Tag: 1984

Today’s Theme Music

“Dance Hall Days,” by Wang Chung, was supposed to be new wave.

Coming out in nineteen eighty-four, when I lived on Okinawa, I didn’t get it. What was so special about new wave? This song didn’t sound any different from other music heard on juke boxes and FM radio stations.

The lyrics were definitely weird. “Take your baby by the hair. Pull her close and say, there, there, there.” “Take your baby by the wrist. And in her mouth put amethyst.”

Yeah, strange, if you listen to them. I think they just junked out some rhyming words to a beat. It works as a stream to help dance your way through the first few days of the season’s change.

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Today’s Theme Music

Today’s music arrived with the sun. ‘When Doves Cry’ by Prince is pretty well known so I’ll eschewed any mention about what I was doing and where I was at when it came out. This is especially so with Prince’s sudden death last year. Instead, I’ll mention that it’s one of my cat songs.

Now for the embarrassing aspect. Ahem. A cat song is one I sing to my cats. I typically change the words to reflect that it’s for or about cats. In this instance, some of the words are revised to be, “This is what it sounds like, when a cat purrs.”

And the song arrived with the sun because that’s when a cat arrived with an introductory purr, pretending to be friendly, when he was really inquiring about breakfast.

Here it is, ‘When Doves Cry’, 1984, by the amazing, amazing Prince. Feel free to sing it to your animals.

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Today’s Theme Music

Saturday morning. Blizzard outside. Kids out of school. Not that I have any, but I’m thinking of the greater society. Under these circumstances, let’s pull out an old song, a controversial one that made the “Filthy Fifteen” list of songs receiving parents’ disapproval.

This one was about masturbation. Any adult knew it as soon as they understood the lyrics. But its upbeat tempo made it a terrific dance tune. Commercial radio loved it; the young folks loved it.

The video has that goofy early MTV vibe going – perfect for a Saturday. You may not know all the words but you can recognize enough to sing along and mumble the rest. Direct from 1984 via the Intertubes and You Tube, Cyndi Lauper with ‘She Bop’. 

 

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