Tag: 1982
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Squeeze, Sweets From a Stranger, 1982 on A&M
Fifth studio album from Squeeze, this one including Don Snow, John Bentley, and Gilson Lavis alongside Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook. and featuring “Black Coffee in Bed” with backing vocals from Elvis Costello and Paul Young. Lover the overlay flap on the front – “When it comes to Squeeze, they can’t be called ‘critics’” –…
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Ry Cooder, The Slide Area, 1982 on Warner Bros.
Ry Cooder is a long time favorite who still has a tendency to fly a bit under the popular radar (though musicians do tend to love him). This 1982 album I guess you’d call sort of mid-career though he’s still active so hard to say what that means – his 10th full length LP. Includes…
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Simon & Garfunkel, The Concert In Central Park, 1982 on Warner Bros
One of the best live albums from one of my favorite duos. Good variety of tempos and tunes, enough stage banter to feel live but no so much that you feel the need to skip ahead. Wikipedia correctly recognizes it as “the” concert in central park – recorded in front of a half million people…
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Commodores, All the Great Hits, 1982 on Motown
Wonderful collection of Commodores songs – their second compilation of hits, with many more to follow. “Lady.” “Sail On,” “Brick House,” “Easy,” and “Three Times a Lady” are each worth the price of admission. Solid find as I don’t have any of their original records from the 70s or 80s. My copy, via Bull Moose…
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Safety Last, Safety Last, 1982 on Twin/Tone
Safety Last only put out two records – this self-titled “mini-album” and Struck By Love, both on Twin/Tone and produced by Paul Stark. On this EP, recorded at Blackberry Way (in Minneapolis) the personnel (many of whom went on to other MNPLS bands) are: Rusty Jones on bass & vocals, Jim Tollefsrud on drums, Sprague…
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Midnight Oil; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; 1982 on Columbia
The fourth full-length from Midnight Oil, released in 1982 on Columbia in the US and CBS in the UK and Australia. The album reached #3 on the Australian charts and 178 on the Billboard charts in the US. Having found Midnight Oil via Deisel and Dust I came back to this record but love “Power…
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Marty Stuart, Busy Bee Cafe, 1982 on Sugar Hill Records
No, that’s not the same Sugar Hill that put out Rapper’s Delight – it’s a folk/bluegrass label out of North Carolina, later merged in Concord and now Rounder. Although Stuart’s recorded output starts in the 80s, he spent years touring with Lester Flatt and in Johnny Cash’s road band. This was his second album, the…
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Laurie Anderson, Big Science, 1982 on Warner Bros.
I posted another Anderson album last week – Home of the Brave – but this was her major label debut in 1982. The songs here are a subset of United States Live, which was an 8 hour long production, later released as a five record box set in 1984 with accompanying book. John Peel “discovered”…
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Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska, 1982 on Columbia
Springsteen’s sixth studio album, which he recorded himself on a four track to use as demos but then decided to release them directly. (Somewhere in the vaults exist at least some of these songs in full band versions, but they’ve not surfaced yet). Springsteen has cites as inspiration both the story of Charles Starkweather (who…
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Willie Nelson & Webb Pierce, In the Jailhouse Now, 1982 on Columbia
i love a good Willie Nelson tribute album or duet album: San Antonio Rose with Ray Price, For the Good Times (a tribute to Price), the tribute album to Harlan Howard, the duets collected on Heroes, and the like. This is in the realm of a duet album, while his hero Webb Pierce was still…
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Thompson Twins, In the Name of Love, 1982 on Arista
This was the first Thompson Twins album in the US – a compilation of two tracks from 1981’s A Product Of . . . (their debut album in the UK) and 8 tracks from their followup 1982 album Set. Set was produced by Steve Lillywhite and had Alannah Currie replacing Jane Shorter who was on…
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Willie Nelson, Always On My Mind, 1982 on Columbia.
I had always thought that “Always on My Mind” was a much older song than 1982 – and it turns out it is. It was recorded by Brenda Lee in 1972 – but Willie’s take didn’t come out until 1982. The album also includes Willie’s takes on “Do Right, Do Right Woman,” “A Whiter Shade…
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Taco, After Eight, 1982 on RCA Victor
Taco is one of those bands/artists which fell into a trap after their first single from their debut album becomes a massive hit – Puttin’ on the Ritz in this case. Taco Ockerse put out three or four more albums, but most folks know him for that one hit, which maybe verges on a kind…
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Wall of Voodoo, Ring of Fire (Remix) / The Morricone Themes (Live), 1982 on Index
12″ single from Stan Ridgway and Wall of Voodoo. The live tracks were recorded live at “The Barn” (Barstow CA?) November 22, 1980. Not sure why they chose to label Hang ‘Em High as composed by Morricone as it wasn’t – it was actually composed by Dominic Frontiere. My copy via a record fair at…
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Juluka, Scatterlings, 1982 on Warner Bros Records
US version on Warner Bros – globally came out on Safari Records, Lark, and/or MINC. Johnny Clegg – sometimes referred to as Le Zoulou Blanc (“the White Zulu”) founded Juluka in the late seventies and came to my attention in association with the anti-apartheid movement in the early 80s. This was their fourth full length…
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Michael Jackson, Thriller, 1982 on Epic
I remember listening to this right when it came out. I was young enough to not yet know I was supposed to reject Michael as too popular or unclear and instead just loved the grooves and the videos. My copy isn’t one I’ve had since then – I don’t think I even had a turntable…
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Bauhaus, The Sky’s Gone Out, 1982 on A&M / Beggars Banquet.
I’m a bit late for World Goth Day here, but I definitely went through a hardcore Bauhaus phase – listening to the 1979-1983 compilation (volume one with white cover and dark bauhaus face, volume two the inverse) more or less non-stop, and then branching out into all the post-Bauhaus spin-offs (Tones on Tail, Love and…
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Leon Redbone, Mystery Man, 1982 on Accord
Redbones’s fifth LP, and his first (and only) on Accord. There’s not much detail on the source of the material – likely recorded in the early 70s, maybe as a bootleg direct from the PA or for radio broadcast? My copy is the 1982 pressing, but this was reissued in 2021 on white vinyl by…
