Five Things Friday – 80’s songs that rocked my world

I started running again.  I’d like to tell you I love it.  I’d like to tell you I’m running marathons and that I am turning into a sleek, panther-like running machine.  I’m not.  Not yet.  But to motivate me to become Cat Woman, I’ve been listening to an awesome 80’s station on Pandora called 80’s Dance Party.  Every song is a direct time warp back to a time when my hip could hop instead of aching halfway through a run.  A time when my greatest achievement was my rat tail, not the fat tail I’m trying to run off.

So today I will share with you 5 of my favorite songs from the 80’s – a decade where music videos were born and MTV actually was music television.

1.   Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield – The Donny of my younger years was usurped from his throne by an Aussie named Rick.  I daydreamed about what it might be like to actually be Jessie’s Girl so that I could dump him for Rick.  Rick was my first concert.  I nearly passed out before he even got on the stage.  It was amazing!  He kept asking over and over “where can I find a woman like that” and I was screaming “back here, I’m back here”.  Sadly, he never even noticed me.

2.   Tainted Love by Soft Cell – I mean really a song about love gone wrong?  That’s a new one.   I loved the use of an SAT word in this one.  It’s not dirty love, it’s not spotted love, nope, it’s tainted people.  It may have been a one hit remake wonder, but what an awesome wonder it was.   Plenty of synthesizer to groove to.  I could sit in my room with my Casio and recreate bits and pieces and impress my friends while we studied our vocabulary words.

3.   Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper – Cyndi cut through the BS and got straight to the point – she knew what girls wanted just as much as Bow Wow Wow knew what boys wanted.  It was almost a theme song for the all girl Catholic high school that I went to.  And  no the nuns did not approve.  I channeled my inner Cyndi when I could.  I even got to play Cyndi when, senior year, our class performed our version of “We are the World”.  It was one of the highlights of that year.

4.   Take on Me by A-Ha – Alone this was a killer song, but paired with the music video, it was over the top.  Probably one of my favorite music videos of the 80’s.  Trapped in a comic book only to be saved by some strange looking pompadoured metrosexual?  Sure, why not?

5.   Pretty in Pink by The Psychedelic Furs – Any song from a John Hughes movie is deserving of praise.  The person responsible for putting together soundtracks for his movies obviously knew a thing or two about music.  This song put me straight into the movie every time I heard it.  Was I cast as the flame-haired Andie?  Nope, I was most definitely Duckie – the one who always loved the girl (well, a boy or three in my case) but whose affections weren’t returned.  Story of my high school life on the big screen.  Good stuff.

I have so many more, but this is FTF.  So tell me your favorite 80’s songs.

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I like David Bowie. I had several of his buttons – clothing’s version of the bumper sticker – on my jean’s jacket back in the 80’s.

I liked David because he was different and he liked it that way. I liked David because he looked like a girl looking like a boy or a boy looking like a girl, and it worked. I liked David because his lyrics made me think and his music made me want to “put on (my) red shoes and dance the blues” – which for me meant being heartbroken over Jesus Danny.

25 years later and I still like David. And I find that lately I am digging out those red shoes and dancing the blues of a different kind.

You see Bowie wrote this little ditty called Changes, that pretty much describes what I’m dealing with now. And while I’m pretty sure David wasn’t talking about a woman’s hormones, I can certainly draw some parallels between David’s rock and roll life and my own rocky rollercoaster of a life now.

My doctor recently dropped the “M” bomb on me as in, “Given your age, you might be going through the early stages of menopause. We’ll have to do some blood tests to be sure.”

Well, damned if the blood tests didn’t come back shouting to the world, “This biyotch’s goods is getting old!” Yep, it’s been signed, sealed and delivered to my woman parts to start the shut down process.

Now The Change could take anywhere from one to ten years, and unfortunately there are no vampires involved.

One. To. Ten. Years! One to ten years of feeling angry, irritable, depressed, and just plain bitchy. Uh, yeah, I checked in with my life and that’s just not going to work for us. Thank you very much.

I won’t lie. When I got the call that confirmed the whole hormonal she-bang, I felt sad. I wasn’t really sure why since I don’t plan on having any more children, and even if I did I might still have one to ten years to follow through.

After much thought I realized a couple of things were going on. First, being told that I was entering that stage of my life, in my mind, meant that I was old, used up, not the girl I used to be. Second, I felt like a petulant little girl who is having something taken away. Something that, even though I no longer want or need it, becomes valuable when someone or something else decides to take it away from me.

But then I thought of David and his song and I Googled the lyrics and realized that it was a song of empowerment, not of resignation.  And I thought that if I have no choice in the matter and I absolutely have to go through this Change, then I was going to do it Bowie style.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Turn and face the strain.
Ch-Ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man.
Time may change me.
But I can’t trace time.

One thing I know for sure is I won’t be wasting those cute red shoes on some sad blues song anymore. Nope. I’m putting on the red shoes, but this time it’s so I can kick some hormone sass! Watch out Lady “M”, here comes Moxie!

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New Moxie Update

Moxie

Just wanted to give you all a Moxie update. I’ve been getting some getting some great feedback from all of my readers. Thank you so much!
That said, I’m going to be trying a new format on Moxie. I’ll do a weekly post on Tuesdays and will continue on with my Five Things Fridays and My Life in Letters on Sundays.
Of course if anything comes up and I feel the need to give you some unexpected Moxie action, then I reserve the right to do so!
So let’s recap: Expect to get your sass kicked on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

But for today, I’d like to leave you with a new favorite of mine, Pomplamoose.  If you haven’t heard them, you have been deprived.  Allow me to educate you.

