Friday 80s Flashback for August 29, 2025

[Still on the Door] -- The Head on the Door, The Cure's sixth studio album, was released this week in 1985, or maybe earlier this month. The specific release date, which varies according to the source one uses, matters less than the fact that The Head on the Door is now 40 years old as of August 2025. 

Now, I must confess that I did not discover this record in the summer of 1985. No, that treat was reserved for the fall of 1986. And even then, my own discovery was a bit reverse chronological: First, I had to be introduced to The Cure's 1986 greatest hits album, Standing on a Beach, and then work back. See, the greatest hits collection included two singles from The Head on the Door, "In Between Days" and "Close to Me". Once my college friends had me hooked on Standing in general and those singles in particular, they got me on the previous album. At least ... that is how I recall it happening. So, at this point, I must ask: Do fans of the Cure still use Standing on a Beach as a gateway album to lure their non-Cure-listening friends into the fray?

Back to The Head on the Door.

It might seem strange to long-term fans that, after digging The Head on the Door, I also became a fan of earlier Cure records. The Head on the Door was a significant departure from the band's earlier sound, particularly the dark trilogy of Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981). and Pornography (1982). I would say that The Head on the Door had different moods rather than being entirely moody. Musically, the album was rather bouncy, feeling quite upbeat in places. Steve Sutherland, writing in Melody Maker, called the album "a collection of pop songs". Retrospectively, AllMusic critic Tim Sendra said this album's new musical direction "had managed to make the band's trademark 'gloom and doom' style both 'danceable and popular'" [AllMusic]. The record peaked at #7 on the UK Albums chart and a respectable #59 on the US Billboard 200, as well as the top 20 of several other country's charts.

The first single, "In Between Days", charted well worldwide, and is regarded as one of The Cure's best songs. My college roommate confidently called it THE BEST Cure song. Well, for about a week. I don't recall if he maintained that claim moving forward. But I do know I'm always happy when it appears in a playlist or comes up on one of my shuffles.  It sounds kind of happy, with the acoustic strumming and the keyboard riff. But the lyrics hint at something sadder, if not altogether darker, regarding loss. 

The second single, "Close to Me", has a music video with all the band members crammed inside a wardrobe that falls off a cliff and into the sea. I don't know if that video helped, but the track charted even better than the first single. And, like that first single, the dour and enigmatic lyrics are in opposition to the the almost peppy arrangement. 

My favorite non-single tracks include "A Night Like This", "Push" (with its incredible intro), and "Six Different Ways." But I so love to listen to this album from start to finish when I have the time. 

Flashback: The Head on the Door (August 1985)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!

Friday 80s Flashback for August 22, 2025

[Still Crowing] -- John Cougar Mellencamp released his eighth studio album, Scarecrow, 40 years ago this month (or the end of last month, depending on the source). The album peaked at #2 on the US Billboard 200 and launched three top-ten hits. "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." peaked at #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 while both "Lonely Ol' Night" and "Small Town" peaked at #6. "Rain on the Scarecrow," one of my fave tracks on this album, also got radio play and peaked just outside of the top 20. 

AllMusic called Scarecrow "one of the definitive blue-collar rock albums of the mid-'80s." It certainly brought roots rock to the record-buying masses of 1985. 

Flashback: Scarecrow (August 5, 1985)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!

Friday 80s Flashback for August 15, 2025

[Samplebox] -- You might recall Colourbox from my 2019 post about their appearance on the 1987 compilation album, Lonely Is An Eyesore. Well, 40 years ago this week, Colourbox released their one and only full-length studio LP. The record is eponymous, just like their 1983 mini-album and their 2012 boxed set. If you are looking specifically for the 1985 Colourbox, you might have more luck searching by its catalog number: CAD 508. And as far as I can tell, it was an import for the US; I have not seen a US label for it, and it certainly did not chart in the states. 

Colourbox is an under-appreciated gem of the 1980s. It is a vibrant and creative debut that – while usually filed under the genres of electronica, dub, and/or synth-pop – actually includes elements of soul, reggae, pop, and even rock guitar. On top of the musicianship and state-of-the-art studio work, this record has a crazy collection of samples from movies like Westworld and TV shows like The Prisoner. Given changes in copyright law, I doubt a record like this could be made today, at least not with this same level of sampled dialog. 

