Chapter 69: We Got the Beat (May - December 1981)

15 May 1981

The Clash - Sandinista!

Released: 15 May 1981

Recorded: February - August 1980

Producer: The Clash and Mikey Dread

Track listing[1]

Side A

The Magnificent Seven

Police on My Back

The Leader

Charlie Don't Surf

The Call Up

Somebody Got Murdered

Side B

Rebel Waltz

Let's Go Crazy

Junkie Slip

Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)

Washington Bullets

Broadway

The Clash's fifth album, Sandinista!, was the sister album to last year's Something About England, recorded during the same sessions as the 1980 album. In contrast to England's wildly experimental tone and various guest musicians, Sandinista! was seen as a bit more traditional. It topped out at #3 in the United Kingdom and #5 in the United States and was preceded on 10 April with "The Call Up"/"Stop the World" (#33 UK). The follow-up single, "The Magnificent Seven"/"Radio One" (#20 UK, #17 US), was released 19 June. The only other release by the Clash in 1981 was the non-album single "This is Radio Clash"/"Radio Clash" (#38 UK, #14 US), released 20 November. At the moment, they were working on their sixth studio album, due for release next year.

10 July 1981

Electric Light Orchestra - Time

Released: 10 July 1981

Recorded: Early 1981

Producer: Jeff Lynne

Track listing[2]

Side A

Twilight (Prologue)

Yours Truly, 2095

Ticket to the Moon

When Time Stood Still

The Way Life's Meant to Be

Julie Don't Live Here

Another Heart Breaks

Side B

Rain is Falling

From the End of the World

Lights Go Down

Here is the News

21st Century Man

Hold on Tight

The Bouncer (Epilogue)

The Electric Light Orchestra's first official studio album of the 1980s centered around a man from 1981 who finds himself in the year 2095 where he is confronted by the dichotomy between advanced technology and longing for a long dead romance. Time briefly hit #1 in the United Kingdom for two weeks in the midst of the Beatles' big reunion with Quadruple Fantasy, while in the United States, it topped out at #10. Reviews ranged from mixed to positive.

Unlike ELO's usual orchestral sound, Jeff Lynne chose to focus on electronics, hence the use of synthesizers to give the album a futuristic sound. It became the second album to not involve Mik Kaminski (violin), Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale (cello), all of whom had not partaken on Discovery or the songs featured in Xanadu. The core for ELO had now been reduced to Lynne himself, drummer Bev Bevan, pianist Richard Tandy and bassist Kelly Groucutt, although Mik Kaminski would rejoin for the tour supporting Time, lasting from September 1981 to March 1982.

Summary of single releases from Electric Light Orchestra's Time

• "Hold On Tight" / "When Time Stood Still" - 17 July 1981 (#2 UK, #4 US)
• "Twilight" / "Julie Don't Live Here" - 10 October 1981 (#9 UK, #15 US)
• "Ticket to the Moon" / "Here Is the News" - 11 December 1981 (#17 UK)
• "Rain Is Falling" / "The Way Life's Meant to Be" - 15 January 1982 (#86 US)

August 28, 1981

Elizabeth Peña, the first actress to portray Wonder Woman on the big screen, 1980s. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1982.

Following the success of the first Superman movie directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve as the titular hero, plans were being made to produce other films starring other DC superheroes under a single banner that would be labeled by fans the Appleverse. A film featuring John Travolta as Batman and directed by Martin Scorsese was intended to become the third entry, but due to various rewriting going around along with work on a planned sequel, Wonder Woman - starring Elizabeth Peña as the titular heroine, Raquel Welch as her mother Hippolyta, John Schneider (The Dukes of Hazzard) as love interest Steve Trevor, and for the villains, Sigourney Weaver (Alien) as Baroness Paula von Gunther and Ian McKellen as Ares, god of war - ended up becoming the third entry in the Appleverse instead, and was released to critical acclaim. Wonder Woman was directed by Ivan Reitman and the script was co-written with Tom Mankiewicz[3], with the score by James Newton Howard. Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" also played during the end credits.

