This is a second list of the songs that I used to hear in ‘alternative’ clubs from 1988 to 1992. The shirt above is from the alternative club The Twilight Zone that was in Alameda California. You had to have a member card to get in because of the local laws and it was an all ages club. These songs were either played there, at The Edge in Palo Alto or at One Step Beyond in Santa Clara. The music was always very eclectic. Enjoy!
I went to my first ‘alterative’ club in early 1988 on my 17th birthday, and it was called One Step Beyond in Santa Clara California. For whatever reason their age limit was 17 and up instead of 18, and I had a friend that had a car so I know I was very lucky to get to experience this. My friend had graduated in 87 so I was the only teen from my high school that went. My mom was/is cool and never gave me a curfew and let me go.
What did I experience exactly? It was the tail end of new wave, so the older songs were still played regularly. Radio stations refused to play rap songs by certain artists like 2 Live Crew or NWA and alternative clubs such as One Step Beyond were among the only places that you could hear those bands being played. The American government was trying to get such bands banned for offensive lyrics so playing such music in a club setting was actually pretty forward thinking for the time.
Rather than me droning on and on I am going to be posting some songs that I vividly remember being played during that time at One Step Beyond, The Twilight Zone and The Edge. Each place had it’s own unique vibe. The Edge was close to Stanford University so it was where the wealthy students would go if they wanted to go slumming, but there was definitely a gaggle of weirdos that also went there. The Twilight Zone was in an old movie theatre lobby and had the best venue I have ever been to. It has sweeping staircases to a second level where you could look down on the dance-floor and it was all ages. Finally, One Step Beyond. It had the most diverse crowd out of the three. There were punkers, mods, skins, etc… and everybody pretty much got along.
These are in no sort of order and are songs that I heard during that time in the clubs. Notice how eclectic this list is? It’s why I loved these clubs. I think something was definitely lost when the goth nights started to pop up in the early 90’s and left a lot of this music behind.
Desireless – Voyage Voyage (1986)
Red Flag – If I Ever (1989)
Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike (1990)
A Flock Of Seagulls – Wishing (If I Had A Photograph) (1983)
Virgin Prunes – Pagan Love Song (1982)
2 Live Crew – Get It Girl (1987)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult- The Days Of Swine And Roses (1990)
Christian Death – Church Of No Return (1989)
Ofra Haza – Im Nin’Alu (1988)
Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam (1990)
Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself (1981)
Specimen – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1983)
Fake – Another Brick (1985)
Laid Back – White Horse (1983)
Blancmange – Living On The Ceiling (1982)
Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel – White Lines (Don’t Do It) (1983)
Before I begin I would like to state for the record that I know that Bono is an immense egomaniac and that the band hasn’t made a really good album since the 80’s. I only like their music up to and including this album so I am not one of those modern delusional U2 fans who think they can do no wrong.
I’m pretty sure I bought the cassette of this album in late 1985. It was before Joshua Tree was released and before I transferred high schools so it kind of had to have been that specific year. None of the friends that I had at that first high school liked them so I kind of got into them on my own. I remember hearing New Year’s Day on the radio a few years before and seeing that video on MTV as a young teen. By the time the song Pride, which is on this album, came out they were already on my radar and I decided to take the plunge and buy one of their albums. Thank you mom for giving me the money to buy this!
I can in no way overstate how important this album is to me, because it lead me into liking other bands. I remember reading somewhere about members of The Virgin Prunes growing up with the members of U2. So, I bought one of their albums and instantly got hooked. That in turn made me more open towards other ‘weirdo’ bands like Specimen. Also, I got into a lot of Irish post-punk bands, such as Blue In Heaven, that all had connections with one another or with U2.
So musically what makes this album so darn special? The entire album has a very haunting quality to it. There were hints of this on some of their earlier albums, such as New Year’s Day on War, but they went full force into it on this one. I think the pinnacle of this style on the album is the song The Unforgettable Fire. It’s my all time favourite U2 song and it still gives me major goosebumps.
I know that it’s really ‘in’ to hate all of U2’s work these days, which I think is a shame. Their first five albums are post-punk perfection. If it wasn’t for this album I wouldn’t be the mildly dramatic weirdo that I am today. It made me evolve my musical tastes and widen my horizons.
Anybody who knows me on social media knows that I really love A Flock Of Seagulls. I couldn’t buy their music when it originally came out because I was poor so I have been righting that wrong over the last few years by collecting their vinyl. With all of that said I really feel that A Flock Of Seagulls were way ahead of their time, both stylistically and musically. Especially with their obvious song and video homages to the sci-fi genre.
Their video featured above, (It’s Not Me)Talking, is perhaps one of the most original music videos to come out of the 80’s. A group of scientists detect a UFO coming in to land so they call the military. When the ship lands Mike Score, the singer of the band, comes out of the spaceship resplendent in his silver jumpsuit and coiffed hair. It’s like watching a very cool 1950’s black and white sci-fi film, which happens to be one of my favourite genres. On top of all of this the song is very cool, and doesn’t actually sound dated compared to a lot of the bands from around the same time.
Wishing (I Had A Photograph Of You) is a video that either takes place on a space station or spaceship. Mike Score walks around singing during much of it, looking very lonely and pensive. Of course he does, because if you were thousands of miles away from your significant other you would feel the same way. There is a scene in which he tries to create the image of a woman on a computer and a real photo pops out of the printer. So, you also get the added bonus of seeing a technology that has actually been realized. Neat!
