1980 (fill in the blanks)

FUNKYTOWN

Dexys Midnight Runners - 'Searching for the young soul rebels' (imo, the best debut evah...)
Prince - 'Dirty Mind'
Elvis Costello - 'Get Happy!!'

not particularly obscure but super mega.

tom waits - 'heartattack and vine' is no half bad either.

-- donut bitch (do...), May 8th, 2004. (later)

Nice!

Prince--"When You Were Mine"
AC/DC--"You Shook Me All Night Long"
Change--"The Glow of Love"
Talking Heads--"Once In a Lifetime"
Hall & Oates--"Kiss On My List"
English Beat--"Best Friend"
Springsteen--"Hungry Heart"/"Two Hearts" (live) (slightly cheating)
Liliput--"Split"
X--"The World's a Mess, It's In My Kiss"
Genesis--"Behind the Lines"
Roxy Music--"Oh Yeah"
Kool & the Gang--"Celebration"
Specials--"Little Bitch"
English Beat--"Mirror in the Bathroom"
Pearl Harbour & the Explosions--"You Got It (Release It)"
Embarassment--"Patio Set"
Prince--"Sister"
Glenn Branca--"Lesson #1"
Bob Marley--"Redemtion Song"

alternates: The Dance--"Do Dada"; English Beat--"Twist & Crawl"; Liliput--"Hitch-hike"

albums of note: Specials, Prince, AC/DC, English Beat, Change

AMG has their 1980 feature up right now, and I was pleasantly surprised to see many I haven't heard yet. Anyone know much about Yukihiro Takahashi? In order of my immediate interest:

Glaxo Babies - Nine Months to the Disco
Bernard Szajner - Some Deaths Take Forever
Yukihiro Takahashi - Murdered by the Music
Freddie McGregor - Bobby Bobylon
Diesel - Watts in a Tank
Robert Fripp - God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners
Jezzreel - Great Jah Jah
Skafish - Skafish
The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy
Lio - Premier Album
Phil Seymour - Phil Seymour
Snakefinger - Greener Postures
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy
Diana Ross - Diana
General Echo - 12″ of Pleasure
Rupert Holmes - Adventure
Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society - Eye on You
Nic Jones - Penguin Eggs
Robert Palmer - Clues
Chaka Khan - Naughty
UB40 - Signing Off
Bobby Bare - Drunk & Crazy

Hit a randomizer to pick a year and it came up 1980 so I spent my eight-hour shift listening to albums that came out that tyear. This is what I wound up playing in order...

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Chrome - Red Exposure
The Wipers - Is This Real?
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz
Motörhead - Ace Of Spades
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kaleidoscope
Joy Division - Closer
Black Flag - Jealous Again
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel ("Melt")
Judas Priest - British Steel

Blue Oyster Cult - Cultosaurus Erectus
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
Gaznevada - Sick Soundtrack
Wipers - Is This Real?
New York Gong - About Time
Doc at the Radar Station
ABBA - Super Trouper
Dirty Mind
Creation Rebel - Starship Africa
Moebius + Plank - Rastakrautpasta

The Units - Digital Stimulation
Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe

The Units - Digital Stimulation

Nice call, I only discovered this last year! Excellent sub-Devo electro-punk.

Yes! The opening track "High Pressure Days" is so immense it's hard to believe it's nearly 40 years old. Wasn't quite sure whether to nominate the whole album (which is p. fun, don't get me wrong) or just that track. Speaking of which, some tracks, off the top of my head and trying to avoid anything already mentioned...

Kano "I'm Ready"
Family Fodder "Savoir Faire"
Fehlfarben "Ein Jahr (Es geht voran)"

Pretenders - Pretenders
Total Sex - Whitehouse
Dirty Mind - Prince
Seventeen Seconds - The Cure
Gaucho - Steely Dan
The Return of the Durutti Column - The Durutti Column
Double Fantasy - John Lennon & Yoko Ono
McCartney II - Paul McCartney
Black Sea - XTC
Remain in Light - Talking Heads