It riles me that Jones doesn’t get the adulation given to Strummer, who has virtually been raised to sainthood. Interesting that 1983 saw Mick Jones booted out of The Clash – as he seemed to have more time for mixing new styles such as dub and hip-hop – by Joe Strummer who seemed more conservative. There was always a tension in punk between those who saw it as an end to standard ideas of ‘rock’ and those who saw it as a return to the essentials – which seems to lead inevitable to the ‘Classic’ view of rock or pop. Re 18 You’re right – Thom Gunn wrote about something like it in his 1957 poem “Elvis Presley,”:ĭistorting hackneyed words in hackneyed songs White Lines (Don’t do it) Grand Master & Melle Mel Soweto/Zulu’s on a time bomb – Malcolm McClaren You brought the sunshine – Clarke Sisters The Face magazines records of the year (in no set order) were: I was in an intolerant mood and so only voted for 5 or 6 – but there were a lot that just missed out. But it was a bad year for Richard Hamilton’s model of POP I’d say return of old school, pre-punk values (yeah, yeah, been ‘ere before…) I should add there was much genuinely NEW in ’83 (Blue Monday, Looking For The Perfect Beat) that thrilled me just as much as obscure northern/psych. I don’t mean to sound snob, I hope I don’t. It’s hard to be objective but, nostalgia aside, I really don’t think the majority of these number ones have aged well (not even Candy Girl which I loved back then). Hearing The Left Banke’s Pretty Ballerina or Mary Love’s Lay This Burden Down for the first time was always going to make retro/pastiche/tributes like Uptown Girl and True (complete with their 100% top end, bass free productions) sound feeble. Kent and Bam Caruso joined Edsel, Ace and Charly in issuing non-hit, carefully conceived packages of pop’s past in ’83. Booker Newberry’s Love Town, a pleasant enough contemporary-sounding club hit with a decent vocal, was hailed an instant classic and came in a retro ‘instant classic’ sleeve. Has there been a year that’s divided the faithful so much?Īs mentioned in the Only You thread, ’83 marked the start of the classicism of pop. You Brought The Sunshine – The Clark Sisters Between The Sheets – The Isley BrothersĤ0. Wanna Be Startin’ Something? – Michael Jacksonģ7. Looking For The Perfect Beat – Afrika BambaataaĢ8. Every Day I Write The Book – Elvis Costello & The Attractionsġ3.
Church Of The Poison Mind – Culture Clubġ2.
Which did Mark Sinker vote for, I wonder? Ĩ. Almost all of these would have made an exciting number one. The NME critics’ poll for 1983 presents a much more imaginative and appealing picture of the state of pop at this time.