The Great HTF Music Challenge (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Judas Priest (loved all the tracks listed, but Hellbent for Leather is one of my favorites...love the guitar solo) it was like an overload of great music. Too much to take in at one sitting. Queensryche...yeah I understand their importance, my friends in high school tried hard to get me to like them, and my girlfriend at the time had Silent Lucidity as her favorite song of all time. They are OK, but I would never buy their music.

 

[Bryan^H]

Ric Ocasek - Emotion in Motion
I love the Cars, plain and simple. But Ric Ocasek's 1986 solo Album produced one of my favorite songs from him that bested any of the work released by the Cars. Love this song....desert Island love.

 

[Bryan^H]

Roxy Music - Avalon


Roxy Music - More Than This


Bryan Ferry is unique in his vocal stylings. I'll understand if you hate these tracks, as no one I've ever known liked them.

 

[BobO'Link]

Judas Priest reportedly recorded three songs with Britpop producers Stock Aitken Waterman in 1988, that were intended for the Ram It Down album. SAW were best known for producing dozens of pop hits for Rick Astley (Never Gonna Give You Up, Together Forever), Bananarama (Venus, I Heard a Rumour), Kylie Minogue (The Loco-Motion, I Should Be So Lucky), Dead or Alive (You Spin Me Round, Brand New Lover), and many others, with their trademark sounds of Linn drum machines and synthesizers. They toned the pop-ness down a bit for this session, of which only the brief snippet below of a cover of Stylistics "You Are Everything" is readily available (there's a short fadeout between the two samples):



Allegedly the band's label and/or management got cold feet about having the band associated with SAW. In hindsight some have speculated that these tracks might have been hits, and some said they'd likely be an improvement from what was actually released on that album (only their cover of "Johnny B. Goode" was widely released as a single from that album and found only minor success). I'm pretty sure samples of all three tracks used to be out, as I think I've heard them years ago, but the above is all I can find on YouTube. As I recall, I thought the two other original songs were better than the above cover version.

I don't think it really sounds like SAW, and fans of JP probably don't think it really sounds like JP, but I think it could have been an interesting hybrid experiment, especially since their album sales were already in decline by the time Ram It Down was released. It would have been the only time SAW fans bought a Judas Priest album. To me it sounds mostly like several other metal power ballads of the time.

This is more info from the Wikipedia page:



For comparison, here's a more traditional SAW track they wrote/produced for Rick Astley, "Take Me To Your Heart", also in 1988, probably in a studio just down the hall from the Judas Priest recording session (perhaps Rob Halford sings uncredited backing vocals). This track helped me get going on the elliptical at the gym yesterday.

Hearing Judas Priest do a straight ahead pop song I'd fully expect the band's management, label, and band themselves getting cold feet over it. I'd expect such a release to have been fully trashed by their fans and press. And I'm in no way a fan of their catalog of work, owning only a Greatest Hits compilation and not caring for at least half of that. I've never gotten into their stage style as it's that whole cliche' "bad boy" attitude and ridiculous outfits you get from so many heavy metal bands. Basically I don't go in for the "show" but to hear the music.

If that Rick Astley song came on a radio/stream I'd change it immediately. It's a style I absolutely do not care for.

 

[BobO'Link]

Yea these all have the same sanitized, over produced studio sound. Not that it's bad but it doesn't really separate itself from other material of that period to be noteworthy. enough

When I first heard "Silent Lucidity" I went to the local music store and picked up the single - I liked it that much. A few years later I purchased a Greatest Hits from the band. The only song I cared for enough to listen to with any regularly was still "Silent Lucidity" and it's still that way today in spite of having listened to that GH comp a dozen times or so over the years.

It goes back to that 80s style production that found its way into so many different music styles, much to the detriment of them all. It had a tendency to generalize much of the music of that decade no matter the genre. I distinctly remember spending that entire decade wishing for a return to "good" rock and roll. Not that there wasn't good rock produced in the decade, as there was, but it just all tended to sound the same with few bands having a truly distinctive sound. Having grown up with the huge variety of sounds/styles in the 60s/early 70s the disco era (mid 70s) up through the early 90s "grunge/alternative" era were mostly full of musical disappointments. Even artists I greatly liked turned out some of their lesser work in those years.

Out of curiosity I checked the release dates of items in my collection. The overwhelming majority of what I own that was released in that decade are collections (Greatest Hits and box sets) from artists/bands I'd been listening to in the 60s/70s with a smattering of GH discs from 80s acts. Most of the exceptions to the GH/box sets are from artists I'd been listening to in the 60s/70s with a dozen or so who first hit in the 80s, most of which had only a handful of releases, and several that were purchased for a single song or two. It's easily the most underrepresented decade in my collection.

 

[BobO'Link]

Ric Ocasek, "Emotion in Motion" - For me, this sounds like a lesser track from The Cars. I do like his voice. In all fairness I never much cared for the group until I had to drive across the state (~5 hrs) on a business trip with only FM radio to listen to in the car. It didn't matter which station I found that was playing "rock" that The Cars "Drive" would inevitably come on. I must have heard it over a dozen times on the drive to/from that location. It kind of grew on me. Today I own a 20 track Greatest Hits album from them and enjoy most of the tracks on it but it's also not one I listen to with any frequency as their sound is that 80s production sound that I just don't care for much.

 

[BobO'Link]

Roxy Music, "Avalon" & "More than This" - Don't care for these at all and have never liked Roxy Music. It's more of that generic 80s pop style I just avoided if possible. In spite of that I feel that Brian Ferry has a good voice.

