Max Picks …songs from 1987

1987

I listened to the radio in 1987 a little more than in the previous 3 years or so. The albums that really got my attention were George Harrison’s Cloud Nine and the Replacements album that’s one of my favorites of the 1980s…Please To Meet Me… it was recorded in the Memphis studio where Big Star recorded. It was also the year of the Grateful Dead…a huge top-ten album and single.

Grateful Dead – Touch Of Grey

I knew of the Grateful Dead from an older brother of a friend I had. I had heard of them as a kid in the seventies before I actually heard them. I knew some of their songs and the Garcia song Sugaree. I always pictured this heavy tough metal band with a name like that. Whenever they toured they would draw a massive amount of fans despite having no top ten hits…until this song. After this song, they drew a larger amount of attention and fans.

When this came out in the 80s, it was like Deadmania. With MTV  suddenly everyone was talking about them. While big success is great it did cause some trouble at some of their concerts. Chilled-out Deadheads followed them around the country for decades. Some financed their travels by hawking food, T-shirts, and handicrafts…not to mention pot and LSD usually peacefully. Through the years more would add to the fold…some described it as a giant community more than a regular concert. In 1987 they suddenly had an influx of new young fans (Touchheads) and some didn’t know what the band was about. Along with them came some gate crashers and riots.

With the backing of the band, older Deadheads handed out flyers on how to act, trying to mellow out the newer crowd.

Robert Hunter started writing the lyrics to this song in 1980, and the Grateful Dead first performed it in 1982. They played it sporadically over the next few years and finally recorded it for their 1987 album In The Dark.

George Harrison – We We Was Fab

I loved this song when I heard it. To hear George sing about his time with The Beatles surprised me. Of all the Beatles George seemed to have the most resentment and some of it was understandable. A few years after this he would join the remaining Beatles and start on The Beatles Anthology. George wanted Paul to be in this video but Paul was tied up at the time. He asked George to put a left-handed bass player in the video with a walrus mask and tell everyone it was him.

George co-wrote the song with Jeff Lynne, who also co-produced the album that shortly pre-dates the two of them forming The Traveling Wilburys. ‘When We Was Fab’ is a musical nod to the psychedelic sound that the Beatles had made their own. George used a sitar, string quartet, and backward tape effects.

He also got some help from Ringo. Starr played drums on this track and a few others on the album. Harrison says that when he started writing the song, he had Ringo’s drumming in mind for the intro and the overall tempo

Replacements – Alex Chilton

The Replacement’s tribute song about Big Star and Box Tops lead singer, Alex Chilton. The song was off the album Please To Meet Me. One of my favorite bands of all time singing about a singer in one of my favorite bands. This would be my number 1 song of 1987.

The Replacements recorded Pleased To Meet Me in Memphis at Ardent Studios, the same studio as Big Star. The man behind the board was Jim Dickinson, who produced the storied third   Big Star album. Alex came into the studio a few times while the Replacements were working on the record (and laid down a guitar fill for “Can’t Hardly Wait”), but the band avoided the awkwardness of playing “Alex Chilton” whenever Chilton was around.

R.E.M. – It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

This song came off of the great Document album. With some REM songs, it takes a few listens for me but this one… the first time was enough to know I really liked it. It was recorded in the Sound Emporium in Nashville, Tennessee. The song peaked at #69 in 1988. The song was inspired by  Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan and you can tell.

Michael Stipe said: “The words come from everywhere. I’m extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life. There’s a part in ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs’ birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren’t L.B. So there was Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, Leonard Bernstein… So that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I’d seen when I was flipping TV channels. It’s a collection of streams of consciousness.”   

Los Lobos – La Bamba

This band had been around a long time before this song came out. They formed in 1973 and released their first album in 1978. They opened for bands such as The Clash and The Blasters so they got exposed to a lot of different audiences.

