The 80's: 'Lost Tracks'

[theundecider]

What favorite lost track do you recall. Tell us a little about it.

I use songfacts.com or wikipedia.org to jar my memory.


here's one of mine-



'82 "Der Kommissar" After The Fire





Their only big hit translated to English from the original version by Falco which was a huge worlwide hit sung in German a year earlier.


"Alles klar? Der Kommissar?"

[theundecider]

'87 Jethro Tull "Farm On The Freeway"

This one and "Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp tell the story in plain words of how the multinational agribussiness has destroyed so much in the name of profits.

...I was a rich man before yesterday.




Nine miles of two-strand topped with barbed wire
laid by the father for the son.
Good shelter down there on the valley floor,
down by where the sweet stream run.
Now they might give me compensation...
That's not what I'm chasing. I was a rich man before yesterday.
Now all I have got is a cheque and a pickup truck.
I left my farm on the freeway.

They're busy building airports on the south side...
Silicon chip factory on the east.
And the big road's pushing through along the valley floor.
Hot machine pouring six lanes at the very least.
Now, they say they gave me compensation...
That's not what I'm chasing. I was a rich man before yesterday.
Now all I have left is a broken-down pickup truck.
Looks like my farm is a freeway.

They forgot they told us what this old land was for.
Grow two tons the acre, boy, between the stones.
This was no Southfork, it was no Ponderosa.
But it was the place that I called home.
They say they gave me compensation...
That's not what I'm chasing. I was a rich man before yesterday.
And what do I want with a million dollars and a pickup truck?
When I left my farm under the freeway.

[theundecider]

'89 Boris Grebenshchikov "Radio Silence"

I've been looking for this one for awhile.

Russian Rocker who had a minor hit with this song on modern rock stations across the U.S.

[theundecider]

'83 "(I Love It When You) Call Me Names" Joan Armatrading

Joan rocked out on this one but she got no love from the majority of the fans or radio as it failed to chart.

[Earl Purple]

I remember "Der Kommissaar" by After The Fire, assuming it went "don't look around aha, Der Kommisaar's in town.." or something like that.

I used to listen to the US chart back then and lots of songs from it reached my chart, in some periods more than others. Not sure whether or not that one did but I certainly remember it.

[vya]

Boris Grebenshchikov's group, Akvarium (who were going for I think a good 20 years, at least until the late 90s) have a lot of good songs (in Russian). I particularly like their 1995 album "Navigator".
Love that Joan Armatrading track too...

[vastar iner]

One of the most gorgeous pop songs ever. A positive crime that it failed to penetrate the top forty...

[Robbie]

Pale Fountains - yes I remember them and I loved that song. I owned another song by them that deserved to be a big hit - Unless which was released in 1985.

[Robbie]

This was my favourite single of 1988. It appeared as track 2 on the A side of "A Word To The Wise" EP. Unfortunately there is no official video for the song.

Ghost Dance - Fools Gold

[TheThorne]

Heres a lost track of the 80s for you, was a US hit I think and was all over daytime radio 1 but just didnt do anything mixes classic pop with a great Bruce Hornsby style piano part. One2many - Downtown



Think they were from Norway

[Robbie]

^

I'd completely forgotten about that song. Initially charted the same time as Petula Clarke's reactivated Downtown (November 1988) which might have confused people though of course it is a different song (and yes, the piano is very Bruce Hornsby) but then was re-issued the following year and climbed to #43 in a 7 week chart run in June and July 1989. A good song that I remember being played quite a bit on Capital Radio / FM back in the day.

[Robbie]

This song was covered by Transvision Vamp in 1988 when it became their first ever chart entry but this is the original that I knew and loved from 1980. Unfortunately it just missed the top 75.

Holly and the Italians - Tell That Girl To Shut Up




This song is a wonderful 60s pastiche with an 80s twist by a band who deserved to do better than have just two minor top 75 hits. This one charted 30 years ago next month and peaked at #70. This clip seems to have been taken directly from the master tape hence the production clock at the beginning.

Expressos - Tango In Mono




This last one scraped into the US top 40 at #39 but unfortunately failed to chart in the UK despite a fair bit of airplay on Radio 1 in June and July 1980

Spider - New Romance

[vastar iner]

I'm looking for the perfect pop record. I think I need the following ingredients.

