My Remembering 30-Year-Old Albums on the 30th Tribute List:March: U2, The Joshua Tree.
April: Prince, Sign o' the Times
May: Suzanne Vega, Solitude Standing
June: Level 42, Running in the Family
July: The Grateful Dead, In The Dark
And now, August? It was the end of summer, 1987, and what did I do? I drove our family's brand-new (or almost new; I can't quite remember) pick-up truck all around Spokane as fast as I could, listening to my tape cassette of Def Leppard's latest collection of head-banging pop, Hysteria, as loud as I could. And what was my favorite track? The one that sums up exactly what that kind of loud rock is all about, of course: young men fantasizing about sex with girls. The summer before I left for college, that seemed like a fine use of my time. And it still is, sometimes, though my fantasies are somewhat different these days. (Hey, it's long drive to Kansas City; you need something to help the miles go by.)
My god, the more I look back on it, the more I realize that the 80's were an awful time to be alive. I think the only thing they have to say for them was that at least they were not the 70s. (I mean, some of the albums you've posted on are really good, or even better than that. But even given the appeal that I can see in this, it's like the appeal of Pringles or something - maybe you can't stop, but really, you should.)
ReplyDeletethe 80's were an awful time to be alive. I think the only thing they have to say for them was that at least they were not the 70s.
ReplyDeleteAh Matt, you wonderful Generation X crank, if this is your true opinion, then you're really going to love/hate what I've dreamed up as series to force myself to continue to blog starting in 2018! No apologies here, I'm afraid; I was a complete creature of pop radio back then, and probably still am.
Most of the 80s didn't _seem_ bad to me, as such, at the time but then, I didn't have anything to compare them to yet. (The 70s were mostly to vague for me to remember. I have only bits and scraps, I think, though looking back at pictures of the (often homemade) clothes my mother dressed me and my older brother in, it's probably good the Child Protective Services was less active at the the time. {that is actually a good thing in general, and later my mother actually got really good at sewing clothes that looked professional.) But looking back now on the 80s, they just seem like a horrible time. That said, I wanted to ask if you've seen the movie _The Wrestler_. It's a bit hard to watch in parts, but really great. (I'll admit to having liked pro wresting a lot in the 80s.) There's a great bit in it when Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei are in a bar or somewhere listening to some 80's hair band - maybe Ratt or the like, and getting nostalgic about those bands, and then Rourke (I think) says something like, "And then that ass hole Cobain had to come in and ruin everything!" I thought you might like that. Great movie, if you haven't seen it, but not so uplifting.
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