Videodrone #11: Heartbeat

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Heartbeat (1986)

There have always been performers who have tried to have crossover success. Actors who attempted singing careers and vice versa, with varying degrees of success. 

In 1986, Miami Vice was the hottest show on TV and its two lead actors both took their shots at music stardom. Philip Michael Thomas, who played Det. Tubbs on the show, self-released an album in 1985 that didn't do much. His co-star Don Johnson, who was at his sex symbol peak, had grander ambitions and the support of Epic Records behind him when he released the album Heartbeat in 1986.

Not only did Johnson record an album, but he also made a one-hour longform "concept movie" to promote it. The short film was dialogue-free, basically an interconnected series of Miami Vice-esque music videos that told the story of a Johnson as a documentary filmmaker who gets involved with gang warfare, family drama and other hijinks, including trippy dream sequences. The label spent over $1 million to make the film, which includes appearances from Paul Shaffer, Lori Singer, David Carradine, Sandahl Bergman and a young Luis Guzman and Giancarlo Esposito. It was released direct-to-video on VHS and pay cable channels. 

Epic put a lot of money into marketing the release of Heartbeat. I remember seeing the world premiere on Friday Night Videos and MTV gave him a little advance pub with a behind-the-scenes clip (see below).

But it was the title track that people still sort of remember. The video for "Heartbeat" was released in September 1986 and featured scenes from the film (which wasn't released until May 1987) intercut with Johnson singing the track with a backing band that included Dweezil Zappa on guitar (the album also featured guest spots from Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ronnie Wood, Dickey Betts and Bonnie Raitt). Johnson certainly thought he had something special.

"I wanted the record to be modern, tough rock and I think I achieved that on some level," he told the LA Times in 1987. "I didn't want it to sound like something that other people designed and I just stopped by for a few minutes to do the vocals. And I made it clear to Walter [Yetnikoff, who was president and CEO of CBs Records at the time] that I would walk away from it if I didn't think it was credible. I was prepared every step of the way to throw it away and walk away."

That said, it's fairly generic mid-'80s AOR that would fit right in on a Michelob Light commercial in 1986, but hey, that's what the kids were into, right? Or maybe the housewives that swooned over Johnson every Friday night when a new Miami Vice episode aired. "Heartbeat" also fit into the mold of the atmospheric, moody rock that Vice liked to feature, but it never was used on the show (although two songs by Philip Michael Thomas were used in a 1985 Miami Vice ep). The song has the same vibe as the "rock music" released by actor Jeremy Renner in the last decade or so. Nobody asked or wanted it, but there it is nonetheless.

"Heartbeat" was a hit, going all the way to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album hit #17 on the Billboard 200 and went gold. The song had actually been around for a few years. It was written by Eric Kaz and Wendy Waldman and originally released by Waldman in 1982 with Peter Frampton playing the guitar solo, and then by Helen Reddy in 1983. Both those versions are little more uptempo than Johnson's, but their versions came and went long before Johnson's made a splash.

Johnson would release one more album, 1989's Let It Roll, which featured plenty of studio help from the likes of then-girlfriend Barbra Streisand, Steve Jones, Omar Hakim, Joe Lynn Turner and Bruce Kulick. It didn't chart in the U.S. But he did have some success with "Till I Loved You," a duet with Streisand that was a top 40 hit from her 1988 album of the same name.

He hasn't recorded any more music since then, instead working steadily in movies and TV. But there have been plenty of performers who have had success in acting and movies, although most of them are musicians who became actors: Will Smith, Ice Cube, Ice-T, to name a few. There are also actors who have released music and toured, including Kevin Bacon, Kevin Costner, Bill Murray (touring, anyway), Renner, Bruce Willis, Jared Leto, Ryan Gosling, Jack Black, Zooey Deschanel and Keanu Reeves. 

But 40 years ago, Don Johnson took a big swing. Wisely, he eventually stuck to what he was really good at.

Videodrone #5: Fashion

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Fashion (1980)

For those of us old enough to be sentient in 1980, there was a noticeable shift as the '70s ended and a new decade began. Obviously, just flipping the calendar to a new page doesn't automatically change anything other than the date, but the vibes were definitely different. The ramshackle feel of the '70s was replaced by a more uptight mood in the '80s, which was underlined by the rise of conservative leaders like Reagan and Thatcher.

For the purposes of this feature, music video was changing as well. More artists were promoting their music by making videos, although the vast majority were straight performance clips--either live or mimed in a studio. 

One artist who wasn't afraid to take some chances was David Bowie, who had risen to prominence in the '70s with a string of excellent albums. He also dabbled in acting and was very creative when it came to his look and his image. Despite the critical success of his music, his late '70s "Berlin Trilogy" of albums made with Brian Eno didn't make a big splash commercially. 

Bowie's 1980 release Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was less ambient and ambitious than the Berlin albums, and its lead single "Ashes to Ashes" revisited the Major Tom character of his first hit, 1969's "Space Oddity." The accompanying video was epic and expensive, but since I already wrote about it and the song in depth, I'm going to focus on the second single and video, "Fashion."

