When We All Wang Chunged Our Own Bad Selves

OK. This meme I got from queencallipygos was too fun and disturbing for a music geek like me to pass up:

Go to this convenient compilation site right here http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php and find the five years you were in high school. For each year, admit to the song that was your favorite at the time, then decide which one you now generally consider to be the best song on the list. Lastly, pick the year's worst song, snarking optional. (I’m adding a category: A song that’s not necessarily your favorite or you hated; more like a guilty-pleasure, “Oh, that’s so typically [insert year here]!”)

So join me then, as we return to that fine fine superfine time in the history of popular musics and aftershocks that be known as The Early-to-Mid-Eighties. Won't you? Thank you.

1982

I generally was still listening to my parents' "old" Beatles and Stones albums primarily. And comedy records, musical theatre albums, movie soundtracks, and other geeky things. I had also started to listen a bit to Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, and other NYC things that had been going on since the mid-70s. Pop of the time didn't make much of an impression, and from that year's top 100, I can see why. Couldn't talk to girls. Very "in-my-head."

FAVORITE THEN: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "I Love Rock N' Roll" / J. Geils Band - "Centerfold"
FAVORITE NOW: Willie Nelson - "Always on My Mind / The Go-Gos -"We Got the Beat" / The Cars -"Shake It Up"
WORST (AS SEEN NOW): Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - "Ebony and Ivory" / Christopher Cross -"Arthur's Theme"
"THAT'S SO 1982:" Buckner & Garcia - "Pac-Man Fever"

1983

Went away to the Northfield Mount Hermon School. Made the immediate conscious decision to be more gregarious. Wanted to meet girls. Went to lots of dances. Was thought a good dancer, enjoyed myself a lot. Looking back, I see this was actually a pretty damned good year to be 15 and hitting the dance floor. Started buying 12" single dance mixes. Spent lots of time with very cute and insecure sci-fi/fantasy/gaming geek girls.

FAVORITE THEN: Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) / David Bowie - "Let's Dance" / Stray Cats - "(She's) Sexy & 17" / Golden Earring - "Twilight Zone"
FAVORITE NOW: Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) / Prince - "Little Red Corvette" / Jackson Browne - "Lawyers in Love" / Toni Basil - "Mickey"
WORST (AS SEEN NOW): Journey - "Faithfully" / Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney - "This Girl Is Mine"
"THAT'S SO 1983:" Men Without Hats - "The Safety Dance" / Greg Kihn Band - "Jeopardy"

1984

Stopped going to dances so much. Started meeting girls through various creative pursuits. I think the music suddenly sucking mightily might have had something to do with it, too. Was also getting more into proto-punk, post-punk, new wave, and hardcore (oddly, actual punk punk would have to wait until college and my education from roommate/best friend/Crash-Course Guitar Hero, Johnny Dresden). Started hanging out with goth and punk girls (oh, I sighed so much over that trenchcoated punk girl with doe eyes like a Jaime Hernandez drawing, who played every kind of saxophone there is and her hair was perfect). Didn't listen to most of what was out there in the "real" world. I seem to have not missed much.

FAVORITE THEN: Prince - "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" / Nena - "99 Luftballons" / Cyndi Lauper - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" / Yes - "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
FAVORITE NOW: Prince - "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" / Eurythmics - "Here Comes the Rain Again" / The Go-Gos - "Head Over Heels"
WORST (AS SEEN NOW): Steve Perry - "Oh Sherrie" / Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - "Say Say Say" / Ray Parker Jr. - "Ghostbusters"
"THAT'S SO 1984:" Rockwell - "Somebody's Watching Me" / Quiet Riot - "Cum On Feel the Noize"

1985

Stopped being very gregarious. Theatre, writing short stories and poetry, and photography took over my life. Spent all my time in Silverthorne Theatre, at my desk, in the darkroom, or hanging with a female friend in one of the dorm smokers (back when a prep school like this had a room in every dorm where the 15-18-year-old students could go smoke whenever they wanted, with parental permission), or wandering the dark woods around campus. Mooned over a number of different girls I didn't think would give me the time of day - years later, discovered to my horror than more than a few of them were doing the same about me (idiot! idiot! IDIOT!). The school year 1984-1985 is an odd blur in my memory, with almost no specifics, unusual for me (and I wasn't doing drugs, though everyone around me was). Started a radio show on WNMH, first called "Transintercontinental Doormat," then, when I briefly teamed with my late friend William Hill McCarter, it was "The Ian W. Hill McCarter Show," then finally "Ugly Radio." Played a wild mix of classic rock, no wave, show tunes, spoken word, minimalism, and lots of Frank Zappa and Firesign Theatre. Nothing you would have heard on the radio otherwise. Got picked for the school's Performing Dance company, one of the coolest cliques (the only really cool one in the creative arts) at the place - and it also counted as a varsity sport, so I didn't have to keep doing things I hated to fulfill a sports requirement. In retrospect, had a lot of friends; wouldn't have thought so at the time.

FAVORITE THEN: Dire Straits - "Money for Nothing" / Prince & The Revolution - "Raspberry Beret"
FAVORITE NOW: Bruce Springsteen - "I'm On Fire" / Don Henley - "The Boys of Summer" / 'Til Tuesday - "Voices Carry"
WORST (AS SEEN NOW): Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F" / U.S.A. for Africa - "We Are the World" / Starship - "We Built This City"
"THAT'S SO 1985:" Murray Head - "One Night in Bangkok" / a-Ha - "Take On Me"

1986

More theatre. More radio. More writing. More confidence. Got a varsity letter in Dance (yes, really). Slowly discovered that I - who saw myself as the dirty, nasty, ugly, unpopular outsider artist - was actually quite a popular and liked guy. Had no idea how to deal with this, so didn't (still can't - I enter almost every situation assuming everyone dislikes me and I have to find a way to please them). Hung more with hippie girls, discovered what Berit calls my "fetish" for strong, athletic-bodied, plain-speaking, dirty-blonde New England girls. Girlfriends since have had at least three of these qualities, go figure (just realized that). Went away to college in NYC, and everything exploded wonderfully in color, and light, and noise, and movement. A good time to be 18 in NYC.

FAVORITE THEN: Peter Gabriel - "Sledgehammer" / Prince & The Revolution - "Kiss"
FAVORITE NOW: Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls" / Prince & The Revolution - "Kiss"
WORST (AS SEEN NOW): Paul McCartney - "Spies Like Us" / Dionne & Friends - "That's What Friends Are For"
"THAT'S SO 1986:" Falco - "Rock Me Amadeus" / Eddie Murphy - "Party All the Time"

Hmmmn. More than I intended to share. These lists brought back a whole lot in an odd Proustian rush. Music will do that - at least it does it to me.

Which gives me a link to some silly photos from the Rock Band party B & I went to over at Daniel and Sally McKleinfeld's last night . . .

Berit, as much as she tries to deny it, is the star guitarist/bassist of any fake group she's in . . .

And there was a pretty strong lineup for the fake band "Barbary Coast," with Sally & Daniel McKleinfeld, David Polenberg, and Berit on vocals (she's VERY accurate, but she can sing only either in an operatic soprano or like Grace Slick) - here seen figuring out what song to try next . . .

We all switched out on instruments from song to song, so I was allowed to try the drums when I could play them on "Easy" without negatively effecting game play . . .

But I sometimes wound up having to keep up above my skill level, and there were intense periods of sweat and concentration (here with Jenny Tavis, David, and Sally acting as groupie) . . .

Sometime we gotta see if we can do this on the big BIG screen at The Brick . . .