Tag: 1983

Tuesday Theme Music

Sometimes a song comes to you. I wonder if they’re like food cravings, coming to you to fill a need you feel. Maybe they’re just reflections of states of mind, a mirror on the present, and a glance back at the past.

Today’s song was written and released by one of my all-time preferences, Bob Seger. Most of us have used that expression in retrospect about something or someone, saying, “Even now, I’d go to them, if I could.” “Even now, after all we went through, I still miss them.” Bob was always good about writing about relationships, looking back at them, and wondering.

That’s what this one is all about. I don’t have any suspicions ’bout why I’m streaming it in my head. Sometimes a song just comes to you.

“Even Now”, 1983.

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Monday’s Theme Music

This one comes from old school disco by one of the greatest performers of that era, Donna Summer. I was thinking, “He works hard for his money.” I was being cynical after reading an article about a CEO – Jamie Dimon – and the millions he makes while his workers struggle to pay monthly bills. Dimon didn’t impress Rep. Katie Porter. Dimon, of course, is one of the saviors of the economic meltdown last decade. He’s also one of its architects by pushing for unfettered greed.

My mind has once again sidetracked me. Donna Summer came out with “She Works Hard for the Money” in 1983. It was a worldwide hit, subject to hours of airplay, so you may have heard it before, and incorporates all of classic disco’s elements, from the beat to the techno sound.

I thought it was an appropriate song for those Monday morning back to the grind blues.

 

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Runnin’ behind today. Awoken with a sharp abdominal pain at 6:30. After a bathroom visit, “To the Google,” I cried. I’d begun to guess that I was attempting to pass a kidney stone.

The Googles agreed with me.

I did some home remedies that I was sure would work because they were on the ‘net. Three hours later, that was done, but I was a bit worn out, so I read and went to bed.

Back up at eleven, my stream fed me this Night Ranger tune, “When You Close Your Eyes” (1983), proving that you can still rock in the free mind.

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Monday’s Theme Music

Organizing writing thoughts this morning delivered today’s theme music. Although I wasn’t thinking about murder, I was numbering and ordering what I was going to do. From that began the Sting/Andy Summers jazzy song, “Murder by Numbers” by The Police (1983).

It’s all about one, two, three, as easy to learn as a, b, c.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

I enjoyed good mouth organ, harmonica, and French harp playing. My favorites are Little Walter, Charles Musselwhite, Sonny Boy Williamson, Stevie Wonder, and John Popper. When I first heard Culture Club’s “Church of the Poisoned Mind”, I thought that must be Stevie Wonder playing the harmonica. I was wrong. It turned out to be Judd Lander. Since hearing him with Culture Club, I’ve listened for him, and have found him playing with numerous others.

Those guys have a style I enjoy, but I don’t have much knowledge about the players, instrument, or their relative abilities. Like other instruments, styles vary by genre. I like these guys as much because I’ve been exposed to their skills, and remember.

Do you have a favorite on this instrument? Think about it while listening to “The Church of the Poison Mind” (1983).

 

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Monday’s Theme Music

“You come and go, you come and go.”

Culture Club released “Karma Chameleon” in 1983. Stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan, I was hanging out with Jeff. Several years older than me, he was my best bud. While I enjoyed guitar-driven tunes, Jeff was a fan of lyrics and vocals, and he loved harmonies. “Karma Chameleon” was one of Jeff’s favorite songs, so I heard it quite a bit.

Oddly, Jeff associated it with an event that happened to him while he was stationed in Thailand. I think it’s the karma connection. I don’t know. He didn’t realize that he often told this story after having a few beers and hearing “Karma Chameleon”.

Getting off a mid shift, he was heading home in the morning. As he was at the corner waiting for the bus, smoking a cigarette beside a stranger, a car pulled up and stopped. People in the car opened up, shooting and killing the stranger. They then looked at Jeff. Still smoking, Jeff turned around, looked the other way, and waited to be shot. He was hoping to convey, “I saw nothing.” It must have worked, as the car drove off after a few tense seconds. Jeff then hauled ass himself.

Something released Jeff into the memory stream this morning, dragging this song with it. So, for your pleasure….

 

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Sunday’s Theme Music

I worked with an officer while stationed at Shaw AFB, SC. He was a navigator who graduated college with a degree in Literature, and he wrote poetry on the side.

Music of the era set him off. He thought the lyrics were shallow and the liberties taken with grammar annoyed him. People used to sing in full, coherent sentences, telling a story, he would say, and the songs were often very poetic. He was my age, and it amused me that this upset him, because that’s not what popular music is about. It’s a reflection of the times and how language is used. It’s dynamic. Those were exactly some of the things that he mourned as going wrong.

I remember once we were getting ready to deploy to Egypt. Killing time as we had to do in those situations, we talked music, and he singled out this song, which had been released a few years before, as one that he particularly disliked – his exact words. His diatribe made me laugh.

Here is Eddy Grant with “Electric Avenue” from 1982.

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Friday’s Theme Music

“Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol is a good walking song. Released in 1983, it’s another one of those songs that, between volume and enunciation, I distrusted what I was hearing and kept wondering, what’s he singing in that part? Well, eventually, the answers came and I share them with you.

He lives in his own heaven
Collects it to go from the seven eleven
Well, he’s out all night to collect a fare
Just as long, just as long it don’t mess up his hair

h/t to Lyricsfreak.com

Well, that makes a lot more sense than the silly phrases I imagined. Still, it remains a damn fine song to stream in my head when I take a walk.

 

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Sunday’s Theme Music

It’s a fun song in a fun time streaming through my memory. We’re talking about the final stages of a long party, when few lights are on and only a few close friends remain. UB40 with “Red, Red Wine” begins. Smiling, we all sway and sing wherever we were sitting or standing. Yes, I know Marley did it first, but this was 1983 on Okinawa, and that’s what song plays in memory.

Good way to end a party.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

When I think of this song, I don’t think, wow, this song has been out for twenty-five years.

But then, I was taken aback that Demi Lovato fulfilled a childhood fantasy by singing with Christina Aguilera. I thought, “What…? Aguilera hasn’t been around that long.”

Yeah, in my mind world, Taylor Swift Twenty-one Pilots, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Adele and Meghan Trainor are all fresh new voices. Hard to believe they’ve been on the scene for years. Even the Bieb has been around almost ten years.

So forgive me for thinking of this old song as new classic rock song. Time changes, when you get to be my age.

Here is Yes with “Owner of A Lonely Heart,” from way back in 1983, before Drake, Adele, Demi, and the rest of them were even born. At least Christina was born when this song came out.

Crank it up like it’s supposed to be heard.

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