Dave Fave Five: Eighties Edition

Eighties week continues!  So, heard a fella I respect, a radio dude, age somewhere in his late fifties, totally slag the entire musical output of the 1980's. Said that Elvis Costello, The Clash and maybe a few others, was all you really need, and everything else was so "superfluous." I was taken aback, and immediately needed my fainting couch. Such a broad and damning statement. I mean, sure there was a lot of shiny candy littering the musical landscape of the decade, but geez, given that the top part of this:

...is all eighties, I feel the need to toss up a Fave Five list of some worthy songs from the decade of ME, songs hardly superfluous, Bob. Whatever.

The Untouchables. Love this band. Southern California outfit, merging elements of Ska, Rock, Soul, Garage and more into one thumping jumping party starting package. This one's a killer and a ton of fun and there's a worthy message in there amongst the Two Tone Pork Pies and throw yourself around the room back beat. "FREE YOURSELF!" It's a blast in a glass.

Whew!

In a decade where your innocence was colored, as Prince said, by the knowledge that "Everybody's got a bomb/We could all die any day", I find there is a surprisingly strong undercurrent of melancholy in even the peppiest of 80's music. Even this one here. Hot, oppressive heat, a dirty city, and you are on your own. You want to escape but can't. It's a cruel summer, baby.

Dang, they was cute. And, dang, N.Y.C was gritty. 

A lotta folks think of Robert Smith and The Cure as the mopey kings of gloom, but they nimbly stepped back and forth between the six minute Sad Bastard tunes and quirky pop songs quite well. In fact there kind of a split in Cure fans, especially for the gloom lovers. Just ask them about "Friday I'm In Love" or this one here. Meow.

All those Cure fans who treat Disintegration as their musical Mope Bible just jumped off a bridge.

Devo flat out predicted the world we live in now. The anti-intellectualism, the steady dumbing down of everything, a world run by Jocko Homo. It hard to believe such soothsayers are, in their home country, one hit wonders. Here's song that's NOT "Whip It."

I have de-evolved in the time it took watch that. Must go start war and hate things. Beer?

Man, these guy come across as dopey in their videos, but I really dug the mix of the icy electronic and the hard edged electric in their music. And that beloved melancholy was in there, as well. And so, here's where we'll end our little list: with the band that had great tunes but all everybody remembers is that damn stupid haircut. *sigh*