1987: my thoughts

As I’ve been compiling info and tracks for each year, I go in with certain preconceptions. 1979, for example, was the first year that I really paid attention to music and, thus, my opinion was that it was a great year. You had Cheap Trick going platinum, Tom Petty damning the torpedoes, post-punk taking hold in the UK, and, of course, disco. Now, I assumed I hated disco, but listening to the disco music that is still popular today, there is some brilliant artistry there.

Other years, such as 1984, have been fondly remembered, but, upon refreshing my memory, I am astonished at how much utter crap was a part of the marketplace. Among the Springsteens and Cougars were some of the most disposable synth-pop acts to ever plug in a Roland. Plus, it was the year otherwise dependable rock act Foreigner was forever neutered by the #1 success of the ballad “I Want To Know What Love Is”. It was also the year of “Dirty Dancing”.

Before I dove back into the year that was 1987, what I remembered most was that it was the year U2 released “The Joshua Tree” and methodically took over the music world. What I had forgotten was that it was the year GNR hit the scene with “Appetite For Destruction”. INXS was there too with the landmark album “Kick”, which includes “Never Tear Us Apart” (a great song and one of my favorite videos, too) so it will always be fondly remembered in my mind.

What I realized is that 1987 was really the last year that mainstream music was cool. There was a nice co-mingling of genres and a lot of the albums that came out that year don’t sound particularly dated. For example, I put on Husker Du’s “Warehouse” album the other day, for the first time in years I admit, and marveled at how fresh the record sounded. You could put it out today and the kids would be all over it. That they aren’t all over it anyway is another issue for another time.

What I had forgotten was that Pink Floyd released their first full-fledged studio album minus Roger Waters and that the two camps began a sort of passive-aggressive sparring match that would last for decades. Despite the bickering, both Floyd and Waters made some great music during that time. It’s almost worth having Waters leave the band if it means seeing “Momentary Lapse Of Reason” and “Radio K.A.O.S.” released within months of one another.


Pink Floyd: Learning To Fly | On The Turning Away | One Slip


Roger Waters: In The Flesh | Money | The Powers That Be

The Replacements also released their first album without guitarist Bob Stinson who, in a band known as much for their alcohol consumption as for their occasional flashes of brilliance, was kicked to the curb for, you guessed it, drinking too much. They released “Pleased To Meet Me” and, to borrow a Westerberg phrase, took one step forward, two steps back. Parts of the album seemed to show a desire to reclaim some of their youthful recklessness, marrying it to better songs this time around. The rest of the album bristled at what the public wanted them to be, opting for something much more enduring. Any album where the buoyant “Can’t Hardly Wait”, the gutter-dragging “I Don’t Know” and the haunting “Skyway” can co-exist is a conflicted, albeit beautiful record.


Replacements: Never Mind/I.O.U.

R.E.M. kept on keeping on, raising the stakes with each successive (and successful) record. What had looked like a fluke on Life’s Rich Pageant (namely the album falling just one spot shy of the Top 20) had been bested by :”Document”, an album that gave the band their first Top 10 single (“The One I Love”) while going Top 10 (and platinum) itself.


R.E.M.: Finest Worksong | The One I Love

So, yeah, 1987 was the year that brought us great albums from the likes of U2, INXS, Guns n Roses, Janes Addiction, Husker Du, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, the Replacements (“Pleased To Meet Me”), and R.E.M., among others.

Musically speaking, it kinda makes you wanna dig out an old calendar, hang it on the wall, and pretend the last 20 years didn’t happen. 