Can't Slow Down

How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year: by Michaelangelo Matos -- coming from Da Capo in fall 2019

[cantslowdown1984]

Can’t Slow Down Chapter Playlists!

So my niece finally tipped me over into using Spotify last month (what, I wasn’t going to make her an 80s playlist after she asked? She’s 15! I’ve been waiting her entire life for this moment!) and I decided to go whole-hog and create playlists for each chapter of the book. Behold, after the jump.

Chapter 1: WPLJ-FM, NYC, August 7, 1983

Chapter 2: Supreme Court, January 14, 1984 + Introduction (Ch. 2 has 5 songs, Intro has 4)

Chapter 3: Newsweek: “Britain Rocks America--Again”, January 23, 1984 

Chapter 4: Sunset Strip, February 25, 1984 

Chapter 5: The 1984 Grammy Awards, February 28, 1984 

Chapter 6: Castro Theatre, SF, April 24, 1984 

Chapter 7: Island Records, May 8, 1984

Chapter 8: Fan Fair, Nashville, June 1984

Chapter 9: Graffiti Rock, WPIX-TV, NYC, June 29, 1984 

Chapter 10: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo., July 6, 1984

Chapter 11: Purple Rain premiere, Hollywood, July 26, 1984

Chapter 12: Matter #9, July-August 1984 

Chapter 13: New Music Seminar, NYC August 1984

Chapter 14: Los Angeles Olympics, August 1984

Chapter 15: The First Annual MTV Video Music Awards, September 14, 1984

Chapter 16: Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, September 21, 1984

Chapter 17: EMI Records, November 13, 1984

Chapter 18: SARM Studios, London, November 25, 1984

Chapter 19: Radio USA for Africa, April 20, 1985

Chapter 20: Live Aid, July 25, 1985

And finally:

The whole enchilada, all 20 chapters in a single, 950+ song playlist.

Enjoy!

[thediscography]

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis release 'Volume One' at long last

The release Friday of 'Jam & Lewis: Volume One' is one of the most anticipated albums in pop history. The producer team of Jimmy 'Jam' Harris and Terry Lewis have been promising an album under their own names since 1984.

I wrote about Jam & Lewis in the eighties for The Current.

[sowhatifiliveinkyushu]

Flexipop #24 (1982-11)

Lifelines: Boy George (Culture Club), Billy Mackenzie (The Associates) and Billy Idol

[vintageeveryday]

Fabulous photos of Cyndi Lauper and Rodney Dangerfield at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards in 1984.

[ohyeahpop]

Madonna, Japan, 1985 - Ph. Kenji Wakasugi

[ohyeahpop]

Madonna, Japan, 1985 - Ph. Kenji Wakasugi

[octobersymphony]

smash hits, 8 november 1984

[cantslowdown1984]

Photo from Bob Geldof's Is That It?, p. 259. 

[cantslowdown1984]

Yesterday on NBC Radio I played Led Zeppelin records because I’d decided I was going to play my own music for a day. It was fabulous! We played all sixties stuff: Hendrix, the Who, Stones. That’s what we wanted to do. Now, a lot of paranoid GMs would start worrying about, "Oh my God, it’s a Thursday, the day they mail out the diaries, etc. . . ." You don’t worry about that kind of crap if you’re really going to do personality radio.

Howard Stern, March 1984

[cantslowdown1984]

Someone made this 90-minute South African township jive mix as an approximation of the tape Paul Simon heard in the spring of 1984, via Heidi Berg, that led to Graceland. The first comment on the YouTube page is from Heidi Berg herself and is worth a look. Please note, this is NOT the actual Berg-to-Simon tape--only one track is confirmed to be on both--but a what-if. A truly amazing what-if.

[cantslowdown1984]

Crass, "Sheep Farming in the Falklands" (Crass, 1983). 

[cantslowdown1984]

Variety, December 19, 1984

[cantslowdown1984]

Lionel and Tina in Nashville, from the Tennessean, May 1984.

[cantslowdown1984]

Lionel Richie: photo by George Nell Dukes, Nashville Banner, May 23, 1984, p. B-28

[the80s]

[cantslowdown1984]

Radio & Records, July 20, 1984, p. 54

[my-pastel-paradise]

25th Annual Grammy Awards, 1983

Art by Ellis Chappell