe"/"Sitting Still" (Hib-Tone); 

 Skeletons: "Trans Am"/"Tell Her I'm Gone" (Borrowed); 

 Voggue: "Dance the Night Away" (Atlantic).

The Freshies: I Can't Get Bouncing Babies By The Teardrop Explodes

Chris Sievey returns with another long-titled single that sounds like something the girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore check-out desk might tell a customer. 

Ben Watt : Can't

Finally future Everything But The Girl Ben Watt releases his first single on Cherry Red Records. It's called, in keeping with this post's theme, "Can't". The song and the two B sides are produced by Kevin Coyne.

Juju is a new peak for Siouxsie And The Banshees

Siouxsie And The Banshees : Arabian Nights

On June 19, 1981 Siouxsie and The Banshees released Juju, one of the albums recorded with Magazine's John McGeoch on guitar. His swirling guitar sound joins Budgie's drumming and Steve Severin's bass playing to create a dark and heavy atmosphere for Siouxsie's commanding vocals. And by commanding, I mean that she commands listeners on Spellbound "When your elders forget to say their prayers, take them by the legs and thrown them down the stairs".

Met with critical acclaim, Juju peaked at UK#7 and was released in North America on PVC in October where the band toured for six weeks, selling out shows in Los Angeles. Severein told Cashbox "We're not interested in cracking America. We like success and our audience seems to be growing all the time, but we'd rather enjoy ourselves than 'slog away' like so many other bands. The desperation to make it really big brings out the worst in people. "

ROCKERILLA BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR 1981 

 1. Siouxsie & the Banshees - Ju Ju 

 2. Joy Division - Still 

 3. Echo & the Bunnymen - Heaven up here 

 4. P.I.L. - The flowers of romance 

 5. New Order - Movement 

 6. Brian Eno & David Byrne - My life in the bush of ghosts 

 7. Motorhead - No sleep till' Hammersmith 

 8. Clock Dva - Thirst 

 9. Psychedelic Furs - Talk talk talk 

 10. Cure - Faith 

 11. Iron Maiden - Killers 

 12. John Foxx - The garden 

 13. Riot - Fire down under 

 14. Bauhaus - Mask 

 15. Lounge Lizards - The Lounge Lizards 

 16. Killing Joke - What' this for 

 17. Tuxedo Moon - Desire 

 18. Exploited - Punk's not dead 

 19. Rip Rig & Panic - God 

 20. Tygers Of Pan Tang - Spellbound

 

Out To Offend : Oingo Boingo's debut and other June 1981 releases

Oingo Boingo : Little Girls

When Oingo Boingo released their debut album Only A Lad on June 19, 1981, the NME's Robin Eggar wrote "this record will make the kind folks up at Virgin Records as sick as parrots. You see Oingo Boingo have made the album they've always wanted XTC to make. Full of fractured rhythms, pop hooks, warped humor and commercial appeal".

The album's most notorious track is "Little Girls", Danny Elfman's character study of the a type he saw  all the time. "Out here in Hollywood, you see so much of that; the older guy's in the car with some young girl who essentially asks no questions," he said. The video , directed by his brother Richard, was banned in Canada.

Some other noteworthy tracks are "Only A Lad", "Capitalism" and their cover of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me".

Killing Joke :  Follow The Leader

On the second Killing Joke album furious tribal drum beating replaced synthesizers  Yes, the songs on What's This For drone on endlessly but that's all for the master effect. Killing Joke played dark and disturbing music, but you definitely could dance to it! Reviews were mixed with Melody Maker's Adam Sweeting providing the dissenting opinion:"a tired and very noisy collection of ripoffs", and deemed the whole effort "unlistenable ... apart from the spaces between the tracks" .

T.S.O.L : Code Blue

In June of 1981 True Sounds of Liberty released their debut album Dance With Me. The band is essentially trying to come up with a fusion of hardcore and "Monster Mash". 

The highlight is "Code Blue", a song about having sex with dead women :

Never on the rag or say leave me alone

They don't scream and they don't moan 

Don't even cry if I shoot in their hair

 Lying on the table she smiles and she stares 

I actually saw TSOL play in New York City. I was so loud I never realized what they were singing about.

