What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

***Music 1982 Top 100*** - Ranked by sum of artist output - TOP FIVE, HERE WE GO!!!: 5. Peter Gabriel, 4. Tom Petty, 3. John Mellencamp, 2. Toto, 1. I (1 Viewer)

50. Somebody's Baby - Jackson Browne - July

Reaching No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 after debuting at No. 73 on July 31, 1982, the track would be Browne's last top ten hit, as well as the highest charting single of his career, spending a total of nineteen weeks on the chart.

Jackson Browne recorded the song for the Fast Times At Ridgemont High because he was friends with its writer, Cameron Crowe. The song's co-writer Danny Kortchmar was also friends with Crowe, and was working on the song "Love Rules" for the film with Don Henley when he came up with the framework for "Somebody's Baby." Kortchmar convinced Browne to finish writing the song and record it for the movie.

Browne has called this an "unabashed pop song." Most musicians would want their most popular songs on their albums, but Browne was OK having it on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, despite the advice of his former label boss David Geffen, who told him he was nuts for giving it up.

I have never seen Fast Times. - AD
 

 
49. Valerie - Steve Winwood - October

Valerie is a mysterious woman, cool like jazz on a summer's day. Winwood wrote the music and Will Jennings wrote the lyric. In a Songfacts interview with Jennings, he explained: "Valerie is a real person, whose identity I will not reveal. She was almost at the top of the world in her profession and let it slip away from her. She was a dear friend and this was my tribute to her." The woman is reportedly singer Valerie Carter.

When this song was first released in 1982, it went to #51 in the UK and #70 in the US. In 1987, it was remixed by Tom Lord Alge with revised drum and vocal tracks for the 1987 Steve Winwood compilation album Chronicles, and again released as a single. This time, it went to #19 in the UK and #9 in the US.

1987 Version

 
48. Only You/Situation - Yazoo - November/???

A) Yazoo, who were known in America as Yaz, was the duo of instrumentalist/programmer Vince Clarke and vocalist Alison Moyet. Clarke was an original member of Depeche Mode, and wrote this song for them. He was about to leave the band in late 1981, and he wanted them to have a good single starting off 1982. Depeche Mode didn't want it; instead they released "See You," a song Martin Gore wrote when he was only 15. This song ended up on Yazoo's debut album.

With his departure from Depeche Mode imminent, Clarke was looking for a female vocalist to sing on this track. He told us how he found Moyet: "The first time I heard her sing, she was in a punk band called the Vandals. And my best friend, Rob, he was the guitarist for the Vandals, and they played at one of the local pubs. And then I saw her a couple of times after that. She sang for an R&B band. So when I finally had her do this demo with me, I knew she had a great voice."

B) Situation's most famous version is the American 12-inch remix by François Kevorkian. This version was included on the US version of Yazoo's album Upstairs at Eric's and is the version of the song which receives the most radio airplay in the United States (where the song, despite its modest showing on the Hot 100, is still played on alternative, variety-hits and dance-oriented radio stations).
 

 
Andy Dufresne said:
48. Only You/Situation - Yazoo - November/???

A) Yazoo, who were known in America as Yaz, was the duo of instrumentalist/programmer Vince Clarke and vocalist Alison Moyet. Clarke was an original member of Depeche Mode, and wrote this song for them. He was about to leave the band in late 1981, and he wanted them to have a good single starting off 1982. Depeche Mode didn't want it; instead they released "See You," a song Martin Gore wrote when he was only 15. This song ended up on Yazoo's debut album.

With his departure from Depeche Mode imminent, Clarke was looking for a female vocalist to sing on this track. He told us how he found Moyet: "The first time I heard her sing, she was in a punk band called the Vandals. And my best friend, Rob, he was the guitarist for the Vandals, and they played at one of the local pubs. And then I saw her a couple of times after that. She sang for an R&B band. So when I finally had her do this demo with me, I knew she had a great voice."

B) Situation's most famous version is the American 12-inch remix by François Kevorkian. This version was included on the US version of Yazoo's album Upstairs at Eric's and is the version of the song which receives the most radio airplay in the United States (where the song, despite its modest showing on the Hot 100, is still played on alternative, variety-hits and dance-oriented radio stations).
 
