A taster of the 1980’s
Old and new
Perfect Strangers, 1984
Can you remember remember my name
As I flow through your life
A thousand oceans I have flown
And cold spirits of ice
All my life
I am the echo of your past
I know I must remain inside this
silent well of sorrow
A strand of silver hanging through
the sky
Touching more than you see
I am returning the echo of a point in time The voice of ages in your mind
Is aching with the dead of the night
Distant faces shine
Precious life (your tears are lost in
A thousand warriors I have known
Falling rain)
And laughing as the spirits appear
All your life
Shadows of another day
And if you hear me talking on the wind
You've got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers
And if you hear me talking on the
wind
You've got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers
Hard-rock diehards
• Following the decline of punk: hard rock
resurgence
– Supertramp, 1985, „Brother, where you bound?”
– Deep Purple reformed 1982, with 2nd, most
successful line-up
• Published Perfect Strangers, 1984 and then the House
of Blue Light in 1987
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ_kez7WVUU
Title song ABACAB, 1981
Look up on the wall, there on the floor,
Under the pillow, behind the door.
There's a crack in the mirror.
Somewhere there's a hole in a window
pane.
Do you think I'm to blame?
Tell me, do you think I'm to blame?
(When we do it) you're never there.
(When you show it) just stop and stare.
(Abacab) he's in anywhere. (Abacab)
If you're wrappin' up the world
'Cause you've taken someone else's girl,
When they turn on the pillow,
Even when they answer the telephone,
Don't you think that by now...
Tell me, don't you think that by now.
When we do it) you're never there.
(When you show it) just stop and stare.
(Abacab) he's in anywhere.
(Abacab) doesn't really care.
Do you want it? You got it. Now you
know.
Do you want it? You got it. Now you
know.
It's an illusion. It's a game,
Or reflection of someone else's name.
When you wake in the morning,
Wake and find you're covered in
cellophane,
Well, there's a hole in there somewhere.
Yeah, there's a hole in there somewhere.
Baby, there's a hole in there somewhere.
Now there's a hole in there somewhere.
(When we do it) you're never there.
(When you show it) you stop and stare.
(Abacab) he's in anywhere.
New music by the „old guard”
• Genesis: ABACAB, 1981
– Song over 7 minutes!
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BriIprFg-Y
– Experimentation, largely following Mike Rutherford’s
ideas
– A shock to many followers
• Peter Gabriel, Security, 1982
– New agressive sound. Right for the eighties?
– My first experience with digital sound (hybrids, DDA))
The Rhythm of the Heat
Looking out the window
I see the red dust clear
High up on the red rock
Stands the shadow with the spear
The land here is strong
Strong beneath my feet
It feeds on the blood
It feeds on the heat
The rhythm is below me
The rhythm of the heat
The rhythm is around me
The rhythm has control
The rhythm is inside me
The rhythm has my soul
The rhythm of the heat
….
