There was still a bit of diversity going on then. Also, the UK and US markets were different worlds, a big hug in the UK did not automatically mean US success (and viccy vercy)
I watched the 1983 reruns quite regularly when they were shown two years ago, and remember that year being so much better than what I’ve seen so far of 1985, which, apart from obvious highlights such as Prince and Madonna, has had the most unutterably appalling gubbins clogging up the charts on a weekly (weakly?) basis.
I liked The Smiths, The Woodentops, The Waterboys and some of the XTC ‘pastoral’ albums. But apart from that, for me, the eighties were simply dreadful. I spent most of the decade listening to stuff from the sixties and early seventies. (As I still do now actually…)
I’m not so convinced. Swordfishtrombones, Murmur, Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy & 1999 were the only albums I’d say were truly great.
The NME voted Punch The Clock as best album of the year. Hardly one of Elvis Costello’s best.
Some really good singles, though, but not enough to get too excited: Let’s Dance, Blue Monday, All Night Long, This Charming Man, Looking For The Perfect Beat, Billie Jean, Little Red Corvette, Oblivious, This Is Not A Love Song, The Cutter & The Birthday Party – Bad Seed EP.
Soul Mining, Hearts and Bones, Hootenanny, Duck Rock, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, The Luxury Gap, A Walk Across the Rooftops, Perverted By Language, Climate of Hunter, Speaking in Tongues, The Final Cut and – yes! – Synchronicity.
A good haul but not a great one compared to 82 or 84. I think of it as the year when things started to go wrong in mainstream pop – a lot of crap in the charts, whooping and balloons on TotP, tinny synths on reggae records, and the beginning of the nadir for some of the old guard – Bowie, Dylan, Macca, Neil Young… oh, and the last Imperial Kraftwerk record, the Tour de France single. And MTV… a strong case of “be careful what you wish for”.
I have just finished reading ‘Dare – how Bowie & Kraftwerk inspired the death of Rock ‘n’Roll & invented modern pop music’ by David Laurie, ex A&R man for nude records (who signed Suede).
His theory is that that 1979-1982 was the breakthrough with 1982 as the peak. By 1983 it was all over. He blames Avalon for style over substance. Kajagoogoo get a right kicking.
Not a bad book apart from when he constantly refers to Bowie as He or Him and it rather breaks up the flow. And Bowie hasn’t even died when it was published.
I do remember that the success of “ver Kaj'” – and they were huge for a couple of months – was a sign that there was something wrong. Flimsier than a 1983 MFI wardrobe.
Their bass player, Nick Beggs, is now playing with Steven Wilson quite brilliantly as I can confirm from last week’s gig. Should you be following the great man on Twitter you will have seen the photo he tweeted of him on the stage at the Albert Hall in a mankini (not during the gig, thankfully).
Yes, although I have not seen the offending image. Long may it remain that way.
About 15 years ago, I was walking past Ronnie Scott’s at lunchtime and the doorman, who recognised me from Sunday evening folk gigs, beckoned me in.
Limahl was attempting a grown-up solo comeback under his real name and was playing a showcase gig for the assembled press corps. Only none of them had bothered to turn up. The show was, as you can imagine, beyond awful.
Modern pop? That was just groups trying in the 80s to emulate the success of disco in the 70s (and failing).
Compare Let’s Dance with Get Down On It to get the measure of this period in pop. It’s the difference between rather miserable appropriation and da real ting.
Oh, I dunno. Where does Ghosts, or Vienna, or Maid Of Orleans, fit in to that model?
I’d rather listen to stuff from 1979-1982 than the majority of what came in the three years before. Give me the Human League or Duran Duran’s first two, over Eater or Subway Sect, any day.
I’ll give you Perverted By Language and Climate Of Hunter. The CD version of Speaking In Tongues is better with the extended versions but I bought the vinyl in 1983.
Language!
Just re-reading the above: I assumed unfamiliarity was your excuse for not including the Aztec Camera album, Tiggster – but there’s Oblivious among your favourite singles.
