I am not a big fan of American Idol. I am one of those people who watch the auditions just to see how bad people can be. However, if you watch American Idol, you know Randy Jackson, and may be surprised to learn that he played bass on two tracks for this album.

Frontiers was a big hit for Journey, and spawned 4 Top 40 songs.

• Separate Ways at #8
• Faithfully at #12
• After the Fall at #23
• Send Her My Love at #23

These 4 songs helped the album reach #2 on the Billboard chart, and to sell more than 6 million albums.

One of the reasons I like Frontiers, is that there is a lot more keyboard playing on it. Well, I also like it less for that same reason. I am a keyboardist, so I enjoy it when rock bands use more, but at the same time, bands that start using more keyboards than guitars soon stop being rock bands. The reason for more keyboards is that Jonathan Cain helped write a lot more music, and had a lot more influence than on previous albums.

Journey – Frontiers Track Listing

Side 1

1. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) MP3
2. Send Her My Love
3. Chain Reaction
4. After The Fall
5. Faithfully

Side 2

1. Edge of the Blade
2. Troubled Child
3. Back Talk
4. Frontiers
5. Rubicon

I included Separate Ways MP3 even though it’s probably way overplayed on the radio. It’s a good rock song, even with the keyboards, and it’s still a good example of Journey.

If you want to buy this album, you can find Journey – Frontiers album at Musicstack. You can also buy this album on Amazon.

Rush is one of those bands that dabbled in progressive music, but never fully became progressive, especially in their later years. This album, though, is considered to be an essential masterpiece of progressive music by ProgArchives.com.

Moving Pictures was one of Rush’s biggest successes, because (in my opinion) they started to drift from prog to more commercial and radio friendly music. In spite of this, Moving Pictures is still a great album. The album went quadruple platinum in January of 1995. It also went to #3 on the Billboard Pop Album charts.

Rush – Moving Pictures Track Listing

Side  One:

1. Tom Sawyer
2. Red Barchetta
3. YYZ
4. Limelight

Side Two:

1. The Camera Eye
2. Witch Hunt
3. Vital Signs

I know it may be cliche, but here is Tom Sawyer for your listening pleasure (you need Flash for this):

If you want to own Moving Pictures by Rush on vinyl, check out Musicstack. You can also find it at Amazon.

After not having much success, Paul Simon came out with Graceland, which he had recorded in South Africa using Black South African musicians (during apartheid). Because of this, there is a lot of local influence in the record, especially since Ladysmith Black Mambazo was a featured group on a few of the songs.

Also on the album were Linda Ronstadt, The Everly Brothers, Los Lobos (who later sued Simon for taking credit for the song “All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints” which they claim they wrote) and Ghanaian drummer Okyerema Asante.

I think this album is so good because it’s not just one style, Simon took artists of different styles and blended them together that you have to love. It might sound strange when you look at some of the other music I’ve talked about on here, but I do like Simon and Garfunkel, and I love this album.

One of my favorite songs is “You Can Call Me Al”, the music is great, but the video with Chevy Chase is even better.

Graceland Track Listing

Side 1

1. The Boy in the Bubble
2. Graceland
3. I Know What I Know
4. Gumboots
5. Diamonds of the Soles of Her Shoes

Side 2

1. You Can Call Me Al
2. Under African Skies
3. Homeless
4. Crazy Love Vol. II
5. That Was Your Mother
6. All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints

Bonus on the CD reissue

1. Homeless (Demo)
2. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Alternate Version)
3. All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints (Early Version)

Here is a sample of the album with Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo (you need Flash to play it).

You can buy Paul Simon – Graceland at Musicstack or at Vinyl on Amazon, or on CD, DVD or MP3 on Amazon.

Don’t Say No also went triple platinum, because in addition to The Stroke, there were also great songs like In the Dark, My Kinda Lover, and Lonely is the Night.

If you have Flash installed, you can listen to the MP3 of Lonely is the night.

This was Squier’s (you think it would be spelled Squire, but it isn’t) second album, and one of his most popular. The biggest reason for it’s success is the song The Stroke. It really isn’t what you think it is about. It’s about the recording industry, where record execs want another “stroke”, or hit song. They don’t really care about artists, just hit songs and money. The song is, however, an innuendo. You are supposed to see the parallel between what you think it’s about, and record companies.

You can buy this album on vinyl at Musicstack. You can also buy the CD or download it at Amazon.

My brothers and I all remember where we were when we first saw the Thriller video. It was in the basement at a friend of our parents house. They had cable and MTV (which my parents didn’t get until a few years ago).

Many people are buying albums by Michael Jackson, but some of you may want vinyl records. You can buy Michael Jackson vinyl records at Musicstack.

This album gets its name from the title track “Rain on the Scarecrow”, which is about farms that have been in families for generations that are being taken away. You can buy “Scarecrow” at Musicstack.

Of course, “Small Town” is the biggest and most well known (but didn’t chart the highest) track off of this album. It charted at #6 along with “Lonely Ol’ Night”. “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” hit #2 in the US Charts. The album itself also went to #2, was named #95 on Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Albums of the 80′s.

I love the second track, which is just Mellencamp’s grandma singing along with a guitar. When artists do that, it says to me that they care about the music, and family, and not about commercialized and packaged music.

