Livin' in the Eighties
Route 1 caps EIGHTIES WEEK with a look at some of our readers' favorite 1980s anthems.
Ken B. -- "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash or "The Final Countdown" by Europe.
Rick T. -- I don't remember the Eighties that well! It was a decade I partied and did it quite well. The country group Alabama made it big and I remember the song "My Home's in Alabama" because it made me homesick for the south!
Kerstin H. -- Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya." It sounds really fun and peppy.
Ellen B. -- Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." I love Duran Duran. I just saw them in concert in March!
Steve M. -- "Spirit of 76" by The Alarm.
Mike D. -- No one captured the sound, look and intensity of the big hair 80s like Bon Jovi. His "Livin' on a Prayer" gave inspiration to the misunderstood masses of metalheads, with the talkbox adding to the mystique.
Amy G. -- For me, the 80s was the Violent Femmes. So many nights, getting ready to go out, that was the tape in the jambox. First in high school, when I had to keep the volume low enough so my mother wouldn't hear Gordon Gano saying "Why can't I get, just one **ck," to college, when we boosted the volume to 11 and screamed it at the top of our lungs. My favorite was "Blister in the Sun."
Jill H. -- "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc. I had the record in college, and we always played the record at least twice anytime we went out.
Diane H. -- Probably "Rock Me Amadeus." Not only is it nonsensical, like all the best 80s songs, but it has the cheesy talking parts -- always a plus. I remember buying the Falco cassette when I was about 12 just for this song. I doubt I ever even listened to the rest of the cassette. But I think I still have it at home, so I may have to listen to it sometime.
Dave B. -- "I Melt With You" by Modern English. The No. 1 song of all time.
Erik H. -- It was an iconic moment for me. A popular film was unfolding on the big screen and my favorite band -- previously as far removed from the American mainstream as I felt I was -- provided the big hit song on the soundtrack. I first heard "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds when my sister called me to play it over the phone. You see, San Francisco radio stations often get the good songs before the radio stations in eastern Iowa.
Despite the thrill of hearing the song over the phone, experiencing the song while seeing "The Breakfast Club" in a cinema seemed like a revelation. My band had bubbled up from the underground and was washing across America.
Ironically, Simple Minds and I began to grow apart from that moment. Original bassist Derek Forbes left the band, and they seemed to streamline their sound to better fit commercial considerations. Poor old Anglophiles like me went in search of the next best thing nobody else had heard about.
Ken B. -- "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash or "The Final Countdown" by Europe.
Rick T. -- I don't remember the Eighties that well! It was a decade I partied and did it quite well. The country group Alabama made it big and I remember the song "My Home's in Alabama" because it made me homesick for the south!
Kerstin H. -- Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya." It sounds really fun and peppy.
Ellen B. -- Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." I love Duran Duran. I just saw them in concert in March!
Steve M. -- "Spirit of 76" by The Alarm.
Mike D. -- No one captured the sound, look and intensity of the big hair 80s like Bon Jovi. His "Livin' on a Prayer" gave inspiration to the misunderstood masses of metalheads, with the talkbox adding to the mystique.
Amy G. -- For me, the 80s was the Violent Femmes. So many nights, getting ready to go out, that was the tape in the jambox. First in high school, when I had to keep the volume low enough so my mother wouldn't hear Gordon Gano saying "Why can't I get, just one **ck," to college, when we boosted the volume to 11 and screamed it at the top of our lungs. My favorite was "Blister in the Sun."
Jill H. -- "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc. I had the record in college, and we always played the record at least twice anytime we went out.
Diane H. -- Probably "Rock Me Amadeus." Not only is it nonsensical, like all the best 80s songs, but it has the cheesy talking parts -- always a plus. I remember buying the Falco cassette when I was about 12 just for this song. I doubt I ever even listened to the rest of the cassette. But I think I still have it at home, so I may have to listen to it sometime.
Dave B. -- "I Melt With You" by Modern English. The No. 1 song of all time.
Erik H. -- It was an iconic moment for me. A popular film was unfolding on the big screen and my favorite band -- previously as far removed from the American mainstream as I felt I was -- provided the big hit song on the soundtrack. I first heard "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds when my sister called me to play it over the phone. You see, San Francisco radio stations often get the good songs before the radio stations in eastern Iowa.
Despite the thrill of hearing the song over the phone, experiencing the song while seeing "The Breakfast Club" in a cinema seemed like a revelation. My band had bubbled up from the underground and was washing across America.
Ironically, Simple Minds and I began to grow apart from that moment. Original bassist Derek Forbes left the band, and they seemed to streamline their sound to better fit commercial considerations. Poor old Anglophiles like me went in search of the next best thing nobody else had heard about.
posted by erik hogstrom at 8:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home