Deep Tracks

Diamonds in the rough of the ’80s

Posted on by brucehhackett

Eight years ago on this blog, I compiled my first collection of what I call “lost classics” — those great songs from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s that we once knew but soon forgot about…or perhaps never heard in the first place but should have.

Now it’s April 2024, and I proudly offer my 40th edition of lost classics, this time focusing on deep tracks from albums released in the 1980s. I have typically focused more frequently on songs from the ’60s and ’70s, simply because those are the years I know best, but I have been trying to shed more light on selected music from that sometimes maligned, misunderstood decade from 1980-1989.

Man, there was a lot of great stuff that came out in those years, and I’m pleased to present a dozen gems by great bands and artists of the era. Most people were buying their new music in CD format by then, although I personally kept buying albums until the ’80s were almost over before finally (reluctantly) making the switch. Either way, I kept acquiring new tunes by new and older artists alike, and continued to do so (albeit in smaller quantities) in the 1990s and since.

There’s a Spotify playlist to be found at the end so you can give a listen to these forgotten ’80s nuggets as you read. Hope you dig it!

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“Begin the Begin,” R.E.M., 1986

When they emerged in 1982 from the vibrant music scene in the college town of Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. became the darlings of alternative rock with guitar-dominated songs like “Radio Free Europe,” “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” and “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry).” Near the end of this phase, before they won a major record deal and found more mainstream success, the band released “Life’s Rich Pageant,” anchored by “Fall on Me” and “Superman.” Kicking off that LP is the insistent “Begin the Begin,” which Michael Stipe called “a song of personal political activism” that was a pun on the 1935 Cole Porter’s 1935 classic “Begin the Beguine” (a dance similar to a slow rhumba). “Answer me a question, I can’t itemize, /I can’t think clearly, look to me for reason, /It’s not there, I can’t even rhyme, begin the begin…”

“Whenever You’re on My Mind,” Marshall Crenshaw, 1983

Crenshaw’s debut in the music business came in 1978 when he played John Lennon in the national touring ensemble of the “Beatlemania” musical stage show. With roots in the music of Buddy Holly and classic soul, Crenshaw showed great promise with his self-titled debut LP in 1982 and the pop single, “Someday, Someway.” His follow-up album “Field Day,” produced by famed producer Steve Lilywhite, was even better, although it didn’t chart as high, and its single, the catchy “Whenever You’re On My Mind,” somehow failed to reach the Hot 100. Nevertheless, his bright, optimistic music inspired several other bands throughout the ’80s and ’90s, including the Gin Blossoms, who had a sizable hit with his song “‘Til I Hear It From You.”

“The Other End (of the Telescope),” ‘Til Tuesday, 1988

This Boston-based group featured the incredible talent of singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, who soon enough forged a critically praised solo career. ‘Til Tuesday’s debut album and single “Voices Carry” made a lasting impression in 1985, as did the more folky “Welcome Home” LP in 1986, but their third and final album, “Everything’s Different Now,” was unjustly ignored in 1988. There are a number of engaging tunes written by Mann that are worthy of attention here, from the irresistible melody of “Why Must I” to the chiming guitars of “Rip in Heaven” and the longing vibe of “Long Gone (Buddy).” One of the real gems on this neglected LP is “The Other End (of the Telescope),” a delightful track co-written and partly sung by the great Elvis Costello.

