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    #26
    Originally posted by Furtho View Post
    Just listening to episode four from 1979 and I learn to my astonishment that Toni Basil's Mickey is based on this.

    Yes, I was equally amazed when I found out that the actual lyrics to the Sister Sledge song. It's apparently not 'I wonder why, He's the greatest dancer' but 'Oh, what, wow. He's the greatest dancer.' (While we're on fairly astonishing Racey facts, I always find it incredible that Some Girls was written for Blondie).

    Re Live Aid. I, too, can see with hindsight how it was all shit but the 14 year old me loved it. And still do, to be honest, for warm nostalgic reasons.
    Last edited by Jon; 08-08-2017, 23:14.

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      #27
      The charts were turning to shit before Live Aid. I doubt that a typical TOTP from early 86 was worse than 12 months prior. The albums chart slowed down and lots of crud sold millions but that was also due to CDs and demographics with people over 35 getting more conservative.

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        #28
        Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
        Also, for a while, when they were talking about "Pan's People" - the UK's answer to the Solid Gold Dancers, i guess - I thought you all were saying "the pants people," as in people who are pants, because they can't dance well.
        Or more appropriately, people who danced in their pants.

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          #29
          Originally posted by Jon View Post
          Yes, I was equally amazed when I found out that the actual lyrics to the Sister Sledge song. It's apparently not 'I wonder why, He's the greatest dancer' but 'Oh, what, wow. He's the greatest dancer.'
          This is an equally amazing revelation for me.

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            #30
            Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
            The charts were turning to shit before Live Aid. I doubt that a typical TOTP from early 86 was worse than 12 months prior. The albums chart slowed down and lots of crud sold millions but that was also due to CDs and demographics with people over 35 getting more conservative.
            Indeed. From around 1983/84 there was a heightened accent on nurturing the idea of untouchable superstardom, as a corporate strategy. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran, Wham!, Bruce Springsteen etc went stratospheric in 1984; Madonna joined them in 1985. Live Aid cemented that culture.

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              #31
              Originally posted by G-Man View Post
              Indeed. From around 1983/84 there was a heightened accent on nurturing the idea of untouchable superstardom, as a corporate strategy. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran, Wham!, Bruce Springsteen etc went stratospheric in 1984; Madonna joined them in 1985. Live Aid cemented that culture.
              Yeah. All good things come to an end in pop culture because the big money interests take something that is genuinely exciting and turn it into a formula, so we end up with a series of copies of copies of copies, each one shittier than the previous, until everyone is really sick of it and a whole new thing emerges out of nowhere and gets people excited again and then that turns to shit, repeat. But the cycle of that may have been broken by the way the internet seems to have made all of pop culture simultaneously contemporary, as Simon explained on the podcast. I'm not sure.


              Over here, in the mid-80s rock radio was taken over by the hair metal stuff, which - despite all of my efforts to understand and appreciate - I hate. At the time, I tolerated it because it was really all there was, but it was shit - cliche, sexist, boring, sub-Spinal Tap garbage, but not funny. Just shit. Our local station eventually stopped playing that and switched to "album oriented rock," which meant we got a steady diet of Zeppelin, the Doors, Stones, Eagles etc. Some good stuff there, but nothing new. At the time, there was only one college station - it played classical during the day, NPR in the evening, jazz, reggae, and blues in the evening, and only did proper "college music" late at night.

              On the "pop" side, I recall there was a lot of boring "urban contemporary" shit that nobody even remembers.

              Kids at my junior high school - 99% white, by the way - were into Run DMC and the first Beastie Boys album, which I didn't really like, because to me it was all about glorifying assholes and putting down nerds. And I was a nerd. It's what the assholes in my school liked. And most of the kids in my school were assholes. I was probably an asshole too, but I didn't bully anybody. (In retrospect, I think the Beastie Boys were actually taking the piss out of all of that and I really like their later albums.)

              I recall that U2's The Joshua Tree was a huge deal. Came out in the Spring of my 8th grade year. My friends and I really appreciated hearing somebody take themselves seriously, even if it was too seriously. I still kind of feel that way about pop culture. There's only so much ironic posing that one can take. That led me to get more into "college music" as much as I could as well as The Beatles and other stuff from the 60s and some stuff from the 50s. I also had a friend who was/is a legit musician and so was his brother. They were really into prog and Frank Zappa. I learned some stuff from him.

              There were also a few bands kicking around at the time doing sort of bluesy "bar rock" that I liked - Tommy Conwell, Georgia Satellites, The Brandos.* It wasn't exactly "alternative," and didn't identify itself as punk, but it wasn't like the cheezy "Corporate Rock" of the day either, nor was it glam or metal. Somebody should write a book about that. Was that a real "movement" or just a random thing that only I noticed? We also had John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen kicking around then, the former saying some very left-wing things, as I recall, but it didn't seem to cost him any sales because Fox News didn't exist yet.

              I think this is my favorite subject to talk about.


              *As far as I can tell, The Brandos are still touring Germany. Like the Hooters. Germany has interesting tastes.
              Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 09-08-2017, 22:01.

