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'70s Undergound, Pop/Post-Punk Music (1 Viewer)

Bob Magaw

Bob Magaw

Footballguy
Television - Proto-Punk/Alternative? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_(band)

Marquee Moon '77 debut (AUDIO 78 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfO9lpbbW_4

Wire - Art/Post-Punk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_(band)

Pink Flag '77 (AUDIO 67 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNVdziest58

Chairs Missing '78 second album (AUDIO 52 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScAYeUyY_uk

154 '79 third album (AUDIO 45 minutes), starts about 50 second mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aulVyCui5ss

Devo - De-Evolution Rock???

Wiki - Recommendations from David Bowie and Iggy Pop enabled Devo to secure a recording contract with Warner Bros. in 1978. After Bowie backed out of the business deal due to previous commitments, their first album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was produced by Brian Eno and featured re-recordings of their previous singles "Mongoloid" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".[17] On October 14, 1978, Devo gained national exposure with an appearance on Saturday Night Live, a week after the Rolling Stones, performing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Jocko Homo".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo

Secret Agent Man '76? (original VIDEO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ndN_NXf3o

Jocko Homo '76? (original VIDEO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRguZr0xCOc

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo debut album '78 (AUDIO 75 minutes), Mongoloid 10:51 mark 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d43gKl9xIME

Satisfaction '78? (original VIDEO 2:41)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jadvt7CbH1o

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert Live 1979 (VIDEO 14 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBqiW-PHpXM

Siouxsie and the Banshees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siouxsie_and_the_Banshees

The Scream '78 debut album (AUDIO 40 minutes), Jigsaw Feeling 1:49 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpGidqNu248

Ultravox - New Wave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultravox

Systems of Romance '78 third album (AUDIO 36 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVm2U1kp89Y

Vienna '80 fourth album (AUDIO 51 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imIW41AmclY

Pere Ubu - underground/self-styled avant garage 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pere_Ubu

Dub Housing '78 second album (AUDIO 35 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImqfhSGBxAQ

New Picnic Time '79 third album (AUDIO 36 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXFN80PcNgY

Joy Division - Post-Punk

Wiki - Joy Division's debut album, Unknown Pleasures, recorded with producer Martin Hannett, was released in 1979 to critical acclaim. As the band's popularity grew, Curtis, who suffered from personal problems that included severe depression, a failing marriage, and epilepsy, found it increasingly difficult to perform at live concerts, during which he occasionally collapsed into seizures.

In May 1980, on the eve of the band's first American tour, Curtis, aged 23, committed suicide. The group's second and final album, Closer, was released two months later; the album and preceding single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" became the band's highest charting release. After Curtis's death, the remaining members continued as New Order and achieved critical and commercial success. Although their career spanned less than four years, Joy Division have continued to exert a vast influence on a variety of subsequent artists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division

Unknown Pleasures '79 debut album (AUDIO 40 minutes), She's Lost Control Again 20:30 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVvoQIdD80U

Transmission '79 debut single (VIDEO 3 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dBt3mJtgJc 

Closer '80 second album (AUDIO 44 minutes), posthumous to the suicide of vocalist Ian Curtis on the eve of their first American tour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVVdEqBbr4k

Joy Division Under Review doc (VIDEO 70 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCHTVIS7ul8

Gang of Four - Post-Punk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Four_(band)

Damaged Goods single from their first EP '79 (AUDIO 3 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFU_1h7io0Y

Entertainment '79 debut album (AUDIO 40 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7sNfbprnKU&list=PLtYBT-4fCrkTV2DWryfFW7su0LnaWqFRa

Buzzcocks - Punk/Power Pop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzcocks

Singles Going Steady '79 first US release (AUDIO 75 minutes), Something's Gone Wrong Again 57:50 mark 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q61fOUrOuo4

The Dickies - Pop-Punk

Wiki - In 1988, the Dickies wrote and performed the theme music for the horror film Killer Klowns from Outer Space which was the debut of drummer Cliff Martinez who had recently played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weirdos, and Captain Beefheart. Martinez played with them from 1988 to 1994, and on albums such as Second Coming, Locked N' Loaded Live in London, and idjit Savant.

{Martinez has gone on to score, among films for several other directors, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive and Only God Forgives}  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dickies

Dawn of the Dickies '79 second album (AUDIO 34 minutes), Attack of the Mole Men 24:44 mark 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDqMaEAxhVQ

XTC - Rock

Probably would have been much bigger, but co-leader/songwriter and guitarist Andy Partridge developed stage fright which put the kibosh on live concerts (though it didn't seem to hurt Steely Dan too much, but they were clearly the exception, it is virtually axiomatic you need to tour to support albums - imagine if Jerry Garcia had catastrophically debilitating stage fright which precluded touring, probably no Grateful Dead in any recognizable form)  

Drums and Wires '79 third album (AUDIO 55 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph-cxsWVrMw

Skylarking '86 ninth album (AUDIO 50 minutes), NSFW cover - STRANGER DANGER!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85J91FwPrTw

Oranges & Lemons '89 eleventh album (AUDIO 1 hour), their Sgt. Peppers album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnq8mK_gwqk

Nonsuch '92 twelfth album (AUDIO 63 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CPjwx3MpoM

* Addendum

Simple Minds - Rock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Minds

Sparkle In The Rain '84 sixth album (AUDIO 67 minutes), Book of Brilliant Things 4:48 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKO77Mpvk5c

The Cure - Post-Punk/New Wave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me '87 seventh album (AUDIO 72 minutes), The Kiss intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8DPEtzLivE

Disintegration '89 eighth album (AUDIO '73 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVOSPb9B1SU

My Bloody Valentine - Shoegaze

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bloody_Valentine_(band)

Loveless '91 second album (AUDIO 48 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMjc4oz0mY

 
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Started a thread about a year ago proclaiming Wire's Pink Flag as possibly the greatest punk album ever. As I get older, nothing really compares. 

Just started to get into Chairs Missing per pantagrapher's recommendation, though 154 might be a tough slog through the Kraut Rock I'm not into yet.

eta* Buzzcocks are straight pop-punk. I love them, but they're not really post-punk, at least their most famous stuff. They're a pop band, like the Ramones.  

 
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I was trying to think of as many bands as I could from memory that at one time I had at least one album from..

Of all the above (except for XTC, which I had recently re/discovered - part of their body of work rediscovered, part discovered for the first time), Pink Flag by Wire was the single biggest revelation*. I really liked the stripped down, austere minimalism, which makes it less dated and more enduring/timeless.

Pop-Punk as well as Post-Punk are in the thread title (Dickies sort of overlap genres), there are admittedly a few entries that don't quite belong and are genre orphans to this thread, but I discovered them around the same time as the others, such as Ultravox.

* Devo's Secret Agent Man video was also way ahead of it's time, the original was way more proto-industrial/noise than the later, more commercial, radio-friendly version. 

Since you were specifically referencing greatest PUNK album ever (as distinct from POST-punk), for me, it could only be one, ask for it by name, don't accept cheap substitutes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bucVwI0RfEg

Sid & Nancy - Criterion Collection, starring Gary Oldman, by Repo Man director Alex Cox

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/28-sid-nancy

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZp3meyWVm0

And a few sentimental favorites (may be NSFW lyrics)

Germs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germs_(band)

GI (AUDIO 38 minutes), Lexicon Devil 10:08 mark 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm8Z9V8I0cA

What We Do Is Secret - Germs and the late Darby Crash biopic '07 (VIDEO 90 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17hZPTQuL6M

Decline of Western Civilization - seven excerpts, including a few by Crash and the Germs (VIDEO)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCTq_AHcqw&list=PLBrrfZs-ew7MxTKrVuPYTMwL6qBAgHndB

Dead Kennedy's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Kennedys

California Uber Alles (VIDEO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIqESwzCGg4

Holiday in Cambodia (AUDIO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA

Jello Biafra - SF independent mayoral candidate (VIDEO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvjpoy0q66w

 
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Bob Magaw said:
I was trying to think of as many bands as I could from memory that at one time I had at least one album from..