“Silver Rainbow,” Genesis, 1983

This self-titled Genesis LP solidified the group’s early ’80s transition from art rock practitioners to arena pop stars, thanks largely to the Phil Collins Top 40 confection “That’s All” and annoying follow-up single “Illegal Alien.” Found on this album, however, are a handful of solid rock songs that offer something for old and new Genesis fans, sometimes within the same song. The Tony Banks tune “Silver Rainbow,” for example, opens with arty keyboards and vocals before breaking into a more deliberate stomper with lyrics that coyly take the teenager’s point of view on the subject of losing virginity. “People can act quite senselessly when they’re in lust or in love,” said Banks, “when it’s overpowering to the point where you don’t really notice anything else”: “If you’re sitting there beside her, and a bear comes in the room, /And you keep on going ’cause you’re unaware, ooh, then you know that you are there…”

“When We Was Fab,” George Harrison, 1987

After a period of relative inactivity, Harrison recruited like-minded Jeff Lynne of ELO (who would soon join him in the Traveling Wilburys) to produce his 1987 comeback, “Cloud Nine.” The album showcased some of Harrison’s best tunes in at least a decade — “If That’s What It Takes,” “Fish On the Sand,” “This is Love,” “Wreck of the Hesperus” — and a ho-hum cover of the 1962 obscurity “Got My Mind Set on You.” But the real head turner is “When We Was Fab,” Harrison’s nostalgic reflection on the early years when The Beatles were dubbed the Fab Four: “Back then, long time ago when grass was green, woke up in a daze, /Arrived like strangers in the night, Fab!, /Long time ago when we was fab…” The appearance of sitar, cello and backwards effects make it sound almost like an outtake from “Magical Mystery Tour,” and the drums are played by none other than Ringo Starr. It reached #23 as Harrison’s final charting hit.

“Come a Long Way,” Simple Minds, 1985

Producer Jimmy Iovine, who had brought an aggressive guitar-based sound to the work of artists like Bruce Springsteen and Steve Nicks, did the same for Simple Minds on the superb “Once Upon a Time” LP in 1985. He also featured frontman Jim Kerr’s vocals more prominently than on their previous albums, and the result was a US market success for the band following the enormous popularity of their “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” single from the soundtrack of “The Breakfast Club.” The album yielded three big singles here — “Alive and Kicking” (#3), “Sanctify Yourself” (#14) and “All the Things She Said” (#28). I’ve always been fond of “Come a Long Way,” the powerful track that closes the LP and aptly describes where Simple Minds found themselves in 1985-86.

“Heartbeat City,” The Cars, 1984

Much of The Cars’ repertoire is accessible New Wave pop — “Just What I Needed,” “Let’s Go,” “Shake It Up,” “You Might Think,” “Tonight She Comes” — and yet there are other tracks that evoke more thoughtful moods. On “Heartbeat City,” their fifth of six LPs in their initial 1978-1987 run, the #3 single “Drive” sounds unlike anything they’d done before, thanks partly to Benjamin Orr taking over on lead vocals from Ric Ocasek. Almost as memorable is the arty title track that closes the album, which one critic described as “a hypnotic bit of New Wave that mixes impressionistic lyrics with an entrancing electronic soundscape.” Said Ocasek, “It’s a place inside the singer when he is in love. When he is heartbroken and loses the ability to feel emotions, he’s living outside Heartbeat City.”

“Red Rain,” Peter Gabriel, 1986

After leaving Genesis in 1975, Gabriel began his solo career by releasing four identically self-titled LPs over the next six years that were predictable in their challenging unpredictability. The rare radio singles (“Solsbury Hill,” “Games Without Frontiers,” “Shock the Monkey”) were outnumbered by sophisticated art rock tracks that often recalled early Genesis work. Then came “So,” the 1986 multiplatinum LP produced by Daniel Lanois that gave us “Sledgehammer,” “In Your Eyes,” “Big Time,” and the Kate Bush duet “Don’t Give Up.” Sometimes forgotten is “Red Rain,” a dark, brooding piece inspired by a disturbing recurring dream Gabriel had, in which bottles in the shape of people fall from a cliff and smash on the ground as streams of red liquid (maybe wine, maybe blood) pour out.