Click to expand...
I remember hearing Only You back in '82 and buying "Upstairs at Eric's". I had forgotten about the song until it was used in the final episode of the BBC version of The Office.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
49. Valerie - Steve Winwood - October

When this song was first released in 1982, it went to #51 in the UK and #70 in the US. In 1987, it was remixed by Tom Lord Alge with revised drum and vocal tracks for the 1987 Steve Winwood compilation album Chronicles, and again released as a single. This time, it went to #19 in the UK and #9 in the US.

1987 Version
Click to expand...
Also of note regarding this song is the 2004 remix of the song by swedish DJ Eric Prydz into a club dance song.  Winwood redid vocals for the song, which probably no one would even remember, except for the NSFW video which made every male want to take an aerobics class.   I won't post video link (in case there is issues of NSFW stuff being linked) but it is available on youtube, Eric Prydz Call on Me.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
47. I'm So Excited - Pointer Sisters - September

The infectious pop groove of this song disguises the extremely sexual lyrics. The singer is "so excited" because she's looking forward to a sexual encounter.

The music video was the first one directed by Kenny Ortega, who would later choreograph the movie Dirty Dancing. He also directed The Tubes "She's a Beauty" video, but is best known in the world of music videos for his work on the disastrous Billy Squier video for "Rock Me Tonite."
 

 
46. White Wedding (Part 1)/Hot In The City - Billy Idol - October/May

A) Despite rumors to the contrary, this song is not about Idol's actual little sister. "Little sister" is slang for girlfriend. He is singing about a woman/girl he loves marrying someone else while he still loves her.

Idol did have a sister who was getting married, but on an episode of VH1 Storytellers, he explained that his sister's wedding simply gave him the idea for the song. 

The video for this song help launch Billy Idol to stardom. It was directed by David Mallet, who had worked with Queen and David Bowie. Idol had little cash, so Mallet cut him a break on his fee. The concept was a "nightmare wedding," with a Goth guy (Idol) marrying a normal girl, with some vampire imagery thrown in. The bride was played by Perri Lister, who was Billy's girlfriend. 

B) An early Billy Idol song, the punk rocker wrote it himself. It's all about running wild and free in New York City on a summer night, something Idol did plenty when he moved to New York from London in 1981 after his band Generation X split up. Idol found himself once again moving to an unfamiliar city to follow his dreams: in 1976 he left his hometown of Bromley, England and moved to London. This song reflects his optimism and assurance:

Idol's record company, Chrysalis, created customized versions of the song with "New York" replaced with the names of various other cities, and those versions were sent to radio stations in those cities, giving them custom versions of the track for their local listeners. So if you were in Kentucky, you might hear Idol sing, "I can really feel the heat now... Lexington!"

 
Thanks for the countdown Andy, appreciate the effort.

This list does remind me why I diss 80's music in general however. While these are songs from my teen years and bring back some nostalgic feelings and reminisces I got to tell you the quality of the tunes pales with the lists we've seen so far from the 60s and 70s. We need Nirvana, NWA and guns n' roses to show up and wipe the slight clean ASAP!!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Andy Dufresne said:
50. Somebody's Baby - Jackson Browne - July

Most musicians would want their most popular songs on their albums, but Browne was OK having it on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, despite the advice of his former label boss David Geffen, who told him he was nuts for giving it up.
 
Click to expand...
He also refused to do a music video for the song. He had filmed a video a year or so earlier for a song called "Lawyers In Love" and hated the experience so much that he vowed to never do it again.

I read a biography of MTV awhile back and Browne got the full-court press from his record label, his management and the top execs at MTV to delve into music videos. He certainly had the looks for music video, but he also had the 70's songwriting chops that appealed to an older audience MTV was struggling to gain appeal.

They pleaded, cajoled him, laid out what would be the tremendous financial benefits for his career.

Browne would not budge. 

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
He also refused to do a music video for the song. He had filmed a video a year or so earlier for a song called "Lawyers In Love" and hated the experience so much that he vowed to never do it again.

I read a biography of MTV awhile back and Browne got the full-court press from his record label, his management and the top execs at MTV to delve into music videos. He certainly had the looks for music video, but he also had the 70's songwriting chops that appealed to an older audience MTV was struggling to gain appeal.

They pleaded, cajoled him, laid out what would be the tremendous financial benefits for his career.

