Category: 80’s

It Was Our “Woodstock”

It Was Our “Woodstock”

by MichelleMcHatton

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of “Live Aid”–pics at the end are from my “Live Aid” book, which I’m glad to say I still have.

July 13, 1985.  Forty years and many musical memories ago.  I’m so glad I was alive to be a part of that event.

No, I wasn’t there in Philly.  Nor in England.  I didn’t get to ride the Concorde with Phil Collins.  But I had dragged my 14-year-old ass out of bed at 5:30 a.m. on a summer weekend so I could tune into the concert of the decade.  Maybe even the century.

It started around noon UK time, which put us at 6-ish.  They were broadcasting the entire thing on the radio so I had my cassettes and tape recorder ready to go.

Then there was JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.  To be there must’ve been something else.  I longed to see Powerstation and Madonna.  Waiting to see Duran Duran perform that evening was like torture.  I remember getting to see the last few hours of the show broadcast on TV.  Another thing to thank Dick Clark for.

Forty years later I still have some of the cassettes that I recorded.  I have the “Live Aid” book.  I’ll have to scan through that later and continue with my walk down memory lane.

Such nostalgia for such an innocent time in my life…

Still the Boss at 70

Still the Boss at 70

by MichelleMcHatton

In honor of his 70th birthday, I wanted to pay tribute to Bruce Springsteen by listing my top 20 favorite Springsteen songs.  I couldn’t do just 10.  There were too many.  And I actually could have done way more than 20 but I figured 20 was a good number.  It was difficult to narrow them down but I managed to do so.

Here goes:

  1. “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” – Don’t get on me about this one.  In my opinion, it’s the best version there is.  I love to hear it any time of year.  In fact, I just had the opportunity to hear it the other day on E Street Radio when they were playing a live concert from 9/20/78 that was done in Passaic, NJ and Bruce sang the song for the audience as a “surprise”.  I was in my glory!  Bruce and Christmas.  You can’t go wrong.
  1. “Light of Day” – It may be a more obscure Bruce song, one many may not know about.  If you’ve ever seen the Michael J. Fox/Joan Jett movie of the same name, you’ll know the song.  They sing the song in the movie.
  1. and 17.  “Human Touch” and “Better Days” – Both resonate for me because they were songs I played when I was with my first boyfriend.  He bought me the cassettes.
  1. “Rosalita”  – I remember seeing a video of a live performance of this song on a compilation VHS tape I had of Springsteen videos.  I thought it was comical when the girls kept sneaking up on the stage.
  1. “Fire” – It’s just a good song.  Even the Pointer Sisters sang it well.
  1. “Blinded By The Light” – Another underrated one.  And Bruce’s only #1.  Only as a songwriter.
  1. “Growin’ Up” – You can hear this at the end of “Big Daddy” and well done on Broadway.
  1. “Streets of Philadelphia” – From the movie of the same name.  Tom Hanks.  Bruce.  Can’t get any better than that.
  1. “The Rising” – Bruce knew we’d need this song and album after 9/11
  1. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” – There is a private joke in my family about this song.  All because of E Street Radio and how during a recent vacation, whenever we turned on E Street Radio, this song seemed to be playing.  But it would be a different version.  One time you may get a live version done on December 6, 1980 in England, another time it may be from July 17, 2016 at Gillette.  You never knew.  A great song.  Especially since it pays great tribute to Clarence Clemons.
  1. “Tunnel of Love” – It’s such a picturesque song.  I had to analyze it in my junior year creative writing class.  The whole album means a great deal to me.  The “Tunne of Love Express Tour” was the first time I saw Bruce live.
  1. “Hungry Heart” – To me Bruce’s first commercial success.  Can be heard in “Risky Business”.
  1. “Badlands” – Just a great opening to the “Darkness” album
  1. “The Promised Land” – Another great one from “Darkness”
  1. “The River” – The song that really made me recognize Bruce as a storyteller.
  1. “Thunder Road” – Who wouldn’t want to ride out tonight to case the promised land? Especially while listening to Bruce.
  1. “Dancing In The Dark” – Bruce’s highest charting song.  And the world’s introduction to Courtney Cox.
  1. “Born In The USA” – My first real exposure to Bruce where I actually began paying attention.  The song reveals the plight of the Vietnam vet and what they experienced, especially upon returning home. It is a great song to listen to while on the Music Express at the amusement park.  I know because I have. The song is incredible.  The entire album is phenomenal.

1.”Born To Run” – I cannot say enough about this song.  It is my all-time favorite song EVER, by ANY artist.  There is nothing that surpasses it.  Nothing ever will.  If I am alone in the car (or anywhere for that matter) and this song is playing (either on the radio, CD, whatever), that volume is going up FULL CRANK and I am belting it out!  AND. I. DO. NOT. CARE!  This is the album that put Bruce on the map.  It is extremely well-done and considering the amount of time I’ve heard they put into recording it, it should be.

