Thursday, July 31, 2008
Bro, Bring back the 80's
What on earth were we thinking?
Shoulder pads, leg warmers and big hair for women.
And for guys, fringes about 7 kilometres long, ultra narrow trouser cuffs and that bendy-knee-clicking-fingers style of dance thing.
Oh dear.
These things are nice to look back on though.
The 80’s makes an interesting memories and headlines list (in no particular order) these following images just come wanging into my mind without thinking, at this moment in time (11.05pm on 31/07/08, pissed, at the office).
All Black Gary Knight felled by a flour bomb dropped from a small plane,
John Lennon shot by his biggest fan (RIP), FM stereo radio stations arrive,
Cellphones the size of a shoe box, Free Nelson Mandela,
Dallas, Dynasty, Charlie’s Angels, Taxi, McPhail & Gadsby,
Rubik’s cube puzzle completed by whizz kid in just over 59 minutes (honestly, it seemed amazing at the time).
ET phoned home, Political correctness was invented,
The Cold War ends – again,
Michael Jackson looked like an African American,
The Challenger Disaster, Chernobyl, Mir, The Berlin Wall,
A youth and a tank on Tiananmen Square, Barry Crump’s HiLux ads,
Everything was pink and grey; everything, Deep fried camembert, Moet et Chandon for $21 at Clares, Fax machines seemed high tech and the TCP/IP protocol was something to do with a thing called the world-wide-web which would never come to much.
Rob Muldoon asked us to Think Big (NZ very nearly went broke cause of this),
Footrot Flats went to the movies with A Dog’s Tale
Radio with Pictures was the Sunday night must-see,
Bull market, The Black Monday crash, Bear market.
In clubs all over new Zealand - and on radio, everything changed in the 80’s.
After Johnny Rotten et al two-finger ‘saluted’ the West Coast Mellow Rock sound - and Disco - in the late 70’s, the new wave arrived with the new decade. It was a blessing; fuck, I so hated the Eagles and KC and The sunshine Band. Hated big. The Dead Boys' 'I need Lunch' is, for me, the greatest punk song ever. It killed the eagles. It killed that awful sound dead.
The New wave, at the time, it was good; refreshing. Doot Doot. With the Toot Toot. Purrrrfect.
It was bad sometimes, but looking back you don't remember the bad. So mostly, it was good.
Ultravox. Ohhhh Vienna. For me, that is the soundtrack. Ultimately, that was the one. It made me do the bendy knee, finger clicking thing and it made me swish the seven kilometer fringe; dark, angular, hanging and allways in the way. always. All ways.
Oh, Vienna.
Once was new. Once was romantic.
Once were.
Time. It goes by. Crikey, I feel a song coming on, something new, something romantic.
You see, it all cycles. It all. In cycles.
The difference between a 2000’s Emo and an 80’s New Romantic, is fuck all.
Bill Hayley – Jimi even – it’s all new, several times over.
It’s just that most of us are too consumed with bullshit to realise it.
Shoulder pads, leg warmers and big hair for women.
And for guys, fringes about 7 kilometres long, ultra narrow trouser cuffs and that bendy-knee-clicking-fingers style of dance thing.
Oh dear.
These things are nice to look back on though.
The 80’s makes an interesting memories and headlines list (in no particular order) these following images just come wanging into my mind without thinking, at this moment in time (11.05pm on 31/07/08, pissed, at the office).
All Black Gary Knight felled by a flour bomb dropped from a small plane,
John Lennon shot by his biggest fan (RIP), FM stereo radio stations arrive,
Cellphones the size of a shoe box, Free Nelson Mandela,
Dallas, Dynasty, Charlie’s Angels, Taxi, McPhail & Gadsby,
Rubik’s cube puzzle completed by whizz kid in just over 59 minutes (honestly, it seemed amazing at the time).
ET phoned home, Political correctness was invented,
The Cold War ends – again,
Michael Jackson looked like an African American,
The Challenger Disaster, Chernobyl, Mir, The Berlin Wall,
A youth and a tank on Tiananmen Square, Barry Crump’s HiLux ads,
Everything was pink and grey; everything, Deep fried camembert, Moet et Chandon for $21 at Clares, Fax machines seemed high tech and the TCP/IP protocol was something to do with a thing called the world-wide-web which would never come to much.
Rob Muldoon asked us to Think Big (NZ very nearly went broke cause of this),
Footrot Flats went to the movies with A Dog’s Tale
Radio with Pictures was the Sunday night must-see,
Bull market, The Black Monday crash, Bear market.
In clubs all over new Zealand - and on radio, everything changed in the 80’s.
After Johnny Rotten et al two-finger ‘saluted’ the West Coast Mellow Rock sound - and Disco - in the late 70’s, the new wave arrived with the new decade. It was a blessing; fuck, I so hated the Eagles and KC and The sunshine Band. Hated big. The Dead Boys' 'I need Lunch' is, for me, the greatest punk song ever. It killed the eagles. It killed that awful sound dead.
The New wave, at the time, it was good; refreshing. Doot Doot. With the Toot Toot. Purrrrfect.
It was bad sometimes, but looking back you don't remember the bad. So mostly, it was good.
Ultravox. Ohhhh Vienna. For me, that is the soundtrack. Ultimately, that was the one. It made me do the bendy knee, finger clicking thing and it made me swish the seven kilometer fringe; dark, angular, hanging and allways in the way. always. All ways.
Oh, Vienna.
Once was new. Once was romantic.
Once were.
Time. It goes by. Crikey, I feel a song coming on, something new, something romantic.
You see, it all cycles. It all. In cycles.
The difference between a 2000’s Emo and an 80’s New Romantic, is fuck all.
Bill Hayley – Jimi even – it’s all new, several times over.
It’s just that most of us are too consumed with bullshit to realise it.
Labels: 80's
