Old Wave / New Wave cusp

It's the 50th anniversary of the founding of Trouser Press, celebrated by the publication of an anthology. 

In my mind, I always think of Trouser Press as archetypally New Wave, in part because of the graphic look of its famous record guides.... 

 

.... but also because all the issues I've ever seen have had New Wave (in all its senses - punk... skinny-tie power pop... and the MTV Brit Invasion era groups that we in the UK call New Pop) artists on the front cover. 

So I was surprised to learn that the magazine actually predates punk. It was founded in 1974. 

What defined its orientation, in fact, was not championing the New Wave, since that  didn't exist then... 

It was  Anglophilia. 

It was initially called Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press - hungry hands reaching across the Atlantic, to where the Good Music was - Great Britain.

Anglophilia so pronounced for a while it billed itself as 

"America's Only British Rock Magazine" !

Which sounds like a play on, and deliberate definition against, Creem's self-billing as "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine" (itself self-definition against Rolling Stone).

So originally Trouser Press was Old Wave, simply because there was no other Wave.  

Instead it believed that the Britannia ruled the (air)Waves. 

I suppose even the word "trouser" is Anglophiliac, given that Yanks say "pants"

Although looking into it, seems they say "trouser press" over here as often as "pants press"

If like me you've always thought of  Trouser Press as Noo Wave throo and throo, it's quite the surprise to see all these   

soon-to-be-decreed "Boring Old Farts" featured so heavily - the Queens and the Whos. 

Even outright proggers like Camel! Ex-Procol guitarman Robin Trower!

The first time an American artist gets the front cover treatment is Todd Rundgren - a chronic Anglophile himself - in July 1978, which is the thirtieth issue of Trouser Press.

I was surprised how long the coverage of Old Wave dominated. Deep into 1978, the B.O.F.'s are still getting nearly all the front covers - and the majority of the features inside too. 

Groups like Gentle Giant! the Strawbs! 

Endless appearances for Petes Townsend and Frampton. 

For Jeff bloody Beck. 

"Reviews A-Plenty" - what is this, the Mayor of Casterbridge?

Sparks featured - a group that some Britcrit or other quipped was "the best British band in America" or words to that effect

That cover looks like a beer mat. 

The Original Pitman

 

Well, it doesn't actually specify that Barnsley Bill works down the pit, but Barnsley was a big town for coal mining, along with other industries. 

The lyrics:

[Intro]

He's not the man from Mars, he's not Johnny B. Goode

He's not Johnny Reggae, he's not Captain Kirk

He's not Jilted John, he's not Flash Gordon

He's not Major Tom

[Verse 1]

But Barnsley Bill

Hip-hip-hip, rapping hop

Don't you dare stop, 'til you reach the top

All you girls need a lad like me, to take you where you want to be

'Cause I'm Barnsley Bill, King o' t' Dales

And when I rap, I never fail

Hull in east and Leeds in west

Everyone will tell thee I'm the best

[Chorus]

Tripe, tripe, tripe an' chips

If you're wearing cap, you know it fits

Tripe, tripe, tripe an' chips

If you're wearing cap, you know it fits

Rap the pub down, rock the pub up

Shake your fat down, rap the pub down

Sup your ale up, rap the pub down

Do your blouse up, rap the pub down

[Verse 2]

I met Wakefield Sue, in the snow

She beat me at the darts but she couldn't do the rap

I said "Hey there Sue, let's not dance, we can go back to my place, give your legs a chance"

She said, "Ee, my legs are made for walking"

Ee my mouth is made for talking

I'm Barnsley Bill, I'm quick on the quip

And I talk the legs off, a train with pip

'Cause now ain't the age of the train

'Cause now ain't the age of the plane

'Cause this is the hour of the mouth

From York in north, to Derby in south

Rap the club down, rock the club up

Shake the dales down, rap the sheep up

Rap the club down, sup your ale up

Do your blouse up, take your kegs down

[I assume this ought to be transcribed as "take your kecks down"]

[Verse 3]

There was Doreen who lives in the Dales

She wears her shoes and likes to save whales

She asked me back for some ginseng tea

I said, "What do you want, wi' a lad like me?"

