The Shadows in the Eighties...

[dolmo333]

Hi!

I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb here and say that i am probably the only one here that like what the shads did in the 80's. But before you dismiss me as a complete nut i would like to give my theory as to why.

I belive it's the fact that i was born in 1981. I grew up with the 80's music and i think thats why i think 80's music is really good. The same applies to most of the people here that likes 60's music. It's a generation thing.

But thats just my opinion, and the last time i wrote the same thing in another thread the comments towards me was not that pleasant. But i don't take it as offensive as this is just my opinion. Call me crazy if you like.

/Daniel, fellow shads guitarist from Sweden who happily plays Shadows 80's songs

[iefje]

As it happens, I'm from 1981 too, October the 14th in fact, also the birthdays of Sir Cliff Richard and Sir Roger Moore; two of my heroes. Most Shadows tracks I first heard, were also those from the mid to late 1980's albums, which my father played in the living room when he had just bought them. In the early 1990's, my father gave me his old Dual record player to use, after which I started discovering his record collection of The Shadows' 1960's and 1970's output. But, to return on topic, I quite like the albums and singles from the 1980's and the one from 1990 of course. I don't like every track as much as the other, but this also applies to the tracks from the 1960's and 1970's. I have to agree, I would like to have seen more originals in the second half of the 1980's. Hank has said that he thinks the creativity had gone a bit from the "Moonlight Shadows" album on. It was much more creative in the early 1980's. Perhaps it also had something to do with the fact that Hank emigrated to Australia at the end of 1986 and Brian did much composing for television and film.

[Gary Allen]

I always judged those 80s albums mostly on Hanks guitar sound,Hits Right Up Your Street --Life in the Jungle--Guardian Angel--Moonlight Shadows are my favourites. There are good songs and good interpretations on the other albums.The non hits on"Steppin" were good, "Simply" had a dark and mysterious guitar sound,(great version of walking in the air)....he should have kept that sound on "Reflection". Anyway..A new album is way overdue. Could they find 12 good songs from the last 20+years ??

[MikeAB]

Nobody ever seems to consider that the Shads themselves simply wanted the easy way out? Hank has been nagged quite often to stretch himself, even by the great Brian, and despite being the quiet genius whose playing even on the covers was sublime he can't really justify his occasional comments on lack of creativity creeping in etc as he was at least partly responsible for that. The problem seems to me to have been their unwillingness or just their inability to create enough of their own compositions as time went on, and this probably wasn't simply because record companies wouldn't wear it. And with Hank in Australia it was simply just too easy for them all to make backing tracks of covers for him to overlay his so distinctive lead.

Also all the instrumental bands seem to have done loads of covers and it seems to be an intrinsic part of being an instrumental band to have to do that. And I reckon it's much more difficult to write excellent brand new purely instrumental tunes than it is to compose 'vocal' songs and many tunes would have been needed to produce a string of 'creative' albums in that genre. So maybe the 'covers' trend was simply inevitable.

I think we should all just like what we like anyway, and not pigeonhole eras. Some of the covers are really great and some of the early album stuff was not, despite what an observer might assume from all the debate.

And I still recall regularly how much I wanted 'Blue Shadows' to follow up 'Flingel Bunt', and with some extra bluesy fills from Hank in the middle what a single that could have been - with Dakota as the B side. Maybe the future would have been changed!

[hankb56]

All said and done no matter what was recorded, easy way out or not, if we weren't buying the music would we have had all these years of seeing ou heros live on stage? Look at the live albums they have given us.
The same old story, there damned if they do and there damned if they don't. What the F do we want?

Ian

[Fenderman]

Hank did say in a 1993 interview that it was hard to write consistently good material but look at some 80's tracks such as Shoba, Life in the jungle, The fourth man, Stack-it and Summer love 59, these are among my favourite tracks.
What they should have done is for about 2 months before recording an album is get together and jammed and came up with more originals, that may have worked.

[iefje]

I don't think it had something to do with inability, but more with available time. If they had taken the time or had the time to jam together like they did for instance for the recording sessions of "Rockin' With Curly Leads", then the compositions may have come out much more easily. I think it was this fact combined with Polydor/PolyGram/Universal's demands for the recording of instrumental versions of other artists' music, that resulted in far less original recordings in the latter part of the 1980's.

[StuartD]

I don't think it had something to do with inability, but more with available time. If they had taken the time or had the time to jam together like they did for instance for the recording sessions of "Rockin' With Curly Leads", then the compositions may have come out much more easily. I think it was this fact combined with Polydor/PolyGram/Universal's demands for the recording of instrumental versions of other artists' music, that resulted in far less original recordings in the latter part of the 1980's.

Interesting that Brian told me he had taken two weeks out from his heavy session schedule to rehearse and record Curly Leads. They got so 'into' it, that it overran by a considerable amount of time!!

[iefje]

I don't think it had something to do with inability, but more with available time. If they had taken the time or had the time to jam together like they did for instance for the recording sessions of "Rockin' With Curly Leads", then the compositions may have come out much more easily. I think it was this fact combined with Polydor/PolyGram/Universal's demands for the recording of instrumental versions of other artists' music, that resulted in far less original recordings in the latter part of the 1980's.

Interesting that Brian told me he had taken two weeks out from his heavy session schedule to rehearse and record Curly Leads. They got so 'into' it, that it overran by a considerable amount of time!!

So the factor 'time' wouldn't have been the case then in the late 1980's?

[StuartD]

I don't think it had something to do with inability, but more with available time. If they had taken the time or had the time to jam together like they did for instance for the recording sessions of "Rockin' With Curly Leads", then the compositions may have come out much more easily. I think it was this fact combined with Polydor/PolyGram/Universal's demands for the recording of instrumental versions of other artists' music, that resulted in far less original recordings in the latter part of the 1980's.

Interesting that Brian told me he had taken two weeks out from his heavy session schedule to rehearse and record Curly Leads. They got so 'into' it, that it overran by a considerable amount of time!!

So the factor 'time' wouldn't have been the case then in the late 1980's?

Except that Hank had moved to OZ then