MTM01 - Big Fun

Dancin' on the A side, angstin' on the B side

Date Created: c. 1988
Source: Vinyl
Made for: My sister

SIDE A

Big Fun - Shriekback 1988

Most of the early Shriekback catalog is missing from Spotify, so to get this party started you’ll have to go to YouTube:

It’s a shame, because I’d sure like to have Oil & Gold and Big Night Music in my pocket. This track is from the album Go Bang! and sets the tone for this dance-heavy A-side.

(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang - Heaven 17 1981

Well, who knew this song would be evergreen? It was banned by the BBC for this:

Democrats are out of power
Across that great wide ocean
Reagan's president elect
Fascist God in motion

Love is the Drug - Grace Jones 1980

I’ll always prefer the sound of Bryan Ferry’s voice and those timbale fills, but this is the kind of fun cover that Jones did so well.

Being Boiled - The Human League 1978/80

This song was the Human League’s first single, and probably the only anti-sericulture song ever written. Released in 1978, though it’s from their second album, 1980’s Travelogue. I’m pretty sure I bought the album for the band name and the cover artwork alone. And played the grooves off it. There’s a great BBC doc called Synth Britannia that features Phil Oakey prominently. You can find the whole thing on YouTube.

Crosseyed and Painless - Talking Heads 1980

Now considered one of Talking Heads’ best songs, so I don’t have much to add. Although I just looked up the lyrics, and for the first time in 40+ years I know what Byrne is singing in the first chorus: Isn’t it weird?/Looks too obscure to me. Each chorus has the same melody but a different lyric. Does that make it a chorus at all? Can you think of any other songs that do this?

I Love You Like a Ball and Chain - Eurythmics 1985

From their album Be Yourself Tonight, which also contained the awful “Sisters Are Doin It for Themselves” (I never pass up a chance to hate on that song). I didn’t own this LP, so I’m not sure where I got this track. Wait — I’ll bet I made this tape at my friend Janice’s while I was house sitting, and this was her album. What’s kind of crazy is that I now live three blocks from her. Next time I’m over there, I’ll look for this LP.

Burning Up (12”) - Madonna 1983

R.I.P. The Fine Line, Tucson’s mixed gender, mixed genre, gay nightclub. In its heyday, there was a disco on one wing of the main floor and a video game parlor on the other side, a country bar with live music in the basement, and upstairs was a quiet(ish) cocktail lounge. I bought the 12-inch single after hearing it there.

Get Down Tonight - Shriekback 1988

Interesting to see multiple tracks by the same band on these tapes, but I only had so many records. Also not on Spotify, but check out a cameo appearance by KC himself in this video (around the 2:45 mark).

Rubberband Man - Y’oussou N’Dour 1985

How badass was it in 1985 to title your album Nelson Mandela? I first heard this singer on Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” which brings us to …

Sledgehammer (Extended Mix) - Peter Gabriel 1986

I prefer this slightly slower mix to the original.

SIDE B

Southern Bess - Shelleyan Orphan 1987 UK/1988 US

Ok, we’ve danced to Side A, and we’re going to bring it down with Shelleyan Orphan. I really don’t remember why I would have bought this album. It seems unlikely I’d heard the group anywhere, but I’m sure it appealed to my Anglophile leanings at the time.

Burning Bridge - Kate Bush 1985

Not on Spotify, so have a listen here:

One of my all-time favorite non-album cuts by Kate. I’m not sure if that’s Del Palmer or Eberhard Weber on bass; if it’s not the latter, it’s the former emulating the latter.

The Art of Parties - Japan 1981

I had the original 45 - this is the re-worked version from Tim Drum. An album I wrote about for PopMatters, by the way. So good.

Waiting for the Upturn - The The 1983

This is an outtake or extra from Soul Mining. I think I just liked the sound and though it went well with the previous track. Definitely not among my favorites by the group.

Colder - Throwing Muses 1988

I tried really hard to like this band and spent a fair amount of time thinking I just wasn’t cool enough because I didn’t. This song is okay though.

Frenz - The Fall 1988

From the excellent and hilarious The Frenz Experiment album. I feel like the Fall were my generation’s Velvet Underground. They were surely a major influence on my first band, the Seldoms.

Bombers - David Bowie 1971

Change of pace here. I’d totally forgotten about this song and don’t know where I found it. The Internet tells me it was recorded for Hunky Dory but not released until 1990, which was two years after this tape was made, so who knows.

Over There - The Connells 1987

I see an anti-war theme beginning to emerge. Loved this album, this band, and this trumpet.

Country Boy - Miracle Legion 1987

Oof, why did I put this song on the tape? Not that it’s bad, quite the opposite. I usually reserve the most devastating songs for the listener to discover on their own, if that makes sense. Maybe I was going along with the theme of boys not being ready, whether it’s to go to war or something else. I met Mark Mulcahy at a gig in Cincinnati when I was in grad school. Miracle Legion opened for Camper van Beethoven, who I had no interest in. I saw Mark standing by the bar after their set, and we ditched the club and went to my favorite out-of-the-way coffeehouse down the street. Years later, but before YouTube, et al, I paid $50 for the Japanese CD release of this album because I had no other way to listen to it. Formative, for sure.

Sky Takes the Soul - The Proclaimers 1987

Okay, bringing the tempo up a bit here, though there are still bombs.

Rich - Lloyd Cole & the Commotions 1985

From the excellent, though some say over-produced, second album, Easy Pieces. Can’t help but move your feet to this one. Are we circling back to Side A?

Sitting Still - R.E.M. 1981/83

For decades I misheard “I-I-I can hear you” as “I-I like it here.” I prefer my version because it reminded to be here now.

Helleborine - Shelleyan Orphan 1987 UK/1988 US

You gotta fill up the cassette! At 1:18, this song does the job.

Ok, that’s a wrap for the first mixtape excavation. Thanks for reading/listening, and watch this space!