That Wonderful Year in Music... 1987

For this month's musical countdown, I'm rectifying a wrong of sorts:

Back in October 2008, around the time that I first started writing these lists, I had pointed out that the scribes at AllMusic.com --the inspiration of sorts for what I'm doing now-- had posted a collage of great albums and songs from 1987. I scoffed at the idea of doing a 1987 list, opting to cover 2005 instead, yet my reasoning was quite paltry. Looking back, this was a mistake; these past two years or so, I've covered at least two twelve-month spans (1989 and 1999) that I can barely justify as great years in music. It just didn't feel right. 

Well, mea culpa. I evidently didn't do my homework then, and here I stand correcting my blunder. After spending the last week or two pouring over the sights and sounds (mostly sounds) of '87, I present my belated homage to the year of Black Monday, Baby Jessica, and the Tower Commission. Hair metal was king, but their well-coifed debauchery was undermined somewhat by a number of college acts getting their first taste of the mainstream. Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, both riding on the success of career-defining albums from earlier in the decade, released their follow-up efforts. From a radio perspective, it was the last vestiges of the classic rock and top 40 eras, a transition accelerated by the demise of prominent stations like KMET-FM in Los Angeles and WLS-AM in Chicago.

In the end, I guess what threw me off was the overload of kitsch in late '80s pop culture. It was a year of cheesy movies (Dirty Dancing, Can't Buy Me Love, Three Men and a Baby) and cheesy TV shows ("Full House," "Matlock," and "21 Jump Street" bowed that year), but not necessarily cheesy music. Sure, it's hard to argue that pop music was headed in the right direction then, though like recent years, the best and most challenging sounds weren't necessarily getting radio airplay. Here goes:

ALBUMS

1. The Joshua Tree, U2. Fusing the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire with the most anthem-centric moments of War, U2's fifth studio album plays out like the soundtrack to the aftermath of a riot. This is also the album that marks Bono's transition from distinctly charismatic lead singer to love-him-or-hate-him super-celebrity with a god complex. Divisive frontman or not, the songs on Tree are top-notch; hit singles like "With or Without You" hold their own against memorable album cuts like "One Tree Hill."

2. Appetite For Destruction, Guns N' Roses. For an album that defines late '80s hair metal, Gn'R had little interest in the usual tropes of the subgenre. Where Poison and Mötley Crüe sang fun, stupid songs about sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, Axl Rose found inspiration within the dark side of the urban sprawl. In that moment, Axl became the most compelling character in rock; he's a misogynist, drowning in his own anger and bile, yet oddly vulnerable in the sleazy subculture he calls home.

3. Pleased To Meet Me, The Replacements. In light of his recent passing, truer words couldn't be spoken: "And the children by the million sing for Alex Chilton/when he comes around/they sing, 'I'm in love'/what's that song?/'Yeah, I'm in love, with that song.'"

4. Document, R.E.M.

5. You're Living All Over Me, Dinosaur Jr.

6. Paid In Full, Eric B. and Rakim

7. Sign O' The Times, Prince

8. Hysteria, Def Leppard

9. Music For The Masses, Depeche Mode

10. Psonic Psunspot (a/k/a Chips from the Chocolate Fireball), The Dukes of Stratosphear. An on-the-money homage to '60s psychedelic-rock, Andy Partridge and company initially denied that this was some goofy XTC side project. Nobody was fooled, and 23 years on we've benefitted from being so astute. XTC had always worn their influences on their sleave, so one might argue that a full-blown homage was a long time coming. The leadoff track "Vanishing Girl" is a sublime obeisance of The Hollies, while the trippy single "You're A Good Man, Albert Brown" evokes Sgt. Peppers-era Beatles.

Honorable Mentions: Warehouse: Songs & Stories, Hüsker Dü; Kick, INXS; If I Shall From Grace With God, The Pogues; Tunnel of Love, Bruce Springsteen; Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega.

SINGLES

"Walk Like An Egyptian," The Bangles

"Still of the Night," Whitesnake

"Beds Are Burning," Midnight Oil

"Rag Doll," Aerosmith

"Midnight Blue," Lou Gramm

"Smooth Criminal," Michael Jackson

"Go Cut Creator Go," LL Cool J

"Wishing Well," Terence Trent D'Arby

"What Have I Done To Deserve This?" Pet Shop Boys feat. Dusty Springfield

"Heart and Soul," T'Pau

VIDEOS

1. "Land of Confusion," Genesis. Grotesque puppets resembling various celebrities and world leaders populate this uncharacteristically political clip from the English prog-rockers.

