MID-EIGHTIES GREATIES: The Top 10 Songs of 1987
Yes, we just made a word up to bring you this collection of circa 1987 chart-toppers, heart-stoppers and pants-droppers. Some of you reading this weren’t even born yet when these ditties were released, while others might have prayed for certain death upon that first listen. Here, two stalwarts of our editorial department – one of whom was tr ying to get a grip on larval adulthood, the other trying to grasp one-to-one correspondence – reminisce upon the most popular songs of ’87. 1. THE BANGLES “Walk Like an Egyptian” Dan: I was 15 that year and, much to my dad’s delight, I was completely obsessed with William S. Burroughs. When this tune came on the radio during its every-10-minute cycle, during the chorus I would intone, “Walk like a junkie … ” in my best raspy-sepulchral Burroughs’ impression. Oh, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place! Matt: Oh, yes, that’s a horrific dance. Doing that dance has an uncanny way of making someone seem insignificant. When public speaking, rather than imagining folks in their underwear, I’d suggest imagining the audience doing the “Walk Like an Egyptian” dance. 2. HEART “Alone” Dan: Like many of the day, the video for this song was filmed in a post-apocalyptic wasteland/big house. And why were they so sad, dressed up in all black like a couple of spinsters? The Wilson sisters were already millionaires by then. Sheesh. Matt: Who could forget that piano intro? Also, it appears women owned the charts in ’87. 3. GREGORY ABBOTT “Shake You Down” Dan: I have no recollection of this song whatsoever. When it came out, I was probably busy volunteering at the leper colony. However, I just watched the video on YouTube and with his weird hairdo and dour expression, Abbott looks like he could’ve been the villain for Coming to America 2: King Akeem’s Revenge. Matt: Should I have a memory of this guy? Should I be embarrassed I don’t know his music? I remember Jim Abbott. He was that one-armed MLB player. Then there’s Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello fame. That’s the extent of my Abbott-knowledge. 4. WHITNEY HOUSTON “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” Dan: In the mid-’80s, my parents let a friend of my brother’s and mine move in with our family. He worked as a pizza delivery guy and used to blast this song while zipping around in his ’81 Chevette. Every night, he would bring home leftover pizzas and I would eat myself into a salted, bloated stupor while watching repeats of The Beastmaster on cable. That’s all; that’s my little story. Matt: Any experience I might have had with this song was poisoned by gaggles of braces-wearing middle-school girls belting the chorus at the top of their lungs. The parenthetical addition to the title is interesting, though: Whitney wants to dance with somebody, the subtlety of the parentheses make us wonder if love is a prerequisite for said dance. Again, women ruled the charts in ’87! 5. STARSHIP Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” Dan: For many Americans, 1987 meant two things: the Iran-Contra affair was resolved (wink!) and the film Manne-
quin was finally released. Starship’s rallying cry from that film’s soundtrack, oddly enough, also works as an anthem for the Reagan administration during the aftermath of that particular bit of political skullduggery. Matt: Was this post-“We Built This City”? Couldn’t even keep the Jefferson after that shit-show. Also, what’s Mannequin? 6. ROBBIE NEVIL “C’est La Vie” Dan: OK, now I think Matt just made some of these songs up to fill space. But I watched (some of) this video and the question remains: In the ’80s, how did people have so much fun without antidepressants? Oh, that’s right – cocaine. Matt: Dan, I think Wikipedia made these up. I, too, watched the video for this song and had two thoughts: One, this is a very catchy song; two, that’s a very squishy-sounding bass line. 7. WHITESNAKE “Here I Go Again” Dan: The “Song That Launched a Thousand Camaros,” this is the anthem that dudes would blast, sitting in their cars in various parking lots up and down on First Street in Jax Beach. Then they would scurry home to watch The Golden Girls. Matt: I vaguely remember a blonde woman rolling around on top of a sports car, but my generation’s connection to this song is more likely to include Will Ferrell rocking, working on his car in Old School, “Hi Mike!” 8. BRUCE HORNSBY “The Way It Is” Dan: In an alternate world, this main riff is a classic example of minimalist drone music. Here on Earth, it’s the audio equivalent of having your tonsils removed by a nervous, big-knuckled urologist. Matt: I got nothing. Top 10, really? 9. BOB SEGER “Shakedown” Dan: Whenever my girlfriend and I go on road trips, to while away the time, we play this game called, “What Celebrity Would You Not Want to Use the Bathroom After?” No. 1 with a (silver) bullet? Bob Seger. Matt: Seger had one of those voices where he could get away with trite lyrics or whatever rock n’ roll cliché he wanted. This, however, was too much. Cocaine’s impact on the ’80s is evident here. 10. BON JOVI “Livin’ on a Prayer” Dan: What I remember most about Bon Jovi, other than them sucking, is that their videos invariably featured scenes of their audiences, shot in slow motion. If you watch these videos now, mute the sound, and blast the soundtrack for Ingmar Bergman’s 1968 film Vargtimmen, you will be both mesmerized and appalled. Matt: It’s hard to believe this song barely cracked the Top 10. It’s even harder to believe it came from such a lovable pop-country band.
