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...
Very interesting commentary!
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