2. "Don't Dream It's Over," Crowded House. A thoughtful, nostalgic clip that befits one of the '80s most wistful ballads. 3. "Dude Looks Like a Lady," Aerosmith. After spending nearly a decade fighting their way out of a druggy hell, the bad boys from Boston broke through to the MTV generation with this silly, fun clip.

4. "Where The Streets Have No Name," U2. An impromptu rooftop concert in LA captures the essence of Bono (for better or worse) as a balladeer in a live setting.

5. "Missionary Man," Eurythmics. The stop-motion innovations of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" clip accent this top 40 hit, one of the last U.S. chart successes for the duo of Lennox and Stewart.

Before I go, I just want to say one thing: GO BLACKHAWKS!!!

My Fifth Annual Fantasy Emmy Ballot

Though the TV season doesn't officially end until May 26th, it's not too soon to speculate which of our favorite shows will earn some Emmy hardware come September. In spite of last year's decision to expand all the acting and show categories to six nominees --a decision I erronously overlooked on my roster last year-- it was a weak year for new shows and there were few fresh faces. 2009-10, on the other hand, gave us a plethora of promising rookies, all chomping at the bit to change the dreary status quo. With that said, here is my annual fantasy Emmy ballot:

Outstanding Animated Program, Less Than One Hour: American Dad! (for the episode "Rapture's Delight"), Family Guy ("Road to the Multiverse"), The Simpsons ("Treehouse of Horror XX"), South Park ("Sexual Healing"), and Spongebob Squarepants ("The Clash of Triton").

Best Writing for a Comedy/Music/Variety Series: "Late Show with David Letterman," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "Saturday Night Live," "The Colbert Report," and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

Best Comedy/Music/Variety Series: "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," "Late Show with David Letterman," "The Colbert Report," "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and "Saturday Night Live."

Best Reality-Competition Program: "The Amazing Race," "American Idol," "Dancing With The Stars," "Survivor," "Top Chef."

Best Supporting Actress, Drama: Khandi Alexander, Treme; Rose Byrne, Damages; Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters; Christina Hendricks, Mad Men; Elizabeth Moss, Mad Men; and Dianne Weist, In Treatment.

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy: Gillian Jacobs, Community; Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock; Jane Lynch, Glee; Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men; Kristen Wiig, SNL; and Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty.

Best Supporting Actor, Drama: Nestor Carbonell, Lost; Michael Emerson, Lost; Vincent Kartheiser, Mad Men; Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad; Martin Short, Damages; and John Slattery, Mad Men.

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy: Ty Burrell, Modern Family, Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men; Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother; Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock; Nick Offerman, Parks & Recreation; and Rainn Wilson, The Office.

Best Actress in a Drama Series: Glenn Close, Damages; Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters; Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Holly Hunter, Saving Grace; January Jones, Mad Men; and Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer.

Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Toni Collette, United States of Tara; Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine; Lia Michele, Glee; Mary Louise Parker, Weeds; and Amy Poehler, Parks & Recreation.

Best Actor in a Drama Series: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment; Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Hugh Laurie, House; Tim Roth, Lie To Me; and Kiefer Sutherland, 24.

Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Steve Carell, The Office; Joel McHale, Community; Ed O'Neill, Modern Family; Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory; and Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men.

Best Drama Series: "Breaking Bad," "Damages," "Dexter," "In Treatment," "Lost," "Mad Men."

Best Comedy Series: "30 Rock," "The Big Bang Theory," "Glee," "How I Met Your Mother," "Modern Family," "The Office."

Normally, this list is a hodgepodge of nominees I'd like to see and those that'll be nominated regardless, but this year I have a feeling that it'll balance out. I'm confident that at least 80% of my predictions this time around are right on the money. If you think I'm overlooking anyone, go ahead and call me out.

Next week: the year in music, 1987.