She said, "Ooh Bill, just you and me, we'll have a whale of a time, and I'll say this"

I said, "Doreen, you're a heck of the lass, but me mastermind says I ought to pass"

Because Barnsley Bill, ain't esoteric

I don't know what that means, ask me mate, Derek

He went to Bradford University, to study sociology

He takes his girl to see Maria Callas

I'd rather sit and watch, Dallas

Or rap up Mic at the local club

It beats the shimmy and the shake and the shove

He's fine, he's grand, he's fab, he's good

But I can rap the club like you wish you could!

All you boys and girls out there

Do you know how to reach off the air?

Do you know how to twist?

Do you know how to jump?

Do you know how to wiggle?

Do you know how to bump?

Do you know how to enjoy the slump

If you wave your hands in the air, and wrap your legs around the door

If you leap up and down and shake your feet

If you kiss your father on the cheek

If you kick your legs out slow and fast

I'll promise you you'll look reet daft

And you're liable to pull a muscle an' all

[Chorus]

[Outro]

I'm Judge Disco my law is word

This is the worst rap I've ever heard

You've been driving drunk in stolen cars

I sentence you to life on Mars

Tripe, tripe, tripe an' chips

If you're wearing cap, you know it fits

Tripe, tripe, tripe an' chips

If you're wearing cap, you know it fits

Tripe, tripe, tripe an' chips

From smile on your face to curve on your hips

Tripe, tripe, tripe an' chips

^^^^^^^^^

A touch of the Les Dawson in this label logo for Mother-in-Law Records

Well, apparently, the man behind Barnsley Bill was Horace Panter, from the Specials: 

"During the time after 'Ghost Town' when band members were taking a break (read: breaking up), Panter recorded the song on a lark at a cost of just £300! And rumor has it that the one and only Dick Cuthell laid down that unmistakable horn line."

Doesn't seem like Horace did the rapping, though - that was done by a fellow called Rob Allen, with vocals from "Wakefield Sue" (his girlfriend). Horace is the producer "Ronnie Bossanova"

There was actually a follow-up single - "Wedding Rap" bw "Freewheeling Rap"

The lyrics:

I'm Barnsley Bill and I just don't care

I can rap you out of your underwear

I've had 20 pints and I'm friggin' drunk

So let's get down some Barnsley funk

The pinball pillock, have you seen?

He's traded in his pinball machine

He's out of tilts and into phases

'Cause now he's playing Space Invaders

So it's one for the curry, six for the road

Suck your ale up, drop your load

He can fold a newspaper

He's a star, he's the best man of the universe

All my life I've been waiting and watching

Talking and drinking

And Doreen said "How did you carry?"

And I realized, that it weren't angrier

And I were waiting for her

And turned towards her and I popped the question, are they real?

What do you think?

I don't think, I drink, therefore I'm drunk

I replied "Take a look at these hands, and let the days go by, and keep the Tetley's flowing"

So it's one for the curry, six for the road

Suck your ale up, drop your load

I met a girl who drove a truck

She had a CB like The Rubber Duck

She was out on a convoy on M62

She had the biggest rig this side of crew

I was listening to [?]

And she said her uncle was [?]

I knew there was some life left in me

So I said 10-4, [?] for me

Breaker, breaker, this is Barnsley Bill

Anybody out there, 10-4?

Breaker, breaker, this is Barnsley Bill

Barnsley me's name, something's my game, it over?

Ah, just a minute, it's not plugged in

We stopped for motor washin' at the service stop

Janet, Richard, meets the lot

Bill she said, "I cannot tarry

I will rendezvous with Birmingham Barry"

I said ye live in [?] could support thee

But me Yorkie's melting, so off I'll be

He can drive 70,000 miles a year

He's a star, he's the best man in the universe

He knows all the words to Copacabana with his eyes shut

He's a star, he's the best man in the universe

He can eat three Weetabix

When King Kong came to see him, he ran

He's a star, he's the best man in the universe

He was born one of triplets

He's a star, he's the best man in the universe

He can run out of ideas

I'm a star, I'm the best man in the universe

I'm a sta- Well, I might be

Very faintly amusing. I'm surprised Panter didn't make a better job of the music, though. 