 

The 80’s Revisited

The 80’s Revisited

by MichelleMcHatton

I always knew it would happen one day.  Or at least hoped.  The day my child said she wished she had been around in the 80’s so she could’ve experienced the music.

My thirteen-year-old recently came across the Jennifer Garner flick “13 Going on 30” on Netflix and was immediately taken in by the 80’s theme of the film.  Especially the music.  “Head Over Heels”, “Jessie’s Girl” and particularly “Thriller”.

“Why couldn’t I have been around in the 80’s?” she whined.

“Just because you weren’t doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy that music now,” I reminded her.

The other day we were returning from running errands and sat in the car listening to the last strains of Wham!’s  “Careless Whisper”.

“I love this song,” she said.  “Who sings it?”

“George Michael,” I told her.

“Who?”

“Wham!  George Michael.  You know, ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’.  You know that song,” I reminded her.

“Oh yeah.”

We continued talking about Wham! and 80’s music as we entered the house.  I relayed my teen love for Duran Duran to her.

“You know, the group who sings ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’.”

“Oh, yeah.  I like that song.”

“Yeah.  You know what the lead singer’s name is?”

“What?”

“Simon.  Want to know what his last name is?”

“What?”

“LeBon.”

She laughed.  “What a funny name!”

I smiled.  “Yeah, that’s what the rest of the band thought too when they first met him.”

I went on to tell her how there were three members in the band with the last name of Taylor but they weren’t related.

“Really?  How can they not be related?”  my daughter asked.

“Because in England the surname Taylor is like the surname Smith in America.”

She also thought it was cool that John’s real name was Nigel, because that’s the first name of one of The Muppets.  Which is another thing from the 80’s that she loves.

But that’s another 80’s story for another time.

The 80’s Live On

The 80’s Live On

by MichelleMcHatton

One cool thing about being a parent of a “tween” is that I’m once again living my own “tween/teenhood” through my daughter Melanie.  Thanks mainly to YouTube and Netflix, things that were once old are new again and 80’s pop culture is still alive and well in my household.

A few years ago my daughter was first exposed to the TV show “Full House” via re-runs on Nickelodeon.  She couldn’t believe it when I told her that John Stamos started out playing a guy named “Blackie” on “General Hospital” and that Bob Saget was the first host of “America’s Funniest Videos”.  So when “Fuller House” appeared on Netflix, it was a no-brainer that she would be watching it.

I viewed an episode with her where DJ, Stephanie and Kimmy have a girls’ night out at a club.  While Stephanie sings a duet of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with Macy Gray, DJ and Kimmy do the “lift” part of the famous dance scene.

“Johnny and Baby did it much better”.

“Who?”  My daughter asked.

I then explained that the song and dance were from the movie “Dirty Dancing” and that she wouldn’t be able to see the film until she was 15.  But she loves the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”.

Having OnDemand TV has allowed my daughter to see her fill of older kid-friendly movies.  Thanks to the mediocre movie “Daddy Day Care” and a frequently seen television commercial, my daughter’s favorite song for a while last year was Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking On Sunshine”.  Ugh.  I didn’t even like this song the first time around.

My daughter also has a fascination with Weird Al Yanchovich and some of the parodies he’s created from popular 80’s songs.  “Eat It”, “Girls Just Want To Have Lunch” and “Like a Surgeon” are her favorites.

Aside from “Full House” we can’t leave out many of the other TV shows and movies my daughter has discovered and come to love.  She recently discovered a cartoon on YouTube that I vaguely remember seeing myself in the 80’s.  It’s called “Just Say No” and it opens with an introduction from George and Barbara Bush, which certainly dates us.  The first time Melanie showed me the video with the intro just so happened to be the day after Super Bowl LI, the very one where George and Barbara were carted out on to the field for the coin toss.  I pointed this out to my daughter and asked her if she recognized them.  Of course she said no.  Anyway, the cartoon features Garfield, Alf, Disney characters, Looney Tunes characters, and the Smurfs and as the title says, it’s about just saying no to drugs.

We recently exposed her to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, she loves watching “Uncle Buck” and she’s become obsessed with Donger from “Sixteen Candles”.  Over the years my daughter’s gone through her attachment phases of various cartoon characters.  She’s been in love with everything from Betty Boop and Felix The Cat to the Looney Tunes and The Flintstones.  Her latest fascination is with the Muppets.  Not so much with The Muppet Show but with all the movies.  In fact, she has discovered Muppet movies I never knew there were.  Thanks to “Muppets From Space” she now knows and loves the Kool & The Gang song “Celebration”.  She’s even discovered reruns of “The Jim Henson Hour” on YouTube.  I never knew there was such a show.  Most recently she’s discovered “The Fraggles” and “Dinosaurs”, neither of which I watched when I was a kid.

So the 80’s live on in our household, at least for now.  I’m enjoying it while I can because who knows how long it will last.