ALAN:
'Spingsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana', sang Bowling For Soup about 1985, but I have to confess that my experience of music was more about ignoring Springsteen, calling a Madonna talent less trollop and getting seriously into melodic rock as opposed to the heavy metal that had fascinated me for the first half of the decade.
1985 saw many milestones, with the most important being the first publication of the 'Calvin & Hobbes' comic strip. There was also some big concert thingy that raised billions for starving Africans, but I was far too busy listening to what my best friend charitably called 'Homo rock' to bother with all that.
One of the strongest memories I have of 1985 is going to see Gary Moore and being blown away by the support band, a fluffy haired combo called F.M, who seemed to play the sort of stuff Americans did, but without the drawback of being American (not once did they go 'Whooo!').
"the joys of Jesus and dodgy spandex".
I also discovered Christian rock about this time, mainly because of Stryper, whose 'Soldiers Under Command' album made me want to go out and tell everyone about the joys of Jesus and dodgy spandex. These days I'm a
cynical old atheist, but I still have a soft spot for the old Stryper songs, plus the new ones ain’t bad either.
Perhaps the most enduring influence from 1985 was Magnum, who released their seminal 'On A Storyteller’s Night' album, limping to the giddy heights of 24 in the UK album charts as they did so. It was a revelation to me, fusing pomp and melody so perfectly it remains a firm favourite nearly a quarter of a century later, and is still my favourite album cover of all time.
Sadly, I jumped on the Magnum bandwagon a bit too late and never saw them tour until the 'Vigilante' album, but since then I’ve pootled along just about every year and have enjoyed every single gig.
If Magnum brought a little pomp and drama into my life, other bands just made me want to sing and have fluffy hair. Hands down my album of the year and one of the best feel good melodic rock records of all time is Y&T’s 'Down For The Count'.
"wailing like a wounded coyote along to Dave Meniketti's perfect pitch".
This may not be a universally acclaimed choice, but every time I hear the intro to 'Summertime Girls' it just takes me back and I start singing along, wailing like a wounded coyote along to Dave Meniketti's perfect pitch.
Okay, so the songs have more cheese than the Chucky Cheese Cheese of the month Club, once you get over the urge to giggle at lyrics like 'Got a chain on my mirror made of beer can tops, a chip on my shoulder better not knock it off' it’s actually a great, uplifting album. Shit cover though…
It seemed like the Americans were certainly coming in 1985, and I was rather chuffed to get Heart’s 'Heart' album for my birthday. It wasn't exactly heavy metal, or even heavy anything, but it was stuffed with melody and included 'Never', a stone cold classic melodic rocker. Okay, so Nancy Wilson being sexy as hell didn't hurt, but I only wanted it for the music, honest!
"the glam metal era that was about to swamp the world".
Elsewhere, Ratt were making a big splash across the pond with their 'Invasion Of your Privacy' album cracking the top ten. I was never a mad Ratt fan, but 'Lay It Down' remains a real belter of a song that helped to popularise the glam metal era that was about to swamp the world.
Motley Crue were themselves preparing for domination with the well received 'Theatre Of Pain' album matching Ratt in the charts. Neither album was a real killer, but the attitude and image helped to get the
girly boys into teenagers bedrooms and, when on tour, into their beds as
well.
Bringing up the read were a little band called Bon Jovi, whose excellent '7800 Degrees Fahrenheit' album made only a small impact that belied the success that would come a couple of years later.
In The UK things were very different, with bands certainly going for melody but not always quite sure what to do with it. As a result, UK bands tended to release wonderful albums that sounded like nothing else, which was perhaps the reason none of them really got anywhere as the American bands stamped all over everything with their cookie cutter approach to rock.
One of my favourites was Shy’s 'Brave The Storm', an album filled to the brim with melody, coupled with the at the time unique vocals of Tony Mills, so high they put more than a few people off. My copy came bundled with a free t-shirt, and I wore mine for many years afterwards. Apparently the album would have charted in the UK but was disqualified because the free gift hadn't been cleared with the chart people.
"a Scottish bunch who loudly proclaimed 'Rock Ain’t Dead".
Another odd UK band that faded away was Heavy Pettin, a Scottish bunch who loudly proclaimed 'Rock Ain’t Dead', but never managed to be anything other than talented also rans. Mind you, I did catch them two years later on 'A Song For Europe' as they tried to get people to vote for their syrupy ballad 'Romeo'. The people decided not to bother, soon after that Heavy Pettin vanished.
Elsewhere, the old guard didn't falter. Iron Maiden were touring as usual, whilst Saxon soldiered on with one of their best efforts 'Innocence Is No Excuse', featuring the timeless classic they don't play any more 'Back On the Streets'.
