Wednesday, May 02, 2007

New To You

First and foremost - THERE ARE ONLY 20 DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!

okay now that my announcement is out of the way, let's look at a few Bubbatunes I put out a few weeks ago but forgot to talk about...

so let's take a look at a bit of 80's pop/rock new wave and reminisce as we all get ready for my birthday... today we look at some gems by Martha Davis, Toni Basil and Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo, so let's hop to it.

bub81 Martha Davis - Policy (March 27, 2007; 1987)
Nearly 20 years after its initial release, I took my vinyl copy of the Motels' lead singer Martha Davis' solo album. As it is, Policy actually started as a Motels album but midway through it, Martha took each boy of the band to the bar, bought them a drink and told them the Motels were over. No one seemed all that horrified as it turned out and Martha just went back to the studio with Richie Zito and continued on. For some reason, the album didn't catch fire at all reaching #127 on the Billboard album charts in November of 87 while the first single "Don't Tell Me The Time" another of Martha's clever little love done gone wrong lyrics hit #80 in the US. The music is all 80's rock though not as obvious as the Motels' Shock album from 1985. In fact, a renewed fire seems to be in Martha's gullet after the demise of the Motels but even the catchy opening tune "Tell It To The Moon" (written by wonder hits writer Dianne Warren) didn't score on radio or in the public. But I get more and more into the album each time I hear it, the jazzy reggae-ishness of "Don't Ask Out Loud", the sassy and jumpy "What Money Might Buy" and "Lust" (another new Martha fav of mine) and my ultimate, the revenge tale found in "Rebecca" where the title character is there describing the dead man on the floor as if she didn't know him or anything about him while under breath she sighs, "I'm free/ he'll never do this to me again." It's awesome.

Policy was put out on CD when it initially came out and a quick double check at Amazon just found some used copies going for $35 which is a little less than the $80 I found Little Robbers going for, but still, come on. The big credit to the original CD is it has a bonus cut called "Bridge Of Sighs" - a song I never heard and still don't have in my collection, so for our bonus cuts it appears we are one short. But that doesn't mean Bubbatunes didn't put some great ones on here. Included as bonus cuts is Martha's demo version of "Take My Breath Away" which ended up being recorded and released by Berlin, "Nightmares" a rocky little song she recorded for her friends film Night Of The Creeps (1986), "Next In Line" a 1986 demo, a duet with Sly Stone on Joan Armatrading's "Love & Affection" from the film Soul Man, a little ballad ditty of "I Can't Believe" from the film Miracle Beach, and a duet with Ivan Neville called "You Got What It Takes" which ends with a bonus in a bonus as there is a hidden track called "Mary & Billy", and one of the coolest finds, a version of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" that Martha recorded with her friend Bobby Woods in her garage, made just because he wanted to hear her do it.
Martha Davis - Policy bub81 Track list: 01. Tell It To The Moon 02. Just Like You 03. Heaven Outside My Door 04. Don't Tell Me The Time 05. Rebecca 06. What Money Might Buy 07. Don't Ask Out Loud 08. Hardest Part Of A Broken Heart 09. Lust 10. My Promise - bonus tracks - 11. Take My Breath Away (demo) 12. Nightmares 13. Next In Line 14. Love & Affection 15. Crazy 16. I Can't Believe 17. You Got What It Takes

bub82 Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo - Good Clean Fun (March 27, 2007; 1982)
One of the more overlooked gems of the early 80's new wave movement, Bonnie Hayes still makes albums every now and then but they aren't of the same type of music as this. Opening with the one two bang of "Girls Like Me" and "Shelly's Boyfriend" which though neither hit on any chart I'm aware of, became synonymous with the film Valley Girl which featured them, particularly "Girls Like Me" which not only opened the film but was also the girls anthem at their slumber party (though if you look at the record on the turntable you'll see it isn't Bonnie Hayes - oh those crazy film people.) Besides the ultimate thrill of those two cuts, the rest of the album continues a similar vein, due I'm sure to the fact that every song is written or co-written by Bonnie Hayes. The female empowerment of the opening tracks is also found on other little gems and the fast paced hiccupy delivery of Bonnie Hayes keeps all of Good Clean Fun rallying through a genre that brings back so many memories. After one listen I have to go back and play it again, then listen to Josie Cotton and finally end up watching Valley Girl, it's a very tiring process.
Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo - Good Clean Fun bub82 Track List: 01. Girls Like Me 02. Shelly's Boyfriend 03. Separating 04. Dum Fun 05. Coverage 06. Inside Doubt 07. Joyride 08. Loverboy 09. Raylene 10. The Last Word

bub83 Toni Basil - Toni Basil (April 3, 2007; 1983)
Toni Basil's Word Of Mouth from 1982 launched the phenomenon that was "Mickey" but that album was so much more than just that single, using members of Devo and new wave producers, Word Of Mouth is a great little gem of early 80's new wave pop and one of the most overlooked of all time, and though Toni Basil, a choreographer and dancer by day, made that album just so she had some videos to dance to it was inevitable that Chrysalis would have her put out another album. Her self titled follow up came out a year after the huge success of "Mickey" and I'm sure it's no surprise to learn nothing off of Toni Basil scored quite as big. There may be several reasons for that. The main one perhaps is that "Mickey" was just too damn catchy for its own good, it overshadowed anything on that first album so there wasn't really a way to redo that same thing on another song and album, and the main thing is Word Of Mouth is really a new wavey album where Toni moved into dance synth pop for her followup. It makes sense as she is the dancer girl and if you want to dance why bother making a rock album right? But the album itself is good, no matter what others may have said in the past, the opening single "Over My Head" is catchy while "Suspense" is a riot, combining the dance synth pop with total 80's new wave lyrics about espionage, I love it. "Space Walkin' The Dog" tries to recreate some of the more silly elements of Word Of Mouth and doesn't completely fail but doesn't actually succeed either. "Street Beat" puts out the cheerleading stomps of "Mickey" with mixed results only if you compare it to the hit single, on its own it's catchy as all hell. Regardless, Toni Basil is a nice look at the early 80's dance pop that was taking off and would be utilized in another album that came out that year, the self titled Madonna. The bonus cuts include the dance 12" remixes of the singles "Over My Head" and "Suspense" plus the edited single version of "Street Beat" and the ultimate for any Toni Basil fan, her performance of the song "The Night" from the film Rockula, though I must admit my version isn't all that prestine. I had to tape it off a You Tube version of the song and the sound, though I fixed it up is still relatively poor. So if there's anyone willing to part with an mp3 version of "The Night" I'd gladly send you a copy of this entertaining Toni Basil album. And for those of you, not familiar with the hotness that is "The Night" and Toni Basil, check this out at You Tube.
Toni Basil - Toni Basil bub83 track list:
01. Over My Head 02. I Don't Hear You 03. Easy For You To Say 04. Suspense 05. Go For The Burn 06. Space Walkin' The Dog 07. Street Beat 08. Do You Wanna Dance 09. Best Performance bonus tracks - 10. The Night
next week we have a few more Bubbatunes on the way... for now, we return you to shopping for my birthday!

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posted by swivek @ 8:55 AM

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