Awesome 80's Flashback

Do You Know This Man?

I spent my childhood in the 60's, my youth in the 70's and came of age in the 80's. The child of an Elvis fan mother and a Beethoven fan father, my musical taste as a kid tended toward pop-music, movie scores and musical theatre. Of course, I went to Saturday Night Fever High, where disco reigned but I not-so-secretly got sidetracked by Yes and early Genesis and experimental music. I remember bringing "Rock Lobster" to my friends, who all thought I was insane. 

In the 80's it was about electronica and dance and New Wave/Neo-Punk beats; outrageous hair and clothes; often pointed political lyrics and electronic interpretations of classics. Anything went. There were New Romantics, like Adam and the Ants; electric R&B from Herbie Hancock and Eurythmics;  electric Jazz from Thomas Dolby; feel-good synth pop from Howard Jones and sexy gay songs about orgasm from Frankie Goes to Hollywood and masturbation from Cyndi Lauper. It was mad and we thought it couldn't get better than it was right there, right then. It was the last great period of musical innovation. Almost everything today sounds the same.  And very little of it is any good.

Tonight, Tracy posted this on Facebook: "S-A-F-E-T-Y-D-A-N-C-E!" to which I immediately replied: "You can dance if you want to..." I hope you know that it goes without saying that we had to take turns finishing the damned thing. Which got me all nostalgic again. So I thought I'd just have fun and share some beloved "oldies." (Ugh! I so HATE that word). So, you can blame Tracy for the whole thing.

FYI - Thompson Twins was one of most fun concerts I've ever attended. It was their very first U.S. show in Philadelphia and they were genuinely surprised and pleased by the crowd reaction. They did two encores and my friend Deb caught some of the flowers they threw into the audience at the end.

That was good. I needed that.

By the way, do you recognize the Emo-before-it-was-called-"Emo" guy in the picture? I've already talked about him and posted one of his videos. First correct answer gets an extra wish next time they blow out their birthday candles (and no, it's not my father). Good heavens, Miss Yakimoto!

We'll talk about my re-discovery of the Beatles (which was around the same time as all of this), some other time.

More, anon.
Prospero