My last one was for 1979 about five years ago. I kinda slacked off, because I was concerned that I was getting too close to the present. (wtf?)
So it’s back, and I’m less sure than ever there’s anything secret about it.
The punk big bang happened in 1977 and the asteroid chunks were still flying around. Everything seemed possible at the time, like 1968 compared to 1967. What could go wrong, right?
While 1978 was a year of consolidation 1979 was a kind of where do we go from here? year. And not all of the directions hinted at really panned out.
We ended up with a lot of great music but it was spread out over too many records. So there were not as many flat-out great albums but a lot of really good ones.
Hey, what do you want? Humans were involved.
The Roches
The first song is so cute I wouldn't blame you for wanting to smash the record into a hundred small pieces. But the rest is so beautiful you end up feeling bad and love it anyway. I’ve been waiting 36 years for Mrs. Jaybee to get past that first song though, so I’m not providing her grade. A
Roxy Music: Manifesto
With Eno now long gone, RM keeps getting more and more normal, and thus, less powerful. But more fun, too. A-
Gang of Four: Entertainment!
Not much fun here, but pile-driver rhythms, angry politics, and almost disembodied voices. Their best. A
Nick Lowe: Labour of Lust
But fun is important. Good old modern ironic pop music, even if old Nick now swears he was playing it straight the whole time. A-
Graham Parker: Squeezing Out Sparks
I once had the pleasure of hearing this played in its entirety on a beach in the Hamptons, where it pissed off all the right people. What better recommendation can I offer? So intense that it might be better than Heat Treatment or Howlin' Wind. What? No way. Way! A
The B-52s
If “52 Girls” is one of the high points of the years, “Dance This Mess Around” is one of the high points of my life, except that (or maybe because) it also clears the room. I recently got into an argument with someone on Facebook about this record. (Someone may have called someone else a Nazi… But that’s not important.) This is one of the most delightfully weird records ever. Who wants rock n' roll to be normal, anyway? And when you get past all that, Kate and Cindi sing great, and the guitar and bass really rock. A-
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English
“Guilt” was stunning on SNL, so actually listening to the album is a slight let down.
She barely survived the sixties and she’s here to tell you about it. And by the way “now” is not so hot, either. The subject matter was risque for the time, but the music is actually a bit slick. But that voice cuts right through it. A-
Michael Jackson: Off the Wall
With rock n' roll revitalized, it would have been easy for me to continue to ignore music by African Americans. I needed this one to remind me that there were other types of vital music that didn’t involve an electric guitar. This is Michael as I like to remember him. From my limited perspective, one of the greatest R&B albums ever. A
Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady
This being a collection of their first eight singles (all the side As on side one of the album and all the side Bs on side 2), it could be considered a bit of a cheat, but surely it’s one of the best records of the era. A
I purposely omitted some records, like Rust Never Sleeps, because it's too fucking obvious (it's supposed to be a secret history, remember?), and others like Fear of Music, Breakfast in America and Damn the Torpedos because they’re overrated. (Sorry Tom!).
Now, looking at the above I wonder what my reservations about this year were exactly. Probably the stuff I left out.
My next Secret History will be the first step into that hellscape that is the 1980s...
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