"No Reply At All"—Genesis, from Abacab
There are songs that are happy ("Celebration," ‘80) and songs that are sad ("Walking On a Wire," ‘82), songs that are frightened ("Trapped Under Ice," ’84) and songs that are mad ("Chick On the Side," ‘86), songs that annoy me ("Controversy," ’81) and songs I make fun of ("I’ll Wait," ‘84), songs that there’s prob’ly a thousand and one of ("Exposed To Love," ’87), songs that can posit rhetorical battles ("A Little Bit More Conviction" vs. "Blasphemous Rumours," ’85), songs that go on about meaningless prattle ("Gun Street Girl," ’85), songs you can dance to ("Yashar," ’82) and songs you can spazz to ("Macbeth," ’88), songs that aren’t jazz but that you can play jazz to (imagine Rindy Ross blowing some sweet licks over "Funeral Ikos," ’81), and many or most of the great songs can boast one or more of these elements; and the above song is one such, as the music is some of the most joyful you’ll hear, while the lyrics deal with Phil Collins’s emotional turmoil. This being Phil Collins and not Linda Thompson (or Prince, in the similarly sad/happy "When You Were Mine," ‘80), the turmoil in the singing doesn’t register as strongly as the bassline; Phil not knowing whether to believe in stop or go is indistinguishable from Phil being scared of the mythical beast Abacab (or whatever); but the contrast was apparently on Phil’s mind.
(Celebratory note I won’t be able to include in a Popscape box for a while: Outkast’s much-lauded 2003 "Hey Ya!" seemed, the first thousand times I heard it, the most irrepressibly happy song in memory; upon listen 1,001, it became excruciatingly sad. "What’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold!" And so Andre 3000 turns his shoulder to emotional attachments, because "separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved." Even on a purely musical level, if you take away the pogoing beat you’re left with a flowing synth-and-guitar-driven midtempo number that’s very 1983, akin to "Every Breath You Take," "Jokerman," Cyndi Lauper’s "When You Were Mine," or Spandau Ballet’s "True.")
So let’s talk about happy! Mike Rutherford’s bass dances through this song like a gleeful rugby player, doubling the EWF horn lines, running under the choruses, playing up high and down low with equal joy. The closest comparison outside jazz is the last chorus of "Piece of My Heart," Big Brother and the Holding Company’s floppy drugged-out 1968 masterpiece, where the bass breaks free of any chordal strictures to create almost its own little song. Synth and drums provide the strictures here, and their running 16th note texture is energetic and danceable like little else in the Genesis songbook. Though the horn songs stopped working for Phil immediately after Abacab, indeed after this song, here’s one that can dance around any feeling you throw at it.
"Don’t Stop Believin’"—Journey, from Escape and Greatest Hits
Billboard: #67 Song of 1981
Eddy: #16 Heavy Metal Single not Available on any of the 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums;
GH-one of the Top 15 Albums of 1988
Grammy: E nominated for Best Engineered Recording 1981
A triumph of detail and moody atmosphere over narrative coherence, this song works like the first few scenes of Steve Perry’s neverending movie, abruptly changing characters and locales so that we understand what to expect for the next two hours, which of course never come. First we get our protagonists, the small town girl and the city boy who will meet at the boulevard; then we’re in the first person, where Perry’s a compulsive gambler who tells himself he’s "workin’ hard" (or he could be a casino employee), while outside on the boulevard more hopeless strangers meet, searching for an end to loneliness. Finally comes the only appearance of the chorus (a structural oddity lauded by Stephen Merritt, indie songwriting genius behind the Magnetic Fields), in which Perry ministers the song title to these "streetlight people," tying together the unresolved hopes of the couple, those who gamble (or their enablers), and those whose nighttime revelry masks their inner hollowness (a group which may include us listeners).
