1. “Cars” – Gary Numan (1980)
The first really distinctive song that stood out and said to me, “This is a new decade.” Very different from the hard rock I was accustomed to in the 1970’s. Innovative for its time in that there are no guitars in the song – only keyboards and a real drummer. Catchy melody. The local radio station played it at least one hundred times a day.
2. “Whip It” – Devo (1980)
The first time I saw Devo was on the old “Fridays” late night show. They played this song. I looked at these five guys with the goggles and the flowerpots on their heads hopping around the stage like a bunch of rabbits on meth and I thought “They’re nerds (like me) but they’re cool.” I later the mistake of mentioning Devo to an older female cousin and was subsequently treated to an earful about how “gay” they were. Ten years later I saw her at a family reunion and the first thing she asked me was if I still liked Devo. They obviously made a lasting impression on both of us.
3. “Words” – Missing Persons (1982)
MTV was cool only for the first three years of their existence. During that time they only had about two dozen videos and they were played non-stop. “Words” was one of them. I was just hitting puberty, and the sight of Dale Bozzio singing with her shock-white hair and leather bikini whispered volumes to me in the secret language of hormones, which I was just learning to speak. My mother chased me out of the room anytime this video came on because she was bothered by it in the way only a mother can be.
4. “Wishing” – A Flock Of Seagulls (1982)
Not the Seagulls biggest hit, but a good one. I always liked the lengthy, spacey last half of the song.
5. “Shock The Monkey” – Peter Gabriel (1982)
Another one of MTV’s original staples, and probably the most artistic thing they had on the air at the time. I spent days puzzling over the metaphorical relationship that seemed to exist between the Peter Gabriel in the black suit outdoors and the Peter Gabriel in the white suit and makeup who lived in the cave. It was like watching a very cool vivid nightmare.
6. “Mexican Radio” – Wall Of Voodoo (1982)
This song came out right about the time I moved from Omaha to Santa Fe. It was a time of major transition for me because the culture and ethnicity of Santa Fe were like nothing I’d ever experienced in the Midwest. The song does a fun light-hearted job of expressing the mixture of discovery and alienation when immersed in a climate very different from the one you’re accustomed to. Years later I tried writing and drawing my own comic book, which was a kind of spaghetti western in the future. I titled the first issue “A Wavelength Far From Home”, which is directly out of the lyrics.
7. “China” – The Red Rockers (1982)
A pretty melody and singing in a song I never heard enough in later years.
8. “Once In A Lifetime” – Talking Heads (1982)
Never underestimate MTV’s ability to burn imagery into your head for life. Even if they still played videos, I wouldn’t watch for that very reason. This one got stuck in my memory before I learned that lesson, but I can live with it. David Byrne in the one-size-too-small suit reinforced the “nerds can be cool” thing previously hinted at by Devo. Sometimes when I hear this song I do that arm-chopping move whether people are looking or not.
9. “Head Over Heels” – The Go-Go’s (1983)
I always liked the Go-Go’s and never understood the backlash against them. At least they played their own instruments. This single represented the end of their prime. Bouncy day-glo fun at its best.
10. “The Safety Dance” – Men Without Hats (1983)
“Dungeons and Dragons” was the end-all and be-all of my life in 1983, and MTV didn’t help matters by running the video for this song which featured some Quebecois and a midget dancing around a maypole in some medieval village. The video notwithstanding, the quasi-Olde English melody on synthesizer filled my head with images of slaying dragons and the like. I listened to this song at least once a day throughout that whole year.
11. “In A Big Country” – Big Country (1983)
I liked this song for the same reasons I liked “The Safety Dance”. Except in this song instead of mimicking a lute with a synthesizer, Big Country emulates bagpipes with an electric guitar.
12. “Heart And Soul” – Huey Lewis And The News (1984)
The best description I ever heard of Huey Lewis music is that it’s like eating a hotdog at the ballpark; perfectly fine in context, but mostly lacking in any substantive or nutritional value. I largely agree with that comparison but this song is a notable exception. There’s a certain level of passion in here that Huey and the guys never really reached with their other songs. It’s a song to listen to while watching the sun come up after having been up all night. Don’t ask me why.
13. “King Of Pain” – The Police (1984)
My first serious girlfriend was in eighth grade. We officially only dated for a couple of months early on in the school year. The rest of the term was spent with the two of us going back and forth playing games with each other’s emotions. Whenever she loved and missed me, I rejected her and vice versa. This drama seemed somehow necessary to a relationship since, after all, that’s the way adults did it. This was the song I played whenever it was my turn to indulge in self-pity.
14. “Blue Monday” – New Order (1987)
New Order took the all-synth thing to a higher level by even removing a real drummer and doing all percussion digitally. This song was a common staple for the high school dance team, but I actually make a stronger association between this song and the Marines. Shortly after I joined the Corps, I was shown a propaganda film at Infantry school which was definitely geared towards us MTV Marines as the film showed Marines jumping out helicopters, firing machine guns etc all to the tune of “Blue Monday”. A very surreal mixture but I didn’t ask for it. A band called Orgy re-made this song in 1998 and I consider their version superior to the original, but this one still has a firm spot in my memories.
15. “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” – Belinda Carlisle (1987)
This song was playing on the jukebox at the arcade when I asked this particular girl whom I’d had a thing for for some time if she wanted to go out with me that night. She agreed, and that very evening we wound up eventually doing all the things that make teenage romance memories both sweet and sad at the same time. This story is much more detailed and painful than I’m letting on.