The song both celebrates and criticizes the world of fashion, which Bowie saw as becoming regimented and strict. Calling out "fascists" and the "goon squad," "Fashion" features a memorable guitar riff from art-rock legend Robert Fripp. Of course, the line "We are the goon squad and we're coming to town" takes on a much different meaning in 2026.

The video was directed by David Mallet, who worked with Bowie on "Ashes to Ashes" and also directed tons of videos for artists including Blondie, Boomtown Rats, Joan Jett, Def Leppard, Rush, the Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, Tina Turner and AC/DC. 

Filmed at the NYC nightclub Hurrah, the video features Bowie and his bandmates (including rhythm guitarist Carlos Alomar, drummer Stephen Goulding and lead guitarist G.E. Smith of Hall & Oates and later the SNL house band) performing. It cuts between them and shots of dancers rehearsing and a bunch of New Romantic types outside a soup kitchen, one of whom was May Pang, ex-girlfriend of John Lennon and future wife of Bowie producer Tony Visconti. 

The dancers start imitating Bowie's dance moves, a commentary on the copycat nature of fashion trends. One of the dancers was original MTV VJ Alan Hunter, a year-plus before MTV launched in August 1981. 

The song peaked at #5 on the U.K. Singles chart and #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and #21 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart). 

Although I was familiar with songs like "Fame" and "New Americans," "Fashion" and "Ashes to Ashes" were my real introduction to Bowie at age 12. They were interesting and weird and fun, which are all pretty good descriptors for Mr. Bowie himself. And the visual flair of their videos was certainly influential on the rest of the music world as we moved into the '80s and the power of the video became more apparent.

Completely Conspicuous 663: Shadow Dancing

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about songs we hate to love. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Our top 10 songs we hate to love in no particular order
• Phil: A song from the infamous Great White
• One of the many bands who tried to sound like Zeppelin
• Jay: Rupert Holmes somehow got cheesier than the "Pina Colada Song"
• Classic AM gold shizz
• Phil: A big hit for the Carpenters
• Originally written for a bank commercial
• Jay: Monster disco one-hit wonder from Patrick Hernandez
• Phil: Britney with an earworm
• Jay: Raspy pop smash from Kim Carnes
• Crossed over to MOR stations that our parents listened to
• Phil: Digging into the Jefferson Starship ballads
• Marty Balin got on the wrong side of the Hell's Angels at Altamont
• Jay: Phil Collins did a lot of soundtrack music in the '80s in addition to everything else
• A patented Collins Angry Ballad
• Phil digs that calypso beat in one of Lionel Richie's biggest hits
• Richie was one of the driving forces behind "We Are the World"
• Jay: A synth pop cover of "Lean On Me"
• Phil: Secretly loved the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as a kid
• Yvonne Elliman sang backups on several Clapton albums
• Jay: Non-English hit by Falco
• Only German-language #1 song in America
• Phil: Frankie Valli's disco song in Grease
• Written by Barry Gibb, who was unstoppable in the late '70s
• Jay: Early '70s soft rock jam from Albert Hammond
• Phil: John Mayer's wuss rock moment
• More familiar with his work in Dead and Co.
• Jay: Rediscovered recently his love of Little River Band
• Australian purveyors of catchy dad rock
• Original members lost the rights to the band name
• Phil: Shout out to the Weather Girls
• Catchy and co-written by Paul Shaffer
• Jay: Another huge hit from the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer
• Phil: An apparently ironic love ballad from the Captain and Tennille
• Jay: Another hit from the Gibb family, this time younger brother Andy
• Too much cocaine, apparently

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Unsung: After School Special

Unsung is a feature in which I take a look at a pop culture phenomenon (be it music, TV, literary, whatever) that has been forgotten or underappreciated. In this installment, I take a look at ABC's Afterschool Specials, an anthology series that ran for 25 seasons.

The concept of the latchkey kid is mythologized by Gen Xers such as myself, but it was a real thing. For those of us whose parents both worked full-time, it was just a part of everyday life. I'm sure there are still kids who come home from school to an empty house and are left to their own devices until their parents get home, but the term really caught on in the 1970s as more mothers began working instead of staying home with the children. The term actually came up in a CBC Radio program all the way back in 1942, discussing the phenomenon of kids left home alone during World War II when the father was away at war and the mother would need to get a job. 

For me, it began in the mid-'70s when my family moved into our first house in Pickering, a suburb of Toronto. I was 7 and in second grade and would walk a mile to and from school every day. With both my parents working during the day (usually; sometimes my mother would work a different shift at the hospital), I would have my own house key and let myself in after school. My younger brother would be with a babysitter down the street until my mother got home, so I was on my own, making myself a snack and either playing street hockey in the driveway or watching TV. 

With the latter, I remember watching a lot of reruns of shows like Happy Days and Gilligan's Island, but another show I would occasionally check out was the ABC Afterschool Special. These were hour-long mini movies that ran once a month during the school year and often focused on a hot-button topics like divorce, AIDS, rape, drunk driving, teen pregnancy, drugs and even child molestation. They were designed to be educational and entertaining and occasionally controversial. I didn't watch them all the time, but every so often I'd catch one. I didn't watch them after the early '80s, when I was either doing homework or playing sports after school.

