Best Albums of 1982, Ranked

Hey all, welcome to Pastime's at 80's High. Got a great one for you today. I'm here again, of course, with Donald, Kevin, and Mark. How you doing, boys? Excellent. Yes. Fantastic then. Awesome. Awesome. What we are going to do today is another decade series where we're going to do our top ten albums from 1982. Our favorites, of course. But of course, what we do uh when we do the decade series is we lead off with a little news story from that year. So we're going to kick it off to you today, Kevin, as you have the honors.

Thank you, sir. As you're probably used to by now, I'm going to um be a little bit long-winded here. I'm going to start and tell a story. I'm going to try to do it as quick. Yes, I'm I'm sure you are. Almost as bad as my pauses. Um I'm going to start this news story from 1982 talking about a woman named Katherine Evelyn Smith, who is actually a Canadian woman that somehow got to know Lee Von Helm from the band when they were with the Hawks from Screaming Jay Hawkins. And she actually kind of partied with the band. Um and Lee-on Helm, uh Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko, who were kind of legendary parties. She kind of ended up like getting drugs for them, also gave birth to a child known as the band baby because she was apparently um having relations with all of them. But it's rumored that the song The Wait, the very famous band song The Wait, is references her. Later on, she hooked up with Gordon Lightfoot, and the song Sundown was supposed to be based on her.

Really?

And I only tell you that because later on she became kind of a drug mule mule for Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in their heyday. And she was bringing, hold on, don't don't give her kudos yet. So while she was drug muling and and she was just basically the gopher for for Keith and Ronnie, because I I'm guessing they would get so elegantly wasted that they couldn't get their own drugs. Right. Um, the Stones went on Saturday Night Live where she met John Belushi.

Yes.

And was later imprisoned for uh giving him 11 speed balls.

Judas Priest.

She was the woman that inj injected John Belushi, and I he died, I believe what was it, March 5th was when they wow found him. Well, yeah, he was they didn't announce it for like six days. So knowing exactly when his time of death is, I guess that's kind of indetermined. But that was, yeah, March 5th, 1982. Uh, we lost John Belushi, one of the funniest human beings that ever walked the face of the earth. Dearly. Little chocolate donuts and a cigarette. That's how I win the Olympics. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger. No Coke, that's it. No Coke. Pepsi.

I know. I just forget what you said. Good one, Kev. Good one.

All right, Mark. All right. So it's ironic that you brought that one up because the next story I have uh is about Ace Raleigh leaving Kiss. But he was very good friends with John Pelushi and Cory. And according to you know, in Ace Freely's book, No Regrets, he said that he had to convince John Pelushi to get back on stage.

Really?

Yes. Wow. So anyway. You know, it it was obvious that Ace was disillusioned with a band. Once Peter left, um, he was always outvoted. I mean, he used to have uh Peter, I mean, many times Peter and Ace would vote one way, Gene and Paul the other way, and Billy Coin would uh be the the tiebreaker. So but when they did music from the elder, um, you know, he just I think he had had it, and he was obviously he had the radish. He's he had the radish, and he he was absolutely getting out of control at this time as well with booze and all kinds of drugs and Xanax and all that stuff, but he unofficially left in June of 82. He officially left in December of 82, and it was after they did a promotional tour with Creatures of the Night, and he has stated many times that if they went into the studio at the time of music from The Elder and did Creatures of the Night, he would have stayed in the band. And on yes, and I'll I often wonder what would that album have sounded like with Ace on guitar.

You know, fucking awesome is how it would have sounded. Yes. Uh, with his solos, man. So that awesome. Great one, great one. Um, another thing just to feed into both of yours there, is Ace used to hang out at Studio 54 with Belushi a lot, too. Right, which is really cool. That's fun.

That had to have been, I mean, if there's ever a time in modern history of of a party that that you would just want to be a fly on the wall at, I mean, it was like Caligula, it was debauchery beyond from the things that I've read and and seen.

It was absolutely man. All right, so on to me. Mine's gonna be a quick one, and because Mark and I were 45 minutes. No, just because this is it's not so much a news story. I'm just taking it because I could not officially put this album on my list. So in uh on June 15th, um, 1982, of course, which is the year we're doing, KISS released their album Killers. The warped album. The warped album, yes. The um don't put vinyl in the trunk. No, so anyway, um, this album was a compilation album, but there were four brand new songs on it, and three of the four, I mean, I love all of them really, but three of the four are four uh three of my favorite kiss songs of all time. So that's how I kind of snuck this in. All right, so do you, Donald?

All right, so unfortunately, I have to um highlight another tragic event, and that was the death of one of my favorite guitar players, rock guitar players, was Randy Rhodes, which occurred on March nine March 19th, 1982, in a plane crash. And I didn't really you know know a lot about this event. I remember like I got into Randy Rhodes during the Randy Rhodes tribute album, which is about nine years after the event, and uh I didn't know all the details of it. Well, learning looking into this, it was like it was the bus driver of the band who had an expired pilot's license, and it sounds like they were just going out for a joy ride. It wasn't like they were going from one show to another show, and they were just up fooling around and strafing the tour bus, trying to wake the guys up in the tour bus and clipped a tree and crashed into a house. And it's like, man, what a you know, what a waste of. Oh my god.

That he was one of the most incredible guitar plays I've ever heard. Incredible classical and within the top five in history, I think.

So the bus driver's name, and I don't mean to you know shit on him, you know, no post-mortem, but his name was Andrew Acock. Am I pr pronouncing that correctly? It's A-Y-C-O-C-K, and the guy was Acock. Yes, yeah, getting in a plane with an expired license, and you know, having been uh kind of uh enthusiast of aviation, like I like looking on TikTok of aviation stuff, and uh it's like when you get behind a plane, you it's like one of those things you don't screw around, you don't fucking around me. If you're a jet jock for the US Navy Top Gun, sure, you do a couple barrel rolls or whatever, but you're well trained in how to do that. You're not someone who has been, you know, driving a tour bus for a rock band. Wow, that kind of thing. Not a half-measure kind of thing. And and Rachel Youngblood was like a young, you know, makeup artist for the band, and you know, she tragically was on that too.

So I always I always wondered if it was Randy in the plane or if they were crashed into by the plane.

Like well, I believe Randy was in the plane, he was in the plane.

And ironically, he had a figure flying, and you know, it was in the morning, so it was probably like uh hey, let's do this. Hee hee hee. They were probably fucked up, probably still, yeah, probably still intoxicated.

I thought it was I I thought it was like on an estate somewhere, they were like in between, it was like somebody's bigger.

It was the rich guy that lived like abutting an airport, so right, you know, the rich guy's plane and the bus driver uh took it, took it for a joyride. Fuck everything, yeah.

Which is really, and I hate to be dark, but sad that you know they could have taken Sharon.

Right.

Take Sharon, yeah, leave Randy. I mean, he did he's you know, the the classical stuff that he did that affected the music that we listened to for the next 20 years. Oh, yeah. I mean, the things that he was playing and the and the the style, the approach. I mean, imagine what would have come out. How many of the guitarists that we love growing up would have had a nylon string acoustic in their collection in their collection if it wasn't for Randy Rhodes?

Yep, right. So true. All right, so we're gonna lead it off with you, Kev, for your number 10.

Oh, heck. All right, number ten. I'm gonna go with number four. That would be uh Toto Four or Toto IV. I thought you were going with Foreigner again. We already did that album. Oh, so not a ton of hits off this album, but more of respect to the band and who the players were, and and you'll hear from them again on my list somewhere. But the big hits obviously Rosanna and Africa. I mean, mega, mega hits. Uh, but but Steve Lukather turned into one of those guys that pretty much every song that you've ever heard he had something to do with. He's like the guitarist for everybody, and then of course the Picaro brothers, who were just amazing as well, and just a great couple of hits off a really solid album, and that's my number 10.

