Martin Briley — “The Salt In My Tears”

Entered Top 40:  July 16, 1983
 3 weeks 
Peaked at: 36

A mild peeve is the breakup song that’s all, “I am so over you I am going to take the time to write and perform this 4-minute song about how over you I am.” The recent “I Don’t Care Any More” is a good example. So’s “Since U Been Gone.” I’d rather give honesty points for acknowledging the breakup wounds. Martin Briley isn’t gonna weep in “The Salt in My Tears,” but he owns the griping at least.

Martin Briley came out of the UK prog rock scene, and for a time worked at George Martin’s AIR Studios as a session musician and arranger before recording solo albums in the early 1980s. Briley’s records from the period sound like a cross between prog-prop (his voice is not unlike Phil Collins, and Peter Gabriel) and the sardonic Angry Young Men who were getting critical attention in the US: Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and Joe Jackson, two of whom we’ll hear from not long from now.

During and after his solo deal, Briley did tons of session work. Maybe the most notable appearances are playing guitar on Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and Julian Lennon’s “Too Late For Goodbyes“