Whereas Pitman - the tracks are genuinely exciting, and the rapping actually works, finding a flow that is totally East Midlands and totally B-boy 

Brutal and British (the inkie meanies)

Recently a social media acquaintance of mine was complaining there about the casual cruelty of the UK music press back in the day....  speculating that the insulting things written must have discouraged so many musicians with something to contribute from ever entering the fray in the first place, for fear of having their sensitivities bruised... 

This stirred a number of thoughts...

The first was that to be a public figure, then and now, you really do have to be pretty thick-skinned.  

The second was that there's hardly any shortage, then and now, of people coming forward with their musical offerings...  If only more of them had been discouraged!  (Same applies to creatives in any  and all fields). 

The third was that one of the things that gave music journalism its exuberance and spice - we're talking back in the day more than nowadays - is that it's only a notch or two above how people talk about music in pubs or in the living room with their loved ones. It's a slightly better organised, marginally more literary version of vernacular speech -  a poncified version of casual shit-shooting. 

Think about how you and your partner, you and your pals, you and your family, talk about music, or sport, or any entertainment of any kind - like what's on the TV.  About any public figure at all.  Think of the things that are said in the privacy of the home, or around the pub table. No punches get pulled! The talk is colorfully and humorously  insulting - often physically insulting. And generally it's categorical - insult or praise is daubed in scathing black and white, rather than gentle shades of grey.  The natural modes that your civilian opinionator seems to fall into are the sweepingly dismissive or the gushing.

Quotidian arts criticism, if we can call it that, is not a measured discourse, a fair-minded discourse, a subtle discourse, a discourse of restraint and nuance. You call it like you see it, how you feel it.

Well, I think music paper writing - for better and worse - was far closer to that than, say, to London Review of Books. (Which can be cutting, anyway, in its own refined, belle-lettrist way).

Anyway, these thoughts reminded me of some old music paper clips I'd come across recently. 

One of the most insult-filled pages in a typical rock weekly issue was the Singles Column - generally, after about the sixth or seventh single (and possibly earlier, if the reviewer was unlucky with that week's harvest) the writing gets steadily more abusive. 

Probably the meanest things I've ever written have been in the second half of the singles page. 

That's partly because you get quite irritable and cranky the deeper you get into the all-night ordeal of doing the singles -  exasperation and impatience levels rise steadily as Thursday night turns into Friday morning. 

But mostly it's because it's just staggering how much shite music.... no-reason-to-exist music....  actively aurally offensive music,  gets released. You actually do wish at this point to discourage musicians from continuing to pump noxiousness into the atmosphere.

But these particular clips are different - it's pop musicians who've been invited to do the singles reviewing this week!

 And despite having been on the receiving end of critical obloquy themselves, despite the fact that they will probably run into some of the artists they slag off in the dressing room area of Top of the Pops, ... these pop star reviewers - Midge Ure, George Michael & Andrew Ridgely,  Green Gartside - are harshly dismissive about nearly all of the week's crop.  

Hark at Green's comments about one of Haircut 100 needing dental treatment! 

This reminds me of another occasion - an interview, I think - where Green made fun of Martin Fry's acne. Something along the lines of "where would Martin be without Trevor Horn and a stick of Valderma?" 

Dropped Away, Pt 3 - the 1993 Consensus

Onto the third installment of this series - the NME's list of the Greatest Albums of All Time, published on October 2 1993.

Here, it's interesting to look at what has Dropped Away from the present's vantage point, but also to compare to the previous Greatest Albums List from 1985 - to see what's Dropped Away and what's Risen Up.

First, though, an attempt to clarify the comparative approach at work here.... I suppose what I am attempting to imagine is what a NME-like publication of today, with a similar selectorate (mostly under thirty), would take to be the Canon of Rock & Pop: the major achievements that everyone should listen to. 

