Excellent! Love the Husker Du...but I'm desperately hoping The Replacements are in Part II.

Alas, I love the Replacements so much but I already dedicated an entire post to them. But certainly they are one of the best bands of the '80s, if not of all time. -CB

Sent by Peter | 7:31 PM ET | 08-27-2008

Thank you! I never heard of Dexy's Midnight Runners before.

Sent by Jesse | 12:05 AM ET | 08-28-2008

Props for mentioning 'Bad Brains'.

I would've enjoyed seeing 'The Smiths' get some sort of credit too though.

Sent by hmd1987 | 7:30 PM ET | 08-28-2008

Good to see that even the famous rock star, and brilliant blogger can sit and spend a day waisting away on youtube... now I dont feel like such a loser...

as for the 80's music... im so tramatized by it... as I grew up on MJ, New Edition (and even all the split off groups of NE) and other such danceable / RnB type Pop music... and oddly enough, Didnt get into Prince, until much much later when I had ditched that music for rock? About the only 80's ish music I listen to and dont feel im listening to "80's" music... would be the Petty/Springsteen/REM/U2/Mellencamp type stuff...

blame it on my sister... she played Def Leopard to "DEF" and her b/f got me into all that pop stuff...

but speaking of youtube...
WHAT IS THIS???

(probably going to ban me from your blog for that one mwah ha ha ha)

Sent by Kramer | 8:30 PM ET | 08-28-2008

I see that you've already acknowledged that there are too many great bands to be considered. But, What about the Boomtown Rats? They're music still holds up among people who like "art rock". But, more importantly, the technological innovations introduced to present "Live Aid" to a global audience are still evident and it was Boomtown Rats front man Bob Geldoff who pulled it all together.
It's not that I'm a big Boomtown Rats fan; but during the podcast discussion about the 1980's; it was mentioned that there were no big, seminole events that would stick in peoples' memories. Live Aid and Farm Aid are huge in my memory and have continued relevence in the way we are presented with similar events now.

Sent by Victor | 6:13 PM ET | 09-04-2008

I really enjoyed the podcast with you and the guys on All Songs Considered. I'd like to mention of my 3 favorite records from the 80's:

Purple Rain soundtrack
Unforgettable Fire
So

These are three that i can listen to over and over....

Sent by crystal | 2:11 PM ET | 09-05-2008

Just listened to the show and loved the humor and the songs. But how come no mention of The Pixies, certainly one of the most influential bands of the late '80s.

Sent by tomko | 3:05 PM ET | 09-05-2008

Those were the days, sigh.

My but-what-about: New Order "Blue Monday"

Sent by Bryan | 2:52 AM ET | 09-07-2008

Ah,Felt. Great choice! I've loved them for many years. It's a shame that they don't get near enough credit for being as amazing as they were.

Sent by Keith | 11:43 AM ET | 09-11-2008

this was one of all songs considered best shows, very enjoyable and took me back to a time it was 8-track, followed by album, cassette then cd. Favs were huskers zen arcade, new day rising, replacements please to meet me

Sent by mike | 10:03 PM ET | 09-17-2008