Thursday July 28--it's....1985

[mshray]

You Guys!

What a collective crankypants you were yesterday!

First of all, Dave hadn't overplayed Scritti Politti since 2001, and that's a great track otherwise.  "Can't Get There From Here" is my favorite R.E.M. song & definitely not a Katrina.  "Satisfaction Guaranteed" is another personal fave & Dave hasn't played it for 5 years or so, so it gets at least a few points for that.  We all (including the Fogheads) agree that  Bowie/Matheny is tasty. Phil Collins was everwhere in 85/86, and frankly I'm with Joe that this is pretty good overproduced mid 80's power pop (not an oxymoron!).

Okay, I am in complete agreement that Bryan Adams sucks.

But you guys are really slipping, I mean SERIOUSLY slipping, if you didn't appreciate the segue from Mitterand et al being idicted for the Rainbow Warrior bombing into "Men Without Shame".  Dave gets a 25 pt bonus for that alone, plus Phantom, Rocker & Slick is such a cool name & the guitars on this RULE!!!

Hooters, Tears For Fears & Mr Mister are very good place/time markers for'85 & round out the set very effectively (IMHO).

Bottom line, I thought this was the best '85 set in years & don't know what's wrong with y'alls.

p.s. From the road I phoned in my BOS vote for the Firm, gave Dave kudos for the segue, and I spotted the vinyl on the Phil Bailey track.

[RGMike]

You Guys!

What a collective crankypants you were yesterday!

First of all, Dave hadn't overplayed Scritti Politti since 2001, and that's a great track otherwise.  "Can't Get There From Here" is my favorite R.E.M. song & definitely not a Katrina.  "Satisfaction Guaranteed" is another personal fave & Dave hasn't played it for 5 years or so, so it gets at least a few points for that.  We all (including the Fogheads) agree that  Bowie/Matheny is tasty. Phil Collins was everwhere in 85/86, and frankly I'm with Joe that this is pretty good overproduced mid 80's power pop (not an oxymoron!).

Okay, I am in complete agreement that Bryan Adams sucks.

But you guys are really slipping, I mean SERIOUSLY slipping, if you didn't appreciate the segue from Mitterand et al being idicted for the Rainbow Warrior bombing into "Men Without Shame".  Dave gets a 25 pt bonus for that alone, plus Phantom, Rocker & Slick is such a cool name & the guitars on this RULE!!!

Hooters, Tears For Fears & Mr Mister are very good place/time markers for'85 & round out the set very effectively (IMHO).

Bottom line, I thought this was the best '85 set in years & don't know what's wrong with y'alls.

p.s. From the road I phoned in my BOS vote for the Firm, gave Dave kudos for the segue, and I spotted the vinyl on the Phil Bailey track.

"best '85 set in years"??? Stop. it wasn't BAD, exactly, but it certainly wasn't that good.  The mid-'80s are all of a piece to Dave and he has limited imagination when it comes to that period. In other words, just ONE song he's never played before (and there are many, starting with any non-Purple RainPrince song besides "Raspberry Beret") would've made us all give him a free pass.

I said nice things about Phil & Philip and the Hooters...

[mshray]

["best '85 set in years"??? Stop. it wasn't BAD, exactly, but it certainly wasn't that good.  The mid-'80s are all of a piece to Dave and he has limited imagination when it comes to that period. In other words, just ONE song he's never played before (and there are many, starting with any non-Purple RainPrince song besides "Raspberry Beret") would've made us all give him a free pass.

So you're saying that unless Dave plays "Pop Life" or "Around The World In A Day" (which are the only songs that meet your criteria) it can't be a good 1985 set?

I think Dave has not played a 1985 set this good in a long time, but maybe he just happened to hit a whole bunch of tunes that I like relative to others (R.E.M., Firm, Hooters & TFF, and maybe even Philip Bailey qualify) that y'all don't get excited over.  Fine.  But can you think of any 1985 set that was demonstrably better than this one in the past couple years?

Until Dave breaks out "Let's Go All The Way" & "Be Near Me" this will have to do.

[RGMike]

["best '85 set in years"??? Stop. it wasn't BAD, exactly, but it certainly wasn't that good.  The mid-'80s are all of a piece to Dave and he has limited imagination when it comes to that period. In other words, just ONE song he's never played before (and there are many, starting with any non-Purple RainPrince song besides "Raspberry Beret") would've made us all give him a free pass.