They recorded some Ritchie Valens covers for the movie La Bamba and their cover of the title track made them known internationally. The song was number 1 almost everywhere including the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

48 thoughts on “Max Picks …songs from 1987”

  1. Touch of Grey is a great track. That got a ton of play here on MuchMusic. When We Was Fab is another gem not only the song but the video to get Ringo was genius. I’m sure Macca was crying somewhere because he wasn’t included lol. Just listening to the Replacements tune. Good track like that garage sound with a great chorus. REM another great song and video to go with it. Los Lobos love those guys so happy I caught them here in town when they rolled through..respect for those dudes.

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    1. George asked Paul to be on there but he was tied up. It was a great year…for me it was about The Replacements album…I thought it plenty commercial enough to hit big time…and it should have.

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  2. Great choices, Max as I enjoyed all of these songs. Clive Davis tried to sign the Grateful Dead to Columbia in 1969 and again in 1972, but they told him they wanted to sell their records via a fleet of ice cream trucks. When Davis finally got them, he wanted the band to deliver a strong hit record, so he brought in producer Keith Olson, who had the band practice parts until they were nailed and as a result, the Dead were a tight by the time of the Spring 1977 tour. The Grateful Dead changed around some of the lyrics in their sing ‘Jack Straw; from, “We used to play for silver now we play for life” to “We used to play for silver now we play for Clive.”

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      2. That was the wrong album to look for a hit on…I love the suite they did on that though…. well Dancing in the Street was on there…I forgot.

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  3. Some interesting choices for this year and if I was to make a list myself we might converge on Los Lobos. They really nailed it on the song and it was a great movie. I look at “When We Was Fab” as a great documentary song and important for that reason. REM still holds up today as I suspect it always will.

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    1. That year I think it started…slowly but it started to turn more back to the older performers. When you have the Grateful Dead leading the way…you know it’s different. For me it was Please To Meet Me..to hear my favorite rock band sing about my favorite powerpop band…was really cool. Their record company wanted them to change “Alex Chilton” to someone more known lol.

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      2. Yes…and that sucks…he started off the bat in a huge successful band and then probably did his best work in the early seventies and it didn’t sell….but like The Velvet Underground….they did influence a generation of bands….ironically The Replacements are in the same class…just a generation later.

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      4. Bands like Cheap Trick learned from Big Star and bands like Nirvana from The Replacements…that doesn’t pay the bills though.
        The Replacements did a tour in the teens that made millions…so at least they got paid…Big Star really didn’t.

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  4. ’86, ’87 and ’88 – my ‘lost’ years for music as family was expanding and work commitments took over. This while living in Manchester during arguably the most vibrant and exciting time musically … ever! 😀

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  5. a good list, I certainly second ‘Touch of Grey’ being on there, love that song! And it was a gigantic surprise to see them with a BIG radio hit and MTV video after being a, what? cult?, band for two decades. Like you, I had heard about them or at least their name, since I was a small kid but didn’t hear anything by them for years and assumed they’d be a black Sabbath knockoff, loud heavy metal-ish group. It was good that they finally got some widespread acclaim, although with their dedicated fans, they were still doing fine before it I guess.

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    1. They did have plenty of fans…they didn’t always like the new fans…so they didn’t play this song on many nights…probably to weed them out. They just weren’t that kind of band. This group of new fans thought they were just a regular older band. Not all were like that though…some of the newer fans started to travel with them as well.
      1987 was a good year for music though. I really like all of these songs.

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  6. What a mixed bag of tunes in ’87! That was the beauty of the era, so many styles, so much creativity…
    Undoubtedly the top of the heap in this year for me was the Replacements. While “Tim” is still my favorite record of theirs, “Pleased…” was stellar too. It was also the first Replacements record I got on this newfangled thing called a CD!!

    I got to see REM when they toured this record at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, with The Three O’clock as the opening band. What a night!! The next time I saw REM they had graduated to Arena shows, and it just wasn’t the same…

    I was a fan of Los Lobos when they first came out, and while I was happy for their success with the cover song, I didn’t really care for it. Though honestly, I don’t really care for the original.