There it is. All right, so alrighty.

Uh Duran Duran Rio. Yes, sir. Um, they okay, they they did the title track, Hungry Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer. But one thing I want to say about Duran Duran back in the day, a couple things. First of all, their videos were really entertaining. Hell yeah. Yes. I I you know it was they were very different, if you will. And you know, and another thing I want to say is back then in the early 80s, I think that it was Donnie. You kept saying 84 was the best year for uh comedies, comedy, yeah.

Comedy movies was 84, it might have been 82, 84. Was it 84? Okay, and it shows you how good my memory is.

But I mean, like with the Thompson twins and just all these great pop groups, yeah. Culture club. I mean, it was a great time for pop music. And I can't, it's unlistenable today.

Unlistenable.

Crap. I'll produce over produced.

I think it's listenable. Yeah, exactly. What's up? Today's back a little bit. Yeah. Today like what?

All right, Nani, you are thrown out of the pod twice.

But in the sun, you're already there.

I really like this band. I I I like them a lot. I it's I'm not ashamed to say that. So hell no. All right, all right, you might have been in 1982, but nowadays we're we're much more chill.

Yeah, and just what I was saying about the pop today is that none of them sing anymore. They they fucking all lip sync. It's infuriating. I mean, there's a few.

We misunderstood. I was saying back then the pop back then. Oh, you're saying today. Oh, yeah. Yeah, all right. We thought you were talking about today. You said what I was trying to say, Don, the old 80s stuff now is like amazing. Fuck yeah, that's what Mark was saying. Exactly.

So we agreed to agree.

That's what it's right. Okay, all right. We've come to a compromise and we agree to agree. Yes.

All right, so number 10 to me, and this one. Um, you guys might not even know, but very influential band, and this is called the band called Anvil. I should yeah, that was way up there on metal, nice the name of the album, and what a fucking rocking album this is. Just and you got Mothra on it, you got tag team on it, which is such an amazing riff. But if you ever get a chance out there, everyone, check out the Anvil video of Metal on Metal in live in Japan, and it's just fucking awesome. But one other thing I wanted to talk about it, other than just their influence that they had on so many, so many musicians, is there is a heart-wrenching documentary on them. And it's so worth watching, so well made. It's actually helped the you know, the people that are still alive. I think a few of them have passed, but right, you know, but they it's I think it's helped them. They're probably making more money now than they ever did, but it's just to watch them like go from gig to gig and just making zero money. And it's like spinal taps.

Yeah, it's like spinal tap if it was real and sad.

Exactly it's fucking heartbreaking.

Yeah, that that's a great, great documentary.

So well done. Absolutely. So number 10 to you, my friend.

All right, so number 10 to me is going to be Chicago 16, which was released on June 7th, 1982. And again, I just love the cheese, you know. I that's why I love this this time frame, 1982. It seems like there was a lot of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was like prime cheese time. What is your favorite cheese? Oh man, I like gouda. I like all right, Fromunda. Uh yeah. I mean, Gouda's great because you can melt it. I like great for mac and cheese, you know, but a homemade.

Anyway, back to the turn in this turn into the delicious dish. Right.

And so I love I my wife always makes fun of me because I like cheese music. I like cheese movies, you know.

I like the stuff that, you know, if if it's got heart mituma.

If it's got heart, you know what I mean? If it's if it's well done.

Yeah, absolutely.

But that was it's funny though, because Chicago was not originally a cheese factory, it was an amazing band. Yeah, and you were talking about documentaries. There's a documentary about Tom Caff, who was the guitarist who started Chicago, who Hendricks said was the greatest guitarist he knew. Sadly, he played a little bit of Russian roulette and offed himself mistakenly. Um but amazing individual as well.

Yeah. All right, so we are to our number nine to you, Kevin.

Number nine? Number nine would be Eye in the Sky by Alan Parsons. And most people would be like, who, what? I know exactly what I've got. Or now every basketball game, right? That music they come out to in the beginning is called serious. That's that's the intro to do Eye in the Sky. But amazing, Alan Parsons was actually the sound engineer for not only the Beatles, but Pink Floyd. Yes. And so then he formed the Alan Parsons project, which was basically he kind of put a group together or brought people in and out of the group to do different things. But some of the most amazing recording. I remember the first CD I got. There's there's a song called Games People Play, and there's like a drum crash that was like, oh my god, that's just like the clearest, amazing sounding thing ever.

He was he was a genius. Awesome. You always get the good rare ones that I don't even think of. So that which is gonna be great for me learning some new. I really like his voice, dude. Some new old voice, I thought. All right, so number nine, the young brother.

All right. Well, this one, I I don't know if you guys are gonna have it higher up than I do, but probably the number one selling record of all time, Michael Jackson thriller, before he uh really went down a bad road. But at that point, actually a good looking guy, great songs, songs that are still played constantly today. Songs like obviously uh thriller, beat it, Billy Jean. Gotta be started something, wanna be started something, you know, just so iconic. We we even bought the album. I mean, I mean, I'm surprised that me and David would have done such a thing, but I oh, and beat it, Eddie Van Halen played, obviously. That was a great uh solo he did, and um Paul McCartney was involved in the song.

And Steve Lu Steve Luca uh Steve Luca. The girl is mine, the name.

So but I mean it was. I mean, it it just it just went ballistic. I mean, millions upon millions upon millions of copies.

70, I believe, which is seven times diamond. Unbelievable, yeah. 34 times platinum, I think was the but diamond is 10 million, so yeah, it's incredible.

Yeah, just just uh amazing.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what happened to him after that, but uh all right.

So great pick, Mark. Thank you. Damn it. Anyway, um, my number nine here is I don't have a lot to say about this album, but it's Survivor, Eye of the Tiger. And Hulk Hogan's original music when he when he turned face, but it's just that one song to me was so powerful and so meaningful and rocky and everything. It's just been used over and over, and it's fucking kick ass, and their ballads on the album, they they're just a great ballad band, in my opinion. The search is over. That's one of my favorite ballads of all time, which is not on this album, but but still just an incredible album, and that's all I'll say. So number nine of you, Donnie.

Let me just inject here that 1984, Valentine's Day, was my first concert ever, and it was Ario Speedwagon and Survivor.

Nice.

So, as much as they were known, aside from Eye of the Tiger, as much as they were known for being that ballad band, I can tell you those guys kicked ass. Fuck yeah. They were they were they were no softies. Nice, maybe in the studio, but on stage. They were awesome. They were awesome.

Oh, such good times back then. Right, Donald. So kind of going back to what Mark said, like I'm last this this round, and pretty much six of my picks have already been picked.

Me too. I'm right there with you, buddy. So that shows uh where we're going here. But not only that, but Mark also said every bit that was in my notes for two of them. Well, you know, yeah, hey, that's why you're lucky to go performing this time.

Eventually you'll get back to the top again.

But go on. I mean, I think that's gonna happen.

No, we'll get we'll just bring him back. We'll bring it back. And for this one, um, this song is a song that you could basically, if you were in a band and your lead guitar player went out, you could just say, Hey, you come up here, teach them how to do it, just say, play this. And just repeat it, and they'd have no musical training and probably be able to do it, and that's Bad to the Bone by George Sorg. I mean, it's the most classic, you know, roadhouse blues song. Um, it was everywhere in the 80s. It's a simple, you know, it's a da. I mean, like I said, you could pull somebody out of the audience and say, Hey, just do this, just keep doing this, watch me for the changes.

I was gonna say smoke smoke on the water didn't come out in eighty two.

