The early-80’s are through, and now
we move into perhaps the most iconic year of the decade, 1985. This mix will be
a lot more mainstream than the previous few. I think by this time the New Wave
movement was beginning to lose steam, sadly.
1985 in Culture and News
My 1985 collection; forgive the anachronistic DVD's.
I think likely the most popular and
iconic film of 1985 would have to be Back to the Future. 1985 was the
year Doc Brown created and tested his DeLorean time machine, accidentally
sending Marty to 1955. Another favorite movie of mine, which is criminally
under-rated, is Return to Oz, which I’ve talked a little about on the
blog before, and maybe one day I’ll do a full review of. It was the one chance
the Oz book sequels had to be more well-known, but people had been brainwashed
by the 1939 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz for too many decades, so it
bombed. Another film out during this year was The Goonies, which a lot
of people have fond nostalgic memories of, but I guess I was just not born at
the right time for it. I’ve seen it before and it was okay. It’s like someone
else’s childhood, not mine. Toward the end of the year was my favorite
adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass,
a made-for-TV production and maybe one of the most book-accurate adaptations
ever done (but with musical numbers). I’ll do a blog about that someday. And
the Claymation film The Adventures of Mark Twain debuted, most well-known
for its brief and memorable adaptation of Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger.
1985 was also the year that the
Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in the United States. Truly the beginning
of an era. The NES was my first game console, which I got maybe in 1990 I
believe. Super Mario Bros. debuted as well. 1985 was also the year of the first
WrestleMania. I used to have this on VHS but the tape degraded and
threatened the health of my VCR when I tried to play it, so I got rid of it
when I moved last summer. Now I wish I still had it for my blog. Oh well,
nothing lasts forever, and I had to get rid of clutter. WrestleMania was
something that improved with time, the first one isn’t all that good actually.
A better WWF pay-per-view from 1985 though is The Wrestling Classic, a
tournament from later in the year. I still have this recorded onto a blank
tape. Probably the only way to watch it is to either have the WWE streaming
service or track down the old VHS, but if you get the chance and like pro wrestling,
I suggest seeing it.
1985 in Music
My favorite album of 1985 would have
to be New Order’s Low-Life. There aren’t a whole lot of entire albums
from the year that I like. My Top 3 Songs of the Year for 1985 are “Perfect
Kiss” by New Order, “Running up that Hill” by Kate Bush, and “Take on me” by
A-Ha. As of late, I’ve been trying to be more honest with myself when it comes
to the music I like. I don’t want to cling to songs that I think I should like
but just don’t (either because I liked it a long time ago but my musical tastes
changed, or because other goths like them, or whatever). Nor do I want to be
ashamed to like music that I feel like I shouldn’t enjoy, for whatever reason
(for instance, She Past Away, a Turkish goth band; or 80’s pop music like Paula
Abdul). I just couldn’t find a lot of music from the year 1985 that I like, I’m
going to be honest. But I filled the CD up with songs I at least kind of like.
I suppose it was really more about setting the period. Maybe down the road I’ll
find more songs from 1985 that I like, and remake the mix. At any rate, they were actually all on Spotify this time. Go ahead and listen along.
Super
Mario Bros. Theme
I bet you thought a song had to be
done by a band and released on an album to qualify to be on these CD mixes.
Well, no! It just has to be a song that was released in the year the CD covers.
You’re not going to see video game music on these mixes that often, but every
now and then I’ll throw one in to set the era. This is just here as an intro.
So here we have the catchiest song on the album: World 1-1 from Super Mario
Bros. The first Super Mario Bros. game was never really my favorite (that would
be Super Mario Bros. 3 to this day), but it’s pretty fun to play. I played it
as a kid. It’s hard though, I‘ve only beaten it once or twice. But then, it was
originally made to get you to keep putting quarters in the machine, so of
course it’s hard.
Huey
Lewis and the News – Back in Time
This song will always make me think
of Back to the Future. It was even the theme for the cartoon adaptation.
I’m not really that into the band itself, which I suppose was pretty big at the
time. It’s just here to set the tone for 1985, I don’t actually like the song
all that much to be honest, but it’s okay.
Killing
Joke – Eighties
It’s fun when I can find a song from
the 1980’s that’s actually about the 1980’s. This song is a nice little time
capsule of the decade. In many ways I’m still “living in the 80’s” myself, what
with my stubborn devotion to VHS, 80’s-style synth music and classic video
games.
Kate
Bush – Running up that Hill
This is a deep song, but the true
meaning of it wasn’t what I thought, and isn’t what most people probably think.
I first thought it was sung by someone who lost their loved one and wishes it
was themselves who died instead. But if you do a little research, the singer
said it’s actually about wondering what it’s like to be the opposite gender and
wishing you could temporarily switch genders with your lover. Oookay then. Not
that there’s anything wrong with that.
A
Flock of Seagulls – How Could You Ever Leave Me?
