While this is a lot better CD than I expected it to be, it won't be challenging for one of the Greatest 80's Soundtracks. It's not in the Top 12ish, but it might be in my Top 30ish. The first "Cruisers" soundtrack probably won't be in that Top 12 either, but likely it will be higher ranked. One of the ways I rank each CD is by how many songs that I like that each CD has. This CD I like five of the songs, "Runnin' Thru The Fire", "Open Road", "Maryia", "Garden of Eden" and "(Keep My Love) Alive".
"Roadie" was released right at the dawn of 1980, in mid-June. I had to do some deep digging to even remember this CD. I haven't actually even seen this movie ever and honestly wouldn't have had much of an interest to see it. Honestly it looks like a cheaply made movie. However it is about the rock and roll scene and Debbie Harry is in it, those are two things going for it. This is the trailer:
The movie stars Meat Loaf, Art Carney and playing the groupie babe is Kaki Hunter.
No this CD will not be on my Top 12ish Greatest 80s Soundtracks of the 80s. Although I did enjoy rediscovering some of the great songs from this movie.
Thanks to Wikipedia, this is the synopsis:
Travis W. Redfish is a beer-drinking, bar-brawling, fun-loving distributor of Shiner beer. He also helps his father, Corpus C. Redfish with the family salvage company, whose motto is "Everything will work if you let it!" B.B. Muldoon is his best friend and business partner.
While B.B. and Travis are making deliveries in their Shiner beer truck, they notice an RV that has broken down on the side of the road. At first, they laugh at the thought of helping the stranded motorists, but then Travis sees wannabe groupie Lola Bouliabaise smile at him through the rear window of the RV. Travis slams on the brakes and decides to help, hoping to get a closer look at Lola. Lola is a big Alice Cooper fan and Travis has never heard of "her". Road manager Ace and his assistant George try to talk Travis into driving them to Austin for a show to be played by Hank Williams Jr., produced by music mogul Mohammed Johnson. He meets Bird Lockhart, a hippie and lifelong roadie in the music business. After repairing the RV, Lola talks Travis into coming along where he ends up becoming the "greatest roadie that ever lived" with his unusual techniques on fixing things.
Before I listen to the whole soundtrack, of course there some songs are classics, I'm going to guess this won't finish in my Top 12ish 80s soundtracks. These are the best songs from "Roadie".
Cheap Trick "Everything Works If You Let It":
Pat Benatar "You Better Run":
Eddie Rabbit "Drivin' My Life Away":
Stephen Bishop and Yvonne Ellman "Your Precious Love":
On the original soundtrack the singer of this song is Steve Cropper, however I couldn't find a video for his version. James Carr "A Man Needs A Woman":
Styx "Crystal Ball";
Debbie Harry singing a Johnny Cash classic? Yes, Please. Blondie "Ring of Fire":
Alice Cooper "Pain":
Emmylou Harris and Roy Orbison "That Lovin' You Feelin Again":
Jerry Lee Lewis "(Hot Damn) I'm A One Woman Man":
Hank Williams Jr. "The American Way":
Asleep At The Wheel "Texas You and I";
Now here's the song, without the interference of the movie:
I try to stay semi current on new music, but the great songs of yesteryear are my passion. When new CDs are released, the ones that usually excite me are from established bands. I was excited when I found out both Halestorm and Boz Scaggs, who I'm going to go see in concert soon, had new CDs out. I'm looking forward to the new twenty one pilots CD, I really like their last CD "Blurryface". I'm really glad I gave the music of Lady Gaga, and many others, a chance. Being just a little bit open to new music I've discovered a lot of great music. I have several Lady Gaga songs on my iPod.
I think I listened to this CD and don't remember being very impressed. But not everything takes on the first try. As I right this blog I will be giving it one more chance. I gave this CD one more chance and I still have about the same opinion. The best songs are "Never Be The Same", the sultry rhythms of "Havana", the nice ballads "Consequences" and "Something's Gotta Give" and the funky "Inside Out". But the rest of the songs are meh or forgettable, this CD isn't a must add to your collection.
In the #metoo era I wish the sexuality would be toned down for all musicians.
Again it's not a CD for everyone, it's mainly for young people. Most people my age wouldn't be interested in it. If you're looking for a great CD in a similar genre I highly recommend En Vogue's "Electric Cafe". While not a perfect CD, or as good as "Funky Divas", it still has a lot of great songs. Both great upbeat songs and great ballads. Cabello has a nice and sexy voice and seems to have some potential. However she needs to raise her game to get to the next level.
I do like this song. 1) "Never Be The Same":
Meh. 2) "All These Years":
3) "She Loves Control":
I like this song until the unnecessary Young Thug appearance. 4) "Havana" (featuring Young Thug)":
I like how this song brings the funk. 5) "Inside Out":
6) "Consequences":
7) "Real Friends":
This is a nice ballad, one of the better songs on the CD. 8) "Something's Gotta Give":
"Long Long Way From Home/ I Want To Know What Love Is" With Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood and Ian McDonald in 2017. Also in this video you get a bit of Foreigner's current singer, Kelly Hansen, ramble on about finding the Groove. In the concert I went to this lasted about 10 minutes and felt twice as long. It was just some of the too much filler on this night:
One of the great ballads of the 80s, it still retains it's magic to this day. 5) "Waiting For A Girl Like You":
6) "Blue Morning":
7) "Dirty White Boy":
8) "Feels Like The First Time":
9) "Urgent":
A keyboard and drum duo led into this classic Foreigner song. The duo was short enough, but they stretched out "Hero" way too long. Even a great song can lose it's luster when stretched out to 11 minutes long. This was the second time that Hansen went out into the audience on the night.
10) "Jukebox Hero":
Encore
11) Kelly Hansen's extended speech about The Groove and touching the person near you. Personally I have nothing against that, but is that the smartest thing to do in the era of the #metoo movement.
"I Want To Know What Love Is":
After a pretty solid set by Whitesnake and a 20 minute break to change the stage, Foreigner started rocking the USANA. This is the second time I've seen Foreigner in concert. The first time was back in the mid-80s when I saw them in Idaho Falls, Idaho. That was still when Lou Gramm was the singer. They were still pretty popular back then but their star was on a downward track. That night there was something missing about their performance. The opening act that night was John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. Honestly on that night Cafferty and his band were better.
I probably wouldn't have even went and seen this concert if they didn't have Whitesnake touring with them. And then when I found The Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience was the opening act I was even more excited. I'm still irritated that I missed most of their act.
Foreigner was good on this night, but not great. Again they were missing something that would have launched them into the concert pantheon. I can't quite put my finger on it. Their light show was meh and the band had way too much filler in the show. Too long extended versions of "Juke Box Hero", "Urgent" and Hansen's rambling speeches added a lot of unneeded filler to the show. No I didn't want the show to be any shorter, ninety minutes isn't very long for a headliner set.
Other songs Foreigner could have played:
"Say You Will":
"Heart Turns To Stone":
"That Was Yesterday":
"I Don't Want To Live Without You":
"Break It Up":
"Love On The Telephone":
They didn't play "Starrider" on this night, but they've played it at other shows on this tour:
Would I recommend to go see them, I'm not sure. I mean they're still musically a great band and Hansen is a great singer. Although he's funny and engaging, he's also goofy as hell. As my friend said "what do you expect, he's a hippy". So again I would say they're good, but not great. He did say a few things I really liked, but not so much the jokes about being over 40. Especially because most of those jokes were true. He asked if back in the day did we turn the radio on first thing in the morning? Maybe not the radio, but I always had music playing. He also noted that music was probably still special to us now. Again, why yes it is. Music is my means to sanity in an increasingly insane world. It's the cheapest therapy there is and there's so many ways that music can be accessed now.
