Favorite 80's Songs

[keithbenjamin]

Since Karen mentioned she was a 80's music fan, I thought this might be a fun thread. So, for you Gen-Xers...

Here are some of my favs:

The Cure - Why Can't I Be You
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now
Killing Joke - Eighties
New Order - Regret
Journey - Send Her My Love
Journey - I'll Be Alright without You (Best Guitar Solo)
Electronic - Getting Away with It
Van Halen - 5150



-KB

[karen]

No Way!!! I LOVE Killing Joke!! I admit to spending a lot of time still listening to 80s music-we get a channel on our digital cable that plays it 24-7. Let see...my favorites are

Everything Counts- Depeche Mode (as well as just about all their other songs)
Go!- Tones on Tail
Everyday is Halloween- Ministry
Wild Sex in the working class-Oingo Boingo
anything by Adam Ant
Panic-the Smiths
Confusion-New Order

I could just go on forever...I miss those days of aqua net hairspray and peter pan boots. :)

[keithbenjamin]

Please do. I'm having fun going through some great tunes.

Ministry, Killing Joke, and Boingo.. you were quite the freak in high school, eh? Excellent. Then again, this stuff was probably fairly mainstream in Cali. Not in Iowa, where "classic" rock is pretty much what everyone listened to.

How about...

English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peek-a-Boo
Sugar Cubes - Motorcrash
Peter Murphy
The Connells

[karen]

Ministry, Killing Joke, and Boingo.. you were quite the freak in high school, eh? Excellent.

In all honesty, didn't really discover Killing Joke and Ministry until after high school(1986) I was a " new waver with new romantic tendencies" (think early Duran Duran) The freaks were the 4 goth girls ;) Here are some more...

Driver 8- REM
Wood Be's- Scritti Politti
Don't Go- Yaz
Love Plus One- Haircut 100

more obscure
If you leave me can I come too- Mental as Anything
Nemesis- Shreikback
Sensoria-Cabaret Voltaire

[bbla]

How about Diso Duck

Bill

[keithbenjamin]

Karen,

Yeah, those are definitely more new wave. I should have gathered that from the "hairspray and boots" comment.

In that vein (less obscure)-

Talk Talk - It's My Life
Psychedelic Furs - Ghost in You
Reflex - Politics of Dancing
Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

Bill,

Disco Duck? This is an EIGHTIES music thread, not a Rick Dees music thread <dry heave> . What about Kung Fu Fighting and Short People :D

[Pete Hanlin]

Dang- I thought I knew 80's music- but a lot of the stuff you guys are discussing is foreign to me!

From a bit more of a conventional view...
Dirty Laundry- Don Henley
King of Pain- The Police
Blinded Me With Science- Tom Dolby
Take On Me- Aha
That's Just the Way it Is- Bruce Hornsby

...and what may well be the signature song of the 80s (meaning, if you grew up in the 80s you HAVE to know this song, but if you didn't you probably never heard it)...
Tom's Diner- Suzanne Vega

[karen]

Dang- I thought I knew 80's music- but a lot of the stuff you guys are discussing is foreign to me!

Never fear Pete-I was one of those people that purposely listened to stuff that was not mainstream. I did crown myself the queen of obscure 80's songs in another thread ;) Thanks alot, now that Suzanne Vega song will be stuck in my head all day...do do doo do do do doo do

How come no one else wants to play with us Keith?? Where are all the rest of you 80's people???

[lpdeen]

Ok, I'll join in. I know all of those songs, Karen!

I loved Depeche Mode. I saw them 5 times in concert in 3 years. I also really liked INXS.

We lived for KROQ with Richard Blade. He was VERY cool and had a british accent. Our local station (91X) was and is still really good. Every day from 12-1 and on Sunday mornings they have "resurrection" play so I can get my 80's fix.

[Texas Ranger]

I just realized that when you're raising three kids and running a business, you live in some sort of time warp....as in, I never heard of any of the music in this post, very strange....

And I hadn't heard of the artists either....very strange....

[Jana Lewis]

Okay....I'll play! :)

Kate Bush - Hounds of love

Roxy Music - More then this

The Clash - Should I stay of should I go

Romeo Void - Never say never

General Public - Tenderness

Violent Femmes - Kiss off

Bauhaus- She's in parties

Madness - One step beyond

The Alarm - 68 guns

I'll stop for now... there's much more!! Gosh, now I am humming all these tunes!

