1981 Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

INXS “Underneath the Colours”

sfilzen — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:57:01 +0000

INXS “Underneath the Colours” released 40 years ago today, October 19th, 1981 (in Australia only, they released it to other markets a year or so later). INXS’ second LP went to no. 15 in Australia. Maybe it’s because I have little to no emotional connection to Underneath the Colours, unlike most of INXS’ other 80′s releases, but I’m really not crazy about this record. The funky title track “Underneath the Colours” is pretty good (I believe released as a single in New Zealand, no idea if charted or not) as is the dark, post-punkish “Barbarian,” but the rest of the album is pretty bland new wave pop with little to none of their later infectious and anthemic sound. Besides the title track, they also released “Stay Young” (#21 Australia) and “Night of Rebellion” as singles. In 1982 INXS put out Shabooh Shoobah which took their sound in a new direction, one that gave them international success.

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Prince “Controversy”

sfilzen — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 17:14:16 +0000

Prince “Controversy” released 40 years ago today, October 14th, 1981. Shockingly, our copy still includes the large poster which somehow escaped the normal rips, wears and tape tears from being attached to an 80′s teenager’s wall (the image cropped a bit here because posting it in its full glory got me thrown into “violates social standards” jail 🙄).

Controversy is Prince’s fourth album; it hit #21 on the US album chart and #3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop album chart. Funky and danceable, its themes are a mix of socio-political commentary (most explicitly on “Ronnie, Talk to Russia” but also on the pro-gun control song “Annie Christian”), religion and sex sex sex without even a whisper of innuendo. Songs- and that poster! – like “Sexuality” (released outside of the US as a single – 1981 America was clearly not ready for it), “Do Me, Baby” (which was released, hitting #41 on the single chart and #1 on the R&B chart; it was supposedly written not by Prince but by Revolution bassist Andre Cymone), “Private Joy” and “Jack U Off” tell us exactly where Prince’s mind was at when writing the LP. Other singles he released were the title track “Controversy” (#70 US, #5 UK) and my favorite song on the album, the ultra-funky “Let’s Work” which went to #1 on the US Dance chart.

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U2 “October”

sfilzen — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 17:30:01 +0000

U2 “October” released 40 years ago today, October 12th, 1981. October, their second album (no. 2 in the UK and no. 104 in the US) solidified U2′s epically big and soaring anthemic post punk sound with a heavy emphasis on religion and spirituality. “Gloria,” with its soaring chorale chorus (“Gloria, in te domine”), is one of the strongest tracks on the record; it went to #55 on the UK single charts. “Fire” was another single (#35 UK). The album also has an air of beautiful sadness, particularly on “Tomorrow” about which Bono said, “[Its] influences: primarily Joy Division, Invisible Girls. A great example of how you can write a song and not know what you’re writing about. ‘Tomorrow’ is a detailed account of my mother’s funeral. But I had no idea when I was writing it.” U2 wrote much of October while touring the US for their first album, Boy, but bad luck plagued the band: Bono lost the lyrics for the album backstage during a show and the songwriting process needed to be rushed along in order to keep the studio recording schedule. Producer Steve Lillywhite stated the recording sessions were “completely chaotic and mad.”

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Depeche Mode “Speak & Spell”

sfilzen — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 17:25:01 +0000

Depeche Mode “Speak & Spell” released 40 years ago today, October 5th, 1981. I’ve written about Speak & Spell before (and probably will again) as it is one of my favorite DM albums: it’s the perfect snapshot of early 80′s synthpop and helped set the sound of the era. One of my top DM songs ever leads off the album: “New Life” which went to #11 in the UK; the version that appears on Speak & Spell appears on the 7″ though I am partial to the 12″ version. “Dreaming of Me,” the lead single from the album, went to #57 in the UK though did not appear on the UK album variants (this copy is an 80′s era US release). The third and final single from the LP was “Just Can’t Get Enough” which is a total Depeche Mode classic, probably one of their best known and loved early tunes. It went to #8 and scored a chart placement in the US at #26 on the Dance Charts. I also really love “Boys Say Go!,” the slightly sinister “Nodisco” and “Photographic” (well, the rest of the album, too). Speak & Spell went to #10 in the UK and #192 in the US. It also marks the first and last album with Vince Clarke who at the time was the primary songwriter for Depeche Mode; Martin Gore took over that role and steered the band into a darker, industrial sound (which I also adore).

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The Gun Club “Fire of Love”

sfilzen — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 17:21:34 +0000

The Gun Club “Fire of Love” released 40 years ago today, August 31st, 1981. Slash Records. We also have the more well-known version on Ruby Records but it’s currently framed and hanging on the wall of the music room.