“Farm on the Freeway,” Jethro Tull, 1987

In 1984, Tull’s Ian Anderson developed serious throat problems that permanently altered the higher end of his vocal range, requiring him to begin writing songs in lower keys. After two years off from live performances, the band returned with the excellent Grammy-winning LP “Crest of a Knave,” which showcased Anderson’s lower vocals, resembling those of Dire Straits’ frontman Mark Knopfler. One of the LP’s highlights was “Farm on the Freeway,” a dramatic flute-driven piece which laments the disappearance of farmland at the expense of highway development: “And the big road’s pushing through along the valley floor, hot machine pouring six lanes at the very least, /Now, they say they gave me compensation, that’s not what I’m chasing, I was a rich man before yesterday, /Now all I have left is a broken-down pickup truck, looks like my farm is a freeway…”

“Darkness,” The Police, 1981

With each successive album between 1978 and 1983, The Police evolved from a raw punk/reggae British trio to a richly produced band that topped the charts worldwide. Their fourth LP, 1981’s “Ghosts in the Machine,” was the first produced by Hugh Padgham, who pioneered an innovative drum sound later used by Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and others, achieved by having the band record simultaneously from three separate rooms. While Sting’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” and “Spirits in the Material World” got most of the attention, the ethereal closing track “Darkness” (written by drummer Stewart Copeland) turned quite a few heads as a modestly successful single (#46 in the US). “It’s a song about vertigo,” he said. “I’m quite proud of it.”

“Sixes and Sevens,” Robert Plant, 1985

When Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980, most observers figured Jimmy Page would have the most active solo career, but it turned out to be Plant, who released four LPs and an EP in the 1980s and has put out 15 solo or collaborative albums overall. He teamed with the relatively unknown guitarist Robbie Blunt to write most of the songs on his first three LPs, including the singles “Big Log,” “In the Mood,” “Burning Down One Side” and “Pledge Pin.” From the 1985 LP “Shaken ‘N Stirred,” the synthesizer-heavy “Little By Little” was popular, but the languid, atmospheric “Sixes and Sevens” also got airplay on US mainstream rock stations. The title refers to the British idiom “at sixes and sevens,” which means to be confused or in disarray: “So here I am making changes, alterations in my house of cards, /I don’t hold new arrangements, am I at home? Am I at home? Am I, am I all right?…”

“Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale,” a-ha, 1985

Bursting out of Norway in 1985 with the US Top 20 LP “Hunting High and Low” and its international #1 single “Take On Me,” synthpop/rock band a-ha went on to score seven #1 LPs in Norway and commanded huge followings in Europe and Australia. Curiously, that long-term popularity didn’t extend to the US after the success of “Take on Me,” whose groundbreaking music video was in saturation rotation on MTV and is still regarded as one of the greatest hits of the 1980s, thanks to lead singer Morten Harket’s astonishing vocals. The album reached #19, and a few other tracks got mild airplay, including the mesmerizing “Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale,” which made a huge impact on Chris Martin when he created the band Coldplay about a decade later.

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Give me some water, cool cool water

Posted on by brucehhackett

Water has been an essential commodity since before man walked the Earth. Communities have been founded based on their proximity to fresh water. It’s been said man can go weeks without food but no more than three or four days without water. Nearly 75 percent of our planet’s surface is covered with water…but that’s salt water. As the parched sailor in the middle of the ocean would say, “Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”

So many sayings involving water can be found in literature and contemporary discourse: Like a fish out of water. Keep your head above water. Still water runs deep. Spending money as if it were water. Blood is thicker than water. Makes your mouth water. Water over the dam. Throw cold water on something. Blown out of the water.

These days, we’re all reminded of the dangers of dehydration, and are urged to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. Indeed, we may someday fight wars over access to fresh water.

Songwriters have written many dozens of songs with lyrics about water, and I’ve identified 15 from the classic rock era (plus another baker’s dozen of honorable mentions) that I think you’ll find worthy of your attention.

