1980s – Page 11

Yellowjackets | It’s Almost Gone

A nearly criminally overdue MotD debut for Yellowjackets, a band which was centrally important to the sound of jazz fusion in the 1980s and has continued its work into the 2020s. “Most contemporary jazz or instrumental pop albums released over the past 25 years owe one thing or another to the style and sound advanced by this 1981 (self-titled) debut (AllAboutJazz.com) … keyboardist, composer and arranger Russell Ferrante pulled drummer Ricky Lawson and bassist Jimmy Haslip into his fledgling swarm … ‘It wasn’t like the earlier fusion of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, which was a very chopped kind of rock sound,’ recalls Ferrante. ‘We were influenced by fusion that was more melodic and compositional.'”

“A leading crossover jazz outfit, Yellowjackets found success combining polished funk and R&B grooves with a strong post-bop- and fusion-influenced sound (AllMusic) … In addition to their commercial success, they picked up accolades including the Grammy for R&B Instrumental Performance for “And You Know That” off 1986’s Shades, and the Grammy for Jazz Fusion Performance for 1989’s Politics. The band’s ability to balance crossover appeal with a dedication to improvisational excellence has attracted top-level players over the years.”

“… Ferrante introduces and closes ‘It’s Almost Gone’ with sadly beautiful solo piano,” (AllAboutJazz) but the tune’s midsection is something entirely different. The track begins in F# minor, with the bass line descending in alternating major and minor thirds. At 0:14, an identical pattern starts, but this time in G# minor. The pattern continues as a rangy melody is added at 0:30. A “B” section provides contrast from 1:33 – 1:53 before the initial F# minor section returns — this time with a 6/8 groove, complete with an insistent syncopated overlay, until a gentle outro mirrors the feel of the track’s opening.

Nik Kershaw | L.A.B.A.T.Y.D.

After his polished New Wave/sophistipop sound gave him a fast ascent to the top of the UK pop charts and some notoriety in the US as well, Radio Musicola (1986) “was Nik Kershaw’s chance to … deliver a big-budget, endlessly-fussed-over studio ‘project’…” (MovingTheRiver). “Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his meteoric rise to fame, the main themes of the album are press intrusion and tabloid sensationalism … in a neat irony, the rise of technology-led, assembly-line music was also in Kershaw’s sights, despite Musicola making liberal use of all the latest sampling and synthesizer technology …

An interesting album which clearly fell between the stools of art and commerce, Radio Musicola reached a barely believable #46 in the UK album chart, just over a year after Kershaw had played Live Aid. It disappeared without trace in the US … But Kershaw didn’t seem bothered about his new ‘selective’ popularity; in fact, he seemed genuinely relieved, but wondered how MCA were going to sell him now that he was focused on being a musician rather than a pop star.

‘LABATYD’ (Life’s a Bitch and Then You Die) is pure class, a half-time shuffle …” Starting in E minor and marching in place for nearly an entire minute, the track’s initial focus is its infectious groove. But at 0:53, Kershaw throws a spanner in the works, tumbling the chorus into an improbable Eb major. 1:21 brings us back to E minor for another relatively static verse, this time dressed up with a few additional flourishes from the horn section. At 2:13, we jump the tracks again into Eb major for the next chorus. At 2:48, an instrumental chorus wafts up into E major; as the groove is finally extinguished, a C lydian chord closes the tune at 4:00.

Sarah Vaughan | Obsession

“Bop’s greatest diva, Sarah Vaughan was among jazz and popular music’s supreme vocalists,” (Qobuz). “She treated her voice as an instrument, improvising melodic and rhythmic embellishments, using her contralto range to make leaps and jumps, changing a song’s mood or direction by enunication and delivery, and altering her timbre … Vaughan’s recorded legacy stands with anyone in modern jazz history,” working with the likes of Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Budd Johnson, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and many other jazz legends from the 1940s onward. “Nicknamed ‘Sassy’ and ‘The Divine One’, Vaughan won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine Grammy Awards. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989. Critic Scott Yanow wrote that she had ‘one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century,'” (New York Times).

“Militant jazz fans aren’t likely to cite Brazilian Romance as the place to start exploring the work of Sarah Vaughan. The album was made in 1987, near the end of the great jazz singer’s recording career … the songs aren’t the expected dinner-music standards, but more intricate post-bossa nova songs written by Milton Nascimento … Vaughan was, arguably, the foremost interpreter of Brazilian music in jazz history … Recorded three years before she died, it’s her equivalent of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings — full of contemporary spirit, propelled by a timeless voice.” (NPR). Featuring Hubert Laws on flute and George Duke on keyboards, “Obsession,” the eighth of the album’s ten tracks, was produced by Sergio Mendes.

