10 Essential Rock Albums From 1985: Exclusive Excerpt

Were
the ’80s
really
the
greatest
decade
ever
in
music?
We
posit
that
question
on
the
back
cover
of
our
new
book,


501
Essential
Albums
of
the
80s
(Motorbooks/Quarto
Group),
and
certainly
that
case
could
be
made
–
though
other
10-year
spans
can
make
their
own
claims
to
that
distinction.

With
portable
hardware
such
as
the
Sony
Walkman
and
boom
boxes,
the
arrival
of
MTV
and
a
total
embrace
from
the
rest
of
the
culture,
film
soundtracks
to
sports
arena
playlists,
music
became
ubiquitous
during
the ’80s.
Our
immersion
was
total,
and
the
buy-in
authentic.
For
a
brief,
handful-of-years
minute,
the
various
musical
tribes
united
in
a
consensus
about
what
were
essential
listens,
resulting
in
levels
of
popularity
we’d
never
seen
before.

And
to
take
the
argument
further
–
which
was
the
best
year
in
that
(perhaps)
greatest
of
decades?

A
lot
of
attention
is
being
paid
to
1985
on
its
40th
anniversary,
and
a
case
can
certainly
be
made
for
its
preeminence
during
the
80s.
It
was
the
year
of
“We
Are
the
World”
and
Live
Aid,
which
in
turned
spanned
the
first
Farm
Aid
concert
–
and
which
in
turn
brought
together

Sammy
Hagar
and

Eddie
Van
Halen,
and

Bob
Dylan
and

Tom
Petty
&
the
Heartbreakers,
harbingers
of
some
big
things
to
come.

VH-1
started
on
January
1
of
that
year.
The
Rock
in
Rio
festival
began
10
days
later.

David
Lee
Roth
left

Van
Halen,

Roger
Waters
quit

Pink
Floyd,
Michael
Jackson
bought
the

Beatles’
publishing
catalog,
rock
did
battle
with
the
Parents
Music
Resource
Center
(P.M.R.C.)
–
clearly
there
was
no
shortage
of
headlines.

And
there
was
no
shortage
of
great,
or
for
our
purposes
essential,
music.
Amidst
the
book’s
501
genre-spanning
choices
is
a
potent
chapter
for
1985,
and
from
that
we’ve
gleaned
these
10
as
the
most
essential
classic
rock
albums
of
the
year,
selected
and
written
by
a
corps
of
more
than
two
dozen
contributors
–
including
some
names
that
will
be
familiar
to
UCR
readers…

Phil
Collins

No
Jacket
Required
(Atlantic)
Released:
February
18,
1985
Producers:
Phil
Collins,
Hugh
Padgham

By
1985,

Phil
Collins
was
on
a
roll
coming
off
Top
10
hits
with
his
first
two
solo
albums,

Face
Value
and

Hello,
I
Must
Be
Going?,
in
addition
to
the
same
success
of

Abacab
with
his
longtime
mates
in

Genesis.
Not
one
to
settle
for
just
being
good,
he
responded
with
the
biggest
album
of
his
career,

No
Jacket
Required,
titled
from
a
personal
story
of
Collins
being
denied
entrance
to
a
restaurant
for
not
wearing
proper
attired,
included
softer
ballads
dealing
with
personal
themes
such
as
divorce
and
political
angst,
but
he
also
he
consciously
decided
to
write
more
up-tempo
and
danceable
tunes.

With
10
tracks
(11
including
the
CD
bonus “We
Said
Hello
Goodbye”)
the
blend
of
well-written
and
expertly-performed
and
recorded
Adult
Contemporary
and
pop
sounds
made

No
Jacket
Required
a
veritable
hit-making
machine.
The
album’s
first
two
released
singles
— “Sussudio,”
a

Prince-inspired
rollicking
song
about
a
schoolboy
crush,
and “One
More
Night,”
a
soulful
paean
about
lost
love
—
both
reached
No.
1
on
Billboard’s
Hot
100
chart.
Those
were
followed
by
the
Top
10
likes
of “Don’t
Lose
My
Number,”
with
melodramatic
lyrics
and
Collin’s
gated
reverb
drum
sound
(and
a
comically
elaborate
video),
and “Take
Me
Home,”
whose
soaring
lyrics
refer
to
the
distressed
pleas
of
a
mental
patient.