Browne would not budge. 
Click to expand...
Top of my head wasn’t Lawyers in Love 83 or 84? I remember it being after Somebody’s Baby. I don’t remember any other videos from Jackson Browne being on MTV, but teenage me was probably skipping past one if it was on. 

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
Andy Dufresne said:
50. Somebody's Baby - Jackson Browne - July

Most musicians would want their most popular songs on their albums, but Browne was OK having it on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, despite the advice of his former label boss David Geffen, who told him he was nuts for giving it up.
 
Click to expand...
He also refused to do a music video for the song. He had filmed a video a year or so earlier for a song called "Lawyers In Love" and hated the experience so much that he vowed to never do it again.
Click to expand...
Or maybe he just didn’t like dugouts.

 
Mookie Gizzy said:
Top of my head wasn’t Lawyers in Love 83 or 84? I remember it being after Somebody’s Baby. I don’t remember any other videos from Jackson Browne being on MTV, but teenage me was probably skipping past one if it was on. 
Click to expand...
Yes, Lawyers was in 1983. JB definitely wasn’t a big video guy IIRC, although Lawyers and Tender Is The Night (both from the Lawyers in Love album) got a fair amount of MTV airplay.

 
45. You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Judas Priest - August

The video was shot at Kempton Park Waterworks in London. The band performs the song amid a backdrop of smoke and lasers. When a functionary of some kind comes to shut them down, they blow his head off - Halford says the pyro guy really loaded up the mannequin with C4, so it was obliterated. Videos where authority figures are vanquished with the power of rock and roll did very well on MTV.
:headbang:

 
44. Think I'm in Love/Shakin' - Eddie Money - June/September

A) The song was written by Money and Randy Oda (who is perhaps best known otherwise for his collaborations with former Creedence Clearwater Revival member Tom Fogerty). 

B) If you listen carefully at the 1:03 mark, you can hear that Money sings: "Her #### (upper chest region) were shakin' till the middle of the night," which is published as "We did some shakin' till the middle of the night."

"I said it and I thought it was funny," Money told Rolling Stone. "I was high. I didn't give a s--t."

The "Shakin'" video stars Apollonia Kotero, who became a Prince protégé and starred in his movie Purple Rain in 1984. According to Money, she posed two big challenges:

  1. She was a terrible dancer. You'll see she resorts to some kind of sprinkler-head move when she's shakin' it.
  2. Her boyfriend was on the set and was the jealous type.
I'm not sure Money gets the credit he deserves. He was a superior 80's rocker. - AD

 
43. Steppin' Out/Breaking Us In Two - Joe Jackson - August/August

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJwt2dxx9yg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7IGRNWVQkc

A) The video featured a housekeeper pretending she was a Cinderella figure, and was filmed over one night in the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. This being 1982 and with MTV increasing in influence, Jackson made the video, but he wasn't happy about it. He told Time Out in 1984: "Rock 'n' roll is degenerating into a big circus, and videos and MTV are very much part of that. People who are seriously interested in making music as an end in itself are going to have to split away and forge a different path."

B) There are no guitars on this or any other song on the Night And Day album. Joe Jackson had a beef with rock music, which he felt was becoming commercialized and shallow, so he went out of his way to stay away from the format.

With the video for this song and "Steppin' Out," Jackson had a strong presence on MTV, which was just a year old and populated mostly by British artists like Jackson who had made videos to show in Europe. Jackson's videos were well-liked, but he often spoke out against the medium, as he felt it forced artists who were not visual performers to conform to a different role. "On the whole, most videos are pretty much an insult to people's intelligence," said Jackson.

He came to regret the remarks, saying in the book I Want My MTV: "I'm not such a miserable ******* that I won't admit that some videos are great fun. But I believed MTV was beginning to have a negative effect on music. I'm well aware that refusing to make videos accomplished nothing whatsoever except - how should I put this? - to make my next record less successful. It damaged my career and it never fully recovered."

 
Andy Dufresne said:
45. You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Judas Priest - August

The video was shot at Kempton Park Waterworks in London. The band performs the song amid a backdrop of smoke and lasers. When a functionary of some kind comes to shut them down, they blow his head off - Halford says the pyro guy really loaded up the mannequin with C4, so it was obliterated. Videos where authority figures are vanquished with the power of rock and roll did very well on MTV.
:headbang:
Click to expand...
That head blow up is one of the more memorable MTV video moments. Very Scanners like.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
44. Think I'm in Love/Shakin' - Eddie Money - June/September

A) The song was written by Money and Randy Oda (who is perhaps best known otherwise for his collaborations with former Creedence Clearwater Revival member Tom Fogerty). 

