Analysis of 2 famous 80's songs

Today I thought I would talk about two famous songs of the 80's. Both of the following songs have been written and talked about a lot, but that's not going to stop me. Until they invent a time machine that can go back to the 80's, I will continue to extol the virtues of this amazing decade. The music, fashion, politics, toys, movies, inventions, TV shows, and any and all culture, pop or otherwise, that flowered then can never be repeated.

1. FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - relax

This song is truly amazing for many reasons. I'm not really sure where to start. The Trevor Horn production is HUGE - big, booming, bombastic, bodacious, and of course the awesome bass. Trevor Horn is a production genius (known primarily for The Buggles and Art of Noise among other projects, my personal favorite that I have heard/that I own is his production work on ABC's "the Lexicon of Love", which is a triumph on behalf of everyone involved) that realized bigger IS better - an arena is too hopelessly puny to contain this sound. It makes so-called "arena rock" sound like bar-band stuff. Horn must have realized in order to make an impact, you have to rise above the pack in a shameless fashion. You only live once, let's go full throttle, to the max and not look back. And clearly it worked, because the song is a legendary number one hit that we're still talking about today. With inferior or substandard production, this would not be the case.



Now, putting aside the marketing campaign and "Frankie Says" T-shirts, just think about the song itself. There are many great and mind-boggling things about this song: 1. That it was made at all. 2. That it was dreamed up in the fevered minds of Horn and Holly Johnson and the whole crew - it is said many did not even play their instruments on the record 3. That a song so raunchy (I suppose in a typically British "naughty" way) could be a huge hit at that time 4. That it could be so raunchy and be a hit with Americans and others not knowing what they were talking about 5. The open gayness of it all (Although Holly looks so cool in the second video for the song, it must have opened the minds of many people, and of course the 80's was a very gay-friendly time for pop music, what with Wham!, Culture Club, Dead or Alive, Frankie, etc.)6. That all these factors could come together, in a somewhat unlikely manner and create a timeless moment in pop culture history.

A-HA - take on me

This truly is a thrilling and exhilarating song - you actually feel like you're moving when you're listening to it, perhaps speeding along the Autobahn (yes, I know they are from Norway and not Germany, but still the raging EUROPEAN-NESS permeates the whole thing).



Brilliant melodies never die - and this is pop music genius if there ever was such a thing. 99% of so-called "indie" bands WISH they could pull off something so masterful. Add to it a sense of drama, and your cup runneth over with greatness!!! After some dramatic highs and lows in the song which are pulled off so skilfully you barely notice them on a conscious level, a stroke of genius occurs: the tempo slowdown during the chorus. What I mean by this is, the song is moving along at it's brisk and sprightly pace, until Morten sings the line "I'll...be...gone..." during which the drums switch to a breakdown-like tempo, just for that one line. This practically makes the song a legend right there, and is an obvious genius that underlines some of the more moving emotions attached to the song. Not to mention, on the perfect album closer "Here I Stand and Face the Rain", the same technique is employed, but in a slower, more somber context, thereby wonderfully bookending the album. I have no idea if this was intentional or not, but it works.
Much has been made over the fact that this is a "one-hit wonder", however the A-ha boys have had a long career in Europe and in other territories. Perhaps it speaks to them more than it speaks to us on that level, and who could forget the amazing video? While the same techniques were used for the video for "hunting high and low" for whatever reason MTV didn't deem it as worthy. The whole album has that sort of "overcast" feeling...despite the brightness of the song in question, the full album makes for great rainy-day listening.

Both songs and videos spoken of here today scream "80's!" and I say so what! That makes it all the better! I'll take then over now anyday! What makes today's "music" so much better? It's godawful! I wish I was a pencil drawing in a comic book...

A Continuing obsession with 80's toys

When I was a kid, I had a large toy collection. I was very lucky. I don't have any of the toys any more. Despite all warnings that I might regret it, I insisted that I sell them all at one or possibly more tag sales. I stupidly and childishly thought I would rather get rid of them to get the money for something else, which, somewhat ironically, is long forgotten. I honestly don't remember what it was that I so desperately needed the money for, but, looking back, it certainly wasn't worth it to get rid of all my toys. At the beginning of the last post, I mentioned some of the heavy-hitters of the 80's toy world:

Transformers:



G.I. Joe, He-Man (see top of blog), and a constant obsession, NES. But what about some of the other contenders for your parents' hard-earned money?

