Skip to main content

The Records - Starry Eyes

The Records straddled that magical threshold between The Bay City Rollers and Cheap Trick -- sugary sweet vocal melodies, rocking guitars, skinny ties, modish haircuts and songs about girls, girls and... mostly girls.
How do you distinguish late 70s power pop from post-punk or early 80s new wave? The Records' 1979 hit "Starry Eyes" is a good place to start. The song bears characteristics of all three genres. By listening to the following three versions, you can literally hear the late 70s turning into the 80s.

See if you can hear it.

"Starry Eyes" - 1978 Demo

"Starry Eyes" - 1978 Single


"Starry Eyes" - 1979 U.K. album version (produced by Mutt Lange)

Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Tracks

U.K. - In The Dead of Night

In the late 70s, as punk and post-punk bands spiraled towards their new wave destinies, prog dinosaurs stood paralyzed in the shadows. Bands like the Sex Pistols were meteors, igniting a global firestorm that would trigger prog's extinction. The British music press (Melody Maker, Sounds, NME, etc.), once proponents of prog darlings Genesis, Yes and ELP, now bashed any band releasing songs in odd time signatures and singing about aliens and whales. The punk revolution had turned the U.K. music industry and press on its head within a year (1976-1977). For me, this is one of the most interesting times in pop music. Although prog groups saw their audiences rapidly dwindle (Yes audiences had dropped from 20,000 to 3,000 by 1980's Drama tour), many record labels had built fortunes on the works of prog artists and were willing to foot the bill for some interesting transitional experiments. Yes' Drama , ELPs' Works , Genesis' . ..And Then There Were Three... were p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Genesis - Supper's Ready

Clocking in at nearly 23 minutes, Supper's Ready was the first extended composition that Genesis attempted in the studio. It appeared on 1972's Foxtrot . With Steve Hackett's ornate and chiming guitars, Tony Banks classical sounding keys, Phil Collins' athletic drumming (hitting 9/8 in section VI) and, of course, Peter Gabriel's dramatic voice -- lifting from an ethereal hush to a fantastic shriek throughout, it's a prog-rock masterpiece. This was Genesis firing on all cylinders. They were in their formative stage as a band and in love with composing together. Ultimately, the tune would provide a perfect opportunity for Gabriel to develop costumes and portray a host of fanciful characters, including a giant daisy (pictured here). Lyrically, the song is expansive, dealing with themes of good and evil, particularly allusions to the Book of Revelations. Gabriel based the lyrics for the first section, Lover's Leap, on two otherworldly experiences. On one occ...
Post a Comment
Read more