Of course, there are publications that still do this surveying-recorded-history type of list - Pitchfork, Rolling Stone - but I'm going with a more Britcentric perspective. And I don't think there is an equivalent to NME anymore...  everything's too specialized, fragmented, gone down its own narrower path. 

Mind you, I'm not sure NME itself was "NME" by 1993, if you get me - i.e. the broad, we-cover-everything music paper I grew up reading.  Indeed the first striking aspect of this list is the backtracking from the hugely improved inclusion of black music in the '85 list, which would probably have been the high point of the NME's critics's (if not the NME readership's) assimilation of anti-rockist values. There's still a decent amount of non-white artistry but it's discernibly decreased. And Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On has slid from #1 to #4. 

Okay, the full list in text form is here (and also at the bottom of the post)

I'll do Dropped Away first, and then Risen Up next. 

DROPPED AWAY

5 The Stone Roses The Stone Roses 1989

I expect the generation that's now aging firmly into their fifties-and-older clings fast to their collective  adoration of this record, but the one after, and the one after that, surely find its eminence to be mystifying. Classic "you had to be there, you had to be then" record.

9 Public Enemy It takes a nation of millions to hold us back 1988

Personally I prefer the first and third albums; never quite understood why this is the Accredited Classic. But that's beside the point; I don't think PE are really on the list of things people feel they need to hear. Also, some of their opinions ("Sophisticated Bitch", "Meet the G that Killed Me") would be given less allowance today.

19 De La Soul 3 Feet High and Rising 1989

To not drop away, it probably helps to have done a string of great and/or impactful records - it bolsters the artist's purchase on the pantheon, their chance of having a perch. Beyond De La Soul's self-cancelling, quick-withered career, I think this record also probably would sound a bit... rickety to modern ears. If it places at all, it would be much lower. 

21 Primal Scream Screamadelica   1991

See the Stone Roses.

23 R.E.M. Automatic for the People 1992

This seems like "parochialism of the present" -  going with the album released a year before this poll was taken, as opposed to, say, Murmur (to me, far and away this group's best chance at a pantheon perch). I've no real sense of whether R.E.M. are a group that people keep discovering generation after generation, as appears to happen with Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure.  But I suspect not.

24 Elvis Presley The Sun Sessions 1976

This inclusion, which I don't remember being in the previous two Greatest Lists, seems like your classic "obedience to the rockcritic superego" genuflection.  Monumental music, obviously. But in the same way that no one would have a reproduction of the Mona Lisa on the living room wall, I find it hard to believe that any of the selectorate in '93 had this platter spinning on their turntables regularly. Today, even less so.

27 the Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy 1985

I suggested that pantheonic prestige for a classic album is bolstered by having done a bunch of other classics or very-good albums. This would be the opposite syndrome: where persistence, a mounting but steadily less startling discography, slowly chips away at the stature of the one classic album, which starts to seem like a fluke. J&MC's music from Automatic onwards  - perhaps really from Darklands onwards - slowly blows their cool, blows it away. They come to seem like a fairly conventional and surprisingly cautious alternative rock band, chuntering on way beyond their moment. In '93, the memory-imprint of what they were in '85 was strong enough to ensure this high placing. Three decades later, it's faint, if not completely faded. 

29 Jimi Hendrix Are you experienced? 1967

30 James Brown Live at The Apollo, october 24, 1962 1963

31 Patti Smith Horses 1975

32 Stevie Wonder Innervisions 1973

These were all in the '85 List (maybe it was a different Wonder album - same string of masterpieces though) and seemed to me Dropped Away.

34 Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers! 1956

This is a great record - a personal favorite from childhood, as one of the 20 or so LPs my parents owned. The first side especially, I know inside out, could probably sing all the way through. I'm a little puzzled by its out-of-the-blue appearance in this list - I wonder what revisionisms and rehabilitative processes it reflected (the easy-listening revival was still a few years off - not that this is exactly EZ, but it's smooth, it's sophisticated, it's got the swinging Nelson Riddle arrangements). At any rate, I can't imagine today's under-30s selectorate selecting it. 