So, that variety I mentioned? Well, Colourbox starts with the lovely piano ballad, "Sleepwalker", and then rolls into a masterpiece of guitar, samples, and dance-rock titled "Just Give 'Em Whiskey". For some reason, neither of those tracks were singles. But Colourbox did release "Say You", "Punch", and "The Moon is Blue" as singles, with only that last one getting a music video. These singles did fairly well on the independent charts, but didn't make any kind of dent in the more official hit parade kind of charts. I bet if Colourbox had released their revamp of the Supremes' hit "You Keep Me Hanging On", which is also on this album, they would have rocketed up the charts and secured a more solid place in 80s music history. 

What else can I say: Open this box and dance to all the colours. 

Flashback: Colourbox (August 12, 1985)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!

Friday 80s Flashback for August 8, 2025

[A Cult Jam Four Decades] -- I found several release dates for Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force, the 1985 debut album by, well, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. Wikipedia's list of 1985 releases cites 8/8/1985 as the release date. The Wikipedia page for the album itself has the release date as 3/17/1985 in the intro paragraph and 9/17/1985 in the sidebar. AllMusic cites the release date as 12/17/1985. Lisa Lisa's own FB page quotes TheSource on Instagram with a celebratory post about the release date being August 2, 1985. Whatever the actual release date was, we know two things for certain: (1) Before the end of 1985, no one outside of Lisa Velez's family probably used her last name anymore. And (2) this debut album hits the big Four Oh this year. 

"I Wonder If I Take You Home" was the lead single and it hit charts in May of 1985, priming potential fans for the upcoming album release. Highlighting the tensions around one night stands, this tune peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, #6 on the R&B chart, and #34 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single, "Can You Feel the Beat," also had a May release, and it was likewise a hit on the Billboard Dance chart, peaking at #6. It had various levels of success on other charts, hitting #69 on the Billboard Hot 100, for example. The ballad "All Cried Out" was the third and final single off this self-titled debut album. It hit #8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the US R&B singles chart. The 7" version is credited to Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force featuring Paul Anthony (AllMusic & IMDb) & Bow Legged Lou (AllMusic & IMDb). 

Despite the chart success, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force garnered only so-so reviews. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice graded it a C+. On the other hand, writing retroactively for AllMusic, Ron Wynn said that Lisa Lisa's voice "had the perfect mix of uncertainty, irony, and edge" and he praised Full Force's production as being state-of-the-art for the time. Whatever the critics wrote then or later, there is no denying that Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force is a classic slice of the 1980s. And, as The Source points out, this album definitely opened doors for future Latin artists in pop and R&B. Look, we're talking about it 40 years later! And I bet you remembered at least one of those singles! 

Flashback: Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force (circa August 1985)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!

Plastic Fantastic

Plastic Man #1 (Dec 1966)

Not quite a grail book, but Plastic Man #1 (Dec 1966, DC Comics) is a comic I've wanted for a while. One of my first comics was a coverless copy of #11 from this series, which I have since re-acquired, with an attached cover. After snagging #1 and #19 during SDCC, I now have 10 out of the 20 issues of this run.

Where does this land in Plastic Man history? Well, Plas first appeared in Police Comics #1 (Aug 1941). He didn't get his own series till later, and there have been multiple series named for him. The CLZ app refers to this run as Plastic Man Vol. 1 while Comic Book Realm considers it Vol. 2. The earlier run by Vital Comics / Quality Comics Group (1943-1956) is Plastic Man Vol. 1 at the Realm, while CLZ files the series under the moniker of Plastic Man (Quality Comics). I'll probably never own any of those QCC books, or Police Comics for that matter. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Anyway, this issue has the 1st appearance of the Silver Age Plastic Man (Eel O'Brian Jr), considered the son of the Golden Age Plastic Man (Eel O'Brien). After 1977, the son is all but forgotten, and DC Comics focuses on Eel O'Brien. 

Well, that's not entirely correct. The "Jr." version of Plastic Man's son is gone, but he got a son called Offspring in The Kingdom: Offspring #1 (1999), and JLA #65 (June 2002) gave Offspring the civilian name of Luke Ernie "Loogie" McDunnagh O'Brian (Luke O'Brian for short). 

