So, I was creating my “profile” for this blog, (kinda’ useless, as I already have all that sort of info and more at the Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast website, on the “About the Artist” page). But, I figured I should have something here, too, in case someone stumbles onto this blog without seeing the Kyle’s B&B website first. Anyway, when you create a profile here, it asks about your “Favorite Music”, and it got me writing what turned into more of an essay than just a list of groups, so here it is:
I’m all over the map with music. One of my favorite genres would be what’s known as “early 80s new wave”, which would be the groundbreaking acts, (at the time), who wrestled radio out of the hands of late 70s disco & corporate sludge rock. Who would these “new wave” heroes be? Bands like the Cars, (first 3 albums), Blondie, the Police, the Knack, the B-52’s and the Pretenders. Yes, I know, from today’s vantage point, these bands seem pretty tame. But at the time, they had an air of danger & newness about them that revolutionized popular music. Nowadays, we hear about how the Sex Pistols and the Clash were the heralds of the punk movement, (and of course, they were), but it wasn’t the Sex Pistols you heard on the radio in 1979, freaking out your older hippie neighbors while simultaneously drawing you into this whole new world of futuristic sounding music. It was the Cars screaming “Just What I Needed!!!”. I know this seems hard to believe. The Cars?!!! They were revolutionary? Well… yes. They were. I can remember clearly the first time I ever heard them…the summer of 1978, as a little kid, in the backseat of a car as my family was driving through the San Joaquin Valley in California on our way to San Francisco. I was very into radio at the time, (still am, I suppose), but back then as a kid I was locked into that Top 40 thing like most kids are, (or were). And the DJ comes on and says “here’s this new band, The Cars, with this crazy new song”, (or something like that). And then that dramatic intro, those drums, that threatening bassline, those slashing guitar chords, and then…that voice? “I don’t mind you coming here….wasting all my time….”. What sort of a VOICE was this? I’d never heard a voice like that on radio before…so tortured, twisted….”Punk”, I suppose, is what flashed through my mind. This was music that was playing outside the bounds. This was an event.
Why was this such a big deal, you ask? Well, look at what else was on radio at the time. Who were the big bands of that era? Disco music, like the Bee Gees, had a stranglehold on the charts, (I love it now, but at the time….oh, please. ENOUGH already). And what rock was out there was this sort of late 70s California rock, (Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, and Jefferson Starship seemed to rule the charts as far as I could tell). Led Zeppelin, by that point, was eclipsing a bit, and most people I knew listened to the Grateful Dead & the Doors, (who had broken up, like, almost a decade earlier!). I don’t hate any of those bands; in fact, most of them I love. But I can recall hearing vague rumors at the time about “punk”…this crazy music that you heard stories about, but never actually heard played on the radio. Yeah, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols, and the Clash were certainly the forerunners, the definitive “real thing”. But I have to tell you, I would guess that the first glimmer of “new wave” anything that American, suburban kids in the late 70s actually heard was the Cars. This was the first new wave band to be played on top 40 radio, and it stood out like a sore thumb. And the way they looked! Those spiky new wave haircuts & clothes! That sexy Benjamin Orr singing lead vocals, with his bleached blond hair, (this was before Ric Ocasek thrust himself into singing almost all their lead vocals, which would happen years later). I’m not sure how it is they made it into the top 40, except for the fact that their music was so undeniably catchy, hook-filled, and FUN!
They were followed pretty quickly by Blondie, who had been around for several years by that point, but broke into the big time in 1979 with “Heart of Glass” and “One Way Or Another”. More slashing new wave guitars and crazy bleached blond hair making the top 40! This, of course, led into the Knack, who, for one summer, (1979), were the biggest band in the world, and again….”My Sharona” and “Good Girls Don’t” rockin’ away, unlike any of the 70s rock or disco we were so accustomed to at the time.
The Police, who now seem so….safe…were at the time this bizarre English bleach-blond trio playing what seemed like very odd music, (”Roxanne” and “Can’t Stand Losing You”. And what was with this guy’s strange high voice? Not to mention his NAME? Sting? What the hell did that mean?).
And by the time the B-52’s exploded into mass-consciousness in early 1980, playing “Rock Lobster” on Saturday Night Live, well…. truly, the scales had now shifted. Disco had been sent packing, and the floodgates were opened to all these new, whacky new wave bands like the Vapors, (”Turning Japanese”), and Gary Numan, (”The Cars”…no not the band, the Cars…a song called “The Cars”). And of course, the dramatic debut of the Pretenders, with a first album that is so amazingly perfect, such a beautiful sequencing of anthem-like songs, unlike any other debut album since anyone since, well….the Cars!
OK, so that’s my take on early 80s new wave. A time like no other, (by the time MTV came along, in summer 1981, this era had passed, into a new era of “the 2nd British Invasion”…which I also happen to love, but that’s an essay for another day). For now, I think I’m going to go throw on the Cars “Candy-O” and feel that electricity one more time!
