‘Look Ma, No Mike!’ N°6 – Vintage 80s Music Videos

1 . Lindsey Buckingham – Trouble

Released in 1981 as the lead single from his debut solo record *Law and Order*, Lindsey Buckingham’s “Trouble” occupies a curious space between introspective artistry and pop accessibility.

Marked by its minimalistic yet precise arrangement, the track walks a tightrope between the lo-fi experimentalism Buckingham embraced post-*Tusk* and a radio-friendly hook that practically begs for repeat listens.

Almost singularly a Buckingham affair, the song features him handling nearly all the instrumentation and production, save for drummer Mick Fleetwood, whose steady, loop-like rhythm anchors the breezy melody.

Thematically, “Trouble” toys with regret and longing, though its lyrical sparseness leaves much of its emotional weight hinted at rather than overtly stated.

Commercially, the gamble paid off—it cracked the U.S. Top 10, clinched the top spot in Australia, and found modest success in the U.K., solidifying its cross-continental appeal.

The accompanying music video, with its mock performance antics and notable cameos from Fleetwood and Bob Welch, feels as playfully off-kilter as Buckingham himself, contrasting sharply with the song’s understated earnestness.

As part of an album that often veers into wildly eclectic sonic territory, “Trouble” serves as its anchor, offering a palatable entry point for those uninitiated to Buckingham’s more eccentric tendencies.

Featured on the 1981 album “Law and Order”.

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2 . Perfect Day – Liberty Town

Liberty Town’s “Perfect Day” straddles the peculiar space between the electronic and rock-driven hues of the early ’80s music scene.

The track’s genre identity sits at the intersection of pop rock and synth-pop, a hallmark of its time, yet oddly uncredited with any significant chart achievements.

Originally released in 1983 on vinyl and resurrected five years later on CD single in Europe, its timeline feels more like a cautious echo than a resounding anthem.

Production details remain curiously absent, as if its creators never expected anyone to ask who was pushing the buttons on the synths or dialing in the reverb.

While its title tempts comparisons to Lou Reed’s weighty classic, this isn’t even a distant cousin but rather an unrelated foray into simpler pop textures.

Its release under multiple formats suggests an attempt to stretch its relevance, but this song evaporated from pop history much like a cassette left on a dashboard in summer heat.

Despite its ghostly presence in discographies and genre classifications, “Perfect Day” offers little to haunt music anniversaries or provoke late-night debates over drinks.

The song exists in a curious void, a relic of an era that was both sonically innovative and unapologetically disposable.

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3 . The Jam – Going Underground

Released on March 10, 1980, “Going Underground” lands The Jam their first UK No. 1 single, storming straight to the top of the UK Singles Chart and holding the position for three consecutive weeks.

Unlike many chart-toppers, it bypasses the studio album format, eventually finding a home on compilations like *Snap!* in 1983.

The track emerges during a Britain grappling with political unrest, encapsulating Paul Weller’s acerbic critique of societal complacency and governmental priorities like nuclear proliferation.

Its punchy, mod revival sound blends punk rock energy with lyrical introspection, offering a rallying cry for those seeking respite from an increasingly fractured world.

Effectively a double A-side with “Dreams of Children,” its candid edge is heightened by backwards tape effects on its counterpart, enhancing the single’s experimental demeanor.

A promotional video directed by Russell Mulcahy complements the song’s charged tone, though it’s their Top of the Pops performance that embeds the track in British musical consciousness.

The single’s packaging is as striking as the music itself, with a bold ballot box design underscoring its political themes, a visual sharpness rarely matched in their catalog.

Through its raw conviction and sharply honed style, it underscores Weller’s instinct for weaving social commentary into palatable, precise songwriting.

Featured on the 1988 album ” “.

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4 . Level 42 – Tracie

Released in 1988, “Tracie” finds Level 42 charting a mellow, introspective course far removed from their funk-forward roots.

Anchored by Mark King’s velvety vocals and a soft jazz-funk groove, the song pays homage to a personal muse, real or imagined, wrapped in glossy late-’80s production.

While the wax-paper sheen of the arrangement might befit the era, it risks sanding down the emotional weight of what is ostensibly a heartfelt tribute.

