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Jason Carr: The most underrated 80s band that never actually existed (but should have)

Steely Dan perform on stage, Rainbow Theatre, London, 21st May 1974, Donald Fagen. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images) (Michael Putland, 1974 Michael Putland)

I am going to massively cheat and pretend no fewer than six different acts were actually a secret collective known only to them. I am going to invent a name. The Collective. I need to do this so it somehow kind of makes sense to you.

Stay with me. Think of it as a game of pretend.

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So this super group was made up of Pete Townshend, Peter Gabriel, Don Henley, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, Tangerine Dream, and Blade Runner composer Vangelis. The Collective put out such songs as Eminence Front, Sledgehammer, Big Time, Dirty Laundry, I.G.Y., New Frontier, Love on a Real Train, and an entire motion picture score to one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time.

Remember: The Collective never existed but they could have.

What all of the aforementioned songs have in common is an ethereal melancholy that had a moment in vogue in the early Eighties. Here I go with the Stranger Things references but the opening credits theme music of everyone’s favorite TV show could not have happened without Tangerine Dream’s Love On a Real Train (which you might recall was used to eroticized effect in Risky Business, starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay). Holy smokes.

Related: Jason Carr: No 80s band had a more improbable run than this one

The sounds in these songs are consistent with each other. Think heavy synthesizers, hypnotic vibes, vaguely futuristic themes, cynical social commentary, and energy that almost demands you put on those big headphones and lay down on the shag carpeting to, like, take it all in, man. Hot sake also encouraged but not required.

Eminence Front in particular evokes a future that never quite arrived. Still not sure what “it’s a put-on” means but when I hear this song it makes me think of a time in my life when adulthood still seemed mysterious bordering on the sinister. It also makes me think of that weird transition in rock music that saw Sixties/Seventies bands having improbable second acts as Eighties pop rock artists. Totally not looking at you, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Jefferson Starship, Dire Straits and others too numerous to mention.

By the way the opening three minutes of Money For Nothing by Dire Straits needs to be part of The Collective.

For these reasons, The Collective (which never existed) is one of the most underrated acts of the Eighties.

Watch Jason Carr Live, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m., streaming live on Local 4+ and ClickOnDetroit.


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