The Soundtracks of the Soundtrack of My Life

Part I

Around 1979 something strange and wonderful came to Pennsauken.  Cable TV.  As I rode the bus to and from school I could see the Garden State Cable trucks making their way around the neighborhood and I knew it was only a matter of time before a new world of entertainment was at my doorstep.  Besides the basic package, we also had HBO and, of course, PRISM - Philadelphia Regional In-home Sports and Movies.  Of the two, I think I preferred PRISM.  They had the local sports teams and, how should I say this, a late night movie line-up that was rather appealing to a young teenage boy.

But the best part was being able to watch great movies over and over again.  I got to see a lot of movies that I missed in the theaters and I got to see a lot of movies that I had never even heard of.  Nowadays, in the Walter household, we only have the basic cable service.  No HBO (That would cost extra) or Skin-a-max.  I suppose it’s just as well.  I don’t want my sons to grow up as depraved and warped as I did!  Besides, that’s what I hear the internet is for these days.  

Long before cable and VCRs and DVDs and TiVo, it was a big deal when movies like The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music or even the Ten Commandments were on TV.  It was an event that would bring the family together for an evening to watch TV and then, eventually complain about how many commercials there were.  I don’t even want to get started about Christmas Specials, but there’s one story that I’ll never be able to live down in my family.  My sister was, and still is a big Winnie-the Pooh fan.  She loves her Pooh-bear!  Well, one Sunday night, ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney was showing one of the Pooh specials and I sat and watched it - knowing full well that my sister was still upstairs in her room waiting for it to come on and was missing it.  Did I call her to tell her it was on?  Of course not.  Thus was enshrined forever the time I cheated my sister out of her Winnie the Pooh Special.  But hey, what’s a brother for anyway?

I remember hearing the music from musicals like Annie, or The Sound of Music over and over from my sister’s room.  There’s something different about a soundtrack album.  The music instantly evokes memories and the emotions of the movie.  It can remind you of great times with your family, or that first date. And, often, soundtracks were double albums - you had to be dedicated to want to add it to your collection.

Star Wars, Summer 1977

I already talked about the release of the first, original, unaltered Star Wars Movie.  This was also the first soundtrack album I owned.  A hefty double album set, it included all of John Williams sweeping score as well as the Cantina theme - a calypso inspired little ditty.   I listened to this one quite a few times back in the day, but not much since.  Along with the official Star Wars soundtrack, I also had the Electronic Moog Orchestra version of the soundtrack as well as the Meco disco version.  Later on that year I would also pick up the Close Encounters soundtrack.  In that movie, music was a more integral element, with a mysterious 5 note phrase continually recurring throughout the movie, culminating in a musical “conversation” between the mother ship and the humans.  I always liked the scene when the aliens blew out the glass windows with their bass notes!  I would listen to this one track from the album over and over.  To round out my Sci-Fi nerdery, I also had the soundtrack from the first Star Trek Movie, as well.

Saturday Night Fever, December 1977

There was simply no escaping the phenomenon that was disco, as captured by the movie Saturday Night Fever.  The first side of the first album was really the core of this soundtrack, starting off with Staying Alive, then on to How Deep is Your Love, Night Fever, More Than a Woman and finally ending with Yvonne Elliman’s great If I can’t Have You (One of the few disco songs I’m still able to listen to).  So, yes I admit I had this album and not only that, I listened to it quite a bit.  When I went to visit my brother Ted in Louisville the summer of 1978, I either brought my copy or he had one, because I remember playing the first side whenever I wasn’t playing Darkness on the Edge of Town.  Quite the bizarre dichotomy, I realize, but there it was.  Once I finally escaped the clutches of the devil that was disco, SNF served as my sacrificial lamb as I smashed it to pieces in a cathartic frenzy.