B) If you listen carefully at the 1:03 mark, you can hear that Money sings: "Her #### (upper chest region) were shakin' till the middle of the night," which is published as "We did some shakin' till the middle of the night."

"I said it and I thought it was funny," Money told Rolling Stone. "I was high. I didn't give a s--t."

The "Shakin'" video stars Apollonia Kotero, who became a Prince protégé and starred in his movie Purple Rain in 1984. According to Money, she posed two big challenges:

  1. She was a terrible dancer. You'll see she resorts to some kind of sprinkler-head move when she's shakin' it.
  2. Her boyfriend was on the set and was the jealous type.
I'm not sure Money gets the credit he deserves. He was a superior 80's rocker. - AD
Click to expand...
No one could side-mouth sing like Eddie.

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
He also refused to do a music video for the song. He had filmed a video a year or so earlier for a song called "Lawyers In Love" and hated the experience so much that he vowed to never do it again.

I read a biography of MTV awhile back and Browne got the full-court press from his record label, his management and the top execs at MTV to delve into music videos. He certainly had the looks for music video, but he also had the 70's songwriting chops that appealed to an older audience MTV was struggling to gain appeal.

They pleaded, cajoled him, laid out what would be the tremendous financial benefits for his career.

Browne would not budge. 
Click to expand...
The Jackson Browne video I remember is "You're A Friend Of Mine". It's his 1985 duet with Clarence Clemons from Clemons' solo album "Hero". 

It features Daryl Hannah (who was dating Browne at the time) on backing vocals.

 
42. Mad World - Tears for Fears - September

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg

This song is about a depressed young person who feels out of place in this world. He sees life as being empty, and looks for ways to escape the pain. The line, "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests thoughts of suicide, but according to Roland Orzabal, who wrote the lyrics, it relates to the psychologist Arthur Janov's idea that our most dramatic dreams release the most tension. So, the guy in the song isn't necessarily looking to die - he wakes up from morbid, lucid dreams feeling better.

Orzabal, then 19 years old, wrote the song on an acoustic guitar after hearing Duran Duran's "Girls On Film." He explained: "I just thought: 'I'm going to have a crack at something like that.' I did and ended up with 'Mad World.' It sounded pretty awful on guitar, though, with just me singing. However, we were fortunate enough to be given an opportunity by a guy called Ian Stanley to go to his very big house and muck about on his synthesizer. Ian became our keyboard player and he had a drum machine, too. All we needed was someone who knew how to work it. Eventually, we made the first demo of 'Mad World' still with me singing. But I didn't like it. So I said to Curt: 'Look, you sing it.' And suddenly it sounded fabulous.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
42. Mad World - Tears for Fears - September

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg

This song is about a depressed young person who feels out of place in this world. He sees life as being empty, and looks for ways to escape the pain. The line, "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests thoughts of suicide, but according to Roland Orzabal, who wrote the lyrics, it relates to the psychologist Arthur Janov's idea that our most dramatic dreams release the most tension. So, the guy in the song isn't necessarily looking to die - he wakes up from morbid, lucid dreams feeling better.

Orzabal, then 19 years old, wrote the song on an acoustic guitar after hearing Duran Duran's "Girls On Film." He explained: "I just thought: 'I'm going to have a crack at something like that.' I did and ended up with 'Mad World.' It sounded pretty awful on guitar, though, with just me singing. However, we were fortunate enough to be given an opportunity by a guy called Ian Stanley to go to his very big house and muck about on his synthesizer. Ian became our keyboard player and he had a drum machine, too. All we needed was someone who knew how to work it. Eventually, we made the first demo of 'Mad World' still with me singing. But I didn't like it. So I said to Curt: 'Look, you sing it.' And suddenly it sounded fabulous.
Click to expand...
Great song, as is the whole album.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
42. Mad World - Tears for Fears - September

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg

This song is about a depressed young person who feels out of place in this world. He sees life as being empty, and looks for ways to escape the pain. The line, "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests thoughts of suicide, but according to Roland Orzabal, who wrote the lyrics, it relates to the psychologist Arthur Janov's idea that our most dramatic dreams release the most tension. So, the guy in the song isn't necessarily looking to die - he wakes up from morbid, lucid dreams feeling better.

