Sick Burns!: An 80's Podcast

"Mr. Roboto" is a song written by Dennis DeYoung of the band Styx, and was featured on the band’s 11th album, Kilroy Was Here, which also became a rock opera. The song hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1983 and reached #1 in Canada.

The band’s ambitious song and concept album dug into themes like censorship and the dehumanization of the working class. The band also thumbed their noses at anti-rock activists’ attempt...

We’re back from long hiatus with one from the Sick Burns vault! Recorded in summer 2021, this episode features a dive into systems of power, their latent hypocrisy, and that feeling of adolescent elation that comes from giving the finger to both. 

Twisted Sister released “We’re Not Gonna Take It” in 1984 and landed on the PMRC’s “Filthy Fifteen” list for the song’s violent lyrical content (eye roll.). This hard-rocking anti-authorit...

Between multiple interviews, a biopic and a broadway show, Tina Turner's story is well known.  But there's an HBO documentary about her and it confirms that she is the queen of rock-n-roll, the empress of resilience and the grand duchess of self-respect.

Tina Turner's appearance in 1985's Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome was her second movie appearance-- she had appeared in Tommy  ten years earlier.  While we think he...

 Cold war chess matches and show tunes collide in "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head. The song went to number one in many countries and topped out at #3 in May 1985 in the U.S. and Canada. The song was a single from the concept album “Chess” by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA (and Mama Mia fame) with lyrics by Tim Rice. It later became a musical, starring Murray Head.   

In the musical, Head plays “F...

The American treasure that is Dolly Parton wrote “9 to 5” as the theme song for the movie of the same name, in which she co-starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. The song topped the charts in 1980, tapping into women’s growing frustrations in the struggle for equality and the never-ending challenges of juggling work and life. The movie follows three women co-workers seeking vengeance on their lecherous boss for his constant sexu...

When the “Godfather of Soul” James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006, his cause of death was listed as heart failure. But intrepid reporting from CNN’s Thomas Lake has surfaced dozens of unanswered questions about Brown’s life and final hours, most importantly to allegations that Brown was murdered. The story starts with one courageous woman named Jacquelyn Hollander who captivated Lake with her outrageous claims and her many, many ...

There's nothing a big stadium concert crowd loves more than hearing the name of their city shouted by their favorite rock star. In the 80's, a few performers figured out how to work the names of many U.S. cities into hit songs, in what can only be described as pandering to audiences hungry for recognition of their American hometowns.

In 1984, Huey Lewis and the News had a hit with "Heart of Rock & Roll,...

In this Very Special Episode of Sick Burns we look at one of the biggest charity records of the 1980’s -- a decade full of charity records. “A Very Special Christmas” has been a holiday juggernaut since the first album was released in 1987. A compilation of Christmas standards from music’s hottest 80’s stars, the album was produced by Jimmy Iovine, who was inspired to make something special to commemorate this special time of year ...

"Material Girl" was the second single from Madonna’s ridiculously successful 1984 album “Like a Virgin,” peaking at #2 in 1985. By borrowing some powerful imagery from another iconic blonde (Marilyn Monroe) for the music video, Madonna earned a nickname that stuck. We discuss the making of the song and video and chat about materialism, influencer culture, Marie Kondo, and even Karl Marx and Cartesian dualism. (Gulp.) Join...

Red Red Wine charted for British reggae band UB40 twice in the ‘80s, once in 1984 and again in 1988.  UB40 brought a “modern beat” to this cover of reggae artist Tony Tribe’s 1969 version of Neil Diamond’s 1967 hit about a guy drowning his sorrows. 

Check out UB40’s video for Red Red Wine.

Here's a version of them performing live with Astro's toasting break. 

Here’s Tony Tribe’s version from 1969.

Here’s Neil Diamon...

Tone Loc’s “Funky Cold Medina” went to #3 in the U.S. in 1989, written by Young MC and inspired by a Flavor Flav catchphrase. Whether it’s a love potion, an aphrodisiac or a date rape drug is left in part to the listener to decipher. One thing is for sure, too much of it can lead to a nasty case of transphobia. We take a look at some popular and effective aphrodisiacs in this hard-hitting episode of Sick Burns! 

Check out the video....

Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” went to #1 in the US and Canada in 1985. Driven by frontman Mark Knopfler’s strong guitar riff and an iconic guest vocal from Sting, it was incredibly popular on the new music television channel, MTV. This was not only because of its groundbreaking animated video but also because it name-dropped MTV in the lyrics. Inspired by a conversation Knopfler heard at an electronics store and written in a pe...

Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” went to #13 in 1988, inspired in part by media-savvy actor-turned president, Ronald Reagan. The band drew notoriety for their melding of heavy metal and funk with a timely reference to heavy-handed leadership and their day-glo look-- plus the fact that they were a boundary-busting Black metal band. The song, about a leader’s manipulation of facts and media for their own glorification while buil...

This episode "Little Pink Houses in My Hometown of Allentown" is a "threefer" on the death of the American dream. 

Several big 80’s hits by prominent rockers detailed the decline of industrialized jobs and the death of middle America and really, indicted America for failing to live up to its promises. 

Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp, a top ten hit in 1983

My Hometown by Bruce Springsteen, which went to #6 in...

While some might chalk L.A.-based new wave band Wall of Voodoo’s big hit Mexican Radio up as a novelty song, it touches on some surprisingly relevant themes. Inspired by the Mexican “border blaster” radio stations the band listened to as they drove around L.A., the song went to #58 in 1982 (#18 in Canada), blending new wave/synth sound with spaghetti western movie soundtrack inspiration. The band themselves provided the inspiration...

Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant was a hit in 1982, reaching number 12 in the US and number 1 in the UK. How did Ant shape this common taunt for the excessively virtuous into an infectious hit? By coupling a toe-tapping rhythm with a super sexy, punk-rock look rooted in Napoleonic military uniforms and war paint. Naturally. 

Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant: The original video 

The Look: 

Adam’s pelisse jacket with frog fastenings and braid tri...

In this episode, we unpack “Weird Al” Yankovic’s hit 1988 song “Fat,” a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” and discuss how it mocks heavy people in a way we now know as “fat-shaming.” While accordions and pop music may seem like strange bedfellows, Yankovic has made a long career out of parody, earning the title, “The Court Jester of Rock & Roll.” And since a discussion of Yankovic’s “Fat” is also a discussion of Jackson’s “Bad...

In this episode we discuss Richard Marx’s breakout hit, Don’t Mean Nothing (1987). It may be one of the one of the most cynically painted rock portraits of Hollywood in the 80’s, with surprise guest stars on back up. There are tangents galore in this episode from how the current global situation is impacting our ability to use prepositions, to how to introduce your kids to the Star Wars franchise, and an ode to the glories of fried...

In this episode, we discuss the racist background of the 1983's Puttin' on the Ritz. While it was something of a novelty song when Dutch singer Taco Ockerse took it to number 4, it has a big backstory. It was originally written by great American songwriter Irving Berlin in 1927 and popularized by the likes of Fred Astaire. What was a song from the ’20s doing on the charts in the ’80s? Mel Brooks may have something to do w...