The Drink Tank 239 (2010).pdf

The Forgotten Decade of Recording:

the 1980s

Katharine Payne’s recordings of African

Elephants (1984), Daydream Nation

by Sonic Youth (1988), Graceland by

Paul Simon (1986) and Thriller (1982)

and He Stopped Loving Her Today by

George Jones (1980). The bit is that

the Crescent City Living Legends

Collection extends from 1973 through

1990. An argument could also be made

that the 1990s are even more under-

represented because there are only

two recordings, Nirvana’s Nevermind

and Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black

Planet (and a bit of the Crescent City

Living Legends).

Why are the 80s so very

important to present on the Registry?

Well, the 80s changed music more

than any other decade. There was

If you’re not a fan of my obsession of lists,

this might not be the year for you to read The

Drink Tank. I got a bug in my bonnet and I want

to put pixels to paper about it. It’s a thing that

sounds weird, but it’s legit. I’ve been a fan of the

National Film Registry since I irst encountered

it in the early part of our decade. That led to an

interest in the other major US arts registry, the

National Recording Registry. Now, while there’s

no National Video Registry (it might be included

in the National Film Registry, but it’s never been

explained), the Recording Registry is my second

favorite. I’ve started following it and researching

a lot. I’ve nominated for the Recording Registry

twice (and the Film Registry four times, I think)

and when I went over the list of what’s on

recently, I found a major problem.

There are only six and a bit recordings

from the 1980s on the Registry.

The Registry is dedicated to the purpose

of maintaining and preserving sound recordings

and collections of sound recordings that are

culturally, historically, or aesthetically signiicant.

That includes music, anthropological recordings

(which are some of the most interesting), radio

broadcasts, comedy, serials, sports, and all sorts

of other stuff. They just need to be culturally,

historically or aesthetically signiicant. For the

most part, I’ve considered music more than

anything else, but there’s a lot of ground that can

be covered.

The recordings from that decade

that are already on include The Message by

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982),

the beginning of the Goth, Hard Core and US

Ska movements. There was the introduction

of computer music to the mainstream and the

rise of techno. There was the rise of the music

video leading to a new world of music stars.

Drum machines, Synths, Keytars, they all came

to the forefront in the 1980s. It was also the

last productive decade for some of the most

important acts in history. Miles Davis, Ella

Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Eubie Blake, Gil Evans,

they were all working in the decade.

And yes, there are other recordings

from other decades that certainly need to be on

there. Three off the top of my head include the

original recording of Jesus Christ, Superstar , Jagged

Little Pill from Alanis Morrisette, and Music from

Mathematics , the Decca record that has most of

the known music performed on the IBM 7090

by folks like JR Pierce and Max Mathews. Still, I’m

a crusader for the 80s!

I’ve griped about this before, I know,

but not I’m doing something. I’ve decided to

dedicate one article a an issue to the recordings

of the 1980s that I believe deserve to be on

the Registry. These’ll include albums that are

massively important to the mainstream, things

that were essentially underground but had

inluence far-beyond their exposure, and things

that are the perfect example of their times.

How many pieces will there be? I’m

planning on 20 or so, and I’m hoping that some

of you will have your suggestions which I can run.

I’ll print them. At some point, I’ll send the list off

to the good folks at the Library of Congress as

my nominations. You see, it’ll all have a point in

the end!

And so I’ll start with my irst in this

issue.

inluential.

The album that

should go onto the registry

is the irst Minor Threat 7-

inch, called Minor Threat. This

was the irst salvo, and while

some would point to Out of

Step, their sole 12’ album, the

7-inch Minor Threat is rawer,

angrier and simply more

powerful. It also included the

song that would launch an

entire movement that would

extend all the way to today.

There had been songs

in the 1970s and early 80s

that basically said that the

bands weren’t going to live

like rock stars and that the

fans shouldn’t either, but

it was Ian MacKaye’s song

Straight Edge that made it into

a movement. While the rest

of the band wasn’t too fond

Minor Threat by Minor Threat

There aren’t many bands that were

together for less than three years that you can

point to as being a major inluence on any scene

today. I can come up with two: Operation Ivy

(1987-1989) and Minor Threat (1980-1983).

While OpIvy had a huge inluence on the 1990s

and 2000s, and I’ll talk about them later, Minor

Threat’s inluence extends beyond jus the music.

They opened up a lifestyle, they deined a new

sound and they made a mark that you can see to

today.

