(sometimes these photos don’t line up here right, you can click it to go the original size at flickr)
Day 66 of 365: a year in songs and photos
Song: Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy, Kiss Me
Ah, the 80’s. This song pretty much defines the early part of that decade for me.
When the 80’s started I was 17 and getting ready to graduate high school. By the time the 80’s were over I was married and eight months pregnant. The years in between those were some of the best of my life. Years filled with slacking, partying, clubbing, smoking, drinking, video game playing, road tripping, partying, slacking, drinking, slacking….you get the picture. It was the early part of the decade – say from high school graduation until I was about 24 – that formed the bulk of what we will refer to as Those Years.
I went through phases, musically. Angry and depressed (Black Flag’s Damaged), just depressed (anything by Joy Division) just angry (Husker Du, New Day Rising), apathetic (REM, Reckoning), drunk (Judas Priest, Maiden, Dio), stoned (this is where the old Pink Floyd came out) and…….happy. Happy music meant new wave music.
No matter what went on in the 80’s, no matter how much I remember or how much I want to forget or what people insist of reminding me of, the one thing that will flash in my head every time someone says "1980’s" will be new wave music, especially this song. The soundtrack to a very misspent youth, listened to on WLIR FM.
We hung out a club called Spit. Danced the night away, fueled by alcohol and synthesizer beats. I can tell you, from memory, that when at Spit! I was mostly likely wearing a black/cobalt blue miniskirt with some kind of shiny, pleather belt, torn, black stockings, a punk rock band t-shirt, nearly ripped to shreds and spiked up hair and some kind of stomping boots. I didn’t know whether I wanted to be punk or new wave. I just knew that there was something about this music that grabbed me and made me move. It wasn’t all happy music; a lot of it was pretty dark and disturbing. But the general feel of the music, the synthesized melodies, the way it made you bounce your head and your feet….it made me feel good to be alive. Standing in the middle of the club, the ground shaking, the beats pounding, the shots of 151 rum making their way through my system, everyone waving their hands in the air like they just didn’t care – it was a place I wanted to stay for as long as possible. We closed that club down every night it was open. First to come, last to leave. Hundreds of people swarming in and out the whole night (there was usually a long wait to get in), and we never left the floor except to pee and get drinks and maybe harass the DJ into playing that Kiss Me again.
a big victory 