The videos on the tape are still amazing, over 35 years later. Their hits are included, of course: “Rio,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Girls on Film,” “Save a Prayer,” “Planet Earth” and the aforementioned “Is There Something I Should Know?” but also the less well-known videos like “Lonely In Your Nightmare,” “Careless Memories,” “My Own Way,” “Nightboat” and “The Chauffeur” (you’ll need to turn off parental controls to view that one).

And in case you need reminding of how amazing Simon LeBon looked in “Hungry Like the Wolf,” here are some stills I shot while watching it today.

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Into the Gap was the fourth LP by Thompson Twins and was their most successful, hitting #10 in the US and #3 in the US. The first single released, “Hold Me Now” (released in late ‘83), was my favorite and it charted at #3 in the US and #4 in the UK. It was the height of the MTV era and its video got super-heavy rotation. I also really liked the second single, “Doctor! Doctor!” (#11 US, #3 UK). I’m not sure I remember hearing their third single “You Take Me Up” (#44 US, #2 UK – same goes for the fourth, “Sister of Mercy” which I think was only released in the UK, hitting #11 there) but this is one of my favorite songs from the album. The last release from Into the Gap was “The Gap” which Thompson Twins did not release in the UK but it did hit #69 in the US even without a video to accompany it.

Into the Gap had uneven reception among music critics at its release. Smash Hits wrote that it had “several songs with empty words and plodding tunes sung in a whiney voice and slung together with fake sentiment. The success of the terrible Twins represents the usual triumph of naked ambition over talent” and NME called it “1984’s most instantly kitsch mass program of monosodium glutamation of the brain.” However, through the lens of history critics have softened considerably, viewing Into the Gap as a great snapshot example of popular culture and musical trends of its time. Allmusic says Into the Gap “remains a classic as far as ‘80s new wave pop is concerned. Nearly every song on this set differed from the others, with each track taking the listener on a different musical journey…Thompson Twins were quiet visionaries, blending intelligent lyrics, Eastern sensibilities, and new wave pop to create a wholly unique and unforgettable listening experience and an album that ranks as one of the ’80s’ most unique.”

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Allmusic says about Freedom of Choice: With Freedom of Choice, Devo completed their transition into a full-fledged synth-pop group, producing arguably their most musically cohesive effort in the process. Synthesizers are now fully integrated into the band’s sound, frequently dominating the arrangements and at least sharing equal time with the guitars. Everything is played with a cool, polished precision that mirrors the stylized uniformity of the band’s visuals; the dissonance is more subdued than in the past, and the uptight rhythms are no longer jarring, instead locking the band into a rigidly even keel. Oddly, even though the music is the least human-sounding Devo had yet produced, their social observations were growing less insular and more sympathetic. Several tunes – like the oft-covered “Girl U Want” – have a geeky (but pragmatic) romantic angst that was new to Devo albums, although the band’s view of relationships is occasionally colored by their cultural themes of competition and domination. Those preoccupations also inform their breakthrough hit single, “Whip It,” but elsewhere, they’re finding enough connection with the rest of the world to moderate their cynicism, at least a little bit. Songs like “Gates of Steel,” “Planet Earth,” and the title track reveal a frustrated idealism under their irony, one that can’t quite understand why Americans don’t use more of their freedom to search for happiness. Altogether, there’s a little less of the debut’s energy, and a little less variety as well. But the songwriting is a match for consistent quality, and moreover, the music on Freedom of Choice is the sound that defines Devo in the minds of many. In the end, that makes it the band’s only other truly necessary album.

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Those are my lips, wearing the sparkly lip color, called Big Bang, second from the right in the palette.

“Union of the Snake” was the first release from Duran Duran’s third LP Seven and the Ragged Tiger, hitting #3 in the UK and US. “Secret Oktober” does not appear on any original Duran Duran albums (though it is on the 2010 reissue CD of Seven and the Ragged Tiger). The band needed a song for the flipside of “Union of the Snake” and quickly wrote “Secret Oktober,” whipping it out, including recording and mixing, in less than 24 hours. It is beautiful and atmospheric, not at all creepy, singing of birthday parties that are full of surprising fireworks, all night parties and cocktail bars.

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Bananarama’s cover of the 1969 song, written by Robbie van Leeuwen, first charted in 1970 when the Dutch band Shocking Blue took the song to number one. You can hear that version here with a slower tempo and a 60′s jangly-psychedelic-guitar sound. I, of course, love the 80′s version, all dancey and new-wavey, and I still like to do the “Venus” arm-dancing moves I mastered from watching Bananarama’s version, which was played incessently on MTV during the late summer/early fall of ‘86.

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Side 1 includes five driving punk-tempoed singles, including a cover of The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “That’s Progress,” sounding classic DK and which was included on the comp “Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.” “Power is Boring” showcases Biafra’s skill at angry, clever and witty lyrics – if now somewhat dated – delivered at breakneck speed:

Believe me, if I were dicator
You know what I’d do?!?!?
Come to think of it,
There’s a problem there
For aspiring tyrants like me and you…

Ever wonder what it’d really be like
To be your own dicator
Might be its own kind of prison
Of total fear

Can’t make love or go anywhere
Without bodyguards in your hair
Never know which trusted friend
Has plans to blow you away

3,000 pairs of shoes
No one to talk to
‘Nuff guns to kill everyone you own
The masses act so loyal
Yet you can’t sleep in the same place twice
I wouldn’t want to be a Noriega or Khadafi
Would you?

Power is boring
Power is boring
Power is boring

Side 2 is one very long track, “Full Metal Jackoff,” an angry political rant against the politics of the 80′s: Iran-Contra, drugs, Wall Street and neo-Nazis. Musically VERY heavy, verging on Motorhead heavy, with Jello’s distinctive low/high punk sneering screech soaring above.

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“Declaration” boasts The Alarm’s most successful single “Sixty Eight Guns,” which charted at #17 on the UK charts, was released on the heels of a US tour with U2. That single, and the album, are representative of British new wave of the early/mid-80s that focused more guitar rock than synth romanticism. I’m thinking it is the hair that mostly tied those two strains of new wave together (The Alarm’s hair height rivals that of The Cure, Howard Jones, etc.).

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