Welcome to my blog site about my thoughts and feelings on 80s music. I am an author and artist in the Seattle area. My vampire novel Mist in Power is available on Amazon.com in both paperback and kindle.
There are zillions of 80s-themed radio stations, but many of them tend to forget the J. Geils Band and their fun contributions to the early 80s.
My favorite is "Freeze Frame." I was very into roller rinks as a kid and this song encouraged me to skate as fast as I possibly could; even though it meant mowing a few slow skaters down.
I like the video too, though the members of the band all look like they don't even belong on the same planet, much less in the same band, but they did work well together. I just wish there were more scenes where they were shown playing with paint. Who wouldn't want to be in a blank room armed with a variety of different colored paints?
I am the youngest of three siblings. Naturally, my brothers knew about things before I did. They were watching music videos before I knew what they were about. I didn't know you watched music. You listen to it. TV was for programs. Simple enough.
On weekend nights, they got to watch their big-boy programs, while I went and did my thing because their programs did not interest me.
Sometimes, I would try watching their stuff with them, but I was either too dumb or too smart to get it.
They sometimes watched shows that had nothing except for crazy people with guitars. Yes, I just didn't get it. You could listen to that stuff on the stereo; why waste good television time with music?
One of these times that I sat down to try and understand the appeal of what they were watching, I saw that there was kind of a story mixed in with it.
Then my dad walked in and asked, "What the hell is that?" This meant that there could very well be something to this watching music thing. I watched the whole video. Afterwards, I was left thinking, "What the hell was that?"
Everyone likes a Cinderella story; in one form or another. Several music videos have a Cinderella theme, where you have a sweet victim in distress, harassed by badly-dressed jerks, until the band comes along to transform the victim into a jaw-dropping superstar, dissing the tormentors.
In ZZ Top's "Legs," we have the classic story of the cute little lady who is teased and picked on, when her fairy godmother comes in the form of a red Cadzilla...
Take a song that hits the charts that focuses on a historical figure and you will suddenly have a zillion teenagers who become "experts" on the subject.
Falco made a song inspired by the film, "Amadeus," with a strange combination of rap, pop, and orchestra.
When "Rock Me Amadeus" became a hit, half the kids around me were suddenly very philosophical about Mozart. The other half said, "You only like Mozart because of that stupid song!"
There's a song for everything. Every kind of event, occasion, person, place, thing, and emotion.
Men At Work covered a feeling in "Overkill" that is often felt in many songs but rarely ever described in other songs.
The feeling is, is that at times, life generally sucks. Your mind is full of life's problems, keeping one restless and sleepless. Granted, it's not really a cool thing to sing about. Ok, it bites. However, Men At Work managed to construct a song describing that mood in a way that hits home with a beautiful sadness and stays with you long after it's over.
Few songs, regardless of the content, have that power.
Some videos include both comic and mysterious scenes.
"I Want To Break Free" by Queen has just that mixture. Part of the video has the band members dressed in drag. With dresses, wigs, and jewelry, they made very convincing women. The funniest part was Freddie Mercury. He was a very convincing woman, with delicate hands and shapely legs, as long as you don't happen to notice that damned mustache!
They mysterious part seems to be somewhat of a daydream sequence. Freddie and various dancers are dressed in body suits and performing if various sensual and even erotic scenes presenting eye-candy for anyone regardless of sexual orientation.
The video, in all, is very entertaining and a fine way to remember Freddie in his good health and his dominating presence, which is felt even after he has "Broken Free."
In the mid 80s, the members of Duran Duran split off into different music projects for a while.
Simon, Nick, and Roger formed a band called Arcadia, which had a strange mixture of new age, Goth, and experimental.
One video they made was quite a treat. I love satires, and this particular video, "The Flame," parodies all the clichés that are found in many murder mysteries. What is even more fun is that Simon takes on a striking resemblance to the nerdy Brad Majors from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Nick, who had black hair during most of the Arcadia project, sported striking blond hair for "The Flame." I think he looks a bit like the character, Draco Malfoy, from the Harry Potter films. I like this look a lot. I think it gives him a more mysterious look than he believed his black hair did.
Another tasty tidbit is that John makes a cameo appearance. He's holding a contract. Many people speculate that this was a little jab at Andy, who planned on leaving Duran after the music projects were finished but that there were still some Duran contracts to fulfill.
Roger, sadly, is missing from the Arcadia videos. He became ill from stress and fell away from the whole Duran scene for many years after recording the Arcadia music, but his presence is felt in the obscure shadows of the album.
Somewhere in the midst of Michael Jackson still basking in the glow of his Thriller career, there came a competitor for the soul charts.
Prince came on the scene and wowed young listeners with the Purple Rain soundtrack.
Although I was hardly impressed with his frilly suits and his nasally squeaks that, I suppose, were supposed to be sexy, I was very impressed that he had so many people who liked that crap.
My attitude for him softened a bit when I learned that he contributed a song for the USA for Africa album. I don't have to like a person's singing to appreciate him working for a good cause.
The song he contributed, I was humbled to discover, was sweet and heartfelt. It was the essence of what the whole album was about. To me, it was the only gem in his career but it was such a notable gem that I have since learned to instead of dismissing an artist because of some songs I don't like, I look deeper into the works of the artist before drawing an opinion.
