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On this date in 1980: a retro playlist

If it were April 30, 1980. Or 1980 in general.

On my mix tape of the day (the iPods of 1980) was the following playlist:

AC/DC - "You Shook Me All Night Long"
Split Enz - "I Got You" (wrote about that one here)
The Clash - "Brand New Cadillac" (need I get into the whole LONDON CALLING ROCKS thing again?)
Kurtis Blow - "The Breaks" (and this wasn't the last Kurtis Blow song that would appear on one of my playlists - look here at #246)
Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb" (yea, everyone was playing Run Like Hell or Brick in the Wall, but the stoners mellowed out Gilmour's solo)
The Vapors - "Turning Japanese"
The Pretenders = "Tattooed Love Boys"
B-52's - "Dance This Mess Around" (here)
The Cure - "Boys Don't Cry"
Boomtown Rats - "I Don't Like Mondays"
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock" (I really need to get finished on ode to DLR in which I refer to him as the most underappreciated entertainer in rock and roll)
Ramones - "Rock 'n' Roll High School"
Steve Forbert - Romeo's Tune" (long story)
Utopia - "Set Me Free" (what an amazing album, saw them live three times, will never forget any of those shows)
Rush - "Spirit of Radio"
ZZ Top - "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" (which would have been my tagline had blogs existed in 1980)
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers (from a truly amazing album I should write more about)
Billy Joel - "Still Rock and Roll" (you know that village green he sings about in Italian Restaurant? we hung out there. It was required of us at that stage, and at that particular high school, to listen to Billy Joel. Thank jeebus that phase passed, though I still maintain that his early stuff [think Summer, Highlands Fall] is fantastic.)
U2 - "I Will Follow" (best debut album ever)
Queen - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
The Police = "Canary in a Coal Mine" (I just could not bring myself to sing that dodododadada song out loud. this one was far superior)
Judas Priest - "Breaking the Law" (ok, show of hands: how many of you automatically do the Beavis and Butthead thing when you hear this song?)
Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell" (Ronnie James Dio!)

1980 is also noteable for being, in my eyes, the year Led Zeppelin died. I don't remember ever being as disappointed in an album like I was with In Through The Out Door.

Note - some of these songs didn't come out until later on in 1980, so it's more of a "year" thing than an exact "on this date" thing. And some came out in late '79 but gained popularity in '80.

Anyhow, I thought this would make an interesting meme type thing. What would have been on your playlist in the year you graduated high school? (And I don't mean what was popular that year, but what were YOU listening to)

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» Re: On this date (A retro Playlist) from Buzzstuff
Michele over at A Small Victory has posted her iPod (if such a thing had existed) playlist from the year she graduated from high school (1980). I thought that sounded interesting (she's got some great songs on there) so I'm... [Read More]

» The Good Ol' Days from Brandon's Puppy
Michele's got a great post up about the music she'd be rocking to back in 1980. She asks: What would have been on your playlist in the year you graduated high school? Back in 1994, I was listened to: Aerosmith-Crazy,... [Read More]

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» Rainy Day Round Up from Scared Monkeys
A Round up on a rainy Saturday Afternoon: Michelle is making me feel old as she does a post on what her I-Pod playlist would have looked  like on April 30th, 1980. We were both listening to the same station, WLIR at the time. Visit a Small Victor... [Read More]

» We had joy, we had fun... from Solonor's Ink Well
Thank, God, no "Seasonsin the Sun." I am both relieved and oddly disappointed by the bulk of the tapes, as... [Read More]

» My Graduation Playlist from TheTalkArena.com
Michelle from A Small Victory wants to know what would have been in my iPod when I graduated. Well, not me personally, since it was more of a group question, but you know what I mean... So take your mind back to June, 1988. Give me a couple months... [Read More]

» Musical Memories from Blog o'RAM
There is a meme going around the blogosphere of listing what would have been on your iPOD assuming it existed when you graduated from High School. I've been poking around the hit lists for my decade and struggling with... [Read More]

Comments

Beethoven's Fifth?

I graduated in 1990-- I'm too embarrassed to say. Let me just give you this hint: our prom theme song was "I'll Remember You" by Skid Row.

Thanks that's the year I was born. :p

1994:
Aerosmith-Crazy, Amazing
Bare Naked Ladies-If I had $1,000,000
Beck-Loser
Big Mountain-Baby, I love your way
Billy Joel-This is the Time (though not of this year, this was our prom song)
Collective Soul-Shine
Counting Crows-Mr. Jones
Cranberries-Linger, Dreams
Enigma-Return to Innocence
Erasure-Always
4 Non Blonds-What's Up
Gin Blossoms-Found out about you
Green Day-Basketcase
Hootie and The Blowfish-Hold my Hand
Lisa Loeb-Stay
Madonna-I'll Remember
Melissa Etheridge-Come to my window
Pretenders-I'll stand by you
Sheryl Crow-All I Wanna Do
Soundgarden-Black Hole Sun
TLC-Creep

Here's a site that rocks:

http://www.everyhit.com/

C'mon now--Presence was much worse.

We still had legit "Top 40" stations when I graduated (1973). But there was one song which sticks Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". And was partial to a nunber of groups; Alice Cooper, Blood Sweat and Tears, Yes, Bread, and various others. Then again, that was while I was "into" Firesign Theater, so my mind (what little there was) was often times elsewhere.

oasis - don't go away

i talked our entire senior class out of that lame ass green day prom song for noel gallagher's cocaine ballad.

1980 playlist?

It'd prolly be something like: Blondie, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac and ELO (yes, I admit it). I actually liked LZ's "In through the Out Door".

Ah, 1979, the year Disco died!

Devo - Gut Feeling
Cheap Trick - Surrender (from Budokan)
Talking Heads - Artists Only
Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army
B-52's - Planet Claire
The Knack - My Sharona
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Gary Numan - Down in the Park

Can't pick songs, but here's what I was listening to, in no particular order.

Hendrix
The Dead
The Airplane
Cream
Traffic
Stones
Beatles
Paul Butterfield
Blind Faith
Santana
The Who
Mountain
CSN
Neil Young
The Byrds
Dylan, of course
The Doors
Howlin' Wolf
Muddy Waters
Buddy Guy

Nobody has mentioned The Live Album Without Peer, issued in 1979.

U-F-O: Strangers In The Night

Nuff said

Two words: Sugar Hill

Hmm - Extreme - More than Words
Whitney/DOlly - I Will Always Love You
Metaliica - Enter Sandman/Unforgiven etc
GnFnRs - November Rain (24 times in a row when I split up with a chick), Civil War etc
RHCP - Under the Bridge
Billy Bragg- Sexuality
Nirvana - Come as You Are
Greatest hits of Simon and Garfunkle, Cat Stevens, Billy Joel, Johnny Clegg, Bob Marley etc
Cure - Wish, Disintegration
The ROcky Horror Picture Show OST
Violent Femmes - American Music, Good Feeling
Prince - Sexy MF, Cream, Diamonds and Pearls
U2 - Mysterious Ways, Until the End of the World
Mr Big - Be With You
Jon Secada - Just another day without you (title?)
Madonna - Erotica

1992 was a strange year

re: Peter Gabriel's album

two questions -

one - did your friends call the song 'She's so funky, yeah!' instead of 'Jeux sans frontieres.'

and

two - did you call it the 'Melty Face' album?

btw - Gabriel does a great version of 'Lord, here comes the flood' on Fripp's 'Exposure'

'Exposure' happens to contain the best remedy to Daryl Hall and John Oates 'Rich Girl' Syndrome - Daryl Hall singing "You burn me up, I'm a cigarette" which makes me not hate Daryl Hall quite so much.

Yep, it was the melty face album.

The local radio station had a call in segment the first time they played that song, where the listeners would guess what Gabriel was saying. It was hysterical. Even when we finally knew he was singing "Jeux sans frontieres," we would still make up our own words.

She's a monkey, yea.
We have body hair.

I remember listening to The Upstarts' "Gun For the Afghan Rebels" over and over and over, and still not getting the joke. It could have been 1980.
Oi.

Um...
Guns for the Afghan Rebels.
Preview is your friend.

Like it was yesterday-1957

All Shook Up, Elvis Presley
Bye Bye Love, Everly Brothers
Little Darlin', Diamonds
Singing The Blues, Guy Mitchell
Young Love, Sonny James
Love Letters In The Sand, Pat Boone
Party Doll, Buddy Knox
Teddy Bear / Loving You, Elvis Presley
Banana Boat (Day-O), Harry Belafonte
You Send Me, Sam Cooke
A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation), Marty Robbins
Come Go With Me, Dell-vikings
Wake Up Little Susie, Everly Brothers
Jailhouse Rock, Elvis Presley
Searchin', Coasters
School Day, Chuck Berry
Diana, Paul Anka
A Teenager's Romance, Ricky Nelson
Honeycomb, Jimmie Rodgers
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Jerry Lee Lewis
That'll Be The Day, Crickets
It's Not For Me To Say, Johnny Mathis
Silhouettes, Rays
I'm Walkin', Fats Domino
Chances Are, Johnny Mathis

Depending on what mood I was in (and since it was high school, there were mood swings:)

Country list: Kenny Rogers "Gideon", Alabama, Johnny Cash

Pop side: Lionel Richie (All Night Long was a prom song), Cyndi Lauper

Rock side: Van Halen, Rush, U2, The Clash, Pat Benatar, Foreigner

Classical side: Holst the Planets, Grieg Concert in A minor

this was also the year that I found my Mom's old 45s of Jerry Lee Lewis

i'm gonna come up with more later but the only song i distinctly remember blaring at Myrtle Beach, SC after graduation in 1990 was Faith No More's 'Epic' the rest is a blur

ok, here's a sampling of what might have been on a mixtape of mine in 1990. late 1990 i spent alot of time at a club called the pteradactyl.

