A mostly forgotten band from the 80s is Asia, they exploded in the early 80s with "Heat of the Moment". According to Wikipedia that was the # 1 CD of 1982 and it was also the biggest and best CD of Asia's career. Sadly it was downhill from there for them. Although Asia still did have many good songs. The members of Asia have also been part of other bands, such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Buggles (who had the first video ever shown on MTV "Video Killed The Radio Star") and Yes.
On March 9th, 1987 the world was introduced to U2's "The Joshua Tree". This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most classic CDs of the 80s. I'll be post two blogs about this great CD, for part 1 I'll post the songs from the original CD. For part 1 I'd like to find a pretty straight forward version, but also a bit unusual version of most of the songs. For part 2, I'll cover the 20th Anniversary Remastered Edition.
"The Joshua Tree" was U2's 5th CD, but the one that took them to the next level. Before this CD, they were best known for the songs "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Pride (In The Name of Love) and "New Year's Day". Probably one of U2's biggest things that separated them from that sort of new wave/ kind of obscure band was their performance at Live Aid on July 13th, 1985. Their set was highlighted by Bono venturing into the crowd at Wembley Stadium during "Bad". That's not something that he could do now. In bad Bono works in tags of "Ruby Tuesday", "Sympathy For The Devil" and Lou Reed's "Walk on The Wild Side".
As it was 30 years ago, U2's lineup is the same:
Bono – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica (1976–present)
The Edge – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1976–present)
Neither one of this CD's first two songs are some of my favorite U2 songs. 1) "Where The Streets Have No Name":
Muse's version of this song with special guest The Edge:
2) "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For":
The lyrics version:
Some of pop music's best lyrics. 3) "With or Without You":
Amy Lee, of Evanescence, cover of "With or Without You":
4) "Bullet The Blue Sky": U2 how do you feel about Trump?
As Mojo magazine pointed out, this whole CD feels just as relevant as it did back when it was first released, although Ronald Reagan is several steps above the person who currently calls himself the president.
5) "Running To Stand Still":
A tribute to Chris Cornell in this live version:
6) "Red Hill Mining Town":
Just a few months ago in Vancouver:
7) "In God's Country":
Live from 1987 and Paris:
8) "Trip Through Your Wires":
Live from 1987 and Pittsburgh:
9) "One Tree Hill":
Live from 2014 and Seattle:
10) "Exit":
Live from earlier this year in Chicago:
11) "Mothers of the Disappeared":
From 1987 and Tempe, Arizona, either the first or second time U2 played this song live:
It's not very often that I get three days off in a row, but that exact thing happened this weekend. I was able to spend a lot more time on my blog than I usually do. I thought it was about time to finish this blog, which sadly takes on extra meaning. This past Thursday Linkin Park front man Chester Bennington killed himself. It seems both he and Chris Cornell were good friends. Bennington sang at Cornell's funeral. In what seemed to be terrible timing, Bennington died on what would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday.
These are the best songs from Audioslave's second CD, "Out of Exile" and their third and last CD "Revelations". These are the best of "Out of Exile":
"Out of Exile":
"Be Yourself":
"Doesn't Remind Me":
"Drown Me Slowly":
"The Worm":
"Dandelion":
The best of "Revelations":
"Revelations":
"One and the Same":
"Sound of a Gun":
"Original Fire":
"Broken City":
"Shape of Things To Come":
"Moth":
Have you ever wondered how this song would sound on cello? Okay probably not, but I thought this was interesting. This is the Geczi Teodora cello cover:
I've mentioned the very sad news about Chester Bennington in a previous blog, but it's only now that I have the time to write a proper send off. Linkin Park's first two CDs, "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora", are both classics. However the quality of their music went downhill after that. However the band has left behind many great songs. Here's a celebration of some of their great songs. He also fronted bands Dead By Sunrise and Stone Temple Pilots for a brief time.
Just a few hours ago it was announced that the lead singer of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, has committed suicide. Bennington was 41 and leaves his wife and six kids behind. Bennington was a close friend of Chris Cornell, who killed himself two months, and Bennington died on what would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday. R.I.P. Chester, another sad day for music lovers. I may or may not later be posting a Bennington/ Linkin Park blog.
When I only have a limited amount of time, I'll start blogs with the intent to finish them later. To make it easier to later finish those blogs, I've started listing the day I worked on the blog at the start of the title. It hopefully will make my blogs more efficient and better.
Arcade Fire's new CD, "Everything Now" will be out on July 28th, 2017. As a big fan, I'm posting several of my favorite Arcade Fire songs. For some reason they're a band that never has become as big as I think they deserve.