And reggae zynderzyzers are all about whose hands they are in. My memory’s not what it was, but I think Sly Dunbar wasn’t averse to the hexagonal drum..
What did Black Uhuru release in 1983? Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, a rehash of 1979’s Showcase with remixes and the addition of a track featuring Keef. Trouble was, the rehash was first released in 1980. I think it is ruled out on the grounds that it was already out. They’d made Anthem, a not-so-good album, but that only came to our shores in 1984.
Augustus Pablo – Africa Must Be Free and Wailing Souls – Inchpinchers are cracking albums I forgot about higher up.
“Only came to our shores..” – oh, unworthy. This is the AW bruv, we is global*
I’m afraid, following your HLHR post, I am now obliged to append all your posts with an asterisk.
(*this is the sort of nitpickery that results in London Calling being voted the album of the 80s)
I don’t think you can evaluate whether 1983 was “a great year for pop” based on the number of favourite rock albums.
Of greater significance is the fact that (along with many already mentioned)
The top of the POP charts had room for dynamite singles like
Rip It Up
I.O.U.
The Cutter
The Love Cats
The Story Of The Blues
Buffalo Soldier
The Celtic Soul Brothers
(Keep Feeling) Fascination
Love Is A Wonderful Colour
This Is Not A Love Song
Nobody’s Diary
The Crown
In A Big Country
and FOUR Style Council singles
Yep, there was a lot of shee-ite as per uzhe, but it was also the year of my first outdoor gig and my first discoteca (16 and they served me booze!) so it’s a special one for me…
In the Basildon corner, after a worrying absence of several weeks Depeche Mode release Get the Balance Right! and deliver their first really good 12 inch remix, later enjoyed by Detroit-based house music types. We then get Everything Counts – which was a proper hit – and now I am buying 12 inch rather than 7 inch singles. Now that’s what I call…singles compilations start and I think the are first two are really good. Allowed me to have all those borderline singles on one platter.
The album Construction Time Again is finally released a whole year after the last one and yer mode are now singing about global warming and climate change. So ahead of the game, there was even a bonus track called “I don’t think Brexit would be a good idea”. They rounded off 1983 with a favourite of mine but studiously forgotten single “Love, in itself” featuring the choice chorus lyric:
“now I find that most of the time, love’s not enough…in itself”.
Only Take That have also publicly doubted the very ground beneath them in a similar way. It shows self-awareness that indicates a long-term pop career is likely. 1983 was the year of Depeche Mode hanging on a rope dangling over the dumper. The records were good enough to keep them away from it – in fact they swung on the rope and managed to jump off it some distance away.
Meanwhile Duran Duran are selling more records about dancing in the rain while their telephone’s been ringin’. But no one ever said life was fair.
I was looking through the Wikipedia listings of “album releases by year” just last week in an idle half-hour. I jotted down one absolute favourite for each year from 1968 onward.
1983, 1984 and 1985 were all left blank, because I didn’t see anything in their lists of particular interest and I couldn’t think of anything I thought should have been listed either.
Admittedly, those years were quite unsettled and poverty-stricken for me, with no means of playing music but a cheap boombox, so anything out of the mainstream tended to whoosh past unnoticed, but they weren’t great album years IMO.
Paul Motian – The Story of Maryam
Kenny Wheeler – Double, Double You
Dave Holland – Jumpin’ In
Henry Threadgill – Just The Facts And Pass The Bucket
Wynton Marsalis – Think Of One
Shadowfax – Shadowdance
??
Star People was the only Miles album released in 1983.
CD release of the previous year’s “Offramp” by The Pat Metheny Group.
First CD release of Keith Jarrett’s “Köln Concert” (but minus the 6m59s encore from side 4 of the vinyl original).
The ones with stars I have, a total of 13. Murmur is ridiculously low, but I would say that it wasn’t an outstanding albums year based on this list.