On the Make in Salt Lake

When people think of global hotspots of political upheaval and social unrest, the state of Utah normally doesn't come to mind. Two seperate yet similar incidents last weekend might change that perception. Last weekend, the Beehive State GOP rejected three-term incumbent Sen. Robert Bennett, making him the first mainline Republican of note to fall victim to the Tea Party movement. Though Bennett had won the support of various conservative organizations in and outside of Utah, his vote in support of TARP 18 months ago was his apparent undoing. The Utah Dems, on the other hand, are shifting to the left at about the same velocity. On the same day Bennett lost his party's favor, state Democrats denied Rep. Jim Matheson a direct nomination, forcing the moderate liberal into a primary with environmental activist Claudia Wright. A member of the U.S. House since 2000, Matheson drew his constituents' ire for waffling on President Obama's health care reforms and for voting against an energy bill meant to curb carbon emissions. These two consequential votes are a petri dish serving of the growing political divide that will ultimately shape the midterm elections come November; the left is consolidating their power, the right is sharping their knives, and the center is losing out in more ways than anyone can possibly imagine.

Other notes:

+ Is it just me, or does U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan look like Kevin James in drag? In all seriousness though, here's the lowdown on the biggest wild card to nominated for the nation's highest court in recent memory.

+ You may recall from last year that I was following the story of a woman who was killed by another woman as she painted her nails while she drived. Well, ladies and gentlemen, justice has been served. No word yet on a sentence, though I doubt she'll receive the bare minimum of six months' probation.

+ Last week I went to my first two baseball games of the season. I'm an autograph hound of sorts, so I often try my luck during batting practice. At the second game (Kansas City at Chicago, May 5th) I had my eyes set on Kevin Seitzer, the former Royals star and current hitting coach, and I made a note of bringing an old baseball card of his to sign. Standing alongside the visitors' dugout, I spotted Seitzer chatting behind the batting cage with a scout. As Kevin headed towards us, the guy standing next to me yelled "yo, Steve!" thinking it was bullpen coach Steve Foster. Seitzer sees that this guy has Foster's card, says "that's not me," and makes a beeline for a clubhouse. Drat!

+ Speaking of baseball, my fantasy misadventures are right on par with my first two years in roto. I'm middling in the TV.com league, yet my other team has a stranglehold on first place. I took a risk of sorts by picking up Barry Zito early on in the season; alas, I only added him to one team and not the other, and suffice to say they're reaping the benefits. I augmented my TV.com team, however with Cardinals SP Jaime Garcia and Orioles closer Alfredo Simon, who so far have been paying off in spurts.

+ Finally, last weekend marked the 50th anniversary of "the pill," the first approved contraceptive. At least, I'm 99% sure it was. ;)

Run for the Border

With health care reform in the bag and financial reform almost there, it looks like the raging debate of the summer will be immigration. This might be the most divisive topic that our government has tackled since President Obama took office; it's a really overwhelming and frustrating situation, one that I'm not sure has a clear remedy. So far, it's been a war of words between guilt-tripping liberals and embarassingly ignorant "speak American" conservatives, bickering over an issue that should've been resolved 60 years ago. To elaborate:

It's pretty easy to pin the blame on Mexican day laborers. One will argue that they're eating up our nation's resources like a vampire craves blood, though statistics suggest that illegal immigration might have already peaked. At least 100,000 immigrants have left the state of Arizona since 2008, not necessarily because of a overtly harsh law that was passed, but because the struggling economy depleted the number of jobs available. Traffic on the Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas borders, both legally and underground, have also decreased in the wake of the recession. Sadly, despite good intentions SB1070 is tainted by prejudice and racial profiling; do you expect any black or white Arizona citizens, regardless of whether or not they're American citizens, to be affected by this law? Paperwork or not, every Latino in Arizona has a target on their back.

What it comes down to is, We're paying for the mistakes of past generations. The government is finally putting their foot down 60 years after they should've gotten off their keisters. Immigration laws cut pretty fast and loose until the early 1950s, no matter what direction you were coming from. Our ancestors were perceived as cheap labor by rich Anglo-Saxons, and their limited knowledge of our native tongue kept them from asking for more money or forming unions. Looking back, it's amazing how so much has changed since the Ellis Island days. (In skimming the history of this issue I'm not trying to put these migrant workers in sympathetic eyes, though it's not like these day laborers have found any work back home.)