[karen]

. Our local station (91X) was and is still really good. Every day from 12-1 and on Sunday mornings they have "resurrection" play so I can get my 80's fix.

Hi Lori! I can remember getting 91X way out in Hesperia-it was kinda static-ky but it was so cool we listened anyway. Remember Richard Blade on
MV3??
Jana-I think we could have hung out and listened to music together. My favorite Bauhaus song is Telegram Sam. My hubby is a big Madness fan-he sings "One Step Beyond" to the baby all the time

[Pete Hanlin]

Okay, I've been trying to think of obscure music that I liked in the 80's (and have decided I was pretty mainstream). Between individuals and groups like Billy Joel, Chicago, Police, Prince, Duran Duran (yeah, I liked them), The Cars, Men at Work, Mike and the Mechanics, and so on, most of the music I liked was probably found every week in the "Weekly Top 40."

Thinking back has been fun, though- and I can recall a few more 80's tunes I particularly enjoyed:

Tesla - Easy Come Easy Go
Asia - Play the Game Tonight
??? - Keep Feelin' Fascination
??? - Back on the Chain Gang ("I keep a picture of you, ohh oh oh oh oh oh oh")
??? - Captain of Her Heart
George Michaels - Kissing a Fool
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Tom Petty - Last Dance with Mary Jane (that may have been early 90's though)

Given your depth of 80's music knowledge, perhaps you can fill in some of the groups for me! Oh yeah, there's also this song I really used to like, but I can never come up with the title or the group! The lyrics of the chorus went something like:
Take it to the bridge, throw it overboard,
see if it can swim, drag it to the shore,
take it to the house, everybody's out,
all the lights are on, but the blinds are down...

Stupid song, but every once and again, I get part of it stuck in my head- if I could just think of what it was called, maybe it would go away!

[lpdeen]

Pete,

Your song is "Hourglass" by Sqeeze.

That's another really good band from the 80's.

Human League sings "Fascination"

The Pretenders sing "Back on the Chaingang"

Does anyone remember the movie "Valley Girl"? It starred a very young Nicolas Cage and had a grerat soundtrack. One of my favorites was "A Million Miles Away" by The Plimsouls. It's a pretty lame movie now though.

My daughter who is almost 12, has recently discovered The Stray Cats! She loves "The Stray Cat Strut". She was pretty surprised that I knew all of the words. She thought that they were new!!!

[keithbenjamin]

Brian Setzer (Stray Cats front man and guitar player) rocks.

Good ones Jana!

Pete, I'm a big Tesla and Asia fan too. In fact, I still have a drawing somwhere that I did in high school of the Asia album cover that had the dragon coming up out of the water. I also like a lot of the hair metal bands... Dokken, Ratt, Extreme, Warrant, older Metallica (pre- 'Nothing Else Matters')

[Pete Hanlin]

If you recall a band called "Poison," it is interesting (to me) to note that they originated right around Harrisburg, PA (right across the river). Before they loaded up the van and went to California, one could go see them at local bars in Central PA...

Actually, I've thought of a few 80's songs that I really despised... Among them:

??? - I'm Only Human
??? - Never Gonna Give You Up (think that was the title- by some awful red-headed guy)

Back on the "good bands" list, however- Fleetwood Mac was awesome! Most people know that Video Killed the Radio Star was the first video played on MTV, but as I recall, the second video was Hold On To Me! I remember being in my friend's basement when MTV cranked up for its first day (remember the little astronaut with the flag?).

Moving beyond music, there were a few other things about the 80's that stand out. Remember some of the pre-Nintendo but post-Pong video games? I won something called an Intellivision when I pulled a winning card from a box of Apple Jacks (still the biggest thing I've ever won). Oh, and remember the first cell phones? Calling them "mobile" was a bit of a misnomer! Oh yeah, and remember Pop Rocks? Supposedly, Mikey (He likes it, he likes it!) had died from eating Pop Rocks and then drinking soda (just a myth, but a cool one).

