MTV in the 80s Song of the Day

[jingle.boy]

Europe gets a bad rap, but they're a very solid band.

Word

[DebraKadabra]

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is a Place on Earth

No.  Just... HELL no.  I'd rather listen to The Go-Go's than Belinda's solo stuff ANY day of the week.

[KevShmev]

Also, it still bugs me that The Go-Go's have that apostrophe in their band name.  It makes no sense.

[Orbert]

Me too.  All I can think of is that they thought "Go-Gos" looked weird, which it does.  "Go-Goes"?  Even worse.

(They should've just picked a different name)

[KevShmev]

Haha, probably.  On that note...

The Go-Go's - Head Over Heels

I believe this was their last big hit in the 80s before splitting and going their separate ways.  A catchy enough song at the time, but sounds pretty vanilla nowadays, even by 80s pop standards.

[Jaq]

Earworm worthy chorus...well, okay, maybe not, but I hear the title followed by a handclapping sound whenever I think of this song, so close enough...but it is kind of generic. Am I wrong in remembering they only did two albums together?

[DebraKadabra]

Yeah, a bit forgettable - their earlier hits packed more of a punch.

[KevShmev]

Mr. Mister - Kyrie

Hands down, one of the best pop rock songs of the mid 80s.  This is still one of those songs that if I hear it, its chorus is likely to be stuck in my head for hours.  And since I just listened to it, as I always do with the song I am about to feature, it will now be stuck in my head till at least early afternoon.

[masterthes]

I agree, such a good song. I like this a bit better than "Broken Wings"

[DebraKadabra]

Mr. Mister is one of the bands I've always regretted not delving into past their radio hits.  Although, I always preferred Broken Wings to Kyrie.  Not that it's a bad song, though - just a personal preference.

[Orbert]

I remember when Pat Mastellotto joined King Crimson, and my friend mentioned that he was the drummer for Mr. Mister.  I was surprised.  Mr. Mister had never seemed more than a generic 80's pop band to me.  A good one, I guess, but nothing special.  But let's face it, if you're good enough to play with Fripp in King Crimson, you've got it going on.  Suddenly I felt the need to check out more from Mr. Mister.

I never did, though.  Got lazy or something.  But they had some good songs.

[wolfking]

Great song, and Richard Page is one hell of a song writer.

[KevShmev]

Billy Idol - Eyes Without a Face

A very cool laid back song, featuring a killer bridge that takes the song from being pretty good to really good.  I wasn't big on a lot of Idol's hits in the 80s, but this one was really nice. 

[jjrock88]

Not really a fan of his besides a handful of songs. This is a cool song though.

[Jaq]

Somewhere on these forums, there is a post I made saying that I had no problem with someone saying Welcome to the Real World was the definitive 80s pop-rock album. I still believe that. The thing people forget about Mr. Mister, or may not even know, is that much like Toto, they were a band who had extensive careers as session musicians, which meant that they had a lot more talent than people gave them credit for, and they used that skill to craft some amazing pop-rock songs. I didn't realize it at the time, of course, since I was just wading out into the waters of prog and was largely a GRRR METAL RULES kind of guy, but Mr. Mister is a lot better than a lot of people gave them credit for, including me 

As for Eyes Without A Face-THAT RIFF. 

You go through most of the song thinking it's going to be an atmospheric, laid back song, and then suddenly BOOM, here comes a killer guitar riff and the song goes off in another direction that at the same time works perfectly with the rest of the song. One of the better "holy shit" moments of the 80s.

[Orbert]

Billy Idol had some cool tunes, and this is definitely one of them.  I love how it goes from mellow to double-time for the break, while half of the rhythm section apparently doesn't change anything.  Steve Stevens is screaming on guitar, as usual.  The video had lots of nice little touches to it as well.  I like how it starts with "In the midnight hour..." which somehow has a different connotation with the mellow feel, but is a reference to one of his balls-out rockers.  I think this one had the ass-slapping girls, too, which is a reference to another video of his.  And then somehow it returns to mellow, again seemingly without much else changing musically.  Clever stuff, and the guy knew how to use video to good effect.

[jingle.boy]

Mr. Mister - Kyrie

Hands down, one of the best pop rock songs of the mid 80s.  This is still one of those songs that if I hear it, its chorus is likely to be stuck in my head for hours.  And since I just listened to it, as I always do with the song I am about to feature, it will now be stuck in my head till at least early afternoon.

Had the album on vinyl.  It was a beast.  Might have to try and dig up a digital copy to reminisce.  I only have Kyrie and Broken Wings in my library.

[DebraKadabra]

Billy Idol - Eyes Without a Face

 
Thank you, that is all.

[wolfking]

Great song from Billy right there.

[KevShmev]

U2 - With or Without You

I wasn't overly crazy about this song when it first came out.  For one, it was played non-stop, so I kind of had that "It's an okay song, but not great enough to warrant this kind of non-stop play" reaction, and for two, having been a big fan of the rockers by them that MTV played in the mid 80s, it seemed too tame.  But over time, I grew to really love the song, especially once I got into the band in a big way.  Over 25 years later, this is still a song that is literally impossible not to know.  A younger friend at work a while back said she had no idea of the song when it somehow came up in a conversation, but when she heard it, she was like, "Oh yeah, I know that, but didn't know what it was called or who it was by."