Twisted Sister started their downward slope sales wise with 'Come Out And Play', which is my favourite album by the sick motherfuckers by a mile. Despite my affection for it, the pop up Dee Snider on the cover and some truly great videos ('Be Chrool To Your Scuel' is one to YouTube) it just didn't make any great ripples, cementing the Sister's as a great live
band rather than one to make record company wankers rich.
Gary Moore was another who produced his best album in 1985, with 'Run For Cover' providing him with his biggest hit to date, 'Out In The Fields', boosted by a great partnership with Phil Lynott.
Lynott also wrote and sang the classic 'Military Man' on the album, and it's worth getting for these two songs alone, with the follow up 'Wild Frontier' coming very close in terms of quality, although soon after that Moore decided that da blooz were more his thing and promptly bored the tits off all his old rock fans.
"caused a lot of baby girls to be named
Kayleigh".
Random happened from 1985 included the amazing 'Steel The Light' from Q5, and IQ’s 'The Wake', which introduced me to prog in a way Marillion never could. Marillion themselves were far too busy having hit singles as their 'Misplaced Childhood' went stratospheric and caused a lot of baby girls to be named Kayleigh. Still a great album
though.
Although not exactly a big
hit outside of Canada, the pixie like Gowan released the excellently poppy 'Strange Animal' album, whilst down under Jimmy Barnes showed he had what it took with his 'For The Working Class man' album. Night Ranger were another band who managed to shine, with their '7 Wishes' album, which I tracked down after seeing 'The Secret Of My Success' and loving the theme
song.
"this was when
Kerrang! was a decent magazine"
One thing I will always remember from 1985 is buying the 'Kerrang! Kompilation' album, which featured songs that I will remember for all time. This was when Kerrang! was a decent magazine, not the teen pandering rag it is today.
This album was perhaps the best compilation of all time (not to mention the video released at the same time), and guided me towards some of the bands that I would listen to for years to come.
Try these out for size, and realise just how great 1985 was: Triumph 'Follow Your Heart', Alcatrazz 'God Blessed Video', Robin George 'Heartline', Whitesnake 'Slow & Easy', Kiss 'Uh! All Night', Warrior 'Fighting For The Earth', Armoured Saint 'Can You Deliver', Madame X 'High In High School' and many others. It’s gone the way of all my old tapes now, but man I loved that album.…
So that's pretty much 1985, kiddies. A truly awesome year for melodic rock, and I expect you all to scour you tube for everything I've banged on about, because you'll find some great music.
Honourable mentions must also go to Mr Mister, Fiona ('Na Na Song' - genius!), Mama's Boys, Lee Aaron, Asia ('Rock & Roll Dream' becoming my favourite track of theirs), The Hooters, John Mellencamp ('Justice & Independence' still kicks ass today), and finally Dire Straits, if only for the video to 'Money For Nothing'.
Choose a year:
[ 1985 ]
[1980] [1981]
[1982] [1983]
[1984] [1985]
[1986] [1987]
[1988] [1989]
Alan, Bandi, Kimmo, Martien, & yours truly, Urban of RockUnited.Com have been spending weeks, months, wading through a bunch of weird looking artcovers and albums of the eighties! Indeed, not an easy task, tracking back in space and time, especially since some of us were almost still in diapers (sticky) at the early days of this era of grand and fantastic music. Check out the left-side border for our yearly write-up in 'black', and this is RockUnited's official 'Best-Of-Album Chart of 1985', calculated from the individual charts. No live-ones, EP's or compilations are included, merely studio albums. You can find them all and complain about our personal taste (or rather the complete lack of it) further down this page! This is merely our humble and tiny celebration of the hairmetal days or daze for that matter. Enjoy or not - this is the eighties: 1985.
THE ALBUMS OF
THE YEAR: 1985
70.
Overkill - Feel The Fire
69. Tytan - Rough Justice
68. Zero Nine - White Lines
67. Running Wild - Branded and Exiled
66. Spellbound - Rockin' Reckless
65. Exodus - Bounded By Blood
64. Lee Aaron - Call Of The Wild
63. Tygers Of Pan Tang - The Wreck-Age
62. Tobruk - Wild On The Run
61. Phenomena - Phenomena
60.
