I struggled to get to 33 tracks on my 1983 playlist; for this one, I had difficulty cutting it off at 40. I could’ve easily put together an all-post-punk/new wave version with as many songs, or an all Brit edition or even an American Top 40 variety; I’m sure a solid American-indie representation of 1982’s out there somewhere, curated by a soul with more firsthand knowledge of it than myself.
What I’ve ended up with, naturally, is a blend of all of the above that still leans heavily towards post-punk/new wave because there’s just so goddamn much of it: The Cure entering their goth-pop phase with a newfound emphasis on the latter, The (English) Beat ever more sophisticated and expansive with “Save It For Later”, quirky one-offs like Haircut 100 and Wall of Voodoo claiming their moment in the sun, synth-pop now officially a chart-worthy thing, as witnessed by Yaz’s venerable ballad and Missing Persons’ El Lay take on the genre; even relative “veterans” like Sparks and Kate Bush bending their sounds and styles to fit into and, at least in Bush’s case redefine the genre.
There’s also a bunch of R&B/rock mutations: Grace Jones furthering the genre-splicing she perfected the previous year, Kid Creole and The Coconuts sharpening their bon vivant take on New Wave, Prince swaggering his way into the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and even Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, a black rock pioneer going unapologetically, disarmingly pop (with baroque trumpet solo, even!)
Predictably, I couldn’t ignore those mainstream hits that made an indelible impression on my seven-year-old brain. I’ve spared you such cheese as “Key Largo” and Taco’s “Puttin’ On The Ritz” but have made room for Bee Gees-produced Dionne Warwick (Gibb a much better Barry for her than Manilow), the smooth, hook-laden reassurance of the Alan Parsons Project, Stevie Wonder’s last great single, one of Paul McCartney’s best forgotten ones, and of course, “Goody Two Shoes”, Adam Ant’s only early 80s American top 40 hit (in this case, us Yanks chose the best, most endearing one.)
Despite the abundance of Brits represented, I’m more interested in that American-indie contingent I was far too young to know at the time. Some days, “Mesopotamia” is my favorite B-52’s song, riding texture and a groove unlike any of their other standards (Fred Schneider’s bolstering “Before I talk, I should READ a BOOK!” is just the icing on a multi-layered cake); other days, I hear “Wolves, Lower”, the opener from R.E.M.’s first EP Chronic Town and it’s as fresh and exciting and enigmatic as it ever was, even compared to all the era-defining things they’d make over the next decade.
My 1982 Playlist:
Haunted Jukebox 