The intro, in Bb minor, rapidly shifts to G minor for the first verse at 0:22. 0:54 brings a change in emphasis to G minor’s relative major of Bb. An instrumental interlude that mirrors the intro kicks in at 1:17. There’s an instrumental interlude with new material from 1:59 – 2:11, bringing us back more familiar territory — led throughout by Vaughan’s legendarily distinctive contralto.

XTC | Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)

“For decades, British art-rock chameleons XTC occupied an awkward space in the musical landscape; underappreciated songwriting geniuses too quirky for mainstream success but not edgy enough for alternative acceptance,” (LouderSound). “Slowly, over the years, this opinion changed. Dozens of artists began to list them among their songwriting inspirations, and their music became accepted as some of the most influential and innovative in rock’s history. Now, thanks to a glut of glorious sounding remasters courtesy of prog posterboy Steven Wilson, along with recent Sky documentary XTC: This Is Pop, XTC and their catalogue of incredible music have been propelled back into the public eye.”

“Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)” was included on XTC’s best-of compilation Waxworks (1982) and otherwise available only as a single. Andy Partridge, XTC’s lead vocalist and a principal songwriter, provided this capsule review for the album: “Spooky, unreal, dripping and unstable. The thrills and horrors of modern life in three-minute scenarios,” (Chalkhills.org). “Sgt. Rock” doesn’t inspire any affection from Partridge: ” … All the instruments in the track mesh nicely enough, but the lyrical sentiment, oh dear. It was supposed to be ironic, you know, nerdy comic fan imagines two-dimensional hero can help him with his unsuccessful chat-up technique. It did not work.”

But even a throwaway track, by XTC’s standards, still made for catchy college/indie radio material. The stiff guitar-driven swing somehow fits the mockingly martial lyrics. The track begins in F major but shifts to a bridge in Ab major between 2:10 and 2:27. The performers are miming to the studio track, not playing live, in this Top of the Pops-style performance.

USA for Africa | We Are The World

“We Are The World” was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson as a benefit for African famine relief. Richie and Jackson, along with producer Quincy Jones, assembled a supergroup of singers, including Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper and many others, to record the track in January 1985. It quickly became the fastest selling pop single in US History, and raised over $80 million. Last month, Netflix released The Greatest Night In Pop, a documentary chronicling how the recording session came together and including footage from the studio.

The tune begins in E and modulates to F at 4:03.

Mr. Mister | Broken Wings

“If you’re looking for reasons to make fun of ’80s pop music — the fashion, the keyboards, the blaring guitar leads, the almost disarmingly terrible band names — then (Richard) Page’s band Mr. Mister makes for a great target,” (Stereogum). “Mr. Mister didn’t rock. They made ultra-produced, vaguely worded expensive-digital-studio music, and they embodied a moment when that was what pop radio wanted.” After working with Andy Gibb, REO Speedwagon, Amy Grant, Al Jarreau, Neil Diamond and DeBarge, “around the time Mr. Mister got together, Page turned down some big job offers … he claims that he was recruited for lead-singer roles in some bigger bands — replacing Bobby Kimball in Toto, replacing Peter Cetera in Chicago. He turned both gigs down, and he may have regretted it” — perhaps not surprising, as Mr. Mister wouldn’t break big until the release of its second album, Welcome to the Real World (1985).

Regarding the album’s lead single, “Broken Wings:” Stereogum continues: “(the) level of drama is absurd, almost fantastical, and it pulls it off … The song is all ominous churn, and it never really kicks in. Instead, it captures a state of sustained anticipation. The synths drone and sigh. The guitars whine and howl. The bassline mutters dejectedly to itself. Little funk-guitar ripples glide across the surface. Even when the drums come thudding in, they’re off-kilter, never quite locked-in. ‘Broken Wings’ works as a five-minute digital gasp. It’s like the whole song is holding its breath, waiting to see if the whole ‘take these broken wings’ line is going to save this relationship.”

Central to that ominous churn is the use of sus2 chords, which keep the listener on the edge of her seat while somewhat obscuring the song’s tonality; all of the chords appearing before the 1:04 mark (the intro and verse 1) are sus2 chords. Sus2 chords were all over pop music during the 1980s, but “Broken Wings” is a particularly good example of the sound. After a start in G# minor, there’s a brief change of weather during the instrumental bridge from 2:31 – 3:10, when the keys of F# minor and its relative A major alternate. Unusually, this is a modulation which is more noticeable as it ends than when it begins, likely affected by the sudden change in texture as we move to a new verse (featuring yet more spartan sus2 chords)! All of the complex songcraft and meticulous production paid off — the tune reached #1 for two weeks and has become a true classic of its era.