American Hot Wax, March 1978

This one I owe to Cable. I didn’t even realize this movie existed until I saw it on PRISM.  I’m not sure how I ended up with this soundtrack, though.  I think my Dad had brought it home along with a stack of other albums he scored as freebies at the car dealership.  For anyone who has forgotten this movie, it focuses on a few days in the life of Cleveland DJ Alan Freed, who was famous for being one of the first DJs to play Rock and Roll.  He is also credited with popularizing, if not actually creating the term “Rock and ROll” to describe the new genre of music. Alan is putting on a rock concert that will feature CHuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Screaming Jay Hawkins.  Along the way, he helps a fledging doo-wop band, fights off morally uptight citizens and gives Jay Leno and Fran Drescher their first movie roles!  The music was straight outta the 50’s and early sixties.  The movie also features a young Buddy Holly Fan Club president mourning the loss of the young rocker - so the movie takes place after Holly’s death.  The soundtrack was a great primer for early rock and roll and included Buddy Holly, Berry, Lewis and several songs by a confabulated band called The Planotones who were supposed to stand in for a wider variety of rock and roll acts like Danny & the Juniors and the Belmonts.  

Grease, June 1978

Another spin on the early days of rock and roll.  Of course this movie cemented Travolta as a movie star and featured some great music.  In addition to the character songs from the movie like Summer Nights and You’re the One That I Want, side 3 of this double set featured all the songs performed by Sha-Na-Na from the “American Bandstand” part of the movie.  I think my favorite was Greased Lightning.  When I was alone and no one was watching, I used to try to match the dance moves from this scene in the movie.  We used to watch Sha-Na-Na at our house all the time, too.  That Bowser!  

The Buddy Holly Story, November 1978

The Buddy Holly story was one of my favorites from the late 1970s. Gary Busey turned in an inspired performance, but it was the music that really grabbed my attention.  Later, I would find out that the movie played a little loose with some of the facts but at the time it was a great look into the early days of rock and roll.  Holly’s phenomenal career only lasted a few years, from 1957 to 1959, but in that short time, he created a legacy that would be influential for decades.  Although I didn’t actually have this soundtrack, I was inspired to buy several Buddy Holly greatest hits collections.  With it’s seemingly non-stop showing on cable, I think watched this movie more often than I listened to some of the soundtrack albums I did own.  Holly’s rollicking, if historically inaccurate, performance at the Apollo and his later subsequent innovations in the studio left me wondering what Pop music might have been like had he lived.  His death was a touchstone event for a generation, and maybe Don McLean was a bit hyperbolic by calling it the Day the Music Died, but not by much.  Holly would lead the vanguard for young rockers (and movie stars!) dying before their time, but the movie does a good job putting his music and his life in context.  

Rock and Roll High School, August 1979

Okay - This is the movie I really wanted to talk about, anyway.  This was another PRISM classic, with (what seemed like) nearly round the clock showings.  PJ Soles never looked cuter, the Ramones never looked cooler and High School was never more fun! I mean, who didn’t want to hang out with Riff Randall and blow up their own High School?  As for the soundtrack, I loved the way the Ramones slung their guitars around their knees and just drove the music.  I think my guitar teacher would cringe at Johnny’s technique, but man he was fast and it was all wrist.  I tried playing like that a few times and got muscle cramps all up my shoulder and down my back!  Of course, since the movie featured the Ramones and included a bit of a Ramones concert, there was a lot of great Punk rock in the film, including the great Pinhead with its timeless chant “Gabba Gabba We Accept You One of Us!”  and Teenage Lobotomy.  The movie had everything you could ask for in a cult classic - from standing up to oppressive authority to exploding lab mice!  This is definitely one I’ll be sharing with my kids, as soon as Netflix sends it to me!

Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973, 1979/80

This might seem out of place with all the other Rock and Roll, but without a doubt, this soundtrack has spent more time on my turntable and CD player than all the other soundtracks combined.  It starts back in high school, sophomore year to be exact.  Father Jack showed Jesus Christ Superstar as part of out theology class.  The experience has stuck with me all this time and the soundtrack has easily become one of my favorites, pertly because it recalls memories from my high school days. JCS was originally conceived of as a Rock Opera by 25 year old musical wonder Andrew Llyod Weber and lyricist Tim Rice.  It was released as a double album first before it was translated into a theatrical musical.  Any staging of the passion of Christ will invariably cause controversy, and JCS was no exception.  JCS was notable for two changes from the traditional story.  First, the focus of the story is shifted to Judas with exposition revealing the motivation for his character.  Second, the human nature of Christ is emphasized to the exclusion of his divinity.  Both changes drive the power and emotion of the music, from Judas’ great opening number Too Much Heaven on Their Minds to Jesus’ powerful Gethsemane (I Only Want to Know)  to the finale itself Superstar.   It is there in the story’s final number that the question is laid bare for the listener:

Jesus Christ, Superstar,

Do you think you’re what they say you are?

I’m sure you all remember my comments about how great art always ends with a question - Well, here is that concept revisited.  Jesus, man or God?  Tim Rice’s lyrics put the question front and center for the audience, asking us to re-evaluate our perspective on Christ and our notions on religion and the value of sacrifice.

Musically, JCS reflects the times it was created in.  The style brings together elements found in the blues, classic rock and the psychedelic and prog-rock movements and combines them with the traditional elements of theatrical musicals.  The movie version adds a new song Can We Start Again and additional, pointed lyrics to Hosannah and The Trial Before Pilate. The production was even updated for the 1990’s, though only the staging was changed and updated.  The music, from Weber’s original concept, has remained steadfastly unchanged.  Although I have listened to all the versions, my favorite is the original recording with Deep Purple’s, Ian Gillian as Jesus and Murray Head as Judas.   It’s usually in my car, or on my iPod from Ash Wednesday to Easter every year and we make a point of watching the movie sometime during Lent every year as well.  It’s truly ironic that, while my own ideas on religion have “evolved” significantly over the years,  I still recall the experience of watching JCS in high school quite fondly. 

I’ll put the brakes on for now, but there are more Movie and Soundtrack memories to come, especially from the 1980’s!  

NEXT:  Who Knows?

1979: One Song at a Time

There was a world of great new music in 1979, more that I can remember or place.  To be honest, I had to do a little research to find out exactly when some of this music came out.  Some of it was easy to place when it was tied to things that happened in my life.  Other songs are only brought back to memory by seeing them in a track listing of a New Wave hits compilation.  I’ve tried to keep this blog true to how I remember the music and how it fit into my life, so I don’t want to start cheating now!  Which means I have to fess up.  Of course I wasn’t exclusively into New Wave music.  Sure there was other great music out there, like the Heartland Rock of Tom Petty, Bob Seger, John Cougar and the Boss.  There was Styx’s Corner Stone and and Supertramp’s Breakfast in America.  

There was even Pablo Cruise’s Love Will Find a Way.  Yeah, you heard me right.  I was on wayward path of Yacht Rock (Look it up on iTunes :) ), at least until Toal put me to rights.  I can still remember - there I was in the cafeteria at Eustace, sporting my brand new Pablo Cruise belt buckle, when Toal let me have it.  “Pablo Cruise?!?  They don’t make music, they just make noise!”  How could I defend that?  Sure the band members were accomplished musicians and the song had a Cabernet-soaked smooth groove, but it was song out of time.  Although, you might catch me listening to it now, as long as Toal’s not around! 

New Wave: Defined!

The one song (and one artist) that has always defined New Wave for me has always been (What’s so Funny ‘bout) Peace Love and Understanding? by Elvis Costello.    Costello was certainly something new.  With his Buddy-Holly glasses and his twitchy delivery, he was like an anti-Rock Star.  The song itself is great, written by Nick Lowe and produced with a Phil Spector-like wall of sound behind it, it muscled it’s way on the charts.  I had a hard time placing this in time, mostly because of it’s odd release history.  It was originally a B-Side of the 1978 Nick Lowe song American Squirm, before being added to Costello’s own album Armed Forces in 1979.  The song itself was brutally honest and stinging without being bitter.  Consider how it stacks up lyrically against the hippie anthems like the Youngblood’s Get Together or Share the Land by The Guess Who.  While those songs are idyllic and romantic, Lowe’s song is neither.

