Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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This month in 1982 was a bad one for all lovers of family-friendly Swedish pop that mixes singalong tunes with Nordic angst, as ABBA made their final public appearance, on the British TV programme The Late, Late Breakfast Show.
That was a broadcast I remember watching. I have a feeling that, as well as interviewing the quartet, it played the videos for both The Day Before You Came and Head Over Heels.
But it was a bad month for human beings in general, as Time magazine's Man of the Year title was awarded, for the first time ever, to a non-human.
That non-human was the computer. Which computer, I cannot say but I'm fairly sure it wasn't mine, as that only had 3.5K of memory, and 3.5K of memory is definitely not enough to win you Man of the Year.
Over on the UK singles chart, it was both a good month and a bad month for the Jam whose final single Beat Surrender began December at Number One but soon had to make way for the musical titans that were Renée and Renato who clinched both the top spot and the Christmas Number One with their close approximation of music the world knew as Save Your Love. Some of us felt the people who bought it would have been better off saving their money but there's no accounting for taste.
Over on the British album chart, there was only one Number One that month. And that was The John Lennon Collection by, as coincidence would have it, John Lennon.
I may not have been a fan of Renée and Renato but among the singles I did approve of on that Christmas chart were:
Our House - Madness
A Winter's Tale - David Essex
Beat Surrender - The Jam
Mirror Man - The Human League
Let's Get This Straight (From the Start) - Dexy's Midnight Runners
Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
Mad World - Tears for Fears
Gloria - Laura Branigan
State of Independence - Donna Summer
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John and Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
and
I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake.
For those who wish to investigate the matter further, that year's Christmas singles chart may be found right here.
While the corresponding Christmas album chart resides here.
And I do believe the strip The Stockbridge Horror is still going.
Sadly, I can shed no light upon the issue's contents, other than to say that Servalan would seem to be making an appearance, which, given that she's the show's main bad guy, is hardly a turn-up for the books.
I can shed little light upon what happens in that one but I do know that Red Ronin features.
Elsewhere, Night-Raven's battling with Red Nightmares.
And, in the issue's final tale, Iron Fist finds himself up against three assassins. One of whom is the Boomerang!
At least, that's what the front cover says.
According to the issue's index page, what we get are a Conan tale titled Black Lotus and Yellow Death and a Brule the Spear-Slayer yarn called Wizard and Warrior. The latter being adapted from a piece by Lin Carter and Howard.
That may all be confusing but the exciting news is the advertised poster is the Boris Vallejo painting of a tree-crucified Conan being watched by vultures. Anyone who doesn't want that on their bedroom wall is a madman.
But, of course, the book's true stars are the X-Men. And they're still having trouble with the Dark Phoenix, as the saga that no one will ever forget starts to approach its cosmos-crunching climax.
Sadly, that's all I can say about it, as I don't have a clue what happens in this issue.
Hooray! I had this issue!
The UK's favourite sci-fi mag takes a very very very in-depth look at the hot new film Krull, starring Bernard Bresslaw.
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31 comments:
I was just sorting out my old issues of Starburst the other day. I gave all the ones post-1983 to charity as I never really read them, then or now.
But I was going through them and the 1982 issues were all killer no filler. Until this one came along.
I haven’t seen Krull. I think I’ve watched the first ten minutes a few times and been awed by all the master craftsmen named in the credits, and enjoyed the Early James Horner soundtrack on CD. But it’s a bit shit, isn’t it?
Or can anyone mount a spirited defence?
Conan must face the Stalker. Let us pray the damsel doesn’t turn around 180 degrees and face Conan lest he become distracted!
Dunno about those Christmas songs Steve - well, apart from the Waitresses obviously - but at least you didn't approve of Bing Crosby & David Bowie.
Did you not like Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' too? I was surprised to see it in that singles chart as well as 'State of Independence', as I don't remember it from '82 at all. Presumably it was reissued because of the Patrick Cowley mix, as he passed away (I think) that November.