Orzabal, then 19 years old, wrote the song on an acoustic guitar after hearing Duran Duran's "Girls On Film." He explained: "I just thought: 'I'm going to have a crack at something like that.' I did and ended up with 'Mad World.' It sounded pretty awful on guitar, though, with just me singing. However, we were fortunate enough to be given an opportunity by a guy called Ian Stanley to go to his very big house and muck about on his synthesizer. Ian became our keyboard player and he had a drum machine, too. All we needed was someone who knew how to work it. Eventually, we made the first demo of 'Mad World' still with me singing. But I didn't like it. So I said to Curt: 'Look, you sing it.' And suddenly it sounded fabulous.
Click to expand...
Just listening to them, I have no idea which guy is singing any given part. Granted, I'm not a Tears For Fears superfan.

 
41. Sirius/Eye in the Sky - Alan Parsons Project - August

https://youtu.be/wWHNUlhRuDM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU-8lJtvVA4

A) The main instrument on this track is a clavinet, a kind of electronic keyboard Stevie Wonder used on "Superstition." Parsons used a Fairlight CMI sampler to create a loop of the clavinet that became the bedrock of "Sirius."

The Chicago Bulls public address announcer, Tommy Edwards, heard "Sirius" when it was playing at a movie theater as background music before the film. He knew the song from playing it on WLS, so he decided to try it as the new intro music for the Bulls; the team has been using it ever since. As for Parsons, when he was told by an American friend that his song was being used as intro music for Michael Jordan, Parsons replied, "Who's Michael Jordan." He is not a basketball fan.

B) Lead vocals were from Eric Woolfson, Parsons' main collaborator. He was Parsons' lyricist and manager.

The Alan Parsons Project, which was strictly a studio group at the time, used various members on lead vocals; Woolfson would usually record a guide vocal and Alan Parsons, who was also the group's producer, would decide whose voice best suited the song.

The lush sound Parsons created on this song is something he learned from his years as a sound engineer. He worked on some seminal albums, including Abbey Road by The Beatles and Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
The lush sound Parsons created on this song is something he learned from his years as a sound engineer. He worked on some seminal albums, including Abbey Road by The Beatles and Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.
Click to expand...
This is going to sound outlandish, but the 1977 APP album I, Robot is the closest thing we ever got in vibe and in execution to another Dark Side of the Moon. Parsons knew what he was doing. 

 
Andy Dufresne said:
41. Sirius/Eye in the Sky - Alan Parsons Project - August

https://youtu.be/wWHNUlhRuDM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU-8lJtvVA4

A) The main instrument on this track is a clavinet, a kind of electronic keyboard Stevie Wonder used on "Superstition." Parsons used a Fairlight CMI sampler to create a loop of the clavinet that became the bedrock of "Sirius."

The Chicago Bulls public address announcer, Tommy Edwards, heard "Sirius" when it was playing at a movie theater as background music before the film. He knew the song from playing it on WLS, so he decided to try it as the new intro music for the Bulls; the team has been using it ever since. As for Parsons, when he was told by an American friend that his song was being used as intro music for Michael Jordan, Parsons replied, "Who's Michael Jordan." He is not a basketball fan.

B) Lead vocals were from Eric Woolfson, Parsons' main collaborator. He was Parsons' lyricist and manager.

The Alan Parsons Project, which was strictly a studio group at the time, used various members on lead vocals; Woolfson would usually record a guide vocal and Alan Parsons, who was also the group's producer, would decide whose voice best suited the song.

The lush sound Parsons created on this song is something he learned from his years as a sound engineer. He worked on some seminal albums, including Abbey Road by The Beatles and Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.
Click to expand...
Surely you can be Sirius.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
44. Think I'm in Love/Shakin' - Eddie Money - June/September

The "Shakin'" video stars Apollonia Kotero, who became a Prince protégé and starred in his movie Purple Rain in 1984. According to Money, she posed two big challenges:

  1. She was a terrible dancer. You'll see she resorts to some kind of sprinkler-head move when she's shakin' it
Click to expand...
This could have sunk the video of a lesser talent.  Luckily, Eddie saves the day with the White Man Overbite, and the White Scarf Spin Move.  

Effing brilliant.  

