Bullets on a hot tin roof.

"Wild Horses (Extended Remix)" - Gino Vannelli
You probably know him for his bigger hits like Living Inside Myself and I Just Wanna Stop as opposed to this #55 track from 1987. It did crack the Top 40 on the Adult Contemporary chart though and won Gino and his brother Joe a Juno award for recording engineer of the year. Joe+Gino=Juno. Oh, that was bad. It's not a remake of a Stones track either. The way he talks about trucks, the wind whistlin' and spittin' you'd think it was a country song. Wild Horses was taken from the LP, Big Dreamers Never Sleep. Narcoleptics and readers of my blog don't have this problem though. 2 updates in as many days? I know. Don't get used to it. TT:6:11@320 kbs.
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A pig that don't fly straight.

"Hanging On A Heart Attack (Dance Mix)" - Device
From 1987. Device keyboardist, bassist & co-vocalist Holly Knight was formerly a member of the band Spider in the early 80's. Tina Turner covered one of their songs, Better Be Good To Me, and it was a bigger hit than this song. It's still catchy and you can bug out to it. What? You can. You kids today. I'm shaking my fist at you! Knight also wrote about a million other songs you've probably heard from the likes of Pat Benatar to Ozzy Osbourne. The other 2 members of Device were singer Paul Engemann and Gene Black. Engemann was better known for his song, Push It To The Limit, that was featured in what I and the cock-a-roaches affectionately refer to as "The Ballad Of Tony Montana", Scarface in 1983. Say hello to your leggings, friend. Remixed by Jellybean Benitez @320 kbs. TT-7:25

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Show Me The Way To Go Home.

Rom Spaceknight Annual #4 & #73-75
Rom Annual #4  -  Mantlo/Ditko. The Shi'Ar (an alien race brought to prominence during the Chris Claremont & John Byrne years of Uncanny X-Men) encounter one of Rom's fellow Spaceknights, Pulsar, which leads one of their doctors to transform himself into a cyborg. Look for Gladiator and the rest of the Imperial Guard in this double-sized issue. Rom and his pal's quest to return home ends here too.
Rom #73 - Mantlo/Ditko. The Beyonder makes good on his promise to send Brandy Clark to Galador to be reunited with Rom. Needless to say, it's not as easy as all that. There's a civil war going on and Rom's dream to return to his human form is in serious jeopardy.
Rom #74 - Mantlo/Ditko with inks/finishes by John Byrne! The war on Galdor continues! The humans are dead! Finally, robotic beings rule the world! Now it's Spaceknight vs. Spaceknight for the future of a planet! What's with all the exclamation points!? Why did I rip off Flight Of The Conchords!? Robo-boogie!
Rom #75 (final issue) - Mantlo/Ditko. Legendary Spaceknight Dominor against Rom in a death-duel. Winner takes all. Dominor also wants Brandy to be his "mate" should he win. Rom's all, "You can't see me!", and Dominor's all, "Time to play the game!". There's no steel cages or lumberjacks in this match though.  After all that there's the obligatory happy ending to wrap up this series and today's update.
Download Annual #4 & #73
 Download #74 & 75

Yo Yippy.

"I Wanna Be A Cowboy (12 inch Saddle Mix)" - Boys Don't Cry
Inspired by the Spaghetti Westerns that I love so much, here comes one-hit wonder Boys Don't Cry with this campy #12 hit from 1985. The band was discovered by talent scout (now remixer) Paul Oakenfold in London. Their name came from a line used in 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" (and later on the full-length version of "Cry" by 10cc's Godley & Creme). It's widely speculated by smart-asses like me that The Man With No Name's name is, in fact, Ted. Don't laugh at his mule either. TT: 6:02 @ 320 kbs.

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Rom's In Spaceee-suh!