-sean
Re: Marvel Super-Heroes -
Having taken over Night-Raven, almost straight away Affable Al Moore started moving the series into new directions, and the two part 'White Hopes, Red Nightmares' is the first story to move beyond the original '30s Prohibition-era setting. Its interesting because even though - or perhaps because - its something he wrote fairly quickly without too much planning, it anticipates elements of his later better known work. In hindsight for instance, the Howard Bates character seems like an early prototype of Rorschach.
The Boomerang is great in that Iron Fist story - 'Deadlier than ever!', he has 'a boomerang for every occasion, rigged with explosives, gas, sonics', and keeps using expressions like 'fair dinkum', and calling everyone 'cobber'. Classic Claremont characterisation!
Mind you, I suspect Iron Fist #13 must have been edited a bit for the reprint, as its all about a contract taken out against Danny Rand's mate from the IRA. Surely there must have been some changes made for a British mag in the early 80s?
-sean
ABBA's final public appearance until this year, Steve, when they re-united for the opening of the first ABBAtar concert in London.
Bing Crosby died on October 14th 1977, two days after my father's 50th birthday, and David Bowie died on January 10th 2016, 38 days before my own 50th birthday...spooky or what?
I've been looking at the Radio 4 schedule for today (Dec 28th) and at 8pm there's a documentary called 'First Contact' which is about Mankind's preparations to meet an alien civilisation - I must listen to that!
We're never far away from talk %@#&ing Abba at Steve Does Comics. Obscenely overpaid Scandinavian pop stars should be expropriated by the workers.
-sean
Sean, I've always found I Feel Love a bit boring. Having said that, I'd totally failed to notice it was on that chart.
Colin, that documentary sounds intriguing.
It's funny you should say that, Matthew, as I don't think I've ever managed to sit all the way through Krull.
Charlie here! Happy holidays! Driving atound with my daughter yesterday and she plays her spotify (?) xmas list. Didnt realize how many songs i hadnt heard this xmas season on radio e.g., Little drummer Boy (Bing crosby), It’s a Marshmallow World (Dean Martin) and Need a Little Xmas (Mormon Tabernacle Choir). Sheeshhhh… i think radio can insert these greats in place of the 10,000th replay of Mariah Carwy or The Ronetttes??? Charlie still chuckling after learning the Stones were the warm up act for Ronettes when they toured the UK lo those many decades ago!
Ha! Now we're even, Sean, and I will never criticise your beloved footballers on SDC again ;)
Charlie, I was in my local Tesco supermarket this morning and I heard 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole. Tesco has stripped away all evidence of Christmas already so I was surprised, but pleased, to hear a festive classic being played for the enjoyment of we humble shoppers.
What kind of store is Tesco? Is it a grocery store? Or is it, like I often see in France, these massive grocery store and department store combos
Charlie FFO, RFO
Christmas hits sort of went out of fashion for a while. Looking at a list of UK Christmas #1s, none of them were actual Christmas songs for about a decade and a half before Slade in '73. Of course hits don't have to get to #1, but I'm hard pressed to think of any festive tunes from around the end of the 50s til '73.
There was Phil Spector's Christmas Album I suppose, but otherwise...?
Slade sparked a bit of a fashion for glam types to do Christmas songs, but my recollection of the 70s is that apart from Mud, Wizzard et al the seasonal hit was generally a thing by oldies, like Bing Crosby or Johnny Mathis.
Glam - and Boney M covering Harry Belafonte - aside, the first modern one I can think of is from the end of the decade, Paul McCartney's 'Wonderful Christmastime'.
They you go Charlie, thats your cue (;...
-sean
Not really the same thing, but I figured I'd mention the Beatles and their Christmas album. Which of course, was only available to fan club members. I found a copy if the lp years ago, which collected each year's fan club record. Some fun skits and humor...
Sean, here's a chronological list of UK Christmas hits. There were a number of Christmas singles released in the 1960s but most of them aren't exactly memorable. It seems to be John Lennon who kicked off the genre's revival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_hit_singles_in_the_United_Kingdom
Charlie, Tesco is a "supermarket" (don't you have that word in America?) which means it sells mainly food but also lots of other things like alcohol, medicines, books & magazines, household items like plates, cutlery, washing-up liquid, mops, brushes & pans, towels etc. My local Tesco used to sell CDs and DVDs too but not any more. They also had a good selection of radios and TVs but they seem to have disappeared also.
