Drunken Owls and Other Delights

So to follow up with the rest of the year, a list of songs from 1988 that may or may not have popped up on compilations (some of these did make it to the end-of-year comp--the title of which is used in the subject line here, from Wire's "A Public Place") but were very much a part of my life then.

Morrissey, "Will Never Marry"
A b-side from his "Everyday is Like Sunday" single, and one of my favorites of his. At the time that was part of my mindset--"thanks, but I'll accept what I am for now," for good or ill.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "The Mercy Seat"
Probably his biggest-known song of the time...very dark and creepy, and a shout-out to The Night of the Hunter, a movie I'd end up seeing a few years later in college.
Jane's Addiction, "Jane Says"
Can you believe Nothing's Shocking was one of the radio station albums as well? Not my favorite track on the album, but the biggest and most well-known one.
Front 242, "Headhunter"
Oh man, I LOVED this song when it came out! It got very heavy play on WAMH at the time. Front by Front is still my favorite album of theirs. A lot of you will probably also remember the b-side to this single, "Welcome to Paradise"--yup, that "Hey poor! You don't have to be poor anymore! Jesus is here!" song. Which got equally heavy airplay. :)
The Primitives, "Crash"
Lovely is such a fun early Britpop album, well worth picking up. Distinctly remember pogoing to this song in a crowd at UMass with h58 and Nathane while waiting for a show to start.
The Godfathers, "Birth School Work Death"
Eric G. got me into this band big big time. Great angry rock from guys in mafia suits who look like they'd send someone out to kick the crap out of you (or do it themselves). Saw these guys at UMass with h58 with Living Colour opening...great show, that.
The Timelords, "Doctorin' the Tardis"
To this day I can't hear Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll" or the Dr Who theme without thinking of this song, and one that got a lot of play on WAMH.
Camouflage, "The Great Commandment"
I remember there were a few alt.techno bands out there at the time that were kinda-sorta Depeche Mode clones, but this band managed to shake that. Didn't get too much play, but Voices & Images is a great album. I remember Nathane and I raving about it during a TFB session once.
Ministry, "Stigmata"
The Land of Rape and Honey got a lot of play on my walkman, partly because I thought it would freak the rest of my family out. This and "Flashback" (check the Platoon samples in that one!) got heavy play on WAMH.
REM, "Orange Crush"
As said, huge REM fan at the time, and Green just kicked my ass...one of the few albums where I love every single track on it. I distinctly remember the ad copy for the album: "There are two things you should do on November 8, 1988: 1)Vote 2)Buy Green." :)
Pixies, "Gigantic"
Surfer Rosa is still an awesome album, and this was the song that got me into them. And they were (sort of) local!
Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
Yeah, Vivid came out of nowhere and surprised everyone with its fierceness and not backing down on what it had to say. Saw these guys rip it up with the Godfathers, and they blew me away.
Sonic Youth, "Within You Without You"
The track from Sgt Pepper Knew My Father that I always tell everyone about...was never a big SY fan, though I kinda enjoyed that year's Daydream Nation, but this song is by far my favorite of theirs. One hell of a cover.
The Feelies, "Away"
Only Life was their 'comeback' album and though it wasn't as quirky as their earlier output, it definitely had that REM-influenced jangle going on. Great album to relax to.
U2, "All I Want Is You"
Rattle & Hum may have been an overblown ego-stroker of a movie, but it holds up surprisingly well, and there's some great songs on the album. This was the ending credits theme/last song on the album and my favorite track. The ending scene of Belief in Fate had my character DJing at his own senior prom (which I actually did with h58), and this song plays as he watches his classmates leave the dance floor one by one until he's alone. Sure, a bit dramatic, but it worked.
Blue Clocks Green, "Hemingway"
Voted both most liked and most hated song at the end of the '88-'89 school year on WAMH, and definitely a song indicative of college radio at the time. Definitely a fun song to sing along to, despite the lyrics. ;)
Elvis Hitler, "Green Haze"
Yes, "Purple Haze" vs the Green Acres theme, punk style. Hard to find this one nowadays, but another great song of the day, simply due to its silliness. You can hear the cheap beer in this one.
Moev, "Crucify Me"
A song I nearly forgot about until I started listening to my old radio tapes again, and immediately downloaded from eMusic. These guys were sort of like Front 242 without the German/Austrian cold industrial feel, and this one got a lot of college radio play.
The Go-Betweens, "Was There Anything I Could Do?"
16 Lovers Lane is a beautiful album, one I listened to quite a bit the start of my senior year. I wrote a rather odd lyric based on this song. Never recorded it, thankfully. The other track from this album, "Streets of Your Town", was played by WMDK every morning when I was getting ready for school, and always has that smalltown feel sound to me.
That Petrol Emotion, "Cellophane"
No one seems to remember this band, sadly! I saw them live with Voice of the Beehive at UMass with Kris and h58, and bought a teeshirt from them. One of those bands that never really got airplay, but got a lot of word of mouth at the time, and that's how I got into them.
The Wonder Stuff, "Give Give Give Me More More More"
One of the first albums I picked up from Tower Records in Boston, when my sister and I were scoping out Emerson (the other was Dead Can Dance's Within the Realm of a Dying Sun). The Eight-Legged Groove Machine is well worth picking up.
Laibach, "Across the Universe"
I would be remiss if I didn't mention this Slovenian band's brilliant take on the Beatles' (almost) entire Let It Be album, which included this beautiful track, as well as a sinister version of "Get Back" as well.
Danielle Dax, "Big Hollow Man"
You know that whole 80s sexy punk girl thing that guys found hot? Yeah, I was totally drawn into that, with Danielle and Patricia Morrison from Sisters of Mercy. I like DD because she's just so off-kilter yet catchy!
Ultra Vivid Scene, "The Mercy Seat"
Easiest song to play bass to, and a great track. At this point I was gobbling up anything from the 4AD label, and this one was included. I had no idea until just now that Moby is in the video.
The Fall, "Big New Prinz"
I'd heard of the Fall before (and knew their cover of "Victoria"), but this was from the first album I bought from them. Interesting, if weird, stuff.


