Saturday, October 11, 2014

Vol. 5 Episode 43


Don Henley is suing the Duluth Trading Co. for a bad Henley shirt pun. The pun was this, “Don a henley and take it easy” in a recent advertisement from the clothing company. If you’re interested in more about the story you can check it out at The Current.

Here we go with another 80s inspired episode... 




The album was released in 1984. There were a slew of singles released from the album. The group is a quasi/super group with members of The English beat, The Clash (Mick Jones) and Dexys Midnight Runners among the members of the group. Although Mick Jones left half way through the recording process he still got credit on the back of the album cover for being a part of the group on this first album.

There were five singles released over the period of two years. The first was General Public. The song has a light ska feel, mainly in the bass line through the verse parts of the song, possibly through Mick Jones influence as he did have a thing for the reggae style music. It is a good song too.

The second was Dishwasher. This is an instrumental version of Burning Bright and was the B-side to the General Public single. It was a minor hit in the Netherlands after its use as a theme song for the pop radio show Avondspits.

The next single released was Tenderness. This was the reason that I bought the album. The song was used in the John Hues films Weird Science and Sixteen Candles. The song was also used in the 1995 movie Clueless. It is a genius song that rose above the rest of the album. although the album put out four other singles they couldn’t match the power of this song.

The fourth single was Never You Done That. The song leads off with a wooden flute or recorder that just seems to fall flat for me. The rest of the song makes very little use of the instrument sound. As a matter of fact the rest of the music for the song is kind of bla for me. They do their best to make the song interesting but there really isn’t a hook in the song to keep my interest.

The last single from the album was Hot You’re Cool. This song has some interesting keyboards and the guitars keep the song floating. The chorus works well with the use of the title of the song being used forward and backward. This is what really works for the song. It is not a single that I remember hearing on the radio though so it still doesn’t really hit me has hard as Tenderness does.

This is a good album but the singles are not as shiny as Tenderness is. This may be simply because I don’t recognize any of the other singles. The album would probably grow on me if I listened to it more often.


This is the second solo album from Don Henley. It was released in late 1984. After hearing the first single from the album reciently I decided I needed to have the album. Then after hearing the whole album I realized that there were other great songs from the album that I really liked including the second single. All of these songs I remember from my childhood and they meant enough and touched me enough that I remember them to this day.

The first single from the album was The Boys of Summer. The song appears to be about the passing of youth and entering middle age, with the theme of summer love apparent in the choruses, and of reminiscence of a past relationship. Because of this it reminds me of my summer time spent at the family campgrounds. This was probably needed since the song was released in late fall when it was getting colder in the year. This may have helped to give me ore of a nostalgic feeling for the song when I heard it recently.

All She Wants To Do Is Dance is the second single released from the album. The lyrics are a personal commentary, critical of then-modern American culture for being more concerned with self-gratification than with serious issues such as domestic and foreign policies of the US government. Ironically, it became a popular dance song here in the US. This is not really surprising, if you make a good dance song, no matter what the lyrics, people are going to want to dance to it.

The next single released from the album is called Not EnoughLove In The World. The lyrics describe a rocky relationship, where the protagonist proclaims he's still in love. It is rumored that this song was about Henley's relationship with Stevie Nicks. It is a slower song that has a good chord progression but doesn’t really have a good hook to keep my interest. Even with that little tidbit about the song being possibly about Stevie Nicks can’t really hold my interest long enough.

Sunset Grill is the last single released from this album. Patty Smyth sings harmony vocals on this song, while Pino Palladino plays fretless bass. Randy Newman arranged the synthesizer programming for the song. This is another slower song but there are musical sounds on this song that I really like. I like the sounds that the fretless bass makes and the synth sounds make me feel good too. The chorus has some really cool sounding distorted synth sounds too. Although it is a slow song Ican get into it.


This is the first album from Breathe. It was released in the spring of 1988. The songs on the album pull heavily from jazz, pop and soul influences. I don’t really remember anything from this group except for the second single. I can remember listening to this song on a road trip with my best friend at the time’s family to go to their cabin in the winter months. I was in an emotional state at the time and couldn’t talk during the song for fear of bursting out into tears that I was doing my best to not let flow in the first place. I am not sure what put me in this state thinking back to it nearly forty years ago now but the song has forever locked that feeling and where I was physically at the time in my head.

Don’t Tell Me Lies is the first single released from the album. It starts off with a great synth line that is repeated a couple times before going into the verse. The verse is good but lacks that punch that the chorus has. The chorus is preceded with the synth line from the beginning of the song. The chorus itself has a great hook that repeats the title of the song. It is perfect late 80s synthpop.  It is a surprisingly good feeling.

The second single is the superbly emotional track Hands ToHeaven (HTH). It is soft and emotional and fit exactly where I was in life. I was an emotional wreck at this point in my life as most boys were at this time in their lives but most were able to hide it better than I was I guess. I liked girls I especially liked girls that didn’t like me. I suppose that this only made it worse. I also liked jazz music and the light jazz that this song embodied worked very well to help get my emotions on my sleeve rather than hide them like most people did at my age back then. It is a sweet sad song after all.

How Can I Fall? was the next single released from the album. It is a super slow track that I don’t really remember hearing much on the radio. I do remember hearing it but not nearly as much as HTH. It has the same feel as HTH but lacks the “it” factor that HTH had. I like the song but it doesn’t have that thing that makes me feel super emotional about it.

The fourth single from the album is called Jonah. This is a bit faster song than the last two singles that were put out. It actually has a funky feel to it with a group of horns that pop in from time to time. The bass is a fun funk slap bass style that I really enjoy. The guitar pops in that same funky style but doesn’t seem to play the same thing that the bass is playing making the song that much more fun. I think the problem that I have is in the lyrics. What exactly are they saying about these two people? I think they are liking a romantic relationship to the bible story of Jonah and the wale. I guess I am a bit uncomfortable with this correlation. The music is very good though.

The last single from the album is called All This I ShouldHave Known. The song kind of reminds me of a genesis song with the synth toms that are used in the song. The music is slow and sweet making me think of cotton candy clouds. It also pulls from the feel of the second single, HTH. It doesn’t pull hard enough though and misses the mark but only just. I think that the distraction for me on this one is the use of the high gain electric guitar solo. It was a good try but they should have known that they were not a hair metal group.


This is the first album from Sheila E. The album was released in early summer of 1984. The album was very short, with six songs. The CD versions had a remix of the first single. Although not stated anywhere the album smacks of Prince. He is credited for writing the title track and can be heard on the track just barely under the music. It is a very short album with only six tracks.

There were only two singles released from the album. The first single is the title track called The Glamorous Life. The song has lyrics which reflect a cynicism for the decadence and materialism of the song's protagonist, referred to in the third person, who "wants to lead a glamorous life", although she is aware that "without love, it ain't much". The song has that prince sound and helped to rocket her to stardom. For those fans of prince this is a must to have in your collection.

The second single from the album is called The Belle of St.Mark. The song's lyrics tell of an androgynous "frail but passionate creature", referred to as "he" throughout, but called the feminine "Belle". The song implies the Belle is French but St. Mark is commonly known as a location in Venice, Italy. This song is good, lyrically confusing and poppy fun. It also still has that prince style to it.

Because she was dating Prince at the time the whole album has a slight prince sound. This is good because he was the musician to get to know at the time. This is what helped pushed the record up the charts. The problem that I have with the record is that it is so short and just doesn’t have enough power packed singles on it. That being said, I still bought the record.

That's all for now...

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