The Jacksons | This Place Hotel (a.k.a. Heartbreak Hotel)

The Jacksons’ 1980 release Triumph kept Michael Jackson in the forefront among his brothers. In retrospect, the track “Heartbreak Hotel” (later changed to “This Place Hotel” to avoid confusion with Elvis Presley’s hit song) was a clear precursor to the pop/r&b/funk/horror blend so clearly on display with Thriller, Michael’s subsequent smash hit solo album.

“… ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ … plods along nicely, loaded with strings and lead guitars,” (PopRescue). “There’s an odd repeated noise that made me pause the record to see if it was a problem with my house pipes… but no, it’s there in the chorus for some reason. When released as the album’s second single, this track stumbled at #44 … Overall, this album is a slick production, showing the Jacksons as well-versed musicians and vocalists.”

Bass lines aren’t always the first choice to host a hook, but the Jacksons make it happen here. Amplified by syncopated piano kicks, the rangy bass line takes center stage from the first moment, when it’s first stated as a rubato cello line, followed by an extended intro that takes us up to the 0:50 mark. E minor is the overall key, although an interlude from 3:28 – 3:42 takes us on a diversionary path through a series of cascading keys of the moment. From 4:42 – 4:56, the diversion returns, but this time we emerge out of the rapids into a peaceful string-sweetened rubato piano feature that wraps up the tune in B major.

38 Special | Second Chance

“38 Special guitarist Jeff Carlisi wrote “Second Chance” with the Los Angeles songwriter Cal Curtis … It was the biggest chart hit for 38 Special; while it didn’t have the Classic Rock staying power of their songs like “Caught Up In You” and “Hold On Loosely,” it was the biggest Adult Contemporary hit of 1989,” (Songfacts). “… When Billboard published their list of the top AC songs of all time in 2011, this came in at #24.”

The song was the highest-charting Hot 100 single the band ever produced, peaking at #6 and spending 21 weeks on the chart. The song hit #5 on the Singles Sales chart, #9 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and became the band’s first No.1 single on the Adult Contemporary chart. It later became Billboard magazine’s Adult Contemporary Song of the Year for 1989 (Billboard).

The midtempo tune starts in Bb major and shifts up a half-step with a very late modulation at 4:05, well after the bridge.

Bryan Adams | Summer of ’69

“Bryan Adams’ smash hit ‘Summer of ‘69’ comes from the 1984 studio album Reckless,” (American Songwriter). “Shortly after its release, the single climbed to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped push Reckless to the #1 position on the Billboard 200 album chart in August 1985.

‘I wanted to capture a special energy on the track—and nearly lost my team doing it. I basically fought with everyone until it became the way it is today. It wasn’t easy getting it there. I had no idea it would become such a classic,” admits Adams. ‘Originally the song had been called The Best Days of My Life, but we had always played around with the idea of writing a song about summertime. At one point while we were doing the demo, I just threw in the lyric It was the summer of ’69 and it stuck. And the guitar intro is about the only thing I can play, so that was pretty easy.'”

The tune is built in D major overall, with a bridge that shifts to F major (1:41 – 1:55) before an interlude returns us to the original key.

Howard Jones | Hide and Seek

UK native songwriter/performer Howard Jones’ career blossomed with his signature single, “Things Can Only Get Better.” That uptempo tune, which acknowledges life’s complexities but maintains an infectiously positive attitude, seems to have set the tone for Jones’ career. From a 2022 interview with 48Hills: “‘From the first album, the first single, I wanted the music and the lyrics to be of use to people to help them get through difficult times in the same way that music helped me. It had been such a comfort and an inspiration to me as I was growing up … I was consciously writing the music for the times when people, including myself, needed a boost, to get over some really difficult situation that life is constantly throwing at us … we need everyone on this planet to be functioning at their highest, most positive level if we’re going to overcome the difficulties we’re facing.'”

“Howard looks at the big picture in this song, where he goes back to the big bang and asks us to remember a time when there was ‘nothing at all, just a distant hum,'” (Songfacts). “Howard Jones performed ‘Hide and Seek’ at Live Aid in 1985 on Freddie Mercury’s piano.” Stepping the tempo up noticeably compared to the studio version of this ballad, Jones somehow gathered the courage to perform this track solo at the piano amidst Live Aid’s otherwise saturated aural textures and huge bands. The transatlantic concert was witnessed by 70,000+ audience members in London and 80,000+ for the US set; “an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations, nearly 40% of the world population” viewed the broadcast on TV or listened via radio (CNN).

After an intro and a verse in D minor, the chorus lifts the mood with a shift to D major (first heard from 1:52 – 2:23) before reverting to the hook-driven minor interlude and verse. The connective tissue in the transition from minor to major is a prominent Dsus4.