The Chronic Curmudgeon

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August 15, 2006

Mudge's Favorite 134 Songs of the 80s: 30 Is The New... I Don't Know

Moving on ... we break out of the 30s in today's grouping, and get into the 20s. Yep, we're talking about my favorite 30 songs of the decade in which I came of age -- went from being an 11 year old 6th grader on January 1, 1980, to being a 21 year old college 4th year junior on December 31, 1989. Hard to believe that we're talking 17 years now since the decade ended. Time flies so fast, huh? Anyway, on with the trip down memory lane.

32. Eyes Without A Face, Billy Idol Two of my favorite true stories about this song: when this song came out and I loved it, sitting in front of MTV waiting for the video, my mother -- ever on the lookout for influences in my corner of the world -- saw the part of the video where, in the bridge between the first chorus and second verse, the guy is tying a strip around his bicep. "Isn't that what they do to get their veins ready for drugs?" she asked. "No!" I told her. "I think he's just doing it to make his arm look bigger." The laugh in this story isn't that my mom fell for it. It's that my naive midwestern bumblefork 15 year old self really thought I was telling her the truth.

The second story: in the summer of 1984, my family took one of the only long vacations we ever took, driving from Minnesota to Washington DC for a two week trip to the nation's capital. Somewhere in Ohio (which is a looooong state to drive through), my younger brother and I took over the radio station decision making. "Eyes" came on. When the guitar solo started up, my father panicked, immediately hit the brakes, and began looking around wildly in the mirrors for the cop whose siren he could have sworn he just heard. As soon as we realized that he'd mistaken Stevie Vai for Officer Ponch, my brother and I erupted in hysterical giggling laughter, which just angered my father further... and I remember my poor mom trying not to laugh -- which couldn't have been easy, given my dad's Homer Simpsonesque explosion of frustration and my brother and I giggling like the little brother in "A Christmas Story."

Good times, good times. Anyway, here's Billy with his third and final appearance at #32.

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31. Running To Stand Still, U2 Never released as a single, but one of my favorites from U2's breakthrough "Joshua Tree" album. A haunting dirge about heroin addiction, the song features all of Bono's gifts for metaphor ("I see seven towers, but I only see one way out," referring to Dublin's poor public housing complex, Ballymun) and power ("you've gotta cry without weepin', talk without speakin', scream without rasin' your voice"). The song didn't judge; it just observed. That's always the better course in music, don't you think? A live performance of the song is below; and when Bono dedicates it to "the brave men and women of the United States military," it's enough to make me want to cry.

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30. The Bird, Morris Day and the Time Another Minneapolis band, kicking out the Minneapolis sound from the mid-80s. I always found it ironic that "the Minneapolis sound" was urban and R&B based -- given that the city was about 94% white, and the state about 98% white. Like saying the "Swedish sound" originated in Colombia or something. But - it was still some great music. And while Morris Day's persona irked me, there was no getting around how much the Time kicked ass. Others are partial to "Jungle Love," but I always loved The Bird -- the dance was funny -- not for everybody -- just the sexy people!. I always thought Day was a really good dancer, and when they all started doing their synched up little hip swivel dance, it looked really, really cool. I miss First Ave, too; sadly, Minneapolis' tie to cool from the 80s decade went the way of the dodo a couple of years ago... which was akin to New York City letting CBGB's go away. Said, I pledge allegiance... to The Time!

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29. Do They Know It's Christmas? Band Aid To this day, this is my favorite holiday song. To this day, it's my favorite charity song ever. And unlike USA For Africa's cloying, schmaltzy effort, "Do They Know It's Christmas" was actually a good song. We listened to "We Are The World" because we were supposed to, but we listened to "Christmas" because we wanted to. I have never forgotten this video, or the song. Absolute 80s classic. Questions that abound: Why was Paul Young -- Paul Freaking Young! -- given two lines, while neither Paul McCartney nor David Bowie got one? Why did Sting get no lines for himself, only harmonies with Simon LeBon and Bono? And just what did Bono's half-growled, half-screamed line "Well tonight, thank God it's them instead of you!" mean, exactly? Was I supposed to thank God that other people were starving?

Anyway, Bono's line and the way he delivered it stand as six of the grandest seconds in pop history. The video is the best 80s time capsule I can think of that captures the broadest range of pop music of the time (again, skip the self-congratulatory USA for Africa effort, which raised money in spite of itself and was kind of embarrassing). And Bob Geldof is the single best argument for waving that silly requirement that those given full knighthood with the Sir title have to be British (he's Irish, and his knighthood is merely honorary). And nothing against International Physicians Against Nuclear War, but Geldof not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 ranks as among the prize's greatest embarrassments. This isn't just a great song, it's a great moment in time and represents pop music's better angels. I'm proud to rank it at #29.

Posted by Christopher on August 15, 2006 07:57 PM

Comments

Posted by: Marquette Hoops at August 15, 2006 10:49 PM