16. “Streets Of America” – KBC Band (1987)
KBC Band was formed by the talented half that split off from Jefferson Airplane. The untalented half wound up in the band Starship. At a time when Ronald Reagan was inspiring the highest levels of patriotism since World War II, KBC threw out this song which manages to convey love for America yet still question various national policy actions of the day. An easy song to learn and a fun one to sing along with, even if I don’t agree with the ideology.
1. “You Can’t Kill Rock And Roll” – Ozzy
Osbourne (1982)
My mother was afraid of this guy named Ozzy and I didn’t know why. My elder cousin (the Devo hater) told me why, although most of the reasons she gave were apocryphal at best. Still, they made me curious enough. And when I heard this song on the radio I could not understand how my mother could not like somebody who wrote such nice dreamy melodies, even if he ate live chicken heads.
2. “Princess Of The Night” – Saxon (1982)
Next to computers, I think engines – any engines - are the neatest things in the world. Here is a great heavy-metal ode to a locomotive, i.e. – a big engine. A very Romantic song in the classical sense.
3. “I Melt With You” – Modern English (1982)
From the soundtrack to the movie “Valley Girl”, which was a couple steps above the average teen sex movie of the day, and there were many. I always regarded the montage scene where punk-rocker Nicolas Cage and his Valley grow closer in their relationship very touching, and this song plays in the foreground. A timeless, sweet song despite coming from a loud and flashy era.
4. “Space Age Love Song” – A Flock Of Seagulls
(1982)
A really nice companion piece to “Wishing”, replete with the same echoing spacey atmospherics, although a little heavier on guitar. A nice song all around. Most people only remember the Seagulls for “I Ran”, but this one, along with “Wishing” are my favorites.
5. “Star Fleet” – Brian May and Friends (1984)
I first heard this one on MTV. The video featured some great Japanese-style “sentai” special effects. “Sentai” being the sub-genre of Japanese science fiction involving teams of futuristic ninjas who control giant transforming robots. So this video had a bunch of giant robots who merged into one colossal robot. This was years before anybody heard of the Power Rangers. The visuals always stuck with me, and I never heard this song played on the radio even once.
6. “You’ve Got The Touch” – Soundtrack to The
Transformers Movie (1985)
Sentai wasn’t the only place where one saw giant robots. The Transformers were the hot toy trend of the day. This song came from the end credits, I believe. Sort of a cheesy song, but it’s a decent stab at ending the film on a high note.
7. “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” – Yes (1984)
This song was my personal companion piece to the Police’s “King Of Pain” (see notes above). Whenever I got done feeling sorry for myself over my eighth grade girlfriend, I would play this song to remind myself that maybe it wasn’t so bad being without her. Turned out I was right.
8. “Secret Journey” – The Police (1981)
In the spring of 1984 I went on a school trip to Carizozo, NM with the other proficient students in my German class. It was a weekend get-together of statewide German students. Although I spoke German as well or better than most of the kids on this trip, I felt a real disconnect with them because for the most part they were from well-to-do families with whereas my family did not live in the better part of town nor did we have a huge amount of money. I had the Ghost In The Machine tape with me and this song became something of a personal anthem that weekend because since I really had nobody to talk with or be sociable during this trip and spent a lot of the free time walking around in the woods as opposed to hanging out with the others. I felt as if I were, in effect travelling by myself. I never became a holy man, as the song promised, but I did eventually find light in the darkness and make sense of all of it.
9. “Touch And Go” – Emerson, Lake and Palmer
(1987)
I was a little familiar with ELP up to this point, but this is a song that really made me sit up and take notice. That pompous synthesizer melody gets in your head and then you find yourself humming it everywhere you go. “Bum-bum-bumbum-bumbumbumbumbumbum….”
10.
“Shoot High, Break Low” – Yes (1987)
More than once in my senior year of school I endeavored to write some science-fiction. It was either going to be a novel or a series of short stories (depending on my mood) centering around an alien invasion of Earth and the subsequent destruction of most of North America. Remember the last scene of the movie “Independence Day” where all the jets are flying in a final attack towards the mother ship? That was basically my idea and I have no idea how they got it out of my mind back in 1987, and this song was a sort of soundtrack for that scene. It’s probably too late to sue the producers of “Independence Day” for plagiarism.
11.
“Should I See” – Frozen Ghost (1987)
What attracted me to this song initially was the name of the band, which had a certain poetic resonance with me. A very typical song for its day in that it is heavy on synth and higher guitar notes, plus the obligatory saxophone solo. I think the theme is about opposing religious dogma, but even in the present day it works as a protest song against political correctness.
12. “Twilight World” – Swing Out Sister (1987)
In between trysts with the girl mentioned in Disc 1 - Track 15 I managed to find a regular girlfriend in early December of 1987. I visited her at home one evening received the sacred First Kiss. I then had to head out because I was going to meet a friend at the movies. I spent a little longer at the girlfriend’s house than I planned so I was running a little late to the film. Plus the kiss had made me pretty giddy. This song was playing on the radio when I was pulled over on Rodeo Road for doing 75mph in a 40mph zone. The policeman was so miffed he gave me four tickets, which I eventually pleaded out in court.
12.
“Never Gonna Give You Up” – Rick Astley (1988)
Disco was supposed to have died in 1980, but it briefly crawled out of the grave and possessed Rick Astley to make this ditty. It was a strangely catchy number, and makes for great karaoke although it’s hard to hit all the singer’s bass notes. I had a friend who looked exactly like this dancing bartender in the video. So every time the song came on the radio I nagged my friend until he would eventually start dancing. He paid me back years later by having this song played at my wedding reception and screaming at me to dance like the fool I am.