I was listening to the new Charlie Byrd compo ‘Sixties Byrd’ last week and was struck when his version of ‘A Taste of Honey’ came on – I’d forgotten the name of the piece, so it took me a while to recall it, but I immediately thought, ‘This is SO emblematic of the era…’ It seems to encapsulate the decade, somehow.
I then thought about Harry South’s closing theme to ‘The Sweeney’, which seems to sum up the damp, washed-out grimey, beige 70s in a similar intangible way.
Any other suggestions? It’s often NOT a particular pop song but a piece of soundtrack music or suchlike. Like, that jittery flutey thing from Austin Powers, you could say, sums up the entire Swinging London thing (is that piece of music a pastiche or of the time?).
For me Dallas sums up much of the early 1980s,getting a lift up to London from Reading and having to listen to Terry Wogan disect the previous nights episode as though his life depended on it….i ended up watching it to find out who the Poison Dwarf was!!
For the 1960s,in particular latter years,it would be either Mrs Robinson or California Dreaming…
That ‘jittery flutey thing’ from Austin Powers is ‘Soul Bossa Nova’ by Quincy Jones, from 1962 I think. It represents more of the very early 60s than the later flower power years to my mind (1967 onwards). Sort of bossa nova meets boogaloo and Hugh Hefner. The 60s is possibly the only decade that needs two pieces of music to represent its two, very different periods.
This piece by Tubby Hayes from 1967 is cut from the same jittery, flutely, 60s-hipster sort of cloth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvrqDusAbFo
This piece of vinly currently being flogged in Aldi is called “The Sixties: Sounds Of A Decade”, but I don’t think it contains anything post ’62, with mostly ‘1950s overflow’ type stuff.
https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Sixties-Sounds-Of-A-Decade/release/9428941
I look forward to the bargepole review.
I’ve only just realised that ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ was by Ricky Valance and not Ritchie Valens. Taken a long while for that to sink in. The first number one by a Welsh singer apparently (real name David Spencer).
’50s overflow type stuff’ – was the drainpipe trousers, probably.
https://youtu.be/9KciKi_DhWg
I fucking love this. It’s the sound in my head as I flick thru the crates in search of the ultimate Easy.
To me it’s the sound of the early 90s…”My definition, my definition, my definition is this!”
None more ’80s than Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax”
I’d nominate the theme to Miami Vice.
This is the 1990s.
60s – John Barry’s soundtrack to “The Knack … and How to Get It.”
The very D.N.A. of the 60s slap bang in the middle of the decade.
Good call, Dezza – I’d never heard it before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4sRKN0LGvI&list=PLvIjTqAuQt29KSolKA4OHhXt2QWPRG1Wi
For me it would have to be Waterloo Sunset’ by the Kinks. To the innocent 14 year old that I was when this was number 1 it told me a lot about London.
(I must add, however, I have tired of the song recently)
None more 1970s:
@colin-h, Herb Alpert is a good call, but I’d be inclined to plump for Casino Royale.
https://youtu.be/RPHogQ02DFw
I’m sure you and @deramdaze are right about soundtracks…Sonny Rollins’s joyous soundtrack for Alfie being a case in point.
The concept of “80s Music” seems to focus on a 4 year period at the start of the decade.
Video Killed The Radio Star is often cited as the point the where the 80s started (is late 1979).
No, no – this is the quintessential 80s record. Guitars meet synths meet krautrock influences.
Ultravox – Sleepwalk
I’ve always thought ‘the 80s’ started around 1982/83 – all those crappy production sounds and the SAW era just round the corner. Before that it still felt, in pop music world, like a tailing off of a kind of British pop charts golden age, say 1978-81, of which Buggles were a part.
I agree. I’ve got the Chaka Khan one of those original album series 5 album box sets, which contains albums from 1978 to 1983. The first four sound like late 70s soul albums, while the fifth, from 1983 (the one with I Feel For You on it) is all squawking synths and drum machines. The 80s had begun.
Correct. This was one of the greatest civilisational declines in history. Is there a connection of some kind to Reagan and Thatcher? Some blame it on the reaction to punk. That’s not a valid excuse for the 80s I reply.
I reckon the 1980s could be summed up with ‘Material Girl’
Maybe it’s this.
When New Wave discovered the funk..
.
..an’ ting.
I’m not sure that this is entirely possible. It’s a helluva claim to be so sure that you think that you alone understand everyone.
“I’ll take a sarsaparilla”
For the 80s it is tempting to shove in Landscape/New Musik/Buggles/early Depeche Mode but those songs had a shelf life and by that I mean about 2 years.
I feel like qualifying my choice with “I know I know I know ” but I contend that this song is (sorry) quintessential 80s and to me at least it isn’t a face-reddening memory. It is a well-paced and dignified song that’s full of 80s touches. The song wouldn’t have worked in the 70s and it wouldn’t have worked in the 90s but it sounded fantastic in the mid 80s. It still does.
“Sir sir , he’s posted something by U2 Sir!”
Their best album and a great title track.
The 50s – How much is that doggy in the window? (The one with the waggly tail)