80s Classic Albums (Featuring: King Crimson)

[jammindude]

No interest in Madonna now.......but oh when I was 14 and MTV was new.   

EDIT:  Actually really surprised you picked this album.   While all of her 80's albums were extremely popular, Like A Virgin seems to be her "iconic" 80's album.

[KevShmev]

My impression has always been that Like a Prayer is the more classic album.  I could be wrong. 

[Jaq]

Nah, it was Like A Virgin. I was in high school when that came out and there were ARMIES of teenaged girls trying to emulate her look and trying to not drive their parents crazy to the point of distraction. Like A Prayer was, if anything, the last album where she was a full on pop culture icon, and she kinda got overshadowed in the early 90s by a lot of female artists.

[hefdaddy42]

Nah, it was Like A Virgin.

This. 

But both albums were huge.  And both albums were very good.   

[Kotowboy]

Did Madge ever write her own music - i know she sort of plays guitar a bit....kinda...

[hefdaddy42]

Did Madge ever write her own music - i know she sort of plays guitar a bit....kinda...

She wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the two albums we are discussing here, as well as the album in between, True Blue.

[TAC]

My recollection of Madonna was that on the very same night Iron Maiden played in Providence on the Powerslave tour, Madonna was playing Foxboro Stadium.

And I agree with the others..Like A Virgin would've been the "classic" album.

[The Curious Orange]

Can we nominate albums we'd like to see included on this list?

[Cyclopssss]

Dis won....

[King Postwhore]

I had zero interest in Madonna as a kid apart from that book she did about metal 

Did it focus primarily on aluminium or copper ? Or maybe one of the other lesser known metals ?

I forgot to look at the words - sorry 

Steely Dan.

[RoeDent]

I haven't heard anything on Like A Prayer apart from the usual hits, but I have to say, the title track is an epic of pop music. Just how, after 3 verses and choruses, around 2:55, it kicks up a notch, with the choirs, some wonderfully over-the-top bass playing from Guy Pratt (also known for being Pink Floyd's 90s bassist). There was something ambitious about 1989 pop.

[KevShmev]

Can we nominate albums we'd like to see included on this list?

Send me a PM and recommend anything you want, and I'll give it strong consideration.

[King Postwhore]

Can we nominate albums we'd like to see included on this list?

Send me a PM and recommend anything you want, and I'll give it strong consideration.

You asked for it.

[KevShmev]

Despite my reply to your PM, I will throw that one in the pile to be featured soon...begrudgingly.

[Zook]

I tried listening to Like a Virgin today, but turned it off 3 songs in. Not that catchy and pretty boring. Material Girl is a pretty bad song too. I almost shut it off before that one finished. I do like a few Madonna songs though. Frozen is the best thing she's ever done.

[King Postwhore]

Hey, lots of love and hate.  You do a great job spreading the styles of music.

[KevShmev]

I'm trying to mix it up, instead of doing all rock and metal.  And since I think the Madonna discussion will only go so far, we move on...



Say what you want about AC/DC - yes, their songs are all pretty samey - but Back in Black is still a great collection of songs.  Pretty amazing that it went over so well since it was the first album after the death of Bon Scott, their original lead vocalist.  Brian Johnson's voice was a perfect fit for the band's dirty style of hard rock.  I still remember being floored when I first heard the songs "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Back in Black" way back in '87.  "Shake a Leg" is a longtime favorite of mine as well.  But pretty much every song on this is a classic. 

[King Postwhore]

Classic and iconic.  On of those albums you heard every song on the radio.

[TAC]

Quite simply the greatest hard rock album ever recorded.

[jammindude]

Great pick. 

This began my journey into "heavy metal".   (and yes, I know it is not considered "metal" now, but if you walked into a record store in 1981, the "heavy metal" section did not, in fact, strictly contain Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.   Aerosmith, Deep Purple....and yes, AC/DC were all classified as "heavy metal")

Before this, I had been raised on 70's folk/pop and top 40.   When I was 10, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond and ABBA were all the rage.   But then a friend brought over a tape and said, "you've got to hear this"....


