Rooster_Ties

Couple reasonably good Duran Duran spin-offs, for anyone open to that sort of thing... Arcadia's "So Red the Rose" from 1985, with Dave Gilmour, Sting, and Herbie Hancock guesting on one track each. And The Power Station, also from 1985, with Robert Palmer on lead vocals.

That may be, but "folks love them".

Just this afternoon I talked to a local friend of mine (Joe K., who our own Free For All knows too), and he said he had heard one cut from "Passing Ships" on a local jazz show on a public/community radio station here in Kansas City, sometime last week. He said the tune was called "The Brown Queen", and featured a fairly amazing Woody Shaw solo. The tune was in 3/4. I pumped him for more information, but that's all he could remember. Only 4 days, 9 hours, and 39 minutes left to wait....

I like "Life" (and my name's not Mikey!!! ) But seriously, I think "Life" is a pretty good Neil Young album. Maybe not a 4 or 5 star album, but not any less than 3 stars (and personally I'd probably give it 3.5 stars). Well worth picking up if you find it used for cheap. (And if you like "Landing on Water", then you'll probably also like "Life". I like 'em both.)

This was kind of a side project, and kind of not one too. I can't remember the details of how this album came to be, but Eberhard Schoener's LP "Video Magic" from 1981 features the complete line-up of The Police as the backing band (Sting, Summers, and Copeland - all three), with Sting performing all the lead vocals. Not exactly a "lost" Police album, but kinda close (at times), and well worth checking out, for established Police fans.

Me too. Lucky you - I usually get four copies!!!

Me too. Lucky you - I usually get four copies!!!

Me too. Lucky you - I usually get four copies!!!

Me too. Lucky you - I usually get four copies!!!

Wow, I have lots to respond to (since my last post in this thread), but let me start here... Man, "Landing On Water" is (oddly enough) one of my favorite Neil Young albums. I know, I'm weird (I've been accused of this for many reasons), but there's something about Young's synth-heavy albums that really works for me. I know, I'm in the minority on this, but even "Trans" is a winner in my book. (OK, not every track on "Trans", equally so. But half of "Trans" is really cool -- again, at least in my book it is.) PS: What I really like, even more than "Landing On Water" or "Trans" are some live recordings I have of Neil, from about 1986 - featuring some of that material performed live, with Neil singing through the 'vocoder', even on a few of his earlier tunes too, if I remember right. The live recordings are a little more successful, IMHO, than the studio versions (particularly the "Trans" material), but it's all good to me. I don't say that Neil in the 80's is his very best work, but I certainly like it - in my own weird way.

Indeed, but I'm really glad you said that the results "varied", because sometimes the results were interesting. Maybe not as good, but occasionally (or even more than occasionally), artists have been able to embrace change (often influenced by the then 'current' winds of change), and create something really unique. I suspect that most of the suggestions that come out of this thread will be exambles of various artists' work that show them not at the top of their game. No one will probably ever argue that the Rolling Stones, or Jethro Tull's best sides were when they "went comercial" in the early 80's (or worse, some might say, when they "sold out"). Still, in some cases, I can't help but think that there might be something interesting to be found when there is a clash of styles, resulting in some weird hybrid that is clearly a product of a certain place and time.

By "reaction to the New Wave", I meant (for better or worse) rock bands embracing some of the same things that New Wavers were doing at the time, synths and like, and probably some drum machines too. And now (by this point in the thread), I realize probably shouldn't have used the term "New Wave", since it really means quite a large range of things, and can easily mean different things to different people. The best examples of what I'm trying to get at are Yes's "90125" and probably some Rush from the early 80's. And probably Robert Plant's more upbeat ('mod') output from the early 80's (although I haven't heard any of it in years, so I'm going from memory). And like somebody else said earlier, the aesthetic of The Police's last three (or maybe four) albums -- when they got less 'punkier', for lack of a better description. Maybe also some of Jethro Tull's early 80's output???? (Which I also haven't heard in years, or ever - for that matter.)

I guess, In general, when I say "New Wave" influence, I really just mean to suggest that (some) Rock Music became much less "Rock" oriented, and (often) introduced some synths into their mix, and (perhaps) became more "Pop" oriented (at times). Jimmy Page's "The Firm" is a good example, or at least their tune "Radioactive" probably is. Certainly not "New Wave" exactly (strictly speaking), but also definitely not "Led Zep II" either. (Nor is it really "Led Zep" meets "Bad Co" either.) Same thing could be said for several of Robert Plant's first few solo albums. I can't name tunes specifically, but I do know that what I remember hearing on the radio was definitely an evolved sound that was reacting to other stuff in the air around that time. Again, "New Wave" is not precisely the only aesthetic I'm looking for, but rather just the updated response of "Rock" music to general early 80's developments, including synthesizers and drum machines, and what many would describe as being "less human" musical textures. I'm game for changing the title of this thread again, to clarify a bit more... EDIT: OK, I dropped "New Wave" from the title of this thread, cuz it just confuses the issue.

