Tag: 1983

Today’s Theme Music

This song was in my head when I awoke.

I first learned of Stevie Ray Vaughn rather late. A literature professor introduced me to SRV’s work. Stationed at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, in nineteen eighty-three, I was taking classes with the University of Maryland, and my wife and I became friends with the professor. He had several PhDs, acquired during his career as a professional student seeking to be a rock star by playing guitar with a local band.

He was incredulous that I didn’t know who SRV was and insisted on giving me a cassette tape of ‘Texas Flood’. I was hooked. Here is ‘Pride and Joy’, a good way to start a morning. Time for some pancakes.

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Today’s Theme Music

“Let’s dance. Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.”

Yeah, I’m hearing it like it’s nineteen eighty-three. Good year for me. Exciting future ahead. Woo-hoo. The future was so bright, I had to wear shades. I never knew then that I’d be worrying about the sun going down on me. Never thought about walking the line, dancing in the dark, or learning to fly. Yet, here I am sixty going on a million, flapping my arms and trying to catch the wind beneath my wings.

It’s all a pot of words, a stew of ideas, a stream of visions and information, a stick, a stone, the end of the road.

Here’s some Saturday morning Bowie. He always knew more than us.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Today’s blast from the past comes via The Americans’. The show is taking place in 1983 and features music, news and events from ’83. It included this song, ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’, in the episode I watched the other night on Amazon.

‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’ is a continuation of a theme begun with David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ of 1969 about an astronaut, Major Tom, victimized by a malfunction while in space. ‘Space Oddity’ was an early hit for Bowie and drew me into his fold of fans. One of the best concerts of my life was seeing him in Charleston, WV during his glam rock period.

Peter Schilling released his song, ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’ in 1983. Its techno-beat and clear, overly dramatic but positive lyrics work as background music streaming in my head while walking around Earth.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

This album had the honor of being the last piece of vinyl that I bought. I was living on Okinawa in Japan, then, assigned to the 603rd MASS at Kadena AB. DVD players arrived during my tour’s final year, so I bought one for $400. That’s since been replaced by less expensive players with better quality many times over. Before CDs, I bought music on vinyl or cassettes.

This album, ‘Come On, Feel the Noize’, by Quiet Riot, was bought while we still lived off base on the economy in 1983. I had Bose 301 and 910 speakers with a Sansui amp. The combination filled the tiny apartment. Ah, to be young and stupid. We moved onto base housing the next year but rotated to the U.S. by the end of ’84.

I no longer have the album, selling it at a base yard sale.

The song was originally released by Slade in 1973. For fun, here is a video of them with that. It’s such a tamer version but their clothing was very interesting, very glam rock. I was surprised that people commented that they’d never seen or heard Slade in the states. I remember buying and listening to their album in 1973.

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Today’s Theme Music

Look at that light. Smell that air: inhale; exhale.

Smells like the eighties doesn’t it? Yeah, I thought so, too.

Does it ever happen to you, that you wake up refreshed from a delicious night of sleep and you feel so young, that you feel like a different person, that you feel like a younger person?

Yeah, me, neither.

But I awoke thinking about the 1980s. I had a good time in that era. So how ’bout a little Pat Benatar. Let’s go back with her to those days before the Internet captured us.

I choose this song because its beat and pop-culture music craft. Once again, I’d never seen this video before, as with many others I share here, and honestly, watching it, I cringe. But it’s a good song to sing to yourself, walking around or sitting around, gathering strength to do things. Sing to yourself, “We are strong.”

Here is ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ from 1983.

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