Coming to you from Airstrip One, it’s the 1984 Hall of Acclaim election (sorry, I couldn’t come up with any good lines about Eurythmics’ soundtrack for the film 1984 or Big Brother and the Holding Company).

Choose the ten most deserving artists, based on records released through the end of 1983.

You may want to check out the top 100 eligible candidates. For a reminder of who’s already been inducted, see the results thread.

For your ballot to be eligible, submit a ranked list of your ten most deserving artists.

***IMPORTANT!***
Also, for your top FIVE artists (at least), you must explain why they deserve to be in the HOA. You may recycle your comments from past elections if you wish, but I want us to have a context for WHY we're selecting these artists. Ballots without comments for the top five will NOT be counted!

In addition, you have the option to nominate up to three people for the Backstage Wing. This isn't required.

Deadline for ballots is Sunday, February 8, at 6:00 pm US Central time (midnight GMT).

Voting is now open.

1. LOVE - Once again on top. Still absolutely excellent.

2. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - These old favourites of mine, and especially Jefferson Airplane, will probably never get voted in, but they sound great nevertheless.

3. MOTÖRHEAD - I went to a concert with them 8 years ago. It was great. Lemmy is a great-looking, silk-voiced young man.

4. VIOLENT FEMMES - The best album of the 80s, and the soundtrack to my late teens.

5. GANG OF FOUR - The band every dancerocker would like to have been in. That sounds bad, but is actually good.

6. U2
7. NEW ORDER
8. IGGY POP
9. BUZZCOCKS
10. THE HUMAN LEAGUE

1. X – Easy number one for me. I would encourage all unfamiliar with X to examine their first four albums, all of which are amazing (if you have any interest in the Los Angeles punk scene). Fans of more rambunctious Americana would also enjoy their stuff, I think. Nicolas: They cover a Leadbelly song (Dancing With Tears in My Eyes).

2. PATSY CLINE – This could be her year.

3. WILLIE NELSON – This could be his year.

4. THE SUPREMES – Maybe the greatest Motown act (in terms of lasting popularity), but still on the outside looking in.

5. TOM WAITS – Swordfishtrombones is sometimes my favorite Tom Waits album. The other is Rain Dogs, wich will vault Tom up to second in my rankings in a few years (assuming X is still camped in first place).

6. XTC – The early singles on Waxworks are great fun and, hence, great pop.

7. R.E.M. – I don’t want to miss my chance to vote them in, but one album and an EP is a little bit early, maybe. Reckoning will move them up my list next year, if need be.

8. T. REX
9. THE ZOMBIES
10. LOVE

1. Eurythmics- They truly belong now, with 3 awesome albums under their belt. Read my synopsis of their first 4 years here. I would have jumped them over The Cure AND Prince at this point had they not been elected! Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) and Touch brim with insane creativity and showcase that freezing, sophisticated synth detachment that I love so much. They had so much great stuff come out in 1983- The providential booming synth pop of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", the cutting and similarly booming "I Could Give You (A Mirror)", the gut-wrenching beauty of "Jennifer", the resplendent majesty of "Here Comes the Rain Again", the paranoid and icy "Who's That Girl?", the harrowing, chilling tension of "No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts)" which features a vocal intro only Annie could get away with, the infectious dance fever of "Cool Blue" and "The First Cut", and the experimental, writhing, swirling Eastern-tinged synth miasma of the glorious "Paint a Rumour" are just a starter. I'll leave you with the loneliest song I've ever heard, which perfectly captures the monotony and dejected isolation of cold city life. Behold "This City Never Sleeps":



2. Grace Jones- Living art.

3. Siouxsie and the Banshees- Only a cover of "Dear Prudence" came out in 1983, but the mastery depicted on their prior triumvirate of albums gives them a lot of leeway!

4. Madonna- My favorite debut album ever is hers. Essential mix of dance, pop, new wave and R & B with 8 killer tracks, including "Burning Up", which is among my top 10 favorite songs ever.

5. Chic- I'm giving them a bump because they seem to be on the precipice and deserve recognition.

6. Donna Summer- She Works Hard for the Money got a lot of play in my house in 1984, and it forms one of my first musical memories. My favorites are "Woman", "Stop, Look and Listen" and "People, People".

7. Can

8. T-Rex- I can't believe it's taken this long! Hopefully this can help garner a well-deserved induction!

9. Joan Jett

10. Kim Wilde

Three voters and 28 different artists out a possible 30. It's wide open.

