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Music In My Shoes
80s Music Trivia, Snoop Dogg Bowl, and The Clash "Sandinista" E113
We crack open a brand-new 80s music trivia game, celebrate Snoop Dogg’s endzone catch, and honor a 104-year-old sax performance while revisiting Elton John, Springsteen, The Clash, and early Billy Idol. Play along, keep score, and hear which deep cuts still hit hardest.
• 80s trivia game rules, lyric call-and-response, and score swings
• Snoop Dogg’s Arizona Bowl catch and why fun revives bowl season
• Pop-Tarts Bowl spectacle and the butter vs frosting toaster debate
• 104-year-old WWII veteran Dominic Cartelli’s saxophone anthem
• Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection non-singles with staying power
• Springsteen’s 10th Avenue Freeze-Out and album-oriented radio
• The Clash’s Sandinista: highlights and misses
• Minute with Jimmy: Gen X lineup and Dancing with Myself
Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old
Let us know what you thought of our 1980s music trivia game and anything else we discussed about on this episode.
Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages
Reach out to us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com
Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes, podcasting worldwide, where it's never the same as it ever was. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 113. I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. On Christmas, the first gift I opened was from my daughter Mackenzie. It was shaped like a cassette, you know, like the plastic casing of a cassette. And it was a 1980s music trivia game. And she thought I could use it on the show or do something with it on the show. Jimmy, I'm gonna open it up and let's give it a go. All right. Let's see where we go. So I have not opened it. As you can see, I'm opening it now.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:And there are cards that are in a plastic bag still.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, this is legit, folks. I mean, it's brand new.
SPEAKER_02:So, Jimmy, I'm gonna flip over my card first. It's uh first person ten points. What we'll do is it gives some multiple choice, but we'll ask the question first, and if the person knows it, great. If they don't know it, then we'll give the multiple choice. That sound good?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, now do you get the same number of points if you get it without the multiple choice?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. We can make it up. We can make it, you get two points.
SPEAKER_04:Aren't there rules on the thing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but you know, I like to bend the rules a little bit with the game.
SPEAKER_04:You get two points if you get it without the multiple choice, and you get one point if you get it with That's it.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. All right. All right, so here we go. Again, we just opened this. We don't know what any of the questions are. It is 1980s music trivia game. The first question is in which year did Journey have a hit with Don't Stop Believin?
SPEAKER_04:Don't stop believing. I want to say that was when I was in the eighth grade. And uh that would have been the fall of nineteen eighty-two or the spring of eighty-three. I'm gonna say nineteen eighty-two.
SPEAKER_02:Ah, okay. Very close, though. Very close, nineteen eighty-one. All right, hold on, because it looks like there's some bonus questions. Next line. Select a player to sing the first line of the song. The team must then correctly sing back the second line of the song.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. So I who does it first?
SPEAKER_02:So I'll do the first line because I know what it is. You have to guess what the second line is.
SPEAKER_04:All right.
SPEAKER_02:Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Now, this isn't Don't Stop Believing?
SPEAKER_02:No, it's a whole different song. A whole different group, whole different song. All right. All right, you ready? Yeah. So I'm gonna do the first line, you're gonna do the second line, and hopefully be able to tell who it was. I'm a man without conviction.
SPEAKER_04:I'm a man who doesn't know. Very good, Jimmy. Karma Chameleon by Culture Club.
SPEAKER_02:That is awesome. One point for you there. All right, okay, good. I'm not hopeless. There you go. Well, you you gotta do that. We might have to play it a more to ten. We'll see how we do here.
SPEAKER_04:All right, here's your question. Who worked with Bernard Edwards to write I'm coming up for Diana Ross? Michael Jackson. No, it was Niall Rogers.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, I should have gone for multiple choice and I would have got that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, I did the same thing. I kind of, you know, took a stab. Okay, now how do we do the song thing? Is it on the same card?
SPEAKER_02:It is. It's at the bottom.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Now, if I sang this, you would probably get it. But if I just speak it like we have to do in podcast world, I don't know if you'll get it.
SPEAKER_02:Sing it. Go ahead. You're a singer.
SPEAKER_04:All I know is that to me.
SPEAKER_02:You look like you're lots of fun. Yes.
SPEAKER_04:But if I said all I know is that to me you might not have gotten that.
SPEAKER_02:I might not have gotten that. Okay. Oh, that was uh that was pretty uh pretty good then. Dead or alive?
SPEAKER_04:Very good. When and tell tell me the name of the song.
SPEAKER_02:You spin me round like a record.
SPEAKER_04:No, it's just yeah, well, it might have it in parentheses.
SPEAKER_02:It's got parentheses, yes. Wow, good job.
SPEAKER_04:All right, so I would give you bonus points, but I want to beat you, so I'm not giving you anything. You get one point, one to one.
SPEAKER_02:One to one, okay. Next. Which band had a hit with A Night to Remember in 1982?
SPEAKER_04:I definitely need multiple choice on this one.
SPEAKER_02:All right. A NWA B Shalomar, C, Cool and the Gang, D. Run DMC. Again, which band had a hit with a night to remember in 1982?
SPEAKER_04:Gosh, a night to remember. I am gonna guess Run DMC.
SPEAKER_02:And you would be incorrect. It is Shalomar. All right, that was my second guess.
SPEAKER_04:I I don't even know what that song is.
SPEAKER_02:I don't, but I would have probably picked Shalomar just because of the song.
SPEAKER_04:I was so close to picking it, but then I'm like, well, why would they have thrown two rap groups in there? That's weird. Hey, it worked. And one rap group that's from like the late 80s or 90s.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That that come on, people.
SPEAKER_02:That's the way it is.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Now you're up.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna sing. Oh, you gotta sing, yeah. You ready? If I could reach the stars. That's not really singing, but I tried to do my best. I'd give them all to you. Correct. All right. If I could turn back time by share. No, I don't have to say the name of the song. You do, but I was just so excited that you got it.
SPEAKER_04:I would have gotten it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So that's share the singer, not share your wife. Exactly. That sings that, right?
SPEAKER_04:No, that's definitely the famous singer. Okay. Not my famous wife.
SPEAKER_02:I just wanted to make sure I had that correct. How many points now? You're up two to one? Two to one. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And nobody has gotten a main question yet, so you're about to get one, I bet. Who had a hit with Slave to the Rhythm?
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, I think I know it, but I'm gonna go with the multiple choice.
SPEAKER_04:A, the B-52s, B, the Smiths, C, Grace Jones, D, Salt and Peppa, C, Grace Jones. You got it. Oh, nice. All right. You tied it up, and if you get the song, you're gonna be in the lead. Here we go. The walls were shaking.
SPEAKER_02:It's ACTC. You shook me all night long. Oh the earth was quaking?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, good job. All right.
SPEAKER_02:Nice. All right, so you're up three to two? Three to two. All right, here we go. Who had a hit with Japanese boy in 1981? Definitely need the multiple choice. Okay. A Tiffany. B Bonnie Tyler. C Eurythmix. D Aneka.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my goodness. See, I'm very tempted to take Aneka because I've never heard of Aneka, and why would they put her in the question if it was an Aneka? But I think Japanese boy. I don't remember that song at all. So I'm gonna say Aneka.
SPEAKER_02:You are correct. I don't even know if it's Aneka. It could be Anika. I don't even know the name. I've never heard Japanese boy. I've never heard anything. No. I know nothing about it. Uh yeah. Alright, are you ready for the song? I'm ready. When I wake up, well, I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the man who's waking up next to you. Close enough, Jimmy. You get it. Waking up with you? Who wakes up next? Oh, who wait. Yeah, it's kind of it's close enough. All right, thank you. You're welcome. Who is that, Jimmy? The Proclaimers. Yes, I'm gonna be 500 miles by the Proclaimers.
SPEAKER_04:So I just leapfrogged you there. It's four to three.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, as we play the 1980s music trivia game.
SPEAKER_04:Morton Harkett was the lead singer of which band?
SPEAKER_02:Definitely gonna have to go multiple choice.
SPEAKER_04:Aha. Craft work, Def Leopard, or Aerosmith. A. You're correct! Good job. A. Nice. Uh-huh. All right. How many heartaches must I stand?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I think you got me on this one, Jimmy. I do. Is that Phil Collins? Uh-huh. Um I need you can't Harry Love.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:But I don't know the line.
SPEAKER_03:How many heartaches must I stand before I find the love to let me live again?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I didn't know the line off the top of my head. All right. That was good. I got the song. Doesn't get me any points.
SPEAKER_04:Tied it up 4-4.
SPEAKER_02:All right. So you in case you hear a lot of paper and stuff, it's the cards. Normally we don't have, you know, all these um pieces of paper and cars and things.
SPEAKER_04:It's a real deal here.
SPEAKER_02:You hear that? You know, that reminds me when I was young and I used to take cards and I put them in my bicycle spokes as I was driving riding down the street. Remember that? I whoa, sounds like a Mickey Man on 1952. Here we go. Oh my this is not fair. With or without you appeared on which U2 album? The Joshua Tree.
SPEAKER_04:You got two points right there. Oh my goodness. Okay. Six to four. All right. And I got the song coming up. And you got the song Children Behave. Oh yeah. Um that okay, yeah. And that's a cover song. It's a 60s song. Correct. It's like, that's what they say to us. They they but they don't know. That did not help. Oh, it did.
SPEAKER_02:That was it to a T. Couldn't you tell?
SPEAKER_04:All right, Jimmy. Children behave. That's that's what they tell us.
SPEAKER_02:That's what they say when we're together.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, that's uh that's not close enough. All right.
SPEAKER_02:Running as fast as we can.
SPEAKER_04:Uh holding on to one another's hand. Uh, I think we're alone now. By Tiffany. Yeah, which was Tommy James and the Chandelles.
SPEAKER_02:Tommy James and the Chandells. Very good.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so 6-4. The Human League were from which UK city? You're gonna need the multiple choice.
SPEAKER_02:Uh multiple choice, please.
SPEAKER_04:Liverpool, Bristol, Sheffield, or Manchester.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna go with Sheffield.
SPEAKER_04:You got it. Nice.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_04:I would not have gotten that. All right. Now this one. I I don't know if I could sing it, but it's uh Life is a Moment in Space. I can't even think of how the song goes.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna have to just say I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I will tell you it's Woman in Love by Barbara Streisand.
SPEAKER_02:I probably would not have gotten it.
SPEAKER_04:And the next line is When the Dream Is Gone.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:All right.
SPEAKER_02:I'm glad I didn't waste any time on that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it I mean, might as well have been a NECA.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Hey, who asked what's love got to do with it in 1984?
SPEAKER_04:By the way, it's six to five me right now. Because you got the one point, you get the bone. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Who asked you hear that, ladies and gentlemen? Jimmy's really quick to point out when he's ahead. Even if I'm in the middle of asking a question.
SPEAKER_04:I know I just want didn't want it to be like, what was the score again? Yeah, okay, we got the score.
SPEAKER_02:This is not pickleball.
SPEAKER_04:All right. I didn't hear the question.
SPEAKER_02:Who I know, because you interrupted to make sure that I knew that you were ahead. True. Oh my do you hear him? All right, here we go. Who asked what's love got to do with it in 1984?
SPEAKER_04:Tina Turner.
SPEAKER_02:And you just got two more points.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, that was that's kind of unfair, but you know, life's unfair. So that's eight points.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and you're gonna get this one. You ready? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04:In touch with the ground. I'm on the hunt. I'm after you. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That's nine. You gotta you gotta seriously like nail this round to stay in it.
SPEAKER_02:Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran. All right, here we go. So what is it, nine, five?
SPEAKER_04:And that song I want to say was 1981 as well. Yes. Okay. Who sung Addicted to Love in 1986? Robert Palmer. All right, so there now you got seven, nine to seven. Uh oh. What's love but a secondhand emotion?
SPEAKER_02:What's love but a man, I don't remember. But what's love but a secondhand emotion? What's love? Oh man. Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?
SPEAKER_04:What's love got to do with it?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I didn't think that was it. I thought there was another line. Oh, I just that's crazy because we just said what's love got to do with it on your card. Nine to seven. Oh, nine to seven. Here we go. Nine to seven for the win. Which pet shop boy song was about the lead singer's Catholic upbringing?
SPEAKER_04:Hmm. It's not uh West End girls. The pet shop boys. I don't even I can't even think of what it could be, so I need the multiple choice.
SPEAKER_02:A I'm not scared. B always on my mind. C opportunities. D, it's a sin.
SPEAKER_04:Well, it's it's not always on my mind because that's by Julio Iglesias. Um They did a cover. Yeah, they did a cover of it, I know, but then he didn't write it about this guy's Catholic upbringing, but I'm gonna say it's a sin.
SPEAKER_02:And you would be correct. Ah, okay. So I I got ten. You got ten. But we do have time to do the song. Do the song. All right. Are you ready? I believe the children are our future.
SPEAKER_04:Teach them well and help them find their way.
SPEAKER_02:Close. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Oh, okay. That's not close enough. I I wouldn't give it to me. Greatest love of all, Whitney Houston. Well, you know what, Jimmy? That was fun. I think that was fun. I think we'll stop there. We'll keep the cards separate so that we can try it another time with the cards that we haven't used yet.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And um I enjoyed myself. 1980s music trivia. Thank you again to my daughter. Again, the first gift that I opened up, she was very excited for me to open it up. And here we use it to open up the show. It was fun. A year ago, I spoke about Snoop Dogg sponsoring his own college football bowl game. Do you remember that, Jimmy? Yeah. Well, he sponsored the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl again, and this time he got in on the action on the field. I saw that. Did you see the clip? Yeah. So for those of you that didn't, Snoop was being interviewed just outside the end zone when Fresno State scored a field goal. As they're kicking off, Miami of Ohio decides to let it just be a touchback. They don't even try and get the ball because it was going deep into the end zone. Yeah. And Snoop Dogg, in the middle of the interview, sees the ball coming and says, Oh, this is me. Watch out. And then like dives for the ball, catches it, kind of, you know, it bounces, but he catches it, it bounces off his hand, and then his he rolls over, his shoe comes off, and it was just great. And the crowd just goes wild. I mean, they were loud and they enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_04:It was like a legit catch.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was a catch. It hit his arm, kind of bounced, and he then he caught it off of there. He goes right back into the interview. That's the best part. Not catching it, but that the fact that he rolls on the ground, his shoe is off, and then he's right back to the guy, doesn't miss a beat, and the interviewer is like, things were going down in the doghouse, and Snoop says, I'm just doing it all today, baby. The ball had to be caught. That's awesome. Is that not awesome? It's becoming something that's exciting and that makes you want to watch the game because some of the bowl games just now, since they have this whole college playoff thing, they just don't have the same meaning. But leave it to Snoop Dogg to make it exciting.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and the Pop Tarts bowl is another one that's uh, you know, gets people watching because it's kind of fun and funny.
SPEAKER_02:And I watched it. I did. I thought it was really cool what they did. They put the Pop Tarts, you know, the In the toaster. In the toaster. I mean, it was some fun stuff.
SPEAKER_04:They had sprinkles all over the sidelines and end zones.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they had banners up for past Pop Tarts that were, I guess, MVPs or something.
SPEAKER_04:It was well, let's talk about that then. Because I think that the unfrosted Pop-Tarts are the MVP. Like a strawberry Pop Tart with no frosting, and you can put a bunch of butter on top. That's a Pop Tart to me.
SPEAKER_02:I have never had a Pop-Tart with butter on it.
SPEAKER_04:That you're missing out. It's a vehicle for butter.
SPEAKER_02:I have them with the frosting. I don't put them in a toaster. I just eat them straight out of the box, you know, out of the foil.
SPEAKER_04:Jim, you're doing it wrong. They're called Pop Tarts. They they go in the toaster.
SPEAKER_02:I've never seriously, I've never put one in a toaster. Yeah, you're doing it wrong.
SPEAKER_04:You have to try, okay. I mean, I'm not trying to get you.
SPEAKER_02:Butter.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, when I was a kid, I'm not eating buttered Pop Tarts every day now, but I'm gonna say that's more like an English muffin or toast. I mean, I didn't say it was healthy.
SPEAKER_02:So I you know what? I'm not gonna go out of my way to buy Pop Tarts, but if I happen to get them, we'll go through this and we'll see what happens. All right. I can't wait. Yeah, there you go. So on the same day as because I think the Pop Tart Bowl and the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl were both the same day. Saturday, I believe, yeah. The same day, New York Islanders hockey team hosted a hundred and four year old World War II veteran by the name of Dominic Cartelli. Who performed the Star Spangled Banner on saxophone? And it was against the New York Rangers, who was the Islanders' bitter rivals. A hundred and four-year-old guy. If you have not seen this clip, you have to watch it. You know, he they help him out of his wheelchair, he sits down, he gets the saxophone out, and he just belts out the song. The last note, I bet you he holds it 10 or 15 seconds. Like he holds it much longer than I could ever do. It was amazing. And what I thought was really cool, I am an Islanders fan, but I saw some of the social media of the Rangers, and they were all giving this guy props. Like they were all behind this guy because he's 104 years old and he's performing the Star Spangled Banner.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's awesome. I I did see the video, but I was in a situation where I couldn't watch it. I haven't gone back and watched it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, definitely check it out. His jersey, he had an Islander jersey on with number 104.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, good.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think anybody else will ever have that number. It was just great. It really was. It was a lot of fun. Hey, let's revisit some more music in my shoes. Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, January 1971, came out in America. It'd come out, I think, in October over in Britain. My two favorite songs are Country Comfort and Burn Down the Mission. Both of them were not singles. But those songs are just fantastic. Burn Down the Mission is a song that he's played on many of his tours since this album came out in 71. And even on his farewell tour, I believe it was the only non-single that he played on the tour every single night. It's just fantastic. Burn Down the Mission, if we're gonna stay alive, watch the black smoke fly to heaven, see the red flame light the sky. It's really, really good song. It's you know in an early part of his career, and there's so many different live versions where it's, you know, just um a small group of people playing, where then it's a full band as you go on later in his career. And sometimes he'll play it and it's a five-minute song, and other times it's 18 minutes. And it's just cool because you never know what you're gonna get when you see him in concert until he starts playing it and and the song's over, then you know what you got. Like that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04:Sounds like The Grateful Dead.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you know, uh Elton doing a little jamming with uh the piano and stuff. But you know, it's a top 300 song for me. Definitely, you know, especially that it's not a single, and if it wasn't for album-oriented rock, you know, that played, you know, deep cuts back in the day, we might not know about this song. Right. But man, what a good song. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 10th Avenue Freeze Out, released January 1976, peaked on number 83 on Billboard February 7, 1976. This is one of his biggest songs. I'm not a huge Bruce fan, but I really like this song, and I've always liked this song since it first came out. The lyrics about Bruce and getting the band together. Well, everybody better move over, that's all. Because I'm running on the bad side, and I got my back to the wall, 10th Avenue freeze out, 10th Avenue freeze out. And you know, there's one part where, you know, the big man joined the band talking about uh Clarence Clemens on saxophone. And it's just amazing that it only made it to number 83, but it's one of his most popular songs, again, due to album-oriented rock that would play stuff to the point where people just really got to know stuff that they didn't know before.
SPEAKER_04:I would have thought that was a single.
SPEAKER_02:It was a single that only made it to 83. Like it just wasn't, you know what what you think of today, it wasn't that when it came out.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:You know, it just grew on people as time went. So it was off Bruce's 75 album, Born to Run, and Born to Run the Song peaked at number 23 in November of 1975. On the Rolling Stone 2021 version of the 500 greatest songs of all time, Born to Run was ranked number 27. In 2024, Apple Music named the album number 22 on its list of 100 best albums.
SPEAKER_04:Nice.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. The Clash, Sandinista, came out December 12th, 1980. Now Jimmy is smiling. Jimmy, we both recently agreed that the London Calling album is one of the best double albums of all time.
SPEAKER_04:For sure.
SPEAKER_02:For sure. No no qualms about it. I mean it is boom. Yeah. Yes. Well, Sandinista is a three-record set, and I believe two records too many. Thirty-six songs, but I think only six are really good. So I'm gonna give you my six, Jimmy. I know you're a huge Clash fan. Jimmy's smile has gone away, just so you can I tend to agree with you. Opening up the album, The Magnificent Seven, a funky bass, you know, it's a rap-inspired tune for the band. Uh Paul, the bassist, was not able to play on the song. He was filming a movie, if I uh recollect. And they actually got the bass player from the blockheads, if you remember Ian Dury and the Blockheads, that's who plays bass on. And it really definitely sounds different than Paul, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I never realized that.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So as a matter of fact, two members of the Blockheads had the basic idea for this song. And while they didn't get credit immediately, then they got credit because, like, wait a minute, that was our song that we brought to you. A bunch of the the blockheads were actually on the Sandinista album.
SPEAKER_04:Well, one thing about Magnificent 7 was Joe and the band were spending time in New York City and they were playing shows there, and they just had friends, and they really always wanted to hear new music. You know, even though they were a punk band, they were always into reggae, and then at this time rap was just emerging, and and they were in the center of it there in New York City. So they were hearing rap and they were like, we should do something like that. So that's Joe Strummer's attempt at rapping, really, in that song.
SPEAKER_02:He doesn't do a half-bad job, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_04:Better than Didi Ramon.
SPEAKER_02:Better than Didi Ramon, better than Blondie's Rapture. Yeah. All right. This song, I believe, was recorded before Rapture came out.
SPEAKER_04:I would believe it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm I'm pretty sure it was. But you know, one of my favorite lines is don't you ever stop long enough to start, take your car out of that gear. Yes. You know? I love that. I just think that, you know. Um, then the line about the boss, way bah-ba-ba-bye.
SPEAKER_04:It's our profit, it's your loss.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Yeah. Ivan meets G.I. Joe. So the drummer, Topper, he's the lead vocalist on this song. And I like his vocals on this. I think that's what makes me like the song. It's nothing exciting, but when you listen to it, especially when you listen to it today, it has all the sound effects of like 1980s arcade games. Like you think that, you know, Space Invaders are playing in the background or asteroids, or you know, I don't remember what game had what sound, but when you listen to it, it's got a lot of those sounds.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, he was probably sampling those machines.
SPEAKER_02:And I think it was uh Mick Jones who was really into that, and he was the one that would put all that stuff on it. And it'd be interesting to hear the song without that because I I do like it. Like I said, Topper sings it.
SPEAKER_04:In fact, there's another clash song to slightly derail this. Have you ever noticed in um Rock the Casbah when the song's sort of crescendoing and he's uh he's whispering a little bit, and as the band uh changed direction and the temple band took five, uh, you can hear a little handheld Mattel Electronics game. It's the sound of hitting kickoff on Mattel Electronics football. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna have to listen now.
SPEAKER_04:It's buried under there, but you can hear it. And I always wondered back then, I'm like, there's no way they put Mattel Electronics football on this song. But now that you know you point out all the other samples they did that are arcade game sounding, it it reinforces that.
SPEAKER_02:Music in my shoes, learn something new. I just did. I like it, Jimmy.
SPEAKER_04:Listen, see if you can hear it.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna listen. Police on my back. What a rocking track that starts off with guitar sounding like the British police car. You know? And they play that like throughout the song, like doo-doo the entire time. Great bass line. It's a cover of a 1967 song by the Equals, and it was written by Eddie Grant, who ended up with the big hit in 1983, Electric Avenue.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And it just cool. I went back and I listened to some of the equals songs and just kind of what their flavor was. I'll be honest, I didn't know Eddie Grant was around in the 60s, but he really was. He was part of the equals. They had a bunch of albums and and really was a part of the whole scene back in the day.
SPEAKER_04:As we learned last week, there are a lot of unappreciated Jamaican musicians out there.
SPEAKER_02:And you know what? I have to say, Eddie Grant is definitely one of them for me. I I learned a lot by researching just because of police on my back. I've mentioned before that I'd play this in our green minivan when my kids were young, all of us singing at the top of our lungs, running Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. What have I done? What have I done? Great song. The Call Up, I really like that song. Me too. Lose the Skin, written by friend of the band, Time Own Dog, who also sang the song and played violin. I dig this song. Because then towards the end of it, bagpipes now come in. This song has everything that you can't believe it's actually clash, but you know it's the clash because when you listen to the drums, you know that's topper drumming. And he is drumming like it's a straight-on rock and roll song. He's not drumming different because it's, you know, the main instrument is a violin. It's really cool when you listen to it that way. And I think that's part of what draws me into it that you have this violin, but Topper is just doing his drums like it's police on my back or or any of the songs that we mention, and he doesn't differentiate, and that makes it super cool. Song ends, and then there's like a split second before you hear some sound effects that then go into what sounds like a helicopter blade and goes into the song Charlie Don't Surf. We've talked about the song a few times on the show, and it was inspired by the movie Apocalypse Now. And I gotta be honest, Jimmy, I didn't think when I started this podcast that Charlie Don't Surf and Apocalypse Now would be talked on the show as much as I have mentioned it.
SPEAKER_04:You never know.
SPEAKER_02:You know, really. And Bert Bacharak uh is another one that I didn't think, you know. But here we are. So Robert Duvall plays Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who meets up with this pro surfer, a gunner's mate by the name of Lance Johnson, and as they prepare to attack, Kilgore wants a group of men to get ready to go surfing in the middle of this battle in Vietnam. Another military guy says, it's pretty hairy in there, it's Charlie's point, and then Kilgore responds, Charlie don't surf. And that's where we get the song from. And, you know, that's you know, whoo. Wow, that's all I can say. Unfortunately, a major disappointment to me, this album. So, Jimmy, I know that you're a huge Clash fan. Your thoughts on the album?
SPEAKER_04:Well, from what I understand, they had a record deal that they had agreed to, and the record company wasn't treating them to their liking, and they realized that they'd signed this really long record contract, and it was a certain number of records, and they then realized, oh, wait a minute, it doesn't say a certain number of releases. So if we release a double album like London Calling, that counts as two records toward our fulfilling the contract. And London Calling was a really well-crafted, thought-out collection that allowed them to explore different styles, and it is held as one of the best double albums of all time. Certainly, it's my favorite, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Not a bad song on it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And so then they're like, Well, we need to get out of this record contract. We still have four records left on it. Uh, let's do a triple album. And so I think they just kind of threw anything on there. Like, oh, you got a song? Sure. Oh, you want to do something that's uh atmospheric, let's throw that on there. And they just sort of got in the studio, did whatever they wanted, and said, We're getting closer to getting out of this record deal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I have to agree. Um, you know, if that's what the story is, I definitely would agree. I mean, they got some kids singing career opportunities, one of their earlier songs.
SPEAKER_04:Well, not only that, but as a person in the record store, when you see, oh, there's a new clash album out, and look, it has a new version of Career Opportunities on it, and then you get home and it's a child singing it to intentionally childish sounding music. It's not like he's singing it to clash music. Yes, it's like twinkly stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um, so I I felt like it was it was not intended to be uh great, I don't think. I think that you know they certainly some people love different songs, and everybody's got a different list of ones that they like. And I'm it's probably every song on there that some Clash fan loves, but for the most part, the songs you named, the one that you omitted that's one of my favorite Clash songs of all time, is Somebody Got Murdered.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna just about to say, I should have said it because I was gonna say Somebody Got Murdered would probably be the seventh best song on the album.
SPEAKER_04:Right. So that's a good Mick Jones song, you know, kind of along the lines of stay free from the, you know, that that it's it's a narrative song that's him I should probably have included that.
SPEAKER_02:That should definitely be on on the seven songs of the 36.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and I think uh Washington Bullets, I like.
SPEAKER_02:I'm so so with it.
SPEAKER_04:Again, it's if it were on another album, it would probably be one of the lower ranked songs on the album. But it compared to some of the songs that are just like, oh, I will never play that song again, type of thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, Jimmy, I always like listening to you tell your part of what you think about something. So let's stick with it because tick-tick tick, it's Minute with Jimmy.
SPEAKER_01:It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I wanted to talk about the uh January 1981 release by Gen X, Billy Idol's band. They had shortened their name from Generation X and gotten rid of a couple of members. So it just got down to the core group of Billy Idol and Tony James, and they were the main songwriters to begin with, Tony James being the bass player. So they brought in some guitar players to play with them, including Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Steve New that played with a lot of different people. And uh then they had Terry Chimes on drums. He was the original drummer for The Clash. And this is where they first wrote Dancing with Myself that became a big hit for Billy Idol Solo. The Untouchables was another song on his first EP. Uh, some other great songs on that I like called uh Stars Look Down, Happy People, and Heaven's Inside. And the ironic thing about it is they have a song called Kiss Me Deadly, and it's not on this record. Yeah, so Kiss Me Deadly isn't on this record, it's on their first album, Generation X.
SPEAKER_02:It's funny how things like that work out, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04:They just like the ring of it, I guess.
SPEAKER_02:Kind of like the ring of your phone to say that Minute with Jimmy was up, but not yet, because I just want to say that when Billy Idol started to get, you know, popular, uh I I guess with uh what was the first album? Was it just Billy Idol?
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:When that album came out, and then I decided to explore some Gen X stuff and go back and you know, things that I didn't know and Kiss Me Deadly, one of them, and you know, just uh uh a bunch of stuff. And it's really cool because with Gen X, it's definitely that punk, you know, that you know, as punk is ending type of sound, a different bit different than the polished sound that Billy Idol had once he, you know, was becoming big, especially, you know, with uh what was the second album that came out in '83.
SPEAKER_04:Rebel Yell.
SPEAKER_02:Rebel Yell, yes. But it was cool listening to to Gen X stuff where it was just more, you know, that young brute force type thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and he was really young when they put out their first album. He was like 23 years old.
SPEAKER_02:Dancing with myself. Woo! Hey, you can reach us at music in my shoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. Let us know what you thought of our 1980s music trivia game and any of the other things that we talked about today. That's it for this episode of Music in My Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade160 Studios, located right here in Atlanta, Georgia, and Victorill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boj, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing!
