Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Which album should go?

Poll ended at 22 May 2021, 8:40am

The Clash, "London Calling"
2
8%
Elvis Costello and the Attractions, "Armed Forces"
5
21%
Gang of Four, “Entertainment!"
9
38%
The Jam, "Setting Sons”
7
29%
The Specials, "The Specials"
0
No votes
Stiff Little Fingers, "Inflammable Material"
1
4%
 
Total votes: 24

gkbill
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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by gkbill »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 3:47pm
Heston wrote:
21 May 2021, 3:38pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 3:34pm
Heston wrote:
21 May 2021, 3:13pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 3:09pm
If they weren't a bunch of pretty boys who really understood the importance of visuals, they wouldn't have separated themselves from the pack. Whatever their virtues musically, it was being pretty boys that made them.
I'm not convinced by that argument. OMD ploughed the same furrow with much success and they were ugly as sin.
OMD were way different throughout their first several albums. Dour, synth minimalism. They weren't playing to 13-year-old girls; OMD was for the Joy Division crowd.
I've just listened to the first DD album and it is downright weird in places. Yes, there's three poppy singles there but the rest of it seems anything but teeny bopper music. And let's face it, the first few OMD singles were anything but dour.
And yet, how did the fan base shake out? How come DD got screaming girls and OMD got mopey guys in long coats?
Hello,

Are we judging bands by their fans?

What does that say about the Clash?

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Flex »

gkbill wrote:
21 May 2021, 11:24pm
Hello,

Are we judging bands by their fans?

What does that say about the Clash?
Depends on the fan. :shifty:
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Wolter »

Kory wrote:
21 May 2021, 9:49pm
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
Mine too. Probably my third favorite musical artist overall after the Clash and Bowie.
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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Dr. Medulla »

gkbill wrote:
21 May 2021, 11:24pm
Are we judging bands by their fans?
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
Maybe it's the beer talking, but Bob you got a butt that won't quit. They got those chewy pretzels here [unintelligible] five dollars? Get outta here - Richard Nixon, inebriated, to Bob Haldeman, Oval Office recording, 20 June 1972

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Heston »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:19am
gkbill wrote:
21 May 2021, 11:24pm
Are we judging bands by their fans?
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by revbob »

Heston wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:29am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:19am
gkbill wrote:
21 May 2021, 11:24pm
Are we judging bands by their fans?
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
And when that didn't work...

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Heston »

revbob wrote:
22 May 2021, 7:02am
Heston wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:29am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:19am
gkbill wrote:
21 May 2021, 11:24pm
Are we judging bands by their fans?
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
And when that didn't work...
I've read a couple of the DD autobiographies and I think they were actually quite shocked when they took off in that way. They genuinely never saw it coming. Maybe their management did though.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Heston »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 7:05pm
Heston wrote:
21 May 2021, 5:17pm
This is an OMD concert in 1985. Pause on any crowd shot and it is a total top 40 crowd, many of them girls.
1985 is key. They were in full Top 40 mode by then—Crush, "If You Leave," all that.
Hang on, you mentioned Dazzle Ships which was just 2 years before this. They were only 5 years into their chart career at this point, I can hear the sound of goalposts being moved.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Heston wrote:
22 May 2021, 7:11am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 7:05pm
Heston wrote:
21 May 2021, 5:17pm
This is an OMD concert in 1985. Pause on any crowd shot and it is a total top 40 crowd, many of them girls.
1985 is key. They were in full Top 40 mode by then—Crush, "If You Leave," all that.
Hang on, you mentioned Dazzle Ships which was just 2 years before this. They were only 5 years into their chart career at this point, I can hear the sound of goalposts being moved.
I'm not following. I'm saying that it wasn't until Crush, maybe Junk Culture, that they started gaining a more mainstream pop audience. Dazzle Ships was no way, no how meant for mass popularity.
Maybe it's the beer talking, but Bob you got a butt that won't quit. They got those chewy pretzels here [unintelligible] five dollars? Get outta here - Richard Nixon, inebriated, to Bob Haldeman, Oval Office recording, 20 June 1972