So you're saying that unless Dave plays "Pop Life" or "Around The World In A Day" (which are the only songs that meet your criteria) it can't be a good 1985 set?

no, I said ANY song he's never played before. which is quite a long list. I'm not asking to have my socks knocked off, just asking Dave to deviate slightly from his usual '80s habits. Acknowledgement on his part that there was soul in the mid-'80s that didn't involve doing a duet with Phil Collins would be a great leap forward IMHO.  :wink:

[Gazoo]

So you're listening to the radio in 1975 and you hear the new Genesis song followed by the new Earth, Wind & Fire (I hope some stations were actually this eclectic).  Do you think to yourself, "hey, the drummer and the falsetto vocalist should work together, they'd write a Number One"?

[RGMike]

So you're listening to the radio in 1975 and you hear the new Genesis song followed by the new Earth, Wind & Fire (I hope some stations were actually this eclectic).  Do you think to yourself, "hey, the drummer and the falsetto vocalist should work together, they'd write a Number One"?

ROTFL!

Actually FM rock radio WAS that eclectic back then. Not only free-form "Progressive" stations but even the heavily playlisted AOR formats that were just springing up at the time.  All the talk on the NYRMB about the "trainwreck" segues on JACK reminded me that WPLJ (which was a tightly-playlisted AOR in '75) used to do segues like that all the time -- LedZep into John Denver into "Lady Marmalade" was not an uncommon thing.  Sadly, within a few years the consultants discovered that the core Album Rock audience of young white males was essentially rather racist and had no use for Stevie Wonder or EWF... and Progressive R&B began to disappear from AOR playlists.

Sometime when we're in the same room (or maybe on the phone) I'll have to give you the history of how WPLJ went from being the coolest free-form station on the planet to being the lamest AOR station in America.

[urth]

Bottom line, I thought this was the best '85 set in years & don't know what's wrong with y'alls.

"best '85 set in years"??? Stop. it wasn't BAD, exactly, but it certainly wasn't that good.  The mid-'80s are all of a piece to Dave and he has limited imagination when it comes to that period. In other words, just ONE song he's never played before (and there are many, starting with any non-Purple RainPrince song besides "Raspberry Beret") would've made us all give him a free pass.

I said nice things about Phil & Philip and the Hooters...

Warning: Big Geek Factor present in the following:

Not that it's a particularly crowded field, but I concur with Mike on this: to my ears, this was a typical 85 set, maybe a little better than average (and you're right about some particularly pithy segues) but the musical content I thought was pretty much by the book--some OK songs (Hooters, PR&S, Bowie & Metheny) but very little we haven't heard plenty of times before.

Rather, in the category of Darn Fine 1985 Set (aside: I can't quite hang with the "Best ever" tag since I confess to not being able to remember anywhere near all of them; I just know most of them seem pretty similar. But I digress...), I would submit this set from only two months ago, May 25 of this year:

5/25/05 - Wednesday!  A visit to...1985!!!
    1. Kinks - Do it Again
    2. REM - Can't Get There From Here
    3. Animotion - Obsession
    4. Bryan Ferry - Sensation
    5. Bruce Springsteen - Cover Me
    6. Huey Lewis & the News - The Power of Love (B-O-S!!!!)
    7. Tubes - Eyes
    8. Honeydrippers - Sea of Love
    9. Marillion - Lavender
      10. John Cougar Mellencamp - Minutes to Memories

I'm of the opinion that there is one bust-out (the Tubes) and at least three  infrequently-heard songs in that set (the Kinks, Marillion, and Honeydrippers), while several of the ones we have heard more frequently are nonetheless quite good (REM, Ferry, Springsteen and John Cougar Boyscoutcamp). Not to mention that your most-favored REM song appears in both. Yep, one full-on Katrina (Huey) as well, but I think there's enough meat in the rest of the set to offset that, easily. While I fully agree that one's judgement of a set is a highly subjective reaction, this one (the May set) certainly did it for me, to the point that it's the only 1985 set ever that I have felt deserving of being archived.

Btw, Geoff, nice, er, cat. I assume your sig pertains thereto?

[ggould]

Btw, Geoff, nice, er, cat. I assume your sig pertains thereto?

indeed!

PS, got them here:

http://www.mycathatesyou.com/