Highwayman, the Highwaymen

Highwayman, the Highwaymen, 1985, :34

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I've heard the title track a thousand times, of course, but never got around to the rest of this fine debut by the country supergroup to end all supergroups. Fun fact: The group wasn't named "The Highwaymen" on this album. On their this and their second album, they are credited as "Nelson, Jennings, Cash, Kristofferson." The official name which came to be widely recognized began to be used only in later years, and their last collaborative effort, The Road Goes on Forever, was already credited to "The Highwaymen." But I'm going with the now-common name. Also, I always assumed that the cosmic-reincarnation saga of the title track was some Willie Nelson weed-inspired dream, but it turns out it's a Jimmy Webb cover from 1977! Anyhoo, the rest of these songs — all but one covers — are excellent as well. Favorite tracks: "Highwayman," "Big River," "Against the Wind," and the bleak but jaunty-sounding account of a mental hospital, "Committed to Parkview."

Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M.

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 1985.

Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M., 1985, :39

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Was 1985 the worst year in history for music? Yes. Yes, it was. Musicologists estimate that the ratio of crap to good music produced during this year was 99 to one.  Anyhoo, this is (I believe) the one R.E.M. album that I haven't listened to all the way though, barring their end-of-career shite.  I read that the band itself disavowed the album (though later came to speak well of it).  I think it's a perfectly good R.E.M. album.  It's not one of their masterworks — "Old Man Kensey" is kind of lugubrious, and "Good Advices" rather sluggish — but neither it is somehow a failure.  Actually, since over the majority of R.E.M.'s career they stuck with and refined pretty much one low-fi jangle-pop sound, I don't see how this album could stand out for obloquy. It sounds like their usual stuff to me.  Favorite tracks: "Driver 8," "Can't Get There From Here," "Life and How To Live It."

Hurt Me, Johnny Thunders

Hurt Me, Johnny Thunders, 1985, :38

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I know the New York Dolls existed, but I haven't listened to anything by them, and I only knew this guy by his name. I'm astonished to find that his voice is a high, fluttery, almost babyish falsetto. His acoustic guitar has a rich, fat sound. Yes, it’s mostly acoustic, but this is rock, baby. This is the same spirit that drives Lou Reed and Syd Barrett. This is androgyny and anger and drugs and loss and a do-whatever-you-want attitude. This gave birth to the Violent Femmes and Daniel Johnston.  Does Thunders include just the first two lines of Dylan's "It Ain’t Me Babe" as its own twenty-second track? Or just two minutes of Dylan’s execrable, eleven-minute "Joey," made into a poppy little ditty called "Joey Joey?" Yes, why not.  Favorite tracks: "You Can’t put Your Arms Around a Memory," "Eve of Destruction," "Sad Vacation.”