"Ready To Start":
"Empty Room":
"Une Annee Sans Lumiere":
"Intervention":
"Month of May":
"Deep Blue":
"No Cars Go":
"Keep The Car Running":
My favorite Arcade Fire song: "Sprawl 2 (Mountains Beyond Mountains)":
"Wake Up":
My second favorite Arcade Fire song: "Crown of Love":
"Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels)":
"Neighborhood # 2 (Laika)":
"Neighborhood # 3 (Power Out)":
"Haiti":
"Joan of Arc":
Probably my third favorite Arcade Fire song, "Rebellion (Lies)":
In about a month, hopefully I'll be counting down the best 80's era songs for Reginald Dwight, other wise known as Elton John. Truly one of the greatest musicians ever, he and lyricist Bernie Taupin have created some of the best songs ever.
The only challenge with Elton John is he has 14 CDs in the qualifying range for the 80's era. It takes awhile to listen to 14 CDs when there are so many other things to do. Eventually I'll be able to write his countdown blogs.
Two days after seeing Green Day and Catfish and Bottlemen, I'll be back at the same venue to see Incubus, Jimmy Eat World and Judah and the Lion. The date of the show is August 9th, I'm looking forward to both Incubus and Jimmy Eat World- both have a lot of good songs. I strongly suggest to check out Incubus' "8". I didn't think they had that good of a CD left in them, especially since it seemed like they had disappeared.
After compiling the songs on this blog, I'm a lot less excited about seeing Incubus in concert. There seems to be downtime in between each song, too many slow songs and not enough rocking. Some of the songs make this feel less of a rock show than an instrumental music show. Also when the concert should be building momentum, they play "In The Company of Wolves", "Loneliest" and a snippet of "When I Became A Man". "Man" merges into "Warning", which is one of their best songs. However that's followed by an encore? I understand that playing the same song over and over and over again can be incredibly tiring, however messing with the arrangements usually doesn't make the song better.
I hope the actual experience of seeing them in concert will be much better. As always a review will be forthcoming.
1) "Glitterbomb":
2) "Circles":
3) "Nimble Bastard":
Sadly not the best recording of this song. 4) "Anna Molly":
Where possible I've used 2017 concert videos for each song. But sometimes such a video doesn't exist or the sound is low quality. 5) "Love Hurts":
I wish all live videos sounded this good. 6) "Megalomaniac":
7) "If Not Now, When?":
8) "Wish You Were Here" (with Pink Floyd tag):
9) "State of the Art":
10) "Pardon Me":
11) "Drive":
12) "Dig":
Just a few days ago. 13) "Pantomime":
Brandon put on a shirt, you ain't as cool as you think you are. 14) "Nice To Know You":
Inspired by the magazine The History of Rock: 1988, I thought I would take a look back at a year from 29 years ago. This is the second of three blogs about some of the best and/ or the most interesting songs of 1988.
The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)":
Whitney Houston "One Moment In Time":
Dead Milkmen "Punk Rock Girl":
One of Michael's best rock songs. Michael Jackson "Dirty Diana":
Bomb The Bass "Beat Dis" (Extended Dis mix):
Natalie Cole "Pink Cadillac":
At this point RHCP is still three years away from what would become their best CD "Blood Sugar Sex Magik". Red Hot Chili Peppers "Catholic School Girls Rule":
Pop Will Eat Itself "There Is No Love Between Us Anymore":
House of Love "Destroy The Heart":
Robert Plant "Heaven Knows":
Expose "Seasons Change":
Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar On Me":
Jane's Addiction "Jane Says":
Sinead O' Connor "I Want Your (Hands On Me)":
I'm looking forward to listening to all their 80's era music and write their countdown blogs. R.E.M. "Orange Crush":
INXS "Never Tear Us Apart":
Spacemen 3 "Take Me To The Other Side":
My Bloody Valentine "Feed Me With Your Kiss":
With his old partner, Robert Plant, on vocals. Outrider "The Only One":
A triple shot of Transvision Vamp:
"Tell That Girl To Shut Up":
Inspired by the magazine The History of Rock: 1988, I thought I would take a look back at a year from 29 years ago.
In no way do I agree with the ranking of songs from the following video, I thought this would be a good touchstone/ remembrance of some of the best songs from 1988. I don't know who put together the order of these songs, but a band named The Bros has at least 3 songs on these rankings. That's a band I've never heard of and I don't feel like I missed out on anything. I also noticed this countdown has a strong bias towards 80's teen pop and British bands. Also a lot of these songs I've never heard before. With how much music I've listened to in my life, I'm not sure how that happened unless the songs weren't really popular then either. Anyway here's one person's ranking of the best songs of 1988:
These are the top songs on that countdown, if you're interested check them out free on Youtube.com. I will highlight the songs from 1988 that are most interesting to me later.
10) Pet Shop Boys "Heart":
9) Kylie Minogue "I Should Be So Lucky":
8) Phil Collins "A Groovy Kind of Love":
7) Breathe "Hands To Heaven"
6) Belinda Carlisle "Heaven Is A Place On Earth":
5) Whitney Houston "So Emotional":
4) Glen Mederios "Nothing Gonna Change My Love For You":
3) Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child o' Mine":
2) INXS "I Need You Tonight":
1) George Michael "Faith":
One of my favorite things about the 80s was how diverse the hit music was. According to Billboard only 11 CDs reached # 1 that year. However multiple CDs reached #1 multiple times. Tiffany's self-titled CD and Guns n' Roses classic "Appetite For Destruction" were both # 1 that year. Other classic CDs from that year include Public Enemy's "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back", George Michael's "Faith", Van Halen's "OU812", Def Leppard's "Hysteria", Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut, Bon Jovi's "New Jersey", U2's "Rattle and Hum", Sinead O'Connor's "The Lion and the Cobra" and Anita Baker's "Giving You The Best That I Got".