Whatever solution that our government arrives at will satisfy very few people on either side of the political spectrum. No matter what President Obama does, it will be perceived as either too accommodating to aspiring U.S. citizens or too forceful in deporting or detaining "offenders." Bussing out supposed illegals sounds like something out of a mobster movie and too cartoonishly simple to work, and speeding up the citizenship process is almost a concession of defeat. Sadly, the time to lay out a feasible solution may have already come and passed.

That Wonderful Year in Music... 1970

In the most literal and bluntly obvious sense, 1970 was the year following 1969; from a cultural standpoint, it was the morning after. The apex of Woodstock preceded the anarchy of Altamont, basically shutting down the '60s "free love" counter-culture. President Nixon was making the tough decisions on Vietnam that the Johnson administration couldn't, including the controversial decision to invade Cambodia. Criticism of the war reached a crux on May 4th of that year, when the Ohio National Guard fired at protesters on the Kent State University quad, killing four students and wounding nine. The revolution was over before it ever began, yet the generation gap between the older "silent majority" and the younger, more liberal peaceniks raged on.

In some ways, the music reflected the uncertainty of the times. Motown, the most successful and influential record label of the previous decade, found itself in a unique state of flux; Diana Ross dumped the Supremes to go solo, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye fought for creative control of their music (and won), The Temptations were dabbling in Swahili, and their best-selling singing act was a led by an exceptionally gifted 12-year-old boy who needed no introduction. Outside of the R&B scene, paradigm shifts came a dime a dozen. The center of the music universe temporarily shifted to the Isle of Wight, where The Who, Miles Davis, and The Doors performed career-defining shows. Davis more or less invented jazz fusion, psychedelia was giving way to country-rock and folk-rock, Led Zeppelin was diversifying its sound, while a new act called Black Sabbath set the blueprint for heavy metal. Regardless, all those musical wayposts paled to the three big bombshells of 1970: the breakup of The Beatles and the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. The '60s were dead, yet a new, uncertain, and exciting era was just beginning.

Once again, my monthly musical montage has been expanded to 20 albums and notable songs. That might seem excessive, but even with a cap that high I'm bound to be overlooking something. (Considering that my 1969 list also had 20 albums and my 1971 rundown had nearly that many, I think it's safe to assume what my favorite era of music might be.) That's the charm of these audiophile blogs; arguing the merits of old LPs is fun yet oddly futile at the same time.

BEST ALBUMS

1. Bitches' Brew, Miles Davis. By 1970, jazz and rock had already been mingling and sonically fornicating for a couple of years. It wasn't until Davis brainstormed Brew, however that these friends with benefits could create something profound and meaningful. This undisputed be-all end-all of jazz fusion marked a new chapter in Davis' long and prolific career, built on dark and funky tones that made his 1950s output seem antiquated, perhaps even prehistoric. A mere phrase like "paradigm shift" doesn't begin to describe the territory that Miles explores on Brew.

2. Moondance, Van Morrison. Few artists are as stubborn and idiosyncratic, but fewer can make a growly Irish brogue sound heartfelt and soulful like the Belfast Cowboy. Where Van's solo debut Astral Weeks stands an individual work of art divided into seven-minute chapters, Moondance is a collection of brilliant songs. "Into The Mystic" is one of my favorite ballads ever; it's haunting, poignant, and for lack of a better term, perfect.

3. Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin. LZ's first two albums were heavy on acid blues and rockabilly riffs, a formula that was compelling and hard-charging but could've easily gotten tired in future efforts. Zeppelin had to grow musically at some point, and this album set the precedent for their '70s output; where Side A is a slow ween from their blues roots, Side B delves deep into English folk and American country music. Granted, III pales in comparison to the radio-friendly IV, but that album wouldn't exist without the other.

4. After The Gold Rush, Neil Young

5. All Things Must Pass, George Harrison

6. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon & Garfunkel

7. Loaded, The Velvet Underground

8. Paranoid, Black Sabbath

9. Cosmo's Factory, Creedence Clearwater Revival

10. American Beauty, The Grateful Dead. If you were into rock music in the early '70s, it was hard to get past Jerry Garcia and his jamming minions. Released mere months after Workingman's Dead, Beauty builds upon the granola country and bluegrass stylings of their previous release. "Truckin'" and "Box of Rain" are amongst the standout tracks here.