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“Dirty Water,” The Standells, 1966

This garage-band classic was written by producer Ed Cobb in 1966 as a mock paean to Boston and its then-polluted harbor and the Charles River. The song, recorded by The Standells and reaching #11 on US pop charts that year, was inspired partly by an incident when Cobb was mugged during a Boston visit. Despite its negative connotations, “Dirty Water” has been embraced by the city in the years since, particularly by its rowdy sports fans, thanks to the line, “Oh-h, Boston, you’re my home” at end of each chorus. The song has often been played at Bruins hockey games and Red Sox games following victories. In 1979, British garage band The Inmates recorded a raucous cover of “Dirty Water,” substituting “River Thames” and “London” for “River Charles” and “Boston.”

“Hell & High Water,” The Allman Brothers Band, 1980

Most rock bands go through peaks and valleys during their career, but perhaps no group has had a wilder roller-coaster ride than The Allman Brothers Band. From early struggles to critical praise, from tragic deaths to #1 albums, from drug busts and addiction to multiple rebirths in the ’90s and beyond, these guys have seen it all. In the early ’80s, they were in a trough with two lackluster albums on Arista Records (the terrible album cover of “Reach For the Sky” was an indication), but there were moments of that old spark, like Dickey Betts’s song “Hell & High Water,” which actually chronicles the group’s up and downs up to that point: “We’ve been through hell and high water, ready to go through it all again, /As long as we’ve got a quarter between us all, we’re gonna have money to spend…”

“Walk on Water,” Eddie Money, 1988

Between 1977 and 1988, Edward Mahoney, better known as New York rocker Eddie Money, released seven albums that reached between #20 and #70 on US charts. He also fared quite well on various singles charts with hits like “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “Baby Hold On,” “Think I’m in Love,” “Maybe I’m a Fool, “Take Me Home Tonight” (in a duet with Ronnie Spector) and “I Wanna Go Back.” His final Top Ten entry was 1988’s “Walk on Water,” written by former Sammy Hagar keyboardist Jesse Harms, in which the narrator frustratingly asks what he has to do to regain his lover’s trust: “Well I’m no angel, now I’ll admit, I made a few bad moves I should regret, /If I could find some way to prove, if I could walk on water, would you believe in me? /My love is so true…”

“Smoke On the Water,” Deep Purple, 1972

The iconic opening guitar riff and indelible hard rock groove made “Smoke on the Water” a landmark hit in 1972-73, and Deep Purple’s highest charting song. Its lyrics tell the true story of how the entertainment/casino complex on the Lake Geneva shoreline in Montreux, Switzerland, accidentally burned down one evening in 1971 during a Mothers of Invention concert, the night before Deep Purple were due to begin recording an album there. As the first verse and chorus put it: “Frank Zappa and the Mothers were at the best place around, but some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground, /Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky…” The song was released on their “Machine Head” album in 1972, then reached #4 on US pop charts when released as a single in 1973.

“Bring Me Some Water,” Melissa Etheridge, 1988

Kansas-born Etheridge was discovered playing clubs in Pasadena and grabbed attention right out of the gate with her 1988 debut LP and its single, “Bring Me Some Water.” Her confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals have sustained her through an impressive career that has featured a dozen Top Twenty LPs and a half-dozen high-charting singles in the 1990s and 2000s. Even though her handful of singles in 1993-1995 charted higher, I’ve always returned to “Bring Me Some Water and its heartbreaking exuberance: “Somebody bring me some water, can’t you see I’m burning alive?, /Can’t you see my baby’s got another lover, and I don’t know how I’m gonna survive, /Somebody bring me some water, can’t you see it’s out of control?…”

“Heavy Water,” Jethro Tull, 1989

Chemically, heavy water is a form of water that contains a “heavier” hydrogen isotope that makes it ideal for production of nuclear power and weaponry. In the Tull song from the 1989 LP “Rock Island,” Ian Anderson was actually referring to acid rain, a type of precipitation with low pH levels caused by sulfur dioxide emissions that can have harmful effects on plants and animals. “On my first trip to New York in the summer of 1968, everyone else was running from the rain, and I realized it was because each drop of was leaving a dirty black mark. It was raining coal and sulfur!” The lyrics are bleak — “Thumping in my heart, and it’s hurting me to see, /Smokestack blowing, now they’re pouring heavy water on me” — but are offset by a sprightly, accessible melody and tempo that stand tall in the band’s latter-day catalog.