Of all the above (except for XTC, which I had recently re/discovered - part of their body of work rediscovered, part discovered for the first time), Pink Flag by Wire was the single biggest revelation. I really liked the stripped down, austere minimalism, which makes it less dated and more enduring/timeless.

Pop-Punk as well as Post-Punk are in the thread title (Dickies sort of overlap genres), there are admittedly a few entries that don't quite belong and are genre orphans to this thread, but I discovered them around the same time as the others, such as Ultravox.
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Regarding the point about the title -- yeah, makes sense. I guess the slash indicates pop-punk. I just think the Buzzcocks stand out amongst all those bands. They're instant gravity, the others are a slow burn to me -- they take longer and provide less instant gratification, though some of the Buzzcocks' later stuff is very edgy. 

As for the bolded, Wire is so crazy. A person into immediate gratification like myself can miss minimalism, but they did straight post-punk before post-punk was cool and straight pop before all those genres could reconcile in most people's minds. I took Mannequin as the best song from 1977 in a recent music draft and won't back down. It's pop/post-pop/post-punk, and everything else. Chairs Missing is not disappointing, either. It's awesome. Practice Makes Perfect and Men 2nd are killing me as I write. 

 
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rockaction said:
Regarding the point about the title -- yeah, makes sense. I guess the slash indicates pop-punk. I just think the Buzzcocks stand out amongst all those bands. They're instant gravity, the others are a slow burn to me -- they take longer and provide less instant gratification, though some of the Buzzcocks' later stuff is very edgy. 

As for the bolded, Wire is so crazy. A person into immediate gratification like myself can miss minimalism, but they did straight post-punk before post-punk was cool and straight pop before all those genres could reconcile in most people's minds. I took Mannequin as the best song from 1977 in a recent music draft and won't back down. It's pop/post-pop/post-punk, and everything else. Chairs Missing is not disappointing, either. It's awesome. Practice Makes Perfect and Men 2nd are killing me as I write. 
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From this '77 list, some of my favorites, good year for music - particularly Bowie :)  (not restricted to post-punk):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_in_music

Aja - Steely Dan

Animals - Pink Floyd

Decade - Neil Young (if we are counting compilations)

Farewell To Kings - Rush

Heroes - Bowie

Low - Bowie

Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live - <

Moroccan Roll - Brand X 

Never Mind The Bollocks - Sex Pistols

Peter Gabriel - <

Ra - Utopia

Songs From The Wood - Jethro Tull

Talking Heads: 77 - <

Terrapin Station - Grateful Dead

* BONUS 

Throbbing Gristle - Industrial/Anarchist Punk 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throbbing_Gristle

D.O.A. The Third And Final Report Of Throbbing Gristle '78 second album (AUDIO 42 Minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7VGEdaMG7A

20 Jazz Funk Greats '79 third album (AUDIO 42 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsjrg9j2c4

 
'77 was also a huge year for black rock (a lot of it either influenced by or itself influencing directly what was happening with punk and New Wave).

The P Funk conglomerate was in high gear (it's highest, IMO) with Parliament, Funkadelic, and Bootsy all either releasing or about to release their greatest albums. You can hear Clinton's influence all over stuff like The Cars' records.

Disciples of P Funk like Cameo & (especially) Slave were paying attention to punk, unlike most acts dominating AOR at the time. 

Hell, Chic WAS a punk band.

And disco - yep, disco - was more aligned with the punk ethos than any other movement of the time, both socially and culturally. Outsider music by those not allowed at the table, so they built their own ####### dining hall.

 
Im not really into any of those bands except maybe the dickies. But I dont understand the love for that pink flag album. Boring as hell to me. And I cant understand what the guy is saying. To each their own

 
Uruk-Hai said:
'77 was also a huge year for black rock (a lot of it either influenced by or itself influencing directly what was happening with punk and New Wave).

The P Funk conglomerate was in high gear (it's highest, IMO) with Parliament, Funkadelic, and Bootsy all either releasing or about to release their greatest albums. You can hear Clinton's influence all over stuff like The Cars' records.

Disciples of P Funk like Cameo & (especially) Slave were paying attention to punk, unlike most acts dominating AOR at the time. 

Hell, Chic WAS a punk band.

And disco - yep, disco - was more aligned with the punk ethos than any other movement of the time, both socially and culturally. Outsider music by those not allowed at the table, so they built their own ####### dining hall.
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My favorite disco song was from '77, and don't mind admitting I admire it a lot, hugely influential on what would later be known as genres such as electronic, dance, house - as were, from a different angle, Krautrock acts like Can, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk. Hilarious to me the label applied by British music journalists stuck, like if the German press had hit the Beatles and Stones with the moniker - Limeyrock! :)  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Moroder  

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (VIDEO 6 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm-ISatLDG0

Extended 12" edit (AUDIO 8 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2qI6UDD2uQ

Giorgio by Moroder from Daft Punk's Random Access Memories (AUDIO 9 minutes), I love the fact that Daft Punk is helping to resurrect some of these beautiful analog synth sounds that are increasingly becoming extinct in the Pro Tools era.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhl-Cs1-sG4

If people set aside for a moment the stigma associated with disco, and the slick string/horn arrangements and polished to a sheen vocal harmonies, the instrumental backing track here is pretty BUMPIN and owes more than a little debt to funk. Check out the number of hits this song has had, nearly equivalent to half the people in America listening to it once (either that, or one person really, really, really listening to it a lot).    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_izvAbhExY

Graham Central Station, electric bass pioneer/funk genius Larry Graham's post-Sly and the Family Stone's band leader vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Central_Station

Earthquake from Now Do U Wanta Dance '77 fifth album (AUDIO 6 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZQCij721jQ

Do Yah from Mirror '76 fourth album (AUDIO 4 minutes), this makes Kool and the Gang and The Ohio Players sound like a Lawrence Welk polka - a one-a and a two-a! :)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqpPNN_s62M

The Jam from Ain't No 'Bout-A-Doubt It third album (AUDIO 8 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is665CtmBUc

Water also from ANBADI (AUDIO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-SXPLNZUHM

Bohannon was sort of proto-disco

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Bohannon

Foot Stompin Music was from '74, kind of like Bo Diddley was for rock 'n roll (AUDIO 7 minutes)? James Brown was probably the Godfather of Disco as well as Soul and Funk. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLCHN7gIT8Q

Even earlier, multi-culti bands incorporated rock, funk, soul, jazz and latin, some of the beats and grooves which would influence and inform disco stylistically (in turn influenced by the likes of Sly Stone and Santana) 

War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_(band)

The World is a Ghetto was the biggest seller of '73 (AUDIO 44 minutes) ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRpiw6W0JSY

Mandrill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrill_(band)

Fence Walk from Composite Truth '73 third album (AUDIO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv1_Vqnjs-0

Mandrill Is '72 second album (AUDIO 43 minutes), Ape Is High intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swlG8lHaStU

 
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Was a hud Devo fan when they came out. Going to see The Cure this Thursday. 

 
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Bob Magaw said:
My favorite disco song was from '77, and don't mind admitting I admire it a lot, hugely influential on what would later be known as genres such as electronic, dance, house - as were, from a different angle, Krautrock acts like Can, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk. Hilarious to me the label applied by British music journalists stuck, like if the German press had hit the Beatles and Stones with the moniker - Limeyrock! :)  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Moroder  

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (VIDEO 6 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm-ISatLDG0

Extended 12" edit (AUDIO 8 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2qI6UDD2uQ

Giorgio by Moroder
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 The documentary Synth Britannia  touches on the influence of I Feel Love in the beginning of Synth Pop in the late 70s early 80s. Good movie if you like the genre. 

