Dear Mister Fantasy is a song by Traffic and released 1967. Traffic was in tIn hese days very successful with their psychedelia blues rock. This song is not my favorite of this album but shows how great Steve Winwood's voice was and Dave Mason played a fine guitar.
The Pretenders were always a band I could listen to and this song is from their third album Learning To Crawl. Another example for their sound when Chrissie Hynde's vocals meet classic rock music.
In 793, the Vikings raided Lindisfarne Monastery in northeastern England, looting it and murdering the monks. I can’t say for certain whether Newcastle’s Lindisfarne took their name from this event. What I can say is that in the late 1960's, they played some very good and successful folk rock.
This week's compilation consists mainly of releases from 1982. I can't say why, but perhaps it's simply because only good songs were released that week.
Since today, public life in my hometown has moved back towards normality. The incidences have fallen so far that it is again possible to meet in groups also in a pub. Of course not without the government having ordered regulations for this. So visits to a pubs and beergardens are only allowed to those who can show a negative vaccination test. For this reason, the public test centers cannot save themselves from an unusually high rush. Yesterday after work I managed a date for testing today and so in the late afternoon I will be able to meet some friends personally to those I had only contact via chat or Zoom. Hopefully this will be a few steps into normality. Today some songs I found on a sampler that was played often in times when me and mates met in a pub.
40 years ago The Pretenders released their first album, a milestone of British new-wave pop/rock. I loved this album not only because the deep and smoky voice and of Chrissie Hynde her ability to write great songs. The songs and the sound were also a bridging to the best of the early 60's. Best shown on their cover of a forgotten Kinks song. Still makes me smile listening to them.
It was in the late 70's when a compilation was released in Germany with the new sounds of Britain and USA. Most of my mates named it as punk but it was more than this. It was an overview of new music for us in Germany. I bought this double album by recommendation of my local record dealer. And I was infected of these new sounds and searching more of this. JC posted yesterday a memory about The Members and I grabbed out the old vinyl and played it again after decades. Respective I have to say this double album was a fantastic introduction into music that embossed me in the upcoming years. There were a lot of songs on this record that became standards throughout the years. I remember when I played this records to my mates that they were confused to this kind of music. Barely rooted in the 70's mainstream they didn't open their ears to another kind of music. So let's show some music of this compilation and I am sure many of yours will remind of these songs.
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.
My brother in law and good mate Ed leaves tomorrow for two weeks vacation to Hamburg and then to Norway. Will meet him and his wife later to wish them a great journey and a real good time. Think we'll drink one or two beer to say good bye. Since I know that he's much on Lily Allen this will be another way to start his vacation.