Refugee - Affairs in Babylon
59. Van Zant- Van Zant
58. AC/DC - Fly On The Wall
57. Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
56. Aerosmith - Done With Mirrors
55. Jimmy Barnes - For The Working Class
54. Rick Springfield - Tao
53. Fate - Fate
52. Stevie Ray Vaughn - Soul To Soul
51. Twisted Sister - Come out and Play
50. Mad
Max - Stormchild
49. Gowan - Strange Animal
48. Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way
47. Blitzkrieg - A Times Of Changes
46. Coney Hatch- Friction
45. Pendragon - The Jewel
44. Black N' Blue - Without Love
43. Treat - Scratch and Bite
42. Dio - Sacred Heart
41. Heavy Pettin - Rock Ain't Dead
40.
Slayer - Hell Awaits
39. Armored Saint - Delirious Nomad
38. Saga - Behaviour
37. Alcatrazz - Disturbing
The Peace
36. Kiss - Asylum
35. Shy - Brave The Storm
34. The Cult - Love
33. Savatage - Power Of The Night
32. S.O.D. - Speak English Or Die
31. Loverboy - Lovin' Every Minute Of It
30.
Q5 - Steel The Light
29. Aldo Nova - Twitch
28. Tony MacAlpine - Edge Of Insanity
27. Fates Warning - The Spectre Within
26. Fortune - Fortune
25. Rush - Power Windows
24. W.A.S.P. - The Last Command
23. IQ - The Wake
22. Asia - Astra
21. Saxon - Innocence Is No Excuse
20.
Joe Lynn Turner - Rescue You
Joe
Lynn Turner's first and best solo album. After the Rainbow split up in
1983 when Blackmore decided to reform Deep Purple, Joe started working on
the album 'Rescue You'. Most songs - the work of Turner and former Spys
and Foreigner keyboardist Al Greenwood. It's bombastic AOR, strongely in
favour of keyboards and darn catchy.
19.
Y&T - Down For The Count
They
hired producer Kevin Beamish from REO Speedwagon fame to make sure they
did everything according to the books. The record label pretty much forced
them to come up with a best-seller. The songs became sweeter, utterly
commercial, keyboards, multi-vocals, you name it. But, alas, success never
quite happened to Y&T.
18.
King Kobra - Ready To Strike
The
project of fromer Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osbourne drummer, Carmine Appice.
Image-wise, the idea of creating the anti-Motley Crue. Thus why the four
bleach blonde hair and one black haired drummer. The minor hit, 'Hunger',
was written by the band Kick Axe. Excellent vocals by Mark Free and
overall fun melodic metal songs.
17.
ZZ Top - Afterburner
Get
down and boogie to the 'Velcro Fly'. Not as much the boring, old, blues,
than a very progressive record. They played around with synthesisers
already on 1983's 'Eliminator'. However, 'Afterburner' took the synths and
electronics beats to the extreme. The album peaked at #2 (US), #3
(UK). Had several hit singles and a selling success.
16.
Fiona - Fiona
Fiona
Flanagan - Irish confetti that rocks. She's actually a Jersey girl, grew
up in a strict(ly) Catholic family and her father did not tolerate any
music. Hmm... did anyone say rebel? Jay Jay of Twisted Sister introduced
her to Peppi Marchello (Good Rats), who co-wrote and produced the
self-titled album. Sounds a lot like Pat Benatar actually.
15.
Ratt - Invasion Of Your Privacy
Impressive
guitar work and sexual glam lyrics by Stephen Pearcy. 'Invasion Of Your
Privacy', a best-seller in the states, while Europe never bothered to care
really. Tipper Gore though of it as an display of inappropriate content.
MTV helped the album achive multi-platinum status due to the hits 'Lay It
Down' and You're In Love'. 80's Glam!
14.
White Lion - Fight To Survive
Mike
Tramp started out as a pop singer in his homeland. Mabel and the song,
'Boom Boom', was Denmark's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978.
Tramp & Mable came to US in '82 and plays supporting act for Vito
Bratta's band Dreamer. The rest is history. The marvelous guitar work by
Bratta and Tramp's hoarse vocals = a perfect match.
13.
Anthrax - Spreading The Disease
'It's
a Madhouse!!!'. The sophomore release by Thrash Metal band Anthrax and the
first with vocalist Joey Belladonna. Ehh, his surname are the Italian
words for 'Beautiful Woman' (!?). Sure enough, Joey started out singing in
a Journey cover/tribue act. The video for 'Madhouse' was banned by
MTV due to being degrading to mentally ill? Mosh!
12.
Yngwie Malmsteen - Marching Out
The
1985 effort by the mad Swede was released at the end of the year. Jeff
Scott Soto - still on board, but many (including Yngwie, I guess) thought
the vocals sounded a bit forced and the Swede replaced him with another
vocalist for the next album (something he's continued to do ever since).
Not his best, but hardly his worst album.
11.