Some New Romantics: Double Duran and the Village People

Duran Duran : Girls On Film

On June 15, 1981 Duran Duran released its self-titled debut album, which would peak at UK#3 and US#10 a couple of years later. The A-side is almost entirely made up of hits: the UK#5 "Girls On Film", the UK#12 "Planet Earth", then "Anyone Out There", followed by the UK#37 "Careless Memories"( which sounds an awful lot to me like "A Girl's Mammaries" and, on the reissues, the 1983 UK#1 "Is There Something I Should Know". Duran Duran takes everything they could learn from Roxy Music (including Bryan Ferry's fashion sense) and the dance clubs and melds them together for one of the defining sounds of the decade.

As if pin-up looks weren't enough, the band achieved notoriety for its videos, particularly the Godley and Creme produced "Girls On Film", which featured female models in various stages of undress. Andy Warhol once said he masturbated to Duran Duran videos.

Village People : Food Fight

On the same week in June, The Village People followed up the Razzie Award winning Can't Stop The Music by rebranding. They traded in their costumes and hopped on the New Romantic scene, which was enjoying its heyday with the likes of Adam And The Ants, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran.  It's one of the more bizarre moments in musical history, but people who have taken the time to listen to the Renaissance album say it's not as bad as you might think. Still, the punk rock "Food Fight" may be regrettable.

 

Wordy Rappinghood and other Summer singles from 1981

Tom Tom Club : Wordy Rappinghood

In June of 1981 Tom Tom Club, an offshoot of Talking Heads featuring the husband and wife team of drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth, released the single "Wordy Rappinghood" in the UK. Critics weren't overly astounded. Record Mirror wrote "Bassist Tina Weymouth raps a little stiffly on a funky soundtrack that borrows a lot of the lyrical style of her mentor David Byrne, File under (barely) interesting." How very wrong!

The project wasn't necessarily meant to be appreciated sitting down. The couple wanted to make a song that would be a hit in the clubs. Chris laid down the the drums. Tina added bass. And the two would take turns adding simple keyboard lines. To get the big drum sound of "Wordy Rappinghood", Chris drove downtown to Nassau's only music store where he scored a big fat tympani.

Tina and her sisters remembered a Moroccan song from their childhood and sang it together:

A ram sam sam! A ram sam sam!

Kuni kuni kuni kuni ram sam sam!

A ka yay yoopi a ka yay

A roo roo a nbi ki chi!

"Wordy Rappinghood" topped the US disco charts and peaked at UK#7. In a year of Talking Head solo projects, Chris and Tina would have the biggest hit single and album of 1981.

The Go Gos : Our Lips Are Sealed

On June 12, 1981 The Go Go's released their first debut American single, "Our Lips Are Sealed", co-written by Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall of The Specials. This terrific pop song would peak at US#20 months later thanks in part to a classic music video that showcased the band's personalities. 40 years later it is still one of the great songs of Summer. 

Daryl Hall and John Oates : You Make My Dreams

The irrepressible duo Hall and Oates released "You Make My Dreams", the fourth single from the platinum album Voices. The single works as though it were programmed with every feature a 1981 single would need: a hint of new wave, a touch of soul, and a one shot video. Used to death in every light comedy trying to make its audience feel happy for the characters. 

Tubes : Talk To Ya Later

Gone are the costumes and the wild soft -core stage shows. The Tubes are ready to start making money.

The first single from The Completion Backwards Principle, "Talk To Ya Later" scored a 99% positive rating on WMMR's "Smash Or Trash". It has to be a hit this summer of I'm going to have to get out of radio and manage a McDonald's" said one program director. The single peaked at #7 on the Mainstream Rock chart, but only at US#101. 

Three Hardcore EPs from bands that changed the world

Minor Threat : Straight Edge

In June of 1981 Washington DC hardcore band Minor Threat released its debut EP consisting of 8 self-righteous songs played in 9:20. The 44 second "Straight Edge" is about singer Ian MacKaye's abstinence from drugs and inspired the straight edge movement, which emphasized a lifestyle without alcohol or other drugs, or promiscuous sex.