1. Punch The Clock – Elvis Costello *
2. Swordfishtrombones – Tom Waits *
3. Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy – Billy Bragg *
4. The Art Of Falling Apart – Soft Cell
5. Thriller – Michael Jackson
6. You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess – Yellow
7. Colour By Numbers – Culture Club *
8. Think Of One – Wynton Marsalis
9. Duck Rock – Malcolm Mclaren
10. Synchro System – King Sunny Ade
11. The Crackdown – Cabaret Voltaire
12. High Land Hard Rain – Aztec Camera
13. Let’s Dance – David Bowie *
14. One From The Heart – Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle *
15. Cold-Blooded – Rick James
16. Power Corruption & Lies – New Order *
17. Subterranean Jungle – The Remones
18. Trouble In Paradise – Randy Newman
19. Classified – James Booker
20. Alive She Cried – The Doors
21. Choc Choc Choc – Franco & Rocherau
22. Touch – Eurythmics *
23. Ballad Of The Fallen – Charlie Haden
24. Blow The House Down – Junior Walker
25. Soul Mining – The The *
26. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This – Eurythmics
27. Zeichnung Des Patienten O.T. – Einsurzende Neubaten
28. 1999 – Prince *
29. Synchronicity – The Police
30. Blues & Jazz – Bb King
31. Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart – Van Morrison *
32. Porcupine -Echo And The Bunnymen *
33. Murmur – R.E.M *
34. Babes In Arms – Mc5
35. Waiting – Fun Boy Three
36. Born To Laugh At Tornadoes – Was (Not Was) *
37. Legendary Hearts – Lou Reed *
38. Before Hollywood – Go Betweens
39. Whammy! – B62s
40. Burlap And Satin – Dolly Parton
41. From Gardens Where We Feel Secure – Virginia Astley
42. Lazy Ways – Marine Girls
43. The Photographer – Philip Glass
44. Priestess – Gill Evans
45. Stonekiller – Prince Charles And The City Beat Band
46. Live In An American Time Spiral – George Russel Ny Big Band
47. You And Me Both – Yazzoo
48. Future Shock – Herbie Hancock
49. Tell Mr Bland – Bobby Bland
50. Rock For Light – Bad Brains
Nice list! What’s interesting is how little guitary indie “NME type music” is on it, unless you count those shredmeisters Billy Bragg & Charlie Haden *
As far as Mainstream albums go, it was pretty slim pickings. A smattering of good left-field releases. Of the Mainstream artists, virtually all were not producing their best work but just coasting.
A decent singles year, though.
Baron Harkonnen says
Explain, please.
dai says
Link needs to go in the correct field in the original post:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b087lmbg/top-of-the-pops-1983-big-hits
I watched this and it was quite good.
Rigid Digit says
There was still a bit of diversity going on then. Also, the UK and US markets were different worlds, a big hug in the UK did not automatically mean US success (and viccy vercy)
Sewer Robot says
The kind of “hugs” some of those TOTP presenters were giving wouldn’t go down well ANYWHERE
nickduvet says
Fiction Factory – 1983 one hit wonders
Black Type says
I watched the 1983 reruns quite regularly when they were shown two years ago, and remember that year being so much better than what I’ve seen so far of 1985, which, apart from obvious highlights such as Prince and Madonna, has had the most unutterably appalling gubbins clogging up the charts on a weekly (weakly?) basis.
eddie g says
I liked The Smiths, The Woodentops, The Waterboys and some of the XTC ‘pastoral’ albums. But apart from that, for me, the eighties were simply dreadful. I spent most of the decade listening to stuff from the sixties and early seventies. (As I still do now actually…)
Tiggerlion says
I’m not so convinced. Swordfishtrombones, Murmur, Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy & 1999 were the only albums I’d say were truly great.
The NME voted Punch The Clock as best album of the year. Hardly one of Elvis Costello’s best.
Some really good singles, though, but not enough to get too excited: Let’s Dance, Blue Monday, All Night Long, This Charming Man, Looking For The Perfect Beat, Billie Jean, Little Red Corvette, Oblivious, This Is Not A Love Song, The Cutter & The Birthday Party – Bad Seed EP.
Slim pickings.
