If the music of 1980 had a theme, perhaps it was the expansion of punk as the decade turned.
The Talking Heads looked beyond CBGB, incorporating Afropop influences on Remain in Light (No. 4 album). Gang of Four’s Entertainment! (No. 3 album) weaved Sex Pistols energy into jagged Marxist funk. The (English) Beat’s I Just Can’t Stop It (No. 13 album) was as good as British ska got. And on London Calling (No. 1 album, natch) the Clash invoked Elvis Presley on the cover and laid claim to everything in earshot in the grooves.
In the U.S., the Manhattan-centric punk scene began giving way to a post-punk/indie scene blooming throughout the country, whether across the state lines to Jersey (The Feelies’ No. 7 Crazy Rhythms) or to the opposite coast (X’s No. 16 Los Angeles), both hints at the eruption of more localized indie scenes on the immediate horizon.
In the U.K., a similar broadening was happening in the form of the Raincoats (No. 22 album), Slits (No. 7 single), LiLiPUT (No. 10 single), Psychedelic Furs (No. 23 album), the extant Elvis Costello (No. 25 album), and Joy Division (No. 23 single), three of whom appear on the classic scene compilation Wanna Buy a Bridge? (No. 5 album).
It was also the year that the greatest R&B artist of the 1970s, Stevie Wonder, made arguably his last major album, Hotter Than July (No. 17), and the greatest R&B (for starters) artist of the 1980s, Prince, made his first major album (and third overall), Dirty Mind (No. 2). The latter showed more than a little punk/post-punk influence, showing that these exchanges could work both ways.
It was a year when two giants of blues-based music, pre-recording Memphis/Chicago blues singer Alberta Hunter (No. 15) and New Orleans piano master Professor Longhair (No. 6) made their greatest studio-album testaments, the former made well into her 80s, the latter months before his death.
In was a year that saw one rock institution of the Seventies (Bruce Springsteen, No. 10 album) transitioning his sound into what would be an (at least) equally great decade, and a couple of others (No. 20 Neil Young, No. 24 Rolling Stones), holding on, for a moment, with merely good albums. And it was when another, John Lennon, left us for good but with a wise, warming, unintended final testament (No. 8 album).
The lists …
ALBUMS
- London Calling – The Clash
- Dirty Mind – Prince
- Entertainment! – Gang of Four
- Remain in Light – Talking Heads
- Wanna Buy a Bridge? — Various Artists
- Crawfish Fiesta – Professor Longhair
- Crazy Rhythms – The Feelies
- Double Fantasy – John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Storm Windows – John Prine
- The River – Bruce Springsteen
- Snockgrass – Michael Hurley
- Happy Woman Blues – Lucinda Williams
- I Just Can’t Stop It — The English Beat
- Real People – Chic
- Amtrak Blues – Alberta Hunter
- Los Angeles – X
- Hotter Than July – Stevie Wonder
- Black Market Clash — The Clash
- Seconds of Pleasure – Rockpile
- Hawks and Doves – Neil Young
- Doc at the Radar Station – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
- The Raincoats — The Raincoats
- Psychedelic Furs – Psychedelic Furs
- Emotional Rescue – Rolling Stones
- Get Happy!! – Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Singles
- “You Shook Me All Night Long” – AC/DC
- “Zulu Nation Throwdown” – Afrika Bambaataa/Zulu Nation/Cosmic Force
- “London Calling” — The Clash
- “Bon Bon Vie” — T.S. Monk
- “Upside Down” – Diana Ross
- “The Breaks” – Kurtis Blow
- “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” — Stevie Wonder
- “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” — The Slits
- “He Stopped Loving Her Today” – George Jones
- “How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?” — Brother D. & Collective Effort
- “Precious” — The Pretenders
- “Die Matrosen”/“Split” – LiLiPUT
- “Refugee” — Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
- “Call Me” — Blondie
- “Brass in Pocket” — The Pretenders
- “9 to 5” – Dolly Parton
- “She Just Started Liking Cheatin’ Songs” – John Anderson
- “Train in Vain” – The Clash
- “(Just Like) Starting Over” – John Lennon & Yoko Ono
- “He’s So Shy” — The Pointer Sisters
- “People Who Died” – Jim Carroll Band
- “I’m Coming Out” – Dianna Ross
- “Hungry Heart” – Bruce Springsteen
- “Celebration” – Kool & the Gang
- “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – Joy Division
- “Freedom” – Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
- “The Tide is High” – Blondie
- “Mirror in the Bathroom” – The English Beat
- “Going Underground” — The Jam
- “Shining Star” – The Manhattans
- “Twist and Crawl” – The English Beat
- “Hey Nineteen” – Steely Dan
- “She’s So Cold” — The Rolling Stone
- “Private Idaho” — The B-52s
- “Whip It” – Devo
- “Bankrobber” – The Clash
- “Take Your Time” – SOS Band
- “Vicious Rap” – Tanya Winley
- “Too Many Creeps” – Bush Tetras
- “Love Sensation” – Loletta Holloway
Movies
Per usual, these movie lists are more of a guess because I don’t have time to rewatch, an attempt to filter older memories through a current sensibility. I do think that Raging Bull and The Shining are “classic” films that are probably each a little overrated relative to their respective directors’ other best work. I remember being smitten by Sayle’s low-budget college-radicals-reunite film as a teenager, but I haven’t seen it since. (It’s pretty hard to come by.)
- Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
- The Big Red One (Sam Fuller)
- The Return of the Secaucus Seven (John Sayle)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
- The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
- Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis)
- Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper)
- Coal Miner’s Daughter (Michael Apted)
Sing All Kinds 