Set in the early to mid-1940s, during World War II, United States army pilot Steve Trevor lands himself in Paradise Island[4], a segregated land of women, and meets one of its residents, Diana, the daughter of Queen Hippolyta. After explaining that the world of man is under war, Steve brings Diana to the world outside of Paradise Island, the latter believing that the god of war Ares is responsible for the cause of the war. Along the way, Diana encounters Baroness Paula von Gunther, a cold-blooded Nazi spy for Hitler, who pretends to ally with her and Steve so she can kill them; unknown to everyone, however, she is a pawn in Ares' game to exterminate Diana, who is later revealed to be the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta. In the end, the Baroness and Ares are killed, and the war comes to an end following the collapse of Nazi Germany. In the present day (1980, according to the film), Diana reunites with an elderly Steve Trevor, and they see a bat-shaped signal in the sky, with Diana going off to see what it could mean.

November 10, 1981

Kiss - Music from "The Elder"

Released: November 10, 1981

Recorded: March - September 1981

Producer: Bob Ezrin

Track listing[5]

Side A

Fanfare

Just a Boy

Odyssey

Only You

Under the Rose

Dark Light

Side B

A World Without Heroes

The Oath

Mr. Blackwell

Escape from the Island

I (Finale)

Things had changed drastically for Kiss at the turn of the decade. Their 1979 album Dynasty sold fairly well, backed by the hit single "I Was Made for Lovin' You", although their 1980 follow-up, Unmasked, did not do as well commercially or critically. For Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Eric Carr (Peter Criss, the original drummer, had left the band in May with Carr taking over three months later), this next album would either salvage Kiss as a commercial force, or they would implode on themselves.

ACE FREHLEY: "It was an in-between; Kiss didn't really fall apart, but they didn't quite bounce back either. Peter had left, Eric came in, and Paul and Gene had taken over the band by that point. I felt like a man out of place by that point." (1996)

Music from "The Elder" was a concept album, fronted mainly by Stanley and Simmons, and there were hopes that it'd bring the band back to their roots. Bringing in producer Bob Ezrin, having co-produced Roger Waters' The Wall the year prior, they also included medieval horns, strings, harps and synthesizers, making it sound more like progressive rock rather than hard rock. Frehley was constantly frustrated during the sessions, feeling that his voice (and guitar) wasn't being heard during voting decisions.

The lineup for Kiss, 1981. Eric Carr replaced Peter Criss, going by the persona, The Fox. He would remain the band's drummer from that point on, save for reunions with Criss in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The story of "The Elder" was that a young boy had been recruited by the Council of Elders belonging to the Order of the Rose, an unknown group whose main goal was to combat evil. Elderly caretaker Morpheus guides the boy on his journey, whose feelings are described in the album's lyrics, overcoming his initial doubts and finally getting ready to undertake his odyssey. Spoken dialogue was included in between the songs to provide exposition and further clarify the story.

GENE SIMMONS: "People were pretty divided about "The Elder"; some loved it, some hated it, and some were very mixed, feeling like it wasn't any better or worse than Unmasked." (2011)

Music from "The Elder" peaked out at #75 in the United States compared to Unmasked's #35, while in the United Kingdom, the former reached #51. Critical reaction was overall divisive, and the album's sole lead single released November 17, "A World Without Heroes" (#55 UK, #56 US), got lost in the crowd. By the end of February 1982, Music from "The Elder" was all but forgotten about, and Ace Frehley, arguably the most beloved member of Kiss, would leave following the release of next year's Creatures of the Night, leaving half of the founding lineup intact. In Ace's place was Vinnie Vincent, formerly of Black Satin and the Hitchhikers, who had partaken in the recording of Creatures of the Night. Once again, personality clashes would rise between the members...

18 December 1981

Lindsey Buckingham - Tusk

Released: 18 December 1981

Recorded: Winter 1980 - Summer 1981

Producer: Lindsey Buckingham, Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat

Track listing[6]

Side A

Suma's Walk

The Ledge

Save Me a Place

What Makes You Think You're the One

Book of Love

That's All for Everyone

Not That Funny

Side B

Empire State

That's Enough for Me

Oh Diane

I Know I'm Not Wrong

Goodbye Angel

Tusk

Eyes of the World

Throughout the winter of 1980 all the way up to the summer of 1981, Lindsey Buckingham was kept incredibly busy following his isolation from Fleetwood Mac. In fact, with producer Richard Dashut, he had recorded enough material for a double album, but it was decided to release two individual albums instead.

