Jul 13: Power Windows (1985)

I've been revisiting the Rush album 'Power Windows', which was released in 1985. 

It was an album I played a lot when it first came out. It's a good driving album, and I did a lot of driving up and down the A17 between Yorkshire and Norfolk around this sort of time.

The album had a series of songs on the broad theme of POWER, and looking back at it just over 40 years on, this was a fine album.

I saw many of the songs from this album played live several times.

Recording began at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, England, where the basic rhythm tracks and keyboards were recorded. I have a blog post about this studio.

In May 1985, the band had relocated to AIR Studios in the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean - another studios with a lot of history to it, and which is also connected to . They had discussed recording at the studio for several years and booked the facility for three weeks for Lifeson to record guitar overdubs.

Neil Peart shared some of the meanings of the songs, and others have speculated about them.

Here's a few of my favourites from the album.

Territories Live....

I bought a book which was written by Leonard Roberto. It's called 'A Simple Kind Mirror: the lyrical vision of Rush'.

It provides an analysis of the meaning of the lyrics.

We'll finish with the final track on the album.

Watch out for the drum kit rotating from an analogue to a synthesised drum kit which is what Neil had during the tours to support this album.

And also the dodgy mid-80s visual effects which every video seemed to have at this time...

'Mystic Rhythms'

Jul 13: 1985

Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' was perhaps THE album of this year. This was on cassette tape at the time, which was potentially an issue as you needed to rewind and wind the tape to get to a particular track when playing it in the car, although it was such a good album that there was no need really. This got a lot of plays in my friend Caroline's car which I spent a lot of time in that summer. This was the year I graduated from Huddersfield Polytechnic with a 2:1 in geography - close to a first but noone got a first in that particular year. I went to Huddersfield City Hall to collect my degree certificate.

The album included some classic Kate Bush tracks. The song 'Cloudbusting' was particularly interesting as it had a video with Donald Sutherland in it.

It was based on the experiments of Wilhelm Reich.

The track which most people remember from that album though is one that was popularised by the TV series 'Stranger Things'.

Another female musician released an album this year which was produced by ZTT.

'Slave to the Rhythm' starts with Grace explaining her family heritage. The final track on the album draws the themes together.

It was produced by Trevor Horn - who has worked with many bands and musicians including Frankie goes to Hollywood and Mike Oldfield, and was involved with the ZTT record label I have blogged about separately.

Rush released 'Power Windows'. This was an album I came back to year after year and is probably in my top ten most played. I have written a separate blog post about the album. This used to accompany me up and down the A17 when I first started teaching in Norfolk, but came back home to Yorkshire for most weekends.

A final album from this year was Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish. This was another ZTT album and the production was excellent. I've blogged about this album separately as well, and also the label. 

Here's the track 'P-Machinery'.

, 

Mike Oldfield also released a track called 'Pictures in the Dark'. This was not from a particular album.

Singers on this single includes his girlfriend at the time, Anita Hegerland, Barry Palmer and well-known Welsh choirboy Aled Jones.

I had the 12" version of this song on vinyl. It's really good with a strong vocal and a cracking guitar solo....

The B side 'Legend' also has some great melodies on it... this was a really creative time for Oldfield...

In September of that year, Jethro Tull did a concert to mark the 300th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.

What were your favourite pieces of music from 1985?