I'm a person just like you 

But I've got better things to do 

Than sit around and fuck my head 

Hang out with the living dead 

Snort white shit up my nose 

Pass out at the shows 

I don't even think about speed 

That's just something I don't need 

Black Flag : Six Pack

Black Flag releases the three-song single "Six Pack" on SST Records, recorded just before Henry Rollins replaces Dez Cadena on vocals. NME says "It'll take a long time for us Europeans to appreciate the L.A. beach punk scene, that fascinating subculture which still seems to produce the kind of fast, psuedo-angry predictability most of England forgot about years ago. Give thanks". A UK tour at the end of the year was instead met violent silence from audiences.

Meat Puppets : In A Car

Finally The Meat Puppets released their debut EP In A Car on World Imitation Records. Featuring a cover drawn by guitarist Curt Kirkwood, the record features five hardcore songs in 5:18. New York Rocker wrote "The Meat Puppets screech, howl, and make the most racket of any trio this side of The Minutemen. Their credo seems to be "When in doubt, miniaturize," and rather than condense in the manner of Reader's Digest, they compact in the manner of one of those machines that turn cars into boxes".

 

Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook : My All Time Top 10

Squeeze : Tempted

In June of 1981, while his band's East Side Story was receiving critical buzz comparing them to the Beatles,  Squeeze 's Glenn Tilbrook provided Smash Hits with a list of his all time Top 10. Yes, there is a Beatles track there, but there are also quite a few surprises.

 

The Raincoats return with Odyshape

The Raincoats :  Only Loved At Night

On June 1, 1981 The Raincoats released their second album, Odyshape. It would enter the UK Indie charts at #6. If the band sounded like they were still getting to know their instruments on the debut, here the charm lies in the multitude of instruments and the hypnotic quality of their music. 

We wanted to push ourselves, so when we made our second album, we weren’t going to make a sequel to the first.," guitarist Ana da Silva tells Louder Than War. "We wanted to do something different.”

They found that difference at Manny's Music in midtown Manhattan. The store had a treasure trove of instruments. “I bought a few little things there and Gina bought a balafon," da Silva said "We had all of these new instruments, so of course, we wanted to use them!”  

Spin's Alternative Guide has this line about the album : Odyshape has a reputation as some sort of mystical transcendence of rockdom in New Age textures, but it's unmistakably a rock record.

A balfon

YEAR END PAZZ AND JOP BALLOT FROM GREIL MARCUS:

 Go-Go's: Beauty and the Beat (I.R.S.) 20; 

 David Lindley: El-Rayo-X (Asylum) 20; 

 Red Crayola with Art & Language: Kangaroo? (Rough Trade) 15; 

 Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Reactor (Reprise) 10; 

 The Mekons (Red Rhino import) 10; 

 Joy Division: Still (Factory import) 5; 

 Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates (Warner Bros.) 5; 

 The "King" Kong Compilation (Mango) 5; 

 Au Pairs: Playing with a Different Sex (Human) 5; 

 Raincoats: Odyshape (Rough Trade) 5.

 

A pair of knock outs from May of 1981

 

Sparks : Tips For Teens

In May of 1981 Sparks released Whomp That Sucker, a return to the sound that made the band so popular in the UK in the mid 70's. Record Mirror's Mark Total gave the album its highest possible rating, writing "Sparks score a knockout in the first round." Even so, the album failed to chart in the UK and only peaked at #182 in the US. The Sparks Brothers documentary, while making great use of the pugilistic music video for "Tips for Teens", does not spend much time on the album.

Robyn Hitchcock : Acid Bird

In May of 1981 Robyn Hitchcock released his debut solo album Black Snake Diamond Role, kicking off one of the most enjoyable solo careers of the decade. Those who had already been following The Soft Boys will often cite this release as their favorite. Assisting Hitchcock in the studio are members of The Soft Boys, Vince Ely of the Psychedelic Furs and an almost unknown Thomas Dolby.

Echo & The Bunnymen find Heaven Up Here

Echo & The Bunnymen : A Promise

On May 30, 1981 Echo and the Bunnymen released Heaven Up Here, a UK#10 hit that won best album from the readers  at the 1981 NME Awards and is currently ranked 463 in Rolling Stone's list of the greatest rock albums of all time. NME critics ranked the album the #22 best of the year, while it came in #2 in the Sounds poll and topped the Rockerilla list. 