Foreigner was loud, but the music wasn't as pummeling as Whitesnake's set. You can see the setlist below, but their first three songs were magnificent "Long, Long Way From Home", "Double Vision" and "Head Games". Then every song after that was almost as good. As I mentioned previously great singing and great musicianship, but........ When Thom Gimbel played the sax and Michael Bluestein played the keyboards that was a nice addition to the quality of the songs. (If Whitesnake's keyboardist hadn't been pointed out, I wouldn't have even noticed him. His keyboards were buried in the barrage of sound.)
If you're a big Foreigner fan, go ahead and go as you were going to go anyway. Again there's a lot to be said for this version of Foreigner. If you're a so so Foreigner fan, as I am, then this show wont make you and more or less of a Foreigner fan. If you know very little about this band grab "4" or a greatest hits collection and make your opinion from that. In other words seeing Foreigner live won't change your opinion about them.
The opening act was The Jason Bonham Experience, who play several Led Zeppelin songs. Jason Bonham is Zeppelin's drummer John Bonham's son. This lineup was weird in that earlier played the more I wanted to see them. I wanted to see Jason Bonham's band most, Whitesnake second most and Foreigner the least. The bands played in inverse order to that. Anyway due to my own incompetence we got to the concert venue late. I was working into the venue when Bonham's band started playing "Stairway To Heaven". We got to our seats, finally, after they left the stage.
The roadies were awesome and switched out the stage in about 10 minutes. Whitesnake roared on to the stage. The current members of Whitesnake are:
David Coverdale – lead vocals (1978–1991, 1994, 1997, 2002–present)
Tommy Aldridge (who has also played with Ozzy) – drums, percussion (1987–1991, 2002–2007, 2013–present)
Reb Beach (who has also played with Winger and Dokken) – guitar, backing vocals (2002–present)
Michael Devin – bass, harmonica, backing vocals (2010–present)
Joel Hoekstra (who has played with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Night Ranger) – guitar, backing vocals (2014–present)
I knew that we had good seats, but I didn't realize we were sitting on the fifth row. My friend almost was decapitated when Whitesnake's drummer, Aldridge, tossed some drumsticks out into the crowd. She didn't even get to grab the stick. Yes, we were that close. Whitesnake played just shy of a hour. They played the below 9 songs as well as had a drum solo and a guitar duel. Before Whitesnake took the stage we saw Hoekstra, who was a contestant for most work done, getting prepped for the show. He seems to enjoy the spotlight and who can blame him?
The members of Whitesnake are a talented band and Coverdale still has that powerful howl. With being so close to the stage we didn't listen to the music so much as be pummeled by it. That's not a complaint, we were just right there in the heart of the action.
Whitesnake played all the songs you think they'd play and then closed out with the 1 2 punch of "Here I Go Again" and the Zeppelinesque "In The Still of the Night". The boys are getting on in years, David Coverdale is damn near 67 and he's still in fine voice. Despite the advanced age, they still were kicking butt. I wouldn't say that they played music, they were mostly playing throbbing slabs of rock meat. It was a pounding and the pounding was enjoyable.
I had seen Whitesnake before, back in their heyday when they had Steve Vai playing guitar for them. I wasn't impressed with them on that night, they were missing something. I had higher expectations for them when I saw them originally. However on this night my expectations weren't as high, I just wanted to enjoy some live rock music. On this night they were very good. Whitesnake are great musicians and Coverdale is an affable front man. Though with all their songs about sex I did wonder more than once just how many groupies he had backstage waiting for him and his white snake.
1) "Bad Boys":
2) "Give Me All Your Love":
3) "Love Ain't No Stranger":
From where this video is being taken, this is about where we sat. We sat right in front of the drummer.
