Book Review: There Was Nothing You Could Do

On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years.

In There Was Nothing You Could Do, veteran rock critic Steven Hyden shows exactly how this record became such a pivotal part of the American tapestry. Alternating between insightful criticism, meticulous journalism, and personal anecdotes, Hyden delves into the songs that made—and didn’t make—the final cut, including the tracks that wound up on its sister album, 1982’s Nebraska. He also investigates the myriad reasons why Springsteen ran from and then embraced the success of his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP, as he carefully toed the line between balancing his commercial ambitions and being co-opted by the machine.

Eurythmics - 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)

Welcome to another edition of Soundtrack Sunday.

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother), the fourth album from Eurythmics. The music was made directly for the soundtrack of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Michael Radford’s remake of the film based on George Orwell’s classic novel. The album charted at number 38 in the Netherlands, number 33 in Canada, number 23 in Germany and the UK, number 22 in Australia, number 21 in New Zealand, number 18 in Switzerland, and number 6 in Sweden. Here in the US, it spent fourteen weeks on the Billboard Album chart with a top spot of number 93.

Van Halen - 1984 (30th anniversary)

Today (January 9th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of 1984, the smash album from Van Halen.

This was one of the early albums I reviewed on the blog, back in 2011, when I was just getting into doing these kinds of posts. Click here to read the full post.

Happy Birthday, Alex Van Halen

Happy fifty-ninth birthday today (May 8th) to Dutch born and American drummer Alex Van Halen.

Alex started out initially on guitar while his brother Eddie dabbled with the drums. Alex actually took better to the later, so the two switched it up and the rest was rock history. The two played in a number of early bands together (the Broken Off Combs, the Space Brothers, and Mammoth Chammoth) before they settled on the name Van Halen in 1977.

Van Halen - 1984

1984 was both the name of and the release year for Van Halen’s sixth studio album, released on January 9 of that year. It was one of the band’s most popular records to date (both in chart performance and sales). It peaked on the Billboard album charts at number 2 (blocked by Michael Jackson’s Thriller). It also produced three top 20 hits singles and the band’s first (and only to date) number 1 hit single. The album was ranked number 81 in Rolling Stone magazine’s top 100 Albums of the 1980’s; it also appears on the 1001 Albums list.