If you ever get the hankering to take a trip down memory lane, look for a show called Remember When on HGTV. They look at stuff from the 70's and 80's, and its amazing the stuff we used to consider "modern." Remember when life went from Jiffy Pop to popcorn makers, then the air poppers, and finally the microwave stuff? Makes me want to see if they still make Jiffy Pop- my kids should get to see the tin foil explode (and smell the burnt popcorn) at least once!

You know, the 80's just may have been the greatest decade ever to grow up! Reagan was President, the American version of the world was basically at peace (meaning, there were no conflicts happening that we couldn't basically go in and kick butt), and we started it all off by taking the olympics in hockey! Life was good...

[Texas Ranger]

Pete, you might be right, my kids were born in '77;'79; and '80. I started my business in '77, so the 80's were quite good for me, except for the fact that interest rates were double digit...but it was a "peaceful" time...

[chm2023]

I associate the 80's with excess and greed--Bonfire of the Vanities/Michael Milliken stuff, the beginning of the sports world's descent into what we have today, emergence of CEOs as cultural rock stars and particularly distressing, the cult of celebrity--People magazine and its spawn.


But unarguably better hair than the 70's!!!:drop:

[Pete Hanlin]

I associate the 80's with excess and greed--Bonfire of the Vanities/Michael Milliken stuff, the beginning of the sports world's descent into what we have today, emergence of CEOs as cultural rock stars and particularly distressing, the cult of celebrity--People magazine and its spawn.
Ah yes- and I know I'll catch flak for this- but, the "evils" of the 80's did not belong to the BabyBuster generation that grew up in it. If anything, the ills you decry were wrought by BabyBoomers.

So, for those growing up, the 80's were a grand, relaxing place to be. Using this as a springboard into another topic, I think the grandest generation of all were the "Builders" (you know, that great generation that grew up in the Depression and established pax-Americana through the second World War).

Unfortunately, the children of this generation (Boomers) somehow felt that their hardworking, conservative parents had missed the boat and viola- our nation was overtaken by years of "Flower Power" and people who were "Turning Off, Tuning In, etc., etc." (or whatever their mantra was).

I'd like to think I see a bit of a revival in the Buster (and even GenX) Generation of "normalcy" (and- shock shock, conservativism). Perhaps we can even make the "Aughts" a nice decade for my kids to remember.

[chm2023]

I suppose everyone (who had a nice childhood) holds that time in their life dear. And is now the "Aughts?" Guess it's as good as any, just sounds funny doesn't it.

I absolutely agree that the 80s belong to us Boomers; but by the same token, the 60s "belong" to the "greatest generation". Regardless of how you view Vietnam, this is Kennedy/Johnston/Nixon's--"greatest generation" all, not the Boomers war.

My father used to say that the generation he most admired was the generation that came of age between the 2 WW's, his parents' generation. They certainly bore the brunt of the Depression and then sent their children to war (something I suspect is more difficult than going yourself, youth being what it is) and entered their old age at a time when old age was a pretty grim business in the US. You are probably too young to remember this, but there was a time when the elderly in the US were very highly (disproportionately )represented in the "living below the poverty line" category. (This honor now held by children; I don't know if this is progress or not???)

[Pete Hanlin]

My grandfather was born in 1919 and relayed very interesting tales of the Great Depression. Interestingly enough, the poverty of that time didn't lead to high crime rates (makes a rather intereting contrast to the crime we blame on poverty today). Of course, they didn't have a rampant drug problem in that day, either...

Through WWII, he served in the Pentagon- and had interesting stories about how "We just weren't exactly sure we were going to win that war..." I cannot comprehend the US being in a war we weren't sure we could win if necessary (we took a forfiet in Vietnam, IMO). Anyway, if I have to vote for the greatest generation, it would be my grandfather's... Unfortunately, we are quickly losing the last vestiges of our grandest years- if you have one still in your family, take time to cherish them (my final grandparent died last month, its amazing how much older you feel after that final loss).

My parents are 64ish now, and most of their generation seems pretty responsible to me (at least the ones I've grown up with). However, if you go about 10 years younger (50-56, let's say), it just seems like there are a disproportionate amount of hippy-turned-yuppies. No offense intended to anyone that falls within that age group, but they must have put some strange stuff in the water from 1954 to 1960 or so because a lot of you just turned out, well- strange!