The specials weren't always standard movies; sometimes, they were animated or were done as documentaries. The series won 51 Daytime Emmy Awards and four Peabody Awards over the years. Of course, when the ABC specials started doing well, CBS followed with Schoolbreak Specials in 1980 and NBC ran similar programs called Special Treat from 1975-1986. ABC also aired Weekend Specials from 1977-1997, but these were often adaptations of children's stories.

ABC's Afterschool Specials featured a lot of early appearances of actors who went on to bigger things. In the '70s, this included Jodie Foster, Kristy McNichol, Lance Kerwin, Leif Garrett, Rosanna Arquette, Anthony Kiedis (under the name Cole Dammett), Wendie Jo Sperber, David Paymer and Melissa Sue Anderson. In the '80s, the shows featured Melora Hardin, Rob Lowe, Dana Plato, Nancy McKeon, Scott Baio, Amanda Plummer, Helen Slater, Matthew Modine, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cynthia Nixon, River and Leaf (later known as Joaquin) Phoenix, Sarah Jessica Parker, Yeardley Smith (who later became Lisa Simpson), Justine Bateman, Val Kilmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mare Winningham, Ajay Naidu, Viggo Mortensen, Lisa Bonet, Kyra Sedgwick, Jennifer Grey, Ben Affleck, Marisa Tomei and Sherilyn Fenn. The '90s featured early appearances by Will Smith, Sam Rockwell, Adam Sandler, Lacey Chabert, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Alba, Kevin Connolly, Lauryn Hill and Sara Gilbert.

Oprah Winfrey's production company took over the series in 1991, with Winfrey introducing the episodes, which included panel discussions on relationships and race relations. But by this time, youth-oriented sitcoms and dramas were regularly producing "Very Special Episodes" that focused on similar hot-button issues for much larger audiences. Eventually, the Afterschool Specials were canceled in 1996, with the last episode running in January '97.

The series didn't shy away from difficult topics and tried not to be preachy, unlike, say, Nancy Reagan appearing on "Diff'rent Strokes" to tell kids to just say no to drugs. There were definitely seriously heavy shows and then more lighthearted stuff, like 1987's The Day My Kid Went Punk, starring The Love Boat's Bernie Kopell and featuring a truly ridiculous premise (nerdy kid who plays violin is rejected by girl he likes and decides to become a "punker"). Or 1980's Stoned, in which Scott Baio starts smoking weed. Or 1984's Summer Switch, in which Robert Klein plays a dad who does a "Freaky Friday" personality switch with his teenage son. Or "Wanted: The Perfect Guy" from 1986, in which a 13-year-old Ben Affleck places a personal ad for his widowed mom. 

"One Too Many" first aired in prime time before becoming an afterschool special in May 1985, starring Val Kilmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Lance Guest and Mare Winningham as four high school friends whose lives are changed after one of them drives drunk. 

Of course, all these aired during the era where TV choices were limited to the three big networks, PBS and a handful of UHF channels (as well the burgeoning pay cable stations like HBO and Cinemax that emerged in the '80s). Now there are so many options and ways to watch shows, it's hard to keep up. But when I would get home from school in the late '70s, I would toast up a Pop Tart and pour a glass of milk and watch some TV, which might have been an afterschool special starring Robbie Rist as a rich kid granted seven wishes by a genie.

Unsung: Battle of Who Could Care Less

Unsung is a feature in which I take a look at a pop culture phenomenon (be it music, TV, literary, whatever) that has been forgotten or underappreciated. In this installment, I take a look at the TV sensation that was Battle of the Network Stars.

Growing up in the 1970s was very different than it is for kids today. We spent a LOT of time unsupervised, especially those of us who were latchkey kids; in other words, both parents worked and we were left to our own designs while they weren't home. 

For me, that really came into play in 1975 when we moved from the high-rise apartment buildings of Scarborough, Ontario (at the time, a suburb of Toronto; now it's actually part of the city) to the eastern suburban town of Pickering. I was in second grade at the time and would walk home from school, let myself into the house and find ways to occupy my time until my parents got home around dinnertime. I didn't really have homework until 5th or 6th grade, so I would either play hockey in my driveway (this WAS Canada, after all) or make myself a snack and watch TV. Typically, it was syndicated reruns of Happy Days, which aired in the afternoon (called Happy Days Again to differentiate from the newer episodes), Barney Miller and M.A.S.H. or older shows like Gilligan's Island. 

Like many kids of my generation, I watched a LOT of TV growing. Of course, my biggest role model, my dad, would come home from work, eat dinner and then plop himself down on the couch to watch TV until it was time to go to bed. He loved reruns of shows like Bewitched, the Bob Newhart Show and Hogan's Heroes, but would also watch newer shows like Dallas, the Love Boat or Fantasy Island. And we followed the Toronto Maple Leafs, who at that time typically played on Wednesday and Saturday nights. 

These were the days of the Big 3 TV networks: ABC, CBS and NBC. There were UHF (aka cable) stations that showed old movies and reruns, but all new, non-syndicated programming was on the Big 3. Non-scripted shows back then were still all about stars; if you were an ordinary person, you could get on game shows, but the networks were big on star power. A lot more people watched network shows back then, so there was serious competition for eyeballs. 

