Freitag, 20. September 2013

40 Records in 40 Years (7/40 - 1980)



My time in the army comes to an end and the daily life will me have back again. I had hard times there but also good days in the army but I am longing for a ordinary life back in business and no one that teaches me what to do or not. Me and my army mates looked forward to end of march to get retired from this job. We had some last good days together and said goodbye to each others knowing that we will see no one again. But life doesn't work this way. We all got back in to our ordinary life again until a letter received from the military authority in August. This letter was sent to all reserve soldiers who got retired the last six month and told us to get our equipment handed out again. The reason therefor was the political development in Poland and the reaction of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. In this time the Polish workers stood up against the communist regime. Main reason was that the government has drastically increased the price of meat products and thus has triggered a wave of strikes, in the Lenin Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Walesa had its origin. What did this mean for me and my comrads? Nothing less than we placed to alert because the Soviet Union and some members of the Warsaw Pact sent their troops to the Polish border to support the Polish as they were also members of the Warsaw Pact.The western nations and the NATO took it as a chance to protect et the flower of democracy with also sending their troops to support the striking shipyard strikers. Now that we were so close to the war I realized that the last 15 month weren't a joke at all and that we had to defend the principles of democracy. I am still glad, that this conflict got to a final conclusion without using any guns and I didn't have to go to war.

So I could spent the rest of the year to plan my future life. The main thing that was in my head was to move out of my parents house as soon as possible. Not that I don't loved my parents but if I want to life a life of my own I should do it with all consequences. But this is a story that should be told next time.

And what do I remember in music this year?


Pink Floyd came back with a song, suitable for masses


The return of Motown into the international charts


Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders: Listened so often to this song all summer long


Peter Gabriel - Biko: The world recognize what happens in South Africa with the apartheid regime


Martha & the Muffins: New darker sound from over the Atlantic ocean. Cool at this time


American punk music from the Dead Kennedys: Not everybody's taste but a hit in the independent scene this year. A song against young people who think it's cool and hip to life in a slum.


Old song in a new stripped style: Still a great version after all this years


Maybe the best song from his last record


What would be a year in this time without any song from The Clash?

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Another great song from Gladys. It wasn't only new sounds we listened to.


Fusion - the sound for the ones that denied all new sounds. But Chuck Mangione and the rest made great music.

LP's released in 1980 that are still worth to be remembered:

Split Enz - True Colours: First record by the New Zealand New Wave band with the main songwriter Neil Finn. 'I got you' is a great song.

Young Marble Giants - Collosal Youth: A monster of a record. Minimalistic sounds with the beautiful voice of Alison Statton. Still incredible.

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Bass Culture: The London dub poet at his best. Song about peoples life in England spoken in clear words with a superb sound.

Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette: The disco queen turns from disco into reggae-New Wave with a lot of excellent songs on it.

The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight: The start of the neo-psychedelia 

UB 40 - Signing Off: Smooth reggae for every one.

Motörhead - Ace Of Spades: The breaktrough for Lemmy and hard rock

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy: Every second song is great. The farewell from John Lennon before he was killed in NYC.

The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us: Debut of the garage-punk band with an epochal LP. They inspired the following psychobilly bands.

The movies we have seen in 1980:

Blues Brothers: Great story with great comedians Aykroyd and Belushi with guest appearance of a lot soul giants.

The Shining: One of Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces. Jack Nicholson shows us how everyone can get insane - unbelievable.

The Elephant Man: David Lynch and his bleak movie based on a true story. That's not the way to treat handicapped people.

Raging Bull: Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro shows us the rise and fall of Jack LaMotta with impressive pictures.

The Fog: One of the best horror movies in this days (not only because there was less blood).

The Long Ryders: A classical western movie at the hight of time with a lot of stars

What happened in the world in 1980:

Robert Mugabe is elected as Prime Minister in Zimbabwe and the torture of his people begins; The Mi Amigo, the ship that housed pirate radio station Radio Carolina, sinks; U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States will boycott the Olympic Games in Moskow; Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed by gunmen while he celebrated a Mess in San Salvador; Yugoslav President Jozip Broz Tito dies - the country spits and will end in tragedy; Mount St. Helen erupts and in Europe it will rain ashes; former governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President; Victory in the strike of Gdansk Shipyard in Poland; Six Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners in Maze prison refuse food and demand status as political prisoners; the hunger strike lasts from October until December the Gang of four trials begin in China; John Lennon was murdered in New York; Football European Championship was won by Germany 2:1 against Belgium.



Bought this record only because the cover and the line up with a horn section not knowing that this will be a love that didn't end until now. When I put the record on player I heard some snippets of Deep Purple, The Sex Pistols and The Specials that turned after the shouting of Kevin Rowland into an up-tempo soul song with a fantastic horn arrangement. I was speechless because I didn't heard a sound like this before. A brassy sound combined with the aggression and intensity of punk rock. They also had big influence of Northern Soul and all sounded like it was played and designed for the very first time. There are few records that means more to me. Not only the songs and the sound are great - also the lyrics were excellent. With the lyrics Kevin Rowland reached the top with his last year record with the Dexys.


1 Kommentar:

George hat gesagt…

You are completely correct, this is a great record. Excellent choice.