 
The Dickies were always one of my favorites. I saw them live on numerous occasions. Besides being perhaps the funniest band ever IMO, they had an excellent sense of pop melodies, on songs like:

"Where Did His Eye Go?"

"Infidel Zombie"

"Stuck In a Pagoda With Tricia Toyota"

"Manny Moe and Jack"

"Fan Mail"

"Rosemary"

"Wagon Train"

"Stukas Over Disneyland"

Just great great music. 

 
Another great music thread Bob!  Though as I look back, I still gravitate mostly to a slightly earlier time (early 70s) rock ...this music is right in "the times of your life" growing into adulthood.  

Music (except for some rock hold outs and punk) by the time of my HS graduation was not good.  Disco was big ...ugh.  The groups on your list were among those we were glad to have to help wash the bitter taste of what was primarily on FM radio at the time.  

NOTE:  The Stranglers were pretty ####### awesome as well.  No More Heroes album - The Stranglers

 
Binky The Doormat said:
.  Disco was big ...ugh.  
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You know I love you, Binky, and you & I also know the music we like is maybe the most subjective thing in the arts, but I would suggest maybe having a second listen here. There was some really subversive #### going on in disco. It was certainly more daring than anything AOR was playing at the time (having devolved into playing Billy ####### Joel to fill airtime because everyone else had either died or just got sick of it). 

As stated above, "I Feel Love" may be THE most influential single record of the 70s

 
Uruk-Hai said:
You know I love you, Binky, and you & I also know the music we like is maybe the most subjective thing in the arts, but I would suggest maybe having a second listen here. There was some really subversive #### going on in disco. It was certainly more daring than anything AOR was playing at the time (having devolved into playing Billy ####### Joel to fill airtime because everyone else had either died or just got sick of it). 

As stated above, "I Feel Love" may be THE most influential single record of the 70s




 
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I think back on disco fondly based on being in the disco atmosphere for several years chasing girls.  Its kind of like Journey and that stuff - hated it at the time but its a background to good times of your life.  

I think you are talking about the Donna Summer song "I Feel Love" - just went and listened to it and remember it now.  Good tune but certainly not transcendent or influential for me. Remembering I am of the Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Mott the Hoople, The Who, Todd etc. ilk.  

I was a Parliment fan though.  :yes:

 
Uruk-Hai said:
And disco - yep, disco - was more aligned with the punk ethos than any other movement of the time, both socially and culturally. Outsider music by those not allowed at the table, so they built their own ####### dining hall.
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I agree. It seems the two not only merged in art form in the late '70s/early '80s and later on in the early-mid aughts (think Radio 4, Franz Ferdinand, Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, etc.) but both had already staked out its consciousness in even the sociopolitical world. The bleak nihilism and futility of punk mixed with the promise of a more existentialist (some might say starker, like I would) yet freer sexuality emerged and paired weirdly. Cultural critics have taken note of those (how could they not?) and began to see either a necessarily individualism or a flourishing of impenetrable identity politics and the "Me" decade. 

But more than people probably think, disco and punk were really brothers and sisters fighting. Both extremely DIY, both -- like you point out -- self-selective and individualistic in terms of venue and personage. Everything ran parallel, it seems.  

 
AcerFC said:
Im not really into any of those bands except maybe the dickies. But I dont understand the love for that pink flag album. Boring as hell to me. And I cant understand what the guy is saying. To each their own
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I think I might love that Wire album more than most because I got into it in 2004, and most of the '76-'79 punk stuff was played out by me back then. 

Plus, I always loved the power chords of 12XU (What hardcore kid hasn't heard that song?) the riff in Three Girl Rhumba, and the pop stylings of Mannequin. There's a whole lot going on in that album that's right up my alley -- politics, social commentary, riffage, melody (they even had massive arguments over who got credited with melody and vocal melody in the reissue, or so I'm reading), simple notes repeated, minimalism as not just theory but practice. I just dig it.  

 
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Nile Rodgers from Chic is still relevant.  He was a producer on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and many others.

i loved XTC, but never got to see them due to Andy Partridges stage fright.

 
lakerstan said:
Nile Rodgers from Chic is still relevant. .
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He gets some play these days (mostly because Bowie died; so white people get to say they like him), but you're right. What gets me is how his band is forgotten. Chic was as good a band as the 70s produced. Bernard Edwards was among the half-dozen or so most influential bass players in rock history. Tony Thompson was John Bonham, but could keep time. And Nile was an incredibly inventive guitarist. I'm not a U2 fan, but there ain't no Edge without Rodgers' showing him how to do it.

 
lakerstan said:
Nile Rodgers from Chic is still relevant.  He was a producer on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and many others.

i loved XTC, but never got to see them due to Andy Partridges stage fright.
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Rodgers figured prominently in the excellent Bowie MUSICAL doc Five Years (another was the earlier Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars Movie documenting the band's final performance, Cracked Actor was a great BEHIND THE SCENES doc on Bowie's life when he was doing more blow than Scarface, capturing the unlikely blue-eyed soul oblique tangent in the middle of the Diamond Dogs intended George Orwell homage tour into the so called Philly Dogs back half, working with people like Luther Vandross, eventually recording Young Americans - it documented an incredibly fertile period of his which he claims he can remember very little of, soon to include my single favorite Bowie album Station to Station, and also to his being cast by Nicolas Roeg in what proved to be his greatest acting performance, The Man Who Fell To Earth), for collaborating on what remarkably ended up being the greatest hit in his entire body of work, Let's Dance. 

Nile Rodgers remembers David Bowie and their Let's Dance collaboration - BBC Newsnight (VIDEO 6 minutes), notes he went to high school with some of the musicians on Young Americans    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlePcRFqLOw    

Tells similar stories accompanied by guitar (VIDEO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaIx_FBk4-Q

Let's Dance (VIDEO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA

Tour rehearsals with the late Stevie Ray Vaughn on guitar (AUDIO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEn3BPsXTbU

China Girl, from the same album (VIDEO 4 minutes),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8IXx4tsus

Nile Rodgers The Hitmaker, BBC doc spanning Chic to Let's Dance and beyond (VIDEO 1 hour) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ith7xkuYGc

Get Lucky, the monster hit from Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, a ridiculous quarter billion hits. Closing in on 10 million in sales, the track co-written by the robot duo, Rodgers and vocalist Pharrell Williams is already one of the best selling records in history after being released just about three years ago. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Lucky_(Daft_Punk_song) 

VIDEO 4 minutes 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

Grammy performance with Stevie Wonder (VIDEO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mscigB4WtvA

* BONUS BOWIE

Cracked Actor doc (VIDEO 53 minutes), directed by a future BBC programming chief?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsPVrsZcbZU

Perhaps it shouldn't have been surprising that Bowie would pursue his blue eyed soul vector (he tried just about everything else, a true chameleon, and not just sartorially or in terms of image, but musically and stylistically). When he was a boy, LONG before he got into the music business, he wanted to grow up to be Little Richard and was first a sax player. He was a keen LISTENER, one of the greatest ever imo musically, and absorbed influences and transmuted them into something that was his own. Once he moved away from his Ziggy Stardust period/phase and actively shed that image and sound (kind of a courageous decision artistically and commercially, how many would walk away JUST when reaching his THEN-pinnacle of global fame - yet he claimed to feel kind of splintered and fragmented, people expected that iteration of Bowie, and he began to feel dissociated and abstracted, existentially hollow and couldn't always feel or remember who he even really was any more, becoming increasingly alarmed and disturbed by this turn of events - complicated by the fact that there was a deep streak of legit madness that ran in his family, reminiscent of the saying that sometimes there isn't much separation from genius and madness), in a few years he was working with his brilliant core funk/soul rhythm section trio of guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis, that keyed arguably his greatest work, as much as I like the Spiders From Mars era. Station to Station, the "Berlin" Trilogy, live Stage document from that era and Scary Monsters.