In 1973, ABC began airing the show Superstars as part of its weekend Wide World of Sports programming, with top athletes competing in different sports. One of the first winners was O.J. Simpson in 1975. After seeing its popularity, ABC got the idea to hold a similar competition featuring TV stars competing in different sporting events. Dubbed Battle of the Network Stars, the first episode aired in November 1976 with the competitors participating in swimming, kayaking, volleyball, golf, tennis, bowling, cycling, 3-on-3 football, a baseball dunk tank, running and an obstacle course, as well as game of "Simon Says." After the regular events, the team with the lowest score was eliminated and the remaining two teams determined the winner in a game of tug of war. Legendary sports announcer Howard Cosell was the host, providing overly dramatic commentary for events featuring the likes of Gabe Kaplan, Telly Savalas and Robert Conrad, the three team captains in the first two years.

The great Will Harris put together an entertaining oral history of the Battle of the Network Stars for the A.V. Club several years back, featuring interviews with many of the competitors. The games were entertaining, especially considering the fact that in the mid-1970s, there was much less of a premium on working out than in later years. A lot of the participants were terrible at sports, but that was all part of the fun. There was a combination of big names (the aforementioned captains, Hal Linden, Tom Selleck), young talent (Ron Howard, Jimmie Walker, Scott Baio, Kristy McNichol, Valerie Bertinelli, Todd Bridges), up-and-comers (Billy Crystal, David Letterman, Robin Williams, Kurt Russell) and starlets (Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Cheryl Tiegs, Lynda Carter, Erin Gray, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, Adrienne Barbeau). With the last group, the networks were also all about T&A, so getting your hottest stars in bathing suits was definitely good for business.

ABC ran episodes every six months until May 1985, with one final edition in 1988. It also inspired Circus of the Stars, a CBS show that featured TV and movie stars performing circus acts; the show ran from 1977-1994.

There was a lot of good-natured fun, but the actors started to take it seriously because there was money on the line. They received $10,000 each for just showing up, the second-place team won $15,000 each and the winning team got $20,000 each. Sometimes this led to heated confrontations; one year, there was a controversy over the relay race finish. Robert Conrad, the tough guy star of the NBC World War II show Baa Baa Black Sheep, was so incensed by his team getting penalized for a violation that he challenged ABC captain Gabe Kaplan, the standup comic star of Welcome Back, Kotter, to a footrace. Kaplan smoked him in the race, creating great TV in the process.

It was dumb fun and very much of its time, just like the insane network promos that would feature hundreds of stars doing song-and-dance disco numbers to hype the new season. In 2017, ABC revived Battle of the Network Stars as a weekly series, with teams featuring celebrities based on their roles: TV sitcoms, variety, White House, prime time soaps, cops, doctors, etc. It ran for nine episodes and I have zero memory of it even happening.

Of course, the concept of TV celebrity has changed since the '80s with the advent of reality TV. There are plenty of celebrity competition shows, whether it's on Jeopardy, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, MTV's endless series of Real World/Road Rules Challenges, The Surreal Life. As the definition of a celebrity has changed to include YouTube streamers and TikTokers, so has the impact of these competitions. 

I don't recall paying a whole lot of attention to Battle of the Network Stars as a kid, other than to know that it was on every so often. But much like the entertainment options of today, they were created to distract us from the scarier stuff going on the world like wars, economic troubles and assassinations. It worked. Almost 50 years later, they're still a lot of fun to look back on through grainy YouTube clips. 

Day After Day #331: Two Tribes

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Two Tribes (1984)

Younger generations who only know life in the 1980s from watching old TV shows or retro creations like Stranger Things might have the impression that the '80s were all bright colors, big music and cocaine. And there certainly were those elements, but there was also plenty of Cold War tension between the West and the Soviet Union. For a while there, it seemed like thermonuclear war was inevitable.

It was an interesting time. ABC aired a movie called The Day After about the aftermath of a nuclear missile attack on the U.S. The movie aired on November 20, 1983, and was the seventh-highest rated non-sports show to that point, with more than 100 million estimated views of the initial broadcast. There was so much hype around it that we had a whole class discussion dedicated to it at school.

Naturally, pop culture reflected this atmosphere through movies like War Games and Red Dawn and from songs as varied as "Red Skies" by the Fixx, "1999" by Prince and "2 Minutes to Midnight" by Iron Maiden. A different, more exuberant take on the topic was presented by English dance pop act Frankie Goes to Hollywood, which made a big splash in the fall of '83 with their first single, "Relax."

Formed in Liverpool in 1980 by lead singer Holly Johnson, the first version of the group split up fairly soon after forming, but it was reformed by Johnson in 1982 with Peter Gill on drums and brothers Mark and Jed O'Toole on bass and guitar, respectively. Jed O'Toole left and was replace by his cousin Brian Nash, and the band later added dancer/backup singer Paul Rutherford. Johnson and Rutherford were openly gay and made no attempt to hide it in the band's music or performances, which was revolutionary for the time.