1.Tom Waits : With Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits goes from "favorite " to "best"

2.Robert Wyatt : Anybody heard his early '80s singles ? There's a great version of "Strange Fruit"

3.Eagles : Best and favourite. In 1983 I was 13 and I did a presentation in my music class, and the subject was : The Eagles ! And every night I played "Hotel California" in front of the mirror on my tennis racket.

4.Renaud : A fine French singer-songwriter with great lyrics. He wasn't a great musician and he let the others do the producing which in France in 1983 was not always a good idea. But he was one of the best French singers of this era.

5.Philip Glass : Great composer. I prefer his solo piano works and his album "Glassworks" (1982), a masterpiece that everyone should hear. A son of Satie

6.Grateful Dead : My former band partner was a Deadhead. I could say I like 33 % of what they did. I have a lot of respect for Jerry Garcia and what he did for old time music. I guess they really stand for something (jam bands ?) and so they could be included in the HOA but I doubt they will.

7.Willie Nelson : I don't know Patsy Cline that well, and if a country singer has to be included, I would say Willie N

8.Iron Maiden : One of the first and best heavy metal groups

9.The Specials

10.Linton Kwesi Johnson

1. Cream - The legendary teaming of Clapton, Bruce and Baker crossed the boundaries between blues, rock and psychedelic.
2. Janis Joplin - One of the first women to make it big in the male-oriented world that is called rock.
3. Tom Waits - '83 was a good year for music. One of the best things it gave us was "Swordfishtrombones", easily one of my alltime favourites.
4. Eagles - They split up now, and most have a quite succesful solo career, but I'm not giving up on the Southern Californian soft country rockers.
5. Deep Purple - The influence of the third greatest hardrock group is undeniable. The creators of the riff that every beginning guitarists will learn.
6. Chic
7. The Supremes
8. New Order
9. U2
10. R.E.M.

Backstage:
1. DJ Kool Herc
2. Irving Berlin
3. W.C. Handy

Interesting, because, in the mid eighties, as the general level is very weak (years 1983 to 1985 are probably the worst in rock history), votes are really spread like Paul said.

Tsk, tsk, tsk! The 80s were great, ESPECIALLY 1983!

1983 was a great year for singles that's right

I haven't made a backstage vote in awhile, so here goes:

1. Leon Russell

1. Tom Waits - one of America's best in-character songwriters (the others are Springsteen, Newman, and Zevon, 2 of whom still need to be inducted)
2. Willie Nelson - ok, i'll give Willie some points, but i'd rather be giving them to George
3. Warren Zevon
4. Jackson Browne
5. R.E.M. - a song-perfect debut. Peter Buck's guitar would be mimicked for at least the next decade
6. John Cale
7. Todd Rundgren
8. George Jones
9. Hall & Oates
10. Cheap Trick

backstage

1. Hoagy Carmichael
2. Eddie Kramer
3. Norman Whitfield

1. Randy Newman – A master melodist who fully inherited his Hollywood-royalty family’s compositional gifts, and has spent his entire non-soundtrack career putting those gifts at the service of an astonishingly biting and ironic sensibility. No singer-songwriter has ever inhabited a wider variety of delusional, pitiable, or downright despicable characters, with so little regard for how he might be viewed by the confused among us who can’t separate the singer from the song.

2. Tom Waits – He cemented an image almost immediately in the seventies as a gifted singer-songwriter with a theatrical bent, a flair for character studies, and a mile-wide sentimental streak. The image was so strong that it was easy to overlook the fact that, with each album, his style was shifting; after 1983 no one would ever overlook it again. His status as rock’s most formidably experimental eccentric has only grown over the last 25 years; what’s even more impressive is that he still has all those original traits, too.

3. R.E.M. – A few artists have no doubt been elected to this HOA before their time, purely on the basis of their future accomplishments. If the boys from Athens get in right now, that will be true to a certain extent, given that they’re still around and (arguably) vital. But the debut album, astonishingly assured and confident in its mysteries from such a young band, really is great enough to merit induction on its own.

4. U2 – You do sometimes have to wonder whether Edge, Adam and Larry ever roll their eyes in bemusement at their leader’s posturing and pronouncements and think, “All we ever wanted was to entertain the nice people!” But if Bono wasn’t Bono, U2 wouldn’t be U2, and on balance the good far outweighs the bad. At their frequent best they’re every bit as transcendent as Mr. Hewson undoubtedly believes they are all the time.

5. New York Dolls – They only made two albums, but they’re one of the all-time great bands, and their influence is incalculable. David Johansen and Johnny Thunders came off like Mick & Keith if they’d never taken off the drag from the “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby” video and started gobbling amphetamines 24/7. The Dolls were unabashedly hip, but there wasn’t a cynical bone in their bodies: they may have needed both a fix and a kiss, but you always sensed that the kiss was more important (even if that sadly wasn't true for some of them in real life).