35 Otis Redding Otis Blue - Otis Redding Sings Soul 1965

A survivor from the previous List...  my thoughts on soul already aired there.

37 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet 1990

A great record -  their best in fact. I wonder if it's on the radar of today's hip listeners. I doubt it. 

39 Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Blood & Chocolate 1986

If any EC album clings to canonic status (my doubts about that expressed in the previous go-round), it wouldn't be this turgid effort, with its low count of memorable tunes. 

42 New Order - Technique 1989

Classic single after classic single, but I'm not sure there is a classic album in New Order's discography. Power Corruption and Lies? I remember the high point ("Your Silent Face") but little else. Low Life? I have a stronger memory of the packaging than the contents.  I have met people who rep for Movement, a barmy opinion. Brotherhood - nah! But this album Technique seems the most undistinguished of the lot of them - I can't imagine it's any fan's favorite. 

 Now if it was the Top 100 Singles being done today, I can see people still voting  for "Blue Monday" or even "Everything Gone Green" or "Temptation" . They just don't seem like an albums band to me.  There's no Queen Is Dead in their back catalogue. More to the point, there's no Closer or Unknown Pleasures.

45 The Orb - The Orb's Adventures beyond the Ultraworld 1991

Parochialism of the present again. The indie-dance, baggy, techno-that-rockpapers-can-get-with moment still lingering into '93. If this List had been drawn up a year later, probably Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyhead would be on it.

47 Iggy Pop - Lust for Life 1977

It's a great song.... is it a great album? I don't think this would be Iggy's inclusion on Today's List. I'd like to think it would be Fun House, or at least Raw Power.... and if we're talking solo, then The Idiot, surely? 

49 Hüsker Dü Warehouse : songs and stories 1987

In the comments to the 1985 post, David Gunnip mentioned the twilight of the Dü. I sadly concur - and also think if they had a presence on a contemporary equivalent list, it would be Zen Arcade or New Day Rising. I wonder if this appearance is a knock-on of Sugar-love (never acquired the taste myself).

50 New Order - Low Life - 1985

See earlier comments on Technique.

51 Echo & the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here 1981

They don't seem to be part of the contemporary conversation, as far as I can gauge. A shame. I would personally rate Crocodiles as the closer to perfect album. 

52 Blondie - Parallel Lines 1978

I can picture people today still rating Blondie as a Great Singles Band, but the idea of listening to a whole album all the way through, even one as hit-packed as Parallel Lines, it doesn't compute for me - in terms of a contemporary consciousness, as opposed to a personal evaluative statement. (That said, I don't think I would ever feel the impulse to listen to a Blondie album all the way through, and I'm not sure I ever have. They seem like the New Wave ABBA - a Greatest Hits album, especially a Greatest Hits CD with the longer running time, is unbeatable... a family favorite for the car. But who really wants to plod through the original elpees looking for 'deep cuts'?).

I wonder if this sudden appearance was a knock-on of all those groups like the Primitives and Darling Buds, and more recently Garbage, bringing Blondie back as a reference point? 

53 Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel 1974

GP was very hip right in the middle of the '80s, at the height of the trad Americana boom, the country-ish flavor that entered into alternative rock for a few years... He was a real reference point... I remember being quite enamored of that "and I thought about a calico bonnet / from Cheyenne to Tennessee" song. I cannot imagine he is anywhere on the map today, though.

54 Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis 1969

Puzzled by this one, I must say. Did the Pet Shop Boys put her back on the map? (Question: where are the Pet Shops Boys on this list? Nowadays they are widely revered as the greatest pop writers of their day, or right up there. But in '93, they don't seem to be on the map).

57 The Jam - All Mod Cons 1978

I suppose mod had become a bit of a reference point again, and Weller was stirring into solo life, after the dwindling away of the Style Council, the unreleased house-influenced album. Britpop would firm up his stature considerably. But I don't think there was any Jam staining the '85 List, so puzzled that it's popped up here. 