Right.

Right. Um, but just you know, classic eighties music that's fun and it was it was uh, you know, something that you heard everywhere.

Yeah, that was definitely a massive Massive song. And you can't even really say album. I mean, there are a couple other tracks. I actually own the album. There was a couple other tracks on there that were that were fun. Is that the one where he did the cover of Maverick, the Maverick theme? Yes. Possibly. Which was kind of, you know, I mean, you know, kind of fun, but the video with the uh in the pool hall, and he and flicks his cigar in the eight-ball sinks.

That song just screams pool hall, roadhouse, smoke-filled room, yeah, roadhouse. Roadhouse.

Yeah. Awesome. Great pick, too. Now, that is the name of the album, too, right? It is, yes. I just wanted to make sure we didn't miss that.

George Thorgood and the Destroyers.

The Delaware Destroyers. Just me and the Delaware destroyers sitting at the bar.

And looking at that, it was you know, George Thorogood and the Destroyers. I feel bad for the Destroyers. Because like no one, you could, you know, no one would ever recognize them in a in a mall or anything like that. Name somebody from the Destroyers. The E Street band. Which could be a good thing, really. Think about it. There's a couple other bands that I was thinking of that Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes.

Right. Right.

It's like zero Amboy Dukes. Because yeah, you're making good money, you're touring, you're you're playing in front of thousands of people, but yet nobody knows who the hell you are. Right. You're a very talented musician, more than likely.

And you know, it's kind of like Eddie Trunk was talking about the other day. Was it Billy Gibbons that shaved his beard? Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew who he was, exactly.

And there's huge bands that like people don't know who the drummer is or who the bass player is. Actually, you know. That's a good idea though.

But that's that's not that's not a terrible place to be. No. I mean, unless you want to be in the spotlight.

Usually, if you're a bass player, you don't want to be in the spotlight unless you're downtown and you know, go grocery shopping, not have to worry about being bothered all the time. Exactly. I'm still making a good paycheck, and yeah.

I I've seen John Hyatt, who I still believe is one of the greatest songwriters of our time, in in downtown Laconia at the Colonial Theater twice in the last two or three years, and and he tells stories, he walks around the city. Nice because 99.9% of the people have no fucking clue. Who's that old guy? I don't know. He just wrote great songs. All right, so we are at number eight, Kevin. Number eight. So what happens if you take the keyboard and the guitarist from a huge prog rock band, and then a singer bassist from another huge prog rock band, and then the drummer from another huge prog rock band.

I don't know, Kevin. Tell me you get Asia.

You get Asia, a band that comes together and writes fucking hits. Yeah, because that's what they do. Jeff Dallas and Steve Howe from Yes, um, John Wetton from King Crimson and uh Carl Palmer from Emerson Lincoln Palmer. And those guys were fucking, I mean, obviously they knew what they were doing, but you had heat of the moment, only time will tell, Soul Survivor, your wildest dreams. I mean, those songs were all like again unavoidable at that time, and all great songs, and they took that extended prog rock kind of I don't have a 45-minute attention span to listen, and they cut them down to three three to four minutes. Yeah, and they were on the radio and they made a great fucking page. Exactly. Great, great album. And uh if you don't know it, then you weren't alive at that time. Right, right.

Oh, I I absolutely remember all those things.

Awesome. All right, so Mark, we're gonna go number eight to you. So could you please pick another one higher up on my list?

Okay, I will do it. Scorpions Blackout. And uh, you know, some of it is a little bit of fatigue, you know, no one like you is played constantly. Um, blackout is a good tune. My favorite song in the record is When the Smoke is Going Down. Yep. And uh great song. Klaus Minor. How do you pronounce his name? Klaus. Klaus Minor. I think it's minor. Oh my god. One of I mean the best voices, the best voices in rock history, I think. I mean, one of them. I didn't say they're oh no, no, definitely, absolutely very strong, very, very strong.

I just remember him at Monsters of Rock saying, We are going to get a lecturer. I must lead the stage. And I'm like, fuck you.

That was one of the greatest days of our life.

Yeah, most miserable day of my life.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna misery at that. Do you have anything else to say about this album? Good. So my number eight is Scorpion's Blackout. So I'm just gonna continue. Yes, those songs are all awesome. Uh, definitely a unique voice. Kevin's talking about monsters of rock. This was 1988 in uh Oxford Plains, Maine. Speedway. No, and what a great, great lineup. I mean, Van Halen was on it. Metallica was one of the opening bands just after Docken. Why didn't you guys invite me? Why wasn't I in? We did. Anyway, anyway, um poured just pouring, pouring rain the entire day. What Kevin's talking about is the scorpions had to come off the stage because they were almost struck by lightning.

I have to stop you because that's not that wasn't my big beef that day. The problem was there was one fucking road in and one road out of this tiny speedway in Oxford, Maine's. Took forever. I literally installed a car stereo in my car on the main turnpike. You actually did. Yes. We sat in traffic for four hours before that road moved because I got we got separated from the lead car that had all the beer. Oh my god, Kevin. What the hell were you thinking? We drove and drove and drove and drove. Going, geez, there's cars parked on the side of the road. And I was like, I don't think we were drinking. Should we stop here and just walk? Now let's go a little further. Should we stop here and just walk? We went another 10 miles.

Oh my god.

Then we parked the car and walked another five miles to the show. After all of this, we finally get in. And then, as AJ was telling you, Klaus came out and said, Yeah, going to get I'm like, fuck you, stand there and get electrocuted, asshole.

Look what I've been through. So, what I learned about that concert is one price gouging, and two, yeah, like sometimes it's okay to pay the price gouging price. Yeah. So you're talking about a downpouring rain.

You're gonna take my story, but go ahead and allow you to well. I just wanted to do the trash bag story. And that's what I was gonna say. Well, it's your turn, you can get it.

We're selling trash bags basically.

You can take it over, Donald.

It's okay for five dollars. And we were like, I am not buying a trash bag for five, one trash bag. Oh my god, but it turned out to be probably one of the greatest purchases. The greatest purchase I've ever made in the world. Because I was talking about being miserable to being like quite happy.

Warm dry, the bag held in the moisture and warmed us up, but it was uh you, me, brother David, God rest his soul, and uh VJ. And Mark, you were invited. I don't know why you couldn't. I don't remember that.

88 was a very uneven year for me. I I don't I really don't know. I went through the whole anger phase there for a bit, but so my number eight was blackout.

So little side note about the guy that you guys bought the trash bag from. Later on became the water guy at Woodstock 99.

Exactly. Right.

All right, the sandwich guy at what was that, Coachella down in the right that went really south. Yeah. So number eight to you, Donald. All right, so all my picks are picked. Yeah, okay. Pretty much every single one of them. Mine too, it's okay, with the exception of a few. But anywho, um, number eight, I have Eye of the Tiger Survivor. Um, Rocky Three. I mean, that's just your classic. Like you hear that tune, it's like you just can't not. You want to get up and start you know, box shadow boxing. That's why Hulk Hogan came out to that badass tune, you know, to state the obvious. Psych.

Yeah, psych you right up. Cool. So that's all I gotta say. All right.

So that brings us then to seven.

Seven. Okay, seven for me is Nightfly from Donald Fagin. His first deep cut his first solo album after leaving Steely Dan, which is kind of weird because Steely Dan wasn't really a band, it was Becker and Fagan and a few other rotating cast members. So not really like a band uh in that respect. But it was it was it got a lot of radio play, it was very well respected, IGY, um good tunes off it, good solid jazzy, that Steely Dan, that Donald Fagan kind of. Oh, absolutely. Um, and all I wanted to add to it was that uh does anybody know who the first drummer for Becker and Fagan was in their first band in college, which was called Leather Canary.