 

[Malcolm R]

Hearing Judas Priest do a straight ahead pop song I'd fully expect the band's management, label, and band themselves getting cold feet over it. I'd expect such a release to have been fully trashed by their fans and press.

"Ram It Down" seems to have been largely trashed by most anyway, so it might not have hurt to try and change up their sound. As noted, a more pop sound might have brought them a new audience and the popularity of SAW at the time may have boosted sales of the album (though it didn't sound like SAW's traditional work, either, so who knows). It kind of makes one wonder why they even recorded the tracks in the first place? Pressure from the label bigwigs for bigger sales?

Though JP seems to have righted the ship with their next album, "Painkiller", which was critically well-received and produced a hit single with "A Touch of Evil", so perhaps they were right to stay the course for their fans.



.
I don't mind their music, but Halford's vocals don't really grab me.

 

[jcroy]

It goes back to that 80s style production that found its way into so many different music styles, much to the detriment of them all. It had a tendency to generalize much of the music of that decade no matter the genre. I distinctly remember spending that entire decade wishing for a return to "good" rock and roll.

Are you referring to the heavily compressed / peaklimiting on all the instruments, sometimes flooded in artifical reverb?

How Genesis’s Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins stumbled upon the '80s gated-reverb drum sound

Best of 2020: Producer Hugh Padgham explains how a happy accident gave birth to the era-defining sound

www.musicradar.com

Gated reverb - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Very distinctly 80s was the "gated reverb" on the drums, such as Peter Gabriel "Intruder".

 

[BobO'Link]

Are you referring to the heavily compressed / peaklimiting on all the instruments, sometimes flooded in artifical reverb?

How Genesis’s Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins stumbled upon the '80s gated-reverb drum sound

Best of 2020: Producer Hugh Padgham explains how a happy accident gave birth to the era-defining sound

www.musicradar.com

Gated reverb - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Very distinctly 80s was the "gated reverb" on the drums, such as Peter Gabriel "Intruder".

Not by itself (and your video example is "unavailable").

It's the overall production *style* with instrumentation *and* techniques. It's all over most of the music of that decade.

Here's the link to an earlier post I made with a couple of 80s tracks from Heart that have that distinctive sound.

It also includes lots of reverb and spacial effects (on almost everything including vocals), synthesizers (and their incredible amount of over use especially with arpeggiators), lots of vocal harmonies and double-tracking, "bouncing" octave bass lines, over use of orchestration whether it be a read orchestra or synth (usually synth), and more.

It was the fad of the day and overused by almost every producer on almost every act. It's the 80s version of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" style of production (itself somewhat a precursor to the "loudnesss wars" that would begin in the late 80s when music production moved primarily to CD).

 

[jcroy]

It was the fad of the day and overused by almost every producer on almost every act. It's the 80s version of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" style of production (itself somewhat a precursor to the "loudnesss wars" that would begin in the late 80s when music production moved primarily to CD).

This style of "overproduction" continues on to this very day in some niches like pop country, power heavy metal, Kelly Clarkson, etc ...

 

[jcroy]

Oddly enough, nowadays my production preferences is just listening to "raw mixes" of live performances streamed online where everything has to be setup and done on the spot live.

Nowadays with modern day technology, the sound in and of itself isn't the issue anymore. The quality is entirely in the on-the-spot performance, which will greatly reflect on the how well prepared/rehearsed the musicians were prior.

 

[Bryan^H]

Rosie & The Originals - Angel Baby

 

[Bryan^H]

Amii Stewart -Knock on Wood

 

[sleroi]

Rosie & the Originals - Angel Baby - Nice 50s style backbeat, but her voice is too nasally for me. And then when she went up an octave it drove me even more nuts. Sorry, I just couldnt get past her voice.

Amii Stewart - Knock on Wood - what a fun song, I liked the thunder and lightning effects. Great voice too. Its not the kind of music I usually listen to, but every once in awhile if this came on I wouldnt change it.

 

[sleroi]

L
Judas Priest - Touch of Evil - I didnt care for the synthesizers or the repetitive "big" drum beat. The main guitar riff was kind of boring, and the solos had that generic 80s metal feel to them. Halford has a powerful voice, but the song has such a somber, serious tone that I just couldnt get into it.

 

[John Dirk]

Rosie & The Originals - Angel Baby

Love the era and the music but not so much the voice. It sounds almost as if Fran Drescher were singing.

 

[John Dirk]

Amii Stewart -Knock on Wood

Great classic song. Love the music and energy but again, the voice isn't so great to me anyway. I felt the same about her other hit from this album, Light My Fire.

 

[BobO'Link]

Rosie & The Originals, "Angel Baby" - Nice 50s style "doo wop" type song. Her voice is just plain grating.

Amii Stewart, "Knock on Wood" - Electronica/dance rears its head with a average remake of a classic. I'll take the classic any day.

Eddie Floyd - "Knock on Wood":

 

[Bryan^H]

Rosie & The Originals, "Angel Baby" - Nice 50s style "doo wop" type song. Her voice is just plain grating.

Amii Stewart, "Knock on Wood" - Electronica/dance rears its head with a average remake of a classic. I'll take the classic any day.

Eddie Floyd - "Knock on Wood":

The Amii Stewart rendition has nostalgic memories for me (I loved it when I was 5) so that is why I picked it. Obviously the Eddie Floyd original is superior.