And as I walked on

Through troubled times

My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes

So where are the strong

And who are the trusted? 

And where is the harmony? 

Sweet harmony.

There are real problems in Lowe’s world, but the singer has hope as long as he holds true to his values of Peace, Love and Understanding.  Costello delivers the song with such ferocity that the question can’t be ignored.  What’s so funny ’bout that?  

The unanswered titular question is what lifts the song to greatness.  A while ago I was reading someone else’s insights about art and I came across something that struck a chord with me.  The songs, movies and art that invokes the greatest emotions and stay with us the longest are the ones that end with a question.  Sometimes, it is literally a question, other times it is an ambiguity that begs to be discussed and resolved.  Each generation responds with it’s own ever-changing answer and the art becomes experience, becomes great.  That is why Lowe’s lyrics, in Costello’s hands are so so great.  

Along with Lowe and Costello, Dave Edmunds and Joe Jackson helped bring the new genre to the forefront.  It’s no wonder a lot of these folks hit the scene around the same time, since they all shared some significant history.  Lowe and Edmunds were together in the UK Roots/Power rock band Rockpile. Along with Costello, they wrote songs for each other, produced each other's work and played on each other's albums.  Costello wrote Edmunds' hit Girls Talk, Lowe produced Costello’s first 5 albums.  The interrelations formed a sort of UK version of New York’s famous Brill Building and they cranked out hit after hit and set the bar for the genre.

Joe Jackson, though not as intimately involved with his other country mates, crafted one of the most defining albums of the New Wave Era and one of my favorite albums to this day.  Jackson’s first hit from this album was the quirky lament Is She Really going out with Him? (Look - a song in a form of a question!  Have you been paying attention?!)  This song almost always shows up on any New Wave compilation.  The song itself had great lyrics “Pretty women out walking with gorillas...” and a nifty little call and response section:  

Look Over there! (Where?) THERE!   

It always plays well when I play this song out.  Musically, the song borrowed heavily from the more underground Ska movement that was strong in the UK, with it’s distinctive, scratchy guitar track.  Later, after I learned how to play guitar, I would come back to this album often.  I thought it was impressive that Jackson, a piano player, had created one of the greatest guitar albums of all time.  The ringing, jangly tones of Gary Sanford’s guitar and the thunking, percussive bass of Graham Maby sound wonderful throughout the album.  Sanford also cranks up the overdrive on the albums first two track:  One More Time and Sunday Papers. Jackson is sparing and extremely effective in his use of the piano here, especially on Is She... and the title track Look Sharp!  In the mid eighties, when I spent more than a few nights at the infamous Jail House on Drexel’s campus, the  DJ would play the entire first side of this album as the place was filling up.  Great music to listen to and dance to (and drink to!).   

One more thing - I think Look Sharp! was one of the few albums I owned from that time.  I don’t remember if it was a lack of funds, or some other reason, but the New Wave was more about singles than albums.  I taped most of the songs I liked from that time off the radio, and bought some singles, but not too many albums, except for this one. Looking back I guess it was a bit odd, but over time I would pick up some of the albums (or cassettes) from this time.  Unfortunately, by the time I had more financial ability to really build up my collection, a lot of the music from this time was out of print and didn’t make the transition to CD.  There are so many songs from that time I am still looking for!

Nick Lowe’s Cruel to Be Kind is probably second only to What’s So Funny... in defining the New Wave for me.  It is distinctively a Lowe song, full of his off center sense of humor.  As with the Costello tune, the production evokes Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound here and it’s been a long time favorite for me.  His "Best of" collection - Basher is one of my favorite CDs.  I have been a big fan of Nick Lowe and was lucky to see him once in concert - opening up for Tom Petty