I do not.

But the drummer for Leather Canary is a fella named Chevy Chase.

Oh, wow, true story. The Chevy Chase. Yes.

So you brought up a good thing about like Steely Dan, former guitar player. Like 1982, it seemed like a year where a lot of people went solo or broke away from their bands. Um, like I'm just gonna list some names, and I don't think I'm gonna trounce on anybody's picks because it's not the albums, but I'm just gonna use Peter Gabriel, Lionel Richie, Steve Winwood, Michael McDonald, Don Henley, Peter Frampton, Paul McCartney, Pete Townsend, Peter Chris, George Harrison, Phil Collins, and Sammy Hagar.

Glenn Fry, too, I think, had an action. Right.

I mean, there was more. I just kind of was jotting them down. I was going along.

I'm like, homy, how many solo? How many people went solo? That's my number one, right? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, again, like like I've mentioned in some of the other 80 and 81 that we've talked about, there's a transition happening here. And you start to see like certain styles kind of waning, and and you know, like people have you can see the high water mark from some bands as they start to go down, and then you can see other genres and other bands starting to climb and and and reach their pitch. So, yeah, it's kind of cool that because like I I looked at the the Phil Collin one and it's like, yeah, there was some good tunes on it, but I don't know if that didn't make my list, but like the next album after that, right? Fucking mega mega album.

Awesome, awesome. All right, number seven to you, Mark.

So, Donnie, you mentioned Glenn Fry, right? Well, my next record, number seven, is by a guy named Bob Bake.

That's a Mark joke for you people out there.

All right, no, uh, Prince 1999. Yes. Um, obviously, Prince, I think, is one of the most underrated guitar players. He's awesome. He's incredible. Um, he was just known for his uh showmanship more than anything. Um, you have the title track, Little Red Corvette, obviously, delirious. Um, great record, iconic, amazing record. Yep, amazing, and uh you know that's my pick, so that's where I went with.

Well, my number seven pick is Billy Idol, his debut album. Um just white wedding on this was very meaningful to me as Mark to my left and my brother David, God rest his soul, played that song constantly in their band White Lightning. You got come on, come on, you got hot in the city. Um, he was just very punk and very cool, and just being a friggin, you know, 11-year-old kid at the time, I'd try to spike my hair like him. You know what I mean? I mean, when Rebel Yell came out, it was out of control. But he just very talented guy, still doing it today and doing it well. So that's what I have to say about it.

Well, funny because Donnie was just talking about people that left bands, and he had just left Generation X, left them in London and moved to New York and started his solo career with one of their songs, right? Right, and and took off. And also, interesting that Steve Stevens, the guitarist for Billy Idol, was later stolen by Mark's pick, Michael Michael Jackson. Right, unbelievable. All right, I believe Dirty Diana was the one that he well.

So uh go on then, Donald.

Probably one of the greatest snarls, I guess you would spread that. Absolutely. The dude's just got a great look. Uh, I love the movie. Um, it's gonna the Adam Sandler movie, wedding singer. The wedding, oh yeah, when he's on the plane, and he man, that voice, and I could sleep to that. He's like, you know, like Billy Adams' voice was so cool, you know. Dude was awesome, great, but good power songs, good showmanship. I mean, that guy was pretty cool.

He took punk into rock and roll and combined the two, I feel like, and it was just fucking great. All right, so we're at number six, Kev.

Number six, I'm sure you guys, this is all on your list. Not um, this is uh uh missing persons. Um did they find him? This was I I don't think they've been found yet. So so this was um uh Terry Bozio, who was the drummer for Frank Zappa, or one of the drummers for Frank Zappa.

There's a lot of Zappa this decade.

Yeah, and Warren Cucarulo, who was the the guitarist. Say that fast. Warren Cucarulo, Warren Cucarulo, um and and of course uh Terry Bozio's wife, Dale, who was like she she was Lady Gaga before Lady Gaga, way beforehand, and I just I took notice of her. She came out on stage with clear plastic globes that were just painted black just enough so that you couldn't see everything to the mind's eye. Um, but she was also very talented, and they had some really great songs on that album, songs that I still like Words, um Destination Unknown, Walking in LA. Um, just a solid album, and it sounds, you listen to it today, it still sounds great, but it sounds like the 80s. It really is the keyboard sound, all of that.

Um, what I wanted to say about it though is it's which is really before keyboards, like they probably originated it because they really start kicking in in the future exactly.

Exactly. But this was one of the bands that was formed because Frank Zappa he ran his show kind of like it was it was a business but a school. And he would kick people out when he when he didn't feel like a musician had anything else to learn from them, he would kick them out. Famously, one of them was Low George, who started the band Little Feet. And that was that was Frank just looked at him and said, Take your boxy little feet and get out of here. Start your own band. Little feet. True story.

Frank's kids were getting active at this time. Fred Zeppelin, yes.

Dweezel and Moon Unit. What is it? Moonbeam? Moon Unit. Moon United, great, uh, great children's names. Absolutely. He was Frank was an individual.

One of them, yes, he was a great podcast called uh Rock Tales. Is that Amet? Ahmed, yeah. Yeah, he's hilarious. Great show, too. Absolutely awesome. So number six to you, Mark.

All right, I have Night Ranger, Dawn Patrol.

Yes, sir. How did I miss that? Go ahead. I left it off mine because I knew you'd have it.

All right, well, there you go. So Jack Blades, uh, he's the singer, and obviously he played with damn Yankees. But one of my favorite songs of all time is Don't Tell You Don't Tell Me You Love Me. Yeah, great song. Great and Sing Me Away is an incredible song. Yes, I love that. I love the solo on that. There's a song called Night Ranger on the album. Yep. And uh, you know, just an underrated band from back in the day.

Yeah, they never fucking incredible band.

Brad Gillis, no slouch, they they never really are. Yeah, I mean him with Dan Yankees was amazing. Incredible, yeah.

Incredible band. Yep.

Incredible, yeah. Um, you know, they weren't around for too long, you know. And Uncle Jim.

Did that have something to do? Because didn't Gillis didn't he leave to tour with Ozzy after Randy passed? Yes, he did. So which had to have like kind of pulled. No, no, it didn't last long, but it probably took a little of the steam away from the Night Ranger.

Oh, one thing I always said, and I will just say it again, but man, if Night Ranger, Sticks, and Nugent did a shed tour, right? Fucking or an arena tour, maybe, but maybe not that big. But just did a fucking tour together and then finished the night off with the damn Yankees. Oh my god, Tommy the Shaw's incredible Shaw's one of my favorite musicians.

Do you ever see the version of um the song? You know, they call it the uh they call it the angry man, angry angry young man song.

And you're you're fooling yourself.

You're fooling, yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, they did a version um with an orchestra, and it was incredible. If you look it up, I mean it's just amazing. And I will look great song. Yeah, yeah. It was Tommy Shaw and excellent.

Okay. Where am I? Number six. Yeah. Well, I get to pick one no one's picked yet. Really cool. Imagine that. That one doesn't count. This one is called Under the Blade. Twisted Systems. Released in September. It's the one that they uh I couldn't find a date on this one of the release, but um just Bad Boys of Rock. The I mean the title track. It's I fucking love this album. Um you know, it's before Stay Hungry, but I still I to go back and listen to it, it's so rockin'. And one of the things I love to think about with this, I've seen it so many times, but I'm sure you guys have too. But just to watch the court case with the PMRC. Oh, with uh Tipper Gore Tipper Gore and to watch him come back to the city. And they talk about censorship air, and you know, just incredible to see D. Snyder go in there and um I can't say his name right. It's Eddie Ojeda. The entire player Eddie Fingers. Yeah, I can never say it, but anyway, he wrote under the blade about Eddie Ojeda going into surgery, and because he had a you know, very white coat syndrome, if you will, and was scared to death of it, and that's what D Snyder wrote this song about, and then fucking Tipper Gore was trying to talk about all its sexual innuendos and all that, and fucking D put that bitch into her fucking place, and it was incredible, as did Zappa and especially friggin' John Denver cinched it because they all they all thought they were just gonna turn the top rope.