OUR READERS WEEP: The NEFL Spots You Miss the Most Before the days of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, online dating and the like … Our social lives were exponentially different. Dare I say, better? Coming from the generation predating social media, we were lucky enough to experience the euphoric feeling of anticipation before heading out to a house party, a live show or the local indie-rock dive bar. We couldn’t pop up on Facebook to see where everyone was heading to on a Friday or Saturday night. We couldn’t look on Facebook to see if our crush had “checked in” to one of our favorite haunts. We had to actually venture out (without cellphones and cameras) into the unknown and it was AWESOME! Of the places I miss the most would be: The Milk Bar, Moto Lounge, Thee Imperial/Rock’n’Roll Pizza and Einsteins. Hetel (asked to withhold last name) I miss the Borders (“Books-Music-Cafe”) on Southside Boulevard. It was a great place to have a delicious cup of coffee or tea and browse the book, magazine, and music selections. I spent many wonderful hours in there. Jim Sutton Bad things often happen in threes, so it is fitting that my lamentations are also threefold. Firstly, I miss Einstein-A-Go-Go because it was a judgment-free atmosphere for high school misfits to enjoy music and dancing. I miss Five Points News Center because it was my pre-Internet connection to media from all over the country. And, say what you will about the old Pic-’N’-Save chain, it was a local fixture with back-to-school supply bargains. John Louis Meeks Jr. As a student at JU in the ’80s, I operated Atlantic Productions, bringing national acts to the Southeast. In Jax, the venue was the 1,200-capacity Playground South in the Arlington shopping center. We had classic rock shows like BTO, George Thorogood, and Fog Hat, as well as ’80s new wave and pop stars such as
Richard Marx, Missing Persons, The Romantics and Tommy Tutone. In the late ’80s, we brought freestyle musicians like Expose, Shannon, The Cover Girls and Triniere. Non-concert nights would feature in-house DJs as well as WAPE jocks for all-night dance parties. Plush in the ’90s came close, but there will never be again another Playground South. Steve Crandall Throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, I videotaped countless bands in such venues as Metropolis, Milk Bar, Einstein A-Go-Go, Applejacks, the Post & King Lounge, the Blighted Area, and more. Once in a while, I received financial compensation, but most of the time I gladly did it for free, as a labor of love. I felt a deep imperative to preserve this time of Jacksonville music history. My equipment was rather primitive by today’s standards, so the sound quality varies, but I’ve found that if you have good speakers with plenty of bass, or headphones, some of these videos sound surprisingly good! I offer the videos freely on my blog for anyone to watch, copy, save, and share with no restrictions other than, you can’t charge money for them without permission from composers. You’ll see Stevie Stiletto, Arvid Smith, Beggar Weeds, and even an appearance by the actor Michael Emerson (of Lost and Person of Interest) directing a music video at the University of North Florida. There’s also a three-part documentary of the 2010 Milk Bar 20th Reunion. https://nothineverhappens.wordpress.com Bill Ectric Even though it was a recent establishment (2009-2010), FUSION art | wine | jazz (Pearl St & 8th) was truly a gem and a one of kind establishment. Sadly, this town never appreciated progress, hence, unfortunate for us, we lost our cherished pearl. Way ahead of its time, it will forever be missed. Zuli
BED RIDES, STICKY FLOORS AND LOVE ADVICE Why I miss Pot Belly’s Cinema Plus