In my opinion I Ran is one of their more ‘simple’ sci-fi themed videos. You’ve got lots of mirrors, reflective material and two women who look like they are dressed in literal black garbage bags walking around with their arms outstretched as if they are going to attack Mike Score. They are also wearing some very dramatic eye makeup which is done, I guess, to make them appear otherworldly. This was during a time in which dramatic makeup was seen as ‘other’ and not as common as it is these days. All of this actually makes sense when you realise that the song itself is about trying to run away from an alien invasion.
This video is the most simple out of the bunch. The title alone, Space Age Love Song, evokes a sort of wistful thinking as to falling in love in a sci-fi themed future. They are just performing on a stage with fog, lights, and what looks like an actual space rocket in the background. It’s one of their better songs, so the lyrics and music really set the tone for the video.
This one is definitely the strangest of the bunch. You have the band in a spaceship playing their instruments while dressed in silver clothes, as two spacemen bring a woman to some sort of tilted table that she proceeds to go to sleep on. Then there are clips of a small monkey making evil looking faces, who in the end is being held by this green alien figure that looks like one of those Easter Island statues. I’m not sure what I am supposed to think after watching this. Are space monkeys evil? Do green space aliens come from Easter Island? Are bands required to wear silver coloured costumes when they go into space? Yes, it’s a bit strange but I feel that is what makes it cool. It gives you the latitude to interpret it as you please.
I have a confession to make. Back until about April of 1990 I was a huge U2 fan. It was around that time that I finally couldn’t take Bono’s bullshit any longer and I totally stopped listening to them. I felt so betrayed by their obvious ‘sell out’ tactics that it took me almost thirty years to listen to their older albums again.
When I talk about early U2 I’m talking about their work up to the Wide Awake In America EP which was released in 1985. So anything past that I just flat out refuse to listen to. When Joshua Tree and Rattle And Hum both came out I initially enjoyed them, but something about them didn’t sit right with me at the time. I think it had to do with two main things; trendies who previously would make fun of me all of a sudden liked them and Bono’s ego started to take over the music of the band.
I started getting heavily into U2 around late 85/early 86. It was such a long time ago that I quite honestly can’t remember the exact year. I remember liking New Year’s Day a whole lot when I would watch MTV as a young teen, so I always knew they existed before I started really getting them. One of the things that drew me to them was the fact that they were involved with Amnesty International and seemed to give a damn about social issues. By 1990 all of that was gone, and the band members starting cheating on the wives, dating supermodels and just basically behaved as if their shit didn’t stink. They became a stereotypical example of a band, instead of rising above that kind of shit like they used to.
I realise that bands sometimes majorly change their sound, but the jump that U2 did was a step too far for me. Rather than the original dark post punk sound that they had going on all of their early 80’s albums they basically became a pop band playing really boring music. I know I’m not the only one who felt this way at the time because there were even articles all about how they lost a lot of their original fan base by the time they made Rattle And Hum.
What’s funny is that all of this really pisses off all of the current U2 fans who enjoy their newer albums. The band basically has two separate groups of fans; people who were around in the 80’s who love only their earlier output, and those who heavily support their newer incarnation. I’ve noticed on a lot of U2 album lists that many of the newer fans will list October as the worst U2 album. It’s actually my favorite U2 album because it is very dark and has a genuine heavy post-punk vibe to it. Actually, I think their earlier work all the way to The Unforgettable Fire are solidly post-punk albums that sound a whole lot more original that all of the wannabe post-punk bands around right now.
Did I get a lot of shit for liking them? I did get some flack from the other weirdos in my area, but U2 were actually considered to be an ‘alternative’ band at the time and not mainstream. They were only considered mainstream once Joshua Tree came out. I think some of the songs off of that album are ‘okay’ but they felt very pallid compared to their earlier songs. I actually made a DIY U2 themed denim jacket in high school, and even drew my own U2 back patch. That was my first ever DIY project and I even had some people ask me in high school if I could make the same back patch for them to use. I appreciated that people asked me but I didn’t want anybody having the same design as I had so I turned them down.
During this time U2 were definitely not the only band I listened to. I was also into OMD, Specimen, The Dead Kennedys, The Sex Pistols, 7 Seconds, Love & Rockets, Public Image Limited, Jesus And Mary Chain, etc…. I even went to see The Cure n 87 wearing that denim jacket and nobody gave me shit for it. I think it was more acceptable back then to be into wildly different sounding bands than it is today. These days youngsters want to be put in boxes without any outside influences, which I think is a damn shame. I saw U2 perform live twice in 87, and I’m grateful that I at least got to see them play a lot of their older songs, something which they didn’t do much of after that.
About a year ago I found myself going onto YouTube and listening to early U2. It brought back so many memories that I bought all of their CDs up to The Unforgettable Fire. I didn’t feel anger any longer because I came to the realization that it is perfectly alright to like only one era of a band that has been around for decades. I still own all of their 80’s single 45’s because they are in one of my mom’s closets, and I have searched for and bought some of their rarer earlier vinyl such as the War picture disc. The funny thing is that they are cheaper now than they were in the 80’s.
Does U2 suck now? Of course they do, but I love their earlier albums. I think, in some way, this would piss Bono off and that makes me happy.