The charms of Tom Waits have largely eluded me, though I can’t say I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure them out.
One of Waits’ most celebrated albums, Swordfishtrombones, was released in 1983. It marked a move for Waits from piano and strings toward more obscure and eclectic instrumentation, introducing the old-fashioned circus vibe for which he is now well-known.
‘Dear Doctor’ is a fun country-blues track from 1968’s Beggars Banquet, The Rolling Stones’ first masterpiece.
By my count, The Stones released four albums on which I would hang that m-word. And they released them all in a row.
First up was Beggars Banquet, followed by Let it Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1961), and Exile on Main St. (1972).
The Random iTunes Fairy has a sense of humor.
In preparing my posts for the Decades 1983 series, I had just gone through a prolonged internal debate about whether to include U2’s album War. On the one hand, it was the band’s first Gold record, an important milestone for one of the greatest rock bands. On the other hand, the album isn’t very interesting (to me) beyond singles ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘New Year’s Day.’
And then there’s the fact that I know my most frequent reader is not a fan of U2. Why torture poor Dana, I figured, and during a global pandemic, no less? So I passed.
I’ve written about a couple of important 1983 debuts already, so I guess I’d be remiss to leave out this one. Heavy metal pioneers Metallica released Kill ‘Em All this year, kicking off a career that would result in more than 125 million album sales.
Metallica is considered one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal bands of all time, which to me means exactly nothing. This is the genre for which I have the least affection or understanding.
Last week I wrote about R.E.M.’s Murmur, arguably the most significant debut album of 1983. But giving it a run for its money is the self-titled release by Madonna.
The 25-year-old Madonna started her rise to superstardom with an album that took a full year to climb into Billboard’s Top Ten. That happened just in time for her sophomore release, Like a Virgin, to dominate the culture.
Meet Me In Montauk 