Where were you in the summer of 1981?
I know many of you were either not born, or perhaps you were playfully running around in huggies (and bless your heart) but I was playing junkie punk rocker with no feelings by day (all day every day,) and testing out eyeliner and deep blue eye shadow, textured scarves and my siberian geisha dance moves afterhours… it was my most embarassing secret. I loved Ultravox, Duran Duran, John Fox, Japan, The Scars, Depeche Mode, and anything on Mute or Some Bizarre Records. You know, because it made me feel pretty, it made me swoon, it was romantic, it was new…
Dig the cool dance moves after the breakdown… try to imagine them before anyone ever heard of them. C’mon just try.
* swoon *
9 Comments
You just managed to make me grin from ear to ear. I loved Duran Druan, Depache Mode, Japan etc.
:)
I was right there. Ah the New Romantic Movement. : )
i totally was convinced that i was going to marry nick rhodes. well, either him or paul mccartney. sigh…
Aren’t you sooo glad you didn’t marry either of them? I know I am. Imagine me, Mrs. Nick Rhodes…
glad it never happened.
Ah.. the guilty pleasures of music that is considered uncool, even within a subculture of outcasts.
You know where I was in ’81. In SF with punkette friends, occasionally crossing paths with you, or arguing with Frank over some nonsense. He was really controlling, and he’d get so annoyed at my diverse taste in music. I’d get equally mad at his big-mouthed close-mindedness. We were so Sid and Nancy it was stupid.
I liked some new wave back then too–had a Japan record. But who was John Fox? Not ringing a bell.
I guess the 80’s are on everyone’s mind right now:
http://www.wondermark.com/d/282.html
I loved Duran Duran. I think I wore out 2 cassette copies of Rio.
Met Simon at Cafe Mambo in Ibiza a few years back. Took a picture with him – one of the highlights on my first trip to the island of which there were many.
Oh, and Jaya – John Foxx was the original singer from Ultravox who left and had a couple of solo albums that were also very cool and electronic in that 80’s kind of way.
i never really told any one that early ultrvox was a secret love of mine not very HARDCORE at a time when i was. but the words moved me…
My sex
Waits for me Like a mongrel waits Downwind on a tight rope leashMy sex Is a fragile acrobat Sometimes I’m a novocaine shot Sometimes I’m an automat
My sex Is often solo Sometimes it short circuits then Sometimes it’s a golden glow
My sex Is invested in Suburban photographs Skyscraper shadows on a carcrash overpass
My sex Is savage, tender It wears no future faces Owns just random gender
My sex Has a wanting wardrobe I still explore Of all the bodies I knew and those I want to know My sex Is a spark of electro flesh Leased from the tick of time And geared for synchromesh
My sex Is an image lost in faded films A neon outline On a high-rise overspill My sex
I was 15, had been kicked out of the house (which was in Bogota, Colombia then) that February and found myself in Manhattan, Kansas–taking it by storm. I sang along to Carole King, Joni Mitchel and my new (at the time) favorite singer/songwriter: Rickie Lee Jones. I sill sing along to Rickie, Joni and Carole and a few others…
I honestly couldn’t stand what was going on with a lot of the music at the time–not because it wasn’t cool–I couldn’t care less about that–I just thought it sounded awful–I guess I just didn’t get it–I don’t think I get it now either–though have a greater tolerance for it.