Day 0488 - Talk Talk Talk

The Psychedelic Furs "Talk Talk Talk" (1981)

An 80s band that managed to bridge the gap between the mainstream and underground pop scenes.  Melding melodic guitar lines and catchy saxophone, with a bit of punk directness showing up on some track.  The vocals seem to run somewhere between the ragged drawl of Shane McGowan and the snarl of Lou Reed.   The lyrics are anti-love and more focussed on sex for sex's sake, with penultimate track "I wanna sleep with you" feeling particularly aurally 'climactic'.

The track "Pretty in pink" had something of a resurgence in popularity after John Hughes used it in his film of the same name.

Day 0403 - Honky Tonk Masquerade

Joe Ely "Honky Tonk Masquerade" (1978)

 
This Joe was invited by a certain other Joe to open for his band the Clash.  The offer was made with genuine respect of Ely's brand of country rock, but that didn't stop the punk rock audience from spraying the singer with beer and spit while he tried to play.

I know that a lot of people go with the "I listen to all kinds of music... except country" but I've never really understood that.  Country, as with most genres, has good artists/songs to offer if you look in the right place.  Joe Ely is some of that good stuff. His songs are some nicely orchestrated country tunes that seem to go places melodically that you often don't expect them to, in a good way!

This was surprisingly tricky to track down, I could only find half of the songs on YouTube but managed to find the others elsewhere.