Tag Archives: music

The Eeriness of the Early ’80s

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If you think back to the early ’80s there was a series of films and songs that all focused on global thermonuclear war. The two superpowers, USA and USSR, were always at odds and the film and music industries capitalized on this.

First, I am sure everyone remembers War Games – the fictitious story of what could happen if a, then, supercomputer, was tasked with the United States’ nuclear response. If not, let me jog your memory.

War Games was released in June, 1983. It did $126 million at the box office… in 1983.

Later in 1983 The Day After would appear as a primetime TV film. It demonstrated what could actually occur post nuclear attack.

Per Wikipedia, more than 100 million people, in nearly 39 million households, watched The Day After during its initial broadcast. It was also rebroadcast in Russia several years later during nuclear proliferation treaty talks.

One final example is the UK TV film Threads. It also gave insight to a before and after scenario; wherein the after is an extended time period after.

Per Wikipedia, the initial broadcast of Threads on BBC was viewed by 6.9 million people.

As for music, several prominent pop songs were also written. The first example, Alphaville – Forever Young (1984). Here is a fantastic version I found that was re-recorded many years later.

Another example is Modern English – Melt With You (1982). This is kind of a peppy song for being about a nuclear holocaust, no?

And finally, perhaps the most in-your-face example regarding the subject matter, Nena – 99 Red Balloons (1984), which is funny, because this is an English version of the original German version 99 Luftballoons which deals with slightly different subject matter. You can read about that HERE. Enjoy the translated version below.

The films are considered classics / cult classics, and the songs are still bangers. But goddamn… The early ’80s was an eerie time to be alive.

Collective Soul – Run

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I was up having a bourbon one night youtubing songs, and I came across this. Full disclosure, I am not necessarily a Collective Soul fan, but I did see them live at the Vogue in Indianapolis – 2009ish, and they were incredible. Considering I only love two of their songs, that amazed me. Great live band! I thought some of might appreciate a very thoughtful version of their song “Run.”

For the Love of Drums

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Growing up it was very important to my grandmother (adopted mother) that I play a musical instrument. Now, it was her dream for me to play the guitar, seeing how she purchased me an acoustic one in fourth grade and signed me up for lessons that I didn’t really care about. It just didn’t grab me. I was done after a few months. Also, she supported my playing of the violin in elementary school, fifth and sixth grade, which was a good excuse to get out of an hour or so of classwork a day and perform, terribly, at the couple of parents concerts a year.

During all that, in the fifth grade, I discovered the drums. I don’t remember exactly how it went down, but I do remember being absolutely mesmerized by Eric Carr’s kit, the drummer from Kiss. A couple pics of his set-up are below.

Eric Carr – Kit Front
Eric Carr – Kit Back

Now being from Terre Haute, the home of the Kiss Army, I should be a bigger Kiss fan, but I’m just not. I do like some of their songs, and some are featured on Radio-N8, but I’m just not a huge Kiss guy. That being said I fell in love with that kit when I first saw it in the Kiss – Reason To Live video. A song I actually dig. The symbol on the drums is a Japanese symbol (Chikara) which stands for power. That symbol is now printed in the design of one of my e(lectronic)-snares as a homage to the kit that drew me in. You’ll see my kits in a subsequent post in the next few days.

For whatever reason I was just drawn to drums. In my household we got cable and MTV late as compared to my friends. A few years past everyone. However, one of my favorite memories is when my grandfather would let me commandeer the TV on the day they would do the top 100 videos of all time countdowns – think later ’80s versions of that countdown. A song that would always come up in the countdown was Simple Minds – Don’t You (Forget About Me), originally released in 1985, and forever aligned with the movie The Breakfast Club. I’ve embedded it below for ease of view.

I’ve never really figured it out, but something about this song made me want to be a drummer. I’m not sure why, but maybe its because the 16th note pattern or maybe there is some syncopation going on? I’ve never sat down to analyze or think about it. I just enjoy it for what it is, and every time it comes up on my playlist I have the same sense of reverie as when it first grabbed me. Sometimes the best analysis is just saying “this is it” and enjoying it.

In subsequent posts I’ll talk about drums, my kits, abilities, influences, etc… But for now just know the kit and the song that helped get me hooked.