Juice Newton - Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me

I remember this catchy country-pop song, with the funny video from early on in the '80s decade. Juice Newton's "Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me." (Thanks and acknowledegment to JuiceNewtonVEVO.) 

Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

 

An '80s classic: "The Safety Dance" from Canadian band Men Without Hats.

We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're are no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to a place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
And we can dance.

Total Eclipse of the Heart (and the Sun)

Here's a very '80s follow up to my post in honor of the solar eclipse. This classic 1983 song, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, has suddenly gotten popular with the coming of the August 21 solar eclipse.  Its been everywhere, especially among those celebrating the eclipse. (Acknowledgement and thanks to bonnietylerVEVO.) 


To show just how popular its been, and to truly tie it all together, Bonnie Tyler herself sang the song to a cruise ship full of people as the eclipse was underway.  Here's a clip. (Acknowledgement and thanks to CBS Miami.) 

Solar Eclipses 1979 and 2017

In anticipation of the 2017 solar eclipse, which will take place on Monday, August 21, I am recalling another solar eclipse which occurred during my childhood.

In 1979, when I was in fifth grade, another nationwide solar eclipse happened. We were in school when it was occurring. I lived in a part of the United States which did not get to see, or hardly got to see, the full solar eclipse. Nevertheless, the teachers had us sit down on the carpet, and they brought in a TV monitor and put on the coverage of the eclipse. I seem to recall it was the ABC News coverage, of which I have found the above clip. (Thanks and acknowledgement to Steve Newman.) This video of the 1979 eclipse coverage looks so familiar, and brings back memories of our sitting on the carpet and watching coverage of various parts of the country going momentarily dark as the moon covered the sun.

Here's another clip about the phenomenon of eclipses. (Thanks and acknowledgement to Vox.)

Please, if you plan to experience the eclipse, be very careful not to stare at the eclipse, as it could cause severe vision damage. But, otherwise, enjoy this fascinating astronomical event.

The '80s Paisley Underground

"The idea that you'd make music with guitars. The idea that you'd make music with long, unscripted and unstructured jams. The idea that you were into 60s garage bands. The idea that you'd play one chord until your arm fell off. All the things that we thought were exciting and cool couldn't have been less fashionable." Steve Wynn, of the band The Dream Syndicate. 

My last post dealt with the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love in 1967.  To follow up on that recollection, it would be good to recall a very creative '80s musical subculture that was inspired by the pop music of the '60s, especially the Summer of Love era, and who made an effort to revive the feeling and spirit of 1967 in the midst of the 1980s. This scene was called the Paisley Underground, and it stood in contrast the the synth-pop, New Wave, and hair metal of that period.  Although I am actually an aficionado of '80s music, in particular New Wave, I was also fascinated and inspired by the 1960s, and was drawn to the Paisly Underground's effort to revive the psychedelic and hippie spirit of many years before. 

In the early '80s, the Paisley Underground emerged in Los Angeles out of a tight knit group of like-minded bands: the Bangles, the Dream Syndicate, Green On Red, The Three O'Clock, the Rain Parade, and the Long Ryders, among others.  An article appearing on May 16, 2013 in the the Guardian, explains the origin of the name "Paisley Underground," 

"The tag Paisley Underground was first coined in 1982 as a joke by Michael Quercio, the young leader of the Three O'Clock. "We were being interviewed by a local paper called the LA Weekly," he recalls. "The writer asked me: 'So, what do you call this new scene of you and the Bangs [later the Bangles], and the Rain Parade and the Dream Syndicate?" And I said: 'Oh, it's the Paisley Underground.' I didn't think much of it – it was just an off-the-cuff remark. It wasn't until a couple of months later that the other papers started picking up this name and started to write about the scene and call it that.""

Probably the most well-known of the Paisley Underground bands was The Bangles, who eventually were given support by Prince, and who reached the heights of '80s popularity with their big hits "Manic Monday," and "Walk Like An Egyptian."  But they started in the early '80s Paisley Underground scene, as one of its originators.

A favorite of mine from the Paisley Underground was the band The Three O'Clock, who created music that resembled '60s pop groups like the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Here they are in 1983 appearing on the MV3 music video channel (a competitor to MTV).

Here's The Three O'Clock again, with a more polished mid-80s video.

Here's the Rain Parade, a bit more psychedelic and trippy.

