Hello Music Lovers, last time I spoke about the hits of 1984. In the hard rock side 1987 was an equally influential year. At least from a perspective of a college kid getting exposed to new music I ended up liking a lot of songs and albums released this year. Let me take the opportunity to pick a few of them for your listening pleasure.
Before we jump into the music my thanks to @ablaze for the #TTT or #ThreeTuneTueday idea. I find myself not posting a lot of stuff because I end up overthinking it. This is the one post that I find easy to visit and ensures that my blog moves on :)
For others interesting to be part of the Three Tune Tuesday movement hop over to @ablaze's posts and check out the challenge and the rewards.
Paradise City from Appetite For Destruction - Guns n' Roses
Guns n' Roses were huge when I started getting into music heavier than pop. MTV had just come to India at a time when vol 1 and 2 of Use Your Illusion. As kids we used to try and get more info about this explosive band (Slash was my favorite). And getting into their discovery we ended up with this fantastic debut in 1987 - Appetite For Destruction
What an album? I would have gone batshit crazy if I had heard it when it came out. That first song "Welcome to Jungle" itself was nothing like anything I had heard. Yes, later I learnt all about glam rock, hair metal, etc. etc. But at the time none of that matter. Labels were inconsequential, the impact of the soundscape was everything. I had yet to hear anything bigger than Gn'R at the time.
And looking back I still find their music beautiful, when many other favorites of the time have fallen away. Of course my favourites are the same cliched ones that everyone loves :) In other words, Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child O Mine (those vocals, that guitar solo), and Paradise City.
Of the three I have chosen Paradise City to share here today. It is probably the most normal between these three, but it always felt very melodic to me. It also was the first time a city got associated with a song in my mind. In this case LA. It was at least a couple of years later when the I heard the next song with such an association ( LA Woman)
Anyways without anymore adieu here's Paradise City
Pour Some Sugar On Me from Hysteria by Def Leppard
Another big album to come out that year is *Hysteria by Def Leppard Quite delayed, this was still an explosive album for all their fans. In my own case I was first enamored by their Adrenalize album, but over time starting loving Hysteria more. Partly due to my wife's love for Def Leppard.
This album just has hits after hits on it for sure. I meant even if I try to pick out just the top numbers I am confused between Animal, Rocket, Armageddon' It, *** Pour Some Sugar On Me***, Love Bites and Hysteria. I mean, like wow!
Keeping on them with the choice of Paradise City for G'nR I should be picking up Hysteria here. Such a wonderful well balanced song. I really love it. However for this post I want to take a more naught path. Especially as I have used it a lot for fun moments :D
So my choice for the post is Pour Some Sugar On Me, a very simple and sexy song :D In real life I would not like the sticky sugar syrup on me, but such a naught song and such a simple one for everyone to shout/sing over. Playing this song is guaranteed to bring in life into any party :D
Here's the video of the song Pour Some Sugar On ME:
Now for my third pick, please indulge me, as I cheat a bit with joint third - that too in pop rathre than hard rock :)
3.1 Faith from Faith - George Michael
George Michael's debut album has some really wonderful numbers. The two I remember vividly are I Want Your Sex, and Father Figure. When I was a teenager Father Figure was one of my favorites. I loved everything about it, the lyrics, his voice, the instrumentation all of it. However for this post my choice has to be the eponymous number Faith
And what makes this one a milestone for me was the video - what a video!!! Such a beautiful man, what a classis ray bans, great hair, a jukebox, that jeans, the biker jacket, the guitar, and boots - colors all hyper exaggerated. You can imagine how a teenager in puberty would have been influenced by this poster boy of an artist that all the girls were ga-ga about. And the song was fun too, serious lyrics but fun in it's treatment.
Great song, great album. God bless the great George Michael wherever in heaven he is.
3.2 Bad from Bad - Michael Jackson
In the case of the King of Pop, there is really no way I can list his discography. Yet the album Bad is special. Off the Wall proved he could go single, and Thriller showcased his scope and storytelling ability. However it was Bad where he tried to get more modern, more in your face. And while his melodic and sweetness would never really go away Bad was the album where he showed he was ready to experiment. Also this was his last album with Quincy Jones.
The album as would be expected, is full of hits after hits. Personally I love all the songs, be it Liberian Girl, Man In the Mirror, The Way You Make Me Feel. I go ape shit crazy on the dancing in Smooth Criminal and love, just absolutely love, the grunginess of Dirty Diana
But like in case of Faith, if it a representative of the album that I need to showcase it has to be Bad. That song made him more edgy, the dance routines are badass, and overall it became an anthem for many of us young people :) So for the milestone it is in his life and for the impact it had on me here's the fantastic video of Bad (for me it felt like young MJ was the Beat it Boy, and Bad was the young angsty adult version)
Note: While putting together this post I learnt that Martin Scorsese directed the video. Hope all of you enjoyed this mini movie with Wesley Snipes in it. If you just want to enjoy the song there is a shortened verison on YouTube
Bonus - Surfing With The Alien from Surfing With The Alien - Joe Satriani
For many Joe Satch is the reason instrumental electric guitar became a viable option as music. What a wonderful musician, playing in the area of distortion with such clean licks and wonderful phrasing. This album and this song were milestones leading to a wonderful genre of instrumental works by him and many others.
Here's Surfing with the Alien. Sorry I could not find a video for it, and I could not choose from the live versions so just went with the audio version.
Hope this was fun for y'all. Ended up posting it on Wed. Better late than never :D
Sources:
Image created using Bing AI :
All videos embedded using links directly to the artists youtube pages for the songs. The embed code is as provided by YouTube for these songs.