Remember those old all weather tire advertisements that would put the tire through heat and cold? That has nothing to do with this song, Pat wails about those head playin' dudes.
Jefferson Starship - Find Your Way Back
Guitarist Craig Chaquico tears it up with this catchy rocker that plays well off of Mickey Thomas' soaring voice. Did Paul Kantner have a clue that he was losing control of his band? Hmmm...
38 Special - Hold on Loosely
What can I say about this song I haven't said already? How about calling this "Important dating tips from heavily bearded men."
Foreigner - Urgent
"You're not shy / You get around" Lou Gramm sets up the story early about his hard rock bootie call punctuated by Junior Walker's magnificent sax solo.
Rod Stewart - Young Turks
I couldn't fit "Infatuation" in on 1984, hated "Baby Jane" and didn't think "Lost in You" had enough impact so I settled for "Young Turks". My wife said I didn't like this song. Maybe I didn't, but it fits the bill in representin' Rod in the AOR 80's.
Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl
Two words: Pure. Genius.
Def Leppard - Bringin' On The Heartbreak
The Lep make the jump to the big time with this pounding ballad, can't you see...can't you see......No! No-oauh! Noooaahhhh! And then a decade later Mariah Carey would transform this song into an epic disaster.
Point Blank - Nicole
Two fisted drinking bar band sound with a slight California polish. Makes me want to grab Janet and Chrissy for a drink at the Regal Beagle.
Triumph - Fight The Good Fight
The poor man's Rush set their flash pots for kill on this, er, triumphant salute to power rock. Oh, and I totally mean that as a compliment, I love Triumph!
Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands
Tommy Shaw's sardonic tale of unemployment blues strikes a chord as much now as it did then.
Rainbow - I Surrender
Restraint has never been Richie Blackmore's strong suit, but here he stays out of wailin' Joe Lynn Turner's way.
Spider - New Romance
Would you believe this early 80's band wrote and performed John Waite's "Change" and Tina Turner's "Better Be Good To Me" first? I couldn't either but it's true. Classic upbeat 80's power pop dressed up as AOR.
Santana - Winning
One of the great sports montage tracks of the time, I remember a local commercial featuring a lot of jogging in slo mo to the tune of this track.
Bruce Springsteen - Hungry Heart
Really this came from '80 but I decided to place the Boss on my discs at the last second. Would you believe this was originally written with The Ramones in mind?
Kansas - Hold On
Another 1980 track, I just had to have some classic lineup Kansas thrown in if I could.
Disc 2:
The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up
Is that the sound of Window's '95 loading? The last great Stones rip gets their swagger on in a big way. I'm still curious about how this sounded when they tried to make it reggae.
Chilliwack - My Girl
Always loved this bands name. Alternating between sunny and dark as the girl in question stone cold leaves Chilliwack in the dust.
REO Speedwagon - Take It On The Run
Arguably the Illinois band's best known track, we all took the "Heard it from a friend who" section hook line and sinker.
April Wine - Just Between You and Me
Myles Goodwin gets all sentimental and French thinkin' misty eyed thoughts.
Journey - Who's Cryin' Now
The addition of keyboardist Jon Cain gave vocalist Steve Perry the writing partner he needed to sell heartfelt ballads to the muscle T masses.
Blue Oyster Cult - Burnin For You
You know you want to throw on some shades and drive your El Dorado to the park to chug a lug some brew when you hear this song. Admit it!
Peter Frampton - Breaking All The Rules
Because I wasn't covering the 70's I was really worried I would have nothing to represent the guy who ushered in the Arena Rock era in earnest. Then I found this cut on ITUNES. I was so freakin' happy.
Night - Hot Summer Nights
I found out about this group on ITUNES too. Never heard of them before that, but you can't beat this laid back good time rock with a quintessential 80's band name.
Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe
This is one of those songs that hung around all decade long but never seemed to become a big hit.
Van Halen - Unchained
My all time favorite Van Halen track, monster guitars and David Lee Roth throwin' attitude all over. Hey hey, one break comin' up!
Prism - Don't Let Him Know
Another of Canada's finest serves up electro hand claps and razzle dazzle keyboards to a marching beat.
Sammy Hagar - There's Only One Way To Rock
...and it's Sammy's way.
Genesis - Abacab
I don't know much about playing musical instruments, but I was blown away when it was revealed the title is a chord progression.
ELO - Hold On Tight
A great song. So why have all my memories of this cut been obliterated by a commercial for pain relievers?
Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
My favorite witchy woman let's her white winged dove loose to a jittering guitar riff.
The Cars - Shake It Up
Is it mainstream rock or is it New Wave? We'll never know, The Cars were the only band to straddle that line perfectly.
The Who - You Better You Bet
How many CSI shows do you think they'll have to make before this gets made a theme song? You Better (shine a flashlight on a dead body) You Better (look constipated viewing through a microscope lens) You Bet (act like a big shot at a crime scene). CSI Tacoma anyone?
The Little River Band - The Night Owls
When the bass player sang lead on this track, little did they know that it would eventually result in his taking over the band. He wasn't even an original member! But Little River Band still tours to this day, the bass player is the only guy that was there for the hitmaking years.
That's 1981, my next set of CDs go to the year that got me hooked on music - 1982.
4 comments:
Hey Mr. Mike! Government Cheese? Kinda sounds like the name of a band, don't it? :) Perhaps the bastard child of Weird Al and Devo?
I gotta protest your concept of "midwest rock". I understand why you would call them that, but... You KNOW Springsteen is from Jersey, and Tom Petty is from Florida. I know you do. That would not be "midwest". :)
First disc? Sign me up. I want one. How could I have so totally forgotten about Spider - New Romance"? I LOVED that song. I have got to get that one on my mp3 player. (btw, what does one call the thing when it isn't an ipod? Do you just call it an ipod anyway? I'm so not gadget hip. I don't know the lingo.)
Disc two? I think I might like it. You know I love anything from Frampton. Tom Cochran and Red Rider always rock. It was a big hit in my neck o' the woods. WDIZ played the hell out of it. Which was fine by me.
And I was a huge Little River Band fan. Much to my sister's chagrin. She hate them, so naturally I played them at full volume. :) That's what she gets for driving spikes thru my brain with all that incessant playing of Pat Benatar and Pink Floyd. Bletch...
Two more great discs, Mr. Mike. Keep em coming, eh?
Government Cheese does sound like a good band name, I like it!
It is true that I applied the term midwest rock to people not from the midwest, but my wife can tell you I'm horrible with geography. Springsteen, Seger, Cougar and Petty don't sound alike but I feel they have a similar approach. A little more bar band, blue collar vibe. You know, honest artistic integrity and all that. It's a great sound, I just couldn't marry it up with the slickness of AOR.
MP3 player is good for talking about the music player, otherwise I think people just refer to it by the brand name they own. Before IPOD we had Rio MP3 players so we just called it "The Rio".
You knew who Spider was? That's really cool! I found them by accident a few weeks ago on ITUNES.
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Plus, if you're an old school wrestling fan you can imagine Kerry Von Erich coming to the ring at the Sportatorium. Ah..WCCW.
Kerry may have sucked but them boys drove the crowds in Texas wild.
The modern day warrior! The Von Erichs actually came before I followed wrestling but I learned about them through a video game I had. Cool stuff.
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