    And yes, you are spot on about the change at the Dead shows after their hit song. I had just started going to their shows in the summer of ’86, by the summer of ’88, the vibe was much different. Thankfully most of the dingbats moved on to other popular things, and the shows were a lot more fun in the mid-90’s!

    Thanks for the memories!

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    1. It’s great to talk to a Replacement Fan! I have them on many of these lists…and most people just skip over them because they didn’t know them.
      I do think Please to Meet Me was their one “commercial” album that should have hit…period. Yes Tim, Let It Be, and this one…what a 3 album span.
      I had just found out about Los Lobos at that time…I wish I would have known them earlier so the soundtrack did help more people to know them…great musicians.
      Thanks for commenting as always!

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      1. I was lucky to have a roommate that was a DJ at our local college Station – KSJS – who turned me on to a lot of music that was hot off the press back then, and the Replacements were one of his favorite bands. He somehow got his hands on the giant promotional poster from the record label for Pleased To Meet Me and had it hanging in his room the whole time we lived together. That band was a HUGE part of my early days… My only beef with them was they were horrible live. Well, the one and only time I got to see them, anyway. Young Fresh Fellows were the opening act, and they were bad, but the Replacements were worse. The guys were just hammered and the set was a sloppy mess. I wish I’d had the opportunity to give them another chance, cuz the records are phenomenal!

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      2. You know I’ve read where the same person would say….they were the best band they ever heard live…including the Stones and would also say they were drunk and the worse. No other band shot themselves in the foot like The Replacements did.
        Some of the record compaines A&R guys said they were the best rock band live there was…then…they brought their peers to see them….and if the Replacements knew they were there…they would be awful and whistle the Andy Griffith Theme song on and on.
        Some say that they were afraid of success….and I totally believe it.

        Remember the cartoon about the Frog who would only sing in front of the guy that found him? That is the Replacements.

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  7. I had mixed feelings about the success of “Touch of Grey”. No longer a secret, but they could finally make some money. When the Grateful Dead returned to live performance after Jerry Garcia’s near-death experience (diabetic coma), they opened with “Touch of Grey” at the Oakland Coliseum. When Garcia sang “I will survive”, we were glad to hear it. When they turned the lights on the crowd for “We will survive”, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.

    “When We Were Fab” sounds a lot like “I Am the Walrus”. I doubt that is an accident.

    While I certainly understand including “La Bamba” (sort of like “Touch of Grey” was for the Dead, and I love the transition from electric to acoustic), I don’t think it was Los Lobos’ best work of 1987. I consider “By the Light of the Moon” one of the best rock albums of all time. It is like listening to a short story collection. In a review I wrote years ago, I said “It is rock and roll literature; a serious contender for the best rock album of all time; it is an album, not just a bunch of songs thrown together, nor is it a pretentious “concept album”. In the days of trade guilds, a young journeyman put his heart and soul into one project to showcase all of his skills in order to advance from journeyman to master. This is that piece for Los Lobos and why they call it a masterpiece!”

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    1. I was going to say that yes…La Bamba had the same effect on them as Touch of Grey.
      I’ll check out that Los Lobos album…I remember it because a friend of mine had it back then…it’s been a long time since i heard it.

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    2. Agreed! They caught my ear with the previous record -How Will the Wolf Survive- but they solidified me as a fan with By The Light…
      I know they’re still out there playing live, but I’ve missed them every time they came around. One of these days the stars will align!!

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  9. I like Dav es comment of the Dead being a cult- that sums it up; you believed or you didn’t. R.E.M. and the Replacements, nothing to add other than one stepped up, the others bumped down the stage stairs. George and LL were all over the air that year, omnipresent.

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    1. George and Keith brought me back to mainstream radio for a while… but the Replacements…on this album I just knew it would be a commercial hit.

