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
Ahh, Doolittle. One of the greatest albums of all time. I’ve probably played it hundreds of times and never get bored. There may be no greater collection of two-minute bangers than this precursor to grunge. The Pixies were great not because they thrashed, wailed and screamed, although they did all those things. They were great because they would change tempos and the sonic demeanor of a song on a whim. They were the masters of quiet-loud-quiet dynamics, which made the thrashing, wailing and screaming that much more irresistable. “Gouge Away” is a case in point.
It really is hard to pick just one song from Doolittle, but “Gouge Away” gets the nod on today’s Mental Jukebox post because it was the album closer. It’s what made Doolittle finish on a high note. Everything on the track is extremely tactile. You can feel the pick on Joey Santiago’s guitar strums and hear the intonation crystal clear on Kim Deal’s bass lines. And, of course, there’s Black Francis – going from a small flicker of a flame to a bona fide three-alarm fire.
“Stay all day, if you want to.”