Very recently, though, the powers that be have switched over to an all-80's music station. I believe this is satellite radio that we're pulling in, so if the selection was there all this time, then I seriously wonder why there's been almost no variation over the years. Anyway, on with my story:
Hearing all of that 80's music, both the good and the bad - but mostly good, I think, has got me trippin'. There are so many terrific tunes from that era that I am convinced that pop and rock music was so much better then than now, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a biased old fart. Even the most commercial music then was crafted with more imagination and daring. Everybody had their own sound, both instrumentally and vocally. Of course, there were and are always exceptions, but just listen to a playlist of today's dance-pop. Nearly all of it sounds the same, with interchangeable vocalists. Everybody sounds the same... the same producers, same gee-wiz electronic studio toys, the same-sounding vocals.... tweaked with those same gadgets. This applies to some degree to whatever passes for rock nowadays, too. Maybe a bit edgier or heavier, but come on! And the art of songwriting seems to be suppressed in favour of the flavour of the week. Just plunk your singer into this song template and away you go to the bank. Not that I understand why so many people buy so much same-sounding music.
"Are you talking to me?" Mr. Big Suit from Talking Heads
I now hear over the store speakers a lot songs I loved back in the day, like Van Halen's Unchained, Jump, Panama, and The Cradle Will Rock. I will never tire of that stuff; in fact, it really pumps me up when one of those gems comes on. We don't hear too much in the way of hard rock like that, though some other favourites sort of along those lines are New World Man and Limelight by Rush, and Changes and Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes. Some of the embarrassing stuff like Whitesnake's Here I Go Again shows up now and then, but I don't worry much about it. Hey, I sort of liked it back in the day. Not so much now.
Leaning into the pop genre, we've got several appearances by The Police, including Canary in a Coalmine and Driven to Tears (from their Zenyatta Mondatta album), Spirits in the Material World, Hungry for You, and One World (from 1981's Ghost in the Machine), and then all the Synchronicity album's hits. Great, timeless music by one of my all-time favourite bands.
And even though I hated - hated - Michael Jackson during the 80's, I can now appreciate some of his music. Songs like Bad, Billie Jean, and Beat It, among others, are quite good. They simply fell outside my sphere of listening at the time. My friends and I mocked him relentlessly, and of course, the spoof versions of his songs by comedy musician Weird Al made that even more fun. Nowadays, I'm more likely to zing off a line from a Weird Al spoof while attempting to moonwalk. Same story for Madonna.... hated, now like, and spoof.
Beam me up, Scotty! One of
the Seagulls' flock.
Ah, and then there's The Talking Heads, with a bunch of fun and inventive tracks like Once In a Lifetime, And She Was, and Life During Wartime. When these are playing, I am compelled to slip into singer David Byrne's wacky dance moves. The same as it ever was.
Then there's the New Wave-y material, some of which I did like in the 80's... like Flock of Seagulls (Space Age Love Song) and Gary Numan (Cars). I found Numan's album The Pleasure Principle so curious and catchy that I actually bought it when it first hit the record stores. A real oddity at the time... and a bit ahead of its time, too. But I loved something about it... those futuristic synth-heavy melodies.
The New Wave movement also brought us Talk Talk, Simple Minds, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Joy Division, Icicle Works, Split Enz, New Order, Men Without Hats, Devo, The Smiths, Tears for Fears, Cutting Crew, Depeche Mode, and the B-52's. I enjoyed some of those guys back in the day, though I wasn't a major fan at all. Too dance-y. Absolutely none of that stuff was in my music (tape) collection. I was immersed in metal and progressive rock at the time. But in the late 90's I learned to love some of the 80's music that I had ignored (or tried to ignore) during that decade. And now I whistle while I work, along with the steady stream of those artists' hits.
Hairstyles the girls would kill for, by the Platinum Blondes
When rock and pop hit the blender during the 1980's, we got light but more rocking classics from Scandal, Styx, Bangles, GoGo's, Joan Jett, The Fixx, The Romantics, Platinum Blonde, Duran Duran, Men at Work, Quarterflash, Pat Benatar, U2, and The Tubes. Oh, and I mustn't forget Billy Idol and Huey Lewis, who I favoured for a spell. I hear memorable songs by all of these folks over the speakers at work.
For one reason or another, I actually attended concerts by a few of those bands back then: Joan Jett, The Spoons, English Beat, Talking Heads, The Tubes, Flock of Seagulls, and The Police. It was at the monumental Police Picnic of '82 that I saw many of those guys. But as I said before, I was more focused on haunting the Toronto area clubs and large venues to watch metal and rock bands in action, guys (and one gal) like Rush, Yes, Triumph, Scorpions, Lee Aaron, Kickaxe, Helix, Frank Soda, David Wilcox, and Kim Mitchell.
The 80's was a helluva lot of fun for me. I was in my late teens, a huge music fan, and as I entered my 20's, I found I had even more resources to see live bands. And now every day at work, when I hear these cool old songs, I'm reminded of those more carefree times.
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