Sixteen Blue - The Replacements

Sixteen Blue - The Replacements

4:25

Let It Be, 1984

Written by Paul Westerberg

A ragged, yet tender ballad about the difficulties of adolescence.  "Your age is the hardest age / Everything drags and drags / You're looking funny / You ain't laughing, are you?"  A later, nearly inaudible, line about the youth of the song wondering if he might be gay has most listeners thinking it's about bassist Tommy Stinson, the young one of the bunch.  I don't know anything about any of the Mats' personal lives, so this is news to me and I don't know how it relates, if at all.  The meandering drums and guitar lines keep with the theme of being lost and uncertain.  It's one of those Replacements songs that manages to sound both tossed-off and utterly sincere.

Skin Deep - The Stranglers

Skin Deep - The Stranglers

3:53

Aural Sculpture, 1984

Written by Hugh Cornwell, Dave Greenfield, Jean-Jacques Burnel, and Jet Black

This post-punk song is a smooth, synth-laced groove wrapped around a a hypnotic bass pulse.  It serves as a deceptively gentle warning to those who rely on the superficiality of others and how uncertainty can gnaw at you.  "Some days there′s things on your mind you should keep / Sometimes, it's tougher to look than to leap."  The detached vocal delivery and droning, cyclical melody serve the message perfectly, and the swooning background vocals give the song polished, urbane, almost sinister feel.

Knees Of My Heart - Jimmy Buffett

Knees Of My Heart - Jimmy Buffett

2:43

Riddles In the Sand, 1984

Written by Jimmy Buffett, Michael Utley, and Will Jennings

This is basically a one-joke song built around a title, but Buffett is too gifted a songwriter to leave it at that. He turns the pun into an easygoing, genuinely sweet love song, dreaming of escape: "I'm gonna show you what my love can do / Out on the ocean all alone with you / We'll find a desert island on an ancient chart."  With steel drums doing most of the musical work, it's a bright little number that never aims higher than to make you smile, and succeeds.

I Love You, Suzanne - Lou Reed

I Love You, Suzanne - Lou Reed

3:17

New Sensations, 1984

Written by Lou Reed

After a murmured spoken word introduction: "You broke my heart and you made me cry / You said that I couldn't dance / But now I'm back to let you know / That I can really make romance," this song turns into a hand-clapping, catchy crooning rocker, with some very basic lyrics supporting the title, on repeat.  The crunchy guitar riff really makes the song, which makes it a real shame that the riff is the subject of a split between Reed and Robert Quine, who claimed Reed nicked it off him.

7 Chinese Bros. - R.E.M.

7 Chinese Bros. - R.E.M.

4:14

Reckoning, 1984

Written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe

I'm much more familiar with the "Voice Of Harold" version of this track.  It's still odd for me to hear this music and not hear the liner notes to the Revelaires album,.  Anyway, the actual song's lyrics are, surprise surprise, pretty abstruse.  Stipe said it was about him breaking up a couple and then trying to date them, but there's little in the song that might make that clear to an outsider.  It's possible I prefer "Voice Of Harold."  As a kid, I sure enjoyed the book the song title is somewhat based on, though.

CIA Man [live] - The Fugs

CIA Man [live] - The Fugs

3:29

Refuse To Be Burnt-Out, 1984

Written by Tuli Kupferberg

The Fugs were an avant-garde proto-prog band, truly counter-culture, underground, like a Doors with a dark sense of humor.  The FBI apparently kept a thick file on this band, calling them repulsive.  "Who can kill a general in his bed / Overthrow dictators if they're Red? / Fuckin' A, man! / CIA Man!"  This is a live version; the original was released in the 1960s and included on later versions of their first album.  Unlike a lot of angry political underground bands, these guys can hold their own musically, too.