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Classic Album Discussion Thread: The Kinks-Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Pt. 1 (1 Viewer)

I was too young to really have crushes, and I got into them in college because they were just a great band that I thought was overlooked because they were all female. How Much More is a great song, as is Lust For Love, as is We Got The Beat, as is Our Lips Are Sealed, etc.

Full disclosure: I own a Go-Go's Rubik's cube shirt. (I know, you guys care...)

 
Bruce Springsteen-Born In the U.S.A. (1984)

Born In the U.S.A.

Cover Me

Darlington County

Working On the Highway

Downbound Train

I’m On Fire

No Surrender

Bobby Jean

I’m Goin’ Down

Glory Days

Dancing In the Dark

My Hometown

If Michael Jackson’s Thriller dominated 1983, then Springsteen’s Born In the U.S.A. did the same to 1984. Seven singles on the charts- you couldn’t escape it. Plus the videos, the most iconic one being “Dancing In the Dark”, in which a young Courtenay Cox is invited onstage to dance with the Boss. Before this album, Bruce Springsteen was a well known rock artist with cult status among his fans; afterwards, he was a superstar. 

The songs themselves are more polished than Springsteen’s earlier records, more commercial, which is probably why some of his fans disdain them. But they’re certainly still memorable over 30 years later. 

 
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krista4 said:
I did, too. :bag:   Where did we get this?
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Doug B, who knows stuff a lot of the time. @Doug B and @Chaos Commish contribute much to these threads, a lot of the time. Just a shout out for them and for Tim, of course. 

eta* Hope they're all doing well.  

 
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Commercial Bruce is why I never got into him until the last 5-10 years.  I never gave his earlier work a chance.  My Hometown is a solid closer, I'm Goin Down is listenable, and the slow/live/harmonica version of No Surrender is constantly in the rotation.  I don't remember the last time I listened to anything else on this album.

 
I used to never think anyone had a worse voice than Bob Dylan. . . until Bruce Springsteen came along and proved me wrong.

 
I am not a Bruce fan by any stretch. Don't love much of his catalog before or after, but I mostly enjoy Born in the U.S.A. I guess maybe I just like it as it is more mainstream / popular / not quite as dark as his other work. It remains the only Springsteen album I ever bought. Not sure if that made me the target audience for the album, but whatever he did for that album worked on me.

 
Lyrically It is one of his darker albums. A good percentage of the songs were written during the same time as the "Nebraska" songs. What started as the "Murder Inc. album turned into the two albums of Nebraska and BITUSA.   Some of these acoustic BITUSA have surfaced  for example "Child Bride/Working on the Highway"    Link  Is one of them. You can find more if you wanna search around. 

I think it's an interesting look into the song writing process. A lot of the stuff from that time frame are real stinkers, but its cool to see how a line or two from a couple throw away songs end up being used in in completely different songs that make it to the album .

Here is a look at the incredible amount of writing he was doing during that time period.  

 
Love Bruce, hate this album, never need to listen to any of the songs ever again and I change the channel with a quickness whenever Born in the USA(rarely) or Dancin in the Dark come on.

 
Doug B said:
I thought krista was asking "Where did we get the info that Jane Weidlin was The Go-Go's bass player?" That one didn't come from me :D  
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I thought it was you that said it. Used to receiving wisdom from ya. 

As for Bruce's album, it's actually pretty good. One of the few I like by him. It's not jingoistic patriotic as you all know, but it's still memorable.  I like I'm On Fire, especially.  Used to listen to this on cassette a lot. I'm Goin' Down is also a pretty cool song. Hey knocka. 

 
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dutch said:
Love Bruce, hate this album, never need to listen to any of the songs ever again and I change the channel with a quickness whenever Born in the USA(rarely) or Dancin in the Dark come on.
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This. Very surprised to see this album in the classic album thread title. 

 
timschochet said:
Bruce Springsteen-Born In the U.S.A. (1984)

Born In the U.S.A.

Cover Me

Darlington County

Working On the Highway

Downbound Train

I’m On Fire

No Surrender

Bobby Jean

I’m Goin’ Down

Glory Days

Dancing In the Dark

My Hometown

If Michael Jackson’s Thriller dominated 1983, then Springsteen’s Born In the U.S.A. did the same to 1984. Seven singles on the charts- you couldn’t escape it. Plus the videos, the most iconic one being “Dancing In the Dark”, in which a young Courtenay Cox is invited onstage to dance with the Boss. Before this album, Bruce Springsteen was a well known rock artist with cult status among his fans; afterwards, he was a superstar. 

The songs themselves are more polished than Springsteen’s earlier records, more commercial, which is probably why some of his fans disdain them. But they’re certainly still memorable over 30 years later. 
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Horribly overplayed and overall horrible. 

 
As a young teenager, this album was a gateway into buying other Bruce albums and having a better appreciation of 70s rock.  The second Bruce album I bought was his debut, Greetings from Asbury Park.  I still remember buying that cassette for $1.99 in the bargain bin of the record store without knowing a single song from it other than the Manfred Mann cover of "Blinded by the Light".  I've often considered that the best $2 I ever spent.

 
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I'm not really a Springsteen fan so much as a guy who likes a couple handfuls of song by the guy, songs which I still almost never listen to. 

I have always liked Dancing in the Dark and Glory Days from this record, and No Surrender is a nice deep cut as well.  Never cared for the title track, even when MTV was playing it every other hour.  Oh, and I'm on Fire is pretty good.