Exactly, exactly.

They thought he was gonna come out and be on her side.

Yeah, but he wanted to go into space because he loved flying, not enough to be sober while he flew his plane, but again, see how it's all tied back in. We got plane crashes. Oh my god, yeah. But did that album have uh You Can't Stop Rock and Roll on it? No, no, that was a deal.

That would be You Can't Stop Rock and Roll.

Odd. I couldn't remember what the progression was prior to Stay Hungry because I think that was next.

After um So it's under the blade, then you can't stop rock and roll. I think so, yeah. Okay, don't quote me on that, but I'm quoting you on that. All right, bringing it down right now. So 6U, Donald.

And then you find yourself in 82. That's the year I graduated. Oh, it's Asia. Yep. This is Asia.

You fucking bastard you take it on my bricks.

I love Asia busting my primary moment. It's like the you know, it's the prog rock meets pop, meets, you know, 80s. Just yeah, it's as a child growing up in the 80s. It was like, man, that's a cool sounding song. Right. You know, uh only. I don't do that any justice.

All right. Great pick, though, Donald. All right.

So that's number five to you, Kev. Number five. The band's so nice they named it twice. Duran. Duran, yes. Mark has already brought this out. He is, he is a he's trumping everybody today, isn't he? Nicely done. So we've talked quite a bit about Duran Duran and how great they were. For I mean, again, coming into that era, the sound of that time, um, but also just I mean, style and and video was was all cool.

Incredible.

But also great musicians. If you ever get the opportunity, there's some the isolated bass, you know. You can look up on YouTube and you can find like, oh, somebody's isolated guitar solo, whatever. The isolated bass of John Taylor's playing will blow your fucking mind. You're like, I had no idea that was happening in that song. And it sounds you know it as a song, but then you listen to it without any of the other just that's just the bass track, and you're like, it sounds like somebody just took a bunch of bass riffs and dumped them in a box and choke them up. Yeah, it's crazy. He is he is a talented, insanely talented individual.

Awesome. Number five, then to you, Mark. All right. Uh, I'm sure somebody else should be picking this. They better be. The Clash Combat Rock. You have Rock the Casbar, you have Should I Stay or Should I Go, just an iconic song that is played by many cover bands. Um, Know Your Rights is what starts the uh the album on. And um they were having issues within the band. Topper Heaton was uh having heroin problems. I mean, that never happens, but um just this this band is a great punk rock band. I fucking incredible band.

Oh yeah. Should I stay? Should I go is like that's my favorite like mosh type of song, you know, like not really a mosh, but like just a great tune. You guys did it.

Hugo Shallow Dwellers did it back before I ever joined.

Gotcha. Awesome pick. Why thank you? Yes. Well, thank you, Kevin. My number five is Rio, Duran Duran, which is why I was giving you a dirty look, but just an incredible album, just an incredible band to me. I mean, you know, just to have that pop goodness back in the day. Um, we've already discussed it over and over, but pop was fucking good. You know what I mean? It's just back then it was good. You could listen to uh any pop, yeah. It was just fucking great.

The station that reaches the beaches, remember that?

Yes, yes. But just I mean, hungry like the wolf, massive save of prayer, and Rhea. I we've we've beaten the horse, but that's my five. So, number five to you, Donald. All right, I finally have one that no one picked. It's gonna be my number four.

So um, it's gonna be picture this from Huey Lewis in the news.

Yes, I had a hard time cutting.

I cut it too, and again, like Huey Lewis and the news. Like, I don't know anybody who's I don't know any of the news.

Well, there was that guy. What station were they on, Darby?

Oh man, he can write some songs, they were great songs. Um I love working for a living, but do you believe in love? Is just a classic to do you believe in love?

Yeah, the harmonies and the chorus are just what would you consider his genre?

I mean, uh just rock, pop rock, pop rock, yeah. Yeah, so uh an interesting thing, like he had the news, right? And they had a sax player, but he also on this album had Tower of Power, who was an amazing funk fusion band, uh horn band, uh, you know, horn section kind of so that was cool. That was in the album. Um, I just love him. He was fun, he was he was the epitome of the 80s, too.

You know, he will definitely be around in the future picks, you know, in the years to come.

Yes, he will not be overlooked again on my list.

Yeah.

All right. Cool that you brought up Tower of Power. I've probably talked about it on here before, but one of my absolute favorite bands, I I I got to meet them and kind of hang out with them for like five or six years in a row. A friend of mine was a merchandiser for them. Uh, worked for Bill Graham Presents. One of the most underrated, like you say, Huey Lewis, but they played with Elton John. They played, I mean, there was a period there where if there were if there were horns on a pop song in that era in this 82 to to 90.

We need a horn section. Who are we calling? You got the best, baby. You got the best.

You got you got Mimi and Doc and and the whole crew. Yeah, just just fantastic, amazing musicians. And I'm probably gonna ramble here for a second, but one of the first concerts I took my son to was this band 21 Pilots, who I enjoy their music, but they're you know, new generation. It's more about the production because it's a drummer and the lead singer plays a little bass and piano. So it was my son's first show. He loved the band, he was absolutely in awe. But I had to, in my head, I'm thinking, oh my god, I need him to see what it's like to see a live band perform.

That's the band to see.

Fortunately, it was coming up that Tower of Power was at Hampton Beach Casino, so I took him there. We sat in the front row and I said to him, Every sound that you hear tonight is coming from those nine guys coming from their lungs, coming from their body. Right, there's nothing coming in more vibrates in your nine people making this sound. Thank you for mentioning some of my personal heroes.

Power of power. Yeah. And where are we? Four. Sorry.

I'll try to keep it short. Well, we'll go from one of my heroes to another one of my heroes, and that would be Mark Knopfler, because my number four is Lover Love Over Gold by Dyer Straits. Nice, who is just I mean the other guys in the band obviously solid, solid performers, but Mark Knopfler is, in my opinion, just a man of his own. I mean, he he is he does something with the guitar that nobody else can do.

A lot of that is like the Randy Rhodes from Australia. You know, he's from well he's a Geordie.

He's he's from he's from England. England. Yes. Oh, yeah. They kind of sound like he's from England. Um but um just I think a lot of it was he he he really looked up to uh Chet Atkins and and people like that. So there's like almost a bluegrass kind of approach to the sound that oh yeah, I mean, there's there's a I sold I said I wouldn't go long. There's a million stories about where they laid the microphone to get the sound for money for nothing. It's the tone. I mean, it's it's exactly. And there's like they all they have, and nobody knows how to do it. No, make that sound ever again. There's notes of like where where the sound guy laid the microphone.

My guitar tuning got really strange on that song.

Absolutely, but what an iconic riff. Has nothing to do with the album Lover Gold, though. Right uh, but still an amazing album and a band that was getting ready to hit their stride and and become major, right? Um industrial disease. You never hear anymore. But that was just such a great song, a little bit tongue-in-cheek, a little humorous. And I will end it there as I have taken up. All right, yeah. Shut the fuck up. Thank you. And Mark number 48.

Bombada. Mark, you pick somebody else's pick.

Happy track.

Bomba Dude.

We we're not gonna do the whole two.