Bowie was even combining influences and sounds kaleidoscopically like a musical mad scientist, soon adding to this mix Brian Eno (formerly of Roxy Music, soon to be the Godfather of Ambient Music, and globally in demand producer on diverse works like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with David Byrne, Remain in Light with Talking Heads, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby with U2) and his frequent collaborator Robert Fripp of prog's King Crimson fame.

Early Eno/Fripp collaboration, the track Baby's on Fire '73 (AUDIO 5 minutes), Fripps *INCENDIARY* tone and solo greatly adds to the menacing, sinister atmosphere - as if the lyrical/vocal content weren't already enough. An influential solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=961e4TOINmA

Eno and Fripp live in concert from '75 (VIDEO 10 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Rd0AUCmuE 

A bizarre but awesome showcase of Frippertronics, a layered/looped solo guitar that quickly moves from the simple to complex in a matter of seconds, on the Midnight Special '79 (VIDEO 4 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2wGj73hjTc

Eno/Byrne's influential collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a heady stew and fascinating amalgam of funk, rock, electronic, dance, ambient, world, found sounds from stray radio transmissions (pioneered along with world, ambient and sampling by Holger Czukay of Can, who was a student of Stockhausen, one of the most internationally important modern composers of the second half of the 20th century, himself a pioneer of electronics and the incorporation of chance and randomness in music, a huge part of Eno's philosophy and sensibility), preachers, exorcisms. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts_(album)  

(AUDIO 40 minutes), 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOXbk1GYkxE

This collaboration of course led directly to Talking Heads Remain in Light in '80, one of the greatest albums of the '80s. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remain_in_Light

Once In A Lifetime (VIDEO 4 minutes), love the kind of mosaic of repetitive, rhythmic, funky, shimmering backbeats of Eno-treated electronics, swirling synths and guitars, syncopated bass and drums, everybody was playing everything. In some ways like when Sly Stone ran EVERY instrument through a wah wah processor for the album Riot, this repetitive sound may also have been influenced by the work of American modern classical/minimalist composers such as Steve Reich (and Philip Glass).   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wg1DNHbNU

Same song excerpted from the live concert doc Stop Making Sense by director Jonathan Demme of Silence of the Lambs fame (VIDEO 5 minutes). Adrian Belew (see below) augmented the band in the studio for Remain in Light, P-Funk architect and synth genius/maestro Bernie Worrell did live on tour, captured below.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGofoH9RDEA

Music For 18 Musicians by Steve Reich (VIDEO 65 minutes), it mutates so slowly you barely notice as layers are gradually added and subtracted, but by the end, it has evolved significantly, great music for background/reading. If you listen to a song like My Sharona with obvious hooks, you are sick of it in 2-3 listens, some of Eno's best work has no hooks and so sounds fresh each time, there are always new things to be discovered. Like great art in literature and cinema, it rewards multiple readings/viewings/listenings.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c

Music For Films by Eno  '78 (AUDIO 40 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5VIJor61uM

Ambient 4: On Land by Eno '82 (AUDIO 44 minutes), with the linked albums that flank this, for me conjures a sense of eternity and timelessness, like a musical space characterized by vastness and immensity, a sonic event horizon that stretches outwards to infinity. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rt6L9OCBcc

Apollo - Atmospheres & Soundtracks by Eno '83 (AUDIO 50 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a76E5Kc-d_w

Bowie even had some disco-like material, and some of his most commercial hits from that era I love because of their insanely infectious beats and rhythmically funky grooves (Fame was on Young Americans, Golden Years on Diamond Dogs).

Fame was co-written/inspired by John Lennon (VIDEO 3 minutes), supposedly intended for Elvis, who ironically and sadly/tragically could have benefited from a heart felt listen to the cautionary tale lyrics from two other very famous people and themselves among the most iconic stars of the 60's and 70's, respectively. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD3etldXtTU    

Golden Years (VIDEO 3 minutes), both "performances" from Soul Train, Bowie was just the second white performer in the show's history - maybe it helped to lip synch that he had a mime background. :)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8u8mODGOlg 

The first was Scorpio by Dennis Coffey (VIDEO 5 minutes), you can hear the Blaxploitation score influence. Coffey was in a band with Bohannon mentioned above which was sort of a disco precursor, and as you can see in the wiki notes from this track, the Funk Brothers musical DNA is all over this record. 

"Scorpio" was written by Dennis Coffey for his sophomore album Evolution. The guitar line which begins the record actually consists of nine guitar riffs overdubbed on top of one another, spanning three octaves.

It features Coffey on rhythm guitar; Rare Earth's Ray Monette and Joe Podorsic from the Detroit Guitar Band on guitar; Uriel Jones and Richard "Pistol" Allen on drums; Bob Babbitt on bass; "Bongo" Eddie Brown on congas; Jack Ashford on tambourine; and Earl Van Dyke on piano. Bob Babbitt and Eddie "Bongo" Brown perform solos. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV3Al6CdmUQ

Who are the Funk Brothers? They played on more #1 hits than The Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Elvis and The Beatles COMBINED! Yet, bizarrely, virtually NOBODY knows who they are, which reflects the crazy, upside down state of affairs for studio musicians and their lack of recognition, and sometimes label exploitation.   

Trailer from the brilliant musical doc Standing in the Shadows of Motown (VIDEO 3 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tqQBh2Ra_o

Back to Bowie, with his own "Funk Brothers", and the Alomar/Murray/Davis rhythm section axis, my favorite live rendition of Station to Station, the last night of the Isolar II World Tour, Tokyo '78 (AUDIO 13 minutes). Band includes Utopia's Roger Powell on synths and the ubiquitous Adrian Belew on guitar, soon to play with Talking Heads/Eno on the seminal Remain In Light (see above) and later join forces with Robert Fripp in the brilliant reincarnated King Crimson, Discipline era lineup that included Tony Levin on bass/stick and Yes/Genesis alumni Bill Bruford on drums.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDXBeu3198c 

Belew with King Crimson circa Discipine '81 (VIDEO 9 minutes)

Sheltering Sky mixes African, funk, trance, rock and almost a classical, Bach-like sense and style of contrapuntal/counterpointed interweaving of traded off rhythm/lead, rhythm/rhythm and lead/lead guitars (live in concert '82).   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwXJ6DMYFLk 

And collaborating with Eno on the "Berlin" Trilogy, A New Career In A New Town from Low (AUDIO 3 minutes), deceptively simple backbeat, but a LOT of stuff going on in the background. Bowie and Eno were listening heavily to Krautrock at this time (mercifully, a genre/thread unto itself). A real secret weapon during these session was long time associate and collaborator Tony Visconti (who was actually in the band and the bassist on some early Bowie albums pre-Spiders from Mars, before he shifted career emphasis into the musical production part of the spectrum and side of the business, maybe a big reason he had such a great ear - he was the co-producer here, not Eno, who WAS a co-writer and obviously key collaborator). When Bowie, Eno, Visconti and at times Fripp were in the studio together, that must have been a meeting of minds which was the musical equivalent of the 1927 Physics Conferences with Bohr and Einstein to grapple with the newly discovered implications of Quantum Theory, or the secret Manhattan Project, one of the greatest assemblages of math, physics and engineering brain power in history to beat the Nazis to the A bomb.

http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/solvay-conference-probably-intelligent-picture-ever-taken-1927/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhZqsYkl1zI

Heroes, title track from the same album with Fripp guesting on guitar (VIDEO 3 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g

Fashion from Scary Monsters, also with Fripp (VIDEO 3 minutes). Who else could get away with putting such an angular, dissonant, jagged solo on top of a hit (a rhetorical question)?   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA27aQZCQMk

Kingdom Come from Scary Monsters also benefited from Fripp's presence (AUDIO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQnlXIomPGs

Ashes to Ashes from Scary Monsters sans Fripp, but one of my favorites from the album (VIDEO 4 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMThz7eQ6K0

Live version (VIDEO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNqo0kIR-TU

** BONUS Bonus - BLAXPLOITATION influence on disco 

If we are talking about influences, funk, soul and R & B were huge in disco, and it is impossible to talk about THAT without at least tangentially addressing the Blaxploitation score genre.