Moose the Mooche says
Soul Mining, Hearts and Bones, Hootenanny, Duck Rock, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, The Luxury Gap, A Walk Across the Rooftops, Perverted By Language, Climate of Hunter, Speaking in Tongues, The Final Cut and – yes! – Synchronicity.
A good haul but not a great one compared to 82 or 84. I think of it as the year when things started to go wrong in mainstream pop – a lot of crap in the charts, whooping and balloons on TotP, tinny synths on reggae records, and the beginning of the nadir for some of the old guard – Bowie, Dylan, Macca, Neil Young… oh, and the last Imperial Kraftwerk record, the Tour de France single. And MTV… a strong case of “be careful what you wish for”.
fentonsteve says
I have just finished reading ‘Dare – how Bowie & Kraftwerk inspired the death of Rock ‘n’Roll & invented modern pop music’ by David Laurie, ex A&R man for nude records (who signed Suede).
His theory is that that 1979-1982 was the breakthrough with 1982 as the peak. By 1983 it was all over. He blames Avalon for style over substance. Kajagoogoo get a right kicking.
Not a bad book apart from when he constantly refers to Bowie as He or Him and it rather breaks up the flow. And Bowie hasn’t even died when it was published.
Moose the Mooche says
I do remember that the success of “ver Kaj'” – and they were huge for a couple of months – was a sign that there was something wrong. Flimsier than a 1983 MFI wardrobe.
Uncle Wheaty says
I still have a 1988 set of MFI drawers.
They are not looking good!
Moose the Mooche says
Better than my 1988 M&S drawers, pal.
Uncle Wheaty says
Fancy a swap?
Moose the Mooche says
Wow, you really hate that piece of furniture!
Twang says
Their bass player, Nick Beggs, is now playing with Steven Wilson quite brilliantly as I can confirm from last week’s gig. Should you be following the great man on Twitter you will have seen the photo he tweeted of him on the stage at the Albert Hall in a mankini (not during the gig, thankfully).
fentonsteve says
Yes, although I have not seen the offending image. Long may it remain that way.
About 15 years ago, I was walking past Ronnie Scott’s at lunchtime and the doorman, who recognised me from Sunday evening folk gigs, beckoned me in.
Limahl was attempting a grown-up solo comeback under his real name and was playing a showcase gig for the assembled press corps. Only none of them had bothered to turn up. The show was, as you can imagine, beyond awful.
Twang says
You know you want to. Line green mankini and red construction helmet here…
Rear view here…
fentonsteve says
AARRGH!
*goes off to pour bleach in eyes*
Tahir W says
Modern pop? That was just groups trying in the 80s to emulate the success of disco in the 70s (and failing).
Compare Let’s Dance with Get Down On It to get the measure of this period in pop. It’s the difference between rather miserable appropriation and da real ting.
fentonsteve says
Oh, I dunno. Where does Ghosts, or Vienna, or Maid Of Orleans, fit in to that model?
I’d rather listen to stuff from 1979-1982 than the majority of what came in the three years before. Give me the Human League or Duran Duran’s first two, over Eater or Subway Sect, any day.
Tiggerlion says
I’ll give you Perverted By Language and Climate Of Hunter. The CD version of Speaking In Tongues is better with the extended versions but I bought the vinyl in 1983.
Tiggerlion says
Just listening to Speaking In Tongues (2006 remaster) again. My god, that rhythm section is as tight as a gnat’s chuff!!!
Sewer Robot says
Language!
Just re-reading the above: I assumed unfamiliarity was your excuse for not including the Aztec Camera album, Tiggster – but there’s Oblivious among your favourite singles.
And reggae zynderzyzers are all about whose hands they are in. My memory’s not what it was, but I think Sly Dunbar wasn’t averse to the hexagonal drum..
Tiggerlion says
I wouldn’t want to upset Dave Amitri if he was still around. High Land, Hard Rain is good but I just need the single. Same goes for Abbey Road.
Moose the Mooche says
All the Uhuru Island stuff is excellent, and there was still good stuff to come on Greensleeves.
In 1983 it was probably still worth buying anything put out by Greensleeves on spec. In many ways we didn’t know we was born.
