Graduating high school in 1979, my formative junior high (remember when we still had those?) and high school years were spent listening to 70’s FM radio (Seger, Skynyrd, Eagles, Earth Wind & Fire, Boston, Kansas, Doors, Journey [when Greg Rolie was in the band],Boz Scaggs, Kenny Loggins) … buy my college years in the early 80’s were just as great for me … discovering the music of Bill Champlin, David Foster, Jay Graydon, and Steve Lukather and the rest of the guys from Toto –all as a result of Bill Champlin joining the band CHICAGO ® … discovering and going back to find the Bill co-wrote AFTER THE LOVE IS GONE with Graydon & Foster and TURN YOUR LOVE AROUND with Graydon & Lukather … and finding out that Lukather & Foster & Champlin were all over albums like Boz Scaggs’ MIDDLE MAN and Graydon & Champlin were helping Benson and Al Jarreau make songs like NEVER GIVE UPON A GOOD THING & ROOF GARDEN … and that Lukather & Foster were co-writing songs like BREAKDOWN DEAD AHEAD with Scaggs and TALK TO YA LATER with The Tubes (and they would later go on to co-write maybe my all-time favorite rock n’ roll song ever- The Tubes SHE’S A BEAUTY)…in my mind 1982 was just about my favorite year for music … catching up on LP’s from ’80 and ’81 that Champlin, Foster & Graydon and the rest of this bunch of musicians had produced and/or helped release (stuff like MIDDLE MAN, THE COMPLETION BACKWARD PRINCIPLE, Jarreau’s BREAKIN’ AWAY, Champlin’s RUNAWAY, Lee Ritenour’s RIT) …and then in ’82 comes the release of CHICAGO’s 16, TOTO’s IV, Don Henley’s I CAN’T STAND STILL, Kenny Loggin’s HIGH ADVENTURE, Michael McDonald’s IF THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES, Glen Frey’s NO FUN ALOUD (with Champlin helping on backing vocals on the song “I VOLUNTEER”) … the Henley & Loggins LP’s in particular having some of my favorite guitar tracks from the era – songs like “YOU BETTER HANG UP” and “SWEAR YOU LOVE” were right up my alley as far as what a great rock n’ roll song should sound like … that year we also had Crosby, Stills & Nash release DAYLIGHT AGAIN, Bob Seger released THE DISTANCE – and Nicolette Larson (one of my favorite female vocalists) released her fourth LP – ALL DRESSED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO (which had a version of Lowell George’s TWO TRAINS – along with Champlin, George is one of musical heroes) … and you had John Cougar’s AMERICAN FOOL LP… and one of my college buddies [the same one who turned me on to The Doors in high school] turned me on to Peter Gabriel’s song SHOCK THE MONKEY … And there was my all-time favorite Paul Carrack song – I NEED YOU (which IMO -along with TEMPTED by Squeeze - are two of the coolest pop songs ever recorded –anytime, anywhere )
And just a little after this in 1983 we got hear the Jay Graydon-produced JARREAU (with TROUBLE IN PARADISE & BOOGIE DOWN among others) and The Tubes OUTSIDE INSIDE (with SHE’S A BEAUTY, TIP OF MY TONGUE – which had the help of E, W & Fire’s Maurice White, and their version of THE MONKEY TIME –which had the help of Martha Davis on vocals),and Russ Taff’s WALLS OF GLASS (with the help of Bill Champlin on some of the tracks’ backing vocals) … and even Prince’s 1999 LP (which along with my love of the song The Tubes SHE’S A BEAUTY, I also think that Prince’s “LITTLE RED CORVETTE” is one of the best pop songs IMO ever recorded) … and ZZ TOP’s ELIMINATOR (with the triumvirate of “Legs”, “Sharp Dressed Man” & “Gimme All Your Lovin”) ... And there was my all-time favorite Lindsay Buckingham song – HOLIDAY ROAD –that was on the National Lampoon VACATION Soundtrack
… and so for me, 1981 -1982 -1983 - this was all a great time to be a fan of the WEST COAST STYLE of pop/rock/R &B that Lukather, Champlin, Foster& Graydon were popularizing … and to hear a rejuvenated CHICAGO ® was cool … and getting to hear members of The Eagles either putting out their own solo material, or helping others like Seger & C,S & N make music –this was all ”good” for me
BUT HAVING SAID ALL OF THIS ABOUT WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE EARLY half of the decade’s music (i.e., my college years) … I honestly did not like the use of electronics and the drum machine that predominated a lot of the pop music of the decade … not all of it was terrible … some of my favorite female vocalists of the time – MARTHA DAVIS of The Motels & PATTY SMYTHE of Scandal - were in bands making that style of music… but I can’t say that I enjoyed the trend in music that a lot of the European pop bands were making at the time
HOLIDAY ROAD SWEAR YOUR LOVE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4diK2tP4vk&feature=PlayList&p=5AD2C19583073CB3&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=36SHE'S A BEAUTY GOODBYE ELENORE (Toto)I NEEED YOU