The songwriting, attributed to Mark King and the briefly returning Boon Gould, reflects polished sentimentality, with lyrics that hit all the right cues without much surprise.

“Tracie” crept into the UK Top 30 but struggled beyond the map of mainland Europe and a sympathetic New Zealand, leaving North American and larger continental audiences untouched.

The album it inhabits, “Staring at the Sun,” showcases a band navigating an identity shift following the departure of key members Phil and Boon Gould, though the cracks don’t derail completely.

Critics might find the song’s glossy optimism bordering on saccharine, yet for devoted fans who savor Level 42’s commitment to melodic craftsmanship, it’s comfort food in jazz-funk wrapping paper.

Its accompanying video, a minor curiosity preserved in the amber of YouTube, adds little to the poignancy but satisfies archival urges for those willing to track it down in its extended mix format.

For all its aspirations, “Staring at the Sun,” like “Tracie,” serves as an album caught midstream—a commercial moment of preservation rather than reinvention for a band better known for filling dance floors than reflective car rides.

Featured on the 1988 album “Staring at the Sun”.

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5 . The Mighty Lemon Drops – Inside Out

Few tracks encapsulate the jangling malaise of late-’80s alternative rock quite like “Inside Out” by The Mighty Lemon Drops.

Released in 1988 on *World Without End*, this single straddles the line between post-punk gloom and the shimmering guitars of indie’s C86 lineage.

A critical darling of the college-radio circuit, it topped the U.S. Modern Rock/College album charts, even though it peaked at a modest #74 on the UK Singles Chart—a stark reminder of the genre’s transatlantic divide.

The band pairs chiming Vox Mark VII “Teardrop” 12-strings with Micro-Frets Spacetone guitars, layering a haze of reverb over driving percussion and Paul Marsh’s earnest, slightly nasal vocals.

Production duties, helmed by Pete Coleman alongside the band, keep the arrangements tight without veering into either the glossy excess of mainstream rock or the DIY scrappiness some contemporaries wore as a badge.

“Inside Out” thrives on a certain emotional push-pull: melodic hooks that feel hopeful, tethered to lyrics steeped in introspection.

The accompanying music video, hosted on Rhino Records’ YouTube channel, exudes the usual low-budget charm of its era while managing to visually emphasize the band’s unpretentious rapport.

It’s telling that Dave Newton revisited the song in 2006 for Lassie Foundation’s *Through and Through*—proof that its core emotional thrust endures across decades and contexts.

While it never stormed mainstream charts, the song remains an emblem of its scene, always at home on compilations or retro playlists highlighting the contemplative edge of the post-punk diaspora.

Featured on the 1980 album “The World Without End”.

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6 . The Jam – When You’re Young

Released in 1979 as a standalone single, “When You’re Young” by The Jam captures the uneasy dichotomy between the vitality of youth and the disillusionment lurking behind it.

Written by Paul Weller at the age of 20, the track is steeped in his own grappling with the fragility of youthful ideals amidst societal pressures and personal crises.

Set against a backdrop of economic instability and cultural shifts in late ’70s Britain, the song channels a sharp critique of the capitalist system while maintaining an exhilarating power-pop energy.

Though not included in The Jam’s original *Setting Sons* album, its frenetic instrumentation and pointed lyrics solidified its place when later bundled with compilations like *The Very Best of The Jam* and the re-released *Setting Sons*.

The B-side, “Smithers-Jones,” penned by bassist Bruce Foxton, brings a poignant commentary on redundancy and working-class struggles, further enriching the single’s thematic weight.

The music video—shot in a gritty section of Queens Park, North West London—adds an urban texture, reflecting the band’s connection to their environment and amplifying the song’s realism.

With its blend of frustration, exhilaration, and defiance, “When You’re Young” remains a slice of The Jam’s knack for cultural introspection paired with unrelenting rhythm.

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7 . Big Country – Wonderland

Released in January 1984, “Wonderland” stands as a fascinating anomaly in Big Country’s catalogue, a moment when the band’s Scottish folk-rock fusion hit its most evocative stride—without requiring a studio album to prop it up.