This of course is just a shortlist, as I know there was more I could have added. These, however, are the ones that stuck with me.

tape brand: Memorex dbs 90, more than likely taping over something that was on it previously. I had a lot of that brand from the local Radio Shack. Most of the earlier Flying Bohemians jams were taped using that brand.
compilation made: Autumn 1988, probably October, given the release dates of some of these songs. Start of my senior year in high school.
listened to: Repeatedly while on the way to/from school my senior year. Distinctly remember sitting in the last seat of the bus on the way home (the shorter one next to the emergency exit door, that is) with this one playing...I used to watch the town go by, headphones blaring my music. Although I also remember listening to it in the third or fourth seat in, scowling at no one in particular, being in a pissy mood. Weird that I remember those things.
mindset: Still a moody bastard, but accepting that I wasn't like the popular kids. Changing from feeling sorry for myself to fashioning myself as the writer/artist/musician I always wanted to be. Missing all my friends that had graduated earlier that year who were a year ahead of me, but helped by befriending Kris, who told me to lighten the hell up. :)
writing: a lot of lyrics and poetry, Belief in Fate, half-hearted attempt at rewriting the IWN, and a silly mystery short story I wrote in english class with the investigator's name being Chase Johnson.
girlfriend: I believe I was about to be introduced to Tracey at this point. She quite liked this compilation.

SIDE A
1. Depeche Mode, 'Stripped'
My favorite DM song of that time, as I'd finally picked up Black Celebration about a year previous, and had used it in a pivotal scene in the aborted IWN sequel. Distinctly remember the song clicking with me in one of the last summer vacations I'd had with my parents, listening on headphones and deeming it cool. In my moody mindset, I'd listen to this album at top volume late at night on my headphones, angry at the world.
2. Morrissey, 'Everyday Is Like Sunday'
head58 and I always equated this song with Athol, specifically the "this is the coastal town they forgot to bomb" line. At the time we were both sick of the small town and wanted to move on to college. Also--this, and many of the tracks on this compilation, are from vinyl swiped borrowed from the local radio station that wasn't going to play it anyway.
3. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, 'What I Am'
Say what you will, I never really got sick of this song. Remember hearing h58 and Eric G debating the philosophy behind this song while driving Eric to Albany so he could take the bus/train to Utica where he was going to college. Also remember Carin L. from a year behind me singing this during a school concert. Wonder what she's doing nowadays...?
4. The Sugarcubes, "Coldsweat"
I know the original comp version is the remix from the single. Heavily played on 120 Minutes at the time, and my favorite track off Life's Too Good. Kris and I talked about this album quite a bit, and I think she once told someone she disliked to go "Take Some Petrol, Darling".
5. The Prime Movers, "Strong As I Am"
Another radio station single. Dude, this song ROCKS. It's from Manhunter, Michael Mann's movie based on the first Hannibal Lecter book Red Dragon. One of those "oh yeah, I remember this!" songs.
6. Erasure, "Chains of Love"
Another radio station single (as was the album it was from The Innocents), and another 120 Minutes track. Got into this band with this album.
7. The Jesus & Mary Chain, "Sidewalking"
Another radio station album, if you can believe that. I wasn't a big J&MC fan back then, but this song was quite cool and heavily played on WAMH. Used it to practice my somewhat newly-acquired bass as well.
8. Cocteau Twins, "Blue Bell Knoll"
Distinctly remember being sold on the album of the same name when WMDK (now one of WFNX's satellite stations) played the first side of this album. I believe I bought the album a few weeks later and played the hell out of it. This song evokes a late snowy winter to me, a song for hunkering down and dealing with the cold outside. Also an album I listened to late at night on my walkman, losing myself in the dreaminess of their signature sound. I would soon pick up more of their discography via Nathane and others.
9. Joy Division, "She's Lost Control"
The second side of the JD Substance cassette was heavily listened to at this point, and this is track 1 on side 2. One of the songs I used to use when practicing bass...I was always drawn to Hooky's multi-string, melodical style.
10. Siouxsie & the Banshees, "Peek-a-Boo"
Another radio station single (I bought the album at either Main Street Records in Noho or Al-Bum's in Amherst, if I'm not mistaken). Was never a big Siouxsie fan until 120 played this incessantly. The dummy she shook around in the video for this song reminded me of Robert Smith. Years later when I met her at a signing, I told her this and she and Budgie cracked up.
11. Stump, "Buffalo"
A 120 Minutes track and an album I'm sure I picked up at Al-Bum's. I've posted the video for this one a few times on my LJ already. Yeah, that "swing big bottom" song!
12. Two Men, a Drum Machine and a Trumpet, "I'm Tired of Getting Pushed Around"
A radio station single. Not many remember this one...I found out it was the two non-singing guys from Fine Young Cannibals doing this track. Entertainment Tonight used to use it as filler music, and I think that's why I ended up using it.
13. Shriekback, "Go Bang!"
Honestly, why do I always get into bands just as they're about to break up or at least sell out? A silly and slight song that I liked at the time. Not their best, but it's fun. I believe it was put on here to fill out side one, which had very little space left.