One thing about this album, is that the labels are on the wrong side. Side one label is actually on side two and vice versa. If only that made it rare and worth about $25,000 I’d be set.

Some of these songs are more applicable to America today than they were twenty years ago. For example, the lyrics of “Face of the Nation” are so appropriate to what is happening in the US today.

Track Listing:

Side one:

1. Rain on the Scarecrow
2. Grandma’s Theme
3. Small Town (MP3)
4. Minutes to Memories
5. Lonely Ol’ Night
6. Face of the Nation

Side Two:

1. Justice and Independence ’85
2. Between a Laugh and a Tear
3. Rumbleseat
4. You’ve Got to Stand for Something
5. R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

The Completion Backward Principle is a pretty good example of 80′s New Wave, leaning towards pop, and it does have some good songs on it. It was the 6th studio album put out by the band, and it made it to #36 in 1981. The single, Talk To Ya Later went to #6 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. You can buy The Tubes at Musicstack.

This album is supposed to be a little stab at corporate America I believe. The back cover has all of the band members is suits, looking very professional and yuppie-ish, with important sounding jobs appointed to them. For example;

Bill Spooner – Analyst, Guitar, Vocals

Michael Cotton – Trend, Synthesizers

Fee Waybill – Motivation, Lead Vocals

Roger Steen – Development, Guitar, Vocals

Prairie Prince – Systems, Drums

Vince Welnick – Accounts, Keyboards, Vocals

Rick Anderson – Policy, Bass

Haven’t we all heard important sounding titles that really don’t mean anything?

The Completion Backwards Principle Track listing

Side One

1. Talk To Ya Later
2. Sushi Girl
3. Amnesia
4. Mr. Hate
5. Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman (mp3)

Side Two

1. Think About Me
2. A Matter Of Pride
3. Don’t Want To Wait Anymore
4. Power Tools
5. Let’s Make Some Noise

Overall, I don’t listen to this album very much. I really like The Tubes original and older stuff. It was much more experimental and almost on the verge of prog. This is a great album though, if you are into early new wave, and 80′s pop.

By the way, Fee Waybill has also appeared in the movies ‘Xanadu’ as a rock singer, a little known movie call ‘Ladies and Gentleman, the Stains’ as lead singer for the band The Metal Corpses, and also in ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ as one of the Three Most Important People in the World.

An Innocent Man had some great songs, such as “Uptown Girl”, “The Longest Time” (which I think was played by every radio station at every hour during the entire 1980′s), and “Tell Her About It”.

This is a must have album for every record collection, and you can get An Innocent Man, or anything else by Billy Joel at Musicstack.

An Innocent Man was Billy Joel’s 9th album released in 1983. This album went 7X platinum, spent 111 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and hit the #4 spot on the same list. That’s pretty impressive. It also had three #1 spots with “Tell Her About It” “The Longest Time” and “Leave a Tender Moment Alone”. Surprising to me is that “Uptown Girl” never hit #1. I thought it was one of the more popluar songs on the album, but it did go to #2.

Included in the track listing is an MP3 of Easy Money.

Track Listing:
Side One:

Side Two:

I also have Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Volume 1 & 2, although I’m not sure I really care to talk about compilation albums here. I’ll have to think about that.

Men at Work is one of those iconic bands with their single “Down Under”. I’m not sure I know anyone who would change the station if that came on the radio. Of course, if you are lucky enough to own the vinyl (like me), you can listen to it anytime you like. If you don’t own the vinyl, you can buy Men At Work, and more at Musicstack.

Released in 1982, Business As Usual spent 15 weeks at #1 on the US album charts. It also sold 6 million copies in America, and 15 million worldwide. It was knocked out of 1st place by none other than Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

I consider Men At Work to be sort of a minimalist type of music. There is not a lot of instrumentation, and the arrangements are very sparse, yet it’s very melodic and easy to listen to.

“Down Under” has become a patriotic song in Australia, and is named the 4th greatest Australian song of all time. It is also VH1′s 96th song on the 100 Greatest Songs of the Eighties.

The track listing is as follows;
Side One:

Side Two:

Re-Mastered Bonus Tracks:

Eliminator by ZZ Top is now at Diamond status for sales. It’s not surprising as this album rocks. There are great songs such as ‘Gimme All Your Lovin” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs”. You can buy this album by ZZ Top at Musicstack.

Eliminator is the 8th album by ZZ Top, and is #396 on Rolling Stones Greatest 500 Albums of All Time. Here is the track listing:

Side A

1. Gimme All Your Lovin’
2. Got Me Under Pressure
3. Sharp Dressed Man
4. I Need You Tonight
5. I Got the Six

Side B

1. Legs
2. Thug
3. TV Dinners
4. Dirty Dog
5. If I Could Only Flag Her Down
6. Bad Girl

Instead of an MP3 this post, I thought that I’d put up a video. So here is the video to ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin”;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSLa08J6rv4

Can I just say that the 80′s rock.

The car on the front of this album is actually Billy Gibbons (guitar, vocals) 1933 Ford 3 window hot rod, as seen in the video above. Many of his cars are featured on album covers and in videos. Oh, and a little known fact, ZZ Top made a puppet music video for Sesame Street for the letter Z.