“Black Water,” The Doobie Brothers, 1974

Guitarist/singer Pat Simmons provided a lighter country element to The Doobies’ brand of ’70s rock and roll, offering homespun songs like “South City Midnight Lady” and “Tell Me What You Want.” His catchy track “Black Water” was an easygoing acoustic tune originally released as the B-side to Tom Johnston’s “Another Park, Another Sunday,” single, but a disc jockey in Roanoke, Virginia, began playing it because of the Blackwater River that ran not far outside the city. The intense regional interest caught the record label’s attention, and they re-released it as an A-side single, which made it all the way to #1 in March 1975. The lyric was actually written during a visit to New Orleans, with a reference to the Mississippi River and wanting to “hear some funky Dixieland.”

“Madman Across the Water,” Elton John, 1971

Lyricist Bernie Taupin, fascinated by mental illnesses, adopted the fractured imagery and detached thought process of an asylum inmate for this mind-bending title track from Elton John’s 1971 LP. The song had been originally recorded in 1970 with Bowie cohort Mick Ronson on lead guitar and intended for inclusion on his “Tumbleweed Connection” LP, but instead “Madman” was reimagined a year later using the orchestral flourishes of Paul Buckmaster’s dramatic strings arrangement, Elton’s compelling vocal delivery and Davey Johnstone’s understated guitar work. I think it’s one of the most riveting songs in his entire catalog. When American critics assumed the title referred to then-President Nixon from a Brit’s point of view, Taupin whistled and said, “Wow, that is genius. I never would’ve thought of that.”

“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Simon and Garfunkel, 1969

This monumental tune is so ingrained in pop music culture that it’s hard to imagine a time when it didn’t exist. But in November 1969, a rapt audience at Carnegie Hall in New York listened as Art Garfunkel performed the song for the first time, six weeks before its release as one of the biggest singles of the year, and their response was thunderous rapture. Garfunkel sang it alone with Larry Knechtel on piano, and the recording of it, finally released 40 years later in 2009 on “Live 1969,” is presented here. Simon had been inspired by gospel singer Claude Jeter’s line, “I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name,” coming up with his own gospel classic later covered by Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Elvis Presley and dozens of others.

“Fire and Water,” Free, 1970

Vocalist Paul Rodgers and troubled guitarist Paul Kassoff were the linchpins of Free, one of England’s best yet underrated rock bands of the 1968-1972 period. (Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke later went on to form the more commercially successful Bad Company.) “All Right Now,” which reached the Top Ten in a dozen countries in 1970, got most of the attention, although “Oh I Wept,” “Stealer” and “Wishing Well” also got airplay. The title track to Free’s third album, “Fire and Water,” does a nice job of examining the yin and yang of romantic relationships: “Lover, you turn me on, but quick as a flash, your love is gone, /Baby, I’m gonna leave you now, but I’m gonna try and make you grieve somehow, /Fire and water must have made you their daughter, /You’ve got what it takes to make a poor man’s heart break…”

“Water of Love,” Dire Straits, 1978

This track from the Dire Straits 1978 debut LP is a sterling example of the kind of haunting ballads guitarist/songwriter Mark Knopfler was writing in juxtaposition with the more uptempo hits like “Sultans of Swing” and “Lady Writer” in the band’s early years. His languid guitar work and seductive arrangement on “Water of Love” complements the clever melancholy of lyrics, which notes how both water and love are essentials in life: “I’ve been too long lonely and my heart feels pain, crying out for some soothing rain, /I believe I have taken enough, yes, I need a little water of love, /Water of love deep in the ground, but there ain’t no water here to be found, /Some day, baby, when the river runs free, it’s gonna carry that water of love to me…”