The first of these, Tusk, consisted of Buckingham's material from the failed 1979 Fleetwood Mac album as well as new material. Tusk reached #3 in the United Kingdom and #8 in the United States and received positive reviews. The title track was released as a single with "Not That Funny" (#6 UK, #8 US) in November 1981, while the following single, "Oh Diane" / "Teen Beat" (#9 UK, #35 US), would come out in February 1982.

The follow-up album, Law and Order, while recorded during the same sessions, would be released in November 1982.[7] In between solo album releases, Buckingham would find himself mending fences with his former bandmates.

Footnotes

1. All tracks are sourced from OTL's Sandinista!.
2. All tracks are sourced from OTL's Time. In addition, the track listing is based upon the original double album track listing, although "When Time Stood Still" and "The Way Life's Meant to Be" have swapped positions, and "The Bouncer" is moved towards the end, being combined with "Epilogue". Likewise, "Prologue" and "Twilight" are combined into a single track. "Sad Affair" and "Time Transporter" currently remain unreleased.
3. In OTL, Ivan Reitman was attached to direct a Batman film written by Tom Mankiewicz, starring Bill Murray as Batman, David Niven as Alfred, William Holden as Commissioner Gordon, and David Bowie as the Joker. Reitman later left the project following the deaths of Holden and Niven as well as various rewrites to the script; Joe Dante then entered the project, but the film was cancelled altogether. In the mid-1990s, Reitman was attached to direct a Wonder Woman film, but that too never saw the light of day.
4. Paradise Island (sometimes called the Amazon Isles) was the original name to Themyscira, Wonder Woman's home island. The current name of Themyscira was given in the first issue of Wonder Woman Vol. 2 in February 1987, and it originated from an ancient Greek town in northeastern Anatolia. According to Greek mythology, it was the capital city for the Amazons.
5. The track listing is based upon the intended order; when Music from "The Elder" was first released, the order was rearranged so both sides would start with the songs that Casablanca Records wanted to be singles, explaining why the story on the American edition made no sense. The 1997 reinstates the songs in the proper order.
6. Tracks are sourced from The Alternate Tusk and outtakes and early versions from Mirage.
7. In OTL, Lindsey Buckingham's Law and Order was released on October 3, 1981, the month before Fleetwood Mac started recording for Mirage.

Author's Comments

Man, this chapter took longer to write up than I was expecting; the stories for Something About England, Time and Tusk both came out fine (although the album cover to the latter did leave a bit to be desired; then again, I've made far worse), but it was the Kiss and Wonder Woman parts of this chapter that kept it from being finished earlier. I had little to no idea what to do with either of them, the latter more so as coming up with fictional movies and their plotlines, cast and crews is difficult, as I soon found out. I wanted to utilize actors who were well known or just starting out during that time, just to keep things as authentic as possible. Hopefully it all came out okay.

I promise that the next chapter will be better and won't come off as a bit half-baked, especially since it'll be the 70th of the story.

Chapter 59: I Will Survive (June - December 1978)

June 16, 1978

Andy Gibb - Flowing Rivers

Released: June 16, 1978

Recorded: October 1976, December 1977 - February 1978

Producer: Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson

Track listing[1]

Side A

One More Look at the Night
Flowing Rivers
Dance to the Light of the Morning
Fool for a Night
Good Feeling
Let It Be Me
Starlight

Side B

Melody
I Go For You
Come Home for the Winter
Too Many Looks in Your Eyes
Waiting for You
In The End

Andy Gibb's solo debut album had initially been set for a release in 1977, but when some tracks ended up on the Bee Gees' Night Fever that same year, it was put on hold. Starting with December that year and lasting up to February 1978, some new tracks were recorded, along with some tracks co-written with his older brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice (and sometimes with just Barry) that would later end up on the Bee Gees' next album.

