Greil Marcus's Top Albums and Singles of 1980

Gang of Four : Natural's Not In It

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One of rock criticism's intellectuals, Greil Marcus gave four albums his highest possible score in the Village Voice critics poll. Gang of Four's Entertainment! shared the honor with a live album from Public Image Ltd, the sophomore album from a Pittsburgh bar band and London Calling. He was so blown away the first time he saw Gang Of Four he left the club before The Buzzcocks took the stage so the effect would last longer. On his website, you can read his take on Gang of Four:

In almost every song, you can hear a very specific struggle: the struggle of the person who has heard the bad news to love it. He always fails. He realizes everything he does is second-hand, a waking dream, a dream someone else has dreamed for him—when he walks into a pub and greets friends with a line he’s half-consciously lifted from last night’s sitcom, he’s an advertisement. He hears himself and he feels tricked, humiliated, so he smashes into his friends, into the other members of the band, as if he’s never seen them before but knows they mean him no good. Screaming, he insists that he’s happy.

ALBUMS

Gang of Four: Entertainment! (Warner Bros.) 15; 

Image Publique S.A.: Paris Au Printemps (Virgin import) 15; 

Iron City Houserockers: Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive) (MCA) 15; 

The Clash: London Calling (Epic) 15; 

Carlene Carter: Musical Shapes (Warner Bros.) 15; 

X: Los Angeles (Slash) 5; 

Roxy Music: Flesh + Blood (Atco) 5; 

Black Uhuru: Sensimilla (Mango) 5; 

Robin Lane & the Chartbusters (Warner Bros.) 5; 

Dire Straits: Making Movies 5. 

SINGLES

The Beat: “Twist & Crawl” (Go-Feet import 12-inch); 

J. Geils Band: “Love Stinks” (EMI America); 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: “Refugee” (Backstreet); 

Blondie: “Call Me” (Polydor 12-inch); 

The Clash: “Train in Vain” (Epic); 

Red Crayola: “Born in Flames” (Rough Trade import); 

The Beat: “Stand Down Margaret (Dub)” (Go-Feet import 12-inch); 

Delta 5: “You” (Rough Trade import); 

Tommy James: “Three Times In Love” (Millenium); 

Anemic Boyfriends: “Guys Are Not Proud” (Red Sweater).

 

"Too Nice To Talk To" is the new single from The English Beat

The English Beat : Too Nice To Talk To

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On the week that began December 7, 1980 The English Beat's lively new single, "Too Nice To Talk To", debuted on the UK charts at #50. It would peak at UK#7 despite a poor review in Sounds which called it " a VERY dull record'. Wankers.

The English Beat's "Best Friend" is another perfect single

The (English) Beat : Best Friend

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In August of 1980 The Beat released the UK#22 hit "Best Friend" b/w "Stand Down Margaret (dub)", the fourth single from their chart topping debut album, I Just Can't Stop It. Remarkable considering they were just a year and a half from their first gig. The Beat announced the proceeds of the single were going to the British Anti-Nuclear Campaign as they prepared for a tour of France with The Police.

In an upcoming issue of Smash Hits Dave Wakeling answered a question about the Jamaican patois he uses in some songs.

At first I took some stick then I started pointing out Van Morrison, Mick Jagger and Tim Buckley. How did they ever get away with it?

It's like when a Roxy Music record comes on the radio and everyone sits there and gently does their impression of Bryan Ferry. It's very hard, when you come to do a Prince Buster song, to sing it as Dave Wakeling, rather than Dave Wakeling's impression of Prince Buster.

I have to add "Best Friend" is my all-time favorite song by this band. Who doesn't know someone like this: "I just found out the name of your best friend / You been talkin' 'bout yourself again". 

And "Stand Down Margaret" has to be the politest protest song on record. They even say please.

The English Beat releases a debut that ranks among the best ever

The English Beat : Best Friend

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In May of 1980 The English Beat released I Just Can't Stop It, their critically acclaimed debut album and a UK#3 hit. The album still thrills decades later with four memorable singles, Tears Of a Clown ( UK#6) , Hands Off...She's Mine ( UK#9) Mirror In The Bathroom (UK#4), and Best Friend (UK#22).

Shocking to think they had only been together a little more than a year. The band was smart enough to found their own label, Go-Feet, which served as a buffer between The Beat and the major labels and gave the band the right to choose not just what singles they'd be releasing but the artwork. The  dancing girl is a nod to the young women who had come to see their shows.

The album thrilled critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone's Frank Rose wrote:

"They may be primitive, but they certainly aren't simple. I Just Can't Stop It is the most exhilarating surprise from Britain since Marianne Faithfull's Broken English."

The Village Voice's Robert Chrtistgau gave the album a grade of A-, writing:

Known simply as the Beat in England, and rightly so--their ska is deep and driven. Thank drummer Everett Martin, born St. Kitt's 1951, with roots from reggae to Armatrading, and bassist David Steele, born Isle of Wight 1960, who's parlayed the usual classical training into a rhythm kid's twist and crawl. That's a title, of course, naming a bass line that moved more feet than anything Bernard Edwards came up with in 1980. Riding atop the full frontal velocity are two lean, warm, modest voices, almost indistinguishable until Ranking Roger turns up the accent. Hidden below it are songs, most of them by covocalist David Wakeling. Lyric of the electoral year: "Stand Down Margaret."