While not Blaxploitation, I'm going to start off the below look at the iconic Shaft, Superfly and The Payback scores with Donny Hathaway's classic song/record The Ghetto, which effortlessly interweaves rock, funk, soul, latin beats and grooves.

"The Ghetto" is a socially conscious, mostly instrumental Jazz/Latin Jazz flavored anthem, released as the first single off American soul singer Donny Hathaway's debut album, Everything Is Everything, released as a single in 1970 on Atlantic Records.

The song was also featured on Hathaway's revered Live album in which Hathaway and his musicians played a faster version of the song and later featured Hathaway getting the audience into it singing the final chorus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghetto_(Donny_Hathaway_song)

Live version (AUDIO 12 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMtUP_U-nGc

Shaft by Isaac Hayes '71 (of Memphis Stax Soul label fame). Amazing that a perfectionist band like Daft Punk can take a half decade on ONE album, the Beatles sometimes took months on a single song, and Hayes recorded the rhythm tracks and string/horn orchestral arrangements on consecutive days! Again, per wiki:

Hayes initially became involved with Shaft in hopes of having director Gordon Parks cast him in the title role, but was not aware that Richard Roundtree had already been cast as John Shaft.[2] Hayes did appear in the film in a cameo role, but, more significantly, composed the film's score. While the film was still in production, Parks sent Hayes raw footage of some of the film's scenes, and Hayes wrote three pieces for the scenes: "Theme from Shaft" for the opening title sequence, "Soulsville" for a scene in which Shaft walks through Harlem, and "Ellie's Love Theme" for a love scene.[2]

Pleased with the results, MGM hired Hayes to compose the rest of the score, and the musician spent two months working between tour dates on the score at the MGM studio.[2] Once the score was composed and arranged, Hayes recorded the rhythm tracks with Stax band The Bar-Kays in one day.[2] The orchestral tracks were recorded the next day, and the vocals the day after that.[2] The songs were later re-recorded for the album at Stax Studios and slightly rearranged from their film versions: MGM's recording facility was based upon a three-track system, and Hayes wanted a richer sound for the album).

Upon its release in the summer of 1971, Shaft became the first double album of original studio material released by an R&B artist.[2] The album peaked at number one on The Billboard 200 chart, and spent sixty weeks on the chart. It took the top position on the Top R&B Albums chart for 14 weeks. Both "Theme from Shaft" and "Do Your Thing" became Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the former peaking at number one.

At the 1972 Grammy Awards, "Theme from Shaft" won the awards for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical and Best Instrumental Arrangement. The film score as a whole won for Best Instrumental Composition Written Specifically For A Motion Picture or for Television. The National Association of Television and Radio Announcers gave Shaft its Album of the Year award.[2] At the Academy Awards that year, Hayes became the first African-American to win an Oscar for a non-acting category when "Theme from Shaft" won the award for Best Original Song.[2] Isaac Hayes was nominated for Original Dramatic Score as well, losing to Michel Legrand for the score to Summer of '42.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaft_(album)

The most famous chicken pickin scratch, wah wah guitar ever - by the inimitable Charles "Skip" Pitts? (AUDIO 4 minutes) Won an Oscar, the first by a black composer, so obvious hugely influential throughout the decade.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFvRvSxsW-I

Hayes performing Shaft live at the Oscars (AUDIO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M380X-AeBpM

Letterman Show (AUDIO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiNwGHHHuMI

Superfly by Curtis Mayfield '72. Per wiki:

Superfly is the third studio album by American soul musician Curtis Mayfield, released in July 1972 on Curtom Records. It was released as the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation film of the same name. Widely considered a classic of 1970s soul and funk music, Super Fly was a nearly immediate hit. Its sales were bolstered by two million-selling singles, "Freddie's Dead" (#2 R&B, #4 Pop) and the title track (#5 R&B, #8 Pop). Super Fly is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.[11]

Superfly, along with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, was one of the pioneering soul concept albums, with its then-unique socially aware lyrics about poverty and drug abuse making the album stand out.[12][13] The film and the soundtrack may be perceived as dissonant, since the film holds rather ambiguous views on drug dealers, whereas Curtis Mayfield's position is far more critical. Like What's Going On, the album was a surprise hit that record executives felt had little chance at significant sales. Due to its success, Mayfield was tapped for several film soundtracks over the course of the decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfly_(soundtrack)

AUDIO 4 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmo6MRYf5g

The Payback by James Brown '74, hilarious back story per wiki below:

The song and the album of the same name were originally recorded by Brown as the accompanying soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Hell Up in Harlem (1973), but was rejected by the movie's producers as "the same old James Brown stuff."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Payback_(song) 

If this doesn't make you move, have someone take your pulse, but you are probably already dead and might as well have them notify the morgue (AUDIO 7 minutes), I don't know karate, but I know ka-razy! :)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IST6qRfVqwY

 
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From Bob's post:

Early Eno/Fripp collaboration, the track Baby's on Fire '73 (AUDIO 5 minutes), Fripps *INCENDIARY* tone and solo greatly adds to the menacing, sinister atmosphere - as if the lyrical/vocal content weren't already enough. An influential solo.

This whole album is amazing.  

Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

Name supposedly based on the moment of male ejaculation  :D

 
I meant to note the album (seriously  :) ), thanks Binky, nice catch.

That was Eno's first solo album. I also liked his next two (though largely gravitated to his ambient body of work and listened to those the most).

Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy second solo album '74

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_Tiger_Mountain_(By_Strategy)  

The True Wheel favorite track, 33:00 mark (AUDIO 48 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcQgfvfF1M

Another Green World third solo album '75, my favorite from his non-ambient solo body of work (I liked some of his Fripp collaborations a lot, too). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Green_World

St. Elmo's Fire features typically virtuoso guitar work by Fripp, 5:18 mark (AUDIO 40 minutes), I was enthralled by the evocative atmosphere pregnant with mystery of the instrumental In Dark Trees from the first time I heard it, 8:22 mark, the short, minimal, wistful title track, 17:46, Fripp has a spare, austere solo on Golden Hours, 23:20 mark and the aptly titled solo song (with multiple dubbed synth lines) Becalmed, 27:21.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVCkmIwRrc0

 
This is my era and postpunk is the genre that has always turned my crank, so :blackdot: for when i have time.

Lols and love for bob starting the thread. Skimming, i saw everything from donna summer to steve reich, so not exactly sure wth is going on in here, but looking forward to finding out.

 
Possible genres?

Punk-a-billy?

If there were any punk/post-punk bands from the Appalachian Mountains, like West Virginia, sort of like Seattle was a hot spot for grunge, and it was a called Appalachian Punk, that would be an example of an Appalachian appellation (and an imaginary song from this time populating this imaginary genre might have been called - Paraquat Parakeet). :)  

I think I did hear the Cramps once referred to as punk-a-billy (below called psychobilly).

Their music is mostly in rockabilly form, played at varying tempos, with a minimal drumkit. An integral part of the early Cramps sound was dual guitars, without a bassist. The focus of their songs' lyrical content and their image was camp humor, sexual double-entendre, and retro horror/sci-fi b-movie iconography.