The song, with its guitar tones famously mimicking the sound of bagpipes, surges with martial precision and an undercurrent of emotional longing, themes underscored by its nuanced exploration of love and devotion.

It charted respectably, reaching number 8 on the UK Singles Chart and 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100, offering a glimpse of the band’s transatlantic ambitions during the era.

The riff that drives “Wonderland,” conceived during a jam session by guitarist Bruce Watson, channels the spirit of the Highlands without slipping into pastiche, a testament to the band’s ability to craft atmosphere without artifice.

The production crackles with a blend of explosive power and delicate precision, each note steeped in a sense of place often absent in the era’s more bombastic rock offerings.

Yet the band initially doubted the track’s potential, only to later embrace it as one of their defining creative achievements—an internal irony that mirrors its live performances, where improvisation gave the song a vibrant unpredictability.

The accompanying music video by Steve Barron, set in a snowy rural landscape, sharpens the song’s imagery, visually anchoring its themes in a world both stark and romantic.

Though it lived outside the confines of a formal album release, “Wonderland” has since found its way onto compilations, ensuring its legacy within the band’s 1980s output remains intact.

Its place on Big Country’s setlists during tours and its subsequent reevaluation over the years underscores the song’s resilience, offering a poignant snapshot of a group straddling rock and tradition with deftness and heart.

Featured on the 1984 album “Steeltown”.

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8 . The Jam – That’s Entertainment

The Jam’s “That’s Entertainment,” scratched into existence by Paul Weller in a 10-minute burst of inspiration, feels less like a crafted song and more like an overheard confession on a grimy London street.

Its minimalistic acoustic arrangement strips the track bare, emphasizing its unflinching portrayal of working-class monotony—rain-soaked pavements, damp lodgings, and routine despair painted with razor-sharp urban imagery.

First smuggled into the UK charts in 1981 by way of passionate import buyers, it secured an improbable No. 21 position, a commercial curiosity that outpaced its later full release in 1983.

Despite lacking the flash of traditional singles—or perhaps because of it—the song took root as an anthem for austerity, channeling the gritty frustration of Thatcher-era Britain into three melancholy minutes.

Both BBC Radio 2 and *Rolling Stone* nodded at its rare genius, though calling it the “43rd best song ever” feels like the kind of Mathlete exercise Weller himself would’ve scorned.

The record’s cultural DNA is punk-mod revival, though its pop-psychedelic accents suggest a deliberate tug of war between the raw and the reflective.

As for the trivia trail, Morrissey’s 1991 cover replaces Weller’s wry detachment with his brand of maudlin sincerity, a stark example of how the same song mutates in different hands.

Yet it’s hard to imagine anyone capturing Weller’s brusque, lived-in authenticity or his knack for making misery sound like a poetic inevitability.

“That’s Entertainment” doesn’t roar or plead for attention—it simply stands there, flawed and unshakable, like the damp brick walls it describes.

Featured on the 1987 album “Sound Affects“.

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9 . Prefab Sprout – Don’t Sing

Prefab Sprout’s “Don’t Sing,” a 1984 single nestled within their debut album *Swoon*, is a sharp mix of indie pop, funk, and Latin jazz that exudes literary pretension dressed as pop sophistication.

Inspired by Graham Greene’s *The Power and the Glory*, its narrative lyricism is a curious blend of artful introspection and overwrought cleverness, typical of Paddy McAloon’s early songwriting pursuits.

The track’s uneven charm lies in its layers: acoustic guitars that meander and keyboards that glimmer, anchored by Wendy Smith’s ethereal backing vocals, which later became the band’s sonic hallmark.

Producer David Motion scents the recording with a slightly raw edge, one that the band famously didn’t warm to, though fans seemed to bask in its idiosyncratic glow.

While the album cracked the UK Albums Chart at number 22, *Swoon* plays more like a cult statement than a commercial bid, a sentiment underlined by “Don’t Sing” reaching a lukewarm chart position of 62.

Its accompanying music video, now on YouTube, is a visual time capsule of the band’s fledgling identity—a mix of sincerity and awkward ambition.

Critics and admirers are often split, finding its ambitious complexity either a mark of brilliance or an overly-dense confection.

