Scotch Sampler

IdRatherBeSkiing said:
They tried to ban Money for Nothing in Canada in the early 2000s. They received 1 complaint to the radio governence body because of the term 'faggot' used in the song. The body tried to ban it. It was not well received. A radio station in Nova Scotia played the song repeatedly for 1 full day, Another played it on the top of every hour. Eventually the body backed down. However, what is now played is an edited version. The offending verse is just an instrumental. This is the same one used on SXM. It pisses me off everytime they play it so I actually change channels to avoid being pissed. I do listen to the real version when I get the chance.
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If you listen carefully to the Live Aid version I posted, it sounds like he says "queenie" once, then just omits it the other 2 times.
 
The Breakfast Club launched the successful but fleeting moment in the spotlight for Simple Minds. Their year was 1985, and between the movie soundtrack and the release of the album Once Upon a Time, they scored all their hits. You can say they made the sound of the generation. Aside from the #1 and #3 hits below, the album produced Sanctify Yourself and All the Things She Said

Simple Minds – Don’t You (Forget About Me) (Live Aid ’85)



Simple Minds – Alive and Kicking
 
I also like their much older song "Life in a Day". Granted I didn't discover this song til post 1985 but I still like it. Never heard of them in 1979.
 
Mark Knopfler:

"The lead character in ‘Money for Nothing’ is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real. It just went better with the song, it was more muscular. I actually used ‘little faggot,’ but there are a couple of good ‘motherfuckers’ in there. I wanted to do a second version that way but I never had time."
 
sadchild said:
Mark Knopfler:

"The lead character in ‘Money for Nothing’ is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real. It just went better with the song, it was more muscular. I actually used ‘little faggot,’ but there are a couple of good ‘motherfuckers’ in there. I wanted to do a second version that way but I never had time."
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I heard something similar when the controversy first brewed in 1985.
 
scotchandcigar said:
I'm revisiting Dire Straits to cover their landmark album Brothers in Arms; an album that went to #1, that won a Grammy, that generated 5 hit singles. I like the moody opener So Far Away, as well as the snappy Walk of Life. But between those two tracks on the album is this irreverent song

Dire Straits (with Sting) – Money For Nothing (Live Aid ’85)



It's close to a perfect album. All these songs are great: Your Latest Trick, Why Worry, and Ride Across the River (plus the others I mentioned). But the closing title track just transports me to a different place, with a long solo by the great Mark Knopfler

Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms (live)
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Brothers in Arms is just gigantic.
I lived on that album for years.
 
One of the lesser known groups (to Americans) producing hits during the 80's was the English band Level 42. In the US, they scored a top 10 with Something About You from the 1985 album World Machine. I was so impressed with the sound, led by bassist/vocalist Mark King, I bought the album. The entire thing is awesome, full of funky, jazzy pop-rock, and King is a monster on bass. Here are live performances of the most popular songs from the album

Level 42 – Something About You (live)



This is a newer performance of the groovy title track, but they still sound great
Level 42 – World Machine (live)



And they can even do a nice ballad
Level 42 – Leaving Me Now



Their follow-up release scored a #12 hit in the US with Lessons in Love, but that was the end of their popularity in America, though they continued to release popular albums in the UK and Netherlands.
 
This was a tough one; the man who goes by the name Sting. Not because he's controversial, but not enough (i.e. bland). I have several of his solo albums, yet I had to revisit them with an objective viewpoint, to determine if they really hold value for me, or if they're resigned to being light-jazz background music.

Conclusion #1: They're pretentious, especially the first one.
Conclusion #2: There's some really good music there, albeit overplayed at one time. Just accept the additional instrumentation and move on.

So here is what Sting put out in the 80's for solo music: starting with the 1985 album titled (oh god) The Dream of the Blue Turtles, it contains the good but way overplayed If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (a pretentious title). But these tunes are fun and nice

Sting - Love is the Seventh Wave



Sting - Fortress Around Your Heart (live)



His follow-up album was 1987's ...Nothing Like the Sun, with They Dance Alone, a cover of Little Wing, and these

Sting – We’ll Be Together (live)



Sting – Be Still My Beating Heart (live)



This may be considered pretentious, but I think it's a really fun little tune
Sting – Englishman in New York
 
I'll take Police over Sting, but there's plenty of solo Sting I think is great.

For me though, the further into jazz and mellow-nicity he got, the more he lost me.

1. Fortress Around Your Heart (500+)
2. Fields Of Gold (expanding past 500+)
3. Desert Rose
4. All This Time
5. Englishman in New York
 
Let's do a pretentious-British-lead-singer-who-went-solo twofer! But this time, I feel more confident in getting positive feedback. Peter Gabriel left Genesis back in the mid-70's. He had his first solo hit in '77 with Solsbury Hill. But it was in 1980 that he released the first of many successive multiple hit albums. Peter Gabriel III/Melt produced the songs I Don't Remember, Biko, and this American radio favorite

Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers (live, after some antiwar ramblings)



The album Peter Gabriel IV/Security had a couple of great songs, like Shock the Monkey (which I'm pretty sick of), and this one which has been used in soundtracks

Peter Gabriel – I Have the Touch (remastered)
 
It took Gabriel four more years to release the album which is undoubtedly a perfect album, So. Five of the tracks were hit singles, two more were hit album tracks, and the other two are excellent contributions to the album. I really like That Voice Again and Mercy Street, but I can't fit them here. I also like We Do What We're Told and This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds) with Laurie Anderson, but it's too much. Here's what I will give you

Peter Gabriel – Red Rain (live)



Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer



Peter Gabriel – Don’t Give Up (live)



Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes (from Say Anything)



Peter Gabriel – Big Time



Thankfully, his next album release was well into the 90's, so I'll probably get to it at a later time.
 
Peter Gabriel... one of my all time fav artists, mostly So, Us and Up but a handful of earlier stuff I love too.

1. (coming up on my 333)
2. (coming up on my 333)
3. (coming up on my 333)
4. Love To Be Loved #198
5. Digging In The Dirt #232
6. Darkness #274
7. Mercy Street #278
8. Don't Give Up (500+)
9. That Voice Again (500+)
10. Games Without Frontiers (expanding beyond 500+)
11. Shock The Monkey (expanding beyond 500+)
12. Secret World (expanding beyond 500+)
13. The Book Of Love (expanding beyond 500+)
14. Father Son
15. Growing Up

EDITED: I mixed a couple up, I think another was in there twice, and accidentally revealed the top 3
 
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1. Games Without Frontiers
2. Sledgehammer
3. Shock the Monkey
4. And Through the Wire
5. Solsbury Hill
6. In Your Eyes
7. Big Time
8. Red Rain
 
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