Tiggerlion says
What did Black Uhuru release in 1983? Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, a rehash of 1979’s Showcase with remixes and the addition of a track featuring Keef. Trouble was, the rehash was first released in 1980. I think it is ruled out on the grounds that it was already out. They’d made Anthem, a not-so-good album, but that only came to our shores in 1984.
Augustus Pablo – Africa Must Be Free and Wailing Souls – Inchpinchers are cracking albums I forgot about higher up.
Sewer Robot says
“Only came to our shores..” – oh, unworthy. This is the AW bruv, we is global*
I’m afraid, following your HLHR post, I am now obliged to append all your posts with an asterisk.
(*this is the sort of nitpickery that results in London Calling being voted the album of the 80s)
Tiggerlion says
Anthem is a bit crap in any case. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner is much more like it.
Moose the Mooche says
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Nitty pickers.
duco01 says
Hmmm … Scott Walker’s “Climate of Hunter” – a record that didn’t exactly surpass “Thriller” in the sales stakes.
Sewer Robot says
I don’t think you can evaluate whether 1983 was “a great year for pop” based on the number of favourite rock albums.
Of greater significance is the fact that (along with many already mentioned)
The top of the POP charts had room for dynamite singles like
Rip It Up
I.O.U.
The Cutter
The Love Cats
The Story Of The Blues
Buffalo Soldier
The Celtic Soul Brothers
(Keep Feeling) Fascination
Love Is A Wonderful Colour
This Is Not A Love Song
Nobody’s Diary
The Crown
In A Big Country
and FOUR Style Council singles
Yep, there was a lot of shee-ite as per uzhe, but it was also the year of my first outdoor gig and my first discoteca (16 and they served me booze!) so it’s a special one for me…
Black Celebration says
In the Basildon corner, after a worrying absence of several weeks Depeche Mode release Get the Balance Right! and deliver their first really good 12 inch remix, later enjoyed by Detroit-based house music types. We then get Everything Counts – which was a proper hit – and now I am buying 12 inch rather than 7 inch singles. Now that’s what I call…singles compilations start and I think the are first two are really good. Allowed me to have all those borderline singles on one platter.
The album Construction Time Again is finally released a whole year after the last one and yer mode are now singing about global warming and climate change. So ahead of the game, there was even a bonus track called “I don’t think Brexit would be a good idea”. They rounded off 1983 with a favourite of mine but studiously forgotten single “Love, in itself” featuring the choice chorus lyric:
“now I find that most of the time, love’s not enough…in itself”.
Only Take That have also publicly doubted the very ground beneath them in a similar way. It shows self-awareness that indicates a long-term pop career is likely. 1983 was the year of Depeche Mode hanging on a rope dangling over the dumper. The records were good enough to keep them away from it – in fact they swung on the rope and managed to jump off it some distance away.
Meanwhile Duran Duran are selling more records about dancing in the rain while their telephone’s been ringin’. But no one ever said life was fair.
Mike_H says
I was looking through the Wikipedia listings of “album releases by year” just last week in an idle half-hour. I jotted down one absolute favourite for each year from 1968 onward.
1983, 1984 and 1985 were all left blank, because I didn’t see anything in their lists of particular interest and I couldn’t think of anything I thought should have been listed either.
Admittedly, those years were quite unsettled and poverty-stricken for me, with no means of playing music but a cheap boombox, so anything out of the mainstream tended to whoosh past unnoticed, but they weren’t great album years IMO.
Uncle Wheaty says
Peak Smiths years!
Mike_H says
If you were an angsty, male sixth-former/student, floundering in an ocean of hormones.
I wasn’t, so they weren’t of much importance to me.
duco01 says
I wouldn’t be surprised if you couldn’t find any decent jazz albums from 1983. I can’t.
Tahir W says
Miles wasn’t doing too badly at that time, as I recall (Star People, Man with the Horn, etc.)
