1980

Recently I received an email from my father. Very connected to the music of his youth (I have him to thank for many excellent records I inherited when my parents moved away) he has awakened to realise that three decades of music have, more or less, passed him by. He has tasked me with updating him. Giving him the highlights and must listens of the last thirty years or so. However, in order to make this a task of a manageable size I've been given a limit of 100 tracks.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a chronological journey through 33 years of music. Three tracks per year from 1980 - 2012. I'll go a year at a time, and then with a little feedback from dad (or anyone else who reads this) about what he likes and what he's interested in we'll create a picture of the world of music he missed.

All great stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Music is full of lots of all of them, so it seems as good a way as any to choose my three songs. I guess that'll make more sense if I show you, so without any further ado, here we go.

All of the 'facts' I'm basing this information on are found on Wikipedia, so take with a sprinkling of salt. This is more about the spirit of the journey than an iron clad adherence to what happened when.

1980

The Beginnings

The following bands formed in 1980. We'll hear from a couple of them later in our journey no doubt:

Bow Wow Wow, The Church, Depeche Mode, Dead Or Alive, ABC, Divinyls, Einstürzende Neubauten, Eurythmics, Happy Mondays, Heaven 17, Meat Puppets, Men Without Hats, Minor Threat, Mr. Mister, New Order, R.E.M., Reagan Youth, The Sisters Of Mercy, The Smithereens, Soft Cell, The Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes.

1980 also saw the first Monsters Of Rock festival at Donnington(which was succeeded by the Download festival).

The Epitaph, Geffen, and Roadrunner record labels all opened their doors for the first time in 1980

The following debut albums were released in 1980:

Bryan Adams - Bryan Adams

The Psychedelic Furs - The Psychedelic Furs

The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us

The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro

U2 - Boy

Flowers - Icehouse

Killing Joke - Killing Joke

It's from one of these that I've taken our first track. Long before Bono became the sanctimonius voice of whichever cause he felt strongly about. Long before the experimental leaps they took in the '90s. Long even before they stormed to the attention of the world at Live Aid. U2 were four working class boys from Dublin, who scrimped and saved to go to London to record their debut album. They were originally to work with famed Joy Division producer Martin Hannett, but after the suicide of Ian Curtis, Hannett was unable to fulfill his obligation. This is the sound of those four young boys. Full of youth and hope and dreams of something more than where they'd come from.

The Middles

It's a little tougher to measure the middles, but some great artists put out some great albums in 1980:

Split Enz - True Colours

Ramones - End Of The Century

Elvis Costello - Get Happy

The Cure - Seventeen Seconds

Judas Priest - British Steel

The Clash - Sandinista!

Queen - The Game

Queen - Flash Gordon

The Boys Next Door - The Birthday Party

The Jam - Sound Affects

The Specials - More Specials

Bruce Springsteen - The River

Prince - Dirty Mind

The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine

Kate Bush - Never for Ever

Gary Numan - Telekon

Devo - Freedom of Choice

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kaleidoscope

David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

The B-52's - Wild Planet

Roxy Music - Flesh and Blood

Bob Dylan - Saved

Emmylou Harris - Roses in the Snow

Cold Chisel - East

I could choose tracks from almost any of those albums here. It was a difficult choice to make, but in the end I went for one of the all time greats. Visionary performer, magnificent song, and a landmark music video. Bowie wraps up the '70s, revisits his beginnings, and establishes himself firmly as still completely relevant.

The Endings

We lost some of the greats in 1980; Bon Scott, Ian Curtis, John Bonham, John Lennon. Radio Caroline sent her last broadcast, and the following bands went their separate ways (some of them less permanently than others):

The Eagles

Joy Division

Led Zeppelin

The Lovin' Spoonful

Skyhooks

Wire

As a result we were left with some final works:

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy

Joy Division - Closer

Joy Division's Ian Curtis hung himself in his home the day before the band were to embark on their first US tour. The band's final single, which was released only a month beforehand has gone on to be their most recognised work. The remaining members of the group stayed together to become New Order (who you would have noticed in our Beginnings section), but more on them later. Here is the last point of the short but extremely influential career of Ian Curtis.

So that's 1980, as I see it. Next week: 1981.