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Heston wrote:
22 May 2021, 7:07am
revbob wrote:
22 May 2021, 7:02am
Heston wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:29am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2021, 6:19am
gkbill wrote:
21 May 2021, 11:24pm
Are we judging bands by their fans?
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
And when that didn't work...
I've read a couple of the DD autobiographies and I think they were actually quite shocked when they took off in that way. They genuinely never saw it coming. Maybe their management did though.
They certainly didn't rebel against being packaged as pretty boys. I think it was Alex Cox who said that DD and NuRo bands were perfect for MTV because they spent most of their time looking at themselves in the mirror, fixing their hair, anyway.
Maybe it's the beer talking, but Bob you got a butt that won't quit. They got those chewy pretzels here [unintelligible] five dollars? Get outta here - Richard Nixon, inebriated, to Bob Haldeman, Oval Office recording, 20 June 1972

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 10:33pm
Kory wrote:
21 May 2021, 9:49pm
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
I should like them more than I do. I think I'm not fully sold on Devoto's voice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's counterproductive.
I like it. You’ve got to make do with what you've got when you can’t actually sing. I’m in that boat myself.
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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Kory wrote:
22 May 2021, 4:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 10:33pm
Kory wrote:
21 May 2021, 9:49pm
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
I should like them more than I do. I think I'm not fully sold on Devoto's voice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's counterproductive.
I like it. You’ve got to make do with what you've got when you can’t actually sing. I’m in that boat myself.
Mark E. Smith had an amazing career turning a conventionally awful voice into an asset.
Maybe it's the beer talking, but Bob you got a butt that won't quit. They got those chewy pretzels here [unintelligible] five dollars? Get outta here - Richard Nixon, inebriated, to Bob Haldeman, Oval Office recording, 20 June 1972

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2021, 4:22pm
Kory wrote:
22 May 2021, 4:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 May 2021, 10:33pm
Kory wrote:
21 May 2021, 9:49pm
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
I should like them more than I do. I think I'm not fully sold on Devoto's voice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's counterproductive.
I like it. You’ve got to make do with what you've got when you can’t actually sing. I’m in that boat myself.
Mark E. Smith had an amazing career turning a conventionally awful voice into an asset.
And of course, I don't really like his voice. But yeah, that Devoto/Lydon/Smith axis that is admirable in many ways.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Kory »

Wolter wrote:
22 May 2021, 1:05am
Kory wrote:
21 May 2021, 9:49pm
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
Mine too. Probably my third favorite musical artist overall after the Clash and Bowie.
We have the exact same top 2. Magazine is in my top 5, but I'm too deep into the Smiths to let them drop from position #3.

I was glad that Magazine did the No Thyself album during the reunion. I thought it was a worthy addition to the canon, although I wish Barry Adamson had taken part in the recording process. Makes it a little harder to call it "Magazine" at that point.
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Re: Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 5

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Kory wrote:
25 May 2021, 3:47pm
Wolter wrote:
22 May 2021, 1:05am
Kory wrote:
21 May 2021, 9:49pm
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
Mine too. Probably my third favorite musical artist overall after the Clash and Bowie.
We have the exact same top 2. Magazine is in my top 5, but I'm too deep into the Smiths to let them drop from position #3.

I was glad that Magazine did the No Thyself album during the reunion. I thought it was a worthy addition to the canon, although I wish Barry Adamson had taken part in the recording process. Makes it a little harder to call it "Magazine" at that point.
I liked that record far more than I thought I would.
Maybe it's the beer talking, but Bob you got a butt that won't quit. They got those chewy pretzels here [unintelligible] five dollars? Get outta here - Richard Nixon, inebriated, to Bob Haldeman, Oval Office recording, 20 June 1972

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