Their sound was heavily influenced by early rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll like Link Wray and Hasil Adkins, 1960s surf music acts such as The Ventures and **** Dale, 1960s garage rock artists like The Standells, The Trashmen, The Green Fuz and The Sonics, as well as the post-glam/early punk scene from which they emerged, as well as citing Ricky Nelson as being an influence during numerous interviews. They also were influenced to a degree by the Ramones and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who were an influence for their style of theatrical horror-blues.[2]

In turn, The Cramps have influenced countless subsequent bands in the garage, punk and revival rockabilly styles,[3][4] and helped create the psychobilly genre. "Psychobilly" was a term coined1 by The Cramps, although Lux Interior maintained that the term did not describe their own style.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cramps

Songs The Lord Taught Us '80 first album (AUDIO originally 38 minutes, bonus tracks)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bf7jCr_wLw&list=PLmHkA2hEXqJGxaWObk_cHx1ldJ2h24gM4

Psychedelic Jungle '81, second album (AUDIO 38 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwPWRg3KGlY

Ultra-Twist in Conan '94 (VIDEO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_xyD5-jRnc

There is probably punk funk  (Bad Brains formed in '77)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Brains

Originally formed as a jazz fusion ensemble under the name Mind Power,[5] Bad Brains developed a very fast and intense punk rock sound which came to be labeled "hardcore", and was often played faster and more emphatically than the music of many of their peers. The unique factor of the band's music was the fact that they played more complex rhythms than other hardcore punk bands, also adapting non-punk style guitar riffs and solos into their songs. 

The B-52s more new wave than post-punk, but I liked some of their stuff at the time, in some ways they reminded me of Devo in their quirkiness and weirdness. If David Lynch had cast/scripted a band, they might have looked a lot like this. :)  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_B-52's

Planet Claire '79 (VIDEO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT1L5swMMVI

Live '83 (4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVZ5KTxyOOY

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Post-Punk/Alt. Rock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cave_and_the_Bad_Seeds

This one is dedicated to El Floppo, from what I think is one of his favorite movies (VIDEO 4 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjYf9IiB8QE

 
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If its Nick Cave in Wings of Desire or the Cramps in Urgh! A Music War, you nailed it. 

The latter was the source material/jumping off point for a ton of bands for 11 or 12 year old me, including the Cramps... and the Au Pairs- worth a mention in the post-punk genre. Some crazy Xish male/female harmonies and different themes (ie women faking orgasms in "come again")

 
btw- 8yo floppinho does music at school of rock (franchise.... yes, I know) where his band is doing blitzkrieg bop. over the weekend, we went to a pool and I was trying to explain surf music while drowning/dunking him. couldn't think of any ventures or **** dale classics, and for some reason fixated on the goo goo muck, by the cramps. sang as much as I could remember with surf chords intermixed. so timely stuff seeing it in here too. 4yo floppinha dug it more than #1 son.

 
El Floppo said:
btw- 8yo floppinho does music at school of rock (franchise.... yes, I know) where his band is doing blitzkrieg bop. over the weekend, we went to a pool and I was trying to explain surf music while drowning/dunking him. couldn't think of any ventures or **** dale classics, and for some reason fixated on the goo goo muck, by the cramps. sang as much as I could remember with surf chords intermixed. so timely stuff seeing it in here too. 4yo floppinha dug it more than #1 son.
Click to expand...
Pulp Fiction had some great surf rock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4cLmXml8O0

0:00 - Misirlou / Pumpkin & Honey Bunny
2:27 - Royalé with Cheese dialogue
4:12 - Jungle Boogie
7:19 - Let's Stay Together
10:36 - Bustin' Surfboards
13:04 - Lonesome Town
15:20 - Son of a Preacher Man
17:46 - Zed's Dead Baby / Bullwinkle Part II
20:17 - You Never Can Tell (Twist Contest/Dance Scene)
23:31 - Girl, You WIll be a Woman Soon
26:41 - If Love is a Red Dress
31:40 - Bring out the Gimp / Commanche
33:50 - Flowers on the Wall
36:15 - Personality Goes a Long Way (Pork Conversation)
37:17 - Surf Rider
40:49 - Ezekiel 25 : 17

**** Dale

**** Dale (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937) is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He pioneered the surf music style, drawing on Eastern musical scales and experimenting with reverberation. He worked closely with Fender to produce custom made amplifiers,[1] including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.[2] He pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop new equipment that was capable of producing distorted, "thick, clearly defined tones" at "previously undreamed-of volumes." The "breakneck speed of his single-note staccato picking technique" and showmanship with the guitar is considered a precursor to heavy metal music, influencing guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dale

Reportedly (possibly apocryphal story :) ) plays at pick melting speeds.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40019

 
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This link attempts to tie together the Fripp, Bowie, XTC, Gang of Four, B-52s and **** Dale portions of the thread.

Here's a live video of Fripp's short-lived League of Gentlemen project.  They toured and recorded one album in 1980-1 in between Fripp's work with Bowie and the reboot of King Crimson with Bruford, Levin and Belew.

League of Gentlemen - Dislocated

The band also included Barry Andrews who played on the early XTC lineup, Sara Lee who replaced Dave Allen in Gang of Four and a drummer playing a minimalistic backbeat.  It's rather stiff, instrumental dance music that has kind of an alien surf music vibe at times and gets completely unhinged at others.  The album was more of the same

 
Polyrock was an interesting but unsuccessful New York post-punk outfit.  Their schtick was minimalism with credibility via association with Philip Glass who produced and appeared on their albums.  It sounds more like early Talking Heads to me but with a Glass record playing in lockstep in the background.

Polyrock - Romantic Me (Live 1981)

Their music is dated by frantic tempos and nervous vocals but when they slow it down and stretch things out a little, it sounds a whole lot better to my modern ears.

Polyrock - Your Dragging Feet (audio only)

 
Post-punk wiki page

Post-punk is a diverse type of rock music that emerged in the wake of the punk movement of the 1970s. Drawing inspiration from elements of punk rock while departing from its musical conventions and wider cultural affiliations, post-punk music was marked by varied, experimentalist sensibilities and its "conceptual assault" on rock tradition.[2] Artists embraced electronic music, black dance styles and the avant-garde, as well as novel recording technology and production techniques. The movement also saw the frequent intersection of music with art and politics, as artists liberally drew inspiration from sources such as critical theory, cinema, performance art and modernist literature.[3] Accompanying these musical developments were communities that produced visual art, multimedia performances, independent record labels and fanzines in conjunction with the music.

The early post-punk vanguard included groups such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire, Public Image Ltd, Devo, Joy Division, Talking Heads, the Pop Group, Gang of Four, Throbbing Gristle, and the Contortions. Post-punk was closely related to the development of ancillary genres such as gothic rock, no wave and industrial music. By the mid 1980s, much of the movement had dissipated while providing the impetus for the New Pop movement as well much subsequent alternative and independent music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-punk

Before I was reconstructing things from memory, but it looks like most of the broad contours and terrain covered by the thread thus far generally fit, without coloring outside the lines TOO much. :)  

I was reminded of PIL, vocalist John(ny Rotten) Lydon's post-Sex Pistols vehicle, as well as Gary Numan (HellToupee alluded to the synth pop genre above).

PIL (Public Image Ltd) - Post-Punk

Public Image Ltd (also known as PiL) are an English post-punk band formed by singer John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble, and drummer Jim Walker. The group's personnel has changed frequently over the years; Lydon has been the sole constant member.