6. Ornette Coleman
7. Wire
8. Can
9. Love
10. New Order

BACKSTAGE WING
1. Nicky Hopkins
2. Rudy Van Gelder
3. Greil Marcus

1. X. More Fun in the New World, the last and least of their four classic albums—and the first with an easily detectable country influence (cross-pollination from the Knitters project)—is now out. There will never be a more appropriate time to induct them.
2. THE SPECIALS. With the ballots all over the map this time, someone with a fairly low point total is gonna get in. I hope it’s these guys.
3. R.E.M. When your first LP is named Album of the Year and everyone (who’s heard of you) is still talking about you mostly in terms of your potential, that’s a good sign. (Amazingly, they would actually go on to fulfill that potential, but that’s by the by.) I recently picked up the 25th anniversary “Deluxe” edition of Murmur, and it’s even more astonishing than I remembered.
4. WILLIE NELSON. Willie’s support seems to be picking up, so I’m bumping him up slightly.
5. T. REX. Take my comment about Willie and reverse it.
6. PATSY CLINE
7. TOM WAITS. Only reason I haven’t voted for him before this is that I only know his 80s stuff.
8. BUZZCOCKS
9. U2. They will make only one album better than 1983’s War (and it ain’t The Joshua Tree).
10. GRANDMASTER FLASH

R. & L. Thompson dropped due to voter ennui.

Backstage: IAN COPELAND, founder of I.R.S. Records. At this point, in addition to the band for which Ian’s brother mans the drums, I.R.S. has been or is affiliated with the B-52’s, the Cure, the English Beat, the Go-Go’s, the Cramps, R.E.M., the Dead Kennedys, Oingo Boingo, the Buzzcocks, the Bangles, Iggy Pop and Suzanne Vega. In other words, about half of the records I owned in high school.

01. TOM WAITS: the sound of Tom Waits is not tied at all to the sound of his contemporaries, he seems to manufacture his sound rummaging among the debris from demolished buildings as vintage jazz, Berlin cabaret, New Orleans parade music or lunatic Delta blues.
My favourite album: Swordfishtrombones (1983).
My Top 5 Songs: In the Neighborhood (1983), Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen) (1976), 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six (1983), Jersey Girl (1980), I Never Talk to Strangers (1977).

02. AZTEC CAMERA: a very young band from Scotland (Roddy Frame is only 19 years old now, 17 when NME released C-81) that is bringing back acoustic guitars and elaborate chord sequences closer to bossa nova or jazz than to rock.
My favourite album: High Land, Hard Rain (1983).
My Top 3 Songs: Walk Out to Winter (Extended) (1983), Oblivious (1983), We Could Send Letters (1981) (this early take of “We Could Send Letters” replaces “Pillar to Post” or “Release” who can’t be found on Youtube).

03. EURYTHMICS: they’re not the only synth-pop duo showcasing that machines got soul too (there are Yazoo and Soft Cell too), but Annie Lenox wins because of the many colours of her voice and, yes, her fascinating androgynous look.
My favourite album: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983).
My Top 3 Songs: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983), Here Comes the Rain Again (1983), This City Never Sleeps (1983).

04. DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS: a refreshing band commanded by histrionic Kevin Rowland that goes back to 60s soul horns and Celtic strings to create an irresistible brand new sound that could be defined as Celtic Soul.
My favourite album: Too-Rye-Ay (1982).
My Top 3 Songs: Come On Eileen (1982), Geno (1980), Let’s Make This Precious (1982).

05. THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS: strong guitars and pop hooks from a band showing influences of psychedelia, punk, goth-rock, synth-pop and (quite obviously) David Bowie, brilliantly produced by Martin Hannett, Steve Lillywhite or Todd Rundgren.
My favourite album: Talk Talk Talk (1981).
My Top 3 Songs: Pretty in Pink (1981), Sister Europe (1980), Love My Way (1982).

06. THE SPECIALS.
07. RANDY NEWMAN.
08. SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES.
09. U2.
10. R.E.M.


And at the backstage:
01. STEVE LILLYWHITE: probably the best producer of the last, with a sixth sense for modern sounds, he’s the man behind the controls on Ultravox first albums, Siouxsie’s debut album, Peter Gabriel acclaimed “III”, the two first Psychedelic Furs albums and the first three albums by Irish band U2. Astonishing, isn’t it? Favourite song: U2 Sunday Bloody Sunday (1983).
02. MILES COPELAND III & IAN COPELAND: I will follow immediately the Schleuse suggestion, the Stewart Copeland older brothers are responsible as founders of I.R.S. label and F.B.I. agency (Frontier Booking International) of the introduction of new wave in the USA. Favourite song: THE CRAMPS Goo Goo Muck (1981).
03. GEOFF TRAVIS: some of the releases of Rough Trade Records during 1983 had been “High Land, Hard Rain”, “This Charming Man” or “Power, Corruption and Lies”.

