The Only 1983 Playlist that Matters: The (Mainstream) Empire Strikes Back

1983 was one of those pivotal years when a new generation of kids took over and embraced a new generation of music. It was the first year that GenXers graduated high school and with the rise of MTV and few had time for the hoary, hairy heroes of yesteryear.

So while a host of acts found themselves on the wrong side of the generational divide, a number of the smarter dogs were able to learn some new tricks and stay atop the charts. It was all very exciting, since you had the New Wave pulling in influences from both disco and rock -- bitter rivals in the early 80s-- and creating this incredibly huge middle ground where all sorts of influences could meet and exchange musical body fluids.

We've already looked in great depth at what Bowie and The Police were serving up in '83, so let's have a look at how the Mainstream was striking back at the New Wave insurgency...

Stevie Nicks teamed up with Prince for what I personally consider her greatest single, at least solo-wise (I'll tap 'Sara' for her best F-Mac one). And she was still turbo-hot enough to get away with the silly hippie-check dervish bit.

Elton John came back in a big, bold way in '83 after a long string of stinkers relieved only by a couple easy-listening hits (notably 1980s ‘Little Jeannie’). 'I’m Still Standing' was his liveliest, catchiest single in a very long time and this super-camp video fit right in on 1983 MTV.

ZZ Top went from beardie biker-bar boogie merchants to America’s favorite Texas uncles with their Eliminator hit-generator. The video for “Gimme All Your Lovin’' would make them Eighties icons, but I still prefer this stormer.

Such was the power of 1983 that Michael Jackson-- who'd literally cut his teeth in late 60's R&B-- and 70's string-shredder Eddie Van Halen could team up with 50's-vintage music-god Quincy Jones on a single that found great favor with GenXers.

The Rolling Stones had been floundering creatively for some time but managed to serve up a decent single now and then. This tune had them stealing some thunder back from The Clash atop a dubby backing track that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Cabaret Voltaire record. 

Robert Plant’s first solo album was essentially Let’s Go In Through the Out Door Again, so he mixed it up a bit for his sophomore effort. 'Big Log' was the big hit but for me this one just hit that mystical Misty Mountain sweet-spot only Percy could press. 

Phil Collins manned the kit again in preparation for being utterly ubiquitous for the remainder of the decade.

Styx. Well, Styx…um, made a rock opera…about, um, robots in 1983. I guess Dennis De Young was trying to make a grand social statement but it came off as corny and cringey as the nonsense Queen was squirting out around the same time. 

My favorite memory of this album is a DJ on WBCN introducing the record with “And here’s the new single from Styx," then DOMO ARIGATO MISTER ROBOTO chiming in, then the DJ lifting the needle and saying “OK, that’s enough of that." Legend.

Bonus factoid: At the time I heard that I wasn't too far from the shipyard where the 'Kilroy was Here' meme was born.

Yes were having much better luck adjusting to the new musical landscape with their smasheroonie 90125. This comeback was produced by Trevor Horn, who was most recently Yes's lead singer (for 1980's Drama). Horn tightened and modernized the band’s sound and hemmed in some of their notorious excess. 

I mean, who would have ever thought that a Yes single would have fit quite snugly on a playlist with The Police and Billy Idol? Well, in 1983 it did. So there.

Genesis had been playing footsie with pop for quite some time, so their 1983 self-titled hit factory didn’t seem out of place either. Old-school proggers grumbled, but like Yes, Genesis enjoyed having actual girls come to their shows. As well as guys who weren’t all prematurely-balding computer science majors.

Peter Gabriel ditched Prog (well, more or less) when he jumped from the Genesis mothership, though he didn’t ditch his penchant for overweening self-seriousness. The Security album got bogged down with ponderous and pretentious dirges, but this track off his 1983 live album has a nice Talking Heads kind of vibe going on.

Bob Dylan got born-again in 1979 but slowly got unborn as the Eighties wore on. He'd also hooked up with Mark Knopfler, who was also in a born-again phase at the time, and rhythm aces Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare for his 1983 comeback Infidels. 

That LP boasted this classic, which is officially the best Bob Dylan single ever. Independent fact-checkers have confirmed this, so don’t argue.  

Jackson Browne garnered a new generation of fangirls with his “Somebody’s Baby' smash off the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack and followed it up with this timely lament, the title track off his 1983 long-player. 

Girls who took horseback riding lessons and wore sweaters all year were kept happy while they waited for the next James Taylor record hit the shops.

The late, great Robert Palmer was still a couple years ahead of his ascent to chart dominance in 1983 but managed to unleash this corker, a cover of a 1982 dance hit. Killer track and woefully overlooked.

Leather-lunged pixie Pat Benatar had a major chartbuster with her 1983 side “Love is a Battlefield.' But we’re all beyond sick to death of that one so let’s listen to a rollicking live version of the first song I ever heard from perky Patty, all the way back in 1979.

Funk-rock pioneers Rufus had apparently been studying on the new-model King Crimson and made good use of their lessons with this sizzler. Chaka Khan-Chaka Khan can make even the crappiest song sound amazing and luckily she had a really good one to work with here.

Jeff Lynne woke up, smelled the coffee achievement, stripped his Electric Light Orchestra down to its core members and had a hit with this bouncy bopper. I think Lynne was just giving his accountants a break since they’d soon be working their fingers to the bone counting his Tom Petty, George Harrison and Traveling Wilburys receipts.

The Kinks went back to the well for their comeback hit 'Come Dancing.' That was followed on by this ballad, whose video felt like a sequel.

Cheap Trick was having a tough early 80's. They’d landed a modest hit in ’82 with 'If You Want My Love' then teamed with Todd Rundgren for 83’s Next Position Please, which couldn’t decide whether it was a Cheap Trick record or a Utopia record. I actually thought this song was Utopia the first time I heard. 

Solid album, but I think I was the only person who bought it.

Hey, that’s no Hobbit, it’s former Rockpile string-tickler Dave Edmunds! Having left the US Charts untroubled since 'I Hear You Knocking’ back in the Stone Age, Edmunds hooked up with Jeff Lynne for his own '83 offering, and had a modest little hit with a song which you probably haven’t heard since its release.

Chrissie Hynde was rocked by the deaths of half her band and worked with studio musicians until she was able to find replacements. The ones she found were no match for their predecessors but she had a huge comeback in 1983 either way, and released this lovely Christmas single to cap off the year.

So what Mainstream rock boppers were you hopping to in 1983? Let me know.

NEXT: KLANGAKLANGAKLANGA!!! Metal and Punk have a big year.

Come enroll at the Secret Sun Institute of Advanced Synchromysticism. We'll be doing some primo '83-diving there in the coming weeks.

Don't forget: the legendary Secret Sun Facebook group is back in action, after a three year hiatus.

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