After performing on the British show The Tube wearing fetish gear, Frankie Goes to Hollywood was signed by ZTT Records, a new label co-founded by producer Trevor Horn (who was best known for his stint in the Buggles and as the post-Jon Anderson singer of Yes for one album and tour). Impressed by the band's in-your-face gay sexuality at a time when society was still pretty repressed, Horn recommended "Relax" as their first single and created a completely electronic version of the song without the band. The first video for the song was set in an S&M club and the band performed it on BBC's Top of the Pops in January 1984. The song was soon banned by the BBC, which created more publicity for the band, and it soon hit #1 on the U.K. singles chart; after four weeks in the top spot, the BBC reversed the ban.

The label also launched a promo blitz that included a line of t-shirts with slogans like "FRANKIE SAY RELAX" that became hugely popular. The song was also featured in the Brian De Palma thriller Body Double, spawning another video featuring scenes from the movie, which starred Melanie Griffith and also featured the band.

In June 1984, Frankie Goes to Hollywood released their second single, the anti-war banger "Two Tribes," which featured a funky guitar riff and a thumping bass line as Johnson gleefully sang about nuclear war. Add to that a video directed by Godley & Creme that features doppelgangers for U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko, the Soviet secretary of the Communist Party, wrestling in front of the band and representatives from other world nations.

"When two tribes go to war/A point is all that you can score/(Score them all, score them all)/When two tribes go to war/A point is all that you can score/(Working for the black gas)/Cowboy number one/A born again poor man's son/(Poor man's son)/On the air America/I modeled shirts by Van Heusen/(Working for the black gas)."

The single was a huge success in the U.K., entering the singles chart at #1 on June 10 and staying there for nine straight weeks, while "Relax" climbed back up the charts to #2. It was the longest-running #1 single in the U.K. for the decade. The song featured snippets of narration from British public information films about how to survive a nuclear war. 

"We got two tribes/We got the bomb/We got the bomb, yeah/Yeah/Sock it to me biscuits, now? Are we living in a land/Where sex and horror are the new gods?/Yeah/When two tribes go to war/A point is all that you can score."

The song wasn't quite as big in the U.S., where it hit #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Dance Club Songs chart. But the video got plenty of play on MTV. It ends with Reagan and Chernenko realizing that everyone else is fighting around them, and the world explodes. 

The band released their debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, featuring both "Relax" and "Two Tribes," in October 1984. A follow-up single "The Power of Love" was released in November and also went to #1 in the U.K., and the fourth single. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome," went to #2.

By the end of 1984, Johnson began distancing himself from the band, which left the U.K. in 1985 for tax purposes and wrote songs for their second album in Ireland. There were media reports of band divisions and Nash later claimed that Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran was approached to replace Johnson but declined. Johnson stuck around and completed the album, called Liverpool. But it didn't fare nearly as well as the band's debut; the first single went to #4 but the album received bad reviews and the following singles were less successful. After the tour, the relationship between Johnson and the rest of the band was so strained that the band broke up. Johnson later told ZTT he planned to sign with MCA Records and ZTT filed an injunction to prevent the move; the High Court found in Johnson's favor and the band members were released from their contract. Nash, O'Toole and Gill tried to reform the band with a new singer, but Johnson blocked the project.

Johnson's first solo album, 1989's Blast, went to #1 in the U.K., but his 1991 follow-up was a flop. He was diagnosed with HIV that year and took time off to recuperate. The other members of Frankie had less success. In 1998, a band using the name Frankie Goes to Hollywood started touring the U.S., led by an American singer who claimed he was Johnson's brother and performed uncredited on the first Frankie album. Horn and the real band members disputed this, but the fake band kept performing at small clubs in the U.S. until an article was published in Spin about the controversy in September 2000.

The original members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood appeared on a 2003 episode of the VH1 show Bands Reunited but did not perform. A year later, the band reunited without Johnson and Nash (who declined to participate) to perform at a Prince's Trust charity concert at Wembley to celebrate Horn's 25 years as a record producer. Ryan Molloy was picked to be the new singer and Jed O'Toole replaced Nash. The band played a series of concerts in Europe in 2005 and remained active until 2007 as Forbidden Hollywood, since Johnson would not let them use the original name. 

The original lineup finally reunited in 2023 for a concert celebrating Liverpool music for the Eurovision Song Contest, but only played one song, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome." A few days later, it was announced that a Frankie Goes to Hollywood biopic was in the works, based on Johnson's memoir, to be directed by Bernard Rose, who directed the first "Relax" video.

Day After Day #244: Eighties

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Eighties (1984)

When you hear a song with a similar riff as another one, is it plagiarism or homage? Nirvana was slammed in 1992 when "Come as You Are" bore a strong resemblance to Killing Joke's "Eighties," which came out seven years earlier. And indeed, Killing Joke considered filing a copyright infringement lawsuit, but it's unclear whether a suit was filed or if it was abandoned after Kurt Cobain's suicide.

And no doubt, the two songs have similar riffs. But then, one doesn't have to go back too far to find similar riffs to "Eighties": Garden of Delight's "22 Faces" (1984), the Damned's "Life Goes On" (1982) and Bauhaus' "Hollow Hills" (1981). And you could even say that 1968's "Baby Come Back" by the Equals (featuring a very young Eddy Grant) is also in the ballpark. I'd argue that while they're all similar, they all stand on their own as original and interesting songs. 