Yes! Some Eurythmics love!

1. THE MOODY BLUES - Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this band probably made a blip in the late 60s on the eligibles list before disappearing, which is too bad, because they're probably the last band from that musical era that isn't inducted. A lot of bands from the Beatles onward got props for incorporating orchestras and strings, but for me nothing quite captured the sweeping majesty of classical music and cavernous sounds of orchestras in pop music like the Moody Blues. The release of their last halfway decent album in 1981, Long Distance Voyager, is a good a time as any to put them at the personal top and see how long they last.

2. BUZZCOCKS - Singles Going Steady presents such a wide spectrum of interesting punk sounds. Autonomy and Ever Fallen in Love? are the standouts but band combined artistry and attitude.

3. R.E.M. - Just one album in, and they really are this high. Murmur has so much unique things in it, it's hard to think of it as an eighties album. Much like Violent Femmes, their debut sounds unlike any of the polished pop that was coming out that year. They set the standard for themselves in 1983 and kept growing to incredible heights as the years rolled on.


4. THE CRYSTALS - Fitting to give this group props after I finished listening to the non-Christmas Back to Mono set. Beautiful infectious pop melodies. Who cares if I get them confused with the Ronettes.

5. RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - There's something real dark to the elements of the Wall of Sound, which make the booming choruses and orchestrations so timeless. You hear You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling and while you are uplifted with romantic sentiments you also have a sense that something in lingering around the corner to remove you from your fantasy. Maybe it's growing up on Lynchian film images that borrow from sixties sentimentality and the sounds that go with it, but this is powerful dramatic music.

6. NEW ORDER

7. THE SUPREMES - Motown's finest sounds so smooth and polished despite the recording technology that existed back then.

8. GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE

9. TODD RUNDGREN

10. LOVE

Tempted by New Order, but they need a few more hits under their belt.

Feeling like it's too early for U2 and R.E.M. I would at this point place U2 ahead of R.E.M., but it's close.

1. Chic - Clams on the half shell. And rollerskates. Rollerskates.

2. Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young)

3. Patsy Cline - I'll say it one more time, never thought she'd climb this high.

4. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

5. The Staple Singers

6. The Grateful Dead

7. Paul Simon

8. Willie Nelson

9. The Supremes

10. Cream -- Was tempted by voting for Buffalo Springfield again, but I don't think my list needs 2x the Sitlls and Young.

Backstage:

1. Irving Berlin
2. DJ Kool Herc
3. Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn

1. U2 - 1983 was a great year for rock, despite complaints in this thread. And the best album released came from punk Dubliners U2. There was a time when I listened to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" every day, for like 2 months...

2. R.E.M. - "Radio Free Europe" let us know something was coming two years ago. But I don't know that anyone expected anything near as good as Murmur. An album that inspired a lot of alternative bands.

3. Grandmaster Flash - See last year.

4. Rush - See 1982.

5. Chic - See 1982.

6. Iron Maiden - Metal doesn't get much recognition on AM, but certainly Iron Maiden were the best of their time. Cue up Number of the Beast if you disagree.

7. New Order - "Blue Monday" is a masterpiece. Tense and brooding, but nonetheless very danceable and never long-winded at over 7 minutes.

8. Cheap Trick - See 1982.

9. Tom Waits - I hate his voice. But I can respect is songwriting abilities.

10. Journey - See 1982.

i forgot : My backstage voice goes to DJ Kool Herc

Some Eurythmics love!
Yes, maybe with another 1 or 2 voters Lennox & Stewart could have get into HOA… This was the right moment for that. By the way, Moonbeam, have you clicked on my link to “This City Never Sleeps”? Since you recently posted the original version I chose this posterior version with dobro and a gospel choir. The original is better, you can listen there that the train sound effectively morphs into a screeching slide guitar, as you pointed. But the gospel version is good too. Nicolas, maybe you should take a look (and a listen). Probably next week we got three voters…
Has anybody saw the guest vocalist on the “Sunday Bloody Sunday” link? Now that he’s retired he could try a career as a rock singer now. Well, forget it, thinking again maybe it’s preferable for us that he stays in retirement.