TIK TIK - TIK TIK - TIK TIK - tk tk

BA   BA-NA-NA   BA-NA-NA    neeeedede needeeeeee  BA  BA-NA-NA  BA-NA-NA   BADUMP BADUMP BADUMP BADA....

Changed my musical life permanently.      My personal favorites are Shoot to Thrill and Shake a Leg.     Totally sick of You Shook Me All Night Long.   

[bl5150]

Being Aussie this was a staple in my music diet from a very young age (6) -  having said that I didn't realise until much later how highly regarded they were outside of Australia. 

Given my overexposure to them as a kid I don't listen to AC/DC often these days but Back In Black does stand out as their masterpiece- all the more amazing given the circumstances and time frames involved.

[Anguyen92]

Say what you want about AC/DC - yes, their songs are all pretty samey - but Back in Black is still a great collection of songs.  Pretty amazing that it went over so well since it was the first album after the death of Bon Scott, their original lead vocalist.  Brian Johnson's voice was a perfect fit for the band's dirty style of hard rock.  I still remember being floored when I first heard the songs "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Back in Black" way back in '87.  "Shake a Leg" is a longtime favorite of mine as well.  But pretty much every song on this is a classic. 

Not to nitpick, here, but technically, they had a singer before Bon Scott.  Dave Evans, though, I think the band were not too fond of him during the early years era.

Anywho, yep, this is an iconic album indeed.  I think my 1st true exposure to a song from Back in Black was when WWE's Wrestlemania 25 used Shoot to Thrill as one of their theme songs and I can recall how it had such a big-time aura to it that suited Wrestlemania as a global phenomenon well at the time.  Heck, I honestly thought that Shoot to Thrill was actually one of their latest singles at the time as oppose to one of their most well-known songs that's 30 years old.  So, thanks to the magic of Youtube, after hearing Shoot to Thrill a couple more times, I looked up the related videos, one of them was Hells Bells and I just love the gong sound and you just know when you hear that sound, something big is going down loud and ominous.

Months later, heard the album, and yeah, it's pretty solid.  Enjoyed the songs I mentioned and Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution the most from the bunch.  Back in Black had it all.  Amongst the top album sales (probably the most album sales in the world made by a band.  Thriller, as discussed before, probably holds the #1 selling album of all time by anyone), had good memorable songs, represented a statement by a band that needed to hit a home run after their lead singer passed away, and cemented a legacy of one of the most iconic rock and roll bands there is.

[BlobVanDam]

Quite simply the greatest hard rock album ever recorded.

For me it's part of an unending 3 way tie with VH1 and AFD, but definitely one of the best.

In this country, most people probably know this album before they can even walk. Pretty much every song on this album was in heavy rotation on our rock station (probably not so much now since they play more modern stuff these days I think).

Sure, you know you're always going to get the same thing from AC/DC, but this is AC/DC's strongest collection of the same thing!

[Bolsters]

AC/DC were my first band obsession when I was about 12 or so, the first band I bought all the albums of and listened to obsessively during my early teen years. This album being among the most played, of course.

[Mladen]

This album is pretty fantastic, one of my favorites by AC/DC. My personal favorite is the extremely underrated What you do for money honey. There's a whole bunch of hits on here, all of them are great.

[Kotowboy]

I still need to hear this in full but had to learn Back In Black for my music degree. so much fun to play and the tempo is pretty much spot on.

I still have trouble with that fiddly middle 8 riff too.

[jjrock88]

Classic album

[hefdaddy42]

It's a classic and has plenty of good songs.

But since their entire catalog is fairly same-sounding, this is easily the only album of theirs I need.

Although I also like the songs "For Those About to Rock" and "Thunderstruck."

[LudwigVan]

I find that the Bon Scott-era albums are much less "samey-sounding" than the Brian Johnson albums.  It just seems like they hit on this tremendous sound and groove with Back In Black, and ended up sticking to that formula going forward.  Great album though.