All right, Van Halen Diver Down, obviously. You know, I wasn't gonna put this one on my list until I refresh the track list, and I'm like, wait a minute, I'd love that fucking album. Yeah. I mean, it's where have all the good times gone? What a great song. They obviously, I mean, I think I believe five songs were covers on this.

Yeah, definitely.

Pretty woman and uh dancing in the streets. You have little guitars, senorita, my trouble again. But obviously, this is well, 82, no shit, Mark. Right. So, yeah, David Lee Roth was not in a band much longer, but anyway, great record. Thank you.

All right, and that was kind of the problem of what led to the breakup was that Roth wanted to do covers. Oh, yeah, he did. And with the exception of Dancing in the Streets, I love the ones they did. I just hate that for some reason. I I don't like it.

I'm not a big cover guy either.

I'm not a big cover guy, but but they also they didn't they they didn't cover songs aside from that one that were big hits. Right. Like Where have all the good times gone? I mean, that wasn't a huge hit here. People think it's Van Halen, right? Exactly. It was a king song. It wasn't huge here. But I mean, that's where a lot of the infighting was that that Eddie wanted to go in his direction, do all original stuff, right? And Roth was kind of afraid to let go of the sure thing. He wanted to do stuff that was, you know, tried and true, and he knew would be people would be getting into it.

Interesting to know it on Eddie. I mean, David Lee Roth was actually a paramedic. Did you you knew that, right?

I did, yeah. Yep. And a climber and every and a ninja.

He's better than uh forrest forrest gump. Can you imagine having a health episode in the streets of New York and David Lee Roth comes up to revive? Yay!

Give me a bottle of D5W and a glazed donut to go!

And a glazed donut to go. All right, Donald, I apologize.

Oh, you soul. Yes. I know what you're gonna say.

Iron Maiden Number of the Beast. I apologize. How did that wait that long? Good lord. Well, because it's to the top. Yeah. You know? Ah, this just an incredible, incredible Iron Maiden album. God, Run of the Hills. Oh, the title track, Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Prisoner, Friggin' Children of the Damned. I mean, there's pretty much not a bad track on this album. It's fucking amazing. They did Live After Death not long after this, one of the best live albums I've ever heard and seen, you know, great video. Of course, you cannot forget the album covers of Maiden. Fantastic. Just fantastic. Did you ever see them in the concert, AJ? Several times. Yeah. Oh, actually, yeah, back in the day.

I haven't recently, I've really wanted to. So I've seen them recently, and I've seen them back in the day, and it's just a fun show to go to.

Yeah, I went to see Ace Brilliant warming up for Iron Maiden.

And it's so cool. Like you go to like down at Metterbrook or whatever Tweeter Center, whatever it's called now, and the guys, like the cab drivers and stuff, will say, Oh my god, I can't believe the you know the country bands were in last weekend. They're such a pain in the ass. But like Iron Maidens in town, everybody's respectful. You know, you got like these 50-year-old rockery dudes. It's metal music with a history lesson. Know how to handle their drugs and you know right. Yeah. Right, exactly. Got the chemistry down at this point. Want to just have a good time, rock out, and then go home and not cause trouble, you know, not get drunk in the streets and getting arrested and all that kind of stuff. So, but it's they're just fun, they're rocking. It's so cool to see. You know, it was a tough cut for me.

AJ, wasn't that the first album after they snagged Bruce Dickinson from Samson? It was his first album. Yeah, correct. True. And was it was Nico there yet? Not yet. Not yet. He came the next album.

I think no, he came, he was one of the news notes in this year. So I think it's later in the year. Oh, okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Awesome. Number four to you, Donald.

Cool. Well, um, I had these ranked higher, and you guys picked them in earlier. Uh Toto, Toto Four. Um, I love this song. I love the Rosanna, Africa. I love their harmonies. Just amazing. I love these guys. So I mean, I picked I had them ranked higher, but no problem. Yeah, those are great songs. Yeah.

All right, Kevin. Let's see if you can't steal my number three.

Not gonna happen because everything I've got from here on out has already been chosen. Mark already, Mark already stole it. Uh, but I will start with once again that uh uh Rosanna actually written about Rosanna Arkent. Yeah, which is not hard to believe. No. Uh so my number three um would be again Combat Rock by the Clash, just because I absolutely love the Clash. I thought they were a fantastic band. I liked where they were coming from. Um you had mentioned at one point maybe uh uh Straight to Hell, yeah, which was um it's been sampled by people since then, but just a great song. It's one of those tracks that actually you listen to it and you can understand why somebody sampled it just because of the the way that it's produced. Um and you also mentioned a little bit of the infighting the band, and that was the manager who was trying to pit uh Joe Strummer against Mick Jones. He had Strummer convinced that they didn't need Mick Jones. Well, the thing was that Mick Jones was like the creative force behind the band. So the album they came out with after that, after the band kind of broke up and Strummer took the name and got a bunch of different musicians to come in, was called Cut the Crap, and it was just not anything, and that was pretty much the end of the clash.

And this was the uh correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't this their best selling record ever?

Oh, absolutely, yeah. They they hit their apex and then it was done. It was it was over, and nobody ever achieved any kind of level of uh what was it? Uh Strummer had the the Mescaleros and um uh Mick Jones had a little bit of success with big audio dynamite, which was kind of he started fusing um uh punk with with like what was going on with rap and sampling.

Ah, I got it.

And did some really cool stuff with that too, but it never got the commercial success that that combat rock did.

Nice.

All right, steal my number three, Mark. Right, I don't think so, man. Maybe I am, but uh I might be a little bit long-winded on this record. Aerosmith rocking a hard place. And to me, this is when Steven Tyler still had his edgy voice, sharp as a tech. Um, obviously, Jimmy Crespo and Rick DuFay were in the band because Joe Perry had, you know, he left when did the Joe Perry project, which was also a great album. Yeah, yes. And Brad Whitford and Derek St. Holmes, or as David would say, Derek Street Holmes, because he was a kid and he saw ST. But um some of the songs, you know, Jailbait, Lightning Strikes, is which is what I'm about to talk about. Bitch's Brew, Crimea River.

Bitch's Brew is fucking dirty and awesome. Yes, it is.

Lightning Strikes is probably one of my words. And there are two places I'm gonna go with this one. Um, first of all, uh, we did it with White Lightning. Just a fun fact, everybody. In the band, there is a man named Chris Sheridan, who also happens to be is he the writer of Family Guy? And what is that other show? He's one of the producers of Family Guy. That alien one.

Alien uh fuck, what's the name? The American Dad? No, not the scene.

It's about a guy that comes down from another planet and he's something alien. It doesn't matter. I've seen it, but yeah, I don't know.

Your dear beloved, our dear beloved brother, yeah, she's gonna get to okay.

I don't want to so yeah, no, we you know, he was obviously the singer in the band, and you know, David did a great job, and he he he he didn't say uh when the lightning strikes, he said when way lightning strikes. Number three is to you.

All right, so let's see. Here's another one that I get to do on my own, and that is Judas Priest screaming for vengeance. And this album is the one that I was telling you guys earlier today that I overlooked. I'm going back through Wikipedia and I'm like, how the fuck did I miss this? I mean, uh, you got Hell Yun into Electric Eye, right? One of my favorite priest songs of all times is Bloodstone. Absolutely. Oh, it's such a great vocal. Alfred's just fucking amazing. The the way he sings the chorus is just such a hook to me. You know, it's just fucking incredible. But you get another thing, you got another thing coming, you know, I'd never need to hear again, but oh, I still love that one. I am not saturated.

I'm not saturated on that one.

I know, nor am I. But it's just, you know, the big hit from the album and fucking incredible record. That's all I'm I'll say about it.

