I'm sorry, but the '80's ROCKED! And Popped! And Rattled and Hummed! Anyone who's been following this blog and anyone who really knows me, like REALLY knows me, knows I love music. I love Rock, I love Pop, I love Metal, I love baby goats... Wait... Did I type that out loud?
Growing up, being a kid of the '70's and then the '80's, a lot of people dished on the 'Pop explosion' of the early 1980's... I was in the thick of it. Blame it on the Lockhart girls! Yeah! That's the ticket!
We grew up on Waterloo Row, 3 houses from Premier Hatfield (Aka Tricky Dick) and at the front of the cul de sac is that MASSIVE house, it's an old farm house and we grew up, my two Brother's and I, with girl neighbors. The Lockhart and the Jones girls. The Lockhart's had a BETA machine, then they got a VCR, their parents, unlike ours, subscribed to Much Music when it first came out, so anytime we were at the Lockharts we were watching hours and hours of music videos and in particular, like any teenage girl back in the early 1980's, Duran Duran was tops, they made the gals swoon and scream. I just liked the music, I loved the music and I embraced the '80's right up until I 'became a Metalhead', but secretly, locked away in my heart, was the love for the music I was reared on. Lets take a look at some of my all time favorite '80's artists.
'Private Eyes', so cheeky this video, still in that 'simplicity era' of Hall & Oates videos, you got to laugh at bassist Tom Wolk. He's playing that 'funny' bassist thing, what was it with bass players, Huey Lewis' bassist was always odd in their vids too....
And here it is. The 'Live' version of 'She's Gone', before the real 'Pop' era of Hall & Oates, this live version shows off the band at one of it's hottest points and you can tell that they were so keen to be there, looks like they had a blast.
Next we cross the pond, I admit with some bands, it was the singles I loved, while Frankie Goes To Hollywood had a couple hits I liked, 'Relax', Welcome to the Pleasuredome', 'Two tribes' was my favorite. The odd thing about this song is that like a lot of songs in the 1980's the music for the music video, was sometimes a bit different than the 'album version'... There's a break at about 2:22 into the song that is totally different on the album, I loved this video version best, that break I had thought was so damn cool, I had always wished it was longer in the song.
I posted a while back about ABBA and about how some songs are 'heavy', without being loud, screaming guitars, double kick drums and all what makes 'Metal' "Heavy", but this song, is Heavy as fuck! It's frantic, it moves through you with the bass and guitar and the lyrics of course are super political. Great '80's song.
Another '80's political song. Genesis of course now without Peter Gabriel seemed to edge more towards commercial music, certainly compared to what the band was doing when Gabriel was in the band, but oddly enough, when Peter Gabriel left Genesis, HE too edged more towards commercial Pop music. So one has to wonder what his true motivations were for leaving Genesis....
Now, speaking of Peter Gabriel, I decided to throw in this version of 'Steam' from the 'Secret World live' tour in 1994. Gabriel is a visionary and he used some of the latest in technology, not only for his music videos (in fact, one of my bosses when I worked in Motion Capture at Electronic Arts was one of the guys who worked on technology for Gabriels music videos, 'Steam', 'Sledgehammer' and 'Kiss The frog'. Over the last few years my appreciation for Peter Gabriel has really grown. I'm a huge fan of live concert DVDs and 'Secret Garden' has become one of my absolute favorites to watch. I should probably own it...
And here we are, the British band that women love and men hate... I remember quite well, guys just felt that Duran Duran were "fags"... I seemed to recognize, even at my early age something a bit different with Duran Duran, these guys are talented as fuck! They wrote every note and lyric, they wrote amazing song with great hooks. AND! a lot of people didn't know that there was a Duran Duran movie.
