THE BEST AND WORST OF THE 1980s (vanity)

Pissant/SSCPOW Research Center | 6/6/05 | SilentServiceCPOWife & Pissant

[pissant]

After receiving numerous complaints that the 1970s sucked and were not worthy of a vanity thread, here at the Pissant/CPOWife Research Center we've decided to select a decade that had more worthwhile activities to ponder. Though many positive events developed during the 1980s, there were plenty of stink-bombs as well. To further our research, we encourage everyone to participate in this scientific survey.

Without further ado, the Best and Worst of the 1980s:

[The SISU kid]

I bet you can guess what the "L" stands for. :-)

Yep! & I are one....

8^)

[wagglebee]

I saw REM probably two dozen times in college, I also went to some parties with them. They were far better playing in small venues and colleges. It was not a huge secret that Stipe was gay, it just wasn't advertised. I saw them one time when they had 10,000 Maniacs open up for them, nobody had ever heard of them they got booed off stage; Natalie Merchant was close friends with Peter Buck and Bill Berry, so REM came out played exactly ONE song, Stipe said "F*ck You!" and they walked off stage.

[missyme]

Yes..She was great!

[day10]

[raivyn]

I don't remember who sang it... I do remember the scene in "The Golden Child" with the pepsi can though!

[Oberon]

Unless you count the Bangles as a hair band

How about the Go Gos? Oh, I don't care if they're a hair band or not. They included Belinda Carlisle in her yummy happy phase before she went all anorexic/angular, and that was well worth the admission for THIS sweaty-palmed adolescent!

I still remember the Head Over Heels video...

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

Apparently, this show's target audience is heterosexual men. ;-)

[DM1]

THE BEST is this dynamic duo

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

I asked pissant this question earlier, but have you heard of Guadalcanal Diary? They were from the same city in GA that REM was from.

[Oberon]

I asked pissant this question earlier, but have you heard of Guadalcanal Diary? They were from the same city in GA that REM was from.

I said "Shave the goatees, boys...we're goin' back to Athens."

[DM1]

more of my best

[wagglebee]

I saw Guadacanal Diary four or five times, they were incredible! I still have their CDs. They never got really commercialized, so there wasn't all the hype. When I was in college, fraternities could get them to come for $500 plus all the beer they wanted (and other illicit substances).

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

That's right. It was Athens. I couldn't remember the name of the city. Thanks. :-)

[Pyro7480]

Redheads rule!

[wagglebee]

What about "White Animals" they were either from Athens, GA or Columbia, SC (I don't remember which), they were really big on the college circuit from about 1984 through 1987.

[Oberon]

Hey, hey, my, my, rock 'n' roll will never die,
Just hang your hair down in your eyes
You'll make a million dollars.
Well, I was in this band goin' nowhere fast
We sent out demos, but everybody passed
So one day, we finally took the plunge
Moved out to Seattle to play some grunge.
Washington State that is.
Space Needle ...Eddie Vedder ...mud 'n' honey!
Now to fit in fast, we wear flannel shirts,
We turn our amps up until it hurts,
We got bad attitudes, and what's more
When we play we stare straight down at the floor, wow-ee
Pretty scary.
How pensive ...how totally alternative.
Now to fit in on the Seattle scene
We gotta do somethin' they ain't never seen.
So, thinkin' up a gimmick one day
We decided to be the only band that wouldn't play -- a note.
Under any circumstances.
Silence ...music's original alternative.
Roots grunge...
Well we spread the word through the underground,
that we were the hottest new thing in town.
The record guy came out to see us one day,
and just like always, we didn't play; it knocked him out.
He said he loved our work.
He said he loved our work, but he wasn't sure if he could sell a record
with nothin' on it.
I said tell 'em we're from Seattle.
He advanced us two-and-a-half million dollars.
Hey, hey, my, my, rock 'n' roll will never die,
Hang your hair down in your eyes
You'll make a million dollars.
Well, they made us do a video, but that wasn't tough,
'Cause we just filmed ourselves smashin' stuff.
It was kinda weird, 'cause there was no music,
But MTV said they'd love to use it.
The kids went wild, the kids went nuts,
Rolling Stone gave us a five-star review; said we played with guts.
We were scorin' chicks, takin' drugs,
then we got asked to play MTV Unplugged; you shoulda seen it.
We went right out there and refused to do acoustical versions of the
electrical songs that we had refused to record in the first place.
Then we smashed our shit.
Well, we blew 'em away at the Grammy show,
by refusin' to play and refusin' to go.
And then just when we thought fame would last forever,
Along come this band that wasn't even together.
Now, that's alternative ...hell, that's alternative to alternative.
I feel stupid ...and contagious.
Well our band got dropped, and that ain't funny,
'cause we're all hooked on drugs, but we're outta money
So the other day I called up the band,
I said, "Boys, I've taken all I can,
"Shave off your goatees, pack the van...
"We're goin' back to Athens."

[GraceCoolidge]

As I recall, the deal with penny loafers in the 80s was wearing them without socks... anyone else remember Bermuda bags also? The purses with the wooden handles and the covers that buttoned onto them. I'm shuddering just thinking about this stuff.

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

OMG! You don't know how thrilled I am that there is someone else out there that knows who they are and likes their music.

As I was telling pissant, a friend of mine and I saw them at Hampden Sydney College in VA and we hung around after the show because my friend wanted to talk to Rhett Crowe. She and I hit it off and she invited us to the after show party. Unfortunately, she had to ask our ages and we were honest with her.

[RockinRight]

Best:

Worst:

[wagglebee]

I went to Hampden Sydney. You either saw them in the Lambda Chi basement in the winter of 1987 or in the Field House in the fall. The Lambda Chi show was by far the best.