59 Mothers of Invention We're only in it for the money 1968

Surprised that this clings on in the affections of Britrockcrits circa '93.

69 Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey 1975

Great record... I think this is its first appearance in an NME List .... perhaps it's a question of timing... dub didn't really exist enough yet in '74 to make an impression on that List.... by '85 it would have seemed passé... indeed with Jamaican music now deep into the dancehall era, reggae as a whole had faded as a critical interest or influence on new emerging bands .... but by '93, dub and roots are much more present in the music culture as an inspiration and a revered ancestral source. There's also been a lot of reggae reissuing going on by this point. Not that this inclusion is indicated as the dub version, Garvey's Ghost.... but as I recall, Island's CD reissue included both versions, so I suspect the dub factor is part of the album's elevation. 

70 Tom Waits Rain Dogs 1985

Waits plummeting hugely since Swordfishtrombones's appearance at a ludicrous #6  in 1985.... and now Rain Dogs, the follow-up, has displaced that album. Clearly the hardcore fan's choice.  Today - I should think nobody gives a monkey's either way. 

71  PJ Harvey - Dry - 1993

She does strike me as someone that younger generations don't know much about....  if she was to be on a List, I think it would be either Rid of Me or the one after that or maybe England's Shaking. But what do I know?  (And in fact Dry would the one I would pull out, if I was ever to feel the impulse, which I never do. Unlike, say, Liz Phair's Exile). 

73 Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies 1992

I listened to this again not so long ago, for the first time since the time.... it's a rather lovely listen, still.... but I cannot imagine it figuring much in the contemporary consciousness.

76 The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane 1988

I guess this placing is down to survivors on the NME staff from the period when they had the 'Tweens on the front cover and thought they were the saviors of literate pop. I would not have picked this attempted pop-crossover album if I was to vote for any of theirs...  Before Hollywood or Liberty Belle maybe.  Decidedly Dropped Away

79 Jam - Sound Affects 1980

See comments on All Mod Cons

81 The KLF - The White Room 1991

This episode in Brit popcrit - this escapade in Brit pop - seems lost in its little pocket of time. 

82 Birthday Party  - Junkyard 1982

I am going to save my thoughts on BP until I do my Purely Personal Wholly Subjective Dropped Away List... I should think if any trace of this outfit would make it to a contemporary canon, it would be one of Cave and the Bad Seeds later albums. "Later' meaning '90s or even from the last decade or so.

84 Dexys Midnight Runners Searching for the Young Soul Rebels 1980

This episode in Brit popcrit - this escapade in Brit pop - seems lost in its  little pocket of time. 

86 The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash 1985

When Shane shuffled off, I was staggered by the flood of testimonials about the greatness of his songwriting and his singing - they came from fellow musicians and songwriters, but also from literati, people who wield words for a living. Such that I gritted my teeth and actually listened to some of the songs cited as poetic marvels - read through the lyrics too -  just to see if my original opinion would survive. 

Anyway, thinking back, I don't believe any of the tributes came from an admirer under the age of 50.

87 The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope 1978

Where Strummer & Jones & the Other Two stand in the scheme of things came up for discussion in the comments of the previous outing...  As I combed through this '93 list, the debut and London Calling passed on through, but the line must be drawn at this stodgy effort.  Is this some sort of knock-on effect from the New Wave of New Wave, Manic Street Preachers et al, bringing them back as a reference point? 

88 Elvis Costello - King of America 1986

This was the point in the real-time timeline when I started to feel exhausted by EC...  it's an album I never warmed to (even less so than the other LP he released in '86, Blood and Chocolate) and remember little about it,  beyond a general "T-Bone Burnett ick" aura to proceedings. The album cover doesn't help. Critics, at the time and probably for quite a while after, thought EC was at a new peak of his powers on these two albums. For reasons explored in the previous go-round, I don't think he is on today's map - and if he was, it would not be for this album.  