In 1985 the movie 'Arena' was made. To say it's a sequel to the 1968 film 'Barbarella', might be an insult to the fans of that film. 'Arena' takes place while the band plays a show in Southern California, if my memory is correct. The scientist, Durand Durand has returned to Earth and has found there's some uppity Pop band that has stolen his name, so, secretly hidden beneath the stadium while the band plays, he tries to disrupt the band's show, while abducting children from the concert. It's really quite something and I feel, totally worth the watch. I actually had this on DVD for many years before one day a portal opened up in my living room and it was gone...
The music video for the 'Reflex', as well as the song and video for 'Wild Boys' contains footage from the film.
'New Moon on Monday' was a single by the band. I feel it was one of their best songs and like many of the band's videos, this one is one has a great story to the video, which helps it's flow and is one of my favorite Duran Duran songs.
Ahh the Thompson Twins..... Know where that name comes from? Remember The Adventures of TinTin? No? Oh well, lookit up! 'The Thomson Twins were characters from Tin Tin's world. Two disastrous detectives that tripped and stumbled their ways into adventures around Tin Tin.
The Thompson Twins were another fave Brit Pop act. Again, just great song writing and I was always inspired by singer Tom Bailey's voice was a big inspiration for me.
This is one of my favorite Pop songs ever written. Again, Tom Bailey's voice is just fantastic to listen to and the bands music is performed so well.
Ok, here's a 'one hit wonder' for sure. I don't know any other songs by Dream Academy.... For some reason, as far as '80's songs go, this seems to be a favorite of many people.
Howard Jones, with his weird hairdo and silly hats, great song writer, he had many hits but his videos, like so many other bands from the 1980's did all the talking for him.
Nik Kershaw, for some reason back in the 1980's, I thought Nik had the coolest hairstyle, in fact I wanted hair like him, but Mom, well Mom didn't like us having long hair and each Summer we had to dunk our heads in the swimming pool and then we got the buzz cut, I think my Brother Gordy like myself, we have long hair to make up for all the hair we didn't have as kids.
More great hits from Nik Kershaw, what a two hit wonder? The Riddle and Wouldn't It Be Good were among my favorite hits of the era.
This was such a cool video for it's time I liked thinking about whatever messages were hidden within these videos.
Strange Advance, AHA, some CanCon! Loved the guitar parts in this song, it's kinda a weird Pop song, but it stuck to me. Weird band. Strange Advance, like The Human League and a couple of others that had different band members sharing lead vocals on different tracks.
And last but not least, some more CanCan, mostly known for their odd video and song 'The Safety Dance', for some reason I always thought this band was from France, but nope, with the release of the single for 'Pop Goes The World', with the cameo by 'Bonhomme' The King of Quebec's Winter Carnival is distinctly Canuckian. A great Pop song.
Hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. There's so many other '80's hits that I'm a huge fan of. Despite becoming a 'Metalhead', I've never forgotten my 'roots' and the bands that really inspired me to want to be a singer.
I've always thought that someday if I only had the money to pull it off, I'd love to do a cover album of a whole bunch of '80's songs that were such a major part of my youth.
Growing up, being a kid of the '70's and then the '80's, a lot of people dished on the 'Pop explosion' of the early 1980's... I was in the thick of it. Blame it on the Lockhart girls! Yeah! That's the ticket!
We grew up on Waterloo Row, 3 houses from Premier Hatfield (Aka Tricky Dick) and at the front of the cul de sac is that MASSIVE house, it's an old farm house and we grew up, my two Brother's and I, with girl neighbors. The Lockhart and the Jones girls. The Lockhart's had a BETA machine, then they got a VCR, their parents, unlike ours, subscribed to Much Music when it first came out, so anytime we were at the Lockharts we were watching hours and hours of music videos and in particular, like any teenage girl back in the early 1980's, Duran Duran was tops, they made the gals swoon and scream. I just liked the music, I loved the music and I embraced the '80's right up until I 'became a Metalhead', but secretly, locked away in my heart, was the love for the music I was reared on. Lets take a look at some of my all time favorite '80's artists.