First I will mention Madballs.


Madballs came in two forms that I can remember. First was ball form, obviously. Those were just little balls you could, I guess, throw, but fashioned in the grotesque manner as was somewhat popular at the time, lead in this area by the immortal Garbage Pail Kids. (Even though GPK was a reaction to the trend of Cabbage Patch Kids and their omnipresent cuteness, they spawned their own rip-offs, such as, if you can believe it, "Trash Can Tots.")
Madballs offered the luxury of not just having a Garbage Pail Kid in 3-D that you could touch and hold, and, of course, THROW, but...they were BALLS! They are spherical objects! How great!
After the romance wore off with "Fist Face" and "Aargh" in their Ball form, Madballs were retooled into a more sensical action figure form. They were short, squat plastic action figures, with good detail as I recall, and as an added bonus, you could pop the heads off the figure. At least you could with the Oculus Orbus figure, which was the coolest in my opinion. Why don't the toys of today have detailed veins that that toy did? It must be the PC takeover that was a reaction to things like Madballs and GPK. First came the watering down: My Pet Monster - then the total eradication of gross toys. Sad, sad, sad.

That brings us to another aberration: Food Fighters. I love the creativity that went into the manufacturing of toys for children back then. How did anyone come up with this? Apparently the higher-ups at Mattel agreed that giving food items Military stature was the surefire blockbuster they've been waiting for. Because that is the concept in full:



I don't know about you, but I have always dreamed of seeing a chicken leg fight a highly decorated hot dog.
Now you can. Genius. I'm NOT being sarcastic. That is pure genius I tell you. I would also like to add that it was really ahead of its time: it predates the band "Foo Fighters". In fact, when that band came on the scene, I thought it took its name from the toys, but for some inexplicable reason (perhaps legal), they left off the "D".

Another toy (?) (at least they were made of plastic) that was ahead of its time, was M.U.S.C.L.E. (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere).



They were little, 2 inch pink men, ostensibly wrestlers that you could pit against each other. They did eventually come in other colors, such as blue or red, but these tiny little figures only ever came in one color at a time. They couldn't really DO anything, meaning their little arms and legs couldn't move, and they weren't amenable to accessories, but they predated Pokemon in the "gotta catch 'em all" category. (The origins of the toy are, unsurprisingly, Japanese.) The idea was to collect 'em all. Not a new concept by any stretch, but with Muscle, they really hammered it home with posters, checklists and many pictures of all the wrestlers, which inevitably led the kid to dwell on the ones he didn't have. One of the ways they were packaged was stuffed into a little plastic garbage can. Once again, the theme of grossness and garbage rears its ugly head. I wonder how Julia Kristeva could apply her theory of Abjection on 80's children's toys?
Muscle men were charming despite (or perhaps because of?) their limitations, and, inevitably, they were made into an NES game in October 1986.



We'll end today with another tiny toy. But these li'l guys could do much more than Muscle and were a lot cooler in their design, painting and overall execution. These guys you WANTED to collect and didn't need to be cajoled into it. They even had tiny weapons. I'm talking about Battle Beasts. They had little holograms on their chests that you had to rub with your thumb to see if they had a logo of fire, wood, or water. Sure, it was just a dressed-up version of rock, paper, scissors, but so what? The dressing was cool.
Again, further showing evidence of the Japanese obsession with tiny things, this toy also has its origins in the land of the rising sun.



If you made it through this whole post, thank you very much. If you have any suggestions for further obscure toys that warrant highlighting, feel free to contact me. Thanks again for reading.

Andy Gibb on Punky Brewster

This is from when Andy Gibb was on the show Punky Brewster...It is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard...and I have heard many songs in my time...this is an extremely sweet moment...Please enjoy this slice of pure heaven