Here below are Parts I and II of a short, 20 minute documentary from 1985 all about the then burgeoning Paisley Underground.  (Thanks and acknowldgement to BobC1965)

By 1985, the Paisley Underground had become an influential scene, most particularly providing a strong influence to multifaceted '80 superstar Prince, who named his new record label Paisley Park, produced and championed Paisley Underground bands like The Bangles and The Three O'Clock, and who released a heavily '60s influenced album, Around The World In A Day in 1985.  The Paisley Underground, based in Los Angeles, also inspired a large number of garage-style bands and music scenes around the world. 

'60s Songs, '80s Videos

1967 "Love" poster by artist Peter Max

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. In 1967, there was an explosion of the hippie counterculture which spread across the the world, most particularly the Western countries, and brought a blossoming of art, music, idealism, and experimentalism. 

Although I grew up in the 1980s, I was greatly inspired by the '60s and by the Summer of Love. I remember watching documentaries about that era, and I listened heavily to the music of that time.  The events which happened in the '60s were imperfect, as is usually the case when one speaks about anything human. The Summer of Love itself was imperfect, and one can point at many mistakes made by the young people behind all the happenings. But at its best the Summer of Love represented an earnest and hopeful attempt to live out ideals of beauty and love. 

As I grew up in the '80s, I often looked back to the '60s for inspiration, taking the best of it while acknowledging where they fell short.  So how does an '80s guy with an '80s blog celebrate the anniversary of the Summer of Love and the larger era it represented? How does one celebrate the '60s when youre focused on the MTV era? 

How about with '80s era MTV-style videos of classic '60s songs? Back in the '80s, a show came on TV called Deja View.  Aimed at the thirtysomething baby boomers of the '80s, who at the time were very nostalgic for the Sixties, Deja View featured '80s style videos for '60s songs.  A 1985 Chicago Tribune article talked about Joel Gallen, Deja View's producer:

A character in the movie``The Big Chill`` spoke for
countless baby boomers when he grumbled that there hadn`t
been a good record made since 1967. And as for rock videos,
you won`t hear many veterans of the Age of Aquarius
wistfully singing, ``I want my, I want my, I want my MTV.`` 

Joel Gallen couldn`t understand why videos couldn`t
accommodate people whose interest in rock music peaked
about the time the Beatles split. An avid fan of 1960s music,
Gallen was ``intrigued and excited by the technique and the
form of music video. But I didn`t really relate to Twisted
Sister, Judas Priest and a lot of the other MTV-type bands.``
So Gallen, 28, came up with the idea of ``marrying`` `60s
hits to the new video technology in a show he now calls
``Deja View.``

I remember, as an '80s teen, tuning into Deja View and enjoying it.  In celebration of the Summer of Love, and of those who appreciated the '60s from the vantage point of the '80s, here are some '80s videos of '60s songs from the '80s show Deja View:

 
The Hollies, "Bus Stop."  After seeing this video, every time thereafter that I heard the song it brought to mind this very scene, with the same bus stop and bench, and the couple at the beginning with their umbrella. 1966 song, just before the '67 Summer of Love. (Acknowledgement and thanks to hinken24 for the video.)


Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." This one is a true Summer of Love classic, reaching the peak of the pop charts in the midst of that psychedelic summer of 1967. Its mysterious lyrics caused much speculation, often under alternative states of consciousness (Acknowledgement and thanks to hinken24 for the video.)

 
The Zombies, "She's Not There." Spooky song from 1964, foreshadowing much psychedelia to come.  (Acknowledgement and thanks to hinken24 for the video.)

Oingo Boingo: From Gong Show To Weird Science

The name Oingo Boingo brings to mind the quirky new wavish '80s for many of us. But the group has a more extensive history.  It started back in the early '70s as a performance art group called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.  One of their more noteworthy performances at that time came in 1976, when they appeared as contestants on the original version of The Gong Show with their then wacky host Chuck Barris. (Acknowledgement to Dawson Lehman for the video.)

In the '80s came New Wave, a genre the group took to well, changing their name to simply Oingo Boingo, and adopting a ska-influenced New Wave style.  Here's my fave song from them, the very catchy "Stay" off of their Dead Man's Party album.  (Acknowledgement to Boingo Vision for the video.)

They are probably most well known for the theme song to the very '80s John Hughes film Weird Science in 1985.  (Acknowledgement to NewOrderUp for the video.)

In the '90s, they briefly shortened their name even further, to Boingo, and followed new musical directions.  The group's frontman, Danny Elfman also made a name for himself with his work on movie soundtracks, including Pee Wees Big Adventure and Men in Black.