But an electric eye. Yeah, I mean, listen to the lyrics of that from what from 1982, and think about and think of the world that we live in today because the electric eye is always what do you mean? Echo Alexa, sorry, Alexa.

So that song is basically about big brother watching us, absolutely, yeah. Satellite guy.

Oh, yeah. Fucking crazy.

So, number three to you, Donald. So going back um to one that's already been picked a couple of times.

This is my fucking day, isn't it?

Duran Duran. Um, yeah, from the two spot. The only thing I'm gonna say about this, I had it high up because Duran Duran was the 80s. I'm always like uh this reminded me of the 80s. Oh, it was a sound. But I also want to for everyone out there, all the listener or listeners, uh, all the listener, um, this is the way you can tell if someone is AI generated or not. Like you start playing the music, and AJ, when you edit, throw in the you know, hungry like a wolf, dan it, dan it, chicki, dan it, dan it. If someone doesn't move to that song, then they're a fucking robot. Right. Exactly. Like like Joe Biden at the Juneteenth celebration that just stands there like everybody's dancing. It's like that's the Blade Runner test to see if they're real or not. If you play that song and you don't start moving around and dancing, then you're you're a robot.

Like Ted Nugent says, if you're not having fun with KISS, you need to have your motor checked.

Exactly. Yeah, so that's my thing for society. Like, play that song. If someone doesn't tap their foot or start moving around, damn right, then they're such a good need to hang out with that person because they have no soul whatsoever. Exactly.

Hey yes, pay us, pay us. All right, number two to you, Kevin.

All right, my number two is one of Mark's picks. Um, absolutely, and and really kind of struggled. You didn't look at my list. You're talking about you've already listed, you stole all of the picks this week. Right, Mark. You from the two seat, yeah. I know you got lucky. You slayed us all. So I don't want to hear no more of the Batman shit from you. Because you stole my band. Anyway, um, Prince 1999, just an amazing album. I think it was his fifth album, the first one with um The Revolution. Yep. Um, the guy came out another band, a nameless band. Another nameless band. But we kind of know the play because he talks about the players, Wendy and Lisa and whatever else.

Right, the girls were the girls, anyway.

Um, but just a fantastic album and and a juggernaut. The guy was out. I mean, he started. I think there's an interview with with Dick Clark on American Bandstand, and he's like 16, maybe 17. Wow. And one of his earlier albums is a ladies' man. Oh, a ladies' man, as well as he played like five foot nothing. But he played every instrument on like the first couple albums by himself. And then the one that I absolutely so I used to have this thing back in the day because, like we've talked about before, we were like AJ was forced at gunpoint to listen to Kiss and nothing but kiss, which I mean we didn't all have that same experience, but there was there was a machismo at the time that I listened to I listened to Van Allen, uh, you know, I listened to Yeah, you know exactly. I listened to Judas Priest and uh JJ Talk, Iron Maiden, and you know, if I'm from real Feeling feminine, uh, you know, I'll bring out some Metallica or whatever. I mean, that's that's so you I didn't my friends didn't know I had Prince albums, but I didn't just buy Prince albums, I bought the EPs, or what used to be a dance mix back then. And there's a song called Let's Pretend We're Married from 1999. And when you listen to the dance mix, I mean the chorus was Let's Pretend We're Married and Go All Night. I mean, I'm not even gonna get into it because it's it's it's it's true prince, and it it was like if my mom had heard that playing, it would have been all done with a video. He did he did not, I think it was I think one of the lines was something I I I sincerely want to fuck the taste out of your mouth.

I was just like, holy shit, whatever.

Yeah, absolutely. But I would always kind of because he had that funk and he had that sexiness and whatever else. So anytime attractive, anytime I had a female accompaniment, I would pull out those Prince EPs and hope you could fuck the taste out of someone's mouth. Believe me, he oozed enough sex out of that fucking record to help my ass out.

Oh, yeah. So Donnie, um, you remember I went down there, the whole thing down in uh Berkeley. I came down postcard from New Hampshire. You know, we had a 12-pack for three people, a 12-pack for two people, and three 12-packs for you and I. Well, right, there was a uh uh print act that was going on when we were down the cafeteria, yeah.

So at Berkeley College of Music, 150 Mass Ave, they had a cafeteria and they would have weekend shows with students, would just and there was yeah, there was just you do remember that? Yeah, that guy's like freaking a lot of fun.

Yeah, yeah, that was fun. Awesome sexual chocolate. My man, this is sexual chocolate. Number two to you mark. All right, I have Rush Signals. Yeah, you would have that one, huh? You knew I would, yeah. Yeah, again with the I mean this record, I mean, if you look at the videos, they are extremely nerdy at this point. Um, but I absolutely love this record. At what point are they I was asking?

I love Rush, but show me a point where they weren't nerdy.

Well, they were quite nerdy at this point, you know. But subdivisions, what a great song! Yeah, incredible song. You have Digital Man, New World Man, New World Man, boom, bam, and boom, bam, boom, boom. And one of the songs that really kind of um I can relate to is called Losing It. It's a song about basically at this point. Um, if you look at some of his earlier stuff, uh Getty Lee could sing. He go look at look up Working Man. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And he's hitting these high notes. Oh, high notes.

Super high notes. So we're gonna go to my number two, which once again Mark has already spoken about, and that is Michael Jackson's thriller.

They told us, don't you have a cover up?

The fires in the eyes, their words are really clear. Don't feed it. Just feed it.

Just this year, I mean, going back in time, the the way this album took off, and the MTV music videos for Beat It, Billy Jean, and Thriller, of course, which charted for fuck. I don't even should have looked up how long, but just I think the greatest video ever made. I could have thriller, but I'm not like other people.

And it was like uh we can see that from here, Mike. You know, it's like come here at you know, Friday at nine o'clock. It's gonna be the release of the video.

Yeah, and then and then for like four months after that, you couldn't get away from it. Right. As great as it was, it's like, okay, I get it. It's like you see the beginning, it's like, okay, this thing's like 20 minutes long.

Yeah, there was like a movie part of it, and then the right that song part of it.

Yeah, and then like every dance routine since then has been some variation of the thriller dance in the video. Yeah, that's your butt like Mark talked about too.

Whoops, sorry, Don. Nope. Like Mark said, uh Eddie Van Halen doing the solo and Steve Lukather. Did I say it right?

You got it! Yeah!

And uh just incredible. And I'm not ashamed to say I loved it. We built a stage on Farmer Drive in Guildford in my backyard and used to airband this. The all the lovely little ladies would come over and watch me because I'm 11, 12 years old. Uh, anyway, great friggin' times. Great times. So, number two to you, Don.

Number two to me, and you've had it, is uh Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. Yes. Um, amazing album, probably one of my favorite albums. One of my favorite songs is Hallowed Be Thy Name. Yes. So little story history. There was a local band, um Rocks would play Hallowed Be Thy Name. They played it to the T. Yeah, it was so nice. Um, Scott Minery. I I'm I'm using his name out because he is an amazing singer. Yeah, this guy was amazing. Um, I was honored to be able to play with them in a band for a short period of time. I was way out of my league, wasn't close to being able to keep up with them, but that was like a great accomplishment for me being like a teenager, watching these guys being like, oh my god, they're freaking awesome. They wail this and playing with those guys for a short period of time. It was just a huge like uplift in me. Because I didn't, I always was like, I'm not good, I'm not a good guitar player, blah blah blah. And they they took me in and it was amazing, it was fun. And we played How It Be Thy Name. And for me, that was like playing with a band, like playing with a famous band. With a huge exact you know, the dude, if he ever listens, like you, you were. I need to reach out to him and get him.

