In May 1980, I finally completed a three-year sentence in something called high school. I was 18, free, solvent, had a job selling guns and fishing tackle at the local Woolco outlet, and the world was at my feet. So, naturally, I spent a lot of time with my buddies riding around in my car and listening to the radio.
1980 was a mixed year, music-wise. The evil influence of disco was making its effects felt across the land, but rock & roll was still holding out. History tells us clearly who won that great competition. And sure, songs from that era, especially from that year, take me immediately back to that glorious summer: To the hot Iowa sunshine, to the roar of engines, the taste of cheap beer, and the endless pursuit of the female population who had been similarly manumitted in that halcyon year.
Here, then, are six of the songs from 1980 that I remember best.
Boz Scaggs – JoJo: I always like Boz Scaggs, and this is one of his better tunes. Scagg’s bluesy, jazzy, smooth rock style placed his work on cassettes that I recorded on my brother’s stereo system to be used on dates, when I wanted to impress a girl with how sophisticated I was. That rarely worked, but fortunately, I had other assets, not least of which was my rough-cut country boy charm. But I still like Boz Scaggs, and several of his tunes, including this one, hold spots on my Seventies playlist.
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Fleetwood Mac – Tusk: This album, also called Tusk, was released in 1979, but Tusk wasn’t released as a single until 1980. Written by Lindsey Buckinham, the song featured the University of Southern California’s marching band, as did the video. The video also featured the young and lovely Stevie Nicks in a summer sundress, marching and twirling a baton in a manner that makes it pretty plain she was used to doing that; it makes one wonder what she had done in high school. This song’s an odd one for Fleetwood Mac, less fluff and flutter, more stamping, percussion-heavy rock and roll. I still like it.
Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open the Door: Pete Townshend is best known (rightfully so) for his work with The Who, but he did some interesting solo work as well. This is a good example; when he first recorded the song, Pete told Rolling Stone in an interview that he wasn’t particularly pleased with the tune, but he later reportedly grew to like it. This was Pete Townshend’s only solo hit to make the American Top Ten.Styx – Babe: I met the girl who was my high school sweetheart in the summer of 1979, and we stayed together until shortly after we both graduated. It was a mixed relationship; we went to different schools. Driving her home after a New Year’s Eve Party, in which 1979 ticked over into 1980, this song was playing on the radio as she snuggled against me. We agreed that this would be “our song,” and so it remained, for a few more months. That relationship went the way of most high school relationships, but I remember that first real relationship fondly – and she and I remain close friends today. When we broke up, it was with that classic teenage line, “let’s stay friends” – yes, we friend-zoned each other – but we did so, and have remained friends now for the better part of half a century.
Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love: This song is, in my estimation, at least, different than most of Queen’s work. Freddie Mercury wrote this song in Germany, reportedly while sitting in a bubble bath. Peter Hince, who was at the time Queens’ road crew chief, later said:
Blondie – Call Me: This one comes to us from the soundtrack of the cringe-inducing Richard Gere/Lauren Hutton grenade American Gigolo. I watched the movie on cable television a couple of years later, at the behest of my first wife, who was inexplicably a Richard Gere fan. But the song I remember it from its release on the soundtrack album in 1980, and it got plenty of radio play. And then there was the great video, which showed up (also a couple of years later) on MTV, prompting even more comments from my buddies and me about Debbie Harry’s good looks and stage presence.The idea for the song came to him while he was in the bath. He emerged, wrapped in a towel, I handed him the guitar and he worked out the chords there and then. Fred had this knack of knowing a great pop song.
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Thinking of that long-ago summer brings back more great memories that I can easily list here. A 1972 Gran Torino Sport, the same make and model of the car from the famous Clint Eastwood movie, plenty of gravel roads, a job talking about hunting and fishing – it was all over far too soon. A year after that, I was married, and a year and five days after that, I was a father. But that was a great, fun, carefree summer, and it was over far too soon.
If you, like me, remember that glorious summer of 1980 as well as I do (I admit that my memory of certain weekends is blurred), then you probably have some great 1980 favorites of your own. To that end, the comments are all yours.