The song’s music is constructed bluntly and unsubtly into its scene-change parts—piano intro, the great guitar build that shifts our attention to the singer in the smoky room, the big-guitar Journey stomp that backs up our gambler’s claim to be "workin’ hard," solo, rinse, repeat, fade. Not a lot to listen to in terms of band interplay or individual parts (save the guitar build), but who needs that shit when you’ve got a neverending movie in your mind, not to mention Perry’s Sam Cooke wail soaring across the hellish boulevard like a heavenly wind? In Accidental Evolution, Eddy fits this song in the lineage of great leaving-the-midwest-for-the-Sunset-Strip songs, along with Donna Summer and Guns ‘n’ Roses tunes. For me, it always sounded like Michael W. Smith’s ’86 "Rocketown," about a city devoted to leisure where "The drinks were two for one inside the crowded bars/ The girls would make their run out on the boulevard," and people "hang around by the streetlight/ in the heart of the nightlife." Into this soulless place comes a Christlike Steve Perry figure whose "heartlight" is "always glowing," who gives Michael’s narrator (the city boy?) hope. It’s like Michael heard "Don’t Stop Believin’" on his way to E.T. and decided to write a song about it! (No doubt many other people had the same experience.)
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"—Police, from Ghost in the Machine and Every Breath You Take
Billboard: #56 Song of 1981
Christgau: G-B+; E-A-, #58 Album of 1986
SARG: G-5; E-9
"Jump"—Loverboy, from Get Lucky
Christgau: C+
Eddy: one of the Top 15 Albums of 1981
These wastrel Canadians shamelessly ripped off the chords to my own 1999 "Monica," though I might have trouble backing up such an assertion on Court TV. In fact, before they sue me, I should state for the record that I never heard this song before 2003, at least consciously, although it may have sneaked into my long-term memory via my youthful experiments with hard rock radio. I don’t know if this song received any airplay, but to my mind it’s even better than the undeniable "Working For the Weekend," which kicks off the album.
"Keep It Dark"—Genesis again
Yes, another Genesis, and hold onto your ankles because there are three solo Phil Collins tunes coming up later. Phil Collins had a great year in 1981. If you combined the first six songs from Abacab with five or six good ones from Face Value, you’d create one of the five best albums of the decade, no problem. And that’s leaving off the overrated hits "In the Air Tonight" (which to me exists solely for Eminem to cite it in 2001), "I Missed Again," and "Man On the Corner." (You’d also create a spiritually anesthetizing, cloying monstrosity with the leftovers, but they’re easy enough to forget about.) The Genesis musical interplay was at a high point, in that their jams seemed to cohere into unique and distinctive song-entities, rather than floundering about for way too long or restricting themselves to forced radio hits. This one, for example, has a driving dance beat and a big, thick synth sound; it also lays a
"Give It To Me Baby"—Rick James, from Street Songs
Christgau: A-, #47 Album of 1981
Eddy: one of the Top 15 Albums of 1981
Grammy: album nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance 1981
"Harden My Heart"—Quarterflash, from Quarterflash
Billboard: #15 Song of 1982
Christgau: B
Eddy: one of the Top 15 Albums of 1981
"Can’t Forget the Love"—Sylvester, from Too Hot To Sleep
"Private Eyes"—Hall & Oates, from Private Eyes and Rock‘n Soul Part 1
Billboard: #18 Song of 1981
Christgau: R&S-B+
Eddy: R&S-one of the Top 15 Albums of 1983
Grammy: PE nominated for Best Pop Performance 1981
"That’s When I Reach For My Revolver"—Mission of Burma, from Signals, Calls, and Marches and DIY Mass. Ave.: The Boston Scene (1975-’83)
Christgau: SC&M-B+
SARG: SC&M-9
"Funeral Ikos" (John Tavener)—Choir of King’s College, Cambridge (Stephen Cleobury), from Byzantia (perf. 1994)
"You Know What I Mean"—Phil Collins, from Face Value
"The Roof Is Leaking"/ "Droned"—Phil Collins again
"Valerie"—Quarterflash again
"Super Freak"—Rick James again
Grammy: nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance 1981
"Future Flash"—Girlschool, from Hit and Run
Eddy: one of the Top 15 Albums of 1981
"Shots"—Neil Young, from Re-Ac-Tor
Christgau: B+
Eddy: #160 Heavy Metal Album
SARG: 7
"This Little Girl"—Gary U.S. Bonds, from Dedication and Cover Me: A Collection of Songs Written By Bruce Springsteen
Billboard: #63 Song of 1981
Christgau: D-C+
