It's 1985 and you've been dumped... what music?

[thekumquat]

Welcome back to little_details!
I'd actually tried to post this in May 2017, but the Dreamwidth version wasn't yet open. As it happens, while I finished the story in question (only really of interest to Antonia Forest fans), I'd still appreciate answers:

"I'm writing a story which for various reasons is between April and June 1985, in England. A 17-year-old boy who generally takes himself way too seriously and has just been dumped, wants to put on some loud music to express his feelings. Rock, punk, not disco - any song that would be available via reasonably mainstream means at that time.

If the timeframe were more flexible, the obvious song would be Joan Jett & the Blackhearts "I hate myself for Loving You", but that came out in 1988. Queen's "Friends will be Friends" would do, but again that's 1986. Ideas?

If anyone happens to know *when* in 1985 that Jimmy Somerville left Bronski Beat to join the Communards, that would also be helpful.

Hoping the DW version of this community takes off!"

Comments

[theladyscribe]

One thing to remember here is that CDs were not very common yet, and this 17-year-old boy was probably listening to either vinyl records or cassettes, both of which make it difficult to listen to a single track! So rather than a single song, I'd go for a full album or at least half of one. Taking a look at the top albums of 1984 (to account for access lag) and 1985, you've got your pick of the following (among many others):
Purple Rain, Prince
The Smiths, The Smiths
Born in the USA, Bruce Springsteen
Songs from the Big Chair, Tears for Fears

[sparrowsion]

Something from The Smiths is an excellent call; noting that Hatful of Hollow is also 1984, and in particular includes "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want".

[thekumquat]

Smiths is definitely the right kind of vibe - I think I mentioned them in a story already, but thanks for the song recs so I don't have to go through every one of them.

[thekumquat]

I know people who could put the player needle in the right place within a few seconds, on their favourite albums, but not sure how common that might be? Cassette is certainly most likely, whether album or mixtape recorded off the radio/a friend's tape.

Any songs from those albums you'd recommend? I only know Purple Rain.

Phonographs have visible tracks and gaps

[dsrtao]

People who use a phonograph regularly would be able to put the arm in the right place on most albums immediately -- by counting the shiny rings between tracks. At 33RPM (the 12" discs, 22 minutes per side) a 2 second gap is a complete shiny ring.

If your character has been drinking or is otherwise unsteady, it could take longer to find the gap accurately. Dropping the needle roughly is a good way to scratch the record. Want to add more misery? That scratch will be there permanently and audibly.

Re: Phonographs have visible tracks and gaps

[thekumquat]

That's what I thought. I grew up with very little music, so only took a couple records off a player in 6th form, then scandalised a friend some years later when he asked me to put a record on. He asked "Haven't you ever put a record on a player before?" And was shocked when I said no. We were very drunk and it was probably a rare album - he became a record dealer...

[theladyscribe]

Tbh I'm not terribly familiar with any of them except Born in the USA, which is a pretty angry (anti-war, pro-union) album overall. The title track is a very angry and disillusioned take on the Vietnam war and treatment of veterans in its aftermath (though it famously gets trotted out as a rah-rah America song by people who don't listen to the words). It was a major hit, but the other bands probably appealed more to younger audiences. The Tears for Fears album is the one with "Shout (Let It All Out)," which would be a likely winner for a sad teenager dealing with heartbreak and disappointment.

[thekumquat]

Ah, was wondering about TfF. Thank you.

[heinous_bitca]

Songs from the Big Chair (the one with Shout) came out in February 1985, so that theoretically could work. Shout was released ahead of the album release, per Wikipedia, in November 1984.

You could also go back to the earlier TfF album, The Hurting. I had a French exchange student stay with me the summer of 1984, and she got me into their album (I'm in the US), and Mad World is on that album. The whole album is banger, if you ask me!

[full_metal_ox]

The title track is a very angry and disillusioned take on the Vietnam war and treatment of veterans in its aftermath (though it famously gets trotted out as a rah-rah America song by people who don't listen to the words).

Another predictable item on my hometown’s Fourth of July fireworks playlist was “Young Americans”—you know, an expatriate Englishman’s musical snapshot of American post-Watergate anguish and malaise. There really needs to be a Time-Life compilation entitled “Pay Attention To The Damn Lyrics.”

[theladyscribe]

Oh my god, that's amazing. XD

[full_metal_ox]

Isn’t it? Apparently the chorus is sufficient cause to start hooting, “U!!! S!!! A!!!”

[reynardo]

Because the space between tracks on a record are blank, they show up quite clearly, so placing your needle on one of these was pretty easy, thus dead easy to pick out a favourite track.

[azurelunatic]

I'm looking at 1984 and a little earlier to make sure it doesn't go past 1985. Also because as a (USA, 1990s) teenager, my ability to acquire music was mostly taping off the radio and getting albums used, so if I was feeling like hearing a specific song, either I would have had to have the presence of mind to tape it or I would already have to have the album. Either way that implies some kind of foresight and access, unless the dumping was far enough in the past that he could have gone to a music store or taped off the radio about it.

Total Eclipse of the Heart might be too torchy for some guys, but it's super satisfying to sing along with.

Love Stinks is nicely shouty.

Tainted Love is a little more appropriate for someone who is doing the dumping, but came out comfortably in 1981.

[thekumquat]

This guy would own a couple dozen albums and at least as many mixtapes, I reckon. So he's got a reasonable amount to choose from.

Tainted Love is a good shout. Total Eclipse of the Heart probably too focused on romance and feminine (we're talking Patrick Merrick from Antonia Forest's books, for the one or two people that will find the
prospect as funny as I just did!)