We all know that one of Pink Floyd's most iconic albums is "The Wall", truly a classic CD. A few years later it was released as a movie with Bob Geldof portraying Pink. Yes, they made a soundtrack for the movie that's different from Pink Floyd's original CD. Got that? So thanks to Blazefirebootlegs these are as close as I can to listen to the songs from "The Wall's" actual soundtrack, not the original CD. From my research it seems there was no official release of the actual soundtrack. In other words I'm doing the best I can. This is me figuring out what the Top 12ish Greatest 80s Soundtracks will be. I expect this will be in my Top 12, but I don't know for sure. (Thanks to wikipedia.org for the info, although I have found other sources that disagree with some of what wikipedia states.
"When The Tigers Broke Free Part 1":
"In The Flesh":
"The Thin Ice":
"Another Brick In the Wall, Part 1":
"When The Tigers Broke Free, Part 2":
"Goodbye Blue Sky":
"The Happiest Days of Our Lives":
"Another Brick in The Wall, Part 2":
"Mother":
"What Shall We Do Now":
This is a bit graphic for some people. "Young Lust":
"One of My Turns":
"Don't Leave Me Now":
"Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3":
"Goodbye Cruel World":/ "Is There Anybody Out There":
New song, edited into two sections strictly for the film, but later released as one continuous song.[30] The song was released as a single in 1982 and was later included on the 2001 compilation Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd and on the 2004 re-release of The Final Cut.
Re-mixed[30] with extra lead guitar, children's chorus part edited and shortened, teacher's lines re-recorded by McAvoy and interspersed within children's chorus portion.
Re-recorded completely with exception of guitar solo and its backing track. The lyric "Is it just a waste of time?" is replaced with "Mother, am I really dying?", which is what appeared on the original LP lyric sheet.[30]
A full-length song which begins with the music of, and a similar lyric to "Empty Spaces". This was intended to be on the original album, and in fact appears on the original LP lyric sheet. At the last minute, it was dropped in favour of the shorter "Empty Spaces" (which was originally intended as a reprise of "What Shall We Do Now"). A live version is on the album Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81.[30]
Classical guitar re-recorded, this time played with a leather pick by guitarist Tim Renwick[31], as opposed to the album version, which was played finger-style by Joe DiBlasi.
Re-recorded completely[30] with Geldof unaccompanied on lead vocals. (The audio in the background of this scene is from Gary Yudman's introduction from The Wall Live at Earl's Court.)
Re-recorded completely[30] with brass band and Welsh male voice choir. Extended with a musical passage similar to "Southampton Dock" from The Final Cut.[32][33]
I like to post at least one blog a day and when I can I go back and continue to update these blogs. If the videos don't match each other it's because the blogger format changed about a year ago. As I can I'm updating and fixing these blogs as I can.
Unless I find a surprising vein of forgotten 80s soundtracks and songs, this will probably be my last blog highlighting great songs from 80s soundtracks. That is soundtracks that only have a few or less songs that wouldn't qualify each CD for my top 12ish 80s soundtracks. After I've worked on this project for a couple of weeks, I have identified 22 soundtracks that will be considered for the Top 12ish best 80s soundtracks. I've worked on this blog a lot and I've discovered some great soundtracks that I probably wouldn't have ever considered.
This movie was considered to be great back in the day. But I tried to watch it with my son a year or two, but it has become unwatchable. But this is still a great song. From "Iron Eagle" (1983):
Queen "One Vision":
From "Lean On Me":
Club Nouveau "Lean On Me" (1989):
These next two songs are from "Disorderlies":
Bananarama "I Heard A Rumor":
Bon Jovi "Edge Of A Broken Heart":
From "Born On The 4th of July" (1989):
Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall":
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force "Go For Yours":
Tamara Chaplin "Heart of Glass":
The Pointer Sisters "Power of Persuasion":
Eric Martin "One Way Out":
Earth, Wind & Fire "Turn On The (Beat Box)":
For such a classic, iconic movie it has a very limp soundtracks. This is the only song worthy, and it's indeed a worthy song, of adding to this blog. From "The Breakfast Club":
The Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me":
"Arthur":
"Arthur's Theme: The Best You Can Do":
"Ghostbusters 2":
Bobby Brown "On Our Own":
Oingo Boingo "Flesh 'N Blood":
Elton John "Love Is A Cannibal":
Glenn Frey "Flip City":
A lot of alliteration going on here. Howard Huntsberry "Higher and Higher":
Honestly this soundtrack was barely even on my radar when I started thinking about the greatest 80s soundtracks. I had to do some deep research to discover this soundtrack. I have no opinion about the actual movie as I've never seen it. This soundtrack is in my Top 12ish 80s soundtracks, it has so many great songs on it. But the whole is not better than the sum of the parts, there is no cohesion amongst the songs. I don't love all the songs, but I posted them all the same.