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      1. I remember hearing the occasional song that when you heard it first up and you swore ‘that is a smash pop hit.’ And were proved wrong. One that I said HAD to be was ‘Talking In Your Sleep’ the Romantics, and that didn’t quite bomb but didn’t set the house on fire either. That said, the smoky video was painfully bad- the lead singer looked as if he’d rather be in the lingerie.

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      2. Oh yes…I remember them and that song and their other minor hit “What I like About You”… that typical smoky, slight blurred 80s video.

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      4. To show you how my brain is broken today…I actually searched for WILAY…then…yep…it hit me. I did feel stupid! Not a foreign thought for me though.

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      5. ‘WILAY’ = LOL! Badfinger is more like Bad Brains today! Hope you’re feeling better though, I’ve just gotten over a cold myself, followed by two weeks of dry cough hacking- that constant desire to hawk up that last little irritating piece of lung that irritates the breathing tract, so I do sympathise. I’ve been doing a Rod Stewart impression speech-wise for the last week too. Or maybe Tom Waites, but I know I’m not able to sing soprano at the moment that’s for sure.

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      6. Well you know I work in IT…Monday I emailed…Max won’t be in today period. Tuesday…I thought well I’ll work from home…no that didn’t happen. I couldn’t retain anything…that is why I didn’t really do much on the blogs.
        Today I’m here…and there…and there but more here than the previous 2 days. Sinuses are so annoying… it’s like I’m in a fog.
        Badbrains…that fits! I know exactly what you mean by the breathing tract. Our neighbor just came over with a mixture of water, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon…mix it warm…she told me to kill it…so I did. I will say Obbverse…I can breath now!

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  11. “Alex Chilton!” I’m in love with that song!

    Retro-60s culture was really big during the late 80s when I was in high school meaning that a lot of the original music from the 60s and comebacks by 60s artists were getting a lot of attention. It’s kind of weird to look back on part of my childhood in the 80s that was based on nostalgia for a time from before I was born!

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    1. It’s a great song by them!
      You are right…it was a lot of garage bands around that had a sixties sound also. The Replacements had that rock thing going without sounding 80s…they had a timeless sound.

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  12. Great picks, Max! “Touch of Grey” is one of the most accessible songs by the Dead. Shockingly, I’m also in full agreement with you about George’s “When We Was Fab,” one of my favorites off the “Cloud Nine” album. I’ve been introduced to and come to like The Replacements largely because of you. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” must be one of the most cheerful-sounding songs about the destruction of humankind I know. I’m also glad Los Lobos had a hit with their rendition of “La Bamba”, though I will add they’ve also made plenty of original music that unfortunately is largely under the radar screen.

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    1. ” the most cheerful-sounding songs about the destruction of humankind”
      Christian…if you ever post that song…you must use that line!
      That Replacement song is probably their best known one…like I said…how could I dislike my favorite 80s rock band singing about my favorite power pop band.

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    1. I do like that one a lot…on this list my favorite would be Alex Chilton…the song that is…but I’m at 1990 right now as far as writing…and it gets hard!

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    1. Yep. Los Lobos (and David Lindley & El Rayo X) opened for the Dead at Laguna Seca in July 1988. My friend who went to high school with Los Lobos got us backstage passes. While the Dead played La Bamba, Los Lobos returned the favor by playing Bertha.

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  15. Excellent playlist. The Dead song is one of my favorites of theirs (I don’t know many, but of the ones I do.) Love the video that goes with it. Also the video for When We Was Fab. I remember you covering Alex Chilton and liking it. Of course I love the R.E.M. song, one of my favorite bands. I like the sound of Los Lobos (The Wolves.)

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    1. It was one of the good years I liked in the 80s…George and The Replacements for me were the two top ones. The next year has some really great ones.

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    1. lol… yea I got most of my rock from The Replacements back then and alternative channels…I have to say though…that year the charts were varied.

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