For now, let's focus on Killing Joke's song, which provided a stinging critique of a decade that wasn't even half over. Guitarist Geordie Walker shimmering guitar work drives the song along as singer Jaz Coleman spits out the repetitive but effective lyrics.

"Ah, Eighties/I'm living in the eighties/Eighties/I have to push, I have to struggle/Eighties/Get out of my way, I'm not for sale no more/Eighties/Let's kamikaze til we get there/And we sang/You do it this way."

The song's video features Coleman as a fascistic speaker at a podium while footage of world leaders like Reagan, Brezhnev, Thatcher, Anwar Sadat and Ayatollah Khomeini is intercut. 

"Eighties/By day we run, by night we dance, we do/Eighties/I'm in love with the coming race, oh/Eighties/I've got the best, I'll take all I can get/Eighties/I'm living for the eighties."

Coleman sings of the excess of the decade, but also the struggle of common people to keep up with everything going on in pop culture and global politics. 

"Eighties/I'm living, oh/Eighties/I'm living in the eighties, oh oh oh/Eighties/I'm living in the eighties, I push/Eighties/Push, push, struggle."

Killing Joke had been around since 1979 and quickly became one of the premier post-punk acts, balancing electronic and synth pop elements with heavier, guitar-oriented rock. In addition to Nirvana, the band was a big influence on other major acts to come including Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and Soundgarden. 

"Eighties" was released as a single in April 1984 (premiering it on The Tube in December 1983, see below), but later included on the 1985 album Night Time, which became the band's biggest album, getting to #11 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Killing Joke's next album was remixed by the label against the band's wishes to make it more commercial, but in the end it was a flop. In 1987, Coleman and Walker began working on a new album, but bassist Paul Raven and drummer Paul Ferguson ended up quitting the band after session players were brought in. The finished album, Outside the Gate, was controversial because of its extensive use of synths and diminished use of guitar. It was panned by critics, wasn't supported by any touring and was not released in the U.S.

Coleman and Walker put together a new lineup in 1988 with Martin Atkins (PiL) on drums and Dave Ball on bass (after trying out ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and firing him after three days). After a tour, Ball left and Raven returned; a heavier album was released in 1990 and the band toured Europe and North America before splitting up again in 1991. The band has been on and off over the last three decades, releasing seven albums and touring. Raven died in 2007, and the original lineup of Coleman, Walker, Ferguson and Youth reunited. The band's most recent album was 2015's Pylon. Walker died last November at age 64 after suffering a stroke.

"Eighties" is one of Killing Joke's signature songs. It has been used by a number of TV shows and in a party scene in the 1985 movie Weird Science. Wherever the band came up with the riff, it has certainly served them well.

Day After Day #60: Don't Change

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Don't Change (1982) 

The 1980s were a ridiculously long time ago. There was a lot going on, but one thing that's almost forgotten 40+ years later is that INXS was consistently one of the best bands going for most of that decade. They weren't trying to save the world like U2 or Peter Gabriel, they weren't larger than life like Michael Jackson, Prince, Bowie, Madonna or Springsteen, they were just a damn good band. 

INXS could play new wave, pub rock, dance music or mournful ballads, but their secret weapon wasn't so secret: it was frontman Michael Hutchence, who looked like a male model and could move like a combination of Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison. Formed in 1977 in Australia, the band released two albums down under before their third album, Shabooh Shoobah, was released internationally in October 1982. The first single, "The One Thing," became a top 30 hit in the U.S., with the video getting a lot of play on the then-new MTV. 

The band toured the U.S. for the first time in the spring of 1983, opening for Adam and the Ants, the Stray Cats, the Kinks, Hall & Oates, Men at Work and the Go-Gos, as well as on the new wave day of the US Festival.  

"The One Thing" is the big hit from that album and the band's first foray into pop stardom, but the second single, "Don't Change," has the most lasting impact. It's different from a lot of INXS's party rockers in that it's a more philosophical-leaning song. Andrew Farriss begins the song with a majestic synth line before the rest of the band kicks in.

"I'm standing here on the ground/The sky above won't fall down/See no evil in all directions/Resolution of happiness/Things have been dark for too long/Don't change for you/Don't change a thing for me."

"Don't Change" is big and anthemic, with Hutchence and Kirk Pengilly on the chorus providing an added boost that launches the song into the stratosphere. Unlike a lot of the new wave acts that were popping up at the time, INXS had been playing pubs and honing their chops for years, so by this point they were a well-oiled rock machine: in addition to Hutchence, there were three Farriss brothers (Andrew on keys, Tim on lead guitar and Jon on drums), Pengilly on guitar and sax and Garry Gary Beers on bass. 

Whereas many of the songs that were hits in the early '80s are very of their era, "Don't Change" has a timeless feel. It soars and as the last song on Shabooh Shoobah, it served as a launching off point for a very successful decade for INXS.

