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The 100 Greatest “New Wave” songs 1. Everybody Wants to Rule the World-Tears for Fears (3 Viewers)

The Squeeze were the first band to do MTV Unplugged which happened in November 1989.  They showed up to the rehearsal with electric guitars.  They didn't understand what MTV meant by "unplugged".  So MTV went out and found them some acoustic guitars for the rehearsal.  My guess is the below song is from their rehearsal since it is also from 1989 but it isn't from the official Unplugged concert.  I like it better than the album version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUtmdAZ1QKQ

 
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timschochet said:
86.  “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)” Squeeze (1980, from Argybargy)

https://youtu.be/3WngGeI9lnA

What a great sense of pop melody these guys had. And fine musicianship as well. Just a terrific, underrated band, largely forgotten now. Too damn bad. 
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I can think of a couple of other Squeeze songs I like a lot better than Pulling Mussels, particularly Tempted and Black Coffee in Bed.

And I think Another Nail In My Heart also from Argybargy, was a better song (and was the first single release from that LP). Best version of that tune ever is a live track they did in 2011. Live at the 100 Club. 

Here is a video clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIM5HG_nV0

 
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timschochet said:
86.  “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)” Squeeze (1980, from Argybargy)

https://youtu.be/3WngGeI9lnA

What a great sense of pop melody these guys had. And fine musicianship as well. Just a terrific, underrated band, largely forgotten now. Too damn bad. 
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they are certified royalty here ... love this pick, and i expect to see at least a few more from the lads as you move onward and upward...

... but their catalog is so deep and varied - we all know at least one of their behemoths is certailnly gonna rank high later on, but i'd contend that there are more than a handful of older Squeeze tunes that deserve more love - i'll pop in my particular choice for high praise ... pretty sure i'm not spotlighting here - 

i never thought it would happen/with me and the girl from Clapham

such a perfectly crafted tune, and a top 5 lyrics of the decade choice for me:

"this morning at 4:50/i took her rather nifty/down to an incubator/where 30 minutes later/she gave birth to a duaghter/within a year a walker/she looked just like her mother/if there could be another"

"and now she's two years older/her mother's with a soldier/she left me when my drinking/became a proper stinging/the devil came and took me/from bar to street to bookie"

"alone here in the kitchen/i feel there's something missing/i'd beg for some forgiveness/but begging's not my business"

- immense love for it upon first listen, and it's never gotten old ... as fresh and poignant this morning as it was some 40 yrs ago.  

Difford and Tillbrook bagged the "New Wave Lennon/McCarrney" tag from the press ... they weren't, but ... they were. 

ETA - i linked to "Cool For Cats" very early in this thread, and the two lively birds dancing about in that one also appear in "Junction" ... the blokes were gettin' some (especially Jools, methinks).

 
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otb_lifer said:
they are certified royalty here ... love this pick, and i expect to see at least a few more from the lads as you move onward and upward...

... but their catalog is so deep and varied - we all know at least one of their behemoths is certailnly gonna rank high later on, but i'd contend that there are more than a handful of older Squeeze tunes that deserve more love - i'll pop in my particular choice for high praise ... pretty sure i'm not spotlighting here - 

i never thought it would happen/with me and the girl from Clapham

such a perfectly crafted tune, and a top 5 lyrics of the decade choice for me:
Click to expand...
Great song. Deep tracks are rich and rewarding with Squeeze. Raising a daughter last decade I put a lot of effort into teaching her un-explicit great music. Usually on car rides and usually from what I loved from the 80s. Squeeze is by far her favorite from my efforts and Mussels her favorite song. 

 
Squeeze always seemed more "adult" than many of the other New Wave acts. I don't mean to disparage the other artists by saying that, just I thought that Squeeze was plowing a different field than a lot of the others. I'm guessing there's another act that should have multiple entries coming up that I felt the same about.

 
"the squeeze"?

squistion said:
I can think of a couple of other Squeeze songs I like a lot better than Pulling Mussels, particularly Tempted and Black Coffee in Bed.