Other milestone CDs include N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton", Metallica's "...And Justice For All", Prince's "Lovesexy", Morrissey's solo debut "Viva Hate", R.E.M.'s "Green", Ozzy Osborne's "No Rest For The Wicked", Jane's Addiction's "Nothing Shocking", Living Color's "Vivid", Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut, Erasure's "The Innocents" and Siouxsie and the Banshee's "Peepshow".
Let's start off first with this Prince song I had never heard of "I Wish U Heaven":
Fat Boys with Chubby Checker "The Twist":
Icehouse "Electric Blue":
Enya's "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)":
Bangles "Hazy Shade of Winter":
Morrissey's "Suedehead":
The Primitives "Crash":
New Order's "Blue Monday 88":
Public Enemy "Don't Believe The Hype":
Living Color "Cult of Personality":
Tracy Chapman "Fast Car":
Danny Wilson "Mary's Prayer":
Brenda K Starr "I Still Believe":
A song that isn't as good as I remember it. Maxi Priest "Wild World":
Still my favorite fake band ever, I love, still, their first and only CD. Milli Vanilli "Girl You Know It's True":
To acknowledge how many blogs I've written, I'm posting selected songs from my iTunes playlist. Of the several thousand songs on my iTunes I'll count down selected songs of my top 2,505 most played songs. I started from #2,505 and have gone all the way to the most played song on my iTunes. The listens is obviously the number of listens each song has been played.
100) Heart "Never" (37 listens):
90) Prince "Baby I'm A Star" (38 listens):
Here's the studio version:
After their excellent debut CD, I had expected much more than has been delivered from Bloc Party. 80) Bloc Party "Staying Fat" (38 listens):
70) INXS "Need You Tonight" (39 listens):
60) New Found Glory's "Summer Thing Don't Mean A Thing" (40 listens):
50) Arcade Fire "Neighborhood # 3 (Power Out)" (40 listens):
40) INXS "New Sensation" (41 listens):
30) Taylor Swift "Picture To Burn" (43 listens):
20) Adele "Rumor Has It" (44 listens):
10) Red Hot Chili Peppers "Suck My Kiss" (48 listens):
5) Red Hot Chili Peppers "Higher Ground" (50 listens):
The second most famous Kenny Loggins song from "Top Gun". 3) Kenny Loggins "Playing With The Boys" (52 listens):
2) U2 "Even Better Than The Real Thing" (56 listens):
One month from yesterday I'll be at the USANA Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Green Day concert. The main act I want to see is Green Day, but I'm almost as excited to see Catfish and the Bottlemen. They're a band I've really grown to love over the last several months. Anyway I'm glad to finally see Green Day in concert, I'll be taking two of my kids with me. Rock and roll is genetic, love of rock music must pass to my kids. After Catfish and the Bottlemen leave the stage the lead up to Green Day is taking the stage is the below three songs played over the intercom/ sung by audience members.
My one request Billie Joe, we know we live in Utah. You don't need to repeat that dozens of times like you did in your Virginia Beach concert.
The crowd sings Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody":
The Ramones "Blitzkrieg Pop":
I decided to skip the crowd version of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly":
I like to do these every once-in-a-while, these come from Entertainment Weekly magazine. Thirty-three years ago as of the week ending March 10, 2017 these were the top ten songs in America according to Billboard. But I also wanted to include other interesting songs from that week.
Wow, Terri Nunn still looks amazing and Berlin still sounds great. 86) Berlin "No More Words":
I don't remember this song and it doesn't even ring a bell. 73) April Wine "This Could Be The Right One":
And you thought his only good song was "She Blinded Me With Science". 70) Thomas Dolby "Hyperactive":
The amazing Reginald Dwight will be featured soon on themusicaddict's Greatest 80's Era musicians. That's because of amazing songs like this. 58) Elton John "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues":
47) Lionel Richie "Running With The Night":
46) Yes "Leave It":
42) Tracey Ullman "They Don't Know":
She's so incredibly beautiful, her coming out in all black at the end of "Grease" still brings a smile to my face. 33) Olivia Newton-John "Livin' In Desperate Times":
I completely had forgotten this song, terrible lip synching though. 29) Manfred Mann "Runner":
Another beautiful woman. 25) Sheena Easton "Almost Over You":
14) Christine McVie "Got A Hold On Me":
Who doesn't love a bass thumping, funky dance song? 13) Shannon "Let The Music Play":
Well you can't say the 80s didn't have color and colorful characters. 10) Culture Club "Karma Chameleon":