No
Jacket
Required
earned
three
Grammy
Awards
for
Collins,
including
Album
of
the
Year
and
went
on
to
become
one
of
the
best-selling
releases
of
all
time,
with
worldwide
sales
of
more
than
25
million
copies.
Its
extraordinary
success
started
him
down
the
path
from
rock
star
to
international
music
icon,
with
ubiquitous
collaborations
with
other
artists
and
a
spot
playing
both
Live
Aid
concerts,
in
London
and
Philadelphia,
during
the
summer
of
1985.
–
Jeff
Corey

Dire
Straits

Brothers
in
Arms
(Warner
Bros.)
Released:
May
17,
1985
Producers:
Neil
Dorfsman,
Mark
Knopfler

The
historical
significance
of

Dire
Straits’
fifth
LP
stretches
further
than
the
music.
As
one
of
the
first
albums
to
be
digitally
recorded,
the
1985
work
came
out
around
the
time
compact
disc
players
were
beginning
to
move
into
the
mainstream.
As
such,

Brothers
in
Arms
became
the
first
million-selling
CD,
a
distinction
served
by
the
record’s
clean,
clear
sound
and
the
rising
format’s
upgrade
in
sonic
quality.
(CD
buyers
were
also
given
expanded
versions
of
the
album’s
songs,
allowing
more
space
for
the
nine
pristine
tracks
to
move
within.)

But
the
technical
accolades
would
have
meant
less
if
the
songs
didn’t
support
them.
Starting
with
1980’s

Making
Movies,
Dire
Straits
began
recording
lengthier,
artier
songs
that
willfully
branched
out
from
the
group’s
carefully
constructed
1978
debut
single,
“Sultans
of
Swing”;
the
five
tracks
on
1982’s

Love
Over
Gold,
averaged
eight
minutes
each,
with
the
longest
clocking
in
at
more
than
14.
That
album
set
the
stage
for

Brothers
in
Arms
and
the
expanse
that
greeted
the
expertly
crafted
and
deliberately
paced “Your
Latest
Trick,” “Why
Worry,”
and
the
title
track.

But
it
was
the
album’s
oddest
track, “Money
For
Nothing,”
that
sent
it
to
the
top
of
the
charts
and
made
Dire
Straits
one
of
the
biggest
bands
in
the
world
during
the
mid-’80s.
With
a
vocal
assist
from

Sting,
a
fuzzy
guitar
line
inspired
by

ZZ
Top,
and
an
award-winning
computer-generated
video
that
illustrated
the
song’s
working-class
takedown
of
pampered
pop
stars
(“That
ain’t
working,
that’s
the
way
you
do
it
/
Money
for
nothing
and
your
chicks
for
free”),
the
No.
1
hit
was
an
inescapable
part
of
the
culture
in
1985.
But
its
success
wore
down
frontman
Mark
Knopfler,
who
disbanded
Dire
Straits
a
decade
later,
after
one
last
album.
-Michael
Gallucci

 

Bob
Dylan

Biograph
(Columbia)
Released:
Autumn
1985
Producer:
Jeff
Rosen

Before
there
was

The
Bootleg
Series,
there
was

Biograph.
And
before
that,
of
course,
there
were

Bob
Dylan’s

Greatest
Hits
albums
–
three
of
them.
But

Biograph
was
not
a
best-of,
per
se,
though
it
does
contain
a
substantial
number
of
Dylan’s
best-known
songs.
No,
instead,
it’s
a
53-track
career-spanning
collection
that
was
released
as
a
five
LP/three
cassette/three
CD
box
set
containing
previously
released
material,
studio
outtakes
and
demos,
unreleased
songs,
and
live
performances,
all
of
which
date
from
1962-81.