89 Billy Bragg - Talking with the Taxman about Poetry 1986

Mid-80s esteem / relevance, already fading, destined to fade more. As with Dylan, I like his songs so much more covered by others (but really in his case, it's song singular: Kirsty MacColl's 's version of "A New England")

91 Madonna - Like a Prayer 1989

Early in her career, one of Madonna's songwriting partners lived in our old NYC apartment - so she was around there a bunch, pre-fame, hatching atrocities. We found this out long, long after we started living there, otherwise we might have had to conduct some kind of ritual spirit-cleansing before moving our stuff in there.  

I have no sense of what kind of figure Madonna is in terms of younger-leaning  pop awareness. I should think any standing or affection is based around singles rather than albums. 

92 The Sundays - Reading, writing & arithmetic 1989

Nah. 

95 The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace 1985

The Fall might make a Today's List, but not for this album.

99 The Who - Who's Next - 1971

This is where the ascendance of Queen finds its inverted mirror-image descendance - a group whose huff 'n 'puff bluster and epic-ness is perhaps insufficiently queered to thrive in today's climate. And yet they invented the rock opera - you can't get much gayer than that.  Klaus Nomi has more of a hold on today's hip taste. 

100 Happy Mondays - Bummed 1988

At the risk of upsetting Stylo... I don't think Happy Mondays have much currency today. Bummed's their best, though, Curiously, in terms of discovery by subsequent generations, they suffer from being both an utter anomaly and utterly bound to a historical moment, a drugGeist that is difficult to reconstruct. 

So by my count that's 44 of the 100 that have Dropped Away or Hugely Slipped Down - the biggest proportion so far, almost half the total.

RISEN UP 

A couple of striking developments in terms of artists from the rock past whose reputations have soared since '85 

1 Beach Boys Pet sounds 1966

46 Beach Boys Surf's up 1971

Beach Boys have dramatically risen and indeed pip The Beatles to the #1 spot. (The Beatles's rep has also recovered since '85).  Pet Sounds placed in the 1985 List but only at #20, so that's quite a massive leap. This seems to be a side-effect of them being namedropped by indie rockers and joining the Creation pantheon (Screamadelica etc).  

It's also a restoration - Pet Sounds was the #3 album in the NME 1974 List.

The effects of New Wave and postpunk fading a bit? The settling towards a perma-canon, a Mojo / Uncut sense of history? 

60 Neil Young Harvest 1972

66 Neil Young After the Goldrush 1970

63 Neil Young Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere  1969

94 Neil Young Tonight's the night 1975

Four albums from Neil....  although it's notable that the first two belong to his soppier, singer-songwriter-ish side, as opposed to the harder-rocking-stuff on Rust Never Sleeps style side.  This new stature reflects his evident influence on Dinosaur Jr and Teenage Fan Club....  the touring alongside his admirers Sonic Youth... perhaps the idea of him as a grunge ancestor... a haggard uncle to Pearl Jam et al...  a symbol of integrity and perseverance.

In '85, Neil Young didn't feature at all in the list! 

Then again, this would have been at the height of his muddled 'Eighties, shit album after confused / confusing shit album ... and when he also dis-endeared himself by making some pro-Reagan remarks.

There's an element of restoration here too, although Young didn't feature that high on the 1974 List - indeed his two appearances are much lower than Crosby, Stills & Nash's two appearances. 

