366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 178

The Date: March 26

The Movie: Purple Rain (1984)

What Is It?: All the egomania, tackiness, misogyny, and idiocy of Albert Magnoli’s movie melts away every time that Purple Motherfucker (as Miles Davis called him) takes the stage to sweat along with some great track from the greatest soundtrack ever made. Whittle away the drama and you’ve got one hell of a sequence of amazing music videos.

Why Today?: Today is Purple Day.

December 1, 2009: Psychobabble’s 11 Greatest Singles of 1984

As the year winds down, Psychobabble sweeps up the debris of 2009’s anniversary-related nostalgia. So, let us venture back 25 years, pull on our stonewashed nut huggers, follow Ronald Reagan’s lead by turning a blind eye to the mounting AIDS epidemic, and take a listen to 11 tubular singles that probably wouldn’t pass muster with Tipper Gore’s newly established Parents’ Music Resource Coalition. These are Psychobabble’s 11 Greatest Singles of 1984!

11. “Sunspots” by Julian Cope

An authoritative guitar lick launches this weighty slab of neo-psychedelia by former Teardrop Explodes frontman, Julian Cope. The song is utterly infectious because of (rather than in spite of) an awkwardly lumbering rhythm, although Cope’s wacky ejaculations of “Meeeeeeeeow!” don’t hurt.

10. “The Caterpillar” by The Cure

The Cure set their flanged guitars aside to deliver a wonderfully weird bit of rustic psychedelia that would have stirred Syd Barrett’s envy. Drums beat a tribal rhythm, acoustic guitars chime, fingers skitter up and down a piano keyboard like the many legs of the title critter, a fiddle flutters, and Robert Smith flickers.

9. “She Told Me Lies” by The Chesterfield Kings