It’s time to get back to my favorite decade. For the month of March, I’ll be looking back at some of my favorite jams from the 80s. These songs often came to me via MTV or the radio. NYC-area stations WDRE, WPLJ, WNEW, K-ROCK and Z100 introduced me to everything from irresistible pop confections to under-the-radar post-punk anthems. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for the 80s. It was the decade when I discovered music can be a truly powerful thing. #31DaysOf80sSongs
For most of my life as a music fan, I really only cared about the final output and the individual elements that make a song amazing, like a perfectly executed backing vocal part or a simple, yet impactful bass line. But more recently I’ve become more curious about the songwriting process. The way lyrics and music come together is unique for each band, which makes the process that much more intriguing to think about. Sometimes the process is quite surgical: one bandmate writes a riff or melody and then hands it off to another bandmate who writes lyrics. Sometimes, it’s the other way around where the lyricist gets the words down first and then the one in charge of the melody takes it from there. There are also situations where members share the songwriting load. The Beatles might be most famous for this, where Lennon and McCartney co-wrote many of the songs, while also individually contributing songs along with Harrison and Starr. One of the more fascinating songwriting duos is Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, a partnership that I’ll examine further through one of the band’s early 80’s singles “Black Coffee In Bed”.
This is a post-breakup song inspired by a coffee stain on a notebook. Difford, as usual, started with the original song theme and lyrics. From there, Tilbrook took the words and modified them a bit to fit into a melody that was dancing in his head. While Difford originally envisioned “Black Coffee In Bed” having a country feel, Tilbrook had other ideas. The musical arrangement is where Squeeze took it to the next level. There’s nothing exceptionally noteworthy in terms of the instrumentation itself, but “Black Coffee In Bed” breaks out some stellar harmonies by two guest vocalists with distinct voices of their own: Elvis Costello and Paul Young. The result is a cool, Motown vibe and a songwriting gem that became a mainstay on MTV in the early 80s.
“The stain on my notebook remains all that's left of the memory of late nights and coffee in bed.”