Once again, this band had other
songs besides “I Ran”. This one I consider a bit mediocre, but it’s here to
fill up space. My top three songs from this band are "I Ran", "Space Age Love Song", and "Nightmares". I should listen to more of their music and see if I come across others I like. But I know enough to know they didn't deserve to just be known as a one hit wonder.
A-Ha
– Take On Me
This is a classic. It really deserved to be a hit. This is another of those music videos I can remember watching on MTV early in my childhood, so it’s been with me for a long time. The captivating story of a young comic artist who gets sucked into her own comic, falls in love with a character she designed, has to run away from some thugs, and eventually they both escape the comic world, the fictional character becoming real. As an aspiring webcomic artist myself I guess it hits home. Apparently there exists a sequel music video where the couple breaks up or something, but I refuse to watch it and have this perfect love story spoiled for me!
Weird
Al Yankovic – Dare to be Stupid
If Michael Sembello’s “Automatic man” is the most
80’s song ever, this is a close runner-up. Weird Al is of course a musical
genius who has withstood the test of time to the point where more people are
familiar with his songs than the songs that they parody. I’ve overlooked Devo
in these mix CD’s, unfortunately, but this is sort of a tribute to Devo so
there you go. We’ll be seeing more Weird Al from time to time on these mixes.
Sisters
of Mercy – Black Planet
Finally, we turn toward the goth
scene of 1985, which apparently I need to do a little more research on. The
1980’s were a time of renewed fears of the Cold War leading to a nuclear
apocalypse, which this song encapsulates with its images of a Europe plagued by
radiation and acid rain. We’ve covered a couple other songs on this topic
already as well (Ministry’s “Same Old Madness” for one).
Orchestral
Manoeuvres in the Dark – Secret
I actually first found out about this band when I
found a used cassette of one of their albums at a thrift store. I still need to
hear more, but I like it. This is another band that stayed active for decades after the 1980's, and certainly worth a listen.
The
Cure – Close to Me
Aw man, what happened to The Cure for them to go
from being goth rock to an 80’s pop band in two short years? The goths have
largely forgiven Robert Smith for this by now but I’m pretty sure his old
fanbase was displeased at the time. Although it gained The Cure widespread
notoriety. This song is catchy at least, with its xylophone and such. We’d get
the old The Cure back when Disintegration was released a few years
later.
Tom
Petty – Don’t Come Around Here No More
So the made-for-TV Alice in Wonderland wasn’t the only adaptation in 1985. We also got the bizarre music video for this song, which I remember kind of freaking me out when I was a kid. Tom Petty makes a good Mad Hatter, but the video consists of him and his guests slicing Alice up like a cake at their tea party and eating her. The only thing the TV movie has that can compete with it in weirdness is that random scene where Carol Channing as the White Queen turns into a sheep.
Dead
or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
This song is always a fun one, sung
by the only 80’s singer who approached Boy George in flamboyance. Between the
two though I’ve always preferred Dead or Alive. This is their one hit wonder.
I’ve heard some of their other songs, and from what I can tell, they all kind
of sound like this. It’s like AC/DC, but flamboyant.
New
Order – The Perfect Kiss
My favorite part of this song is the
random intermission with the frog croaks. I used to theorize it must be some
reference to the fairy tale The Frog Prince, where a princess kisses a frog and
it becomes a prince. Then again, the lead singer admitted he just threw the
effect in because he liked it. The lyrics themselves also don’t really have
meaning. That’s the thing with art. People interpret it in their own way and
think it’s deep, when the artist could have just thrown it together for the
hell of it.
Dokken
– In My Dreams
Dokken is an okay band. When we get to 1986 we’ll
hear the one Dokken song that I actually do kind of like. This one’s just
“okay”. I suppose hair metal deserves some representation in these 80’s mixes,
so here it is.
Falco
- Rock Me Amadeus
This is a song I’ve always kind of
liked. A tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Falco was big in Germany, as I
learned in my outdated German language textbooks in high school which were made
when there was still an East and West Germany.
“Ich liebe Falco!” There are a couple different versions of this song.
The one that kind of irritates me is the one that starts with a woman
repeatedly saying “Ooh! Rock me Amadeus!” The other versions are alright. The
German industrial metal band Megaherz did a pretty nice cover of the song in 2003, if
you’re into that.
Death
in June – The Calling
Ah, check out this video to the song with all these classic 80’s goths, who are cooler than I could ever hope to be. Yes, this is another 1985 goth song I was able to uncover. It sounds really ahead of its time, at least to me. I could see this coming out today. Goth music is timeless. Anyway, Death in June has been around a long while and is still active today, in fact. Their Wikipedia page was an eye-opener; I’d never heard of them before making this mix.
Concluding Remarks
This mix will still grow and evolve
over time. This is just how it stands now. Anyway, next time we get to cover a
year that’s very special to me; the year I was born! Am I a narcissist? I hope
not. But 1986 was a great year for music. We’ve got Peter Gabriel, more New
Order, Kraftwerk’s last original album for a long, long while, Metallica, and
more.
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