Drawn across the plainland
To the place that is higher
Drawn into the circle
That dances round the fire
We spit into out hands
And breathe across the palms
Raising them up high
Held open to the sun
Self-conscious, uncertain
I'm showered with the dust
The spirit enters into me
And I submit to trust
Smash the radio
No outside voices here
Smash the watch
Cannot tear the day to shreds
Smash the camera
Cannot steal away spirits
The rhythm is around me
The rhythm has control
The rhythm is inside me
The rhythm has my soul
New wave
• Old (?) punk (?) bands: Magazine, „less punk, more experimental”
– Back to Nature from Second-hand Daylight, 1979
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iExhVGg1mKw
• The Police, the Cure, etc. loosely as post-punk
• Some apparently going against trend:
– Dire Straits, labelled „roots rock” „pub rock” (?) for their first three LPs in the
70s
– Fourth, Love Over Gold, 1982, labelled progressive. Sampling Private
Investigations
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxS-ICzjO6I
• Punk-rock: American-British band Pretenders
– Back on the Chain Gang, from Learning to Crawl, 1984
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcuIkZWGl8
• Synthesizer pop
– Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics,Ultravox
– The Voice from Rage in Eden, 1981
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZo_IKNgCd0
• Post-punk/avantgarde
– Siouxsie and the Banshees
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLP35SNOSDY
Back to Nature
Back to nature
I can't go on like this
I want to walk where the power is
Back to nature
I don't know where to start
Back to nature
I don't have that kind of heart
Back to nature
Back to somewhere else
Back to nature
And right back on top of yourself
Back to nature
I`ve got to look down
See where I am
Or just hit the ground
And I'm telling you
I know what you`ve been going through
In my heart of hearts
When I was here
And you were there
Nothing was between us
We`re up in the air
We`re down on the ground
Here are your friends again
Inching in the bedroom door
Ah they won't to touch me
And you show me their hands
How warm and soft and foreign they are
Cubans in surgical gloves
One on top of two an top of three
Well I`ve got more than you
Back to nature
The voyeur will realise
This is not a sight for his sore eyes
Back to nature
Getting back at you
I couldn`t act naturally if I wanted to
Back to nature
A trip that I can`t take
People are thinking
That they`ve dreamed of this place
Back to nature
It was somewhere else
Back to nature
Right back on top of yourself
And I`m telling you
I know what you`ve been going through
In my heart of hearts
When I was here
And you were there
Nothing was between us
Private investigations
It's a mystery to me, the game
commences
For the usual fee, plus expenses
Confidential information, it's a diary
This is my investigation, it's not a
public inquiry
I go checking out the reports, digging
up the dirt
You get to meet all sorts in this line of
work
Treachery and treason, there's always
an excuse for it
And when I find the reason I still can't
get used to it
And what have you got at the end of
the day?
What have you got to take away?
A bottle of whiskey and a new set of
lies
Blinds on the window and a pain
behind the eyes
Scarred for life, no compensation
Private investigations
Back on the Chain Gang
I found a picture of you, oh oh oh oh
What hijacked my world that night
To a place in the past
We've been cast out of? Oh oh oh oh
Now we're back in the fight
We're back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang
A circumstance beyond our control, oh
oh oh oh
The phone, the TV and the news of the
world
Got in the house like a pigeon from hell,
oh oh oh oh
Threw sand in our eyes and descended
like flies
Put us back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang
The powers that be
That force us to live like we do
Bring me to my knees
When I see what they've done to
you
But I'll die as I stand here today
Knowing that deep in my heart
They'll fall to ruin one day
For making us part
I found a picture of you, oh oh oh oh
Those were the happiest days of my
life
Like a break in the battle was your
part, oh oh oh oh
In the wretched life of a lonely heart
Now we're back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang
Ultravox: The Voice
Native these words seem to me
All speech directed to me
I've heard them once before
I know that feeling
Stranger emotions in mynd
Changing the contours I find
I've seen them once before
Someone cries to me
CHORUS :
Oh, the look and the sound of
The Voice
They try, they try
Oh, the shape and the power of
The Voice
In strong low tones
Forceful and twisting again
Wasting the perfect remains
I've felt it once before
Slipping over me
CHORUS
Sweetly the voices decay
Draw on the lines that they say
I'd lost it once before
Now it cries to me
CHORUS
Oh, the look and the power of
The Voice
They try, they try
Oh, the shape and the sound of
The Voice
In strong low tones
Oh, the shape and the power of
The Voice
In strong low
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Cities in Dust
Water was running; children were
running
You were running out of time
Under the mountain, a golden
fountain
Were you praying at the Lares
shrine?
But oh your city lies in dust, my
friend
We found you hiding we found you
lying
Choking on the dirt and sand
Your former glories and all the
stories
Dragged and washed with eager
hands
But oh your city lies in dust, my
friend
Hot and burning in your nostrils
Pouring down your gaping mouth
Your molten bodies blanket of
cinders
Caught in the throes
And your city lies in dust