Somewhat
illogically
–
but
this
is
Dylan,
right?
–
the
set
was
not
arranged
chronologically,
although
small
themes
emerge
here
and
there
from
the
songs’
groupings
—
love
songs,
political
songs,
etc.
Ultimately,
though,
the
Bob-Dylan-has-come-unstuck-in-time
order
evinced
his
enduring
talent,
never
mind
that
his
critical
fortunes
sometimes
foundered
during
that
span.

The
real
draw
here,
of
course,
was
the
rarities
–
18
previously
unreleased
songs,
some
of
them
known
to
the
Dylan
cognoscenti
but
not
the
general
public.
Some
are
revelatory,
such
as “Caribbean
Wind,”
and
a
smoking
live
take
of “Groom
Still
Waiting
at
the
Altar,”
both
of
which
hail
from
the
mostly
unloved

Shot
of
Love
era.
There
were
also
great
tracks
from
the
Rolling
Thunder
tour,
from
the

Blood
on
the
Tracks
album
sessions,
and
much
more.

Beyond
the
material
itself,
there
was
much
more
that

Biograph
got
right,
most
notably
the
booklet
and
accompanying
materials,
which
offered
rare
photographs,
a
long,
insightful
essay
by
Cameron
Crowe
and,
perhaps
best
of
all,
direct
comments
about
many
of
the
songs
by
Dylan
himself.
Because
it
turned
out
to
be
a
commercial
success
–
going
platinum,
even
–

Biograph
was
a
game-changer
for
the
way
archival
material
was
presented,
paving
the
way
for
a
thousand
box
sets
to
come
and
presaging
Dylan’s
own
vast
(and
still-in-progress)

Bootleg
Series.
–
Daniel
Durchholz

John
Fogerty

Centerfield
(Warner
Bros.)
Released:
January
7,
1985
Producer:
John
Fogerty

With
a
howl
like
Little
Richard’s
and
guitar
riffs
that
rival
Chuck
Berry’s,
John
Fogerty
is
one
of
the
great
primal
forces
in
rock ‘n’
roll.
The
hits
he
recorded
with

Creedence
Clearwater
Revival—more
than
a
dozen
in
the
Top
15
of
the
Billboard
Hot
100
between
1968-1972—ranked
among
the
genre’s
enduring
classics.
After
Creedence
broke
up,
Fogerty
recorded
two
solo
albums
to
little
acclaim.
After
a
decade
out
of
the
spotlight,
he
returned
in
1985
with

Centerfield.

“Put
me
in,
coach,
I’m
ready
to
play!”
the
singer
declared
joyfully
in
the
album’s
title
track,
with
allusions
to
Berry’s
“Brown
Eyed
Handsome
Man”
and
poet
Ernest
Thayer’s “Casey
at
the
Bat.”
The
song
opened
with
programmed
drum
beats
that
mimic
a
baseball
crowd’s
rhythmic
claps—one
of
several
moments
that
highlight
that
Fogerty
apparently
crafted
this
entire
album
without
any
other
musicians
in
the
room.

“The
Old
Man
Down
The
Road”
opens
the
album
with
a
swamp
rock
hook
that
echoed
CCR’s
“Run
Through
The
Jungle”—so
much
so,
unfortunately,
that
Fogerty
was
sued
by
Saul
Zaentz,
then-owner
of
the
Creedence
publishing
rights,
and
the
inspiration
for
the
sharply
penned “Mr.
Greed”
and “Vanz
Kant
Danz”
on

Centerfield.
(Zaentz
lost
the
“Jungle”
suit
in
a
case
that
went
to
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court
and
set
a
new
precedent
over
damages
in
copyright
cases.)

