Distant lands, distant sounds

We were the "Pepsi Generation", the "Me" Generation, "I want my MTV", the children of baby boomers. We wore odd and brightly colored clothes, wore our hair big, wrapped our legs in leg warmers, Wall Street ruled and greed was good (according to some). "The Golden Girls" made us laugh, "Dallas" made us love to hate JR Ewing and "Dynasty" gave women shoulders like linebackers with the popularity of shoulder pads. We cheered for Luke and Leia, held our breath for Indy to get out of a jam, cried at Luke and Laura's Wedding and we partied like it was 1999! Our generation was the 80's.

Musically it was incredible but sometimes odd period. New Wave, Techno, Rockabilly Revival, Rock and Roll all blended together to create sounds we had never heard before and coupled with the worlds first all music channel debuting in 1981, the perfect mix was achieved. Sometimes, if you looked a little deeper, past the usual Top 40, you could find some unusually good sounding, and rather interesting songs by seldom heard of groups, that even today, sound great.

This video by a German/Australian group known as "The Other Ones." starts us off. The song is called "Holiday" and it debuted in 1987 and was an international hit. The group was comprised of Alf, (vocals) Janey (vocals) and Johnny Klimek (Bass) and Andreas Schwarz-Ruszczynski (guitar), Stephan Gottwald (keyboards) and Hoffmann (drums). Musically, the group fell under "Third Wave Ska" which had it's roots in Jamaican music, but became popular in the decade with groups like "The Other Ones" and "Save Ferris".



Remakes of 50's, 60's and 70's songs were popular during the decade and it certainly seemed at times there was a new one everyday being played on MTV. Sometimes the group itself was more interesting than the song that was being covered, and for a group like "Doctor and The Medics", interesting is the operative word. The group was formed in 1981 with Clive Jackson (The Doctor) with Steve McGuire on the guitar, drummer Steve Ritchie (aka Vom) with backup vocals courtesy of Collette Appleby and Wendi West. What really makes the group standout of course wasn't their choice in music, but costumes. Coupling British Psychadelia with Japanese Kaubuki costumes and makeup, it created a look all their own. Here are their two biggest hits from 1986. A cover of Norman Greenbaums 1974 "Spirit in the Sky" and ABBA's 1974 hit "Waterloo".





Most people who remember the Rockabilly revival of the 80's would immediately think of "The Stray Cats", but there are a few of us out there who know it actually started in 1980 with Rocky Burnette crooning "Falling in Love (Being Friends) from his album "Son of Rock and Roll" which had a literal meaning owning to the fact that his father was Rock and Roll Pioneer Johnny Burnette and his brother and Rocky's uncle Dorsey who both hit the charts in the late 50's and early 60's.



But where Rocky really hit the big time was in this top ten hit called "Tired of Towing the Line", which hit the Top 10 in 1980 and is still a great song and one that the author fondly remembers being played on radio station KIQQ in his L.A. days.



Our last stop in this music history post is a song by an artist who showed a comepletely different side of himself, and also managed to skewer Billy Idol, Boy George, Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson and Cyndi Lauper in the process and it also makes for a hsyterical video. "Just a Gigalo/I Ain't got Nobody" was originally recorded by jazz great Louis Prima in 1956. Here is David's cover from his 1985 album Crazy from the Heat", which is remarkably almost note for note and interesting for a cover as most times covers were usually close, but more or less left up to the artist to put their personal angle on it.




So there we have some of the wild side of a decade that became the focus of a generation that looks back and smiles when they hear some favorite song on the radio. Video may have killed the radio star, but our stars still shine when we hear a song on the radio.