From the same band that introduced you to Jenny and her famous phone number 867-5309 comes this gem. I had no clue that they even had another song that got some notice.
Tommy Tutone 1) "Teen Angel Eyes":
2) The Police "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da":
3) Devo "Whip It":
4) Phil Seymour "When I Find You":
5) Oingo Boingo "Better Luck Next Time":
6) Gleaming Spires "Are You Ready For The Sex Girls?":
7) The Cars "Since You're Gone":
8) The Waitresses "I Know What Boys Like":
9) The Fortune Band "Airwaves":
10) U2 "I Will Follow":
Other great songs in the movie, but not on the soundtrack. These songs will not be considered for the best 80s soundtrack.
Quincy Jones featuring James Ingram "Just Once":
The Human League "I Believe In Love (Love Action)":
"Weird Science" is a 1985 movie written and directed by 80s uber teenage flick master John Hughes. This movie stars Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock and the long ago forgotten Ilan Mitchell-Smith. The movie is basically every teenage loser's fantasy about how teenage life should be. Not only is it a classic 80s movie, it also has a great soundtrack. Here are the best songs from the "Weird Science" soundtrack.
Oingo Boingo "Weird Science":
General Public "Tenderness":
Van Halen "Oh, Pretty Woman":
This whole video is the very definition of cheesy. OMD "Tesla Girls":
Ratt "Wanted Man":
Taxxi "Forever":
Killing Joke "Eighties":
Wild Men of Wonga "Why Don't Pretty Girls (Look At Me)":
These songs are from 80s movies that were mediocre or sometimes completely forgettable. Many of these songs are the best part about many of these movies. (I'm looking at you "Streets of Fire"). Some of these songs have been forgotten, but the songs are unforgettable. Some movies were good movies, but the soundtrack wasn't so great. Some of the soundtracks are amazing, but the movie isn't so good- that would be you "Purple Rain". Ultimately I want to get to the point where I can count down the Top 12, or so, 80's soundtracks. Some of the selections will be quite obvious, including one of the greatest CDs ever- "Purple Rain". That may not be the only Prince soundtrack either. You're likely to see "Pretty In Pink", "Footloose", "Lost Boys" and some other CDs that may be more surprising.
From "Say Anything..." is 1) Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes"- this is perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in an 80s movie, but overall the movie is pretty mediocre. But this song is sublime:
2) From "The Legend of Billie Jean", one of Pat Benatar's last hits "Invincible":
3) From the very good and funny "Ghostbusters", Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters":
4) From "Ghostbusters" The Thompson Twins "In The Name of Love":
5) From "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", Yello's "Oh Yeah":
6) From "An Officer and A Gentleman" Joe Cocker's "Up Where We Belong":
7) From "Who's That Girl", Madonna's "Who's That Girl":
8) From "Desperately Seeking Susan", Madonna's "Into The Groove":
9) From "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero":
10) From "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" Tina Turner's "One of The Living":
11) From the heartbreaking "Less Than Zero", The Bangles "Hazy Shade of Winter":
12) From the legendary "Fast Times At Ridgemont High", Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby":
13) From "At Close Range" Madonna's "Live To Tell":
14) From "Streets of Fire" Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You":
15) From "White Nights" Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin's "Separate Lives":
16) From "Against All Odds" Phil Collins' "Against All Odds":