Thanks Steve. The 60s ones in that list are pretty old fashioned - Connie Francis, Englebert Humperdink etc - and don't seem to have done that well either.
Which does seem to confirm that Christmas hits were what you might call a 'pre-Beatle' thing, so its interesting that it was that Lennon dirge - which I admit I forgot about - that spearheaded a bit of a revival, and McCartney's that later marked the return of the festive tune with a vengeance.
In fact I see from the list George Harrison did one too in the 70s! Just as well they split up really - can you imagine what a terrible Christmas record they'd have made together?
-sean
Christmas songs you won't hear on the radio or in the supermarket are the Medieval ones like Gaudete, In Dulci Jubilo and The Boar's Head Carol which is a pity as they are more genuinely festive than Mariah and Wham! any day.
You can probably hear 'In Dulce Jubilo' on the radio at this time of year, as it was a hit in the 70s - Pan's People did a routine for it on Top of the Pops!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XowGiG_g_ro
I think that might actually be even more annoying than Wham.
-sean
Charlie is very sorry that this blog ends tomorrow! Soooo many nooks and crannies to dive down when one theows out words like Lennon, McCartney, Beatles, super markets, Christmas tunes….
SEAN (in particular)… Paul’s “Wonderful Christmas Time” has that “inexpensive-keyboard sound” to some degree much like you pointed out the “casio” keyboard sound on Stevie Wonder’s “I just called to say i love you”?
Charlie and Sean- your low rent keyboard discussion put a thought into my head: what if Kraftwerk had done a Christmas song? Whatever it might have sounded like, I'd have snagged it...
Didn't Kraftwerk do a cover of "Santa Claus is coming to town"? ...or am I imagining this. It may not have been a single but I seem to recall them performing this tune.
Kraftwerk haven't done a Christmas tune.
But there is a version of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' on Youtube done in that style credited to them - which it so obviously isn't! - so don't worry Paul, you're probably not going mad (well, for all I know you might be, but that wouldn't be evidence of it).
'Silent Night' by Can is genuine though.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t04ANDPU42Y
Not their greatest moment imo. 'Future Days' it ain't.
-sean
Thanks Sean, I thought it strange Kraftwerk would do that song but def heard mention of it so the Youtube fakery explains this . The world's makes a wee bit more sense now lol
Why must this strand end?
Why?
Why?!
Charlie, I didn't realise Steve Does Comics is ending tomorrow - does Steve know about this??
Sean, you mean Mike Oldfield's sped-up instrumental version of 'In Dulci Jubilo' but I prefer the proper song in Latin. Steeleye Span also did a nice version of 'Gaudete' which was the first time I'd ever heard that song.
Ah, you only mean the current strand, Charlie - phew!
Charlie, there's no iron rule that says we must stop talking about any subject just because a new post starts. You can still talk about Christmas if you want BECAUSE IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS!!!
Colin – yes indeed your Termanology is much more precise. I mean to say that this current strand is ending today. But every day is Christmas if your heart is receptive, isn’t it? This strand can go on indefinitely!
Charlie-FFO, RFO
As regards Tudor/medieval (?) Christmas songs, what about "Green groweth the holly; so doth the ivy. The lord - of life - shall ne-e-e-e-ever die! Green grow, the holly!" If you know the tune, please feel free to sing along!
https://www.google.com/search?q=Green+grow+the+holly&rlz=1C1TEUA_enGB467GB467&oq=Green+grow+the+holly&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j0i10i22i30j0i22i30j0i390l2.8530j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b74accd6,vid:nDYkg5uj2Ao
https://www.google.com/search?q=Green+grow+the+holly&rlz=1C1TEUA_enGB467GB467&oq=Green+grow+the+holly&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j0i10i22i30j0i22i30j0i390l2.8530j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b187adb7,vid:uF223dNbufM
Phillip
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