We are entering the new decade. This is the year I became a teenager and I was looking forward to the 1980s. It started off terrible in December of 1980. John Lennon was murdered for no reason. As the decade went on my love for the top 40 practically vanished in around 84-85. This is the decade that I found alternative music like The Replacements and R.E.M. This is the decade of big hair, one glove, parachute pants, synths, and yes some good music came out of it.
John Lennon – (Just Like) Starting Over. Great song but every time I hear it…it’s December 1980 again and I’m watching news stories about Lennon’s death. Double Fantasy was a strong comeback album for John…a little more Yoko than I would have liked but a good album all the same. John would have been 83 if he would have lived.
When it was released Ringo had said John Lennon sounds like Elvis at the beginning of this song…then he said no…he doesn’t sound like Elvis…he IS Elvis. John Lennon himself said: “All through the taping of ‘Starting Over,’ I was calling what I was doing ‘Elvis Orbison.’ It’s like Dylan doing Nashville Skyline, except I don’t have any Nashville, being from Liverpool. So I go back to the records I know – Elvis and Roy Orbison and Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis.”
ACDC – Back In Black -The album Back In Black was very popular. I think it was a requirement for every teenage boy to own a copy or two all over the world.
The rock band I was in my Sophomore year in high school played this song in our first gig in the school theater. We had the only singer around who could actually sing it. The riff to the song is one of the more memorable ones in rock.
This was the first AC/DC single and album featuring new lead singer Brian Johnson. He replaced Bon Scott, who died on February 19, 1980, after a drinking binge. Scott’s father made it clear to the band that they should find a new singer and keep going.
Bruce Springsteen released The River this year. The title track of the album is one of the most depressing but best songs ever…the reason is because it’s so true.
Bruce saves the best for last though. He is talking about the dreams we have when we are younger about what we are going to do in life until life wakes us up with a bang…at least that is what I interrupt.
Now those memories come back to haunt me They haunt me like a curse Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true Or is it something worse
Queen – Another One Bites The Dust – Supposedly Steve McQueen is Steve in the opening lyrics. Steve died the year this was released on November 7, 1980. You couldn’t go anywhere in 1980 without hearing someone sing, whistle, or hum this song. I remember the high school band did a version of it. Queen released The Game in 1980 and it was huge here.
Brian May: “Freddie sung until his throat bled on Another One Bites The Dust. He was so into it. He wanted to make that song something special.”
Motorhead – Ace Of Spades. I’m not a huge Motorhead fan and it’s a bit harder music than I usually listen to… but I do like this song. I also like any interview of Lemmy I’ve ever listened to. After playing this for years, Lemmy admitted he was sick of the song, but said he kept it in the setlist because, “If I went to a Little Richard concert, I’d expect to hear Long Tall Sally.”
“Steve walks warily down the street…with the brim pulled way down low. Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet…machine guns ready to go.”
Supposedly Steve McQueen is Steve in the opening lyrics. Steve died the year this was released on November 7, 1980.
You couldn’t go anywhere in 1980 without hearing someone sing, whistle, or hum this song. I remember the high school band did a version of it.
Brian May: “Freddie sung until his throat bled on Another One Bites The Dust. He was so into it. He wanted to make that song something special.”
The song peaked at #1 in 1980 in the Billboard 100. It was on the album The Game…which also peaked at #1 in 1980. While the band and producer Reinhold Mack were mixing the track, Brian May’s roadie suggested it be released as a single; the band didn’t like the idea but were finally talked into doing it when Michael Jackson, after a concert, suggested the same idea.
From Songfacts
This is one of the hardest Queen songs to understand. The opening line reads, “Steve walks warily down the street, his brim pulled way down low. Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet, machine gun ready to go…” Also, the last phrase spoken in the song is not “Shoot Her” or “Shooter,” but “Shoot Out.”
Though probably not intentional unless someone did an excellent splicing job, the “another one bites the dust” line quite clearly says “decide to smoke marijuana” when played backwards. This is especially clear toward the end of the track when Mercury repeats the line with only the drums playing.
Queen bass player John Deacon wrote this song. All four members of Queen wrote songs, and each wrote at least one hit. Deacon also wrote “You’re My Best Friend.”