Lydon emerged after the break-up of the Sex Pistols with PiL's Public Image: First Issue (1978). The new band had a more experimental sound than the Pistols: a "droning, slow-tempo, bass-heavy noise rock, overlaid by Lydon's distinctive, vituperative rant".[1] Their early work is often regarded as some of the most challenging and innovative music of the post-punk era. Their 1979 album Metal Box was ranked number 469 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The NME described PiL as "arguably the first post-rock group".   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Image_Ltd

Public Image: First Issue '78 debut album (40 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U44m3ntjWBk

Metal Box '79 second album (AUDIO 1 hour)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhLMgPmtvIc

Live concerts '80 & '83 (VIDEO 25 & 35 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTu5qyAMnHY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKMEYElUgI

I'm also familiar with PIL bassist Jah Wobble through some collaborations with Eno and Laswell.

Eno/Wobble - Spinner '95 (AUDIO 50 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E3fIHK1nAk&list=PLB--yRp2J0bG7fy9kp9wswL6oMCNf3FTj

Jah Wobble + Bill Laswell: RadioAxiom - A Dub Transmission '01 (AUDIO 50 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6TcIXuqvA 

Gary Numan - New Wave/Synth Pop

Gary Anthony James Webb, better known professionally as Gary Numan (born 8 March 1958), is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Born in Hammersmith, London, he first entered the music industry as the lead singer of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, Numan released his debut solo album The Pleasure Principle in 1979. Most widely known for his chart-topping hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars", Numan achieved his peak of mainstream popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but maintains a loyal cult following.

Numan, whose signature sound consists of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals, is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music.

Around this time, Numan also developed his style. According to Numan, this was an unintentional result of acne; before an appearance on Top of the Pops, he had "spots everywhere, so they slapped about half an inch of white makeup on me before I'd even walked in the door. And my eyes were like pissholes in the snow, so they put black on there. My so-called image fell into place an hour before going on the show". His "wooden" stage presence was, in his words, a result of extreme self-consciousness and lack of "showmanship" and often referred to as being "like an android". During this period, Numan generated an army of fans calling themselves "Numanoids", providing him with a fanbase which maintained their support through the latter half of the 1980s, when his fortunes began to fall precipitously.

He later said that he, "Got really hung up with this whole thing of not feeling, being cold about everything, not letting emotions get to you, or presenting a front of not feeling".

At age 15, after a series of outbursts in which Numan would "smash things up, scream and shout, get in people's faces and break stuff", he was prescribed antidepressants and anxiolytics. Numan's wife later suggested he had Asperger syndrome; after reading about the syndrome and taking a series of online tests, he agreed. He has Asperger's syndrome. In a 2001 interview, he said: "Polite conversation has never been one of my strong points. Just recently I actually found out that I'd got a mild form of Asperger's syndrome which basically means I have trouble interacting with people. For years, I couldn't understand why people thought I was arrogant, but now it all makes more sense".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Numan

Tubeway Army - Are "Friends" Electric? '79, single from second album Replicas (VIDEO 5 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs5OfDzYqL0

Numan - Cars '79 UK, '80 US, single from third album Pleasure Principle (VIDEO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldyx3KHOFXw

Live Wembley '81 (VIDEO 2 hours)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBvy9vtnBwc

 
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Is this where I should put this? Pick a category for it and then put it at the top of the list. Minutemen are one of those bands that are a category in and of themselves. And Double Nickels is just flat out one the the greatest albums of all time.

 
The Dreaded Marco said:
Several times.  And they still put on a great show.  You will definitely feel like you got your money's worth.
Click to expand...
This is a fantastic Cure tour.  I've been to Houston, Dallas, San Diego, and 2 of the nights at Hollywood Bowl.  Have seen them 40 times now going back to 1989.  Robert's voice sounds as good as ever, and the rest of the band is tight.  It really helps that Reeves Gabriels is on guitar.  A must see if you like their music.

 
17seconds said:
This is a fantastic Cure tour.  I've been to Houston, Dallas, San Diego, and 2 of the nights at Hollywood Bowl.  Have seen them 40 times now going back to 1989.  Robert's voice sounds as good as ever, and the rest of the band is tight.  It really helps that Reeves Gabriels is on guitar.  A must see if you like their music.
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Yep, very tight.... and wasn't expecting all the great guitar play. I liked every song that I didn't know beforehand....

 
Bob Magaw said:
Eno/Byrne's influential collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a heady stew and fascinating amalgam of funk, rock, electronic, dance, ambient, world, found sounds from stray radio transmissions (pioneered along with world, ambient and sampling by Holger Czukay of Can, who was a student of Stockhausen, one of the most internationally important modern composers of the second half of the 20th century, himself a pioneer of electronics and the incorporation of chance and randomness in music, a huge part of Eno's philosophy and sensibility), preachers, exorcisms. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts_(album)  

(AUDIO 40 minutes), 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOXbk1GYkxE

This collaboration of course led directly to Talking Heads Remain in Light in '80, one of the greatest albums of the '80s. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remain_in_Light

Once In A Lifetime (VIDEO 4 minutes), love the kind of mosaic of repetitive, rhythmic, funky, shimmering backbeats of Eno-treated electronics, swirling synths and guitars, syncopated bass and drums, everybody was playing everything. In some ways like when Sly Stone ran EVERY instrument through a wah wah processor for the album Riot, this repetitive sound may also have been influenced by the work of American modern classical/minimalist composers such as Steve Reich (and Philip Glass).   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wg1DNHbNU

Same song excerpted from the live concert doc Stop Making Sense by director Jonathan Demme of Silence of the Lambs fame (VIDEO 5 minutes). Adrian Belew (see below) augmented the band in the studio for Remain in Light, P-Funk architect and synth genius/maestro Bernie Worrell did live on tour, captured below.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGofoH9RDEA
Click to expand...
Talking Heads (no The) were mentioned up-thread in a much longer Bowie-themed post almost in passing. As one of the most influential bands of the late 70s and 80s (and to this day?) they merit a more in depth discussion. For now, I'd like to focus on their collaboration with Brian Eno. It was comprised of the three albums following their eponymous '77 debut - More Songs About Building And Food, Fear Of Music and Remain In Light (since RIL and the Eno/Byrne precursor MLITBOG were addressed above, the first two albums will be the focus, particularly the middle one in the collaboration, an important transition from the quirky, anxious, edgy, jagged art punk of the first two albums to the more mainstream, self-assured, polished and full blown world funk mash up of RIL):

Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.[3] The band comprised David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass), and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Former art school students who became involved in the 1970s New York punk scene, Talking Heads integrated elements of punk, art rock, funk, dance, and world music with avant-garde sensibilities and the anxious stage persona of singer Byrne, helping to pioneer new wave music. The group produced several commercial hits and a number of multimedia projects throughout its career, and often collaborated with other artists, such as musician Brian Eno and director Jonathan Demme.[4][5]

Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Talking Heads as "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s."[6] In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of the band's albums appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and three of their songs ("Psycho Killer", "Life During Wartime", and "Once in a Lifetime") were included among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[7] Talking Heads were also included at #64 on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[8] In the 2011 update of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", the band was ranked at No. 100.

1978–1980: Collaborations with Eno

1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food brought about the band's long-term collaboration with producer Brian Eno, who had previously worked with Roxy Music, David Bowie, John Cale and Robert Fripp;[17] the title of Eno's 1977 song "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of the band's name. Eno's unusual style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical directions, from post-punk to new wave to psychedelic funk to funk rock.[18][19][20] This recording also established the band's long term recording studio relationship with the famous Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. More Songs... cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" broke Talking Heads into general public consciousness, and gave the band their first Billboard Top 30 hit.

