Throwback Training Tunes vol. 8 – 1987 & 1988 edition

It’s been a long time since I’ve added any tunes to the throwback training playlist.  Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely … time.

Life got a bit too busy, and I had other fascinating and insightful topics I needed to share on the blog, so the throwbacks suffered.  For those still interested, I’ve got 5 songs to add to the list today, and will try and add additional songs more frequently in the next few weeks leading up to my marathon.  Quick recap of the ‘rules’:

• Building a playlist with running songs from each of the last 20 years of the 20th century (1980-1999)
• None of the songs in this list can be in any of the existing playlists on my iPod.  As much as I love all the blogging runners and running bloggers out there, this list is for me too.
• Mainstream to alternative, well-known to abundantly obscure, anything is a potential candidate
• I’m test-driving anything I post with a listen during at least two training runs
• Trying to link to a video or audio-clip of the songs

Prior Throwbacks:

‘Ceremony’ - New Order (1981)

‘Don’t Change’ – INXS (1982)

‘Turn to the Sky’ - The March Violets (1986)
‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ - LL Cool J (1990)

‘Three Strange Days’ – School of Fish (1991)

‘Enter Sandman’ – Metallica (1991)

‘Rearviewmirror’ – Pearl Jam (1993)

‘A Murder of One’ - Counting Crows (1993)

‘Looking Through Patient Eyes’ - PM Dawn (1993)

'She' – Green Day (1994)

'Machinehead' – Bush (1994)

Today’s Throwbacks:

’Heartbreak Beat’ – Psychedelic Furs (1987) – Most well known for ‘Pretty In Pink’, the Furs actually have a lot of good songs out there, and I’d highly recommend their greatest hits album.  This song has a great chorus, and an interesting mix of instruments, and is good for a pick-me-up during a long training run.

‘Rain in the Summertime’ – The Alarm (1987) – Really like the Alarm, a great band from Wales that was unfortunate enough to continually get crushed under the weight of U2.  They’ve got a number of good running songs, and the live versions of their songs (especially from the ‘Electric Folklore’ album) are packed with energy both from the band and the audience.  This link is for the studio version of ‘Rain in the Summertime’, one of their bigger hits.  Major bonus points for the abundance of hair in the video.  These guys had to keep touring to cover their hairspray bills.

‘Mandinka’ – Sinead O’Connor (1987) – Unfortunately Sinead O’Conner didn’t do a lot during her career to make people like her as a person.  Controversial and unapologetic, but she was definitely talented.  This is the first song of hers I ever heard, and I still like it as much today as I did 20+ years ago.  Great beat, great chorus, excellent song for running.  She had considerably less concern with haircare products than the boys from The Alarm.

‘Crash’ – The Primitives (1988) – This song had a bit of a resurgence when it was remixed for the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack, but I much prefer the original version from ’88.  The newer version is heavily overproduced, and loses some of the basic appeal of the original.  Unfortunately none of their other songs seemed to live up to the promise of ‘Crash’, but this song still rocks.

‘Don’t Look Back’ – Fine Young Cannibals (1988) – Not really sure what it is about this song, and didn’t have high hopes for this being good for running, but for some odd reason it really works for me.  Fair to say the lead singer for FYC has an unusual voice, but this is a good song with a good beat and chorus.  Not one of my strongest recommendations on a relative basis, but I’ve listened to it on several runs, and it hasn’t gotten tired yet.