Tiggerlion says
Paul Motian – The Story of Maryam
Kenny Wheeler – Double, Double You
Dave Holland – Jumpin’ In
Henry Threadgill – Just The Facts And Pass The Bucket
Wynton Marsalis – Think Of One
Shadowfax – Shadowdance
??
Star People was the only Miles album released in 1983.
Mike_H says
“Ekaya” by Abdullah Ibrahim.
https://www.discogs.com/Abdullah-Ibrahim-Ekaya-Home/master/394881
“Standards Vol. 1” by Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette.
https://www.discogs.com/Keith-Jarrett-Gary-Peacock-Jack-DeJohnette-Standards-Vol-1/release/5962627
“Lyric Suite For Sextet” by Gary Burton & Chick Corea
https://www.discogs.com/Gary-Burton-Chick-Corea-Lyric-Suite-For-Sextet/release/3922852
“The Ballad Of The Fallen” by Charlie Haden & Carla Bley
https://www.discogs.com/Charlie-Haden-Carla-Bley-The-Ballad-Of-The-Fallen/release/3018517
CD release of the previous year’s “Offramp” by The Pat Metheny Group.
First CD release of Keith Jarrett’s “Köln Concert” (but minus the 6m59s encore from side 4 of the vinyl original).
dai says
NME list (Thriller was actually 1982 btw).
The ones with stars I have, a total of 13. Murmur is ridiculously low, but I would say that it wasn’t an outstanding albums year based on this list.
1. Punch The Clock – Elvis Costello *
2. Swordfishtrombones – Tom Waits *
3. Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy – Billy Bragg *
4. The Art Of Falling Apart – Soft Cell
5. Thriller – Michael Jackson
6. You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess – Yellow
7. Colour By Numbers – Culture Club *
8. Think Of One – Wynton Marsalis
9. Duck Rock – Malcolm Mclaren
10. Synchro System – King Sunny Ade
11. The Crackdown – Cabaret Voltaire
12. High Land Hard Rain – Aztec Camera
13. Let’s Dance – David Bowie *
14. One From The Heart – Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle *
15. Cold-Blooded – Rick James
16. Power Corruption & Lies – New Order *
17. Subterranean Jungle – The Remones
18. Trouble In Paradise – Randy Newman
19. Classified – James Booker
20. Alive She Cried – The Doors
21. Choc Choc Choc – Franco & Rocherau
22. Touch – Eurythmics *
23. Ballad Of The Fallen – Charlie Haden
24. Blow The House Down – Junior Walker
25. Soul Mining – The The *
26. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This – Eurythmics
27. Zeichnung Des Patienten O.T. – Einsurzende Neubaten
28. 1999 – Prince *
29. Synchronicity – The Police
30. Blues & Jazz – Bb King
31. Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart – Van Morrison *
32. Porcupine -Echo And The Bunnymen *
33. Murmur – R.E.M *
34. Babes In Arms – Mc5
35. Waiting – Fun Boy Three
36. Born To Laugh At Tornadoes – Was (Not Was) *
37. Legendary Hearts – Lou Reed *
38. Before Hollywood – Go Betweens
39. Whammy! – B62s
40. Burlap And Satin – Dolly Parton
41. From Gardens Where We Feel Secure – Virginia Astley
42. Lazy Ways – Marine Girls
43. The Photographer – Philip Glass
44. Priestess – Gill Evans
45. Stonekiller – Prince Charles And The City Beat Band
46. Live In An American Time Spiral – George Russel Ny Big Band
47. You And Me Both – Yazzoo
48. Future Shock – Herbie Hancock
49. Tell Mr Bland – Bobby Bland
50. Rock For Light – Bad Brains
MC Escher says
I have 20, most of which get the odd listen, some get more than that. Again, it’s how old you were etc.
Moose the Mooche says
Nice list! What’s interesting is how little guitary indie “NME type music” is on it, unless you count those shredmeisters Billy Bragg & Charlie Haden *
(*Sadly not on the same record)
Mike_H says
As far as Mainstream albums go, it was pretty slim pickings. A smattering of good left-field releases. Of the Mainstream artists, virtually all were not producing their best work but just coasting.
A decent singles year, though.