Score-settling
aside,

Centerfield
was
packed
with
exceptional
songwriting,
often
bittersweet.
Big
Train
(From
Memphis)
recalled
the
inspiration
of
Elvis
Presley
who,
like
the
big
train,

“is
gone
gone
gone.”
Echoing
“Fortunate
Son,”
the
aging
narrator
recounting
baby-boomer
memories
in “I
Saw
It
On
T.V.”
tells
of
the
politicians
who

“took
my
only
son
from
me.”
With
double-platinum
sales,

Centerfield
brought
Fogerty
back
to
where
he
so
richly
deserved
to
be—No.
1
on
the
Billboard
200
chart.
–
Thom
Duffy

Heart

Heart
(Capitol)
Released:
June
21,
1985
Producer:
Ron
Nevison

“Some
people
told
us
we
might
have
hits
if
we
did
these
songs,”
Ann
Wilson
said
about

Heart‘s
eighth
studio
album. “We
hadn’t
had
hits
for
awhile,
so
we
listened
to
them.”
After
falling
on
commercial
hard
times
and
switching
labels,
the
band
led
by
Ann
and
younger
sister
Nancy
Wilson
regained
its
beat
here,
accepting
polished
tunes
from
outside
writers
and
scoring
four
Top
10
singles,
including “These
Dreams”
and “Never,”
a
No.
1
album
and
five-times
platinum
sales.
The
decision
likely
saved
Heart
from
permanent
failure.
–
Gary
Graff

John
Mellencamp

Scarecrow
(Riva/Mercury)
Released:
July
31,
1985
Producers:
John
Mellencamp,
George
Green

The
maturity
—
and
there
is
no
other
work
for
it
—
that
John
(then)
Cougar
Mellencamp
began
with

American
Fool
in
1982
and
continued
on
the
following
year’s

Uh-Huh
took
another
step
with
the
Indiana
rocker’s
eighth
studio
album.
He
still
liked
to “R.O.C.K.
in
the
U.S.A.,”
but
most
of
the
11
songs
—
including
that
one
—
mined
deeper
terrain,
whether
it
was
Rain
on
the

Scarecrow‘s
paean
to
the
plight
of
America’s
family
farmer,
the
poignant
statement
of
character
in
the
biographical
Small
Town,
the
socio-political
outlook
in “The
Face
of
the
Nation”
or
the
soulful
self-realization
in
the
sweeping
Minutes
to
Memories.
The
penultimate
track
was
even
called “You’ve
Got
to
Stand
for
Somethin’,”
and
this
time
Mellencamp
really
did
—
albeit
with
a
bit
of
kicking
and
screaming
to
get
there.

“Up
until
this
year
I
was
just
a
guy
in
a
band
in
a
bar.
I
didn’t
want
to
go
beyond
that,”
Mellencamp,
acknowledging
he
also
wanted
to
dodge
specific
comparisons
to
Bruce
Springsteen,
said
as
he
started
touring
to
support

Scarecrow. “Then
I
started
to
realize, ‘What’s
wrong
with
two
people
putting
their
best
foot
forward?'”

Writing
a “terrible”
screenplay,
meanwhile,
put
him
in
a
different
kind
of
mode,
with
characters
and
narrators
even
more
fleshed
out
than
those
he
drew
in “Jack
&
Diane”
and “Pink
Houses.”

Mellencamp,
joined
by
guests
Rickie
Lee
Jones
and
Ry
Cooder
in
spots,
also
deepened
the
musical
well
here.
He
made
his
band
members
learn
a
bunch
of
mostly ’60s
garage
rock
tunes,
opening
their
minds
to
different
ways
to
approach
music
and
draw
from
a
larger
palette.

Scarecrow
let
us
know
that
Mellencamp
was
an
American
fool
no
more
but
was,
rather,
ready
to
join
the
ranks
of
thoughtful,
resonant
heartland
troubadours
—
and
still
let
it
R.O.C.K.
when
he
wanted.
—
GG

Robert
Palmer

Riptide
(Island)
Released:
November
1985
Producer:
Bernard
Edwards

The
depth
of
the
late
Robert
Palmer’s
genius
can
only
truly
be
appreciated
in
retrospect,
and
for
those
who
haven’t
done
so,
the
rabbit
hole
of
his
music
is
definitely
worth
falling
into.
For
most
of
his
career,
Palmer
played
with
genres
and
a
great
wardrobe
while
garnering
a
respectful
following.
His
short
stint
in
the
Power
Station
with
Duran
Duran’s
Andy
and
John
Taylor
catapulted
him
to
something
near
stardom,
although
he
left
the
band
in
the
lurch
to
work
on
his
own
material
.