The album cover tells you exactly what's in store, a more atmospheric, moody and melancholic album than the debut, and requires repeated listens to "get". But the reputation of Heaven Up Here has grown over the years. The label didn't hear a single and instructed the band to write one. The result is "A Promise". 

 

Recorded in Wales with Hugh Jones producing, the album re-creates the dry ice atmosphere of the Bunnymen's stage show. In a recent Tim' sTwitter Listening Party guitarist Will Sergeant says Jones sent his instrument through reverbs, echo "and a new thing called the Eventide Harmoniser... The slightest scrape, scratch, flick, squeak or pop of the guitar could be used and transformed."

Some of the influences cited by various Bunnymen include Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam", The Velvet's "What Goes On" and James Brown's Sex Machine.

The NME's Barney Hoskyns described the album as "one of the most superior articulations of 'rock' form in living memory. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau was not so taken by the album, giving it a grade of C and writing:

Word was these erstwhile-and-futurist popsters had transcended songform, so I gritted my teeth and tried to dig the texture, flow, etc. Took the enamel clean off. I hold no brief against tuneless caterwaul, but tuneless psychedelic caterwaul has always been another matter. Ditto for existential sophomores. And, need I add, Jim Morrison worship

The album cover was shot by Brian Griffin in Porthcawl, Wales, with a bucket of fish used to entice the seagulls. The album earned the "Best Dressed LP" award from the NME. Outtakes can be found on the photographer's website. 

 

Present Arms is another huge hit for UB40

UB40 : One In Ten

In the last week of May, 1981, UB40 released its second album Present Arms. Despite the fact that they've been playing their instruments for fewer than three years, and looked less than trendy, the band was selling more albums in Britain than any other living reggae act. 

"I think we've been really lucky," singer Ali Campbell told Smash Hits," in that we were around when The Specials were just taking off, and we were nothing to do with the 2-Tone thing, but the media aligned us with them --you know, black and white act--and we got to play gigs with them, and as far as England was concerned that really helped.

"And then we're much more accessible than most reggae bands. There's a lot of people who find it strange listening to Jamaican reggae.There's nothing to identify with when you've got a black band singing about Jah. It's definitely easier for white people if some of the group are white too."

The single "One In Ten" is an attack on Thatcherism :

“I’m a starving third world mother, a refugee without a home/

I’m a housewife hooked on Valium, I’m a pensioner alone”

The album would peak at UK#2, and like the debut, stick around for months and months, eventually going Platinum. An amazing accomplishment for an indie release. UB40 earned 65% of every record sale, as opposed to 10% for most artists. Every member is involved in writing the lyrics and music so everyone was earning good, if not an outrageous amount of money. Saxophone player Brian Travers bought a new house in 1981. He said everyone in the band is at the same level musically, and they like it that way:

"If someone came in from the outside who was either better than us at his instrument or worse than us, that's really throw us. We're happy as we are. "

Critics had mostly kind things to say about the sophomore album. The Village Voice's  Robert Christgau gave Present Arms an A-, writing:

They're not about to revolutionize JA--not by carpentering the bass lines, horn charts, and dub effects of the reggae of yesteryear (1975, say) into an indigenous pop r&b. And though they have their own DIY label, they're not about to revolutionize their native U.K. either. But their conscience is catching--I know, because I fell for "One in Ten" on Radio Luxembourg despite my objections to its merely liberal message. Their toasting is pretty infectious too. And they relegate the instrumentals to a bonus twelve-inch. Still, I doubt they'll break the DOR barrier here--what passes for mild protest in England these days might sound dangerous Stateside. It might even be dangerous

Record Mirror's Mike Gardner gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5 , calling UB40 "the hardest dance band in the country and you can't complain about that".

 

Siouxsie And the Banshees hold fans "Spellbound"

Siouxsie And The Banshees : Spellbound

On May 22, Siouxsie and the Banshees released the UK#22 "Spellbound", eliciting this review from Barney Hoskyns of NME who described "Spellbound" as a "glorious electric storm", further adding, "Siouxsie and the Banshees are one of the great British bands of all time" . The single, a preview of the upcoming album Juju,  suggested "When your elders forget to say their prayers, take them by the legs and throw them down the stairs".

From Smash Hits :

From Record World