11. Fun House, Iggy & The Stooges

12. Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon

13. Deja Vu, Crosby Stills Nash & Young

14. Abraxas, Santana

15. Weasels Ripped My Flesh, The Mothers of Invention. The next-to-last release from Frank Zappa's old band is the rarest of the rare: a B-sides and outtakes collection that's just as coherant and essential as a regular album. The Mothers had a brief yet very fruitful existence, and this collection proves that even the tracks that Zappa and company were least satisfied with have some artistic merit.

16. Let It Be, The Beatles

17. Workingman's Dead, The Grateful Dead

18. Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, The Kinks

19. Chicago II, Chicago

20. American Woman, The Guess Who. The first Canadian rock band with any staying power south of the border, this Winnipeg-based quartet was better known for mid-tempo ballads like "These Eyes" and "Laughing" up to this point. Their natural gifts as boogie-rockers finally blossomed on Woman, carried by rollicking tunes like "No Time," "No Sugar Tonight," and the title track. Alas, success proved shorter and sweeter than planned; guitarist Randy Bachman left the band after "Woman" became a #1 hit, eventually founding Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

BEST SINGLES

"A Song For You," Leon Russell

"We've Only Just Begun," The Carpenters

"Take Me To The Pilot," Elton John

"Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," Melanie

"Little Green Bag," The George Baker Selection

"Funk #49," The James Gang

"Mississippi Queen," Mountain

"All Right Now," Free

"Hey Tonight," Creedence Clearwater Revival

"Stage Fright," The Band

"War," Edwin Starr

"Indiana Wants Me," R. Dean Taylor

"Ball of Confusion," The Temptations

"(I Know) I'm Losing You," Rare Earth

"Love Me Or Let Me Be Lonely," The Friends of Distinction

"Patches," Clarence Carter

"Ride Captain Ride," Blues Image

"Hard Headed Woman," Cat Stevens

"Sweet Baby James," James Taylor

"The Rapper," Jaggerz

Your thoughts?

Pieces of April

Two anniversaries this week, one somber and one weird:

My personal experience with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City --15 years ago yesterday-- is relatively minor. I distinctly remember walking past the LRC in my elementary school and glimpsing at the breaking coverage on CNN. Stunned, I sprinted to my 4th grade classroom to blurt out the news before my principal could make an official annoucement via the PA system. I don't recall getting in trouble for what I did, though in retrospect I probably could've used more restraint; then again, when you're ten years old and you just saw terrorists blow up a building on American soil, you might feel panicky too.

In some odd way, the OKC bombing, its lingering aftermath and lengthy federal investigation was a prelude to the WTC attacks 6 1/2 years later. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil up to that point, with 168 fatalities and nearly 700 people injured. It numbed the fear and panic that most Americans had on 9/11, but not by much. When you hear numbers like that, what immediately comes to mind is some hotspot in the Middle East, not the Great Plains. It was the first time in my life where I genuinely felt scared about my well-being and our nation's security. There was no filter, and no guidance from an wisened adult; I watched its aftermath on live television.

Where the Oklahoma City bombing has a permenant resonance in my mind, the other anniversary I'm acknowledging this week is a little more trivial. On April 22nd, 2005, TV Tome founder John Nestoriak announced that he had sold the site to CNet, who in turn decided to relocate the site and its intellectual property to the domain tv.com. (The sale was finalized in January 2005, but not announced to the public for another three months.) As an editor of several short-lived and half-forgotten TV shows --SNL and Letterman came later-- I was worried that all my hard work was for naught. The regulars at the site were in a panic, and nearly every show forum on "The Tome" went off-topic to debate the future of a site we loved. A fair percentage quit the site when it converted to TV.com six weeks later and never came back.

Luckily, this was a situation were patience and perseverence paid off. Nestoriak and his three-man staff was burned out from day-to-day operations of a web site that was growing if not mushrooming every day. CNet had the resources to enhance and polish the site in ways that Big John never could, and could potentially make it profitable. What was initially a very basic online episode guide-cum-discussion board would become the all-encompassing love letter to the television medium that we know today. TV.com has come a long, long way since the Spring of '05, but you have to give Nestoriak's crew credit for planting the seeds. It was an abrupt end of an era, but the dawn of a new chapter at the same time. Our everyday routines were shook up, there was an awkward period of transition, and we all walked out stronger and wiser.

Next week: the year in music, 1970.