1983, I lived in Calgary for a year with my Cousins and Aunt and Uncle. I can remember a fair bit of that year, we first lived in Pineridge and them later moved to Falconridge. I remember the fuckin' 'wave pools'.. Fredericton didn't have that shit! No way! These were massive water parks and having grown up with a swimming pool in our yard back home, these were massive amusement parks to me!
I can remember being in the basement of their home in Falconridge, and I also can remember seeing three 'live' concerts on 'Pay Per View', although I think it was called something else out there back then, anyhow, I remember seeing Doug & The Slugs live, Chilliwack live and also a Hall & Oates live concert. I think you can find it on YouTube today. My Brother Gordie and his girlfriend Crystal will have a laugh right about now because last Christmas, Crystal's sister brought down this old board game, it was a game where you had like a band and a song and you had to try to 'draw' the band and song, while your opponents had to try and guess what it was.... To everyone's amazement, I kept on guessing, correctly, all these Hall & Oates questions. I ended up admitting, with no embarrassment, that I am a huge Hall & Oates fan. Incredible writers, awesome hooks, lyrics, verses and chorus'. I didn't like some of their later material and for a long while, their 1970's material I was absolutely oblivious to.
Then one day, years ago, at Tim Horton's on the Exhibition Grounds here in Fredericton, while waiting in line I heard this song in the background, I didn't quite know what it was, but man it stuck with me.
Years and years later while binging on Youtube over some Hall & Oates songs, I found it. I actually posted it a bit further below, but it's a live version of 'She's Gone'. The original, which was the one I heard in that Tim Horton's was great, but this one from the 'Old Grey Whistle Test' (One of many old British music tv shows), There's actually litterally a ton of amazing songs done by bands on the 'Old Grey Whistle Test', go to Youtube (after you've checked out all of these vids) and search out some of your favorite 1970's/early '80's bands and I'm sure you'll find some gems.
So, 'Maneater' - Such an amazing Pop song, it's got that killer saxophone, great lyrics and of course the most excellent voices of Daryl Hall and John Oates.
Ha! Hall & Oates at first known for the simplicity of their videos, soon broke into more elaborate ones, Family Man is pretty funny. If you watched Saturday Night Live in the later 80's, you'll recognize Hall & Oates guitarist G.E. Smith, that stoned face git! Brilliant guitarist.
And here it is. The 'Live' version of 'She's Gone', before the real 'Pop' era of Hall & Oates, this live version shows off the band at one of it's hottest points and you can tell that they were so keen to be there, looks like they had a blast.
Next we cross the pond, I admit with some bands, it was the singles I loved, while Frankie Goes To Hollywood had a couple hits I liked, 'Relax', Welcome to the Pleasuredome', 'Two tribes' was my favorite. The odd thing about this song is that like a lot of songs in the 1980's the music for the music video, was sometimes a bit different than the 'album version'... There's a break at about 2:22 into the song that is totally different on the album, I loved this video version best, that break I had thought was so damn cool, I had always wished it was longer in the song.
I posted a while back about ABBA and about how some songs are 'heavy', without being loud, screaming guitars, double kick drums and all what makes 'Metal' "Heavy", but this song, is Heavy as fuck! It's frantic, it moves through you with the bass and guitar and the lyrics of course are super political. Great '80's song.
Now, speaking of Peter Gabriel, I decided to throw in this version of 'Steam' from the 'Secret World live' tour in 1994. Gabriel is a visionary and he used some of the latest in technology, not only for his music videos (in fact, one of my bosses when I worked in Motion Capture at Electronic Arts was one of the guys who worked on technology for Gabriels music videos, 'Steam', 'Sledgehammer' and 'Kiss The frog'. Over the last few years my appreciation for Peter Gabriel has really grown. I'm a huge fan of live concert DVDs and 'Secret Garden' has become one of my absolute favorites to watch. I should probably own it...