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Musical Mondays – 11/2

Two weekends ago, my mom and I went to see Celtic Thunder in Atlanta.  If you haven’t caught their show on PBS you really should.  Celtic Thunder is a group of very different singers who blend together so nicely.  Four of the guys are from Ireland and one is from Scotland.  They do traditional Irish music as well as some more contemporary tunes, and a few originals thrown in to balance it all out.  There is something for everyone.

One of my favorite songs is “Caledonia“.

Celtic Thunder on You Tube

I don’t know if you can see, the changes that have come over me
In these last few days, I’ve been afraid, that I might drift away
I’ve been tellin’ stories, singing songs
That made me think, about where I’ve come from
And that’s the reason why I seem so far away today.

Let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia you’re calling me, now I’m goin’ home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia’s been everything I’ve ever had.

I have moved, and I’ve kept on movin’
Proved the points that I needed provin’
I Lost the friends that I needed losin’
Found others on the way
I’ve kissed the girls and left them crying
Stolen dreams, yes there’s no denying

I ‘ve traveled hard sometimes with conscience flyin’
Somewhere in the wind

Let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia you’re calling me, now I’m goin’ home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia’s been everything I’ve ever had.

Let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia you’re calling me, now I’m goin’ home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia’s been everything I’ve ever had.

And just for kicks, here is another great video by Celtic Thunder Heartland on You Tube

The guys will be touring again next year with a new show called Storm.  Stay tuned to PBS in March for a peek at the show and a chance to buy tickets.  I know I will.

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Musical Mondays

Music has always played an important role in my life. My earliest memory of song is when my mother used to sing “Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool, swam three little fishies and a momma fishy too. Swim said the momma fish swim if you can and they swam and they swam all over the dam. Boom, Boom, Diddum, Daddum, Waddum, Choo” and so on – you get the idea.

Then we progressed to making recordings of us singing along with The Carpenters’ song “Top of the World”. My best friend, Tresha, and I used to do the same thing but with different songs – usually still The Carpenters though.

As a teenager, I can remember sitting in front of my brother’s stereo system, tape recorder with attached microphone in hand, making mix tapes from the radio. I still have some of those cassettes. Sometimes I’d spend hours doing this, waiting for the right songs to come on. There were many times that I’d even call in to request certain songs just so I could have the perfect mix tape – the one that spoke my heart’s feelings at that particular time.

After high school, I was lucky enough to land a job at Turtle’s Record and Tapes (and yes we actually sold vinyl). I took great pride in the fact that I was the go-to girl when it came to a customer who was looking for a particular song that he had heard on the radio but only knew a few words. Usually it went something like this: “I’m looking for this song that I heard on the radio. It’s something about love.” “Oh that song, it’s “Lovesong” by The Cure.” Then I’d play the song and I’d be right 99% of the time. It was awesome.

Even after Turtle’s music was one of the most important things in my life. When I was sad, I could always find a song to make me feel better because the singer was singing my pain. Any emotion I had, there was a song to go with it.

That said, I thought it would be fun to have a part of my blog dedicated to songs that represent the soundtrack to my life. Every Monday I will post a song that is speaking to me and hope that maybe it will speak to you too. Feel free to share your songs with me.

I can’t post the whole song because I can’t figure out how. So here’s a link to Amazon where you can listen to a snippet of it and then buy it if you are so inclined.

Today’s song is “Possibility” by Lykke Li – a song from the New Moon soundtrack (Go Team Edward!).

There’s a Possibility,
There’s a Possibility,
All that I had was all I’m gonn’ get.

There’s a Possibility,
There’s a Possibility,
All I’m gonna get is gonna be yours then
All I’m gonna get is gonna be yours then.

So tell me when you hear my heart stop
You’re the only one that knows
Tell me when you hear my silence
There’s a possibility I wouldn’t know.”

Know that when you leave,
Know that when you leave,
By blood and by me, you walk like a thief, by blood and by me, and I fall when you leave.

So tell me when you hear my heart stop, you’re the only one that knows. Tell me when you hear my silence, there’s a possibility I wouldn’t know.
So tell me when my silence’s over, you’re the reason why I’m closed. Tell me when you hear me falling, there’s a possibility it wouldn’t show.

By blood and by me, and I’ll fall when you leave.
By blood and by me, I follow your lead.

The haunting music and vocals are soothing and unsettling to me at the same time. I think this song echoes the feeling that October always buries deep in my bones. October is a melancholic month for me but also a very creative one. Give it a listen and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

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Makin’ Daddy Proud

Eddie loved country music. Specifically The Oak Ridge Boys and The Statler Brothers. I can remember riding in our beat up silver Gremlin with Daddy listening to the local country station. HATED IT! It was nothing but torture – as if being seen in the Gremlin wasn’t torture enough. Of course I’m sure that Daddy felt the same way when I blasted Rick Springfield.

Times change. Right now I’m sitting here listening to Brad Paisley. What’s up with that?! I’ll tell you what’s up with that. I met a friend, Deb, who just happens to be a radio personality at a country station. I asked her to send me a list of songs – you know a country primer, if you will. I figured I might as well try in memory of Eddie. I listened to Deb’s songs and found that I actually liked many of them.Even made a playlist on my iPod called “Twang”.

See, Eddie, looks like there’s a piece of Georgia in this girl after all.

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