50 to 50
51 to 51
53 to 53
54 to 54
55 to 55
Fiction
52 to 52
Day 52 - Coming Out Of Hiding (Pamela Stanley)
October 30, 2017•0 commentsAmong the later disco era of the early to mid-eighties, when dance songs were really only played at clubs, because the charts were dominated by a newer wave, songs like, Coming Out Of Hiding, helped remind me why I loved the disco era so much. This post represents so many other great songs from the same time period, like Babe We’re Gonna Love Tonight, by Lime, High Energy, by Evelyn Thomas, I Like You, by Phyllis Nelson, If You Should Ever Be Lonely, by Val Young, So Many Men So Little Time, by Miquel Brown, Searchin’, by Hazel Dean. The list can go on forever. And every single one of these songs reminds me of my Jan, during our earliest times together, developing what would become our lifelong lifeline of friendship. But since space (and attention) is limited, I didn’t want to include all of the songs from this time capsule. So I chose Pamela Stanley’s as a stand out. Enjoy, because you know you want to.
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Day 51 - Into The Night (Benny Mardones)
October 31, 2017•0 commentsBefore you read further and/or judge, please just try and remember this song was written in a different time, and when I fell in love with it, I was just short of 16 years old myself. It wasn’t gross and statutory-rapey back then. (Well, it was, I just didn’t realize that at the time) With that disclaimer said, Into The Night will always be one of my favorite songs from the early, and then again late, eighties. It spoke of forbidden love, of a boy’s deepest feelings that he must lock away, because expressing them meant excommunication. It was on my A.M. radio stations, in those small days of hanging out in Roberta’s basement, when I panged over whether to come out to her. Which I didn’t, because I was too terrified. Then, years later, the song was back on the pop charts, in the summer of love, when Vincent and Rosie and Janet and I would drive to Kiss in Ronkonkoma, punctuating my journey from who I was the first time I’d ever heard it. The pop charts of the year 1980 are littered with songs like this one, songs that will always remain dear to me, reminding me of that frightened boy I left behind so long ago.
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Day 50 - Private Dancer (Tina Turner)
November 1, 2017•0 commentsI think part of the reason I love Private Dancer, the titular track from Tina Turner’s huge comeback album in 1984, is the sounds Tina makes, more so than her singing or any of the lyrics. (Also, I wanted to use the word titular because it makes me giggle, and the dress she’s wearing in the bridge is beyond amazing and makes her boobies look PERFECT, even to a gay boy. And I chose today to post this song, on Kenny’s birthday, because he LOVED her in this video; he used to talk about how thick her nipples were and that you could see them jutting out of that dress.) Just in the opening sequence, she sighs with such exasperation over the whole thing. I think maybe it was the first time, in a song, I realized there might be someone who gets what it’s like to hate waking up in the morning. I ALSO love the echoed ‘Thank You' after she explains the kind of currency her hooker-ass accepts during the amazing bridge.
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Day 49 - Freedom Ninety / Fast Love (George Michael)
November 2, 2017•0 commentsToday you’re being treated to a double shot from the beautiful George Michael, who was on last year’s list with Wham! serving a song I can’t believe I’d forgotten on the first list of top 50. You can say so much about George Michael, and you can try and pigeon hole him into some kind of category, but I always knew this was an artist, a brilliant soul, inside a beautiful face, with a sexy voice. A rare, ballsy talent washed in ambiguous sexuality. The first song today is Freedom 90, made popular by the super-models in the video, but with the slight gay undertones that I had been looking for all along. It’s his coming of age song, the start of his open closet door. I can go on for days about this song. It is perfection; the fugue of his smoky voice over itself throughout the verse and chorus. The video features the most beautiful women in the world, lip synching his words with the complete absence of the singer himself. Brilliant. And then there’s the out-and-proud George, amid the turmoil of American tabloid nonsense, looking more mature but still as sexy as ever as he brings us FastLove, one of the sexist songs ever by anyone. This was a blaster; it was on one of our Structure tapes, and I would rewind it and blast it during those moments when I was the only one in the store. I can still close my eyes and be taken elsewhere. It calls to mind my consistent crushes on all the hot young sales reps I’d hire based partially on their looks
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Day 48 - Rapture (Blondie)
November 3, 2017•0 commentsAfter a string of new wave hits that had crossed over into the pop charts, Debbie Harry and her band Blondie, brought forth this funk-driven hip hop cross-over mega-monster, Rapture. Add one part proper dance beats, to one part synthetic pop, and then mix in a shot or two of Fab Five Freddy. This song is hypnotically repetitive but 100% amazing. During the emergence of hip hop, leave it to a blonde new wave diva to elevate rap to the pop charts. We didn’t have M.T.V. in the Poconos, so Maria and I would watch this on Friday Night Videos, priding ourselves on the ability to learn every word.
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Day 47 - Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers)
November 4, 2017•0 commentsThere’s something about the mood and tone of this song, Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers. The lyrics tell the story to which the music is perfectly matched. The sway of the strings, with Bill’s smooth as silk voice. The fact that he almost loses his breath ‘knowing.’ It’s such a great song, such a beautiful classic from my childhood. I remember being a kid and hearing this song, my mom told me he says 'I know' 150 times, and that always stayed with me because she said it was so, but also because it was easy to believe based on the heartbreak in his vocals.
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Heart Of Gold (Neil Young) - Day 46
November 5, 2017•0 commentsThis song provides me with golden memories of my beautiful sister when, I was still just a small boy. In 1971, she was 15 going on 16 ,and so much of the music of those days reminds me of her. Heart of Gold is one among the many. In my memory’s eye, I can see her holding my hand, as we walked on the sidewalks of Wright Avenue in the autumn. Colors alive with red and orange and yellow. The harmonica in this song brings me back to simpler days, when growing up across the street from a park was probably the most amazing thing to ever happen to a kid. I know Greg and Linda can identify, for though we had yards of our own, the park was also ours, and everything in it belonged to us. My heart of gold lives in that park with my childhood friends and my big sister.
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Day 45 - Peace Is Just A Word (Eurythmics)
November 6, 2017•0 commentsIt speaks to me on a personal level, but also on a global scale. Oh, that velvet voice of Annie Lennox. She really knows how to take you along on a journey. You’ll just have to listen to Peace Is Just A Word, and let me know your own take-away.
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Day 44 - You Keep Me Hangin’ On (Kim Wilde) / Venus (Bananarama)
November 7, 2017•0 commentsTwo old classics, each with an eighties upbeat disco reboot. Just the way I like my old classics. The first is one of those songs that, when I hear it in my car, I have to act out what Kim Wilde did in the video when she says Anyone driving near me must be like, 'oh there’s that old homo reliving the eighties again' Then there’s Venus. I remember its climb to Screamer of the Week on W.L.I.R., thinking it was probably one of the best new wave dance songs I’d ever heard, not even knowing it was a cover of a classic. So why did these songs make my list? You tell me. Sadly the original video for Kim Wilde’s You Keep Me Hangin’ On doesn’t seem to be available on YouTube so I can’t post that version, but this version is as deliciously eighties. And then there’s Bananarama.
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