Jukebox Time Machine: 1987 Alt.Rock Top 40

Escape the dreary doldrums of 2026 with some blasts from the past.

You all know where I stand by now: Music is Magic, straight up.

Sometimes I think it’s the only true form of magic, but I don’t like to get too over-reductive about it; gotta keep the door open to other (if not lesser) possibilities.

Still, nothing tattoos a time and place onto your memory circuits like a great song, so Music is my personal time machine.

Music powers me to phase in and out of various periods of my life, and can also often revive long-buried experiences. I’m a Cancerian, so you know I’m eminently qualified to hold forth on these things.

Case in point, I went up to the ‘Tree for my high school reunion a couple years back. It totally sucked, like the other reunions I put myself through, but that dismal borefest was actually just a pretext. My real goal was to sojourn through my psychic landscape while vibing on my November ’83 playlist, which made for the most mystically-potent phase of my younger years.

Main reason being that I was taking a psych class in my senior year, so I was doing a lot of heavy dreamwork at the time. I think that — along with raging hormones and the bushels of weed I was smoking morning, noon and night — had fully submerged my consciousness into a 24-hour mystical idyll. It’s hard to explain exactly, but it’s still something I cling to ever tighter in these dreary days of spiritual and psychosocial entropic collapse.

Anyhow, that real reunion with my closest high school companions — the sun, the streets, the landscape, and the eternal ocean — was such a raging success that I’m still buzzing a bit from it. No lie. It certainly helped that I undertook this pilgrimage on a magnificent New England morning, replete with a cloudless sky, an invigorating chill, and all that eye-melting foliage.

Anyhow, I’ve constructed this playlist especially for my GenX peeps, which I am certain will zoom you back to a better time and place as well. But you don’t need to be GenX to enjoy great rock, so let’s get into it…

1987 was a turning point for Eighties rock: Boomercentric classic rock was starting to fade again after getting a big corporate push in the mid-Eighties, GenX metal and alternative rock were on the ascendancy, and the Top 40 was rapidly losing the luster it had just three years prior.

The slack left by Cyndi Lauper and Huey Lewis et al would be taken up by rudimentary proto-hip-hop and plastic mall pop like Taylor Dane, Debbie Gibson and Samantha Fox.

1987 was also a pivotal year for me. I landed my first full-time art gig, got married and had our first baby. I was immersed in Alan Watts, and also formed my first real band and started writing real songs, all at the tender age of 21.

So fire up the wayback machine and let me give you the skinny, Ginny.

Colourbox - “Hot Doggie” Another great track from 4AD’s seminal Lonely is an Eyesore compilation. An artifact of that oh-so-brief period of time when it at least felt like everyone in England was trying to sound like Big Audio Dynamite. So crank it up, you mad doggie.

INXS - “New Sensation” This one always reminds me of my first art job in Manhattan. I worked on the 46th floor of One Penn Plaza (across the street from Madison Square Garden) and could just barely tune WDRE-FM out of Long Island in, which made a miserable and abusive job tolerable.

I also shared an office with this adorable little manic pixie who was hip to all the latest sounds. I’ll never forget she was late to work one day and our boss came in and asked, “So where’s the ditzy little chatterbox this morning?”

Public Image Ltd - “Seattle” Some folks thought Happy was a disappointment after Album, but I loved it. Especially this tune, which just builds and builds and builds the tension until the coda pops the pressure valve. I first heard this on 120 Minutes while me and the missus were getting ready for our wedding. Or was it on The Cutting Edge?

Psychedelic Furs - “Heartbreak Beat” A lot of early fans gave up on the Furs by this point, but I loved Mirror Moves just as much as Talk Talk Talk. Sure, this might have seemed facile at the time, but it’s nothing less than manna from Heaven in these dark times.

Echo and the Bunnymen - “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo” The Bunnies always had a Doors fetish, which fired some of their best tunes. Here they stop playing footsie and just go for the full Jim Morrison gusto. Classic.

Prince - “Sign O’ the Times” This was the last hurrah for Prince and me, but what a way to go. A double-LP set that just peed all over 1999, with one indelible pop smash after the other.

REM - “Finest Worksong” Life’s Rich Pageant was the peak of my REM fandom, especially since the aforementioned manic pixie chatterbox played it all the time at work. Did I happen to mention she was adorable?

I wasn’t as interested in Document past the hits, but this one’s a stormer.

Wire - “Madman’s Honey” REM got these art-damaged Brits to reunite in the Eighties but a lot of OG fans didn’t dig the dance-oriented version of the band. Those records can indeed be hit or miss, but you just can’t lose when Colin Newman gets his whimsy on.

Bryan Ferry - “Kiss and Tell” Another ‘DRE special. Ferry here is complaining about the tell-all book Jerry Hall wrote after their split, but I can’t really muster the pity for a rich rock star’s breakup troubles with a supermodel. Them’s the breaks, bud. Suck it up like the rest of us.

That Petrol Emotion - “Big Decision” This band rose from the ashes of The Undertones, a band I was a huge fan of back in high school. They weren’t nearly as exciting as the ‘Tones, but still snuck in a couple classic tracks.

