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Monday, Jan 30 2017, 6AM
"Stop Making Sense" is a 1984 concert film of the Talking Heads. It was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues.
"It's My Life" is the title track of the 1984 album by Talk Talk who were active from 1981 to 1992.
While at a June 1982 concert by the Rolling Stones in West Berlin, Nena's guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked like strange spacecraft (referred to in the German lyrics as a "UFO"). He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector and wrote this song.
"Some Great Reward" is the fourth studio album by English outfit Depeche Mode released in 1984. "People Are People" was recorded at Hansa Mischraum in West Berlin then released as a single in March 1984. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, David Sylvian, Killing Joke also recorded there in 1984.
Originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1968 "White Album" and covered by Siouxsie and the Banshees for their "Hyaena" album.
U2 will be playing CenturyLink Field on May 15th for their Joshua Tree tour. In October 1984, U2 unleashed "The Unforgettable Fire". At a concert in Chicago, frontman Bono indicated that "Bad" is about a friend of his who died of a heroin overdose and also about the conditions that make such events likely to be repeated.
"The Caterpillar" was the sole single released from the The Cure's fifth album "The Top" in early 1984.
Simple Minds formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1977. They released their sixth album, "Sparkle in the Rain" and the track "Waterfront" has been used for many years as the song the Sheffield Wednesday football club come out to before home matches.
"A Pagan Place" was released in June 1984 by The Waterboys. It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger (also of World Party) and features a pretty epic trumpet solo.
In 1984, Midnight Oil's "Red Sails in the Sunset" became their first number one album in their home of Australia. "Red Sails in the Sunset" was recorded and produced in Tokyo, Japan.
"Sixty Eight Guns" was written by Alarm members Mike Peters and Eddie MacDonald with the lyrics inspired by a book that Peters read on the 1960s street gangs of Glasgow. "Declaration" was The Alarm's debut album released in February 1984.
Ultravox released their seventh album, "Lament" in April 1984. The band was formed in 1974 initially by vocalist and songwriter Dennis Leigh, a then Royal College of Art student, and was originally known as Tiger Lily. It wasn't until they signed to Island Records in 1976 that they finalized their named to Ultravox.
The song was written by Mike Mills, in 1980, as a plea to his then girlfriend, Ingrid Schorr, not to return to Rockville, Maryland where her parents lived.
The Psychedelic Fur's drummer Vince Ely had left the band, leaving lead singer Richard Butler and bass player Tim Butler along with guitarist John Ashton to work as a trio. For 1984's "Mirror Moves", record producer Keith Forsey handled the majority of the drumming, with session musician Tommy Price playing the drums on two tracks.
This was the last song Marley performed; he sang it from a stool at a show in Pittsburgh on September 23, 1980. Marley's cancer had spread to his brain and it was surprising he could perform at all, but he did a 20-song set that night, closing with a 6-minute rendition of "Get Up, Stand Up."
"When Doves Cry" is the lead single from Purple Rain released in June 1984. Prince wrote and composed "When Doves Cry" after all the other tracks were complete on Purple Rain. In addition to vocals, he played all instruments on the track. There is no bass line, which is very unusual for an '80s dance song. Prince's bass player Brown Mark added bass lines in this song as well as other songs without bass lines on the Purple Rain tour.
The Time, also known as Morris Day and the Time and The Original 7ven, (and close associates of Prince) formed in Minneapolis in 1981. "Jungle Love" is a song from The Time's third album, Ice Cream Castle. The track was one of the first songs recorded for the album, being cut in late March 1983 during Prince's 1999 tour.
Minneapolis Mondays include Prince and the Replacements;) "Let It Be" was the third full-length of The Replacements. The album's title is a reference to the 1970 album Let It Be by The Beatles; the reference was intended as a joke on the Replacements' manager, Peter Jesperson, who was a huge Beatles fan.
Mike Watt revealed to L.A. Record that he even sent Jackson a copy of this song: "I sent him a cassette of it to the management on the record cover. I wrote him a note. 'This is a political song I think Michael Jackson should sing.' I never got written back."
Johnny Ramone on Too Tough To Die: "As we got ready to make Too Tough To Die, we were focused in the same direction, and it made a difference. We knew we needed to get back to the kind of harder material we'd become known for. The pop stuff hadn't really worked, and we knew we were much better off doing what we did best."
The Icicle Works were named after the 1960 short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by science fiction author Frederik Pohl. Led by singer/songwriter Ian McNabb, the band released five albums from 1984 to 1990 before breaking up in 1991.
The character Ray Smith in the Jack Kerouac novel, 'The Dharma Bums', repeatedly says "What difference does it make?" as well as "Pretty Girls Make Graves" both of which are tracks from The Smiths' self-titled debut.