Fire of Love was The Gun Club’s debut record and it is considered one of the most influential releases of the post-punk era, blending punk, garage and roots rock plus a dash of general freakout weirdness equaling punk blues. As a recent article in Pitchfork states, Fire of Love “set the stage for outlaw eccentrics like the Pixies, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and the White Stripes (while providing Nick Cave with his post-Birthday Party roadmap into the swamp).” The punks in Gun Club (Rob Ritter and Terry Graham both were in The Bags) even recorded a cover of an old Robert Johnson song, “Preaching the Blues” (originally titled “Preachin’ Blues,” 1939), something unheard of in the scene at the time. The whole album is amazing, but my top tracks are “Sex Beat,” “For the Love of Ivy,” “Ghost on the Highway” and “Jack on Fire.”

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The Replacements “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash”

sfilzen — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 17:11:11 +0000

The Replacements “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash” released 40 years ago today, August 25th, 1981. Twin/Tone Records.* Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash was the band’s first studio LP and is considered to be one of the vanguards of the Midwest 80′s punk sound, though for the most part I’d call it power pop with a messy punk mentality and some Sex Pistol-ish riffs (the LP’s cover states it should be “filed under power trash” – also accurate). I’ll admit to never having been a big Replacements fan (partly because I’m not crazy about Paul Westerberg’s voice) but I do have a fondness for most things coming out of Minneapolis, a city I visited frequently as a teenager in the 80′s and we continue to go to every year or so for shows and friends (and a few good record stores). Of the handful of Replacements albums we have, this is probably my favorite, with songs that reference fellow-MN’ers Hüsker Dü (“Somethin to Dü”), New York Dolls’ and Heartbreakers’ Johnny Thunders (“Johnny’s Gonna Die”) and a totally 80′s Midwest punk pastime “Hangin Downtown.”

*edited reblog of my post from 2018

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Pretenders “Pretenders II”

sfilzen — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 18:56:43 +0000

Pretenders “Pretenders II” released 40 years ago today, August 15th, 1981. Pretenders II is the Pretenders second LP. It hit no. 7 in the UK and went to no. 10 in the US. It includes the previously UK-release singles “Talk of the Town” from 1980 and “Message of Love” (one of my favorite Pretenders songs) from early ‘81; those two songs were also on the March ‘81 EP Extended Play. Other singles from Pretenders II were “Day After Day” (a UK-only single), “Louie Louie” (a US-only single and NOT a cover song), and “I Go to Sleep.” “I Go to Sleep” was written by Ray Davies in ‘67 – Chrissie Hynde was dating him at the time. Pretenders’ version went to #7 in the US; Davies never recorded it with The Kinks but an unreleased version does exist here.

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Go-Go’s “Beauty and the Beat”

sfilzen — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 18:20:28 +0000

Go-Go’s “Beauty and the Beat” released 40 years ago today, July 8th, 1981. Their debut album is one of the best of the 80′s and hit #1 on the US charts. I was absolutely gaga for the Go-Go’s after hearing their smash hit single from Beauty and the Beat “We Got the Beat,” which went to #2 on the Hot 100 chart in 1982 (The Go-Go’s first recorded and released “We Got the Beat” in 1980 on Stiff Records in the UK), remaining at that no. 2 slot for three weeks thwarted only by the equally awesome “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” by Joan Jett who was at #1. I remember those three weeks of girl-power rock-n-roll in April ‘82 vividly, me huddling by the radio, waiting for Casey Kasem to announce the top songs so I could hit record on my little cassette player. I also still adore “Our Lips are Sealed,” their first single from Beauty and the Beat which went to #20 in the US. Besides those two singles, I also love “How Much More, “This Town,” “Skidmarks on My Heart” and “Can’t Stop the World.”

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Duran Duran “Duran Duran”

sfilzen — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 17:28:26 +0000

Duran Duran “Duran Duran” – today, June 15th, is a major #duranivesary – 40 years ago today D2 released their debut album. Duran Duran reached #3 on the UK charts, remaining in the top 100 for 117 weeks. Its initial release did not do so well in the US but was subsequently re-released (with a different cover and the addition of the single “Is There Something I Should Know”) on April 25th, 1983 after the phenomenal success of Rio. Duran Duran then made it to #10 on the US Billboard charts. This well-loved original US pressing has the “Night Version” rather than the single version of “Planet Earth” (#12 UK). “To the Shore,” which appears on the UK pressing, was not included in order to accommodate the increased length of the Night Version (6:20 vs. 4:03). Other singles from Duran Duran include “Careless Memories” (#37 UK) and the infamous “Girls on Film” which was their first big hit, reaching #5 on the UK charts. To say I love those songs and every other song on Duran Duran would be a huge understatement. I know every second of music, every lyric and most of the stories behind the songs (whether real or what me and my Duranie friends made up).

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