David Bowie - “Never Let Me Down” This titular album tried to recapture the Let’s Dance glory days, but ended up trying way too hard. Which is a shame, because this cut is prime time Bowie, way better than the rest of the record, and on par with his best IMO.

Depeche Mode - “Never Let Me Down Again” Another ‘DRE standard. I was highly resistant to the Modes, having filed them away in my dreaded “simpering fop” cabinet. But this one got me warmed up for Violator.

U2 - “Bullet the Blue Sky” The 90s killed my enthusiasm for this band but good, and we all know what happened with Bono. But there are still a few choice U2 cuts I can tolerate, and who could resist this pounder anyway? One of two songs on Joshua Tree that are rather barefaced knockoffs of their old touring mates, The Comsat Angels (“Exit” is the other one).

The Alarm - “Rain in the Summertime” I have to admit this band was a bit of a pet peeve of mine back in the day, mostly on account of them seeming to copy other artists instead of forging their own identity. But with hindsight, they were pretty good forgers, they were terrific when I saw them in their Stiff Little Fingers phase, and the late Mike Peters was a total mensch. This is U2-mode Alarm and reminds me of our wedding as well, so big ups.

The Replacements - “Alex Chilton” The ‘Mats jumped the shark in a supreme fashion soon after, but this is one of the best songs they ever did. Not to mention one of the best pop punk tracks of the late Eighties.

Squeeze - “Hourglass” These pub rock veterans split after making some dull-as-dishwater records in the early Eighties, then the two main guys dished out more of the same (just with added cringe) as “Difford and Tilbrook,” then they got the old band back together, squeezed out some overproduced squinch, then came out of nowhere with this classic. Goes to show you that persistence pays off.

10,000 Maniacs - “Don’t Talk” Natalie Merchant would eventually go full Debbie Downer schoolmarm, but it’s hard to fault In My Tribe. Well, “Like the Weather” kind of stinks, but we’re talking about an album that ends with “Verdi Cries,” so no harm, no foul.

Shelleyan Orphan - “Southern Bess” I first saw these Neo-Raphaelite chamber-pop weirdos on the same episode of 120 Minutes (or was it The Cutting Edge?) as “Seattle,” and was eventually able to hunt down the album. Weirdly, I always kind of thought of them as an archaic version of Haysi Fantayzee.

Magical stuff, and Caroline Crawley was pure porcelain-doll/ginger-spice goddess, with a generous side of Frase. Plus, her “ooh-ha-ha’s” on this track INCINERATE MY SOUL.

Joe Strummer - “Tennessee Rain” Joe dropped his share of clunkers (see Combat Rock), but he could then turn around and serve up a slammer like “Love Kills,” or a bulletproof melody that sounded like it had been sung around campfires on the Oregon Trail. This one was from the soundtrack to an absolutely dreadful Alex Cox film, but Stephen Foster himself would have been damn proud to call it his own.

Suzanne Vega - “Luka” You know it, you love it, you sing it in the shower. Back in the day you couldn’t throw a rock in the East Village without hitting a dozen Suzanne Vega lookalikes, but that and those Yamaha DX7 patches fill me with a warm nostalgic glow. Of course, there’d be a battalion of Vega clones by the Nineties, hence the Lilith Fair.

Cocteau Twins - “Crushed” Need I say more? Well, all I will add is that I literally felt the gates of Heaven fly open the first time I heard this one. It lit up every single opioid receptor in my brain like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. But then again, I hadn’t heard this earth-shattering epiphany of a live version yet.

The Mission - “Tower of Strength” File this under “songs I like by bands I hate,” probably since I’m such a sucker for “Kashmir.” Oh, and it was produced by John Paul Jones. Avoid the eight-minute album version like the plague that it is.

Sisters of Mercy - “Lucretia My Reflection” The song that launched a thousand Hot Topics. If you asked me to pinpoint the exact time Goth became its own culture and not just another New Wave fad, it would that ominous bass-line intro burrowing into the world’s ear.

Front 242 - “Don’t Crash” Another contribution to my musical lexicon from the pixie chatterbox. She was a poor little rich girl from San Francisco and had snuck into all the hip clubs playing all the latest creepy and low-key fascist Industrial disco. I went for those crazy detuned synths on the breaks - still mess me up.

Gene Loves Jezebel - “Gorgeous” This band could really get on my nerves, but this track summons up visions of a montage from an imaginary John Hughes movie, with some lovestruck Valley girl trying on the latest fashions for her giggly girlfriends at Beverly Center — maybe Heather Graham or Ione Skye. Someone like that.

Danny Wilson - “Mary’s Prayer” Yep, still another ‘DRE classic. I should have called this playlist “WDRE Lives,” but everyone remembers it as WLIR now, and “WLIR Lives” looked kind of stupid in the thumbnail. Anyhow, bulletproof pop songwriting from a band that seemed to vanish shortly after. Funny how one-hit wonders are like that.