Sweet harmonies - check.

Singalong chorus - check.

Quirky lyrics - check.

La, la, la, la - check.

Switch of mood for the bridge - check.

Attention-grabbing hook - check.

So, found it.



Talulah Gosh. Named after the headline on an NME interview with Clare Grogan, from her resemblance of the jailbait vamp in Bugsy Malone (and which was Miss C P's nickname at school). And with the same sort of pop sensibilities. They fitted well in with the tweepop crowd, all androgynous basin haircuts, false innocence, white popsocks and the most punk attitude to the music business since, well, punk - one of ignoring the media and major labels, and even faking a lack of musical ability (although, to be fair, Eithne Farry's presence on stage was vaguely Chas Smashlike).

They didn't last very long, just one album, a compilation of unrecorded offcuts, and no chart success, outside a couple of indie top tens. But they are still so fondly remembered by a great many people. And why not? Their music was damn near perfect.

Most of them formed the slightly more successful Heavenly, then Marine Research, and now Tender Trap, changing music styles ever so slightly with each name change; early cohort Elizabeth Price formed the gorgeous Carousel. Amelia Fletcher, TG's lead singer/guitarist, guested on the Carousel's debut album and later became a very Big Wheel in the world of economics. She was studying for her MA when I was at university but I never came across her. Someone did - a student who was a huge fan of TG, and on being told that her tutor was going to be Miss Fletcher, never twigged, until she went to her tutorial - and apparently screamed...

TG's drummer was Matthew Fletcher, Amelia's brother. Shortly before Heavenly's fourth and final album was released, he committed suicide. Nobody saw it coming. He was just 25. RIP Matt.

[Robbie]

A long forgotten song and one you never hear these days on the likes of Absolute 80s. Reached number 20 in the charts in February 1984. Pure perfection.

Swans Way - Soul Train

[Robbie]

Vas - that is a brilliant song, first time I've heard it yet it sounds so familiar. It has that brilliant jangly 80s sound, a la The Primitives. Excellent! What year is it from?

[vastar iner]

1988. The entire Talulah Gosh output can be obtained on the CD "Backwash", which I note to some astonishment is now £30 on amazon. At least the mp3 version is normal price. Glad you enjoyed it. Maybe I should have used it for Havenvision...

[vastar iner]

Lawrence Hayward was almost mathematically precise with his releases under the name Felt. One single and one album per year throughout the 1980s. And, job done, he dissolved the band to form Denim and later Go Kart Mozart. Felt's output peppered the indie charts, but the only time they made the very top was with this gorgeous single, featuring the even more gorgeous Elisabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins in one of the best guest vocal spots of all time...

[vastar iner]

Was there ever a band that looked less like pop stars? Cardiacs perhaps? The Farmer's Boys were, strangely enough, from Norwich...three of their four charting singles had yokely overtones, and this one proved to be their last chart tilt. Shame that they never made the top forty - this is an underrated pop charmer with an earworm chorus that was probably a couple of years too late for greater success. Stan, Baz and Mark are now in The Great Outdoors and Baz and Mark sometimes play acoustic sets in Norvicensian pubs.

[vastar iner]

Not really "lost", in the sense it was a top ten hit, but one that's unjustly forgotten. Mention Bucks Fizz to someone and they'll come back with Eurovision, or possibly the execrable "Land Of Make Believe", the Christmas hit that peaked in January. And maybe they'll mention the coach crash that nearly wiped out the band - Mike Nolan suffers side-effects to this day.

Part of the fall-out from the coach crash saw Jay Aston quit the band in 1986, replaced by 21 year old auditionee (and current main squeeze of Steve "Spandau Ballet other bloke" Norman) Shelley Preston. Unveiled on Wogan - the telly programme, rather than the man himself, which would be hideous - the first single of the new line-up was this one. Remarkably ambitious, with elements of Burundi beat and South African harmonies, it was very different to anything else ver Fizz had done before - and it did indeed look like it would be a new beginning as it became their first top ten for three years. Unfortunately for them it was misleading; they haven't hit the forty since.

[PurpleCareBear]

^^^ Oh I love New Beginning ,but not surprised that their dull version of' Love The One You're With' flopped.
If 'Give A Little Love' had been the follow up single,they'd have had another hit -it went on to be a minor hit for Aswad (but the Fizz did it better) !