I mean, I could rock. I was in touch not too long ago. I mean, that was probably five years now, but yesterday or last. He also sang with why not briefly, you know, yeah. Scott Minery did yeah, yeah. Just before, just before they were breaking up. I don't even know if they ever performed, but uh I mean that's like a you know, like hidden talent.

There's talent like hiding everything.

So many and so many talented like people that never make it, unfortunately.

You know, he had he was amazing, great dude, too.

Fucking awesome dude. All right, so we are at our number one to your boys. So number one, you kev.

All right, number one. I'm gonna ignore the fact that you all stole it from me, but I kind of changed things around to make this number one just because of the fact that it is the biggest album ever. Of all time. But also the book ends because I started with Toto and I'm ending with Thriller, which is again Steve Lukather and the Picaro brothers.

I like how you bring that all together.

From yeah, we're tying it up in a nice little bow. Yes, exactly. But what I want to do is I wanted to read the quote of what Michael Jackson's concept was for this album because I think we will all 1000% agree. He said he wanted to create an album where, quote, every song was a killer. He was frustrated by albums that would have one good song and the next were like B-sides. Why can't every song be a hit? Why can't every song be so great that people would want to buy it if you could release it as a single? That was my purpose for the next album. And he went into that with that attitude, and he did exactly that. Not my style of music. I mean, I and and I've always kind of wondered too, Quincy Jones had so much to do with producing it and what he did. And they kind of fought because Off the Wall from 79 was leaned hard into the disco stuff, and Quincy Jones was looking forward, he saw the the attitude towards disco and wanted to move away from that. But like uh Billy Jean, the long intro, Quincy Jones wanted to cut that down, and and Michael Jackson said, No, it makes me want to dance. Yeah, and he's it because he felt that's gonna make people want to dance, you know, just like hungry like the wolf. That kind of thing where you're getting into it, and and yeah, so there's always there's always a place for that funk, that groove, that tapping your foot, yeah, kind of straight. Yeah, so yeah, and just again, we've we've talked about it quite a bit, but one of the greatest albums ever.

Damn right. You had it, right, Don? The whole album.

It's my number one.

I think yeah, all four of us have it. Yeah, so I'm waiting for it.

Yeah, all right, I'll shut up.

Yeah, no, that's fine.

All right, so here we go. Um, Mark, we're gonna go number one to you, which I know very much so.

Well, you know, you're talking about you're talking about songs that you just need to dance to. Well, this record is chock full of them. It's called KISS Creatures of the Night. What? Why, if I had a podcast, I'd call it Preachers of the Night. Freaking incredible idea. Anyway, well, you know, we've talked about it ad nauseum on our sidecast. Uh, this is a situation where Kiss was had lost their way, and if they just would have come up, I mean, I talked about it at the beginning of this one. If they just would have decided to do this kind of thing earlier, then maybe Ace Fraley never would have left. I mean, he probably would have driven into a wall somewhere, but other than that, but anyway, um, Ace is on the cover. Obviously, he did not play, even though it said guitars by Vinny Crossano at the time and and uh Ace Freely on it. He did a couple promotional tours, he did uh obviously that incredible video that I'm not gonna talk about. I'm gonna let AJ talk about it. And he also did Creatures of the Night, he did uh one with them. I mean, he did one, I think it was in actually was it in England or Europe or something? But but anyway, he he did the interviews as if it he was in the band.

And you know, we didn't we knew they pulled the fucking wool over our eyes, is what they did.

AJ, we knew that that was an ace. I'm sorry, of course, but you know, the great the the title track was incredible and war machine. So I'm gonna let you finish this one.

Ah, well, thank you, brother. So, same thing, obviously, creatures of the night. And yes, for all you listeners out there, please do look at our little side cast, which is under the same umbrella, Preachers of the Night. Even when it's not raining, if you see that, you will uh that just know that is a kiss cast. Um, for now, anyway. But anyway, this album is so fucking heavy. Just you have Eric Carr being able to be himself finally, you know, after the elder, when he was like, What the hell is this garbage? And he comes into creatures and it's friggin' thunder. Speaking of thriller, but anyway, um, just incredible, thunderous drumming from him throughout this album, even on the the ballad. I you know, I still love you, but just um one thing that I've talked about in the sidecast, but some of you folks here on past times haven't heard, and that is that video to I Love It Loud. This takes me back to I Love It Loud and the video in 1982 bringing me back to my you know, a shag carpet in my mother's living room, watching this on night flight or radio 1990, whatever the show was. Radio 1990 just fucking brings me back into a certain place in my head that I will never forget, man. Just such an important album to me, such an incredible album for the band, although they couldn't get arrested at this point. But yeah, and as far as Mark said, with you know, Ace being all on all the posters and whatnot, just you know, they definitely did pull the wool over our very strange dynamic with the transition of personnel in the band. Yes, you know, so for them to do that, just insane.

All right, Donald, finish it off. All right, so um, Creatures of the Night was you know, I left that off because I knew you two would pick it. Well, you could have picked it somewhere on the list, Donnie. It's an amazing album, right? It was not on my radar in 1982, right? Sure. When I was growing up as a kid, but it came on my radar when I started hanging out with you guys, and that's what's so beautiful about friends, right? Yeah, people like opening yourself up to new music and and taking in something that you didn't know of. Like, hey, have you listened to this music? And you know, that's why it's like you don't want to live in the silo, you want to like open yourself up to everything. So, you know, in 1982 wasn't anywhere near my radar. Well, good thing he had us to help you through life, and then I was like, Yeah, this is freaking rocking, it's awesome. Um, but my number one was thriller, yeah, Michael Jackson, you know, highest selling album of all time, of any albums. It was awesome, and that was 1982. You know, that was what you saw, the thriller video. It was like impactful at that time. It was our last, yep. So we've talked about that, but I'd also like to say there was the alternate universe of the weird Allyankovich who did the you know, let's eat it, eat it, eat it, you know. He made a lot of money off of that shit, you know. Damn right, smart dude, you know, very smart and you know that kind of stuff. So it was a lot of fun, you know. Music's fun, that's it. Music brings people together. I'm getting a little like I love you.

Yeah, but that's that's an amazing way.

We're still growing with it, right?

Well, that's an amazing point that just blew my mind because when you think back about different genres of music that you it opened up to, there's usually a person or a group of people that are associated with that. So every time you listen to that music, you think, oh, hey, that was so-and-so that that got me into this. So it's it's cool.

Yeah, it brings you back to a time, it brings you back to a gem. Like I was saying with I Love It Loud.

Yeah, just how it that's what's so important about this. Yeah, and you know what? That's why we're doing this podcast, people. I mean just get emotional, actually. I love that. Yeah, we should listen to some of our but anyway. You know, that's why we're doing this podcast, people, you know, because we want to go back there. It's so fucking fun.

Cool. Um, I I wanted to bring back to David and the he was memorialized in the in a cartoon. Yes, he was.

Yeah, yes, in um, well, it was prior to his passing. Correct. But David was in an episode of Family Guys. Exactly. I'll have to in the future, I'll get it out there what the episode was. Or you know what? This is the editing thing.

Yeah, but yeah, um how you were saying how Chris Sheridan. Chris Sheridan like basically put David in as a character. I really was in it for about two seconds. Immortalized, basically. David is immortalized in car in cartoon. And that's really cool.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, awesome. Well, that was a lot of fun, guys. Great fucking list, and thank you out there all for listening. Um, we're I can't thank you enough for the downloads we're seeing. So we know some of you are out there where our email is pastimes at 80shigh at gmail.com, and that's 80s for the 80s there. And we're gonna get the website and social media going soon. But all of you boys, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Thanks, AJ. That was that was great, man. Kevin, thank you for hosting. Always a pleasure. Yes, and we are out.