Also, this video sent me to the 1982 first Tonight Show visit of Steven Wright.  Classic

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The debut is the least best of the three, but all three studio albums Tears for Fears released in the 80's are great. 

Always loved both of those Joe Jackson songs, with Steppin' Out being one of my very favorite songs in my earliest years as a music fan.  Still love it to death. 

Priest has tons of good songs, many better than You've Got Another Thing Coming, but that's a classic for a reason. 

Not a huge Jackson Browne fan, but he has some songs I like a lot.  It's impossible to hear Somebody's Baby and not think of Fast Times... I was a big fan of the aforementioned Lawyers in Love tune. 

 
Andy Dufresne said:
49. Valerie - Steve Winwood - October

Valerie is a mysterious woman, cool like jazz on a summer's day. Winwood wrote the music and Will Jennings wrote the lyric. In a Songfacts interview with Jennings, he explained: "Valerie is a real person, whose identity I will not reveal. She was almost at the top of the world in her profession and let it slip away from her. She was a dear friend and this was my tribute to her." The woman is reportedly singer Valerie Carter.

When this song was first released in 1982, it went to #51 in the UK and #70 in the US. In 1987, it was remixed by Tom Lord Alge with revised drum and vocal tracks for the 1987 Steve Winwood compilation album Chronicles, and again released as a single. This time, it went to #19 in the UK and #9 in the US.

1987 Version
Click to expand...
Thank you.  I've heard this song 1000 times and never knew the name, or what he was saying.

 
40. Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Love Me Tomorrow - Chicago - May/September

A) This song marked a resurgence for Chicago, who had been dropped from their longtime label, Columbia Records, and picked up by the Full Moon label, distributed by Warner Bros.

Steve Lukather (guitar) (AGAIN!!!), David Paich (synthesizer) and Steve Porcaro (synthesizer), all played on this track. These guys were top studio musicians as well as members of Toto. Bringing them in caused plenty of friction in the band, which didn't like the idea of other musicians playing their parts. But David Foster knew exactly what he wanted, and was willing to bring in the guys who could achieve it.

B) The videos for "Love Me Tomorrow" and "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" were shot on the same day.
 

 
39. Edge of Seventeen/Hold Me/Gypsy - Fleetwood Mack/Stevie Nicks - February/June/September

A) Nicks wrote this song about the death of her uncle and the death of John Lennon. 

"I was in Australia when John Lennon was shot. Everybody was devastated. I didn't know John Lennon, but I knew Jimmy Iovine, who worked with John quite a bit in the '70s, and heard all the loving stories that Jimmy told about him. When I came back to Phoenix I started to write this song.

Right when I got to Phoenix, my uncle Bill got cancer, got very sick very fast, and died in a couple of weeks. My cousin John Nicks and I were in the room when he died. There was just John and I there. That was part of the song when I went running down the hallways looking for somebody - I thought where's my mom? Where's his wife and the rest of the family? At that point I went back to the piano and finished the song."

B) This song was inspired by Christine McVie's relationship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. After she split with Fleetwood Mac bass player John McVie, Christine dated Wilson for several years before they broke up in 1981. 

The video's producer Simon Fields said in I Want My MTV by Craig Marks, "John McVie was drunk and tried to punch me. Stevie Nicks didn't want to walk on the sand with her platforms. Christine McVie was fed up with all of them. They were a fractious bunch."

C) Stevie Nicks wrote this song and planned to include it on her 1980 solo album Bella Donna. She didn't have room for it on the album, so she held it over for Fleetwood Mac's Mirage album. By this time, her friend Robin Anderson was dying of leukemia and the song became a tribute to her.

Mick Fleetwood has cited this as one of his favorite Fleetwood Mac songs. "It really crystallizes that whole period of the early 1980s, when we were in our mid-30s and beginning to look back at our lost youth," he said.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

timschochet
The 100 Greatest Songs of 1974 #1. Lady Marmalade
11 12 13
Replies
613
Views
99K
Lehigh98
Lehigh98
timschochet
The 100 Greatest Songs of 1976 #1. Foreplay/Long Time
10 11 12
Replies
580
Views
88K
DocHolliday
DocHolliday
Dan Lambskin
***Dan Lambskins Top 100 Favorite Vocalists*** 1 - Maynard James Keenan
4 5 6
Replies
297
Views
13K
Dan Lambskin
Dan Lambskin

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top