[jingle.boy]

Over-rated.  Great album, but this is in the bottom tier of it.  It was't even a very good ballad for the era.

[jjrock88]

I think U2 is overrated, period.

[KevShmev]

   Great album, but this is in the bottom tier of it. 

Well, to me, The Joshua Tree is so strong from start to finish, that even the bottom tier tunes are pretty damn good, although my least favorite, Trip Through Your Wires, is one I am not wild about; probably because of that damn harmonica.

I think U2 is overrated, period.

Way to discuss the song. 

[Cedar redaC]

I actually really like this song.

[DebraKadabra]

U2 - With or Without You

It's not one of my favorites from TJT, but it's better than a lot of the stuff they've released within the last few years IMO.
 
That said, I was never really a huge fan.

[wolfking]

Can't stand U2 to be honest.

[bosk1]

Very good song.  The problem with it, as you pointed out Kev, is that it was SO overplayed.  But I will freely admit that I overrate pretty much every song from that album.  Definitely a fan.  Joshua Tree just holds an almost mythical status for me.  Big, big fan.

[KevShmev]

Unless you were there when it happened, I don't think it's possible to realize the impact With or Without You had.  In a flash, U2 went from being a popular rock band to the biggest band on the planet, a title they held for a good 7 years (1987-1993).  During that timespan, no one was bigger than U2.  Not GNR.  Not Metallica.  Not Nirvana.  No one.  And With or Without You was the catalyst for that.

[Jaq]

Unless you were there when it happened, I don't think it's possible to realize the impact With or Without You had.  In a flash, U2 went from being a popular rock band to the biggest band on the planet, a title they held for a good 7 years (1987-1993).  During that timespan, no one was bigger than U2.  Not GNR.  Not Metallica.  Not Nirvana.  No one.  And With or Without You was the catalyst for that.

This right here. Up until With or Without You, U2 was a successful band, but not on the level of being a household name. After this song, and this album, U2 became the biggest band in the world, and one of the biggest in the history of rock and roll. You can't understate how important that song, and The Joshua Tree, was to music in the 80s.

[King Postwhore]

Unless you were there when it happened, I don't think it's possible to realize the impact With or Without You had.  In a flash, U2 went from being a popular rock band to the biggest band on the planet, a title they held for a good 7 years (1987-1993).  During that timespan, no one was bigger than U2.  Not GNR.  Not Metallica.  Not Nirvana.  No one.  And With or Without You was the catalyst for that.

They went from playing 3000 seat stadiums on the War tour to 12,000 seat arenas for The Unforgettable Fire to Football stadiums holding 60,000.  The Joshua Tree was beyond huge and With Or Without you started that.

[Orbert]

Unless you were there when it happened, I don't think it's possible to realize the impact With or Without You had.  In a flash, U2 went from being a popular rock band to the biggest band on the planet, a title they held for a good 7 years (1987-1993).  During that timespan, no one was bigger than U2.  Not GNR.  Not Metallica.  Not Nirvana.  No one.  And With or Without You was the catalyst for that.

This is true, and I was there.  What I've never understood is why.  It's an okay song, and they're a good band, but a lot of their stuff sounds the same, and I could never see what made them so much better than 1000 other bands.

[Cool Chris]

This is true, and I was there.  What I've never understood is why.  It's an okay song, and they're a good band, but a lot of their stuff sounds the same, and I could never see what made them so much better than 1000 other bands.

MTV?

[Orbert]

MTv didn't make anyone better, they just made some bands and artists insanely popular.

Also, I've noticed that a lot of people spell it "MTV".  I always thought the "v" was lower case.



I guess it's hard to tell.

[KevShmev]

Unless you were there when it happened, I don't think it's possible to realize the impact With or Without You had.  In a flash, U2 went from being a popular rock band to the biggest band on the planet, a title they held for a good 7 years (1987-1993).  During that timespan, no one was bigger than U2.  Not GNR.  Not Metallica.  Not Nirvana.  No one.  And With or Without You was the catalyst for that.

This is true, and I was there.  What I've never understood is why.  It's an okay song, and they're a good band, but a lot of their stuff sounds the same, and I could never see what made them so much better than 1000 other bands.

A signature sound (Bono's voice and Edge's guitar playing are both very unique) + tons of good, catch songs + knowing how to appeal to the masses = U2's success.  I know a lot of people do not like them, but they had a very original sound, they've written countless good songs, and they (Bono, in particular) knew exactly how to market themselves and their music.

[DebraKadabra]

Unless you were there when it happened, I don't think it's possible to realize the impact With or Without You had.  In a flash, U2 went from being a popular rock band to the biggest band on the planet, a title they held for a good 7 years (1987-1993).  During that timespan, no one was bigger than U2.  Not GNR.  Not Metallica.  Not Nirvana.  No one.  And With or Without You was the catalyst for that.

This right here. Up until With or Without You, U2 was a successful band, but not on the level of being a household name. After this song, and this album, U2 became the biggest band in the world, and one of the biggest in the history of rock and roll. You can't understate how important that song, and The Joshua Tree, was to music in the 80s.

I'm not denying the impact With Or Without You made for U2 back then - it would be ridiculous to.  I just think that WOWY is one of the weaker tracks on an otherwise stellar album, and that I'd rather listen to WOWY than... say, Mysterious Ways, Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, or Beautiful Day.  IMO, of their fairly recent singles (after The Joshua Tree) Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me is the best them.