SIDE B
1. Wire, "Boiling Boy"
If I recall, I strangely enough got their A Bell Is a Cup Until It Is Struck album at a big discount due to having a coupon I got from a cereal box, of all things. Everyone knows 'Kidney Bingos' from this album, but this one was my favorite from the start, because of the way the song is layered. This may not make sense, but this is one of those songs where it kinda gives me the feeling of being outside, yet not being out in the open (there's a few out there that give me that sort of image). This one in particular being near the top of a hill, under a treeline, watching the valley below. Why, I have no idea.
2. Cocteau Twins, "Carolyn's Fingers"
See "Blue Bell Knoll" above. The big hit from the album, and one that got a lot of airplay on 120 as well as all the college stations (not to mention WMDK as well). There's a very amusing version of The Flying Bohemians attempting to do this song, as I'd learned the riff before a TFB jam session.
3. Til Tuesday, "(Believed You Were) Lucky"
A radio station single...this song didn't stick with me right away until I realized it fit good as an opening song to my kinda-new project at the time, Belief in Fate. I believe the story's title came first (which was a reference to something I'd written in an english class earlier that year), but it fit in quite nicely, considering the song's chorus.
4. The Psychedelic Furs, "President Gas"
Their All of This and Nothing tape really made me appreciate this band, and this song stuck with me for some strange reason...I think partly due to Bush recently winning the '88 election. My first instance of political frustration. Come on, it was one of those "I'm hip because I found a song that fits the times" thing you do when you're a kid like me. ;)
5. Nick Heyward, "You're My World"
Another radio station album. This is one of those songs that's too harmless 80s-pop to be any good, but I found myself liking it...of course, giving it cred because he used to be the lead singer of Haircut 100, and I was retro even then due to my MTV upbringing. I think about this point in the comp, I'd run out of songs to put in that I hadn't already used elsewhere, so the next few were more filler than anything else.
6. Stump, "Charlton Heston"
This one actually got more 120 Minutes play than "Buffalo" did (probably because it's easier on the ears). That, and the frogs. The line "Thou shalt not bonk thy neighbor's wife" cracks me up to this day.
7. Transvision Vamp, "Tell That Girl to Shut Up"
Another radio station album. I never knew until much later that this was a cover, and that the drummer later ended up in Bush. I remember doing a quickie record review for h58 for this album (Pop Art), thinking it was kinda neat, but not the best. Another filler song.
8. Wire, "Ahead"
I'd wanted to do a cover of this song ever since hearing it on Enigma Variations 2 a few years previous, but the only thing I could play was the bass for it. I bought The Ideal Copy a few months after A Bell..., and that's why I like the latter more than this one, but this is by far one of their best songs ever. I know I called WAMH a few times to request this song, and have taped proof of it somewhere...
9. Communards, "Don't Leave Me This Way"
Another radio station single, and another filler song. Being a young'un in the 70s, I think I found the original one of my favorite songs of that decade, which kind of fueled the idea of putting this version here.
10. Nik Kershaw, "Wouldn't It Be Good"
Another filler...I think I got this song from a UK pop compilation that I'd found cheap somewhere, and always liked this song.
11. Joy Division, "Atmosphere"
No matter what, this song had to be the last song on the compilation, because of its 'ending theme' quality. There's a scene in Belief in Fate, partially based on a dream I'd had, in which this song was playing in the background while I emptied out my locker at the end of the school day, and passing by a lot of friends on the way out...a sort of subconscious 'I'm leaving them' sort of thing, which I incorporated into that book. My #2 favorite song of that year, mostly because of this dream. Also where the compilation title comes from.