I both like and dislike Waters' solo stuff. I mean, there are aspects of it that I really like (when I'm in the mood), but most of the time I have little interest in Waters' solo work. Hard to explain. On a related note, Waters' did half of the soundtrack to an animated movie called "When The Wind Blows". The whole of side 2 of that record is a suite of music by Waters (with vocals mostly, but a couple instrumentals), that easily rivals the best of "Pros and Cons..." or "Radio Waves".

Was on the fence about including it, but I guess Pete's solo work is certainly to be discussed here, even if it is far better known than maybe some of the other things some people have brought up. I really rather like "White City", and in some ways I consider it a companion work to David Gilmour's "About Face". Gilmour plays guitar on all (or most) of "White City" and Gilmour co-wrote at least one of the tunes ("White City Fighting"). And Pete wrote (or co-wrote) two of the tunes on Gilmour's "About Face" ("Love on the Air" and "All Lovers Are Deranged"). And the two albums were recorded within a year of each other.

I haven't heard this in many, many years -- but seem to remember having a roommate that used to have this on tape. Roger Hodgson - "In the Eye of The Storm", from 1984. Hodgson was half of Supertramp (he was the higher of the two voices), and you might remember the tune "Had a Dream [sleeping with the Eneny]" which got some airplay, if I remember right. Now was there any "New Wave" influence????? I haven't heard the album in so long, I can't remember. Yes???? No???? Maybe????

I haven't heard this in many, many years -- but seem to remember having a roommate that used to have this on tape. Roger Hodgson - "In the Eye of The Storm", from 1984. Hodgson was half of Supertramp (he was the higher of the two voices), and you might remember the tune "Had a Dream [sleeping with the Eneny]" which got some airplay, if I remember right. The AMG review is quite favorable, and says that Hodgson played nearly all the instruments on this album himself - which I think is impressive. (Ben Folds did the same thing on a recent album of his.)

Both of these are pretty good too, IMHO... And one could easily argue that these were solo projects as well... (And if I was fanatical about how I sorted my CD's, I would most certainly include "The Final Cut" in the solo Waters section, and "Momentary Lapse..." in the David Gilmour section.)

Could be. I'm not really much of a Stones nut, but for some reason - "Talk Is Cheap" really took hold of me when it first came out. I didn't care quite as much for Keith's 2nd solo album, "Main Offender" (from 1992), but I thought Keith's one live release, "Live at the Hollywood Palladium (Dec. 15, 1988)" was pretty darn good.

Jeff Lynne - "Armchair Theatre", from 1990. A good (but probably not 'great') album. Back in the early 90's, I used to spin this fairly often, although I don't nearly as much now. (Something about Lynne's production techniques that I've grown to like less and less over the years.) Still, well worth getting if you see in used in a bargain bin for $3 (which I have seen quite frequently), and have any interest at all.

And perhaps one of the very best side-projects of all... XTC's side band/project under the name The Dukes of Stratosphear, which released one EP and one full album, which have both been combined on one CD: Chips from the Chocolate Fireball. Frankly, as much as I love XTC (and I do really like XTC quite a lot!!!), I think I like The Duke's output as much as anything in the entire XTC catgalog. Yes, it's in print. Sound samples are HERE.

Only 4 days, 19 hours, and 41 minutes more left to wait!!!! ...but who's counting.

OK, over the years I think I've seen tons and tons of records and CD's by all kinds of bands (from the 60's through today), but sometimes the solo projects and/or side projects slip through the cracks, especially if they aren't filed alphabetically with the rest of a band's output. Many worthy releases I'm sure I'm not even aware of. I'll mention a couple that I think are obvious (at least the 2nd one is), but perhaps not known to everyone here... Justin Hayward & John Lodge (of "The Moody Blues") on an album called "Blue Jays, from 1975. I'm no longer very much into the Moody Blues, but when I was - I used to think this was every bit as great an album as anything the Moody Blues ever recorded. It has been released on CD, and appears to still be in print. Keith Richards - "Talk Is Cheap" from 1988. A fantastic album that grooves quite deeply, featuring Sarah Dash on vocals on several tracks (with Keith on vocals on every track), along with a whole bunch of other greats like Bootsy Collins, The Memphis Horns, Mick Taylor, Johnnie Johnson, Bernie Worrell, Ivan Neville, and Maceo Parker. A 5-star album in my book (and I'm no Stones fanatic either).

Didn't the Rolling Stones react to New Wave too, at least a little bit??? I've never heard "Undercover" from 1983, but I know the tune "Undercover of the Night" from it, and perhaps one or two others from the radio (with titles that I'm not familiar with). Part of the AMG review of "Undercover" says: "As their most ambitious album since Some Girls, Undercover is a weird, wild mix of hard rock, new wave pop, reggae, dub and soul." Perhaps "Dirty Work" from 1986 as well, which I used to have at the time, but haven't heard in years.