“Candle on the Water,” Helen Reddy, 1977

The original script for “Pete’s Dragon” was written in the 1950s for the Disneyland TV series but was shelved until its reimagining as a live action/animated musical film released in 1977. Popular Canadian singer Helen Reddy was tapped to not only sing the featured song “Candle On the Water” but as one of the film’s actors as well. The song, written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, was nominated for a Best Song Oscar, and a slightly different arrangement by Reddy’s label got airplay on Adult Contemporary stations. The writers said they deliberately placed religious and spiritual symbols in the lyrics: “I’ll be your candle on the water ’til every wave is warm and bright, /My soul is there beside you, let this candle guide you, /Soon you’ll see a golden stream of light…”

“The Water is Wide,” James Taylor, 1991

This Scottish folk song was first written in the mid-1800s and has undergone many changes in lyrics and musical structure since then. Its hymn-like melody and modern lyrics published in 1905 have become widely accepted as definitive, exploring how love often wavers between exhilaration and heartbreak: “Oh, love is handsome and love is fine, the sweetest flower when first it’s new, /But love grows old and waxes cold, and fades away like summer dew…” A host of major artists have offered their interpretations: Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Fred Neil, Steve Goodman, Karla Bonoff, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Eva Cassidy, Cowboy Junkies and a collaboration of Jewel, Sarah McLachlan and the Indigo Girls. I’ve always been partial to James Taylor’s version, which concludes his highly regarded 1991 LP “New Moon Shine.”

“Cool Water,” Joni Mitchell with Willie Nelson, 1988

Bob Nolan, a respected singer/songwriter of Western music and actor in Western movies, wrote “Cool Water” in 1936, and it now ranks #3 on Western Writers of America’s list of 100 Greatest Western songs of all time. It tells the tragic tale of a parched man and his dying mule on a trek across a wasteland in search of water: “Come the dawn, we carry on, /We won’t last long without water, cool clear water… /Old Dan and I, our throats slate dry, /Our spirits cry out for water, cool clear water…” Nolan first recorded it as a member of Sons of The Pioneers with future singing movie star Roy Rogers, and a 1948 record with a different Sons lineup peaked at #4. Joni Mitchell invited Willie Nelson to join her on a sublime revival of the song for her 1988 LP, “Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm.”

“Rock Me on the Water,” Jackson Browne, 1972

Browne has said, “It’s meant to be kind of a gospel song, using this gospel language: ‘stand before the father,’ ‘sisters of the sun.’ But it’s turning that around 180 degrees so it’s not about religion, it’s about society.” The lyrics are clear: “Oh people, look around you, the signs are everywhere, /You’ve left it for somebody other than you to be the one to care… /Rock me on the water, /sister, won’t you soothe my fevered brow…” Browne wrote it in the tumultuous political year of 1970, and it ultimately appeared on his 1972 debut LP and as his second single, peaking at #48, following the Top Ten hit “Doctor My Eyes.” Johnny Rivers, Brewer & Shipley and Linda Ronstadt loved the song and recorded it during the same period and, much later, Keb’ Mo’ did it justice on a “Songs of Jackson Browne” tribute album in 2014.

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Honorable mentions:

“Don’t Drink the Water,” Dave Matthews Band, 1999; “Something in the Water,” Pokey LaFarge, 2015; “Cool Cool Water,” The Beach Boys, 1970; “Gimme Some Water,” Eddie Money, 1978; “Washing of the Water,” Peter Gabriel, 1992; “Water Woman,” Spirit, 1968; “Oily Water,” Blur, 1993; “Deeper Water,” Paul Kelly, 2010; “Cool Water,” Joy Askew, 1996; “Something in the Water (Does Not Compute),” Prince, 1982; “Head Above Water,” Avril Lavigne, 2019; “Down By the Water,” The Decemberists, 2011; “Water,” The Who, 1970.

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