Flowing Rivers (#15 UK, #7 US) was finally released in June, backed with the title track as the sole single along with "Let It Be Me" as the B-side (#32 UK, #9 US). The album received generally positive reviews from critics as a solid first attempt from what many have dubbed "the baby Bee Gee". Andy's follow-up album, After Dark, would not be released until February 2, 1980.[2]

July 21, 1978

Peter Frampton performing at Oakland Coliseum Stadium, July 2, 1977.

Several weeks following the release of Andy Gibb's Flowing Rivers, the Bee Gees' film based upon their 1969 album Odessa had been released as a joint production between Apple Films and RSO Records. Directed by Lindsay Anderson, written by Henry Edwards and cinematography by Gilbert Taylor, Odessa was made on a budget of $13 million and made roughly $28.4 million in the box office, just breaking even and with a mixed critical reception. With Odessa having been released the same year as The Wiz (a co-production with Motown) and Superman: The Movie, both scheduled for release later in the year, 1978 was expected to be a big year for Apple Films.

Alongside the Gibb brothers, they were joined on the big screen by Sandy Farina as the love interest, George Burns as the kind-hearted captain of the Odessa, Donald Pleasence as the ambitious chief engineer, Frankie Howerd as the ship's cantankerous cook, Paul Nicholas as the jealous love-triangle rival, as well as guest appearances by Steve Martin as the slightly eccentric doctor (a role he would later repeat for Little Shop of Horrors) and Peter Frampton in a posthumous role as a crazed stowaway.

On June 29 in the Bahamas, Peter Frampton had been involved in a car accident that resulted in him being killed immediately. Prior to his death, Frampton had been in the midst of a commercial peak after having released the then-biggest-selling live album of all time, Frampton Comes Alive in 1976. After that, it was downhill from there; it had started when Frampton had taken a shirtless photo for Rolling Stone, which resulted in critics labeling him as a shallow teen idol. The commercial disappointment of his fifth solo album from 1977, I'm in You, further accelerated Frampton's fall from grace, despite reaching platinum.[3]

With Frampton's unexpected death at the age of 28, his solo career was given a critical reevaluation, and both Odessa and Grease (for which he played guitar on the title track sung by Frankie Valli for the soundtrack of the same name) were dedicated to his memory. His former band, Humble Pie, would later reunite the following year for a concert dedicated to Frampton.

September 15, 1978

Kiss - G.A.P.P.

Released: September 15, 1978

Recorded: February - July 1978

Producer: Kiss (all sides), Sean Delaney (Side Gene), Eddie Kramer (Side Ace), Vini Poncia (Side Peter) and Jeff Glixman (Side Paul)

Track listing[4]

Side Gene

Radioactive
Burning Up with Fever
See You Tonite
Tunnel of Love
Living in Sin

Side Ace

Rip It Out
Speedin' Back to My Baby
Snow Blind
Ozone
What's on Your Mind?

Side Peter

Don't You Let Me Down
That's the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes
Kiss the Girl Goodbye
Hooked on Rock 'n' Roll
I Can't Stop the Rain

Side Paul

Tonight You Belong to Me
Move On
Wouldn't You Like to Know Me
It's Alright
Love in Chains

By 1978, heavy metal rock band Kiss, consisting of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, was at a commercial peak. Alive II had become their fourth platinum album in under two years, and the tour that followed had the highest average attendance of 13,550 to date, with the gross income being $10.2 million. So where do they go from there?

PAUL STANLEY: "We wanted to do a solo album each and put then them all out on the same day. Tensions were rising between us at the time, and so doing solo projects and exploring our personal interests in other music genres seemed like a good idea at the time." (2004)

GENE SIMMONS: "Somehow, Casablanca Records [Kiss' label since 1973] didn't like that idea, though we did have a contract that called for four solo records. I don't want to delve too deeply into what went on behind the scenes, but come September 1978, we got half a solo album each on a double album that was credited to Kiss. Not Gene, Ace, Peter and Paul individually. Just Kiss as a collective unit." (1994)

Kiss performing live in Tokyo, Japan, 1978.