Thomas Dolby famously called it “literary escapism,” which nails its dual charm and flaw: dazzling, but just a tad too wrapped up in its own cleverness.

Featured on the 1987 album “Swoon”.

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10 . The Psychedelic Furs – Angels Don’t Cry

“Angels Don’t Cry” from The Psychedelic Furs’ 1987 album “Midnight to Midnight” lands somewhere between introspection and commercial sheen, a track drenched in the heightened production common to late-’80s new wave.

With Chris Kimsey at the production helm—better known for polishing The Rolling Stones—this track adopts the band’s signature brooding aesthetic and layers it with a somewhat divisive pop gloss.

The lyrics muse on loss and anguish, contrasting the stoic imagery of angels with very human frailties, but the emotional weight sometimes struggles to break through the production’s polished armor.

It lives as an echo rather than a punch, unlike the album’s more attention-seizing single, “Heartbreak Beat.”

The horn sections, a unique but fleeting embellishment on the record, aim to elevate its sound but risk veering into studio excess instead of artistic depth.

This track, while not unwanted, isn’t one to clamor for in the band’s live setlists or retrospectives.

Frontman Richard Butler himself recognizes “Midnight to Midnight” as a creative compromise despite its marginal commercial success, and “Angels Don’t Cry” lands squarely in that conflicted limbo.

Was it a brave stab at reinvention or a slight stumble off the band’s previously jagged edge? Whatever the answer, this track will always be just an intriguing footnote in their career-long narrative of tension between artistic identity and mainstream sensibilities.

Featured on the 1984 album “Midnight to Midnight”.

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11 . Siouxsie And The Banshees – This Wheel’s On Fire

“This Wheel’s on Fire” by Siouxsie and the Banshees pulls a haunting twist on the 1967 Dylan-Danko original, capturing a sonic atmosphere laced with tension and intrigue.

Emerging as part of the _Through the Looking Glass_ album, the track molds itself into a gothic tapestry, swapping the folksy psychedelia of its origins for deep alternative textures, brimming with cello and accordion.

While the Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger 1968 rendition thrived in its jazzy vibrancy, peaking in top UK and Canadian charts, Siouxsie’s take leans into a darker thematic sphere, fully embracing its post-punk ethos.

The song’s ominous cadence finds fresh significance as the theme for “Absolutely Fabulous,” marrying its cryptic allure with absurdist comedy—a cultural reinvention no one saw coming.

The production by Siouxsie, her bandmates, and Mike Hedges strips the track of predictability while amplifying its eeriness, offering both homage and transformation.

Accompanied by a video that marries visual surrealism with music’s unsettling edge, the piece consolidates its existence across decades in a bold and artful reimagining.

Featured on the 1995 album “Through the Looking Glass”.

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12 . Eurythmics – Julia

Eurythmics’ “Julia” feels more like a whisper from the future-past than a traditional pop ballad, belonging to the conceptual soundtrack for the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell’s *Nineteen Eighty-Four.*

Released in 1985, the song is rooted in stark minimalism, with Annie Lennox’s haunting, vocoder-laced vocals cutting through Dave Stewart’s sparse, synth-driven arrangement.

It sits somewhere between eerie serenity and austere beauty, a detached departure from the duo’s chart-friendly new wave anthems of the early ’80s.

The lyrics and somber tone evoke the novel’s desolation and doomed romance, fixating on the character Julia, but not without injecting a cold detachment that mirrors Orwell’s dystopian vision.

“Julia” is at its core an exercise in tonal precision, yet despite its cinematic backdrop and Lennox’s arresting voice, the track faltered commercially, peaking at 44 on the UK chart and breaking a streak of hits for the duo.

The accompanying music video, with its shadowy close-ups of Lennox, reinforces the eeriness while maintaining a stark, stripped aesthetic that feels at odds with mainstream expectations.

Even within the album “1984 (For the Love of Big Brother),” its sparse textures contrast sharply with Eurythmics’ more accessible earlier works, illustrating the duo’s willingness to trade pop excess for artistic intrigue.

Critics and fans alike are often divided on its merits, oscillating between admiration for its audacity and frustration over its lack of immediacy.

Featured on the 1998 album “1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)”.

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