The Eno-Talking Heads experimentation continued with 1979's Fear of Music, which flirted with the darker stylings of post-punk rock, mixed with white funkadelia and subliminal references to the geopolitical instability of the late 1970s.[21] Music journalist Simon Reynolds cited Fear of Music as representing the Eno-Talking Heads collaboration "at its most mutually fruitful and equitable."[22] The single "Life During Wartime" produced the catchphrase, "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco."[23] The song refers to the Mudd Club and CBGB, two popular New York nightclubs of the time.[24]

1980's Remain in Light was heavily influenced by the afrobeat of Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti, to whose music Eno had introduced the band. It explored West African polyrhythms, weaving these together with Arabic music from North Africa, disco funk, and "found" voices.[25] These combinations foreshadowed Byrne's later interest in world music.[26] In order to perform these more complex arrangements, the band toured with an expanded group that included Adrian Belew and Bernie Worrell, among others, first at the Heatwave festival in August,[27] and later in their concert film Stop Making Sense. During this period, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz also formed a commercially successful splinter group, Tom Tom Club, influenced by the foundational elements of Hip hop,[28] and Harrison released his first solo album, The Red and the Black.[29] Likewise, Byrne – in collaboration with Eno – released My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which incorporated world music and found sounds as well as including a number of other prominent international and post-punk musicians.[30] All were released by Sire.

Remain in Light's lead single, "Once in a Lifetime", became a Top 20 hit in the UK but initially failed to make an impression upon its release in the band's own country. But it grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the strength of its music video, which was named one of Time magazine's All-TIME Best Music Videos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads

MSABAF '78 second studio album (first with Eno) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and_Food

AUDIO 40 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjwj25mI2zY

Take Me To The River was the big hit, an Al Green cover - studio version (AUDIO 5 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ar2VHW1i2w

The original version by Al Green '74 (AUDIO 4 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGD8aQ2GKr0

Talking Heads live from Stop Making Sense '84 (VIDEO 7 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anjT71N4PGM

Fear of Music '79 third studio album (second with Eno), Robert Fripp's guitar is featured on the opening track I Zimbra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music

AUDIO 50 minutes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music

Big Business/I Zimbra (VIDEO 7 minutes)

From the You Tube notes: Outtake from the legendary concert film by Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense. This track was edited back into the main feature for the film's original VHS release in the mid 1980's. For the DVD and Blu-Ray reissue, the track was edited back out but placed in the extras as a bonus feature. Big Business for those who might not know, is not a song on any Talking Heads records and instead came from David Byrne's solo album The Catherine Wheel, along with What A Day It Was, which was included in the film. A third song from The Catherine Wheel, Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open) was played on the tour that Stop Making Sense spawned from, and was probably filmed by Jonathan Demme, but not included in any version of Stop Making Sense. The song can be found on a few bootlegs from that tour. I Zimbra was the opening track from their 1979 LP Fear of Music. Copyright 1984 by Talking Heads Films and Palm Pictures. This video was uploaded as a showcase for the Blu-Ray reissue and to provide fans with the best version of the song in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYFqdrOMqk4

Life During Wartime, also from Stop Making Sense (VIDEO 6 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obAtn6I5rbY

Memories Can't Wait (AUDIO 3 minutes), there's a party in my mind, hypnotically disorienting sound, heavy Eno sonic treatments and influence, typically bizarro Byrne vocal delivery, probably my favorite song on the album  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJu-IABeCws

Drugs (AUDIO 5 minutes), reminds me of the French noir exercise in style by Melville, Le Samourai, which has no dialogue for nearly the first 10 minutes (here no vocals for the first nearly 90 seconds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGpE2oXf0aE

Remain In Light '80 fourth studio album (third with Eno)

AUDIO 42 minutes 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHVBaF0HopQ

The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads '82

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a double live album by Talking Heads, originally released in 1982. The first disc featured the original quartet in recordings from 1977 and 1979, and the second disc the expanded ten-piece lineup that toured in 1980 and 1981. The album contains live versions of songs that appear on Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light. The cassette edition of the album included "Cities" as a bonus track not included on the vinyl edition – this track has been included on the subsequent CD release.

The title of the album is a reference both to the group's preference for having no expressed definite article within the band name (as opposed to "The Talking Heads") and to David Byrne's minimalist introductions to songs. The album opens with one such introduction: "The name of this song is New Feeling. That's what it's about."

An expanded version of the record, on CD in the United States for the first time, was released in 2004 by Sire/Warner Bros./Rhino. It duplicated the pattern of the original with the first disc featuring the quartet alone, and the second disc a ten-member band. Additional tracks from 1978 are among the eight extra songs on the first disc, and correct running order for the set from the larger band on the second disc. The introduction to the song "Crosseyed and Painless" was edited out on the CD version, however.

The remastered and expanded edition of the album is No. 15 on the Metacritic list of all time best-reviewed albums.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_This_Band_Is_Talking_Heads 

AUDIO 140 minutes (33 song reissue version '04)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KM5XNGJDqg&list=PL4_Fedo_oysQgltOyb0UnE_sGMCz814-A

Speaking In Tongues* '83 fifth studio album, first post-Eno studio material, expands the world sound palette to include the electric violin of Shankar.

Speaking in Tongues is the fifth studio album by the band Talking Heads, released in 1983. The album was a commercial breakthrough that produced the band's first (and only) American Top 10 hit, "Burning Down the House", which was accompanied by a promotional video.

The album's tour was documented in Jonathan Demme's film Stop Making Sense, which generated a live album of the same name. (The concert film and live album's title comes from the repeated phrase "Stop making sense!" during the song "Girlfriend Is Better".) In addition, the album crossed over to the dance charts where it peaked at number two for six weeks.[9] It is also the group's highest-charting album on the American Billboard 200.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_Heads_album)

AUDIO 47 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6lFjswoB7k

Burning Down The House (VIDEO 4 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u06DpcFXc4U

Live from Stop Making Sense (VIDEO 4 minutes) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVv94T5LF0c

Naïve Melody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HldHtBxNK6k

Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense is a 1984 concert movie featuring a live performance by Talking Heads. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues. The movie is notable for being the first made entirely using digital audio techniques. The band raised the budget of $1.2 million themselves. The title comes from the lyrics of the song "Girlfriend Is Better": "As we get older and stop making sense...". The film has been hailed by Leonard Maltin as "one of the greatest rock movies ever made",[1] and Pauline Kael of The New Yorker described it as "...close to perfection."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Making_Sense

The entire concert film doc by Jonathan Demme (VIDEO 80 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jez-mgd3egM  

* Bonus Speaking In Tongues

The latin word is glossolalia. The Christian writer C.S. Lewis wrote about the phenomenon in an essay titled Transposition (from the essay collection The Weight Of Glory).

http://www.cedarville.edu/personal/sullivan/hon3140/readings/lewis-transposition.pdf

 
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El Floppo said:
IMO, Remain in Light is their best... and again, IMO, one of the top albums of the 80s.
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Agreed.

Though I forgot to mention, I think Jerry Harrison remixed their catalog a few years ago in surround sound for those with that audio format playback capacity (dedicated SACD or universal format player - like OPPO). The US market had a funky two sided dual disc with CD and SACD on different sides which didn't always play nice with the equipment, UK simply had two discs, CD and SACD. Anyway, of the four titles I have, albums 2-5 (MSABAF, FOM, RIL and SIT), Speaking In Tongues was AMAZING, could have been made for this format. Actually, probably a combination of that, and Harrison doing an outstanding remixing job. It is a very dense mix, but he opened it up without being too busy and you can here all the elements equally well articulated. My interest in surround sound began with Steven Wilson doing many prog titles (King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull, ELP, Gentle Giant) but also XTC's Drums and Wires, Oranges & Lemons and Nonsuch.      

* Steven Wilson Facebook page

Upcoming 5.1 surround sound titles just announced (incidentally, most of these come with two discs, a CD and EITHER Blu-ray or DVD Audio, for better ease of playback options): Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair by King Crimson, Tales Of Topographical Oceans by Yes and Skylarking by XTC.  

https://www.facebook.com/swremixes/ 

 
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