I Don’t Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats was on the radio in the summer of 1979.  Though never really hitting in big here, the song was chart topping and award winning back in the UK.  I remember a bit of controversy surrounding this song, which is inspired by Bob Geldof’s reactions to a news story about a school yard shooting that took place in San Diego.  I have no memory of that actual event, though maybe my parents do, but I do remember the controversy surrounding the US release of the song.  The shooting took place in January of 1979 and the song was released a played live only a few months later, including an awkward and uncomfortable performance on American Bandstand where Geldof appeared to be thumbing his nose at Dick Clark and his American audience.  I thought the song was simply fantastic and was quite a jolt to my imagination.  Geldof does a great job portraying the confusion and hopelessness of the parents and even our society in wake of a senseless tragedy.  The line

And he can see no reason, cause there are no reasons...

has always resonated with me.  It strikes at our hearts and minds because we always want to understand something like this and find causes and point the finger of blame. But sometimes there simply are no answers, except “I don’t like Mondays.”

Okay.  I don’t want to end on a down note, so I’ll mention one more song that has stuck in my memory from this time.  It was almost a lost classic until I was able to find it on compilation CD a few years ago at Tower Records in Cherry Hill.  Back of My Hand (I've Got Your Number) by the Jags was as bright and bouncy as the New Wave got.  A guitar driven gem and a one-hit wonder, I always cranked this one up whenever it came on the radio.  I can still remember working in the back yard while this song was blasting out of the stereo speakers I had propped up in my bedroom windows.  To this day, I still can’t figure out some of the lyrics to this one, to be honest even some of the ones I do understand where puzzling - but I got it.  A relationship on the rocks that could be saved if only he knew that he had her number written on the back of his hand!  

I found this song on a collection called Starry Eyes: UK Pop 1978-1979.  If you are a fan of New Wave music, I strongly recommend that you pick this up (if it’s even still in print).  Unlike the K-tel collections I wrote about, this wasn’t a contemporary hits compilation, but rather a nostalgic retrospective.  I think this was released around 1993 as part of the larger D.I.Y. series by Rhino Records. I picked it up purely for the Jags song, which I thought I would never see in print again.  I could hardly believe that someone else remembered it enough to put on a compilation, much less attribute any sense of importance to it. By the time I picked up this up I was only familiar with a handful of tunes here.  After listening to this disc, though I was sorry I missed most of this music the first time it came around.  I would bet Baxter and Romasco would have been able to tell me about song of this music back in 1979!  Here are the tracks, with some comments.

Ever Fallen in Love? Buzzcocks

• I was familiar with the FIne Young Cannibals cover of this, song but the original by the Buzzcocks (only a UK band could get away with that name!) was infinitely better and louder.  

Get over You The Undertones

Yachting Types The Yachts

• Girl runs off with preppy kid and breaks the boys heart!  Old story updated for the New Wave!

Is She Really Going Out With Him?    Joe Jackson

Schooldays                                Starjets

Girl of My Dreams  Bram Tchaikovsky

•  This is just a great song. 

This Is Airebeat Squares

•  Peculiar and quirky, but great.

Life Begins at the Hop   XTC

•  XTC’s first hit.  I liked them from the time they hit big with English Settlement and songs like Senses Working Overtime, and Dear God.  But this one didn't do too much for me, though.  There’s a little story about me & XTC, but that comes later on!

Up the Junction  Squeeze

• I think Squeeze will merit their own entry on my next blog, but this is a great story song from them.

Back of My Hand (I've Got Your Number) Jags

Let's Talk About the Weather                     The Radiators

Starry Eyes The Records

• This song was frequently played on WXPN in the early 1990’s. 

Mourning Star Zones

Millions Like Us   Zones

•   Two great songs by a band I never heard of!

Time Goes by So Slow Distractions

Hearts in Her Eyes The Searchers

• Another great song!

Where's the Boy for Me? Revillos

White Mice Mo Dettes

•  These two songs reminded me more of LA’s Missing Persons than the rest of the UK Pop on this disc.

So Good to Be Back Home Again  The Tourists

• Last, but not least - an OK song, but notable for the Band’s singer:  Annie Lennox.

Alright, I think that’s enough for now.  I know there’s still a lot of music that I’ve left on the table, but it’s almost time to move on to THE 80s, with one short detour.

