New Wave Sissy Boy 80s Hits You Were Afraid To Admit You...

[Cameraman Jenn]

Oh, and I say "Way to go, Boy George! Kudos to you for not being afraid to air your freakiness!"

Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon......

[matrixman]

Boy George had a great voice, and Culture Club created some of the most infectious and memorable pop songs of the 80's. All the homophobic sneers in the world can't deny that. (Not even those of Robert of the Radish, the author of this "Sissy Boy" list.)

Dave Marsh in The Heart of Rock & Soul - The 1,001 Greatest Singles Ever Made makes an interesting comparison between Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" and John Lennon's "Instant Karma (We All Shine On)":

In rock mythology, the big distinction is made between the sixties and the seventies, but as Lennon's record (a sixties swan song) and Boy George's demonstrate, the sixties and the eighties contrast more starkly. Both records toy with the idea of "karma" as a symbol of cosmic comeuppance for the star-struck, but while it's interesting that pop stars of such different generations, with the careers of their peers splayed out before them like so many used-up Corn Kings, return to a concept steeped in rebirth, there the resemblance ends.

Over the clunkiest track Phil Spector ever produced, Lennon does his best to level himself, not in order to obliterate his own superstardom but as a means to (at least theoretically) elevate everybody else. By "instant karma" he seems to mean immediate consequences. Having just emerged from the cocoon of the Beatles, he spoke with tremendous authority about the havoc wreaked by trying to keep your head in the valet-attended clouds. Whether he's identified a universally applicable cosmic revenge principle is harder to say.

Where Boy George and Culture Club come from, authority means nothing. In their version of pop culture, authority is powerless and it's around that conundrum that they base their song. "Lovin' would be easy if your colors were like my dreams," declares George, over the slickest soul track his group ever made. For him, consequences can be avoided by becoming a changeling who eschews anything resembling permanent allegiance. Permanence itself may be the problem: "I'm a man without conviction," George says and then without a wink, "I'm a man who doesn't know / How to sell a contradiction." But of course, that's all he's ever sold.

Boy George sings as if in toying with the idea of a love that might last, a future that might actually come to exist, he's found the greatest sorrow of his life. And the harmonica backs him up. Lennon, for all his espousals of faith, struggles to keep up with the inexorable cadences of guitar and drum. Neither, in the end, mastered fate at all.

Marsh on "Church of the Poison Mind" (which is my personal favorite CC song):

What got lost in all the hoopla over Boy George's preferences in sex and dress and drugs wasn't just his soulful singing but the skillfulness of his band, which played sophisticated modern pop-soul charts as well as any group in New York, L.A., or London. That's why "Church of the Poison Mind," with its latter-day Philly soul bottom and scathing harmonica break, its Stax-like horn punctuation, and Helen Terry's wailing vocal responses, remains thrilling long after all George's secrets (at least, all the ones anyone cared about) have been told.

In a sense, it's hard to see what the sexual-sartorial fuss was all about. From Little Richard and Bobby Marchan on one extreme to Liberace and Milton Berle on the other, cross-dressing has been a common habit among Anglo-American performers. It was George's posture not just as drag queen but as a fairly unapologetic homosexual (he could be coy, but he never denied his tastes) that required strong punishment. Just as Elton John's career fell off for several years after his revelation of his "bisexuality," George's star crashed long before the London cops decided to do their bit for for Fleet Street with his arrest for heroin (cruelly timed for just the moment when he was going clean).

Like most of Culture Club's songs, "Church of the Poison Mind" doesn't make its meaning especially clear. Mainly, it seems to concern an especially ideal pickup (and perhaps some self-criticism on George's part for his own dirty wishes upon first viewing that fine young thing). But there's nothing overeager about hearing the title as a slap at the voyeuristic world in which we live, and at least part of the mounting, moaning tension in George's vocal as an entirely reasonable sense of trepidation at the potential consequences for himself.

[Fist and Faith]

I still absolutely love Howard Jones' No One Is To Blame!!

[matrixman]

I liked Howard Jones too. Haven't heard from him, though. It's like he just vanished from the face of the earth after the Eighties. Hmm, guess I could say that about a good number of other Eighties acts. Of course, I never really left the 80's myself.