Minor Threat featured four or ive

members during its short lifespan. There was

Jeff Nelson on drums, Lyle Preslar and Brian

Baker on guitar, Steve Hansgen on bass, and

perhaps most importantly, Ian MacKaye on vox.

They were a group who played fast and hot, in

the style of punk lipped to 78prm. The sound

was hardcore punk, which we call simply Hard

Core today. The vocals weren’t really sung, but

screamed. There really short songs, and they

were loud and they were frantic. The crowd

went into wildness. There was slamdancing, but

it was the hardcore scene, starting on the West

Coast, that introduced moshpits to the world.

And the deinition of Hardcore was

Minor Threat.

Every Hard Core band you see over the

last 25 years was seriously inluenced by Minor

Threat. You can see it in bands like Voorhees, 7

Seconds and Gorilla Biscuits. While there was

an LA Hard Core scene, it was the East Coast

sound of Minor Threat that would be the most

of MacKaye’s concept of pitching a clean living

lifestyle in their music, MacKaye followed up

the general concept begun in Straight Edge with

Out of Step’ s lyrics. Don’t smoke/Don’t drink/

Don’t fuck/At least I can fucking think/I can’t

keep up/I’m out of step with the world. That

concept launched the Straight Edge movement,

which peaked irst in the 1990s (along with Hard

Core) only to ind itself reborn in recent years

and the Straight Edge movement take on so

much presence in the collective consciousness

that there’s a wrestler, CM Punk, whose gimmick

is that he’s the sanctimonious leader of the

Straight Edge Society. That’s saying something.

So, my irst album held up for the Registry

is Minor Threat’s Minor Threat . It is available as a

part of several compilations, including First Two

7”s on a 12”. I still maintain that Minor Threat

is the best of their recorded output and that

it is easily the best of the early Hard Core

recordings. That combined with their impact

over the Straight Edge make them a signiicant

piece that should be added to the Registry.

Next issue, I look at a record that

changed the volume of the pop charts forever.

Radio Wallpaper

T aral Wayne

“Twenty-one Miles,” “The Battle of New

Orleans,” “Watching the Girls Go By,” and tons

of others. Now and then something odd but

not humorous would also stick. I only recently

googled for and found the lyrics to “A Scottish

Soldier.” And I know I heard Elvis sing “Hound

Dog” around 1957 – the same year I watched

Sputnik in the night sky – though people have

told me it was impossible in a backwoods

like Toronto. But I swear! There were teen-

age death/love songs too, like “Teen Angel,”

– but those tended to turn my stomach.

Early in the 60’s my parents bought a

console stereo. They stocked it with about

two dozen records, and stopped. I suppose the

little well for them was full. Their taste seemed

to run to Scottish military bands, 101 Strings,

and Christmas songs. I had one or two that

I picked out myself. One was the music from

Disney’s Peter Pan, I remember. The other was

a George Formby collection. You can see that

and, following my natural inclinations, I scoffed.

In actual fact, when I heard “I Want to Hold

Your Hand” and “Please, Please Me” for the

irst time, I didn’t think they were that bad.

They weren’t terribly good either, so I put the

matter out of my mind. What inally turned me

on to the Beatles was that odd cartoon show

that was on TV for one year. I got to hear

later Beatles tunes like “Ticket to Ride” and “A

Hard Day’s Night,” and realized that This Was A

Good Thing.

All the same, I had no real interest in

music. Most of my musical experience in the

60’s was from the 30 seconds that led into

cartoon shows or sitcoms. I still know all the

words to the song sung at the end of Fireball

XL-5.

“I wish I were a i-yer ball, the fastest

man alive!

I’d ly around the universe, in Fireball

XL-ive.” And how!

I read issue 54 of Robert Lichtman’s

King Biscuit Time , and wrote a LoC. For a laugh,

I called it “Soaking in Gravy.” Why the long

titles on fanzines these days? It’s ine as it goes,

but I end up with ile names that are so long

they don’t show entirely until highlight the

icon.

King Biscuit Time is an apazine, so I don’t

know how many readers it has outside of the

select members of FAPA. He sent a .pdf ile on

request, and I was motivated to comment on

Robert’s account of his life-long interest in pop

music.

He reminded me of the varying role

pop music played in my own life. When I was

a kid, the radio was usually on. I don’t know if

my folks listened to it – I usually didn’t. It was

merely music-coloured wallpaper. I know that

Perry Como or Peggy Lee must have been on

much of the time, but I don’t remember the

middle-of-the-road content well. Novelty songs

usually stuck in my memory. For instance,

while I consumed my hated shredded wheat

every morning, there was a CBC news program

on the air. For years it opened with a theme

performed by barking dogs!