Friday 80s Flashback for July 18, 2025

[The Devil's Flashback] -- In my experience of being a music fan for several decades, I have found that there are albums that are seared into one's memory, almost imprinted onto the DNA. There are albums that flash furiously and brightly into one's life, but that flash is of limited duration, and even more limited in terms of recollection. And, of course, there are releases that span the gap between. This week's flashback album is of the furious albeit brief variety. In fact, I did not even consciously recall this record until I started listening to its playlist on YouTube.

Electronic and avant-garde composer Nicolas Collins is known as a pioneer in the use of microcomputers and kit-bashed instruments in live performance. His homemade instruments would combine circuitry, simple computers, and traditional instruments. His third album, 1985's Devil's Music, features a performer DJ-ing with snippets of a live scanning radio, for example. 

According to Collins himself, "Devil’s Music is a performance piece about global media, local culture and individual interference. It developed in 1985 out of the confluence of my fascination with early Hip Hop DJs, a Cagean love of the splendor of radio, the introduction of the first affordable, portable samplers [nicolascollins.com, June 2009]. Devil's Music is a music collage in which radio transmissions are "digitally sampled, looped, retriggered, reversed, and de-tuned" through a "cheap sampling system (consisting of two Electro Harmonix Super Replays and one 16 second Delay) to develop the quirky rhythmic interplay that characteristizes the piece" [Collins]. 

Had I not been involved with the Penn State Electronic Music Lab, I probably would never had heard of Collins or this album. It seems I promptly forgot about his work shortly thereafter. But in listening to this album anew, I am pleasantly reminded of my own late hours in the studio, and discussions with the other students attempting to compose pieces from an assortment of loops, Moog recordings, and live instruments. 

Your mileage may vary, particularly if you have not noodled around with electronic music, but this record is still an interesting snapshot of everyday sounds turned into fodder for a compositional tapestry. Was it ahead of its time? Well, it was unsuccessful upon release 40 years ago. And I cannot find any commercial information regarding the album's 2009 reissue. At least it hasn't been completely abandoned to the dustbin of history.  

Flashback: Devil's Music (July 1985)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!

Friday 80s Flashback for July 11, 2025

[Heart Zooming] -- I'm here with another 1980s two-fer for your weekend. With both albums this week, we see artists well into their careers, but making a shift. And both of these albums feature outstanding female vocalists.  

Heart – With a self-titled album released in 1985, somewhere between mid-June and July 6, Heart not only revitalized their career with their eighth studio album, but also glammed up their look. They embraced corsets, fluffy shirts, and a few other pirate/glam touches. Just look at their album cover. While I'm not sure who influenced Heart's wardrobe change, I do know they had outside influences for the music. Heart saw the band working with several well-known songwriters such as Jim Vallance, Holly Knight, Mark Mueller, and Bernie Taupin. Heart's first three singles from this album – "What About Love", "Never", and "These Dreams" – were all top 40 hits in the US, and they also charted globally. Also, the music video for "Never" featured the band in their very best pirate glam finery. Heart peaked at the #1 slot on the Billboard 200, and was in the top 100 or better in several other countries. Heart was now a pop band, playing powerful hooks supported by polished songwriting, and the Wilson sisters' wore their tight corsets all the way to the most popular album they ever released.

Who's Zoomin' Who? – On July 9, 1985, Aretha Franklin released, Who's Zoomin' Who?, her 30th studio album. This marked a shift away from the adult contemporary sounds of her prior records and toward 1980s themes such as dance-pop, synths, and the then contemporary R&B styles. She got rave reviews and the lead single, "Freeway of Love", was a commercial success which not only peaked at #1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, but also earned Ms. Franklin a Grammy Award [see notes on TV80s.com]. This album also features "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves", a fantastic collab with Eurythmics. Who's Zoomin' Who? is considered Franklin's comeback album, and it even established her as a music video star. The album peaked at #13 on the US Billboard 200, #3 on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and #49 on the UK Albums chart, as well as zooming into the top 40 of charts around the world. 

What's on your turntable this weekend?

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Flashback #1: Heart (July 6, 1985)

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Flashback #2: Who's Zoomin' Who? (July 9, 1985)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!