What are your favorite music-related '80s memories

[Max Murdoc]

I remember driving to Cleveland to purchase LP's (had to go there in order to get anything that Trouser Press recommended) and when I got to "Record Revolution" I found Dark Continent by Wall of Voodoo. It's like it happened yesterday....so vivid. I couldn't wait to get home to listen to it. It had such an impact. There were at least 5 of us listening to it at my apartment (I can even remember that I sat next to the turntable on the floor) and we were all floored at what we heard. The cover was even cool:

<a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/wall_of_voodoo/dark_continent/"><img src="http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s37914.jpg" alt="Wall of Voodoo - Dark Continent"></a>

I had some idea what to expect but as soon as that needle hit the vinyl and the song "Red Light" started....wow. I still get chills thinking about it.

[tileboy]

I remember going into Harvard Square on a School field trip and running into the Harvard Coop and buying the Boomtown Rats "A Tonic for the Troops". Another record buying memory would be the midnight sale Strawberries Records would have.On one trip into the Kenmore square store I bought Talking Heads, "More Songs About Buildings and Food" and Be Bop Deluxe's " Drastic Plastic".

[geoffolehane]

The Trouser Press was a huge help in those days and boy was I disappointed when they stopped publishing it.

I used to pick up The Face from time to time when I could find it. That was the first place I heard about the Human League and OMD.

I was very lucky though. I started working in the radio business in 1978 and although my professional work was confined to country music and soft pop stations at that time, we still got in all the free records from the record companies. I relished every opportunity I had to sift through the commercial rejects and find some fascinating and unique music.

By 1981 I was working at a small market album rock station in Southern Maine and the programmers there were not afraid to experiment with the new sound. Certainly they stuck with the more popular stuff but there was even a wider selection of rejects for me to gobble up.

But I have always been a fan of liner notes. I would see who produced a particular album and then go looking for other albums produced by the same person.

In the 70's I was a Bowie fan. Then he worked with Eno, so I went looking for Eno's music. Then I found Eno had worked with John Cale and Kevin Ayers, so I went looking for their music. And so on.

[skygeex]

[quote]I had some idea what to expect but as soon as that needle hit the vinyl and the song "Red Light" started....wow. I still get chills thinking about it.[/quote]

Same exact thing happened to me with Ultravox's "Vienna" LP, Max! Of course, in The States, the pressing had "Sleepwalk" as Side 1, Cut 1 (not like the UK pressing, where it's the instumental "Astradyne"). When that needle hit the first smack of Warren's kick and snare, all reverbed out, and then swooped into the synth-bass-driven 4/4 beat, I was completely TRANSFORMED! Nothing was ever the same again. "Sleepwalk" made me who I am today.

-Chris

[Max Murdoc]

[quote][i]Originally posted by skygeex[/i]
<br>[quote]I had some idea what to expect but as soon as that needle hit the vinyl and the song "Red Light" started....wow. I still get chills thinking about it.[/quote]

Same exact thing happened to me with Ultravox's "Vienna" LP, Max! Of course, in The States, the pressing had "Sleepwalk" as Side 1, Cut 1 (not like the UK pressing, where it's the instumental "Astradyne"). When that needle hit the first smack of Warren's kick and snare, all reverbed out, and then swooped into the synth-bass-driven 4/4 beat, I was completely TRANSFORMED! Nothing was ever the same again. "Sleepwalk" made me who I am today.

-Chris
[/quote]


I remember buying that one also...with it's black and white cover and cold synthetic sound, it's winter time for me. Excellent LP. I was living in a trailer park and I can remember listening to that and Mi-Sex, the Buggles and Elton Motello. Not too after that, I was introduced to Talking Heads Remain in Light and everything changed after that.

[rotator]

here's one that sticks out:

Summer 1986: Taking acid for the first time riding around the beach in my friends really loud 'Baja bug' with The Cults 'Electric' blarring in the speakers. (best Peter Griffin voice):Awesome.

[hisoka866]

t'was a little bit rainy that time 1986 month of Sept. while boarding
a boat bound to some islands in the Phils suddenly out of nowhere these dolphin just burst out infront of my sight. "we're looking for the whales" by a-ha,
instantly flashed in my mind. i don't know where are the dolphin's
now but that incident still recurring in my mind when i play that track in my i-pod..pretty cool!!!

[oldnewwaver]

great post and great reads

I remember in high school around 1982, Oingo Boingo invited some of the school's newspapers to A M records for a press conference to discuss Nothing to Fear and other related questions about the band
No one in the class wanted to go except me so I got my cousin who did not go to the same school to dirve up to LA in the afternoon that it was scheduled in her Karmen Ghia
it was a small group around 50 teenagers and I remember them playing three music videos from A M/ IRS bands: Wall of Voodoo Mexican Radio, Joe Jackson Steppin Out and Oingo Boingo Private Life
then the press conference began and it was Danny Elfman, Dale Turner and Johnny Vatos. It was a great experience and one that the other students missed out on a rare and once in a lifetime opportunity

I remember going to see the P Furs during the Midnite to Midnite tour
between the opening band and the Furs, I saw John Hughes sitting down in the audience not to far from where I was sitting
not one of my friends had the gall to go up to him except me
I went up to him and asked him if he was John Hughes and he was real nice and polite.
Let him know that I really enjoyed his films esp Ferris Bueller which just came out. He then introduced me to Eric Stolz and Mary Stuart Masterson who were taking a break from the film Some Kind of Wonderful and they were nice as well
I asked him what was next and he mentioned that he wrote a film with Steve Martin and John Candy in mind (Planes, trains, automobiles)
What was interesting was that he sat down the whole concert during the Furs show except when they played Pretty in Pink is when he sat up to dance and then sat back down

that is just some that stick out in my mind....

[glokstadt]

[b]The Nina Hagen Experience: A True Story!!![/b]

In 1984 I was attemding CSULB and went over to my friend's record tore in Seal Beach called "White Slug Records" on Main Street, he was hosting Nina Hagen for a meet+greet to see her fans and autograph records, etc.

After everyone left, just 7 of us in the store, so Nina starts talking about UFOs, and my friends with me (a female and a male) from the students' newspaper at CSU Long Beach where talking to her about UFOs and how we see them in the desert at some certain point in the middle of nowhere, so Nina wants to go, and my friend says he'll drive her there, so the four of us pile into his big gas guzzling car, I think it was an LTD...

So we're in the middle of nowhere California desert, and Nina says pull over she has to go pee... my male frend says, no way, we'll never make it there by Midnight to see any UFOs, and hands her a 2-litre bottle, or maybe it was a 1 litre, don't remember, but he told her to pee into it, and she did, she was riding shotgun!

Nothing like riding in a car looking for UFOs with Nina Hagen pissing in a bottle! [:p]



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