The band built up steadily, releasing The Swing in 1984 with hit singles "Original Sin" and "I Send a Message"; the album went platinum in the U.S. Listen Like Thieves followed in 1985 and was an even bigger hit, going double platinum with four songs getting radio play; "What You Need" went to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. That led to the biggest INXS album, 1987's Kick, which had four top 10 singles, including "Need You Tonight," which went to #1. The band was all over MTV and on top of the pop world.

I had been a fan since "The One Thing" came out but didn't buy an INXS album until Listen Like Thieves. A group of us from my college newspaper were in New York City for a conference during spring break of 1988 and were walking past Radio City Music Hall, where INXS was playing a sold-out show the next night. Arthur, our arts editor (who got me in to see The Pursuit of Happiness and Duran Duran a year later), casually mentioned that he had tickets to the show and asked if one of us wanted to go with him. Everyone thought he was joking, but I said sure and a day later, we were sitting in the middle of 6,000 screaming teenage girls. Public Image Ltd. opened the show and it was quite enjoyable watching this crowd try to figure out what John Lydon was all about. Then INXS came out and just slayed; they were a masterful live act (a few years earlier, Rolling Stone had proclaimed them the best live band going). I ended up seeing them a few more times, at UNH on the Kick tour and in Worcester on the tour for their follow-up album X).

Released in 1990, X was less successful than Kick, but it would have had a tough time surpassing an album that went six times platinum in the U.S. alone. Also, three years had passed since Kick's release and musical tastes were changing. Still, it went double platinum in the U.S. and got up to #5 on the album chart. There were three more albums in the '90s with diminishing returns, the last being 1997's Elegantly Wasted. In November 1997, Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room; the coroner ruled it a suicide but some have speculated it was accidental. He was 37.

After a year or so, the band played some shows with a variety of singers, including Jimmy Barnes, Terence Trent D'Arby and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply. Then in 2004, they participated in a reality show called Rock Star: INXS in which contestants competed to become the band's new lead singer. Eventually, a Canadian singer named J.D. Fortune was named the winner. They recorded a new song and then released an album, Switch, in 2005. They toured together for a few years before firing Fortune in 2009 and then bringing him back a year later. Ciaran Gribbin, a singer from Northern Ireland, became the band's new singer for a tour in late 2011. A year later, INXS announced it would no longer tour.

Despite the cheesy last few decades, INXS left behind a strong body of work that was probably underappreciated in the long run.

Stuck In Thee Garage #462: February 10, 2023

A wise man once said, "Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future." Okay, maybe he wasn't that wise, but he wasn't wrong, either. Time marches on and here we are in 20-freakin'-23, wondering how we got here. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played music from 35 years ago in hour 2 and I'm still not sure how so much time has passed. I'm too old for this shit.

This playlist has a million dollar arm but a five-cent head:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Blues Lawyer - Someone Else/All In Good Time

Beat Awfuls - College Ring/PAWS

The Nude Party - Ride On/Rides On

Geese - Cowboy Nudes/Single

Gord Downie & Bob Rock - The Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk/Lustre Parfait

Palm - On the Sly/Nicks and Grazes

Lowertown - Antibiotics/I Love to Lie

Fucked Up - I Think I Might Be Weird/One Day

Ron Gallo - Foreground Music/Foreground Music

Baby; Baby: Explores the Reason Why That Gum Is Still On the Sidewalk - Pants/Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow

Widows Gold - I Can't Help You/Love Drops

Hammered Hulls - Bog People/Careening

Emerald Comets - Smoke From the Ships/Single

Dry Cleaning - Gary Ashby/Stumpwork

Fazerdaze - Overthink It/Break!

Screaming Females - Brass Bell/Desire Pathway

Ian Blurton's Future Now - When the Storm Comes Home/Second Skin

 

Hour 2: 1988

The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death/Birth, School, Work, Death

Jane's Addiction - Pigs In Zen/Nothing's Shocking

Dinosaur Jr. - Keep the Glove/Bug

The Church - Under the Milky Way/Starfish

The Pursuit of Happiness - When the Sky Comes Falling Down/Love Junk

Soul Asylum - Marionette/Hang Time

Pixies - Gigantic/Surfer Rosa

Sonic Youth - Eric's Trip/Daydream Nation

Soundgarden - All Your Lies/Ultramega OK

Living Colour - Middle Man/Vivid

Iron Maiden - The Evil That Men Do/Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Lou Reed - Dirty Blvd./New York

Public Enemy - Don't Believe the Hype/It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

R.E.M. - Orange Crush/Green

 

Fire up the show HERE, Meat. 

Completely Conspicuous 581: Talk Is Cheap

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite music of 1988. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Recorded while driving to Trillium Brewing in Canton, Mass.