Michael Bolton - Everybody's Crazy
Michael
Bolton continued his collaboration with former Touch keyboardist and
vocalist: Mark Mangold. They co-wrote several of the tracks on 'Everybody's
Crazy'. Thus why you can find a lot of similarities between the music of
Bolton and Touch. Peppy Castro (Balance), Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Randy
Goodrum, are some of the other musicians.
10.
Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize
No
doubt, the music of Honeymoon Suite peaked with their sophomore release in
late Dec. 85. It's a great display of melodic rock that goes hand in hand
with the classy production by Bruce Fairbairn. The hit, ''Feel It Again', reached the top-40 in US. 'What Does It Take' was on the
soundtrack for 'One Crazy Summer' (John Cusack).
9.
Accept - Metal Heart
Their
first real attempt to make it big on the other side of the pond. 'Metal
Heart' had a slightly more commercial approach and attitude than previous
Accept albums. The title track as well as 'Midnight Mover', 'Up To The
Limit', 'Wrong Is Right', 'Screaming For A Love-Bite', 'Too High To Get It
Right', etc. are all headbanging tunes.
8.
Stryper - Soldiers Under Command
God
Bless them for trying to combine the southern redneck's two favourite
things: Guns and Jesus on the cover of the album. Seriously, what were
they thinking??? The music on the other hand, very impressive stuff.
Harder numbers are mixed with over-the-top harmonious ballads. They were
'Soldiers Under Command' and they could kick behinds...
7.
Dokken - Under Lock and Key
Dokken's
breakthrough album in the states as it reached #32 on the Billboard 200.
The band managed to create some great songs inbetween all the internal
fights. Don Dokken and guitarist George Lynch, not the best of friends.
Thus why it's extra fun to listen to the smashing rock of 'In My Dreams'
and 'It's Not Love'.
6.
Gary Moore - Run For Cover
'Death
is just a heartbeat away'. The anti-war song, 'Out In The Fields', a
co-operation between Gary Moore and Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott and his
biggest hit in the UK (#5). Lynott also wrote and sang 'Military Man' on
the album. The mighty voice of Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) can also be
heard on several of the tracks. Excellent!
5.
Icon - Night Of The Crime
'Night
Of The Crime' - a close to perfect display of melodic metal ála 1985.
Their record label (Capitol) decided to pull the plug on Icon even before
the release of their sophomore album. Promotion? They managed somhow to
create an underground following as the album made an impact and was a hit
on the import charts. Highly recommended.
4.
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
Marillion's best and certainly most commercially successful album (reaching #1 in the UK chart). It's a concept album of course (what else?), but the Prog-Rock of Fish and co. managed to cross-over to pop, rock, and metal fans. The hit single, 'Kayleigh', peaked at #2 as well as named thousands of new-born babies. Perfect Prog!
3.
Heart - Heart
Nope, it's not a self-titled debut album. Heart's eight studio release as well as the band's transition into major league. MTV came and grabbed the Wilson Sis' out from oblivion and put them in the spotlight of the world. The album hit #1 and stayed on Billboard for 92 weeks. 'These Dreams' reached #1 and three more singles made the top-10.
2.
Bon Jovi - 7800* Fahrenheit
The
Bon Jovi release of 1985 peaked at #37 in the states and #10 in Sweden. It's
beyond comprehensibility, but we were once a nation of Vikings? Anyhow,
the band (Jon?) believe this to be crap, since they haven't performed any
of the songs live in twenty years. RockUnited beg to differ, it's our #2
of '85, and it's jam-packed with fun rock.
1.
Magnum - On A Storyteller's Night
'There's
a stormlamp on the table. Throwing shadows to the gable. And you swollow
if you're able. On a storyteller's night'. Their finest hour and the first
in the row of three essential Magnum releases. This is their breakthrough
album which led to a major label deal with Polydor. It reached #24 in the
UK chart and the hearts of many rock fans. Credit to Rodney Matthews for a
stunning cover. (all album comment nonsense
by: Urban)
INDIVIDUAL LISTS OF 1985 *Personal Stuff* | |
|
Urban:
1. Marillion
- Misplaced Childhood 11.
Anthrax - Spreading The Disease 21.
Slayer
- Hell Awaits |
Kimmo:
1. Icon - Night Of The Crime |
|
Martien: 1.
Rush - Power Windows
|
Alan: 1. Y & T - Down for The Count
|
|
Bandi: 1. David Lee Roth - Crazy From The Heat
1985: Songs of the year: Twisted Sister - The Leader Of The Pack |
Urban
(Wally): POP/Rock albums of the year: 1. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love etc.
|
|
|
|
