Listomania! - 1986

Looking back, all the signs were there. She wasn't interested in my friends or my hobbies or my lifestyle choices or, ultimately, me. We had been together for 10 years, since I was 15 and she was 17. We were married for 7 1/2 years. I always said that we would prove the doubters wrong, that we'd show them. My sheer will and sense of loyalty would win out over all the pressures, all the odds. Truthfully, it had been failing for close to 2 years already, but I stubbornly refused to acknowledge that fact. In February of 1986, right before Gordie's 8th birthday, it ended. I came home from work and as I walked up toward our apartment, the kids were outside playing. I went inside and got floored - stopped dead in my tracks. "I'm tired of being married." The words hit me right on the gut. I tried to reason with her. I tried to say that it would be worth it if we just stuck it out. I said all those things that people say when their hearts are being ripped out and squashed to pieces. It was a 2-way street, of course, but it wasn't my idea. This was Friday and she said that I was to be out by Monday. I had just spent all our savings 2 weeks before on brand new furniture - a sofabed, a recliner, and a T.V. I had no money to get my own place. Details become sketchy at this point. I was a wounded animal and I was petrified and I didn't know what to do. I knew I couldn't go to my parents' house as my mother would blame it all on me and do her usual great job of mothering and being there for her son. (My tongue is embedded firmly in my cheek as I say this.) I called Steve. He was in the middle of writing about 4 essays as he was on Slack Week at UWO, but he dropped it all and came over. Debbie had taken the kids to her parents' place for the night. I bawled on his shoulder for hours, just one of many times over the 35 years that one of us has been there in the other's time of need. His Dad took the bull by the horns. Nobody ever said that Phil Ross was the easiest person in the world to like, but he had a heart of gold deep down inside. He told me to go get an apartment and that he would give me the downpayment for it. I will never forget his kindness at that moment and have told him so many times. My own parents, who were from the old pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps school, even though my Mom's parents gave her thousands of dollars over the years, didn't offer me a dime. I have never forgotten that either....The worst part was not being around the kids all the time. I saw them every Friday through Sunday, but it was the toughest thing I've ever lived through. I began using drugs quite heavily and not eating much and I was an emaciated 160 pounds. It was a tough time, but, it certainly worked out for the best. Music was my crutch, helping me through all those lonely and horrible nights. Here is the list:

Top 10 Of 1986

10. Here It Is Tomorrow - Game Theory

This is the first song on their 2nd album, The Big-Shot Chronicles and what a way to start a record! It has a truly frenetic pace, with singer and lyricist Scott Miller cramming as many words in per bar of music as possible. This band had numerous lineup changes for each record, but Miller is the continuity here, especially his voice, which he dubbed his "miserable whine." The playing is fast and furious, all pounding floor toms and punky bass, with new keyboardist Shelley Lafreniere adding backing vocals to the mix. There is also a great guitar solo by Miller, just to top off this gem of a tune. Once again, Let's Active main man Mitch Easter handles the production duties. "Now you've got me drinking in Canadian bars, trading sad stories with the New England Coast Guard. Man you blew me off like there was no tomorrow, and here it is tomorrow." My theme song for '86.....

9. Happy Hour - The Housemartins

Don't let the poppy, happy music fool you folks. This is a sarcastic and sobering treatise on the culture of laddish bosses and phoniness of the business world. Paul Heaton sings it in a boyish tenor, but the lyrics cut like knives. Bassist Norman Cook went on to greater fame in the 1990s as Fat Boy Slim, using samples and loops to create his sound. This is nothing like Fat Boy Slim, sounding much more like The Smiths and their ilk than Praise You. The Housemartins were very left-wing in their lyrics and beliefs, as one listen to their brilliant debut album that this song is taken from, London 0 Hull 4 will prove. I bought this on import from Dr. Disc as it was not released domestically until much later. "It's another night out with the boss, following in footsteps overgrown with moss, and he tells me that women grow on trees, and if you catch them right they will land upon their knees." You have to toss them up just the right way though.....

8. Life's What You Make It - Talk Talk

Anybody remember the video for this song? It was shot in a forest at night and showed all sorts of wild animals and creepy-crawling insects and it was fascinating. Talk Talk were more famous for the song It's My Life from 1984, but they had morphed into a more serious and less synth-happy group by '86. You can still dance to this song though and I have many times over the years, but there is actually a guitar played on this. There are also real drums as well as drum samples and a brilliant left-hand keyboard line which anchors the song. The vocals are great too, with that popular '80s reverb added to the vocal mix. This is a druggy, hopeful dancefloor anthem, so give it a listen and see for yourself. "Yesterday's faded, nothing can change it, life's what you make it." Self-help 101!

7. Lifeblood - That Petrol Emotion

It begins with a little bass line and then in comes a schizophrenic guitar, all noisy and scratchy. This song is all twisted and paranoid and it suited my mood on many days at that time. These guys came out of the ashes of The Undertones, all righteous Northern Irish anger, led by an American singer named Steve Mack. It is a great album too, their first, called Manic Pop Thrill, with nary a bad song on it. The melody is there, but it is supplanted by the band's raging playing. The roaring power chords at the 3:09 mark just rock out so perfectly and then Mack's scream at the end puts the punctuation mark on this one. "I can no longer hide my disgust, there can be no one left to trust." Things haven't changed much.....

6. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order

Do not be fooled by the tarted-up wizardry of the 12" single of this song. They cut out the best parts and add a bunch of mindless noodling and twiddling that boggles my mind. The album version from Brotherhood is the one you want to hear. The brilliant Peter Hook and his bass guitar are the real standouts here. He plays the lead lines on his bass, way up high on the neck, and it is such a great sound! On the 12", they mute his bass and I wish I could meet the idiot that did that remix and ask them just what the hell they were smoking? This is dance music par excellence, always a hit at parties when Mickey wants to "turn it up." The biggest drawback of this tune is the same as any New Order song - the lyrics are pretty much just insipid space-filler, but that is easily ignored once that bass takes your hand and leads you to groove you ass off. "I feel fine and I feel good, I'm feeling like I never should. Whenever I get this way I just don't know what to say." Take your own advice then - make it an instrumental!

5. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths

Yes, it is true! In the summer of 1986, The Smiths played at Centennial Hall in London! I know, it's hard to believe, but I was there. This great song, from their album The Queen Is Dead, was the opening number. Morrissey had, by then, started to accumulate several fawning sycophants, even in our little town. So, the band sans Morrissey came out and played this as an instrumental once through and then the great man made his appearance. The screams and cheers drowned out the song! He started singing and it was unlike any London show I've ever seen. The whole crowd was singing along loudly! People had brought flowers with them and they rained down on the stage, the place erupting in squeals every time Steven Patrick, as his mother called him, reached down and picked one up for a quick sniff. This song has a fantastic Johnny Marr guitar riff jangling all the way through it and Morrissey's sarcastic, biting and sometimes hilarious lyrics. This is one of their best, still to this day. "Oh ... sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking when I said by rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed." Some things you just can't take back!

4. Tarantula - This Mortal Coil

Everything about this song is ethereal beauty - the piano line, the mournful cello, the echoing choir in the background, the vocals of Dominic Appleton and Deirdre and Louise Rutkowski. It is a sad, gorgeous, haunting piece, quite Gothic as well. I spent a lot of time alone smoking pot and this song at 4 in the morning on headphones was a perfect companion in those moments. These guys and gals were an amalgamum of artists from the 4AD record label in England who put out 3 albums back then of mostly covers of obscure tunes by obscure artists. This is from the 2nd record, Filigree And Shadow, which was a double album. This song was co-written by Jean-Luc Ponty and originally performed by the band Colourbox, but this version is the best. "I'm living but I'm feeling numb, can see it in my stare." Well, then go to bed and get some sleep!

3. These Days - R.E.M.

This is so fast, so joyous, so hopeful. I needed this kind of song back then and I still love it now. It is one of my fave tunes by one of my fave bands. I adore the lyrics so much that I have been known to walk around singing them for days on end. Stipe and the guys wanted a more rock-oriented sound on this album, so they hired Don Gehman to produce it because he was getting that big sound for John Mellencamp back then. This is from their 4th, and best, album called Life's Rich Pageant. You can actually understand some of Stipe's vocals on this song, but not all. Bill Berry does yeoman work on the drums as well, really laying down a great bottom end for the rest to ride on top of. What a great song! "Fly to carry each his burden, we are young despite the years, we are concern, we are hope despite the times." The revolution will not be televised! Streamed maybe.....

2. Won't Go Wrong - Let's Active

This beauty is taken from their best record, the 2nd album Big Plans For Everybody. Because most of the band had left before this was recorded, Mitch Easter essentially did it all himself, with a few contributions from friends. I remember the day this album came out, going to buy it and running home and playing it over and over. After about the 5th listen, the phone rang. I answered and heard Michelle from Nebraska on the other end. She asked if I had the record and I said I did and then, we both started singing the a cappella part at the start of this song. Brilliant! I love the swirl of the guitars and the bass line that is so bubbly and the pedal-steel sounding guitar solo and, of course, Mitch Easter and his sincere, well-meaning vocals. "I'm probably wrong, but I think it's your heyday. But mostly I am right, back in the middle of my room." In my room....hmmm...could be a good song title...hmmm.....

1. Swamp Thing - The Chameleons

This was the first song of the set when Steve and I saw them in Toronto in early '87 and it blew the doors off the place! This was my "Help Me Make It Through The Night" at that time. Much of lyricist / singer Mark Burgess' stuff was about the disappointment of life, of being let down by everyone and everything around you and it was one of those moments where your state of mind has seemingly been tapped into by an artist. It is almost prog-rock in its scope and sound, with double guitars and brilliant, crashing drumming by John Lever. This is an epic, so tense and sad, but with a streak of fuck-you-defiance as well. It was my fave song of that year then, and it still is now. "Not too many hours from this hour, so long. The storm comes or is it just another shower?" Where's Al Roker when you need him?