- In 1988, Jay turned 21 and Phil turned 19

- Jay: 21st birthday was pretty rough

- Phil tells tales of good decision-making

- Jay's long, strange trip to the Monsters of Rock show: Long drive, short show

- Big year for pop artists on the charts

- Phil's Whitesnake story

- Big soundtracks: Cocktail, Dirty Dancing

- Phil's non-top 5 albums: Keith Richards, Mudhoney, Jerry Harrison, Jane's Addiction, Cowboy Junkies, Brian Wilson, Smithereens, Smiths, Pogues, Waterboys, Dinosaur Jr., Tracy Chapman, Public Enemy, Traveling Wilburys

- Jay's non-top 5s: Fishbone, Bobby Brown, Iron Maiden, Robert Plant, The Church, Metallica

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 534: In the Dark

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead album In the Dark. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- We originally planned to do this in early March, but then something happened
- In the Dark was released in July 1987, seven years after the last Dead studio album
- Phil had just graduated from high school, Jay was going into junior year of college
- The band had been playing the songs in concert for years
- Jerry Garcia had gone into a diabetic coma in '86
- Had to re-learn how to walk, talk, play guitar
- Band was renewed after his recovery
- CDs were just starting to get popular
- We both didn't get CD players until 1989
- First CDs: Phil's was 10,000 Maniacs, Jay's were Cult, the Who, Joe Jackson
- The Best of Steve Miller was a college staple in the '80s
- Recorded live in an empty theater
- "Touch of Grey" was all over MTV and rock radio that summer
- Very catchy single
- Phil: Album was breath of fresh air after two disappointing releases
- "Touch of Grey" resonated with Boomers as well as younger listeners
- New fans were known as "Touch heads" by veteran fans
- People were going to Dead shows for the scene, not the music
- Released videos for "Hell in a Bucket" and "Throwing Stones"
- The one clunker is sung by keyboardist Brent Mydland
- Jay: His vocals didn't seem to fit
- They ladled on the synths
- Phil: Mydland was good at harmonies
- Vocals sounded like Kenny Loggins or Bob Seger
- Phil: Listening to at least one album he hasn't heard every day
- "West LA Fadeaway" may have been inspired by Belushi
- Phil gives it a B+
- The success of "Touch of Grey" was so unexpected
- Next up: We talk about the last Dead studio album

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 445: Reeling in the Years, 1985 (Part 3)

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- Jay's #5
- Brian: "I'm a major label sellout guy" when it comes to R.E.M.
- R.E.M. started getting rock radio airplay in '85
- When MTV News was a thing
- The evolution of Stipe
- Brian's #2
- The Pogues: A love 'em or hate 'em band
- Shane McGowan has teeth now
- Jay's #2
- Two great Husker Du albums in '85
- New Day Rising gets the edge over Flip Your Wig
- Rock concert business was focused on arenas in '85
- Indie rock acts had to forge their own way
- Brian's #1 and Jay's #5
- Camper Van Beethoven's interesting debut mixed a lot of styles
- Jay forgot about the Replacements
- Trouble Boys, the Replacements bio, is excellent
- Mats reunion may not be over
- Jay's #1
- Pete Townshend's last great work
- Ambitious project about the London projects where he grew up
- Since then, he's focused on Who tours and licensing
- McCartney can't stop/won't stop
- Next up: 1990

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 444: Reeling in the Years, 1985 (Part 2)

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- Bands that formed in '85: Bevis Frond, Big Dipper, Crowded House, Guns 'N Roses, Hootie and the Blowfish, Jane's Addiction, Radiohead
- Bands that split up: Minutemen, Hanoi Rocks, Kajagoogoo
- Brian's bubbling under albums: Prince, Minutemen, Jonathan Richman, Angst, Big Audio Dynamite
- The importance of Mick Jones
- Jay: Smiths, INXS, Cure, Dinosaur Jr., Rush, Jesus and Mary Chain
- Brian's #5
- Beat Happening specialized in lo-fi pop
- Brian's #4
- Not the best Talking Heads album, but a decent one
- Jay's #4
- The Cult established their goth sound
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 443: Reeling in the Years, 1985 (Part 1)

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- 1985: Jay graduated from high school, started college in the fall
- Jay was 17 going on 18, Brian turned 3
- Jay: Listened to a lot of AOR, hard rock, metal
- Started getting into U2
- The year of rock charity
- Undercurrent of college rock
- MTV was growing
- Style over substance
- Strange collection of songs on the Hot 100
- A lot of songs released in '84 carried over to '85 charts
- Hard rock and metal albums were selling well: Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister
- Indie rock's influence wouldn't be felt for a few more years
- The launch of VH1
- PMRC hearings put spotlight on explicit lyrics
- Warning labels had the opposite of intended effect
- DLR left Van Halen in '85: Did he jump or was he pushed?
- DLR's book is fascinating and insane
- Rock bios are a mixed bag
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 442: Mars Needs Guitars

Part 2 of my conversation with author Greg Renoff as we discuss the rise and fall of the guitar hero. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Buy Greg's book Van Halen Rising at Amazon or get a signed copy from the Van Halen Store
- Flash guitar in the '80s: VH, Motley Crue, Ratt, Quiet Riot
- Ratt was once replaced on a bill by Molly Hatchet
- Billy Squier's downfall
- Molly Hatchet unsuccessfully tried to pull a "ZZ Top"
- The hair metal bubble burst
- The '80s shredder trend
- Fast forwarding to the solos
- Oh, Vinnie Vincent
- Looking for the new Warrant
- The influence of Guitar Hero
- Learning about Slash
- We need guitars

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.