Rom Spaceknight #67-72

All by Bill Mantlo and Steve Ditko.
Rom #67: What does a warrior do without a war? Go 56 light years into space to some other freaky ass planet and get in a fight with something that looks like Godzilla's little brother of course. The quest for Rom's fellow Spaceknights begins! It's time for them all to reclaim their humanity. Rom's war with the Wraiths ending was kinda like Moonlighting's David And Maddie kissing. The end was near.
Rom #68: Rom meets with a bunch of star trekkers trying to return home and fights something called Automata and it's robot army.
Rom #69: A living planet with a big "Ego"? The Wraiths and 2 fellow Spaceknights pop up again in a surprising way.
Rom #70: More wraiths out of their element, alien planet. Pattern?
Rom #71: Raak the breaker! Vola the trapper! Never saw a spaceknight named Tom or Jim did you? The Raak says know your role.

Rom #72: Secret Wars 2 crossover. The original Secret Wars was about a mega-powered being called The Beyonder who kidnapped the best of Earth's heroes and villains and made them fight each other for his jollies on some faraway planet. Rick Jones and Brandy Clark take the spotlight for this ish. Apparently godlike beings from other planets also enjoy Jheri Curl. And what's up with that Captain EO outfit?

Download #67-69
Download #70-72

Weird.

There are a lot of blogger sites disappearing thanks to big brother. Most likely it's the blogs hosting downloads of stuff that just hit your favorite music outlets in the last week or so and not 20+ year old stuff like you find here. I have set up a mirror blog on wordpress just in case. Here's the url:

http://eightiesrefugeecamp.wordpress.com/

Bookmark it, whatever you need to do. Hopefully we'll still be at this url for the long haul but you never know.

Arm Your Soul.

"Tumblin' Down (Remix)" & "Have You Ever Been to Hell (Remix)" - Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
Bomb Squad guru Hank Shocklee remixed these tunes back in 1988 and I looked for quite a while to find them to share. Big thanks to Sandman74 for this. The Melody Makers were all Marleys too: Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike...if I like the girl, who cares who you like? In reality (and not some weird New Edition brainfart) the Melody Makers were Bob's other children - Sharon, Steven and Cedella. These songs are taken from their Best Reggae Grammy-winning album, Concious Party. Tumblin' Down was a #1 hit on the R&B and Hot Dance Music Billboard charts. Have You Ever Been To Hell wasn't released as a single but it's my favorite and this version was never released in the USA. In other news no one really cares about: I saw Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers open for INXS the same year.
Tracklisting:
1. Tumblin' Down (Hank Shocklee Remix) 6:03
2. Tumblin' Down (Edit) 3:00
3. Have You Ever Been To Hell (Hank Shocklee Remix) 5:34
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War Is Over.

Rom Spaceknight #61 - 66
Rumor control: These are the facts. The creative team remains Bill Mantlo and Steve Ditko. The war for Earth with the Dire Straits Wraiths ends in this batch. Rom, that Sultan Of Swing, has some help from Forge (who turned up in the last batch of Wraith/X-Men stories I shared with you all last time) and The Mighty Avengers to name a few to end the conflict - once and for all. What's a Spaceknight to do now? Take up bowling? How many more tired cliches can I use? Stay tuned.

Download #61-63
Download #64-66
Download Comical to open the comics after extraction.

In The Mist

"These Dreams (Extended Remix)" - Heart
Bernie Taupin (who worked with Elton John on many a hit song) and Martin Page (writer of Starship's "We Built This City" and Go West's "King Of Wishful Thinking") wrote the tune. The song was first offered to Stevie Nicks but, in a moment of great stupidity, she passed on it. Hindsight sucks, don't it? Heart grabbed the song and decided Nancy would sing it instead of sister and lead singer, Ann Wilson. It was dedicated on the album to Nancy's friend Sharon Hess, who had recently died of leukemia. These Dreams was the third single from the band's self-titled LP and went all the way to #1 in 1986. And now, a long distance dedication. Dear Casey....sometimes I feel like Mr. Kasem. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

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