NEXT:  The Soundtracks of The Soundtrack of My Life

Next Phase, New Wave

     Musically, high school was an odd time.  First of all, there weren’t a whole lot of Springsteen fans at the Prep, so I was on my own there.  Second, quite a few of my friends were more into classic rock than I had been during it’s heyday in the 1970’s.  Third, there were kids in my circle that were into music that was pretty deep underground. Then there was the radio.  In 1977, my call sign WIBG went disco so that sent me scrambling for something else.  I made the switch to FM and never looked back.  My first stop, at least for the next few years was WiFi 92.  Wifi was a top forty radio, but with a decided FM spin.  Not too heavy on the disco, but I remember hearing some great new music here.  During the summer months, I used to take my stereo speakers and point them out my window while I was working in the back yard.  There was also WPST (Trenton) at 97.5 and WSTW (Wilmington) at 93.7, but I would be listening to these later on.

  Popular music from 1978 – 1979 was mostly stagnant.  Sure there were bright spots but some of the biggest hits of that time were stale sounding even back then, like Eddie Money’s Baby Hold On to Me or  Toto’s Hold the Line.  The best stuff was coming from the left of the dial – Obscure new bands and a fresh batch of one-hit wonders were bubbling out of the seedy clubs of NYC like CBGB and the Ritz, and from college towns across the country.  Across the pond, you might have thought London was set to burn down any minute with the likes of the Clash and the Sex Pistols ripping it up.  Back home, the Philly scene was just a year or two from really taking off.


     New Wave really started back in 1977.  Now, I know I might be pissing off a few purists out there, but I’m combining New Wave (Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Joe Jackson, Talking Heads) Punk (Clash, Ramones) and what I’d call Resurgent Power Pop (J Giels, Cheap Trick, Shoes) all under the “New Wave” umbrella.  Just check out the albums released in 1977:

• My Aim is True – Elvis Costello Debut
• This album featured Alison, Mystery Dance and (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.  Watching the Detectives was also released as a single around this time.  The Attractions didn’t backup Elvis on his first album, though.  Those duties fell to an unknown band out of the San Francisco area called Clover.  Clover would go on to become Huey Lewis and the News.
• Rocket to Russia – Ramones
• Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Teenage Lobotomy and Rockaway Beach.  
• Talking Heads 77 – Talking Heads 
• Psycho Killer!
• The Clash – The Clash Debut
• Never Mind the Bullocks – Sex Pistols
• Lust for Life – Iggy Pop

The New Wave kept gaining traction in 1978 with these releases:

• Outlandos d’Amour - The Police Debut
• Can’t Stand Losing You!
• More Songs about Buildings and Food - Talking Heads 
• The Talking heads laid claim to their cover of Take Me to the River.  I couldn’t believe this wasn’t an original when I first heard it.  
• Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon
• This album still serves me well, over 30 years later.  Lawyers Guns and  Money is a great bar band staple, while Excitable Boy and Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner are great songs to sing along with in the car. Werewolves of London seem the be the song that gets played the most  from this album.  In 1987 I was in San Francisco, when I happened to notice a Trader Vic’s.  I immediately went in and had myself a Pina Colada.  I know it wasn’t the one in London, but it was good enough for me.  Now all I have to do is Stand on a Corner in Winslow Arizona!
• Easter - Patti Smith  
• Because the Night was a ferocious song, originally written by Springsteen and tweaked by Smith, enough to get her songwriter credits.  This remains one of my favorites from that time.  “Love is an angel disguised as lust” is  one of the song’s best lines.  This hit the charts in a big way, too.
• Road to Ruin - Ramones 
• I Wanna Be Sedated just about defined the Ramones, to me.
• Generation X - Billy Idol hits the scene! And watch out what you say about him!

