My Top Five Of The Eighties
I’ve been playing around with YouTube tracking down old music videos and seeing if I can track some of my obscure favourites. A few days back, I read a Stephen Downes post that linked from a Rob Wall post starting a meme called Top 5 Of The Eighties. Although not officially invited to be part of the fun, I couldn’t resist. Being of the age where the music of the eighties provided the soundtrack to my teenage and early years of adulthood, I went scurrying to my cassette collection to see what jumped out at me as being memorable (or even listenable today.) Here’s my list in no particular order.
- The The - Infected
- Husker Du - Zen Arcade
- Midnight Oil - 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
- Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues
- Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet
And to give non-Aussies a taste of the Oils in the middle there, here’s a live version of “Only The Strong” via YouTube. Not quite as good as the album version … but Midnight Oil were arguably the best live band down under in the eighties.
No tagging - feel free to jump in and even try a different decade.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:33 am
Your list shows that you were not only listening, but paying attention. I was only 0-10 years of age durng that 80s, so my list is more in learning of things as an adult, but Hall & Oates, the Cars, the Clash, come to mind quite quickly.
Could we tranlate this to the classroom? Have them make top five lists as a culmination of a porject. I think Dan Schmit spoke of this in his Kidcast podcast.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
I think memes like this are always more fun when someone jumps on board without any kind of official invitation. I think your list is great. I almost included Midnight Oil in the top 5 - they would definitely make my top 10 although I’m not sure if I would put 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 or Diesel and Dust as the top album, maybe even Red Sails in the Sunset. I was lucky enough to see the Oils in concert in 1988 - one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen!
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
1. Back In Black - ACDC
2. White Album - Beatles
3. Sitting On a Fence - Jethro Tull
4. The The - Infected
5. The Cure - All of it….
The Oils were up there but I came from the thrash punk era growing into the new romantics ( back to EMO’s) and for my money Rose Tattoo at Cronulla Hotel with the Rebels as guards were as wicked a show as any.
Metallica and Black Sabbath were somewhere in there also…..I think
( nursing head )
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
The Eighties, what an eclectic mix of Music. Here are some of my favorites, but not neccessarily in order, or the top 5. There’s too many to choose from.
1.Sandinista – The Clash
2.Pop Art – Elton Motello
3.Under Wraps – Jethro Tull
4.Fade to Grey – Visage
5.The Wall – Pink Floyd
There’s an interesting mix for you. I’ll also add some of my musical memories from the 80’s, again in no particular order.
1.Pink Floyd – Live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Still the best concert I have ever seen.
2.Thin Lizzy - Live at the Myer Music Bowl (I think that was the 80’s).
3.The Models and Bear Garden in a small warehouse in North Melbourne – Wild Night.
4.Jethro Tull - live at the Sports & Entertainment Centre Melbourne.
5.A good friends 18th on the banks of the Yarra, which ended up in the Matthew Flinders Hotel, which ended up, somewhere else a few days later…I think.
What an era the 80’s was and it had it all, Punk, New Romantics, Bliss, Ska, and of course good old fashioned Metal.