The last in the Time Life trilogy. 1986, that year renown for hair, rock, drugs, more hair, more stadia and yet more hair. With a bit of rock.
But lo! See the track list. Yet again our compiler has been at the stig bin in the bargain section of Woolworths once more and has managed to surpass the previous compilations with another atrocious selection.
Oh dear. It seems yesterday’s album featured some memorable songs. Today’s contains a similar selection of non-hits by bands you’ve heard of occasionally. Again, during the period 1985-1989 there were some really good songs and yet, once again, the compiler has managed to forage completely dull, non-entity tracks from their record collection. It kind of makes me think that the compiler worked in an all night garage.
With Talk Radio on.
CD1
01. Georgia Satellites – Open All Night
02. Gregg Allman – I’m No Angel
03. David Lee Roth – Tobacco Road
04. Jethro Tull – Farm On The Freeway
05. Robert Cray – Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
06. Status Quo – Burning Bridges
07. Bad Company – No Smoke Without Fire
08. Little Feat – Hate To Lose Your Lovin’
09. George Thorogood – You Talk Too Much
10. Doobie Brothers – Need A Little Taste Of Love
11. Hooters – Johnny B.
12. Steve Winwood – Split Decision
13. Fabulous Thunderbirds – Wrap It Up
14. ZZ Top – Sleeping Bag
15. Great White – Rock Me
CD2
01. Poison – Nothing But A Good Time
02. Billy Idol – Don’t Need A Gun
03. Pat Benatar – Sex As A Weapon
04. Foreigner – Say You Will
05. White Lion – When The Children Cry
06. Marillion – Incommunicado
07. Electric Light Orchestra – Calling America
08. The Stranglers – Always The Sun
09. Big Country – The Teacher
10. Europe – Superstitious
11. Pretenders – My Baby12. Lou Gramm – Just Between You And Me
13. Huey Lewis & The News – Hip To Be Square
14. Deacon Blue – Fergus Sings The Blues
15. Cinderella – Don’t Know What You’ve Got (’til It’s Gone)
The next three entries follow a similar pattern. That’s because the next three entries are very similar compilations. I could spare you the time but I’m cruel like that and I put the effort in to listen to these albums so it’s only fair.
The first in our trilogy of Classic Rock:198x – Time Life compilations is for the range 1984-1985, a glorious period in music, rich in a variety of hair, guitars and stadia. So it’s curious as to why the compiler chose the songs they did. I suspect that the compiler for Classic Rock: Symphonic Rock, which is also a Time Life compilation, worked on the same project.
Seriously that guy needs to broaden his music tastes.
I remember Ian Vickery saying to me that U2 were the best thing to come out of Ireland and that failure to like U2 meant unworthiness. Then some years later the same boy said that U2 were old hat and that the Waterboys were where it was at.
I seem to recall someone else telling me that to like U2 meant you supported the IRA. Personally, I just thought they were rubbish. Possibly because they were as prog as Spandau Ballet.
Things were messed up in the 80s.
This compilation has all the popular songs used as background music in gritty dramas about “the troubles” or films where there would be lots of Irish youth being all gritty and hard done to. They just make me think of dark nights travelling down Hillfoot Avenue in the back of my dad’s Ford Orion.