  The worst part about this was that I didn’t even know this music existed at the time!  It wasn’t until late 1978 when the radio would start catching up to what was happing in a rather vibrant counter-culture scene. Even then, the Billboard charts don’t even begin to do justice to the impact this music was having.  1977 was the start of a fantastic musical arc that would stretch out for a decade, until it came to a screeching, fatal halt one cold November morning in 1987.  People talk about the 80’s and maybe you picture the “Wedding Singer” or “Miami Vice” version of the 80’s but to me, the eighties really started around 1978 and 1979. When I first heard Peace Love and Understanding, and Is She Really Going Out with Him? and Cruel to be Kind and Best Friend’s Girl and on an on – It was like someone breathed some fresh air into music again.  

1979 - New Wave Hits its Stride


     This is the music I love and identify with.  Maybe it was timing and synchronicity.  Being in the right place at the right time, but the music was simply wonderful.  Whether it was the nerd-quirky insight of Elvis Costello, or the pure pop from Nick Lowe, New Wave music was fresh, smart, sarcastic and insightful.  The early days of New Wave are even reminiscent of the birth of Rock and Roll - Bands and fans looking for something new, looking to rebel against the entrenched musical culture of the times went out and created something new for themselves.  The music had a Do-It-Yourself feel.  Bands would release singles in between album releases, pumping out the music as fast as they could.  It seemed like most of the New Wave practitioners hailed form the UK, setting the stage for a new British Invasion.  I don’t know what was going on culturally across the pond, but it was fertile breeding crowd for new music.  However, in the States, the clarion call for New Wave would be signaled by a slick looking band with a rocking raunchy hit.

  The Knack were something else for the time.  My Sharona had an opening riff something that was instantly recognizable.  It somehow combined a wicked bluesy turn with a modern Power Pop crunch. Oddly, the song featured a lengthy guitar solo, which was definitely not typical of the New Wave or Punk, but feel of the song overall was just right.  Then there were the lyrics - holy cow - I think the censors were working over time with this one, but I don’t think I ever heard a lyrically edited version of this song.  Never gonna stop, Get it Up,  and Running down the length of my thigh...  Pretty bawdy stuff for radio.  And back then it was common for bands to hit the day time TV talk show circuit - John Davidson or Mike Douglas had bands on all the time.  The Knack must have been making everybody sweat!  Who cares? I loved it.  The follow up single from Get the Knack was just as good.  Good Girls Don’t really was about every adolescent teenage boy’s dream.  That song was a staple for me and my buddy Dave, when we started hitting the Open Mike circuit in the late 80’s.  My Sharona stayed at number 1 for a few weeks, amidst a sea of dance music and let the world know that something else was coming and would not be denied.  The Dinosaurs were dying (and in some cases, literally as well as figuratively) and a new breed was ready to take over.   

Doug Fieger recently passed earlier this year away at 57, but My Sharona’s legacy lives on, if only to remembered as the song that provided the break-through hit for a young accordion player named Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al’s delicious parody, My Bologna, would mark the beginning of a wonderful, multi-generation spanning career.

There were two other singles that hit number one that year that fell into the New Wave camp.  Blondie’s Heart of Glass marked the start of a strong career for this band that made their marks in the clubs of NYC.  Heart of Glass, though was a cheeky take on relationships and lyrically was a fit for what New Wave was selling - and the Debby Harry fronted band was odd enough not to fall into any established musical genre, but the overly produced Heart of Glass was still a bit too close to Disco for my tastes.  

The other number one was a one-hit wonder from the alphabetically monikered “M”.  The song was Popmusik.  This was one of my favorites from that time.  I was thrilled to find this still available on iTunes a few months ago.  It’s a quirky, bright Brit-pop tune that also featured a programmed drum track and layered keyboards. 

New York London Paris Munich Everybody talk about Popmusik!

Coupled with the release of Gary Numan’s Cars, both songs showed that audiences were ready to embrace synth-pop under the big umbrella of the New Wave.  Cars  was a cool song for the time.  Numan’s nasally vocals matched with the synth driven music was great ear candy.  Lyrically dystopian and dripping with alienation, the song was far moodier than the bright Popmusik and helped to open the door for bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and others.

There’s a lot more music from 1979, so I’ll have to cover more in the next entry.




Next:  1979, One Song at a Time!