My fondest memory of the now-defunct Pot Belly’s Cinema Plus (currently Corazon Cinema & Café,) was seeing the original Sex and the City movie in 2008. A friend and I rode bikes to the theater from Lincolnville in downtown St. Augustine. We were both single and childless, so had no obligations to stay home on a weeknight. We parked (and locked) our beach cruisers just outside of Flagler College’s Lewis Auditorium, conveniently located next door to Pot Belly’s, and headed in a few minutes before showtime to get a pitcher of whatever light beer was on tap. Actually, we got two pitchers – one for each of us. By the end of the film — you know, the part where Carrie and Big get married in a simple courthouse wedding — my friend and I were drunk, crying and giggling. We were, after all, in our mid-20s; nobody relied on us to keep it together. But we also had nobody to rely on, or at least not in the sense that we wanted. Watching Carrie and Big struggle with their relationship, I was reminded of what I was looking for – even with the complications and compromise. And until I found it, Pot Belly’s was a place — a haven — for this single gal to escape reality. If you never had the pleasure of seeing a film at Pot Belly’s, then you really can’t understand how iconic a landmark this tiny theater was to St. Augustine. Located on Granada Street, diagonal to the Lightner Museum, in a building dating back to 1894, Pot Belly’s was known for its second-run movies, sticky floors, and ballparkstyle fare. Also, perhaps most notably, there was a ton of movie memorabilia. Pot Belly’s was as infamous for its crazy and kooky memorabilia collection as it was for anything else. The theater’s dark lobby was covered from floor to ceiling in Pez dispensers, metal lunch boxes, Barbie dolls, Star Wars collectibles, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Vintage bicycles hung from the ceiling and an Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile sat atop one of the refreshment refrigerators. All the things we imagined sweatpants-clad strangers searching for on eBay were jam-crammed into the small lobby at Pot Belly’s. Pot Belly’s owners, Kenneth and Eunice Pierce, bought the historic building in 1977. Over the years,
the site transitioned from a bar to a shrimp restaurant to, finally, a movie theater. It was in this incarnation that Pot Belly’s became a St. Augustine institution (at least among the locals and college students). In 2014, after 36 years operating the theater, the Pierces retired and sold the building. Most of their notorious memorabilia collection was also sold, through auction. And, after all those funky trinkets — amassed over Pot Belly’s 30-years-plus history — were sold at a discount. One of the Nation’s Oldest City’s landmarks was no more. A two-screen movie theater and eatery now occupies that building on Granada. Writing this article and reminiscing about Pot Belly’s and the few movies I saw there, it seemed only fair to check out its replacement. A few nights ago, I walked (not rode) from my house in Lincolnville to Corazon to see a screening of the
Academy Award-winning film Whiplash. The owner, Karla Wagner, an eccentric, older blonde, and two barkeeps, immediately greeted me. Stacked sandwiches with names like the John Belushi, Alfred Hitchcock and Humphrey Bogart have replaced the bowling alley nachos. There’s also a decent beer and wine list. For this more-refined, independently owned St. Augustine theater experience, I treated myself to a glass (make that two glasses) of sauvignon blanc. I settled into my seat in theater No. 3. I was the only patron partaking alone and the youngest by at least 20 or 30 years. As I relaxed and thought about those early days — feet sticking to the floor, chugging pitchers of beer, while watching Sarah Jessica Parker dole out love advice — I felt very OK about this newly matured theater experience in St. Augustine.
Kara Pound mail@folioweekly.com APRIL 8-14, 2015 | FOLIOWEEKLY.com | 15