Music Gourmets Presents 60 Years of Great Music - 1983

[Zeeba Neighba]

And we're back!
After a week off, here's the next year in the MG's Great Music series
Welcome to 1983!

Here's the rules:

Each Friday, we'll introduce a new year from 1957 through 2016. Each member selects an album released in that year with a few lines (or more) on why you picked it/enjoy it. Your selection does not have to be the most important release or the most admired release of that year (though it certainly can be), simply an album that grabs you and that you really love.

However, once an album is selected by a member, you must choose a different album.

Together we will compile quite the canon of "Great Music" and, who knows, maybe inspire each other to check out some new artists (or to revisit old forgotten classics).

This week - the albums of 1983

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

I'm not sure if most are like me with their picks, but most of my choices tend to be favorites that I've loved for decades - even back to high school and college. 1983's pick though is an album that, though it came out when I was in high school (and was certainly playing on college airwaves in 1986 in college) that I completely missed the first time around. Then, about 10 years ago, I heard "Blister in the Sun" on satellite radio (a song I'm sure I' had heard prior but paid no attention to) and was immediately drawn to it. Looked up what album it came from and played it on Spotify - have loved it ever since so much that it's now been my pick for the year the past 2 series (even over albums I've played since high school). My son even has it on vinyl. I've found (and again I might be alone here) that most of the albums that one finds to be transcendent albums seem to have hit me at a younger, more impressionable (and more flexible) age, but this one (along with a few others) has really stuck.

 

[patrikc325]

Murmur -R.E.M.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip

 

[Mattafett]

Lot's of excellent choices out there. Too many.

 

[LeslieC]

The Police - Synchronicity

 

[lpfreak1170]

So much great music already picked!

 

[Postalboy]

Cyndi Lauper- She's So Unusual

 

[Worm]

Def Leppard - Pyromania

 

[Mattafett]

Metallica - Kill 'Em All
It's loud, it's fast. And it's crazy good. One of the best debut metal albums ever.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

 

[Old Uncle Toe]

Step aside, Madonna and Cyndi, here's a woman who'll give you a run for your money.

Elizabeth Cotten - Live!

A phenomenal Piedmont Blues guitarist - self taught, left handed using a right handed guitar and banjo. This isn't her best album but it's her last release, so the only chance I'll get to mention her.

She played guitar and sang as a child. Married at 15, when she had a family she gave up guitar to raise them and serve her church. 25 or so years later, she ended up as a maid in the Seeger household (relatives of Pete). Surrounded by music, she decided to pick the guitar back up. The Seegers took note, began recording her on a reel-to-reel and helped her move into performing. She eventually opened for and played with some very big names in the folk movement in the '60's.

On this album her voice isn't very strong but the wonderful guitar work certainly is. And many of the songs are instrumental anyway. I don't fault her for not singing like a 20-year-old. When you play this wonderful a folk-blues guitar, accompanying yourself with a wizened, time-worn folk-blues voice seems to fit right in.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Smoke 'em if you got 'me. Time to get those last 1983 picks in

 

[patrikc325]

HM's

Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

Uh-Huh - John Cougar Mellencamp


Reach the Beach - The Fixx


Jimmy Buffett - One Particular Harbour

 

[Unsomnambulist]

HMs:

Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones



Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues



Swans - Filth



The Fall - Perverted By Language



Suicidal Tendencies - s/t

 

[JazzyRandy]

Luther Vandros - Busy Body

Late to the party, but here's my pick.

Not Luther's best, but, today, it's my best for 1983 by a whisker on its chinny chin chin.

 

[Ojai Sam]

U2 - War

Surprised this one is still available. I have always preferred the sharp focus and hard edge of U2's early albums to their later, more eclectic work. War and The Unforgettable Fire may be the last times on record that Bono could convey anger and outrage like he really meant them.

 

[Ojai Sam]

There are some terrific picks in this thread. The Spotify playlist is here and makes for powerful listening: