The Greatest Non Hits
🎶 Hey there, music lovers! 🎵
Let's take a trip down memory lane and dive into the endless universe of overlooked songs from our past! 🌌 In this age of music streaming, have you ever played a game with your friends where you listen to the deep tracks of old albums and debate which ones were the most underrated? Well, guess what? Chris and Tim have invented that game, and it's an absolute blast! 😄
Whether you're walking your dog, driving your car, or taking an early morning run, 🎸🎙️ these two music enthusiasts will take you on a journey through each studio album we all know and love. Tim will even serenade you with a little guitar, while Chris drops some mind-blowing knowledge about the songs.
But here's the best part – they'll listen to and rank the top 3 non-hits from each album! 🏆 It's like discovering hidden gems that never got the recognition they deserved. And don't worry, there's plenty of comic relief sprinkled throughout each episode to keep you entertained and laughing your socks off! 🤣
So, if you're in need of a musical escape and want to explore the uncharted territories of underrated songs, join Chris and Tim on "The Greatest Non Hits" podcast! Trust me, you won't regret it. 🎧✨ Let's celebrate the unsung heroes of music together!
#TheGreatestNonHits #UnderratedGems #MusicEscape
The Greatest Non Hits
Farewell to the 80s: A Final Ode to a Musical Decade
Venturing forth, the influence of the 80s doesn't simply wane with the turn of a calendar page; it echoes loudly in the stripped-down sounds of the 90s and beyond. As we pivot towards embracing the upcoming 90s shows, we pause to pay homage to an iconic individual whose artistry mirrors our own quest for change. Weaving in tales of how music serves as a beacon of optimism, we explore the profound impact of lyrics and harmonies that inspire personal and collective transformation. So, whether you're a fellow podcaster, a dedicated tea drinker, or someone who finds solace in a rhythmic run, we're thrilled to have you with us as we champion the undulating beats of the past and prepare to unlock more musical doors in our ensuing escapades.
Hello, hello, baby, hello, hi, oh, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, alright, hello, and thank you for listening to the Greatest Non-Hits. I'm Chris and not playing anything. Next to me is my co-host, tim. Hola, how you doing, bud Doing?
Speaker 2:well, doing well.
Speaker 1:Well, this is the last show of the year, man. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's been a year, it's been a great year, it's been a hell of a year. We've really delved, just really deep.
Speaker 1:How deep, Deeper and deeper way down.
Speaker 2:We've experienced, and you know, felt, a lot of gusto. You know there's a lot of goosebumps and great tracks and this is a little wrap-up. Yeah, a little reclaimed, you know, a little reclaimed.
Speaker 1:It's been. I've enjoyed doing the show. Every every one of these episodes has been awesome. We've listened to some great music. Upon reflection, we were thinking maybe today what we could do is maybe ask each other you know some questions about. You know what we thought about the last year, all these shows that we've done, maybe we can talk about maybe our top three total non-hits from the 80s. So you know, for the last year we've been doing albums from the 80s, right? So that's what we're going to, I guess, wrap up for the year. We're going to do a couple more 80s albums before February. I think that's when we're going to start to go into the 90s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not quite done with the 80s but they're, you know, for really high-profile listings that we want to do. There's a couple more, maybe five or six.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got a couple good ones coming up pretty soon, but for the purposes of what we're doing today, it's going to be, you know, looking back at all the 80s podcasts that we've done over the course of the last year, dating back to, I guess, the beginning of this year.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we're just want to show our gratitude for the listeners, even if they're, you know, if they're listening to the whole podcast or maybe just a minute of the podcast. Wait, just a minute. It's great, it's going to be, you know even more exciting. We're honing our chops here and we really enjoy doing this.
Speaker 1:And we continue to thank you for listening and keep down on this wherever you get your podcasts. So I guess it's for today's episode. It's going to be kind of a shorter one, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little roundtable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a roundtable, it's a debriefing, so to speak.
Speaker 2:A wrap up.
Speaker 1:If you will, maybe we'll go through our, our top three, whatever's you know that we do. Maybe at the end of every year people have, like you know, the words of the year. I think Swifties is one in the, the zeitgeist of of the US and the world, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but in the greatest non hits world.
Speaker 1:here it's just sort of we'll probably have our own Maybe just kind of go through. A couple of words sound, you know, like little. You know, deeper and deeper. That might be one of them. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, deeper is one of our words, it is.
Speaker 1:It has to be, it has to be. It's been a recurring theme throughout this whole thing.
Speaker 2:That last track. That's all dusty and you just need to wipe it off, put some you know some febrize little Windex in there. Just maybe a Take it easy champ Some more cleaner Shit. What else? What's the good other word? Maybe a Easy champ?
Speaker 1:Champ, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, champing, we do really champ it up here. We champion the band, we champion their history, we champion this weird chords that you know. Xtc and you know even Hall of Nodes have some weird chords that I learned you know it's, it's been a progression.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we'll get into what we've learned and when it comes to the guitar, it's there's some just different interesting chord progressions that we've learned from.
Speaker 2:I've forgotten a lot of them. Yeah, it's very it's, it's not easy, it's technical, it's not. Yeah, but honestly, from doing this I will say you know, I've learned a lot. Some of the music Roxy music comes to mind. Berlin had no idea who Berlin was before Chris. He recommended that maybe some of the lighter stuff Elvis Costello and obviously Shade was just an eye opener.
Speaker 1:That was a good yeah. What about?
Speaker 2:you.
Speaker 1:I would say that would be. That was the most shocking thing in terms of what we learned this year, like things that we didn't expect. I didn't expect talk talk to be such a good band. I thought that they were just sort of lumped in with all the other first wave or new wave bands from the early 80s Because they had had you know, it's my life as their big hit and I can. At the time, when I was probably, like you know, 13 or 14, I completely tuned out. It was not my thing at all. But when you listen to Spirit of Eden from 1988, those are some great songs and I think you even turned me on. You made me aware of points on a curve from Wang Chung, the song the Wave, or is it tasty waves? Yeah, tasty waves, cool buds.
Speaker 2:That was a great wave.
Speaker 1:That was a great song. I had no idea that was there, even though I knew the album at the time it was. I didn't register until you pointed that out, so shout out to Tim.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I didn't grow up in the 80s, but a lot of these albums just have hit and come across my my table and I'm not just going to shuffle that folder into the abyss, you know, we're really going to delve in and open it and do it about.
Speaker 1:But is that what you like most about the show? That, just like the musical taste evolution that we've gone through. Or is there anything else in particular? Maybe your style of playing, maybe all those things together? What's your probably? What's the what you like most about the show?
Speaker 2:I like most about the show is that the ones that I pick and the ones that I'm really excited about. I like to kind of almost peg them down and be a little like critical of the stuff that I like and and just discern why I like it and even sometimes that that makes me like it more, sometimes a little less. And also, you know, vice versa, the iron maidens or the, that some of the heavier stuff, you know the stuff that I don't think. I'm like maybe Billy idle or.
Speaker 1:Did you see your expectations?
Speaker 2:Billy exceeded, midnight oil Exceeded, iron maiden exceeded, I mean deaf leopard, leopard exceeded, you know, but maybe not by much for deaf leopard and in Jane's addiction, some of this stuff that I, you know, pixies, serf, erosis, some of this stuff is you know, you didn't realize how I didn't realize how good it was, because there's so much distortion. It's it's not always as you have to be in the mood, but if you are, I mean it is just fire upon fire. Music, and you know, really deserves the spotlight.
Speaker 1:Cool. Yeah, we did fair warning earlier this year, and I mean that or that's earlier this month. Yeah about yeah, earlier this month, and it was. This is one of the albums where it affirmed what I always knew about it, because it came out when I was probably about 11, but I didn't buy it until I was like 14 or 15 and I loved it instantly, and I still do. Yeah, there's all the songs. It's just so cool. There's some. There's a coolness about them that takes you back to 1981 in a sweaty gym or whatever you know, like, just like raw, like yeah.
Speaker 2:I just tossed around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a testosterone kind of a thing and it just Takes you back to a different place and time, for better or worse. You know what you want to think about it, yeah also. I Was gonna press this.
Speaker 2:I was gonna easy champ them but I did okay and I think for you you, you like Some of the softer, slower stuff a little bit better maybe than you thought you would. Yeah, I would say it's still probably probably not your favorite.
Speaker 1:Well, the Brian Eno ambient stuff.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I have a newfound appreciation for that, and it's really more about Changing my. You can easy champ this one. Yes like state of mind, maybe my, just the maturity is kicking in and Seeing the value of music and how it can make you feel yeah, and the mood that it can put you in.
Speaker 2:It doesn't always have to be rockin and Go, go, go all the time right, exactly, kind of get your heart rate down, take those deep breaths, you know exactly, deeper and deeper, just gonna realize that all that shit Is bullshit.
Speaker 1:No, that was one of my top clips. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's an underrated clip I'm gonna tasty waves and Also you know Eric B Rockham and and run DMC. That really opened my eyes to that cultural revolution that was going on, that I kind of Wasn't there, wasn't my you know wheelhouse, but it's, it's so important and I and I want to listen to it more and get in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the impressive thing about Eric B Rockham no cursing, they were able to rhyme and it was yeah, there was, there was care that was put into the words. There was a lot of care there's. They were trying to be inventive, creative, and I Kind of miss that. Yeah it seemed like there's that drive anymore.
Speaker 2:Should we make music? It's really curse lesson in our podcast. Maybe, yeah, we'll get out our thesauruses, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was swearing throughout that hole. I know, and they don't swear at one time.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I know yeah, so what are you gonna do? But anyway, that was that was I. I agree that was. Yeah, it was good stuff. There was a lot there. There's a lot to be, there's a lot to be gained by Listening to these albums in a more thoughtful way, in a deeper way, and and listening, etc. So, yeah, that was good. We should probably, at some point in time, pivot to the top three. Okay, yeah, do you want to just do that now?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, before we do that, let's uh, you know I want to say I had can't go for that, no can do stuck in my head for about three weeks and it really took. It took a lot for that song to Get out of my head. It was. It was kind of like a nightmare. You know I have to like Mm-hmm. Yeah, my, my brain couldn't get that song out of out of you know, the head there is just I couldn't, couldn't shake it and I think it's been also one of my favorite songs, just took to really jam on and make it a jazzy number. So all you guitar players Put, learn that song. You know it's, it's, it'll be worth your while. Sure it's. It's got so much recurring you can really pivot into a lot of different songs off of that song.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was one of those I grew up on and I know what you're saying.
Speaker 2:It's a hit. It's still a hit, but it's. That was one that, as a song, crept up on me.
Speaker 1:It got in your head, yeah took a while to shake it off. Yeah. That happens all the time. After I do these podcasts the next day it's like that one song is just. I remember it. We get it kind of sometimes you know, through that, through it, stuck in your head.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You gain an appreciation for it in some way, yeah, so I'm glad that that song, because that is a good song any song for you?
Speaker 2:that really. Mmm that maybe might not have been on your top.
Speaker 1:You know through three, but I Would say I Don't know, I just really love. I liked you to Joshua Tree. Oh yeah, I specifically in God's country that comes to mind, Okay yeah, I love that song. It's a powerful one.
Speaker 1:And Okay, trip through your wires, like the backstory of that and how I learned about some of the atrocities of the violence that was going on previously in Ireland in the late 70s and early 80s and how that must have affected you too as people and how it influenced their music later, cause at the time when I was a teenager, I loved that album and I loved all the hits, those grooving songs. There's a ton of them, but the song Trip through your wires explains a lot of it, gets pretty graphic and when you learn about what happened it's it became more meaningful to me than it would have otherwise.
Speaker 2:I thought it was at the time just a bunch of insincere drivel or whatever, and it was not at all, and I you know that was my ignorance at the time, and so yeah, midnight Oil also comes to mind for being, you know, a sort of vehicle for change, as well as Joshua Tree, and also run DMCs raising hell, you know, really trying to uplift the community and bring, or bring light to atrocities, to thus, you know change, worldly events. And that's a testament to what music can do.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think that when you look at Midnight Oil I didn't realize how big they were down under and but how I mean about how direct they were about the purpose and the mission of their band. It seems like there were a lot. They were one in U2, was another one, these and run DMC, I'm sure in some way. I mean they had songs like Maya Deedis and they were fun, but at the same time they had, you know, it wasn't so direct. They were sort of pushing back against the machine.
Speaker 1:I mean later on in there they were, but at the same time that, you know they, in a positive way, they reached out to you know, the white music community and paid reverence to Aerosmith and they demonstrated that in a video and it was reciprocated by them. That's some of the good, you know. That's taking action and you know, and having your actions speak louder than just the words. They were demonstrating that, yeah, we can be objective appreciators of all music.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, furthermore we wanted to talk about. I wanted to ask you, chris, you know the 80s. What do you think it is about the 80s that lent itself to such a wide variety of music? Maybe something about the society and where society was going, and what do you think it was about the 80s that really lent itself to so many, so much good music coming out?
Speaker 1:I mean, you're looking at things later. This is just my opinion. I'm not an expert on anything, but it just when I, after listening to all these albums and seeing the early 80s and living through the 80s as a teenager, I would say just it. The world's expanding. Every decade it expands and so the reach of influence of, and being able to move freely around the globe, the more that happens and as technology improves. With synthesizers, brian Eno, they brought these things and it created more sounds and it impacted and influenced society with fashion and like the music and fashion, you know, went hand in hand. They were intertwined, so to speak.
Speaker 2:But like when we did that over the top fashion, sort of over top music kind of thing. Sure, sure?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, if you listen to the who episode that we did, what's his name the guitar player Pete Townsend was fiddling around with? I'm Bob O'Reilly, but that machine, whatever it was, they didn't even have a name for it at the time.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it was. It was so manual.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Pink Floyd was kind of doing things with.
Speaker 2:Echos and things.
Speaker 1:But now, with the 80s, we can talk about and lend a lot of it to Brian Eno. Yeah, and using sampling and how that's just opened up the game and the sampling is even influencing us. I mean, we're doing it.
Speaker 2:You know, our equipment that we use gives us, you know to use a friendly version, like they had in the recording studio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So I mean I think that you can kind of see it the more music that you listen to and the wider range of things that you hear from the 80s Fractures, yeah, yeah. But I bet you, when we get into the 90s and that's gonna come a month and a half we're gonna listen to all these other albums and probably hear how, like, for example, Nirvana, was influenced by the Pixies.
Speaker 1:Right right, we may be able to speak to what was added because of the time that had gone by and they just borrowed from the cool things that they did and layered on cooler things on top of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah or kind of. It was maybe a stern rejection of the sort of synthy 80s type over the top. It was a little more pruned down to be more folky even in the 90s, to sort of you know, create your own new sounds and then revert back to more traditional sounds, and then that and there and back, and there and back again.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, that's exactly what we did. Just take it easy, champ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there and back again. I know that was a cure for me, but yeah, probably for both. There and back, but yeah, okay. So yeah, what do you wanna do? Our top songs of the 80s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can do that now. Okay, so we're going to top three of all. Say so, we've done the top three non hits of what is it like? I don't know, like 70 albums, yeah, well, I mean the last two years, okay, so for this year it's, I think it's been like about 40 or 43. Okay.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Of those you know we've done top three. So there's been about like over about a hundred songs that were that are in our top three. Yeah, From each of those different albums we're gonna whittle this down, at least from our memory. I mean, we didn't come in, even come into this with. I kind of thought through a few songs that come up for me. Yeah, it's gonna be what comes to mind and it's gonna be more ad hoc. Yeah, it's gonna be more ad hoc and prompt to you, so to speak.
Speaker 2:For me, yeah, these songs have just been like heavily in my you know, playing of just my daily or weekly lives. You're a little bit more certain in what, I'm very certain in these and I even have some honorable mentions of you know, on my my own way by Durran. I know Private Idaho was a hit, but that song is just amazing. Yeah, billy idols, what is it? Yeah, he had like blue highway.
Speaker 1:I think that was a hit though.
Speaker 2:Blue highway. I mean, yeah, his song is just amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my echo in the bunny man is your Billy idol. Okay, but when the bunny men talk talk. Those exceeded my expectations as as an album. Now we're talking about albums, I would say top three albums for me. Yeah, that exceeded ocean rain. We're gonna go Spirit of Eden for sure.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:And I'm gonna say points on a curve. Okay, those are all the really new wave bands and right, but it's because all the other ones, you know, I've heard them all a lot, right and so or not. I mean, there's a few of them that I haven't, but those are the three that really stick out. Those are the ones that exceeded my expectations. Yeah, as as albums, what Billy Idol, you said yeah, in general.
Speaker 2:Also, van Halen has exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 1:Fair warning.
Speaker 2:Both yeah, both, I mean 70s and then the 80s one that we did. It's just, they're just so technical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Eddie, it's.
Speaker 2:it's incredible His guitar playing is unmatched. It doesn't have to be the deepest music for it to be really appreciated in the amount of practice that that guy has taken. It is insane.
Speaker 1:His ability to make sounds out of the guitar like he did in very unorthodox ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so anyway, all right. My top three song that keeps coming back, even before we did the podcast, is the rainbow from talk talk, the first track on the album and it's like nine minutes but it's. It really kind of relishes in that winter, wintery sort of landscape, sort of little destitute, a little more reflective, and it comes into a whisper and then sort of builds and crescendos and drops off again. It's really a great, a great song that I play over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:Nice. But, yeah, cool, my top. Okay, so number three gosh, I really got to think about this. So we've done. Yeah, your stone roses was really good, I thought. I'm trying to think the maybe now the killing moon is that song is so awesome. But that's a. You know, that's a. That was a hit. Wow, I'm trying to think, you know, when I really liked remain in light by the talking heads, but that was in 1980. Technically, we did that last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can include it. I mean okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also want to say skylarking was really good, but again, I keep going back to the hits.
Speaker 2:That's why I?
Speaker 1:don't, why don't I? Just I'm going to go with, is it crystal by ocean on ocean, rain, crystal days.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean make that my number three. I just thought it was just. I mean, everything about that album was just so haunting and echoing and dreamy at the same time, and it was just felt like you were in a nice bubble bath. You know, yeah, I kind of liked that, that aspect of it. So for that reason I'm going to make that my number three.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, my number two. Hang on to your love, shade.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's, it's a banger, just really. You know, put that on and just brush your teeth. Come back your hair, let us Stoge while brushing your teeth. You know, whatever, just do some things and listen to that song. Okay, shade, nice, Sha.
Speaker 1:Wing. All right, number two points on a curve, the wave. Nice, my number two Okay.
Speaker 2:You turned me on to that one.
Speaker 1:I don't know if we want to listen to a little clippy of that, but can we you down with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah let's do it All right.
Speaker 1:Let's play this, this bad boy here I am very disorganized, but I'm going to play this I am very disorganized, but Ah, wapash, am I right yeah? See, this is like one of the most 80 songs I've ever heard. You know it is.
Speaker 2:This is my number one.
Speaker 1:I knew that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think this is any surprise. Yeah, this guy has like negative plays on Spotify in terms of real listens. But such a great voice, yeah, pick up some sticks. Who's the vocalist for this, again? What is his name?
Speaker 1:Well, it's the two guys of the two guys. Who's?
Speaker 2:Jack Hughes, darren Costin. Well, yeah, wow, that's not it Now.
Speaker 1:Costin was the drummer. Feldman was the bassist. Jack Hughes was one of the vocalists. I think this is Jack Hughes. No, no, this is Jack Hughes.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:It was written by those three guys.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:It's got to be Costin Hughes. It's kind of like a cool little upswing there.
Speaker 2:Anyway, yeah, names, it's important. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's got to be Nick Feldman, jack Hughes.
Speaker 1:Yep Well yeah. Anyway, yeah, it doesn't matter, great song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's others maybe that are escaping me At this at this time, but it's authentic. You know the song, the songs, even these. You know some of these bands.
Speaker 1:I love this song. This is, I don't know. There's something, there's something minimalist about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is cool.
Speaker 1:You know it reminds me of just being like somewhere in Tampa, like 1987, you know, and having like some Don John pants on and, you know, like a bright fuchsia jacket or something, going to the club and being all like like a sprocket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just sprocketing out there, Exactly. We do that Well, yeah.
Speaker 1:So all right well. I mean, there's more days to come and we're going to cover that and yeah, I've got my, my last number, my, the number one here I'm going to. So, if we look back, this guy originated in Detroit and had a record contract, recorded this like in 71, recorded another album, return back. And it ends up being like the biggest song in South African history.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was a construction worker the whole time. Well, while he recorded this before, you recorded this after they found him in South Africa. He would go back to doing construction after touring so wild. I think he's the most inspiring, yeah, individual For me anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just somebody who's so talented and yet so humble and so sensitive to. So so struggles in the pain, that that goes on, that, yeah, you know. I'm going to articulate it in a yeah. Thanks for reminding me this.
Speaker 2:No problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If you look at how many plays this get this gets a ton yeah these are songs to be.
Speaker 2:Print out the lyrics and put them in your college dorm. Get your, get your. Get your optimistic, idealistic vibes going. That's right, stick it to the man.
Speaker 1:All right, that's right. Speak your mind. You know, get out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do whatever you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, make change, you know. Yeah, do what you want to do. Yeah, that's go after change internally.
Speaker 2:Others will see the change, we all will change. All right and for the better, hopefully. But yeah, thanks for listening and thank you, chris, for really doing so much, so much work, so much research, so much. Hey that stuff that I don't like to do, yeah, well thanks, yeah, and thank you for just doing this with me.
Speaker 1:You know it's a, you need a, you need a partner back and forth, and two dragons. Yeah, the two dragons of podcasting? No, we're not. I think there are two other guys that do that, and God bless them too.
Speaker 2:But I hope they're shout out to the other podcaster guys that do the same thing. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Shout out to the other podcasters, shout out to the two dragons of podcasting. I think there are three or four sets of dragons that are out there. But yeah, shout out to all you guys. We're the best though. Yeah, we're the best. The two dragon.
Speaker 2:But you know it's not a competition.
Speaker 1:This is a competition, it's a collaboration. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:We'll be shouting out to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know and shout out to all of you Thank you so much. I think we're going to call it a wrap.
Speaker 2:Tea drinkers and runners, you know thanks for coming deeper. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:All right, deeper and deeper, take care guys. Thank you.