ABC - “When Smokey Sings” I don’t think anyone expected these blue-eyed soul counterfeiters to still be at it five years past their prime, but I for one am thankful they were. Their last hit, but what a sendoff. This is just pure Eighties sheen and sounds great cruising down the Parkway.

Flesh for Lulu - “Postcards from Paradise” Like Gene Loves Jezebel, these Batcave leftovers ditched the gloom and picked up the power pop. I think a lot of their groups were primarily aiming for Hollywood’s attention, and these chaps actually did earn John Hughes’ notice, and the lesser track from this album “I Go Crazy” landed a spot on the Some Kind of Wonderful soundtrack.

Sinead O’Connor - “I Want Your Hands on Me” My bandmates loved The Lion and the Cobra but I wasn’t nearly as impressed. I liked the singles, but the rest of it felt like pure filler. And Sinead’s skinhead look was a major turnoff, especially since she had such a beautiful face. Still, another ‘DRE classic.

The Bangles - “Hazy Shade of Winter” An Art Garfunkel cover of all things, and used for the Less Than Zero soundtrack. Didn’t know what to make of this band. They seemed like a Go-Go’s clone when they hit the scene, only without the sacred pixian adorability of Belinda and Jane. Suzanna was no slouch, but you know I was all about the pixies, Charlie.

I remember our old roommate’s mom came to the house for Christmas in ’85 and gave him a copy of the Less Than Zero paperback and an ounce of weed for his presents. My mom gave me tube socks and a brown sweater. She seemed to think brown was my color.

The Smiths - “Stop Me if You Heard This One Before” I kind of lost interest in The Smiths by Strangeways, Here We Come, but in hindsight I think it’s their strongest set. Certainly the best produced. Morrissey soon left the band and then carried on exactly as before, only without having to split the cash four ways.

Ramones - “I Wanna Live” Poor Ramones, always desperate to meet the mainstream halfway - or Halfway to Sanity, in this case - but it was just never gonna happen. They’d already been tried and found wanting, and were all pushing 40 by this point. But you can’t blame a band for trying, especially when you’re talking a power-pop toe-tapper like this one.

The Cramps - “Can Your Pussy Do the Dog” I was never all that crazy about the post-Bryan Gregory Cramps, since his wall of non-Euclidean noise gave the band a hard edge the later stuff never had. But I’ve always had a soft spot for psychobilly and these crazy cats and kitten are its pioneers.

Circle Jerks - “Fortunate Son” The Jerks were long past their prime by ’87 and wasted guitar genius Zander Schloss (who played with Joe Strummer on the aforementioned “Tennessee Rain”) on bass, but they still had the wisdom to compensate for their songwriting deficiencies by mangling some CCR.

X - “Left and Right” The first four X albums are simultaneously my favorite West Coast punk and my favorite punkabilly records, but they ran into the same brick wall of commercial indifference their peers did. Billy Zoom had split by this point, replacement Tony Gilkyson wasn’t nearly as interesting, and like rockabilly god Brian Setzer, X was trying to cash in on the Eighties’ heartland rock sweepstakes. I dropped out on them then, but I’ve warmed up to some of that material since.

Midnight Oil - “Dreamworld” These Aussie schoolmarms usually got on my nerves, but my ears often perked whenever they dropped the hair shirts and got on with the rockin’ and rollin’. I hated “Beds are Burning” with an extreme passion but would crank it up whenever this one popped up on the old Marconi.

Moving Targets - “The Other Side” Late Eighties post-hardcore/proto-emo punk is an undervalued genre, and a lot of great bands and records got lost in the shuffle. This Boston trio made a great record with Burning in Water, which is buttressed with nimble playing and hook after hook after hook. Any fan of uptempo rock will enjoy it.

Squirrel Bait - “Kid Dynamite” Second verse, same as the first. As someone who knows his classic punk, I can tell you this is one of the greatest punk singles ever cut, featuring one of the greatest rock vocal performances ever, if not one whom hardly anyone has ever heard.

The most incredible part about this explosion of well-crafted noise is that these Louisville sluggers were still in high school when they cut it. My high school friends, by contrast, were all making meathead hardcore.

The Cure - “Why Can’t I Be You” My heart belonged to the sparse and spooky first three Cure albums, and they lost me until they went back to that desolate well on Disintegration. But the missus loved this double LP, and the hits made it tolerable for me. Plus, this is so gosh-darned Eighties you can smell the Aqua Net.

Siouxsie and the Banshees - “The Passenger” I was a Banshees fan to the bitter end (still love The Rapture), but the John Valentine Carruthers era left me a little cold. Which is a shame because he was such an incredible guitarist. But he fell on the wrong side of Siouxsie’s cat-o-nine-tails, and the all-covers Through the Looking Glass fell on my deaf ears. With the single exception of this Iggy cover, which kicks ass on the original.

I’m currently grinding away on my new video, which, if the Good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, will be up in the next 48 hours…

Meantime, I recommend you check out my piece on Elliott Smith, if you haven’t already.

And before I forget, do check out my Eighties megamix thread. The guests at your next barbecue or beach party will thank you. And me.