Category Archives: 80s

80s

Resolving the 80s

80s, Music

You know the 80s, right? It was basically one big mess of a decade. So much so that now – nearly two decades after the 1980s finished – we’re having to resolve everything that the crazy people in the 80s got up to.

Like this. Aussie pop giants (I…hope…they…are?) Men At Work are being sued for plagirism over their 1981 hit, Down Under. A music publisher says that the flute part of the ditty is taken directly from a Girl Guides song, which it owns the copyright of. Though it only bought the copyright in 1990. And though Men At Work dispute this. Hmmm. And the music publishing company only started proceedings after similarities between the two songs were pointed out on a TV music quiz. I’m guessing some kind of Never Mind The Buzzcocks shenanigans.

What do you think? I’m not too sure myself, I personally find it hard to say. See below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT7uZf7lew

Which got me thinking…which other great 80s hits might have been lifted from other songs back in the day? Duran Duran’s Rio? Adam & The Ants’s Prince Charming? Sonia’s You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You? Oh please God no, don’t say it’s the last one!

Is there nothing straight about this movie?!

80s, Film,

Top Gun “star” Kelly McGillis has announced to the world that’s going to be hanging out with a lot more women in the future, as she outed herself as a lesbian in a recent online interview. In a strikingly vague declaration, McGillis announced that she her next partner would “definitely be a woman” and that she was “done with the man thing. I did that, I need to move on in life”. Hmmm, dunno guys – it sounds like there’s a possibility that you could tempt her back.

The Daily Mail apparently seem to think that this is Hollywood’s worst kept secret. Well, excuuuse me! I never knew. But maybe that’s because I don’t live in Hollywood. Or maybe they mean Hollywood from the 1986 Andrew McCarthy/Kim Cattrall vehicle, Mannequin. Yeah, it’s the kind of secret he’d probably know AND struggle to keep quiet about.

So Top Gun, when it doesn’t have oiled, topless men diving around, playing volleyball; innuendo-filled dialogue (“You can be my wingman anytime” … “You can be mine!”); or the least connvincing love scenes ever now finds itself with a lesbian actress playing the main flight instructor. Why was a woman teaching all this “macho” men how to be fighter pilots anyway? I can’t remember. The last two times I’ve watched Top Gun has been with the sound on mute so I could play my iPod instead. Seriously.

Oh, in answer to the question in the title – of course there’s something straight about the movie! Raging hetero Tom Cruise, of course!

And, as an aside: the soundtrack’s darn good.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT59FXkS93Q]

Europe – How Could You Do This To Us???

80s, Eurovision, Music

Following on from my Eurovision post below, Sir Terry Wogan has announced that he may step down from commentating on the Eurovsion Song Contest. Terry, who as commentated on the Eurovision for the BBC since 1970, is protesting after the UK’s poor showing (again) and domination by Eastern European countries (again). He is quoted as saying:

I don’t want to be presiding over yet another debacle.

Do Europe realise what they’re doing to us? Half of the Eurovision fun is hearing Terry Wogan’s witty comments. The Queen clearly agrees with me – she gave Terry a knighthood for his services to the Eurovision Song Contest.* And you can tell he’s no stranger to the bottles of booze as the night goes on as there always comes a point when he babbles on and on. But fair play to him, who hasn’t downed a few Pinot Grigios one night in with friends in front of the telly and started to make what we think are the world’s wittiest comments.

But maybe the point is that Eurovision isn’t what it used to be. Nobody in Western Europe does well anymore, and the contest seems to be dominated by the Eastern European countries. There’s now so many countries participating that we need semi-finals. (43 countries took part overall.) There used to be a time when we used to tune in to see what our European neighbours would enter into the contest and laugh at their crazy interpretations of “pop music”. Nowadays we get entries produced by Timbaland. I think it all started going downhill when they got rid of the “here are the results of the UK jury” thing.

Oh Eurovision, I miss the proper “you”.

Here’s a great clip from 1981 from a show to decide the UK’s entry. Of course, it’s Bucks Fizz with Making Your Mind Up. And it’s even got Sir Terry at the beginning of the clip. I give you everything, I do.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACePi441ds]

BBC News: Wogan ‘may quit Eurovision role’

*This may not be true

It’s Monday! Video Time!

80s, It's Monday!, Music Videos

Ahh, Guns n Roses. Axl. Slash. The blonde dude. The other blonde dude. Someone other guy as well. Do you remember, back in the early 90s, when they were THE biggest band in the world?

But let’s go back a bit further in time to one of  their earlier songs, Paradise City. This is a typical rock video – “live” concert footage, the band messing around backstage, fans going crazy – and misbehaving – in the crowd. Examples of the crazy rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle – random hotel rooms, Concorde. And then, best of all, at 3 minutes 32 into the song, a British rock fan with what looks like a Tesco carrier bag.

*makes devil horn sign*

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsrDv3K7RNI]