What is really interesting to watch is the number of really responsible early 20ish year olds out there. In my opinion, we are seeing a revival of responsibility amount our young adults. Perhaps it can all be attributed to a generation that has had the "advantage" of watching how screwed up a generation that self-indulges itself can become...

Of course, it is also possible that I'm falling guilty to the "Driver's Syndrome" (i.e., everyone faster than me is a maniac- everyone slower than me is a slowpoke), because I know there are good and bad folks of EVERY age out there (well, except for 36 year olds- we're all perfectly well-adapted).
;)

[Judy Canty]

Pete, I'd do more than cherish them. Interview them, or better yet, have one of the kids interview them and record the whole interaction on tape. My Grandpa Mitchell was never one to talk about his experiences in WWII, because some of it was pretty grim. However when Beth was a middle-schooler and became very curious about that time period, Great-Grandpa Mitchell talked to her for hours. Between her interviews and his scrapbooks, we learned so much about our family.

[Texas Ranger]

Pete, in 1941, immediately after Pearl Harbor, my dad, his brother, and thier DAD all joined the Army Air-Corps. Dad had just been accepted into the Navy Band...he ended up flying 25 missions as a waist gunner on B-17s in 1943, one mission on the "Memphis Belle"...he then spent the next 25 years in the Air Force..he did instill in us a sense of duty and respnsibilty to our country and our fellow man; during the depression in Akron, Oh, their family ran a little general store. He drove in the country's first Soap Box Derby, in a time after the depression of good times and thanksgiving..but, it took the concerted effort of the entire country to make it through WWII...and cost the lives of many a great man..a great number sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Europe and America...Vietnam was a "stalemate", because we weren't united...

[Pete Hanlin]

Pete, I'd do more than cherish them. Interview them, or better yet, have one of the kids interview them and record the whole interaction on tape.
A few years before my grandfather died, we purchased a book for him that asked many questions about his childhood and adult life. My grandfather was the "historian" type and did a fabulous job of recording a marvelous recollection of the Depression, the War, his career, his marriage, etc. The interview idea is fabulous- the things we can learn from our elders are priceless.

Since we are on the subject, some things I learned from my grandfather's book...
1.) Thank your employer for your job at least once a week (if not verbally, by putting in an extra effort on at least one project). During the Depression, a job was not a right- it was a tremendous gift.
2.) Don't throw things away (waste not, want not). Apparently, my great-grandmother could make a tremendous meal out of practically nothing. Basically, appreciate the simple things you have, and you'll be happiest.
3.) Consistent effort will yield success at the most unlikely time. Even if it doesn't earn you more money today, learn that skill or get that degree. Someday when you least expect it, it may prove the difference in getting that job or promotion (I've proven that axiom true several times).
4.) Marriage is forever- make the permanence of your marriage a given, and you will find ways to work out even the toughest problems (I have to say, this one has been proven true as well- even through some very tough times).
5.) Hard work never killed anyone- Don't be afraid to put in the extra effort, or do the thing that "isn't your job." Having managed several businesses, I have to say that people from my grandparent's generation are probably the most diligent workers you'll ever find. Give me an office of 60 year olds over an office of 30 year olds ANY day!

Ah well, I don't mean to sound like an old man on a stump! I guess I just miss my own "ties to the past." Somehow, as long as I still had a grandparent, I felt as if somehow I was still tied to my youth. With this final passing, its like my parents are now on the clock and life has entered some new- final- phase. I see my own children getting quickly older as well and realize that someday the 80s, 90s, etc. will be judged by my grandchildren's perception of my life and character. What great battles has my generation fought? What contribution to our country have we made? What is to be our legacy?

I cannot accept that we have nothing better to offer the history of our country than Iran-Contragate, Whitewater, and all the special prosecuters associated therein. It took a great and tragic war to challenge America in the 40s, what will it take to challenge us now?

[chm2023]

I understand your feelings, but do you really want a world war to build your generation's character (obviously a rhetorical question!) My generation had civil rights and women's rights, something we now take for granted but which may well be viewed as more heroic as time goes by. Your generation has an awesome responsibility I believe, the shepherding of mind-boogling technology to the end of serving, not destroying, mankind and the planet. Hey, good luck!!:p