 
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msommer said:
Horribly overplayed and overall horrible. 
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I think the songs are good overall. It's really just a product of its time. The mid-80s with the heavy synth just hasn't aged very well. And it was definitely overplayed at the time of release. And don't forget the horrible dance mix version of DID. And the obviously rushed lip syncing video of Born in the USA

 
I'm a huge fan of the Boss, especially his earlier stuff, and I love BITUSA. No, it's not his best album.  Yes, it's too polished and way too overplayed.   But this thread is filled with overplayed music. The title track is one of my favorite Springsteen tunes and for very personal reasons My Hometown daggers me every time I hear it.  I enjoy every song.  Top notch.  

 
We have a bunch of elitist snobs in this thread. 

And that’s a good thing. I like it. If you’re going to be a snob about anything,  why not Music? 

 
Jesus Christ Superstar- (1970)

Overture

Heaven On Their Minds

What’s the Buzz

Everything’s Alright

This Jesus Must Die

Hosanna

Simon Zealots

Pilate’s Dream

The Temple

Everything’s Alright (reprise)

I Don’t Know How to Love Him

Damned For All Time/Blood Money

The Last Supper

Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)

The Arrest

Peter’s Denial

Pilate and Christ

King Herod’s Song (Try It and See)

Judas’s Death

Trial Before Pilate

Superstar

The Crucifixion

John Nineteen Forty-One

Prior to the Broadway musical and the movie there was this original rock concept album, featuring lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the vocal talents of Murray Head as Judas, Ian Gillan as Jesus, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, Barry Dennen as Pilate, and Mike D’Abo as Herod. 

The result is a hippie extravaganza which continues to hold up nearly 50 years later. Brilliant lyrics, great music, great bluesy singing, and you end up with a rock album as classic  as anything you can name from the era. Gillan in particular is on par with his Deep Purple albums, showing off his incredible range on “Gethesmane”. Head isn’t too far behind, making me wonder why he didn’t choose to pursue a rock career. As for ALW, while he would go on to become a musical theater legend, this remains his best composition, IMO. 

 
I love JCS. It is pretty much on constant rotation for me around Easter. My favorite musical by far and I do love musicals. Superstar may be the best finishing song to an album ever. This is a great album to run to.

 
Queen- News of the World (1977)

We Will Rock You

We Are the Champions

Sheer Heart Attack

All Dead, All Dead

Spread Your Wings

Fight From the Inside

Get Down, Make Love

Sleeping On the Sidewalk

Who Needs You 

It’s Late

My Melancholy Blues

With the new Queen movie coming out, it seemed fitting to return to them (we reviewed Night At the Opera close to when this thread started,) The cover of this album, with the giant robot holding Brian May, always fascinated me. And the music is so so good. Along with the classic first two songs that need no introduction, this record is filled with some of Queen’s best tunes, including “All Dead, All Dead”, “Spread Your Wings”, “Get Down, Make Love”, and “It’s Late”. 

 
This album cover gave me nightmares as a child. For real. It was indeed haunting, the giant monolithic green robot.  My cousin (female) owned it and it was played at her house. Good album, too. 

 
Love News Of The World - wore it out on the turntable when I was a teenager. As mentioned by Tim and rockaction, the album cover is among the most memorable in rock history.

As far as the album goes, it's not quite up there with Night Of The Opera, but it's very solid.  Another one of those really eclectic efforts - the anthemic (and now way overplayed) Rock You/Champions, the hard rock edge ("Sheer Heart Attack"),  synthesizer imagery ("Get Down, Make Love"), mariachi ("Who Needs You"), and Broadway-esque chrooning ("My Melancholy Blues"). IMO the strongest cut is "Spread Your Wings" with "Fight From The Inside" probably the weakest. Net/net the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

 
otello said:
Here is an interesting discussion to have:

Take the best four albums of LZ, the Beatles and Pink Floyd.

Which four are the best?
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I won’t beat a dead horse but for me I easily put PF last there - just not my thing.  I do think the other two is interesting.  I’d take The Beatles entire catalog over anybody else’s in the field but if you give me I, II, IV and PG that’s a killer four albums that would be tough to beat.  I think ultimately how I’d answer this is the proverbial on a desert island - I would never tire of the Beatles albums but feel like eventually I’d need a break from LZ.

Beatles > LZ >>>>>>>>> PF

 
Steely Dan- Aja (1977)

Black Cow

Aja

Deacon Blues

Peg

Home at Last 

I Got the News 

Josie

Aja was an epic attempt to fuse jazz and rock together. Fagan and Becker enlisted a wide number of jazz musicians, including Wayne Shorter and Steve Gadd. The result was one of the best listening experiences of the 70s, or ever- I have known people who still own the vinyl to this and swear by it as the only way to hear it. In fact, a few years back I had a tenant in one of the shopping centers I managed who built very expensive, personalized audio equipment, and he mentioned this album as a  favorite among his customers (who were paying $300,000+ for his stereo systems!) 

 
timschochet said:
Steely Dan- Aja (1977)

Black Cow

Aja

Deacon Blues

Peg

Home at Last 

I Got the News 

Josie

Aja was an epic attempt to fuse jazz and rock together. Fagan and Becker enlisted a wide number of jazz musicians, including Wayne Shorter and Steve Gadd. The result was one of the best listening experiences of the 70s, or ever- I have known people who still own the vinyl to this and swear by it as the only way to hear it. In fact, a few years back I had a tenant in one of the shopping centers I managed who built very expensive, personalized audio equipment, and he mentioned this album as a  favorite among his customers (who were paying $300,000+ for his stereo systems!) 
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Indeed, this is the go-to first vinyl spin whenever I get a new piece of audio equipment. Love this album front to back. Aja is just a fantastic "critical listening" song. Deacon Blues is probably my favorite tune on the album.

 
Steely Dan's 1970s output has aged very well, while other stuff I used to love now sounds horribly outdated.  This is their best overall album but pretty much all of them are worthy of praise. 

 
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