“ Arf , arf, arf, arf… “ It had a real tune.

I recall “Please Mr. Custer, I Don’t Want

to Go,” for example, “Sink the Bismarck,” a

silly song about an astronaut who forgot his

crayons, “Purple People Eater,” the Witchdoctor

song, “Wolverton Mountain” (or was it called

“Clifton Clowers”?), “Return to Sender,”

I has my own taste in

musical matters. I was

a born rebel.

*coff*

One day

around 1966 or ‘67

my friends all seemed

to go nuts about

something called “The

Beatles.” “What are

Beatles,” I naturally

asked. They all looked

at me as though I had

just arrived – luggage

in hand – from the

Moon. They told me,

cracked me up. I added Talking

Heads , Elvis Costello, and XTC to my

tastes. Toward the end, I was avidly

collecting disks by some very “arty”

groups. I have David Byrne’s solo

efforts, exerimental music by Brian

Eno, almost all the early Pere Ubu,

and was getting into Captain Beefeart

at the peak my my esoteric phase.

By the late 80’s though, I

was growing jaded. Esoterica like

Nina Hagen palled, and emotionally

unaffected New Wave like Gary

Newman or Bauhaus simply bored

me. (Flashy, simple-minded porridge

performed by groups like Duran

Duran never appealed at all.) Worry

about wear on the disks and stylus,

concerns with surface quality,

doubts about the performance of

Now I mainly listen to music while

using the computer. I pop a CD into the tray

or pick an MP3 ile from the hard drive. It isn’t

really “listening” to music as I used to – lying

on the bed, eyes closed, focusing exclusively on

the sound. But it’s better than listening to the

300th. rendition of “Now listen to mah story

‘bout a man named Jed...” I must be getting

some good from listening… so far as I really

do. My musical tastes have expanded again, to

include Tom Waits, authentic old cowboy songs

by Ed McCurty, and even some hard core jazz.

The jazz can still be rather impenetrable

though. Unless I recognized “Salt Peanuts,” I

couldn’t tell you whether it was Dizzy Gillespie

playing, or Charlie Parker. I have no trouble

with Louis Armstrong, though, and you can bet I

don’t mistake Duke Ellington era jazz for Miles

Davis.

I’ve also rediscovered some performers

I used to like, but had stopped following long

ago. Elvis Costello is the best example, but I’m

newly crazy again for Gentle Giant. I’m even

listening to Frank Sinatra.

Listening to music has become a

solitary pastime, though. What I miss about my

musical experience in the ‘70s is sitting around

with Bob, or Victoria, listening to their new

discoveries, and adding some of them to my

“Must Have” list. Nobody seems to have time

for that anymore. Both Bob and Victoria live

just outside Toronto now, and out of reach

by ordinary busses or streetcars. I suspect,

too, that our musical tastes may have grown

too far apart as well. Bob is heavily into jazz.

Victoria... I’m not sure. I don’t think she plays

music to “listen” to anymore. She protests that

My musical awakening came in the

early 70’s, when a friend of mine left Toronto.

He couldn’t take it with him, so sold me

his phonograph for $25, and I began to buy

records. I hardly knew where to start, but I’d

heard enough in wallpaper in the meantime to

make a decent beginning with “Dark Side of

the Moon,” “Abbey Road” and “Sgt. Pepper’s,”

“Close to the Edge,” and one or two other

staples. I gravitated toward studio-produced

super groups like Yes , Genesis , and King Crimson ,

but decidedly not to over-ripe bands like ELO

or The Moody Blues.

Sometime arouind 1977, Bob Wilson

discovered New Wave. I remember him playing

Devo for me for the irst time in his and Janet’s

Avenue Road apartment. “Jocko Homo”

the equipment I had, all began to erode my

enjoyment of the music. By the time I had

to move to my present place in 1991, I had

stopped listening to music altogether. My

musical needs were being met mainly via re-

runs of Newhart and Star Trek: The Next

Generation, just like before.

It was more than ten years before

I started to put vinyl on the turntable with

serious intent again. By then, the equipment

was terribly old, and some of it marginally

functional. Speakers and amp had to be

replaced, the tape recorder outright trashed,

and then the used ampliier I got as a

replacement is also started to go... Schirm gave

me a small CD player for Christmas, so for the

irst time I started looking in the bins for CDs.

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