"Learning to Crawl" was given as the title of record in honor of Chrissie Hynde's then-infant daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde. She was learning to crawl at the time that Chrissie was trying to determine a name for the album.
"Something I Learned Today" and "Newest Industry" were the album's only songs that were not recorded in one take.
"Life During Wartime" lives of the band's 1979 record "Fear of Music". The song is also performed in the 1984 film Stop Making Sense, which depicts a Talking Heads concert.
Eurythmics soundtracked the movie "1984" starring John Hurt who recently passed away.
The first Art of Noise album, Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? was released in 1984. During this period, the group presented themselves as faceless using masks, minimal personal appearances, or even absence from promotion to indicate that the Art of Noise was not a standard rock or pop band.
Shout was the second Devo album in which co-founder and bass player Gerald Casale sang the majority of the lead vocals, which are usually performed by Mark Mothersbaugh.
"Relax" was initially banned from the BBC shortly after Frankie Goes to Hollywood performed on "Top of the Pops". BBC DJs Kid Jensen and John Peel still played the track and eventually the ban was lifted later in 1984.
The production and mixing process of "Master and Servant" are remembered by Alan Wilder, Daniel Miller, and Gareth Jones, as among the longest that Depeche Mode ever endured. One story about the song includes a mixing duration of seven days, and after all the reworking and final mastering of the mix, they realized they left the channel with the snare drum muted during the last chorus.
This New Order single is named after the 1974 film Thieves Like Us, directed by Robert Altman.
In 1981, Brendan Perry formed Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard, Paul Erikson, and Simon Monroe. Perry and Gerrard left Australia to continue the group's efforts and were signed by 4AD within a year and released their self-titled debut in 1984.
"Dazzle", the opening track on Hyæna featured strings played by a 27-piece orchestra called the "Chandos Players".
Scottish outfit, Cocteau Twins released "Treasure" on November 1st, 1984 with their primary line-up: vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bass guitarist Simon Raymonde. Robin Guthrie was frustrated with the recording process and felt it was rushed but "Treasure" became one of the group's most successful releases.
"When I sing "The Killing Moon", I know there isn't a band in the world who's got a song anywhere near that," Ian McCulloch told London's The Observer.
Al Jourgensen began Ministry in Chicago, Illinois in 1981. Originally a synth pop outfit, the band transformed their sound to become a pioneer in industrial music.
Tones on Tail was a side project of Daniel Ash of Bauhaus, along with art school friend, flatmate and "Bauhaus roadie" Glenn Campling in 1982. They released their one and only record, "Pop" in 1984 then disband shortly before Ash and Haskins went on to form Love and Rockets.
"Original Sin" is the first single produced by Niles Rodgers from INXS' fourth album, "The Swing". Daryl Hall sings the chorus with Michael Hutchence. During an interview in Australia, Hall said Nile Rodgers called him and asked him to sing on the song.
Do you know all the lyrics to this song? "West End Girls" is a synth pop track influenced by hip-hop via socially consciously lyrics and a driving bass line, derived from Grandmaster Flash's "The Message"
Bronski Beat signed to London Records after only nine live shows and released their debut album, "The Age of Consent" that same year. Their first single, "Smalltown Boy" centers on a gay teenager leaving his family and fleeing his hometown.
In 1984, Alphaville released their debut single, "Big in Japan", which Marian Gold wrote in 1979 after hearing the music of Holly Johnson's band Big in Japan.
Wake up with English outfit XTC who unveiled their seventh, "The Big Express" in October 1984.
R.E.M.'s second album, "Reckoning" was recorded at Reflection Sound Studio in Charlotte, North Carolina over 16 days in December 1983 and January 1984.
Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock outfit who named their debut album after the 1955 Three Stooges short Stone Age Romeos. In an interview with Harp Magazine in 2007, Faulkner revealed that the song, "I Want You Back" was written not about a former lover but actually about former co-founder of the Hoodoo Gurus, Roddy Radalj.
Prince played the Tacoma Dome on Valentine's Day in 1984 in support of "Purple Rain". "Take Me With U" is sung as a duet with Apollonia Kotero, and was originally intended for the Apollonia 6 album, but was pulled for the Purple Rain soundtrack.
"Such a Shame" was inspired by Luke Rhinehart's The Dice Man, one of composer Mark Hollis' favorite books. When asked what drove him to respond to Rhinehart's book, Hollis replied, "A good book, not a lifestyle I'd recommend. The track can be found on Talk Talk's sophomore album, "It's My Life".
Like the band's first album, the songs were mostly written by singer/guitarist/lyricist Gordon Gano when he was in high school.
The band had grown tired of playing loud and fast exclusively by the time of their 1983 album Hootenanny and decided to write songs that were, according to vocalist Paul Westerberg, "a little more sincere" in their "Let It Be" release.