A couple of other notable first-time appearances in the List

61 Scott Walker - Scott 1967

74 Nick Drake- Five leaves left 1969

THE NME 1993 LIST IN FULL

1 Beach boys Pet sounds 1966

2 Beatles Revolver 1966

3 Sex pistols Never mind the bollocks, here's the Sex pistols 1977

4 Marvin Gaye What's going on 1971

5 Stone roses The Stone roses 1989

6 Velvet underground Velvet underground + Nico  1967

7 Clash London calling 1979

8 Beatles The Beatles (= the white album) 1968

9 Byrds Younger than yesterday 1967

9 Public enemy It takes a nation of millions to hold us back  1988

10 Smiths The queen is dead  1986

11 Rolling stones Exile on Main street 1972

12 Nirvana Nevermind  1991

13 Clash The Clash 1977

14 Bob Dylan Highway 61 revisited 1965

15 Van Morrison Astral weeks 1968

16 Prince Sign o the times 1987

17 Bob Dylan Blonde on blonde 1966

18 Love Forever changes  1967

19 De la soul 3 feet high and rising 1989

20 Joy division Closer 1980

21 Primal scream Screamadelica 1991

22 Rolling stones Let it bleed  1969

23 R.E.M. Automatic for the people 1992

24 Elvis Presley The Sun sessions 1976

25 Doors The Doors  1967

26 Television Marquee moon 1977

27 Jesus and Mary chain Psychocandy 1985

28 Joni Mitchell Blue 1971

29 Jimi Hendrix Are you experienced?  1967

30 James Brown Live at The Apollo, october 24, 1962 1963

31 Patti Smith Horses  1975

32 Stevie Wonder Innervisions 1973

33 Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely hearts club band 1967

34 Frank Sinatra Songs for swingin' lovers! 1956

35 Otis Redding Otis blue - Otis Redding sings soul  1965

36 John Coltrane A love supreme 1964

37 Public enemy Fear of a black planet 1990

38 David Bowie Hunky dory 1971

39 Elvis Costello and the Attractions Blood & chocolate 1986

40 David Bowie The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars 1972

41 Smiths Hatful of hollow 1984

42 New order Technique 1989

43 Joy division Unknown pleasures 1979

44 Pixies Surfer Rosa 1988

45 Orb The Orb's adventures beyond the Ultraworld 1991

46 Beach boys Surf's up 1971

47 Iggy Pop Lust for life 1977

48 Bob Dylan Bringing it all back home  1965

49 Hüsker dü Warehouse : songs and stories 1987

50 New order Low-life 1985

51 Echo & the Bunnymen Heaven up here  1981

52 Blondie Parallel lines 1978

53 Gram Parsons Grievous angel 1974

54 Dusty Springfield Dusty in Memphis  1969

55 Lou Reed Transformer  1972

56 Led zeppelin Led zeppelin 4 1971

57 Jam All mod cons 1978

58 Velvet underground Velvet underground  1969

59 Mothers of invention We're only in it for the money 1968

60 Neil Young Harvest 1972

61 Scott Walker Scott 1967

62 Stooges The Stooges  1969

63 Neil Young Everybody knows this is nowhere  1969

64 Beatles Rubber soul 1965

65 Aretha Franklin Greatest hits 1971

66 Neil Young After the goldrush 1970

67 David Bowie Low 1977

68 Talking heads Remain in light 1980

69 Burning spear Marcus Garvey 1975

70 Tom Waits Rain dogs 1985

71 PJ Harvey Dry 1992

72 Smiths The Smiths 1984

73 Spiritualized Lazer guided melodies 1992

74 Nick Drake Five leaves left 1969

75 Captain Beefheart and the Magic band Clear spot 1972

76 Go-betweens 16 lovers lane 1988

77 Wire Pink flag 1977

78 Bob Marley and the Wailers Natty dread 1974

79 Jam Sound affects 1980

80 Sonic youth Sister 1987

81 KLF The white room 1991

82 Birthday party Junkyard 1982

83 Kate Bush The kick inside 1978

84 Dexy's midnight runners Searching for the young soul rebels 1980

85 Bob Dylan Blood on the tracks 1975

86 Pogues Rum, sodomy & the lash 1985

87 Clash Give 'em enough rope 1978

88 Elvis Costello King of America 1986

89 Billy Bragg Talking with the taxman about poetry 1986

90 Big star The third album/Sister lovers 1978

91 Madonna Like a prayer 1989

92 Sundays Reading, writing & arithmetic 1989

93 Michael Jackson Off the wall  1979

94 Neil Young Tonight's the night 1975

95 Fall This nation's saving grace 1985

96 Public Image Ltd Metal box 1979

97 Massive attack Blue lines 1991

99 Who Who's next 1971

100 Happy mondays Bummed 1988