Early '80s Rock on Vinyl

Since I talk about rock music falling off a cliff after 1982, I thought it would be a good exercise to take four examples of hit records from big rock albums from around that time, listen to them on vinyl, and talk about what I hear in comparison to the '70s standard bearers.

To start with, I put on side two of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and listened to “Money” and “Us And Them” to calibrate my hearing. There should be no argument that this album is the Mount Everest of rock recordings. From there I proceeded with my four 45s for evaluation:

ZZ Top “Gimme All Your Lovin”

The drums are real-sounding but very bland. There's no real depth to them so I can’t tell either way from this pressing, but the drum part is straight and bare – no drummer plays like this unless he is trying to sound machine-like.

The tambourine that comes in at verse two is in the same boat, where an organic part would “humanise” things this adds another robotic element.

The guitars lack presence and definition. I checked my 45 of “Tush” which had no such problem. Sonically, “Gimme” is a disaster.

David Bowie “Let's Dance”

What a difference – the mix sounds great – punchy, well-defined and spacious. Again with the pared-back drumming but the kick and snare sound more realistic, even with gated reverb – this is really Omar Hakim we’re hearing, and he’s laying into the kit. It becomes obvious when the drum fills arrive that there is groove and swing to it.

It’s such a great-sounding recording that I considered hunting for a copy of the LP, but aside from the singles it's a dull album.

Huey Lewis and the News “Heart And Soul”

The kick and snare are machine-like and I’m going to say they're programmed – but unlike, say, The Cars’ Heartbeat City album (or even their own followup with Fore!) the sounds aren’t over-the-top. The fake handclaps in the breakdown are a giveaway.

Otherwise this is another great mix – it’s present and lush with plenty of definition. I was too quick to write this off a couple of years ago when I first suspected what I was hearing, but then again, it’s a loss considering what they achieved with previous album Picture This.

Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days”

Harsh, grainy and opaque. Here I’m going to guess that the culprit is digital reverb on everything – it’s hideous. All the instruments sound cold and spiky. The drums are either triggered or programmed (they’re so veiled there’s no guessing which), no variety or invention in the playing.

This is supposed to be some legendary band, but there’s no interplay or joy in the playing, just simple, repetitive parts – the leaked band chatter sounds utterly contrived. It’s a complete mystery to me that this is the sound of one of the biggest-selling rock albums of all time.

In summary, the zeitgeist of the early-mid ’80s is computers and digital for everything – especially drums – with a few examples of recordings that snuck a real drummer under the radar with simplified parts and the use of gated reverb. While there were still some great-sounding projects, the production fads and trickery can't have helped but disorient listeners from maintaining a sense of what was real.

In case this comes across as a beat-up, I will write up a sequel of four representative hits from big albums of the late ’70s. I’ll try not to cheat.