ACE FREHLEY: "It just felt like some kind of marketing gimmick, as if they were copying what the Monkees achieved with The Monkees Present back in the late 60s." (1997)

G.A.P.P. (with each initial standing for the first names of the band members) managed to reach #22 in the United States and received divisive opinions from critics and fans alike, with some wondering what they would've been like as solo albums. Others tried to trim it down to make a single band album instead of a collection of solo albums packaged together.

PETER CRISS: "We then wanted to do a movie that would cement our image as larger-than-life rock and roll superheroes, almost like a cross between A Hard Day's Night and Star Wars [released last year on May 4, 1977]. But after hearing of a scrapped Bee Gees project in which they sang Beatles songs, Phantom of the Park never got off the ground. Now that I'm thinking about it, it was probably for the best we canned the project altogether; I dunno what the hell we were thinking trying to accomplish such a movie like that." (2015)

17 November 1978

The Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle

Released: 17 November 1978

Recorded: February - September 1978

Producer: The Sex Pistols and Chris Thomas

Track listing[5]

Side A

No One is Innocent
Just Another Dream
Religion II
Cheap Emotions
Silly Thing
Annalisa

Side B

The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle [ft. Edward Tudor-Pole]
Empty Words
1-2-3
Attack
Burning Sounds
Fodderstompf

In January 1978, Johnny Rotten announced that the Sex Pistols would return to the studio to record a second album. The first single off of their upcoming album, "No One is Innocent" backed with "Cheap Emotions", was released on 30 June and topped out at #3 in the United Kingdom. It had been recorded at an unknown 16-track studio in Rio de Janeiro and was among the first songs to be recorded for the Sex Pistols' sophomore album.

STEVE JONES: "By that time, we had become associated with Edward [Tudor-Pole] and his band, Tenpole Tudor. When we were recording for 'Swindle', Johnny's voice was not in great shape, so we asked Eddie if he could fill in for the recording, and he agreed. The track was credited to both the Sex Pistols and Tenpole Tudor, but we probably should've credited it to the Tenpole Pistols." (2002)

The members of Tenpole Tudor, 1979. Edward Tudor-Pole (stage name Eddie Tenpole) is on the far left.

Tenpole Tudor was later brought to the attention of Apple Records A&R Director Jake Riviera by Paul Cook, who would then have the group signed onto the label by the start of 1979 along with English ska band Madness. The former group would put out their debut single "Who Killed Bambi?"/"Rock Around the Clock" (#14 UK) in March and the latter their debut album One Step Beyond... (#2 UK, #128 US) in October.

The Sex Pistols' second album, The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle (#7 UK) was finally released in mid-November, and was backed with the second single "Silly Thing"/"Attack" (#6 UK), before being followed up by the third and final single "The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle"/"1-2-3" (#4 UK) in February the following year. While Never Mind the Bollocks would receive wildly critical acclaim in later years, Swindle would be seen as "a slight step down, but with an interesting look into what they could've done had they stayed together into the next decade."

Yes, with new directions the Sex Pistols was taking with their music, it looked as if they were destined to continue for another decade or so. But tragically, the actions of a mentally disturbed fan, as well as his equally disturbed girlfriend, would not only throw a wrench in their works, but shake up the world...

December 15, 1978

The Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown

Released: December 15, 1978

Recorded: March - November 1978

Producer: Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson

Track listing[6]

Side A

Tragedy
Too Much Heaven
Love You Inside Out
An Everlasting Love
Reaching Out
Spirits (Having Flown)

Side B

Search, Find
Why
Stop (Think Again)
Living Together
I'm Satisfied
(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away

Following the modest success of Odessa, the Bee Gees' next album was pushed forward from the initial January 1979 release to December 15 for the Christmas rush. Spirits Having Flown was preceded that October by the double A-side "Too Much Heaven" and "An Everlasting Love", marking yet another #1 hit for the Bee Gees in the United States. This was followed up by two more #1 hits, "Tragedy" and "Love You Inside Out", and then "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away", although that reached no higher than #7.