[El Barto]

This and Blizzard of Ozz were the seminal albums for me. Pretty much shaped everything that was to come. While it's not something that I'll put on very often, Shoot to Thrill and LMPMLIY are still kick ass songs.

[KevShmev]

Say what you want about AC/DC - yes, their songs are all pretty samey - but Back in Black is still a great collection of songs.  Pretty amazing that it went over so well since it was the first album after the death of Bon Scott, their original lead vocalist.  Brian Johnson's voice was a perfect fit for the band's dirty style of hard rock.  I still remember being floored when I first heard the songs "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Back in Black" way back in '87.  "Shake a Leg" is a longtime favorite of mine as well.  But pretty much every song on this is a classic. 

Not to nitpick, here, but technically, they had a singer before Bon Scott.  Dave Evans, though, I think the band were not too fond of him during the early years era.
 

I stand corrected.  Shows how much I know about AC/DC, I suppose.

TIK TIK - TIK TIK - TIK TIK - tk tk

BA   BA-NA-NA   BA-NA-NA    neeeedede needeeeeee  BA  BA-NA-NA  BA-NA-NA   BADUMP BADUMP BADUMP BADA....

Changed my musical life permanently.       

I still remember the first time I heard that as well.  It was at our parish/school picnic the month after our 8th grade graduation.  Ah, the summer of '87...

[jammindude]

I find that the Bon Scott-era albums are much less "samey-sounding" than the Brian Johnson albums.  It just seems like they hit on this tremendous sound and groove with Back In Black, and ended up sticking to that formula going forward.  Great album though.

Oh I really disagree.   I think the Mutt Lange albums stand out from the pack...in both a good way, and a bad way.   They do sound very "samey", but they are all top caliber songs.   For Those About to Rock sometimes gets forgotten among the three, but there are some amazing forgotten classics on that album. 

After a run of three very top notch, but also slick-n-streamlined albums, Flick of the Switch was a return to a MUCH more raw sound.   It didn't go over very well with the general audience en masse, but you have to admit that it felt much more like earlier albums.     And the "re-finding" of themselves IMO, found its peak with Blow Up Your Video (incidentally, the first album since Powerage to be produced by Harry Vanda and George Young).

[gazinwales]

I was 11 years old in 1980 on a plane emigrating from England to Australia.
I was listening to the 'rock' radio on the plane's entertainment system.
I remember hearing 'Hells Bells' and it the first time I was exposed to any really 'heavy' kind of music.

That said never been a massive fan of them, though in the mid 1980's I went through a period where I
really tried to get into them, but never could.

Today I only own 2 acca dacca albums, Back In Black and For Those About To Rock.
As already stated they are played on FM radio here all the time, so no need for anymore albums.

[Calvin6s]

I was never a diehard AC/DC fan.  Not even close.  But the Back in Black album really summed up all the best elements of this band.  Like somebody else said; this is the obvious album to pick if you just want to get to the best/core of AC/DC.  I don't put this album on frequently, but when it shows up in rotation, my ears  perk up.

[TAC]

I find that the Bon Scott-era albums are much less "samey-sounding" than the Brian Johnson albums.  It just seems like they hit on this tremendous sound and groove with Back In Black, and ended up sticking to that formula going forward.  Great album though.

Oh I really disagree.   I think the Mutt Lange albums stand out from the pack...in both a good way, and a bad way.   They do sound very "samey", but they are all top caliber songs.   For Those About to Rock sometimes gets forgotten among the three, but there are some amazing forgotten classics on that album. 

After a run of three very top notch, but also slick-n-streamlined albums, Flick of the Switch was a return to a MUCH more raw sound.   It didn't go over very well with the general audience en masse, but you have to admit that it felt much more like earlier albums.     And the "re-finding" of themselves IMO, found its peak with Blow Up Your Video (incidentally, the first album since Powerage to be produced by Harry Vanda and George Young).

Blow Up Your Video is awesome, and does feel the most like a Bon era album than any other BJ era.