Saturday Snapshots #374 - A Top Ten 80s Songs (Year By Year)

This weekend on Snapshots, we took a trip back to the 80s... one year at a time. 

10. Short, mild Freud gets snarky.

The Freud in question was Clement (like mild weather), shortened to Clem. He's rather Snide.

Clem Snide - 1989

9. Do you confuse your arm with your nose?

Mix up the letters from "arm" and "nose" and you get...

The Ramones - Planet Earth 1988

8. Cheap Crystal.

Diamante - 1987

7. Aged Erny gets rather befuddled at times, doesn't he?

"Aged Erny" was an anagram in no way associated with any Ernies you might know who spell their names differently.

Green Day - 86

6. Knock over the minestrone cans.

Bowling For Soup - 1985

Arguably the best song ever written about the 1980s.

5. You may pick him up on Channel Two.

A lyric from Starman, as I'm sure you were aware...

David Bowie - 1984

4. Johnny Allen, also known as Buster.

Jimi's real name, and childhood nickname.

Jimi Hendrix Experience - 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)

3. Me Too, Dave Lee?

Is someone accusing the Hairy Cornflake of getting Randy?

Randy Travis - 1982

2. Fortunately, that photo of you with your tongue up against the door of the Dog & Duck won't last long.

The pub-lick image had a limited life span...

Public Image Limited - 1981

1. Anni bars Jock after he gets closer tonight... what an upset!

"Anni bars Jock" and "closer tonight" were both anagrams...

Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson - 1980

Get Back To The Future with more Snapshots next Saturday...

The Top Ten Songs I Hated When I Was A Kid #4

4. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon

When I started this series, I knew I'd have to write about this song... and I knew it would involve confessing to something I'm now pretty ashamed of.

I was a homophobic child.

There's no getting away from this fact. Like many of my age in the 80s, I viewed gay people with suspicion and said some pretty horrible things about them, through blind ignorance. It was only when I started working in radio (at 16) that I ended up meeting a lot of gay people, some of whom would become close, long term friends (three of the best friends I've had over the last 30 years, in fact) that my eyes were opened and my prejudice washed away.

But before that, there was Boy George.

I was 11 when Karma Chameleon hit the top of the charts and I hated it. Because there was George, a Boy dressed like a girl, and I really didn't like it. I can't take full responsibility for that: it was the attitude of the times, and only through the outspoken work of openly gay pop stars like George and Jimmy Sommerville did people's attitudes finally start to change. It would be a good few years before George Michael or Freddie Mercury (both of whom I adored back then) officially came out. And it took Barry Manilow till LAST WEEK to finally admit it. I realise now the horrible irony of hating a song which is essentially about accepting people without prejudice... because I was prejudiced myself. But at 11, it's hard to see the forest for the trees,

Having just listened to Karma Chameleon all the way through for the first time in ages, maybe the song has finally grown on me, as well as the message. Love that harmonica...

Kenny Wednesdays #1 - Fast & Loose

Last week's post on Kenny Rogers & The First Edition was received far better than expected, to the point that Brian at Linear Tracking Lives! suggested I "Keep the Kenny comin'".

I'm sure this isn't what he had in mind, but over the next 10 weeks, I'll be posting a different Kenny every Wednesday. I was surprised how many Kennies I found... I've already got more than ten, and I'm sure you guys will have a few suggestions. And the great thing is, I can promise you now, very few (in fact, potentially only a couple of them) will be Muso-Friendly.

We'll get back to Kenny Rogers sooner or later, but let's start with another huge name of the 80s... although not as huge in the UK as in the US.

KENNY WEDNESDAYS #1: Kenny Loggins

Kenny Loggins started out as a songwriter in the late 60s. His first compositions were recorded by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Bans, though he was never a member of that group himself. He went on to team up with Jim Messina (formerly of Eagles influencers Poco and a post-Neil Young member of Buffalo Springfield) to record a number of successful US soft rock albums in the mid-70s. Loggins & Messina never really troubled the UK airwaves though, and neither did any of Kenny's later solo albums (although they all went Platinum in the US).

And then came Footloose...

I loved Footloose when I was a kid. It's pure 80s hokum - fleet-footed Kevin Bacon falls for the daughter of Fire 'n' Brimstone preacher John Lithgow who believes rock 'n' roll is the devil's music. (It is, let's face it. That's why it's so cool.)

Now, I've never been a dancer. And you won't find a lot of dance records making their way onto this blog because, as Moz once sang, they say nothing to me about my life. But few records are likely to get me tapping my toes like Footloose. It makes me feel like a teenager again. (Although not like the teenager I actually was.)

Loggins went on to record the theme to Top Gun too, but I never really got Top Gun. I watched it, sure: it was required viewing if you were a teenager in the mid-80s, but I just couldn't see what all the fuss was about. They were all a bunch of dicks. Footloose though... wow.