Deacon was influenced by the Chic song Good Times. In an interview with the New Musical Express, Chic bass player Bernard Edwards said: “Well, that Queen record came about because that bass player spent some time hanging out with us at our studio. But that’s OK. What isn’t OK is that the press started saying that we had ripped them off! Can you believe that? ‘Good Times’ came out more than a year before, but it was inconceivable to these people that black musicians could possibly be innovative like that. It was just these dumb disco guys ripping off this rock ‘n’ roll song.”
Deacon played most of the instruments on the track: lead and rhythm guitars, bass, reversed piano and additional percussion. Brian May did some guitar effects with harmonizer (in the interlude), and Roger Taylor played the drum loop. Surprisingly, there are no synthesizers.
The drum track and the handclaps were looped. They repeat throughout the song.
John Deacon claimed in a 1980 interview that Roger Taylor opposed the song’s drumbeat. This is backed up by the comments of several figures in the Days of our Lives documentary, who noted that Taylor hated having tape put on his drums to deaden the sound.
However, the drummer denied this in an interview with Mojo magazine in October 2008. He insisted: “I’d already had an ineffectual pop at that kind of music with ‘Fun It,’ on the Jazz album. I was never against ‘Another One Bites The Dust,’ but I was against releasing it as a single.”
In 1998, this was used in a commercial for AIWA sound systems. In the ad, a guy drives around with this blaring from his car stereo. At the end of the commercial, we realize he is driving a hearse.
During the production of the movie Rocky III, this was used in a key scene where Rocky is training for a fight. Producers could not get permission to use the song, so Sylvester Stallone hired Survivor to write an original song instead, which turned out to be “Eye Of The Tiger.”
Queen were originally reluctant to release this as a single, but backstage after a Queen gig at the Los Angeles forum, a visiting Michael Jackson convinced them it would be a hit. “Michael and all his brothers were all going, ‘That’s a fantastic track. You must release it,'” recalled Queen drummer Roger Taylor to Q magazine December 2009.
This meeting lead to several recordings and collaborations between Freddie Mercury and Jackson, all of which remain unreleased.
Weird Al Yankovic got his first chart placing with his parody of this song: “Another One Rides The Bus.” It bubbled under on the Hot 100, placing at #104 in 1981. After a few more minor hits, he landed “Eat It” at #12 in 1984.
This was the single that really broke the band in America, and it garnered a huge following amongst American disco audiences, with many fans and journalists convinced it was a black man singing lead vocals (these people obviously hadn’t heard of Queen before so didn’t know what Freddie looked like). The band occasionally were unsure of how to deal with this – Roger Taylor jokes in the Days of our Lives documentary of having fans shouting “you guys are bad!” in the street, and he had to ask “does that mean good or what?”
This was used in a 2016 commercial for the Hyundai Genesis that first aired on the Super Bowl. In the spot, Kevin Hart uses the Car Finder app to track down the guy who is using it to take his daughter on a date. After tormenting her suitor, Hart says, “A dad’s gotta do what a dad’s gotta do.”
Another One Bites The Dust
Oh, let’s go
Steve walks warily down the street With the brim pulled way down low Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet, Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat? Out of the doorway the bullets rip To the sound of the beat
Another one bites the dust Another one bites the dust And another one gone, and another one gone Another one bites the dust Hey, I’m gonna get you, too Another one bites the dust
How do you think I’m going to get along Without you when you’re gone? You took me for everything that I had And kicked me out on my own
Are you happy, are you satisfied? How long can you stand the heat? Out of the doorway the bullets rip To the sound of the beat
Another one bites the dust Another one bites the dust And another one gone, and another one gone Another one bites the dust Hey, I’m gonna get you, too Another one bites the dust
Hey Oh take it Bite the dust Bite the dust Hey Another one bites the dust Another one bites the dust oww Another one bites the dust hey hey Another one bites the dust eh eh
Oh shooter There are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man And bring him to the ground You can beat him, you can cheat him You can treat him bad and leave him when he’s down
But I’m ready, yes, I’m ready for you I’m standing on my own two feet Out of the doorway the bullets rip Repeating to the sound of the beat oh yeah
Another one bites the dust Another one bites the dust And another one gone, and another one gone Another one bites the dust Hey, I’m gonna get you, too Another one bites the dust
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