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                #32
                They should have Parkes Kulkarni and Price (and that nishlord fella of course) on any of those shit "remember the 70/80/90's!!?!" Bollocks that channel 4 (and BBC4 even) love to fill time with. Way better than the Maconie Radcliffe Morley probably a Russell named comedian if low brow talking heads you normally get.
                Last edited by Lang Spoon; 10-08-2017, 20:28.

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                  #33
                  Does Nish write for the Guardian? There's an A*** N*** working for them. (stars do not coincide with spelling of his name)
                  And Price has been in a few of those "I love the 80's" things, I think.

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                    #34
                    Gero, Nishlord identified himself by name on page 1 of this thread so there's probably no need to be so carefully indirect there.

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                      #35
                      Oh aye Gero, I do now remember seeing the Horned God on some BBC4 thing on fandom. Was outnumbered by wittering eejits but.

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                        #36
                        I'm on this bandwagon now, I've got through six episodes in a few days, brilliant stuff. Helps that I am a very similar age to a couple of the contributors so see these episodes through a similar time reference.

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                          #37
                          New one today. It's about April 1974, which means nothing to me as I was born in late October of 1972.
                          It doesn't do anything to disabuse my prejudices against the 70s.

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                            #38
                            Taylor on an Osmonds single: "When Tony Blackburn says this record is 'stuck in the number 2 slot', he's not joking." Had me guffawing in the office.

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                              #39
                              This April 1974 one is my favourite so far, partly because the discussions are getting longer. It's great (IMHO) that they don't even get on to the music until around 30 minutes in so there is loads of childhood context (and Price and Wingco are clearly the same age as me so the refs are Proustian in their direct resonance: beef crisps, the particular montage used by TOTP in the titles, The Tomorrow People, Indoor League, etc).

                              Price and Wingco are a great combination: Wingco is dry and Price is more passionate, but both are sharp and lucid and always on the money.
                              Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 18-08-2017, 08:10.

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                                #40
                                Heh. Glad you're enjoying 'em.

                                And no, I'm not Alex Needham, the bane of my freelancing life in the 90s. I think he once got a chunk of invoice money from Maxim that was supposed to be for me (which got rectified, I hasten to add).

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                                  #41
                                  Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                  This April 1974 one is my favourite so far, partly because the discussions are getting longer. It's great (IMHO) that they don't even get on to the music until around 30 minutes in so there is loads of childhood context (and Price and Wingco are clearly the same age as me so the refs are Proustian in their direct resonance: beef crisps, the particular montage used by TOTP in the titles, The Tomorrow People, Indoor League, etc).

                                  Price and Wingco are a great combination: Wingco is dry and Price is more passionate, but both are sharp and lucid and always on the money.
                                  I think there are about five years between them, which in many ways is a huge age difference when it comes to childhood/teenage memories of experiencing music. Of course, the cultural markers are by and large the same, give or take the occasional Blue Peter presenter.

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                                    #42
                                    Excellent news. Some baking, then the podcast. That's my Friday evening sorted.

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                                      #43
                                      New one today! Feb 1970!

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                                        #44
                                        The latest podcast is utterly bary. Which is a good thing. I've had an Instant Karma earworm ever since.

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                                          #45
                                          Bary: An element in many words of Greek origin, meaning heavy, dull, hard, difficult, etc.
                                          You're not selling it.

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                                            #46
                                            Or East Coast Scots/Roma dialect for good, boss, neato.

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                                              #47
                                              Cripes, that 5/2/70 Ep is my sweet 16th birthday - safe to say TOTP was already a long way off my radar by then. I'd have been listening to Blind Faith, Hendrix (Saw him at the IOW later), Tull, ELP 'prog-rock' then, having been weaned on Blind Lemon, Leadbelly, Hopkins, BB, Robert Johnson et al thanks to an older brother of my best mate, who left his precious vinyls behind when he was away at Uni.

                                              On that edition's charts, I could just about tolerate Delaney & Bonnie (seen at Croydon Fairfield Hall), Tull obvs, Canned Heat and our signature tune - the rest, apart from some Tamla gold, is decidedly MOR, especially the ghastly Number 1...ffs. As for Pan's People...dear me. Still, as a 16 yr old, I guess I wasn't the target audience - I'd have been watching the album charts for musical inspiration, not B.J. Thomas singing 'Raindrops'.

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                                                #48
                                                The women dancing at the start look like they are doing it at gunpoint. Awkward beyond belief and totally joyless. Very different from the whooped up jollity circa 1983.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Enjoying the podcast very much. In the words of Young Mr Grace, 'you've all done very well."

                                                  Bit harsh on Steve Wright though. Yes the 'posse' and characters could be shite, but you're forgetting all the Phil Cornwell stuff. And Pretentious Music Critic was funny.

                                                  However, I'm going to have to listen to Taylor Parkes' John Lennon rant again. That was ace.

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                                                    #50
                                                    In the 1970 episode, Al seems quite speechless at the rating of "Can't Get Next To You" as a bit meh. And quite rightly so. And "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" wasn't a year later; it was three years later.

                                                    I was also a bit irritated by the repeated reference to Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now" being a cover. It can't have been not as good as the original because it is the original (as was even noted). Taylor's claim that there are no good covers of male singers of Dylan songs merits interrogation, aside from the banal absolutism of that statement. But, anyway, that is Jimi Hendrix getting a good telling off for either not "getting" Dylan or not being a man.

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