That
led
to
his
eighth
album,

Riptide,
and
its
breakthrough
single, “Addicted
to
Love.”
A
rocking
singalong
played
by
musicians
from
the
Power
Station
and
Chaka
Khan’s
band,
it
became
Palmer’s
signature
hit
and
was
a
bona
fide
earworm–
though
what
people
remember
most
is
the
video,
in
which
Palmer
sings
while
five
identically
styled
models
barely
dance
behind
him
while
holding
instruments
they
obviously
aren’t
play.
MTV
had
the
clip
in
perpetual
rotation,
searing
its
vapid
imagery
into
the
eyeballs
of
history
while
pushing
the
song
–
which
won
a
Grammy
Award
—
to
No.
1
on
the
Billboard
Hot
100.

Palmer
hit
big
again
with
his
cover
of
Cherrelle’s “I
Didn’t
Mean
to
Turn
You
On,”
whose
video
replicated “Addicted
to
Love”’s
cloned
models
with
similar
success.
“I
hardly
ever
get
asked
about
music,”
Palmer
told
the
U.K.’s
Guardian
in
2002.
“I
do,
however,
get
asked
about
the ‘Addicted
To
Love’
video
and
my
suits
on
a
daily
basis.”

Riptide
had
more
to
recommend
it
than
those
two
juggernauts,
however,
including
the
first
single, “Discipline
of
Love,” “Hyperactive”
and
the
title
track.
The
double-platinum
success
of
the
album,
and
those
two
videos,
may
have
minimized
the
brilliance
of
some
of
Palmer’s
previous
work
–
notably
1980’s

Clues
—
but
it
insured
he
is
remembered.
-Helene
Dunbar

Simple
Minds

Once
Upon
a
Time
(A&M)
Released:
October
21,
1985
Producers:
Jimmy
Iovine,
Bob
Clearmountain

Scotland’s
Simple
Minds
was
big
in
the
U.K.
and
Europe
with
six
successful
albums,
but
it
was
the
No.
1
hit
“Don’t
You
(Forget
About
Me)”
from
the
Brat
Pack
film

The
Breakfast
Club
earlier
in
1985
that
broke
the
group
in
America
and
set
the
table
for
its
biggest
album.

The
band
teamed
with
American
producers
Jimmy
Iovine
and
Bob
Clearmountain
to
punch
up
its
already
anthemic
sound,
bringing
in
more
guitar
drive
and
accentuating
frontman
Jim
Kerr’s
yearning
vocals.
The
result
radiated
a
raw
energy
and
solid
structure
not
fully
realized
on
its
previous
releases.

Once
Upon
a
Time
reached
No.
10
on
the
Billboard
200
and
topped
U.K.’s
albums
chart. “Alive
and
Kicking”
scored
another
abundance
of
radio
play
with
its
hymn-like
melody
and
a
coda
featuring
backup
singer
Robin
Clark’s
gospel-inspired
vocals.
There
was
a
spiritual
vibe
to
the
Sly
&
the
Family
Stone-influenced “Sanctify
Yourself,”
while “All
the
Things
She
Said”
was
inspired
by
quotes
from
Polish
political
prisoners
in
Russia.
–
JC

Sting

Dream
of
the
Blue
Turtles
(A&M)
Released:
June
1,
1985
Producers:
Sting,
Pete
Smith

The

Police’s
hiatus
after
its

Synchronicity
album
and
tour
was
supposed
to
be
temporary.
But
the
massive
success
of
Sting’s
solo
debut,

Dream
of
the
Blue
Turtles
—
released
on
Synchronicity’s
two-year
anniversary
and
containing
a
reworked
version
of
Zenyatta
Mondatta’s “Shadows
in
the
Rain”
—
helped
put
the
kibosh
on
reconciliation
plans.