And this from Smash Hits:

The English Beat score a UK#4 hit with "Mirror In The Bathroom"

The English Beat : Mirror In The Bathroom

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On April 28 The English Beat had a new single in the UK charts. "Mirror In The Bathroom" debuted at UK#58 but it would peak at UK#4, the Beat's highest charting single until a slightly remixed version of "Can't Get Used to Losing You" returned to the charts in 1983. 

Dave Wakeling told A.V. Club how he came up with the lyrics :

The lyrics were written when I was working on a construction site. I’d had a couple of drinks the night before, and forgot to hang up my clothes to dry for the next day. It gets very wet on those construction sites, and it was the winter, so it was a snowy wet. I got into the bathroom and realized my clothes were all on the floor in a wet, sandy pile. So I hung them up and thought, “Well, if I steam them, at least I’ll be puttin’ ’em on warm.” I had a shower, and then I was shaving in the mirror, with the hangover and the wet clothes, and the thought of trying to break up frozen sand to put into the concrete machine was not that tasty. And I started talking to myself in the mirror, and said, “Dave, we don’t have to do this, mate. We don’t have to do this.” And in the mirror behind me, the door of the bathroom had a tiny little latch on it, and I said to myself, “The door’s locked. There’s only me and you. Just me and you here. We don’t have to do this.” And of course we did, because we needed money for Guinness that night. [Laughs.] 

 So on the motorbike we got, and skidded our way back to the construction site. And while I was on the bike, I was pondering it. “The door is locked, just you and me.” Had a nice feel to it. “Mirror In The bathroom.” That’s a great idea, but you can’t have a pop song called “Mirror In The Bathroom,” can you? That’s stupid. You’re meant to have pop songs called, “I Love You, Lady,” or something. Anyway the poem started, and continued during the day, and kept me warm while my clothes weren’t, and I’d got the germ of it from there. And when I heard David Steele’s bassline, I was like, “Wow, that poem I was writing on the motorbike fits it like a glove.” 

The B-side, "Jackpot", is a cover of a 1968 song by the Jamaican ska trio, The Pioneers.

The All Time Top Ten of The English Beat's Dave Wakeling

The English Beat : Mirror in the Bathroom

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IN April of 1980, the month The English Beat would release the UK#4 hit "Mirror in the Bathroom" b/w a cover of the Pioneers' song "Jackpot", singer and guitarist Dave Wakeling presented Smash Hits with his All Time Top Ten. It's a good list, mixing up reggae tunes with some eccentric rock from the likes of Captain Beefheart and Tim Buckley.

Hands Off : Another Top 10 hit for The English Beat

The English Beat : Hands Off...She's Mine

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On February 20, 1980 The (English) Beat had a new single in the UK Charts, "Hands Off...She's Mine" b/w "Twist and Crawl", which had made its debut at UK#48. "It's good without being surprisingly good,"remarked David Hepworth, writing for Smash Hits.

Dave Wakeling's voice is an astonishment. You think he must be double tracking his vocals but I don't think that's the case. 

Like many Beat songs, there is a mixture of happy music and somewhat sad lyrics here. Wakeling explained to Consequence of Sound that's on purpose:

We wanted happy music to show that life is a joy; it’s a painful joy, of course, but it is a joy. But also, the stuff that goes on within our minds is often very, very painful, and I wanted that combination to happen in the same song, in the same three minutes. And I think that that’s how it connected to people, because people’s lives are complicated and often very painful. You know, life is a tragedy. It’ll all end in tears, as the Buddha said. And so, anything you can do to try and pick people’s spirits up, anything you can do to connect is a valuable aspiration, I think.

The single peaked at UK#9 and even hit #22 on the US Dance Club chart. When a high school girl played the song at her party, I don't remember anybody dancing but I was also worried that somebody was going to start up a game of Spin The Bottle. And at that age, I was a wreck.

The B-Side is "Twist And Crawl", another gem from the forthcoming I Just Can't Stop It.

Sadder Than Sad

The (English) Beat : Tears of a Clown

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On December 2, 1979 The interracial Birmingham ska band, The Beat, made their debut on the U.K. singles chart at #67 with their cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles'  "Tears of a Clown". Dave Wakeling says the band constantly rehearsed the #1 hit from 1970 with no plans to ever play it live, much less record it:

Drummer Everett Morton said, 'Why don't we find a song that we all know and learn that one by ourselves, come back next Tuesday, and we'll play that song and get a groove with that one. And then we'll go back and play one of your weird songs, like that mirror thing.' And so that's what we did, we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown,' then we'd play 'Mirror in the Bathroom,' then we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown.' We'd play 'Twist And Crawl,' and we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown,' 'Big Shot,' 'Tears Of A Clown,' 'Click Click,' 'Tears Of A Clown.' And by the time we got five or six songs together that would hold together, David Steele, the bass player, said, 'Let's do a show. We should do a concert.' 

We're like, 'We've only got six songs.' He said, 'Yes, but one concert is worth a thousand rehearsals.' Because you can sit around and be pretentious in rehearsals as long as you like. 

 So we started doing shows, and in order to have seven songs instead of six, we put 'Tears Of A Clown' in the set. We'd practiced that song more than any of the others, it turned out. Because it was our magnet, our training model for all the other tunes.

The song peaked at U.K.#6, the first of five Top 10 hits for The Beat, who would be known in the U.S. and Canada as The English Beat to avoid confusion with Paul Collins' band. They had only been playing together since March where , in reference to Three Mile Island, they were introduced on stage as "the hottest thing since the Pennsylvania meltdown". 

Ranking Roger takes the lead on the irresistible B-side, "Ranking Full Stop". The sax is played by First Wave ska legend Saxa who played with the new scene's hero Prince Buster.