POLLS Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper SHE'S SO UNUSUAL album poll

Songs my mom heard me singing around the house and told me in no uncertain terms to stop (she usually let me sing anything I wanted, so her telling me to stop was a big thing):
"Like a Virgin"
"Sexual Healing"

"She Bop" was no problem. I didn't know what it was about either; thought it was about bopping.

girls just having fun!

when i was a little kid i didn't like "girls just wanna have fun" because it implied girls were irresponsible and i was raised to believe boys and girls were equal

I like how several of the songs take a cute squawking little synth sound and make an actual solo break out of it. Nice to hear a pop song with an instrumental solo for musical purpose, as opposed to just showing off (cf. all the compulsory guitar solos in all the metal that constituted my musical diet in '84)

At my company's xmas party last month, the DJ spun "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and yes shit he fucking FADED IT RIGHT AS THE BUBBLE SYNTH SOLO STARTED, fkin savage!

Robert Hazard is a multimillionaire, I trust.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:53 PM (Yesterday)

r.i.p. robert hazard

I like how several of the songs take a cute squawking little synth sound and make an actual solo break out of it.

I think the Hooters deserve a lot of credit for that, and for the overall sound of the album. Along with Rick Chertoff, obviously. The first Hooters album (also produced by Chertoff) shares a lot of sonic ground with SSU.

Really, as much of a New Yorker as Cyndi is, this album is the musical/commercial high-water mark for the Philly New Wave scene.

all it needed were Hall & Oates.

She Bop might be my favorite video of hers
The weird diner, and the awesome white tux, and that weird animated part in the middle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFq4E9XTueY

Yes she did animation before A-Ha and it never gets recognised! Did anyone do it before that?

"She Bop" might be my favourite video EVER! Always liked performers who looked a little clumsy while trying to perform choreographed dance steps required by the video revolution (see "Hot For Teacher")

yeah it definitely adds an extra layer of endearment

Sushi, I waaaant suuuuushiiii

saw her in '84 (outdoors on a pier next to the USS Intrepid)

MoneyCE by a sliver

!!!!

I saw The Smiths on the same stage btw, also New Order

wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y179mNzQgNc

Great interview with Howard from a few months ago. I'm only about 10 mins into it, but it's already great.

I started listening to that the other day! I need to finish it

can someone edit out the howard parts and repost that?

eh I don't mind howard if I wait like, idk, years in between bouts of listening to him :)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow that's a pretty cool spread, ty ILM!

am surprised When U Were Mine didn't get more votes given the early love it was getting

I once read some Klosterman essay where he called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun the saddest song ever.

I will never forget that. Fuck him.

kloster-not otm-man

"Witness" and "Yeah Yeah" would be the two best songs on a lot of other albums.

ugh i missed this!

back "during" occupy i made a mix to listen to on the way to/from the camp called OCCUPIED WHEN LIGHT IS ON and the closing track was "money changes everything" and it was the best thing ever because it is the best song ever.

Yeah Yeah is nice, hard to be a winner up against so many booming trax

completely missed this. when you were mine got shafted here but tbh i probably would have voted for "money changes everything"

should i go see her on the she's so unusual 30th anniversary tour? (the answer isn't that hard but the trick will be getting my girlfriend to come along w/ me)

this might be my favorite album of all time, or at least the album i've loved the longest. i had my mom buy me a copy when I was 6!

still think the arrangements/production is kind of the apotheosis of whatever it is. big drums/synth heavy/eclectic 80s pop-rock. so maybe little textural things here that tug at my heart and then some just beautiful codas and instrumental passages and shit. they should plant a copy of this on every planet we explore.

The clips of the tour I've seen online make it look like she takes breaks between the songs to just chat with the crowd, and she's hilarious anyway, so it's like seeing a rock concert and comedy show at the same time.

I just heard "Right Track, Wrong Train" for the first time! Damn. It's crazy.

she's really going for a post-New Wave Yoko or B-52's approach vocally.

Go!! I saw her like, 8 years ago at a little outdoor show and she was fantastic. Does great crowdwork, sounds great -- she's a born performer in the holistic meaning ie she lives for the whole experience (crowd, music, arranging) and not just the singing.

FUCK

she played in Sacto in JUNE ugggggh how did I miss this goddamnit

well, that's settled. i guess i'm going!

Maura on the masterwork

http://www.complex.com/music/2013/10/cyndi-lauper-shes-so-unusual

*APPLAUSE*

so, the deluxxe edition of this came out. it's overpriced so just download it illegally.

some of the outtakes are pretty cool. the keeper is a punky, minimalist synth-and-raw-guitar version of "girls just want to have fun" w/ some different lyrics. there's also a song i don't think i'd heard before, "rules and regulations"--it's a decent ballad.

maura's post above is a decent example of what it is, but like most (almost all) rock criticism it seems to be terrified of actually talking about the music. it's just the particular spin on 80s femininity that made this album so righteous, it's a genius pop record--the songwriting, the arrangements, Cyndi's voice, the mix of sonic influences and touchstones.... i guess that stuff is hard to write about so nobody does.

I'LL KISS YOU KISS YOU KISS YOU

I think part of the genius of the album is that she was a grown-ass Woman when she released it...she wasn't a girl telling other girls who to be, it was like a commandment. Cyn was 30, reporting to me, a 8 year oldgirl, from the front lines of womanhood with this massive voice & a fully realized personality, telling ME to have fun and it seemed stupid to my parents but goddamn it it meant something to me & it still does. i love that she worked so hard before the album was even a thing, you can hear it in every song, those dues are fucking PAID

every song sounds like she *knows* shit, it's still like a bible to me for the strength she has in that voice

which prob sounds corny but it's true. so. hi.

not corny. booming post.

yeah. i agree with all of it. i just think that not enough people talk about the album as a great pop record--and the things you talk about are only part of the reason it is that.

and yeah the tightness of the album is a testament to how much work and ambition was put into it, definitely. since the blue angel LP flopped she knew that--pushing 30--this was her big chance to leave an impression.

by contrast (b/c this ALWAYS comes up) madonna was--what?--about 24 when her debut album came out.

(same year btw)

is the blue angel album any good? i've never heard it