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GHOST MALL MUSIC SPECIAL OVERVIEW - NOTABLE ALBUMS IN THE BUBBLING UNDER CHART, 1982

First the Dark Side to this tale...

Being a kid into the New Pop was going to be a tough ride in the Midwest before MTV actually made it across the US, and by then it was really all over with. You heard the girls laugh out loud over the looks of Adam Ant in his Prince Charming stage before he went into his more marketable Friend Or Foe "Goody Two Shoes" era; You rave about the Jam, but you always get those "Never heard of them" or "We already have The Who" remarks from others; You don't even try to convince that early OMD and Gary Numan are worthy to your friends - of course, you will always get those who will say "Well, I kind of like it now. I just did not get it then" remarks a couple of decades down the line.

As for those Hardcore records you had to sneak through the house door and hide from your parents...don't mention them or they will think you were like one of those characters on that CHiPs episode they saw or that Quincy show with the legendary song "Choke". You knew that Eric Estrada singing "Celebration" was your idea of something you would rather kill yourself before hearing. Yes, there were a few mall stores that had Dead Kennedys albums - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was actually connected to IRS Records and even went into that Bubbling Under chart! FACT!

You knew you were not alone, but in a way that next person was possibly some miles away from you.

As Creem Magazine said as early as 1970, The New Waves don't hit the Midwest, and that was another era and another music!


Now for the good side to the story...

If you lived in an era where you had a good library to go to (I actually did. Joy Division's Closer and Simple Minds' New Gold Dream were waiting for me to check out!) or a good music store in a mall that had at least someone getting those hip new albums of the day, it was possible to shut yourself away from the rest of them. Hell, if you knew of that great Sunday Night Alternative Show, it was possible to get a taste of what was going on, tape it, then hear it over and over again until the next show or until the next shopping trip.

For some reason, even in an era where it seemed that there was a lot of New Music going on, there was a lot that got swept under the rug. For some reason, may it be part of that New Romantic scene that never caught on in The US or that great American Punk scene that was too real for the Mainstream for two examples, there would be those albums that never got noticed. Still, music geeks of the day were reading the Billboard at their local Library and checking out that hidden part of the chart called the Bubbling Under section - #101-110 for the singles, #201-210 for the Albums. All serious music fans checked them out or at least told about them to the few who would listen.

1982 had quite a few of these examples! Never mind that in the UK, they would usually just be part of it's Pop Scene, but you know what I mean here.

JAPAN (Collection) - US Peak #204
Those in The UK and Europe already knew that Japan were never going to be big in the US. Top 40 avoided them and the Alternative Rock shows also shoved them off unless it was one that took a few chances. This compilation of songs from the two great later period albums, Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum, was a mix of their great and very subtle sounds that gained them worldwide acclaim...except from The US. Nothing to dance or Rock out to, no videos that featured them bopping around or on yachts or surrounded by neon colors, this was some serious stuff which has had it's share of critics worldwide ("Pretentious" was a word used a lot I think) but was not even interesting to most of the American audience it seemed, although after the fact and with David Sylvian and Mick Karn going into respected solo careers several people got into their music to establish a small cult.

Still, I give Epic some points for trying to get the music out to a very quiet audience.

"Gentlemen..." lasts about 7 Minutes on The LP, I just wanted to post the promo video.



...PS, I remember "Taking Islands in Africa" being used in an Alternative Clothing Store Radio Ad in Detroit! I'm trying to remember which one, though...


VISAGE - The Anvil - US Peak #204
Club Kids and serious Synth fans were all into Visage thanks to the classic "Fade to Grey", but when it came to the rest of The US...you knew what happened. At least "The Damned Don't Cry" was a small Club hit. Somehow, you can see where they did not connect to a US audience...but there were those who said yes to this. Sadly, this was the last of the classic Visage lineup featuring Steve Strange plus other great names of the New Pop like Midge Ure of Ultravox, but it was one hell of a way to wrap up the best era.





DAVID BOWIE - Baal - US Peak #204 (yet again!)
Not being a full album, and one that was more Dramatic in nature, this was going to be looked over by his Pop fans. Actually an interesting diversion, and seriously more listenable than Let's Dance. Also in '82, the soundtrack to Christine F went to #135 on the strength of his better known songs, and there was also the Cat People soundtrack with the small hit title song single. The serious US Bowie fans, however, also went for this, his final RCA recording.

#29 on the UK Single chart, though!




ROBERT GORDON - Too Fast to Live - US Peak #208
Moving away from the New Romantics, here's something that connected with the growing interest in Rockabilly and 50's style American music by one of the best, who recorded with 50's legend Link Wray on occasion! A great compilation, but sadly his style was a little too real for those who wanted the MTV ready style of Stray Cats. Not to dis the Cats, but you know where I'm going with this. He's best known for covering Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" and Marshall Crenshaw's "Someday Someway", but there's a lot more to his music.

C/O bin watchers will remember a lot of his albums in those bins, especially the ones released through Private Stock in the 70's.






BOOMTOWN RATS - V Deep - US Peak #202
The ill fated album that seriously marked the downward slide for the once strong band who only two years before had a massive hit with "I Don't Like Mondays". Still they promoted it pretty good with an appearance on SCTV, the cult show of the time, although the video here is featuring a song from their previous album Mondo Bongo although it remains one of the highlights of both the show and the band. Featuring the dramatic "Never in a Million Years", which I tried to get an SCTV clip of, this just fell by the wayside, although you could say that the single's video was not that great - you know what the video age could do to someone with that kind of fate especially in a time when MTV was picking up steam.





Damn, the Mall is closing right now, and you only have a couple of seconds to make that choice! Between these albums, you knew that you had something pretty damn cool. More later!