Playing
guitar
with
a
band
of
rising
jazz
stars
including
Branford
Marsalis
on
sax
and
future
Rolling
Stone
Darryl
Jones
on
bass,
Sting
revisited
his
pre-Police
roots,
as
well
as
his
love
for
composer
Kurt
Weill
(on
the
vampire-inspired “Moon
Over
Bourbon
Street”).
He
also
editorialized
about
socio-political
issues
such
as
Cold
War
tensions
(“Russians”),
a
British
coal
miners’
strife
(“We
Work
the
Black
Seam”)
and
war,
child
exploitation
and
drugs
(
Children’s
Crusade).
He
also
counter-balanced
his
stalkerish
“Every
Breath
You
Take,”
the
Police’s
biggest
hit,
with
the
upbeat
opener
and
first
single, “If
You
Love
Somebody
Set
Them
Free”;
reaching
No.
3
on
Billboard’s
Hot
100
chart,
it
remains
his
highest-ranking
solo
single.
Three
more
singles
climbed
inside
the
Top
20;
the
album
itself
hit
No.
2
on
Billboard’s
Top
200
and
launched
Sting’s
remarkable
run
of
seven
consecutive
Top
10
solo
studio
albums

He
actually
quoted
“Every
Breath…”
in
the
feel-good
calypso
track “Love
is
the
Seventh
Wave,”
then
leavened
its
somewhat
reverential
lyrics
with
the
line,
“every
cake
you
bake,
every
leg
you
break.”
Marsalis’
and
keyboardist
Kenny
Kirkland’s
instrumental
flights
offset
the
lyrical
density
of
songs
such
as
Children’s
Crusade
and
the
gorgeously
arranged
Fortress
Around
Your
Heart,
and,
with
Omar
Hakim’s
drumming,
found
a
cool-jazz/funk
groove
on
tracks
such
as “Consider
Me
Gone.”

Turtles
was
all-killer/no-filler
and
kept
any
Police
reunion
plans
cuffed
for
another
two-plus
decades.
–
Lynne
Margolis

 

Tears
For
Fears

Songs
From
the
Big
Chair
(Mercury)
Released:
February
25,
1985
Producer:
Chris
Hughes

Roland
Orzabal
and
Curt
Smith,
aka
Tears
for
Fears,
worked
out
their
childhood
traumas
on
their
first
album

The
Hurting,
freeing
their
psyches
for
the
poppier

Songs
From
the
Big
Chair.
Where
the
debut
was
deeply
introspective
and
heavily
synth-based,
the
duo’s
sophomore
effort
had
more
intentionally
“joyful,”
guitar-driven
songs,
though
the
joy
was
mitigated
by
tracks
such
Everybody
Wants
to
Rule
the
World,
overtly
about
the
Cold
War
(as
were
many
other
songs
during
the
mid-80s).
It
hit
No.
1
on
the
U.S.
charts,
as
did
the
follow-up
single,
the
more
personal
but
equally
intense
Shout.
Based
on
the
Jungian
theory
that
the
way
to
move
past
childhood
trauma
is
to
(literally)
scream,
Shout
made
the
loudest
noise
of
Tears
For
Fears’
career.
The
song
opened
with
the
anthemic
mantra
“Shout,
shout,
let
it
all
out
/
these
are
the
things
I
can
do
without”
and
went
on
to
profess
that,
“If
I
could
change
your
mind
/
I’d
really
like
to
break
your
heart.”
It
was
brutally
candid,
but
overall
the
album
offered
a
bold,
explosive
sound
from
an
otherwise
cerebral
band.

Song
From
the
Big
Chair
was
relentless
with
hooks
and
beats
that
made
listeners
need
to
sing
along
–
nowhere
more
true
than
on
the
unapologetically
romantic “Head
Over
Heels,”
a
third
Top
5
hit
from
the
album.
Whatever
sonic
magic
Tears
For
Fears
unleashed
on
this
album,
the
band’s
heart
still
shined
through.
As

Stylus
magazine
noted
21
years
after
the
album’s
release,
“Even
today,
when
all
rock
musicians
seem
to
be
able
to
do
is
be
emotional
and
honest,
the
brutality
and
power
of

Songs
From
the
Big
Chair’s
catharsis
is
still
quite
shocking.”
-HD