C'mon.....you don't think yesterday's little bit of poptastic stuff was a mere coincidence?For Part 33 of this series, I'm moving away from singles to the record that was voted #1 LP by the writers on the NME in 1979. The full list, for your info was:-
1. Fear of music - Talking heads
2. Metal box - Public Image ltd.
3. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division
4. Setting sons - The Jam
5. Entertainment - Gang of four
6. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
7. Do it yourself - Ian Dury
8. London Calling - The Clash
9. Squeezing out the sparks - Graham Parker
10. The Specials - The Specials
11. Forces of victory - Lintin Kwesi Johnson
12. The B52's - The B52's
13. Bop till you drop - Ry Cooder
14. The Raincoats - The Raincoats
15. Tom Verlaine - Tom Verlaine
16. I am - Earth, Wind & Fire
17. The Undertones - The Undertones
18. 154 - Wire
19. Repeat when necessary - Dave Edmunds
20. Drums & Wires - XTC
21. New panic time - Pere Ubu
22. Cut - The Slits
23. Risque - Chic
24. Regatta de blank - Police
25. Humanity - The Royle Rasses
26. Same song - Israel Vibration
27. Katzenmusic - Michael Rother
28. Rust never sleeps - Neil Young
29. Brudder des schattens, sohne des.. - Popol Vuh
30. Dragnet - The Fall
31. Even serpents shine - The only ones
32. Eskimo - The Residents
33. Slow train coming - Bob Dylan
34. Blue valentine - Tom Waits
35. This heat - This heat
36. A train to Marineville - Swell maps
37. I’m the man - Joe Jackson
38. Soldier Talk - The red crayola
39. Reproduction - The Human League
40. Lodger - David Bowie
Fear Of Music is also the name given to a book by Garry Mulholland that has the subtitle 'The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk And Disco' and it covers July 1976 - September 2003. The book isn't named in tribute to the top-rated LP from 1979, but instead is lifted from a conversation he had with a friend - the explanation can be read in the preface (its an OK book if far less essential than his previous volume looking at singles).
Anyway, back to the LP in question.
I liked Talking Heads back in the day, and even now I'm happy enough when their songs come round on shuffle on the i-pod. But I cant take too much of them now in one sitting, which is why I'm prepared to stick my neck on the line and say that Fear Of Music, while a good piece of work, hasn't entirely stood the test of time and become something I'm happy to listen to from first track all the way through some 30 years on.
That's something I can still do with Unknown Pleasures, Setting Sons and London Calling from the above list. But such is the constraint on my time and the sheer number of songs I now have in my ownership that I rarely give any albums from the 70s or 80s a complete listen nowadays. I suspect I'm not alone in that regard....
mp3 : Talking Heads - Heaven
The best song on Fear Of Music. You are of course free to differ with my opinion....
7 comments:
Yup - it's gotta be 'memories Can't Wait.' Looking at that list reminds me -yet again!- why 1979 was one of the best years for music EVER!
1979 will always hold great memories as I was 10 years old and bought my first ever LP which appears at Number 10 on the NME list and still gets played fairly regularly. Have to agree with Ed that '79 was some year for music.
Always loved Fear Of Music and it's hard to argue with Heaven as a choice.
Reckon I have 30+ of that list. I was such an NME boy back then! The best Heads album without a doubt.
Rich C
Top lp. Animals is a great song, as is Memories Can't Wait.
Bloody hell, that NME list's an eye-opener. Michael Rother & Linton Kwesi Johnson miles above Bowie? Polop Vuh right next to the Fall? Earth Wind and Fire?!?! And being a big Pere Ubu fan, it gladdens my heart to see not only New Picnic Time but Soldier-Talk (an Ubu LP in all but name) in there.
Does make me wonder what - outside of the top ten or so - the *readers* of NME were listening to that year, mind. It looks like a list designed to impress rather than reflect.
Sort of know what you mean about Talking Heads. The stuff from More Songs... to Remain In LIght is always on my mp3 player, cuz every so often I really fancy a burst of them, but they seem somehow overpraised & part of the academy these days. If you're not in the mood, they feel like homework or an improving book.
While I'm here, a vote for Drugs as best track off FOM, even though you suspect that was the one where Eno completely annexed the band & rendered them like a covers band doing stuff off Taking Tiger Mountain. I first heard FOM round a mate's house back in early 86, & asked him there & then to do me a tape of it. Unfortunately, he used to regularly record stuff off the telly onto audio cassettes (insert grumble about how kids today dont know they're born here), & now every time I hear the song, I expect the fadeout to culminate with Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder II going "Very well then, Bob!" & a burst of canned laughter. Nevertheless, still my fave.
London Calling...#8????? While I would argue that it deserves to be #1, I suppose an argument can be made that it doesn't.
But that being said, c'mon, there's no way it deserves to be as low as #8 in '79 (which WAS a great year for music).
For F#$K sake I think it probably deserves a higher mark if this were a list of Best albums of ALL TIME!
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