I think the world is past due for a reappreciaiton of Men at Work.
The Australian New Wave band released three albums between 1981 and 1985, honing a supremely catchy and soulful sound, before breaking up. Their debut Business as Usual spent multiple weeks at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, while sophomore album Cargo peaked at #3. They scored four top ten singles, including two number ones.
But outside of an 80s nostalgia channel, when’s the last time you heard one of their songs?
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.
Meet Me In Montauk 