And here we are, the British band that women love and men hate... I remember quite well, guys just felt that Duran Duran were "fags"... I seemed to recognize, even at my early age something a bit different with Duran Duran, these guys are talented as fuck! They wrote every note and lyric, they wrote amazing song with great hooks. AND! a lot of people didn't know that there was a Duran Duran movie.
In 1985 the movie 'Arena' was made. To say it's a sequel to the 1968 film 'Barbarella', might be an insult to the fans of that film. 'Arena' takes place while the band plays a show in Southern California, if my memory is correct. The scientist, Durand Durand has returned to Earth and has found there's some uppity Pop band that has stolen his name, so, secretly hidden beneath the stadium while the band plays, he tries to disrupt the band's show, while abducting children from the concert. It's really quite something and I feel, totally worth the watch. I actually had this on DVD for many years before one day a portal opened up in my living room and it was gone...
The music video for the 'Reflex', as well as the song and video for 'Wild Boys' contains footage from the film.
'New Moon on Monday' was a single by the band. I feel it was one of their best songs and like many of the band's videos, this one is one has a great story to the video, which helps it's flow and is one of my favorite Duran Duran songs.
Ahh the Thompson Twins..... Know where that name comes from? Remember The Adventures of TinTin? No? Oh well, lookit up! 'The Thomson Twins were characters from Tin Tin's world. Two disastrous detectives that tripped and stumbled their ways into adventures around Tin Tin.
The Thompson Twins were another fave Brit Pop act. Again, just great song writing and I was always inspired by singer Tom Bailey's voice was a big inspiration for me.
This is one of my favorite Pop songs ever written. Again, Tom Bailey's voice is just fantastic to listen to and the bands music is performed so well.
The English Beat, one hit wonder? Sure, but 'Save It For Later' is a fantastic tune. It was covered by one of my most favorite artists, Josh Clayton-Felt, who passed away much much too early in his life. I also just discovered that one of my favorite '90's bands, The Wonderstuff actually did a cover of this song too and Pete Townsend of the 'Who' also covered this song.
The English Beat were actually known in the UK as 'The Beat'.
Howard Jones, with his weird hairdo and silly hats, great song writer, he had many hits but his videos, like so many other bands from the 1980's did all the talking for him.
Nik Kershaw, for some reason back in the 1980's, I thought Nik had the coolest hairstyle, in fact I wanted hair like him, but Mom, well Mom didn't like us having long hair and each Summer we had to dunk our heads in the swimming pool and then we got the buzz cut, I think my Brother Gordy like myself, we have long hair to make up for all the hair we didn't have as kids.
More great hits from Nik Kershaw, what a two hit wonder? The Riddle and Wouldn't It Be Good were among my favorite hits of the era.
This was such a cool video for it's time I liked thinking about whatever messages were hidden within these videos.
Strange Advance, AHA, some CanCon! Loved the guitar parts in this song, it's kinda a weird Pop song, but it stuck to me. Weird band. Strange Advance, like The Human League and a couple of others that had different band members sharing lead vocals on different tracks.
Was much of a Payola$ fan, but this song which was a collaboration between Bob Rock and Paul Hyde from the Payola$, who have thunk bakc then that Mr. Rock would go on to record some of the biggest names in Metal, as in Metallica....
And last but not least, some more CanCan, mostly known for their odd video and song 'The Safety Dance', for some reason I always thought this band was from France, but nope, with the release of the single for 'Pop Goes The World', with the cameo by 'Bonhomme' The King of Quebec's Winter Carnival is distinctly Canuckian. A great Pop song.
Hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. There's so many other '80's hits that I'm a huge fan of. Despite becoming a 'Metalhead', I've never forgotten my 'roots' and the bands that really inspired me to want to be a singer.
I've always thought that someday if I only had the money to pull it off, I'd love to do a cover album of a whole bunch of '80's songs that were such a major part of my youth.
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