And I think Another Nail In My Heart also from Argybargy, was a better song (and was the first single release from that LP). Best version of that tune ever is a live track they did in 2011. Live at the 100 Club. 

Here is a video clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIM5HG_nV0
Click to expand...
Tim's on #86...plenty of time to add more. Or did he say this was the only squeeze pick?

 
El Floppo said:
"the squeeze"?

Tim's on #86...plenty of time to add more. Or did he say this was the only squeeze pick?
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Unless he states otherwise, which he didn't , I will assume this will be the only entry and make my post rather than wade through the next 85 entries and discover it wasn't included. The Squeeze's record label felt Another Nail In My Heart was the best track (or the most commercial) from ArgyBargy,as evidenced by the fact that it was the first single release.

As a side note, when I first heard of Squeeze in 1978 after their debut LP was released, they were called U.K. Squeeze by their label to avoid confusion with a U.S. band with the same name. 

 
85. “Only a Lad”- Oingo Boingo (1981, from Only a Lad) 

https://youtu.be/Js4yGcgO6hk

Like Squeeze but unlike many of the other selections on this list, Danny Elfman’s lyrics really are always worth a close listen- this is a “message” song and the message here is one of cynicism and an a direct attack on the liberal attitude towards those who behave badly: 

Only a lad, you really can’t blame him 

Only a lad, society has made him 

Only a lad, he’s under-privileged and abused, perhaps a little bit confused 

its not his fault that he can’t behave 

Society has made him go astray 

Perhaps if we’re nice he’ll go away 

Similar in theme to Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy”, except that Elfman passes judgment: 

Hey there Johnny you really don’t fool me 

you get away with murder and you think it’s funny 

you don’t give a damn if if you live or if you die 

hey there Johnny boy: I hope you fry! 

Witty, scathing, and absolutely brilliant. 

 
Never liked Oingo Boingo, always thought of them as a gimmick, too theatrical bordering on cabaret for me. Now Elfman is obviously very talented but I just don’t get oingo boingo’s appeal. That said Just Another Day is a song I love

 
You’re really clicking now, Tim. Love Boingo and the pick.
 

Hopefully not yet to come, but “On The Outside” is probably my favorite by them.

 
I’ve seen the word "spotlighting" used a few times in this thread. Someone help me out here. 

 
timschochet said:
85. “Only a Lad”- Oingo Boingo (1981, from Only a Lad) 

https://youtu.be/Js4yGcgO6hk

Like Squeeze but unlike many of the other selections on this list, Danny Elfman’s lyrics really are always worth a close listen- this is a “message” song and the message here is one of cynicism and an a direct attack on the liberal attitude towards those who behave badly: 

Only a lad, you really can’t blame him 

Only a lad, society has made him 

Only a lad, he’s under-privileged and abused, perhaps a little bit confused 

its not his fault that he can’t behave 

Society has made him go astray 

Perhaps if we’re nice he’ll go away 

Similar in theme to Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy”, except that Elfman passes judgment: 

Hey there Johnny you really don’t fool me 

you get away with murder and you think it’s funny 

you don’t give a damn if if you live or if you die 

hey there Johnny boy: I hope you fry! 

Witty, scathing, and absolutely brilliant. 
Click to expand...
Painted homes each summer in college.  Oingo Boingo in walkman and a DP started most mornings.  :thumbup:

 
Getzlaf15 said:
What? Find that hard to believe.
Click to expand...
There won’t be a single tune on this list that wasn’t featured regularly on an alternative radio station like KROQ. I don’t think “On the Outside” is well known to people who didn’t own Only a Lad or who weren’t Oingo Boingo fans. 

 
timschochet said:
There won’t be a single tune on this list that wasn’t featured regularly on an alternative radio station like KROQ. I don’t think “On the Outside” is well known to people who didn’t own Only a Lad or who weren’t Oingo Boingo fans. 
Click to expand...
I get that "On the Outside" might not be well know.  Hard to fathom someone not knowing "only a lad"

 
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