the cure - the walk
sinead o'connor - i want your (hands on me), mandinka
u2 - New Year's Day
jane's addiction - mountain song
red hot chili peppers - higher ground, stone cold bush
steppenwolf - magic carpet ride, born to be wild
erasure - chains of love
b52's - rock lobster, loveshack(
blondie - heart of glass
kiss - i was made for lovin' you
rem - orange crush, it's the end of the world as we know it, radio free europe
jimi hendrix - crosstown traffic
pink floyd - comfortably numb
the grateful dead - sugar magnolia
the beatles - come together
the who - baba o'reily
the rolling stones - wild horses
the cult - born to be wild, fire woman
the sugarcubes - birthday, f**king in rhythm and sorrow
echo and the bunnymen - lips like sugar
the pogues - fairytale of new york
the sex pistols - anarchy in the u.k.
terence trent d'arby - wishing well, sign your name
10,000 maniacs - like the weather
siouxsie and the banshees - peek a boo
the smiths - girlfriend in a coma, unhappy birthday
robin hitchock & the egyptions - balloon man
the church - under the milky way
new order - true faith, bizarre love triangle
violent femmes - kiss off, add it up, blister in the sun
the steve miller band - the joker
concrete blonde - still in hollywood
dead milkmen - bitchin' camaro
depeche mode - just can't get enough, somebody
midnight oil - beds are burning
the police - can't stand losing you, so lonely
sonic youth - kool thing
supertramp - goodbye stranger, the logical song
stone roses - she bangs the drums
camper van beethoven - pictures of matchstick men, sweethearts
social distortion - ball and chain
cowboy junkies - sweet jane
inxs - what you need, devil inside, need you tonight
urban dance squad - deeper shade of soul
nin - head like a hole

Yeah, I know this is gonna say a lot about me, but I'm listening to the same guy today that I listened to the week I graduated waaaay back in '78. Back then, it was Darkness on the Edge of Town ("The dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand" WooHOOO!). Today it's Devils and Dust.

Still Springsteen, all the way.

Wendy, I love your taste in music.

No "Sisters of Mercy"?

Presence is a great album.

As I understood it, Darryl Hall was supposed to be part of a trifecta of albums with Fripp and Gabriel but the Darryl Hall album never made it to completion and Fripp's Exposure was the closest that it ever came to happening. A few years later we were immersed in M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E along with Hall and Oates.

Moves like this are not without precedent--I believe that one of the founding members of King Crimson (Ian McDonald) went on to found Foreigner and John Wetton, from the hey-day of the power trio that spawned Red, reached for the golden ring with Asia. Geoff Downes and Wetton are still traveling on the Blue Oyster Cult circuit the last I knew.

This is from what is currently my oldest surviving mixtape (which, given the Asia tune, is within 3 years of my high school graduation, so I figured, close enough...):

Side A

Millie and Billie - Alice Cooper

Alas For You - Godspell soundtrack
By Your Side - Godspell soundtrack

Blinded By Science - Foreigner
Do What You Like - Foreigner

Chemistry Class - Elvis Costello
Two Little Hitlers - Elvis Costello

Could You Would You - Them
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - Them
One Two Brown Eyes - Them

Farewell Song - Janis Joplin
Amazing Grace/High Heeled Sneakers - Janis Joplin

Heat of the Moment - Asia

I Think You Always Knew - Billy Jack soundtrack

Side B

Tell Mama - Janis Joplin
Magic of Love - Janis Joplin
Misery'n - Janis Joplin
One Night Stand - Janis Joplin
Harry - Janis Joplin

Beauty and the Beast - David Bowie
Joe the Lion - David Bowie
Heroes - David Bowie
Sons of the Silent Age - David Bowie
Blackout - David Bowie

My Favorite Things - Alice Coltrane

Band 6 - Monkees
Zilch - Monkees

1992.

One More Red Nightmare - King Crimson
The Talking Drum into Larks Tongues In Aspic, Part 2 - King Crimson
The Sentinel - Judas Priest
Dreams - Van Hagar
And the Cradle Will Rock - Van Halen
Sweet Vengeance of Clarity - Jaws (Ithaca band)
Territorial Pissings - Nirvana
Ain't No Right - Jane's Addiction
Three Days - Jane's Addiction
Mountain Song - Jane's Addiction
In the Cage - Genesis
Nobody's Fault But Mine - Led Zeppelin
When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin
Let's Go Crazy - Prince
2112 - Rush
Passage to Bangkok - Rush
Natural Science - Rush
Welcome to the Machine - Pink Floyd

thanks, randy.

no, i didn't know of sisters of mercy then but i have heard of them since. i'll have to check them out.

there was only like 2 people in high school that influenced me. my gay friend in spanish class and my future stripper friend beth. most people were listening to stuff on the radio like def leppard, guns and roses, tesla.. etc.

i probably only still listen to about half of the stuff on that list. i like all kinds of music... my tastes have evolved to include a wider variety over the years.

oops i forgot my friend jake hollified that wouldn't go to the senior prom with me cause he had to make a statement or somethin' like that by arriving alone and in the wrong attire. he was in a band called 'the blue rags' that have a couple of albums out on subpop but i think he's doing solo stuff now.