Spirits Having Flown hit #1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom (their first album to do so for the latter country) and was met with positive reviews. Their next album, Living Eyes, would not come out until October 1981, and it would mark their final album for six years.[7]

Summary of Bee Gees releases, 1978 - 1979

• "Night Fever" / "Down the Road" - February 7, 1978 (#1 UK and US)
• "Shadow Dancing" / "Warm Ride" - April 17, 1978 (#42 UK, #1 US)
• "Too Much Heaven" / "An Everlasting Love" (double A-side) - October 24, 1978 (#3 UK, #1 US)
• Spirits Having Flown - December 15, 1978 (#1 UK and US)
• "Tragedy" / "Until" (non-album B-side) - February 12, 1979 (#1 UK and US)
• "Love You Inside Out" / "Desire" - April 30, 1979 (#13 UK, #1 US)
• "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" / "Spirits (Having Flown)" - July 9, 1979 (#16 UK, #7 US)
• Bee Gees Greatest - October 19, 1979 (#6 UK, #1 US)

Footnotes

1. A straightforward compilation of songs from Flowing Rivers and Shadow Dancing that did not end up on Night Fever or Spirits Having Flown (see footnote 4 below).
2. On After Dark, "Me (Without You)" (from Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits) replaces "Desire", which is now a Bee Gees B-side. The song was worked on during the sessions for Spirits Having Flown, but it was left off for sounding too similar to "Too Much Heaven". Andy Gibb later added in his vocals in May 1979. For TTL, I simply pretended he recorded his vocals earlier.
3. In OTL, Peter Frampton narrowly survived his car accident. Because of the critical failure of the Sgt. Pepper film, he hit a severe career slump and never reached the heights of Frampton Comes Alive again.
4. Each side consists of an abridgment of the Kiss band members' respective solo albums from 1978. I arranged the album by picking out the solo tracks that were generally more popular among Kiss fans; your mileage may vary.
5. Tracks are sourced from the compilation album Flogging a Dead Horse, the Professionals' intended debut album from 1980, Public Image Ltd's Public Image: The First Issue and Rich Kids' Ghosts of Princes in Towers. In addition, for TTL, the tracks have Johnny Rotten primarily on lead vocals with Glen Matlock and Steve Jones occasionally stepping up to the microphone, and they have a more punk edge akin to Never Mind the Bollocks, although with a more experimental sound akin to their individual projects from the late 1970s/early 1980s.
6. All tracks are sourced from Spirits Having Flown, excluding "An Everlasting Love", "Why", and "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away", all sourced from Andy Gibb's Shadow Dancing. "Until" is released as a non-album B-side.
7. On Living Eyes, "Time is Time" (also from Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits) replaces "Soldiers", which also ends up becoming a non-album B-side.

Author's Comments

Not much to discuss here; the Bee Gees' story will more or less continue as it did per OTL, only with Andy Gibb as a member and surviving past 1988. Also, since the Sgt. Pepper film doesn't happen, the Bee Gees don't go through the commercial slump like they did in OTL.

I've been planning for Kiss and Yes to have storylines for Strawberry Peppers; in the case of the latter, Jon Anderson doesn't leave the band, and Vangelis will join Yes. I've even thought of having them sign up for Highway 61 Records. I was going to do something regarding their 1978 album Tormato, but I ended up cutting it because I couldn't think of something to do with it. Hopefully when I get to doing Drama (or its equivalent), I'll have something in mind. Other than Kiss having an album in 1978 and not doing Phantom of the Park, I don't know what else to do with them as a result of these changes, but I suppose that change isn't immediately obvious so it could be one of those cases.

Lastly, there's the Sex Pistols; since they've never run into Malcolm McLaren (and with Lord Beeching having told him to sod off like he did with Don Arden), they haven't broken up... yet. I don't think anyone's ever attempted to answer the question of what a follow-up to Never Mind the Bollocks would've sounded like had they not broke up, and if that's the case, then it looks like I might be the first. Your results may vary, and it'll be interesting to see what others can come up with. There will be more to do with them in a later chapter, and chances are it may not be pretty...