I've never heard of Love Stinks nor the J.Geils Band, so I suspect they wouldn't have made it here at all. (yup, never charted outside NA and Australia)

[melannen]

So glad to see this comm show up again!!

I will echo the people above and say that putting on a specific song wasn't super likely (unless he was playing it himself...) Putting on a mixtape that was relevant to the relationship or putting on the radio and fixating on a song that just happened to come on and resonate both seem more in-period, though an album would also work.

There are websites that have all the radio charts for the UK historically - looking at the UK charts for May 1985 I would have him tape "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" by Jimmy Nail off the radio.

(Also, Wikipedia said he left in "summer" 1985. That might be as specific as you get, since it looks like they weren't really recording or touring at the time, so it might have been a sort of gradual process; it looks like the last time he was on stage with them was September 1984.)

[thekumquat]

Yes, would be an album (cassette or vinyl) or a mixtape that he'd recorded off the radio.

I spent a long time churning through the online singles and album charts for the period, but as I only got into music later I don't actually know 90% of the songs!

Good observation that leaving a band who weren't doing much at the time could be a gradual process - I'm too used to modern bands announcing their splits. In the end I decided 'Communards' sounded better in the sentence, and referred to them despite it being a probable anachronism (nothing online goes beyond 'they were formed in 1985'.

[melannen]

There might have been an announcement! But even when modern bands do a press release, the de facto split is often much earlier and gradual. So I guess it depends exactly how you're using the info.

If what you want to know is if you can name drop the Communards, looks like their first single was October '85, so probably even if they theoretically existed nobody except real fans would know who they are till then. But you're probably in range that nobody would care in a story.

And yeah, I feel you, I've learned entire genres of pop just to find one so g to mention. Luckily YouTube makes it super easy, you can find whole TotP playlists even.

[altamira16]

One of the things that did become available in the early 1980s was the cassette single. These were inexpensive cassettes that only had a few songs on them.

Then we end up down the rabbit hole of "Was this song ever available on a cassette single?"

Elton John's "Sad Songs" would have been available by this time, but I have no clue if it was ever available as a cassette single.

[thekumquat]

Cassette singles didn't hugely take off, given the ability to record off the radio/other albums, by then. I only ever owned a couple, because they'd been discounted.

The Breaking Hearts album that Sad Songs is part of is a possibility. Possibly borrowed off his mum, leading to a rare bit of communication and respect between them...

[topaz_eyes]

The Police's "Synchronicity" was released in 1983; "King of Pain" still would have been popular on the radio.

Edit to add: Sting had recently broken up with his wife in 1983 so a few songs from the album might resonate with the character. ("Every Breath You Take")

[thekumquat]

Good calls.

I can imagine him listening to Every Breath You Take and realising it's creepy. Though the word 'stalker' didn't exist back then for such behaviour, I don't think. (disappears off down another rabbit-hole)

[gentlyepigrams]

I lived in the UK from 1982 to 1984, (ages 14 to 17). As a teenager, when I got into a funk and wanted to listen to the same song over and over, I generally did so with a 12" single on vinyl.

If you find an album and song with the right vibe, and other suggestions here are good, consider checking the discography of the band to find a 12" single of one of the songs on the album.

[thekumquat]

I was unaware of 12" vinyl singles! All the ones I've seen were about 7in. Will bear in mind, thank you.

I was in the UK at the right time, but 5 years younger, and heard virtually no music until 1990.

[gentlyepigrams]

!2" singles usually have multiple remixes of the song the single is focused around plus possibly a B-side type song.

If you click through on Depeche Mode's singles in their Wikipedia discography you can find information about the 12" singles (DM was notorious in the 80s for putting out multiple remixes of songs on 12" vinyl)

I would personally consider Blasphemous Rumours as a possible song for your character if he might be into the style (it's synth forward, but that's normal for the period).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depeche_Mode_discography

[full_metal_ox]

What, no nominations yet for Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”(released in June 1980)? That one’s as angsty as it gets, a bleak razor-edged January wind both musically and lyrically—and already an epitaph at the time of its release. The original version was the A-side of a vinyl single, which your forlorn young man could easily play ad nauseam.

[thekumquat]

Joy Division! Perfect.

I think I've heard the song before but never knew what it was. Thank you.

[fairyniamh]

Because you seem to be going for an Angry Vibe. Cure, Metallica, Queen (may be British, but we still loved them... and honestly, most of us didn't care where the band was from, as long as we could head bang to it.) AC/DC, Whitesnake, Guns and Roses, I think Twisted Sister was 90s... Meatloaf... yes, I child of the 80s who listened to all kinds of music. Note the Child, my teen years were the 90s. Remembering what I snooped in big brother's cassettes.

[ilthit]

Reminder though that a character in 1985 could listen to music from ANY time before that. How about My Man Is Gone Now by Nina Simone, that stabs you in the heart across all decades. Or if it isn't a man, there's also I Get Along Very Well Without You, Nina's rendition is from 1969. But then, maybe that sad vibe isn't quite what you want.

[full_metal_ox]

If, despite his heartbreak, he Wants His Beloved To Be Happy, “Walk Away, Renee” by the Left Banke from the same period—and written by a teenager!—is hard to beat.

[cnoocy]

I realize I'm answering late, but if you want verisimilitude, when this happened to me at around this time and around this age, my song for it was "Please Do Not Go" by the Violent Femmes off their self-titled 1983 debut. It's an American record, so it may have been technically an import, but "Blister in the Sun" was a big enough deal that I would expect it to be available in record stores or through the grapevine.