Comments on: 1988 Countdown #76: Johnny Hates Jazz, “Shattered Dreams” http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/10/29/1988-countdown-76-johnny-hates-jazz-shattered-dreams/ The Self-Aggrandizing Website of Gavin Edwards Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:43:04 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Rob http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/10/29/1988-countdown-76-johnny-hates-jazz-shattered-dreams/#comment-510 Rob Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:46:51 +0000 http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/10/29/1988-countdown-76-johnny-hates-jazz-shattered-dreams/#comment-510 God, this song holds up psychotically well. My friend Melissa sang it Saturday night at Sing Sing (I had to follow it with Heart’s “Nothin’ At All”) and as always when I hear it, I am amazed how quintessentially 1986 it sounds, especially for a song that came out in 1988. “Turn Back the Clock” is a brilliant title, given how narrowly these guys missed out on the whole Glass Tiger/ Wang Chung/ Scritti Politti gold rush. God, this song holds up psychotically well. My friend Melissa sang it Saturday night at Sing Sing (I had to follow it with Heart’s “Nothin’ At All”) and as always when I hear it, I am amazed how quintessentially 1986 it sounds, especially for a song that came out in 1988.

“Turn Back the Clock” is a brilliant title, given how narrowly these guys missed out on the whole Glass Tiger/ Wang Chung/ Scritti Politti gold rush.

]]> By: Chris M. http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/10/29/1988-countdown-76-johnny-hates-jazz-shattered-dreams/#comment-509 Chris M. Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:35:20 +0000 http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/10/29/1988-countdown-76-johnny-hates-jazz-shattered-dreams/#comment-509 <i>Kevin Seal.... “Well, 1988 was a big and exciting year for bands from England,” he says.</i> Really? By ’88, I feel like most of the limey synth-pop had been metabolized and MTV was fully into diva-and-metalhead mode. Note that we've already seen a lot of British stuff in the bottom quartile of this countdown -- I think that's because most of the top stuff that year was American, or George Michael (English, yes, but not a band). <i>Aren’t synth-pop acts supposed to be futuristic? Were Johnny Hates Jazz trying to tap into nostalgia for the early 80s?</i> Hell, yes! If these guys had been born earlier and released this song in 1983, they'd have scored at least a couple of huge followup hits, instead of the virtual one-hit-wonder status they ended up with. (They had one more hit scrape the Top 40 and one other one make the A/C charts, but they didn't exactly go platinum.) Kevin Seal…. “Well, 1988 was a big and exciting year for bands from England,” he says.

Really? By ’88, I feel like most of the limey synth-pop had been metabolized and MTV was fully into diva-and-metalhead mode. Note that we’ve already seen a lot of British stuff in the bottom quartile of this countdown — I think that’s because most of the top stuff that year was American, or George Michael (English, yes, but not a band).

Aren’t synth-pop acts supposed to be futuristic? Were Johnny Hates Jazz trying to tap into nostalgia for the early 80s?

Hell, yes! If these guys had been born earlier and released this song in 1983, they’d have scored at least a couple of huge followup hits, instead of the virtual one-hit-wonder status they ended up with. (They had one more hit scrape the Top 40 and one other one make the A/C charts, but they didn’t exactly go platinum.)

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