The Important Records from 1983 for Tosh

 

1983, such a strange year. I was working at Licorice Pizza in West Los Angeles with a terrific cast of characters, but it seems to look over the releases that year, I was not into any album. Only singles. There was one mini-album or 12" ep, and that was The Art of Noise's "Into the Battle with The Art of Noise." How can anyone not love "Moments in Love?" Probably one of the first magnificent production of a minimalist piece of music. The other singles that made an impression on me are Fun Boy Three's "Our Lips Are Sealed," The Smiths' "This Charming Man," Kraftwerk's "Tour de France," and last but for sure not least, Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home). I presume that song is an answer song to Bowie's "Space Oddity." I remember my friends hating that record, but I had a special love for it, for some perverse reason that I can't remember now. -Tosh Berman

"Where Did You Go To, My Lovely: The Lost Sounds and Stars of the Sixties (published in 1983) by Fred Dellar

ISBN: 0-352-31374-9 A Star Book (UK)

Two stars for quality, and five stars for being such an interesting by-product of pop music culture. Fred Dellar, who wrote "Where Did You Go To, My Lovely?" is a legendary British music journalist who worked for New Music Express (NME), as well as Melody Maker, if not mistaken. He now works for Mojo Magazine, doing the "Ask Fred" column. 

Published in 1983, Dellar managed to locate most of the British Invasion bands and artists to find out what they were doing now (in 1983). Which mostly were retired, or still struggling with the music business. Some of the artists in Dellar's 'whatever happened to?" are now very much respected and well-known (still). The Zombies, Scott Walker, The Troggs, The Pretty Things, and the late Dusty Springfield. On the other hand who remembers The Temperance Seven or Eden Kane & Peter Sarstedt? My huge discovery in this outdated and out-of-print book is that Morgan Fisher of Mott the Hoople, and eventually moved to Tokyo to do music (and maybe still there) used to be in the band Love Affair. Or that bassist John Gustafson (played with Roxy Music for one album) was in The Merseybeats. Those two facts for some odd reason, I find totally fascinating. So that knowledge is five stars alone, but as a book, it's only for the obsessive people like me.