[Fist and Faith]

I try my best to avoid the 80's whenever possible. But there are a few great moments. As for Howard, I know I heard the rest of that album, because I bought it. But I don't remember any of the other songs.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Hey, why would you avoid the eighties? It might not be the most deep and meaningful era for music but hell, it is still some fun music. I will always remember dancing to "Straight from the Heart" by Bryan Adams at a dance with a guy I had a crush on named Marc Saxon. Can't take those great memories away. I have a love hate relationship with Guns and Roses and I love to sing really sarcastic bad imitations of Axl Rose at the top of my lungs. The eighties rock! DaVinyl's "I Touch Myself"? You know you love that song.

[matrixman]

Well, it was a deep and meaningful era of music for me, in addition to being seriously fun.

Mind you, I think the "new wave" is usually defined as that period roughly between the late 70's and the early '80s. For me, new wave peaked in '83-'84 with the Police. (Not that I went around calling music "new wave" back then.)

I do like a lot of Bryan Adams's songs. They were part of the other soundtrack to my school years.

[danlo]

See, defending your music-I'm so proud!

[sgt.null]

the 80's had minutemen, husker du, black flag, pere ubu... and many , many great bands as well.

[Relayer]

Yep, and Talking Heads, the Cure, the Clash, Crowded House, English Beat (the Beat for those of you in the UK), Squeeze... pretty much the soundtrack of the 80's for me.

...but this is getting away from the original thread.

[Mr. Broken]

You think the list is embarassing, I had a Perm in the 80's, and thats as much as Im willing to admit.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Not new-wave, not sissy-boy (yet still embarrassing), but I realized the other day as I was driving home that I still sort-of like Huey Lewis and the News.

[sgt.null]

Not new-wave, not sissy-boy (yet still embarrassing), but I realized the other day as I was driving home that I still sort-of like Huey Lewis and the News.

the velveeta cheese of rock.

[dANdeLION]

As for Howard, I know I heard the rest of that album, because I bought it. But I don't remember any of the other songs.

Too bad, because Things Can Only Get Better kicks ass.

[Caer Bombadil]

As for Howard, I know I heard the rest of that album, because I bought it. But I don't remember any of the other songs.

Too bad, because Things Can Only Get Better kicks ass.

That was one of my faves, too. It was about the only truly upbeat, optimistic New Wave song I can think of. (I read the lyrics now & still can't find any hint of sarcasm or irony as you'd expect, like, well things couldn't possibly get worse) At the time, my 1st real job was morphing into a steaming pile, & my sig other had done the "out of sight out of mind" routine when she went to college out of town, so I needed a bit of cheering.

OTOH Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't It Be Good" sort of reflected the mood of the time. I also loved Pseudo Echo's cover of "Funkytown" that turned a disco/R&B piece into passable synthesized New Wave. Anything by Tears for Fears or Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (esp "If You Leave," of course) reminds me of those days.

Speaking of covering & re-producing old New Wave hits, how about Gwen Stefani's version of "It's My Life," or Sixpence None The Richer's take on "Don't Dream It's Over?"

[Cail]

Gwen Stefani needs to be shot for that cover....It's horrible.

[CovenantJr]

[pedantry]That travesty was actually No Doubt, before Gwen ditched them entirely to go solo[/pedantry]

As you were...

[sgt.null]

Caer Bombadil - WOuldn't It Be Good is great. but some dipshit covered it and just ruined it. buy only the original.

[Caer Bombadil]

Caer Bombadil - WOuldn't It Be Good is great. but some dipshit covered it and just ruined it. buy only the original.

Really? Never heard a cover of it, doesn't seem to get airplay so it must be horrible indeed. Did a quick Google: Soulwax? Cascada?

And, BTW, I really grooved to Duran Duran. "Hungry Like the Wolf" followed on the Rio album by "Hold Back the Rain" was some of my favorite driving music. Hey, I sent off for a vinyl LP thru Amazon to get the album version because they butchered both those tracks cutting the intros & breaks short to fit on CD.

[matrixman]

"Hungry Like the Wolf" followed on the Rio album by "Hold Back the Rain" was some of my favorite driving music. Hey, I sent off for a vinyl LP thru Amazon to get the album version because they butchered both those tracks cutting the intros & breaks short to fit on CD.

I preferred the longer versions as well, and was quite disappointed by the CD release. "Hungry Like The Wolf" was already familiar, but "Hold Back The Rain" mesmerized me the first time I heard it. Terrific songs, terrific album. (Arguably their best.)

Also count me as another fan of Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't It Be Good."